“The central aim of Knowledge is the recovery of the Self,  of our true self-existence.”[1]

Vedic tradition designed many different epistemological frameworks. Some of them were depicted in the Brahmanic literature as adhilokam, ‘from the point of view of the worlds or levels of consciousness’, or adhijyautiṣam, ‘from the point of view of their energies’; or adhividyam, ‘from the point of view of dissemination of knowledge’; adhiprajam, ‘from the point of view of generations’;[2] etc. etc. But the most famous of them were only three known as adhibhūta, adhidaiva and adhyātma.

Sri Aurobindo explains them in his essays on the Upanishads:

“In the ancient conception of the universe our material existence is formed from the five elemental states of Matter, the ethereal, aerial, fiery, liquid and solid; everything that has to do with our material existence is called the elemental, adhibhuta.

In this material there move non-material powers manifesting through the Mind-Force and Life-Force that work upon Matter, and these are called Gods or Devas; everything that has to do with the working of the non-material in us is called adhidaiva, that which pertains to the Gods.

But above the non-material powers, containing them, greater than they is the Self or Spirit, Atman, and everything that has to do with this highest existence in us is called the spiritual, adhyatma.”[3]

In the Gita Sri Krishna also briefly defines them, introducing one more category for himself: adhiyajña, the ‘secret Divine who receives the sacrifice’ in the heart of man:

akṣaraṃ brahma paramaṃ svabhāvo ’dhyātmam ucyate/

bhūtabhāvodbhavakaro visargaḥ karmasaṃjñitaḥ// 8.3

adhibhūtaṃ kṣaro bhāvaḥ puruṣaš cādhidaivatam/

adhiyajño ‘ham evātra dehe dehabhṛtāṃ vara// 8.4

“The Imperishable is the Transcendental Brahman. Adhyātma is of the Self-nature, svabhāva. Karma creates [all] in terms of past, present and future.

Adhibhūta is of Perishable nature; Puruṣa is [central in the perception] of Adhidaiva. But I am here in the body of those who are born here: Adhiyajña.”

Sri Aurobindo comments on this text in the Essays of the Gita:

“Akshara is the immutable Brahman, spirit or self, Atman; swabhava is the principle of the self, adhyātma, operative as the original nature of the being, “own way of becoming”, and this proceeds out of the self, the Akshara; Karma proceeds from that and is the creative movement, visarga, which brings all natural beings and all changing subjective and objective shapes of being into existence; the result of Karma therefore is all this mutable becoming, the changes of nature developed out of the original self-nature, kṣara bhāva out of svabhāva; Purusha is the soul, the divine element in the becoming, adhidaivata, by whose presence the workings of Karma become a sacrifice, yajña, to the Divine within; adhiyajña is this secret Divine who receives the sacrifice.”[4]

To comprehend the relations between these epistemological frameworks we must look into their origin.

The Self, Ātman, according to the Aitareya Upanishad, was alone at the beginning. It projected out of itself the worlds for its future habitation in the form of Purusha.[5] Then it created the dwellers within this habitat, – the faculties of consciousness of the Supreme Purusha, such as Word, Breath, Sight, Hearing, Mind etc., were projected into it. Literally they plunged into the Ocean of Inconscient mahaty arṇave prāpatan, and gradually recreated the individual form of Purusha.[6] This plunge into the material Inconscient, this Sacrifice of the Purusha, created the division within the One Self of what was known as true, satyam, became double in nature: true and untrue, satyam anṛtaṃ ca satyam abhavat. [7] On one side it was perceived as infinite and eternal, (indicating adhyātmic epistemology),  and on the other side as finite and mortal (indicating adhibhautic epistemology). So when the faculties turn towards the inner Self of Being, svabhāva, they define the adhyātmic epistemology, and when they turn towards the outer self of becoming, kṣara bhāva, developed out of svabhāva, they represent adhibhūta approach to knowledge.  But fundamentally these two are the Self (inner or outer, svabhāva and kṣara bhāva) and the Consciousness (puruṣa with his major faculties) perceiving it.

Sri Aurobindo explains that all phenomena of existence whether they are of the outer material universe or of the inner realms of the Self have corresponding faculties of consciousness to cognize them: “The Unknown is not the Unknowable, it need not remain the unknown for us, unless we choose ignorance or persist in our first limitations. For to all things that are not unknowable, all things in the universe, there correspond in that universe faculties which can take cognisance of them, and in man, the microcosm, these faculties are always existent and at a certain stage capable of development. We may choose not to develop them; where they are partially developed, we may discourage and impose on them a kind of atrophy. But, fundamentally, all possible knowledge is knowledge within the power of humanity.”[8]

Thus we can call the education of faculties of consciousness Adhidaiva Education, where mind, life and body aim at and work for the realization of the Self (adhyātma) in its manifestation (adhibhūta).

Adhyātma Epistemology is the paradigm of our spiritual self-finding, of our higher nature of Consciousness, svabhāva.

Adhibhūta Epistemology is the scientific, materialistic paradigm of knowledge, related to the outer phenomena of becoming, kṣara bhāva.

Here we will not deal with the adhibhūta epistemology, for it is already quite clear what it actually represents. All the knowledge about the material universe and its functions by the means of the materialistic methods is a framework of this epistemology, when the senses are turned outside.

Here we will deal with other two frameworks: adhidaiva and adhyātma epistemologies.

Adhidaiva Epistemology

Sri Aurobindo writes in his essay on the Kena Upanishad:

“And when we have gone on thus eliminating, thus analysing all forms into the fundamental entities of the cosmos, we shall find that these fundamental entities are really only two, ourselves and the gods.”[9]

“Well, but what then of the Brahman is myself? and what of the Brahman is in the Gods?[10] The answer is evident. I am a representation in the cosmos, but for all purposes of the cosmos a real representation of the Self; and the gods are a representation in the cosmos—a real representation since without them the cosmos could not continue—of the Lord. The one supreme Self is the essentiality of all these individual existences; the one supreme Lord is the Godhead in the gods.”[11]

Thus we have two fundamental entities: the Self and the Lord, Being and Consciousness perceiving it, or Atman and Purusha. The faculties of Consciousness of the Lord were sacrificed and cast down into the lower hemisphere in order to precipitate it with the higher consciousness and thus to start the process of its Redemption, which we call evolution.

