The Shift to the Standpoint of the Observer of the External Nature

The Purusha, the witness consciousness, resides in each of us. Why then do we have to seek for liberation? If we examine our psychological standpoint, we can see that we tend to identify with, to become, the external ego-personality that we have assumed. It is as if we put on a suit of clothes, a costume, and in so doing we become what that suit of clothes or costume represents, and we forget, for the time being, the person inside the costume. We become so involved in playing the role represented by the personality we put on, that our consciousness fixates itself there and we do not reside in the standpoint of the witness; rather, we are the actor participating in the action, forgetting that we have another aspect of our existence that is independent of our role.

At a certain stage, perhaps under some pressure or stress, we begin to wonder why we are doing what we are doing, why we are experiencing what we are experiencing. We try to find some meaning in the play that we take so seriously. This may lead to a drawing back of our involvement with the external life, and in so doing, we may become conscious of the silent observer, the witness, the “bird on the common tree who eats not of the fruit of that tree” as the Mundaka Upanishad pictures it.

Once we become aware of the Purusha, the drive toward liberation from, and potential mastery of, the external nature can become a central motive for the existence. This leads to spiritual practices intended to enhance this separation and accomplish a shift in standpoint from the ego-personality to the divine standpoint.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “By itself the Purusha is impersonal, but by mixing itself with the movements of Prakriti it makes for itself a surface of ego and personality. When it appears in its own separate nature then it is seen to be detached and observing.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 5, Attitudes on the Path, pg. 148