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<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center; line-height:150%;margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"><b>
<font size="4">The Novel Alchemy</font></b></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>ACCORDING to the Bible,
God said, &quot;Let there be Creation&quot;, and the Creation came. God was
pleased, not only because the Creation came but also because the Creation was
all-perfect, with nothing to change: it was like an edifice firm and solid and
flawless, it would endure eternally firm and unchanging, fixed in every detail
and exactly as it was on the first day.</p>

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150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The
Rishis of the Upanishads give us a slightly different version. God was not at
all pleased with the first sketch and with the forms of animalkind created. He
tried a second time, and again it failed to please. After several essays of
this nature, He was at last pleased with His work when man came into being. Now
it was truly well done, <i>sukrtam etat.<o:p></o:p></i></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>In
fact, Creation is a continuous process, a progressive movement. The earth is
moving forward every <span class=GramE>moment,</span> it is assuming constantly
an ever-new garb. This story of evolution has been one of the supreme
discoveries of modern man in the field of knowledge. It has opened the door to
many hidden mysteries, provided a solution to a number of problems.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The
deepest of all mysteries, the most complex and recondite of all problems of
Creation is the origin and prevalence of suffering. Man's first and persistent
query has been prompted by this; he has been subjected to the attacks of the
three kinds of suffering, hence he wants to know, <span class=SpellE><i>duhkha-trayabhighatat</i></span><i>
Jijñasa.<o:p></o:p></i></p>

