Study Notes
The Purusha, the inner Self, no larger than the size of a man’s thumb.
Katha Upanishad. II.1.12,13; II.3.17
Swetaswatara Upanishad.III.13
Purusha
The outer person is not all. Behind the appearance of the physical frame is a complex organisation consisting of the mind and the self of the mind (manomaya purusha), the life energy and the self of life (pranamaya purusha), the physical body and the self of the physical (annamaya purusha). Holding all together, supporting them in their instrumental role, is the real Self, the master of the being. It is specially concentrated in consciousness at the core, the spiritual heart.
This Self, though one with the Self of the universe, is here in a special poise: it is individualised for purposes of manifestation, it regards and watches regulatively the activities of its nature, prakriti……. it is comparable to the thumb of man…. Visually it may be small but experienced in consciousness it is vast, all-pervading.
More accurately, it is the delegate of this Self in evolution, the soul or the psychic being, chaitya purusha…
(But since she knows the toil of mind and life
As a mother feels and shares her children’s lives,
She puts forth a small portion of herself,
A being no bigger than the thumb of man
Into a hidden region of the heart
To face the pang and to forget the bliss,
To share the suffering and endure earth’s wounds
And labour mid the labour of the stars.
This in us laughs and weeps, suffers the stroke,
Exults in victory, struggles for the crown;
Identified with the mind and body and life,
It takes on itself their anguish and defeat,
Bleeds with Fate’s whips and hangs upon the cross,
Yet is the unwounded and immortal self
Supporting the actor in the human scene.
Through this she sends us her glory and her powers,
Pushes to wisdom’s heights, through misery’s gulfs;
She gives us strength to do our daily task
And sympathy that partakes of others’ grief
And the little strength we have to help our race,
We who must fill the role of the universe
Acting itself out in a slight human shape
And on our shoulders carry the struggling world.
This is in us the godhead small and marred;
In this human portion of divinity
She seats the greatness of the Soul in Time
To uplift from light to light, from power to power,
Till on a heavenly peak it stands, a king.
(Savitri: Book VII: The Book of Yoga: CANTO V: The Finding of the Soul – p. 526)
He who knows this Self who is the eater of the honey of existence and the lord of what is and shall be, has thenceforward no shrinking.
Katha Upanishad.II.1.5
NO SHRINKING
It is this Self at the core of the individual being that is the real impeller of the journey of life; it is he who draws the essential delight of every experience in life and converts each experience into a feeder for the growth of consciousness…. he is one with the Self of All and therefore he embraces all life-experience without any shrinking. The reaction of repulsion, avoidance, revolt properly belongs to the desire soul in the front which masquerades as the true self within. The desire soul, ego-bound as it is, looks upon everything else as separate from itself, ‘other’ than itself, and anticipates opposition from the ‘others’. This sense of separativity converts what is truly a movement of delight of life into the triply deformed experience of pleasure, pain and indifference.
When, however, man shifts his center from the surface desire-soul to real self within, he realises that he is one with all existence and there can be really no harm or loss from impacts of what are truly his own extensions. He recoils from nothing, he is afraid of nothing, he is open to everything without reserve.
Whence shall he have grief, how shall he be deluded who sees everywhere the Oneness?
Isha Upanishad, Verse 7
NO GRIEF
For one who has realised his identity with his Self there is a spontaneous realisation of the oneness of all life. For his Self is the same as the Self of all else. There can be no division between him and others. All is One. He is all and he finds all in himself. He lives fundamentally in an impersonal oneness though for the purposes of activity he functions as a centre in multiple oneness. There is no longer the delusion of separativity, of personal possession. He has nothing to gain, nothing to lose; nothing to be excited with, nothing to be grieving for……
He who has found the bliss of the Eternal has no fear from any quarter.
Taittiriya Upanishad. II.9
NO FEAR
There is fear as long as there is the sense of the ‘other’. For as long as man feels that the other is foreign to him, there is always the possibility of his contact turning unpleasant, unwelcome. He may not be able to withstand that movement and this creates a fear in him. This incapacity to front contacts from others in equanimity is a result of his shutting himself withing the walls of his ego-desire complex on the surface of his being. If he were to enlarge himself, probe deeper into his own existence, he would touch his Self which is eternal, always blissful in its being. And once he finds this bliss, there is no more insecurity, no more fear. For it is the bliss of the Eternal, the Immutable, which permits of no negations.
