Q- Perhaps if he had led India to freedom through his satyagraha but recognised the need for armed uprising, India would have become the guru of the world, and her geographical unity would not have been lost.
A- What can be done now?
Q- A leader must arise who is willing to handle his own dark imperative by his own luminous imperative. Mother says such a person must receive the inspiration directly from Sri Aurobindo.
A- How does one receive direct inspiration from the Master?
Q- He must move into the subtle and causal planes.
A- Is not the subtle plane enough?
Q- I have no knowledge. The subtle plane, I believe, will give the insight. The power may come only from the causal planes.
A- Will the complete understanding of The Life Divine do?
Q- I am unable to say. I can say this much. An integral understanding will enable him to know what to do. Whether it will empower him to do it, is not known.
A- Suppose one has conquered in himself the rigidity of religious fanaticism.
Q- Gandhiji was not a religious fanatic, but his was a version of it.
A- Is there a way one can know where he is?
Q- There are dozens of armed conflicts like Kashmir going on in the world. There are minor, local flare-ups. If a devotee’s emotions are involved in one such conflict, he can test it.
A- How?
Q- From the point inside where he has overcome that dark imperative, a prayer of his to defuse the conflict he is involved in, will show if he is equipped with that power.
A- It is true of the similar conflicts at home.
Q- True. But to test it outside is easy. Inside it is more powerful.
A- One who does it outside can rule the country. One who does it inside can do yoga. He will be a Master of Cosmos.
Q- No. 14 speaks of waste.
A- Nature is most efficient. It is divine efficiency. It accomplishes several things at once. That is why when one work is completed several other things are simultaneously completed.
Q- We see that in Shakespeare’s plays and in all stories.
A- I am tempted to say that what we consider as waste is a method by which ALL work can be simultaneously accomplished unseen.
Q- When you work zealously in the office with a somewhat guilty feeling that you have neglected your son’s study during the exam as it synchronised with the office inspection, you find the boy who usually does well now wins the prize. Devoted work in the office sends your subliminal energies to the boy’s reading.
A- No. 15 is to see life in Matter. We who see material forms can develop sight to see spiritual, mental forms. Life in Matter is seen when we develop the vision to see life forms.
Q- It is our sensation developing sight.
A- This is a language the common man can understand.
Q- To see life in Matter is the first step of which the final step is to see the infinite in it.
A- Is it at that point Matter changes into delight of existence?
Q- Matter, thus, becomes sensation, a sensation of Delight.
A- We are describing Matter in terms of Bliss.
Q- Integral understanding enables anything to be explained in any term.
A- I feel this discussion is widening the scope of my comprehension.
Q- To see one principle in the context of another principle, in the light of another person or event is to universalise oneself.
A- It is a step towards supramentalisation.
Q- Once we know everything essential, what remains is the intensity we reach.
A- It is then we say we achieve what we want.
Q- Already there is a feeling of understanding.
A- An act will reveal the extent of that understanding.
Q- Still, we do appreciate someone telling us what HE wrote, what HE did, more importantly what we should NOT do and why, and giving us constant guidance.
A- Such guidance is available.
Q- Where?
A- In the beginning Mother gives it through impersonal forces of the environment, later through a person or event, and finally from inside.
Q- I wonder why in the published letters written to Him there is little discussion on this.
A- I heard HE would have enjoyed questions on The Life Divine.
Q- Is the same available from Him to us in the subtle plane?
A- Mother took nine years to meet Him in the subtle plane.
Q- I believe HE will answer in the subtle plane, if not in the causal plane.
A- He is available in both the planes and HEwill certainly answer.
Q- Is it a hope or experience?
A- It is an experience in the mental plane that raises that hope.
Q- No. 46 is about the seven Ignorances.
A- Incidentally, it reveals the gradation of the worlds. Time and Space are below cosmos. Ego is above Time. These are facts very difficult to understand by any reading where no specific mention is made.
Q- The crux, HE says, lies in the constitutional ignorance.
A- Is it because it is the first step or anything else?
Q- Of course, it is the first step which reverses the division.
A- Perhaps, more than the division, evolution is to integrate the mind with the emotions and body. That may be the reason for its importance.
Q- Emotions are more subtle than thoughts. Therefore, breaking into the emotions, one also knows the other worlds as a next step.
