Sri Aurobindo Studies

Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga has enormous implications for the time we find ourselves in.  As we systematically destroy the basis of life on the planet, and wall off one another through ultimate fragmentation, we are left with the stark contrast of choosing between survival and destruction, life and death, growth or decline.  Sri Aurobindo recognizes the necessity of the individual within the context of the collectivity, universality and the transcendent consciousness of Oneness.  The individual is the nexus or hub of the evolutionary urge, but not separate from nor at the expense of the life of the cosmic whole.  

We also have a daily twitter feed on Sri Aurobindo’s studies at www.twitter.com/santoshk1

We are systematically working our way through The Life Divine.  The newest posts appear near the top.  If you want to start at the beginning, go to the oldest post and roll forward until you reach the present day posts immediately after this introductory note.

You may also want to visit our information site for Sri Aurobindo at Sri-Aurobindo.Com

Sri Aurobindo’s major writings are published in the US by Lotus Press.

Hunger, Desire and Death

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 as a Process of Life

“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

The Limitations of Life: 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

Life is Omnipresent in the Manifested Universe

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

Life in Various Forms

“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

Life, Death, Suspended Animation and Trance

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

Life is a Universal Force or Energy

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

Life Is a Manifestation of Consciousness-Force

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

The Supermind At Work in Mind, Life and Matter

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 True Role of the Mind

“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