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SECTION FIVE THE CENTRAL PROCESS AND FUNDAMENTAL REALISATIONS FOR INTEGRAL YOGA
I. PSYCHIC CONVERSION The Path
YOU know the three things on which the realisation has to be based: (1) on a rising to a station above the mind and on the opening out of the cosmic consciousness; (2) on the psychic opening; and (3) on the descent of the higher consciousness with its peace, light, force, knowledge, Ananda etc. into all the planes of the being down to the most physical. All this has to be done by the working of the Mother’s force aided by your aspiration, devotion and surrender. That is the Path. The rest is a matter of the working out of these things for which you have to have faith in the Mother’s working. 30-10-1934 Page – 89 The Three Fundamental Realisations
THE fundamental realisations of this Yoga are: 1. The psychic change so that a complete devotion can be the main motive of the heart and the ruler of thought, life and action in constant union with the Mother and in her Presence. 2. The descent of the Peace, Power, Light, etc. of the Higher Consciousness through the head and heart into the whole being, occupying the Very cells of the body. 3. The perception of the One and Divine infinitely everywhere, the Mother everywhere and living in that infinite consciousness. 17-9-1936 Psychic Transformation
THE psychic is the first of two transformations necessary; if you have the psychic transformation it facilitates immensely the other, i.e., the transformation of the ordinary human into the higher spiritual consciousness—otherwise one is likely to have either a slow and dull or exciting but perilous journey…. Page – 90 . I have never said anything about a "transformation of the psychic"; I have always written about a "psychic transformation" of the nature, which is a very different matter. I have sometimes written of it as a psychicisation of the nature. The psychic is in the evolution, part of the human being, its divine part—so a psychicisation will not carry one beyond the present evolution but will make the being ready to respond to all that comes from the Divine or Higher Nature and unwilling to respond to the Asura, Rakshasa, Pishacha or Animal in the being or to any resistance of the lower nature which stands in the way of the divine change. The Psychic Being
IT appears X supposed that by the psychic being I meant the enlightened ego. But people do not understand what I mean by the psychic being, because the word psychic has been used in English to mean anything of the inner mental, inner vital or inner physical or anything abnormal or occult or even the more subtle movements of the outer being, all in a jumble; also occult phenomena are often called psychic. The distinction between these different . Page – 91 parts of the being is unknown. Even in India the old knowledge of the Upanishads in which they are distinguished has been lost. The Jivatman, the psychic being (Purusha Antaratman), the Manomaya Purusha, the Pranamaya Purusha are all confused together. 1-6-1937 Psychic Being, Antahkarana and Ahambhava
I DO not know what is exactly meant by this phrase—it is too vague and limited for a description of the psychic. Antahkarana usually means the mind and vital as opposed to the body—the body being the outer instrument and manah-prana, the inner instrument of the soul. By psychic I mean something different from a purified mind and vital. A purified mind and vital are the result of the action of the awakened and liberated psychic being but it is not itself the psychic. Again, it depends on what is meant by Ahambhava. But the psychic is not a bhava. It is a Purusha. Ahambhava is a formation of Prakriti, it is not a being Page – 92 . or a Purusha. Ahambhava, can disappear and yet the Purusha will be there. By liberated psychic being I mean that it is no longer obliged to express itself under the conditions of the obscure and ignorant instruments, from behind a veil, but is able to come forward, control and change the action of mind and life and body. If it is perhaps sometimes spoken of as purified and perfected, what must be meant is the psychic action in the mind, vital and the physical instruments. A purified inner being does not mean a purified psychic, but a purified inner mental, vital and physical. The epithets I used for the psychic were "awakened and liberated". Spiritual individuality is rather a vague term and might be variously interpreted. I have written about the psychic being that the psychic is the soul or spark of the Divine Fire supporting the individual evolution on the earth and the psychic being is the soul-consciousness developing itself or rather its manifestation from life to life with the mind, vital and body as its instruments until all is ready for the union with the Divine. I don’t know that I can add anything to that. Page – 93 Soul-Spark and Psychic Being
THE soul is described as a spark of the Divine Fire in life and matter, that is an image. It has not been described as a spark of consciousness. There is mental, vital, physical consciousness—- different from the psychic. The psychic being and consciousness are not identical. When the soul or "spark of the Divine Fire" begins to develop a psychic individuality, that psychic individuality is called the psychic being. The soul or spark is there before the development of an organised vital and mind. The soul is something of the Divine that descends into the evolution as a divine Principle within it to support the evolution of the individual out of the Ignorance into the Light. It develops in the course of the evolution a psychic individual or soul individuality which grows from life to life, using the evolving mind, vital and body as its instruments. It is the soul that is immortal while the rest disintegrates; it passes from life to life carrying its experience in essence and the continuity of the evolution of the individual. It is the whole consciousness, mental, vital, physical also, that has to rise and join the higher Page – 94 . consciousness and, once the joining is made, the higher has to descend into them. The psychic is behind all that and supports it. 10-9-1937 Psychic Fire and Psychic Being
THE psychic fire is the fire of aspiration, purification and Tapasya which comes from the psychic being. It is not the psychic being, but a power of the psychic being. The psychic being is a Purusha, not a flame—the psychic fire is not the being, it is something proper to it. May, 1935 Psychic Being and Centres
