{"id":958,"date":"2013-07-13T01:31:35","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=958"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:31:35","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:35","slug":"34-the-passive-and-the-active-brahman-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\/34-the-passive-and-the-active-brahman-vol-20-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-20","title":{"rendered":"-34_The Passive and the Active Brahman.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


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

\n <\/font><\/span>The Passive and the Active Brahman<\/span><\/font><\/b> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n


\nT<\/font><\/span><\/b>HE<\/span><\/font> difficulty which the mental being
\nexperiences in arriving at an integral realisation of true being and world-being
\nmay be met by following one or other of two different lines of his
\nself-development. He may evolve himself from plane to plane of his own being and
\nembrace on each successively his oneness with the world and with Sachchidananda realised as the Purusha and Prakriti, Conscious-Soul and
\nNature-Soul of that plane, taking into himself the action of the lower grades
\nof being as he ascends. He may, that is to say, work out by a sort of inclusive
\nprocess of self-enlargement and transformation the evolution of the material
\ninto the divine or spiritual man. This seems to have been the method of the
\nmost ancient sages of which we get some glimpse in the Rig Veda and some of the
\nUpanishads.\u00b9 He may, on the other hand, aim straight at the realisation of pure
\nself-existence on the highest plane of mental being and from that secure basis
\nrealise spiritually under the conditions of his mentality the process by which
\nthe self-existent becomes all existences, but without that descent into the
\nself-divided egoistic consciousness which is a circumstance of evolution in the
\nIgnorance. Thus identified with Sachchidananda in the universal self-existence
\nas the spiritualised mental being, he may then ascend beyond to the supramental
\nplane of the pure spiritual existence. It is the latter method the stages of
\nwhich we may now attempt to trace for the seeker by the path of knowledge.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the
\nsadhaka has followed the discipline of withdrawal from the various
\nidentifications of the self with the ego, the mind, the life, the body, he has
\narrived at realisation by knowledge of a pure, still, self-aware existence,
\none, undivided, peaceful, inactive, undisturbed by the action of the world. The
\nonly relation that this Self seems to have with the world is that of a dis<\/span>–<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b9 <\/span>Notably,
\nthe Taittiriya<\/span> Upanishad.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 384<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

interested Witness not
\nat all involved in or affected or even touched by any of its activities. If
\nthis state of consciousness is pushed farther one becomes aware of a self even
\nmore remote from world-existence; all that is in the world is in a sense in
\nthat Self and yet at the same time extraneous to its consciousness,
\nnon-existent in its existence, existing only in a sort of unreal mind, \u2013 a
\ndream therefore, an illusion. This aloof and transcendent Real Existence may be
\nrealised as an utter Self of one’s own being; or the very idea of a self and of
\none’s own being may be swallowed up in it, so that it is only for the mind an
\nunknowable That, unknowable to the mental consciousness and without any
\npossible kind of actual connection or commerce with world-existence. It can
\neven be realised by the mental being as a Nihil, Non-Existence or Void, but a
\nVoid of all that is in the world, a Non-existence of all that is in the world
\nand yet the only Reality. To proceed farther towards that Transcendence by
\nconcentration of one’s own being upon it is to lose mental existence and
\nworld-existence altogether and cast oneself into the Unknowable.<\/span><\/p>\n

The integral
\nYoga of knowledge demands instead a divine return upon world-existence and its
\nfirst step must be to realise the Self as the All, sarvam<\/i><\/span> brahma<\/span><\/i>. First, concentrating on the
\nSelf-existent, we have to realise all of which the mind and senses are aware as
\na figure of things existing in this pure Self that we now are to our own
\nconsciousness. This vision of the pure self translates itself to the mind-sense
\nand the mind-perception as an infinite Reality in which all exists merely as
\nname and form, not precisely unreal, not a hallucination or a dream, but still
\nonly a creation of the consciousness, perceptual and subtly sensible rather than
\nsubstantial. In this poise of the consciousness all seems to be, if not a
\ndream, yet very much like a representation or puppet-show taking place in the
\ncalm, motionless, peaceful, indifferent Self. Our own phenomenal existence is
\npart of this conceptual movement, a mechanical form of mind and body among
\nother forms, ourselves a name of being among other names, automatically mobile
\nin this Self with its all-encompassing, still self-awareness. The active consciousness
\nof the world is not present in this state to our realisation, because thought
\nhas been stilled in us and therefore our own consciousness is perfectly
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 385<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

still and inactive, \u2013 whatever
\nwe do, seems to be purely mechanical, not attended with any conscious
\norigination by our active will and knowledge. Or if thought occurs, that also
\nhappens mechanically like the rest, like the movement of our body, moved by the
\nunseen springs of Nature as in the plant and element and not by any active will
\nof our self-existence. For this Self is the immobile and does not originate or
\ntake part in the action which it allows. <\/span><\/p>\n

