Part Three. Writings from the Arya (1914 – 1921 Part
Five, From the Bulletin of Physical Education (1949 – 1950)
Supermind and Mind of Light
The essential character of Supermind is a
Truth-consciousness which knows by its own inherent right of nature, by its own
light: it has not to arrive at knowledge but possesses it. It may indeed,
especially in its evolutionary action, keep knowledge behind its apparent
consciousness and bring it forward as if from behind the veil; but even then
this veil is only an appearance and does not really exist: the knowledge was
always there, the consciousness its possessor and present revealer. This too is
only in the evolutionary play and on the supramental plane itself the
consciousness lives always in an immediacy of knowledge and acts by a direct
immediacy of knowledge. In Mind as we see it here the action is very different;
it starts from an apparent absence of knowledge, a seeming ignorance or
nescience, even, in material Nature, from an inconscience in which any kind of
knowing does not seem at all to exist. It reaches knowledge or the action of
knowledge by steps which are not at all immediate but rather knowledge at first
seems utterly impossible and foreign to the very substance of this Matter. Yet,
in the blindness of Matter itself there are signs of a concealed consciousness
which in its hidden fundamental being sees and has the power to act according to
its vision and even by an infallible immediacy which is inherent in its nature.
This is the same Truth that is apparent in Supermind but is here involved and
seems not to be. The Mind of Light is a subordinate action of Supermind,
dependent upon it even when not apparently springing direct from it, in which
the secret of this connection becomes evident and palpable.
The Truth-consciousness is not only a power of
knowledge; it is a being of consciousness and knowledge, a luminous many-sided
dynamis and play of the omniscient Spirit; in it there can be a spiritual
feeling, a spiritual sensation, a spiritual essentiality of substance that knows and reveals, that acts and manifests in an
omniscience which is one with omnipotence. In Mind this Truth-consciousness and
these workings of the Truth-consciousness can be there and even though it limits
itself in Mind and has a subordinate or an indirect working, its action can be
essentially the same. There can even be a hidden immediacy which hints at the
presence of something absolute and is evidence of the same omnipotence and
omniscience. In the Mind of Light when it becomes full-orbed this character of
the Truth reveals itself, though in a garb that is transparent even when it
seems to cover: for this too is a truth-consciousness and a self-power of
knowledge. This too proceeds from the Supermind and depends upon it even though
it is limited and subordinate. What we have called specifically the Mind of
Light is indeed the last of a series of descending planes of consciousness in
which the Supermind veils itself by a self-chosen limitation or modification of
its self-manifesting activities, but its essential character remains the same:
there is in it an action of light, of truth, of knowledge in which inconscience,
ignorance and error claim no place. It proceeds from knowledge to knowledge; we
have not yet crossed over the borders of the truth-conscious into ignorance. The
methods also are those of a self-luminous knowing and seeing and feeling and a
self-fulfilling action within its own borders; there is no need to seek for
something missing, no fumbling, no hesitation: all is still a gnostic action of
a gnostic power and principle. There has been a descent from full Supermind into
Mind, but this Mind though a self-limited is not yet an agnostic consciousness
unsure of itself or unsure of its workings; there is still a comprehending or an
apprehending consciousness which goes straight to its object and does not miss
its mark or have to hunt for it in the dark or in insufficient light: it sees,
knows, puts its hand immediately on things of self and things of Nature. We have
passed into Mind but Mind has still not broken its inherent connection with the
supramental principle.
Still there is an increasing self-limitation which
begins even with Overmind: Overmind is separated by only a luminous border from
the full light and power of the supramental Truth and
it still commands direct access to all that Supermind can give it. There is a
further limitation or change of characteristic action at each step downwards
from Overmind to Intuition, from Intuition to Illumined Mind, from Illumined
Mind to what I have called the Higher Mind: the Mind of Light is a transitional
passage by which we can pass from supermind and superhumanity to an illumined
humanity. For the new humanity will be capable of at least a partly divinised
way of seeing and living because it will live in the light and in knowledge and
not in the obscuration of the Ignorance.
