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The Three Generalizations of the Play of Existence
Our ordinary existence as perceived by our mental consciousness is
impermanent, subject to entropy, decay, and dissolution.
Spirituality has however described the experiential realisation of
an eternal, illimitable, absolute existence. Our ordinary scientific
view of existence revolves around the workings of matter-energy that
somehow spins out life from a chance combination of material
factors. Sri Aurobindo describes a Conscious-Force building graded
worlds that moves towards a definite goal of a perfected life on
earth itself and not in a faraway heaven. Our ordinary value of
existence is hooked to the triple vibrations of
pleasure-pain-indifference that go on circling without any progress.
Spiritual experiences describe an unqualified, motiveless, self-
existent bliss, as not only a mere value but the very nature of
Reality.
It would be thus interesting to probe the play of existence vis-à-vis the immutable Reality of Sachchidananda -- ‘Existence--Consciousness-Force-Bliss’
In the Indian tradition, there are three broad generalizations of the play of existence characteristic of three different traditions though they have all evolved from the unitary matrix of consciousness.
We have emphasized how Sri Aurobindo explained that Sachchidananda is not a summation of the three cardinal principles of Reality (Existence--Consciousness-Force--Bliss) but it is the one Reality with multiple poises. If we consider the three principles separately, we have three separate views of existence. This is exactly what happened in Indian metaphysics. Sri Aurobindo integrates the three views of existence.
The three views of existence that were initiated by the separatist, divisive and analytic tendency of our mental consciousness are
a) MAYA as a phenomenon of existence (derived from SAT-The existential aspect of Reality
b) PRAKRITI as a force of existence (derived from CHIT-SHAKTI or the energy aspect of Reality
c) LILA as the quality of existence (derived from the ANANDA or the value aspect of Reality)
MAYA as a
phenomenon of existence
Our ordinary perception
of existence is transient, ephemeral and impermanent. Our lives are
limited, our planets can be subject to dissolution, and in a moment
of fury, our universal nature in the form of a tsunami or volcano or
our human nature in the form of anger and violence can destroy what
has been assiduously built up through centuries. Our whole human
drama turns out to be short-lived, pessimistic and meaningless. No
wonder if this line of thinking is extended into metaphysical realms
and seized by a spiritual asceticism, the world might appear to be
illusionary, unreal, void and blank--a dream or a hallucination that
has to be forsaken for the experiential realization of a Reality
that is eternal, timeless, illimitable and absolute. This is how we
ordinarily view the World-existence as a phenomenal MAYA or a
phenomenon of Illusion.
Sri Aurobindo begs to
differ. He points out four important things
1) The original meaning
of MAYA was different for it initially signified a creative
conscious force at work. ‘Maya in its original sense meant a
comprehending and containing consciousness capable of embracing,
measuring and limiting and therefore formative; it is that which
outlines, measures out, moulds forms in the formless, psychologises
and seems to make knowable the Unknowable, geometrises and seems to
make measurable the limitless. Later the world came from its
original sense of knowledge, skill, intelligence to acquire a
pejorative sense of cunning, fraud or illusion, and it is in the
figure of an enchantment or illusion that is used by the
philosophical systems’ (The Life Divine, pg. –111)
2) Even if the
world-existence were to ‘dissolve’, it could be re-manifested. If
the existence is not eternally permanent, it can be eternally
recurrent. The world-existence is created and recreated endlessly.
The human quest searches for an “eternal” element, which is
difficult to find in a life that is transient. It can however be
discovered in a recurrence of life that is a perpetual phenomenon.
We have a habit of describing the beginning and end of things but
Sri Aurobindo explains, that this is a concept ‘that has no meaning
unless we speak of sections of existence, sections of it in Time,
sections of it in Space, sections of it in substance; for these have
a beginning and an end. Existence in itself has no end even as it
never had a beginning.’ … ‘pure existence is only a state of being
and not being in its whole truth and integral significance’ (Essays
Divine and Human, Pg. 191) This means that the recurrence of
sections of Existence is as important as pure Existence and both
have to be considered in an integral vision.
