{"id":625,"date":"2013-07-13T01:29:18","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=625"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:29:18","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:29:18","slug":"42-exclusive-concentration-of-consciousness-force-and-the-ignorance-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\/42-exclusive-concentration-of-consciousness-force-and-the-ignorance-vol-18-the-life-divine-volume-18","title":{"rendered":"-42_Exclusive Concentration of Consciousness – Force and the Ignorance .htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n


\nC<\/font>HAPTER<\/font> XIII<\/p>\n

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


\nExclusive Concentration of
\nConsciousness – <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n


\n\t\tForce and the Ignorance <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

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

   
\n           
\n           
\n            From the
\nkindled fire of Energy of Consciousness, Truth was
\n                                       
\nborn and the Law of Truth; from that the Night, from the
\nNight
\n                                       
\nthe flowing ocean of being.
\n
                                                                                                                                       
\nRig Veda<\/i>.1<\/sup><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

        S<\/font><\/b>INCE<\/font> Brahman is in the essentiality of its universal being a unity and a multiplicity aware of each other and in each other
\nand since in its reality it is something beyond the One and the Many, containing both, aware of both, Ignorance can only
\ncome about as a subordinate phenomenon by some concentration of consciousness absorbed in a part knowledge or a part
\naction of the being and excluding the rest from its awareness. There may be either a concentration of the One in itself to the
\nexclusion of the Many or of the Many in their own action to the exclusion of the all-awareness of the One, or of the
\nindividual being in himself to the exclusion both of the One and the rest of the Many who are then to him separated units not
\nincluded in his direct awareness. Or again there may be or there may intervene at a certain point some general rule of
\nexclusive concentration, operative in all these three directions, a concentration of separative active consciousness in a
\nseparative movement; but this takes place not in the true self, but in the force of active being, in Prakriti. <\/p>\n

     This hypothesis we adopt in
\npreference to the others, because none of the others taken by itself will hold
\nor will square with all the facts of existence. Integral Brahman cannot be in
\nits integrality the source of the Ignorance, because its integrality is in its
\nvery nature all-consciousness. The One cannot in its integral conscious being
\nexclude the Many from itself, because the Many would not then at all exist; at
\nmost it can stand back somewhere in its consciousness from the cosmic play so as
\nto enable <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

         1<\/font><\/sup> X. 190. 1.
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage 581 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

a similar movement in the individual being. The Many
\nin the integrality or in each self of the Many cannot be really
\nignorant
\nof the One or of others, because by the Many we mean the same divine
\nSelf in all, individualised indeed, but still one in
\nconscious being with all in a single universality and one too with the
\noriginal and transcendent Being. Ignorance is therefore
\nnot the natural character of the consciousness of the soul, even of the
\nindividual soul; it is the outcome of some
\nparticularising action in the executive Conscious-Force when it is
\nabsorbed in its works and forgetful of self and of the total
\nreality of the nature. This action cannot be that of the whole being or
\nof the whole force of being, — for the character of that
\ncompleteness is whole consciousness and not partial consciousness, — it
\nmust be a superficial or partial movement absorbed
\nin a superficial or partial action of the consciousness and the energy,
\nconcentrated in its formation, oblivious of all else that is
\nnot included in the formation or not there overtly operative. Ignorance
\nis Nature’s purposeful oblivion of the Self and the All,
\nleaving them aside, putting them behind herself in order to do solely
\nwhat she has to do in some outer play of existence. <\/p>\n

    
\nIn the infinity of being and its infinite awareness concentration of
\nconsciousness, Tapas, is always present as an
\ninherent power of Consciousness-Force: it is a self-held or
\nself-gathered dwelling of the eternal Awareness in itself and on
\nitself or on its object; but the object is always in some way itself,
\nits own being or a manifestation and movement of its
\nbeing. The concentration may be essential; it may be even a sole
\nindwelling or an entire absorption in the essence of its own
\nbeing, a luminous or else a self-oblivious self-immersion. Or it may be
\nan integral or else a total-multiple or a part-multiple
\nconcentration. Or it may be a single separative regard on one field of
\nits being or movement, a single-pointed concentration
\nin one centre or an absorption in one objective form of its
\nself-existence. The first, the essential, is at one end the
\nsuperconscient Silence and at the other end the Inconscience; the
\nsecond, the integral, is the total consciousness of
\nSachchidananda, the supramental concentration; the third, the multiple,
\nis the method of the totalising or global overmental
\nawareness; the fourth, the separative, is the characteristic nature <\/p>\n

