{"id":2242,"date":"2013-07-13T01:40:20","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2242"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:40:20","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:40:20","slug":"25-the-two-natures-vol-19-essays-on-the-gita","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/19-essays-on-the-gita\/25-the-two-natures-vol-19-essays-on-the-gita","title":{"rendered":"-25_The Two Natures.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ESSAYS ON THE GITA <\/font><\/b>
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SECOND SERIES <\/p>\n

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PART I <\/font><\/b>
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THE SYNTHESIS OF WORKS,
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LOVE AND KNOWLEDGE <\/p>\n

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I <\/font><\/b>
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The Two Natures <\/font>1<\/font><\/sup>
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T<\/font>HE FIRST<\/b> six chapters of the Gita have been treated as a single block of teachings, its primary basis of practice and
\nknowledge; the remaining twelve may be similarly treated as two closely connected blocks which develop the rest of the
\ndoctrine from this primary basis. The seventh to the twelfth chapters lay down a large metaphysical statement of the nature
\nof the Divine Being and on that foundation closely relate and synthetise knowledge and devotion, just as the first part of the
\nGita related and synthetised works and knowledge. The vision of the World-Purusha intervenes in the eleventh chapter, gives a
\ndynamic turn to this stage of the synthesis and relates it vividly to works and life. Thus again all is brought powerfully back to the
\noriginal question of Arjuna round which the whole exposition revolves and completes its cycle. Afterwards the Gita proceeds
\nby the differentiation of the Purusha and Prakriti to work out its ideas of the action of the gun<\/font>as, of the ascension beyond the
\ngun<\/font>as and of the culmination of desireless works with knowledge where that coalesces with Bhakti,
\n\u2014 knowledge, works
\nand love made one, \u2014 and it rises thence to its great finale, the supreme secret of self-surrender to the Master of Existence.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nIn this second part of the Gita we come to a more concise and easy manner of statement than we have yet had. In the
\nfirst six chapters the definitions have not yet been made which give the key to the underlying truth; difficulties are being met
\nand solved; the progress is a little laboured and moves through several involutions and returns; much is implied the bearing of
\nwhich is not yet clear. Here we seem to get on to clearer ground and to lay hold of a more compact and pointed expression. But
\nbecause of this very conciseness we have to be careful always
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n1
\nGita, VII. 1-14.
\n264 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 263<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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\n

of our steps in order to avoid error and a missing of the real sense. For we are here no longer steadily on the safe ground of
\npsychological and spiritual experience, but have to deal with intellectual statements of spiritual and often of supracosmic truth.
\nMetaphysical statement has always this peril and uncertainty about it that it is an attempt to define to our minds what is
\nreally infinite, an attempt which has to be made, but can never be quite satisfactory, quite final or ultimate. The highest spiritual
\ntruth can be lived, can be seen, but can only be partially stated. The deeper method and language of the Upanishads with its free
\nresort to image and symbol, its intuitive form of speech in which the hard limiting definiteness of intellectual utterance is broken
\ndown and the implications of words are allowed to roll out into an illimitable wave of suggestion, is in these realms the only
\nright method and language. But the Gita cannot resort to this form, because it is designed to satisfy an intellectual difficulty,
\nanswers a state of mind in which the reason, the arbiter to which we refer the conflicts of our impulses and sentiments, is at war
\nwith itself and impotent to arrive at a conclusion. The reason has to be led to a truth beyond itself, but by its own means and
\nin its own manner. Offered a spiritually psychological solution, of the data of which it has no experience, it can only be assured
\nof its validity if it is satisfied by an intellectual statement of the truths of being upon which the solution rests.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nSo far the justifying truths that have been offered to it are those with which it is already familiar, and they are only sufficient as a starting-point. There is first the distinction between the Self and the individual being in Nature. The distinction has
\nbeen used to point out that this individual being in Nature is necessarily subject, so long as he lives shut up within the action
\nof the ego, to the workings of the three gun<\/font>as which make up by their unstable movements the whole scope and method of
\nthe reason, the mind and the life and senses in the body. And within this circle there is no solution. Therefore the solution has
\nto be found by an ascent out of the circle, above this nature of the gun<\/font>as, to the one immutable Self and silent Spirit, because
\nthen one gets beyond that action of the ego and desire which
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 264<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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\nis the whole root of the difficulty. But since this by itself seems to lead straight towards inaction, as beyond Nature there is
\nno instrumentality of action and no cause or determinant of action, \u2014 for the immutable self is inactive, impartial and equal
\nto all things, all workings and all happenings, \u2014 the Yoga idea is brought in of the Ishwara, the Divine as master of works and
\nsacrifice, and it is hinted but not yet expressly stated that this Divine exceeds even the immutable self and that in him lies the
\nkey to cosmic existence. Therefore by rising to him through the Self it is possible to have spiritual freedom from our works and
\nyet to continue in the works of Nature. But it has not yet been stated who is this Supreme, incarnate here in the divine teacher
\nand charioteer of works, or what are his relations to the Self and to the individual being in Nature. Nor is it clear how the Will to
\nworks coming from him can be other than the will in the nature of the three gun<\/font>as. And if it is only that, then the soul obeying
\nit can hardly fail to be in subjection to the gun<\/font>as in its action, if not in its spirit, and if so, at once the freedom promised becomes
\neither illusory or incomplete. Will seems to be an aspect of the executive part of being, to be power and active force of nature,
\nShakti, Prakriti. Is there then a higher Nature than that of the three gun<\/font>as? Is there a power of pragmatic creation, will, action
\nother than that of ego, desire, mind, sense, reason and the vital impulse?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nTherefore, in this uncertainty, what has now to be done is to give more completely the knowledge on which divine works are
\nto be founded. And this can only be the complete, the integral knowledge of the Divine who is the source of works and in whose
\nbeing the worker becomes by knowledge free; for he knows the free Spirit from whom all works proceed and participates in
\nhis freedom. Moreover this knowledge must bring a light that justifies the assertion with which the first part of the Gita closes.
\nIt must ground the supremacy of bhakti over all other 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 itself in the perfect self-surrender which is
\nthe highest height of all love and devotion. This is what the <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 265<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\n

