CONTENTS

 

Pre-Content

 

PART ONE

 THE DIVINE, THE COSMOS AND THE INDIVIDUAL

 

Section One

The Divine, Sachchidananda, Brahman and Atman

 

The Divine and Its Aspects

The Divine

The Divine Consciousness

The Divine: One in All

Aspects of the Divine

The Transcendent, Cosmic and Individual Divine

Personal and Impersonal Sides of the Divine

The Divine and the Atman

The Divine and the Supermind

 

Sachchidananda: Existence, Consciousness-Force and Bliss

Sachchidananda

Sat or Pure Existence

Chit or Consciousness

Outer Consciousness and Inner Consciousness

Consciousness and Force or Energy

Force, Energy, Power, Shakti

Ananda

 

Brahman

The Impersonal Brahman

The Inactive Brahman and the Active Brahman

Spirit and Life

 

The Self or Atman

The Self

The Cosmic Spirit or Self

The Atman, the Soul and the Psychic Being

The Self and Nature or Prakriti

 

Section Two

The Cosmos: Terms from Indian Systems

 

The Upanishadic and Puranic Systems

Virat

Visva or Virat, Hiranyagarbha or Taijasa,Prajna or Ishwara

Vaisvanara, Taijasa, Prajna, Kutastha

Karana, Hiranyagarbha, Virat

The Seven Worlds

The Worlds of the Lower Hemisphere

Tapoloka and the Worlds of Tapas

 

The Sankhya-Yoga System

Purusha

Purusha and Prakriti

Prakriti

Prakriti and Shakti or Chit-Shakti

Purusha, Prakriti and Action

The Gunas or Qualities of Nature

Transformation of the Gunas

Sattwa and Liberation

Transformation of Rajas and Tamas

Transformation of Tamas into Sama

Mahat

Tanmatra

 

Section Three

The Jivatman and the Psychic Being

 

The Jivatman in the Integral Yoga

The Jivatman or Individual Self

The Jivatman, the Psychic Being and Prakriti

The Central Being and the Psychic Being

The Surrender of the Central Being

The Central Being after Liberation

The Karana Purusha

The Jivatman and the Caitya Puruṣa

The Jivatman and the Mental Purusha

The Jivatman, Spark-Soul and Psychic Being

The Jivatman in a Supramental Creation

 

The Jivatman in Other Indian Systems

The Jivatman in Other Schools

The Jivatman and the Pure “I” of the Adwaita

 

 

PART TWO

 THE PARTS OF THE BEING AND THE PLANES OF CONSCIOUSNESS

 

Section One

The Organisation of the Being

 

The Parts of the Being

Men Do Not Know Themselves

Many Parts, Many Personalities

 

Classification of the Parts of the Being

Different Categories in Different Systems

The Concentric and Vertical Systems

 

Section Two

The Concentric System: Outer to Inner

 

The Outer Being and the Inner Being

The Outer and the Inner Being and Consciousness

The Inner, the Outer and the Process of Yoga

The Inner Being

The Inner Being, the Antaratma and the Atman

The Inner Being and the Psychic Being

The Outer Being and Consciousness

 

The True Being and the True Consciousness

The True Being

The True Consciousness

 

The Psychic Being

The Psychic and the Divine

The Self or Spirit and the Psychic or Soul

The Atman, the Jivatman and the Psychic

The Words “Soul” and “Psychic”

The Psychic or Soul and Traditional Indian Systems

The Soul and the Psychic Being

The Form of the Psychic Being

The Psychic Being and the Intuitive Consciousness

The Psychic Being and the External Being

The Psychic or Soul and the Lower Nature

The Psychic Being or Soul and the Vital or Life

The Psychic Being and the Ego

The Psychic World or Plane

 

The Vertical System: Supermind to Subconscient

 

The Planes or Worlds of Consciousness

The System of Planes or Worlds

The Planes and the Body

 

The Supermind or Supramental

Supermind and the Purushottama

Supermind and Sachchidananda

The Supracosmic, the Supramental,

the Overmind and Nirvana

Supermind and Other Planes

Supermind and Overmind

Knowledge and Will in the Supermind

 

The Overmind

Overmind and the Cosmic Consciousness

Planes of the Overmind

The Overmind, the Intuition and Below

The Overmind and the Supermind Descent

The Overmind and the Kāraṇa Deha

The Dividing Aspect of the Overmind

The Overmind and the World

 