A- I do not remember reading anywhere that Time follows the creation of ego. Whether it is true?
Q- Time is one of the five extensions of Sat. Ego comes when One is divided into Many.
A- Well, One is in timelessness and Many - ego - are in Time. Perhaps both are simultaneously created and in grading them, sometimes they are placed successively.
Q- His saying practical ignorance will dissolve only after the Original Ignorance has gone is singular.
A- Capital.
Q- Nos. 7 and 8 speak of vertical and horizontal unification.
A- A conception the Rishis did not seem to have.
Q- The three purushas were spelt out only in the Gita.
A- The purushas of the parts of the being were given to us by an Upanishad.
Q- As the Ape could not conceive of becoming Man one day, Man could not conceive of becoming the Supramental Being.
A- That is unconsciousness.
Q- Mother summarises all human existence in one category unconsciousness.
A- Perhaps we do not understand the term.
Q- To know Brahman in evolution is consciousness and even to know Brahman in samadhi is unconsciousness.
A- It means before Sri Aurobindo, there was no one who was conscious.
Q- Such a consciousness HE gives us for the asking.
A- The pity is we do not ask.
Q- To unite the subconscious (pathalam) with the Superconscient (Paramatma) is a unification of the vertical dimension. To unite the universal with the Individual is to unify on the horizontal plane. Both are necessary for the total unification. For an integral consciousness, both are necessary.
A- Can we think of examples?
Q- To reconcile the family’s needs with the needs of the office can be horizontal unification.
A- What then is our vertical unification?
Q- To unite our emotions with our ideas can be said to be that.
A- To achieve one is difficult; to do both is impossible.
Q- I have always been amazed by uneducated people understanding events. They look at events mentally conceived by their emotions and the result is outrageous. When idealists wish to run a free school for very poor children, people refuse to send the children to school. When they send, they try their best to understand according to their emotions. Idealism is something inconceivable to their emotions. That is understandable. They go one step further, and exercise their emotional comprehension and land on a reason that the school conceives of a benefit from their children. Quickly they take them out of school. Integration of emotion and understanding can prevent that tragedy.
A- Principles No. 7 and 8 apply to us in this fashion.
Q- This is very interesting.
A- In application to life, it means the high and low should unite; the distant person in the organisation must have the same intensity as the central person. Explanation is easy; not experiencing.
Q- It is a few thousand years since the Hindu orthodoxy got organised and entrenched. Now you go to any remote place and you find the same rituals well expressed.
A- That is a good example for the reconciliation on the horizontal plane.
Q- In extending democratic rights, rights before law, the highest in the land and the lowliest are on the same footing.
A- In a sense, it means both are integrated. This example will suffice.
Q- As the tradition has eluded this route, is there more we have to know here?
A- If you consider MAN, he is fully satisfied if the life he leads at his present level is successful or comfortable. I am tempted to say people have no ambition.
Q- When you use ambition, tradition in any country frowns on it. Better call it dynamism.
A- How shall we characterise this? Positive or negative.
Q- It is true in tropical countries people cannot work for long hours. In the absence of devastating winter, there is no compulsion to produce in 6 or 8 months the requirements of twelve months. In cold countries, there is a demand for a weather proof house, warm clothing, winter fuel, etc.
A- My suspicion is whether the spiritual tradition has partly induced this laziness as the yogi is quiet and never works.
Q- Not only yogis, but all seriously religious people are dynamic, their movements are brisk. They work for long hours.
A- I understand one reason for the Rishis giving up the body.
Q- Because it is dark?
A- That, of course, is a main reason. It demands great energies.
Q- Spirituality demands vast reservoirs of energy to start with. If you are used to meditation and concentration on the one side and consecration on the other side.....
A- Consecration’s demands for energy are exacting.
Q- One can sit and repeat a mantra 100,000 times. The same energy cannot serve to consecrate once.
A- That is what I mean.
Q- Here, one has to fill the universe with energy.
A- It is somewhat true. All the energy the universe needs must be drawn out of the Transcendent inside.
Q- It is better to settle for moksha.
A- Moksha is, in itself, no ordinary affair.
Q- The Rishis are no ordinary people. They are greater than the gods.
A- From a theoretical point of view, the Rishis who spoke about all in each, each in all, did not pursue the goal.
