The Vertical
Organization—The Hierarchy of Consciousness
To
understand the hierarchy of consciousness, the first postulate that
we have to appreciate is that:
(a) Consciousness is
not synonymous with ‘mind’—mind is just one of the many planes of
consciousness.
(b) Mind itself is not
synonymous with brain. In spatial terms, mind is non-local, but
needs the brain for its expression.
In
fact, the spiritual perspective states that
(a) Consciousness is
not produced by brain but antedates it in evolution though it uses
the brain as an
instrument for its expression
(b) Mental
consciousness is only the human range which no more exhausts all the
possible ranges of consciousness than human sight exhausts all the
gradations of colour or human hearing all the gradations of sound –
for there is much above or below that is to man invisible. So there
are ranges of consciousness above and below the human range.
(c) Consciousness is
not the same as mentality but
‘INDICATES A
SELF-AWARE FORCE OF EXISTENCE OF WHICH MENTALITY IS A MIDDLE TERM;
BELOW
MENTALITY IT SINKS INTO VITAL AND MATERIAL MOVEMENTS WHICH ARE FOR
US SUBCONSCIENT;
ABOVE,IT RISES
INTO THE SUPRAMENTAL WHICH IS FOR US THE SUPERCONSCIENT’.(The
Life Divine, pg 97-98)
BELOW MIND
Below
the mental or cognitive plane of our consciousness is what Sri
Aurobindo names the ‘vital’ plane or plane of life-energy. The vital
plane itself has many ranges. In human beings the higher ranges of
the vital plane hold the repertoire of our emotions (‘cognition’ and
‘emotion’ have never been clumped together in the Indian tradition,
they were always distinct planes – a fact that is only being
appreciated now in academic psychology).
The
lower range of the vital plane represents simply the ‘life-force’
and is discerned from our physiological functioning by
psycho-physiological research. Sri Aurobindo wrote as early in the
second decade of the last century:
‘In
ourselves there is such a vital consciousness which acts in the
cells of the body and the automatic vital functions so that we go
through purposeful movements and obey attractions and repulsions to
which our mind is a stranger. In animals this vital consciousness is
an even more important factor. In plants it is intuitively evident.
The seekings and shrinkings of the plant, its pleasure and pain,
its sleep and its wakefulness and all that strange life whose truth
an Indian scientist has brought to light by rigidly scientific
methods, are all movements of consciousness, but, as far as we can
see, not of mentality. There is then a sub-mental, a vital
consciousness which has precisely the same initial reactions as the
mental, but is different in the constitution of its self-experience,
even as that which is superconscient is in the constitution of its
self-experience different from the mental being’.(The Life Divine
pg.96)
The
vital consciousness lapses into the physical consciousness that
constitutes ‘matter’. It is only when the plane of matter is
impregnated with life-energy that the ‘vitality’ of the ‘Vital’
becomes gradually evident. Matter otherwise is perceived as inert.
In matter, the ‘consciousness’ or ‘chit’ aspect of Chit-Shakti
(Consciousness-Force) may not be apparent but the ‘energy’ or shakti
aspect is implicit as a mechanical force.
The
physical consciousness lapses into the ‘subconscious’ (this is what
Freud called the ‘unconscious’) that contains all the impressions of
the past. The subconscious itself sinks into the Inconscience that
appears as a ‘denial’ of everything. Sri Aurobindo explains that the
Inconscience is phenomenal, not fundamental. It appears as an
inconscient because consciousness has veiled itself totally here.
When the evolutionary nisus starts working, it initiates the whole
process of unfolding of consciousness from the bosom of the
inconscience..
ABOVE MIND
At
the other end, the hierarchy of consciousness rises above the mental
plane to reach the ‘SUPERCONSCIOUS’ plane. In the past, yogis of
India took a special route to the superconscious. They:
(a) Discarded the ego,
(b)
Identified with the
Jivatman or Central Being above the manifestation. This is the
impersonality principle
that holds our personality,
(c) Surpassed all
cognitive experience,
(d)
Identified with the
transcendental poise of the Absolute.
The
only problem with this conventional approach was that it
necessitated an abandonment of both personal and social life for it
was a pursuit suitable for the ascetic, the hermit, the Rishi .
Sri
Aurobindo traces an altogether new and hereto unchartered route to
the Superconscient that need not lead to an abandonment of life :
Instead of surpassing cognition, He initiates an evolution of
cognitive consciousness, unfolding a spiritual mind-range. At levels
higher than the mind, the individual cognitive apparatus enlarges in
several dimensions, seizes ‘truth’ in its naked purity, gets linked
with the universal cognition and further up, the globalized
individual cognition is integrated into a sweeping evolutionary
movement to come into touch with the supreme essence of the Creative
Force that builds the worlds. The life Divine is a logbook of this
journey from the Mind to the Supermind and subsequent chapters will
build up this wonderful adventure in consciousness. Such a crowning
movement leads to a transformation of life and not an abandonment of
life.
