Chapter XIV
June 17, 2005
(by Karmayogi)
[items in blue are mini
summations of the text that follows, developed by Growth Online]
[Input of
the senses, sense mind, and
Life knowledge >] Sri Aurobindo cites the example of the sun moving
around the earth in talking about the inability of the senses to do the duty of
the Mind. The idea that it is the earth that goes round the sun is an idea of
the thinking mind, not the ocular sense that sees. The process of the Mind
that arrived at that idea is thinking, maybe mathematical thinking. We see
the sun. It is the eye that sees. The eye does not have the power of thinking.
It is one of the senses. Our life is a vital life mostly. We see, hear, smell,
touch, taste. These sensations give our life knowledge. [thinking devoid of sense >] On important issues, we sit down, withdraw from the senses and think
and decide which job to accept, what course to choose, whether we can accept
this alliance. These are all mental processes. Brain is the seat of Mind. Its
higher version is subtle and its centre is between the brows. [the world is created by Supermind >] The world is created by the Supermind and not the Mind, says Sri
Aurobindo. In this chapter he describes the Supermind and explains how the
creation was made. It is an explanation offered to the Supermind in us as it
is about the Supermind. As yet there is no centre in Man for that plane --
the Supermind. No wonder we don’t understand. Mother says no one has understood
His explanations about the Supermind. So, is there any use of our reading the
book at all?
[Our limited
human conception of Supermind >] Even in the
beginning of the chapter He says that this difficulty exists, but it is not as
if we have no real connection with this exalted plane. They are indirect,
fragmentary. Mind understands by thinking. Above that lies insight and
intuition. We often see these facilities flash in us. Without trying to think,
i.e. disinheriting the active Mind, if we shift our emphasis to insight and
intuition, His explanations will reach us. [Insight & intuition will help us understand Supermind
>] In the last para He says religions believe God is
omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent. It is not a knowledge they got by the
thinking of Mind. It is a perception they had by insight and intuition. There
are certain facts of life where a similar phenomenon occurs. They can be of
some guidance.
[Comparison of
Supermind to various aspects of human life >] A political party
is full of volunteers, workers, experienced leaders. But there is one who is a
mass leader who alone attracts the crowed, for whose sake the people vote. The
mass leader creates the party, the others run it or manage it. In a family
there are a few members, sometimes several members, but one or two earn. All
the income comes from the earning members. Others run the family. The others
will never earn. They are not interchangeable qualities. The same difference
exists between the self-employed entrepreneur and the salaried employee. The
Supermind is like the earning member. Sri Aurobindo illustrates this principle
through parts and the whole and goes on to say that even the sum of the parts
will not be the whole, as the parts of a machine collected in a box will not be
a machine. That faculty is not yet in us. We have to create it. Till then we
have to be satisfied by an intellectual statement that does not shut out the
higher faculties. [Going within to
the psychic we will have descents through of intuition through spiritual mind
which will enable us to begin to know Supermind >] When it is
created it will lodge behind the heart, not in the heart. Hence the
injunction to concentrate behind the heart.
Now we see before us objects, walls, furniture, shops,
moving men, trees, and birds all apparently not connected with each other. We
get those impressions through our senses. When we shift to thinking in our
Mind, still we do not see any connection between them. There is a lamppost; a
man is passing nearby. Our Mind is unable to think of any relation between the
man and the post. We know our left leg and right hand are parts of the same
body. They are related. Body is a whole of which the leg and hand are parts. [In Supermind we see the walking man and the
inert post are related and One >]We do not see such a relationship between the
moving man and the stationary post. In fact they really are related. Suppose
we succeed in moving to the centre behind the heart, then we will see the man
and the post are related as the leg and the hand are related. As the vision
ripens, it becomes perfect. Then the Man ceases to be a man, he acquire a
supramental form. Both are, to the supramental, the same form. In the Alipore
Jail, Sri Aurobindo saw the jailors, the convicts, the iron bars, the branches
of the tree were all one. He saw them as Narayana. He called it Narayana
darsan. If a devotee should have the same vision, he will see the objects before
him as Sri Aurobindo. It will be Sri Aurobindo Darsan. For the lack of a better
word Sri Aurobindo called His vision Narayana Darsan. As Narayana is an
overmental god and this was a Supramental vision, they will not go together. [Supramental vision sees only good >] In the sense
Narayana was born from the Supramental plane, it will be right. In that vision
there will be no evil, as in the vision of Arjuna. It was of duality. Therefore
Arjuna saw good as well as evil. In the Supramental vision there is only good.