Q- How far they pursued and succeeded I do not know. It is certain they knew it. Is there something more about the divine universality and Supreme infinity?
A- Where does that condition arise in our yoga?
Q- Our yoga contemplates the same for the body too.
A- As they speak of Supreme infinity, does it not mean it is beyond Supermind?
Q- The supramental plane has that infinity and universality. But it is in manifestation. Therefore, it cannot be Supreme.
A- How to pronounce on all these things. Mother was the Supreme.
Q- If the Vedic Supreme infinity is in non-manifestation, of course it is above Supermind. Unless we say Supermind manifests the Supreme infinity too, we cannot explain it.
A- No. 23, 24, 25 speak of inversion. What is the process of inversion?
Q- The process of creation of Ignorance, and creation of Life and Matter are processes of inversion.
A- Division and aggregation invert.
Q- Creation, involution, self-absorption, inversion, division are all on the same line.
A- Being evolving out of Becoming is evolution, not involution.
Q- To know Brahman in the third dimension, to consecrate so as to see it, Brahman taking birth in the third dimension are important for us. Brahma Jnanam, Brahmarpanam, Brahma Jananam.
A- By inversion, we mean Sat loses its purity of heights and step by step it moves till it becomes Matter, which we described earlier.
Q- This the Rishis have not described.
A- The Rishis have seen, perhaps, each of the eight levels singly as they saw through the mind. They could not know the process revealed to a totality of vision.
Q- Had they known that, they would not have declared that the question of how the world is created cannot be raised.
A- Why should evolution travel the path of involution, why not a new path?
Q- I am not sure Sri Aurobindo ever raised this question to be answered.
A- No one asked Him questions of this type. He raises questions and answers them Himself. It is clear that the path should be through the universe. It is not clear why it should be through the range of Spiritual mind.
Q- As the surface is a tether end, knotted with a twist, we see one cannot rise from the surface. The need to go to the fullness of the subliminal is clear.
A- Perhaps once you go to the subliminal, the universal is open direct through the range of spiritual mind.
Q- Mind purified, HE says, opens to the Spirit, which is a part, whereas the Supramental is the Whole.
A- I do not see the difference between the Spirit that is only a part and the Supramental which is the whole.
Q- One possibility suggests itself. Spirit is only of Sat, Supermind is of the entire Sachchidananda.
A- To accept any logically valid statement we need either His confirmation or our own spiritual experience.
Q- We can say Spirit released from Mind is a part, while the Soul released from the whole being is full.
A- If the psychic is the full being and it is moving towards Supermind, necessarily it has to develop the respective psychic beings of the four levels between Mind and Supermind.
Q- Maybe HE has said it somewhere in the book. Let us look into it more carefully.
A- No. 38. Unless the world is divinely explained, nothing is explained.
Q- All the other explanations come to a loose end. This will have no such loose end, as our basis is the Divine has become the world.
A- Those who claim no knowledge of the creative process are not obliged to explain every phenomenon. They leave out evil. They bring in karma, accept rebirth after a fashion.
Q- Our assumption explains all these. Heaven and Hell meet the mental requirements up to a point, but that position cannot explain suffering and evil. A God who has created Hell is an abomination. Still, why this suffering exists is left unanswered.
A- The I.Q. test is widely used and serves a lot of purpose. They have no definition of Intelligence. Science rules the world. A leading science journal of this year tries to find a definition of science. Whether it is intelligence or science, the entire field is unconscious. They do not know what they are about.
Q- Does this lack of basic definition have anything to do with pollution?
A- That is a simpler question. The whole cannot hurt its parts. One part can hurt another. If we understand Science as essential knowledge, it cannot hurt other parts. Understanding Science as technology, it can clash with other interests.
Q- Science is knowledge, essential knowledge of the whole. That view is not there. Science is by implication understood as technology, not KNOWLEDGE. The view is partial and warped.
A- Absence of OBJECTIVITY in public life and politics and the partial view of science go together.
Q- It is true. They may say it is far-fetched.
A- Sankhya posited many Purushas. Sri Aurobindo says the universe can be explained only if there is one Purusha.
Q- Is this clear to you?
A- If there are several Purushas, first, all the Purushas have to be united is the goal. That is now with the egos. Several egos join in one Purusha.
Q- So, Sankhyas took the egos as Purusha, is it?
