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The Transcendental, the Cosmic and the Individual Divine · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The idea of a trinity of aspects or statuses of the Divine, has
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  arisen throughout the major, religious, and spiritual
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  traditions of the world. It is relatively easy to
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  conceptualize this by looking at how we experience the world.
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  We start with an individual perspective and reference life
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  from that standpoint. Our interaction with the world
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  provides a second aspect that of the universal creation of which
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  we are a part and within which we participate The third aspect
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  is the one that the upanishads reference when they try to avoid
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  the limited definitions available to our mental
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  framework. When they say it is not this,
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  not that they are indicating that.
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  We cannot fully Define the Divine with any specific
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  categorization because there is always something that exceeds
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  that definition and escapes, our ability to describe it.
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  This is the Transcendent aspect the universal aspect they Define
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  as all this is the Brahman, the individual is described.
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  As I am, that taken separately, they fail to provide a complete
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  understanding of the Divine, but taken together and unified, they
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  bring us closer to the mental awareness needed.
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  At the same time. No thought concept or idea is
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  the same as the actual experience.
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  And that is why the spiritual tradition speak of the need, for
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  obtaining, the spiritual Oneness and the experience of unity or
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  Transcendence. For your window observes, quote,
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  the distinction between the transcendental.
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  The cosmic, the individual Divine is not my invention.
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  Nor is it native to India or to Asia?
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  It is on the contrary a recognized European teaching
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  current in the esoteric tradition of the Catholic Church
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  where it is the authorized explanation of the Trinity
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  Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And it is very well known to
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  European Mystic experience in essence.
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  It exists in all spiritual disciplines, that recognize the
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  omnipresence of the Divine in Indian vedantic experience and
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  in Muhammad in yoga, not only the Sufi, but other schools
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  also, the muhammadans even speak of, not two or three, but many
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  levels of the Divine. Until one reaches the Supreme As
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  for the idea in itself, surely there is a different between the
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  individual, the cosmos and space and time.
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  And something that exceeds the cosmic formula or any Cosmic
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  formula. There is a cosmic Consciousness
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  experienced by many which is quite different in scope and
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  action from the individual Consciousness.
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  And if there is a Consciousness Beyond The Cosmic infinite and
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  essentially Eternal not merely extended in time that also must
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  be different from these two. And if the Divine is or
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  manifests himself in these three, is it not conceivable
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  that an aspect and is working? He may differentiate himself so
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  much that we are driven. If we are not to confound all
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  truth of experience, if we are not to limit ourselves to a mere
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  static experience of something indefinable to speak of a triple
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  aspect of the Divine In the practice of yoga, there is a
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  great Dynamic difference, in one's way of dealing with these
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  three possible realizations. If I realize only the Divine is
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  that not my personal self which yet, moves secretly in all my
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  personal being, and, which I can bring forward out of the Veil.
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  Or if I build up the image of that godhead in my members, it
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  is a realization but a limited one.
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  If it is the cosmic godhead that I realize losing in it all
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  personal self, that's a very wide realization, but I'd become
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  a mere channel of the Universal Power and there is no personal
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  or divinely. Individual consummation for me,
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  if I shoot up to the transcendental realization only,
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  I lose both myself and the world in the transcendental.
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  Absolute If on the other hand my aim is none of these things by
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  itself. But to realize and also to
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  manifest the Divine in the world bringing down for the purpose of
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  yet unmanifested power, such as the super mind.
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  A harmonization of all three becomes imperative.
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  I have to bring it down. And from, where shall I bring it
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  down since it is not yet manifested in the cosmic
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  formula. if not from the unmanifest Transcendence, which
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  I must reach in realize, I have to bring it into the cosmic
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  formula and if so, I must realize the cosmic Divine and
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  become conscious of the Cosmic Self and the cosmic forces, but
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  I have to embody a here. Otherwise it is left as an
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  influence only and not a thing fixed in the physical world.
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  And it is through the Divine in the individual alone.
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  That this can be done. These are elements in the
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  Dynamics of spiritual experience and I am obliged to admit them.
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  If a Divine work has to be done in quote reference 3, aurobindo,
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  integral yoga, SRI aurobindo is teaching and method of practice
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  chapter 4, the Divine, the gods, and the Divine Force, the Divine
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  Pages, 77 to 82,