Sri Aurobindo

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Namasta All

 

I discovered Aurobindo in my college days. While studying at a university

library, I used to browse his books whenever I got bored with reading my class

notes.Initially I read him for his poetry but over time discovered his other

wonderful works. Essays on the Gita and his Letters on Yoga remain my favorite.

One thing I found about him is that I had to be at a certain mental pitch to

even understand him. There were times when I thought I had a glimmer of

understanding of his meaning and a later reading of the same work brought no

comprehension or insight. Though his command over English is excellent, it is

more of the "classic" literary style. His sentences are long and he coins new

words and one needs to be familiar with his terminology. I take the liberty to

describe below what I understand of his philosophy.

I have provided an appendix where I have listed his quotes that might be

pertinent and of interest to the group.

 

While describing his "Integral Yoga" Aurobindo is very adamant in saying that he

never said that "his yoga was something brand new in its elements." He has taken

up elements of the "old" yogas (Tantra, Vedanta, Yoga of the Gita) and

integrated them together. Thus a sadhak has to follow the same path as the old

yogas. Like Ramana Maharishi, he says that the "I" has to be realized first.

This "I" he calls the psychic being:

 

"The psychic is realized as the pursha behind the heart. It is not

universalised like the Jivatman, but is the individual soul supporting from is

place behind the heart-centre the mental, vital, physical, psychic evolution of

the being in Nature. Its realisation brings bhakti, self-giving, surrender,

turning of all the movements ( Godward, discrimination and choice of all that

belongs to the Divine Truth, Good, Beauty, rejection of all that is false, evil,

ugly, discordant, union through love and sympathy with all existence, openness

to the Truth of the Self and the Divine."

 

It should be noted that like Ramana Maharishi, the location of the "I" is traced

to the heart-centre by Aurobindo.

 

 

Up to this point his integral yoga is indistinguishable from the "old" yogas. It

is different from the "old" yogas in its eventual aim of bringing down a new

consciousness onto earth.However first a sadhak has to emancipate himself using

all methods of the "old" yoga.

 

It is new as compared with the old yogas (quoting Aurobindo):

 

l. Because it aims not at a departure out- of world and life into Heaven or

Nirvana, but at a change of life and existence, not as something subordinate or

incidental, but as a distinct and central object. If there is a descent in other

yogas, yet it is only an incident on the way or resulting from the ascent - the

ascent is the real thing. Here the ascent the first step, but it is a means for

the descent. It is the descent of the new consciousness attained by the ascent

that is the stamp and seal of the sadhak. Even the Tantra and Vishnu end in the

release from life; here the object is the divine fulfillment of life.

 

2. Because the object sought after is not an individual achievement of divine

realisation for the sake of the individual, but something to be gained for the

earthconsciousness here, a cosmic, not solely a supra-cosmic achievement. The

thing to be gained also is the bringing in of a Power of Consciousness (the

supramental) not yet organised or active directly in earth-nature, even in the

spiritual life, but yet to be organised and made directly active.

 

3. Because a method has been preconized for achieving this purpose which is as

total and integral as the aim set before it, viz., the total and integral change

of the consciousness and nature, taking up old methods but only as a part action

and present aid to others that are distinctive. I have not found this method (as

a whole) or anything like it professed or realised in the old yogas. If I had, I

should not have wasted my time in hewing out a road and in thirty years of

search and inner creation when I could have hastened home safely to my goal in

an easy canter over paths already blazed out, laid down, perfectly mapped,

macadamised, made secure and public.

 

Personal aspiration and Divine Grace (of the Mother) are important parts of the

integral yoga. The effort demanded of the Sadhak is that of aspiration,

rejection (of vital desires) and surrender (to the grace of the Mother). The

Mothers force responds to the aspiration of the sadhak and descends from above

and opens the chakras and purifies the vital. This is different from the tantric

tradition where the chakras open from the muldhara upwards. I could not find the

reference but I remember reading somewhere (probably a book by M.P. Pandit) that

this makes the sadhana safer. Since the mental centers open first, the sadhaks

mind and intelligence are in control. With the Tantra tradition the muldhara

which is the sexual center and the seat of vital desires opens first and an

improper opening can result in insanity, delusion etc. Gopi Krishna has

commented on such improper kundlini awakenings and their resultant problems.

