{"id":612,"date":"2013-07-13T01:29:13","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=612"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:29:13","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:29:13","slug":"16-the-supreme-truth-consciousness-vol-18-the-life-divine-volume-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/18-the-life-divine-volume-18\/16-the-supreme-truth-consciousness-vol-18-the-life-divine-volume-18","title":{"rendered":"-16_The Supreme Truth-Consciousness .htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n


\nC<\/font>HAPTER <\/font>
\nXV<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 The Supreme Truth-Consciousness<\/p>\n

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

                 <\/font><\/p>\n

\nOne seated in
\nthe sleep of Superconscience, a massed Intelligence,<\/font><\/p>\n

\nblissful and the enjoyer of Bliss…. This is the
\nomnipotent, this<\/font><\/p>\n

\nis the
\nomniscient, this is the inner control, this is the source of all. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n                                                                                    Mandukya
\nUpanishad.\u00b9<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

     W<\/b><\/font>E HAVE <\/font> to regard therefore this all-containing, all-originating, all-consummating Supermind as the nature of the Divine
\nBeing, not indeed in its absolute self-existence, but in its action as the Lord and Creator of its own worlds. This is the truth
\nof that which we call God. Obviously this is not the too personal and limited Deity, the magnified and supernatural Man of
\nthe ordinary occidental conception; for that conception erects a too human Eidolon of a certain relation between the creative
\nSupermind and the ego. We must not indeed exclude the personal aspect of the
\nDeity, for the impersonal is only one face of existence; the Divine is
\nAll-existence, but it is also the one Existent,—it is the sole Conscious-Being,
\nbut still a Being. Nevertheless, with this aspect we are not concerned at
\npresent; it is the impersonal psychological truth of the divine Consciousness
\nthat we are seeking to fathom: it is this that we have to fix in a large and
\nclarified conception. <\/p>\n

     The Truth-Consciousness is
\neverywhere present in the universe as an ordering self-knowledge by which the
\nOne manifests the harmonies of its infinite potential multiplicity. Without this
\nordering self-knowledge the manifestation would be merely a shifting chaos,
\nprecisely because the potentiality is infinite which by itself might lead only
\nto a play of uncontrolled unbounded Chance. If there were only infinite
\npotentiality without any law of guiding truth and harmonious self-vision,
\nwithout any predetermining Idea in the very seed of things cast out for
\nevolution, the world could be nothing but a teeming, amorphous, confused
\nuncertainty. But the knowledge that creates, because what it creates or releases
\nare forms and powers of itself and not <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    
\n\u00b9<\/font>
\nVerses 5,6<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-132<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

things other than itself, possesses in its own being the
\nvision of the truth and law that governs each potentiality, and along with that
\nan intrinsic awareness of its relation to other potentialities and the harmonies
\nthat are possible between them; it holds all this prefigured in the general
\ndetermining harmony which the whole rhythmic Idea of a universe must contain in
\nits very birth and self-conception and which must therefore inevitably work out
\nby the interplay of its constituents. It is the source and keeper of Law in the
\nworld; for that law is nothing arbitrary—it is the expression of a self-nature
\nwhich is determined by the compelling truth of the real idea that each thing is
\nin its inception. Therefore from the beginning the whole development is
\npredetermined in its self-knowledge and at every moment in its self-working: it
\nis what it must be at each moment by its own original inherent Truth; it moves
\nto what it must be at the next, still by its own original inherent Truth; it
\nwill be at the end that which was contained and intended in its seed. <\/p>\n

     This development and progress of the
\nworld according to an original truth of its own being implies a succession of
\nTime, a relation in Space and a regulated interaction of related things in Space
\nto which the succession of Time gives the aspect of Causality. Time and Space,
\naccording to the metaphysician, have only a conceptual and not a real existence;
\nbut since all things and not these only are forms assumed by Conscious-Being in
\nits own consciousness, the distinction is of no great importance. Time and Space
\nare that one Conscious-Being viewing itself in extension, subjectively as Time,
\nobjectively as Space. Our mental view of these two categories is determined by
\nthe idea of measure which is inherent in the action of the analytical dividing
\nmovement of Mind. Time is for the Mind a mobile extension measured out by the
\nsuccession of the past, present and future in which Mind places itself at a
\ncertain standpoint whence it looks before and after. Space is a stable extension
\nmeasured out by divisibility of substance; at a certain point in that divisible
\nextension Mind places itself and regards the disposition of substance around it.\n<\/p>\n

