{"id":2648,"date":"2013-07-13T01:42:59","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2648"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:42:59","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:42:59","slug":"28-spiritual-evolution-and-the-supramental-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\/28-spiritual-evolution-and-the-supramental-vol-28-letters-on-yoga-i","title":{"rendered":"-28_Spiritual Evolution and the Supramental.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

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

 <\/p>\n

\n\tSpiritual Evolution
\nand the Supramental<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\tHuman History and Spiritual Evolution
\n\t<\/a>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There have been times when the seeking for spiritual attainment was, at least in certain civilisations, more intense and widespread
\nthan now or rather than it has been in the world in general during the past few centuries. For now the curve seems to be
\nthe beginning of a new turn of seeking which takes its start from what was achieved in the past and projects itself towards
\na greater future. But always, even in the age of the Vedas or in Egypt, the spiritual achievement or the occult knowledge
\nwas confined to a few; it was not spread in the whole mass of humanity. The mass of humanity evolves slowly, containing
\nin itself all stages of the evolution from the material and the vital man to the mental man. A small minority has pushed beyond
\nthe barriers, opening the doors to occult and spiritual knowledge and preparing the ascent of the evolution beyond mental man
\ninto spiritual and supramental being. Sometimes this minority has exercised an enormous influence as in Vedic India, Egypt or,
\naccording to tradition, in Atlantis, and determined the civilisation of the race, giving it a strong stamp of the spiritual or the
\noccult; sometimes they have stood apart in their secret schools or orders, not directly influencing a civilisation which was sunk
\nin material ignorance or in chaos and darkness or in the hard external enlightenment which rejects spiritual knowledge. <\/p>\n

The cycles of evolution tend always upward, but they are cycles and do not ascend in a straight line. The process therefore
\ngives the impression of a series of ascents and descents, but what is essential in the gains of the evolution is kept or, even if eclipsed
\nfor a time, reemerges in new forms suitable to the new ages. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Creation has descended all the degrees of being from <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\n

\n

the Supermind to Matter and in each degree it has created a world, reign, plane or order proper to that degree. In the creating of the material world there was a plunge of this descending Consciousness into an apparent Inconscience and an emergence
\nof it out of that Inconscience, degree by degree, until it recovers its own highest spiritual and supramental summits and manifests their powers here in Matter. But even in the Inconscience there is a secret Consciousness which works, one may say, by an
\ninvolved and hidden Intuition proper to itself. In each stage of Matter, in each stage of Life, this Intuition assumes a working
\nproper to that stage and acts from behind the veil, supporting and enforcing the immediate necessities of the creative Force.
\nThere is an intuition in Matter which holds the action of the material Energy together and dictates the organisation of the
\nmaterial world from the electron to the sun and planet and their contents. There is an intuition in Life which similarly supports
\nand guides the play and development of life in matter till it is ready for the mental evolution of which man is the vehicle. In
\nman also the creation follows the same upward process, \u2014the intuition within develops according to the stage he has reached
\nin his progress. Even the precise intellect of the scientist, who is inclined to deny the separate existence or the superiority of
\nintuition, yet cannot really move forward unless there is behind him a mental intuition which enables him to take a forward step
\nor to divine what has to be done. Intuition therefore is present at the beginning of things and in their middle as well as at their
\nconsummation. <\/p>\n

But Intuition takes its proper form only when one goes
\nbeyond the mental into the spiritual domain, for there only it comes fully forward from behind the veil and reveals its true and
\ncomplete nature. Along with the mental evolution of man there has been going forward the early process of another evolution
\nwhich prepares the spiritual and supramental being. This has had two lines, one the discovery of the occult forces secret in
\nNature and of the hidden planes and worlds concealed from us by the world of Matter and the other the discovery of man’s soul
\nand spiritual self. If the tradition of Atlantis is correct, it is that   <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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\n

