Mirror of Tomorrow (Archives) :: Towards the Intermediate Race—Amal Kiran on the Mind of Light: by Anurag Banerjee

Main Page

Previous:	Amal Kiran’s Contribution to the Study of Indian Prehistory—by Akash Deshpande
Next:	Poetry Time: 2 May 2009

Towards the Intermediate Race—Amal Kiran on the Mind of Light: by Anurag Banerjee

by RY Deshpande on Fri 01 May 2009 04:26 AM IST | Permanent Link | Cosmos

In 1949, when the Bulletin of Physical Education was launched, Sri Aurobindo was requested by the Mother to initiate it with an article of his. On her request Sri Aurobindo dictated a series of eight articles. The initial articles were meant to reveal the value and importance of sports and gymnastics, but the later articles took a different and new turn and revealed some extraordinary facts in detail regarding the functioning of the Supermind. The articles were brought out in the form of a booklet titled The Supramental Manifestation upon Earth in 1952, that is, two years after the departure of Sri Aurobindo. This booklet was rightly termed as the sequel to The Life Divine by KD Sethna (Amal Kiran). In the sixth article titled Supermind in the Evolution, for the first time we come across the term ‘Mind of Light’. The chapter begins with the following words:

A new humanity would… be a race of mental beings on the earth and in the earthly body but delivered from its present conditions in the reign of the cosmic Ignorance so far as to be possessed of a perfected mind, a mind of light which could be a subordinate action of the supermind or Truth-Consciousness and in any case capable of the full possibilities of mind acting as a recipient of that truth and at least a secondary action of it in thought and life. It could even be a part of what could be described as a divine life upon earth and at least the beginnings of an evolution in the Knowledge and no longer entirely or predominantly in the Ignorance. (p. 87)

Despite its immense significance only a handful of Aurobindonian authors have truly understood the actual importance and among them, the most notable are Amal Kiran, RY Deshpande and Georges Van Vrekhem. In this present article, we shall attempt to discuss Amal Kiran’s views on the Mind of Light.

What is the Mind of Light? The Mother has simply described it as “the physical mind receiving the supramental light.” The definition is indeed simple but profound in meaning. But how did Sri Aurobindo who was the possessor of the Mind of Light describe it and its characteristics? Let’s quote a few passages from the booklet The Supramental Manifestation upon Earth to illustrate the definition and its traits elaborately.

[1] A new humanity means for us the appearance, the development of a type or race of mental beings whose principle of mentality would be no longer a mind in the Ignorance seeking for knowledge but even in its knowledge bound to Ignorance, a seeker after Light but not its natural possessor, open to the Light but not an inhabitant of the Light, not yet a perfected instrument, truth-conscious and delivered out of the Ignorance. Instead, it would be possessed already of what could be called a mind of Light, a mind capable of living in the truth, capable of being truth-conscious and manifesting in its life a direct in place of an indirect knowledge. Its mentality would be an instrument of the Light and no longer of the Ignorance. At its highest it would be capable of passing into the supermind and from the new race would be recruited the race of supramental beings who would appear as the leaders of the evolution of the earth-nature. Even, the highest manifestations of a mind of Light would be an instrumentality of the supermind, a part of it or a projection from it, a stepping beyond humanity into the superhumanity of the supramental principle. Above all, its possession would enable the human being to rise beyond the normalities of his present thinking, feeling and being into those highest powers of the mind in its self-exceedings which intervene between our mentality and supermind and can be regarded as steps leading towards the greater and more luminous principle. This advance like others in the evolution might not be reached and would naturally not be reached at one bound but from the very beginning it would be inevitable: the pressure of the supermind creating from above out of itself the mind of Light would compel this certainty of the eventual outcome. (p. 98)

[2] Mind founded in life developed intellect, developed its types of knowledge and ignorance, truth and error till it reached the spiritual perception and illumination and now can see as in a glass dimly the possibility of the supermind and a truth-conscious existence. In this inevitable ascent the mind of Light is a gradation, an inevitable stage. As an evolving principle it will mark a stage in the human ascent and evolve a new type of human being; this development must carry in it an ascending gradation of its own powers and types of an ascending humanity which will embody more and more the turn towards spirituality, capacity for Light, a climb towards a divinised manhood and the divine life. (pp. 99-100)

[3] In the birth of the mind of Light and its ascension into its own recognisable self and its true status and right province there must be, in the very nature of things as they are and very nature of the evolutionary process as it is at present, two stages. In the first, we can see the mind of Light gathering itself out of the Ignorance, assembling its constituent elements, building up its shapes and types however imperfect at first and pushing them towards perfection till it can cross the border of the Ignorance and appear in the Light, in its own Light. In the second stage we can see it developing itself in that greater natural light taking its higher shapes and forms till it joins the supermind and lives as its subordinate portion or its delegate. In each of these stages it will define its own grades and manifest the order of its beings who will embody it and give to it a realised life. Thus there will be built up, first, even in the Ignorance itself, the possibility of a human ascent towards a divine living; then there will be, by the illumination of this mind of Light in the greater realisation of what may be called a gnostic mentality, in a transformation of the human being, even before the supermind is reached, even in the earth-consciousness and in a humanity transformed, an illumined divine life. (pp. 100-101)

