Study Notes
The Seer, the Thinker, the Self-existent who becomes everywhere has ordered perfectly all things from years sempiternal.
Isha Upanishad.8
SELF-EXISTENT
This manifestation issues out of a Vision of the Supreme Being, the Seer who sees in his own being certain verities of his existence working out a pattern of harmony spelling his Glory multifariously. In his Consciousness he dwells upon the sequence and endows this movement with a developing Power in accord with the central Will that presides over it. He is the self-born, the Origin of all existences. It is he who becomes all these that constitute the manifestation. He spreads out and forms himself into this universe. He fixes the order, the direction, the goal of this vast movement. And this Order, based as it is in the Truth of his vision and Real-Idea, is perfect. It ensures that everything is exactly as it should be in the large perspective . Even elements that appear to the limited human vision as undivine have their role in building up the Divine. All is the Divine in making. He is there at the heart of things watching, planning, executing his Will that precedes the birth of Time and Space. Nothing can be that is not permitted by this central Will, nothing can exist that is not part of the total scheme in the divine Vision.
Many purified by knowledge have come to My state of being.. . . They have reached likeness in their law of being to Me.
Gita.2,4.10;14.2
DESTINATION
The state of ignorance, suffering, evil is not a permanent state in which man is obliged to live. He can, by a strenuous discipline, dispossesses himself of all the ungodly qualities that abound in his nature, abstain from life-movements that keep him bound to lower nature and grow in a godward direction. In doing so he is assisted by the light of an innate knowledge that proceeds from the soul which dispels the shadows of obscurity and deformation that cloud his inner being. As knowledge grows in him, the flames of its splendour burn up his imperfections and impurities of nature and he arrives at a state of consciousness that is the Divine’s. Not only does he share the same state of being but he also grows into a law of being that is the same as the Divine’s. He functions on the same lines as the Divine does. Not only in being but in becoming too he grows into a oneness with the Divine.
What is apparently undivine sheds its imperfections and deformations with the increasing action of higher knowledge and grows into the nature of the Divine, in state of being and in law of being.
Know That for the Brahman and not this which men cherish here.
Kena Upanishad. 1.4
BRAHMAN
Men cherish the objects of their desires for the satisfactions they hold out. Then run after things that yield pleasure to their senses. They are not satisfied with what they have, they strive to attain and hold what they do not have. They cling to life with all means at their disposal. They seek to avoid all that threatens the security of their possessions, their life, their joys. They seek permanence in what is perpetually subject to change. Their efforts in this direction are doomed to failure for all the objects of desire, all things pleasurable – even those that are painful at the moment – all possessions, are fleeting in the flow of time. They run after a mirage and they are disappointed. The reality, the permanent, the eternal, is not to be found in the life as it is lived: in ignorance, in falsehood. It is not to be realised in formations that are imperfect, incomplete. The truth to be realised is above dualities, beyond all deformations; it is also beyond all definitions. It cannot be categorised in our human mental values. It is self-existent, ineffable and can only be designated as That, tat.
This is not That. But this can grow into That and in fact is intended to surpass itself and find its truth in That which is Brahman.
One controlling inner Self of all beings. . . . As the Sun, the eye of the world, is not touched by the external faults of vision, so this inner Self in beings is not touched by the sorrow of the world.
Katha Upanishad. 5.12,11
UNTOUCHED SELF
In appearance all beings are subject to the incalculable gusts of nature. They are tossed also by the shocks of circumstances, impacts from unknown sources. But in fact there is, in each being, an inner Self that governs all movements. It is not involved in the life-movement but controls it from its position of vantage. It stands as a Witness, observing all that goes on; its very regard acts as governing factor. This Self is not affected by the joys and the sorrows of the world. These vicissitudes of the world-experience are undergone only by the outer ego-self; they do not touch the deeper and the real Self. Even as the Sun in the meridian of the sky shines shedding its light over the world from above without being affected by any fault in the vision of the onlooker, the Self governs the life of each being without being clouded by the sorrows of external life.
The Lord abides in the heart of all beings.
Gita.18.61
LORD IN THE HEART
Within each of us there is the Divine. The Divine within can be experienced in many ways: as a Presence which makes itself felt when the noises in our mind and the vital are quieted and we turn our gaze inward; as a solid Peace or a causeless Bliss which are the hallmarks of the Spirit; as an immutable Self that stands at the back of all movements, supporting them impartially but not involved in any. That is not all. The Divine Reality reveals itself also as the Lord, the Master of our existence, governing all our movements, directing them to where He wills. He is the Supreme who has individualised Himself and is throned at the core of our being, presiding over the whole evolution of our soul which is a concentration of His consciousness in the movement of manifestation. It is He who operates our nature in accord with his Will in each one of us. He is the oversoul of our soul in evolution, the Paramatman of our Jivatman on the journey of ascent to perfection in the Divine Consciousness.
(Source: Legends in The Life Divine: Shri M.P.Pandit: p. 113-118)
PARAGRAPH 1
THE UNIVERSE is a manifestation of an infinite and eternal All-Existence: the Divine Being dwells in all that is; we ourselves are that in our self, in our own deepest being; our soul, the secret indwelling psychic entity, is a portion of the Divine Consciousness and Essence. This is the view we have taken of our existence; but at the same time we speak of a divine life as the culmination of the evolutionary process, and the use of the phrase implies that our present life is undivine and all the life too that is below us.
EXPLANATION
We have admitted certain facts regarding our existence. They are: the universe is a manifestation of the Divine Being that dwells in all that is in the universe; we ourselves are Divine in our deepest being; our soul is the secret indwelling psychic entity which is a portion of the Divine Consciousness and Essence.
At the same time we speak of a divine life as the culmination of the evolutionary process. This phrase implies that our present life is undivine; so also is all the life that is below us.
At the first glance this looks like a self-contradiction; instead of making a distinction between the divine life we aspire for and a present undivine existence, it would be more logical to speak of an ascent from level to higher level of a divine manifestation. It may be admitted that essentially, if we look at the inner reality alone and discount the suggestions of the outer figure, such might be the nature of the evolution, the change we have to undergo in Nature; so it would appear perhaps to the impartial eye of a universal vision untroubled by our dualities of knowledge and ignorance, good and evil, happiness and suffering and participating in the untrammelled consciousness and delight of Sachchidananda.
EXPLANATION
On one hand we say the universe is the manifestation of the Divine Being and on the other hand we say our present life is undivine. At the first glance this looks like self-contradiction. To avoid this it would be more logical to speak of an ascent from the present level to higher level of a divine manifestation.
If we look at the inner reality alone without going by the outer figure we may have to admit that essentially, ascending from a lower level to higher level is the nature of the evolution; such is the change we have to undergo in Nature.
That is how it would appear to the impartial eye of a universal vision. Such a vision is untroubled by our dualities of knowledge and ignorance, good and evil, happiness and suffering; it is participating in the limitless consciousness and delight of Sachchidananda. As long as we are bound by dualities we tend to make distinction between divine and undivine.
And yet, from the practical and relative point of view as distinguished from an essential vision, the distinction between the divine and the undivine has an insistent value, a very pressing significance. This then is an aspect of the problem which it is necessary to bring into the light and assess its true importance.
EXPLANATION
The essential vision (that sees the essentiality behind the infinite variation) sees the truth that everything is a divine manifestation. But from the practical and relative point of view the distinction between the divine and the undivine has a value which cannot be overlooked and requires our immediate attention.
The distinction between the divine and the undivine is an aspect of the problem which we should bring into light and assess its true importance.