"The Life Divine" by Sri Aurobindo - Essays 2-5

B. Chapter 2 - The Two Negations: The Materialist Denial

1. An integral view of spirit and matter - as ends of a continuum which are linked by a variety of intermediate states - is essential to think of a divine life upon earth. Believing only in the reality of one of the two (either matter or spirit) would either lead to a recoil from material life or to an extreme of materialism, and both these states of mind - while necessary and helpful in some ways and even logically satisfying as ideas - fail to give the aspirant a feel of actuality of understanding. For that sense of actuality to develop, the aspirant would do well to take learnings from the extreme beliefs, but progress towards the integral view, in which matter itself is Brahman, but Brahman is much more than matter and what meets the eye.

2. Exploring these extreme states of mind - where either spirit or matter are the sole reality - is a natural way in which the human mind responds to disturbances from a harmoniously balanced state of mind. These explorations are even helpful in the sense that they provide the mind with an even more concrete base upon which the reconciled and integral view can stand. However, at the end of both roads, we come to the view that reality is something more than just that partial view we took on the road. In fact, the only way to escape the integral view then is to not make any progress on whichever path one is on! These isolated explorations define the "West" and the "East". In the East, we see heights of the spiritual world explored and made much of, but poverty of material life. In the West, we see great heights achieved in the world of matter, but a poverty in the "things of the spirit".

3. In a sense, the denial of the materialist - while easy to understand - is also easier to cure, because it stands on the shaky ground of the belief that what we see and feel through our sense organs is all. As soon as experience brings to our light powers and ranges of knowable phenomena which are beyond the senses, the foundations of the materialist dogma are shaken.

4. Before moving on to discuss the other extreme, it is important to also take note of the tremendous positive influence that rationalistic materialism has had - indeed, how materialism has served the divine purpose. Very often in history has humanity seen true knowledge being covered by such a huge mass of blind beliefs (in the hands of "unripe minds") that true advances in knowledge were made nearly impossible. Rationalism has done the divine pursuit a tremendous service by successfully contesting such dogmas and thereby helping bring out the real knowledge from the grips of superstitions.

5. A wide and deep knowledge of the material world is a good and essential footing for development of spiritual knowledge. In fact, this is the interpretation Sri Aurobindo gives to Upanishadic declarations like "The earth is His footing". Therefore, even as we move out of a limited materialistic view (where the evidence of the senses is all), we need to be careful not to throw away those aspects of materialism which are good (i.e., which even serve the divine purpose of life).

6. The way pure materialism narually ends in an Agnosticism (which points to something beyond it), so does the other extreme of pure spiritualism. However, as the spiritual experience becomes real to us, he says, there is a tendency to "exaggerate the unknowableness" of the spiritual reality. Actually, declarations like "Mind attains not there, not speech" refer more to the impossibility of describing that reality (or expressing it in completely clear words) than to its unknowableness. Indeed, the spiritual truths are knowable, he says -  not by the ordinary channels of sense-knowledge, but by a "supreme effort of consciousness". Knowledge by identity is difficult to reproduce in words, but that does not mean that the spiritual realities are truly unknowable. In fact, the Gita describes the elevated spiritual state (universal consciousness) as being "attainable to intelligence, but transcending the senses" (buddhigraahyam ateendriyam).

7. Modern science is opening our minds up to infinite possibilities - coming more and more close to the integral Vedantic conception of reality. Wireless telegraphy has led to the understanding that some of the intermediate instruments are not really required - the physical means are required only at the two end points of the signal. As we proceed on this path and investigate the right end-points, we will see that the physical means are not even required at the two end-points - i.e., the mind can directly work with the energies involved and send or receive the signals without any additional physical means. Of course, even with such enhancements in knowledge and skill, there will still be separation and a "beyond", until we truly see that in reality, One Unity embraces multiplicity (the ocean manifests itself as different waves), and not the other way around. With cosmic consciousness (not egoistical consciousness) guiding our actions, Man's divine nature will be realized within the materialistic universe too.

C. Chapter 3 - The Two Negations: The Refusal of the Ascetic

1. As compelling as the evidence of the senses is to the sense-mind, the "supra-sensuous" states are equally true for those who have experienced them. They are very much a reality, and it is only natural that having experienced them, the dependent reality of the material universe often fades into near non-existence.

