Our Surface Personality Is Only a Small Representation of Our Complete and True Being

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We construct a personality that
we present to the world and

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organize our expression and
actions around this chosen

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construct.
In doing so, we pick and choose

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elements that are present in our
conscious mind, heart, life,

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force, and physical body, and
create for ourselves the ego

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personality that seemingly ties
all of this together into what

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we know as ourselves.
In some cases, we consciously

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mislead ourselves and others by
omitting thoughts, motives,

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drives, and reactions that are
occurring through active

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suppression or through simple
avoidance.

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In other cases, we simply are
not paying attention to all of

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the influences, forces, and
powers that are moving us to act

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out of the impulsions that we
are receiving.

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When we are placed under some
kind of pressure, some of these

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deeper motivations and drives
exhibit themselves, and we don't

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realize that these were there
all the time, waiting for the

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opportunity to sprout up and
manifest.

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Similarly, others may express
shock and consternation about

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how these responses are so out
of character.

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It is as if we have adopted a
stage persona for our external

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life and the real person remains
hidden deep within, Shriorobindo

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observes, Quote.
We are not only what we know of

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ourselves, but an immense more
which we do not know.

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Our momentary personality is
only a bubble on the ocean of

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our existence.
What we know of ourselves, our

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present conscious existence, is
only a representative formation,

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A superficial activity, a
changing external result of a

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vast mass of concealed
existence.

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Our visible life and the actions
of that life are no more than a

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series of significant
expressions, but that which it

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tries to express is not on the
surface.

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Our existence is something much
larger than this apparent

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frontal being which we suppose
ourselves to be and which we

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offer to the world around us.
This frontal and external being

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is a confused amalgam of mind
formations, life movements,

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physical functionings, of which
even an exhaustive analysis into

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its component parts and
machinery fails to reveal the

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whole secret.
It is only when we go behind,

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below, above, into the hidden
stretches of our being that we

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can know it.
The most thorough and acute

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surface scrutiny and
manipulation cannot give us the

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true understanding or the
completely effective control of

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our life, its purposes, its
activities.

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That inability, indeed, is the
cause of the failure of reason,

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morality, and every other
surface action to control and

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deliver and perfect the life of
the human race.

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For below even our most obscure
physical consciousness is a

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subconscious being, in which, as
in a covering and supporting

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soil, are all manner of hidden
seeds that sprout up

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unaccountably to us on our
surface, and into which we are

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constantly throwing fresh seeds
that prolong our past and will

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influence our future.
A subconscious being, obscure,

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small in its motions,
capriciously and almost

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fantastically sub, rational, but
of immense potency for the

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earth, life again, behind our
mind, our life, our conscious,

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physical.
There is a large subliminal

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consciousness there, inner
mental, inner vital, inner more

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subtle physical reaches,
supported by an inmost psychic

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existence which is the
connecting soul of all the rest.

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And in these hidden reaches too
lie a mass of numerous pre

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existent personalities which
supply the material.

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The motive forces the impulsions
of our developing surface

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existence. 4 In each one of us
here there may be 1 central

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person, but also a multitude of
subordinate personalities

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created by the past history of
its manifestation, or by

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expressions of it on these inner
planes which support its present

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play in this external material
cosmos.

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And while on our surface, we are
cut off from all around us,

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except through an exterior mind
and sense contact which delivers

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but little of us to our world,
or of our world to us.

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In these inner reaches, the
barrier between US and the rest

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of existence is thin and easily
broken.

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There we can feel at once not
merely infer from their results,

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but feel directly the action of
the secret world forces, mind

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forces, life forces, subtle
physical forces that constitute

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universal and individual
existence.

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We shall even be able, if we
will but train ourselves to it,

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to lay our hands on these world
forces that throw themselves on

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us or around us, and more and
more to control, or at least

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strongly modify their action on
us and others.

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Their formations, their very
movements, yet again above our

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human mind, are still greater
reaches super conscient to it,

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and from there secretly descend
influences, powers, touches

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which are the original
determinants of things here, and

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if they were called down in
their fullness, could altogether

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alter the whole, make an economy
of life in the material

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universe.
End Quote Reference Sri

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Aurobindo and the Mother, The
Hidden Forces of Life, Chapter

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2, Hidden Forces within pages 33
to 35.