{"id":965,"date":"2013-07-13T01:31:37","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=965"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:31:37","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:37","slug":"20-the-supermind-and-the-yoga-of-works-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\/20-the-supermind-and-the-yoga-of-works-vol-20-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-20","title":{"rendered":"-20_The Supermind and the Yoga of Works.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\nChapter
\nXIII*<\/span><\/font><\/b> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/font>The Supermind
\nand the Yoga of Works<\/font><\/b> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n <\/font>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span>A<\/font><\/span>N INTEGRAL<\/span><\/font> Yoga includes as a vital
\nand indispensable element in its total and ultimate aim the conversion of the
\nwhole being into a higher spiritual consciousness and a larger divine existence.
\nOur parts of will and action, our parts of knowledge, our thinking being, our
\nemotional being, our being of life, all our self and nature must seek the
\nDivine, enter into the Infinite, unite with the Eternal. But man’s present
\nnature is limited, divided, unequal, \u2013 it is easiest for him to concentrate in
\nthe strongest part of his being and follow a definite line of progress proper to
\nhis nature: only rare individuals have the strength to take a large immediate
\nplunge straight into the sea of the Divine Infinity. Some therefore must choose
\nas a starting-point a concentration in thought or contemplation or the mind’s
\none-pointedness to find the eternal reality of the
\nSelf in them; others can more easily withdraw into the heart to meet there the
\nDivine, the Eternal: yet others are predominantly dynamic and active; for these
\nit is best to centre themselves in the will and enlarge their being through
\nworks. United with the Self and source of all by their surrender of their will
\ninto its infinity, guided in their works by the secret Divinity within or
\nsurrendered to the Lord of the cosmic action as the master and mover of all
\ntheir energies of thought, feeling, act, becoming by this enlargement of being
\nselfless and universal, they can reach by works some first fullness of a
\nspiritual status. But the path, whatever its point of starting, must debouch
\ninto a vaster dominion; it must proceed in the end through a totality of
\nintegrated knowledge, emotion, will of dynamic action, perfection of the being
\nand the entire nature. In the supramental consciousness, on the level of the
\nsupramental existence this integration becomes consummate; there knowledge, <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

*
\nThis is part of a further extension of the work contemplated by the author but
\nleft unfinished.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 265<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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

will, emotion, the
\nperfection of the self and the dynamic nature rise each to its absolute of
\nitself and all to their perfect harmony and fusion with each other, to a divine
\nintegrality, a divine perfection. For the supermind is a Truth-Consciousness in
\nwhich the Divine Reality, fully manifested, no longer works with the
\ninstrumentation of the Ignorance; a truth of status of being which is absolute
\nbecomes dynamic in a truth of energy and activity of the being which is
\nself-existent and perfect. Every movement there is a movement of the self-aware
\ntruth of Divine Being and every part is in entire harmony with the whole. Even
\nthe most limited and finite action is in the Truth-Consciousness a movement of
\nthe Eternal and Infinite and partakes of the inherent absoluteness and
\nperfection of the Eternal and Infinite. An ascent into the supramental Truth
\nnot only raises our spiritual and essential consciousness to that height but
\nbrings about a descent of this Light and Truth into all our being and all our
\nparts of nature. All then becomes part of the Divine Truth, an element and means
\nof the supreme union and oneness; this ascent and descent must be therefore an
\nultimate aim of this Yoga. <\/span><\/p>\n

A union with
\nthe Divine Reality of our being and all being is the one essential object of
\nthe Yoga. It is necessary to keep this in mind; we must remember that our Yoga
\nis not undertaken for the sake of the acquisition of supermind itself but for
\nthe sake of the Divine; we seek the supermind not for its own joy and greatness
\nbut to make the union absolute and complete, to feel it, possess it, dynamise
\nit in every possible way of our being, in its highest intensities and largest
\nwidenesses and in every range and turn and nook and recess of our nature. It is
\na mistake to think, as many are apt to think, that the object of a supramental
\nYoga is to arrive at a mighty magnificence of supermanhood, a divine power and
\ngreatness, the self-fulfilment of a magnified individual personality. This is a
\nfalse and disastrous conception, \u2013 disastrous because it is likely to raise the
\npride, vanity and ambition of the rajasic vital mind in us and that, if not
\noverpassed and overcome, must lead to spiritual downfall, false because it is
\nan egoistic conception and the first condition of the supramental change is to
\nget rid of ego. It is most dangerous for the active and dynamic nature of the
\nman of will and works which can easily be led
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 266<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

