Page 34 - NAMAH-Jan-2018

Namah Vol. 25, Issue 4, 15th January 2018

such thing as ‘free choice’ in this context, not look at this subject from a more personal angle.
even of an “independent ego”, as the “modes of Our true nature or svabhāva determines the
Nature” determine everything that is expressed approach that each of us takes towards
and driven through our personal will (5). this peak of consciousness. The tendencies
The bondage lies in separation and there is of our individual nature will influence the
almost a hierarchy of slavery. There is really difficulties we experience in making this
no ‘independent ego’ as it is governed by climb. The patterns may vary but the process
the collective ego, which is in turn a slave to is always the same. But sooner or later, we
Universal Nature herself. have to return always and face the knots of our
individual nature; every part must be addressed
The solution, Sri Aurobindo writes, is to become in unison. So freedom in the integral context is
a “conscious soul in nature”. By growing beyond a much more demanding task.
the ego and expanding beyond Nature, we
become spirit which is superior to all of Nature’s My first effort towards this state was inspired
modes and forces, and, through the soul’s by the body because, to some degree at least, I
equality, we wake up to the oneness that felt imprisoned by it. This view was tainted
pervades everything and ultimately sets us with judgment. The surface mind can be narrow
free (6). It is in oneness that true freedom indeed and I began to see clearly that this was
resides. When we live in oneness and equality, the true nexus of the problem. The body was
we live in the divine consciousness and live a captive of it. I also saw my nature vividly as
consciously in nature. Our individual nature a prisoner of the past, enmeshed in memories
gets reflected in Universal Nature. She and associations. It was embedded with so
collaborates and is ultimately transformed. many hooks of attachment. I realised how
my upbringing and education had shaped
At that point, one steps into the divine my thinking into cramping structures. It was
consciousness where, “you suddenly find difficult to know where to begin.
yourself in a state of perfect freedom where
everything is possible (7).” At the highest plane, The way to liberation is spherical, starting
at the supreme Consciousness, everything from inside and spreading outwards. It is a
is absolutely free. “It is the Plane where there gradual expansion and not a linear process. The
are no more contradictions, where all things development unwinds with reversal waiting
are and are in harmony without contradicting in the wings at every inch of progress. It is
one another (8).” truly an exercise in staying awake. I found
it helped to compare it to the breath with
Freedom and growth its never-ending movement of expansion
and contraction. It is all only a part of the
So one decides, ‘This is what I want. I want to process. The vital with its traps of desire
live freely in the divine consciousness.’ What might throttle the being now and then but
can he or she expect along the way? What I found that it was the surface mind and its
is required to build this freedom? From an rigidity that presented the biggest obstacle
integral viewpoint, what is the relationship to liberation. At times, there seemed little
between this process and our health? I shall escape from its censorial postures. In truth,

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