{"id":954,"date":"2013-07-13T01:31:33","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=954"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:31:33","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:33","slug":"42-vijnana-or-gnosis-vol-20-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/20-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-20\/42-vijnana-or-gnosis-vol-20-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-20","title":{"rendered":"-42_Vijnana or Gnosis.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\nChapter XXII<\/span><\/font><\/b> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nVijnana or Gnosis<\/span><\/font> <\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nI<\/font><\/span><\/b>N
\nOUR<\/span><\/font> perfect self-transcendence we pass out
\nand up from the ignorance or half-enlightenment of our mental conscious-being
\ninto a greater wisdom-self and truth-power above it, there to dwell in the unwalled<\/span> light of a divine knowledge. The mental man that
\nwe are is changed into the gnostic soul, the truth-conscious godhead, the vij\u00f1ānamaya puruşa<\/i>. Seated on
\nthat level of the hill of our ascension we are in a quite different plane from
\nthis material, this vital, this mental poise of the universal spirit, and with
\nthis change changes too all our view and experience of our soul-life and of the
\nworld around us. We are born into a new soul-status and put on a new nature;
\nfor according to the status of the soul is the status of the Prakriti. At each
\ntransition of the world-ascent, from matter to life, from life to mind, from
\nmind bound to free intelligence, as the latent, half-manifested or already
\nmanifest soul rises to a higher and higher level of being, the nature also is
\nelevated into a superior working, a wider consciousness, a vaster force and an
\nintenser or larger range and joy of existence. But the transition from the
\nmind-self to the knowledge-self is the great and the decisive transition in the
\nYoga. It is the shaking off of the last hold on us of the cosmic ignorance and
\nour firm foundation in the Truth of things, in a consciousness infinite and
\neternal and inviolable by obscurity, falsehood, suffering or error.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the
\nfirst summit which enters into the divine perfection, sādharmya, sādŗśya<\/i>; for all
\nthe<\/span> rest only look up to it or catch some rays of its significance. The
\nhighest heights of mind or of overmind<\/span> come still
\nwithin the belt of a mitigated ignorance; they can refract a divine Light but
\nnot pass it on in undiminished power to our lower members. For so long as we are
\nwithin the triple stratum<\/span> of mind, life and body, our
\nactive nature continues to work in the force of the ignorance even when the
\nsoul in Mind
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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possesses<\/span><\/span> something of
\nthe knowledge. And even if the soul were to reflect or to represent all the
\nlargeness of the knowledge in its mental consciousness, it would be unable to
\nmobilise it rightly in force of action. The truth in its action might greatly
\nincrease, but it would still be pursued by a limitation, still condemned to a
\ndivisibility which would prevent it from working integrally in the power of the
\ninfinite. The power of a divinely illumined mind may be immense compared with ordinary
\npowers, but it will still be subject to incapacity and there can be no perfect
\ncorrespondence between the force of the effective will and the light of the
\nidea which inspires it. The infinite Presence may be there in status, but the
\ndynamis of the operations of nature still belongs to the lower Prakriti, must
\nfollow its triple modes of working and cannot give any adequate form to the
\ngreatness within it. This is the tragedy of ineffectivity<\/span>,
\nof the hiatus between ideal and effective will, of our constant incapacity to
\nwork out in living form and action the truth we feel in our inner consciousness
\nthat pursues all the aspiration of mind and life towards the divinity behind
\nthem. But the vij\u00f1āna or gnosis is not only truth but truth power, it is the
\nvery working of the infinite and divine nature; it is the divine knowledge one
\nwith the divine will in the force and delight of a spontaneous and luminous and
\ninevitable self-fulfilment. By the gnosis, then, we change our human into a
\ndivine nature. <\/span><\/p>\n

