500 Integral Yoga
7 Yoga
2 Philosophy
546 Sri Aurobindo
7 Sri Ramakrishna
4 Sri Ramana Maharshi
4 Nolini Kanta Gupta
2 Mahendranath Gupta
488 Record of Yoga
25 The Synthesis Of Yoga
7 Talks
6 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
6 Isha Upanishad
5 Vedic and Philological Studies
3 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
2 Letters On Yoga I
2 Essays Divine And Human
2 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01
0.00 - INTRODUCTION, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
In the nirvikalpa samadhi Sri Ramakrishna had realized that Brahman alone is real and the world illusory. By keeping his mind six months on the plane of the non-dual Brahman, he had attained to the state of the vijnani, the knower of Truth in a special and very rich sense, who sees Brahman not only in himself and in the transcendental Absolute, but in everything of the world. In this state of Vijnana, sometimes, bereft of body-consciousness, he would regard himself as one with Brahman; sometimes, conscious of the dual world, he would regard himself as God's devotee, servant, or child. In order to enable the Master to work for the welfare of humanity, the Divine Mother had kept in him a trace of ego, which he described — according to his mood — as the "ego of Knowledge", the "ego of Devotion", the "ego of a child", or the "ego of a servant". In any case this ego of the Master, consumed by the fire of the Knowledge of Brahman, was an appearance only, like a burnt string. He often referred to this ego as the "ripe ego" in contrast with the ego of the bound soul, which he described as the "unripe" or "green" ego. The ego of the bound soul identifies itself with the body, relatives, possessions, and the world; but the "ripe ego", illumined by Divine Knowledge, knows the body, relatives, possessions, and the world to be unreal and establishes a relationship of love with God alone. Through this "ripe ego" Sri Ramakrishna dealt with the world and his wife. One day, while stroking his feet, Sarada Devi asked the Master, "What do you think of me?" Quick came the answer: "The Mother who is worshipped in the temple is the mother who has given birth to my body and is now living in the nahabat, and it is She again who is stroking my feet at this moment. Indeed, I always look on you as the personification of the Blissful Mother Kali."
Sarada Devi, in the company of her husband, had rare spiritual experiences. She said: "I have no words to describe my wonderful exaltation of spirit as I watched him in his different moods. Under the influence of divine emotion he would sometimes talk on abstruse subjects, sometimes laugh, sometimes weep, and sometimes become perfectly motionless in samadhi. This would continue throughout the night. There was such an extraordinary divine presence in him that now and then I would shake with fear and wonder how the night would pass. Months went by in this way. Then one day he discovered that I had to keep awake the whole night lest, during my sleep, he should go into samadhi — for it might happen at any moment —, and so he asked me to sleep in the nahabat."
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Hariprasanna Chatterji (Swami Vijnanananda)
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0.00 - THE GOSPEL PREFACE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
M. was, in every respect, a true missionary of Sri Ramakrishna right from his first acquaintance with him in 1882. As a school teacher, it was a practice with him to direct to the Master such of his students as had a true spiritual disposition. Though himself prohibited by the Master to take to monastic life, he encouraged all spiritually inclined young men he came across in his later life to join the monastic Order. Swami Vijnanananda, a direct Sannysin disciple of the Master and a President of the Ramakrishna Order, once remarked to M.: "By enquiry, I have come to the conclusion that eighty percent and more of the Sannysins have embraced the monastic life after reading the Kathmrita (Bengali name of the book) and coming in contact with you." ( M
The Apostle and the Evangelist by Swami Nityatmananda Part I, P 37.)
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0.02 - The Three Steps of Nature, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Vijnanakos.a and anandakos.a.
The Three Steps of Nature
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0.05 - The Synthesis of the Systems, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Purusha pours itself out in the action of its Energy, there is action, creation and the enjoyment or Ananda of becoming. But if Ananda is the creator and begetter of all becoming, its method is Tapas or force of the Purusha's consciousness dwelling upon its own infinite potentiality in existence and producing from it truths of conception or real Ideas, Vijnana, which, proceeding from an omniscient and omnipotent Self-existence, have the surety of their own fulfilment and contain in themselves the nature and law of their own becoming in the terms of mind, life and matter. The eventual omnipotence of Tapas and the infallible fulfilment of the Idea are the very foundation of all
Yoga. In man we render these terms by Will and Faith, - a will that is eventually self-effective because it is of the substance of
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0 1962-07-21, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I shall write and tell you afterwards what this way of yoga is. Or if you come here I shall speak to you about it. In this matter the spoken word is better than the written. At present I can only say that its root-principle is to make a harmony and unity of complete knowledge, complete works and complete Bhakti [Devotion], to raise all this above the mind and give it its complete perfection on the supramental level of Vijnana [Gnosis]. This was the defect of the old yoga the mind and the Spirit it knew, and it was satisfied with the experience of the Spirit in the mind. But the mind can grasp only the divided and partial; it cannot wholly seize the infinite and indivisible. The minds means to reach the infinite are Sannyasa [Renunciation], Moksha [Liberation] and Nirvana, and it has no others. One man or another may indeed attain this featureless Moksha, but what is the gain? The Brahman, the Self, God are ever present. What God wants in man is to embody Himself here in the individual and in the community, to realize God in life.
The old way of yoga failed to bring about the harmony or unity of Spirit and life: it instead dismissed the world as Maya [Illusion] or a transient Play. The result has been loss of life-power and the degeneration of India. As was said in the Gita, These peoples would perish if I did not do worksthese peoples of India have truly gone down to ruin. A few sannyasins and bairagis [renunciants] to be saintly and perfect and liberated, a few bhaktas [lovers of God] to dance in a mad ecstasy of love and sweet emotion and Ananda [Bliss], and a whole race to become lifeless, void of intelligence, sunk in deep tamas [inertia]is this the effect of true spirituality? No, we must first attain all the partial experiences possible on the mental level and flood the mind with spiritual delight and illumine it with spiritual light, but afterwards we must rise above. If we cannot rise above, to the supramental level, that is, it is hardly possible to know the worlds final secret and the problem it raises remains unsolved. There, the ignorance which creates a duality of opposition between the Spirit and Matter, between truth of spirit and truth of life, disappears. There one need no longer call the world Maya. The world is the eternal Play of God, the eternal manifestation of the Self. Then it becomes possible to fully know and fully realize Godto do what is said in the Gita, To know Me integrally. The physical body, the life, the mind and understanding, the supermind and the Ananda these are the spirits five levels. The higher man rises on this ascent the nearer he comes to the state of that highest perfection open to his spiritual evolution. Rising to the Supermind, it becomes easy to rise to the Ananda. One attains a firm foundation in the condition of the indivisible and infinite Ananda, not only in the timeless Parabrahman [Absolute] but in the body, in life, in the world. The integral being, the integral consciousness, the integral Ananda blossoms out and takes form in life. This is the central clue of my yoga, its fundamental principle.
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02.02 - Rishi Dirghatama, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
This is again a sphinx puzzle indeed. But what is the meaning? The universe, the creation has its fundamental truth in a Trinity: Agni (the Fire-god) upon earth, Vayu (the Wind-god) in the middle regions and in heaven the Sun. In other words, breaking up the symbolism we may say that the creation is a triple reality, three principles constitute its nature. Matter, Life and Consciousness or status, motion and Light. This triplicity however does not exhaust the whole of the mystery. For the ultimate mystery is imbedded within the heart of the third brother, for our rishis saw there the Universal Divine Being and his seven sons. In our familiar language we may say it is the Supreme Being, God himself (Purushottama) and his seven lines of self-manifestation. We have often heard of the seven worlds or levels of being and consciousness, the seven chords of the Divine Music. In more familiar terms we say that body and life and mind form the lower half of the cosmic reality and its upper half consists of Sat-Chit-Ananda (or Satya- Tap as-Jana). And the link, the nodus that joins the two spheres is the fourth principle (Turya), the Supermind, Vijnana. Such is the vision of Rishi Dirghatama, its fundamental truth in a nutshell. To know this mystery is the whole knowledge and knowing this, one need know nothing else.
A word is perhaps necessary to complete the sense of the commentary. Agni has been called old and ancient (Palita), but why? Agni is the first among the gods. He has come down upon earth, entered into matter with the very creation of the material existence. He is the secret energy hidden in the atom which is attracting, invoking all the other gods to manifest themselves. It is he who drives the material consciousness in its evolutionary re-course upward towards the radiant fullness in the solar Supra-Consciousness at the summit. He is however not only energy, he is also delight (vma). For he is the Soma, the nectarous flow, occult in the Earth's body. For Earth is the storehouse of the sap of Life, the source of the delightful growths of Life here below.
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05.10 - Knowledge by Identity, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
When the Upanishad says, one who knows Brahman be comes Brahman, does it not mean that the very condition of knowing Brahman is to become it? Indeed, there is no contradiction or incommensurability between knowing and becoming, between (what is termed by the mystic as) Knowledge and Realisation. Consciousness has a twofold power, Sri Aurobindo says: the power of apprehension and the power of comprehensionprajna and vijna. Prajnana, the apprehending consciousness, sets the object in front, away and separate from itself and contemplates it: Vijnana, the comprehending consciousness, on the other hand, comprehends, embraces the object within itself, as part of its own being. The two are not distinct or incompatible movements, they go together and form one single movement of consciousness. It is the mind, the reason that makes the separation; it is not possible for the mind to view two things simultaneously. It is because of this incapacity of the mind, married to its logic of the finite, that Sri Aurobindo points out the way of correcting it by a higher supramental power which operates in a global way.
Let us go back to our illustration. I am angry means both I am anger and I know I have anger. It is true in fact and experience. Similarly I am (existent) means both I am existence and I know I am existent. The transcendence of the subject (of which Prof. Das speaks) is nothing but the poise of the consciousness as the apprehending Purusha: it does not negate or exclude identification, which is another arm of a biune process. The two are complementary to each other. Also Purusha and Prakriti are nor contradictories, not mutually exclusive; they are dual aspects or dispositions of the same consciousness or self-conscious reality. Consciousness involved and lost to itself and in itself is Prakriti, consciousness evolved and looking out at itself is Purusha. I am aware of myself and I am myself are two ways of saying the same thing. We imagine Shakespeare expressed the experience graphically and poetically when he made his character say:
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05.26 - The Soul in Anguish, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The solution, the issue out is, of course, to go ahead. Instead of making the intermediary poise, however necessary it may be, a permanent character of the being and its destiny, as these philosophers tend to do, one should take another bold step, a jump upward. For the next stage, the stage when the true equilibrium, the inherent reconciliation is realised between oneself and others, between the inner soul and its outer nature is what the Upanishad describes as Vijnana, the Vast Knowledge.
Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt [Aeneid, 1. 462]
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1.01 - THAT ARE THOU, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Those who vainly reason without understanding the truth are lost in the jungle of the Vijnanas (the various forms of relative knowledge), running about here and there and trying to justify their view of ego-substance.
The self realized in your inmost consciousness appears in its purity; this is the Tathagata-garbha (literally, Buddha-womb), which is not the realm of those given over to mere reasoning
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1.02.2.1 - Brahman - Oneness of God and the World, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
by the causal Idea6 or supramental Knowledge-Will, Vijnana.
It is the causal Idea which, by supporting and secretly guiding
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to the One. It also sees the truth of things in the multiplicity. Vijnana is the divine counterpart of the lower divided intelligence.
These seven powers of Chit are spoken of by the Vedic Rishis
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1.02.2.2 - Self-Realisation, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
great Soul, Vijnanamaya purus.a or mahat atman.3
In the consciousness proper to the universal Beatitude,
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into the nature of the Truth, Vijnana, Life into the nature of
Chaitanya, Body into the nature of Sat, that is, into the pure
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1.02.3.1 - The Lord, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
actuality. He contains all that in the Idea, the Vijnana, called
the Truth and Law, Satyam Ritam. He contains it comprehensively, not piecemeal; the Truth and Law of things is the Brihat,
the Large. Viewed by itself, the realm of Vijnana would seem
a realm of predetermination, of concentration, of compelling
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1.02.4.1 - The Worlds - Surya, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
The principle of Maharloka is Vijnana, the Idea. But this
Vijnana is intuitional or rather gnostic Idea,2 not intellectual
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Surya, in the Vijnana which builds up the worlds is becoming
of existence in the one existence and one Lord of all becoming,
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1.02.9 - Conclusion and Summary, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
Buddhi which is all that is possible on the basis of the sensemind, the Manas. Vijnana leads us to pure knowledge (Jnana),
pure consciousness (Chit). There we realise our entire identity
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But in Chit, Will and Seeing are one. Therefore in Vijnana
or truth-ideation also which comes luminously out of Chit, Will
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1.04 - The Gods of the Veda, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
(1) Vedic religion is based on an elaborate psychology & cosmology of which the keyword is the great Vedic formula OM, Bhur Bhuvah Swah; the three vyahritis and the Pranava. The three Vyahritis are the three lower principles ofMatter, Life & Mind, Annam, Prana & Manas of the Vedanta. OM is Brahman or Sacchidananda of whom these three are the expressions in the phenomenal world. OM & the vyahritis are connected by an intermediate principle, Mahas, Vijnanam of the Vedanta, ideal Truth which has arranged the lower worlds & on which amidst all their confusions they rest.
(2) Corresponding roughly to the vyahritis are three worlds, Bhurloka (Prana-Annam, the material world), Bhuvarloka (Prana-Manas, the lower subjective world), Swarloka (Manas- Buddhi, the higher subjective world). These are the tribhuvana of Hinduism.
(3) Corresponding to Mahas is Maharloka or Mahi Dyaus, the great heavens (pure Buddhi or Vijnana, the ideal world). The Pranava in its three essentialities rules over the three supreme worlds, the Satyaloka (divine being), Tapoloka (divine Awareness & Force), Anandaloka (divine Bliss) of the Puranas, which constitute Amritam, immortality or the true kingdom of heaven of the Vedic religion. These are the Vedic sapta dhamani & the seven different movements of consciousness to which they correspond are the sapta sindhu of the hymns.
(4) According to the Vedanta, man has five koshas or sheaths of existence, the material (Annamaya), vital (Pranamaya), mental (Manomaya) which together make up the aparardha or lower half of our conscious-being; the ideal ( Vijnanamaya) which links the lower to the parardha or higher half; the divine or Anandamaya in which the divine existence (Amrita) is concentrated for communion with our lower human being. These are the pancha kshitis, five earths or rather dwelling places of the Veda. But in Yoga we speak usually of the five koshas but the sapta bhumis, seven not five. The Veda also speaks of sapta dhamani.
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(6) Man, although living here in Bhu, belongs to Swar & Bhuvar. He is manu, the Thinker,the soul in him is the manomayah pranasarira neta of the Upanishad, the mental captain & guide of life & body. He has to become Vijnanamaya (mahan) and anandamaya, to become in a word immortal, divine in all his laws of being (vrata & dharman). By rising to Mahas in himself he enters into direct touch with ideal Truth, gets truth of knowledge by drishti, sruti & smriti, the three grand ideal processes, and by that knowledge truth of being, truth of action (satyadharma), truth of bliss (satyaradhas) constituting amritam, swarajyam & samrajyam, immortality, self-rule & mastery of the world. It is this evolution which the Vedic hymns are intended to assist.
(7) In his progress man is helped by the gods, resisted by the Asuras & Rakshasas. For the worlds behind have their own inhabitants, who, the whole universe being inextricably one, affect & are affected by the activities of mankind. The Bhuvar is the great place of struggle in which forces work behind the visible movements we see here and determine all our actions & fortunes. Swar is mans resting place but not his final or highest habitation which is Vishnus highest footing, Vishnoh paramam padam, high in the supreme parardha.
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What is Mah or Mahas?The word means great, embracing, full, comprehensive. The Earth, also, because of its wideness & containing faculty is called mahi,just as it is called prithivi, dhara, medini, dharani, etc. In various forms, the root itself, mahi, mahitwam, maha, magha, etc, it recurs with remarkable profusion and persistence throughout the Veda. Evidently it expressed some leading thought of the Rishis, was some term of the highest importance in their system of psychology. Turning to the Purana we find the term mahat applied to some comprehensive principle which is supposed itself to be near to the unmanifest, avyaktam but to supply the material of all that is manifest and always to surround, embrace and uphold it. Mahat seems here to be an objective principle; but this need not trouble us; for in the old Hindu system all that is objective had something subjective corresponding to it and constituting its real nature. We find it explicitly declared in the Vishnu Purana that all things here are manifestations of Vijnana, pure ideal knowledge, sarvani Vijnanavijrimbhitaniideal knowledge vibrating out into intensity of various phenomenal existences each with its subjective reason for existence and objective case & form of existence. Is ideal knowledge then the subjective principle of mahat? If so, Vijnanam and the Vedic mahas are likely to be terms identical in their philosophical content and psychological significance. We turn to the Upanishads and find mention made more than once of a certain subjective state of the soul, which is called Mahan Atma, a state into which the mind and senses have to be drawn up as we rise by samadhi of the instruments of knowledge into the supreme state of Brahman and which is superior therefore to these instruments. The Mahan Atma is the state of the pure Brahman out of which the Vijnana or ideal truth (sattwa or beness of things) emerges and it is higher than the Vijnana but nearer us than the Unmanifest or Avyaktam (Katha: III.10, 11,13 & VI.7). If we understand by the Mahan Atma that status of soul existence (Purusha) which is the basis of the objective mahat or mahati prakriti and which develops the Vijnanam or ideal knowledge as its subjective instrument, then we shall have farther light on the nature of Mahas in the ancient conceptions. We shall see that it is ideal knowledge, Vijnanam, or is connected with ideal knowledge.
But we have first one more step in our evidence to notice,the final & conclusive link. In the Taittiriya Upanishad we are told that there are three vyahritis, Bhur, Bhuvar, Swar, but the Rishi Mahachamasya insisted on a fourth, Mahas. What is this fourth vyahriti? It is evidently some old Vedic idea and can hardly fail to be our maho arnas. I have already, in my introduction, outlined briefly the Vedic, Vedantic & Puranic system of the seven worlds and the five bodies. In this system the three vyahritis constitute the lower half of existence which is in bondage to Avidya. Bhurloka is the material world, our dwelling place, in which Annam predominates, in which everything is subject to or limited by the laws of matter & material consciousness. Bhuvar are the middle worlds, antariksha, between Swar & Bhur, vital worlds in which Prana, the vital principle predominates and everything is subject to or limited by the laws of vitality & vital consciousness. Swarloka is the supreme world of the triple system, the pure mental kingdom in which manasei ther in itself or, as one goes higher, uplifted & enlightened by buddhipredominates & by the laws of mind determines the life & movements of the existences which inhabit it. The three Puranic worlds Jana, Tapas, Satya,not unknown to the Vedaconstitute the Parardha; they are the higher ranges of existence in which Sat, Chit, Ananda, the three mighty elements of the divine nature predominate respectively, creative Ananda or divine bliss in Jana, the power of Chit (Chich-chhakti) or divine Energy in Tapas, the extension [of] Sat or divine being in Satya. But these worlds are hidden from us, avyaktalost for us in the sushupti to which only great Yogins easily attain & only with the Anandaloka have we by means of the anandakosha some difficult chance of direct access. We are too joyless to bear the surging waves of that divine bliss, too weak or limited to move in those higher ranges of divine strength & being. Between the upper hemisphere & the lower is Maharloka, the seat of ideal knowledge & pure Truth, which links the free spirits to the bound, the gods who deliver to the gods who are in chains, the wide & immutable realms to these petty provinces where all shifts, all passes, all changes. We see therefore that Mahas is still Vijnanam and we can no longer hesitate to identify our subjective principle of mahas, source of truth & right thinking awakened by Saraswati through the perceptive intelligence, with the Vedantic principle of Vijnana or pure buddhi, instrument of pure Truth & ideal knowledge.
We do not find that the Rishi Mahachamasya succeeded in getting his fourth vyahriti accepted by the great body of Vedantic thinkers. With a little reflection we can see the reason why. The Vijnana or mahat is superior to reasoning. It sees and knows, hears and knows, remembers & knows by the ideal principles of drishti, sruti and smriti; it does not reason and know.Or withdrawing into the Mahan Atma, it is what it exercises itself upon and therefore knowsas it were, by conscious identity; for that is the nature of the Mahan Atma to be everything separately and collectively & know it as an object of his Knowledge and yet as himself. Always Vijnana knows things in the whole & therefore in the part, in the mass & therefore in the particular. But when ideal knowledge, Vijnana, looks out on the phenomenal world in its separate details, it then acquires an ambiguous nature. So long as it is not assailed by mind, it is still the pure buddhi and free from liability to errors. The pure buddhi may assign its reasons, but it knows first & reasons afterwards,to explain, not to justify. Assailed by mind, the ideal buddhi ceases to be pure, ceases to be ideal, becomes sensational, emotional, is obliged to found itself on data, ends not in knowledge but in opinion and is obliged to hold doubt with one hand even while it tries to grasp certainty by the other. For it is the nature of mind to be shackled & frightened by its data. It looks at things as entirely outside itself, separate from itself and it approaches them one by one, groups them & thus arrives at knowledge by synthesis; or if [it] looks at things in the mass, it has to appreciate them vaguely and then take its parts and qualities one by one, arriving at knowledge by a process of analysis. But it cannot be sure that the knowledge it acquires, is pure truth; it can never be safe against mixture of truth & error, against one-sided knowledge which leads to serious misconception, against its own sensations, passions, prejudices and false associations. Such truth as it gets can only be correct even so far as it goes, if all the essential data have been collected and scrupulously weighed without any false weights or any unconscious or semi-conscious interference with the balance. A difficult undertaking! So we can form reliable conclusions, and then too always with some reserve of doubt,about the past & the present.Of the future the mind can know nothing except in eternally fixed movements, for it has no data. We try to read the future from the past & present and make the most colossal blunders. The practical man of action who follows there his will, his intuition & his instinct, is far more likely to be correct than the scientific reasoner. Moreover, the mind has to rely for its data on the outer senses or on its own inner sensations & perceptions & it can never be sure that these are informing it correctly or are, even, in their nature anything but lying instruments. Therefore we say we know the objective world on the strength of a perpetual hypothesis. The subjective world we know only as in a dream, sure only of our own inner movements & the little we can learn from them about others, but there too sure only of this objective world & end always in conflict of transitory opinions, a doubt, a perhaps. Yet sure knowledge, indubitable Truth, the Vedic thinkers have held, is not only possible to mankind, but is the goal of our journey. Satyam eva jayate nanritam satyena pantha vitato devayanah yenakramantyrishayo hyaptakama yatra tat satyasya paramam nidhanam. Truth conquers and not falsehood, by truth the path has been extended which the gods follow, by which sages attaining all their desire arrive where is that Supreme Abode of Truth. The very eagerness of man for Truth, his untameable yearning towards an infinite reality, an infinite extension of knowledge, the fact that he has the conception of a fixed & firm truth, nay the very fact that error is possible & persistent, mare indications that pure Truth exists.We follow no chimaera as a supreme good, nor do the Powers of Darkness fight against a mere shadow. The ideal Truth is constantly coming down to us, constantly seeking to deliver us from our slavery to our senses and the magic circle of our limited data. It speaks to our hearts & creates the phenomenon of Faith, but the heart has its lawless & self-regarding emotions & disfigures the message. It speaks to the Imagination, our great intellectual instrument which liberates us from the immediate fact and opens the mind to infinite possibility; but the imagination has her pleasant fictions & her headlong creative impulse and exaggerates the truth & distorts & misplaces circumstances. It speaks to the intellect itself, bids it criticise its instruments by vichara and creates the critical reason, bids it approach the truth directly by a wide passionless & luminous use of the pure judgment, and creates shuddha buddhi or Kants pure reason; bids it divine truth & learn to hold the true divination & reject the counterfeit, and creates the intuitive reason & its guardian, intuitive discrimination or viveka. But the intellect is impatient of error, eager for immediate results and hurries to apply what it receives before it has waited & seen & understood. Therefore error maintains & even extends her reign. At last come the logician & modern rationalist thinker; disgusted with the exaggeration of these movements, seeing their errors, unable to see their indispensable utility, he sets about sweeping them away as intellectual rubbish, gets rid of faith, gets rid of flexibility of mind, gets rid of sympathy, pure reason & intuition, puts critical reason into an ill lightened dungeon & thinks now, delivered from these false issues, to compass truth by laborious observation & a rigid logic. To live on these dry & insufficient husks is the last fate of impure Vijnanam or buddhi confined in the data of the mind & sensesuntil man wronged in his nature, cabined in his possibilities revolts & either prefers a luminous error or resumes his broadening & upward march.
It was this aspect of impure mahas, Vijnanam working not in its own home, swe dame but in the house of a stranger, as a servant of an inferior faculty, reason as we call it, which led the Rishi Mahachamasya to include mahas among the vyahritis. But Vijnana itself is an integral part of the supreme movement, it is divine thought in divine being,therefore not a vyahriti. The Veda uses to express this pure Truth &ideal knowledge another word, equivalent in meaning to mahat,the word brihat and couples with it two other significant expressions, satyam & ritam. This trinity of satyam ritam brihatSacchidananda objectivisedis the Mahan Atma. Satyam is Truth, the principle of infinite & divine Being, Sat objectivised to Knowledge as the Truth of things self-manifested; Ritam is Law, the motion of things thought out, the principle of divine self-aware energy, Chit-shakti objectivised to knowledge as the Truth of things selfarranged; Brihat is full content & fullness, satisfaction, Nature, the principle of divine Bliss objectivised to knowledge as the Truth of things contented with its own manifestation in law of being & law of action. For, as the Vedanta tells us, there is no lasting satisfaction in the little, in the unillumined or half-illumined things of mind & sense, satisfaction there is only in the large, the self-true & self-existent. Nalpe sukham asti bhumaiva sukham. Bhuma, brihat, mahat, that is God. It is Ananda therefore that insists on largeness & constitutes the mahat or brihat. Ananda is the soul of Nature, its essentiality, creative power & peace. The harmony of creative power & peace, pravritti & nivritti, jana & shama, is the divine state which we feelas Wordsworth felt itwhen we go back to the brihat, the wide & infinite which, containing & contented with its works, says of it Sukritam, What I have made, is good. Whoever enters this kingdom of Mahat, this Maho Arnas or great sea of ideal knowledge, comes into possession of his true being, true knowledge, true bliss. He attains the ideal powers of drishti, sruti, smritisees truth face to face, hears her unerring voice or knows her by immediate recognising memoryjust as we say of a friend This is he and need no reasoning of observation, comparison, induction or deduction to tell us who he is or to explain our knowledge to ourselvesthough we may, already knowing the truth, use a self-evident reasoning masterfully in order to convince others. The characteristic of ideal knowledge is first that it is direct in its approach, secondly, that it is self-evident in its revelation, swayamprakasha, thirdly, that it is unerring fact of being, sat, satyam in its substance. Moreover, it is always perfectly satisfied & divinely pleasurable; it is atmarati & atmastha, confines itself to itself & does not reach out beyond itself to grasp at error or grope within itself to stumble over ignorance. It is, too, perfectly effective whether for knowledge, speech or action, satyakarma, satyapratijna, satyavadi. The man who rising beyond the state of the manu, manishi or thinker which men are now, becomes the kavi or direct seer, containing what he sees,he who draws the manomaya purusha up into the Vijnanamaya,is in all things true. Truth is his characteristic, his law of being, the stamp that God has put upon him. But even for the manishi ideal Truth has its bounties. For from thence come the intuitions of the poet, the thinker, the artist, scientist, man of action, merchant, craftsman, labourer each in his sphere, the seed of the great thoughts, discoveries, faiths that help the world and save our human works & destinies from decay & dissolution. But in utilising these messages from our higher selves for the world, in giving them a form or a practical tendency, we use our intellects, feelings or imaginations and alter to their moulds or colour with their pigments the Truth. That alloy seems to be needed to make this gold from the mines above run current among men. This then is Maho Arnas.The psychological conceptions of our remote forefa thers concerning it have so long been alien to our thought & experience that they may be a little difficult to follow & more difficult to accept mentally. But we must understand & grasp them in their fullness if we have any desire to know the meaning of the Veda. For they are the very centre & keystone of Vedic psychology. Maho Arnas, the Great Ocean, is the stream of our being which at once divides & connects the human in us from the divine, & to cross over from the human to the divine, from this small & divided finite to that one, great & infinite, from this death to that immortality, leaving Diti for Aditi, alpam for bhuma, martyam for amritam is the great preoccupation & final aim of Veda & Vedanta.
We can now understand the intention of the Rishi in his last verse and the greatness of the climax to which he has been leading us. Saraswati is able to give impulsion to Truth and awaken to right thinking because she has access to the Maho Arnas, the great ocean. On that level of consciousness, we are usually it must be remembered asleep, sushupta. The chetana or waking consciousness has no access; it lies behind our active consciousness, is, as we might say, superconscious, for us, asleep. Saraswati brings it forward into active consciousness by means of the ketu or perceptive intelligence, that essential movement of mind which accepts & realises whatever is presented to it. To focus this ketu, this essential perception on the higher truth by drawing it away from the haphazard disorder of sensory data is the great aim of Yogic meditation. Saraswati by fixing essential perception on the satyam ritam brihat above makes ideal knowledge active and is able to inform it with all those plentiful movements of mind which she, dhiyavasu, vajebhir vajinivati, has prepared for the service of the Master of the sacrifice. She is able to govern all the movements of understanding without exception in their thousand diverse movements & give them the single impression of truth and right thinkingvisva dhiyo vi rajati. A governed & ordered activity of soul and mind, led by the Truth-illuminated intellect, is the aim of the sacrifice which Madhuchchhanda son of Viswamitra is offering to the Gods.
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But he is not content with the inner sacrifice. He wishes to pour out this strength & joy in action on the world, on his fellows, on the peoples, therefore he calls to the Visve Devah to come, A gata!all the gods in general who help man and busy themselves in supporting his multitudinous & manifold action. They are kindly, omasas, they are charshanidhrito, holders or supporters of all our actions, especially actions that require effort, (it is in this sense that I take charshani, again on good philological grounds), they are to distribute this nectar to all or to divide it among themselves for the action,dasvanso may have either force,for Madhuchchhanda wishes not only to possess, but to give, to distribute, he is dashush. Omasas charshanidhrito visve devasa a gata, daswanso dashushah sutam. He goes on, Visve devaso apturah sutam a ganta turnayah Usra iva swasarani. Visve devaso asridha ehimayaso adruhah, Medham jushanta vahnayah. O you all-gods who are energetic in works, come to the nectar distilled, ye swift ones, (or, come swiftly), like calves to their own stalls,(so at least we must translate this last phrase, till we can get the real meaning, for I do not believe this is the real or, at any rate, the only meaning). O you all-gods unfaltering, with wide capacity of strength, ye who harm not, attach yourselves to the offering as its supporters. And then come the lines about Saraswati. For although Indra can sustain for a moment or for a time he is at present a mental, not an ideal force; it is Saraswati full of the Vijnana, of mahas, guiding by it the understanding in all its ways who can give to all these gods the supporting knowledge, light and truth which will confirm and uphold the delight, the mental strength & supply inexhaustibly from the Ocean of Mahas the beneficent & joy-giving action,Saraswati, goddess of inspiration, the flowing goddess who is the intermediary & channel by which divine truth, divine joy, divine being descend through the door of knowledge into this human receptacle. In a word, she is our inspirer, our awakener, our lurer towards Immortality. It is immortality that Madhuchchhandas prepares for himself & the people who do sacrifice to Heaven, devayantah. The Soma-streams he speaks of are evidently no intoxicating vegetable juices; he calls them ayavah, life-forces; & elsewhere amritam, nectar of immortality; somasah, wine-draughts of bliss & internal well being. It is the clear Yogic idea of the amritam, the divine nectar which flows into the system at a certain stage of Yogic practice & gives pure health, pure strength & pure physical joy to the body as a basis for a pure mental & spiritual vigour and activity.
We have therefore as a result of a long and careful examination the clear conviction that certainly in this poem of Madhuchchhanda, probably in others of his hymns, perhaps in all we have an invocation to subjective Nature powers, a symbolic sacrifice, a spiritual, moral & subjective effort & purpose. And if many other suktas in this & other Mandalas confirm the evidence of this third hymn of the Rigveda, shall we not say that here we have the true Veda as the Rishis understood it and that this was the reason why all the ancient thinkers looked on the hymns with so deep-seated a reverence that even after they came to be used merely as ceremonial liturgies at a material sacrifice, even after the Buddha impatiently flung them aside, the writer of the Gita had to look beyond them & Shankara respectfully put them on the shelf of neglect as useless for spiritual purposes, even after they have ceased to be used and almost to be read, the most spiritual nation on the face of the earth still tenaciously, by a sort of divine instinct, clings to them as its supreme Scriptures & refers back all its spirituality and higher knowledge to the Vedas? Let us proceed and see whether this is not the truest as well as the noblest reading of the riddle the real root of Gods purpose in maintaining this our ancient faith and millennial tradition.
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There are here a number of words whose exact meaning is exceedingly important for any fruitful enquiry into the religious significance of the Vedas. The most important, the decisive & capital word in the passage is Ritam. Whatever it may be held to mean, it will decide for us the essential character of Varuna & his constant comradeMitra. I have already suggested in my first chapter the sense in which I understand Ritam. It is its ordinary sense in Sanscrit. Ritam is Truth, Law, that which is straight, upright, direct, rectum; it is that which gives everything its place & its motion (ritu), that which constitutes reason (ratio) in mind and rectitude in morals,it is the rightness or righteousness which makes the stars move in their orbits, the seasons occur in their order, thought & speech move towards truth, trees grow according to their seed, animals act according to their species & nature, & man walk in the paths which God has prescribed for him. It is that in the Akasha the Akasha where Varuna is lordwhich develops arrangement & order, it is the element of law in Nature. But not only in material Nature, not only in the moral akasha even,the akasha of the heart of which the Rishis spoke, but on higher levels also. I have pointed out that Ritam is the law of the Truth, of Vijnana. It is this ideal Truth, the Truth of being, by which everything animate or inanimate knows in its fibres of being & serves in action & feeling the truth of itself, in which Law is born. This Law which belongs to Satyam, to the Mahas, is Ritam. Neither of the English words,Law & Truth, gives the idea; they have to be combined in order to be equivalent to ritam. Well, then Varuna is represented to us as increasing in his nature by this Truth & Law, attaining to it or possessing it; Law & Truth are the source of his strength, the means by which he has arrived at his present force & mightiness.
But he is more than that; he is tuvijata, urukshaya. Uru, we shall find in other hymns, the Vast, is a word used as equivalent to Brihat to describe the ideal level of consciousness, the kingdom of ideal knowledge, in its aspect of joyous comprehensive wideness and capacity. It is clearly told us that men by overcoming & passing beyond the two firmaments of Mind-invitality, Bhuvar, & mind in intellectuality, Swar, arrive in the Vast, Uru, and make it their dwelling place. Therefore Uru must be taken as equivalent to Brihat; it must mean Mahas. Our Vedic Varuna, then, is a dweller in Mahas, in the vastness of ideal knowledge. But he is not born there; he is born or appears first in tuvi, that is, in strength or force. Since Uru definitely means the Vast, means Mahas, means a particular plane of consciousness, is, in short, a fixed term of Vedic psychology, it is inevitable that tuvi thus coupled with it and yet differentiated, must be another fixed term of Vedic psychology & must mean another plane of consciousness. We have found the meaning of Mahas by consulting Purana & Vedanta as well as the Veda itself. Have we any similar light on the significance of Tuvi? Yes. The Puranas describe to us three worlds above Maharloka,called, respectively, in the Puranic system, Jana, Tapas and Satya. By a comparison with Vedantic psychology we know that Jana must be the world of Ananda of which the Mahajana Atma is the sustaining Brahman as the Mahan Atma is the sustaining Brahman of the Vijnana, and we get this light on the subject that, just as Bhur, Bhuvah, Swar are the lower or human half of existence, the aparardha of the Brahmanda, (the Brahma-circle or universe of manifest consciousness), and answer objectively to the subjective field covered by Annam, Prana & Manas, just as Mahas is the intermediate world, link between the divine & human hemispheres, and corresponds to the subjective region of Vijnana, so Jana, Tapas & Satya are the divine half of existence, & answer to the Ananda with its two companion principles Sat andChit, the three constituting the Trinity of those psychological states which are, to & in our consciousness, Sacchidananda,God sustaining from above His worlds. But why is the world of Chit called Tapoloka? According to our conceptions this universe has been created by & in divine Awareness by Force, Shakti, or Power which [is] inherent in Awareness, Force of Awareness or Chit Shakti that moves, forms & realises whatever it wills in Being. This force, this Chit-shakti in its application to its work, is termed in the ancient phraseology Tapas. Therefore, it is told us that when Brahma the Creator lay uncreative on the great Ocean, he listened & heard a voice crying over the waters OM Tapas! OM Tapas! and he became full of the energy of the mantra & arose & began creation. Tapas & Tu or Tuvi are equivalent terms. We can see at once the meaning. Varuna, existing no doubt in Sat, appears or is born to us in Tapas, in the sea of force put out in itself by the divine Awareness, & descending through divine delight which world is in Jana, in production or birth by Tapas, through Ananda, that is to say, into the manifest world, dwells in ideal knowledge & Truth and makes there Ritam or the Law of the Truth of Being his peculiar province. It is the very process of all creation, according to our Vedic&Vedantic Rishis. Descending into the actual universe we find Varuna master of the Akash or ether, matrix and continent of created things, in the Akash watching over the development of the created world & its peoples according to the line already fixed by ideal knowledge as suitable to their nature and purposeya thatathyato vihitam shashwatibhyah samabhyah and guiding the motion of things & souls in the line of theritam. It is in his act of guidance and bringing to perfection of the imperfect that he increases by the law and the truth, desires it and naturally attains to it, has the spriha & the sparsha of the ritam. It is from his fidelity to ideal Truth that he acquires the mighty power by which he maintains the heavens and orders its worlds in their appointed motion.
