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SECTION SEVEN
THE PROCESS OF INTEGRAL TRANSFORMATION
I. PSYCHIC CONVERSION II. ASCENT TO HIGHER PLANES III. DESCENT OF HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS IV. THE SUPRAMENTAL DESCENT
I. PSYCHIC CONVERSION
Meaning of "Psychic"
"PSYCHIC" in the sense in which it is used commonly by people has no definite meaning, it is applied to anything non-physical or supra-physical. In the language of our Yoga it refers always to the inner soul. Therefore the use of the words "psychic significance" is incorrect here. One can say "occult significance" or "symbolic significance" or "inner significance". "Psychic significance" we can say only of experiences belonging to the psychic as opposed to the mental, vital and physical planes.
6-11-1933 Purusha, Prakriti and Ego-sense—The Psychic Being in Evolution
PURUSHA in Prakriti is the Kshara Purusha—standing back from it is the Akshara Purusha. Page-167 Ego-sense and Purusha are two quite different things—ego-sense is a mechanism of Prakriti, Purusha is the conscious being. The psychic being evolves, so it is not the immutable. The psychic being is especially the soul of the individual evolving in the manifestation the individual Prakriti and taking part in the evolution. It is that spark of the Divine Fire that grows behind the mind, vital and physical as the psychic being until it is able to transform the Prakriti of Ignorance into Prakriti of Knowledge. These things are not in the Gita, but we cannot limit our knowledge by the points in the Gita.
February 1934 (1)
IT is the central being above the evolution (always the same) that we call the Jivatma—the psychic being is the same in evolution, it is a spark of the Divine there growing within to its full divinity as a portion of the Divine.
1933 Page-168 (2)
The psychic is a spark of the Divine—but I do not know that it can be called a portion of the Jivatma —it is the same put forward in a different way.
23-8-1933 (3)
Jivātmā is not psychic being—we have fixed on chaitya purusa as the equivalent in Sanskrit of the psychic being. Jivatma is the individual Self—the central being.
13-12-1933 Page-169 (4)
No. The soul develops from life to life. The Jivatma is always the same—it is only his instruments of self- expression that develop. The Jivatma, however, can put out a representative form of itself that governs the rest.
11-7-1933
BY Jivatma we mean the individual self. Essentially it is one self with all others, but in the multiplicity of the Divine it is the individual self, an individual centre of the universe—and it sees everything in itself or itself in everything or both together according to its state of consciousness and point of view.
December 1933 Atman, Jivatman and the Psychic
To live in the consciousness of the Atman is to live in the calm, unity and peace that is above things and separate from the world even when pervading it. Page-170 But for the psychic consciousness there are two things, the world and itself acting in the world. The Jivatman has not come down into the world, it stands above, always the same supporting the different beings, mental, etc., which act here. The psychic is what has come down here—its function is to offer all things to the Divine for transformation.
May 1935 The True Inner Being—Psychic and Jivatman
THE true inner being—the true mental; the true vital, the true physical represent each on its plane and answer to the central being, but the whole of the nature and especially the outer nature does not, nor the ordinary mental, vital or physical personality. The psychic being is the central being for the purposes of the evolution—it grows and develops; but there is a central being above of which the mind is not aware, which presides unseen over the existence and of which the psychic being is the representative in the manifested nature. It is what is called the Jivatman.
6-6-1933 Page-171 The Inner Being and the Psychic
I DO not know what you mean by it (inner being) being "around" the psychic. It is obviously nearer to the psychic than the outer mind, vital or physical, but that does not insure its being open to the psychic only and not to the other universal forces.
25-3-1937 Jiva and Jivatma—Para and Apara Prakriti
THERE is no difference between Jiva and Jivatma in this language—so this distinction cannot be made. The Apara Prakriti is Nature which manifests all these minds, lives and bodies. The Para Prakriti is the very nature of the Divine—a supreme Consciousness-Force which manifests the multiple Divine as the Many.
February 1934 Page-172 Chit Shakti, Jivatma, Soul and Ego
CHIT SHAKTI or Bhagvat Chetana is the Mother —the Jivatma is a portion of it, the psychic or soul a spark of it. Ego is a perverse reflection of the psychic or the Jivatma. If that is what you mean, it is correct.
The Soul and the Divine Mother
IT is true of every soul on earth that it is a portion of the Divine Mother passing through the experiences of the Ignorance in order to arrive at the truth of its being and be the instrument of a Divine Manifestation and work here.
15-2-1937
THIS is the function of the psychic—it has to work on each plane so as to help each to awaken to the true truth and the Divine Reality. Page-173
THAT is good. It means that the psychic has come up again. When the psychic is in the front, the sadhana becomes natural and easy and it is only a question of time and natural development. When the mind or the vital or the physical consciousness is on the top, then the sadhana is a tapasya and a struggle.
