The Life DivineChapter XVII

The Progress to KnowledgeGod, Man and Nature

Garry Jacobs28th June 2015

What is Reality?

An eternal Existence, Consciousness, Delight

An involution of spirit and a progressive evolution of consciousness

Stages of Involution & Evolution

•Spirit becomes Inconscient energy of Matter•Consciousness evolves as vibrations of Life•Contact with other life and matter awakens consciousness•Self-awareness of Mind emerges in material life

The Destiny of Man• The object of creation is man’s

self-enlargement, self-fulfillment, self-evolution

• The outer apparent man must become the real inner Person

• The natural man has to evolve himself into a divine man

• The sons of death have to know themselves as the children of immortality

• The human birth is the turning point in evolution

What is Knowledge?

• Of the people, things, the world we live in and Life itself?

• Of ourselves? our character? our destiny?• Of the Right, Truth, Delight and Reality?• Of the relationship between ourselves, the

world and God??

The Knowledge We Seek

•Not merely a partial, mental, intellectual knowledge

•Truth is holistic, universal and integral

•Knowledge is consciousness which possesses the highest truth in a direct perception and self experience. (Vedas)

•To become, to be the highest that we know is the sign that we really have the knowledge.

3 Aspects of Partial Knowledge in Ignorance

• Knowledge of the self - Egoistic

• Knowledge of life and nature - Scientific

• Knowledge of God - Religious

Goal of Evolution• Man’s aim is to grow into our true being, being of Spirit –

Sachchidananda• To discover our divine universality and supreme infinity

and express it in all his being, consciousness and delight of being

• This Immortality is man’s divine consummation.• For this we need integration of knowledge• Emergence of an integral consciousness that unites the

individual, the world and GodWe become ourselves by exceeding ourselves

Steps in our Progress to Knowledge

• Affirmation of self as a separate Individual• Discovery of individual’s relationship with the world,

cosmos, Nature by indirect, separative knowledge• Intuitive aspiration for the Divine, Unknown, the Cause,

the Supreme, the all Perfection, the Absolute• None of the three are sufficient in themselves• True knowledge is possible only when we realize the unity

of the three aspects

Affirmation of the Individual• Man’s ascent begins with the ego• He relates to World to meet his needs• He wants God to fulfill his wants• He has to emerge from the undeveloped subconscience

mass and mechanical Nature • He has to develop his personality, capacities, knowledge

and enjoyment for world mastery

Man has to affirm himself in the Ignorance before he can perfect himself in the Knowledge.

Two Forces for Evolution

• A secret cosmic consciousness• An individual consciousness manifest

on the surface

• The subliminal cosmic consciousness organizes itself as

- separate individual objects and beings

- collective powers of consciousness which are the large subjective formations of cosmic Nature

Mass Collective Consciousness

• It is near to Inconscient• It is moved by subconscious impulses, half blind • It is guided by slogan, tradition, rule of pack• Very effective when a leader organizes it• Power of crowd is irresistible power like cyclone

Individual Transcending Ego• Only as the individual becomes more conscious can the

group being become more conscious• Growth of the individual is indispensable for the inner

growth of the collective being (as distinct from its outer growth and expansion).

• Through him the cosmic spirit organizes its collective units and makes them self-expressive and progressive

• Through him it raises Nature from Inconscience to Superconscience and meets the Transcendent

Emergence of True Individuality

• Progress of mind and soul – individually and collectively – depend on progressive freedom, separation and independence of the individual.

• Individual is part of the cosmic being, but also he is a soul descended from the Transcendence.

• Individual has to emerge from the common mentality, life-uniformity and physicality.

• Only then he can become spiritually one with all.

We will never be fully and lastingly satisfied by any partial knowledge, power or realization

Spiritual Realization of the Individual

• Man has to find himself as mental and vital ego before he can find himself as soul or spirit.

• Perfection, liberation has to be individual, not collective, because of the spiritual Person, the Divinity in the individual.

• Perfection of the collective can only come through perfection of individuals.

• The individual finds his perfect self-finding in a complete self-giving and surrender.

• It is imperative to get beyond the ego, but one cannot get beyond the Self.

• Self is one with the All and the One.

Realization of the Seven-fold Knowledge

• Temporal – the soul’s immortality, other lives• Psychological – Inconscient, subconscient, subliminal and

superconscient• Constitutional – our eternal soul, self and spirit beyond

the instrumental mind, life, body • Egoistic – our universal being one with all others• Cosmic – our transcendental being beyond cosmos• Original – the Absolute which unites all aspects • Practical – lord of creation of our live and all we do

Unity of God, Man & Nature • The individual discovers his being is one with cosmos and

Nature – mind, life, body, soul, conscient, subconscient, and superconscient

• The individual discovers his being is one with God. He is the Absolute, Spirit, timeless and spaceless Self, Self cosmos, Lord of Nature.

• He finds his unity with all other souls and beings• Knowledge of the universe leads to the same large revelation.• He knows Nature as Knowledge-Will of the Divine Lord • The unity of God and Nature manifests itself in him

Unity of the Absolute

• He discovers it is the Absolute who is all these relativities • The Self has become all these becomings• Nature is the Shakti or Power of being and consciousness

of the Lord of all being• He discovers that by which all is known as one with our

self and possession of which all is possessed and enjoyed in our own self-existence.

Man’s Quest for Knowledge

• Man’s quest for God is the most ardent & enthralling of all quests

• It starts as a vague questioning of Nature and sense of something unseen in himself and in Nature

• Early religions deification of natural and invisible forces is a veiled intuition

• All seeking, even Science, starts in ignorance and proceeds toward a veiled Truth

• Humanity in its incompleteness is the most complete manifestation yet achieved here

• Divinity is the perfection of what in man is imperfect

Unity of all Knowledge

• A unity behind diversity and discord is the secret of the variety of religions and philosophies.

• The truth behind is always the same because All is the one Divine Infinite whom all are seeking.

• Because everything is that One, there must be endless variety in the human approach

• Man must find God variously in order to come to know Him entirely.

• Then all knowledge is unified in one comprehensive meaning.

Conscious Unity of God, Soul, Nature• The unity of God, Man and Nature is the source of the

most integral knowledge and foundation of all perfection and harmonies.

• The Brahman, the Absolute is the Spirit, the timeless Self, the Self possessing Time, Lord of Nature, creator and continent of the cosmos and immanent in all existences, the Soul from whom all souls derive and to whom they are drawn

• The same Absolute reveals in all relativities• That is the truth of Being as man’s highest God-

conception sees it.

Delight of Existence

“To relate to another so that delight issues in both is a yogic aim in life.”