Study Notes
PARAGRAPH 20 Contd..,
At the stage when from the mental it has to move towards its supramental status, one most liberatingly helpful, if not indispensable experience that may intervene is the entry into a total Nirvana of mentality and mental ego, a passage into the silence of the Spirit. In any case, a realisation of the pure Self must always precede the transition to that mediating eminence of the consciousness from which a clear vision of the ascending and descending stairs of manifested existence is commanded and the possession of the free power of ascent and descent becomes a spiritual prerogative.
EXPLANATION
The consciousness reaches the stage when it has to move from the mental to supramental status. Here one gets a most liberatingly helpful spiritual experience though not an indispensable one. That is, the entry into a total Nirvana of mentality and mental ego. He gets liberation from the mind and its ego. He passes into the silence of the Spirit.
This is the realisation of the pure Self. This is the necessary first step. From here on, one moves to that mediating eminence (prominence) of the consciousness. This mediating consciousness is the supramental. It mediates between the higher ranges of spiritual Mind and the Sat-chit-ananda.
From the supramental plane we can command a view of the ascending and descending stairs of manifested existence. We know that there is a descending involution and an ascending evolution of consciousness in the manifested universe. If one dwells in the supramental plane he gains the spiritual advantage of possessing the free power of ascent and descent.
An independent completeness of identity with each of the primal aspects and powers—not narrowing as in the mind into a sole engrossing experience seeming to be final and integral, for that would be incompatible with the realisation of the unity of all aspects and powers of existence —is a capacity inherent in consciousness in the Infinite; that indeed is the base and justification of the overmind cognition and its will to carry each aspect, each power, each possibility to its independent fullness.
EXPLANATION
We are aware that there are primal aspects and powers of Sat-chit-ananda. The Infinite has an inherent capacity in its consciousness for an independent completeness of identity with each of the primal aspects and powers. It is not a narrowing identity as in the mind into a sole engrossing experience.
Mind has an exclusive identification with each aspect and power of the Divine, that alone seeming to be final and integral. Such an exclusive experience of the mind would be incompatible with the realisation of the unity of all aspects and powers of existence.
This completeness of identity with the primal aspects and powers is the base and justification of the overmind awareness and its will to carry each aspect to its independent fullness.
But the Supermind keeps always and in every status or condition the spiritual realisation of the Unity of all; the intimate presence of that unity is there even within the completest grasp of each thing, each state given its whole delight of itself, power and value: there is thus no losing sight of the affirmative aspects even when there is the full acceptance of the truth of the negative.
EXPLANATION
The Supermind maintains the spiritual realisation of Unity of all in every status or condition. It has the completest grasp of each thing and yet even within it the intimate presence of that unity is there. Each state is given its whole delight of itself, power and value.
In the Supermind there is the full acceptance of the truth of the negative – the silent, immutable, static, featureless Brahman. At the same time there is no losing sight of the affirmative aspects of the Divine.
The Overmind keeps still the sense of this underlying Unity; that is for it the secure base of the independent experience. In Mind the knowledge of the unity of all aspects is lost on the surface, the consciousness is plunged into engrossing, exclusive separate affirmations; but there too, even in the Mind’s ignorance, the total reality still remains behind the exclusive absorption and can be recovered in the form of a profound mental intuition or else in the idea or sentiment of an underlying truth of integral oneness; in the spiritual mind this can develop into an ever-present experience.
EXPLANATION
In Overmind this sense of underlying unity forms the secure base of the independent experience. In Mind the knowledge of the unity of all aspects is lost on the surface. The mental consciousness is plunged into engrossing and separate affirmations. Even in the Mind’s ignorance, the total reality still remains behind the exclusive absorption.
Even in a state of mental consciousness, one can recover the unity in the form of a profound mental intuition or in the idea of an underlying truth of integral oneness. In the higher ranges of Mind above the ordinary mind (spiritual mind) the truth of integral oneness can develop into an ever-present experience.
( A few points in this exposition bear repetition by way of recapitulation. In the supermind the unity of all is always intimately present whatever the number that proceed from the One. In the overmind that unity is underlying, not intimately present. In the mind the unity is not on the surface. The unity can never be lost entirely. It is only the surface that the unity is lost – Shri M.P.Pandit, Talks on the Life Divine, Dipti Publications, p. 10)