{"id":2152,"date":"2013-07-13T01:39:47","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2152"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:39:47","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:39:47","slug":"57-chapter-iii-the-psychology-of-self-perfection-vol-23-24-the-synthesis-of-yoga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/23-24-the-synthesis-of-yoga\/57-chapter-iii-the-psychology-of-self-perfection-vol-23-24-the-synthesis-of-yoga","title":{"rendered":"-57_Chapter III The Psychology of Self-Perfection.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tChapter III <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe Psychology of Self-Perfection
\n<\/font><\/b> <\/font><\/i><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tE<\/font>SSENTIALLY<\/b>, then, this divine self-perfection is a conversion of the human into a likeness of and a fundamental oneness with the divine nature, a rapid shaping of the
\nimage of God in man and filling in of its ideal outlines. It is what 
\nis ordinarily termed sā<\/font>drś<\/font>ya-mukti<\/i>, a liberation into the divine resemblance out of the bondage of the human seeming, or, to
\n\t\t\tuse the expression of the Gita, sā<\/font>dharmya-gati<\/i>, a coming to be
\none in law of being with the supreme, universal and indwelling Divine. To perceive and have a right view of our way to such
\na transformation we must form some sufficient working idea of the complex thing that this human nature at present is in
\nthe confused interminglings of its various principles, so that we may see the precise nature of the conversion each part of it
\nmust undergo and the most effective means for the conversion. How to disengage from this knot of thinking mortal matter the
\nImmortal it contains, from this mentalised vital animal man the happy fullness of his submerged hints of Godhead, is the real
\nproblem of a human being and living. Life develops many first hints of the divinity without completely disengaging them; Yoga
\nis the unravelling of the knot of Life’s difficulty. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFirst of all we have to know the central secret of the psychological complexity which creates the problem and all its difficulties. But an ordinary psychology which only takes mind
\nand its phenomena at their surface values, will be of no help to us; it will not give us the least guidance in this line of self-exploration and self-conversion. Still less can we find the clue in a scientific psychology with a materialistic basis which assumes
\nthat the body and the biological and physiological factors of our nature are not only the starting-point but the whole real foundation and regards human mind as only a subtle development from the life and the body. That may be the actual truth of the <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 <\/font>623<\/font> <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tanimal side of human nature and of the human mind in so far as
\nit is limited and conditioned by the physical part of our being. But the whole difference between man and the animal is that
\nthe animal mind, as we know it, cannot get for one moment away from its origins, cannot break out from the covering, the
\nclose chrysalis which the bodily life has spun round the soul, and become something greater than its present self, a more free,
\nmagnificent and noble being; but in man mind reveals itself as a greater energy escaping from the restrictions of the vital and
\nphysical formula of being. But even this is not all that man is or can be: he has in him the power to evolve and release a
\nstill greater ideal energy which in its turn escapes out of the restrictions of the mental formula of his nature and discloses the
\nsupramental form, the ideal power of a spiritual being. In Yoga we have to travel beyond the physical nature and the superficial
\nman and to discover the workings of the whole nature of the real man. In other words we must arrive at and use a psycho-physical
\nknowledge with a spiritual foundation. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMan is in his real nature, \u2014 however obscure now this truth
\nmay be to our present understanding and self-consciousness, we must for the purposes of Yoga have faith in it, and we shall
\nthen find that our faith is justified by an increasing experience and a greater self-knowledge,
\n\u2014 a spirit using the mind,
\nlife and body for an individual and a communal experience and self-manifestation in the universe. This spirit is an infinite
\nexistence limiting itself in apparent being for individual experience. It is an infinite consciousness which defines itself in finite
\nforms of consciousness for joy of various knowledge and various power of being. It is an infinite delight of being expanding and
\ncontracting itself and its powers, concealing and discovering, formulating many terms of its joy of existence, even to an apparent obscuration and denial of its own nature. In itself it is eternal Sachchidananda, but this complexity, this knotting up
