Tattva Prabha

New Creation (नवा सृष्टि)

परो निसर्गसिद्धन सर्गसद्भावधायिना ।
अपरिच्छिन्नमात्मानं तपसा मानहेतुना ॥६१॥
परिच्छिन्नमिहांशेन दधानो लोकभुक्तये ।
परिच्छेदेऽपि सम्पूर्णविकासाय विभासते ॥६२॥

61-62) The Supreme is radiant even in the finite for the full blossoming, by His inherent Tapas which upholds the existence of Creation, causes the measuring (of the Measureless) and sustains the limitless Self in limitation by a portion of Himself for world-enjoyment.

Now we have come to the end of the treatise and this is the concluding part in which is summed up all that has been stated in the earlier sections. Here in this double couplet, the efficient cause and the purpose of creation are succinctly stated and this is a reiteration of what was stated in the first section, especially in verses 13, 16 and 20. Now the question how the creation comes to be has been discussed and it is settled that Tapas or Chit-Shakti of Ishwara is the cause of creation and that is natural to him. The low. idea and the vulgar fancy that the Creator created by a fiat or from desire akin to human want has been dismissed with reasonableness and appropriate citations from sacred texts. To release the world-being from his own being is natural to Ishwara in view of the Bliss-nature of the Supreme Sat-Chit-Ananda. This well understood and granted, there does not arise the question why there should be creation at all. But still another aspect of the same question remains: is there a purpose? If there is meaning, then does it pertain to the Creator or to the created? Surely, we cannot presume by any stretch of imagination to scale into the heights of the Spirit and read the intention of the Divine Lord; Creator of the universe; for the Divine Reason and Knowledge and purpose in regard to creation can be understood, as they are, by a consciousness above the human level and one with the Divine Consciousness itself. But it is no forbidden ground for man to rise to his own heights nearer the Realm of the spiritual consciousness and understand the Intention and meaning of creation in terms of the highest reasoning mind. This he is entitled to do inasmuch as no serious thought or action in life proceeds from him without purpose. The idea of purpose being natural to.man, he can translate into the terms of his reasoning, the Divine Intention and purpose as perceived by mystic seers or recorded perceptions in the scriptures or as glimpsed by him in his intuitive moments. Thus the meaning of creation is not sought in terms of the consciousness of the Lord, but is to be understood in human terms: What, then, is the purpose? ‘For the blossoming even in the finite’ is the answer. That is to say, the Divine possibilities of the finite are worked out and made to manifest. The Divine potentialities of the Infinite Self are latent in the finite and it is the revelation of the Divine Nature and infinitude hidden in the finite that is the purpose, of the Limitless Self discovering itself in the limitation of the finite. That ‘It is radiant even in the finite’ shows the dynamic character of its presence. And this is worked out by Tapas otherwise called Maya, that which causes the ‘measuring'. The Infinite revealing itself in the finite, the finite human working out the infinite Divine possibilities in some measure, and a fuller realisation of the possibilities of the Divine in the apparent limitations of man—these are one and the same thing that is the meaning of creation so far as man on earth is concerned.

व्यक्तानि यानि तत्त्वानि तुरीये धाम्नि सन्ततम् ।
तानि गुप्तानि भूलोके जडेऽस्मिन्पाञ्चभौतिके ॥६३॥

63) Whatever principles are manifest for ever on the fourth plane are hidden in this Earth-world of elements, in the Inconscient (Matter).

The self-revelation of the Infinite in the finite is a statement made in abstract terms. It is the discovery or the self-unveiling of the Divine in the human that is meant by the term as the goal of human existence on earth. But it is not a passive presence of the Divine, which is everywhere in the human as well as in the nonhuman, though veiled, that is sought to be revealed, though that is sine qua non for the expression of the unexpressed Divinity in man. It is the sublime principles that are always associated with the Divine Being, Knowledge, Power, Light and the rest that are to be unfolded in their divine splendour in the human being. And this is a dynamic power, not a realisation by man of the Divine presence alone. For this purpose, it is stated that the principles of Truth, Knowledge, Power, Light, etc. are hidden in Matter. But they are quite manifest on the fourth plane. Why the fourth plane is mentioned instead of the Eternal triple Sat-Chit-Ananda above it is due to the fact that we are immediately concerned with the fourth, the Mahas or the Vijnana principle which is the ultimate saviour of this triple world of Ignorance even as it is its first cause. This Earth-world of Matter, the Inconscient has within it folded all the higher principles of life, mind and the rest and they are to be unfolded because of their ever-manifest presence in the fourth world that exerts now in a veiled manner its pressure upon the earth to yield the fruits of its labour.

अजस्रं सच्चिदानन्दं प्रकाशं महसि स्थितम् ।
अधस्त्रिलोक्यामस्माकमप्रकाशमिह स्वयम् ॥६४॥

64) Always, in the Mahas, the Sat-Chit-Ananda is manifest; but here in this triple world below it is by itself unmanifest, obscure to us.