Such is his general nature and power. But there are also certain particular subjective functions to which he is called. He is rishadasa, he harries and slays the enemies of the soul, and with Mitra of pure discernment he works at the understanding till he brings it to a gracious pureness and brightness. He is like Agni, a kavih, one of those who has access to and commands ideal knowledge and with Mitra he supports and upholds Daksha when he is at his works; for so I take Daksham apasam. Mitra has already been described as having a pure daksha. The adjective daksha means in Sanscrit clever, intelligent, capable, like dakshina, like the Greek . We may also compare the Greek , meaning judgment, opinion etc & , I think or seem, and Latin doceo, I teach, doctrina etc. As these identities indicate, Daksha is originally he who divides, analyses, discerns; he is the intellectual faculty or in his person the master of the intellectual faculty which discerns and distinguishes. Therefore was Mitra able to help in making the understanding bright & pure,by virtue of his purified discernment.
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1.05 - Adam Kadmon, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
Manas, which, together with Atma-Buddhi, is the god of a high and noble rank, who incarnates in the brute forms of the early races of mankind in order to endow them with mind. The Manasaputras have both Solar and Mercurial connections. The Vedantists call this principle the Vijnana- mayakosa, the Sheath of Knowledge ; and its correspond- ing Chakra in the Yogas is the Yisuddhi, said to be located in the subtle body on the spine at a point opposite to the larynx.
This trinity of the original spiritual Monad, its Creative vehicle, and Intuition, form a synthetic integral Unity which philosophically may be denominated the Transcen- dental Ego. It is a Unity in a unique manner, and its attri butes are summed up in the three Hindu hypostases, more true, perhaps, of the Sephiros than the parts of man, of Sat, Chit, Ananda ; Absolute Being, Wisdom, and Bliss.
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1.05 - Ritam, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
We must consider first whether any valid objection can be offered to this translation; and, if not, what are the precise ideas conveyed by the words & expressions which they render. The word prachetas is one of the fixed recurrent terms of the Veda; & we have corresponding to it another term vichetas. Both terms are rendered by the commentators wise or intelligent. Is prachetas then merely an ornamental or otiose word in this verse? Is it only a partially dispensable & superfluous compliment to the gods of the hymn? Our hypothesis is that the Vedic Rishis were masters of a perfectly well managed literary style founded upon a tradition of sound economy in language & coherence in thought; all of every word in Veda is in its place & is justified by its value in the significance. If so, prachetasah gives the reason why the protection of these gods is so perfectly efficacious. I suppose,as my hypothesis entitles me to suppose,that the Vedic ideas of prachetas & vichetas correspond to the Vedantic idea of prajnana & Vijnana to which as words they are exactly equivalent in composition & sense. Prajnana is that knowledge which is aware of, knows & works upon the objects placed before it. Vijnana is the knowledge which comprehends & knows thoroughly in itself all objects of knowledge. The one is the highest faculty of mind, the other is in mind the door to and beyond it the nature of the direct supra-intellectual knowledge, the Ritam & Brihat of the Veda. It is because Varuna, Mitra & Aryama protect the human being with the perfect knowledge of that through which he has to pass, his path, his dangers, his foes, that their protg , however fiercely & by whatever powers assailed, cannot be crushed. At once, it begins to become clear that the protection in that case must, in all probability, be a spiritual protection against spiritual dangers & spiritual foes.
The second verse neither confirms as yet nor contradicts this initial suggestion. These three great gods, it says, are to the mortal as a multitude of arms which bring to him his desires & fill him with an abundant fullness and protect him from any who may will to do him hurt, rishah; fed with that fullness he grows until he is sarvah, complete in every part of his being(that is to say, if we admit the sense of a spiritual protection and a spiritual activity, in knowledge, in power, in joy, in mental, vital & bodily fullness)and by the efficacy of that protection he enjoys all this fullness & completeness unhurt. No part of it is maimed by the enemies of man, whose activities do him hurt, the Vritras, Atris, Vrikas, the Coverer on the heights, the devourer in the night, the tearer on the path.We may note in passing how important [it] is to render every Vedic word by its exact value; rish & dwish both mean enemy; but if we render them by one word, we lose the fine shade of meaning to which the poet himself calls our attention by the collocation pnti rishaharishta edhate. We see also the same care of style in the collocation sarva edhate, where, as it seems to me, it is clearly suggested that the completeness is the result of the prosperous growth, we have again the fine care & balance with which the causes pipratipnti are answered by the effects arishtahedhate. There is even a good literary reason of great subtlety & yet perfect force for the order of the words & the exact place of each word in the order. In this simple, easy & yet faultless balance & symmetry a great number of the Vedic hymns represent exactly in poetry the same spirit & style as the Greek temple or the Greek design in architecture & painting. Nor can anyone who neglects to notice it & give full value to it, catch rightly, fully & with precision the sense of the Vedic writings.
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In return for his offering the gods give to the sacrificer the results of the divine nature. The mortal favoured by them moves forward unstumbling & unoverthrown, accha gacchati astrita,towards or to what? Ratnam vasu visvam tokam uta tman. This is his goal; but we have seen too that the goal is the ritam. Therefore the expressions ratnam vasu, visvam tokam tman must describe either the nature of the ritam or the results of successful reaching & habitation in the ritam. Toka means son, says the ritualist. I fail to see how the birth of a son can be the supreme result of a mans perfecting his nature & reaching the divine Truth; I fail to see also what is meant by a man marching unoverthrown beyond sin & falsehood towards pleasant wealth & a son. In a great number of passages in the Veda, the sense of son for toka or of either son or grandson for tanaya is wholly inadmissible except by doing gross violence to sense, context & coherence & convicting the Vedic Rishis of an advanced stage of incoherent dementia. Toka, from the root tuch, to cut, form, create (cf tach & twach, in takta, tashta, twashta, Gr. tikto, etekon, tokos, a child) may mean anything produced or created. We shall see, hereafter, that praj, apatyam, even putra are used in the Veda as symbolic expressions for action & its results as children of the soul. This is undoubtedly the sense here. There are two results of life in the ritam, in the Vijnana, in the principle of divine consciousness & its basis of divine truth; first ratnam vasu, a state of being the nature of which is delight, for Vijnana or ritam is the basis of divine ananda; secondly, visvam tokam uta tman,this state of Ananda is not the actionless Brahmananda of the Sannyasin, but the free creative joy of the Divine Nature, universal creative action by the force of the self. The action of the liberated humanity is not to be like that of the mortal bound, struggling & stumbling through ignorance & sin towards purity & light, originating & bound by his action, but the activity spontaneously starting out of self-existence & creating its results without evil reactions or bondage.
To complete our idea of the hymn & its significance, I shall give my rendering of its last three slokas,the justification of that rendering or comment on it would lead me far from the confines of my present subject. How, O friends, cries Kanwa to his fellow-worshippers, may we perfect (or enrich) the establishment in ourselves (by the mantra of praise) of Mitra & Aryaman or how the wide form of Varuna? May I not resist with speech him of you who smites & rebukes me while he yet leads me to the godhead; through the things of peace alone may I establish you in all my being. Let a man fear the god even when he is giving him all the four states of being (Mahas, Swar, Bhuvah, Bhuh), until the perfect settling in the Truth: let him not yearn towards evil expression. In other words, perfect adoration & submission to the gods who are leading us in the path, those who are yajnanh, leaders of the sacrifice, is the condition of the full wideness of Varunas being in us & the full indwelling ofMitra & Aryaman in the principles of the Ananda & the Ritam.
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1.07 - Note on the word Go, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The next passage to which I shall turn is the eighth verse of the eighth hymn, also to Indra, in which occurs the expression , a passage which when taken in the plain and ordinary sense of the epithets sheds a great light on the nature of Mahi. Sunrita means really true and is opposed to anrita, false for in the early Aryan speech su and s would equally signify, well, good, very; and the euphonic n is of a very ancient type of sandhioriginally, it was probably no more than a strong anuswartraces of which can still be found in Tamil; in the case of su this n euphonic seems to have been dropped after the movement of the literary Aryan tongue towards the modern principle of Sandhi,a movement the imperfect progress of which we see in the Vedas; but by that time the form an, composed of privative a and the euphonic n, had become a recognised alternative form to a and the omission of the n would have left the meaning of words very ambiguous; therefore n was preserved in the negative form, omitted from the affirmative where its omission caused no inconvenience,for to write gni instead of anagni would be confusing, but to write svagni instead of sunagni would create no confusion. In the pair sunrita and anrita it is probable that the usage had become so confirmed, so much of an almost technical phraseology, that confirmed habit prevailed over new rule. The second meaning of the word is auspicious, derived from the idea good or beneficent in its regular action. The Vedic scholars give a third sense, quick, active; but this is probably due to confusion with an originally distinct word derived from the root , to move on rapidly, to be strong, swift, active from which we have to dance, & strong and a number of other derivatives, for although ri means to go, it does not appear that rita was used in the sense of motion or swiftness. In any case our choice (apart from unnecessary ingenuities) lies here between auspicious and true. If we take Mahi in the sense of earth, the first is its simplest & most natural significance.We shall have then to translate the earth auspicious (or might it mean true in the sense observing the law of the seasons), wide-watered, full of cows becomes like a ripe branch to the giver. This gives a clear connected sense, although gross and pedestrian and open to the objection that it has no natural and inevitable connection with the preceding verses. My objection is that sunrita and gomati seem to me to have in the Veda a different and deeper sense and that the whole passage becomes not only ennobled in sense, but clearer & more connected in sense if we give them that deeper significance. Gomatir ushasah in Kutsas hymn to the Dawn is certainly the luminous dawns; Saraswati in the third hymn who as chodayitri sunritanam chetanti sumatinam shines pervading all the actions of the understanding, certainly does so because she is the impeller to high truths, the awakener to right thoughts, clear perceptions and not because she is the impeller of things auspiciousa phrase which would have no sense or appropriateness to the context. Mahi is one of the three goddesses Ila, Saraswati and Mahi who are described as tisro devir mayobhuvah, the three goddesses born of delight or Ananda, and her companions being goddesses of knowledge, children of Mahas, she also must be a goddess of knowledge, not the earth; the word mahi also bears the sense of knowledge, intellect, and Mahas undoubtedly refers in many passages to the Vijnana or supra-rational level of consciousness, the fourth Vyahriti of the Taittiriya Upanishad. What then prevents us from taking Mahi, here as there, in the sense of the goddess of suprarational knowledge or, if taken objectively, the world of Mahat? Nothing, except a tradition born in classical times when mahi was the earth and the new Nature-worship theory. In this sense I shall take it. I translate the line For thus Mahi the true, manifest in action, luminous becomes like a ripe branch to the giveror, again in better English, For thus Mahi the perfect in truth, manifesting herself in action, full of illumination, becomes as a ripe branch to the giver. For the Yogin again the sense is clear. All things are contained in the Mahat, derived from the Mahat, depend on theMahat, but we here in the movement of the alpam, have not our desire, are blinded & confined, enjoy an imperfect, erroneous & usually baffled & futile activity. It is only when we regain the movement of the Mahat, the large & uncontracted consciousness that comes from rising to the infinite,it is only then that we escape from this limitation. She is perfect in truth, full of illumination; error and ignorance disappear; she manifests herself virapshi in a wide & various activity; our activities are enlarged, our desires are fulfilled. The connection with the preceding stanzas becomes clear. The Vritras, the great obstructors & upholders of limitation, are slain by the help of Indra, by the result of the yajnartham karma, by alliance with the armed gods in mighty internal battle; Indra, the god within our mental force, manifests himself as supreme and full of the nature of ideal truth from which his greatness weaponed with the vajra, vidyut or electric principle, derives (mahitwam astu vajrine). The mind, instinct with amrita, is then full of equality, samata; it drinks in the flood of activity of all kinds as the sea takes in the rivers. For the condition then results in which the ideal consciousness Mahi is like a ripe branch to the giver, when all powers & expansions of being at once (without obstacle as the Vritras are slain) become active in consciousness as masterful and effective knowledge or awareness (chit). This is the process prayed for by the poet. The whole hymn becomes a consecutive & intelligible whole, a single thought worked out logically & coherently and relating with perfect accuracy of ensemble & detail to one of the commonest experiences of Yogic fulfilment. In both these passages the faithful adherence to the intimations of language, Vedantic idea & Yogic experience have shed a flood of light, illuminating the obscurity of the Vedas, bringing coherence into the incoherence of the naturalistic explanation, close & strict logic, great depth of meaning with great simplicity of expression, and, as I shall show when I take up the final interpretation of the separate hymns, a rational meaning & reason of existence in that particular place for each word & phrase and a faultless & inevitable connection with what goes before & with what goes after. It is worth noticing that by the naturalistic interpretation one can indeed generally make out a meaning, often a clear or fluent sense for the separate verses of the Veda, but the ensemble of the hymn has almost always about it an air bizarre, artificial, incoherent, almost purposeless, frequently illogical and self-contradictoryas in Max Mullers translation of the 39th hymn, Kanwas to the Maruts,never straightforward, self-assured & easy. One would expect in these primitive writers,if they are primitive,crudeness of belief perhaps, but still plainness of expression and a simple development of thought. One finds instead everything tortuous, rugged, gnarled, obscure, great emptiness with great pretentiousness of mind, a labour of diction & development which seems to be striving towards great things & effecting a nullity. The Vedic singers, in the modern version, have nothing to say and do not know how to say it. I sacrifice, you drink, you are fine fellows, dont hurt me or let others hurt me, hurt my enemies, make me safe & comfortablethis is practically all that the ten Mandalas have to say to the gods & it is astonishing that they should be utterly at a loss how to say it intelligibly. A system which yields such results must have at its root some radical falsity, some cardinal error.
I pass now to a third passage, also instructive, also full of that depth and fine knowledge of the movements of the higher consciousness which every Yogin must find in the Veda. It is in the 9th hymn of the Mandala and forms the seventh verse of that hymn. Sam gomad Indra vajavad asme prithu sravo brihat, visvayur dhehi akshitam. The only crucial question in this verse is the signification of sravas.With our modern ideas the sentence seems to us to demand that sravas should be translated here fame. Sravas is undoubtedly the same word as the Greek xo (originally xFo); it means a thing heard, rumour, report, & thence fame. If we take it in that sense, we shall have to translate Arrange for us, O universal life, a luminous and solid, wide & great fame unimpaired. I dismiss at once the idea that go & vaja can here signify cattle and food or wealth. A herded & fooded or wealthy fame to express a fame for wealth of cattle & food is a forceful turn of expression we might expect to find in Aeschylus or in Shakespeare; but I should hesitate, except in case of clear necessity, to admit it in the Veda or in any Sanscrit style of composition; for such expressions have always been alien to the Indian intellect. Our stylistic vagaries have been of another kind. But is luminous & solid fame much better? I shall suggest another meaning for sravas which will give as usual a deeper sense to the whole passage without our needing to depart by a hairs breadth from the etymological significance of the words. Sruti in Sanscrit is a technical term, originally, for the means by which Vedic knowledge is acquired, inspiration in the suprarational mind; srutam is the knowledge of Veda. Similarly, we have in Vedic Sanscrit the forms srut and sravas. I take srut to mean inspired knowledge in the act of reception, sravas the thing acquired by the reception, inspired knowledge. Gomad immediately assumes its usual meaning illuminated, full of illumination. Vaja I take throughout the Veda as a technical Vedic expression for that substantiality of being-consciousness which is the basis of all special manifestation of being & power, all utayah & vibhutayahit means by etymology extended being in force, va or v to exist or move in extension and the vocable j which always gives the idea of force or brilliance or decisiveness in action or manifestation or contact. I shall accept no meaning which is inconsistent with this fundamental significance. Moreover the tendency of the old commentators to make all possible words, vaja, ritam etc mean sacrifice or food, must be rejected,although a justification in etymology might always be made out for the effort. Vaja means substance in being, substance, plenty, strength, solidity, steadfastness. Here it obviously means full of substance, just as gomad full of luminousness,not in the sense arthavat, but with another & psychological connotation. I translate then, O Indra, life of all, order for us an inspired knowledge full of illumination & substance, wide & great and unimpaired. Anyone acquainted with Yoga will at once be struck by the peculiar & exact appropriateness of all these epithets; they will admit him at once by sympathy into the very heart of Madhuchchhandas experience & unite him in soul with that ancient son of Visvamitra. When Mahas, the supra-rational principle, begins with some clearness to work in Yoga, not on its own level, not swe dame, but in the mind, it works at first through the principle of Srutinot Smriti or Drishti, but this Sruti is feeble & limited in its range, it is not prithu; broken & scattered in its working even when the range is wide, not unlimited in continuity, not brihat; not pouring in a flood of light, not gomat, but coming as a flash in the darkness, often with a pale glimmer like the first feebleness of dawn; not supported by a strong steady force & foundation of being, Sat, in manifestation, not vajavad, but working without foundation, in a void, like secondh and glimpses of Sat in nothingness, in vacuum, in Asat; and, therefore, easily impaired, easily lost hold of, easily stolen by the Panis or the Vritras. All these defects Madhuchchhanda has noticed in his own experience; his prayer is for an inspired knowledge which shall be full & free & perfect, not marred even in a small degree by these deficiencies.
The combination of go & vaja occurs again in the eleventh hymn where the seer writes Purvir Indrasya ratayo na vi dasyanti utayah, yadi vajasya gomatah stotribhyo manhate magham. The former delights of Indra, those first established his (new &larger) expansions of being do not destroy or scatter, when to his praisers he enlarges the mass of their illuminated substance or strength of being. Here again we have Madhuchchhandas deep experience & his fine & subtle knowledge. It is a common experience in Yoga that the ananda and siddhi first established, is destroyed in the effort or movement towards a larger fullness of being, knowledge or delight, and a period of crisis intervenes in which there is a rending & scattering of joy & light, a period of darkness, confusion & trouble painful to all & dangerous except to the strongest. Can these crises, difficulties, perilous conditions of soul be avoided? Yes, says Madhuchchhandas in effect, when you deliver yourself with devotion into the care of Indra, he comes to your help, he removes that limitation, that concentration in detail, in the alpam, the little, that consequent necessity of losing hold of one thing in order to give yourself to another, he increases the magha, the Vijnanamay state of mahattwa or relative non-limitation in the finite which shows itself by an increase of fundamental force of being filled with higher illumination. That support of vaja prevents us from falling from what we have gained; there is sufficient substance of being expressed in us to provide for the new utayah without sacrificing the joys already established; there is sufficient luminousness of mind to prevent darkness, obscuration & misery supervening. Thus we see still the same symbolic sense, the same depth, the same experience as true to the Yogin today as to Madhuchchhandas thousands of years ago.
Now that we have thus substantially fixed the meaning of go and gomat, we can go back to a passage already to some extent discussed, the third verse of the seventh hymn. Indro dirghaya chakshasa a suryam rohayad divi, vi gobhir adrim airayat; Indra for far vision ascended to the sun in heaven; he sent him abroad over all the mountain with his rays. This is so plainly the meaning of the verse that I cannot understand, once it is perceived & understood, how we can accept any other rendering. I have already discussed the relations of Indra, Surya & the Mountain of our graded ascent in beingSri Ramakrishnas staircase to the Sad Brahman. The far vision is the unlimited knowledge acquired in Mahas, in the wide supra-rational movement of our consciousness as opposed to the contracted rational or infrarational vision which works only on details or from & by details, the alpam; for that Mind has to ascend to the Sun in Heaven, the principle of Mahas on the higher levels of mind itself, not on the supra-rational level, not swe dame. Because it is not swe dame, the full illumination is not possible, we cannot become practically omniscient; all Indra can do is to send down the sun, not in itself, but in its rays to various parts of the mountain of being, all over it, it is true, but still revealing only the higher truth in its parts, not in its full sum of knowledge. The language is so precise, once we understand the Vedic terminology, that I do not think we can be mistaken in this interpretation, which, moreover, agrees perfectly with Yogic experience and the constant theme of Madhuchchhandas. He is describing the first dawn & development of the higher knowledge in the mind, still liable to attack & obstruction, (yujam vritreshu vajrinam), still uncertain in quantity (Indram vayam mahadhane indram arbhe havamahe). Irayat is naturally transitive, bears the meaning it has in prerana, prerita, and can have no object but Surya, unless we suppose, which is less natural, that it is Surya who sends Indra to the mountain accompanied by his rays.
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1.08 - The Gods of the Veda - The Secret of the Veda, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
What then is maho arnas? Is it the great sea of general being, substance of general existence out of which the substance of thought & speech are formed? It is possible; but such an interpretation is not entirely in consonance with the context of this passage. The suggestion I shall advance will therefore be different. Mahas, as a neuter adjective, means great,maho arnas, the great water; but mahas may be equally a noun and then maho arnas will mean Mahas the sea. In some passages again, mahas is genitive singular or accusative plural of a noun mah; maho arnas may well be the flowing stream or flood of Mah, as in the expression vasvo arnavam, the sea of substance, in a later Sukta.We are therefore likely to remain in doubt unless we can find an actual symbolic use of either word Mah or Mahas in a psychological sense which would justify us in supposing this Maho Arnas to be a sea of substance of knowledge rather than vaguely the sea of general substance of being. For this is the significance which alone entirely suits the actual phraseology of the last Rik of the Sukta. We find our clue in the Taittiriya Upanishad. It is said there that there are three recognised vyahritis of the Veda, Bhur, Bhuvar, Swah, but the Rishi Mahachamasya affirmed a fourth. The name of this doubtful fourth vyahriti is Mahas. Now the mystic vyahritis of the Veda are the shabdas or sacred words expressing objectively the three worlds, subjectively mentalised material being, mentalised vital being & pure mental being, the three manifest states of our phenomenal consciousness. Mahas, therefore, must express a fourth state of being, which is so much superior to the other three or so much beyond the ordinary attainment of our actual human consciousness that it is hardly considered in Vedic thought a vyahriti, whatever one or two thinkers may have held to the contrary. What do we know of this Mahas from Vedantic or later sources? Bhuh, Bhuvah, Swar of the Veda rest substantially upon the Annam, Prana, Manas, matter, life & mind of the Upanishads. But the Upanishads speak of a fourth state of being immediately aboveManas, preceding it therefore & containing it, Vijnanam, ideal knowledge, and a fifth immediately above Vijnanam, Ananda or Bliss. Physically, these five are the pancha kshitayah, five earths or dwelling-places, of the Rig Veda and they are the pancha koshas, five sheaths or bodies of the Upanishads. But in our later Yogic systems we recognise seven earths, seven standing grounds of the soul on which it experiences phenomenal existence. The Purana gives us their names [the names of the two beyond the five already mentioned], Tapas and Satya, Energy&Truth. They are the outward expressions of the two psychological principles, Self-Awareness &Self-Being (Chit&Sat) which with Ananda, Self-Bliss, are the triune appearance in the soul of the supreme Existence which the Vedanta calls Brahman. Sat, Chit & Ananda constitute to Vedantic thought the parardha or spiritual higher half [of] our existence; in less imaginative language, we are in our supreme existence self-existence, self-awareness & self-delight. Annam, Prana & Manas constitute to Vedantic thought the aparardha or lower half; again, in more abstract speech, we are in our lower phenomenal existence mind, life & matter. Vijnana is the link; standing in ideal knowledge we are aware, looking upward, of our spiritual existence, looking downward, we pour it out into the three vyahritis, Bhur, Bhuvah & Swar, mental, vital & material existence, the phenomenal symbols of our self-expression. Objectively Vijnana becomes mahat, the great, wide or extended state of phenomenal being,called also brihat, likewise signifying vast or great,into which says the Gita, the Self or Lord casts his seed as into a womb in order to engender all these objects & creatures. The Self, standing in Vijnanam or mahat, is called the Mahan Atma, the great Self; so that, if we apply the significance [of] these terms to the Vedic words mah, mahas, mahi, mahn, then, even accepting mahas as an adjective and maho arnas in the sense of the great Ocean, it may very well be the ocean of the ideal or pure ideative state of existence in true knowledge which is intended, the great ocean slumbering in our humanity and awakened by the divine inspiration of Saraswati. But have we at all the right to read these high, strange & subtle ideas of a later mysticism into the primitive accents of the Veda? Let us at least support for a while that hypothesis. We may very well ask, if not from the Vedic forefa thers, whence did the Aryan thinkers get these striking images, this rich & concrete expression of the most abstract ideas and persist in them even after the Indian mind had rarefied & lifted its capacity to the height of the most difficult severities & abstractions known to any metaphysical thinking? Our hypothesis of a Vedic origin remains not only a possible suggestion but the one hypothesis in lawful possession of the field, unless a foreign source or a later mixed ideation can be proved. At present this later ideation may be assumed, it has not been & cannot be proved. The agelong tradition of India assigns the Veda as the source & substance of our theosophies; Brahmana, Aranyaka, Upanishad & Purana as only the interpretation & later expression; the burden of disproof rests on those who negative the tradition.
Vjebhir vjinvat and maho arnas are therefore fixed in their significance. The word vashtu in the tenth Rik offers a difficulty. It is equivalent to vahatu, says the Brahmana; to kmayatu, says Sayana; but, deferring to the opinion of the Brahmana, he adds that it means really kmayitw vahatu. Undoubtedly the root va means in classical Sanscrit to desire; but from the evidence of the classical Sanscrit we have it established that in more ancient times its ordinary meaning must have been to subdue or control; for although the verb has lost this sense in the later language, almost all its derivatives bear that meaning & the sense of wish, will or desire only persists in a few of them, va, wish and possibly va, a woman. It is this sense which agrees best with the context of the tenth rik and is concealed in the vahatu of the Brahmanas. There is no other difficulty of interpretation in the passage.
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Now a brilliant or luminous food, jyotishmat ish, is an absurdity which we certainly shall not accept; nor is there any reason for taking jyotih in any other than its ordinary sense of radiance, lustre. We must, therefore, seek some other significance for ish. It is the nature of the root ish, as of its leng thened form, sh, and the family to which it belongs, to suggest intensity of motion or impulsion physical or subjective and the state or results of such intensity. It means impulse, wish, impulsion; sending, casting, (as in ishu, an arrow or missile), strength, force, mastery; in the verb, it signifies also striving, entreating, favour, assent, liking; in the noun, increase, affluence, or, as applied by the ritualists in the Veda, drink or food. We see, then, that impellent force or strength is the fundamental significance, the idea [of] food only a distant, isolated & late step in the sense-evolution. If we apply this fundamental sense in the rik we have quoted from Praskanwas hymn to the Aswins, we get at once the following clear, straightforward & lucid meaning, The luminous force (force of the Mahas, or Vijnana, the true light, ritam jyotih of [I.23.5]) which has carried us, O Aswins, through the darkness to its other shore, in that in us take delight or else that force give to us. Apply the same key-meaning to this first rik of Madhuchchhandas lines to the same deities, we get a result equally clear, straightforward&lucid, O Aswins, swift-footed, much-enjoying lords of bliss, take your pleasure in the forces of the sacrifice. We have in Praskanwa & Madhuchchhandas the same idea, the same deities, the same prayer, the same subjective function of the gods & subjective purport of the words. We feel firm soil under our feet; a flood of light illumines our steps in these dim fields of Vedic interpretation.
What is this subjective function of the Aswins? We get it, I think, in the key words chanasyatam, rsthm. Whatever else may be the character of the Aswins, we get from the consonance of the two Rishis this strong suggestion that they are essentially gods of delight. Is there any other confirmation of the suggestion? Every epithet in this first rik testifies strongly to its correctness. The Aswins are purubhuj, much-enjoying; they are ubhaspat, lords of weal or bliss, or else of beauty for ubh may have any of these senses as well as the sense of light; they are dravatpn, their hands dropping gifts, says Sayana, and that agrees well with the nature of gods of delight who pour from full hands the roses of rapture upon mortals, manibus lilia plenis. But dravat usually means in the Veda, swift, running, and pni, although confined to the hands in classical Sanscrit, meant, as I shall suggest, in the old Aryan tongue any organ of action, hand, foot or, as in the Latin penis, the sexual organ. Even so, we have the nature of the Aswins as gods of delight, fully established; but we get in addition a fresh characteristic, the quality of impetuous speed, which is reinforced by their other epithets. For the Aswins are nar, the Strong ones; rudravartan,they put a fierce energy into all their activities; they accept the mantras of the hymn avray dhiy, with a bright-flaming strength of intelligence in the understanding. The idea of bounteous giving, suggested by Sayana in dravatpn and certainly present in that word if we accept pni in its ordinary sense, appears in the dasra of the third rik, O you bounteous ones. Sayana indeed takes dasr in the sense of destroyers; he gives the root das in this word the same force as in dasyu, an enemy or robber; but das can also mean to give, dasma is sometimes interpreted by the scholiasts sacrificer and this sense of bounteous giving seems to be fixed on the kindred word dasra also, at least when it is applied to the Aswins, by the seventeenth rik of the thirtieth Sukta, unahepas hymn to Indra & the Aswins,
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O Aswins, arrive with energetic force of a bright-flaming strength, givers of that which is radiant and brilliant or, if we take the interpretation of the ritualists, of wealth of cows & wealth of gold. We see that here too we have ish with two epithets denoting strength and force; here also we meet the words dasr and avray in connection with the Aswins; here also they are connected with light or radiance, go, rays or diffused light which we shall find to be the standing symbol-word in the Vedas for the diffusion of the light of the Vijnana or mahas, for that ritam jyotih or light of ideal Truth which constitutes the luminous force hymned in connection with the Aswins by Praskanwa Kanwa, jyotishmatm isham. These fixed ideas, this constant relation of epithets, this order in the divine functions, points to a settled system large in idea & minute in detail accepted by all the Vedic Rishis throughout the long period covered by the ensemble of the hymns of the Rigveda. In the ritualistic and naturalistic interpretations we get an artificial sense, an incoherent connection of ideas, a vague, purposeless & merely ornamental use of figures & epithets, one Rishi apparently reproducing stupidly the decorative ideas, images & words of his predecessors. In the subjective interpretation of the Vedas we shall find always a simple, lucid & straightforward sense perfectly connected & coherent, arising spontaneously from the text, in which there is a reason for the constant recurrence of ideas & terms, a complete appropriateness & fullness of meaning for every word that is used and an absolutely satisfying logical reason for the connection of each word with its predecessor & successor. According to our idea of the mentality of the Rishis we shall accept either the one interpretation which results in a confused barbaric intelligence or the other which reveals the culture & contents of a deep & splendid intellectuality. But there can be no doubt, which gives the best & most satisfying sense to the language of the Veda.
There are two epithets yet left which we have to fix to their right significance, before we sum up the evidence of this passage and determine the subjective physiognomy of the Aswins,purudansas & nsaty. Sayana interprets dansas as active,the Aswins are gods of a great activity; I suggest fashioning or forming activity,they are abundant fashioners. Sayanas interpretation suits better with the idea of the Aswins as gods full of strength, speed and delight, purudansas, full of a rich activity. But the sense of fashioning is also possible; we have in I.30.16 the expression sa no hiranyaratham dansanvn sa nah sanit sanaye sa no adt, where the meaning may be he gave a car, but would run better he fashioned for us a brilliant car, unless with Sayana we are to disregard the whole structure & rhythmic movement of unahepas sentence. The other epithet Nsaty has long been a puzzle for the grammarians; for the ingenious traditional rendering of Yaska & Sayana, na asaty, not untruthful, is too evidently a desperate shift of entire ignorance. The word by its formation must be either a patronymic, Sons of Nasata, or an adjective formed by the termination tya from the old Aryan noun Nsa, which still exists in the Greek o, an island. The physical significance of n in the Aryan tongues is a gliding or floating motion; we find it in the Latin, nare, to swim or float, the Greek Nais, a river goddess, nama, a stream, nxis, swimming, floating, naros, water, (S. nra, water), necho, I swim, float or sail; but in Sanscrit, except in nra, water, and nga, a snake, elephant, this signification of the long root n, shared by it originally with na, ni, n, nu & n, has disappeared. Nevertheless, the word Nsa, in some sense of motion, floating, gliding, sailing, voyaging, must have existed among the more ancient Sanscrit vocables. But in what sense can it be applied to the Aswins? It seems to me that we get the clue in the seventh sloka of Praskanwas Hymn to the Aswins which I have already quoted. For immediately after he has spoken of the jyotishmat ish, the luminous force which has carried him over to the other shore of the Ignorance, Praskanwa proceeds,
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1.09 - Saraswati and Her Consorts, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
This figure was arrived at by adding the three divine principles to the three mundane and interpolating a seventh or link-principle which is precisely that of the Truth-consciousness, Ritam Brihat, afterwards known as Vijnana or Mahas. The latter term means the Large and is therefore an equivalent of Brihat. There are other classifications of five, eight, nine and ten and even, as it would seem, twelve; but these do not immediately concern us.
All these principles, be it noted, are supposed to be really inseparable and omnipresent and therefore apply themselves to each separate formation of Nature. The seven Thoughts, for instance, are Mind applying itself to each of the seven planes as we would now call them and formulating Matter-mind, if we may so call it, nervous mind, pure mind, truth-mind and so on to the highest summit, parama paravat. The seven rays or cows are
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1.1.2 - Commentary, #Kena and Other Upanishads, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
four terms, Vijnana, prajnana, samjnana and ajnana. Vijnana is
the original comprehensive consciousness which holds an image
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original and all-possessing Vijnana and ajnana. It will comprehend all things in its energy of conscious knowledge, control all
things in its energy of conscious power. These energies will be
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Prajnana, Ajnana and Vijnana not limited by the smaller apprehensive and comprehensive faculties of the external mind. It is
this vaster Prajnana which perceived the proper relation of the
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examples the action of the vaster Vijnana is not so apparent, yet
it was evidently there working through them and ensuring their
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1.16 - WITH THE DEVOTEES AT DAKSHINESWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
This agrees very well with the five koshas, or 'sheaths', described in the Vednta. The gross body corresponds to the annamayakosha and the pranamayakosha, the subtle body to the manomayakosha and the Vijnanamayakosha, and the causal body to the nandamayakosha. The Mahakarana, the Great Cause, is beyond the five sheaths.
When Chaitanya's mind merged in That, he would go into samdhi. This is called the nirvikalpa or jada samdhi.
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1.200-1.224 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
The word Vijnana (clear knowledge) is used both to denote the
Realisation of the Self and knowing the objects. The Self is wisdom.
It functions in two ways. When associated with the ego the knowledge is objective ( Vijnana). When divested of the ego and the Universal Self is realised, it is also called Vijnana. The word raises a mental concept.
Therefore we say that the Self-Realised Sage knows by his mind, but
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Therefore Vijnana of whatever kind (of object or of the Self) depends on the Self being Pure Knowledge.
Talk 205.
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1.2.01 - The Upanishadic and Purancic Systems, #Letters On Yoga I, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The parallel between Vijnana or Karana Jagat of the Upanishad presided over by Prajna and equated with Sushupti, as the Hiranyagarbha world with Swapna and things subtle, does not altogether equate with my account of the Supermind. But it might be said that to the normal mind approaching or entering the Supramental plane it becomes a state of Sushupti. If the writer had put the superconscient sleep of Supermind - for so the supramental state appears to the untransformed mind when it touches or apprehends it, for it falls inevitably into such a superconscious sleep - then the difference would be cured.
The Seven Worlds
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4. Mahat - Vijnana (supramental)
5. Jana - Ananda world
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1.240 - 1.300 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
'I'. The 'I-thought' is the Vijnanamaya kosa (intellectual sheath).
Will is included in it.
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('I') is the subject; the two together form the Vijnanamayakosa
(intellect-sheath).
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1.240 - Talks 2, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
I. The I-thought is the Vijnanamaya kosa (intellectual sheath).
Will is included in it.
