Book – II Chapter – II : Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara — Maya, Prakriti, Shakti – Para 34

Study Notes

PARAGRAPH 34

     One problem still remains to be solved, and it can be solved on the same basis; it is the problem of the opposition between the Non-Manifest and the manifestation. For it might be said that all that has been advanced hitherto may be true of the manifestation, but the manifestation is a reality of an inferior order, a partial movement derived from the Non-Manifest Reality and, when we enter into that which is supremely Real, these truths of the universe cease to have any validity.

EXPLANATION

     The Divine Reality has two statuses: one is Non-Manifest and the other is the manifestation. The problem of the opposition between the Non-Manifest and the manifestation remains unsolved.
     One may say that whatever we have so far stated regarding the various aspects of the Divine Reality may be true of the manifestation; but what is manifested is a reality of an inferior order; it is a partial movement derived from the Non-Manifest Reality; when we enter into the supreme Reality these truths of the universe cease to be valid. There is a tendency to disregard the manifested world inferior and the Unmanifest Divine superior. Is there any truth behind such a view?

The Non-Manifest is the timeless, the utterly eternal, an irreducible absolute self-existence to which the manifestation and its limitations can give no clue or only a clue that by its insufficiency is illusory and deceptive. This raises the problem of the relation of Time to the timeless Spirit; for we have supposed on the contrary that what is in unmanifestation in the Timeless Eternal is manifested in Time- Eternity. If that is so, if the temporal is an expression of the Eternal, then however different the conditions, however partial the expression, yet what is fundamental in the Time-expression must be in some way pre-existent in the Transcendence and drawn from the timeless Reality.

EXPLANATION

     How do we view the Divine Reality which is Non-Manifest? The Non-Manifest is the timeless, the utterly eternal, an irreducible absolute self-existence. The manifestation and its limitations can give no clue to the Non-Manifest. We live in this physical world which is the manifestation of the Divine and yet we get no idea as to what the Divine really is. If at all we get any clue that too is illusory and deceptive because of its insufficiency.
     Here we come across the problem of relation of Time (the manifested world in Time) to the Timeless (Non-Manifest) Spirit. We have already assumed that what is in unmanifest state in the Timeless Eternal (because the Unmanifest is Timeless and Eternal) is manifested in Time-Eternity.

(A Supramental Truth-consciousness is at once the self-awareness of the Infinite and Eternal and a power of self-determination inherent in that self-awareness; the first is its foundation and status, the second is its power of being, the dynamis of its self-existence. All that a timeless eternity of self-awareness sees in itself as truth of being, the conscious power of its being manifests in Time-eternity -Book II, Chapter I – Indeterminates and Cosmic Determination, p. 327)

     If the Timeless Eternal expressess in Time, then however different may be the conditions, however partial the expression, what is fundamentally expressed in Time must be the same as what existed before in Timeless Eternal i.e.in Transcendence. In other words what is expressed in Time in this manifested world cannot be fundamentally different from what was in Unmanifest Timeless Eternity.

For if not, these fundamentals must come into it direct from an Absolute which is other than Time or Timelessness, and the Timeless Spirit must be a supreme spiritual negation, an indeterminable basing the Absolute’s freedom from limitation by what is formulated in Time,—it must be the negative to the Time positive, in the same relation to it as the Nirguna to the Saguna.

EXPLANATION

     We may suppose that what is manifested in Time is different from what was unmanifest in Timeless. Then the conclusion would be that, what is fundamentally present in manifested Time should come into it direct from an Absolute which is other than Time or Timelessness.
     Then, the Timeless Spirit must be a supreme spiritual negation; it must be an indeterminable basing the Absolute’s freedom from limitation by things formulated in Time. It must be something that negates what is expressed in Time (Time positive) like Nirguna negating the Saguna.
     Therefore, what is expressed in Time cannot be different from the Timeless Reality.

But, in fact, what we mean by the Timeless is a spiritual status of existence not subject to the time movement or to the successive or the relative time-experience of a past, present and future. The timeless Spirit is not necessarily a blank; it may hold all in itself, but in essence, without reference to time or form or relation or circumstance, perhaps in an eternal unity. Eternity is the common term between Time and the Timeless Spirit.

EXPLANATION

     Here Sri Aurobindo clarifies that the Timeless is a spiritual status of existence. It is not subject to the time movement or the relative time-experience of a past, present and future. The timeless Spirit is not a blank. It may hold all in itself, but in essence. In that state there is no reference to time or form or relation or circumstance. It is a state in an eternal unity. Eternity is the common term between Time and the Timeless Spirit. Because even when it is subjected to Time there is an eternal recurrence i.e. Time-Eternity. The quality of Eternity is not lost whether in Timeless state or in Time.

What is in the Timeless unmanifested, implied, essential, appears in Time in movement, or at least in design and relation, in result and circumstance. These two then are the same Eternity or the same Eternal in a double status; they are a twofold status of being and consciousness, one an eternity of immobile status, the other an eternity of motion in status.

EXPLANATION

     Timeless and Time are the same Eternity or the same Eternal in a double status. Both in Time and Timeless it is the Eternal that exists. They are a twofold status of being and consciousness; one is a status of eternal immobility; the other is a status of eternal motion.
     That which is unmanifested, implied, essential in the Timeless appears in Time in movement. It appears at least in design and relation, in result and circumstance.