Teacher proposes to give in the opening verses of the seventh chapter which initiate the development that occupies all the rest
\nof the book. “Hear,” he says, “how by practising Yoga with a <\/p>\n

mind attached to me and with me as āśraya<\/i> (the whole basis, lodgment, point of resort of the conscious being and action)
\nthou shalt know me without any remainder of doubt, integrally, <\/p>\n

samagram mām.<\/i> I will speak to thee without omission or remainder,
\naśesatah<\/i>,” (for otherwise a ground of doubt may remain), <\/p>\n

“the essential knowledge, attended with all the comprehensive knowledge, by knowing which there shall be no other thing
\nhere left to be known.” The implication of the phrase is that <\/p>\n

the Divine Being is all, vāsudevah sarvam<\/i>, and therefore if he <\/p>\n

is known integrally in all his powers and principles, then all is known, not only the pure Self, but the world and action and
\nNature. There is then nothing else here left to be known, because all is that Divine Existence. It is only because our view here is not
\nthus integral, because it rests on the dividing mind and reason and the
\nseparative idea of the ego, that our mental perception of
\nthings is an ignorance. We have to get away from this mental and egoistic view to the true unifying knowledge, and that has two <\/p>\n

aspects, the essential, j\u00f1āna<\/i>, and the comprehensive, vij\u00f1āna<\/i>, the direct spiritual awareness of the supreme Being and the right
\nintimate knowledge of the principles of his existence, Prakriti, Purusha and the rest, by which all that is can be known in its
\ndivine origin and in the supreme truth of its nature. That integral knowledge, says the Gita, is a rare and difficult thing; “among
\nthousands of men one here and there strives after perfection, and of those who strive and attain to perfection one here and
\nthere knows me in all the principles of my existence, tattvatah<\/i>.” <\/p>\n

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

\nThen, to start with and in order to found this integral knowledge, the Gita makes that deep and momentous distinction
\nwhich is the practical basis of all its Yoga, the distinction between the two Natures, the phenomenal and the spiritual Nature. “The
\nfive elements (conditions of material being), mind, reason, ego, this is my eightfold divided Nature. But know my other Nature
\ndifferent from this, the supreme which becomes the Jiva and by which this world is upheld.” Here is the first new metaphysical <\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 266<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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\nidea of the Gita which helps it to start from the notions 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

