{"id":2634,"date":"2013-07-13T01:42:54","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2634"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:42:54","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:42:54","slug":"05-the-self-or-atman-vol-28-letters-on-yoga-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/28-letters-on-yoga-i\/05-the-self-or-atman-vol-28-letters-on-yoga-i","title":{"rendered":"-05_The Self or Atman.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\n\tChapter Four<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\tThe Self or Atman
\n <\/font>
\n <\/b> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Self
\n <\/a>
\n <\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It [the self<\/i>] is being, not a being. By self is meant the conscious
\nessential existence, one in all. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

The self is the Divine itself in an essential aspect; it is not a portion. There is no meaning in the phrase “not even a portion”
\nor “only an aspect”. An aspect is not something inferior to a portion. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\n\tDo you not know what "essential" means? There is a difference between the
\n\tessence of a thing which is always the same and its formations and
\n\tdevelopments which vary. There is, for instance, the essence of gold and
\n\tthere are the many forms which gold can take.  <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

Essence can never be defined
\n\t\u2014it simply is. <\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Everything acts in the self. The whole play of Nature takes place
\nin the self, in the Divine. The self contains the universe. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Cosmic Spirit or Self
\n<\/a>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Cosmic Spirit or Self contains everything in the cosmos
\n\u2014it upholds cosmic Mind, universal Life, universal Matter as well
\nas the Overmind. The Self is more than all these things which are its formulations in Nature. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage <\/font>\u2013
\n\t\t\t30<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

 It [the Cosmic Spirit<\/i>] uses Truth and Falsehood, Knowledge and Ignorance and all the other dualities as elements in the
\nmanifestation and works out what has to be worked out till all is ready for a higher working. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

The Cosmic Spirit contains the Supermind, but it keeps it above
\nand works for the present between the Overmind and the physical. It is only when the Ignorance is removed that the Supra
\nmental becomes directly a dynamic part of the workings of cosmic Nature here. Till then there are only reflections of it. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

The Self is essentially universal; the individualised self is only
\nthe universal experienced from an individual centre. If what you have realised is not felt to be one in all, then it is not the
\n“Atman”; possibly it is the central being not yet revealing its universal aspect as Atman. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

The Self is felt as either universal, one in all, or a universalised
\nindividual the same in essence as others, extended everywhere from each being but centred here. Of course centre is a way of
\nspeaking, because no physical centre is usually felt \u2014only all the action takes place around the individual. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

All is in the self; when identified with the universal self, all is in
\nyou. <\/p>\n

Also, the microcosm reproduces the macrocosm
\n\t\u2014so all is
\npresent in each, though all is not expressed (and cannot be) in the surface consciousness. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Atman, the Soul and the Psychic Being
\n\t<\/a> <\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Atman is one in all, is not born, does not evolve or change. <\/p>\n

The soul is something that comes from the Divine into <\/p>\n

the evolution and as the psychic being it evolves and assumes
\n   <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage <\/font>\u2013
\n\t\t\t31<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

different personalities from life to life. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

To live in the consciousness of the Atman is to live in the calm, unity and peace that is above things and separate from the world
\neven when pervading it. But for the psychic consciousness there are two things, the world and itself acting in the world. The
\nJivatman has not come down into the world, it stands above, always the same \u2014supporting the different beings, mental etc.
\nwhich act here. The psychic is what has come down here \u2014its function is to offer all things to the Divine for transformation. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Self and Nature or Prakriti
\n\t<\/a> <\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Self or Atman is inactive, Nature (Prakriti) or Shakti acts.
\nWhen the Self is realised it is first an infinite existence, wideness, silence, freedom, peace that is felt
\n\t\u2014that is called Atman or Self.
\nWhen action takes place, it is according to the realisation either felt as forces of Nature working in that wideness, as the Divine
\nShakti working or as the cosmic Divine or various powers of him working. It is not felt that the Self is acting. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

One may be aware of the silent static self without relation
\nto the play of the cosmos. Again, one may be aware of the universal static self omnipresent in everything without being <\/p>\n

supra-sensuously awake to the movement of the dynamic viś<\/font>va-<\/i>
\nprakri<\/font>ti<\/i>. The first realisation of the Self or Brahman is often .<\/i> <\/p>\n

a realisation of something that separates itself from all form, name, action, movement, exists in itself only, regarding the cosmos as only a mass of cinematographic shapes unsubstantial and empty of reality. That was my own first complete realisation of
\nthe Nirvana in the Self. That does not mean a wall between Self and Brahman, but a scission between the essential self-existence
\nand the manifested world. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage <\/font>\u2013
\n\t\t\t32<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

In the experience of Yoga the self or being is in essence one with the Divine or at the least it is a portion of the Divine and has
\nall the divine potentialities. But in manifestation it takes two aspects, the Purusha and Prakriti, conscious being and Nature.
\nIn Nature here the Divine is veiled, and the individual being is subjected to Nature which acts here as the lower Prakriti, a force
\nof Ignorance, Avidya. The Purusha in itself is divine, but exteriorised in the ignorance of Nature it is as the individual apparent
\nbeing imperfect with her imperfection. Thus the soul or psychic essence, which is the Purusha entering into the evolution and
\nsupporting it, carries in itself all the divine potentialities, but the individual psychic being which it puts forth as its representative
\nassumes the imperfection of Nature and evolves in it till it has recovered its full psychic essence and united itself with the Self
\nabove of which the soul is the individual projection in the evolution. This duality in the being on all its planes, for it is true in
\ndifferent ways not only of the Self and the psychic but of the mental, vital and physical Purushas, has to be grasped and accepted
\nbefore the experiences of the Yoga can be fully understood. <\/p>\n

The Being is one throughout, but on each plane of Nature, it
\nis represented by a form of itself which is proper to that plane, the mental Purusha in the mental plane, the vital Purusha in the vital,
\nthe physical Purusha in the physical. The Taittiriya Upanishad speaks of two other planes of the being, the Knowledge or Truth
\nplane and the Ananda plane, each with its Purusha, but although influences may come down from them these are superconscient
\nto the human mind and their nature is not yet organised here. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage <\/font>\u2013
\n\t\t\t33<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter Four   The Self or Atman   The Self   It [the self] is being, not a being. By self is meant the conscious…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-28-letters-on-yoga-i","wpcat-53-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2634","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=2634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}