Occult Worlds and Entities ... last week... I spoke of the "threshold of occultism". So a question is put to me about this occult world, that is to say, the world invisible to ordinary physical eyes, and I am asked for explanations or comments on the beings who live in these worlds which are invisible to ordinary eyes. I am even told that I speak very often of negative entities, that is to say, of hostile formations, of small beings formed from the disintegration of human beings after their death - the disintegration of the vital or mental being at death - but that I have never spoken of the great beings, the magnificent beings or positive entities which

VII SPIRITUAL FORCES OF HELP AND SUCCOUR A prayer, a master act, a king idea Can link man's strength to a transcendent Force. Then miracle is made the common rule, One mighty deed can change the course of things; A lonely thought becomes omnipotent. SRI AUROBINDO Savitri, Book One, Canto Two The earth you tread is a border screened from heaven, The life you lead conceals the light you are. Immortal Powers sweep flaming past your doors; Far-off upon your tops the god-chant sounds While to exceed yourselves thought's trumpets call, Heard by a few, but fewer dare aspire,

PREFACE A retrospective review of the course of one's life is apt to reveal that whereas some events in the past were the outcome of one's conscious choice and deliberate effort, a good number of incidents, including perhaps some of the most significant happenings that have determined the course of one's life, were unplanned and unforeseen. It is in what are regarded as the major events and milestones of one's life - such as choosing a course of studies or training after high school, selecting a career, decisions pertaining to marriage, living in a particular city or country, and the like - that personal choice and will are usually seen to have played a determining role. However,

Action of Higher Worlds and Evolution ... we find these higher worlds in our vision and experience of them to be in no way based upon the material universe, in no way its results, but rather greater terms of being, larger and freer ranges of consciousness, and all the action of the material plane looks more like the result and not the origin of these greater terms, derivatory from them, even partly dependent on them in its evolutionary endeavour. Immense ranges of powers, influences, phenomena descend covertly upon us from the Overmind and the higher mental and vital ranges, but of these only a part, a selection, as it were, or Page-144

GLOSSARY (The explanations of terms given below are based upon Sri Aurobindo's writings.) Agni Shakti (agni śakti) the force of fire. Ananda (ānanda) bliss, delight, beatitude, spiritual ecstasy; the essential principle of delight: a self-delight which is the very nature of the transcendent and infinite existence. Asura (asura) the strong or mighty one, Titan; a hostile being. Atma (ātmā); Atman (ātman) see Spirit. Body-consciousness The body has its own consciousness and acts from it, even without any mental will of our own or even against that will. A great part of the body-consciousness is subconscient and t

The Divine Grace I should like to say something about the Divine Grace -for you seem to think it should be something like a Divine Reason acting upon lines not very different from those of human intelligence. But it is not that. Also it is not a universal Divine Compassion either, acting impartially on all who approach it and acceding to all prayers. It does not select the righteous and reject the sinner. The Divine Grace came to aid the persecutor (Saul of Tarsus), it came to St. Augustine the profligate, to Jagai and Madhai of infamous fame, to Bilwamangal and many others whose conversion might well scandalise the puritanism of the human moral intelligence; but it can

The Subconscient, the Subliminal and the Superconscient It is a mistake to think that we live physically only, with the outer mind and life. We are all the time living and acting on other planes of consciousness, meeting others there and acting upon them, and what we do and feel and think there, the forces we gather, the results we prepare have an incalculable importance and effect, unknown to us, upon our outer life. Not all of it comes through, and what comes through takes another form in the physical -though sometimes there is an exact correspondence; but this little is at the basis of our outward existence. All that we be

Existence of Spiritual Force Even in ordinary non-spiritual things the action of invisible or subjective forces is open to doubt and discussion in which there could be no material certitude, while the spiritual force is invisible in itself and also invisible in its action. So it is idle to try to prove that such and such a result was the effect of spiritual force. Each must form his own idea about that, for if it is accepted, it cannot be as a result of proof and argument, but only as a result of experience, of faith or of that insight in the deeper heart or the deeper intelligence which looks behind appearances and sees what is behind them. The spiritual cons

REFERENCES The passages, in this book have been culled from the following volumes of Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library and the Collected Works of the Mother, published by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. SRI AUROBINDO BIRTH CENTENARY LIBRARY Volume Title 9 The Future Poetry 13 Essays on the Gita 16 The Supramental Manifestation and Other Writings 17 The Hour of God 18 The Life Divine: Book One and Book Two. Part One 19 The Life Divine: Book Two, Part Two 20 The Synthesis of Yoga: Part One 22 Letters on Yo

Nature and Action of Universal Forces Universal forces means all forces good or bad, favourable or hostile, of light and darkness that move in the cosmos. SRI AUROBINDO They [the cosmic forces] act on everyone, according to the person's nature - and his will and consciousness. SRI AUROBINDO These [impersonal forces of the world] we know only by their results, by the little that we can seize of their visible action and consequence. Among them it is mostly the physical world-forces of which we have some knowledge, but we live constantly in the midst of a whirl of unseen mind-forces and life-forces of which we