The Higher Planes of Mind

The Higher Planes and Higher Consciousness

The Plane of Intuition

The Plane of Intuition and the Intuitive Mind

Yogic Intuition and Ordinary Intuitions

Powers of the Intuitive Consciousness

The Illumined Mind

The Higher Mind

 

The Lower Nature or Lower Hemisphere

The Higher Nature and the Lower Nature

The Three Planes of the Lower Hemisphere

and Their Energies

The Adhara

 

The Mind

Mind in the Integral Yoga and in Other

Indian Systems

Manas and Buddhi

Chitta

Western Ideas of Mind and Spirit

The Psychic Mind

The Mind Proper

The Thinking Mind and the Vital Mind

The Thinking Mind and the Physical Mind

The Vital Mind

The Physical Mind

The Physical Mental or Physical Mind and

the Mental Physical or Mechanical Mind

The Mental World of the Individual

 

The Vital Being and Vital Consciousness

The Vital

The True Vital Being and Consciousness

Parts of the Vital Being

The Mental Vital or Vital Mind

CONTENTS

The Emotional Being or Heart

The Central Vital or Vital Proper

The Lower Vital, the Physical Vital and

the Material Vital

A Strong Vital

The Vital Body

The Vital Nature

The Vital Plane and the Physical Plane

The Life Heavens

 

The Physical Consciousness

The Physical Consciousness and Its Parts

Living in the Physical Consciousness

The Opening of the Physical Consciousness

The True Activity of the Senses

The Physical Parts of the Mind and Emotional Being

The Mental Physical or Mechanical Mind

The Vital Physical

The Material Consciousness or Body Consciousness

The Gross Physical and the Subtle Physical

The Physical Nerves and the Subtle Nerves

The Sheaths of the Indian Tradition

 

The Environmental Consciousness

The Environmental Consciousness around

the Individual

The Environmental Consciousness and

the Movements of the Lower Nature

The Environmental Consciousness and

the Subconscient

 

The Subconscient and the Inconscient

The Subconscient in the Integral Yoga

The Subconscient in Traditional Indian Terminology

The Subconscient and the Superconscient

The Subconscient and the Subliminal

The Subconscient Memory and Conscious Memory

The Subconscient and the Inconscient

 

Section Four

The Chakras or Centres of Consciousness

 

The System of the Chakras

The Functions of the Chakras or Centres

The Chakras in Reference to Yoga

The Centres and the Planes

The Mind Centres

The Sahasradala or Sahasrara or Crown Centre

The Ajnachakra or Forehead Centre

The Throat Centre

The Throat Centre and the Lower Centres

The Heart Centre

The Navel and Abdominal Centres

The Muladhara

No Subconscient Centre

 

The Parts of the Body and the Centres

The Parts of the Body in Yoga

The Cerebellum

The Ear, Nose, Face and Throat

The Chest, Stomach and Abdomen

The Legs and Feet

The Sides of the Body

 

 

PART THREE 

THE EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS AND THE SUPERMIND

 

Section One

The Supramental Evolution

 

The Problem of Suffering and Evil

The Riddle of This World

The Disharmonies of Earth

 

Spiritual Evolution and the Supramental

Human History and Spiritual Evolution

Spiritual and Supramental

The Overmind and the Supramental

Involution and Evolution

The Supermind and the Lower Creation

Speculations about the Supramental Descent

 

Section Two

The Supramental Descent and Transformation

 

The Descent of the Supermind

Inevitability of the Descent

A Beginning, Not a Completion

Clarifications about the Supramental Descent

 

Descent and Transformation

A World-Changing Yoga

The Vital World and the Supramental Descent

The Nature and Scope of the Transformation

The Earth, the Earth Consciousness and

the Supramental Creation

The Supramental Change and the Ananda Plane

 

The Supramental Transformation

Preparatory Steps towards the Supramental Change

The Supramental Influence and Supramentalisation

Premature Claims of Possession of the Supermind

 

Transformation and the Body

The Transformation of the Body

The Transformation of the Body in Other Traditions

Transforming the Body Consciousness

Death and the Supramental Transformation

The Conquest of Death

The Reproductive Method of the Supramental

 

 

PART FOUR 

PROBLEMS OF PHILOSOPHY, SCIENCE, RELIGION AND SOCIETY

 

Section One

Thought, Philosophy, Science and Yoga

 

