The Realisation of the Self and the Realisation of the Psychic Being and the Individual Ego-Consciousness

We generally live, most of the time, within a framework of the ego-consciousness. We look at and experience our lives from this standpoint, and it places limitations on our understanding and our response to circumstances. Those who are called to yoga and spiritual development practices in general have traditionally focused on one or the other of two primary realisations. On the one side, there is the attempt to shift the standpoint from the ego-consciousness to the divine standpoint, through realisation of the Self which is a portion of the Divine. The consciousness loses the sense of the little ego and identifies with the entire creation. There is a sense of disconnectedness from the individual personality when that occurs, and frequently, when the individual crosses over the ‘boundary’ for the first time, a fear arises that one is going to die, which is the ego-sense recognising its dissolution in that transition. The second direction is followed by those who take up the way of devotion, where they remain in the human awareness yet shift the standpoint inwards into the deepest sense of the soul or psychic being that represents the true inner being. Here, too, there is a recognition that the surface personality is a limited framework and that it is not, in that sense, ‘real’.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “The true being may be realised in one or both of two aspects — the Self or Atman and the soul or Antaratman, psychic being, Chaitya Purusha. The difference is that one is felt as universal, the other as individual supporting mind, life and body. When one first realises the Atman one feels it separate from all things, existing in itself and detached, and it is to this realisation that the image of the dry coconut fruit may apply. When one realises the psychic being, it is not like that; for this brings the sense of union with the Divine and dependence upon It and sole consecration to the Divine alone and the power to change the nature and discover the true mental, the true vital, the true physical being in oneself. Both realisations are necessary for this yoga.”

“The ‘I’ or the little ego is constituted by Nature and is at once a mental, vital and physical formation meant to aid in centralising and individualising the outer consciousness and action. When the true being is discovered, the utility of the ego is over and this formation has to disappear — the true being is felt in its place.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Our Many Selves: Practical Yogic Psychology, Chapter 2, Planes and Parts of the Being, pp. 100-101