16-7-1934
IN using the expression "opening of the psychic" I was thinking not of an ordinary psychic opening producing some amount of psychic (as opposed to vital) love and bhakti, but of what is called the coming in front of the psychic. When that happens one is aware of the psychic being with its simple spontaneous self-giving and feels its increasing direct control (not merely a veiled or half veiled influence) over mind, vital and physical. Especially there is the psychic discernment which at once lights up the thoughts, emotional movements, Page-174 vital pushes, physical habits and leaves nothing there obscure, substituting the right movements for the wrong ones. It is this that is difficult and rare, more often the discernment is mental and it is the mind that tries to put all in order. In that case, it is the descent of the higher consciousness through the mind that opens the psychic, instead of the psychic opening directly.
13-7-1936 Two Ways of Opening the Psychic
NOBODY said it (opening the psychic) must be done necessarily from above. Naturally it is done direct and is most effective then. But when it is found difficult to do it direct, as it is in certain natures, then the change begins from above and the consciousness descending from there has to liberate the heart-centre. As it acts on the heart-centre, the psychic action becomes more possible.
15-7-1936 Page-175 Conditions for Direct Psychic Opening
THE direct opening of the psychic centre is easy only when the ego-centricity is greatly diminished and also if there is a strong bhakti for the Mother. A spiritual humility and sense of submission and dependence is necessary.
16-7-1936 Psychic and Higher Mind Action
THE psychic, when it acts as the main power, acts through a certain feeling and inherent psychic sense which repels the falsehood. But the ranges of mind above mind do not act in that way— there it is discrimination and will that act and their action is wider but less sure and less automatic so to speak.
11-3-1933 Page-176
So long as the higher consciousness has not opened, one has to use the mental will supported by the psychic to bring about a preliminary change in the mind and vital—but afterwards it is from above that the Force of illumination and purification must come.
28-10-1933
IT is evidently the psychic–it is often seen as a deep well or abyss into which one plunges; but here it is evidently the psychic penetrating down into all the lower planes and also rising up to the higher planes above.
6-11-1935
IF it is the sense of the Presence that you have, then you are living in the consciousness of the psychic centre. Thinking with the mind is good because it leads towards that, but it is not in itself that living in the psychic centre.
26-9-1934 Page-177 Psychic Feeling of the Mother’s Presence
IF you feel the Mother’s presence for the greater part of the day, it means that it is your psychic being that is active and feels like that; for without the activity of the psychic it would not be possible. Therefore your psychic being is there and not at all far off.
14-3-1935
THE Divine is always in the inner heart and does not leave it. Page-178 Nature of Psychic’s Union with the Divine
IF the psychic unites itself with the Divine, it cannot be separated. Separation is the non-union. The psychic realisation is one of diversity in unity (the portion in the whole); it is not one of dissolving like a drop of water in the sea—for then no love or devotion is possible unless it is love of oneself, devotion to oneself.
1-11-1936 Union with the Mother and Sadhana
THE more the union with the Mother increases, the better for the sadhana.
2-10-1933 Page-179 Psychic Being and Psychic Action
IT is the action of the psychic being, not the being itself, that gets mixed with the mental, vital and physical disabilities because it has to use them to express what little of the true psychic feeling gets through the veil. It is by the heart’s aspiration to the Divine that the psychic being gets free from these disabilities.
1933 Psychic Control of Vital Movements
OBVIOUSLY when there is that inability to control and over-eagerness, it must be a movement of a vital nature. The vital can take part in a movement but it must not be in control—it must be subordinated to the psychic.
18-6-1933 Weeping and Inner Control—Psychic Weeping
IT is quite correct that weeping brings in the forces that should be kept outside—for weeping is a giving way of the inner control and an expression of Page-180 vital reaction and ego. It is only the psychic weeping that does not open the door to these forces—but that weeping is without affliction, tears of bhakti, spiritual emotion, or Ananda. Your experience was a very beautiful one—the inner being realises by such experiences that which must be established in the waking state as the foundation of the spiritual consciousness and spiritual life.
3-7-1937 Psychic Foundation in the Vital
THESE are movements of the vital under the psychic touch. If there is the fixed psychic foundation underneath, it will be felt as an underlying quietude and confidence or a fixed spirit of surrender.
27-12-1933
IT is the natural reaction of the psychic to mental doubt and the vital disturbance which caused it. The psychic knows that the Divine is and affirms its knowledge against all appearances.
1-9-1933 Page-181 II. ASCENT TO HIGHER PLANES
The Double Practice of Integral Yoga
ALL this is perfectly correct. The practice of this Yoga is double—one side is of an ascent of the consciousness to the higher planes, the other is that of a descent of the power of the higher planes into the earth-consciousness so as to drive out the Power of darkness and ignorance and transform the nature.
5-10-1933 Page-182 Ascent, Descent and Transformation (1)
IT was an experience (by ascension) of the spiritual plane of being above in which there is absolute peace and light and Ananda. It is this that has to descend into the mind, vital and body and be the constant condition and the basis for the full transformation of the consciousness and nature.