A- They could see the unity at the level of Becoming. They saw Purushas as separate, but Prakriti as one.
Q- Is it a conscious perception or unconscious one?
A- I see the injustice done to me as injustice. But I certainly feel my own injustice to another is inevitable.
Q- That means selfishness is very real.
A- Mind tells me that I too am unjust.
Q- But, something in me overlooks that.
A- That something in me is selfish, unconscious or dark.
Q- Unity is what I am making for. I seek unity in light. There is unconscious unity. There is no UNITY at the level of my consciousness.
A- It looks like a process. Man has UNITY always. He is seeking unity of Light from unity of darkness through lack of unity in his conscious perception.
Q- To bring the philosophy to a practical level is necessary.
A- This statement “explain the world divinely” is possible if there is one Purusha.
Q- How?
A- From division one has to move to unity, first from many Purushas to one Purusha and then the unity of Purusha and Prakriti.
Q- Our basis is the Absolute is ONE and has never lost its unity in creation.
A- Is it not again our assumption?
Q- He assumed that hypothesis and proved that hypothesis.
A- Yes, it is there on p. 304.
Q- Can you repeat now?
A- Scientists see chance and order.
Q- These are contradictory.
A- Infinity, hiding in the finite, evolving back to Infinity reconciles chance and order.
Q- Explain further.
A- The journey from the finite to the Infinite makes possible infinite variety, making it appear as chance.
Q- Then order comes from the fixed goal, is it? That is what we discussed earlier.
A- His great intellectual feat comes out in a few ways:
- Freedom to lose freedom.
- An indeterminability that is beyond the pale of any other determinism.
- Chance and order are resolved by the journey of the finite towards the Infinite.
Q- This is how HE presents ideas of intuition to intellect.
A- An intellect that does NOT refuse to see.
Q- HE calls them Higher Reason and logic of the Infinite.
A- Where do these possibilities arise from?
Q- In the chapter on Maya HE speaks of three theories. The idealist’s theory assumes no relation between the ideal and the practical. HE goes beyond and says it is the ideal that expresses as the practical.
A- The mind has the ability to restore the lost connection with the Supermind. The intellect can refuse to restore it or endeavour to do so.
Q- Does the argument that Freedom is free to lose itself complete it?
A- The mind can restore the connection because it was there once.
Q- We have the case of an organisation that made its President one of absolute power.
A- When that President chose to destroy the organisation, others found themselves helpless, forgetting it is they who gave him that authority and therefore they could withdraw it.
Q- The TRUTH of ever-present GRACE was seen in that case by the President’s supporters being in the minority.
A- As the others were in the majority, the President could be readily removed. The organisation had huge debts which the President and his people could not pay. Suppose the President’s supporters were in the majority, the pressure of the loan would have transferred to the President and he and the creditors would have sought the other members for redress.
Q- Grace would have been behind the curtain.
A- Mother’s atmosphere, the third dimension, and grace are active in our daily life.
Q- So, if, in each case where S HE acts, we can see how grace is ever-present, His three or four arguments are likely to become clearer.
A- We have the case of CHOICE.
Q- Our position is the choice is always ours.
A- If choice is always ours, it argues that Purusha is one.
Q- How?
A- The One was created by Self-conception and retains that Self-conception always, when we find the choice is ours.
Q- If we are under the compulsion of society, it means we and the society are different. Now it is not. The society compels only as long as we permit it, which means we and the society are one.
A- To be able to see the choice, oneness, and freedom from determinism in every act of grace will make the book clearer.
Q- ‘Society compels us’ is true, but are we not free to stand outside the society? We want the society and therefore it compels us.
A- It means we are NOT determined by any other determinism. We are absolutely free.
Q- To feel the FREEDOM we are given, we do not feel free.
A- Man is born free, but is found in fetters everywhere. And that comes from one who was behind the French Revolution. The French Revolution started in the Himalayas.
Q- Great clarity comes, but not enough.
A- We are the determinant of our own life.
Q- It holds good as long as we do not face an issue.
A- It only means the emotions do not accept what the mind understands.
Q- ‘The crux of the difficulty lies in constitutional Ignorance’, reveals the above position.
A- The Life Divine was written to show that integral spiritual experience can be explained to the intellect through the ideas of intuition and the above three statements show that.
Q- No. 28 is the Force that is separated from the consciousness in Life should in evolution rejoin above in the consciousness.
