The Riddle of This World by Sri Aurobindo

8/12/2019 The Riddle of This World by Sri Aurobindo

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The Riddle of This World

Sri Aurobindo


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Table o f Contents

A Far Greater TruthSupernals

The Graded WorldsThe Ascending and The Descending MovementWestern Metaphysics and YogaThe Agnostic and The Vedantic UnknowableDoubts and The DivineThe Valley o f The Fa lse G limmerThe I ntermediate Z one

A Problem of FaithThe Triune GodheadSome Spiritual DilemmasRebirth and PersonalityThe R iddle o f This World


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Publishers Note

The writ

issued by him in answer t o questions raised by disciples or o thersinterested in Yoga and spiritual life, or as in the Valley of the FalseGlimmer were observations on letters from outside submitted forcomment. As t hey are of general interest and touch problems o ftenraised in relation to spiritual truth and experience, they have beenbrought together here a nd published under a s ingle co nnected title.


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We have to have the faith that in spite of our ignorance a nd errorsand weaknesses a nd in spite of the attacks o f hostile forces a nd in

spite of a ny immediate appearance of f ailure the Divine Will isleading us, through every ci rcumstance, towards the f inal Realisation.This faith will give us equanimity; it i s a faith that a ccepts whathappens, not d efinitively but a s something that h as to be gonethrough on the w ay.

Sri Aurobindo


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A FAR GREATER TRUTH

I MEANT by it the descent of the supramental consciousness u ponearth; all truths below the supramental (even that o f t he highestspiritual on the mental plane, which is the highest t hat h as yetmanifested) ar e either p artial o r r elative or o therwise deficient a ndunable to transform the earthly life; they can only at most modify andinfluence it. The Supermind is t he vast Truth-consciousness of which theancient seers s poke; there have been glimpses o f it till now, sometimesan indirect influence or pressure, but it has n ot been brought down intothe co nsciousness of the e arth and fixed there. To so bring it down is theaim of our Yoga.

But i t i s b etter not to enter into sterile intellectual discussions. Theintellectual mind cannot even realise what the supermind is; what use,then, can there be in allowing it to discuss w hat it does n ot know? I t isnot by reasoning but by constant experience, growth of consciousnessand widening into the Light that one can reach those higher levels o fconsciousness above the intellect from which one can begin to look u pto the Divine Gnosis. Those levels ar e not yet the Supermind, but theycan receive so mething of its knowledge.

The Vedic Rishis perhaps d id not even make the attempt. They tried to rise individuallyto the su pramental plane, but they d id not bring it down and make it apermanent part of the earth-consciousness. Even there are verses o f theUpanishad in which it is h inted that it is i mpossible to pass through thegates o f the Sun (the symbol of the Supermind) and yet retain an earthlybody. It w as because of t his failure that the spiritual effort o f I ndiaculminated in Mayavada. Our Yoga i s a d ouble m ovement of ascent anddescent; one rises t o higher and higher levels o f consciousness, but atthe s ame t ime o ne b rings down their power not only into mind and life,but in the end even into the body. And the highest of these l evels, the


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one at which it aims i s t he Supermind. Only w hen that can be broughtdown is a d ivine transformation possible in the earth-consciousness.

May 4, 1930


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SUPERNALS

IDO not think exact correlations c an always b e traced between onesystem of spiritual and occult knowledge and another. All deal with thesame material, but t here are differences of standpoint, differences ofview-range, a divergence in the mental idea of what i s seen andexperienced, disparate pragmatic p urposes and therefore a d ifference inthe paths surveyed, cut out or followed; the systems vary, eachconstructs its own schema an d technique.

In the ancient I ndian system there is only one triune supernal,Sachchidananda. Or if you speak of the upper hem isphere as t hesupernal, there are three, Sat plane, Chit plane and Ananda plane. TheSupermind could be a dded as a f ourth, as it draws upon the o ther threeand belongs to the upper hem isphere. The Indian systems d id notdistinguish between two quite different powers and levels ofconsciousness, one which we can call Overmind and the other the trueSupermind or Divine Gnosis. That is t he reason why they got confusedabout M aya (Overmind-Force or Vidya-Avidya), and took it f or t hesupreme creative power. In so stopping short at what was s till a half-light t hey lost the secret of t ransformation even though theVaishnava and Tantra Yogas groped to find it agai n and weresometimes o n the verge of success . For the rest, this, I think, has b eenthe stumbling-block of all attempts at t he discovery of the dynamicdivine Truth; I know of none that has n ot imagined, as s oon as i t felt theOvermind lustres descen ding, that t his was the true illumination, theGnosis, with the result that they either stopped short there and couldget no farther, or else concluded that this t oo was o nly M aya or Lila andthat the o ne t hing to do was to get beyond it into some i mmovable an dinactive silence of the Supreme.

Perhaps, what m ay be meant b y supernals is rather t he threefundamentals of the present manifestation. In the Indian system, these


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are Ishwara, Shakti and Jiva, or else Sachchidananda, Maya and Jiva. Butin our system which seeks t o go beyond the present m anifestation,these co uld very w ell be t aken for granted and, looked at from the p ointof view of the planes o f consciousness, the three highest Ananda(with Sat and Chit resting upon it), Supermind and Overmind might becalled the three Supernals. Overmind stands at t he top of the lowerhemisphere, and you have to pass t hrough and beyond Overmind, ifyou would reach Supermind, while still above and beyond Supermindare t he w orlds of Sachchidananda.

You speak o f the gulf below the Overmind. But is there a g ulf orany other g ulf than human unconsciousness? In all the series of theplanes or grades of consciousness there is nowhere any r eal gulf, alwaysthere are connecting gradations an d one can ascend from step to step.Between the Overmind and the human mind there are a number ofmore and more luminous g radations; but, as t hese are super-conscientto human mind (except one or two of the lowest of which it gets somedirect touches), it i s a pt to regard them as a superior I nconscience. Soone of the Upanishads s peaks o f the Ishwara consciousness as susupti,deep Sleep, because it is o nly in Samadhi that man usually enters i nto it,so long as he d oes n ot try t o turn his waking consciousness into a h igherstate.

There are, in forganisation of the being and its parts: one is concentric, a series ofrings o r sheaths w ith the psychic at t he centre; another is v ertical, anascen sion and descent, like a flight o f steps, a series o f superimposedplanes with the Supermind-Overmind as the crucial nodus of t hetransition beyond the human into the Divine. For this t ransition, if it is t obe at the same time a transformation, there is o nly one way, one path.First, there must b e a conversion inwards, a going within to find theinmost p sychic being and bring it o ut t o the front, disclosing at t hesame time the inner mind, inner vital, inner physical parts o f the nature.Next, there must be an ascension, a ser ies o f conversions upwards and aturning down to convert t he lower parts. When one has m ade the

inward conversion, one psychicises the whole lower n ature so as t o


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make i t ready f or the divine change. Going upwards, one passes b eyondthe human mind and at each stage of the ascent, there is a con versioninto a n ew consciousness and an infusion of this new consciousness intothe whole of the nature. Thu s rising beyond intellect throughilluminated higher mind to the intuitive consciousness, we begin to lookat ev ery thing not f rom the intellect r ange or t hrough intellect as aninstrument, but from a greater intuitive height and through anintuitivised will, feeling, emotion, sensation and physical contact. So,proceeding from Intuition to a greater Overmind height, there is a n ewconversion and we look at and experience everything from theOvermind consciousness an d through a mind, heart, vital and bodysurcharged with the Overmind thought, sight, will, feeling, sensation,

play of force and contact. But the last conversion is t he supramental, foronce t here once t he nature is supramentalised, we are beyond theIgnorance and conversion of con sciousness is no longer needed,though a f arther divine progression, even an infinite development is s tillpossible.

April 16, 1931


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THE GRADED WORLDS

IF W E regard the g radation of worlds or planes as a w hole, we s ee themas a great connected complex movement; the higher precipitate theirinfluences o n the lower, the lower r eact to the higher and develop ormanifest in themselves within their own formula something thatcorresponds t o the superior power an d its act ion. The material worldhas ev olved life in obedience to a pressure from the vital plane, mind inobedience to a pressure from the mental plane. It i s n ow trying toevolve supermind in obedience to a pressure from the supramentalplane. In more detail, particular f orces, movements, powers, beings o f ahigher world can throw themselves on the lower to establishappropriate a nd corresponding forms which will connect them with thematerial domain and, as i t were, reproduce or project their action here.And each thing created here has, supporting it, subtler en velopes orforms o f itself which make it subsist and connect i t w ith forces actingfrom above. Man, for i nstance, has, besides his gross physical body,subtler s heaths o r b odies by which he lives b ehind the veil in directconnection with supra-physical planes of consciousness and can beinfluenced by t heir powers, movements and beings. What takes p lace i nlife has al ways b ehind it p re-existent m ovements and forms in theoccult vital planes; what takes p lace in mind presupposes p re-existentmovements and forms in the occult mental planes. That is an aspect of

things which becomes more an d more e vident, insistent and important,the m ore w e p rogress in a d ynamic Yoga.

