XIII SOMA, LORD OF DELIGHT AND IMMORTALITY Rig-veda IX.83 Wide spread out for thee is the sieve of thy purifying, O Master of the soul; becoming in the creature thou pervadest his members all through. He tastes not that delight who is unripe and whose body has not suffered in the heat of the fire; they alone are able to bear that and enjoy it who have been prepared by the flame. The strainer through which the heat of him is purified is spread out in the seat of Heaven; its threads shine out and stand extended. His swift ecstasies foster the soul that purifies him; he ascends to the high leve

CHAPTER VII Varuna-Mitra and the Truth IF THE idea of the Truth that we have found in the very opening hymn of the Veda really carries in itself the contents we have supposed and amounts to the conception of a supramental consciousness which is the condition of the state of immortality or beatitude and if this be the leading conception of the Vedic Rishis, we are bound to find it recurring throughout the hymns as a centre for other and dependent psychological realisations. In the very next Sukta, the second hymn of Madhuchchhandas addressed to Indra and Vayu, we find another passage full of clear and this time quite invincible psychological suggestion

HYMN TO INDRA X. 54 [Hymn of Brihaduktha Vamadevya to Indra, Master of Mental Force, when he exceeded Mind and entered Mahas, yet maintained the lower firmaments, — realising his unity with Sah the supreme Purusha.] When thou hadst given wholly the fullness of the ideal to thy fame, O Maghavan of the fullness, when both the firmaments cried to thee in their terror, thou didst protect the gods, thou didst transfix the Enemy, by teaching the strength of the Spirit, O Indra, even for this creation. When thou didst range abroad increasing in thy force of substance and progressing strength to the people, that force

THE TWENTY-FOURTH HYMN TO AGNI A HYMN TO THE DELIVERER AND PROTECTOR [The Rishi invokes the Divine Will for protection from evil and for the fullness of the divine light and substance.] 1-2. O Will, become our inmost inmate, become auspicious to us, become our deliverer and our armour of protection. Thou who art the lord of substance and who of that substance hast the divine knowledge, come towards us, give us its most luminous opulence. 3-4. Awake! hear our call! keep us far from all that seeks to turn us to evil. O shining One, O flame of purest Light, thee for our comrades we desire that even now they may have the bliss and peace. P

SECTION THREE Transformation of the Vital THE two movements whose apparent contradiction confuses your mind, are the two ends of a single consciousness whose motions, now separated from each other, must join if the life-power is to have its more and more perfect action and fulfilment or the transformation for which we hope. The vital being with the life-force in it is one of these ends; the other is a latent dynamic power of the higher consciousness through which the Divine Truth can act, take hold of the vital and its life-force and use it for a greater purpose here. The Life-Force in the vital is the indispensable instrument for all action of

SECTION FIVE Transformation of the Subconscient and the Inconscient SO LONG as there is not the supramental change down to the subconscient, complete and full, the lower nature has always a hold on some part of the being. ⁂ The subconscient difficulty is the difficulty now − because the whole struggle in the general sadhana is now there. It is in the subconscient, no longer in vital or conscious physical that the resistance is all massed together. ⁂ The inner being does not depend on the subconscient, but the outer has d epended on it for thousands of lives − that is why the outer being and physical consciousness's habit of

SECTION TWO Transformation of the Mind THERE is no reason why one should not receive through the āhinking 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 body is an obstacle. What the sadhak has to be specially warned ag

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Letters of Sri Aurobindo was first compiled and published in four series from 1947 to 1951. Series First, Second and Fourth contained letters on yoga and the Third Series contained letters on Poetry and Literature. Prior to that small selections of leisters were published in The Riddle of This World (1933), Lights on Yoga (1935), Bases of Yoga (1936) and More Lights on Yoga (1948). Some letters were also published periodically in the Ashram Journals: Sri Aurobindo Circle, Sri Aurobindo Mandir, The Advent and Mother India. Series First and Second of Letters of Sri Aurobindo were reissued in 1950 and 1954 respectively. In 1958

PART – IV SECTION ONE The Triple Transformation Psychic ─ Spiritual ─ Supramental 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 infinitely everywhere, the Mother everywhere and living in that infinite consciousness. You know the three things on which the rea