CENTRES AND PLANES OF CONSCIOUSNESS       The year 1933         The Mother sent a picture of flowers named by her: "Opening of the centres." What does the phrase signify? What is meant by "centres"?       The centres of consciousness, the chakras. It is by their opening that the Yogic or inner consciousness develops — otherwise you are bound to the ordinary outer consciousness.       The more they open, the more the consciousness increases.       They are reckoned as six usually — or with the one above the head, seven.       May I know what the "Adhara" is?       The Adhara is that in which the consciousness is now contained — mind

EXPERIENCES         Quietness, calm and receptivity, creating a happy state, are increasing.       If you have that experience it is very good — for it is the first step.         How can one be sure that what one takes to be an experience of calm and of inner contact with the Divine is really so?       An experience is an unmistakable thing and must be given its proper value. The mind may exaggerate in thinking about it but that does not deprive it of its value.         How is it that the consciousness loses its activity of experience after a short while every day?       It is often like that — the period of intense activity is limited to a particular p

      THE DIVINE AND THE AVATAR           We believe that both you and the Mother are Avatars. But is it only in this life that both of you have shown your divinity? It is said that you and she have been on the earth constantly since its creation. What were you doing during your previous lives?       Carrying on the evolution.         I find it difficult to understand so concise a statement. Can't you elaborate it?       That would mean writing the whole of human history. I can only say that as there are special descents to carry on the evolution to a farther stage, so also something of the Divine is always there to help through each stage itself in

SPIRITUAL GREATNESS AND THE SUPRAMENTAL YOGA         There must be several great Yogis in India who are open to the Divine. If the Divine manifested in a human form in their own country, would they not know it?       There is no reason why they should. Each has approached the Divine in his own way. He may not recognise if the Divine manifests in another way or a new form.         People say that there are many similitudes between our Yoga and Raman Maharshi's. Are they right? I would also like to know if there is really something great in him.       Of course there is. But I know nothing about the similitudes. So far as I know he

HIGHER AND LOWER WORLDS       The year 1933         How was man involved on the earth in in-conscient Matter — with the divinity behind him?       The question is itself rather involved. Man has evolved from Matter — or rather Nature has worked first the plant, then the animal, then Man in a regular succession out of Matter. What is involved is not Man, but mind and life and spirit. "Involved" means that they are there even though there seems to be no mental activity (as in the tree) and no mental or vital activity (as in the stone); as the evolution goes on the involved life appears and begins to organise itself and the plants appear and then the animals; next

THE PSYCHIC BEING       The year 1933         It seems to me that you must know by this time about the psychic being — that it is behind the veil and its consciousness also; only a little comes out in the mind and vital and physical. When that consciousness is not concealed, when you are aware of your soul (the psychic being), when its feelings and consciousness are yours, then you have got the consciousness of the psychic being. The feelings and aspirations of the psychic being are all turned towards truth and right consciousness and the Divine; it is the only part that cannot be touched by the hostile forces and their suggestions.         But how to remove

      ILLNESS: ITS PREVENTION AND CURE       The year 1933         A straight answer cannot be given because much depends upon your mind. It is doubtful whether an exclusive milk diet and complete inertia will be good for you — especially if the pains are due to constipation accompanied by flatulence.         I asked you not to consider what I thought of the matter in order to avoid personal hesitations. My physical condition is as follows: anything other than liquid food makes my stomach suffer. But I shall now forget all about the pain because I have handed it over to you. I think it was lack of faith that prevented me from going to my work. To

      SUPERMIND AND SACHCHIDANANDA         The years 1933 to 1935         When one becomes one with the Divine, would Super mind be still far from him?       One can become one with the Divine on the mental plane. The Supermind is necessary for manifesting the Divine on earth.         You have said in your book The Mother: "It is only the very highest supramental Force descending from above and opening from below that can victoriously handle the physical nature." What do you imply by "opening from below"? Is not "below" still unconscious of the Divine?       Wherever the Divine is, everything is — it is only concealed, not manifest. The Divi

      DREAMS         THE VITAL AND SUBCONSCIENT DREAMS         You recently wrote to me apropos of incoherent dreams: "It depends on your attitude and consciousness; it is by bringing light down into the subcon-scient that these things can go." What exactly did you mean by "attitude" and by "consciousness"?       Your aspiration to a less downward consciousness in sleep.       It is the condition of your consciouness I spoke of — the more conscious you become, the more you will be able to have dreams worth having.         From where does what we ordinarily see in our dreams come?       It is more often the impressions of the waking state that come up in thi

INTRODUCTION         In this series of selected letters we have Sri Aurobindo's guidance to a boy in his late teens. Some of them are published for the first time, while most are taken from the pages of the Ashram monthly. Mother India, where they appeared as several series: (1) "My Boyhood under Sri Aurobindo", (2) "Guidance from Sri Aurobindo", (3) "My Sadhana with the Mother", (4) "The Problems of the Integral Yoga". The letters, no less illuminating for all their simplicity, cover a fairly large number of subjects. As their recipient grew up more and more, the subjects naturally increased in significance.       Perhaps it would be interesting to supply a brief personal back