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(I) is the subject; the two together form the Vijnanamayakosa
(intellect-sheath).
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The sleep-experiencer is called prajna. He is prajnanam in all the three states. Its particular significance in the sleep state is that He is full of knowledge (prajnanaghana). What is ghana? There are jnana and Vijnana. Both together operate in all perceptions. Vijnana in the jagrat is viparita jnana (wrong knowledge) i.e., ajnana (ignorance). It always co-exists with the individual. When this becomes vispashta jnana (clear knowledge), It is Brahman. When wrong knowledge is totally absent, as in sleep, He remains pure prajnana only. That is Prajnanaghana.
Aitareya Upanishad says prajnana, Vijnana, ajnana, samjnana are all names of Brahman. Being made up of knowledge alone how is He to be experienced? Experience is always with Vijnana. Therefore the pure I of the transitional stage must be held for the experience of the
Prajnanaghana. The I of the waking state is impure and is not useful for such experience. Hence the use of the transitional I or the pure I.
How is this pure I to be realised? Viveka Chudamani says, Vijnana kose vilasatyajasram (He is always shining forth in the intellectual sheath, Vijnana kosa). Tripura Rahasya and other works point out that
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi the interval between two consecutive sankalpas (ideas or thoughts) represent the pure aham (I). Therefore holding on to the pure I, one should have the Prajnanaghana for aim, and there is the vritti present in the attempt. All these have their proper and respective places and at the same time lead to realisation.
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If pure, how is He to be experienced by means of the impure I? A man says I slept happily. Happiness was his experience. If not, how could he speak of what he had not experienced? How did he experience happiness in sleep, if the Self was pure? Who is it that speaks of that experience now? The speaker is the Vijnanatma (ignorant self) and he speaks of prajnanatma (pure self). How can that hold? Was this Vijnanatma present in sleep? His present statement of the experience of happiness in sleep makes one infer his existence in sleep. How then did he remain? Surely not as in the waking state. He was there very subtle. Exceedingly subtle Vijnanatma experiences the happy prajnanatma by means of maya mode. It is like the rays of the moon seen below the branches, twigs and leaves of a tree.
The subtle Vijnanatma seems apparently a stranger to the obvious Vijnanatma of the present moment. Why should we infer his existence in sleep? Should we not deny the experience of happiness and be done with this inference? No. The fact of the experience of happiness cannot be denied, for everyone courts sleep and prepares a nice bed for the enjoyment of sound sleep.
This brings us to the conclusion that the cogniser, cognition and the cognised are present in all the three states, though there are differences in their subtleties. In the transitional state, the aham (I) is suddha (pure), because idam (this) is suppressed. Aham (I) predominates.
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M.: We call it Mayakarana as opposed to the antahkarana to which we are accustomed in our other states. The same instruments are called differently in the different states, even as the anandatman of sleep is termed the Vijnanatman of the wakeful state.
D.: Please furnish me with an illustration for the mayakarana experiencing the ananda.
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But the gross body is of the mind only. The mind may be said to consist of four inner organs, or the principle composed of thoughts, or the sixth sense; or combining intellect with the ego, and chitta with the mind (i.e. memory-faculty with the thinking faculty), it may be taken to consist of two parts (the ego and the mind). In the latter case the Vijnanatma (the intellectual Self) or the ego or the seer forms the subject, and the mental sheath or the seen, the object.
The waking, dream and sleep states have their origin in the Original
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Swami Lokesananda, a sannyasi: What is meant by jnana and Vijnana?
M.: These words may mean differently according to the context.
Jnana = samanya jnana or Pure consciousness. Vijnana = Visesha jnana. Visesha may be (1) worldly (relative knowledge); and (2) transcendental (Self-Realisation).
Mind is necessary for visesha; it modifies the purity of absolute consciousness. So Vijnana represents intellect and the sheath composing it, i.e., relative knowledge. In that case jnana is common
(samanya) running through Vijnana samjnana, prajnana, ajnana, mati, dhirti - different modes of knowledge (vide: Aitareyopanishad,
Chapter 3) or jnana is paroksha (hearsay) and Vijnana is aparokska
(direct perception) as in jnana Vijnana triptatma, one perfectly content with jnana and Vijnana.
D.: What is the relation between Brahman and Isvara?
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M.: Viveka Chudamani makes it clear that the artificial I of the Vijnana kosa is a projection and through it one must look to the significance (vachya) of I, the true principle.
Talk 407.
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1.300 - 1.400 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
The sleep-experiencer is called prajna. He is prajnanam in all the three states. Its particular significance in the sleep state is that He is full of knowledge (prajnanaghana). What is ghana? There are jnana and Vijnana. Both together operate in all perceptions. Vijnana in the jagrat is viparita jnana (wrong knowledge) i.e., ajnana (ignorance). It always co-exists with the individual. When this becomes vispashta jnana (clear knowledge), It is Brahman. When wrong knowledge is totally absent, as in sleep, He remains pure prajnana only. That is Prajnanaghana.
Aitareya Upanishad says prajnana, Vijnana, ajnana, samjnana are all names of Brahman. Being made up of knowledge alone how is He to be experienced? Experience is always with Vijnana. Therefore the pure 'I' of the transitional stage must be held for the experience of the
Prajnanaghana. The 'I' of the waking state is impure and is not useful for such experience. Hence the use of the transitional 'I' or the pure 'I'.
How is this pure 'I' to be realised? Viveka Chudamani says, Vijnana kose vilasatyajasram (He is always shining forth in the intellectual sheath, Vijnana kosa). Tripura Rahasya and other works point out that
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If pure, how is He to be experienced by means of the impure 'I'? A man says "I slept happily". Happiness was his experience. If not, how could he speak of what he had not experienced? How did he experience happiness in sleep, if the Self was pure? Who is it that speaks of that experience now? The speaker is the Vijnanatma (ignorant self) and he speaks of prajnanatma (pure self). How can that hold? Was this Vijnanatma present in sleep? His present statement of the experience of happiness in sleep makes one infer his existence in sleep. How then did he remain? Surely not as in the waking state. He was there very subtle. Exceedingly subtle Vijnanatma experiences the happy prajnanatma by means of maya mode. It is like the rays of the moon seen below the branches, twigs and leaves of a tree.
The subtle Vijnanatma seems apparently a stranger to the obvious Vijnanatma of the present moment. Why should we infer his existence in sleep? Should we not deny the experience of happiness and be done with this inference? No. The fact of the experience of happiness cannot be denied, for everyone courts sleep and prepares a nice bed for the enjoyment of sound sleep.
This brings us to the conclusion that the cogniser, cognition and the cognised are present in all the three states, though there are differences in their subtleties. In the transitional state, the aham ('I') is suddha (pure), because idam ('this') is suppressed. Aham ('I') predominates.
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M.: We call it Mayakarana as opposed to the antahkarana to which we are accustomed in our other states. The same instruments are called differently in the different states, even as the anandatman of sleep is termed the Vijnanatman of the wakeful state.
D.: Please furnish me with an illustration for the mayakarana experiencing the ananda.
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But the gross body is of the mind only. The mind may be said to consist of four inner organs, or the principle composed of thoughts, or the sixth sense; or combining intellect with the ego, and chitta with the mind (i.e. memory-faculty with the thinking faculty), it may be taken to consist of two parts (the ego and the mind). In the latter case the Vijnanatma (the intellectual Self) or the ego or the seer forms the subject, and the mental sheath or the seen, the object.
The waking, dream and sleep states have their origin in the Original
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Swami Lokesananda, a sannyasi: What is meant by jnana and Vijnana?
M.: These words may mean differently according to the context.
Jnana = samanya jnana or Pure consciousness. Vijnana = Visesha jnana. Visesha may be (1) worldly (relative knowledge); and (2) transcendental (Self-Realisation).
Mind is necessary for visesha; it modifies the purity of absolute consciousness. So Vijnana represents intellect and the sheath composing it, i.e., relative knowledge. In that case jnana is common
(samanya) running through Vijnana samjnana, prajnana, ajnana, mati, dhirti - different modes of knowledge (vide: Aitareyopanishad,
Chapter 3) or jnana is paroksha (hearsay) and Vijnana is aparokska
(direct perception) as in jnana Vijnana triptatma, one perfectly content with jnana and Vijnana.
D.: What is the relation between Brahman and Isvara?
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1.3.2.01 - I. The Entire Purpose of Yoga, #Essays Divine And Human, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
In every human being there is concealed (avyakta) the four higher principles. Mahas, pure ideality in Vijnana, is not a vyahriti but the source of the vyahritis, the bank upon which
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mental, vital and bodily action draw & turn its large & infinite wealth into small coin of the lower existence. Vijnana being the link between the divine state & the human animal is the door of escape for man into the supernatural or divine humanity.
Inferior mankind gravitates downward from mind towards life & body; average mankind dwells constant in mind limited by & looking towards life & body; superior mankind levitates upward either to idealised mentality or to pure idea, direct truth of knowledge & spontaneous truth of existence; supreme mankind rises to divine beatitude & from that level either goes upward to pure Sat & Parabrahman or remains to beatify its lower members & raise to divinity in itself & others this human existence.
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1.400 - 1.450 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
M.: Viveka Chudamani makes it clear that the artificial 'I' of the Vijnana kosa is a projection and through it one must look to the significance (vachya) of 'I', the true principle.
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1.439, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
Someone remarked: It is said that they get mukti unasked who live or die within a radius of 30 miles round Arunachala. It is also admitted that only by jnana is liberation obtained. The purana also remarks that Vedanta Vijnana is difficult to get. So mukti is difficult. But life or death round about the Hill bestows mukti so easily. How can it be?
M.: Siva says, By My command. Those who live here need no initiation, diksha, etc., but get mukti.. Such is the comm and of Siva.
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M.: Prajnana (Absolute Knowledge) is that from which Vijnana
(relative knowledge) proceeds.
D.: In the state of Vijnana one becomes aware of the samvit (cosmic intelligence). But is that suddha samvit aware by itself without the aid of antahkaranas (inner organs)?
M.: It is so, even logically.
D.: Becoming aware of samvit in jagrat by Vijnana, prajnana is not found self-shining. If so, it must be found in sleep.
M.: The awareness is at present through antahkaranas. Prajnana is always shining even in sleep. If one is continuously aware in jagrat the awareness will continue in sleep also.
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= good men well disciplined. The whole passage implies passing into the real beyond the unreal. na karmana na prajaya dhanena tyagenaike amritatvamanasuh parena nakam nihitam guhayam, vibhrajate yadyatayo visanti vedanta Vijnana sunishchitarthah sanyasayogadyatayah shuddha satvah te brahmaloke tu parantakale paramritat parimuchyanti sarve dahram vipapam paravesmabhutum yat pundarikam puramadhya samstham tatrapi dahram gaganam visokastasmin yadantastadupasitavyam yo vedadau svarah prokto vedante cha pratishtitah tasya prakritilinasya yah parah sa Mahesvarah
[Deathlessness is not obtained through action or begetting offspring or wealth. Some attain that state through renunciation.
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states are enjoyed in the Anandamaya kosa only. As a rule Vijnanamaya
kosa prevails on waking. In deep sleep all thoughts disappear and the
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modifications are transient; they arise and set. Hence the Vijnanamaya
(intellect) is called a kosa or sheath. When pure awareness is left
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1.450 - 1.500 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
Someone remarked: It is said that they get mukti unasked who live or die within a radius of 30 miles round Arunachala. It is also admitted that only by jnana is liberation obtained. The purana also remarks that Vedanta Vijnana is difficult to get. So mukti is difficult. But life or death round about the Hill bestows mukti so easily. How can it be?
M.: Siva says, "By My command." Those who live here need no initiation, diksha, etc., but get mukti.. Such is the comm and of Siva.
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M.: Prajnana (Absolute Knowledge) is that from which Vijnana
(relative knowledge) proceeds.
D.: In the state of Vijnana one becomes aware of the samvit (cosmic intelligence). But is that suddha samvit aware by itself without the aid of antahkaranas (inner organs)?
M.: It is so, even logically.
D.: Becoming aware of samvit in jagrat by Vijnana, prajnana is not found self-shining. If so, it must be found in sleep.
M.: The awareness is at present through antahkaranas. Prajnana is always shining even in sleep. If one is continuously aware in jagrat the awareness will continue in sleep also.
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2.01 - The Two Natures, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Nature. There is then nothing else here left to be known, because all is that Divine Existence. It is only because our view here is not thus integral, because it rests on the dividing mind and reason and the separative idea of the ego, that our mental perception of things is an ignorance. We have to get away from this mental and egoistic view to the true unifying knowledge, and that has two aspects, the essential, jnana, and the comprehensive, Vijnana, the direct spiritual awareness of the supreme Being and the right intimate knowledge of the principles of his existence, Prakriti,
Purusha and the rest, by which all that is can be known in its divine origin and in the supreme truth of its nature. That integral knowledge, says the Gita, is a rare and difficult thing; "among thousands of men one here and there strives after perfection, and of those who strive and attain to perfection one here and there knows me in all the principles of my existence, tattvatah.."
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2.01 - The Yoga and Its Objects, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Purusha who merely watches, consents to God's work, holds up the Adhar and enjoys the fruits that God gives. The work itself is done by God as Shakti, by Kali, and is offered up by her as a Yajna to Sri Krishna; you are the Yajamana who sees the sacrifice done, whose presence is necessary to every movement of the sacrifice and who tastes its results. This separation of yourself, this renunciation of the kartr.tva-abhimana (the idea of yourself as the doer) is easier if you know what the Adhar is. Above the buddhi which is the highest function of mind is the higher buddhi, or Vijnana, the seat of the satyadharma, truth of knowledge, truth of bhava, truth of action, and above this ideal faculty is the ananda or cosmic bliss in which the divine part of you dwells. It is of this Vijnana and this ananda that Christ spoke as the kingdom of God that is within you.
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We at present are awake, jagrat, in the lower movements but sus.upta, fast asleep, in the Vijnana and ananda; we have to awaken these levels of consciousness within us and their awakening and unmixed activity is the siddhi of the yoga. For when that happens, we gain the condition of being which is called in the Gita dwelling in God, of which Sri Krishna speaks when he says, mayi nivasis.yasyeva, "Verily thou shalt dwell in Me."
Once it is gained, we are free and blessed and have everything towards which we strive.
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It is not only in things animate but in things inanimate also that we must see Narayana, experience Shiva, throw our arms around Shakti. When our eyes, that are now blinded by the idea of Matter, open to the supreme Light, we shall find that nothing is inanimate, but all contains, expressed or unexpressed, involved or evolved, secret or manifest or in course of manifestation, not only that state of involved consciousness which we call annam or Matter, but also life, mind, knowledge, bliss, divine force and being, - pran.a, manas, Vijnana, ananda, cit, sat. In all things the self-conscious personality of God broods and takes the delight of his gun.as. Flowers, fruits, earth, trees, metals, all things have a joy in them of which you will become aware, because in all Sri Krishna dwells, pravisya, having entered into them, not materially or physically, - because there is no such thing, Space and Time being only conventions and arrangements of perception, the perspective in God's creative Art, - but by cit, the divine awareness in his transcendent being.
IfA vA-yEmd\ sv yt^ Ek jg(yA\ jgt^.
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which you can travel widely to all parts of the world and are admitted to the freedom of the infinite. All that you need are the ship, the steering-wheel, the compass, the motive-power and a skilful captain. Your ship is the Brahmavidya, faith is your steering-wheel, self-surrender your compass, the motive-power is she who makes, directs and destroys the worlds at God's comm and and God himself is your captain. But he has his own way of working and his own time for everything. Watch his way and wait for his time. Understand also the importance of accepting the Shastra and submitting to the Guru and do not do like the Europeans who insist on the freedom of the individual intellect to follow its own fancies and preferences which it calls reasonings, even before it is trained to discern or fit to reason. It is much the fashion nowadays to indulge in metaphysical discussions and philosophical subtleties about Maya and Adwaita and put them in the forefront, making them take the place of spiritual experience. Do not follow that fashion or confuse yourself and waste time on the way by questionings which will be amply and luminously answered when the divine knowledge of the Vijnana awakes in you. Metaphysical knowledge has its place, but as a handmaid to spiritual experience, showing it the way sometimes but much more dependent on it and living upon its bounty. By itself it is mere pan.d.itya, a dry and barren thing and more often a stumbling-block than a help. Having accepted this path, follow its Shastra without unnecessary doubt and questioning, keeping the mind plastic to the light of the higher knowledge, gripping firmly what is experienced, waiting for light where things are dark to you, taking without pride what help you can from the living guides who have already trod the path, always patient, never hastening to narrow conclusions, but waiting for a more complete experience and a fuller light, relying on the Jagadguru who helps you from within.
It is necessary to say something about the Mayavada and the modern teachings about the Adwaita because they are much in the air at the present moment and, penetrated with ideas from European rationalism and agnosticism for which Shankara would have been astonished to find himself made responsible,
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2.02 - On Letters, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Sri Aurobindo: The Jiva is something more than the psychic being. The psychic being is behind the heart; while the Jiva is high above, connected with the Central Being. It is that which on every level of consciousness becomes the Purusha, the Prakriti and the personalities of Nature. The psychic being, one may say, is the soul-personality. The psychic being most purely reflects the Divine in the lower triplicity of mind, life and body. There are four higher levels: Sat, Chit, Ananda and Vijnana; they are in Knowledge, while below in the three levels mind, life and body there is a mixture of ignorance and knowledge. The psychic being is behind the mind, life and body; it is most open to the higher Truth; that is why it is indispensable for the manifestation of the Divine.
The psychic being alone can open itself completely to the Truth. This is so because the movements of the lower parts mind, life and body are full of defects, errors and mixtures and, however sincere they may be and however hard they may try to transform themselves into movements of the Truth, they cannot do it unless the psychic being comes to their help. Of course, these lower parts have their own sincerity.
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2.04 - ADVICE TO ISHAN, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"Man, looking outward, sees the gross; at that time his mind dwells in the annamayakosha, the gross body. Next is the subtle body. Functioning through the subtle body, the mind dwells in the manomayakosha and the Vijnanamayakosha. Next is the causal body. Functioning through the causal body the mind enjoys bliss; it dwells in the nandamaykosha. This corresponds to the semi-conscious state experienced by Chaitanya. Last of all, the mind loses itself in the Great Cause. It disappears. It merges in the Great Cause. What one experiences after that cannot be described in words. In his inmost state of consciousness, Chaitanya enjoyed this experience. Do you know what this state is like? Dayananda described it by saying, 'Come into the inner apartments and shut the door. Anyone and everyone cannot enter that part of the house.
On meditation
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2.07 - The Upanishad in Aphorism, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
Nature is composed of Being, Will or Force, Creative Bliss, Pure Idea, Mind, Life and Matter, - Sat, Chit or Tapas, Ananda, Vijnanam, Manas, Prana and Annam.
The Soul, Purusha, can seat itself in any of these principles and, according to its situation, its outlook changes and it sees a different world; all world is merely arranged and harmonised outlook of the Spirit.
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The swiftest & most effective means of his advance & selffulfilment is to dissolve his waking ego in the enjoyment of an infinite consciousness, at first mental of the universal manomaya Purusha, but afterwards ideal and spiritual of the high Vijnana & highest Sacchidananda.
The transcendence & dissolution of the waking mental ego in the body is therefore the first object of all practical Vedanta.
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Death, suffering & ignorance are circumstances of the mind in the vitalised body and do not touch the consciousness of the soul in Vijnana, ananda, chit & sat. The combination of the three lower members, mind, life & body, is called therefore aparardha, the lower kingdom or in Christian parlance the kingdom of death & sin, the four higher members are called parardha, the higher kingdom, or in Christian parlance, the kingdom of heaven. To liberate man from death, suffering & ignorance and impose the all-blissful & luminous nature of the higher kingdom upon the lower is the object of the Seer in the Isha Upanishad.
This liberation is to be effected by dissolving the waking ego into the Lord's divine being and experiencing entirely our unity with all other existences & with Him who is God, Atman & Brahman.
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2.1.02 - Nature The World-Manifestation, #Essays Divine And Human, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
For it cannot be denied that the universe, the thing from which all our conscious experience starts, is such a constant stream of becoming, a round of mutations and modifications, a mass of features and relations. The question is how is it maintained? what is [it] that gives an appearance of permanence to the impermanent, of stability to the unstable, of a sum of eternal sameness in which all the elements of the sum are in constant instability and all capable of mutation? The Buddhist admits that it is done by an action of consciousness, by idea and association, Vijnana, sanskara; but ideas and associations are themselves Karma, action of Force, themselves impermanent, only they create an appearance of permanence, by always acting in the same round, creating the same combination of forms and elements, as the flame and stream appear always the same, though that which constitutes them is always impermanent. The modern Materialist says that it is material Force or an eternal
Energy which takes the form of Matter and follows always the same inherent law of action. The Mayavadin says on the contrary that it is Consciousness, but a consciousness which is in its reality immutable and unmodifiable self-existence, only it produces a phenomenon of constant modification and mutation.
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2.15 - The Cosmic Consciousness, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The link between the spiritual and the lower planes of the mental being is that which is called in the old Vedantic phraseology the Vijnana and which we may term the Truth-plane or the ideal mind or supermind where the One and the Many meet and our being is freely open to the revealing light of the divine Truth and the inspiration of the divine Will and Knowledge. If we can break down the veil of the intellectual, emotional, sensational mind which our ordinary existence has built between us and the Divine, we can then take up through the Truth-mind all our mental, vital and physical experience and offer it up to the spiritual -- this was the secret or mystic sense of the old Vedic "sacrifice" -- to be converted into the terms of the infinite truth of Sachchidananda, and we can receive the powers and illuminations of the infinite Existence in forms of a divine knowledge, will and delight to be imposed on our mentality, vitality, physical existence till the lower is transformed into the perfect vessel of the higher. This was the double Vedic movement of the descent and birth of the gods in the human creature and the ascent of the human powers that struggle towards the divine knowledge, power and delight and climb into the godheads, the result of which was the possession of the One, the Infinite, the beatific existence, the union with God, the Immortality. By possession of this ideal plane we break down entirely the opposition of the lower and the higher existence, the false gulf created by the Ignorance between the finite and the Infinite, God and Nature, the One and the Many, open the gates of the Divine, fulfil the individual in the complete harmony of the cosmic consciousness and realise in the cosmic being the epiphany of the transcendent Sachchidananda.
author class:Sri Aurobindo
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2.19 - The Planes of Our Existence, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
3:The ancient knowledge in all countries was full of the search after the hidden truths of our being and it created that large field of practice and inquiry which goes in Europe by the name of occultism, -- we do not use any corresponding word in the East, because these things do not seem to us so remote, mysterious and abnormal as to the occidental mentality; they are nearer to us arid the veil between our normal material life and this larger life is much thinner. In India,428a Egypt, Chaldea, China, Greece, the Celtic countries they have formed part of various Yogic systems and disciplines which had once a great hold everywhere, but to the modern mind have seemed mere superstition and mysticism, although the facts and experiences on which they are founded are quite as real in their own field and as much governed by intelligible laws of their own as the facts and experiences of the material world. It is not our intention here to plunge into this vast and difficult field of psychical knowledge.428b But it becomes necessary now to deal with certain broad facts and principles which form its framework, for without them our Yoga of knowledge cannot be complete. We find that in the various systems the facts dealt with are always the same, but there are considerable differences of theoretic and practical arrangement, as is natural and inevitable in dealing with a subject so large and difficult. Certain things are here omitted, there made all-important, here understressed, there over-emphasised; certain fields of experience which are in one system held to be merely subordinate provinces, are in others treated as separate kingdoms. But I shall follow here consistently the Vedic and Vedantic arrangement of which we find the great lines in the Upanishads, first because it seems to me at once the simplest and most philosophical and more especially because it was from the beginning envisaged from the point of view of the utility of these various planes to the supreme object of our liberation. It takes as its basis the three principles of our ordinary being, mind, life and matter, the triune spiritual principle of Sachchidananda and the link principle of Vijnana, supermind, the free or spiritual intelligence, and thus arranges all the large possible poises of our being in a tier of seven planes, -- sometimes regarded as five only, because, only the lower five are wholly accessible to us, -- through which the developing being can rise to its perfection.
4:But first we must understand what we mean by planes of consciousness, planes of existence. We mean a general-settled poise or world of relations between Purusha and prakriti, between the Soul and Nature. For anything that we can call world is and can be nothing else than the working out of a general relation which an universal existence has created or established between itself, or let us say its eternal fact or potentiality and the powers of its becoming. That existence in its relations with and its experience of the becoming is what we call soul or Purusha, individual soul in the individual, universal soul in the cosmos; the principle and the powers of the becoming are what we call Nature or prakriti. But since being, conscious-force and delight of being are always the three constituent terms of existence, the nature of a world is really determined by the way in which prakriti is set to deal with these three primary things and the forms which it is allowed to give to them. For existence itself is and must always be the stuff of its own becoming; it must be shaped into the substance with which Force has to deal. Force again must be the power which works out that substance and works with it to whatever ends; Force is that which we ordinarily call Nature. Again the end, the object with which the worlds are created must be worked out by the consciousness inherent in all existence and all force and all their workings, and the object must be the possession of itself and of its delight of existence in the world. To that all the circumstances and aims of any world-existence must reduce themselves; it is existence developing its terms of being, its power of being, its conscious delight of being; if these are involved, their evolution; if they are veiled, their self-revelation.
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2.22 - Vijnana or Gnosis, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:2.22 - Vijnana or Gnosis
In our perfect self-transcendence we pass out and up from the ignorance or half-enlightenment of our mental conscious-being into a greater wisdom-self and truth-power above it, there to dwell in the unwalled light of a divine knowledge. The mental man that we are is changed into the gnostic soul, the truth-conscious godhead, the Vijnanamaya purusa. Seated on that level of the hill of our ascension we are in a quite different plane from this material, this vital, this mental poise of the universal spirit, and with this change changes too all our view and experience of our soul-life and of the world around us. We are born into a new soul-status and put on a new nature; for according to the status of the soul is the status of the prakriti. At each transition of the world-ascent, from matter to life, from life to mind, from mind bound to free intelligence, as the latent, half-manifested or already manifest soul rises to a higher and higher level of being, the nature also is elevated into a superior working, a wider consciousness, a vaster force and an intenser or larger range and joy of existence. But the transition from the mind-self to the knowledge-self is the great and the decisive transition in the Yoga. It is the shaking off of the last hold on us of the cosmic ignorance and our firm foundation in the Truth of things, in a consciousness infinite and eternal and inviolable by obscurity, falsehood, suffering or error.
This is the first summit which enters into the divine perfection, sadharmaya, sadrsya; for all the rest only look up to it or catch some rays of its significance. The highest heights of mind or of overmind come still within the belt of a mitigated ignorance; they can refract a divine Light but not pass it on in undiminished power to our lower members. For so long as we are within the triple stratum of mind, life and body, our active nature continues to work in the force of the ignorance even when the soul in Mind possesses something of the knowledge. And even if the soul were to reflect or to represent all the largeness of the knowledge in its mental consciousness, it would be unable to mobilise it rightly in force of action. The truth in its action might greatly increase, but it would still be pursued by a limitation, still condemned to a divisibility which would prevent it from working integrally in the power of the infinite. The power of a divinely illumined mind may be immense compared with ordinary powers, but it will still be subject to incapacity and there can be no perfect correspondence between the force of the effective will and the light of the idea which inspires it. The infinite Presence may be there in status, but dynamis of the operations of nature still belongs to the lower prakriti, must follow its triple modes of working and cannot give any adequate form to the greatness within it. This is the tragedy of ineffectivity, of the hiatus between ideal and effective will, of our constant incapacity to work out in living form and action the truth we feel in our inner consciousness that pursues all the aspiration of mind and life towards the divinity behind them. But the Vijnana or gnosis is not only truth but truth-power, it is the very working of the infinite and divine nature; it is the divine knowledge one with the divine will in the force and delight of a spontaneous and luminous and inevitable self-fulfilment. By the gnosis, then, we change our human into a divine nature.
What then is this gnosis and how can we describe it? Two opposite errors have to be avoided, two misconceptions that disfigure opposite sides of the truth of gnosis. One error of intellect-bounded thinkers takes Vijnana as synonymous with the other Indian term buddhi and the buddhi as synonymous with the reason, the discerning intellect, the logical intelligence. The systems that accept this significance, pass at once from a plane of pure intellect to a plane of pure spirit. No intermediate power is recognised, no diviner action of knowledge than the pure reason, is admitted; the limited human means for facing truth is taken for the highest possible dynamics of consciousness, its topmost force and original movement. An opposite error, a misconception of the mystics identifies Vijnana with the consciousness of the Infinite free from all ideation or else ideation packed into one essence of thought, lost to other dynamic action in the single and invariable idea of the One. This is the caitanyaghana of the Upanishad and is one movement or rather one thread of the many-aspected movement of the gnosis. The gnosis, the Vijnana is not only this concentrated consciousness of the infinite Essence, it is also and at the same time an infinite knowledge of the myriad play of the Infinite. It contains all ideation (not mental but supramental), but it is not limited by ideation, for it far exceeds all ideative movement. Nor is the gnostic ideation in its character an intellectual thinking; it is not what we call the reason, not a concentrated intelligence. For the reason is mental in its methods, mental in its acquisitions, mental in its basis, but the ideative method of the gnosis is self-luminous, supramental, its yield of thought-light spontaneous, not proceeding by acquisition, its thought-basis a rendering of conscious identities, not a translation of the impressions born of indirect contacts. There is a relation and even a sort of broken identity between the two forms of thought; for one proceeds covertly from other. Mind is born from that which is beyond mind. But they act on different planes and reverse each other's process.
Even the purest reason, the most luminous rational intellectuality is not the gnosis. Reason or intellect is only the lower buddhi; it is dependent for its action on the percepts of the sense-mind and on the concepts of the mental intelligence. It is not like the gnosis, self-luminous, au thentic, making the subject one with the object. There is, indeed, a higher form of the buddhi that can be called the intuitive mind or intuitive reason, and this by its intuitions, its inspirations, its swift revelatory vision, its luminous insight and discrimination can do the work of the reason with a higher power, a swifter action, a greater and spontaneous certitude. It acts in a self-light of the truth which does not depend upon the torch-flares of the sense-mind and its limited uncertain percepts; it proceeds not by intelligent but by visional concepts: It is a kind of truth-vision, truth-hearing, truth-memory, direct truth-discernment. This true and au thentic intuition must be distinguished from a power of the ordinary mental reason which is too easily confused with it, that power of Involved reasoning that reaches its conclusion by a bound and does not need the ordinary steps of the logical mind. The logical reason proceeds pace after pace and tries the sureness of each step like a marl who is walking over unsafe ground and has to test by the hesitating touch of his foot each span of soil that he perceives with his eye. But this other supralogical process of the reason is a motion of rapid insight or swift discernment; it proceeds by a stride or leap, like a man who springs from one sure spot to another point of sure footing, -- or at least held by him to be sure. He sees this space he covers in one compact and flashing view, but he does not distinguish or measure either by eye or touch its successions, features and circumstances. This movement has something of the sense of power of the intuition, something of its velocity, some appearance of its light and certainty, arid we always are apt to take it for the intuition. But our assumption is an error and, if we trust to it, it may lead us into grievous blunders.
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But even if this difficult thing were perfectly accomplished, still the intuition would not be the gnosis; it would only be its thin prolongation into mind or its sharp edge of first entrance. The difference, not easy to define except by symbols, may be expressed if we take the Vedic image in which the Sun represents the gnosis462 and the sky, mid-air and earth, the mentality, vitality, physicality of man and of the universe. Living on the earth, climbing into the mid-air or even winging in the sky, the mental being, the manomya purusa, would still live in the rays of the sun and not in its bodily light. And in those rays he would see things not as they are but as reflected in his organ of vision, deformed by its faults or limited in their truth by its restrictions. But the Vijnanamaya purusa lives in the Sun itself, in the very body and blaze of the true light; he knows this light to be his own self-luminous being and he sees the whole truth of the lower triplicity and each thing that is in it. He sees it not by reflection in a mental organ of vision, but with the Sun of gnosis itself as his eye, -- for the Sun, says the Veda, is the eye of the gods. The mental being, even in the intuitive mind, can perceive the truth only by a brilliant reflection or limited communication and subject to the restrictions and the inferior capacity of the mental vision; but the supramental being sees it by the gnosis itself, from the very centre and outwelling fount of the truth, in its very form and by its own spontaneous and self-illumining process. For the Vijnana is a direct and divine as opposed to an indirect and human knowledge.
The nature of the gnosis can only be indicated to the intellect by contrasting it with the nature of the intellect, and even then the phrases we must use cannot illuminate unless aided by some amount of actual experience. For what language forged by the reason can express the supraratiorlal? Fundamentally, this is the difference between these two powers that the mental reason proceeds with labour from ignorance to truth, but the gnosis has in itself the direct contact, the immediate vision, the easy and constant possession of the truth and has no need of seeking or any kind of procedure. The reason starts with appearances and labours, never or seldom losing at least a partial dependence on appearances, to arrive at the truth behind them; it shows the truth in the light of the appearances. The gnosis starts from the truth and shows the appearances in the light of the truth; it is itself the body of the truth and its spirit. The reason proceeds by inference, it concludes; but the gnosis proceeds by identity or vision, -- it is, sees and knows. As directly as the physical vision sees and grasps the appearance of objects, so and far more directly the gnosis sees and grasps the truth of things. But where the physical sense gets into relation with objects by a veiled contact, the gnosis gets into identity with things by an unveiled oneness. Thus it is able to know all things as a man knows his own existence, simply, convincingly, directly. To the reason only what the senses give is direct knowledge, pratyaksa, the rest of truth is arrived at indirectly; to the gnosis all its truth is direct knowledge, pratyaksa. Therefore the truth gained by the intellect is an acquisition over which there hangs always a certain shadow of doubt, an incompleteness, a surrounding penumbra of night and ignorance or half-knowledge, a possibility of alteration or annullation by farther knowledge. The truth of the gnosis is free from doubt, self-evident, self-existent, irrefragable, absolute.
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If we would describe the gnosis as it is in its own awareness, not thus imperfectly as it is to us in contrast with our own reason and intelligence, it is hardly possible to speak of it except in figures and symbols. And first we must remember that the gnostic level, Mahat, Vijnana, is not the supreme plane of our consciousness but a middle or link plane. Interposed between the triune glory of the utter Spirit, the infinite existence, consciousness and bliss of the Eternal and our lower triple being and nature, it is as if it stood there as the mediating, formulated, organising and creative wisdom, power and joy of the Eternal. In the gnosis Sachchidananda gathers up the light of his unseizable existence and pours it out on the soul in the shape and power of a divine knowledge, a divine will and a divine bliss of existence. It is as if infinite light were gathered up into the compact orb of the sun and lavished on all that depends upon the sun in radiances that continue for ever. But the gnosis is not only light, it is force; it is creative knowledge, it is the self-effective truth of the divine Idea. This idea is not creative imagination, not something that constructs in void, but light and power of eternal substance, truth-light full of truth-force; and it brings out what is latent in being, it does not create a fiction that never was in being. The ideation of the gnosis is radiating light-stuff of the consciousness of the eternal Existence; each ray is a truth. The will in the gnosis is a conscious force of eternal knowledge; it throws the consciousness and substance of being into infallible forms of truth-power, forms that embody the idea and make it faultlessly effective, and it works out each truth-power and each truth-form spontaneously and rightly according to its nature. Because it carries this creative force of the divine Idea, the Sun, the lord arid symbol of the gnosis, is described in the Veda as the Light which is the father of all things, Surya Savitri, the Wisdom-Luminous who is the bringer-out into manifest existence. This creation is inspired by the divine delight, the eternal Ananda; it is full of the joy of its own truth and power, it creates in bliss, creates out of bliss, creates that which is blissful. Therefore the world of the gnosis, the supramental world is the true and the happy creation, rtam, bhadram, since all in it shares in the perfect joy that made it. A divine radiance of undeviating knowledge, a divine power of unfaltering will and a divine ease of unstumbling bliss are the nature or prakriti of the soul in supermind, in Vijnana. The stuff of the gnostic or supramental plane is made of the perfect absolutes of all that is here imperfect and relative and its movement of the reconciled interlockings and happy fusions of all that here are opposites. For behind the appearance of these opposites are their truths and the truths of the eternal are not in conflict with each other; our mind's and life's opposites transformed in the supermind into their own true spirit link together and are seen as tones and colourings of an eternal Reality and everlasting Ananda. supermind or gnosis is the supreme Truth, the supreme Thought, the supreme Word, the supreme Light, the supreme Will-Idea; it is the inner and outer extension of the Infinite who is beyond Space, the unfettered Time of the Eternal who is timeless, the supernal harmony of all absolutes of the Absolute.
