The development of the third status or stage of life brings about the development of the capacity to fuse the two formerly apparently contradictory stages, that of the ultimate fragmentation in the form of the atom and material form, and the persistence of that individual expression, and the give and take and dissolution for the purpose of interchange and breakdown of the forms to create new opportunities and forms.

This third status works to bring about both the persistence of the individual form and the interchange that characterise the prior two steps. This cannot come about until the mental stage emerges. It is clear that the individual separate formation cannot possibly have or be granted the eternal persistence that atomic existence in matter possesses. Such a result would yield an unchanging world without evolutionary potential. The emergence of the mental being allows a consciousness that links the past with the future with continuity, and the development of the psychic being or soul allows this continuity to extend beyond the borders of life, and death and new life with a conscious development and continuity spanning across different forms. There is both in this an individual continuity and the continuity of the aggregate, the society, the world, the eco-sphere and bio-sphere within which the individual being lives and thrives. The individual has both its own value as well as its inherent role in the wider manifestation, and these provide a sense of persistence both of the individual and the world.

reference: Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Chapter 21, The Ascent of Life

The first stage or term of Life Energy in manifestation takes place in the purely physical world. The principle at work here is to establish the ultimate individualisation and stabilize the forms in their separate identities as the foundation for the other and later play of interchange. “Life starts with the extreme divisions and rigid forms of Matter, and of this rigid division the atom, which is the basis of all material form, is the very type.” Atoms are stable and resist dissolution in their separateness, and they tend to join together by aggregating into larger groups of atoms, while maintaining their fragmentation. This is the basic law then of the material plane.

The next phase of the evolution brings about the expression of the vital principle of living forms. In this term, the focus is on interchange and the dissolution of the form as the basis for developing and feeding other forms, the vital give and take. “We can see broadly that not only the elements of our physical body, but those of our subtler vital being, our life-energy, our desire-energy, our powers, strivings, passions enter both during our life and after our death into the life-existence of others.”

“We have then two principles in Life, the necessity or the will of the separate ego to survive in its distinctness and guard its identity and the compulsion imposed upon it by Nature to fuse itself with others.”

Clearly the two opposite principles cannot in and of themselves signify the final term of the solution, as these two principles eventually have to be harmonised. The terms of this harmonisation must include some form of persistence of the individual within the framework of the interchange and building of large forms and aggregates.

reference: Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Chapter 21, The Ascent of Life

The evolutionary direction for Life is to overcome the limitations, weaknesses and incapacities that mark the experience of the life-energy in its early manifestation. This life force is a reflex of the superconscient Force “whose highest terms are immortality, satisfied delight and omnipotence.” Each of the limitations is a sign of the eventual Supreme Fulfillment of the Life-Energy. The unenlightened seeking of Life, apparently separate and separated from the Oneness, is one of struggling “to increase, to expand to conquer and to possess.” Death is the veil thrown over the seeking for Immortality that resides within Life.

The whole concept of “survival of the fittest” enunciated by Charles Darwin, was based on the raw play of the life energies, individualized and separated from one another in awareness, meeting each other and striving to overcome, to dominate, to possess, to aggrandise the self, at the expense of the others.

This Darwinian response however is not the complete or final term of the evolutionary force and it relies too heavily on the individualised forms as being separate and in opposition to one another. At some point in the evolutionary process, the next power or principle, that of Mind, begins to emerge and for Mind, the idea of simply “kill or be killed” and the idea of one being gaining ascendency at the expense of others and without concern for the Whole, is simply incomplete and unsatisfying.

At some point “Mind can begin to open to the truth that there is something beyond itself; from that moment his evolution, however obscure and slow, towards that superior something, towards Spirit, towards Supermind, towards Supermanhood is inevitably predetermined.”

