Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume II - Part 3
Fragment ID: 11884
The mental realisation [of the one self] does not bring this result [the ending of delusion (moha) and grief (śoka)], the spiritual does1. In the Vedantic experience “seeing” means also becoming, one is that one self, identified,– all action of Nature seems to one a movement in that one self which is itself not touched by it. Therefore there is no moha or śoka. That is, when one can keep the experience and when it is complete. Even if one has the experience only as something within while the movements of the vital continue on the surface, yet these movements are felt as external and superficial, not really belonging to oneself – the self within remains untouched, calm, griefless, at peace. If the vital also is transformed into this consciousness, then even on the surface grief becomes impossible.
1 The correspondent asked for a clarification of verse 7 of the Isha Upanishad, which ends, “...how shall he be deluded, whence shall he have grief who sees everywhere oneness?” – Ed.