The Synthesis of Yoga - Sri Aurobindo Ashram

122 The Yoga of Divine Works
and outside us seem to be undertaken and continue. On the
other side he is aware at the same time of an executive Force
or an energy of Process which is seen to constitute, drive and
guide all conceivable activities and to create a myriad forms
visible to us and invisible and use them as stable supports for
its incessant flux of action and creation. Entering exclusively
into the witness consciousness he becomes silent, untouched,
immobile; he sees that he has till now passively reflected and
appropriated to himself the movements of Nature and it is by
this reflection that they acquired from the witness soul within
him what seemed a spiritual value and significance. But now
he has withdrawn that ascription or mirroring identification;
he is conscious only of his silent self and aloof from all that is
in motion around it; all activities are outside him and at once
they cease to be intimately real; they appear now mechanical,
detachable, endable. Entering exclusively into the kinetic movement,
he has an opposite self-awareness; he seems to his own
perception a mass of activities, a formation and result of forces;
if there is an active consciousness, even some kind of kinetic
being in the midst of it all, yet there is no longer a free soul in
it anywhere. These two different and opposite states of being
alternate in him or else stand simultaneously over against each
other; one silent in the inner being observes but is unmoved and
does not participate; the other active in some outer or surface
self pursues its habitual movements. He has entered into an
intense separative perception of the great duality, Soul-Nature,
Purusha-Prakriti.
But as the consciousness deepens, he becomes aware that
this is only a first frontal appearance. For he finds that it is
by the silent support, permission or sanction of this witness
soul in him that this executive nature can work intimately or
persistently upon his being; if the soul withdraws its sanction,
the movements of Nature in their action upon and within him
become a wholly mechanical repetition, vehement at first as if
seeking still to enforce their hold, but afterwards less and less
dynamic and real. More actively using this power of sanction or
refusal, he perceives that he can, slowly and uncertainly at first,