The ideas in this
chapter are
[The powers of Maya in creation >] In the previous
chapter He explains Maya is the key to the world enigma. That key, He says, is
to be turned in the lock of the universe which is Sachchidananda. Maya creates
an active truth of an ordered being out of a static truth of an essential
being. In other words, [The One and
the Many through the power of Maya >]
·
from all is in all.
·
Maya creates all in each and each in all.
In the chapter on Brahma,
Purusha, Ishwara, Maya is described as
·
conceptively creative, while Purusha is
·
dynamically executive, and Shakti is
·
conceptively creative and dynamically executive.
Also in the chapter on Maya, He goes on to explain that Mind has no power to create this world and a superior power is needed. And that superior power is Supermind. In this chapter, No.14, HE explains how it dynamically executes.
·
by conceptively creating. He ends saying “All Nature
is Seer will that creates force and form.”
·
It dynamic execution is how the Supermind draws the
Many out of the One without losing the One in the process. [How Supermind relates the One and the Many >]
He also says the Infinite
does not create; it only manifests what is already there. Brahman becomes
substance in the universe by a self-extension. Mind and Life create Matter out
of it. (p. 239). [Comprehending and Apprehending Powers of
Supermind >] Here He says
Supermind is the vast self-extension of the Brahman. It can contain Brahman in
it and it can develop. Supermind, He says, has the powers of development,
evolution and making explicit. In another part of the Supermind it has the
powers of envelopment, involution and making implicit. One is the comprehending
Supermind and the other is the apprehending Supermind. It is useful to note the
first is in Timelessness and the second is in Time. Earlier, it is said it is
Supermind that created Existence, Consciousness and Bliss out of the One that
is Sachchidananda. [Differentiation,
not division of Supermind >]The central emphasis falls on the aspect that
it is a process of differentiation and not division. Supermind is also
explained as the objective state of Sachchidananda – It is the nature of
Sachchidananda. The same definition is used elsewhere for the difference in
being and consciousness. All of them -- objectifying, nature, consciousness,
are said to be extensions of the Being. [The objectifying process of Supermind >]When the Rishis
said, ‘we know the One, we know the Many, but do not know how the One became
the Many’, Sri Aurobindo said it is by the decision of the One to objectify
itself. Further, if the objectification is extension, it is outer extension.
Then the inner extension is the subjective state. Here the subjective state is
the comprehending Supermind in timelessness, the objective state is
apprehending Supermind in Time.
·
So creation is objectifying process.
·
Objectifying is self-chosen.
On Page 237, mind is
explained as an extension of knowledge of the Being. On an analogy we can
say Supermind is the extension of creative knowledge of Brahman.
[A question raised: Do the processes of creation occur in succession or simultaneously? >]It is better to think of all the processes of creation and examine whether they are in succession or simultaneous. What faculties are incident? and what is meant by a faculty in this context. Answering the last first,
·
A faculty is the capacity to move what is not in
motion. Further more it has the capacity – or organisation – to move it as it
intends.
·
Self-conception, Self-limitation, Self-absorption
are the faculties listed.
·
It is difficult to say which are simultaneous and
which are successive. Still we know the subjective precedes the objective,
Timeless Time, Being Consciousness.
·
Spirit and Truth are from the Being.
·
Time and Space are from the Spirit.
·
Mind is from the Supermind.
By process of creation we
mean the following:
Brahman – Sat* – Chit – Ananda. [Relationship of being, Spirit, Truth, Space, and
Time, etc. >]
Spirit – Truth
(Subjective and objective states of Sat)
Time and Space
similarly issue out of Spirit.
Self-Conscious Being splits into Atma, Purusha, Ishwara and their powers Maya Prakriti and Shakti.
Knowledge turns
into Ignorance passing through 7 stages.
The lower
triplicity of Mind, Life and Matter are
there.
[At Supramental level, Real Ideas Create. >]At the
Supramental level it is Real-Idea that creates.
1.
all in each, and
2.
each in all.
Beyond this the
Transcendent, cosmos, universe and Individual are another gradation.
Consciousness by self-absorption becomes Superconscient and Inconscient.
One more definition is worth
considering – Maya is the consciousness of Brahman. Supermind is the knowledge
extension of Brahman.
The explanation of the 14
ideas mentioned earlier draws upon these descriptions in the book at several
places. Better to keep it in Mind. Let us take the first idea.
1)
Supermind can
be indirectly known.
One assumption is
based on all is in each and each is in all. One who looks for the
ultimate knowledge can find it in any place because somewhere it is there in
some form.
Supermind is
revealed as genius, omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, as great acts of
courage. Wherever an impossible thing unexpected becomes possible, one can
look for the touch of Supermind, if he is looking for it.
