Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Letters
Fragment ID: 22054
The ascending scale of being presents then seven notes, matter, life, mind, Supermind, bliss self, self of conscious energy, self of primary conscious existence.
But the experience we get as we ascend in the scale leads us to the discovery that what in evolution appears subsequent is prior in reality. Life evolves in matter, but was pre-existent to matter, latent, omnipresent, waiting for matter to be ready to be manifest – which it does when the movement of energy reaches a certain intensity.
Mind evolves in embodied life, but was pre-existent to matter and life, latent, omnipresent, involved, a hidden cause of action, waiting for life and matter to be ready for its manifestation which comes when the movement of energy has reached a greater intensity. So Supermind is prior to mind, latent, omnipresent, involved even in matter and life, a hidden cause of action and waits for mind to be ready for its manifestation, and since Supermind acts only in spirit, spirit too must be there, pre-existent, latent, omnipresent, involved, a hidden cause of action. But spirit is not dependent on the evolution of Supermind for its manifestation; it can appear to our mentality, to our life consciousness, even to our physical mind.
The true nature and [...]1 of this process appear in the descending scale. There we see the true development of the universe.
Spirit of self-being develops self of conscious energy which supports its self of cosmic bliss, which acts on the finite by Supermind, which offers its differentiations to mind, relates them in life, fixes them phenomenally in body of material susbstance. This is the descending scale by which universe is created or made sensible to embodied soul.
But in the material world, all is first involved in matter and has to find itself by a development from material being and with material being as its support and basis. The evolving process of this self-discovery of the universal existence produces the phenomenon of evolution of higher and greater from lower and lesser principles which we call the ascending scale of being.
This phenomenon baffling now to the reason becomes a self-evident proposition when we observe the descending scale and find involution to have preceded evolution. The phenomenon arises inevitably from the nature of our being.
1 A word here is not legible.