Sri Aurobindo:  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 ﬁnal transformation of the consciousness and nature.   There are two movements that are necessary — one is the ascent through the increasing of peace and silence to its source above the mind, — that is indicated by the tendency of the consciousness to rise out of the body to the top of the head and above where it is easy to realise the Self in all its stillness and liberation and wideness and to open to the other powers of the Higher Consciousness. The other is the descent of the peace, silence, the spiritual freedom and wideness and the powers of the higher consciousness as they develop into the lower down to the most physical and even the subconscient. To both of these movements there can be a block — a block above due to the mind and lower nature being unhabituated (it is that really and not incapacity) and a block below due to the physical consciousness and its natural slowness to change.


Sri Aurobindo: Everybody has these blocks but by persistent will, aspiration or they can be overcome.  There is no ﬁxed rule in such things. With many the descent comes ﬁrst and the ascension afterwards, with others it is the other way; with some the two processes go on together. If one can ﬁx oneself above so much the better.


Sri Aurobindo:   I think the descent is more usual than the ascent. Some sadhaks ﬁnish the ascent ﬁrst or ascents and descents but more often the descents come ﬁrst and the ascent (above the head) takes place only when there has been much working of peace, force, Ananda etc. in the body.


Sri Aurobindo: The movement of ascension cannot ﬁnish so long as the movement of descent is not ready to ﬁnish.  The spine is the main channel of the descent and ascent of the Force, by which it connects the lower and the higher consciousness together.


Sri Aurobindo: The sensation in the spine and on both sides of it is a sign of the awakening of the Kundalini power. More precisely, it is felt as a descending or an ascending current or currents, or both at the same time. There are two main nerve channels for the currents, one on each side of the central channel in the spine. The descending current is the Energy from above coming down to touch the sleeping Power in the lowest nerve centre at the bottom of the spine; the ascending current is the release of energy going up from the awakened Kundalini. This movement as it proceeds opens up the six centres of the subtle nervous system and by the opening one escapes from the limitations of the surface consciousness bound to the gross body, and great ranges of experience proper to the larger subliminal self, mental, vital, subtle-physical, are shown to the sadhaka.


Sri Aurobindo: When the Kundalini meets the higher consciousness, as it ascends through the summit of the head, there is an opening to the higher superconscient reaches above the normal mind. It is by ascending through these in our consciousness and receiving a descent of their energies that it is possible ultimately to reach the supermind. This is the psycho-physical method which is elaborately systematised in the Tantra. In our Yoga it is not necessary to go through the systematised method, — for this psycho-physical process is only a part of the movement of the Yoga and it takes place spontaneously according to need by the force of the aspiration and the call for the workings of the Divine Power. As soon as there is an opening, the Divine Power descends and conducts the necessary working, does what is needed, each thing in its time, and the Yogic consciousness begins to be born in the sadhaka.


Sri Aurobindo:   The force which you felt must evidently have been a rising of the Kundalini ascending to join the Force above and bring down the energy needed to ease the depression and then again rising to enforce the connection between the Above and the lower centres.  The seeming expansion of the head is due to the joining of the mind with the consciousness of the Self or Divine above. That consciousness is wide and illimitable and when one rises into it the individual consciousness also breaks its limits and feels wide and illimitable.


Sri Aurobindo: At such times one often feels as if there were no head and no body but all were a wide self and its consciousness, or else the head or the body is only a circumstance in that. The body or the physical mind is sometimes startled or alarmed at these experiences because they are abnormal to it; but there is no ground for alarm, — these are usual experiences in the Yoga.     There is a Yoga Shakti lying coiled or asleep in the inner body, not active.


Sri Aurobindo: When one does Yoga, this force uncoils itself and rises upward to meet the Divine Consciousness and Force that are waiting above us. When this happens, when the awakened Yoga Shakti arises, it is often felt like a snake uncoiling and standing up straight and lifting itself more and more upwards.  When it meets the Divine Consciousness above, then the force of the Divine Consciousness can more easily descend into the body and be felt working there to change the nature.  The feeling of your body and eyes being drawn upwards is part of the same movement. It is the inner consciousness in the body and the inner subtle sight in the body that are looking and moving upward and trying to meet the divine consciousness and divine seeing above.


Sri Aurobindo:   Yoga means union with the Divine — a union either transcendental (above the universe) or cosmic (universal) or individual or, as in our Yoga, all three together. Or it means getting into a consciousness in which one is no longer limited by the small ego, personal mind, personal vital and body but is in union with the supreme Self or with the universal (cosmic) consciousness or with some deeper consciousness within in which one is aware of one’s own soul, one’s own inner being and of the real truth of existence. In the Yogic consciousness one is not only aware of things, but of forces, not only of forces but of the conscious being behind the forces.


Sri Aurobindo: One is aware of all this not only in oneself but in the universe.  There is a force which accompanies the growth of the new consciousness and at once grows with it and helps it to come about and to perfect itself. This force is the Yoga shakti. It is here asleep and coiled up in all the centres of our inner being (chakras) and is at the base what is called in the Tantras the Kundalini shakti. But it is also above us, above our head as the Divine Force — not there coiled up, involved, asleep, but awake, scient, potent, extended and wide; it is there waiting for manifestation and to this Force we have to open ourselves — to the power of the Mother.


Sri Aurobindo: In the mind it manifests itself as a divine mind-force or a universal mind-force and it can do everything that the personal mind cannot do; it is then the Yogic mindforce. When it manifests and works in the vital or physical in the same way, it is then apparent as a Yogic life-force or a Yogic body-force. It can awake in all these forms, bursting outwards and upwards, extending itself into wideness from below; or it can descend and become there a deﬁnite power for things; it can pour downwards into the body, working, establishing its reign, extending into wideness from above, link the lowest in us with the highest above us, release the individual into a cosmic universality or into absoluteness and transcendence.  If one can remain always in the higher consciousness, so much the better. But why does not one remain always there?


Sri Aurobindo: Because the lower is still part of the nature and it pulls you down towards itself. If on the other hand the lower is transformed, it becomes of one kind with the higher and there is nothing lower to pull downwards.  Transformation means that the higher consciousness or nature is brought down into the mind, vital and body and takes the place of the lower. There is a higher consciousness of the true self which is spiritual, but it is above; if one rises above into it, then one is free as long as one remains there, but if one comes down into or uses mind, vital or body — and if one keeps any connection with life, one has to do so, either to come down and act from the ordinary consciousness or else to be in the self but use mind, life and body — then the imperfections of these instruments have to be faced and mended; they can only be mended by transformation.  You say you rise a little above into this higher consciousness, but where do you rise?


Sri Aurobindo: Into the quieted mind and above the vital or above the mind itself into something always calm and pure and free?    No. I did not intend any sarcasm by my question [ ]. You had written that by rising a little above the ordinary consciousness one was free from difﬁculties and that this was what one felt — I thought you meant that this was your own experience.


Sri Aurobindo: So I put the question, as the experience of the quiet mind is one that can easily be broken by the invasions of the vital or the inertia of the physical being. The experience of the deeper freedom and calm which belongs to the self remains, but it can be covered up by the lower consciousness.    That [] can be only a temporary result of past activities. The endeavour should now be to make the ascent above into the silence of the Self in the higher universal consciousness above, for that was evidently what was trying to come when the disturbance broke in.


Sri Aurobindo: That would probably bring also the descent of the permanent spiritual peace into all the being as a basis for the higher activities.    That you should be able to keep your consciousness uplifted is already something. As for the opening its coming and apparent closing is a normal experience — it needs several openings before the thing is settled by a permanent poise of the consciousness above and an increasing descent into the head and below. It is the pull from below that should get no indulgence — for that, though most do indulge in it, is a wrong crabby way of doing it.


Sri Aurobindo: One must be safely stationed above before one can descend without a tumble. Not that the tumble if it comes precludes a going up again — it does not; but that is no reason for letting it happen.    Even if the permanent opening does not come at once, you have only to wait and it is bound to come. It is certainly a pity that the restlessness of the vital should kick so much against vacancy of the consciousness; for if you could stand it this emptiness, now neutral, and therefore not interesting to the vital, would become positive and be the peaceful recipient of the pouring from above.


Sri Aurobindo: The difﬁculty is that the vital has always been accustomed either to doing something or to something doing and when it is doing nothing or nothing is doing (or it seems like that on the surface), it gets bored and begins to feel and talk or to do nonsense.  However even with this obstacle, the Descent can come down — it need not wait for the Supramental.    Yes. To ascend is easier than to bring down; the higher consciousness gets entangled and impeded in the physical and the mind and vital.


Sri Aurobindo:  Rising higher and higher and bringing down is the method of the Yoga; but it is not possible to do it with full effect until one has so prepared oneself that one can rise above the head to the Self in the higher mind. It was the point you had reached but could not conﬁrm before the difﬁculties came in from the physical consciousness.  The ascent of the consciousness in the lower centres into the higher and the descent of the higher powers and the white light indicates a farther preparation of the vital and physical being and its forces by spiritualisation of the centres.


Sri Aurobindo:  All these are different actions of the Force on the adhar with the one intention of opening it up from above and below and horizontally also. The action from above opens it to the descent of forces from above the Mind and the ascent of consciousness above the lid of the ordinary human mind. The horizontal action opens it to the cosmic consciousness on all its levels. The action from below helps to connect the superconscient with the subconscient. Finally the consciousness instead of being limited in the body becomes inﬁnite, rises inﬁnitely above, plunges inﬁnitely below, widens inﬁnitely on every side.


