Please explain (with an example if feasible) the meaning of Overmind, Supermind and Supramental Consciousness and how these are related to the works of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother.
Consciousness is one, but it reveals itself in a graded manner through the process of evolution of forms. To take an example Space is one, but it manifests itself from the tiniest of atomic and subatomic spaces to the vast cosmic dimensions. Or, to take another example, there is the power of Intelligence, but it manifests itself differently across different grades and levels in plant, animal, and man, and, in the human being itself, it manifests progressively from the infant to the adult, from the fool to the wise. So too, there is one Consciousness, but in the manifestation and in actual operations it is arranged hierarchically from the state of near total lapse or loss of consciousness in the stone, jada Prakriti, or the material universe to a complete perfect consciousness with absolute knowledge and power in the Divine, daivi Prakriti. In human beings Consciousness is somewhere halfway through between the unconscious stone and the full consciousness of the Divine.
However, through a process of evolution, the human consciousness is destined to evolve beyond the human towards the Divine. In the course of this further evolution of consciousness, there are two major steps that intervene. The first is the levels of consciousness beyond the rational analytical mind of today to the Overmind. Overmind is the maximum evolution possible today in the human body. It is the consciousness of the Gods. There are, of course, a few steps of this evolution through higher and higher levels of consciousness until man touches the Overmind.
The Overmind Consciousness is a global consciousness, a cosmic consciousness that perceives and acts upon the world very differently than man. Take the example of a child graduating starting from the Kindergarten onwards. The meaning and understanding changes as he goes from primary to secondary to higher secondary and then to graduation.
But Overmind is not yet the full Divine Consciousness. It is the plane of the Gods wherein each god perceives and acts universally, but from his own perspective. It is like trying to see everything on the basis of one idea. The Overmind and its gods see and act upon the world through the idea-force of Love or Justice or Beauty or Truth or Peace and so on and so forth. Hence, there is a clash of forces and true and lasting harmony and unity cannot be built.
In the Supermind, these countless gods and ideas and forces harmoniously unite as different aspects of the One Supreme Divine. The Supramental Consciousness therefore, is the Divine Consciousness in all its Perfection acting upon the world with perfect knowledge and power of the true law of each element, the Omniscience and the Omnipotence of the Divine as Creator. If life upon earth has to be harmonious and divine, a true and perfect expression of the Divine, then there must be beings who embody the Supramental Consciousness. Human beings cannot embody it. If they try to go beyond the Overmind, they have to withdraw into Samadhi and shed the body. However, if the origin of creation is the Divine Supermind, then one day humanity is bound to evolve into a perfect embodiment of the Divine Supramental Consciousness. This is the work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother as the Avatar to take humanity beyond to the manifestation of the Supramental beings, the new Divine race upon earth who will lead a Divine Life in a Divine Body.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