3) The world-existence
even if impermanent represents a phenomenal truth. It might not
represent the ESSENTIAL TRUTH of Reality that is characterized by a
fundamental and immutable unity. Nevertheless, it represents a
phenomenal truth of the free multiplicity and endless mutability of
the one Reality. In the end, MAYA is only a partial explanation of
existence. It is not the world that is an illusion but the
identification of the transient world as “ultimate”, which is an
illusion.
4) Sri Aurobindo
considers that terms like MAYA, illusion, dream, unreality are words
that are conventional and symbols of a truth that is basically
inexpressible. As such, too much intellectual weightage must not be
forced upon these verbal figures. ‘They are like the paintbrush
hurled by the painter at his picture in desperation of not arriving
at the effect he wanted; they are stones thrown at the truth, not
the truth itself. (Essays Divine and Human, pg.142). In fact Sri
Aurobindo did not approve the rigorous conclusion made by
intellectual giants who placed more values on the concept of
illusion than it deserved resulting in spiritual richness but
material bankruptcy. ‘The truth in their premises has made their
doctrines a mighty instrument for the liberation of great & austere
souls, the error in their conclusion has afflicted humanity with the
vain & barren gospel of the vanity not only of false mundane
existence, but of all mundane existence. In the extreme forms of
these view both nature & Supernature, man & God are lies of
consciousness, myths of a cosmic dream & not worth accepting…A
better day will dawn for India when the shadow is lifted and the
Indian mental consciousness without renouncing the truth of Maya,
perceives that it is only a partial explanation of existence’.
(Ibid, pg143)
PRAKRITI as a Force of
Existence
In spite of
Sachchidananda being an indivisible triune, an exaggeration of the
CHIT-SHAKTI or Consciousness-Force aspect of the triune Reality at
the cost of Sat (Existence) and Ananda (Bliss) aspects results in
viewing the world-existence as a playfield of forces. Of course,
science also views existence as a mere play of forces. The
difference between the scientific and the spiritual view is that the
latter perspective invests “Force” with “Consciousness” so that the
“force” or “energy” is not a brute mechanical force working blindly,
but invested with meaning and purpose at every level of existence.
What Purpose?
The traditional answer
to this question of ‘Purpose’ is that world-existence is ‘the play
of Prakriti, the executive force to satisfy Purusha, the regarding
and enjoying Conscious Being or it is the play of Purusha reflected
in the movements of Force and with them identifying himself’ (The
Life Divine, pg 112-113)
Thus ‘Force’ is
represented as ‘Prakriti’ or “Nature” while ‘Consciousness’ is
represented as a being who stands behind the ‘Force’, permits the
execution of the ‘Force’, is the Master-Witness who watches the
actions of the ‘Force’ and also has the ability to ‘become’ the
‘Force’. Prakriti is thus a movement of Force working out some
secret will or some necessity imposed by the very existence of the
Consciousness that possesses or regards it (Ibid, pg. 112).
This was enough for the
traditional view. Sri Aurobindo however is not satisfied and
modifies this perspective. For Him, The world-existence is not a
mere play of forces, but a play that is ‘EVOLUTIONARY’ in nature
unfolding a hierarchy of worlds and thus a holarchy of forces.. For
a section of the traditionalists, the World-Play in the end was
supposed to create a universal falsehood--a cosmic illusion. To Sri
Aurobindo, the play is positive as it is meant to be a field of
manifestation of progressively higher and complex powers of
consciousness.
LILA
as the quality of existence
There is another view
of world-existence that places more emphasis on the Ananda (Bliss)
aspect of the Sachchidananda (Existence-Consciousness-Force-Bliss).