[4] The Mind of Light is a subordinate action of Supermind, dependent upon it even when not apparently springing direct from it, in which the secret of this connection becomes evident and palpable. (p. 103)

[5] In the Mind of Light when it [Mind] becomes full-orbed this character of the Truth reveals itself though in a garb that is transparent even when it seems to cover: for this too is a truth-consciousness and a self-power of knowledge. This too proceeds from the Supermind and depends upon it even though it is limited and subordinate. What we have called specifically the Mind of Light is indeed the last of a series of descending planes of consciousness in which the Supermind veils itself by a self-chosen limitation or modification of its self-manifesting activities, but its essential character remains the same: there is in it an action of light, of truth, of knowledge in which inconscience, ignorance and error claim no place. It proceeds from knowledge to knowledge; we have not yet crossed over the borders of the truth-conscious into ignorance. (pp. 103-104)

[6] …the Mind of Light is a transitional passage by which we can pass from supermind and superhumanity to an illumined humanity. For the new humanity will be capable of at least a partly divinised way of seeing and living because it will live in the light and in knowledge and not in the obscuration of the Ignorance. (pp. 104-105)

[7] In the order of the evolutionary descent we stand in the Mind of Light on that border and a step downward can carry us beyond it into the beginnings of an ignorance which still bears on its face something of the luminosity that it is leaving behind it. On the other hand, in the ascending order of the evolution we reach a transition in which we see the light, are turned towards it, reflected in our consciousness and one further step carries us into the domain of Light. (pp. 105-106)

The process of transformation involves the transformation of the physical mind first, followed by the physical vital which would become the second centre of operation after receiving the supramental light; it would be followed by the supramentalization of the physical proper and thus, the complete divinization of the nature of the earth will be executed. Now, this physical mind has to be converted into the Mind of Light in order to be utilized for the process of supramentalization of the body vital and the body matter.

However, in his monumental book titled The Vision and Work of Sri Aurobindo,Amal Kiran makes us cautious that it would be unwise and wrong to assume that the Mind of Light was created by “a linking up of the human mental with the Supermind in the manner of Spiritual Mind’s ladder.” He warns us of another misconception which makes us believe that the Mind of Light is “the last rung of Spiritual Mind’s ladder, an already existent plane on its own, in which that ladder continues at the end where Higher Mind is stationed, instead of breaking at this end and leaving the human mental a level of ignorance.” (The Vision and Work of Sri Aurobindo, p. 109)

Regarding the passage (on p. 108 of The Supramental Manifestation upon Earth) where Sri Aurobindo writes about the Mind of Light as another development “in this series of the order of existence and as the last word of the lower hemisphere of being, the first word of the higher hemisphere,” Amal Kiran explains that it is something which is not present in any of the hemispheres but “forms between the two in the course of time a link of transition by which the human passes towards and fuses with the superhuman, a state in which the lower itself finds a culmination in Light and becomes a plane of knowledge like those of the higher hemisphere, a plane which preludes the realisation of the whole higher hemisphere in the human.” (p. 110) He adds: “It is when we look at this link after it has been formed, this state after it has got realised, that it stands as “the last of a series of descending planes of consciousness in which Supermind veils itself by a self-chosen limitation or modification.” It does not stand already existent but takes shape as a result of the Supermind’s action upon the human mental: it is a conversion of ignorance into Light, making, as Sri Aurobindo says, “human mentality an adjunct and a minor instrumentation of the supramental knowledge.” ’ (p. 110)

At the same time, Amal Kiran reminds us: “Sri Aurobindo also speaks of ‘the pressure of the Supermind creating from above out of itself the Mind of Light’ at a certain stage of earth’s development and, although he frequently refers to the replacing of the human mental ignorance by the Mind of Light, he nowhere alludes to the Mind of Light descending, as he does to Spiritual Mind descending or Supermind descending—an omission impossible if the Mind of Light were an pre-existent plane above the human mental instead of ‘the physical mind receiving the supramental light.’ Besides, if this Mind were a plane belonging to Spiritual Mind’s ladder, Sri Aurobindo would certainly mention it in The Life Divine where he gives a detailed description of the various rungs.” (Ibid., p. 110) But he admits that with reference upon to the passage mentioned above, two suggestions could be thought of. What are they? The first one is that when the Mind of Light takes shape, it is a “creation of Supermind on the same principle as are the grades of Spiritual Mind, so that it seems to be not Supermind itself in the physical mentality but a newly arrived member of the family of Spiritual Mind.” (Ibid., pp. 110-111) The second one is that the Mind of Light “gets its membership in this family pretty low in the scale, for it appears to be a state inferior to Higher Mind though still a state of knowledge and not of ignorance.” (p. 111)

