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Gods and Men I BEGIN with a Sanskrit proverb: it is not exactly a proverb but a witty saying, half in jest, half in earnest. You will see however the significance it carries. Perhaps, there is a story hanging about it. You know that the Sanskrit pundits, perhaps all pundits, are proverbially supposed to be very unpractical. That is to say, they are so much engrossed in their study, in their books, in abstract things that they lose their sense of the material world, of the external things. So, once it seems, a pundit wanted to know what a pig was: "I have heard of a pig, a boar, what is it? I have not seen it." Someone answered: "It is an animal." "What kind of animal?" Then another pundit to show his erudition answered: "A pig is an enlarged mouse, a mouse become big – musika-vrddhi; or otherwise, it is an elephant become small, a diminution or reduction of an elephant – gaja-ksaya." Our pundit felt illumined and exclaimed, "Yes, yes, now I understand, now I understand." So, taking up this image I may say that man also occupies an intermediate position in the order of creation: on one side he is an enlarged animal (not in body, however, always), a developed, elevated animal; on the other side he is a diminutive, a diminished god. The story is very interesting, how man has developed, how he has come out of the animal, you must have read something of this story of evolution; but more interesting is the other part of the story, how God or a god has reduced himself to the stature of a human being. Long, long, long ago, in the earliest stage of
creation, there
Page – 9 were materially only dust particles, tiny
dust particles or what looked like mere dust, everywhere (the Vedas say tucchyena abhvapihitam –
covered all around with infinitesimals). There was no formation, no shape or
various bodies as we see now: it was a vague cloud or mist, innumerable
particles whirling about. That was how creation started. Then slowly,
gradually, those particles began combining, coalescing; they began to condense,
to have forms or shapes small or big, of various types. There was the first
appearance of the sky with its starry battalions and then the earth emerged
bearing a special character and destiny. I have spoken of the primeval or
primary dust particles scattered about. But along with them, within each one,
in another dimension, there were, strange to say, particles of light. We have
come to know of the atomic and sub-atomic material particles, but of these
light particles there has arisen just a suspicion only recently. This light,
however, is not merely the material light, but the glow of consciousness. And
the most momentous thing that happened was the growth and development of this
light-particle along with the development of the material body of the dust.
The material mass through many changes shaped into the body of sentient
growths, living beings, animals and finally into the human body. Even so the
original light particle, at the beginning no more than a flicker in the midst
of surrounding darkness, hardly noticeable and distinguishable, slowly but
irresistibly grew in clearness, in volume and in strength. It took many long
years, many millions of years to develop into a clear shape. That was the
centre, this light-particle was the heart of things, the heart of living beings
and in man it underwent a strange transmutation. The light-particle, as I said,
originally had no form, it was just a hazy speck. As it grew big, at a certain
stage it began to take the shape of a flame. You have seen a candle flame which
often has the form of a cone: a cone is a well-developed clear form. But as I
said, when the human body appeared, this flame too changed into something
Page – 10 like the human form, a tiny human form, a luminous embryo, as it were. You remember the famous Upanishadic line: angusthamatrah puruso' antaratma¹ – a purusha, a being or person of the size of the thumb. That was the first formation of the human soul, the original light particle became a person or a psychic being. In man, I said, there has been a miraculous transmutation – the light, the growing consciousness has learnt to look back upon itself, it has become self-conscious, has taken the first leap that would carry it into another region of growth and development. The personification, rather personalisation, of the light of consciousness, its farther and continuous growth, the greatening of the psychic being involves the whole inner story of human destiny. How does the light grow and develop? What are the forces, what are the agents that initiate and help in the growth and development of the spark into the being, and the being into higher beings? Life is the agent, life-forces are the artisans that do this work. Life means a series of experiences, impacts of the surrounding world upon yourself, your mind and body and sensation. These are like fuel that you pour into the flame, that feed and increase that flame. Life after life you have to gather these experiences that fortify and greaten the contents of your being and then there comes a time when this flame, this conscious being is so developed, so mature, so well-formed, that you begin to think of the life spiritual. When one is not content, not wholly content with ordinary life, yearns after something else, something greater, it means that the flame in you has reached a crucial stage and has to take a leap or bound into another dimension of life. The aspiration for the spiritual life means that you have now a glimpse of the true person that you are within, the beautiful person within you of whom I have spoken so often to you. Through the spiritual life you develop that beautiful personality more and more and still more, until you become a being perfectly formed and fully grown. When a man
