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The Psychic Being -- Its Special Role Manifesting the Divine Presence in Matter · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Humanity has long had the feeling that it represents
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  something special and unique in the universal creation.
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  Major religions have creation stories that emphasize this
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  uniqueness, with God creating man in his own image and finding
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  that it was good. Many people believe that
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  humanity is the only self aware sentient being in the entire
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  universe. While they bolster this claim
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  with the claim that our search for sentient life elsewhere has
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  come up empty, it is clear that we can neither perceive all the
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  beings that exist in our own world, nor that we have been
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  able to explore the vast universe at distances that
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  require time far beyond our short human lifetimes to reach.
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  Stories from ancient texts tell of the unique opportunity of a
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  human birth while acknowledging the existence of other sentient
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  beings, some with knowledge and powers far exceeding those we
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  possess. In our review of the world we
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  can observe and the beings that inhabit Earth, we accentuate the
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  predominant role that humanity plays to shore up our role as
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  the leading species on the planet.
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  We tend to believe that advanced mental capacities are what make
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  us unique. Yet these same mental capacities
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  have serious limitations and lead to unintended consequences
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  that threaten the destruction of not only all of humanity, but
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  possibly of the entire world. In the Cana Upanishad, the
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  powers of matter, life and mind embodied in the beings known as
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  Agni, Wyu and Indra are shown their limitations by a power
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  that far exceeds them. Eventually, the mental power
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  concludes there is a further consciousness that transcends
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  them all. It is the direct link to this
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  higher consciousness that actually represents the true
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  uniqueness of the human being. In the Christian religion, Jesus
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  was born into the human world. As the Son of God, he carries
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  the divinity into human life. Looked at in more general terms,
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  the psychic being represents the element in each human being that
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  brings into the human being the spark, the direct connection to
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  the divine. The ancient texts make it clear
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  that other beings, including highly conscious and powerful
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  beings, do not carry this specific divine connection.
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  They are static beings that do not evolve or develop beyond the
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  limits of their own role and capacities.
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  The psychic being in man provides the mechanism for
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  development, growth, and evolution.
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  Beings that desire to participate in this process are
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  compelled, therefore, to take a human birth.
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  A disciple asks what is the work of the psychic being?
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  The mother answers quote what is the work of the psychic being?
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  You want it to have some work? What do you want to say exactly?
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  What is its function? Ah, very well.
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  One could put it this way that it is like an electric wire that
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  connects the generator with the lamp.
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  Now if someone has understood, let him explain what I said.
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  Disciple, what is the generator and what the lamp?
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  Laughter. The mother quote.
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  Ah, there we are. So what is the generator and
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  what the lamp? That is exactly it.
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  What is the generator and what the lamp?
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  Or rather, who is the generator and who is the lamp?
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  Disciple, The generator is the define and the lamp is the body,
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  the Mother, it is the body, it is the visible being, so that is
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  its function. This means that if there were no
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  psychic in matter, it would not be able to have any direct
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  contact with the divine. And it is happily due to this
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  psychic presence in matter that the contact between matter and
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  the divine can be direct and all human beings can be told.
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  You carry the divine within you, and you have only to enter
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  within yourself, and you will find him.
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  It is something very particular to the human being, or rather to
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  the inhabitants of the earth. In the human being the psychic
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  becomes more conscious, more formed, more conscious and more
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  dependent. Also it is individualized in
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  human beings, but it is a specialty of the earth.
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  It is a direct infusion, special and redeeming in the most
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  inconscient and obscure matter, so that it might once again
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  awake through stages to the divine consciousness, the Divine
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  Presence, and finally to the Divine himself.
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  It is the presence of the psychic which makes man an
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  exceptional being. I don't like to tell him this
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  very much, because already he thinks too much of himself.
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  He has such a high opinion of himself that it is not necessary
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  to encourage him, but still this is a fact.
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  So much so that there are beings of other domains of the
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  universe, those called by some people demigods and even gods.
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  Beings, for instance, of what Trior Obindo calls the Overmind,
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  who are very eager to take a physical body on earth to have
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  the experience of the psychic, for they don't have it.
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  These beings certainly have many qualities that men don't, but
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  they lack this divine presence which is altogether exceptional
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  and exists only on the earth and nowhere else.
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  All these inhabitants of the higher worlds, the higher mind
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  over mind and other regions have no psychic being.
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  Of course, the beings of the vital worlds don't have it
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  either. But these latter don't regret
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  it. They don't want it.
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  There are only those very rare ones, quite exceptional, who
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  want to be converted, and for this they act without delay.
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  They immediately take a physical body.
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  The others don't want it. It is something which binds them
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  and constrains them to a rule they do not want.
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  But it is a fact, so I am obliged to state that this is
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  how it is. That is an exceptional quality
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  of human being to carry within himself the psychic, and truly
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  speaking, he does not take full advantage from it.
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  He does not seem to consider this quality of something very,
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  very desirable from the way he treats this presence, exactly
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  that he prefers to it the ideas of his mind, prefers the desires
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  of his vital being and the habits of his physical.
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  End Quote Reference Sri Oro Bindu and the Mother, the
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  psychic being soul, its nature, mission and evolution.
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  Section 2. Role, function and Action of the
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  Psychic. Pages 47 to 49.