But all this m ust not be taken in too rigid and mechanical a sense. Itis a n immense plastic movement f ull of the play of possibilities andmust b e seized by a flexible and subtle tact or s ense in the seeingconsciousness. It cannot b e reduced to a too rigorous logical ormathematical formula. Two or three points m ust be pressed in order

that this p lasticity may not be lost to our view.


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First, each plane, in spite of its connection with others a bove andbelow it, is ye t a world in itself, with its o wn movements, forces, beings,types, forms e xisting as i f for its an d their own sake, under its o wn laws,for its own manifestation without apparent regard for the othermembers o f the great series. Thus, if we regard the vital or the subtlephysical p lane, we see great ranges of i t, (most of i t), existing inthemselves, without any relation with the material world and with nomovement to affect or influence it, s till less to precipitate acorresponding manifestation in the physical formula. At most we cansay that t he existence of anything in the vital, subtle physical or an yother p lane creates a possibility for a corresponding movement o fmanifestation in the physical world. But something more is n eeded to

turn that st atic or l atent p ossibility into a dynamic potentiality or anactual urge towards a material creation. That something may be a callfrom the material plane, e.g., some force or someone on the physicalexistence entering into touch with a supra-physical power o r world orpart of it and moved to bring it down into the earth-life. Or it may be animpulse in the vital or o ther p lane itself, e.g., a vital being moved toextend his act ion towards t he earth and establish there a kingdom for

himself or the play of the forces f or which he stands i n his o wn domain.Or it may be a pressure from above; let us s ay, some supramental ormental power p recipitating its f ormation from above and developingforms an d movements o n the vital level as a means o f transit to its s elf-creation in the material world. Or i t m ay be all these things actingtogether, in which case there is t he greatest possibility of an effectivecreation.

Next, as a consequence, it f ollows that o nly a limited part o f theaction of the vital or other h igher plane is co ncerned with the earth-existence. But e ven this creates a mass of p ossibilities which is fargreater t han the earth can at one time manifest or contain in its o wnless p lastic formulas. All these possibilities do not r ealise themselves;some fail altogether and leave at t he most an idea that comes tonothing; some try ser iously a nd are repelled and defeated and, even if in

action for a time, c ome to nothing. Others effectuate a half


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manifestation, and this i s t he most usual result, the more so as t hesevital or other supraphysical forces co me into conflict and have not onlyto overcome the resistance of the physical consciousness and of matterbut their own internecine resistance to each other. A certain numbersucceed in precipitating their results i n a more complete and success fulcreation, so that i f yo u compare this creation with its original in thehigher p lane, there is s omething like a close resemblance or even anapparently exact reproduction or translation from the supraphysical tothe physical formula. And yet even there the exactness is only a pparent;the very f act of translation into another substance and another rhythmof m anifestation makes a difference. It i s something new that h asmanifested and it is t hat that makes t he creation worthwhile. What, for

instance, would be the utility of a supramental creation on earth if itwere just the same thing as a s upramental creation on the supramentalplane? I t is t hat, in principle, but yet something else, a triumphant newself-discovery o f the Divine in conditions that are not elsewhere.

No doubt, the subtle physical is cl osest to the physical, and most likeit. But ye t t he conditions a re different an d the thing too different. Forinstance, the subtle physical has a freedom, plasticity, intensity, power,colour, wide a nd manifold play (there a re t housands of things there t hatare not here) of which, as ye t, we have no possibility on earth. And yetthere is s omething here, a potentiality of the Divine which the other, inspite of its g reater l iberties,hasnot, something which makes cr eationmore difficult, but in the last result justifies t he labour.

September 1, 1930


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THE ASCENDING AND THE DESCENDINGMOVEMENT

THE TWO movements w hose apparent c ontradiction confuses y ourmind, are the two ends of a single consciousness w hose motions, nowseparated from each other, must join if the life-power is t o have its m oreand more perfect action and fulfillment or the transformation for whichwe hope.

The vital is a latent dynamic p ower of the higher consciousness t hrough whichthe Divine Truth can act, take hold of the vital and its l ife-force and use itfor a g reater purpose here.

The Life-Force action of the Divine Power o n the material world and the physicalnature. It is t herefore only when this vi tal is t ransformed and made apure and strong instrument of the Divine Shakti, that there can be adivine life. Then only can there be a success ful transformation of thephysical nature or a free perfected divine action on the external world;for with our present means an y such action is i mpossible. That is w hyyou feel that the v ital movement gives all the e nergy o ne ca n need, thatall things ar e possible by this en ergy and that you can get w ith it anyexperience you like, whether g ood or bad, of the ordinary or of the

spiritual life,and that also is w hy, when this en ergy comes, you feelpower p ervading the body-consciousness an d its m atter. As f or t hecontact with the Mother i n the vital and your sense of the fine, themagnificent exp erience it was, that t oo is n atural and right; for thevital, no less t han the psychic and every other part of the being, has t ofeel the Divine Mother and give itself entirely to her.

But this m ust always be remembered that the vital being and the

life-force in man are separated from the Divine Light and, so separated,


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they are an instrument for any power t hat can take hold of them,illumined or o bscure, divine or u ndivine. Ordinarily, the vital energyserves t he common obscure or h alf-conscious movements of thehuman mind and human life, its n ormal ideas, interests, passions an ddesires. But i t i s possible for t he vital energy to increase beyond theordinary limits an d, if so increased, it can attain an impetus, an intensity,an excitation or s ublimation of its f orces by which it can become, isalmost bound to become an instrument either of divine powers, thepowers o f the gods, or of Asuric forces. Or, if there is n o settled centralcontrol in the nature, its act ion can be a confused mixture of theseopposites, or in an inconsequent oscillation servenow one a nd now theother. It is n ot enough then to have a great vital energy acting in you; it

must b e put i n contact w ith the higher c onsciousness, it m ust b esurrendered to the true control, it must be placed under thegovernment o f t he Divine. That i s why there is sometimes felt acontempt f or t he action of the vital force or a condemnation of it,because it h as an insufficient l ight an d control and is w edded to anignorant undivine movement. That also is w hy there is t he necessity ofopening to inspiration and power from a h igher source. The v ital energy

by itself leads n owhere, runs i n chequered, often painful and ruinouscircles, takes e ven to the precipice because it has no right guidance; itmust be connected with the dynamic power of the higherconsciousness an d with the Divine Force acting through it for a greatand luminous purpose.

There are two movements necessaestablished. One is upward; the vital rises to join with the higher

consciousness an d steeps i tself in the light and in the impulsion of ahigher force: t he other is downward; t he vital r emains silent,tranquillised, pure, empty of the ordinary movements, waiting, till thedynamic power f rom above descends i nto it, changes i t to its t rue selfand informs i ts m ovements w ith knowledge as w ell as p ower. That iswhy t he sadhaka feels sometimes t hat he is rising up into a h appier andnobler consciousness, entering into a brighter domain and purer

experience, but sometimes, on the contrary, feels t he necessity of going


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back into the vital, doing sadhana there and bringing down into it thetrue consciousness. There is n o real contradiction between these twomovements; they are complementary an d necessary t o each other, theasce nsion enabling the divine descent, the descent f ulfilling that f orwhich the ascension aspires an d which it makes inevitable.

When you rise with the vital from its l ower reaches an d join it to thepsych ic, then your vital being fills w ith the pure aspiration and devotionnatural to the psychic; at the same time it gives t o the feelings i ts o wnabundant energy, it makes t hem dynamic for the change of the wholenature down to the most physical and for the bringing down of thedivine consciousness i nto earth matter. When it not only touches t hepsychic b ut fuses w ith the higher mind, it is ab le to come into contactwith and obey a greater l ight an d knowledge. Ordinarily, the vital iseither moved by the human mind and governed by its m ore or lessignorant dictates, or takes vi olent hold of this m ind and uses i t for thesatisfaction of i ts own passions, impulses or d esires. Or i t m akes amixture of these two movements; for the ordinary human mind is t ooignorant for a better action or a perfect guidance. But when the vital isin contact with the higher m ind, it is p ossible for it to be guided by agreater l ight an d knowledge, by a higher i ntuition and inspiration, atruer d iscrimination and some revelations o f the divine truth and thedivine will. This o bedience of the vital to the psychic and the highermind is t he beginning of the outgoing of the Yogic co nsciousness in itsdynamic act ion upon life.

But this t oo is n ot sufficient for the divine life. To come into contactwith the higher m ind consciousness is not en ough, it i s only anindispensable stage. There must be a descent of the Divine Force fromyet loftier an d more powerful reaches. A transformation of the higherconsciousness i nto a supramental light and power, a transformation ofthe vital and its l ife-force into a pure, wide, calm, intense and powerfulinstrument of the Divine Energy, a transformation of the physical itselfinto a form of divine light, divine action, strength, beauty and joy areimpossible without this descending Force from the now invisible

summits. That is why i n this Yoga t he ascent to the Divine which it has i n


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common with other paths of Yoga is not enough; there must be too adescent of the Divine to transform all the energies o f the mind, life andbody.