“The gods of the Upanishad, – says Sri Aurobiindo, – have been supposed to be a figure for the senses, but although they act in the senses, they are yet much more than that. They represent the divine power in its great and fundamental cosmic functionings whether in man or in mind and life and matter in general; they are not the functionings themselves but something of the Divine which is essential to their operation and its immediate possessor and cause.”

The gods, says Sri Aurobindo are “… positive self-representations of the Brahman leading to good, joy, light, love, immortality as against all that is a dark negation of these things. And it is necessarily in the mind, life, senses, and speech of man that the battle here reaches its height and approaches to its full meaning. The gods seek to lead these to good and light; the Titans, sons of darkness, seek to pierce them with ignorance and evil. Behind the gods is the Master-Consciousness [Purusha] of which they are the positive cosmic self-representations.”[12]

Thus the Vedic Psychology makes a clear proposition to a seeker of knowledge, how to proceed and what to do in order to come out of this situation of being trapped in the midst of ignorance, suffering and death. One has to train ones own faculties of consciousness: senses, mind, vital and body to become perceptive and open to their own higher realms, to become simply a channel of light descending from their own greater source.

“The cosmic functionings through which the gods act, mind, life, speech, senses, body, must become aware of something beyond them which governs them, by which they are and move, by whose force they evolve, enlarge themselves and arrive at power and joy and capacity; to that they must turn from their ordinary operations; leaving these, leaving the false idea of independent action and self-ordering which is an egoism of mind and life and sense they must become consciously passive to the power, light and joy of something which is beyond themselves. What happens then is that this divine Unnameable reflects Himself openly in the gods. His light takes possession of the thinking mind, His power and joy of the life, His light and rapture of the emotional mind and the senses. Something of the supreme image of Brahman falls upon the world-nature and changes it into divine nature.”[13]

So, “they must become consciously passive to the power, light and joy of something which is beyond themselves.”

“All this is not done by a sudden miracle, – says Sri Aurobindo. - It comes by flashes, revelations, sudden touches and glimpses;[14] there is as if a leap of the lightning of revelation flaming out from those heavens for a moment and then returning into its secret source; as if the lifting of the eyelid of an inner vision and its falling again because the eye cannot look long and steadily on the utter light. The repetition of these touches and visitings from the Beyond fixes the gods in their upward gaze and expectation, constant repetition fixes them in a constant passivity; not moving out any longer to grasp at the forms of the universe mind, life and senses will more and more be fixed in the memory, in the understanding, in the joy of the touch and vision of that transcendent glory which they have now resolved to make their sole object; to that only they will learn to respond and not to the touches of outward things. The silence which has fallen on them and which is now their foundation and status will become their knowledge of the eternal silence which is Brahman; the response of their functioning to a supernal light, power, joy will become their knowledge of the eternal activity which is Brahman. Other status, other response and activity they will not know. The mind will know nothing but the Brahman, think of nothing but the Brahman, the Life will move to, embrace, enjoy nothing but the Brahman, the eye will see, the ear hear, the other senses sense nothing but the Brahman.”[15]

“For the limit of ego, the wall of individuality will break; the individual Mind will cease to know itself as individual, it will be conscious only of universal Mind one everywhere in which individuals are only knots of the one mentality; so the individual life will lose its sense of separateness and live only in and as the one life in which all individuals are simply whirls of the indivisible flood of Pranic activity; the very body and senses will be no longer conscious of a separated existence, but the real body which the man will feel himself to be physically will be the whole Earth and the whole universe and the whole indivisible form of things wheresoever existent, and the senses also will be converted to this principle of sensation so that even in what we call the external, the eye will see Brahman only in every sight, the ear will hear Brahman only in every sound, the inner and outer body will feel Brahman only in every touch and the touch itself as if internal in the greater body. The soul whose gods are thus converted to this supreme law and religion, will realise in the cosmos itself and in all its multiplicity the truth of the One besides whom there is no other or second.

Moreover, becoming one with the formless and infinite, it will exceed the universe itself and see all the worlds not as external, not even as commensurate with itself, but as if within it.”[16]

The Faculties of Consciousness as they are seen in the old Vedanta.

The concept of Brahma is defined by the faculties of consciousness by Rishi Bhrigu as annam prāṇam cakṣuḥ śrotram mano vācam iti. (TaitUp 3.1.2)

If we try to examine these faculties, we will find that they correspond to higher cognitive capacities of Consciousness as well to our ordinary level.

Seeing and Hearing

cakṣuḥ śrotraṃ  ka u devo yunakti: “Who is the God who unites Seeing and Hearing?” [17]

Seeing, Dṛṣṭi, Cakṣus, was perceived as a faculty of consciousness which puts a seer into a direct contact with the object, which can be translated in terms of a “direct evidence of the truth”. Dṛṣṭi in the Vedas is the ultimate faculty of Consciousness, as a direct revelation of the Truth. It is of direct and self-evident nature, direct contact with the Self.

Hearing, Śruti, Śrotram. If Cakṣus is direct (Revelation) then Śrotram is of indirect nature (as Inspiration), without this faculty we may not know the relation of the object we see with the objects we don’t see. So everything which is intended but not yet manifest, realised, understood, is falling into the domain of Hearing, or “indirect evidence of the Truth”. It is of nature of all-pervading Space, connecting all in Oneness.

Manas and Vak.

Manas and Vāk, is another constant dvandva in the Vedānta. As it is declared in Aitareya Upanishad these two are the foundations of the Veda: vāṅ me manasi pratiṣṭhitā mano me vāci pratiṣṭhitam, “My Speech is established in my Mind, and my Mind is established in my Speech.”[18]

Manas, Mind, was perceived by the Vedic seers as one of the faculties of consciousness, equal to Seeing and Hearing and not as their master and synthesiser, as it was categorised later in Sāṃkhya and Yoga. It was considered to be equal to the Word-faculty also, which later, in the mental structure of consciousness, was completely submitted to the Mind, fully depending on it. In the Vedic Vision Manas was perceived as the active counterpart of the Seeing-faculty of the self-existent subject, Self, creative of form.

Vāk, Speech, was considered to be an independent faculty of Consciousness also, having its own power and character. It was considered to be an active part of the All-pervading Spirit: Hearing.  Brahman was referred to as mantra in RV, and only later it came to denote spirit.