Regarding the family of Spiritual Mind, Sri Aurobindo writes in the last article of The Supramental Manifestation upon Earth titled Supermind and Mind of Light: “We may say that there is a higher hemisphere of our being in which Mind luminous and aware of its workings still lives in the Light and can be seen as a subordinate power of the Supermind; it is still an agent of the Truth-Consciousness, a gnostic power that has not descended into the mental ignorance; it is capable of a mental gnosis that preserves its connection with the superior light and acts by its power. This is the character of Overmind in its own plane and of all the powers that are dependent on the Overmind: the Supermind works there but at one remove, as if in something that it has put forth from itself but which is no longer entirely itself but is still a delegate of the Truth and invested with its authority. We are moving towards a transitional border beyond which lies the possibility of the Ignorance, but the Ignorance is not yet here.” (p. 105) And in this light, the Mind of Light is defined as the Supermind’s subordinate action which is dependent on the Supermind though it does not arise from it. Therefore Amal Kiran corrects us that the Mind of Light is not just a plane which pre-exists but it is actually “a luminous kingdom” which has been created due to the conversion of the physical mentality and that the Mind of Light is “a manifestation from above in the human mentality; a manifestation in which, to quote Sri Aurobindo’s words, ‘inconscience, ignorance and error can claim no place.’ ” (The Vision and Work of Sri Aurobindo, p. 112)

Since the Supermind is the Supreme Creator and everything is actuated by it, therefore it is only the Supermind that is capable of bringing about the changes marked by the Mind of Light “in the stuff of ignorance” caused by the liberation of the luminous ladder. Hence, no matter how restrained the movement of the Mind of Light may be ‘from truth to truth’, it is indeed an accurate expression “of the supramental power operating in persona propria and not, as in Spiritual Mind, with a change of characteristic poise in the deployment of knowledge” and it is “itself Supermind creative in the field of terrestrial evolution and operating in human mind-terms.” (p. 114)

Now Amal Kiran darts a difficult question: “How can a creation by Supermind of itself in the embodied mentality be inferior to a plane which, for all its lack of ignorance, is still pretty far from Supermind?” He answers this question himself but with a brief preface in which he says that the Mind of Light must be possessing numerous forms in the place of its manifestation, that is, the field of terrestrial evolution. If it appears to be inferior compared to the Higher Mind at some stage, then it is capable of developing itself beyond it. In contains in its very initial form the entire Truth-Consciousness, that is, the Supermind which “escapes all Spiritual Mind” and not even the vastness of the Overmind is capable of comprising it.

According to Amal Kiran, the Mind of Light’s initial form does not have “an iota of ignorance” despite its apparent inferiority to the Higher Mind. Though it is “less intense” and “immense in actual outburst” but even then it is absolutely clear. Amal Kiran discusses it in detail in the following words: “The mass-ideation of Higher Mind, the far-ranging colourful vision-glow of Illumined Mind, the piercing intimate ubiquitous lightning-seizures of Intuition, the resplendent multitudinous catholicity and globality of Overmind may import into the human mental on their descent into it a certain richness as well as swiftness which the initially realised Mind of Light does not exhibit; yet, while the richness and swiftness will not always work in utter purity everywhere since they are still working on an unabolished though subdued ground of ignorance, the Mind of Light from the very start is utterly pure in whatever restrained quality of knowledge it exhibits.” (p. 115)

Again, Amal Kiran puts a question on behalf of his readers and all the aspirants of the Path: can the Mind of Light which is a result of the Supermind’s descent be created in the body unless the Higher Mind, the Illumined Mind, the Intuitive Mind and the Overmind have been realized in descent and have also functioned on the plane of physical mentality? “The answer”, according to him, “is at once Yes and No.” He explains it further: “For we have to draw a line between the Mind of Light forming at a highly advanced stage in the course of the Aurobindonian Yoga and the same essential power manifesting afterwards in humanity in general as an effect of this formation or in those who have not gone far in that Yoga. The one presupposes in the individual a whole history of spiritual realisations and it climaxes a long series of descents and preludes the descent of the Supermind into bodily life-force and bodily matter. The other is a condition of various sorts. Broadly, it is that produced in people not yet ready for embodying the supramental Gnosis but sufficiently responsive to change radically from mere mind under the sovereign pressure of a Supermind descended on a large scale through the Aurobindonian Yoga into the occult atmosphere, so to speak, of earth’s being. In the long run it could be in mankind a condition even from birth as mere mind is today and that would be most in line with what is generally meant by evolutionary achievement. In many cases the condition will be of those who, though responsive to the supramental Gnosis, have not had any substantial commerce with Spiritual Mind’s gradation and into whom therefore there cannot have been a previous descent of Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuition and Overmind. But this condition will be precisely what facilitates substantial commerce by rendering it natural. And, through the commerce, one who lives in this Mind of Light will be by right effort able to climb towards and into Supermind as well as call it down.” (p. 116)

