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Level 1:
THIS IS THE LEVEL THAT MANIFESTS WHEN THE PHYSICAL CONSCIOUSNESS
(REPRESENTING THE MATTER-PRINCIPLE) IS PERMEATED BY THE LIFE-ENERGY
(OR VITAL) TO FORM THE BASIS OF OUR BODILY LIFE. IT IS IN THIS PLANE
PERMEATED BY THE NEURAL NETWORK THAT PAIN MAKES ITS INITIAL
APPEARANCE.
Pain cannot manifest unless the purely physical world is permeated
by life-energy .Pain is not only a physical suffering; it is
accompanied by emotional and/or mental distress. Psychophysiology
explains how pain impulses enter the spinal cord and are transmitted
to the brainstem and thalamus. It also explains how the perception
of pain varies enormously among individuals, being conditioned by
past experiences, cultural attitudes, gender stereotypes, genetic
make-up and Hatha yogic practices. It is no wonder that the
inadequate management of pain is one of the leading causes for
active euthanasia- a phenomenon that is in direct conflict with the
‘Ananda’ aspect of Reality!
In
Sri Aurobindo’s classification of the planes and ranges of
consciousness, it is the ‘ VITAL PHYSICAL’ (also known as nervous
being), which is enmeshed in ‘the reactions, desires, needs,
sensations of the body’ (Letters on Yoga, Tome One, pg332). The
vital-physical is the hallmark of our bodily-life and is that aspect
of consciousness (in Yoga psychology) that mediates our pain.
However, the body is accustomed to fixed habits. Its unique
characteristic is its resistance to change. This is quite
understandable. If we were made up of only subtle things like
emotions and ideas, we would be an amorphous mass of confusion!
Nature had to make a formation that is durable, that can withstand
disruptive forces, that does not fluctuate with the rapidity and
fluidity of emotions and ideas. Naturally, such a formation as our
physical body must have a ‘certain fixedness’ that our emotions and
ideas lack. Unfortunately, this ‘fixedness’ and ‘rigidity’ can lead
to ‘a false impression of absoluteness’
(The Life Divine, pg 116). This is how certain bodily
characteristics (notably pain) can become a habit of our nature.
Things become more complicated when our chronic habits sink into the
‘subconscious’ (the Freudian Unconscious) to have the capacity to
bounce
back
at other times in life, leading to relapses and
exacerbation of old habits!
Fortunately, this is not the end of the world. There are higher
planes of consciousness that manifest once the bodily life is
stabilized. These higher planes like the plane of ‘mind’ are capable
of more flexibility and variation and can break the fixity of bodily
habits!
Level 2:
Level 2 is the level of our emotional repertoire (designated by Sri
Aurobindo as VITAL) that manifests once bodily life is stabilized.
Of course, the bodily life necessitated a permeation of Matter by
the life-force of the Vital. But the full efflorescence of the Vital
that we see in human beings (in contrast to forms of animal life
below the human being in evolution) is a unique manifestation. This
is the plane of consciousness, which contains all our dynamism, our
passions, our desires, lusts, longings, our will, our zeal to build,
construct as well as to destroy.
This is the level from which our SENSATION OF PLEASURE ARISES.
Naturally, there is a gradation of pleasures. There is the pleasure
of our sensual satisfaction when the reactions of our bodily senses
(in Level
1) are invested with emotional values (from Level
2).
There are higher ‘pleasures’ which are characteristic of Level
2:
the joy of success; the pleasure of our fortunes; the pleasure of
satisfaction of our greed, desires, ambitions and even altruisms;
the pleasures we get from our emotional transactions with our
fellow-beings.
The
problem is that all such pleasures are short-lived; and moreover
such pleasure can immediately change into the polar opposite
bringing in sorrow, hatred, revolt, revenge. At any cost, it does
not reflect the Ananda aspect of Sachchidananda. Rather, it is best
epitomized in that passage in Savitri, which shows that at the end
it leads to nowhere:
‘PAIN WITH ITS LASH, JOY WITH ITS SILVER BRIBE
GUARD THE WHEEL’S CIRCLING IMMOBILITY’
(Savitri,
Pg. 18)
That is why, Sri Aurobindo explained: ‘JOY IS A VITAL FEELING, LIKE
ITS OPPOSITE SORROW’ (Letters on Yoga, Tome One Pg. 330)
Level 3:
Level 3 is the level of the cognitive mind, which manifests when our
vital (Level 2) is optimally stabilized on the foundation of our
bodily life (Level 1). This is the level of our ideas, thoughts,
speculations, conceptions and abstractions.
Unfortunately, this is also the level from which doubts, skepticism,
faithlessness and pessimism arise. This can result in a mental
INDIFFERENCE as a response to the shocks of life. Such
‘INDIFFERENCE’ should not be confused with the detachment and
equanimity of the Yogis, which is an altogether different thing.
The
superficial sensation of indifference is quite evident when we are
demoralized, demotivated, depressed; become subject to boredom,
alienation and meaninglessness in life. It is characteristic of low
self-esteem --an attitude that we cannot disregard if we consider
the WHO estimate that by the end of the first quarter of the
twenty-first century, depression per se is expected to emerge as the
second chronic disease in the world!
Ironically, the reaction of ‘indifference’ is even demonstrated in
the shift of the universal substance of abuse from hallucinogens
like LSD to opioids like heroin. LSD gave romantic feelings-
perceptions changed and became impregnated with colours and
meanings. Heroin, on the other hand, does not give any colourful
experience but ‘zombie-like’ feeling of ‘indifference so that the
addict can be cut off from the banality of the world!
