-07_Part-1.htm

GUIDE LIGHTS

from

SRI AUROBINDO

December 30, 1927 to March 1935

The time has not yet come for me to write about these things—(the physical transformation, its circumstances and its nature). Mentalizing about it is not of much use at this stage: The physical is the part of the being, least open to mental influence. A higher Power and Light are needed.

January 15, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

It was the overmind power (that was working), not pure, but modified, mixed, clouded by the Ignorance of the lower planes. The stuff of the lower planes always mixes with the overmind forces and diminishes or even falsifies and prevents their truth and power.

February 1932

Sri Aurobindo

There was an attempt to become an instrument conscious of the forces. . . . The first result of the down flow of the overmind power is always to exaggerate the ego, which feels itself strong, almost irresistible (though it is not really so), divinized, luminous. The first thing to do after some experience of the thing is to get rid of this magnified ego. For that, you have to stand back, not allow yourself to be swept in by the movement, but to watch, understand, reject all nature, aspire for a purer and yet purer Light and action. This can be done perfectly if psychic comes forward. The mind and vital, especially the vital receiving these forces, can with difficulty resist a tendency to seize on, and use them for

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the ego's objects or, which comes practically to the same thing, mix the demands of the ego with the service of a higher object.

February 1932

Sri Aurobindo

Q. What is the difference between spiritual and Supramental realization ?

A. Spiritual realization can be had on any plane by contact with the Divine (Who is everywhere) or by the perception of the Self within, which is pure and untouched by the outer movements. The Supermind is something transcendent—a dynamic Truth-consciousness which is not yet here and is to be brought down from above.

February 23, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

Q_. There is no mention of "overmind" anywhere in the Arya. The experiences which I am passing through are similar to indications given in the last chapters of the Synthesis of Yoga, which are considered as the chapters on Supermind. The meaning given by you to my experiences says that they are "overmind experiences". Then what to think of those chapters of the Arya? Can they be taken as overmind chapters?

A. At the time when these chapters were written, the name "overmind" had not been found; so, there is no mention of it. What is described in these chapters is the action of the Supermind when it descends into the overmind plane and takes up the overmind workings and transforms them. The highest Supermind or Divine Gnosis existent in itself is something that lies beyond still quiet above. It was intended in later chapters to

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show how difficult even this was and how many levels there were between human mind and Supermind; and how even Supermind, descending could get mixed with the lower action and turned into something that was less than the true truth. But these later chapters were not written.

April 13, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

Q. What is the difference between direct and indirect descent of the Light?

A. When a higher force comes down into a lower plane, it is diminished and modified by the inferior substance, lesser power and more mixed movements of that lower plane. Thus, if the overmind power works through the illumined mind, only part of its truth and force can manifest and be effective—so much only as can get through this less receptive consciousness. And even what gets through is less true, mixed with other matter, less overmental, more easily modified into something that is part truth, part error. When this diminished indirect force descends further down into the mind and vital, it has still something of the overmind creative Truth in it, but gets very badly mixed with mental and vital formations that disfigure it and make it half effective only, sometimes ineffective.

February 23,1932

Sri Aurobindo

Q. Is it not possible to get the direct Supramental working now?

A. It is not possible to have the direct Supramental working now. The Adhar is not yet ready. First one

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must accept an indirect working which prepares the lower planes for Supramental change.

February 23, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

Q. If Supermind has not come down in your body, then in what respect we used to observe immortality day—26th of November?

A. It was not the immortality of the body, but the consciousness of immortality in the body; that can come with the descent of overmind into matter or even into the physical mind, or with the touch of the modified Supramental Light on the general physical mind-consciousness. These are preliminary openings, but they are not the Supramental fulfilment in matter.

March 5, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

Q. Is overmind descent a necessity in sadhana?

A. Certainly, it is necessary for those who want the Supramental change. Unless the overmind opens, there can be no direct Supramental opening of the consciousness. If one remains in mind, even in illumined mind or the intuition, one can have indirect messages or an influence from the Supramental, but, not a direct Supramental control of the consciousness or the Supramental change.

March 10, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

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Q. Dynamism is everywhere, because the Force (Shakti) is everywhere. The perfect dynamism is there in the Supermind; no other can be unfailing.

Why does the body not stand dynamism?

A. Why not? It depends on the condition of the body or rather of the physical and most material consciousness.

In one condition it is tamasic, inert, unopen and cannot bear or cannot receive or cannot contain the force; in another rajas predominates and tries to seize on the dynamism, but wastes and stills and loses it; in another, there is receptivity, harmony, balance and the result is a harmonizing action without strain or effort.

April 15, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

I have not said that to reach the overmind is impossible; I have only said that it is difficult. Difficulty is not a reason why things should not be done.

It is not easy for a physical being to reach the highest truth because its consciousness is something ignorant that has emerged out of the material inconscience and is very much tied to and hampered by the obscurity of its origin—in addition to the mental and vital difficulty of ego and desire. Yoga itself is not easy; if it were so, it would be multitude and not only a few that would be practising it.

November 13, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

Q. In our yoga one is to pass through many planes and zones, not known to the past yogas. How can one know

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that they are transitional stages? How can one save oneself from misunderstanding and struggle resulting from it?

A. All these experiences are of the same nature and what applies to one applies to another. Apart from some experiences of a personal character, the rest are either idea-truths, such as pour down into the consciousness from above when one gets into touch with certain planes of being, or strong formations from the larger mental and vital worlds which, when one is directly open to these worlds, rush in and want to use the sadhaka for their fulfilment. These things, when they pour down or come in, present themselves with a great force, a vivid sense of inspiration or illumination, much sensation of light and joy, an impression of widening and power. The sadhaka feels himself freed from the normal limits, projected into a wonderful new world of experience, filled and enlarged and exalted; what comes associates itself, besides, with his aspirations, ambitions, notions of spiritual fulfilment and yogic siddhi; it has represented itself even as that realization and fulfilment. Very easily he is carried away by the splendour and the rush, and thinks that he has realized more than he has truly done, something final or at least something sovereignly true. At this stage the necessary knowledge and experience are usually lacking which would tell him that this is only a very uncertain and mixed beginning; he may not realize at once that he is still in the cosmic Ignorance not in the cosmic Truth, much less in the Transcendental Truth, and that whatever formative or dynamic idea-truths may have come down into him are partial only and yet further diminished by their presentation to him by a still mixed consciousness. He may fail to realize also that if he rushes to apply what he is realizing or receiving as if it were something definitive he may either fall into confusion and error or else get shut up in some partial formation in which there may be an element of Spiritual Truth, but it is likely to be outweighed by more dubious

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mental and vital accretions that deform it altogether. It is only when he is able to draw back (whether at once or after a time) from his experiences, stand above them with the dispassionate witness consciousness, observe their real nature, limitations, composition, mixture that he can proceed on his way towards a real freedom and a higher, larger and truer siddhi. At each step this has to be done. For whatever comes in this way to the sadhaka of this yoga, whether it be from vermind or Intuition or Illumined Mind or some exalted Life Plane or from all these together, it is not definitive and final; it is not the Supreme Truth in which he can rest, but only a stage. And yet these stages have to be passed through, for the Supramental or the Supreme Truth cannot be reached in one bound or even in many bounds; one has to pursue a calm, patient, steady progress through many intervening stages without getting bound or attached to their lesser Truth or Light or Power or Ananda. This is in fact an intermediary state, a zone of transition between the ordinary consciousness in mind and the true Yoga knowledge. One may cross without hurt through it, perceiving at once or at an early stage its real nature and refusing to be detained by its half-lights and tempting but imperfect and often mixed and is leading experiences; one may go astray in it, follow false voices and a mendacious guidance, and that ends in a spiritual disaster; or one may take up one's abode in this intermediate zone, care to go no farther and build there some half-truth which one takes for the whole truth or become the instrument of the powers of these transitional planes,—that is what happens to many sadhakas and yogis. Overwhelmed by the first rush and sense of power of a supernormal condition, they get dazzled with a little light which seems to them a tremendous illumination or a touch of force which they mistake for the full Divine Force or at least a very great Yoga Shakti; or they accept some intermediate

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power (not always a Power of the Divine) as the Supreme and intermediate consciousness as the supreme realization. Very readily they come to think that they are in the full cosmic consciousness when it is only some front or small part of it or some larger Mind, Life-Power or subtle physical ranges with which they have entered into dynamic connection. Or they feel themselves to be an entirely illumined consciousness, while in reality they are receiving imperfectly things from above through a partial illumination of some mental or vital plane; for what comes is diminished and often deformed in the course of transmission through these planes; the receiving mind and vital of the sadhaka also often understands or transcribes ill what has been received or throws up to mix with it its own ideas, feelings, desires, which it yet takes to be not its own but part of the Truth it is receiving because they are mixed with it, imitate its form, are lit up by its illumination and get from this association and borrowed light an exaggerated value.

