The Supermind and the Yoga of Works

The Supermind and the Yoga of Works 

Part 1
The ultimate aim of the Integral Yoga is the conversion of the whole being into a higher spiritual consciousness and a larger divine existence. This is the vital and indispensable element in its total and ultimate aim. This means that all the individual parts of our being of life as well as all our self and nature must seek the Divine. They must enter into the Infinite and unite with the Eternal. This applies to all our parts of being like will and action, knowledge, our thinking being and our emotional being. However the present nature of man is limited, divided and unequal. Therefore he can not embrace all in one go. It is easiest for him to concentrate in the strongest part of his being. He can then follow a definite line of progress which is proper to his nature. Only rare individuals have the strength to take a large immediate plunge straight into the sea of the Divine Infinity. For most others the path will involve the choosing as a starting point a concentration in thought, or contemplation, or the mind’s one-pointedness. This will eventually lead in the discovery of the eternal reality of the Self in them. While some may find it easy to withdraw into the heart and meet there the Divine, the Eternal. While for some others who are predominantly dynamic and active it will be more suitable to centre themselves in the will and consequently enlarge their being through works. They will have to surrender their will into the infinity of Self and the source of all and get united with it. They will be guided in their works by the secret Divinity within. They will be surrendered to the Lord of the cosmic action as the master and mover of all their energies of thought, feeling and action. Through this way they will have enlargement of their being into something selfless and universal. This will lead them by works some first stage of fullness of a spiritual status. One thing is certain. The Path, whatever its starting point, must eventually open up into a vaster dominion. Its result is the totality of integrated knowledge, emotion, will of dynamic action, perfection of the being and the entire nature. In the supramental consciousness on the level of the supramental existence this integration becomes consummate. At that level knowledge, will, emotion, the perfection of the will and the dynamic nature rise each to its absolute of itself. All rise to their perfect harmony. All rise towards the fusion with each other, to a divine integration and a divine perfection. This is because the Supermind is a Truth-Consciousness. In it the Divine Reality is fully manifested. It no longer works with the instrumentation of the Ignorance. It is a truth of status of being which is absolute. It becomes dynamic in a truth of energy and activity of the being. It is self-existent and perfect. There every movement is a movement of the self-aware truth of Divine Being. Every part is in entire harmony with the whole. In the Truth-Consciousness even the most limited and finite action is a movement of the Eternal and Infinite. It partakes of the inherent absoluteness and perfection of the Eternal and Infinite. An ascent into the supramental Truth raises our spiritual and essential consciousness to that height. At the same time it also brings about a descent of this Light and Truth into all our being and all our parts of nature. All then becomes part of the Divine Truth. It becomes an element and means of the supreme union and oneness. The ultimate aim of Integral Yoga is this ascent and descent. Thus one essential object of the Yoga is a union with the Divine Reality of our being and all being. It is necessary to keep this in mind. We must remember that our Yoga is not undertaken for the sake of the acquisition of Supermind itself. It is done for the sake of the Divine. We seek Supermind not for its own joy and greatness, but to make the union absolute and complete. Our aim is to feel it, possess it, dynamise it in every possible way of our being. We have to do it in its highest intensities and largest wideness. We have to do it in every range and turn and nook and recess of our nature. It is a mistake to think that the object of a supramental Yoga is to arrive at a mighty magnificence of supermanhood. The object is also not to acquire a divine power and greatness, the self-fulfilment of a magnified individual personality. This is a tempting thought for many. It is wrong. This is a false and disastrous conception. It is disastrous because it is likely to raise the pride, vanity and ambition of the rajasic vital mind in us. If we do not overpass and overcome this tendency, it will lead to spiritual downfall. It is false because it is an egoistic conception. The first condition of the supramental change is to get rid of ego. It is also most dangerous for the active and dynamic nature of the man of will and works. He can easily be led away by the pursuit of power. Power comes inevitably by the supramental change. It is a necessary condition for a perfect action. It is the Divine Shakti that comes and takes up the nature and the life. It is the power of the One which acts through the spiritual individual. It is not an aggrandizement of the personal force. It is also not the last crowning fulfilment of the separative mental and vital ego. Self-fulfilment is a natural result of the Yoga. However its aim is not the greatness of the individual. The sole aim is a spiritual perfection. It is a finding of the true self. It is to have union with the Divine by putting on the divine consciousness and nature. All the rest is a constituent detail and attendant circumstance. Ego-centric impulses, ambition, desire of power and greatness, motives of self-assertion are foreign to this greater consciousness. They would become an insuperable bar against any possibility of even a distant approach towards the supramental change. One must lose one’s little lower self to find the greater self. Union with the Divine must be the master motive. Even the discovery of the truth of one’s own being and of all being are only the natural results of that movement. Same with the life in that truth and its greater consciousness and perfection of nature. They are all natural results on the Path. They are the indispensable conditions of its entire consummation. They are part of the central aim only because they are a necessary development and a major consequence. Based on Sri Aurobindo – Synthesis of Yoga Pg 279-281 The Supermind and the Yoga of Works 28 May 2013