24-9-1936 (2)
It is extremely difficult for the external nature not to separate itself; it is only after the complete transformation that it remains one with the higher consciousness.
June 1935 Awakening of the Veiled Divine Force by Descent
I DO not see what is your difficulty. That there is a divine force asleep or veiled by Inconscience in Matter and that the Higher Force has to descend and awaken it with the Light and Truth is a thing that is well known; it is at the very base of this Yoga.
30-1-1935 Page-183 Spiritualisation of Centres by Ascent and Descent
GOOD. The ascent of the consciousness in the lower energies into the higher and the descent of the higher powers and the white Light indicate a further preparation of the vital and physical being and its forces by Spiritualisation of the centres.
18-11-1933
THE upward movement and the silence are indispensable for the Truth to manifest. Page-184 Ascent and Joining with the Source
EVERYTHING in the adhar in the sadhana has at one time the tendency to rise and join its source above.
19-8-1933
YOUR experience means simply that you became conscious of the inner being and the inner world and rose up to a higher plane of being where the outer difficulties do not exist. The object of Yoga is to establish the inner consciousness and the higher being in you and by their strength change the outer existence.
5-10-1933 Page-185 Need of Making the Inner Being Conscious for Concrete Realisations in the Higher Being
Do you realise the higher being in your ascent as wide and infinite? When you are there, do you feel it spread through infinity? Do you feel all the universe within you, yourself one with the self of all beings? Do you feel the one cosmic force acting everywhere? Do you feel your mind one with the cosmic mind? your life one with the cosmic Matter? separative ego unreal? the body no longer a limitation? What is the use of merely saying that the higher being is wide and infinite? Do these realisations come when you are in the higher being and if not, why not? The inner being easily opens to all these realisations, the outer does not? So unless your inner being becomes conscious of itself, the mere ascent gives only height or some vague sense of other planes, not these concrete realisations.
28-7-1936
THE inner being cannot be "located" above, it can only join with the above, penetrate it and be penetrated by it. If it were located above, then there would be no inner being.
16-5-1936 Page-186 Constant Staying in the Higher Consciousness
IT (constant staying in the Higher Consciousness) can be done with difficulty (1) if he is always in trance, (2) if he does not want transformation of the rest of the nature, (3) if he cuts himself off from life and action, (4) if he does not allow anything in the lower being or the outer being to draw any part of his up-gathered consciousness to go down or out from the upper silence.
3-8-1936 Reaching the Higher Planes in Trance
THAT is quite natural. The higher planes are not planes on which one is naturally conscious and he is even not open to their direct influence—only to some indirect influence from those nearest to the human mind. He can reach them only in a deep inner condition or trance and the higher he goes the less easy is it for him to be conscious of them even in trance. If you are not conscious of your inner being, then it is more difficult to be conscious in trance.
6-6-1936 Page-187 Going Above in Trance and in the Waking State
I MEANT that it (the inner consciousness) is there established, even when it is covered over. Once it is there the descent of force, etc. becomes more continuous or at least more frequent. The difficulties of the outer nature have still to be dealt with, but that can be done more securely and effectively with this inner consciousness as the basis. There are two different things. One is the consciousness actually going out of the body—but that brings a deep sleep or trance. The other is the consciousness lifting itself out of the body and taking its stand outside it—above and spread round in wideness. That can be a condition of the Yogin in the waking state—he does not feel himself to be in the body but he feels the body to be in his wide free self, he is delivered from limitation in the body-consciousness.
11-6-1933 Page-188 (1)
IT is the subtle parts of the physical that go up. The external consciousness can also go up, but then there is a complete trance. There is not much utility for the complete trance in this sadhana.
October 1933 (2)
No, the body itself cannot go up—how could it? The body is meant for keeping the consciousness linked to the physical world.
October 1933 (3)
If all went up, there would be no existence in the body. There is always some consciousness and therefore some self supporting the body.
June 1935 Page-189
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.
14-7-1933
THE substance of knowledge is the same on all the overhead planes but the higher mind gives only the substance and form of knowledge in thought and word, in the illumined mind there begins to be a peculiar light and energy and Ananda of knowledge which grows as one rises higher in the scale— or else as the knowledge comes from a higher and higher source. This light, etc. are still rather diluted and diffused in the illumined mind, it becomes more and more intense, clearly defined and dynamic and effective on the higher planes so much so as to change always the character and power of knowledge.
3-6-1936 Page-190
THE intuitive mind does not get the touch direct from the Supramental. Above it is the overmind in which there is a higher and greater intuition and above that are the supramental ranges.
30-10-1932 Strata and Powers of the Intuitive Mind
I DO not think it can be said that there are separate strata in the intuitive mind for purity, strength and beauty. These are separate powers of the Divine, not separate strata. But, of course, they can be arranged by the mind in that way for some organised purpose.
