Consciousness and health
Transforming the Asuras within us
Abstract
The article is an exploration, recounting the story of Creation narrated by the Mother as its base. It looks at the dark forces, the Asuras that manifested as a result of the conversion of the four Powers manifested by the Divine Mother, Aditi in the process of the creation of the Universe. The Asuras are present within us, and it is the yoga that each one of us must attempt if ready, to show all these four powers their true light, their true Origin and their true face so that the seeming dualities merge in their supernal essence.
The ‘Story of the Creation,’ as described by the Mother goes something like this. In the beginning, there was the Supreme (Purussa), and to experience himself he manifested Śakti, Aditi (or Prakṛti or Life-Force) or the Divine Mother, out of himself. The Divine Mother then manifested, out of herself, four powers — Consciousness, Bliss, Truth and Life. She asked these four powers to manifest the creation. When these powers went out to create the manifestation, they became independent of their Origin, of the Mother/the Supreme. In that ignorance and in cutting themselves off from their Origin, they turned into their opposites — in the sense:
• Consciousness became unconsciousness
• Bliss became suffering
• Truth became untruth or falsehood
and Life became death.
This was the first creation. And it is said that to undo the mistake of the first creation, the Mother/the Supreme then manifested Herself/Himself in the creation directly, through the building of a hierarchical creation, one with the rungs of a ladder of consciousness (Supermind-Overmind-Illumined mind-Higher mind-Mind-Life-Matter) connecting the Supreme and travelling down below to the Inconscient.
Now, that was just touching upon the story, because inside the darkness of our existence, full of suffering, death being inevitable, full of falsehood, and unconscious lives — there is still a seed of the Supreme, of the Mother within. Because darkness is not our origin, suffering is not our origin, evil or falsehood is not our origin, death is not our origin. Our origin is the Supreme/the Mother.
And that is why most of us have this wish to protect ourselves, not to die. Why?
Because somewhere in the depths of our being we have this seed of immortality, that we are coming from the Light, Love, Bliss, Ānanda, Immortality. Although when we manifest this deeper knowing at an outer surface, it is distorted and we just want to protect ourselves, not even knowing why!
This ability of the human Spirit to go through the darkest phases in life, yet, have a want, a willingness to live, is coming directly from the Origins — the Supreme.
That is why this yearning (in Hindi: Birha) has been given a very huge importance in human life. Baba Farid has written, “BirhaTu Sultan” (“Yearning you are the king.”) It is only through this yearning that union can happen. Where there is no yearning, how will the union ever happen?
This yearning or wanting to unite, wanting to know ourselves deeply, asking questions, a longing to deeply understand the nature of things and their origins and their functions, and their purpose of existence, is the way through which we move towards uniting with the Light that we are. Without this yearning, without this want in us to seek Light, we are only as good as any other creature on this planet.
As the soul evolves from stone, to plant, to animal life, to human life, it is only progressing to have union back with the Divine, with the Supreme, with the Mother. That is the purpose of human existence. Not to get stuck in our dead routines, our dead schedules but to bring them to life, light and divinity. the sole purpose of our being human is to reunite with the spark of the Divine present within us, the spark that gives us a yearning towards Light. It tells us in feeble hints, that yes, you can do it, yes, I am here, yes, sooner or later, you will be able to concretely find me and unite with me. That is why we must never give up this seeking towards Light, Peace and Joy. That is our true nature, our Divine nature. It is our birthright. To give up this seeking, this longing to want to transform life towards perfection, to give up and succumb to darkness, and suffering and falsehood, is not our nature. Giving up is not our nature, that is why we never feel good about giving up.
Suffering, falsehood, death and unconsciousness are nothing but appearances and facades. They are just a veil put in front of the Divine. No one can be joyful while suffering, while being with falsehood, while living in unconsciousness. Why? Because they are not our nature. Our nature is exactly what The Supreme’s nature is: Bliss, Joy, Light, Peace, Immortality. We must never compromise in seeking and living who we truly are. Never.
We must keep the want in us alive, because that is a portion of the Divine in us that we are holding on to.
We must keep the yearning in us alive, as that is the portion of the Divine that will guide us towards ultimate union.
We must not stop listening to the very faint voice within us, which says, “Yes, you are worth it.”
There is no time to waste. We must give ourselves back to the Divine spark within and create a life divine.
