"Death, Desire and Incapacity"
(Book 1 Chapter XX)
[SUMMARY]
Now that Sri Aurobindo has explained the nature of life, he delves into why
there is death, desire, and incapacity in life. He then explains the way out of
these limitations through an individual's higher consciousness through
Supermind.
The
Necessity of Death as a Process of Life
[The following comments from Garry Jacob’s book “Lectures on Sri Aurobindo’s The
Life Divine. “These statements are extracted from the section on Death, taken in
somewhat random order.]
-Sri
Aurobindo says that death is a process of life.
We understand death as the opposite of life. If we
accept that life is a universal force, as the electricity flowing from a power
plants to illuminate the light bulb is a universal energy, then what happens
when the light bulb burns out? We know that the force illuminating the light
does not disappear when the light goes out. The light goes out and the force
flows somewhere else. Only it can no longer express through that particular
light bulb, since the form of the bulb has been damaged. The force is not lost
because it is a universal force.
-Sri Aurobindo explains that in
death the only thing that ceases to exist is the form. The consciousness and the
force that animated the form do not die.
------------
-Very clearly
he says that death is necessary for the soul’s evolution. The soul takes birth
in a body, but it assumes a human character. The character is inherited
genetically, but it is also partly a product of our upbringing. When we come
into the world, the soul chooses certain circumstance that build up the
character in a certain way
…
Once the soul has acquired the
experience, if the body remains, we have no further progress in that form. The
form dies and the character dissolves, so that the soul can choose a new field
and new form for further experience. Thus, death is absolutely necessary for the
soul’s evolution.
-------------
Sri Aurobindo goes further and
says that death is absolutely essential for the progress of life. Death is not
an error or aberration or unwanted attribute of life. Without death, all
progress and evolution would cease sooner or later.
Suppose today that you found
yourself through a miracle of medicine you could live for 5000 years. Then when
we say make an experiment and take a very serious effort to improve your
position tomorrow, immediately the thought will come, “What’s the hurry? I am
going to be around for 5000 years. I have plenty of time.”
-------------
There is another reason why Sri
Aurobindo calls death a process of life. All forms of force try to maintain and
perpetuate themselves. In doing so, they tend to become rigid and unchangeable.
This is true of physical forms of matter, the organizational forms of society we
call institutions, and psychological forms such as our opinions, attitudes and
character traits. When a form becomes rigid, it no longer responds and adapts to
the impact of external forces, so eventually it breaks under the impact or gets
petrified.
-------------
In summary-
Death is a process of life. There
is no cessation of consciousness, only of form in death. Death is necessary for
the soul’s evolution.
[Editor, rewrite the above remarks
and integrate the following additional information.]
Reiteration of the Nature of Life
-Life is an
energy of consciousness. [Life is as current, operation of the Conscious Force.]
-Life is the universal Force
working so as to create, energise, maintain and modify, even to the extent of
dissolving and reconstructing, substantial forms with mutual play and
interchange of an overtly or secretly conscious energy as its fundamental
character.
-Life is the final
operation by which the Force of Conscious-Being acting through the
all-possessing and all-creative Will of the universal Supermind maintains and
energises, constitutes and reconstitutes individual forms and acts in them as
the basis of all the activities of the soul thus embodied. Life is the energy of
the Divine continually generating itself in forms.
Life and Real-Idea --
Life is the final operation of the Consciousness-Force if which Real-Idea is the
determinative form and creative agent
Cause of Life Limitations
Life's
limitations are due to the exclusivity and separateness of the individual,
instead of its Oneness to all; which subjects it to death, limitations,
weakness, suffering, etc.
Cause of Death, Desire, and Incapacity
-Death is a
process of life.
-Death, desire, and
incapacity are due to the exclusivity and separateness, to the nature of divided
being, and to the ignorance of the individual, rooted in ego and mind. They
prevent the right balance of energies, which cause dissolution.
-Individualized Life is subject to death because
it seeks the infinite though in a finite body; desire because it seeks Bliss,
and also it has incapacity.
-Death also exists because
the individual life seeks the Infinite through a limited individual body.
[As
explained in the next chapter -- "... death is only the negative term in which
Life hides itself and tempts its own positive being to seek for immortality."