To the envisaging mind there are three powers of the Vijnana. Its supreme power knows and receives into it from above all the infinite existence, consciousness and bliss of the ' Ishwara; it is in its highest height the absolute knowledge and force of eternal Sachchidananda. Its second power concentrates the Infinite into a dense luminous consciousness, caitanyaghana or cidghana, the seed-state of the divine consciousness in which are contained living and concrete all the immutable principles of the divine being and all the inviolable truths of the divine conscious-idea and nature. Its third power brings or looses out these things by the effective ideation, vision, au thentic identities of the divine knowledge, movement of the divine will-force, vibration of the divine delight-intensities into a universal harmony, an illimitable diversity, a manifold rhythm of their powers, forms and interplay of living consequences. The mental Purusha rising into the Vijnanamaya must ascend into these three powers. It must turn by conversion of its movements into the movements of the gnosis, its mental perception, ideation, will, pleasure into radiances of the divine knowledge, pulsations of the divine will-force, waves and floods of the divine delight-seas. It must convert its conscious stuff of mental nature into the cidghara or dense self-luminous consciousness. It must transform its conscious substance into a gnostic self or Truth-self of infinite Sachchidananda. These three movements are described in the lsha Upanishad, the first as vyuha, the marshalling of the rays of the Sun of gnosis in the order of the Truth-consciousness, the second as samuha, the gathering together of the rays into the body of the Sun of gnosis, the third as the vision of that Sun's fairest form of all in which the soul most intimately possesses its oneness with the infinite Purusha.467 The Supreme above, in him, around, everywhere and the soul dwelling in the Supreme and one with it, -- the infinite power and truth of the Divine concentrated in his own concentrated luminous soul nature, -- a radiant activity of the divine knowledge, will and joy perfect in the natural action of the prakriti, -- this is the fundamental experience of the mental being transformed and fulfilled and sublimated in the perfection of the gnosis.
author class:Sri Aurobindo
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2.23 - The Conditions of Attainment to the Gnosis, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Knowledge is the first principle of the Vijnana, but knowledge is not its only power. The Truth-consciousness, like every other plane, founds itself upon that particular principle which is naturally the key of all its motions; but it is not limited by it, it contains all the other powers of existence. Only the character and working of these other powers is modified and moulded into conformity with its own original and dominant law; intelligence, life, body, will, consciousness, bliss are all luminous, awake, instinct with divine knowledge. This is indeed the process of Purusha-prakriti everywhere; it is the key-movement of all the hierarchy and graded harmonies of manifested existence.
In the mental being mind-sense or intelligence is the original and dominant principle. The mental being in the mind-world where he is native is in his central and determining nature intelligence; he is a centre of intelligence, a massed movement of intelligence, a receptive and radiating action of intelligence. He has the intelligent sense of his own existence, the intelligent sense of other existence than his own, the intelligent sense of his own nature and activities and the activities of others, the intelligent sense of the nature of things arid persons and their relations with himself and each other. That makes up his experience of existence. He has no other knowledge of existence, no knowledge of life and matter except as they make themselves sensible to him and capable of being seized by his mental intelligence; what he does not sense and conceive, is to him practically non-existent, or at least alien to his world and his nature.
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All changes when we pass from mind to gnosis; for there a direct inherent knowledge is the central principle. The gnostic ( Vijnanamaya) being is in its character a truth-consciousness, a centre and circumference of the truth-vision of things, a massed movement or subtle body of gnosis. Its action is a self-fulfilling and radiating action of the truth-power of things according to the inner law of their deepest truest self and nature. This truth of things at which we must arrive before we can enter into the gnosis, -- for in that all exists and from that all originates on the gnostic plane, -- is, first of all, a truth of unity, of oneness, but of unity originating diversity, unity in multiplicity and still unity always, an indefeasible oneness. State of gnosis, the condition of Vijnanamaya being, is impossible without ample and close self-identification of ourselves with all existence and with all existences, a universal pervasiveness, a universal comprehension or containing, a certain all-in-allness. The gnostic Purusha has normally the consciousness of itself as infinite, normally too the consciousness of containing the world in itself and exceeding it; it is not like the divided mental being normally bound to a consciousness that feels itself contained in the world and a part of it. It follows that a deliverance from the limiting and imprisoning ego is the first elementary step towards the being of the gnosis; for so long as we live in the ego, it is idle to hope for this higher reality, this vast self-consciousness, this true self-knowledge. The least reversion to ego-thought, ego-action, ego-will brings back the consciousness tumbling out of such gnostic Truth as it has attained into the falsehoods of the divided mind-nature. A secure universality of being is the very basis of this luminous higher consciousness. Abandoning all rigid separateness (but getting instead a certain transcendent overlook or independence) we have to feel ourselves one with all things and beings, to identify ourselves with them, to become aware of them as ourselves, to feel their being as our own, to admit their consciousness as part of ours, to contact their energy as intimate to our energy, to learn how to be one self with all. That oneness is not indeed all that is needed, but it is a first condition and without it there is no gnosis.
This universality is impossible to achieve in its completeness so long as we continue to feel ourselves, as we now feel, a consciousness lodged in an individual mind, life and body. There has to be a certain elevation of the Purusha out of the physical and even out of the mental into the Vijnanamaya body. No longer can the brain nor its corresponding mental "lotus" remain the centre of our thinking, no longer the heart nor its corresponding "lotus" the originating centre of our emotional and sensational being. The conscious centre of our being, our thought, our will and action, even the original force of our sensations and emotions rise out of the body and mind and take a free station above them. No longer have we the sensation of living in the body, but are above it as its lord, possessor or Ishwara and at the same time encompass it with a wider consciousness than that of the imprisoned physical sense. Now we come to realise with a very living force of reality, normal and continuous, what the sages meant when they spoke of the soul carrying the body or when they said that the soul is not in the body, but the body in the soul. It is from above the body and not from the brain that we shall ideate and will; the brain-action will become only a response and movement of the physical machinery to the shock of the thought-force and will-force from above. All will be originated from above; from above, all that corresponds in gnosis to our present mental activity takes place. Many, if not all, of these conditions of the gnostic change can and indeed have to be attained long before we reach the gnosis, -- but imperfectly at first as if by a reflection, -in higher mind itself and more completely in what we may call an overmind consciousness between mentality and gnosis.
But this centre and this action are free, not bound, not dependent on the physical machine, not clamped to a narrow ego-sense. It is not involved in body; it is not shut up in a separated individuality feeling out for clumsy contacts with the world out or groping inward for its own deeper spirit. For in this great transformation we begin to have a consciousness not shut up in a generating box but diffused freely and extending self-existently everywhere; there is or may be a centre, but it is a convenience for individual action, not rigid, not constitutive or separative. The very nature of our conscious activities is henceforth universal; one with those of the universal being, it proceeds from universality to a supple and variable individualisation. It has become the awareness of an infinite being who acts always universally though with emphasis on an individual formation of its energies. But this emphasis is differential rather than separative, and this formation is no longer what we now understand by individuality; there is no longer a petty limited constructed person shut up in the formula of his own mechanism. This state of consciousness is so abnormal to our present mode of being that to the rational man who does not possess it, it may seem impossible or even a state of alienation; but once possessed it vindicates itself even to the mental intelligence by its greater calm, freedom, light, power, effectivity of will, verifiable truth of ideation and feeling. For this condition begins already on the higher levels of liberated mind and can therefore be partly sensed and understood by mind-intelligence, only when it leaves behind the mental levels, but it rises to perfect self-possession only in the supramental gnosis.
In this state of consciousness the infinite becomes to us the .primal, the actual reality, the one thing immediately and sensibly true. It becomes impossible for us to think of or realise the finite apart from our fundamental sense of the infinite, in which alone the finite can live, can form itself, can have any reality or duration. So long as this finite mind and body are to our consciousness the first fact of our existence and the foundation of all our thinking, feeling and willing and so long as things finite are the normal reality from which we can rise occasionally, or even frequently, to all idea and sense of the infinite, we are still very far away from the gnosis. In the plane of the gnosis the infinite is-at once our normal consciousness of being, its first fact, our sensible substance. It is very concretely to us there the foundation from which everything finite forms itself and its boundless incalculable forces are the origination of all our thought, will and delight. But this infinite is not only an infinite of pervasion or of extension in which everything forms and happens. Behind that immeasurable extension the gnostic consciousness is always aware of a spaceless inner infinite. It is through this double infinite that we shall arrive at the essential being of Sachchidananda, the highest self of our own being and the totality of our cosmic existence. There is opened to us an illimitable existence which we feel as if it were an infinity above us to which we attempt to rise and an infinity around us into which we strive to dissolve our separate existence. Afterwards we widen into it and rise into it; we break out of the ego into its largeness and are that for ever. If this liberation is achieved, its power can take, if so we will, increasing possession of our lower being also until even our lowest and perversest activities are refashioned into the truth of the Vijnana.
This is the basis, this sense of the infinite and possession by the infinite, and only when it is achieved, can we progress towards some normality of the supramental ideation, perception, sense, identity, awareness. For even this sense of the infinite is only a first foundation and much more has to be done before the consciousness can become dynamically gnostic. For the supramental knowledge is the play of a supreme light; there are many other lights, other levels of knowledge higher than human mind which can open in us and receive or reflect something of that effulgence even before we rise into the gnosis. But to comm and or wholly possess it we must first enter into and become the being of the supreme light, our consciousness must be transformed into that consciousness, its principle and power of self-awareness and all-awareness by identity must be the very stuff of our existence. For our means and ways of knowledge and action must necessarily be according to the nature of our consciousness and it is the consciousness that must radically change if we are to comm and and not only be occasionally visited by that higher power of knowledge. But it is not confined to a higher thought or the action of a sort of divine reason. It takes up all our present means of knowledge immensely extended, active and effective where they are now debarred, blind, infructuous, and turns them into a high and intense perceptive activity of the Vijnana. Thus it takes up our sense action and illumines it even in its ordinary field so that we get a true sense of things. But also it enables the mind-sense to have a direct perception of the inner as well as the outer phenomenon, to feel and receive or perceive, for instance, the thoughts, feelings, sensations, the nervous reactions of the object on which it is turned.473 It uses the subtle senses as well as the physical and saves them from their errors. It gives us the knowledge, the experience of planes of existence other than the material to which our ordinary mentality is ignorantly attached and it enlarges the world for us. It transforms similarly the sensations and gives them their full intensity as well as their full holding-power; for in our normal mentality the full intensity is impossible because the power to hold and sustain vibrations beyond a certain point is denied to it, mind and body would both break under the shock or the prolonged strain. It takes up too the element of knowledge in our feelings and emotions, -- for our feelings too contain a power of knowledge and a power of effectuation which we do not recognise and do not properly develop, -- and delivers them at the same time from their limitations and from their errors and perversions. For in all things the gnosis is the Truth, the Right, the highest Law, devanam adabdhani vratani.
Knowledge and Force or Will -for all conscious force is will -- are the twin sides of the action of consciousness. In our mentality they are divided. The idea comes first, the will comes stumbling after it or rebels against it or is used as its imperfect tool with imperfect results; or else the will starts up first with a blind or half-seeing idea in it and works out something in confusion of which we get the right understanding afterwards. There is no oneness, no full understanding between these powers in us; or else there is no perfect correspondence of initiation with effectuation. Nor is the individual will in harmony with the universal; it tries to reach beyond it or falls short of it or deviates from and strives against it. It knows not the times and seasons of the Truth, nor its degrees and measures. The Vijnana takes up the will and puts it first into harmony and then into oneness with the truth of the supramental knowledge. In this knowledge the idea in the individual is one with the idea in the universal, because both are brought back to the truth of the supreme Knowledge and the transcendent Will. The gnosis takes up not only our intelligent will, but our wishes, desires, even what we call the lower desires, the instincts, the impulses, the reachings out of sense and sensation and it transforms them. They cease to be wishes and desires, because they cease first to be personal and then cease to be that struggling after the ungrasped which we mean by craving and desire. No longer blind or half-blind reachings out of the instinctive or intelligent mentality, they are transformed into a various action of the Truth-will; and that will acts with an inherent knowledge of the right measures of its decreed action and therefore with an effectivity unknown to our mental willing. Therefore too in the action of the Vijnanamaya will there is no place for sin; for all sin is an error of the will, a desire and act of the Ignorance.
When desire ceases entirely, grief and all inner suffering also cease. The Vijnana takes up not only our parts of knowledge and will, but our parts of affection and delight and changes them into action of the divine Ananda. For if knowledge and force are the twin sides or powers of the action of consciousness, delight, Ananda -- which is something higher than what we call pleasure -- is the very stuff of consciousness and the natural result of the interaction of knowledge and will, force and self-awareness. Both pleasure and pain, both joy and grief are deformations caused by the disturbance of harmony between our consciousness and the force it applies, between our knowledge and will, a breaking up of their oneness by a descent to a lower plane in which they are limited, divided in themselves, restrained from their full and proper action, at odds with other-force, other-consciousness, other-knowledge, other-will. The Vijnana sets this to rights by the power of its truth and a wholesale restoration to oneness and harmony, to the Right and the highest Law. It takes up all our emotions and turns them into various forms of love and delight, even our hatreds, repulsions, causes of suffering. It finds out or reveals the meaning they missed and by missing it became the perversions they are; it restores our whole nature to the eternal Good. It deals similarly with our perceptions and sensations and reveals all the delight that they seek, but in its truth, not in any perversion and wrong seeking and wrong reception; it reaches even our lower impulses to lay hold on the Divine and Infinite in the appearances after which they run. All this is done not in the values of the lower being, but by a lifting up of the mental, vital, material into the inalienable purity, the natural intensity, the continual ecstasy, one yet manifold, of the divine Ananda.
Thus the being of Vijnana is in all its activities a play of perfected knowledge-power, will-power, delight-power, raised to a higher than the mental, vital and bodily level. All-pervasive, universalised, freed from egoistic personality and individuality, it is the play of a higher Self, a higher consciousness and therefore a higher force and higher delight of being. All that acts in the Vijnana in the purity, in the right, in the truth of the superior or divine prakriti. Its powers may often seem to be what are caned in ordinary Yogic parlance Siddhis, by the Europeans occult powers, shunned and dreaded by devotees and by many Yogins as snares, stumbling-blocks, diversions from the true seeking after the Divine. But they have that character and are dangerous here because they are sought in the lower being, abnormally, by the ego for an egoistic satisfaction. In the Vijnana they are neither occult nor Siddhis, but the open, unforced and normal play of its nature. The Vijnana is the Truth-power and Truth-action of the divine Being in its divine identities, and, when this acts through the individual lifted to the gnostic plane, it fulfils itself unperverted, without fault or egoistic reaction, without diversion from the possession of the Divine. There the individual is no longer the ego, but the free Jiva domiciled in the higher divine nature of which he is a portion, paraf prakrtir jivabhita, the nature of the supreme and universal Self seen indeed in the play of multiple individuality but without the veil of ignorance, with self-knowledge, in its multiple oneness, in the truth of its divine shakti.
In the Vijnana the right relation and action of Purusha and prakriti are found, because there they become unified and the Divine is no longer veiled in Maya. All is his action. The Jiva no longer says, "I think, I act, I desire, I feel"; he does not even say like the Sadhaka striving after unity but before he has reached it, "As appointed by Thee seated in my heart, I act". For the heart, the centre of the mental consciousness is no longer the centre of origination but only a blissful channel. He is rather aware of the Divine seated above, lord of all, adhisthita, as well as acting within him. And seated himself in that higher being, parardhe, paramasyam paravati, he can say truly and boldly, "God himself by his prakriti knows, acts, loves, takes delight through my individuality and its figures and fulfils there in its higher and divine measures the multiple lila which the Infinite for ever plays in the universality which is himself for ever."
author class:Sri Aurobindo
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2.24 - Gnosis and Ananda, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
But the gnostic soul, the Vijnanammaya purusa, is the first to participate not only in the freedom, but in the power and sovereignty of the Eternal. For it receives the fullness, it has the sense of plenitude of the Godhead in its action; it shares the free, splendid and royal march of the Infinite, is a vessel of the original knowledge, the immaculate power, the inviolable bliss, transmutes all life into the eternal Light and the eternal Fire and the eternal Wine of the nectar. It possesses the infinite of the Self and it possesses the infinite of Nature. It does not so much lose as find its nature self in the self of the Infinite. On the other planes to which the mental being has easier access, man finds God in himself and himself in God; he becomes divine in essence rather than in person or nature. In the gnosis, even the mentalised gnosis, the Divine Eternal possesses, changes and stamps the human symbol, envelops and partly finds himself in the person and nature. The mental being at most receives or reflects that which is true, divine and eternal; the gnostic soul reaches a true identity, possesses the spirit and power of the truth-Nature. In the gnosis the dualism of Purusha and prakriti, Soul and Nature, two separate powers complementary to each other, the great truth of the Sankhyas founded on the practical truth of our present natural existence, disappears in their biune entity, the dynamic mystery of the occult Supreme. The Truth-being is the Hara-Gauri481 of the Indian iconological symbol; it is the double Power masculine-feminine born from and supported by the supreme shakti of the Supreme.
Therefore the truth-soul does not arrive at self-oblivion in the Infinite; it comes to an eternal self-possession in the Infinite. Its action is not irregular; it is a perfect control in an infinite freedom. In the lower planes the soul is naturally subject to Nature and the regulating principle is found in the lower nature; all regulation there depends on the acceptance of a strict subjection to the law of the finite. If the soul on these planes withdraws from that law into the liberty of the infinite, it loses its natural centre and becomes centreless in a cosmic infinitude, it forfeits the living harmonic principle by which its external being was till then regulated and it finds no other. The personal nature or what is left of it merely continues mechanically for a while its past movements, or it dances in the gusts and falls of the universal energy that acts on the individual system rather than in that system, or it strays in the wild steps of an irresponsible ecstasy, or it remains inert and abandoned by the breath of the Spirit that was within it. If on the other hand the soul moves in its impulse of freedom towards the discovery of another and divine centre of control through which the Infinite can consciously govern its own action in the individual, it is moving towards the gnosis where that centre pre-exists, the centre of an eternal harmony and order. It is when he ascends above mind and life to the gnosis that the Purusha becomes the master of his own nature because subject only to supreme Nature. For there force or will is the exact counterpart, the perfect dynamis of the divine knowledge. And that knowledge is not merely the eye of the Witness, it is the immanent and compelling gaze 'of the Ishwara. Its luminous governing power, a power not to be hedged in or denied, imposes Its self-expressive force on all the action and makes true and radiant and au thentic and inevitable every movement and impulse.
--
The soul lives: it is not abolished, it is not lost in a featureless Indefinite. For on, every plane of our existence the same principle holds; the soul may fall asleep in a trance of self-absorption, dwell in an ineffable intensity of God-possession, live in the highest glory of its own plane, -- the Anandaloka, Brahmaloka, Vaikuntha, Goloka of various Indian systems, -- even turn upon the lower worlds to fill them with its own light and power and beatitude. In the eternal worlds and more and more in all worlds above Mind these states exist in each other. For they are not separate; they are coexistent, even coincident powers of the consciousness of the Absolute. The Divine on the Ananda plane is not incapable of a world-play or self-debarred from any expression of its glories. On the contrary, as the Upanishad insists, the Ananda is the true creative principle. For all takes birth from this divine Bliss;485 all is pre-existent in it as an absolute truth of existence which the Vijnana brings out and subjects to voluntary limitation by the Idea and the law of the Idea. In the Ananda all law ceases and there is an absolute freedom without binding term or limit. It is superior to all principles and in one and the same motion the enjoyer of all principles; it is free from all gunas and the enjoyer of its own infinite gunas; it is above all forms and the builder and enjoyer of all its self-forms and figures. This unimaginable completeness is what the spirit is, the spirit transcendent and universal, and to be one in bliss with the transcendent and universal spirit is for the soul too to be that and nothing less. Necessarily, since there is on this plane the absolute and the play of absolutes, it is ineffable by any of the conceptions of our mind or by signs of the phenomenal or ideal realities of which mind-conceptions are the figures in our intelligence. These realities are themselves indeed only relative symbols of those ineffable absolutes. The symbol, the expressive reality, may give an idea, a perception, sense, vision, contact even of the thing itself to us, but at last we get beyond it to the thing it symbolises, transcend idea, vision, contact, pierce through the ideal and pass to the real realities, the identical, the supreme, the timeless and eternal, the infinitely infinite.
Our first absorbing impulse when we become inwardly aware of something entirely beyond what we now are and know and are powerfully attracted to it, is to get away from the present actuality and dwell in that higher reality altogether. The extreme form of this attraction when we are drawn to the supreme Existence and the infinite Ananda is the condemnation of the lower and the finite as an illusion and all aspiration to Nirvana in the beyond, -- the passion for dissolution, immersion, extinction in the spirit. But the real dissolution, the true nirvana is the release of all that is bindingly characteristic of the lower into the larger being of the Higher, the conscious possession of the living symbol by the living Real. We discover in the end that not only is that higher Reality the cause of all the rest, not only it embraces and exists in all the rest, but as more and more we possess it, all the rest is transformed in our soul-experience into a superior value and becomes the means of a richer expression of the Real, a more many-sided communion with the Infinite, a larger ascent to the Supreme. Finally, we get close to the absolute and its supreme values which are the absolutes of all things. We lose the passion for release, mumuksutva, which till then actuated us, because we are now intimately near to that which is ever free, that which is neither attracted into attachment by what binds us now nor afraid of what to us seems to be bondage. It is only by the loss of the bound soul's exclusive passion for its freedom that there can come an absolute liberation of our nature. The Divine attracts the souls of men to him by various lures; all of them are born of the soul's own relative and imperfect conceptions of bliss; all are its ways of seeking for the Ananda, but, if clung to till the end, miss the inexpressible truth of those surpassing felicities. First in order comes the lure of an earthly reward, a prize of material, intellectual, ethical or other joy in the terrestrial mind and body. A second, remoter greater version of the same fruitful error is the hope of a heavenly bliss, far exceeding these earthly rewards; the conception of heaven rises in altitude and purity till it reaches the pure idea of the eternal presence of God or an unending union with the Eternal. And last we get the subtlest of all lures, an escape from these worldly or heavenly joys and from all pains and sorrows, effort and trouble and from all phenomenal things, a Nirvana, a self-dissolution in the Absolute, an Ananda of cessation and ineffable peace. In the end all these toys of the mind have to be transcended. The fear of birth and the desire of escape from birth must entirely fall away from us. For, to repeat the ancient language, the soul that has realised oneness has no sorrow or shrinking; the spirit that has entered into the bliss of the spirit has nought to fear from anyone or anything whatsoever. Fear, desire and sorrow are diseases of the mind; born of its sense of division and limitation, they cease with the falsehood that begot them. The Ananda is free from these maladies; it is not the monopoly of the ascetic, it is not born from the disgust of existence.
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2.25 - AFTER THE PASSING AWAY, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
M: "Yes, he used to say that Vijnana is the stage after jnana. It is like going up and down the stairs after reaching the roof."
NARENDRA: "Kali has a craving for knowledge. I scold him for that. Is knowledge so easy to get? Let his bhakti first mature. The Master told Tarak at Dakshineswar that emotion and bhakti are by no means the last word."
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2.3.02 - The Supermind or Supramental, #Letters On Yoga I, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The highest or true Vijnana is the supramental plane - the plane of the Divine Knowledge - it is only at the end of the sadhana, when there is the full siddhi that one can have free connection with that plane.
The Supramental is a higher level of consciousness than the mind in which one gets the direct truth of the Supreme and the whole truth. One can meet the One in the mind, but it is an imperfect knowledge and experience.
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33.13 - My Professors, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
As I remarked at the outset, bur professors were like the Olympian gods, not merely because of their calibre or gifts. and greatness of character; their position and attitude were like that - somewhat aloof and quite beyond the reach of personal contact or relations - at least for the first two or three years. But there were some who sought to establish with the students an intimacy, or at least a relatively closer relationship. Take for example our professor of philosophy, Aditya Mukherji. He was nearing his forties perhaps at the time. On the very first day of the First Year class he announced during the roll-call that he would try every day to make himself familiar with the faces of about half a dozen students. But this turned out to be impossible later on, his resolution turned into a merely pious wish. He was a very good teacher who would present the subject matter in a very simple, easy, neat and clear manner. He had about his manner and expression what I have subsequently come to recognise as French clarity. There is a pleasing association linked with his name in my mind. I have told you about my first composition in the first year of college, in connection with Manomohan Ghose. The first essay I had to write in my Degree course was in the Honours class in philosophy. Professor Aditya Mukherji gave an essay to .be written at home and it was duly submitted. One day in class the Professor called out, "No. 40" - this happened to be my roll-number. He said to me, "Here is your essay. I hope you will get a first-class in English also." You may well imagine the state of my mind! My neighbours clustered round me and said, "What is this wonderful stuff you have written! Let's have a look." I had shown off a lot of learning, by quoting isvarasiddheh,from Vijnanabhikshu, to show that the Sankhya is not necessarily atheistic, also by stealing whole passages from Mill and so on.
The paper finally reached the hands of Kiran Mukherji. I have spoken to you about him before; perhaps something more could be added here. As I have said, he returned from England after attaining great distinction. at Oxford. Ashutosh Mukherji took him on as a professor at the Calcutta University. I met him several times during my trips to Calcutta from here. While in England he used to read with interest all my articles in the journals. Our relations grew more intimate several years later, that is, when he got interested in our work and sadhana here. There had been some tragedy in his life, - I do not know the exact story, - so that in spite of his intellectual gifts and learning he was an unhappy man. He had been turning this way in search of peace and a different kind of life. But he was taken away from this world by an untimely death.
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3.6.01 - Heraclitus, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
We get very near the Indian conception of Brahman, the cause, origin and substance of all things, an absolute Existence whose nature is consciousness (Chit) manifesting itself as Force (Tapas, Shakti) and moving in the world of his own being as the Seer and Thinker, kavir manīṣī, an immanent Knowledge-Will in all, vijñānamaya puruṣa, who is the Lord or Godhead, īś, īśvara, deva, and has ordained all things according to their nature from years sempiternal,-Heraclitus' "measures" which the Sun is forced to observe, his "things are utterly determined." This Knowledge-Will is the Logos. The Stoics spoke of it as a seed Logos, spermatikos, reproduced in conscious beings as a number of seed Logoi; and this at once reminds us of the Vedantic prājña puruṣa, the supreme Intelligence who is the Lord and dwells in the sleep-state holding all things in a seed of dense consciousness which works out through the perceptions of the subtle Purusha, the mental Being. Vijnana is indeed a consciousness which sees things, not as the human reason sees them in parts and pieces, in separated and aggregated relations, but in the original reason of their existence and law of their existence, their primal and total truth; therefore it is the seed Logos, the originative and determinant conscious force working as supreme Intelligence and Will. The Vedic seers called it the Truth-consciousness and believed that men also could become truth-conscious, enter into the divine Reason and Will and by the Truth become immortals, anthrōpoi athanatoi.
Does the thought of Heraclitus admit of any such hope as the Vedic seers held and hymned with so triumphant a confidence? or does it even give ground for any aspiration to some kind of a divine supermanhood such as his disciples the Stoics so sternly laboured for or as that of which Nietzsche, the modern Heraclitus, drew a too crude and violent figure? His saying that man is kindled and extinguished as light disappears into night, is commonplace and discouraging enough. But this may after all be only true of the apparent man Is it possible for man. in his becoming to raise his present fixed measures? to elevate his mental, relative, individual reason into direct communion with or direct participation in the divine and absolute reason? to inspire and raise the values of his human force to the higher values of the divine force? to become aware like the gods of an absolute good and an absolute beauty? to lift this mortal to the nature of immortality? Against his melancholy image of human transiency we have that remarkable and cryptic sentence, "the gods are mortals, men immortals", which, taken literally, might mean that the gods are powers that perish and replace each other and the soul of man alone is immortal, but must at least mean that there is in man behind his outward transiency an immortal spirit. We have too his saying, "thou canst not find the limits of the soul", and we have the profoundest of all Heraclitus' utterances, "the kingdom is of the child." If man is in his real being an infinite and immortal spirit, there is surely no reason why he should not awaken to his immortality, arise towards the consciousness of the universal, one and absolute, live in a higher self-realisation. "I have sought for myself" says Heraclitus; and what was it that he found?
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3.7.1.08 - Karma, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Energy at work which assures its will by law and fixed relation and steady succession and the links of ascertainable cause and effectuality. To be assured that there is an all-pervading mental law and an all-pervading moral law, is a great gain, a supporting foundation. That in the mental and moral as in the physical world what I sow in the proper soil, I shall assuredly reap, is a guarantee of divine government, of equilibrium, of cosmos; it not only grounds life upon an adamant underbase of law, but by removing anarchy opens the way to a greater liberty. But there is the possibility that if this Energy is all, I may only be a creation of an imperative Force and all my acts and becomings a chain of determination over which I can have no real control or chance of mastery. That view would resolve everything into predestination of Karma, and the result might satisfy my intellect but would be disastrous to the greatness of my spirit. I should be a slave and puppet of Karma and could never dream of being a sovereign of myself and my existence. But here there comes in the second step of the theory of Karma, that it is the Idea which creates all relations. All is the expression and expansion of the Idea, sarvan.i Vijnana-vijr.mbhitani. Then I can by the will, the energy of the Idea in me develop the form of what I am and arrive at the harmony of some greater idea than is expressed in my present mould and balance. I can aspire to a nobler expansion. Still, if the
Idea is a thing in itself, without any base but its own spontaneous
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3 - Commentaries and Annotated Translations, #Hymns to the Mystic Fire, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
intelligent mind; Vijnanam, ideal mind; ananda, pure or essential
bliss; chit, pure or essential awareness; sat, pure or essential
--
well-developed men are able to use with power the Vijnanam
dm
--
buddhi proper by the Vijnanam acting in the intelligent mind
indeed and so out of its proper sphere, but in its own form as
--
goes beyond to the Vijnanam itself or, if he is one of the greatest
Rishis, like Yajnavalkya, to the ananda. None in ordinary times
--
are not perfectly seen. From the Vijnanam to the annam is the
aparardha or lower part of existence where Vidya is dominated
--
which is the basis of the manahkosha; jyoti or solar light, brilliance which is the basis of the Vijnanakosha; agni or fiery light,
which is the basis of the chitkosha; vidyut or electrical illumination, which is the basis of the anandakosha; and prakasha
--
Man, of the Upanishads. In the Vijnana, Surya as well as Vishnu
is greater than Agni, but here he and Vishnu both work under
--
a link in the evolution from the manas to the Vijnanam and
must serve either the senses or the ideal cognition; if it tries to
--
karanam called objectively mahat and subjectively Vijnanam, the
fourth of the seven bhumis, - that Vishnu as Yajna supports the
--
proper home is in the Vijnanam, mhlok or karanajagat, where
n DA
--
gaze straight at Truth, at the satyam, the Vijnanam, that which
is the Seer's aim and desire and the thing on which all Veda is
--
largely replaced by Vijnanam, intuitive faculty manifesting not in
intellect but in sensational & vital consciousness. Then in man
--
the shadow of the Vijnanam, the link between the animal and the
god and it is not till a fit body is formed for the works of reason
--
to develop Vijnanam or ideal thought on which all Veda is based,
he has to develop Ananda, Chit and Sat, the higher hemisphere
--
develop, - into the Vijnana and Anandakoshas.
What are these bodies and these Atmas? The Vedantins of
--
Annam, Prana, Manas, Vijnanam, Ananda, Chit and Sat; these
seven worlds are Bhuloka, Bhuvarloka, Swarloka, Maharloka,
--
seven bodies are the Annakosha, Pranakosha, Manahkosha, Vijnanakosha, Anandakosha, Chitkosha and Satkosha. In each
520
--
there is Mahas or Suryaloka where Vijnanam is at its height,
intuitive ideal perception, inspiration & revelation are the normal processes of knowledge and the joys of ideal and direct
--
the Vijnanam, which is the Seer's own aim and desire and on
which all Veda is based; because he is the warrior who wars
--
chit, ananda, Vijnanam, manas, prana, annam are the sevenfold
subjectivity of the Jyotirmaya Brahman. Prakasha, agni, vidyut,
--
2v, = inspired knowledge, the result of the Vijnanamaya process of sruti; coming with kEv
& s(y it cannot mean fame.
--
-t\, the Vijnana of the Upanishads; kEv5t;, means having the
will that is full of that knowledge, the Vijnanamaya will, the
divine Ajnana; s(y, means " Vijnanamaya in his substance".
--
through Vijnana we arrive at Ananda.
aA kZ;@v\. S. aEBm;KFk;zt. aA B$ & aA k have a special sense
--
He takes kEv in the sense of "praisers", "makers of hymns", approaching to its modern sense, poets; but kEv in the Veda means a seer and not a poet, - a seer, that is to say, one who has the direct ideal knowledge of the Vijnana, as distinguished from those who have mentally acquired knowledge, mansh.
EvdTA kvFnA\ can only mean the realisations of (ideal) knowledge possessed by the seers.
--
for mahas, the realm of Vijnana. yfs, I take in the sense of
victorious, successful, who have attained their end. The word
--
which belongs to the Vijnana & is referred to in the Isha Upani.
shad, s(yDmAy dy
--
fMyA,. Sy. kmnAm. But it may mean, like fm,, the peace or inner quiet of the mind in which the Vijnana manifests. sDmAAEn.
sD^ & sAD^ have one sense in Vedic Sanscrit, eg sDEn(v\, sDn for
--
mahas or Vijnana, his and her own home, not unerring in the
intellect, but only straining towards the hidden truth & right
--
in the form of a Tree & that Vijnana or typal idea is manifested
by the sure action of the nature or swabhava attached to the
--
manas, divine knowledge is Vijnana, self-true ideation or soulknowledge. Even when Agni works from below upward, from
Mandala Five
--
mind up to Vijnana, & the daivya ketu has to follow the action
of mind & act partially & in details, it does not lose its characteristics of self-existence, self-truth & direct perception. When
therefore Vijnana acts in the human mind, he associates every
action, every will with the knowledge that is the core of the
--
him, most indispensable is daksha or viveka. Drishti of Vijnana
transmuted into terms of mind has become observation, sruti appears as imagination, intuition as intelligent perception, viveka
--
Ananda, Vijnana, Manas - this is the Indian ladder of Jacob by
which one descends & ascends again to heaven. Man the Doer,
--
the divine will to Vijnana, to the ideal self of true knowledge
& right action & emotion, attains by Truth to Divine Love &
--
it the activities of the Vijnana. The god of the Vijnana, its Nri or
Purusha, is the Lord of the Sun, Sur or Surya. Those who possess
the illumination of the Vijnana are called, therefore, surayah,
the Illuminati, and the word may be applied to either class of
--
the Vedic sacrifice or the luminous gods of the Vijnana, the solar
gods, the host of Surya, surayo narah, who aid him in his ascent.
--
the Vijnana manifests itself in Surya & his hosts, in the powers,
faculties & activities of the self-luminous & self-true ideal mind.
--
of all the powers of the Vijnana; he has to help in man the
gods of revelation, inspiration & intuition as well as of viveka.
--
[There] is a particular faculty of Consciousness, Vijnana, which
brings in the element of differentiation. Vijnana, pure Idea, is
that which perceives the thing itself as thing in itself, as a whole
--
Being; even in Vijnana the element of limitation or bheda has
not really entered, for differentiation by Vijnana exists in the
cosmic sense of oneness as a play of oneness & is not a real
--
world of Vijnana, the devas know themselves as one even in
their multitude. There, however, the first possibility of limitation
--
rishimedha, not separated from Vijnana, [the] movement from
[.................................................................] Therefore in Swar,
--
manas & Vijnana, the veil of Achitti or ignorance. In Bhu, the
world of Matter, this movement is complete. Consciousness is
--
expressions. By vachas in mati one arrives at Nama in Vijnanam.
Mandala Five
--
above pure mind, brihad div, mahas, Vijnana. For if man were
once on that plane, then there could be no question of struggle.
--
awakening by self-action of its vast Vijnanamaya perfection in
the pure intelligence. These Solar Purushas, these bright illuminations of Vijnana, are the bright-burning flames of the divine
Tapas. Agni, the Divine Being in His aspect of Force, is masked in
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4.04 - The Perfection of the Mental Being, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The difficulty of the ascent is due to a natural ignorance. He is the Purusha, witness of mental and physical Nature, saksi, but not a complete knower of self and Nature, jnatr. Knowledge in the mentality is enlightened by his consciousness; he is the mental knower; but he finds that this is not a real knowledge, but only a partial seeking and partial finding, a derivative uncertain reflection and narrow utilisation for action from a greater light beyond which is the real knowledge. This light is the self-awareness and all-awareness of Spirit. The essential self-awareness he can arrive at even on the mental plane of being, by reflection in the soul of mind or by its absorption in spirit, as indeed it can be arrived at by another kind of reflection or absorption in soul of life and soul of body. But for participation in an effective all-awareness with this essential self-awareness as the soul of its action he must rise to supermind. To be lord of his being, he must be knower of self and Nature, jnata isvarah. Partially this may be done on a higher level of mind where it responds directly to supermind, but really and completely this perfection belongs not to the mental being, but to the ideal or knowledge Soul, Vijnanamaya purusa. To draw up the mental into the greater knowledge being and that into the Bliss-Self of the spirit, anandamaya purusa, is the uttermost way of this perfection.