This Self is
\nthe All in the sense only of being the infinite One who is immutably and
\ncontains all names and forms. The basis of this status of consciousness is the
\nmind’s exclusive realisation of pure self-existence in which consciousness is
\nat rest, inactive, widely concentrated in pure self-awareness of being, not
\nactive and originative<\/span> of any kind of becoming. Its
\naspect of knowledge is at rest in the awareness of undifferentiated identity;
\nits aspect of force and will is at rest in the awareness of unmodifiable<\/span>
\nimmutability. And yet it is aware of names and forms, it is aware of movement;
\nbut this movement does not seem to proceed from the Self, but to go on by some
\ninherent power of its own and only to be reflected in the Self. In other words,
\nthe mental being has put away from himself by exclusive concentration the
\ndynamic aspect of consciousness, has taken refuge in the static and built a
\nwall of non-communication between the two; between the passive and the active
\nBrahman a gulf has been created and they stand on either side of it, the one
\nvisible to the other but with no contact, no touch of sympathy, no sense of
\nunity between them. Therefore to the passive Self all conscious being seems to
\nbe passive in its nature, all activity seems to be non-conscious in itself and
\nmechanical (jada<\/span>) in its movement. The realisation of
\nthis status is the basis of the ancient Sankhya philosophy which taught that
\nthe Purusha or Conscious-Soul is a passive, inactive, immutable entity,
\nPrakriti or the Nature-Soul including even the mind and the understanding
\nactive, mutable, mechanical, but reflected in the Purusha which identifies
\nitself with what is reflected in it and lends to it its own light of
\nconsciousness. When the Purusha learns not to identify himself, then Prakriti begins
\nto fall away from its impulse of movement and returns towards equilibrium and
\nrest. The Vedantic view of the same status led to the philosophy of the
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 386<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

inactive Self or Brahman
\nas the one reality and of all the rest as name and form imposed on it by a
\nfalse activity of mental illusion which has to be removed by right knowledge of
\nthe immutable Self and refusal of the imposition.\u00b9 The two views really differ
\nonly in their language and their view-point; substantially, they are the same
\nintellectual generalisation from the same spiritual experience. <\/span><\/p>\n

If we rest
\nhere, there are only two possible attitudes towards the world. Either we must
\nremain as mere inactive witnesses of the world-play or act in it mechanically
\nwithout any participation of the conscious self and by mere play of the organs
\nof sense and motor-action.\u00b2 In the former choice what we do is to approach as
\ncompletely as possible to the inactivity of the passive and silent Brahman. We
\nhave stilled our mind and silenced the activity of the thought and the
\ndisturbances of the heart, we have arrived at an entire inner peace and
\nindifference; we attempt now to still the mechanical action of the life and
\nbody, to reduce it to the most meagre minimum possible so that it may
\neventually cease entirely and for ever. This, the final aim of the ascetic Yoga
\nwhich refuses life, is evidently not our aim. By the alternative choice we can
\nhave an activity perfect enough in outward appearance along with an entire
\ninner passivity, peace, mental silence, indifference and cessation of the emotions,
\nabsence of choice in the will.<\/span><\/p>\n

To the
\nordinary mind this does not seem possible. As, emotionally, it cannot conceive
\nof activity without desire and emotional preference, so intellectually it
\ncannot conceive of activity without thought-conception, conscious motive and energising
\nof the will. But, as a matter of fact, we see that a large part of our own
\naction as well as the whole activity of inanimate and merely animate life is
\ndone by a mechanical impulse and movement in which these elements are not,
\nopenly at least, at work. It may be said that this is only possible of the
\npurely physical and vital activity and not of those movements which ordinarily
\ndepend upon the functioning of the conceptual and volitional mind, such as
\nspeech, writing and all the intelligent action of human life. But this again is
\nnot true, as we find when we are able to go be-<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b9 adhyāropa<\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0  <\/span>\u00b2
\nkevalair<\/span> indriyaih<\/span>. Gita. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 387<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

hind the habitual and
\nnormal process of our mental nature. It has been found by recent psychological experiment
\nthat all these operations can be effected without any conscious origination in
\nthe thought and will of the apparent actor; his organs of sense and action,
\nincluding the speech, become passive instruments for a thought and will other
\nthan his. <\/span><\/p>\n