Sri Aurobindo: There is besides the opening of all the centres to the Light and Power and Ananda that has to descend from above. At present only the mind centres seem to receive fully the descent of Force, while the upper vital centres are being prepared with a minor action on other parts of the body. It is a matter of time and perseverance for the way to be entirely open.    The experience you feel is that of the Atman, the cosmic Self supporting the cosmic consciousness — not yet clear but in its ﬁrst impression.


Sri Aurobindo: When the consciousness goes down from that condition, it brings something of it into the vital and physical consciousness and the result is either that these parts or at least the vital open and get into touch with what has been brought down. The inert or the unease in the legs comes because the physical is not able to receive or assimilate. This will disappear when that part opens and receives and is able to assimilate.  It was there the occasional descent of the Force to establish a connection — here the descent is taking another form intended to establish the fundamental experiences of the Realisation.   It is the beginning of a very decisive experience and realisation — ﬁrst, the Ascent above the mind (head) into the spiritual plane.


Sri Aurobindo: It is here that one releases and is released into the vastness, fullness, solace, freedom, peace and joy of the Inﬁnite and becomes aware of the universal Self and the Divine. Its realisation is the foundation (when it is ﬁxed and when one rises constantly above the body in the wideness of the inﬁnite Being) of the spiritual state and the beginning of the spiritual transformation of the nature. What you have been having up to now is the psychic change; when the psychic and spiritual join together, then the transformation can be complete. For this the Descent is necessary and that is the second thing you are feeling, — the descent of the higher, spiritual or divine consciousness and energy into the whole system down to the bottom of the spine where is the Muladhara or centre of the physical consciousness. The Energy descends through all the levels and centres, mind centres, vital centres, physical centre and ﬁlls the whole body with the higher existence and consciousness.


Sri Aurobindo: The ascent is the liberation (mukti) and when once this ascends, one is liberated from the body consciousness, one no longer feels the body as a form, no longer feels contained in the body, but widens out into the formless Vastness of the Divine. Or sometimes the body is felt as something very small in this vastness. In the Descent the body is felt but not as a conﬁning form so much as an instrument and receptacle for this larger consciousness. Your description of the experience is unmistakable. All the elements are there.


Sri Aurobindo: What has to happen is to get ﬁxed in the wideness, freedom, stillness, peace of the consciousness above and for the Descent to continue till it has ﬁxed the higher power of being everywhere below — in the body and in the subconscience below it and also all round the body so that one lives enveloped in this new consciousness and being.     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 worldexistence to the realisation of the status of the dynamic one.


Sri Aurobindo: 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.  These are the ordinary normal experiences of the sadhana when there is an opening from above — the contact with the peace of the Brahman, Self or Divine and the contact with the higher Power, the Power of the Mother. He does not know what they are, quite naturally, but feels very correctly and his description is quite accurate.


Sri Aurobindo: “How beautiful, calm and still all seems — as if in water there were not even a wave. But it is not Nothingness. I feel a Presence steeped in life but absolutely silent and quiet in meditation”, — there could hardly be a better description of this experience, — the experience of the peace and silence of the Divine or of the Divine itself in its own essential peace and silence. Also what he feels about the Force is quite correct, “something from above the manifested creation (mind-matter), a Force behind that is distinct from that which gives rise to emotions, anger, lust which are all puriﬁed and transformed gradually”, in other words, the Divine or Spiritual Force, other than the cosmic vital which supports the ordinary embodied consciousness; that is also very clear. I suppose it is only a contact yet, but a very true and vivid contact if it gives rise to so vivid and true a feeling.


Sri Aurobindo: It looks as if he were going to make a very good beginning.     One may get inﬂuences from above, but so long as the mind is not full of the higher calm, peace, silence, one cannot be in direct contact. These inﬂuences get diminished, mentalised, vitalised and are not the powers of the higher planes in their native character.


Sri Aurobindo: Nor is this sufﬁcient to get control of the hidden forces of all the planes of consciousness, which is perhaps what he means by occultism.    Indirect connection [] is when one lives in the ordinary consciousness without being able to go up above it and receives inﬂuences from above without knowing where they come from or feeling their source.    Sometimes one feels an ascension above the head.


Sri Aurobindo: I think he has had that, but that is the mind going up (when it is not simply a going out of the body) into the higher mental planes. To be above the mind one must ﬁrst realise the self above the mind and live there.    Do you realise it [] as wide and inﬁnite? When you are there do you feel it spread through inﬁnity?


Sri Aurobindo: 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 life?


Sri Aurobindo: your matter 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?


Sri Aurobindo: 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.  This is a fundamental experience of the Yoga. It is the free ascent of the consciousness to join the Divine. When, liberated from its ordinary identiﬁcation with the body, it rises upward to have experiences of the higher planes, to link itself with the psychic or the true being or to join the Divine Consciousness, then there is this experience of ascension and of speeding or expanding through space.


Sri Aurobindo: The joy you feel is a sign of this last movement, — rising to join the Divine; the passivity and expectancy of a descent are signs of the openness to the Divine that is its result; there is also the sense of this openness, an emptiness of the ordinary contents of the consciousness, a wideness not limited by the narrow prison of the physical personality. There is too, usually or very often, a massive immobility of the body which corresponds to the silence that comes on the mind when it is released from itself — the Silence that is the foundation of spiritual experience. What you have felt (the former experiences were probably preparatory touches) is indeed the beginning of this foundation — a consciousness free, wide, empty at will, able to rise into the supraphysical planes, open to the descent of whatever the Mother will pour into it.


Sri Aurobindo: Nothing needs to be done to bring the ascension — aspiration is sufﬁcient. The object of the ascension is for the lower nature to join the higher consciousness so that (1) the limit or lid between the higher and the lower may be broken and disappear, (2) the consciousness may have free access to higher and higher planes, (3) a free way may be made for the descent of the higher Consciousness into the lower planes.     The lower consciousness rises to meet the higher consciousness — when it joins there is the sense of unity and the feeling of the one cosmic Self with Ananda and Peace or both as the result.


Sri Aurobindo: This is called the ascent of the lower consciousness — it cannot remain all the time but it can become more and more frequent until the descent of the higher consciousness is ready.    That [] is very good. Such risings help to break down the lid between the higher and lower planes in the consciousness and prepare the consciousness.


Sri Aurobindo:   The rising of the energies of the consciousness to the crown of the head and beyond is a recognised movement of the sadhana.  It is the forces of the lower Prakriti rising to connect themselves with the higher spiritual consciousness above. The hearing of bells is usually a sign of an opening of the consciousness; it is mentioned in the Upanishads as one of such signiﬁcant sounds and is well known to Yogis.


Sri Aurobindo:   (1) Freedom from cares, lightness of mind and body are very good results. They do not usually become permanent at once — it is sufﬁcient if they are frequently or ordinarily there.  (2) Chest and head rising higher are sensations of the subtle body — it means that the mind and heart consciousness (thinking mental and emotional) are rising to meet the spiritual consciousness plane above the head.  (3)


Sri Aurobindo: The sound is a sign of the opening of the consciousness and of the working of the inner Force. Such subtle sounds are very frequently heard by those who practise Yoga.     Everything in the adhar in the sadhana has at one time the tendency to rise and join its source above.


Sri Aurobindo:   The upward movement and the silence are indispensable for the Truth to manifest.  I may say that the opening upwards, the ascent into the Light and the subsequent descent into the ordinary consciousness and normal human life is very common as the ﬁrst decisive experience in the practice of Yoga and may very well happen even without the practice of Yoga in those who are destined for the spiritual change, especially if there is a dissatisfaction somewhere with the ordinary life and a seeking for something more, greater or better. It comes often exactly in the way that she describes and the cessation of the experience and the descent also come in the same way. This ﬁrst experience may be followed by a very long time during which there is no repetition of it or any subsequent experience.


Sri Aurobindo: If there is a constant practice of Yoga, the interval need not be so long; but even so it is often long enough.  The descent is inevitable because it is not the whole being that has risen up but only something within and all the rest of the nature is unprepared, absorbed in or attached to ordinary life and governed by movements that are not in consonance with the Light. Still the something within is something central in the being and therefore the experience is in a way deﬁnitive and decisive. For it comes as a decisive intimation of the spiritual destiny and an indication of what must be reached some time in the life. Once it has been there, something is bound to happen which will open the way, determine the right knowledge and the right attitude enabling one to proceed on the way and bring a helping inﬂuence.


Sri Aurobindo: After that the work of clearing away the obstacles that prevent the return to the Light and the ascension of the whole being and, what is equally important, the descent of the Light into the whole being can be begun and progress towards completion. It may take long or be rapid, that depends on the inner push and also on outer circumstances but the inner aspiration and endeavour count more than the circumstances which can accommodate themselves to the inner need if that is very strong. The moment has come for her and the necessary aspiration and knowledge and the inﬂuence that can help her.   Once the being or its different parts begin to ascend to the planes above, any part of the being may do it, frontal or other.