Nature constituted of the five bhū<\/font>tas<\/i>, \u2014 elements, as it is rendered, but rather elemental or essential conditions of material
\nbeing to which are given the concrete names of earth, water, fire, air and ether,
\n\u2014 the mind with its various senses and organs, the
\nreason-will and the ego, is the Sankhya description of Prakriti. The Sankhya stops there, and because it stops there, it has to set
\nup an unbridgeable division between the soul and Nature; it has to posit them as two quite distinct primary entities. The Gita
\nalso, if it stopped there, would have to make the same incurable antinomy between the Self and cosmic Nature which would then
\nbe only the Maya of the three gun<\/font>as and all this cosmic existence would be simply the result of this Maya; it could be nothing else.
\nBut there is something else, there is a higher principle, a nature of <\/p>\n

spirit, parā prakrtir<\/i> me<\/i>. There is a supreme nature of the Divine <\/p>\n

which is the real source of cosmic existence and its fundamental creative force and effective energy and of which the other lower
\nand ignorant Nature is only a derivation and a dark shadow. In this highest dynamis Purusha and Prakriti are one. Prakriti
\nthere is only the will and the executive power of the Purusha, his activity of being,
\n\u2014 not a separate entity, but himself in Power.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThis supreme Prakriti is not merely a presence of the power of spiritual being immanent in cosmic activities. For then it
\nmight be only the inactive presence of the all-pervading Self, immanent in all things or containing them, compelling in a way
\nthe world action but not itself active. Nor is this highest Prakriti the avyakta<\/i>
\nof the Sankhyas, the primary unmanifest seed-state
\nof the manifest active eightfold nature of things, the one productive original force of Prakriti out of which her many instrumental
\nand executive powers evolve. Nor is it sufficient to interpret that idea of avyakta<\/i>
\nin the Vedantic sense and say that this supreme
\nNature is the power involved and inherent in unmanifest Spirit or Self out of which cosmos comes and into which it returns. It
\nis that, but it is much more; for that is only one of its spiritual states. It is the integral conscious-power of the supreme Being,
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 267<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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\n

cit-śakti<\/i>, which is behind the self and cosmos. In the immutable
\nSelf it is involved in the Spirit; it is there, but in nivrtti<\/i> or a <\/p>\n

holding back from action: in the mutable self and the cosmos it comes out into action,
\n\tpravrtti<\/i>. There by its dynamic presence it <\/p>\n

evolves in the Spirit all existences and appears in them as their
\nessential spiritual nature, the persistent truth behind their play of subjective and objective phenomena. It is the essential quality <\/p>\n

and force, svabhāva<\/i>, the self-principle of all their becoming, the
\ninherent principle and divine power behind their phenomenal existence. The balance of the gun<\/font>as is only a quantitative and
\nquite derivative play evolved out of this supreme Principle. All this activity of forms, all this mental, sensuous, intelligential
\nstriving of the lower nature is only a phenomenon, which could not be at all except for this spiritual force and this power of
\nbeing; it comes from that and it exists in that and by that solely. If we dwell in the phenomenal nature only and see things only by
\nthe notions it impresses on us, we shall not get at the real truth of our active existence. The real truth is this spiritual power, this
\ndivine force of being, this essential quality of the spirit in things or rather of the spirit in which things are and from which they
\ndraw all their potencies and the seeds of their movements. Get at that truth, power, quality and we shall get at the real law of
\nour becoming and the divine principle of our living, its source and sanction in the Knowledge and not only its process in the
\nIgnorance. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThis is to throw the sense of the Gita into language suited
\nto our modern way of thinking; but if we look at its description of the Para Prakriti, we shall find that this is practically the
\nsubstance of what it says. For first, this other higher Prakriti is,
\n says Krishna, my supreme nature, prakrTim me parām<\/i>. And this
\n“I” here is the Purushottama, the supreme Being, the supreme Soul, the transcendent and universal Spirit. The original and
\neternal nature of the Spirit and its transcendent and originating Shakti is what is meant by the Para Prakriti. For speaking first of
\nthe origin of the world from the point of view of the active power of his Nature, Krishna assevers, “This is the womb of all beings,” <\/p>\n

