Second Element:

Space in Which the Object is Placed:

One almost universally accepted assumption is that there can be only one type of space, the physical space, and a physical object can be placed only in that physical space and viewed there. But this is not true according to the well-attested discoveries of occult science. There are many more

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spaces than this gross physical space, sthulākāsa. Indian mystical tradition has named them as cittākāsa, cittākāsa, vyoma, etc. We cannot but recall in this connection Sri Aurobindo's magnificent description of the 'soul space' in Book II Canto 14 of Savitri. Here are a few striking lines from that description:

"All there was soul or made of sheer soul-stuff:

A sky of soul covered a deep soul-ground....

There was a strange spiritual scenery,

A loveliness of lakes and streams and hills,

A flow, a fixity in a soul-space,

And plains and valleys, stretches of soul-joy,

And gardens that were flower-tracts of the spirit,

Its meditations of tinged reverie....

There all was beautiful by its own right

And needed not the splendour of a robe.

All objects were like bodies of the Gods..." (291-93)

We have been speaking of the existence of different spaces. Now the interesting fact is that every object of vision, even a physical object - yes, we insist, even a physical object - exists at the same time in all these different spaces with, of course, inevitably attendant changes. Now if you try to look at an object placing it in the background of a particular space you will have a different kind of sight depending on the space selected. Here is a pertinent passage from what the Mother spoke to one of her disciples on 27 February 1962:

"The world we live in is a world of images. It is not the

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thing itself in its essence, it is the reflection of the thing. One could say that we are, in our material existence, only a reflection, an image of what we are in our essential reality. And the modalities of these reflections bring in every error and falsification - what you see in the essence is perfectly true and pure and exists from all eternity; the images are essentially variable.... One could say that every circumstance, every event, every thing has a pure existence, which is the true existence, and a considerable number of impure or distorted existences, which are the existence of the same thing in the various domains of being." (CWM, Vol. 10, pp. 126-27)

We feel tempted to quote in this connection a few verses from Savitri which demonstrate pointedly how our familiar world of physical space with its physical objects appear differently to the penetrating Eye of someone who knows how to see behind. Santayana is describing his visions to Savitri on the occasion of their first meeting:

"Earth could not hide from me the powers she veils:

Even though moving mid an earthly scene

And the common surfaces of terrestrial things,

My vision saw unblended by her forms;

The Godhead looked at me from familiar scenes....

The day and dusk revealed to me hidden shapes;

Figures have come to me from secret shores

And happy faces looked from ray and flame....

I caught for some eternal eye the sudden

Kingfisher flashing to a darkling pool...

And wandering wings nearing from infinity

Lived on the tablets of my inner sight;

Mountains and trees stood there like thoughts from

God." (401,405)

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