Chapter Two   The Supermind or Supramental   Supermind and the Purushottama   Purushottama of the Gita is the supreme being; the supermind is a power of the Supreme —or proceeding from him, if you like.   *   Supermind is not the Purushottama consciousness, it is a Purushottama consciousness, a certain level and power of being which he can share with his "eternal portions", amśāḥ sanātanāḥ, provided they can climb out of the Ignorance. As for embodying it, it is certainly difficult but not impossible.   Supermind and Sachchidananda   Supermind is between the Sachchidananda planes and the lower creation. It contains the self-dete

 Section Four   The Chakras or Centres of Consciousness       Chapter One   The System of the Chakras   The Functions of the Chakras or Centres   The centres or Chakras are seven in number — (1) The thousand-petalled lotus on the top of the head. (2) In the middle of the forehead —the Ajna Chakra —(will, vision, dynamic thought). (3) Throat centre —externalising mind. (4) Heart-lotus —emotional centre. The psychic is behind it. (5) Navel —higher vital (proper). (6) Below navel —lower vital. (7) Muladhara —physical. All these centres are in the middle of the body; they are s

Section Four   Occult Knowledge and Powers     Chapter One   Occult Knowledge   Occultism and the Supraphysical   [Occultism:] The knowledge and right use of the hidden forces of Nature.   *   What did he himself [Ramakrishna] say about it —that it was the sins of his disciples which constituted the cancer. There is a physical aspect to things and there is an occult supraphysical aspect —one need not get in the way of the other. All physical things are the expression of the supraphysical. The existence of a body with physical instruments and processes does not, as the 19th century wrongly imagined, disp

Part Five   Questions of Spiritual and Occult Knowledge       Section One   The Divine and the Hostile Powers       Chapter One   Terminology   The Dynamic Divine, the Gods, the Asuras   The dynamic aspect of the Divine is the Supreme Brahman, not the Gods. The Gods are Personalities and Powers of the dynamic Divine. You speak as if the evolution were the sole creation; the creation or manifestation is very vast and contains many planes and worlds that existed before the evolution, all different in character and with different kinds of beings. The fact of being

Part Four   Problems of Philosophy, Science, Religion and Society     Section One   Thought, Philosophy, Science and Yoga       Chapter One   The Intellect and Yoga   Intellectual Truth and Spiritual Experience   Intellectual truths? Do you think that the intellectual truth of the Divine is its real truth? In that case there is no need of Yoga. Philosophy is enough.   *   Philosophy knows nothing about peace and silence or the inner and outer vital. These things are discovered only by Yoga.   *   Yoga is not a thing of ideas but of inner s

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