     In actual fact Mind measures Time by
\nevent and Space by Matter; but it is possible in pure mentality to disregard the<\/p>\n

 Page-133<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

movement of event and the disposition of substance
\nand realise the pure movement of Conscious-Force which constitutes
\nSpace and Time; these two are then merely two aspects of the universal
\nforce of Consciousness which in their intertwined
\ninteraction comprehend the warp and woof of its action upon itself. And
\nto a consciousness higher than Mind which should
\nregard our past, present and future in one view, containing and not
\ncontained in them, not situated at a particular moment of
\nTime for its point of prospection, Time might well offer itself as an
\neternal present. And to the same consciousness not
\nsituated at any particular point of Space, but containing all points
\nand regions in itself, Space also might well offer itself as a
\nsubjective and indivisible extension,—no less subjective than Time. At
\ncertain moments we become aware of such an
\nindivisible regard upholding by its immutable self-conscious unity the
\nvariations of the universe. But we must not now ask
\nhow the contents of Time and Space would present themselves there in
\ntheir transcendent truth; for this our mind cannot
\nconceive,—and it is even ready to deny to this Indivisible any
\npossibility of knowing the world in any other way than that of
\nour mind and senses.\n<\/p>\n

     What we have to realise and
\ncan to a certain extent conceive is the one view and all-comprehending
\nregard by which
\nthe Supermind embraces and unifies the successions of Time and the
\ndivisions of Space. And first, if there were not this
\nfactor of the successions of Time, there would be no change or
\nprogression; a perfect harmony would be perpetually
\nmanifest, coeval with other harmonies in a sort of eternal moment, not
\nsuccessive to them in the movement from past to
\nfuture. We have instead the constant succession of a developing harmony
\nin which one strain rises out of another that
\npreceded it and conceals in itself that which it has replaced. Or, if
\nthe self-manifestation were to exist without the factor of
\ndivisible Space, there would be no mutable relation of forms or
\nintershock of forces; all would exist and not be worked
\nout,—a spaceless self-consciousness purely subjective would contain all
\nthings in an infinite subjective grasp as in the mind
\nof a cosmic poet or dreamer, but would not distribute itself through
\nall in an indefinite objective self-extension. Or again, if
\nTime alone were real, its successions\n<\/p>\n

    
\nPage-134
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

would be a pure development in which one strain would rise out of another in a subjective free spontaneity as in a series of
\nmusical sounds or a succession of poetical images. We have instead a harmony worked out by Time in terms of forms and
\nforces that stand related to one another in an all-containing spatial extension; an incessant succession of powers and figures
\nof things and happenings in our vision of existence.\n<\/p>\n

      Different
\npotentialities are embodied, placed, related in this field of Time and
\nSpace, each with its powers and
\npossibilities fronting other powers and possibilities, and as a result
\nthe successions of Time become in their appearance to
\nthe mind a working out of things by shock and struggle and not a
\nspontaneous succession. In reality, there is a spontaneous
\nworking out of things from within and the external shock and struggle
\nare only the superficial aspect of this elaboration. For
\nthe inner and inherent law of the one and whole, which is necessarily a
\nharmony, governs the outer and processive laws of
\nthe parts or forms which appear to be in collision; and to the
\nsupramental vision this greater and profounder truth of
\nharmony is always present. That which is an apparent discord to the
\nmind because it considers each thing separately in
\nitself, is an element of the general ever-present and ever-developing
\nharmony to the Supermind because it views all things in
\na multiple unity. Besides, the mind sees only a given time and space
\nand views many possibilities pell-mell as all more or less
\nrealisable in that time and space; the divine Supermind sees the whole
\nextension of Time and Space and can embrace all the
\nmind’s possibilities and very many more not visible to the mind, but
\nwithout any error, groping or confusion; for it perceives
\neach potentiality in its proper force, essential necessity, right
\nrelation to the others and the time, place and circumstance both
\nof its gradual and its ultimate realisation. To see things steadily and
\nsee them whole is not possible to the mind; but it is the
\nvery nature of the transcendent Supermind.\n<\/p>\n

     This Supermind in its
\nconscious vision not only contains all the forms of itself which its
\nconscious force creates, but it
\npervades them as an indwelling Presence and a self-revealing Light. It
\nis present, even though concealed, in every form and
\nforce of\n<\/p>\n