But then Amal Kiran adds: “But neither the substantial commerce with Spiritual Mind nor the dealings with the supramental Gnosis will everywhere be present. While in a number of human beings they will both be present, in others Spiritual Mind alone will be more or less freely contacted and in still others no free contact even with Spiritual Mind and so none with Supermind either will be there. From the first group recruits will be drawn for the expansion of the gnostic race whose nucleus we may expect to take shape out of those who are living in the Aurobindonian Yoga. The remaining two groups will be stages between this race and whatever of the human species with mind, as we ordinarily observe it, may persist for a shorter or longer time.” (pp. 116-117)

Now let’s come to the topic of ascent and descent of the Mind of Light. Once the Mind of Light has been shaped, it can reflect perfectly in its absolutely purified and exalted condition ‘something of the overhead planes’ and then rise to the higher altitudes of the Higher Mind, the Illumined Mind, the Intuitive Mind, the Overmind and the Supermind. But it must be noted that the ascent of the Mind of Light will not be the same experience as compared to the ascent of the ordinary mind. This is due to the fact that they will receive something that is the Supermind itself ‘in mental terms’ and their experience will be ‘a progressive movement from the lowest to the highest note of the Supermind’s own gamut, as it were, rather than a conversion from the ordinary mental to the spiritual mental by a change of characteristic poise and again, by another such change, to the supramental.” (pp. 117-118) This ascent which is of a new kind will act as an ‘accompaniment’ and would also foster the descent into the physical mind, physical vital and physical proper.

Regarding the descent of the Mind of light, Amal Kiran writes: “Its initial form which seems a continuation, below Higher Mind, of the luminous ladder is the precursor of one in which the human mental acts as if it has been completely assimilated, step after step, by the Light of descended Spiritual Mind…The presence of the Mind of Light in one indicates that the stuff of ignorance, in which no change can be dynamically absolute before Supermind has come on the scene, is not resistant in one any longer: the Supermind has come and ignorance has radically ceased. But now not only has a continuation of the luminous ladder been brought about; a possibility has also been introduced of the total assimilation by Spiritual Mind of the human mental. The thorough and embodiment, therefore, of all the grades of Spiritual Mind can happen now after Supermind has started taking a direct hand instead of playing on the human mental indirectly through those grades. Once the Mind of Light begins it reign Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuition, Overmind can found themselves securely and authentically on its supramental basis and reach their own perfection as embodied powers. When they do this, the Mind of Light assumes it second form. Repeating the name of Sri Aurobindo gives to Spiritual Mind in its own undescended hierarchy as well as to the Mind of Light ascended there, we should call the Mind of Light in its second form in the body mental Gnosis as distinguished from the Gnosis proper which is Supermind.” (pp. 118-119)

And he further adds: “Beyond mental Gnosis the Mind of Light manifests, in complete assimilation of the human mental, the Gnosis proper and assumes its third and sovereign form. But what the two kinds of Gnosis are in the hierarchy above the human mental is not what they are here. There they are separate though connected levels, each a cosmos with its own type and function: here the one is merely the other partially unfolded. For, the Mind of Light is not anywhere anything else than the Supermind in progressive manifestation in embodied nature. As we have observed, its very inception signalises that the Supermind is acting directly and is in immediate presence on the level of the physical mentality. But in its initial and middle forms the directness and the immediacy are, in different measures, restrained: the third form employs them freely. The supreme divinity which releases a little of its magnificence under the form of an apparent continuation at the lower end of Spiritual Mind’s gradation and then “an ampler ether, a diviner air” in the form of wholly descended mental Gnosis, is utterly laid open—a towering apocalypse in the terms of the human mental—by the third form the Mind of Light takes.” (p. 119)

Next in terms of moon-phases, let’s discuss the phases of the Mind of Light. It can be said that there would be growth of light ‘from silver to more ampler silver’ till the Overmind is crossed. When the Supramental is discerned, the silver transforms into gold(as gold signifies the colour of the Supermind), “the full moon shows itself as a sun white-seeming in its immediate front before the aureate depths are found shining out.” (p. 122) The Mind of Light’s phases would be of “a moon golden” or “a sun behaving like a moon” right from its actual commencement. This is because the Divine Mind is looked upon not in its permanent existence in the Supermind as the third strand of the Supramental’s ‘triple status’ but “in its manifestation in an evolving scheme on earth, in which there is a stage-by-stage expression of the supramental epiphany.” (pp. 122-123) This phases of sun-moon symbolizes the successive states of the embodiment of the Supermind. So, Amal Kiran writes: “…when the Supermind acts directly, the preliminary to their descended condition as brought about by it is the Mind of Light in its initial form. Thus, in terms of phases of a sun-moon, the human mind re-created as a somewhat diminished continuation of Higher Mind will be the crescent, a thin bright curve with upward-pointing arms within which the rest of the sun-moon’s rondure is faintly visible, a rim of Light which is not really severed from the solar-lunar globe but only put forth for a certain purpose and play as the apparent edge of a secret splendour.” (p. 123)