\nPage 582 <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

of the Ignorance. The supreme integrality of the Absolute holds all these states or powers of its consciousness together as a
\nsingle indivisible being looking at all itself in manifestation with a simultaneous self-vision. <\/p>\n

    
\nConcentration in this sense of self-held dwelling in itself or on
\nitself as object may be said then to belong to the very
\nnature of conscious being. For, although there is an infinite extension
\nof consciousness and a diffusion of consciousness, it is
\na self-held self-contained extension or a self-held self-contained
\ndiffusion. Although there may seem to be a dispersion of its
\nenergies, that is in reality a form of distribution, and is only
\npossible in a superficial field because it is supported by an
\nunderlying self-held concentration. An exclusive concentration on or in
\na single subject or object or domain of being or
\nmovement is not a denial or departure from the Spirit’s awareness, it
\nis one form of the self-gathering of the power of Tapas. But when the
\nconcentration is exclusive, it brings about a holding back behind it of
\nthe rest of self-knowledge. It may
\nbe aware of the rest all the time, yet act as if it were not aware of
\nit; that would not be a state or act of Ignorance: but if the
\nconsciousness erects by the concentration a wall of exclusion limiting
\nitself to a single field, domain or habitation in the
\nmovement so that it is aware only of that or aware of all the rest as
\noutside itself, then we have a principle of self-limiting
\nknowledge which can result in a separative knowledge and culminate in a
\npositive and effective ignorance. <\/p>\n

    We can get some glimpse of what this
\nmeans, to what it amounts in action, when we look at the nature of exclusive
\nconcentration in mental man, in our own consciousness. First of all, we must
\nnote that what we mean ordinarily by the man is not his inner self, but only a
\nsum of apparent continuous movement of consciousness and energy in past, present
\nand future to which we give this name. It is this that in appearance does all
\nthe works of the man, thinks all his thoughts, feels all his emotions. This
\nenergy is a movement of Consciousness-Force concentrated on a temporal stream of
\ninward and outward workings. But we know that behind this stream of energy there
\nis a whole sea of consciousness which is aware of the stream, but of which the\n<\/p>\n

\nPage 583 <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

stream is unaware; for this sum of surface energy is
\na selection, an outcome from all the rest that is invisible. That sea
\nis the
\nsubliminal self, the superconscient, the subconscient, the
\nintraconscient and circumconscient being, and holding it all together
\nthe soul, the psychic entity. The stream is the natural, the
\nsuperficial man. In this superficial man Tapas, the being’s dynamic
\nforce of consciousness, is concentrated on the surface in a certain
\nmass of superficial workings; all the rest of itself it has
\nput behind and may be vaguely aware of it there in the unformulated
\nback of its conscious existence, but is not aware of it in
\nthis superficial absorbed movement in front. It is not precisely, at
\nany rate in that back or in the depths, ignorant of itself in
\nany essential sense of the word, but for the purposes of its
\nsuperficial movement and within that movement only it is
\noblivious of its real, its greater self, by absorption, by exclusive
\nconcentration on what it is superficially doing. Yet it is really
\nthe hidden sea and not the superficial stream which is doing all the
\naction: it is the sea that is the source of this movement,
\nnot the conscious wave it throws up, whatever the consciousness of the
\nwave, absorbed in its movement, living in that,
\nseeing nothing else but that, may think about the matter. And that sea,
\nthe real self, the integral conscious being, the integral
\nforce of being, is not ignorant; even the wave is not essentially
\nignorant, — for it contains within itself all the consciousness it
\nhas forgotten and but for that it could not act or endure at all, — but
\nit is self-oblivious, absorbed in its own movement, too
\nabsorbed to note anything else than the movement while that continues
\nto preoccupy it. A limited practical self-oblivion, not
\nan essential and binding self-ignorance, is the nature of this
\nexclusive concentration which is yet the root of that which
\nworks as the Ignorance. <\/p>\n

