Chapter Four   Rebirth   The Psychic's Choice at the Time of Death   The psychic being at the time of death chooses what it will work out in the next birth and determines the character and conditions of the new personality. Life is for the evolutionary growth by experience in the conditions of the Ignorance till one is ready for the higher light.   *   The dying wish of the man is only something on the surface —it may be determined by the psychic and so help to shape the future but it does not determine the psychic's choice. That is something behind the veil. It is not the outer consciousness's action that determines the inner proc

Section Two   The Avatar and the Vibhuti       Chapter One   The Meaning and Purpose of Avatarhood   The Avatar or Incarnation   Surely for the earth consciousness it is so [the very fact that the Divine manifests himself is the greatest of all splendours]. Consider the obscurity here and what it would be if the Divine did not directly intervene and the Light of Lights did not break out of the obscurity —for that is the meaning of the manifestation.   *   An Incarnation is the Divine Consciousness and Being manifesting through a physical body. It is possible from any plane

Chapter Two   The Supermind or Supramental   Supermind and the Purushottama   Purushottama of the Gita is the supreme being; the supermind is a power of the Supreme —or proceeding from him, if you like.   *   Supermind is not the Purushottama consciousness, it is a Purushottama consciousness, a certain level and power of being which he can share with his "eternal portions", amśāḥ sanātanāḥ, provided they can climb out of the Ignorance. As for embodying it, it is certainly difficult but not impossible.   Supermind and Sachchidananda   Supermind is between the Sachchidananda planes and the lower creation. It contains the self-dete

 Section Four   The Chakras or Centres of Consciousness       Chapter One   The System of the Chakras   The Functions of the Chakras or Centres   The centres or Chakras are seven in number — (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). (3) Throat centre —externalising mind. (4) Heart-lotus —emotional centre. The psychic is behind it. (5) Navel —higher vital (proper). (6) Below navel —lower vital. (7) Muladhara —physical. All these centres are in the middle of the body; they are s

Section Four   Occult Knowledge and Powers     Chapter One   Occult Knowledge   Occultism and the Supraphysical   [Occultism:] The knowledge and right use of the hidden forces of Nature.   *   What did he himself [Ramakrishna] say about it —that it was the sins of his disciples which constituted the cancer. There is a physical aspect to things and there is an occult supraphysical aspect —one need not get in the way of the other. All physical things are the expression of the supraphysical. The existence of a body with physical instruments and processes does not, as the 19th century wrongly imagined, disp

Part Five   Questions of Spiritual and Occult Knowledge       Section One   The Divine and the Hostile Powers       Chapter One   Terminology   The Dynamic Divine, the Gods, the Asuras   The dynamic aspect of the Divine is the Supreme Brahman, not the Gods. The Gods are Personalities and Powers of the dynamic Divine. You speak as if the evolution were the sole creation; the creation or manifestation is very vast and contains many planes and worlds that existed before the evolution, all different in character and with different kinds of beings. The fact of being

Part Four   Problems of Philosophy, Science, Religion and Society     Section One   Thought, Philosophy, Science and Yoga       Chapter One   The Intellect and Yoga   Intellectual Truth and Spiritual Experience   Intellectual truths? Do you think that the intellectual truth of the Divine is its real truth? In that case there is no need of Yoga. Philosophy is enough.   *   Philosophy knows nothing about peace and silence or the inner and outer vital. These things are discovered only by Yoga.   *   Yoga is not a thing of ideas but of inner s

Chapter Four   Science and Yoga   Science, Yoga and the Agnostic   I do not think anything can be said that would convince one who starts from exactly the opposite viewpoint to the spiritual, the way of looking at things of a Victorian agnostic. His points of doubt about the value —other than subjective and purely individual —of Yoga experience are that it does not aim at scientific truth and cannot be said to achieve ultimate truth because the experiences are coloured by the individuality of the seer. One might ask whether Science itself has arrived at any ultimate truth; on the contrary, ultimate truth even on the physical plane seems to recede as S

Chapter Two     Sachchidananda: Existence, Consciousness-Force and Bliss   Sachchidananda   Sachchidananda is the One with a triple aspect. In the Supreme the three are not three but one —existence is consciousness, consciousness is bliss, and they are thus inseparable, not only inseparable but so much each other that they are not distinct at all. In the superior planes of manifestation they become triune —although inseparable, one can be made more prominent and base or lead the others. In the lower planes below they become separable in appearance, though not in their secret reality, and one can exist phenomenally without the

Note on the Texts   Note on the Texts   LETTERS ON YOGA —I, the first of four volumes, contains letters in which Sri Aurobindo speaks about the foundations of his spiritual teaching and method of Yogic practice. The letters have been arranged in five parts dealing with five broad subject areas: 1. The Divine, the Cosmos and the Individual 2. The Parts of the Being and the Planes of Consciousness 3. The Evolutionary Process and the Supermind 4. Problems of Philosophy, Science, Religion and Society 5. Questions of Spiritual and Occult Knowledge The letters in this volume have been selected from the extensive correspondence