Study Notes
INTRODUCTION
We have been discussing the process of the Absolute, the Sachchidananda, takes a status in what we call the Supermind, before releasing out of this Being this creation. This process down the successive levels may be called the Divine in descent. The human soul aspiring and making its grades upward is the Divine in the individual in its ascent. These are the two movements: the Divine in his descent and the Divine in the ascent. Sri Aurobindo next discusses the divine Soul, not the soul that is ascending but the divine Soul which has not yet descended. (Shri M.P.Pandit: Talks on The Life Divine, p. 108, Dipti Publications, Sri Aurobindo Ashram).
When we talk of a human being, we talk of the human soul as its centre. So when we speak of the centre of Suprman, what would be its soul like? Sri Aurobindo takes up that question in this chapter. He calls the soul in superman the divine soul as distinct from human soul (Shri Ananda Reddy, Deliberations on The Life Divine, Vol III, p. 116).
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BY THE conception we have formed of the Supermind, by its opposition to the mentality on which our human existence is based, we are able not only to form a precise instead of a vague idea of divinity and the divine life,—expressions which we are otherwise condemned to use with looseness and as the vague wording of a large but almost impalpable aspiration,—but also to give these ideas a firm basis of philosophical reasoning, to put them into a clear relation with the humanity and the human life which is all we at present enjoy and to justify our hope and aspiration by the very nature of the world and of our own cosmic antecedents and the inevitable future of our evolution.
EXPLANATION
In the last three chapters we have dealt with the conception of the Supermind. We have seen that the Supermind is in contrast to the mentality on which human existence is based. Based on these conceptions we are able to form a precise instead of a vague idea of divinity and the divine life. Normally we use the expression ‘divinity’ in a loose way with vague wording to express our large but impalpable (unable to feel by touch) aspiration.
Also the concept of Supermind gives a firm basis of philosophical reasoning to the ideas relating to divinity and divine life. And it puts these ideas in clear relation with the humanity and human life which all of us presently enjoy. It justifies our hope and aspiration by the very nature of the world, of our own cosmic past and the inevitable future evolution.
We begin to grasp intellectually what is the Divine, the eternal Reality, and to understand how out of it the world has come. We begin also to perceive how inevitably that which has come out of the Divine must return to the Divine. We may now ask with profit and a chance of clearer reply how we must change and what we must become in order to arrive there in our nature and our life and our relations with others and not only through a solitary and ecstatic realisation in the profundities of our being. Certainly, there is still a defect in our premisses; for we have so far been striving to define for ourselves what the Divine is in its descent towards limited Nature, whereas what we ourselves actually are is the Divine in the individual ascending back out of limited Nature to its own proper divinity.
EXPLANATION
We begin to understand intellectually what the Divine is. We try to understand how the world has come out this eternal Reality. We also perceive the fact that what has come out of the Divine must inevitably return to the Divine.
Now in order to benefit from the above understanding we must ask ourselves with certainty of answer how we must change and what we must become to bring divinity in our nature and in our life and relations with others. One can realise the Divine in a solitary and ecstatic (mystic experience) state in the depths of one’s own being. But this is not enough. One must realise it collectively in our life.
But there is a basic defect in our foundation of logic (premise). We are trying to define the Divine in its descent into our limited nature. But the truth is, we ourselves are Divine. The Divine in our individual being is ascending back from our limited Nature to its own proper divinity.
This difference of movement must involve a difference between the life of the gods who have never known the fall and the life of man redeemed, conqueror of the lost godhead and bearing within him the experience and it may be the new riches gathered by him from his acceptance of the utter descent. Nevertheless, there can be no difference of essential characteristics, but only of mould and colouring. We can already ascertain on the basis of the conclusions at which we have arrived the essential nature of the divine life towards which we aspire.
EXPLANATION
Now there is a difference of movement in our approach. From descent (of Divine into man) to ascent (of man into Divine). This difference of movement involves a difference between the life of gods and the life of man. The gods have never experienced the fall. They are fixed and typal – meaning they do not participate in life and are non-evolutionary. Whereas the man has plunged into the life of ignorance. He had fallen from the Consciousness of Oneness to consciousness of division. He is trying to regain his lost divinity. His life is a recovery from fall to rise. He carries within him the riches of his experience accumulated from his acceptance of the descent (fall).
However, there is no essential difference between the life of gods and that of man. Because essentially both are creations of Divine Consciousness with difference only in mould and colouring. We can ascertain on the basis of our conclusions regarding the Divine Life that, it will be a state of transformed body, mind and life in terms of Sachchidananda.
