Two Parallel Lines Meeting In Infinity : Sri Aurobindo

 

The human individual has the capability to view his existence from a variety of standpoints. If he starts from the Impersonal, he can look up the thoughts of the mind, the will and action of the vital force and the emotions of the heart as some kind of created fiction, an illusion, not a reality. In this instance, he focuses on the Impersonal Existence, the Impersonal Consciousness and the Impersonal Bliss as the sole reality and works to overcome the illusory distractions of the outer world.

It is also possible, however, for the human individual to take his standpoint in the Personal. In this instance, it is the individual’s thoughts, actions, emotions which are real, and the Impersonal can be seen as the illusion.

The seeker of the integral Yoga recognizes that each of these divergent standpoints has its own truth, but that neither one, on its own, represents the entire truth; rather, they are complementary truths that must be fused together in order for a comprehensive truth to manifest for the seeker.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “Both views are true, except that the idea of fiction, which is borrowed from our own intellectual processes, has to be exiled and each must be given its proper validity. The integral seeker has to see in this light that he can reach one and the same Reality on both lines, either successively or simultaneously, as if on two connected wheels travelling on parallel lines, but parallel lines which in defiance of intellectual logic but in obedience to their own inner truth of unity do meet in infinity.”

Sri Aurobindo