A Pilgrims Quest for the Highest and the Best - Supermind in the Veda and the Aim of Immortality

transcendental and blissful, and Vedic Rishis speak of the attainment of fulfilment and perfection and immortality which has been desert-bed as the state of the physical being which, when visited by the greatness of the infinite planes above and by the power of the great godheads who reign on those planes, breaks its limits, opens out to the Light and is upheld in its new wideness by the infinite Consciousness, Mother Aditi, and her sons, the divine powers of the Supreme Deva or the Divine Being.⁶¹

The great attainments of the Vedic Rishis have been summarized by Sri Aurobindo in the following words:

"They may not have yoked the lightning to their chariots, nor weighed sun and star, nor materialized all the destructive forces in Nature to aid them in massacre and domination, but they had measured and fathomed all the heavens and earths within us, they had cast their plummet into the inconscient and the subconscient and the superconscient; they had read the riddle of death and found the secret of immortality; they had sought for and discovered the One, and known and worshipped Him in the glories of His light and purity and wisdom and power. These were their gods, as great and deep conceptions as ever informed the esoteric doctrine of the Egyptians or inspired the men of an older primitive Greece, the fathers of knowledge who founded the mystic rites of Orpheus or the secret initiation of Eleusis. But over it all there was the "Aryan light", a confidence and joy and a happy, equal friendliness with the Gods which the Aryan brought with him into the world, free from the so more shadows that fell upon Egypt from contact with the older races, Sons of deep-brooding Earth. These claimed Heaven as their father and their seers had delivered his Sun out of our material darkness."⁶²

The Vedic synthesis was a synthesis of the Ultimate Reality that was at once 'tad ekam' (That One), the Deva, the supreme person, and also the source of cosmic forces and gods, the sons of Aditi. The Vedic synthesis was a synthesis of the Divine as the transcendental, cosmic, and individual. It was also a synthesis of seven planes of existence that provided the basis for linking Matter, Prithvi, with the Supreme Existence, Sat. The conquest of Swar and the arrival at Surya, the abode of comprehensive light, could be regarded as epical victories.

Synthesis of Yoga in the Upanishads

It was the Vedic synthesis which provided the foundation for the synthesis of yoga in the Upanishads. As Sri Aurobindo points out, the Upanishads "draw together into a great harmony all that had been seen and experienced by the inspired and liberated knowers of the Eternal throughout a great and fruitful period of spiritual seeking".⁶³ The Upanishads link the lower mortal existence to the higher divine existence by the causal Idea or supramental Knowledge-Will, vijnāna, which we find elaborated upon in the Taittiriya Upanishad. It is the vijnāna which, by supporting and secretly guiding the confused activities of the Mind, Life and Body, ensures and compels the right arrangement of the universe. This vijnāna was called in the Veda the Truth because it represents by direct vision the truth of things both inclusive and independent of their appearances; the vijnāna was also called in the Veda the Right or Law, because it contains in itself the effective power of Chit and it works out all things according to their nature with a perfect knowledge and prevision; finally, the vijnāna was called the Vast in the Veda, because it is of the nature of an infinite cosmic Intelligence comprehensive of all particu-

lar activities.

Vijnāna is the principle of Maharloka, which is in the Veda the world of large consciousness. But this vijnāna is intuitional, not intellectual. It is one with the existence which throws out the form as a symbol of itself and it therefore carries with it always the knowledge of the Truth behind the form. It is this intuition or gnosis which is the Vedic truth, the self-vision and all-vision of Surya, the Sun, that symbolizes the supramental and integral consciousness.