etad-yonī<\/font>ni bhūtāni<\/i>. And in the next line of the couplet, again
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 268<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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\nstating the same fact from the point of view of the originating Soul, he continues, “I am the birth of the whole world and so
\ntoo its dissolution; there is nothing else supreme beyond Me.” Here then the supreme Soul, Purushottama, and the supreme
\nNature, Para Prakriti, are identified: they are put as two ways of looking at one and the same reality. For when Krishna declares,
\nI am the birth of the world and its dissolution, it is evident that it is this Para Prakriti, supreme Nature, of his being which is
\nboth these things. The Spirit is the supreme Being in his infinite consciousness and the supreme Nature is the infinity of power
\nor will of being of the Spirit, \u2014 it is his infinite consciousness in its inherent divine energy and its supernal divine action. The
\nbirth is the movement of evolution of this conscious Energy out <\/p>\n

of the Spirit, parā prakrtir jī<\/font>vabhū<\/font>tā<\/font><\/i>, its activity in the mutable <\/p>\n

universe; the dissolution is the withdrawing of that activity by involution of the Energy into the immutable existence and
\nself-gathered power of the Spirit. That then is what is initially meant by the supreme Nature. <\/p>\n

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

\nThe supreme Nature, parā prakrtih<\/i>, is then the infinite time less conscious power of the self-existent Being out of which
\nall existences in the cosmos are manifested and come out of timelessness into Time. But in order to provide a spiritual basis
\nfor this manifold universal becoming in the cosmos the supreme Nature formulates itself as the Jiva. To put it otherwise, the
\neternal multiple soul of the Purushottama appears as individual spiritual existence in all the forms of the cosmos. All existences
\nare instinct with the life of the one indivisible Spirit; all are supported in their personality, actions and forms by the eternal
\nmultiplicity of the one Purusha. We must be careful not to make the mistake of thinking that this supreme Nature is identical with
\nthe Jiva manifested in Time in the sense that there is nothing else or that it is only nature of becoming and not at all nature of
\nbeing: that could not be the supreme nature of the Spirit. Even in Time it is something more; for otherwise the only truth of it
\nin the cosmos would be nature of multiplicity and there would be no nature of unity in the world. That is not what the Gita
\nsays: it does not say that the supreme Prakriti is in its essence the <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 269<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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\n

Jiva, jī<\/font>ivā<\/font>tmikā<\/font>m<\/i>, but that it has become the Jiva,
\njīvabhūtām<\/i>; and it is implied in that expression that behind its manifestation
\nas the Jiva here it is originally something else and higher, it is nature of the one supreme spirit. The Jiva, as we are told <\/p>\n

later on, is the Lord, īśvara<\/i>, but in his partial manifestation,
\n mamaivāmśah<\/i>; even all the multiplicity of beings in the universe
\nor in numberless universes could not be in their becoming 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
\nbhūtesu vibhaktam iva ca sthitam<\/i>.
\nThe unity is the greater truth, the multiplicity is the lesser truth, though both are a truth and neither of them is an illusion.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nIt is by the unity of this spiritual nature that the world is
\n sustained, yayedam dhāryate jagat<\/i>, even as it is that from which <\/p>\n

it is born with all its becomings, etad-yonini bhūtāni sarvani,<\/i> and
\nthat also which withdraws the whole world and its existences
\ninto itself in the hour of dissolution, aham krtsnasya jagatah prabhāvāh pralayas
\ntathā<\/i>. But in the manifestation which is <\/p>\n

