|
Life in and Through Death THE soul carries the body even like a corpse, says a scripture. It is a
dead inert mass of inconscience weighing upon the conscious being that is
behind. Such is the burden of life that the soul bears through its earthly
existence. The image is beautifully delineated in the Indian legend of Shiva
and Sati. Sati is dead, the bereaved Shiva goes about in anguish with the dead
body of Sati flung upon his shoulder. Shiva is to be relieved of this burden,
otherwise the creation will go to rack and ruin. The prayer went to Vishnu and
Vishnu hurled his discus that cut to pieces the corpse of Sati-the pieces were
fifty-two in number and each spot where a piece, a limb of Sati, fell became a
great place of pilgrimage. Even so, the world in its inconscience lies heavy on
the secret Consciousness that is behind. It lies almost smothered under the
dead weight of the inconscient and the unconsciousness. But the Divine Grace
has entered into the inertial mass and split it up, entered into each particle
as a spark of consciousness to turn gradually the dead matter into a rising and
evolving tier of consciousness. Creation started orginally with an absolutely
inconscient existence. It is the pressure of an indwelling spirit – the Grace
descending into matter – that has forced matter to burst into, to flower into
forms of light and consciousness. The pressure is ever-present and the
flowering continues into higher and higher modes of the Divine Consciousness.
The figure '52' of the mythological legend denotes perhaps the integral multiplicity
of the manifested universe. We may suggest an interpretation just to satisfy a
mental curiosity: 52=50+2; and 50 is 5 X 10. The number 5 is very well-known as
representing the five planes of consciousness, and as there is a descending and
an ascending movement in each level – that gives the number 10. And 5 times 10 is 50.
Page – 184
This makes up the manifested creation.
The remaining two are the Supreme Divine and his Shakti, or two unities at each
end – the one above, the one below. This however may be considered as a playful
calculation meaning to represent, as I said, a multiple integrality of existence. The injunction is: you must die to the world
if you want the life Eternal. Even so you must die to yourself if you want the
Divine. The existing life which your ego has built up is a life of ignorance,
misery and decadence. Death is indeed the natural and inevitable consequence;
but this is a death in ignorance and bondage, it does not lead you to
liberation and freedom. The dying that liberates is a conscious, deliberate
movement of intelligence and will; dying to the world means withdrawing
yourself from the world and turning within. Dying to yourself means withdrawing
from your egohood and turning to the self, the being that is beyond. This
withdrawal is to be done constantly and consistently in all the parts of the
being. The mind is to move away from its thoughts, the vital from its desires
and impulses and the body from its hunger and thirst. The first result of this
withdrawal is a division of the being, an inner passive part and an outer
active part. The inner part becomes gradually a mere witness and the outer part
a mere mechanical functioning. When the withdrawal is so complete that the
outer being or the world has no effect upon the inner, does not raise any
ripple in it by its touch or contiguity then is accomplished the real death.
Then it is said the outer existence, the material life does not continue long,
it comes sooner or later to a dead stop. Thus the inner being is liberated
completely and is freed into the life beyond, the Divine Existence, the
Brahman. It is said that when each and every seed of the various elements that
compose the being, that sprouts into the luxuriant tree of material life, when
each and every seed is burnt up by the heat of mounting 'tapas', the force of
aspiring consciousness, then there is no more chance or possibility of an
ignorant earthly life, one is then naturally born into the Life of the Eternal.
That is the final, the supreme death which is laya or pralaya. To live away from life and consequently away
from death is one thing, comparatively easy; but to live in life and consequently
Page – 185
in death is another thing, somewhat more difficult. To withdraw
oneself from the field of death and retire in the immutability beyond or some
form of it is what was attempted in the ancient days. But there has been side
by side always a growing tendency in man to stay here in this vale of tears
under the shadow of death, to live dangerously and face the Evil and conquer it
here itself; for death is not a mere negation an annihilation of the reality,
it is only a mask put over the reality or is its obverse. Tear off or remove
the disguise, you will see the smiling radiant Godhead behind. The gold is there, the purest gold, but it is
crusted over with dross. The dross is to be eliminated and the noble metal
freed. Indeed each element of the being wherever and whatever it is, each
corpuscle, mental, vital or physical is ambivalent – it is a polarised entity
consisting of two parts or two ends, one pure, the other impure. The ancients
thought that the whole creation is impure; the only pure substance is the
Divine. The Sankhya posited clearly the demarcation between Purusha, the
Conscious Being secreted above and behind and the entire Prakriti which is
absolute unconsciousness. But as we have said, a new revelation has been slowly
coming up which speaks of a different conclusion 'and a different destiny for
man and the universe. Each element of the created universe has a double nature,
it is both conscious and unconscious, it is both immortal and mortal. And
furthermore, the two are not united or soldered together inextricably so that
if one is eliminated the other gets eliminated automatically. Life and death
appear to be bound together absolutely and eternally; in fact, however, it is
not so. Even in life, Life can be established in its single pure reality free
from the normal counterpoint of Death. Purusha is not the only conscious
element in or above creation. Prakriti is not merely the unconscious being. The
unconscious Prakriti is only the apparent aspect of the Higher Prakriti, the
Para Prakriti, which is supremely conscious, for it is one with the Supreme
Purusha. This Higher Prakriti is the inner reality of
each created cell of the universe. And it is always insisting and working for
the elimination of its counterpart, the inferior Prakriti; and evolution, human
or cosmic is nothing but the gradual corroding of the inferior Prakriti by the
pressure of the Light-Energy
Page – 186 of the Higher Prakriti. One day when this
lower Prakriti is dissolved in this way in each cell, the fullness of the
radiant manifestation, an embodiment of the Divine Reality will be realised
upon this material earth made spiritual, in this human body made Divine.
Page – 187
|