A- At the point of Chit, Force separates and it is known to us as Consciousness-Force. In the lower hemisphere, Force becomes life.
Q- Where is the consciousness?
A- If Force is life, the consciousness is behind.
Q- Of course, Being too is there in that consciousness. Going still further, all — force, consciousness, and being — are Brahman.
A- Evolution is the reverse process.
Q- It is NOT just the reverse process?
A- In the reverse process, it goes to the third dimension Brahma Jananam.
Q- That is why His contribution to yoga is great as well as revolutionary.
A- He has introduced in creation the concept of evolution.
Q- Which means the Spirit evolves.
A- Which means Brahman ENJOYS Delight.
Q- It is Delight that excels the Bliss of Sachchidananda.
A- Force joining back to consciousness is such a process.
Q- I should like to see these ideas in life.
A- I have two ideas; I wonder whether they will be good.
- Man before and after 1900 all over the world.
- Man in India before and after 1947 August.
Q- Freedom is clear. The first one is not.
A- For nineteen centuries man lived on earth under the impression he should live his own life.
Q- Which means he should feed his family, educate his child, earn his capital or job and he should fully accept the responsibilities of his own life. Now, you point out that the government and society accept some of his responsibilities.
A- It means in theory the society lives his life partly.
Q- And the society does it at a far higher level than what he can do.
A- Looking at it as greater individual benefits, they are fabulous; especially Man is offered what was not available to him so far.
Q- What else do you have in mind?
A- Man evolves socially. Instead of meeting his needs as a lone individual, he now meets his needs as a collective individual.
Q- A collective individual is a million times stronger than an individual is.
A- When Force rejoins consciousness, such a wonder takes place, which Sri Aurobindo calls the Marvel.
Q- At all points of evolution such a flowering occurs. That is the third dimension.
A- Should Man be the point where Force rejoins consciousness, he evolves.
Q- Evolution differs from creation as day differs from night.
A- Our tradition has no idea of this aspect of evolution.
Q- Should that happen, Man becomes apparently a being of Light.
A- And that is the higher Self-existent Light.
Q- Man bringing himself to this point by surrender and living by surrender at those frontiers is the evolving Man.
A- Of course, he is not the supramental being.
Q- Imagine a man in 1930 or 1880 and look at the world around them through their eyes. One was darkness illuminated by candlelight and the other is bright daylight.
A- No. 56 says karma is of the Force, not Being.
Q- The offspring of animals are weaned away early. Man also did so to his offspring. Imagine a child at the age of 5 or 6 sent into the world to live its own life - there are such children now also - and the child taken care of all his life by the whole family. Liken karma to the life of the child weaned away from parents. As Force is separated from the Being, this child is separated from the family. The family is the Being, the child’s own life is the Force.
A- No. 68, “There is no pain or darkness in creation”.
Q- ‘There is no failure in college education’ can be stated as a parallel to this. College houses the students, conducts lectures on the subjects, appoints tutors to supervise the studies of the pupils, feeds them, appoints a doctor, offers coaching to weak students, conducts exams, prepares the students for the exams, offers study holidays, keeps a library, arranges special lectures on many subjects. All these are arrangements for the students to acquire the degree. But they are free not to go to the class, or study, to take to other avocations and to fail in the exam. Even that failure is given other chances to pass.
A- College has created no failure will be a valid statement.
Q- There is no pain in creation, but it is free to seek pain. Is it so?
A- There can be no failure in a college, but there will be no creation without ego. Ego has pain.
Q- Can we say, even if ego is there in ignorance, there is no pain for the ego if the ego chooses to evolve into the psychic?
A- Pain is there for the ego. It is not as if creation aimed at having no pain.
Q- The pain is only for the ego on the surface.
A- The pain is not for the subliminal, rather the pain of ego is joy for the subliminal. Or we can say pain is there in creation as a means to a greater JOY.
Q- He who does not want pain has none.
A- Pain is not for the Being, not even for the Force, but the separated being imprisoned in ego on the surface has pain when it identifies with the ego.
Q- Our list excludes equality, an important concept.
A- Let us look at equality from the third dimension.
Q- Reaction and passive equality belong to the first two dimensions. Active equality is of the third dimension.
A- This is a very high power, power of the consciousness of the Infinite. It can be useful in daily life.