 of a progress which went to the extreme of occult knowledge but could go no farther. In the India of Vedic times we have the
\nrecord left of the other line of achievement, that of spiritual self-discovery; occult knowledge was there but kept subordinate.
\nWe may say that here in India the reign of Intuition came first, intellectual Mind developing afterwards in the later philosophy
\nand science. But in fact the mass of men at the time, it is quite evident, lived entirely on the material plane, worshipped the
\nGodheads of material nature, sought from them entirely material objects. The effort of the Vedic mystics revealed to them
\nthe things behind through a power of inner sight and hearing and experience which was confined to a limited number of seers
\nand sages and kept carefully secret from the mass of humanity \u2014secrecy was always insisted on by the mystics. We may very
\nwell attribute this flowering of intuition on the spiritual plane to a rapid reemergence of the essential gains brought down from
\na previous cycle. If we analyse the spiritual history of India we shall find that after reaching this height there was a descent
\nwhich attempted to take up each lower degree of the already evolved consciousness and link it to the spiritual at the summit.
\nThe Vedic age was followed by a great outburst of intellectual philosophy which yet took spiritual truth as its basis and tried
\nto reach it anew, not through a direct intuitive or occult process as did the Vedic seers, but by the power of the mind’s reflective,
\nspeculative, logical thought; at the same time processes of Yoga were developed which used the thinking mind as a means of
\narriving at spiritual realisation, spiritualising this mind itself at the same time. Then followed an era of the development of
\nphilosophies and Yoga processes which more and more used the emotional and aesthetic being as the means of spiritual realisation and spiritualised the emotional level in man through the heart and feeling. This was accompanied by Tantric and other
\nprocesses which took up the mental will, the life-will, the life of sensations and made them at once the instruments and the field
\nof spiritualisation. In Hathayoga and in the various attempts at divinisation of the body there is also a line of endeavour
\nwhich attempted to arrive at the same achievement with regard   <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\n

\n

to living matter; but this still awaits the discovery of the true characteristic method and power of spirit in the body. We may
\nsay therefore that the universal Consciousness after its descent into Matter has conducted the evolution there along two lines,
\none of ascent to the discovery of the self and spirit, the other of descent through the already evolved levels of mind, life and
\nbody so as to bring down the spiritual consciousness into these also and to fulfil thereby some secret intention in the creation
\nof the material universe. Our Yoga is in its principle a taking up and summarising and completing of this process, an endeavour
\nto rise to the highest possible supramental level and bring down its consciousness and powers into mind, life and body. <\/p>\n

The condition of present-day civilisation, materialistic with an externalised intellect and life-endeavour, which you find so
\npainful, is an episode, but one which was perhaps inevitable. For if the spiritualisation of mind, life and body is the thing to be
\nachieved, the conscious presence of the Spirit even in the physical consciousness and material body, an age which puts Matter and
\nthe physical life in the forefront and devotes itself to the effort of the intellect to discover the truth of material existence, had
\nperhaps to come. On one side, by materialising everything up to intellect itself it has created the extreme difficulty of which
\nyou speak for the spiritual seeker; but on the other hand it has given the life in Matter an importance which the spirituality
\nof the past was inclined to deny to it. In a way it has made the spiritualisation of it a necessity for spiritual seeking and so aided
\nthe descent movement of the evolving spiritual Consciousness in the earth-nature. More than that we cannot claim for it; its
\nconscious effect has been rather to stifle and almost extinguish the spiritual element in humanity; it is only by the divine use of
\nthe pressure of contraries and an intervention from above that there will be the greater spiritual outcome. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

All the phases of human history may be regarded as a working
\nout of the earth-consciousness in which each phase has its place and significance, so this materialistic-intellectual phase had to
\n   <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\n

 come and has had, no doubt, its purpose and significance. One may also hold that one of its uses was as an experiment to see
\nhow far and whither the human consciousness would go through an intellectual and external control of Nature with physical
\nand intellectual means only and without the intervention of any higher consciousness and knowledge
\n\u2014or that it may help by
\nresistance to draw the spiritual consciousness that is growing behind all vicissitudes to attempt the control of Matter and
\nturn it towards the Divine, as the Tantriks and Vaishnavas tried to do with the emotional and lower vital nature, not contenting themselves with the Vedantic turning of the mind towards the Supreme. But it is difficult to go farther than that or to
\nhold that this materialism is itself a spiritual thing or that the dark, confused and violent state of contemporary Europe was
\nan indispensable preparation for the descent of the Spirit. This darkness and violence which seems bent on destroying such light
\nof mental idealism and desire of harmony as had succeeded in establishing itself in the mind of humanity, is obviously due to a
\ndescent of fierce and dark vital Powers which seek to possess the human world for their own, not for a spiritual purpose. It is true
\nthat such a precipitation of Asuric forces from the darker vital worlds has been predicted by some occultists as one first result
\nof the pressure of the Divine Descent on their vital domain, but it was regarded as a circumstance of the battle, not as something
\nhelping towards the Divine Victory. The churning of Matter by the attempt of the human intellect to conquer material Nature
\nand use it for its purposes may break something in the passivity and inertia, but it is done for material ends, in a rajasic spirit,
\nwith a denial of spirituality as its mental basis. Such an attempt may end, seems to be ending indeed in chaos and a disintegration, while the new attempts at creation and reintegration seem to combine the obscure rigidity of material Nature with a
\nresurgence of the barbaric brutality and violence of a half animal vital Nature. How are the spiritual Forces to deal with all that
\nor make use of such a churning of the energies of the material universe? The way of the Spirit is the way of peace and light and
\nharmony; if it has to battle it is precisely because of the presence  <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\n

