A Shift of Consciousness Brings New Understanding of One’s Life and Existence in the World

We typically live rooted in the ego-consciousness in the external, physical world. We judge things based on our perceptions, our physical, vital and mental processes and our habitual way of understanding things from the standpoint of the ego. This leads to a very limited and biased viewpoint that does not provide a complete view of things. We see a small slice of existence and try to judge from that.

There is a famous story that illustrates this principle. Five blind men are asked to describe an elephant by feeling it. One feels the ear, one the leg, one the tail, one the trunk and one the body. They each provide a different, and obviously very inaccurate description of an elephant!

By shifting our standpoint of consciousness away from the ego, we have a better opportunity to understand the forces at work in the world and the nature of their action and the trajectory they are following toward whatever may be their intended resolution or result.

Humanity as a whole has had several experiences that arose out of a radical shift of viewpoint. Human beings used to believe the world was flat and this severely limited the opportunity for a comprehensive global understanding. The shift of understanding to one of a spherical world from that of a flat world, was a major shift of standpoint.

Another shift occurred when humanity gained the understanding that our earth is not the center of existence, and that in fact, the earth revolves around the sun, is part of a solar system which exists as a small group of planets and moons grouped around a star which was moving through a galaxy along a relatively minor arm of that galaxy, within a universe consisting of a vast number of galaxies.

Yet another shift is actually occurring now as we grasp the significance of viewing the earth from space and we recognize the fragility of our planet and its environment, and the unity and symbiotic nature of all life on the planet. This shift is starting to help us focus on the need for cooperation and a balanced approach to the beings who share the planet with us, and to the planetary environment itself.

We as yet generally fail to see the forces at work, the causes that create the results we see in the world. That understanding can only come as we shift our consciousness away from the ego and begin to see things from another plane, a causal plane, where intentionality far different and far beyond that of human intentions, create the significance, purpose and action that we experience and respond to in our lives.

The Mother writes: “… if one goes out of the determinism of the world as it is at present — this world which is a mixture of the physical, vital, mental and of something of a spiritual influence or infusion (quite veiled), everything that happens is the combination of all this — if we go out of all that (we can do it), if we rise above the physical, material world as it is, and enter another consciousness, we perceive things totally differently.”

“And then we see that behind these appearances which seem to us absolutely logical and extremely natural, and almost necessary, there is an action which, if perceived in one’s ordinary consciousness, would seem all the time miraculous.”

“There is an intervention of forces, consciousnesses, movements, influences, which is invisible or imperceptible for our ordinary consciousness and constantly changes the whole course of circumstances.”

“We don’t need to go very far; it is enough to take just a step outside the ordinary consciousness in order to realise this. I have already said several times that if one finds the psychic consciousness within oneself and identifies oneself with it, well, immediately one feels a complete reversal of circumstances and sees things almost totally differently from the way one ordinarily sees them. For one perceives the force which is acting instead of the result of this action.”

“At present you see only the result of the action of the forces, and this seems to you natural, logical. And it’s only when something a little abnormal occurs — or it’s a little abnormal for you — that you begin to feel surprised. But if you were in another state of consciousness, what seems abnormal to you now would no longer be so. You would see that it is the effect of something else, of another action than the one you perceive.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch.7 Spiritual Forces of Help and Succour, pp. 171-172