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