Sri Aurobindo: The sanskara that one cannot come back must be got rid of.  One can have the experience of Nirvana at the summit of the mind or anywhere in those planes that are now superconscient to the mind; the mind spiritualised by the ascent into Self has the sense of, dissolution of itself, its thoughts, movements, sanskaras into a superconscient Silence and Inﬁnity which it is unable to grasp, — the Unknowable. But this would bring or lead to some form of Nirvana only if one makes Nirvana the goal, if one is tied to the mind and accepts its dissolution into the Inﬁnite as one’s own dissolution or if one has not the capacity to reorganise experience on a higher than the mental plane.  But otherwise what was superconscient becomes conscient, one begins to possess or else be the instrument of the dynamis of the higher planes and there is a movement, not of liberation into Nirvana, but of liberation + transformation. However high one goes, one can always return, unless one has the will not to do so.


Sri Aurobindo: Any part of the being can go upward and meet its source there.  The central being is always above; the psychic is its counterpart below. If the psychic goes up it may be also to join its source in the central being.    The psychic being and other parts can go up to join the higher consciousness there.


Sri Aurobindo: It is part of the movement of ascent. Naturally the psychic wants a deeper union than can be had so long as it is veiled by the old ignorant nature; it wants the higher consciousness to come down and occupy and transform it so that complete union may be possible.  The Shakti going up from the Muladhara must be the Shakti of the physical nature. It wants transformation also, I suppose, but it has not the quiet and luminous but ardent aspiration of the psychic being — its aspiration is more troubled and tinged with unease.   In your experience the ascent was into the regions of the calm and silent Self above; when you came down you went into the depths of the psychic being and found there the same calm and wideness.


Sri Aurobindo: This experience is of great importance for it means that the way to both these is now open to you — and these two are the fundamental experiences of our Yoga — the unveiling of the psychic and the self-realisation. Pursue your meditations in the same poise.  The ordinary movement of sadhana is that of the inner being (mind, psychic, higher vital) rising towards the Divine Consciousness, — leaving the external being behind — but for this Yoga that is not enough, the physical and external being must also be able to rise into the Divine Consciousness.    What you have written is quite correct.


Sri Aurobindo: The body is not connected ordinarily with the higher consciousness, it only receives what it can from the 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.     No, the body itself cannot go up — how could it?


Sri Aurobindo: The body is meant for keeping the consciousness linked to the physical world.     If all went up, there would be no more existence in the body.  There is always some consciousness and therefore some self supporting the body.


Sri Aurobindo:   When the consciousness is centred above, it can be said to be located above. That does not mean that there is no consciousness left in the lower parts.  There are two different things. One is the consciousness actually going out of the body — but that brings a deep sleep or trance.


Sri Aurobindo: 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.     There are two different experiences which from your account would seem to have happened together.


Sri Aurobindo: (1) An exteriorisation of the consciousness out of the body.  Part of the consciousness, mental, vital or subtle physical or all together rises out of the body, leaving it in a strongly internalised condition, sleep or trance and can move about above on other planes or in the room and outside on the earth plane. In such cases the body can be seen as lying below or in the room, seen clearly as one sees a separate object with the physical eyes. A fear such as you had can come in these exteriorisations and bring the consciousness back with a rush to the body.  (2) An ascension of the consciousness to a position which is no longer in the body but above it.


Sri Aurobindo: The consciousness can thus ascend and rise higher and higher with the awareness of entering regions above the ordinary mind; usually it does not go very far at ﬁrst but acquires the capacity to go always higher in repetitions of this experience. At the close of the experience it returns to the body. But also there comes a deﬁnitive rise by which the consciousness permanently takes its station above.  It is no longer in the body or limited by it; it feels itself not only above it but extended in space; the body is below its high station and enveloped in its extended consciousness. Sometimes indeed the extension is felt only above on the higher level and the enveloping extension below comes only afterwards as a later experience.


Sri Aurobindo: But the nature of it is to be deﬁnitive, it is not merely an experience but a realisation, a permanent change.  This brings a liberation from identiﬁcation with the body which becomes only a circumstance in the largeness of the being, an instrumental part of it; or it is felt as something very small or even non-existent, nothing seems to be left but a wide practically inﬁnite consciousness which is oneself — or, if not at once inﬁnite, yet what is now called a boundless ﬁnite.  This new consciousness is open to all knowledge from above, but it does not think with the brain as does the ordinary mind — it has other and larger means of awareness than thought. No methodical opening of the centres is necessary — the centres are in fact open, otherwise there could not be this ascent. In this Yoga their opening comes automatically — what we call opening is not that, but an ability of the consciousness itself on the various levels to receive the descent of the Higher Consciousness above.


Sri Aurobindo: By the ascent one can indeed bring down knowledge from above. But the larger movement is to receive it from above and let it ﬂow through into the lower mental and other levels. I may add that on all these levels, in mind, heart and below there comes a liberation from the physical limitation, a wideness which no longer allows an identiﬁcation with the body.  In this experience there is not usually the fear you had, unless it is in the body consciousness, as it were, which is alarmed by the unfamiliarity of the movement and fears to be abandoned or cast off. But this occurs rarely and does not usually repeat itself.


Sri Aurobindo: It is therefore likely that there was an exteriorisation at the same time. You speak of being able to leave and enter the body at will; but this capacity is needed only for the phenomenon of exteriorisation — in the ascension of consciousness the ascent and coming down become easy and ordinary actions and in the deﬁnitive realisation of a higher station above there is really no more coming down except with a part of the consciousness which may descend to work in the body or on the lower levels while the permanently high-stationed being above presides over all that is experienced and done.   It [] is a very usual experience.  It means that for a moment you were no longer in your body, but somehow either above or outside the body consciousness.  This sometimes happens by the vital being rising up above the head or, more rarely, by its projecting itself into its own sheath (part of the subtle body) out of the physical attachment.


Sri Aurobindo: But it also comes by a sudden even if momentary liberation from the identiﬁcation with the body consciousness, and this liberation may become frequent and prolonged or permanent. The body is felt as something separate or some small circumstance in the consciousness or as something one carries about with one etc. etc.; the exact experience varies. Many sadhaks here have had it.  When one is accustomed, the strangeness of it (dreamland etc.) disappears.  It is the aim of the sadhana that the consciousness should rise out of the body and take its station above, — spreading in wideness everywhere, not limited to the body.


Sri Aurobindo: Thus liberated one opens to all that is above this station, above the ordinary mind, receives there all that descends from the heights, observes from there all that is below. Thus it is possible to witness in all freedom and to control all that is below and to be a recipient or a channel for all that comes down and presses into the body, which it will prepare to be an instrument of a higher manifestation, remoulded into a higher consciousness and nature.  What is happening in you is that the consciousness is trying to ﬁx itself in this liberation. When one is there in that higher station, one ﬁnds the freedom of the Self and the vast silence and immutable calm — but this calm has to be brought down also into the body, into all the lower planes and ﬁx itself there as something standing behind and containing all the movements.


Sri Aurobindo:   It [] is not merely a sensation; it is an actual happening and a most important one.  The consciousness is usually imprisoned in the body, centralised in the brain and heart and navel centres (mental, emotional, sensational); when you feel it or something of it go up and take its station above the head, that is the liberation of the imprisoned consciousness from the body-formula. It is the mental in you that goes up there, gets into touch with something higher than the ordinary mind and from there puts the higher mental will on the rest for transformation. The trembling and the heat come from a resistance, an absence of habituation in the body and the vital to this demand and to this liberation.


Sri Aurobindo: When the mental consciousness can take its stand permanently or at will above like this, then this ﬁrst liberation becomes accomplished (). From there the mental being can open freely to higher planes or to the cosmic existence and its forces and can also act with greater liberty and power on the lower nature.    What you felt was not imagination at all, but the usual experience one has when the consciousness is lifted out of the body and takes its stand above the head. One is no longer bound then by the physical consciousness or the sense of the body — the body becomes only an instrument, a small part of the consciousness which has to be perfected.


Sri Aurobindo: One enters into a larger free spiritual consciousness in place of the present bound and limited physical consciousness. If this lifting up above the body can be repeated always until it can be maintained, it will be a great landmark in your progress. It is the conﬁnement in the physical consciousness that makes you (and everybody) narrow and selﬁsh and miserable. Hitherto the higher consciousness with its peace etc.  has been descending into you with great difﬁculty and ﬁghting out the vital and physical resistance.


Sri Aurobindo: If this release upward into the higher consciousness can be maintained, then there will be no longer the same difﬁculty. Much will still remain to be done, but the foundation will have been made.    There are various states of experience in which the expression “taken up out of the body” would be applicable. There is one in which one goes up from the centres in the body to a centre of consciousness extending above the physical head and takes up a position there in which one is liberated from subjection to the body sense and its heavy hold and this is certainly accompanied by a general sense of lightening.


Sri Aurobindo: One can then be in direct connection with the higher consciousness and its power and action.  It is not altogether clear from the description whether this is what happened. Again, there are phenomena of the breathing which accompany states of release or of ascension. But the breath here perhaps stands, generally, for the Life Principle.  One can remain in the higher consciousness and yet associate oneself with the change of the lower nature.


Sri Aurobindo: No doubt, it is the Mother’s Force that will do what is necessary, but the consent of the sadhak, the association of his will with her action or at least of his witness vision is necessary also.   Your tendency was to go up and to leave the higher consciousness to deal with the lower nature without any personal effort for that. That could have worked all right on two conditions: (1) that the peace and force would come down and occupy all down to the physical, (2) that you succeeded in keeping the inner being unmoved by the outer nature. The physical failed to absorb the peace, inertia arose instead; force could not come down; the suggestions from the outer nature proved too strong for you and between their suggestions and the inertia they interrupted the sadhana.


