PLANES AND PARTS OF THE BEING         Higher Mind is one of the planes of the spiritual mind, the first and lowest of them; it is above the normal mental level. Inner mind is that which lies behind the surface mind (our ordinary mentality) and can only be directly experienced (apart from its vrittis in the surface mind such as philosophy, poetry, idealism, etc.) by sadhana, by breaking down the habit of being on the surface and by going deeper within.         Larger mind is a general term to cover the realms of mind which become our field whether by going within or widening into the cosmic consciousness.         The true mental being is not the

      GLOSSARY     abhyāsa    Practice. ādhāra (Adhar)   Vessel, receptacle—the system of mind, life and body considered as   a receptacle of the spiritual consciousness and force. ahaitukī bhakti   Devotion not depending on anything; absolute devotion. ājna cakra   Will centre. See cakra. anāhata   See cakra. ānanda (Ananda)   Bliss, delight—the divine or spiritual bliss. ānandamaya   Full of delight. anityamasukham   Transient and unhappy. antarātman (Antaratman)    Inner self, soul. anumantā (Anumanta)   The g

LOVE—BHAKTI—EMOTION  LOVE—BHAKTI—EMOTION       In the way of ahaitukī bhakti, everything can be made a means—poetry and music, for instance, become not merely poetry and music and not merely even an expression of Bhakti, but themselves a means of bringing the experience of love and Bhakti. Meditation itself becomes not an effort of mental concentration, but a flow of love and adoration and worship.            *                              *                                 *         The very object of Yoga is a change of consciousness—it is by getting a new consciousness or by unveiling the hidden consciousness of the true being within and progressively manifesting and

        SRI AUROBINDO       MORE LIGHTS ON YOGA           SRI  AUROBINDO ASHRAM PONDICHERRY   First Edition .. October, 1948   All Rights Reserved             Published by   Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry   Printed at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry   PRINTED IN INDIA          These are mostly extracts from letters written by Sri Aurobindo to his disciples in answer to their queries. Wherever it was possible every effort has been made to introduce the letter in full; for, the total beauty of a letter in its spontaneity has a char

   FAITH       Have faith in the Divine, in the Divine Grace, in the truth of the sadhana, in the eventual triumph of the spirit over its mental and vital and physical difficulties, in the Path and the Guru, in the experience of things other than are written in the philosophy of Haeckel or Huxley or Bertrand Russell, because if these things are not true, there is no meaning in Yoga.           *                              *                                 *         The abnormal abounds in this physical world, the supernormal is there also. In these matters, apart from any question of faith, any truly rational man with a free mind (not tied up like the rationalists or s

    COLOURS-SYMBOLS-VISIONS         The frequent seeing of lights such as those he writes of in his letter is usually a sign that the seer is not limited by his outward surface or waking consciousness but has a latent capacity (which can be perfected by training and practice) for entering into the experiences of the inner consciousness of which most people are unaware but which opens by the practice of Yoga. By this opening one becomes aware of subtle planes of experience and worlds of existence other than the material. For the spiritual life a still further opening is required into an inmost consciousness by which one becomes aware of the Self and Spirit, the Eternal and the Divine.

    CONDITIONS FOR SADHANA       Openness and, whenever needed, passivity, but to the highest consciousness, not to anything that comes.         Therefore, there must be a certain quiet vigilance even in the passivity. Otherwise there may be either wrong movements or inertia.             *                              *                                 *         Your former sadhana was mostly on the vital plane. The experiences of the vital plane are very interesting to the sadhak but they are mixed, i.e., not all linked with the higher Truth. A greater, purer and firmer basis for the sadhana has to be established—the psychic basis. For that reason all the old exp

  GOAL AND AIM     The aim of the Yoga is to open the consciousness to the Divine and to live in the inner consciousness more and more while acting from it on the external life, to bring the inmost psychic into the front and by the power of the psychic to purify and change the being so that it may become ready for transformation and in union with the Divine Knowledge, Will and Love, Secondly, to develop the Yogic consciousness, i.e., to universalise the being in all the planes, become aware of the cosmic being and cosmic forces and be in union with the Divine on all the planes up to the Overmind. Thirdly, to come into contact with the transcendent Divine beyond the Ove

   BASES OF SADHANA       It is because your consciousness in the course of the sadhana has come into contact with the lower physical nature and sees it as it is in itself when it is not kept down or controlled either by the mind, the psychic or the spiritual force. This nature is in itself full of low and obscure desires, it is the most animal part of the human being. One has to come into contact with it so as to know what is there and transform it. Most sadhaks of the old type are satisfied with rising into the spiritual or psychic realms and leave this part to itself—but by that it remains unchanged, even if mostly quiescent, and no complete transformation is possible. You have onl