Study Notes
PARAGRAPH 4
But in the end we have to see that our individualisation is only a superficial formation, a practical selection and limited conscious synthesis for the temporary utility of life in a particular body, or else it is a constantly changing and developing synthesis pursued through successive lives in successive bodies. Behind it there is a consciousness, a Purusha, who is not determined or limited by his individualisation or by this synthesis but on the contrary determines, supports and yet exceeds it. That which he selects from in order to construct this synthesis, is his total experience of the world-being.
EXPLANATION
What we call our individuality is only a superficial formation. It is a selection made for practical purposes. It is a limited conscious synthesis (combination of physical, mental and vital elements) made for the temporary utility of life in a particular body. Or it is a constantly changing and developing synthesis continued through successive lives in successive bodies.
Behind this superficial formation there is a consciousness, a Purusha. The Purusha is not determined or limited by his individualisation or by this synthesis. On the contrary it determines, supports and yet exceeds it. In order to construct this synthesis he selects from his total experience of the world-being.
Therefore our individualisation exists by virtue of the world-being, but also by virtue of a consciousness which uses the world-being for experience of its possibilities of individuality. These two powers, Person and his world-material, are both necessary for our present experience of individuality.
EXPLANATION
Our individualisation exists by virtue of the world-being (We have seen that there is Purusha or Being at each level of existence – individual Purusha, world-being or cosmic Self or Transcendent Self). It exists also by virtue of a consciousness which uses the world-being for experience of its possibilities of individuality.
Therefore two powers, Person (the Purusha) and his world-material are both necessary for our present experience of individuality.
If the Purusha with his individualising synthesis of consciousness were to disappear, to merge, to annul himself in any way, our constructed individuality would cease because the Reality that supported it would no longer be in presence; if, on the other hand, the world-being were to dissolve, merge, disappear, then also our individualisation would cease, for the material of experience by which it effectuates itself would be wanting. We have then to recognise these two terms of our existence, a world-being and an individualising consciousness which is the cause of all our self-experience and world-experience.
EXPLANATION
It is the Purusha which individualises and synthesises consciousness. If the Purusha ceases to exist, then the constructed individuality would also cease to exist. Because the Purusha, the Reality that supported it would no longer be present.
On the other hand if the world-being were no longer there, then also the individualisation would cease. Because the material of experience by which the individualisation happens would be absent.
Therefore we must recognise two terms of our existence – a world-being and an individualising consciousness. The individualising consciousness is the cause of all our self-experience and world-experience.
PARAGRAPH 5
But we see farther that in the end this Purusha, this cause and self of our individuality, comes to embrace the whole world and all other beings in a sort of conscious extension of itself and to perceive itself as one with the world-being. In its conscious extension of itself it exceeds the primary experience and abolishes the barriers of its active self-limitation and individualisation; by its perception of its own infinite universality it goes beyond all consciousness of separative individuality or limited soul-being.
EXPLANATION
We have seen that it is the Purusha which individualises and synthesises consciousness. In the course of its spiritual journey, the Purusha, in the end comes to embrace the whole world and all other beings. In a sort of conscious extension of itself it perceives itself as one with the world-being.
In its conscious extension of itself it exceeds the primary experience of an individualised consciousness. The barriers of its active self-limitation and individualisation are removed. It perceives its own infinite universality. Thereby it goes beyond all consciousness of separative individuality or limited soul-being.
By that very fact the individual ceases to be the self-limiting ego; in other words, our false consciousness of existing only by self-limitation, by rigid distinction of ourselves from the rest of being and becoming is transcended; our identification of ourselves with our personal and temporal individualisation in a particular mind and body is abolished.
EXPLANATION
When the Purusha goes beyond all consciousness of separative individuality, the individual ceases to be the self-limiting ego. It is our false consciousness which gives us the impression that we exist only by self-limitation and that we are distinctly separate from others.
By extension of the individual consciousness this false consciousness is transcended (we go beyond it). Our identification with our time bound body, mind and life is abolished.
But is all truth of individuality and individualisation abolished? does the Purusha cease to exist or does he become the world-Purusha and live intimately in innumerable minds and bodies? We do not find it to be so. He still individualises and it is still he who exists and embraces this wider consciousness while he individualises: but the mind no longer thinks of a limited temporary individualisation as all ourselves but only as a wave of becoming thrown up from the sea of its being or else as a form or centre of universality.
EXPLANATION
Now we may ask the question, by abolishing our identification with our body, mind and life is all truth of individuality and individualisation abolished? Does the individual Purusha cease to exist? Or does he become the world-Purusha intimately one with innumerable minds and bodies?
We do not find it to be so. He still individualises. At the same time he embraces this wider consciousness. But here there is a difference: the mind no longer thinks of a limited temporary individualisation as all ourselves; it sees the individualisation only as a wave of becoming thrown up from the sea of its being; or it sees itself as a form or centre of universality.
The soul still makes the world-becoming the material for individual experience, but instead of regarding it as something outside and larger than itself on which it has to draw, by which it is affected, with which it has to make accommodations, it is aware of it subjectively as within itself; it embraces both its world-material and its individualised experience of spatial and temporal activities in a free and enlarged consciousness. In this new consciousness the spiritual individual perceives its true self to be one in being with the Transcendence and seated and dwelling within it, and no longer takes its constructed individuality as anything more than a formation for world-experience.
EXPLANATION
The soul still draws from the world material for individual experience. It does not regard such experience as something coming from outside. Nor does it see such experience larger than itself and affecting it. Hence It does not need to make accommodations with it.
The soul is aware of all such experience that it draws from outside subjectively as within itself. It embraces both its world-material and its individualised experience of its space and time-bound activities in a free and enlarged consciousness.
It is a new consciousness reached by the spiritual individual. It perceives its true self one in being with the Transcendence and seated and dwelling within it.
We have seen that our reason is accustomed to identify the individual self with the ego. We have also seen that the ego is nothing but a practical construction of our consciousness devised to centralise the activities of Nature in us.
The spiritual individual no longer takes its constructed individuality as anything more than a formation for world-experience.
(The ego, as we see, is a superficial formation. Behind the ego is the Purusha, the person, who draws upon the extensive world-material for his experience. This divine person, purusha, the projection of the Divine in individual evolution is there behind the external ego-formation. And this self is one with All at its own level of existence.
By no means can the ego widen itself to embrace the whole cosmos; it will only burst. It is only the inner self that can transcend this self-limitation of form and be co-extensive with and even more than the world.
Even when the individual self universalises itself, the individuality is not lost, because it is still the self which is universalising, it is still the individual who embraces. The individual retains his individuality, the individuality remains as a centre, a particular focussing point, bringing out a particular stress of consciousness of the Divine Reality – Shri M.P.Pandit: Talks on the Life Divine, p. 35)