ASPIRATION AND PRAYER       As soon as I got up from the subconscient sleep, I was attacked by the lower forces. I fried but could do nothing about the mad invasion. It continued fill I was completely exhausted. Then my inner being gathered some of its scattered threads by concentration and aspiration.       That is what you should do always.         As soon as some energy was collected I fought back furiously. But before those forces could be totally driven out, my energy was exhausted.       Remain quiet, open yourself upward and call or aspire.         My mind could not understand why the accumulated energy was used up so quickly, within a few

LOVE HUMAN LOVE         Even the higher or deeper experiences do not seem to be of much value if one cannot love the Mother with the true heart.       It is a mistake to think like that. The experiences prepare the different parts of the being for loving in the right way, so that it is not the soul alone that loves. So long as they are open to ignorance and ego they cannot receive and hold the love rightly.         The action from the higher consciousness increases its intensity. However, what is the use of all that if it has no connection below with my heart that longs for love?       You might just as well say what is the use of any sadhana. For the separation of

SUNLIT PATH       After passing through a lot of attacks, falls, depressions, some part of my inmost being seems to have a fleeting glimpse of what is called the sunlit or golden path. Once on this road no hostile being can touch the inner being. Darkness or ignorance (unwillingness to change) is worked out in the part itself without the necessity (as is normal) of its rising up and veiling the elevated or illumined parts of the being.       Revolts, doubts or even suggestions fail to break the luminous environment of this pilgrim. Not that these anti-divine things do not attempt to approach him. They do pursue him a long way. But he only looks at them, smiles and journeys on.

THE PHYSICAL PREFACE TO THE PHYSICAL     In this second volume of letters, there is frequent reference to words such as inertia and tamas. Here these words are not intended to mean 'fatigue', 'lethargy' or 'unwillingness to act 'physically or mentally'. To understand properly the exact nature or character of tamas it would be good to know a little of the sadhana that was going on during that period.     In the year 1935 the general sadhana of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga had descended into the physical. So we all had to come down from the mental and vital into this darker field. To many sadhaks it was rather a premature descent as their mental and vital were not sufficiently p

THE EGO       Instead of rejecting its weaknesses the vital goes on suffering inwardly. Or else it withdraws into neutrality which is not a healthy thing, as it makes the tender parts of my being sad and dry.       Obviously all that must go — it is the old vital egoism of the human being always preoccupied with itself, so that the being cannot give itself simply and unquestioningly to the adoration of the Divine.         Is it not really difficult to offer oneself to the Divine when he seems to give no return?       It is the only way to a real self-giving — otherwise the ego always remains in spite of experiences and progress.         What is the part in us t

THE SUBCONSCIENT         The subconscient is to be emptied in the course of the sadhana and not filled up with new things. But I see that I have been filling it every day! Does it not mean that I have been dealing with these things in such a way that they are getting stored there?       All that one does and thinks leaves its trace in the subconscient.         At a certain stage of the sadhana it is usual that the subconscient becomes the main source of trouble. It becomes freely active and releases all its stored up stuff for realising it. A sadhak sees all his past life before him as if on a cinema screen. And if he is not sufficiently vigilant he may take all that a

CONTROL OF SPEECH         While talking, there is a basis of peace and silence, but no conscious remembrance of Mother throughout. Only at the end is there any recollection. How to get the constant remembrance?       That is difficult. If you have the peace and silence undisturbed and the recollection, it is enough for a beginning.         Usually it is the outer being that is talking. But it is rarely reasonable and it speaks a lot and of useless things. So I want my inner being to take the charge of speech.       Yes. The speech must come from within and be controlled from within.         In talking one has the tendency to come down into a lower and mor

SELF, INDIVIDUAL AND UNIVERSAL         What is called one's self (not the soul or the psychic being) above the head? Is it individual or universal? I mean, is one's self the same as another's self or is there individuality in it as is in the soul of each person?       The self is felt as either universal, one in all, or as uni-versalised individual the same in essence as others, extended everywhere from each being but centred here. Of course centre is a way of speaking, because no physical centre is usually felt — only all the action takes place around the individual.         When the self is made active by sadhana, does it usually work directly or th

KNOWLEDGE   PREFACE TO KNOWLEDGE         Sri Aurobindo always discouraged in me the ordinary way of developing the mind. Whenever I asked him intellectual or philosophical questions he would reply that I should not go after intellectual knowledge but allow direct intuitive knowledge to grow in me. He used to tell me this when I had just begun the sadhana and was very far from even the beginning of knowledge. When it first started descending into me, I was utterly unaware of what was taking place; it took such a personal aspect that I did not even guess that I was receiving the higher knowledge. It did not come as a voice, or as something objectively apprehended, but touched the stuf

OPENING TO ADVERSE ATTACKS       How is it that, in spite of remaining aloof from people, one is still open to the ordinary ignorant forces of Nature?       One is always open so long as there is not the final change. If things do not come in, it is because the consciousness is vigilant or the psychic in front — but the least want of vigilance or relaxation can allow something to enter.         I wonder how the adverse things coming from outside appear to us as if they were our own — part of ourselves.       That is what they always do — if anything responds. If one feels them as wholly outside, that means no response has been given.         Sh