I think I am done with Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy after grasping his concepts of ego, psychic being, Individual Divine and the Supreme.
He defines EGO as a temporary construct formed by Nature to organize thoughts, desires, and actions into a separate individual personality within the external world.
He defines PSYCHIC BEING as the evolving soul—our inmost divine center that grows through lifetimes, aspiring for truth and harmony, and survives physical death to continue its journey of spiritual development.
He defines INDIVIDUAL DIVINE as the eternal, unchanging individual Self—a pure portion of the Divine that stands above and beyond the evolutionary process, remaining unaffected by birth and death. It serves as the spiritual center, or the true “I,” which can realize its oneness with the Supreme and is necessary for spiritual liberation.
He defines the SUPREME as the ultimate Reality, which is absolute, infinite, and eternal, simultaneously transcendent and immanent in the universe. The Supreme is described as Sachchidananda, meaning Existence (Sat), Consciousness (Chit), and Bliss (Ananda), which is the foundational triune nature of Reality.
To me, the “ego” starts as the body mechanism that assimilates sensations into perceptions. But then it grows into a mental mechanism of “mind” that assimilates perceptions into memories, memories into experience and experience into knowledge. Ultimately, it grows into a spiritual mechanism of “self” that assimilates all knowledge into wisdom. Thus, ego expands from being individual (body), to being mental (familial, social, racial, and cultural), to being spiritual (human and representative of all life and universe). But it still remains rooted in the body and dies with the body. However, it influences the progress of all surrounding selves; and the effect is for all selves to grow in wisdom.
Dualities are two ends of a dimension; for example, “hot-cold” expands into the dimension of temperature. Similarly, “ego-spirit” expands into the dimension of self. This is pointed out by Sri Aurobindo.
Sri Aurobindo has taught me: The Gradient of Enlightenment. I regard him very highly.
This is a never ending evolution. The ultimate reality is Unknowable.
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References used:
An Analysis of Sri Aurobindo’s The Life Divine
Renaissance—Sri Aurobindo Society
Karmayogi.net
A Study Guide compiled by David Hutchinson
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Comments
It’s nice to know when you are done with that which you take on.
Life is a cycle of action.
Knowing that something has completed gives us the knowingness to seperate. It allows us to disconnect and move on.
Whoever said. “I think I’m done with…” Well done to you! For knowingness is certainty.
You are right!