The Purusha, the Master of the Nature, Sanctions, Upholds, Directs and Changes the Nature

We are not destined to be the puppet or plaything of the exte
al Nature, Prakriti, through the working of the 3 Gunas or qualities of Nature. When we shift our standpoint to that of the Divine, when we recognise our Oneness with the creative Force, we can participate in the ordering and the ‘ordaining’ of the divine manifestation. We may be immersed in the play of Prakriti. When we shift to the standpoint of the Purusha, the witness consciousness, we begin by observing. At a certain stage when we recognise our Oneness with the Ete
al, then we can identify as the ‘giver of the sanction’ for that existence to manifest.

Sri Aurobindo translates verse 16 of the Isha Upanishad: “O Fosterer, O sole Seer, O Ordainer, O illumining Sun, O power of the Father of creatures, marshal thy rays, draw together thy light; the Lustre which is thy most blessed form of all, that in Thee I behold. The Purusha there and there, He am I.”

The Mundaka Upanishad affirms: “He, verily, who knows that Supreme Brahman becomes himself Brahman…”

The Taittiriya Upanishad makes the Oneness quite clear, “The Spirit who is here in a man and the Spirit who is there in the Sun, it is one Spirit and there is no other.” and “I am He that moveth the Tree of the Universe and my glory is like the shoulders of a high mountain.” and “I am he who maketh Scripture! … I am the firstbo
of the Law; before the gods were, I am, yea, at the very heart of immortality.”

Thus, the seers of the Upanishads saw the basis for the Purusha taking an active, organixing and manifesting role in managing and directing the actions of Prakriti

We are subject to the possibility of self-delusion. We may believe we have shifted the standpoint and thus have gained the necessary perspective and freedom to act. The Taittiriya Upanishad has a simple ‘test’ for this: “But when the Spirit that is within us maketh for himself even a little difference in the Ete
al, then he hath fear, yea, the Ete
al himself becometh a terror to such a knower who thinketh not.”

The universal manifestation creates modes of action which become fixed as habitual patterns, for a time. So long as we are immersed in the exte
al actions of Nature, we are moved by the forces and patterns. Yet none of these ‘habits’ are immutable for all time. When we shift to the standpoint of the Creator, the Divine, the Ete
al, we can participate actively in providing the sanction or withdrawing it, from accepting the habitual pattern or working to bring about change through the application of consciousness-force.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “Finally, the mind will come to know the Purusha in the mind as the master of Nature whose sanction is necessary to her movements. It will find that as the giver of the sanction he can withdraw the original fiat from the previous habits of Nature and that eventually the habit will cease or change in the direction indicated by the will of the Purusha; not at once, for the old sanction persists as an obstinate consequence of the past Karma of Nature until that is exhausted, and a good deal also depends on the force of the habit and the idea of fundamental necessity which the mind had previously attached to it; but if it is not one of the fundamental habits Nature has established for the relation of the mind, life and body and if the old sanction is not renewed by the mind or the habit willingly indulged, then eventually the change will come. Even the habit of hunger and thirst can be minimised, inhibited, put away; the habit of disease can be similarly minimised and gradually eliminated and in the meantime the power of the mind to set right the disorders of the body whether by conscious manipulation of vital force or by simple mental fiat will immensely increase. By a similar process the habit by which the bodily nature associates certain forms and degrees of activity with strain, fatigue, incapacity can be rectified and the power, freedom, swiftness, effectiveness of the work whether physical or mental which can be done with this bodily instrument marvellously increased, doubled, tripled, decupled.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 5, Attitudes on the Path, pp. 164-165