In the Iśa Upanishad, we find towards its close a significant description of the Supermind and Supramental Truth-Consciousness as self-vision and all-vision of Surya. It is said that the face of Truth is covered with a brilliant golden lid. It is that golden lid which prevents the synthesis of the different aspects of the Truth. For on account of that lid, the rays of the light get scattered, and these rays, even if seized by our consciousness, prevent us from the integral vision of the ultimate reality. We are mental beings and our highest state of the mind, even though golden, is composed of the concepts and percepts of the mind, which are indeed a means of knowledge, rays of the Truth, but not in their nature integral Truth of existence. According to the Iśa Upanishad, we can only arrive at the true Truth, if Surya works in us to remove this brilliant and golden but mental formation that hides the face of the Truth. The Iśa Upanishad addresses Pushan, who represents in the Veda, the power of enlarging vision of the Sun. Pushan is fosterer or increaser. His work is to effect enlargement of the divided self-perception and action and will into the integral will and knowledge. When the work of Pushan is effected, the vision of Surya, the true supramental and integral knowledge is formed. In this formation, the Upanishad indicates two successive actions.

First, there is an arrangement or marshalling of the rays of Surya as a result of which separate intuitions are arranged in their true relations to each other. In the second movement, we arrive at totalities of intuitive knowledge and can finally go beyond to unity. This is the drawing together of the light of Surya. Then is obtained the integral vision of the Sun, which is the self-vision of the integral Reality. There is first the movement of marshalling the rays, vyūha, and then there is the process of drawing together of the rays of light, raśmīn samūha. This movement of integrality in the Upanishad confirms and reiterates the movement of integration described in the Rig Veda,⁶⁴ which hymns as follows: "Hidden by your truths is the Truth that is constant for ever where they unyoke the horses of the Sun; there the ten- thousands stand together; That is the One: I have seen the supreme godhead of the embodied gods."

The Synthesis of Yoga in the Gita

Sri Aurobindo observes that the synthesis that we find in the Veda and the Upanishads continues in the Gita. The synthesis in the Gita as Sri Aurobindo explains in his "Essays on the Gita", starts from the Upanishadic synthesis, and it builds up harmony of the three great means and powers, love,I knowledge and works, through which the soul of man can directly approach and cast itself into the Eternal. The integral vision of the Ultimate Reality in the Gita is the confirmation and reiteration of the Vedic and Upanishadic vision of the integral reality. The Gita's conception of the Purushottama and that of Para Prakriti as the higher nature of Purushottama bring together the harmony and integrality of the infinite and the finite, of personality and impersonality, of the akshara and kshara Purusha, the immobile and the mobile Purusha, and of the transcendental, the universal and the individual. The unity

of three powers of approaching the eternal. Love, Knowledge and Works, arises from the integral nature of the Ultimate Reality.

The Tantrik Synthesis of Yoga

Sri Aurobindo speaks of another synthesis, the Tantric, and acknowledges how the aims of the Tantra are synthesized in the integral aims of his synthesis of yoga. According to Sri Aurobindo, the Tantric synthesis is less subtle and spiritually profound, but it is even more bold and forceful than the synthesis of the Gita, — "for it seizes even upon the obstacles to the spiritual life and compels them to become the means for a richer spiritual conquest and enables us to embrace the whole of Life in our divine scope as the Lila of the Divine;

and in some directions it is more immediately rich and fruitful, for it brings forward into the foreground along with divine knowledge, divine works and an enriched devotion of divine Love, the secrets also of the Hatha and Raja Yogas, the use of the body and of mental askesis for the opening up of the divine life on all its planes, to which the Gita gives only a passing and perfunctory attention."⁶⁵

Divinization of Life on the Earth

According to Sri Aurobindo, the Tantra grasps at the idea of the divine perfectibility of man, —the idea which was possessed by the Vedic Rishis but thrown into the background by the intermediate ages. But this idea of the divine perfectibility had remained unfulfilled, and one of the distinctive features of Sri Aurobindo's own synthesis of yoga is to provide a large place not only to the idea of the divine perfectibility of man but to the actual realization of that idea. In fact, there has been in the history of religions and the history of occultism,

philosophy and yoga, a major deficiency in conceiving the fullness of the divine perfectibility of man, and consequently a disabling failure in the realization of that ideal. Even the Vedic Rishis, whose epical victories in regard to their yogic achievements and to the discovery of the supermind, have been underlined by Sri Aurobindo, appear to have only an imperfect experience in this regard. Sri Aurobindo states as follows:

