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The Cosmic Illusion
(Book 2 Chapter V)

Introduction
In this chapter Sri Aurobindo describes the fact that the cosmic illusion of the tradition is in error; that Mind is limited not due to cosmic illusion, but due to our inherent Ignorance born of creation. He then describes in detail the nature and source of dreaming and imagination, as well as the mind and imagination.

Here are the main points:

Cosmic Illusion Principle is in Error
The mind and its mental constructions, the dream states, the 'cosmic hallucinations,' and imagination are not proof of the Cosmic Illusion that the world negating religions (as expressed by Buddha, Shankara, and others) perceive. They are not illusions, they are real; except they are a real steeped in Ignorance.

Mind's Limitation as a Result of Ignorance; not Cosmic Illusion
Integral being and consciousness became limited and separate in Mind, because of mind's origins in Ignorance and Inconscience, not because of Cosmic Illusion.

What others call Illusion or Unreality is really the Ignorance.

Dreaming and Imagination
The source of dreaming is the inconscient. [When we wake up exhausted from dreams it is because we have 'battled' in the subconscient, where the dreams are difficult, straining, etc.] In dreamless sleep we enter into the Inner Being and consciousness, the Subliminal. In absolute dreamless sleep we touch the universal consciousness. There we can even come in contact with beings who arose when the involution began, as well as the various worlds of the evolution.

Mind and Imagination
Mind, which is limited in its knowledge (i.e. it is Ignorant) and truth supplements itself through imagination. Mind can create its own potentialities and possibilities in the world.

 

[DETAILS]

• Sri Aurobindo explains three levels of mind; physical mind, vital mind, and thinking mind. Physical mind believes in the objective (e.g. Science is of the physical mind.) ; vital mind emotive satisfaction and pleasure, a life will; thinking mind inquires into, questions al, and erects systems of certitude of what it knows. [New, not yet incorporated into Summary]

• The vital minds eventually seeks more than life can provide. The thinking mind tries to explain things, makes constructions for the unsatisfied vital mind. Thinking mind realizes that all its constructions are futile and seeks something beyond itself. (The world negating religions arise from this, like Buddhism and Shankara.) The thinking mind believes that there is an illusion beyond all human effort and terrestrial endeavor.  [New, not yet incorporated into Summary]

• World negating religions arise from the principle of negation (as opposed to the principle of affirmation). In this way thinking mind discovers that all are mere mental constructions, is a dream, a hallucination, a cosmic Illusion. In India this has expressed through Buddha and then Shankara. It has expressed in other locals as well.

• The source of dreaming is the subconscient, supported by the Inconscient, where the Inconscient struggles into a half consciousness. When we have dreamless sleep we enter the realm of the inner consciousness, the Subliminal. Deeper still within the Subliminal one can have complete dreamless sleep as one gets in touch with the universal consciousness. There one can even get in contact with worlds of beings that arose during the Involution, and worlds that have arisen in the evolution.

• Such places indicate that even the dream state as a basis for the cosmic Illusion is flawed, because there is a degree of reality even there.

• Mind is not an original and primary creative power of Consciousness. The mind stands between the subconscient and superconscient and receives influences from both. Mind is limited in its knowledge of truth and actuality, and hence turns to imagination and discovery to supplement itself, which is its way of touching the Unknown. Thus our mental imagination is an instrument of the Ignorance, a resort, device, and refuge for its limited knowledge. Yet imagination can create its own potentialities and possibilities in the world. Thus again the mind's imaginations are not purely a cosmic Illusion.  

• Mind creates but is not an original creator. It can only create out of substance, what is already there in the truth and potentiality of Nature.

• Mind is undergoing a process that where it is gradually moving from its limited knowledge toward greater knowledge, culminating in the original, cosmic, supreme Truth Consciousness.

• The dream states, cosmic hallucinations, imagination, and the mind itself are not proof of the cosmic Illusion. Mind itself is not the basis of illusion, but a force of Ignorance that is moving toward greater truth, culminating in a Truth Consciousness. While the spiritual tradition define Maya as illusion, SA defines it as Ignorance, which has a reality.

• The illimitable consciousness and force of integral being entered into a state of limitation and separateness [through Mind] not because of our perception of a Cosmic illusion but because of its origins in the Ignorance and Inconscience to the original Consciousness and Superconscience.