THE psychic being (which is the soul) does not make centres for itself in the Adhar. The centres are there. The psychic being can take control of the centres that are already there—the heart and the Page – 95 navel centre and the two below the navel. Also the mind and vital are not abolished—they are brought under the psychic influence and psychicised, or they are occupied by the higher consciousness from above and transformed into its instruments. 3-8-1934 Call of the Soul
WHAT you write is quite accurate about the true soul, the psychic being. But people mean different things when they speak of the soul. Sometimes it is what I have called in the Arya the desire-soul, —that is the vital with its mixed aspirations, desires, hungers of all kinds good and bad, its emotions, finer and grosser, or sensational urges crossed by the mind’s idealisings and psychic stresses. But sometimes it is also the mind and vital under the stress of a psychic urge. The psychic, so long as it is veiled, must express itself through the mind and vital and its aspirations are mixed and coloured there by the vital and mental stuff. Thus the veiled psychic urge may express itself in the mind by a hunger in the thought for the knowledge of the Page – 96 . Divine, what the Europeans call the intellectual love of God. In the vital it may express itself as a hunger or hankering after the Divine. It can bring much suffering .because of the nature of the vital, its unquiet passions, desires, ardours, troubled emotions, cloudings, depressions, despairs. Nevertheless all cannot approach, at least cannot at once approach the Divine in the pure psychic way—the mental and vital approaches are often necessary beginnings and better from the spiritual point of view than unsensitiveness to the Divine. It is in both cases a call of the soul, the soul’s urge—it only takes a form or colour due to the stress of the mind or vital nature. 27-5-1936 Psychic Push
THE push to drown oneself in the Divine is very rare. It is usually a mental idea, a vital urge or some quite inadequate reason that starts the thing —or else no reason at all. The only reality is the occult psychic push behind of which the surface consciousness is not aware or else hardly aware. Page – 97 Idealistic Notion, Religious Belief and Spiritual Light
AN idealistic notion or religious belief or emotion is something quite different from getting spiritual light. An idealistic notion might turn you towards getting spiritual light, but it is not the light itself. It is true however that "the spirit bloweth where it listeth" and that we can get an emotional impulse or touch or mental realisation of spiritual things from almost any circumstance., as Bilwamangal got it from the words of his courtesan mistress. Obviously, it happens because something is ready somewhere,—if you like, the psychic being waiting for its chance and taking some opportunity in mind, vital or heart to knock open a window somewhere. 27-10-1935 Best Means for Psychic Awakening
ASPIRATION, constant and sincere, and the will to "turn to the Divine alone are the best means to bring forward the psychic. Page – 98 Importance of Psychic Change of Nature
I HAVE read your account of your sadhana. There is nothing to say, I think,—for it is all right— except that the most important thing for you is to develop the psychic fire in the heart and the aspiration for the psychic being to come forward as the leader of the sadhana. When the psychic does so, it will show you the "undetected ego-knots" of which you speak and loosen them or burn them in /the psychic fire. This psychic development and the psychic change of mind, vital and physical consciousness is of the utmost importance because it makes safe and easy the descent of the higher consciousness and the spiritual transformation with- out which the supramental must always remain jar distant. Powers etc. have their place, but a very minor one so long as this is not done. 28-2-1937 Soul’s Action in Yoga
You are describing the action of the ordinary existence, not the Yoga. Yoga is a seeking (not a mental Page – 99 searching), it is not experimenting in contraries and contradictories. It is the mind that does that and .the mind that analyses. The soul does not search, analyse, experiment—it seeks, feels, experiences. The only grain of truth in your statement is that the Yoga is very usually a series of ups and downs till you get to a certain height. But there is a quite different reason for that—not the vagaries of the soul. On the contrary, when the psychic being gets in front and becomes master, there comes in a fundamentally smooth action and although there are difficulties and undulations of movement, these are no longer of an abrupt or dramatic character.
Psychic Awakening and Conversion— Coming of Desires
THE psychic being is always there, but is not felt because it is covered up by the mind and vital; when it is no longer covered up, it is then said to be awake. When it is awake, it begins to take hold of the rest of the being, to influence it and change it so that all may become the true expression of the inner soul. It is this change that is called the inner Page – 100 conversion. There can be no conversion without the awakening of the psychic being, It is not necessary that there should be any particular strong desire at the time of the experience. What you describe is the general experience that all the ordinary vital movements are foreign to the; true being and come from outside. The desires come from outside, enter the subconscious vital and rise to the surface. It is only -when they rise to the surface and the mind becomes aware of them, that people become conscious; of the desire. It seems to them to be their own because they feel it thus rising from the vital into the mind and do not know that it came from outside. What belongs to the vital is not the desire itself, but the habit of responding to the desires that come into it from universal Prakriti. 19-4-1930 Action of the Psychic and True Vital Being
IT is your psychic being which came in front, probably, or else it is the true vital being in you which was able to come in front because you took . Page – 101 the psychic attitude. When the psychic being comes in front, there is an automatic perception of the true and untrue, the divine and the undivine, the spiritual right and wrong of things, and the false vital and mental movements and attacks are immediately exposed and fall away and can do nothing; gradually the vital and physical as well as the mind get full of this psychic light and truth and sound feeling and purity, and such violent attacks as you have are impossible. When the true vital being comes forward, it is something wide and strong and calm, an unmoved and powerful warrior for the Divine and the Truth, repelling all enemies, bringing in a true strength and force, and opening the vital to the greater consciousness above. It has to be seen which of the two it is you feel within.
