{"id":101,"date":"2013-07-13T01:25:55","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=101"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:25:55","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:55","slug":"30-the-inconscient-vol-16-the-supramental-manifestation-volume-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/16-the-supramental-manifestation-volume-16\/30-the-inconscient-vol-16-the-supramental-manifestation-volume-16","title":{"rendered":"-30_The Inconscient.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

\nThe <\/font> Inconscient<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/span> <\/font>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n   T<\/font><\/b>HE<\/font>
\nfirst or superficial view which the observing mind takes on any object of
\nknowledge is always an illusory view; all science, all true knowledge comes by
\ngoing behind the superficies and discovering the inner truth and the hidden law.
\nIt is not that the thing itself is illusory, but that it is not what it
\nsuperficially appears to be; nor is it that the operations and functionings we
\nobserve on the surface do not take place, but that we cannot find their real
\nmotive-power, process, relations by the simple study of them as they offer
\nthemselves to the observing senses. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>In the realm of physical
\nscience this is obvious enough and universally admitted. The earth is not flat
\nbut round, not still but constant to a double motion; the sun moves but not
\nround the earth; bodies that seem to us luminous are in themselves
\nnon-luminous; things that are part of our daily experience, colour<\/span>,
\nsound, light, air are quite other in their reality than what they pretend to
\nbe. Our senses give us false views of distance, size, shape, relation. Objects
\nwhich seem to them self-existent forms are aggregations and constituted by
\nsubtler constituents which our ordinary faculties are unable to detect. These
\nmaterial constituents again are merely formulations of a Force which we cannot
\ndescribe as material and of which the senses have no evidence. Yet the mind and
\nthe senses can live quite satisfied and convinced in this world of illusions
\nand accept them as the practical truth <\/span>\u2014 for to a certain extent they are the practical truth and sufficient
\nfor an initial, ordinary and limited activity.   <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>But only to a certain extent; for
\nthere are possibilities of a wider life, a more mastering action, a greater
\npracticality which can only be achieved by going behind these surfaces and utilising<\/span> a truer knowledge of objects and forces. The
\ndiscovery of the secret operations of Nature leads to a contingent discovery,
\nthe possibility of a farther use of her forces to which she herself has not
\nproceeded, not finding them necessary for the mere preserva<\/span>–<\/p>\n

\nPage-257<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

tion<\/span><\/span> of existence and its ordinary workings, but
\nhas left to man, her mental being, to discover and utilise for the amelioration
\nof existence and for the development of its possibilities. <\/span><\/p>\n

  \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>All
\nthis is easy to see in the realm of Matter; but mankind is not yet entirely
\nready to recognise the same truth and follow up the same principle in the realm
\nof Mind. It is true that psychology has made an advance and has begun to
\nimprove its method. Formerly, it was a crude, scholastic and superficial systematisation<\/span> of man\u2019s ignorance of himself. The surface
\npsychological functionings, will, mind, senses, reason, conscience, etc., were
\narranged in a dry and sterile classification; their real nature and relation to
\neach other were not fathomed nor any use made of them which went beyond the
\nlimited action Nature had found sufficient for a very superficial mental and
\npsychic life and for very superficial and ordinary workings. Because we do not
\nknow ourselves, therefore we are unable to ameliorate radically our subjective
\nlife or develop with mastery, with rapidity, with a sure science the hidden
\npossibilities of our mental capacity and our moral nature. The new psychology
\nseeks indeed to penetrate behind superficial appearances, but it is encumbered
\nby initial errors which prevent a profounder knowledge, <\/span>\u2014 the materialistic error which bases the
\nstudy of the mind upon the study of the body; the sceptical<\/span>
\nerror which prevents any bold and clear-eyed investigation of the hidden
\nprofundities of our subjective existence; the error of conservative distrust
\nand recoil which regards any subjective state or experience that departs from
\nthe ordinary operations of our mental and psychical nature as a morbidity or a
\nhallucination, <\/span>\u2014 just as the
\nMiddle Ages regarded all new science as magic and a diabolical departure from
\nthe sane and right limits of human capacity; finally, the error of objectivity
\nwhich leads the psychologist to study others from outside instead of seeing his
\ntrue field of knowledge and laboratory of experiment in himself. Psychology is
\nnecessarily a subjective science and one must proceed in it from the knowledge
\nof oneself to the knowledge of others. <\/span><\/p>\n

