Study Notes
PARAGRAPH 17
It is only when the veil is rent and the divided mind overpowered, silent and passive to a supramental action that mind itself gets back to the Truth of things. There we find a luminous mentality reflective, obedient and instrumental to the divine Real-Idea. There we perceive what the world really is; we know in every way ourselves in others and as others, others as ourselves and all as the universal and self-multiplied One. We lose the rigidly separate individual standpoint which is the source of all limitation and error. Still, we perceive also that all that the ignorance of Mind took for the truth was in fact truth, but truth deflected, mistaken and falsely conceived. We still perceive the division, the individualising, the atomic creation, but we know them and ourselves for what they and we really are.
EXPLANATION
When can the mind perceive the Real Truth? When the veil that is separating the mind from the supermind is removed, the dividing mind is made passive and silent to a supramental action and then the mind can get back to the Truth of things (Truth-Consciousness). The mind becomes full of light, reflective, obedient and instrumental to the divine Real-Idea (of Truth-Consciousness).
There we perceive the reality of the world. We know ourselves in others and as others. We know others as ourselves (Vedantic formula, Self in all, all as Self, all is in Self). We know all as the universal and self-multiplied One. The source of all limitation and error is the rigidity of our individual standpoint. We lose this rigidity.
The ignorance of Mind took all for the Truth. But we perceive that they are indeed truth, but they are deflected, mistaken and falsely conceived. We still perceive the division; the individualising; the atomic creation. But we know the truth and the reality behind this individualisation. We do not lose sight of the Oneness behind this division.
And so we perceive that the Mind was really a subordinate action and instrumentation of the Truth-consciousness. So long as it is not separated in self-experience from the enveloping Master-consciousness and does not try to set up house for itself, so long as it serves passively as an instrumentation and does not attempt to possess for its own benefit, Mind fulfils luminously its function which is in the Truth to hold forms apart from each other by a phenomenal, a purely formal delimitation of their activity behind which the governing universality of the being remains conscious and untouched.
EXPLANATION
We perceive the Mind to be the subordinate instrumentation of the Truth-consciousness. Here, Mind fulfils its functions in full light in the Truth. It holds forms apart from each other by a phenomenal and formal delimitation of their activity. Yet behind this delimitation of forms there is governing universality of being which remains conscious and untouched.
But the Mind can function like that so long as it is not separated in experience from the enveloping Master-consciousness (Truth-consciousness); so long as it remains a passive instrument of Supermind; so long as it does not keep itself separate and possess for its own benefit.
It has to receive the truth of things and distribute it according to the unerring perception of a supreme and universal Eye and Will. It has to uphold an individualisation of active consciousness, delight, force, substance which derives all its power, reality and joy from an inalienable universality behind. It has to turn the multiplicity of the One into an apparent division by which relations are defined and held off against each other so as to meet again and join. It has to establish the delight of separation and contact in the midst of an eternal unity and intermiscence. It has to enable the One to behave as if He were an individual dealing with other individuals but always in His own unity, and this is what the world really is.
EXPLANATION
When the Mind acts as a subordinate instrument of the Supermind it has to receive the truth of things (from Truth-consciousness) and distribute it according to the unerring perception of universal Eye and Will. It means, its actions are governed by the Supreme consciousness and Supreme Will.
It has to uphold existence, consciousness and bliss (Sachchidananda) in the individualisation of active consciousness. This individual consciousness derives all its power, reality and joy from the inseparable universality behind. Here individuality is a part and parcel of universality.
There is multiplicity of the One. The Mind turns this multiplicity into an apparent division. By this division the relations are defined. They are held off (seemingly separated) against each other so as to meet again and join. This means there is no real division in multiplicity. It has to establish the delight of separation and contact in the midst of an eternal unity and intermiscence (intermingling).
The Mind has to enable the One to behave as if He were an individual dealing with other individuals. Yet He always remains in his own unity and that is the reality of the world.
The mind is the final operation of the apprehending Truth-consciousness which makes all this possible, and what we call the Ignorance does not create a new thing and absolute falsehood but only misrepresents the Truth. The Ignorance is the Mind separated in knowledge from its source of knowledge and giving a false rigidity and a mistaken appearance of opposition and conflict to the harmonious play of the supreme Truth in its universal manifestation.
EXPLANATION
The mind is the final operation of the apprehending Truth-consciousness (Pragnana) which makes all the above functions of the mind possible. What we call the Ignorance is not an absolute falsehood but only misrepresentation of the Truth.
The Ignorance is the Mind separated in knowledge from its source of knowledge (Supermind). It gives a false rigidity and a mistaken appearance of opposition. This only creates a conflict in the harmonious play of the supreme Truth in its universal manifestation.
PARAGRAPH 18
The fundamental error of the Mind is, then, this fall from self-knowledge by which the individual soul conceives of its individuality as a separate fact instead of as a form of Oneness and makes itself the centre of its own universe instead of knowing itself as one concentration of the universal. From that original error all its particular ignorances and limitations are contingent results. For, viewing the flux of things only as it flows upon and through itself, it makes a limitation of being from which proceeds a limitation of consciousness and therefore of knowledge, a limitation of conscious force and will and therefore of power, a limitation of self-enjoyment and therefore of delight.
EXPLANATION
The fall from self-knowledge is the fundamental error of the Mind. By this fall the individual soul conceives of its individuality as a separate fact instead of as a form of Oneness. It makes itself as the centre of its own universe. It does not know itself as one
concentration of the universal.
This is the original error. From this all its particular ignorances and limitations are contingent (dependent) results. It views the flowing out of things upon and through itself and it makes a limitation of being. From this limitation of being proceeds limitation of consciousness and therefore the limitation of knowledge. It makes a limitation of conscious force and will and therefore the limitation of power. It makes a limitation of self-enjoyment and therefore the limitation of delight.
It is conscious of things and knows them only as they present themselves to its individuality and therefore it falls into an ignorance of the rest and thereby into an erroneous conception even of that which it seems to know: for since all being is interdependent, the knowledge either of the whole or of the essence is necessary for the right knowledge of the part. Hence there is an element of error in all human knowledge. Similarly our will, ignorant of the rest of the all-will, must fall into error of working and a greater or less degree of incapacity and impotence; the soul’s self-delight and delight of things, ignoring the all-bliss and by defect of will and knowledge unable to master its world, must fall into incapacity of possessive delight and therefore into suffering. Self-ignorance is therefore the root of all the perversity of our existence, and that perversity stands fortified in the self-limitation, the egoism which is the form taken by that self-ignorance.
EXPLANATION
The individual soul is conscious of things and knows them only as they present themselves to its individuality. It thereby ignores the rest. Also it conceives erroneously even of that it seems to know. All being is interdependent. Therefore, either the knowledge of the whole or the knowledge of the essence is essential for the right knowledge of the part. Hence there is an element of error in human knowledge.
Similarly, our will is ignorant of the rest of all-will. Therefore it must fall into error of working and a greater or lesser degree of incapacity and impotence.
Our soul’s self-delight and delight of things is ignorant of the all-bliss. It is unable to master the world by the defect of will and knowledge. Therefore, it must fall into incapacity of its possession of delight and it falls into suffering.
Self-ignorance is the root of all the perversity of our existence. This perversity is strengthened in the self-limitation, the egoism. Egoism is the form taken by that self-ignorance.