{"id":141,"date":"2013-07-13T01:26:10","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=141"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:26:10","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:26:10","slug":"21-the-foundation-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\/21-the-foundation-vol-16-the-supramental-manifestation-volume-16","title":{"rendered":"-21_The Foundation.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\n
\nT<\/font>he
\nFoundation<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n <\/span>          
\n<\/span> <\/span>    T<\/span>HE
\nidea of Karma has behind it two ideas that are its constituent factors, a law of
\nNature, of the energy or action of Nature, and a soul that lives under that law,
\nputs out action into that energy and gets from it a return in accordance and
\nmeasure with the character of its own activities. And here certain
\nconsiderations have at once intervened which it will not do to ignore. This
\nputting out of action and its return cannot have anything more than a mechanical
\nimportance, it cannot have a mental, moral and spiritual significance, if the
\naction of universal Nature is something quite different from the soul’s action
\nin character, in meaning, in the law of her being that constitutes it, if it is
\nnot itself the energy, the work of a Mind, a Soul, a Spirit. If the individual
\nenergy is that of a soul putting out action and receiving a return in kind,
\nphysical, mental, moral and spiritual from the universal energy, the universal
\nenergy too that makes the return should be that of an All-Soul in which and in
\nrelation to which this individual flame of the All-Soul lives. And it is
\napparent, if we consider, that the individual’s energy of action is not
\nsomething miraculously separate and independent, it is not a power born of
\nitself, living in itself, acting in its separate and wholly self-formed
\npuissance. On the contrary it is the universal that acts in the individual
\nenergy and acts, no doubt with an individual application, but on universal lines
\nand in harmony with its universal law. Hut if that were all the truth, then
\nthere would be no real individual and no responsibility of any kind except the
\nresponsibility of universal Nature to carry out the idea or to execute the force
\nput forth in the individual as in the universal by the All-Soul, the cosmic
\nSpirit. But there is also this soul of the individual, and that is a being of
\nthe Infinite and a conscious and efficient portion of the All-Soul, a deputy or
\nrepresentative, and puts forth the energy given to it according to its own
\npotentiality, type, limits with a will that is in some sense its own. The Spirit
\nin the cosmos is the lord, the Ishwara<\/p>\n

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

\nPage
\n\u2013 173<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\n<\/div>\n

of
\nall Nature, but the individual soul is likewise a representative, a delegate
\nIshwara, the underlord at least if not the overlord of his nature, – the
\nrecipient, agent and overseer, let us say, of his own form and use of the
\nuniversal energy of Nature.<\/p>\n

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

         
\nAnd
\nnext we see that each being is actually in life, in the world an individual in a
\nspecies and each species has a nature of its own, a Swabhava or way of the
\nself-being, and each individual too a nature of his own, an individual way of
\nhis self-being within that of the species. The law of the action is determined
\ngenerally by this Swabhava of the species and individually by the Swabhava of
\nthe individual, but within that larger circle. Man is at once himself, in a
\ncertain way peculiar and unique, and a depressed portion of God and a natural
\nportion of mankind. There is, in other words, a general and an individual
\nSwadharma or natural principle and law of all action for the kind and for the
\nindividual in the kind. And it is clear too that every action must be a
\nparticular application, a single result, a perfect or imperfect, right or
\nperverted use of the general and within it of the individual Swadharma.<\/p>\n

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

 
\n But
\nagain, if that were all, if each man came into life with his present nature
\nready determined for him and irrevocable and had to act according to it, there
\nwould be no real responsibility; for he would do good according to the good and
\nevil according to the evil in his nature, he would be imperfect according to its
\nimperfection or perfect according to its perfection; and he might have to suffer
\nthe return of his good or evil, bear exactly the just consequences of his
\nperfection or his imperfection, but mechanically and not by his choice: for his
\napparent choice would be the compulsion of the nature in him and could not be in
\nany way, directly or indirectly, the result of his spirit’s will. But in fact
\nthere is within his being a power of development, a power of change, or in the
\nlanguage of our modem conceptions an evolutionary power. His nature is what it
\nis because he has so made it by his past; he has induced this present
\nformulation by a precedent will in his Spirit. He has risen to humanity by the
\nforce of his Spirit and by the power of the All-Soul out of the vast
\npossibilities of universal Nature. He has developed by his own long evolution of
\nthat humanity the character and law of<\/p>\n