Q- Equality helps one solve problems.
A- Normally equality raises our centre from the vital to the mind.
Q- It is true. But equality is the skill of Spirit that emerges through the parts of our being.
A- Consciousness of equality at home or in the office is a solvent of problems. One can try to prepare himself for some time to be equal inside and then exhibit a determination to practise it. All his problems would have vanished before he starts practising.
Q- Every other person will feel provoked for no reason. And it is a sure sign of his true equality.
A- That is true when the equality is shallow. Every other person will find a calm descending on him when your equality gains in intensity.
Q- Even the idea of equality will give tension for most.
A- The power of equality emerges really when it is based on knowledge, vital strength and physical stability.
Q- In an atmosphere of contention, we see the stronger side wins the day not by right or reason, but by strength. Occasionally we meet with a leader who is inwardly strong and also calm. The same side that has won time and again by virtue of strength, when pitted against this strong calm man on the opposite side, yields on all points which it won so far on its strength.
A- Vinobha and Jayaprakash did so with the dacoits. They did not offer pardon, but advised them to court arrest for their crimes. And they did court arrest.
Q - Vinobha’s equality is in which dimension?
A- Second.
Q- Can we think of an example of the third dimension for equality?
A- Sri Aurobindo’s equality that won the two wars was able to generate so much of strength in the subtle plane because it was in the third dimension.
Q- The best thing is to experiment ourselves. We know those who came to murder Satprem were cowed down by his looks and went away.
A- No. 9 is not to give egoistic response.
Q- All our responses are egoistic. So this means don’t act, be quiet.
A- Exactly, don’t act as you have been acting so far. Let Mother act through you.
Q- Let us discard the vulgar exhibitions of ego such as pride, arrogance, self-assertion, reaction, envy, demand, etc.
A- When we have given up all these, we will find they were not given up but were discouraged. They will be there in very full measure just below the surface.
Q- The very best way to get rid of ego is to start with the understanding of what ego is.
A- HE says ego made possible the One becoming the Many.
Q- Spiritually the beginning of ego is there.
A- The root of the ego is in the thinking mind and its knot is there in the subtle heart.
Q- People are totally unmanageable if touched at these points.
A- What are those points?
Q- Those are the various sensitivities.
A- Tell the scientist that science needs to be rational, he will be aghast, as he does not know what Science is. He believes in something as science, which is a superstition. It is a mental sensitivity.
Q- All cultural sensitivities are rooted in the physical. Touched there, the man will be up in arms.
A- Ethnic conflicts are because of the outraged physical sensitivities.
Q- If so, will there be a solution for such conflicts?
A- That is a different issue.
Q- It is good manners not to tread on the other man’s corns. Here is an answer for No-Divorce if ever people get married.
A- Egoism is all-powerful, but its public exhibition is now discouraged.
Q- No. 1 is the Third Dimension of Time. There is constant reference to this theme. Can we open a full discussion on this point?
A- This is the dimension of evolution. It is the Supramental dimension. It is this dimension that defies understanding and creates confusion.
Q- We know Time and Timelessness and not beyond that.
A- We know good and bad and not the Self-existent GOOD.
Q- The Delight God seeks is not the Bliss of Sachchidananda, something more. It is the Delight of knowledge emerging out of Ignorance.
A- Surely it is not the knowledge above which is also Self-existent knowledge.
Q- Then how many divisions of knowledge or Delight are there?
A-
- Knowledge of the lower hemisphere which is the opposite of ignorance.
- Self-existent knowledge in the higher hemisphere.
- Knowledge that emerges out of Ignorance as evolutionary Knowledge.
Q- The tradition knows the first two. The third dimension is there in Silence, Peace, Truth, Goodness, Knowledge, Power, Love, Time, Space and in every aspect of creation.
A- I feel some confusion is being removed.
Q- We can as well say understand the third dimension in every event of life, in every principle of philosophy, and Sri Aravindam will reveal itself to you. I am unable to think of an occasion in life where this concept of third dimension fails to explain HIS point of view.
A- One can write a thesis, monograph or study this and write a book about it. That is a service rendered to HIM.
Q- Reconciliation of contradiction is No.2. This is explained everywhere, illustrated. I would appreciate a theoretical, rather yogic explanation. I need to know the difference between an explanation, a theoretical explanation and yogic explanation.
