-19_Glossary of Philosophical.htm

Aditi — the Divine Mother; the Divine Consciousness; the indivisible consciousness, force and Ananda of the Supreme.

Agni — fire; the God of Fire; the flame of aspiration, will, tapasya, purification, transformation.

Ananda-— delight, beatitude, bliss.

Anandamaya— full of Ananda.

Avatar — divine incarnation; the Divine manifest in a human appearance.

aspiration— the call of the being for higher things, for the Divine, for all that belongs to the higher or divine consciousness.

Bhakti — love and devotion for the Divine.

calm — a still, unmoved condition which no disturbance can affect.

centres — centres of consciousness (Chak-ras) which connect the inner being with the outer personality. By their opening through yoga, the yogic or inner consciousness develops and one escapes from the limitations of the surface consciousness.

concentration— a gathering together of the consciousness and either centralising at one point or turning on a single object, such as the Divine.

consecration — the devoting of all that comes to one, all one’s experience and progress the Divine.

conversion — a turning of the being away from lower things towards the Divine.   

cosmic consciousness — the consciousness of the universe, of the cosmic spirit and cosmic Nature, with all the beings and forces within it.

Cosmic Spirit — the universal aspect of the Divine, the one Self inhabiting the universe and containing everything in it.

consciousness — the self-aware force of existence. The essence of consciousness is the power to be aware of itself and its objects; but it is not only power of awareness of self and things, it is or has also a dynamic and creative energy.

Divine, the — the Supreme Being from which all comes and in which all lives. In its supreme Truth the Divine is absolute and infinite peace, consciousness, existence, power and delight.

Divine Consciousness — the spiritual consciousness to which the Divine alone exists, because all is the Divine. Force, Light, Knowledge and Ananda together make up the Divine Consciousness.

Ego — the separative sense of individuality which makes each being conceive of itself as an independent personality. Ego implies the identification of one’s existence with the outer mental, vital and physical self.

emotional being — the emotional vital.

emotional centre — the heart-centre of consciousness governing the emotional being.

emotional vital — that part of the higher vital being which is the seat of various feelings, such as love, joy, sorrow, hatred, and the rest.

emotive vital — emotional vital,

equanimity— equality of soul and mind to all things and happenings,

evolution — the progressive unfolding of  Spirit out of the density of material consciousness,

faith— the soul’s witness to something not yet manifested, achieved or realised, but  which yet the Knower within us feels to be true or supremely worth following or achieving.

Force, the — the Divine Force, the one Energy that alone exists and alone makes universal or individual action possible, for this Force is the Divine itself in the body of its power. In the individual it is a Force for illumination, transformation, purification, for all that has to be done in the yoga.

Gnosis — a supreme totally self-aware and all-aware Intelligence; Supermind.

Godhead — the one supreme divine Being.

Gods, — in origin and essence the Gods are permament Emanations of the Divine put forth from the Supreme by the Transcendent Mother; in their cosmic action they are Powers and Personalities of the Divine each with his independent cosmic standing, function and work in the universe.

Grace — the Divine Grace, the help of a higher Divine Force other than the force of Karma, which can lift the sadhak beyond the present possibilities of his nature.

gratitude — a loving recognition of the Grace received

 from the Divine, a humble recognition of all that the Divine has done and is doing for you.

Higher Mind — see

higher vital — see

hostile forces — anti-divine, not merely undivine forces that are in revolt against the Divine, against the Truth and Light, and opposed to the yoga.

Illumined Mind — see

Inconscient, the — the Supreme’-s state of self-involved, self-oblivious consciousness and force which is at the basis of the material world; this state is the apparent opposite of the Supreme and in it there can be darkness, inertia, insensibility, disharmony and disintegration.

inner being — the inner mind, inner vital, inner physical, with the psychic behind as the inmost.

integral — of or relating to all the parts of the being, mental, vital, physical, psychic, spiritual.

Integral Yoga — a union (yoga)

Intuition — see might and strength and the destruction of ignorance and evil.

Kali Puja — a religious festival in which the goddess Kali is worshipped.

Krishna— the Lord of Ananda, Love and bhakti; as an incarnation he manifests the union of wisdom and works and leads

the world evolution through this towards union with the Divine by Ananda, Love and bhakti.

Krishna’s Light — a spiritual light of purification and illumination. Its colour depends on the plane in which it manifests.

life-force (Prana) — the life-energy itself, not material energy, but rather a different principle supporting Matter and involved in it.

Light — primarily a spiritual manifestation of the Divine Reality illuminative and creative; spiritual Light is not knowledge, but the illumination that comes from above and liberates the being from obscurity and darkness.

Lila — the cosmic play, the divine play.

lower vital — see

Mahakali — the Divine Mother’s Power of Force and Strength.

Mahalakshmi — the Divine Mother’s Power of Harmony.

