The Ascent towards Supermind, Part II, Chapter XXVI - The Ascent towards Supermind 502

I am complicating the matter further deliberately because that will give an experience of what intuitive knowledge is like. First of all, I said that you cannot think without thinking of space and time. Secondly, I said that the moment you think of space, the concept of infinity becomes implicitly present. The moment you think of time the concept of eternity becomes implicitly present. I go one step farther and say that the very concept of infinity implies something more than infinity, something that is beyond infinity. The moment you think of eternity, you think of something more than eternity. The very concept is such; you can’t hold that concept without there being something more than infinity, more than eternity. Once again, I am not trying to draw out your process of thinking, so as to arrive at this conclusion immediately but let me take only one small example.

All time is duration, you will at once see that all time is duration, you cannot think of time if there was no duration. All duration means succession of moments, without succession there is no duration. If there is succession it must be divisible. All succession implies divisibility. If there is duration of five minutes, five minutes are divisible into two and half minutes. Two and a half minute is divisible in one and quarter minutes and then you go on and on and you come to the conclusion that this division can never end. Half of half always remains and that half can be further divided into another half and that too another half. Unless there was something which is not divisible, this whole process cannot exist. If you can always go on dividing, dividing, dividing, it does not end anywhere. Therefore, it follows there must be something which is not divisible then only it can end but that which is not divisible is not duration because all duration is divisible. You must arrive at a point which is not divisible. That which is not divisible is not duration, it is beyond time. All time is duration and we could see now – that time could not flow until you posit, which is not duration. That which is not duration is something beyond time. The very concept of time implies something that is beyond time. So, you arrive at a concept of what is called the timeless. These are all intuitive concepts. You don’t need do go out in the world, just by examining your very mental consciousness, ordinary process of thinking you arrive at this conclusion.

In arriving at this conclusion you see at once. You will have noticed that although I have used arguments, or I seem to be arguing but actually there is no argument in it. What I am trying to say is, I am just opening the eyes to see, as I said first of all.

I repeat the whole argument, or so called argument. Anything that you think implies the concept of space and time. It is impossible to think without space and time being present in your thought. Space and time implies the concept of infinity and the concept of eternity. This concept when analyzed in terms of time as we saw just now, all time is duration. All duration is divisible, and this divisibility is endless. If it is endless, it could have never started, before starting it must cross half, it could have never started. Therefore, there must be something which is indivisible, that which is indivisible cannot be duration. Therefore, it must be beyond time. This is the whole concept that you arrive at.

You perceive that there is a timeless on whose basic bedrock the time can flow. These are basic concepts of intellectual intuition, in the very operation of intellect, they are present. Even though we come to know by this explicit argumentation but you will see that they were already embedded in your consciousness and this kind of an exercise that we did only brings out, what is already embedded in your consciousness. It is seen to be present implicit in your consciousness. Therefore, you might say consciousness is nothing but the concept of timeless and time, timeless and eternity. The consciousness itself can be defined as this, − the concept of timeless and eternity, the concept of the spaceless and infinity. This is one of the best definitions of consciousness itself.

What does consciousness consist of? We normally think that consciousness consists of our awareness of this thing or that thing or that thing or at the most it consists of the consciousness of our being of our existence. I exist then we see that this ‘I exist’ can be expanded into larger and larger domains of existence, until all is included in it. When all is included, you arrive at the concept of space and time. When you arrive at the idea of space and time, you arrive at eternity and infinity. And when you arrive at this, you arrive at the timeless and the spaceless. All these are the implications of the consciousness. So, consciousness can be defined as a concept for intuitions of the timeless and spaceless, eternity and infinity.

When the intuitive mind operates then these concepts are consciously present. At present they are not consciously present, we need do all the exercise to become aware of them but in the intuitive mind these are automatically present. We normally cannot hold these ideas constantly present but to be able to hold these ideas constantly present the best method would be, this is one of the proposal that if you can silence your mind, if the mind become silent then all that is implied to your consciousness becomes explicit, comes into the forefront. Because what is it that is preventing these implicit concepts from coming into the forefront? It is the riot of our mind; the mind is constantly whirling round and round. As a result, the implicit concepts of consciousness are not able to come into the forefront. If the mind is silenced then you will constantly live in the intuitions of eternity, spaceless and timeless. But there is a second method also because to silence the mind is very difficult task. If you can and the method is of bhakti, method of silencing the mind is usually associated with the path of knowledge − Jnana yoga, but if you have bhakti than the inner heart can open itself.