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The Separate Ego-Consciousness and the Universal Divine Consciousness · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The concept of Maya is frequently described as the
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  world being an illusion that mystifies our senses and our
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  minds such that we take it for real when it is not the truth of
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  existence. We are then asked to cut through
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  the illusion to find the actual reality, the Absolute, the
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  consciousness that is coincident with all existence and which is
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  not bound by any of the forms taken by this external illusory
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  reality. The Mayavadins have indeed
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  captured A partial truth of existence.
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  The reality of the creation is not to be denied, but our
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  perception of it and our interpretation of its meaning
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  constitute the real illusion. In the 4th chapter of the Life
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  Divine, Sri Arobinda works out the harmonizing synthesis
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  between those who hold the world as real and spiritual endeavor
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  to be illusory and those who hold the world as illusory and
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  the spiritual endeavor is real. He defines this as reality,
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  omnipresent. The entire Universal Creation is
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  a manifestation of the Divine and its reality is based in the
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  reality of the Divine Existence. If we look at our normal
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  standpoint, we are rooted in the ego and we naturally experience
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  the ego consciousness as a separate independent, self
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  standing reality facing the world and other independent
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  actors in the world as being able to make free and
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  independent choices and either harmonize or conflict with
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  others. The alternative viewpoint is one
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  that treats the individual as a Nexus or point of expression in
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  the universal consciousness. An example may help us grasp
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  this concept. We see the vast ocean before us.
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  Someone captures some sea water in a container.
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  The water in the ocean and the water in the container are the
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  same, the difference between them being simply that some of
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  that water is now within the container.
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  Now if we conceive of the container as a permeable
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  membrane that allows impacts, motion, heat, cooling, salinity,
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  etcetera from the wider ocean to affect the contained water, and
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  similarly the water inside to migrate out under various
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  conditions, we can get some sense of how the universal
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  consciousness both cordons itself off into these separate
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  standpoints and how it at the same time manifests its
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  intention through them. Sri Aurobindo writes quote What
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  is this divine supreme will and how can it be recognized by our
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  by our deluded instruments and our blind prisoned intelligence.
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  Ordinarily we conceive of ourselves as a separate eye in
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  the universe that governs a separate body, and mental and
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  moral nature chooses in full liberty its own self determined
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  actions, and is independent and therefore sole master of its
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  works and responsible. It is not easy for the ordinary
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  mind, the mind that is not thought nor looked deeply into
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  its own constitution and constituents.
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  It is difficult even for minds that have thought but have no
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  spiritual vision and experience to imagine how there can be
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  anything else in US truer, deeper and more powerful than
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  this apparent I and its empire. But the very first step towards
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  self knowledge, as towards the true knowledge of phenomena, is
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  to get behind the apparent truth of things and find the real but
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  masked essential and dynamic truth which their appearances
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  cover. This ego or I is not a lasting
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  truth, much less our essential part.
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  It is only a formation of nature, a mental form of
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  thought, centralization in the perceiving and discriminating
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  mind, a vital form of the centralization of feeling and
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  sensation in our parts of life, a form of physical conscious
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  reception, centralizing substance and function of
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  substance in our bodies. All that we internally are is
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  not ego, but consciousness, soul, or spirit.
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  All that we externally and superficially are and do is not
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  ego but nature. An executive cosmic force shapes
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  us and dictates through our temperament and environment and
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  mentality, so shaped through our individualized formulation of
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  the cosmic energies, our actions and their results.
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  Truly we do not think, will, or act.
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  But thought occurs in US, will occurs in US, impulse and act
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  occur in us. Our ego sense gathers around
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  itself, refers to itself, all this flow of natural activities.
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  It is cosmic force. It is nature that forms the
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  thought, imposes the will, imparts the impulse.
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  Our body, mind and ego are a wave of that sea of force in
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  action and do not govern it, but by it are governed and directed.
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  The Sadiq in his progress towards truth and self
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  knowledge, must come to a point where the soul opens its eyes of
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  vision and recognizes this truth of ego and this truth of works.
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  He gives up the idea of a mental vital physical eye that acts or
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  governs action. He recognizes that Prakriti
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  force of cosmic nature following her fixed modes is in him and
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  all things and creatures, the one and only worker.
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  End Quote Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The
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  Hidden Forces of Life, Chapter One, Life Through the Eyes of
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  the Yogin, pages 23 to 24.