CHAPTER II The Two Negations I. THE MATERIALIST DENIAL He energised conscious-force (in the austerity of thought) and came to the knowledge that Matter is the Brahman. For from Matter all existences are born; born, by Matter they increase and enter into Matter in their passing hence. Then he went to Varuna, his father, and said, “Lord, teach me of the Brahman.” But he said to him: “Energise (again) the conscious-energy in thee; for the Energy is Brahman.” Taittiriya Upanishad.¹ 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 Spiri

Chapter VI Reality and the Cosmic Illusion The Eternal is true; the world is a lie. Vivekachudamani. 1 The Master of Maya creates this world by his Maya and within it is confined another; one should know his Maya as Nature and the Master of Maya as the great Lord of all. Swetaswatara Upanishad. 2 The Purusha is all this that is, what has been and what is yet to be; he is the master of Immortality and he is whatever grows by food. Rig Veda. 3 Swetaswatara Upanishad 4 All is the Divine Being. Gita. 5 BUT so far we have only cleared a part of the foreground of the field of inquiry; in the background the problem remains unso

CHAPTER XIII The Divine Maya By the Names of the Lord and hers they shaped and measured the force of the Mother of Light; wearing might after might of that Force as a robe the lords ofMaya shaped out Form in this Being. The Masters of Maya shaped all by His Maya; the Fathers who have divine vision set Him within as a child that is to be born. Rig Veda.¹ EXISTENCE that acts and creates by the power and from the pure delight of its conscious being is the reality that we are, the self of all our modes and moods, the cause, object and goal of all our doing, becoming and creating. As the poet, artist or musician when he creates does really no

Chapter VII The Knowledge and the Ignorance Let the Knower distinguish the Knowledge and the Ignorance. Rig Veda.1 Two are there, hidden in the secrecy of the Infinite, the Knowledge and the Ignorance; but perishable is the Ignorance, immortal is the Knowledge; another than they is He who rules over both the Knowledge and the Ignorance. Swetaswatara Upanishad.2 Two Unborn, the Knower and one who knows not, the Lord and one who has not mastery: one Unborn and in her are the object of enjoyment and the enjoyer. Swetaswatara Upanishad.3 Two are joined together, powers of Truth, powers of Maya,—they have built the Chil

CHAPTER XX Death, Desire and Incapacity In the beginning all was covered by Hunger that is Death; that made for itself Mind so that it might attain to possession of self. rihadaranyaka Upanishad.¹ This is the Power discovered by the mortal that has the multitude of its desires so that it may sustain all things; it takes the taste of all foods and builds a house for the being. Rig Veda.² In our last chapter we have considered Life from the point of view of the material existence and the appearance and working of the vital principle in Matter and we have reasoned from the data which this evolutionary terrest

CHAPTER VIII Memory, Self-Consciousness and the Ignorance Some speak of the self-nature of things, others say that it is Time. Swetaswatara Upanishad.1 Two are the forms of Brahman, Time and the Timeless. Maitrayani Upanishad.2 Night was born and from Night the flowing ocean of being and on the ocean Time was born to whom is subjected every seeing creature. Rig Veda.3 Memory is greater: without memory men could think and know nothing.... As far as goes the movement of Memory, there he ranges at will. Chhandogya Upanishad.4 This is he who is that which sees, touches, hears, smells, tastes, thinks, understands, acts i

CHAPTER XV The Supreme Truth-Consciousness One seated in the sleep of Superconscience, a massed Intelligence, blissful and the enjoyer of Bliss.... This is the omnipotent, this is the omniscient, this is the inner control, this is the source of all. Mandukya Upanishad.¹ WE HAVE to regard therefore this all-containing, all-originating, all-consummating Supermind as the nature of the Divine Being, not indeed in its absolute self-existence, but in its action as the Lord and Creator of its own worlds. This is the truth of that which we call God. Obviously this is not the too personal and limited Deity, the magnified and supernatural

CHAPTER IV The Divine and the Undivine The Seer, the Thinker, the Self-existent who becomes everywhere has ordered perfectly all things from years sempiternal. Isha Upanishad.1 Many purified by knowledge have come to My state of being.... They have reached likeness in their law of being to Me. Gita.2 Know That for the Brahman and not this which men cherish here. Kena Upanishad.3 One controlling inner Self of all beings.... As the Sun, the eye of the world, is not touched by the external faults of vision, so this inner Self in beings is not touched by the sorrow of the world. Katha Upanishad.4 The L

CHAPTER XIX Life Pranic energy is the life of creatures; for that is said to be the universal principle of life. Taittiriya Upanishad.¹ We perceive, then, what Mind is in its divine origin and how it is related to the Truth-Consciousness,—Mind, the highest of the three lower principles which constitute our human existence. It is a special action of the divine consciousness or rather, it is the final strand of its whole creative action. It enables the Purusha to hold apart the relations of different forms and forces of himself to each other; it creates phenomenal differences which to the individual soul fallen from the Truth-Consciousness take the appearance of rad

CHAPTER XVI The Triple Status of Supermind My self is that which supports all beings and constitutes their existence.... I am the self which abides within all beings. Gita.¹ Three powers of Light uphold three luminous worlds divine. Rig Veda.² BEFORE we pass to this easier understanding of the world we inhabit from the standpoint of an apprehending Truth-Consciousness which sees things as would an individual soul freed from the limitations of mentality and admitted to participate in the action of the Divine Supermind, we must pause and resume briefly what we have realised or can yet realise of the consciousness of the Lord