SECTION THIRTEEN   THE DIVINE AND THE HOSTILE POWERS   I. THE DIVINE BEINGS II. THE HOSTILE FORCES   I. THE DIVINE BEINGS   The Existence of Gods   OF course, the gods exist—that is to say, there are Powers that stand above the world and transmit the divine workings. It is the physical mind which believes only what is physical that denies them. There are also beings of other worlds—gods and etc.   The Gods and the Divine   THE gods are Personalities or Powers put forth by the Divine—they are therefore in fact limited Emanations, although the full Divine is behind each of them.   25-12-1933 Page-341 Forms of G

SECTION ONE   Integral Yoga and Partial Spiritual Paths   The Aim of Integral Yoga and the Ideal of Supermanhood   To come to this Yoga merely with the idea of  being a superman would be an act of vital egoism which would defeat its own object. Those who put this object in the front of their preoccupations  invariably come to grief, spiritually and otherwise. The aim of this Yoga is, first, to enter into the divine consciousness by merging into it the separative ego (incidentally, in doing so one finds one's true individual self which is not the limited, vain and selfish human ego but a portion of the Divine) and, secondly, to bring down the supramental con

SECTION TWENTY   SADHANA IN WORLDLY LIFE—KNOWLEDGE OF PAST LIVES— PAIN AND SUFFERING, ETC.   \ Sadhana in Worldly Life   IN her condition the one thing by which she  can enter into the sadhana is to remember the Divine always, taking her difficulties as ordeals to be passed through, to pray constantly and seek the Divine help and protection and ask for the opening of her heart and consciousness to the supporting Divine Presence.   11-2-1933 Right Way of Going through Worldly Life   THE life of saṁsāra is in its nature a field of unrest  —to go through it in the right way one has to  offer one's life and actions to the Divine and pra

SECTION EIGHT   CENTRES AND PARTS OF CONSCIOUSNESS   Manas in the Ordinary Psychology and the Integral Yoga —Right Ordering of Different Parts in Yoga   THE terms Manas, etc. belong to the ordinary psychology applied to the surface consciousness. In our Yoga we adopt a different classification  —based on the Yogic experience. What answers to this movement of the Manas there would be two separate things—a part of the physical mind communicating with the physical-vital. It receives from the physical senses and transmits to the Buddhi —i.e., to some part or other of the Thought-Mind. It receives back from the Buddhi and transmits idea and will to the organs of se

SECTION THREE     INTELLECTUAL KNOWLEDGE AND SPIRITUAL TRUTH   Intellect, Mind and Truth   INTELLECT is part of Mind and an instrument of half-truth like the rest of the Mind.   22-8-1932   Intellect and the Truth   WHAT you have said is perfectly right. To see the Truth does not depend on a big intellect or a small intellect. It depends on being in contact  with the Truth and the mind silent and quiet to receive it. The biggest intellects can make errors of the worst kind and confuse Truth and Falsehood, if they have not the contact with the Truth or the direct experience.   1-8-1932 Page-79 Need of Controlling the Intellect  

SECTION TEN   INNER SIGHT AND INNER VISION   Opening of the Inner Sight   WHEN one tries to meditate, the first obstacle in the beginning is sleep. When you get over this obstacle, there comes a condition in which, with the eyes closed, you begin to see things, people, scenes of all kinds. This is not a bad thing, it is a good sign and means that you are making progress in the Yoga. There is, besides the outer physical sight which sees external objects, an inner sight in us which can see things yet unseen and unknown, things at a distance, things belonging to another place or time or to other worlds; it is the inner sight which is opening in you. It is the working of

SECTION SIX     THE SECURE FOUNDATION OF SADHANA   The First Foundation of the Yogic Status   EQUANIMITY and peace in all conditions, in all  parts of the being is the first foundation of the Yogic status. Either Light (bringing with it Knowledge) or Force (bringing strength and dynamism of many kinds) or Ananda (bringing love and joy of existence) can come next according to the trend of the nature. But peace is the first condition without which nothing else can be stable.   31-7-1936 The True Basis   YES, a settled peace and strength supporting the intensity and poise in which everything foreign falls off, is the true basis.   16-4-1933

SECTION EIGHTEEN   SADHANA THROUGH WORK   Motives of Work in Ordinary Life and Yoga—Signs of Vital's Consecration in Action   MEN usually work and carry on their affairs  from the ordinary motives of the vital being, need, desire of wealth or success or position or power or fame or the push to activity and the pleasure of manifesting their capacities, and they succeed or fail according to their capability, power of work and the good or bad fortune which is the result of their nature and their Karma. When one takes up the Yoga and wishes to consecrate  one's life to the Divine, these ordinary motives of the vital being have no longer their full and free play; they have t

SECTION FOUR   SADHANA AND MENTAL DEVELOPMENT   Sadhana and Mental Development (1)   FOR one who wants to practise sadhana, sadhana must come first—reading and mental development can only be subordinate things.   25-12-1936   (2)   Mental development may or may not help sadhana —if the mind is too intellectually developed in certain rationalistic lines, it may hinder.   Sadhana and Mental Work   I DON'T know that it (mental work) helps the sadhana and I don't quite understand what is meant by the Page-107 phrase. What is a fact is that mental work like physical work can be made a part of the sadhana,— not as a rival