<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
	<META HTTP-EQUIV="CONTENT-TYPE" CONTENT="text/html; charset=utf-8">
	<TITLE></TITLE>
	<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Namo WebEditor v4.0">
	<META NAME="CREATED" CONTENT="20040108;2124200">
	<META NAME="CHANGED" CONTENT="20040217;21541500">
</HEAD>
<BODY LANG="en">
<div align="center">
	<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
		<tr>
			<td>
<p align="center" style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><b>
<font size="4">Values Higher and Lower</font></b></p>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">
<BR>
</P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=CENTER style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">
1</P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><FONT SIZE=3>THE problem in the final analysis is as ancient as man's
first utterance. Which comes first, which is more important –
Spirit or Matter, Body or Soul? Naturally, there have been always two
answers, according to one's outlook. Some have declared Annam comes
first, Annam is of primary importance, Annam is to be increased,
Annam is to be worshipped: or again, earth is the firm status, be
founded upon earth – <FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">ś</FONT><I><FONT FACE="Arial Narrow, sans-serif">ar<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">ī</FONT>ram
</FONT><FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT>dyam. </I>On the other hand,
it has also been declared that the Spirit comes first, the Spirit is
the true foundation, the roots of creation are up there, not here
below: if that is known, then only all this is known; it is by that
Light all that shines here shines. And if I miss that, what is the
use of all this world of things?</FONT></P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=JUSTIFY STYLE="text-indent:0.34cm; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<FONT SIZE=3>In fact, however, the reality is a polarised entity: and
both ends are equally necessary, for each is involved in the other.
It is an unreal distinction, due to mind's prejudice and preference,
that says one is first and the other next or last, one is more
important and the other less. The true truth is that Spirit and
Matter are one: for Matter is Spirit involved and Spirit is Matter
evolved. The position can be stated in this form also: without
Spirit, Matter does not exist; without Matter, Spirit does not
manifest.</FONT></P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=JUSTIFY STYLE="text-indent:0.32cm; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<FONT SIZE=3>The balance is upset exactly when we say that the higher
<I>depends</I> <I>on </I>the lower or that it comes after. Not only
so, the statement is likely to involve an error, a mistaken view. If<B>
</B>one has to make a distinction between higher and lower, inner and
outer, it will be nearer the truth and fact to say that the lower
depends on the higher, it is the inner reality </FONT>
<BR>
</P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=CENTER STYLE="border-bottom:1px solid black; text-indent:0.32cm; padding-top:0cm; padding-right:0cm; padding-bottom:0.07cm; padding-left:0cm; border-top-style:none; border-right-style:none; border-left-style:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<FONT SIZE=3>Page – 257</FONT><BR>
			</P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=JUSTIFY style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">
<FONT SIZE=3>that upholds and inspires the outer form: without this
inner cohesive deity all the external frame would fall to pieces. It
is not the contingencies of time and circumstances, <FONT FACE="Arial Narrow, sans-serif">of
</FONT>day-to-day existence that determine the nature and form <FONT FACE="Arial Narrow, sans-serif">of
</FONT>power of the soul and spirit. It is the pressure of the Inner
Being, <I>antary<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT>m<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">ī</FONT>,
</I>that brings about the pattern and organisation of the outer life.
