Latest / Sri Aurobindo Studies / The Witness and the Nature: Purusha and Prakriti

Transcript

The Witness and the Nature: Purusha and Prakriti · Sri Aurobindo Studies

• 0:00
  When we take the time to observe our own internal process, we can
• 0:05
  very quickly become aware of a part of the being that is able
• 0:08
  to observe and monitor thoughts and impulses that run through
• 0:13
  the mental space. Many paths of awareness, such as
• 0:17
  Raja Yoga and mindfulness training teach us how to reach
• 0:22
  this observational standpoint. As it is limited to the mental
• 0:26
  aspect of our being. We may understand this to be the
• 0:30
  mental witness, the mental Purusha, observing the mental
• 0:34
  nature, mental prakruti. There's a similar experience we
• 0:40
  can develop as we begin to monitor our feelings,
• 0:43
  impulsions, emotions, this time at the vital level, the vital
• 0:49
  Purusha. With sufficient practice, we may
• 0:53
  also begin to find ways to take stock of our physical being and
• 0:56
  its responses and reactions and become aware of the physical
• 1:01
  purusha. Although much of the action of
• 1:04
  the physical body is actually accomplished relatively
• 1:07
  automatically, with a speed and precision that baffles our
• 1:11
  attempts to consciously monitor these things, we may, however,
• 1:17
  become aware of the body consciousness through its
• 1:20
  responses to situations and events.
• 1:24
  Some find that there are actual physical senses beyond the five
• 1:28
  we generally recognize that are physical knowings, such as
• 1:32
  gauging the weight of an object one holds in one's hands, or the
• 1:37
  directional orientation, or a sense of balance, or even the
• 1:42
  sense of a potential danger that is not seen with the mental or
• 1:46
  vital sense but acts directly upon the body.
• 1:51
  There is yet another aspect of the consciousness of the witness
• 1:54
  which is not tied to the mental, the vital, or the physical
• 1:58
  levels of our external being. This aspect is the witness at
• 2:04
  the level of the soul, the psychic being, which links the
• 2:08
  individual to the divine presence and which observes and
• 2:12
  eventually works to master the functioning of the body, the
• 2:17
  life force and the mind. Sri Rubindo notes quote In the
• 2:25
  experience of Yoga, the self or being is in essence one with the
• 2:29
  divine, or at least it is a portion of the divine and has
• 2:34
  all the divine potentialities. But in manifestation it takes 2
• 2:40
  aspects, the Purusha and Prakriti, conscious being and
• 2:45
  Nature. In nature.
• 2:48
  Here the Divine is veiled and the individual being is
• 2:52
  subjected to nature, which acts here as the lower property of
• 2:56
  force of ignorance of Vidya. The Purusha in itself is Divine,
• 3:02
  but exteriorized in the ignorance of nature.
• 3:05
  It is the individual apparent being imperfect with her
• 3:09
  imperfection. Thus the soul or psychic
• 3:13
  essence, which is the Purusha, entering into the evolution and
• 3:17
  supporting it, carries in itself all the divine potentialities.
• 3:23
  But the individual psychic being, which it puts forth as
• 3:26
  its representative, assumes the imperfection of Nature and
• 3:31
  evolves in it till it has recovered its full psychic
• 3:35
  essence and united itself with the Self, above of which the
• 3:39
  soul is the individual projection in the evolution.
• 3:44
  This duality and the Being on all its planes, for it is true
• 3:49
  in different ways, not only of the self and the psychic, but of
• 3:52
  the mental, vital and physical purushas has to be grasped and
• 3:58
  accepted before the experiences of the Yoga can be fully
• 4:02
  understood. The Being is 1 throughout, but
• 4:07
  on each plane of nature it is represented by a form of itself
• 4:12
  which is proper to that plane, the mental Perusha in the mental
• 4:17
  plane, the vital Perusha in the vital, the physical Perusha in
• 4:21
  the physical, the Titeria. Upanishad speaks of two other
• 4:26
  planes of the being, the Knowledge or Truth plane and the
• 4:30
  Ananda plane, each with its Perusha.
• 4:34
  But although influences may come down from them, these are super
• 4:38
  conscient to the human mind and their nature is not yet
• 4:42
  organized here. End Quote.
• 4:46
  Reference Srioro Bindu and the Mother, the psychic being soul,
• 4:51
  its nature, mission and evolution.
• 4:54
  Section 1. Meaning and Nature of the
• 4:56
  Psychic Being, pages 11 to 12.