The Intellect and Yoga

Intellectual Truth and Spiritual Experience

Intellectual Arguments against Spirituality

The Valley of the False Glimmer

 

Doubt and Faith

Doubt and Yoga

Faith in Spiritual Things

 

Philosophical Thought and Yoga

Metaphysical Thinkers, East and West

World-Circumstances and the Divine

Intellectual Expression of Spiritual Experience

Comments on Thoughts of J.M.E. McTaggart

Comments on Terms Used by Henri Bergson

Metaphysics, Science and Spiritual Experience

 

Science and Yoga

Science, Yoga and the Agnostic

Science and Spirituality

Science and the Supernormal

Science and Superstition

The Limitations of Science

Physics and Metaphysics

Space and Time

Matter

Animals

Plants

Life on Other Planets

 

Section Two

Religion, Idealism, Morality and Yoga

 

Religion and Yoga

Religion and the Truth

Religion in India

Religious Ceremonies

Religious Fanaticism

 

Idealism and Spirituality

Human Perfection and Spirituality

The Collapse of Twentieth-Century Idealism

 

Morality and Yoga

The Spiritual Life and the Ordinary Life

Morality

Vice and Virtue

The Sattwic Man and the Spiritual Man

Selfishness and Unselfishness

Humility

Sacrifice

Ahimsa, Destruction and Violence

War and Conquest

Poverty

Natural Calamities

 

Social Duties and the Divine

Family, Society, Country and the Divine

Philanthropy

Humanitarianism

Social and Political Activism

 

PART FIVE 

QUESTIONS OF SPIRITUAL AND OCCULT KNOWLEDGE

 

Section One

The Divine and the Hostile Powers

 

Terminology

The Dynamic Divine, the Gods, the Asuras

The Soul, the Divine, the Gods, the Asuras

Terms in The Mother

 

The Gods

The Gods or Divine Powers

The Gods and the Overmind

Vedic Gods of the Indian Tradition

Post-Vedic Gods of the Indian Tradition

 

The Hostile Forces and Hostile Beings

The Existence of the Hostile Forces

The Nature of the Hostile Forces

The Conquest of the Hostile Forces

Asuras, Rakshasas and Other Vital Beings

 

Section Two

The Avatar and the Vibhuti

 

The Meaning and Purpose of Avatarhood

The Avatar or Incarnation

The Divine and Human Sides of the Avatar

Human Judgments of the Divine

The Work of the Avatar

The Avatar: Historicity and Symbols

The Avatar and the Vibhuti

 

Specific Avatars and Vibhutis

The Ten Avatars as a Parable of Evolution

Rama as an Avatar

Krishna as an Avatar

Buddha as an Avatar

Mahomed and Christ

Ramakrishna

Augustus Caesar and Leonardo da Vinci

Napoleon

 

Human Greatness

Greatness

Greatness and Vices

 

Section Three

Destiny, Karma, Death and Rebirth

 

Fate, Free Will and Prediction

Destiny

Free Will and Determinism

Predictions and Prophecy

Astrology and Yoga

 

Karma and Heredity

Karma

Karma and Heredity

Evolution, Karma and Ethics

 

Death

Death and Karma

Death and Grieving

The After-Death Sojourn

 

Rebirth

The Psychic’s Choice at the Time of Death

Assimilation in the Psychic World

The Psychic Being and the Progression from

Life to Life

The New Birth

Reincarnation and Soul Evolution

What Survives and What Does Not

Lines of Force and Consciousness

Beings of the Higher Planes

Fragments of a Dead Person that Reincarnate

Connections from Life to Life

Lines of Sex in Rebirth

Asuric Births

Animals and the Process of Rebirth

Remembering Past Lives

Unimportance of Past-Life Experience in Yoga

Speculating about Past Lives

Traditional Indian Ideas about Rebirth and

Other Worlds

European Resistance to the Idea of Reincarnation

 

Section Four

Occult Knowledge and Powers

 

Occult Knowledge

Occultism and the Supraphysical

Occult Forces

The Play of Forces

The Place of Occult Knowledge in Yoga

Spiritism

Séances

Ghosts

 

Occult Powers or Siddhis

General Remarks

Occult Powers Not the Object of Our Yoga

Ethical Rules for the Use of Occult Powers

Thought Reception and Thought Reading

Occult Powers and Health

The Power of Healing

Miracles

Magic

 

 

NOTE ON THE TEXTS


 
 

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 the manifestation, living in that or in contact with it, calm, wide and awake to higher knowledge, not perturbed by the play of the Forces. When it gets its full liberated movement, its central station is very usually felt above the head, though its influence can extend downward through all the being and outward through space.

