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we at times get
glimpses from their realms. Only we do not know the art of
recognizing and developing them. Thus, prophets like Moses, Mohammed
and Guru Nanak had mighty ‘revelations’ that on exposition,
influenced history. Great musicians can take ‘inspirations’ from
very high levels of consciousness that are beyond any rational
capacity. Important discoveries in science sprang from intuitive
cues that baffled logic. Sometimes the intuitions came in dreams.
One could cite the example of the discovery of the benzene ring that
was based on a dream-image of a snake eating its own tail. Seers and
mystics could speak of ‘different’ states of consciousness by
cultivating the art of ‘identifying’ with those altered states of
consciousness. After all, in ordinary life, we can understand and
apprehend the depth of ‘anger’ by ‘identifying’ with our own anger!
There is no logical reason why that faculty of identification cannot
be extended to ‘identify’ with deeper and ordinarily inaccessible
states of our own consciousness
The interesting thing is
that the supra-rational faculties were methodically researched and
developed by spiritual seekers and mystics. It was the seer, the
yogi, the Vedantist who was the torchbearer and harbinger of
Light—the Higher knowledge.
Why
should one have to undergo a spiritual discipline to acquire the
supra-rational technology? Why should one consider supra-rational
knowledge as the ‘Higher knowledge’? Knowledge is ‘neutral’ and must
be ideally equally accessible to the mystic and the rogue!
This
issue has to be considered at different levels:
(a) The supra-rational knowledge is indeed a ‘Higher’ knowledge in comparison to the knowledge based on the senses and ratiocination. Firstly, it throws light on problems of life that cannot be solved by means at our disposal. This is true in every sphere of activity. The scientist gets a supra-rational clue to solve a puzzle; the doctor gets a similar clue to select the correct antibiotic in an emergency when he has no time left to be corroborated with laboratory results; the hapless relative of a comatose patient under a life-support system has to wait for an inner guidance if he has to consent for a ‘passive’ euthanasia!
(b)
Secondly, and this is of fundamental importance – the ‘Higher’ knowledge leads us to the awareness of the unity-principle in Reality. Sensory Perception and Reason can only give us an awareness of the multiplicity – it cannot lead us to the realisation of Sachchidananda – the One, indivisible Absolute..
(c) The Higher knowledge that leads to the unity-principle can only manifest in degrees as the individual outgrows his exclusivist stance and universalizes oneself. The individual had to have an element of exclusivity to maintain uniqueness. The uniqueness of an individual is mediated by values imparted by the ego. The movement of universalizing oneself progresses in accordance with the corresponding movement of ‘surpassing’ or ‘exceeding’ one’s ego.
It is difficult to outgrow an ego-bound individuality in practical
life. This was an endeavor more suitable to the spiritual seeker,
the ascetic whose secluded life in a hermitage or a Himalayan cave
provided an undisturbed ‘milieu’ to universalize oneself and
experientially perceive the Unity-principle of Reality. It is no
wonder that the supra-rational, higher knowledge became synonymous
with spiritual endeavor.
Sri Aurobindo’s approach
Sri Aurobindo is not
interested in an ascetic solution to life’s problems. He wants the
higher knowledge to manifest in the world of multiplicity. He wants
the experiential contact with the unity-principle to be achieved
without dismissing the multiplicity. In other words, He does not
want the ‘universalization’ to occur at the expense of
‘individualization’—rather both should be simultaneously accessible
at different poises of the same consciousness, albeit, in
complementary terms.
The traditional Indian
spiritual aspirant might doubt Sri Aurobindo’s intentions. To the
conventional Indian spirituality, the individual ego is the greatest
barrier to a ‘universal’ and ‘transcendental’ experience of
Sachchidananda. Only if the ego is dissolved can one experience
Sachchidananda.
Sri Aurobindo is aware of
this problem. In fact this is the reason that the chapter preceding
‘The Methods of Vedantic Knowledge’ deals with ‘The Ego and the
Dualities’. He has in fact forwarded an alternative solution to the
traditional ego-dissolving approach -- to retain the ‘individual’ by
replacing the biased, skewed, disharmonious and exclusivist ‘ego’ by
a holistic, integralist and harmonious ‘Beyond-ego’ principle named
as the Psychic Being. Such an individuality integrated around the
Psychic Being need not be sacrificed for the experiential contact
with the Absolute.
Sri Aurobindo’s vision
therefore shifts the focus to practical spirituality—in fact, more
precisely to a futuristic yoga psychology (referred as the new
emergent Integral Yoga Psychology). In the modern age, the way to a
spiritual realization grows through this ‘integral’ psychological
approach of perfecting the individual in terms of a consciousness
perspective (Shall we call it spiritual post-modernism? After all,
the older spirituality disbanded the ego and hence the
individual—therefore in a way disbanded psychology!)
It is in this light and
spirit that Chapter V111 of The Life Divine approaches the study of
the methods of Vedantic knowledge. The stylish and skeptic
post-modernist need not fear that we are harping on outdated
concepts. Sri Aurobindo merely extracts the essence of the old
tradition to chart a future that beckons the contemporary
Time-Spirit:
‘To
develop the results arrived at ……by the ancient sages is not my
object, but it is necessary to pass briefly in review some of their
principal conclusions so far as they affect the problem of the
divine Life with which alone we are at present concerned. For it is
in those ideas that we shall find the best previous foundation of
that which we seek now to rebuild and although, as with all
knowledge, old expression has to be replaced to a certain extent by
new expression suited to a later mentality and old light has to
merge itself into new light as dawn succeeds dawn, yet it is with
the old treasure as our initial capital or so much of it as we can
recover that we shall most advantageously proceed to accumulate the
largest gains in our new commerce with the ever-changeless and
ever-changing Infinite’.(The Life Divine, pg 74-75)
Sri Aurobindo builds up this foundation by examining three experiential levels needed to understand truths that are beyond the perception of senses but seizable at an ideational level:
(a)
The mixed and pure
actions of Reason
(b)
The Objective and
Subjective Psychological experiences
(c)
Intuition as a
supra-rational instrument
We will take up these
issues in our subsequent write-ups.
The Supra-rational Word
The supra-rational
word is the mantra. It is an intuitive revelation. If the mind is
flexible enough to receive it then it can enter the individual
consciousness and start its work of transmuting and transforming
life. Reason brings a knowledge that needs to be analyzed, assessed,
challenged and surpassed. The mantra brings a knowledge that is not
isolated but is simultaneously integrated with peace, joy and power.
As when the mantra sinks in Yoga’s ear,
Its message enters stirring the blind brain
And keeps in the dim ignorant cells its sound;
The hearer understands a form of words
And, musing on the index thought it holds,
He strives to read it with the labouring mind,
But finds bright hints, not the embodied truth:
Then, falling silent in himself to know
He meets the deeper listening of his soul:
The Word repeats itself in rhythmic strains:
Thought, vision, feeling, sense, the body’s self
Are seized unutterably and he endures
An ecstasy and an immortal change;
He feels a Wideness and becomes a Power,
All knowledge rushes on him like a sea:
Transmuted by the white spiritual ray
He walks in naked heavens of joy and calm,
Sees the God-face and hears transcendent speech….
(Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, pg 375).
Date of Update:
18-Nov-11
- By Dr. Soumitra Basu
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