<html xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">

<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<title>The Double Ladder</title>

</head>

<body lang=EN-US style='tab-interval:.5in'>

<table border="0" cellpadding="6" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="100%">
	<tr>
		<td>

<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"><b>The
Double Ladder</b></p>
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">&nbsp;</p>


<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>I HAVE said, at the very beginning creation was a mass of material
particles, dust-particles as it were, millions and hundreds and thousands of
millions of them strewn about and scattered in infinite Space. And these
gradually condensed and gathered in volumes and masses, definite forms and
shapes, gradually changed their material nature also, developed into sentient
forms, living creatures, conscious beings and self-conscious human persons. I
have said also that the original dead material particles had in them or
associated with them or fused into them particles, as it were, of light. They
were not merely material energies but light energies which on their side
contained or were associated or infused with energies of consciousness. It was
because there was behind the dead particle this luminous particle that
evolution has become possible not only in degree but in kind, the expression in
forms of sentience and consciousness as living entities and creatures. This
continued until we arrived at the human level and at the level of the present
world from where we are trying to trudge beyond.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:9.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Now from where did this speck of light or
consciousness come? Indeed, from where did come the dead dust-particle itself?
The rishis declare that the origin of things, of the whole creation is Sat,
Being, pure Being, absolute Existence. It is absolute unity, indivisibility,
immobility. It has two other fundamental qualities, Chit or Consciousness
and<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>
</p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span style='font-size:10.0pt;'>Page – 15</span></p>


<hr>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Ananda or Delight, but fused into the Being and one with it. However, in
this Being there occurred a movement, a stirring, which meant a division in the
indivisibility. This urge to division sent the Being rushing head forward, as
it were, right down into its opposite, the dead material being, inconscient
matter where it pulverised itself into infinite infinitesimal particles, the
two standing as though at opposite poles. But the original division – apart
from its first downward rectilinear dash so to say – had another chequered
career. It was also a gradual movement of fission, or a process of genealogical
multiplication as it were. Division meant subdivision leading to further
subdivisions, stretching <i>ad infinitum </i>downwards, towards regions more
and more impure, imperfect, narrow and dense, of lesser and lesser values till 
we reach the bedrock of them all, the earth. I may give here a picture or 
illustration of what the process of division and subdivision was like. In the 
first original gesture the One Supreme Being divided into a double Existence – Ishwara
and Ishwari. They further subdivided themselves, that is to say, sent down – In
the gradation of consciousness – parts and portions, personalities and
emanations of themselves in diminishing values. In the present cycle of terrestrial
evolution, Sri Aurobindo says, four are the powers of the supreme Ishwari that
have come forward to guide and effectuate the destiny of the hour. They are the
supreme effective Powers, they are from – what is called – the Supramental
Consciousness. But they have sent down into the still lower regions nearer to
the human consciousness, more easily available to it, other forms and figures
of the divine Personality. They are chiefly the gods of the Overmind who are
interested in the human destiny and some of them appear as presiding deities or
Ishta-devata and establish individual relations with men.</p>

<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">Now this process of devolution has gone on; from the
supreme Consciousness, it has entered into the Supramental, then into the
Overmental and then into the mental regions,<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span>
</p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span style='font-size:10.0pt;'>Page – 16</span></p>

<hr>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>and peopled all of them with gods and divinities. In the lower regions –
lower, that is to say, denser, obscurer, and more ignorant forms of
consciousness – they have become smaller gods, dwarf gods. Perhaps to these
also the Vedic Rishis offered their <i>namas </i>and <i>stoma, </i>their
obeisance as <i>bÄlakhilya </i>gods. The gods have come down farther still
and proliferated liberally in the earth's atmosphere. The gods and goddesses of
the woodland, of rivers and springs, of mounts and hills, form a whole world of
mythology – they are not mere creations of fancy or abstract imagination. The
totems of the primitive people continue the same story of proliferation into
still darker and denser regions of being and consciousness that may rather be
called non-being and unconsciousness. And even, I may say if I am allowed to,
the world of rocks and stones is not excluded: they too in their solid material
dead body enshrine something of the god in devolution.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:9.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>There is no question here of any human
intervention – of the infusion of man's will and thought-formation. That is another
subject altogether. Here I am speaking of the inherent intrinsic spiritual
status or even divinity of a material body – Its <i>dravya-guna </i>– that
which a <i>lingam</i> or a Kaaba possesses.</p>

