{"id":991,"date":"2013-07-13T01:31:47","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=991"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:31:47","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:47","slug":"33-the-difficulties-of-the-mental-being-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\/33-the-difficulties-of-the-mental-being-vol-20-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-20","title":{"rendered":"-33_The Difficulties of the Mental Being.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


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

\n <\/font><\/span>The Difficulties of the Mental Being<\/span><\/font><\/b> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n


\nW<\/font><\/span><\/b>E
\nHAVE<\/span><\/font> come to this stage in our development of
\nthe path of Knowledge that we began by affirming the realisation of our pure
\nself, pure existence above the terms of mind, life and body, as the first object
\nof this Yoga, but we now affirm that this is not sufficient and that we must
\nalso realise the Self or Brahman in its essential modes and primarily in its
\ntriune reality as Sachchidananda. Not only pure existence, but
\npure consciousness and pure bliss of its being and consciousness are the reality
\nof the Self and the essence of Brahman.<\/span><\/p>\n

Further,
\nthere are two kinds of realisation of Self or Sachchidananda. One is that of
\nthe silent passive quietistic<\/span>, self-absorbed,
\nself-sufficient existence, consciousness and delight, one, impersonal, without
\nplay of qualities, turned away from the infinite phenomenon of the universe or
\nviewing it with indifference and without participation. The other is that of the
\nsame existence, consciousness, delight sovereign, free, lord of things, acting
\nout of an inalienable calm, pouring itself out in infinite action and quality
\nout of an eternal self-concentration, the one supreme Person holding in himself
\nall this play of personality in a vast equal impersonality, possessing the
\ninfinite phenomenon of the universe without attachment but without any
\ninseparable aloofness, with a divine mastery and an innumerable radiation of his
\neternal luminous self-delight \u2013 as a manifestation which he holds, but by which
\nhe is not held, which he governs freely and by which therefore he is not bound.
\nThis is not the personal God of the religious or the qualified Brahman of the
\nphilosophers, but that in which personal and impersonal, quality and
\nnon-quality are reconciled. It is the Transcendent possessing them both in His
\nbeing and employing them both as modes for His manifestation. This then is the
\nobject of realisation for the sadhaka of the integral Yoga.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 375<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\nWe see at
\nonce that from this point of view the realisation of the pure quiescent self
\nwhich we gain by withdrawing from mind, life and body, is for us only the
\nacquisition of the necessary basis for this greater realisation. Therefore that
\nprocess is not sufficient for our Yoga; something else is needed more embracingly<\/span> positive. As we drew back from all that constitutes
\nour apparent self and the phenomenon of the universe in which it dwells to the
\nself-existent, self-conscious Brahman, so we must now repossess our mind, life
\nand body with the all-embracing self-existence, self-consciousness and self-delight
\nof the Brahman. We must not only have the possession of a pure self-existence
\nindependent of the world-play, but possess all existence as our own; not only
\nknow ourselves as an infinite unegoistic consciousness beyond all change in Time
\nand Space, but become one with all the outpouring of consciousness and its
\ncreative force in Time and Space; not only be capable of a fathomless peace and
\nquiescence, but also of a free and an infinite delight in universal things. For
\nthat and not only pure calm is Sachchidananda, is the Brahman.<\/span><\/p>\n

If it were
\neasily possible to elevate ourselves to the supramental plane and, dwelling
\nsecurely there, realise world and being, consciousness and action, outgoing and
\nincoming of conscious experience by the power and in the manner of the divine
\nsupramental faculties, this realisation would offer no essential difficulties.
\nBut man is a mental and not yet a supramental being. It is by the mind
\ntherefore that he has to aim at knowledge and realise his being, with whatever
\nhelp he can get from the supramental planes. This character of our actually
\nrealised being and therefore of our Yoga imposes on us certain limitations and
\nprimary difficulties which can only be overcome by divine help or an arduous
\npractice, and in reality only by the combination of both these aids. These
\ndifficulties in the way of the integral knowledge, the integral realisation, the
\nintegral becoming we have to state succinctly before we can proceed farther.<\/span><\/p>\n

