The Higher Nature, the Lower Nature and the Role of the Jivatman

0:00 The Bhagwad Gita describes the lower nature and the higher nature. The lower nature is the external manifestation of forms, matter, life, energy, mind that together constitute the creation and all the multiplicity of formations that together represent the external world. This can be seen as a type of machinery. It operates mechanically, so to speak, but does not show any apparent purpose or significance in its action beyond the fact of that action. In Chapter 7, verses 4 to 5, the Gita declares quote the five elements conditions of material being mined with its various senses and organs.

0:51 Reason, Ego. This is my eightfold divided nature. This the lower, but know my other nature different from this, the Supreme, which becomes the jiva and by which this world is upheld. End Quote translation by Sri Aurobindo. Bhagwad Gita and its message Sri Aurobindo explains quote. The Supreme Nature, Para Prakritihi, is then the infinite timeless conscious power of the Self existent Being, out of which all existences in the cosmos are manifested and come out of timelessness into time. But in order to provide a spiritual basis for this manifold universal becoming in the cosmos, the Supreme Nature formulates itself as the Jiva.

1:46 The eternal multiple soul of the Purushotama appears as individual spiritual experience in all the forms of the cosmos. All existences are instinct with the life of the one indivisible spirit. All are supported in their personality, actions, and forms by the eternal multiplicity of the one Purusha. End Quote page 117. The higher nature is that of the constituting intelligence that provides direction and purpose to the machinery. The Gita states in chapter 15, verse 7 quote.

2:27 It is an eternal portion of me that becomes the Jiva in the world of living creatures and cultivates the subjective powers of Prakriti, mind and the five senses. End Quote. Sri Orobindo explains quote for it means that each soul, each being in its spiritual reality is the very Divine, however partial it's actual manifestation of Him in nature. End Quote page 225. The Jiva is therefore divine and partakes of the spiritual essence of the Divine. Para Prakriti is the supreme nature that manifests the entire universal creation.

3:11 While a Para Prakriti is the lower nature, the Jiva inserts itself into the individual forms of the lower nature as the soul, which maintains the character of the eternal even while it is developing, guiding and uplifting the lower nature as it moves through its evolutionary cycle. Srioro Bindo notes quote. This spirit is the Atman Brahman, essential Divine. When the one Divine manifests its ever inherent multiplicity, this essential Self, where Atman becomes for that manifestation the Central Being who presides from above over the evolution of its personalities and terrestrial lives here, but is itself an eternal portion of the Divine. And prior to the terrestrial manifestation, Para Prakritir Jiva Bhuta, in this lower manifestation, A Para Prakriti, this eternal portion of the Divine appears as the soul, the spark of the Divine fire, supporting the individual evolution, supporting the mental, vital and physical being.

4:32 The psychic being is the spark growing into a fire, evolving with the growth of the consciousness. The psychic being is therefore evolutionary, not like the Jeevatman prior to the evolution. But man is not aware of the Self or Jeevatman. He is aware only of his ego, or he is aware of the mental being which controls the life and the body, but more deeply he becomes aware of his soul or psychic being as his true center, the Purusha in the heart. The psychic is the central being in the evolution. It proceeds from and represents the Jivatman, the eternal portion of the divine.

5:18 When there is the full consciousness, the Jivatman and the psychic being join together. End Quote Reference Srioro Bindu and the Mother. The psychic being soul, its nature, mission and evolution. Section 1. Meaning and Nature of the Psychic Being, pages 14 to 15.