{"id":3632,"date":"2013-07-13T01:50:05","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3632"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:50:05","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:50:05","slug":"28-the-secret-of-secrets-vol-essays-on-the-gita-1950-edn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/02-other-editions\/essays-on-the-gita-1950-edn\/28-the-secret-of-secrets-vol-essays-on-the-gita-1950-edn","title":{"rendered":"-28_The Secret of Secrets.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\nIV<\/font><\/b> <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nTHE SECRET OF SECRETS <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nA<\/font>LL THE<\/font> truth that has developed itself at this length step by step,
\neach bringing forward a fresh aspect of the integral knowledge and
\nfounding on it some result of spiritual state and action, has now to
\ntake a turn of immense importance. The Teacher therefore takes care
\nfirst to draw attention to the decisive character of what he is about to
\nsay, so that the mind of Arjuna may be awakened and attentive. For
\nhe is going to open his mind to the knowledge and sight of the integral
\nDivinity and lead up to the vision of the eleventh book, by which the
\nwarrior of Kurukshetra becomes conscious of the author and upholder
\nof his being and action and mission, the Godhead in man and the
\nworld, whom nothing in man and in the world limits or binds, because
\nall proceeds from him, is a movement in his infinite being, continues
\nand is supported by his will, is justified in his divine self-knowledge,
\nhas him always for its origin, substance and end. Arjuna is to become
\naware of himself as existing only in God and as acting only by the
\npower within him, his workings only an instrumentality of the divine
\naction, his egoistic consciousness only a veil and to his ignorance a
\nmisrepresentation of the real being within him which is an immortal
\nspark and portion of the supreme Godhead. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThis vision is to remove whatever doubt may still remain within
\nhis mind; it is to make him strong for the action from which he has
\nshrunk, but to which he is irrevocably commanded and can no more
\nrecoil from it,\u2014for to recoil would be the negation and denial of the
\ndivine will and sanction within him already expressed in his individual consciousness but soon to assume the appearance of the greater
\ncosmic sanction. For now the world Being appears to him as the
\nbody of God ensouled by the eternal Time-spirit and with its majestic
\nand dreadful voice missions him to the crash of the battle. He is called
\nby it to the liberation of his spirit, to the fulfilment of his action in
\nthe cosmic mystery, and the two\u2014liberation and action\u2014are to be
\none movement. His intellectual doubts are clearing away as a greater <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-266<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nlight of self-knowledge and the knowledge of God and Nature is being unfolded before him. But intellectual clarity is not enough; he
\nmust see with the inner sight illumining his blind outward human
\nvision, so that he may act with the consent of his whole being, with a
\nperfect faith in all his members, śraddhā,<\/i> with a perfect devotion to
\nthe Self of his self and the Master of his being and to the same Self
\nof the world and Master of all being in the universe. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nAll that has gone before laid the foundations of the knowledge or
\nprepared its first necessary materials or scaffolding, but now the full
\nframe of the structure is to be placed before his unsealed vision. All
\nthat is to come after will have its great importance because it will
\nanalyse parts of this frame, show in what this or that in it consists; but in substance the integral knowledge of the Being who is speaking
\nto him is to be now unveiled to his eyes so that he cannot choose but
\nsee. What has gone before showed him that he is not bound fatally
\nto the knot of the ignorance and egoistic action in which he had
\nhitherto remained contented till its partial solutions sufficed no longer
\nto satisfy his mind bewildered by the conflict of opposite appearances
\nthat make up the action of the world and his heart troubled by the
\nentanglement of his works from which he feels himself unable to
\nescape except by renunciation of life and works. He has been shown
\nthat there are two opposed ways of working and living, one in the
\nignorance of the ego, one in the clear self-knowledge of a divine
\nbeing. He may act with desire, with passion, an ego driven by the
\nqualities of the lower Nature, subject to the balance of virtue and sin,
\njoy and sorrow, preoccupied with the fruits and consequences of his
\nworks, success and defeat, good result and evil result, bound on the
\nworld machine, caught up in a great tangle of action and inaction and
\nperverse action which perplex the heart and mind and soul of man
\nwith their changing and contrary masks and appearances. But he is
\nnot utterly tied down to the works of the ignorance; he may do if he
\nwill the works of knowledge. He may act here as the higher thinker,
\nthe knower, the Yogin, the seeker of freedom first and afterwards the
\nliberated spirit. To perceive that great possibility and to keep his
\nwill and intelligence fixed on the knowledge and self-vision which
\nwill realise and make it effectual, is the path of escape from his sorrow and bewilderment, the way out of the human riddle. <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThere is a spirit within us calm, superior to works, equal, not bound
\nin this external tangle, surveying it as its supporter, source, immanent <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-267<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nwitness, but not involved in it. Infinite, containing all, one self in all,
\nit surveys impartially the whole action of nature and it sees that it is
\nonly the action of Nature, not its own action. It sees that the ego and
\nits will and its intelligence are all a machinery of Nature and that
\nall their activities are determined by the complexity of her triple
\nmodes and qualities. The eternal spirit itself is free from these things.
