Political Career, 1906 - 1910   Mother India     When you wrote that you looked upon India not as an inert, dead mass of matter, but as the very Mother, the living Mother, I believe that you saw that Truth.   My dear sir, I am not a materialist. If I had seen India as only a geographical area with a number of more or less interesting or uninteresting people in it, I would hardly have gone out of my way to do all that for the said area.   Is there something in what you wrote? Or was it just poetic or patriotic sentiment?   Merely a poetic or patriotic sentiment just as in yourself only your flesh, skin, bone

The Supramental Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths   Indian Systems and the Cabbala   I do not think exact correlations can always be traced between one system of spiritual and occult knowledge and another. All deal with the same material, but there are differences of stand point, differences of view-range, a divergence in the mental idea of what is seen and experienced, disparate pragmatic purposes and therefore a difference in the paths surveyed, cut out or followed; the systems vary, each constructs its own schema and technique. I have looked at the diagrams you sent me; I do not know whether I have grasped them rightly an

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

Section Two   The Practice of Yoga in the Ashram and the Outside World       The Ashram and the Outside World   Pressure of the Environment   Is it possible that thoughts and suggestions come to sadhaks from people in the town who think about us in a critical or hostile way?   It is not only likely but certain that it happens. The pressure of the environment is always there and it becomes more effective for suggestion if there are any in the Asram itself who are accustomed to mix and receive freely the impacts of the people there. 20 May 1933   *   Some boys

General Remarks on the Sadhana of the 1930s   "A Far Greater Truth"   In a letter dated November 1928, you speak of "a far greater Truth than any yet realised on the earth". Does this mean that the realisation of the Divine which this world is witnessing at present in the person of Sri Aurobindo eclipses the Light of all the previous Divine Descents of which humanity is aware? Or, is it to be construed as meaning that Sri Aurobindo does not call himself the Avatar but the Divine, having realised the Divine on earth?   "A far greater Truth" has nothing to do with Avatarhood or anything of the kind. I meant by it the

Therapeutic Force and Healing   Spiritual Force and the Body   It is a pity that X could not write all this time. Formerly when she wrote often she used to get better after writing. It is also a pity that she has been told by the doctors that she is not going to live; even if it is true, such a thing should not be told unless in case of necessity (which does not exist in her case), for it takes away much of the power of resistance and diminishes what chances of cure and survival there were. X's physical destiny has always been against her but this is a thing that can be cancelled if one can have sufficient fai

Note on the Texts   Note on the Texts   LETTERS ON HIMSELF AND THE ASHRAM consists of letters written by Sri Aurobindo between 1926 and 1950 in which he referred to his life and works, his sadhana or practice of yoga, and the sadhana of members of his ashram. The letters have been selected and arranged by the editors in four parts dealing with four broad subject areas: (1) Sri Aurobindo's outer life, his writings, his contemporaries, and contemporary events; (2) his inner life before and after his arrival in Pondicherry; (3) his role as a spiritual leader and guide; and (4) his ashram and the sadhana practised there. A fifth part contains mantras and messages tha

The Realisation of 24 November 1926   Descent of the Overmind   Ever since I came here this time I have been experiencing a very intense atmosphere, a very strong pressure, similar in intensity and depth to what I felt in 1926 (months of October to December). It appears to me that the Supermind is about to descend a second time. Is this an entirely wrong feeling on my part or there is some truth in it, if not the full truth?   There is some truth in it —  but the descent in 1926 was rather of the Overmind, not of the Supermind proper. 21 August 1935   The Significance of the 24th November

Unusual Experiences and States of Consciousness   Visions of Unknown People   Yes, of course, I remember about Baroda Babu —  I can't say I remember him because I never saw him, at least in the flesh. What he probably means by the Supramental is the Above Mind —  what I now call Illumined Mind ­ Intuition ­ Overmind. I used to make that confusion myself at the beginning. There is not enough to go upon to say whether he really sees the Mother or an image of her is reflected in his own mind. But there is nothing extraordinary, much less impossible in seeing a person whom one has never seen —  you are thinking