Thus on all the levels of Consciousness we have the Word, later known as Parā, Paśyantī, Madhyamā and Vaikharī Vāk. Similarly other faculties of Consciousness have their representatives on all the levels of being, as for instance Manas, Mind, can be viewed as Supermind, Mental Mind, Vital Mind and Physical Mind (and even further down as Subconscious Mind etc). So the faculties of Consciousness can be seen as pervading the whole hierarchy of all planes of Being, from the Superconscient to the Inconscient.

Brahma Chatushpad

Thus, these four cakṣus and śrotram, manas and vāk, according to Upanishads, constitute brahma catuṣpād,  Spirit on four legs or pillars,[19] through which Brahman is manifested in the world. Prāṇa very often symbolised the embodiment of Brahman itself, especially in the old Upanishads.[20] It was also understood as the offspring of Manas, its father, and Vāk, its mother. [21] In this way the process of manifestation of the Spirit in matter was conceived, which made matter animated, annam (“eatable”). It gives us one more dvandva Prāṇa-Apāna, Breathing in and Breathing out, or Prāṇa-Anna, Life and Matter.[22]

There are three constant dvandvas in the Upanishads:

1) Manas-Vāk

2) Cakṣuḥ-Śrotra,

3) Prāṇa-Apāna, or Prāṇa-Anna

There are also three major streams of cognition, according to Sri Aurobindo: Seeing, Hearing and Touch as three basic cognitive accesses to Reality. In Vedic terminology “…for the truth-consciousness there are corresponding faculties,—dṛṣṭi, śruti, viveka, the direct vision of the truth, the direct hearing of its word, the direct discrimination of the right.”[23]

Seeing and Hearing are perceptive faculties (marked (-)), whereas Mind and Word are their active counterparts (marked (+)). These four are neutralised or, better to say, realised in the Manifestation of Life and Matter. In other words, Mind and Seeing (manas and cakṣus) are related to Rūpa, Form, as the expression of the aspect of Power, whereas Word and Hearing (śrotra and vāc) to Nāma, Name, as the expression of the aspect of Knowledge. These Knowledge and Power symbolised by Nāma and Rūpa, constitute the phenomenon of Consciousness in the Manifestation. It is by these Nāma and Rūpa that Brahman could enter in this creation.

Application of Adhidaiva Epistemology to the studies of the Humanities.

If we examine the faculties of our cognitive consciousness we will find that they are only few, which are fundamental faculties, as in the field of the Humanities there are only few fundamental subjects. What determines this limited number of faculties and subjects is the very nature of our cognitive consciousness, that we have only three accesses to reality: Seeing, Hearing and Touch, with their active counterparts Thinking, Speaking and Feeling.

	Active	Perceptive
Self-Knowledge	Thinking	Seeing
Spirit(Relation)- Knowledge	Speaking	Hearing
Manifestation-Knowledge	Feeling	Touch

At first we have to study our individual faculties of consciousness (including senses). Here we will have to learn how we actually see, hear, speak, think, feel etc., and also how we could do it better. Such courses as: “How to Think and to be conscious in our thoughts”, “How to Speak and to be conscious in speech”, “How to improve visual memory”, “How to improve mental concentration” etc., etc., could be prepared and offered to all. The major object of these studies is to train our consciousness to act within its faculties.

A hint to such an approach we have taken from Vedanta, where the cognitive faculties (to see, to think, to hear, to speak, to breath and to touch) were seen as main functions of consciousness. Such approach to our faculties sheds some light on the profundities of their nature. The major subjects of Humanities also bear their own distinct features which can be identified as those belonging to a particular faculty of consciousness.

The six faculties of our consciousness have essential correspondence with the main subjects of the Humanities:

1) Psychology deals with our subjective processes of thinking and self-evaluation;

2) Philosophy deals with our mental ability to overview and conceptualize;

3) Linguistics deals with our faculty of Speech, as a device of communication and self-expression;

4) Sociology and History deal with relationship as such: how the individual and collective relate to one another, on the scale of space (Sociology, Ethnography etc.) or time (History);

5) Art and Culture deal with the refinement of our feelings and senses.

6) Science of Nature deals with Matter as such, the Physical in objective way.

	Subjective	Objective
Self-Knowledge	Psychology	Philosophy
Relation-Knowledge	Linguistics/Language	History/Sociology
Manifestation-Knowledge	Art/Culture	Science

Every key subject can be combined with another subject, giving it a new dimension, like for instance: Philosophy of Science, Psychology of Art, History of Philosophy, History of Linguistics, etc. These key disciplines, of course, may include other subjects and topics into their field of concern, for instance, History of Psychology could include Mythology of Self-discovery (Vedic Mythology, Egyptian Myths, etc.), History of Occultism and Yoga, History of Religion; etc.

The map of major key-disciplines:

	Psychology	Philosophy	Linguistics, Language	History, Sociology	Art, Culture	Science
Psychology	Psychology	Psychology of Philosophy	Psychology of Language	Psychology of History	Psychology of Art	Psychology of Science
Philosophy	Philosophy of Psychology	Philosophy	Philosophy of Language	Philosophy of History	Philosophy of Art	Philosophy of Science
Language, Linguistics	Language of Psychology	Language of Philosophy	Language(Universal Grammar)	Language of History	Language of Art	Language of Science
History, Sociology	History of Psychology	History of Philosophy	History of Language	History	History of Art	History of Science
Art, Culture	Art of Psychology	Art of Philosophy	Art of Language	Art of History	Art	Art of Science
Science	Science of Psychology	Science of Philosophy	Science of Language	Science of History	Science of Art	Science

So the basic requirements for the development of human consciousness can be defined as follows:

1)    Philosophy. Everyone has to have a metaphysical picture of the world, as a system of mental views or beliefs – a metaphysical paradigm. It includes a hidden hierarchy of understanding of what is first and what is next, what is important and what is less important, and how it constitutes one reality, without which the reality cannot be approached in a rational manner.

2)    Psychology. Everyone has to know oneself to a certain extent and to have a certain personal attitude towards the world. This knowledge of oneself is not in full accordance with one’s own metaphysical paradigm. There is a constant ongoing interaction between the two, which correlates, corrects and even changes the mental picture of the world, and vice versa. Without it the reality cannot be approached in a truthful (sincere) manner.

3)    Philology. Everyone has to use some language (outwardly and inwardly). To become conscious of our speech (as an expression of oneself) and the language (as a system of mental categories by which we think), to know how they function is indispensable for building a metaphysical picture of the world and understanding ourselves psychologically:  how our thoughts and feelings relate to our Speech-faculty and how it influences them. Without this knowledge no serious research is possible in any field, and the reality cannot be dealt with in a correct (precise) manner.