The Message of the Gita - Note 6

Gita Second Series Part 2 Chapter 24

The Message of the Gita

Note 6

….… contd from Note 5

[1]The Divine Being has three states of existence. These states are eternal. They are as follows :

1                   Eternal Immutable Self-Existence. It is the basis of all existent things. It supports them.

2                   Spirit which is mutable in Nature. It is manifested by her as all these existences.

3                   Transcendent Divine. It can be both of these two states as mentioned above at the same time. In other words, it can be a pure and silent Spirit and at the same time it can also be the active soul and life of the cycles of the universe. This is because he is something other and more than these two. It should be noted that this is true irrespective of whether we take them separately or together.

What dwells in us is Jiva. It is a spirit of this eternal Spirit which is the conscious power of the Supreme. He carries power of the Supreme in his deepest self. The whole of the immanent Divine is carried in him. As Nature he lives in the universal Divine. This Nature is not a temporary creation. It is an eternal soul acting and moving in the eternal Self – in the eternal Infinite.

This conscient soul in us can adopt either of these three states of the Spirit as explained above.

Man can live here exclusively in the mutability of Nature. In this state, he is ignorant of his real self as well as of the God-head within him. In this state he knows only the Nature. He sees her as a mechanical executive and creative Force.  He sees himself and others as her creations. He only perceives egos and the separated existences in her universe.

Superficially this describes the current existence of Man. He needs to exceed this outer consciousness. He need to have the knowledge of what is within him. Until this is realized, all his thought and science can only be a SHADOW OF LIGHT thrown upon screens and surfaces. The greater reality of God is lost to our view. This ignorance happens or we can even say it is IMPOSED, because the Godhead within us is hidden by the veil of his own power. Though his creations here are only his partial manifestation, he has completely identified himself with it.  He has let his mind get fully absorbed in the deceptive workings of his own Nature.

One of the reason why this is made possible is that the real, the eternal, the spiritual Nature is NOT manifest in their outward phenomena. [2]This Nature is the secret of things in themselves. What is manifested here is only a LOWER FORCE. This is what we see here when we look outwards. This lower force is what acts in our mind and body and senses. It is a derivation of the real thing, but not the real thing itself. Figuratively we can say that it is the Magician who creates figures of the Spirit while at the same time hides the Spirit in its figures. He conceals the truth and makes men look upon masks. It is a Force which is only capable of a sum of secondary and depressed values. It does not have the full power and glory and ecstasy and sweetness of the manifestation of the Divine.

This Nature in us is a Maya of the ego. It is a tangle of the dualities. It is a web of ignorance and the three Gunas. So long as the soul of man lives in the surface fact of mind and life and body, he can not see God and himself and the world as they really are. He can not overcome this Maya. He must do what he can with its terms and figures but not its original source. In order to transcend this tangle of dualities, Man need to live in his true self and spirit.

