Preparing for the Miraculous

224 eleven talksthe cosmic consciousness the supreme affirmation that allis good or right as it is. It is however in the vision and workof Sri Aurobindo and the Mother that we find the supremejustification of the divine manifestation in its origin, its evolution,and its glorious, endless future end.The gnostic explanationThe following story told by the Mother to the Ashramyouth contains in essence the theodicy of Gnosticism throughoutthe centuries, while also completing it. The Motherstressed that it was “a story,” and that one could know itsinner meaning only by experience on the spiritual path.“When the Supreme decided to exteriorize Himself inorder to be able to see Himself, the first thing in Himselfwhich He exteriorized was the Knowledge of the worldand the Power to create it [i.e. the Great Mother]. ThisKnowledge-Consciousness and Force began its work; andin the supreme Will there was a plan, and the first principleof this plan was the expression of both the essential Joy andthe essential Freedom, which seemed to be the most interestingfeature of this creation.” (It may be noted here thatthe crucial principles of Joy and Freedom at the origin ofcreation are hardly ever mentioned elsewhere in the gnosticliterature.)“So intermediaries were needed to express this Joy andFreedom in forms. And at first four Beings [or Forces] wereemanated to start this universal development which wasto be the progressive objectivation of all that is potentiallycontained in the Supreme. These Beings [the four essentialattributes of the Divine] were, in the principle of their existence:Consciousness and Light, Life, Bliss and Love, andTruth. You can easily imagine that they had a sense of greatpower, great strength, of something tremendous, for they