\n

of such forces which seek either to extinguish or to pervert the spiritual light. In the spiritual change inertia has to be replaced
\nby the divine peace and calm, the rajasic troubled energy by a tranquil and potent, pure and liberated dynamis, while the
\nmind must be kept plastic for the workings of a higher Light of Knowledge. How will the activity of Materialism lend itself to
\nthat change? <\/p>\n

Materialism can hardly be spiritual in its basis because its
\nbasic method is just the opposite of the spiritual way of doing things. The spiritual works from within outward, the way of
\nmaterialism is to work from out inwards. It makes the inner a result of the outer, fundamentally a phenomenon of Matter
\nand it works upon that view of things. It seeks to “perfect” humanity by outward means and one of its main efforts is to
\nconstruct a perfect social machine which will train and oblige men to be what they ought to be. The loss of the ego in the
\nDivine is the spiritual ideal; here it is replaced by the immolation of the individual to the military and industrial State. Where is
\nthere any spirituality in all that? Spirituality can only come by opening of the mind, vital and physical to the inmost soul, to the
\nhigher Self, to the Divine, and their subordination to the spiritual forces and instrumentation as channels of the inner light, the
\nhigher Knowledge and Power. Other things, mental, aesthetic, vital, are often misnamed spirituality, but they lack that essential
\ncharacter without which the word loses its true significance. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

All that you say only amounts, on the general issue, to the fact that this is a world of slow evolution in which man has emerged
\nout of the beast and is still not out of it, light out of darkness, a higher consciousness out of first a dead and then a struggling and
\ntroubled unconsciousness. A spiritual consciousness is emerging and it is through this spiritual consciousness that one can meet
\nthe Divine. Religions, full of mental and vital mixed, troubled and ignorant stuff, can only get glimpses of the Divine; positivist
\nreason with its questioning based upon things as they are and refusing to believe in anything that may or will be cannot get
\n   <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\n

 any vision of it at all. The spiritual is a new consciousness that has to evolve and has been evolving. It is quite natural that at
\nfirst and for a long time only a few should get the full light, while a greater number but still only a few compared with the mass
\nof humanity, should get it partially. But what has been gained by the few can at a stage of the evolution be completed and
\nmore generalised and that is the attempt which we are making. But if this greater consciousness of light, peace and joy is to be
\ngained, it cannot be by questioning and scepticism which can only fall back on what is and say, “It is impossible, impossible
\n\u2014what has not been in the past cannot be in the future; what is so imperfectly realised as yet, cannot be better realised in
\nthe future.” A faith, a will or at least a persistent demand and aspiration are needed
\n\u2014a feeling that with this and this alone I
\ncan be satisfied and a push towards it that will not cease till it is done. That is why a spirit of denial and scepticism stands in the
\nway, because they stand against the creation of the conditions under which spiritual experience can unroll itself. In the absence
\nof faith and firm will to achieve, the Divine has to manifest in conditions which are the most adverse to that manifestation. It
\ncan be done, but you cannot expect it to be easily done. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

I do not know what Mahatma Gandhi means by complete realisation.1 If he means a realisation with nothing more to realise, no
\nfarther development possible, then I agree \u2014I have myself spoken of farther divine progression, an infinite development. But
\nthe question is not that; the question is whether the Ignorance can be transcended, whether a complete essential realisation
\nturning the consciousness from darkness to light, from an instrument of the Ignorance seeking for Knowledge into an instrument
\nor rather a manifestation of Knowledge proceeding to greater <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

  
\n\t1 These observations were made with regard to a statement by Mahatma Gandhi: “I<\/i>
\nhold that complete realisation is impossible in this embodied life. Nor is it necessary.<\/i>
\nA living immovable faith is all that is required for reaching the full spiritual height<\/i>
\nattainable by human beings.” This statement appeared in an article submitted to Sri<\/i>
\n\t<\/font>
\nAurobindo by the correspondent. \u2014Ed.<\/font><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\n