Soul and Nature
THE soul is the witness, upholder, master, experiencer, but it is master only in theory, in fact it is not master so long as it consents to the Ignorance. For that is a general consent which implies that the Prakriti gambols about with the Purusha and Page – 102 does pretty well what she likes with him. When he wants to get back his mastery, make the theoretical practical, he needs a lot of tapasya to do it,… The psychic has always been veiled, consenting to the play of the mind, vital and physical, experiencing everything through them in the ignorant vital, mental and physical way. How then can it be that they are bound to change at once when it just takes the trouble to whisper or say, "Let there be Light"? They have a tremendous negating power and can refuse and do refuse point-blank. The mind resists with an obstinate persistency in argument and a constant confusion of ideas, the vital with a fury of bad will aided by the mind’s obliging reasonings on its side, the physical resists with an obstinate inertia and crass fidelity to old habit, and when they have done, the general Nature comes in and says, "What, you are going to get free from me so early? Not, if I know it," and it besieges and throws back the old nature on you again and again as long as it can. Yet you say it is the soul that wants all this ‘fun’ and goes off laughing and prancing to get some more!…. Page – 103 Sudden Psychic Opening
IT is very evident that D has had a sudden opening to spiritual experience—a surprisingly sudden opening, one would think, but it happens often in that way, especially if there is a sceptical mind outside; and a soul ready for experience within. In such cases also it comes often after a blow such as his brother’s illness, but I think there was already a turning of the mind which prepared it. This sudden and persistent visualisation also shows that there is a faculty within that has broken the gates which shut it in—the faculty of supraphysical vision. The coming up of the word "consecration" is also a familiar phenomenon of these experiences —it is what I call the voice of the psychic, an intimation from his own soul to the mind as to what it wants him to do. Now he has to accept it, for the assent of the nature, of the outward man to the inner voice, is necessary so that it may be effective. He is standing at the turning-point and has been given an indication of the new road his inner being, the Antaratman, wants him to follow—but, as I say, the assent of his mind and vital is necessary. If he can decide to consecrate, he must make the sankalpa of consecration, offer himself to the Divine and call for the help and the guidance. If he is not Page – 104 able to do that at once, let him wait and see, but keeping himself open, as it were, to the continuation and development of the experience that has begun, till it becomes definitely imperative to his own feeling. He will receive help and, if he becomes conscious of it, then there can be no further question—it will be easy for him to proceed on the way, 8-11-1936 Psychic Experiences and Psychic Modification : of Mature
IT was certainly an experience of great value; a psychic experience par excellence. "A feeling of velvety softness within—an ineffable plasticity within" is a psychic experience and can be nothing else. It means a modification of the substance of the consciousness especially in the vital-emotional part, and such a modification prolonged or repeated till it became permanent would mean a great step in what I call the psychic transformation of the being. It is just these modifications in the inner substance that make transformation possible. Further, it was a modification that made a beginning Page – .105 of Knowledge possible—for by Knowledge we mean in Yoga not thought or ideas about spiritual things but psychic understanding from within and spiritual illumination from above. Therefore the first result was this feeling of yours that "there was no ignominy in not understanding it all and that the true understanding would come only when one realised that one was completely impotent." This was itself a beginning of understanding—a psychic understanding, something felt within which sheds a light or brings up a spiritual truth that mere thinking would not have given, also a truth that is effective in bringing both the enlightenment and solace you needed, for what the psychic being brings with it always is light and happiness, an inner understanding and relief and solace. Another very promising aspect of this experience is that it came as an immediate response to an appeal to the Divine. You asked for the understanding and the way out and at once Krishna showed you both— the way out was the change of the consciousness within, the plasticity which makes the knowledge possible and also the understanding of the condition of mind and vital in which the true knowledge or power of knowledge could come. For the inner knowledge comes from within and above (whether from the Divine in the heart or from the Self above) Page – 106 . and for it to come, the pride of the mind and vital in the surface mental ideas and their insistence on them must go. One must know that one is ignorant before one can begin to know. This shows that I am not wrong in pressing for the psychic opening as the only way out. For as the psychic opens, such responses and much more also become common and the inner change also proceeds by which they are made possible. 31-5-1936 Consequences of Psychic Opening