Sri Aurobindo:   I have not said [] that you made a mistake. I have simply said what happened and the causes. If you had been able to remain above and let the Force come down and act while you were detached from the outer nature, it would have been all right. You were able to go up because the Peace descended.


Sri Aurobindo: You were not able to remain above because the Peace could not occupy sufﬁciently the physical and the Force did not descend sufﬁciently. Meanwhile the inertia arose, you got troubled more and more because of the vital suggestions in the outer nature and the rush of inertia, so you were unable to keep detached and let the Force descend more and more or call it down more and more. Hence the coming down into the physical consciousness.


Sri Aurobindo: It is simply that when you go high, or within, you enter into a higher consciousness than the ordinary one. Also then one feels the presence of the Divine, for the Divine is always there within and above in every human being. But to divinise the human consciousness entirely needs a long time — for the whole nature from top to bottom must be transformed.   The descent is that of the powers of the higher consciousness which is above the head.


Sri Aurobindo: It usually descends from centre to centre till it has occupied the whole being. But at the beginning the action is very variable. It is only when the Peace from above has not only descended but established itself in the whole system that there is a continuous action. The descent comes in order to transform the consciousness but the transformation takes time.  It is not done all in a moment.


Sri Aurobindo:   The Force descends for two things: (1) To transform the nature.  (2) To carry on the work through the instrument.  At ﬁrst one is not conscious of either working, afterwards one becomes conscious of the Force working but not of how it works.


Sri Aurobindo: Finally one becomes conscious entirely and in detail.     Naturally, when any of the higher consciousness descends it works to change the lower consciousness into a part of itself.  All limitations [] can be surmounted, but if they are ingrained in the formation of the present being, it can only be done by calling in a higher power and consciousness than that of the personal mind and will.


Sri Aurobindo: The higher consciousness can by what it brings correct or rebuild what is defective in the personal nature.     The consciousness is always there above you. It is when one opens oneself and calls it that it descends and works — whether in meditation or in work.


Sri Aurobindo:    What comes from above can come when one is in a clear mind or when the vital is disturbed, when one is meditating or when one is moving about, when one is working or when one is doing nothing. Most often it comes when one is in a clear concentrated state, but it may not, — there is no absolute rule.


Sri Aurobindo: Moreover the pull or call may produce no immediate effect and yet there may be an effect when one is no longer actually pulling or calling.  All these mental reasons alleged for its coming or going are too rigid — sometimes they apply, very often they don’t apply. One has to have faith, conﬁdence, aspiration but one cannot bind down the Force as to when, how and why it will act.    It [] descends in the atmosphere, but for it to be effective the individual must receive and respond.


Sri Aurobindo: It descends also in the individual independently of the atmosphere.  The illumination above the head as usually seen in this Yoga is the Light of the Divine Truth. It is above the head that there is perpetually the Divine Peace, Force, Light, Knowledge, Ananda.  These begin to descend into the body when the personal consciousness is prepared sufﬁciently. The preparation is usually full of vicissitudes such as these [ ] but one has to persist patiently, opening oneself more and more till that is ready.


Sri Aurobindo:   Why should it [] be an imagination?  When the higher consciousness touches it creates so long as it is there an essential purity in which all parts of the being can share. Or, even if the exterior being does not share actively in it, it may fall quiescent so that there is nothing to interfere with the whole inner being realising the truth of a certain experience.  The state does not last because it is only a preparatory touch, not the full or permanent descent; but while it is there it is real.


Sri Aurobindo: The sex-sensation is of course the thing in the external being, the perversion or false representation in nature, that is the chief obstacle to the experience becoming frequent and then normal.  It usually happens that such an opposite tries to assert itself after an experience.     The experiences you have had from above are spiritual experiences.


Sri Aurobindo: 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.     The experiences you have are a good starting-point for realisation.


Sri Aurobindo: They have to develop into the light of a deeper state in which there will be the descent of a higher Consciousness into you. Your present consciousness in which you feel these things is only a preparatory one — in which the Mother works in you through the cosmic power according to your state of consciousness and your karma and in that working both success and failure can come — one has to remain equal-minded to both while trying always for success. A surer guidance can come even in this preparatory consciousness if you are entirely turned towards her alone in such a way that you can feel her direct guidance and follow it without any other inﬂuence or force intervening to act upon you, but that condition is not easy to get or keep — it needs a great one-pointedness and constant single-minded dedication. When the higher consciousness will descend, then a closer union, a more intimate consciousness of the Presence and a more illumined intuition will become possible.


Sri Aurobindo: It is good. The more you keep that dominant sense of the force and the calmness and increase it, the more the other feeling [ ] will diminish and fade. It always happens that at ﬁrst the Power and Peace only press, touch, invade at places, until a time comes when a part of the being always feels in that condition however much disturbance may assail the surface. Afterwards the disturbance is more and more pushed out till it is felt only outside the being, not in it. When that too goes, there is the complete peace and the full foundation.


Sri Aurobindo:   Your letter of today makes it very clear what is happening.  The Force that you felt had come down at ﬁrst, came to open the way for the descent of the higher consciousness into the mind and body. That was why it descended with such force and the difﬁculty of holding or assimilating it was simply because the body was unaccustomed.


Sri Aurobindo: But as often happens the Force is preparing its own reception and habituating the body to the descent. Having done that sufﬁciently it is coming down as a massive peace. The higher consciousness in its descent takes several fundamental forms — peace, power and strength, light, knowledge, Ananda. Usually it is the peace that descends ﬁrst.  This is not a mental, vital or physical peace of the ordinary kind, but something from above (spiritual), very ﬁrm, solid and concrete.


Sri Aurobindo: It is its concreteness that makes you feel like a still massive block — a mass of the higher consciousness in place of the more tenuous substance of the ordinary nature. As for its being worth having, you can see that it is — it is indeed the beginning of the real transformation — all the rest hitherto has been mainly preparation and clearing of difﬁculties and impediments through all these years. This serene peace and massive stillness has to stabilise itself, ﬁll the whole nature, widen itself until all existence internal and external seems full of it. This may take time, but the beginning once there it is sure to take place, if one is steady and constant. It becomes besides the sure base on which all the rest, — power and strength, light and knowledge, Ananda and divine love, can come in and securely ﬁll the consciousness.


Sri Aurobindo: The usual mental means to widen the consciousness is to think of and feel oneself as spreading out into space beyond the body — as a corrective to the thought and feeling of oneself as identiﬁed with the body and shut up in it. After a time this leads to a substantial experience of wide consciousness beyond the body. The means to quieten the physical consciousness is to detach oneself from all restless vibrations, not by any struggle or effort but by a simple easy will of quietude. However now that the higher Force is bringing quietude, these mental means may not be necessary — for the peace from above usually brings the wideness of the self — though for some it brings it at once, for others it takes time.  Anyhow, the spiritual opening has been clearly made in you; the rest is a matter of development and time.


Sri Aurobindo: It [] enters usually ﬁrst into the mind, then into the vital and then into the body, because it is these that have to be changed and that is the natural order.      Whatever comes from above the head, whether it is Presence, Peace, Ananda, or anything else, normally descends into the head ﬁrst, then after occupying all the mental centres it comes down into the heart and from there goes down into the vital centres and occupies the whole body.


Sri Aurobindo: If there is a resistance, it is felt as a weight and a pressure — when the way is open, the pressure disappears and there is only the thing itself. It enters each centre as soon as the way to it is open.     The Force usually comes down through the head and afterwards descends lower in the body to the heart, afterwards through the navel downwards.


Sri Aurobindo: The sadhak becomes restless under the Force only if he resists it — otherwise it brings peace and calm and happiness and strength.  It is probably some other part of the mind — the vital mind or physical mind — it is these usually that resist.     Usually the descent in the head helps to quiet the mind.


Sri Aurobindo:   If you mean the descent of the higher consciousness, that is felt in the heart region, not only in the centre, just as it is felt in the head.  The touching of the head is only a ﬁrst pressure. Afterwards there is a feeling of a mass of peace, force, light, Ananda or consciousness coming down in the head directly and descending further to the chest and so to the navel and through the body.


Sri Aurobindo: For some it takes weeks or months, in others it descends rapidly.     Yes, it was the same experience []. You went inside under the pressure of the Force — which is often though not always the ﬁrst result — went into a few seconds’ samadhi according to the ordinary language.


Sri Aurobindo: The Force when it descends tries to open the body and pass through the centres. It has to come in (ordinarily) through the crown of the head (Brahmarandhra) and pass through the inner mind centre which is in the middle of the forehead between the eyebrows. That is why it presses ﬁrst on the head. The opening of the eyes brings one back to the ordinary consciousness of the outer world, that is why the intensity is relieved by opening the eyes.   When things come in this order the head opens up ﬁrst and the heart afterwards — ﬁnally all the centres.


Sri Aurobindo: So what is there to be concerned about? If you are satisﬁed only with peace, knowledge and mukti, then perhaps the heart centre may open to that only. But if you want the love, then the descending Power and Light will work for that also. So cheer up and don’t get into a state of pother with imaginary difﬁculties.