Sat-Chit-Ananda is indeed everywhere present. But in the Cosmic Hierarchy it is in the higher heights and above the Mahas, the fourth world, and as such ‘is ever manifest’ in it. Or in other words, the Sat-Chit-Ananda is viewed in relation to the Cosmic Manifestation; it is the eternal uncreate triple world close to and above and harboured in the fourth, the Mahas, which is the goal for this triple world to which we belong. But this our existence is in the lower rungs of the cosmic ladder, and as such, under the hold of Ignorance, hence it is stated that the Sat-Chit-Ananda is obscure to us here, for it is not manifest as it is above in the Mahas.

भुवो गतिस्तु गुप्तानां प्राणादीनां विकासनम् ।
प्राणस्याऽन्न ऽनुप्रवेशादन्न ं प्राणवदास्यितम् ॥६५॥

65) The course of the Earth's movement causes the blossoming of the hidden (principles of) life etc. Because of the entry of Life into Matter the latter became endowed with life.

It was stated that the Sat-Chit-Ananda, the Power, Light, Knowledge and other properties native to the Higher Half, parardha, of the Cosmic Existence are to manifest here on Earth and that is the meaning and fruit of the Divine self-revelation in man. But the Supermind with all its properties, or even a little of it, does not come down in a leap upon earth. There is an order, as we have seen, in the development of creation itself from the Supreme. Step by step the higher comes to the lower and the lower under the pressure of the higher reveals and brings out the element previously hidden in it, but now awakened by the coming down of its active principle and power from the plenary world high up to which it belongs. Life was already latent, involved in Matter; when life-force from the Life-world which is just next above it entered into it, Life appeared in Matter, Matter evolved Life.

अन्नाद्विकासः प्राणस्य वृक्षादौ दृश्यते यथा ।
मानुष्यके च मनसो विकासश्व तथा स्फुटः ॥६६॥

66) Just as the blossoming of Life from Matter is seen in the trees etc. even so the blossoming of Mind in mankind is quite (manifest) clear.

The first appearance of the life-principle on Earth is nothing else but the fact of the emergence of life submerged in Matter; what was there already in it, came out under the downward pressure of life from above. And this is illustrated in the vegetable kingdom. Once we know that Brahman or Sat-Chit-Ananda is omnipresent, we also understand by that omnipresence, not mere featureless, ever sleepy nothing-like presence, but the One with all the properties native to It, not as they are in the plenary home of. Sat-Chit-Ananda in the upper half of the Creation, but latent and unmanifest, yet having within it the possibilities for manifesting them under suitable conditions when they are ready. This point is to be noted as a characteristic feature of Sri Aurobindo's teaching as distinct from the Vedantic dictum that all is Brahman or that It is everywhere. That its veiled presence is a sign-post for the manifestation of something of itself ultimately is not a proposition admitted or even conceived of in the other teachings, Vedantic or any other. But the Manifestation is gradual, the Divine Purusha coming down from above to meet and unite with the emerging purusha who also is divine in essence but in the conditions of the triple world of Ignorance. Before such a manifestation, the higher Light and Power of the Divine Spirit in its degraded form as mind and life is to be brought out on earth, in Matter. And when it is so evolved, it retains the Matter from which it has come out, in which it is encased as it were. Just as life was present in Matter, submerged, or involved and latent as has been stated earlier, even so the mind representing the principle of Consciousness is present even in the plant-life, though it does not emerge fully as it does in man. We may note in passing that it was given to an eminent Indian scientist in the early years of the century to prove experimentally that the plant life has a nervous system. His references to the ‘perception part’, the plant's ‘power of perception’, ‘the feelings of plants’, in the course of his scientific demonstration left no shadow of doubt in the minds of eminent scientist-observers that the plant-life is charged with consciousness of the kind suited to its nervous system. Indeed the ancients knew that plants have not merely life but a consciousness and feeling of pain and pleasure as can be gathered even from the comparatively later works like the Mahabharata or Manu Smriti. But that was part of their intuitive knowledge, not a truth arrived at by experimental science of the kind known to our times. As Sri Aurobindo remarks: ‘The ancient thinkers knew well that life and mind exist everywhere in essence and vary only in degree and manner of their emergence and functionings. All is in all and it is out of the complete involution that the complete evolution progressively appears.’

That mind in man is an emergence from life in matter points to the truth that the emergent principle sustains itself at the base on principles already evolved and organised in appropriate structure to serve as the foundation for the manifesting element to express itself and function.

विज्ञानस्य विकासः स्यादित ऊर्ध्वं भुवीह नः ।
यस्मिन्सिद्ध भवेत्सिद्ध दिव्यत्वं मनुजन्मनः ॥६७॥

67) Henceforth shall be the flowering of the Vijnana, Supermind, for us on Earth. When that is accomplished, accomplished also is the Divinity of Manu's progeny, Man.

Just as plant-life is a remarkable proof of Nature that life has come out of Matter and having once appeared retains its basis in matter with suitable adjustments, even so mind has come out of life and organised in living matter proceeds with its functionings of organised life initially in the animal and with an increasing self-expression and development it finds its level of higher possibilities in man.