WHEN the psychic being awakens, you grow conscious of your own soul; you know your self. And you no longer commit the mistake of identifying yourself with the mental or with the vital being. You do not mistake them for the soul. Secondly, when awakened, the psychic being gives true bhakti for God or for the Guru. That bhakti is quite different from mental or vital bhakti. In the mind one may have admiration or appreciation for the intellectual greatness of the man—or Guru, but it is merely mental; it does not carry the . Page -107 matter very far. Of course there is no harm in having that also. But by itself it does not open the whole of the inner being; it only establishes a mental contact. The vital bhakti demands and demands. It imposes its own conditions. It surrenders itself to God, but conditionally. It says to God, "You are so great, I worship you, and now satisfy my this desire or that ambition, make me great, make me a great sadhak, a great Yogin, etc." The unillumined mind also surrenders to the Truth, but makes its own conditions. It says to the Truth, "Satisfy my judgment and my opinion"; it demands the Truth to cast itself in the mind’s own forms. The vital being also insists on the Truth to throw itself into its own movement of force. The vital being pulls at the Higher Power and pulls and pulls at the vital being of the Guru. Both of them (the mental and the vital) have got an arrière-pensee (mental reservation) in their surrender. But the psychic being and its bhakti are not like that. Because it is in direct communication with the Divinity behind, it is capable of true bhakti. Psychic bhakti does not make any demand, makes -no reservation. It is satisfied with its own existence. Page – 108 . The psychic being knows how to obey the Truth in the right way. It gives itself up truly to God or to the Guru, and because it can give itself up truly, therefore it can also receive truly. Thirdly, when the psychic being comes to the surface, it feels sad when the mental or the vital being is making a fool of itself. That sadness is purity offended. When the mind is playing its own game or when the vital being is carried away by its own impulses,. it is the psychic being which says, "I don’t want these things; what am I here for after all? I am here for the Truth, I am not here for these things." Psychic sadness is again different from mental dissatisfaction or vital sadness or physical depression. If the psychic being is strong, it makes itself felt on the mental or the vital being, and forces them— compels them—to change. But if it is weak, the other parts take advantage of it and use the psychic sadness to their own advantage. In some cases the psychic being comes up to the surface and upsets the mental or the vital being and throws everything into disorder. But if the mind or the vital being is stronger than the psychic, then it casts only an occasional influence and gradually retires behind. All its cry is in the wilderness; Page – 109 and the mental or the vital being goes on in its own round. Lastly, the psychic being refuses to be deceived by appearances. It is not carried away by falsehood. It refuses to be depressed by falsehood—nor does it exaggerate the truth. For example, even if everything around says, "There is no God", the psychic being refuses to believe in it. It says, "I know, and I know because I feel." And because it knows the thing behind, it is not deceived by appearances. It immediately feels the Force. Also, when the psychic being is awakened, it throws out all the dross from the emotional being and makes it free from sentimentalism or the lower play of emotionalism. But it does not carry in it the dryness of the mind or the exaggeration of the vital feelings. It gives the just touch to each emotion. 23-3-1926 Page – 110 II. ASCENT TO HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS
The Upward Opening
I MAY say that the opening upwards, the ascent into the Light and the subsequent descent into the ordinary consciousness and normal human life is very common as the first decisive experience in the practice of Yoga and may very well happen even without the practice of Yoga in those who are destined for the spiritual change, especially if there is a dissatisfaction somewhere with the ordinary life and a seeking for something more, greater or better. It comes often exactly in the way that she describes and the cessation of the experience and the descent: also come in the same way. This first experience may be followed by a very long time during which there is no repetition of it or any subsequent experience. If there is a constant practice of Yoga, the interval need not be so long; but even so, it is often long enough. The descent is inevitable because it is not the whole being that has risen up but only something within, and all the rest of the nature is unprepared, absorbed in or attached to ordinary life and governed by movements that are not in. Page – 111 consonance with the Light. Still, the something within is something central in the being and therefore the experience is in a way definitive and decisive, For it comes as a decisive intimation of the spiritual destiny and an indication of what must be reached some time in the life. Once it has been there, something is bound to happen which will open the way, determine the right knowledge and the right attitude enabling one to proceed on the way and bring a helping influence. After that, the work of clearing away the obstacles that prevent the return to the Light and the ascension of the whole being and, what is equally important, the descent of the Light into the whole being, can be begun and progress towards completion. It may take long or be rapid, that depends on the inner push and also on outer circum- stances but the inner aspiration and endeavour count more than the circumstances which can accommodate themselves to the inner need if that is very strong. The moment has come for her and the necessary aspiration and knowledge and the influence that can help her. Page – 112 The Upward Movement
THE ascent or the upward movement takes place when there is a sufficient aspiration from the being, i.e., from the various mental, vital and physical planes. Each in turn ascends above the mind to the place where it meets the supramental and can then receive the origination of all its movements from above. The higher descends when you have a receptive quietude in the various planes of your being prepared to receive it. In either case, whether in aspiring upward to rise to the higher or in remaining passive and open to receive the higher, an entire calmness in the different parts of the being is the true condition. If you do not have the necessary force in a quiet aspiration or will and if you find that a certain. amount of effort will help you to rise upward, you may go on using it as a temporary means, until there is the natural openness in which a silent call or a simple effortless will is sufficient to induce the action of the Higher Shakti. Page -113 Ascent to the Higher Consciousness
