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The External Being Filters and Can Distort the Guidance of the Soul · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The promptings of the soul work through the instrumentality of
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  the external being, the mind, the life force, and the physical
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  body. Thus, they are restricted by the
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  limitations of the work of those external parts, as well as
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  subject to being modified, hijacked, or manipulated based
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  on the external being's own predilections and normal focus.
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  Thus, when the soul provides its guidance to the mind, it is
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  filtered and modified by the mind.
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  In some cases, this leads to the development of a creed,
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  ideology, fixed teaching, or doctrine that formalizes the
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  guidance, but also creates a fixed framework that turns a
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  living insight or prompt into something rigid and narrow in
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  its real application, limited in its ability to adapt or change
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  with changing circumstances or natural growth and development.
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  It may also be made to fit into a preconceived mindset, thereby
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  deforming it right from the start.
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  In the most extreme cases, this can also lead to an attempt to
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  convert others to a doctrine that has not come to those
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  others, simply because the mind has turned this into some kind
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  of universal truth that must be imposed everywhere rather than
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  taken as the soul's direction for that individual at the
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  current stage of their development.
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  Similarly, the life force may seize upon the soul's guidance
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  and try to turn it to its own advantage by using the force for
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  self aggrandizement, gaining power or control over others,
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  gaining wealth, taking sexual advantage, flaunting itself with
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  vanity for the force that is active, or any number of other
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  deformations of the purity of the soul's intended result.
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  Sometimes an element of performance comes in when the
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  expression takes place in a public setting such that the
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  purity of the intention is distorted by the desire of the
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  external nature to attract, gain, recognition or adulation
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  of some sort, etcetera. There can be an emphasis on
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  extraordinary experiences at the expense of the type of
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  substantive change. At a more subtle level, that is
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  the objective that the soul is seeking.
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  Shrioro Bindo writes quote. But this psychic influence or
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  action does not come up to the surface quite pure or does not
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  remain distinct in its purity. If it did, we would be able to
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  distinguish clearly the sole element in US and follow
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  consciously and fully its dictates.
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  An occult mental and vital and subtle physical action
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  intervenes, mixes with it, tries to use it and turns it to its
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  own profit, dwarfs its divinity, distorts or diminishes its
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  self-expression, even causes it to deviate and stumble, or
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  stains it with the impurity, smallness and error of mind and
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  life and body. After it reaches the surface,
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  thus alloyed and diminished, it is taken hold of by the surface
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  nature in an obscure reception and ignorant formation.
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  And there is, or can be by this cause, a still further deviation
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  and mixture. A twist is given, a wrong
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  direction is imparted, a wrong application, a wrong formation,
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  an erroneous result of what is in itself pure stuff and action
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  of our spiritual being. A formation of consciousness is
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  accordingly made, which is a mixture of the psychic influence
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  and its intimations, jumbled with mental ideas and opinions,
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  vital desires and urges, habitual physical tendencies.
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  These coalesce too with the obscured soul influence, the
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  ignorant, the well-intentioned efforts of these external parts
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  towards a higher direction, a mental ideation of a very mixed
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  character, often obscure even in its idealism, sometimes even
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  disastrously mistaken of fervor and passion of the emotional
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  being, throwing up its spray and foam of feelings, sentiments,
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  sentimentalisms, a dynamic enthusiasm of the life parts,
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  eager responses of the physical, the thrills and excitements of
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  nerve and body. All these influences coalesce in
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  a composite formation which is frequently taken as the soul and
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  its mixed and confused action for the soul stir for a psychic
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  development and action or a realized inner influence.
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  The psychic entity is itself free from staying our mixture,
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  but what comes up from it is not protected by that immunity.
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  Therefore this confusion becomes possible.
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  End Quote. Reference Sri Oru Bindu and the
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  Mother, the psychic being soul, its nature, mission and
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  evolution. Section 2.
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  Role, function and Action of the Psychic.
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  Pages 53 to 54.