Chapter Three   The Hostile Forces and Hostile Beings   The Existence of the Hostile Forces   The hostile forces exist and have been known to Yogic experience ever since the days of the Veda and Zoroaster in Asia (and the mysteries of Egypt and Chaldea and the Cabbala) and in Europe also from old times. These things of course cannot be felt or known so long as one lives in the ordinary mind and its ideas and perceptions —for there there are only two categories of influences recognisable, the ideas and feelings and actions of oneself and others and the play of environment and physical forces. But once one begins to get the inner view of thing

Chapter Three   The Overmind   Overmind and the Cosmic Consciousness   Overmind is the highest source of the cosmic consciousness available to the embodied being in the Ignorance. It is part of the cosmic consciousness —but the human individual when he opens into the cosmic usually remains in the cosmic Mind-LifeMatter receiving only inspirations and influences from the higher planes of Intuition and Overmind. He receives through the spiritualised higher and illumined mind the fundamental experiences on which spiritual knowledge is based; he can become even full of intuitive mind movements, illuminations, various kinds of powers and illumined light, liber

Chapter Two   Classification of the Parts of the Being   Different Categories in Different Systems   1. The soul and the psychic being are practically the same, except that even in things which have not developed a psychic being, there is still a spark of the Divine which can be called the soul. The psychic being is called in Sanskrit the Purusha in the heart or the Chaitya Purusha. (The psychic being is the soul developing in the evolution.) 2. The distinction between Purusha and Prakriti is according to the Sankhya System —the Purusha is the silent witness consciousness which observes the actions of Prakriti —Prakriti is the force of Nat

Section Three   Destiny, Karma, Death and Rebirth     Chapter One   Fate, Free Will and Prediction   Destiny   Each follows in the world his own line of destiny which is determined by his own nature and actions —the meaning and necessity of what happens in a particular life cannot be under stood except in the light of the whole course of many lives. But this can be seen by those who can get beyond the ordinary mind and feelings and see things as a whole, that even errors, misfortunes, calamities are steps in the journey, the soul gathering experience as it passes through and beyond them until it is ripe for the tran

Chapter Two   The True Being and the True Consciousness   The True Being   The true being may be realised in one or both of two aspects —  the Self or Atman and the soul or antaratman, psychic being or Caitya Purusa. The difference is that one is felt as universal, the . other as individual supporting the mind, life and body. When one first realises the Atman one feels it separate from all things, existing in itself and detached, and it is to this realisation that the image of the dry coconut fruit may apply. When one realises the psychic being, it is not like that; for this brings the sense of union with the Divine and dependence upon it

Chapter Two   The Sankhya-Yoga System   Purusha   Purusha is the conscious Being who supports all the action of Nature. There is no fixed place, but as the central being he usually stands above the adhar —he becomes also the mental, vital, physical, psychic being.   *   The word being is used with all kinds of significances —it is a very imprecise word and can embrace everything. Purusha has a precise significance. It is the Soul or Spirit side of the being as opposed to the Nature side.   *   There is one Purusha —its action is according to the position and need of the consciousness at the time. It is

Chapter Four   The Higher Planes of Mind   The Higher Planes and Higher Consciousness   The higher planes are the higher mind, illumined, intuitive, over mind, supermind. The psychic, mind, vital, physical belong to the ordinary manifestation.   *   The planes and the body are not the same. Above the head are seen all the planes from the overmind down to the higher mind, but this is only a correlation in the consciousness —not an actual location in space.   *   The spiritual mind is a mind which, in its fullness, is aware of the Self, reflecting the Divine, seeing and understanding the nature of the Self and its relations with t

 Chapter Three   The Psychic Being   The Psychic and the Divine   They [the psychic being and the Divine Presence in the heart] are quite different things. The psychic being is one's own individual soul-being. It is not the Divine, though it has come from the Divine and develops towards the Divine.   *   It [the psychic] is constantly in contact with the immanent Divine —the Divine secret in the individual.   *   It is the psychic that is in direct relation with the transcendent Divine and leads the nature upwards towards the Supreme.   *   The Divine is always in the inner heart and does not leave it.

Chapter Three   Brahman   The Impersonal Brahman   You speak of the Impersonal as if it were a Person. The Impersonal is not He, it is It. How can an It guide or help? The Impersonal Brahman is inactive, aloof, indifferent, not concerned with what happens in the universe. Buddha's Permanent is the same.   *   There is no thought in the pure Impersonal, it is silent —but it is true that divine Truth can manifest in the background of the silence. This is of course the truth of things up to the Overmind.   The Inactive Brahman and the Active Brahman   The inactive Brahman and the active personal Brahman are two a

Section Two   The Cosmos:   Terms from Indian Systems     Chapter One   The Upanishadic and Puranic Systems   Virat   Virat is the outer manifestation and if we take all that as Brahman without knowing what is behind the manifestation we shall fall into the intellectual error of Pantheism, not realising that the Divine is more than this outer manifestation and cannot be known by it alone. In the vital we may fall into the error of accepting what is dark and imperfect on the same terms as that which makes for the light and divine perfection. There may be many other consequent errors also.   Visva or Virat, Hiranyag