Part Three. Writings from the Arya (1914 – 1921
Arguments to The Life Divine
Chapter XXXIII. The
Progress to Knowledge[[Chapter XXXIII of The Life Divine as published
in the Arya was extensively revised in 1939 – 40, becoming the present
Book Two, Part II, Chapter XVII, “The Progress to Knowledge – God, Man and
Nature”.]]
ARGUMENT
To rise out of the sevenfold Ignorance into the
integral Knowledge is the progress of man’s being; it is to grow in all his
complex existence and consciousness into the full possession and enjoyment of
his whole and his true being. – He starts with three categories, himself, Nature
or cosmos and God, and though he tries to deny any two of these in order to
affirm the third only, he cannot really succeed; for he is neither separate nor
sufficient to himself, cosmos also is not sufficient to itself, but points
always to an infinite, one and absolute behind it, and to affirm the Absolute to
the exclusion of these two others leaves man unsatisfied and cosmos unexplained.
– In affirming himself man has first to put himself in front and act and feel as
if God and the world existed for him and were less important to him than
himself; this is his egoistic phase necessary to disengage his individuality out
of Nature and as if against her and to bring it out into force and capacity. He
has to affirm himself in the Ignorance before he can perfect himself in the
Knowledge. Afterwards he has to seek for himself in Nature and God and others,
but it is still himself that he seeks to know and possess and his own perfection
or salvation which is his motive. – In the progressive enlargement of his
knowledge he gets rid of his sevenfold ignorance; of the temporal by growing
into his eternal being with its pre-existence and subsequent existence in Time;
of the psychological by enlarging his self-knowing beyond the waking self into
the subconscient and superconscient; of the constitutional by realising his
spiritual being and its categories; of the cosmic by discovering his timeless
self; of the egoistic by realising the cosmic
consciousness; of the original by opening to the Absolute of whom Self,
individual and Nature are so many faces. – At the same time he realises the
unity of himself and Nature in the first three steps of knowledge, of himself
and God in the others; of himself with all beings relatively in Nature and
absolutely in God; of God and Nature because it is the Self who has become all
these beings and the nature of the Lord which is apparent in cosmos. – The
knowledge of Nature leads him to the same results as soon as he goes beyond
Matter and Life to Mind; for he discovers a subconscient and superconscient, a
soul in Matter, and perceives a supernature in which he realises the Self, the
Spirit, the Absolute. – In the quest of God he begins by seeing him through
Nature and himself, crudely and obscurely at first, till he finds more
luminously the one Truth behind all religions; for all seize on the Divine in
many aspects and their variety is necessary in order that man should come to
know God entirely. – When he arrives at the unity of his knowledge of God, man
and Nature, he has the complete knowledge, the sense and goal of humanity’s
progress and labour and the sure foundation of all perfections and all
harmonies.
realising the cosmic
consciousness; of the original by opening to the Absolute of whom Self,
individual and Nature are so many faces. – At the same time he realises the
unity of himself and Nature in the first three steps of knowledge, of himself
and God in the others; of himself with all beings relatively in Nature and
absolutely in God; of God and Nature because it is the Self who has become all
these beings and the nature of the Lord which is apparent in cosmos. – The
knowledge of Nature leads him to the same results as soon as he goes beyond
Matter and Life to Mind; for he discovers a subconscient and superconscient, a
soul in Matter, and perceives a supernature in which he realises the Self, the
Spirit, the Absolute. – In the quest of God he begins by seeing him through
Nature and himself, crudely and obscurely at first, till he finds more
luminously the one Truth behind all religions; for all seize on the Divine in
many aspects and their variety is necessary in order that man should come to
know God entirely. – When he arrives at the unity of his knowledge of God, man
and Nature, he has the complete knowledge, the sense and goal of humanity’s
progress and labour and the sure foundation of all perfections and all
harmonies.