thus put forth in the Spirit, upheld in its action, withdrawn in its
\nperiodical rest from action, the Jiva is the basis of the multiple existence; it is the multiple soul, if we may so call it, or, if we
\nprefer, the soul of the multiplicity we experience here. It is one always with the Divine in its being, different from it only in the
\npower of its being, \u2014 different not in the sense that it is not at all the same power, but in this sense that it only supports the
\none power in a partial multiply individualised action. Therefore all things are initially, ultimately and in the principle of their
\ncontinuance too the Spirit. The fundamental nature of all is nature of the Spirit, and only in their lower differential phenomena
\ndo they seem to be something else, to be nature of body, life, mind, reason, ego and the senses. But these are phenomenal
\nderivatives, they are not the essential truth of our nature and our existence. 
\n<\/i>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe supreme nature of spiritual being gives us then both an original truth and power of existence beyond cosmos and a first
\nbasis of spiritual truth for the manifestation in the cosmos. But where is the link between this supreme nature and the lower <\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 270<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
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\nphenomenal nature? On me, says Krishna, all this, all that is here \u2014
\nsarvam idam<\/i>, the common phrase in the Upanishads for
\nthe totality of phenomena in the mobility of the universe \u2014 is strung like pearls upon a thread. But this is only an image which
\nwe cannot press very far; for the pearls are only kept in relation to each other by the thread and have no other oneness or relation with the pearl-string except their dependence on it for this mutual connection. Let us go then from the image to that which
\nit images. It is the supreme nature of Spirit, the infinite conscious power of its being, self-conscient, all-conscient, all-wise, which
\nmaintains these phenomenal existences in relation to each other, penetrates them, abides in and supports them and weaves them
\ninto the system of its manifestation. This one supreme power manifests not only in all as the One, but in each as the Jiva, the
\nindividual spiritual presence; it manifests also as the essence of all quality of Nature. These are therefore the concealed spiritual
\npowers behind all phenomena. This highest quality is not the working of the three gunas, which is phenomenon of quality
\nand not its spiritual essence. It is rather the inherent, one, yet variable inner power of all these superficial variations. It is a
\nfundamental truth of the Becoming, a truth that supports and gives a spiritual and divine significance to all its appearances.
\nThe workings of the gunas are only the superficial unstable <\/p>\n

becomings of reason, mind, sense, ego, life and matter, sāttvikā bhā<\/font>vā<\/font>
\nrājasās tāmasāś ca<\/i>; but this is rather the essential stable <\/p>\n

original intimate power of the becoming, svabhāva<\/i>. It is that which determines the primary law of all becoming and of each
\nJiva; it constitutes the essence and develops the movement of the nature. It is a principle in each creature that derives from
\nand is immediately related to a transcendent divine Becoming, <\/p>\n

that of the Ishwara, madbhāvah<\/i>. In this relation of the divine <\/p>\n

bhāva<\/i> to the svabhāva<\/i> and of the svabhāva<\/i> to the superficial <\/p>\n

bhāvāh<\/i>, of the divine Nature to the individual self-nature and of the self-nature in its pure and original quality to the phenomenal
\nnature in all its mixed and confused play of qualities, we find the link between that supreme and this lower existence. The
\ndegraded powers and values of the inferior Prakriti derive from <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 271 <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

the absolute powers and values of the supreme Shakti and must go back to them to find their own source and truth and the
\nessential law of their operation and movement. So too the soul or Jiva involved here in the shackled, poor and inferior play
\nof the phenomenal qualities, if he would escape from it and be divine and perfect, must by resort to the pure action of his
\nessential quality of Swabhava go back to that higher law of his own being in which he can discover the will, the power, the
\ndynamic principle, the highest working of his divine nature. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThis is clear from the immediately subsequent passage in
\nwhich the Gita gives a number of instances to show how the Divine in the power of his supreme nature manifests and acts
\nwithin the animate and so-called inanimate existences of the universe. We may disentangle them from the loose and free order
\nwhich the exigence of the poetical form imposes and put them in their proper philosophical series. First, the divine Power and
\nPresence works within the five elemental conditions of matter. “I am taste in the waters, sound in ether, scent in earth, energy
\nof light in fire,” and, it may be added for more completeness, touch or contact in air. That is to say, the Divine himself in his
\nPara Prakriti is the energy at the basis of the various sensory relations of which, according to the ancient Sankhya system,
\nthe ethereal, the radiant, electric and gaseous, the liquid and the other elemental conditions of matter are the physical medium.
\nThe five elemental conditions of matter are the quantitative or material element in the lower nature and are the basis of material forms. The five Tanmatras \u2014 taste, touch, scent, and the others \u2014 are the qualitative element. These Tanmatras are the
\nsubtle energies whose action puts the sensory consciousness in relation to the gross forms of matter,
\n\u2014 they are the basis of
\nall phenomenal knowledge. From the material point of view matter is the reality and the sensory relations are derivative; but
\nfrom the spiritual point of view the truth is the opposite. Matter and the material media are themselves derivative powers and
\nat bottom are only concrete ways or conditions in which the workings of the quality of Nature in things manifest themselves
\nto the sensory consciousness of the Jiva. The one original and
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 272<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\neternal fact is the energy of Nature, the power and quality of being which so manifests itself to the soul through the senses.
\nAnd what is essential in the senses, most spiritual, most subtle is itself stuff of that eternal quality and power. But energy or
\npower of being in Nature is the Divine himself in his Prakriti; each sense in its purity is therefore that Prakriti, each sense is
\nthe Divine in his dynamic conscious force. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThis we gather better from the other terms of the series. “I
\nam the light of sun and moon, the manhood in man, the intelligence of the intelligent, the energy of the energetic, the strength <\/p>\n