There are worse dangers in this intermediate zone of experience. For the planes to which the sadhaka has now opened his consciousness,—-not as before getting glimpses of them and some influences, but directly, receiving their full impact,—send a host of ideas, impulses, suggestions, formations of all kinds, often the most opposite to each other, inconsistent or incompatible but presented in such a way as to slur over their insufficiencies and differences, with great force, plausibility and a wealth of argument or a convincing sense of certitude. Overpowered by this sense of certitude, vividness, appearance of profusion and richness, the mind of the sadhaka enters into a great confusion which it takes for some larger organization and order; or else, it whirls about in incessant shifting and changes which it takes for a rapid progress, but which lead nowhere. Or there is the opposite danger that he may become the instrument of some apparently brilliant but ignorant

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formation; for these intermediate planes are full of little gods or strong daityas or smaller beings who want to create, to materialize something or to enforce a mental and vital formation in the earth life and are eager to use or influence or even possess the thought and will of the sadhaka and make him their instrument for the purpose. This is quite apart from the well-known danger of actually hostile beings whose sole purpose is to create confusion, falsehood, corruption of the sadhana and disastrous unspiritual error. Anyone allowing himself to be taken hold of by one of these beings, who often take a divine Name, will lose his way in the yoga. On the other hand, it is quite possible that the sadhaka may be met at his entrance into this zone by a Power of the Divine which helps and leads him till he is ready for greater things; but still that itself is no surety against the errors and stumblings of this zone; for nothing is easier than for the powers of these zones or hostile powers to imitate the guiding Voice or Image and deceive and mislead the sadhaka or for himself to attribute the creations and formations of his own mind, vital or ego to the Divine. For this intermediate zone is a region of half-truths—and that by itself would not matter, for there is no complete truth below the Supermind; but the half-truth here is often so partial or else ambiguous in its application that it leaves a wide field for confusion, delusion and error. The sadhaka thinks that he is no longer in the old small consciousness at all, because he feels in contact with something larger or more powerful, and yet the old consciousness is still there, not really abolished. He feels the control or influence of some Power, Being or Force greater than himself, aspires to be its instrument and thinks he has got rid of ego; but this delusion of egoless ness often covers an exaggerated ego. Ideas seize upon him and drive his mind which are only partially true and by over-confident misapplication are turned into falsehoods; this vitiates the movements of the

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consciousness and opens the door to delusion. Suggestions are made, sometimes of a romantic character, which flatter the importance of the sadhaka or are agreeable to his wishes and he accepts them without examination or discriminating control. Even what is true, is so exalted or extended beyond its true pitch and limit and measure that it becomes the parent of error. This is a zonewhich many sadhakas have to cross, in which many wander for a long time and out of which a great many never emerge. Especially if their sadhana is mainly in the mental and vital, they have to meet here many difficulties and much danger; only those who follow scrupulously a strict guidance or have the psychic being prominent in their nature pass easily as if on a sure and clearly marked road across this intermediate region. A central sincerity, a fundamental humility also save from much danger and trouble. One can then pass quickly beyond into a clearer Light where if there is still much mixture, incertitude and struggle, yet the orientation is towards the cosmic Truth and not to a half-illumined prolongation of Maya and ignorance.

I have described in general terms with its main features and possibilities this state of consciousness just across the border of the normal consciousness, because it is here that these experiences seem to move. But different sadhakas comport themselves differently in it and respond sometimes to one class of possibilities, sometimes to another. In this case it seems to have been entered through an attempt to call down or force a way into the cosmic consciousness—it does not matter which way it is put or whether one is quite aware of what one is doing or aware of it in these terms, it comes to that in substance. It is not the Overmind which was entered, for to go straight into the Overmind is impossible. The Overmind is indeed above and behind the whole action of the cosmic consciousness, but one can at first have only an indirect connection with it; things come down from it through

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intermediate ranges into a larger mind-plane, subtle physical plane and come very much changed and diminished in the transmission, without anything like the full power and truth they have in the Overmind itself on its native level. Most of the movements come not from the Overmind, but down from higher mind ranges. The ideas with which these experiences are penetrated and on which they seem to rest their claim to truth are not of the Overmind, but of the higher Mind or sometimes of the illumined Mind; but they are mixed with suggestions from the lower mind and vital regions and badly diminished in their application or misapplied in many places. All this would not matter; it is usual and normal, and one has to pass through it and come into a clearer atmosphere where things are better organized and placed on a surer basis. But the movement was made in a spirit of excessive hurry and eagerness, of exaggerated self-esteem and self-confidence, of a premature certitude, relying on no other guidance than that of one's own mind or of the "Divine" as conceived or experienced in a stage of very limited knowledge. But the sadhaka's conception and experience of the Divine, even if it is fundamentally genuine, is never in such a stage complete and pure; it is mixed with all sorts of mental and vital ascriptions and all sorts of things are associated with this Divine guidance and believed to be part of it which come from quite other sources. Even supposing there is any direct guidance,—most often in these conditions the Divine acts mostly from behind the veil,—it is only occasional and the rest is done through a play of forces; error and stumbling and mixture of Ignorance take place freely and these things are allowed because the sadhaka has to be tested by the world-forces to learn by experience, to grow through imperfection towards perfection—if he is capable of it, if he is willing to learn, to open his eyes to his own mistakes and errors, to learn and profit by them so as to grow towards a purer Truth, Light and Knowledge.

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The result of this state of mind is that one begins to affirm everything that comes in this mixed and dubious region as if it were all the Truth and the sheer Divine Will, the ideas or the suggestions that constantly repeat themselves are expressed with a self-assertive absoluteness as if they were Truth entire and undeniable. There is an impression that one has become impersonal and free from ego, while the whole tone of the mind, its utterance and spirit are full of vehement self-assertiveness justified by the affirmation that one is thinking and acting as an instrument and under the inspiration of the Divine. Ideas are put forward very aggressively that can be valid to the mind, but are not spiritually valid; yet they are stated as if they were spiritual absolutes. For instance, equality which in that sense—for yogic samata is a quite different thing—is a mere mental principle, the claim to a sacred independence, the refusal to accept anyone as guru or the opposition made between the Divine and the human Divine, etc., etc. All these ideas are positions that can be taken by the mind and the vital and turned into principles which they try to enforce on the religious or even the spiritual life, but they are not and cannot be spiritual in their nature. There also begin to come in suggestions from the vital planes, a pullulation of imaginations romantic, fanciful or ingenious, hidden interpretations, pseudo-intuitions, would-be initiations into things beyond, which excite or bemuse the mind and are often so turned as to flatter and magnify ego and self-importance, but are not founded on any well-ascertained spiritual or occult realities of a true order. This region is full of elements of this kind and, if allowed, they begin to crowd on the sadhaka; but if he seriously means to reach the Highest, he must simply observe them and pass on. It is not that there is never any truth in such things, but for one that is true there are nine imitative falsehoods presented and only a trained occultist with the infallible tact born of long experience can guide

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himself without stumbling or being caught through the maze. It is possible for the whole attitude and action and utterance to be so surcharged with the errors of this intermediate zone that to go further on this route would be to travel far away from the Divine and from the yoga.

Here the choice is still open whether to follow the very mixed guidance one gets in the midst of these experiences or to accept the true guidance. Each man who enters the realms of yogic experience is free to follow his own way; but this yoga is not a path for anyone to follow, but only for those who accept to seek the aim, pursue the way pointed out upon which a sure guidance is indispensable. It is idle for anyone to expect that he can follow this road far,—much less go to the end by his own inner strength and knowledge without the true aid or influence. Even the ordinary long-practised yogas are hard to follow without the aid of the guru; in this which as it advances goes through untrodden countries and unknown entangled regions, it is quite impossible. As for the work to be done it is also not a work for any sadhaka of any path; it is not, either, the work of the "Impersonal" Divine—-who, for that matter, is not an active Power but supports impartially all work in the universe. It is a training ground for those who have to pass through the difficult and complex way of this yoga and none other. All work here must be done in a spirit of acceptance, discipline and surrender, not with personal demands and conditions, but with a vigilant conscious submission to control and guidance. Work done in any other spirit results in an unspiritual disorder, confusion and disturbance of the atmosphere. In it too difficulties, errors, stumblings are frequent, because in this yoga people have to be led patiently and with some field for their own effort, by experience, out of the ignorance natural to Mind and Life to a wider spirit and a luminous knowledge. But the danger of an unguided

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wandering in the regions across the border is that the very basis of the yoga may be contradicted and the conditions under which alone the work can be done may be lost altogether. The transition through this intermediate zone—not obligatory, for many pass by a narrower but surer way—is a crucial passage; what comes out of it is likely to be a very wide or rich creation; but when one founders there, recovery is difficult, painful, assured only after a long struggle and endeavour.

November 6, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

EXPERIENCES OF OVERMIND

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Experience: Rising into the higher Sat-Chit-Ananda Consciousness, I united myself with you. ... 7 found myself standing upon a ball of world in the golden lights of infinite vastnesses ... a sun was radiating through all the centres ofthe body and turning each centre into a small radiating sun and flowing powerful electric currents in the body. . . .

Multitudes of people lived upon this world and were seen moving in different directions. . . . The radiating Light was flowing upon all these people through unity of the centres of the Sukshma Deha. . . .

Explanation: This is the opening by the power of the overmind, to the Cosmic Consciousness—to a certain extent, not complete. For, the complete Cosmic Consciousness takes time to come. What you saw was a symbol of the Cosmic force acting upon and through the separate individuals even when they were not conscious of it.

February 20, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

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Experience: Several times I see a sort of current running from each individual to his relations . In this way each individual has his own cosmos which is always in communication-in interchange and exchange with its each centre governed by a radius of current, and with other centres also. Many times these currents become very tangible and are visible even with open eyes-physical eyes.

In this way I see currents of various colours,-enveloped with the atmosphere of its source-running in the whole atmosphere. . . . Do these currents exist? Explanation: Yes, it is the current of the cosmic forces.

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Experience: I have seen that there are some planes where all the notations of this world—its conditions, circumstances and changes are noted. There are others still where things become ready prearranged to manifest upon the physical plane.

Do these planes of notations and prearrangements belong to the overmind?

Explanation: It is from or at least through the overmind plane that the prearrangement comes. And from it the determining vibrations originally come; but there are corresponding movements on all the planes.

February 20, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

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Your experience means manifestly the uniting of the Ishwara-Shakti sides of the manifestation—-as in the Hara-Gauri figure—with the result of a universalization of the individual consciousness indicated by the shooting out towards infinite distances. The currents

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are of course, the currents of the double force working to make this liberation. The blue and gold must be the blue of Krishna and the gold of the Mother (Durga—Mahakali)).

All this is not a Supramental experience but comes from the overmind. But overmind experiences must come first and liberate the consciousness. It is only after the overmind liberation that the true experience

of the Supermind can come.

February 20, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

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Experience: Rising in the Consciousness of Sat-Chit-Ananda, I find myself as if standing above the universe. . . . The whole universe is under my view. . . .

2.There appears a sun in the heart, radiating its light on the universe. . . . The things become more exact and tangible; and, as if turning into the physical facts—there begin to run away troops and troops of serpents and goats. . . .

3.All sorts of forces rush up by the pressure and appear rushing out of the general atmosphere. . . . Such force carries with it the atmosphere of its source (of the individuals who feed or tame them) .... The atmosphere which envelopes these forces is of unwillingness to depart with them and desires to keep them for some more time. . . .

Explanation: 1. An image of the overmind action and cosmic consciousness.

