Chapter Three   Brahman   The Impersonal Brahman   You speak of the Impersonal as if it were a Person. The Impersonal is not He, it is It. How can an It guide or help? The Impersonal Brahman is inactive, aloof, indifferent, not concerned with what happens in the universe. Buddha's Permanent is the same.   *   There is no thought in the pure Impersonal, it is silent —but it is true that divine Truth can manifest in the background of the silence. This is of course the truth of things up to the Overmind.   The Inactive Brahman and the Active Brahman   The inactive Brahman and the active personal Brahman are two a

Section Two   The Cosmos:   Terms from Indian Systems     Chapter One   The Upanishadic and Puranic Systems   Virat   Virat is the outer manifestation and if we take all that as Brahman without knowing what is behind the manifestation we shall fall into the intellectual error of Pantheism, not realising that the Divine is more than this outer manifestation and cannot be known by it alone. In the vital we may fall into the error of accepting what is dark and imperfect on the same terms as that which makes for the light and divine perfection. There may be many other consequent errors also.   Visva or Virat, Hiranyag

Chapter Four   Social Duties and the Divine   Family, Society, Country and the Divine   Family, society, country are a larger ego —they are not the Divine. One can work for them and say that one is working for the Divine only if one is conscious of the Divine Adesh to act for that purpose or of the Divine Force working within one. Otherwise it is only an idea of the mind identifying country etc. with the Divine.   *   I suppose each man makes or tries to make his own organisation of life out of the mass of possibilities the forces present to him. Self (physical self) and family are the building most make —to earn, to create a family an

Section Two   The Supramental Descent and Transformation     Chapter One   The Descent of the Supermind   Inevitability of the Descent   The descent of the supramental is an inevitable necessity in the logic of things and is therefore sure. It is because people do not understand what the supermind is or realise the significance of the emergence of consciousness in a world of "inconscient" Matter that they are unable to realise this inevitability. I suppose a matter-of-fact observer if there had been one at the time of the unrelieved reign of inanimate Matter in the earth's beginning would have criticised any prom

Chapter Two   Spiritual Evolution and the Supramental   Human History and Spiritual Evolution   There have been times when the seeking for spiritual attainment was, at least in certain civilisations, more intense and widespread than now or rather than it has been in the world in general during the past few centuries. For now the curve seems to be the beginning of a new turn of seeking which takes its start from what was achieved in the past and projects itself towards a greater future. But always, even in the age of the Vedas or in Egypt, the spiritual achievement or the occult knowledge was confined to a few; it was not spread in the whole mass of huma

Chapter Two   The Jivatman in Other Indian Systems   The Jivatman in Other Schools   The word Jiva has two meanings in the Sanskritic tongues —"living creature"1 and the spirit individualised and upholding the living being in its evolution from birth to birth. In the latter sense the full term is Jivatma —the Atman, spirit or eternal self of the living being. It is spoken of figuratively by the Gita as "an eternal portion of the Divine" —but the word fragmentation (used by you) is too strong, it could be applicable to the forms, but not to the spirit in them. Moreover the multiple Divine is an eternal reality antecedent to the creation here.

Chapter Five   The Lower Nature or Lower Hemisphere   The Higher Nature and the Lower Nature   The lower nature is called lower because it is unenlightened —it can't be enlightened and changed by ignoring it, the higher has to be brought there. So one must speak of both, not of the higher alone.   *   But why do you suppose that you alone are made of the lower nature? Every earthly being is so made. The higher nature is there but behind and above. It has to be brought forward from the inner being or brought down from above constantly and persistently till the lower is changed.   The Three Planes of the Lower Hemisphere

Chapter Two   The Parts of the Body and the Centres   The Parts of the Body in Yoga   Different parts of the body indicate for this purpose different parts of the nature. The head is the seat of the mind (buddhi) and the lower part of the mouth, chin, neck are the seat of the external or physical mind. It indicates that the force is working there to change and prepare this part of the mind and get rid of resistance and wrong mental habits. The Cerebellum   Yes, it [the cerebellum] has some connection with the subconscient.   The Ear, Nose, Face and Throat   It cannot be anything physical but only a subtle physical se

Chapter Nine   The Environmental Consciousness   The Environmental Consciousness around the Individual   Everyone carries around him an environmental consciousness or atmosphere through which he is in relation with others or with the universal forces. It is through this that these forces or the thoughts or feelings of others enter.   *   The environmental is not a world —it is an individual thing.   *   The individual is not limited to the physical body —it is only the external consciousness which feels like that. As soon as one gets over this feeling of limitation, one can feel first the inner consciousness which is co

Section Two   Religion, Idealism, Morality and Yoga     Chapter One   Religion and Yoga   Religion and the Truth   The Divine Truth is greater than any religion or creed or scripture or idea or philosophy —so you must not tie yourself to any of these things.   *   I regard the spiritual history of mankind and especially of India as a constant development of a divine purpose, not a book that is closed, the lines of which have to be constantly repeated. Even the Upanishads and the Gita were not final though everything may be there in seed. In this development the recent spiritual history of India is a very important