Suprasensible

In the Katha Upanishad, Yama the Lord of Death tells the young Nachiketas, "The self-born has set the doors of the body to face outwards, therefore the soul of a man gazes outward and not at the Self within". These "doors of the body" are our sense organs, our faculties of hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell. They are called the jñanendriyas, or powers of knowing. They are the means by which we know the material world in which we live.

Sri Aurobindo points out that our five senses "would persuade us that the suprasensible is the unreal", that what they cannot detect does not exist. And the modern cult that calls itself science has been persuaded. Not only that, but science has laid claim to all arenas of knowing: beyond physics, biology and chemistry, it has seized psychology and even philosophy, demanding a fundamentalist materialism and gasping in horror at the suggestion of a purposeful cosmos or a reality existing beyond the grasp of the senses.

What Sri Aurobindo calls the "constant sensuous association of the real with the materially perceptible", a foundational dogma of modern science, exorcises from existence entire worlds and beings which are as yet swifter than, and just out of reach of our sense organs and the fabulous tools of extension that we've built for them. Our microscopes and telescopes and televisions, made of earth and water and sun, evolve our capacity to see. Our telephones evolve our hearing. The horizon of sensibility recedes and we reach out to touch what was previously considered untouchable.

The very fact that the horizon recedes demonstrates that just because something is suprasensible does not mean that it is unreal. As our technology extends the reaches of our senses, we discover new things all the time that were previously suprasensible. What is the great discovery of tomorrow that, like black holes, or quarks, will upend our current understanding of reality? What realization is hiding just beyond the reach of our senses, awaiting our breakthrough?

The most ancient teachings of yoga, wrapped in mysterious and symbolic language, describe a multidimensional universe populated by beings that our eyes do not see and our ears do not hear, but who nevertheless influence our thoughts and feelings. The hymns of the Rig Veda Samhita call out to beings of light and ask them for protection, nurturance, and grace. They invoke and praise beings with wide vision, who know more than us, who can reveal to us profound truths about ourselves and the world around us.

The hymns honor Surya, the soul of the physical sun, who illuminates the physical world and also offers illumination to our hearts and minds. They honor Saraswati, the river of divine inspiration that flows from above and washes away falsehood and delusion. They honor Usha, the dawn that embodies hope for a light-filled day breaking when night is most dark and confusion reigns. And the hymns praise Agni, the flame in our hearts that burns ever upward, consuming what is transient and releasing the immortal being.

The teachings of yoga describe invisible beings that, though beyond the reach of our senses, exist and interact with us. The Katha Upanishad teaches about our own invisible Self, the truth of our being that can’t be found with our eyes or ears or nose. This Self is “difficult to perceive, seated in the innermost recess, hidden in the cave of the heart, dwelling in the depth of inner being.” It is “subtler than the subtle, greater than the great,” and it “does not shine forth; but It is seen by subtle seers through keen and subtle understanding”.

Our world draws us out, and our senses are designed to be attracted to the objects around us. The inherent relationship between senses and objects pulls us into the world, ensuring that we are anchored here. And yet the senses don’t tell the whole story. There is much more hidden than what is revealed, and by opening ourselves to the invisible, we can begin a journey of discovery, following in the footsteps of many yogis throughout the course of time.

- Matthew Andrews (AVI USA)