Sri Aurobindo: Narada stands for the expression of the Divine Love and Knowledge.  Mahakali and Kali are not the same, Kali is a lesser form.  Mahakali in the higher planes appears usually with the golden colour.    These — Kali, Shyama, etc. — are ordinary forms seen through the vital; the real Mahakali form whose origin is in the Overmind is not black or dark or terrible, but golden of colour and full of beauty, even when formidable to the Asuras.


Sri Aurobindo: The lion with Durga on it is the symbol of the Divine Consciousness acting through a divinised physical-vital and vital-material force.   The lion is the attribute of the Goddess Durga, the conquering and protecting aspect of the Universal Mother.   The Death’s Head is the symbol of the Asura (the adversary of the gods) vanquished and killed by the Divine Power.  It is according to the need or else the condition of the consciousness that these ﬁgures [] appear in sadhana.


Sri Aurobindo: Ganesh is at once the god of wisdom and the remover of obstacles.   Ganesh (among other things) is the devata of spiritual Knowledge — so as you are getting this knowledge, you saw yourself in this form, identiﬁed with Ganesh.  The peacock is the bird of victory and Kartikeya the leader of the divine forces.  Sanatkumar is, I believe, one of the four mind-born sons of Brahma; he cannot therefore be identical with Skanda who is a son of Shiva.  Buddha stands for the conquest over the Ignorance of the lower Nature.


Sri Aurobindo: Apsaras generally indicate sexual desire.  The child is usually the symbol of the psychic being.     A dream like this of a child — especially a newborn child — usually signiﬁes the birth (i.e. the awakening) of the soul or psychic being in the outward nature.


Sri Aurobindo:   The child usually signiﬁes the psychic being — newborn in the sense that it at last comes to the surface. The colour of the cloth [] would mean that it comes with health (internal or external or both) and the spiritual riches.


Sri Aurobindo:   The infant in the Mother’s arms is the symbol of the psychic being.     It is not a fact that the psychic being always appears as a baby — it is sometimes seen symbolically as a newborn baby; many see it as a child of varying ages — it is a very common and usual experience; it is not peculiar to emotional natures.


Sri Aurobindo: It has several signiﬁcances such as the new birth of the consciousness into the true psychic nature, the still young growth of this new being, the trust, reliance, dependence of the child on the Mother.     The child (when it does not mean the psychic being) is usually the symbol of something newborn in some part of the consciousness.


Sri Aurobindo:   I suppose the golden child is the Truth-Soul which follows after the silver light of the spiritual. When it plunges into the black waters of the subconscient, it releases from it the spiritual light and the sevenfold streams of the Divine Energy and, clearing itself of the stains of the subconscient, it prepares its ﬂight towards the supreme Divine (the Mother).  In these dreams the parents or relatives mean the ordinary forces of the physical consciousness (the old nature).   A relative is generally a symbol of some element of the hereditary nature (the external being so far as it is created by heredity).


Sri Aurobindo:   Mother, sister or other relatives are usually in such dreams symbols of forces of ordinary nature. The exact meaning depends on the context. But all such dreams are not symbolical — a sex dream for instance may bring up the form of any woman known or unknown.


Sri Aurobindo:   These vital dreams are not interpretable unless there is an evident clue. Aunt or mother usually indicates the ordinary physical nature, a closed room would be some part of the physical nature that was not open to the light, bats would mean forces of the night, i.e. ignorant movements ﬁnding a lodging in the obscurity of the unenlightened nature.


Sri Aurobindo:   It [] is the impression left by the past life and its sanskaras that come up in these dreams from the subconscient. They have to be rejected till the impressions are rooted out.  The robbers are, as in the Veda, vital beings who come to steal away the good condition or else to steal the gains of the sadhana.  The image of journeying always signiﬁes a movement in life or a progress in sadhana.


Sri Aurobindo:  Journeying on a horse or in a conveyance, if symbolic, means a progress or a movement in life, work or sadhana.   A journey in a boat or other conveyance means always a movement in the Yoga — often an advance or progress.   A journey in a carriage, train, motor car, steamer, boat, aeroplane etc. indicates a movement in the sadhana. The white horse may be the sattwic mind and the red horse the vital rajas giving energy and both combining to make a progress.   Aeroplane, steamer and train are always symbols of a rapid progress or forward movement.


Sri Aurobindo:  The railway train at full speed means rapid progress.   The railway line is a symbol of rapid progress and the three stars are a symbol of Divine Grace in the mind, life and body.     The moving on the sands — it frequently happens in these dreams — is usually a sign of an easier movement in the sadhana.


Sri Aurobindo: The running away [] is a symbol of the inertia in part of the being which allows the forces to invade, drawing back from them and losing ground instead of facing and destroying them.  When you ﬁnd yourself ﬂying it is always the vital being in the subtle body in the vital world that is doing it.     Flying during sleep over houses, streets, etc. simply means that the consciousness in the vital sheaths has gone out and is moving over places in the vital or subtle physical world (even sometimes the material); it is always in the vital sheath that one ﬂies like that.


Sri Aurobindo: The ascending movement is different — in that it is the consciousness that goes high up to other planes or levels and comes down again to the body.  The ears signify usually the place of inspired knowledge or else of inspired expression — red and gold mean truth and power joined together.  Symbolically, if the dream is symbolic, the falling of teeth means the disappearance of old ﬁxed mental habits belonging to the physical mind.   The breaking or falling of teeth [] is symbolic usually of the breaking or falling off of habitual formations or sanskaras in the physical mind.  The piece of ﬂesh indicates something restless in the physical being which stands by its restlessness and excessive materiality in the way of the full ﬂow of the Ananda.


Sri Aurobindo: In the dream this became active and was eliminated by the pressure of the psychic.  The feeling of being dead in a vision or dream experience comes when something in the being is to be silenced into entire inactivity and ceases to exist as a part of the nature. It may be a very small part, but as during the process the consciousness is concentrated in it and identiﬁed with it for the purpose of the working, the feeling is that “I am dead”. When you said, “I am dead, now let me get up and go”, it simply meant, “The thing is done and the process is over. There is no need to identify myself with this part any longer.”


Sri Aurobindo: There is no indication in the experience as to what the thing was that passed through this experience.  The cow in the occult symbolism indicates Light or the consciousness — white indicates the puriﬁed or spiritual consciousness — the white Light.   It is quite clear; it is the Vedic image. In the Veda the Cow is the Divine Light — the white Cow is the pure Consciousness in which there is the Light. The milk is the Knowledge and Power descending from the divine Consciousness.


Sri Aurobindo:  The Cow usually means the Higher Consciousness. Perhaps the calf indicates the truth of the higher consciousness (white) in the physical (red).    The white calf is the sign of a pure and clear consciousness, — the cow or calf being the symbol of Light in the consciousness, something psychic or spiritual that you felt natural and intimate to you and inseparable.


Sri Aurobindo:   The vision of the cows must have taken place in the psychic world. It has also a symbolic signiﬁcance. The sun is the symbol of the Divine Truth, the cows are its powers, rays of the sun, sources of true knowledge, true feeling, true experience.  The descent you felt must have been into some depth of light, probably in the psychic nature.


Sri Aurobindo:   Milk is always the symbol of the ﬂow of the higher consciousness.  The bull is an emblem of strength and force. It is also in the Veda an image of the Gods, the male powers in Nature.


Sri Aurobindo: Again the bull is the of Shiva. It may in a dream or an experience be any of these symbols — but it is probably the ﬁrst here.  A horse always indicates some power.


Sri Aurobindo: The Horse is the symbol in dream or vision of a Power or Energy.     The Horse is Power — white is pure. It is the pure Power.


Sri Aurobindo:   The Horse is Power, usually Life-Power, but also it may mean Mind-Power in Tapas if it is dynamic and mobile.   The Horse is the symbol of Power in motion — often of the Power that makes for rapid progress in sadhana.   The horse is a force acting for progress.


Sri Aurobindo:   The horse is always the symbol of Power; it must be then a Power which you were trying to catch and make your own while sometimes it was trying to come up with you, perhaps to use you.  This is what happens in the vital where there are these uncertain and elusive movements. The high platform was evidently the level of a higher Consciousness which stilled this ﬂuctuating movement and made control of the Power more possible, as it became still and near.


Sri Aurobindo: The ass is the symbol of the inertia and obstruction in the body.  The horse is the symbol of force or power. The tunnel of water must be the vital physical and the arch is a passage out, by which, if the ass can cross it or rather be pulled across, then it becomes a horse. In other words, the inertia and obstruction in the physical will be changed into Power and Force of Progress.  The Lion is the vital force.