2.The Light of the sun descending into the heart (the Sun of Knowledge) turns upon the physical and purifies it. Serpents indicate adverse energies, goats usually indicate sex-tendencies.

3.It is the forces of the lower nature compelled to appear by the rays of the sun of knowledge and seem

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moved to depart but something in the ego-nature still clings to them and delays the true purification. That always happens in everybody.

February 20, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

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It is the Overmind transmitting something of the Supramental Light—but so long as the Supermind does not directly manifest, it is that Light modified by Overmind and applied to the needs of the individual nature.

Its success, e.g., in purifying the physical is not immediate and absolute as the full and direct Supramental action would be but still relative, conditioned by the individual nature and balance of the universal forces, it is progressive, but resisted by the adverse powers, by the unwillingness of the lower workings to cease, by the want of complete consent in

the personal nature.

February 20, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

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Q. I can become one with the Mother and you both even in cells of the body which was not possible before.

Was not the physical mind standing in the way when the experience was not possible?

2. Is it not that after a course of purification and liberation of the physical consciousness that this intimacy and union were made possible?

A. There was something in the vital also (which was standing in the way of union).

2. Some purification perhaps of something that acts between the vital and physical consciousness.

February 20, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

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Q. Is there any significance in Mother's standing on the right side and your standing on the left side in my experiences?

A. Yes, she is the executive power and must have the right arm free for action. The symbolism which puts her on the left side belongs to the ignorance. In the ignorance she is in the left side, not free in her action—all is a wrong action or half result. . . .

February 20, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

21

That is how the overmind influence works on the lower planes, when it descends, but, it is not clear here whether it is the direct overmind influence or indirect power of it projected through the illumined mind— probably the latter. The Sun-symbol indicates a direct Light—whether Supramental, Overmental or Intuitive Truth.

I have already explained the goats and serpents.

February 23, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

22

The moon is sometimes a symbol of the Light in the mind—if it is a full moon. The crescent moon may be a symbol of growing spirituality of the mind centre.

I have written hastily and roughly. If you find it difficult to read you can send it back marking the places.

February 23, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

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Towards Supermind

1

Q. What is the fundamental difference in the understanding of the dynamic divine Truth between the old Togas and our Toga?

A. The fundamental difference is in the teaching that there is a dynamic divine Truth (the Supermind) and that into the present world of Ignorance that Truth can descend, create a new Truth-consciousness and divinize Life. The old Yogas go straight from mind to the absolute Divine, regard all dynamic existence as Ignorance, Illusion or Lila; when you enter the static and immutable Divine Truth, they say, you pass out of cosmic existence.

2

I have repeatedly said recently that we are trying against great difficulties to bring down the Supramental into the physical plane. If the Supramental were already there, the body divinized, matter transformed, there would be no difficulty and no need of the endeavour.

I would recall to you what I said in my letter to D. that it was not the direct Supramental Force which was working up till now but a preparatory force that carried in it a modified light derived from the Supramental. The direct Force can begin working only when the mind, vital and physical are sufficiently ready.

March 4, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

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3

Q. How far can its general atmosphere and general conditions help or delay your bringing down the Supermind? Are these conditions interdependent ?

A. To a certain extent. If the Supramental descent is decreed, nothing can prevent it; but all things are worked out here through a play of forces, and an unfavourable atmosphere or conditions can delay even
when they cannot prevent. Even when the thing is destined, it does not present itself as a certitude in the consciousness here (overmind, mind, vital, physical) till the plays of forces have been worked out up to a certain point at which the descent not only is, but appears as inevitable.

March 5, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

4.

Q_. What should be the true attitude of one who wants to be helpful to you, or what exact conditions you want us to fulfil to create here the Supramental possibility?

A. 1. Get the psychic being in front and keep it there putting its power on the mind, vital and physical— so that it shall communicate to them its force of simple-minded aspiration, trust, faith, surrender, direct and immediate detection of whatever is wrong in them and turned towards ego and error, away from Light and Truth.

2.Eliminate egoism in all its forms and from every movement of the consciousness.

3.Develop the cosmic consciousness—let the egocentric outlook disappear in wideness, impersonality, the sense of the Cosmic Divine, the perception of the

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universal forces, the realization and understanding of the cosmic manifestation, the play.

4.Find in place of ego the true being—a portion of the Divine issued from the World-Mother and an instrument of the manifestation. This sense of being the portion of the Divine and an instrument should be free from all pride, sense of claim of ego or assertion of superiority, demand or desire. For if these elements are there, then it is not the true thing.

5.Most, even in doing Yoga, live in mind, vital, physical, lit up occasionally or to some extent by the higher mind and by the illumined mind; but to prepare for the Supramental change it is necessary (as soon as, personally the time has come) to open up to the intuitive and the overmind, so that these may make the Adhar ready for the Supramental change. Allow the consciousness quietly to develop and widen, and the knowledge of these things will progressively come.

6.Calm, discrimination, detachment (but not indifference) are all very important; for their opposites impede very much the transforming action. Intensity of aspiration should be there, but along with these— no hurry, no inertia,—neither rajasic over-eagerness nor tamasic discouragement—a steady and persistent but quiet call and working. No snatching or clutching at realization, but allowing realization to come from within and above, and observing accurately its field, its nature, its limit.

7.Let the power of the Mother work in you but be careful to avoid mixture or substitution in its place of either a magnified ego-working or a force of Ignorance presenting itself as Truth. Prepare especially for the elimination of all obscurity and unconsciousness in the nature.

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These are the main conditions of preparation for the Supramental change, but none of them is easy, and they must be complete before the Adhar can be said to be ready. If the true attitude (psychic, unegoistic, open only to the Divine Force) can be established, then the process can go on much more quickly. To take and keep the true attitude, to further the change in oneself, is the help that can be given, the one thing needed to assist the general change.

March 5, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

5

You seem to be very much in hurry to get at the Supermind. I have said that it cannot be done like that, a patient preparation of the nature is needed and I am concerned with that now.

6

Death and disease can only disappear by divinization of the body—and that is not yet here.

I said I would write hereafter because, on those points there are things that need to be said (not for you alone); as regards the overmind especially; for the sadhakas as yet seem to understand very little about

these matters. But, I cannot fix a time.

March 9, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

7

Q_. If everything else is falsehood except the Supramental Truth, how can the lower Overmind be a passage to the possibility of the Supermind?

A. I have not said that everything is falsehood except the Supramental Truth. I said that there was no

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complete Truth below the Supramental. In the Overmind the Truth of Supermind which is whole and harmonious enters into a separation into parts, many truths fronting each other and moved each to fulfil itself, to make a world of its own or else to prevail or take its share in worlds made of a combination of various separated Truths and Truth-forces. Lower down in the scale, the fragmentation becomes more and more pronounced, so as to admit of positive error, falsehood, ignorance, finally inconscience like that of Matter. This world here has come out of the Inconscience and developed the Mind which is an instrument of Ignorance trying to reach out to the Truth through much limitation, conflict, confusion and error. To get back to Overmind, if one can do it completely, which is not easy for physical beings, is to stand on the borders of the Supramental Truth with the hope of entry there.

November 7, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

8

Q. Is Purushottama of the Gita and Supermind the same?

A. No, that is quite a different matter. Purushottama of the Gita is the Supreme Being; the Supermind is a power of the Supreme—or proceeding from Him. . . .

April 17, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

9

The Supermind has nothing to do with passing into a blank. It is the mind over passing its own limits and following a negative and quietistic way to do it that reaches the big blank. The Mind, being the Ignorance, has to annul itself in order to enter into the Supreme Truth—or, at least, so it thinks. But, the

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Supermind being the Truth-consciousness and the Divine Knowledge, has no need to annul itself for the purpose.

July 27, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

10

Supermind is not the Purushottama consciousness, it is in a Purushottama consciousness, a certain level and power of being which he can share with his "eternal portions" Anshah Sanatanah, provided they can climb out of the Ignorance. As for embodying, it is certainly difficult, but, not impossible.

August 7, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

11

. . . Do not be overeager for experiences;—for experiences you can always get, having once broken the barrier between the physical mind and the subtle planes. What you have to aspire for most is the improved quality of the recipient consciousness in you— discrimination in the mind, the unattached impersonal witness look on all that goes on in you and around you, purity in the vital, calm, equanimity, enduring patience, absence of pride and the sense of greatness— and more especially, the development of the psychic being in you—surrender, self-giving, psychic humility, devotion. It is a consciousness made up of these things, cast in this mould, that can bear without breaking, stumbling or deviation into error the rush of lights, powers and experiences from the Supraphysical planes. An entire perfection in these respects is hardly possible until the whole nature from the higher mind to the subconscient physical is made one in the light that is greater than Mind, but a sufficient foundation and a consciousness always self-observant, vigilant and

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growing in these things is indispensable—for perfect purification is the basis of the perfect siddhi.

November 12, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

12

......The only creation for which there is any place here is the Supramental, the bringing of the Divine Truth down on the earth not only into the mind and vital but into the body and into the Matter. Its object is not to remove all "limitations" on the expansion of the ego or to give a free field and make unlimited roomfor the fulfilment of the ideas of the human mind or the desires of the ego-centered life force. None of us is here to "do as we like", or to create a world in which we shall at last be able to do as we like: We are here to do what the Divine' wills and to create a world in which the Divine Will can manifest its Truth, no longer deformed by human ignorance or perverted and mistranslated by the vital desire. The work which the sadhaka of the Supramental Yoga has to do is not his own work for which he can lay down his own conditions, but the work of the Divine which he has to do according to the conditions laid down by the Divine. Our Yoga is not for our own sake but for the sake of the Divine. It is not our personal manifestation that we are to seek, the manifestation of the individual ego freed from all bounds and from all bonds, but the manifestation of the Divine, of that manifestation our own spiritual liberation, perfection, fullness is to be a result and a part, but not in any egoistic sense or for any ego-centered or self-seeking purpose. This liberation, perfection, fullness too are not to be for our own sake, but for the sake of the Divine. I emphasize this character of the creation, because a constant forgetfulness of this simple and central truth, a conscious, half-conscious or wholly ignorant confusion about it has been at the root of

Page-38

the most of the vital revolts that have spoiled many an individual sadhana here and disturbed the progress of the general inner work and the spiritual atmosphere.