Realised
\nmental being and realised spiritual being are really two different planes in
\nthe arrangement of our existence, the one superior and divine, the other
\ninferior and human. To the former belong infinite being, infinite consciousness
\nand will,
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 376<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

infinite bliss and the
\ninfinite comprehensive and self-effective knowledge of supermind<\/span>,
\nfour divine principles; to the latter belong mental being, vital being,
\nphysical being, three human principles. In their apparent nature the two are
\nopposed; each is the reverse of the other. The divine is infinite and immortal
\nbeing; the human is life limited in time and scope and form, life that is death
\nattempting to become life that is immortality. The divine is infinite
\nconsciousness transcending and embracing all that it manifests within it; the
\nhuman is consciousness rescued from a sleep of inconscience, subjected to the
\nmeans it uses, limited by body and ego and attempting to find its relation to
\nother consciousnesses, bodies, egos positively by various means of uniting
\ncontact and sympathy, negatively by various means of hostile contact and
\nantipathy. The divine is inalienable self-bliss and inviolable all-bliss; the human
\nis sensation of mind and body seeking for delight, but finding only pleasure,
\nindifference and pain. The divine is supramental knowledge comprehending all
\nand supramental will effecting all; the human is ignorance reaching out to knowledge
\nby the comprehension of things in parts and parcels which it has to join
\nclumsily together, and it is incapacity attempting to acquire force and will
\nthrough a gradual extension of power corresponding to its gradual extension of knowledge;
\nand this extension it can only bring about by a partial and parcelled exercise
\nof will corresponding to the partial and parcelled method of its knowledge. The
\ndivine founds itself upon unity and is master of the transcendences and
\ntotalities of things; the human founds itself on separated multiplicity and is
\nthe subject even when the master of their division and fragmentations and their
\ndifficult solderings and unifyings. Between the two there are for the human
\nbeing a veil and a lid which prevent the human not only from attaining but even
\nfrom knowing the divine.<\/span><\/p>\n

When,
\ntherefore, the mental being seeks to know the divine, to realise it, to become
\nit, it has first to lift this lid, to put by this veil. But when it succeeds in
\nthat difficult endeavour, it sees the divine as something superior to it,
\ndistant, high, conceptually, vitally, even physically above it, to which it
\nlooks up from its own humble station and to which it has, if at all that be
\npossible, to
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 377<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

rise, or if it be not
\npossible, to call that down to itself, to be subject to it and to adore. It
\nsees the divine as a superior plane of being, and then it regards it as a
\nsupreme state of existence, a heaven or a Sat or a Nirvana according to the
\nnature of its own conception or realisation. Or it sees it as a supreme Being
\nother than itself or at least other than its own present self, and then it
\ncalls it God under one name or another, and views it as personal or impersonal,
\nqualitied<\/span> or without qualities, silent and
\nindifferent Power or active Lord and Helper, again according to its own
\nconception or realisation, its vision or understanding of some side or some
\naspect of that Being. Or it sees it as a supreme Reality of which its own
\nimperfect being is a reflection or from which it has become detached, and then
\nit calls it Self or Brahman and qualifies it variously, always according to its
\nown conception or realisation,<\/span> \u2013 <\/span>Existence,
\nNon-Existence, Tao, Nihil, Force, Unknowable. <\/span><\/p>\n

If then we
\nseek mentally to realise Sachchidananda, there is likely to be this first
\ndifficulty that we shall see it as something above, beyond, around even in a
\nsense, but with a gulf between that being and our being, an unbridged<\/span>
\nor even an unbridgeable chasm. There is this infinite existence; but it is
\nquite other than the mental being who becomes aware of it, and we cannot either
\nraise ourselves to it and become it or bring it down to ourselves so that our
\nown experience of our being and world-being shall be that of its blissful
\ninfinity. There is this great, boundless, unconditioned consciousness and
\nforce; but our consciousness and force stands apart from it, even if within it,
\nlimited, petty, discouraged, disgusted with itself and the world, but unable to
\nparticipate in that higher thing which it has seen. There is this immeasurable
\nand unstained bliss; but our own being remains the sport of a lower Nature of
\npleasure and pain and dull neutral sensation incapable of its divine delight. There
\nis this perfect Knowledge and Will; but our own remains always the mental
\ndeformed knowledge and limping will incapable of sharing in or even being in tune
\nwith that nature of Godhead. Or else so long as we live purely in an ecstatic
\ncontemplation of that vision, we are delivered from ourselves; but the moment
\nwe again turn our consciousness upon our own being, we fall away from it and it
\ndis<\/span>– <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 378<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

