{"id":53,"date":"2013-07-13T01:25:35","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=53"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:25:35","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:35","slug":"45-the-stress-of-the-hidden-spirit-vol-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03\/45-the-stress-of-the-hidden-spirit-vol-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","title":{"rendered":"-45_The Stress of The Hidden Spirit.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\n
\nThe Stress of the Hidden Spirit<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

 
\n                T<\/font>HE <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/b>world is a great game of hide and seek
\nin which the real hides behind the apparent, spirit behind matter.
\nThe apparent masquerades as real, the real is seen dimly as if it
\nwere an unsubstantial shadow. The grandeur of the visible universe and its laws enslaves men’s imaginations. "This is a mighty
\nmachine," we cry, "but it moves of its own force and needs neither guide nor maker; for its motion is eternal." Blinded by a
\nhalf-truth we fail to see that, instead of a machine without a maker, there is really only an existence and no machine. The Hindus
\nhave many images by which they seek to convey their knowledge
\nof the relation between God and the world, but the idea of the
\nmachine does not figure largely among them. It is a spider and
\nhis web, a fire with many sparks, a pool of salt water in which
\nevery particle is penetrated by the salt. The world is a waking
\ndream, an embodied vision, a mass of knowledge arranged in
\ncorporeal appearances expressing so many ideas which are
\neach only a part of one unchanging truth. Everything becomes,
\nnothing is made. Everything is put out from latency, nothing
\nis brought into existence. Only that which was, can be, not that
\nwhich was not. And that which is, cannot perish; it can only lose
\nitself. All is eternal in the eternal Spirit.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nWhat was from of old? The Spirit. What is alone? The
\nSpirit. What shall be for ever? The Spirit. All that is in Space
\nand Time, is He; and whatever there may be beyond Space and
\nTime, that too is He. Why should we think so? Because of
\nthe eternal and invariable unity which gives permanence to the
\nvariability of the many. The sum of Matter never changes by
\nincrease or diminution, although its component parts are
\ncontinually shifting, so is it with the sum of energy in the world,
\nso is it with the Spirit. Matter is only so much mobile energy
\nvibrating intensely into form. Energy is only so much Spirit
\nmanifesting the motion that we call energy. Spirit is Force,
\nSpirit Existence, \u2014 matter and energy are only motions in Spirit.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 362<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nForce and Existence made one in Bliss, saccidānandam<\/i>, this
\nis the eternal reality of things. But that Force is not motion,
\nit is Knowledge or Idea. Knowledge is the source of motion,
\nnot motion of Knowledge. The Spirit therefore is all; It is alone.
\nIdea or Force, Existence, Bliss are only its triune manifestations,
\nexistence implying idea which is force, force or idea implying
\nbliss.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe Spirit manifest as Intelligence is the basis of the world.
\nSpirit as existence, sat<\/i>, is one; as Intelligence it multiplies itself
\nwithout ceasing to be one. <\/b> We see that tree and say, "Here is a
\nmaterial thing"; but if we ask how the tree came into existence,
\nwe have to say, it grew or evolved out of the seed. But growth
\nor evolution is only a term describing the sequence in a process.
\nIt does not explain the origin or account for the process itself.
\nWhy should the seed produce a tree and not some other form of
\nexistence ? The answer is, because that is its nature. But why is
\nthat its nature ? Why should it not be its nature to produce some
\nother form of existence, or some other kind of tree ? That is the
\nlaw, is the answer. But why is it the law ? The only answer is that
\nit is so because it is so; that it happens, why, no man can say.
\nIn reality when we speak of Law, we speak of an idea, when we
\nspeak of the nature of a thing, we speak of an idea. Nowhere
\ncan we lay our hands on an object, a visible force, a discernible
\nmomentum and say, "Here is an entity called Law or Nature".
\nThe seed evolves a tree because tree is the idea involved
\nin the seed; it is a process of manifestation in form, not a creation. If there were no insistent idea, we should have a world of
\nchances and freaks, not a world of law \u2014 there would be no
\nsuch idea as the nature of things, if there were not an originating
\nand ordering intelligence manifesting a particular idea in forms.
\nAnd the form varies, is born, perishes, the idea is eternal. The
\nform is the manifestation or appearance, the idea is the truth.
\nThe form is phenomenon, the idea is reality.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nTherefore in all things the Hindu thinker sees the stress of
\nthe hidden Spirit. We see it as praj\u00f1ā<\/i>, the universal Intelligence,
\nconscious in things unconscious, active in things inert. The energy
\nof praj\u00f1ā<\/i> is what the Europeans call Nature. The tree does
\nnot and cannot shape itself, the stress of the hidden Intelligence<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 363<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nshapes it. He is in the seed of man and in that little particle of
\nmatter carries habit, character, types of emotion into the unborn
\nchild. Therefore heredity is true; but if praj\u00f1ā<\/i> were not concealed in the seed, heredity would be false, inexplicable, impossible. We see the same stress in the mind, heart, body of man.
\nBecause the hidden Spirit urges himself on the body, stamps
\nhimself on it, expresses himself in it, the body expresses the
\nindividuality of the man, the developing and conscious idea or
\nvarying type which is myself. Therefore no two faces, no two
\nexpressions, no two thumb-impressions even are entirely alike;<\/font>
\n<\/font>every part of the body in some way or other expresses the man.
\nThe stress of the Spirit shows itself in the mind and heart; therefore men, families, nations have individuality, run into particular
\nhabits of thought and feeling, therefore also they are both alike
\nand dissimilar. Therefore men act and react, not only physically
\nbut spiritually, intellectually, morally on each other, because
\nthere is one self in all creatures expressing itself in various ideas
\nand forms variously suitable to the idea. The stress of the hidden
\nSpirit expresses itself again in events and the majestic course of
\nthe world. This is the Zeitgeist, this is the purpose that runs
\nthrough the process of the centuries, the changes of the suns,
\nthis is that which makes evolution possible and provides it with a
\nway, means and a goal. "This is He who from years sempiternal
\nhath ordered perfectly all things."<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThis is the teaching of the Vedanta as we have it in its oldest
\nform in the Upanishads. Advaita<\/i>, viśistādvaita<\/i>, dvaita<\/i> are merely
\nvarious ways of looking at the relations of the One to the Many,
\nand none of them has the right to monopolise the name Vedanta.
\nAdvaita<\/i> is true, because the Many are only manifestations of the
\nOne, viśistādvaita<\/i> is true because ideas are eternal and having
\nmanifested, must have manifested before and will manifest
\nagain, \u2014 the Many are eternal in the One, only they are
\nsometimes manifest and sometimes unmanifest. Dvaita<\/i> is true,
\nbecause although from one point of view the One and the Many
\nare eternally and essentially the same, yet from another, the idea
\nin its manifestations is eternally different from the Intelligence
\nin which it manifests. If Unity is eternal and unchangeable,<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 364<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nduality is persistently recurrent. The Spirit is infinite, illimitable,
\neternal; and infinite, illimitable, eternal is its stress towards manifestation, filling endless space with innumerable existences.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 365<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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