away by the pursuit of
\npower. Power comes inevitably by the supramental change, it is a necessary
\ncondition for a perfect action: but it is the Divine Shakti that comes and
\ntakes up the nature and the life, the power of the One acting
\nthrough the spiritual individual; it is not an aggrandisement of the personal
\nforce, not the last crowning fulfilment of the separative mental and vital ego.
\nSelf-fulfilment is a result of the Yoga, but its aim is not the greatness of
\nthe individual. The sole aim is a spiritual perfection, a finding of the true
\nself and a union with the Divine by putting on the divine consciousness and
\nnature.\u00b9 All the rest is constituent detail and attendant circumstance.
\nEgo-centric impulses, ambition, desire of power and greatness, motives of
\nself-assertion are foreign to this greater consciousness and would be an
\ninsuperable bar against any possibility of even a distant approach towards the
\nsupramental change. One must lose one’s little lower self to find the greater
\nself. <\/span>Union<\/span> with the Divine must be the master
\nmotive; even the discovery of the truth of one’s own being and of all being,
\nlife in that truth and its greater consciousness, perfection of the nature are
\nonly the natural results of that movement. Indispensable conditions of its
\nentire consummation, they are part of the central aim only because they are a
\nnecessary development and a major consequence.<\/span><\/p>\n

It must also
\nbe kept in mind that the supramental change is difficult, distant, an ultimate
\nstage; it must be regarded as the end of a far-off vista; it cannot be and must
\nnot be turned into a first aim, a constantly envisaged goal or an immediate objective.
\nFor it can only come into the view of possibility after much arduous
\nself-conquest and self-exceeding, at the end of many long and trying stages of
\na difficult self-evolution of the nature. One must first acquire an inner Yogic
\nconsciousness and replace by it our ordinary view of things, natural movements,
\nmotives of life; one must revolutionise the whole present build of our being.
\nNext, we have to go still deeper, discover our veiled psychic entity and in its
\nlight and under its government psychicise our inner and outer parts, turn
\nmind-nature, life-nature, body-nature and all our mental, vital, physical
\naction and states and movements into a conscious instrumentation of the soul.
\nAfterwards or concur- <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00b9 sādharmya
\nmukti. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 267<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\n
\nrently<\/span><\/span> we have to
\nspiritualise the being in its entirety by a descent of a divine Light, Force,
\nPurity, Knowledge, freedom and wideness. It is necessary to break down the
\nlimits of the personal mind, life and physicality, dissolve the ego, enter into
\nthe cosmic consciousness, realise the self, acquire a spiritualised and
\nuniversalised mind and heart, life-force, physical consciousness. Then only the
\npassage into supramental consciousness begins to become possible, and even then
\nthere is a difficult ascent to make each stage of which is a separate arduous
\nachievement. Yoga is a rapid and concentrated conscious evolution of the being,
\nbut however rapid, even though it may effect in a single life what in an
\nunassisted Nature might take centuries and millenniums or many hundreds of
\nlives, still all evolution must move by stages; even the greatest rapidity and
\nconcentration of the movement cannot swallow up all the stages or reverse
\nnatural process and bring the end near to the beginning. A hasty and ignorant
\nmind, a too eager force easily forget this necessity; they rush forward to make
\nthe supermind an immediate aim and expect to pull it down with a pitchfork from
\nits highest heights in the Infinite. This is not only an absurd expectation but
\nfull of danger. For the vital desire may very well bring in an action of dark
\nor vehement vital powers which hold out before it a promise of immediate
\nfulfilment of its impossible longing; the consequence is likely to be a plunge
\ninto many kinds of self-deception, a yielding to the falsehoods and temptations
\nof the forces of darkness, a hunt for supernormal powers, a turning away from
\nthe Divine to the Asuric nature, a fatal self-inflation into an unnatural
\nunhuman and undivine bigness of magnified ego. If the being is small, the
\nnature weak and incapable, there is not this large-scale disaster; but a loss
\nof balance, a mental unhinging and fall into unreason or a vital unhinging and
\nconsequent moral aberration or a deviation into some kind of morbid abnormality
\nof the nature may be the untoward consequence. This is not a Yoga in which abnormality
\nof any kind, even if it be an exalted abnormality, can be admitted as a way to
\nself-fulfilment or spiritual realisation. Even when one enters into supernormal
\nand suprarational experience, there should be no disturbance of the poise which
\nmust be kept firm from the summit of the consciousness to its base; the expe<\/span>– <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 268<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