Sri Aurobindo:  The lion means vital force, strength, courage — here full of the light, illumined by the spiritual consciousness.   The lion indicates force and courage, strength and power. The lower vital is not lionlike.  It all depends on the attitude of the tiger. If ﬁerce and hostile, it may be a form of an adverse force, otherwise it is simply a power of vital nature which may be friendly.


Sri Aurobindo: The elephant is Strength — sometimes Strength illumined with Wisdom.     The elephant is Strength — sometimes Strength removing obstacles.


Sri Aurobindo:   The blue elephant is the strength of the Higher Consciousness fulﬁlling itself and removing obstacles.   The Giraffe symbolises aspiration.  [] Patient progress and endurance as a gift of the Divine Grace.


Sri Aurobindo: The deer = speed in the spiritual path.     The deer is perhaps a symbol of speed in the spiritual progress.


Sri Aurobindo:   The deer is Immortality, the antelope is Rapid Movement.  It [] is rajasic strength and vehemence. Much however depends upon the context, — these ﬁgures have also other meanings.


Sri Aurobindo:   The wild boar points to attacks of the crude vital rajas.  A buffalo conveys the idea often of an obscure violence in the nature — here [] it seems tied up — i.e. under control but not eliminated. But it is not clear to what it refers — if it is symbolic at all.


Sri Aurobindo:   The buffalo is a symbol of unnecessary or blind anger — perhaps it meant that that was still somewhere in your nature.   [] Rash and obscure vital forces.  The goat in vision is often symbolic of lust.


Sri Aurobindo:   Goats usually indicate sex tendencies.  The monkey is a symbol of the leaping restless mind; these monkeys are the doubts and suggestions that have been assailing you.


Sri Aurobindo: The monkey is a symbol of the restless vital consciousness or of one or other of its movements.  The dog is the symbol of devoted affection and obedience.


Sri Aurobindo: The dog generally signiﬁes devoted obedience — so it may indicate the action of a devoted obedience spiritualised in the higher consciousness.     The dog usually indicates ﬁdelity and as it is yellow, it would be ﬁdelity in the mind to the Divine — but the other black and white one is difﬁcult to interpret — it is something in the vital, but the meaning of the black spots is not clear.  The black cat is usually the symbol of magic of an evil kind or of an evil inﬂuence of the vital world acting on the physical as magic does.


Sri Aurobindo: It is effective so long as its nature and mode of action are not discovered, so long as it can act invisibly — when it is seen it can be dealt with. The others had not seen it and were not aware that it was taking the life of the sick person and that she was not dead and need not die if this force could be destroyed or prevented from acting; you saw it and were therefore able to ﬁght and catch it and kill it. That it took long to kill shows that it was not representing a particular process of magic which can be annulled quickly and decisively, but a Force of evil magic from the vital plane.  The serpent is the symbol of energy, it may be a bad or hostile energy — but it may also be a good, even a divine energy.


Sri Aurobindo: The snake indicates some kind of energy always — oftener bad, but also it can indicate some luminous or divine energy. It is [] the ascent of some such force from the physical upwards. The other details are not clear.    About the snake you saw in your meditation — serpents indicate always energies of Nature and very often bad energies of the vital plane; but they can also indicate luminous or divine energies like the snake of Vishnu.


Sri Aurobindo: The one you saw was evidently of this latter type — a luminous divine energy and therefore there was no cause for alarm, it was a good sign.   A snake is a bad symbol only when it comes from the vital or other lower plane.   What you saw was not what is in yourself, but a symbol of the things that are in vital Nature. Scorpions and usually snakes also are symbols of harmful energies; the vital nature of earth is full of these energies and that is why the puriﬁcation of man’s outer vital nature also is so difﬁcult and there are so many wrong movements and happenings in him, — because his vital is easily open to all these earth movements. In order to get rid of them, the inner being must wake and grow and its nature replace the outer nature.


Sri Aurobindo: Sometimes serpents indicate energies simply, not harmful ones; but more often it is the other way. On the other hand the peacocks you saw were powers of victory, the victory of the energies of light over the energies of darkness.    The serpent Ananta is the inﬁnite energy in inﬁnite Time-Space which supports the universe.


Sri Aurobindo:   It is in answer to your aspiration that the Mahakali force descended — the Serpent is the Energy from above working in the vital answering to the Serpent Kundalini which rises from below.     The Serpent is the symbol of energy — especially of the Kundalini Shakti which is the divine Force coiled up in the lowest (physical) centre, Muladhara — and when it rises it goes up through the spine and joins the higher consciousness above.


Sri Aurobindo: Energies are of all kinds and the snakes can also symbolise the evil powers of the unregenerate vital nature — but here it is not that.   The serpent symbolises an energy good or bad, divine or undivine according to its nature. Here, it looks as if it were the Kundalini trying to ascend to the Brahmarandhra, but it has not yet reached beyond the vital and is stopped — probably because the time has not yet come.   This [] is the symbol of the opening of the centres to the Light.  The swan is the Indian symbol of the individual soul, the central being, the divine part which is turned towards the Divine, descending from there and ascending to it.


Sri Aurobindo: The two serpents interlaced are the two channels in the spine, through which the Shakti moves upward and downward.  The serpent with the six hoods is the Kundalini Shakti, the divine Power asleep in the lowest physical centre which, awakened in the Yoga, ascends in light through the opening centres to meet the Divine in the highest centre and so connect the manifest and the unmanifested, joining Spirit and Matter.   The golden serpent in the Muladhara is a symbol of the energy of the transformed physical consciousness.


Sri Aurobindo: The cobra is a symbol of the Energy in Nature — the upraised hood and light indicate the illumination and victorious position of the emerged Energy.     The opening of the hood indicates the victorious or successful activity of the Energy indicated by the snake.


Sri Aurobindo:   The serpent with the hood over the head generally indicates future siddhi.     Snakes and scorpions always indicate attacks or threats of attack of one kind or another, more often threats from the vital plane or hostile inﬂuences on the physical.


Sri Aurobindo:   The serpent is a symbol of force, very often a hostile or evil force of the vital plane. The sea is a symbol of a plane of consciousness.  The white light is a manifestation of pure divine force descending from one of the truth-planes leading to the supramental.


Sri Aurobindo: The indication is that of a hostile vital force being expelled and the purifying light from above descending to illumine and deliver the part of the plane formerly occupied by it.  The crocodile signiﬁes greed,, of some kind.   Frog = modest usefulness.


Sri Aurobindo: The ﬁsh is the always moving vital mind making all sorts of formations.    Fish might be formations in the vital consciousness — for water most often indicates the vital consciousness.  The bird is often a symbol of the being.   The bird is a symbol of the individual soul.


Sri Aurobindo:  A bird is a very frequent symbol of the soul, and the tree is the standing image of the universe — the Tree of Life.     Birds often indicate either mind-powers or soul-powers.


Sri Aurobindo:    The bird is usually a symbol of some soul power when it is not the soul itself — here it is a power (awakened in the soul) of the whitish blue light — Sri Aurobindo’s light.


Sri Aurobindo: The Blue Bird is always a symbol of aspiration towards something Beyond.      The blue bird is the symbol of aspiration to the heights.


Sri Aurobindo: The swan is a symbol of the soul on the higher plane.     The swan is the liberated soul.   Both [] are symbols of the beings in a man — but the goose or ordinary Hansa usually refers to the .


Sri Aurobindo:  The Hansa is the symbol of the being — it regains its original purity as it rises until it becomes luminous in the Highest Truth.     The Hansa is a symbol of the soul or the self — the peacock is the bird of victory.


Sri Aurobindo: The golden Hansa is the soul living in the Truth, the golden peacock is the victory of the Truth.  The duck is the symbol of the soul — silvery colour = the spiritual consciousness — golden wings = the power of the Divine Truth.     The duck is usually a symbol of the soul or inner being; perhaps it was the four beings — mental, psychic, vital and physical — that you saw.


Sri Aurobindo: The crane is the messenger of happiness.  The peacock is the Bird of Victory.     A peacock is the symbol of spiritual victory.


Sri Aurobindo:   The peacock signiﬁes victory — in Yoga the divine victory. The clear sky would indicate perhaps the mental part cleared of obscurities. Seeing the higher part of the bodies [] would mean a victory in the higher parts of the consciousness, in the mental (head and neck) and perhaps also in vital mind and in emotional.


Sri Aurobindo: The dove signiﬁes peace. The colours indicate the vital — green would be self-giving in the vital; blue the higher consciousness in the vital. So it must be peace casting its inﬂuence from above on the vital.    The white pigeon must be Peace.