The Supramental Creation, since it is to be a creation upon earth, must be not only an inner ehange, but a physical and external manifestation also. And it is precisely for this part of the work, the most difficult of all, that surrender is most needful; for this reason that it is the actual descent of the Supramental Divine into Matter and working of the Divine Presence and Power there that can alone make the physical and external change possible. Even the most powerful self-assertion of human will and endeavour is important to bring it about. . . .

December 6, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

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Towards Purushottama

1

The aim of the Yoga is to open the consciousness to the Divine, 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 Divine Knowledge, Will and Love. Secondly, to develop the Yogic consciousness, e.g., to universalize the being in all the planes, become aware of the cosmic being and cosmic forces and be in union with the Divine in all the planes up to the overmind. Thirdly, to come into contact with the transcendent Divine beyond the overmind, through the Supramental consciousness, supramentalised the consciousness and the nature; and make oneself instrument for the realization of the dynamic Divine Truth and its transforming descent into the earth-nature.

May 15, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

2

I do not know that there is anything like Purushottama consciousness which the human being can attain or realize for himself; for in the Gita, the Purushottama is the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Being, who is beyond the immutable and the mutable and contains both the One and the Many. Man, says the Gita, can attain the Brahmic consciousness, realize himself as an eternal portion of the Purushottama and live in the Purushottama. The Purushottama Consciousness is the the consciousness of the Supreme Being and man by loss of ego and realization of his true essence can live in it.

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3

The conditions for living ever in union with Purushottama:—

1.Loss of egoism—-including all ambition (even "spiritual" ambition) pride, desire, self-centered life, mind, will.

2.Universalization of the consciousness.

3.Absolute surrender to the transcendental Divine.

4

There can be no mental rule or definition (for the life, after attaining the Purushottama—the highest consciousness). One has first to live in the Divine and attain to the Truth—the Will and the awareness of the Truth will organize the life.

5

In this Yoga certainly—transformation is the essential aim, the transformation of the fundamental consciousness first, through that a progressive transformation of the instruments.

May 15, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

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Experiences of Cosmic

Consciousness

1

Q. What is the difference between the individual and Cosmic Truth and Cosmic Ignorance?

A. There is no ignorance that is not part of the Cosmic Ignorance, only in the individual it becomes a limited formation and movement, while the Cosmic Ignorance is the whole movement of world consciousness separated from the Supreme Truth and acting in an inferior motion in which the Truth is perverted, diminished, mixed and clouded with falsehood and error. The Cosmic Truth is the view on things of a cosmic consciousness in which things are seen in their true essence and their true relation to the Divine and to each other.

2

Experience: While taking food I experience as if its soul or "that something within" shoots out of its heart and rises. . . unites and merges in the heart of each atom of air—as if a spark uniting with another spark. . . . Everywhere there streams out the joy of union.

Fine elements of food get analysed . . . rise; each one merges in the same kind of element of the body . . . and there streams out the joy of inter-union. . . .

Inner and outer union makes one complete flame of a harmonious union and rises towards the Supreme. . . . Ah! the living air and the lifeless stones also unveil their hearts . . . bare their souls. . . . Sparks vibrant with Light

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and Life come out of the lifeless stones and join . . . revel . . . enlarge this sweetest tune to its infinite vastness. . .

Esplanation: It is one of the thousand experiences one gets when the Cosmic Consciousness is opening.

March 3, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

3

Experience: As soon as I unite myself with you, the whole form gets extended in all directions—the head touches the sky; the feet go deep down in the ground and hands get extended into infinite distances in the ecstasy of the timeless, eternal, infinite consciousness.....

I feel as if the whole is aspiring through me and . . . there descends the sun radiating golden light and flows out from the whole body as orange-coloured fire. . . .

No aspiration remains self-centred, nor is there any desire to keep the descending lights for personal use. . . . Everything flows out unhindered to the universe as Divine's Grace. . . . Day and night I see myself in this huge form . . . radiating the only thing—-fire! fire!

Explanation: It is what it represents itself to be—an experience of the universal consciousness aspiring to the Divine Truth and beginning to receive its light. It is not your own consciousness, although you feel it

in yourself, but a symbolic experience of the universal Vishwa-Purusha. These things one sees when one opens to the Cosmic Consciousness. Observed, felt and taken rightly, they help to liberate, universalize and impersonalize. . . .

Observe and go forward.

March 7, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

Page-43

4

The cosmic consciousness does not belong to overmind in especial; it covers all the planes.

Man is shut up at present in his surface individual consciousness and knows the world (or rather the surface of it) only through his outward mind and senses and by interpreting the contacts with the world. By yoga there can open in him a consciousness which becomes one with that of the world; he becomes directly aware of a universal being, universal states, universal force and forces; universal mind, life, matter and lives in conscious relations with these things. He is then said to have the cosmic consciousness.

March 11, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

5

Experience: As soon as I rise in the higher consciousness, first, the heart begins to feel a pain of unbearable expansion. It gets expanded and there comes a descent of that wide consciousness—with a jerk as if the heart is bursting;— Light makes its way and shoots out in all directions and gets united with the hidden heart of everything—with the soul-ray of each object. . . .

The Light descends up to the navel and infinite vastness is felt not only in the mind but up to the navel. And in that entire portion I feel as if there is no cover of limiting body, but there is infinite vastness. . . .

Explanation: It is the experience of cosmic wideness descending from centre to centre.

March 9, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

Page-44

6

Experience: Sometimes, I find myself descended among these planes—mind, life and body, living in that infinite vastness and in oneness with all the beings on all the planes. . . .

Explanation: This is the beginning of the fundamental universalization of the consciousness.

April 25, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

7

Experience: Neither calm nor disturbance; neither joy nor sorrow; no individuality nor universality, but everything melting away in an unimaginable vastness which is behind and beyond everything. . .

This state which cannot be called static nor can it be called dynamic, but such state, which is neither a state conditioned or limited by any word but which is beyond all conditions or meanings attached to it, because it is none of these conditions and yet all.

I do not live in this limited body all the time, but I feel a living presence in each and every atom, which links the whole universe with one inconceivable unity in universal multiplicity. . .

There does not exist any "I", but the hierarchy of the universal planes full of the one reality, the sole support—the Divine Presence.

There are rainbow colours on all planes above which I stand and observe. Even here on the one hand the living Presence of the Divine tries to beguile this pose of mine by its sweetness; and on the other hand, the unseemliness and the impurity of things try to drag and disturb, but nothing really touches me. There is no desire to nullify the coming vibrations nor is there any opening through which they can penetrate .... complete aloofness . . . complete freedom . . . no fear of death or of ego ....

Page-45

A. If your description is accurate, it is a realization or reflection—one cannot say easily which—of the state of consciousness of the Neutral Witness. These experiences are always felt in the subtle consciousness somewhere. To make it a reality in the exterior being and in the physical consciousness is a very difficult and laborious affair—it means an application to every movement, act, happenings, impact in life—in an active life. Those who make this neutral state their aim, usually draw back from active life and remain within.

February 16, 1933

Sri Aurobindo

Page-46

Attitude

TO MONEY AND THINGS

1

Q. What is the difference between samata of the soul and mental equality?

A. Yogic samata is equality of soul, equanimity founded on the sense of the one Self, the one Divine everywhere—seeing the One in spite of all differences, degrees, disparities in the manifestation. The mental principle of equality tries to ignore or else to destroy the differences, degrees and disparities, to act as if all were equal there or to try and make all equal. It is like Hridaya, the nephew of Ramakrishna, who when he got the touch from Ramakrishna began to shout, "Ramakrishna, you are the Brahman and I too am the Brahman; there is no difference between us", till Ramakrishna, as he refused to be quiet, had to withdraw the power. Or like the disciple who refused to listen to the mahout and stood before the elephant, saying, "I am Brahman", until the elephant took him up in his trunk and put him aside. When he complained to his guru, the guru said, "Yes, but why didn't you listen to the mahout Brahman? That was why the elephant Brahman had to lift you up and put you out of harm's way." In the manifestation there are two sides to the Truth and you cannot ignore either.

2

Q. Is the way of sending stamps for correspondence objectionable?

A. No, it is not objectionable; on the contrary, people who want to correspond with the Ashram do well to send

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stamps for replies. But, as these are of the especial kind, the Mother takes them for the Ashram collection; She will give you ordinary stamps in exchange.

February 28, 1931

Sri Aurobindo

3

Q_. Should a sadhaka ask for things from outside?

A. A sadhaka should not have demands and ask for things for his personal use from people outside, but if they of their own accord and without any request or suggestion send them to him, he can receive them. The most important point is that he should not indulge any spirit of greed or desire under any excuse or colour; and should be unaffected in his vital being by the presence or absence of these things that satisfy desire.

March 5, 1931

Sri Aurobindo

4

Q. What should be the true necessity of a sadhaka? Should he try to get extra things from outside—apart from Ashram supply? What is the idea behind giving pocket expense?

A. The idea when the arrangement was made was simply to see how and in what spirit the sadhakas dealt with money when they had any at their disposal.

5

The necessities of a sadhaka should be as few as possible; for there are only very few things that are necessities in life. The rest are either utilities or things decorative to life or luxuries. These a yogin has a right to possess or enjoy only on one of two conditions:

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(1)If he uses them during his sadhana solely to train himself in possessing things without attachment or desire and to learn to use them rightly, in harmony with the Divine Will, with a proper handling, a just organization, arrangement and measure;—or

(2)If he already attained a true freedom from desire and attachment and is not the least moved or affected in any way by loss or withholding or deprival. If he has any greed, desire, demand, claim for possession or enjoyment, grief, anger or vexation when denied or deprived, he is not free in spirit and his use of the things to possess is contrary to the spirit of sadhana. Even if he is free in spirit, he will not be fit for possession, if he has not learned to use things not for himself, but for the Divine Will, as an instrument, with the right knowledge, and action in the use for the equipment of a life lived not for oneself but for and in the Divine.

March 8, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

TO SEX AND POWER

6

Q. What should be the true attitude of a sadhaka of this Toga towards sex and power?

A. The sadhaka has to turn away entirely from the invasion of the vital and the physical by the sex-impulse; for, if he does not conquer the sex-impulse, there can be no settling in the body of the Divine Consciousness and the Divine Ananda.

