Weakness of Limitation or the Power of Omnipotence Depends on the Status of Consciousness

When we are feeling weak or limited, we become unhappy, we react with frustration and are discontented with our lot. We feel in many cases oppressed by circumstances. We can become depressed if things are not going the way we expect or want them to go. We can become angry with ourselves, with others, with circumstances, with a general lack of what we desire to see or achieve.

A shift of our standpoint to the divine standpoint, while it does not imply a change in what actually takes place in the world, is able to provide us the wider context and the peace that comes with understanding how the ego-personality and its existence fits into that larger picture. And, it is certainly possible that with this new viewpoint and understanding, the individual can actually mitigate what otherwise would have happened while he was immersed in the ego-standpoint and thus, unable to conceptualize the bigger picture and understand the larger forces at play, their momentum, trajectory and potential impact.

The first result is thus a sense of contentment or peace, knowing that the struggles of the individual ego-personality are part of a larger universal movement, of which one is a participant. The second result is one that focuses on how to use the nexus of the individual to aid in the changes needed and the possible transformation of energies. This can provide the individual with a sense of purpose and at the same time, an understanding from a wider perspective of the complexity, time and necessary steps involved, so that the individual can act with a sense of strength and not become discouraged or upset by the steps along the way, any obstacles or temporary setbacks.

The Mother writes: “Basically, disgust, revolt, anger, all these movements of violence are necessary movements of ignorance and limitation, with all the weakness that limitation represents. Revolt is a weakness — it is the feeling of an impotent will. You will — or you think you will — you feel, you see that things are not as they should be and you revolt against whatever does not agree with what you see. But if you were all-powerful, if your will and your vision were all-powerful, there would be no occasion for you to revolt, you would always see that all things are as they should be. If we go to the highest level and unite with the consciousness of the supreme Will, we see, at every second, at every moment of the universe, that all is exactly as it should be, exactly as the Supreme wills it. That is omnipotence. And all movements of violence become not only unnecessary but utterly ridiculous.”

“Therefore, there is only one solution: to unite ourselves by aspiration, concentration, interiorisation and identification with the supreme Will. And that is both omnipotence and perfect freedom at the same time. And that is the only omnipotence and the only freedom; everything else is an approximation. You may be on the way, but it is not the entire thing. So if you experience this, you realise that with this supreme freedom and supreme power there is also a total peace and a serenity that never fails. Therefore, if you feel something which is not that, a revolt, a disgust, something which you cannot accept, it means that in you there is a part which has not been touched by the transformation, something which has kept the old consciousness, something which is still on the path — that is all.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 2, Looking at Oneself and Others, pg. 52