2. That there are faculties beyond the senses is amply clear from psychic phenomena, telepathy being only one example. Even though methodical research has not yet found strong evidence of these phenomena (and part of the reason could be that the methods used have been "crude and defective"), there is no justification for rejecting the evidence and calling the reports false. As he elaborates in a later chapter, there are people, for example, who can feel the truth when others are speaking by using their minds directly to "listen". The speaker might lie and use his outward expressions to confuse others, but the faculties of these seers are so well-developed that the outward expressions and verbal messages do not confuse them. They learn exact and true details even when they are not being communicated by the speaker. Such phenomena point to the reality of the mind's ability to work beyond the senses. Of course, Sri Aurobindo's book does not suggest that aspirants should give a lot of importance to developing limited powers with such faculties. Rather, it seems clear from other chapters that this seemingly super-human power of the mind should be developed mainly to be one with the Superconscient One.

3. With the advent of Buddhism (and the Buddha is considered by Sri Aurobindo to be the most powerful and influential personality to have lived on this earth), this natural recoil of the ascetic from material life developed further into a "revolt of Spirit against Matter". For minds not in tune with cosmic consciousness, it is easy to dismiss this Indian attitude as a reflection of a decline in national spirit (i.e., a natural decline of spirit in an ancient race, tired of its own burden). However, the attitude is based very much on reality - experienced by many and experiencable to others. Only that in taking such an extreme ascetic stance, we completely ignore the descent of the Superconscious into the material - we ignore that matter too is ultimately Brahman, and that the real merit of human life is to not only find the eternal but also transform the transient (material) universe to make it a more fitting vehicle for it.

4. Before exiting, let us note that the pure ascetic spirit - like the rationalist materialistic attitude - has served a great purpose in human life, not to be forgotten while developing our integral understanding. (Going by the

articles, I believe Sri Aurobindo might have been speaking here of the fact that asceticism not only provides ordinary life with a moral footing, but also opens up minds to the idea of going beyond ordinary sense-perceptions and integrating the supra-sensuous into daily life.) Even as rational materialism has rendered a great service to the Divine, pure asceticism has rendered an even greater service to ordinary life, says Sri Aurobindo.

D. Chapter 4 - Reality Omnipresent

1. So the integral view integrates matter and spirit as poles of a continuum of existence, but what about the "silence" beyond? One upanishad says that from Non-Being, Being was born, while another upanishad seems to contradict the same by stating that existence is never born from non-existence (or, being is never born from non-being). Sri Aurobindo says that we are getting deluded by words here. When interpreting the first declaration closely (looking closely at the upanishadic texts which contain these declarations), we find that the non-being of the Taittiriya upanishad is probably the same as the "infinite" or unmanifest zero, from which all manifest energy arises. Being used to thinking in opposites and contradictions, we often feel that the silent or inactive Brahman is different from the active or manifest one, but actually, it is probably an error in our mode of thinking. The non-being of the Taittiriya upanishad is likely to be just a word for what lies beyond the manifest - not really the non-existent. Actually, the silent Brahman permits and sustains the active Brahman. The Buddha had attained to Nirvana and yet was highly active in the world of matter and egoistical consciousness - indeed the most powerful personality to ever have lived on this earth according to Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo. So it is perhaps better to think of the "beyond" as being the inactive Brahman which sustains the active within it and not as a non-existence outside Brahman or different from Brahman.

2. If we then accept that Brahman who allows the manifest universe to exist and grow within Himself is indeed almighty, then the manifestation itself cannot be rejected just as a bunch of errors and discordant rhythms. Of course the apparent evil in the world has to be accepted at least from a limited egoistical point of

view, but we cannot start by assuming that the whole thing is bad or wrong - because we agree that it is all a manifestation of the same supremely harmonious Brahman. We must accept, then, that mankind is correct in seeking a final harmony beyond the seeming evil and discord of the world. The omnipotent and omnipresent reality could not have been subjected "from the outside" so to speak, by something which is not itself, to create a discordant world. Nor could it have been partial to a limited part of itself, and fallen prey to an error in that sense. So the search for a final harmony seems to be quite right, viewed in this light.

3. The above faith in a final harmony is not just a blind belief. According to Sri Aurobindo, the widest and most patient analyses affirm this truth, not contradict it. (Recall that Swami Vivekananda has also written in many places that the Truth will stand the most rigorous of scientific inquiries and so there is no reason to fear scientific inquiry of the Vedic truths.) Of course, this highest reason (think of the experiments and methods required for it to be evident) is not easy or quick to work out for most, and therefore, for most of humanity, faith does have a role to play in the journey. Finally, however, when faith leads to experience and Wisdom, the original faith will be "justified of her works".

