{"id":1377,"date":"2013-07-13T01:34:25","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1377"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:34:25","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:34:25","slug":"27-the-two-natures-vol-13-essays-on-the-gita-volume-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/13-essays-on-the-gita-volume-13\/27-the-two-natures-vol-13-essays-on-the-gita-volume-13","title":{"rendered":"-27_The Two Natures.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

\npart one    <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe synthesis of
\nworks, love<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\nand knowledge<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n <\/font>ONE<\/font><\/span><\/b> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n   The Two Natures*<\/font><\/span> <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\nT<\/font>HE<\/font><\/span>
\nfirst six chapters of the Gita have been treated as a single block of
\nteachings, its primary basis of practice and knowledge; the remaining twelve
\nmay be similarly treated as two closely connected blocks which develop the rest
\nof the doctrine from this primary basis. The seventh to the twelfth chapters
\nlay down a large metaphysical statement of the nature of the Divine Being and
\non that foundation closely relate and synthetise knowledge and devotion, just
\nas the first part of the Gita related and synthetised works and knowledge. The
\nvision of the World-Purusha intervenes in the eleventh chapter, gives a dynamic
\nturn to this stage of the synthesis and relates it vividly to works and life.
\nThus again all is brought powerfully back to the original question of Arjuna
\nround which the whole exposition revolves and completes its cycle. Afterwards
\nthe Gita proceeds by the differentiation of the Purusha and Prakriti to work
\nout its ideas of the action of the gunas, of the ascension beyond the gunas and
\nof the culmination of desireless works with knowledge where that coalesces with
\nBhakti, \u2013 knowledge, works and love made one, \u2013 and it rises thence to its
\ngreat finale, the supreme secret of self-surrender to the Master of Existence. <\/p>\n

In this second
\npart of the Gita we come to a more concise and easy manner of statement than we
\nhave yet had. In the first six chapters the definitions have not yet been made
\nwhich give the key to the underlying truth; difficulties are being met and
\nsolved; the progress is a little laboured and moves through several involutions
\nand returns; much is implied the bearing of which is not yet clear. Here we
\nseem to get on to clearer ground and to lay hold of a more compact and pointed
\nexpression. But because of this very conciseness we have to be careful always
\nof our steps in order to avoid error and a missing of the real sense. <\/p>\n

*Gita, VII. 1-14.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage 251<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

For we are here no longer
\nsteadily on the safe ground of psychological and spiritual experience, but have
\nto deal with intellectual statements of spiritual and often of supracosmic truth.
\nMetaphysical statement has always this peril and uncertainty about it that it
\nis an attempt to define to our minds what is really infinite, an attempt which
\nhas to be made, but can never be quite satisfactory, quite final or ultimate.
\nThe highest spiritual truth can be lived, can be seen, but can only be
\npartially stated. The deeper method and language of the Upanishads with its
\nfree resort to image and symbol, its intuitive form of speech in which the hard
\nlimiting definiteness of intellectual utterance is broken down and the
\nimplications of words are allowed to roll out into an illimitable wave of
\nsuggestion, is in these realms the only right method and language. But the Gita
\ncannot resort to this form, because it is designed to satisfy an intellectual
\ndifficulty, answers a state of mind in which the reason, the arbiter to which
\nwe refer the conflicts of our impulses and sentiments, is at war with itself
\nand impotent to arrive at a conclusion. The reason has to be led to a truth
\nbeyond itself, but by its own means and in its own manner. Offered a
\nspiritually psychological solution, of the data of which it has no experience,
\nit can only be assured of its validity if it is satisfied by an intellectual
\nstatement of the truths of being upon which the solution rests. <\/p>\n

