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The Reality of Being Born Into the Spirit · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  People commonly believe that espousing a particular religion
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  or religious doctrine, reading scriptural texts, singing
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  devotional songs, practicing yoga or meditation, or any of
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  the numerous other practices often called spiritual makes
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  them spiritual. While these practices may help
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  to turn their minds, their hearts, their life energy and
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  even their bodies towards spiritual realization, they do
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  not in and of themselves constitute living in the spirit,
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  or as the Mother puts it, being born into the spirit.
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  In the Bhagwad Gita, Arjuna asks Sri Krishna a related question.
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  How to recognize the realized man?
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  What is the sign of the man in samadhi whose intelligence is
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  firmly fixed in wisdom? How does the sage of settled
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  understanding speak? How sit, How walk?
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  Bhagwad Gita Chapter 2, verse 54 translated by Sri Aurobindo in
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  Bhagwad Gita and its Message. Sri Krishna's response makes it
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  clear that none of the outward acts of the individual are
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  relevant to the question of the inward realization of the
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  individual. The true sign, as Sri Arrobindo
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  explains in his comment on this verse, is quote.
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  No such signs can be given, nor does the teacher attempt to
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  supply them, for the only possible test of its possession
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  is inward, and that there are plenty of hostile psychological
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  forces to apply. Equality is the great stamp of
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  the liberated soul, and of that equality even the most
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  discernible signs are still subjective.
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  End Quote. Being born into the spirit,
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  then, is not something one can declare by simply espousing a
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  specific doctrine or marching under the banner of some
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  religion or other. It is not something that comes
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  automatically by any of the practices generally attributed
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  to the spiritual life. It is a transformation of the
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  consciousness such that the individual lives in an
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  atmosphere of oneness with the entire creation, breathes in the
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  awareness of the spirit and moves under its impulsion.
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  At that point the Spirit rules 1's life and actions when
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  becomes liberated from attachment to the desires and
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  fulfilments of the ego personality and acts under the
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  direction and force of the spiritual purpose in the
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  manifested universe. The Mother observes.
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  Quote. For the moment the Spirit plays
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  the part of a helper and guide, but it is not the all powerful
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  Master of the material manifestation.
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  When the Super Mind is organized into a new world, the Spirit
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  will become the Master and govern nature in a clear and
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  visible way. What is called new birth is the
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  birth into the spiritual life, the spiritual consciousness.
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  It is to carry in oneself something of the spirit, which
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  individually, through the soul, can begin to rule the life and
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  be the master of existence. But in the Super mental world,
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  the spirit will be the master of this entire world and all its
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  manifestations, all its expressions, consciously,
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  spontaneously, naturally, in the individual existence.
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  That is what makes all the difference, so long as one just
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  speaks of the spirit and it is something one is read about
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  whose existence 1 vaguely knows about, but not a very concrete
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  reality for the consciousness. This means that one is not born
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  into the spirit, and when one is born into the spirit, it becomes
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  something much more concrete, much more living, much more
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  real, much more tangible than the whole material world.
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  And this is what makes the essential difference between
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  beings. When that becomes spontaneously
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  real, the true concrete existence, the atmosphere 1 can
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  freely breathe, then one knows one has crossed over to the
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  other side. But so long as it is something
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  rather vague and hazy, you've heard about it.
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  You know that it exists, but it has no concrete reality.
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  Well, this means that the new birth has not yet taken place.
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  As long as you tell yourself yes, this I can see this, I can
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  touch the pain I suffer from, the hunger that torments me, the
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  sleep that makes me feel heavy. This is real.
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  This is concrete, Mother laughs. That means you have not yet
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  crossed over to the other side. You are not born into the
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  spirit. End Quote.
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  Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Powers Within, Chapter
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  22, Spirit, pages 164 to 165.