"The Vedic Rishis never attained to the supermind for the earth or perhaps did not even make the attempt. They tried to rise individually to the supramental plane, but they did not bring it down and make it a permanent part of the earth- consciousness. Even there are verses of the Upanishad in which it is hinted that it is impossible to pass through the gates of the Sun (the symbol of the supermind) and yet retain an earthly body. It was because of this failure that the spiritual effort of India culminated in Mayavada. Our yoga is a double movement of ascent and descent; one rises to higher and higher levels of consciousness, but at the same time one brings down their power not only into mind and life, but in the end even into the body. And the highest of these levels, the one at which it aims is the supermind. Only when that can be brought down is a divine transformation possible in the earthconsciousness."⁶⁶

The New Integral Aim of Life: Yogic Accomplishment in Matter

The integral aim that Sri Aurobindo came to formulate involves the realization of the divine consciousness in all its integrality, which can be possible only when a mental consciousness, even in its highest degrees of development, is transcended and the supramental consciousness is attained.

But this aim also includes the manifestation of the Spirit in Matter, and Sri Aurobindo, in his unprecedented labour of research had to cross the formidable barrier of the view that one could always ascend into higher states of consciousness, including the supramental consciousness, but earthly existence can never be made to receive higher and highest levels of consciousness and stabilize that consciousness in Matter to such a degree that Matter could manifest those highest levels of consciousness. The constant message of the past efforts was that one was required to leave the physical body in order to become permanently fixed in the supramental consciousness. That message has been constantly repeating itself in the declaration that the divine-consciousness and the earth-consciousness are poles apart, and however much one may try, earth-consciousness cannot be reconciled with the divine-consciousness, and that the integration of the supramental life and the earth-life is an impossibility. It was to break the barrier of this message that necessitated the most difficult and labourious programme of yogic research. The first part of this research consisted of scaling to the supreme heights of the supramental consciousness; the second part consisted of connecting the supramental consciousness with the earth-consciousness and of effecting the descent of the supermind on various levels that link the supramental consciousness with earth-consciousness and of bringing about the decisive descent of the supermind in Matter; and the third part of this research consisted of fixing the supramental consciousness in the physical consciousness, — a task which involved series of radical discoveries spread over years and years that led the Mother ultimately to that point of irreversible accomplishment so as to state in 1970: "The physical is CAPABLE of receiving the higher Light, the Truth, the true Consciousness and of man-i-festing it."⁶⁷

Thus the integral object that Sri Aurobindo had formulated for the integral yoga stands today as a fulfilled object, even though it is envisaged that the full working out of this fulfilled object still remains a programme of colossal research, and thus the yoga-shastra of integral yoga is an open book which can be pursued in the spirit of research and in the spirit of making new discoveries and expansions of future realizations and achievements.

Distinctive Features of the Object of the Integral Yoga

The object of the integral yoga that Sri Aurobindo has formulated has several distinctive features. There is, first, the object of an integral realization of Divine Being. This realization would include not only a realization of the One in its indistinguishable unity, but also in its multitude of aspects which are all necessary to the complete knowledge of it by the relative consciousness. This realization would imply unity in the Self, but also unity in the infinite diversity of activities, worlds and creatures.

Secondly, the object includes an integral liberation. This integral liberation would unite s

Thus the integral object that Sri Aurobindo had formulated for the integral yoga stands today as a fulfilled object, even though it is envisaged that the full working out of this fulfilled object still remains a programme of colossal research, and thus the yoga-shastra of integral yoga is an open book which can be pursued in the spirit of research and in the spirit of making new discoveries and expansions of future realizations and achievements.

