Latest / Sri Aurobindo Studies / The Impersonal and the Personal Divine

Transcript

The Impersonal and the Personal Divine · Sri Aurobindo Studies

• 0:01
  It seems that people fall into two camps either they believe in
• 0:06
  a personal form of divinity. God, our savior or they don't.
• 0:12
  For those that do not believe in a personal form of the Divine,
• 0:16
  there is a belief in some impersonal Machinery of Unknown
• 0:20
  Origin or purpose. These two however need not be
• 0:24
  mutually exclusive rather. The division is due to the way
• 0:29
  we process concepts with our mentality which seems to prefer
• 0:34
  either or choices and black and white distinctions.
• 0:41
  Yet if we observe our world and our own inner being carefully,
• 0:46
  we see that some things cannot be explained or justified by one
• 0:51
  or the other of these distinctions just as science is
• 0:55
  finding that Einstein's relativity and quantum
• 0:59
  mechanics, do not seem to fully agree but that each seems to
• 1:04
  work in its own field of action. In the case of science, they are
• 1:09
  moving toward an approach that accepts both within the larger
• 1:13
  framework without the need to prove one or the other as the
• 1:17
  sole explanation. Similarly, when it comes to
• 1:22
  Spiritual Development, we find that both the impersonal and the
• 1:27
  personal have a role and the solution lies not in excluding
• 1:33
  one in favor of the other. But in finding a way to
• 1:36
  integrate the two, in a new synthesis of understanding, this
• 1:42
  is what tree aurobindo has put forward.
• 1:46
  This does not imply that all belief in an impersonal random
• 1:50
  universe is a correct. Understanding of the impersonal
• 1:53
  aspect North at all. Belief in a personal Divinity
• 1:58
  who intervenes judges and condemns or rewards is a correct
• 2:03
  understanding of the personal aspect.
• 2:06
  As with all things there has been much accretion of opinion,
• 2:11
  unfounded belief, dogma and superstition.
• 2:15
  It impacts the current level of understanding.
• 2:19
  If we go beyond these temporal and local distinctions, however,
• 2:23
  and Trace back to core principles, we can find a basis
• 2:28
  that is universal and which underpins all of the various
• 2:33
  belief systems with a foundation, in the reality of
• 2:37
  the creation, SRI aurobindo notes.
• 2:41
  Quote, there is always the personal and the impersonal side
• 2:46
  of the Divine and the truth and it is a mistake to think the
• 2:51
  impersonal alone to be true or important.
• 2:55
  For that leads to avoid incompleteness in part of the
• 2:58
  being while. Only one side is given
• 3:01
  satisfaction impersonality belongs to the intellectual
• 3:06
  mind, and the static self. Personality to the soul and
• 3:11
  heart and dynamic being. Those who disregard the personal
• 3:16
  Divine ignore something, which is profound and essential.
• 3:22
  In following the heart and it's pure impulses, one follows
• 3:26
  something that is at least as precious as the mines loyalty to
• 3:31
  its own conceptions of what the truth, maybe in quote preference
• 3:38
  SRI aurobindo and the mother growing within the psychology of
• 3:42
  inner development. Chapter 5 growth of
• 3:46
  Consciousness means and methods page 101.
• 3:22
  In following the heart and it's pure impulses, one follows
• 3:26
  something that is at least as precious as the mines loyalty to
• 3:31
  its own conceptions of what the truth, maybe in quote preference
• 3:38
  SRI aurobindo and the mother growing within the psychology of
• 3:42
  inner development. Chapter 5 growth of
• 3:46
  Consciousness means and methods page 101.