Reality Omnipresent

Sri Aurobindo's philosophy, like Indian philosophy in general, is rooted not in the everyday experiences of ordinary human consciousness, but rather in the exceptional spiritual experiences of the mystic. Sri Aurobindo described his first major spiritual realization (in 1908) as follows: "There was an entire silence of thought and feeling and all the ordinary movements of consciousness except the perception and recognition of things around without any accompanying concept or other reaction. The sense of ego disappeared and the movements of the ordinary life as well as speech and action were carried on by some habitual activity of Prakriti [Nature] alone which was not felt as belonging to oneself. But the perception which remained saw all things as utterly unreal; this sense of unreality was overwhelming and universal. Only some undefinable Reality was perceived as true which was beyond space and time and unconnected with any cosmic activity, but yet was met wherever one turned." (On Himself p85).

The following year a subsequent realization occurred when he spent a year as an under-trial prisoner in Calcutta (jailed by the British Raj for his activities in support of Indian independence): "I looked at the jail that secluded me from men and it was no longer by its high walls that I was imprisoned; no, it was Vasudeva who surrounded me. I walked under the branches of the tree in front of my cell but it was not the tree, I knew it was Vasudeva, it was Sri Krishna whom I saw standing there and holding over me his shade. I looked at the bars of my cell, the very grating that did duty for a door and again I saw Vasudeva. It was Narayana who was guarding and standing sentry over me. Or I lay on the coarse blankets that were given me for a couch and felt the arms of Sri Krishna around me, the arms of my Friend and Lover." (Uttarpara Speech 1909). In this experience of the omnipresent Divine Being is to be found a key characteristic of what Sri Aurobindo terms the "cosmic consciousness", and describes as "a meeting-place where Matter becomes real to Spirit, Spirit becomes real to Matter."

Continuing in this chapter on the theme of the "Refusal of the Ascetic", Sri Aurobindo suggests that the trenchant opposition between the material world and the absolute Spirit arises significantly from the limited nature of human thought and language - not from any contradiction inherent in reality. It is rather that "we are being misled by words, deceived by the trenchant oppositions of our limited mentality with its fond reliance on verbal distinctions as if they perfectly represented ultimate truths".

That aspect of the Omnipresent Reality (Brahman) which appears to transcend all name and form of our universe, is a glimpse of Brahman's freedom from all manifestation or self-formulation. All the world's "representations and becomings" are indeed the Divine, but the Divine also remains forever free from them. We can come to see that this absolute freedom of the Brahman need not negate or render unreal the world and our experiences in it. But we must learn to take the widest and most flexible approach to the mental understanding and formulation of these truths.