At the summit of being, at the absolute point of consciousness the
two are identical, absolutely one and the same. In the lower ranges
as manifestation and variation begin the two maintain their union and
harmony and mutuality so long as the consciousness retains its purity
and the being is not invaded. by Ignorance. Ignorance means the
gradual predominance of the outer and the lower, till it reaches its
last point in Inconscience where Matter is the only reality and
everything is made to stand and depend on the grossest reality.</FONT></P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=JUSTIFY STYLE="text-indent:0.43cm; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<FONT SIZE=3>Even then, even from that nadir, let us consider things
a little more closely. We have still consciousness left in us as
human beings. Now, because 'man has a body and because he has to live
and move in physical surroundings and circumstances, therefore body
and physical conditions must necessarily come to his consciousness
first in importance – this is not a valid argument nor a statement
of fact. For man has and is something else besides: and this
something else, in other words, the spiritual being, is quite a free
and independent entity and can act as it wills ignoring and ignorant
of the body and its circumstances. Whether one is poor or rich,
successful or frustrated, happy or unhappy, one can always listen and
follow the call of the Spirit.</FONT></P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=JUSTIFY STYLE="text-indent:0.41cm; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<FONT SIZE=3>It may be that for most men the physical life <FONT FACE="Arial Narrow, sans-serif">is
of </FONT>first and primary importance and they look upon the
spiritual life, 'if ever they do, as a secondary pursuit; even as
children consider food and play as the one thing needful, study or
mental exercise quite a secondary or tertiary affair occupying a
small side corner. This is because the taste for the higher life
belongs to a more developed consciousness, not because it is
something really dependent and derivative. Indeed, we do in fact see
people – individually or collectively (like the early Christians,
for example) – suddenly becoming conscious of the burning reality
of the Spirit, in the midst of and in</FONT><BR>
			</P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=CENTER STYLE="border-bottom:1px solid black; text-indent:0.41cm; padding-top:0cm; padding-right:0cm; padding-bottom:0.07cm; padding-left:0cm; border-top-style:none; border-right-style:none; border-left-style:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<FONT SIZE=3>Page – 248</FONT><BR>
			</P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=JUSTIFY style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">
<FONT SIZE=3>spite of the most adverse and all-engrossing outer
physical conditions, and follow it caring nothing. So the Christ
directs: Follow Me, let the dead bury their dead; and the Indian
Shastra enjoins: <I>Yadahareva virajet tadahareva pravrajet – the
</I>day you feel unattached, that very day go out of the world and
<FONT FACE="Arial Narrow, sans-serif">away.</FONT></FONT></P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=JUSTIFY STYLE="text-indent:0.32cm; margin-right:0.03cm; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<FONT SIZE=3>To the spiritual seeker the higher values are the first
things that come first: to the ordinary man it is otherwise, lower
values come first and claim topmost priority. To the experience of
the spiritual seeker one should give greater value, for he has the
experience of both the values, while the ordinary man knows only of
one variety. Naturally, as we have said, there is synthesis, a fusion
of the two values; but that is elsewhere for the present, not
actually here and now.</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY STYLE="text-indent:0.32cm; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<BR>
</P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=CENTER STYLE="text-indent:0.3cm; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<FONT SIZE=3><B>2</B></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY STYLE="text-indent:0.3cm; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<BR>
</P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=JUSTIFY STYLE="text-indent:0.3cm; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<FONT SIZE=3>It is again a point of view to say that things are
fundamentally values only, as &quot;philosophers of value&quot; seem
to declare today. It would be equally true to say that masses are
fundamentally energies or that particles are merely waves. The truth
of the matter, here as elsewhere, is <I>global – ubhayameva, </I>in
the famous phrase of the great Rishi Yajnavalkya. In other words,
values and things are aspects, polarisations of one single reality.
Things have values; things are values: things are also things. .</FONT></P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=JUSTIFY STYLE="text-indent:0.32cm; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<FONT SIZE=3>Value refers to the particular poise or status, the mode
of being or function of a thing. In its ultimate formulation we can
say it is the rhythm or force of consciousness that vibrates in an
object, it is the <I><FONT FACE="Arial Narrow, sans-serif">becoming
</FONT></I>of the <I>being: </I>but becoming does not cancel being,
it only activises, energises, formulates. The debate brings us back
to the ancient quarrel between the Buddhists and the Vedantists, the
latter posits <I>sat, </I>being or existence, while the former
considers <I>sat </I>as only an assemblage of <I>asat. </I>The object
and its function, the thing-in-itself and its attribute (the fire and
its burning power, as the Indian logicians used to cite familiarly as
an example) are not to be separated – they are not separated in
