(a project of Mirravision Trust, Financed by Auroshakti Foundation)

A Psychological Approach to Sri Aurobindo's

The Life Divine

The Sevenfold Chord of Being

The lower trilogy

Mind, Life and Matter which comprise the lower trilogy are necessary to uphold the cosmic scaffolding. Ideally, each of these planes of consciousness must not be confined to act within limitations to serve a divisible manifestation but also have a poise of vast self-diffusion that is independent of the world of forms.

Thus it was necessary for the Supermind to produce the Mind-principle as we know it "which measures and limits, which fixes a particular centre and views from that the cosmic movement and its interactions". (The Life Divine, pg.282) In a cosmic arrangement, the function of the Mind can also be executed not through the usual mind-principle but from other centres of varying types, from a poise of universal self-diffusion of consciousness or infinite centres that are free from determinants but in such cases we would not have a structured cosmos but a Being who muses without any motivation. (Ibid)

Sri Aurobindo admits that such a state can exist somewhere in the infinite scale of existence but would not result in a structured cosmos where measurement and interaction of relations are needed to be executed by the Mind. The Mind-principle as we know has to work through defining measurements and supervising interactions and this is precisely why it developed as a subordinate action of the Supermind. The Mind, once developed can forget its origin from the Supermind but that does not matter as long as we are in the poise of multiplicity that characterizes the creation. On the other hand there is a probability that the Mind-principle, independent of the Supermind can develop "a self-imprisoned egoism"(Ibid) for execution of its activity and domination in terrestrial Nature though it is not obliged to act on the basis of egoism.

The creative consciousness of the Supermind has to manifest the Life-principle (the Vayu or Prana of the Indian tradition) once the Mind-principle is stabilized. Life is necessary to put its creative touch on material forms to animate them and to blossom force or action in the matrix of material inertia. Life is therefore a prime mover that uses its in-built will and energy to develop "determined form and action and conscious dynamis of being". (Ibid, pg.283) Such determination of force and action could also be carried out from other centres of consciousness spread out in Space and Time but would not necessarily result in the buildup of the vital dynamism needed to support the manifestation.

In the case of our material body too, we need some determination of form and substance to consolidate the consciousness so that we have a stable and durable form that is resistant to shearing forces. Without such consolidation, we would not have a viable material foundation that would be the base of the cosmic scaffolding. Yet that does not rule out the possibility of a different genre of substance that is more subtle, not a servant of fixed determinations but something "more luminous, subtle and puissantly and freely responsive than the freest mental body". (Ibid)

The Septuple Name and Multiverses

From the consciousness perspective, there is not a single world as our sensory perception tells us but multiverses where the material principle is not necessarily present (which is why we cannot perceive them by our material senses) and where evolution does not necessarily take place. In such non-evolutionary worlds, one of the seven principles of manifestation may be dominant while the rest are subordinate or latent or secretly at work.

However in a particular world where evolution has to take place, there must be a fundamental or basal principle from where evolution has to start and all other principles must be involved in that fundamental principle so that they are subsequently released sequentially during an evolutionary sojourn. "The evolution of the sevenfold power of being, the realisation of its septuple Name, must be the destiny of any world which starts apparently from the evolution of all in one power". (Ibid)

"Therefore the material universe was bound in the nature of things to evolve from its hidden life apparent life, from its hidden mind apparent mind, and it must in the same nature of things evolve from its hidden Supermind apparent Supermind and from the concealed Spirit within it the triune glory of Sachchidananda". (Ibid, pg.283-284)

The question is whether the present mankind in the present earth-habitat will be lucky to experience the full flowering of all the seven principles or this phenomenon may occur in some other cycle "of the large wheelings of Time". (Ibid, pg.284) The modern skeptic may have doubts and at best conceive of an exuberant superman displaying an extravaganza of vitality or mentality. But the Vedic seers believed that the manifestation of the Superconscient was a divine destiny. The human being born with a divine spark in the inmost recesses of consciousness is capable of a higher aspiration that can invoke real wisdom. "In the spiritual order of things, the higher we project our view and our aspiration, the greater the Truth that seeks to descend upon us, because it is already there within us and calls for its release from the covering that conceals it in manifested Nature". (Ibid)

- By Dr. Soumitra Basu