Can
the trio of ‘pain-pleasure-indifference’ be surpassed?
Of
course, there are certain points to be considered
1)
The triple vibration of
‘pain-pleasure-indifference’ is just an obligation of habit. Habits
can also be changed or substituted. This is what Behaviour therapy
and Cognitive-Behaviour therapy attempt in counseling sessions.
2)
One can be trained to
return the opposite response: ‘ pleasure where we used to have pain,
pain where we used to have pleasure’ (The Life Divine, pg115). That
is how during altered states of consciousness, one can jump on a bed
of thorns or walk through fire or pierce oneself with a weapon
without having pain or bleeding.
It
is interesting to note that these neurovascular changes during
altered states of consciousness are speculated to be mediated
through opium like chemicals in our body called endogenous opioids
that are the body’s natural analgesics. It is also now believed that
these endogenous opioids are
a)
responsible for the
placebo reaction – the psychological factor that is the real
therapeutic motivator in any treatment.
b)
The analgesia produced
by acupuncture and allied therapies.
In
other words, the ‘mind’ itself can relieve pain of the body by
influencing the production of endogenous opioids.
3)
The mind represents a
plane of consciousness that is free and flexible in comparison to
the rigidity of the body and turbulence of the emotions. The mind
has been devised for ‘flexibility and variation, for change and
progress’ (Ibid, pg 116).It is not bound by our usual habitual
reactions. If man can learn to free the mind from our physical
habits and emotional turbulences, ‘He becomes the master of his own
responses to the worlds contacts, no longer the slave of external
touches’ (Ibid).
4)
Sri Aurobindo points
out one basic reason for eliminating our habitual reaction of
pain-pleasure –indifference:
‘This elimination is possible because pain and pleasure themselves
are currents, one imperfect, the other perverse, but still currents
of the delight of existence.’ (Ibid, pg.118)
As
to why this delight of existence became ‘perverted ‘ and distorted,
and how it can be again rediscovered so that it becomes possible ‘to
accustom the superficial being to return instead of the mechanical
reactions of pleasure, pain and indifference that free reply of
inalienable delight which is the constant experience of the true and
vast Bliss-Self within us’ (Ibid, pg. 115); we have to have an idea
of the depths and heights of consciousness that are accessible to
the deeper ranges of our being . That is why Sri Aurobindo
introduces the structure of the human being later in this chapter .
In
the end, we have to acknowledge that ‘pain’ itself- in its physical
as well as in its metaphysical perspective serves a purpose in
existence. Imagine what can happen to a diabetic subject who has
lost his capacity for experiencing pain- he becomes defenseless
against impending accidents! Sri Aurobindo writes;
‘Pain of mind and body is a device of Nature, that is to say, of
Force in her works, meant to subserve a definite transitional end in
her upward evolution. The world is from the point of view of the
individual a play and complex shock of multitudinous forces. In the
midst of this complex play the individual stands as a limited
constructed being with a limited amount of force exposed to
numberless shocks, which may wound, maim, break up or disintegrate
the construction which he calls himself. Pain is in the nature of a
nervous and physical recoil from a dangerous or harmful contact; it
is a part of what the Upanishad calls jugupsa, the shrinking of the
limited being from that which is not himself and not sympathetic or
in harmony with himself, its impulse of self-defense against
“others”. It is from this point of view, an indication by Nature of
that which has to be avoided or, if not successfully avoided, has to
be remedied. It does not come into being in the purely physical
world so long as life does not enter into it; for till then
mechanical methods are sufficient. Its office begins when life with
its frailty and imperfect possession of Matter enters on the scene;
it grows with the growth of Mind in life. Its office continues so
long as Mind is bound in the life and body which it is using,
dependent upon them for its knowledge and means of action, subjected
to their limitations and to the egoistic impulses and aims which are
born to those limitations. But if and when Mind in man becomes
capable of being free, unegoistic, in harmony with all other beings
and with the play of the universal forces, the use and office of
suffering diminishes, its raison d’etre must finally cease to be and
it can only continue as an atavism of Nature, a habit that has
survived its use, a persistence of the lower in the as yet imperfect
organization of the higher. Its eventual elimination must be an
essential point in the destined conquest of the soul over subjection
to Matter and egoistic limitation in Mind.’ – (Ibid, pg.117- 118)
Pain is the hand of Nature sculpturing men
To
greatness: an inspired labour chisels
With heavenly cruelty an unwilling mould.
(Savitri,
pg. 444)
Bliss is the secret stuff of all that lives,
Even pain and grief are garbs of world-delight,
It
hides behind thy sorrow and thy cry.
Because thy strength is a part and not God’s whole,
Because afflicted by the little self
Thy
consciousness forgets to be divine
As
it walks in the vague penumbra of the flesh
And
cannot bear the world’s tremendous touch,
Thou criest out and sayst that there is pain.
Indifference, pain and joy, a triple disguise,
Attire of the rapturous Dancer in the ways,
Withhold from thee the body of God’s bliss.
Thy
spirit’s strength shall make thee one with God,
Thy
agony shall change to ecstasy,
Indifference deepen into infinity’s calm
And
joy laugh nude on the peaks of the Absolute
(Ibid, pg. 453-454)
Date of Update:
23-May-13
- By Dr. Soumitra Basu
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