appears or becomes
\nremote and intangible. The Divinity leaves us; the Vision vanishes; we are back
\nagain in the pettiness of our mortal existence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Somehow this
\nchasm has to be bridged. And here there are two possibilities for the mental
\nbeing. One possibility is for it to rise by a great, prolonged, concentrated,
\nall-forgetting effort out of itself into the Supreme. But in this effort the
\nmind has to leave its own consciousness, to disappear into another and
\ntemporarily or permanently lose itself, if not quite abolish. It has to go into
\nthe trance of Samadhi. For this reason the Raja and other systems of Yoga give
\na supreme importance to the state of Samadhi or Yogic trance in which the mind
\nwithdraws not only from its ordinary interests and preoccupations, but first
\nfrom all consciousness of outward act and sense and being and then from all
\nconsciousness of inward mental activities. In this its inward-gathered state
\nthe mental being may have different kinds of realisation of the Supreme in
\nitself or in various aspects or on various levels, but the ideal is to get rid
\nof mind altogether and, going beyond mental realisation, to enter into the
\nabsolute trance in which all sign of mind or lower existence ceases. But this
\nis a state of consciousness to which few can attain and from which not all can
\nreturn.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is
\nobvious, since mind-consciousness is the sole waking state possessed by mental
\nbeing, that it cannot ordinarily quite enter into another without leaving
\nbehind completely both all our waking existence and all our inward mind. This
\nis the necessity of the Yogic trance. But one cannot continually remain in this
\ntrance; or, even if one could persist in it for an indefinitely long period, it
\nis always likely to be broken in upon by any strong or persistent call on the
\nbodily life. And when one returns to the mental consciousness, one is back
\nagain in the lower being. Therefore it has been said that complete liberation
\nfrom the human birth, complete ascension from the life of the mental being is
\nimpossible until the body and the bodily life are finally cast off. The ideal
\nupheld before the Yogin who follows this method is to renounce all desire and
\nevery least velleity<\/span> of the human life, of the mental
\nexistence, to detach himself utterly from the world and, entering more and more
\nfrequently and more
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 379<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

and more deeply into the
\nmost concentrated state of Samadhi, finally to leave the body while in that
\nutter in-gathering of the being so that it may depart into the supreme
\nExistence. It is also by reason of this apparent incompatibility of mind and
\nSpirit that so many religions and systems are led to condemn the world and look
\nforward only to a heaven beyond or else a void Nirvana or supreme featureless
\nself-existence in the Supreme.<\/span><\/p>\n

But what
\nunder these circumstances is the human mind which seeks the divine to do with
\nits waking moments? For if these are subject to all the disabilities of mortal
\nmentality, if they are open to the attacks of grief, fear, anger, passion, hunger,
\ngreed, desire, it is irrational to suppose that by the mere concentration of
\nthe mental being in the Yogic trance at the moment of putting off the body, the
\nsoul can pass away without return into the supreme existence. For the man’s
\nnormal consciousness is still subject to what the Buddhists call the chain or
\nthe stream of Karma; it is still creating energies which must continue and have
\ntheir effect in a continued life of the mental being which is creating them.
\nOr, to take another point of view, consciousness being the determining fact and
\nnot the bodily existence which is only a result, the man still belongs normally
\nto the status of human, or at least mental activity and this cannot be
\nabrogated by the fact of passing out of the physical body; to get rid of mortal
\nbody is not to get rid of mortal mind. Nor is it sufficient to have a dominant
\ndisgust of the world or an anti-vital indifference or aversion to the material
\nexistence; for this too belongs to the lower mental status and activity. The
\nhighest teaching is that even the desire for liberation with all its mental
\nconcomitants must be surpassed before the soul can be entirely free. Therefore
\nnot only must the mind be able to rise in abnormal states out of itself into a
\nhigher consciousness, but its waking mentality also must be entirely
\nspiritualised.<\/span><\/p>\n

This brings
\ninto the field the second possibility open to the mental being; for if its
\nfirst possibility is to rise out of itself into a divine supramental plane of
\nbeing, the other is to call down the divine into itself so that its mentality
\nshall be changed into an image of the divine, shall be divinised or
\nspiritualised. This may be done and primarily must be done by the mind’s power
\nof re- <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 380<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

flecting<\/span><\/span> that which
\nit knows, relates to its own consciousness, contemplates. For the mind is
\nreally a reflector and a medium and none of its activities originate in themselves,
\nnone exist per se. Ordinarily, the mind reflects the status of mortal nature
\nand the activities of the Force which works under the conditions of the
\nmaterial universe. But if it becomes clear, passive, pure by the renunciation
\nof these activities and of the characteristic ideas and outlook of mental
\nnature, then as in a clear mirror or like the sky in clear water which is
\nwithout ripple and unruffled by winds, the divine is reflected. The mind still
\ndoes not entirely possess the divine or become divine, but is possessed by it
\nor by a luminous reflection of it so long as it remains in this pure passivity.
\nIf it becomes active, it falls back into the disturbance of the mortal nature
\nand reflects that and no longer the divine. For this reason an absolute quietism<\/span> and a cessation first of all outer action and then
\nof all inner movement is the ideal ordinarily proposed; here too, for the
\nfollower of the path of knowledge, there must be a sort of waking Samadhi.
\nWhatever action is unavoidable, must be a purely superficial working of the
\norgans of perception and motor action in which the quiescent mind takes
\neventually no part and from which it seeks no result or profit.<\/span><\/p>\n

