Study Notes
Chapter 14 to 16 – Recap
Chapter XIV – The Supermind as Creator
- Supermind is the principle of active Will and Knowledge. It is the intermediary power between Sachchidananda, the One and the ever changing Many of the created world. Human intellect may doubt the workings of Supermind because it contradicts human mind in both essence and operation. Yet it would be possible to relate this Supermind to our human ideas because it has relation with the mind and has an identity with the mental being. Therefore, it would be quite a rational and useful attempt to understand the workings of Supermind by comparison and contrast from the stand point of our intellectual knowledge.
- The word Supermind is ambiguous and should not be mistaken for a superior status of mind. A more accurate subsidiary description is required which will be limiting its significance. We can understand from the Vedic messages that Supermind is a vastness (Brhat), Truth of being (Satyam), which is regulating the right activity (Ritam). The Supermind has a double power. Power of self-formulation and self-arrangement. It has two other primary faculties, Truth-vision and Truth-audition. There are two kinds of knowledge of Supermind. One is a subjective knowledge by identity obtained by a comprehending and pervading consciousness. The other is by an apprehending consciousness with Multiplicity as the basis of knowledge. Based on this we can choose a subsidiary term, Truth-Consciousness for Supermind.
- By the power of its comprehending knowledge, as the child of Brahman, Truth-consciousness sees the Oneness in Many. In apprehending knowledge, as a parent of Mind, it sees only the ‘many’ aspect, the oneness is left behind.
- Above the Truth-Consciousness there is formula of the One, eternally stable, below It, is the formula of the Many, eternally mutable. Truth-consciousness which is in between is the seat of triune consciousness- Sat, Chit and Ananda. Supermind is the intermediary between the Sat-chit-ananda and the manifested world. It is the self-extension of the Brahman. It differentiates Sat-chit-ananda but does not divide.
- The agent in between the involution of Spirit into Matter and the evolution of Spirit from Matter is the Supermind. The Supermind – the Real-Idea is the creator of the universe. It creates the universe by the process of differentiation -meaning creating many out of one, without excluding the many from the one. Therefore, all is in each and each is in all.
- It is the Supermind which determines the law and the Will of the Knowledge-Force (Chit-shakti). There is a law and a guiding force behind each creation in the universe. All Nature is simply the Seer-Will. All Nature evolves in force and form the knowledge of Truth-consciousness which is involved in each form. The Truth-consciousness is based on the Idea. Whereas the mental consciousness is based on thought.
- In our mental operations, our thinking, our being, our actions, our knowledge are divided. Whereas in Supermind, being (Sat), consciousness of knowledge (Chit), consciousness of will (chit-shakti) are not separated. They are three-in-one. In Supermind, the Idea, the knowledge, the will and the being, all are one, not separate from each other in contrast to our mental idea which is detached from the will. Both will and idea are separate from us.
- In Supermind there is no division. Knowledge is not self-divided. Force is not self-divided. The Being is not self-divided. Vastness is the feature of Supermind. Primarily it is comprehensive – meaning, an all-inclusive Oneness. Differentiation is the secondary act. In Supermind the idea represents the truth of the being. Idea corresponds to the will-force to the idea. There is no clash of wills and ideas. There is no clash between one force with the other.
- We regard the Divine Being omnipresent (present everywhere), omniscient (all-knowing) and omnipotent (all-powerful). It is the nature of the Supermind that gives justifications to our notions about the Divine.
Chapter XV – The Supreme Truth-Consciousness
- The ordering self-knowledge (Ritam) of the Truth-Consciousness ensures the harmony in multiplicity. If the infinite were to manifest directly in the world it would lead to chaos and confusion. There is a predetermining Idea in the very seed of things that are emerging out in evolution in the universe. Underlying beneath this harmony is the truth and law of this self-knowledge that creates. There is a Real-Idea born with each thing in the universe.
- Our Mind views the Space and Time by its process of measuring by succession of past, present and future and divisibility of substance. The Supermind embraces and unifies the successions of Time and divisions of Space by its one view and an all-comprehending regard.
- It appears that things evolve themselves by shock and struggle with the succession of Time. But in reality, there is a spontaneous working out of things from within. To the Supermind this discord appears like an ever-present and ever-developing harmony.
- It is the Supermind that creates all forms. It not only contains all the forms of itself but pervades them as an indwelling Presence as the Lord in their hearts. It is not a mental Intelligence that guides and governs. It is a self-aware Truth of being. It is the Truth-Consciousness. It does not have to think out things as our mind does.
- Truth-consciousness comprehends all things in static self-awareness as well as in dynamic knowledge. It governs the various objects which are dynamically embodied in Space and Time – like a plant which is not only statically self-aware of its constituents but also dynamically aware of all constituents like air, water, sunlight which are outside of itself to make food.
