‘But why this phenomenal and pragmatic division of an indivisible Existence? It is because Mind has to carry the principle of multiplicity to its extreme potential which can only be done by separativeness and division. To do that it must, precipitating itself into Life to create forms for the Multiple, give to the universal principle of Being the appearance of a gross and material substance instead of a pure or subtle substance. It must, that is to say, give it the appearance of substance which offers itself to the contact of Mind as stable thing or object in an abiding multiplicity of objects and not of substance which offers itself to the contact of pure consciousness as something of its own eternal pure existence and reality or to subtle sense as a principle of plastic form freely expressive of the conscious being. The contact of mind with its objects creates what we call sense, but here it has to be an obscure externalised sense which must be assured of the reality of what it contacts. The descent of pure substance into material substance follows, then, inevitably on the descent of Sachchidananda through supermind into mind and life. It is a necessary result of the will to make multiplicity of being and an awareness of things from separate centres of consciousness the first method of this lower experience of existence. If we go back to the spiritual basis of things, substance in its utter purity resolves itself into pure conscious being, self-existent, inherently self-aware by identity, but not yet turning its consciousness upon itself as object. Supermind preserves this self-awareness by identity as its substance of self-knowledge and its light of self-creation, but for that creation presents Being to itself as the subject-object one and multiple of its own active consciousness. Being as object is held there in a supreme knowledge which can, by comprehension, see it both as an object of cognition within itself and subjectively as itself, but can also and simultaneously, by apprehension, project it as an object (or objects) of cognition within the circumference of its consciousness, not other than itself, part of its being, but a part (or parts) put away from itself,—that is to say, from the centre of vision in which Being concentrates itself as the Knower, Witness or Purusha. We have seen that from this apprehending consciousness arises the movement of Mind, the movement by which the individual knower regards a form of his own universal being as if other than he; but in the divine Mind there is immediately or rather simultaneously another movement or reverse side of the same movement, an act of union in being which heals this phenomenal division and prevents it from becoming even for a moment solely real to the knower. This act of conscious union is that which is represented otherwise in dividing Mind obtusely, ignorantly, quite externally as contact in consciousness between divided beings and separate objects, and with us this contact in divided consciousness is primarily represented by the principle of sense. On this basis of sense, on this contact of union subject to division, the action of the thought-mind founds itself and prepares for the return to a higher principle of union in which division is made subject to unity and subordinate. Substance, then, as we know it, material substance, is the form in which Mind acting through sense contacts the conscious Being of which it is itself a movement of knowledge.’
(Ref. https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/matter#p7)
We can take the help of a concrete image to understand it. Imagine the sea in its formless state, as pure energy of light and heat, as it once actually was.
Within itself, it sought to know itself, thereby releasing from itself the Consciousness that makes the sea aware of its own existence. Now the sea becomes aware of its own existence and consciousness, but still through a subjective self-identity. This is what Being is, Existence that is fully conscious of Itself.
Next, this Being, having infinity as its very nature, seeks to multiply itself so that it can become aware of all its infinite aspects and possibilities. For this, it must bring out of itself these various distinctive aspects. There must therefore be within the Being of the Sea the power that can differentiate and bring out each aspect and present them as if objective. This power of Truth that can bring out all the different aspects is the Supermind. It is as if the One Being was viewing Itself in all the different aspects through a prism.
Next, each of these aspects now develops its own unique centre of perception, like the waves in a sea. Each wave, though always a part of the One Sea, sees itself and the sea through its own limited vision. This limited vision is due to the Mind, which is born out of the Supermind as a subordinate power that is limited in its self-awareness primarily to its own centre of vision in the wave. This becomes possible as the Mind limits its senses to take hold concretely of the differentiated objects / waves as if it were separate from others. And yet the Mind tries to recreate unity out of these seemingly separate objects through various means of sense contacts. To do so, the Mind takes the principle of differentiation and separation to its extreme limit by crystallising the sea and the waves into concrete material forms. Thus, the original Being-Consciousness-Energy-Substance is turned into many separate centres and then for each centre to grasp its separateness, there emerge physically solid objects that can be held concretely by the gross senses.
This is the main thought. The process through which the One becomes Many, though always remaining the One, is being revealed and the eventual ultimate consequence of the One becoming the Many leading to the necessity of the Supramental and then the Mind and its extreme result of a complete sense of separateness.
It will be described again in great detail in the chapters on Knowledge and the Ignorance.
Do let me know if there is a specific question arising thereby.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