 

*

 

It [higher consciousness] means the larger spiritual conscious ness which contains all these things [cosmic consciousness, intuitive consciousness, other planes of consciousness between Intuition and mind] in possibility and once it is there can develop them in their due place or order.

 

*

 

The planes below [the Supermind, from the Overmind to the Higher Mind] are of the spiritual consciousness but when there  

 

Page – 158


<p align="left" style="line-height: 150%; 159

is a dynamic action from them, it is always a mixed action, not an action of pure knowledge but of knowledge subduing itself to the rule of the Ignorance, the cosmic necessity in a world of Ignorance. If their action was that of the full Knowledge, there would be no need of any supramental descent.

 

*

 

The higher consciousness is a concentrated consciousness, concentrated in the Divine Unity and in the working out of the Divine Will, not dispersed and rushing about after this or that mental idea or vital desire or physical need as is the ordinary human consciousness —also not invaded by a hundred haphazard thoughts, feelings and impulses, but master of itself, centred and harmonious.

 

The Plane of Intuition

 

Intuition sees the truth of things by a direct inner contact, not like the ordinary mental intelligence by seeking and reaching out for indirect contacts through the senses etc. But the limitation of the Intuition as compared with the Supermind is that it sees things by flashes, point by point, not as a whole. Also in coming into the mind it gets mixed with the mental movement and forms a kind of intuitive-mind activity which is not the pure truth, but something in between the higher Truth and the mental seeking. It can lead the consciousness through a sort of transitional stage and that is practically its function.

 

*

 

Intuition is in direct contact with the higher Truth but not in an integral contact. It gets the Truth in flashes and turns these flashes of Truth-perception into intuitions —intuitive ideas. The ideas of the true Intuition are always correct so far as they go —but when intuition is diluted in the ordinary mind stuff, its truth gets mixed with error.

 

*

 

Page – 159


Intuitivising [of the being] is not sufficient to prevent a drop [in consciousness]; if it is complete (and it is not complete until not only the mind, but the vital and physical are intuitivised) it can make you understand and be conscious of all the processes in you and around but it does not necessarily make you entire master of the reactions. For that Knowledge is not enough —a certain Knowledge-Will (knowledge and will fused together) or Consciousness-Power is needed.

 

*

 

One can get intuitions —communications from there [the intuitive plane] even while the ego exists —but to live in the wideness of the Intuition is not possible with the limitation of the ego.

 

*

 

The Intuition is the first plane on which there is a real opening to the full possibility of realisation —it is through it that one goes farther —first to Overmind and then to Supermind.

 

*

 

It [the individual Self] is not specially related [to intuition] — intuition is the highest power the embodied individual can reach without universalising itself; when it universalises itself it is then possible for it to come in contact with overmind. If by the individual Self is meant the Jivatman, it can be on any plane of consciousness.

 

*

 

By the intuitive self I meant the intuitive being, that part which belongs to the intuitive plane or is in connection with it. The intuition is one of the higher planes of consciousness between the human thinking mind and the supramental plane.

 

*

 

The difference between intuition and thought is very much like that between seeing a thing and badgering one's brains to find out what the thing can possibly be like. Intuition is truth-sight.  

 

Page – 160


<p align="left" style="line-height: 150%; 161

The thing seen may not be the truth? Well, in that case it will at least be one of its hundred tails or at least a hair from one of the tails. The very first step in the supramental change is to transform all operations of consciousness from the ordinary mental to the intuitive, only then is there any hope of proceeding farther, —not to, but towards the supramental.

 

The Plane of Intuition and the Intuitive Mind

 

Intuition proper is true in itself (when not interpreted or altered by mind), although fragmentary —intuitive mind is mixed with mind and therefore not infallible because the truth intuition gives may be mixed or imperfectly put by mind.

 

*

 

There is the Intuition and below it there is the intuitive mind which may have several degrees or layers. Also there is a partial power of intuition in ordinary mind itself, in the vital, in the physical consciousness, in the material itself.