Sri Aurobindo: The descent into the body ﬁrst in the head, then down to the neck and in the chest is the ordinary rule. For many there is a big stop before it gets below the navel owing to some vital resistance. Once it passes that barricade it does not usually take long to come down farther. But there is no rule as to the time taken. In some it comes down like a ﬂood, in others it goes through with a methodical and deliberate increase.


Sri Aurobindo: I don’t think the peace descent is in the habit of waiting for companions —  more often it likes at ﬁrst to be all by itself and then call down its friends with the message, “Come along, I have made the place all ready for you.”     It is possible that there may have been too much haste in this attempt to open the navel and the lower centre.


Sri Aurobindo: In this Yoga the movement is downward — ﬁrst the two head centres, then the heart, then the navel and then the two others. If the higher experience is ﬁrst fully established with its higher consciousness, knowledge and will in the three upper centres, then it is easier to open the three lower ones without too much disturbance.  When a higher force comes down into a lower plane, it is diminished and modiﬁed by the inferior substance, lesser power and more mixed movements of that lower plane. Thus, if the Overmind Power works through the illumined mind, only part of its truth and force can manifest and be effective — so much only as can get through this less receptive consciousness. And even what gets through is less true, mixed with other matter, less overmental, more easily modiﬁed into something that is part truth, part error.


Sri Aurobindo: When this diminished indirect Force descends farther down into the mind and vital, it has still something of the Overmind creative Truth in it, but gets very badly mixed with mental and vital formations that disﬁgure it and make it half effective only, sometimes ineffective.    (1) Part of it [] is stored up in the frontal consciousness and remains there.  (2) Part of it goes behind and remains as a support to the active part of the being.  (3) Part ﬂows out into the universal Nature.


Sri Aurobindo: (4) Part is absorbed by the Inconscient and lost to the individual conscious action.  The descent of Peace, the descent of Force or Power, the descent of Light, the descent of Ananda, these are the four things that transform the nature.     Light, Peace, Force, Ananda constitute the spiritual consciousness; if they are not among the major experiences, what are?


Sri Aurobindo:   Presence, Peace, Force, Light, Ananda, these are ﬁve things that most commonly come down.    The being is not supposed to remain always empty.


Sri Aurobindo: When the calm and peace of the pure existence is established, Force also has to descend as well as Light, Ananda and other things.     Wideness is only the ﬁrst step — there must be the descent of light, knowledge, peace, force or power and the settling of these things and their constant development.


Sri Aurobindo:   There is no rule, but the most normal course is for a certain Peace and Force and Light which is above the mind to descend and as the result of its workings the cosmic consciousness opens and in it higher and higher levels above mind. Many people get an opening into the cosmic consciousness ﬁrst but without the basis of the higher Peace and Light it brings only a mass of unorganised experiences.   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.  Peace and movement on the basis of peace are the ﬁrst aspects of the One to establish themselves.


Sri Aurobindo: Bliss and light do not ﬁx so easily or so early — they have to grow.    The Peace, Purity and Calm of the Self must be ﬁxed — otherwise the active Descent may ﬁnd the forces it awakes seized on by lower Powers and a confusion created. That has happened with many.


Sri Aurobindo: It is not a matter of any particular act or feeling, but a sort of excited vibration with which the vital and physical consciousness meets the vital disturbance — it is evident in the tone and language of what you write when there is the stress of vital suggestion — but it used also to rise when you got the experiences in an excited vibration and bubbling of joy which would easily lapse into some rajasic movement or be replaced by the opposite excitement of suffering and disturbance. Quiet, quiet and more quiet, calm strength, calm gladness are what are needed in mind and nerves and body as a basis for the siddhi — precisely because the Force, the Light, the Ananda that come down are extremely intense and need a great stillness in the being to bear and support them.    It is the right fundamental consciousness that you have now got.  The tamas and other movements of the lower universal Nature are bound to try to come in, but if one has the calm of the inner being which makes them felt as something external to the being, and the light of the psychic which instantly exposes and rejects them, then that is to have the true consciousness which keeps one safe while the more positive transformation is preparing or taking place.


Sri Aurobindo: That transformation comes by the descent of the Force, Light, Knowledge, Ananda etc. from above. So you are right in your feeling that you should open with a quiet aspiration or invocation for the descent of the Light from above.  Only it must be an aspiration in this calm and wideness, not disturbing it in the least — and you must be prepared for the result being not immediate — it may be rapid, but also it may take some time.


Sri Aurobindo: Yes, when things begin to descend, they must come down on a solid basis. That is why it is necessary to have peace as the ﬁrst descent and that it should become as strong and solid as possible. But in any case to contain is the ﬁrst necessity — then more and more can come and settle itself. Once these two things are settled — peace and strength, one can bear any amount of everything else, Ananda, Knowledge, or whatever it may be.


Sri Aurobindo: The experience of this “solid block” feeling indicates the descent of a solid strength and peace into the external being, — but into the vital physical most. It is this always that is the foundation, the sure basis into which all else (Ananda, light, knowledge, bhakti) can descend in the future and stand on it or play safely. The numbness was there in the other experience because the movement was inward; but here the Yogashakti is coming into the fully awake external nature, — as a ﬁrst step towards the establishment of the Yoga and its experiences there. So the numbness, which was a sign of the consciousness tending to draw back from the external parts, is not there.


Sri Aurobindo:   It is good — the strength is the next thing that has to come down after the peace and join with it. Eventually the two become one.  When one has gone so far that peace from above can descend, that is a considerable progress.


Sri Aurobindo:   Yes, surely the peace can come into the outer consciousness also; it is meant to do so. It is perfectly possible for the body to bear the peace and stillness. It is more difﬁcult for it to bear the full play of the Force; but if the peace is ﬁrst established in it, then there is no difﬁculty of that kind.


Sri Aurobindo:   It [] has to be brought down to the heart and navel ﬁrst.  That gives it a certain kind of inner stability — though not absolute. There is no method other than aspiration, a strong quiet will and a rejection of all that is not turned towards the Divine in those parts into which you call the peace — here the emotional and higher vital.


Sri Aurobindo:  They [] are always more open to the universal forces than the material. But they can be more restless than the material so long as they are not subjected to the peace from above.    The movement of universality by itself cannot prevent the vital from disturbing — it is the complete surrender and the complete descent of peace into all the being down to the most material that can do it.


Sri Aurobindo:   Nobody said that you should not take the higher being as a ﬁrst station. The question was about enforcing the peace of the higher being in the lower parts down to the physical so as to (1) create that separateness which would prevent the inner being from being affected by the superﬁcial disturbance and resistance, (2) make it easier for the force and other powers of the higher being to descend.


Sri Aurobindo: Peace can be brought down into the physical to its very cells.  It is the active transformation of the physical that cannot be  done without the supramental descent.   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.


Sri Aurobindo: After the body is accustomed to the peace, the peace itself can become dynamic.  What is trying to come down in you is the silence and peace of the Self — when that comes fully, then there is no ego-perception, it is drowned in the wideness of the silence and peace of the Self.  But this realisation is at ﬁrst in the static condition of the Self only — in the dynamic movements the ego may still be there owing to past habits — but each time an ego-movement is abandoned, the sense of the loss of ego becomes deeper and more complete.  It is perhaps some impression of what is trying to come that has touched you.


Sri Aurobindo: It must have been the descent of the higher silence, the silence of the Self or Atman. In this silence one perceives, but the mind is not active, — things are sensed, but without any responsive connection or vibration. The silent Self is there as a separate reality, not bound or involved in the activity of Nature, aloof, detached and self-existent. Even if thoughts come across this silence, they do not disturb it; the Self is separate from the thinking mind also. In this connection the feeling “I think” is a survival from the old consciousness; in the full silence what one feels is “thought occurs in me” — the identiﬁcation with thoughts as well as with the perception of objects ceases.


Sri Aurobindo:  To still the mind is not so easy. It can be done usually only by the descent of the Silence from above and even then it is not complete until the whole system has been occupied by the higher silence and peace.


Sri Aurobindo: It is the silence and calm of the higher consciousness pressing down into the body. When it comes down fully then there is the “still statue” feeling at ﬁrst. Afterwards the calm or silence becomes free and normal.


Sri Aurobindo: It is the wideness and silence of the being which makes transformation possible, because the lower movements disappear and in the emptiness the Truth from above can descend.     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.


Sri Aurobindo:   In what may be called the ﬁrst silence, it is like that — silence alone with no emotion or other inner activity. When it deepens one can feel the Nirvana of the Buddhists or the Atmabodha of the Vedantins. Both force and bliss or either can descend into the silence, ﬁlling it with calm Tapas or silent Ananda.  The experiences you have had are very clear evidence that you have the capacity for Yoga.


Sri Aurobindo: The ﬁrst decisive experiences in this Yoga are a calm and peace that is felt, ﬁrst somewhere in the being and in the end in all the being, and the descent of a Power and Force into the body which will take up the whole adhar and work in it to transform mind, life and body into the instrumentation of the Divine Consciousness. The two experiences of which you wrote in your letter are the beginning of this calm and the descent of this Force. Much has to be done before they can be established or persistently effective, but that they should come at this stage is a clear proof of capacity to receive. It must be remembered however that the Yoga is not easy and cannot be done without the rising of many obstacles and much lapse of time — so if you take it up it must be with a ﬁrm resolve to carry it through to the end with a whole-hearted sincerity, faith, patience and courage.


