In the chapter Knowledge by Identity and Separative Knowledge in the Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo discusses the four cognitive methods of Nature. This article attempts to elucidate these methods of cognition with a couple of examples, so as to provide a layman’s introduction to the above-mentioned chapter.

Consciousness in its attempt to know something divides itself into two parts:

1.                  The first part called identification or identity whereby one gets to know something by becoming that thing.

2.                  The second part called differentiation where the consciousness remains separate, follows the first part - the becoming, and tries to know it by an intimate direct contact. 

The four cognitive methods of Nature can be classified based on the relative strengths of these two movements of identification and differentiation [1]: 

1.                  Knowledge by identity: One knows something by completely identifying with it.  There is no sense of differentiation from the thing one wishes to know.

2.                  Knowledge by intimate direct contact: Here, the sense of identification is greater than the sense of differentiation.

3.                  Knowledge by separative direct contact: This is the reverse of the previous method because the sense of identification is now lesser than the sense of differentiation.

4.                  Knowledge by indirect contact: Here the sense of differentiation is complete. One knows something only as it exists on the circumference of our consciousness.

Example of an internal movement

Let’s take the example of an internal movement such as anger, fear, grief or joy.  There are four ways in which one can see what ‘anger’ is and these can explained by the observations we make about ourselves.  

1.                  Knowledge by Identity: “I am Anger”. In this case, the vital is bursting with anger; you know Anger because you are anger and nothing else at that point in Time.   

2.                  Knowledge by intimate direct contact: “I am angry”. [Note that the previous sentence was using a noun]. The vital is agitated and the dynamic mind is bursting to say something. 

3.                  Knowledge by separative direct contact: “I am angry and the reason is as follows”. The vital is a little agitated and the dynamic mind is troubled as well, but now it is the reasoning mind which holds center-stage. As a result, it is possible to verbalize the reason for the anger.

4.                  Knowledge by indirect contact: “I see Anger arising in me but it gains little support in any part of the being”. This can be called the state of complete detachment.  One senses a pulse of anger in the heart but one stands back from it and the wave passes away without growing into a storm in our consciousness.

Example of an external object

Now we shall see how the same four methods apply with regards to an object external to our body consciousness, by using the example of how one gets to know a stranger.

We begin with Knowledge by indirect contact which in this case is the cognition of the surface being.  This purely superficial way of knowing someone should be familiar to all; it is the state where one makes statements of the following quality: “I met him.  I talked to him. He seems like a nice man.” This cognition is the result of our rudimentary instrumentation whose action operates in three stages:

1.                  The sense-mind constructs an image of the thing seen.

2.                  The intuition maps the image to an object.

3.                  The reason steps in and makes corrections to compensate for the defective instrumentation—the senses whose action was imperfect, and the intuition which acted on an image rather than the object itself.

The second stage would be Knowledge by separative direct contact and this occurs when the inner being, the subliminal, has awakened and some of its knowledge permeates into the outer being. The sense of differentiation still exceeds the identity which one feels with the external object—the stranger. The rifts in the wall of the ego which connects the inner and outer being confer upon us various supernormal powers such as telepathy, clairvoyance and second sight. Our earlier observation of the stranger might be amended by a sudden inward perception causing us to silently exclaim: “He may be a drunkard!”  These perceptions arise because the subliminal is connected to Universal Nature on the inner planes of the mind, vital and the physical and this gives it a power, but this power is still deficient and imperfect for it has not been purified by the touch of the psychic being within us. As Sri Aurobindo states in the above chapter: “For the subliminal is still a movement of Knowledge-Ignorance; it has in it a greater knowledge, but the possibility also of a greater because more self-affirming ignorance.”

The third stage is Knowledge by intimate direct contact and this comes about when the action of an inner being has been purified by the action of the psychic within us.  The involvement of the psychic being brings a sense of identity with the stranger since all are part of the Divine. Since the sense of identity is now greater than the sense of differentiation, it is aptly called Knowledge by intimate direct contact. 

The last or fourth stage is Knowledge by Identity and this occurs when the subliminal opens itself to the action of the superconscient above, for the superconscient sees all and knows all beings as parts of itself. One gains the triple knowledge as formulated in the Upanishad: [2]

1.                  Inclusion: He who sees all existences in the Self.

2.                  Indwelling: He who sees the Self in all existences.

3.                  Identity: He in whom the Self has become all existences.

To recap, the following observations about the stranger could be used to illustrate the four methods of cognition:

1.                  Knowledge by indirect contact: “I met him. I talked to him.  He seems like a nice man”. This is a pure superficial statement made in the general excitement of the prevailing social atmosphere.

2.                  Knowledge by separative direct contact: “He may be a drunkard”.  Something in the subliminal senses a problem with the other person’s vital but the result is mixed because of lack of purity.

3.                  Knowledge by intimate direct contact:  “He has a weak nervous system”. The psychic being corrects the action of the subliminal with a more accurate perception.

4.                  Knowledge by identity: “His past lives suddenly flash before your eyes and you see his strengths and weaknesses”. 

Bibliography

[1] Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Book Two, Part I, Chapter X, Knowledge by Identity and Separative Knowledge, pp. 524-52 (SABCL, Vol. 18)

[2] Ibid., p. 546