Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 3. 1936-37

Fragment ID: 18442

1936-37

First you wrote, “Emptiness as such is not a character of the higher consciousness...” Then, the next day you wrote, “If it is a spiritual emptiness...” If the emptiness is spiritual, is it not also “a character of the higher consciousness”, just as Light, Ananda, Force, etc. are?

It does not mean the same thing. An emptiness in the mind or vital may be spiritual without emptiness being an essential characteristic of the higher consciousness. If it were, there could be no Force, Light or Ananda in the higher Consciousness. Emptiness is only a result produced by a certain action of the higher Force on the system in order that the higher consciousness may be able to come into it. It is a spiritual emptiness as opposed to the dull and inert emptiness of complete tamas which is not spiritual.