\n Page-135<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

the universe; it is that which determines sovereignly and spontaneously form, force and functioning; it limits the variations it
\ncompels; it gathers, disperses, modifies the energy which it uses; and all this is done in accord with the first laws\u00b9<\/font><\/p>\n

that its self-knowledge has fixed in the very birth of the form, at the very starting-point of the force. It is seated within
\neverything as the Lord in the heart of all existences,—he who turns them as on an engine by the power of his Maya;\u00b2<\/font><\/p>\n

it is within them and embraces them as the divine Seer who variously disposed and ordained objects, each rightly according
\nto the thing that it is, from years sempiternal.\u00b3<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

     Each thing in Nature,
\ntherefore, whether animate or inanimate, mentally self-conscious or not
\nself-conscious, is
\ngoverned in its being and in its operations by an indwelling Vision and
\nPower, to us subconscient or inconscient because we
\nare not conscious of it, but not inconscient to itself, rather
\nprofoundly and universally conscient. Therefore each thing seems
\nto do the works of intelligence, even without possessing intelligence,
\nbecause it obeys, whether subconsciously as in the
\nplant and animal or half-consciously as in man, the real-idea of the
\ndivine Supermind within it. But it is not a mental
\nIntelligence that informs and governs all things; it is a self-aware
\nTruth of being in which self-knowledge is inseparable from
\nself-existence: it is this Truth-Consciousness which has not to think
\nout things but works them out with knowledge according
\nto the impeccable self-vision and the inevitable force of a sole and
\nself-fulfilling Existence. Mental intelligence thinks out
\nbecause it is merely a reflecting force of consciousness which does not
\nknow, but seeks to know; it follows in Time step by
\nstep the working of a knowledge higher than itself, a knowledge that
\nexists always, one and whole, that holds Time in its
\ngrasp, that sees past, present and future in a single regard.<\/p>\n

     
\nThis, then, is the first operative principle of the divine Supermind; it is a cosmic vision which is all-comprehensive,
\nall-pervading, all-inhabiting. Because it comprehends all things in\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00b9<\/font>A Vedic expression. The gods act according to the first laws, original and therefore supreme, which are the
\nlaw of the truth of things.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00b2<\/font> 
\nGita, <\/i>XVIII. 61.               
\n<\/font>\u00b3<\/font> Isha Upanishad,
\n<\/font><\/i>Verse 8.  <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-136<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

being and static self-awareness, subjective, timeless, spaceless, therefore it comprehends all things in dynamic knowledge
\nand governs their objective self-embodiment in Space and Time.<\/p>\n

     
\nIn this consciousness the knower, knowledge and the known are not
\ndifferent entities, but fundamentally one. Our
\nmentality makes a distinction between these three because without
\ndistinctions it cannot proceed; losing its proper means
\nand fundamental law of action, it becomes motionless and inactive.
\nTherefore, even when I regard myself mentally, I have
\nstill to make this distinction. I am, as the knower; what I observe in
\nmyself, I regard as the object of my knowledge, myself
\nyet not myself; knowledge is an operation by which I link the knower to
\nthe known. But the artificiality, the purely practical
\nand utilitarian character of this operation is evident; it is evident
\nthat it does not represent the fundamental truth of things. In
\nreality, I the knower am the consciousness which knows; the knowledge
\nis that consciousness, myself, operating; the known
\nis also myself, a form or movement of the same consciousness. The three
\nare clearly one existence, one movement,
\nindivisible though seeming to be divided, not distributed between its
\nforms although appearing to distribute itself and to stand
\nseparate in each. But this is a knowledge which the mind can arrive at,
\ncan reason out, can feel, but cannot readily make the
\npractical basis of its intelligent operations. And with regard to
\nobjects external to the form of consciousness which I call
\nmyself, the difficulty becomes almost insuperable; even to feel unity
\nthere is an abnormal effort and to retain it, to act upon it
\ncontinually would be a new and foreign action not properly belonging to
\nthe Mind. Mind can at most hold it as an understood
\ntruth so as to correct and modify by it its own normal activities which
\nare still based upon division, somewhat as we know
\nintellectually that the earth moves round the sun and are able to
\ncorrect by it but not abolish the artificial and physically
\npractical arrangement by which the senses persist in regarding the sun
\nas in motion round the earth.\n<\/p>\n

     But the Supermind possesses
\nand acts always, fundamentally, on this truth of unity which to the
\nmind is only a
\nsecondary or acquired possession and not the very grain of its seeing.
\nSupermind sees the universe and its contents as itself
\nin a single\n<\/p>\n