A- Maybe our deliberations will become endless. What is clear to everyone is not clear to someone. To make him see what others see is explanation. That is life. Philosophy is the background of life. Theoretical explanation issues from there. Yoga is to bring philosophy to bear upon life - the third dimension here.
Q- An example please.
A- One fails miserably in a work - harvest, examination, sales, election, etc. - after being enthusiastic about it. He fails to understand his failure. Someone says enthusiasm is good, releases energy, but what produces result here is organised energy of sufficient intensity. This can be done by showing where his attention failed to reach, comparing his work with others’ work, etc. The first is theory, the latter is explanation. Yogically, a work reaches fruition when it is sanctioned by the soul. What sanctioned the work here is his vital which released its energy of enthusiasm, not even the mind, as the organisation of the mind is missing. The soul’s sanction will be quiet, not excited. It will be enthusiastic, and show as good omens in the beginning.
Q- Let us come to contradictions. In our own life and in history there are numerous examples of contradictions finally resolved giving birth to good results. That is illustration and explanation. Selflessness changing into selfishness creates contradictions out of self-assertion. Mind has created life and matter out of divided existence and they are naturally in contradiction where the whole tries to hide in the parts. The endeavour of the divided parts coming together is seen as conflict. The original intention is to seek JOY by Self-discovery. So, conflict is creation by choice.
A- Well, again these clear explanations can be applied to life situations for greater clarity. I shall not ask for it. If we do it ourselves, the clarity of thought becomes an enjoyable experience of life.
Q- No. 4 is ‘Reconciliation of the Transcendent and Cosmic Consciousness - Matter and Spirit’.
A- It is reconciliation of Matter and Spirit at both these planes, but though it is mistakenly put as you did, it also means that.
Q- Someone wrote to Sri Aurobindo about the Transformation of the psychic. He pointed out that the psychic is not to be transformed but Nature is transformed into the psychic.
A- The reconciliation He speaks of can be considered as the third dimension for Spirit and Matter. In the exercise of Mind, we know Socrates, Newton, Copernicus did it in a fashion that no one until then had done. In Chapters 2 and 3 Sri Aurobindo exercised his Mind in a fashion in which Mind has not till then been exercised. He gave Mind, not His own Mind only, a new dimension.
Q- How could HE do so? Has it been noticed by anyone?
A- Several years after the first flight in the air was successfully experimented, professors of physics were taking theoretical pains to prove it was not possible. An eminent Indian professor of philosophy had the insight to read this book and declare however ingenious the argument was, he could not accept it. He could do so because HE had seen the process of creation and chose such points that would be intelligible to a mind that was closed. Sri Aurobindo went to the length of justifying the closed minds, rather gave their rationale as their loyalty to the old illuminations and their duty to repeat them.
Q- Perhaps HE saw Matter and Energy and Spirit too as a plane of Energy meeting in the cosmic consciousness.
A- Yes. Having seen Sat and Asat emanating from Brahman into the plane of Transcendent consciousness, HE devised a method to reconcile them. He saw man’s penchant to be either here or there. So,HE said he must go there without losing hold of the ‘here’.
Q- Is it the same argument about not reconciling the one without a second and All is Brahman.
A- In essence it is so. But the difference is great.
Q- What is the difference?
A- All is Brahman is the greatest vision of human mind till today. So too is the other. No mind, however great can think of reconciling them.
Q- HE did so.
A- It was not Mind but Supermind. It is not clear whether different sages made these statements or the same Rishi had these visions alternately.
Q- Surely it is NOT the same person. Suppose the same man had seen both alternately, it would mean his Mind has withdrawn from the first vision to see the second. That freedom is there in the Supermind, not in the mind, but it is still an argument, not my information of the Upanishads.
A- No. 5 is reaching the opposite without losing hold of this side. In politics the distinction between the politician and statesman can serve as a parallel.
Q- Somewhat. One becomes a politician by identifying himself with the party. The statesman refuses any particular identity and seeks the good of the nation. One who goes between lovers carrying messages often ends up marrying the woman. Human emotions are transitory, ephemeral, and the very act of coming into contact wins the person. It is physical emotion that honours touch. One is at the other end; this is at the lowest physical base.
A- I would like to know all about Romance, why it is the universal mark of excellence in human living.