THERE is something in you that has become aware of the higher consciousness and gone up there above the head where the ordinary consciousness and the higher planes meet. That has to be developed till the whole source of the consciousness is there and all the rest directed from there—with, at the same time, a liberation of the psychic so that it may support the action from above in the mind, the vital and in the physical parts. It is the Atman, the spiritual being above the mind—the first experience of it is a silence and calm (which one perceives afterwards to be infinite and eternal), untouched by the movements of mind and life and body. The higher consciousness lives always in touch with the Self—the lower is separated from it by the activities of the Ignorance. 27-10-1933 Rising of the Kundalini
THE force which you felt must evidently have been a rising of the Kundalini ascending to join the Page – 114 Force above and bring down the energy needed to ease the depression and then again rising to enforce the connection between the Above and the lower centres. The seeming expansion of the head is due to the joining of the mind with the consciousness of the Self or Divine above. That consciousness is wide and illimitable and, when one rises into it, the individual consciousness also breaks its limits and feels wide and illimitable. At such times one often feels as if there were no head and no body but all were a wide self and its consciousness, or else the head or the body is only a circumstance in that. The body or the physical mind is sometimes startled or alarmed at these experiences because they are abnormal to it; but there is no ground for alarm,—these are usual experiences in the Yoga. 16-4-1936 Subtle Barrier to Ascent
WIDENESS is a sign of the extension of consciousness out of the ordinary limits—whiteness of the wideness means that it is the pure consciousness one is feeling, unless it is white light or luminous light Page – 115 which indicates the Mother’s, consciousness there or some influence of it. The subtle barrier you felt must have been the same thing that prevents your ascent from the heart and from it your going beyond into the regions above. There is always a sort of a lid there and it is only when that is opened or disappears that one can go freely above. One can be aware of; "unseen wideness" but one is not a self there until that is done.
Sahasrara and Ajnachakra (1); THE crown is the place of passage between the body-consciousness with all it contains of mind and life and the higher being above the body. It is there that the two consciousnesses begin to meet. 14-4-1934 (2) The thousand-petalled lotus is above the head. It is the seventh and highest centre. Page – 116 Usually those who take the centres in the body only, count six centres, the sahasrara being excluded. 13-4-1934 (3) The centre at the crown must be part of the sahasradala, the centre of communication direct between the individual being and the infinite Consciousness above. There is not supposed to be any other main centre of dynamism between that and the ajnachakra. But there can be many nerve-centres in various parts of the body, apart from the six or rather seven main centres. 7-12-1936 (4) In the forehead between the eyes but a little above is the ajnachakra, the centre of the inner will, also of the inner vision, the dynamic mind, etc. (This is not the ordinary outer mental will and sight, but something more powerful, belonging to the inner being.) When this centre opens and the Page – 117 Force there is active, then there is the opening of a greater will, power of decision, formation, effectiveness, beyond what the ordinary mind can achieve. 17-3-1933 Experience of the Higher Peace and Force
THESE are the ordinary normal experiences of the sadhana when there is an opening from above the contact with the peace of the Brahman, Self or Divine and the contact with the higher Power, the Power of the Mother. He does not know what they are, quite naturally, but feels very correctly and his description is quite accurate. "How beautiful, calm and still all seems—as if in water there were not even a wave. But it is not Nothingness. I feel a Presence steeped in life but absolutely silent and quiet in meditation,"—there could hardly be a better description of this experience—the experience of the peace and silence of the Divine or of the Divine itself in its own essential peace and silence. Also what he feels about the Force is quite correct, "something from above the mani- Page – 118 tested creation (mind—matter), a Force behind that is distinct from that which gives rise to emotions, anger, lust which are all purified and transformed gradually", in other words, the Divine or Spiritual Force, other than the cosmic vital which supports the ordinary embodied .consciousness; that is also very clear. I suppose it is only a contact yet, but a very true and vivid contact if it gives rise to so vivid and true a feeling. It looks as if he were going to make a very good beginning. 1-2-1936 Experience of Cosmic Self-—Static and Dynamic
THE experiences were all right—but they give only one side of the Divine Truth, that which one attains through the higher mind—the other side is what one attains through the heart. Above the higher mind these two truths become one. If one realises the silent Atman above, there is no danger, but there is also no transformation, only moksha, nirvana. If one realises the cosmic self, dynamic and active, then one realises all as the Self, all as myself, that self as the Divine, etc. This is all true; but the danger is of the Page – 119 ego catching hold of "my" in that conception of "all is myself". For this "myself" is not my personal self but everybody’s self as well as mine. The way to get rid of any such danger is to remember that this Divine is also the Mother, that the personal "I" is a child of the Mother with whom I am one, yet different, her child, servant, instrument. I have said that you should not stop realising the Self as the cosmic consciousness, but should at the same time remember that all this is the Mother.
