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Part Three
Writings on Vedanta
These incomplete writings (c. 1902 1916) were not revised by Sri Aurobindo for publication. They have been transcribed from his manuscripts and arranged in chronological order.
Four Fragments
1
The answer to all philosophical problems hinges on the one question, What is myself? It is only by knowing man’s real self that we can know God; for whatever we may think or know, the value of the thought and the knowledge must hinge upon the knower, the means of knowledge and
Vedanta’s final & single answer to all the questions of philosophy is contained in a single mighty & ever-memorable phrase, So ‘ham. I am He or more explicitly or to the question of the inquirer अहं ब्रह्मास्मि, I am Brahman. Cutting through all tremors & hesitations, scorning all doubt or reserve it announces with a hardy & daring incisiveness the complete identity of man & God. This is its gospel that the individual Self who seems so limited, thwarted, befouled, shamed & obscured with the bonds & shackles, the mud & stains of earthly life and the pure, perfect and illimitable Being who possesses & supports all existence, to Whom this vast and majestic Universe is but an inconsiderable corner of His mind and infinite Time cannot end and infinite Space cannot confine and the infinite net of cause and effect is powerless to trammel are equal, are of one nature, power, splendour, bliss, are One. It seems the very madness of megalomania, the very delirium of egoism. And yet if it be true? And it is true. Reason can come to no other conclusion, Yoga ends in no less an experience, the voices of a hundred holy witnesses who have seen God face to face, bring to us no less wonderful a message. And since it is true, what eagerness should not fill us to
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Ego or Self is an Ens which is not knowable by sight or any of the senses; it can only be grasped in the innate conception, “I am”. This intuitive and inherent self-perception is called, subjective illumination; for there are two kinds of direct knowledge, one called subjective, the other objective illumination and the difference is that while objective illumination or as it is called the Supra-intelligence has for its object both the known & unknown, the object of subjective illumination is that which is perpetually & inevitably known, since even the supra-intelligence is illumined or revealed by the light of the Ego. For as it is said “The subtle self has consciousness for its
3
It has been said with a singularly subtle ineptitude that the existence of the One Formless Nameless Indivisible without Qualities & without desires may be admitted; and the existence of a multifold world of phenomena may be admitted; but that the one excludes the other. Since it is not possible that the Absolute should limit itself even illusorily; for any such limitation is an act and an act implies an object; but an Existence without desires can have no object to serve and cannot therefore act. Moreover the Infinite excludes the possibility of the Finite. This is a juggling with words. The Infinite instead of excluding the Finite supposes the Finite. When we think of the Infinite, it is not at first as a blind & limitless expanse but as the Finite Existence we know spreading on & on without beginning or limit. Having once formed the idea of the Infinite, we may then by an effort of the Mind blot out that vision of finite things informing it and imagine infinity as a blind & limitless expanse; but even so Infinity only exists to us on condition of the possibility of the Finite; it is there possible, latent, manifested in the past, to be yet manifested in the future. Destroy the possibility of the Finite and the Infinite becomes unimaginable. This is expressed in the Puranic philosophy of the Parabrahma absorbing all things into
Page – 338 himself for a while only to put them forth again. Nor is the objection that an Act implies an object, in itself tenable; an act may be pure & objectless, ceasing indeed to be an action in the ordinary human sense of the word but not in the philosophic or scientific sense. The sun acts when it shines though it has no object in doing so (जडवत् समाचरेत्). The Visishtadwait recognizing that the Infinite implies the Finite within it, bases its ontology on the fact; the Adwait points out however that the existence of the Finite is only a possibility and when it occurs implies no real change in the Infinite, nothing essential and permanent, but the objectless action of the Absolute, the working of a force which as it creates nothing real and lasting may well be called Maya or illusion. All turns on whether the Finite is a real i.e. an essential & permanent existence or a mere condition of thought. If the former, the Visishtadwaita view is correct, but if the latter the Adwaita must claim our adherence.
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[.....] the next few centuries. This issue I prefer to call the issue between Science and Hinduism, not because there are not in the world other great embodiments of the old religious & moral spirit, but because Hinduism alone has shown an eternal & indestructible vitality and still more because Hinduism alone does not on the side of reason stand naked to the assaults of Science. And when I speak of Hinduism, I do not refer to the ignorant & customary Hinduism of today, which is largely a Buddhicised and vulgarised edition of the old faith, but the purer form which under the pressure of Science is now reasserting its empire over the Hindu mind. Page – 339 |