\nand unravelling of the infinite in the finite is the aspect we see it assume in universal and in individual nature. To discover the
\neternal Sachchidananda, this essential self of our being within us, and live in it is the stable basis, to make its true nature
\n  <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 <\/font>624<\/font> <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tevident and creative of a divine way of living in our instruments,
\nsupermind, mind, life and body, the active principle of a spiritual perfection. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSupermind, mind, life and body are the four instruments which the spirit uses for its manifestation in the workings of
\nNature. Supermind is spiritual consciousness acting as a self-luminous knowledge, will, sense, aesthesis, energy, self-creative
\nand unveiling power of its own delight and being. Mind is the action of the same powers, but limited and only very indirectly
\nand partially illumined. Supermind lives in unity though it plays with diversity; mind lives in a separative action of diversity,
\nthough it may open to unity. Mind is not only capable of ignorance, but, because it acts always partially and by limitation, it
\nworks characteristically as a power of ignorance: it may even and it does forget itself in a complete inconscience, or nescience,
\nawaken from it to the ignorance of a partial knowledge and move from the
\nignorance towards a complete knowledge, \u2014
\nthat is its natural action in the human being, \u2014 but it can never have by itself a complete knowledge. Supermind is incapable of
\nreal ignorance; even if it puts full knowledge behind it in the limitation of a particular working, yet all its working refers back to
\nwhat it has put behind it and all is instinct with self-illumination; even if it involves itself in material nescience, it yet does there
\naccurately the works of a perfect will and knowledge. Supermind lends itself to the action of the inferior instruments; it is always
\nthere indeed at the core as a secret support of their operations. In matter it is an automatic action and effectuation of the hidden idea in things; in life its most seizable form is instinct, an instinctive, subconscious or partly subconscious knowledge and
\noperation; in mind it reveals itself as intuition, a swift, direct and self-effective illumination of intelligence, will, sense and
\naesthesis. But these are merely irradiations of the supermind which accommodate themselves to the limited functioning of the
\nobscurer instruments: its own characteristic nature is a gnosis superconscient to mind, life and body. Supermind or gnosis is
\nthe characteristic, illumined, significant action of spirit in its own native reality. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 <\/font>625<\/font> 
\n <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tLife is an energy of spirit subordinated to action of mind
\nand body, which fulfils itself through mentality and physicality and acts as a link between them. It has its own characteristic
\noperation but nowhere works independently of mind and body. All energy of the spirit in action works in the two terms of
\nexistence and consciousness, for the self-formation of existence and the play and self-realisation of consciousness, for the delight
\nof existence and the delight of consciousness. In this inferior formulation of being in which we at present live, the spirit’s
\nenergy of life works between the two terms of mind and matter, supporting and effecting the formulations of substance of matter
\nand working as a material energy, supporting the formulations of consciousness of mind and the workings of mental energy,
\nsupporting the interaction of mind and body and working as a sensory and nervous energy. What we call vitality is for the
\npurposes of our normal human existence power of conscious being emerging in matter, liberating from it and in it mind and
\nthe higher powers and supporting their limited action in the physical life, \u2014 just as what we call mentality is power of conscious being awaking in body to light of its own consciousness and to consciousness of all the rest of being immediately around
\nit and working at first in the limited action set for it by life and body, but at certain points and at a certain height escaping
\nfrom it to a partial action beyond this circle. But this is not the whole power whether of life or mentality; they have planes of
\nconscious existence of their own kind, other than this material level, where they are freer in their characteristic action. Matter
\nor body itself is a limiting form of substance of spirit in which life and mind and spirit are involved, self-hidden, self-forgetful
\nby absorption in their own externalising action, but bound to emerge from it by a self-compelling evolution. But matter too
\nis capable of refining to subtler forms of substance in which it becomes more apparently a formal density of life, of mind,
\nof spirit. Man himself has, besides this gross material body, an encasing vital sheath, a mental body, a body of bliss and gnosis.
