Study Notes
PARAGRAPH 19 (Continued)
All this imperfection is to us evil, but all evil is in travail of the eternal good; for all is an imperfection which is the first condition—in the law of life evolving out of Inconscience—of a greater perfection in the manifesting of the hidden divinity. But at the same time our present feeling of this evil and imperfection, the revolt of our consciousness against them is also a necessary valuation; for if we have first to face and endure them, the ultimate command on us is to reject, to overcome, to transform the life and the nature. It is for that end that their insistence is not allowed to slacken; the soul must learn the results of the Ignorance, must begin to feel their reactions as a spur to its endeavour of mastery and conquest and finally to a greater endeavour of transformation and transcendence.
EXPLANATION
All this imperfection appears to us as evil. But evil is really the struggle to realise the eternal good. Because imperfection is the first condition of a greater perfection in the manifestation of the hidden divinity. That is the law of life evolving out of Inconscience.
At the same time, we have a strong feeling against evil and imperfection; our consciousness revolts against them. This revolt is also a necessary valuation and it serves a purpose. Though at first we have to face and endure them, our ultimate objective is to reject, to overcome, to transform the life and the nature.
It is to achieve this objective that evil and imperfection persist. The soul must learn the results of the Ignorance. They must serve as a push to the soul’s efforts of mastery and conquest; finally in its greater effort of transformation and transcendence.
(All this pain and suffering is a passage towards the ultimate achievement of Delight but at the same time, even this travail has a utility. As he says in Savitri, “Pain is the hammer of the Gods to break / A dead resistance in the mortal’s heart”. It has its utility. A sculptor starts with a big rock and chips it with a big hammer. Slowly, as the figure in the rock comes forth he uses smaller hammers and takes off smaller chips and ultimately in the end, he may use the soft sand-paper to smooth on the face. Similarly, as we go in higher consciousness the hammer blows become softer and softer and in the end they become delightful. In the beginning we need a kind of endurance and ability to face the hard strokes. Sri Aurobindo notes that even though evil is in travail of the eternal good we also need to revolt against it. It means, we need to first endure it, reject it and then transform it. – Dr. Ananda Reddy: Deliberations on The Life Divine, Vol VI: SACAR: p. 238)
It is possible, when we live inwardly in the depths, to arrive at a state of vast inner equality and peace which is untouched by the reactions of the outer nature, and that is a great but incomplete liberation,—for the outer nature too has a right to deliverance. But even if our personal deliverance is complete, still there is the suffering of others, the world travail, which the great of soul cannot regard with indifference. There is a unity with all beings which something within us feels and the deliverance of others must be felt as intimate to its own deliverance.
EXPLANATION
When we live inwardly in the depths we can arrive at a state of vast inner equality and peace. It is untouched by the reactions of outer nature. It is a great but incomplete liberation. Because the outer nature also needs to be delivered from its ignorance.
But even after one’s personal deliverance is completed, the suffering of others remains. The soul cannot remain indifferent to the struggling world. There is something within us which feels unity with all beings. Therefore, deliverance of others must be as close to us as our own deliverance. This is where the great avatars and vibhutis like Buddha, Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Aurobindo may be taken as examples. Though they themselves had gone beyond pain and suffering but they looked into the deliverance of other peoples’ suffering.