November 28, 1929


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WESTERN METAPHYSICS AND YOGA

EUROPEAN metaphysical thought even in those t hinkers who try t oprove or explain the existence an d nature of God or of the Absolute does not i n its m ethod and result g o beyond the intellect. But t heintellect is i ncapable of knowing the supreme Truth; it can only rangeabout seeking for Truth, and catching fragmentary r epresentations of it,not the thing itself and trying to piece them together. Mind cannotarrive at Tr uth; it can only make some constructed figure that t ries torepresent i t o r a combination of figures. At t he end of Europeanthought, therefore, there must al ways be Agnosticism, declared orimplicit. Intellect, if itoes ncerely to itswn end, has t o return andgive this r eport: I cannot know; there is, or at l east it seems t o me thatthere may be or even must be Something beyond, some ultimateReality, but about its t ruth I can only speculate; it is e ither unknowableor cannot be kn own by m e. Or, if it has received some l ight on the w ayfrom what is b eyond it, it can say too: There is p erhaps a co nsciousnessbeyond Mind, for I seem to catch glimpses o f it a nd even to getintimations f rom it. If that is i n touch with the Beyond or if it is i tself theconsciousness of the Beyond and you can find some way t o reach it,then this Something can b e kn own but not otherwise.

Any s eeking of the sup reme Truth through intellect alone m ust endeither in Agnosticism of this ki nd or else in some intellectual system ormind-constructed formula. There have been hundreds o f these systemsand formulas and there can be hundreds m ore, but none can bedefinitive. Each may have its va lue for the mind, and different systemswith their contrary conclusions can have an equal app eal t ointelligences of eq ual po wer and competence. All t his labour ofspeculation has i ts u tility in trainingthehuman mind and helping tokeep before it the idea of Something beyond and Ultimate towards

which it must turn. But the intellectual Reason can only p oint vaguely o r


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feel gropingly towards i t or try to indicate partial and even conflictingaspects o f its m anifestation here; it cannot enter into and know it. Aslong as we remain in the domain of the intellect on ly, an impartialpondering over al l that has b een thought and sought after, a constantthrowing up of ideas, of all the possible ideas, and the formation of thisor t hat p hilosophical belief, opinion or co nclusion is all that ca n bedone. This ki nd of disinterested search after Tr uth would be the onlypossible attitude for any wide and plastic intelligence. B ut anyconclusion so arrived at w ould be only speculative; it could have nospiritual value; it would not give the decisive experience or the spiritualcertitude for w hich the soul is seeking. If t he intellect i s our h ighestpossible instrument and there is n o other m eans o f arriving at supra-

physical Truth, then a w ise and large Agnosticism must be our ultimateattitude. Things in the manifestation may be known to some degree,but the Supreme and all that is be yond the Mind must remain foreverunknowable.

It is o nly if there is a greater consciousness b eyond Mind and thatconsciousness i s acc essible to us t hat we can know and enter into theultimate Reality. I ntellectual speculation, l ogical r easoning as towhether there is o r is n ot such a greater consciousness cannot carry usvery far. What we need is a way to get t he experience of it, to reach it,enter i nto it, live in it. If w e can get t hat, intellectual speculation andreasoning must f all necessarily into a very secondary place and evenlose their reason for existence. Philosophy, intellectual expression of the

Truth may adiscovery and as m uch of its co ntents as can at al l be expressed in

mental terms to those w ho still live in the mental intelligence. This, you wil

Bradley and others, who have arrived through intellectual thinking atthe idea of an Other beyond Thought or have even, like Bradley, triedto express t heir conclusions a bout i t i n terms t hat r ecall some of theexpressions i n the Arya. The idea in itself is n ot new; it is a s o ld as t heVedas. It was r epeated in other forms i n Buddhism, Christian Gnosticism,

Sufism. Originally, it was n ot discovered by intellectual speculation, but


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by t he mystics following an inner spiritual discipline. When, somewherebetween the seventh and fifth centuries B .C., men began both in theEast and West to intellectualise knowledge, this T ruth survived in theEast; in the West where the intellect began to be accep ted as t he sole orhighest instrument for the discovery of Truth, it began to fade. But still ithas there too tried constantly to return; the Neo-Platonists brought i tback, and now, it ap pears, the Neo-Hegelians and others (e.g., theRussian Ouspensky an d one or two German thinkers, I believe) seem tobe reaching after it. But still there is a difference.

In the East, especially in India, the metaphysical thinkers h ave tried,as i n the West, to determine the nature of the highest Truth by theintellect. But, in the firstplace,they have not given mental thinking thesupreme rank as an instrument in the discovery of Truth, but only asecondary status. The first r ank has always been given to spiritualintuition and illumination and spiritual e xperience; an intellectualconclusion that contradicts this Supreme authority is held invalid.Secondly, each philosophy has armed itself with a practical way ofreaching to the supreme state of consciousness, so that even when onebegins w ith Thought, the aim is t o arrive at a consciousness b eyondmental t hinking. Each philosophical founder (as also those whocontinued his w ork o r school) has b een a metaphysical thinker doubledwith a Yogi. Those who were only philosophic intellectuals wererespected for t heir l earning, but n ever t ook rank as truth-discoverers.And the philosophies that l acked a sufficiently powerful means ofspiritual experience died out and became things o f the past, becausethey were not dynamic f or spiritual discovery and realisation.

In the West it was j ust the opposite that came to pass. Thought,intellect, the logicalreasoncame to be regarded more and more as t hehighest means an d even the highest end; in philosophy, Thought is thebe-all and the end-all. It is b y intellectual thinking and speculation thatthe truth is to be discovered; even spiritual experience has beensummoned to pass t he tests o f the intellect, if it is t o be held valid

just

mental Thought must be overpassed and admit a s upramental Other,


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do not seem to escape from the f eeling that it must be t hrough mental Thought,

be reached and made to take the place of the mental limitation andignorance. And, again, Western thought has ceas ed to be dynamic; ithas sought a fter a theory of t hings, not a fter r ealisation. It w as stilldynamic am ongst the ancient Greeks, but for moral and aesthetic r atherthan spiritual ends. Later on, it became yet more purely intellectual andacademic; it became intellectual speculation only without any p racticalways an d means for the a ttainment of the T ruth by s piritual experiment,spiritual discovery, a spiritual transformation. If t here were not thisdifference, there would be no reason for seekers l ike yourself to turn tothe East f or g uidance; for i n the purely intellectual field, the Western

thinkers ar e as co mpetent as any E astern sage. It is t he spiritual way, theroad that l eads beyond the intellectual levels, the passage from theouter b eing to the inmost Sel f, which has b een lost b y the over-intellectuality of the mind of Europe.

In the extracts yo u have sent me from Bradley and Joachim, it is s tillthe intellect t hinking about w hat i s b eyond itself and coming to anintellectual, a r easoned speculative conclusion about it. It is not dynamicfor t he change which it at tempts to describe. If t hese writers wereexpressing in mental terms some realisation, even mental, someintuitive experience of this Other than Thought, then one ready for itmight feel it through the v eil of the l anguage t hey use a nd himself drawnear t o the same experience. Or i f, having reached the intellectualconclusion, they had passed on to the spiritual realisation, finding theway o r following one a lready f ound, then in pursuing their thought, one

might be preparing oneself for the same transition. But there is n othingof the kind in all this s trenuous t hinking. It remains i n the domain of theintellect an d in that d omain it is n o doubt admirable; but it does n otbecome d ynamic f or spiritual experience.

It i s not b y thinking out t he entire reality, but b y a change ofconsciousness that one can pass from the i gnorance t o the Knowledge the Knowledge by which we become what we know. To pass from

the external to a direct an d intimate inner co nsciousness; to widen


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consciousness out of the limits o f the ego and the body; to heighten itby an inner will and aspiration and opening to the Light till it passes i nits as cent beyond Mind; to bring down a descent of the supramentalDivine through self-giving and surrender with a consequenttransformation of mind, life and body this i s t he integral way t o the

Truth. 1 It is t his that we call the Truth here and aim at in our Yoga. June 15, 1930

[1] I have said that the idea of the Supermind was already in existence from ancient times.There was in India and elsewhere the attempt to reach it by rising to it; but what was

missed was the way to ma e it integral for the life and to bring it down for transformationof the whole nature! even of the physical nature.


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THE AGNOSTIC AND THE VEDANTIC UNKNOWABLE

IDO NOT think anything can be said that would convince one whostarts f rom exactly the opposite viewpoint t o the spiritual, the way oflooking at things o f a Victorian agnostic. His p oints o f doubt about thevalue other than subjective and purely individual of Yogaexperience are that it does n ot aim at scientific t ruth and cannot be saidto achieve ultimate truth because the experiences ar e coloured by theindividuality of t he seer. One might as k whether S cience itself h asarrived at an y ultimate truth; on the contrary, ultimate truth, even onthe physical plane, seems to recede as Science advances. Sciencestarted on the assumption that the ultimate truth must be physical andobjective and the objective Ultimate (or even less than that) wouldexplain all subjective phenomena. Yoga p roceeds on the opposite viewthat the ultimate Truth is spiritual an d subjective and it i s in thatultimate Light that we must view objective phenomena. It is t he twoopposite poles and the gulf is as w ide as i t can be.