What then is
\nthis gnosis and how can we describe it? Two opposite errors have to be avoided,
\ntwo misconceptions that disfigure opposite sides of the truth of gnosis. One
\nerror of intellect-bounded thinkers takes vij\u00f1āna<\/i>
\nas synonymous with the other Indian term buddhi<\/i>
\nand buddhi<\/i> as synonymous with the
\nreason, the discerning intellect, the<\/span> logical
\nintelligence. The systems that accept this significance,<\/span>
\npass at once from a plane of pure intellect to a plane of pure spirit. No
\nintermediate power is recognised, no diviner action of knowledge than the pure
\nreason is admitted; the limited human means for fixing truth is taken for the
\nhighest possible dynamics of consciousness, its topmost force and original
\nmovement. An opposite error, a misconception of the mystics identifies vij\u00f1āna<\/i> with the consciousness of the
\nInfinite free from all ideation or else ideation packed <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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into<\/span><\/span> one essence
\nof thought, lost to other dynamic action in the single and invariable idea of
\nthe One. This is the caitanyaghana<\/i> of
\nthe Upanishad and is one movement or rather one thread of the many-aspected<\/span> movement of the gnosis. The gnosis, the Vijnana,
\nis not only this concentrated consciousness of the infinite Essence; it is also
\nand at the same time an infinite knowledge of the myriad play of the Infinite.
\nIt contains all ideation (not mental but supramental), but it is not limited by
\nideation, for it far exceeds all ideative<\/span> movement.
\nNor is the gnostic ideation in its character an intellectual thinking; it is
\nnot what we call the reason, not a concentrated intelligence. For the reason is
\nmental in its methods, mental in its acquisitions, mental in its basis, but the
\nideative<\/span> method of the gnosis is self-luminous,
\nsupramental, its yield of thought-light spontaneous, not proceeding by acquisition,
\nits thought-basis a rendering of conscious identities, not a translation of the
\nimpressions born of indirect contacts. There is a relation and even a sort of broken
\nidentity between the two forms of thought; for one proceeds covertly from the other,
\nmind is born from that which is beyond mind. But they act on different planes
\nand reverse each other’s process.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even the
\npurest reason, the most luminous rational intellectuality is not the gnosis.
\nReason or intellect is only the lower buddhi; it is dependent for its action on
\nthe percepts<\/span> of the sense-mind and on the concepts of
\nthe mental intelligence. It is not like the gnosis, self-luminous, authentic,
\nmaking the subject one with the object. There is, indeed, a higher form of the buddhi<\/i> that can be called the intuitive
\nmind or intuitive reason, and this by its intuitions, its inspirations, its
\nswift revelatory vision, its luminous insight and discrimination can do the
\nwork of the reason with a higher power, a swifter action, a<\/span>
\ngreater and spontaneous certitude. It acts in a self-light of the truth which
\ndoes not depend upon the torch-flares of the sense-mind and its limited
\nuncertain percepts<\/span>; it proceeds not by intelligent
\nbut by visional<\/span> concepts: it is a kind of
\ntruth-vision, truth-hearing, truth-memory, direct truth-discernment. This true
\nand authentic intuition must be distinguished from a power of the ordinary mental
\nreason which is too easily confused with it, the power of involved reasoning
\nthat reaches its conclusion by a bound and
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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does<\/span><\/span> not need the
\nordinary steps of the logical mind. The logical reason proceeds pace after pace
\nand tries the sureness of each step like a man who is walking over unsafe
\nground and has to test by the hesitating touch of his foot each span of soil
\nthat he perceives with his eye. But this other supralogical<\/span>
\nprocess of the reason is a motion of rapid insight or swift discernment; it
\nproceeds by a stride or leap, like a man who springs from one sure spot to
\nanother point of sure footing, \u2013 or at least held by him to be sure. He sees
\nthe space he covers in one compact and flashing view, but he does not
\ndistinguish or measure either by eye or touch its successions, features and
\ncircumstances. This movement has something of the sense of power of the
\nintuition, something of its velocity, some appearance of its light and
\ncertainty, and we always are apt to take it for the intuition. But our
\nassumption is an error and, if we trust to it, may lead us into grievous
\nblunders.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is even
\nthought by the intellectualists that the intuition itself is nothing more than
\nthis rapid process in which the whole action of the logical mind is swiftly
\ndone or perhaps half-consciously or subconsciously done, not deliberately
\nworked out in its reasoned method. In its nature, however, this proceeding is
\nquite different from the intuition and it is not necessarily a truth-movement.
\nThe power of its leap may end in a stumble, its swiftness may betray, its
\ncertainty is too often a confident error. The validity of its conclusions must
\nalways depend on a subsequent verification or support from the evidence of the sense-perceptions
\nor a rational linking of intelligent conceptions must intervene to explain to
\nit its own certitudes. This lower light may indeed receive very readily a
\nmixture of actual intuition into it and then a pseudo-intuitive or
\nhalf-intuitive mind is created, very misleading by its frequent luminous
\nsuccesses palliating a whirl of intensely self-assured false certitudes. The true
\nintuition on the contrary carries in itself its own guarantee of truth; it is
\nsure and infallible within its limits. And so long as it is pure intuition and
\ndoes not admit into itself any mixture of sense-error or intellectual ideation,
\nit is never contradicted by experience. The intuition may be verified by the
\nreason or the sense-perception afterwards, but its truth does not depend on
\nthat verification, it is assured by an
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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automatic<\/span><\/span>
\nself-evidence. If the reason depending on its inferences contradicts the greater
\nlight, it will be found in the end on ampler knowledge that the intuitional
\nconclusion was correct and that the more plausible rational and inferential
\nconclusion was an error. For the true intuition proceeds from the self-existent
\ntruth of things and is secured by that self-existent truth and not by any
\nindirect, derivatory or dependent method of arriving at knowledge.<\/span><\/p>\n