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………. Based on Essays on the Gita by Sri Aurobindo

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[1] Page 560

[2] Page 561

The Message of the Gita - Note 5

Gita Second Series Part 2 Chapter 24

The Message of the Gita

Note 5

…… contd from Note 4

The divine teacher continues with his message :

“Who is Supreme ? He is the Purushottama. He is eternal beyond all manifestation. He is infinite beyond all limitation by Time or Space or Causality of any of his numberless qualities and features.[1] However, it will be wrong to assume that because he is beyond all manifestation, he is least interested with the happenings in this world of mortals or that he is cut off from world and nature, or that he is aloof from all these things. It is true that he is the supreme ineffable Brahman. He is impersonal self. But it is also true that he is all PERSONAL existences. Spirit as well as life and matter, soul and Nature and the works of Nature are nothing else but aspects and movements of his infinite and eternal existence. Yes, he is the supreme transcendent Spirit. At the same time, all comes into manifestation from him and are his forms and his self-powers. There is no contradiction here. Both of his aspects are inter-related. In his nature of ‘ONE SELF’, he is here all-pervasive and equal and impersonal in man and animal and thing and object and every force of Nature. He is the supreme Soul and all souls are tireless flames of this one Soul. All living beings are in their spiritual personality deathless portions of the one Person or Purusha. He is the eternal Master of all manifested existence, Lord of the worlds and their creatures. He is the omnipotent originator of all actions. He is no bound by his work. To him go all action and effort and offerings. He is in all and all are in him. He has become all and yet too he is above all and not limited by his creations. He is the transcendent Divine. He descends as the Avatar. He is manifest by his power in the Vibhuti. He is the Godhead secret in every human  being. All the gods whom men worship are only personalities and forms and names and mental bodies of the one Divine Existence.

“The Supreme has manifested the world from his spiritual essence and in his own infinite existence. He has also manifested himself  variously in the world. All things are his powers and figures and to the powers and figures of him there is no end. This is because he himself is infinite. He is all pervading and containing impersonal self-existence. In this capacity he informs and sustains all this infinite manifestation in Time and the universe. He does this equally and without any partiality, preference or attachment to any person or thing or happening or feature. This pure and equal Self does not act, but supports impartially all the action of things. And yet it is the Supreme who in is aspect of the cosmic Spirit and the Time Spirit wills and conducts and determines the action of the world. He does this through his multitudinous power-to-be. This is the power of the Spirit which we call Nature. He creates, sustains and destroys his creations. He is seated too in the heart of every living creature. From this station he acts as a secret Power in the individual.[2] At the same time he also acts from his universal presence in the cosmos. He originates by force of Nature. He manifests some line of his mystery in quality of nature and in executive energy of nature. He shapes each thing and being separately according to its kind. He also initiates and upholds all action. The complex nature of the cosmos is created out of this transcendent first origination from the Supreme. It is caused by this constant universal and individual manifestation of Him in things and beings.

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………. Based on Essays on the Gita by Sri Aurobindo

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[1] Page 559

[2] Page 560

The Message of the Gita - Note 4

Gita Second Series Part 2 Chapter 24

The Message of the Gita

Note 4

…… contd from Note 3

The Divine Teacher continues in his message :

“Let us understand as to what and how this knowledge is made real and living to the mind, heart and life [1]? This is the knowledge which will have to be admitted by the understanding and supported by the soul’s faith. It is the knowledge of the supreme Soul and Spirit in its oneness and its wholeness. It is the knowledge of One who is eternal, beyond Time and Space. It is beyond name and form and world. It is high beyond his own personal and impersonal levels. At the same time, it is also the source of all. It is the One whom all manifests in manifold Nature and her multitude of figures. It is the knowledge of him as an impersonal eternal immutable Spirit, the calm and limitless thing we call Self. He is infinite, equal and always the same. He is unaffected and unmodified and unchanged. He  keeps this attribute even amid all this constant changing and all this multitude of individual personalities. And even amid all the soul powers and Nature powers. And even amid all the forms and forces and eventualities of this transitory and apparent existence.

On the other hand, it is also exactly OPPOSITE of what is described above. It is the knowledge of him at the same time as the Spirit and Power who seems ever mutable in Nature. He is the Inhabitant who shapes himself to every form and modifies himself to every grade and degree and activity of his power. He is also the Spirit who, becoming all that is even while he is for ever infinitely more than all that is. He dwells in man and animal and thing, subject and object. He dwells in soul and mind and life and matter. In fact, he dwells in every existence and every force and every creature.

