"The Longest Story Ever Told"
We have seen that every plane has seven sub-planes. What does it mean on the physical plane? Look at your own body. There are seven levels of organisation. You have the hardest, densest portion of the body, the skeletal structure, which is the framework of your whole body. Around it you may have the muscular structure which allows movements of the skeletal structure. These protect the layer of different organs. Then there is fat, which is midway between solid and liquid. Next comes the circulation of fluids in the circulatory system. Then comes the circulation of gas, the respiratory system which distributes the gas through the blood to all the cells. Still subtler is the nervous system which guides the passage of the electrical signals that control the whole body. Thus we have seven layers of organisation.
Q: Is the supramental stage the end of evolution?
A: The process of evolution is never ending. Sri aurobindo was asked the question, "Is the Supramental being the ultimate?" He said no, there are other states which we cannot imagine and which is quite useless to think about. Just look at it this way. For a plant to imagine the condition of an animal is impossible. For an animal to imagine what it means to think logically, to receive an inspiration, an intuition, is impossible. In the same way, for a human being to think of what it is to be a supramental being is absolutely impossible. And to think of what is beyond is certainly out of our reach. By the very fact that within this level of just the mind we have such a wide range of evolution, you can imagine what more there would be in still higher levels of consciousness.
There is another factor to be taken into account. A little bit of physics comes in here. When we speak of something being unending, we are thinking in terms of time. Time exists on the physical plane in the way we experience it. In the subtler plane, time is quite different. Think of your dreams. Sometimes you seem to have spent hours and you find that you have been asleep for a few minutes. In the mind, time is still more different. You are doing some work which is very interesting and you think you have just been working for two minutes and you look at the time, it is two hours past. And in the planes of higher levels of consciousness, time is of [a] totally different conception. So when we say that evolution is unending, it is the physical time that we are thinking of. But remember that before the universe was formed, in that condition of the Absolute, there was no time, there was no space. Time and space are creations within the scope of the universe.
Look at the physics of creation of the universe. There was a big bang, that explosion which created the physical universe. The equations of General Relativity state that as matter comes together and gravity increases, time slows down and space curves upon itself. If you try to go backwards to the origin of the universe, time becomes slower and slower until at the point of the big bang, time stands still and merges into eternity. There is no time. So when we speak of unending time, it is a concept within a very limited framework. And to think of states outside it, is very difficult for us because we are so used to the sequential time.
Q: What is the Supramental state of mind?
A: We can only depend upon the verbal descriptions provided by Sri Aurobindo.
We all have had certain experiences which we find very difficult to communicate. If you have an experience of love, can you explain what is love? Can you explain to someone else that you feel a love towards this child? You cannot describe it – words are not enough. Love itself is a label which you put on certain feelings, you cannot convey the experience of what you feel. As you grow into higher states of consciousness, it becomes more and more difficult to explain in terms of our natural languages, language fades away. The Upanishads say, "mind falls away from it." The more you try to approach a higher level of consciousness, the more it is difficult to touch it with the mind. As soon as you try to formalise it in terms of thought, it slips out of your grasp. It is like trying to catch water. You can put your hand in it and feel as long as you want, but as soon as you try to grasp it, it slips out. In the same way, you can experience a higher state of consciousness, but you can only describe it in terms of the mind which is itself of a lower state.