But no perfection, much less this perfection can be attained without a very radical dealing with the present nature and the abrogation of much that seems to be the fixed law of its complex nexus of mental, vital and physical being. The law of this nexus has been created for a definite and limited end, the temporary maintenance, preservation, possession, aggrandisement, enjoyment, experience, need, action of the mental ego in the living body. Other resultant uses are served, but this is the immediate and fundamentally determining object and utility. To arrive at a higher utility and freer instrumentation this nexus must be partly broken up, exceeded, transformed into a larger harmony of action. The Purusha sees that the law created is that of a partly stable, partly unstable selective determination of habitual, yet developing experiences out of a first confused consciousness of self and not-self, subjective being and external universe. This determination is managed by mind, life and body acting upon each other, in harmony and correspondence, but also in discord and divergence, mutual interference and limitation. There is a similar mixed harmony and discord between various activities of the mind in itself, as also between activities of the life in itself and of the physical being. The whole is a sort of disorderly order, an order evolved and contrived out of a constantly surrounding and invading confusion.
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4.10 - The Elements of Perfection, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
But so long as this development takes place only on the highest level of our normal nature, we may have a reflected and limited image of perfection translated into the lower terms of the soul in mind, life and body, but not the possession of the divine perfection in the highest terms possible to us of the divine Idea and its Power. That is to be found beyond these lower principles in the supramental gnosis; therefore the next step of perfection will be the evolution of the mental into the gnostic being. This evolution is effected by a breaking beyond the mental limitation, a stride upward into the next higher plane or region of our being hidden from us at present by the shining lid of the mental reflections and a conversion of all that we are into the terms of this greater consciousness. In the gnosis itself, Vijnana, there are several gradations which open at their highest into the full and infinite Ananda. The gnosis once effectively called into action will progressively take up all the terms of intelligence, will, sense-mind, heart, the vital and sensational being and translate them by a luminous and harmonising conversion into a unity of the truth, power and delight of a divine existence. It will lift into that light and force and convert into their own highest sense our whole intellectual, volitional, dynamic, ethical, aesthetic, sensational, vital and physical being. It has the power also of overcoming physical limitations and developing a more perfect and divinely instrumental body. Its light opens up the fields of the superconscient and darts its rays and pours its luminous flood into the subconscient and enlightens its obscure hints and withheld secrets. It admits us to a greater light of the Infinite than is reflected in the paler luminosity even of the highest mentality. While it perfects the individual soul and nature in the sense of a diviner existence and makes a full harmony of the diversities of our being, it founds all its action upon the Unity from which it proceeds and takes up everything into that Unity. Personality and impersonality, the two eternal aspects of existence, are made one by its action in the spiritual being and Nature body of the Purushottama.
The gnostic perfection, spiritual in its nature, is to be accomplished here in the body and takes life in the physical world as one of its fields, even though the gnosis opens to us possession of planes and worlds beyond the material universe. The physical body is therefore a basis of action, pratistha, which cannot be despised, neglected or excluded from the spiritual evolution: a perfection of the body as the outer instrument of a complete divine living on earth will be necessarily a part of the gnostic conversion. The change will be effected by bringing in the law of the gnostic Purusha, Vijnanamaya purusa, and of that into which it opens, the Anandamaya, into the physical consciousness and its members. Pushed to its highest conclusion this movement brings in a spiritualising and illumination of the whole physical consciousness and a divinising of the law of the body. For behind the gross physical sheath of this materially visible and sensible frame there is subliminally supporting it and discoverable by a finer subtle consciousness a subtle body of the mental being and a spiritual or causal body of the gnostic and bliss soul in which all the perfection of a spiritual embodiment is to be found, a yet unmanifested divine law of the body. Most of the physical siddhis acquired by certain Yogins are brought about by some opening up of the law of the subtle or a calling down of something of the law of the spiritual body. The ordinary method is the opening up of the Chakras by the physical processes of Hathayoga (of which something is also included in the Rajayoga) or by the methods of the Tantric discipline. But while these may be optionally used at certain stages by the integral Yoga, they are not indispensable; for here the reliance is on the power of the higher being to change the lower existence, a working is chosen mainly from above downward and not the opposite way, and therefore the development of the superior power of the gnosis will be awaited as the instrumentative change in this part of the Yoga.
There will remain, because it will then only be entirely possible, the perfect action and enjoyment of being on the gnostic basis. The Purusha enters into cosmic manifestation for the variations of his infinite existence, for knowledge, action and enjoyment; the gnosis brings the fullness of spiritual knowledge and it will found on that the divine action and cast the enjoyment of world and being into the law of the truth, the freedom and the perfection of the spirit. But neither action nor enjoyment will be the lower action of the gunas and consequent egoistic enjoyment mostly of the satisfaction of rajasic desire which is our present way of living. Whatever desire will remain, if that name be given, will be the divine desire, the will to delight of the Purusha enjoying in his freedom and perfection the action of the perfected prakriti and all her members. The prakriti will take up the whole nature into the law of her higher divine truth and act in that law offering up the universal enjoyment of her action and being to the Anandamaya Ishwara, the Lord of existence and works and Spirit of bliss, who presides over and governs her workings. The individual soul will be the channel of this action and offering, and it will enjoy at once its oneness with the Ishwara and its oneness with the prakriti and will enjoy all relations with Infinite and finite, with God and the universe and beings in the universe in the highest terms of the union of the universal Purusha and prakriti.
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4.21 - The Gradations of the supermind, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The supramental reason is of the nature of a spiritual, direct, self-luminous, self-acting will and intelligence, not mental, manasa buddhi, but supramental, Vijnana buddhi. It acts by the same four powers as the intuitive mind, but these powers are here active in an initial fullness of body not modified by the mental stuff of the intelligence, not concerned mainly with an illumining of the mind, but at work in their own proper manner and for their own native purpose. And of these four the discrimination here is hardly recognisable as a separate power, but is constantly inherent in the three others and is their own determination of the scope and relations of their knowledge. There are three elevations in this reason, one in which the action of what we may call a supramental intuition gives the form and the predominant character, one in which a rapid supramental inspiration and one in which a large supramental revelation leads and imparts the general character, and each of these raises us to a more concentrated substance and a higher light, sufficiency and scope of the truth will and the truth knowledge.
The work of the supramental reason covers and goes beyond all that is done by the mental reason, but it starts from the other end and has a corresponding operation. The essential truths of self and the spirit and the principle of things are not to the spiritual reason abstract ideas or subtle unsubstantial experiences to which it arrives by a sort of overleaping of limits, but a constant reality and the natural background of all its ideation and experience. It does not like the mind arrive at, but discloses directly both the general and total and the particular truths of being and consciousness, of spiritual and other sensation and Ananda and of force and action, -- reality and phenomenon and symbol, actuality and possibility and eventuality, that which is determined and that which determines, and all with a self-luminous evidence. It formulates and arranges the relations of thought and thought, of force and force, of action and action and of all these with each other and throws them into a convincing and luminous harmony. It includes the data of sense, but gives to them another meaning in the light of what is behind them, and treats them only as outermost indications: the inner truth is known to a greater sense which it already possesses. And it is not dependent on them alone even in their own field of objects or limited by their range. It has a spiritual sense and sensation of its own and it takes and relates to that the data too of a sixth sense, the inner mind sense. And it takes also the illuminations and the living symbols and images familiar to the psychic experience and relates these too to the truths of the self and spirit.
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4.23 - The supramental Instruments -- Thought-process, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The supermind, as we have seen, lifts up the action of the mental consciousness towards and into the intuition, creates an intermediate intuitive mentality insufficient in itself but greater in power than the logical intelligence, and then lifts up and transforms that too into the true supramental action. The first well-organised action of the supermind in the ascending order is the supramental reason, not a higher logical intellect, but a directly luminous organisation of intimately subjective and intimately objective knowledge, the higher buddhi, the logical or rather the logos, Vijnana. The supramental reason does all the work of the reasoning intelligence and does much more, but with a greater power and in a different fashion. It is then itself taken up into a higher range of the power of knowledge and in that too nothing is lost, but all farther heightened, enlarged in scope, transformed in power of action.
The ordinary language of the intellect is not sufficient to describe this action, for the same words have to be used, indicating a certain correspondence, but actually to connote inadequately a different thing. Thus the supermind uses a certain sense action, employing but not limited by the physical organs, a thing which is in its nature a form consciousness and a contact consciousness, but the mental idea and experience of sense can give no conception of the essential and characteristic action of this supramentalised sense consciousness. Thought too in the supramental action is a different thing from the thought of the mental intelligence. The supramental thinking is felt at its basis as a conscious contact or union or identity of the substance of being of the knower with the substance of being of the thing known and its figure of thought as the power of awareness of the self revealing through the meeting or the oneness, because carrying in itself, a certain knowledge form of the object's content, action, significance. Therefore observation, memory, judgment too mean each a different thing in the supermind from what it is in the process of the mental intelligence.
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4.24 - The supramental Sense, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The activity which is nearest to this essential knowledge by identity is the large embracing consciousness, especially characteristic of the supramental energy, which takes into itself all truth and idea and object of knowledge and sees them at once in their essence, totality and parts or aspects, -- Vijnana. Its movement is a total seeing and seizing; it is a comprehension and possession in the self of knowledge; and it holds the object of consciousness as a part of the self or one with it, the unity being spontaneously and directly realised in the act of knowledge. Another supramental activity puts the knowledge by identity more into the background and stresses more the objectivity of the thing known. Its characteristic movement, descending into the mind, becomes the source of the peculiar nature of our mental knowledge, intelligence, prajnana. In the mind the action of intelligence involves, at the outset, separation and otherness between the knower, knowledge and the known; but in the supermind its movement still takes place in the infinite identity or at least in the cosmic oneness. Only, the self of knowledge indulges the delight of putting the object of consciousness away from the more immediate nearness of the original and eternal unity, but always in itself, and of knowing it again in another way so as to establish with it a variety of relations of interaction which are so many minor chords in the harmony of the play of the consciousness. The movement of this supramental intelligence, prajnana, becomes a subordinate, a tertiary action of the supramental for the fullness of which thought and word are needed. The primary action, because it is of the nature of knowledge by identity or of a comprehensive seizing in the consciousness, is complete in itself and has no need of these means of formulation. The supramental intelligence is of the nature of a truth-seeing, truth-hearing and truth-remembering and, though capable of being sufficient to itself ill a certain way, still feels itself more richly fulfilled by the thought and word that give it a body of expression.
Finally, a fourth action of the supramental consciousness completes the various possibilities of the supramental knowledge. This still farther accentuates the objectivity of the thing known, puts it away from the station of experiencing consciousness and again brings it to nearness by a uniting contact effected either in a direct nearness, touch, union or less closely across the bridge or through the connecting stream of consciousness of which there has already been mention. It is a contacting of existence, presences, things, forms, forces, activities, but a contacting of them in the stuff of the supramental being and energy, not in the divisions of matter and through the physical instruments, that creates the supramental sense, samjnana.
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The spiritual sense is capable of knowing in its own characteristic way, which is other than that of supramental thought or of the intelligence or spiritual comprehension, Vijnana, or knowledge by identity, all things whatsoever, things material and what is to us immaterial, all forms and that which is formless. For all is spiritual substance of being, substance of consciousness and force, substance of delight; and the spiritual sense, pure Sanjnana, is the conscious being's contactual, substantial awareness of its own extended substance of self and in it of all that is of the infinite at universal substance. It is possible for us not only to know by conscious identity, by a spiritual comprehension of self, of principles and aspects, force, play and action, by a direct spiritual, supramental and intuitive thought knowledge, by the heart's spiritually and supramentally illumined feeling, love, delight, but also to have in a very literal significance the sense -- sense-knowledge or sensation -- of the spirit, the self, the Divine, the Infinite. The state described by the Upanishad in which one sees, hears, feels, touches, senses in every way the Brahman and the Brahman only, for all things have become to the consciousness only that and have no other, separate or independent existence, is not a mere figure of speech, but the exact description of the fundamental action of the pure sense, the spiritual object of the pure Sanjnana. And in this original action, -- to our experience a transfigured, glorified, infinitely blissful action of the sense, a direct feeling out inward, around, everywhere of the self to embrace and touch and be sensible of all that is in its universal being, --we can become aware in a most moving and delightful way of the Infinite and of all that is in it, cognizant, by intimate contact of our being with all being, of whatever is in the universe.
The action of the supramental sense is founded on this true truth of sense; it is an organisation of this pure, spiritual, infinite, absolute samjnana. The supermind acting through sense feels all as God and in God, all as the manifest touch, sight, hearing, taste, perfume, all as the felt, seen, directly experienced substance and power and energy and movement, play, penetration, vibration, form, nearness, pressure, substantial interchange of the Infinite. Nothing exists independently to its sense, but all is felt as one being and movement and each thing as indivisible from the rest and as having in it all the Infinite, all the Divine. This supramental sense has the direct feeling and experience, not only of forms, but of forces and of the energy and the quality in things and of a divine substance and presence which is within them and round them and into which they open and expand themselves in their secret subtle self and elements, extending themselves in oneness into the illimitable. Nothing to the supramental sense is really finite it is founded on a feeling of all in each and of each in all: its sense definition, although more precise and complete than the mental, creates no walls of limitation; it is an oceanic and ethereal sense in which all particular sense knowledge and sensation is a wave or movement or spray or drop that is yet a concentration of the whole ocean inseparable from the ocean. Its action is a result of the extension and vibration of being and consciousness in a supra-ethereal ether of light, ether of power, ether of bliss, the Ananda Akasha of the Upanishads, which is the matrix and continent of the universal expression of the Self, -- here in body and mind experienced only in limited extensions and vibrations, -- and the medium of its true experience. This' sense even at its lowest power is luminous with a revealing light that carries in it the secret of the thing it experiences and can therefore be a starting-point and basis of all the rest of the supramental knowledge, -- the supramental thought, spiritual intelligence and comprehension, conscious identity, -- and on its highest plane or at its fullest intensity of action it opens into or contains and at once liberates these things. It is strong with a luminous power that carries in it the force of self-realisation and an intense or infinite effectiveness, and this sense-experience can therefore be the starting-point of impulsion for a creative or fulfilling action of the spiritual and supramental will and knowledge. It is rapturous with a powerful and luminous delight that makes of it, makes of all sense and sensation a key to or a vessel of the divine and infinite Ananda.
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As the physical and vital, the psychical consciousness and sense also are capable of a supramental transformation and receive by it their own integral fullness and significance. The supermind lays hold oil the psychical being, descends into it, changes it into the mould of its own nature and uplifts it to be a part of the supramental action and state, the supra-psychic being of the Vijnana Purusha. The first result of this change is to base the phenomena of the psychical consciousness on their true foundation by bringing into it the permanent sense, the complete realisation, the secure possession of the oneness of our mind and soul with the minds and souls of others and the mind and soul of universal Nature. For always the effect of the supramental growth is to universalise the individual consciousness. As it makes us live, even in our individual vital movement and its relations with all around us, with the universal life, so it makes us think and feel and sense, although through an individual centre or instrument, with the universal mind and psychical being. This has two results of great importance.
First, the phenomena of the psychical sense and mind lose the fragmentariness and incoherence or else difficult regulation and often quite artificial order which pursues them even more than it pursues our more normal mental activities of the surface, and they become the harmonious play of the universal inner mind and soul in us, assume their true law and right forms and relations and reveal their just significances. Even on the mental plane one can get by the spiritualising of the mind at some realisation of soul oneness, but it is never really complete, at least in its application, and does not acquire this real and entire law, form, relation, complete and unfailing truth and accuracy of its significances. And, secondly, the activity of the psychical consciousness loses all character of abnormality, of an exceptional, irregular and even a perilously supernormal action, often bringing a loss of hold upon life and a disturbance or an injury to other parts of the being. It not only acquires its own right order within itself but its right relation with the physical life on one side and with the spiritual truth of being on the other and the whole becomes a harmonious manifestation of the embodied spirit. It is always the originating supermind that contains within itself the true values, significances and relations of the other parts of our being and its unfolding is the condition of the integral possession of our self and nature.
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All the experiences of the psychical are accepted and held up indeed in the supramental consciousness and its energy, but they are filled with the light of a greater truth, the substance of a greater spirit. The psychical consciousness is first supported and enlightened, then filled and occupied with the supramental light and power and the revealing intensity of its vibrations. Whatever exaggeration, whatever error born of isolated incidence, insufficiently illumined impression, personal suggestion, misleading influence and intention or other cause of limitation or deformation interferes in the truth of the mental and psychical experience and knowledge, is revealed and cured or vanishes, failing to stand in the light of the self-truth -- satyam, rtam -- of things, persons, happenings, indications, representations proper to this greater largeness. All the psychical communications, transcriptions, impresses, symbols, images receive their true value, take their right place, are put into their proper relations. The psychical intelligence and sensation are lit up with the supramental sense and knowledge, their phenomena, intermediate between the spiritual and material worlds, begin to reveal automatically their own truth and meaning and also the limitations of their truth and significance. .The images presented to the inner sight, hearing, sensation of all kinds are occupied by or held in a larger and more luminous mass of vibrations, a greater substance of light and intensity which brings into them the same change as in the things of the physical sense, a greater totality, precision, revealing force of sense knowledge carried in the image. And finally all is lifted up and taken into the supermind and made a part of the infinitely luminous consciousness, knowledge and experience of the supramental being, the Vijnana Purusha.
The state of the being after this supramental transformation will be in all its parts of consciousness and knowledge that of an infinite and cosmic consciousness acting through the universalised individual Purusha. The fundamental power will be an awareness of identity, a knowledge by identity, -- an identity of being, of consciousness, of force of being and consciousness, of delight of being, an identity with the Infinite, the Divine, and with an that is in the Infinite, all that is the expression and manifestation of the Divine. This awareness and knowledge will use as its means and instruments a spiritual vision of all that the knowledge by identity can found, a supramental real idea and thought of the nature of direct thought vision, thought hearing, thought memory that reveals, interprets or represents to the awareness the truth of all things, and an inner truth speech that expresses it, and finally a supramental sense that provides a relation of contact in substance of being with all things and persons and powers and forces in all the planes of existence.
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4.26 - The Supramental Time Consciousness, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Chapters XI to XVIII correspond to the santi and samata catus.t.ayas, the first two of the seven. Chapters XIX to XXV, and the incomplete chapter "The Supramental Time Consciousness", correspond to the first two elements of the third or Vijnana catus.t.aya. By breaking off at this point, Sri Aurobindo left untreated the rest of the third and all of the fourth catus.t.ayas. He had covered the fifth and sixth catus.t.ayas to some degree in the rest of the Synthesis, but undoubtedly intended to deal with them in more depth before concluding.
When Sri Aurobindo turned his attention to The Synthesis of Yoga during the 1930s after a gap of more than a decade, he made no effort to complete "The Yoga of Self-Perfection". Instead he applied himself to the revision of already existing chapters.
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4.4.5.03 - Descent and Other Experiences, #Letters On Yoga III, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
force? Chitta as opposed to Chit or Vijnana etc. is only the basic
mind-life consciousness out of which rises the stuff of (ordinary)
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5.4.01 - Notes on Root-Sounds, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
From : = Vijnana.
mahadujeune fille, femme. Rt .
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9.99 - Glossary, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
kosha: (Lit., sheath or covering) The following are the five koshas as described in the Vedanta philosophy: (1) the annamayakosha, or gross physical sheath, made of and sustained by food; (2) the pranamayakosha, or vital sheath, consisting of the five vital forces; (3) the manomayakosha, or mental sheath; (4) the Vijnanamayakosha, or sheath of intelligence; and (5) the anandamayakosha, or sheath of bliss. These five sheaths, arranged one inside the other, cover the Soul, which is the innermost of all and untouched by the characteristics of the sheaths.
koul: A worshipper of Kali who follows the "left-hand" rituals of the Tantra.
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Vijnana: Special Knowledge of the Absolute, by which one affirms the universe and sees it as the manifestation of Brahman.
Vijnanamayakosha: The sheath of intelligence. See kosha.
vijnani: One endowed with Vijnana.
vilwa: Same as bel.
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r1912 01 13, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The last record covered the period from Dec 12th. 1911 to January 11th 1912.1 Liberated from anticipation, it was a pure record of fact and experience, but its correctness was sometimes vitiated by a misvaluation of the significance of the fact through over-appreciation or depreciation. It is intended that the present record should be free from this defect.Ananda has very fully established itself in the field of the indriyas. All sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, movements, actions, are now pleasurable or give pleasure; all carry with them the rasagrahana or appreciation of the beauty of the gunas which they are in expression, the joy of the Vijnana in them (the basis of chidghana ananda), the joy of the heart in them (the basis of premananda), the joy of the body in them (the basis of the kamananda), the joy of the mind as indriya in them (the basis of the ahaituka ananda). All this joy is of the nature of bhoga from which the ananda is beginning to emerge. Joy of the spirit in the Ekam which expresses itself (the basis of shuddhananda, chidananda & sadananda together making kaivalyananda) is as yet obscure & involved in the lower anandas. Since yesterday, the ahaituka kamananda & today the sahaituka tivrananda are manifesting. Yesterday also the discomfort of heat & cold and pain were again exiled, though not entirely. Experiments made with the body show that below a certain intensity all pain now gives ananda of bhoga at the time of the feeling of pain, & pain beyond that degree brings it after the immediate acuteness has passed. Sometimes sahaituka raudrananda results. As I write ahaituka tivrananda, raudrananda & vaidyutananda (negative) are recommencing; also vishayananda sahaituka and ahaituka, begun yesterday, are becoming more definite. The bhoga of all these forms is already established. The greatest difficulty is found in the prolonged contact of intense heat with a sensitive part of the body, eg. the heated stone of the floor under the midday sun. The intensity of the heat to the sensation can be increased, lessened or inhibited by Will; the prolonged contact tends to remove the element of suffering unless the Will is made to increase or maintain it, or unless the stream of Will (chit-shakti) is kept tamasic suffering weakly the contact instead of meeting it. This daurbalyam has been created in order to bring about certain forms of intense ananda, chiefly viparita. It is possible, as is now clearly seen, to render it a great element of strong positive (not viparita) ananda, but in that case the daurbalyam must be merely a form of balam, in other words, it must be supported by dhairyam and anandadharanashakti.Ananda is now being extended to events. Even depression and sinking are met and claimed by a stream of ananda, and the place, necessity & delight of amangalam, its true mangalamaya nature is being impressed by the jnanam not only on the buddhi but on the sanskaras of the manas, chitta, prana and material body.Pure varna manifested this morning in a form, (dense crude), so that all the material and possible variation of material for the crude forms is, in a way, ready and regularised; only the perfect crude forms have to be subjected to the same process. Other siddhis are in comparative abeyance awaiting the movement of the ananda.
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The spiritual communications to the ear, this morning, revealed themselves as the communications of two kinds of spirits,those who are merely of the buddha plane, manasic, and given over to error, and those who stand on the borders of the sukshma and the mahat, receiving knowledge from the Vijnanam, expressing it in the sukshma. Some of the latter are farther, some nearer to the borderline, some stand upon it,and according to the proximity is the soundness of the expression of the knowledge to the mind and the fullness and force of its substance. Besides these manasic beings, there are the voices of the Suryaloka and Janaloka who have already manifested. The mere buddha voices are now very rare and weak. The siddhi has risen to the borders of the mahat and reached over into it, and none have power who are below its line of attainment. The thoughts, perceptions etc may also be classified as on the same levels; there is sometimes even a double movement of knowledge in the mahat echoed in the sukshma.The forward movement of the ananda is now being left to itself and another siddhi taken up, the relations of the Jiva (dasyam) with the Master of the Yoga and those whom he has chosen. All restraint by the mind or any other organ used by the Jiva is to be entirely abandoned. The Vani that announces appears as that of an Angel of God, controlling, but aware of the derivative nature of the control & allowing the vak to flow through her. The derivative control of the world by Angels, Powers, Gods, Mahatmas announced by this Vani preceded by a blowing of trumpets in the Anandaloka.
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The afternoon was begun with a suspension of definite progress in the siddhi and, afterwards, an attack on the siddhi of the ananda.The most important siddhi was the perfection of the articulate thought, which resumed rapidly all the characteristics of perfect Vijnanamaya thought,prakasha, asu, nischaya, inevitability (adequate, effective and effective illuminative) of the vak, truth of substance, nihshabdata. All these were perfected and delivered from breach or restraint, except the nihshabdata which is still pursued with shabda by the annamaya devatas; but the thought can no longer be strongly impeded or suspended by annamaya interference, only hampered in its speed. Fluency has been acquired, rapidity prepared and declared due at 8.22 a.m. on the morrow. A severe struggle was necessary with the shabda, the attack of the annam being obstinate and furious and added by the necessity of steering clear of the laya of vak in artha-bodha. Involved shabda in implicit vak, not involved vak in arthabodha is the rule of the expression of thought.Trikaldrishti was regularised in the interpretation both by perception and in expression of the lipis, drishtis, shakunas, on the basis of right interpretation of the meaning, the fulfilment in the sthula being as yet not guaranteed. There was also perfect prakamya vyapti of the unseen movements of the servant carefully tested for about half an hour,only where inference interfered, was there error. The Vani accompanied by the personal use of the relations established with the Master of the Yoga came to perfection.Exactness is entering into the pure trikaldrishti (subjective & self-existent without prakamya vyapti). The time of several incidents in the Yoga was exactly indicated, also the exact minute when the evening meal would be given. All these siddhis, however, are subject to interruption and obstruction, though not of the old powerful character.Triple sanyama in samadhi has been established by involved process, occurring three times while walking, eg on the thought which [proceeded]3 undisturbed while the waking mind was unconscious, on the walk of the body or something in the immediate surroundings, on the fact of samadhi or an experience in the samadhi. External objects are, in this state, sensed not by the indriyas of the mind and body, but by the karana-indriya..Ananda sahaituka of raudra and pain with bhoga; the tendency in the morning to the whole kamabhoga was discontinued in the later part of the day.
The Record entries for this period have not survived.Ed.
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r1912 01 14, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Although the siege is broken, it is renewed from time to time and broken until the whole force is broken up. There is still imperfect statement in this script and the imperfection will remain only so long as the trikaldrishti remains imperfect. The whole action of the consciousness on whatever level has to be made Vijnanamaya and this is already being done with no farther regard for the hesitations in the chitta.
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r1912 01 15, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The thought-perception without expression takes place now in the sukshma, but expresses truth of Vijnana; if it expresses anything but this truth, it will be inhibited or corrected or inhibited and corrected.
Lipi. Knowledge. earlier in the morningfulfilled by the development of this increasing habit of right-perception in the thought. The possibilities of the lila are being included in this habit of right-perception; for the type & possibilities of the Yoga have long been fixed and are now being translated into actualities. The type of the lila has been fixed, the possibilities fixed in generality are now being fixed in minute detail,a process that was unnecessary in the Yoga,but the actualisation is still remote. Actuality can only be fixed after upalabdhi & the establishment of sraddha.
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r1912 01 17, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The progress of the siddhi today was greatly curbed by another attack of the asiddhi, but the asiddhi has no longer much power over the mind and feelings; all it can do is to affect the sraddha, obscure hamper or suspend the siddhis of the third chatusthaya and bring about some reaction in the fourth.During the morning remnants of sleep-tendency and some lowering of the elementary utthapana helped the asiddhi. Walking from 9 to 12.10. Samadhi in the afternoon, very deep and full of all kinds of drishti & lipi, but very confused and only towards the end sometimes helped by Vijnana activity. Walked from 5.20 to 8.20. The utthapana does not fail, but is not intense and powerful as before. There is no positive weariness, but in the afternoon there was a general depression of activity. During the exertion pain & stiffness do not show themselves or very slightly, nor even afterwards, only when the exertion has been suspended for some time. Their hold even when manifest is not great. Occasionally they fill the sukshma body & manifest if there is a pause in the activity.Roga was strong today, nevertheless it yields to the aishwaryam without being removed entirely. The activity is excess of vayu with a slight element of tejasic, jalamaya & parthiva action, but the results are dull and feeble compared with former manifestations. Other rogas can no longer make any impression on the system. Ananda of the nature of rati is becoming stable & permanent even in condition & event, as well as in all vishaya, action, movement etc. The personality is now habitually manifest in all things and persons; but is not always remembered. Trikaldrishti was largely inhibited, but reappeared towards the close of the day without recovering complete exactitude except occasionally. Assurance of safety given from outside. The most important development was the confirmation of raudrananda, pain being now invariably attended with pleasure. Formerly only the dull kinds of pain had this attribute, but now it has extended to those which are acute, although the intensity has not yet gone in experience beyond a certain degree. This development has been persistently predicted recently by the ever recurrent rupa of the bee, wasp or hornet. Rupas are now often distinct, stable & perfect on the background as well as in the akasha, but have not advanced otherwise. Sleep 11.45 to 6.45
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r1912 01 19, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Sattwa & Tamas in their remnants are being removed; also the shadowy trace of desire from the lipsa, of ahankara from the buddhi, of self-activity from the thought and action. The control of the buddhi over the action has been eliminated & has now become mere imagination expressing itself outside the system. Sattwic activity is being eliminated from the Vijnanamay trigunatita activity, but here the remnants are still not altogether void of obstructive substance.Letter from P.R. [Paul Richard] Safety assured though not absolute. The lipi & thought fulfilled.Walking & short standing from 7.45 to 10.45. No failure of utthapana, but the accumulative effect of adhogati is not yet removed and stiffness hangs about the lower body & in the sukshma as depression without actually occupying it, though strong touches are frequent. Farther exercise of the utthapana twice for an hour at a time. The final elimination of the sattwa approaches completion. There has been a simultaneous activity, insignificant in quantity & force, but pure in quality of all the members of the siddhi from 1-17, that is, the whole third, fourth, fifth & sixth chatusthayas. Some of the movements, however, were hardly more than preparatory.
Lipi. , indicating the completion of the moksha and the establishment of the perfect samata with its three attributes and consequences. Sleep seven hours.
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r1912 01 20, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Exercise of elementary utthapana from 6.50 to 12.0 noon. Interval of about 10 minutes at 7.30standing twice for reading the papers, once for two or three minutes conversation. Some attempt at failure of utthapana about 10.15 removed entirely by the three minutes standing, and again after 11. removed of itself. The body is ceasing to be affected with depression by the defect of anima, itself now much reduced in its stress, even after discontinuation of activity. The lipi 8 is persistent and points to the early perfection of elementary utthapana by the removal of all nirveda, klanti or necessity of change of occupation for body or mind.The thought, expression & perception, are entirely liberated from interference of the mind or from watch by the mind except to a slight extent in the immediate trikaldrishti. Thought, trikaldrishti, vyaptiprakamya; all the elements of jnanam, now act freely & rapidly and with a predominant, though not perfect accuracy. Even the general thought in the minds of others is perceived frequently & has been repeatedly proved. Sraddha in the Yoga is acquiring tejas because now supported by the activity of the jnanam, but in the adesha is not yet existent, though prepared to emerge on the first decisive upalabdhi.Rati in all things except roga is now the rule, & is generally the rati of ananda.A dull nausea has been persistent all the morning, but does not interfere with the appetite or disturb the prana. More has been eaten today than ordinarily & with full rati of food. The lipi & rupas are preparing frequency.Sattwa has finally disappeared and now only touches from time to time as rajas did in its last stage. Tamas has been eliminated, except the asraddha, but still attacks though feebly & with a much diminished heaviness.False Vijnanam persists, but is losing its insistence & activity.
Tamas, after a strong attack in the evening, was finally expelled, except in the body, and now survives only in ineffective touches; but the uncertainty of asraddha remains,eliminated with regard to the Yoga, occasionally reviving with regard to the rapidity of the siddhi, easily sliding into actual sanshaya with regard to the adesha. Exercise of utthapana from 2.25 to 3.55 and from 6 to 7.30. The defect of anima gives trouble still after rest, but, although constantly recurrent, is deprived of continuous persistence. Sleep seven hours
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r1912 01 27, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Progress, unclouded resumed this morning. The results of the last few days, so far as yet ascertained, may now be summed up. The first chatusthaya, denied by the assault of the triguna, has gained in strength by the ejection of the remnants of lower tejas; pravritti, prakasha & shama are arriving at a perfect harmony. The dasyam is being rendered firmer and firmer and combined with ananda is perfecting the shama and divesting it of all tamasic elements, perfecting also the pravritti and divesting it of all rajasic elements. The only tamas left is the physical and the asraddha of the Adesha, the latter the result of insufficient prakasha, the former of the imperfect conquest of the physical being by the Vijnanam. The manifestation of the Kalibhava, harmonising the bala, raudra (karali) & shiva Kali, has perfected the second chatusthaya in all but intensity. The remnants of general asraddha in God & swashakti are disappearing and the only province of asraddha is the Adesha and the rapidity of the siddhi. This defect prevents the intensity of kalyanasraddha, and ishwarabhava etc. necessary to the perfection of the second chatusthaya. Jnanaprakasha is now strong and the mithyadharanas (asadgrahas) relating to the Yoga and Lila are disappearing. The Kalibhava and the realisation of self in all and all in the self are growing strong and persistent. The Master of the Yoga is more and more manifest in each detail of experience, but half-veiled by the Prakriti in the surroundings. Sahitya is once more hampered by the refusal of the annam to obey or even contain the Vijnanamaya movements of the vak. On the other hand artha becomes more & more full and clear, powerful and luminous. Jnanam & Anandam Brahma are steadily deepening.
The chief struggle is over the third & fourth chatusthayas where the annamaya obstruction has concentrated the best of its strength. Ananda has risen from the ratha of rasagrahana to the ratna of bhoga with a frequent emergence of rtha, which is especially strong in the sahaituka vishayabhoga & tivra & is spreading to the kama etc. Ananda, even ratha of the kamananda, is beginning definitely to emerge. The other bhogas (chidghana, prema, ahaituka, shuddha) are involved in the sharira and emerge out of it. It is here that the contradictions of ananda are occasionally strong. Ratha of the bhoga of events, conditions etc is prevailing. The contradictions are being overborne; pain & discomfort of heat & cold, contact etc are being dominated. The other field of struggle is the arogya; the sore throat was ejected after a struggle by siddhi. The rogas still capable of touching the surface of the system attack frequently, but cannot hold except for short intervals, coming, retiring, succeeding, failing without cause. The disturbances of assimilation are yielding perceptibly to the Arogya; when they come, they cannot hold or make only a brief & seldom violent visit. Three full days of avisrishti were attended with perfect ease and the remaining one and a half with only a vague tendency to disturbance. Two nominal visrishtis occurred on the fifth & sixth days, but with only parthiva pressure, no tejasic, vayavic or jalamaya. Only at the end of the sixth day (this morning) somewhat acute tejahkshobha produced a copious visrishti of the old type. The system, however, dismissed the kshobha in about fifteen minutes and it went leaving behind no acute results. The central arogya still advances slowly. Sarvasaundaryam is not yet continuously permanent.
Jnanam increases in force & exactness. The style of the vak rises to the inspired illuminative and is effective at its lowest level. The thought perception is now almost rid of false Vijnanam in its material, but not in the arrangement of its material. Nevertheless accuracy of time is growing, accuracy of place has begun, accuracy of circumstance, chiefly, is defectiveall this in the trikaldrishti. Prakamya & vyapti are strong and more continuous, less chequered by error. The internal motions of animals & to a less extent of men, the forces working on them, the ananda & tapas from above, even the explicit thoughts are being more and more observed and are usually justified by the attendant or subsequent action. The siddhis of power work well & perfectly, in harmony with the trikaldrishti, not so well when divorced from it. The physical tone of the system is recovering its elasticity & with it elementary utthapana and bhautasiddhi are reviving. Samadhi improves steadily, but is much hampered by sleep which has revived its force during these last three or four days.
Time-prophecy. Arrival from the match predicted after 11.30, a little before 11.45. Actual arrival 11.43. Sahityasiddhi is being finally prepared.