\n

Knowledge, Light enlarging, heightening into greater Light, is or is not possible. My view is that this conversion is not only
\npossible, but inevitable in the spiritual evolution of the being here. The embodiment of life has nothing to do with it. This
\nembodiment is not of life, but of consciousness and its energy, of which life is only one phase or force. As life has developed mind,
\nand the embodiment has modified itself to suit this development (mind is precisely the main instrument of ignorance seeking for
\nknowledge), so mind can develop supermind which is in its nature knowledge not seeking for itself, but manifesting itself by
\nits own automatic power, and the embodiment can again modify itself or be modified from above so as to suit this development.
\nFaith is a necessary means for arriving at realisation because we are ignorant and do not yet know that which we are seeking
\nto realise; faith is indeed knowledge giving the ignorance an intimation of itself previous to its own manifestation, it is the
\ngleam sent before by the yet unrisen Sun. When the Sun shall rise there will be no longer any need of the gleam. The supramental
\nknowledge supports itself, it does not need to be supported by faith; it lives by its own certitude. You may say that farther
\nprogression, farther development will need faith. No, for the farther development will proceed on a basis of knowledge, not
\nof Ignorance. We shall walk in the light of knowledge towards its own wider vistas of self-fulfilment. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

I do not see what answer you can give to your uncle that would
\nsatisfy him, as he is evidently living in the mentality of the past and would not readily understand anything about spiritual evolution, the supermind and the Divine Manifestation in life and matter. You can perhaps tell him casually that it is not our hope
\nto transform suddenly the whole human race. Your object is precisely to lead a higher life away from the ordinary world,
\nonly it is not solitary; there is a collective side to it and a side, not only of meditation, but of work, action and creation. There
\nis nothing in this that is impossible. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

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\n

 It is quite possible that there have been periods of harmony on different levels, not supramental, which were afterwards disturbed \u2014but those could only be a stage or resting place in a world of spiritual evolution out of the Ignorance. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

This is a world of evolution in Matter. If everything were supra
\nmental from the beginning, there would be no place for evolution. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

The evolution I speak of is not the evolution of the Darwinian
\ntheory. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tSpiritual and Supramental <\/a> <\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Spiritual and supramental are not the same thing. The spiritual planes from higher mind to Overmind are accessible to the old
\nsadhanas so there is no difficulty about that. If they were not accessible there would have been no Yoga at all and no Yogis in
\nthe past in India. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

If spiritual and supramental were the same thing, as you say my readers imagine, then all the sages and devotees and Yogis
\nand sadhaks throughout the ages would have been supramental beings and all I have written about the supermind would be so
\nmuch superfluous stuff, useless and otiose. Anybody who had spiritual experiences would then be a supramental being; the
\nAsram would be chock-full of supramental beings and every other Asram in India also. Spiritual experiences can fix them
\nselves in the inner consciousness and alter it, transform it, if you like; one can realise the Divine everywhere, the Self in all
\nand all in the Self, the universal Shakti doing all things; one can feel merged in the Cosmic Self or full of ecstatic bhakti
\nor Ananda. But one may and usually does still go on in the outer active parts of
\nNature thinking with the intellect or at best <\/p>\n

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\n

\n

the intuitive mind, willing with a mental will, feeling joy and sorrow on the vital surface, undergoing physical afflictions and
\nsuffering the struggle of life in the body with death and disease. The change then only will be that the inner self will watch all that
\nwithout getting disturbed or bewildered, with a perfect equality, taking it as an inevitable part of Nature, inevitable at least so
\nlong as one does not withdraw to the Self out of Nature. That is not the transformation I envisage. It is quite another power
\nof knowledge, another kind of will, another luminous nature of emotion and aesthesis, another constitution of the physical
\nconsciousness that must come in by the supramental change. <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Spiritual realisation can be had on any plane by contact with the Divine (who is everywhere) or by perception of the Self
\nwithin, which is pure and untouched by the outer movements. The Supermind is something transcendent
\n\u2014a dynamic Truth
\nconsciousness which is not here yet and has to be brought down from above. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Overmind and the Supramental
\n\t<\/a> <\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There are many aspects of the Divine and of existence manifested
\nas separate by the Overmind. Different minds are drawn by different aspects and each follows its own path to its own goal.
\nEach is free to follow its own path and is not bound by another. <\/p>\n