E. Chapter 5 - The Destiny of the Individual

1. All knowledge, in a sense, at the borders points to something beyond itself. Even as universal consciousness was realized by the sages, it pointed them to the possibility of something beyond it - the unmanifest, silent Brahman sustaining the active consciousness of the universe. (In a previous chapter, of course, Sri Aurobindo has stated that there is a tendency to exaggerate the unknowableness of this unknown, but the statement is nevertheless true.) Knowing that no matter how well they know manifestation, the Supreme still holds other possibilities within Its womb, the Vendantic rishis started referring to these unknown (unmanifest, potential) possibilities of Brahman as the "Asat" (non-being). In fact, even the apparent division of the One into the Many in the material universe is called "Asat" inasmuch as it is not as real (enduring or long-lasting) as the universal consciousness which creates it. It should, however, be kept in mind that these words only point to something beyond the known. They should not be interpreted as suggesting that these other realms (the silent Brahman and the Brahman manifested as the Many in material world) are truly non-existent. These other possibilities exist, one as the sustainer of the manifest world and the other mainly as a dependent reality, like waves on the surface of the ocean.

2. Ordinary life - howsoever petty when compared to the eternal - is not merely an illusion or a false concept. If so, even the salvation of the individual soul would not be a task worth our while because it would be the salvation of the non-existent. The salvation of the individual (by realizing the higher reality of the superconscient Universal One) is not only possible, it is possible without a blotting out of the individual. Realization would make the egoistical being realize the deep connection with the Universal which makes the demarcations of individual egos very petty, but that realization would not, by itself, completely exterminate the individual entity, as Sri Aurobindo points out in a later chapter.

3. Once we note that ordinary life is therefore not merely an illusion, we revisit with renewed respect the view that the Universal created the petty life forms to enjoy the One through the limited apparatus of the Many. The significance of ordinary life then is in regaining the Universal consciousness (or, knowledge of the Brahman) and concluding the divine Play successfully by that ultimate achievement. As he elaborates on in a later chapter, it also makes complete sense then that the pettier life forms will be subject to some degree of error and disharmony (or what seems like error and disharmony), because this particular Game (Lila) of the Divine is founded on the fundamental act of self-concealment. When the basis of the whole Play is concealment of the most fundamental truth, it is to be expected that the workings of consciousness under that illusion will be subject to errors and discords, in smaller or larger magnitude. As we climb to higher and higher levels of consciousness, our attempt should then be to transform the lower states of consciousness into more apt vehicles for the Supreme. In doing so, we also embrace God in His Play, not just the God who stands above the Play. In the integral view, then, finding the Divine remains Man's greatest endeavor and purpose, but embracing the One in the Many by helping transform the Many into a better garment for the One also becomes the responsibility of the seeker. Just as we do not have to give up bodily life to lead a more advanced intellectual or mental life, similarly, we need not reject material (egoistical) life and existence to attain to the spiritual.

4. As the upanishads declare, the path of Mankind is towards Vidya (true knowledge, of the universal), but via Avidya (the cosmic illusion of multiplicity and ego-centric life).

Sadanand Tutakne

"The Life Divine" by Sri Aurobindo - initial essays

By now, most of my close friends would have understood that these articles are no longer mainly about things the author understands and wants to communicate, but rather constitute a small, but disciplined, effort to spend some time, periodically, on matters which are close to our hearts. It is therefore, very much an effort to meditate and attune the mind to things "higher" (no offence intended). I wonder whether some of you feel the same need every once in a while? 

Today, therefore, I have chosen a book by Sri Aurobindo (the same famous Sri Aurobindo who was an active freedom fighter for some years before giving himself up completely to spiritual endeavours) for which he is known far and wide in the world of philosophers, spiritual seekers, creative artists and intellectuals too. It is said of Sri Aurobindo that once he started earnestly on the path of yoga, while still a freedom fighter, his advance on the spiritual plane was quite rapid. In light of that fact, it is perhaps natural that after a few years, he dedicated his life completely to meditation and spiritual activities. Having studied in England, he had a great command over languages and I think his education would have made him more acceptable to the rationalists in his audiences too. Most of the essays in "The Life Divine" were originally written by him for his magazine "Arya", fairly early on in his spiritual career, but the essays were later thoroughly checked and edited by him, when publishing them in the form of a book. It is unlikely, therefore, that there is anything in the book which the fully illumined sage did not consider worth the public's time and attention. Today, to control the length of the essay, I am only giving a summary of the first chapter of the Book, but time does not end today (using probabilistic intelligence), so hopefully we can summarize and even discuss all the other essays slowly but surely in the near future.