Before we conclude the article, let’s make a synopsis: the supramental transformation of matter of the body cells, rather, the mind of the body cells was termed the Mind of Light by Sri Aurobindo. It is the genuine Truth-Consciousness or Unity-Consciousness which exists in the mental consciousness of matter. It marks not only the descent of the Supermind into the physical mentality but also the manifestation of that which can be termed as the counterpart in the Supermind “of this mentality’s terms.” The manifestation of the counterpart is the third form of the Mind of Light and it has to be a power which is ‘mental’ and not “supramental” or else the mind would not be resulted into and the Spiritual Mind will also be deprived of its foundation in the Supreme Consciousness. The descent of the Supermind which resulted in the birth of the Mind of Light “in its full orb” brought “the progressively unfolding action of the whole [that is, the Supermind].” (p. 124) When Sri Aurobindo, who was the sole possessor of the Mind of Light in his body, descended into death the Mind of Light got realized in the body of the Mother who herself had admitted it. What was meant by the entry of the Mind of Light into the Mother’s body was that Sri Aurobindo himself had entered into her and she had said many a time that he was always present in her, around her and with her. And she continued the work of bringing down the Supramental on earth and on 29 February 1956 the much-awaited manifestation took place. On 25 September 1914, she had written in her diary:

The Lord has willed and Thou dost execute:

A new Light shall break upon the earth.

A new world shall be born,

And the things that were promised shall be fulfilled.

And she proclaimed this great event in the Bulletin of April 1956 in the following words:

Lord, Thou hast willed, and I execute:

A new light breaks upon the earth,

A new world is born.

The things that were promised are fulfilled.

But how with the Mind of Light was the Mother able to bring down and cause the manifestation of the Supramental on earth is a different story and hence it would be discussed elsewhere.

Posted to:

Main Page

Comments

Post a comment

Re: Towards the Intermediate Race—Amal Kiran on the Mind of Light: by Anurag Banerjee

by auroman on Fri 01 May 2009 06:13 AM IST | Profile | Permanent Link

I beg to differ with Amal Kiran here. I am not sure why he is mixing up the Mind of Light with the Spiritual Mind, Overmind, Illumined Mind, etc in the first place. My interpretation of the Mind of Light is as follows:

Mind of Light = Supramentalized Physical Mind, of the new race.

The Mind of Light is *still* the physical mind; it just has an extra supramental adjective in front of it.

The physical mind is the mind which shapes the body and retains its atavisms. In order to create a new pliant body, this physical mind must also be infused with the vibrations of the Supermind, and that is how it becomes the Mind of Light. This is connected to the article "Seven Suns of the Supermind" in the Hour of God, where Sri Aurobindo discusses how the power of the Supermind must descend into all seven Chakras. The seventh descent is into the Muladhara Chakra and this may be called the Mind of Light.

7. The Sun of Supramental Substance-Energy and Form-Energy empowered to embody the supramental life and stabilise the creation. Descent into the Muladhara.

This is why Sri Aurobindo (above article) calls it the last of the descents:
...What we have called specifically the Mind of Light is indeed the last of a series of descending planes of consciousness in which the Supermind veils itself by a self-chosen limitation or modification of its self-manifesting activities

This same discussion is also seen in the Letters of Yoga, p 112 (Integral Yoga and other Paths)

One thing must be said – that an incarnation is not the object of this yoga; it is only a condition or means towards the object. The one and the only aim we have before us is to bring down the supramental Consciousness and the supramental Truth into the world; the Truth and nothing but the Truth is our aim, and if we cannot embody this Truth, a hundred incarnations do not matter. But to bring down the true supramental, to escape from all mental mixture is not an easy matter. The mere descent of the suns into the centres, even of all the seven suns into all the seven centres is only the seed; it is not the thing itself done and finished. One may feel the descent of the suns, one may have the attempt, the beginning of an incarnation, and yet in the end one may fail, if there is a flaw in the nature or a failure to pass through all the ordeals and satisfy all the hard conditions of the perfect spiritual success. Not only the whole mental, vital and physical nature of the ignorant human being has to be overcome and transformed, but also the three states of mental consciousness which intervene between the human and the supramental and like all mind are capable of admitting great and capital errors. Till then there may be descents of the supramental influence, light, power, Ananda, but the supramental Truth cannot be possessed, organised, put in possession of the whole nature. One must not think before that that one possesses the supermind, for that is a delusion which would prevent the fulfilment.

Re: Towards the Intermediate Race—Amal Kiran on the Mind of Light: by Anurag Banerjee

by auroman on Fri 01 May 2009 06:22 AM IST | Profile | Permanent Link

> What was meant by the entry of the Mind of Light into the Mother’s body was that Sri Aurobindo himself had
> entered into her and she had said many a time that he was always present in her, around her and with her.

I beg to differ here as well. One must differentiate between what happened at death and any communication which happened after that.

Sri Aurobindo & The Mother had the same psychic being but different sheaths. Just as the power of the Higher Planes can descend, just as a Master can emit healing vibrations which cure a disciple, in the same way, Sri Aurobindo could have transmitted all the power of his most material Annamaya sheath to the Mother. Once that was done, he exited into the subtle physical to continue the work over there. This may also be the reason why his physical body lost the supramental glow after five days.

