Latest / Sri Aurobindo Studies / Spiritual Experience Transcends the Mind's Understanding
Transcript
- 0:02The mind cannot comprehend experiences with which it has no
- 0:06familiarity. Fiora Bindo describes a
- 0:09spiritual status that is experiential in nature.
- 0:13When there is such an experience, the mind tries to
- 0:16describe or transcribe that experience into its normal
- 0:20process of linear thought expressed in words.
- 0:24Usually this transcription process falls far short and the
- 0:29mind is left with a confused and vague sense that there is
- 0:33something beyond its realm. Until the seeker is able himself
- 0:38to shift to spiritual experience, true understanding
- 0:42is not really possible. But once that happens, the
- 0:46transcription provided by Sri Aurobindo here suddenly makes
- 0:50sense. This is like the difference
- 0:52between having a map that outlines a path through a forest
- 0:57versus actually traversing the forest.
- 1:00The map is A2 dimensional representation, necessarily
- 1:04incomplete and vague when it comes to the actual path and its
- 1:09three-dimensional reality and the experience of traversing
- 1:13that path. A disciple asks.
- 1:17Quote. Sweet Mother, I don't understand
- 1:22the strong immobility of an immortal spirit.
- 1:25Sri Aurobindo, the synthesis of Yoga, the Mother observes quote.
- 1:31What is it you don't understand that an immortal spirit has a
- 1:35strong immobility? It says what it means.
- 1:40An immortal spirit is necessarily immobile and strong
- 1:44by the very fact of its being immortal, for this is a fact.
- 1:49It's like that when the spirit is conscious of immortality, it
- 1:54becomes an immobility, all made of strength, immobility, that is
- 2:00to say, it doesn't move any longer, but it is a strong
- 2:04immobility. It is not an immobility of
- 2:07inertia or impotence. It is a strong immobility which
- 2:11is a basis for action. That is all one does, founds
- 2:15itself upon this powerful, all powerful immobility of the
- 2:20spirit that is immortal. But you see, there is no
- 2:25explanation which can give you that.
- 2:27You must have the experience. One can't understand what this
- 2:31means. And it is the same for
- 2:34everything. The head, the little brain,
- 2:37cannot understand. The minute one has the
- 2:40experience, one understands, not before.
- 2:45One may have a sort of imaginative idea, but this is
- 2:49not understanding. To understand, one must live it.
- 2:53When you become conscious of your immortal spirit, you will
- 2:57know what its strong immobility is, but not before.
- 3:02Otherwise these are mere words. You don't understand how 1 can
- 3:07be immobile and strong at the same time.
- 3:11Is that what is bothering you? Well, I reply that the greatest
- 3:15strength is in immobility, that is the sovereign power.
- 3:21End Quote Reference Fioro, Bindu and the Mother, Powers within,
- 3:26Chapter 12. Power of Immobility, pages 99 to
- 3:31100.