    So too we see that man, though a really indivisible stream of Tapas,
\nof conscious energy in Time, capable of acting in the present only by the sum of
\nhis past force of working, creating already his future by his past and his
\npresent action, yet lives absorbed in the present moment, lives from moment to
\nmoment, and is therefore in this superficial action of consciousness, ignorant
\nof his future and ignorant of his past except for that small <\/p>\n

\nPage 584 <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

part of it which at any moment he may recall to him
\nby memory. He does not, however, live in the past; what he recalls is
\nnot the past itself, but only the ghost of it, a conceptual shadow of a
\nreality which is now to him dead, non-existent, no longer
\nin being. But all this is an action of the superficial ignorance. The
\ntrue consciousness within is not unaware of its past; it
\nholds it there, not necessarily in memory but in being, still active,
\nliving, ready with its fruits, and sends it up from time to time
\nin memory or more concretely in result of past action or past causes to
\nthe superficial conscious being,—that is indeed the
\ntrue rationale of what is called Karma. It is or can be aware too of
\nthe future, for there is somewhere in the inner being a
\nfield of cognition open to future knowledge, a prospective as well as a
\nretrospective Time-sense, Time-vision,
\nTime-perception; something in it lives indivisibly in the three times
\nand contains all their apparent divisions, holds the future
\nready for manifestation within it. Here, then, in this habit of living
\nin the present, we have a second absorption, a second
\nexclusive concentration which complicates and farther limits the being,
\nbut simplifies the apparent course of the action by
\nrelating it not to the whole infinite course of Time, but to a definite
\nsuccession of moments. <\/p>\n

    
\nTherefore in his superficial consciousness man is to himself
\ndynamically, practically, the man of the moment, not the
\nman of the past who once was but is no longer in existence, nor the man
\nof the future who is not yet in being; it is by
\nmemory that he links himself with the one, by anticipation with the
\nother: a continuous ego-sense runs through the three
\ntimes, but this is a centralising mental construction, not an essential
\nor an extended existence containing what was, is and will be. An
\nintuition of self is behind it, but that is an underlying identity,
\nunaffected by the changes of his personality; in his surface formation
\nof being he is not that but what he is at the moment. Yet all the time
\nthis existence in the moment is not the real or the whole truth of his
\nbeing, but only a practical or pragmatic truth for the purposes of the
\nsuperficial movement of his life and within its limits. It is a truth,
\nnot an unreality, but a truth only in its positive part; in its
\nnegative parts it is an ignorance, and this negative ignorance limits
\nand often distorts even the practical truth, so that the conscious <\/p>\n

\nPage 585 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

life of man proceeds according to an ignorance, a partial, a half-true half-false knowledge, not according to the real truth of
\nhimself of which he is oblivious. Yet because his real self is the true determinator and governs all secretly from behind, it is
\nafter all a knowledge behind which really determines the formed course of his existence; the superficial ignorance erects a
\nnecessary limiting outline and supplies the factors by which the outward colour and turn needed for his present human life
\nand his present moment are given to his consciousness and his action. In the same way and for the same reason man
\nidentifies himself solely with the name and form he wears in his present existence; he is ignorant of his past before birth
\neven as of his future after death. Yet all that he forgets is contained, present and effective, in the all-retaining integral
\nconsciousness within him. <\/p>\n

