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The Divine Superman
by Sri Aurobindo
(around 1918)
This is thy work and the aim of thy being and that for which thou art here,
to become the divine superman and a perfect vessel of the Godhead. All else
that thou hast to do, is only a making thyself ready or a joy by the way
or a fall from thy purpose. But the goal is this and the purpose is this
and not in power of the way and the joy by the way but in the joy of the
goal is the greatness and the delight of thy being. The joy of the way is
because that which is drawing thee is also with thee on thy path and the
power to climb was given thee that thou mightest mount to thy own summits.
If thou hast a duty, this is thy duty; if thou ask what shall be thy aim,
let this be thy aim; if thou demand pleasure, there is no greater joy, for
all other joy is broken or limited, the joy of a dream or the joy of a sleep
or the joy of self-forgetting. But this is the joy of thy whole being. For
if thou say what is my being, this is thy being, the Divine, and all else
is only its broken or its perverse appearance. If thou seek the Truth, this
is the Truth. Place it before thee and in all things be faithful to it.
It has been well said by one who saw but through a veil and mistook the
veil for the face, that thy aim is to become thyself; and he said well again
that the nature of man is to transcend himself. This is indeed his nature
and that is indeed the divine aim of his self-transcending.
What then is the self that thou hast to transcend and what is the self that
thou hast to become ? For it is here that thou shouldst make no error; for
this error, not to know thyself, is the fountain of all thy grief and the
cause of all thy stumbling.
That which thou hast to transcend is the self that thou appearest to be,
and that is man as thou knowest him, the apparent Purusha. And what is this
man ? He is a mental being enslaved to life and matter; and where he is
not enslaved to life and matter, he is the slave of his mind. But this is
a great and heavy servitude; for to be the slave of mind is to be the slave
of the false, the limited and the apparent.
The self that thou hast to become, is the self that thou art within behind
the veil of mind and life and matter. It is to be the spiritual, the divine,
the superman, the real Purusha. For that which is above the mental being,
is the superman. It is to be the master of thy mind, thy life and thy body;
it is to be a king over Nature of whom thou art now the tool, lifted above
her who now has thee under her feet. It is to be free and not a slave, to
be one and not divided, to be immortal and not obscured by death, to be
full of light and not darkened, to be full of bliss and not the sport of
grief and suffering, to be uplifted into power and not cast down into weakness.
It is to live in the Infinite and possess the finite. It is to live in God
and be one with him in his being. To become thyself is to be this and all
that flows from it.
Be free in thyself, and therefore free in thy mind, free in thy life and
thy body. For the Spirit is freedom.
Be one with God and all beings; live in thyself and not in thy little ego.
For the Spirit is unity.
Be thyself, immortal, and put not thy faith in death; for death is not of
thyself, but of thy body. For the Spirit is immortality.
To be immortal is to be infinite in being and consciousness and bliss; for
the Spirit is infinite and that which is finite lives only by his infinity.
These things thou art, therefore thou canst become all these; but if thou
wert not these things, then thou couldst never become them. What is within
thee, that alone can be revealed in thy being. Thou appearest indeed to
be other than this, but wherefore shouldst thou enslave thyself to appearances
?
Rather arise, transcend thyself, become thyself. Thou art man and the whole
nature of man become more than himself. He was the man-animal, he has become
more than the animal man. He is the thinker, the craftsman, the seeker after
beauty. He shall be more than the thinker, he shall be the seer of knowledge;
he shall be more than the craftsman, he shall be the creator and master
of his creation; he shall be more than the seeker of beauty, for he shall
enjoy all beauty and all delight. Physical, he seeks for his immortal substance;
vital, he seeks after immortal life and the infinite power of his being;
mental and partial in knowledge, he seeks after the whole light and the
utter vision.
To possess these is to become the superman; for it is to rise out of mind
into the supermind. Call it the divine mind or Knowledge or the supermind;
it is the power and light of the divine will and the divine consciousness.
By the supermind the Spirit saw and created himself in the worlds, by that
he lives in them and governs them. By that he is Swarat Samrat, self-ruler
and all-ruler.
Supermind is superman; therefore to rise beyond mind is the condition.
To be the superman is to live the divine life, to be a god; for the gods
are the powers of God. Be a power of God in humanity.
To live in the divine Being and let the consciousness and bliss, the will
and knowledge of the Spirit possess thee and play with thee and through
thee, this is the meaning.
This is the transfiguration of thyself on the mountain. It is to discover
God in thyself and reveal him to thyself in all things. Live in his being,
shine with his light, act with his power, rejoice with his bliss. Be that
Fire and that Sun and that Ocean. Be that joy and that greatness and that
beauty.
When thou hast done this even in part, thou hast attained to the first steps
of supermanhood.
Sri Aurobindo
(in "The Hour of God", Section One)
in "The Hour of God and Other Writings"
SABCL, Volume 17
(also pages 8-11 of the booklet edition)
published by Sri
Aurobindo Ashram - Pondicherry
diffusion by SABDA
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