As for the Supramental, it is by definition a consciousness
\nabove the Overmind in which all aspects are infused in the integral Divine. But none is bound to seek after the Supramental
\nconsciousness if his tendency is elsewhere. <\/p>\n

The manifestation is complex and there are beings in it who
\nbelong to various levels. If a soul wishes to plunge into the Divine through Nirvana or seeks spiritual fulfilment in a world of the
\nGods, such as Vaikuntha or Goloka, it has the freedom to do so, to follow its own tendency. <\/p>\n

The discovery of the Supramental is especially important for the spiritual evolution on the earth. If the souls here have to reach
\n   <\/p>\n

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\n

it eventually, no doubt the Divine will evolve them to seek it. There is nothing compelling all to reach it by a progress towards
\nit in direct line or by the same path and stages. It is possible for them to be satisfied with another path and intermediary partial
\nfulfilment. If it is their destiny, they may return afterwards to pursue the further ascent to the Supramental level. <\/p>\n

The Gita accepted the current belief that freedom from birth was the consequence of reaching the highest state. It is a natural deduction from the belief that this is not only a world of Ignorance but cannot be ever anything else. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Yes, there has been some progress in that respect [psychicisation<\/i>]
\nand all progress in the psychic or spiritual consciousness of the sadhaks makes the descent more easy. But the main cause [of<\/i>
\nthe descent of Light and Power<\/i>] is that the Overmind principle which is the immediate secret support of the present earth-nature
\nwith all its limitations is more and more undergoing the pressure of the Supramental and letting through a greater Light and
\nPower. For so long as the Overmind intervenes (the principle of the Overmind being a play of forces, each trying to realise
\nitself as the Truth) the law of struggle remains and with it the opportunity for the adverse Forces. <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

It is not immortality of <\/i>the body, but the consciousness of
\nimmortality in <\/i>the body that can come with the descent of Overmind into Matter or even into the physical mind or with the
\ntouch of the modified Supramental Light on the physical mindconsciousness. These are preliminary openings, but they are not
\nthe supramental fulfilment in Matter. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tInvolution and Evolution
\n<\/a>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The involution is of the Divine in the Inconscience and it is done by the interposition of intermediate planes (Overmind etc.,
\nmind, vital) \u2014then the plunge into the Inconscient which is the<\/p>\n

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\n

\n

origin of matter. But all that is not a process answering to the evolution in the inverse sense
\n\u2014for there is no need for that,
\nbut a gradation of consciousness which is intended to make the evolution upwards possible. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Man has evolved from Matter
\n\t\u2014or rather Nature has evolved
\nfirst the plant, then the animal, then Man in a regular succession out of Matter. What is involved is not Man, but mind and life
\nand spirit. “Involved” means that they are there even though there seems to be no mental activity (as in the tree) and no
\nmental or vital activity (as in the stone); as the evolution goes on the involved life appears and begins to organise itself and
\nthe plants appear and then the animals; next mind, first in the animal, and then man appears. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Everything here that belongs strictly to the earth plane is evolved
\nout of the Inconscient, out of Matter \u2014but the essential mental being exists already, not involved on the mental plane. It is only
\nthe personal mental that is evolved here by something rising out of the Inconscient and developing under a pressure from above. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

What is meant here2 is the Divine in its essential manifestation
\nwhich reveals itself to us as Light and Consciousness, Power, Love and Beauty. But in its actual cosmic manifestation the
\nSupreme, being the Infinite and not bound by any limitation, can manifest in itself, in its consciousness of innumerable possibilities, something that seems to be the opposite of itself, something in which there can be Darkness, Inconscience, Inertia, Insensibility, Disharmony and Disintegration. It is this that we see at the basis of the material world and speak of nowadays as the
\nInconscient \u2014the inconscient Ocean of the Rigveda in which the One was hidden and arose in the form of this Universe,
\n\t\u2014<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

  
\n\t 2 The statement is not available. \u2014Ed.<\/i>  
\n\t\t\t<\/font><\/p>\n

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\n

or, as it is sometimes called, the non-being, Asat. The Ignorance which is the characteristic of our mind and life is the result of
\nthis origin in the Inconscience. Moreover, in the evolution out of inconscient existence there rise up naturally powers and beings
\nwhich are interested in the maintenance of all negations of the Divine, error and unconsciousness, pain, suffering, obscurity,
\ndeath, weakness, illness, disharmony, evil. Hence the perversion of the manifestation here, its inability to reveal the true essence of
\nthe Divine. Yet in the very base of this evolution all that is divine is there involved and pressing to evolve, Light, Consciousness,
\nPower, Perfection, Beauty, Love. For in the Inconscient itself and behind the perversions of the Ignorance Divine Conscious
\nness lies concealed and works and must more and more appear, throwing off in the end its disguises. That is why it is said that
\nthe world is called to express the Divine. <\/p>\n