riencing<\/span><\/span>
\nconsciousness must preserve a calm balance, an unfailing clarity and order in
\nits observation, a sort of sublimated commonsense, an unfailing power of
\nself-criticism, right discrimination, coordination and firm vision of things; a
\nsane grasp on facts and a high spiritualised positivism must always be there.
\nIt is not by becoming irrational or infrarational that one can go beyond
\nordinary nature into supernature; it should be done by passing through reason
\nto a greater light of superreason. This superreason descends into reason and
\ntakes it up into higher levels even while breaking its limitations; reason is
\nnot lost but changes and becomes its own true unlimited self, a coordinating
\npower of the supernature.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another error
\nthat has to be guarded against is also one to which our mentality is easily
\nprone; it is to take some higher intermediate consciousness or even any kind of
\nsupernormal consciousness for the supermind. To reach supermind it is not enough
\nto go above the ordinary movements of the human mind; it is not enough to
\nreceive a greater light, a greater power, a greater joy or to develop
\ncapacities of knowledge, sight, effective will that surpass the normal range of
\nthe human being. All light is not the light of the spirit, still less is all
\nlight the light of the supermind; the mind, the vital, the physical itself have
\nlights of their own, as yet hidden, which can be very inspiring, exalting,
\ninformative, powerfully executive. A breaking out into the cosmic consciousness
\nmay also bring in an immense enlargement of the consciousness and power. An
\nopening into the inner mind, inner vital, inner physical, any range of the
\nsubliminal consciousness, can liberate an activity of abnormal or supernormal
\npowers of knowledge, action or experience which the uninstructed mind can
\neasily mistake for spiritual revelations, inspirations, intuitions. An opening
\nupward into the greater ranges of the higher mental being can bring down much
\nlight and force creating an intense activity of the intuitivised<\/span>
\nmind and life-power or an ascent into these ranges can bring a true but still
\nincomplete light easily exposed to mixture, a light which is spiritual in its
\nsource though it does not always remain spiritual in its active character when
\nit comes down into the lower nature. But none of these things is the
\nsupramental light, the supramental power; that can
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 269<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

only be seen and grasped
\nwhen we have reached the summits of mental being, entered into overmind and stand
\non the borders of an upper, a greater hemisphere of spiritual existence. There
\nthe ignorance, the inconscience, the original blank Nescience slowly awaking
\ntowards a half-knowledge, which are the basis of material Nature and which surround,
\npenetrate and powerfully limit all our powers of mind and life, cease
\naltogether; for an unmixed and unmodified Truth-consciousness is there the
\nsubstance of all the being, its pure spiritual texture. To imagine that we have
\nreached such a condition when we are still moving in the dynamics of the
\nIgnorance, though it may be an enlightened or illumined Ignorance, is to lay
\nourselves open either to a disastrous misleading or to an arrest of the
\nevolution of the being. For if it is some inferior state that we thus mistake
\nfor the supermind, it lays us open to all the dangers we have seen to attend a presumptuous
\negoistic haste in our demand for achievement. If it is one of the higher states
\nthat we presume to be the highest, we may, though we achieve much, yet fall
\nshort of the greater, more perfect goal of our being; for we shall remain content
\nwith an approximation and the supreme transformation will escape us. Even the
\nachievement of a complete inner liberation and a high spiritual consciousness
\nis not that supreme transformation; for we may have that achievement, a status perfect
\nin itself, in essence, and still our dynamic parts may in their instrumentation
\nbelong to an enlightened spiritualised mind and may be in consequence, like all
\nmind, defective even in its greater power and knowledge, still subject to a
\npartial or local obscuration or a limitation by the original circumscribing
\nnescience. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 270<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter XIII*   The Supermind and the Yoga of Works     \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 AN INTEGRAL Yoga includes as a vital and indispensable element in its total and…<\/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-965","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\/965","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=965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}