Being and becoming

Pure Being is the affirmation by the Unknowable of Itself as the free base of all cosmic existence.¹

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Becomings are many; but this simply means that all Becomings are one Being who places Himself variously in the phenomenal movement of His consciousness.²

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Becoming is an effectual reality: it is a dynamic power and result, a creative energy and working out of the Being, a constantly persistent yet mutable form, process, outcome of its immutable formless essence.³

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The world is a manifestation, and in it the absolute Parabrahman manifests as the Ishwara, the one Eternal, but also It manifests the multiplicity of the One in the Jiva. This creates in the manifestation the double aspect of Being and Becoming. But becoming does not mean that Being becomes what it never was before or that it ceases to be its eternal self; it manifests something that is already in its existence, a truth, a power, an aspect of itself; only the forms are temporal and can be deformed by the Ignorance.⁴

~ Sri Aurobindo

References:

1. CWSA Vol. 21-22, The Life Divine, Page: 33

2. CWSA Vol. 17, Isha Upanishads, Page: 87

3. CWSA Vol. 21-22, The Life Divine, Page: 685

4. CWSA Vol. 12, Essays Divine and Human, Page: 194

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