Certainly,
\nbehind all intelligent action there must be an intelligent will, but it need
\nnot be the intelligence or the will of the conscious mind in the actor. In the
\npsychological phenomena of which I have spoken, it is obviously in some of them
\nthe will and intelligence of other human beings that uses the organs, in others
\nit is doubtful whether it is an influence or actuation by other beings or the
\nemergence of a subconscious, subliminal mind or a mixed combination of both
\nthese agencies. But in this Yogic status of action by the mere organs, kevalair<\/span> indriyair<\/span>, it is the
\nuniversal intelligence and will of Nature itself working from centres
\nsuperconscious and subconscious as it acts in the mechanically purposeful
\nenergies of plant-life or of the inanimate material form, but here with a
\nliving instrument who is the conscious witness of the action and
\ninstrumentation. It is a remarkable fact that the speech, writing and
\nintelligent actions of such a state may convey a perfect force of thought, luminous,
\nfaultless, logical, inspired, perfectly adapting means to ends, far beyond what
\nthe man himself could have done in his old normal poise of mind and will and
\ncapacity, yet all the time he himself perceives but does not conceive the
\nthought that comes to him, observes in its works but does not appropriate or
\nuse the will that acts through him, witnesses but does not claim as his own the
\npowers which play upon the world through him as through a passive channel. But
\nthis phenomenon is not really abnormal or contrary to the general law of
\nthings. For do we not see a perfect working of the secret universal Will and
\nIntelligence in the apparently brute (jada<\/span>) action of
\nmaterial Nature? And it is precisely this universal Will and Intelligence which
\nthus acts through the calm, indifferent and inwardly silent Yogin who offers no
\nobstacle of limited and ignorant personal will and intelligence to its
\noperations. He dwells in the silent Self; he allows the active Brahman to work
\nthrough his natural instru<\/span>– <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 388<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

ments<\/span><\/span>, accepting
\nimpartially, without participation, the formations of its universal force and
\nknowledge.<\/span><\/p>\n

This status
\nof an inner passivity and an outer action independent of each other is a state
\nof entire spiritual freedom. The Yogin, as the Gita says, even in acting does
\nno actions, for it is not he, but universal Nature directed by the Lord of
\nNature which is at work. He is not bound by his works, nor do they leave any
\nafter effects or consequences in his mind, nor cling to or leave any mark on
\nhis soul;\u00b9 they vanish and are dissolved\u00b2 by their very execution and leave the
\nimmutable self unaffected and the soul unmodified. Therefore this would seem to
\nbe the poise the uplifted soul ought to take, if it has still to preserve any
\nrelations with human action in the world-existence, an unalterable silence,
\ntranquillity, passivity within, an action without regulated by the universal
\nWill and Wisdom which works, as the Gita says, without being involved in, bound
\nby or ignorantly attached to its works. And certainly this poise of a perfect activity
\nfounded upon a perfect inner passivity is that which the Yogin has to possess,
\nas we have seen in the Yoga of Works. But here in this status of self-knowledge
\nat which we have arrived, there is an evident absence of integrality<\/span>;
\nfor there is still a gulf, an unrealised unity or a cleft of consciousness
\nbetween the passive and the active Brahman. We have still to possess
\nconsciously the active Brahman without losing the possession of the silent
\nSelf. We have to preserve the inner silence, tranquillity, passivity as a
\nfoundation; but in place of an aloof indifference to the works of the active
\nBrahman we have to arrive at an equal and impartial delight in them; in place
\nof a refusal to participate lest our freedom and peace be lost we have to
\narrive at a conscious possession of the active Brahman whose joy of existence
\ndoes not abrogate His peace, nor His lordship of all workings impair His calm
\nfreedom in the midst of His works.<\/span><\/p>\n