of the strong, the ascetic force of those who do askesis, tapasyā<\/font><\/i>.”
\n“I am life in all existences.” In each case it is the energy of the essential quality on which each of these becomings depends for
\nwhat it has become, that is given as the characteristic sign indicating the presence of the divine Power in their nature. Again,
\n“I am pranava in all the Vedas,” that is to say, the basic syllable OM, which is the foundation of all the potent creative sounds
\nof the revealed word; OM is the one universal formulation of the energy of sound and speech, that which contains and sums
\nup, synthetises and releases all the spiritual power 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. That makes it quite clear. It is
\nnot the phenomenal developments of the senses or of life or of light, intelligence, energy, strength, manhood, ascetic force that
\nare proper to the supreme Prakriti. It is the essential quality in its spiritual power that constitutes the
\nSwabhava. It is the force
\nof spirit so manifesting, it is the light of its consciousness and the power of its energy in things revealed in a pure original sign
\nthat is the self-nature. That force, light, power is the eternal seed from which all other things are the developments and derivations
\nand variabilities and plastic circumstances. Therefore the Gita throws in as the most general statement in the series, “Know
\nme to be the eternal seed of all existences, O son of Pritha.” This eternal seed is the power of spiritual being, the conscious
\nwill in the being, the seed which, as is said elsewhere, the Divine casts into the great Brahman, into the supramental vastness,
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 273<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

and from that all are born into phenomenal existence. It is
\nthat seed of spirit which manifests itself as the essential quality in all
\nbecomings and constitutes their swabhava. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe practical distinction between this original power of
\nessential quality and the phenomenal derivations of the lower nature, between the thing itself in its purity and the thing in
\nits lower appearances, is indicated very clearly at the close of the series. “I am the strength of the strong devoid of desire and
\nliking,” stripped of all attachment to the phenomenal pleasure of things. “I am in beings the desire which is not contrary to their
\ndharma.” And as for the secondary subjective becomings of <\/p>\n

Nature, bhāvāh<\/i><\/font><\/i> (states of mind, affections of desire, movements of passion, the reactions of the senses, the limited and dual play
\nof reason, the turns of the feeling and moral sense), which are sattwic, rajasic and tamasic, as for the working of the three
\ngun<\/font>as, they are, says the Gita, not themselves the pure action of the supreme spiritual nature, but are derivations from it; “they
\nare verily from me,” matta eva<\/i>, they have no other origin, “but I am not in them, it is they that are in me.” Here is indeed a strong
\nand yet subtle distinction. “I am” says the Divine “the essential light, strength, desire, power, intelligence, but these derivations
\nfrom them I am not in my essence, nor am I in them, yet are they all of them from me and they are all in my being.” It is
\nthen upon the basis of these statements that we have to view the transition of things from the higher to the lower and again from
\nthe lower back to the higher nature. The first statement offers no difficulty. The strong man in
\nspite of the divine nature of the principle of strength in him falls into subjection to desire and to attachment, stumbles into sin,
\nstruggles towards virtue. But that is because he descends in all his derivative action into the grasp of the three gun<\/font>as and does
\nnot govern that action from above, from his essential divine nature. The divine nature of his strength is not affected by these
\nderivations, it remains the same in its essence in spite of every obscuration and every lapse. The Divine is there in that nature
\nand supports him by its strength through the confusions of his lower existence till he is able to recover the light, illumine wholly <\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 274<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\nhis life with the true sun of his being and govern his will and its acts by the pure power of the divine will in his higher nature. <\/p>\n

But how can the Divine be desire, kā<\/font>ma<\/i>? for this desire, this <\/p>\n

kāma<\/i> has been declared to be our one great enemy who has to
\nbe slain. But that desire was the desire of the lower nature of the gun<\/font>as which has its native point of origin in the rajasic being,
\nrajogun<\/font>a-samudbhavah<\/i>; for this is what we usually mean when <\/p>\n

we speak of desire. This other, the spiritual, is a will not contrary
\nto the dharma. <\/p>\n