So far the
\njustifying truths that have been offered to it are those with which it is
\nalready familiar, and they are only sufficient as a starting-point. There is
\nfirst the distinction between the Self and the individual being in Nature. The
\ndistinction has been used to point out that this individual being in Nature is
\nnecessarily subject, so long as he lives shut up within the action of the ego,
\nto the workings of the three gunas which make up by their unstable movements
\nthe whole scope and method of the reason, the mind and the life and senses in
\nthe body. And within this circle there is no solution. Therefore the solution
\nhas to be found by an ascent out of the circle, above this nature of the gunas,
\nto the one immutable Self and silent Spirit, because then one gets beyond that
\naction of the ego and desire which is the whole root of the difficulty. But since
\nthis by itself seems to lead straight towards inaction, as beyond Nature there
\nis no <\/p>\n

\nPage 252<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

instrumentality of action and no
\ncause or determinant of action, \u2013 for the immutable self is inactive, impartial
\nand equal to all things, all workings and all happenings, \u2013 the Yoga idea is
\nbrought in of the Ishwara, the Divine as master of works and sacrifice, and it
\nis hinted but not yet expressly stated that this Divine exceeds even the
\nimmutable self and that in him lies the key to cosmic existence. Therefore by
\nrising to him through the Self it is possible to have spiritual freedom from
\nour works and yet to continue in the works of Nature. But it has not yet been
\nstated who is this Supreme, incarnate here in the divine teacher and charioteer
\nof works, or what are his relations to the Self and to the individual being in
\nNature. Nor is it clear how the Will to works coming from him can be other than
\nthe will in the nature of the three gunas. And if it is only that, then the
\nsoul obeying it can hardly fail to be in subjection to the gunas in its action,
\nif not in its spirit, and if so, at once the freedom promised becomes either
\nillusory or incomplete. Will seems to be an aspect of the executive part of
\nbeing, to be power and active force of nature, Shakti, Prakriti. Is there then
\na higher Nature than that of the three gunas? Is there a power of pragmatic
\ncreation, will, action other than that of ego, desire, mind, sense, reason and
\nthe vital impulse? <\/p>\n

Therefore, in
\nthis uncertainty, what has now to be done is to give more completely the
\nknowledge on which divine works are to be founded. And this can only be the
\ncomplete, the integral knowledge of the Divine who is the source of works and
\nin whose being the worker becomes by knowledge free; for he knows the free
\nSpirit from whom all works proceed and participates in his freedom. Moreover
\nthis knowledge must bring a light that justifies the assertion with which the
\nfirst part of the Gita closes. It must ground the supremacy of bhakti over all
\nother motives and powers of spiritual consciousness and action; it must be a
\nknowledge of the supreme Lord of all creatures to whom alone the soul can offer
\nitself in the perfect self-surrender which is the highest height of all love
\nand devotion. This is what the Teacher proposes to give in the opening verses
\nof the seventh chapter which initiate the development that occupies all the
\nrest of the book. \u201cHear,\u201d he says, \u201chow by practising Yoga with a <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage 253<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

mind attached to me and with me
\nas āśraya<\/i> (the whole basis,
\nlodgment, point of resort of the conscious being and action) thou shalt know me
\nwithout any remainder of doubt, integrally, samagram
\nmām<\/i>. I will speak to thee without omission or remainder, aśesatah,\u201d <\/i>(for
\notherwise a ground of doubt may remain), \u201cthe essential knowledge, attended
\nwith all the comprehensive knowledge, by knowing which there shall be no other
\nthing here left to be known.\u201d The implication of the phrase is that the Divine
\nBeing is all, vāsudevah<\/i>
\nsarvam, and therefore if he is known integrally in all his powers and
\nprinciples, then all is known, not only the pure Self, but the world and action
\nand Nature. There is then nothing else here left to be known, because all is
\nthat Divine Existence. It is only because our view here is not thus integral,
\nbecause it rests on the dividing mind and reason and the separative idea of the
\nego, that our mental perception of things is an ignorance. We have to get away
\nfrom this mental and egoistic view to the true unifying knowledge, and that has
\ntwo aspects, the essential, j\u00f1āna<\/i>,
\nand the comprehensive, vij\u00f1āna<\/i>,
\nthe direct spiritual awareness of the supreme Being and the right intimate
\nknowledge of the principles of his existence, Prakriti, Purusha and the rest,
\nby which all that is can be known in its divine origin and in the supreme truth
\nof its nature. That integral knowledge, says the Gita, is a rare and difficult
\nthing; \u201camong thousands of men one here and there strives after perfection, and
\nof those who strive and attain to perfection one here and there knows me in all
\nthe principles of my existence, tattvatah<\/i>.\u201d <\/i><\/p>\n