Sri Aurobindo: The crow signiﬁes practical cleverness, the eagle Intelligence.  The kite is Krishna’s.  The ostrich may mean rapidity of movement.  The image of the spider in the Upanishads is used for the Brahman creating the world out of itself, dwelling in it and withdrawing it into itself. But what matters in a symbol is what it means for you.


Sri Aurobindo: It may mean for you success or successful formations.  Obviously it [] must have been symbolic of small but destructive forces in the lower vital or physical.  Something small in the smaller vital.  The aswattha usually symbolises the cosmic manifestation.   It [] is the symbol of the cosmic existence.


Sri Aurobindo: The jungle must be some unregenerated part of the vital nature and the serpent a wrong force emerging from it.  Images of leaves and plants usually indicate vital strength or energy.


Sri Aurobindo: A green leaf means vital strength or energy or vitality.  The fruits are the results of the sadhana.  Flowers indicate a blossoming in the consciousness, sometimes with special reference to the psychic or the psychicised vital, mental and physical consciousness.   The vision of ﬂowers is a symbol usually of psychic qualities or movements whether a potentiality or promise or an actual state of development.


Sri Aurobindo:   It is usually when the psychic is active that this seeing of ﬂowers becomes abundant.    The ﬂowers indicate always an opening (usually psychic) in some part of the consciousness.


Sri Aurobindo: The ﬂowers are the symbols of psychic movements. The sun is the Divine Consciousness. It is the awakening of the psychic consciousness and its activity under the Divine Inﬂuence.    Red ﬂowers would ordinarily indicate an opening of the consciousness either in the physical or some part of the vital according to the shade.


Sri Aurobindo: A lotus ﬂower indicates open consciousness.    A lotus signiﬁes the opening of the (true) consciousness.


Sri Aurobindo: The lotus is always the sign of the consciousness opening somewhere — when the consciousness opened from above, you became aware of a new plane of being of which you were not aware before.     It [] means consciousness. The opening of the lotus is the opening of some part of the consciousness.


Sri Aurobindo:    The opening of the lotuses means, I suppose, the opening of the true vital and physical consciousness in which the spiritual being (the Swan) can manifest with all the consequences of that opening.


Sri Aurobindo: The lotus must represent owing to its numerous petals the “thousand petalled” lotus above the head which is the seat of the higher consciousness above the thinking intelligence. The vision may mean the opening of the consciousness there and in it the adoration of the Divine.     A lotus usually indicates an opening into the spiritual.


Sri Aurobindo: The white and red are symbols of the Mother and the incarnating Divine.    The white lotus is the symbol of the Mother’s consciousness, — it does not indicate any part of the individual consciousness.


Sri Aurobindo: The red lotus is the ﬂower of the Divine Presence.     The red lotus is the presence of the Divine on earth — the sun is the Divine Truth. It indicates the Divine manifestation on earth raising earth consciousness towards the Truth.


Sri Aurobindo:   The red lotus signiﬁes the presence of the Divine on the Earth.


Sri Aurobindo: It [] can be taken as the (Avatar) incarnation on the mental plane.  The red rose is the ﬂower of love and surrender, the white is the purity of psychic love.     Reddish pink rose = psychic love or surrender.


Sri Aurobindo: White rose = pure spiritual surrender.     The java [] is the ﬂower of the Divine Power.


Sri Aurobindo:    The [] eternal smile means the self-existent joy and gladness of the Spirit.


Sri Aurobindo: I told you saffron meant puriﬁcation — so if it has any signiﬁcance, it can only mean that the Mother gave you a power of puriﬁcation to use.   The building is the symbol of a new creation — the white indicating spiritual consciousness, the coloured lights the different powers.  The workshop is probably a symbol of the activity of the ordinary nature which is so full of formations and activities of the ordinary kind that it is difﬁcult to pass through it to the inner or the inmost being.  The walls with the spaces between indicate the different parts of the being to which the outer mind has no access — possibly, the inner vital (the women may be the occult vital nature), emotional etc.


Sri Aurobindo: The ceiling (yellow) may be the intellect or thinking mind which walls one in and prevents from getting into the open spaces of the higher consciousness. But through all a way lies to the open way of the higher consciousness full of peace, light and Ananda.  The temple means religious feeling, worship, adoration, consecration.


Sri Aurobindo: It is a temple and the temple is the symbol of spiritual aspiration.  This one being complex meant a rich and many-sided aspiration.  The pyramid is usually a symbol of aspiration — reddish perhaps because it is in the physical.    The Sphinx is a symbol of the eternal quest that can only be answered by the secret knowledge.


Sri Aurobindo: The cross is the sign of the triple being, transcendent, universal and individual.    The cross indicates the triple Divine (transcendent, universal, individual) — the shield means protection.  The crown is the sign of fulﬁlment (here in the intuitive consciousness) and the going up means an ascent to higher planes.


Sri Aurobindo:   The crown indicates the higher consciousness in its static condition, the wheel its dynamic action. The red light is the Power sent down to change the physical.  The diamond is the symbol of the Mother’s light and energy — the diamond light is that of her consciousness at its most intense.


Sri Aurobindo:   Diamonds may indicate the Mother’s Light at its intensest, for that is diamond white light.    The diamond in your heart was a formation of the light of Mother’s consciousness there, — for the Mother’s light is of a white and at its most intense of a diamond radiance. The light is a sign of the Mother’s presence in your heart and that is what you saw once and felt for a moment.


Sri Aurobindo: It [] may be a representation of the “bindu”, which is a symbol of the inﬁnite in the exceedingly small, the individual point which is yet the Universal.   The ﬂute is the symbol of a call — usually the spiritual call.   The ﬂute is the call of the Divine.   The ﬂute is the call of the Divine which descends into you from above and awakes the psychic yearning (the tears) and ends by bringing a vast peace and shows to you the clear sky of the higher consciousness in which there are the Truth-formations (golden stars) some of which begin to descend in a rain upon the physical consciousness (the earth).


Sri Aurobindo: The conch is often the symbol of call or aspiration.   The conch is the symbol of the spiritual call.   The conch is the call to realisation.   The conch is perhaps the proclamation of victory.   The lotus is the opened consciousness — the conchshell is the call to victory.


Sri Aurobindo: Bells heard are usually a sign of progress in sadhana, progress to come.  Harmony.  The wheel is the sign of an action of Force (whatever force may be indicated by the nature of the symbol) and as it was surging upwards it must be the ﬁre of aspiration rising from the vital (navel centre) to the Higher Consciousness above.


Sri Aurobindo: A revolving disc means a force in action on the nature. The whitish blue light is known as Krishna’s light, also as Sri Aurobindo’s light. White is the Mother’s. Perhaps here it is a combination.


Sri Aurobindo: The [] Chakra symbolises the action of Sri Krishna’s force.     The chakra is the energy at work and it brings the ﬁrst opening of the consciousness in the gross physical plane, i.e. of the mental physical, psychic physical, vital physical and the material.


Sri Aurobindo: Yes, the circular movement and the Chakra are always signs of energy in action, generally creative action.  The bow is a symbol of the force sent out to reach its mark.    The arrow is the symbol of the Force which goes to its aim. Gold = the Truth, Yellow = the mind, Green = the vital energy.


Sri Aurobindo: The arrow of the spiritual Truth using the mind and the vital energy.   Is it a key you saw? If so the meaning is clear; it is the key to the divine realisation; the Mother is the key because it is her light (white is her colour) that enables us to open the gate of realisation.


Sri Aurobindo: The book indicates some kind of knowledge.  The mirror between the eyebrows indicates that something in the inner mind has become able to reﬂect the Truth from above  (golden light) — a square is a symbol of the truth beyond the mind as a triangle is the symbol of mind, life, body.  The incense stick is the symbol of self-consecration.


Sri Aurobindo:   Tobacco is associated with tamas and incense sticks with adoration.  The gramophone is obviously symbolic of the mechanical mind.  In one form or another all these ideas [ ] have existed in the past. The signiﬁcance of numbers was one of the chief elements in the teaching of Pythagoras 5 centuries before Christ.


Sri Aurobindo:   The number 7 is the number of realisation — when there are four 7’s it indicates perfect realisation.   7 is the ﬁgure of realisation. 3 x 3 means the descent from above and the answer from below.


Sri Aurobindo: There is no unlucky number. Numbers all have their powers and why should 13 not have its chance?  The writing [] is often seen by sadhaks either in meditation and sleep or with the waking eyes or in both states. But if you see it only in sleep or an inward condition, it is not so easy to remember when waking unless you train yourself to remember.  OM there [] indicates the realisation of the Brahman on that level of the (higher) consciousness.


