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The Progress of the Psychic Being -- Individualising While Transcending the Ego · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Individuals who take up spiritual practice are generally
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  advised that they have to overcome the ego and free
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  themselves from its desires, ambitions, wants, or needs.
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  As the practice advances, the seeker begins to recognize that
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  he is not that ego personality, either as the specific person or
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  in the larger formations of the ego, the family, the community,
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  the nation, the religion. At the same time, we can
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  recognize that the development of the individuality associated
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  with what we understand to be the ego is actually part of the
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  advancement of the evolution of consciousness.
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  Consciousness in matter is not differentiated.
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  Much of the creation prior to the advent of the more highly
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  evolved forms that incorporate a well defined mental awareness is
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  undifferentiated as well. Progress in these levels is
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  slow, taking place across millennia.
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  With the advent of the individualized consciousness, we
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  experience the opportunity for what might be seen as parallel
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  processing, where different individuals are able to work on
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  development from different standpoints and with different
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  tools at their disposal, thus creating an engine of progress.
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  As with everything, there are benefits but also limitations.
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  At a certain point the limitations need to be overcome.
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  Sri Robindo described this in his aphorism quote.
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  When we have passed beyond individualizing, then we shall
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  be real persons. Ego was the helper.
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  Ego is the bar. End Quote The next stage in
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  spiritual development is to be able to utilize the
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  differentiation, the individualization, without the
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  limitations of being tied to the desires and wants of a specific
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  ego formation. A disciple inquires in What does
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  a psychic being's progress consist?
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  The Mother replies quote individualization, the capacity
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  to take up all experiences and organize them around the divine
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  centre. The aim of the psychic being is
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  to form an individual being, individualized, personalized
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  around the divine centre. Normally, all the experiences of
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  the external life, unless one does yoga and becomes conscious,
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  pass without organizing the inner being.
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  While the psychic being organizes these experiences
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  serially, it wants to realize a particular attitude towards the
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  divine. Hence it looks for all
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  favourable experiences in order to have the complete series of
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  opportunities, so to say, which will allow it to realize this
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  attitude towards the divine. Take someone, for example, who
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  wants to have the experience of nobility.
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  A nobility which makes it impossible for you to act like
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  an ordinary person, which infuses into you a bravery, A
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  courage which may almost be taken for rashness, because the
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  attitude, the experience, demands that you face danger
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  without showing the least fear. I was telling you a while ago
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  that I would explain to you what one could acquire by entering
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  into the body of a king. A king is an ordinary man, isn't
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  he? Like all others, he does not
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  have a special consciousness, but through the necessities of
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  his life, because he is a kind of symbol to his people, there
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  are things he is obliged to do which he could never do if he
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  were an ordinary man. I know this by experience, but I
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  saw this also while looking at photographs which represented a
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  king In actual circumstances. Something had happened which
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  might have been an attempt on his life, but was averted.
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  The photograph showed the king inspecting A regiment.
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  All of a sudden, someone had rushed forward, perhaps with a
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  bad intention, perhaps not, for nothing had happened.
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  In any case, the King had remained completely impassive,
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  absolutely calm, the same smile on his lips, without moving the
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  least from the place where he was, and he was quite within
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  sight, an easy target for one who wanted to rush forward and
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  hurt him. For all I know, this king was
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  not a hero, but because he was a king, he could not take to
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  flight. That would have been ignoble.
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  So he remained calm without stirring, without showing any
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  outward fear. This is an example of what 1 can
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  learn in the life of a king. There is also a true story about
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  Queen Elizabeth. She had come to the last days of
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  her life and was extremely ill. But there was trouble in the
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  country and about questions of taxation.
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  A group of people, merchants I believe, had formed a delegation
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  to present a petition to her in the name of a party of the
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  people. She lay very ill in her room, so
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  I'll that she could hardly stand, but she got up and
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  dressed to receive them. The lad who was attending upon
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  her cried out. But it is impossible you will
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  die of this. The Queen answered quietly.
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  We shall die afterwards. This is an example from a whole
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  series of experiences one can have in the life of a king, and
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  it is this which justifies the choice of the psychic being when
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  it takes up this kind of life. It is memories of this kind
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  which prove the authenticity of the experience.
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  For what generally happens when people tell you about their past
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  lives is this. In these lives there is always a
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  progress, naturally, so they become more and more splendid
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  people in more and more marvellous circumstances.
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  It is wrong. Things never happen like that.
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  The psychic being follows a certain line of existence which
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  develops certain qualities, certain powers, etcetera.
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  But the psychic being always sees what it lacks and it can
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  choose the opposite line in a future life.
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  A negation, so to say, of this experience in order to have
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  complementary experiences. End Quote Reference Sri Orobindo
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  and the Mother, the psychic being soul, its nature, mission
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  and evolution. Section 3.
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  Growth and Development of the Psychic, pages 92 to 94.