Monday, July 26, 1926 I feel distinctly the overshadowing presence of a force above me. A small part of that force comes down and works in me. WHAT kind of work does it effect ? I cannot see very distinctly. It is a pressure that tries to expand. More than this I cannot say. Only, I feel that a small part only comes down. It also presses upon the physical mind and tries to calm and quiet it. There are two movements I make: one is to be passive and to open to that working. The other is to go above trying to unite with that force. I have then a sensation of broadening, of a vast and compact consciousness. It happened two or three times that I saw befo

Saturday, November 6, 1926 During the first part of the week I was disturbed by some movements of the vital which were possibly due to a hostile influence. And even when the possibility of the influence was removed some anxiety was still felt, due perhaps only to the novelty of the movement. But later this anxiety was thrown away and calm came again. The chief difficulty is always the activity of the mind. It is neither possible to quiet it completely nor to stand aside from it. Even when for some very short time it does not interfere with the concentration, it is not truly quiet and resumes its activity at the very first opportu­nity. It seems to me that if it were possible

PAVITRA Editor's Note These conversations were held from December 18, 1925 to November 20, 1926. Pavitra, a French engineer of the Polytechnic School, arrived at Pondicherry on the 17th of December, 1925, having come from a Mongolian lamasery where his spiritual search had driven him, after his having spent four years in japan. He never left Pondicherry again, where he lived for forty-four years in the service of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. He left his body on May 16, 1969. These brief conversations were noted from memory, most of the time in French, except towards the end. Hence, they do not represent the exact words of the Master, but are as faithful a record as po

Monday, March 1, 1926 During the last week there has not been much progress. I can't manage to get out of my prison and my mind doesn't want to yield. There are two inner movements which I practise successively : first, whilst keeping the mind as calm as possible, I try hard to open my-self to a higher perception, to become aware of the supra-mental reality ; the other is to detach my inner being from action and from the mental level, to establish myself, as we say, in the supra-mental region. Are these two movements both right ? THEY seem to me to be two aspects, active and passive, of the same effort. But it is always with the mind that you make this effort. It is un