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In our zeal of identifying everything with the mind we come to believe that all consciousness is mental. But if we draw back the mind as a witness and observe the other parts of the being we find that each such part including the physical has an unique consciousness of its own. It is true that each part has been taken up by the mind and mentalised so that the mind is involved in the body but nevertheless each part exists separately from the mind without any "organised self-consciousness". (Ibid, pg.559) Instead each part exhibits action and reaction, impulse and needs and desires, pain, insensibility and pleasure. It has an obscure and automatic awareness that can be classified as submental, not subconscious. This vital and physical substratum is a "nervous and sensational and automatically dynamic mode of consciousness" (Ibid) that is independent of the mind.
The true subconscious is something entirely different: "it is the Inconscient vibrating on the borders of consciousness, sending up its motions to be changed into conscious stuff, swallowing into its depths impressions of past experience as seeds of unconscious habit and returning them constantly but often chaotically to the surface consciousness, missioning upwards much futile or perilous stuff of which the origin is obscure to us, in dream, in mechanical repetitions of all kinds, in untraceable impulsions and motives, in mental, vital, physical perturbations and upheavals, in dumb automatic necessities of our obscurest parts of nature." (Ibid)
The Subliminal
The subliminal or inner being is different from the subconscious. It has an inner mind, an inner vital and a subtle physical with capacities somewhat similar to the outer being but wider, more comprehensive and more sovereign. Besides it has newer capacities that the outer being does not have so that it has more quick access to knowledge and will-power. Our surface mind is conditioned by the body, the nervous system and is monitored by the physical mind. Our subliminal mind is free from these limitations. Besides the subliminal being is connected with the cosmic consciousness. One can say that the subliminal is subconscious in the sense that it is behind the veil but actually "it is rather a secret intraconscient and circumconscient than a subconscient" (Ibid, pg.560) for it not only supports the outer nature but also envelops it. In between the subliminal self or inner being and the outer being lies the intermediate zone, "a No-Man's land" (Ibid) where one can get trapped in delusion and confusion that is different from the influences of the Inconscience.
Therefore we have three levels of our being:
(a) The submental and subconscient that finally sinks into the Inconscience,
(b) The subliminal or inner being with an inner mind, inner vital and subtle physical supported by the soul-entity or psychic being. At the level of the Knowledge-Ignorance, this subliminal is luminous and extended beyond the outer being,
(c) The outer being which is projected by the subliminal and subconscious.
The Superconscious
But the picture is not yet complete. There is the superconscious above the inner being, a range of being which represents the highest supreme reality and at times we vaguely experience it and call it the Spirit, God or Oversoul. "There is then in our total range of existence a superconscience as well as a subconscience and inconscience, overarching and perhaps enveloping our subliminal and our waking selves, but unknown to us, seemingly unattainable and incommunicable." (Ibid, pg.561)
With an extension of knowledge we can infer that this Spirit or Oversoul is our highest and deepest self and reflects the Sachchidananda which by its Conscious-Force or Chit-Shakti has created the worlds within us and outside us. It has created the Cosmic Self which then sinks into the Inconscience from where it is released during evolution to form the inner or subliminal being that projects the conditioned outer being or surface personality. "If the subliminal and subconscient may be compared to a sea which throws up the waves of our surface mental existence, the superconscience may be compared to an ether which constitutes, contains, overroofs, inhabits and determines the movements of the sea and its waves." (Ibid) It is through that ether of the superconscience we can pass into a supreme experience and knowledge. However our surface being is ignorant of the inner being and of the highest or superconscient self. "This limitation to our surface existence, this unconsciousness of our highest as of our inmost self, is our first, our capital ignorance."(Ibid, pg.562)
Ignorance of the past and future
We exist simultaneously both in the mode of a superficial becoming in Time and a mode of a real becoming in Time. In the superficial mode, we are aware of a little life, unaware of the long past and long future. In the real mode, our real self is the Superconscient which becomes the subliminal that projects the superficial becoming in Time. Neither the superconscient nor the subliminal can be limited to few moments in time. One is eternal and Time is one of its modes while the subliminal represents an infinite matrix of a manifold existence that includes all the past as well the future. The outer mind does not know anything of the past or future yet they are both present, "the past involved and active, the future ready to evolve in the continuity of the secret spirit. This is another limiting and frustrating ignorance". (Ibid, pg.563)
The not-self and the Ego
Our self-ignorance extends further. We are not only unaware of the Superconscient, subliminal and subconscious selves, we are unaware of the world around us considering it as a not-self for it seems to be different from our ego-bound nature. But our subliminal self extends and expands into the cosmic self, is commensurate with the world around us. When we are identified with the superconscient self we find that it is the real One and the whole world including ourselves is its manifestation. "We see that there is one indivisible Matter of which our body is a knot, one indivisible Life of which our life is an eddy, one indivisible Mind of which our mind is a receiving and recording, forming or translating and transmitting station, one indivisible Spirit of which our soul and individual being are a portion or a manifestation." (Ibid) It is our ego-sense which has constructed the divisions and with its power maintained the strong but permeable walls. "Ego is the most formidable of the knots which keep us tied to the Ignorance". (Ibid, pg. 564)
Towards Integrality
We are unaware of the eternity in Time-dimension just as we are unaware of the Infinity in Space-dimension. We are usually aware of a limited Space occupied by our being separate from the environment around us regarded as the not-self by the ego. But Space has been viewed as the co-existence of things or souls and in the Sankhya view, the plurality of souls is maintained by the unity of Nature-Force, Prakriti. Space is the matrix where the Conscious-Force or Chit-Shakti works out itself in manifold beings and the soul presides over one of them with the result that our mentality is concentrated on oneself and regards the world as not-self. "Yet we cannot really know our mentality without knowing the one Mind, our own vitality without knowing the one Life, our own body without knowing the one Matter; for not only is their nature determined by the nature of that, but by that their activities are at every moment being influenced and determined."(Ibid) But we are ignorant not only about our superconscient, subliminal and subconscient selves, we are ignorant also of our universal self. The only saving Grace is that even in Ignorance we have a irresistible striving for more knowledge, perfection and integrality --we yearn for an integral consciousness and an integral Knowledge. "A many-sided Ignorance striving to become an all-embracing Knowledge is the definition of the consciousness of man the mental being." (Ibid, pg.565)
Date of Update:
28-Aug-24
- By Dr. Soumitra Basu
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