We see thus the first awakening of the principle of love to challenge the principle of death as the ruling principle of the manifestation.
reference: Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Chapter 21, The Ascent of Life

“Desire is the impulse of the Force of Being individualised in Life to affirm progressively in the terms of succession in Time and of self-extension in Space, in the framework of the finite, its infinite Bliss, the Ananda of Sachchidananda.” Desire represents the limited individual consciousness striving to achieve ultimate and infinite existence, knowledge, power and bliss. As we have seen in earlier chapters, the manifestation of the world of finite forms is the play of the infinite creating the world out of its Oneness for the purpose of self-finding and joy of the play. The forms, because they have been separated in conscious awareness from the Oneness, act and respond as if they are separate from one another and they strive to achieve their own fulfillment at the expense of the other forms and even the intention of the Oneness behind the scenes. Because these forms are basically then acting in opposition to one another, as well as potentially in opposition to the larger and broader intentions of the Consciousness-Force of the Infinite, which effectuates its larger goals through the action and oppositions of the individual limited forms, and because they are limited in their power of effectivity by this “as if” separation from the infinite power and knowledge of the Oneness, they experience defeat, death, and the aspiration for achievement which we call desire. It is in fact this necessary limitation of the individual forms that leads to the experience of weakness, failure and incapacity that dogs the limited being. Were these forms to be unlimited in power, they would wreak havoc on the larger manifestation and its larger, broader goals.

The strife, the weakness, the thwarting of Desire are all part of the necessary interaction that forms the larger patterns of evolutionary progress of the Sat-Chit-Ananda manifesting through forms. “Death, Desire and Strife are the trinity of divided living, the triple mask of the divine Life-principle in its first essay of cosmic self-affirmation.”

reference: Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Chapter 20, Death, Desire and Incapacity

The first seeking of the life energy for its fulfillment takes the form of Desire. This desire as we have seen is hunger and is the law of Death. As the evolutionary process continues, however, there comes a point where the devouring can be transformed to a mutual self-giving. “Meanwhile it has to progress from the type of a mutually devouring hunger to the type of a mutual giving, of an increasingly joyous sacrifice of interchange;–the individual gives himself to other individuals and receives them back in exchange; the lower gives itself to the higher and the higher to the lower so that they may be fulfilled in each other; the human gives itself to the Divine and the Divine to the human; the All in the individual gives itself to the All in the universe and receives its realised universality as a divine recompense.” This brings about the development of the Law of Love to counter and perfect the Law of Death.

reference: Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Chapter 20, Death, Desire and Incapacity

What troubles us about the process of death, perhaps more than anything else, is the vital sense of the process of dissolution, the pain, the suffering, the devouring of life by other life, the identiification of the sense of destruction of the body that we feel. We could imagine a process of transition that would be voluntary, smooth and harmonious, such as changing clothes, where perhaps the “sting” of death would not be as real to us. Of course, one of the issues we face is that a voluntary change might perpetuate stagnant or retrograde movements and hold back the required evolutionary results.

The process of challenge and growth that leads to development and progress is set up to pit one form against another in a struggle of existence, and this process feeds into the processes of Death. This ties in the force of Desire as the motivator of action, change and development, even though it is this Desire that eventually carries the seeds of death with it as we push the forms to their limits, oppose them one to another, and suffer the shocks that lead to dissolution and death. The Upanishads refer to “Hunger which is Death” and clearly identify the relationship between the force of Desire and the force of Death. In the Katha Upanishad, Nachiketas obtains the teaching of immortality and understands that by overcoming Desire he can attain the teaching and the result of immortality. The Buddha spoke about the breaking of the bond of Desire in order to break the chain of karma and be released from the suffering of Death.

The Upanishads always tie in the process of eating with the process of being eaten. All life functions under the one law and when we adopt the vital impulse of desire, we are also adopting not just our own aggrandisement and growth, but also our own time of being devoured and death. Sri Aurobindo reminds us that “Desire is the lever by which the divine Life-principle effects its end of self-affirmation in the universe.”

We see however that this is only a necessary principle under the current framework of the evolutionary manifestation and we can foresee other ways to transform this law of Hunger and Desire into a higher principle of Love and mutuality.

reference: Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Chapter 20, Death, Desire and Incapacity

“Death is imposed on the individual life both by the conditions of its own existence and by its relations to the All-Force which mainfests itself in the universe.” Death is essentially the dissolution of an individual formation in the process of Time. Without this action, the world would be stagnant and essentially unable to evolve and change as all the manifested forms would have virtually unending persistence and remain stuck in the limitations that they bring with them. “For the individual life is a particular play of energy specialised to constitute, maintain, energise and finally to dissolve when its utility is over, one of the myriad forms which all serve, each in its own place, time and scope, the whole play of the universe.”

We find in the Taittiriya Upanishad a discussion of how Matter is “food” and that the eater, eating, is eaten, showing the interconnectedness and relation of each to all in this give and take of the life force energy.