But even the
\nintuitive reason is not the gnosis; it is only an edge of light of the
\nsupermind finding its way by flashes of illumination into the mentality like
\nlightnings in dim and cloudy places. Its inspirations, revelations, intuitions,
\nself-luminous discernings are messages from a higher knowledge-plane that make
\ntheir way opportunely into our lower level of consciousness. The very character
\nof the intuitive mind sets a gulf of great difference between its action and
\nthe action of the self-contained gnosis. In the first place it acts by separate
\nand limited illuminations and its truth is restricted to the often narrow reach
\nor the one brief spot of knowledge lit up by that one lightning-flash with
\nwhich its intervention begins and terminates. We see the action of the instinct
\nin animals \u2013 an automatic intuition in that vital or sense-mind which is the highest
\nand surest instrument that the animal has to rely on, since it does not possess
\nthe human light of the reason, only a cruder and yet ill-formed intelligence.
\nAnd we can observe at once that the marvellous truth of this instinct which
\nseems so much surer than the reason,<\/span> is limited in the
\nbird, beast or insect to some particular and restricted utility it is admitted
\nto serve. When the vital mind of the animal tries to act beyond that restricted
\nlimit, it blunders in a much blinder way than the reason of man and has to
\nlearn with difficulty by a succession of sense-experiences. The higher mental
\nintuition of the human being is an inner visional<\/span>,
\nnot a sense intuition; for it illumines the intelligence and not the
\nsense-mind, it is self-conscious and luminous, not a half-subconscious blind
\nlight: it is freely self-acting, not mechanically automatic. But still, even
\nwhen it is not marred by the imitative pseudo-intuition, it is restricted in
\nman like the instinct in the animal, restricted to a particular purpose of will
\nor knowledge \u2013 as is the instinct to a particular life utility or Nature
\npurpose. And when the <\/span><\/p>\n

