{"id":2590,"date":"2013-07-13T01:42:37","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2590"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:42:37","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:42:37","slug":"29-the-beginning-and-the-end-vol-12-essays-divine-and-human","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/12-essays-divine-and-human\/29-the-beginning-and-the-end-vol-12-essays-divine-and-human","title":{"rendered":"-29_The Beginning and the End.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t Section Four<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t 1914 \u00ad 1919<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t The Beginning and the End <\/b>
\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>
\n\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t \t\t\t\tWho knows the beginning of things or what mind has ever
\nembraced their end? When we have said a beginning, do we not behold spreading out beyond it all the eternity of Time when
\nthat which has begun was not? So also when we imagine an end our vision becomes wise of endless Space stretching out beyond
\nthe terminus we have fixed. Do even forms begin and end? Or does eternal Form only disappear from one of its canvases?
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/p>\n

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

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

\n\t\t\t  <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t The experiment of human life on an earth is not now for the first time enacted. It has been conducted a million times before
\nand the long drama will again a million times be repeated. In all that we do now, our dreams, our discoveries, our swift or
\ndifficult attainments we profit subconsciously by the experience of innumerable precursors and our labour will be fecund in planets unknown to us and in worlds yet uncreated. The plan, the peripeties, the denouement differ continually, yet are always governed by the conventions of an eternal Art. God, Man, Nature are the three perpetual symbols.
\n\t\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t The idea of eternal recurrence affects with a shudder of alarm the mind entrenched in the minute, the hour, the years,
\nthe centuries, all the finite’s unreal defences. But the strong soul conscious of its own immortal stuff and the inexhaustible ocean
\nof its ever-flowing energies is seized by it with the thrill of an inconceivable rapture. It hears behind the thought the childlike
\nlaughter and ecstasy of the Infinite.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t God, Man, Nature, what are these three? Whence flow
\ntheir divergences? To what ineffable union advances the ever-increasing sum of their contacts? Let us look beyond the hours
\n    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 141<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

and moments; let us tear down the hedge of the years and the
\nconcept-wall of centuries and millenniums and break out beyond the limits of our prison-house. For all things seek to concentrate
\nour view on the temporal interests, conceptions and realisations of our humanity. We have to look beyond them to know that
\nwhich they serve and represent. Nothing in the world can be understood by itself, but only by that which is beyond it. If we
\nwould know all, we must turn our gaze to that which is beyond all. That being known all else is comprehended.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/p>\n

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

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

\n\t\t\t  <\/p>\n

\nA beginningless and endless eternity and infinity in which divisible Time and Space manage to subsist is the mould of existence. They succeed in subsisting because they are upheld by God’s view of Himself in things.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nGod is all existence. Existence is a representation of ineffable Being. Being is neither eternal nor temporary, neither
\ninfinite nor limited, neither one nor many; it is nothing that any word of our speech can describe nor any thought of our
\nmentality can conceive. The word existence unduly limits it; eternity & infinity are too petty conceptions; the term Being is
\nan x representing not an unknown but an unknowable value. All values proceed from the Brahman, but it is itself beyond all
\nvalues.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThis existence is an incalculable Fact in which all possible
\nopposites meet; its opposites are in truth identities.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nIt is neither one nor many and yet both one and many. Numberlessness increases in it and extends till it reaches unity; unity broken cannot stop short of numberlessness.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nIt is neither personal nor impersonal and yet at once personal and impersonal. Personality is a fiction of the impersonal;
\nimpersonality the mask of a Person. That impersonal Brahman was all the time a world-transcendent Personality and universal
\nPerson, is the truth of things as it is represented by life and consciousness. “I am” is the eternal assertion. Analytic thought
\n   
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 142<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

gets rid of the I, but the Am remains and brings it back. Materialism changes “I am” into “It is”, and when it has done so, has changed nothing. The Nihilist gets rid of both Am and Is
\nonly to find them waiting for him beyond on either side of his negation.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> \t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n

When we examine the Infinite and the Finite, Form and the Formless, the Silence and the Activity, our oppositions are
\nequally baffled. Try however hard we will, God will not allow us to exclude any of them from His fathomless universality. He
\ncarries all Himself with Him into every transcendence. \t\t\t<\/span> \t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/p>\n

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

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

\n\t\t\t  <\/p>\n

\nAll this is Infinity grasped by the Finite and the Finite lived by
\nthe Infinite.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe finite is a transience or a recurrence in the infinite, therefore Infinity alone is utterly real. But since that Real casts always this shadow of itself and since it is by the finite that its reality
\nbecomes conceivable, we must suppose that the phenomenon also is not a fiction.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe Infinite defines itself in the finite, the finite conceives itself in the Infinite. Each is necessary to the other’s complete joy
\nof being.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe Infinite pauses always in the finite; the finite arrives always in the Infinite. This is the wheel that circles forever through Time and Eternity.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nIf there were nothing to be transcended, the Transcendent would be incomplete in its own conception.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nWhat is the value of the Formless unless it has stooped to Form? And on the other hand what truth or value has any form
\nexcept to represent as in a mask the Indefinable and Invisible?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nFrom what background have all these numberless forms
\nstarted out, if not from the termless profundities of the Incommensurable? He who has not lost his knowledge in the Unknowable, knows nothing. Even the world he studies so sapiently, cheats and laughs at him.
\n   
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 143<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

When we have entered into the Unknowable, then all this
\nother knowledge becomes valid. When we have sacrificed all forms into the Formless, then all forms become at once negligible
\nand infinitely precious.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> \t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n

For the rest, that is true of all things. What we have not
\nrenounced, has no worth. Sacrifice is the great revealer of values. \t\t\t<\/span> \t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/p>\n

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

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

\n\t\t\t  <\/p>\n

\nAs all words come out of the Silence, so all forms come out of
\nthe Infinite.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nWhen the word goes back into the silence is it extinct for
\never or does it dwell in the eternal harmony? When a soul goes back to God is it blotted out from existence or does it know and
\nenjoy that into which it enters?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nDoes universe ever end? Does it not exist eternally in God’s
\ntotal idea of His own being?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nUnless the Eternal is tired out by Time as by a load, unless
\nGod suffers loss of memory, how can universe cease from being?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nNeither for soul nor universe is extinction the goal, but for
\none it is infinite self-possessing and for the other the endless pursuit of its own immutably mutable rhythms.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/p>\n

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

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

\n\t\t\t  <\/p>\n

\nExistence, not annihilation is the whole aim and pursuit of existence.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nIf Nothing were the beginning Nothing also would be the end; but in that case Nothing also would be the middle.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nIf indiscriminable unity were the beginning it would also be the end. But then what middle term could there be except
\nindiscriminable unity?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThere is a logic in existence from which our Thought tries
\nto escape by twisting and turning against its own ultimate necessity, as if a snake were to try to get away from itself by
\ncoiling round its own body. Let it cease coiling and go straight   
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 144<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

to the root of the whole matter, that there is no first nor last, no
\nbeginning nor ending, but only a representation of successions and dependences.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> \t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n

Succession and dependence are laws of perspective; they cannot be made a true measure of that which they represent.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> \t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n

Precisely because God is one, indefinable and beyond form, therefore He is capable of infinite definition and quality, realisation in numberless forms and the joy of endless
\nself-multiplication. These two things go together and they cannot
\nreally be divided. <\/span> \t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/p>\n

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

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

\n\t\t\t  <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 145<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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

Section Four   1914 \u00ad 1919     The Beginning and the End   Who knows the beginning of things or what mind has ever…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12-essays-divine-and-human","wpcat-52-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}