“It is not by insisting only on this or that side of the truth that you can practice this Yoga. There are multitude of ways to approach him. The Divine whom you have to seek, the Self whom you have to discover, the supreme Soul of whom your soul is an eternal portion, is simultaneously all these things[2]. You have to know them simultaneously in a supreme oneness. You have to enter into all of them at once and in all states and all things see Him alone. If he were solely the Spirit mutable in Nature, there would be only an eternal and universal becoming.  If you limit your faith and knowledge to that one aspect, you will get stuck in your personality and its constant changeful figures. You will be tied to the revolutions in Nature if you were to base your understanding on such a foundation.

“But you are not merely a succession of soul moments in Time.  There is an impersonal self in you which supports the stream of your personality. It is one with God’s vast and impersonal spirit. These are the two opposite poles of your existence. Both are true. But your real existence is even beyond this. It is incalculable beyond this impersonality and personality. It is dominating these two constant poles of what you are here. You are eternal and transcendent in the Eternal Transcendence.

“Let us look at it from different perspective. If we assume that only truth is that of an eternal impersonal self that neither acts nor creates, then there is no real basis to your soul or the world. In such a case, the world and your soul would be illusions without any real basis. If you limit your faith and knowledge to this one lonely aspect, then the renunciation of life and action is your only resource. But God in the world and you in the world are realities. It is NOT an ILLUSION. The world and you are true and actual powers and manifestations of the Supreme. Therefore accept life and action and do not reject them. Be one with God in your impersonal self and essence. Be an eternal portion of the Godhead. Turn to God by the love and adoration of your spiritual personality for its own Infinite. Make of your natural being what it is intended to be - an instrument of works, a channel, a power of the Divine. Anyway, that it always is in its truth – whether you are conscious or not of this knowledge. At present you are acting unconsciously and imperfectly through the lower nature. It is doomed to a disfigurement of the Godhead by your ego. Therefore AWAKE and be AWARE of your true nature. Do not let it be distorted by your ego. Make it consciously and perfectly a power of the Divine in his supreme spiritual nature. Make it a vehicle of his will and his works. In this way you will live in the integral truth of your own being. You will possess the integral God-union, the whole and flawless Yoga.

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………. Based on Essays on the Gita by Sri Aurobindo

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[1] Page 557

[2] 558

The Message of the Gita - Note 3

Note 3                                                                                    …… contd from Note 2

The ignorance of inner things hides the real soul and self of us from our intelligence[1]. It is caused by a false identification and by an absorption in our outward mechanism of mind, life and body. When the active soul of man draws back from this identification with its natural instruments, then all is changed to it. He needs to see and live in the entire faith of its inner reality. Then life and existence take on another appearance. The action takes a different meaning and character. Our being then becomes no longer this little egoistic creation of Nature. It becomes the largeness of a divine, immortal and spiritual Power.  [2]Our consciousness no longer remains limited and struggling mental and vital creature. It becomes an infinite, divine and spiritual consciousness. Similarly, our will and action exceed the limitations of this bounded personality and its ego.  It then becomes a divine and spiritual will and action. It is the will and power of the Universal, the Supreme, the All-Self and Spirit acting freely through the human figure.

The message of the Godhead in man, the Avatar, the divine Teacher is as follows :

“This is the great change and transfiguration. Only the select few are called for this venture by me. These men are those who can turn their will away from the ignorance of the natural instruments. They need to focus it on the soul’s deepest experience, its knowledge of the inner self and spirit. They need to dwell on its contact with the Godhead and its power to enter into the Divine. The elect are all who can accept this faith and this greater law.

For a human being whose intellect is always attached to its own cloud-forms and half-lights of ignorance, this Path is extremely difficult. They get lost in the obscurer habits of man’s mental, nervous and physical parts. On the other hand, once a man is able to turn his gaze inwards and be in constant contact with his true soul, the Path becomes easy and sure. This is because then it gets identical with the true truth of man’s being. It is the authentic movement of his inmost and supreme nature.

“ This change is a very great one. It is an enormous transformation. It cannot be done without an entire turning and conversion of your whole being and nature. For this to happen, it is necessary to have a complete consecration of your self, nature and life to the Highest and to nothing else but the Highest. All life and activity must be held only for the sake of the Highest. Nothing should be accepted except as it is in god and a form of God. It should be done only for the sake of the Divine. There will be needed an admission of a new truth.  There has to be an entire turn and giving of your mind to a new knowledge of self and others. There will be a new vision of the world and God and soul and Nature. It is a knowledge of oneness and of universal Divinity. It will at first be an acceptance by the understanding mind. Thereafter it becomes in the end a vision, a consciousness, a permanent state of the soul and a frame of its movements.