4)    Sociology. One has to know one’s roots: history, religion, social and national heredity: what state one belongs to, what nation, what community etc., – to know one’s own past in order to understand one’s present and future. This knowledge is wider than our individual psychology or even philosophical paradigm. It introduces knowledge about relations between individuals and groups in time and space, beyond our reach. It draws our consciousness to a larger reality of community, country, earth, and finally to the universal and cosmic existence. It brings the aspect of the Spirit into picture, – a larger reality inside and outside of ourselves. It indicates to us a unifying phenomenon of Space and Time, in which we all live. Without this knowledge man will not be able to understand fully the growth and the purpose of his life.

5)    Art and Culture.  Cultural phenomenon can be defined as a refinement of all our activities in life in its aspect of Beauty, Harmony, and Perfection.  It is what the Spirit has already manifested, conquered, so to say, in Life as a result of a long period of evolution. It is what makes us cultured, without which we will be simply barbarians. It is the aim of creation and it is its path. To develop ourselves fully individually and collectively, we have to learn to manifest Beauty and Harmony, to seek after it, to be it.

6)    Science of Nature. The knowledge of matter is indispensable for the understanding of Manifestation. All the changes: philosophical, psychological, philological, social, cultural are possible only in matter. Matter is a foundation and embodiment of any change. It is fixing everything to certain stability, so that another change can take place. If matter would not be able to fix it, the next step would have no meaning, for it would have no ground to manifest a new change.

Such an approach to knowledge, where all major cognitive functions and capacities of our consciousness could be integrally exercised, is needed for modern education. Having identifying the nature of different studies with their cognitive faculties of consciousness, the scholars themselves in their subjective approach could become the field of research. The self-education then would be direct and effective. The division on subjective and objective approach to knowledge would have only a classifying value within the field of studies and the humanitarian disciplines would become a means for self-education, necessary to develop Metaphysical, Psychological, Social (Historical), Artistic, Linguistic and Scientific modes of Consciousness, tuning them to the One Consciousness beyond. Such integral approach might prepare a wider ground for a truer perception of our life, and lead us eventually to a perception of universal faculties, opening them up to higher possibilities.

Integral Paradigm of Knowledge and  Adhidaiva Education.

1)     The faculties of consciousness are properties of every individual; they do not reflect any cultural, national, philosophical, religious or social characteristics. Training and educating these faculties can be considered as a part of universal education for all, leading eventually to the discovery of the innermost being.

Sri Aurobindo explains: “…the thought of India has always maintained that a human being is a portion of the Divinity enwrapped in mind and body, a conscious manifestation in Nature of the universal self and spirit. Always she has distinguished and cultivated in him a mental, an intellectual, an ethical, dynamic and practical, an aesthetic and hedonistic, a vital and physical being, but all these have been seen as powers of a soul that manifests through them and grows with their growth, and yet they are not all the soul, because at the summit of its ascent it arises to something greater than them all, into a spiritual being, and it is in this that she has found the supreme manifestation of the soul of man and his ultimate divine manhood…” [24]

2)     It introduces all the Humanities, and all fields of objective knowledge, into the subjective studies of individual consciousness. It brings the disciplines of the Humanities, which at present exist in themselves, as it were, closer to the individual self-studies. It is as if the Humanities are not being studied as such but the consciousness of the individual through the Humanities, which makes all the subjects a means for knowing oneself and therefore interesting.

“Those systems of education, – says Sri Aurobindo, – which start from an insufficient knowledge of man, think they have provided a satisfactory foundation when they have supplied the student with a large or well-selected mass of information on the various subjects which comprise the best part of human culture at the time. The school gives the materials, it is for the student to use them, — this is the formula. But the error here is fundamental. Information cannot be the foundation of intelligence, it can only be part of the material out of which the knower builds knowledge, the starting-point, the nucleus of fresh discovery and enlarged creation. An education that confines itself to imparting knowledge, is no education.” [25]

3)      It also introduces Spirituality in the most concrete way, making it less abstract, imaginative and therefore altogether a doubtful exercise, but a concrete experience of every moment of our life.

“An integral education which could, with some variations, be adapted to all the nations of the world, – says the Mother – must bring back the legitimate authority of the Spirit over a matter fully developed and utilised.” [26]

Part II

Adhyātmic Epistemology

The distinction between Faculties and Verities of Consciousness.

There are two different approaches to the studies of consciousness, two different Epistemologies.  One is about the faculties (sight, hearing etc.) on all possible levels: the Transcendental, Universal and Individual levels of Consciousness. The other approach is about the Soul and its influence through the faculties on the world.[27] The Soul which is involved in the process of evolution, trying to emerge and to guide all the other members of consciousness, it is called the Psychic Being. It is using all the members of Consciousness to express itself and to build up “a passage” through them to the surface of consciousness, where it should bring its influence and light, for that was the original purpose of it coming down into the material Inconscient with the help of these very faculties.

On the highest level the Lord (Puruṣa) and the Self (Ātman) are one and the same Conscious Being.[28] It is in the lower hemisphere that they tend to differ for the purposes of manifestation. But both of them are present on all the levels of Consciousness and Being, from Matter to Spirit.

The distinction is very subtle between the two. Taittirīya Upaniṣad speaks about the Self, ātman, on all the levels of being: annamaya, prāṇamaya, manomaya, vijñānamaya and ānandamaya ātmā, the self made of Matter, Vital Force, Mind, Supermind and Bliss, and again it says in the form of Purusha, puruṣavidha eva, implying the identity of the Self with the Lord on all the levels of Consciousness and Being.[29]

Since the power of the Self is present on all the levels of the Mind, Vital and Body, it can sustain the form of itself as it is known to its own consciousness.

THE SELF

“The other entity which represents the Brahman in the cosmos is the self – says Sri Aurobindo – of the living and thinking creature, man. This self also is not an external mask; it is not form of the mind or form of the life or form of the body. It is something that supports these and makes them possible, something that can say positively like the gods, “I am” and not only “I seem”.”

“The Self and the Lord are one Brahman, whom we can realise through our self and realise through that which is essential in the cosmic movement. Just as our self constitutes our mind, body, life, senses, so that Self constitutes all mind, body, life, senses; it is the origin and essentiality of things. Just as the gods govern, supported by our self, the cosmos of our individual being, the action of our mind, senses and life, so the Lord governs as Mind of the mind, Sense of the sense, Life of the life, supporting His active divinity by His silent essential self-being, all cosmos and all form of being.”[30]

The Adhyātmic approach to knowledge consists of two distinctly different parts. One is about the Psychic being, Antarātman, and its qualities, the Soul which is conscious of itself, which is involved in manifestation, and the other is about the Self which is beyond manifestation, Ātman.

