In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna poses the question of how to identify the spiritual man, the superior individual. Sri Krishna makes it clear that this is not determined by outer signs, but by the inner state of the individual. The Mother takes up this question in a slightly different form and describes the determining factor to identify the world-personality.
A disciple asks: ”What are the characteristic features of a world-personality?”
The Mother notes: ”The most characteristic feature is precisely this change of consciousness. Instead of feeling like a little, isolated person, separated from others, one feels one is a universal person, containing all others and intimately united and identified with all others.”
“And I am asked:”
“How does this person speak and act?”
“Speak!… The question is not very well put, for if you ask how he speaks, well, he speaks as everybody does, with his voice, his tongue, his mouth and with words! If you were to ask what is the nature of what he says… obviously, if he expresses the state of consciousness in which he lives, he expresses a universal state of consciousness, and seeing things in a different way from ordinary men, he will express them differently, in accordance with what he sees and feels. As for acting… if all the parts of his being are in harmony, his action will obviously express his state of consciousness.”
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Our Many Selves: Practical Yogic Psychology, Chapter 6, Some Answers and Explanations, pg. 177
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.