Where Does the Evolution Begin?

February 24, 2002

• The only real beginning is where we are now.
• The Rishis began in the Spirit in three places of body, vital and Mind through Hatha yoga, Karma yoga, and Janana yoga. It was partial.
• Our yoga is integral and complete, as we seek no moksha but Transformation.
• Sri Aurobindo chose to begin in the Mind and declared it is possible.
• His method is surrender that begins with consecration, as the goal is totality, not concentration that leads to the Being in Timelessness.
• Concentration releases the part by making it the whole of the part - the immanent Spirit finds its fullness and release.
• It is theoretically helpful to know what the Absolute is so that we may, by identifying with the Absolute, know the JOY of Self-Discovery he seeks.
• Matter is form, Life is energy, Mind is understanding, Supermind is knowledge, Chit is consciousness, Sat is existence and the Absolute is without any attributes.

- The higher we go the more we shed as attributes.

- The higher is capable of producing all that is below.

- The Absolute is Absolute as, being capable of no attribute, it produces all attributes.

• In practice, it is practical concept of Infinity.

- We must be capable of producing anything infinitely if we realise the Absolute.

- What Rishis declared one cannot explain The Mother and Sri Aurobindo give us in daily practice but we take the result and miss the essence and process.

• Whatever I give a devotee, I immediately get back.

- The giver, receiver, the thing given, the time of giving, the place of giving, the objects and persons in whose presence it is given determine the character of multiplying.

• You can give an object, an idea, your ego, self or the Self. Giving the Self is Self-giving.
• The Self cannot but give and cannot take back. It gives benevolence and sweetness through Love.
• This process must be understood from,

- the six aspects of Unity, Truth, Goodness, Knowledge, Power and Love.

- One can elaborate it to the 24 ways in which the 8 spiritual determinants express themselves. The other four attributes of Silence, Peace, Infinity, Eternity can also be added on to the 24 ways.

- The realised Spirit moved from India to the Middle East as civilisation, to Greece as mental life, to Rome as culture, to Europe as science, to the USA as technology where it meets Indian Brahmins in software.

- Each of the planes of creation:

            Matter as Delight of Existence.

            Life as the plane that brings Matter under the control of Mind.

            Mind that is involved in itself and life and Matter.

- Each of the 56 chapters must explain itself in this context to us. At least the 28 chapters of the Book II. The 14 chapters of the second part of Book II should be explained.

14. Spirit must be full, inner, conscious, powerful, universal, and transcendental.

13. The AIM is to be.

12. Shifting from the outer to the inner will result in instantaneous miraculousness.

11. Triple transformation.

10. The body must evolve to house the developed consciousness.

 9.  The only service is to discover the soul and help others to discover it.

 8. 7. 6. The Spirit needs to evolve.

 5.  The seven Ignorances are to be shed.

 4.  Evolution needs Ascent and Integration.

 3.  God and Nature must be united in Man.

 2.  Only synthetic view of life is acceptable.

 1.  Reality includes the One and The Many.

• The Absolute in the relative, the evolving Spirit can be more easily discovered in Sri Aurobindo than in the Absolute and it is more important to discover it in Him.

- By the same argument, to know it in The Mother, the Man, the devotee, in ourselves and in contradictions is easier and important.

• The Falsehood of Monarchy, caste by birth, physical body and how now computer is proving itself to be the knowledge of Supermind that is expressed in material organisation to overcome Time, Space, Ignorance and unconsciousness.

- Monarchy is replaced by democracy where the largest votes go to those who are down trodden and WORK.

- Caste replaced content by form and now that the content is in WORK, it shows itself in USA where work is most organised and in India to the outcastes who do the last type of work.

- Work by the physical body is at a premium and is most valuable where it works in the mental planes - software.

• Earth receives the Supramental Force as Energy in the subtle plane. The movement will be complete when that Energy is directed by our surrendered WILL to become Supramental Force and organised by the divine nature in us as Supramental Power. The Supramental skills in us will give the Supramental Results.
• It has to be explained from the point of view of surface being and its other four aspects of Mind, Time, Ego and The Finite.
• Matter and Methods.

- Surrender is the method where method becomes matter.

- Matter is moved from outside by a main force.

- Life is energised by an idea from inside.

- Mind thinks by an outer impact or inner impulsion.

- Spirit is the Silence that sustains activity.