After growing and striving to exist and thrive in a world where there is intense competition for resources, eventually the individual form reaches a point where it has either been damaged in the proces, or at the very least has reached the end of the particular capabilities of the particular form. At that point, the death of the body opens up new opportunities for the soul to escape the limitations and move to the next stage of the evolutionary process in a newly formed body.

The soul seeks its experience and maturity in an exclusive concentration in a material form, but eventually, the soul needs to be able to move on and gain new experience in new forms and in new ways. The soul’s journey through successive lives involves a process of death and rebirth many times over. This describes the law and necessity of the process of Death as an integral part of the process of Life. “death is necessary because eternal change of form is the sole immortality to which the finite living substance can aspire and eternal change of experience the sole infinity to which the finite mind involved in living body can attain.”

reference: Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Chapter 20, Death, Desire and Incapacity

Life being a form of the Universal Energy, the Consciousness-Force, it has no necessary original relationship to the terms we call “death”, “desire” and “incapacity”. However, we see everywhere around us in the human life in the material world, the workings of these limitations.

Sri Aurobindo describes this issue when he states: “our Life, because it is subservient to the darkened and dividing operations of Mind, is itself darkened and divided and undergoes all that subjection to death, limitation, weakness, suffering, ignorant functioning of which the bound and limited creature-Mind is the parent and cause.”

When the operation of Mind lost its awareness of its connection to the original Sat-Chit-Ananda and began to treat itself as if separate and distinct in each separate form that was created, it created the conditions for life to undergo separation, limitation and deficiency in its functioning in the material world. We then act in life as if each individual, each separate expression of life, whether human, animal or plant, is in absolute competition with and in opposition to the other forms and beings, and this sets off both the competition that creates desire and the will to self-aggrandisement, and the results of that competition being the success of some of these beings at the expense of the others, with the accompanying pain, and death that attends this struggle.

We experience the shocks of the universe and attempt to both withstand them and deal out shocks of our own in return. This is the foundation and basis of the movement of Life in the material world that is essentially the condition we all find ourselves in until we discover a way out of this limitation and its conditions.

reference: Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Chapter 20, Death, Desire and Incapacity

The Consciousness-Force, Chit-Shakti, the manifestation of Consciousness in the universe is the originating principle that leads to the energy we call life. It manifests in various ways with different levels of conscious awareness, starting with Matter where the tremendous power of action is locked into the atomic world with its extraordinary power and its absolute control and orderly functioning, with its attractions and repulsions, aggregations and dissolutions. In the world of plants as the nervous, vital energy that we see and experience with sensation, attraction, repulsion. In the world of animals through the advance of this principle to become the force of desire and the force of fear, carrying out this principle of attraction and repulsion; and into the human world where it further manifests as the powers of love and the powers of hate, the power of aspiration and the power of avoidance, representing the mental will.

Whether it is the occult hidden action within Matter or the self-conscious action of the human mental being, the energy stems from that original source the Chit-Shakti, and is the mode of manifestation of Sat-Chit-Ananda when it carries out its play of difference, of losing and finding itself, of involution and evolution in Matter, Life and Mind.

If this energy were not latent in matter, it would not be possible for life forms to evolve out of matter.

While we try to define “life” as that vital energy between Matter and Mind, in reality, life energy is inherent in all forms and cannot be artificially separated from the other terms. The pulsating energy that carries the thought and the will into the world of matter to create forms and shape events is the characteristic form that we recognize but it could not do this if it were not in fact active subconsciously in matter and consciously in the higher levels of manifestation. Life is Omnipresent in the manifested world.

reference: Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Chapter 19, Life

“The life-play of this Force manifests itself as an interchange of stimulation and response to stimulation between the different forms it has built up and in which it keeps up its constant dynamic pulsation; each form is constantly taking into itself and giving out again the breath and energy of the common Force; each forrm feeds upon that and nourishes itself with it by various means, whether indirectly by taking in other forms in which the energy is stored or directly by absorbing the dynamic discharges it receives from outside.” We see in Sri Aurobindo’s description here the common denominator that makes life a single universal Force manifested through multiple inter-connected and inter-active Forms.

Humans tend to define life in ways that are related to our own experience of the world, and the same stimulus/response and energy exchanges we call life in our sphere are disregarded by us when they occur in other spheres in apparently different forms, such as in the atom or in material objects such as metals.