Still, again there will be a difference between the
superhuman and the human, a difference in nature and power but a difference
especially in the access and way of admission to the Truth-consciousness and its
activities: there may indeed be two orders of its truth, direct and half-direct,
immediate and near or even only a reception at a distance. But this we must
consider afterwards; at present it is sufficient to mark certain differences in
the descending order of gnostic mind which culminates here. We may say that
there is a higher hemisphere of our being in which Mind, luminous and aware of
its workings, still lives in the Light and can be seen as a subordinate power of
the Supermind; it is still an agent of the Truth-consciousness, a gnostic power
that has not descended into the mental ignorance; it is capable of a mental
gnosis that preserves its connection with the superior light and acts by its
power. This is the character of Overmind in its own plane and of all the powers
that are dependent on the Overmind: the Supermind works there but at one remove
as if in something that it has put forth from itself but which is no longer
entirely itself but is still a delegate of the Truth and invested with its
authority. We are moving towards a transitional border beyond which lies the
possibility of the Ignorance, but the Ignorance is not yet here. In the order of
the evolutionary descent we stand in the Mind of Light on that border and a step
downward can carry us beyond it into the beginnings of an ignorance which still
bears on its face something of the luminosity that it is leaving behind it. On
the other hand, in the ascending order of the evolution we reach a transition in
which we see the light, are turned towards it,
reflect it in our consciousness and one further step carries us into the domain
of the Light. The Truth becomes visible and audible to us and we are in
immediate communication with its messages and illuminations and can grow into it
and be made one with its substance. Thus there is a succession of ranges of
consciousness which we can speak of as Mind but which belongs practically to the
higher hemisphere, although in their ontological station they are within the
domain of the lower hemisphere. For the whole of being is a connected totality
and there is in it no abrupt passage from the principle of Truth and Light into
their opposite. The creative truth of things works and can work infallibly even
in the Inconscient: the Spirit is there in Matter and it has made a series of
steps by which it can travel from it to its own heights in an uninterrupted line
of gradations; the depths are linked to the heights and the Law of the one Truth
creates and works everywhere.
Even in the material world which seems to us a world of
ignorance, a world of the workings of a blind and inconscient Force starting
from inconscience and proceeding through ignorance and reaching with difficulty
towards an imperfect Light and Knowledge, there is still a secret Truth in
things which arranges all, guides towards the Self many contrary powers of being
and rises towards its own heights where it can manifest its own highest truth
and fulfil the secret purpose of the universe. Even this material world of
existence is built upon a pattern of the truth in things which we call Law of
Nature, a truth from which we climb to a greater truth until we emerge in the
Light of the Supreme. This world is not really created by a blind force of
Nature: even in the Inconscient the presence of the supreme Truth is at work;
there is a seeing Power behind it which acts infallibly and the steps of the
Ignorance itself are guided even when they seem to stumble; for what we call the
Ignorance is a cloaked Knowledge, a Knowledge at work in a body not its own but
moving towards its own supreme self-discovery. This Knowledge is the covert
Supermind which is the support of the creation and is leading all towards itself
and guides behind this multitude of minds and creatures and objects which seem each to be following its own law of nature; in this vast and
apparently confused mass of existence there is a law, a one truth of being, a
guiding and fulfilling purpose of the world-existence. The Supermind is veiled
here and does not work according to its characteristic law of being and
self-knowledge, but without it nothing could reach its aim. A world governed by
an ignorant mind would soon drift into a chaos; it could not in fact come into
existence or remain in existence unless supported by the secret Omniscience of
which it is the cover; a world governed by a blind inconscient force might
repeat constantly the same mechanical workings but it would mean nothing and
arrive nowhere. This could not be the cause of an evolution that creates life
out of Matter, out of life mind, and a gradation of planes of Matter, Life and
Mind culminating in the emergence of Supermind. The secret truth that emerges in
Supermind has been there all the time, but now it manifests itself and the truth
in things and the meaning of our existence.
It is in this series of the order of existence and as
the last word of the lower hemisphere of being, the first word of the higher
hemisphere that we have to look at the Mind of Light and see what is its nature
and the powers which characterise it and which it uses for its
self-manifestation and workings, its connection with Supermind and its
consequences and possibilities for the life of a new humanity.
substance that knows and reveals, that acts and manifests in an
omniscience which is one with omnipotence. In Mind this Truth-consciousness and
these workings of the Truth-consciousness can be there and even though it limits
itself in Mind and has a subordinate or an indirect working, its action can be
essentially the same. There can even be a hidden immediacy which hints at the
presence of something absolute and is evidence of the same omnipotence and
omniscience. In the Mind of Light when it becomes full-orbed this character of
the Truth reveals itself, though in a garb that is transparent even when it
seems to cover: for this too is a truth-consciousness and a self-power of
knowledge. This too proceeds from the Supermind and depends upon it even though
it is limited and subordinate. What we have called specifically the Mind of
Light is indeed the last of a series of descending planes of consciousness in
which the Supermind veils itself by a self-chosen limitation or modification of
its self-manifesting activities, but its essential character remains the same:
there is in it an action of light, of truth, of knowledge in which inconscience,
ignorance and error claim no place. It proceeds from knowledge to knowledge; we
have not yet crossed over the borders of the truth-conscious into ignorance. The
methods also are those of a self-luminous knowing and seeing and feeling and a
self-fulfilling action within its own borders; there is no need to seek for
something missing, no fumbling, no hesitation: all is still a gnostic action of
a gnostic power and principle. There has been a descent from full Supermind into
Mind, but this Mind though a self-limited is not yet an agnostic consciousness
unsure of itself or unsure of its workings; there is still a comprehending or an
apprehending consciousness which goes straight to its object and does not miss
its mark or have to hunt for it in the dark or in insufficient light: it sees,
knows, puts its hand immediately on things of self and things of Nature. We have
passed into Mind but Mind has still not broken its inherent connection with the
supramental principle.
