Section Two   VISIONS AND SYMBOLS     surface or waking consciousness but has a latent capacity (which can be perfected by training and practice) for entering into the experiences of the inner consciousness of which most people are unaware but which opens by the practice of yoga. By this opening one becomes aware of subtle planes of experience and worlds of existence other than the material. For the spiritual life a still further opening is required into an inmost consciousness by which one becomes aware of the Self and Spirit, the Eternal and the Divine.          *                                                             *         Visions do not

        ON YOGA—BOOK TWO   TOME TWO       SRI AUROBINDO INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY CENTRE COLLECTION VOL.  VII     ON YOGA   II   Tome Two   Sri Aurobindo              SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM PONDICHERRY 1958       Publishers : SRI AUROBINDO INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY CENTRE PONDICHERRY       First University Edition .. Nov. 1958       All rights reserved         Printed at: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press Pondicherry   PRINTED IN INDIA ©  

 Section Three         EXPERIENCES OF THE INNER AND THE COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS         EXPERIENCES OF THE INNER AND THE COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS         I         The piercing of the veil between the outer consciousness and the inner being is one of the crucial movements in yoga. For yoga means union with the Divine, but it also means awaking first to your inner self and then to your higher self,—a movement inward and a movement upward. It is, in fact, only through the awakening and coming to the front of the inner being that you can get into union with the Divine. The outer physical man is only an instrumental personality and by himself he can

Section Seven   TRANSFORMATION OF THE PHYSICAL       TRANSFORMATION OF THE PHYSICAL         I         No need to despise the physical being—it is part of the intended manifestation.       *                                                             *         It is because your consciousness in the course of the sadhana has come into contact with the lower physical nature and sees it as it is in itself when it is not kept down or controlled either by the mind, the psychic or the spiritual force. This nature is in itself full of low and obscure desires, it is the most animal part of the human being. One has to come into contact with it s

      Section Ten   OPPOSITION OF THE HOSTILE FORCES       OPPOSITION OF THE HOSTILE FORCES         I         Normal human defects are one thing—they are the working of the lower nature of the Ignorance. The action of the hostile forces is a special intervention creating violent inner conflicts, abnormal depressions, thoughts and impulses of a kind which can be easily recognised as suggestions e.g. leaving the Ashram, abandoning the yoga, revolt against the Divine, suggestions of calamity and catastrophe apparently irresistible, irrational impulses and so on. It is a different order from the usual human weaknesses.        *                          

  Section Nine   DIFFICULTIES OF THE PATH       DIFFICULTIES OF THE PATH         I       All who enter the spiritual path have to face the difficulties and ordeals of the path, those which rise from their own nature and those which come in from outside. The difficulties in the nature always rise again and again till you overcome them; they must be faced with both strength and patience. But the vital part is prone to depression when ordeals and difficulties rise. This is not peculiar to you, but comes to all sadhaks—it does not imply an unfitness for the sadhana or justify a sense of helplessness. But you must train yourself to overcome this react

      Section Four         THE TRIPLE TRANSFORMATION: PSYCHIC—SPIRITUAL—SUPRAMENTAL       THE TRIPLE TRANSFORMATION: PSYCHIC—SPIRITUAL—SUPRAMENTAL         I         The fundamental realisations of this yoga are:         1. The psychic change so that a complete devotion can be the main motive of the heart and the ruler of thought, life and action in constant union with the Mother and in her Presence.         2. The descent of the Peace, Power, Light, etc. of the Higher Consciousness through the head and heart into the whole being, occupying the very cells of the body.         3. The perception of the One and Divine infinite

 Part Three          Section One    EXPERIENCES AND REALISATIONS         EXPERIENCES AND REALISATIONS         I         Experience is a word that covers almost all' the happenings in yoga; only when something gets settled, then it is no longer an experience but part of the siddhi; e.g. peace when it comes and goes is an experience—when it is settled and goes no more it is a siddhi. Realisation is different—it is when something for which you are aspiring becomes real to you; e.g. you have the idea of the Divine in all, but it is only an idea, a belief; when you feel or see the Divine in all, it becomes a realisation.    

     Section Five    TRANSFORMATION OF THE MIND       TRANSFORMATION OF THE MIND         I         There is no reason why one should not receive through the thinking mind, as one receives through the vital, the emotional and the body. The thinking mind is as capable of receiving as these are, and, since it has to be transformed as well as the rest, it must be trained to receive, otherwise no transformation of it could take place.         It is the ordinary unenlightened activity of the intellect that is an obstacle to spiritual experience, just as the ordinary unregenerated activity of the vital or the obscure stupidly obstructive consciousness of the

   Section Eleven         FATE AND FREE-WILL, KARMA AND HEREDITY, ETC.       FATE AND FREE-WILL, KARMA AND HEREDITY, ETC.         I         Your extracts taken by themselves are very impressive, but when one reads the book, the impression made diminishes and fades away. You have quoted Cheiro's successes, but what about his failures? I have looked at the book and was rather staggered by the number of prophecies that have failed to come off. You can't deduce from a small number of predictions, however accurate, that all is predestined down to your putting the questions in the letter and my answer. It may be, but the evidence is not sufficie