fact but given together as one unified entity; it is the logical mind
that separates them artificially.</FONT><BR>
			</P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=CENTER STYLE="border-bottom:1px solid black; text-indent:0.32cm; padding-top:0cm; padding-right:0cm; padding-bottom:0.07cm; padding-left:0cm; border-top-style:none; border-right-style:none; border-left-style:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<FONT SIZE=3>Page – 259</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="center" STYLE="text-indent:0.32cm; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">

<FONT SIZE=3><B>3</B></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><BR>
</P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=JUSTIFY STYLE="text-indent:0.4cm; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<FONT SIZE=3>That man is not the term of evolution, that intellect is
not the supreme expression of human capacity, that this mortal being
shall acquire new faculties and powers and become a higher species
with a good deal of his present limitations removed are some of the
views regarding human destiny held today. At one end are religious
and devout people or those who follow a faith and spiritual
discipline and at the other end are hard-headed scientific people who
go by the evidence of downright facts and figures. There are a
considerable number among both the groups and also among all the
gradations lying in-between who subscribe, although in various ways,
to this <I>television </I>we speak of. Catholics who believe in the
coming of the Messiah and physicists who believe in re-creation of
Matter and Energy, not merely its disintegration, have been equally
enthusiastic in upholding this New Faith. There is Berdyaev who is a
Christian, there is Gerald Heard who is called a Neo&shy;Brahmin and
there is Lecomte du No<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">&uuml;</FONT>y, the
eminent French biophysicist.</FONT></P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=JUSTIFY STYLE="text-indent:0.41cm; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<FONT SIZE=3>We see the movement accepted and advanced (if not even
initiated) more in the West than in the East. That the world is a
progressive and progressing phenomenon comes easily and naturally to
the European mind. The East has been habituated to a static view of
things: if there is dynamism, it is mostly considered as a movement
in a circle. The spiritual East with its obsessing experience of the
Infinite and Eternal and Permanent, the Transcendent, found it
unnecessary to attach that importance to the impermanent and finite
which would give it a meaning and purpose and direction. Therefore we
see in India those who advocate this new view are considered
Europeanised and not following the authentic spiritual tradition of
India.</FONT></P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=JUSTIFY STYLE="text-indent:0.41cm; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<FONT SIZE=3>We, of course, are not of the opinion that all possible
revelations in the spiritual sphere have been made and done with even
in India or that there cannot be fresh valuations of the old
revelations or their applications in a new way. We believe in the
words of the ancient Rishis who declared that dawns come endlessly in
succession, today's dawn follows the path trod by the ancient ones
and is the first of the eternal series to</FONT><BR>
			</P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=CENTER STYLE="border-bottom:1px solid black; text-indent:0.41cm; padding-top:0cm; padding-right:0cm; padding-bottom:0.07cm; padding-left:0cm; border-top-style:none; border-right-style:none; border-left-style:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<FONT SIZE=3>Page – 260</FONT><BR>
			</P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=JUSTIFY style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">
<FONT SIZE=3>come in the future. Each dawn brings in a new and fresh
revelation, a hope and vision looking into the future although linked
in with the experiences of the infinite past.</FONT></P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=JUSTIFY STYLE="text-indent:0.3cm; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<FONT SIZE=3>That is why, while we give our support to this new
effort of Europe, we agree and even insist that the hoary spiritual
tradition of India has still something to teach us moderns, some
light to give us in our present predicament. For, although, the ideal
is generally admitted in many places, the way to it is not clear.
Since Nietzsche spoke of the surpassing of man, many are taken up
with the ideal, but the means to effect it remains yet to be
discovered: it is still under discussion, at least. As a matter of
fact, the goal itself is none too clear and definite: sometimes we
think of a saintly transformation of</FONT></P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=JUSTIFY style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">
<FONT SIZE=3>human nature, sometimes the growing power of Intuition,
very vaguely and variously defined, replacing or supplementing
intellect and thus adding a new asset to man's life and
consciousness.</FONT></P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=JUSTIFY STYLE="text-indent:0.34cm; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<FONT SIZE=3>The crucial problem however lies, in a sense, in the way
that the goal is to be reached, in the <I>modus operandi. </I>How is
the higher status, whatever it is, to be brought down, made
effective, be established here on earth and in life. Ideals there
have been always and many; evidently we do not know how to go about
the business and actualise what is thought and dreamed. About the new
ideal too, suggestions have been made with regard to the path to be
followed to reach it and are being tried and tested. Some say a life
of inner or ethical discipline, conscious effort on the part of each
