Study Notes
PARAGRAPH 13
But what will be the conditions in which and by which this nature of the life of the divine soul will realise itself? All experience in relation proceeds through certain forces of being formulating themselves by an instrumentation to which we give the name of properties, qualities, activities, faculties. As, for instance, Mind throws itself into various forms of mind-power, such as judgment, observation, memory, sympathy, proper to its own being, so must the Truth-consciousness or Supermind effect the relations of soul with soul by forces, faculties, functionings proper to supramental being; otherwise there would be no play of differentiation.
EXPLANATION
The divine soul has to realise itself for its play in the universe. What are conditions by which it will realise itself? What we call properties, qualities, activities and faculties are the instrumentation by which certain forces of being formulate themselves. Through them all experience in relation proceeds.
For example, mind externalise itself into various forms of mind-power such as judgement, observation, memory, sympathy proper to its own being. Likewise, Supermind effect the relations of soul with soul by forces, faculties, functionings proper to supramental being. Otherwise there would be no play of differentiation. Only by differentiation One becomes Many.
What these functionings are, we shall see when we come to consider the psychological conditions of the divine Life; at present we are only considering its metaphysical foundations, its essential nature and principles. Suffice it at present to observe that the absence or abolition of separatist egoism and of effective division in consciousness is the one essential condition of the divine Life, and therefore their presence in us is that which constitutes our mortality and our fall from the Divine. This is our “original sin”, or rather let us say in a more philosophical language, the deviation from the Truth and Right of the Spirit, from its oneness, integrality and harmony that was the necessary condition for the great plunge into the Ignorance which is the soul’s adventure in the world and from which was born our suffering and aspiring humanity.
EXPLANATION
We can see the functionings proper to supramental being when we consider the psychological conditions of the divine life. Presently we deal with its metaphysical (principles which are beyond the physical) foundations, its essential nature and principles.
What is the essential condition of divine Life? It is the absence of separate egoism and of division in consciousness. The presence of ego and our divisive mentality constitute our mortality and our fall from the Divine consciousness.
This is our “original sin” (Biblical term – Adam and Eve committed when they ate the forbidden apple from the Garden of Eden). It means deviation from the Truth and Right of the Spirit; from its oneness, integrality and harmony. By such deviation the soul took a great plunge into the Ignorance. It is the soul’s adventure in the world. Suffering and our aspiring humanity was born out of this.
(… It seemed amid a heavy cosmic rest,
The torpor of a sick and weary world,
To seek for a spirit sole and desolate
Too fallen to recollect forgotten bliss.
Intervening in a mindless universe,
Its message crept through the reluctant hush
Calling the adventure of consciousness and joy…
Savitri: Book I: Canto I: 2:61-67)
SYNOPSIS
- The concept of Supermind gives a firm basis of philosophical reasoning and precision to the ideas relating divine life. It justifies our hope and aspiration by the very nature of the world, of our own cosmic past and the inevitable future evolution.
- The world has come out of the Divine Reality. It must inevitably return to the Divine. How we must change to bring divinity in our nature and in our life? We must shift our focus from the Divine in its descent into our limited nature to the Divine in its ascent out of our limited nature to its own proper divinity.
- This difference of movement (from descent to the ascent) involves a difference between the life of gods and the life of man. The gods have never experienced the fall but man has plunged into the life of ignorance. In his recovery from fall to rise he carries within him the riches of his experience accumulated from his acceptance of the descent (fall).
- The divine soul has not descended into the ignorance by the fall of Spirit into Matter. In its consciousness it lives in the original Truth of things in inalienable unity like the Divine Existence itself. But by the play of Divine Maya, by the distinction of the comprehending and apprehending Truth-consciousness it enjoys both difference and unity with God. It embraces both difference and oneness with other divine souls.
- The divine soul would be self-contained in the conscious play of Sachchidananda. In its being it would be a pure and infinite self-existence. In its becoming it would be a free play of immortal life. It would not be involved in the darkness of our material being nor clouded by ignorance nor would it be subject to death and birth. It enjoys pure bliss unaffected by desire and ego.
- In its consciousness it is a part of the infinite truth. It would not be limited by any poise it assumes in its relations with others. When it accepts a purely phenomenal individuality there would be no loss of self-knowledge. So is the case when it accepts the play of practical differentiation in multiplicity. In its self-experience it would live eternally in the presence of the Absolute.
- It would be aware of its immutable existence as the original self-form (svarupa) of that Transcendent – Sachchidananda. It would be aware of its play of conscious being as manifestation of That in forms of Sachchidananda.
- The presence of the Absolute would be the very foundation of its being both in unity and the differentiation. It would be present both in its timeless self and in all moments of Time and in its spaceless being and in its extension in space. It would be present both in its relationless state beyond all cause and circumstance and in its relations to circumstance, condition and causality.