Then, to start
\nwith and in order to found this integral knowledge, the Gita makes that deep
\nand momentous distinction which is the practical basis of all its Yoga, the
\ndistinction between the two Natures, the phenomenal and the spiritual Nature. \u201cThe
\nfive elements (conditions of material being), mind, reason, ego, this is my
\neightfold divided Nature. But know my other Nature different from this, the
\nsupreme which becomes the Jiva and by which this world is upheld.\u201d Here is the
\nfirst new metaphysical idea of the Gita which helps it to start from the
\nnotions of the Sankhya philosophy and yet exceed them and give to their terms,
\nwhich it keeps and extends, a Vedantic significance. An eightfold <\/p>\n

\nPage 254<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

Nature constituted of the five
\nBhutas, \u2013 elements, as it is rendered, but rather elemental or essential
\nconditions of material being to which are given the concrete names of earth,
\nwater, fire, air and ether, \u2013 the mind with its various senses and organs, the
\nreason-will and the ego, is the Sankhya description of Prakriti. The Sankhya
\nstops there, and because it stops there, it has to set up an unbridgeable
\ndivision between the soul and Nature; it has to posit them as two quite
\ndistinct primary entities. The Gita also, if it stopped there, would have to make
\nthe same incurable antinomy between the Self and cosmic Nature which would then
\nbe only the Maya of the three gunas and all this cosmic existence would be
\nsimply the result of this Maya; it could be nothing else. But there is
\nsomething else, there is a higher principle, a nature of spirit, parā prakrtir me<\/i>. There is
\na supreme nature of the Divine which is the real source of cosmic existence and
\nits fundamental creative force and effective energy and of which the other
\nlower and ignorant Nature is only a derivation and a dark shadow. In this highest
\ndynamis Purusha and Prakriti are one. Prakriti there is only the will and the
\nexecutive power of the Purusha, his activity of being, \u2013 not a separate entity,
\nbut himself in Power.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>This supreme Prakriti is not merely a presence
\nof the power of spiritual being immanent in cosmic activities. For then it might
\nbe only the inactive presence of the all-pervading Self, immanent in all things
\nor containing them, compelling in a way the world action but not itself active.
\nNor is this highest Prakriti the avyakta<\/i>
\nof the Sankhyas, the primary unmanifest seed-state of the manifest active
\neightfold nature of things, the one productive original force of Prakriti out
\nof which her many instrumental and executive powers evolve. Nor is it
\nsufficient to interpret that idea of avyakta<\/i>
\nin the Vedantic sense and say that this supreme Nature is the power involved
\nand inherent in unmanifest Spirit or Self out of which cosmos comes and into
\nwhich it returns. It is that, but it is much more; for that is only one of its
\nspiritual states. It is the integral conscious-power of the supreme Being, cit-śakti<\/i>, which is behind the self
\nand cosmos. In the immutable Self it is involved in the Spirit; it is there,
\nbut in nivrtti<\/i> or a holding
\nback from action: in the mutable self and the cosmos <\/p>\n

\nPage 255<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

it comes out into action, pravrtti<\/i>. There by its dynamic presence
\nit evolves in the Spirit all existences and appears in them as their essential
\nspiritual nature, the persistent truth behind their play of subjective and
\nobjective phenomena. It is the essential quality and force, svabhāva<\/i>, the self-principle of all
\ntheir becoming, the inherent principle and divine power behind their phenomenal
\nexistence. The balance of the gunas is only a quantitative and quite derivative
\nplay evolved out of this supreme Principle. All this activity of forms, all
\nthis mental, sensuous, intelligential striving of the lower nature is only a
\nphenomenon, which could not be at all except for this spiritual force and this
\npower of being; it comes from that and it exists in that and by that solely. If
\nwe dwell in the phenomenal nature only and see things only by the notions it
\nimpresses on us, we shall not get at the real truth of our active existence. The
\nreal truth is this spiritual power, this divine force of being, this essential
\nquality of the spirit in things or rather of the spirit in which things are and
\nfrom which they draw all their potencies and the seeds of their movements. Get
\nat that truth, power, quality and we shall get at the real law of our becoming
\nand the divine principle of our living, its source and sanction in the
\nKnowledge and not only its process in the Ignorance. <\/p>\n