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intelligence<\/span><\/span>, as is its
\nalmost invariable habit, tries to make use of it, to apply it, to add to it, it
\nbuilds round the intuitive nucleus in its own characteristic fashion a mass of
\nmixed truth and error. More often than not, by foisting an element of
\nsense-error and conceptual error into the very substance of the intuition or by
\ncoating it up in mental additions and deviations, it not merely deflects but
\ndeforms its truth and converts it into a falsehood. At the best therefore the
\nintuition gives us only a limited, though an intense light; at the worst,
\nthrough our misuse of it or false imitations of it, it may lead us into
\nperplexities and confusions which the less ambitious intellectual reason avoids
\nby remaining satisfied with its own safe and plodding method, \u2013 safe for the
\ninferior purposes of the reason, though never a satisfying guide to the inner
\ntruth of things.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is
\npossible to cultivate and extend the use of the intuitive mind in proportion as
\nwe rely less predominantly upon the reasoning intelligence. We may train our
\nmentality not to seize, as it does now, upon every separate flash of intuitive illumination
\nfor its own inferior purposes, not to precipitate our thought at once into a
\ncrystallising intellectual action around it; we can train it to think in a
\nstream of successive and connected intuitions, to pour light upon light in a
\nbrilliant and triumphant series. We shall succeed in this difficult change in
\nproportion as we purify the interfering intelligence, \u2013 if we can reduce in it
\nthe element of material thought enslaved to the external appearances of things,
\nthe element of vital thought enslaved to the wishes, desires, impulses of the
\nlower nature, the element of intellectual thought enslaved to our preferred, already
\nsettled or congenial ideas, conceptions, opinions, fixed operations of
\nintelligence, if, having reduced to a minimum those elements, we can replace
\nthem by an intuitive vision and sense of things, an intuitive insight into
\nappearances, an intuitive will, an intuitive ideation. This is hard enough for
\nour consciousness naturally bound by the triple tie of mentality, vitality,
\ncorporeality to its own imperfection and ignorance, the upper, middle and lower
\ncord in the Vedic parable of the soul’s bondage, cords of the mixed truth and falsehood
\nof appearances by which śunahśepa<\/i><\/span>
\nwas bound to the post of sacrifice. <\/span><\/p>\n

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But even if
\nthis difficult thing were perfectly accomplished, still the intuition would not
\nbe the gnosis; it would only be its thin prolongation into mind or its sharp
\nedge of first entrance. The difference, not easy to define except by symbols,
\nmay be expressed if we take the Vedic image in which the Sun represents the
\ngnosis and the sky, mid-air and earth the mentality, vitality, physicality of
\nman and of the universe. Living on the earth, climbing into the mid-air or even
\nwinging in the sky, the mental being, the manomaya<\/i><\/span> puruşa<\/i>, would still live in the rays of the sun and not in
\nits bodily light. And in those rays he would see things not as they are, but as
\nreflected in his organ of vision, deformed by its faults or limited in their
\ntruth by its restrictions. But the vij\u00f1ānamaya
\npuruşa<\/i> lives in the Sun itself, in the very body and blaze of the true
\nlight; \u00b9 he knows this light to be his own self-luminous being and he sees
\nbesides all that dwells in the rays of the sun, sees the whole truth of the
\nlower triplicity<\/span> and each thing that is in it. He
\nsees it not by reflection in a mental organ of vision, but with the Sun of
\ngnosis itself as his eye, \u2013 for the Sun, says the Veda, is the eye of the gods.
\nThe mental being, even in the intuitive mind, can perceive the truth only by a
\nbrilliant reflection or limited communication and subject to the restrictions
\nand the inferior capacity of the mental vision; but the supramental being sees
\nit by the gnosis itself, from the very centre and outwelling<\/span>
\nfount of the truth, in its very form and by its own spontaneous and
\nself-illumining process. For the Vijnana<\/i>
\nis a direct and divine as opposed to an indirect and human knowledge.<\/span><\/p>\n

The nature of
\nthe gnosis can only be indicated to the intellect by contrasting it with the
\nnature of the intellect, and even then the phrases we must use cannot
\nilluminate unless aided by some amount of actual experience. For what language
\nforged by the reason can express the suprarational? Fundamentally, this is the
\ndifference between these two powers that the mental reason proceeds with labour
\nfrom ignorance to truth, but the gnosis has in itself<\/span>
\nthe direct contact, the immediate vision, the easy and constant possession of
\nthe truth and has no need of seeking or any kind of procedure. The reason
\nstarts with appearances and labours, never or seldom losing at least a partial
\ndependence <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b9 <\/span>So the Sun is called in the
\nVeda, ŗtam jyotih<\/i><\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