8-4-1933
REVELATION is a part of the intuitive consciousness. Page-191 Confusion of Overmind with Higher Mental Planes
HE seems to say that beyond the overmind there is a plane of "higher luminous Intelligence". This is impossible. Beyond the overmind there is the Supermind—the overmind is the highest of the planes below the Supramental, and he is not yet in touch with the Supramental. What he calls here the overmind cannot be the true overmind. His experiences are those of the mind opening to the higher mental planes and trying to bring down something from them and their powers into the mind, life and body. His classification of four worlds is an attempt of the mind to interpret something he had seen, but it has not got it all right. If Mahasaraswati stopped him at this moment, it must have been because his mind was making a wrong formation and it was no use carrying it any farther. At this stage in his Yoga he must observe what is going on, but not attach a definitive or final importance to any such classifications or mental arrangements. The mind at this stage sometimes gets these things correctly, sometimes makes formations of them which are not correct and have to be discarded or set right when a higher knowledge comes.
8-3-1932 Page-192
IT is not so simple as that—but it (the overmind) can for convenience be divided into four planes —mental overmind and the three you have written (intuitive overmind, true overmind and supramental overmind), but there are many layers in each and each of these can be regarded as a plane in itself. 19-8-1933
WHAT you call supramental* overmind is still overmind—not a part of the true Supermind. One cannot get into the true Supermind (except in some kind of trance or Samadhi) unless one has first objectivised the overmind truth in life, speech, action, external knowledge and not only experienced it in meditation and inner experience.
* This expression is a misnomer since overmind cannot be supramental: it can at most receive some light and truth from the higher source.
February 1934 Page-193 Transitional Stages between Mental Overmind and Supramentalised Overmind
THAT is not impossible—it is perfectly possible on any of the larger planes—infinity is everywhere, once one breaks the individual limits. There are many stages in the transition from mental overmind to supramentalised overmind and from there to Supermind. Do not be in a hurry to say "this is the last highest Overmind."
February 1934 Overmind, Supermind and Inferior Movements
PEOPLE talk very lightly of the Overmind and the Supermind as if it were quite easy to enter into them and mistake inferior movements for the Overmental or Supramental, thereby confusing the Truth and delaying the progress- of the sadhana. Page-194 Supramental Knowledge-Will and Overmind Truth Plane
IT is not very clear what is meant by this Knowledge-Will. It is usually a description of the Supramental where there is no division between Knowledge and Will, each acting on each other or rather fixed together in oneness and therefore infallible. You say it has taken form in mind, vital and body; if that is so, it would mean the fixed and decisive transformation; so it cannot be the supramental. It must be some overmind Truth plane.
February 1934
Perfect Action of Knowledge and Will
KNOWLEDGE and will have naturally to be one before either can act perfectly.
September 1934 Reflection of Transcendent Planes on Higher Planes
IT is the experience of the Transcendent planes as reflected on the higher planes of consciousness (overmind, etc.) in relation to them, just as one Page-195 can have an experience of Sachchidananda and these planes as reflected in the mind or vital or physical consciousness, so we can have it there— but on each plane it appears in a different way, December 1933
Experiences of Overmind Knowledge
IT is perfectly natural. In these experiences you become aware of the consciousness proper to other planes. Thus you get the experience of being a form of the Divine Consciousness, the Mother, and while the experience lasts you feel her power—when the experience ceases, you come back to your normal state, the power withdraws. These experiences are proper to the consciousness with the overmind Knowledge and they prepare it for transformation.
15-7-1933 Page-196 Concreteness of Overmind Experiences
IT is perfectly simple, it is the attraction towards the Divine Consciousness represented in a concrete experience. It is the concreteness of the experiences that puzzles you. All experience there tends to be concrete, there are no "abstract" truths as in the mind,—even thought in the overmind is a concrete force and a palpable substance.
25-6-1933 Arrangement of Truths in the Overmind (1)
YES—it is one aspect of the Truth,—for in the overmind there are many aspects of Truth, separate or combined together or arranged one above the other.
8-7-1933 Page-197 (2)
Why not? Both are true on the different levels of the overmind or in different cosmic formations that come from the overmind. All aspects are there in the overmind, even those which the intellect considers contradictory to each other; in the overmind they are not contradictions but complementary to each other.
30-6-1933 Misinterpretation of Overmind Truth in Terrestrial Consciousness
IT is only the Supermind that has an absolute freedom from error. The overmind presents truth in all sorts of arrangements all of which taken together presents something like the whole truth— but these again are reflected in you in the terrestrial consciousness or conveyed to your terrestrial consciousness by the descent from the higher planes, but in receiving it the terrestrial consciousness can make mistakes in interpretation, in understanding, in application, in arrangement.
20-8-1933 Page-198 The Human Creation and the Higher Planes (1)
THERE is some truth in the statement. Human creation comes from the vital planes into the physical, but there is often enough more behind it than is expressed—it gets altered or diminished in the human physical transcription.
