"Transformation of the Individual
Consecration and Surrender
The relatively simple method of human growth and development is to open to the Force before an activity. This is to open to the Power of the Divine Mother. The Divine Mother is the feminine personification of the Divine, God. In that way the individual suffuses all actions taken with this power, releasing its infinite potential. At a further stage man surrenders to the Force, and makes the Divine the whole reason for his existence, carrying out the Divine Will in the details of his life. Sri Aurobindo also explains an ultimate process of yoga to enable his ultimate human evolution. This he calls the triple transformation (explained below).
The one thing demanded of those serious in following Sri Aurobindo's path is a sincerity in its pursuit, and an intense aspiration for the descent of the Power and the transformation of one's nature.
For those who undertake the path of personal transformation (i.e. yoga), Sri Aurobindo describes three successive phases of this transformation -- the psychic, the spiritual, and the supramental.
In the first phase of the Triple Transformation one moves from the outer surface consciousness to the inner consciousness; the inner mind, the subliminal within, until one reaches the personal soul, i.e. inner psychic consciousness. At the psychic one has withdrawn from the ego consciousness, one is able to understand and control the limitations of one's physical, vital, and mental being, and one is put in touch with the cosmic, universal forces and truths. This is the Psychic transformation.
At a further phase one rises higher in one's being toward higher planes of mind, including Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, and Intuitive Mind. It is an opening to the presence above, an elevation of one's lower consciousness to the higher, and the descent of the higher into the lower. This is the Spiritual transformation, beyond the Psychic transformation.
Beyond that still is the Supramental transformation, where one rises to the level of Supermind, for a radical transformation of the being out of the ignorance that is the foundation of our nature, and into a new functioning that transcends beyond the mental, vital, and physical. One can become the Supramental being. The Triple Transformation are three stages that would happen in succession. (There is of course room for endless variety.)
Just as the universe evolved from matter to life to mind; and the individual parallels that development in his body, his vital, and his mind, so too the society has evolved from a physical state of survival beginning say 100,000 years ago, to a vital stage during the middle of the last millennium, focused on trade, and interaction with others; to a mental stage that he is now currently emerging in which we see the emergence of freedom, democracy, higher organization, education, and individual self-fulfillment.
There is now the possibility of the mergence of the spiritual individual and the the spiritualized society.
When a number of spiritualized evolutionary individuals appear they can come together and form a collative existence, the beginnings of what Sri Aurobindo calls a divine life on earth.
-In this collective divine life, based on the principles of harmony and integrality, he would feel a complete oneness between his individuality and the collective purpose. For example, he would know how and when to lead or rule; or, as necessary, how and when to subordinate himself to the needs of the group. This will be a creative, spontaneous action because he is centered in this truth consciousness that knows the true Truths and experiences the oneness of all at any moment.
-He feels the essential unity and connection with all; because he feels the commonality of spirit, even of substance between himself and others. He is, in one sense, an extended being. Perhaps we can call him a universalized individual.
-What connects such supramentalized individuals into a bond of essential harmony, unit, and oneness is that each individual feels all selves to be an embodiment of a single self. This single self is the physical and soul experience that we are all in essence of the same spiritual Reality, each playing a role in a symphony of Divine unfolding. We feel that same spiritual essence within ourselves, with the environment, and with others. It is a spiritual bond that translates not only as a spiritual connection but as a deep emotional bond; perhaps even a physically sensational bond.
Like individuals, nations are evolving. So is the world collective. There is an ever accelerating movement towards world unity. The emergence of the European Union (which he called for 75 years ago.) is an example. There is a movement from the ego of individual nation to collective association. Unity in multiplicity explains it.
Sri Aurobindo explains his vast philosophy in this area in such books as the The Human Cycle, and The Ideal of Human Unity"
Consecration and Surrender
The relatively simple method of human growth and development is to open to the Force before an activity. This is to open to the Power of the Divine Mother. The Divine Mother is the feminine personification of the Divine, God. In that way the individual suffuses all actions taken with this power, releasing its infinite potential. At a further stage man surrenders to the Force, and makes the Divine the whole reason for his existence, carrying out the Divine Will in the details of his life. Sri Aurobindo also explains an ultimate process of yoga to enable his ultimate human evolution. This he calls the triple transformation (explained below).
The one thing demanded of those serious in following Sri Aurobindo's path is a sincerity in its pursuit, and an intense aspiration for the descent of the Power and the transformation of one's nature.
For those who undertake the path of personal transformation (i.e. yoga), Sri Aurobindo describes three successive phases of this transformation -- the psychic, the spiritual, and the supramental.
In the first phase of the Triple Transformation one moves from the outer surface consciousness to the inner consciousness; the inner mind, the subliminal within, until one reaches the personal soul, i.e. inner psychic consciousness. At the psychic one has withdrawn from the ego consciousness, one is able to understand and control the limitations of one's physical, vital, and mental being, and one is put in touch with the cosmic, universal forces and truths. This is the Psychic transformation.
At a further phase one rises higher in one's being toward higher planes of mind, including Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, and Intuitive Mind. It is an opening to the presence above, an elevation of one's lower consciousness to the higher, and the descent of the higher into the lower. This is the Spiritual transformation, beyond the Psychic transformation.
Beyond that still is the Supramental transformation, where one rises to the level of Supermind, for a radical transformation of the being out of the ignorance that is the foundation of our nature, and into a new functioning that transcends beyond the mental, vital, and physical. One can become the Supramental being. The Triple Transformation are three stages that would happen in succession. (There is of course room for endless variety.)
Just as the universe evolved from matter to life to mind; and the individual parallels that development in his body, his vital, and his mind, so too the society has evolved from a physical state of survival beginning say 100,000 years ago, to a vital stage during the middle of the last millennium, focused on trade, and interaction with others; to a mental stage that he is now currently emerging in which we see the emergence of freedom, democracy, higher organization, education, and individual self-fulfillment.
There is now the possibility of the mergence of the spiritual individual and the the spiritualized society.
When a number of spiritualized evolutionary individuals appear they can come together and form a collative existence, the beginnings of what Sri Aurobindo calls a divine life on earth.
-In this collective divine life, based on the principles of harmony and integrality, he would feel a complete oneness between his individuality and the collective purpose. For example, he would know how and when to lead or rule; or, as necessary, how and when to subordinate himself to the needs of the group. This will be a creative, spontaneous action because he is centered in this truth consciousness that knows the true Truths and experiences the oneness of all at any moment.
-He feels the essential unity and connection with all; because he feels the commonality of spirit, even of substance between himself and others. He is, in one sense, an extended being. Perhaps we can call him a universalized individual.
-What connects such supramentalized individuals into a bond of essential harmony, unit, and oneness is that each individual feels all selves to be an embodiment of a single self. This single self is the physical and soul experience that we are all in essence of the same spiritual Reality, each playing a role in a symphony of Divine unfolding. We feel that same spiritual essence within ourselves, with the environment, and with others. It is a spiritual bond that translates not only as a spiritual connection but as a deep emotional bond; perhaps even a physically sensational bond.
Like individuals, nations are evolving. So is the world collective. There is an ever accelerating movement towards world unity. The emergence of the European Union (which he called for 75 years ago.) is an example. There is a movement from the ego of individual nation to collective association. Unity in multiplicity explains it.
Sri Aurobindo explains his vast philosophy in this area in such books as the The Human Cycle, and The Ideal of Human Unity"
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