{"id":110,"date":"2013-07-13T01:25:59","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=110"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:25:59","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:59","slug":"47-the-chain-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\/47-the-chain-vol-16-the-supramental-manifestation-volume-16","title":{"rendered":"-47_The Chain.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nThe Chain<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n           
\n<\/span>
\n    T<\/span>HE
\nwhole world yearns after freedom, yet each creature is in love with his chains;
\nthis is the first paradox and inextricable knot of our nature.
\n    <\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n


\n  <\/span>Man is in love
\nwith the bonds of birth; therefore he is caught in the companion bonds of death.
\nIn these chains he aspires after freedom of his being and mastery of his self-fulfilment.
\n     <\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n


\n  <\/span>Man is in love
\nwith power; therefore he is subjected to weakness. For the world is a sea of
\nwaves of force that meet and continually fling themselves on each other; he who
\nwould ride on the crest of one wave, must faint under the shock of hundreds.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n


\n     <\/span>Man is in love
\nwith pleasure; therefore he must undergo the yoke of grief and pain. For unmixed
\ndelight is only for the free and passionless soul; but that which pursues after
\npleasure in man is a suffering and straining energy.<\/p>\n

     <\/span>Man hungers
\nafter calm, but he thirsts also for the experiences of a restless mind and a
\ntroubled heart. Enjoyment is to his mind a fever, calm an inertia and a
\nmonotony.<\/p>\n

     <\/span>Man is in love
\nwith the limitations of his physical being, yet he would have also the freedom
\nof his infinite mind and his immortal soul.<\/p>\n

     <\/span>And in these
\ncontrasts something in him finds a curious attraction; they constitute for his
\nmental being the artistry of life. It is not only the nectar but the poison also
\nthat attracts his taste and his curiosity. <\/p>\n

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

\nPage-385<\/font><\/span>
\n 
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

    
\n<\/span>In all these things there is a meaning and for all these contradictions
\nthere is a release. Nature has a method in every mad-ness of her combinings and
\nfor her most inextricable knots there is a solution.\n<\/p>\n

\n     <\/span>Death is the
\nquestion Nature puts continually to Life and her reminder to it that it has not
\nyet found itself. If there were no siege of death, the creature would be bound
\nfor ever in the form of an imperfect living. Pursued by death he awakes to the
\nidea of perfect life and seeks out its means and its possibility.<\/p>\n

\n     <\/span>Weakness puts
\nthe same test and question to the strengths and energies and greatnesses in
\nwhich we glory. Power is the play of life, shows its degree, finds the value of
\nits expression; weakness is the play of death pursuing life in its movement and
\nstressing the limit of its acquired energy.<\/p>\n

     <\/span>Pain and grief
\nare Nature’s reminder to the soul that the pleasure it enjoys is only a feeble
\nhint of the real delight of existence. In each pain and torture of our being is
\nthe secret of a flame of rapture compared with which our greatest pleasures are
\nonly as dim flickerings. It is this secret which forms the attraction for the
\nsoul of the great ordeals, sufferings and fierce experiences of life which the
\nnervous mind in us shuns and abhors.<\/p>\n

\n     <\/span>The restlessness
\nand early exhaustion of our active being and its instruments are Nature’s sign
\nthat calm is our true foundation and excitement a disease of the soul; the
\nsterility and monotony of mere calm is her hint that play of the activities on
\nthat firm foundation is what she requires of us. God plays for ever and is not
\ntroubled.<\/p>\n

\n     <\/span>The limitations
\nof the body are a mould; soul and mind have to pour themselves into them, break
\nthem and constantly re-mould them in wider limits till the formula of agreement
\nis found between this finite and their own infinity.<\/p>\n

\n     <\/span>Freedom is the
\nlaw of being in its illimitable unity, secret<\/p>\n

\nPage-386<\/font><\/span><\/span>
\n 
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

master
\nof all Nature: servitude is the law of love in the being voluntarily giving
\nitself to serve the play of its other selves in the multiplicity.<\/p>\n

\n     <\/span>It is when
\nfreedom works in chains and servitude becomes a law of Force, not of Love, that
\nthe true nature of things is distorted and a falsehood governs the soul’s
\ndealings with existence.<\/p>\n

     <\/span>Nature starts
\nwith this distortion and plays with all the combinations to which it can lead
\nbefore she will allow it to be righted. Afterwards she gathers up all the
\nessence of these combinations into a new and rich harmony of love and freedom.<\/p>\n

\n     <\/span>Freedom comes by
\na unity without limits; for that is our real being. We may gain the essence of
\nthis unity in ourselves; we may realise the play of it in oneness with all
\nothers. The double experience is the complete intention of the soul in Nature.<\/p>\n

\n     <\/span>Having realised
\ninfinite unity in ourselves, then to give ourselves to the world is utter
\nfreedom and absolute empire.<\/p>\n

\n     <\/span>Infinite, we are
\nfree from death; for life then becomes a play of our immortal existence. We are
\nfree from weakness; for we are the whole sea enjoying the myriad shock of its
\nwaves. We are free from grief and pain; for we learn how to harmonise our being
\nwith all that touches it and to find in all things action and reaction of the
\ndelight of existence. We are free from limitation; for the body becomes a
\nplaything of the infinite mind and learns to obey the will of the immortal soul.
\nWe are free from die fever of the nervous mind and the heart, yet are not bound
\nto immobility.<\/p>\n

\n     <\/span>Immortality,
\nunity and freedom are in ourselves and await there our discovery; but for the
\njoy of love God in us will still remain the Many.<\/p>\n

\nPage-387<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chain                   THE whole world yearns after freedom, yet each creature is in love with his chains; this is the first paradox…<\/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-110","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\/110","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=110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}