But when by an exclusive concentration on Force and Form Consciousness-Force seems phenomenally to separate Consciousness from Force, or when it absorbs Consciousness in a blind sleep lost in Form and Force, then Consciousness has to struggle back to itself by a fragmentary evolution which necessitates error and makes falsehood inevitable.”
https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/supermind-mind-and-the-overmind-maya#p15
If error and falsehood are inevitable for Consciousness to evolve and find itself, in what way and to what extent should human beings, as conscious agents, be held responsible for their own errors and falsehoods. It appears as if this inexorable fate is predetermined. As if man is condemned to err and partake in falsehood in his early upward journey. Should we feel guilty and condemn ourselves for own our falsities then? In theory it is said we do not have to, but in practice I have not seen errors or falsehoods pardoned or condoned that easily.
Exactly. The sense of sin is only a device of Nature to help us grow in a certain stage of our evolution. It has no abiding truth. That is why the Divine does not see it like that. Good and evil exist in the typal planes but this too is part of the involutionary process not an eternal truth. So too during the recovery process, evil and good are simply steps and stages of our growth not a perennially condemned state.
However during our dealings with the world this inner truth should not confuse our action which is focused on the present. That is precisely the teaching of all the great Scriptures, to hate none, to condemn none. The Gita, even though asking Arjuna to slay the adversaries yet asks him not to hate, to be angry or spiteful. Here is what Sri Aurobindo writes in two of his aphorisms revealing a subtle truth of our nature.
’67- There is no sin in man, but a great deal of disease, ignorance and misapplication.
68—The sense of sin was necessary in order that man might become disgusted with his own imperfections. It was God’s corrective for egoism. But man’s egoism meets God’s device by being very dully alive to its own sins and very keenly alive to the sins of others.
At what phase of his development will man be able to rid himself of egoism?
When egoism will no longer be necessary to make man a conscious individuality.’
So when we act we have to chose. The choice implies something we have to leave behind, an error or falsehood and selfishness. But this should not lead to any permanent stricture as the Gita says about those whose actions lead to a fall. Here too the so-called punishment is not really a punishment but a course correction, a help given to the soul to wake up and climb and rise back.
In any case we should never judge others. It is a bad business, in fact a dangerous one as The Mother reminds us. For we often see in others the error we commit, unconsciously, ourselves. Here is a word of caution by the Mother.
‘To conclude, a final piece of advice: never set yourself up as an examiner. For while it is good to remember constantly that one may be undergoing a very important examination, it is extremely dangerous to imagine that one is responsible for setting examinations for others. That is the open door to the most ridiculous and harmful kinds of vanity. It is the Supreme Wisdom which decides these things, and not the ignorant human will.’
I suppose it is a question of identification with the rajasic ego and hence one is hit again and again until all sense of superiority and inferiority vanish and a deeper equanimity settles in us. Those who do not pardon easily are when their moment comes, ‘judged sternly’ until they realise the utter futility of all human judgment which is anyways a reflection of ignorance than of truth.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