The differences between the manifestation of Life in one form or another are related to specific forms of action, such as locomotion. This was the grounds for denying plants’ as life forms in earlier times! Since deeper research has now shown clearly the responsive system and interchange that plants undertake, most are now willing to admit that plants represent a form of Life.

The metal has a less obviously responsive system than the plant, but nevertheless, we still can see the essentials of the interchange, response and vibratory reactions that evidence Life in its most general designation.

We can see in the atomic world the forces of attraction and repulsion at work which correspond more or less with the human responses of liking and disliking, or desire and aversion. Can we really deny the universality of the energetic response and artificially cut off the definition of Life simply because it differs from our own specific form of manifestation?

It is a matter of degree and conscious awareness that represents the continuum that links all these different forms and manifestations of the one Energy.

reference: Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Chapter 19, Life

 In the immortal words of Frank Sinatra, ” And now the end  is near…” But what a journey to date.

The last month and a half has been trials, tribulations, joys and a new found self discovery.

In my last entry  I was with my friend Chris and we descended upon Lucknow on our way to Calcutta before heading to Bangkok….well that was the plan , however fate intervened in the most harshest of ways…..Let me explain.

Lucknow was fab ..and Chris received the full treatment of hospitality bestowed to anyone who meets my family…three days of eating drinking and talking…it was a hoot.

Manan and Chota were excellent hosts as they plied us with everything consumable and then some !!

We left Lucknow smiling and slightly bleary eyed…but content none the less…And then we arrived in Calcutta. Another one of the gems of India…a  sprawling metropolis of around 18 million people, however the attitiude of the locals was welcoming, we also met up with one of manan’s friends Vishnu, who proved to be a lifesaver in the days to come.

Calcutta although a little more rundown than the other major metropolises of India has a charm of it’s own. You can see and feel and almost hear when the British raj was in full glory. For many a year it was the capital of  British India and the architecture certainly reflects that.

Now though dust , dirt and grime is slowly eating at the final facade of British India. the locals however are Indians down to their leather sandals. They are Bengali too, artists , musicians the creative source of Indian literature  and artistic performance. My favourite author Rabindrinath Tagore is Bengali and the reverence for the man known as the ’sentinal of India’ is everywhere to be seen.

Chris and I discovered Kathi rolls a fusion of kebabs but in Roti, deep fried and delicious!! A few of those rolls were put away with gusto and the taste of either a vegeterian roll, or an egg roll or a mutton roll lingered for hours after their consumption.

Calcutta also has a vibrant nightlife, this fuelled by the new generation of young Indians who have money and want what the west has but want to do it in their home town…..bars and discos are a plenty. and it was here at one of these bars wher my travel pouch was nicked….This discovery only happened the next morning as we were about to head to the airport on our way to Bangkok, talk about a spanner in the works !!!

Fortunately Vishnu was able to help us by picking us up from our hotel , organisisng a police report and then getting us to the airport so I could go to the Australian Embassy in New Delhi…warning no Australian Embassy in the second largest city in India….what a pain in the ass  !!

Anyway we arrived in New delhi and stayed in paharGanj so we could be close to the embassy and th Indian administrative office that issued exit and entry visas for foreigners who were in a predicament like myself.

I must say hats off to the embassy I had an emergency pssport in 3 hours …all I needed now was an exit visa to Bangkok where I could apply for a new visa to re enter India, i figured this would take a day at most and we could still be in Bangkok , then back in time for my cousin’s wedding and the i could catch up with my mate John who was flying here in the coming weeks.

How wrong I was!…. I was met with the full force of Indian bureaucracy which meant a three day wait …why becasue they had to confirm my details.

OK I said ….But with trepidation so when I returned to the mad house of this particular office I asked if my papers had been processed , the relevant clerk picked it out from the pile he had left it in three days ago, made a phone call to immigration at the airpoirt and i received my exit visa…i just wondered why this could not have been done on the first day of my dilemma…ah patience ,.. something that you learn to develop in india and man did i learn about it.

So Bangkok was kyboshed, as i wouldn’t have enough time to make the wedding…so we neded up In Goa for five days , whcih was good thing in the sense we were surrounded by beautiful water and sandy beaches.