But this is
\ninsufficient for the integral Yoga. There must be a positive transformation and
\nnot merely a negative quiescence of the waking mentality. The transformation is
\npossible because, although the divine planes are above the mental consciousness
\nand to enter actually into them we have ordinarily to lose the mental in
\nSamadhi, yet there are in the mental being divine planes superior to our normal
\nmentality which reproduce the conditions of the divine plane proper, although modified
\nby the conditions, dominant here, of mentality. All that belongs to the
\nexperience of the divine plane can there be seized, but in the mental way and
\nin a mental form. To these planes of divine mentality it is possible for the
\ndeveloped human being to arise in the waking state; or it is possible for him
\nto derive from them a stream of influences and experiences which shall
\neventually open to them and transform into their nature his whole waking
\nexistence. These higher mental states are the immediate sources, the large
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 381<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

actual instruments, the
\ninner stations\u00b9 of his perfection.<\/span><\/p>\n

But in
\narriving to these planes or deriving from them the limitations of our mentality
\npursue us. In the first place the mind is an inveterate divider of the
\nindivisible and its whole nature is to dwell on one thing at a time to the
\nexclusion of others or to stress it to the subordination of others. Thus in
\napproaching Sachchidananda it will dwell on its aspect of the pure existence,
\nSat, and consciousness and bliss are compelled then to lose themselves or remain
\nquiescent in the experience of pure, infinite being which leads to the
\nrealisation of the quietistic<\/span> Monist. Or it will
\ndwell on the aspect of consciousness, Chit, and existence and bliss become then
\ndependent on the experience of an infinite transcendent Power and
\nConscious-Force, which leads to the realisation of the Tantric worshipper of
\nEnergy. Or it will dwell on the aspect of delight, Ananda, and existence and
\nconsciousness then seem to disappear into a bliss without basis of
\nself-possessing awareness or constituent being, which leads to the realisation
\nof the Buddhistic seeker of Nirvana. Or it will dwell on some aspect of
\nSachchidananda which comes to the mind from the supramental Knowledge, Will or
\nLove, and then the infinite impersonal aspect of Sachchidananda is almost or
\nquite lost in the experience of the Deity which leads to the realisations of the
\nvarious religions and to the possession of some supernal world or divine status
\nof the human soul in relation to God. And for those whose object is to depart anywhither<\/span> from cosmic existence, this is enough, since
\nthey are able by the mind’s immergence into or seizure upon any one of these
\nprinciples or aspects to effect through status in the divine planes of their mentality
\nor the possession by them of their waking state this desired transit.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the
\nsadhaka of the integral Yoga has to harmonise all so that they may become a
\nplenary and equal unity of the full realisation of Sachchidananda. Here the
\nlast difficulty of mind meets him, its inability to hold at once the unity and
\nthe multiplicity. It is not altogether difficult to arrive at and dwell in a
\npure infinite or even, at the same time, a perfect global experience <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b9 <\/span>Called in the Veda variously
\nseats, houses, placings or statuses, footings, earths, dwelling-places, sadas<\/i>, gŗha or kşaya, dhāma,
\npadam, bhūmi, kşiti.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 382<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

of the Existence which
\nis Consciousness which is Delight. The mind may even extend its experience of
\nthis Unity to the multiplicity so as to perceive it immanent in the universe
\nand in each object, force, movement in the universe or at the same time to be
\naware of this Existence-Consciousness-Bliss containing the universe and
\nenveloping all its objects and originating all its movements. It is difficult
\nindeed for it to unite and harmonise rightly all these experiences; but still
\nit can possess Sachchidananda at once in himself and immanent in all and the continent
\nof all. But with this to unite the final experience of all this as
\nSachchidananda and possess objects, movements, forces, forms as no other than
\nHe, is the great difficulty for mind. Separately any of these things may be
\ndone; the mind may go from one to the other, rejecting one as it arrives at
\nanother and calling this the lower or that the higher existence. But to unify
\nwithout losing, to integralise<\/span> without rejecting is
\nits supreme difficulty. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 383<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter XIII   The Difficulties of the Mental Being    WE HAVE come to this stage in our development of the path of Knowledge that we…<\/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-991","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\/991","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=991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/991\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}