This emergence of mind is not the last term of the gradual evolution of man, the spiritual being. For it must be noted, what is very often ignored in the religions, rather religious philosophies, that man is a complex proposition. He is indeed a soul, essentially the Spirit—a modicum or shadow or reflection according to philosophical preferences, something very substantial in the core of his being. But he is not only that; he is much else, a spiritual being finding himself in a mind encased in living matter. The evolved elements of mind, life and matter are his property and sheaths, instruments for stability and action and thought. But thought is not the highest instrument or principle of the spirit's power of manifestation. The next higher principle of light, power and knowledge—called Vijnana, the Supermind—has to emerge from the highest region of the most evolved and therefore most developed mind. And this emergence of the Vijnana is not a one-sided labour, is not possible without the coming down of the Vijnana from its native plane above. And when it comes down, touches and processes upon its own element involved in the mind, the latter opens and receives and accepts it for its organisation and rule here in man when he lives in the material body. Thus, we can say that the Supermind is the Divine principle of action and thought; it is an instrument of the Purusha, the spiritual Being, organising itself in the human vehicle with all its instrumental faculties and at the same time transforming them to suit the new conditions in the new situation imposed on the evolving soul. Be it noted that the evolution of life and mind is, strictly speaking, the evolution of the soul in plant-life or animal or human mind; it is really the evolution of the soul of which life and mind are bodies and vehicles. It is not the Divine or divinised soul, though it is divine in the sense that all existence is Brahman. It is yet to be divinised and that transformation is a natural effortless consequence of the next higher principle of supermind getting down for self-organisation in the human being. It is only then the human evolving soul recognises its identity with the Supreme Spirit above and in the act of recognition commences the change of the mental into the supramental, the human into the Divine, the mortal into the Immortal. When the Vijnana is settled and organised, then the human being, son of Manu, God the Thinker, the mental Person realises his title to get divinised, himself and along with him his triple body of matter, life and mind by dint of the Divine Organ now established, called Vijnana by the Upanishad, Supermind by Sri Aurobindo.

परिणामक्रमद्वारः स नवः सर्ग उच्यते ।
निर्वाह्यः परया शक्त्या भुवि जीवति मानवे ॥६८॥

68) This is called the New Creation of which the evolutionary order is the passage; it could be accomplished, while man lives on earth, by the Supreme Shakti.

This manifestation of the Vijnana hitherto latent and unmanifest of which we have so far spoken is called the New Creation; for creation of anything does not proceed from nothing, na asato vidyate bhavah, and nothing comes out of nothing. It is, therefore, a new formation of what was already existent and immanent, a thorough overhauling and reconstruction of the old stuff of the triple instrument of matter, life and mind and a complete reorganisation of the whole being necessitated by the entry into it of the superior Divine Principle for the emergence of its own part, rather human counterpart, submerged portion in the lower being.

The means of this new creation is the evolutionary order and his has been stated. Such a profound change is certainly a new creation; for the Power, Light and Knowledge that the Divine Principle of Supermind brings are such that it creates a new mode of living and acting in the human being; the difference between the animal mind and the human is not less than that between the mental and supramental. Therefore it is stated that such a creation could be achieved by the supreme Shakti, the inalienable Power of the Divine Purusha. Instead of mentioning the Purusha, Shakti is mentioned here as achieving the task. This is done to lay stress upon. the principle of Female Energy who is ever in the forefront of all creation while she is backed by her own reserve and capital and yet the active presence of the Purusha. The two are one and the same Divine Truth, but at the summit of Manifestation the bifurcation takes place for the purpose of Cosmic development and the fulfilment of the diverse functions in the unity of all existence. Therefore it is stated that Para Shakti could work out this creation and not human endeavour or tapasya alone.

अयं भगवतः श्रीमदरविन्दमहामुनेः ।
सर्गार्थदर्शिनः सारो दर्शनेभ्यः समुद्धतः ॥६९॥
तन्वी तत्त्वप्रभा सेयं कलितेह कपालिना ।
रसिकानामिवार्धेन्दुकला कुर्याद्विदां मुदम् ॥७०॥

69-70) This (work) is extract from the Teachings of Sri Aurobindo, the great sage who sees into the meaning of Creation. This slender Tattvaprabha (Lights on the Fundamentals) was composed by Kapali; let it bring joy to the learned as the moon's digit does to the aesthetic minds.

These are the two concluding couplets which take the place of a brief colophon in Sanskrit. Teachings of Sri Aurobindo are based upon his perceptions. Hence the Sanskrit word darsana in the plural is used not in the sense of philosophy as in the Six Systems but in the sense of direct knowledge founded upon the seeings of truth as distinguished from speculative thought and hypothetical philosophies, religious or intellectual. The essence of these Teachings is this extract. It is slender, thin in size, tanvi, a term suggestive of the charm associated with a slim figure of the fair sex. It is compared to the Moon's digit that appeals to the aesthesis of refined souls. In the crescent moon the digit is luminous, but the whole lunar orb is quite perceptible. This compact work also is clear in so far as it has found expression, but the whole teaching of Sri Aurobindo of which this is the essence is doubtless understandable from the arc-like sketch of this Tattvaprabha (Lights on the Fundamentals).