This is to throw
\nthe sense of the Gita into language suited to our modern way of thinking; but
\nif we look at its description of the Para Prakriti, we shall find that this is
\npractically the substance of what it says. For first, this other higher Prakriti
\nis, says Krishna, my supreme nature, prakrtim me parām<\/i>. And this
\n\u201cI\u201d here is the Purushottama, the supreme Being, the supreme Soul, the
\ntranscendent and universal Spirit. The original and eternal nature of the
\nSpirit and its transcendent and originating Shakti is what is meant by the Para
\nPrakriti. For speaking first of the origin of the world from the point of view
\nof the active power of his Nature, Krishna assevers,
\n\u201cThis is the womb of all beings,\u201d
\netad-yonīni bhūtāni<\/i>. And in the next line of the couplet,
\nagain stating the same fact from the point of view of the originating Soul, he
\ncontinues, \u201cI am the birth of the whole world and so too its dissolution; there
\nis nothing else supreme beyond Me.\u201d Here then the supreme Soul, Purushottama,
\nand the <\/p>\n

\nPage 256<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

supreme Nature, Para Prakriti,
\nare identified: they are put as two ways of looking at one and the same
\nreality. For when Krishna declares, I am the birth of
\nthe world and its dissolution, it is evident that it is this Para Prakriti,
\nsupreme Nature, of his being which is both these things. The Spirit is the
\nsupreme Being in his infinite consciousness and the supreme Nature is the infinity
\nof power or will of being of the Spirit, \u2013 it is his infinite consciousness in
\nits inherent divine energy and its supernal divine action. The birth is the
\nmovement of evolution of this conscious Energy out of the Spirit, parā<\/i> prakrtir jīvabhūtā<\/i>, its activity in the
\nmutable universe; the dissolution is the withdrawing of that activity by
\ninvolution of the Energy into the immutable existence and self-gathered power
\nof the Spirit. That then is what is initially meant by the supreme Nature. <\/p>\n

The supreme
\nNature, parā prakrtih<\/i>,
\nis then the infinite timeless conscious power of the self-existent Being out of
\nwhich all existences in the cosmos are manifested and come out of timelessness
\ninto Time. But in order to provide a spiritual basis for this manifold
\nuniversal becoming in the cosmos the supreme Nature formulates itself as the
\nJiva. To put it otherwise, the eternal multiple soul of the Purushottama
\nappears as individual spiritual existence in all the forms of the cosmos. All
\nexistences are instinct with the life of the one indivisible Spirit; all are
\nsupported in their personality, actions and forms by the eternal multiplicity
\nof the one Purusha. We must be careful not to make the mistake of thinking that
\nthis supreme Nature is identical with the Jiva manifested in Time in the sense
\nthat there is nothing else or that it is only nature of becoming and not at all
\nnature of being: that could not be the supreme nature of the Spirit. Even in
\nTime it is something more; for otherwise the only truth of it in the cosmos
\nwould be nature of multiplicity and there would be no nature of unity in the
\nworld. That is not what the Gita says: it does not say that the supreme
\nPrakriti is in its essence the Jiva, jīvātmikām<\/i>,
\nbut that it has become the Jiva, jīvabhūtām<\/i>;
\nand it is implied in that expression that behind its manifestation as the Jiva
\nhere it is originally something else and higher, it is nature of the one
\nsupreme spirit. The Jiva, as we are told later on, is the Lord, īśvara<\/i>, but in his partial
\nmanifestation, mamaivāmśah<\/i>; <\/p>\n