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r1912 01 31, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The lipi & rupa are now less fugitive & more firm in outlines, but not yet sufficiently or spontaneously vivid. In rupa prakasha still predominates. Thought expression is perfect but infrequent; the script bears the burden of the transformation of the remains of asatyam to satyam. Trikaldrishti improves but in things petty & immediate; nevertheless distant movements are also becoming correct & proved, eg Lourdes illness in its progressive stages. Today siddhis of power showed and advance in power of detail, but towards the end they were successfully resisted. There is no definite progress in bhautasiddhi or visvagati though there is some sign of preparation for regularity in the last. The Vijnanam is slowly asserting itself in karma. At night according to a previous prediction swapna samadhi established its initial perfection in type, the recorded images being of an extraordinary minute perfection in vividness & multitudinous detail & sufficiently though not preeminently stable, eg a ship of another world. The images were mainly of the Bhuvar.
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r1912 02 06, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Yesterdays siddhi confirmed. Both liberty & prejudgment have ceased; passive activity is perfectly effected. The exactitude of satyadrishti is being effected in the lipidrishti, subjective perceptions (of the lower Vijnanam) and prakamya is being displayed. It is not yet quite exact as applied to physical events. The siddhi of the vani is perfect. The distinguishing faculty in vivek acts frequently & perfectly but without intensity or strong illumination, excluding actual error; where it does not [act],1 there is uncertainty. This is especially with regard to the future (in the adesha and important events at a distance). Proofs of effective siddhi acting on the world at large are increasing, but the movements are still uncertain and comparatively rare. The rupa is increasing in frequency & richness of content.Later on the Shakti in its downward descent entered a layer of the annamaya Patala which had not yet been coerced by the Vijnanam; there was in consequence a disturbance, a cloud of the old sanskaras flying up and obstructing the siddhi. The finality of trikaldrishti seems to have begun.
MS exact
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r1912 02 08, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The flight of some score of butterflies & many birds foretold in their turns, only two or three errors due to speculation or tejasic action. Usually siddhi of power & siddhi of knowledge seem to be one. Future movement of animals in rest can now be told with some exactitude, but error is easier because of stronger habit of tejasic speculation. Aishwarya & trikaldrishti have not yet been harmonised. Drishti of an eye, prakasha-chhaya-tejas, in the akasha, perfect but momentary,an indication of the richer drishti (dense & developed) perfect but not yet capable of stability. This is already developing. The vani strongly anandamaya, first of the Vijnanamaya ananda, then of the others, reappears full of the Vishnu or Pradyumna personality, taking into it Rudra (Balarama), Shiva (Mahavira) and Aniruddha (Kama). The definite personality of the Master in his personal relations to this Yoga and the Jiva in the Yoga has to develop out of the laya; for Vishnu is the Ishwara who incarnates. The present method of the Yoga is a progressive replacement of buddha bhavas by Vijnana & ananda bhavas, and of the lower of these by the higher. The firmness and clearness of the stable rupas is much interfered with [ ]1 by unsteady floating waves of the subtle-gross etheric material of which it is formed; these waves mix with the clear form and blur it by excess of material in the attempt to reinforce its distinctness. Perfect satisfaction has now been given to the Aniruddha element in the Jiva, so far as the Yoga is concerned, by the revelation of the scientific means & steady progress used in the siddhi, but the Balarama element awaits satisfaction. The Mahavira element has also been satisfied by the floods of knowledge that are being poured down, but the Pradyumna element awaits satisfaction. In the Adeshasiddhi there has as yet been no perfect satisfaction even to the Aniruddha element. Lipi (on Sultans back, chitra formed by the hairs). Satisfaction to Brihaspati, not yet to the other deities. Satisfaction to Bala (due). N.B. Bala is the Titanic force from the Mahat which must eventually conquer & replace Rudra, though conquered by him in the Buddha, because descending into the Buddha he becomes a Daitya disturbing evolution by a premature effort towards perfection. The same is true of all the greater Daityas who are not Rakshasic in temper (Asurim Rakshasincaiva prakritim apaunah). Sahitya siddhi in ordinary poetical forms. Satiety of interest in what is old and familiar, staleness, is being overcome. Lipi zoology indicating a superior light on the science of life forms bringing zoology into harmony with the general satyam and getting rid of materialistic difficulties; immediately after while casually seeking a book to read, I picked up Haeckel, opened at the chapter on Worm forms ancestral to man and had the predicted illumination. Such detailed trikaldrishti is now becoming very frequent.
MS it
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r1912 07 01, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
This prakasha has been for the most part Vijnanamaya, of the nature of discriminative & selective knowledge, acting directly by discrimination & selection as the first process of thought. For instance, I see a bird flying & I discriminate & select the farther course of its flight by an act of determining illumination I do not see the future flight with the self-vision as I see the present flight with the physical vision & so know about it. I see only the truth (ritam, satyam) about this flight, satyam of it, not sat, its truth of existence, not its existence. But this day I realised more certainly what I had previously perceived by fragmentary experience, that the basis of all knowledge is atmaprakasha of sat; by chit, that is to say, or sat luminous to itself. I began to see first the thing-in-itself in the Brahman (whether thing objective or thing subjective) and as part of that vision idea or truth of the thing self-manifest.
The obstacles of Vijnana-siddhi and of all subjective siddhi are no longer in myself but in the circumambient annamaya prakriti, not that attached to myself as an atmosphere by my past karma (for that is purified), but the general prakriti. It is from this besieging environment that imperfections expelled from myself reenter temporarily my system or the old regularised sanskaras of Nature which we miscall laws stand in the way of progress,eg illness, unease, thirst, limitation of power or knowledge, inactivity of power or knowledge. I feel, for instance, no thirst in the body but a sense of dryness around me & besieging me, but not clinging as it does when in the karmadeha or personal environment; I have sometimes to drink in order to satisfy these devatas. When I feel no bodily chill or discomfort in exposure, sleeping out uncovered in the cold wind at night, yet around me there is an unease & a shrinking which I cannot yet ignore. The obstruction & limitation, however, are no longer jealous & malignant, but the voluntary or involuntary expression of the natural incompetence or unwillingness of the annamaya devatas to new movements to which they are unaccustomed & which hurt their ease & their egoism.
Notable Lipis today were these
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r1912 07 03, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The barrier offered in the annamaya prakriti to all decisive fulfilment of the Vijnana-chatusthaya (the siddhis of knowledge & power incidental to the opening of the ideal faculty) [has]1 at last given way. The power of trikaldrishti in those movements which are nearest to the prakamya and vyapti (perception and reception of the truth about objects by sanyama on the objects or contact in consciousness with them), [has]2 triumphed over the obstruction. Instead of a difficult choice of the truth, past, present & future, about things & happenings, a choice hampered by a siege of false suggestions from the physical gods in the material environment, the suggestions themselves are coming to be automatically true. The Vijnanam which is satyam ritam is conquering the last fields of mentality & imposing its satyadharma or law of self-existent truth which is necessary for perfect vision of things, satyadharmaya drishtaye. The movement is not yet entirely triumphant, for the enemy returns to the charge and clouds the siddhi with the anritam, but in the siddhi now there is fixity &, though not perfect continuity, yet a prevailing persistence. The enemy cannot prevent the persistence. The condition of success appears to be perfect passivity. If there is any arambha, any setting about to know, mental activity with its tangled web of error starts again; Truth, the satyam, is idea true in itself, self-revealing[,] atmaprakasha, not acquired, not in any way arrived at. The mind with all its guessing, inferring, discovering can only reach a marred & mutilated truth inevitably companioned by error. This breaking of the barrier was presaged by the lipi. The difficulty is conquered.
The siddhis of power have also begun their decisive action but less perfectly than the trikaldrishti of prakamya and vyapti. There are four tendencies that prevent its proper action & effectuality; (1) the tendency to miss the object of the prayoga, as when Pallas Athene turns the shafts from the hero of her preference, so that the aishwarya or vashita does not act upon it at all; (2) the tendency because of habit, previous purpose or tendency or mere recalcitrance to a novel suggestion to pay no heed to it, to shake off the shaft of suggestion from the mental body & go on ones way, if one is in motion or remain firm, if static, as if the suggestion had not reached; by the sukshmadrishti or by some involuntary movement the hitting of the mark by the force aimed at it can be discerned; (3) the tendency to confusion in the mental current of suggestion & mechanical opposition in the body leading to delay of obedience or deviation from the time, place & circumstance enjoined; (4) the tendency for adverse circumstance to interfere & divert the faultless or generally successful fulfilment begun. However, the frequency of obedience & frequent exactness of the action show the emergence of the successful Shakti. It is notable that both these activities are confined in their success for the most part to the immediate happenings around me of a trifling nature. In the rest there is only a general pressure and ultimate success and a capricious success in details. The therapeutic power has evidently gained in force.
The Vijnanamaya articulate thought had established its free activity regardless of all doubt & opposition in the mind, but it had not decisively proved its truth & Vijnanamaya nature by unvarying result in the objective & subjective happenings of Yoga & life; but this movement of proof has now powerfully commenced. Drishti is also preparing a decisive movement both in lipi & in crude rupa.
The lipi After dinner the siddhi will take a new turn, came in the afternoon & was fulfilled duly like the script of the morning. The new turn proved to be the final establishment of the first chatusthaya where it was still weak (in the hasyam or active atmaprasada) and its independence even in the annamaya prakriti & its last outworks of favourable & unfavourable happening (mangalam & amangalam). There are a few recesses of environing material mind in which sensitiveness to the apriyam survives feebly, but these touches have only a brief persistence. The second chatusthaya is preparing its liberation in the defective points (kalyanasraddha, faith in the adesha, ishwarabhava, etc), but as yet only the sraddha in the yoga siddhi is decisively fulfilled. The reason in the annamaya mind opposes the perfect sraddha, the damyam in the annamaya temperament opposes the ishwarabhava.
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r1912 07 13, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
6) Vijnanam streng thened in all its partsbeginnings of rupadrishti in dense & developed forms. (The latter is still doubtful)
7) Karmakama streng thened.(Not apparent.)
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r1912 07 14, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
3) Vijnana liberated from its limitations, not entirely, but able to move towards the brihat.
4) Adeshasiddhi & totality of the fifth chatusthaya.
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r1912 07 15, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
This morning Samata is perfectly restored and there is a strong increase of the suddhananda with a manifestation of the faery element in the beauty of things, the sense of their beauty of ananda, the pleasure taken in them as visions of his weaving of God. This transcends or contains the beauty of guna proper to the Vijnanam; it depends not on knowledge-perception of the separate guna & yatharthya of things, but on being-perception in chit of the universal ananda of things.
The written prediction today:
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The movement of the intellect in difficult Sanscrit poetry is much easier and stronger & sometimes the Vijnanamay knowledge manifests (smarta sruti) with regard to the meaning of unknown words.
The primary utthapana is now active in removal of general weariness & alasyam, but still subject to the necessity of ample sleep & change of occupation. Health is dominating the defects still existent in the two chakras. Kama is more settled & the general tendency to the ananda continues (afternoon).
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r1912 07 17, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
2) Forward movement of the Vijnanam
3) Fifth chatusthaya prepared for life.
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r1912 07 18, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
3) Vijnanam made invariable, powers enforced in detail, samadhi extended.
Sahitya was resumed today, the Life Divine commenced; also the systematic study of Magha, an orderly arrangement of material ( dhatus) for the Structure of Sanscrit Speech and a review of past Prerana records begun. The insistence on physical ananda was not strong, but health & utthapana were maintained & in the evening the physical capacity of surfeit was, momentarily at least, conquered. The realisation of action as movement of Shakti enjoyed by Purusha came strongly in active dasya with arrangement in knowledge of the kama. There was one remarkable instance of outflow. Vijnanam is now acting invariably, spontaneously, not in particular instances & by special tapas as formerly, but not yet perfectly. The Powers overbore opposition & acted upon detail as well as generally, with great frequency in the evening. Extension of samadhi was not noticed in the swapna condition, but in the jagrat there was a temporary living in the pranamay jagat and a strong sensation of the vibrations of its earth & sense of its atmosphere. The annamaya self became finally trigunatita, indifferent to the action of the three gunas, not yet anantaguna. Tejasic tapas is dead in action, feebly phantomlike & ineffective in knowledge, but tamas is still strong, though the depression of the annamaya system, persistent recently, has been modified. Internal ananda is yet weak & overshadowed; only the buddhi keeps its grasp on the Anandam Brahma. Sleep at night six hours, in daytime half an hour.
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r1912 07 19, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
3) Vijnana action to be perfected, action of powers rendered invariable and swapna-samadhi completed in its deficient parts.
***
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The Vijnanam has by a greater activity and extension arrived at a point when the truth underlying every impression & idea in the mind or visiting the mind can be & is perceived, but owing to a tamasic obstruction it cannot always reveal the proper source & placement at the time of the drishti; consequently the mind has still time to misplace the truth & by misplacement turn it into an error. This is especially the case in the trikaldrishti that is not of prakamya vyapti in its nature but independently revelatory. It is now proved beyond doubt that the mind invents nothing, but merely transmits, records and interprets, & interpretation not being its proper function is more liable to misinterpret than to understand correctly. The activity of Vijnana is not yet perfect, but it has moved nearer to perfection. The powers are already more active, successful & frequent.
KarmaThe Life Divine continued, Rigveda resumed, nirukta & prerana slightly, kavya touched, Bhasha proceeded with. The difficulty of understanding Magha now only persists, ordinarily, where the meaning of important words is unknown. Triple dasya was strongly confirmed in the mind in relation to the Krishnakali bhava. The health & utthapana appear to be a little stronger & the intenser ananda occurs normally in place of the old tendency with inceptual ananda but its frequency was not great & is still strongly resisted. Reading of lipi in samadhi which was deficient, has been confirmed, but continuity of record was not clearly established. The Vijnana action is perfected in itself, but still weak in force and not always perfect in action owing to the emergence of yet another layer of unreformed annamaya personality. The reform of this layer proceeded yesterday. The weakness is especially in the fluctuation from ananda vani & Vijnana thought to buddha vani. Sleep 6 hours at night; in daytime swapna & sushupta samadhi.
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r1912 07 20, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
3) Vijnana, powers & samadhi streng thenedcontinuous record developed.
The record from today resumes the character of a communication and includes a view of the future as well as of the present and past. Hitherto the programme has been carried out but often with a feeble & uncertain execution. This has to be changed. Especially, today, the force & joy of the soul has to be revived & the tamasic hue cast over it by the uncertainties of the tamasic intelligence removed. It is already too evident that the Yoga will be fulfilled for the tamasic intelligence to deny it any longer, but the denial is now of the rapidity of Yogasiddhi and of the certainty or probability of the Adeshasiddhi. Bhasha & the Life Divine have already been resumed.
Today, yesterdays trikaldrishti that there would be news in the paper today of a fresh Italian attack has been confirmed by the news of cannonade in the Dardanelles & of the ministerial difficulties in Turkey. In this connection it is evident that there is still a slight tejasic influence in the vani colouring the truth with the prepossessions. There is strong resistance to the therapeutic power. The promise of equipment does not materialise. The obstruction to the physical siddhi is stubborn. Even the Vijnana is faltering & mesquin in its action although increasingly general in its truth & frequency. These are the main helps of the tamasic intelligence.
The trikaldrishti is already stronger in its action, though the confused method of working out the details from uncertainty to partly approximate partly complete correctness still continues. The siddhis of power are evidently much stronger & are overbearing in the field of exercise all the resistance brought against them; the only defect is that time is needed &, if time is not given, the prayoga is apt to be fruitless. In the field of life there are plenty of instances of success, but the power of offering a strong & successful resistance still belongs to the annamaya prakriti. Ananda is restored & force is coming to the bhava & the action.
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r1912 07 23, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Today is the day long fixed for the fullness of the third chatusthaya apart from the two later chatusthayas, in so far as its action can be complete without being entirely effective in kama, karma & the body. It is also the day when the movement towards that effectiveness begins. Siddhi of power today is working instantaneously & in detail & the action of all the powers is normal, regular, effective, invariably employed as the chief & proper instrument, but not yet entirely perfect in detail. Bhautasiddhi is working, but still overpowered by adhogati, nor likely to be free till general utthapana overcomes adhogati. Samadhi is still deficient in continuity of visible record. It is supposed that it will round itself off today. The Vijnana is now working with force & applying itself both in knowledge & shakti to things of moment. The physical siddhi is engaged in fighting down the tamasic obstruction. Yesterday only a little literary karma was done, as previously announced, nor will anything be done today. The activity of lipi & rupa, almost suspended for a time, is now reviving. In trailokyagati the mind seems to be standing on the doorstep of the pranamaya. Nirvisesha kama Ananda throughout the day was active & the general tendency continuous. The strength of the samadhi was increased & continuous coherent record established in the dream form, of speech, & communication with others on the plane of the Imagination, in the kalpanamayi prakriti of which are the heavens & hells of subjective experience objectivised in sensation (to the sukshma indriyas) but not in annam.
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r1912 07 25, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Continuation & strong attack of asiddhi, bringing a repetition for an hour of the old tapasic anger, struggle & disturbance the old confused & misleading voices. Bhasha in Rigveda streng thened, Vijnana working normally.
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r1912 10 18, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The manomaya activity has to be cleared out before the final step is taken. Today the Vijnana will recommence in the afternoon and all the siddhis with it.
Positive Ananda in all things has to be made habitual. From today it will be made complete and extended to the body, but attacks will continue to be made on it. The same with the removal of the manomaya.
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r1912 10 27, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The tejas is the chief obstacle to the fulfilment in permanence and completeness of the Vijnana-siddhi. The confused remnants of the tejas are being progressively expelled, & the trikaldrishti, jnana and prakamya vyapti are growingsteadily & methodically, but without enthusiasm or any positive ananda,in precision, correctness & range. This misplacement of circumstance, due to the tejasic attempt in the manas tattwa to fix things instead of seeing them as they are, is diminishing in insistence & effect. In the body tamas, not tejas is the chief enemy, as the nature of the annamaya is tamasic, just as the nature of the manomaya is tejasic.
Anandasiddhi has been reconstituted, the shuddhi & mukti & bhukti with the samata, but the perfection of the second chatusthaya is still to seek. The reason is that although there is sraddha now in the Yoga and in God, there is not sufficient sraddha in the Lilamaya Purusha, & therefore none in the increasing rapidity of the siddhi or in the inevitable and perfect fulfilment of the Adesha.
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r1912 11 27, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Besides, the ideas of what will happen or is the case in little details of the occurrences in the house are usually correct, but not always. The trend is to the satyamintellectual infallibility, for the direct Vijnanamay action is still held back in order to allow the mind to contract the habit of correctness, ie of not disfiguring by misapplication the truth from the Vijnana.
The rupadrishti grows in strength and the bodily condition is turning towards improvement by lessening of the tamas of adhogati (sranti). The brain works at anything enjoined on it, but there is a disinclination in the karmadeha previous to the work or for a particular work. The fumes of tamas are strong in the brain, but do not prevent the luminosity working, although it is like the sun on a clouded day. Ananda is well restored to the regular point it had formerly reached except in kamananda and raudrananda. The tivrata is absent. But the general tendency of the siddhi is to take possession of this lower stratum also with its former circumstances. Roga however persists.
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r1912 11 29, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
At night, the first arrival was correctly predicted at 8.10 (8.11 was the actual time) but not, firmly, the person. There was much confusion, many guesses by the intellect about the order of the persons & the order finally fixed on, was entirely wrong. Only it was correctly seen that none would come before eight or after nine. An arrival was fixed at 8.22, but another occurrence took place at 8.22. In other words, the correct times are suggested to the very minute, but the wrong circumstances are frequently attached by the intellect. It is in the intellect striving to do the work of the Vijnana, & not in or from the Vijnana direct that these perceptions come; but in the intellect only so much can be done as has been already established by the Vijnana, & it has not as yet established correctness of circumstance. Therefore the Vijnana this night has been made once more active and is carrying on the siddhi. The separate activity of the intellect occurs, as before, only as an element of imperfection or in interregnal periods.
The ahaituka kamananda, with great difficulty, became again active at moments, but its continuance is strongly obstructed. The sahaituka physical anandas are once more tivra.
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r1912 11 30, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Rapidity only in the Veda-jnana. The place is beginning to be accurate, but the arrangement is not yet perfect. eg. a bird flying is observed, all the turns of movement are accurately predicted, but not always in their proper order; one turn is omitted or another too soon expected etc. Occasionally a momentary impulse in the bird or in the force that is driving it, is taken for a destined movement, but this source of error, which used to be dominant, is now very weak in its incidence & occasional in its occurrence B [Bijoy] is now responding rapidly to the suggestions of the Power in the siddhiprayoga, but still needs too much the aid of speech. His purity & mukti from dwandwa is perfect except in the karmadeha & the preparation of mukti from ahankara is being completed. Vijnana in the intellect, jnanam, in him is very strong, but not yet turned towards trikaldrishti. Prakamya & vyapti are well developed but not perfect. The other siddhis in him work fitfully. Samadhi is being prepared through dream. He gets sometimes the first stages of ahaituka & chidghana ananda
Strong perception that S. [Srinivasachari] Bh [Bharati] & A [Aiyar] would come in the evening, less strong about A than the others & only general; fulfilled. Other vyaptis fulfilled or proved, vyaptis of action, vyaptis of thought, vyaptis of feeling. Prakamya generally turns into a vyapti. Prakamya vyapti may now be said to be perfect,as perfect as it can be without perfection of the trikaldrishti. Clash of ahankaras over B; first sign of a fresh movement forward so far as he is concerned.
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r1912 12 03b, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Yesterday was a day of external suspension, almost of recoil. In the evening only the positive siddhi began to remanifest, but negatively the remnants of the impure tejasic elements in the karmadeha were [ ]1 farther eliminated & weakened. On the other hand, the new tejas has increased & grows on the buddhi which is admitting the subjective conditions of the adeshasiddhi, eg the Asura & Rakshasa bhavas of Mahakali, but not the probability of the siddhi itself in this life. Kamananda though it comes, has not overcome the opposition to its intensity & permanence. The higher material forms of lipi, in which vividness, simultaneity & amplitude are now gained, are beginning to manifest spontaneously. Only perfect spontaneity is lacking as yet to the perfected lipi. Rupadrishti is still held back at the point of development it had reached. Unstable developed images, stable images of a great crudity occur. Swapna Samadhi, night before last, gained a greater frequency of single & grouped image, but is still unable to develop long continuity of one series of events, which only occurs in purified swapna. Fresh proofs of trikaldrishti come daily, but the habitual invariability of correctness is not yet attained. A mixed action is the ordinary level, unvarying correctness only happens when the Vijnana is in full vigour. The sky is once more clouded. This renewal of clouded weather in December had been foreseen, but not its date or even its approximate time.
Sleep for two nights has been restricted, of its own motion, to six hours or a little over. The karmadeha is physically full of tamas and an effect is produced on the material body which is slow to work & does not easily respond to the demand for new siddhi; but the bhauta-siddhi is showing some signs of improvement and there is no actual collapse of the tapas, but only sluggishness in physical pravritti.
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Vijnana Chatusthaya
1) Rupadrishti farther developed today, the 3d, and confirmed in stability tomorrow.
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r1912 12 05, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It has been predicted that the scholastic work will be done in future not by the intellect but by the Vijnanam. This has begun to be fulfilled, and the remaining difficulties in the Veda are beginning to vanish. It has also been asserted that no work will in future be allowed which is confused in its impulse & subject to tamasic interruption. It appears from this mornings action with regard to the Veda, that this is about to be fulfilled, or its fulfilment is being prepared. Sraddha is increasing in the rapidity of the subjective-objective Yogasiddhi, but not yet, with stability, in that of the Adesh siddhi, except in literature.
Todays news show a perfect action of the Shakti in detail on events of magnitude at a distance eg. the terms given to Turkey, the separation of Greece from the allies, the signing of the armistice, the attitude of the Powers. The pronounced defect, now, is in immediate & near events concerned with the actual Adeshasiddhi itself, rather than with the development of the necessary powers. The moulding of men proceeds subjectively, but not with accuracy of detail, except in occasional & unregulated fulfilments, nor is there yet any freedom & mastery. The equipment has, hitherto, entirely [failed]3 except for small, fortuitous & temporary successes, just preventing entire collapse.
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r1912 12 06, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The obstruction continues, but cannot prevent the continued perfection & increasing range & sureness of the prakamya-vyapti. Only, it clouds the Vijnana & then the trikaldrishti cannot act certainly; it obstructs the Shakti-prayoga and brings about variation of failure & success; & it tries to disturb the system & prevent the growth of the physical siddhi and the samadhi. Nevertheless, the perfect response of the mind to trikaldrishti is growing & the Power is recovering its tone in all immediate circumstances; neither of them act perfectly in detail. The ordinary bhautasiddhi is recovering its tone & defect of anima does not seem to have so strong a hold as before; arogyasiddhi is resisting the attacks upon it and the physical ananda persists in spite of obstruction. The body, however, is still sensitive to cold; the violent ejection of this sensitiveness has been predicted (yesterday in lipi), but the movement is not yet successful.
Last night sleep once again fell to six hours or possibly less. Swapna-samadhi grows in frequency & the combination of the vishayas is frequent & vivid, except in taste & smell, whose normal action in sleep is only being prepared. But the images & scenes are still fleeting & dream is disturbed in its continuity. The dream-images last night were of the old unreal kind & the air of unreality strong, but a connected series of events took place, coherent and reasonable, although unusual & only possible in a long past age with other manners. The events were correct, the images probably not all from the true record or free from present associations & figures, though there was no definite intrusion from the present. It was only the sense of self that belonged to the present. On the whole a considerable & steady progress.
--
By thee yoked to him, O Soma, in thy comradeship, Indra poured out that stream on the mind (or on the human being, the thinker); crushing the oppressor (Vritra) he set flowing the seven oceans2 and opened the doors that were shut. By thee yoked to him, O lord of delight, Indra by force straightway dug out the circle of the Sun. ie. []the Mind Force now in contact with Ananda will pour out upon the mentality the stream of the upper knowledge & joy; that which obstructs will be crushed out of existence, the full stream of being will be poured down on the system and the siddhis denied will be enforced; the full circle of Vijnana will be made to emerge from its obscuration.
The trikaldrishti is working still more effectively, not only without, but against data, eg. a bird on the opposite [roof] disinclined to stay, twice on the point of flying off & once making the starting motion, yet without any disturbance to the steady knowledge, always repeated at the critical moment, that it would remain.
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r1912 12 08, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Sortilege. This purely grammatical formula is given a sense. In the defective alpa state (of the siddhi) the taking up of the mind into Vijnana is being effected for the mental being () by the ascending movements of thought constituting his mental activity. It is even suggested that & were actual words used in this sense in pre-Vedic Sanscrit.
Sleep yesterday seven hours. The dream images occurred, but they were scattered among pale chhayamaya images hardly distinguishable, except by the viveka, from dream images; a few were of the true taijasa kind. There was some confusion in the thought record of the experiences, but not excessive, nor such as to unhinge the general coherence. But the present sense of ego still overlays the personality in the dream thought.
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r1912 12 09, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The trikaldrishti is now working normally with a surprising regularity and perfection in immediate things; but the haste of intellectual decision & error of intellectual hesitation,the Scylla & Charybdis of prophetic thought,are not yet eliminated; they recur whenever the trikaldrishti has to be done, though absent when the trikaldrishti is merely happening. Parasaras Suktas are being interpreted by the Vijnana, but not yet perfectly, as the modern associations of the words still interfere. Historical trikaldrishti of the past is active.1 Both the trikaldrishti and the power (at first frustrated) have been acting for five or ten minutes in a host of instances with great & continual effectiveness. It is only now the minutiae that are wrong, & these are to be perfected; for sometimes the minutiae also are for a long time absolutely accurate. The guidance also is at present perfect in every detail, although it is that of one of the Shaktis, & not the Purushottamas. There are three forms of the power, (1) one which works the object through the universal Prakriti, giving the suggestion to the Prakriti which transfers it to the swabhava of the object; (2) one which works the object by direct unspoken suggestion to the object, as in hypnotism; (3) one which applies the force of Prakriti physically to the object and drives the unwilling object. All three are now active & frequently, even ordinarily successful; but all three still need time to work effectively on the object. If they do not get time, an effect or movement is produced, but not always or even usually the actual accomplishment or the full effect.
During the rest of the day there was apparent suspension attended by loss of the Chandibhava, unreliability of the Vani and false suggestions through the outer swabhava. Health was also strongly attacked with great success in one detail and with temporary slight effect in others. The external suggestions are least effective at present in symptoms of phlegm & neuralgia which are obviously external, foreign to the system & unable to materialise in the sthula parts; they only affect the nerves with a suggestion of incipient cold or neuralgia.. The struggle over the visrishti still proceeds & the frequency of jalavisrishti maintains itself. However, the assimilation, although marred by excess of jala, seems to be more perfect with respect to prithivi, even though the maximum interval has been diminished from seven days to three or four.
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r1912 12 11, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The resistance is now to the fulfilment of the Adeshasiddhi, for if once a permanent power is manifested, in the control of the events immediately surrounding the adhara, all farther resistance will be convicted of inutility. This resistance, it is suggested, is now about to be overcome. The rupadrishti is to be brought on a level with the rest of the Vijnanachatusthaya in this week, the bhautasiddhi liberated from the pressure of the defect of anima, the samadhi from the refusal of continuity in the visional record. Meanwhile the trikaldrishti & powers will expand rapidly in their action. The physical resistance to the Power in the body of self & others will yield, although it will from time to time recur until it is eliminated; as a result arogya, ananda & primary utthapana will be brought into line with the Vijnanachatusthaya. Only saundarya in the physical siddhi will be left as a field of battle. The resistance to karma in the moulding of minds & the giving of experience & power will also break, & the resistance to the equipment. The rest will easily follow within these two months.
5.pm
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r1912 12 12, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
This morning the action of the trikaldrishti took place purely in the intellect with the result that there was a vivid & copious prakamya-vyapti & trikaldrishti of possibilities, but the actuality of the event could not be regularly seen. This was cured as soon as the Vijnana began to act. The difficulty that remains is only the difficulty of preventing the active & almost perfectly complete perception of possibilities, tendencies, intentions confusing the quite separate perception of the actual circumstance fixed in the foreknowledge of Virat & Prajna. The Shakti acts as before subject to delay & resistance. Lipi in the Akasha is still resisted in legibility except when it is aided by the subjective perception. In all other respects it is perfect. Rupadrishti, this morning has not been active, except in occasional images. Sukshma sparsha is increasing in force & frequency, & is accompanied by perception of action & of feeling & intention but not by subtle perception of the image or sound.In the health the siddhi is again prevailing, though the attack continues. There has been five hours continual exertion this morning (walking almost all the time); fatigue was not effective, but denial of anima in the loins became insistent in the fifth hour.One or two utterances of the Shaktis vani have been proved wrong in time or stress, but may still be fulfilled in fact.
3.55.
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r1912 12 14, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The trouble of depression lasted through the day & was attended with some confusion of knowledge especially on the point whether the Vijnana chatusthaya could now be left to the unaided working of Prakriti, as had before seemed to be decided or needed more sadhan. It is notable that the rupadrishti is developing without sadhan; perfect images grow steadily more frequent & have more hold on the akasha, the old imperfections tend to be eliminated, eg the persistent recurrence of a single image, in this case, the bird; other forms are now forcing their way into the akash without any help from the system. Lipi has recovered vividness without losing its tendency to activity. Trikaldrishti develops greatly & it is noticeable that it is best when entirely spontaneous, almost indeed of an absolute & consistent perfection,when, that is to say, there is no attempt in the system to determine the truth or arrive at the knowledge. Examples. The servant went out at 8.27. As he was going out, the knowledge came that someone was about to enter & would come in as soon as he was gone. R [Ramaswamy] came. Previously, there was vyapti that either S [Saurin] or N [Nolini] was returning. Now the knowledge came (in answer to a doubt whether the vyapti was not merely the vyapti of an intention) that he would come before 8.30. S came at 8.29. Subsequently, it was decided that 9.10 would be the exact moment to cease walking & have meals, & the knowledge came that M [Moni] would return at 9.10. N returned exactly at 9.10; exactly at 9.10 the meal was served (without any spoken order or mental suggestion) & the triple knowledge was fulfilled to the minute. In this way every little circumstance has to the time of writing proved exactly correct. This is, undoubtedly, the beginning of the consistent & invariable perfect drishti, but it is not to be supposed that it will establish itself even in this restricted sphere without farther opposition.The truth of telepathy is now thoroughly established; the proofs of its correctness when received from persons in the house or town [occur]2 daily, as by it I know when one is coming from one room to another, what an animal is about to do, when someone is returning to the house & often who it is, (formerly, this knowledge was usual, but has temporarily diminished or been obscured). Also the proofs of it, when it comes from hundreds or thousands of miles away, are now coming in, eg. from M [Motilal] in Bengal that he intended to send more money, confirmed a few days afterward; the previous knowledge of the rumour that the Turks had asked to join the Balkan Confederacy, the knowledge of the Unionist conspiracy in Constantinople & a number of other instances relating to the Balkan war. This power, indeed, has been working for a long time, but it is only now regularised. It is, in fact, part of the vyapti. The proof of vyapti of express thoughts is also increasing in frequency; here, of course, the only proof is the expression of the thought immediately afterwards by the thinker. This now occurs.
Physical exertion twelve hours (morning one hour + two hours 9.15 to 11.15; afternoon, three hours & a half; evening 4.40 to 9.10 & 9.40 to 10.40). In the morning there was pain in the soles of the feet when rising, but no appreciable stiffness in the limbs. Fatigue of adhogati, in the evening, was more persistent than usual, although not intense or powerful. Sleep, nearly seven hours. The last two nights, there has been a retrogression in samadhi; the dreams are, besides, not remembered, but the incoherent dream seems to prevail.
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r1912 12 16, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The afternoon has passed under Vritra, the power slow to act, the trikaldrishti & jnana uncertain, the physical brain dull and overcast. The Maheshwari-Mahasaraswati shanti is giving place under such circumstances to the Mahasaraswati-Mahakali quietude based on a concealed Maheshwari pratistha. Nirukta is now acting under the rule of the Vijnana normally & bhasha begins to follow suit; the intellect in the environment has recognised the necessity of passivity & the superior results of the Vijnanamaya method. The frequency of Ananda (Kama) continues but is interrupted by Vritric periods.
The trikaldrishti has now (4.55) recovered possession and is acting with a considerable perfection in all its movements & entire perfection (except of right combination) in some of themie a movement or incident is seen in pieces of knowledge each of which would lead to an incorrect conclusion by itself, but taken together give a perfectly correct result. Their separate advent shows want of spontaneous combination in the knowledge; there is only collocation ending in combination. Power is still ineffective, except occasionally.
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r1912 12 17, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Today except Ananda & primary utthapana all other siddhis seem to be suspended in order that occasion may be given to the samata and ananda in amangalam & asiddhi to emphasise itself. Relics of the impatience remain or rather recur, but cannot find a lodging. On the other hand asraddha in the Adeshasiddhi is strong. It is evident also that the remnants of intellectual activity in the environment are being given free but ineffectual play, in order that of themselves they may cease. The attempts at intellectual trikaldrishti & aishwarya fail invariably & it is only when the Vijnana acts occasionally that some results are obtained. Physical activity from 6.15 to 4.25 with a break of 25 minutes for meal (12 to 12.25). It was only at the end that fatigue came, dull and not very pronounced, but insistent. The vague stiffness does not entirely disappear, but is ineffective. The dasya and personal relation of the Master increase. The substitute for religious piety has been established in the consciousness, viz the knowledge of the Para Purusha, the sense of the power of the Ishwara & submission to it attended with the appropriate bhava in the chitta & the personal relation to the Lover.
([Written] Dec 18)
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r1912 12 19, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
This was effected later in the day. The Master through the vani from above & by sukshma speech from outside began to manifest himself everywhere in a well-established stability with the character of youth & strength and as he manifests, the aspect of Love & Good Auspice manifests also . The first result has been a great increase in the satyam. The thought perception & trikaldrishti, as well as vani, became perfectly & minutely accurate for a time & continue to be so except, (1) in the more hasty perceptions, (2) in those which are still afflicted with doubt, (3) in the omission of important circumstances & their exact arrangement. When these are made perfectly effectual (and their survival in imperfection is a mere inert habit), the Vijnana in its knowledge-side will be accomplishedonly the range will remain to be widened. The haste must make no difference to the truth, doubt must make no difference, omission of circumstance must not lead to incorrect conclusion, arrangement must be exact so far as it goes. It is now evident also that the knowledge was still acting on the levels of potentiality, where the thing arranged can be disturbed, because it is the arrangement of the Manishi, not the Kavi. It was, however, one of the higher levels on which the Manishi is strong in will, clearsighted in perception, but not able to embrace enough in his view (mahan, urushansa). The knowledge is now rising to the levels of the Vijnana proper,becoming of the nature of Vijnana and not only enlightened, helped or led by the Vijnana. Power is working in the field of the Yogic karma, moulding the thoughts & feelings of others precisely in the immediate vicinity, but is not yet dominant in that province. It is reasserting its hold on immediately surrounding trifles.