Yoga, however, is scientific to this extent that it proceeds bysubjective experiment an d bases a ll its f indings o n experience; mentalintuitions a re admitted only as a first s tep and are not c onsidered asrealisation they must be confirmed by being translated into and

justdoubted by the physical mind because it is s ubjective, not objective. Buthas t he distinction much value? I s n ot all knowledge and experiencesubjective at bottom? O bjective external physical things ar e seen verymuch in the s ame w ay by h uman beings because o f the con struction ofthe mind and senses; with another construction of mind and sense q uiteanother account of the physical world would be given Science itselfhas made that ver y clear. But yo ur f riends point i s that t he Yogaexperience is i ndividual, coloured by the individuality of the seer. It may

be true to a certain extent of the precise form or transcription given to


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the experience in certain domains; but eve n here the difference issuperficial. It sfacthatogic experience runs e verywhere on thesame lines. Certainly, there are, not one line, but many; for, admittedly,we are dealing with a m any-sided Infinite to which there are and mustbe many ways o f approach; but y et the broad lines ar e the sameeverywhere an d the i ntuitions, experiences, phenomena ar e t he s ame i nages and countries far ap art f rom each other an d systems p ractisedquite i ndependently f rom each other. The e xperiences of the m ediaevalEuropean bhakta or mystic are precisely the same in substance,however differing in names, forms, religious co louring, etc., as t hose ofthe mediaeval Indian bhakta or mystic yet these people were notcorresponding with one another or aware of each others exp eriences

and results as are modern scientists f rom New York t o Yokohama. Thatwould seem to show that there is s omething there identical, universaland presumably t rue however the co lour of the t ranslation may d ifferbecause of the difference o f mental language.

As f or ultimate Truth, I suppose both the Victorian agnostic and, letus s ay, the Indian Vedantin may agree that i t is ve iled but there. Bothspeak of it as t he Unknowable; the only difference is t hat the Vedantinsays i t is u nknowable by the mind and inexpressible by speech, but stillattainable by something deeper or higher than the mental perception,while even mind can reflect and speech express the t housand aspects itpresents t o the minds o utward and inward experience. The Victorianagnostic would, I suppose, can cel t his qualification; h e wouldpronounce for the doubtful existence and, if existent, for the absoluteunknowableness of this Unknowable.

October 10, 1932


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DOUBTS AND THE DIVINE

THE WHOLE world knows, spiritual thinker and materialist alike, thatthe world for the created or naturally evolved being in the ignorance orthe inconscience of Nature is n either a bed of roses nor a p ath of joyousLight. It is a difficult journey, a battle and struggle, an often painful andchequered growth, a life besieged by obscurity, falsehood and suffering.It has i ts m ental, vital, physical joys an d pleasures, but these bring only atransient taste which yet the vital self is u nwilling to forego andthey end in distaste, fatigue or disillusionment. What t hen? To say theDivine d oes n ot exist is easy, but it leads nowhere it leaves you whereyou are with no prospect or issue neither Russell nor any materialistcan tell you where you are going or even where you ought to go. TheDivine does n ot manifest himself so as t o be recognised in the externalworld-circumstances admittedly so. These are not the works of anirresponsible autocrat somewhere they are the circumstances o f aworking out of Forces acc ording to a certain nature of being, one mightsay a certain proposition or problem of being into which we have allreally consented to enter an d cooperate. The work is p ainful, dubious,its vicissitudes impossible to forecast? There are either of twopossibilities then, to get o ut o f it i nto Nirvana by the Buddhist o r t heillusionist way o r to get inside oneself and find the Divine there since heis not d iscoverable on the surface. For hose who have made the

attempt, and there were not a f ew but hundreds a nd thousands, havetestified through the ages t hat he is t here and that is w hy there existsthe Yoga. It takes l ong? Th e Divine is co ncealed behind a thick v eil of hisMaya an d does n ot answer at once o r at any e arly s tage to our call? O rhe gives on ly a g limpse uncertain and passing and then withdraws andwaits f or us t o be ready? B ut if the Divine has an y value, is i t not worthsome trouble and time and labour to follow after him and must we i nsist

on having him without any t raining or sacr ifice or suffering or trouble? I t


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is s urely irrational to make a demand of such a nature. It is p ositive thatwe have to get inside, behind the veil to find him; it is o nly t hen that wecan see him outside and the intellect be not so much convinced asforced to admit his presence b y exp erience just as when a m an seeswhat he has denied and can no longer deny it. But for that the meansmust be accepted and the persistence in the will and patience in thelabour.

September 10, 1933


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THE VALLEY OF THE FALSE GLIMMER

ONE feels h ere a stream from the direct sources o f Truth that onedoes n ot meet so often as one could desire. Here is a m ind that can notonly think but see and not merely see the surfaces o f things w ithwhich most i ntellectual thought g oes on wrestling without en d ordefinite issue and as i f there were nothing else, but look into the core.

The Tant payant vk t o describe one level of the Vak-Shakti, the seeing Word; here is payant buddhi, a seeing intelligence. Itmight b e because the seer within has p assed beyond thought intoexperience, but t here are many who have a considerable wealth ofexperience without its cl arifying their eye of thought to this e xtent; thesoul feels, but the mind goes on with mixed and imperfecttranscriptions, blurs an d confusions i n the idea. There must have beenthe gift of right vision lying ready in this n ature.

It is an achievement to have got rid so rapidly and decisively of theshimmering mists and fogs which modern intellectualism takes for Lightof Truth. The modern mind has so long and persistently wandered and we with it in the Valley of the False Glimmer that it is n ot easy f oranyone to disperse its m ists w ith the sunlight of clear vision so soon andentirely as h as h ere been done. All that i s s aid here about m odernhumanism and humanitarianism, the vain efforts of the sentimentalidealist and the ineffective intellectual, about s ynthetic eclecticism andother ki ndred things is a dmirably clear-minded, it h its t he target. It i snot by these means t hat humanity can get that radical change of itsways o f life which is yet becoming imperative, but only b y r eaching thebed-rock of Reality behind, not t hrough mere ideas and mentalformations, but by a change of the consciousness, an inner and spiritualconversion. But t hat i s a truth for which it w ould be difficult t o get ahearing in the present noise of all kinds o f many-voiced clamour and

confusion and catastrophe.


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A distinction, the distinction very keenly made here, between theplane of phenomenal process, of externalised Prakriti, and the plane ofDivine Reality r anks am ong the first words of the inner wisdom. The turngiven to it i n these pages is not m erely an ingenious explanation; itexpresses ver y soundly one of the clear certaintiesu meet when youstep across t he border and look at the outer world from the standing-ground of the inner spiritual experience. The more you go inward orupward, the m ore t he vi ew of things changes and the o uter knowledgeScience organises t akes i ts r eal and very limited place. Science, like mostmental and external knowledge, gives you only t ruth of process. I wouldadd that it cannot give you even the whole truth of process; for youseize some of the ponderables, but miss the all-important

imponderables; you get, hardly e ven the how, but the conditions un derwhich things h appen in Nature. After all the triumphs an d marvels o fScience the explaining principle, the rationale, the significance of thewhole is left as d ark, as m ysterious and even more mysterious t han ever.

The scheme and variegated material world, but of life and consciousness and mindand their workings o ut of a brute mass of electrons, identical and varied

only in arrangement and number, is an irrational magic more bafflingthan any the most mystic imagination could conceive. Science in theend lands us in a paradox effectuated, an organised and rigidlydetermined accident, an impossibility t hat has somehow happened, it has shown us a n ew, a m aterial Maya, aghatana-ghatana-patyas, v eryclever at bringing about the impossible, a miracle that can not logicallybe and yet so mehow is there actual, irresistibly organised, but st illirrational and inexplicable. And this is evidently because Science hasmissed something essential; it h as seen and scrutinised what h ashappened and in a w ay h ow it has happened, but it has shut its eyes t osomething that made this i mpossible possible, something it is t here toexpress. There is n o fundamental significance in things i f you miss t heDivine Reality; for you remain embedded in a huge surface crust ofmanageable and utilisable appearance. It is t he magic of the Magicianyou are trying to analyse, but only when you enter into theconsciousness of the M agician himself can you begin to experience t he


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true origination, significance and circles o f the Lila. I say begin becausethe Divine Reality i s n ot so simple that at the first touch you can know allof it or put it into a single formula; it is t he Infinite and opens b efore youan infinite knowledge to which all Science put together is a bagatelle.But still you do touch the essential, the eternal behind things an d in thelight of That all b egins to be profoundly luminous, intimatelyintelligible.