[Death compels Life to seek Immortality.] If the psychic being, the evolving
soul of the individual, cannot get what it seeks (i.e. if the individual doesn't
develop enough), it withdraws from the being and looks for a new form. [We have
also said that death is a process of life. One thing needs to die in order to
sustain the emerging, following entity.]
[The
soul, the psychic being seeks infinite experience, and withdraws if it cannot
get that from the finite being of the individual.]
-Unless the
body can change and renew its form-type, it would lead to dissolution.
-Cause
of Disease and Disintegration -- If the balance between the
life force (which creates forms) and forms is not properly distributed(?), then
disease and disintegration occur. That is, if the supply of the life force is
less than the life force required by the body, disease and disintegration
occurs.
-The
Nature of Desire in Humans -- Desire is how the limited
individual experiences Bliss [Ananda of Satchitananda; Delight (Bliss) of
Existence, Conscious Force, Delight (Bliss)], which is his ultimate destiny to
experience. [Desire is a lower form of the Bliss/Delight of
Satchitananda (Existence, Consciousness-Force,
Delight)
Overcoming Death, Desire, and Incapacity through Lead of Supermind
-Man can move out of this
status by the gradual awakening of self.
-If Supermind leads,
replacing the ignorance and dividing mechanism of mind, then the exclusivity and
separateness are overcome; ignorance is replaced by divine knowledge; and the
right balance of energies (of the balance of life force and the form it
inhabits) is restored, preventing dissolution, enabling endless life.
[Knowledge acting on Will
releases energy. Since Supermind has the right balance of, a fusion of knowledge
and will, it creates or enables the right balance of energies for sustaining
life. Supermind thus overcomes death, desire, and incapacity.]
-Only in
Supermind can life acquire the necessary charging(?) energies that will enable
the body to feel it is experiencing the infinity it seeks, will enable the body
not to disintegrate. Supermind takes it out of its exclusivity [of mind, and
ego], which is the reason it cannot maintain the balance of energies. With
Supermind that is changed. (One can thus control life, its energies, which can
lead to endless life.)
-The mind,
not separated from Supermind, of divine knowledge, would be free from its
ignorance, and would not be subject to its ignorances of death, desire, and
incapacity.
-If the
individualized force were the energy of mind free from ignorance, no such
necessity of desire would intervene.
-Supermind then is not
only a mechanism of perfect knowledge, but is the mechanism for the perfect
vital and body. [The supramental transformation would enable this. The Mother was
absorbing the Force to enable the right balance of energies in doing the
physical and final part of the supramental transformation. What then are interim
steps that we can take using the supramental force and power to affect death,
desire, and incapacity in our lives? We can begin by going within, finding the
psychic, open to the universal, call in the Force, and let it descent as it
wishes?]
[Additional
Points]
On the Nature of Life
-
[Life is the energy of the Divine generating itself into forms.]
-
[As Mind is the final individualized operation of Supermind, so Life is a final
operation of Force of Conscious Being, which maintains and energises, changes
individual forms.]
Life and
Conscious Force
-
We must
understand the Conscious-Force workings in Life.
-
Conscious Force is the nature
of Being. (from amongst Existence/Being, Conscious Force, Delight)
-
To
understand Life, we need to understand the Conscious Force.
-
As Supermind is
behind mind, the Conscious Force is behind Life.
Overcoming the Limitations of Life
-
The
overcoming of the limitations of life of the individual is the gradual awakening
of self, of master of its self, which gives it a power, the growth of its
individual power.
On Death, Desire, Incapacity
-
Death is
imposed on life by the limitations of its own existence, plus the forces and
energies of the universe itself.
-
Death is
there because the finite seeks its immortality. [!]
-
Desire is
there because the limited individual is seeking Bliss (of the spirit).
-
Death,
desire, and strife are the trinity of divided being.
-
The energies of life in the
body has to support the attack of the energies external to it in the universe.
Mind and
Supermind
-
Supermind is
behind mind
-
Supermind is
involved in Mind, which is involved in Matter. The evolution is from matter to
life to mind to Supermind.
-
Mind has
Supermind involved and concealed in its workings.
-
[Supermind is to Mind as Conscious Force is to Life.]
-
The
creative Knowledge-Will of Being is the Real Idea, i.e. Supermind.