She saw that the complexity of the universe could not be explained in the present terms of man or seen by his superficial sight, that there were other powers behind, other powers within man himself of which he is normally unaware, that he is conscious only of a small part of himself, that the invisible always surrounds the visible, the suprasensible the sensible, even as infinity always surrounds the finite.

A sentence which made a huge inner impact and keeps vibrating evermore intense and deeper. Carefully interpreting its meaning would signify that the invisible is constantly influencing the visible. Ordinary daily life activities, events, thoughts are under continual surveyance and influence from an invisible source. A viewpoint diametrically positioned against the accepted general belief that our thoughts, our lives in the existing and visible outer are the only measurable real-world settings, fully operating without hindrance of other intruding sources.

The visible surroundings are identified and associated with day-to-day running events, representing the individual, the social, the cultural aspects of our living experience. Outer life is considered as the only known and familiar entity, the domain with reliable agreed principles. Its functioning mode is presided over by the mind faculty with its sense-action and sense- perception, trustworthy and functional, after all an ability which steered humanity for millennials and empowered its civilizations.

The invisible, the unknown depth of existence for humanity, regarded with the utmost suspicion. It enters unannounced within the visible scenario settings, forcing new directions, compelling to change existent plans and expectations. We resist and revolt against such unwanted invasions in our ordinary life events. To decipher the play from the recurring invisible intrusions in the visible arena, one could look closer at such events taking place, trying to view such occurrences and their actions from the inner domain, rather than from the outer reality.

Sri Aurobindo’s remark that ‘History very seldom records the things that were decisive but took place behind the veil; it records the show in front of the curtain’ is accurately relevant for our outer life happenings. The show acted out in the front, the visible, is the one taken for granted. The invisible intrusions are neither considered a decisive influence, nor worth earning a closer introspection.

‘Human society itself never seized on the discovery of the soul as a means for the discovery of the law of its own being or on a knowledge of the soul’s true nature and need and its fulfilment as the right way of terrestrial perfection’. Exploring the inner domain, the invisible, as a method to grow and activate the hidden potential of terrestrial perfection, not only on an individual but even more important on a collective level, is the continuing process through the course of evolution.

The essence of what Sri Aurobindo tells us is in fact very simple, it details the movement and the working of consciousness. Man is growing and must grow in consciousness till he reaches the perfect consciousness, not only in his individual capacity but also in his collective or social life. This growth of consciousness is the master key to earthly evolution, it is the aim of life

upon earth. Growth of consciousness progresses through an increased intensity, wideness and integration of the inner capacity.

The grand scheme of earthly evolution maintains two separate streams of activity. One is the undertaking for continuing the physical existence of humanity, the outer evolution, proceeding through a process of genetic transfer, birth and death. This process operates in the visible sphere. The other stream takes up the journey of the development of inner consciousness, expressing the inner truth of the whole process, this is the invisible stream of the evolutionary process. The growth of consciousness with the development of the psychic being, as a first major step, is the raison d’être of our existence upon earth.

‘That other Reality’, identified as the invisible, is named by Sri Aurobindo as Nature. It is Nature that looks after the cosmic management in creation. She is the executrix using her inexhaustible force, answering to the hidden will in her depth to propel her pilgrimage for making the invisible, the Unseen, ultimately conscious and visible upon earth.

All life, when we look behind its appearances, is a vast Yoga of Nature who attempts in the conscious and the subconscious to realise her perfection in an ever-increasing expression of her yet unrealised potentialities and to unite herself with her own divine reality. We can quote without hesitation that famous remark ‘All life is Yoga’. Evolution uses the invisible as her creative method, being the Yoga of Nature, for implementing her vast ongoing program towards reaching human self-perfection. A process occurring with an unimaginable precision, unending energy, arranged with a precision and perfection of an intrinsic knowledge, custom tailored towards each individual journey. A Wisdom that prepares its far-off ends.

For man is precisely that term and symbol of a higher Existence descended into the material world in which it is possible for the lower to transfigure itself and put on the nature of the higher and the higher to reveal itself in the forms of the lower.

By piercing the shell of the outer living routine, using subtle senses, increased intuition, inspiration, insights, attentiveness to the occurrence and presence of the invisible, an entry into the inner domain can be found to become aware of the existence of vaster domains which are the soul’s home. Such an expedition demands an inner discipline, a rigorous judgement for walking on the roads leading to the everlasting light, avoiding those leading to the everlasting darkness.

His is a search of darkness for the light, … His goal is fixed outside all present maps.

Tency