    
\nThere is a minor pragmatic use of exclusive concentration on the
\nsurface which may also give us an indication in spite
\nof its temporary character. The superficial man living from moment to
\nmoment plays, as it were, several parts in his present
\nlife and, while he is busy with each part, he is capable of an
\nexclusive concentration, an absorption in it, by which he forgets
\nthe rest of himself, puts it behind him for the moment, is to that
\nextent self-oblivious. The man is for the moment the actor,
\nthe poet, the soldier or whatever else he may have been constituted and
\nformed into by some peculiar and characteristic
\naction of his force of being, his Tapas, his past conscious energy and
\nby the action which develops from it. Not only is he apt to deliver
\nhimself up to this exclusive concentration in a part of himself for the
\ntime being, but his success in the action very largely depends on the
\ncompleteness with which he can thus put aside the rest of himself and
\nlive only in his immediate work. Yet all the time we can see that it is
\nthe whole man who is really doing the action and not merely this
\nparticular part of him; what he does, the way he does it, the elements
\nhe brings into it, the stamp he gives to his work depends on his whole
\ncharacter, mind, information, genius, all that the past of him has made
\nhim, — and not his past in this life only, but in other lives, and
\nagain not only his past, but the past, the present and the predestined
\nfuture both of himself and the world around him are the determinants of
\nhis work. The <\/p>\n

\nPage 586 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

present actor, poet or soldier in him is only a
\nseparative determination of his Tapas; it is his force of being
\norganised for a
\nparticular kind of action of its energy, a separative movement of
\nTapas, which is able, — and this ability is not a weakness, a
\ndeficiency, but a great power of the consciousness, — to absorb itself
\nin that particular working to the temporary self-oblivion
\nof the rest of itself, even though that rest is present all the time at
\nthe back of the consciousness and in the work itself and is
\nactive or has its influence in the shaping of the work. This active
\nself-oblivion of the man in his work and the part he plays,
\ndiffers from the other, the deeper self-oblivion, in that the wall of
\nseparation is less phenomenally and not at all enduringly
\ncomplete; the mind can dissolve its concentration and go back from its
\nwork at any time to the consciousness of the larger
\nself of which this was a partial action. The superficial or apparent
\nman cannot so go back at will to the real man within him;
\nhe can only do it to some extent abnormally or supernormally in
\nexceptional conditions of his mentality or, more permanently
\nand completely, as the fruit of a long and arduous self-training,
\nself-deepening, self-heightening, self-expansion. Still he can
\ngo back; therefore the difference is phenomenal only, not essential: it
\nis, in essence, in both cases the same movement of
\nexclusive concentration, of absorption in a particular aspect of
\nhimself, action, movement of force, though with different
\ncircumstances and another manner of working. <\/p>\n

    
\nThis power of exclusive concentration is not confined to absorption in
\na particular character or type of working of one’s
\nlarger self, but extends to a complete self-forgetfulness in the
\nparticular action in which we happen at the moment to be
\nengaged. The actor in moments of great intensity forgets that he is an
\nactor and becomes the part that he is playing on the
\nstage; not that he really thinks himself Rama or Ravana, but that he
\nidentifies himself for the time being with the form of character and
\naction which the name represents and so completely as to forget the
\nreal man who is playing it. So the poet forgets himself, the man, the
\nworker, in his work and is for the moment only the inspired impersonal
\nenergy which works itself out in formation of word and rhythm; of all
\nelse he is oblivious. The soldier forgets himself in the act and
\nbecomes the charge and the fury and the slaying. In <\/p>\n

\nPage 587 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

the same way the man who is overcome by intense
\nanger, forgets himself as it is commonly said, or as it has been still
\nmore
\naptly and forcibly put, becomes anger: and these terms express a real
\ntruth which is not the whole truth of the man’s being
\nat the time, but a practical fact of his conscious energy in action. He
\ndoes forget himself, forgets all the rest of himself with
\nits other impulses and powers of self-restraint and self-direction, so
\nthat he acts simply as the energy of the passion which
\npreoccupies him, becomes that energy for the time being. This is as far
\nas self-forgetfulness can go in the normal active
\nhuman psychology; for it must return soon to the wider self-aware
\nconsciousness of which this self-forgetfulness is only a
\ntemporary movement. <\/p>\n