7

There should be no straining after power, no ambition, no egoism of power. The power or powers that come

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should be considered not as one's own, but as gifts of the Divine for the Divine's purpose. Care should be taken that there should be no ambitions or selfish misuse, no pride or vanity, no sense of superiority, no claim or egoism of the instrument, only a simple and pure psychic instrumentation of the nature in any wayin which it is fit for the service of the Divine.

March 8, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

TO THE WORLD

8

Q_. Should my attitude towards the world be only to remain detached from it? Is there no positive side to it?

A. That (detachment) is the basis: detachment with a quiet goodwill not disturbed by what they seem to be or do.

That is a necessary element. What is positive, should come through union with the Divine, not in a separate relation to others.

April 25, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

9

Why do you allow yourself in the least to be troubled and concerned by what people say about you ? It is for you to see whether there is any shadow of truth in what is said about or to you by others: If there is, you can yourself put it right in yourself; if there is no truth, then what is said is not worth notice.

We can't prevent gossip and talk and fault-finding by decree; it is from within themselves that people must change in this matter.

April 21, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

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TO READING

10

The value does not depend upon my writing to you or not, but on whether you are able to receive anything from us and whether you can profit spiritually by what you receive. . . .

September 12, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

11

Dedication to the Divine. To read what will help the Yoga or what will be useful for the work or what will develop the capacities for the Divine purpose. Not to read worthless stuff or for mere entertainment

or for a dilettante intellectual curiosity which is of the nature of a mental dram-drinking. When one is established in the highest consciousness, one can read nothing or everything. It makes no difference—but

that is still far off.

April 25, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

TO PERSONAL EFFORT

12

q.. What is the difference between the personal effort and the action of the Divine Force? How can the personal effort be eliminated?

A. It is not possible to get rid of the stress on personal effort at once—and always desirable; for personal effort is better than tamasic inertia.

The personal effort has to be transformed progressively into a movement of the Divine Force. If you feel conscious of the Divine Force, then, call it in

Page-51

more and more to govern your effort, to take it up, to transform it into something not yours but the Mother's. There will be a sort of transfer, a taking up of the forces at work in the personal Adhar—a transfer not suddenly complete but progressive.

But the psychic poise is necessary: the discrimination must develop, which sees accurately what is the Divine Force, what is the element of personal effort and what is brought in as a mixture from the lower cosmic forces. And until the transfer is complete which always takes time, there must always be as a personal contribution, a constant consent to the true Force, a constant rejection of any lower mixture—that is very important.

At present to give up personal effort is not what is wanted, but to call in more and more the Divine Power and govern and guide by it the personal endeavour.

March 5, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

THE PSYCHIC OR YOGIC ATTITUDE

13

Very good and true. Yes, that is the true Yogic attitude.

Very good. Surely, this is what we want you to do (and everyone who is capable of it) to take the true psychic attitude or the true Yogic attitude and make a true progress—for it is only so that there can be something like a straight line of progress. If you take and keep this attitude, the true and constant connection is sure to be established.

April 24, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

Page-52

14

I will see whether I will find some work for you. If you take and keep this attitude, the true and constant connection is su re to be established.

April 24, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

15

The psychic or the yogic attitude consists of calm, detachment, equality, universality—added to this the psychic element—bhakti, love, devotion to the Divine.

April 25, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

TO SPIRITUAL CONNECTION AND OPENNESS

16

Yes, the connection is always there in the self and the psychic; but if there are obstacles in the mind, vital and physical, then, the connection cannot be manifest or, if at all manifest, it is mixed with elements which make it imperfect and unstable. The true connection is the psychic and spiritual relation; the relation in the other parts must be kept up on this psychic and spiritual connection and then it can be permanent.

April 25, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

17

(a)Openness and, whenever needed, passivity, but to the highest consciousness, not to anything else that comes.

(b)Therefore there must be a certain quiet vigilance ever in the passivity. Otherwise there may be either wrong movements or inertia.

April 25, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

Page-53

Let us know

CHITTA AND CHIT

1

Q_. What is the difference between "Chitta" and "Chit"?

A. Chit is the pure consciousness—as in Sat-Chit-Ananda.

Chitta is the stuff of mixed mental-vital-physical consciousness, out of which arise the movements of thought, emotion, sensation, impulse, etc. It is these that in Patanjali's system have to be stilled altogether so that, the consciousness may become immobile and go into Samadhi.

July 25, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

2

Q. Is stilling contradicted in this Toga?

A. It has a different function. The movements of the ordinary consciousness have to be mastered and quieted, and into the quietude, there has to be brought down a higher consciousness and its powers which will transform the nature.

July 25, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

3

Q. What is the difference between stilling, suppressing and controlling or mastering?

A. If you suppress, you will have no movements of the chitta at all. All will be immobile, until you

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remove the suppression—or will be so immobile that there cannot be anything else than immobility.

If you still, the chitta will be quiet; whatever movements there are will not disturb the quietude.

If you control or master, then the chitta will be immobile when you want, active when you want, and its action will be such that, what you want to get rid of, will go; only what you accept as true and useful will come.

July 26, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

4

Q. What are the main disadvantages of negative means from the positive point of view?

A. The negative means are not evil. They are useful for their object which is to get away from Life. But, from the positive point of view, they are disadvantageous, because, they get rid of the powers of the being instead of divinizing them for the transformation of Life.

July 26, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

DEMAND AND DESIRE

5

Demand and desire are only two different aspects of the same thing nor is it necessary that a feeling should be agitated or restless to be a desire; it can be, on the contrary, quietly fixed and persistent or persistently recurrent. What I wanted to say was, that demand or desire comes from the mental or the vital and psychic or a spiritual need is a different thing. The psychic does not demand or desire; it aspires; it does not make conditions for its surrender or withdraw if its

Page-55

aspiration is not immediately satisfied—for the psychic has complete trust in the Divine or in the Guru and can wait for the right time or the hour of the Divine Grace. The psychic has an insistence of its own, but it puts its pressure not on the Divine, but on the nature, putting a finger of light on all defects there, that stand in the way of the realization, sifting out all that is mixed, ignorant or imperfect in the experience or in the movements of the Yoga and never satisfied with itself or with the nature till it has got it perfectly open to the Divine, free from all forms of ego, surrendered, simple and right in the attitude and all the movements. This is what has to be established entirely in the mind and vital and in the physical consciousness before supramentalisation of the whole nature is possible. Otherwise what one gets is more or less brilliant, half luminous, half cloudy illuminations and experiences on the mental and vital and physical planes, half truth half error or at the best true only for those planes and inspired either from some large mind or larger vital or at the best from the mental reaches above the human that intervene between the intellect and the overmind. These can be very stimulating and satisfying up to a certain point, and are good for those who want some spiritual realization on those planes, but the Supramental realization is something much more difficult and exacting in its conditions and the most difficult of all is to bring it down on to the physical level.

February 18, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

6

The principle of all sadhana is to fix the will not on desires—even if presented to the mind as needs—but on realization only.

Our object is the Supramental realization and we have to do whatever is necessary for that, or towards that

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under the conditions of each stage. At present the necessity is to prepare the physical consciousness; for that a complete equality and peace and a complete dedication free from personal demand or desire, in

the physical and the lower vital parts is the thing to be established. Other things can come in their proper time. What is the real need now is the psychic opening in the physical consciousness and the constant presence and guidance there. . . .

February 16, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

APPROACH TO THE MOTHER

7

The right attitude in approaching the Mother when she sees one, is to keep the being perfectly quiet and open to receive, without any activity of the mind or desire in the vital, with only the surrender and the psychic readiness to accept whatever is given.

Tomorrow, 24th the Mother sees you for meditation, so that she may see and do whatever is needed.

8

The conditions for following the Mother's will are to turn to her for Light and Truth and Power, to aspire that no other force shall influence or lead you, to make no demands or conditions in the vital, to keep a quiet mind ready to receive the Truth but not insisting on its own ideas and formations; finally to keep the psychic awake and in front, so that you may be in constant contact and know truly what her will is; for the mind and the vital can mistake other impulsions and suggestions for the Divine Will, but the psychic makes no mistake.

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9

As regards your other questions, a perfect perfection in working is only possible after Supramentalisation; but a relative good working is possible on the lower planes if one is in contact with the Divine andcareful, vigilant and conscious in mind and vital and body. That is a condition, besides, which is preparatory and almost indispensable for the Supramentalisation.

February 23, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

EGO

10

The mind and the vital are much more full of ego than the body—-in the body the ego is obscure and instinctive only. There is no reason why ego should not be conquered in the end—although it is difficult— even in the external nature.

February 15, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

SURRENDER

11

Q_. (1) It is true that there is a surrender beyond mind, vital and physical surrender which Krishna asks Arjuna to attain by saying—nistraigunyo bhavarjuna?

A. Naturally, the whole being must surrender, not the mind, vital and body alone.

Q. (2) Is this surrender the same as the psychic surrender?

A. No, it is the surrender of the self on the higher planes.

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Q_. (3) Is this surrender final among all surrenders?

A. Neither is complete without the other. The psychic brings about the surrender of the manifested nature—the self on the higher plane surrenders to the Divine all the spiritual possibilities including that of Moksha.

Q_. (4) Can anybody pass beyond the barrier of the gunas and ego?

A. It is the double surrender that makes one free from the gunas. If only the higher self is free from the gunas and other parts remain their subject, then there is not the full liberation.

q,. (5) Surrender to the Divine and surrender to the Guru are said to be two different things. Is this true?

A. No. In surrendering to the Guru, it is to the Divine in him that one surrenders—if it were only to the human entity it would be ineffective. But it is the consciousness of the Divine Presence that makes the Guru a real Guru, so that even if the disciple surrenders to him thinking of the human being to whom he surrenders, that Presence will still make it effective.

Q. (6) Does surrender to the impersonal (formless) Divine leave the parts of the being subject to gunas and ego to a certain extent?

A. Yes—because the static parts would be formless, the active nature would be still in the play of the gunas. Many think they are free from ego because they get the sense of the formless existence. They do not see that the egoistic elements remain in their action just as before.

Q_. (7) What makes the surrender to the Guru so grand and glorious as to call it the surrender beyond all surrenders?

