Page 19 - NAMAH-Jan-2020

Namah Yogic insights into human psychology

testimony of countless mystics. Now we have which man climbs out of the animal towards
simply to go ahead and try to find it. its inherent divinity and as yet unclaimed
divine nature.
The new normal
Where does the soul fit in all this? Well, the
In summary we may say that a lot of psychology soul is the real adventurer that journeys
grew up while trying to understand mental through the several stairs constructed by the
diseases or psychopathologies. Freudian creatrix consciousness for the ascension of the
psychology, even Jungian is almost exclusively soul from its seed state towards the fullness
based on a study of abnormal phenomena. of its divine blossoming. Implicit within
This is somewhat like understanding normal this is the assumption borne by repeated
human physiology by studying diseases. Here experience of mystics that man’s true nature
too, much of our interest in understanding the is essentially divine. This true nature is
functioning of the human body started due to embedded within his soul, like an imprint
an effort to understand diseases. A better way from some divine realm that it carries as its
of course would be to study normal human roadmap or scroll of destiny. To bring out this
beings, at least the so-called normal and try to true divine nature from within the soul is not
discover their inner life in all its complexity. only the radical cure for the evils that plague
This at least is the method adopted by yoga. us individually and collectively but also the
Besides there are two kinds of abnormalities, one true and lasting way to achieve fullness
– one that falls towards the animal side of and integration, wholeness and happiness in
our evolutionary past. Another that swerves the deepest sense. It is not some superstitious
towards the godlike future we are yet to mumbo-jumbo of the past but the ascending
become and which is possible. Right now our evolutionary curve of the future. Out of our
normal is in fact largely normative. It depends mind’s grey hues and momentary signal
a lot upon how most people experience life flares in the thick night of ignorance we must
within their band-width. emerge into the dawn of the gods.This is our
true and inevitable destiny. The sooner we
Yogic experience however affirms that there recognise it and work towards it the better
is not just the normal and the abnormal it is for the individual and the human race.
but also the normal and the supernormal. Otherwise we will continue moving in
Rather it divides the human experience into endless circles of hope and despair, tinkering
three categories, — the subnormal that is and painting and repairing the surfaces of life
closer to early humanity driven largely by while its depths remain weak and unhealthy.
subconscious instincts and impulses; the Or else we simply let evolution go past us and
normal with the play of reason and a more hope that out of man a new being or a new
rationally oriented humanity; and finally, the race may arise, a race governed naturally by
supernormal centred on intuition. It is like an intuition and constituted of beings conscious
ascending and developing stairway through of their souls.

Dr. Alok Pandey, an editor of NAMAH and a member of SAIIIHR, is a doctor practising at the
Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

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