Physical activity, 4 hours in the morning, 1 hours in the afternoon & from 5 to 11.30 with half an hours interval in the evening & night, 12 hours in all. The violent insistence of defect of anima became ineffective in the last period, but is still present in a modified form on the morning of the 20th. Sleep 6 hours.
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r1912 12 21, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It is to be noted that the programme suggested on the tenth was, as was then suspected, only a tejasic suggestion; it has not been fulfilled, except partially in some details. It was a statement of tendency which came erroneously as a prediction. At present the tapas, & tejas, is being driven forward without much regard to the state of the adhara or the stumbles of the knowledge. Formerly, when the tapas became active, false tejas & tapas took possession of it and there had to be a return to nivritti, but now the intermixture of false tejas is not allowed to stop the pravritti, because, as it seems, this false tejas is not able to take possession. True tejas & prakasha are now in possession & the false is only an invading power which sometimes establishes a precarious foothold or which still occupies partially a part of the ground here & there. The siddhi of the second & third chatusthaya[s] (shakti & Vijnana) is following therefore, but much more rapidly, the same process & line of development as the first. There was first the war to oust the enemy in possession, the calling in of the aid [ ]1 of doubtful friends & natural enemies, the carrying & loss of positions, the confused fighting, the slow & precarious progress; then the ill-assured possession, becoming more & more assured, then the possession subject to revolts & revolutions, then the entire possession subject to invasions by the ousted enemy, finally a complete possession with occasional vibrations of the memory of old troubles. In the case of the shanti & samata, the struggle has taken many years & gone through various stages, of which the last alone answers entirely to the above description. The other two were never regularly fought out, except in certain points, before the arrival at Pondicherry. Their final progress, owing to the victory of the samata, is proving much more easy and rapid.
Later in the day, a sudden revolt of impatience & unfaith, not grief or even actual anger, against the continual running after possibilities in the prana & trikaldrishti and a violent rejection of the resulting false trikaldrishti. This resulted in a cessation of the conditions of the siddhi. Physical activity, 4.40 hours [i.e. 4 hours, 40 minutes] in the morning, 3.35 in the afternoon, & from 4.55 to 8.55 & 9.35 to 10.20 in the evening & night, 13 hours in all. Sleep, 7 hours. Slight, almost nominal visrishti after meal.
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r1912 12 26, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
As usual, the sortileges began at once to be fulfilled. The force described has established itself in the siddhi; effort, no longer self-effort, manifests itself as a force throwing itself on the enemy & breaking down all opposition. This struggle is the working of mental force (Indra) possessed by the Vijnana and filled with mental ananda (Soma). Whenever Indra is thus infused with Soma, opposition seems to disappear; it is only when Indra works without Soma, that the opposition has strength to prevail or at least to resist. Once more Soma is being felt physically in the sensation as of wine flowing through the system, but in the sukshma rather than in the sthula body. Trikaldrishti has been working with a consistent perfection, & aishwarya, at first entirely resisted, broke down opposition & is still busy with the struggle. Throughout the whole siddhi, a state of joyous battle & assured victory is replacing the old alternation between the joy of attainment & the pain of struggle & defeat. 6 continuous hours of primary utthapana from 6.15 to 12.13 and again from 12.35 to 1.35. It was only towards the end that there was some reaction. The replacement of intellect by Vijnana continues.
Rupa is still developing, stable developed forms are more perfect, & the perfect transient forms show a greater tendency to stability. Primary utthapana again from 4.20 to 10.15 with the half-hour interval for meal. Today secondary utthapana was resumed, the laghima being perfect, but limited in duration by defect of anima. Sleep 7 hours. Nominal visrishti at night. The jala-visrishti was today less insistent.
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r1912 12 28, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
St. [Sortilege] La guerre en Orient, meaning that the real struggle now is over the successful use of the will in equipment & Indian affairs. Aishwarya invariably successful this morning in small details; trikaldrishti seriously hampered, an intellectual movement being violently forced in when the Vijnana tries to act. A period is about to ensue in which these survivals have to be eliminated both in the Vijnana & the physical siddhi, as well as in the samata, dasya & tejas, and the sahitya, bhasha & nirukta have to be consolidated; the trikaldrishti of exact time & arrangement of circumstance & the ritam in karma have to be well-established, and the obstacles in the saundarya, religious karma, Krishnanritya and public affairs finally broken. This movement, which is being prepared, must definitely begin today & will cover the greater part of January.
Physical activity. 6.10 to 7.15 .. 8.20 to 10.40 .. 11.20 to 12.40 .. 1.40 to 2.10 .. 4.50 to 8.30 .. 8.55 to 11.0.
The drag of the vague defect of anima on the body still continues. A very slight visrishti in the afternoon; subsequently there was a tendency to flatulence. The cough has not returned, but there is a tendency to phlegm in the nostrils. The physical ananda tends to recover its frequency & intensity. The aishwarya was strong today & lipi frequent; but the trikaldrishti much disturbed, rupadrishti almost suspended; particular tejas acts, but general tejas is discouraged and faith depressed. The Nirukta progresses and has attained a certain perfection of method, but not yet of Vijnanamay substance, since possibility still has its play. The great gain in the method of work is renunciation of haste & a consequent thoroughness.
Sleep, nearly six hours.
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r1912 12 29, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Trikaldrishti & aishwarya are now irrevocably fixed in their ordinary daily action; but not yet delivered from inaccuracy of detail and arrangement, nor free to act perfectly in important or public affairs. Vijnanamaya Thought is beginning to regularise itself in relation to the vani..
Physical activity. 5.10 to 7.108.40 to 11.10 .. 12.35 to 2.5 .. 3.25 to 4.28 .. 5.45 to 8.37 .. 8.52 to 11. Twelve hours.
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r1913 01 02, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Trikaldrishti.. In the beginning there was a series of outward suggestions which fulfilled themselves rapidly & accurately, although the mind denied them admission and saw no probability of fulfilment. Subsequently, this element of external suggestion was put in its place as prophetic vyapti from the thought of supramaterial beings that foresee; the jnanam was then perfected and afterwards the trikaldrishti in its entirety brought up to the level of the same perfection. The difference between this new siddhi and all that have preceded it is, 1, that the first idea proves to be correct and has not to be replaced by a second, at most it has to be amplified and modified or enriched with suggestions of the right time and place & arrangement, 2, that even when it manifests in the intellect without being seen to descend from the Vijnana, it is habitually correct, 3, that mistaken suggestion[s], except in small details of time, place & circumstance, tend to be more & more rare and already form the infrequent exception. In the thought-perception there is no falsity, but only appearances of it which turn out to be not falsity but aprakasha.
News today that yesterday (the 31) the Viceroy was for the first time entirely without pain from his wounds, (the result of the last extraction). Thus the first aishwarya & drishti has been amply fulfilled. A rapid cure of the wounds must now be effected.
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r1913 01 03, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Will on B [Bijoy] for Vijnana to resume activity fulfilled with regard to Vijnana. Viceroys wounds again give pain and fever, due to exertion of sitting, only therefore, an indirect contradiction of aiswarya. Affairs in China adverse. On the other hand the Turkish peace negotiations appear to be moving to the point willed. Aishwarya this morning is hampered and largely unsuccessful, Trikaldrishti hampered, but successful.
The rest of the day was passed in a struggle with the difficulties of the aishwaryam.. Kamananda impeded in the evening. Temporary diminution of dasya.
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r1913 01 05, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The persistence of tapas is now assured in spite of opposition; the action proceeds in the face of difficulties, disappointments & errors of method without flagging for more than a moment and is itself tejaswi even when the system loses hold of active tejas and falls back on shama or dhairyam. The physical obstacle to continuous karma is overcome as well as the subjective obstacle, failure of physical dhairya as well as failure of mental tejas. Mental dhairya, physical dhairya & pranic tejas assured, mental tejas has to be rendered equally permanent and invincibly active so that the physical brain may not flag in its response to the stimulus from above. The quaternary, Tejo balam pravrittir mahattwam, will then be assured in all the parts of the system. Vijnana is now beginning to assert its constant activity, pausing only to test the state of the intellect; for when the intellect, even in its darkened or clouded state, refuses to rest in error and begins to respond only to the satya, then the pratistha in intellect of the Vijnanamaya action will be assured. At present, it is so assured in all but the trikaldrishti, the action of mind on the objective field, & this is so because the trikaldrishti itself is still limited in its ordinary action, though already perfect in its best moments & in its extraordinary movements. It has been decided yesterday that the development of the Knowledge must be left to the unaided action of the Prakriti, the Power to its own self development and the Samadhi, physical siddhi and Karma alone left for the present field of the stimulative action of the Will aiding Prakriti.
Trikaldrishti has to be liberated from the dregs of possibility; lipi from the remnants of the obstruction in the akasha; rupa from the denial of stability in the higher forms; prakamya-vyapti from the interference of elemental thought-images; samadhi from sleep & dream; power from the akashic obstruction to subjective reception and objective fulfilment; bhautasiddhi from defect of anima; primary utthapana from adhogati and the remnants of defect of anima; ananda from interruption and the obstruction by weaker nerve-elementals influencing the body; arogya from the habit of symptomatic recurrences. This field is almost conquered, subject to the last obstinate resistance.
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r1913 01 06, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The morning there was a rapid movement forward in knowledge. The progress of the trikaldrishti is tending to eliminate the sources of intellectual error and the thought perception and vangmaya thought between them are taking charge of all trikaldrishti not appertaining to this immediate existence or in this life to the progress of the siddhi. Perception of past & future lives of others is reestablished. All these perceptions are necessarily beyond immediate verification; the action of the Vijnana is swayamprakasha. Their intellectual justification rests upon the ample daily proof of the soundness of the supra-intellectual faculty by which they are received, and the only remaining cause of doubt is the remnant of intellectual activity (external) and therefore of error which interferes with the Vijnana-perception. Vani, conducted by one of the Shaktis, has asserted its authority and is proving its veridicity. Lipi is preparing the final proof of its truthfulness. The faith in the vani, thought & trikaldrishti is now ample except in the one field unconquered. Yesterdays lipi promising a change from steady to energetic battle with the opposing forces, is being fulfilled; the tejas is taking possession of the mentality & pouring itself out in the struggle, without the rapid exhaustion which used formerly to throw back the Adhara into udasinata or shama. The other lipi death of the difficulties, has already begun to be fulfilled in the siddhi of the knowledge.
There is a tendency in the rupa to develop groups and paintings with their colours, but the obstruction in the akasha maintains itself & prevents the efflorescence of the rupadrishti which is waiting, perfect and richly-equipped, in the sukshma akasha for its hour of manifestation. The images of the swapna samadhi were once more of the richer & brighter kind, but the dreams were more incoherent and ill-remembered. Kamananda is more persistent in recurrence, but has not yet established continuity. The other parts of the physical siddhi are heavily obstructed and do not move forward; to a less extent the power; only knowledge, trikaldrishti and lipi are moving forward irresistibly.
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r1913 01 09, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Another slight clash seems to be passing away. Todays telegrams all show the exact working of the Will except with regard to Adrianople, which is the one serious point of attack. Especially the action of the Powers, the situation at Constantinople and the opinion of the Triple Alliance with regard to the Aegean islands are in exact consonance with the line laid down by Will & prakamya vyapti. Today, the action of the Vijnana is very much confused owing to the necessity of harmonising finally tejas & tapas with prakasha & dasya in the intellect. Always, the intellect & manas have been the field of their discord and incompatibility, & though they now agree well enough in the higher ideal or idealised movements ( Vijnanamaya or Vijnana yantrita), the manomaya movements which besiege the system from the external kshetra are still full of the old confusion. Yet the lipi has insisted on today as a period of rapid progression. Up till now, this does not appear.
Afternoon.
The siddhi of the visrishti & freedom from satiety long combated and diminished has momentarily collapsed. Kamananda, although its activity has not disappeared, has at present no hold on the body. The physical siddhi persists in its retrograde motion. The external tapas is now falling away again from the system and is giving place to tapas under control of the dasyabuddhi .. The samadhi has suddenly & without farther difficulty acquired siddhi in the Vijnana & saviveka samadhi, corresponding to the savichara and savitarka of the intellectual classification. The thought, whether as perception or vangmaya, maintains itself on the Vijnanamay level, the intellect in a state of perfect passivity, only receiving it, even in the deepest swapnasamadhi which amounts to a practical sushupti of the manas & its silence in the mahat. It was because the system was accustomed to fall into sushupti whenever the manas-buddhi became inert, that this siddhi could not formerly be accomplished. Now the mind becomes inert, sushupta, but activity proceeds on the Vijnanamaya level on which the Purusha is now jagrat in the body, and that activity is received by the inert intellect. Nevertheless owing to the great inertia of the intellect at the time, the thought is sometimes caught with difficulty, hardly remembered on waking, or, if remembered, then soon afterwards lost to the recollection. The intellect catches it, but does not get a good grasp upon it. The Vijnanamay memory must become active, if the thought & vision of samadhi are to be remembered. This higher memory is developing, not swe dame, but on the intellectual plane; things are now remembered permanently without committing them to heart, which formerly would not have been remembered even for a day if they had been even carefully learned by heart eg the first verse of Bharatis poem, in Tamil, not a line of which was understood without a laborious consultation of the dictionary. Yet although an unknown tongue, although no particular attention was paid to the words or their order everything remains in the mind even after several days. Formerly even a verse of Latin, English, Sanscrit carefully studied & committed to memory, would be lost even in a shorter time. The siddhi of the Vijnana samadhi shows that the Purusha is now rising into the Vijnana or preparing to rise; the manomaya is becoming passive, the Vijnanamaya Purusha, so long secret & veiled by the hiranmaya patra of the buddhi, is beginning to reveal himself, no longer indirectly, but face to face with the lower man.An initial siddhi is also preparing in script communication.As was predicted earlier in the day, the sahitya-siddhi has extended itself to poetry this evening & the long obstruction of the poetic faculty is passing away. The epic style has been recovered and only the dramatic remains. Fluency in all will come back during the month, spontaneous & immediate perfection hereafter within these two months .. The lipi is now being freely & naturally utilised for knowledge; there is no farther need of any attention to its development or to the farther development of the vani or script. Only the trikaldrishti & the Power still need attention (apramattata), and the rupadrishti & samadhi still need the help of the Will for their wider development or their more perfect perfection.
The siddhi of the vijna[na]maya level for the Thought in samadhi does not extend to the vision; for this reason the dreams are still intellectual records or attempts to record rather than the actual vision of things and events, except when the dream is replaced by vision. Even then it is often savikalpa rather than sadarsha samadhi. The dreams last night (those remembered) were again of consecutive & well connected records; this time the present ego sense was carefully excluded and only once a present association interfered with the accuracy of the record. A rapid movement in trikaldrishti is promised and one in rupa indicated.
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r1913 01 10, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Secondary utthapana of neck & legs this morning, but not for long, as the adhogati succeeded in enforcing defect of anima .. The morning began with a clouded state, in which however Bhasa & Nirukta [proceeded];1 in both the weariness of adhogati born of difficulty is being allowed to manifest according to its power & extruded. It is no longer able to prevent work or stop its continuity, but it can still limit the length of time which can be devoted to a single work & prevent any difficult work or drudgery being pursued unweariedly from day to day [without]2 intermission. The Vijnana is now sufficiently developed for regular literary work to be resumed, but the physical adhogati & alasya has yet to be extruded. For this condition to be fulfilled, the reaction in the physical siddhi (health, utthapana, ananda) has to be got rid of & its forward march resumed. It is promised that this movement will begin today.
The obstacle to the trikaldrishti from the enemy which consisted in inability to decide on the event, is being removed & those movements which formerly presented themselves falsely and dimly as the event, are now revealed luminously as the thought in the person or the force or tendency moving it. Prakamya of the thoughts of others which so often came & went, in a half-clear half-confused movement, has by this success become clear & luminous & its objective sign in the corresponding movement, pause or ingita is so clearly shown that even the intellect cannot doubt the truth and accuracy of the siddhi. There is still confusion as to the time, place & order of circumstance of the event foreseen.
The vani, script, lipi and thought are now being used normally & habitually for the life-purposes. The trikaldrishti and prakamyavyapti, alone among the instruments of Vijnanamaya knowledge, remain to be drawn into this normal movement. Apramattata is no longer necessary for the ordinary movement of the trikaldrishti, but is still necessary for the trikaldrishti of exact time, place and circumstance; in the prakamya-vyapti it is only necessary in order to prevent errors as to the source of the vyapti or the exact relations of the things perceived. This necessity will today be removed. The action of the power is beginning to be normal, although as yet very far from uniformly successful. The clear shabdadrishti, free from adhara, has now definitely begun. The persistent doubt suggested as to the sukshmatwa of the gandhadrishti has now been finally put at rest, for one smell, that of cheese, impossible of material occurrence here has been repeated strongly & persistently in order to dispel the hesitation of the intellect. Rasadrishti is also extending its field, although not yet as vigorous as the gandhadrishti.
The necessity of apramattata has been removed from all the parts of the Vijnanasiddhi except rupadrishti and samadhi; the rest will be accomplished henceforth by the unaided direct action of the Para Shakti. Rupa developed to a certain extent, but still fails to overcome its one remaining difficulty. Swapnasamadhi was absent; the dreams, though clear & consecutive, slightly confused by the mixing of historical names (not thought of for years past,) and one or two present associations with the actual chain of incidents. The present ego was also prominent in the central figure.
A violent struggle over the roga (digestive) began with success, passed through failure and ended again in success. There has been a strong reaction of asiddhi in the roga ending today in an attack of incipient diarrhoea, but the sense of health was persistent throughout & the whole system except the pure bodily part, remained unaffected by the attack. Even the body was free from any loss of strength or ananda; on the contrary the ahaituka ananda was strong not only in the mind but in the prana & the anna. Mukti therefore is almost perfect, although touches of the indriya-nirananda occasionally return.
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r1913 01 11, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Contrary to past experience, trikaldrishti was active from the first this morning & its action had not to be resuscitated after the inaction of sleep; but the trikaldrishti of exact time, place & arrangement was in abeyance owing to the dullness of the Vijnana in the physical brain. Lipi is also active from the first, but rupa and power in abeyance.
Today the dasya in the third degree will be confirmed, the rupadrishti overcome its last obstacle, the samadhi develop in its deficient parts, the secondary utthapana progress. Kamananda will reassert its control & the shadow that has materialised in the health be removed. The action of the Will will pass over entirely into the fourth chatusthaya, in which Power will establish its control. Trikaldrishti will become more widely active.
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The samadhi is developing in its deficient parts, lipi in swapnasamadhi, shabdadrishti in jagrat, but the development is slow and impeded. Swapna-samadhi by flashes is frequent, but still fails to hold the Vijnanamay level or to attain continuity. Secondary utthapana made slight progress before the prediction was written. The action of the Will is passing away from the rupadrishti & the samadhi, but not yet passed. The Power is working on the body & has already diminished the abnormal insistence of the jalavisrishti & got rid of the stress of the abnormal parthiva visrishti. There is strong resistance to the fulfilment and the mental parts have been all day in a state of confused action. Nothing clear & decisive yet emerges.
The news today are the reverse of favourable, although in consonance with the trikaldrishti, which expected the emergence of a yet stronger trend against Turkey. Aiswarya in the karma is strongly hampered and to a certain extent baffled.
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r1913 01 13, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The power of perceiving beforehand, while reading, what is immediately to follow, even without sufficient data, yet accurately, is also reviving & manifesting itself more decisively than before. Today the Kadambari was read, no longer with the ordinary (intellectually intuitive) linguistic faculties at their highest working, but with these faculties not so swift, yet aided by the extraordinary or Vijnanamaya Bhashashakti, especially prerana, viveka & sahajadrishti. Moreover these three faculties have not only shown no diminution by their long inaction of many months in this field, but emerge with a clearer and more decisive action.
Samadhi, today, reenriched itself with drishti of the spoken shabda, ie to say human voices & words reaching the ear as if overheard and, in addition, memory of the thing seen reemerges. Three shabdadrishtis were distinct, a female voice saying ?, another saying simultaneously in quite another scene ! and Ramaswamys voice, saying I dont know what; a fourth, Ramaswamys voice again, said something which did not reach the supta ear clearly. Things seen were a darbar hall, the interior of an Indian house, a door in a river-steamer, a long railwaysaloon, several figures; the rest are forgotten. Tamasic nidra could not be extruded from the swapna samadhi, which had finally to be abandoned.
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r1913 01 14, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
There is a growing passivity in the intelligence and the physical struggle is being made the instrument for the renunciation of intellectual judgment, the remnants of which are at present the chief obstacle to the possession of the whole system by the Vijnana. Trikaldrishti & jnana are taking possession of the script, the vanis, the thought perceptions as well as the vangmaya thought, but the process cannot be completed owing to the excessive tapas, tejasic or tamasic, on the thing seen which converts a truth into a falsehood by overstressing it & so overprolonging its applicability in time or place or exaggerating its results. The perception of the locality of things or people not seen or their personality or nature is becoming stronger, but not yet sufficiently precise; e.g. a thing not found, it is at once known whether it is in the room or not and vaguely indicated that it is in such a place or in a place of such and such a nature, anyone knocking at the door, it is indicated who is at the door or else what class of person; in the morning, it is invariably indicated whether the girl is coming immediately, a little later or much later etc. If once the excess of tapas is removed, there is no reason why intellectual infallibility should not be established; for then the other obstacle of uncertainty will have nothing on which to feed its existence. The fulfilment of the powers of Knowledge & the accomplishment of the divine Satyam are therefore certain, although the time of fulfilment is not yet revealed; for after the general working of the power is established without defect, there will still remain its perfect application to Bhasha, Nirukta, Itihasa, Darshana, Kala, Dravyajnana etc. The powers of Force, Kriyashakti, are less surely developed, although they are growing, & their success in particular instances is slow, often uncertain, in many things inoperative, especially in the objective world, but also in the subjective. It is this difficulty & opposition which has to be attacked in its centre by applying the Powers to the karma and to objective happenings and movements.
In yesterdays programme, only the first item was thoroughly fulfilled. In the second, there was a progress; the samadhi overcame the obstacle to continuity, but the continuity attained was slight; the rupadrishti succeeded only in the barest possible manner, the momentary stability of a perfect form, the longer stability of a form developed but not sufficient in material substance. Aishwarya began the movement towards generalising success, by trying to get rid of such willings as are not consonant with the central movement of the Supreme Will, but the process is not yet complete; the struggle continued in health, utthapana & kamananda, but they did not prevail, except in effecting an obscure, moderate & preparatory success & in streng thening the force of their sukshma vaja or subtle material substance, of which, however, shansa, the actual bringing out into material being has not yet been realised. Chitraratha and Madira still increase.
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Several predictions have followed, but as they are experimental in their nature, they need not be recorded. Samadhi has been antardrishta jagrat with lipi and thought. There was proof of an increased bodily force and pravritti, but not yet of sufficient dharanasamarthyam (dhriti, sthairyam) of a single occupation. Yet it is alleged that [two of the]2 essential requisites demanded before the literary work could be allowed to recommence, play of Vijnana and sufficient primary utthapana both in body & brain, are already accomplished, though they have to be confirmed in the karma; but the third, equipment, is yet wanting. Aishwarya is generalising itself slowly, but has not yet got rid of the mere tapasic volition which can create a force or tendency, but not produce the required effect. The perfect aishwarya either produces an immediate particular effect, (that being the limit of the thing willed), or a final result, without regard to the immediate or intermediate steps, or produces a final result through or subsequent to certain particular steps which may constitute the whole or a part of the apparent nimitta (immediate karana) of the final effect (karya). The first form is already strong and frequent, the second works, but with great slowness and infrequency, the third is yet rare & undeveloped. Trikaldrishti is effecting its siddhi with regard (1) to place, (2) to ordinarily unforeseeable effect. Rupadrishti is developing, in the daylight, long stability of images complete and incomplete and variety of image, (tejas, chhaya, chhayamay, tejomay & agnimaya varna). Script is free and active. Consideration of kartavyam akartavyam is finally disappearing, in its remnants, out of the supreme dasya.
In the evening the rupadrishti began to develop variety of perfect forms, but did not advance in stability. Swapnasamadhi was scanty, but the tendency towards continuity persevered in its struggle with the escaping drishti. Sleep which has recently been excessive, fell back to its normal level of six to seven hours. Kamananda, throughout the day, frequent & increasing in its hold on the body, has not yet recovered its tendency to continuity.
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r1913 01 15, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The stage now reached by the trikaldrishti is one in which sraddha, blind faith, is demanded in all suggestions which are not corrected by the viveka. The mind is to question nothing & correct nothing. If this is done, then the faith will be justified by absolute truth being established. A similar faith is demanded for the fulfilment of aishwarya, ishita, vyapti, although the full justification will be a little slower in coming. In fact, this movement of faith has to cover the whole range of the Vijnanamaya activity.
The first results of this movement of sraddha were adverse, as the enemy who now fight from a distance only in these matters, sent in strong & persistent volitions of possibility like a cloud of arrows to confuse the knowledge & destroy the faith; afterwards the movement was righted with the result that the whole Vijnana is now acting normally & uninterruptedly & variability in the instruments of knowledge & power need no longer be feared, except the minor variability of greater or less force & perfection. Trikaldrishti & aishwarya do not yet act with absolute perfection or unerring success, for volition of possibility is still active & exact time, place & circumstance are still the exception rather than the rule in both power & objective knowledge. The uncertainty therefore remains; but normally the trikaldrishti is roughly correct or often exactly correct even as regards place and circumstance, less so as regards time & order, & the fulfilment, normal or striking, slow or rapid, of the power is now more the normal movement than its entire or final failure.
Arogya is steadily reestablishing itself, but there are still one or two serious defects. The slow therapeutic power works except in particular cases, the swift therapeutic power which showed itself once or twice at an earlier stage, is conspicuously absent except in very minor movements or in cases in which little interest is taken or little power is used, for these the enemy do not think it worth while to oppose.
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r1913 01 16, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
1) Trikaldrishti has now to replace entirely the action of the intelligence; that is, nothing has to be done by judgment, logical reason, speculative imagination, sanskara born of memory; but even the most trifling and unimportant things have to be known by Vijnana agencies. Where Vijnana does not give light, there has to be no judgment, conclusion or even speculation. Aishwarya has to be utilised only where there is perception of the Divine Will behind; it has no longer to reflect in any way the movements of the manomaya Purusha or the manomaya Shakti. Lipi has to get rid of the obstacle in the Akasha which prevents it from manifesting with a successful and easy vividness. Rupa & Samadhi have to continue their struggle and progressively prevail. 2) Kamananda has now to move towards continuity of the more intense form and entire continuity of the less intense. Arogya has to expel the symptomatic survivals in the assimilation and kamachakra. Secondary utthapana, established in its generalised activity, has to increase the force of pure mahima and of anima. Saundarya must still struggle with its obstacle without as yet prevailing and the Aishwarya with the obstacle to the equipment.
Letter from Biren showing an improved mental state and a vague dawning of vyapti & speculative trikaldrishti. An instance of success in subjective-objective in its subtler or more subjective parts. The power of the aishwarya-vyapti in the subjective-objective field is now considerable and daily successful, but its compulsion on the objective action is still meagre. Today, as was foreseen, there is a fresh instance of train collision in England and the perception that the Viceroys health would not be seriously affected, is justified.
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In the evening Rupadrishti developed in the crudest forms a greater variety and completeness. Samadhi at night was barren & the dreams confused in record. Aishwarya showed a considerable increase in force and each exercise of will was successful. Vijnana became active, though not yet well-harmonised, in its various parts and lipi more in possession of the akasha, though still obliged to use an effort in order to manifest; there was a perfect intelligibility and appositeness in most of the lipis and a full play of interpretation of the various objective materials of trikaldrishti. The subjective powers of knowledge have passed their period of effort and difficulty; only the objective material is still unable to deploy itself easily & richly in the material akasha. Power is beginning to accomplish its firm mastery, although still hampered in the matter of equipment and slow in other provinces. There is fresh proof of its efficacy in karma.
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r1913 01 17, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
A larger movement of the Vijnanasiddhi is commencing today, in which it will be unnecessary to note every minute advance. Perfect passivity is its basis; brihat, vast abundance will be its field; satyam its atmosphere; ritam its line of definiteness. Mechanical perfection will spontaneously emerge in its apas. Already the lipi has commenced; to compass abundance is its first action and to that end it is compelling the sthula akasha to admit lipi wherever the eyes are cast,legible lipi, pale at first, then pale chequered by intense, finally, the intense. Rupa this morning has followed up the movement of the night in crude forms. In the afternoon it has remanifested frequent chitra rupa and sthapatya rupa; both of these forms have at once taken possession of their old perfection in single figures, groups and landscapes. Lipi in the afternoon has attained to easy vividness, although there is still a certain difficulty and malaise in its movement, coming and staying, though much less in the chitra & sthapatya than in akasha lipi. In trikaldrishti the movement is towards the perfect correctness even of all the random external suggestions unverified by the viveka, but this is still subject to a certain inaccuracy of exact detail.
Rupa & swapna samadhi are now moving in the direction, first, of abundance, secondly, of the recovery of the old activities that have been lost by the action of the Vritras, thirdly, of the perfection of their materials. Dream at night was frequently confused. The physical siddhi suffered a slight reaction.
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r1913 01 18, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Since the above was written, prediction in the script has been justified; Successful struggle in Vijnana during the rest of the day, triumph in the evening. Rupa develops brihat with difficult[y], not yet perfection except in single figures. The struggle in the afternoon was successful in maintaining the minimum gains of the siddhi; in the evening the siddhi has triumphed, restored the akashalipi to its fullness, although it is still laboured, brought aishwarya forward, without as yet being able to get rid of ineffective aishwarya, developed a fair abundance of rupas (chitra, sthapatya, akasha) but with perfection & stability in the akasha only for some crude forms & some crude dense & crude developed, these, however, are entirely perfect, and began to justify tejas & tapas in their results. It is now increasingly evident that the condition of success in the future is the broad and general activity of the Vijnana including in itself all the members of the third chatusthaya and not any longer the separate development of each member by itself. Nothing fresh in the evening and night; activity of Vijnana, rupadrishti, samadhi, but no definite progress.
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r1913 01 20, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It would seem today as if the exaggerated tejas of mentality were finally dismissed from action as a result of last nights repetition of the old form of purificatory disturbance and crisis. Sthapatya & chitra rupa now manifest with considerable perfection and frequency. There is a movement towards the expulsion of the fragmentary recurrence of discomfort in particular sights, sounds, touches, smells which mars the perfection of the vishayananda (bhoga) in the indriyas. Manas in physical prana & manas in psychical prana may still keep recurrences of discomfort for a time, so that discomfort of physical pain and discomfort of apriya event may for a while survive; but there is no farther justification for the persistence of discomfort of apriya vishaya to the senses. The day was mainly occupied with a struggle to enforce the freedom of the Vijnana in all its parts. Rupa in chitra and sthapatya became very abundant; aiswarya increased remarkably in force, & trikaldrishti showed a tendency towards minute exactness. Kamananda was continuous in tendency, comparatively frequent in intensity, persistently recurrent in slighter manifestation. Arogya is increasing in force, but not yet victorious over its obstacle; utthapana variable.
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r1913 01 21, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Aishwarya-vyapti once more effective in subjective objectivity with a striking exactness; for the Turkish draft reply to the Note is couched in exactly the terms and contained exactly the reasons about Adrianople that had been suggested; even the modification about the Aegean islands, viz. the insistence on the coast islands alone, is the one that from the beginning was suggested & continually maintained by the thought and the ishita. Aishwarya also in Poincares election which seems at one point to have been in jeopardy. The progress in the Vijnana chatusthaya & the kamananda now continues like that of a creeping tide, throwing up waves always higher and seeming to retreat or rest for a moment, but in the result always advancing. Only in the physical siddhi other than ananda this movement as yet fails to establish itself. In the evening it took a much larger sweep and even the rupadrishti, which is the most sluggish of all the Vijnana siddhis, began to manifest abundance. The lipi given a few days ago rupas by the milliards, is now being accomplished, as already in chitra & sthapatya images are coming multitudinously and the salamba chitras & salamba rupas are beginning to follow suit. Crudeness, inconstancy & want of firm outline are the rule; on the other hand they have often great richness of colouring and not infrequent perfection of form, sometimes even of outline. The perfect developed or lifelike forms still occur, but rarely. In samadhi continuity of scene & action seem at last to be established, but only for the single act; still this minor continuity has occurred even in the jagrat antardrishta. The physical siddhi is obstinately disputed, especially health; even the kamananda is forcibly interrupted. Nevertheless this great change has been established in the sanskaras of the body that, while formerly it felt release from the continued ananda as a relief and as its normal condition of purity & freedom, now it feels continuity of it to be its normal condition and absence of it to be not purity but want, not freedom but a bondage.
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r1913 01 22, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
In the morning a strong harmonised movement of the Vijnana began & although attacked by the old asiddhi, it is not diminished, only hampered & momentarily deprived of its full movement. The improvement in the swapna-samadhi maintains itself. The atmosphere of kamananda has been constant, under strong ordeals, throughout the day, except for slight interruptions. This siddhi is in future sure of its natural development. The stress of the ishita has passed on to the arogyasiddhi especially and in a less degree to the saundarya and karmasiddhi. Arogya, during the day, was greatly streng thened, but dull symptomatic survivals still remain to hamper it. Coherent dream-record with only a slight admixture of present ego, present association and consequent confusion seems to be now well established. Sometimes present ego is entirely absent, sometimes present association, sometimes the resulting confusion; at times one or other of these defects gains in stress. In rare instances all are absent and the only defects of the record are those of omission of details necessary for perfect understanding.
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r1913 01 30, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Trikaldrishti of farther sea-accidents in the papers, of which the loss of a naval officer washed off his bridge, announced today, is a previous hint, showing the tendency still at work. The whole Vijnana is now organising itself on the basis of the Sat-Tapas & the progress of this movement has been the principal siddhi of the day. In addition Ananda, reaching a higher intensity late in the morning, maintained it till the evening, diminished only when walking. This is now the normal pitch of the Kamananda when it occurs, in a state of activity; at the lower pitch it remains in a state of rest.
***
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r1913 01 31, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Therefore in action there will be no planning, only seeing of the way the thing to be done will develop under the shaping of the divine Tapas whether through myself or others; in writing no composition, only the record of the vak as it flows down from above and forms itself in the Sat of Mind; in Yoga no sadhan, but only the acceptance of the self-organising movements of the anandamaya Vijnanamaya Prakriti as it progressively takes entire possession of this inferior mental & physical kingdom.
Todays news are mostly confirmative of the trikaldrishti or aiswarya; the running down of a sailing-vessel, confirming yesterdays perception; the rumour of the Karachi bomb-find proving to be a fact and not a newspaper invention, though probably a police fraud; the fresh demands and threats of Roumania; the falsity of the Vienna rumour; the Moorish resistance in Marrakesh; the Suffragette recrudescence. Only in the Turkish War the trikaldrishti has not worked well; for the imminent denunciation of the armistice reported from Vienna is contrary to what was expected, viz that the Allies would wait for the Turkish reply. It has to be seen, however, whether the report is correct.
--
(1) The shuddhi is complete except for the relics of intellectual action that impede the Vijnana and the occasional impacts of the old movements from the outskirts of the external swabhava.
(2) Mukti is complete except for the same fragmentary survivals.
--
(7) Vijnana is complete in jnana, established & effective in trikalsiddhi but still imperfectly organised, established in power but still imperfect in effectiveness and organisation, established in lipi but still weak in the richer varieties and not completely organised, established in rupa, but still poor and manifested with difficulty, except in chitra & sthapatya, established in samadhi but still hampered in continuity, poor in antardrishta jagrat, ill-organised and in jagrat shabdadrishti etc elementary & infrequent, established & effective in prakamya vyapti, but imperfectly organised, established in pranic mahima & laghima, but still resisted, deficient in anima.
(8) Ananda of the body is established, but not yet sovran. Arogya imperfect in assimilation and kamachakra, doubtful in phlegm centres & skin, otherwise established. Utthapana is established in the pranic basis, active in primary & secondary, but everywhere hampered by defect of anima; of tertiary there is as yet no sign. Saundarya is manifest only in the slow alteration of certain lines in the feet & the trunk and in its subjective basis of youthful feeling.
--
The movement of the siddhi in the immediate future must be in the totality of the seven chatusthayas. Not that all its members are equally developed, or that a separate stress on some of them is not still needed, but by the end of February this stress must have ceased and the whole must be united for the activities of life which are to replace the activities of the sadhana. Such siddhi as remains will grow by life and action and not by abhyasa in the ways of Yogic practice. The stress that is still necessary is due to the survival of the old elemental opposition which stands in the way of the siddhi being effectively expressed in life. This opposition is now a tamasic obstruction and will rapidly lose the little that it still keeps of the faculty of aggressive assault. Above all, the basis of samata is now perfect and once the medium of tejas is perfected, the instrument, Vijnana, will equally liberate itself from the obstruction and no farther opposition can then prevail against the ananda and the karmasiddhi, the apas and the lila.