A. Because through it you surrender not only to the impersonal, but to the personal,—not only to Divine in self but to the Divine outside you; you get a chance

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for the surpassing of the ego not only by retreat into the self where ego does not exist, but in the personal nature where it is the ruler. It is the sign of the will to complete, surrender to the total Divine.

Of course it must be a genuine spiritual surrender for all this to be true.

November 21, 1933

Sri Aurobindo

DIVINE WILL

12

Q. If Divine Will is being done in the universe, then, where is the place at all for any individual (egoistic) initiation for the Divine creation?

A. The Divine does not act in the void, but through instruments, embodiments or channels. If creation is intended, there will have to be prepared those who can be part of the creation and at the same time the means of developing it.

July 26, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

13

q,- Can there be anything like the will of the instrument in the practical field?

A. As long as there is egoism, the egoistic will is there. And as long as there is Ignorance, there will be a will of the instrument in the practical field. If the ignorant egoistic will is to be considered as a manifestation of the Divine Will, then there is no utility in Yoga—in that case the Yogi and the ordinary man stand on the same footing; they are both the Divine and their Will is the Divine Will.

July 27, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

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Sleep

1

Q. Sometimes sleep is really an experience of death, for the consciousness merges into the Matter. Outwardly one becomes absolutely unconscious, one loses his real self in some dull and gloomy state and one does not know what happens around him.

In such death-like sleep, in such unconscious state even if we experience something, we do not remember anything when we awake. In such unconscious condition, the forces from the dark regions attack us.

Sometimes I have experienced, they send waves of darkest lower movements. If I continue to have unconscious sleep, I fear, they will succeed in creating those lower movements.

.... Last night I was in sound sleep, and the waves began to come. I felt that something very dark was coming to attack the sex centre. . . . I became conscious, I jumped out of the bed and began to walk in the room, aspiring and praying for protection and light. . . .

After this experience, I try to avoid sleep as much as possible. ... 7 think sleep is nothing but one of the worst habits the human being has developed and has become slave of it.

If you like and if you allow, I would like to come into a more helpful and favourable atmosphere. I will come in your house after 12.00 p.m. and sit in the stairs, meditating. . . . Will you kindly allow?

A. This is quite impossible. It is better to go to sleep and make it a discipline to become conscious in your sleep. Sleep may be only a habit, but it is a necessary habit at present and the thing is not to suppress but to transform it into a conscious inner state.

October 2, 1929

Sri Aurobindo

Page-61

2

Sleep cannot be replaced but can be changed, you can become conscious in sleep. If you are conscious, then the night can be utilized for higher working—provided the body gets its due rest, which is the object of sleep. It is a mistake to deny to the body food and sleep, as some ascetics want to do—that only wears out the physical support and although the Yogic or the vital energy can long keep at work a declining physical, a time comes when it is no longer possible. Moderate but sufficient food (without greed or desire), sufficient sleep but not heavy tamasic sleep—this should be the rule.

February 29, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

3

q.- I would like to know how to establish balance between the trance, the waking state and sleep, which can make possible the establishment of the timeless infinite consciousness.

A. There can be no balance (in sleep) in the present condition. The balance can only come as the sleep becomes conscious and free from tamas. . . .

I am concerned with preparing the nature for the Supramental possibility—however long that may take and I have no time or energy to waste on side issues. That preparation is the only thing I can recommendto you; all the "sides" necessary will come with it.

March 4, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

4

The sleep in which there is a luminous silence or else the sleep in which there is Ananda in the cells, these are obviously the best states. The four hours of which you

Page-62

are unconscious may be states in which you have gone out of the physical into the mental, vital or other planes. When you say, unconscious, it may simply be that you do not remember what happens; for in coming back there is a sort of turning over of the consciousness in which everything experienced in sleep except perhaps the last or else one that was very impressive recedes from the physical consciousness and becomes as if a blank. There is a state of inertia, but that is when one gets into the subconscient, and that is very undesirable; but, it is not very likely that you are in this condition at night often.

April 25, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

EXPERIENCES IN SLEEP

5

Experience: One night something came rushing and pushing and caught all the parts of the body with its many hands. It began to put some of its fingers in my nose, some in my ears; and closed the mouth with one of its hands and took its seat on the feet which were outstretched. . . . The whole body and breath were possessed. Neither could I move nor breathe nor shout. Everything was under a crushing pressure. . . .

I began to observe the nature of the powerful being that was sitting on my feet. . . . Became conscious . . . called for the supreme help and with a decisive Will I caught the leg of that being and threw it on the ground . . . and everything merged away . . . in the air . . . as if it was made of air. . . .

A. You did the right thing. Not to be afraid, to call in the protection and to act decisively—that is always what must be done against these vital attacks.

May 24, 1930

Sri Aurobindo

Page-63

6

Experience: All of a sudden I found as if the whole house was on fire. So vivid was the scene that in the quietude of the night the crackling of the fire and the falling of burning logs were heard. . . .

There was nobody in the house in reality, but the cries of weeping people and their pathetic appeal to save their lives were heard. . . .

I separated myself and began to look from above. I saw there was nothing like real fire; but there were some half-visible forms making this scene so vivid by adding their appeal to save their lives. . . .

As soon as I came to the decision, they changed their plan and began to encircle me and to spin circles around me. I decided to meet them face to face and challenged. . . .

I made a circle over them, beginning from the left side. They fell into pieces and merged away—melted away in the air. . . .

Again, they began to come in groups. . . . I kept my "finger of Light " outstretched and the finger began to throw sparks of fire. . . . all of them were burnt down. . . .

This was not all. These beings are very clever and the most cunning one of them took the form of the Mother and came. . . . But it was quite visible from its atmosphere and the lines of its masked face that it was a blood-hound. . . . It came near the windows and the windows got closed of themselves automatically. . . . It could not enter the room. . . .

Explanation: These are the usual forms of the Rakshasi Maya, illusory formations of the vital world. They wanted to make a formation of the house on fire in order that you might accept it and then with the help of your acceptance they would have tried actually to put the house on fire. Reject and dissolve these

Page-64

formations as soon as they appear. To take the appearance of myself or the Mother is also a familiar trick and a dangerous one. But as long as you keep the power of discrimination, all is well.

May 28, 1930

Sri Aurobindo

7

q,. Do hostile forces attack a person to test him? Why do they attack particular persons?

A. Hostile forces attack every sadhaka; some are conscious, others are not. Their object is either to influence the person or to use him or to spoil the sadhana or the work or any other motive of the kind. Their object is not to test—but their attack may be used by the guiding Power as a test.

May 29, 1930

Sri Aurobindo

8

Experience: Last night at about 10-30 p.m., I saw a big valley near the slope of a hill. Four or five dark dwarfs were standing with logs of wood in their hands . . . after some time, I saw some of our people being beaten with those logs of wood by those dwarfs. All those who were beaten were thrown into a pit and were buried.

I saw B standing in a corner frightened and collapsed by terror—Many were under the ground within a few minutes. . . .

I just tried to identify through my heart with those who were buried. After identification I gathered the dynamic power and threw it upon the dwarfs, and immediately they turned into clods of earth and those who were buried were drawn up and life was given to them. . . .

Explanation: You seem to have gone into some very disagreeable part of the vital world and brought back

Page-65

a rather imposed transcription of some very unpleasant experiences. Things that happen in the vital world are, if it may be so expressed, often half-truths of possibility on that plane; sometimes actual events there, sometimes constructions of the vital mind, sometimes vital formations that want to realize themselves here and may or may not realize themselves, not in the terms in which they are seen but with a difference, unless they are vital records or transcriptions, of physical happenings—past, present or future—which sometimes occur.

April 16, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

9

Experience: Last night I found myself near the house of S— of course, I do not know where her house is situated; but the atmosphere told me that it was her house—somewhere along the road near the sea. . . .

I found Mr. R ordering all his servants to pack their things as quickly as possible. As the things got packed up, they were being arranged in a motor-lorry waiting outside the house. When the motor-lorry was fully loaded, servants came in disguise and took their seats by the side of the driver. All the children were dressed in torn clothes, and were packed up in a motor-car and were sent away to some unknown place.

A specially prepared horse-carriage arrived and Mr and Mrs both dressed in disguise., hid themselves in the specially prepared box of the carriage, and the carriage was driven away at full speed as if running away to save their lives. . . .

Explanation: What you say was some possibility, created there probably by the thoughts of people on the earth—especially as this is the election time when such things are likely to run about in people's minds.

April 16, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

Page-66

10

Q. In answer to my experiences about going to other planes, you have said—"Again in the vital world" Do you mean to forbid me by saying that? Sometimes I go to those planes consciously and with intention.

A. I don't understand why it should be a forbidding order.

Very few go to these planes of their own will. Very often one has to pass through them in going out of the terrestrial plane.

April 17, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

11

Experiences in Sleep: Last night I had been to some palatial Court where many kings were present in a gold-plated room. The atmosphere was like that of a Swayamvara, where all big kings were invited and the princess was going to find out her lost husband .... The princess was moving with a brand new earthen pot, containing some grains.

She was moving to each king and was offering him the pot and was waiting in intent expectancy. She finished her turn to each of them but was not satisfied with the response less behaviour of the kings who were present. ... .

A servant entered the Court and announced that a very beautiful black man wanted to enter the Court. . . . All were amazed by this news and were waiting to see what is happening the next moment. . . .

The princess at once ordered the servant to show the man in. . . and there enteredamidst the amazement of all. The princess offered me a gold chair. . . all began to laugh and sneer at her, but she was very decisive in her movements and did not care for their taunts. . . . She came smiling and

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offered the earthen pot and opened it. . . . I kept my hand on the pot for some time and returned the pot, saying—"Put some water in it, and the grains will be cooked, no fire will berequired ......up to this everything tended towards a happy ending, but as soon as the garland was raised to put around my neck, I withdrew from that happy scene. . .

A. It looks like a vital dream (I mean something "created" on the stuff of the vital plane). It does not seem to be symbolic.

April 27, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

12

Experience: A possibility of R's coming back is transcribed in the vital plane, which I saw last night. It was unexpectedly announced to D that R had come.