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150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The
question is: if there is God, if He is all-merciful, if the<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 285<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Power or Being in charge of
the created universe is a benign and not a malign Power, <span class=SpellE>s<i>iva</i></span><i>
</i>and not <span class=SpellE><span style='mso-bidi-font-style:italic'><i>asiva</i></span><i>,
</i>then why is our earth afflicted with disease and suffering and sorrow and
pain? Why are mortals in fear of the death that overhangs all? Not God but
Satan then is the creator and supreme controller?</span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>A
well-known modern western thinker and sage <span class=GramE>has</span> propounded
a novel theory of his own on this problem. He too has suggested that the world
is not something that is static with all things fixed and settled for good. The
world is in movement, and the movement is ever forward, towards a higher
consciousness that progressively unfolds its riches. As first results of this
urge towards the heights&quot; there have appeared all sorts of cracks and
rifts, acute pulls and strains; these are translated into sorrow and suffering,
deprivation and death. The earth or human society is not like a well trimmed
garden, all has not been selected and arranged and put in its proper place
according to a pattern and given a permanent shape. <span style='mso-bidi-font-weight:
bold'>It<b> </b></span>is on the contrary like a wild bush with its innumerable
shrubs and trees which have been continuously growing. So many of the dead
leaves and branches have been shed, so many flowers have dried up. But new
twigs are constantly forming on top and radiating their beauty of green leaves
and flowers in bloom. Sorrow and suffering, pain and misery are like those
dried-up and discarded flowers and leaves and twigs. These are concomitant
results of the original total movement, perhaps even an inevitable necessity.
But even from the individual's point of view this seeming waste and destruction
is no sign of any futility, for through each individual there has been flowing
that upward stream of consciousness, each individual has within himself an
impulse and an endeavour to move along that stream and as an aid to it, no
matter what outer form it might take. Or else the thing may be compared to the
work of soldiers in a war. The common aim of war is victory. Every soldier has
an equal self-devotion, &quot;energy and steadfastness<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 286<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span class=GramE>to</span>
secure this victory. Nevertheless, all do not survive till the end, many have
to give up their lives, and on this immolation of the many is founded the
ultimate victory. So, in the evolution of man on earth, the first step is
represented by sorrow and suffering, misery and pain; these are the signs and
symbols of the upward urge. Those who put up with suffering and sorrow, misery
and pain, to the extent these can be <span class=GramE>borne,</span> do not do
so wholly under a sense of unwilling submission. The inner core of this
suffering is a keen desire and urge and capacity to act as an instrument and
support of the upward urge. Even from the point of view of the individual what 
appears in a sense a simple negation is in truth a thing of deep- import. 
Teilhard de Chard in has thus seen a spiritual meaning in the Christian's 
bearing of the cross; the cross-brings in the end a realisation of eternal life. </p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Sri
Aurobindo too has given us a full theory and history of suffering. In one
place, however, he has said this about earthly suffering and sin: those who are
the worst sinners, the thieves and murderers too are deserving of our salute,
for the reason that they are the ones who have drawn upon themselves the load
of sin, it is these unfortunate ones who have swallowed up most of the poison
that has come out of the churning of the ocean of life.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>These
words of Sri Aurobindo seem to lend support to the view of the Western thinker.
Both echo an almost identical feeling. But what Sri Aurobindo says here is only
a fraction of all he has to say on the subject, it is not his final word,
whereas in the view of the Western sage, sorrow and suffering, misery and pain
appear as ultimate truths at least for the individual, and for the ordinary
life of the common multitude; this manner of complete self-immolation of the
individual serves a collective end, like the self-sacrifice of an army or a
multitude of soldiers in a war. But in Sri Aurobindo's view, even for the
individual, for any individual, this consummation in self-sacrifice is not the
final end; for the individual too this is merely an episode in one or more<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 287<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span class=GramE>of</span>
his lives. Through this self-sacrifice, every individual goes on developing himself
along with the development of the collectivity, and this is done not by losing
or abolishing oneself. No one is rejected or lost, like the dried-up leaves or
flowers. For the individual too there are levels of progression. There is not
merely one class of fortunate people who pass into the highest realisation as
suggested by the Christian thinker and have won a seat alongside of God in a
heavenly consciousness. All are coming up gradually in their footsteps and will
participate in an identical realisation. It cannot be regarded as ordained of
God that the upward movement .and supreme attainment of one small section
should be founded involuntarily or however willingly on the self-immolation of
another bigger group. If evolution has to proceed through the rejection and
sacrifice of the many, then does it not imply in the end the survival of the
few? Whatever the size or the integrality of those few, it still remains only a
portion of the whole.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>It
is true that sorrow and suffering, old age and death are facts of an earlier
part, that is to say, the first stage of the evolutionary process. When in the
beginning of things darkness was enveloped in darkness, <i>tamo <span
class=SpellE>asit</span> <span class=SpellE>tamasa</span> <span
class=SpellE>gudham</span> agre, </i>when all was <span class=GramE>inconscient
ocean</span>, <i>apraketam salilam, </i>when the dense unconsciousness of
matter ruled at the beginning of creation, the first stirrings of the
life-force that burst through this solid darkness took form as a pressure of
deep and acute pain. It is this forceful impact of pain that shakes and breaks
the dark foundations. It is through the many forms of suffering that
inconscience and ignorance gradually become consciousness and knowledge.
Finally, in man there awakens the spiritual urge under the blows of suffering,
and it is in the transformation of suffering that the spiritual consciousness
finds its growth. Not merely to escape from suffering but to transform it is
the real problem and the greater achievement. What the poet calls &quot;an
escape from suffering in the midst of suffering&quot; is the self-satisfaction
of the martyr<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 288<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span class=GramE>and</span>
patriot and soldier in annihilating self. This may be described as the way of
the heroic seeker, <i>vira-bhava, </i>but of a different nature is
the work of the more godly seeker, <i>devabhava. </i>The latter no doubt
has to pass through suffering, but he does not lose himself there, nor does he
find his sole satisfaction in ending it. He crosses beyond suffering to another
shore, through a tunnel as it were, and emerges into <span class=GramE>a
laughter</span> of light, a satisfaction of delight. The final end or significance
lies not in the suffering itself nor even in the virtues of courage, ability,
aspiration and steadfastness which are gained through or at the cost of
suffering. Suffering is in reality a form of delight, although a distorted <span
class=GramE>form</span> of delight. A delight which is so keen as to become
unbearable appears in the form 'of suffering. Again, enter into the inner unfathomable
core of suffering and you will see and feel that it is not suffering but
delight, the supreme form of delight, just as on piercing through the veil of
the cosmic illusion one finds standing behind only the sole eternal <i>Brahman.
</i>Death too is not the annihilation of the individual, not an end, but a
change of-form and outward appearance. This change has been an inescapable
necessity for further progress. At the final end, suffering ceases to exist, it
too is transformed into delight. Death too ceases to be, it too finds its
death; what remains is only immortality, an immortal life.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Chardin
has been speaking of the gradual unfolding and realisation of a spiritual
consciousness. It is a constant one-pointed upward movement, the being and
consciousness of earth gradually moving higher and higher as a collective
entity through a new creation that is growing more and more pure and integral. In
this way this consciousness has been overpassing the limits of earth and the
material universe and moves into a different kind of world, creates or becomes
a different kind of world. It is as if a ball of fire throwing its tongues of
flame as it breaks through the barrier of matter and soars up on high, and the
more it grows immense and clear and attains its true form, the more it burns
gradually<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 289<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span class=GramE>to</span>
ashes with its massive concentration of heat whatever remains of the old
creation. It seems that in the view of Chardin, the manifestation and
establishment of an integral spirituality will one day set aflame the whole
earth and the material body with its physical base. It is as if another world,
but once it manifests here in full, its fiery energies will turn the old earth
to ashes, perhaps reduce it to its primordial form. A school of scientists too
hold the view that at the beginning of creation there was an infinite expanse
of ether charged with intensely hot particles. The universe had neither
cohesion nor a settled form, it was a gaseous nebula. And in its final end too
it will have to go back to that formless state. The material world is simply a
mould for the spirit. This mould or basis will be gradually rent asunder and
broken and scattered before the reign of spirit manifests and establishes
itself. Will it then be somewhat like the eruption of a volcano? The upward
urge and movement of evolution is as if a volcanic peak slowly raising its
head; as it grows in energy and heat within, the peak gets detached and is
thrown into a liquid flood of lava which proclaims its flaming glory by
sweeping aside and drowning and destroying all else; Will the old give place
to the new and the unmanifest along these lines?</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>What
is this world that is to be the fruit of the new spiritual realisation? Where
will it be? It would appear to be a supraphysical and transcendent realisation.
Chardin has clearly suggested that the new earth will not be anything like a
planet renovated into a &quot;sidereal&quot; body illumined by its own light
and not that of another. It will not be a thing of the gross material world at
all. It would rather come into being as if by rending through the old earth and
destroying it, almost as a result of a universal catastrophe, <i>pralaya. </i>Would
it then be something<span style="background-color: #FFFFFF"> non</span>-material? If it were to be made up of pure
consciousness, then it might be termed the realisation of <i>Brahman, </i>the 
Brahmic status. Is then evolution of the manifested universe moving towards this 
final des<span class=SpellE><span
class=GramE>truction</span> or dissolution? </span></p>