    
\nBut in the larger universal consciousness there must be a power of
\ncarrying this movement to its absolute point, to the
\ngreatest extreme possible for any relative movement to reach, and this
\npoint is reached, not in human unconsciousness
\nwhich is not abiding and always refers back to the awakened conscious
\nbeing that man normally and characteristically is,
\nbut in the inconscience of material Nature. This inconscience is no
\nmore real than the ignorance of exclusive concentration
\nin our temporary being which limits the waking consciousness of man;
\nfor as in us, so in the atom, the metal, the plant, in
\nevery form of material Nature, in every energy of material Nature,
\nthere is, we know, a secret soul, a secret will, a secret
\nintelligence at work, other than the mute self-oblivious form, the
\nConscient, — conscient even in unconscious things, — of the
\nUpanishad, without whose presence and informing Conscious-Force or
\nTapas no work of Nature could be done. What is
\ninconscient there is the Prakriti, the formal, the motional action of
\nthe energy absorbed in the working, identified with it, to
\nsuch an extent as to be bound in a sort of trance or swoon of
\nconcentration, unable to go back, while imprisoned in that
\nform, to its real self, to the integral conscious being and the
\nintegral force of conscious being which it has put behind it, of
\nwhich in its ecstatic trance of mere working and energy it has become
\noblivious. Prakriti, the executive Force, becomes
\nunaware of Purusha, the Conscious-Being, holds him hidden within
\nherself and becomes again slowly aware only with the
\nemergence of consciousness from this swoon of the Inconscience. Purusha\n<\/p>\n

\nPage 588<\/p>\n

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

\n

indeed consents to assume the apparent form of
\nitself which Prakriti constructs for it; it seems to become the
\nInconscient,
\nthe physical being, the vital being, the mental being: but in all these
\nit remains still in reality itself; the light of the secret
\nconscious Being supports and informs the action of the inconscient or
\nemergingly conscious energy of Nature. <\/p>\n

   
\n The inconscience is superficial like the ignorance of the waking
\nhuman mind or the inconscience or subconscience of
\nhis sleeping mind, and within it is the All-conscient; it is entirely
\nphenomenal, but it is the complete phenomenon. So
\ncomplete is it that it is only by an impulsion of evolutionary
\nconsciousness emerging into other forms less imprisoned by this
\ninconscient method of working that it can come back to itself, recover
\nin the animal a partial awareness, then in man at his
\nhighest some possibility of approach to a first more complete though
\nstill superficial initiation of a truly conscious working.
\nBut still, as in the case of the superficial and the real man where
\nthere is also a similar though lesser inability, the difference
\nis phenomenal only. Essentially, in the universal order of things, the
\ninconscience of material Nature is the same exclusive
\nconcentration, the same absorption in the work and the energy as in the
\nself-limitation of the waking human mind, or the
\nconcentration of the self-forgetting mind in its working; it is only
\nthat self-limitation carried to a farthest point of
\nself-forgetfulness which becomes, not a temporary action, but the law
\nof its action. Nescience in Nature is the complete
\nself-ignorance; the partial knowledge and general ignorance of man is a
\npartial self-ignorance marking in her evolutionary
\norder a return towards self-knowledge: but both are and all ignorance
\nis, when examined, a superficially exclusive
\nself-forgetful concentration of Tapas, of the conscious energy of being
\nin a particular line or section of its movement of which alone it is
\naware or which alone it seems to be on the surface. The ignorance is
\neffective within the bounds of that movement and valid for its
\npurposes, but phenomenal, partial, superficial, not essentially real,
\nnot integral. We have to use the word “real” necessarily in a quite
\nlimited and not in its absolute sense; for the ignorance is real
\nenough, but it is not the whole truth of our being and by regarding it
\nby itself even its truth is misrepresented to our <\/p>\n

\nPage 589 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

outer awareness. In that true truth of itself it is an involved Consciousness and Knowledge evolving back to itself, but it is
\ndynamically effective as an Inconscience and an Ignorance. <\/p>\n