D informed the Mother and D was asked to take him to T's house. He was given the vacant room in that house. . . . Though the room was prepared by T, she was grumbling— "He was coming from such a hedious atmosphere.'''' If I stop hearing all these things what will happen? Do you think that I can have any positive gain from all this? What should be the true attitude towards all these things?

A. All these dreams are very obviously formations you meet on the vital plane, more rarely on the mental. Sometimes they are the formations of your own mind or vital, sometimes the formations of other minds with an exact or modified transcription in yours; sometimes formations made by forces or beings on that plane. These things are not true in the physical world, but they may have effects in the physical if they are framed with that purpose or that tendency and if they are allowed. The proper course with them is simply to observe and understand or, if they are from a hostile source, like this one, reject or destroy them.

Page-68

There are other dreams of course that have not the same character but are things that happen on other planes, in other worlds. There are others still that are symbolic; and others again that indicate movements and propensities or old memories or things stored or still alive in the subconscient which have to be changed or got rid of as one rises into a higher consciousness.

May 6, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

13

Q_. 1. If I meet my own formations why can't I recognize them as formations of my own mind and vital?

2. What about the promised letter? Probably you had no time as yet.

A. 1. Nobody can until he becomes very conscious and practised in these things.

2. That is it; interrupted by a strong pressure or flood of things.

May 8, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

Page-69

Occultism

1

Experience: While meditating with the Mother, I saw a golden light descending from above, touching the body, turning into orange-coloured light and flowing away. . . .

Explanation: The golden light is usually a light from the Supermind—a light of Truth-Knowledge (it may sometimes be the Supramental Truth-Knowledge turned into overmind or intuitive Truth). Orange often indicates occult power. You have a strong power of (subjective) creative formation, mostly, I think in the mental but partly too in the vital plane. This kind of formative faculty can be used for objective results if accompanied by a sound knowledge of the occult forces and their workings; but by itself it results more often in one's building up an inner world of one's own in which you can live very well satisfied, so long as you live in yourself, apart from any close contact with external physical life; but it does not stand the test of objective experience.

Probably what you felt today was the Mother's bringing down of Supramental Light with the object of changing this power of subjective formation into or replacing it by the true occult force (that would be the significance of the golden light becoming orange). It is an indication of a certain line of development possible to you if you can receive and assimilate the true guidance.

February 24, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

2

What we mean by occultism is the knowledge of the hidden forces and the way to use them on the occult forces of nature.

February 28, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

Page-70

3

Q. Is occultism helpful in transformation?

A. It is part, not of transformation but of self-development. A large self-development makes supramentalisation easier than a small development.

February 25, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

4

Q. What is meant by turning the subjective side of experience into objective result? Is it to put the experience in practice—in actual physical life?

A. No, in each plane there is an objective as well as a subjective side. It is not the physical plane and life alone that are objective.

February 25, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

5

That is not occultism, it is sentimental philanthropy. (Sending vibrations of peace, love, meditation, etc.) (Clairvoyance, clair-audience, thought-transmission, etc.) That is a lower kind of occultism.

February 28, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

6

There are two different things—one, when you have done things before in another life and work them out again with less effort, because, the power is already there in you—the other is when you have the power of formation of which I spoke, and whatever is suggested to the mind, the mind constructs and establishes a form

Page-71

of it in itself. But this latter power can cut two ways; it may tempt the mind to construct more images of the reality and mistake them for the reality itself. It is one of the many dangers of a too active mind.

February 29, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

7

Q. Is the faculty of formation different from creative power?

A. You make a formation in your mind or on the vital plane in yourself-—it is a kind of creation, but subjective only; it effects only your mental or vital being. You can create by ideas, thought-forces, images—a whole world in yourself or for yourself; but it stops there.

Some have the power of making consciously formations that go out and effect the minds, actions, vital movements, external lives of others. These formations may be destructive as well as creative.

Finally, there is the power to make formations that become effective realities on the earth-consciousness here, in its mind, life, physical existence. That is what we usually mean by creation.

February 29, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

Q. What is meant by occult forces of nature?

A. The forces that can only be known by going behind the veil of apparent phenomena—especially the forces of the subtle physical and supraphysical planes.

February 29, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

8
Q.. What is meant by occult forces of nature?

A. The forces that can only b e known by, going behind the veil of apparent phenomena- especially the forces of the subtle physical and supraphysical planes.

March 11, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

Page-72

TRANCE

1

If by trance, you mean going inside in meditation altogether, there is no harm in it. Only, it is not good to be always in that condition or too long a time in it during the day; for the hold on the external must be kept and, besides, the best part of the work to be done, just note, is the change of the physical consciousness and external nature.

If you mean by trance going out of the body, that should only be done under conditions which make it safe.

December 10, 1931

Sri Aurobindo

2

This action of the mental nature is the usual obstacle to progress. Each part of the nature wants to go on with its old movements and refuses, as far as it can, to admit a radical change and progress, because that would subject it to something higher than itself and deprive it of its sovereignty in its own field, its separate empire. It is this that makes transformation so long and difficult a process.

Mind gets dulled because at its lower bases is the physical mind with its principle of tamas or inertia—for in matter Inertia is the fundamental principle. A constant or long continuity of higher experiences produces in this part of the mind a sense of exhaustion or of unease or dullness.

Trance or Samadhi is a way of escape—the body is made quiet, the physical mind is in a state of torpor, the inner consciousness is left free to go on with its experience. The disadvantage is, that trance becomes

Page-73

indispensable and the problem of the waking consciousness is not solved, it remains imperfect.

March 3, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

CENTRES

1

The Moon is sometimes a symbol of the light in the mind—if it is a full moon. The Crescent moon may be a symbol of growing spirituality of the mind-centre.

February 23, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

2

If by Centres you mean "Chakras" these are seven:

1.The thousand-petalled lotus on the top of the head.

2.In the middle of the forehead—the Ajna-Chakra— —(Will, Vision, Dynamic Thought). It is not called the psychic eye.

3.Throat-Centre—Externalizing mind.

4.Heart-lotus—Emotional Centre in front, Psychic behind it.

5.Navel—Higher Vital (Proper) Centre.

6.Below Navel—Lower Vital Centre.

7.Muladhar—Physical Centre.

All the Centres are in the middle of the body, not on left or right; they are supposed to be attached to the spinal cord; but in fact all these things are in the Sukshma Deha, though one has the feeling of their

Page-74

activities as if in the physical body when the consciousness is awake.

March 10, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

3

Q. What are the extremities and eyes through which light and currents flow out?

A. These are not Centres; Light, etc., can flow anywhere. The eyes and the extremities are naturally parts through which light or dynamism concentrated in the body can be poured out on the surroundings.

March 10, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

4

Psychic eye is merely a phrase for the direct vision of the psychic being or its intimate feeling of the Truth. It does not refer to any Centre. The Centre of the psychic being is behind the heart and not in the forehead. The eye in the forehead is the eye of inner vision—this Centre is partly a Centre of vision, partly of will and its powers.

March 12, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

5

Q. Is constant running of the Kundalini a necessity in this Yoga ?

A. Such running of currents is frequent at different stages. They come when they are needed. I have not found that a continuous or systematic action of Kundalini is usual in this Yoga.

April 16, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

Page-75

Illness and its cure

1

The problem of health in general and medicines has to be considered before giving an answer.

Meanwhile, it does not seem that the wash can do harm, and it might serve to help the object you consider most important—keeping the bowels clear.

Sudarshan is usually an inoffensive remedy which helps the liver. You may take it or not, as you think best.

To heal by the true force is obviously the best— provided the body is amenable. It has a consciousness of its own which must be fully enlightened before it gives a full response.

January 2, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

2

It has nothing to do with sadhana except that there is evidently some weakness or obscurity in the physical consciousness that opens it to these things—but, that is a general principle and does not help for a precise cure.

May 4, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

3

Certainly; one can act and cure it. Only it is not always easy as there is much resistance in matter, a resistance of inertia. Much persistence is necessary; gradually the control of the body or of a particular illness becomes stronger. Again, to cure an illness, is comparatively easy, to make the body immune from it in future is more difficult. A chronic illness is more difficult to deal with entirely than an occasional one.

Page-76

So long as the control of the body is imperfect there are all these difficulties.

If you can succeed by the inner action in preventing increase, that is always something; you have then by abhydsa to increase the power till it becomes able to cure. Note that so far as the power is not entirely there, some aid of physical means is not to be altogether neglected.

May 5, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

4

My constipation is greatly cured. It may be the action of the Divine Will which I was putting and concentrating upon the physical centre, Muladhara.

Inflammation is greatly cured. I am looking upon the hardened veins. If it is Divine's Will it will be done in its time.

A. Good, it is a progress.

May 5, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

5

It is better to take medicine as a help. D. has sent no detailed report or recommendations as yet—he merely mentioned the illness in his book. Perhaps he is still consulting his authorities.

October 24, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

6

The Mother had said to D. that the doctor should see you for diagnosis. If it has not been done already, you should go to him to-morrow. It is no use neglecting a thing of that kind.

October 25, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

Page-77

7

Q_. I think this will be the last illness of my life. It is both a feeling and a conviction to me. I am very keen about it and want to clear it out absolutely by the help from above and the help from below—the material help.

I am calling down the higher power to clear the physical perfectly. This may bring out dormant elements, but, ultimately it comes out to go for ever. This is my psychological understanding of the present illness.

You know my invocations, from my prayers to the Supreme— from the collections of my experiences which are with you.]

Shall I do this or not? Is it safe and advisable?

A. I think it is not safe to clear things in that way.

October 31, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

8

Q. If it is not to be done in that way, then, how it is to be done? How long to remain under the bondage of the physical?

By this way, you know I am victorious in mind and vital; then, why can't it be done in the same way?

A. The method you speak of is, I understand, that of raising up the difficulties in order to know and exhaust or destroy them. It is inevitable once one enters into the Yoga that the difficulties should rise up and they go on rising up so long as anything of them is left in the system at all. It may be thought then that it is better to raise them oneself in a mass so as to get the thing done once for all. But though it may succeed in some cases, it is not even in the mental and vital a safe or certain method. Exhaustion, of course is impossible; the things that create the difficulties are cosmic forces, forces of the cosmic Ignorance, and cannot be exhausted. People talk of their getting exhausted

Page-78

because after a time they lose strength and dwindle, but that is only by force of the constant rejection by the Purusha and by force of a divine intervention aiding this rejection and dissolving or destroying the difficulty each time it shows its face. Even so, the idea of getting rid of difficulties in a lump seldom works; something remains and returns until suddenly there comes a divine intervention which is final or else a change in consciousness which makes the return of the difficulty impossible. Still in the mental and vital it can be done.