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<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 290<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<span class=SpellE>Or else is the new world to
be conceived as something belonging to the supra-physical? But the
supra-physical world too has its planes, and this new world may be the field of
a spiritual realisation somewhere among these planes beyond life, mind and the
above-mind. The Vedantins speak of the world of <span class=GramE>Brahman,</span>
they aim at realising the grand status of <i>Brahman, brahma-loke
mahiyate. </i>But theirs is. <span class=GramE>something</span> outside
the created universe, beyond manifestation. The Vaishnavas have spoken of a
highest spiritual world, <i>go-taka, </i>which is within the manifestation. The
Christians too speak of their Heaven. We also hear of the world of Shiva, the
world of Vishnu; these too are not entirely outside the manifestation or
created universe. Does then Chardin aim at something overmental, utterly beyond
and above the mind?</span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>In
the vision of Sri Aurobindo, the process of creation is not merely an ascent
and upward <span class=GramE>movement,</span> it has a movement of descent too.
There is not merely a crossing of levels upon levels, not merely a progressive
purification, enlargement, deepening, intensification and sharpening of the
consciousness and status; the aim is to transfigure all in the image of the
divine being. This process involves a going upward and a, descent with a view
to reshape the lower reaches anew in the mould of the heights, not a final
extinction, <i>nirvana, </i>in the world of <i>Brahman </i>by a rejection
of all individuality and collectivity. No level of the created universe has to
be bypassed or abolished, not even the lowest material plane. On the contrary,
the aim is to take one's stand on this material plane itself and transmute it
into a new matter, even as the secret aim of the old alchemists had been to transmute
the base metal into gold.</p>

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150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>And
we know how, thanks to modern science, gross solid matter now appears before
our eyes in its true form of electricity and light; but it remains matter all
the same in spite of its possessing the properties of light and electricity. <span
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>If<b> </b></span>we will probe a little
deeper into its secrets, matter acquires<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 291<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span class=GramE>the</span>
attributes of consciousness, but even then it may still remain matter.
Materiality need not abolish itself in order to become consciousness. The
spiritual world too need not transcend matter; the establishment of the spirit
will not mean the extinction of the material world in a final dissolution.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>This
twofold movement, this dual line of ascent and descent, carries forward the
entire creation, including in it man on earth as a collectivity as well as all
the parts of creation, through an integrated harmony, not through any
inescapable and huge conflict and destruction and dissolution.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>As
the Vedic Rishis would say, Agni the Mystic Fire aspires to the heights, its
flames continue to rise upwards. It purifies and brightens and adds keenness
and strength to the consciousness and bears it upward through level after
higher level until it reaches a proximity to and <span class=GramE>even</span>
an identity with the Supreme, in the very home of the gods. But Agni has an
assistant and counterpart in Parjanya, the Rain-God. The work of this godhead
is to help in the descent, the bringing down of the waters of heaven, as in a
downpour of rain. To establish here on this earth what has risen to the heights
and exists <span class=GramE>there,</span> is the supreme and integral
achievement.</p>

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150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The
spiritualised body of man will not be simply a spiritual consciousness. It
will be all-conscious no doubt, and yet its substance will still be matter. To
prepare this new earth-matter will be the novel alchemy of the new age.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 292<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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