Sri Aurobindo:   It is the Mother’s force that descended to work in the system.  There are two things that have to be established in order to make a foundation for the workings of the sadhana in the waking consciousness, 1st a descent of Peace from above, 2nd a descent of the Force. If one has these two things permanently established in the consciousness, then one has the basis.


Sri Aurobindo: By Force I mean not mental or vital energy but the Divine Force from above — as peace comes from above and wideness also, so does this Force (Shakti). Nothing, not even thinking or meditating can be done without some action of Force. The Force I speak of is a Force for illumination, transformation, puriﬁcation, all that has to be done in the Yoga, for removal of the hostile forces and the wrong movements — it is also of course for external work, whether great or small in appearance does not matter — if that is part of the Divine Will. I do not mean any personal force egoistic or rajasic.


Sri Aurobindo:   Yes, it [] is quite concrete. Usually at ﬁrst it descends of itself from time to time — and also one calls it in face of a difﬁculty. But eventually it is always there supporting or determining all the action of the being.


Sri Aurobindo: The Force comes down as soon as it ﬁnds an opening and acts in the Adhara whenever it is ready. What determines the descent cannot always be mentally ﬁxed. Aspiration, call, will, prayer, etc. create a favourable precondition in the head or heart or anywhere else and are sometimes the determining cause.    What you feel in the head is probably the ﬁrst conscious descent into the body of the divine Force from above.


Sri Aurobindo: Up to now it must have been working unfelt by you from behind the heart.  If the concentration takes place naturally in the head you must allow it to do so, but the possibility of this has been prepared by the previous concentration in the heart, so that also need not be discontinued unless the force working in you insists on the upper concentration only. Aspiration can be continued in the same way until the conduct of the sadhana by the Mother’s power is clearly felt and becomes to you the normal thing.    The experience you had was simply the descent of the Divine Force into the body.


Sri Aurobindo: By your attitude and aspiration you called for it to work in you, so it came. Such a descent brings naturally a deep inward condition and a silence of the mind, and it may bring much more — peace, a sense of liberation, happiness, Ananda. It is very often attended as in this experience by a light or luminosity. It was felt enveloping the upper part of the body down to the cardiac centre, because it is these centres, the head and heart centres that are ﬁrst invaded and occupied by whatever descends from above, Consciousness, Force, Light or Ananda. Usually, there is at ﬁrst a pressure from above on the head, then one feels something entering the higher part of the head and then the whole head is occupied, as you feel now with the at the time of concentration.


Sri Aurobindo: Once the head with its mental centres is open and occupied, the Force descends rapidly to the heart centre, unless there is some obstacle or a resistance in the higher vital parts. From there it sends its stream into the whole body and begins to occupy the vital and physical centres — from the navel to the Muladhara. The coming of this experience, occupation of the body by the Force from above, is a great step forward in the sadhana.  The fear of a syncope was due only to the sanskara in the mind; it must be dismissed. The Force can very well come down in the full waking consciousness; if it brings a kind of samadhi, it is usually a conscious inner condition — the consciousness taken away from outward things, but in full power within.


Sri Aurobindo: Even if a trance came, it would be a trance and not a swoon.   The good condition of openness with the Force descending and the constant remembrance — or whatever other form the condition takes — is the beginning of the true consciousness and its duration is always short at the beginning, because the ordinary consciousness is not accustomed to it, but to something else. But it always increases in duration and power until it is able to maintain itself even when the outer consciousness is occupied with other things. At ﬁrst it remains there as something behind which emerges as soon as the outer preoccupation ends; afterwards it remains behind, but as something just felt, and in a later stage it is always there, so that there are two consciousnesses, the inner consciousness always connected with the Mother and full of her working or her presence or both and the surface consciousness occupied with outer things. Finally, even the surface consciousness begins to feel the direct connection in action itself.


Sri Aurobindo: One need not mind if there are intervals when the true condition is not there. It does not prove that you are unﬁt; it is only a period in which what is not yet changed comes up to be worked upon and prepared for change. When the inner consciousness is well established, then these periods take place only in the surface consciousness and are no longer troublesome as before.  P. S. Probably the difﬁculty you feel is in the externalising mind the centre of which is in the throat.


Sri Aurobindo: When there is no resistance there, the Force comes down to the heart level and below.    As for the dynamic descent, you say that the Force has descended to your forehead (inner mind) centre. It seems to be very slow in coming through. It has to come down to the heart centre and below before it can begin to be fully effective.


Sri Aurobindo: Probably there must be something either in the physical mental (throat) or the emotional vital that obstructs the descent. That may be the reason of the union of the upper Agni and the psychic ﬁre and the push on the psychic centre — something is trying to remove the difﬁculty.    The Power above the head is of course the Mother’s — it is the power of the Higher Consciousness which is preparing its way of descent. This Higher Consciousness carrying in it a sense of wide and boundless existence, light, power, peace, Ananda etc. is always there above the head and when something of the spiritual Force comes down to work upon the nature, it is from there that it comes.


Sri Aurobindo: But nothing like the full descent of the peace, bliss etc. can come so long as the being is not ready. Very usually the ﬁrst preparation is to work on the mind and vital and physical nature in such a way that the soul, the psychic being can have a chance of manifesting itself and inﬂuencing the rest of the nature; for that purpose all the main darknesses in the mind and vital have to be combated and thrown out and the physical also prepared in an initial way so that the descent may be possible. This is what has been done so long in you. It has to be made stronger and more complete; but sufﬁcient has been done for it to be possible to prepare the descent of the higher consciousness. There are two things that take place; an ascent of one’s consciousness to the higher levels in and above the head, and a descent of the higher consciousness which is above into one’s mind, vital and body.


Sri Aurobindo: How it is done or by what stages or how long it will take varies with each person. But this new consciousness is very different from the ordinary one and many things happen in its coming which would not happen to the mind and might seem strange to it — e.g. the dissolution of the ego and the opening into a wider self or spirit not limited by the body, to which the body is only a small instrument and nothing more. One must therefore dismiss all fear of new things and accept with calm and conﬁdence each ﬁeld of new experience, relying on the Divine Mother-Force for guidance and support and protection throughout the change.    The sadhana is a difﬁcult one and time should not be grudged; it is only in the last stages that a very great and constant rapidity of progress can be conﬁdently expected.


Sri Aurobindo: As for Shakti, the descent of Shakti before the vital is pure and surrendered, has its dangers.  It is better for him to pray for puriﬁcation, knowledge, intensity of the heart’s aspiration and as much working of the Power as he can bear and assimilate.     Power can be everywhere, on any plane.


Sri Aurobindo: What descends from above is power of the higher Consciousness — but there is a Power of the vital, mental, physical planes also. Power is not a special characteristic of the psychic or of the spiritual plane.  The ﬁre is the divine ﬁre of aspiration and inner tapasya. When the ﬁre descends again and again with increasing force and magnitude into the darkness of human ignorance, it at ﬁrst seems swallowed up and absorbed in the darkness, but more and more of the descent changes the darkness into light, the ignorance and unconsciousness of the human mind into spiritual consciousness.  The descent of the Light producing a concrete illumination of the consciousness is always one of the decisive experiences of the sadhana.


Sri Aurobindo:   You can tell her that Light like peace is one of the things that come down from the higher consciousness. It is the light of the Truth that is there — it is sometimes golden, sometimes white, sometimes blue of various shades, sometimes sunlight.    It is a true experience and the Light that you felt is the Light of the Truth from above.


Sri Aurobindo: These things indicate that there is already an opening, but it takes time to become constant and complete.  That always happens at ﬁrst — there are periods in which the consciousness or something in it opens, there are others in which the opening is clouded until something more opens. This goes on until the whole consciousness has been sufﬁciently worked upon for the full opening and lasting experience to be there.   These are special forces of the Light and there is a play of them according to need, but the Light in itself can be lived in as much as one can live in Peace or Ananda. As Peace and Ananda can pour through the whole system and fully stabilise themselves so that they are in the body and the body and the whole being are in them — one might almost say, are that, are the Peace and Ananda — so it can be with Light.


Sri Aurobindo: It can pour into the body, make every cell luminous, ﬁx itself and surround on all sides in one constant mass of Light.    It depends upon the colour of the Light. In any case it is the light of a Force from above. All lights are indications of a Force or Power.


Sri Aurobindo: It is the work of the Lights and the Forces they represent to act in their descent on the lower nature and change it.  The knowledge comes from above like the light and peace and everything else. As the consciousness progresses, it comes from a higher and higher level. First it is the higher or illumined mind that predominates, then the intuition, next the overmind, lastly the supermind; but the whole consciousness has to be sufﬁciently transformed before the supramental knowledge can begin to come.  Like everything else, peace, Light, Power, so wideness descends.


Sri Aurobindo:  Ananda comes afterwards — even if it comes at the beginning it is not usually constant. Wideness does not come because the consciousness is not yet free from the body. Probably when what is felt above the head comes down, it will be liberated into the wideness.  It is quite possible that if a too intense Ananda is allowed before the purity and peace are in the nature, it may disturb the system — though I don’t know whether there is any instance of madness as a consequence. At any rate it is a fact that normally Ananda comes (in the natural course, I mean, if not pulled down) only occasionally so long as the peace and purity are not there as a base.