\nIt is free from them because it knows; it knows that Nature and ego
\nand the personal being of all these creatures do not make up the
\nwhole of existence. For existence is not merely a glorious or a vain,
\na wonderful or a dismal panorama of a constant mutation of becoming. There is something eternal, immutable, imperishable, a timeless
\nself-existence; that is not affected by the mutations of Nature. It is
\ntheir impartial witness, neither affecting nor affected, neither acting
\nnor acted upon, neither virtuous nor sinful, but always pure, complete,
\ngreat and unwounded. Neither grieving nor rejoicing at all that afflicts and attracts the egoistic being, it is the friend of none, the enemy
\nof none, but one equal self of all. Man is not now conscious of this \u00ab
\nself, because he is wrapped up in his outward-going mind, because
\nhe will not learn or has not learned to live within; he does not detach
\nhimself, draw back from his action and observe it as the work of
\nNature. Ego is the obstacle, the lynch-pin of the wheel of delusion,
\nthe loss of the ego in the soul’s self the first condition of freedom. To
\nbecome spirit, no longer merely a mind and ego, is the opening word
\nof this message of liberation. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nArjuna has been therefore called upon first to give up all desire of
\nthe fruits of his works and become simply the desireless impartial
\ndoer of whatever has to be done,\u2014leaving the fruit to whatever power
\nmay be the master of the cosmic workings. For he very evidently is
\nnot the master; it is not for the satisfaction of his personal ego that
\nNature was set upon her ways, not for the fulfilment of his desires ,
\nand preferences that the universal Life is living, not for the justification of his intellectual opinions, judgments and standards that the
\nuniversal Mind is working, nor is it to that petty tribunal that it has
\nto refer its cosmic aims or its terrestrial method and purposes. These
\nclaims can only be made by the ignorant souls who live in their personality and see everything from that poor and narrow standpoint.
\nHe must stand back first from his egoistic demand on the world and’
\nwork only as one among the millions who contributes his share o\u00a3
\neffort and labour to a result determined not by himself, but by the <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-268<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nuniversal action and purpose. But he has to do yet more, he has to
\ngive up the idea of being the doer and to see, freed from all personality, that it is the universal intelligence, will, mind, life that is at
\nwork in him and in all others. Nature is the universal worker; his
\nworks are hers, even as the fruits of her works in him are part of the
\ngrand sum of result guided by a greater Power than his own. If he
\ncan do these two things spiritually, then the tangle and bondage of
\nhis works will fall far away from him; for the whole knot of that
\nbondage lay in his egoistic demand and participation. Passion and
\nsin and personal joy and grief will fade away from his soul, which
\nwill now live within, pure, large, calm, equal to all persons and all
\nthings. Action will produce no subjective reaction and will leave
\nno stain nor any mark on his spirit’s purity and peace. He will have
\nthe inner joy, rest, ease and inalienable bliss of a free unaffected being. Neither within nor without will he have any more the old little
\npersonality, for he will feel consciously one self and spirit with all,
\neven as his outer nature will have become to his consciousness an
\ninseparable part of the universal mind, life and will. His separative
\negoistic personality will have been taken up and extinguished in the
\nimpersonality of spiritual being: his separative egoistic nature will
\nbe unified with the action of cosmic Nature. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nBut this liberation is dependent on two simultaneous, but not yet
\nreconciled perceptions, the clear vision of spirit and the clear vision
\nof Nature. This is not the scientific and intelligent detachment which is quite possible even to the materialistic philosopher who has some
\ndear vision of Nature alone, but not the perception of his own soul
\nand self-being. Nor is it the intellectual detachment of the idealistic
\nsage who escapes from the more limiting and disturbing forms of his
\nego by a luminous use of the reason. This is a larger, more living,
\nmore perfect spiritual detachment which comes by a vision of the
\nSupreme who is more than Nature and greater than mind and reason.