Your statement about the supramental evolution is correct
\nexcept that it does not follow that humanity as a whole will become supramental. What is more likely to happen is that the
\nsupramental principle will be established in the evolution by the descent just as the mental principle was established by the
\nappearance of thinking Mind and Man in earthly life. There will be a race of supramental beings on the earth just as now
\nthere is a race of mental beings. Man himself will find a greater possibility of rising to the planes intermediary between his mind
\nand supermind and making their powers effective in his life, which will mean a great change in humanity on earth, but it is
\nnot likely that the mental stage will disappear from the ascending ladder and, if so, the continued existence of a mental race will
\nbe necessary so as to form a stage between the vital and the supramental in the evolutionary movement of the spirit. <\/p>\n

Such a descent of higher beings as you suggest may be envisaged as a part of the process of the change. But the main part
\nof the change will be the appearance of the supramental being and the organisation of a supramental nature here, as a mental
\nbeing has appeared and a mental nature organised itself during the last stage of
\nthe evolution. I prefer nowadays not to speak of the descent of the higher
\nbeings because my experience is that<\/p>\n

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\n

it leads in the minds of the sadhaks to a vain and often egoistic romanticism which distracts the attention from the real work,
\nthat of the realisation of the Divine and the transformation of the nature. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

In the descent it [falsehood<\/i>] begins with Mind, in the evolutionary ascent it is difficult to say where it begins \u2014for here the beginning is Inconscience and Ignorance; but I suppose we may
\nsay that conscious falsehood begins with the beginnings of mind still involved in Life or appearing out of it. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

An evolution from the Inconscient need not be a painful one if
\nthere is no resistance; it can be a deliberately slow and beautiful efflorescence of the Divine. One ought to be able to see how
\nbeautiful outward Nature can be and usually is, although it is itself apparently “inconscient”. Why should the growth of
\nconsciousness in inward Nature be attended by so much ugliness and evil spoiling the beauty of the outward creation? Because
\nof a perversity <\/i>born from the Ignorance, which came in with Life and increased in Mind
\n\t\u2014that is the Falsehood, the Evil
\nthat was born because of the starkness of the Inconscient’s sleep separating its action from the luminosity of the secret Conscient
\nthat was all the time within it. But it need not have been so except for the overriding Will of the Supreme which meant that the
\npossibility of Perversion by inconscience and ignorance should be manifested in order to be eliminated through being given
\ntheir chance, since all possibility has to manifest somewhere: once it is eliminated, the Divine Manifestation in Matter will be
\ngreater than it otherwise could be because it will gather all the possibilities involved in this difficult creation and not some of
\nthem as in an easier and less strenuous creation might naturally be. <\/p>\n

“From beauty to greater beauty, from joy to intenser joy, by an especial adjustment of the senses”
\n\u2014yes, that would be the
\nnormal course of a divine manifestation, however gradual, in
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

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\n

Matter. “Discordant sound and offensive odour” are creations
\nof a disharmony between consciousness and Nature and do not exist in themselves; they would not be present to a liberated and
\nharmonised consciousness for they would be foreign to its being, nor would they afflict a rightly developing harmonised soul and
\nNature. Even the “belching volcano, crashing thunderstorm and whirling typhoon” are in themselves grandiose and beautiful
\nthings and only harmful or horrible to a consciousness unable to meet or deal with them or make a pact with the spirits of the
\nWind and Fire. You are assuming that the manifestation from the Inconscient must be what it is now and here and that no
\nother kind of world of Matter was possible, but the harmony of material Nature in itself shows that it need not necessarily be a
\ndiscordant, evil, furiously perturbed and painful creation \u2014the psychic being, if allowed to manifest from the first in Life and
\nlead the evolution instead of being relegated behind the veil, would have been the principle of a harmonious outflowering;
\neveryone who has felt the psychic at work within him, freed from the vital intervention, can at once see that this would be its effect
\nbecause of its unerring perception, true choice, harmonic action. If it has not been so, it is because the dark Powers have made Life
\na claimant instead of an instrument. The reality of the Hostiles and the nature of their role and trend of their endeavour cannot
\nbe doubted by anyone who has had his inner vision unsealed and made their unpleasant acquaintance. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Supermind and the Lower Creation
\n\t<\/a> <\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It [the Supermind<\/i>] can act directly on everything if it is brought
\ndown into the material consciousness \u2014at present in the arrangement of things here it is latent behind and acts through
\nother media. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

