Wisdom of today

1. The Vedas, the most ancient sacred texts that form the basis of Vedanta, were composed thousants of years ago for a much earlier mentality than that of the modern world. Symbolism and poetic metaphor abound these archaic texts, making them difficult for the modern mind to penetrate, yet they contain a depth of spiritual wisdom that form the basis of Hinduism today. The Vedas contain a great number of hymns devoted to Agni, the first before all the other gods. Sri Aurobindo believed that the Vedic hymns to Agni represent hymns to the pychic center with its force and light. Agni is variously imagined as the fire and flaming will of the Divine, as a Truth-Conscious soul, a seer, as the priest of the sacrifice who mission is to purify and raise up the struggling aspirant to the light.

The Veda speaks of the divine Flame in a series of splendid and opulent images. He is the rapturous priest of the sacrifice, the God-Will intoxicated with its own delight, the young sage, the sleepless envoy, the ever-wakeful flame in the house, the master of our gated dwelling-place, the beloved guest, the lord in the creature, the seer of the flaming tresses, the divine child, the pure and virgin God, the invincible warrior, the leader on the path who marches in front of the human peoples, the immortal in mortals, the worker established in man by the gods, the unobstructed in knowledgen the infinite in being, the vast and flaming sun of the Truth, .. the divine perception, the light, the vision, throughout the Veda it is in the ymns which celebrate this strong and briljant deity that we find those which are the most splendid in poetic colouring, profound in psychological suggestion and sublime in their mystic intoxication. (Aurobindo, 1971b, p. 361)

Agni is interpreted by Aurobindo as the ancient symbol for the psychic center and its power, for it is this light that each person must awaken so that it can illuminate life's path. Agni is a force for purification that burns away the dross of our dense nature and purifies our outer being. Agni protects against the demons that try to wreak havoc upon the world and humanity. The pychic center, Agni, is the leader of evolution, the guide that shows us the way, the portion of the Divine that has within it an inherent sense and discernment.

For the sake of completeness it should be noted that there are many different experiences of inner fire. There is the fire of tapas (spiritual disciple and will), the fire of kundalini (the sleeping spiritual energy at the base of the spine), the fire and light from the illumined mind, and the fire of sexual passion and energy. Each of these experiences must be differentiated from the fire of Agni or the psychic fire. To light the psychic fire in the heart is the goal of integral psychology.

Perhaps a more modern symbol than fire is electric light. The growing light of the psychic center can be imagined as a dimmer switch or theostat in which the psychic light is a very faint to begin with but with aspiration, meditation, and surrender it becomes brighter and brigher. Electric is a more accurate image in some ways, because it is a steady and continous light that does not flicker and vary in its intensity like a flame does. The psychic light is a steady light burning deep within the heart.

2. The reason the self disappears in enlightenment or transcendence is not because it never existed and was always an illusion, as the Buddhists and advaitins have argued, but because its utility is over. When the psychic center has developed far enough, it can emerge fully and take its place a the individualized spiritual being that is part of the central being – atman or Buddha-nature. The function of the ego is no longer necessary, for there is a new organizing principle at work, a spiritual and no longer strickly organismic principle though the soul can fully use its organismic intruments. The ego functions remain (e.g. Memory,
orientation in time and space, coordination, integration of sensory and emotional experience, planning, reality testing, etc), indeed, are necessary in the function in the world. But the ego sense or seperate “I” feeling disappears when its usefulness ends. Individuality remains while the ego dissolves. This individuality is the flowering or our long path of individuation, pursued through may incarnations, many cultures, and many historical epochs.

From Integral Psychology, Brant Cortright, professor of psychology.