\nBut even this detachment is only the initial secret of freedom and of
\nthe clear vision of knowledge, it is not the whole clue to the divine
\nmystery,\u2014for by itself it would leave Nature unexplained and the
\nnatural active part of being isolated from the spiritual and quietistic
\nself-existence. The divine detachment must be the foundation for
\na divine participation in Nature which will replace the old egoistic
\nparticipation, the divine quietism must support a divine activism and
\nkinetism. This truth which the Teacher has had in view all along <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-269<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nand therefore insisted on the sacrifice of works, the recognition of the
\nSupreme as the master of our works and the doctrine of the Avatar
\nand the divine birth, has yet been at first kept subordinate to the primary necessity of a quietistic liberation. Only the truths which lead
\nto spiritual calm, detachment, equality and oneness, in a word, to the
\nperception and becoming of the immutable self, have been fully developed and given their largest amplitude of power and significance.
\nThe other great and necessary truth, its complement, has been left in
\na certain obscurity of a lesser or relative light; it has been hinted at
\nconstantly, but not as yet developed. Now in these successive chapters
\nit is being rapidly released into expression. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThroughout Krishna, the Avatar, the Teacher, the charioteer of
\nthe human soul in the world-action, has been preparing the revelation
\nof the secret of himself, Nature’s deepest secret. He has kept one note
\nalways sounding across his preparatory strain and insistently coming
\nin as a warning and prelude of the larger ultimate harmony of his
\nintegral Truth. That note was the idea of a supreme Godhead which
\ndwells within man and Nature, but is greater than man and Nature,
\nis found by impersonality of the self, but of which impersonal self is
\nnot the whole significance. We now see the meaning of that strong
\nrecurring insistence. It was this one Godhead, the same in universal
\nself and man and Nature who through the voice of the Teacher in
\nthe chariot was preparing for his absolute claim to the whole being
\nof the awakened seer of things and doer of works. "I who am within
\nthee," he was saying, "I who am here in this human body, I for whom
\nall exists, acts, strives, am at once the secret of the self-existent spirit
\nand of the cosmic action. This ‘I’ is the greater I of whom the largest
\nhuman personality is only a partial and fragmentary manifestation,
\nNature itself only an inferior working. Master of the soul, master of
\nall the works of cosmos, I am the one Light, the sole Power, the only
\nBeing. This Godhead within thee is the Teacher, the Sun, the lifter
\nof the clear blaze of knowledge in which thou becomest aware of the
\ndifference between thy immutable self and thy mutable nature. But
\nlook beyond the light itself to its source; then shalt thou know the
\nsupreme Soul in which is recovered the spiritual truth of personality
\nand Nature. See then the one self in all beings that thou mayst see Me
\nin all beings; see all beings in one spiritual self and reality, because
\nthat is the way to see all beings in Me; know one Brahman in all that
\nthou mayst see God who is the supreme Brahman. Know thyself, be <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-270<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nthyself that thou mayst be united with Me of whom this timeless
\nself is the clear light or the transparent curtain. I the Godhead am
\nthe highest truth of self and spirit." <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nArjuna has to see that the same Godhead is the higher truth too
\nnot only of self and spirit but of Nature and his own personality, the
\nsecret at once of the individual and the universe. That was the Will
\nuniversal in Nature, greater than the acts of Nature which proceed
\nfrom him, to whom belong her actions and man’s and the fruits of
\nthem. Therefore has he to do works as a sacrifice, because that is the
\ntruth of his works and of all works. Nature is the worker and not
\nego, but Nature is only a power of the Being who is the sole master
\nof all her works and energisms and of all the aeons of the cosmic sacrifice. Therefore, since his works are that Being s, he has to give up all
\nhis actions to the Godhead in him and the world, by whom they are
\ndone in the divine mystery of Nature. This is the double condition
\nof the divine birth of the soul, of its release from the mortality of
\nthe ego and the body into the spiritual and eternal,\u2014knowledge first
\nof one’s timeless immutable self and union through it with the timeless Godhead, but knowledge too of that which lives behind the
\nriddle of cosmos, the Godhead in all existences and their workings.
