Study Notes
He am I.
(Isha Upanishad. Verse 16)
THE DIVINE PURUSHA
When the ardent seeker who quests after the abiding Reality pierces through all the maze of forms and movements…. he perceives an existence that is impersonal, featureless in character. Something that is immutable and eternal. All forms and movements appear illusory. But that is not the ultimate Truth.
Higher above the world of forms, supporting all movements on its stability is the Divine Purusha of whom personal and impersonal, the mutable and immutable are two aspects. He presides over All, the manifest and the unmanifest. He is not all above. He is present here in every form, every creation. The seeker realises in a moment of truth that this Purusha is not other than what he himself is. The Individual Divine and the Transcendent Divine are identical in essence. He cries out: HE AM I. He realises that he, the real individual, is also He who is eternal. He is forever.
It is an eternal portion of Me that has become the living being in a world of living beings. . . . The eye of knowledge sees the Lord abiding in the body and enjoying and going forth from it.
(Gita.2 XV. 7,10)
INDWELLER
The Jiva, the soul is not a product of the body or of the life-force or of the mind. It is in fact a direct emanation from the Divine Being that stations itself in each body-life-mind complex and uses the living body for its own experience and growth. ..It is described as a portion, amsha, of the Divine but that does not mean it is a piece cut off from the Divine. ..Each Jiva, soul is essentially the whole Divine. He enters a body at his own choice, lives in it and withdraws from it when it has no more use for his purpose and takes up another body for another experience.
It is only the eye of knowledge, the inner eye, that beholds this subtle phenomenon of the Eternal inhabiting a perishable form, the Immortal using a mortal embodiment for enjoying the rasa, the sap of delight in world-existence. …
Two birds beautiful of wing, friends and comrades, cling to a common tree, and one eats the sweet fruit, the other regards him and eats not. . . . Where winged souls cry the discoveries of knowledge over their portion of immortality, there the Lord of all, the Guardian of the World took possession of me, he the Wise, me the ignorant.
(Rig Veda, 10.164.20,21)
TWO BIRDS
Two are selves of man that are seated on the tree of life. Of these the lower one is involved in the activities of Nature and enjoys or suffers the fruits thereof. The other self, seated high above, watches all but does not participate in the movements of Nature. It is the higher self aloof from Nature, but overseeing the doings of the lower self, helping it by its very regard. The lower self goes on lost in its absorption in the works of Nature, tossed between pleasure and pain, till at some stage it turns its gaze upward and sees the self above who is none other than its own companion. When it sees the other one watching it , it realises the truth of its being and sorrow passes away from it.
It is above Nature where knowledge of the Truth reigns supreme, without deformation, without deflection, that the blessed ones who have soared on the wings of their aspiration behold the immortal nature of their soul. There the Masters of all, the Guardian of the World, takes up the human soul and lifts it out of the ignorance of its nature and admits it into his innate Wisdom.
(Source: Shri M.P.Pandit: Legends in The Life Divine, p.109, Dipti Publications)
(The symbolic companionship of Arjuna and Krishna, the human and the divine soul, is expressed elsewhere in Indian thought, in the heavenward journey of Indra and Kutsa seated in one chariot, in the figure of the two birds upon one tree in the Upanishad, in the twin figures of Nara and Narayana, the seers who do tapasya together for the knowledge- Essays on Gita, Ch II- The Divine Teacher, p. 19)
PARAGRAPH 1
THERE is then a fundamental truth of existence, an Omnipresent Reality, omnipresent above the cosmic manifestation and in it and immanent in each individual. There is also a dynamic power of this Omnipresence, a creative or self-manifesting action of its infinite Consciousness-Force. There is as a phase or movement of the self-manifestation a descent into an apparent material inconscience, an awakening of the individual out of the Inconscience and an evolution of his being into the spiritual and supramental consciousness and power of the Reality, into his own universal and transcendent Self and source of existence.
EXPLANATION
We have conceived an Omnipresent Reality as a fundamental truth of existence. This Reality is omnipresent above the cosmos as well as present in it. It is present in each individual.
There is a dynamic power of this Omnipresence. It is a creative or self-manifesting action of its infinite Consciousness-Force. There is a phase of the self-manifestation in which there is a descent into an apparent material inconscience. It is followed by an awakening of the individual out of the inconscience. There is an evolution of the individual being into the spiritual and supramental consciousness and power of the Reality. He further evolves into his own universal and transcendent Self and source of existence.
