As Brahman is expressed without taking the truth of individual and cosmos in consideration, similarly Atman is expressed without taking into account the body, senses, life, mind and intellect in an individual. Traditional way of knowledge arrives at the ultimate positive experience of Atman, the self, the original and essential nature of our existence.
Response by Learner MD
Brahman is the Absolute, the One, the Supreme Spirit, the Timeless and the Formless Consciousness. Atman is its representative in the individual, the soul, the manifest Purusha thus divided for the experience of manifestation, thus formulated by the Brahman himself for supporting the play and evolution in the individual, an exclusive concentration of the Supreme Himself in the Jiva. Brahman is the essence, substance and source of Atman; Atman is a portion of Brahman representing and put out for a particular, exclusive expression or Will of the Brahman. Brahman is Being, Atman supports the Becoming.
DISCUSSION QUESTION 4
What is the relative importance and role of the intellect in Sri Aurobindo's yoga of knowledge?
Response by Learner NJ
In its haste to arrive at that stage which is indeed truth, it neglects the step between the intellect and that which is beyond the intellect. A patient transition into Truth Consciousness is necessary where Infinite can be reached, touched, felt, and seen in all its riches.
As we cross beyond mind to Supermind, it has positive, direct and living experience of infinite. The irreconcilable opposites which perplex our dimensional mind are seen as just intrinsic nature of each other and then even to think of them as contraries is an unimaginable violence. The Consciousness of the transcendental Absolute with its consequence in individual and universe is the last, the eternal knowledge. Our minds may deal with it on various lines, may build various theories and philosophies, may limit,
modify, overstress sides of knowledge, may deduce from it truth or error. But our intellectual variations and imperfect statements make no difference to the ultimate fact that as we push the thought and experience to the end, this is the knowledge in which they terminate.
Response by Learner MD
The intellect according to Sri Aurobindo is what distinguishes man from the animal. Its prime functions are observation, judgment and discrimination. At its highest and purest the intellect or buddhi comes closest, amongst all the other faculties of man, to perceiving and receiving the truth dispassionately and disinterestedly. But since in man it works in conjunction with the life energies, vital, nervous and physical impulses, ego and desire, it is mostly rendered impotent, ineffective, contaminated and vastly inadequate. When aided by a purified heart, will and body it can become an instrument for the organizing and expression of knowledge, not for receiving the knowledge. Its role is only to prepare and guide, to caution against the workings of the ego, to watch dispassionately and prompt in the right direction the wandering lower movements, the straying and ignorant sense driven tendencies. Once the being is sufficiently enlightened it submits and surrenders in complete passivity to the higher means of Knowledge, to the suprasensuous and supramental modes of knowing where knowing is no more an objective process but a direct seeing and an instantaneous becoming.