\nThus only can we aspire through the offering of all our nature and
\nbeing to a living union with the One who has become in Time and
\nSpace all that is. Here is the place of bhakti in the scheme of the
\nYoga of an integral self-liberation. It is an adoration and aspiration
\ntowards that which is greater than imperishable self or changing Nature. All knowledge then becomes an adoration and aspiration,
\nbut all works too become an adoration and aspiration. Works of
\nnature and freedom of soul are unified in this adoration and become
\none self-uplifting to the one Godhead. The final release, a passing
\naway from the lower nature to the source of the higher spiritual becoming, is not an extinction of the soul,\u2014only its form of ego becomes
\nextinct,\u2014but a departure of our whole self of knowledge, will and
\nlove to dwell no longer in his universal, but in his supracosmic reality,
\na fulfilment, not an annullation. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nNecessarily, to make this knowledge clear to the mind of Arjuna,
\nthe divine Teacher sets out by removing the source of two remaining
\ndifficulties, the antinomy between the impersonal self and the human
\npersonality and the antinomy between the self and Nature. While
\nthese two antinomies last, the Godhead in Nature and man remains <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-271<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nobscure, irrational and unbelievable. Nature has been represented as
\nthe mechanical bondage of the gunas, the soul as the egoistic being
\nsubject to that bondage. But if that be all their truth, they are not
\nand cannot be divine. Nature, ignorant and mechanical, cannot be
\na power of God; for divine Power must be free in its workings, spiritual in its origin, spiritual in its greatness. The soul bound and egoistic
\nin Nature, mental, vital, physical only, cannot be a portion of the
\nDivine and itself a divine being; for such a divine being roust be
\nitself of the very nature of the Divine, free, spiritual, self-developing,
\nself-existent, superior to mind, life and body. Both these difficulties
\nand the obscurities they bring in are removed by one illuminating ray
\nof truth. Mechanical Nature is only a lower truth; it is the formula
\nof an inferior phenomenal action. There is a higher which is the
\nspiritual and that is the nature of our spiritual personality, our true
\nperson. God is at once impersonal and personal. His impersonality
\nis to our psychological realisation an infinite of timeless being, consciousness, bliss of existence; his personality represents itself here as
\na conscious power of being, a conscious centre of knowledge and will
\nand the joy of multiple self-manifestation. We are that one impersonality in the static essence of our being; we are each of us the
\nmultitude of that essential power in our spiritual person. But the
\ndistinction is only for the purposes of self-manifestation; the divine
\nimpersonality is, when one goes behind it, at the same time infinite
\nHe, a supreme soul and spirit. It is the great "I"\u2014so ‘ham,<\/i> I am He,
\nfrom which all personality and nature proceed and disport themselves
\nhere diversely in the appearance of an impersonal world. Brahman
\nis all this that is, says the Upanishad, for Brahman is one self which
\nsees itself in four successive positions of consciousness. Vasudeva, the
\neternal Being, is all, says the Gita. He is the Brahman, consciously
\nsupports and originates all from his higher spiritual nature, consciously here becomes all things in a nature of intelligence, mind, life
\nand sense and objective phenomenon of material existence. The Jiva
\nis he in that spiritual nature of the Eternal, his eternal multiplicity,
\nhis self-vision from many centres of conscious self-power. God, Nature
\nand Jiva are the three terms of existence, and these three are one
\nbeing. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nHow does this Being manifest himself in cosmos? First as the immutable timeless self omnipresent and all-supporting which is in its
\neternity being and not becoming. Then, held in that being there is <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-272<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nan essential power or spiritual principle of self-becoming, svabhava,
\n<\/i>through which by spiritual self-vision it determines and expresses,
\ncreates by liberation all that is latent or contained in its own existence.