Advantage of Self-Realisation preceding Cosmic Consciousness
LIBERATION is the first necessity, to live in the peace, silence, purity, freedom of the self. Along with that or afterwards if one wakens to the cosmic consciousness, then one can be free, yet one with all things. To have the cosmic consciousness without liberation is possible, but then there is no freedom anywhere in the being from the lower nature and one may become in one’s extended consciousness the playground of all kinds of forces without being able to be either free or master. Page – 120 On the other hand, if there has been Self-realisation, there is one part of the being that remains untouched amid the play of the cosmic forces while if the peace and purity of the self has been established in the whole inner consciousness, then the outer touches of the lower nature can’t come in or overpower. This is the advantage of Self-realisation preceding the cosmic consciousness and, supporting it.
The Witness Purusha
THE consciousness you speak of would be described in the Gita as the witness Purusha. The Purusha or basic consciousness is the true being or at least, in whatever plane it manifests, represents the true being. But in the ordinary nature of man it is covered up by the ego and the ignorant play of the Prakriti and remains veiled behind as the unseen Witness supporting the play of the Ignorance. When it emerges, you feel it as a consciousness behind, calm, central, unidentified with the play which depends upon it. It gay be covered over, but it is always there. The . Page – 121 emergence of the Purusha is the beginning of liberation. But it can also become slowly the Master- slowly because the whole habit of the ego and the play of the lower forces is against that. Still it can dictate what higher play is to replace the lower movement and then there is the process of that replacement, the higher coming, the lower struggling to remain and push away the higher movement. You say rightly that the offering to the Divine shortens the whole thing and is ‘more effective, but usually it cannot be done completely at once owing to the past habit and the two methods continue together until the complete surrender is possible. 31-5-1933 The Witness and the Player
As for the spectator and the coils of the dragon, it is the Chino-Japanese image for the world-force extending itself in the course of the universe and this expresses the attitude of the witness seeing it all and observing in its unfolding the unrolling of the play of the Divine Lila. It is this attitude that gives the greatest calm, peace, samata in face of the riddle of Page – 122 the cosmic workings. It is not meant that action and movement are not accepted but they are accepted as the Divine Working which is leading to ends which the mind may not always see at once, but the soul divines through all the supreme purpose and the hidden guidance. Of course, there is afterwards an experience in which the two sides of the Divine Whole, the Witness and the Player blend together; but this poise of the spectator comes first and leads to that fuller experience. It gives the balance, the calm, the increasing understanding of soul and life and their deeper significances without which the full supramental experience cannot come. 30-12-1932 Cosmic Spirit mid Cosmic Force
THERE is this much truth that the Cosmic Force works out everything and the Cosmic Spirit (Virat Purusha) supports her action. The Cosmic Force is a Power that works under the conditions of the Ignorance—it appears as the lower nature and the lower nature makes you do wrong things. The Divine allows the play of these forces so long as you do not Page – 123 yourself want anything better. But if you are a sadhak, then you do not accept the play of the lower nature, you turn to the Divine Mother instead, and ask her to work through you instead of the lower nature. It is only when you have turned entirely in every part of your being to the Divine Mother and to her alone that the Divine will do all actions through you.
Three Steps to the Supreme Realisation
IT refers to a certain stage when the consciousness is sometimes in activity and when not in activity is withdrawn in itself. Afterwards comes a stage when the Sachchidananda condition is there in work also. There is a still further stage when both are, as it were, one, but that is the Supramental. The two states are the Silent Brahman and the Active Brahman and they can alternate (1st stage), coexist (2nd stage), fuse (3rd stage)…. Certainly it (highest realisation, Sachchidananda) is realisable in works. Good Lord! How could the integral Yoga exist, if it were not?…. Page – 124 Liberation of Consciousness and Instruments
WHAT you feel is the normal condition when the liberation takes place. The work of the senses etc. goes on as before, but the consciousness is different, so that one feels not only the sense of liberation, separation, etc., but that one is living in quite another world than that of the ordinary mind, life or senses. It is another consciousness with another knowledge and way of looking at things that begins. Afterwards as this consciousness takes possession of the instruments, there is a harmony of it with the sense and life; but these too become different, with a changed outlook, seeing the world no more as before but as if made of another substance with another significance. .12-12-1936 Yogic Concentration and Relaxation
THERE are two different states, that which the consciousness takes in concentration and that which it takes in relaxation—the latter is the ordinary consciousness (ordinary for the sadhak though not . Page – 125 perhaps the ordinary consciousness of the average man), the former is what he is attaining to by Tapas of concentration in sadhana. To go into the Akshara and witness experiences from there is easy for the sadhak who has got so far. He can also concentrate and maintain the unification of the main aspects of his being, although with more difficulty—but a relaxation there brings him back to the relaxed ordinary consciousness. It is only when what is gained by sadhana becomes normal to the ordinary consciousness that this can be avoided. In proportion as this is done, it becomes possible not only to experience the truth subjectively, but make it manifest in action.