 

Basis of the Integral Yoga

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Aurobindo's Integral yoga fully accepts the yoga of the Gita and he says that it

forms the basis of his yoga:

 

"I may say that the way of the Gita is itself a part of the yoga here and

those who have followed it, to begin with or as a first stage, have a stronger

basis than others for this yoga"

It may be pointed out that his "Essays of Gita" were written in the Alipore jail

in an inspired period when Sri Aurobindo claimed to be visited by Swami

Vivekananda in his meditation. The swami guided Sri Aurobindo's yoga and helped

him to scale great heights. It was there Sri Aurobindo saw the convicts,

jailers, policemen, the prison bars, the trees, the judge, the lawyer etc., in

the experience and realization of Vasudeva, a form of Vishnu. Sri Aurobindo was

even able to see compassion, honesty and charity in the hearts of murderers.

 

However Aurobindos eventual aim (to bring a new consciousness on earth) goes

beyond Gita's aim:

 

"It is not a fact that the Gita gives the whole base of Sri Aurobindo's

message; for the Gita seems to admit the cessation of birth in the world as the

ultimate aim or at least the ultimate culmination of yoga; it does not bring

forward the idea of spiritual evolution or the idea of the higher planes and the

supramental Truth-Consciousness and the bringing down of that consciousness as

the means of the complete transformation of earthly life."

 

The other part of the integral yoga is based on the tantric tradition.

Aurobindo adopts a modified version of the tantric tradition which he describes

as follows:

 

"In the Tantra the centres are opened and Kundalini is awakened by a special

process, its action of ascent is felt through the spine. Here it is a pressure

of the Force from above that awakens it and opens the centres. There is an

ascension of the consciousness going up till it joins the higher consciousness

above. This repeats itself (sometimes a descent also is felt) until all the

centres are open and the consciousness rises above the body. At a later stage it

remains above and widens out into the cosmic consciousness and the universal

self. This is a usual course, but sometimes the process is more rapid and there

is a sudden and definite opening above."

 

Aurobindo describes his philosophy as being based on "Realistic Adwaita".

Shankra's Mayavada monism is not the only school of Vedanta:

 

 

 

"People are apt to speak of the Adwaita as if it were identical with Mayavada

monism, just as they speak of Vedanta as if it were identical with Adwaita only;

that is not the case. There are several forms of Indian philosophy which base

themselves upon the One Reality, but they admit also the reality of the world,

the reality of the Many, the reality of the differences of the Many as well as

the sameness of the One (bhedabheda). "

 

 

 

He describes his "Realist Adwaita" as follows:

 

 

 

"There is possible a realistic as well as an illusionist Adwaita. The

philosophy of The Life Divine is such a realistic Adwaita. The world is a

manifestation of the Real and therefore is itself real. The reality is the

infinite and eternal Divine, infinite and eternal Being, Consciousness-Force and

Bliss. This Divine by his power has created the world or rather manifested it in

his own infinite Being. But here in the material world or at its basis he has

hidden himself in what seem to be his opposites, Non-Being, Inconscience and

Insentience. This is what we nowadays call the Inconscient which seems to have

created the material universe by its inconscient Energy, but this is only an

appearance, for we find in the end that all the dispositions of the world can

only have been arranged by the working of a supreme secret Intelligence. The

Being which is hidden in what seems to be an inconscient void emerges in the

world first in Matter, then in Life, then in Mind and finally as the Spirit. The

apparently inconscient Energy which creates is in fact the Consciousness-Force

of the Divine and its aspect of consciousness, secret in Matter, begins to

emerge in Life, finds something more of itself in Mind and finds its true self

in a spiritual consciousness and finally a supramental Consciousness through

which we become aware of the Reality, enter into it and unite ourselves with it.

This is what we call evolution which is an evolution of Consciousness and an

evolution of the Spirit in things and only outwardly an evolution of species.

