Some spiritual seekers follow the path of knowledge, utilizing deep meditation in a trance-state called Samadhi, to put aside all interaction with the external world and focus intensely on the unification with the Supreme Truth, and liberation from the life of the body. Their goal is thus for a status outside the world of life and action. For these seekers, the world is an illusion that needs to be overcome so as to provide them an ‘exit ramp’ from the world. These individuals ‘de facto’ do not accept the manifested creation as having any real and substantive purpose or goal, and they seek simply to do away with their interaction with it.
Other spiritual seekers pursue the path of knowledge with a view that the realisations they obtain in their meditative trance have a real and profound influence on the life in the world, whether they choose to engage directly and actively or not. They believe that insights or truths they perceive in meditation will waft across the world and influence people to change their behaviour, without themselves putting the issue to the test in their own lives and actions.
There are numerous examples of individuals who practice deep meditation who come out of their meditation and are either extremely narrow and rigid in their relations with others, or who express anger, lust, greed, or other patterns that contribute to the ongoing difficulties and suffering we see in the world. It is as if the meditation is part of a different aspect or personality that is not connected to their outer life in the world.
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother take the position that while an individual may find that the yoga of knowledge is particularly suited to a specific seeker, it should nevertheless be balanced with the effort to work out the deficiencies and issues of the life of the world, through a specific connection that must be made to tie the realisations obtained in meditation to the active external life. If there is a state of bliss or a state of peace, light or oneness that permeates their meditative status, then it should be translated into expressing those states and that understanding in the external actions of the seeker. Thus, there comes about a synthesis of the paths of knowledge, love and works that can begin to address the need to transform, not just the inner life of a seeker, but the world of evolutionary development which has its own purpose and intention that must be carried out and supported.
Sri Aurobindo observes in Bases of Yoga: ”The disadvantage {of trance or Samadhi} is that trance becomes indispensable and the problem of the waking consciousness is not solved; it remains imperfect.”
A disciple inquires: ”Waking consciousness is not solved?”
The Mother writes: ”And naturally! Because if in order to have a meditation or a relation with the inner world, you are obliged to enter into samadhi, your waking consciousness always remains what it is, without ever changing. That’s what I said in other words, you see, when I said that people have a higher consciousness only in very deep meditation. When they come out of their meditation they are no better than they were before. All their defects are there which come back as soon as they come back into their waking consciousness; and they never make any progress because they do not establish a relation between their deeper consciousness, the truth of their being, and their outer being. You see, they take off their outer being as though they were taking off a cloak, and they put it in a corner: ‘Come now, don’t trouble me, keep quiet. You are a nuisance.’ And then they enter into contemplation, their meditation, into their deep experience; and then they come back, put on the cloak which of course has not changed — which perhaps is dirtier still than before — and they remain exactly as they were without any meditation.”
“If you want the outer being to change, it is while remaining conscious of it that you should have the other experiences; and you must not lose contact with your ordinary outer consciousness if you want it to profit by the experience. There are many people… I knew people like that, who used to meditate for hours, almost all the time… they spent their time meditating, and then if by chance… if someone disturbed them in their meditation, if they had to do something, they flew into a rage, a fury, they abused everybody, they became more intolerable than if they had never meditated, than any ordinary person. This happened because they neglected making their outer being participate in their deeper life. They cut themselves into two, so there is a portion inside which progresses and a portion outside which becomes worse and worse, because it is completely neglected.”
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Our Many Selves: Practical Yogic Psychology, Chapter 6, Some Answers and Explanations, pp. 171-173
Santosh has been studying Sri Aurobindo's writings since 1971 and has a daily blog at http://sriaurobindostudies.wordpress.com and podcast at https://anchor.fm/santosh-krinsky He is author of 19 books and is editor-in-chief at Lotus Press. He is president of Institute for Wholistic Education, a non-profit focused on integrating spirituality into daily life.