- In Truth-consciousness the knower, knowledge and the known are one and the same. The fundamental basis on which Supermind always acts is unity. Supermind sees the universe and its contents as itself in a single indivisible act of knowledge. In Supermind the Will, the act of power, the act of knowledge and the movement of self-existence are one and the same. It sees Spirit and Form as one and Force and form as one. Only our mind tries to understand the universe by the process of division and analysis. Such an understanding is partial.
- The Supermind is comprehensive in knowledge; there is no independent centre of existence; there is no individual separated ego. To the Supermind, the whole of existence appears to its self-awareness, as a stable extension. This identity with all and with the One is the very character of supramental knowledge.
- Brahman has two statuses. One, the unextended Brahman in high concentration of unity. The other is the extension of Brahman in equal concentration spread out in multiplicity. The triple formula of the comprehensive Supermind is, “Brahman is in all things, all things are in Brahman, all things are Brahman” from which it proceeds in the cosmic play.
- There must be some secondary power of the creative Truth-Consciousness which makes the higher terms of Sat-chit-ananda to appear in these lower terms of Mind, Life and Matter. This is its projecting, confronting and apprehending consciousness which is the beginning of self-division or of its appearance in this phenomenal world.
- We can see this new status of Supermind in multiplicity, as a further deviation from the truth of Oneness of things. It may become truly Avidya, which starts from multiplicity. But, so long as the soul acts in the Supermind, Ignorance has not yet begun; truth-consciousness is still the field of knowledge and action. Unity is still the basis.
- The Self is present in all things even in multiplicity. In multiplicity there is a practical distinction in consciousness. But there is no essential difference of consciousness. There is no true division in its vision of itself.
- We must study and focus our attention on the point from which the Mind has fallen from high and vast wideness of the Truth-consciousness into the division and ignorance. This apprehending Truth-consciousness is much easier to our grasp as it is near to us. But the comprehending status of Truth-consciousness is remote from us. The barrier between our mental consciousness and the apprehending Truth-consciousness is less difficult to cross.
Chapter XVI – The Triple Status of Supermind
- Sachchidananda has two statuses. One is its primal status of pure infinite invariable consciousness. Second is its status of movement which is its form of Energy and instrument of cosmic creation. The first status forms the base and continent of its second status of movement which is the principle of Supermind with its Knowledge-Will. It is by the self-evolution of the Knowledge-Will the development of things in the universe is governed. In Supermind, Will and Knowledge are not in conflict with each other.
- In the principle of Supermind itself there are three general poises of its world-founding consciousness. The first one establishes the inalienable unity of things. The second poise modifies that unity so as to support the manifestation of the Many in One and One in Many. The third poise further modifies it so as to support the evolution of a diversified individuality.
- The first and primary poise of the Supermind establishes the inalienable unity of things. It is not the pure unitarian consciousness that relates to a timeless and spaceless concentration of Sachchidananda. On the contrary, the Supermind in its first poise is an equal self-extension of Sachchidananda. It is all-comprehending, all-possessing and all-constituting. All is held as One and not as separate.
- In the second poise, the Divine Consciousness stands back in the idea from the movement. It realises the idea by apprehending consciousness. The consciousness distributes itself in its names and forms. In each name and form it would realise itself as stable Conscious-Self. The Conscious-Self, in its distribution of itself in forms, is the same everywhere in soul essence yet it varies in soul form. This concentration supporting the soul form is the individual Divine or Jivatman.
- The individual Divine, the Jivatman sees its existence as a soul-form and soul-movement of the One. By its comprehending action of consciousness, it enjoys its unity with the One and with the other soul forms. By its apprehending action, it supports and enjoys its individual movement and its relations of a free difference in unity both with the One and with all its forms.
- In the third poise of the Supermind the supporting concentration would no longer stand at the back of the movement. But it is involved in the movement. The unity with the universal and other forms becomes the constant culmination of all experience. The unity with the One and with the multiplicity exist, each on its own right, not as a qualified one.
- The individual Divine is the true spiritual Individual in each and every existence. It would not make the unjustified claim that it is a separate existence. The individual Divine enjoys the joy of its unity with the One. It would insist on the joy of differentiation (in multiplicity) as a necessary condition to the fullness of the joy of the unity.
- The three poises of Supermind are only the different ways of dealing with the same Truth. Yet it would remain fixed within the status of Truth-consciousness. There would not be any lapse into the Falsehood and Ignorance.
- Oneness of consciousness is prior to everything. This priority is not in terms of time but in relation of consciousness. We deny the essential reality of the Many because they appear and disappear within the boundaries of Time. But their eternal recurrence of the manifestation in Time is a proof that the divine multiplicity is an eternal fact.
- Exclusive emphasis laid on one side of spiritual experience by our human mind led to mutually opposing philosophical systems. Wrong interpretation of the play of divine unity by our mind as real difference made the world appear as illusion (Adwaitic Monism). Wrong emphasis on the play of the One in the Many made us declare a qualified unity (Visishtadvaita). Wrong emphasis on the play of the difference made us assert that the Supreme and the human soul are eternally different (Dvaita).