Thus also, the delight of existence emerges from the original insentience, first

in the contrary forms of pleasure and pain, and then has to find itself in the

bliss of the Spirit or, as it is called in the Upanishads, the bliss of the

Brahman. That is the central idea in the explanation of the universe put forward

in The Life Divine. "

 

 

Now this brings us to his essential vision in integrating Vedanta with Tantra:

"Unless one realises the Supreme on the dynamic as well as the static side, one

cannot experience the true origin of things and the equal reality of the active

Brahman. The Shakti or Power of the Eternal becomes then a power of illusion

only and the world becomes incomprehensible, a mystery of cosmic madness, an

eternal delirium of the Eternal. Whatever verbal or ideative logic one may bring

to support it, this way of seeing the universe explains nothing; it only erects

a mental formula of the inexplicable. It is only if you approach the Supreme

through his double aspect of Sat and Chit-Shakti, double but inseparable, that

the total truth of things can become manifest to the inner experience. This

other side was developed by the Shakta Tantriks. The two together, the Vedantic

and the Tantric truth unified, can arrive at the integral knowledge.

 

Veda and Vedanta are one side of the One Truth; Tantra with its emphasis on

Shakti is another; in this yoga all sides of the Truth are taken up, not in the

systematic forms given them formerly but in their essence, and carried to the

fullest and highest significance. But Vedanta deals more with the principles and

essentials of the divine knowledge and therefore much of its spiritual knowledge

and experience has been taken bodily into the Arya.

 

Tantra deals more with forms and processes and organised powers - all these

could not be taken as they were, for the integral yoga needs to develop its own

forms and processes; but the ascent of the consciousness through the centres and

other Tantric knowledge are there behind the process of transformation to which

so much importance is given by me - also the truth that nothing can be done

except through the force of the Mother."

 

 

It is easy now to understand Aurobindos thinking with regard to Shankra who he

thought saw only one side of the truth:

 

 

"I do not agree with the view that the world is an illusion, mithya. The

Brahman is here as well as in the supracosmic Absolute. The thing to be overcome

is the Ignorance which makes us blind and prevents us from realising Brahman in

the world as well as beyond it and the true nature of existence.

 

The Shankara knowledge is, as your Guru pointed out, only one side of the

Truth; it is the knowledge of the Supreme as realised by the spiritual Mind

through the static silence of the pure Existence. It was because he went by this

side only that Shankara was unable to accept or explain the origin of the

universe except as illusion, a creation of Maya. Unless one realises the Supreme

on the dynamic as well as the static side, one cannot experience the true origin

of things and the equal reality of the active Brahman. The Shakti or Power of

the Eternal becomes then a power of illusion only and the world becomes

incomprehensible, a mystery of cosmic madness, an eternal delirium of the

Eternal. Whatever verbal or ideative logic one may bring to support it, this way

of seeing the universe explains nothing; it only erects a mental formula of the

inexplicable. It is only if you approach the Supreme through his double aspect

of Sat and Chit-Shakti, double but inseparable, that the total truth of things

can become manifest to the inner experience. This other side was developed by

the Shakta Tantriks. The two together, the Vedantic and the Tantric truth

unified, can arrive at the integral knowledge."

 

 

 

_________________________

Appendix: Extracts from Sri Aurobindo's Letters on Yoga:

_________________________

THE YOGA OF THE GITA

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I may say that the way of the Gita is itself a part of the yoga here and those

who have followed it, to begin with or as a first stage, have a stronger basis

than others for this yoga.

 

It is not a fact that the Gita gives the whole base of Sri Aurobindo's message;

for the Gita seems to admit the cessation of birth in the world as the ultimate

aim or at least the ultimate culmination of yoga; it does not bring forward the

idea of spiritual evolution or the idea of the higher planes and the supramental

Truth-Consciousness and the bringing down of that consciousness as the means of

the complete transformation of earthly life.

 

The idea of the supermind, the Truth-Consciousness is there in the Rig Veda

according to Sri Aurobindo's interpretation and in one or two passages of the

Upanishads, but in the Upanishads it is there only in seed in the conception of

the being of knowledge, vijnanamaya purusa, exceeding the mental, vital and

physical being; in the Rig Veda the idea is there but in principle only, it is

not developed and even the principle of it has disappeared from the Hindu

tradition.