Sri Aurobindo: Is it [] the physical nerves and heart — or in the subtle body? Often one feels a shaking and vibration of the subtle body and can feel as if heartbeats there, but if not experienced, it impresses as if it were a material phenomenon.   It is evidently in a subtle world, not the physical that you move; that is evident from the different arrangement of things, by such details as the third arm and the book marker removed yet there; but they show also that it is a subtle world very near to the physical; it is either a subtle physical world or a very material vital domain. In all the subtle domains the physical is reproduced with a change, the change growing freer and more elastic as one gets farther away. Such details as the lameness show the same thing, — the hold of the physical is still there.


Sri Aurobindo: It is possible to move about in the physical world, but usually that can only be done by drawing on the atmosphere of other physical beings for a stronger materialisation of the form — when that happens one moves among them and sees them and all the surroundings exactly as they are at that time in the physical world and can verify the accuracy of the details if immediately after returning to the body (which is usually done with a clear consciousness of the whole process of getting into it) one can traverse the same scene in the physical body. But this is rare; the subtle wandering is on the contrary a frequent phenomenon, only when it is near to the physical world, all seems very material and concrete and the association of physical habits and physical mental movements with the subtle events is closer.  The place where you were [] is as much a world of fact and reality as is the material world and its happenings have sometimes a great effect on this world. What an ignorant lot of disciples you all are! Too much modernisation and Europeanisation by half!


Sri Aurobindo: These things are meetings on the vital plane, but very often in the transcription of what happened some details get in that are contributed by the subconscient mind. I rather suspect all that about was such a contribution. The rest seems all right.  The writing on the forehead means of course something that is ﬁxed in you in the vital plane and has to come out hereafter in the physical consciousness.


Sri Aurobindo: You are too physically matter of fact. Besides you are quite ignorant of occult things. The vital is part of what European psychologists sometimes call the subliminal and the subliminal, as everybody ought to know, can do things the physical cannot do — e.g. solve a problem in a few minutes over which the physical has spent days in vain etc. etc.  What is the use of the same things happening on both planes; it would be superﬂuous and otiose. The vital plane is a ﬁeld where things can be done which for some reason or other can’t be done now on the physical.


Sri Aurobindo: There are of course hundreds of varieties of things in the vital as it is a much richer and more plastic ﬁeld of consciousness than the physical, and all are not of equal validity and value. I am speaking above of the things that are valid. By the way, without this vital plane there would be no art, poetry or literature — these things come through the vital before they can manifest here.    At this stage you have only to watch the experiences and observe their signiﬁcance.


Sri Aurobindo: It is only when the experiences are in the vital realm that some are likely to be false formations. These of which you write are simply the common experiences of an opening Yogic consciousness and they have to be understood, simply.  Here it is the breaking up of the small surface vital into the largeness of the true or inner vital being which can at once open to the Higher Consciousness, its power, light and Ananda. There is also begun a similar breaking of the small physical mind and sense into the wideness of the inner physical consciousness. The inner planes are always wide and open into the Universal while the outer surface parts of the being are shut up in themselves and full of narrow and ignorant movements.


Sri Aurobindo:   It is plain. The lower being (vital and physical) was receiving an inﬂuence (mental light, yellow) from the thinking mind and higher vital which was clearing it of the old habitual lower vital reactions: very often in the sadhana one feels the inner being speaking to the outer or the mind or higher vital speaking to the lower so as to enlighten it.


Sri Aurobindo: These things that come [] to frighten you are merely impressions thrown on you by small vital forces which want to prevent you (by making you nervous) pushing on the sadhana.  They can really do nothing to you, only you must reject all fear. Keep always this thought when these things come, “The Mother’s protection is with me, nothing bad can happen”; for when there is the psychic opening and one puts one’s faith in the Mother, that is sufﬁcient to ward these things off. Many sadhaks learn, when they have alarming dreams, to call the Mother’s name in the dream itself and then the things that menace them become helpless or cease. You must therefore refuse to be intimidated and reject these impressions with contempt.


Sri Aurobindo: If there is anything frightening, call down the Mother’s protection.  The heat you felt was probably due to some difﬁculty in the force coming down below the centre between the eyes where it has been working up till now. When such sensations or the unease you once felt or similar things come, you must not be alarmed, but remain quiet and let the difﬁculty pass.  What you had before that, the moonlight in the forehead, was this working in the centre there between the eyebrows, the centre of the inner mind, will and vision. The moonlight you saw is the light of spirituality and it was this that was entering into your mind through the centre, with the effect of the widening in the heart like a sky ﬁlled with moonlight.


Sri Aurobindo: Afterwards came some endeavour to prepare the lower part of the mind whose centre is in the throat and join it with the inner mind and make it open; but there was some difﬁculty, as is very usually the case, which caused the heat. It was probably the ﬁre of tapas, Agni, trying to open the way to this centre.  The experience of being taken up into the sky is a very common one and it means an ascent of the consciousness into a higher world of light and peace.  The idea that you must go more and more within and turn wholly to the Mother is quite right. It is when there is no attachment to outward things for their own sake and all is only for the Mother and the life through the inner psychic being is centred in her that the best condition is created for the spiritual realisation.


Sri Aurobindo:  Your series of experiences are very interesting by the constant (though interspaced) development they illustrate. Here two new signiﬁcant elements have been added to the previous substance of the experience. The ﬁrst is the very precise localisation of the uprush of the consciousness from the pit of the stomach — that is to say, from above the navel, the movement itself starting from the navel or even below it. The navel-centre () is the main seat of the centralised vital consciousness (dynamic centre) which ranges from the heart level (emotional) to the centre below the navel (lower vital, sensational desire centre).  These three mark the domain of the vital being.


Sri Aurobindo: It is therefore clear that it was your inner vital being which had this experience, and its intensity and vehemence was probably due to the whole vital (or most of it) being awake and sharing in it this time.  The experience itself was psychic in its origin, but was given a strong emotional-vital form in its expression. I may add, for completeness, that the centre of the psychic is behind the heart and it is through the puriﬁed emotions that the psychic most easily ﬁnds an outlet. All from the heart above is connected with the mental-vital and above it is the mind with its three centres, one in the throat (the outward-going or externalising mind), one between the eyes or rather in the middle of the forehead (the centre of vision and will) and one above, communicating with the brain, which is called the thousand-petalled lotus and where are centralised the highest thought and intelligence communicating with the greater mind planes (illumined mind, intuition, overmind) above.  The second new signiﬁcant feature is the self-manifestation of the inner mind; for it was your inner mind that was watching, observing and criticising the vital being’s psychic experience.


Sri Aurobindo: You found this clear division in you curious, but it will no longer seem curious once you know the perfectly normal divisibility of the different parts of the being. In the outer surface nature mind, psychic, vital, physical are all jumbled together and it needs a strong power of introspection, self-analysis, close observation and disentanglement of the threads of thought, feeling and impulse to ﬁnd out the composition of our nature and the relation and interaction of these parts upon each other. But when one goes inside as you have done , we ﬁnd the sources of all this surface action and there the parts of our being are quite separate and clearly distinct from each other. We feel them indeed as different beings in us, and just as two people in a group can do, they too are seen to observe, criticise, help or oppose and restrain each other; it is as if we were a group-being, each member of the group with its separate place and function, and all directed by a central being who is sometimes in front above the others, sometimes behind the scenes.


Sri Aurobindo: Your mental being was observing the vital and not quite easy about its vehemence, — for the natural base of the mental being is calm, thoughtfulness, restraint, control and balance, while the natural turn of the vital is dynamism, energy thrown into emotion, sensation and action.  All therefore was perfectly natural and in order.    As for the experience stated it was probably in the vital plane and such suddennesses and vividnesses of experience are characteristic of the vital — but they are not lasting, they only prepare.  It is when one has got into contact with what is beyond mind and vital and body and risen there that the great lasting fundamental realisations usually come.


Sri Aurobindo: The case of the girl in question seems to be of a fairly common kind. In one way or another a certain subtle faculty is awakened by which there is contact with some other plane of consciousness and its beings, usually with the vital or larger “life” worlds behind the material plane. These experiences are often of little value, trivial and full of misleading conceptions, messages or suggestions; the inexperienced or seer adds to them the formations and delusions of his own subliminal mind. It is only by training and experience that one can arrive at an elimination of these errors and establish the true use of the subtle faculties. These powers are often enough dangerous to their unexperienced or indisciplined possessor and the hysteria of the girl in question was obviously the result (a result that happens in many cases) of her allowing some being of the vital plane to delude and inﬂuence her.