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on<\/span><\/span> appearances,
\nto arrive at the truth behind them; it shows the truth in the light of the
\nappearances. The gnosis starts from the truth and shows the appearances in the light
\nof the truth; it is itself the body of the truth and its spirit. The reason
\nproceeds by inference, it concludes; but the gnosis proceeds by identity or
\nvision, \u2013 it is, sees and knows. As directly as the physical vision sees and
\ngrasps the appearance of objects, so and far more directly the gnosis sees and
\ngrasps the truth of things. But where the physical sense gets into relation
\nwith objects by a veiled contact, the gnosis gets into identity with things by
\nan unveiled oneness. Thus it is able to know all things as a man knows his own
\nexistence, simply, convincingly, directly. To the reason only what the senses
\ngive is direct knowledge, pratyakşa<\/i><\/span>, the rest of truth is arrived at indirectly;
\nto the gnosis all its truth is direct knowledge, pratyakşa<\/i><\/span>. Therefore the
\ntruth gained by the intellect is an acquisition over which there hangs always a
\ncertain shadow of doubt, an incompleteness<\/span>, a
\nsurrounding penumbra of night and ignorance or half-knowledge, a possibility of
\nalteration or annullation<\/span> by farther knowledge. The
\ntruth of the gnosis is free from doubt, self-evident, self-existent,
\nirrefragable, absolute.<\/span><\/p>\n

The reason
\nhas as its first instrument observation general, analytical and synthetic; it
\naids itself by comparison, contrast and analogy, \u2013 proceeds from experience to
\nindirect knowledge by logical processes of deduction, induction, all kinds of inference,
\n\u2013 rests upon memory, reaches out beyond itself by imagination, secures itself
\nby judgment: all is a process of groping and seeking. The gnosis does not seek,
\nit possesses. Or if it has to enlighten, it does not even then seek; it
\nreveals, it illumines. In a consciousness transmuted from intelligence to gnosis,
\nimagination would be replaced by truth-inspiration,<\/span>
\nmental judgment would give place to a self-luminous discerning. The slow and
\nstumbling logical process from reasoning to conclusion would be pushed out by a
\nswift intuitive proceeding; the conclusion or fact would be seen at once in its
\nown right, by its own self-sufficient witness, and all the evidence by which we
\narrive at it would be seen too at once, along with it, in the same comprehensive
\nfigure, not as its evidence, but as its intimate conditions, connec<\/span>–<\/span><\/p>\n

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tions<\/span><\/span><\/span> and
\nrelations, its constituent parts or its wings of circumstance. Mental and sense
\nobservation would be changed into an inner vision using the instruments as channels,
\nbut not dependent on them as the mind in us is blind and deaf without the
\nphysical senses, and this vision would see not merely the thing, but all its
\ntruth, its forces, powers, the eternities within it. Our uncertain memory would
\nfall away and there would come in its place a luminous possession of knowledge,
\nthe divine memory that is not a store of acquisition, but holds all things
\nalways contained in the consciousness, a memory at once of past, present and
\nfuture.<\/span><\/p>\n