 

It is these things among others that constitute the novelty of Sri Aurobindo's

message as compared with the Hindu tradition - the idea that the world is not

either a creation of Maya or only a play, lala, of the Divine, or a cycle of

births in the ignoranee from which we have to escape, but a field of

manifestation in which there is a progressive evolution of the soul and the

nature in Matter and from Matter through Life and Mind to what is beyond Mind

till it reaches the complete revelation of Sachchidananda in life. It is this

that is the basis of the yoga and gives a new sense to life.

 

Our yoga is not identieal with the yoga of the Gita although it contains all

that is essential in the Gita's yoga. In our yoga we begin with the idea, the

will, the aspiration of the complete surrender; but at the same time we have to

reject the lower nature, deliver our consciousness from it, deliver the self

involved in the lower nature by the self rising to freedom in the higher nature.

If we do not do this double movement, we are in danger of making a tamasic and

therefore unreal surrender, making no effort, no tapas and therefore no

progress; or else we may make a rajasic surrender not to the Divine but to some

self-made false idea or image of the Divine which masks our rajasic ego or

something still worse.

 

The Gita does not speak expressly of the Divine Mother; it speaks always of

surrender to the Purushottama - it mentions her only as the Para Prakriti who

becomes the Jiva, that is, who manifests the Divine in the multiplicity and

through whom all these worlds are created by the Supreme and he himself descends

as the Avatar. The Gita follows the Vedantic tradition which leans entirely on

the Ishwara aspeet of the Divine and speaks little of the Divine Mother because

its object is to draw back from world-nature and arrive at the supreme

realisation beyond it; the Tantric tradition leans on the Shakti or Ishwari

aspect and makes all depend on the Divine Mother because its object is to

possess and dominate the world-nature and arrive at the supreme realisation

through it. This yoga insists on both the aspects; the surrender to the Divine

Mother is essential, for without it there is no fulfilment of the object of the

yoga.

 

 

THE TANTRIC TRADITION

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unless one realises the Supreme on the dynamic as well as the static side, one

cannot experience the true origin of things and the equal reality of the active

Brahman. The Shakti or Power of the Eternal becomes then a power of illusion

only and the world becomes incomprehensible, a mystery of cosmic madness, an

eternal delirium of the Eternal. Whatever verbal or ideative logic one may bring

to support it, this way of seeing the universe explains nothing; it only erects

a mental formula of the inexplicable. It is only if you approach the Supreme

through his double aspect of Sat and Chit-Shakti, double but inseparable, that

the total truth of things can become manifest to the inner experience. This

other side was developed by the Shakta Tantriks. The two together, the Vedantie

and the Tantrie truth unified, can arrive at the integral knowledge.

 

V_eda and_ Vedanta are one side of the One Truth; Tantra with~its emphasis on

Shakti is another; in this yoga all sides of the Truth are taken up, not in the

systematic forms given them formerly but in their essence, and carried to the

fullest and highest significance. But Vedanta deals more with the principles and

essentials of the divine knowledge and therefore much of its spiritual knowledge

and experience has been taken bodily into the Arya. * Tantra deals more with

forms and processes and organised powers - all these could not be taken as they

were, for the integral yoga needs to develop its own forms and processes; but

the ascent of the consciousness through the centres and other Tantric knowledge

are there behind the process of transformation to which so much importance is

given by me - also the truth that nothing can be done except through the force

of the Mother.

The process of the Kundalini awakened rising through the centres as also the

purification of the centres is a Tantric knowledge. In our yoga there is no

willed process of the purification and opening of the centres, no raising up of

the Kundalini by a set process either. Another method is used, hut still there

is the ascent of the consciousness from and through the different levels to join

the higher consciousness above; there is the opening of the centres and of the

planes (mental, vital, physical) which these centres comrriand; there is also

the descent which is the main key of the spiritual transformation. Therefore,

there is, I have said, a 'I'atntric knowledge behind the process of

transformation in this yoga.

