Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Triple Transformation - Track 404

Psychic Being as Sakshi, Anumanta and Karta

Q: Can you explain this control more clearly?

The control? Now let us dwell upon this point a little more closely. The psychic entity which is the source of body, life and mind is divided from the body, life and mind by a veil, because of a specific purpose. There is a veil between the psychic entity and the body, life and mind, a veil which is deliberately created not because of any mistake or error or any kind of incapacity. There is a purpose why that veil has been created. The kind of formation of the body, life and mind which is supposed to be created can best be created if first a veil is created and if it is gradually withdrawn. Then only the kind of shape that is required to be made of the body, life and mind can be created. The purpose is to create the right shape of body, life and mind, that is to say body, life and mind are the expressions, they are the rivers flowing from the soul. The purpose is to create the right type of shape of these rivers. Now these rivers will flow in a particular way when in the first place a veil is created between the soul and the body, life and mind, and then that veil is gradually lifted up, and then there is a full flow of the psychic entity, then the right shape will be created.

You might imagine for example that, supposing you are told to build a temple of a certain type, certain shape and there are masons who are going to work out the building of the temple and you are the architect. Now if the masons are first told fully -- as to what kind of temple is to be built, they will not be able to grasp it. So, being an architect, a good architect you allow the masons to work out ordinary things although you are behind everybody but the masons go on working in their ordinary way with their limited capacities, without the vision of what kind of temple is to be built. If they are told, they will become so perplexed and so very incapable that they will never be able to carry it out. So you keep yourself away and allow them to work out. As they develop more and more and the things are being shaped better and better, the architect comes more and more into the forefront and gives more and more knowledge to the masons of the real plan that is to be worked out, and then they become conscious of it and then the real thing is built. Now, similar is the relationship between the psychic entity and the body, life and mind. The psychic entity is like an architect and body, life and mind are like the masons, and what is to be built is the Divine temple on the earth, each one of us is to be the Divine temple -- each one of us -- that is the purpose. So ultimately our whole aim is that every human body is to be the temple of God. This is the aim. Now that aim can be fulfilled if first there is a veiling, and then that veil is gradually lifted. Now the psychic being becomes more and more shaped, more and more capable if the body, life and mind begin to develop more and more in the flow which comes from the psychic entity itself. If gradually the veil is thinned and as you thin down this veil, the control of the psychic entity over the body, life and mind becomes greater and greater. The body, life and mind more and more happily obey the orders of the psychic entity. Instead of being ministers who are arrogant and self-willed, they become ministers who are keen to turn to their king for advice and for guidance. They admit, they acknowledge, the soul as their soul.

So the basic problem in life is first to become aware of the veil, secondly to be aware of what lies behind the veil, thirdly to thin down the veil so that the psychic entity's power flows more and more powerfully, more and more clearly in the body, life and mind, and then to become aware that the psychic being has the power to control and to guide. And when the body, life and mind become aware of the will of the psychic entity -- not only the power of manifestation but the will of the psychic entity -- you not only see the psychic entity as a witness, not only as a sakshi, but also as anumanta, one who gives the consent, and then you realise further that he is not only anumanta but he is also the karta, he is the real doer. And if the will of the psychic entity begins to formulate itself more and more, then the psychic being develops much more clearly, much more sharply. The one in whom the psychic being rules, you find a certain mark of personality, you find the psychic personality where the body, life and mind are the slaves of the soul and they are very keen to obey the orders of the psychic being. When this is not present then the body, life and mind are the masters, and they regard the soul as exiled and they are not prepared to listen to the soul at all. So there is a difference between the two basic types of personalities, personalities in which the soul has become aware and whose will is therefore able to manifest in the body, life and mind, and personalities which are not at all aware and therefore they are acting in their egoism and they believe themselves to be the masters and deciders of their destiny. The egoistic man and the vitalistic man or the man of opinions and self will, are the two basic types of personalities and then there are, of course, many other combinations. When the physical is predominant you get the physical man, when the vital is dominant you get the vital man, when the mind is dominant you get the mental man, and then there are many kind of mixtures of these aspects of personality, so you get various varieties of personalities in the world.

So in our process of development it is not enough to become aware of manomaya purusha, pranamaya purusha, annamaya purusha and of the purusha that can withdraw from the world, but you have to become aware of the Chaitya Purusha. This awareness is very important if you really want to have both silence and activity simultaneously, and because without it you cannot really help in this world which is a world of action. This is all the necessity of this development. When this psychic entity becomes more and more powerful, and the psychic being is formed then all our parts of nature, body, life and mind, as it were, get x-rayed by the psychic being. The veil becomes thinner and thinner, so under the light of the psychic being the motives of our body, life and mind become x-rayed and they are seen very clearly. The purity and the knowledge of the psychic being radiates very clearly on the body, life and mind. The psychic entity is always pure, that is it's very nature. It is the delegate of the Jivatman, which is the eater of honey for ever, eternally. That Jiva is ever free. The experience of this building of the temple of the Divine is made by the Jivatman which is free, through the activity of the soul which is its delegate. Therefore basically this soul manifests only what is given to it by the Jivatman, and Jivatman manifests only what is given by God Himself. So you might say that God alone is the real doer; the real architect is God who is reflected through the Jivatman and through the psychic being. And even body, life and mind actually move from the soul but because of the veil, this is not known, so the real doer is actually God but we do not know it. The body, life and mind believe that they are the doers. That is why the Bhagavad Gita says that people believe that they are the doers, and actually the doer is God Himself. Although activity flows from God, because of the veil that activity flows in a distorted fashion. But this distortion becomes corrected when this veil is thinned little by little and ultimately lifted out. When this flow of the psychic entity becomes very powerful and body, life and mind are suffused with the light of the psychic being, then we say a psychic transformation has taken place. This in brief is the first step of the psychic transformation, when the psychic being begins to infiltrate more and more powerfully, when every nook and corner of the being is exposed to the light of the psychic being and everything is put in tune with the psychic being.

Now, let me read out two passages from here ...

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