We are educated and habituated to focus on our differences. We see different gender, different class, different racial characteristics, different religious backgrounds, different temperaments, different interests and focus, different value sets, different philosophies of life and living, different levels of education, different capacities, from one individual to the next, and we thus begin to evaluate and judge everything through this lens of our differences. It is this focus on differences that keeps us apart and prevents us from seeing and experiencing the oneness, the universal spiritual Presence that contains, constitutes, permeates and inhabits the entire creation. Understanding the distinguishing factors is important, but this must be balanced with the perception of unity in order to appreciate the harmony of the divine manifestation.
The Mother distinguishes this universal spiritual Presence from the actual formed Psychic Being, which develops through a long maturation process across many lifetimes of experience. Most people are not fully in touch with this psychic being, but when it comes forward and takes control over the actions of mind, life and body, it puts the individual into direct contact with the Divine and the divine intention in the manifestation.
Even just the spiritual presence, in the background, so to say, provides sufficient stability to allow the evolutionary development of Nature to take place without an event of total destruction, which could take place otherwise when the differences we note become strident and extreme in their attempt to control, dominate and suppress other views and developments.
A disciple asks: “Sweet Mother, is there a spiritual being in everybody?”
The Mother responds: “That depends on what you call ‘being’. If for ‘being’ we substitute ‘presence’, yes, there is a spiritual presence in everyone. If we call ‘being’ an organised entity, full conscious of itself, independent, and having the power of asserting itself and ruling the rest of the nature — no! The possibility of this independent and all-powerful being is in everybody, but the realisation is the result of long efforts which sometimes extend over many lives.”
“In everyone, even at the very beginning, this spiritual presence, this inner light is there…. In fact, it is everywhere. I have seen it many a time in certain animals. It is like a shining point which is the basis of a certain control and protection, something which, even in half-consciousness, makes possible a certain harmony with the rest of creation so that irreparable catastrophes may not be constant and general. Without this presence the disorder created by the violences and passions of the vital would be so great that at any moment they could bring about a general catastrophe, a sort of total destruction which would prevent the progress of Nature. That presence, that spiritual light — which could almost be called a spiritual consciousness — is within each being and all things, and because of it, in spite of all discordance, all passion, all violence, there is a minimum of general harmony which allows Nature’s work to be accomplished.”
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Powers Within, Chapter XX The Psychic, pp. 153-154
Santosh has been studying Sri Aurobindo's writings since 1971 and has a daily blog at http://sriaurobindostudies.wordpress.com and podcast located at https://anchor.fm/santosh-krinsky
He is author of 20 books and is editor-in-chief at Lotus Press. He is president of Institute for Wholistic Education, a non-profit focused on integrating spirituality into daily life.
Video presentations, interviews and podcast episodes are all available on the YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@santoshkrinsky871
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