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


\n <\/font> Page \u2013 174<\/font><\/font>  
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

action
\nof his present individual being; he has built his ‘own height and form of human
\nnature. He may change what he has made, he may rise even if that be within the
\npossibilities of the universe, beyond human and to or towards superhuman nature.
\nIt is the possibility of the universal Nature and her law that determines his
\nnatural being and action, but it is part of her law to be subject to the Spirit,
\nand she will develop in reply to an insistent call; for then she must respond,
\nshe must supply the needed energy, she must determine’ the acts in that
\ndirection, she must assure its issue. His past and his present nature and the
\nenvironment he has secured may present constant obstacles, but they must still
\nyield in the end to the evolutionary will in him in proportion to its sincerity,
\nwholeness and insistence. All the possibility of the All-being is in him, all
\nthe power of the All-Will is behind him. This evolution and all its
\ncircumstances, his life, its form, its events, its values arise out of that urge
\nand are shaped according to the past, present or future active will of his
\nSpirit. As is his use of the energy, so was and will be the return of the
\nuniversal energy to him now and hereafter. This is the fundamental meaning of
\nKarma.<\/p>\n

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

       
\nAt
\nthe same time this action and evolution of the Spirit taking birth in a body are
\nnot an easy and simple thing, as it would or might be if Nature were all of one
\npiece and evolution were only a raising of the degrees of a single power. For
\nthere are many strands, many degrees, many forms of energy of Nature. There is
\nin the world of Birth an energy of physical being and nature, arising out of the
\nphysical an energy of vital being and nature, arising out of the vital an energy
\nof mental being and nature, arising out of the mental an energy of spiritual or
\nsupramental being and nature. And each of these forms of energy has a law of its
\nown, lines of its own action, a right to its own manner of operation and
\nexistence, because each is fundamental to some necessity of the whole. And we
\nsee accordingly that each in its impulse follows its own lines regardless of the
\nrest, each in the combination imposes as much of its domination as it can on the
\nothers. The mental being is itself a most complex thing and has several forms of
\nenergy, an intellectual, a moral, an emotional, a hedonistic energy of mental
\nnature, and the will<\/p>\n

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

\nPage
\n\u2013 175<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

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\n
\n<\/div>\n

in
\neach is in itself absolute for its own rule and is yet forced to be modified in
\naction by the running into it and across it of the other strands. The way and
\nthe movement of the world action are indeed a difficult and entangled process, gahana
\nkarmano gatih<\/i>, and therefore too the way and movement of our own action
\nwhich we cannot separate in its law, however much the mere mind in us might like
\nto have it so, from the law of the world action. And if all these energies are
\nforms of energy of the nature of the Spirit, then it is likely that only when we
\nrise into the consciousness of the supreme spiritual being can we hope wholly to
\nunderstand all the integral secret and harmony of the world action and therefore
\nthe integral meaning and law of Karma.<\/p>\n

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

.        
\nIt
\nmay therefore serve a partial purpose but can be of little eventual advantage to
\ntry to cut the knot of the riddle by reducing to the law of one form of energy
\nalone all the apparent tangle of the cosmic action. The universe is not solely
\nan ethical proposition, a problem of the antinomy of the good and the evil; the
\nSpirit of the universe can in no way be imagined as a rigid moralist concerned
\nonly with making all things obey the law of moral good, or a stream of tendency
\ntowards righteousness attempting, hitherto with only a very poor success, to
\nprevail and rule, or a stern Justicer rewarding and punishing creatures in a
\nworld that he has made or has suffered to be full of wickedness and suffering
\nand evil. The universal Will has evidently many other and more supple modes than
\nthat, an infinity of interests, many other elements of its being to manifest,
\nmany lines to follow, many laws and purposes to pursue. The law of the world is
\nnot this alone that our good brings good to us and our evil brings evil, nor is
\nits sufficient key the ethical-hedonistic rule that our moral good brings to us
\nhappiness and success and our moral evil brings to us sorrow and misfortune.
\nThere is a rule of right in the world, but it is the right of the truth of
\nNature and of the truth of the Spirit, and that is a vast and various rule and
\ntakes many forms that have to be understood and accepted before we can reach
\neither its highest or its integral principle.<\/p>\n