For while the
\nreason proceeds from moment to moment of time and loses and acquires and again
\nloses and again acquires, the gnosis dominates time in a one view and perpetual
\npower and links past, present and future in their indivisible connections, in a
\nsingle continuous map of knowledge, side by side. The gnosis starts from the
\ntotality which it immediately possesses; it sees parts, groups and details only
\nin relation to the totality and in one vision with it: the mental reason cannot
\nreally see the totality at all and does not know fully any whole except by
\nstarting from an analysis and synthesis of its parts, masses and details;
\notherwise its whole-view is always a vague apprehension or an imperfect
\ncomprehension or a confused summary of indistinct features. The reason deals
\nwith constituents and processes and properties; it tries in vain to form by them
\nan idea of the thing in itself, its reality, its essence. But the gnosis sees
\nthe thing in itself first, penetrates to its original and eternal nature,
\nadjoins its processes and properties only as a self-expression of its nature.
\nThe reason dwells in the diversity and is its prisoner: it deals with things
\nseparately and treats each as a separate existence, as it deals with sections
\nof Time and divisions of Space; it sees unity only in a sum or by elimination
\nof diversity or as a general conception and a vacant figure. But the gnosis
\ndwells in the unity and knows by it all the nature of the diversities; it
\nstarts from the unity and sees diversities only of a unity, not diversities
\nconstituting the one, but a unity constituting its own multitudes. The gnostic
\nknowledge, the gnostic sense does not recognise any real division; it does not
\ntreat things separately as if they were <\/span><\/p>\n

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independent<\/span><\/span> of their
\ntrue and original oneness. The reason deals with the finite and is helpless
\nbefore the infinite: it can conceive of it as an indefinite extension in which
\nthe finite acts, but the infinite in itself it can with difficulty conceive and
\ncannot at all grasp or penetrate. But the gnosis is, sees and lives in the
\ninfinite; it starts always from the infinite and knows finite things only in
\ntheir relation to the infinite and in the sense of the infinite.<\/span><\/p>\n

If we would
\ndescribe the gnosis as it is in its own awareness, not thus imperfectly as it
\nis to us in contrast with our own reason and intelligence, it is hardly
\npossible to speak of it except in figures and symbols. And first we must
\nremember that the gnostic level, Mahat<\/span>, Vijnana, is
\nnot the supreme plane of our consciousness, but a middle or link plane.
\nInterposed between the triune glory of the utter Spirit, the infinite
\nexistence, consciousness and bliss of the Eternal and our lower triple being
\nand nature, it is as if it stood there as the mediating, formulated, organising
\nand creative wisdom, power and joy of the Eternal. In the gnosis Sachchidananda
\ngathers up the light of his unseizable<\/span> existence and
\npours it out on the soul in the shape and power of a divine knowledge, a divine
\nwill and a divine bliss of existence. It is as if infinite light were gathered
\nup into the compact orb of the sun and lavished on all that depends upon the
\nsun in radiances that continue for ever. But the gnosis is not only light, it
\nis force; it is creative knowledge, it is the self-effective truth of the
\ndivine Idea. This idea is not creative imagination, not something that
\nconstructs in a void, but light and power of eternal substance, truth-light
\nfull of truth-force; and it brings out what is latent in being, it does not
\ncreate a fiction that never was in being. The ideation of the gnosis is radiating
\nlight-stuff of the consciousness of the eternal Existence; each ray is a truth.
\nThe will in the gnosis is a conscious force of eternal knowledge; it throws the
\nconsciousness and substance of being into infallible forms of truth-power,
\nforms that embody the idea and make it faultlessly effective,<\/span>
\nand it works out each truth-power and each truth-form spontaneously and rightly
\naccording to its nature. Because it carries this creative force of the divine
\nIdea, the Sun, the lord and symbol of the gnosis, is described in the Veda as
\nthe Light which is the father of all things, Surya<\/span>
\nSavitri, the Wisdom-Luminous <\/span><\/p>\n