 

In the Tantra the centres are opened and Kundalini is awakened by a special

process, its action of ascent is felt through the spine. Here it is a pressure

of the Force from above that awakens it and opens the centres. There is an

ascension of the consciousness going up till it joins the higher consciousness

above. This repeats itself (sometimes a descent also is felt) until all the

centres are open and the consciousness rises above the body. At a later stage it

remains above and widens out into the cosmic consciousness and the universal

self. This is a usual course, but sometimes the process is more rapid and there

is a sudden and definite opening above.

 

 

ILLUSIONIST ADWAITA (MAYAVADA)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If Shankara's conception of the undifferentiated pure Consciousness as the

Brahman is your view of it, then it is not the path of this yoga that you should

choose; for here the realisation of pure Consciousness and Being is only a first

step and not the goal. But an inner creative urge from within can have no place

in an undifferentiated Consciousness all action and creation must necessarily be

foreign to it.

 

I do not base my yoga on the insufficient ground that the Self (not soul) is

eternally free. That affirmation leads to nothing beyond itself, or, if used as

a starting-point, it could equally well lead to the conclusion that action and

creation have no significance or value. The question is not that but of the

meaning of creation, whether there is a Supreme who is not merely a pure

undifferentiated Consciousness and Being, but the source and support also of the

dynamic energy of creation and whether the cosmic existence has for It a

significance and a value. That is a question which cannot be settled by

metaphysical logic which deals in words and ideas, but by a spiritual experience

which goes beyond Mind and enters into spiritual realities. Each mind is

satisfied with its own reasoning, but for spiritual purposes that satisfaction

has no validity, except as an indication of how far and on what line each one is

prepared to go in the field of spiritual experience. If your reasoning leads you

towards the Shankara idea of the Supreme, that might be an indication that the

Vedanta Adwaita (Mayavada) is your way of advance.

 

This yoga accepts the value of cosmic existence and holds it to be a reality;

its object is to enter into a higher Truth-Consciousness or Divine supramental

Consciousness in which action and creation are the expression not of ignorance

and imperfection, but of the Truth, the Light, the Divine Ananda. But for that,

surrender of the mortal mind, life and body to that Higher Consciousness is

indispensable, since it is too difficult for the mortal human being to pass by

its own effort beyond mind to a supramental Consciousness in which the dynamism

is no longer mental but of quite another power. Only those who can accept the

call to such a change should enter into this yoga.

 

******************

 

 

I do not agree with the view that the world is an illusion, mithya. The Brahman

is here as well as in the supracosmic Absolute. The thing to be overcome is the

Ignorance which makes us blind and prevents us from realising Brahman in the

world as well as beyond it and the true nature of existence.

 

The Shankara knowledge is, as your Guru pointed out, only one side of the Truth;

it is the knowledge of the Supreme as realised by the spiritual Mind through the

static silence of the pure Existence. It was because he went by this side only

that Shankara was unable to accept or explain the origin of the universe except

as illusion, a creation of Maya. Unless one realises the Supreme on the dynamic

as well as the static side, one cannot experience the true origin of things and

the equal reality of the active Brahman. The Shakti or Power of the Eternal

becomes then a power of illusion only and the world becomes incomprehensible, a

mystery of cosmic madness, an eternal delirium of the Eternal. Whatever verbal

or ideative logic one may bring to support it, this way of seeing the universe

explains nothing; it only erects a mental formula of the inexplicable. It is

only if you approach the Supreme through his double aspect of Sat and

Chit-Shakti, double but inseparable, that the total truth of things can become

manifest to the inner experience. This other side was developed by the Shakta

Tantriks. The two together, the Vedantic and the Tantric truth unified, can

arrive at the integral knowledge.

 

But philosophically this is what your Guru's teaching comes to and it is

obviously a completer truth and a wider knowledge than that given by the

Shankara formula. It is already indicated in the Gita's teaching of the

Purushottama and the Parashakti (Adya Shakti) who become the Jiva and uphold the

universe. It is evident that Purushottama and Parashakti are both eternal and

are inseparable and one in being; the Parashakti manifests the universe,

manifests too the Divine in the universe as the Ishwara and Herself appears at

His side as the Ishwari Shakti. Or, we may say, it is the Supreme Conscious

Power of the Supreme that manifests or puts forth itself as Ishwara Ishwari,

Atma Atma-shakti, Purusha Prakriti, Jiva Jagat. That is the truth in its

completeness as far as the mind can formulate it. In the supermind these

questions do not even arise: for it is the mind that creates the problem by

creating oppositions between aspects of the Divine which are not really opposed

to each other but are one and inseparable.