Finding the Asuras within and turning them to the Divine
So the four Asuras or anti-divine powers came into existence, after being separated from their Origin, the Divine/ the Supreme:
• Consciousness became the Asura of Unconsciousness
• Bliss became the Asura of Suffering
• Truth became the Asura of Falsehood
• and Life became the Asura of Death.
Now, this story is happening at many levels at the same time. We will be focusing on the level most practically important to our own life. For if I am unable to see the four Asuras in me, then this story is not utilisable by me at all, in my journey towards the Divine Origin. So, we need a willingness to look at our lives with sincerity. We need to look with the same attention and the same mind that we use to govern our regular lives. Just let us begin to look at our own life, in the wake of these four Asuric powers:
• Do I see Unconsciousness in my life?
• Do I see Suffering in my life?
• Do I see Falsehood in my life?
• Do I see Death in my life?
If I go closer I will see I am run by unconscious thought-patterns and behavioural-patterns. I don’t even know why I react in the way I do, to a particular situation. I have no clue. Most part of my life, I don’t even care to give it attention! Why am I reacting in this and this way in that particular situation? Who is forcing me? What is this force that makes me do things, which I later don’t like? Do I have any control over it? Or am I just a dumb puppet of the tendencies of the past? Or is there a greater destiny awaiting me?
So the number one task is to become conscious of my own movements within, so that I can transform the Asura of unconsciousness to the Divine Light, towards its own origin, which is Consciousness.
Second, do I see Suffering in my life? Why is it there? Why am I so used or habituated to suffering? Why don’t I say ‘No’ to it? What in me creates suffering in the very first place? Is suffering my only destiny? If it was my true nature, I must feel comfortable with suffering; but I don’t! There must be a higher destiny that awaits me! Now, this suffering has to find its divine Origin too. Suffering has to turn completely to the Divine within. Only then we get learning out of the suffering and turn to the Divine through the suffering, so that suffering then becomes unnecessary. The only purpose of suffering was to show me, ‘This is not your true nature, the life that you are living.’ Once I use suffering to turn myself to the Divine, the need for suffering disappears as I have now realised my Origin, in the Divine.
Third, Falsehood. Can I locate falsehood in my own life? Because if I cannot, then this story of Creation will do me no good, and will just become a burden of knowledge in the head. So, I must locate the falsehood in my own life. Where are the places, situations, interactions with people, where I become a friend of falsehood and fuel it further, and collaborate with it? Where do I follow my desires and expectations, demands and hidden agendas from life? Because there, in all those instances, I perpetuate my own manipulations, my own agendas, thus perpetuating falsehood. I am the Asura of Falsehood in those cases.
And now, this Falsehood has to look at itself (an ability human beings are beautifully equipped with, the ability to look at their own movements, and hence the power to transform them) and by looking at itself, it has to turn towards its Divine Origin, that is Truth. I have to vow to myself, to live by my inner truth, and not to compromise at all with that. And there, I merge back into the Divine Origin or Truth. I have shown the Falsehood Light and thereby transformed it.
This attention towards my movements must be a loving attention. This is because only Love has the power to transform. Only Love towards my own self, that yes, I deserve a much better destiny than this, makes us drive towards light, beauty and truth.
Fourth, Death. Can I locate a total belief in me towards Death? Can I see within myself, that I have sold myself to the idea of death completely, owing to what we see all around? Death became necessary only because evolution has to go on. If I turn solely to the Divine in all my movements (which is a time-consuming process; it takes a lot of effort, sincerity and an unending perseverance), then I will be able to remove this belief, deeply ingrained within my thoughts, and even in the cells of my body, that death is a fact. I have to inject faith and Divine Love into my cells, the memory of which they have lost. The cells have forgotten their Divine origin and hence have bought into the normal belief of Death.
So friends, let us dedicate ourselves to turn all the darkness within us to Light, to turn death within us to Life, to turn falsehood to Truth, and to turn all the unconsciousness within to Consciousness.
We all have a long way to go.
But let’s be grateful for the path that lies ahead and The Mother is right here, within us, to guide and to offer Her full support in our aspiration towards Her.
Reference
1. The Mother. The Collected Works of The Mother, Volume 5.cent ed. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust; 1976, pp. 371-73.
Monica Gulati, a learner and a seeker and an immunologist by education, is based in Gurgaon, India. She shares her experiences on going through cancer with faith at https://thegiftofcancer.wordpress.com
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