Mahasaraswati — the Divine Mother’s Power of Work and her spirit of perfection and order.

material vital — that part of the lower vital turned entirely to physical things, full of desires and greeds and seekings for pleasure on the physical plane.

mind — the words "mind" and "mental" are used to connote specially the part of the nature which has to do with cognition and intelligence, with ideas, with mental or thought perceptions, the reactions of thought to things, with the truly mental movements and formations,

mental vision and will etc. that are part of man’s intelligence. The ordinary mind has three main parts: mind proper, vital  mind, and physical mind.

      The mind proper is divided into three parts: the thinking mind or intellect, concerned with ideas and knowledge in their own right; the dynamic mind, concerned with the putting out of mental forces for the realisation of the ideas; and the externalising mind, concerned with the expression of ideas in life.

      The vital mind or desire mind is a mind of dynamic will, action, desire; it is occupied with force and achievement and satisfaction and possession, with enjoyment and suffering, giving and taking, growth and expansion, etc.

      The physical mind is that part of the mind which is concerned with physical things only; limited by the physical view and experience of things, it mentalises the experience brought by the contact of outward life and things, but does not go beyond that. The mechanical mind, closely connected with the physical mind, goes on repeating without use whatever has happened.

      Overtopping the ordinary mind, hidden in our own superconscient parts, there are higher ranges of Mind, gradations of spiritualised mind leading to the Supermind.

Mind of Light — a mind capable of living in the truth, capable of being truth-conscious and manifesting in its life a direct in place of an indirect knowledge.

Mother, the — the consciousness and force of the Divine; the Divine in its consciousness-force. The Mother is the divine Conscious Force that dominates all existence, upholding us and the universe.

Nature — the outer or executive side of the Conscious Force which forms and moves the worlds; a mechanism of active Force put forth for the working of the evolutionary Ignorance. The lower nature of an individual is his mind, life and body.

New Creation — the manifestation of a divine life upon earth as the result of the working of the supramental consciousness and force and love.

occultism — the knowledge and right use of the hidden forces of nature; true occultism means a search into supra-physical realities and an unveiling of the hidden laws of being and Nature, of all that is not obvious on the surface.

opening— the release of the consciousness by which it begins to admit into itself the working of the Divine Life and Power; the ability of the consciousness on the various levels to receive the descent of the Higher Consciousness above.

outer being — the surface being, our ordinary exterior mind, life, body consciousness.

Overmind — see spiritualised mind

physical, the — that part of the individual nature which includes the physical body and the physical consciousness.

physical mind — see mind

 plane — a level of world-existence; a world or level in the scale of being with its own system and ordering of principles.

Presence, the — the Divine Presence, the sense and perception of the Divine as a Being felt as

 present in one’s existence and consciousness or in relation with it.

psychic — of or relating to the soul. Used in the sense of the Greek word "psyche",  the term refers to all the movements and experiences of the soul; it does not refer to all the more inward and all the abnormal experiences in which the mind and vital predominate.

psychic being — the evolving soul of the individual, the divine portion in him which evolves from life to life, growing by its experiences until it becomes a fully conscious being. From its place behind the heart-centre, the psychic being supports the mind, life and body, aiding their growth and development.

psychicisation — the psychic change in which the psychic being comes forward to dominate the mind, vital and physical and change the lower nature.

purity — freedom from soil or mixture. The divine Purity is that in which there is no mixture of the turbid ignorant movements of the lower nature.

quiet — the absence of restlessness or disturbance.

Radha — the maiden of Brindavan in the Bhagavat Purana entirely self-given in her love for Krishna; she is the personification of absolute love for the Divine, complete self-giving and total consecration.

realisation — the reception in the consciousness and the establishment there of the fundamental truths of the Divine; the making real to ourselves and in ourselves of the Self, the transcendent and universal Divine.

receptivity — the power to receive the Divine Force and to feel its presence and allow it to work, guiding one’s sight and will and action; the capacity of admitting

and retaining the divine workings.

Sachchidananda (Sat-Chit-Ananda) — the One Divine Being with a triple aspect of   Existence (Sat), Consciousness (Chit) and Delight (Ananda).

sadhak — one who practises a spiritual discipline.

sadhana — spiritual practice or discipline; the practice of yoga.

Samadhi — sanctuary or tomb of a saint. The samadhi in the courtyard of the Ashram contains the bodies of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

Self— the Atman, the universal Spirit, the self-existent Being, the conscious essential Existence, one in all.

Self-knowledge — the knowledge of the Self.

Shakti — the Divine Power; the Power of the Mother.

silence–freedom from thoughts and vital movements — when the whole consciousness is quite still.

sincerity — to mean what one says, feel what one professes, be earnest in one’s will; sincerity in the sadhak means that he is really in earnest in his aspiration for the Divine and refuses all other will or impulse except the Divine’s.

soul — the psychic essence, the divine essence in the individual. The term "soul" is often used as a synonym for "psychic being".

