JIBENDRA
Sri
Aurobindo’s writings are voluminous and they cover an immense variety of
subjects ranging from the most ordinary to the most serious and sublime things
of human life. Hardly any aspect of life is left out of his vast and extensive
field of research and finding. But the central theme and core of all his
teaching is spiritual and it is a spiritual and supramental solution that he
always advocates as the only conclusion of his most intimate study of all human
problems. For the Spirit underlies everything; it is at the base of life, its
apex, centre as well as circumference. There is no escape from its
all-pervasive presence if we are to look life straight in the face and not
evade its hurdles and difficulties by a mere superficial tinkering on the
surface or a withdrawal from its activities. Everything of this world is to be
covered with the Lord, says the Upanishad, and renunciation is recommended as
the best means of enjoyment of all its riches and pleasures. If peace and
happiness be the goal of human life along with knowledge and power, then we
must find the Spirit first and foremost for the Spirit is everything, it
comprises everything true, good and beautiful.
There
is no joy in passing, finite and limited things. Therefore, we must seek that
which is unlimited, eternal and infinite. As the world is constituted today, no
perfection is to be found anywhere other than in the Spirit because it is the
only perfect power and principle of our being. But at the same time, these
limited worldly things and actions are not to be despised or discarded because
they too are a play, a manifestation of the Spirit. All can change, says Sri
Aurobindo, if the God-touch is there. If once mankind consents to be
spiritualised, all human problems will be automatically solved because in the
Spirit which is nothing but Love, Knowledge, Power, Beauty and Bliss, there is
no problem. Where can there be room for strife, discord, sorrow and suffering
where there is nothing but One? But this One need not be one white monotony of
colourless purity of existence. It can and does deploy itself in an infinite
multiplicity. The Spirit is one but its manifestations are many. But these
manifestations are at present only a travesty of the truth of the Spirit
because of a heavy pall of ignorance that covers our limited mental
intelligence. Once this mist of the ignorance is dispelled by the light of the
sun of knowledge (Supermind), we know the world as it truly is–a creation of
the Spirit by the Spirit in itself for the manifold enjoyment of its own
diversity. This is the core of Sri Aurobindo’s teaching – that the true truth
of existence is to be found only in the Spirit, Soul, the Divine Reality or
whatever one chooses to call it and once That is discovered, everything will
automatically find its right place in the creation. The creator, created and
the creation are one in essence. For the purpose of the play (Lila), it is
diverse in manifestation. This is the central truth and it has a value as much
for today as for tomorrow and the future for he deals with eternal verities
which are not subject to fluctuations caused by time, space and causation.
Matter
and Spirit have throughout the ages been the subject matter of divergence of
philosophy both Eastern and Western and their effect upon the thought and life
of the people has either been acceptance of Matter as the basic reality of
existence or its denial and the affirmation of the Spirit on the other hand, as
the sole truth of life. The antinomy between Spirit and Matter was never
entirely resolved though some efforts might have been made now and then to
arrive at a compromise between the two. Sri Aurobindo has come to give us a
complete synthesis between the two by his own highest and deepest experience in
the realms of both. “The affirmation of a divine life upon earth and an
immortal sense in mortal existence can have no base unless we recognise not
only eternal Spirit as the inhabitant of this bodily mansion, the wearer of
this mutable robe, but accept Matter of which it is made, as a fit and noble
material out of which He weaves constantly His garbs, builds recurrently the
unending series of His mansions.”
But
even if we accept the truth both of Matter and Spirit, their difference in
practical life is such, Matter seems to be so much a negation of Spirit, that
it is difficult to believe that it also is Brahman (Spirit) unless we recognise
a series of ascending terms of consciousness linking the one to the other such
as life, mind, supermind and the grades that link mind to supermind; then only
the identification and identity between the two become complete and we can,
according to Sri Aurobindo, envisage a divine life upon the earth with Matter
as the pedestal and Spirit as the summit of that life.
Spirit
is the soul and reality of what we call Matter and Matter is the body and form
of the Spirit. There is thus no antinomy between the two. They are one
differing only in manifestation. Matter is Spirit involved and Spirit is Matter
evolved out of its own involution –a play of hide and leek leading to
self-discovery. It is the constant urge of the hidden Spirit to emerge out of
its involution that has created the successive steps in the ascension of
consciousness into life, mind, higher mind, illumined mind, intuition,
overmind–and supermind as the last term of its self-expression. In divine life,
this supermind has to be reached through a complete annulment of the separative
and limited ego-consciousness and its powers brought down to mind, life and
body to create a divine life in Matter through a total and radical
transformation of their nature and substance.
In
Yoga also which is the practical side of his philosophy, the triple path of
Karma, Jnana and Bhakti (Works, Knowledge and Devotion) has to be fused and
unified from their exclusiveness into one in the final union with the Supreme.
Knowledge culminates in devotion and the two are fused into one by work for the
Divine. Synthesis both in philosophy and Yoga of all the apparent strifes and discords
is the message of Sri Aurobindo. We have to work it out in our lives both
individual and collective to arrive at divine unity, peace, bliss and harmony.
And this union can come only by an integral self-giving and surrender of all
the parts of our being to the Divine.