<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">So we see in the system of creation two lines of
growth or development or expression – a<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>&nbsp;
</span>double ladder, one mounting up from below and the other coming down from
above. They are more like, they have been described as, genealogical trees, the
upward rising tree is the tree of evolution starting from matter, the root
substance, growing gradually into the trunk, its multiple branches and sub-branches
spreading up and abroad, each new shoot branching out is represented by the
advent of a new form of being or species or creature. We all know the
gradations from the unformed, ill-formed types to better and better formed
types till we reach man. On the other hand, the other tree is the Vedic
Ashwattha tree that has its roots up in the supreme Space and sends down gradually
&nbsp;</p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span style='font-size:10.0pt;'>Page – 17</span></p>

<hr>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>its branches below. The unity at the origin gradually fissuring,
dividing and subdividing and multiplying itself, at the same time the
multiplied products becoming more and more distinct and definite, even rigid
and limited, although more and more concrete and firm in form and function. In
this line of devolution, the forms or the formations and emanations that have
appeared and manifested, I have named in a generic way, gods. Their function is
to infuse themselves wherever needed into the formations that have been
prepared by the upward surge of the evolutionary movement from below and thus
help fulfil that urge. Each type of divinity at the appropriate stage and
occasion comes forward, embodies itself so to say, in the external creative
movement. We know this process, although somewhat symbolically described, in
the famous song of Jayadeva describing the Avataras.</p>

<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">The Gods, I have said, are types, self-existent
realities, models for new creations which are gradually coming forward in the
material world, which are to be directed and organised.</p>

<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">Specially with man at the top of this new creation,
the terrestrial situation has changed considerably and is being changed
continually. I have said, human consciousness has arrived at a stage when it
has to leap over and attain a new dimension of earthly existence; just over him
the gods of the age have gathered and are preparing themselves to take the
field in. the new creation: the gods that men have to become and embody in
their life, and thus manifest a new type of conscious being and activity.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:9.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The gods are approaching to change humanity but
perhaps humanity also will bring about a new change in the status of the gods
themselves. They may lose something of their typal stability or fixity and
attain a new human flexibility. The <i>Gita </i>speaks, of course in its own
way, of man increasing the gods and the gods also increasing man. Perhaps the
divinity that man attains will increase the value 
&nbsp;</p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span style='font-size:10.0pt;'>Page – 18</span></p>

<hr>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>of the Divinity itself. We remember the line from <i>Savitri:</i></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><i>&nbsp;</i></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>&quot;A godhead greater by a human fate.â€&sup1;&nbsp;</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:9.6pt;
mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>&nbsp;</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:9.6pt;
mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span style='font-size:10.0pt'> Also the lines Satyavan addresses to
Savitri:</span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:
9.6pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>&quot;What high
change is in thee, 0 Savitri? Bright</span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:
9.6pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Ever thou wast, a
goddess still and pure,</span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:
9.6pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Yet dearer to me by
thy sweet human parts</span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:
9.6pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Earth gave thee
making thee yet more divine.&quot;</span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:130.5pt;text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:
9.6pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Sri Aurobindo, <i>Savitri,
</i>Book XII – Epilogue</span>
</p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:
9.6pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span style='font-size:10.0pt;'>Page – 19</span></p>
		<hr>
		<p align="right"><a href="-01-contents"><img src="_Gif%20Image/Home.gif" width="58" height="36" border="0"></a></td>
	</tr>
</table>

</body>

</html>