Individual for his own sake is needed: the higher reality must be
reached first by a few individuals, it cannot be attained by 'mass
action. Others declare that personal effort will not lead very far;
if there is to be a great or fundamental change in human nature, it
is the Divine Grace alone that can bring it about. The surpassing of
man is a miracle and only the supreme magician as an Avatara can do
it. Others, again, are not prone to believe in a physical Incarnation
– somewhat difficult usually for a European mind – but would
accept subtler forces or even superior beings, other than the human
category, as aids and agents in the working out of the great future.</FONT></P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=LEFT STYLE="text-indent:0.32cm; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<FONT SIZE=3>It 'is India's great achievement and speciality that she
has found the way – the way to all truly high fulfilment. It is
Yoga</FONT><BR>
			</P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=CENTER STYLE="border-bottom:1px solid black; text-indent:0.32cm; padding-top:0cm; padding-right:0cm; padding-bottom:0.07cm; padding-left:0cm; border-top-style:none; border-right-style:none; border-left-style:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<FONT SIZE=3>Page – 261</FONT><BR>
			</P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=JUSTIFY style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">
<FONT SIZE=3>and the Yogic consciousness. Yoga is the science and art
of discovering the higher truths, indeed, the highest reality and of
living there, not a midway moral elevation only. In its integral view
it combines all the three processes mentioned above. The Yogic
consciousness seeks to lift the consciousness as high as possible, in
fact, to the very highest – it literally means union or identity
(with the highest Reality, Spirit or God). Thus it has the true
perception or vision of the forces that act in and upon the world and
the powers that decide and is in union with them. The Yogic
consciousness and power is also embodied in the Divine Incarnation –
for he is Yogeshwara: and in India it is accepted as a commonplace
that God descends in a human shape, whenever there is a great crisis
and man needs salvaging and salvation. God comes then with all his
angels, with the divine host to battle for him and with him to
establish the Dharma.</FONT></P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=JUSTIFY STYLE="text-indent:0.42cm; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<FONT SIZE=3>Sri Aurobindo's stand in this field is very definite and
clear. The goal or end is clear, and with it the way too. What he
envisages is the transformation of Matter and material life, that is
to say, neither rejecting it as an impossible thing nor trying to
gloss it over with a coat of mental luminosity, but delving into it
and cleaning and purifying it, removing its mire and dross wholly and
absolutely so that its true divine nature comes out and remains as
Nature's highest and fullest expression on earth. That is the goal:
the way_too is not less characteristic. The total spiritual
transformation, the divinisation of Matter is possible, not only
possible but inevitable, because it is :Matter that wants it, because
Matter in its essence, in its true reality is spiritual energy, is
the Spirit itself. That is the great secret Sri Aurobindo has brought
to light. The ideals in the past for the reclamation of human nature
and reformation of human society were tackled with mental and moral
powers which were not adequate to the task. Even when the spiritual
power was invoked, it was of the static category which is above,
aloof, witness and can have at best a kindly look and influence. That
the spirit dynamic is involved in Matter and as Matter is a truth
that has to be discovered.</FONT></P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=JUSTIFY STYLE="text-indent:0.39cm; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<FONT SIZE=3>The supreme creative power of the Spirit –
Truth-Consciousness – Sri Aurobindo calls the Superrnind. This
power is not only up there above, but it is here below and within</FONT><BR>
			</P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=CENTER STYLE="border-bottom:1px solid black; text-indent:0.39cm; padding-top:0cm; padding-right:0cm; padding-bottom:0.07cm; padding-left:0cm; border-top-style:none; border-right-style:none; border-left-style:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<FONT SIZE=3>Page – 262</FONT><BR>
			</P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=JUSTIFY style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">
<FONT SIZE=3>Matter. It is a power of Matter itself, its most secret
power. Truth-Consciousness or Supermind congealed, solidified or
crystallised under certain conditions becomes Matter: now to
re-become its own true self and nature is the very drive of Matter,
that is the true sense of evolution. The very nature of Matter makes
its transformation absolutely inevitable. It obeys no alien force or
rule, its achievement means self-fulfilment and therefore it is
something destined and, when done, permanent and perfect.</FONT><BR>
			</P>
<P LANG="en-US" ALIGN=CENTER STYLE="border-bottom:1px solid black; padding-top:0cm; padding-right:0cm; padding-bottom:0.07cm; padding-left:0cm; border-top-style:none; border-right-style:none; border-left-style:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<FONT SIZE=3>Page – 263</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="right" style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">
<a title="Home" href="-00_-Content"><img src="/Nolini/Volume-1/_Gif_Image/house01_green.gif" width="28" height="23" border="0" alt="house06_white.gif"></a></P>
<div align="right"> 
	<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> </div>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</table>
</div>
</BODY>
</HTML>