Part Three. Writings from the Arya (1914 1921
Arguments to The Life Divine
Chapter XXII. The Problem
of Life
ARGUMENT
Life being a divided movement of consciousness although
really an undivided force becomes a clash of opposing truths each striving to
fulfil itself. Mind has to solve the thousand and one problems resulting but in
Life itself, not merely in thought. The difficulty lies in its ignorance of
itself and the world. Man knows only the surface of his own being and does not
know the universality of the Force of which he is a part; therefore he can
master neither himself nor the world. He has to know and solve the problem or
else give place to some higher evolutionary being. The poise of Life is
determined by the relation of the Force to the Consciousness which drives it.
Accordingly we have, besides the Infinite Existence, first the life of material
Nature ruled by the infallible Inconscient; secondly the life of conscious being
in material Nature emerging out of the Inconscient, fallible, bewildered, only
half-potent, which is our own; and thirdly the life of the real Man to which we
are moving where Consciousness and Force are fulfilled and in harmony and the
One at unison with the many. That life will be founded on the awareness of one
Consciousness in many minds, one Force working in many lives, one Delight of
being in many hearts and bodies. Mans difficulties; first, he only knows and
governs a part of himself, the greater part of himself is subconscient and it is
this greater cosmic part that really governs his surface being. This is what is
meant by his being governed by his Nature and by the Lord seated within through
the Maya or apparent denial of Sachchidananda by Himself. It is only by becoming
one with the Lord that man can be master of himself, but this union must be in
the Divine Maya, in the superconscient and not only or chiefly in this lower
Maya of the mental existence. Secondly, he is separated by his individuality
from the universal and does not know his
fellow-beings. He must be not only in sympathy with them, but arrive at a
conscious unity with all and this conscious unity exists only in what is now
superconscient to us. Thirdly, Life is at war with body, Mind at war with the
life and the body, each trying to subject the others to its own law. Only the
supramental can find the law of immortal harmony which shall reconcile this
discord of our mortality. Each of these principles has besides a soul in it
which seeks a self-fulfilment beyond what the present force of life, mind or
body can give. There is a conflict between opposing instincts of the body,
opposing desires and impulses of the life, opposing ideas of the mind. The
principle of unity is above in the supermind. Man as he develops becomes
acutely aware of all these discords and seeks a reconciliation with himself and
with his fellow-beings. This can only come by the perfection of his own
existence through the principle in himself to which he has not yet attained and
by embracing consciously the life of others in his own through a universal
consciousness which must also be gained by the superconscient becoming conscient
in us through an upward evolution.
know his
fellow-beings. He must be not only in sympathy with them, but arrive at a
conscious unity with all and this conscious unity exists only in what is now
superconscient to us. Thirdly, Life is at war with body, Mind at war with the
life and the body, each trying to subject the others to its own law. Only the
supramental can find the law of immortal harmony which shall reconcile this
discord of our mortality. Each of these principles has besides a soul in it
which seeks a self-fulfilment beyond what the present force of life, mind or
body can give. There is a conflict between opposing instincts of the body,
opposing desires and impulses of the life, opposing ideas of the mind. The
principle of unity is above in the supermind. Man as he develops becomes
acutely aware of all these discords and seeks a reconciliation with himself and
with his fellow-beings. This can only come by the perfection of his own
existence through the principle in himself to which he has not yet attained and
by embracing consciously the life of others in his own through a universal
consciousness which must also be gained by the superconscient becoming conscient
in us through an upward evolution.