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The three poises of Reality and the four-fold nature of the Self
In Chapter III of The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo describes how Reality is simultaneously manifested in the three poises of the Transcendent, the Universal and the Individual. However, He places two quotes from Mandukya Upanishad at the beginning of the chapter. The first quote is the 2nd verse of the Mandukya and speaks of the four-fold nature of the Self:
ALL THIS IS THE BRAHMAN; THIS SELF IS THE BRAHMAN AND THE SELF IS FOURFOLD.
The second quote is from the 7th verse and focuses on the fourth of the four-fold nature of the Self:
BEYOND RELATION, FEATURELESS, UNTHINKABLE, IN WHICH ALL IS STILL.
What is the relation between the three poises of Reality described by Sri Aurobindo and the four-fold nature of Self described in the Mandukya Upanishad?
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Before
answering this question, it would be important to appreciate that
the citation of passages from pristine spiritual scriptures of India
at the beginning of each chapter of The Life Divine is neither
ornamentation nor to show that each chapter is an amplification of
the passages quoted. In fact, the chapters were not primarily
composed to be in consonance with the passages quoted. The Life
Divine contains many new spiritual revelations unexplored and
unrecorded before and it would be naïve to consider that the
chapters were written to match already recorded spiritual insights.
Rather the citations are quoted to demonstrate that even the new
Thought in the Life Divine can be logically traced back to
pre-existing seed-ideas. Thus the spiritual trajectory itself
follows an evolutionary movement that serves two purposes:
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A
forward movement of pre-recorded seed-ideas is in consonance
with the precedence Sri Aurobindo has given to the evolutionary
movement in consciousness vis-à-vis the traditional leverage
given to dissolution of creation in the Indian context and
entropy in the scientific world. This phenomenon of course is
best exemplified in the first Rig Veda quote in The Life Divine
where the endless procession of dawns symbolizes the
ever-expanding vistas of knowledge;
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The
seed-ideas in the quotes at the beginning of each chapter of The
Life Divine are incorporated and surpassed in the new
thought-trajectory in each chapter. This is the uniqueness in
Sri Aurobindo’s presentation. No wonder, He had the orientation
to state even in His treatise on the Gita that we do not belong
to the past dawns but to the noons of the future (Essays on the
Gita)
The three poises of Reality and the four-fold nature of the Self
Reality
or Brahman can be perceived in many ways. If it is experientially
perceived in an existential mode, it is known as the Self.
Sri
Aurobindo describes that Reality is simultaneously perceived in the
Individual, Universal and Transcendent poises. In the Individual
poise, Consciousness is concentrated within the limits of Space and
Time so that a particular creative drama can be enacted. In the
Universal poise, Consciousness is diffused beyond the constraints of
Space and Time so as to complement the Individual poise. The
Transcendental poise surpasses both the Individual and the
Universal, permits them, exhausts them and is yet independent of
them.
The
four-fold nature of the Self described in the Mandukya Upanishad
describes the same Reality from a different perspective:
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The
first is ‘He whose place is the wakefulness, who is wise of the
outward, … who feels and enjoys gross objects, Vaishwanara, the
Universal Male’. This is the sense-bound ‘personality’ in
contemporary psychological parlance, external self in
conventional yogic terminology and ‘outer being’ in
Aurobindonian terms.
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The
second is ‘He whose place is the dream, who is wise of the
inward…who feels and enjoys subtle objects, Taijasa, the
Inhabitant in Luminous Mind’. This is what Sri Aurobindo names
as the inner or subliminal being. The inner being is connected
with the cosmic consciousness. It is also connected with the
outer being through channels of communication known as chakras.
The inner being has subtle senses and is capable of
suprarational modes of acquisition of knowledge.
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The
third is ‘When one sleeps and yearns not with any desire, nor
sees any dream, that is the perfect slumber. He whose place is
the perfect slumber, who is become Oneness, who is wisdom
gathered into itself, who is made of mere delight, who enjoys
delight unrelated, to whom conscious mind is the door, Prajna,
the Lord of Wisdom, He is the third’. This is the inmost being,
the being of desireless delight, who has no motivation to exist
but for the sheer, unalloyed joy of existence, the being who
from behind projects the frontal personality, the being who
carries the essence of oneness but supports the myriad,
conflicting divisions of our external nature.
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The
fourth is ‘He who is neither inward-wise, nor outward-wise, nor
both inward- and outward-wise, nor wisdom self-gathered, nor
possessed of wisdom, nor unpossessed of wisdom, He Who is unseen
and incommunicable, unseizable, featureless, unthinkable, and
unnameable, Whose essentiality is awareness of the Self in its
single existence, in whom all phenomena dissolve, Who is Calm,
Who is Good, Who is the One than Whom there is no other, Him
they deem the fourth: He is the Self, He is the object of
Knowledge’. This is the self that is poised above the
manifestation. It supports the manifestation but is itself
detached. It can be experientially perceived through the central
being that projects the impersonality dimension that in turn
upholds the personality. While Western psychology studies the
being in terms of ‘personality’, yoga psychology studies the
being both in terms of ‘personality’ and ‘impersonality’.
The
three poises of Reality ( Individual, Universal and Transcendent)
described by Sri Aurobindo in this chapter and the four-fold nature
of the Self described in the Mandukya Upanishad are two distinctive
paradigms of Consciousness. Any attempt to interchange one paradigm
for the other would be a oversimplification. Yet, Sri Aurobindo
quotes the Upanishad paradigm at the beginning of the chapter. We
have to understand this from two perspectives:
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The
four-fold nature of the Self has to be studied against the
background of the three poises of Reality. Actually, at each
poise of Reality, the Self has stress on one or other aspect of
its four-fold nature. At the Individual poise, there is more
stress on the outer being at the level of psychological
understanding and the inmost being at the level of spiritual
growth. At the Transcendental poise, the Self has more stress on
the impersonality dimension experienced through the central
being where metaphysics overtakes psychology. At the Universal
poise, there is more stress on the inner being. The inner being
can connect with the ‘collective unconscious’ of Jungian
psychology at one level and with the ‘cosmic consciousness’ of
the mystics at another level. It is the meeting ground of
fantasy and pragmatism, of psychology and mysticism, of science
and spirituality.
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Sri
Aurobindo’s Integralism moves along different perspectives. The
four-fold nature of the Self has to undergo integration and this
integrated Self has to be studied at different poises of
Reality. The three poises of Reality have to be themselves
integrated. This multiple movement also leads to an integration
of metaphysics and psychology. Such a complex mosaic of
Integralism provides the gestalt to support the emergence of
higher, progressively integrated evolutionary models of human
being.
(All
quotes from the Mandukya Upanishad are translated by Sri Aurobindo
and published in Vol 12 of Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library)
This is the Almighty, this is the Omniscient, this is the Inner
Soul, this is the womb of the Universe, this is the Birth and
Destruction of creatures.
Verse 6, Mandukya Upanishad
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