No, one can’t say that [there is a direct supramental action at<\/i> work in plants<\/i>]. It is the vital force that works, but there is a
\nsort of underlying Intuition in this Life-Force which is behind   <\/p>\n

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\n

\n

the whole action and that is what one might call a reflection or delegated Power at the back of which is latent Supermind. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

There is no reason why the vegetable, animal and human life
\nshould not evolve in the Truth and not in the Ignorance \u2014if once the Knowledge is there in the earth-plane. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\tSpeculations about the Supramental Descent
\n\t<\/a> <\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is not perhaps very useful to forecast by the mind what will be
\nthe precise results of the descent of a supramental consciousness into a world in which up to now the mental intelligence has
\nbeen the highest evolutionary product and leading power. For the supermind is a consciousness which will work in a very
\ndifferent way from the mind and the lines laid down for it by the latter are not likely to be respected by the greater energy in
\nits self-organisation and operation here. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

There is not much profit in mental and intellectual speculations about what precisely the results would be of the introduction
\nof a supramental principle and a supramental organisation and order in the earth-consciousness and the earth-life. In all probability the speculations would be quite beside the mark or, even where they hit on some broad lines, would draw them wrong
\nand all awry and out of proportion; for the intellectual mind is a different and inferior power of consciousness; it is analytical
\nand synthetic, pulling things to pieces and putting them together in order to understand and deal with them, proceeding by representation and abstraction and formulas and schematic figures; it imposes a rigid logic on an illogical world in order to bring about
\na fixed and mechanical order; it cuts up, divides, compares, contrasts, confronts one element of existence contradictorily with
\nanother; classifies according to similarity and difference. In the end it produces a system of things explained and intelligible;
\nbut each such system is only a segment of truth dried up into  <\/p>\n

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\n

a formula. Life compelled into these systems either escapes and flows through its hard set lines and undermines and slowly or
\nquickly upsets or transmogrifies the system till it is no longer what it pretends to be or else it remains fossilised and cramped
\nwithin until it dies or until an explosion of its suppressed forces liberates it into a new order. Supermind is a totally different
\npower. It has a whole-vision and an essential vision; it reposes on an all-seeing authority of Truth which spontaneously produces
\nharmony according to the inner truth of the One and the inner truth of the Many in the One. Out of things that to the mind are
\nopposites and incompatible contrasts it takes in each its essence and joins them harmoniously into a single piece. This it does
\nby raising them beyond their separated appearances and putting them in the light of the one Truth where they can find their reality
\nand their reconciling principle. The things that in the mind are in constant conflict or with only a patched-up truce between
\nthem, liberty and order, commonalty and individuality and the rest will in supermind find their natural harmony because they
\nare not only indispensable aspects of the essential whole, but themselves one. But for this our existing materials mind, life,
\nbody must be supramentalised; otherwise the discordances and oppositions of mind will remain oppositions and discords, the
\nconfusions and conflicts of life will remain confused and conflicting, the cramps and limits of form will prevent plastic change,
\nperfection, fulfilment. Mind has failed to liberate and perfect life, because it has imperfectly mentalised life and form, without
\nfinding their secret by which they can find themselves and their perfection through a higher light than their own half-conscious
\nself-feeling. Supermind will supramentalise fully mind, life and body and in the very doing of it liberate their own perfection
\nbecause it is in supermind that the full and perfect secret of mind, life and form are treasured and await their time of descent into
\nterrestrial nature. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

As I have said [in the preceding letter<\/i>], speculation on the results of the manifestation of a new supramental principle in the earth
\n   <\/p>\n