(So far we have these three categories of impacts of an experience, of suffering. The outer nature receives things and reacts in a particular way. We can train it to react with a certain equanimity, equality, even to endure with a calm and stoic indifference in refusing to be upset or depressed but receiving calmly, with courage. That can be a step towards a liberation of outer nature from the external impacts of sufferings. Then there is the inner nature; we awaken the inner nature, activise it to project its experience, its rendering to the rest of the being. By strengthening the inner nature it is possible to feel there the real value of an experience. Whatever the outer nature says or does, it is possible for the inner nature to receive it differently. Here we have seek liberation of the outer nature by discipline, by concentration. But there is another dimension, that of others around us. How do they react? I can achieve the liberation of my outer nature, experience the freedom of my inner nature, but there is collectivity around. The impact of suffering on others is also a thing to be taken into account – Shri M.P.Pandit: Talks on the Life Divine: p.53: Dipti Publications)
PARAGRAPH 20
This then is the law of the manifestation, the reason of the imperfection here. True, it is a law of manifestation only and,even, a law special to this movement in which we live, and we may say that it need not have been—if there were no movement of manifestation or not this movement; but, the manifestation and the movement being given, the law is necessary. It is not enough simply to say that the law and all its circumstances are an unreality created by the mental consciousness, non-existent in God, and to be indifferent to these dualities or to get out of the manifestation into God’s pure being is the only wisdom.
EXPLANATION
We have seen in the previous paragraph that imperfection is the first condition of a greater perfection in the manifestation of the hidden divinity in the law of life evolving out of Inconscience. This is the reason of the imperfection in this evolving world.
We may accept the fact that this law is special to this movement (of evolution) in which we live. We can argue that if there were no movement or manifestation, imperfection need not have been here. But the fact remains that there is the manifestation and the movement. Therefore, this law is necessary.
Can we say that the law and all its circumstances are an unreality created by the mental consciousness and non-existent in God? Can we be indifferent to joy and suffering, evil and good? Or can we consider getting out of this manifested world into the pure Transcendent being, the only wisdom? We cannot.
It is true they are creations of mind Consciousness, but Mind is only secondarily responsible; in a deeper reality they are, as we have seen already, creations of the Divine Consciousness projecting mind away from its all-knowledge so as to realise these opposite or contrary values of its all-power, all-knowledge, all-delight, all-being and unity.
EXPLANATION
Because, we must understand that though all the dualities we face in this world are creations of mind Consciousness, Mind is only secondarily responsible. We have already seen that in deeper reality, they are creations of the Divine Consciousness; It projects the mind away from its all-knowledge, all-delight, all-being and unity (because the origin of mind is the supermind which has all these aspects). It does so in order to realise these opposite or contrary values of its all-power, all-knowledge, all-delight, all-being and unity (the contrary values are, incapacity, ignorance, suffering, limitation and division we face in this world).
Obviously, this action and these fruits of the Divine Consciousness can be called by us unreal in the sense of not being the eternal and fundamental truth of being or can be taxed with falsehood because they contradict what is originally and eventually the truth of being; but, all the same, they have their persistent reality and importance in our present phase of the manifestation, nor can they be a mere mistake of the Divine Consciousness without any meaning in the divine wisdom, without any purpose of the divine joy, power and knowledge to justify their existence. Justification there must be even if it reposes for us upon a mystery which may confront us, so long as we live in a surface experience, as an insoluble riddle.
EXPLANATION
We can call this action of the Divine Consciousness in creating these contrary values unreal; because they are not the eternal and fundamental truth of being; or we can call them false because they contradict what is originally and eventually the truth of being (the truth of being is all-power, all-knowledge, all-delight, all-being and unity).
But we cannot deny the fact that these contrary values have their persistent reality and importance in our present phase of manifestation (in the present stage of our evolution). We cannot treat them as a mere mistake of the Divine Consciousness. They have a meaning in the divine wisdom, they have a purpose of the divine joy, power and knowledge to justify their existence.
There must be some justification for their existence though it seems to be based on some mystery to us. This would confront us as an insoluble riddle as long as we live in our surface experience.
(All these imperfections are in a sense, creations of a Divine Consciousness in manifestation. When the Divine Consciousness is there in itself, it is all perfect, all true, all full, all unbounded. But once it chooses to manifest there is a certain selection. Once there is a selection, there is a limitation and as it proceeds it leads to imperfections. So we can trace the origin of these imperfections to a decision of the Divine Consciousness. In that sense all imperfections are creations of the Divine Consciousness and not creations of the Adversary, the Devil – Shri M.P.Pandit: Talks on the Life Divine: Vol II: p. 54)