Distinctive Features of the Object of the Integral Yoga

The object of the integral yoga that Sri Aurobindo has formulated has several distinctive features. There is, first, the object of an integral realization of Divine Being. This realization would include not only a realization of the One in its indistinguishable unity, but also in its multitude of aspects which are all necessary to the complete knowledge of it by the relative consciousness. This realization would imply unity in the Self, but also unity in the infinite diversity of activities, worlds and creatures.

Secondly, the object includes an integral liberation. This integral liberation would unite sāyujyā mukti, sālokya mukti and sādharmya mukti. In other words, the integral liberation implies (i) the freedom born of unbroken contact of the individual being in all its parts with the Divine, sāyujyā mukti, by which it becomes free even in its separation, even in the duality; (ii) sālokya mukti by which the whole conscious existence dwells in the same status of being as the Divine, in the state of Sachchidananda, and (iii) the acquisition of the divine nature by the transformation of the lower being into the human image of the divine, sādharmya mukti, and the complete and final release of all, the liberation of the human consciousness of the mind, life and body from the transitory sālokya mukti and sādharmya mukti. In other words, the integral liberation implies (i) the freedom born of unbroken contact of the individual being in all its parts with the Divine, sāyujyā mukti, by which it becomes free even in its separation, even in the duality; (ii) sālokya mukti by which the whole conscious existence dwells in the same status of being as the Divine, in the state of Sachchidananda, and (iii) the acquisition of the divine nature by the transformation of the lower being into the human image of the divine, sādharmya mukti, and the complete and final release of all, the liberation of the human consciousness of the mind, life and body from the transitory sāyujyā mukti, sālokya mukti and sādharmya mukti. In other words, the integral liberation implies (i) the freedom born of unbroken contact of the individual being in all its parts with the Divine, sāyujyā mukti, by which it becomes free even in its separation, even in the duality; (ii) sālokya mukti by which the whole conscious existence dwells in the same status of being as the Divine, in the state of Sachchidananda, and (iii) the acquisition of the divine nature by the transformation of the lower being into the human image of the divine, sādharmya mukti, and the complete and final release of all, the liberation of the human consciousness of the mind, life and body from the transitory

mould of the ego and its unification with the One Being, transcendentally one, both in the world and beyond all universe.

Thirdly, the object would also include the result of this integral realization and liberation into the perfect harmony of the results of Knowledge, Love and Works. In other words, there is the attainment of the complete release from ego and knowledge by identification in the being with the One in all and beyond all. But this attainment is not only that of knowledge by identity but it wins also the unity in Beatitude and the harmonized diversity in Love, so that all relations of the play remain possible even when one retains on the heights of the being the eternal oneness with the Beloved. There is a farther consequence also and that consists of wideness and freedom in spirit that embraces life and does not depend upon withdrawal from life, and one is able to become without egoism, bondage or reaction the channel in one's mind and body for a divine action poured out freely upon the world.

Fourthly, the object includes the unity of freedom, purity, beatitude and perfection in their integrality. The integral purity implies the perfect reflection of the divine Being in ourselves as also the perfect outpouring of its Truth and Law in us in the terms of life and through the right functioning of the complex instrument we are in our parts. Integral purity brings about integral beatitude; there is the Delight or Ananda of all that is in the world, since they are seen as symbols of the Divine; and there is also the Delight or Ananda of that which is above the world. Integral purity and integral beatitude prepare the integral perfection of our humanity as a type of the Divine in the conditions of the human manifestation, a perfection founded on a certain free

universality of being, of love and joy, of play of knowledge and of play of will in power and will in unegoistic action.

Fifthly, integral perfection includes perfection of mind and body. In the attainment of this perfection, therefore, the highest results of Rajayoga and Hathayoga are included; and these results should be contained in the widest formula of the synthesis finally to be effected by humanity. These results are envisaged to be employed for an integral mental and physical life, and the mental and physical life would be in its nature a translation of the spiritual existence into its right mental and physical values. As a result, a synthesis is accomplished of the three degrees of Nature and of the three modes of human existence which Nature has evolved and is evolving.

