Sri Aurobindo's Terminology
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Below is a listing of terms used by Sri Aurobindo, as well as other terms that relate to his thought. They are grouped into constellation of terms. If you click on any item that is underlined, you will open a page where you will see thoughts about that term from the Growth Online Knowledge Base of thoughts, or open a related article that goes into some depth about the term. (Note: the knowledge base and other entries are not his thoughts, unless designated so, though they are influenced by him as well as by author's and thinkers of Mother's Service Society.) Scroll down to see an overview explanation of these terms.
Below is a description of many of the terms above organized through summary-like statements.
The Absolute (Brahman, God, the Divine Reality) -- which is immutable timeless, spaceless,, beyond our conception -- through a process of self-conception, self-limitation and self-absorption, for the purpose of Delight of being, extended Itself from its status of the One to a status of the Many; from Spirit/Being to a created universe/manifestation of forms of energy and force.
To begin that process the Absolute extended itself first as Existence/Being, i.e. it exists, to Consciousness-Force, i.e. it is conscious of its existence, and to Delight, i.e. it delights in its consciousness of Being. The result is that in creation it inverted from these three involutionary aspects to its opposite in the evolution, i.e. in the universe, the manifestation, in the creation as Non-Existence, Inconscience, and Insensitivity.
To fully enable this process of creation from being to Matter, Supermind was derived as a fourth extension from Existence, Consciousness-Force, Delight in the involution. To realize the Creation Supermind (i.e. Truth Consciousness) spun off a plane of Mind to divide the Force (of Consciousness-Force) that enabled the emergence of Will and Energy, which was in essence the plane of Life. The process continues. When all Knowledge was drained from the plane of Life, the plane of Matter was born. This entire process is the Process of Creation, which is the involutionary stage of the Absolute. Space and Time, objectivity and subjectivity were born.
The evolution began with inconscient matter that evolves to life that evolves to mind that will evolve to spirit. There are intermediary planes above mind called spiritual mind which culminates in Supermind and beyond that to Being. The individual human evolves in this progression. What enables it to happen is our conscious movement away from surface living, of the influence of the senses on the mind, and our movement within into the depths of our being to the inner being which is the subliminal range. When one reaches further still to the True Self within, i.e. the Personal Evolving Soul, the Psychic Being, he will have discovered the Being within, even as his ascendancy among the vertical planes is to the Being above. As man moves from sense mind he moves into the depths of this horizontal scale of human consciousness, even as he ascends above mind to silent, illumined, and intuitive mind culminating in supermind, which is knowledge by identity, where will and knowledge are fused, which is the upward movement in the vertical scale of human consciousness. In this way the Force that was divided from the Consciousness in the involution is reconnected to it in the evolution. This is a goal of creation.
If we make use of the supramental consciousness, i.e the Force in all aspects of our lives it can vastly help us in our personal ascent in the evolution.
Our evolutionary goal is to bring the Spirit Being into the Becoming of our lives; to bring the Infinite Spirit into the Finite world we live in and perceive, and to bring the Timelessness into our Time-fixated existence.
To enable our ultimate spiritual possibility we can undergo a triple transformation that begins by moving our center of consciousness from the surface into the depths of our being, to its most profound point the Personal Evolving Soul. An integral connection to this domain culminates in the psychic transformation, the first stage of the triple transformation. From there we can go on to the spiritual transformation where the Light above pours into us infuses all aspects of our being -- mental, vital, and physical -- culminating in the supramental transformation, where we become supramental ultimate evolutionary beings, where all aspects of our existence are infused with this Force.
When a number of individuals have made a good part of this journey, they can come together to create the basis of a new Divine Life on earth.
The Divine created the greatest multiplicity and diversity of forms (including us) to enable the greatest possibility of our experience of the discovery of our True Selves, which enables our ultimate Delight of Being. Such ultimate multiplicity and diversity of forms makes the divisions and dualities we experience a necessity in existence. We can also say that division and duality occurred when the plane of Mind divided the Force to create separate aggregations of forms. Separateness enables separation and division. Thirdly, we can say that the dualities of existence was caused by the ripping of the Smooth Fabric of the Absolute, which first manifests as the plane of Overmind, where things are no longer in their integral Oneness as in Supermind and above, but are now appear in their uniqueness, as singular identities, instead of their integral unity. Thus division and duality, pleasure and pain, good and evil are born. So too does Ignorance emerge from Knowledge-Consciousness above in our universe and within us.
To overcome this inherent Ignorance we need to evolve our selves. We begin this process by going within and touching our evolving souls. This overcomes ego, which is the main support in humans for our Ignorance. This also opens us up to universal forces, including higher planes of mind that enables descents of a True Knowledge. In other words, the deeper we go in the horizontal depths, the higher we evolve in the vertical ascendancy. Thus, we move towards ever greater true knowledge; thus overcoming our inherent Ignorance, enabling the Integral Knowledge (that was there in the Absolute as Consciousness-Force) to reemerge.