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

<\/p>\n
\n

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

even all the multiplicity of
\nbeings in the universe or in numberless universes could not be in their
\nbecoming the integral Divine, but only a partial manifestation of the infinite
\nOne. In them Brahman the one indivisible existence resides as if divided, avibhaktam ca bhūtesu vibhaktam
\niva ca sthitam<\/i>. The unity is the greater truth, the multiplicity is the
\nlesser truth, though both are a truth and neither of them is an illusion. <\/p>\n

It is by the
\nunity of this spiritual nature that the world is sustained, yayedam dhāryate jagat<\/i>, even as it
\nis that from which it is born with all its becomings, etad-yonīni bhūtāni sarvāni<\/i>, and that
\nalso which withdraws the whole world and its existences into itself in the hour
\nof dissolution, aham krtsnasya<\/i>
\njagatah prabhavah
\npralayas tathā<\/i>. But in the manifestation which is thus put forth in
\nthe Spirit, upheld in its action, withdrawn in its periodical rest from action,
\nthe Jiva is the basis of the multiple existence; it is the multiple soul, if we
\nmay so call it, or, if we prefer, the soul of the multiplicity we experience
\nhere. It is one always with the Divine in its being, different from it only in
\nthe power of its being, \u2013 different not in the sense that it is not at all the
\nsame power, but in this sense that it only supports the one power in a partial
\nmultiply individualised action. Therefore all things are initially, ultimately
\nand in the principle of their continuance too the Spirit. The fundamental
\nnature of all is nature of the Spirit, and only in their lower differential
\nphenomena do they seem to be something else, to be nature of body, life, mind,
\nreason, ego and the senses. But these are phenomenal derivatives, they are not
\nthe essential truth of our nature and our existence. <\/p>\n

The supreme
\nnature of spiritual being gives us then both an original truth and power of
\nexistence beyond cosmos and a first basis of spiritual truth for the
\nmanifestation in the cosmos. But where is the link between this supreme nature
\nand the lower phenomenal nature? On me, says Krishna,
\nall this, all that is here sarvam idam<\/i>,
\n\u2013 the common phrase in the Upanishads for the totality of phenomena in the
\nmobility of the universe \u2013 is strung like pearls upon a thread. But this is
\nonly an image which we cannot press very far; for the pearls are only kept in
\nrelation to each other by the thread and have no other oneness or relation with
\nthe pearl-string except their dependence on it for this mutual <\/span><\/p>\n

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

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\n

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

connection. Let us go then from
\nthe image to that which it images. It is the supreme nature of Spirit, the
\ninfinite conscious power of its being, self-conscient, all-conscient, all-wise,
\nwhich maintains these phenomenal existences in relation to each other,
\npenetrates them, abides in and supports them and weaves them into the system of
\nits manifestation. This one supreme power manifests not only in all as the One,
\nbut in each as the Jiva, the individual spiritual presence; it manifests also
\nas the essence of all quality of Nature. These are therefore the concealed
\nspiritual powers behind all phenomena. This highest quality is not the working
\nof the three Gunas, which is phenomenon of quality and not its spiritual
\nessence. It is rather the inherent, one, yet variable inner power of all these
\nsuperficial variations. It is a fundamental truth of the Becoming, a truth that
\nsupports and gives a spiritual and divine significance to all its appearances.
\nThe workings of the Gunas are only the superficial unstable becomings of
\nreason, mind, sense, ego, life and matter, sāttvikā
\nbhāvā rājasāstāmasāśca<\/i>; but this is
\nrather the essential stable original intimate power of the becoming, svabhāva<\/i>. It is that which
\ndetermines the primary law of all becoming and of each Jiva; it constitutes the
\nessence and develops the movement of the nature. It is a principle in each
\ncreature that derives from and is immediately related to a transcendent divine
\nBecoming, that of the Ishwara, madbhāvah.
\n<\/i>In this relation of the divine bhāva<\/i>
\nto the svabhāva<\/i> and of the svabhāva<\/i> to the superficial bhāvāh<\/i>, of the divine
\nNature to the individual self-nature and of the self-nature in its pure and
\noriginal quality to the phenomenal nature in all its mixed and confused play of
\nqualities, we find the link between that supreme and this lower existence. The
\ndegraded powers and values of the inferior Prakriti derive from the absolute
\npowers and values of the supreme Shakti and must go back to them to find their
\nown source and truth and the essential law of their operation and movement. So
\ntoo the soul or Jiva involved here in the shackled, poor and inferior play of
\nthe phenomenal qualities, if he would escape from it and be divine and perfect,
\nmust by resort to the pure action of his essential quality of Swabhava go back
\nto that higher law of his own being in which he can discover the will, the
\npower, the <\/p>\n