The Concentric
Organization—The Structure of the Being
What
we study as the personality is in Aurobindonian terms our outer
being or surface being. Yogic experience has always confirmed that
this surface manifestation is supported by a soul-entity deep inside
the core of our being. In between the surface personality and the
inmost essence of our being, Sri Aurobindo describes a distinct
plane of personality, which he names as the inner or subliminal
being. Thus we have:
(a) an outer or surface
being
(b) an inner or
subliminal being
(c) an inmost or ‘true’
being.
The outer being
The
outer being is made up of our
mind
(cognition, intelligence, thoughts, ideas, will),
vital
( emotions, passions, dynamisms) and
physical (body); organized around the
ego.
The
mental, vital and physical planes have distinctive identities but
are intermingled into a skewed combination that revolves around the
ego. In different individuals and even in the same individual, at
different points in time, the intermingling has different
connotations. This is the basis of individual differences.
The inner being
The
inner or subliminal being stands behind the outer being. It has an
inner mind, an inner vital and an inner physical that are no longer
in a confused, intermingled combination as in the surface being but
begin to manifest their distinctive characteristics.
The
subliminal is
(a)
Connected to the
universal consciousness (a portion of which was called by Jung as
the collective unconscious). It is through this connection that the
universal rhythm of creativity enters the individual;.
(b) Connected to the
surface being through channels of communication called chakras.
These are mostly closed but can be opened through yoga. Ordinarily,
only a little of the inner being can escape into our outer life and
that ‘little’ is responsible for the best of our creative, aesthetic
and constructive endeavors. If the channels of communication can be
made fully operative, we can discover that we are no longer separate
personalities with limited lives but centres of a vast, universal,
cosmic action.
The
characteristics of the subliminal being were known in a discrete,
scattered way. Sri Aurobindo, for the first time in the history of
consciousness, has gathered all the past experiences for an unique
concept-construct of a well-defined, distinct, highly structured
‘inner being’. This, when grasped by our intellect will be
acknowledged as one of the most significant contributions to the
world of psychology.
The
subliminal opens into the Superconscience above and sinks into the
inconscience below.
The Inmost Being
The
Inmost or True Being is a fourth-dimensional, ego-transcending
principle. It is the soul-essence and has its representation at each
plane of consciousness. Thus, it is represented by the true mental
being (Monomaya Purusha) at the mental plane, the true vital being (
Pranamaya Purusha) at the vital plane, the true physical being (
Annamaya Purusha) at the physical plane and supporting all these,
the psychic being ( Chaitya Purusha). In the Sri Aurobindonian
perspective, the real individuality emerges when the ego is replaced
by the psychic being. When this is attained, one starts living at a
deeper level of consciousness and experiences a sense of wholeness,
integrality, peace, unity, collaboration and unalloyed joy.
The
psychic being is supported and upheld by an Eternal Spirit (the
Jivatman) which is above the manifestation.
The Individual, the
Universal, the Transcendent
Consciousness is simultaneously present in three poises; Individual,
Universal, Transcendent. The Universal and the Individual co-exist
with the Transcendent, which surpasses both. The Universe is a
diffusion of consciousness in infinite Space and Time, the
Individual is its concentration within the limits of space and time.
It
is intriguing why the universal consciousness diffused in infinite
space and time needed the corollary movement of concentration in the
individual within the limits of space
and time. Sri Aurobindo answers that the Universe seeks in infinite
extension the divine totality it feels itself to be but cannot
entirely realise; for in extension existence drives at a pluralistic
sum of itself which can neither be the primal nor the final unit,
but only a recurring decimal without end or beginning. Therefore it
creates in itself a self-conscious concentration of the All through
which it can aspire.(Ibid, pg 52)
This
“Self-conscious concentration of the All” is represented in the
individual as an Essence or Self (Atman) .This Self, through an
extension , can identify with the essence of the cosmic (universal)
consciousness or the Cosmic (Universal) Self and likewise with the
essence of the Transcendent consciousness or the Transcendent Self.
The one Self, expressed in the three poises of the Transcendent,
Universal and the Individual is what is called as the Being or
Brahman . All the great Yogis of India have described that on
gaining the highest kind of mystic realization one makes an
immediate experiential contact with the Ultimate Reality as the
“Being”. This BEING (Brahman) experienced as the ground of the
universe was also identified with the SELF(Atman) –the ground of
our psychological existence.
The adventurer in consciousness
This
is how the adventurer in consciousness views the hierarchy of the
worlds—the ranges of consciousness:
He saw a lone immense high-curved world-pile
Erect like a mountain- chariot of the Gods
Motionless under an inscrutable sky.
As if from Matter’s plinth and viewless base
To a top as viewless, a carved sea of worlds
Climbing with foam-maned waves to the Supreme
Ascended towards breadths immeasurable;
It hoped to soar into the Ineffable’s reign:
A
hundred levels raised it to the Unknown.
So it towered up to heights intangible
And disappeared in the hushed conscious Vast
As climbs a storeyed temple-tower to heaven
Built by the aspiring soul of man to live
Near to his dream of the Invisible.
Infinity calls to it as it dreams and climbs; (Sri Aurobindo,Savitri, pg 98)
Date of Update:
18-Sep-12
- By Dr. Soumitra Basu
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