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Expansion and Widening Summary

Widen your consciousness to the dimension of the earth and you will have a place for everything. [1]

(The Mother, 20 September 1971)

What is Expansion and Wideness?

Man is there to affirm himself in the universe, that is his first business, but also to evolve and finally to exceed himself: he has to enlarge his partial being into a complete being, his partial consciousness into an integral consciousness; he has to achieve mastery of his environment but also world-union and world-harmony; he has to realise his individuality but also to enlarge it into a cosmic self and a universal and spiritual delight of existence. [2]

That growth into the full mental being is the first transitional movement towards human perfection and freedom; it does not actually perfect, it does not liberate the soul, but it lifts us one step out of the material and vital absorption and prepares the loosening of the hold of the Ignorance. [3]

As the individual has a consciousness of his own, so too there is a universal consciousness, a cosmic Being, a universal Mind, a universal Life, a universal physical conscious Nature. We are unaware of it because we are shut up in our outer physical selves. By the inner awakening and the opening above we become aware of this cosmic consciousness, cosmic Nature and cosmic Self and its movements; our consciousness can widen and become one with it. The forces of universal Nature are always working on us without our knowing how they act or being able to get any general control over their action on us. By becoming conscious of the universal we are able to detect this working and control it. [4]

Why Expand and Widen?

This growth of the conscious being, an expansion, an increasing self-expression, a more and more harmonised development of his constituent members is the whole meaning and all the pith of human existence. It is for this meaningful development of consciousness by thought, will, emotion, desire, action and experience, leading in the end to a supreme divine self-discovery, that Man, the mental being, has entered into the material body. [5]

We are at a decisive hour in the history of the earth. It is preparing for the coming of the superman and because of this the old way of life is losing its value. We must strike out boldly on the path of the future despite its new demands. The pettinesses once tolerable, are tolerable no longer. We must widen ourselves to receive what is going to come. [6]

Absolved in the cosmic wideness, released from ego, his personality reduced to a point of working of the universal Force, himself calm, liberated, deathless in universality, motionless in the Witness Self even while outspread without limit in unending Space and Time, he can enjoy in the world the freedom of the Timeless. [7]

A larger psychic and emotional relation with God and the world, more deep and plastic in its essence, more wide and embracing in its movements, more capable of taking up in its sweep the whole of life, is imperative. [8]

Wideness and calmness are the foundation of the Yogic consciousness and the best condition for inner growth and experience. If a wide calm can be established in the physical consciousness, occupying and filling the very body and all its cells, that can become the basis for its transformation; in fact, without this wideness and calmness the transformation is hardly possible. [9]

How to Expand one’s Consciousness?

We start with the will to expand from the ignorant consciousness to a boundless finite. [10] We engage in new range of activities. We work with the sense of unity with the Divine. We feel the Divine moving, thinking and feeling in us. To feel the body in the wide free self and not attached to the limitations of the body.

Make all activities an outpouring of love for the One in All who is the Highest . [11] Love for all forms and creatures around us, we break free from the shell of ego.

Surrender of our little selves - our personal ideas, desires and attachments so that the Divine may take up everything. If we insist on our own ideas and reasonings, greater Light and Knowledge cannot come. [12]

To have an intense aspiration to expand. We must shift the stress of consciousness from external being to the inner being or still deeper to the psychic being. Be like a transmitting and receiving station, the wider the range , the more force it can hold.

By becoming more quieter and calmer without getting excited and agitated, we put ourselves in a capacity to receive from the higher forces. [13]

Outcomes of Expansion of Consciousness

Widening and expansion gives a great joy of being, a clearer sense of truth and things and an inner silence. We see things in a larger light and detect the origin and law of our feelings, emotions and sensations. The thick layer of ego gets thinned and we see ourselves reduced to a point of working of the universal force.[14] We are not carried away by the shocks and injuries, we deal with it in a calm equality. [15]

What Prevents Expansion of Consciousness?

  • The submental, subconscient, inconscient influence on nature. [16]Disrupts the mind’s natural tendency to reach beyond the mind by laying down its impulses and instincts.
  • Fear, distrust and skepticism [17]
  • Volatile vital with its desires, restlessness and unstability. [18]

Methods and Practices to Expand One’s Consciousness

  • Connection with the vastness of nature - gazing at the sky/stars/water body and expand into it. [19]
  • Do many different things - music, painting, reading varied subjects, learning languages, explore/travel.
  • When bored or troubled - thinking of the immensity and eternity of space and time before us. [20]
  • Participating in some work everyday as an expression of goodwill for all.


Content curated by Archana


Expansion and Widening Compilation

References

  1. http://incarnateword.in/cwm/13/aims-and-principles#p331
  2. Sri Aurobindo. (2005). The progress to knowledge -god,man and nature. In The life divine II. http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/22/the-progress-to-knowledge-god-man-and-nature#p2
  3. Sri Aurobindo. (2005). Out of the sevenfold ignorance towards the sevenfold knowledge. In The life divine II. http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/22/out-of-the-sevenfold-ignorance-towards-the-sevenfold-knowledge#p4
  4. Sri Aurobindo. (2012). Sachchidananda:existence,consciousness-force and bliss. In Letters on yoga I. http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/sachchidananda-existence-consciousness-force-and-bliss#p23
  5. Sri Aurobindo. (1999). Self-surrender in works - the way of the gita. In synthesis of yoga I. http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/self-surrender-in-works-the-way-of-the-gita#p2
  6. http://incarnateword.in/cwm/16/29-december-1971#p1
  7. Sri Aurobindo. (1999). The master of the work. In The synthesis of yoga I. http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-master-of-the-work#p24
  8. Sri Aurobindo. (1999). The ascent of the sacrifice II. In The synthesis of yoga I. http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-ascent-of-the-sacrifice-i#p18
  9. Sri Aurobindo. (2013). Peace - the basis of the sadhana. In Letters on yoga II. http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/peace-the-basis-of-the-sadhana#p18
  10. http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/21/the-origin-and-remedy-of-falsehood-error-wrong-and-evil#p29
  11. http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-ascent-of-the-sacrifice-ii#p1
  12. http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/28/science-and-yoga#p9
  13. http://incarnateword.in/cwm/04/12-february-1951#p5
  14. http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/22/out-of-the-sevenfold-ignorance-towards-the-sevenfold-knowledge#p16
  15. http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/22/the-gnostic-being#p25
  16. http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/22/the-ascent-towards-supermind#p16
  17. http://incarnateword.in/cwm/07/26-october-1955#p3
  18. http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/wrong-movements-of-the-vital#p54
  19. http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/29-september-1954#p35
  20. http://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/29-september-1954#p38