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\n

\n

consciousness organising itself there as mind, life and matter have already organised themselves
\n\u2014for that is what it comes
\nto \u2014is a little perilous and premature, because we must do it with the mind and the mind has not the capacity to forecast
\nthe action of what is above itself \u2014just as a merely animal or vital perception of things could not have forecast what would
\nbe the workings of Mind and a mentalised race of beings here. The supermind is a different order of consciousness far removed
\nfrom the mental \u2014there are in fact several grades of higher consciousness between the human mind and the supramental. If
\nthe earth were not evolutionary but a typal world, then indeed one could predict that the descent of a higher type of conscious
\nness would swallow up or abolish the existing type. Ignorance would end and the creation in the ignorance disappear either by
\ntransmutation or by annihilation and replacement. The human mental kingdom would be transformed into the supramental;
\nthe vital and subhuman, if it existed in the typal world, would also be changed and become supramental. But, earth being an
\nevolutionary world, the supramental descent is not likely to have such a devastating completeness. It would be only the establishment of a new principle of consciousness and a new order of conscious beings and this new principle would evolve its own
\nforms and powers in the terrestrial order. Even the whole human kingdom need not and would not be transformed at once
\nor to the whole supramental extent. But at the same time the beginning of a supramental creation on earth is bound to have a
\npowerful effect on the rest of terrestrial existence. Its first effect on mankind would be to open a way between the order of the
\nTruth-light and the orders of the Ignorance here on earth itself, a sort of realised gradation by which it would be possible for
\nmental man to evolve more easily and surely from the Ignorance towards the Light and, as he went, organise his existence ac
\ncording to these steps. For at present the grades of consciousness between mind and supermind act only as influences (the highest
\nof them very indirect influences) on human mind and consciousness and cannot do more. This would change. An organised
\nhigher human consciousness could appear or several degrees   <\/p>\n

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\n

 of it, with the supermind-organised consciousness as the leader at the top influencing the others and drawing them towards
\nitself. It is likely that as the supramental principle evolved itself the evolution would more and more take on another aspect
\n\u2014the Daivic nature would predominate, the Asuro-RakshasoPishachic prakriti which now holds so large a place would more
\nand more recede and lose its power. A principle of greater unity, harmony and light would emerge everywhere. It is not that the
\ncreation in the Ignorance would be altogether abolished, but it would begin to lose much of its elements of pain and falsehood
\nand would be more a progression from lesser to higher Truth, from a lesser to a higher harmony, from a lesser to a higher Light,
\nthan the reign of chaos and struggle, of darkness and error that we now perceive. For according to all occult teaching the evolutionary creation could have been such but for the intervention of the Powers of Darkness
\n\u2014all traditions including that of the
\nVeda and Upanishads point under different figures to the same thing. In the Upanishads it is the Daityas that smite with evil all
\nthat the gods create, in the Zoroastrian tradition it is Ahriman coming across the work of Ahura Mazda, the Chaldean tradition
\nuses a different figure. But the significance is the same; it is the perception of something that has struck across the harmonious
\ndevelopment of creation and brought in the principle of darkness and disorder. The occult tradition also foresees the elimination
\nof this disturbing element by the descent of a divine Principle or Power on earth, but gives to it usually a sudden and dramatic
\nform. I conceive that the supramental descent would effect the same event by a progressive elimination of the darkness and
\nevolution of the Light, but with what rate of rapidity it would be rash to try to forecast or prefigure. <\/p>\n

This is a very general statement, but perhaps it is a sufficient answer to your first question. I need only add that there
\nis nothing to prevent the supramental creation, the creation in the higher
\nTruth-Light from being evolutionary, a continuous efflorescence of the Divine
\nTruth and Harmony in a manifold variety, not a final and decisive creation in a
\nsingle fixed type. What would be decisive would be the crossing of the border <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\n

\n

between twilight and Light, the transference of the base of development from the consciousness in the Ignorance to the
\nTruth-consciousness. That would be, on this level, final. The transition into a world of spirits would only effectuate itself,
\nfirst, if the whole earth-consciousness became thoroughly supramentalised, secondly, if after that the turn were to a realisation
\nhere of the principle of those worlds of Sachchidananda where determination disappears in the interpenetration of All-in-All.
\nBut that would be to look too far into the potentialities of the future. In short, if the supramental principle came down it
\nwould not be in order to reproduce Heaven here under celestial conditions but to “create a new Heaven and a new earth” in the
\nearth-consciousness itself, completing and transmuting but not abolishing the earth order. <\/p>\n

It is evident that the creative process here could be greatly modified and transmuted by the appearance of the supramental
\nprinciple. What would be its exact forms is a more difficult question, for the principle of a supramental creation is obvious
\nbut the possibilities of its manifestation are many and it is only the dynamic Truth itself that can choose and determine.
\n   <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

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Chapter Two   Spiritual Evolution and the Supramental   Human History and Spiritual Evolution   There have been times when the seeking for spiritual attainment…<\/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-2648","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\/2648","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=2648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}