3. Supramental Sight: Knowledge by identity between the subject and the object, between the seer and the seen, is the basic attribute of the supramental gnosis but this supramental knowledge or experience by identity carries in it as a secondary part of itself a supramental vision. This vision can come even Page-71 before there is any identity, as a sort of emanation of light from this secret underlying unity. This vision may at times be detached from the identity as a separate power. The truth or the thing known is then felt as an object subjectively seen in the self. The supramental eye can see a hundred converging and diverging motions in one

Part One Prolegomenon Section I: Introduction While studying with attention Sri Aurobindo's epic poem Savitri we come across two highly striking verses occurring at two different places almost a hundred pages apart. The first one is: "Out of our thoughts we must leap up to sight" (276)' while the second one is: "A progress leap from sight to greater sight." (177) We said "striking" because in the consideration of the intellectuals thought is a far greater power than mere sight. Our sight is often erroneous in its reporting and misleading in its transcription. Not only that: the visual sense can only give us the superficial image of things and i

3. Inner Vision: Its Necessity and Value: The faculty of subtle sight is a great aid to the aspirant who has the necessary intelligence and clarity of mind and a power of intuitive discrimination. Visions are one key to unlock the doors of the other worlds of cosmic manifestation that lie beyond and behind the physical. Visions can offer the Sadhaka a first contact with the Divine in his forms and powers. Vision is often a first door of entrance into the Page-35 inner planes of one's own being and consciousness. Visions can be full of meaningful indications that may help one to acquire greater self-knowledge and knowledge of

6. Consciousness: Its Quadridirectional Movement: There are four different types of "looks" possible for the normal waking consciousness of man: a "downlook", an "inlook", an "outlook" and an "uplook". To understand well the real significances of these rather odd terms, we have to remember that what we habitually know ourselves to be is not all we are: it is no more than "a bubble on the ocean of our total field of existence". At first glance this may come as an assertion altogether unbelievable but still it Page-40 remains a fact that apart from the very insignificant and restricted part of our waking individual con

7. Sight in the Inconscient: The Inconscient is at the basis of this material world, where the Divine has, as it were, hidden himself in what seem to be his opposites, Non-Being, Insentience and Non-delight. This Inconscient seems to have created the material universe by its inconscient Energy, but this is only an appearance. For in the Inconscient there is an involved Consciousness with endless possibilities, a concealed and self-imprisoned Divine, imprisoned in Matter but with every potentiality held in its secret depths. (Letters on Yoga, p. 26) While referring to this Inconscient Sri Aurobindo has used many striking expressions. Here are just a few

2. Hemispheres of Existence: Our total being has a higher and a lower hemisphere of functioning, the aparārdha and the aparārdha of the ancient mystic Wisdom. There is a separation between these two hemispheres, very much acute in practice although unreal in essence. In reality, the origin, the continent, the initial and the ultimate truth of all that exists anywhere in the universe is the triune principle of Sachchidananda: it is a transcendent Page-68 and infinite and absolute Existence-Consciousness-Bliss which is the very nature of the divine Being. Thus Sachchidananda is the One with a triple aspect functioning different

10. The Intermediate Sight: Its Lures and Risks: We have been speaking about the visional experiences of the inner realm of consciousness but we should not forget Page-45 that this field of vision is a mixed world and there is in it not only truth but much half-truth and error. For the rash and unwary sadhaka to enter into it without sufficient preparation and wise guidance may bring much confusion, misleading inspirations and false lights and voices. Sri Aurobindo has sounded a note of serious warning against these alluring but often dangerously misleading visions and experiences in his writing "The Intermediate Zone

6.The Vision of the One in the Many: This one is a vision every Sadhaka on the Integral Path aspires after and seeks to acquire as the sure and secure Page-76 point d'appui in the ups and downs of his long tortuous journey of Yoga. Indeed, the progressive elevation and enlargement of the divided and limited egoistic sight will lead the sadhaka to a harmonising vision of the One in All and of All in the One. The Sadhaka is then able to see that all becoming without exception, irrespective of the plane in which it manifests, is bom in the Being of Sachchidananda who himself, of course, transcends all becomings and is always their Lord, Pr

2. Failure of Ordinary Human Sight: Sight is no doubt a far better instrument than the thinker's intellectual thought. But this sight cannot surely be equated with the normal sight of man whether physical or vital or even mental. Our habitual vision suffers from many serious disabilities. For example, it sees the part and misses the whole; its perception is limited to a short interval of time and cannot span the perspective of eternity; it hovers on the surface and cannot penetrate into the depths of a thing; it is easily satisfied with the form and does not hunt after the essence; etc. Because of all these and similar deficiencies, Sri Aurobin

Foreword: Insights into Sight In his introduction to the present monograph on The Ascent of Sight in Sri Aurobindo's Savitri Jugal Kishore Mukherjee says that he has been a lover and adorer of Savitri for the last five decades. His association with it is perhaps even longer than that going back to the time prior to the publication of its first volume in 1950, when it was coming out in several cantos in the Ashram periodicals. But to love and adore Savitri is to live in its bright, marvellous and unfailing grace. It is a means of doing sadhana itself, a sadhana that also progressively ascends to the ever-growing beatitude of the most wondrous and e