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

\nIs it meant that the spiritual kāma<\/i> is a virtuous desire, ethical in its nature, a sattwic desire,
\n\u2014 for virtue is always sattwic in its
\norigin and motive force? But then there would be here an obvious contradiction,
\n\u2014 since in the very next line all sattwic affections
\nare declared to be not the Divine, but only lower derivations. Undoubtedly sin has to be abandoned if one is to get anywhere
\nnear the Godhead; but so too has virtue to be overpassed if we are to enter into the Divine Being. The sattwic nature has to be
\nattained, but it has then to be exceeded. Ethical action is only a means of purification by which we can rise towards the divine
\nnature, but that nature itself is lifted beyond the dualities, \u2014 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 in the spiritual sense is not morality or ethics.
\nDharma, says the Gita elsewhere, is action governed by the swabhava, the essential law of one’s nature. And this
\nswabhava
\nis at its core the pure quality of the spirit in its inherent 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 searching for and discovering not the pleasure of the lower
\nPrakriti, but the Ananda of its own play and self-fulfilling; it is the desire of the divine Delight of existence unrolling its own
\nconscious force of action in accordance with the law of the swabhava.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nBut what again is meant by saying that the Divine is not in the becomings, the forms and affections of the lower nature,
\neven the sattwic, though they all are in his being? In a sense he must evidently be in them, otherwise they could not exist. But
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 275<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

what is meant is that the true and supreme spiritual nature of the Divine is not imprisoned there; they are only phenomena
\nin his being created out of it by the action of the ego and the ignorance. The ignorance presents everything to us in an inverted
\nvision and at least a partially falsified experience. We imagine that the soul is in the body, almost a result and derivation from
\nthe body; even we so feel it: but it is the body that is in the soul and a result and derivation from the soul. We think of the spirit
\nas a small part of us \u2014 the Purusha who is no bigger than the thumb \u2014 in this great mass of material and mental phenomena:
\nin reality, the latter for all its imposing appearance is a very small thing in the infinity of the being of the spirit. So it is here;
\nin much the same sense these things are in the Divine rather than the Divine in these things. This lower nature of the three
\ngun<\/font>as which creates so false a view of things and imparts to them an inferior character is a Maya, a power of illusion, by
\nwhich it is not meant that it is all non-existent or deals with unrealities, but that it bewilders our knowledge, creates false
\nvalues, envelops us in ego, mentality, sense, physicality, limited intelligence and there conceals from us the supreme truth of our
\nexistence. This illusive Maya hides from us the Divine that we are, the infinite and imperishable spirit. “By these three kinds
\nof becoming which are of the nature of the gun<\/font>as, this whole world is bewildered and does not recognise Me supreme beyond
\nthem and imperishable.” If we could see that that Divine is the real truth of our existence, all else also would change to our
\nvision, assume its true character and our life and action acquire the divine values and move in the law of the divine nature.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nBut why then, since the Divine is there after all and the divine nature at the root even of these bewildering derivations,
\nsince we are the Jiva and the Jiva is that, is this Maya so hard to <\/p>\n

overcome, māyā duratyayā<\/font><\/i>? Because it is still the Maya of the <\/p>\n

Divine, daivī hyesā gun<\/font>amayi
\nmama māyā;<\/i> “this is my divine <\/p>\n

Maya of the gun<\/font>as.” It is itself divine and a development from the nature of the Divine, but the Divine in the nature of the gods; <\/p>\n

it is daivī<\/i>, of the godheads or, if you will, of the Godhead, but of
\nthe Godhead in its divided subjective and lower cosmic aspects,
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 276<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\nsattwic, rajasic and tamasic. It is a cosmic veil which the Godhead has spun around our understanding; Brahma, Vishnu and
\nRudra have woven its complex threads; the Shakti, the Supreme Nature is there at its base and is hidden in its every tissue. We
\nhave to work out this web in ourselves and turn through it and from it leaving it behind us when its use is finished, turn from the
\ngods to the original and supreme Godhead in whom 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. “To Me who turn and come, they alone cross over
\nbeyond this Maya.” <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 277<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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