Symbols and the Question of Unity by Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet

Summary: The articles in this volume originally appeared in Mother India, a monthly review of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. They were prepared for members of the Ashram and others interested in the integral development of man. The main intention in offering these pieces was to cast some light on the harmonies existing between man and the cosmos, and in particular to demonstrate in a concrete way the unity of Spirit and Matter. This book is a must for 'those desirous of knowing the language by which the Supreme speaks to man through the workings of the Universe.'

Front Cover Flap: 'Every Breakthrough, every Age that introduces a new element in evolution, must also bring with it a new understanding of symbols, because the way in which man reveals himself and his higher states of consciousness in symbols tells us what the stage of evolution is and the achievements of any given Age. Symbols are the language whereby man expresses his experience of God, and whereby the Supreme reveals the part and image of Himself that man is in the process of expressing.'

Clothbound, diagrams, foldout, 157 pp., 1974; ISBN: 0-945747-54-3 (out of print)

Preface: 'Man’s possibilities are unlimited, as unlimited as is the universe, but to comprehend this it is necessary to go beyond fragmentary concepts of time and space and to recognize the harmonious interplay between vast and small, near and distant, which are only considered such because of the limits of our own perception.

Handed down through the ages is a design in which man is given the possibility of finding his place in the cosmic vastness; therein he can reach an understanding of what his function is in the universe, and what his spiritual destiny consists of. Not only can he view in this pattern his own spiritual fate, but this design, with all its relations of planetary interplay and energy flows, gives humanity the history of the whole evolutionary pattern, based on the unfolding in time and space of an eternal perfection; or better said, an ever perfecting consciousness is at work and this celestial harmony reveals the path humanity will follow in order that this universe be not only the inner spiritual image of God, but that ultimately all of Manifestation shall become the vivid, throbbing and pulsating divinity incarnate.'

Basics of Symbols, the Language of Unity: 'The Dot, or Point . . . represents the absorption of the All, of Creation, into its Origin. The Point is therefore the Origin. It is material creation sucked back into the Source, a dissolving of the manifestation into the ocean of its Origin. The Dot is thus equal to the Circle. It is the Circle, just as each degree or dot of the Circle represents the entire Circle, and consequently the Dot contains all and any possibility of manifestation of creation.' pp. 69-70

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