But I still needed to get my re entry visa and meet John In Chennai…well i managed to do that at a cost ….all in all an extra thousand bucks in flights and accomodation…but something was still bugging me …was it the loss of passport, money , sunglasses, ipod etc etc , was it the inconvenience , but something wasn’t right…. I discovered why when i cam back to india from my Bangkok sojourn.

Upon my return I caught up with John at Port Blair in the Andaman islands …and soon i returned to my normal self…maybe it was the peace, beauty and the tranquility of my surrounds or maybe it was i was hanging with the person who knows me best and through conversation, philososphy, lots of laughter and a few beers i realised why losing my travel pouch had been so upsetting…it was because everything I had learned to date …all my sense of calm went out the window….all the training from the ashram went to quits…

I started worrying about things I had no control over , instead of being pro active  I became reactive …well it was a telling lesson…it was a lovely way to fail one of life’s little tests…looking back i can’t believe my panic and my state of confusion…but hey it was a price of an education.

But back to the Andamans..what a pristine location…it is a beautiful spot…and it’s going to be swamped by tourism in the next five years, so get there if you can.

 John and I stayed at one of the many huts that dot the shore line…the beach ..turqoise water and white sand is only fifty meters away…and the options to swim, snorkel and fish are aplenty.

Yet the highlight for both of us was Number 7 beach…two hundred meters either side of the entrance to the beach is white sand…compact yet soft and warm…the water is so clear you can see your feet as you wade through the water…and the water, well, talk about perfection, not too cold, not too warm….the beach backs up too a lush green jungle of swaying palm trees and exotic plants of every variety and to top it all off there are elelphants that you can ride on up and own the beach should you wish…truly amazing…many an hour was spent in the water , swimming laughing and totally carefree of any troubles…it really is paradise.

After nearly a week there we decided to go to Auroville , and stay with a friend of John’s called Sang ( pron sung)…Sang is one of life’s gems, Korean by birth , but a Danish national…this bundle of energy welcomed us in Auroville and gave us a tour of the place and made us feel completely at home.

Auroville itself is quite a place …created in 1968 by sri Aurobindo and his greates t Devotee The Mother, they envisioned a utopia where peolpe from all over the world could come and create a sustainable and harmonious community.

Well it too has had it’s trials and tribulations but Auroville is slowly moving to what sri Aurobindo and The mother had hoped for…it currently has two thousand residents, from all over the world …and from what i saw it is a sustainable paradise. 

Solar energy for power, reforrestation, permaculture , electric bikes, seperation of waste …you name it everything that can be done sustainably is….but there is still aneed for a greater cohesion and those efforts are being made …but it will take time….if you get a chance log in and find out about Auroville.

John, Sang and I had some terrific moments in Auroville and we met some wonderful people and intriguing characters…including as John put it “the little French man”…who was actually a woman, but totally incomprehendable…dinner with her was very funny… i don’t think she realised how funny she was. I  mean she thought I was Maori, asked John if he was a real Australian and after much explaining we found out she is writing a book to help the Tibetans …God help the Tibetans but hey you had to be there to appreciate the hilarity of the situation.

Auroville reminds me of an Australian town in terms of the environment….lots of Eucalyptus trees and red dirt roads…where everyone pretty much gets around on motorbikes, elctric bikes, and scooters.

Days were spent exploring the place and nights were spent playing cribbage and downing  beer or two…but after a week we headed up to delhi and then Lucknow where John met the rest of the clan…he headed back on the 7th of December and i went back to Auroville to find out more about the sustainability programs that were being developed and to hang out with Sang.

Sang took me too Mahabalipuram about forty kilometers south of Chennai…we stayed near the beach…and planned to hit the sand and the waves…but the weather turned monsoon…so Cribbage…or Cribbie as it became known came to the fore again…Anyway another wonderful week spent in Auroville and now I’m back in delhi….packing and getting ready for my return to Oz.

There is the joy and expectation of being with family and friends, clean air and blue ocean…traffic flowing in an orderly manner…people queueing up…. and that beautiful Australian accent and sense of humour.

ButI am also sad…as India once again has put a spell on me…like a lover leaving you with a lingering kiss… a kiss that suggests “you are going to come back aren’t you ?”