Overhead Planes
THE Self governs the diversity of its creation by its unity on all the planes from the Higher Mind upwards on which the realisation of the One is the natural basis of consciousness. But as one goes upward, the view changes, the power of consciousness changes, the Light becomes ever more intense and potent. Although the static realisation of Infinity and Eternity and the Timeless One remains the Page – 126 same, the vision of the workings of the One becomes ever wider and is attended with a greater instrumentality of Force and a more comprehensive grasp of what has to be known and done. All possible forms and constructions of things become more and more visible, put in their proper place, utilisable. Moreover, what is thought-knowledge in the Higher Mind becomes illumination in the Illumined Mind and direct intimate vision in the Intuition. But the Intuition sees in flashes and combines through a constant play of light—through revelations, inspirations, intuitions, swift discriminations. The Overmind sees calmly, steadily, in great masses and large extensions of space and time and relation, globally; it creates and acts in the same way—it is the world of the great Gods, the divine Creators. Only, each creates in his own way; he sees all but sees all from his own viewpoint. There is riot the absolute supramental harmony and certitude. These, inadequately expressed, are some of the differences. I speak, of course, of these planes in themselves—when acting in the human consciousness they are necessarily much diminished in their working by having to depend on the human instrumentation of mind, vital and physical. Only when these are quieted, they get a fuller force and reveal more their character. Page – 127 Thought the Paraclete* (1)
As thought rises in the scale, it ceases to be intellectual, becomes illumined, then intuitive, then overmental and finally disappears seeking the last Beyond. The poem (Thought the Paraclete) does not express any philosophical thought, however; it is simply a perception of a certain movement, that is all. "Pale blue" is the colour of the higher ranges of mind up to the intuition. Above it, it begins to become golden with the supramental Light. 14-1-1935 (2)
Thought is not the giver of Knowledge but the "mediator" between the Inconscient and the Superconscient. It compels the world born from the Inconscient to reach for a Knowledge other than the instinctive vital or merely empirical, for the Knowledge that itself exceeds thought; it calls for that
* A poem by Sri Aurobindo, vide "Colleted Poems and Plays." Page -128 superconscient Knowledge and prepares the consciousness here to receive it. It rises itself into the higher realms and even in disappearing into the supramental and Ananda levels is transformed into something that will bring down their powers into the silent self which its cessation leaves behind it. Gold-red is the colour of the Supramental in the physical—the poem describes Thought in the stage when it is undergoing transformation and is about to ascend into the Infinite above and disappear into it. The ‘flame-word rune’ is the Word of the higher Inspiration, Intuition, Revelation which is the highest attainment of Thought. 30-12-1936 Mental Overwind to Supermind
THERE are many stages in the transition from mental overmind to supramentalised overmind and then from that to supramental overmind and from there to Supermind. Do not be in a hurry to say, "This is the last highest overmind." February, 1934 Page – 129 Supramental Overmind
SUPRAMENTAL overmind is still overmind—not a part of the true Supermind. One cannot get into the true Supermind (except in some kind of trance or Samadhi) unless one has first objectivised the overmind Truth in life, speech, action, external knowledge and not only experienced it in meditation and inner experience. February, 1934 Overmind Power on Lower Planes
OVERMIND experience comes when one rises to the overmind plane and sees things as they are on that plane or as they look to the consciousness which sees the other planes from the overmind view. When one is in the mind, life or physical plane, then it is the overmind Influence that comes down and modifies the mind, life or physical workings in greater or less degree according to the possibilities or the thing to be done at the moment. It is not the sole power as it is in its own plane but works under mental, vital or physical conditions. Its power is more subjective than objective—it is easy for it to change Our view Page – 130 and experience of the object and our knowledge about it, but not so easy for it to change the object or its nature or circumstances or the outward state of things in that plane. October, 1933 Mental and Overmental Intuition
MENTAL intuitive knowledge catches directly some aspect of the truth but without any completeness or certitude and the intuition is easily mixed with ordinary mental stuff that may be erroneous; in application it may easily be a half-truth or be so misinterpreted and misapplied as to become an error. Also, the mind easily imitates the intuition in such a way that it is difficult to distinguish between a true or a false intuition. That is the reason why men of intellect distrust the mental intuition and say that it cannot be accepted or followed unless it is tested a and confirmed by the intellect. What comes from the overmind intuition has a light, a certitude, an effective force of Truth in it that the mental intuition at its best even has not. 9-7-1933 Page – 131 III. DESCENT AND TRANSFORMATION The Descent
THE descent is that of the powers of the higher consciousness which is above the head. It usually descends from centre to centre till it has occupied the whole being. But at the beginning the action is very variable. It is only when the Peace from above has not only descended but established itself in the whole system that there is a continuous action. The descent comes in order to transform the consciousness but the transformation takes time. It is not done all in a moment. 11-8-1934 Purpose of Descent THE Force descends for two things: (1) To transform the nature. (2) To carry on the work through the instrument. At first one is not conscious of either working, Page – 132 afterwards one becomes conscious of the Force working but not of how it works. Finally, one becomes conscious entirely and in detail. 19-5-1934 Descent of the Mothers Overhead Force
WHAT you feel streaming down must be the Mother’s overhead Force. It flows usually from above the head and works at first in the mind centres (head and neck) and afterwards goes down into the chest and heart and then through the movement of the whole body. It is the effect of this working which you must be feeling in the head up to the shoulders. The Force that comes down from above is the one that works to transform the, consciousness into that of a higher spiritual being. Before that the Mother’s Force works in the psychic, mental, vital and the physical plane itself to support, purify and psychically change the consciousness. Page – 133 Descent from Above
IT is the universal experience of sadhaks that force or consciousness or Ananda like this first comes from above—or around—and presses on or surrounds the head, then it pierces the skull as it were and fills first the brain and forehead and then the whole head and descends occupying each centre till the whole system is full and replete. Of course there are, or can be, preliminary rushes occupying the whole body for a time or some part of the system most open and least resistant to the influence.