  \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>But
\nwhatever the crudities of the new science, it has at least taken the first
\ncapital step without which there can be no true psychological knowledge; it has
\nmade the discovery which is<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nPage-258<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

the
\nbeginning of self-knowledge and which all must make who deeply study the facts
\nof consciousness, that our waking and surface existence is only a small part of
\nour being and does not yield to us the root and secret of our character, our
\nmentality or our actions. The sources lie deeper. To discover them, to know the
\nnature and the processes of the inconscient or subconscient self and, so far as
\nis possible, to possess and utilise them as physical science possesses and
\nutilises the secret of the forces of Nature, ought to be the aim of a scientific
\npsychology.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

 
\n           
\n<\/span>But here the first difficulty confronts us, the problem whether this
\nother and greater self of which our waking existence is only a surface and a
\nphenomenon, is subconscient or inconscient. And thereon hinges the whole destiny
\nof the human being. For if it is inconscient in its very nature, then we cannot
\nhope to illuminate ourselves with the hidden light of these depths<\/span> \u2014
\nfor light there <\/span>is none <\/span>\u2014
\nor to find and to possess ourselves of the secret of its power. On the other
\nhand, if it is subconscient, that is to say, a concealed consciousness deeper,
\ngreater, more powerful than our superficial self, an endless vista of
\nself-enlargement opens out before us and the human race marches towards infinite
\n<\/span>possibilities.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

 
\n           
\n<\/span>Modern psychological experiment
\nand observation have proceeded on two different lines which have not yet found
\ntheir point of meeting. On the one hand, psychology has taken for its
\nstarting-point the discoveries and the fundamental thesis of the physical
\nsciences and has worked as a continuation of physiology. The physical sciences
\nare the study of inconscient Force working in inconscient Matter: a psychology
\nwhich accepts this formula as the basis of all existence must regard
\nconsciousness as a phenomenal result of the lnconscient working on the
\ninconscient. Mind is only an outcome and, as it were, a record of nervous
\nreactions. The true self is the inconscient; mental action is one of its
\nsubordinate phenomena. The lnconscient is greater than the conscient; it is the
\ngod, the magician, the creator whose action is far more unerring than the
\nambitious but blundering action of the conscious mentality. The tree is more
\nperfectly guided than man in its more limited action, precisely because it lives
\nunambitiously according to Nature and is passive in the hands of the<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-259<\/font><\/span>
\n 
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Inconscient.
\nMind enters in to enlarge the field of activity, but also to multiply errors,
\nperversities, revolts against Nature, departures from the instinctive guiding of
\nthe Inconscient Self, which generate that vast element of ignorance, falsehood
\nand suffering in human life,<\/span> \u2014 that
\n\u201cmuch falsehood in us\u201d of which the Vedic poet complains.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

 
\n           
\n<\/span>Where then lies the hope that mind will repair its errors and guide
\nitself according to the truth of things? The hope lies in Science, in the
\nintelligent observation, utilising, initiation of the forces and workings of the
\nInconscient. To take only one instance,<\/span> \u2014 the
\nInconscient operates by the law of heredity and, left to itself, works
\nfaultlessly to ensure the survival of good and healthy types. Man misuses
\nheredity in the false conditions of his social life to transmit and perpetuate
\ndegeneracy. We must study the law of heredity, develop a science of Eugenics and
\nuse it wisely and remorselessly,<\/span> –<\/span>
\nwith the remorseless wisdom of Nature, <\/span>\u2014
\nso as to ensure by intelligence the result that the Inconscient assures by
\ninstinctive adaptation. We can see where this idea and this spirit will lead us,
\n<\/span>\u2014 to the replacement of the
\nemotional and spiritual idealism which the human mind has developed by a cold,
\nsane, materialistic idealism and to an amelioration of mankind attempted by the
\nrigorous mechanism of the scientific expert, no longer by the profound
\ninspiration of genius and the supple aspiration of puissant character and
\npersonality. And yet, what if this were only another error of the conscient
\nmind? What if the mistaking and the disease, the revolt and departure from
\nNature were itself a part, a necessary part of the wise and unerring plan of the
\nprofound Inconscient Self and all the much falsehood a means of arriving at a
\ngreater truth and a more exalted capacity? The fact that genius itself, the
\nhighest result of our developing consciousness, flowers so frequently on a
\ndiseased branch is a phenomenon full of troubling suggestions. The clear way of
\nascertained science need not always be the best way; it may stand often in the
\npath of development of a yet greater and deeper Knowledge.
\n 
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