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who<\/span><\/span> is the
\nbringer-out into manifest existence. This creation is inspired by the divine
\ndelight, the eternal Ananda; it is full of the joy of its own truth and power,
\nit creates in bliss, creates out of bliss, creates that which is blissful.
\nTherefore the world of the gnosis, the supramental world is the true and the
\nhappy creation, ŗtam, bhadram<\/span><\/i>, since all in it shares in the perfect joy that
\nmade it. A divine radiance of undeviating knowledge, a divine power of
\nunfaltering will and a divine ease of unstumbling<\/span>
\nbliss are the nature or Prakriti of the soul in supermind, in vij\u00f1āna.<\/i> The stuff of the gnostic
\nor supramental plane is made of the perfect absolutes of all that is here
\nimperfect and relative and its movement of the reconciled interlockings<\/span>
\nand happy fusions of all that here are opposites. For behind the appearance of
\nthese opposites are their truths and the truths of the Eternal are not in
\nconflict with each other; our mind’s and life’s opposites transformed in the
\nsupermind into their own true spirit link together and are seen as tones and
\ncolourings of an eternal Reality and everlasting Ananda. Supermind or Gnosis is
\nthe supreme Truth, the supreme Thought, the supreme Word, the supreme Sight,
\nthe supreme Will-Idea; it is the inner and outer extension of the Infinite who
\nis beyond Space, the unfettered Time of the Eternal who is timeless, the
\nsupernal harmony of all absolutes of the Absolute.<\/span><\/p>\n

To the
\nenvisaging mind there are three powers of the Vijnana. Its supreme power knows
\nand receives into it from above all the infinite existence, consciousness and
\nbliss of the Ishwara; it is in its highest height the absolute knowledge and
\nforce of eternal Sachchidananda. Its second power concentrates the Infinite
\ninto a dense luminous consciousness, caitanyaghana
\nor cidghana<\/i>, the seed-state of the divine consciousness in which are
\ncontained living and concrete all the immutable principles of the divine being
\nand all the inviolable truths of the divine conscious-idea and nature. Its
\nthird power brings or looses out these things by the effective ideation,
\nvision, authentic identities of the divine knowledge, movement of the divine
\nwill-force, vibration of the divine delight intensities into a universal harmony,
\nan illimitable diversity, a manifold rhythm of their powers, forms and
\ninterplay of living consequences. The mental
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 466<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

Purusha rising into the vij\u00f1ānamaya<\/i> must ascend into these
\nthree powers. It must turn by conversion of its movements into the movements of
\nthe gnosis its mental perception, ideation, will, pleasure into radiances of
\nthe divine knowledge, pulsations of the divine will-force, waves and floods of the
\ndivine delight-seas. It must convert its conscious stuff of mental nature into the
\ncidghana<\/i> or dense self-luminous
\nconsciousness. It must transform its conscious substance into a gnostic self or
\nTruth-self of infinite Sachchidananda. These three movements are described in
\nthe Isha<\/span> Upanishad, the first as vyūha<\/i>, the marshalling of the rays of the Sun of gnosis in the
\norder of the Truth-consciousness, the second as samūha<\/i>, the gathering together of the rays into the body of
\nthe Sun of gnosis, the third as the vision of that Sun’s fairest form of all in
\nwhich the soul most intimately possesses its oneness with the infinite
\nPurusha.\u00b9 The Supreme above, in him, around, everywhere and the soul dwelling in
\nthe Supreme and one with it, \u2013 the infinite power and truth of the Divine
\nconcentrated in his own concentrated luminous soul nature, \u2013 a radiant activity
\nof the divine knowledge, will and joy perfect in the natural action of the
\nPrakriti, \u2013 this is the fundamental experience of the mental being transformed
\nand fulfilled and sublimated in the perfection of the gnosis.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b9 <\/span>sūrya,
\nvyūha raśmīn samūha, tejo yat<\/span> te<\/span> rūpam kalyāņatamam tat te paśyāmi,
\nyo\u2019sāvasau puruşah so\u2019hamasmi. The Veda describes the vijnana plane
\nas ŗtam, satyam, bŗhat, the Right, Truth, Vast, the same triple idea
\ndifferently expressed. Ritam is the action of the divine knowledge, will and
\njoy in the lines of the truth, the play of the truth-consciousness. Satyam is
\nthe truth of being which so acts, the dynamic essence of the
\ntruth-consciousness. Bŗihat is the infinity of Sachchidananda out of which
\nthe other two proceed<\/span> and in which they are founded.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Chapter XXII  Vijnana or Gnosis    IN OUR perfect self-transcendence we pass out and up from the ignorance or half-enlightenment of our mental conscious-being into…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-20-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-20","wpcat-20-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954","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=954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}