   
\n Page-137<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

indivisible act of knowledge, an act which is its life, which is the very movement of its self-existence. Therefore this
\ncomprehensive divine consciousness in its aspect of Will does not so much guide or govern the development of cosmic life
\nas consummate it in itself by an act of power which is inseparable from the act of knowledge and from the movement of
\nself-existence, is indeed one and the same act. For we have seen that universal force and universal consciousness are
\none,—cosmic force is the operation of cosmic consciousness. So also divine Knowledge and divine Will are one; they are
\nthe same fundamental movement or act of existence.<\/p>\n

     
\nThis indivisibility of the comprehensive Supermind which contains all
\nmultiplicity without derogating from its own unity,
\nis a truth upon which we have always to insist, if we are to understand
\nthe cosmos and get rid of the initial error of our
\nanalytic mentality. A tree evolves out of the seed in which it is
\nalready contained, the seed out of the tree; a fixed law, an
\ninvariable process reigns in the permanence of the form of
\nmanifestation which we call a tree. The mind regards this
\nphenomenon, this birth, life and reproduction of a tree, as a thing in
\nitself and on that basis studies, classes and explains it. It
\nexplains the tree by the seed, the seed by the tree; it declares a law
\nof Nature. But it has explained nothing; it has only
\nanalysed and recorded the process of a mystery. Supposing even that it
\ncomes to perceive a secret conscious force as the
\nsoul, the real being of this form and the rest as merely a settled
\noperation and manifestation of that force, still it tends to
\nregard the form as a separate existence with its separate law of nature
\nand process of development. In the animal and in
\nman with his conscious mentality this separative tendency of the Mind
\ninduces it to regard itself also as a separate
\nexistence, the conscious subject, and other forms as separate objects
\nof its mentality. This useful arrangement, necessary to
\nlife and the first basis of all its practice, is accepted by the mind
\nas an actual fact and thence proceeds all the error of the
\nego.\n<\/p>\n

     But the Supermind works
\notherwise. The tree and its process would not be what they are, could
\nnot indeed exist, if it
\nwere a separate existence; forms are what they are by the force of<\/p>\n

\n Page-138<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

the cosmic existence, they develop as they do as a
\nresult of their relation to it and to all its other manifestations. The
\nseparate law of their nature is only an application of the universal
\nlaw and truth of all Nature; their particular development is
\ndetermined by their place in the general development. The tree does not
\nexplain the seed, nor the seed the tree; cosmos
\nexplains both and God explains cosmos. The Supermind, pervading and
\ninhabiting at once the seed and the tree and all
\nobjects, lives in this greater knowledge which is indivisible and one
\nthough with a modified and not an absolute indivisibility
\nand unity. In this comprehensive knowledge there is no independent
\ncentre of existence, no individual separated ego such as
\nwe see in ourselves; the whole of existence is to its self-awareness an
\nequable extension, one in oneness, one in multiplicity,
\none in all conditions and everywhere. Here the All and the One are the
\nsame existence; the individual being does not and
\ncannot lose the consciousness of its identity with all beings and with
\nthe One Being; for that identity is inherent in
\nsupramental cognition, a part of the supramental self-evidence.<\/p>\n

     
\nIn that spacious equality of oneness the Being is not divided and distributed; equably self-extended, pervading its
\nextension as One, inhabiting as One the multiplicity of forms, it is everywhere at once the single and equal Brahman. For
\nthis extension of the Being in Time and Space and this pervasion and indwelling is in intimate relation with the absolute Unity
\nfrom which it has proceeded, with that absolute Indivisible in which there is no centre or circumference but only the timeless
\nand spaceless One. That high concentration of unity in the unextended Brahman must necessarily translate itself in the
\nextension by this equal pervasive concentration, this indivisible comprehension of all things, this universal undistributed
\nimmanence, this unity which no play of multiplicity can abrogate or diminish. “Brahman is in all things, all things are in
\nBrahman, all things are Brahman”, is the triple formula of the comprehensive Supermind, a single truth of self-manifestation
\nin three aspects which it holds together and inseparably in its self-view as the fundamental knowledge from which it
\nproceeds to the play of the cosmos.<\/p>\n