¹Shwetashwatara Upanishad: 3.13 Page – 11 achieved the perfect form of the soul, he used to be called, in the ancient days, siddha-purusha – one who has attained the supreme realisation, the perfection. Siddha means achieved, consummated – the purpose of the normal human life has been 'fulfilled', you have reached the complete development of that inner light which was always within you, which you have been carrying and developing since time immemorial. Various are the ways, the chequered lives you have passed through, innumerable are the steps and stages difficult and different for you to have arrived at this perfection, and yet this is not the end, there is now a transference to another line of growth. To become perfect human beings is the first half of the human destiny, there is another half which is to become a god, to become a Divine person. But from now on the procedure is different for
we enter into another dimension or quality of reality. Here begins the world of
the gods. The gods are, we may say, types of perfection. They have a
consciousness quite different from that of the mind, it is not limited, it is
global, each embodying a divine quality or qualities. Each is a special Power.
On the human level the progress is that of a gradual movement forward and.
upward, an ascension step by step. It is a movement of achievement or
realisation by addition, accretion as it were. But you do not attain godhead
or godhood in that way, in the same way as you seize and capture and possess a
desired object: here you do not possess the gods, but they come and possess
you, they descend and come into you. The Upanishad says: "He himself comes
forward and unveils his own body." They are of such a different quality –
different not only in degree but in kind, that you cannot by developing,
increasing or amplifying the present attain that nature. That nature itself, as
I said, is to descend and enter into you and make you its own mode of
existence. Now, this is a new fulfilment for the human being to attain to the
status of a god, to evolve oneself, to attune oneself so as to call by this
affinity a divine being, a god, and to become a
Page – 12 god. Sri Aurobindo speaks of the divine life, the Life Divine, the life of a god, it means that you become a god, not only realise the utmost human perfection possible as man but surpass man's humanity and call in and embody divinity. You may remember Ramakrishna making a distinction between two kinds of perfect human beings – one he calls Jivakoti, that is to say, human creatures who have the capacity to attain the final liberation. Usually, these humans are sufficient unto themselves, they do their own sadhana and attain siddhi and pass out. They do not come back. But the other category of beings who are called Ishwarakoti, that is to say, those who embody the divine nature, not only can save themselves but others also, they can bear the burden of imperfect human beings, they can go up and come down, pass from life to life even after liberation with ease, in order to continue the work of earth's global Freedom. I have said, a god comes down and seizes you, you do not go up and take possession of a god. But perhaps it is only a mode of describing the same phenomenon. The god that you call upon to come into you is your presiding deity and it is there always over your head guiding you, helping you, befriending you throughout your cycles of spiritual evolution. This archetype of divinity that you are to become or that is to engulf you and be identified with you has been with you from the very beginning, coming closer and closer to you as you go on developing upward. Indeed the light-speck that you were originally, of which I spoke to you at the outset, is nothing but a spark of the same Divine Entity or Person come down into the material world. A great and glorious example of man becoming a god
is that of Narada, therefore he is called Devarshi, that is to say, a rishi, a
spiritually perfect man developing, that is, metamorphosing himself into a god
coming down and inhabiting, possessing, becoming a human being. The function
or role of a god-man or Devarshi like Narada has been described beautifully in Savitri.
He is an immortal still
Page – 13 living, moving about in the ethereal spheres, often he comes down into
the earthly atmosphere and takes part in the terrestrial movements by throwing
into them his guiding light and loving solicitude. And yet Narada is not the
last word of the human evolution. Because he is still in the end of the subtle
world, he has not undergone the material bodily transformation, he has not yet
arrived at the golden body of which Sri Aurobindo speaks, the receptacle of
Life Divine. The divinely trans- formed human body is the next stage or
consummation of human evolution.
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