    
\nThis being the root-nature of the Ignorance, a practical truth of a
\nphenomenally but not really dividing, of a limiting and separative
\nconscious energy absorbed in its works to the apparent forgetfulness of
\nits integral and real self, we may answer
\nthe questions that arise of the why, the where and the how of this
\nmovement. The reason for the Ignorance, its necessity,
\nbecomes clear enough once we have seen that without it the object of
\nthe manifestation of our world would be impossible,
\ncould not be done at all, or not completely, or not in the way in which
\nit should be and is done. Each side of the manifold
\nIgnorance has its justification, which is only a part of the one
\ngeneral necessity. Man, living in his timeless being, could not
\nhave thrown himself into the stream of Time with that movement of
\nsubjection to its flux from moment to moment which is
\nthe nature of his present living. Living in his superconscient or
\nsubliminal self, he could not have worked out from the knot of
\nhis individual mentality the relations which he has to ravel and
\nunravel with the world about him, or would have to do it in a
\nradically different fashion. Living in the universal self and not in
\nthe egoistic separative consciousness, he could not evolve
\nthat separate action, personality, outlook from himself as the sole or
\nthe initial centre and point of reference which is the
\ncontribution of the ego-sense to the world-workings. He has to put on
\nthe temporal, the psychological, the egoistic ignorance
\nin order to protect himself against the light of the infinite and the
\nlargeness of the universal, so as to develop behind this
\ndefence his temporal individuality in the cosmos. He has to live as if
\nin this one life and put on the ignorance of his infinite
\npast and his future: for otherwise, if the past were present to him, he
\ncould not work out his present selected relations with
\nhis environment in the way intended; his knowledge would be too great
\nfor him, it would necessarily alter the whole spirit
\nand balance and form of his action. He has to live in the mind absorbed
\nby this bodily life and not in the Supermind; for otherwise all these
\nprotecting walls of ignorance created by the limiting, dividing,
\ndifferentiating power of <\/p>\n

\nPage 590 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

mind would not be built or would become too thin and transparent for his purpose. <\/p>\n

    
\nThat purpose for which all this exclusive concentration we call the
\nIgnorance is necessary, is to trace the cycle of
\nself-oblivion and self-discovery for the joy of which the Ignorance is
\nassumed in Nature by the secret spirit. It is not that all
\ncosmic manifestation would otherwise become impossible; but it would be
\na quite different manifestation from the one in
\nwhich we live; it would be confined to the higher worlds of the divine
\nExistence or to a typal non-evolving cosmos where
\neach being lived in the whole light of its own law of nature, and this
\nobverse manifestation, this evolving cycle, would be
\nimpossible. What is here the goal would be then the eternal condition;
\nwhat is here a stage would be the perpetuated type of
\nexistence. It is to find himself in the apparent opposites of his being
\nand his nature that Sachchidananda descends into the
\nmaterial Nescience and puts on its phenomenal ignorance as a
\nsuperficial mask in which he hides himself from his own
\nconscious energy, leaving it self-forgetful and absorbed in its works
\nand forms. It is in those forms that the slowly awaking
\nsoul has to accept the phenomenal action of an ignorance which is
\nreally knowledge awaking progressively out of the
\noriginal nescience, and it is in the new conditions created by these
\nworkings that it has to rediscover itself and divinely
\ntransform by that light the life which is thus labouring to fulfil the
\npurpose of its descent into the Inconscience. Not to return
\nas speedily as may be to heavens where perfect light and joy are
\neternal or to the supracosmic bliss is the object of this
\ncosmic cycle, nor merely to repeat a purposeless round in a long
\nunsatisfactory groove of ignorance seeking for knowledge
\nand never finding it perfectly, — in that case the ignorance would be
\neither an inexplicable blunder of the All-conscient or a
\npainful and purposeless Necessity equally inexplicable, — but to
\nrealise the Ananda of the Self in other conditions than the
\nsupracosmic, in cosmic being, and to find its heaven of joy and light
\neven in the oppositions offered by the terms of an embodied material
\nexistence, by struggle therefore towards the joy of self-discovery,
\nwould seem to be the true object of the birth of the soul in the human
\nbody and of the <\/p>\n

