11. Sight in the Circumconscient:

We have so far spoken about the Inconscient and the Subconscient reaches of our being into which we may penetrate by a downward plunge of our consciousness. We have also referred to the subliminal Intraconscient which can be made accessible by the deepening and inwardization of the consciousness. Now we come to another range, the Circumconscient or the environmental, which can be explored by the progressive widening of the consciousness. It is in this now secret circumconscient that are determined our unseen connections with the world outside us. Currents are constantly pouring upon us from the universal Mind, universal Life, even the universal subtler Matter-field through this enveloping circumconscient consciousness. An uninterrupted widening of our consciousness may finally

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lead us to the acquisition of what is called 'cosmic consciousness'. Here is a relevant passage from Sri Aurobindo's The Life Divine:

"The subliminal has besides a formation of consciousness which projects itself beyond ... and forms a circumconscient, an environing part of itself, through which it receives the contacts of the world and can become aware of them and deal with them before they enter. The subliminal is able to widen indefinitely this circumconscient envelope and more and more enlarge its self-projection into the cosmic existence around it. A point comes where it can break through the separation altogether, unite, identify itself with cosmic being, feel itself universal, one with all existence." (p. 541)

Now, as usual, we append below some illustrative verses from Sri Aurobindo's Savitri:

(1)"The conscious ends of being went rolling back:

The landmarks of the little person fell,

The island ego joined its continent..." (25)

(2)"As so he grew into his larger self (26)

(3)"In beings it knew what lurked to them unknown;

It seized the idea in mind, the wish in the heart;

It plucked out from grey folds of secrecy

The motives which from their own sight men hide.

He felt the beating life in other men

Invading him with their happiness and their grief;

Their love, their anger, their unspoken hopes

Entered in currents or in pouring waves

Into the immobile ocean of his calm.

He heard the inspired sound of his own thoughts

Re-echoed in the vault of other minds;

The world's thought-streams travelled into his ken;

His inner self grew near to others' selves" (26-27)

(4)"The mind leaned out to meet the hidden worlds

And glowed and teemed with marvellous shapes

and hues" (29)

(5)"Ever his consciousness and vision grew;

They took an ampler sweep, a loftier flight" (31)

(6)"A new world-knowledge broadened from within"

(44)

(7)"He grew one with a covert universe....

Forms he descried our mortal eyes see not.

His wide eyes bodied viewless entities,

He saw the cosmic forces at their work

And felt the occult impulse behind man's will."

(44)

(8)"Through an inner seeing and sense a wakening

came." (404)

(9)"All things the eye had caught in coloured lines

Were seen anew ...

And in the shape it sought to seize the soul." (404)

(10) "I glimpsed the presence of the One in all." (405)

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