I have once before told you what I think of the ineffective peckingsof certain well-intentioned scientific minds o n the surface or apparentsurface of the spiritual Reality behind things an d I need not elaborate it.More i mportant is the p rognostic o f a g reater danger coming in the n ewattack by the adversary, the sceptics, against the validity of spiritual andsupraphysical e xperience, t heir new strategy of destruction byadmitting and explaining it in their own sense. There may well be astrong ground for t he apprehension; but I doubt w hether, if thesethings ar e once admitted to scrutiny, the mind of humanity will longremain satisfied with explanations so ineptly superficial and external,explanations t hat explain nothing. If the defenders o f religion take up anunsound position, eas ily capturable, w hen they affirm only thesubjective validity of spiritual experience, the opponents a lso seem tome to be giving away, without knowing it, the gates of the materialisticstronghold by their consent at al l to admit and examine spiritual andsupraphysical experience. Their entrenchment in the physical field, theirrefusal to admit or even examine supraphysical things w as t heir towerof strong safety; once it i s abandoned, the human mind pressingtowards s omething less negative, more helpfully positive will pass t o it

over the dead bodies o f their theories and the broken debris o f theirannulling explanations and ingenious psychological labels. Anotherdanger m ay then arise, not of a final denial of the Truth, but t herepetition in old or new forms o f a past mistake, on one side somerevival of blind fanatical obscurantist sectarian religionism, on the othera stumbling into the pits an d quagmires o f the vitalistic occult and thepseudo-spiritual mistakes t hat made the whole real strength of the

materialistic attack on the past and its cr edos. But these are phantasms


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that meet us al ways o n the borderline or in the intervening countrybetween the material darkness and the perfect Splendour. In spite of all,the victory of the supreme Light even in the darkened earth-consciousness stands as t he one ultimate certitude.

Art, poetry, music are not Yoga, not i n themselves t hings sp iritualany more than philosophy is a thing spiritual or Science. There lurkshere another curious i ncapacity of the modern intellect its i nability todistinguish between mind and spirit, its readiness to mistake mental,moral and aesthetic idealisms f or s pirituality and their i nferior d egreesfor s piritual values. It i s mere truth that t he mental intuitions of themetaphysician or the poet for the most part fall far short of a concretespiritual experience; they are distant f lashes, shadowy reflections, notrays f rom the centre of Light. It is n ot less t rue that, looked at f rom thepeaks, there is not much difference between the high mentaleminences a nd the lower climbings o f this e xternal existence. All theenergies o f the Lila are equal in the sight from above, all are disguises o fthe Divine. But one has t o add that all can be turned into a first meanstowards the realisation of the Divine. A philosophic s tatement about theAtman is a mental formula, not knowledge, not experience; yetsometimes t he divine takes i t as a channel of touch; strangely, a barrierin the mind breaks down, something is seen, a profound changeoperated in some inner part, there enters into the ground of the naturesomething calm, equal, ineffable. One stands u pon a mountain ridgeand glimpses o r mentally f eels a w ideness, a pervasiveness, a namelessVast in Nature; then suddenly there comes t he touch, a revelation, aflooding, the mental loses itself i n the spiritual, one bears the first

invasion of the Infinite. Or you stand before a temple of Kali beside asacred river an d see what? a sculpture, a gracious piece ofarchitecture, but i n a moment m ysteriously, unexpectedly there isinstead a Presence, a Power, a Face that looks i nto yours, an inner sightin you has regarded the World-Mother. Similar t ouches can comethrough art, music, poetry t o their creator or to one who feels t he shockof the word, the hidden significance of a form, a message in the sound

that carries m ore p erhaps than was consciously m eant by t he co mposer.


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All things i n the Lila can turn into windows t hat open on the hiddenReality. Still, solong as o ne is sa isfied with looking through windows,the gain is o nly initial; one day one will have to take up the pilgrimsstaff and start out to journey there where the Reality is f or ever manifestand present. Still less can it b e spiritually satisfying to remain withshadowy reflections, a search imposes itself for the Light w hich theystrive to figure. But s ince this R eality and this L ight ar e in ourselves n oless t han in some high region above the mortal plane, we can in theseeking for it use many of the figures an d activities o f life; as o ne offers aflower, a prayer, an act to the Divine, one can offer too a created form ofbeauty, a so ng, a poem, an image, a strain of music, and gain through ita contact, a response or an experience. And when that divine

consciousness h as b een entered or when it grows w ithin, then too itsexpression in life through these things i s not excluded from Yoga; thesecreative activities can still have their p lace, though not i ntrinsically agreater place than any other that can be put to divine use and service.Art, poetry, music, as they are in their o rdinary functioning, createmental and vital, not spiritual values; but they ca n be turned to a h igherend, an d then, like all t hings that are capable of linking our

consciousness to the Divine, they are transmuted and become spiritualand can be admitted as p art of a life of Yoga. All takes n ew values n otfrom itself, but from the consciousness that uses i t; for there is o nly onething essential, needful, indispensable, to grow conscious o f the DivineReality and live in it and live it always.

March 23, 1932


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THE INTERMEDIATE ZONE

ALL THESE experiences ar e of the same nature and what applies t oone applies to another. Apart f rom some experiences o f a personalcharacter, the rest ar e either i dea-truths, such as pour d own into theconsciousness from above when one g ets into touch with certain planesof being, or strong formations f rom the larger mental and vital worldswhich, when one is d irectly o pen to these worlds, rush in and want touse the sadhak for their fulfilment. These hings, when they pour downor c ome in, present t hemselves with a great f orce, a vivid sense ofinspiration or illumination, m uch sensation of light and joy, animpression of widening and power. The sadhak feels h imself freed fromthe normal limits, projected into a wonderful new world of experience,filled and enlarged and exalted; what co mes a ssociates i tself, besides,with his a spirations, ambitions, notions o f spiritual fulfilment and yogicsiddhi; it is r epresented even as i tself that realisation and fulfilment. Veryeasily he is car ried away by the splendour and the rush, and thinks t hathe has r ealised more than he has t ruly done, something final or at leastsomething sovereignly t rue. At this s tage the necessary kn owledge andexperience are usually lacking which would tell him that t his i s o nly avery u ncertain and mixed beginning; he may n ot realise at once t hat heis s till in the cosmic I gnorance, not in the cosmic T ruth, much less i n the

Transcendent

truths m ay have come down into him are partial only and yet furtherdiminished by their presentation to him by a still mixed consciousness.He may fail to realise also that i f he rushes t o apply what h e is r ealisingor r eceiving as i f it w ere something definitive, he may either f all intoconfusion and error or else get s hut up in some partial formation inwhich there may be an element of spiritual Truth, but it is l ikely to beoutweighted by m ore dubious m ental and vital accretions t hat deform

it altogether. It is only w hen he is able to draw back (whether at once or


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after a time) from his experiences, stand above them with thedispassionate witness consciousness, observe their real nature,limitations, composition, mixture that h e can proceed on his waytowards a real freedom and a higher, larger an d truer s iddhi. At eachstep this has to be done. For whatever comes i n this way t o the sadhakof this yoga, whether it be from Overmind or Intuition or Illumined Mindor some exalted Life Plane or from all these together, it is n ot definitiveand final; it is n ot the supreme Truth in which he can rest, but only astage. And yet t hese stages have to be passed through, for t heSupramental or the Su preme Tr uth cannot be r eached in one b ound oreven in many b ounds; one h as to pursue a calm patient steady p rogressthrough many intervening stages w ithout getting bound or attached to

their lesser Truth or Light or Power or Ananda. This is

ordinary c onsciousness in mind and the t rue Yoga kn owledge. One m aycross w ithout hurt through it, perceiving at once or at an early stage itsreal nature and refusing to be detained by its h alf-lights an d temptingbut imperfect and often mixed and misleading experiences; one m ay g oastray in it, follow false voicesand a mendacious g uidance, and thatends in a spiritual disaster; or o ne may take up ones abode in thisintermediate zone, care to go no farther and build there some h alf-truthwhich one takes f or the whole truth or become the instrument of thepowers o f these transitional planes, that is w hat happens t o manysadhaks and Yogis. Overwhelmed by t he f irst rush and sense o f power ofa supernormal condition, they get d azzled with a little light w hichseems to them a t remendous illumination or a t ouch of force w hich they

mistake for the full Divine Force or at l east a very great Y oga Shakti; orthey accept s ome intermediate Power (not al ways a Power of theDivine) a s the Supreme and an intermediate consciousness as thesupreme realisation. Very readily t hey come to think t hat they a re in thefull cosmic co nsciousness w hen it is o nly so me front or small part of it orsome larger Mind, Life-Power or subtle physical ranges w ith which theyhave entered into dynamic co nnection. Or they feel themselves to be in

an entirely illumined consciousness, while in reality they are receiving


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imperfectly things f rom above through a partial illumination of somemental or vital plane; for what comes i s diminished and often deformedin the course of transmission through these planes; the receiving mindand vital of the sadhak a lso often understands o r transcribes i ll what hasbeen received or throws u p to mix w ith it its o wn ideas, feelings, desires,which it yet takes t o be not its o wn but part of the Truth it is r eceivingbecause they are mixed with it, imitate its form, are lit u p by itsillumination and get from this association and borrowed light anexaggerated value.