\nPage 591 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

labour of the human race in the series of its cycles. The Ignorance is a necessary, though quite subordinate term which the
\nuniversal Knowledge has imposed on itself that that movement might be possible, — not a blunder and a fall, but a purposeful
\ndescent, not a curse, but a divine opportunity. To find and embody the All-Delight in an intense summary of its manifoldness,
\nto achieve a possibility of the infinite Existence which could not be achieved in other conditions, to create out of Matter a
\ntemple of the Divinity would seem to be the task imposed on the spirit born into the material universe. <\/p>\n

    
\nThe ignorance, we see, is not in the secret soul, but in the apparent
\nPrakriti; nor does it belong to the whole of that
\nPrakriti, — it cannot, for Prakriti is the action of the All-conscient,
\n— but arises in some development from its original
\nintegrality of light and power. Where does that development take place,
\nin what principle of being does it find its opportunity
\nand starting-point? Not, certainly, in the infinite being, the infinite
\nconsciousness, the infinite delight which are the supreme
\nplanes of existence and from which all else derives or descends into
\nthis obscurer ambiguous manifestation. There it can
\nhave no place. Not in the Supermind; for in the Supermind the infinite
\nlight and power are always present even in the most
\nfinite workings, and the consciousness of unity embraces the
\nconsciousness of diversity. It is on the plane of mind that this
\nputting back of the real self-consciousness becomes possible. For mind
\nis that power of the conscious being which
\ndifferentiates and runs along the lines of differentiation with the
\nsense of diversity prominent and characteristic and the
\nsense of unity behind it only, not characteristic, not the very stuff
\nof its workings. If by any chance this supporting sense of
\nunity could be drawn back, — it is possessed by mind not in its own
\nseparate right, but because it has the Supermind behind it,
\nbecause it reflects the light of the Supermind of which it is a
\nderivative and secondary power, — if a veil could fall between
\nmind and Supermind shutting off the light of the Truth or letting it
\ncome through only in rays diffused, scattered, reflected but with
\ndistortion and division, then the phenomenon of the Ignorance would
\nintervene. Such a veil exists, says the Upanishad, constituted by the
\naction of <\/p>\n

\nPage 592 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

Mind itself: it is in Overmind a golden lid which hides the face of the supramental Truth but reflects its image; in Mind it
\nbecomes a more opaque and smoky-luminous coverture. That action is the absorbed looking downward of Mind on the
\ndiversity which is its characteristic movement and away from the supreme unity which that diversity expresses, until it
\nforgets altogether to remember and support itself by the unity. Even then the unity supports it and makes its activities
\npossible, but the absorbed Energy is unaware of its own origin and greater, real self. Since Mind forgets that from which it
\nderived, because of absorption in the workings of formative Energy, it becomes so far identified with that Energy as to lose
\nhold even on itself, to become totally oblivious in a trance of work which it still supports in its somnambulist action, but of
\nwhich it is no longer aware. This is the last stage of the descent of consciousness, an abysmal sleep, a fathomless trance of
\nconsciousness which is the profound basis of the action of material Nature. <\/p>\n

    
\nIt must be remembered, however, that when we speak of a partial
\nmovement of Consciousness-Force absorbed in its
\nforms and actions, in a limited field of its working, this does not
\nimply any real division of its integrality. The putting of the
\nrest of itself behind it has only the effect of making all that rest
\noccult to the frontal immediately active energy in the limited
\nfield of movement, but not of shutting it out of the field; in fact the
\nintegral Force is there though veiled by the Inconscience,
\nand it is that integral Force supported by the integral self-being
\nwhich through its frontal energy does all the work and
\ninhabits all the forms created by the movement. It is to be noted also
\nthat in order to remove the veil of the Ignorance the
\nconscious Force of being in us uses a reverse action of its power of
\nexclusive concentration; it quiets the frontal movement
\nof Prakriti in the individual consciousness and concentrates
\nexclusively on the concealed inner being, — on the Self or on the
\ntrue inner, psychic or mental or vital being, the Purusha, — to
\ndisclose it. But when it has done so, it need not remain in this
\nopposite exclusiveness; it can resume its integral consciousness or a
\nglobal consciousness which includes both being of Purusha and action of
\nPrakriti, the <\/p>\n

