show frame | show page separately
 

"The Philosophy of Rebirth"
(Book 2 Chapter XX)

-The individual has a soul and an evolving soul; the former the spark of the Divine, the latter the deputy of the former. It is this evolving soul (Psychic Being) that takes its birth in the individual, and gathers the experience of the individual in its journey through existence. After death, this evolving soul takes on the body of other individuals to continue its journey towards ever higher states of being. It enters a particular individual to absorb those new experiences that will enable it to grow.

[Rebirth is not however an individual being reborn as another individual. E.g. John Smith dying and the personality of John Smith entering the next person. It is instead the movement of an evolving soul through various individuals. E.g. the psychic being of  Napoleon later entering that of Sri Aurobindo.]

-Rebirth is the birth of the individual soul from form to form until it reaches the human level of manifested consciousness which is its instrument for rising to yet higher levels, higher possibilities; to incorporate powers of spiritual mind, Supermind, and beyond.

-The soul not only gathers ever-higher spiritual experiences in moving from birth to birth, but it aids the individual and humanity into their higher consciousness.

-Rebirth is as inevitable as birth. It enables an incomplete being in a body its promise of completeness and its spiritual significance.

-If the soul enters this life with a certain development of personality, it must have prepared it in other precedent lives here or elsewhere.

-Birth and death are not life's beginning and end, but are rather intermediate stages in occult processes of life.

[The Mother seemed to indicate that when a person remembers past lives, it is a moment when that person in the past life was in touch with their True Self, their evolving Soul and now the person in the present is in touch with that moment.]

 

[DETAILS]

• Birth and death are not life's beginning and end, but are rather intermediate stages in an occult processes of life.

• In the birth of life there is the upsurging of some flame of soul, a first evident vibration of the spirit.

• ".. if the soul enters this life with a certain development of personality, it must have prepared it in other precedent lives here or elsewhere."

• "... the old theories affirm, the modern denies rebirth as a part of the universal process."

• There is the ancient idea of a subtle form or body inhabited by a psychic entity.

• The universe, including the individuals in it, is a result of the Divine's Will to world-creation.  The individual's life can only end by that Will's withdrawal.

• Spirit is the substance of the universe. It is a manifestation of an infinite existence, consciousness, force and will, and delight of being of that Reality. It is through the individual that the evolving consciousness becomes organized and capable of awakening to its own Reality. Only if a person grows and discovers himself will he find the cosmic Self and Consciousness of the Supreme Reality.

• "The life of the individual must have the same rhythm of significance, the same law of progression as the cosmic life; it must be an instrument of the cosmic purpose."

• From the spiritual side the human birth is a complex of two elements, a spiritual Person and a soul of personality. The former is his eternal being; the second is his cosmic and universal being. In the former he is one in nature and being with Satchitananda who has willed a round of soul experience. In the latter he is part of the soul-experience of Nature, and must follow the universal evolution. 

• The individual rebirthed from lower forms. He can also rebirth from where he is to a higher form. Rebirth is the birth of the individual soul from form to form until it reaches the human level of manifested consciousness which is its instrument for rising to yet higher levels, higher possibilities; to incorporate powers of spiritual mind, Supermind, and beyond.

• Rebirth is as inevitable as birth. It enables an incomplete being in a body its promise of completeness and its spiritual significance.

From Mother's Agenda: 

(Volume 12, 1971, p.157) In each person there is a part of the personality that needs to be transformed (that the soul seeks to be changed in the life, or if not done in one's life, it waits for the next life).

(Volume 1, 1951-1960, p.332) The future deathless state where there is a constant rebirth in the body in a forward thrust. "There is a difference between immortality and the deathless state. Sri Aurobindo has described it very well in Savitri. ... The deathless state is what can be envisaged for the human physical body in the future: it is constant rebirth. Instead of again tumbling backwards and falling apart due to a lack of plasticity and an incapacity to adapt to the universal movement, the body is undone 'futurewards,' as it were."

Further Comment:

Rebirth of the Evolving Soul
The evolving soul enters a body, and if a person is in touch with his truest nature, he perceives that psychic being. That evolving soul had also lived in another person in a previous birth. And so on back in time. (Thus rebirth.)

Rebirth Experience
If we are in touch with our true self in this life we can experience the powerful experience that last person had when he or she was in touch with their inner being. E.g. I suddenly feel roman emperor Marcus Aurelius deep within me because he had a powerful experience in his life that nourished his evolving soul then. In that sense, we shared the same evolving soul in Its journey through time to find fulfillment.

In that sense the Soul is itself evolving; through our personal experiences of growth and realization. When the Evolving Soul is fully nourished and fulfilled it “rests “in the Infinite in some way.

Two Way Phenomenon
The Evolving Soul is thus a two way-phenomenon. We evolve when we come in touch with it as we discover our true nature within. It in turn is absorbing our experiences when we evolve in consciousness. It sough us out in the first place because it suspected that we would grow somehow, and therefore, it would gain from that unique experience which is so desperately need in its voyage toward ever greater fulfillment. Pretty far out!