PART V SEX DIFFICULTY   The sex centre is the physical centre - it happens to be the centre for sex and physical propagation also, but it is not separately and solely the centre of sex. If that were so, there would be no centre governing the physical consciousness, but only a centre governing the sex organ.   The sex exists in itself - put a number of sexual men together debarred from all possibility of feminine society - after a time they will begin to satisfy themselves homosexually.   To raise the sexual impulses and feelings to the head is no way of turning the sex-fluid into ojas. To turn the sex-fluid into ojas is done by Brahmacharya and p

  PART IV THE VITAL DIFFICULTY   After stopping tea my mind seems to become dull. I cannot take interest in anything. It has become difficult to attend my classes. All that is evidently due to the vital-physical becoming tamasic because you refuse it its small desires. You should throw it away altogether and call down into the vital-physical the Mothers Force.   So long as something in the being clings to the desire of indulgence, no Force can get rid of these things by violence. Even if the Force threw it out, that in the being would call it back.   The tamas could rise so completely because some part of my vital was upset yesterday.

INTRODUCTION This third and final volume of letters contains my correspondence with Sri Aurobindo during the fourth and fifth years of sadhana, 1936 and 1937. For those who have not read the first and second volumes, it may be well to repeat here a part of the original Introduction, which throws light on the circumstances surrounding the exchange of letters. The reader should especially keep in mind that Sri Aurobindo was replying to a boy in his late teens: I came to Pondicherry in 1931 when I was about fourteen years old. In those days the Mother did not admit youngsters into the Ashram. It was only out of her kindness that she made an exception in the case of four childre

  ISBN 81-7058-069-2 © Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1987 Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Publication Department Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry PRINTED IN INDIA

  PART VI BLANKNESS AND SILENCE         Is any personal aspiration necessary during the state of blankness or self-forgetfulness? I ask this because once you wrote that if the silence is deep there is no need of personal aspiration; let the silence itself work.       Blankness is only a condition in which realisation has to come. If aspiration is needed for that, it has to be used; if the realisation comes of itself, then of course aspiration is not necessary.         You once wrote that aspiration is not needed in the state of blankness.       The "state" I was speaking of was not blankness but something else - I see by reference to the passage in

  PART VII VISIONS AND VOICES         I am not able to understand the varying subtle smells coming from some people. I used to get a strong bad smell from X. Then it stopped. Now again it is coming.       The smell is due to something in the person's vital-physical. That something may not be prominent at all times. When it is, the smell is there.         What is this something in the vital physical?       I wrote that the something may be of different kinds in different cases and one cannot give a rule that it is this or it is that. What has the dirtiest smell is sex.         Has this subtle smell any connection with sadhana? It isn't conne

  PART II IMPORTANCE OF THE INNER BEING   When I speak of the inner being I mean the inner consciousness and inner existence.   Through which centre does the inner being manifest itself? Do you not know that the inner being means the inner mind, inner vital, inner physical with the psychic behind as the inmost? How can there be one centre for all that?   Is it true that the point between the eyebrows is the centre of the will as well as of the inner vision? It is the centre of the inner mind - therefore also of the inner mental will and inner mental vision.   I sometimes feel as if my inner being is located above and lives o

  PART III MECHANICAL MIND   The useless mechanical mind is very active, while the useful recording mind has fallen silent; it can't do any thinking or even note down the experiences! Perhaps it is waiting for a higher mind to act from above.   How is it that when I talk with someone, with whom I do not usually converse, his thoughts and ideas hover round my mind for a long time? It is the nature of the mind acting for itself to do that. It always chews and rechews the subject in which it has been engaged, provided that the talk catches on to its memory.   Why does my mind chew and rechew what I hear from others? It is a movem

    PART  I   ASPIRATION AND SURRENDER   Shouldn't a sadhak offer to the Mother not only his good experiences and knowledge but also the ordinary movements of ignorance? Otherwise how will his lower nature be purified and transformed? The psychic elements of our nature will help, won't they? It is true that with the psychic action these things are more easily overcome. Also the ignorance etc. must be surrendered, i.e., all attachment to them, justification or acquiescent habitual response must be given up.   If my being is to make some real and substantial progress, it will be done only when it learns to depend completely on the Mother and he