The Education  of Psychic qualities.

The qualities of the Psychic being, which are emerging by its own power of growth, are the eternal verities, or the eternal dharmas, as Sri Aurobindo calls them, the powers which are constantly transforming our mind, life and body into a perceptive and suitable instrument of the Spirit. These qualities differ from the faculties, and are essential for the transformation of the lower consciousness and being into their higher prototypes; they must build up a new consciousness within individual and channel all power and knowledge of the Transcendental into the material frame of consciousness.

The perception by the faculties (adhidaiva) oriented either within, towards its Universal prototypes (adhyātma), or without, to the surface of consciousness (adhibhūta), is insufficient to realise integral Consciousness, for it is different from Knowledge, as Īśopaniṣad says, and it is different from Ignorance: anyad eva tad vidyayā, anyad āhur avidyayā (Īśopaniṣad 9). The faculties have to channel the light of the higher realms into the lower hemisphere and be simultaneously present on all the levels.[31]

This kind of integral consciousness is totally new even for the Divine, for this was the reason, according to the Upanishads, why this creation was set into motion.[32] The Supreme wanted to experience himself anew in consciousness of Unity.

There are many Eternal Dharmas of Consciousness, but essentially they can be brought down to a few quintessential ones, which are only twelve, according to the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.  12 qualities of the Divine Mother are clearly corresponding with the Four powers of the Divine Śakti: Maheśvarī, Mahākālī, Mahālakṣmīḥ, Mahāsarasvatī.

The Mother defines them in this order:

Psychic qualities towards Divine are:

1. Sincerity,           Satyam[33]
2. Humility,           Namaḥ, Natiḥ
3. Gratitude,          Bhaktiḥ
4. Perseverance,  Dhṛtiḥ
5. Aspiration,       Iṣṭiḥ, Abhīpsā
6. Receptivity,      Buddhiḥ, Samjñānam
7. Progress,           Ṛddhiḥ, Pragatiḥ
8. Courage,            Vīryam, Śaktiḥ

Psychic qualities towards Humanity are:

9.     Goodness,        Svasti

10.  Generosity,      Dānam

11.   Equality,          Samam, Samatā

12.   Peace,              Śāntiḥ, Śamam

Psychic qualities in the words of the Mother.

Sincerity, Satyam

Simple sincerity: the beginning of all progress.

An uncompromising sincerity is the surest way to spiritual achievement.

Do not pretend – Be.

Do not promise – Act.

Do not dream – Realise.

Do you know what perfect sincerity is?

Never to try to deceive oneself, never let any part of the being try to find out a way to convincing the others, never to explain favourably what one does in order to have an excuse for what one wants to do, never to close one’s eyes when something is unpleasant, never to let anything pass, telling oneself, “This is not important, next time it will be better.”

Oh, it is very difficult.  Just try for one hour and you will see how very difficult it is.  Only one hours, to be totally, absolutely Sincere. To let nothing pass. That is, all one does, all one feels, all one thinks, all one wants, is exclusively the Divine.

“I want nothing but the Divine.  I think of nothing but the Divine.  I do nothing but what will lead me to the Divine. I love nothing but the Divine.”

Humility,  Natiḥ

True humility consists in knowing that the Supreme Consciousness, the Supreme Will alone exists,  and that the I is not.

To be humble means for the mind, the vital and the body never to forget that – without the Divine they know nothing, are nothing and can do nothing; without the Divine they are nothing but ignorance, chaos and impotence. The Divine alone is Truth, Life, Power, Love, Felicity. Therefore the mind the vital and the body must learn and feel, one and for all, that they are wholly incapable of understanding and judging the Divine, not only in his essence but also in his action and manifestation.

This is the only true humility, and with it come Quiet and Peace. This is also the surest shield against all hostile attack.  Indeed, in the human being it is always the door of pride at which the Adversary knocks, for it is this door which opens to let him enter.

Gratitude,   Bhaktiḥ

A loving recognition of the Grace received from the Divine. A humble recognition of all that the Divine has done and is doing for you.

The spontaneous feeling of obligation to the Divine, which makes you do your best to become less unworthy of what the Divine is doing for you.

The nobility of a being is measured by its capacity of Gratitude.

Perseverance, Dhṛtiḥ

A persevering will surmounts all obstacles.

Perseverance – the decision to go to the very end.

Perseverance is patience in action

What you are not able to do today, you will achieve tomorrow.  Persevere and you shall conquer.

Persevere in your aspiration and effort, do not allow yourself to be discouraged by set backs.  This always happens in the beginning. But if you continue to fight without paying any attention to them, a day will come when the resistances give way and the difficulties vanish.

It is by persevering that one conquers difficulties, not by running away from them.

One who perseveres is sure to triumph.  Victory goes to the most enduring.

Always do your best and the Lord will take care of the results.

Aspiration, Iṣṭiḥ

True aspiration is not a movement of the mind but of the psychic.

It is to the sincerity of your aspiration that the Love answers spontaneously.

Let your aspiration leap forward, pure and straight,

towards the supreme consciousness which is all joy and all beatitude.

Beyond words, above thoughts,

the flame of an intense aspiration must always burn, steady and bright.

Receptivity, Buddhiḥ

It is with the widening of the consciousness and the one-pointedness of the aspiration that the receptivity increases.

Surely you are trying more or less consciously to draw the forces and divine love towards you.  The method is bad.   Give yourself without calculating and without expecting anything in return, and then you will become capable of receiving.

How can we know that we are receptive?

When we feel the urge to give and the joy of giving to the Divine’s work,

then we can be sure that we have become receptive.

Progress, Ṛddhiḥ

Try to enjoy doing everything you do.

When you are interested in what you do, you enjoy doing it.

To be interested in what you do, you must try to do it better and better.

In progress lies true joy.

It is true that my force is always with him to help him to do his work; but my force is essentially a force for perfection, and to be able to allow it to work fully, one must have a constant will for progress in the work.

Open yourself more and more to the Divine’s force

and your work will progress steadily towards perfection.

Courage, Vīryam, Śaktiḥ

Courage is a sign of the soul’s nobility.

