Lecture VIII Chap. 13. The Divine Māyā The problem is : how can the One, Infinite and Eternal, —free from all limitations, and relativities—create something that is finite,—a world of conflict, suffering, pain and evil? How does the One Being manage to become the world ? To the human mind the difficulty remains because mind is finite and cannot, therefore, follow the infinite, the Absolute, in its process easily. The explanation of the process may be the three-fold movement of the Absolute,—or, what to the mind appears to be the triple movement. The first process seems to be the involution of the Divine into the Inconscient. That which we see or know as the I

APPENDIX THE ORIGIN OF THE IGNORANCE It is rather difficult to make up one's mind to speak on a subject that has taken the philosophers of the world life-long efforts to arrive at what might be called even a working solution of the problem, the origin of the Ignorance. It would be daring and presumptuous to think that within a short span of time we could solve ultimately and finally the problem which has baffled great philosophers. I will try to make out some points along the lines not merely of metaphysics, but along the line of spiritual experience which gave Sri Aurobindo solutions for all the problems of life which beset humanity today. It is not that there is no met

Lecture IV Chap. 7. The Ego and the Dualities Chap. 8. The Methods of Vedantic Knowledge We have seen that the creation of the ego and dualities was a necessary step which has been symbolized in some schools of Religion and Philosophy as the fall of man. The fall of man is this separation from the original Divine Consciousness and assumption of limitations in which the separation becomes dynamic, and has consequences in what is called human life. When it is called a "fall" it only means it is a lure. Adam attracted by Eve is the Purusha—the subjective consciousness attracted by, or lured by, the potentialities of Nature which he feels within h

Lecture IX Chap. 14. The Supermind as Creator Chap. 15. The Supreme Truth-Consciousness We are in the 14th chapter and I would like to compress, if possible, the 14th and the 15th together. We have worked up to what might be called self-possession of the One on one side : the Infinite is, of course, the one Satchidananda. There is the Self-possession of the One and then there are the Many or the multiple on this side. World of ignorance, infinite succession of the movement of the many. There are these two things going on : One and the Many. These many are changing constantly because they flow in time. The flux of the many that we see on this side, flo

Lecture XIV Chap. 27. The Sevenfold Chord of Being Chap. 28. Supermind, Mind and the Overmind Māyā The relation between Matter and the Omnipresent Reality operating as Supermind is made clear in the three chapters that have preceded. They explain why a cosmic existence has manifested out of Transcendent Satchidananda whose nature is infinite existence, consciousness and bliss. The world could have been an infinity of figures without any fixed order or relation. But we find it is not so. The reason is that the Satchidananda acts first as Supermind. Therefore cosmic law is not to be imposed from outside, it acts from inside as automatic development, or rather as

Lecture VII Chap. 12. Delight of Existence : the Solution The general considerations of this chapter might be analysed for our understanding as an explanation of the will to live. We will first take up only general considerations before the chapter proper. The will to live has been one of the powers noticed by some philosophers as the cause of continuation of existence. Nietzsche, I think, expressed it first—will to exist or will to live and will to power. Then men like Dr. Schweitzer translate this "will to live" into "will to love." If the "will to conquer", and "will to expand" are transformed by man's sense of cultural values into "will to l

Lecture V Chap. 9: Pure Existent Let us leave man out of our view and look at the universe. What does one see ? He finds there a boundless energy in infinite space, infinite movement in eternal time : an infinite existence and an infinite movement of energy. This existence and this movement is far more than the human individual or human collectivity. Man begins with the ego as the centre of the universe and thinks that the aim of the universal existence and movement is related to him. This is not true. Existence is for itself and not particularly related to human aims and fulfilling human ideas. We do not know its aim but we can see that its aim is independent