Sri Aurobindo's concept of self-realisation

Sri Aurobindo was an Indian mystic-philosopher of the 20th century. Sri Aurobindo began his practice of Yoga in 1904. At first gathering into it the essential elements of spiritual experience that are gained by the paths of divine communion and spiritual realisation followed till now in India, he passed on in search of a more complete experience uniting and harmonising the two ends of existence, Spirit and Matter. Most ways of Yoga are paths to the Beyond leading to the Spirit and, in the end, away from life; Sri Aurobindo rises to the Spirit to redescend with its gains bringing the light and power and bliss of the Spirit into life to transform it. Man's present existence in the material world is in this view or vision of things a life in the Ignorance with the Inconscient at its base, but even in its darkness and nescience there are involved the presence and possibilities of the Divine. The created world is not a mistake or a vanity and illusion to be cast aside by the soul returning to heaven or Nirvana, but the scene of a spiritual evolution by which out of this material inconscience is to be manifested progressively the Divine Consciousness in things.
"Man is in his self a unique person but he is also in his manifestation of self a multi-person," says Sri Aurobindo. This is a distinction which is fundamental in realizing the nature of the human being---the distinction between the Person and its many personalities. We do not possess self-knowledge because we know our selves not as the Person, but as an ego, which is the identification of the Person with the many personalities that constitute the outer nature of our being.

"The ordinary mind knows itself only as an ego with all the movements of the nature in a jumble, and identifying itself with these movements thinks 'I am doing this, feeling that, thinking in joy or in sorrow etc.' The first beginning of real self-knowledge is when you feel yourself separate from the nature in you and its movements and then you see there are many parts of your being, many personalities each acting on its own behalf and in its own way. Real self-knowledge begins when a separation takes place between Purusha and Prakriti, Self and its Outer Nature. We then perceive the extraordinary complexity of our own being, the stimulating but also embarrassing multiplicity of our personality--the rich endless confusion of Nature."

The human being is inseparably one with the universal being. The two systems simultaneously active in the organisation of being and its parts are: a concentric system and a vertical system. The concentric system is like a series of rings or sheaths consisting of the outer being, the inner being and the inmost being. The outer and the inner behind it constitute our phenomenal being and are said to belong to Nature or Prakiti. They have three parts: physical, vital and mental. The inmost being is the Purusha or the true being. In the inmost there is an inmost mental, vital and physical and at the very core the Psychic being or soul.

The vertical system is like a staircase consisting of various levels of consciousness ranging from the lowest, the Inconscient to the highest, the Sat-Chit-Ananda, Truth-Consciousness-Bliss, where the spirit reigns perfectly.

The three main parts in the outer being are: the mind (mental), the life nature (vital), and the body (physical). Each has its own distinct consciousness. Generally however, we regard the mental, vital and physical constituents of our consciousness, all simply as our mind. But in mysticism "mind" refers specifically to that which has to do with cognition and intelligence, ideas, thought perceptions, reactions of thoughts to things. The vital being is made up of desires, feelings, instincts and impulses. The life-energy animating the body "Prana" is an aspect of the vital. The body has its separate consciousness operating in the involuntary functioning of the various bodily organs and physiological systems.

Mental-Vital-Physical are also interconnected and interactive, e.g, besides the thinking mind which is the mind proper there is the vital mind intermixed with the vital being. The vital mind is governed by impulses and desires and not by reason like the mind proper. It seeks to justify and rationalize actions which are based on impulses and desires of the vital. Likewise physical mind partakes of the characteristics of physical consciousness like inertia, and mechanical repetition manifesting as mental torpor, conservatism, doubt and obsessive thoughts.
Another important subdivision for our understanding is the physical vital turned entirely upon physical things, full of desires and seekings for pleasures on the physical plane. The vital physical in turn is connected to the nervous being, the vehicle for nervous responses, reactions, desires and sensations.

The Inner Being may be defined as the inner or subliminal consciousness behind the surface consciousness, upon all three levels: physical-vital-mental. The Inner mind is in touch with the universal mind, the Inner vital with universal life-forces, Inner physical with universal physical forces. As the outer being only knows things through outer touches as perceived through senses, the inner being is directly aware of the surrounding universal forces acting through us.

