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Namah Vol. 28, Issue 2, 15th July 2020

well-being arising from being poised in the Spirituality also has its perspective of
selfor the inner essence of the being. But the complexity. In the conventional tradition of
self is a fourth dimensionalprinciple that is too India, ascetics sought to be liberated from the
complex to be assessed by external methods. ego-bound material life to be absorbed in the
ineffable Supreme or the Great Void. This
That truth is really complex is best illustrated was extremely difficult, ascetically strenuous
by the psychological perspective implicit in but metaphysically simpler. In contrast, Sri
the epics. An ordinary novel starts usually Aurobindo sought to manifest spirituality
from one point and can be traced to a in material life per se. This was not to be
climax that may or may not lead to an anti- a simple leap out of life to the Absolute but
climax before the story-telling is completed. required a traversing of increasingly complex
Sometimes the story-telling is not completed supra-cognitive strata (far more complex than
leaving the reader to guess but that is a bit the material life yoked to suffering, falsehood,
more realistic because in actuality, all conflicts ignorance and death) until the supreme
of life are rarely resolved. The epic however creative consciousness (the Supramental
is a different phenomenon. The battle of Consciousness) could be accessed to make
Mahabharata, one of the greatest epics, cannot it available for manifestation in the earth-
be traced satisfactorily from one single point. consciousness.
Indeed, many heterogeneous forces from
many different poises of consciousness, at A perfection of individual life or a programme
many points in time coalesce in the battlefield of personal growth is also a complex affair in
and which go on acting even after the battle Sri Aurobindo’s paradigm of consciousness.
is over, in different denouements. That is One has to realise and experience an inner
why an epic, unlike a novel, survives the being or subliminal personality behind the
vicissitudes of time. ego-bound outer being or surface personality.
The inner being (subliminal personality) holds
Human behaviour has a similar trajectory. an inner mind, an inner vital and a subtle
Many influences acting throughout different physical (5). In the outer being, the planes of
points in a lifetime can be behind a particular consciousness – physical, vital and mental, are
behaviour and who knows might include intermingled with each other and the ego in
influences beyond a lifespan. The influences trying to balance them becomes skewed. The
beyond the life-span may be tracked inner being is in communion with the cosmic
to memory-traces left in the cosmic consciousness from where great inspirations
consciousness from bygone eras of individual can come but also from where giant negative
and collective life to which the individual influences can invade the being. To handle
psyche might feel an affinity, or may be such forces positively one has to experience
even superconscient influences from the beyond-ego principle or psychic being in
the unborn future. It is this rich and the soul-space supporting the inner being (as
variegated complexity that is behind the ego cannot supportthe inner being). The
human behaviour and which cannot psychic being gives an experience of all our
be oversimplified to conform to set intense movements of love, purity, beauty
standards. and oneness. It facilitates devotion, self-

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