Study Notes
PARAGRAPH 3
But since, as we have now found, Mind is no independent and original entity but only a final operation of the Truth- consciousness or Supermind, therefore wherever Mind is, there Supermind must be. Supermind or the Truth-consciousness is the real creative agency of the universal Existence. Even when Mind is in its own darkened consciousness separated from its source, yet is that larger movement always there in the workings of Mind; forcing them to preserve their right relation, evolving from them the inevitable results they bear in themselves, producing the right tree from the right seed, it compels even the operations of so brute, inert and darkened a thing as material Force to result in a world of Law, of order, of right relation and not, as it would otherwise be, of hurtling chance and chaos.
EXPLANATION
We have found that Mind is not an independent and original entity. It is only a final operation of Truth-consciousness or Supremind. Therefore, wherever Mind is, there should be Supermind. Supermind or the Truth-consciousness is the real creative agency of the universal Existence.
Separated from the Supermind, Mind may be in its own darkened consciousness. Yet the larger movement of the Supermind is always there in the workings of the Mind.
This larger movement of the Supermind ensures that the workings of the Mind preserve the right relation; it evolves from them the inevitable results they carry in themselves; produces the right tree from the right seed. The Supermind even compels the operations of material force which is so brute, inert and darkened to result in a world of Law, of order, or right relation (Satyam,Ritam, Brihat). Otherwise, it would be a violent movement of accident and chaos.
Obviously, this order and right relation can only be relative and not the supreme order and supreme right which would reign if Mind were not in its own consciousness separated from Supermind; it is an arrangement, an order of the results right and proper to the action of dividing Mind and its creation of separative oppositions, its dual contrary sides of the one Truth. The Divine Consciousness, having conceived and thrown into operation the Idea of this dual or divided representation of Itself, deduces from it in real-idea and educes practically from it in substance of life, by the governing action of the whole Truth-consciousness behind it, its own inferior truth or inevitable result of various relation.
EXPLANATION
Here, Mind is separated from Supermind and it is in its own consciousness. Therefore, the order and right relation so obtained can only be relative and not the supreme order and supreme right. It is an arrangement, an order of the results right and proper to the action of the dividing Mind and its creations of oppositions and dualities.
It is the Divine Consciousness that conceived and thrown into operation the Idea of this dual or divided representation of Itself. Having done that, It deduces from it in real-idea and practically brings forth from it, its own inferior truth or inevitable result of various relation in substance of life. This It does by the governing action of the whole Truth-consciousness behind it.
(The mind, however, creates so many contraries by its limitations, observing and dissecting things and creating all kinds of oppositions and dualities. Even these contraries have been foreseen in the Real-Idea and a stage is permitted for these contraries to exist and it is out of the contraries that the truth is to manifest – Shri M.P.Pandit – Talks on The Life Divine, p. 19)
For this is the nature of Law or Truth in the world that it is the just working and bringing out of that which is contained in being, implied in the essence and nature of the thing itself, latent in its self-being and self-law, svabhava and svadharma, as seen by the divine Knowledge. To use one of those wonderful formulas of the Upanishad *2 which contain a world of knowledge in a few revealing words, it is the Self-existent who as the seer and thinker becoming everywhere has arranged in Himself all things rightly from years eternal according to the truth of that which they are.
*2 Kavir manisi paribhuh svayambhur yathatathyatorthan vyadadhat sasvatıbhyah samabhyah.
—Isha Upanishad, Verse 8.
EXPLANATION
The nature of Law or Truth in the world is that it is the just working and bringing out of that which is contained and is in the essence of its being. That which is the nature of the thing itself, hidden in its self-being and self-law, svabhava and svadharma as seen by the divine Knowledge.
PARAGRAPH 4
Consequently, the triple world that we live in, the world of Mind-Life-Body, is triple only in its actual accomplished evolution. Life involved in Matter has emerged in the form of thinking and mentally conscious life. But with Mind, involved in it and therefore in Life and Matter, is the Supermind, which is the origin and ruler of the other three, and this also must emerge. We seek for an intelligence at the root of the world, because intelligence is the highest principle of which we are aware and that which seems to us to govern and explain all our own action and creation and, therefore, if there is a Consciousness at all in the universe, we presume that it must be an Intelligence, a mental Consciousness.
EXPLANATION
We live in the triple world of Mind-Life-Body. This triple is in only the accomplished evolutionary status as of now. It is not the final stage in evolution. Life is involved in Matter. It has emerged in the form of thinking and mentally conscious life. Supermind is involved in Mind and therefore, it (Supermind) is involved in Life and Matter. Supermind is the origin and ruler of Mind, Life and Body and it must emerge from the Mind.
We always seek for an intelligence at the root of all actions in the world. Intelligence is the highest principle of which we are aware. It seems to govern and explain all our own action and creation. Therefore, we presume that, if at all there is a Consciousness in the universe it must be an Intelligence, a mental consciousness.