Sri Aurobindo describes another level of consciousness, the Circumconscient which is environmental consciousness. The inner being receives the contacts of the environing world through the environmental consciousness. This is a formation of the subliminal consciousness that is able to project itself beyond the body. It is through this that the thoughts, feelings of others pass to enter into one. It is also through this that waves of the universal force like desires, passion etc come in and take possession of the mind-vital and body. This environmental consciousness is also called the "Aura" by theosophists. The universal forces come from outside in mind waves, vital waves, waves of feeling and sensation, taking a particular form in each one of us and rising to the surface only after coming in. So all the time universal forces are pouring into us without us even knowing it. They, however, enter our aura before entering our body. Through meditation we become aware of this environmental self and then we can catch the thought, the passion, suggestion or even force of illness and prevent it from entering our body.

The Inmost Being or the Psychic being is the inmost being supporting the outer and inner beings. The Psychic Being in its essence called the psychic entity is a spark of the Divine present in all things and creatures. Whereas the universal self or atma is unborn and stands above the evolutionary process, the psychic being is the evolving soul which through immortal passes through physical birth and death.

"Missioned to lead man in the Ignorance towards the Light of the Divine Consciousness, it takes the essence of all experience in the Ignorance to form a nucleus of soul-growth in the nature; the rest it turns into material for the future growth of the instruments which it has to use until they are ready to be a luminous instrumentation of the Divine. It is the Psychic personality in us that flowers as the saint, the sage, the seer, when it reaches its full strength, it turns the being towards the Knowledge of the Self and the Divine, towards the Supreme Truth, the Supreme Good, the Supreme Beauty, Love and Bliss, the Divine Heights and Largenesses, and opens us to the touch of spiritual sympathies, universality and oneness."

Now we move on to the Subconscient and the Inconscient in Sri Aurobindo's language of self-classification. The subconscient is what is below the mind and conscious life, just as the subliminal is an inner and larger consciousness, the subconscious is a lower and inferior consciousness. The subconscient includes the hidden consciousness operating in the cells and the nerves of the corporeal stuff, adjusting their life processes and automatic responses. The activity of this extends to a mental substratum into which past impressions and all that is rejected from the surface mind sink and remain dormant, surging up in sleep or at times of freedom from mind control, taking dream forms, forms of mechanical mind suggestion or automatic reaction, nervous disturbance, disease and imbalance.

Below the subconscient is the inconscient which is the lower most plane of consciousness. It is not an empty consciousness but infact an inverted consciousness in relation to the Supreme Superconscience. Evolution began from the Inconscient, the first emergence to evolve from it being matter.
The Superconscient consists of higher levels of consciousness above the ordinary mind. "The role of the Superconscient has been to evolve slowly the spiritual man out of the mental half-animal man." It involves the higher planes of Mind, defined as: Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuition and Over-Mind. Finally beyond Mind is the Super Mind or Supreme Reality also termed as Sat-Chit-Ananda.

The Higher Mind is the first plane of spiritual consciousness where one becomes aware of the Self the One everywhere---knowing and seeing things with that awareness. Highly spiritualised but this is still on the mental level. It is an intermediate state between the Truth-Light above and the Human Mind, communicating a higher knowledge which intensifies and broadens the Mind to receive the Truth.
The Illumined Mind is a mind no longer of higher thought but of spiritual light. Here we see the clarity of spiritual intelligence, the illumination of the spirit facilitating a calm and wide enlightenment. This is the locus of a fiery ardour of realization and a rapturous ecstasy of knowledge.

Intuition is a power of consciousness nearer to the Original Knowledge. When consciousness contacts hidden forces behind appearances there is the outbreak of intuitive light. In the ordinary sense it means that power of understanding things without the need for conscious reasoning. But as implied to in the reference of the Superconscient plane it has a much deeper meaning. It means when consciousness meets the spiritual reality of things and beings it becomes lit up with an intimate truth perception.

Overmind is that which knows the One as the support, essence, fundamental power of all things. But in Its dynamic play of manifestation it gives credence to Its divisional power of multiplicity and seeks to give each aspect the full chance for its expression, relying on the underlying oneness to prevent conflict. The Overmind has the sense of the Infinite and in the true Infinite many relative infinities are possible.
The Supermind is a mind far above the ordinary mind. It is in its very essence a Truth-consciousness, free from ignorance. Ignorance in contrast is the foundation of our present evolutional existence and from which nature in us is trying to arrive at self-knowledge, and world-knowledge, a right consciousness and the right use of our existence in the universe. The Supermind because it is Truth-consciousness, has this knowledge inherent in it. Its ascent is from truth to greater truth, from right perception to deeper perception, from illumination to boundless luminousness.