9-3-1933 (2)
No, the earth develops its form of life according to its own consciousness which is not the same as that of the other planes.
Overmind Dangers and Falsehoods
THERE are no overmind dangers—it is only the lower consciousness misusing overmind or higher consciousness intimation that can make a danger. Page-199 There are also no overmind falsehoods. The overmind is part of the Ignorance in this sense that it is the highest knowledge to which the Ignorance can attain, but the knowledge is still divided and so can be a knowledge of parts and aspects of the Truth, not the integral knowledge. As such it can be misused and turned into falsehood by the mind.
10-7-1936 Limitation of Overmind Experience
THE overmind experience does not necessarily deliver from the lower vital and physical movements —it changes them only to a certain extent and prepares them for a greater Truth.
26-6-1933 Page-200 III. DESCENT OF HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS
Nature of Descent
IT is not really the plane that descends, it is the Power and Truth of it that descends into the material and then the veil between the material and it no longer exists.
February 1934
PRESENCE, Peace, Force, Light, Ananda—these are five things that most commonly come down.
LIKE everything else, Peace, Light, Power, so wideness descends also.
23-8-1933 Page-201 Descent of Higher Powers and The Mother’s Descent
CERTAINLY, in a sense the descent of the higher powers is the Divine Mother’s own descent—for it is she who comes down in them.
21-12-1933
WHENEVER there is a descent of the higher consciousness in the Adhar: Part of it is stored up in the frontal consciousness and remains there. Part of it goes behind and remains as a support to the active part of the being. Part flows out into the universal Nature. Part is absorbed by the inconscient and lost to the individual consciousness and its action. 16-4-1933
NATURALLY, when anything of the higher consciousness descends, it works to change the lower consciousness into a part of itself.
10-9-1933 Page-202 (1)
PEACE is the first condition, but peace of itself does not bring Force; it is a receptacle of Force and a bringer of Force.
17-3-1936 (2)
It is very stupid on his part to be tired of peace. (Would restlessness be better!) Without peace either Force cannot descend or it would be a mixed or Asuric force.
17-3-1936 Page-203 Effects of Enforcing Peace in Lower Parts
BY enforcing the peace of the higher being in the lower parts down to the physical it becomes possible to (1) create that separateness which would prevent the inner being from being affected by the superficial disturbance and resistance, and (2) make it easier for the Force and other powers of the higher being to descend. 27-7-1936
IT is the calm that has come down from above, only you are feeling it from there (mind and heart) and not from above the mind. But you have to feel it below the heart and not only from the heart above—the calm has to spread lower down.
THE peace that descends from above can stop the lower action if it settles in all the being. But that is not sufficient if one wants to develop the dynamic side of the being also on the lines of Yoga.
19-5-1936 Page-204 Silence and Descent of Knowledge
WHO told you that whenever there was silence or genuine silence, knowledge would come down? The silence is a fit vessel for anything from above but it does not follow that when there is silence, everything is bound to come down automatically.
8-10-1936 Change of Ignorant Cosmic Forces by Descent of Higher Truth-Force
THE cosmic forces here whether good or bad are forces of the Ignorance. Above them is the Truth- Consciousness that can only manifest when ego and desire are overcome—it is the force from the Divine Truth-Consciousness that must descend; the higher Peace, Light, Knowledge, Purity, Ananda must work upon the cosmic forces in the individual so as to change them and substitute the Truth-Force in place of the ordinary working.
1-3-1934 Page-205
FORCE is the essential Shakti; Energy is the working drive of the Force, its active dynamism; Power is the capacity born of the Force; Strength is energy consolidated and stored in the Adhar.
5-11-1933
A PASSIVE force has no meaning—Force is always dynamic. Only a Force can act on a basis of calm passivity just as in the material world the Force acts on the basis of inertia.
24-5-1936
I HAVE never classified the different forms of Force; they can be hundreds or thousands in number. Force uses its form according to the work it has to do.
10-7-1936 Page-206 Receiving The Higher Force through Mind and Vital
IN the first condition you are receiving through the mind and it is drawn back upon itself to receive the Presence and grow in the Light and Power from above. The body or external consciousness is probably not sharing in its outward-going parts, there is no effectuating energy for any work other than what the external consciousness is habituated to do. In the second, the vital is receiving directly and transforming immediately into kinetic energy; for it is the direct reception by the vital or else the active participation of the vital in the Light, Power or Ananda that makes externalisation, effectuation, all kinds of work and action possible and easy.
18-4-1932 Action of Force through Mind-centre
THE action that took place was not supramental; the fact that you were aware of a centre in the brain shows that it was through the mind that it was Page-207 done. The force that acted was the Divine Power which can work in this way on any plane, supramental, mental, vital or physical or on all the planes together. The supramental action can only be achieved after a long discipline of Yoga directed towards that end; it cannot be an initial experience. That there was no mental expectation was all to the good; if there had been an expectation, the mind might have been active and interfered and either perverted the experience or else stood in the way of its being pure and complete.
