Sri Aurobindo Institute of Indian Culture. (SAIIC) Shillong workshop, 26,Oct -7 Nov, 2006 - 19. Divinisation of the Humans

Big task of humanity is to train people from lower levels. Take, for example, in Mahabharata we are told the greatest warriors were killed in large numbers. In terms of knowledge what must have been their knowledge? You can imagine but before that also there were so many battles, so many people were killed. There have been migrations, various kinds of massacres, invasions. It is a huge cauldron as it were; big boiling pot, things are thrown into it. Sometimes it ripens, sometimes it is cooked, sometimes all are cooked, all kinds of things happen in the world. Unless humanity rises in a gradual manner this is the main theme of Sri Aurobindo book The Human Cycle, that unless humanity reaches a certain level of mental plane, unless rational age becomes very ripe, assurance of continuous knowledge was always difficult. Sri Aurobindo says that now the rational age has come to a climax, rationality has spread sufficiently in the world. It of course obstructs spiritual knowledge, but because of that Sri Aurobindo says that one of the great boons of materialism is, it will not accept knowledge unless materially it is shown to be true. This is the demand of materialism.

Therefore the Mother said even the blind must see. This is the Mother's answer, even the blind must see, because then only it's a proof. Our whole task is to lead our knowledge to that extent. That is what Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have tried to do, our whole task is that. At one time when somebody said that now that Mother, you have become supramental. Mother said: can you touch it? So what you are speaking is poetry. This was Mother’s answer about herself. It is only poetry, you can say in poetry: now you are glorified, but for scientists it is only poetry unless you can prove physically a supramental body. What was the Mother’s challenge? That the new kind of body will be manifested just as the human body has come out, out of evolution, nobody can reject it, but in evolution it has produced a human body, which you can see physically it is working. Similarly, their task is to create a supramental body in which there are no digestive processes, no procreative process, and yet it is powerful, capable, breathing and talking to you, you can touch it. Mother said this is the proof, and this is the proof that she wants to create, till that time it is all poetry.

Sri Aurobindo’s yoga is a pure science and nothing less than science, it is super science. Whatever they have written, whatever they have done is with that precision. Why Sri Aurobindo wrote such as a big book like The Life Divine? He could have said in five sentences, ‒ I have seen supermind. Supermind has decided to come down on the earth, it is surely going to be established on the earth, finish QED. I’m saying it. I know it. No. He has taken every possible doubt that is possible against his statement and shows the limitations of this doubt and established it intellectually, but The Life Divine is intellectually perfect. This I can tell you after having studying lot of philosophical works, my own personal experience that The Life Divine intellectually perfect. If anybody is pure intellectually he'll be convinced; if he is truly intellectual. There are many people who claim to be intellectual, but they are not intellectual. If you are truly intellectual and you go to the end of intellectual questioning, you will be convinced that is The Life Divine.

Purushottam’s power of manifestation is everything. The relationship, of supreme Purushottma and Aditi is also a part of knowledge. What is the relationship between the two? What Dr Sen quoted day before yesterday, “I exist not without him. He remains unmanifest without me.” So she is the power of manifestation. So without me he remains unmanifest, but I depend on him for my existence. So Purushottma and Aditi have always this kind of relationship. To know all this and to know my individuality in this totality is integral knowledge.

Now is it clear: what is occultism and spirituality, have I answered your question? Your question was: what is the difference between occultism and spirituality? Is it answered? Yes, in essence. Not yet in Brahman expansion, only in essence, it's a very big subject, but we have put down into a small pot, all right now I can move forward. Yes, any other question you have at this point?

Between 1920 and 1926 all this knowledge was completed and much more. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother had already reached before 1920, even before, the consciousness of Purushottama and Aditi. The question was: what is the intention of Purushottama and Aditi in regard to this world which is moving forward at present, what is the intention? This was a very important question. This world is moving as it is moving. We are all in the process of developing. What is their view, how do they look upon this world? There are many answers to this question and which answer is correct?

One answer is that this world actually doesn't exist. If you go there many people say the world vanishes, tuccha, meaningless, doesn’t exist, it is an illusion, it is one view. Another view is it is only a play of God, it’s Lila. What is playing? See all the children playing in the world, sometimes they weep, sometimes they laugh. This whole world is a sport. If you’re tired of it, come out of it and go to the feet of god, you're free. This is all that God is about, is this world meaningless, only play and nothing else?

They discovered that there is a will. This is a new discovery which Sri Aurobindo and the Mother made. This answer was to some extent it was glimpsed, you might say there was a glimpse of it but now it has come out freely, explicitly and with complete assurance. The identity of himself was there, but you know it is not easy to find out the Will of the Supreme Lord and the Aditi that many people might imagine. You have yourself to be a fit instrument first of all to reach them, and you have to be an instrument, absolutely new and capable of praying at that point to please tell us what is your will. Even then He will not answer because this knowledge cannot easily be passed on because we will not even understand it.

If a small child says: please explain to me, how shall I become the president of the world, I want to become president of the world. How will you tell the child how to be president of the world? First of all, you will have to say that post does not exist, and yet he would say I want to be president of the world, so it is something like this, only analogically I am saying. Therefore even if they answer a question you may not have the possibility of understanding that answer.

Now answer they gave to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother was: our Will is that this world as it is moving should be divinized. It is not an illusion, it is not a sport from which we want you to come out as soon as possible. We want humanity to so work out so that this world is divinized. This is the answer that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother obtained. That is the first thing. Now that this world should be divinized has been glimpsed by many people, many prophets have glimpsed it. Even Christianity speaks of the kingdom of God on the earth. But this knowledge therefore you have got to see what is the difference. Many people profess they have in the world the kingdom of god already. Instead of saying the world can become divinized, it is a question of your seeing, seeing the world as kingdom of god it is already the kingdom of god. God is everywhere. You see, it is question of your blindness, open your eyes, you see everywhere God, it is God everywhere, flowers smile at you, God is smiling, sun is shining, God is shinning, it is already God. Where’s the question of divinization?

