Bhagavagd Gita - Session 27- Track 2708

What are the means of becoming infinite; the individual becoming infinite?

This is the big process of Yoga. I will come to that but later on, because we are at present concentrating now upon one question: how the Supreme which is self-luminous, how in that supreme luminosity, the phenomenon of ignorance has arisen? This is the question we are dealing with. Your question is: how can the ignorance ultimately can become luminous again? So, that will be another process; so, we shall come to that a little later. We are at present considering the process by which ignorance arises. At present still ignorance has not come about. All this is still a process of formations.

This first formation which is ‘universal’ and in which ‘individual’ has formed in this peculiar way, is what is called “supramental manifestation”. The first step of this manifestation is called ‘supramental step’, in which there is no ignorance anywhere at all. And this is what the Rig-Veda says: ṛtaṁ ca satyaṁ. In the first manifestation there is nothing but ṛtaṁ ca satyaṁ, only satya and ṛta. As a result of Tapas, what has first come out is only this. In this entire realm, all formations which are particular, in all formations which are infinite, the universal, in all formations which are individuals, there is nothing but the vibration of the sat, one sat is all manifestation of the Light. And ṛtaṁ: ṛtaṁ means not only Truth but the Right; there is not only Light but also the Right. Everything is in the right place. Here there is no error; there is no mistaking, no misplacement, no illusion, no delusion of any kind. Now, ‘this’ is the first ṛtaṁ ca satyaṁ. Without this you cannot explain the origin of the ignorance, if you don’t grant this basis.

Ignorance can arise only as a subordinate movement of ‘this’. Ignorance is not ‘original power’: original power is Para Prakriti. It is not as if the Divine’s power is ignorant. Sometimes it is argued that ignorance is original: it is anadi and ananta. It is argued that the whole world is a manifestation of ajñāna; that is you come out of ajñāna, the world vanishes. But this is not what the Gita says; this is not what the Veda says. The Veda says: the first manifestation is ṛtaṁ ca satyaṁ, not ignorance! This is very clear, the Vedic teaching is: the first manifestation is “Truth and Right, and Light”. Ignorance is afterwards: tato rātryajāyata. Ignorance is not original. This is the Vedic teaching: tato rātri-ajā...: ‘There after comes the ignorance’.

Now, we are in search of the “Golden Lid”: this is the supreme face of the Divine: satyasya mukham. What is satyasya mukham? mukham is a form. What is that form? A form which is ‘universal’, the form in which there are billions of forms, particulars, and a form in which the individualities have been formed, which are all centres without any circumference: this is a satyasya mukham. This is where thousands of lights, raśmi(s), the rays of Light are all united together, so there is perfect perfection.

Now, there happened something as a result of which the ‘Golden Lid’ is created. And your question was: how did this come about? What is the origin of it? The answer is: ‘Tapas’. Tapas brought out all this. Tapas is the capacity of formation. It can formulate. But it can formulate this, what is called the ‘Golden Lid’ only when the complete face of the Truth is already manifested; without it, even this Golden Lid cannot come; it is a subordinate movement. And how does this movement arise? Now for that purpose Sri Aurobindo explains that we have to realise that the individual plays the capital role by the help of Tapas. The individual, each individual is nothing but the Supreme Himself looking at Himself from a specific point of view. When we say that individual is a centre, what does it mean? It only means that there is a very specific point of view: the Supreme looking at all these things, looking at His own supreme Light, supreme face, kalyāṇatamaṁ rūpam, the supreme most auspicious form.

The Divine is capable of looking at this form from millions of points of view; each point of view is a centre. Now, each one of them is what is called Jiva. Jiva is nothing but the individuation which can look at the Supreme, at the Universal from millions point of view, and each point of view is what is called Jiva. Each one of us is a position in this totality and from that point of view, you look at the whole. It is like having a totality which has walls, which has so many mirrors, and then you look at each mirror; each mirror gives a view of the whole. But what is the difference between this mirror and the other mirror? His position…from which position it mirrors the whole.