Sri Aurobindo: This kind of thing has no connection at all with the spiritual or psychic experience of the Rishis and sages; it is rather akin to the experiences of mediums and others in Europe.   It seems that you do not pay sufﬁcient attention to the instructions that are sent to you from here. You were specially warned not to allow anything to take possession of you. But in relating one of your experiences repeated for several days you speak of something that was taking possession of you, even obliging you to make incoherent noises, and yet you say you do not know whether it was good or bad or what kind of force it was! It is evident from your description that it was a vital force trying to take violent possession of the body.


Sri Aurobindo: Nothing can be more dangerous than to allow this kind of loss of control and intrusion of an alien inﬂuence. In your present condition of ignorance, the vital being not yet sufﬁciently open, the psychic not yet sufﬁciently awake, a hostile power can easily intrude and pass itself off as the divine Force. Remember that no personality and no power is to be allowed to possess you. The divine Force will not act in this way; it will work ﬁrst to purify, to widen and enlighten and transform the consciousness, to open it to Light and Truth, to awaken the heart and the psychic being. Only afterwards will it take gradual and quiet control through a pure and conscious surrender.


Sri Aurobindo:   I have omitted all this time to reply to your letter forwarding your friend’s statement about his experiences. I am not very sure of its signiﬁcance. The “double” voice is a frequent phenomenon; it happens very often when one has been long repeating a mantra that a voice or consciousness within begins to repeat it automatically — also prayer can be taken up in the same way from within.


Sri Aurobindo: It is usually by an awakening of the inner consciousness or by the going in of the consciousness more deeply within from its outward poise that this happens.  This is supported in his case by the fact that he feels himself halfway to trance, his body seems to melt away, he does not feel the weight of the book etc.; all these are well-known signs of the inner consciousness getting awake and largely replacing the outer. The moral effects of his new condition would also indicate an awakening of the inner consciousness, the psychic or psychic-mental perhaps. But on the other hand, he seems to feel this other voice as if outside him and to have the sense of another being than himself, an invisible presence in the room.  The inner being is often felt as someone separate from or other than the ordinary self, but it is not usually felt outside.


Sri Aurobindo: So it may be that in this state of withdrawal he comes into contact with another plane or world and attracts to himself one of its beings who wants to share in his sadhana and govern it. This last is not a very safe phenomenon, for it is difﬁcult to say from the data what kind of being it is and the handing over of the government of one’s inner development to any other than the Divine, the Guru or one’s own psychic being may bring with it serious peril.  That is all I can say at present.


Sri Aurobindo: All the other circumstances which you relate are normal and would be the phenomena of an invasion of Ananda occupying the whole instrumental being while the silent inner being within remains separate as it does usually from all that comes from outside. The circumstance that is not clear is the Presence. There is nothing to indicate who or what it is. If it were an undesirable vital Presence producing a vital joy, there would usually be vital phenomena which would enable you to detect their origin, but these are not apparent here. In the circumstances the only course is to observe the experience without accepting any occupation of the being by what comes, taking it as only an experience which the inner being looks on as a witness, until the point that remains veiled is made clear.


Sri Aurobindo: P.S. There are several possible explanations but I do not speak of them as that might inﬂuence and interfere with the pure observation of the experience by bringing in a mental suggestion.


Sri Aurobindo: I have read your letter and I have also read it to the Mother. My conclusion about the experience — I had suspended judgment till now — is the same as hers.  We consider that it will be wiser for you to be on your guard about it in future. In the ﬁrst place it cannot be the Buddha — the Buddha’s presence would bring peace but could never give this kind of Ananda. Next, the suggestion based on an old subjective feeling of yours seems to be thrown on you to make you more readily admit some that the experience is a means of establishing on you.


Sri Aurobindo: Again the feeling you have that the Ananda is more than you can bear is a sign not favourable to the experience; you suppose that it is a want of adaptation that gives you the feeling, but it is more likely that it is because it is something foreign thrown on you through the vital with which the psychic being in you does not feel at home. Finally, it is not safe to admit while you are doing the Yoga here another inﬂuence, , which is not ours or part of the movement of this sadhana. If that takes place anything might happen and we would not be able to protect you against it because you would have stepped out of the circle of protection. You have hitherto been proceeding on a very sound line of development; a diversion of this kind which seems to be on the vital level might be a serious interference. No trust can be put on the beauty of the eyes or the face.


Sri Aurobindo: There are many Beings of the inferior planes who have a captivating beauty and can enthral with it and they can give too an Ananda which is not of the highest and may on the contrary by its lure take away from the path altogether.  When you have reached the stage of clear discernment where the highest Light is turned on all things that come, then experiences of many kinds may be safely faced, but now a strict vigilance must be exercised and all diversions rejected. It is necessary to keep one’s steps ﬁrmly on the straight road to the Highest; all else must wait for the proper time.    For the eyes, that experience had got a certain hold and it was not to be expected that it would altogether disappear all at once.


Sri Aurobindo: These things try to persist, but if the refusal is ﬁrm and unchanging, they fade away after a time or cease. The lessening of the intensity of the ananda is already a sign that the rejection is having its effect. You have only to persist and after a time the vital consciousness will be free.


Sri Aurobindo: I have no doubt that the action of this force once rejected will disappear in time. It is something with which you have been brought into contact, not something intimate to yourself to which part of your being is naturally responsive. That is shown by the inability to catch what the being who manifested wanted to convey to you. It seems to have been an onslaught, as you say, an attempted invasion by force and ruse. It is quite true that when there is the opening to the Light, the adverse Forces as well as the lower forces become active when they can do so.


Sri Aurobindo: The consciousness of the seeker has come out of its normal limits and is opening to the universal as well as upwards to the Self above and they take advantage of that to attempt an entrance. Such onslaughts however are not inevitable and you are probably right in thinking that you caught it in the atmosphere of. He has made experiments of many kinds in the occult ﬁeld and there one comes easily into contact with forces and beings of a darker nature and one needs a great power and light and purity — one’s own or a helping Power’s — to face them and overcome. There are also deﬁciencies or errors in one’s own nature which can open the door to these beings. But the best is if one can have nothing to do with them; for the conquest of the forces of the lower nature is a sufﬁciently heavy task without that complication.


Sri Aurobindo: If the work one has to do necessitates the contact and conﬂict with them, that is another matter. In your case I think this has been something of an accident and not a necessity of the development of your sadhana.     No, there was no special concentration or call from the Mother at that time.


Sri Aurobindo: It was at a time when she never sees anyone, so evidently she would not have put such a force upon you, nor does she usually exercise her power in this way. You did well to resist the impulsion. It is always necessary to keep the inner perception and will clear, conscious and in perfect balance and never to allow any force of impulsion, however it may present itself, to sweep without their discerning consent the vital or the body into action. Whatever appearance they may assume, such forces cannot be trusted; once the discriminating intelligence gives up its control, any kind of force can intervene in this way and a path is opened for unbalanced vital impulses to be used to the detriment of the sadhana. A psychic or spiritual control replacing the mental would not act in this way, but whatever intensity or ardour it may give, would maintain a clear perception of things, a perfect discrimination, a harmony between the inward and the outward reality.


Sri Aurobindo: It is only the vital that is swept by these impulses; the vital must always be kept under the control of the intelligence, the psychic or when that becomes dynamic, the higher spiritual consciousness.  The vision you had was of the mental plane and symbolic. It symbolised not so much your own position as the general difﬁculties which lie in the way of one’s going deep inside into the psychic centre and living there. The full of light was the inmost psychic centre; the dark place in between represents the veil of ignorance created by the gulf between this inmost psychic and the outer nature. The chakra turning round and round which prevents the approach from one side (the mental side)


Sri Aurobindo: is the activity of the ordinary mind; when the mind becomes quiet, then it is easier. The serpent is the vital energy which covers up the psychic and prevents approach from another (the vital) side.  Here again if the vital becomes quiet, then the approach is easier.  The blows on the forehead were perhaps the working of a force to open the centre there — for there between the eyes is the centre of the inner mind, will and vision. All these centres are closed in the ordinary consciousness or else only very slightly open on the surface.


Sri Aurobindo: If the inner mind centre opens, then the peace etc. from above can enter easily into the mind and afterwards into the vital and both mind and vital will become quiet.   The difﬁculty about the two parts of the mind is one that everybody has when the tendency to go within begins. It is solved in this sadhana by a sort of harmony being established by which even in doing one’s work and keeping the necessary outer activities one can still live within in the fullness of the inner life and experience.


Sri Aurobindo: Rely on the Mother always. These things are the ﬁrst beginnings of Yogic experience and the difﬁculties of the mind and vital (which are not the old ones you had but simply the ordinary difﬁculties of the adjustment and harmonisation of the different parts of the being) will get solved of themselves.  The experience you had was that of exteriorisation or going out of the body. The consciousness went up and remained above the body for a time. The feeling or vision of oneself in the form of an egg is frequent in such cases.