As we read in the Agenda, July 24-25, 1959, their work seems to have had two objectives

1) First penetration of the supramental force into the body.
2) Sri Aurobindo alive in a concrete and permanent subtle physical body.

The first part was continued by The Mother while Sri Aurobindo left the physical plane to start the second part in the subtle physical world. Perhaps that is why The Mother says Sri Aurobindo sacrificed his body; it was a conscious exit in order to start work in the subtle physical world.

Re: Re: Towards the Intermediate Race—Amal Kiran on the Mind of Light: by Anurag Banerjee

by Vikas on Sat 02 May 2009 09:03 AM IST | Profile | Permanent Link

"Mind of Light = Supramentalized Physical Mind, of the new race.
The Mind of Light is *still* the physical mind; it just has an extra supramental adjective in front of it. " - Auroman
This is clearly and perfectly stated in my opinion. I concur. Actually it is fairly clear when we read Her statements. For the sake of clarity and psychological self-knowledge we have
a) Physical Mind - Mind dealing with gross objects, dealing with the external world so to say. It therefore refuses to believe in anything other than the reality of the gross material world.
b) There is also the mechanical nature of the mind spinning in rounds of fears, anxieties etc, "repeating for ever the unconscious act". It's responsible for the automaton of fearful suggestions. Catch yourself fearing your friend has had an accident when he doesn't show up.
c) Then there is the body-mind or mind of the cells itself. It is the mental substance - clearly not organised. The other two (a and b) are organised. Also as all this is one continuum, "c" is connected to "a" through "b".
Pertaining to "c", Mother makes some interesting observations in the Agenda.
"It is the mental substance that belongs to Matter itself, to the cells. That's what was formerly called "the spirit of the form," when it was said that mummies kept their bodies intact as long as the spirit of the form persisted.[[In a former Playground Talk (of March 10, 1951), Mother said regarding the violation of tombs in Egypt: "In the physical form there is the 'spirit of the form,' and that spirit of the form persists for a time, even when outwardly the person is said to be dead. And as long as the spirit of the form persists, the body isn't destroyed. In ancient Egypt they had that knowledge; they knew that if they prepared the body in a certain way, the spirit of the form wouldn't go away and the body wouldn't be dissolved." .

Egyptian tombs

by auroman on Sun 03 May 2009 09:11 PM IST | Profile | Permanent Link

> Mother said regarding the violation of tombs in Egypt: "In the physical form
> there is the 'spirit of the form,' and that spirit of the form persists for a time,
> even when outwardly the person is said to be dead. And as long as the spirit
> of the form persists, the body isn't destroyed. In ancient Egypt they had that
> knowledge; they knew that if they prepared the body in a certain way, the
> spirit of the form wouldn't go away and the body wouldn't be dissolved." .

I hadn't seen the Mother's statement on this. Paul Brunton in the last two chapters of his book "Search in Secret Egypt" describes how he meets an Adept who emerged from nowhere and gave him a message to be given to the world. The Adept attributed violence in the world to the release of the spirits which had been hitherto guarding the tombs. The Adept's message given below may make you cry for your mummy!

[From an online version of this book]