There are worse the planes to which the sadhak h as now opened his consciousness, not as b efore getting glimpses of them and some influences, butdirectly, receiving their f ull impact, send a host o f ideas, impulses,suggestions, formations o f all kinds, often the most opposite to eachother, inconsistent or incompatible, but presented in such a way as t oslur over their insufficiencies and differences, w ith great force,plausibility and a wealth of argument or a convincing sense of certitude.Overpowered by this sense of cer titude, vividness, appearance ofprofusion and richness, the mind of the sadhak enters into a greatconfusion which it takes f or some larger organisation and order; or else,it whirls a bout in incessant shiftings an d changes w hich it takes f or arapid progress, but which lead nowhere. Or there is the opposite dangerthat he may become the instrument of some apparently brilliant butignorant formation; for these intermediate planes a re full of little Godsor strong Daityas o r smaller beings w ho want to create, to materialisesomething or to enforce a mental and vital formation in the earth life

and are eager to use or influence or even possess t he thought and willof the sadhak and make him their instrument for the purpose. This i squite apart f rom the well-known danger of ac tually hostile beingswhose sole purpose is t o create confusion, falsehood, corruption of thesadhana a nd disastrous unspiritual error. Anyone allowing himself to betaken hold of by o ne o f these b eings, who often take a d ivine N ame, willlose his w ay in the Yoga. On the other hand, it is q uite possible that the

sadhak m ay b e met at his ent rance into this zone by a Power of the


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Divine which helps an d leads h im till he is r eady for greater things; butstill that itself iso surety against the errors a nd stumblings o f this zo ne;for n othing is easier t han for t he powers of t hese zones or h ostilepowers to imitate the guiding Voice o r Image and deceive and misleadthe sadhak o r for himself to attribute the creations an d formations o f hisown mind, vital or ego to the D ivine.

For this i ntermediate zone is a region of half-truths and that b yitself w ould not m atter, for t here is no complete truth below theSupermind; but the half-truth here is o ften so partial or else ambiguousin its a pplication that it leaves a wide field for confusion, delusion anderror. The sadhak thinks that h e is no longer in the old smallconsciousness at all, because he feels i n contact with something largeror more powerful, and yet the old consciousness i s s till there, not reallyabolished. He feels t he control or influence of some Power, Being orForce greater than himself, aspires to be its i nstrument and thinks h ehas got r id of ego: but t his delusion of egolessness often covers anexaggerated ego. Ideas s eize upon him and drive his m ind which areonly partially true and by overconfident misapplication are turned intofalsehoods; this vitiateshem ovements of the consciousness and opensthe door to delusion. Suggestions ar e made, sometimes o f a romanticcharacter, which flatter the importance of the sadhak or are agreeableto his wishes and he accepts them without examination ordiscriminating control. Even what i s true, is so exalted or ext endedbeyond its t rue pitch and limit and measure that it becomes t he parentof error. This is a z ne w hich many s adhaks have to cross, in which manywander for a long time and out of which a great many never emerge.

Especially i f their sadhana is m ainly i n the mental and vital, they h ave tomeet here many difficulties an d much danger; only those who followscrupulously a strict guidance or have the psychic being prominent intheir nature pass e asily as i f on a sure and clearly marked road acrossthis i ntermediate region. A central sincerity, a fundamental humility alsosave f rom much d anger and trouble. One can t hen pass quickly b eyondinto a clearer Light where if there is s till much mixture, incertitude and

struggle, yet the orientation is t owards t he cosmic Truth and not to a


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half-illumined prolongation of Maya and ignorance.

I have described in general terms with its main features andpossibilities this state of co nsciousness j ust a cross t he border o f t henormal consciousness, because it is here that these experiences s eem to

move. But d ifferent s adhaks comport t hemselves d ifferently in it an drespond sometimes t o one class o f possibilities, sometimes t o another.In this c ase it seems t o have been entered through an attempt to calldown or force a way into the cosmic consciousness it does notmatter which way i t is put or whether one is quite aware of what one isdoing or aware of it in these t erms, it comes t o that in substance. It is notthe O vermind which was entered, for to go straight into the Overmind isimpossible. The O vermind is indeed above an d behind the w hole act ionof the cosmic consciousness, but one can at first have only an indirectconnection with it; things come down from it t hrough intermediateranges into a larger m ind-plane, life-plane, subtle physical plane andcome very m uch changed and diminished in the transmission, withoutanything like the full power and truth they have in the Overmind itselfon its native levels. Most of he movements come not f rom theOvermind, but down from higher mind ranges. The ideas with whichthese experiences ar e penetrated and on which they seem to rest theirclaim to truth are not of the Overmind, but of the higher M ind orsometimes o f the i llumined Mind; but they are mixed with suggestionsfrom the lower m ind and vital regions an d badly diminished in theirapplication or misapplied in many places. All this w ould not matter; it isusual and normal, and one has t o pass t hrough it and come into aclearer atmosphere where things ar e better organised and placed on a

surer basis. But the movement was m ade in a spirit of excessive hurryand eagerness, of exaggerated self-esteem and self-confidence, of apremature certitude, relying on no other guidance than that of onesown mind or of the Divine as c onceived or experienced in a stage ofvery l imited knowledge. But the sadhaks conception and experience ofthe Divine, even if it is f undamentally genuine, is n ever in such a stagecomplete and pure; it i s mixed with all sorts of m ental and vital

ascriptions and all s orts of t hings are associated with this Divine


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guidance and believed to be part of it which come from quite othersources. Even supposing there is an y direct guidance, most often inthese conditions t he Divine acts m ostly f rom behind the veil, it is o nlyoccasional and the rest i s d one through a play of forces; error an dstumbling and mixture of Ignorance take place freely and these thingsare allowed because the sadhak has t o be tested by t he world-forces, tolearn by experience, to grow through imperfection towards p erfection if he is ca pable of it, if he is w illing to learn, to open his e yes t o hisown mistakes and errors, to learn and profit by them so as t o growtowards a p urer Truth, Light and Knowledge.

The result of everything that comes i n this m ixed and dubious r egion as i f it were allthe Truth and the sheer Divine Will; the ideas o r the suggestions t hatconstantly repeat themselves are expressed with a self-assertiveabsoluteness as f they were Truth entire and undeniable. There is animpression that one has b ecome impersonal and free from ego, whilethe whole tone of the mind, its utterance and spirit are full of vehementself-asser tiveness justified by the affirmation that o ne is t hinking andacting as an instrument and under the inspiration of the Divine. Ideasare put forward very aggressively t hat can be valid to the mind, but arenot spiritually valid; yet they are stated as if they were spiritualabsolutes. For i nstance, equality, which in that sense for YogicSamata i s a q uite different thing is a m ere mental principle, the claimto a sacred independence, the refusal to accept anyone as G uru or theopposition made b etween the D ivine an d the h uman Divine e tc., etc. Allthese ideas ar e positions t hat can be taken by the mind and the vital

and turned into principles w hich they try to enforce on the religious o reven the spiritual life, but they are not and cannot be spiritual in theirnature. There also begin to come in suggestions f rom the vital planes, apullulation of i maginations romantic, fanciful o r ingenious, hiddeninterpretations, pseudo-intuitions, would-be initiations into thingsbeyond, which excite o r bemuse t he m ind and are o ften so turned as toflatter and magnify ego and self-importance, but are not founded on

any well-asce rtained spiritual or o ccult realities of a true order. This


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region is full of elements of this kind and, if al lowed, they begin tocrowd on the sadhak; but if he seriously m eans to reach the Highest, hemust simply o bserve them and pass on. It is n ot that there is n ever anytruth in such things, but f or o ne that i s t rue there are nine imitativefalsehoods p resented and only a trained occultist with the infallible tactborn of long experience can guide himself without stumbling or beingcaught through the m aze. It is possible for the w hole attitude and actionand utterance to be so surcharged with the errors o f this i ntermediatezone that to go further on this r oute would be to travel far away fromthe D ivine an d from the Yoga.

Here the choice is still open whether t o follow the very mixedguidance one gets i n the midst of these experiences o r to accept thetrue guidance. Each man who enters the realms of Yogic exp erience i sfree to follow his o wn way; but this Yoga is n ot a path for anyone tofollow, but only for those who accept to seek t he aim, pursue the waypointed out upon which a sure guidance is i ndispensable. It is i dle foranyone to expect that he can follow this road far, much less go to theend by h is ow n inner strength and knowledge without the true aid orinfluence. Even the ordinary long-practised Yogas a re hard to followwithout the aid of the Guru; in this w hich as i t advances g oes t hroughuntrodden countries and unknown entangled regions, it is quiteimpossible. As f or the work to be done it also is n ot a work for anysadhak of any path ; it is n ot, either, the work of the Impersonal Divine who, for that matter, is n ot an active Power but supports i mpartiallyall work in the universe. It is a training ground for those who have topass through the difficult and complex w ay o f this Yoga an d none other.