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

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\n

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dynamic principle, the highest working
\nof his divine nature. <\/p>\n

This is clear
\nfrom the immediately subsequent passage in which the Gita gives a number of
\ninstances to show how the Divine in the power of his supreme nature manifests
\nand acts within the animate and so-called inanimate existences of the universe.
\nWe may disentangle them from the loose and free order which the exigence of the
\npoetical form imposes and put them in their proper philosophical series. First,
\nthe divine Power and Presence works within the five elemental conditions of matter.
\n\u201cI am taste in the waters, sound in ether, scent in earth, energy of light in
\nfire,\u201d and, it may be added for more completeness, touch or contact in air.
\nThat is to say, the Divine himself in his Para Prakriti is the energy at the
\nbasis of the various sensory relations of which, according to the ancient
\nSankhya system, the ethereal, the radiant, electric and gaseous, the liquid and
\nthe other elemental conditions of matter are the physical medium. The five
\nelemental conditions of matter are the quantitative or material element in the
\nlower nature and are the basis of material forms. The five Tanmatras \u2013 taste, touch,
\nscent, and the others \u2013 are the qualitative element. These Tanmatras are the
\nsubtle energies whose action puts the sensory consciousness in relation to the
\ngross forms of matter, \u2013 they are the basis of all phenomenal knowledge. From
\nthe material point of view matter is the reality and the sensory relations are
\nderivative; but from the spiritual point of view the truth is the opposite. Matter
\nand the material media are themselves derivative powers and at bottom are only
\nconcrete ways or conditions in which the workings of the quality of Nature in
\nthings manifest themselves to the sensory consciousness of the Jiva. The one
\noriginal and eternal fact is the energy of
\nNature, the power and quality of being which so manifests itself to the soul
\nthrough the senses. And what is essential in the senses, most spiritual, most
\nsubtle is itself stuff of that eternal quality and power. But energy or power
\nof being in Nature is the Divine himself in his Prakriti; each sense in its
\npurity is therefore that Prakriti, each sense is the Divine in his dynamic
\nconscious force. <\/p>\n

This we gather
\nbetter from the other terms of the series. \u201cI am the light of sun and moon, the
\nmanhood in man, the intelligence <\/span><\/p>\n

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

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\n

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of the intelligent, the energy of
\nthe energetic, the strength of the strong, the ascetic force of those who do askesis,
\ntapasyā<\/i>.\u201d \u201cI am life in all
\nexistences.\u201d In each case it is the energy of the essential quality on which
\neach of these becomings depends for what it has become, that is given as the
\ncharacteristic sign indicating the presence of the divine Power in their
\nnature. Again, \u201cI am Pranava in all the Vedas,\u201d that is to say, the basic syllable
\nOM, which is the foundation of all the potent creative sounds of the revealed
\nword; OM is the one universal formulation of the energy of sound and speech,
\nthat which contains and sums up, synthetises and releases all the spiritual
\npower and all the potentiality of Vak and Shabda and of which the other sounds,
\nout of whose stuff words of speech are woven, are supposed to be the developed evolutions.
\nThat makes it quite clear. It is not the phenomenal developments of the senses
\nor of life or of light, intelligence, energy, strength, manhood, ascetic force
\nthat are proper to the supreme Prakriti. It is the essential quality in its
\nspiritual power that constitutes the Swabhava. It is the force of spirit so
\nmanifesting, it is the light of its consciousness and the power of its energy
\nin things revealed in a pure original sign that is the self-nature. That force,
\nlight, power is the eternal seed from which all other things are the
\ndevelopments and derivations and variabilities and plastic circumstances.
\nTherefore the Gita throws in as the most general statement in the series, \u201cKnow
\nme to be the eternal seed of all existences, O son of Pritha.\u201d This eternal
\nseed is the power of spiritual being, the conscious will in the being, the seed
\nwhich, as is said elsewhere, the Divine casts into the great Brahman, into the
\nsupramental vastness, and from that all are born into phenomenal existence. It
\nis that seed of spirit which manifests itself as the essential quality in all
\nbecomings and constitutes their Swabhava. <\/p>\n

