Part Three. Writings from the Arya (1914 – 1921
Arguments to The Life Divine
Chapter XXXII. The
Integral Knowledge[[Chapter XXXII of The Life Divine as published in
the Arya was extensively revised and enlarged in 1939 – 40, becoming the
present Book Two, Part II, Chapter XV, “Reality and the Integral Knowledge”.]]
ARGUMENT
The ignorance in which we live is a sevenfold
self-ignorance; an ignorance of the Absolute and knowledge only of the relations
of being and becoming; an ignorance of our timeless and immutable self-existence
and knowledge only of the cosmic becoming; an ignorance of our cosmic self and
knowledge only of our egoistic existence; an ignorance of our eternal becoming
in Time and knowledge only of the one life present to our memory; an ignorance
of our larger and complex being in the world and knowledge only of our surface
waking existence; an ignorance of the higher principles of our existence and
knowledge only of the life, mind and body; an ignorance therefore of the right
law and enjoyment of living and a knowledge only of the confused strife of the
dualities. – Our conception of the Ignorance determines our conception of the
knowledge and by that of the aim of our existence, which coincides with the
ideal of the earlier Vedic thought. – We confirm by it our rejection of the
extreme views which hold the absolute Non-existence or absolute Existence to be
alone true and the relative world of being and becoming an ignorance to be
renounced. There is the unmanifest Absolute and there is its manifestation; to
fulfil the manifestation and live in the sense of it as the Absolute manifesting
himself is the Knowledge. – We reject the view that regards the One, Infinite,
Formless, Spirit, Superconscient as the sole truth and the opposite terms as
unreal or eventually false and vain values to be abandoned. We accept it and
them also not as alternates, but as simultaneous values of the manifestation and
their union in our consciousness and right use of their relations as the
knowledge. – We reject equally the views that
affirm a pluralistic Becoming without Being or see Mind, Life or Matter as the
original principle, and we reject the limitation to our apparent Nature which is
their practical conclusion. Becoming as the working out of the energies of
Being, Mind, Life and Matter as inferior terms of the higher divine Nature to be
illumined, uplifted, transformed by the higher terms is our view of the
knowledge. – We reject also intermediate theories like that which makes God and
cosmos one,– perceiving as we do that cosmos exists in God who exceeds it and
not God by the cosmos,– or like that which seeks to abandon the earth and find
fulfilment only in heavens where the Many enjoy the presence of the One,–
perceiving, as we do, that there is a higher knowledge which leads to complete
identity and that divine life based upon it need not be confined to heavens
beyond, but may embrace the earth also. – Ignorance is an initial state of
knowledge, the essence of which is to create a sense of limitation and division;
it is this which we have to overcome and transcend without creating an opposite
self-limitation. The integral aim of our existence can only be the possession
and power and joy of our integral self-knowledge.
– We reject equally the views that
affirm a pluralistic Becoming without Being or see Mind, Life or Matter as the
original principle, and we reject the limitation to our apparent Nature which is
their practical conclusion. Becoming as the working out of the energies of
Being, Mind, Life and Matter as inferior terms of the higher divine Nature to be
illumined, uplifted, transformed by the higher terms is our view of the
knowledge. – We reject also intermediate theories like that which makes God and
cosmos one,– perceiving as we do that cosmos exists in God who exceeds it and
not God by the cosmos,– or like that which seeks to abandon the earth and find
fulfilment only in heavens where the Many enjoy the presence of the One,–
perceiving, as we do, that there is a higher knowledge which leads to complete
identity and that divine life based upon it need not be confined to heavens
beyond, but may embrace the earth also. – Ignorance is an initial state of
knowledge, the essence of which is to create a sense of limitation and division;
it is this which we have to overcome and transcend without creating an opposite
self-limitation. The integral aim of our existence can only be the possession
and power and joy of our integral self-knowledge.