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

 
\n The
\nwill in the intellectual being may erect knowledge and truth of knowledge as the
\ngoverning principle of the Spirit, the<\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 176<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\n<\/div>\n


\nwill in the volitional being may see Will or Power as very God, the will in the
\naesthetic being enthrone beauty and harmony as the sovereign law, the will in
\nthe ethical being have a vision of it as Right or Love or Justice, and so on
\nthrough a long chapter. But even though all these may very well be supreme
\naspects of the Supreme, it will not do to shut up the acts of the Infinite into
\none formula. And for a beginning it is best to phrase the law of Karma as
\ngenerally and vaguely as may be and put it simply thus without any particular
\ncolour or content that according to the energy put forth shall be its return,
\nnot with any mathematical precision of conscious will and its mechanical
\nconsequences, but subject to the complicated working of many world forces. If we
\nthus state broadly our foundation, the simplicity of the ordinary solutions
\ndisappears, but that is a loss only to love of dogma or to the mind’s indolence.
\nThe whole law of the cosmic action or even the one law governing all the others
\ncannot well be the measure of a physical, mechanical and chemical energy, nor
\nthe law of a life force, nor a moral law or law of mind or of idea forces; for
\nit is evident that none of these things by its single self covers or accounts
\nfor all the fundamental powers. There is likely to be something else of which
\nall these are the means and energies. Our initial formula itself can be only a
\ngeneral mechanical rule, but still it is likely to be the practical rule of all
\nparts of the mechanism, and if it only states itself and does at first nothing
\nmore, yet an impartial regard on the variety of its operations may open out many
\nmeanings and may lead us to the essential significance.<\/p>\n

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

         
\nThe
\npractical and the efficient base of Karma is all the relation of the soul to the
\nenergies of Nature, the use by Purusha of Prakriti. It is the soul’s demand on,
\nconsent to or use of the energies of Nature and the return and reflex of her
\nenergies on the soul that must determine the steps of our progress in our
\nbirths, whether that progress be in a given direction or a long up and down or
\nin a perpetual circle. There is another, a circumstantial aspect of the law of
\nKarma and that hinges on the turn of our action not only to our self, but to
\nothers. The nature of the energies we put forth and even the return and reflex
\nof their consequence upon us affects not only ourselves but all around us and we
\nmust account<\/p>\n

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

\nPage
\n\u2013 177<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\n<\/div>\n

too
\nfor the direction of our acts upon others, its effect upon them and the return
\nof the direction and rebound of consequence of the effect upon our own life and
\nbeing. But the energy we put forth on others is ordinarily of a mixed character,
\nphysical, vital, moral, mental and spiritual, and the return and consequence too
\nare of a mixed character. A physical action, a vital pressure thrown forth from
\nourselves carries in it a mental or moral as well as a physical and vital power
\nand issues often quite beyond our conscious will and knowledge and the
\nconsequence to ourselves and to others is found to be different enough in
\ncharacter and measure from anything we intended or could have calculated and
\nforeseen. The calculation escapes us because too complex by far is the universal
\nenergy acting through us and our conscious will intervenes in it simply as an
\ninstrument; our real acceptance is that of a more fundamental power within, a
\nsecret, a subliminal assent of our subconscient and superconscient spirit. And
\nthe return too, whatever the agents, is of the same complex universal energy and
\ndetermined by some difficult correlation of the force acting and the force acted
\nupon in her.<\/p>\n

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

         
\nBut
\nthere is another, an ultimate and essential sense of Karma, a relation in it
\nbetween the soul in us and the Supreme or the All-Self; on that all is founded
\nand to that all leads and must refer to it at every step. That relation too is
\nnot so simple a thing as is imagined by the religions. For it must answer to a
\nvery vast spiritual sense underlying the whole process of Karma and there must
\nbe a connection of each of our workings is the use of the universal energy to
\nthat fundamental and perhaps infinite significance. These three things, the will
\nof the soul in Nature and the action of Nature in and on the soul and through it
\nand back to it, the effect of the intercrossing between the action of the soul
\non others and the return to it of the force of its action complicated by theirs,
\nand the meaning of the soul’s action in relation to its own highest Self and the
\nAll-Self, to God, make up between them all the bearings of Karma.<\/p>\n

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

\nPage
\n\u2013 178<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

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

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