May 9, 2002
by Mother’s Service Society
J
Written by a
Nobel Prize winner, this is his own mental realisation of the Buddhist doctrine
of Nirvana to which they give the analogy of the ever-living river and flame.
J
The mental
comprehension can be severely mental and therefore a concept. It can ripen into
a comprehension of consciousness, which is a non-existing phenomenon but can be
intelligible to mental people. It is not comprehension. It is really to be
conscious, rather mentally conscious. It can be of the surface
consciousness or the depth of the surface. What No. 1 does is concept
formation, pure speculative thinking detaching itself from the sentiment of No.
2 and the organisation of thought of No. 3. Below the depth of consciousness
lies the substance of the mental plane in the brain. When it touches its own
depth, the centre of action moves from that of the brain to the substance of
the body whose original substance is inconscience. Its surface is the
subconscient and depth is inconscient.
J
Siddhartha or
Hermann Hesse realised the doctrine of Nirvana of Buddha in the surface
consciousness of his mind and put it in the form of a spiritual autobiography. Such
a realisation has its limits, as it is mental, though the limits of mind are
exhausted. It cannot move further to the vital, never to the physical. That
is why Buddha’s followers started worshipping his idol, an idea he was against.
It is said Buddhism took root in the population only when this worship began. This
book has a picture of Buddha’s statue on its cover.
J
The central
idea of this narrative is instructive to me in that Man, Western man, cannot
accept the Truth even from the Buddha. He must discover it for himself. That
is the mental stage of the West in its progress.
J
Here is a
simple fact or a simply folly. It is the ego of the mind refusing to learn form
others, scarcely seeing a wider truth behind that when the ego thus realises
itself, it will be an egoistic realisation, not a spiritual one.
J
Sri Aurobindo
says all yogic realisations until now have been realisations of the surface
mind and egoistic realisations.
J
A pickpocket
realising his profession is not very laudable, but continuing it in spite of
that realisation, is the pickpocket’s realisation. His giving up the profession
is human realisation.
J
Mind begins
with comprehension and when it moves to the negative side it becomes mean,
perverse, evil and depraved. When the mid seeks negative fulfillment, it is
mean, etc. Siddhartha is one who cannot accept any teaching from anyone, even
from the Perfect One. The Perfect One warns him against cleverness.
J
Is there an
alternative to this perversity?
J
If the Indian
says it is against all his basic faith to accept technology developed elsewhere
and what he has not developed he will not accept, it is a laudable attitude.
But that way, humanity will remain where it is. No education is possible.
J
As we are all
humble before the wisdom of the ages in accepting education, Siddhartha could
have accepted the teachings of the Perfect One and discovered it originally
for himself, when it would have resulted in the same mental realisation in a
short time, instead of a lifetime. Govinda followed the words, Siddhartha
the Spirit, through an arduous route. Had he put forward the attitude of
humility – the comprehension of the Infinite – not only would he have learnt it
quickly, but he could have overcome mind to go beyond.
J
Siddhartha
starts as a rebel through silent disobedience. His father yields. It shows the
atmosphere is not inimical to change but is not ripe enough to initiate change,
i.e. the physical is not rigid.
J
At this point,
there was a choice open to Siddhartha who declined it, whereas his father had
reluctantly exercised in the non-negative direction.
J
The choice was
between submission and defiance. His defiance arose from a mental conviction
for which his other parts were not ready.
J
The rule of
evolution is not to exclude what you have exceeded which eliminates totality.
J
Suppose
Siddhartha submitted to his father and the father put him through the ritual,
his father would have outgrown the ritual in the measure his own readiness
permitted.
§
The father gave
him permission to leave the house.
§
Siddhartha was
haunted by the father in him when his son deserted him. Had he submitted
himself to his father, at least, he would have fully outgrown his father then,
instead of later, after 20 or 30 years.
§
What was not
available to Siddhartha 2000 years ago is now available to Hermann Hesse when
he wrote the book.
§
The theory
holds good for both.
§
Had Siddhartha
submitted to his father, not with an ignorant physical submission but with the
knowledge that doctrines were of no value and his own conviction was not ripe
to be acted upon, whatever he had realised in 40 years would have been abridged
into four years and his own realisation would have been greater.
J
J
I say slightly
more, because the same theme in the shallow surface of mental consciousness is
different from the depth of physical substance of the inconscient.
J
As his own
father had to yield to Siddhartha, he had to give way to his son.
J
Among the
Samanas, he learnt austerities which according to Mother are meant for the
child soul.
J
From there he
landed in life with Kamala, to exhaust the life of desires. Desires can be
lived and exhausted or given up as austerities. The desires of the vital and
physical can be overcome by mental understanding. Siddhartha chose the second
one.
J
Kamala
represented his desires, but she also represented his detachment. That helped
him to give up twenty years later. But the physical is more truly real. She
conceives and the final discipline for Siddhartha came from the physical
through his son.
J
When Siddhartha
was finally detached form his son, it was worked out in his mind’s
consciousness. Neither he nor his son was transformed. There was no question of
transformation in those days. When
J
Vasudeva
listening to the river is seeing the Becoming as Force and absorbing its wisdom
in the subtle plane.
J
Sri
Aurobindo speaks of the Being of the Becoming which is in the fourth dimension where life reveals itself as
a Marvel.
J
Human existence
on earth can be traced according to the planes, dimensions, time, sense, etc.
Each perception admits of a scale to be constructed. No scale is linear, as at
the point of changing planes, there is a reversal of consciousness, subtlety
emerges, occult things are unseen. Should one be enamoured of such a work, he
would start with an Act and
§
Make it a
success at a hundred-fold level and study the process, neglecting the results.
§
When the
process is clear, he can evaluate the universally accepted ideas of Life,
Science, Education, Politics, etc. in its light. At least he can review his own
convictions in these affairs.
§
This, done
well, must make the occult perceptible.
§
At this stage, The
Life Divine will read like a novel or poetry.
§
Marvel will
reveal as more than conception, perhaps as perception.
§
He may at this
point try to explain mentally, not intellectually, subtle, causal planes or
explain the process to others successfully.
§
His own inner
experience will be reflected in the life of the world.
Beyond this, there is no
territory left for the mind.
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