In the physical it is much more dangerous because here it is the physical Adhar itself that is attacked and a too great mass of physical difficulties may destroy or disable or permanently injure. The only thing to do here is to get the physical consciousness (down to the most material parts) open to the Power, then to make it accustomed to respond and obey and to each physical difficulty as it arises apply or call in the Divine Power to throw out the attacking force. The physical nature is a thing of habits; it is out of habit that it responds to the forces of illness; one has to get into it the contrary habit of responding to the Divine Force only. This of course so long as a highest consciousness does not descend to which illness is impossible.

November 1, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

FATIGUE AND ITS CURE

9

Fatigue may come from various reasons:

1.It may come from receiving more than the physical is ready to assimilate. The cure is then a quiet rest in conscious immobility receiving the forces but not for any other purpose than the recuperation of strength and energy.

2.It may be due to the passivity taking the form of inertia—Inertia brings the consciousness down, towards

Page-79

the ordinary physical level which is soon fatigued and prone to tamas. The cure here is to get back into the true consciousness and rest there, not in inertia.

3. It may be due to mere overstrain of the body—not giving it enough sleep, etc. The body is not inexhaustible and needs to be husbanded. A certain moderation is needed even in the urgency for progress—

moderation not indolence.

April 25, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

10

It is more perhaps an attitude of eager straining and pulling that tires the physical than anything else. Of course, if there is undue tapasya—not eating, not sleeping or resting enough etc., that also brings in the end a reaction in the body.

In writing about the body and its fatigue, I merely intended to state the general principles. You have to see for yourself how much does or does not apply in

your case.

April 28, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

FOOD

11

Q. What should be the true attitude towards food? Not to take it from desire is sufficient ?

A. Yes.

2.Yes, if salt is needed it should be taken; but it should be free from desire.

3.Yes, it depends on the fixing of equality in the nature.

April 25, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

Page-80

Miscellaneous

WORK

1

If you feel strongly that this is the thing needed for your sadhana and if that is your considered resolution, the Mother can make no objection to your retirement for a time.

In view of this request of yours, I need not write about the work. I intended merely to emphasize this very point that the work here is not intended for showing one's capacity or having a position or as a means of physical nearness to the Mother but as a field and an opportunity for the Karmayoga, part of the integral Yoga—for learning to work in the true Yogic way—dedication through service, practical selflessness, obedience, scrupulousness, discipline, setting the Divine and the Divine's work first and oneself last; harmony, patience, forbearance, etc. When the worker will learn these and cease to be ego-centric, as most of you are now, then will come the time for work in which capacity can really be shown—though even then the showing of capacity will be an incident and can never be the main consideration or the object of Divine Work.

August 28, 1931

Sri Aurobindo

2

The Mother considers that in any case you should leave the work you are doing now; for it is not in harmony with your nature. You may give it up from tomorrow. Some other work will have to be found which you can do quietly by yourself. But at present it is not apparent what work of this kind can be given to you.

Page-81

Meanwhile, you can take your whole time for your sadhana, but the Mother does not see the necessity of such a complete and drastic retirement as you propose.

August 30, 1931

Sri Aurobindo

3

I would willingly give you work if I had any; but the only regular work I had, has long been entrusted to N. . . . and with the exception of some very occasional things done by A. . . . , it is all.

November 27, 1931

Sri Aurobindo

4

Nothing depends on a name at the present stage. As for the work, the only one I could think of was one I would have had to prepare for you and I have not been able to make sufficient time to do it.

May 27, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

5

The work I thought of was some copying work for me; but it failed for two reasons:

1.Illegibility of my handwriting and chaotic confusion of my manuscript.

2.Want of time (the matter being urgent) for anybody to read the illegibility and extract order out of the chaos, except a veteran expert like Nolini.

August 7, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

Page-82

I have read only a part of what you have sent to me; when I have finished it, I shall have something to write. It is only afterwards that I can decide about the work.

October 5, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

GOSSIP

1

It does not at all concern the sadhakas to know towhom the messages are addressed. In fact, I do not know why they should be called 'messages'; for in fact they are answers to questions or to letters, and only as much is circulated as is considered apposite or of general interest or use from the point of view of sadhana.

These movements obviously belong to the lower vital and physical consciousness. It is the petty love of gossip and the pleasure in small talk and scandal and fault-finding and the rest that are responsible. These are activities that, I believe, are generally supposed to be part of the "human nature," but do not adorn it and certainly quite foreign to sadhana and Yoga.

Obviously, curiosity and gossip and wrong movement cannot be helpful to sadhana. The messages are not meant as food for gossip, but to give sadhakas indications that can be of use to them in their sadhana. If they misuse them in this way, it is their own loss.

Care nothing about them; regard them with perfect indifference and reject them from the personal atmosphere. Do not do these things yourself and do not mind if others do them.

March 10, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

Page-83

I quite agree with your postscript; that kind of thing means a maximum of talk with a minimum of profit, and sometimes the reactions are opposite.

August 7, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

PERSONAL

1

[A photograph sent by a friend was sent to Sri Aurobindo and was returned with the following remarks:]

I return the photograph. Evidently, since then you have

changed beyond recognition and become another being.

May 15, 1930

Sri Aurobindo

2

I do not know what answer you can give to your uncle that would satisfy him, as he is evidently living in mentality of the past and would not readily understand anything about spiritual evolution, the Supermind and the Divine manifestation in life and matter. You can perhaps tell him casually that it is not our hope to transform suddenly the whole human race. Your object is precisely to lead a higher life away from ordinary world. It is not solitary; there is a collective side to it and a side not only of meditation, but of work, action and creation. There is nothing in this that is impossible.

September 1, 1931

Sri Aurobindo

3

[One letter on the psychic being and a conversation about the parts of the being were sent to Sri Aurobindo for correction:]

Page-84

This is certainly not a letter of mine, for it is full of mistakes in English and sometimes the things are not properly expressed. It has perhaps been taken down from something I said or is a summary or incorrect copy. But the things said are correct and useful and I am keeping it for correction.

The conversation you sent me is not of much use as it stands. It is either an incorrect report or it has put together what I said partially and without the proper sequence. I will work at it again.

March 12, 1932

Sri Aurobindo

COLLECTION OF MONEY

4

I wrote to you before that I did not see my way clear in this matter. My main reason, or one of the main reasons, was that the time and the present conditions are adverse to success. All the information I have received since entirely confirms it; most have suffered by the long prevailing depression and few are either in a mood or a position to give largely. In these circumstances the idea of a mission to collect lakhs of money must be abandoned or at least postponed to better times.

There were other difficulties I saw, but these need not be discussed at present, since the mission itself is barred by the lack of all reasonable chance of success. . . .

August 26, 1931

Sri Aurobindo

COLLECTION OF LETTERS

5

You are not to take any letter written to you. It is the collections that were asked for of messages, etc.; as it is

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found that things unauthorized, inaccurate, not mine, are often included and afterwards they get copied and end by being circulated even outside the Ashram. Also things that are quite private or are not intended to circulate leak out in this way, since some people are unscrupulous in copying (like P who took things he was asked not to take). A control and sifting is necessary, therefore, so that we may know what there is in these collections.

March 10, 1933

Sri Aurobindo

MOTHER'S LOVE

6

Sri Aurobindo has sent compliments to you for the greater change that took place in you.

August 15, 1928

Sri Aurobindo

MAHATMA GANDHI

7

[Mahatma Gandhi wrote to me as follows:

After receiving your letter, I enquired and came to know that there was an invitation from Pondicherry and most probably I shall have to go there. If I come, I would very much wish to see Sri Aurobindo. So, see if you can arrange for an interview, without much trouble. Personally I am going to ask for it when my coming is finally decided.

December 25, 1933

Rajahmundry

[The following reply was sent throught me:]

... I am unable to see him because for a long time past I have made it an absolute rule not to have any interview with anyone. I do not even speak with my

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disciples and only give a silent blessing to them three times a year. All requests for an interview from others, I have been obliged to refuse. The rule has been imposed on me by the necessity of my sadhana and is not at all a matter of convenience or anything else. The time has not come when I can depart from it.

December 28, 1933

Sri Aurobindo

8

[Mahatma Gandhi wrote to Sri Aurobindo directly again if he could see him if his retirement was not a vow.

When I enquired, Sri Aurobindo wrote to me as follows :]

In the letter he simply expressed the desire he had for a long time to meet me and asked me to see him if my retirement was not a vow. I have written that I cannot depart from the rule so long as the reason for it lasts.

January 1934

Sri Aurobindo

[Mahatma Gandhi wrote to me that he had not yet received any answer from Sri Aurobindo. This was his second letter enquiring about the answer to his long letter to Sri Aurobindo. When I informed Sri Aurobindo of this enquiry, he sent me the following reply:]

I wrote to him a short letter explaining the nature of my retirement and regretting that I could not break my rule so long as the reason for it existed. It was addressed to Bangalore, I believe, and ought to have reached him, unless it has been pocketed by the C.I.D. I suppose even if he had left Bangalore it could have been forwarded to him. You can write and inform him of the fact.

January 15, 1934

Sri Aurobindo

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As there has been established on earth a mental Consciousness and Power which shapes a race of mental beings and takes up into itself all of earthly nature that is ready for the change, so now there will be established on earth a gnostic Consciousness and Power which will shape a race of gnostic spiritual beings and take up into itself all of earth-nature that is ready for this new transformation. It will also receive into itself from above, progressively, from its own domain of perfect light and power and beauty all that is ready to descend from that domain into terrestrial being.

— The Life Divine

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BALCONY DARSHAN

If my understanding is limited, widen it;

If my knowledge is obscure, enlighten it;

If my heart is empty of ardour, set it aflame;

If my love is insignificant, make it intense;

If my feelings are ignorant and egoistic,

Give them the full consciousness in the truth

—The Mother