Page 32 - NAMAH-Oct-2023

Namah Vol. 31, Issue 3, 15th October 2023

primarily the science of consciousness and involved potentialities while it can also
reiterated that it was time to return to the rise to a Superconscience, full of dynamic
primary source of psychology — the analysis possibilities; it is therefore simultaneously
of consciousness (3). integral and pluri-dimensional.

Echoing the same thoughts and in consonance (b) Nature (known as Prakrrti), conceived as
with the meticulously recorded notes of his “power of the spirit or rather…. spirit as power
experiential journey (now available as Record of (6)” refers to “the outer or executive side of the
Yoga) which made him the pioneer of ‘human Shakti or Conscious-Force which forms and
science’, Sri Aurobindo, in an incomplete moves the worlds. This outer side appears here
manuscript written in 1927, gave a landmark to be mechanical, a play of forces… Behind it
definition of psychology that can be regarded is the living Consciousness and Force of the
as the forerunner of the transpersonal Divine, the divine Shakti (7).”
approach:
It can be said of Nature, “By this power the
“Psychology is the science of consciousness and spirit creates all things in itself, hides and
its status and operations in Nature and, if that discovers all itself in the form and behind the
can be glimpsed or experienced, its status and veil of its manifestation (8).”
operations beyond what is known as Nature
(4)”. Thus, Nature is not as mechanical and
unintelligent as it appears in its external
This approach was a modification of a more poise, but organised by an Energy or Force
simple definition he had penned during 1917-18, which arranges things according to their inner
“Psychology is the knowledge of consciousness truth. As Universal Nature has been projected
and its operations (5).” by the Universal Spirit to offer all material
for the manifestation, “… everything in Nature
There are two key-terms in the 1927 definition: corresponds to something in the Universal Soul.
`Consciousness' and `Nature’, which need to be For instance the vital corresponds to the divine
understood in the context of Sri Aurobindo's Tapas (9).” [Tapas symbolises the combustive
thought: power of the Divine SSakti or Consciousness-
Force.]
(a) Consciousness can be defined as a self-
aware, self-manifesting, creative force of Outwardly however, this Nature presents
existence that is both the inmost reality of as a facade of limitation and division, hence
everything (perceived in this poise as `Self' in it is not integral. There is a higher aspect of
spirituality) and the Conscious-Force (studied Nature which is referred in the definition of
as `Energy' by science) that builds and psychology by Sri Aurobindo as, “beyond
organises the worlds of matter, life and mind what is known as Nature”. The very fact that
and therefore antedates the brain in evolution, Sri Aurobindo describes that there is something
using it as an instrument for expression. which is “beyond what is known as nature”
It extends beyond the mind through the shows that there is a Higher Nature or
subconscious into an Inconscience, full of Supernature as well as a lower Nature. The

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