Page 8 - NAMAH-Jul-2024

Editorial

Apropos the Physical Plane of Consciousness

to do so. Rather, it turns out to be one of
the most challenging domains in the saga of
transformation.

Needs versus desires

It is important to understand that, from the
psychological perspective, the body per
se, minus the vital and the mind — does not
have desires but has needs and instinctively
knows what it needs. However, the human
being loses this capacity as one grows up due
to the interference of vital desires and mental
preferences. Left without these interventions,
the body could have instinctively chosen what
it needed. But how does the consciousness of
the body’s cells know what it needs?
It is the physical plane of consciousness that Sri Aurobindo suggests that this is because
deserves first and foremost attention, as it is the of the presence of the supermind, though
basis on which the edifice of life is constructed, dormant, in the cells of the body, “The
the very foundation which upholds life. It is supermind working in the physical is rather
the only medium through which our emotions difficult to speak about. One can hint at it. You
and ideas can consolidate themselves to find can say that it is something in the very physical
expression in the manifestation. cells which makes them do precisely the thing
that is necessary for the body. Because it is
However, it is also the plane through which there, the body, for instance, knows what
illnesses and adverse influences affect our it should eat. If left free it would tell you
health and well-being. In the final analysis, it what it requires and what it does not…. But
is the physical plane of consciousness which most civilised men have lost that capacity.
is the battleground where all the positive Men turned too much to the mental and vital
and negative influences jostle to find a space faculties that were rising in them…. But the
to manifest. Naturally, the physical plane physical consciousness if left free, knows what
should not be made to suffer the fate of an it needs. The body has no desires, it has needs,
ascetic rejection; it would be rather unwise and it knows what it needs (1).”

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