November 6, 1961
(Letter to Mother from Satprem: [[This letter survived because Mother returned it with her reply written on the reverse. ]] )
Sweet Mother,
When I read the Veda I thought I understood that the Rishis, finding the passage blocked above (since they would fall into
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ecstasy and lose their hold over the body), set out to find the Supermind by the downward path.
But reading Sri Aurobindo, I seemed to understand the opposite: that FIRST he rose up, and then made the Light redescend to open the passage, and that the pressure of the Light from above is what opens the doors below, in Matter.
I would like to understand the process.
With all my love,
Signed: Satprem
(Mother’s reply)
It is by rising to the summit of consciousness through a progressive ascent that one unites with the Supermind. But as soon as the union is achieved, one knows and one sees that the Supermind exists in the heart of the Inconscient as well.
When one is in that state, there is neither high nor low.
But GENERALLY it is by REDESCENDING through the levels of the being with a supramentalized consciousness that one can accomplish the permanent transformation of physical nature.
There is no proof that the Rishis used another method, although, to effect this transformation (if they ever did), they must necessarily have fought their way through the powers of inconscience and obscurity.
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