Sri Aurobindo: It is not always so, for many go out in an individualised consciousness with an awareness of a subtle body, subtle thought, subtle sensation etc. and move about in the vital or even in the physical world till they come back to the body. But when one begins, the vital body is at ﬁrst a little vague and the consciousness also with the result that all is at ﬁrst dim and unorganised. The serpent must be the Kundalini force which had left its coiled sleeping position in the Muladhara and taken the lengthened one in which it joins the embodied consciousness with the consciousness above.  The power of exteriorisation is one that can be used for many purposes by the Yogi when it has been developed.


Sri Aurobindo: It was a partial exteriorisation, part of the consciousness going out to the scene and surroundings described by you while the rest remained in the body and was aware both of the normal surroundings and, by communication or indirect participation, of what the other was experiencing. This is quite possible and for that no form of trance or loss of external consciousness is necessary. As for the cause of such an experience, it does not depend at all on one’s own ordinary mental or other interests; it comes by a sort of attraction or touch from someone who is there on the scene and who feels the need of sympathy, support or help of some kind, a need so strong that it forms a sort of call; it is very usually somebody quite unknown and it just depends on whom the call happens to touch because he is open at the time and receives the vibration and has the capacity to answer. Usually there is a sort of identiﬁcation of consciousness with that of the person calling so that one can see the surroundings and the things happening through him. It is the physical that becomes nervous at these experiences and this must be overcome; as the inner mental, vital, physical consciousness opens to things behind the thick physical veil all kinds of experiences may happen that are strange to the physical mind and its tendency to be apprehensive or nervous at these things must disappear.


Sri Aurobindo: It must be able to face even formidable things without fear.    A feeling like that of the shock and the stopping of the breath for a second and as if of falling down comes to many when the consciousness for a moment or a longer time exteriorises itself (goes up out of the body); the shock comes from the going up of the consciousness or from the return into the body. The Mother used to have that hundreds of times. It is not anything physical


Sri Aurobindo: ( the Doctor, as you say, found nothing). When this movement of the consciousness is more normal, the feeling will probably disappear.    You must have gone out of your body leaving it unprotected and there was an attack which you got rid of after coming into the body.


Sri Aurobindo: This part of the head from the ears down to the neck is the seat of the physical mind — the centre of the physical or externalising mind is in the throat joining the spine at the back.  It was an attack on the physical mind.  It looks as if it were an exteriorisation in which she goes out in her vital body. When one does so consciously and at will, it is all right, but this unconscious exteriorisation is not always safe.  The important question is what effect it has on her.


Sri Aurobindo: If she comes out of it strong and refreshed or quite normal, there is no cause for distress or anxiety; if she comes out exhausted or depressed, then there are forces that are pulling her out into the vital world to the detriment of her vital sheath and it should not continue.     It is clear that when you go out of your body like that you pass into a vital plane and as you are constantly attacked there and have fear, it is not desirable.  It seems to me I have explained all that to you before.


Sri Aurobindo: Everybody goes out into the vital world in that way, but it is not indispensable to the sadhana to have these experiences and it is better to postpone them till you have the truly helpful experiences — such as those narrated in a recent letter — and can build up a strong consciousness which can enter any plane without fear or danger.     As to your experience about the inkstand. When the vital being goes out, it moves on the vital plane and in the vital consciousness, and, even if it is aware of physical scenes and things, it is not with a physical vision.


Sri Aurobindo: It is possible for one who has trained his faculties to enter into touch with physical things although he is moving about in the vital body, to see and sense them accurately, even to act on them and physically move them.  But the ordinary sadhaka who has no knowledge or organised experience or training in these things cannot do it. He must understand that the vital plane is different from the physical and that things that happen there are not physical happenings, though, if they are of the right kind and properly understood and used, they may have a meaning and value for the earth life.  But also the vital consciousness is full of false formations and many confusions and it is not safe to move among them without knowledge and without a direct protection and guidance.


Sri Aurobindo:   Your three experiences related in your letter mean that you are going out in your vital body into the vital worlds and meeting the beings and formations of these worlds. The old man of the temple and the girls you saw are hostile beings of the vital plane.  It is better not to go out in this way, unless one has the protection of someone (physically present) who has knowledge and power over the vital world. As there is no one there who can do this for you, you should draw back from this movement.


Sri Aurobindo: Aspire for perfect surrender, calm, peace, light, consciousness and strength in the mind and the heart. When the mental being and psychic being are thus open, luminous and surrendered, then the vital can open and receive the same illumination. Till then premature adventures on the vital plane are not advisable.  If the movement cannot be stopped, then observe the following instructions:


Sri Aurobindo: (1) Never allow any fear to enter into you. Face all you meet and see in this world with detachment and courage.  (2) Ask for the protection of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother before you sleep or meditate. Use their names when you are attacked or tempted.  (3) Do not indulge in this world in any kind of sympathy such as you felt for the old man in the temple or accept such suggestions, e.g., that he was your spiritual preceptor, which was obviously false since you could have no other spiritual preceptor than Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.


Sri Aurobindo: It was because of this sympathy and the accepted suggestion that he was able to go inside you and create the pain you felt.  (4) Do not allow any foreign personality to enter into you, only the Light, Power etc. from above.  The outer work is only half the matter. There is also the consciousness within which does the work and that must develop from the mental-vital to the spiritual-psychic. How can it do that without experiences?


Sri Aurobindo: Also one can develop an intuitive consciousness which is helpful to the work.   What you say about the outer being is correct; it must change and manifest what is within in the inner nature. But for that one must have experiences in the inner nature and through these  the power of the inner nature grows till it can inﬂuence wholly and possess the outer being. To change the outer consciousness entirely without developing this inner consciousness would be too difﬁcult.


Sri Aurobindo: That is why these inner experiences are going on to prepare the growth of the inner consciousness. There is an inner mind, an inner vital, an inner physical consciousness which can more easily than the outer receive the higher consciousness above and put itself into harmony with the psychic being; when that is done the outer nature is felt as only a fringe on the surface, not as oneself, and is more easily transformed altogether.  Whatever difﬁculties there may still be in the outer nature, they will not make any difference to the fact that you are now awake within, the Mother’s force working in you and you her true child destined to be perfectly that in all ways. Put your faith and your thought entirely on her and you will go through all safely.


Sri Aurobindo:   What you express in the letter is the right way of thinking and seeing. The self-will of the mind wanting things in its own way and not in the Divine’s way was a great obstacle. With that gone the way should become much less rough and hard to follow.  The outer consciousness can grow in faith, ﬁdelity to the Divine, reverence, love, worship and adoration, great things in themselves, — though in fact these things too come from within, — but realisation can only take place when the inner being is awake with its vision and feeling of things unseen.


Sri Aurobindo: Till then, one can feel the results of the divine help and, if one has faith, know that they are the work of the Divine; but it is only then that one can feel clearly the Force at work, the divine Presence, the direct communion.  So long as you live only in thoughts and other movements of the surface consciousness, you cannot be conscious in the Yogic sense. It is when the mind becomes quiet that the real (inner) consciousness comes out or the higher consciousness above the mind comes down. It is only then also that the inner physical being becomes active and brings an alert consciousness and an intuitive sense into the body. Also the higher thought and the inner will comes then only.


Sri Aurobindo: The exterior being has to become aware of the inner — the veil between the inner and outer consciousness has to be removed, it is only then that a real Yogic consciousness begins. The outer has to be merely an instrument or channel for the inner to express itself and communicate with the outer physical world. The inner again has to have free communication with the universal on all the planes — it has to enter into the cosmic consciousness. The outer consciousness has to be remoulded and reshaped through the inner consciousness and the processes that must do it are the psychic by its inﬂuence and the higher consciousness by its descent. Naturally, in the process the outer being also will lose its separativeness and become aware of and, in a way, uniﬁed with the universal.


Sri Aurobindo: It is not that anything has been taken from you, but as you say at the end, your being is seen by you in two parts. That is a thing that happens as the sadhana proceeds and must happen in order that one may have completely the knowledge of oneself and the true consciousness. These two parts are the inner being and the outer being. The outer being (mind, vital and physical) has now become capable of quietude and it sits in meditation in a free, happy, vacant quietude which is the ﬁrst step towards the true consciousness. The inner being (inner mind, vital, physical) is not lost but gone inside — the outer part does not know where — but probably gone inside into union with the psychic.


