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How to Know God · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The Titiri Upanishad speaks of a unified field of the conscious
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  universe, the spirit who is here in a man and the spirit who is
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  there in the sun. It is one spirit and there is no
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  other. Titiri Upanishad Brahmanandavali
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  Chapter 8, translated by Sri Aurobindo In the Upanishads,
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  many people believe that God is separate and distinct, someone
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  living up in the clouds, so to speak, who directs, creates and
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  manages our existence. They look upon God as some kind
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  of king who imposes and disposes according to his whim.
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  These people look upon themselves as separate beings
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  who rely on God, who nevertheless have free will and
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  can therefore act against the will of God, and who will be
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  penalized by God if they do so. They never consider that they
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  are actually unified in consciousness with God, and the
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  realization of that unity of consciousness does not come to
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  them. There are also many who have a
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  different view and experience and who recognize that God,
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  omnipresent, omnipotent, all knowing, having infinite
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  extension and infinite consciousness, must necessarily
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  encompass all space, all created universes and all beings in
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  those universes, as otherwise there would be limits placed
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  upon God and He would necessarily have to be
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  considered finite, not infinite. In the first case, it is clearly
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  not possible for the individual to unite with the consciousness
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  of God. The individual is always
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  inferior and subordinate. In the second case, however, it
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  becomes possible for a realization of oneness with God
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  to take place, and it is this aspiration that fuels the
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  seeking and the tapasya, the disciplines of yogic practice.
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  Eventually, it is through a tuning of focusing and an
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  unwavering holding of that tuned aspiration that one can become
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  conscious of and be identified with the Divine, as each
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  individual is indeed an aspect of that one spirit in the life
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  Divine. Sri Robindo describes the
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  various methods of knowledge. Knowledge that separates the
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  knower from the known is derivative knowledge and subject
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  to error and misinterpretation. Knowledge by identity, where the
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  knower, the known and the process of knowing are one, is
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  true knowledge. The Titiri Upanishad once again
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  in chapter 6 of the Brahmanandhavali quote.
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  The spirit desired of old I would be manifest for the birth
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  of peoples. Therefore He concentrated all
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  himself in thought, and by the force of his brooding He created
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  all this universe. Yeah, all whatsoever existeth.
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  Now when he had brought it forth, he entered into that he
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  had created. He entering in became the is
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  here and the may be there. He became that which is defined
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  and that which hath no feature. He became this howest thing and
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  that houseless. He became knowledge and he
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  became ignorance. He became truth and he became
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  falsehood. Yeah, He became all truth, even
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  whatsoever here existeth. Therefore they say of him that
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  He is truth. End Quote.
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  A disciple asks, can the divine be attained in this way?
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  The Mother observes, quote. Do you understand?
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  The only way of knowing the Divine is by identifying oneself
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  with Him. There is no other.
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  There's only one, one single way.
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  Hence, once you are master of this method of identification,
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  you can identify yourself. So you choose your object for
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  identification. You want to identify yourself
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  with the divine, but so long as you do not know how to identify
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  yourself, 101 things will always come across your path, pulling
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  you here, pulling you there, scattering you, and you will not
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  be able to identify yourself with him.
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  But if you have learned how to identify yourself, then you have
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  only to Orient the identification, place it where
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  you want it, and then hold on there until you get a result.
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  It will come very fast. If you are master of your power
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  of identification. Yes, it will come very quickly.
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  Ramakrishna used to say that the time could vary between 3 days,
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  three hours and 3 minutes. These days are for very slow
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  people, three hours for those who were a little swifter, 3
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  minutes for those who are used to it.
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  End Quote. Reference Sri Ro Bindu and the
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  Mother Powers within Chapter 13, Power of Identification, page
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  110.