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The
Spiritual Outlook
THE spiritual outlook is a global view, unlike the
mental which is very often the view from a single angle or in rare cases, at
the most, from a few angles. The ordinary man, even the most cultured and
enlightened, has always a definite standpoint from which he surveys and judges;
indeed without such a standpoint he would not be considered educated and worthy
of respect. In other words, he aspects one side of his
object and thus perceives only a partial truth. That there are other
standpoints, that other people may view the same thing from other grounds does
not trouble him or troubles him to the extent that he considers them all
mistaken, illusory. He condescends to admit other standpoints if they are near enough
to his, if they support or confirm it. Otherwise, if they are contrary or
contradictory to what he perceives and concludes, then evidently they are to be
discarded and thrown away into the dustbin as rubbish. The spiritual consciousness dawns
precisely with the rejection of this monomania, this obsession of one-track
mentality. It means, in other words, nothing les than coming out of the shell
of one's egoism. To be able thus to come out of oneself, enter into others'
consciousness, see things as others see them, that is the great initiation, the
true beginning of the life of the spirit. For the Spirit is the truth of all
things: all things, even what appears evil and reprehensible, exist and have
their play because of a core of truth and force of truth in each. Mind and
mind's external consciousness and practical drive compel one to take to a
single line of perception and action and that which is more or less superficial
and immediately necessary. But it is only when one withdraws from the drive' of
Maya and gets behind, gets behind all opposing views and standpoints and tries
to see what is the underlying truth that Page- 97 seeks to manifest in each that one enters the
gateway of the spiritual consciousness. The spiritual consciousness is
global, not in the sense that it is eclectic, that is to say, the sum-total of
all the superficial views, but in the sense that it experiences the one dynamic
truth that underlies all and which manifests its varying powers and potentials
in various objects and forces, expressing itself in multiple standpoints and
modes and angles of vision. When the Divine acts, it acts always
in and through this transcendental and innermost truth of things. When it helps
the seeker, it touches and inspires the secret soul in him – his truth – not
like the human teacher or reformer who addresses himself to the outer
personality, to laws and codes, prohibitions and injunctions, reward and
punishment, for the education and instruction of his pupil. Indeed, the Divine
chastises also in the same way. The Asura or the anti-divine he does not kill
with one blow nor even with many blows of his thunderbolt or burn away with his
red wrath. The image of Zeus or Jehovah is a human figuration: it depicts the
human way of dealing with one's enemies. The Divine deals
with the undivine in the divine way, for the undivine too is not
something outside the Divine. The Asura also ha<; his truth, his truth in
the Divine, only it has been degraded and deformed under circumstances. The
Divine simply disengages, picks up that core of truth and takes it away so that
it can no longer be appropriated and deformed by the Asura who now losing the
secret support of his truth automatically crumbles to pieces as mere husk and
chaff. If there is something more than the merely human in the image of Durga,
the Goddess transfixing her lance right into the heart of the Asura may be
taken as indicative of this occult truth. There is then this singular and
utter harmony in the divine consciousness resolving all contraries and
incompatibles. Neha nanasti kiñcana, there
is no division or disparity here. Established in this consciousness, the
spiritual man naturally and inevitably finds that he is in all and all are in
him and that he is all and all are he, for all and he are indivisibly that
single (yet multiple) reality. The brotherhood of man is only a derivative from
the more fundamental truth of the universal selfhood of man. Page-98
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