Sri Aurobindo: It is probably right that it should be so.     You are dealing in the right way with the sex feeling. As to why it rose when you were using the name there are two reasons.


Sri Aurobindo: One is that when you use the name, it is the Mother’s power that you call there and the ﬁrst result often is that the difﬁculty rises like a snake whose head is touched to resist the pressure or — if you look at it from another point of view — it rises to be dealt with. The other is that when what is to be brought down is the Ananda — of the force, light etc., but especially of the love — then the vital-physical passion rises up to try and mix with and get hold of the Ananda hoping to turn it to a sort of sublimated vital pleasure. It is well known that this happens to Vaishnavas very often when they do the Sankirtan. In your case it is probably the ﬁrst reason, because the love-Ananda or any other is not yet coming, so that explanation is improbable. As for the Force descending into the head, it has two sides to it — one is peace and when that is prominent, there is the sense of coolness; when there is a strong dynamic action instead, the feeling may be of heat, Agni-power.


Sri Aurobindo: Most people feel these two things; they are not imagination.     I did not say it [] was vital and mental, but that it was Ananda manifesting itself in the mental and vital — a quite different thing — for the one Ananda (the true thing) can manifest in any part of the being.  It [] is a form of the ﬂow of Ananda from above — when it takes a quite physical form the Yogins call it Amrita.


Sri Aurobindo:   is nectar or Amrita, the food or drink of the gods. It is applied in Yoga to something that ﬂows down from the Brahmarandhra into the palate when there is strong concentration.  But this is psychological, so it must be the psychic sweetness ﬂowing into the system.  It is good that you felt the peace within and the movement in the heart.


Sri Aurobindo: That shows the force is working not only from above but inside you, and this promises a farther progress. The full opening will come in time — the important thing is that you are on the right way and advancing more quickly than you realise.     Your experiences seem to be sound.


Sri Aurobindo: The ﬁrst is that of the higher (Yogic or spiritual) consciousness coming down into the body from above the head. It is felt often like a current ﬂowing through the head into the whole body and the ﬁrst thing it brings is a descent of peace. One result of this descent is that one feels an inner being in oneself which is detached from the outer action, supports it from behind, but is not involved in it — that is the second experience. The third about the sleep is also felt when one has conﬁdence in the Mother and goes to sleep under her protection, as if in her lap, surrounded by her presence. As for the dream the legs indicate the physical consciousness which is still under a double pull, one upward to the higher consciousness so that the physical consciousness may unite itself with the spiritual, the other downward towards the lower consciousness.


Sri Aurobindo: The looking towards me indicates the choice of the being for the upward movement.    The Power and Peace that come down come down from the higher consciousness above your head, from a greater self of which your mind, the human mind generally, is unaware. They are the power and peace of the Divine. When they envelop you from outside the body (therefore you feel them external), it is as a protection and an atmosphere.


Sri Aurobindo: But also they descend into the body, into the head (mind), heart and navel (vital) and through the whole body working in you and doing what is necessary to change the consciousness. When you do not feel it there, when you feel it only as external, it is because you are very much in the external physical consciousness — but in reality it is there in your inner being working in you. When you recover the inner consciousness, you feel it again within and it wakes in you your own true consciousness, the psychic — and it is only the psychic that gives faith and devotion. It is however a great progress if, even when in the external physical consciousness, you feel the Peace enveloping you.  The inﬁnite calm you felt coming down was the calm of the Divine Consciousness — the higher or spiritual consciousness above the head, which descends as the higher parts of the being open to it.


Sri Aurobindo: The experience of faith, love or aspiration come from the psychic being. It is when the psychic being is in front and governs all the nature and the Higher Consciousness descends through an open mind, vital and physical that the transformation of the nature begins to take place. The opposite experience of dryness, despair etc. comes from the resistance of the ordinary lower nature (lower vital, physical consciousness, especially).  This resistance is to be got rid of — and one condition of that is never to indulge the desires of the lower vital and the body. You must turn them on the contrary wholly to the Divine.


Sri Aurobindo:  The descent of the Silence is not usually associated with sadness, though it does bring a feeling of calm detachment, unconcern and wide emptiness, but in this emptiness there is a sense of ease, freedom, peace. The absorption as if something were drawing deep from within is evidently the pull of the inmost being, the psychic. There is a psychic sadness often when this inmost soul opens and feels how far the nature and the world are from what they should be, but this is a sweet and quiet sorrow, not distressing. It must be something in the mind and vital which is not yet awake to what has happened within you and gives this colour of dissatisﬁed and distressed seeking.


Sri Aurobindo:  It is only by peace and light coming down there [ ] and by the rule of the psychic being over the physical that the subconscious parts of the being can be changed entirely.  Before that only a certain control can be established.     Your description of the solid cool block of peace pressing on the body and making it immobile makes it certain that it is what we call in this Yoga the descent of the higher consciousness.


Sri Aurobindo: A deep, intense or massive substance of peace and stillness is very commonly the ﬁrst of its powers that descends and many experience it in that way. At ﬁrst it comes and stays only during meditation or, without the sense of physical inertness or immobility, a little while longer and afterwards is lost; but if the sadhana follows its normal course, it comes more and more, lasting longer, and in the end an enduring deep peace and inner stillness and release becomes a normal character of the consciousness, the foundation indeed of a new consciousness, calm and liberated.   Your idea of the psychic is certainly a mental construction which should be avoided. The psychic has indeed the quality of peace — but that is not its main character as it is of the Self or Atman.


Sri Aurobindo: The psychic is the Divine element in the individual being and its characteristic power is to turn everything towards the Divine, to bring a ﬁre of puriﬁcation, aspiration, devotion, true light of discernment, feeling, will, action which transforms by degrees the whole nature. Quietude, peace and silence in the heart and therefore in the vital part of the being are necessary to reach the psychic, to plunge in it, for the perturbations of the vital nature, desire, emotion turned ego-wards or world-wards are the main part of the screen that hides the soul from the nature. It is better therefore to be free from the mental constructions when you take the plunge and have only the sense of aspiration, of devotion, of self-giving to the Divine.    Yes, it is a very encouraging progress.


Sri Aurobindo: If you keep the wideness and calm as you are keeping it and also the love for the Mother in the heart, then all is safe — for it means the double foundation of the Yoga — the descent of the higher consciousness with its peace, freedom and security from above and the openness of the psychic which keeps all the effort or all the spontaneous movement turned towards the true goal.  The more important of the experiences you enumerate are those below.  (1) The feeling of calm and comparative absence of disturbing thoughts. This means the growth of quietude of mind which is necessary for a fully effective meditation.  (2) The pressure on the head and the movements within it.


Sri Aurobindo: The pressure is that of the Force of the higher consciousness above the mind pressing on the mind (the mind centres are in the head and throat) and penetrating into it. Once it enters there it prepares the mind for opening to it more fully and the movements within the head are due to this working. Once the head centres and spaces are open one feels it descending freely as a current or otherwise. Afterwards it opens similarly the centres below in the body. The physical movement of the head must be due to the body not being accustomed to the pressure and penetration of the Force.


Sri Aurobindo: When it is able to receive and assimilate, these movements no longer take place.  (3) The effect of the meditation in the heart extending itself to the head and creating movements there is normal — in whatever centre the concentration takes place the Yoga force generated extends to the others and produces concentration or workings there.  (4) The sudden cessation of thought and all movements — this is very important, as it means the beginning of the capacity for the inner silence. It lasts only for a short while at the beginning of its manifestation but increases afterwards its hold and duration.  The direction of the sadhana is the right one and you have only to continue upon it.


Sri Aurobindo: We cannot say anything deﬁnitively about the outside affairs — I suppose in the circumstances you have to think about these things, but the sadhana has the greater importance.  We do not include Hathayoga practices in this sadhana.  If you use only for health purposes, it must be as something separate from sadhana — on your own choice.   The last experience carries its own meaning. The ﬁrst is a dreamexperience in which the ﬁgures of the dream are probably symbols, — unless the Tibetan priest is an impression from a past life.


Sri Aurobindo: The experience itself is that of concentration in a ﬂame of aspiration with the result of an ascension into the higher planes of consciousness where the separative self disappears into the universal. The second is an experience of the descent of the higher consciousness through the spinal cord from the mental to the vital centres with the result of a momentary experience of that higher consciousness in its wide universality. The experience once had repeated itself but always with the same momentariness. It is the permanence of this experience that is in this Yoga the foundation of the spiritual consciousness and the spiritual transformation — as distinguished from the psychic which proceeds from the inner heart.   They are elementary experiences in the practice of Yoga and there is not much to be said about them, — still I will say this much, if it can help him.


Sri Aurobindo: (1) What does he mean by concentrating in the heart? I suppose not the physical heart? When we speak of concentrating in the heart in Yoga, we are speaking of the emotional centre and that like all the others is in the middle of the body in a line corresponding to the spinal cord. The places he speaks of are four centres — (1) crown of head = higher mental centre, (2) between the eyebrows = centre of will and vision, (3) throat = centre of externalising mind, (4) heart = (mental-vital) emotional centre with the psychic behind it (the soul, Purusha in the heart).  (2) The lights he sees indicate not some mere “physiological” phenomenon, but the ﬁrst opening of an inner subtle vision which sees things that are not physical.