\nThe power or the energy of that self-becoming looses forth into
\nuniversal action, Karma, all that is thus determined in the spirit. All
\ncreation is this action, is this working of the essential nature, is Karma.
\nBut it is developed here in a mutable Nature of intelligence, mind,
\nlife, sense and form-objectivity of material phenomenon actually cut
\noff from the absolute light and limited by the Ignorance. All its
\nworkings become there a sacrifice of the soul in Nature to the supreme
\nSoul secret within her, and the supreme Godhead dwells therefore
\nin all as the Master of their sacrifice, whose presence and power
\ngovern it and whose self-knowledge and delight of being receive it.
\nTo know this is to have the right knowledge of the universe and the
\nvision of God in the cosmos and to find out the door of escape from
\nthe Ignorance. For this knowledge, made effective for man by the
\noffering up of his works and all his consciousness to the Godhead in
\nall, enables him to return to his spiritual existence and through it to
\nthe supracosmic Reality eternal and luminous above this mutable
\nNature. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThe truth is the secret of being which the Gita is now going to
\napply in its amplitude of result for our inner life and our outer works.
\nWhat it is going to say is the most secret thing of all.1 It is the knowledge of the whole Godhead, samagram mām,<\/i> which the Master of his
\nbeing has promised to Arjuna, that essential knowledge attended with
\nthe complete knowledge of it in all its principles which will leave
\nnothing yet to be known. The whole knot of the ignorance which has
\nbewildered his human mind and has made his will recoil from his
\ndivinely appointed work, will have been cut entirely asunder. This
\nis the wisdom of all wisdoms, the secret of all secrets, the kingknowledge, the king-secret. It is a pure and supreme light which
\none can verify by direct spiritual experience and see in oneself as the
\ntruth: it is the right and just knowledge, the very law of being. It
\nis easy to practise when one gets hold of it, sees it, tries faithfully to
\nlive in it. <\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nBut faith is necessary; if faith is absent, if one trusts to the critical
\nintelligence which goes by outward facts and jealously questions
\nthe revelatory knowledge because that does not square with the divisions <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n1 Gita, IX. 1-3. ; <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-273<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nand imperfections of the apparent nature and seems to exceed
\nit and state something which carries us beyond the first practical facts
\nof our present existence, its grief, its pain, evil, defect, undivine error
\nand stumbling, aśubham,<\/i> then there is no possibility of living out
\nthat greater knowledge. The soul that fails to get faith in the higher
\ntruth and law, must return into the path of ordinary mortal living
\nsubject to death and error and evil: it cannot grow into the Godhead
\nwhich it denies. For this is a truth which has to be lived,\u2014and lived
\nin the soul’s growing light, not argued out in the mind’s darkness.
\nOne has to grow into it, one has to become it,\u2014that is the only way to
\nverify it. It is only by an exceeding of the lower self that one can
\nbecome the real divine self and live the truth of our spiritual existence.
\nAll the apparent truths one can oppose to it are appearances of the
\nlower Nature. The release from the evil and the defect of the lower
\nNature, aśubham,<\/i> can only come by accepting a higher knowledge in
\nwhich all this apparent evil becomes convinced of ultimate unreality,
\nis shown to be a creation of our darkness. But to grow thus into the
\nfreedom of the divine Nature one must accept and believe in the
\nGodhead secret within our present limited nature. For the reason why
\nthe practice of this Yoga becomes possible and easy is that in doing
\nit we give up the whole working of all that we naturally are into the
\nhands of that inner divine Purusha. The Godhead works out the
\ndivine birth in us progressively, simply, infallibly, by taking up our
\nbeing into his and by filling it with his own knowledge and power,
\nj\u00f1ānadīpena bhāsvatā;<\/i> he lays hands on our obscure ignorant nature
\nand transforms it into his own light and wideness. What with entire
\nfaith and without egoism we believe in and impelled by him will to
\nbe, the God within will surely accomplish. But the egoistic mind and
\nlife we now and apparently are must first surrender itself for transmutation into the hands of that inmost secret Divinity within us. <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-274<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IV   THE SECRET OF SECRETS   ALL THE truth that has developed itself at this length step by step, each bringing forward a fresh…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays-on-the-gita-1950-edn","wpcat-90-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3632","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=3632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3632\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}