        The practical distinction between
\nthis original power of essential quality and the phenomenal derivations of the
\nlower nature, between the thing itself in its purity and the thing in its lower
\nappearances, is indicated very clearly at the close of the series. \u201cI am the
\nstrength of the strong devoid of desire and liking,\u201d stripped of all attachment
\nto the phenomenal pleasure of things. \u201cI am in beings the desire which is not
\ncontrary to their<\/p>\n

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\n

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Dharma.\u201d And as for the secondary
\nsubjective becomings of Nature, bhāvāh<\/i>
\n(states of mind, affections of desire, movements of passion, the reactions of
\nthe senses, the limited and dual play of reason, the turns of the feeling and
\nmoral sense), which are sattwic, rajasic and tamasic, as for the working of the
\nthree gunas, they are, says the Gita, not themselves the pure action of the
\nsupreme spiritual nature, but are derivations from it; \u201cthey are verily from
\nme,\u201d matta<\/i> eva<\/i>, they have no other origin, \u201cbut I am not in them, it is they
\nthat are in me.\u201d Here is indeed a strong and yet subtle distinction. \u201cI am\u201d
\nsays the Divine \u201cthe essential light, strength, desire, power, intelligence,
\nbut these derivations from them I am not in my essence, nor am I in them, yet
\nare they all of them from me and they are all in my being.\u201d It is then upon the
\nbasis of these statements that we have to view the transition of things from
\nthe higher to the lower and again from the lower back to the higher nature. <\/p>\n

        The first statement offers no
\ndifficulty. The strong man in spite of the divine nature of the principle of
\nstrength in him falls into subjection to desire and to attachment, stumbles
\ninto sin, struggles towards virtue. But that is because he descends in all his
\nderivative action into the grasp of the three Gunas and does not govern that
\naction from above, from his essential divine nature. The divine nature of his
\nstrength is not affected by these derivations, it remains the same in its
\nessence in spite of every obscuration and every lapse. The Divine is there in
\nthat nature and supports him by its strength through the confusions of his
\nlower existence till he is able to recover the light, illumine wholly his life
\nwith the true sun of his being and govern his will and its acts by the pure
\npower of the divine will in his higher nature. But how can the Divine be
\ndesire, kāma<\/i>?
\nfor this desire, this kāma<\/i>
\nhas been declared to be our one great enemy who has to be slain. But that
\ndesire was the desire of the lower nature of the Gunas which has its native
\npoint of origin in the rajasic being, rajogunasamudbhavah<\/i>;
\nfor this is what we usually mean when we speak of desire. This other, the
\nspiritual, is a will not contrary to the Dharma. <\/p>\n

Is it meant that
\nthe spiritual kāma<\/i>
\nis a virtuous desire, ethical in its nature, a sattwic desire, \u2013 for virtue is
\nalways sattwic in <\/p>\n