Spirit — the Atman or universal Self which is always in oneness with the Divine.

spiritual — of the spirit. All contacts with the Self, the Higher Consciousness, the Divine above are spiritual.

spiritualisation — the spiritual change in which there is the established descent of the divine peace, light, knowledge, power, bliss from above, the awareness of the Self and the Divine and of a higher cosmic consciousness and the change of the whole nature to that, spiritualised mind, gradations of — higher ranges of Mind overtopping our normal Mind and leading to Supermind. In ascending order the gradations of spiritualised mind are:

Higher Mind — a luminous thought-mind whose instrumentation is through an elevated thought-power and comprehensive mental sight.

Illumined Mind — a mind no longer of higher thought, but of spiritual light; here the clarity of the intelligence, its tranquil daylight, gives place or subordinates itself to an intense lustre, a splendour and illumination of the Spirit.

Intuitive Mind — a mind of intuitive reason characterised by its intuitions, its inspirations, its swift revelatory vision, its luminous insight and discrimination.

Intuition — a power of consciousness nearer and more intimate than the lower ranges of spiritual mind to the original knowledge by identity; it gets the Truth in flashes and turns these flashes of Truth-perception into intuitions — intuitive ideas. What is thought-knowledge in the Higher Mind becomes illumination in the Illumined Mind and direct intimate vision in the Intuition.

Overmind —full of lights and powers; 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. The Overmind is a delegate of the Supramental Consciousness, its delegate to the cosmic Ignorance.

subconscient, the — a nether diminished consciousness which lies between the Inconscient and the conscious mind, life and body. The individual subconscient is that submerged part of one’s being in which there is no waking conscious and coherent thought, will, feeling or organised reaction, but which yet obscurely receives the impressions of all things and stores them up in itself, and from it too all sorts of stimuli, of persistent habitual movements can surge up into dream or into the waking nature.

subtle physical — the plane of existence closest to the physical; it may also be considered as a sub-plane of the physical with a vital and mental character.

subtle body — a subtler material existence behind our outer body which provides the substance not only of our physical but of our vital and mental sheaths.

Superconscient, the — something above our present consciousness from which the higher consciousness comes down into the body.

superman — he who will consciously evolve out of man, rise above ego and mind and possess himself universalised and divinised in a divine force, a divine love and joy and a divine knowledge.

Supermind — the Supramental, the Truth-Consciousness, the Divine Gnosis, the highest divine consciousness and force operative in the universe. Its fundamental character is knowledge by identity, by which the Self is known, the Divine Sachchidananda is

 known, but also thetruth of manifestation is known because this too is that.

Supramental — see Supermind

surrender — to consecrate everything in oneself to the Divine, to offer all one is and has, not to insist on one’s ideas, desires, habits, etc. but to allow the divine Truth to replace them by its knowledge, will and action everywhere.

tapasya — effort, energy, austerity of the personal will; concentration of the will and energy to control the mind, vital and physical and to change them or to bring down the higher consciousness or for any other yogic or high purpose.

transformation — not just a change of consciousness, but the bringing down of the higher, divine consciousness and nature into the lower nature of mind, life and body, and the replacement of the lower by the higher.

Truth-Consciousness — the Supramental Consciousness; the Supermind.

vital, the — the life-nature made up of desires, sensations, feelings, passions, energies of action, will of desire, reactions of the desire-soul of man and of all that play of possessive and other related instincts, anger, greed, lust, etc., that belong to this field of the nature. The vital has three main parts:

higher vital — the mental vital and emotive vital taken together. The mental vital gives a mental expression by thought, speech or otherwise to the emotions, desires, passions, sensations or other movements of the vital being; the

emotional or emotive vital is the seat of various feelings, such as love, joy, sorrow, hatred and the rest.

central vital or vital proper — dynamic, sensational and passionate, it is the seat of the stronger vital longings and reactions, such as ambition, pride, fear, love of fame, attractions and repulsions, desires and passions of various kinds and the field of many vital energies.

lower vital — made up of the smaller movements of human life-desire and life-reactions it is occupied with small desires and feelings, such as food desire, sexual desire, small likings, dislikings, vanity, quarrels, love of praise, anger at blame, little wishes of all kinds, etc. The material vital is that part of the lower vital turned entirely upon physical things, full of desires and greeds and seekings for pleasure on the physical plane,

wideness— the expansion of consciousness that comes when one exceeds or begins to exceed the individual consciousness and spread out toward the universal; it is felt as a great substantial vastness giving the sense of oneness free and infinite.

will — a force put upon a thing to be changed.

Will, Divine — something that has descended here into an evolutionary world of Ignorance, standing at the back of things, pressing on the Darkness with its Light, leading things presently towards the best possible in the conditions of a world of Ignorance and leading it eventually towards a descent of a greater power of the Divine, which will not be an omnipotence held back and conditioned by the law of the world as it is, but in full action and therefore bringing the reign of light, peace, harmony, joy, love, beauty and Ananda.

Yoga — union with the Divine and the conscious seeking for this union. Yoga is a generic name for any discipline by which one attempts to pass out of the limits of his ordinary mental consciousness into a greater spiritual consciousness.

Yogi (Yogin) — one who practises yoga; but especially one who has attained the goal of yoga and is already established in spiritual realisation