A Podcast Featuring Sri Aurobindo Studies
Jan. 8, 2025

The Mind, the Spirit and the Deeper Knowledge and Power That Can Know and Master the Universal Creation

The Mind, the Spirit and the Deeper Knowledge and Power That Can Know and Master the Universal Creation
The Mind, the Spirit and the Deeper Knowledge and Power That Can Know and Master the Universal Creation
Sri Aurobindo Studies
The Mind, the Spirit and the Deeper Knowledge and Power That Can Know and Master the Universal Creation

reference: Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Powers Within, Chapter XVIII Mind, pp. 141-142

This episode is also available as a blog post at https://sriaurobindostudies.wordpress.com/2025/01/06/the-mind-the-spirit-and-the-deeper-knowledge-and-power-that-can-know-and-masters-th-universal-creation/

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More information about Sri Aurobindo can be found at www.aurobindo.net

The US editions and links to e-book editions of Sri Aurobindo’s writings can be found at Lotus Press www.lotuspress.com

0:00 We can observe all around us the steps the mental force is taking to take charge of both physical and vital nature. While much of this takes place through the development of technological tools, it is nevertheless an achievement of the mind that makes these things possible. We may debate the appropriateness or safety of some of the developments, such as the liberation of energy from matter in the form of nuclear bombs, or the use of such capabilities as gene editing and cloning to upgrade and improve upon the natural formations of plant, animal, and man.

0:41 Yet even if we debate the suitability of these steps, we cannot deny that mind is reaching out to gain mastery over nature. What is less visible and much less understood are the capacities of the mind and the mental force to act upon physical and vital nature directly without developing technological tools to do so. Yet in this realm, modern science is beginning to explore areas that in the past have been the province of rishis, sages and yogins, namely the understanding of the full capabilities of the entire human instrument, body, life, mind and our spiritual nature. Central to this quest is the development of the yogic trance Samadhi, which allows the seeker to explore inner space and begin to both know and experience states of awareness not usually recognized by the external mental consciousness, the rishis.

1:46 Through use of the hidden capacities of the human consciousness, we're able to tap into a wider domain of consciousness and thereby understand and describe things which were long held to be fantasy, but are now understood to actually describe principles and processes of the manifested universe. While we rely on technological innovation to discover these things, the Rishis used a state of spiritual consciousness to discover these things. A recent example relates to the astronomical phenomenon known as The Big Bang. This has been held by Western astronomers to be the start of the universe without any explanation from their side as to where and how this initiating event occurred. The Rishis described a cycle of creation and dissolution of the universe, and thus The Big Bang is not the beginning of everything, but one point in a cycle of creation that was preceded by a former universe that was eventually dissolved. Today, Western scientists are discovering residues that appear to validate the existence of a former universe and out of the dissolution of which our universe eventually arose. Sri Aurobindo writes in his epic poem Savitri, A Legend and a symbol quote.

3:19 Mind is a mediator divinity. Its powers can undo all nature's work. Mind can suspend or change Earth's concrete law, a franchise from Earth habits. Drowsy seal the leaden grip of matter. It can break indifferent to the angry stare of death. It can immortalize a moment's work, a simple Fiat of the thinking force. The casual pressure of its slight ascent can liberate the energy, dumb and pent within its chambers of mysterious trance. It makes the body sleep. A poisoned arm holds still the breath, the beatings of the heart, while the unseen is found.

4:05 The impossible done communicates without means the unspoken thought. It moves events by its bare silent will, acts at a distance without hands or feet. This giant ignorance, this dwarfish life, it can illumine with a prophet's sight, invoke the backache rapture the furies, goad in our body, arouse the demon or the God, call in the omniscient and omnipotent, awake, a forgotten almightiness within, in its own plain, a shining emperor. Even in this rigid realm, mind can be king.

4:50 End Quote. Reference Sri Robindo and the Mother Powers within, Chapter 18, Mind, pages 141 to 142.