 

*

 

To live in the Intuitive it is necessary first to have the opening into the cosmic consciousness and to live first in the higher and the illumined Mind, seeing everything from there. To receive constantly the intuition from above, that is not necessary —it is sufficient to have the sense of the One everywhere and to get into contact with things and people through the inner mind and senses more than with the outer mind and senses —for the latter meet only the surface of things and are not intuitive.

 

*

 

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 supermind ranges.

 

*

 

Page – 161


The intuitive mind is a level of consciousness which is touched by the light of higher truths and receives them vividly and conveys them to the consciousness below.

 

*

 

I do not think it can be said that there are separate strata in the intuitive 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.

 

Yogic Intuition and Ordinary Intuitions

 

Some people have a faculty of receiving impressions about others which is not by any means infallible, but often turns out to be right. That is one thing and the Yogic intuition by which one directly knows or feels what is in a man, his capacities, character, temperament, is another. The first may be a help for developing the other, but it is not the same thing. The Yogic faculty has to be and it can be complete only with a great development of the inner consciousness.

 

*

 

To have the true intuition one must get rid of the mind's self-will and the vital's also, their preferences, fancies, fantasies, strong insistences, and eliminate the mental and vital ego's pressure which sets the consciousness to work in the service of its own claims and desires. Otherwise these things will come in with force and claim to be intuitions, inspirations and the rest of it. Or if any intuitions come, they can be twisted and spoiled by the mixture of these forces of the Ignorance.

 

*

 

It [intuition] is the power of knowing any truth or fact directly without reasoning or sense-proof, by a spontaneous right perception.

 

*

 

Page – 162


<p align="left" style="line-height: 150%; 163

As for intuition —well! One has to make a distinction —if one can —between a pure intuition and a mixed one. A pure intuition carries in it a truth, even if it is only a fragment or point of truth, and can be trusted. A mixed one carries in it some suggestion of truth which gets coated with mental matter —here one has to use discrimination and separate the true suggestion from the less reliable mental matter. Intuition and discrimination must always go together so long as one mixes in the mental plane —and for some time after.

 

*

 

Mental intuitive knowledge catches directly some aspect of a truth but without any completeness or certitude and the intuition is easily mixed with ordinary mental stuff that may be erroneous; in application it may easily be a half truth or be so misinterpreted and misapplied as to become an error. Also, the mind easily imitates the intuition in such a way that it is difficult to distinguish between a true or a false intuition. That is the reason why men of intellect distrust the mental intuition and say that it cannot be accepted or followed unless it is tested and confirmed by the intellect. What comes from the overmind intuition has a light, a certitude, an effective force of Truth in it that the mental intuition at its best even has not.

 

*

 

Yes,1 but it does not necessarily come from the original source —the plane of Intuition. There are mental, vital, subtle physical intuitions as well as intuitions from the higher and the illumined Mind.

 

Powers of the Intuitive Consciousness

 

Revelation is a part of the intuitive consciousness.

 

*

 

    1 The correspondent asked: "Is the knowledge got by the Samyama of Rajayoga of the same kind as one would get by Intuition? Is the source of the knowledge not the same? —Ed. 

 

Page – 163


There is a discrimination [in the intuitive consciousness] that is not intellectual —a direct perception.

 

*

 

No, the world of Knowledge is composed of several planes. It is from one of them that inspiration comes.

 

The Illumined Mind

 

Intuition is above illumined Mind —which is simply higher Mind raised to a great luminosity and more open to modified forms of intuition and inspiration.

 

*

 

The substance of knowledge is the same [in the higher mind and the illumined mind], 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, dynamic and effective on the higher planes, so much so as to change always the character and power of the knowledge.

 

The Higher Mind

 

The higher mind is a thing in itself above the intellect. It is only when something of its power comes down and is modified in the lower mind substance that it acts as part of the intellect.

 

*

 

It depends on what is meant by the higher buddhi —whether you use the word to mean the higher part of the intellect or the higher Mind. The higher Mind in itself on its own level knows, but when it is involved in the ordinary human intelligence and works under limitations, it often does not know —or it has the  

 

Page – 164


<p align="left" style="line-height: 150%; 165

idea merely that it must be so but has not the consciousness of its separate existence. The intellect can rise above its ordinary movements and feel itself as a separate power no longer working under the limitations of the vital and physical mind and the senses. It then begins to reflect something of the action of the higher mind but without the full freedom and greater light and truth of the higher mind.   <p align="left" style="line-height: 150%; 165

 <p align="left" style="line-height: 150%; 165

Page – 165