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

Chapter Two   Specific Avatars and Vibhutis   The Ten Avatars as a Parable of Evolution   Avatarhood would have little meaning if it were not connected with the evolution. The Hindu procession of the ten Avatars is itself, as it were, a parable of evolution. First the Fish Avatar, then the amphibious animal between land and water, then the land animal, then the Man-Lion Avatar, bridging man and animal, then man as dwarf, small and undeveloped and physical but containing in himself the godhead and taking possession of existence, then the rajasic, sattwic, nirguna Avatars, leading the human development from the vital rajasic to the sattwic mental man and ag

Chapter Eight   The Physical Consciousness   The Physical Consciousness and Its Parts   The physical consciousness is that part which directly responds to physical things and physical Nature, sees the outer only as real, is occupied with it —not like the thinking mind with thought and knowledge, or like the vital with emotion, passion, subtler satisfaction of desire. If this part is obscure, then it is difficult to bring into it the consciousness of deeper or spiritual things, feelings etc. even when the mind or the vital are after these deeper things.   *   You ask whether the mind and vital do not come in the way as well as the

Chapter Six   The Mind   Mind in the Integral Yoga and in Other Indian Systems   The "Mind" in the ordinary use of the word covers indiscriminately the whole consciousness, for man is a mental being and mentalises everything; but in the language of this Yoga, the words mind and mental are used to connote specially the part of the nature which has to do with cognition and intelligence, with ideas, with mental or thought perceptions, the reactions of thought to things, with the truly mental movements and formations, mental vision and will etc. that are part of his intelligence. The vital has to be carefully distinguished from mind, even though it has a mind elem

Part Two   The Parts of the Being and the Planes of Consciousness       Section One   The Organisation of the Being     Chapter One   The Parts of the Being   Men Do Not Know Themselves   Men do not know themselves and have not learned to distinguish the different parts of their being; for these are usually lumped together by them as mind, because it is through a mentalised perception and understanding that they know or feel them; therefore they do not understand their own states and actions, or, if at all, then only on the surface. It is part of the foundation of Yoga to become conscious of

Chapter Four   The Self or Atman   The Self   It [the self] is being, not a being. By self is meant the conscious essential existence, one in all.   *   The self is the Divine itself in an essential aspect; it is not a portion. There is no meaning in the phrase "not even a portion" or "only an aspect". An aspect is not something inferior to a portion.   *   Do you not know what "essential" means? There is a difference between the essence of a thing which is always the same and its formations and developments which vary. There is, for instance, the essence of gold and there are the many forms which gold can ta

Section Two   Help and Guidance     Help from the Guide   Satsanga   It is a traditional belief that satsanga has great effect —  the nearness or the personal contact of a spiritual person is supposed to produce great benefit to those who are in his company. How is it then that your earliest companions here did not derive any benefit from your company?   I don't know that the theory of satsanga can be taken so rigorously as that. Company always has an effect, but it may be less or more or even for the most part nullified by things in the person's own consciousness or nature or by other a

The Terminology of His Writings   Spiritual and Supramental   Krishnaprem has always complained (and quite naturally) that it was difficult to get the right meaning of the "technical terms" used by you. . . . Of course a full expounding of the difference between Spiritualisation and Supramentalisation would fatten into a volume, but is it not possible just to indicate why the one is called partial transformation and the other complete transformation? Also in what way the supramental consciousness-force is not identical with the spiritual.   If spiritual and supramental were the same thing, then all the sages and devotees