28-2-1932 Spiritual Experiences for Preparing the Centres
THE experiences you have had from above are spiritual experiences. The experience has come, but not yet taken possession of the centres—it is touching them so as to prepare. The Truth-Consciousness is the consciousness which lives in the Truth or in constant touch with it and not, as the ordinary mind does, in the Ignorance.
3-12-1933 Page-208 Experiences of Dynamic Descent Marking Great Progress
THE experiences you relate mark a great progress —the passage from the perception of the ascending Force to that of the descending Shakti. For the spiral coils of Light you saw and whose effects you felt—the merging in silence and peace, the peace of the Atman or the Brahman consciousness—are usually a first effect, they are visual forms of the dynamic descent of the Divine Force from above; also the passage from the realisation of the static Brahman with the sense of the unreality of the world-existence to the realisation of the status of the dynamic one. This is a considerable step in the integral Yoga. The Brahman consciousness is sometimes described as a static one, but it has two aspects, static and dynamic, and it is when both are united that it becomes integral. This is the greater consciousness I speak of in the sentence quoted by you, greater than either that which perceives the Brahmic silence and immobility alone or that which perceives the cosmic existence and action alone.
8-7-1938 Page-209 Experiences of Overhead Descent (1)
You seem to have ascended into a plane of the Higher spiritualised Mind with a descent into it of Maheshwari bringing the power of the Divine Truth. The result in the physical consciousness was a perception of the One Consciousness and Life in all things and an illumination of the cells of the body with the golden light of the higher Truth.
October 1933 (2)
It means that your ordinary poise is on higher mind or intuitive mind consciousness (blue) with the spiritual light dominant. As soon as there is concentration, the power of the planes still above (Intuitive proper to Overmind) descends and there is the Sun Force and the consciousness proper to these planes.
November 1933 Page-210 (3)
All these experiences seem to indicate a working to bring the power of the direct Truth into the whole from the Overmind down to the body—for that is what the Sunlight means on whatever plane it manifests. The exact implications of this working and its practical effect can only be seen hereafter.
December 1933 Working of The Mother’s Power on Mind and Vital Centres
THIS is the meaning of your experiences: 1. The power of the Divine Mother from above is descending upon you and the pressure you feel on your head and the workings of which you are aware are hers. Put yourself completely into her hands, have entire confidence, observe carefully and accurately all that happens and write them here. There is no need of special instructions since what is needed is being done for you. 2. The first pressure was on your mind. Page-211 The centres of the mind are (a) the head and above it, (b) the centre of the forehead between the eyes, (c) the throat and the vital mental (emotional) and sensational mind centres from the breast downward. It is this latter which is the first prāṇa of which you become aware. The action of the Power was to widen these two parts of you and raise them up towards the lowest centre of the higher consciousness above your head, so that hereafter they might both be consciously governed from there and that these might both move in a wide universal consciousness not limited by the body. 3. The other prāṇa, the restless one of which you become aware is the vital being, the being of desire and life-movement. The work of the Power has been directed towards quieting the restless movements and making it wide in consciousness as with the mind. The large body you felt was the vital body, not the physical, sthula śarīra. 4. The basis of your sadhana must be silence and quiet. You must remain and grow always more and more deeply quiet and still both in yourself and in your attitude to the world around you. If you can do this, the sadhana is likely to go on progressing and enlarging itself with a minimum of trouble and disturbance. Never mind your family difficulties and say nothing to your people. Go on quietly trusting to the Power that is at work in you. Page-212 Descent of Sadhana into the Vital
IT is evident that your sadhana has been up till now in the mind—that is why you found it easy to concentrate at the crown of the head, because the centre there directly commands the whole mental range. The mind quieted and experiencing the effects of the sadhana quieted the vital disturbance, but did not clear and change the vital nature. Now the sadhana seems to be descending into the vital to clear and change it. The first result is that the difficulty of the vital has shown itself—the ugly images and alarming dreams come from a hostile vital plane which is opposed to the sadhana. From there also comes the renewal of the agitation, the disinclination and resistance to the sadhana. This is not a going back to the old condition, but the result of a pressure of the Yoga-Force on the vital for change to which there is a resistance. Page-213 It is this descent of the sadhana to free the vital being that made you feel the necessity of concentrating in the region of the heart; for in the region of the heart is the psychic centre and below, behind the navel, is the vital centre. If these two can be awakened and occupied by the Yoga-Force, then the psychic (Soul-Power) will command the vital range and purify the vital nature and tranquillise it and turn it to the Divine. It will be best if you are able to concentrate at will in the heart region and at the crown of the head, for that gives a more complete power of sadhana. The other experiences you have are the beginning of the change in the vital, e.g., peace with yourself and those you thought had injured you, joy and freedom from all worldly cares and desires and ambitions. These come too with a quieted mind, but they can be fixed only when the vital is liberated and tranquillised. Whatever difficulties or troubles arise, the one thing is to go on quietly with full faith in the Divine Power and the guidance, opening steadily and progressively the whole being to the workings of the sadhana till all becomes conscious and consenting to the needed change.