- The Divine soul would live simultaneously in the One (self-concentration) and the Many (self-extension), the two terms of the eternal Sachchidananda. Since our human mentality is divided we find the incompatibility between the One and the Many. But the divine soul would not be bound by this duality.
- The divine soul in its view of things is the mould of the Truth-Consciousness. It is in the awareness of the consciousness of the One and the Many at the same time, as One holding the innumerable multiplicity in itself and the multiplicity as the extended consciousness of the One. The real Adwaita is the unity of the opposing terms of the One and the Many.
- The divine soul will be aware of all variation of being, consciousness, will and delight (Sachchidananda) as the extension of that self-concentrated unity, developing itself not into division but into an extended form of infinite oneness.
- The divine Soul would consider all variations as extensions of the One, the Absolute. Everything that is contained potentially in the Absolute manifests itself – the Word from the nameless Silence, the Form realises the formless essence, the active Will from the tranquil Force, self-awareness emerges in time from timeless self-awareness, and the eternally self-conscious Being in its becoming takes the shape of self-conscious existence and the joy and love spring from the eternal still Delight.
- We regard the three poises as three grades of Supermind based on our mental perception. But the divine soul will be aware of them as the triune (three-in-one) fact of the self-manifestation of Sachchidananda. Vast comprehensiveness (brihat) is the foundation of Truth-Consciousness. Therefore, the divine soul would embrace these three poises in one and the same comprehensive self-realisation simultaneously.
- The divine soul perceives all existences as soul-forms of the One. It sees its own relations with all other existences as conscious forms of Him in His own infinity. It sees all the individual existences as the individual Divine; in each the One and Supreme dwelling. It does not see each as an illusory part of the whole but as a whole in the whole, a truth that repeats the infinite Truth.
- The three statuses of Supermind are the three aspects of the one Existence. The first status is based on the self-knowledge- the Self becoming all existences, as described by the Upanishads – basis of our oneness with all – the second is based on seeing all existences in the Self -basis of our oneness in difference. The third status is based on the Self inhabiting all – basis of our individuality in the universal.
- It is the defect of our mentality which compels us to focus on any one of these aspects of self-knowledge to the exclusion of others. The essential character of the supermind is a comprehending oneness and infinite totality.
- Assuming the divine soul taking its centre in the consciousness of the individual Divine, living and acting in distinct relation with the “others” yet the foundation of its consciousness will be based on unity. Even in individuality it would be capable of returning to unity.
- Veda describes all the gods taking these different poises. Gods are called by sages in different names though they are one existence. Their action is founded in and proceeding from large Truth and Right Agni. He is the One that becomes all Gods.
- Comprehensive self-knowledge will be the basis of all relations of the divine soul with God or its supreme Self and with other selves in other forms. These relations will be relations of Existence, Consciousness, Knowledge, will and force and love and delight – all aspects of Sachchidananda. Such a relation will have the nature of preserving the inalienable sense of unity in spite of the apparent difference.
- The divine soul will be aware of its own experiences and of the experiences of others and their relations with itself as the Ananda of One. This One is the supreme Self, its own self differentiated by its separate dwelling in all these forms. Here unity is the basis of all its experience.
- In its relations with others in its aspects of being, knowledge and will it is guided by the rule of unity – will cannot be in conflict with knowledge nor the will nor the knowledge can be in conflict with delight. Knowledge, will and delight of one soul will not be in conflict with that of another soul. The divine soul in its relations with its supreme Self will have the sense of oneness of the transcendent as well as the universal Divine with its own being.
- In its relations of knowledge, will, love and delight it will be the play of the divine omniscience, divine omnipotence and divine ecstasy. For the divine soul, ignorance would be holding back of knowledge to bring forth Light, weakness would be holding back in concentrated force to bring forth divine conscious power and denial of delight would be holding back of joy to bring forth waves of Bliss and death would be rest and transition holding back of the joyous creative Maya in the eternal being of Sachchidananda.
- The oneness of the divine soul with its other selves in the universality will not prevent its relations with God – its supreme Self. Separating itself from unity it enjoys that unity in difference.
- As mind uses judgement, observation, memory, sympathy proper to its own being, Supermind would effect the relations of soul with soul by forces, faculties, functionings proper to supramental being. Otherwise, there would be no play of differentiation.
- The essential condition of divine Life is the absence of separate egoism and of division in consciousness. The presence of ego and our divisive mentality constitute our mortality and our fall from the Divine consciousness. By our “original sin” we deviated from oneness, integrality and harmony and our soul plunged into Ignorance. It is the soul’s adventure in the world. Suffering and our aspiring humanity was born out of this.