Even when you know it or are that, it is possible for one to be unconscious. Unconsciousness is all-pervasive, even through consciousness.
Though one has
access to these regions, the door shuts at once. Work is needed to keep the
door permanently open.
The principle
here is even in lower planes the higher plane is accessible for those who take
the greatest effort. It is available as a flash. To make it permanent, the
entire atmosphere must be elevated to that higher level.
·
A one-time success at any level is always possible
for a while.
·
Einstein says one must be able to explain even to a
child if you understand it well.
·
Things are not difficult or easy. It depends on who
listens and who explains. Men are all
spiritually equal. So also on the surface life any man has all the
knowledge he needs that includes the capacity to know the highest knowledge.
The medium is unsuitable. There is no idea in The Life Divine that
cannot be communicated to any illiterate person if only you know his idiom –
the factor of conversion.
2)
Vedic clues
The Vedas have not spoken anything explicitly. At best they were cryptic. It was their style for whatever reason. Their clues:
·
Vast all–comprehensiveness, luminous truth, harmony
of being.
·
Truth of law and act and knowledge expressive of
that harmonious truth of being.
·
The Gods in their highest secret entity are powers
of Supermind.
·
Light is here one with Force.
Some subordinate
but important details:
·
truth vision, truth audition.
·
revelation, inspiration.
These large terms
make one thing clear that it is not our mind.
It must be between our mind and Sachchidananda.
3)
One becoming
the Many.
a.
The one is above. The Many is below. The Many
seeks in its mutable state something firm and immutable.
b.
The Many are drawn out of the One because it is
there in potential. It draws out the Many without losing the One.
c.
It posits Something beyond the One and the Many. It
is the Absolute. Our Knowledge of the Absolute will justify God and the world.
The hierarchy in the army,
the functioning of a company are EXACTLY on these lines of producing the Many out of
the One. In the army, no soldier can fire a single bullet without the order of
the officer above. All decisions are taken above and passed on below. No order
can be disobeyed. We see the soldier firing, but we do not see the soldier
fires on the orders that finally originate from above. In a company we can
liken the Board to the One Sachchidananda, the general manager to the Supermind
and the worker to the Many. It may appear that the worker does what he wants or
the manager or supervisor gives the orders.
The worker below and the
Board above indicate that there should be a FOUNDER who is not bound
by the Board or the labour.
Points No. 4 and 5 are
simple.
6) Mind understands its own
analysis.
A man entering an organisation sometimes is able to
conceive that it is there solely for his benefit. He is selfish. Should this
attitude be contagious after a few generations, the ideal for which the
organisation was originally created will be totally forgotten. Anyone trying
to remind the members of the original ideal will be laughed at. They may not
now remember it. Government departments are like that. It is natural that a
member there conceives of the organisation ONLY in terms of his own
benefit. Mind is like that.
Non-earning members of the family who have long forgotten
that someone is earning for them and taking it for granted will insist on their
own requirements and will not be able to understand what is happening in the
family. Paucity of funds and scarcity of material arise because the selfish
member has forgotten that he is part of an organisation and he is there to work
for it. He has assumed that the organisation is there only to meet all his
needs.
·
Such a man understands only his needs.
·
Mind, like his, understands only its own analysis.
Point No. 7 is a mere statement of fact.
8) . [Six Powers of Supermind. >]
·
Development, evolution, making explicit in the
descent.
Envelopment,
involution, making implicit in the ascent are the six powers of the Supermind.
·
Differentiation without division is a basic concept.
The father, the
officer, the voter are the three functions of a citizen. He is one who has
three aspects. There are not three persons. To see three aspects as three
persons is an error mind commits.
·
Human personality creates in one the above six
powers.
[Real Ideas. >] Point No. 9 is partially a repetition of the
above ideas.
As the idea is from
consciousness, so the Real-Idea is from the Being. Consciousness in its
downward movement creates idea (knowledge) and will. As it is moving downward,
they are separate. Being is the prior stage to consciousness. Therefore, its
idea is Real-Idea. There will and knowledge are united. The officer commanding
issues orders below to fire. A junior officer shouts out the order. The soldier
fires. When the commanding officer wants to fire, he needs no orders. He fires.
10) Thought separates itself
from the object.
A photo separates
the form from the person. The photographer finds the photo more important. As a
result he values the photo and he himself is now separated from the person
whose photo he now has.
11) A statement of a simple
description. 12), 13) and 14) are obvious.
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* Along with Sat, Asat comes out, along with Chit and Ananda inconscient and insensibility also emerge.