But courage must be calm and master of itself, generous and benevolent.

In true courage there is no impatience and no rashness.

Never mistake rashness for courage, nor indifference for patience.

A noblest courage is to recognise one’s faults.

There is no greater courage than to be always truthful.

Have the courage to be completely frank with the Divine.

Goodness, Svasti

Indeed the good will hidden in all things reveals itself everywhere to the one who carries good will in his consciousness.

This is a constructive way of feeling which leads straight to the Future.

One should keep goodwill and love constantly in his heart

and let them pour out upon all with tranquility and with equanimity.

Good will for all and good will from all is the basis of peace and harmony.

A tireless benevolence, clear-seeing and comprehensive, free from all personal reaction,  is the best way to love God and serve Him upon earth. I mean a benevolence sincere and spontaneous in thought and speech and not a supposed benevolence in acts which is accompanied most often by a dreadful sense of condescending superiority serving chiefly as a platform for human vanity.

Generosity, Dānam

The effect of the ego… is to shrivel the being. This is the cause of aging, it shrivels you up like a fading flower, it dries you up…. (There is) the difference between the two states, between the person, the individual personal being, turning towards the Lord, imploring Him to reveal His Will, and then this experience of becoming – by extending oneself, by opening, enlarging, merging into the creation – of becoming the Lord’s Will, the Supreme Will.

Equanimity, Samam

Equanimity: immutable peace and calm.

Tolerance is only the first step towards wisdom. The need to tolerate indicates the presence of preferences. He who lives in the Divine Consciousness regards all things with a perfect equanimity.

In the deep peace of equanimity the love will grow to its full blossoming

in a sense of pure and constant unity.

Peace, Śāntiḥ

The peace must be immense, the quietness deep and still, the calm unshakable,

and the trust in the Divine ever-increasing.

It is by a quiet, strong and persistent peace that the true victories can be won.

It is only in tranquility and peace that one can know what is the best thing to do.

If  you ask from within for peace, it will come.

There is no greater peace than that of a pure mind.

The vast peace and calm are there, ready for you to open to them and receive them. Let the vast peace of the divine penetrate you entirely and initiate all your movements.

In peace and inner silence you will more and more become conscious of the constant Presence. It is in peace that knowledge and power are truly effective.

It is in the most complete peace, serenity and equality that all is the Divine even as the Divine is all.

The Higher Studies of Consciousness.

In the essays on the Kena Upanishad Sri Aurobindo defines the four major operations of consciousness: Samjñāna, Ājñāna, Vijñāna, Prajñāna, as they are depicted in the Aitareya Upanishad (3.2). He says that they are secret operations of consciousness present on all the levels of its functioning, from the innermost to the most external operations.

“Everything begins with vibration or movement, the original kshobha or disturbance.” – explains Sri Aurobindo. – “If there is no movement of the conscious being, it can only know its own pure static existence. Without vibration or movement of being in consciousness there can be no act of knowledge and therefore sense; without vibration or movement of being in force there can be no object of sense. Movement of conscious being as knowledge becoming sensible of itself as movement of force, in other words the knowledge separating itself from its own working to watch that and take it into itself again by feeling,—this is the basis of universal Samjnana. This is true both of our internal and external operations.” [34]

So here Sri Aurobindo gives his definition of what is samjnana, “as essential sense”.

“I become anger by a vibration of conscious force acting as nervous emotion and I feel the anger that I have become by another movement of conscious force acting as light of knowledge. I am conscious of my body because I have become the body; that the same force of conscious being which has made this form of itself, this presentation of its workings knows it in that form, in that presentation. I can know nothing except what I myself am; if I know others, it is because they are also myself, because my self has assumed these apparently alien presentations as well as that which is nearest to my own mental center. All sensation, all action of sense is thus the same in essence whether external of internal, physical of psychical.” [35]

“Vijnana is the original comprehensive consciousness which holds an image of things in its essence, totality and parts and properties; it is the original, spontaneous, true and complete view of it which belongs properly to the supermind and of which mind has only a shadow in the highest operations of the comprehensive intellect.

Prajnana is the consciousness which holds as image of things before it as an object with which it has to enter into relations and possess by apprehension and analytic and synthetic cognition.

Samjnana is the contact of consciousness with an image of things by which there is a sensible possession of it in its substance; if Prajnana can be described as the outgoing of apprehensive consciousness to possess its object in conscious energy, to know it, Samjnana can be described as the inbringing movement of apprehensive consciousness which draws the object placed before it back to itself so as to possess it in conscious substance, to feel it.

Ajnana is the operation by which consciousness dwells on an image of things so as to govern and possess it in power. These four, therefore, are the basis of all conscious action.

…There are secret operations in us, in our subconscient and superconscient selves, which precede this action, but of these we are not aware in our surface being and therefore for us they do not exist. If we knew of them, our whole conscious functioning would be changed.”[36]

So let us again look into these four:

“Samjnana, the sense of an object in its image; inbringing movement of apprehensive consciousness… as to possess it in conscious substance, to feel it.” (That is to be it, to have an experience of it, to be directly identified with it in the Self).

“Prajnana, the apprehension of it in knowledge; the outgoing of apprehensive consciousness (of Knowledge) to possess its object in conscious energy, to know it;”

(to understand it, to see it, to be aware of it in ones Consciousness).

“Vijnana, the comprehension of it in knowledge; holds an image of things at once in its essence, its totality and its parts and properties;” (to be one in Consciousness with it in the totality of its relations).

“Ajnana, the possession of it in power; it dwells on an image of things so as to hold, govern and possess it in power;” (to become one with it in the Self).

What is interesting here is that there are two apprehensive and two comprehensive operations of consciousness:

saṃjñāna, apprehensive knowing by becoming one with the object of knowing or by making it part of oneself (= a process of in-bringing the image of things into the field of perception in order to know it by identity/ to feel it); (“objective possession”).

vijñāna, comprehensive simultaneous knowing of all the parts in their relations and essence; (supramental subjective and comprehensive knowledge); (“subjective knowing”).

ājñāna, dwelling on the image of things by the power of the Self in order to rule it and to make it one’s own,  a part of one’s own identity; it is the power of concentration; (“subjective possession”).

prajñāna, apprehensive knowing by dwelling on the image of things bit by bit through the analytical and synthetic cognition; (“objective knowing”).[37]

Etymological significances
Let’s have a closer look at the etymological meaning of these four words.
Pra-jñā is derived from the root ‘jñā’ to know (cp. to ‘gnosis’); and prefix pra-, ‘forward’, denotes an objective operation.