PARAGRAPH 1
THE FIRST status of Life we found to be characterised by a dumb inconscient drive or urge, a force of some involved will in the material or atomic existence, not free and possessor of itself or its works or their results, but entirely possessed by the universal movement in which it arises as the obscure unformed seed of individuality. The root of the second status is desire, eager to possess but limited in capacity; the bud of the third is Love which seeks both to possess and be possessed, to receive and to give itself; the fine flower of the fourth, its sign of perfection, we conceive as the pure and full emergence of the original will, the illumined fulfilment of the intermediate desire, the high and deep satisfaction of the conscious interchange of Love by the unification of the state of the possessor and possessed in the divine unity of souls which is the foundation of the supramental existence. If we scrutinise these terms carefully we shall see that they are shapes and stages of the soul’s seeking for the individual and universal delight of things; the ascent of Life is in its nature the ascent of the divine Delight in things from its dumb conception in Matter through vicissitudes and opposites to its luminous consummation in Spirit.
EXPLANATION
The ascent of Life is really the ascent of divine Delight (Ananda) in things. It begins as a dumb conception in Matter. Finally, it attains its luminous consummation (successful completion) in Spirit going through ups and downs and opposites in the course of its evolution.
The first status of Life (Matter) is marked by a dumb inconscient drive. It is a force of some involved will (Divine involved in Matter) in the material or atomic existence. It has no control over its works or their results. Rather it is possessed by the universal movement. Consciousness willingly submits itself as a prisoner of Force.
Life arises as the obscure unformed seed of individuality (as a separate atom). Desire is the root of the second status of Life. It is eager to possess but limited in capacity. So, there is struggle both to live and to conquer. Love is the bud of the third status (at the level of the Mind). It seeks both to possess and be possessed, to receive and to give itself. This is the beginning of the third stage where association, getting together form the primitive kind of love. This later develops into its purer form of love where one gives oneself.
In the fourth status (at the level of Supermind) we find the pure and full emergence of the original will. The intermediate desire is fulfilled. There is unification of the state of the possessor and possessed in the divine unity of souls. This is the foundation of the supramental existence. By this unification there is deep satisfaction of the conscious interchange of Love. This marks the fine flower of the fourth stage.
The various stages of Life are the shapes and stages of the soul’s seeking for the individual and universal delight of things.
PARAGRAPH 2
The world being what it is, it could not be otherwise. For the world is a masked form of Sachchidananda, and the nature of the consciousness of Sachchidananda and therefore the thing in which His force must always find and achieve itself is divine Bliss, an omnipresent self-delight. Since Life is an energy of His conscious-force, the secret of all its movements must be a hidden delight inherent in all things which is at once cause, motive and object of its activities; and if by reason of egoistic division that delight is missed, if it is held back behind a veil, if it is represented as its own opposite, even as being is masked in death, consciousness figures as the inconscient and force mocks itself with the guise of incapacity, then that which lives cannot be satisfied, cannot either rest from the movement or fulfil the movement except by laying hold on this universal delight which is at once the secret total delight of its own being and the original, all-encompassing, all-informing, all-upholding delight of the transcendent and immanent Sachchidananda. To seek for delight is therefore the fundamental impulse and sense of Life; to find and possess and fulfil it is its whole motive.
EXPLANATION
The world as it is organised now cannot be other than the world of dualities. Because the world has the Divine Truth hidden behind its false appearance. The world is a masked form of Sachchidananda and it is the nature of consciousness of Sachchidananda. Therefore, the Consciousness-Force (of Sachchidananda) which drives the world must find and achieve itself the divine Bliss, an omnipresent self-delight.
Life is an energy of Conscious-Force (chit shakti). Therefore, the secret of all its movements must be a hidden delight (ananda). This delight is inborn (self-delight) in all things. Delight is at once the cause, motive and object of its activities.
We miss this delight by our egoistic division. The delight is often hidden behind the veil. It is represented by its opposite of pain and suffering. The existence (sat) is masked in death. The consciousness (chit) appears as the inconscient. The force (chit-shakti) acts under the disguise of incapacity. This is the state of the world where we find Sachchidananda represented by its opposites.
What keeps us going in spite of these opposites? The life as a movement cannot be satisfied or rest from its movement or fulfil the goal of its movement except than by relying upon the Universal delight. It is at once the secret total delight of its own being (sat). It is equally the original, all-encompassing, all-informing (giving the essential quality) all-upholding delight of the transcendent (beyond all) and immanent (existing within) Sachchidananda.
To seek for the delight is therefore the fundamental impulse of Life. The whole motive of life is to find and possess and fulfil the delight of existence.