I smile inwardly and say  “of course I’ll be back, but I’ll be back when I’m ready “….and the most gratifying thing that i have gained from this journey….well there have been many highs and a few regrets…but those regrets are too few to remember …. but I guess it is best put by Ol’ blue eyes himself….”I did it all and I did it my way !” …cheers and thanks for coming along for the ride

If we look closely at the processes of life, we can see that life apparently departs from a body and we call it death. However, there are circumstances where a dead body can and is brought back to life. Leaving aside the theological doctrine from the Christian religion, whereby Lazarus was raised from the dead by unknown means by Jesus during His Ministry, we have many examples close at hand in hospital emergency rooms all over the world today. One famous case involved Danion Brinkley who was struck by lightning and was pronounced dead at the hospital after they failed to revive him. But thereafter, after he was pushed out into the hallway and was destined for the morgue, he spontaneously came to life again after 30 mintues. This may be an extraordinary incident, but it is by no means exceptional that people are “returned to life” after being declared dead.

We have instances of suspended animation where life appears to withdraw, but remains minimally active deep within and the full awake life-energy returns either through external stimulation or through internal force of being. Witness the numerous animals who hibernate over the winter, bringing their life activities to an absolute minimum level, but who spontaneously awake in the spring. Yogis have been known to go into a state of suspended animation and come out of this state into a perfect waking consciousness. The phenomenon of trance is another instance where the life energy can apparently recede but life remains.

All of these various examples represent movements of the life energy that are incontrovertible facts, but which are never fully viewed, understood or explained. For instance, if life is something separate from the physical body, and that life energy withdraws from the body, thereby creating the phenomenon of death of the body, what is it that can call that life energy back into the body to restore the physical life and have the dead person rise up once again?

Our normal view of what life is does not provide any answers to these phenomena, and in fact, by separating life from matter and claiming that one represents “life” and the other is “inanimate” we make some of these things seemingly impossible. It is only if the wider view of life is in fact the real view of life, that we can explain any of these things satisfactorily; that is, that life energy is universal, that it takes different forms and moves in and out of forms which are themselves a manifestation of the universal energy that is variously known as life or material force. Life does not depart the body but changes the form of its action from one of building or sustaining a form or system to one of disintegrating it and moving the energy elsewhere. With this wider viewpoint, we can see that life and death are simply different movements of the one universal Force that creates and enlivens and moves all forms.

reference: Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Chapter 19, Life

When we extricate ourselves from the narrow standpoint of an individual human life trying to deal with life, we can actually begin to recognize that life in fact is a universal force or energy which moves in and out of various forms, beings, and relations of forms, but itself continues to exist and act regardless of what happens to the individual formulations of that force. Thus, life energy pervades all beings in nature. When they die, life energy does not dissipate or die, it simply moves into another succeeding form in an endless movement. Life creates the forms within which it manifests its energy, and the interplay of those forms whereby the energy moves, creates, destroys and continues.

We have tended to define life narrowly by pointing to specific manifestations or forms that we designate as “life”. Generally this means plant, animal or human life. In fact, at various points in human existence, plants were not considered “alive” and the term was actually limited to animal and human exstence. This actually represents however an artificial distinction that arbitrarily cuts off the continuum of life at relatively random points in the scale of experience. Experiments showing the secret life of plants, and the responsiveness of plants to various forms of stimulus have convinced us to accept plants as alive.

As we delve deeper into matter, can we say, for instance, that the amoeba has life, but that a metal does not? Metals also respond in their own way to stimulation, absorb, undergo changes and at some point also disintegrate back into general matter. Even matter in the form of rocks or earth, or if we go farther, at the atomic level, has an intense energetic existence which may even be defined as life, involved, hidden, but no less intense; and in fact, this intense inner energy of matter appears to be the involved force that eventually evolves out into the forms that we then define as life. The acorn contains the latent energy that we define as the tree. The acorn itself may not show the life energy moving as we see in the tree, but clearly, it is part of that web of life that IS the tree. When we look deeply into matter, we discover energy, and this energy is a form of life that creates and powers the universe.

reference: Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Chapter 19, Life

Many religious and philosophical systems view life as something illusory, misleading or even something evil to be avoided, controlled, and eventually dropped in order to achieve some kind of other-worldly salvation. It is clear that the energy of life has been an obstacle for seekers throughout the ages, which has led to the attempt to “cut the knot” rather than untie it. We are told that by avoiding desire, and gaining strict control over the life energy, we can eventually achieve salvation, overcome the illusion that created the manifestations of life, and become one with the motionless, all-peaceful, all blissful reality of which life is only a distorted image.

