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The Separation of Purusha and Prakriti: The Soul and the External Being · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Most people identify themselves with their external being, their
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  body, life, mind, complex. They assign a name to that being
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  and they answer to that name. They are totally immersed in the
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  needs, wants and directions that that external being is taking.
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  When they awaken to a deeper spiritual urge, they talk about
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  finding the soul, as if the soul is an element of that external
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  being. Those who have shifted their
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  viewpoint to the witness consciousness of the Purusha, or
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  even have just experienced the shift of standpoint to the soul,
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  come to recognize that this is actually a reversed view of
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  things. Actually, the external being is
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  something developed by and for the soul's use.
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  It is the soul that is primary and the causative factor that
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  creates the external life and its experiences.
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  It is for the benefit of the soul that the being takes birth,
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  has various experiences, and then leaves the body behind in
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  the transition we call death. But the soul does not die.
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  The soul takes on its future forms, has new experiences, and
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  continues to grow and develop the psychic being, which is the
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  sole entity that guides the birth and development process.
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  The Tibetan Book of the Dead explores the transition of the
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  soul from life through death and into future life with a
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  remarkable clarity that speaks of actual experience and
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  understanding. The Mandukya Upanishad describes
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  the relation of the witness, consciousness and the act of
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  nature and explains how we become immersed in the actions
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  of the external nature to such a degree that we lose our
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  awareness of the soul. But when we step back and see
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  the witness, we separate ourselves from the external
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  nature and experience freedom. The Titiria Upanishad has a
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  chapter that explores the increasing understanding of the
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  separation of the external form from the actual causative
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  element, the self or soul. The seeker is asked to undertake
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  Tapassia, concentration of conscious force, to understand
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  the eternal as we do. He starts by understanding that
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  matter, the material being, is the cause by which all beings
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  are born, by which they live and into which they dissolve when
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  they depart. When he goes to his teacher, his
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  father, he has asked to go back and focus again, obviously as he
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  had not reached the solution. He then understands that it is
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  the life force that acts as the cause.
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  Energy creates matter. He once again is sent back and
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  he determines that mind is the cause, which creates and directs
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  energy to create matter. Even this does not resolve the
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  question. In the next iteration of his
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  concentration, he understands that there is a larger causative
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  consciousness, Vignana, translated by Sri Aurobindo as
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  the supremental consciousness, that is the creative force that
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  causes mind, life and body. He still has not achieved the
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  full realization. Then he realizes that Ananda is
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  the ultimate causative factor. Ananda is coexistent with Sut,
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  pure existence and Chit, pure consciousness force, and is the
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  divine existence that manifests the entire creation through the
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  action of Vivignana and then down into the mind, life and
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  body. Science has now confirmed the
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  Vedic wisdom that matter is a form of energy, and the cutting
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  edge of science is now confirming that energy is a form
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  of consciousness. The detailed complexity
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  comprising billions of details of our human existence, not to
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  speak of the complexity of the rest of the creation, makes it
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  clear that consciousness is driving and creating these forms
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  and interactions and patterns. Matter is thus not the original
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  cause, but an effect of the force of consciousness in
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  manifestation. Once we gain this basic
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  recognition, we can begin the process of taking conscious
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  charge of the external nature. This is the uplifting and
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  transformative process that Triorobindo describes when he
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  indicates that the pirusha need not be just a passive witness,
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  but can take on the active role of master of the nature aligned
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  with the divine consciousness of which each being, each element,
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  each form is a part, Triorobindo writes.
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  Quote The first step in this path of knowledge, having once
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  determined into our intellect that what seems is not the
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  truth, that the self is not the body or life or mind, since
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  these are only its forms, must be to set right our mind in its
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  practical relation with the life and the body, so that it may
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  arrive at its own right relation with the self.
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  This is easiest to do by a device.
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  It is to create a separation between the procriti and the
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  perusha. The perusha, the soul that knows
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  and commands, has got himself involved in the workings of his
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  executive conscious force, so that he mistakes this physical
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  working of it, which we call the body, for himself.
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  He forgets his own nature as the soul that knows and commands.
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  He believes his mind and soul to be subject to the law and
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  working of the body. He forgets that he is so much
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  else besides that is greater than the physical form.
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  He forgets that the mind is really greater than matter, and
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  ought not to submit to its obscurations, reactions.
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  Habit of inertia, habit of incapacity.
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  He forgets that he is more even than the mind, a power which can
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  raise the mental being above itself, that he is the Master,
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  the transcendent, and it is not fit.
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  The master should be enslaved to his own workings, the
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  transcendent imprisoned in a form which exists only as A
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  trifle in its own being. All this forgetfulness has to be
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  cured by the Purusha remembering his own true nature, and first
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  by his remembering that the body is only a working and only one
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  working of prakruti. End Quote.
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  Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Looking from Within,
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  Chapter 5. Attitudes on the Path, page 161.