Ra-Mak-Hotep wasted no time on preliminaries but plunged straightway into the subject of his message:
"Those who broke open the tombs of ancient Egypt have released forces upon the world that have endangered it. Both the tomb robbers of long ago and the archaeologists of our own days have all unwittingly opened the tombs of those who dealt in black magic. For in the final cycle of Egyptian history there was a great degeneration of the men of knowledge—the priesthood—and sorcery and the black arts were commonly practised: When the white light of truth which was formerly shining through the pure Egyptian religion became dimmed, and the noisome shadows of false, materialistic doctrines crept in to replace it, the practice of mummification arose,- together with all the elaborate accompanying rituals* Yet, under the misleading and cunningly perverted teachings which supported this practice, there was an element of secret self-interest which sought to keep a long-preserved physical link with the physical world through the embalmment of the body. ""This practice originally was intended only for the Adept-Kings of Egypt's prehistoric golden age, and for the spiritually advanced High Priests who were true channels of God, that their material bodies, impregnated with their holy power, might continue to exist and serve as focuses radiating that power into the world.
A kind of ancestor-worship also developed, under which the bodies of the dead were embalmed, merely as a formal rite to show succeeding generations what their deceased ancestors looked like. It was really a hollow imitation of the mummification which was practised in earlier epochs of Egypt to preserve holy relics or good kings and priests. For in the dark period which later descended on Egypt, when it was bereft of true spiritual light and when the hell-forces of the nether world were evoked by those with much knowledge but little compassion, the instructed men of the priestly and ruling classes caused their own bodies to be embalmed* This was done, sometimes for the purposes of black magic, sometimes out of fear of the spirit's destruction in the purgatory that awaited it after death, and sometimes out of ignorant conformity to custom. In almost every case, before such a man passed out at death, he arranged for and had his tomb prepared whilst he was alive. After the preparation of the physical tomb he invoked (or had invoked for him by a priest of sufficient knowledge) a spirit-entity, an artificial elemental creation, imperceptible to bodily senses, sometimes good but more often bad, to protect and watch his mummy and act as a guardian spirit over his tomb.
"Further to protect these embalmed bodies, the tombs were first hidden with cunning care and then it was generally taught to the people that any profaner of these tombs would be visited by the spirit-powers with the most dreadful punishment. This teaching was believed, and those tombs were long left in peace. But with the increasing decay of the priesthood and rulers, even the people began to lose their superstitious faith, and tomb-robberies commenced, for the sake of plundering the jewels which were buried with almost every mummy of an important personage.
It was true that wherever the embalmed body was that of a person with some knowledge of magic, or under the protection and guidance of someone with such knowledge, spirit-powers had been invoked to protect those tombs and punish intruders. Those powers were often exceedingly evil, menacing and destructive. They existed within the dosed tombs, and could continue to exist, for thousands of years. Hence your archaeologists who, in all ignorance, break open such spirit-shielded graves, do so at their own peril.
Yet if it were merely a matter which affected the safety of archaeologists and their families alone, what I have to tell you would be of little importance. But it is not. It is a matter that affects the safety of the whole world.
"For among the tombs of high and low personages whom they excavate, there are those which were so protected. Every such tomb which has been unsealed lets out, like a flood, a rush of pent-up noxious evil spirit-entities upon our physical world . Each mummy that is taken out of such a tomb and transported to your European and American museums, carries with it the etheric link with those entities, and hence their awful influence. Those influences can bring only harm to the world, harm of various kinds, even to the point of destructively affecting the destinies of nations. You Westerners have no shield against them, and because they are invisible to you, they are none the less potent.
"When your world has come to realize that evil spirits are imprisoned in a number of those tombs, it may be too late; for by then all the tombs will have been opened, and those devilish creatures will have made their escape. Among other things they are and will be responsible for international treacheries. Ignorance of Nature's laws does not excuse man from suffering whenever he transgresses against those laws; and ignorance of the existence of evil, magical forces does not excuse your century from suffering the punishment which your unnecessary intrusions into their realms will bring upon it,
"These artificially-created elemental spirits have been released in sufficient numbers during the present century to terrorize the world from their psychic realm, which is immaterial enough to be invisible but dose enough to influence the physical existence$ of the living. We who hold the spiritual welfare of mankind at heart, battle against these dark forces on their own levels, yet we are not permitted by Nature's laws to destroy them any more than we are permitted to destroy living men whom we know to be potent dangers to their fellow beings. Our powers are restricted to shielding persons and institutions under our especial protection.
"Those objects which are taken out of the tombs along with the mummies—such as scarabs, jewels, amulets and furniture —carry with them the influence of those tombs. If the latter were not magically linked up with evil entities, then no harm could result from their appropriation and rifling, but if they so linked, then their unsealing may bring misfortune and disaster. But the ordinary archaeologists and Egyptologists, unaware of such facts and unable to detect the diflFerence between the two, delve into both alike. Whether it heeds it or not, let the world receive this message: let it not meddle with tombs whose psychic nature men do not understand. Let the world stop opening these graves until it has acquired sufficient knowledge to comprehend the serious results of what it is doing.
"Most of the kings had some degree of occult powers, whether for good or for evil purposes, for they were initiated in them by their High Priests.
"Originally, the magical powers of injuring other people was used only for self-defence or to hinder criminal persons, but with the fall of Egypt's higher ideals this knowledge was perverted for evil ends such as injuring enemies from a distance or removing those who stood in the path of the magician's (or his patron's) ambition. The knowledge was also used for the shielding of the tombs.
"Every opening of an ancient Egyptian tomb may be an unconscious intercourse with invisible forces of a dangerous character. Even through the opening of the tomb of a king who had a good soul and possessed advanced powers, injury may come to the world as punishment for thus disturbing the grave of an advanced soul. Nevertheless, the objects—such as scarabs—taken from his grave will not carry a noxious influence, but, on the contrary, a beneficent one. Yet if the object is owned by a person with evil thoughts, it will not help him; its benefits being only for those with good thoughts. Which last rule applies, however noble the soul of the departed and however lasting his spiritual influence. King Tutankhamen, for instance, was such a man. He possessed much occult knowledge and a spiritual soul. The opening of his tomb has brought suffering on the violators; and also, in untraceable ways, on the world at large. During the next few years the world will suffer and pay for such desecrations of Egypt's dead, although these material troubles will be turned to spiritual benefit

Re: Egyptian tombs

by Vikas on Sun 03 May 2009 10:29 PM IST | Profile | Permanent Link

Very interesting. I had read this book a few times but this passage had gone unregistered. Paul Brunton has a penchant for the sensational though and likes to dramatise. However this violation of the spirit of the form must carry consequences.