 

This supramental knowledge has not yet been attained, because the supermind

itself has not been attained, but the reflection of it in intuitive spiritual

consciousness is there and that was what was evidently realised in experience by

your Guru and what he was expressing in mental terms in the quoted passage. It

is possible to go towards the knowledge by beginning with the experience of

dissolution in the One, but on condition that you do not stop there, taking it

as the highest Truth, but proceed to realise the same One as the supreme Mother,

the Consciousness-Force of the Eternal. If, on the other hand, you approach

through the Supreme Mother, she will give you the liberation in the silent One

also as well as the realisation of the dynamic One, and from that it is easier

to arrive at the Truth in which both are one and inseparable. At the same time,

the gulf created by mind between the Supreme and His manifestation is bridged,

and there is no longer a fissure in the truth which makes all incomprehensible.

If in the light of this you examine what your Guru taught, you will see that it

is the same thing in less metaphysical language.

 

As for Adesh, people speak of Adesh without making the necessary distinctions,

but these distinctions have to be made. The Divine speaks to us in many ways and

it is not always the imperative Adesh that comes. When it does, it is clear and

irresistible, the mind has to obey and there is no question possible, even if

what comes is contrary to the preconceived ideas of the mental intelligence. It

was such an Adesh that I had when I came away to Pondicherry. But more often

what is said is an intimation or even less, a mere indication, which the mind

may not follow because it is not impressed with its imperative necessity. It is

something offered but not imposed, perhaps something not even offered but only

suggested from the Truth above.

 

 

******************

 

 

I don't know that I can help you very much with an answer to your friend's

questions. I can only state my own position with regard to these matters.

 

 

 

1. Shankara's Explanation of the Universe

 

 

 

It is rather difficult to say nowadays what really was Shankara's philosophy:

there are numberless exponents and none of them agrees with any of the others. I

have read accounts given by some scores of his exegetes and each followed his

own line. We are even told by some that he was no Mayavadin at all, although he

has always been famed as the greatest exponent of the theory of Maya, but

rather, the greatest Realist in philosophical history. One eminent follower of

Shankara even declared that my philosophy and Shankara's were identical, a

statement which rather took my breath away. One used to think that Shankara's

philosophy was this that the Supreme Reality is a spaceless and timeless

Absolute (Parabrahman) which is beyond all feature or quality, beyond all action

or creation, and that the world is a creation of Maya, not absolutely unreal,

but real only in time and while one lives in time; once we get into a knowledge

of the Reality, we perceive that Maya and the world and all in it have no

abiding or true existence. It is, if not non-existent, yet false, jaganmithya;

it is a mistake of the consciousness, it is and it is not; it is an irrational

and inexplicable mystery in its origin, though we can see its process or at

least how it keeps itself imposed on the consciousness. Brahman is seen in Maya

as Ishwara upholding the works of Maya and the apparently individual soul is

really nothing but Brahman itself. In the end, however, all this seems to be a

myth of Maya, mithy\=a, and not anything really true. If that is Shankara's

philosophy, it is to me unacceptable and incredible, however brilliantly

ingenious it may be and however boldly and incisively reasoned; it does not

satisfy my reason and it does not agree with my experience. I don't know exactly

what is meant by this yuktiv\=ada. If it is meant that it is merely for the sake

of arguing down opponents, then this part of the philosophy has no fundamental

validity; Shankara's theory destroys itself. Either he meant it as a sufficient

explanation of the universe or he did not. If he did, it is no use dismissing it

as Yuktivada. I can understand that thorough-going Mayavadin's declaration that

the whole question is illegitimate, because Maya and the world do not really

exist; in fact, the problem how the world came to existence is only a part of

Maya, is like Maya unreal and does not truly arise; but if an explanation is to

be given, it must be a real, valid and satisfying explanation. If there are two

planes and in putting the question we are confusing the two planes, that

argument can only be of value if both planes have some kind of existence and the

reasoning and explanation are true in the lower plane but cease to have any

meaning for a consciousness which has passed out of it.