Sixthly, the integral yoga and the integrality that is envisaged cannot be confined to the individual. Divine perfection embraces the realization of ourselves in being, in life and in love through others as well as through ourselves; therefore the extension of our liberty and of its results in others would be the inevitable outcome; and that would be also the broadest utility of our liberation and perfection. This would mean a constant and inherent attempt towards the increasing and ultimately complete generalization of the object and its accomplishment in humanity.

Finally, therefore, the object is to divinize the normal material life of humanity and also to divinize the great secular attempt of humanity of mental and moral self-culture in the individual and the race by the integralization of a widely perfect spiritual existence. This would be the crown alike of the individual and common effort of humanity. Consummation of this process of divinizing material life of humanity means the kingdom of heaven within reproduced in the

kingdom of heaven without, and this would be also the true fulfillment of the great dream cherished in different terms by world's religions.

According to Sri Aurobindo, this widest synthesis of perfection is conceivable and realizable, and as he points out, "The widest synthesis of perfection possible to thought is the sole effort entirely worthy of those whose dedicated vision perceives that God dwells concealed in humanity."⁶⁸

Distinctive Features of the Methods of Integral Yoga

The new synthesis of yoga has a method for achieving the object which is as total and integral as the aim set before it. The basic method consists of the total and integral concentration of consciousness; it takes up the aid of methods of earlier systems of yoga but only as a part action and of other methods that are distinctive. The earlier systems of yoga, synthetic or exclusive, had one common principle, which can be discerned in every system; that common principle is the principle of concentration. In the new synthesis, the method is to put our whole conscious being, all the instruments of our consciousness, in all-inclusive concentration, on the Divine and to call Him to transform our entire being into His; in effect, the pressure of the concentration, the force or Tapas of consciousness in us dwells in the Idea of the divine Nature, and this pressure falls upon that which we are in our entirety; it is by that all- receiving concentration that produces its own realization. In the words of Sri Aurobindo: "The divine and all-knowing and all-effecting descends upon the limited and obscure, progressively illumines and energises the whole lower nature and substitutes its own action for all the terms of the inferior human light and mortal activity." ⁶⁹

Sri Aurobindo has assimilated in his new synthesis four systems of the synthesis of yoga, those of the Veda, Upanishads, Gita and Tantra, as also the rich fund of the yogic knowledge contained in various religions and in the vast heritage of the past yogic effort, such as what we find in Siddhanta and Sri Chaitanya and Sri Ramakrishana and Swami Vivekananda. Sri Aurobindo has, indeed, acknowledged the ideals and anticipations which appear to be allied to the ideals and anticipations of his new synthesis of yoga such as the perfectibility of the race, certain Tantric sadhanas, the effort after a complete physical Siddhi by certain Schools of Yoga and others, but Sri Aurobindo has laid emphasis on characterizing his synthesis as new and pointed out that a repetition of the aim and ideal of the old yogas was not enough in his eyes and that he has put forward a thing to be achieved that has not yet been achieved, not yet clearly visualized, even though it is the natural but still secret outcome of all the past spiritual endeavour.

In a letter addressed to a disciple, Sri Aurobindo has pointed out how his synthesis of yoga is new as compared with the old Yogas. He has stated that it is new:

1. Because it aims not at a departure out of world and life into Heaven or Nirvana, but at a change of life and existence, not as something subordinate or incidental, but as a distinct and central object. If there is a descent in other Yogas, yet it is only an incident on the way or resulting from the ascent — the ascent is the real thing. Here the ascent is the first step, but it is a means for the descent. It is the descent of the new consciousness attained by the ascent that is the stamp and seal of the Sadhana. Even the Tantra and Vaishnavism end in the

release from life; here the object is the divine fulfilment of life.