From our lowest consciousness there is division and duality, pleasure and pain and suffering. From a higher consciousness these contradictions do not even exist; rather they are complementary pairs that are necessary to be together in their apparent struggle to enable the emergence of higher harmonies. This is in fact Nature's way; to evolve through complementary pairs, of what seems like on the surface, contradictory pairs. This is how the individual, and all collectives normally evolve.
In fact, Nature is really an agent of the Spirit; it is sanctioned by Spirit. If, however, we bring in spirit in our lives or in the living being of the collective we can facilitate this process, not waiting for Nature's slow and arduous method. This is Spirit's Higher Intent.
In sum, the original Ignorance away from the Integral Knowledge, the slow movement of Nature, even the division and dualities and pain and pleasures and suffering of life are sanctioned by the highest transcendent Divine as necessary stages for evolution toward our ultimate Knowledge, Oneness, and integral Unity.
The have the Vision of Brahman is to see this; to see that all, including all contradictions, are serving an Ultimate Divine Purpose. To have this Vision is to know the One and the Many; or rather the One in the Many; to have the conception, perception, and sensation of the Oneness and Integral Unity of the Creator and the Creation; of the Spirit in every aspect of Life.
Humans consist of their physical bodies, their vital/emotional being, and their minds. Each of these can be subdivided. Above mind is spiritual mind to supermind to Being. In the horizontal plane of human consciousness there is the surface in the outer, to the Subliminal, where positive subtle thoughts culled from the universal rise to the surface guiding us in the right direction, to the Evolving soul in the inner where ego is abolished, we experience the greatest delight of being, and where we are more fully connected to universal forces. There is also in the inner an inconscience (unconsciousness) that is in fact the very inflexible, rigid, unchanging basis of matter, as well as a somewhat less dark subconscient aspect within (that bounds us to illness and is the cause of troubled sleep), that is also evolving. We can say that when we bring the superconscient, i.e. the superconsciousness, the Divine Force and Powers within us to evolve the subconscient resistance parts of our inner being, we are overcoming the greatest in-built resistance to our evolutionary potential.
The physical parts of our self is the matter we are made up of; the vital part are the sensation, emotions, and attitudes (in an ascending scale); and our minds scales from the lower processing mind where ideas take form, to the higher sentiments, values, and ideals of middle mind that emotionalizes facts; and the logical, rational capacity of upper mind. Beyond these are the illumination, light, intuition, revelation, and knowledge by identify mind (i.e. supermind). As man evolves he develops higher thinking capacity, higher emotions, and stronger and more flexible body. Ultimately he can attain immortality when the supramental light penetrates his physical being.
The individual experiences the powers of spirit as Silence, Peace, Equality, Power, Wisdom, Knowledge, Truth, Love, Beauty, and Delight of being. He can tangibly experience each of these when he connects to spirit. All spiritual individuals have experienced at least one of these. The ultimate evolutionary being could experience all of these simultaneously at all times.
The individual in his evolution develops spiritual capacities of aspiration, faith, and surrender. He practices methods of consecration and opening to the Force in the events of his life, and moving into the depths (concentration).
Evolution is an unfolding of the Being in the Becoming; ever higher experiences of Unity in Diversity.
Growth is improvement at the same level. Development is improvement at a higher level. Evolution is a movement to the next plane of existence, e.g. from middle mind to rational mind or from rational mind to silent mind, whereas transformation is the evolution of the being on all planes. (The triple transformation as devised by Sri Aurobindo is this ultimate transformation.)
All problems in life are essentially difficulties of coordination, integration, harmony, oneness, and unity, which Sri Aurobindo expresses in his famous statement that "all problems in life are problems of Harmony."
At the dawn of creation each plane is involved in the preceding plane. So matter that comes first in evolution has the life, mind, and even spirit involved in it. The evolution is thus the unfolding of the involved planes consecutively from matter to life to mind to spirit until the spirit manifests. The universe is emerging, evolving this way, as are us as individuals, as are the collectives of society, and society itself.
Spirit created the world, and Spirit is the evolutionary goal of existence. When we discover the higher elements within ourselves, we help along, we accelerate and concentrate the evolution. As we make discoveries of our higher nature, we experience the Delight of Being; the very reason that the Absolute enables a universe in the first place; i.e. so that a multiplicity of forms can experience the Delight that was there in the original omnipresent Reality.
Each plane that evolves is of a higher level of substance and consciousness than the previous plane.
As an individual person evolves, he/she moves from the irrational of the vital to the ever-more rational of the upper mind to the supra-rational in spiritual mind where knowledge just descents into his being without thought. This higher inner poise also enables greater understanding, greater insight, from which true Genius in a field can be derived, as thoughts comes more often from the universal planes through spiritual mind. This status also enables true Original Thinking.
