SYNOPSIS
The Sevenfold Chord of Being
- Cosmic existence is founded on the seven-fold principles of Sat, Chit and Ananda, Supermind, Mind, Life and Matter. The descending and ascending gradations of involution and evolution correspond to these seven principles. We are aware of some Mind, Life and Body) and ignorant of the rest (Sat-chit-ananda & Supermind). The origin, the continent, the initial and the ultimate reality of all that is in the universe is the triune principle of transcendent and infinite Sat-chit-ananda.
- It is through the intermediate principle of Supermind or Real-Idea manifestation takes place. In Supermind is present a divine Knowledge which is one with the Divine Will which develops infallibly the movement and form and law of things in right accordance with their self-existent Truth.
- Supermind proceeds by a double faculty of comprehensive and apprehensive knowledge. Supermind in its creative action proceeds from the essential oneness to the resultant multiplicity. In its comprehensive knowledge it sees all things in itself as itself; the Many in One. In its apprehensive knowledge it sees all things separately in itself as objects of its will and knowledge. Though there is unity and multiplicity there is an ordered relation created between them. The division is only in appearance; it is not a binding reality.
- Mind, Life and Matter are a triple aspect of the higher principles of Sat, Chit, Ananda and Supermind. Mind is a subordinate power of Supermind; Life is the subordinate power of Consciousness-Force, Chit-shakti; Matter is the form of substance assumed by the Sat or existence of Sat-chit-ananda.
- The fourth principle is the soul which comes into manifestation veiled by mind, life and body. It has the double appearance of desire-soul in the front and the true psychic entity behind. The true psychic entity stores the essence experiences of the spirit gathered through so many lives. It is a projection and an action of the third divine principle of infinite Bliss (Ananda).
- The Nature of the Divine existence is an infinite consciousness whose nature is pure and infinite Bliss. The universe is a play of this divine self-delight. This delight is held back in the subliminal and the superconscient being in the individual because of the action of ignorance and division. We lack this delight in our surface being.
- There is descent of the Divine from pure existence (sat) into cosmic being through the play of Consciousness-Force and Bliss and the Supermind and ascent from Matter towards the divine being through a developing life, soul and mind and the illuminating medium of supermind. Sat-chit-ananda form the higher hemisphere, parardha. Matter, life, and mind form the lower hemisphere, aparardha. The knot of the higher and the lower is where mind and supermind meet with a veil (Overmind) between them.
- If the divine life in humanity is to become possible the veil separating the mind and supermind has to be removed. Only then the light from above will descend into the nature of the lower being; there will be forceful ascent of the lower being into the nature of the higher. Then mind can recover its divine light, soul will realise its divine self, life will repossess its divine power and Matter will be liberated into a form of divine existence.
- The cosmos is both within the infinite Existence and it is itself the All-Existence (All is in Brahman, all as Brahman). No cosmic action is possible without the play of an infinite Force of Existence. It is that Force that produces and regulates all these forms and movements in the universe.
- The Consciousness is omniscient and omnipotent. It is in luminous possession of itself. Such a luminous possession is in its very nature Bliss. It cannot be anything else because a vast universal self-delight must be the cause, essence and object of cosmic existence.
- As man more and more finds himself in the cosmos whether in will and power(chit-shakti) or in light and knowledge(chit) or in being and wideness (sat)or in love and joy(ananda) itself he must awaken to something of the secret bliss. Wherever cosmic existence manifests itself Sat-Chit-Ananda must be behind and within it.
- The infinite Existence, Consciousness and Bliss bring out from themselves, the fourth term of Supermind of the divine Gnosis. A power of Knowledge and Will (Knowledge-Will) must be in every cosmos. It fixes determined relations, develops the result out of the seed, rolls out the mighty rhythms of cosmic Law and views and governs the worlds as their immortal and infinite Seer and Ruler.
- The power of Knowledge and Will is nothing else than Sachchidananda Himself. The Supermind is the Truth or Real-Idea. It is inherent in all cosmic force and existence. Vedic Rishis had called the infinite Existence, Consciousness and Bliss, the three highest and hidden Names of the Nameless. The Supermind is the fourth Name. Fourth to That (Sat, Chit and Ananda) in its descent and fourth to us (Matter, Life and Mind) in our ascent.
- Mind, Life and Matter the lower triple aspects are also indispensable to all cosmic being. Their significance need not necessarily in the form or with the action and conditions we know upon this earth. But they may be in some kind of action however luminous, however puissant, however subtle. Mind is essentially that faculty of Supermind which measures and limits; it fixes a particular centre and views the cosmic movement and its interactions from that centre.
- We can suppose that in a particular world, plane or cosmic arrangement mind need not be limited. The being, say the Supramental being who uses mind as a subordinate faculty would be capable of seeing things from other centres or standpoints or from the real Centre of all or in the vastness of a universal self-diffusion.
- Still, Mind as a faculty is required for determining and limiting action in the universe. Mind is a necessary instrument for that measurement and interaction. Yet Mind need not be aware of itself as anything but a subordinate action of Supermind and not develop the interaction of relations on the basis of egoism as our minds function now.
- As Mind is an instrument for fixed development, measurement and interaction so is Life simply the determination of force and action. It is the determination of relation and interaction of energy from many fixed centres of consciousness in a persistent coexistence of beings or soul-forms of the Eternal supporting a cosmic harmony. Though that life may be different from life as we know it, essentially the same principle of vitality Vayu or Prana would be at work.
- Likewise, substance would be much more subtle and much less rigid. It would be no more bound in its rigid law of self-division and mutual resistance. The body or form would be an instrument and not a prison. Yet for cosmic interaction some determination of form and substance would always be necessary; even if it be a mental body or a more luminous, subtle and powerfully freely responsive than the freest mental body.
- In a Universe only one principle, say, Matter, may be initially apparent; it may seem to be the sole principle of things; everything else that appears afterwards may seem to be no more than its forms and results. Such a front presented by being may be only in appearance. It may hide behind its mask its real truth. When one principle is manifest in Cosmos all the rest of the principles are not only simply present and inactive in it but they are secretly at work.
- Therefore in the material universe all the seven principles are bound to evolve. Apparent life is to evolve from its hidden life, apparent mind is to evolve from its hidden mind, apparent Supermind is to evolve from its hidden Supermind and the triune glory of Sachchidananda is to evolve from the concealed Spirit within Supermind.
- Our Vedic Rishis believed in the possibility of emergence of higher principles for Man. It is the human being in whom the divine spark has been aroused. The real wisdom would exist only with the higher aspiration and would not exist with the denial of aspiration and the hope that is limited and restricted within the narrow walls of body, mind and life. In the spiritual order of things the higher we rise in our view and aspiration, the greater the Truth that seeks to descend upon us. Because the higher is already within us. It calls for its release from the covering that conceal it in manifestation.