11-8-1932 Page-214 Need of Care in receiving a True Force
A FORCE like this comes at a certain stage. Observe without being carried away,—for even though it may be a true force from above, other forces which are not true may take advantage and try to substitute themselves for it.
1933 Action of Higher Light and Force in the Body
IT is the method of the Light or Force working on the body (whether subtle or material) to prepare in that way the remoulding of the body consciousness so that it can admit or identify itself with the Light.
December 1933 Direct Connection of the Body with the Higher Consciousness
WHAT you have written is quite correct. The body is not connected ordinarily with the higher consciousness, it only receives what it can from the Page-215 mind. It is being prepared for the direct connection by the ascent of the inner or subtle body into that plane and the descent from it of the higher Light.
7-10-1933 Direct Descent of Force in the Physical
IT (the higher Force) can come into the physical consciousness direct in the sense that the rest can remain passive, but it must pass through the subtle to reach the material.
To remain quiet for a time after the descent of Force is the best way of assimilating it.
14-7-1934 Page-216 Mistake of Pulling Down Excessive Force (1)
THIS sort of giddiness and weakness and disturbance ought not to take place. When it comes it shows that more Force is being pulled down than is assimilated by the body. At such times you ought to rest till this disturbance has passed and there is a proper balance.
26-12-1933 (2)
It is certainly a mistake to bring down the higher force. The highest Force, the Supramental, cannot be taken by a storm. When the time is ready, it will open of itself, but first there is a great preparation to be done and that must be done silently and without haste.
8-9-1933
IF one brings down more Force or Light than some part of the being is ready for and that part resists or if there is a struggle between descending and adverse forces in the body, then these things can take place.
9-9-1933 Page-217
HEADACHES "produced by a pressure from. above", as you put it, are not due to the pressure or produced by it, but produced by a resistance.
18-10-1936
THE pressure does not bring a resistance. "If there were no resistance there would be no headache" is the proper knowledge, not the reverse. So long as you think that it is the pressure that brings the resistance, the very idea will create the resistance. X’s case is not an example either of headache due to resistance or of headache due to pressure—it is due to ordinary physical and psychological causes.
19-10-1936 Page-218 Experiences of Pressure upon Resistances
IT is the pressure of the higher Consciousness (planes of blue light beyond the ordinary mind) that has come down and is pressing upon the resistances down to the body and below. At the same time the weight of the subconscient nature is being lifted up for release—that is the sense of these experiences.
14-9-1933 Pressure on Resistance for Expulsion
IT must be the vital-physical that is in action. It is under the pressure of the Force that the resistance recedes lower and lower down and manifests so as to have the pressure brought there also specifically for its expulsion.
5-12-1933 Page-219 Resistance from the Physical Layers—The Foundation of Stillness
THAT is good progress. As for the resisting part, there is for a long time a resistance from some layer of the physical—one layer opens, another beneath remains obscure. But if the pressure from above is continuous, the resistance gets exhausted at last. The stillness of which you speak in the meditation is a very good sign. It comes usually in that pervading way when there has been sufficient purification to make it possible. On the other side, it is itself the beginning of the laying of the foundation of the higher spiritual consciousness. I think you are right about the change coming in many. Still chequered by remnants and returns of the old nature, it is proceeding.
Pauses of Preparation and Assimilation
THERE are always pauses of preparation and assimilation between two movements.
8-12-1933 Page-220 (1)
THE periods of assimilation continue really till all that has to be done is fundamentally done. Only they have a different character in the later stages of sadhana. If they cease altogether at an early stage (M is still in a very early stage), it is because all that the nature was capable of has been done and that would mean it was not capable of much.
3-5-1936 (2)
The only change in the assimilation periods afterwards is that certain things remain settled while the assimilation applies to others that are not yet settled in the system, e.g., one feels always a constant peace in the inner being, but disturbances go on on the surface, till the surface also has assimilated peace. Or perhaps peace is settled everywhere and always there but knowledge comes and goes or strength comes and goes. Or all these are there but Ananda comes and goes, etc., etc.
4-5-1936 Page-221 (3)
What I have written is perfectly clear. The periods of assimilation continue till all that has to be done is fundamentally done. If they stop early, it means that all has been done that could be done and nothing more is possible, the later and more advanced developments of the sadhana are not possible,—if they were, the assimilation periods would continue until all was developed and not cease. The only reason for such a premature end of the sadhana would be that the sadhaka is not capable of going farther.
4-5-1936 (4)
Hardly one ever feels that (the process of assimilation), it goes on under cover.