But intelligence only perceives, reflects and uses within the measure of its capacity the work of a Truth of being superior to itself; the power behind that works must therefore be another and superior form of Consciousness proper to that Truth. We have, accordingly, to mend our conception and affirm that not a subconscious Mind or Intelligence, but an involved Supermind, which puts Mind in front of it as the immediately active special form of its knowledge-will subconscious in Force and uses material Force or Will subconscious in substance of being as its executive Nature or Prakriti, has created this material universe.
EXPLANATION
But the working of the intelligence is limited. It only perceives, reflects and uses the work of a Truth of being superior to itself. This it does within the measure of its capacity. The power that works behind must therefore be another and superior form of Consciousness proper to that Truth.
Therefore, we have to mend our conception. We have to affirm that there is an involved Supermind which puts Mind in front of it. It uses the Mind as the immediately active special form of its knowledge-will subconscious in Force. It uses material Force or Will subconscious in substance of being as its executive Nature or Prakriti. Therefore, it is the Supermind that has created this material universe and not a subconscious Mind or Intelligence.
PARAGRAPH 5
But we see that here Mind is manifested in a specialisation of Force to which we give the name of Life. What then is Life? and what relation has it to Supermind, to this supreme trinity of Sachchidananda active in creation by means of the Real-Idea or Truth-consciousness? From what principle in the Trinity does it take its birth? or by what necessity, divine or undivine, of the Truth or the illusion, does it come into being? Life is an evil, rings down the centuries the ancient cry, a delusion, a delirium, an insanity from which we have to flee into the repose of eternal being. Is it so? and why then is it so? Why has the Eternal wantonly inflicted this evil, brought this delirium or insanity upon Himself or else upon the creatures brought into being by His terrible all-deluding Maya? Or is it rather some divine principle that thus expresses itself, some power of the Delight of eternal being that had to express and has thus thrown itself into Time and Space in this constant outburst of the million and million forms of life which people the countless worlds of the universe?
EXPLANATION
In this world Mind is manifested in a specialisation of Force. To this Force we give the name of Life. Following questions arise in our mind. What is then Life? What relation has it to the Supermind? What relation has it to the three aspects of Sat-chit-ananda, Existence, Consciousness and Bliss? Because it is Sat-chit-ananda which is active in creation by means of the Real-Idea or Truth-Consciousness. What principle in the three aspects of Sat-chit-ananda does it take its birth? By what necessity divine or undivine of the Truth or illusion does it come into being?
For centuries life is considered evil, a delusion (false belief), a delirium (a confused state), an insanity (madness). The object was always to escape from life into the repose (rest) of eternal being. Why is it so? Why has the Divine purposely caused to suffer Himself or His creatures this evil, this insanity brought by this falsifying Maya?
Or is it some divine principle that expresses itself? Or is it some power of the Delight of eternal being in trying to express itself has thrown itself into Time and Space in sudden release of the million and million forms of life which people the countless worlds of the universe?
Here Sri Aurobindo takes up Life as an expression of the Divine Delight and not as it appears now to us.
PARAGRAPH 6
When we study this Life as it manifests itself upon earth with Matter as its basis, we observe that essentially it is a form of the one cosmic Energy, a dynamic movement or current of it positive and negative, a constant act or play of the Force which builds up forms, energises them by a continual stream of stimulation and maintains them by an unceasing process of disintegration and renewal of their substance. This would tend
to show that the natural opposition we make between death and life is an error of our mentality, one of those false oppositions— false to inner truth though valid in surface practical experience —which, deceived by appearances, it is constantly bringing into the universal unity.
EXPLANATION
Life manifests itself upon earth with Matter as its basis. It is essentially a form of the one cosmic Energy and its dynamic movement. It is a constant act or play of the Force which builds up forms and energises them by a continual stream of stimulation. It (the Force) maintains the forms by an unceasing process of disintegration (dissolution) and renewal of their substance.
This process shows that the natural opposition we make between death and life is an error of our mentality. It is one of those false oppositions. Why false because, it is false to inner truth. Why we make this opposition because death is valid in surface practical experience. Deceived by the appearances, these false oppositions are brought in by our mental error into the universal unity.
Death has no reality except as a process of life. Disintegration of substance and renewal of substance, maintenance of form and change of form are the constant process of life; death is merely a rapid disintegration subservient to life’s necessity of change and variation of formal experience. Even in the death of the body there is no cessation of Life, only the material of one form of life is broken up to serve as material for other forms of life. Similarly we may be sure, in the uniform law of Nature, that if there is in the bodily form a mental or psychic energy, that also is not destroyed but only breaks out from one form to assume others by some process of metempsychosis or new ensouling of body. All renews itself, nothing perishes.
EXPLANATION
Death has no reality except as a process of life. Disintegration of substance and its renewal, maintenance and change of form are the constant process of life. There is necessity of life to change and variation of formal experience. In order to serve this purpose rapid disintegration takes place in the form of death. Even in the death of the body there is no stopping of life; only the material of one form of life is broken up to serve as material for other forms of life.
In the uniform law of Nature the mental or psychic energy in the bodily form is also not destroyed with the death of the body. It only breaks out from one form to assume other forms. It happens by some process of metempsychosis -transmigration of soul into a new body. Sri Aurobindo states that all renews itself, nothing perishes.