(In a sense the divine Soul which descends gathers all the experience, adds to itself his new dimension of earthly existence and evolution, is richer than the soul that not descended. Thus it is said that man fulfilled is greater than a god, because god is limited by his perfection; he has a status and he stays fixed in it, but man evolves, changes, progresses, adds something to his being, which his soul did not have when it left the original Source. Still the divine Soul that has not descended merits a study because what the divine Soul has got in potential there that has to be developed and fulfilled in us – Shri M.P.Pandit, Talks on The Life Divine, p. 108)
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What then would be the existence of a divine soul, not descended into the ignorance by the fall of Spirit into Matter and the eclipse of soul by material Nature? What would be its consciousness, living in the original Truth of things, in the inalienable unity, in the world of its own infinite being, like the Divine Existence itself, but able by the play of the Divine Maya and by the distinction of the comprehending and apprehending Truth-Consciousness to enjoy also difference from God at the same time as unity with Him and to embrace difference and yet oneness with other divine souls in the infinite play of the self-multiplied Identical?
EXPLANATION
What would be the existence of a divine soul? The divine soul had not descended into the ignorance by the fall of Spirit into Matter. Nor is there an eclipse of soul by material nature. Whereas the human soul is asleep in the human body.
What would be its consciousness? It lives in the original Truth of things. It lives in inalienable unity. It lives in the world of its own infinite being 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 souls are nothing but the infinite play of the self-multiplied Identical.
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Obviously, the existence of such a soul would be always self-contained in the conscious play of Sachchidananda. It would be pure and infinite self-existence in its being; in its becoming it would be a free play of immortal life uninvaded by death and birth and change of body because unclouded by ignorance and not involved in the darkness of our material being. It would be a pure and unlimited consciousness in its energy, poised in an eternal and luminous tranquillity as its foundation, yet able to play freely with forms of knowledge and forms of conscious power, tranquil, unaffected by the stumblings of mental error and the misprisions of our striving will because it never departs from truth and oneness, never falls from the inherent light and the natural harmony of its divine existence. It would be, finally, a pure and inalienable delight in its eternal self-experience and in Time a free variation of bliss unaffected by our perversions of dislike, hatred, discontent and suffering because undivided in being, unbaffled by erring self-will, unperverted by the ignorant stimulus of desire.
EXPLANATION
What would be the nature of a divine soul? It would be self-contained in the conscious play of Sachchidananda. In its being (static,unmanifest status) it would be a pure and infinite self-existence. In its becoming (manifest status) 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. It is not a material body that undergoes death and decay. Therefore it would not be subject to death and birth and change of body.
It would be a pure and unlimited consciousness in its energy. It would have eternal and luminous (full of light) tranquillity (peace) as its foundation. Yet it would be able to play freely with the forms of knowledge and forms of conscious power. It would be unaffected by the stumblings of mental error. It would not be deceived by the misleading actions of our striving will. Because, it never departs from truth and oneness. It never falls from inherent light and the natural harmony of its divine existence.
In its eternal self-experience it would be a pure and inalienable delight. In its experience in Time it would be a free variation of bliss. It is undivided in being, untroubled by erring self-will and unperverted by the ignorant stimulus of desire. Therefore its bliss would be unaffected by our perversions of dislike, hatred, discontent and suffering. Whereas at our human level our souls suffer because of perversions of ego.
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Its consciousness would not be shut out from any part of the infinite truth, nor limited by any poise or status that it might assume in its relations with others, nor condemned to any loss of self-knowledge by its acceptance of a purely phenomenal individuality and the play of practical differentiation. It would in its self-experience live eternally in the presence of the Absolute. To us the Absolute is only an intellectual conception of indefinable existence. The intellect tells us simply that there is a Brahman higher than the highest,2 an Unknowable that knows itself in other fashion than that of our knowledge; but the intellect cannot bring us into its presence. The divine soul living in the Truth of things would, on the contrary, always have the conscious sense of itself as a manifestation of the Absolute.
2paratpara.
EXPLANATION
What would be the nature of consciousness of the Divine Soul? It would not be shut out from any part of the infinite truth. It would not be limited by any poise or status 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. We conceive the Absolute as an indefinable existence only by our intellect. We know by our intellect that there is a Brahman higher than the highest (paratpara). We know that the Unknowable is something that knows itself in other way than by our knowledge. But the intellect cannot bring us into contact with its presence. On the contrary the Divine soul is always conscious of the fact that it is a manifestation of Absolute.