 
\n<\/span>        
\n<\/span>The other line of
\npsychological investigation is still frowned upon by orthodox science, but it
\nthrives and yields its results in spite of the anathema of the doctors. It leads
\nus into by-paths of<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-260<\/font><\/span><\/span>
\n 
\n<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

psychical
\nresearch, hypnotism, mesmerism, occultism and all sorts of strange psychological
\ngropings. Certainly, there is nothing here of the assured clearness and
\nfirmly-grounded positivism of the physical method. Yet facts emerge and with the
\nfacts a momentous conclusion, <\/span>\u2014
\nthe conclusion that there is a \u201csubliminal\u201d self behind our superficial
\nwaking mind, not inconscient but conscient, greater than the waking mind,
\nendowed with surprising faculties and capable of a much surer action and
\nexperience, conscient of the superficial mind, though of it the superficial mind
\nis inconscient. And then a question rises. What if there were really no
\nInconscient at all, but a hidden Consciousness everywhere, perfect in power and
\nwisdom, of which our mind is the first slow, hesitating and imperfect disclosure
\nand into the image of which the human mentality is destined progressively to
\ngrow? It would at least be no less valid a generalisation and it would explain
\nall the facts that we now know considerably better than the blind and
\npurposeless determinism of the materialistic theory.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

 
\n           
\n<\/span>In pursuing psychological investigation upon this line we shall only be
\nresuming that which had already been done by our remote forefathers. For they
\ntoo, the moment they began to observe, to experiment, to look below the surface
\nof things, were compelled to perceive that the surface man is only a form and
\nappearance and that the real self is something infinitely greater and more
\nprofound. They too must have passed through the first materialistic stages of
\nscience and philosophy. For we read in the Aitareya Upanishad that entering upon
\npossession of the material world and the body, the Purusha, the Conscious Soul,
\nasks him- self, \u201cIf utterance is by speech and life by the breath, vision by
\nthe eye, hearing by the ear, thought by the mind,\u201d if, in short, all the
\napparent activities of the being can be accounted for by the automatic
\nfunctioning of Nature, \u201cthen what am I?\u201d And the Upanishad says farther,
\n\u201cHe being born distinguished only the working of the material elements, for
\nwhat else was there of which he should discuss and conclude?\u201d Yet in the end
\n\u201che beheld this conscious being which is Brahman utterly extended and he said
\nto himself, Now have I really seen.\u201d So too in the Taittiriya Upanishad Bhrigu
\nVaruni meditating on the Brahman comes first<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-261<\/span><\/span>
\n 
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

to
\nthe conclusion that \u201cMatter- is Brahman\u201d and only afterwards discovers Life
\nthat is Brahman, <\/span>\u2014 so rising
\nfrom the materialistic to the vitalistic theory of existence as European thought
\nis now rising, <\/span>\u2014 then Mind
\nthat is Brahman and then Knowledge that is Brahman, <\/span>\u2014
\nso rising to the sensational and the idealistic realisation of the Truth,<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u2014 and at last Bliss of
\nExistence that is Brahman. There he pauses in the ultimate spiritual realisation,
\nthe highest formulation of knowledge that man can attain.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

