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PART SEVEN
PARTS OF THE BEING The Soul (the Psychic)
The soul is that which comes out of the Divine without ever leaving Him and goes back to Him without ever ceasing from manifestation. The soul is the Divine made individual without ceasing to be divine. In the soul the individual and the Divine are eternally one. Thus to find one’s soul is to be united with the Divine. It can therefore be said that the role of the soul is to make of man a true being.
Theories differ according to schools and sects, and each one puts forth excellent reasons to support what it asserts. There is certainly truth in whatever one affirms and any case is not only possible but has existed in the history of the earth. The only thing I can speak of is my own experience: the soul is divine, an eternal portion of the Supreme Divine and therefore cannot be limited or bound by any law whatever, other than its own. These souls are emanated by the Lord to do His work in the world and each one comes upon earth with a special purpose, for a special action and with a special destiny, carrying in itself its own law which is imperative for itself alone and cannot be a general law. Thus, in the eternity of becoming, any case imaginable or unimaginable must evidently exist.
The soul is eternal and universal, and all these incapacities Page − 351 and impossibilities have no reality for it. When one speaks to the soul of a man, one always speaks to the same soul, whatever may be the differences of body, race or culture. 23 September 1941 The soul cannot think the Divine but knows Him with certitude. 26 December 1954 Your soul blossoms to the Light as a flower opens to the sun. 30 May 1956 How can I make my soul progress?
To have any action on your soul you must be first conscious of it. And then when you will be conscious of your soul, you will probably find out that instead of you making your soul progress, it is your soul who will help you to progress. 23 August 1964 What is soul and in what form does it exist in us?
The first form of the soul is a spark of light from the Divine. By evolution it becomes an individualised being and then it can take the form it wants. August 1966 Page − 352 The mind, the life and the body must become and live what the Soul knows and is.
When one has an awakened soul, it is not easy to get rid of it; so it is better to obey its orders.
Obey your soul, it alone has the right to govern your life.
Psychic centre: luminous and calm, it is made to govern the human being.
The psychic gets its power of expression when it governs the whole being.
The psychic power organises the activities of the nature to make them progress.
Under the psychic influence all activity becomes balanced.
The psychic influence compels the physical to turn towards the Divine. Page − 353 Let this house be a symbol of the psychic, the temple of the eternal divine Presence.
Live in the consciousness of the psychic centre; thus your will will express the Divine’s Will alone and your transformed being will then be able to receive and manifest the Divine Love. 25 September 1934 The centre of the human being is the psychic which is the dwelling-place of the immanent Divine. Unification means organisation and harmonisation of all the parts of the being (mental, vital and physical) around this centre, so that all the activities of the being may be the correct expression of the will of the Divine Presence.
Unless and until the whole of the individual consciousness is organised around the central Divine Presence, the movements are fugitive, although recurrent, and we cannot expect them to have any permanence.
Nothing is permanent in a terrestrial being except the psychic.
(A sadhak wrote that after bright periods of sadhana, dark periods returned again and again.) Page − 354 This is a proof that your whole being is not united around the central psychic Presence. This is a personal task that each individual must do for himself. The help is always there but the effectivity of its action is in the measure of the receptivity and the conscious appeal. After all it is a question of patience in the endeavour.