\nBut all matter, all body contains within it the secret powers of these higher principles; matter is a formation of life that has no <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 <\/font>626<\/font>  <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\treal existence apart from the informing universal spirit which
\ngives it its energy and substance. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis is the nature of spirit and its instruments. But to understand its operations and to get at a knowledge which will give to us a power of leverage in uplifting them out of the
\nestablished groove in which our life goes spinning, we have to perceive that the Spirit has based all its workings upon two
\ntwin aspects of its being, Soul and Nature, Purusha and Prakriti. We have to treat them as different and diverse in power,
\n\u2014 for
\nin practice of consciousness this difference is valid, \u2014 although they are only two sides of the same reality, pole and pole of the
\none conscious being. Purusha or soul is spirit cognizant of the workings of its nature, supporting them by its being, enjoying
\nor rejecting enjoyment of them in its delight of being. Nature is power of the spirit, and she is too working and process of its
\npower formulating name and form of being, developing action of consciousness and knowledge, throwing itself up in will and
\nimpulsion, force and energy, fulfilling itself in enjoyment. Nature is Prakriti, Maya, Shakti. If we look at her on her most external
\nside where she seems the opposite of Purusha, she is Prakriti, an inert and mechanical self-driven operation, inconscient or conscient only by the light of Purusha, elevated by various degrees, vital, mental, supramental, of his soul-illumination of her workings. If we look at her on her other internal side where she moves nearer to unity with Purusha, she is Maya, will of being
\nand becoming or of cessation from being and becoming with all their results, apparent to the consciousness, of involution
\nand evolution, existing and non-existing, self-concealment of spirit and self-discovery of spirit. Both are sides of one and the
\nsame thing, Shakti, power of being of the spirit which operates, whether superconsciously or consciously or subconsciously in
\na seeming inconscience, \u2014 in fact all these motions coexist at the same time and in the same soul,
\n\u2014 as the spirit’s power of  knowledge, power of will, power of process and action,
\n\t\t\tjnā<\/font>na –<\/i>
\n\t\t\tś<\/font>akti<\/i>, icchā<\/font>–ś<\/font>akti<\/i>, kriyā-ś<\/font>akti<\/i>. By this power the spirit creates
\nall things in itself, hides and discovers all itself in the form and behind the veil of its manifestation.
\n  <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 <\/font>627<\/font>
\n <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tPurusha is able by this power of its nature to take whatever
\npoise it may will and to follow the law and form of being proper to any self-formulation. It is eternal soul and spirit in its own
\npower of self-existence superior to and governing its manifestations; it is universal soul and spirit developed in power of becoming of its existence, infinite in the finite; it is individual soul and spirit absorbed in development of some particular course of its
\nbecoming, in appearance mutably finite in the infinite. All these things it can be at once, eternal spirit universalised in cosmos,
\nindividualised in its beings; it can too found the consciousness rejecting, governing or responding to the action of Nature in
\nany one of them, put the others behind it or away from it, know itself as pure eternity, self-supporting universality or exclusive
\nindividuality. Whatever the formulation of its nature, soul can seem to become that and view itself as that only in the frontal
\nactive part of its consciousness; but it is never only what it seems to be; it is too the so much else that it can be; secretly, it is the
\nall of itself that is yet hidden. It is not irrevocably limited by any particular self-formulation in Time, but can break through and
\nbeyond it, break it up or develop it, select, reject, new-create, reveal out of itself a greater self-formulation. What it believes
\nitself to be by the whole active will of its consciousness in its instruments, that it is or tends to become,
\nyo yacchraddhah<\/font> sa<\/i>  eva sah<\/font><\/i>: what it believes it can be and has full faith in becoming,.<\/i> that it changes to in nature, evolves or discovers. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis power of the soul over its nature is of the utmost importance in the Yoga of self-perfection; if it did not exist, we could
\nnever get by conscious endeavour and aspiration out of the fixed groove of our present imperfect human being; if any greater
\nperfection were intended, we should have to wait for Nature to effect it in her own slow or swift process of evolution. In the
\nlower forms of being the soul accepts this complete subjection to Nature, but as it rises higher in the scale, it awakes to a sense
\nof something in itself which can command Nature; but it is only when it arrives at self-knowledge that this free will and control
\nbecomes a complete reality. The change effects itself through process of nature, not therefore by any capricious magic, but an
\n  <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 <\/font>628<\/font>
\n <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tordered development and intelligible process. When complete
\nmastery is gained, then the process by its self-effective rapidity may seem a miracle to the intelligence, but it still proceeds by
\nlaw of the truth of Spirit, \u2014 when the Divine within us by close union of our will and being with him takes up the Yoga and acts
\nas the omnipotent master of the nature. For the Divine is our highest Self and the self of all Nature, the eternal and universal
\nPurusha. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPurusha may establish himself in any plane of being, take
\nany principle of being as the immediate head of his power and live in the working of its proper mode of conscious action.