- Supramental Silence is where Supramental Love is born.

- Creation is made possible by Self-conception, Self-limitation and Self-absorption.

- Reversing Self-absorption, one emerges out of Matter. By overcoming Self-limitation one moves from mind to Supermind.

- Reversing the Self-conception to create, creation is drawn back into the Absolute, which in human language is described as surrender.

The Absolute and the relative.

- The Absolute retains its absoluteness in some way in all the relatives.

- The Absolute becomes force and form after the stage of being.

- The basis of form is force, consciousness is the basis for force and being for consciousness.

- Whether it becomes being or consciousness, force or form it remains an absolute form, absolute force, absolute consciousness, absolute being.

- Whether positive or negative, knowledge or ignorance it is absolutely positive, absolutely negative, absolute knowledge or absolute ignorance.

• Positive and Negative.

- They are two divisions for convenience, not necessarily opposites.

- What is left uncovered by one is the other.

- One cannot fully enjoy the one without fully experiencing the other.

- As anything is a part, and we are after the whole, the negative cannot be escaped.

Existence and Non-Existence.

- As existence can be absolute, non-existence too can be absolute, the common factor for the two being absoluteness.

• Infinite - minus infinity = infinity can be fully appreciated only in the plane of Matter where taking does not lead to diminution.

Mother begins with us here. We accept the results, forget the process and the essence is not in view.

• Even a selfish man will not hesitate to give when giving a little will bring in all. At that point self becomes Self.
• The six aspects;

- Unity is reached by overcoming ego.

- Goodness is self-existent goodness, which is the result of knowledge and Truth.

- Truth is of the content not of the form.

- Knowledge is that which is devoid of the seven ignorances.

- Power comes from shifting from outside to the inside.

- Love is to receive Ananda in the soul.

• By meditation one can separate the spirit of the individual and merge it with that of the Spirit, not become Spirit in all parts of the being. That is done by WORK where meditation is expressed.

- The tapas or concentration is thus useless.

- The heroic fight on the battlefield is no longer useful as war is abolished. Presently the war is shifted inside where one has to fight the hostile forces inside.

- The production of goods is overtaken by the generation of services all over the world.

- What is now needed is the loving service wherein the productive capacity is fully and courageously expressed. It must express the knowledge of the Absolute in the service of the relative. USA is in the front because they have evolved the practical organisation.

• Nature has developed Spirit, collective goodness in the living that is Civilisation, Mind's thought, Vital's, culture, science and technology in different parts of the world successively. Thus the movement is from India, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Europe and USA.
• Truth has become Falsehood in Matter but the worst form of Falsehood is conscious employment of one's own intelligence, a tool of Truth, for the organisation of false life. It is best recognised in the mind and is reversed.
• Evolution and creation are in quest of Joy.

- The method is hiding through Self-absorption and discovering by knowledge emerging out of Ignorance.

- Its height is at Matter, as involution ends there.

- Its intensity is greatest in discovering Matter as Delight of Existence.

- Sat is Matter, Chit is consciousness, Ananda is Bliss. Evolution is conversion of Bliss into Delight by Matter tempting consciousness to discover itself as Sat, the hidden secret godhead.

Taste of Ignorance

• Sri Aurobindo explained the process of creation, the integrality of existence, spiritual evolution, the rationale for rebirth, that the Jivatma is after all the Transcendent and the Universal, and that the instantaneous miraculousness of Transformation is possible by surrender by the concept that Ignorance is the greatest creation in Nature. Its climax is the poetic phrase of the yogic concept -- Taste of Ignorance.
• He uses this phrase in the very last page of His Book on p. 1070 and in 1069.
• Man loves, dearly loves the Ignorance that he is, which is expressed by this original phrase, the like of which He has Himself not coined anywhere else.
• Man is proud of his handsome appearance, his health, wealth and intelligence.
• But he is totally unaware of the fact that what he loves to distraction is his own Ignorance in the mind, vital and body.
• He loves to lie and prides in it to others often. Constantly he evaluates himself as the most capable of liars, not for any external result.
•  It is a love for its own sake. Man enjoys lying for the joy of lying. He feels the credit of it, the prestige of it, and imagines there is a benefit. Man's satisfaction and fulfillment is unsurpassed when he lies. Whether it leads to success or failure, it gives him a consummate fulfillment.