This is also a part of the movement, from the original Ignorance to the Evolutionary ascent to the Integral Knowledge, where all is seen in its fullness and oneness; whereas mind sees in division, sees the part instead of the whole, particularizes avoiding the rest, advocating its own limited part knowledge, which is the basis of error, falsehood, and even evil.
Falsehood is subscribing to one's Ignorance. Evil is acting on one's Falsehood. By rising in consciousness by going within and opening to the Force above we overcome the limitations of division and duality, of pain and suffering, of Ignorance, Falsehood, and Evil.
Conception is to know a knowledge. Perception is to have an emotional connection to that knowledge. Sensation is to experience it in the very fibers of our being. At that point it becomes a routine skill stored in the mind of our bodies.
An experience is to know a thing once. Realization is to know it permanently.
At the apex we become the supramental being living a supramental life of integral Oneness which is Unity. We have the Vision of Brahman, the unity of the spirit and matter, and creator and creation, as we bring the spiritual Being into the Becoming of life, fulfilling our evolutionary role and purpose as individuals, which in turn serves the Universe's role and purpose in creation, which in turn serves the Transcendent purpose of the Infinite Divine. When we discover the True Being within, wit connects us with the Universal Being and the Transcendent Being. There is thus a Being for the individual, the universe and for the transcendent Divine. We can now all three in one by connecting to our True Self and Being within. The three aspects of Existence, the individual, the universal, and the transcendent, serve each other's purpose. Ultimately, when the Being of each are perceived as One, the Brahman perception and Being is born in ourselves.
Spirit is brought into every moment in life, infusing it with all of its spiritual aspects, and all of its infinite capacities. For the individual and for the collectives of society.
The individual fulfills itself in the society; and the society in the individual. When we touch our True Being we make it possible to interact with the world enabling the True Society to emerge. In the reverse direction the Truer Society enables, supports the emergence of the True Self and being of its individuals.
The path of transformation to our ultimate capacities is what is called Yoga in the East. Integral Yoga is Sri Aurobindo's path that utilizes all aspects of an individual's existence to enable this goal. An individual can be interested in this as spiritual philosophy (a devotee), or become a true practitioner of this transformation through yoga (i.e. a sadhak). A yogi is one who has realized this to some extent.
The avatar has come to bring a new stage in the evolution of the earth. A vibhuti is a somewhat lesser being who has come to enable further development in society.
Religion is many following the inspiration of one enlightened person; is following other's spiritual experience as adopted by us Spirituality is each one seeking his own illumination. Spiritual life is one's own inner experience.
The scientist must know and experience the spirit before he or she can understand the workings of the world, or even the creation of the universe. The rationality of science must include the rationale and verifiable idea that the spirit exists.
We can see life functioning through profound, hidden, inner principles of life. To know those principles is to become the Master of Life.
Matter is organized through atoms; life through acts, and mind through thoughts. To know how acts flow in the universe is the secret to understanding life movements.
We recognize one of those principles of life movement as "life response," which is the way life instantly, abundantly, and miraculously responds on the outside to a change of our consciousness inside. This is possible because the separation we see between what is within ourselves and what is outside ourselves is an illusion, is a product of our Ignorance; they are One. Thus, it follows that from within we can control influence life; from within we can move the world. We can even go a step further and perceive that in fact the True Inner actually contains the outer. All of this is true because of the fundamental Oneness and Integral Unity of life which we unfortunately perceive as division through our Ignorance. Connecting to depths within and further still to the True Self is the fundamental first step that obliterates this Ignorant view, giving us the power of the Inner to move the Outer. Utilizing the Force and Power above is a complementary method.
Life exists on three planes; the gross/material, which is what we know and see (e.g. our bodies and physical objects around us), the subtle (e.g. feelings, thoughts, vibrations, et al), where forces and powers move without our sight of them, and the causal plane, where we have causal power over life, as we create the universe around us from within ourselves; as we move to the depths discovering the evolving soul and opening to the Force and Power above. At times it comes as a descent of Grace from Above.
The Mother, the partner of Sri Aurobindo, said that this Power, this supramental Power and Force had vastly increased in intensity on the earth since 1956. Small efforts of opening to and using this Power (i.e. consecrating all of our events in our lives) will create enormous results, defying normal notions of cause and effect, and space and time. We have the Power before us; thus we should avail of that Opportunity. It is in that way the Hour of God, where we are given the opportunity in this golden moment to seize it.
An ashram is a place for spiritual development. The Sri Aurobindo Ashram was developed as a laboratory of evolution. Auroville was developed as a world city to have a place where people can make efforts to reach there highest consciousness in any fields of life.
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