\nThe soul may dwell in the principle of infinite unity of self-existence and be aware of all consciousness, energy, delight,
\nknowledge, will, activity as conscious form of this essential truth, Sat or Satya. It may dwell in the principle of infinite
\nconscious energy, Tapas, and be aware of it unrolling out of self-existence the works of knowledge, will and dynamic soul-action for the enjoyment of an infinite delight of the being. It may dwell in the principle of infinite self-existent delight and be
\naware of the divine Ananda creating out of its self-existence by its energy whatever harmony of being. In these three poises the
\nconsciousness of unity dominates; the soul lives in its awareness of eternity, universality, unity, and whatever diversity there is,
\nis not separative, but only a multitudinous aspect of oneness. It may dwell too in the principle of supermind, in a luminous self-determining knowledge, will and action which develops some coordination of perfect delight of conscious being. In the higher
\ngnosis unity is the basis, but it takes its joy in diversity; in lower fact of supermind diversity is the basis, but it refers back always
\nto a conscious unity and it takes joy in unity. These ranges of consciousness are beyond our present level; they are superconscious
\nto our normal mentality. That belongs to a lower hemisphere of being. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis lower being begins where a veil falls between soul and nature, between spirit in supermind and spirit in mind, life and
\nbody. Where this veil has not fallen, these instrumental powers are not what they are in us, but an enlightened part of the unified <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 <\/font>629<\/font>
\n <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\taction of supermind and spirit. Mind gets to an independent idea
\nof its own action when it forgets to refer back to the light from which it derives and becomes absorbed in the possibilities of its
\nown separative process and enjoyment. The soul when it dwells in the principle of mind, not yet subject to but user of life and
\nbody, knows itself as a mental being working out its mental life and forces and images, bodies of the subtle mental substance,
\naccording to its individual knowledge, will and dynamis modified by its relation to other similar beings and powers in the
\nuniversal mind. When it dwells in the principle of life, it knows itself as a being of the universal life working out action and
\nconsciousness by its desires under similar modifying conditions proper to a universal life-soul whose action is through many
\nindividual life-beings. When it dwells in the principle of matter, it knows itself as a consciousness of matter acting under a similar
\nlaw of the energy of material being. In proportion as it leans towards the side of knowledge, it is aware of itself more or less
\nclearly as a soul of mind, a soul of life, a soul of body viewing and acting in or acted upon by its nature; but where it leans towards
\nthe side of ignorance, it knows itself as an ego identified with nature of mind, of life or of body, a creation of Nature. But the
\nnative tendency of material being leads towards an absorption of the soul’s energy in the act of formation and material movement and a consequent self-oblivion of the conscious being. The material universe begins from an apparent inconscience. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe universal Purusha dwells in all these planes in a certain simultaneity and builds upon each of these principles a world
\nor series of worlds with its beings who live in the nature of that principle. Man, the microcosm, has all these planes in his
\nown being, ranged from his subconscient to his superconscient existence. By a developing power of Yoga he can become aware
\nof these concealed worlds hidden from his physical, materialised mind and senses which know only the material world, and then
\nhe becomes aware that his material existence is not a thing apart and self-existent, as the material universe in which he lives is also
\nnot a thing apart and self-existent, but is in constant relation to the higher planes and acted on by their powers and beings. He <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 <\/font>630<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tcan open up and increase the action of these higher planes in himself
\n\tand enjoy some sort of participation in the life of the other worlds, \u2014
\n\twhich, for the rest, are or can be his dwelling <\/i> place, that is to say, the station of his awareness, dhā<\/font>ma<\/i>, after
\ndeath or between death and rebirth in a material body. But his most important capacity is that of developing the powers of
\nthe higher principles in himself, a greater power of life, a purer light of mind, the illumination of supermind, the infinite being,
\nconsciousness and delight of spirit. By an ascending movement he can develop his human imperfection towards that greater
\nperfection. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut whatever his aim, however exalted his aspiration, he
\nhas to begin from the law of his present imperfection, to take full account of it and see how it can be converted to the law of a
\npossible perfection. This present law of his being starts from the inconscience of the material universe, an involution of the soul
\nin form and subjection to material nature; and, though in this matter life and mind have developed their own energies, yet they
\nare limited and bound up in the action of the lower material, which is to the ignorance of his practical surface consciousness
\nhis original principle. Mind in him, though he is an embodied mental being, has to bear the control of the body and the physical life and can only by some more or less considerable effort of energy and concentration consciously control life and body.
\nIt is only by increasing that control that he can move towards perfection, \u2014 and it is only by developing soul-power that he can
\nreach it. Nature-power in him has to become more and more completely a conscious act of soul, a conscious expression of all
\nthe will and knowledge of spirit. Prakriti has to reveal itself as shakti of the Purusha.
\n   <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 <\/font>631<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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