When more weightage is given to the ‘Self-existent bliss’ poise of
the triune Reality, then we are apt to describe existence as a
‘LILA’- a play for the sake of playing; a play for the joy of
playing. This play is not marked by hierarchies and motivation. It
is a pure play for the sheer joy of playing – for ‘the child’s joy,
the poet’s joy, the actor’s joy, the mechanician’s joy of the Soul
of the things eternally young, perpetually inexhaustible, creating
and recreating Himself in Himself for the sheer bliss of that
self-creation, of that self-representation, --Himself the play,
Himself the player, Himself the playground (Ibid, pg 113).
It is because of this
conception that the poet, the artist, the musician can enjoy one’s
own creation without any inhibition. It is because of this concept
that Universal Love can manifest disregarding all constraints that
divide mankind. It is because of this concept that man can still
fight boredom, alienation and meaninglessness in life. It is because
of this concept that man continues to live, love and enjoy and cling
to life despite death. It is because of this LILA that Tagore, in
whose home death was a frequent visitor, could still cry out:
‘I have had my
invitation to this world’s festival and thus my life has been
blessed’ (Gitanjali)
Integration
In spite of Existence,
Consciousness-Force & Bliss being an inseparable triune, it was
necessary that at a certain point each poise should develop
separately so that all possibilities involved could be expressed or
understood. But finally, the three aspects should be reconciled or
else we end up with partial generalizations.
‘These three
generalisations of the play of existence in its relation to the
eternal and stable, the immutable Sachchidananda, starting from the
three conceptions of Maya, Prakriti and Lila and representing
themselves in our philosophical systems as mutually contradictory
philosophies, are in reality perfectly consistent with each other,
complementary and necessary in their totality to an integral view of
life and the world. The world of which we are a part is in its most
obvious view a movement of Force, but that Force, when we penetrate
its appearances, proves to be a consistent and yet always mutable
rhythm of creative consciousness casting up, projecting in itself
phenomenal truths of its own infinite and eternal being; and this
rhythm is in its essence, cause and purpose a play of the infinite
delight of being ever busy with its own innumerable
self-representations. This triple or triune view must be the
starting-point for all our understanding of the universe’. (The Life
Divine, pg113)
Sri Aurobindo explains
His viewpoint very clearly in one of his letters where He talks
about the novelty of his messages:
‘THE IDEA THAT THE
WORLD IS NOT EITHER A CREATION OF MAYA OR ONLY A PLAY, LILA, OF THE
DIVINE, OR A CYCLE OF BIRTHS IN THE IGNORANCE FROM WHICH WE HAVE TO
ESCAPE, BUT A FIELD OF MANIFESTATION IN WHICH THERE IS A PROGRESSIVE
EVOLUTION OF THE SOUL AND THE NATURE IN MATTER AND FROM MATTER
THROUGH LIFE AND MIND TO WHAT IS BEYOND MIND TILL IT REACHES THE
COMPLETE REVELATION OF SACHCHIDANANDA IN LIFE.IT IS THIS THAT
……GIVES A NEW SENSE TO LIFE’.
(LETTERS ON YOGA,Tome
I, 1969 ed, pg67
He is not anything, yet all is He;
He is not all but far exceeds that
scope.
Both Time and Timelessness sink in that
sea:
Time is a wave and Space a wandering
drop.
Within Himself He shadowed Being forth,
Which is a younger birth, a veil He
chose
To half-conceal Him, Knowledge,
nothing worth
Save to have glimpses of its mighty
cause,
And high Delight, a spirit infinite,
That is the fountain of this glorious
world,
Delight that labours in its opposite,
Faints in the rose and on the rack is
curled.
This was the triune playground that He
made
And One there sports awhile. He plucks
His flowers
And by His bees is stung; He is dismayed,
Flees from Himself or has His sullen
hours.
The Almighty One knew labour, failure, strife;
Knowledge forgot divined itself again:
He made an eager death and called it life,
He stung Himself with bliss and called it pain.
(Sri Aurobindo: Collected Poems, pg
63)
Date of Update:
18-Apr-13
- By Dr. Soumitra Basu
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