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 Two

 

The Gods

 

The Gods or Divine Powers

 

The Gods are Personalities or Powers put forth by the Divine — they are therefore in front limited Emanations, although the full Divine is behind each of them.

 

*

 

Of course, the gods exist —that is to say, there are Powers that stand above the world and transmit the divine workings. It is the physical mind which believes only in what is physical that denies them. There are also beings of other worlds —gods and Asuras etc.

 

*

 

There are Gods everywhere on all the planes.

 

*

 

The Gods are in the universal Self —if identified with the universal Self one can feel their presence there.

 

*

 

While the Gods cannot be transformed, for they are typal and not evolutionary beings, they can come for conversion —that is to say, to give up their own ideas and outlook on things and conform themselves to the higher Will and supramental Truth of the Divine.

 

*

 

The higher beings are not likely to be in disharmony with each other as they are not subject to the lower ignorance.

 

*

 

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The Gods have their own enjoyments, though they may not be of a material character.

 

*

 

There are no planes of manifestation without forms —for with out form creation or manifestation cannot be complete. But the supraphysical planes are not bound to the forms like the physical. The forms there are expressive, not determinative. What is important on the vital plane is the force or feeling and the form expresses it. A vital being has a characteristic form but he can vary it or mask his true form under others. What is primary on the mental plane is the perception, the idea, the mental significance and the form expresses that and these mental forms too can vary —there can be many forms expressing an idea in different ways or on different sides of the idea. Form exists but it is more plastic and variable than in physical nature. As to the Gods, man can build forms which they will accept; but these forms too are inspired into man's mind from the planes to which the God belongs. All creation has the two sides, the formed and the formless; the Gods too are formless and yet have forms, but a Godhead can take many forms, here Maheshwari, there Pallas Athene. Maheshwari herself has many forms in her lesser manifestations, Durga, Uma, Parvati, Chandi etc. The Gods are not limited to human forms —man also has not always seen them in human forms only.

 

The Gods and the Overmind

 

The natives of the Overmind are Gods. Naturally the Gods rule the cosmos.

 

*

 

The Overmind is the world of the Gods and the Gods are not merely Powers, but have Forms also.

 

*

 

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In the Overmind the Gods are still separated existences.

 

*

 

Beyond the Overmind (in the supramental nearest the Overmind for instance) the Gods are eternal in their principle, but not in their forms and separate activities; they are there simply aspects of the One. If you meet a Godhead there, it is not as a separate Person; you feel only the Divine having a particular face, as it were, and relation with you for a certain purpose.

 

*

 

The Formateurs of the Overmind have shaped nothing evil —it is the lower forces that receive from the Overmind and distort its forces.

 

Vedic Gods of the Indian Tradition

 

There are many forms of Agni, —the solar fire, the vaidyuta fire and the nether fire are one Trinity —the fivefold fire is part of the Vedic symbolism of sacrifice.

 

*

 

Vayu and Indra are cosmic godheads presiding over the action of cosmic principles —they are not the manomaya purusha or pranamaya purusha in each man. You have a mental being or purusha in you and a vital being or purusha, but you cannot say that you are in your mind Indra or in your vital Vayu. The Purusha is an essential being supporting the play of Prakriti —the Godhead (Indra, Vayu) is a dynamic being manifested in Prakriti for the works of the plane to which he belongs. There is an immense difference.

 

*

 

Yes, Mitra is rather a combination of the two powers [Maha- lakshmi and Mahasaraswati].

 

*

 

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I indicate the psychological powers which they [six Vedic Gods] bring with them:

Mitra —Harmony.

Varuna —Wideness.

Aryaman —Power, Tapasya.

Brihaspati —Wisdom (Word and Knowledge).

Vishnu —Cosmic Consciousness.

Vayu —Life.

 

Post-Vedic Gods of the Indian Tradition

 

Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva are only three Powers and Personalities of the One Cosmic Godhead.

 

*

 

Brahma is the Power of the Divine that stands behind formation and creation.

 

*

 

As for Vishnu being the creator, all the three Gods are often spoken of as creating the universe —even Shiva who is by tradition the Destroyer.

 

*

 

There is no particular connection between Shiva and the Over mind —the Overmind is the higher station of all the Gods.

 

*

 

Mahashiva means a greater manifestation than that ordinarily worshipped as Shiva —the creative dance of a greater Divine manifesting Power.

 

*

 

At X's conscientious hesitations between Krishna and Shakti and Shiva I could not help indulging in a smile. If a man is attracted by one form or two forms only of the Divine, it is all right, —but if he is drawn to several at a time he need not torment himself  

 

Page – 459


over it. A man of some development has necessarily several sides in his nature and it is quite natural that different aspects should draw or govern different personalities in him —he can very well accept them all and harmonise them in the One Divine and the One Adya Shakti of whom all are the manifestations.

 

*

 

Shiva is the Lord of Tapas. The power is the power of Tapas.

Krishna as a godhead is the Lord of Ananda, Love and Bhakti; as an incarnation, he manifests the union of wisdom (Jnana) and works and leads the earth-evolution through this towards union with the Divine by Ananda, Love and Bhakti.

The Devi is the Divine Shakti —the Consciousness and Power of the Divine, the Mother and Energy of the worlds. All powers are hers. Sometimes Devi-power may mean the power of the universal World-Force; but this is only one side of the Shakti.

 

*

 

Mahakali and Kali are not the same, Kali is a lesser form. Mahakali in the higher planes appears usually with the golden colour.

 

*

 

Ganesh is the Power that removes obstacles by the force of Knowledge —Kartikeya represents victory over the hostile Powers. Of course the names given are human, but the Gods exist.

 

*

 

Ganesh (among other things) is the devata of spiritual Knowledge —so as you are getting this knowledge, you saw yourself in this form, identified with Ganesh.  

 

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