Vi-jñā, on the other hand, gets its significance from the prefix vi-, which has several meanings ‘to divide in two’ or ‘to hold two parts in one, together’, ‘through’, ‘in-between’. It is a comprehensive knowledge, which includes the opposites, and all the parts, mediating between them as a common awareness. In the later Prakritic traditions including Buddhism, it came to denote a ‘discrimination’ or ‘discernment’ only; when the knowledge of the Supermind was completely lost.

The root jñā-, by the way, does not really mean ‘to know something’. It means rather ‘to know oneself’, ‘to realize oneself as’, it does not have an objective connotation of knowing something but knowing oneself in a particular state; for instance, one cannot say in Sanskrit: “granthasya jñānam”, “knowledge of the book”, but only ‘granthena jñānam’ “the knowledge by the book”, where ‘knowledge’ refers to a subjective state of the knower, to his self-realized particular state of being. The root vid-, on the other hand, from which ‘veda’ is derived, means ‘to know objectively’, ‘to discover’, ‘to find out’, it has a kind of objective connotation of knowledge existing outside the knower.

Therefore, sam-jñā, would rather mean ‘to realize oneself as one with, to become one with, to feel’, where the prefix sam- means “joining with’, ‘together’, ‘completely’.
Pra-jñā, is ‘to realize oneself forward, toward’, where the direction away from the subject is clearly denoting an object.

Vi-jñā, is ‘to realize oneself in all the parts and properties and essence’, it does not have any object or even a direction towards an object, it only includes into oneself all the parts as mediator-knower.

Ā-jñā, is ‘to realize oneself toward or extending to’, as the comprehensive application of oneself in power, imposing oneself on something, expanding one’s own presence or being onto another being. The prefix ā- means ‘up to’, ‘towards’.

According to Aitareya Upanishad, where all these operations are listed, prajñāna is considered to be the key to all of them, for prajñāna is the objective apprehensive operation of consciousness in knowledge, which was seen to be the reason of this creation. It is through Prajñāna the higher Consciousness could engage itself with its own image of things in analytic and synthetic cognition, and know itself and its workings as another.[38]

All other three operations provide prajñāna with their instant support, as it were, for without them and their constant and integral support in the depth of the being, the separate and objective knowledge (of oneself as another) cannot be maintained? Samjñāna provides it with the sensible subject-oriented apprehension, Ājñāna holds the image of things in a still and powerful arrest of its will, imposing on it the presence of the Self; Vijñāna provides a comprehensive and all-inclusive presence of Knowledge throughout, coordinating all the elements, far and near, into one all comprehending perception. Without them the operation of Prajñāna would be simply impossible and the creation of the world of the distinct material multitude would not take place.

Sri Aurobindo gives interesting examples of how these operations of consciousness work in the Essays on the Kena Upanishad:

“Modern psychology has extended our knowledge and has admitted us to a truth which the ancients already knew but expressed in other language. We know now or we rediscover the truth that the conscious operation of mind is only a surface action. There is a much vaster and more potent subconscious mind which loses nothing of what the senses bring to it; it keeps all its wealth in an inexhaustible store of memory, akshitam shravah. The surface mind may pay no attention, still the subconscious mind attends, receives, treasures up with an infallible accuracy. The illiterate servant-girl hears daily her master reciting Hebrew in his study; the surface mind pays no attention to the unintelligible gibberish, but the subconscious mind hears, remembers and, when in an abnormal condition it comes up to the surface, reproduces those learned recitations with a portentous accuracy which the most correct and retentive scholar might envy. The man or mind has not heard because he did not attend; the greater man or mind within has heard because he always attends, or rather sub-tends, with an infinite capacity. So too a man put under an anaesthetic and operated upon has felt nothing; but release his subconscious mind by hypnosis and he will relate accurately every detail of the operation and its appropriate sufferings; for the stupor of the physical sense-organ could not prevent the larger mind within from observing and feeling.

Similarly we know that a large part of our physical action is instinctive and directed not by the surface but by the subconscious mind. And we know now that it is a mind that acts and not merely an ignorant nervous reaction from the brute physical brain. The subconscious mind in the catering insect knows the anatomy of the beetle it intends to immobilize and make a food for its young and it directs the sting accordingly, as unerringly as the most skilful surgeon, provided the mere limited surface mind with its groping and faltering nervous action does not get in the way and falsify the inner knowledge or the inner will-force.

These examples point us to the truth which Western psychology, hampered by past ignorance posing as scientific orthodoxy, still ignores or refuses to acknowledge. The Upanishads declare that the Mind in us is infinite; it knows not only what has been seen but what has not been seen, not only what has been heard but what has not been heard, not only what has been discriminated by thought but what has not been discriminated by thought… That conscious senses what has not been sensed by the surface mind has not learned by its acquisitive thought. That in the insect knows the anatomy of its victim; that in the man outwardly insensible not only feels and remembers the action of the surgeon’s knife, but knows the appropriate reactions of suffering which were in physical body inhibited by the anaesthetic and therefore non-existent; that in the illiterate servant-girl heard and retained accurately the words of an unknown language and could, as Yogic experience knows, by a higher action of itself understand those superficially unintelligible sounds.

To return to the Vedantic words we have been using, there is a vaster action of the Sanjnana which is not limited by the action of the physical sense-organs; it was this which sensed perfectly and made its own through the ear the words of the unknown language, through the touch the movements of the unfelt surgeon’s knife, through the sense-mind or sixth sense the exact location of the centres of locomotion in the beetle. There is also associated with it a corresponding vaster action of Prajnana, Ajnana and Vijnana not limited by the smaller apprehensive and comprehensive faculties of the external mind. It is this vaster Prajnana which perceived the proper relation of the words to each other, of the movement of the knife to the unfelt suffering of the nerves and of the successive relation in space of the articulations in the beetle’s body. Such perception was inherent in the right reproduction of the words, the right narration of the sufferings, the right successive action of the sting. The Ajnana of Knowledge-Will organising all these actions was also vaster, not limited by the faltering force that governs the operations directed by the surface mind. And although in these examples the action of the vaster Vijnana is not so apparent, yet it was evidently there working through them and ensuring their co-ordination.