“There will be needed a will that shall turn this new knowledge, vision and consciousness into a motive of action. It will surely be its sole motive. It must not be a grudging action which is  limited and  confined to a few necessary operations of Nature. It should also not be limited to the few things that seem helpful to a formal perfection, pertinent to a religious turn or to an individual salvation. [3]It must be an all encompassing action of human life which is taken up by the  spirit based in equality. It need to be done for the sake of God and the good of all creatures. There will be needed an uplifting of the heart in a single aspiration to the Highest. It should be single love of the Divine Being, a single God-adoration. And there must be a widening too of the calmed and enlightened heart to embrace God in all beings. There will be needed a change from his present state of the habitual and normal nature to a supreme and divine spiritual nature. There will be needed in a word a Yoga. It shall be at once a Yoga of integral knowledge, integral will and its works, integral love, adoration and devotion. It will be a Yoga of an integral spiritual perfection of the whole being as well as of all its parts, states, powers and motions.

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………. Based on Essays on the Gita by Sri Aurobindo

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[1] Page 555

[2] Page 556

[3] Page 557

The Message of the Gita - Note 2

Note 2                                                                                       …… contd from Note 1

From the perspective of the outer appearance the truth of existence centers around Nature or Prakriti[1]. Nature is a Force that operates as the whole law and mechanism of being. It creates the world which is the object of our mind and senses. Going backwards towards the root cause, it also creates the mind and senses. It uses them as a means of relation between the creature and the objective world in which he lives. In this outer appearance man seems to be a creature of Nature. All of his soul, his mind, his life and his body is a creature of Nature. He is differentiated from others by a separation of his body, life and mind – especially by his ego-sense. This subtle mechanism seems to be specially constructed for him for a purpose. It’s purpose is to enable Man to confirm and to centralize his consciousness with a sense of strong separateness and difference. Each part of Man’s existence is very evidently determined by the law of his nature. This includes his soul of mind and its action as well as the functioning of his life and body. He can not escape from this law. He can not function in any other manner. He has a feeling of freedom arising out of his personal will, the will of his ego. However in reality it amounts to nothing. This is because his ego is nothing else but a sense. This sense causes an error and it makes him falsely identify himself with the creation that Nature has made of him. This creation is constructed of varying mind and life and body of Man. In other words, his ego is itself a product of the working of Nature. It does NOT have an independent existence outside of his Nature. There is no final reality to it. In a similar manner, his will is itself a product of Nature. He must act according to his Nature – though with a false impression of a free will. In reality he has no freedom to act.

This is the reality of man’s ordinary consciousness of himself[2]. This is his faith in his own being. He is a creature of Nature. His is a separate ego establishing whatever relations with others and with the world. He may be making whatever development of himself, satisfying whatever will, desire, idea of his mind. All this is in reality restricted to what is permissible in the circle of Nature and consonant with her intention or law in his existence.

However, at the same time, there is something in man’s consciousness which does not fall in with the rigidity of this formula. He has a faith which progressively grows with the development of his soul.  This faith is in another and an inner reality of existence – penetrating the outer appearance. In this inner reality the truth of existence is no longer Nature but Soul and Spirit. It is Purusha rather than Prakriti. Nature herself is only a power of Spirit. Prakriti is a Force of the Purusha. A Spirit, a Self, a being which is one in all is the true Master of this World. This world is only a partial manifestation of his soul. This Spirit is the upholder of Nature and her action. It is the giver of the sanction by which alone her law becomes imperative. It is her force and it makes her ways operative. The Spirit immanent in Nature is the Knower. He illuminates Nature and makes her conscient in us. This Will is the immanent and superconscient force which inspires and motives the workings of Nature. The soul in man is a portion of this Divinity. It shares his nature. Our nature is our soul’s manifestation. It operates by its sanction. It embodies its secret self-knowledge and self-consciousness. Its will of being in her motions and forms and causes changes in existence.

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………. Based on Essays on the Gita by Sri Aurobindo

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[2] Page 555