 
\n           
\n<\/span>The Conscient therefore and not the Inconscient was the Truth at which
\nthe ancient psychology arrived; and it distinguished three strata of the
\nconscient self, the waking, the dream and the sleep selves of Man,<\/span> \u2014
\nin other words, the superficial existence, the subconscient or subliminal and
\nthe superconscient which to us seems the inconscient because its state of
\nconsciousness is the reverse of ours: for ours is limited and based on division
\nand multiplicity, but this is \u201cthat which becomes a unity\u201d; ours is
\ndispersed in knowledge, but in this other self conscious knowledge is
\nself-collected and concentrated; ours is balanced between dual experiences, but
\nthis is all delight, it is that which in the very heart of our being fronts
\neverything with a pure all- possessing consciousness and enjoys the delight of
\nexistence. Therefore, although its seat is that stratum of consciousness which
\nto us is a deep sleep, <\/span>\u2014 for
\nthe mind there cannot maintain its accustomed functioning and becomes
\ninconscient,<\/span> \u2014 yet its name is
\nHe who knows, the Wise One, pr\u00e3j\u00f1a.<\/i> \u201cThis,\u201d says the Mandukya
\nUpanishad, \u201cis omniscient, omnipotent, the inner control, the womb of all and
\nthat from which creatures are born and into which they depart\u201d It answers,
\ntherefore, closely enough to the modern idea of the Inconscient corrected by the
\nother modern idea of the subliminal self; for it is inconscient only to the
\nwaking mind, precisely because it is superconscient to it and the mind is
\ntherefore only able to seize it in its results and not in itself. And what
\nbetter proof can there be of the depth and truth of the ancient psychology than
\nthe fact that when modern thought in all its pride of exact and careful
\nknowledge begins to cast its fathom into these depths, it is obliged to repeat
\nin other language what had already been<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-262<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n


\nwritten nearly three thousand years ago?<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

 
\n           
\n<\/span>We find the same idea of this inner control repeated in the Gita; for it
\nis the Lord who \u201csits in the hearts of all creatures and turns all creatures
\nmounted on an engine by his Maya.\u201d At times the Upanishad seems to describe
\nthis self as the \u201cmental being, leader of the life and the body\u201d, which is
\nreally the subliminal mind of the psychical investigators; but this is only a
\nrelative description. The Vedantic psychology was aware of other depths that
\ntake us beyond this formula and in relation to which the mental being becomes,
\nin its turn, as superficial as is our waking to our subliminal mind. And now
\nonce more in the revolutions of human thought these depths have to be sounded;
\nmodern psychology will be led perforce, by the compulsion of the truth that it
\nis seeking, on to the path that was followed by the ancients. The new dawn,
\ntreading the eternal path of the Truth, follows it to the goal of the dawns that
\nhave gone before,<\/span> \u2014 how many, <\/span>who
\nshall say?<\/p>\n

<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

 
\n           
\n<\/span>For, this knowledge was not first discovered in the comparatively late
\nantiquity that gave us the Upanishads which we now possess. It is already there
\nin the dateless verses of the Rig Veda, and the Vedic sages speak of it as the
\ndiscovery of yet more ancient seers besides whom they themselves were new and
\nmodern. Emerging from the periods of eclipse, the nights of ignorance which
\novertake humanity, we assume always that we are instituting a new knowledge. In
\nreality, we are continually rediscovering the knowledge and repeating the
\nachievement of the ages that have gone before us, <\/span>\u2014
\nreceiving again out of the \u201cInconscient\u201d the light that it had drawn back
\ninto its secrecies and now releases once more for a new day and another march of
\nthe great journey.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

 
\n           
\n<\/span>And the goal of that journey cannot be other than the \u201chighest good\u201d
\nwhich the ancient psychologists proposed to the life and growth of the soul.
\nMan, the mental being, once aware that there is this deep, great and hidden
\nself, the real reality of his being, must necessarily seek to enter into it, to
\nbecome conscious in it, to make there his centre instead of dwelling on the
\nsurface, to win and apply its diviner law and supreme nature and capacity, to
\nmake himself one with it so that he shall become the    <\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-263<\/span>
\n 
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Real
\ninstead of the Apparent Man. And the sole debate that remains is whether this
\ngreat conquest can be achieved and enjoyed in this human life and terrestrial
\nbody or is only   <\/span>possible
\nbeyond<\/span> \u2014 whether in fact the
\nhuman consciousness is the chosen instrument for the progressive self-revelation
\nof this \u201cInconscient\u201d, this real self within us, or only a baulked effort
\nwith no fruition here or a haphazard and incomplete sketch that can never be
\nperfected into the divine image.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-264<\/font><\/span>
\n 
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Inconscient      THE first or superficial view which the observing mind takes on any object of knowledge is always an illusory view; all…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-16-the-supramental-manifestation-volume-16","wpcat-5-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}