… Here we should note, first of all, that there is an action of the sense-mind which is superior to the particular action of the senses and is aware of things even without imagining them in forms of sight, sound, contact, but which also as a sort of subordinate operation, subordinate but necessary to completeness of presentation, does image in these forms.” [39]

Thus these studies of operations of Consciousness could become the foundation of the higher studies constituting a new science of Integral Psychology of Adhyātmic Education.

The foundation of the deepest integral and most intimate self-knowledge and world-knowledge.

In the Synthesis of Yoga (p.293) Sri Aurobindo writes:

“Neither the universe nor the individual are what they seem to be, for the report of them which our mind and our senses give us is, so long as they are unenlightened by a faculty of higher supramental and suprasensuous knowledge, a false report, an imperfect construction, an attenuated and erroneous figure. And yet that which the universe and the individual seem to be is still a figure of what they really are, a figure that points beyond itself to the reality behind it. Truth proceeds by a correction of the values our mind and senses give us, and first by the action of a higher intelligence that enlightens and sets right as far as may be the conclusions of the ignorant sense-mind and limited physical intelligence; that is the method of all human knowledge and science. But beyond it there is a knowledge, a Truth-consciousness, that exceeds our intellect and brings us into the true light of which it is a refracted ray. There the abstract terms of the pure reason and the constructions of the mind disappear or are converted into concrete soul-vision and the tremendous actuality of spiritual experience. This knowledge can turn away to the absolute Eternal and lose vision of the soul and the universe; but it can too see this existence from that Eternal. When that is done, we find that the ignorance of the mind and the senses and all the apparent futilities of human life were not a useless excursion of the conscious being, an otiose blunder. Here they were planned as a rough ground for the self-expression of the Soul that comes from the Infinite, a material foundation for its self-unfolding and self-possessing in the terms of the universe. It is true that in themselves they and all that is here have no significance and to build separate significances for them is to live in an illusion, Maya; but they have a supreme significance in the Supreme, an absolute Power in the Absolute and it is that that assigns to them and refers to that Truth their present relative values. This is the all-uniting experience that is the foundation of the deepest integral and most intimate self-knowledge and world-knowledge.”

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[1] The Synthesis of Yoga, p.335

[2] TaitUp 1.1-2.

[3] The Upanishads, p.114

[4] Volume: 13 [SABCL] (Essays on the Gita), Page: 110

[5] lokānnu sṛjā iti, AitUp1.1.1-2, ‘May I create the worlds”, the root sṛj, to take out of oneself, indicates the separation with the Ātman. These worlds heaven and earth and space in-between become the separate habitat (adhibhūta). See also ‘puruṣa-vidhaḥ’ of Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.3

[6] AitUp 1.1.1-6.

[7] Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.6-7 so ‘kāmayata / bahu syāṃ prajāyeyeti / sa tapo ‘tapyata / sa tapastaptvā / idaṃ sarvam asṛjata / yad idaṃ kimca / tat sṛṣñvā / tad evānuprāvišat / tad anupravišya / sac ca tyac cābhavat / niruktaṃ cāniruktaṃ ca nilayanaṃ cānilayanaṃ ca / vijñānaṃ cāvijñānaṃ ca / satyaṃ cānṛtaṃ ca / satyam abhavat /  yad idaṃ kiṃca / tat satyam ityācakṣate /… 6

“He (Atman) wished: “May I become Many! May I procreate!” He flamed in Tapas, having flamed in Tapas, he created All This, whatever exists. Having created it, He indeed entered it. Having entered it, this and that came into being, spoken and unspoken, located and not located, discerned and not discerned, true and untrue, thus the (one) Truth has become, whatever exists.”

[8] The Life Divine, p.13

[9] The Upanishads, p. 167

[10] Kena Upanishad 4.4 yad asya tvam yad asya deveùv atha nu mimàsyàm eva te manye viditam

[11] The Upanishads, p. 168

[12] The Upanishads, p. 167

[13] The Upanishads, p. 177

[14] Kena Upanishad 4.5 tasyaiṣa ādeśah  yad etad vidyuto vyadyutad ā itīn nyamīmiṣad ā ity adhidaivatam

[15] The Upanishads, pp 177-178

[16] ibid. 178

[17] Kena Up 1.1.1, the answer is implied: it is Brahman.

[18] AitUp 1.1.1

[19] ChUp 3.18; KauUp 2.1-2

[20] KauUp 2.1  prāno brahmeti ha smāha kauṣitakiḥ

[21] BrhUp 1.5.7

[22] PrUp 1.4;  TaitUp 3.7.1 prāṇe śarīram pratiṣṭhitam śarīre prāṇaḥ pratiṣṭhitaḥ

[23] The Secret of the Veda, p. 65

[24] Sri Aurobindo, (SABCL, Vol.17, part 6, p.199)

[25] Sri Aurobindo, (SABCL, Vol.17, part 6, p.331)

[26] The Mother, (1965 in reference to the Education Commission, quoted in India and Her Destiny, p.18)

[27] In Gebserian terms these are two different structures of consciousness: magic and mythical.

[28] The Archaic structure of consciousness of Gebser.

[29] TaitUp 2.2-5

[30] Up 167

[31] Vidyām cāvidyām ca yas tad vedobhayaṃ saha, avidyayā mṛtyuṃ tīrtvā vidyayāmṛtam aśnute/ ĪśUp 10.

See also TaitUp 3.10: etam annamayam ātmānam upasamkramya/ etam prāṇamayam ātmānam upasaṃkramya/ etaṃ manomayam ātmānam upasamkramya…

[32] bahu syām, ‘May I be Many’, TaitUp 2.6, etc.

[33] Here the Sanskrit names are introduced by us, there can be also other words. These names we found best representing the essential qualities; we are not following the customary usage of the words here. For instance for the Gratitude the common word is kṛtajñatā, ‘acknowledgement’, we do not follow this literal translation, but find a deeper sense of the word in another term as ‘bhakti’, etc.

[34] Sri Aurobindo, The Upanishads, p.195-96

[35] Sri Aurobindo, The Upanishads, p. 196

[36] Sri Aurobindo, The Upanishads, pp. 188-89

[37] See: The Upanishads –II  Kena and Other Upanishads, by Sri Aurobindo, p.54-58, also AitUp 3.2.

[38] “The Supreme”, says the Mother, – “decided to exteriorise himself, objectivise himself, in order to have the joy of knowing himself in detail,… to be able to see Himself.”

[39] Sri Aurobindo, The Upansihads, pp. 192-93