Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Triple Transformation - Track 803

Comprehending, Apprehending and Projecting Consciousness.

 This game being very complex, at a certain stage a decision was taken that a very specific kind of delight had to be experienced. Actually speaking you see that in this world delights are always of many kinds, we enjoy colours of different kinds and each colour has a special kind of delight, and there are numerous kinds of tastes we enjoy. Similarly there are many kinds of things in the world; each one has a specific delight. It is one of the wonders of the world that although delight is the same but the forms and the intensities and the kinds which are available are so varied. The joy of the mango is different from the joy of the apple, both are joyous experiences but, each one of them is very specific. In the infinite consciousness of the Supreme there are various kinds of enjoyments possible, but there is one specific kind of delight which is not available in that huge dance which is taking place. What is that specific delight? It is not that because of the absence of that delight anything is incomplete; one does not feel that one must have specific kind of delight. When there are hundreds of delights available there is no need of any specific delight, particularly when you can have any delight whenever you want. Even the specific delight of which we are going to speak is also available but available under certain conditions, that is the only point. In condition it is not immediately available. If you want that kind of delight, certain conditions are to be fulfilled, and you are capable of fulfilling those conditions also. What is that specific delight which is not immediately available there but which you are capable of getting if you want it or if you can create certain conditions? It is the delight of discovering something which gets hidden. It is a specific kind of delight i.e. the recovery of something which gets hidden. In other words, there must come about a process of hiding and then there must be a gradual recovery and when that which is hiding becomes completely uncovered then the kind of delight that emerges out of it is a very specific, a very intense kind of delight.

Question: What exactly is that something that gets hidden?

The Entirety, Transcendental, Universal, individual, everything.

Question:  Becoming aware of delight in all this?

Everything, of totality, the hiding of the totality.

Question:  And realizing that it is the totality?

That’s right that is that specific kind of delight. Now that kind of delight can arise only if there is a hiding process first. This hiding process is a gradual process. Gradual process because hiding always implies a veil; a veil has to be created. If you are a weaver then you know that it takes time to weave out a piece of cloth. Similarly if once you decide that you want to have that specific delight and you are capable of creating conditions, then what happens is that gradually you begin to weave a veil, you begin to fabricate a veil. The creation of this veil is, in the first place quite difficult because the nature of the Divine is originally of the nature of light – luminosity – and wherever there is light you cannot easily make a veil. Even if you make a veil it will be transparent in the beginning, because of light. So the first step of making a veil is to make a transparent veil. What is the process of making a veil at all? What is the mechanics of it? How do you make it? How do you fabricate it?

Question:  There has to be a pattern.

There should be a pattern so what is the process of it? How do you weave it out? There are three processes. The first is the original process which I have described already: the eternal manifestation of light and the dance of Krishna. This is the first status. This is called the comprehending conscious. There has to be an intense movement, a universal movement of dance. If that is not there already, then the next step of veiling does not arise. First of all there must be an intensive process of the universal dance.The relationship between the individual, Supreme, Transcendental and Universal and the rhythms of particulars, all this great play should be already on. While that play is going on, the next step of veiling starts here, where each individual gives a stress more upon himself than upon the play, a greater attention is paid to oneself rather than to the play. That is, while dancing you might say, the rhythms of the dance are allowed to be worked out by themselves while you yourself remain away from the actual movement of rhythms. This stress itself is the first veiling; it is transparent at that time. You are aware that you are doing this deliberately for a specific kind of joy in the movement. You allow the play to be left to itself as it were and you are only witnessing. This creates a very special kind of rhythm of the movement. In technical terms this is called the movement of apprehending consciousness. In the comprehending consciousness everything is equable, yourself and the play, you are equally spread out, equally rhythmed and there is a complete distribution of energy, but in this apprehending consciousness there is stress upon the individual and less stress upon the play itself, but it is hardly visible. This distinction between the first and the second is hardly visible. But then, the third movement out of that becomes possible. Once you are withdrawn to some extent, then another kind of play begins in which you can on the one hand remain withdrawn and yet you can project yourself into the play. This is called the projecting consciousness. The second was the apprehending, the third is called the projecting consciousness. When the individual projects himself into the play, then he can experience at the same time, three statuses of himself, simultaneously. On the one hand he knows that he is spread out all over equally, secondly he is aware that he is withdrawn from the whole play, and thirdly that he projects himself into the play.

Question:  This is the case when the ego arises?

No. Not yet, it will come later on, not yet.

Question:  Can you repeat the names of these stages?

The comprehending stage, apprehending, and the projecting.