Section II: Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on Savitri (1) The Mother to Mona Sarkar: "All the secrets that man possessed, He [Sri Aurobindo] Page-6 has revealed, - as well as all that awaits him in the future; all this is found in the depth of Savitri. But one must have the knowledge to discover it all, the experience of the planes of consciousness, the experience of the Supermind, ... He has noted all the stages, marked each step in order to advance integrally in the integral yoga. All this is his own experience, and what is most surprising is that it is my experience also.... Each object, each event, each real

Sixth Element: Sense Action: All of us know that in our normal "seeing" of a physical object, a very complex neurological-electrical process goes on behind our optical, organ, which alone gives rise to the visual sense action. Without this accompanying physiological process, so we believe, no sight is possible. But this too is an erroneous presupposition. What is true is that all "seeing" arises basically out of a direct knowledge offered by the consciousness but because of our egoistic separative way of functioning we have divided the world into "self" and "not-self", into subject and object, and, then, in order to have the knowledge of the so-separat

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

Second Element: Space in Which the Object is Placed: One almost universally accepted assumption is that there can be only one type of space, the physical space, and a physical object can be placed only in that physical space and viewed there. But this is not true according to the well-attested discoveries of occult science. There are many more Page-16 spaces than this gross physical space, sthulākāsa. Indian mystical tradition has named them as cittākāsa, cittākāsa, vyoma, etc. We cannot but recall in this connection Sri Aurobindo's magnificent description of the 'soul space' in Book II Canto 14 of Savitri. Here are a few strik

THE ASCENT OF SIGHT IN SRI AUROBINDO'S SAVITRI The Ascent of Sight in Sri Aurobindo's Savitri Jugal Kishore Mukherjee Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education Sri Aurobindo Ashram Pondicherry First Published: 9 September 2001 © Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 2001 Published by Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Pondicherry Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press Pondicherry - 605 002 PRINTED IN INDIA

Fifth Element: Eye the Organ of Vision: In our normal daily experience we proceed on the assumption that our physical eye is the only possible organ of vision and all sight has to depend on the proper employment of this physical eye. But this assumption too is not true to fact. Being governed by the overpowering experience of our physical mind we easily suppose that the fundamental thing in any "seeing operation" is the impression made by an external object on the physical organ of sight and that the only business of our mind which happens to be the present central principle of our consciousness is to receive the physical impression produced and its n

-022_ ^Originating Sigh^ - Its Greatness.htm 5. "Originating Sight": Its Greatness: According to the Old Testament theology, at the beginning of creation God said, "Let there be Light" and "there was light." Thus the "original Sound", parā vāk, became the primal agency behind the process of cosmic manifestation. The Upanishadic Rishis looked at the issue from a somewhat different angle. In their vision, at the very beginning everything remained unmanifest and dormant in the bosom of the absolute immobility of the passive Brahman. When the Supreme opened his "closed eyes" (unmìlana) and "he saw" (sa aiksata), then only the creation or the manifestation began its stupendous journey.

Seventh Element: Mind the Only Sense: That mind is the real determinant in one's sense perception and not the sense organ nor the complex processes going on there was demonstrated by Dr. Leslie Weatherhead before a team of distinguished physicians and surgeons in the course of his experiments on a hypnotised subject Ethel already referred to on p. 5 of this essay. Dr. Weatherhead reports: "Ethel's senses could all be controlled. If, when she was Page-24 Hypnotised, I told her she would hear nothing, she could not detect a loud noise even close to her ears. If I told her sugar was bitter, she would spit it out, and she could smell s

Part Two The Ascent of Sight in Savitri 1. Failure of Thought: Although the intellectuals are rightly proud of their faculty of rational thinking, "thought" fails miserably as an instrument for the acquisition of true Knowledge and Wisdom, also for the discovery of the deeper truths of existence and life. Hence the call of Sri Aurobindo: "Out of our thoughts we must leap up to sight..." (276) Here are a few representative verses from Savitri touching the same theme. (1)"I groped for the Mystery with the lantern, Thought. Its glimmerings lighted with the abstract word A half-visible ground and travelling yard by yard I

First Element: Object Viewed: The points to note in this case are: 1.A physical object placed in the physical space is not the only object possible. 2.Apart from the well-known physical world, there are in fact many other supraphysical worlds of reality. Each of them contains its corresponding beings, objects and functioning forces. All these beings, objects and forces can very well present themselves as objects of vision to faculties suited to their reception and, what is more notable, all these different types of faculties of vision are accessible to the consciousness of man if he only cares for their development. 3.Even a physic