\nPage 262<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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its origin and motive force? But
\nthen there would be here an obvious contradiction, \u2013 since in the very next
\nline all sattwic affections are declared to be not the Divine, but only lower
\nderivations. Undoubtedly sin has to be abandoned if one is to get anywhere near
\nthe Godhead; but so too has virtue to be overpassed if we are to enter into the
\nDivine Being. The sattwic nature has to be attained, but it has then to be
\nexceeded. Ethical action is only a means of purification by which we can rise
\ntowards the divine nature, but that nature itself is lifted beyond the
\ndualities, \u2013 and indeed there could otherwise be no pure divine presence or
\ndivine strength in the strong man who is subjected to the rajasic passions. Dharma
\nin the spiritual sense is not morality or ethics. Dharma, says the Gita
\nelsewhere, is action governed by the Swabhava, the essential law of one’s
\nnature. And this Swabhava is at its core the pure quality of the spirit in its
\ninherent power of conscious will and in its characteristic force of action. The
\ndesire meant here is therefore the purposeful will of the Divine in us
\nsearching for and discovering not the pleasure of the lower Prakriti, but the
\nAnanda of its own play and self-fulfilling; it is the desire of the divine
\nDelight of existence unrolling its own conscious force of action in accordance
\nwith the law of the Swabhava. <\/p>\n

But what again
\nis meant by saying that the Divine is not in the becomings, the forms and
\naffections of the lower nature, even the sattwic, though they all are in his
\nbeing? In a sense he must evidently be in them, otherwise they could not exist.
\nBut what is meant is that the true and supreme spiritual nature of the Divine
\nis not imprisoned there; they are only phenomena in his being created out of it
\nby the action of the ego and the ignorance. The ignorance presents everything
\nto us in an inverted vision and at least a partially falsified experience. We
\nimagine that the soul is in the body, almost a result and derivation from the
\nbody; even we so feel it: but it is the body that is in the soul and a result
\nand derivation from the soul. We think of the spirit as a small part of us \u2013
\nthe Purusha who is no bigger than the thumb \u2013 in this great mass of material
\nand mental phenomena: in reality, the latter for all its imposing appearance is
\na very small thing in the infinity of <\/p>\n

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

<\/p>\n
\n

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\n the being of the spirit. So it is
\nhere; in much the same sense these things are in the Divine rather than the
\nDivine in these things. This lower nature of the three gunas which creates so
\nfalse a view of things and imparts to them an inferior character is a Maya, a
\npower of<\/p>\n

illusion, by which it is not
\nmeant that it is all non-existent or deals with unrealities, but that it
\nbewilders our knowledge, creates false values, envelops us in ego, mentality,
\nsense, physicality, limited intelligence and there conceals from us the supreme
\ntruth of our existence. This illusive Maya hides from us the Divine that we
\nare, the infinite and imperishable spirit. \u201cBy these three kinds of becoming
\nwhich are of the nature of the Gunas, this whole world is bewildered and does
\nnot recognise Me supreme beyond them and imperishable.\u201d If we could see that
\nthat Divine is the real truth of our existence, all else also would change to
\nour vision, assume its true character and our life and action acquire the
\ndivine values and move in the law of the divine nature. <\/p>\n

But why then,
\nsince the Divine is there after all and the divine nature at the root even of
\nthese bewildering derivations, since we are the Jiva and the Jiva is that, is
\nthis Maya so hard to overcome, māyā
\nduratyayā<\/i>? Because it is still the Maya of the Divine, daivī hyesā gunamayī
\nmama māyā<\/i>; \u201cthis is my divine Maya of the gunas.\u201d It is itself
\ndivine and a development from the nature of the Divine, but the Divine in the
\nnature of the gods; it is daivī<\/i>,
\nof the godheads or, if you will, of the Godhead, but of the Godhead in its
\ndivided subjective and lower cosmic aspects, sattwic, rajasic and tamasic. It
\nis a cosmic veil which the Godhead has spun around our understanding; Brahma,
\nVishnu and Rudra have woven its complex threads; the Shakti, the Supreme Nature
\nis there at its base and is hidden in its every tissue. We have to work out
\nthis web in ourselves and turn through it and from it leaving it behind us when
\nits use is finished, turn from the gods to the original and supreme Godhead in
\nwhom we shall discover at the same time the last sense of the gods and their
\nworks and the inmost spiritual verities of our own imperishable existence. \u201cTo
\nMe who turn and come, they alone cross over beyond this Maya.\u201d <\/p>\n

\nPage 264<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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