All work here must b e done in a spirit o f acceptance, discipline andsurrender, not w ith personal demands and conditions, but w ith avigilant conscious s ubmission to control and guidance. Work done inany other spirit results in an unspiritual d isorder, confusion anddisturbance of the atmosphere. In it t oo difficulties, errors, stumblingsare frequent, because in this Yoga people have to be led patiently andwith some field for their own effort, by e xperience, out of the ignorance

natural to Mind and Life to a w ider spirit and a luminous kn owledge. But


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the danger of an unguided wandering in the regions across the borderis that t he very basis of t he Yoga may be contradicted and theconditions under which alone the work can be done may be lostaltogether. The transition through this intermediate zone notobligatory, for many pass b y a narrower b ut surer way is a crucialpassage; what comes o ut of it is l ikely to be a very wide or rich creation;but when one founders t here, recovery is d ifficult, painful, assured onlyafter a l ong struggle and endeavour.

November 6, 1932

Cosmic Truth and Cosmic Ignorance THERE is no

the individual it becomes a limited formation and movement, while theCosmic Ignorance is the whole movement o f world Consciousnessseparated from the supreme Truth and acting in an inferior motion inwhich the Truth is perverted, diminished, mixed and clouded withfalsehood and error. The Cosmic Tr uth is the view on things of a co smicconsciousness i n which things ar e seen in their true essence and theirtrue relation to the Divine and to each other.

Samata an d Equality

YOGIC Samata is eq uality o f soul, equanimity founded on the sense of

the one Self, the one Divine everywhere seeing the One in spite of alldifferences, d egrees, d isparities in the manifestation. Th e mentalprinciple of equality tries to ignore or e lse to destroy the differences,degrees a nd disparities, to act as f all were equal there or to try andmake all equal. It is like Hridaya,the nephew of Ramakrishna, who whenhe g ot the t ouch from Ramakrishna b egan to shout, Ramakrishna, youare the Brahman and I too am the Brahman; there is n o differencebetween us, till Ramakrishna, as he refused to be quiet, had to


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withdraw the power. Or like the disciple who refused to listen to theMahout and stood before the elephant, saying, I am Brahman, untilthe elephant took him up in his t runk and put him aside. When hecomplained to his Guru, the G uru said, Yes, but why d idnt you listen tothe Mahout Brahman? That was why t he elephant Brahman had to liftyou up and put you out of harms w ay. In the manifestation there aretwo sides t o the Truth and you cannot ignore e ither.

The F undamental Difference

THE fundamental

divine Truth (the Supermind) and that i nto the present w orld ofIgnorance that Truth can descend, create a new Truth-consciousnessand divinise Life. The old Yogas g o straight from mind to the absoluteDivine, regard all dynamic existence as Ignorance, Illusion or Lila; whenyou enter the static a nd immutable Divine Truth, they say, you pass o utof cosmic ex istence.

The Higher and the Lower Truth

If everything else is f alsehood excep t the Supramental Truth, howcan the lower O vermind be a passage to the possibility of theSupermind?

I HAVE not said that everything is f alsehood except the Supramental Truth.

In the Overmind the Truth of Supermind which is whole andharmonious enters into a separation into parts, many truths frontingeach other and moved each to fulfil itself, to make a w orld of its o wn orelse to prevail or take its s hare in worlds m ade of a combination ofvarious s eparated Truths an d Truth-forces. Lower down in the scale, the

fragmentation becomes more an d more p ronounced, so as to admit of


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positive error, falsehood, ignorance, finally inconscience like that ofMatter. This world here has come out of the Inconscience anddeveloped the M ind which is an instrument of Ignorance t rying to reachout to the Truth through much limitation, conflict, confusion and error.

To get for physical beings, is t o stand on the borders o f the Supramental Truthwith the hope of entry t here.

November 7, 1932


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A PROBLEM OF FAITH

How to conciliate t hese t wo notions:

(1) that the D ivines will is behind all movements and happenings ,

(2) that the Divine will is d istorted in the manifestation.

There are two

The faith thadown the realisation.

These two fai

There is t

The Will of

The Cosmic Divine of things u nder the present circumstances. It is t he Will of that C osmicDivine which is m anifested in each circumstance, each movement ofthis world. The Cosmic Will i

that acts as an independent power doing whatever it chooses; it worksthrough all these beings, through the forces at play in the world and thelaw of these f orces an d their results it is only w hen we o pen ourselvesand get out of the o rdinary co nsciousness that we can feel it interveningas an independent power and overriding the ordinary p lay o f the forces.

Then too we can sof their d istortions the Cosmic Will is working towards the eventualrealisation of the Will of the Transcen dent Divine.

The Supramental Realwhich we h ave t o work o ut. The ci rcumstances under which we h ave t owork i t out are t hose of an inferior consciousness in which things can bedistorted by our own ignorance, weaknesses an d mistakes, and by the


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clash of co nflicting forces. That is why faith and equanimity areindispensable.

We have to have the faith that in spite of our ignorance and errorsand weaknesses an d in spite of the attacks o f hostile forces an d in spite

of any immediate appearance of failure the Divine Will is l eading us,through every circumstance, towards t he final Realisation. This f aith willgive us equanimity; it i s a faith that accep ts what h appens, notdefinitively b ut as s omething that has t o be gone through on the way.Once equanimity is est ablished there can be established too anotherkind of faith, supported by it, which can be made dynamic withsomething from the s upramental consciousness and can overcome t hepresent c ircumstances an d determine what will happen and help tobring down the R ealisation of the W ill of the T ranscendent Divine.

The faith action by t he necessities o f the play.

To get entire Transcendent

June 24, 1931


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THE TRIUNE GODHEAD

THE DISTINCTION between the Transcendental, the Cosmic, theIndividual Divine is n ot my invention, nor is i t native to India or to Asia it is, on the contrary, a recognised European teaching current in theesoteric tradition of t he Catholic Church where it i s the authorisedexplanation of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy G host, and it is ver ywell known to European mystic experience. In essence it exists i n allspiritual disciplines hatrecognisethe omnipresence of the Divine inIndian Vedantic exp erience and in Mahomedan Yoga (not only t he Sufi,but other schools also) the Mahomedans ev en speak of not two orthree but many levels o f the Divine until one reaches t he Supreme. Asfor the idea in itself, surely there is a difference between the individual,the co smos in space an d time, and something that exceeds this cosmicformula or an y cosmic formula. There is a cosmic consciousnessexperienced by many which is q uite different in its s cope and actionfrom the individual consciousness, and if t here is a consciousnessbeyond the cosmic, infinite and essentially e ternal, not merely e xtendedin Time, that also must be different from these two. And if the Divine isor manifests H imself in these three, is i t not conceivable that in aspect,in His w orking, He may differentiate Himself so much that we are drivenif we are not to confound all truth of experience, if we are not to limitourselves to a mere static e xperience of something indefinable, to speak

of a triple aspect of the Divine?In the practice of Yoga there is a great d ynamic difference in ones

way of dealing with these three possible realisations. If I realise only theDivine as t hat, not m y personal self, which yet m oves s ecretly all mypersonal being and which I can bring forward out of the veil, or if I buildup the image of that Godhead in my m embers, it is a r ealisation but alimited one. If it i s the Cosmic Godhead that I realise, losing in it a ll

personal self, that i s a very wide realisation, but I become a mere


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channel of the universal Power an d there is n o personal or d ivinelyindividual consummation for m e. If I shoot up to the transcendentalrealisation only, I lose both myself and the world in the transcendentalAbsolute. If, on the other hand, my aim is n one of these things b y itself,but t o realise and also to manifest the Divine in the world, bringingdown for the purpose a yet unmanifested Power, such as theSupermind, a h armonisation of all three becomes i mperative. I haveto bring it down, and from where shall I bring it down since it is notyet manifested in the cosmic formula if not from the unmanifest

Transcendencethe cosmic formula and, if so, I must r ealise the cosmic Divine andbecome conscious of the cosmic s elf and the cosmic f orces. But I have to

embody it here, otherwise it is l eft as an influence only and not athing fixed in the physical world, and it i s t hrough the Divine in theindividual alone that this can be done.

These are elmentobliged to admit them if a d ivine w ork h as to be d one.

