Page 10 - NAMAH-Apr-2022

On the other hand, liberation from all form and the identification with that which is
beyond form cannot last in an absolute manner; for it would automatically bring about
the dissolution of the material form. Certain traditions say that this dissolution happens
inevitably within twenty days of the total identification. Yet it is not necessarily so; and
even if the experience is only momentary, it produces in the consciousness results that
are never obliterated and have repercussions on all states of the being, both internal and
external. Moreover, once the identification has been realised, it can be renewed at will,
provided that you know how to put yourself in the same conditions.

This merging into the formless is the supreme liberation sought by those who want to
escape from an existence which no longer holds any attraction for them. It is not surprising
that they are dissatisfied with the world in its present form. But a liberation that leaves
the world as it is and in no way affects the conditions of life from which others suffer,
cannot satisfy those who refuse to enjoy a boon which they are the only ones, or almost the
only ones, to possess, those who dream of a world more worthy of the splendours that lie
hidden behind its apparent disorder and wide-spread misery. They dream of sharing with
others the wonders they have discovered in their inner exploration. And the means to do
so is within their reach, now that they have arrived at the summit of their ascent.

From beyond the frontiers of form a new force can be evoked, a power of consciousness
which is as yet unexpressed and which, by its emergence, will be able to change the course
of things and give birth to a new world. For the true solution to the problem of suffering,
ignorance and death is not an individual escape from earthly miseries by self-annihilation
into the unmanifest, nor a problematical collective flight from universal suffering by
an integral and final return of the creation to its creator, thus curing the universe by
abolishing it, but a transformation, a total transfiguration of matter brought about by the
logical continuation of Nature’s ascending march in her progress towards perfection, by
the creation of a new species that will be to man what man is to the animal and that will
manifest upon earth a new force, a new consciousness and a new power. And so will begin
a new education which can be called the supramental education; it will, by its all-powerful
action, work not only upon the consciousness of individual beings, but upon the very
substance of which they are built and upon the environment in which they live.

In contrast with the types of education we have mentioned previously, which progress
from below upwards by an ascending movement of the various parts of the being, the
supramental education will progress from above downwards, its influence spreading from
one state of being to another until at last the physical is reached. This last transformation
will only occur visibly when the inner states of being have already been considerably
transformed. It is therefore quite unreasonable to try to recognise the presence of the
supramental by physical appearances. For these will be the last to change and the supramental
force can be at work in an individual long before anything of it becomes perceptible in his
bodily life.

10