Sri Aurobindo: The only thing that can have gone is something of the old nature that was standing in the way of this experience.   The silence descends into the inner being ﬁrst — as also other things from the higher consciousness. One can become aware of this inner being, calm, silent, strong, untouched by the movements of Nature, full of knowledge or light, and at the same time be aware of another lesser being, the small personality on the surface which is made up of the movements of Nature or else still subject to them or else, if not subject to them, still open to invasion by them. This is a condition that any number of sadhaks and Yogis have experienced. The inner being means the psychic, the inner mind, the inner vital, the inner physical.


Sri Aurobindo: In this condition none of these can be even touched, so there has been an essential puriﬁcation. All need not feel this division into two consciousnesses, but most do. When it is there, the will that decides the action is in the inner being, not in the outer — so the invasion of the outer by vital movements can in no way compel the action. It is on the contrary a very favourable stage in the transformation because the inner being can bring the whole force of the higher consciousness in it to change the nature wholly, observing the action of Nature without being affected by it, putting the force for change wherever needed and setting the whole being right as one does with a machine.  That is if one wants a transformation.


Sri Aurobindo: For many Vedantins don’t think it necessary — they say the inner being is, the rest is simply a mechanical continuation of the impetus of Nature in the physical man and will drop away with the body so that one can depart into Nirvana.    In fact all these ignorant vital movements originate from outside in the ignorant universal nature; the human being forms in his superﬁcial parts of being, mental, vital, physical a habit of certain responses to these waves from outside. It is these responses that he takes as his own character (anger, desire, sex etc.) and thinks he cannot be otherwise. But that is not so; he can change.


Sri Aurobindo: There is another consciousness deeper within him, his true inner being, which is his real self, but is covered over by the superﬁcial nature. This the ordinary man does not know, but the Yogi becomes aware of it as he progresses in his sadhana.  As the consciousness of this inner being increases by sadhana, the surface nature and its responses are pushed out and can be got rid of altogether. But the ignorant universal Nature does not want to let go and throws the old movements on the sadhak and tries to get them inside him again; owing to a habit the superﬁcial nature gives the old responses. If one can get the ﬁrm knowledge that these things are from outside and not a real part of oneself, then it is easier for the sadhak to repel such notions, or if they lay hold, he can get rid of them sooner.


Sri Aurobindo: That is why I say repeatedly that these things are not in yourself, but from outside.  The cry you heard was not in the physical heart, but in the emotional centre. The breaking of the wall meant the breaking of the obstacle or at least of some obstacle there between your inner and your outer being. Most people live in their ordinary outer ignorant personality which does not easily open to the Divine; but there is an inner being within them of which they do not know, which can easily open to the Truth and the Light. But there is a wall which divides them from it, a wall of obscurity and unconsciousness.


Sri Aurobindo: When it breaks down, then there is a release; the feelings of calm, Ananda, joy which you had immediately afterwards were due to that release. The cry you heard was the cry of the vital part in you overcome by the suddenness of the breaking of the wall and the opening.    The piercing of the veil between the outer consciousness and the inner being is one of the crucial movements in Yoga. For Yoga means union with the Divine, but it also means awaking ﬁrst to your inner self and then to your higher self, — a movement inward and a movement upward.


Sri Aurobindo: It is, in fact, only through the awakening and coming to the front of the inner being that you can get into union with the Divine. The outer physical man is only an instrumental personality and by himself he cannot arrive at this union, — he can only get occasional touches, religious feelings, imperfect intimations. And even these come not from the outer consciousness but from what is within us.  There are two mutually complementary movements; in one the inner being comes to the front and impresses its own normal motions on the outer consciousness to which they are unusual and abnormal; the other is to draw back from the outer consciousness, to go inside into the inner planes, enter the world of your inner self and wake in the hidden parts of your being.  When that plunge has once been taken, you are marked for the Yogic, the spiritual life and nothing can efface the seal that has been put upon you.


Sri Aurobindo: This inward movement takes place in many different ways and there is sometimes a complex experience combining all the signs of the complete plunge. There is a sense of going in or deep down, a feeling of the movement towards inner depths; there is often a stillness, a pleasant numbness, a stiffness of the limbs. This is the sign of the consciousness retiring from the body inwards under the pressure of a force from above, — that pressure stabilising the body into an immobile support of the inner life, in a kind of strong and still spontaneous. There is a feeling of waves surging up, mounting to the head, which brings an outer unconsciousness and an inner waking.


Sri Aurobindo: It is the ascending of the lower consciousness in the Adhara to meet the greater consciousness above. It is a movement analogous to that on which so much stress is laid in the Tantrik process, the awakening of the Kundalini, the Energy coiled up and latent in the body and its mounting through the spinal cord and the centres () and the Brahmarandhra to meet the Divine above.  In our Yoga it is not a specialised process, but a spontaneous uprush of the whole lower consciousness sometimes in currents or waves, sometimes in a less concrete motion, and on the other side a descent of the Divine Consciousness and its Force into the body. This descent is felt as a pouring in of calm and peace, of force and power, of light, of joy and ecstasy, of wideness and freedom and knowledge, of a Divine Being or a Presence — sometimes one of these, sometimes several of them or all together. The movement of ascension has different results: it may liberate the consciousness so that one feels no longer in the body, but above it or else spread in wideness with the body either almost non-existent or only a point in one’s free expanse.


Sri Aurobindo: It may enable the being or some part of the being to go out from the body and move elsewhere, and this action is usually accompanied by some kind of partial or else a complete trance. Or it may result in empowering the consciousness, no longer limited by the body and the habits of the external nature, to go within, to enter the inner mental depths, the inner vital, the inner (subtle) physical, the psychic, to become aware of its inmost psychic self or its inner mental, vital and subtle physical being and, it may be, to move and live in the domains, the planes, the worlds that correspond to these parts of the nature. It is the repeated and constant ascent of the lower consciousness that enables the mind, the vital, the physical to come into touch with the higher planes up to the supramental and get impregnated with their light and power and inﬂuence. And it is the repeated and constant descent of the Divine Consciousness and its Force that is the means for the transformation of the whole being and the whole nature. Once this descent becomes habitual, the Divine Force, the Power of the Mother begins to work, no longer from above only or from behind the veil, but consciously in the Adhara itself, and deals with its difﬁculties and possibilities and carries on the Yoga.


Sri Aurobindo: Last comes the crossing of the border. It is not a falling asleep or a loss of consciousness, for the consciousness is there all the time; only, it shifts from the outer and physical, becomes closed to external things and recedes into the inner psychic and vital part of the being. There it passes through many experiences and of these some can and should be felt in the waking state also; for both movements are necessary, the coming out of the inner being to the front as well as the going in of the consciousness to become aware of the inner self and nature. But for many purposes the ingoing movement is indispensable. Its effect is to break or at least to open and pass the barrier between this outer instrumental consciousness and that inner being which it very partially strives to express, and to make possible in future a conscious awareness of all the endless riches of possibility and experience and new being and new life that lie untapped behind the veil of this small and very blind and limited material personality which men erroneously think to be the whole of themselves.


Sri Aurobindo: It is the beginning and constant enlarging of this deeper and fuller and richer awareness that is accomplished between the inward plunge and the return from this inner world to the waking state.  The sadhak must understand that these experiences are not mere imaginations or dreams but actual happenings, for even when, as often occurs, they are formations only, of a wrong or misleading or adverse kind, they have still their power as formations and must be understood before they can be rejected and abolished. Each inner experience is perfectly real in its own way, although the values of different experiences differ greatly, but it is real with the reality of the inner self and the inner planes. It is a mistake to think that we live physically only or only with the outer mind and life. We are all the time living and acting on other planes of consciousness, meeting others there and acting upon them, and what we do and feel and think there, the forces we gather, the results we prepare have an incalculable importance and effect, unknown to us, upon our outer life.


Sri Aurobindo: Not all of it comes through, and what comes through takes another form in the physical — though sometimes there is an exact correspondence; but this little is at the basis of our outward existence. All that we become and do and bear in the physical life is prepared behind the veil within us. It is therefore of immense importance for a Yoga which aims at the transformation of life to grow conscious of what goes on within these domains, to be master there and be able to feel, know and deal with the secret forces that determine our destiny and our internal and external growth or decline.  It is equally important for those who want that union with the Divine without which the transformation is impossible. The aspiration could not be realised if you remained bound by your external self, tied to the physical mind and its petty movements.


Sri Aurobindo: It is not the outer being which is the source of the spiritual urge; the outer being only undergoes the inner drive from behind the veil. It is the inner psychic being in you that is the bhakta, the seeker after the union and the Ananda, and what is impossible for the outer nature left to itself becomes perfectly possible when the barrier is down and the inner self in the front. For the moment this comes strongly to the front or draws the consciousness powerfully into itself, peace, ecstasy, freedom, wideness, the opening to light and a higher knowledge begin to become natural, spontaneous, often immediate in their emergence.  Once the barrier breaks by the one movement or the other, you begin to ﬁnd that all the processes and movements necessary to the Yoga are within your reach and not as it seems in the outer mind difﬁcult or impossible. The inmost psychic self in you has already in it the Yogin and the bhakta and if it can fully emerge and take the lead, the spiritual turn of your outer life is predestined and inevitable.