2. Because the object sought after is not an individual achievement of divine realization for the sake of the individual, but something to be gained for the earth- consciousness here, a cosmic, not solely a supra-cosmic achievement. The thing to be gained also is the bringing in of a Power of Consciousness (the Supramental) not yet organized or active directly in earth-nature, even in the spiritual life, but yet to be organized and made directly active.

3. Because a method has been preconized for achieving this purpose which is as total and integral as the aim set before it, viz., the total and integral change of the consciousness and nature, taking up old methods but only as a part action and present aid to others that are distinctive. I have not found this method (as a whole) or anything like it professed or realized in the old Yogas. If I had, I should not have wasted my time in hewing out a road and in thirty years of search and inner creation when I could have hastened home safely to my goal in an easy canter over paths already blazed out, laid down, perfectly mapped, macadamized, made secure and public. Our Yoga is not a retreading of old walks, but a spiritual adventure."⁷⁰

Scientific Records of the Integral Yoga

The conduct and development of this new synthesis of yoga have many significant aspects. First of all, there is the aspect of a tremendous speed in the development of the research work conducted by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother,

and the landmarks of this development have been scrupulously and accurately recorded; these records have the scientific rigour of laboratory journals, which stand out as authentic first-hand testimony of the scientific nature of the research work, the parallel of which does not exist. For this is the first time when a program of yogic research has been seen, developed and executed as a conscious and deliberate program of human evolution, the goal of which is to bring about a definitive mutation of human species into a new and divine superhuman species. Sri Aurobindo kept a record of his own practice of yoga in a series of diaries. The earliest entries in these diaries began in 1909 and latest ended in 1927. These diaries have been now published in two volumes, entitled "Record of Yoga". Sri Aurobindo and the Mother wrote thousands of letters to the disciples, and large numbers of them are now available in three volumes, entitled "Letters on Yoga", and in other volumes of the Mother's works. Finally, thirteen volumes of "Mother's Agenda" contain the Mother's conversations with Satprem extending over nineteen years, which describe the curves of the research work that developed rapidly towards the descent of the supermind on the earth and subsequent developments during which the supermind came to be fixed permanently in the physical consciousness in the Mother's body, which had become so universalized as to represent the body of the human species as a whole.

The coming together of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is itself a matter of special significance. Two individuals, one from the East (India) and another from the West (France), — both of whom rare and accomplished beings, happened to meet each other on March 29, 1914, when the Mother came to Pondicherry from France. Both recognized that they had

to accomplish the task of supramental manifestation jointly. This was a momentous moment in the history of evolution on the earth. In the following statement of the Mother dated May 19, 1959, we can see a brief account of the hurricane movement of progression of the yogic research work that came to be jointly conducted by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother:

"... I had already covered this path by the beginning of the century and had established a constant relationship with the Supreme — That which is beyond the Personal and the gods and all the outward expressions of the Divine, but also beyond the Absolute Impersonal. It's something you cannot describe; you must experience it. And this is what must be brought down into Matter. Such is the descending path, the one I began with Sri Aurobindo; and there, the work is immense.

The thing can still be brought down as far as the mental and vital planes (although Sri Aurobindo said that thousands of lifetimes would be needed merely to bring it down to the mental plane, unless one practiced a perfect surrender). With Sri Aurobindo, we went down below Matter, right into the Subconscient and even into the Inconscient. But after the descent comes the transformation, and when you come down to the body, when you attempt to make it take one step forward — oh, not even a real step, just a little step! — everything starts grating; it's like stepping on an anthill ... And yet the presence, the help of the supreme Mother, is there constantly; thus you realize that for ordinary men such a task is impossible, or else millions of lives would be needed — but in truth, unless the work is done for them and the sadhana of the body done for the entire earth consciousness, they will never achieve the physical transformation, or else it will be

so remote that it is better not even to speak of it. ...

The path is difficult. ..."⁷¹