Sri Aurobindo: At a later stage a descent of Light is one of the capital phenomena of the opening of the greater Yogic experience and of the working of the Divine Power on the adhar.  (3) What does he mean by chitta when he speaks of the force? Chitta as opposed to Chit or Vijnana etc. is only the basic mind-life consciousness out of which rises the stuff of (ordinary) thought, feelings, sensations etc. The Force which he feels is something quite different; it is the larger force exceeding the individual and when one feels it in its fullness, it is experienced as the cosmic force or something out of the cosmic force or else the Divine Force from above, according to its nature.


Sri Aurobindo: His mind is not yet ready for the action of a greater Force, because it is full of mental notions and activities and it is for this reason that heat is generated in the friction between the two; when the other force withdraws and no longer tries to lay hold of the brain then the personal mind-action feels released (that is the reason for the sense of coolness) and goes about its ordinary motions. It is only in a silent (quiet — not necessarily empty) mind that the greater force can be received and work upon the system without too much reaction and resistance.  It [] is what we call the pressure of the Force (the Force of the higher spiritual or divine consciousness, the Mother’s Force); it comes in various forms, vibrations, currents, waves, a wide ﬂow, a shower like rain etc. It passes to each centre in turn, the crown of the head, the forehead centre, throat, heart, navel centres down to the Muladhara and spreads too throughout the body.  The rotatory movement is the movement of the Force when it is working and forming something in the being.


Sri Aurobindo:  Pressure, throbbing, electrical vibrations are all signs of the working of the Force. The places indicate the ﬁeld of action — the top of the head is the summit of the thinking mind where it communicates with the higher consciousness; the neck or throat is the seat of the physical, externalising or expressive mind; the ear is the place of communication with the inner mind centre by which thoughts etc. enter into the personal being from the general Nature. The sternum at the point indicated holds the psychic and emotional centre, with its apex on the spinal column behind.  When the Force comes down one at ﬁrst feels a pressure. Afterwards it begins to enter the body, when once the way is open for it.


Sri Aurobindo: After entering the body it goes on working each time it descends, for the transformation of the nature.     This pressure on the head always comes at the beginning; it is the pressure of the Force on the adhar preparing to make its way into it. The feeling lasts so long as there is a resistance in the adhar to the entrance and working of the Force.


Sri Aurobindo: If the mind opens to the Power, it will cease and you will feel the Power working in you or within you.    Tell him that the pressure on the head is a sign of the descent and working of the Force from above and of a certain resistance in the adhar which almost all sadhaks have at ﬁrst. The calm is the result of the working. When the resistance disappears, the pressure is no longer felt but one becomes conscious of the working and of the calm descending into the body from centre to centre.


Sri Aurobindo:   The pressure is that of the Divine Force which he calls by his prayer descending to do its work in the Adhar, its passage being marked by the current which he feels. The pain was due to some resistance in the Adhar; it disappears as soon as the system is accustomed to the descent and grows wide enough to admit it.  The ﬁrst result of the descent is the calm which he experiences; for it is only in a calm mind and vital () that the Divine Shakti can do her work rightly.


Sri Aurobindo: When there is a pressure of the Force on the Adhar to work on it or enter, this [] is often felt, especially if there is a working of the Force in the head. This heaviness disappears if the system receives and assimilates the Force and there is a free ﬂow in the body — till then the pressure or some kind of heaviness is often felt at one centre or another where the Force is working.     If it is only a weight or pressure on the head, it may be only the pressure of the Mother’s Force.


Sri Aurobindo: It comes like that to most people. Once the consciousness is open and the Force enters, there is no longer this feeling.     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.


Sri Aurobindo: At the same time the weight of the subconscient Matter is being lifted up for release. That is the sense of these experiences.     A heaviness which gives strength is likely to be the indication of a descent.


Sri Aurobindo: Sensations like a biting or pricking in the head often accompany it. It is usually a sign of some force from above trying to make its way through or to work in the physical stuff so as to prepare it for receiving.    That is some obstacle in the mind breaking under the pressure of Force, and each time there is a ﬂash and a movement of the Force.


Sri Aurobindo: All that you note in your letter is very encouraging; it shows that the force is working in you and in the right way. There are two things that are necessary — the full connection of your mind and vital with your psychic being and the opening of the consciousness to Mother’s consciousness above. Both of these are beginning. The voice that spoke was that of your soul, your psychic being; the impulse to go deep within was the movement to plunge into the depths of the psychic. The consciousness that rejected and threw away the anger and old movements


Sri Aurobindo: was also that of the psychic.  The pressure you felt on the head comes always when there is the pressure from above of the Higher Consciousness, the Mother’s consciousness, to come in and the coolness etc. you felt are also often felt at that time. The ﬁrst result was the detachment from personal connections, the freedom, lightness, openness of heart, fearlessness, and also the sense of the Mother’s presence. These things are signs of the true consciousness and part of the spiritual nature. They come ﬁrst as experiences, afterwards they become more frequent, endure longer, settle into the nature.


Sri Aurobindo:   It is the pressure of the Divine Power which you are feeling and it is that which gives you the sense of joy and living fullness.  If you keep it and allow it to work in you, it will give you the positive experience and progress in sadhana which you need.


Sri Aurobindo: The pressure is usually felt only when the Force is acting on the consciousness in order to create an opening somewhere or for some other purpose. As soon as that is done, the pressure is not felt but instead a changed condition or else the working of the Force within but without any sense of pressure. When the condition of lightness, quietude, etc. comes, it means that something has opened to the psychic consciousness and become full of it. Emptiness is of several kinds, one when the consciousness is empty and free, which is a very good condition, another when it is empty and neutral, i. e. simply quiet without any positive power or psychic happiness, but not troubled or disturbed by anything, without any good or bad movement, and, ﬁnally, tamasic or inert emptiness. The ﬁrst two conditions can be brought about by an action of the Force, and the ﬁrst is a very good basis for spiritual experience and progress; the second also is not unfavourable and is often a needed stage, the consciousness becoming empty in order that it may be ﬁlled from within or from above with the true things.


Sri Aurobindo: The third comes usually when the vital is quiescent and there is a complete inertia.  It is one of the two ﬁrst that must be coming in you as a result of the action of the Force.     If the pressure is too great, the remedy is to widen the consciousness.


Sri Aurobindo: With the peace and silence there should come a wideness that can receive any amount of Force without any reactions, whether heaviness or compulsion to remain withdrawn or the difﬁculty of the eyes etc.   The action of the Force does not always create a pressure. When it does not need to press, it acts quietly.    There is no necessity of feeling pressure.


Sri Aurobindo: One feels force when something is being done or the force is ﬂowing in or if it is there manifest in the body — but not when what is manifesting is peace and silence.  If it is a feeling of a covering being perforated, then that is a sensation one often has when the Force is opening a way for itself through some resistance — here it must be in some part of the physical mind.   Keep full reliance on the Mother. When one does that, the victory even if delayed, is sure.


Sri Aurobindo: An entire silence and inactivity of the mind cannot come at ﬁrst — what is possible is a quietude of the mind, that is to say, a cessation of its absorption in its restless miscellaneous activity of ill-connected or unconnected thoughts and a concentration on the object of the sadhana. The imagination which the Mother recommended to you was a means of such concentration. A mental idea of the omnipresence such as comes to you is a good help for that also, especially if it brings the strong faith and reliance. The feeling of the vibration of the Mother’s Force around the head is more than a mental idea or even a mental realisation, it is an experience. This vibration is indeed the action of the Mother’s Force which is ﬁrst felt above the head or around it, then afterwards within the head.


Sri Aurobindo: The pressure means that it is working to open the mind and its centres so that it may enter.  The mind centres are in the head, one at the top and above it, another between the eyes, a third in the throat. That is why you feel the vibration around the head and sometimes up to the neck, but not below. It is so usually, for it is only after enveloping and entering the mind that it goes below to the emotional and vital parts (heart, navel etc.) — though sometimes it is more enveloping before it enters the body. To see the light in the heart one has to go deep, but one can see light elsewhere without going in deep there.


Sri Aurobindo: Light is often seen between the eyebrows ﬁrst or in front at that level, for there is the centre of inner vision and a slight opening of it is sufﬁcient for that — so also light is often seen round the head or above it, outside.     If it was a Light, you would see the Light. Vibrations are either of a Force or a Presence.


Sri Aurobindo: Electricity shock always indicates a passage of dynamic Force.     It [] is the ﬂowing of the force through the spine. In the Tantric system the spine is considered as the natural passage of the Force, because it is in the spine that all the six centres rest.


Sri Aurobindo: Whatever comes from above can come like that in waves — whether it is Light or Force or Peace or Ananda. In your case it was the Force working on the mind in waves. It is true also that when it was like that, not in currents or as a rain or as a quiet ﬂood, it is Mahakali’s Force that is working. The ﬁrst necessity when it is so, is not to fear.  The descent of the Consciousness from above is often felt as a ﬂow of water.


Sri Aurobindo: Also the image of the drilling open of the head to receive it is frequent (it symbolises the opening of the mind to the higher consciousness).    The stream which you feel coming down on the head and pouring into you is indeed a current of the Mother’s Force; it is so that it is often felt; it ﬂows into the body in currents and works there to liberate and change the consciousness. As the consciousness changes and develops, you will begin yourself to understand the meaning and working of these things.