January has been a period of strong increase and rooted establishment; February must be a period of perfect completion and faultless organisation, for in March, a new year begins.
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r1913 02 01, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Sat or Substance is now everywhere vyakta, Tapas is in activity, Ananda emergent, Vijnana in process of organisation. The first day of February has been outwardly a day of retardation, almost of relapse; for the trikaldrishti once more lapsed into a state of murky obscurity shot with light and halflit with erring illuminations, misplaced energy worked more than satya tapas, the body was overtaken by exhaustion or weakness, Ananda failed in sustained intensity. As usual, however, the movement was one of preparation, not of relapse, for the expulsion of these remnants, not a concession to their extant force. The karmasiddhi which seemed to have been once more attacked, emerged perfectly victorious in the immediate surroundings.. Ss [Saurins] interview with the Governor showed that the prakamyavyapti & the aishwarya were acting correctly; the news of the troubles of the opposition movement were still more strikingly in accord with the Will. A failure in the recurring problem was immediately corrected by the Will. The lipi safety of the S.C. was justified. In other directions of the karma a motion is visible. Although therefore there was no addition or definite increase in the siddhi, the current of preparation was perfectly visible. In addition, the most powerful tests & attacks failed to disturb the samata & shanti which can now be considered as established. The last general shadows of ashanti, duhkha and vishada may now be considered as slain, although momentary touches are sure to recur.
***
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r1913 02 04, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Strong persistence of fever, mainly in the sukshmadeha, but with fluctuating effects on the sthula, was the principal feature of the day. No change was made as to food, bathing etc, nor was physical exertion altogether suspended. The assimilative process continued in spite of the sanskaras that attempted to destroy it. Attempts were made to restore the old symptomatic affections under cover of the fever, but hitherto they have failed. Neither could any impression be produced on the clear working of the brain nor was literary work prevented. The general sraddha & tejas stood firm and continued to grow in spite of the adverse experience. The activity of the Vijnana and the utthapana chiefly suffered. Trikaldrishti was strongly obscured although it continued to act along with aishwarya in ordinary details. Ananda is not affected; there is ananda in the sensations of the fever. Samata is perfect.
Kamananda got rid of the tendency to fall into the implicit state. It subsides now at its lowest to a subdued ananda bordering on the implicit, but usually well manifest out of which the normal intensity emerges. Samadhi is now well established in variety, frequency and brief continued activity of scenes and images. Communication with the manasic world in the jagrat is now occurring; formerly there was drishti only of the pranajagat and the subtle Bhu.
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r1913 02 06, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
These two days have been of an old type long discontinued, in which the siddhi has been suspended almost entirely in all its imperfect parts and only those allowed to progress in which the attack could make no impression. In the present instance, it is the samata shanti sukha prasada which have stood a continued and violent test and emerged, as far as can be seen, entirely perfected. Shadows have fallen on the last two without being able to [affect]1 them substantially. Tejas of the nature of dhairyam and tapas of the Mahasaraswati type have also remained unaffected; there has been no sinking back into tamasic udasinata, although movements in that direction were attempted. Sraddha in the eventual Yogasiddhi has remained substantially unaffected, in spite of shadows, except that strong doubts have assailed the faith in the saundarya, the one member of the four chatusthayas for which there is as yet very meagre justification. On the other hand the Mahakali tapas has sunk into inactivity, after one strong battle in which it prevailed temporarily over the strongest resistance to the aishwarya. The Vijnana siddhi has been pale and fitful; physical siddhi heavily attacked and for the most part interrupted, even the kamananda sinking back into the implicit state from which the others fluctuatingly manifested. Sraddha in the adeshasiddhi and the rapidity of the yogasiddhi sank to the lowest terms now possible to the general faith.
MS effect
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r1913 02 12, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The Balaram-Aniruddha Bhava suffused with Pradyumna and based on concealed Maheshwara now governs the Yoga; but in the Prakriti, the Maheshwara bhava is not yet concealed. In neither is there as yet a very powerful energy of the Balarama or Mahakali bhava. The Vijnana has recovered its elasticity, the knowledge & sight of the sukshma world is increasing and the kamananda grows in intensity.
This movement continued throughout the day, ceased in the evening. The movement is towards the purification of error out of the trikaldrishti & aishwarya and dream, incoherence & insufficiency out of the samadhi. But the resistance in the akasha is still strong enough to prevent an unhampered rapidity of improvement. Health improves & grows stronger, yet the abnormal symptomatic affections, which have no longer any coherence or raison dtre, still recur or cling. Adhogati is persistent & prevents the established utthapana from frequently manifesting. Saundarya is still limited to its one or two imperfect details. Karmasiddhi develops, but slowly & against a considerable obstruction.
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r1913 03 15, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
St. . When the Vijnana is active, he (the Master of the Yoga) developing the initial Word, (OM, Brahman) declares all that follows.First, activity of the Vijnana, second, constant perception of the Brahman, third, knowledge of the world in the terms of the Brahman.
***
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r1913 04 01, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The first chatusthaya is now beyond the danger of successful attack except in the positive samata; a few touches of asamata & ashanti come occasionally, but soon die away. The second chatusthaya is feeble and ill-organised owing to the trivial nature of the siddhi and the failure of everything which would strikingly prove the Adesha. There is a general action of the Vijnana, but it is not yet extricated from falsehood and uncertainty, so that all that can be done is to watch results & see whether the perception is a truth or a misapplication. Rupadrishti is of the feeblest & samadhi fails to advance. Physical siddhi is only fragmentary & its progress successfully resisted. The sixth chatusthaya is present, but only when the attention is attracted to the Brahman. The fifth chatusthaya is also fragmentary and mingled with ill-success.
There has been a great activity of the poetical power which has acquired rapidity accompanied with forceful & effective inspiration, but not always with inevitable & illuminating inspiration. The attempt is now to maintain the invariability of the illuminated & inspired inevitability without diminishing the rapidity. This is in epic poetry. The foundations of a rapid & sure inevitability are being laid in other literary powers. Equipment (bare) for three months has been effected.
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r1913 04 12, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The great difficulty is the resistance in the physical akasha, first to the effective activity and, secondly, to the unmixed activity of the Vijnana. If the mixture of the old intellectual activity can be got rid of, the effective Vijnanamaya activity can be assured more rapidly. It is towards this end that the Power is now working. The immediate ends proposed are Brahman, Ananda external and internal, Arogya, effective Image in waking state & sleep and effective Trikaldrishti. The whole activity of the Yoga is being reconstituted. The rupas of all kinds appear though fitfully & with insufficient stability & frequency, in the waking state, & insufficient stability & continuity in sleep. The Brahmadrishti is now complete & less frequently forgotten & never lost. Kamananda, which had almost faded out, is reviving. The resistance in all directions still continues.
[Here all but two lines of a page left blank.]
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r1913 05 19, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The third or Vijnana-chatusthaya has now been well planted in the soil of the lower kingdoms of the being. Their contradictions have still to be excluded, their defects corrected, their force streng thened and their range extended. The fourth or physical siddhi, long the subject of serious doubt, is now commenced in all its parts and in some of them appears to be firmly rooted. The third can now be left to develop; the fourth and fifth alone still present serious difficulties, admit of prolonged & sometimes effective resistance and demand some struggle.
Suggestions.
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r1913 05 21, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
All the Vijnana siddhis are now permanently active and effective, but with defects and limitations & subject to the continued mental activity of mixed truth & falsehood which is still successfully maintained in the mental environment by the opposing tendencies of Prakriti and successfully thrust upon the mind in the form of suggestions. The rupa & samadhi formerly deficient have now a petty but sufficient regular fertility, which can be rapidly enlarged & eventually perfected. They still lack some of their old felicities, but when these return, they will no longer be fitful, uncertainly held & willed as formerly, but natural, spontaneous and a permanent possession. The rupas are principally embarrassed by the persistence of a few dominant images which shut out the others or replace them when they attempt to manifest. Another difficulty is the resistance obstinately offered to the emergence from the prana akasha of the perfect, as distinguished from the representative images.
In the physical siddhi, Ananda is the most advanced. The vishayanandas of the senses are all perfected in type, seldom contradicted, but as yet insufficient in intensity, except in the taste, where even it is uneven. The higher mental anandas are all present (prema, chidghana, shuddha), but as yet imperfectly active. Ahaituka ananda is constant in shanti, but not yet in active santosha. The sahaituka sharira anandas are established and growing; the ahaituka manifest but infrequent. Ahaituka kamananda is alone well-established, and awakes whenever recalled, but is still too much a matter of the will and not a self-acting dharma of the body. It can manifest now in any state, jagrat or samadhistha. Thirst has almost disappeared, though it made an appearance for two or three days, mostly in a suppressed form; but does not now occur even in the unusual heat of this summer. Hunger makes its appearance fitfully and is never intense & seldom prolonged; it is being rapidly replaced by hungerless bhojanananda. Heat & cold are still slightly effective on the body. Pain has turned into some form of ananda except in extreme touches, eg burning by fire, blows touching the bone, etc; but here it is only the immediate contact that is painful, the after effect is always anandamaya; in some touches, eg mosquito bite the habit of discomfort still continues, but is now occasional and not a dharma of the body. Pain of events is the one asamata of mind still persisting & then only as asamata of failure; this too is occasional, largely artificial and no longer a dharma of the mind.
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r1913 06 08, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The Vijnana chatusthaya to undergo a slight obscuration, before it emerges streng thened.
***
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r1913 06 09, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Vijnanasiddhi obscured & resisted; lipi & rupa rare; swapnasamadhi progresses
***
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r1913 06 27, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Besides these siddhis rupa is slowly developing & arrangement of prakamya vyapti as a basis of pure Vijnanamaya trikaldrishti is approaching completion. Meanwhile Vijnanadrishti is increasing in its intervention as a guide & arbiter of the mental perceptions in trikaladrishti. Vishaya bhoga is becoming more active & has regained its old relative perfection.
***
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r1913 07 01, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
3) The Vijnana chatusthaya is in complete, but not perfect, fertile or well-arranged activity.
4) The physical siddhi is still in the stage of formation.
--
During the day karmasiddhi of the sahitya (prose) strongly outlined itself, although the movement of the vak is not yet entirely sure of its detail. Work resumed. Natural and Supernatural Man; Aryan Origins; etc. The action of the Vijnana was not strong & definite, though at no time suspended or inefficient; the remnant of asiddhi was strongly in evidence. Relapse took place in the processes of assimilation, although the roga of tejasic looseness is becoming more and more exclusively physical & imposed from outside on the system. The physical siddhi as a whole was mostly in abeyance, except in dehashakti which, for the most part, resisted the ordinary effects of these relapses. An attempt was made to revive the perishing rogas, but it succeeded only in manifesting scattered touches.
With this entry, Sri Aurobindo returned to the notebook he had set aside on 21 May 1913.Ed.
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r1913 07 02, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
A sharp touch of yesterdays roga on awaking; free visrishti of bad assimilation. The chanda tejas, not suspended, is somewhat quiescent. In the morning quiescence of siddhi. In the afternoon trikaldrishti recovered its force and a normal accuracy of vyapti prakamya with the inspired vichara and vidhana (arrangement and right assignment of perceptions) accompanied by a slow movement of the deciding Vijnana (revelative intuition viveka). At the same time the shadow of uncertainty lingers and errors of placing and stress still continue. The thought (perceptive) is in a similar state of activity. Aishwarya still acts against a resistance sometimes successful, sometimes partially successful[,] sometimes ineffective. Occasionally the resistance is non-existent or so slight as to be only just perceptible. Communicative involuntary vyapti & swift fulfilment of lipsa-thought in small details are not infrequent. Kamananda inactive yesterday has revived, but is still very occasional. The Chanda tejas recovers force progressively. (5.30 pm).
For the last two or three days the siddhi of self-preservation & whiteness in the teeth has been swiftly recovering its force. For some months past the asiddhi had returned and the yellow film returned and deepened; now the lower teeth are again white with only a faint suggestion of the yellow shade. In the upper teeth the film is there in blotches, not covering the whole surface, but is rapidly dissolving. N.B. It is now more than four years since any artificial means of preservation or cleansing (brush, powder etc) were last used. In other respects, there are some faint signs of advance in saundarya, but none of these are decisive.
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r1913 07 05, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
None of these results are complete. In the trikaldrishti the movement is towards the exclusion of false stress & ascription of actuality in event by the mind and the accurate communication of event from Vijnana to the mind. In Aishwarya the faculty of dictating several successive movements is accomplished and this is done instantaneously without resistance & in the majority of cases the force is successful; but in many it has to be used with great insistence & coercive pressure to bring about a single result, and short periods of almost entire asiddhi occur, in which the force does not touch or hardly touches or touches ineffectively its various objects. The arogya that emerges is chiefly the assimilative power which in spite of denial of visrishti for four days[,] the jala visrishti being allowed only twice daily (yesterday 8-10 am & 8-20 pm), succeeds in throwing off all tendencies to assimilative disturbance except a fluctuating degree of flatulence which tends towards disappearance. The minor rogas (cold etc) which are being expelled still appear momentarily or in isolated touches as external intrusions appearing with or without provocation. Exposure to cold is still effective in assisting this kind of uneasiness. The Kali consciousness aware of Krishna as the Iswara attached itself to all the acts & experiences; but the Krishna personality was held back & the anna given over to other influences.
This last movement was the result of the attempt to execute with force of tejas a second programme, the attempt going through the usual stages. A violent attack of asiddhi, bringing confusion & sunlessness to all the Vijnana siddhis & general nirananda of impatience & asraddha, occupied the outer parts of the system. The first chatusthaya remained constant in the system proper, but the physical parts of mind responded to strong though unstable & unpoignant touches of doubt, depression of faith, impatience of asatya &, to a less degree, of asiddhi. In the system proper positive hasyam was alone affected, but atmaprasada remained intact.
The programme non-effectualised contained three considerable items
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r1913 07 07, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
(1) The perception of the truth underlying & contained in every subjective experience, thought, thought-suggestion, speculation etc, since all thought proceeds from the Vijnana which is satyam & not asatyam.
(2) The acceptance of every act of will, effort, impulsion, effectuating movement as a step in some process of Gods effective tapas, the perception of the final object of the process & of the immediate object effected, and the rejection of the idea of failure, sterility & inutility as attached to anything that happens in Gods world; since all action, event & impulse proceed from the Vijnana which is entirely ritam & failure & inutility would be anritam.
(3) The acceptance of every feeling & sensation as part of one divine thousand-faceted ananda without distinction of satisfaction or disappointment, right pleasure & perverse pleasure, comfort or discomfort, since all emotions & sensations proceed from the Vijnana which is brihat & bhuma & duality belongs to the alpam & the bheda.
These conditions have been partially effected, but the lacunae & defects in their siddhi must be got rid of and corrected, finally, for the upward movement.
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r1913 07 11, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
In accordance with the prediction the movement of the Vijnana from action in the slight, petty & detailed to action in the satyam, ritam, brihat was commenced. At first the knowledge was merely brihat in manas, hundreds of perceptions coming without order or right direction; then the satyam in this infinity came to be revealed not the ritam; every perception was found to be true, but not always true at the time & in the place & order of circumstance indicated by the mind. Subsequently the ritam commenced, the trikaldrishti occurring with perfect accuracy even in the mental & sunless perceptions, but before it could be completed, other preoccupations commenced which filled the rest of the day (kriti). The movement of dasya, tejas, aishwarya, samadhi to mahattwa were similarly interrupted. Kamananda, only occasional the day before,
[This entry was left incomplete. Three blank pages follow.]
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r1913 09 05b, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
In the evening and night the remnants of the days struggle and retrogression prevented progress. The mental suggestions still continued to be shot in from a distance and especially suggestions of unfaith, weariness and nirananda. All the powers of the Vijnana were clouded and partially inoperative, the strong physical dasyabuddhi of the afternoon partially covered, kamananda declining and less frequent. The system reverted to the udasina ahaituka ananda of former times continually assailed by touches of strong & often angry disquiet. This is the first determined relapse into old conditions after many months of essential freedom from any true disturbance of the samata-shanti-sukham. This morning opens with the same conditions. It appears that for the first time in these few months a lower strain of the physical mind in the external swabhava yet surcharged with the anritam & avidya has been upheaved and its devatas let loose on the adhara.
The trikaldrishti labours for correctness of minute circumstance & unvarying correctness of actual result, but does not as yet go beyond amplitude of prakamya vyapti with frequency of the actual result and occasional correctness of minute circumstance. There is still the predominance of the perception of working mental forces in which the result intended & perceived is sometimes carried out, sometimes crossed by a successful counter-force, and often a result not intended, a force never meant to prevail, is foisted on the mind as the prearranged actuality. The latter result is especially frequent because the physical stratum upheaved is one inhabited by blind mechanical movements of the involved & unexpressed mind in matter which correspond in Nature to the subconscious physical stirrings in us of which our conscious mind takes no least cognizance in its normal & organised workings. Disregarded & unrecognised they pass without visible effect, although they must have some determining force & contri bute to some result however slight of whose preparation we are unaware.
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r1913 09 07, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The morning began with a chequered movement. Afterwards, there came the lipi First God & liberty, then telepathy. The mind turned towards the perception of the Jnanam Anandam Brahma which has been increasing in force & persistence & perceived very powerfully the delight of Brahman in Avidya, limitation & suffering & the last knot of attachment to liberation was removed from the buddhi & the temperament. This liberation from mumukshutwa is the final step in mukti. It exists now in the buddhi & the soul, it has to be stamped firmly on the rest of the antahkaran. Afterwards, a very minute & brihat telepathy commenced the realisation in practical mentality of the Sarvam Anantam Jnanam Brahma. All the perceptions do not yet come at the right time, some revealing themselves after the thing perceived has passed out of the mind of the object. Nevertheless the movements of men & animals are now perfectly understood, their hesitations & rejected or modified ideas & impulses as well as those which eventuate in action. It is evident, now, out of what a complex mental tangle the single clear & decisive act proceeds. In the animals it is sometimes an obscure & sudden suggestion which contradicts all the previous thinking & tendency & often half consciously forces the action. But often also in them an impulse abandoned and forgotten by the mind remains in & dominates the subconscious pranic energy and dominates a subsequent action. The same is true but in a less degree of man. In the insects the mind counts for much less than this pranic energy. Subsequently the basis of the telepathic trikaldrishti was shown to reside in the perception of the movements of this pranic energy, Matariswan, which governs action, apo Matariswa dadhati. An ant was climbing up the wall in an upward stream of ants; there was no sign of its reversing its progress; but the trikaldrishti saw that the ant would turn & go down, not upwards. At first it made a movement of uncertainty, then proceeded upward, then suddenly left the stream and went steadily & swiftly downwards. Afterwards the source of the trikaldrishti was seen, a coming movement of pranic energy, prepared in the sat-Brahman, latent both to the waking consciousness of the ant & my own, but caught by the Vijnanamaya drishti. In another instance the same movement of energy was perceived in another ant and followed by an indicative movement, but it was also perceived that this was not the eventual impulse, & as a matter of fact a strong contrary tension intervened & carried the insect upward. In all these cases, the perception of the impulse by prakamya vyapti is not enough; the Vijnana distinguishing the nature & fate of the tapas is required to constitute trikaldrishti. All error now consists in the absence of this distinguishing perception or in the false mental stress which tends to replace its unerring accuracy.
***
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r1913 09 13, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The chief movement has been the development of the ideality, its increasing hold on the rebellious & self-acting intellectuality in the outer swabhava and the transfer of the mental activity to the ideal plane. Telepathy has increased to a considerable extent and embraces now the thoughts also, but is not always evenly active; in the use of the trikaldrishti it has become something of a stumbling block, as the rapid perception of the movements of impelling force, intention & impulse impresses the still active intellectual devatas with a false idea of actual result and tend[s] to shut out the event from the perception. Nevertheless the Vijnanamay determination of the actual event even in detail begins to be more frequently reflected in the intellectual parts and has some force but, usually, little or no jyotirmaya prakasha. Power varies, but has grown in insistence, success & grip on the akasha. Vani & script are still excessive in statement, but the inert element tends to pass out of them. Lipi is now well-established in activity; but is more usually perfect in chitra & sthapatya than in akasha where the old faults of paleness, insufficient legibility & fragmentary manifestation are still powerful. Incoherence has not yet been removed, but the power to interpret lipi, coherent or incoherent, has grown immensely & is only faulty, as a rule, when the Vijnana is clouded by the aprakasha & the intellect once more active. Rupa grows more fertile & is once more rich & perfect or almost perfect in chitra & sthapatya, (one defect is excess of human figures & defect of animal forms & objects), but in akasha it cannot yet compass the union of vivid clearness & stability. The obstruction here is still strong. Samadhi has increased in habitual coherence & continuity; even the lipi in sushupta swapna now tends to be coherent.
The physical siddhi is always resisted & put back in utthapana & saundarya; in ananda & arogya it is progressive with occasional retrocessions. Habituality of kamananda and frequency of the other physical anandas has considerably increased; also to a certain extent their intensity. A serious effort is being made to get rid of the obstinate fragments of eruption, headache, cold & stomach complaint which still recur needlessly in the system. Headache usually occurs only by vyapti from other adharas.
--
Later in the day deeper perceptions of the Vijnana were awakened, resulting in some remarkable effects of trikaldrishti; but these were afterwards confused by the invasion of external intellectual suggestions confusing, by falsity of stress, the ritam & the anritam. Nevertheless the faith in the Vijnana perceptions not immediately justified by the physical actualities grows in force and persistence. The power of the aishwarya over immediate results in the body increases; but is still deficient in the rapidity of final results, though more effective than of old.
***
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r1913 09 14, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
(Yesterday) [i.e. the 14] An attack on the health (assimilation) brought about a suspension of the kamananda & attempt at asiddhi; dominated early in the afternoon. The tejas is now beginning to fulfil itself against the tamas; its predictions being correct or corrected by the Vijnanamaya prakasha. Lipi, rupa & samadhi continued steadily to gain in habitual force; but in the latter two the akasha is not yet clarified of the main obstruction. Trikaldrishti is habitually correct even in rough detail & often in exact detail, but with an element of erroneous & perverting stress on the telepathic impressions and considerable gaps and lacunae. Utthapana somewhat weakly recommenced in arms, neck and legs. The struggle, successful on the whole, still continues with the remnants of the old slighter ailments, eruption & cold. The former has no tejas & there is usually the eruption without the irritation. The latter is losing tejas, but is persistent. Roga of the assimilation has still an occasional force as in the morning. In the saundarya the lower range teeth have retained their whiteness, only slightly stained at first with a shadow of yellow, for five days, (formerly one day could hardly be registered,) and the upper are getting clarified to an extent not yet experienced since the reaction began or even before it. There is as yet no sign of reaction. In other directions the reaction holds or allows only a slow and doubtful progress in one or two details. Sahitya steadily continues, but only in short flows of energy.
***
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r1913 09 19, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The teeth this morning have recovered their whiteness though some shadow of the yellow tinge hangs over them & its actuality is a little heavy, comparatively, in the side teeth. The reaction in the upper range has lightened. Kamananda continues but with suspensions & with a varying intensity. Inspired speech of the second order (illuminative-effective-inspired) took possession of the thought with very little trouble, but is now silent (9 am) and thought perception is once more active, mixed intellectual & ideal governed by Vijnana-perceptions. This time the Master of the Yoga has rejected shama definitely as the agent of rehabilitation and enforced that function on pravritti which discharges it still with a hampered power owing to the siege of mental tapas. Script has been taken possession of by the governing force.
Today, the disturbance created yesterday continued in its after effects, chiefly in want of faith. Finally, calm and ananda returned and the control of the divine guidance manifested. Kamananda was less intense, trikaldrishti & aishwarya very broken & the siege of the external intellect persistent and heavy. Samadhi made no progress, rupa only in the arrival of akasha rupa on a background, but lipi recovered & increased its force.
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r1913 09 29, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Asamata still comes in the physical brain; therefore it is sometimes thought that it is possessing the mind & heart, but it only touches the outskirts & departs. Even this remnant is taking too long to expel owing to the liability of the physical brain to be clouded which prevents the Vijnana from fixing itself on the whole being except in & through the intellectuality. The finality of accuracy in detail of time, place & circumstance must now be well established.
The time has come to distinguish always between truth and error, even in the trikaldrishti. It will not be done perfectly at once, but finally in itself and, for the rest, in its application progressively.
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r1913 09 30, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The perfect establishment of invincible udasinata & firmly founded faith yesterday in the bhava of Mahakali assures a free course to the siddhi; in order that it may be rapid the defect in the subjective objectivity of the Bhuvar has to be removed, the attempt to hamper, obstruct, limit or even deny the tejas, tapas & prakasha. The trikaldrishti is now firm & acts with comparative ease, but not sufficiently swift & spontaneous and it is besieged and limited in its range, perfect only in the completeness of its intellectual apparatus. The habit of confused suggestions between which the Vijnana has to distinguish, must be eliminated; the revelation & inspiration replace the vivek as the most frequent & important activities of the Vijnana. The aishwarya etc are not yet lifted into the ritam.
These things however will now inevitably fulfil themselves. The barrier to the rupadrishti has also at last been broken & the remaining difficulties in that & in the swapna-samadhi will now follow suit. The concentration of the tapas is now in the physical siddhi and in the physical siddhi it must be on the saundarya especially, for all else is prepared for progress, even the secondary utthapana is now again under way. Only in the saundaryam is Vritra really powerful, & to a certain extent in the adesh-siddhi.
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r1913 11 11, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The shakti chatusthaya is defective in faith & force. Both depend on the growth of the Vijnana in the actuality.
The vijnnachatusthaya is now the chief subject of the sdhana, strong in knowledge, growing towards strength in power, deficient in range of being. The first two must grow by abhyasa alone; lipi needs some abhyasa still, but is on the point of a greater perfection; rupa & samadhi still need some tapas & much abhysa.
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r1913 11 13, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The mind need not always take an anticipatory part in the script. It is enough that it should receive and follow. At present the old habit of unintelligent pranic reception & suggestion has once more a dominant play in the outer swabhava. The Vijnana in the trikaldrishti is apt to be quiescent.
Discomfort of sensation suddenly revived in a high degree takes possession of the annakosha, & the progress is for the rest of the day arrested except for a slight movement in telepathy & trikaldrishti & aishwarya.
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r1913 11 14, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Today is to be a day of rapid progress in the third chatusthaya and the preparation of rapid progress in the fourth. The Vijnana once active again, will clear out the anritam. It is from tomorrow, not today that the karma has to be resumed.
There is now a natural tendency to discover the sense & the actuality even of the most random thoughts, that wandering through the dishah, strike on the inner sravana. The telepathy increases constantly in range & success and commands confidence from the mentality.
The pranic suggestions, false as eventual actuality, are now entirely seen to be truths in actuality of force & tendency, and are finally accepted. It is true that their activity is puzzling to the mind which misinterprets, more often than not, the truth suggested. But the mind is now disciplined and will soon be able to receive the light of the Vijnana perfectly, even in the outer swabhava where alone it has, now, any real activity.
Arogya
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r1913 11 18, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The second chatusthaya is still capable of check and thin cloudings, owing to the non-fulfilment of tapas and prakasha. But this defect does not belong to itself; it is a reflex action from the violently obstinate obstruction to the Vijnana. The yuddhalipsa and ananda in check and obstruction must be perfected in order to overcome this reactionary tendency. They will henceforward be insisted upon till they are secure from attack.
The force of the Vijnana is once more clouded, but it is only for a short time.
The doubt & inertia are in error, not the tejas and tapas. It is true that the siddhi is successfully obstructed in the three positive chatusthayas, but the obstruction is itself a means for a greater siddhi. The mere physical impact on the prana, giving an impression of doubt, discouragement or asamata, is of no essential importance for the mind refuses to receive the impression & even the psychical prana rejects it quickly. The one thing that still affects the mind is doubt. The faith in the Adesh and in the rapidity of the siddhi is now about to establish itself beyond serious clouding in the light of Surya. It will take a few days to eliminate the causes of doubt, but they will produce no effect when they come.
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r1913 11 24, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The guiding vani has now begun to descend consistently from above and manifest in the Vijnanabuddhi. Manifestation in the manasabuddhi is henceforth to be discouraged,not only of the vani, but of the knowledge & power movements. The script is also assuming consistently the same character. This is no new movement, but the culmination of a movement that has long been in progress.
1) Lipi Intellectual kinesisie to be finally discontinued.
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Last night the Vijnana-buddhi made a preliminary self-arrangement, which has been disturbed this morning & gives glimpses of itself only through clouds. This Vijnanabuddhi has now to arrange its movements in the surya jyotis.
Kamananda has to recover its recurrent activity.
The tapas, active in the lower estate of being in front of a veiled Chit and blind to it or to all but a few illuminations from it mostly ill-directed by the gropings of the manas in the twilight of the manasa buddhi, is in the higher estate of being and must therefore be in this siddhi, first a selected activity of the Chit on the background of the luminous Chit and ultimately a reproduction or cumulative result of the Chit. Henceforward therefore the tapas and the faculties of power, aishwarya, ishita, vashita must be habituated to act on the background of the knowledge, first as the selected activity, then as the cumulative result. Knowledge of the general state of being & of the forces at work in any given Apas is now fairly perfect in wideness (brihat) & in satyam; but the defect of the ritam arises in the attempt of manasabuddhi either as stress of speculation, mental knowledge tapas, (manasasmriti, judgment, imagination, memory working on observation & by inference) or as stress of mental will-tapas to select the event or the decisive force out of the Sat & the Tapas. Henceforth the tapas must act on the basis of the Vijnanabuddhi eliminating the remnants of mental tapas of will & knowledge.
The full asamata is once more manifest in the system, with duhkham, and the authority of the sources of knowledge is denied; conflicting assertions are once more proceeding from the vani.
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r1913 11 25, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Faith is not yet restored, nor is the disorder in the system yet righted; touches of lighter asamata continue. On the other hand the siddhis persist, though in a state of imperfection and alternating or mixed with [asiddhi].1 Vijnanabuddhi is not yet established. Shanta udasinata mixed with active movements of ananda is the prevailing condition.
The news in the papers today seems to indicate, if entirely true, the samula vinasha of the Europeanised revolutionary movement in India. If that is a true indication, it is a step in the right direction; but appearances are so deceitful that future events must be watched before the indication can be trusted. The old confidence in the selective trikaldrishti as opposed to the trikaldrishti of tendencies & possibilities has been too much undermined for me to accept any longer even the most obvious suggestions, especially where the mind interprets events in the sense of my own desires.
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Aishwarya is no longer an occasional output of will working upon an obstinate plastic material, but a powerful Shakti struggling with another powerful Shakti. The opposing force is still habitually the occupant of the Akasha and successful when not overborne by a strong & persistent pressure. The weakness of this movement, although it is capable of bringing about sudden powerful results, is that it establishes only a momentary force in the Akasha, instead of a permanently growing Power of Nature in the material ether which will form a dominant centre of Kali always responsive to the Purusha in this Adhara. It is noticeable that when this Shakti fails in its effort, the object after executing a contrary or different movement, returns to fulfil the original will when the struggle is over. This seems to show that the adverse Power in the akasha is also not a native of the Akasha & therefore has little more staying power than the Shakti of this Adhara. It is stronger only by use of the previously existing natural obstruction in the ether considered as a plastic material. It is also noticeable that when the object sits tight in its resistance, circumstances often arrive which compel it to execute the willed movement. None of these features are new; they date from the commencement of this sadhana (of the Vijnana) three years ago (in 1910 on first coming to Pondicherry). At times they have seemed to be on the point of being corrected in the sense of a perfect siddhi (within a very limited range) & so it was more than once confidently recorded; but now the same features occur in a much wider range of activity. This is apparently what is immediately intended by a recent lipi, It is useless to distinguish life from Yogasiddhi. It remains to be seen whether, as is suggested, these limitations are so powerfully brought forward, because they are on the point of being removed. The last defect is the tendency to create only a temporary result, then relapse, then succeed, & so slowly move to some kind of final success. Unless this defect is removed the rapidity so often promised cannot come.
The Brahmadrishti is now well-regulated, but still depends on smarana, the Sarva, Ananta & Ananda are more prominent than the Jnana Brahman.
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r1913 11 28, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Utthapana of the neck for half an hour; Mahima & laghima were strong though not yet entirely perfect, but Anima very defective; strong & troublesome pressure on the nerves & veins of the neck and back of the head, but not an overpowering pressure. Utthapana of the right leg for 7 minutes only in the middle position, Anima & Mahima very weak, laghima satisfactory; of either leg successfully in the horizontal position for 5 and 6 minutes, Mahima insufficient, Anima very weak. The morning chiefly spent in Veda & Life Divine. Subjective siddhis dull owing to flagging of the Vijnanabuddhi. In this reactionary state Ananda is dull in the purely physico-vital parts of the indriyas though strong in the mental and intelligent parts, the other siddhis sink to a low intensity and show whatever imperfections are still defectively purged out of them. Mahasaraswati tapas with the Maheshwari basis sometimes covered, sometimes visible through a thin veil of Mahasaraswati bhava.
Recurrence on a small scale of the crisis of asiddhi in the first two chatusthayas centred in asraddha. After repeating the stereotyped movements, it gradually disappeared, leaving however a diminished faith and tapas.
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r1913 11 30, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
In the evening jnana of perception & jnana of vangmaya were reorganised with finality as well as lipi in all but material legibility. A movement was made to the same end in the rest of the Vijnana, especially in swapnasamadhi where all the obstinate defects of the past broke down initially in type. Poetry resumed
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r1913 12 01b, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The first necessity is perfect Vijnanabuddhi and Brahmabuddhi. Neither of these are unprogressive, but neither are allowed to establish themselves firmly in the system owing to the constant successful invasion of the asiddhi, which no longer confines itself to this or that particularity, but seeks to cover the whole field. Nevertheless, the nodus of the asiddhi is unfaith based on uncertainty as to whether the central theory of the Yoga, namely the Apas, Tapas & Adesha is not a falsehood and a self-delusion. Much more than the doubt about the rapidity, is this the root of the whole disorder. No part of the siddhi has been allowed to remain free from the successful attack of the Asiddhi. If any part were firmly acquired, the rapid addition of the rest could not be resisted with any hope of success. As it is, the siddhi progresses & even progresses rapidly but with a broken & resisted rapidity.
Much was expected of yesterdays movement, but it has been followed up by a struggle, not a victory. The intensifying of the Brahmabuddhi is the one positive gain, & to this may be added the firm extension of the brihat in the jnana with the mixed satya & anrita of trikaldrishti & telepathy. The difficulty is in the insufficient streng thening of the decisive viveka & the insufficient finality of the transfer of the intellectual movements to the Vijnanabuddhi. The lipi announcing the finality of the transfer referred only to the completion of the process, not to the security of the results attained. The attack has destroyed the conditions of the Vijnana manifestation and they have to be reconstituted in the active consciousness. There is as yet no finality of settled truth or settled effectiveness.
This is one side of the truth; the other is that the transfer has been finally secured, since it is only in appearance that the ideality has been disintegrated in the active consciousness. The disintegration is real to the intellectual judgment, not to the viveka.
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r1913 12 02a, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Utthapana of the legs, horizontal position, successively, a failure due to entire defect of anima and for the most part of mahima. Like the Brahmabuddhi yesterday, the Brahmaprema today was universalised and raised to a high intensity, bringing with it entire premananda on men, animals, objects & events. The movement now is to confirm all the anandas, except the physical, & the subjective siddhi generally, prema, kama, shama in the Ekam Brahma, so assuring it on the bahu, & no longer perfected by application through the Avidya to each object separately. So far as that movement was necessary, it has been accomplished, but it can only be finally safeguarded from interruption & relapse by being secured in the ekatwadrishti of buddhi, heart, indriyas & sanjna generally. The vani & script yesterday were confirmed in their proper nature as proceeding from the ananda & involving the Vijnana. Faith also has been established in the truth of the instruments of knowledge; the satyam brihat is entirely confirmed & the truth of misapplied satyam is habitually perceived either before, with or after the event. The ritam however is yet defective, although its hold on the active consciousness increases & there is still uncertainty about the Adeshasiddhi & consequently about the entire rapidity of the physical siddhi & karmasiddhi. The rest is felt to be assured, since all the members are rapidly growing [in] force. There is constant pressure of the will on the asaundarya, but its compact resistance is yet far from being broken.
In the afternoon the resistance to the Will had entirely the upper hand and a period of Asiddhi began, with its usual circumstances. This movement has continued since and such siddhi as manifests, appears with difficulty and as from behind a veil. The successful contradiction in all the Chatusthayas continues, although hitherto it has not been so acute as in the more successful invasions.
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