- We affirm the absolute absoluteness of That, not limited by our ideas of unity, not limited by our ideas of multiplicity. We affirm that the unity is the basis for the manifestation of multiplicity; multiplicity is the basis for the return to oneness. With these affirmations taken by us, we need not burden ourselves with the discussions stated in the above three philosophies. We need not enslave the absolute freedom of the Divine Infinite to our mental distinctions and definitions.
Chapter XXI
The Ascent of Life
PARAGRAPH 2 (Contd…)
Precisely because the struggle for survival, the impulse towards permanence is contradicted by the law of death, the individual life is compelled, and used, to secure permanence rather for its species than for itself; but this it cannot do without the co-operation of others; and the principle of co-operation and mutual help, the desire of others, the desire of the wife, the child, the friend and helper, the associated group, the practice of association, of conscious joining and interchange are the seeds out of which flowers the principle of love.
EXPLANATION
Death contradicts the permanence of Life and the struggle for survival. Therefore, the individual Life is compelled and used to secure permanence for its species than for itself. Man has realised that the permanence he is seeking cannot be achieved at the individual level but it must be achieved at the collective level. This requires co-operation of others, mutual help, desire of others, friends and family and association and interchange with others. The co-operation and association with others form the seeds out of which the principle of love flowers. There is a growing tendency to include the interest of others than concerning with one’s own interest only.
Let us grant that at first love may only be an extended selfishness and that this aspect of extended selfishness may persist and dominate, as it does still persist and dominate, in higher stages of the evolution: still as mind evolves and more and more finds itself, it comes by the experience of life and love and mutual help to perceive that the natural individual is a minor term of being and exists by the universal. Once this is discovered, as it is inevitably discovered by man the mental being, his destiny is determined; for he has reached the point at which Mind can begin to open to the truth that there is something beyond itself; from that moment his evolution, however obscure and slow, towards that superior something, towards Spirit, towards supermind, towards supermanhood is inevitably predetermined.
EXPLANATION
Love is an extended selfishness. This aspect of extended selfishness may persist and dominate. It still persists and dominates in higher stages of evolution. The mind evolves, more and more it finds itself. Then it comes by experience of life and love and mutual help to realise that individual is only a minor portion of the entire scheme of life. He exists only by the universal.
Once man, the mental being, discovers this truth his destiny is determined. It means, he has reached a point where the Mind realises the truth that there is something beyond itself. This becomes a turning point in his evolutionary journey. His journey becomes predetermined towards something superior, towards supermind, towards Spirit and towards supermanhood.
PARAGRAPH 3
Therefore Life is predestined by its own nature to a third status, a third set of terms of its self-expression. If we examine this ascent of Life we shall see that the last terms of its actual evolution, the terms of that which we have called its third status, must necessarily be in appearance the very contradiction and opposite but in fact the very fulfilment and transfiguration of its first conditions. Life starts with the extreme divisions and rigid forms of Matter, and of this rigid division the atom, which is the basis of all material form, is the very type. The atom stands apart from all others even in its union with them, rejects death and dissolution under any ordinary force and is the physical type of the separate ego defining its existence against the principle of fusion in Nature.
EXPLANATION
We have seen in the previous paragraph that the evolutionary journey of the Life is predetermined towards the Supermind. Life is predestined towards this third status by its own nature and towards a third set of terms of its self-expression.
If we observe the ascent of Life the third status is the last terms of its actual evolution. The third status is the very opposite of its first status. But in fact, it is the very fulfilment and transfiguration of its first status.
Life starts with extreme divisions and rigid forms of matter. Atom is the very type of this rigid division. It forms the basis of all material form. The atom, though seemingly united, stands apart from others. Atoms cannot be destroyed under any ordinary force. Atom is the physical type of separate ego. It has a well-defined existence against the principle of fusion in Nature.
But unity is as strong a principle in Nature as division; it is indeed the master principle of which division is only a subordinate term, and to the principle of unity every divided form must therefore subordinate itself in one fashion or another by mechanical necessity, by compulsion, by assent or inducement. Therefore, if Nature for her own ends, in order principally to have a firm basis for her combinations and a fixed seed of forms, allows the atom ordinarily to resist the process of fusion by dissolution, she compels it to subserve the process of fusion by aggregation; the atom, as it is the first aggregate, is also the first basis of aggregate unities.
EXPLANATION
In Nature unity is as strong a principle as division. Unity is the master principle and division is its subordinate term. Every divided form must subordinate itself to the principle of unity. This can happen by mechanical necessity or by compulsion or by assent or by inducement.
Nature allows the atom to resist the process of fusion in order to have a firm basis for her combinations. Yet she compels the atom to subordinate itself to the process of fusion by aggregation. Atom is the first aggregate (of protons, electrons and neutrons). It is also the first basis of aggregate unities (atoms aggregate in large numbers to form the matter that we can see, feel or touch).