No.48. Freedom has its versions in all the four planes, with ascent and in the descent,

No.49. So, we have to define freedom in eight different ways.

· We know in the ascent man rises from the physical to the Supermind via vital and mental.

· In the mental range, there are four levels.

· In the descent, it is the Supramental emerging at each of these levels.

· Also, as soon as Man rises to the next level that level partially descends on the previous level.

· For evolution, that descent should saturate the previous level by its energy.

· Every human endowment, therefore, will have infinite versions.

· We particularly consider 12 aspects in 8 planes fully explained under No. each subdivided into two and considered into its negative and positive aspects.

· That makes for 384 versions.

· Here, we can give only indicative examples.

· Mind in the ascent acts as social mind, inhibited by psychological tendencies.

· It is also circumscribed by the social and individual consciousness.

· One can take any idea and try to consider it in this light.

· There are ideas mind is sensitive about which it cannot allow for a moment.

· Imagine the freedom of the Mind and see how we are encased psychologically.

· One who can do so can see what RATIONALITY is, how frightening it is even in contemplation.

· So far such an individual has not emerged in the world among human beings.

· Imagine the same freedom in the descent.

· It means the spiritual emergence in the mind.

· It is called the psychic being.

· Suppose that happens one will not be in the human surface mind, or the Rishi’s inner mind.

· He would have crossed there and reached the subliminal mind.

· The subliminal is universal.

· As it is the meeting point of the Superconscient and the subconscient it can either be dark or bright.

· Neither will help us.

· We have to remain in darkness and see the seed of light inside the darkness.

· It is called the integration of the subconscient and superconscient.

· The integration must be done in the individual SOUL.

· After such integration, it has to ascend to the Eternal.

· This is done by shedding the 7 ignorances one by one.

· The Spirit begins to evolve only when all the 7 ignorances are shed.

· At that point the Mental Psychic emerges.

· It has the Supramental Light, not power.

· It is always turned to the Divine.

· Its remembrance of the Divine is constant.

· It has no power, as it is in the Mind.

· The power is in the physical, not in the Mind.

· By the time the mental psychic develops into the physical psychic, it also rises through the spiritual range to reach the Supermind.

· At that stage, it is Ishwara or the Supramental Being.

· Opinions, attitudes, motives, preferences, all the vitiating factors of the vital and physical DENY the mind this FREEDOM.

· Still, as a one time experiment, one can discipline himself to enjoy this Freedom in the ascent.

· From that poise, calling Mother brings the descent.

· When the call is answered, it is no longer revelation, but the FULL knowledge of the Supermind.

· Imagine what software will be in use 50 years hence.

· If you want to have a taste of it, compare our present software with that of 1950.

· What we call Genius is intuition in one of the million facets of life.

· Genius belongs to the Intuitive Mind.

· Can one develop the genius to stumble upon the software in education in 2050.

· I know one who has all these potentials to create the software that can be used 50 years hence.

· He does so many things like that, but he is not aware of that potential in him.

· Should one think of education in its evolutionary context and SEE all facets of education mankind will use 50 years hence, this man can make a software of it.

· It is the result of FREEDOM in the plane of MIND during the descent.

· The world has not produced a multiple genius yet.

· Teaching becomes a distant, remote, insignificant secondary aspect in the context of education.

· If we can, with understanding and appreciation, move AWAY from teaching to education and take one concrete step in this direction, the floodgates of higher knowledge will be open when that step becomes an example of Perfect Perfection.

· To describe freedom in all the levels is not now necessary or not possible as the field is infinite and the explanation will enter into the field of nebulous non-existent theory.

50. As each plane has every other plane in it ( for example, the physical plane has the vital, mental in it) freedom, considered this way has 24 versions.

· A child today will not be allowed to stand or walk and eat its breakfast. She will be asked to sit in one place, eat the food, wash the hands and mouth and wipe them properly.

· This is the duty of the parents, failing which, the child will become a boor.

· It is obvious that the discipline is necessary.

· How is it enforced? Through threats, violence, force, punishment, refusal of this or that, all vital physical methods.

· In exceptionally cultured ancient families of natural goodness who cannot shout at a child, one can see the child acquiring the same desired discipline WITHOUT one harsh word.

· One is undesirable, the other highly desirable, but both are conditionings useless for purposes of higher education. They are directly obstacles to it.

· How is a child then to fit into the society? The answer is -- ‘NOT necessary’.

· No parent in his sense can conceive of his child not fitting into the society.

· If anything, the child is a society by itself and others should fit into the child’s society.

· These are all not only high concepts of human progress, but blatantly impossible and highly undesirable in today’s context, social, psychological or even spiritual. The Spirit of the Rishis has become a childish play even as the bullock cart with silver trappings.

· Before we go into the theory of it and consider what little is practicable in our present day schools, we must have a clear conception of the planes, their levels, their parts and the English word that denotes it. Such words must be known not in their linguistic, etymological, lexicography usage. ONE needs to know those words RIGHTLY in the context of education.

1 2 3

Real – idea High poetry Decision

Mental --------------- --------------- -----------------

Concept Sentimentalism determination

4 5 6

Insight Pure idealistic passionate adoration

heroism

Vital ----------- ---------------------- --------------------------

Cunning Heroism touched passionate physical

With cunning attachment.