Sat-Chit-Ananda: Truth-Consciousness-Bliss is the One, Eternal Existence that we then are. Our eternal consciousness is the Divine Consciousness that sees its own work in us and others. It is the One, Eternal Will which displays itself in infinite workings. It is itself stable, immutable, timeless, spaceless and supreme. It is the unity of the many-sidedness of manifested things. It is Eternal Harmony.

The traditional path of knowledge involves eliminating or negating successively, body, life, mind and arriving at the consciousness of a pure conscious state, unconditioned by limited body, mind, life, entering an ultimate positive experience of the atman or Divine Self---the original nature of existence. The limited body, life and mind are negated in the light of the fact that their limitedness stands in the way of true Realisation. For instance, the body only knows survival and procreation. It knows ingestion, excretion and respiration. It only has the notion of moving from the time of birth toward death. Living on the physical level is not a sin but it is definitely a form of limitedness which cannot help you experience the boundlessness of Spirit. Therefore it is not the Ultimate. Living a limited life can keep one unfulfilled. Similarly the vital is composed of the instincts of nature, our emotions, joys and sorrows, wants, desires, likes and dislikes. It is an everchanging roller-coaster ride. The mind is given to discernment, logic, reason, division into good-bad, right-wrong, sin-virtue etc.

The Soul, however, has the ability to transcend all this. A free Soul just is. It becomes pure existence and in becoming that it becomes Truth. We start by negating all that is not "I" and successively move towards the True Being. Looking at the physical, we know it is just a lump of clay, kneaded over generations and bequeathed to us to pass on. It is not "I". It is what my father or mother gifted to me of what my grand-parents gifted to them. It is a physical mould that I must keep in the best condition for it to be the suitable carrier for the Soul for an appointed time. The vital in us is a result of our interaction with the environment; conditioned responses to certain forces present in the environment. It is all relative for what brings joy at one point can cease to bring happiness at another. The likes and dislikes keep changing. So how can "I" be that which is constantly unstable? How can "I" be the impulses that constantly rise and fall on the surface of my being? In our reactions to external triggers we become the shadow of the other's impulse or emotion. We become the echo of another instead of being our own vital. We are not even this mind because the mind is influenced by what it reads, hears, sees, and the state of health the person is in and its environment. The mind is a cross-section of diverse ideas and notions constantly knocking against each other. The real "I" is not subject to any of this; it is above all.

The purpose of spiritual knowledge or effort, traditionally, has been liberation, but according to Sri Aurobindo, it is transformation of the instruments of the Inmost Being, the mind, vital and body into the Divine Reality so that the ordinarily animal or human life of the being, by sadhana or self-discipline, becomes dominantly Divine. The impulse towards the Divine thus becoming complete so as to establish the kingdom of the Spirit on earth.

The mental, the vital and the physical must then be made into pure instruments of Self-expression so that the true soul of one's being may be contacted. Sri Aurobindo explains that the purest mind, the highest vital, the emotive being are all influenced by the soul. The influence is so much so that one imagines being in contact with the Soul through them. Very often one recognises in the mind the Light, and the Joy of that Light. Or in the very high parts of the emotive being one finds the most generous and most unselfish emotions. These may guide one towards illumination, but this is not the real soul, only a taste of it. Therefore one feels, "I touched my soul and have now fallen back into this state of ignorance and inconscience", but that is actually because one has not come into real contact with the soul. It is that when one actually enters into contact with one's soul and the union is established, it can no longer be undone, it is something permanent and constant, which at any moment of reference can be found.

The Soul-Spirit is that which comes out of the Divine without ever leaving Him and goes back to him without ever ceasing from manifestation. In the soul the individual and the Divine are eternally one. Thus to find one's soul is to be united with the Divine.
Divine Union or soul union helps one become fully conscious of one's destiny, of that which is our mission in life. This not only pertains to the present moment but to the past and the future as well and so to eternity.




By Naila Amat-un-Nur

June 2007