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
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
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