7 8 9

Physical skill Rural poet Moving material

Folk tales

Physical ---------------------- ---------------------- ------------------------

Physical capacity Physical emotion Live non-moving

Matter.

· These qualities are always found mixed but maintain their individuality.

· No.7 and No.3 ; No.4 and No.7; No.2 and No.5 ; No.8 and No.6 are directly related.

· No.1 is pure mind and stands aloof ; so also No.9 as they are two extremes. No.1 relates to Higher mind ; No.9 relates to the Inconscient.

51. What is true of freedom is true of every other human trait which we can limit to a dozen or more.

· The number of human traits in legion, we shall look at a dozen of them. Opinion, attitude, stubbornness, faith, superstition, preferences, demand, desire, hostility, flexibility, generosity, comparison etc.

· It is obvious that these words mean different things to different people and vary according to the land, spare, event known as context.

· What then is EDUCATION in all the contexts?

· To know that is to know the wisdom of the world.

· We restrict the meaning of the word education to the mind and to the selection of the teacher to the pupil inside the class within the context of a lesson.

· Whatever we are able to do in our schools, it is better to know all about education.

· The Life Divine is a book of philosophy that describes the creation as the involution of God and His evolution.

· Whatever He has written there is a fact of His own spiritual experience, not an intellectual argument valid or invalid in itself.

· Of course, He had ONE idea or vision or Experience, which He has expressed in 56 chapters.

· The Book is split into two books and the second book is divided into two parts.

· The first book is of creation, the second book is on evolution.

· The first part of the second book speaks of ignorance becoming knowledge.

· The second part describes Spiritual evolution.

· In it HE used plenty of Sanskrit words wherever the current meaning tallies with His own idea.

· His whole philosophy is new and therefore He is compelled to employ new terms.

· Such terms are non-existent in Sanskrit as His philosophy goes beyond the Tradition.

· English is neither a spiritual language nor a classical one. It was developed by trade and parliamentary democracy.

· To write a new philosophy naturally demands new terminology.

· The only language He knew was English. It never admits of it.

· Like the princess who fell in love with the handsome face of a shepherd and made a Kalidasa out of him, Sri Aurobindo has taken infinite pains to employ a substandard language for any purpose and tried to express a philosophy that transcends the experience of humanity.

· The simplest example one can easily follow is the word Silence.

· In English Silence means absence of noise. In Sanskrit Silence mounam means absence of thought. To use the word silence in the sense of absence of thought, any Englishmen will feel not only absurd, but a violence of her idiom.

· In Sanskrit the word mounam has a certain amplitude. Sri Aurobindo has to necessarily go beyond it.

· Silence is there when we do not speak. It is the silence of speech.

· When we do not think, a silence arises which is far more powerful; we are tempted to call it mental silence but it won’t be exact as mind has innumerable faculties – imagination, decision, etc. – behind each of which there is an appropriate silence.

· When all these mental faculties cease to function, the Silence that arises can be called mental Silence.

· As there is a Silence behind thought, there is a Silence behind feelings.

· The silence behind acts is more powerful and He says it sustains activity.

· Om is said to be the third stage when the Original Silence descends to creation. It is the Silence of universal creation.

· Equally there is a Silence behind Ananda, Consciousness and Existence.

· He calls that Silence behind Silence.*

· Even that silence cannot be attributed to Brahman, as it is featureless.

· Still, there is a beyond which is His own yogic territory.

· When the Infinite, Eternal Brahman chooses to express Itself through Mind, Life and Matter and their activities, the Silence that sustains that creation and evolution remains undisturbed.

· We certainly cannot call it Silence in the other sense.

· For want of a better word or any word, He resorts to original creation and says it is the Silence behind Silence, far richer and more integrated than the stage to which* we gave the name.

· Intuition, insight, consciousness are very important words in His vocabulary. Supermind is His key word. He is not satisfied with any of them.

· Often He offers his own definition to words like Logic and Reason and divides them into higher and lower. E.g. He calls His logic the logic of the infinite.

· Before trying to read the book, it will be well to know what HE exactly means by each word HE employs.

· That is possible only after half a dozen readings of the book.

· He consciously avoids, wherever necessary, the Sanskrit word lest it should mean something else – the traditional meaning.

· Jivatma in the tradition is a limited expression. To denote what HE means, HE avoids Jivatma mostly and employs the word individual.

· One of the important messages of the Book is the Process of Creation.

· Especially for education, it is important to know this.

· Brahman comes into Existence. It becomes conscious and senses its being conscious. It looks at itself subjectively and becomes the spirit. It looks at itself objectively and becomes Truth without losing its basic unity.

· Time is created when the spirit looks at itself. Space is created when the spirit look at its movements.

· The plane of Supermind is created when the objective state of the spirit – Truth – relates itself to the objective state of consciousness – knowledge. It is called the plane of Truth – Consciousness or Supermind.

· In the plane of Time apart from Time and Timelessness He introduced a further concept where they co-exist and called it Simultaneous Integrality of Time–eternity and Timeless eternity.

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