 

 

 

2. Adwaita

 

 

 

People are apt to speak of the Adwaita as if it were identical with Mayavada

monism, just as they speak of Vedanta as if it were identical with Adwaita only;

that is not the case. There are several forms of Indian philosophy which base

themselves upon the One Reality, but they admit also the reality of the world,

the reality of the Many, the reality of the differences of the Many as well as

the sameness of the One (bhedabheda). But the Many exist in the One and by the

One, the differences are variations in manifestation of that which is

fundamentally ever the same. This we actually see as the universal law of

existence where oneness is always the basis with an endless multiplicity and

difference in the oneness; as, for instance, there is one mankind but many kinds

of man, one thing called leaf or flower but many forms, patterns, colours of

leaf and flower. Through this we can look back into one of the fundamental

secrets of existence, the secret which is contained in the one Reality itself.

The oneness of the Infinite is not something limited, fettered to its unity; it

is capable of an infinite multiplicity. The Supreme Reality is an Absolute not

limited by either oneness or multiplicity but simultaneously capable of both;

for both are its aspects, although the oneness is fundamental and the

multiplicity depends upon the oneness. There is possible a realistic as well as

an illusionist Adwaita. The philosophy of The Life Divine is such a realistic

Adwaita. The world is a manifestation of the Real and therefore is itself real.

The reality is the infinite and eternal Divine, infinite and eternal Being,

Consciousness-Force and Bliss. This Divine by his power has created the world or

rather manifested it in his own infinite Being. But here in the material world

or at its basis he has hidden himself in what seem to be his opposites,

Non-Being, Inconscience and Insentience. This is what we nowadays call the

Inconscient which seems to have created the material universe by its inconscient

Energy, but this is only an appearance, for we find in the end that all the

dispositions of the world can only have been arranged by the working of a

supreme secret Intelligence. The Being which is hidden in what seems to be an

inconscient void emerges in the world first in Matter, then in Life, then in

Mind and finally as the Spirit. The apparently inconscient Energy which creates

is in fact the Consciousness-Force of the Divine and its aspect of

consciousness, secret in Matter, begins to emerge in Life, finds something more

of itself in Mind and finds its true self in a spiritual consciousness and

finally a supramental Consciousness through which we become aware of the

Reality, enter into it and unite ourselves with it. This is what we call

evolution which is an evolution of Consciousness and an evolution of the Spirit

in things and only outwardly an evolution of species. Thus also, the delight of

existence emerges from the original insentience, first in the contrary forms of

pleasure and pain, and then has to find itself in the bliss of the Spirit or, as

it is called in the Upanishads, the bliss of the Brahman. That is the central

idea in the explanation of the universe put forward in The Life Divine.

 

 

 

3. Nirguna and Saguna

 

 

 

In a realistic Adwaita there is no need to regard the Saguna as a creation from

the Nirguna or even secondary or subordinate to it: both are equal aspects of

the one Reality, its position of silent status and rest and its position of

action and dynamic force; a silence of eternal rest and peace supports an

eternal action and movement. The one Reality, the Divine Being, is bound by

neither, since it is in no way limited; it possesses both. There is no

incompatibility between the two, as there is none between the Many and the One,

the sameness and the difference. They are all eternal aspects of the universe

which could not exist if either of them were eliminated, and it is reasonable to

suppose that they both came from the Reality which has manifested the universe

and are both real. We can only get rid of the apparent contradiction which is

not really a contradiction but only a natural concomitance by treating one or

the other as an illusion. But it is hardly reasonable to suppose that the

eternal Reality allows the existence of an eternal illusion with which it has

nothing to do or that it supports and enforces on being a vain cosmic illusion

and has no power for any other and real action. The force of the Divine is

always there in silence as in action, inactive in silence, active in the

manifestation. It is hardly possible to suppose that the Divine Reality has no

power or force or that its only power is to create a universal falsehood, a

cosmic lie, a mithya.