The Quiet Flow and Big Descents,
THE quiet flow is necessary for permeating the lower parts. The big descents open the way and bring constant reinforcement and the culminating force at the end—but the quiet flow is also needed.
Descent of Peace and Force
SOME have this swaying of the body when the Peace or the Force begins to descend upon it, as it facilitates Page – 134 for if the reception. The swaying ceases usually when the body is accustomed to assimilate the descent. The peace comes fully at the meditation time because the Mother’s concentration at that time brings down the power of the higher consciousness and one can receive it if one is able to do so. Once it begins to come, it usually increases its force along with the receptivity of the sadhak until it can come at all times and under all conditions and stay longer and longer till it is stable. The sadhak on his side has to keep his consciousness as quiet and still as possible to receive it. The Peace, Power, Light, Ananda of the higher spiritual consciousness are there in all veiled above. A certain opening upwards is needed for it to descend—the quietude of the mind and a certain wide concentrated passivity to the descending influence are the best conditions for the descent.
Descent of Knowledge from Overhead Planes
THE knowledge comes from above like the light and peace and everything else. As the consciousness progresses, it comes from a higher and higher level. First it is the higher illumined mind that predominates, then the intuitive, Page – 135 next the overmind, lastly the supermind; but the whole consciousness has to be sufficiently transformed before the supramental Knowledge can begin to come. 15-10-1934 Descent of Light
THERE are special forces of the Light and there is a play of them according to needs but the Light in itself can be lived in as much as one can live in Peace or Ananda. As Peace and Ananda can pour through the whole system and finally stabilise themselves so that they are in the body, and the body and the whole being are in them—one might almost say, are that, are the Peace and Ananda—so it can be with Light. It can pour into the body, make every cell luminous, fix itself and surround on all sides in one luminous mass of Light. 18-10-1934 Page – 136 Approach of Higher Consciousness to the Subconscient
IT is the approach of the higher consciousness to the subconscient through the psychic and vital which are the connecting links. Without the vital the action would not be complete, without the psychic it would not be possible. 18-5-1934 Initial Opening and Full Descent
THE opening of the vital mind (or any part) does not mean that the vital mind is absolutely open or wholly converted so that there shall never again be any darkness or ignorance or error or resistance or anything else but the consciousness there. It only means that the higher consciousness is able to come down there and work and establish something of itself in that part. Each plane, one after the other, has to open initially in that way down to the physical. So long as this initial opening is not made in all the parts, there can be no complete and final descent of the higher consciousness anywhere. If the nervous being and other physical parts are not open, even the Page – 137 thinking mind cannot be finally open, for it can be affected by resistance, darkness, etc. from below. If the vital mind is open, that does not mean that it is open so wholly that it is already divine and is not feeling pride or other wrong movements. As for the nervous being, it is part of the physical consciousness, below the physical mind and not above it—the nerves are part of the body. 18-6-1934 Condition of Complete Change
WITH the opening there must be the full self-giving to what comes down which is the condition of complete change. It is the last stage that is the real difficulty and it is there that everybody stumbles about till if is overcome.
Results of the Descent of Higher Consciousness in the Body
THESE are some of the effects of the descent of the higher Consciousness into the most physical. It Page – 138 brings light, consciousness, force, Ananda into the cells and all the physical movements. The body becomes conscious and vigilant and performs the right movements, obeying the higher will or else automatically by the force of the consciousness that has come into it. It becomes more possible to control the functions of the body and set right anything that is wrong, to deal with illness and pain, etc. A greater control comes over the actions of the body and even over happenings to it from outside, e.g., minimising of accidents and small mishaps. The body becomes a more effective instrument for work. It becomes possible to minimise fatigue. Peace, happiness, strength, lightness come in the whole physical system. These are the more obvious and normal results which grow as the consciousness grows but there are as many others that are possible. There is also the unity with the earth-consciousness, the constant sense of the Divine in the physical, etc… It is, of course, not easy to make the physical entirely conscious in this way—for it is the seat of unconsciousness and obscurity and inertia—but a partial and sufficiently effective introduction of the higher Consciousness can be established as a basis and the rest of the ground conquered as its force increases on the body. Page – 139 |