     
\nBut what then is the origin of mentality and the organisation<\/p>\n

 
\nPage-139<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

of this lower consciousness in the triple terms of
\nMind, Life and Matter which is our view of the universe? For since all
\nthings that exist must proceed from the action of the all-efficient
\nSupermind, from its operation in the three original terms of
\nExistence, Conscious-Force and Bliss, there must be some faculty of the
\ncreative Truth-Consciousness which so operates
\nas to cast them into these new terms, into this inferior trio of
\nmentality, vitality and physical substance. This faculty we find
\nin a secondary power of the creative knowledge, its power of a
\nprojecting, confronting and apprehending consciousness in
\nwhich knowledge centralises itself and stands back from its works to
\nobserve them. And when we speak of centralisation,
\nwe mean, as distinguished from the equable concentration of
\nconsciousness of which we have hitherto spoken, an unequal
\nconcentration in which there is the beginning of self-division,—or of
\nits phenomenal appearance.\n<\/p>\n

     First of all, the Knower
\nholds himself concentrated in knowledge as subject and regards his
\nForce of consciousness as
\nif continually proceeding from him into the form of himself,
\ncontinually working in it, continually drawing back into himself,
\ncontinually issuing forth again. From this single act of
\nself-modification proceed all the practical distinctions upon which the
\nrelative view and the relative action of the universe is based. A
\npractical distinction has been created between the Knower,
\nKnowledge and the Known, between the Lord, His force and the children
\nand works of the Force, between the Enjoyer, the
\nEnjoyment and the Enjoyed, between the Self, Maya and the becomings of
\nthe Self.\n<\/p>\n

     Secondly, this conscious
\nSoul concentrated in knowledge, this Purusha observing and governing
\nthe Force that has gone
\nforth from him, his Shakti or Prakriti, repeats himself in every form
\nof himself. He accompanies, as it were, his Force of
\nconsciousness into its works and reproduces there the act of
\nself-division from which this apprehending consciousness is
\nborn. In each form this Soul dwells with his Nature and observes
\nhimself in other forms from that artificial and practical
\ncentre of consciousness. In all it is the same Soul, the same divine
\nBeing; the multiplication of centres is only a practical act
\nof consciousness intended to institute a play of difference, of
\nmutuality,\n<\/p>\n

  
\n  Page-140<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

mutual knowledge, mutual shock of force, mutual enjoyment, a difference based upon essential unity, a unity realised on a
\npractical basis of difference.\n<\/p>\n

     We can speak of this new
\nstatus of the all-pervading Supermind as a further departure from the
\nunitarian truth of things
\nand from the indivisible consciousness which constitutes inalienably
\nthe unity essential to the existence of the cosmos. We
\ncan see that pursued a little farther it may become truly Avidya, the
\ngreat Ignorance which starts from multiplicity as the
\nfundamental reality and in order to travel back to real unity has to
\ncommence with the false unity of the ego. We can see
\nalso that once the individual centre is accepted as the determining
\nstandpoint, as the knower, mental sensation, mental
\nintelligence, mental action of will and all their consequences cannot
\nfail to come into being. But also we have to see that so
\nlong as the soul acts in the Supermind, Ignorance has not yet begun;
\nthe field of knowledge and action is still the
\nTruth-Consciousness, the basis is still the unity.\n<\/p>\n

     For the Self still regards
\nitself as one in all and all things as becomings in itself and of
\nitself; the Lord still knows his
\nForce as himself in act and every being as himself in soul and himself
\nin form; it is still his own being that the Enjoyer enjoys,
\neven though in a multiplicity. The one real change has been an unequal
\nconcentration of consciousness and a multiple
\ndistribution of force. There is a practical distinction in
\nconsciousness, but there is no essential difference of consciousness or
\ntrue division in its vision of itself. The Truth-Consciousness has
\narrived at a position which prepares our mentality, but is not
\nyet that of our mentality. And it is this that we must study in order
\nto seize Mind at its origin, at the point where it makes its
\ngreat lapse from the high and vast wideness of the Truth-Consciousness
\ninto the division and the ignorance. Fortunately, this
\napprehending Truth-Consciousness\u00b9<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/i>is much more facile to our grasp by its nearness to us, by
\nits foreshadowing of our mental operations than the remoter realisation
\nthat we have hitherto been struggling to express in our inadequate
\nlanguage of the intellect. The barrier that has to be crossed is less
\nformidable. <\/p>\n

    
\n\u00b9<\/font> Praj\u00f1ā<\/font>na.<\/font><\/i><\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

 
\n Page-141<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHAPTER XV  The Supreme Truth-Consciousness                   One seated in the sleep of Superconscience, a massed Intelligence, blissful and the enjoyer of Bliss…. This is the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-18-the-life-divine-volume-18","wpcat-13-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612","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=612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}