Sri Aurobindo pointedly asks “Why has the Eternal wantonly inflicted this evil, brought this delirium or insanity upon Himself or else upon the creatures brought into being by His terrible all-deluding Maya?”

When we move our attention from the obstacles, issues, and problems that life presents to us, we begin to see the real intent and meaning of life from a positive perspective, that “essentially it is a form of the one cosmic Energy, a dynamic movement or current of it positive and negative, a constant act or play of the Force which builds up forms, energises them by a continual stream of stimulation and maintains them by an unceasing process of disintegration and renewal of their substance.”

Life and death are then not irreconcilable opposites, but actually death is simply one process of life and life continues, in a new form, renewing itself in the process of breakdown and reconstitution that is the one constant of life.

“All existence here is a universal Life that takes form of Matter.” Ultimately it is the reflection of the Chit-Shakti of the Ultimate reality–Consciousness-Force manifested into the individualized, apparently separated forms created by Supermind through the action of Mind within Life and Matter.

reference: Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Chapter 19, Life

In our review of Mind and Supermind, we saw that a truer perspective for understanding the role of mind comes about when we look at it as an agent of the Supermind to effectuate certain relations in the play of creation. Similar to the viewpoint of seeing the solar system from the planets revolving around the sun, versus the sun “rising and setting” in a circle around the earth, the Mind gets its direction and purpose from the intention and will of the Supermind as the agency of creation.

We see the working of an order and intelligence throughout all manifested forms. Examine Matter deeply enough and we see not only that it is a form of Force or Energy, but that there is an intelligence at work that proceeds according to certain definable and defined laws of action to create order rather than chaos, which would be the inevitable result if there were no intelligence or consciousness at work in the creation of these forms.

Quantum science shows us that in fact, matter is energy, and energy is consciousness. This implies that Consciousness, as expressed by the Supermind in the act of creation, underlies and informs all manifestation of forms or force. In Matter we call this a physical law. In life we call it instinct. In mind, we call it knowledge. This is the sign that the Supramental consciiousness is involved, not only in mind, but also in life and matter, directing, guiding, informing, and exercising a creative will that forces the manifestation to follow the determined plan of its working. In this way, the universe is a field of patterns, habits, instincts, laws and principles rather than a purely random chance event with no settled purpose or principle.

As we see in the inner workings of matter at the atomic level, there is an incredible energy and intelligence at work, so also everywhere we look, we can identify that life creates forms according to a Conscious Intelligence, such that we can predict the tree from the seed, the bird from the egg, and the mammal from the parent.

reference: Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Chapter 19, Life

“The fundamental error of the Mind is, then, this fall from self-knowledge by which the individual soul conceives of its individuality as a separate fact instead of as a form of Oneness and makes itself the centre of its own universe instead of knowing itself as one concentration of the universal.. From that original error all its particular ignorances and limitations are contingent results.”

When the mind falls silent and receptive to the action of Supermind, it becomes an instrument of the supramental action, which maintains its awareness of the Oneness, while at the same time carrying out the true function of the mind which is to create the apparently separate forms and forces and act so as to empower each one to act independently in relation to one another. The universal Oneness remains behind and in the conscious awareness, but the individual forms take shape so as to interact and respond with one another in a divine play. The problem of the mind lies in its failure to hold the Oneness concurrently with the Multiplicity, and thus, to act from this division as if it were real. Once it returns to the awareness of Oneness through conscious linking with the action of Supermind, “it becomes again the final action of the Truth-Consciousness in its apprehensive operation, and the relations it helps to create in that light and power will be relations of the Truth and not of the perversity.”

reference: Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Chapter 18, Mind and Supermind

Today, I had a discussion with Aanal about Faith.  Faith in my opinion and also according to the scriptures and very succinctly written by Sri Aurobindo is something that is within and which is part of the soul. 

This is an inner conviction.  Unfortunately,  this faith is very poorly understood.  What most people have is a firm belief in certain things, a belief that is based on reading or experience or even worse a belief entirely based on a mental projection or fantasy.  This belief is something that is a product of the mind and NOT an inner conviction or faith which is something that is inherantlly present in the soul.  At other times there is a similar doubt present in the mind which again is another way Maya uses to prevent spiritual progress.  In both cases, the belief retards the progress by creating an illusion and masking the inner faith or doubt which also masks the reality of faith and prevents progress.