 

 

 

4. Compounds and Disintegration

 

 

 

No doubt, all compounds, being not integral things in themselves but

integrations, can disintegrate. Also it is true of life, though not a physical

compound, that it has a curve of birth or integration and, after it reaches a

certain point, of disintegration, decay and death. But these ideas or this rule

of existence cannot be safely applied to things in themselves. The soul is not a

compound but an integer, a thing in itself; it does not disintegrate, but at

most enters into manifestation and goes out of manifestation. That is true even

of forms other than constructed physical or constructed life-forms; they do not

disintegrate but appear and disappear or at most fade out of manifestation. Mind

itself as opposed to particular thoughts is something essential and permanent;

it is a power of the Divine Consciousness. So is life, as opposed to constructed

living bodies; so I think is what we call material energy which is really the

force of essential substance in motion, a power of the Spirit. Thoughts, lives,

material objects are formations of these energies, constructed or simply

manifested according to the habit of the play of the particular energy. As for

the elements, what is the pure natural condition of an element? According to

modern Science, what used to be called elements turn out to be compounds and the

pure natural condition, if any, must be a condition of pure energy; it is that

pure condition into which compounds including what we call elements must go when

they pass by disintegration into Nirvana.

 

 

 

5. Nirvana

 

 

 

What then is Nirvana? In orthodox Buddhism it does mean a disintegration, not of

the soulfor that does not existbut of a mental compound or stream of

associations or sa\.msk\=aras which we mistake for ourself. In illusionist

Vedanta it means, not a disintegration but a disappearance of a false and unreal

individual self into the one real Self or Brahman; it is the idea and experience

of individuality that so disappears and ceases,we may say a false light that is

extinguished (nirvana) in the true Light. In spiritual experience it is

sometimes the loss of all sense of individuality in a boundless cosmic

consciousness; what was the individual remains only as a centre or a channel for

the flow of a cosmic consciousness and a cosmic force and action. Or it may be

the experience of the loss of individuality in a transcendent being and

consciousness in which the sense of cosmos as well as the individual disappears.

Or again, it may be in a transcendence which is aware of and supports the cosmic

action. But what do we mean by the individual? What we usually call by that name

is a natural ego, a device of Nature which holds together her action in the mind

and body. This ego has to be extinguished, otherwise there is no complete

liberation possible; but the individual self or soul is not this ego. The

individual soul is the spiritual being which is sometimes described as an

eternal portion of the Divine, but can also be described as the Divine himself

supporting his manifestation as the Many. This is the true spiritual individual

which appears in its complete truth when we get rid of the ego and our false

separative sense of individuality, realise our oneness with the transcendent and

cosmic Divine and with all beings. It is this which makes possible the Divine

Life. Nirvana is a step towards it; the disappearance of the false separative

individuality is a necessary condition for our realising and living in our true

eternal being, living divinely in the Divine. But this we can do in the world

and in life.

 

 

 

6. Rebirth

 

 

 

If evolution is a truth and is not only a physical evolution of species, but an

evolution of consciousness, it must be a spiritual and not only a physical fact.

In that case, it is the individual who evolves and grows into a more and more

developed and perfect consciousness and obviously that cannot be done in the

course of a brief single human life. If there is the evolution of a conscious

individual, then there must be rebirth. Rebirth is a logical necessity and a

spiritual fact of which we can have the experience. Proofs of rebirth, sometimes

of an overwhelmingly convincing nature, are not lacking, but as yet they have

not been carefully registered and brought together.

 

 

 

7. Evolution

 

 

 

In my explanation of the universe I have put forward this cardinal fact of a

spiritual evolution as the meaning of our existence here. It is a series of

ascents from the physical being and consciousness to the vital, the being

dominated by the life-self, thence to the mental being realised in the fully

developed man and thence into the perfect consciousness which is beyond the

mental, into the supramental Consciousness and the supramental being, the

Truth-Consciousness which is the integral consciousness of the spiritual being.

Mind cannot be our last conscious expression because mind is fundamentally an

ignorance seeking for knowledge; it is only the supramental Truth-Consciousness

that can bring us the true and whole Self-Knowledge and world-Knowledge; it is

through that only that we can get to our true being and the fulfilment of our

spiritual evolution.

 

 

 

With Regards

Hersh