The
\ndifficulty is created by the exclusive concentration of the mental being on its
\nplane of pure existence in which consciousness is at rest in passivity and
\ndelight of existence at rest in peace of existence. It has to embrace also its
\nplane of conscious force of existence in which consciousness is active as power
\nand <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b9 na<\/i><\/span> karma lipyate<\/span> nare<\/span><\/i>. Isha<\/span> Upanishad.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00b2 pravilīyante<\/i><\/span> karmāņi<\/span><\/i>.
\nGita.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 389<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

will and delight is
\nactive as joy of existence. Here the difficulty is that mind is likely to
\nprecipitate itself into the consciousness of Force instead of possessing it.
\nThe extreme mental state of precipitation into Nature is that of the ordinary
\nman who takes his bodily and vital activity and the mind-movements dependent on
\nthem for his whole real existence and regards all passivity of the soul as a
\ndeparture from existence and an approach towards nullity. He lives in the
\nsuperficies of the active Brahman and while to the silent soul exclusively
\nconcentrated in the passive self all activities are mere name and form, to him
\nthey are the only reality and it is the Self that is merely a name. In one the
\npassive Brahman stands aloof from the active and does not share in its consciousness;
\nin the other the active Brahman stands aloof from the passive and does not
\nshare in its consciousness nor wholly possess its own. Each is to the other in
\nthese exclusivenesses an inertia of status or an inertia of mechanically active
\nnon-possession of self if not altogether an unreality. But the sadhaka who has
\nonce seen firmly the essence of things and tasted thoroughly the peace of the
\nsilent Self, is not likely to be content with any state which involves loss of
\nself-knowledge or a sacrifice of the peace of the soul. He will not precipitate
\nhimself back into the mere individual movement of mind and life and body with all
\nits ignorance and straining and disturbance. Whatever new status he may
\nacquire, will only satisfy him if it is founded upon and includes that which he
\nhas already found to be indispensable to real self-knowledge, self-delight and
\nself-possession. <\/span><\/p>\n

Still there
\nis the likelihood of a partial, superficial and temporary relapse into the old
\nmental movement when he attempts again to ally himself to the activity of the
\nworld. To prevent this relapse or to cure it when it arrives, he has to hold
\nfast to the truth of Sachchidananda and extend his realisation of the infinite
\nOne into the movement of the infinite multiplicity. He has to concentrate on
\nand realise the one Brahman in all things as conscious force of being as well
\nas pure awareness of conscious being. The Self as the All, not only in the
\nunique essence of things, but in the manifold form of things, not only as containing
\nall in a transcendent consciousness, but as becoming all by a con- <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 390<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

stituting<\/span><\/span>
\nconsciousness, this is the next step towards his true possession of existence.
\nIn proportion as this realisation is accomplished, the status of consciousness
\nas well as the mental view proper to it will change. Instead of an immutable
\nSelf containing name and form, containing without sharing in them the mutations
\nof Nature, there will be the consciousness of the Self immutable in essence,
\nunalterable in its fundamental poise but constituting and becoming in its
\nexperience all these existences which the mind distinguishes as name and form.
\nAll formations of mind and body will be not merely figures reflected in the
\nPurusha, but real forms of which Brahman, Self, conscious Being is the
\nsubstance and, as it were, the material of their formation. The name attaching
\nto the form will be not a mere conception of the mind answering to no real
\nexistence bearing the name, but there will be behind it a true power of
\nconscious being, a true self-experience of the Brahman answering to something
\nthat it contained potential but unmanifest in its silence. And yet in all its
\nmutations it will be realised as one, free and above them. The realisation of a
\nsole Reality suffering the imposition of names and forms will give place to
\nthat of eternal Being throwing itself out into infinite becoming. All existences
\nwill be to the consciousness of the Yogin soul-forms and not merely idea-forms
\nof the Self, of himself, one with him, contained in his universal existence.
\nAll the soul-life, mental, vital, bodily existence of all that exists will be
\nto him one indivisible movement and activity of the Being who is the same
\nforever. The Self will be realised as the all in its double aspect of immutable
\nstatus and mutable activity and it is this that will be seen as the comprehensive
\ntruth of our existence. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 391<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter XIV   The Passive and the Active Brahman    THE difficulty which the mental being experiences in arriving at an integral realisation of true being…<\/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-958","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\/958","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=958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}