So even this answer has to be understood and that can be understood only when you are ready for understanding. Now Sri Aurobindo and the Mother were capable of doing that. They were able to get this answer and that is why Sri Aurobindo said that I am certain that this destiny of the world is to divinise the world. This is certain, certain, and that at present is not divinised, even if you see the world as god's world, it's all right. Even if you see the world as God and God as the world, this can be possible, it is to say to a patient, look this pain that you are having is also God’s grace. It is true in a sense. The patient doesn’t say: my dear my pain doesn’t go from here. Pain has to be cured. So merely saying to see everything as God is not an answer, it is really to be realised, it’s not only to see bliss in it, many have done it but to manifest it. To see God in the world is one thing, but to divinise the world and to manifestGod in the world so that everywhere in that world, you see God manifest; Sachchidananda should be manifest in everything in the world, people should also experience that it is Sachchidananda. The task that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother took up is such a tremendous thing, Mother said: even the blind will be obliged to recognize it. You see this is the word that Mother has used, it’s a very scientific statement. Mother’s proposition is not a kind of a poetic statement, it is a scientific thing. A blind man will be able to see God on the earth, and Mother said: yes, that is what is to be done, this is intention of God. Even this is not enough.

First to say that human beings can understand God, it’s your basic question. Sri Aurobindo answer is the following: that human consciousness is an open door, which is not the case with regard to the others. In the evolution of human consciousness, gradually it has evolved and it is true that one can't make a transition from one species to the other but with the human consciousness something new has happened. Therefore to speak analogically human consciousness has reached such a point that, although its door is limited, it can open, first very slowly, it can open further, it can open further, that is why Sri Aurobindo has called it an open door. It can open very slowly, but it also has a possibility of complete opening. This is why human consciousness makes a great difference in the whole evolutionary process. There is one special chapter of Sri Aurobindo Man and the Evolution that the arrival of man is one very important step. The very definition of man is a self-exceeding instrument, self-exceeding instrument, others are not self-exceeding. This is the one specialty of man and Sri Aurobindo has emphasised it. If man were also a species like other species, then you can say that, well, you have to get another species by which God will be realised by that species, we human beings will never be able to do it. We can think about it, we can speculate about it, we cannot do that but that is negated by the fact that man himself, his very nature of consciousness, is self-exceeding. To be a man is to be self-exceeding. What is manhood of man? His constant striving to exceed himself, because of that reason this is possible.

Now this is possible doesn’t mean, therefore, doesn’t mean that it will be possible just like that, the proposition that you make is important and it has to be understood, it's not easy. If anybody says oh now, we make a jump, don't do that. An integral yoga, therefore, is not to be given like a child's play. You should not; it would spoil everybody's evolutionary movement. Therefore, it's not a religion to be propagated, make a propaganda: let everybody become Aurobindoite, not at all, it’s not a question of becoming Aurobindoites, it’s a question of being divinized. Divinization is very difficult, Sri Aurobindo himself has said: the most difficult aim that we have put forward is this. Therefore we have to understand it is very difficult, but a stage has been reached where it can be given and it can be proposed. That is why, because of Sri Aurobindo saying this, we can talk about it, otherwise we could have only hush-hush, but you do only this much afterwards what is there you will not know. Like many people used to say, like many teachers used to say, don't come to me to get knowledge, you are not yet worthy of it, but this knowledge now can be given because of Mother has said, Sri Aurobindo has said: generalisation of yoga is now the intention of nature. We have reached that stage. Why? Because of the great effort which Sri Aurobindo the Mother have made, that work is done. If it was not done, then it would be unwise to give it like this as we are now doing, we should not have done it, even then we have to be very careful. We should not be carrying beyond the limits. We have to say that this is a very difficult process, first of all purify yourself. This first demand is very important, first, you purify yourself, when you purify you become more fit, then more fit but at present when I am expounding the totality, I am saying that this is possible and Sri Aurobindo and the Mother actually brought this knowledge and they say this because of so many things which have been done. And this is what happened between 1920 and 1926, what did they do during this period? The following: have I answered your question?

The way in which the world has evolved there has been a great deal of interaction between man and god and god himself has manifested through Christ, Krishna and many other prophets, either avatars or prophets, they were all necessary. It is true, without that all this would not have been lifted but that is the nature of this whole human consciousness, at human level all these possibilities arise, even a prophet could not have given a message to an animal to man he can give a message. So human consciousness is an open door, and therefore all this help it has come from above has been necessary and useful, and it is true that by interaction of these too that we are all evolving together.

Sir during your discourse first I was thinking whether this was deliberate or not and then when that particular term got repeated then I knew that you mean it, several times you said gods, gods of the cosmos, gods of the universe and now at the end we have come to the devtas. So sir what exactly is your understanding in the light of Mother and Sri Aurobindo’s writings and teachings and principles. What exactly is this concept of oneness of god and what exactly is this concept of gods….Don’t you think if a proper understanding with a finality …then because of the variety it involves there may be disunity in manifestation and hence the discordant and discordance among the religions and gain the same old problems might arise. So what exactly would be your view?

It was a very good question. Actually I mean that is very, very relevant to what I have to say now. So I will deal with that question now. Question was:

Q: If the world is to be divinized, how can it be divinized?

It was a very important question, but, to the extent to the beliefs were there of this particular idea during the Vedic times, to do the experiment.