It is on this foundation that we have to base our conception of a truth in our terrestrial being and the possibility of a divine Life in material Nature. There our chief need is to discover the origin and nature of the Ignorance which we see emerging out of the inconscience of matter or disclosing itself within a body of matter and the nature of the Knowledge that has to replace it, to understand too the process of Nature’s self-unfolding and the soul’s recovery. For in fact the Knowledge is there concealed in the Ignorance itself; it has rather to be unveiled than acquired: it reveals itself rather than is learned, by an inward and upward self-unfolding.
EXPLANATION
We can conceive of a truth in our terrestrial being that the goal of our earthly existence is to realise the Divine. The conception of such a truth and the possibility of divine Life upon earth can only be founded upon the facts stated above.
We have seen that there is an emergence of consciousness from the apparent inconscience. But what we come across is the Ignorance that emerges from the inconscience of matter. There is Ignorance within the body of matter. It has to be replaced by Knowledge.
Sri Aurobindo says our chief need is to find out the origin of this Ignorance and the nature of the Knowledge that has to replace it. We must also understand the process of Nature’s self-unfolding ( that is, Nature which is apparently inconscient slowly revealing the hidden consciousness within in the process of evolution) and the recovery of the soul which is hidden by Nature.
Are we to seek such a Knowledge from outside? Sri Aurobindo says the Knowledge is there, concealed in Ignorance itself. The Knowledge has to unveil itself instead of being acquired. The Knowledge reveals itself by an inward (from within)and upward (from above) self-unfolding rather than being learned.
But first it will be convenient to meet and get out of the way one difficulty that inevitably arises, the difficulty of admitting that, even given the immanence of the Divine in us, even given our individual consciousness as a vehicle of progressive evolutionary manifestation, the individual is in any sense eternal or that there can be any persistence of individuality after liberation has been attained by unity and self-knowledge.
EXPLANATION
We know that there is Divine living within each individual. We also know that our individual consciousness is a vehicle of progressive evolutionary manifestation. Yet we have difficulty in admitting the fact that the individual is in any sense eternal. Nor can we accept the fact that individuality can persist even after an individual attains liberation by unity with the Divine and self-knowledge (that he manifests the Divine).
Sri Aurobindo says first it will be convenient to meet and get out of the way this difficulty.
PARAGRAPH 2
This is a difficulty of the logical reason and must be met by a larger and more catholic enlightening reason. Or if it is a difficulty of spiritual experience, it can only be met by a wider resolving experience. It can indeed be met also by a dialectical battle, a logomachy of the logical mind; but that by itself is an artificial method, often a futile combat in the clouds and always inconclusive.
EXPLANATION
Sri Aurobindo says this difficulty arises on account of our logical reasoning. It should be met by a larger and more catholic (all-encompassing) enlightening reason. If it is a difficulty arising out of a spiritual experience it can be resolved by a wider spiritual experience.
This difficulty can also be met by a logical discussion, by the war of words by the logical mind. But it is an artificial method which always proves to be inconclusive.
Logical reasoning is useful and indispensable in its own field in order to give the mind a certain clearness, precision and subtlety in dealing with its own ideas and word-symbols, so that our perception of the truths which we arrive at by observation and experience or which physically, psychologically or spiritually we have seen, may be as little as possible obscured by the confusions of our average human intelligence, its proneness to take appearance for fact, its haste to be misled by partial truth, its exaggerated conclusions, its intellectual and emotional partialities, its incompetent bunglings in that linking of truth to truth by which alone we can arrive at a complete knowledge.
EXPLANATION
Sri Aurobindo describes here the nature of perception of the truths by the human mind. We arrive at truths by our observation and experience. Or we see some truths physically, psychologically or spiritually.
Normally such truths are obscured by the confusions of our average human intelligence. Our mind is always prone to take appearance for fact. In its haste it is misled by partial truth. Its conclusions are always exaggerated. Our mind is subject to intellectual and emotional partialities. It mistakes the partial truth for the whole and therefore it lacks wholistic knowledge.
But our logical reasoning is useful in order to give our mind a certain clearness, precision and subtlety in dealing with its own ideas and word- symbols.