Supramentalization And The Earth's Future

The teachings of Max Theon, Sri Aurobindo, Mirra Alfassa, and even visionary elements of the New Age movement (inspired by an ecclectic mix of Christianity, Theosophy, Kabbalah, Teilhard de Chardin) have as their goal the attainment of the corps glorieux, the glorious or illumined body, the state of full self-Divinization

With the attainment of this divine body we come to the climax and goal of the entire evolutionary process. This would constitute a radical break with, and a quantum leap in relation to, all previous mystical philosophy and spiritual efforts.

Mirra's chief disciple Satprem puts it in a rather annoyingly preachy and polemical manner, but I have quoted him anyway (because at bottom it is a valid argument:

"It is not a question of bringing a new philosophy to the world nor of so-called illuminations. It is not a question of render-ing the Prison of our lives more habitable, nor of endowing man with ever more fantastic powers. Armed with his microscopes and telescopes the human gnome remains none the less a gnome, wretched and powerless. We send rockets to the moon but we know nothing of our own hearts. "It is a question," says Sri Aurobindo, "of creating a new physical nature which is to be the habitation of the Supramental being in a new evolution." [On Himself, p.172] for "The imperfection of Man is not the last word of Nature..." (The Life Divine, p 680). Beyond mental man, which is what we are, there opens the possibility of the emergence of another being...

It may be that the meaning of our own revolution escapes us because we seek to prolong that which is already in existence, to refine it, improve it, sublimate it. But the ape, in the midst of his revolution which produced man, may have made the same mistake and perhaps sought to become merely a super-ape, a better climer of trees, a better hunter, a better runner....With Nietzche we also wanted a "superman" who was nothing more than a colossalisation of man. The spiritually minded want a super-saint more richly endowed with virtue and wisdom! Even when carried to their extremest heights they are no more than the old powerties gilded over...."Supermanhood," says Sri Aurobindo, "is not man climbed to his own natural zenith, not a superior degree of human greatness, knowledge, power, intelligence, will,...genius,...saintliness, love, purity or perfection."" [The Hour of God, p.6]. It is SOMETHING ELSE, another vibration of being, another consciousness."

[Satprem, Sri Aurobindo and the Earth's Future, pp 21-2 23-4, (broadcast on All India Radio, on 1st Feb 1972, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Pondicherry)]
The glorified or supramentalised body would be characterised by certain specific attributes. According to the Mother:

"When the physical body is thoroughly divinised, it will feel as if it were always walking on air, there will be no heaviness or tamas or unconscious-ness in it. There will be no end to its power of adaptability: in whatever conditions it is placed it will immediately be equal to the demands made upon it....(P)lasticity will enable it to stand the attack of every hostile force...: it will present no dull resistence to the attack but will be, on the contrary, so pliant as to nullify the force by giving way to it to pass off....Lastly, it will be turned into the stuff of light each cell will radiate the supramental glory. Not only those who are developed enough to have their subtle sight open but the ordinary man too will be able to perceive this luminosity. It will be an evident fact to each and all, a permanent proof of the transformation which will convince even the most sceptical."
The above is taken from a talk given by the Mother in 1930 or 31. Later, the Mother was to herself make tremendous progress towards the attainment of this state, perhaps more so than any other being on Earth so far, and her later teachings, from the 1950s to her death in 1973, have a rather different perspective.

One further attribute, which was strongly brought out by the Mother's later sadhana, needs to be added to the above list. The attainment of the Divine Body is not just an individual thing. It is not simply something which one person can attain while the rest of the world and human consciousness continues its same sorry way, as in the case of Moksha or Liberation, which is the goal of most of the Spiritual systems today. The fact that the Buddha attained enlightenment didn't make things any easier for others, apart from provided a technique which they could follow if they also seek transcendence.

In 1958 the Mother referred to

"the experience that the Divine alone is acting in the body, that He has become the body, yet all the while retaining his character of divine omniscience and omnipotence....it was absolutely impossible to have the least disorder in the body, and not only in the body but in all surrounding matter. It was as if every object obeyed without even needing to decide to obey: it was automatic. There was a divine harmony in everything - it took place in my bathroom upstairs, certainly to demonstrate that it exists in even the most trivial things - in everything, constantly. So if that is established in a permanent way, there can no longer be illness, it is impossible. There can no longer be accidents, there can no longer be illness, there can no longer be disorders, and everything should harmonise...just as that was harmonise: all the objects in the bathroom were full of a joyful enthusiasm - everything obeyed, everything!
...It is matter becoming The Divine. And it really came with the feeling that this thing was happening for the first time upon earth."
[Mother's Agenda, vol 1, pp.164-5]
"...I can't say for sure that no one has ever had it, because someone like Ramakrishna, individuals like that, could have had it....(B)ut Ramakrishna died of cancer, and now that I have had the experience, I know in an absolute way that this is impossible (if he had attained this state). If he had decided to go because the Divine wanted him to go, it would have been with an orderly departure, in total harmony and witha total will, whereas this illness is a means of disrder."
[Ibid, pp.164-5]
So the Divinization of the body would actually bring about a transformation of the entire world, of the entire planetary consciousness. One who attains this state would thus be able to transform the world in a very dramatical way. There is an obvious similarity here with the Zoroastrian-Judeo-Christian-Islamic concept of the Messiah or Saviour who ushers in the Kingdom of God on Earth. And "New Age" writers, caught up in the spirit of such things, frequently cite the words from the Book of Revelations "A new heaven and a new earth".

In all these cases however it is God, or some such external being or power, which ushers in the transformation. But according to Theon, the Mother, and Sri Aurobindo, the transformation is brought about through one's personal striving and working to attain this state. So one could say that the Messiah is not some character who comes along from heaven while we all sit on our backsides praising God or whatever. No, it is we who have to strive to realise that state; and we who are the Messiahs in the making.
 

from: http://www.kheper.net/topics/Aurobindo/Supramentalisation_and_Earth.htm

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