Re: Re: Egyptian tombs

by auroman on Mon 04 May 2009 06:46 AM IST | Profile | Permanent Link

Yes, they really froze their dialogic self by creating a peculiar presence-in-absence which would impose a hegemonic discourse on those who tried to break into their tombs. From an ontological perspective, one wonders how they succeeded in storing their liminal identities into eternal spectral interstices.

[ This is great fun! I'd love to talk like this all the time. ]

Re: Towards the Intermediate Race—Amal Kiran on the Mind of Light: by Anurag Banerjee

by RY Deshpande on Fri 01 May 2009 09:21 AM IST | Profile | Permanent Link

Apropos of Auroman's insightful comments:

Instead of >>Mind of Light = Supramentalized Physical Mind>> I’ll put it as “Mind of Light = the Physical’s Mind opening to or receiving the Supramental”.

In the sequel of this article there will be a couple of more postings on this topic. I’m myself not quite happy about Amal’s formulations.

~ RYD

Re: Re: Towards the Intermediate Race—Amal Kiran on the Mind of Light: by Anurag Banerjee

by auroman on Fri 01 May 2009 06:35 PM IST | Profile | Permanent Link

> Mind of Light = the Physical’s Mind opening to or receiving the Supramental

See also Amal Kiran's "Development of Sri Aurobindo's spiritual system and The Mother's contribution to it", Page 59 on:

Now we may turn to ponder the Mother's usage of the term "physical mind". She equates it to "the body mind" or "the mind that is in the body" and the letter editorially excerpted from Sri Aurobindo as relevant, with its mention of "this body mind" to signify "an obscure mind of the body, of the very cells, molecules, corpuscles", leaves us in no uncertainty about the Mother's meaning. She means by "the physical mind" the dim mental consciousness which is working in the cells of the body. And such a meaning is even explicitly mentioned by her in April 1967: "there is the consciousness of the physical mind (what I call cellular mind)..."¹ But "the physical mind" figuring in the note sent from her by Nolini to me in 1953 is surely a different proposition. What it was may be perceived from her declaration to me on an earlier occasion: "As soon as Sri Aurobindo withdrew from his body, what he had called the Mind of Light got realised in me."²-The word "realised" is most important here: it stands for the Higher Power's permanent stabilisation, an achieved conversion of the instrument, an entry and settlement of the new consciousness for good.

There is no question of a continuing process. The Mother's "physical mind receiving the supramental light" is not like the physical mind of the two talks which is said to be "on the way to being converted" and in which "the work" for the Supramental's entry and settlement was "being done...for months" in order to stabilise it. The precise realisation is flash-lit by her comment on the two opening lines of a poem I wrote in the early fifties on the Mind of Light. The lines were:

The core of a deathless Sun is now the brain
And each grey cell bursts to omniscient gold.

Further in the same chapter

A year later (1966) the Mother has another pronouncement on the same lines and of autobiographical interest: "When we were working in the physical cells, Sri Aurobindo realised the difficulty of transforming the mind of the physical cells. I am not speaking of the physical mind or physical consciousness. He thought of leaving the mind of the physical cells alone. Then I saw that their refusal to change was not due to any bad will but to ignorance. The cells have a great aspiration and the progress is steady, there is no vacillation as in the mind of the vital. So Sri Aurobindo, before he left his body, entrusted to me this work and said that I alone could do it, but it takes long and I can't give sufficient time to it. I work upon it only in the first part of the night. In the second part I go about [in the subtle body] visiting people and things. Otherwise they go wrong. When the work in the cells will have been finished, there won't be any further difficulty".¹

Re: Re: Re: Towards the Intermediate Race—Amal Kiran on the Mind of Light: by Anurag Banerjee

by RY Deshpande on Fri 01 May 2009 10:10 PM IST | Profile | Permanent Link

That's it. Let me quote Sri Aurobindo from a letter of his:(p. 340)

It must be remembered that while this classification is indispensable for psychological self-knowledge and discipline and practice, it can be used best when it is not made too rigid and cutting a formula. For things run very much into each other and a synthetical sense as the analysis. Mind, for instance, is everywhere. The physical mind is technically placed below the vital and yet it is a prolongation of the mind proper and one that can act in its own sphere by direct touch intelligence. And there is too an obscure mind of the body, of the very cells, molecules, corpuscles. Haeckel, the German materialist, spoke somewhere of the will in the atom, and recent science, dealing with the variation in the activity of the electrons, comes near to perceiving that this is not a figure but the shadow thrown by a secret reality. This body-mind is a very tangible truth; owing to its obscurity and mechanical movements and facile oblivion and rejection of the new, we find in it one of the chief obstacles to permeation by the supermind Force and the transformation of the functioning of the body. On the other hand, once it will be one of the most precious instruments for the stabilisation of the supramental Light and Force in material Nature.

~ RYD

Trackbacks

TrackBack URL:
http://www.mirroroftomorrow.org/blog/_trackback/4170006

No trackbacks found.