\nPage 593 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

soul and its instruments, the Self and the dynamisms of the
\nSelf-Power, atmasakti<\/i>: it can then embrace its manifestation
\nwith a larger consciousness free from the previous limitation, free from the results of Nature’s forgetfulness of the
\nindwelling Spirit. Or it may quiet the whole working it has manifested, concentrate on a higher level of Self and Nature, raise
\nthe being to it and bring down the powers of the higher level to transform the previous manifestation: all that is so
\ntransformed is still included, but as a part of the higher dynamism and its higher values, in a new and greater self-creation.
\nThis is what can happen when the Consciousness-Force in our being decides to raise its evolution from the mental to the
\nsupramental level. In each case it is Tapas that is effective, but it acts in a different manner according to the thing that has
\nto be done, according to the predetermined process, dynamism, self-deploying of the Infinite. <\/p>\n

    
\nBut still, even if this is the mechanism of the Ignorance, it may be
\nasked whether it does not remain a mystery how the
\nAll-conscient could, though in only a partial action of his conscious
\nenergy, succeed in arriving at even this superficial
\nignorance and inconscience. Even if it were so, it would be worth-while
\nto fix the exact action of this mystery, its nature, its
\nlimits, so that we may not be appalled by it and misled from the real
\npurpose it serves and the opportunity it gives. But the
\nmystery is a fiction of the dividing intellect which, because it finds
\nor creates a logical opposition between two concepts,
\nthinks there is a real opposition of the two facts observed and
\ntherefore an impossibility of co-existence and unity between
\nthem. This Ignorance is, as we have seen, really a power of the
\nKnowledge to limit itself, to concentrate itself on the work
\nin hand, an exclusive concentration in practice which does not prevent
\nthe full existence and working of the whole conscious
\nbeing behind, but a working in the conditions chosen and self-imposed
\non the nature. All conscious self-limitation is a power
\nfor its special purpose, not a weakness; all concentration is a force
\nof conscious being, not a disability. It is true that while
\nthe Supermind is capable of an integral, comprehensive, multiple,
\ninfinite self-concentration, this is dividing <\/p>\n

\nPage 594 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

and limited; it is true also that it creates
\nperverse as well as partial and, in so far, false or only half-true
\nvalues of things: but
\nwe have seen the object of the limitation and of this partiality of
\nknowledge; and the object being admitted, the power to fulfil it must
\nbe admitted also in the absolute force of the absolute Being. This
\npower of self-limitation for a particular
\nworking, instead of being incompatible with the absolute
\nconscious-force of that Being, is precisely one of the powers we
\nshould expect to exist among the manifold energies of the
\nInfinite. <\/p>\n

   
\nThe Absolute is not really limited by putting forth in itself a cosmos
\nof relations; it is the natural play of its absolute
\nbeing, consciousness, force, self-delight. The Infinite is not limited
\nby building up in itself an infinite series of interplaying
\nfinite phenomena; rather that is its natural self-expression. The One
\nis not limited by its capacity for multiplicity in which it
\nenjoys variously its own being; rather that is part of the true
\ndescription of an infinite as opposed to a rigid, finite and
\nconceptual unity. So too the Ignorance, considered as a power of
\nmanifoldly self-absorbed and self-limiting concentration of
\nthe conscious being, is a natural capacity of variation in his
\nself-conscious knowledge, one of the possible poises of relation
\nof the Absolute in its manifestation, of the Infinite in its series of
\nfinite workings, of the One in its self-enjoyment in the
\nMany. The power by self-absorption to become unaware of the world which
\nyet at the same time continues in the being, is
\none extreme of this capacity of consciousness; the power by absorption
\nin the cosmic workings to become ignorant of the
\nself which all the time is carrying on those workings, is the reverse
\nextreme. But neither really limits the integral self-aware
\nexistence of Sachchidananda which is superior to these apparent
\noppositions; even in their opposition they help to express and manifest
\nthe Ineffable. <\/p>\n

\nPage 595<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHAPTER XIII Exclusive Concentration of Consciousness – Force and the Ignorance                                                                                From the kindled…<\/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-625","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\/625","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=625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}