A human being is made of many different parts and it takes time and conscious effort to harmonise and unify all these parts. When you surrendered, it is not the whole of your being that did so. Little by little some other part that had not surrendered came to the surface and the joy of the surrender vanished and was replaced by dullness and indifference. But after some time this part also gets converted and thus the happy condition comes back. 26 June 1949 Your letter has just come, bringing me your problem which, by the way, is the problem of the life of all human beings, especially when they have reached a certain degree of inner development but are not yet on the summit of spiritual freedom through the unification of their being around their conscious soul. For it is the lack of unification which is the cause of all problems. One part of the being pulls one way, another pulls the other way, sometimes one is stronger and gives a certain orientation to life, sometimes it is the other and then the orientation suddenly changes, and the result is an incoherence. And as it is the unsatisfied part which usually comes to the surface to express its want of satisfaction, so, unless one is a sage, one is never satisfied with the life one leads and always misses the life one could have led − whether in one direction or the other. Page − 355 In your case there is something more. As your soul remains very closely linked with my being, as the contact with the supramental consciousness grows more and more total and constant, it acts very strongly on your soul like an almost irresistible attraction. This is what happened in 1958. To conclude, “an easy and pleasant life” can only satisfy the outer being; but what answers in the physical being to the soul’s influence needs for its flowering a life more in conformity with the soul’s needs and “languishes” when it cannot find it. 3 December 1959 It is because an individual is not made all of one piece, but of many different entities which sometimes even contradict each other; some want the spiritual life, others are attached to the things of this world. It is a long and difficult work to reconcile all these parts and unify them. The force and light received by the most developed parts gradually spread to the rest of the being by a process of assimilation, and during this period of assimilation the progress of the parts that are in front seems to be interrupted. This is what Sri Aurobindo was speaking about. 29 October 1960 In fact all your different parts are correct in their argument, and the wisdom is to go deep enough in the consciousness to find the place where they meet and agree, completing one another rather than contradicting. As for the actual action, a smooth, harmonious working is generally better than the difficulties created by too rigid principles, but that also is not absolute − and the ideal condition is at each occasion to receive in the inner silence the guidance from above. Page −− 356 With constant practice and goodwill, it becomes possible.
The psychic inspiration alone is true. All that comes from the vital and the mind is necessarily mixed with egoism and is arbitrary. One should not act in reaction to outer contact, but with an immutable vision of love and goodwill. Everything else is a mixture which can only have confused and mixed results, and perpetuate the disorder. March 1961 It is not the psychic being that suffers for personal reasons, it is the mind, the vital and the ordinary consciousness of ignorant man. This is because the contact between the outer consciousness and the psychic consciousness is not well established. He in whom the contact has been well established is always happy. The psychic being works with perseverance and ardour for the union to be made an accomplished fact, but it never complains and knows how to wait for the hour of realisation to come.
The outer being, left to itself, is not very responsible; it is most often the plaything of the forces of Nature. But the inner or higher being, the deeper consciousness, is the master and builder of our destiny. That is why it is so important to discover this sovereign consciousness and unite with it in order to put an end to all the incoherences of life and all the conflicts of Nature. 17 March 1968 Page − 357 To find the psychic one must conquer the desires of the vital and silence the mind and then make a sincere submission to the Divine of whom the psychic is the instrument in man. The inner contact with the psychic is a concrete and undeniable fact which imposes itself on all sincere consciousness. 5 April 1972 The psychic is always there, and it is strong. It is the receptivity that is weak. 1 May 1972 The best way to get rid of the rule of the ego is to find the psychic being, instrument of the Divine in human beings. Go deep into yourself (i.e. the heart region) and aspire steadily. The true meeting of the psychic is unmistakable. 8 May 1972 It is indispensable that each one finds his psychic and unites with it definitively. It is through the psychic that the supramental will manifest itself. 24 June 1972 Why is there this dark and idiotic personality in me? Does it lie hidden in everyone or am I an especially difficult case?
Certainly you are not the only one. Many are like this. Only those who have centred their whole being around the conscious control of the psychic can cure themselves of it. July 1972 Page − 358 When the inner state is ready for the next step, you will guide it directly or indirectly the way you wish.
The next step is finding your psychic being and uniting with it. 10 August 1972 The human being is made of different parts, sometimes clearly separated. They can unite only under the psychic influence and action. Persist in your endeavour and you are sure to succeed. Blessings. 5 October 1972 What you seek is always there ready for you. Let the psychic turn grow complete and it will of itself bring you to that for which you aspire. The psychic is never depressed. 21 March 1934 I tell you that the psychic does not know depression because its nature is divine and in the Divine there is no depression. The psychic can observe with regret the stupidity of the other parts of the being, but by its very nature it is impossible for it to be depressed. 22 March 1934
In the psychic is the source of constant happiness. Page − 359 Psychic purity: the condition natural to the psychic.
By its very nature the psychic is calm.
Psychic peace: it is spontaneous and knows no difficulties.
Psychic prayer: spontaneous and fervent.
Psychic offering: it is the spontaneous attitude of the psychic in relation to the Divine.
Psychic generosity gives for the joy of giving.
Psychic perfection means to smile at everything. Page − 360 |