A note about Sri Aurobindo's "Integral Yoga" or "Integral Vendanta" before we look at the essays. Sri Aurobindo's philosophy is called by these names because of his emphasis on the idea that even if matter and ignorant egoistical existence is only an outer garment of the superconscient, Universal Consciousness, it is still an integral part of the whole, and therefore, realizing the One in the Many should be an integral part of the journey of the spiritual ascetic. From books written about him, it is clear that he considered physical (Darwinian) evolution of forms to be an outward manifestation of Cosmic Universal Intelligence trying to discover itself by working within and also transforming matter to make matter a better instrument for its expression. Additionally, he did not consider matter and egoistical forms of manifestations as being essentially different from the Universal One. Rather, to use an analogy used by so many authors, he thought of the manifest (ignorant) universe as waves on the ocean of Pure Superconscient Existence, dependent on the ocean for their existence but an integral part of the whole and essentially made up of the same "stuff". Since it is indeed the eternal which creates and manifests itself in multitudinous (often petty) forms, completely ignoring or denying material existence (howsoever short-lived it might be relative to the eternal) would constitute rejecting the Universal in one of its own manifestations. According to Sri Aurobindo, the early Vendantist rishis knew this from deeper realization, and were therefore integral in their ways of looking at consciousness and matter, universal and individual. This ancient outlook integrating the two is a desirable way to look at creation, and will help the yogi embrace Creation and the Creator in Its entirety, yet without falling into the trap of a petty or animalistic living, devoid of higher intelligence. This outlook would also help other human beings caught within the delusion of Maya and Avidya (ignorance), enabling their progress towards the eternal, yet without making them completely impractical in their ways of living while they are on the path.

Even if only to bring out the beauty of some of the examples Sri Aurobindo and some other authors bring up, let's spend one more minute on the idea of integrating things which seem different or opposed to each other. Our intellectual reasoning can sometimes contradict the decisions of the ordinary "sense-mind" and sense organs, and in a sense, the faculty of reasoning "transcends" the senses which only provide inputs, but that does not mean that the data provided by the senses is itself wrong, or to be denied by the faculty of reasoning. Similarly, more than one author has said that while the understanding of the superconscient state transcends ordinary logical faculties and might even make decisions sometimes difficult for ordinary logic to explain, that does not in any way mean that the faculty of intellectual reasoning is itself "false" or that the higher intelligence is necessarily "opposed" to logical and verbal reasoning. Using such examples, Sri Aurobindo and other authors have often tried to make it clear that the lower and the higher faculties are not necessarily opposed to each other and do not necessarily falsify each other, even if one might "transcend" the other in some ways. The lower faculties are not exterminated by the higher realization and can in fact be integrated once the right understanding has been developed (or, reached).

A. Chapter 1 - The Human Aspiration

1. The greatest of the human aspirations is the search for the absolutely Perfect, the Eternal Truth, God, Universal Consciousness or whatever else one might want to call it. No matter what compulsions hold us back for a few years or decades, the aspiration comes back with equal force in due course of time. This
aspiration is, of course, in contradiction to ordinary sense perceptions and to the compulsions of a life based purely on such mundane experiences.

2. However, contradictions and their resolution are the rule (rather than the exception) in Mother Nature's work, and should not, therefore, be considered proof of the non-existence of the unseen or unknown. Life - whose very essence, in mundane experiences, seems to be activity - is encased within matter and material forms, whose typical characteristic is inertia and inactivity. Conscious living and experiencing - so very important to ordinary life - is shadowed by so many essential biological functions which are sub-conscious and almost totally unknown to the ordinary waking consciousness. So the presence of higher and higher levels of contradictions and their resolution, seems to be just the way Mother Nature works and does not mean that the unseen or unknown is not important.

3. Life in matter ranges from typically subliminal consciousness in Metals to a highly complex awareness of itself in Man, showing the wide range of experiences possible for itself. (So do physical phenomena have a wide range, many unknown to ordinary human consciousness.) So in Man himself is the potential for higher and higher experiences, constituting higher and higher steps towards a divine life integrated within the human form. (It is frequently asserted by different authors that the human form is about the limit of physical evolution, and that the future evolution of Man will be more mental and spiritual, with the body evolving only in small bits, as required for the manifestation of the higher intelligence within the human body.)

4. When this "religious" aspiration of Man is limited by force or by compulsions of the ordinary life, it comes back sharply and this violent rebound sometimes leads to the proliferation of obscure, mystical philosophies which do not ultimately satisfy the human aspiration (and create confusion rather than clarity). Rather than allowing this cycle to go on uninterrupted, we would do well to instead take up the Human Aspiration through our relatively more enlightened faculty of reason. At the same time, let's not deny the insight offered by intuition even if not clearly supported by verbal and mundane logic, for (as he explains in later chapters) intuition is essentially an outcome of "knowledge by identity", and is therefore often a source of light (knowledge) placed above ordinary verbal and logical reasoning.

Sadanand Tutakne