June 12, 1932


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SOME SPIRITUAL DILEMMAS

THE QUESTION as p ut in your letter seems t o me to be too rigidlyphrased and not to take into sufficient account the plasticity of the factsand forces o f existence. It s ounds l ike the problem which one mightraise on the strength of the most recent s cientific theories if all ismade up of p rotons and electrons, all exactly similar t o each other(except for the group numbers, and why s hould a d ifference o f quantitymake such an extraordinary d ifference or any d ifference of quality?) howdoes t heir action result in such stupendous d ifferences o f degree, kind,power, everything? But why s hould we assume t hat the psychic s eeds orsparks al l started in a race at the same time, equal in conditions, equal inpower and nature? G ranted that the One Divine is t he source o f all andthe Self is t he same in all; but i n manifestation why should not t heInfinite throw itself o ut in infinite variety,why must it be in aninnumerable sameness? How many o f these psychic s eeds started longbefore others and have a great past of development behind them andhow many are young and raw and half-grown only? And even amongthose w ho started together, why s hould not there be s ome w ho ran at agreat speed and others w ho loitered and grew with difficulty or wentabout in circles? And then there is an evolution, and it is o nly at a certainstage in the evolution that the animal belt is past and there is a humanbeginning; what constitutes t he human beginning, which represents a

very considerable revolution or turnover? U p to the animal line it is t hevital and physical that have b een developing for the h uman to begin,is i t not necessary t hat there should be the descen t of a m ental being totake up the vital and physical evolution? And may it not well be that themental beings who descend are not all of the s ame power and statureand, besides, do not t ake up equally developed vital and physicalconsciousness-material? T here is al so the occult tradition of a hierarchy

of beings who stand above the present manifestation and put


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themselves into it w ith results which will obviously be just s uch astupendous d ifference of degrees, and even intervene by descendinginto the play through the gates of birth in human Nature. There aremany co mplexities an d the problem cannot be put with the rigidity o f amathematical formula.

A great part of the difficulty of these p roblems, I mean especially theappearance of inexplicable contradiction, arises f rom the problem itselfbeing badly put. Take the popular account of reincarnation and Karma it is b ased on the mere mental assumption that the workings ofNature o ught to be m oral and proceed according to an exact morality o fequal justice a scrupulous, even mathematical law of reward andpunishment or, at any r ate, of results according to a h uman idea o f rightcorrespondences. But N ature is non-moral she uses forces andprocesses moral, immoral and amoral pell-mell for w orking out h erbusiness. Nature in her outward aspect seems to care for nothing exceptto get t hings d one or el se to make conditions for an ingeniousvariety of the play of life. Nature in her d eeper asp ect as a consciousspiritual Power is concerned with the growth, by experience, thespiritual development of the souls s he has i n her charge and thesesouls themselves have a say i n the matter. All these g ood people lamentand wonder that unaccountably t hey an d other good people are v isitedwith such meaningless s ufferings a nd misfortunes. But are they reallyvisited with them by an outside Power or b y a mechanical Law ofKarma? I s i t not possible that the soul itself not the outward mind,but the spirit within has ac cepted and chosen these t hings as part ofits d evelopment in order to get t hrough the necessary experience at a

rapid rate, to hew through, durchhauen, e ven at the risk or the cost ofmuch damage t o the o utward life an d the b ody? To the g rowing soul, tothe spirit within us, may not difficulties, obstacles, attacks b e a means o fgrowth, added strength, en larged experience, t raining for spiritualvictory? The arrangement of hings may be that a nd not a merequestion of the pounds, shillings an d pence of a distribution of rewardsand retributory m isfortunes!

It is t he same with the problem of the taking of animal life under the


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circumstances p ut forward by your friend in the letter. It is p ut on thebasis o f an invariable ethical right and wrong to be applied to all cases is i t right to take animal life at all, under any circumstances, is i t rightto allow an animal to suffer under your eyes when you can relieve it byan euthanasia? Th ere can be no indubitable answer to a question putlike t hat, because t he an swer depends on data w hich the m ind has notbefore it. In fact there are many o ther factors w hich make people inclineto this short an d merciful way out o f the difficulty the nervousinability to bear the sight and hearing of s o much suffering, theunavailing trouble, the disgust and inconvenience all tend to giveforce to the idea that the animal itself would want to be out of it. Butwhat does the animal really f eel about it may it not be clinging to life

in spite of the pain? O r may not the soul have accep ted these t hings f ora quicker evolution into a higher state of life? I f so, the mercy dealt outmay conceivably interfere with the animals Karma. In fact t he rightdecision might vary in each case an d depend on a kno wledge w hich t hehuman mind has n ot and it might very w ell be said that until it has i t,it has n ot the right to take life. It was so me dim perception of this t ruththat made r eligion and ethics develop the l aw of Ahimsa and yet that

too becomes a mental rule which it i s f ound impossible to apply inpractice. And perhaps t he moral of it all is t hat we must act for the bestaccording to our lights i n each case , as t hings ar e, but that t he solutionof these p roblems can only co me b y p ressing forward towards a g reaterlight, a greater co nsciousness i n which the problems t hemselves, asnow stated by t he human mind, will not arise because we shall have avision which will see the world in a d ifferent way and a g uidance w hichat present is no t ours. The mental or moral rule is a stopgap which menare obliged to use, very uncertainly and stumblingly, until they can seethings w hole in the light of the spirit.

June 29, 1932


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REBIRTH AND PERSONALITY

YOU MUST avoid a common popular blunder about r eincarnation. The popular man with the same personality, character, attainments as h e had in hisformer l ife with the sole difference that h e wears coat an d trousersinstead of a t oga a nd speaks in cockney E nglish instead of popular Latin.

That isame personality or c haracter a million times from the beginning oftime till its e nd? T he soul comes i nto birth for experience, for growth, forevolution till it can bring the Divine into Matter. It is t he central beingthat i ncarnates, not the outer personality the personality is s imply amould that i t cr eates for i ts figures of experience in that o ne life. Inanother b irth it will create for i tself a different p ersonality, differentcapacities, a different life and career. Supposing Virgil is b orn again, hemay take up poetry in one or two other l ives, but he will certainly notwrite an epic b ut rather perhaps s light but elegant and beautiful lyricssuch as h e wanted to write, but did not succeed, in Rome. In anotherbirth he is l ikely to be no poet at l, but a philosopher an d a Yoginseeking to attain and to express the highest truth for that too was anunrealised trend of his consciousness i n that life. Perhaps b efore he hadbeen a w arrior or ruler doing deeds l ike Aeneas o r Augustus b efore hesang them. And so on on this side or that the central being develops

a new character, a new personality, grows, develops, passes t hrough allkinds o f terrestrial experience.

As t he evolving being develops s till more and becomes m ore richand complex, it accu mulates its personalities, as it w ere. Sometimesthey stand behind the active elements, throwing in some colour, sometrait, some capacity h ere and there, or they st and in front and there isa multiple personality, a many-sided character or a many-sided,

sometimes what looks like a universal c apacity. But if a former


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personality, a former capacity is b rought fully forward, it will not be torepeat what was al ready done, but to cast the same capacity into newforms and new shapes a nd fuse it into a new harmony of the beingwhich will not be a r eproduction of what was before. Thus you must notexpect to be what the warrior and the poet were. Something of theouter characteristicsmay reappear, but very much changed and new-cast in a new combination. It is i n a new direction that the energies w illbe g uided to do what was not done b efore.

Another thing. It is n ot the personality, the character that is o f thefirst importance in rebirth it is t he psychic b eing who stands b ehindthe evolution of the nature and evolves with it. The psychic when itdeparts from the body, shedding even the mental and vital on its way t oits r esting place, carries w ith it the heart of its e xperiences, not thephysical events, not the vital movements, not the mental buildings, notthe capacities o r ch aracters, but s omething essential that i t g atheredfrom them, what might be called the divine element for the sake ofwhich the rest exi sted. That i s t he permanent ad dition, it i s t hat t hathelps i n the growth towards t he Divine. That is w hy there is u sually nomemory of the outward events and circumstances of past lives forthis m emory there must be a strong development towards un brokencontinuance of the mind, the vital, even the subtle physical; for thoughit all remains i n a kind of seed memory, it does n ot ordinarily emerge.What was t he divine element in the magnanimity of the warrior, thatwhich expressed itself in his l oyalty, nobility, high courage, what was t hedivine element behind the harmonious mentality an d generous vi talityof the poet a nd expressed itself in them, that remains an d in a new

harmony of character may find a new expression or, if the life is t urnedtowards t he Divine, be taken up as p owers f or the realisation or for thework t hat has to be d one f or the D ivine.

June 17, 1933


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THE RIDDLE OF THIS WORLD

I T IS NOT to unideal and unsatisfactory world, strongly marked with the stamp ofinadequacy, suffering, evil. Indeed this perception is in a way thestarting-point of the spiritualurge except for the few to whom thegreater experience comes s pontaneously without being forced to it bythe strong or overwhelming, the afflicting and detaching sense of theShadow overhanging the whole range of this manifested existence. Butstill the question remains w hether this i s i ndeed, as i s co ntended, theessential character of all manifestation or so long at least as t here is aphysical world it must be of this n ature, so that t he desire of birth, thewill to manifest or create has to be regarded as the original sin andwithdrawal from birth or m anifestation as the sole possible way ofsalvation. For those who perceive it so or with some kindred look andthese have been the majority there are well-known ways of issue, astraight-cut t o s

The Riddle of This World by Sri Aurobindo

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