True faith can be shown in many examples. I will limit myself at present to 2 examples

1) At one time Shankaracharya was at the other side of the river, the side away from all of his disciples.  Suddenly he cried out and said something has happened to me, come here quickly. All of the disciples panicked, some looking for boats, others started to swim.  However, one disciple just started walking on the water.  Subsequently he came to be known has Padmapadacharya because whereever he walked on the water, a lotus (Padma) appeared and prevented him from drowning.  This is an example of faith.  There was no interjection from his mind of either that this will happen because Gurudev said so, nor was there any doubt.  It was just an inner faith!  Any activity of the mind either positive or negative mars and covers up true faith.

2) An example of Jesus Christ and Peter is well known where he was walking on water and  suddenly his mind began to doubt and he started drowning.  That is when Jesus said, “Ye men of little faith”. 

3) There are thousands of examples where people have had a strong belief in a certain set of scriptures, books such as the bible, Gita, Koran and in other misguided zealots, but when they have followed it, the results are not there and then they say the scriptures are wrong. Here the problem was they read certain things and based on their reading, they created a strong belief in it or a mental projection of the interpretation, and trusted the mental projection!  Anytime there is activity of the mind and one believes ones mental projection, one will not get the same results as true faith.

I end here with a quote from the Bible.   Please do not think you have faith perfected till you can move mountains!  Here Lord Jesus goes to the extent of saying, even if you have faith as little as a mustard seed, you can move mountains!

So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you,
 if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain,
“Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
Matthew 17:20

The next stage or level of mind obtains more independence and freedom from the limitations of the physical and vital levels of manifestation and their characteristic actions. This is the realm of the pure mentality. In this level, the mind is able to act with a force and energy consistent with its not being pulled down by the physical instruments. We see here direct action of mind on mind, direct communication and influence, the sense of a mental impact and the ability to communicate directly without the instrumentalities of the physical senses and nervous system. This pure mental action is reflective, and acts as the pure thinker. In the furthest reaches of human mental development, we see something close to this type of pure mental action and we feel the mental influence of those individuals who are capable of harnessing the power of mind into a powerful and more direct action.

While this action is clearly more precise, more powerful and less vitiated by the weaknesses of the vital and physical worlds, it is still not the action of the Supermind, and suffers from the limitations and errors brought about by the veil of ignorance that continues to center the mental action around the separate individuality and does not have an actual and persistent sense of the Oneness and Unity. It still sees things from the sense of “me” and “other”, and this framework therefore, despite its clear and higher action, predisposes it to error and limitation.

reference: Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Chapter 18, Mind and Supermind

The first realisation of the inner soul or Purusha, while of great value in freeing the mind of the limitations imposed by the physical world, still suffers from the artificial separation from the Oneness that makes it see itself as separate and distinct. It remains ignorant of the other selves and the action and existence of the whole, except insofar as it experiences them from its own limited standpoint, externally and partially. It is however more sensitive and able to also pick up the sense or feeling of the life energy on a more subtle level and respond to that, although possibly not with a conscious awareness of how this influence is working on it. This level is bound to the working of the life energy and just as the physical being is bound to the physical form, this level of awareness and working of mind is bound by the working of the life energy.

reference: Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Chapter 18, Mind and Supermind

The Mind is fixated on the physical instrumentalities, by its identification with the body. This is an historical fact due to the long process of evolution by which mind has evolved systematically from its involvement in the physical and vital levels of manifestation, but it is obviously a serious limiting factor. We believe in fact that the mind is determined by the body, and that it is limited by the physical instruments, the senses, the nervous system and the brain. We therefore also identify ourselves with this one body and this one life, and define the action of mind within this scope.

It is however possible , through the realisation of the inner soul, the Purusha, to separate ourselves from this fixation and limitation and to then see the soul as moving from life to life, from body to body, in a continuous evolutionary action that spans across wide expanses of Time and provides the thread of meaning to the experience of the individual in the world. Once we gain this realisation we also begin to recognize that we are not essentially limited to the physical instruments for the action of mind, and we can begin to recognize that in fact a dynamic action is possible that transcends the physical systems that have formerly been our bonds.

The mind needs to rediscover these truths to gain a foothold toward a truer realisation and effectuation of its real powers in their truer, less corporeal sense.

reference: Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Chapter 18, Mind and Supermind