Latest / Sri Aurobindo Studies / The Universality of the Spiritual Presence in All Existence
Transcript
- 0:00We are educated and habituated to focus on our differences.
- 0:05We see different gender, different class, different
- 0:09racial characteristics, different religious backgrounds,
- 0:13different temperaments, different interests and focus,
- 0:17different value sets, different philosophies of life and living,
- 0:22different levels of education, different capacities from one
- 0:27individual to the next. And we thus begin to evaluate
- 0:31and judge everything through this lens of our differences.
- 0:37It is this focus on differences that keeps us apart and prevents
- 0:41us from seeing and experiencing the Oneness, the universal
- 0:45spiritual presence that contains, constitutes, permeates
- 0:52and inhabits the entire Creation.
- 0:56Understanding the distinguishing factors is important, but this
- 1:01must be balanced with the perception of unity in order to
- 1:05appreciate the harmony of the Divine manifestation.
- 1:10The Mother distinguishes this universal spiritual presence
- 1:13from the actual formed psychic being which develops through a
- 1:18long maturation process across many lifetimes of experience.
- 1:24Most people are not fully in touch with this psychic being,
- 1:27but when it comes forward and takes control over the actions
- 1:31of mind, life and body, it puts the individual into direct
- 1:35contact with the Divine and the divine intention in the
- 1:40manifestation. Even just a spiritual presence
- 1:44in the background, so to say, provides sufficient stability to
- 1:49allow the evolutionary development of nature to take
- 1:52place without an event of total destruction which could take
- 1:57place otherwise. When the differences we note
- 1:59become strident and extreme in their attempt to control,
- 2:04dominate, and suppress other views and developments, a
- 2:09disciple asks Sweet mother, is there a spiritual being in
- 2:14everybody? The mother responds quote.
- 2:19That depends on what you call being.
- 2:22If for being we substitute presence, yes, there is a
- 2:28spiritual presence in everyone. If we call being an organized
- 2:33entity, fully conscious of itself, independent and having
- 2:40the power of asserting itself and ruling the rest of the
- 2:43nature, no, the possibility of this independent and all
- 2:48powerful being is in everybody. But the realization is the
- 2:53result of long efforts which sometimes extend over many lives
- 2:58in everyone, even at the very beginning.
- 3:02This spiritual presence, this inner light is there.
- 3:07In fact, it is everywhere. I have seen it many a time in
- 3:12certain animals. It is like a shining point which
- 3:15is the basis of a certain control and protection,
- 3:19something which even in half consciousness makes possible a
- 3:24certain harmony with the rest of creation, so that irreparable
- 3:28catastrophes may not be constant.
- 3:31In general, without this presence, the disorder created
- 3:35by the violences and passions of the vital would be so great that
- 3:40at any moment they could bring about a general catastrophe, a
- 3:44sort of total destruction which would prevent the progress of
- 3:48nature. That presence, that spiritual
- 3:52light which could almost be called a spiritual
- 3:56consciousness, is within each being and all things.
- 4:01And because of it, in spite of all discordance, all passion,
- 4:07all violence, there's a minimum of general harmony which allows
- 4:13nature's work to be accomplished.
- 4:16End Quote. Reference Srioro Bindo and the
- 4:20Mother Powers within. Chapter 20.
- 4:24The Psychic, pages 153 to 154.