21-5-1936 Page-222 (5)
One must keep in the inner being the faith and knowledge that it is an assimilation and not a cessation, even if it looks like a cessation. (6)
In the interim periods, if any come, to maintain the calm observing consciousness is the one great necessity. The dynamic activity of the higher consciousness may be suspended but once manifested its presence is always there.
2-12-1933 (1)
THERE are always lulls of this kind. One must not get upset; otherwise they are prolonged and disturbances come in. One must remain quiet, aspire steadily but without vehemence or, if one presses for a change, then too with a quiet steady pressure.
3-5-1933 Page-223 (2)
It is possible and usual to come down again into the lower working in order to perfect it more.
2-1-1933 (1)
THE falling down of consciousness comes usually by. some inertia coming in the consciousness through fatigue or through mere habit of relaxation or it comes through some vital reaction which one may or may not notice or it comes through a wrong movement of the mind. These are the positive lowering causes, but at the back of them is the fact that these alternations are almost inevitable so long as the consciousness is in any way subject to the old nature, The intervals of non-sadhana may, however, be big or short according to inner circumstances (the power of the will or the psychic or the higher being to restore quietly the true poise).
23-3-1937 Page-224 (2)
Usually it is when something in the mind and vital accepts and indulges the lower forces that this inability to re-enter the true consciousness remains so obstinate. Physical tamas can produce long interregnums of obscure consciousness, but not usually with such a violent obstruction, but it is usually dull and obstinate.
24-7-1933
Necessity of Overmind Descent for Supramental Change
CERTAINLY, the overmind descent is necessary for those who want the supramental change. Unless the overmind opens, there can be no direct supramental opening of the consciousness. If one remains in the mind, even illumined mind or the intuition, one can have indirect messages or an influence from the supramental, but not a direct supramental control of the consciousness or the supramental change.
10-3-1932 Page-225 Action of Supramentalised Overmind Described in the Last Chapters of the ‘Arya’
AT the time when the last chapters of The Synthesis of Yoga were written, in the "Arya" the name "overmind" had not been found, so there is no mention of it. What is described in those chapters is the action of the supermind when it descends into the overmind plane and takes up the overmind workings and transforms them. The highest supermind or Divine gnosis existent in itself, is something that lies beyond still and quite above. It was intended in latter chapters to show how difficult even this was and how many levels there were between the human mind and supermind and how even supermind descending could get mixed with the lower action and turned into something that was less than the true Truth. But these latter chapters were not written.
13-4-1932 Page-226 Manifestation of Higher Truths in the Material Plane
THESE perceptions are correct on the whole. Each, plane is true in itself but only in partial truth to the Supermind. When these higher truths come into the physical they try to realise themselves there, but can do so only in part and under the conditions of the material plane. It is only the Supermind that can overcome this difficulty.
21-12-1933 Descent of Overhead Planes and Supramental Descent
THEY (the spiritual planes between mind and overmind) descended long ago. It does not mean that they are available to everybody or developed anywhere in their full power—only that they can be counted among the things to which one can reach by tapasya. For Supermind, it may be descending but it has not come down yet.
7-5-1936 Page-227 Supramental Influence and Supramental Transformation (1)
WHO told you that it (the Supermind) was descending in the physical consciousness without touching the mind and vital? Certainly no part of the nature has been supramentalised —that is not possible until the whole being has been put under the supramental influence. The supramental influence must come first, the supramental transformation can only come afterwards.
16-5-1936 (2)
A touch or influence of the supramental is not the same thing as the supramentalisation. To suppose that the physical can be supramentalised before the mental and vital is an absolute absurdity. What I said was that the mind and vital could not be supramentalised so long as the physical was left as it was, untouched by the supramental descent.
17-5-1936 Page-228 Miracle and Change According to Divine Law
No. I have not said that at all. It is quite impossible for the Supramental to take up the body before there has been the full supramental change in the mind and the vital. X and others seem always to expect some kind of unintelligible miracle—they do not understand that it is a concentrated evolution, swift but following the law of creation that has to take place. A miracle can be a moment’s wonder. A change according to the Divine Law can alone endure.
14-11-1933 Effect of the Supramental Descent
IT (sadhana in the physical) is rather a necessity of the work itself for the supramental descent. The effect in a particular person will still depend on the person himself, though there will be much greater and quicker possibilities than now. The effect of the descent: greater possibilities of advancing quickly in the sadhana than now.
22-9-1935 Page-229 Descent of Transcendent Ananda
I PRESUME it is the development of the Truth-Power and the Ananda Power in the overmind consciousness that is being prepared. The transcendent Ananda in itself could descend only after the complete supramentalisation of the being and would mean a stupendous change in the earth consciousness. It is the divine Truth in the overmind and the divine Ananda in the overmind that can now prepare their manifestation and it is that which is being indicated in these experiences.
January 1934
IT is the Supermind we have to bring down, manifest, realise—anything higher than that is impossible at this stage of the evolution except as a reflection in the consciousness or a power delegated and modified in its descent.
February 1934 Page-230 |