Sri Aurobindo: In the initially successful sadhak it has already built a deep inner life, Yogic and spiritual, which is veiled only because of some strong outward turn the education and past ac


Sri Aurobindo: tivities have given to the thinking mind and lower vital parts. It is precisely to correct this outward orientation and take away the veil that he has to practise more strenuously the Yoga. Once the inner being has manifested strongly whether by the inward-going or the outward-coming movement, it is bound to renew its pressure, to clear the passage and ﬁnally come by its kingdom. A beginning of this kind is the indication of what is to happen on a greater scale hereafter.  The movement inward is all to the good — for going inward if one goes far enough brings one to the psychic.


Sri Aurobindo: The more peace there is the better; even if it is only a little at ﬁrst, that is so much gained. If the inward-drawing movement is held to, it will grow and the power to reject anger and other such movements will increase. It is this peace and inward psychic movement in you that we shall try for till it is done.   It is rather a pity that the fear came in and spoiled the inward movement — for this inward movement is exceedingly important for the sadhana. The increasing frequency and completeness of the psychic consciousness in you coming in and replacing the ordinary one has hitherto been the most hopeful sign of progress — but the establishment of an inward movement would be a still greater thing; for its natural result would be to liberate the soul within and to give you a stand in the inner being so that you would be able to regard any ﬂuctuations in the outer consciousness without being subjugated by them and without any interruption of the inner poise and freedom.


Sri Aurobindo: But the movement is bound to come back and fulﬁl itself. It is very good that the help comes when you call and that you can shake yourself free — it is another sign of the psychic growth.    It takes time of course to make the transition from one state of consciousness to another. The depth of feeling will come more and more as your consciousness draws back from the claim of external things and goes deeper in into the heart region seeing and feeling from there with the psychic to prompt and enlighten it.


Sri Aurobindo: Faith also will increase with that movement — for it is the outer intellect that is inﬁrm or deﬁcient in faith, the inner being in the heart has it always.    That is quite natural [ ]. The usual movement does not take place, but there is still a pressure habitual at the time under which the consciousness goes inside not into sleep but into some kind of samadhi in which a working takes place in the inner consciousness. As yet you have not developed the power of being conscious in this state nor the power of remembering what took place.


Sri Aurobindo:   It was probably not so much a sleep as a going inward under the pressure of the inﬂuence at the Pranam. In any case it was not a dream but an experience, an ascent into one of the higher ranges of consciousness above the mind — all of which have this character of vastness and peace everywhere.   ’s experiences are those which usually attend the withdrawal from the outer consciousness into an inner plane of experience.  The feeling of coldness of the body in the ﬁrst is one of the signs — like the immobility and stiffness of’s experience — that the consciousness is withdrawing from the outer or physical sheath and retiring inside.


Sri Aurobindo: The crystallisation was the form in which he felt the organisation of an inner consciousness which could receive at once ﬁrmly and freely from above. The crystals at once indicate organised formation and a ﬁrm transparence in which the greater vision and experience descending from the higher planes could be clearly reﬂected.  As for the other experience, his rejection of the waking consciousness evidently had the result of throwing him into an inner awareness in which he began to have contact with the supraphysical planes. What was meant by the sea of red colour and stars depends on the character of the red colour. If it was crimson, what he saw was the sea of the physical consciousness and physical life as it is represented to the inner symbolic vision; if it was purple red, then it was the sea of the vital consciousness and the vital life-force.


Sri Aurobindo: Perhaps, if he had not stopped his sense of the Mother’s presence, it would have been better, — he should rather, if he can, take it with him into the inner planes, then he would have had no occasion to fear.  In any case, if he wants to go into the inner consciousness and move in the inner planes — which will inevitably happen if he shuts off the waking consciousness in his meditation — he must cast away fear. Probably he expected to get the silence or the touch of the divine consciousness by following out the suggestion of the Gita. But the silence or the touch of the divine consciousness can be equally and for some more easily got in the waking meditation through the Mother’s presence and the descent from above. The inward movement, however, is probably unavoidable and he should try to understand and, not shrinking or afraid, to go to it with the same conﬁdence and faith in the Mother as he has in the waking meditation.


Sri Aurobindo: His dreams are of course experiences on the inner (vital) plane.   P.S. The dream about the Mahadeva image may mean that someone (not of this world, of course) wanted to mislead him and make him confuse some narrower traditional form of the past with the greater living Truth that he is seeking.


Sri Aurobindo:   The difﬁculty indicated by you in your last (long) letter indicates that you enter into the inner being and begin to have experiences there, but there is a difﬁculty in organising them or seeing them coherently. The difﬁculty is because the inner mind is not yet sufﬁciently habituated to act and see the inside things and therefore the ordinary outer mind interferes and tries to arrange them; but the outer mind is unable to see the meaning of inner things. When the outer mind is left outside altogether, the things inside begin to be seen vividly and clearly, but the inner mind not being active, either their coherence is not seen or the consciousness lingers in the confused experiences of the lower vital plane and does not get through to the deeper, more coherent and signiﬁcant experiences. A development of the inner consciousness is needed — when that development takes place, then all will become more clear and coherent.


Sri Aurobindo: This development will take place if, without getting disturbed, you quietly aspire and go on calling the Mother’s Force to do what is needed.  Your call will always reach the Mother. If you remain quiet and conﬁdent, you will in time become aware of the answer.  The more the mind becomes quiet, the clearer will it become to you and you will feel her working. From time to time you can write of your experiences; wherever an answer is needed, I will answer.


Sri Aurobindo: It is the inner consciousness that you felt separated from the body, liberated from the identiﬁcation with the body, and yet in touch with all the material surroundings. It is a very helpful experience — indispensable for the Yoga.    It is that the consciousness is detaching itself from the body.  Usually in men it is identiﬁed with the body and bound to it — in Yoga it detaches itself and becomes free.


Sri Aurobindo: The body is no longer felt as oneself, but as something not oneself, something that one carries with oneself or else as an instrument which one uses for certain purposes.    If you went inside and lost consciousness of the outer world, it would be called a kind of samadhi — but this experience can be got in the waking state also. It is a liberation from body consciousness and an awakening into the spiritual wideness. At ﬁrst it is usually felt as a void of all other things but consciousness alone or existence alone.


Sri Aurobindo:   The feeling [] of having no head usually means that the mental consciousness is no longer imprisoned in the head at the time — but silent and extended.  The condition which you feel is one which is very well known in sadhana. It is a sort of passage or transition, a state of inwardness which is growing but not yet completed — at that time to speak or throw oneself outward is painful.


Sri Aurobindo: What is necessary is to be very quiet and remain within oneself all the time until the movement is completed; one should not speak or only a little and in a low quiet way nor concentrate the mind on outward things. You should also not mind what people say or question; although they are practising sadhana, they know nothing about these conditions and if one becomes quiet or withdrawn they think one must be sad or ill. The Mother did not ﬁnd you at all like that, sad or ill; it is simply a phase or temporary state in the sadhana that she has experience of and knows very well.    The condition [] lasts often for a number of days, sometimes many, until something deﬁnite begins.


Sri Aurobindo: Remain conﬁdent and quiet.  What you feel as the new life is the growth of the inner being in you; the inner being is the true being and as it grows the whole consciousness begins to change. This feeling and your new attitude towards people are signs of the change. The seeing of inner things also usually comes with this growth of the inner being and consciousness; it is an inner vision which awakes in most sadhaks when they enter this stage.  It is also a characteristic of this inner consciousness that even when it is active, there is felt behind the action or containing it a complete quietude or silence.


Sri Aurobindo: The more one concentrates, the more this quietude and silence increases. That is why there seems to be all quiet within even though all sorts of things may be taking place within.  It is also quite usual that what takes place in the inner consciousness should not express itself at present in the outer physical. It at ﬁrst creates changes inside, but takes possession of the outer instruments only afterwards.


Sri Aurobindo: The things you feel are due to the fact that the consciousness goes inside, so physical things are felt as if they were at a distance. The same phenomenon can happen when one goes into another plane of consciousness and sees physical things from there. But it is probably the ﬁrst that is happening with you.  When one goes quite inside, then physical things disappear, — when some connection is kept, then they become distant. But this is a transitory change.


Sri Aurobindo: Afterwards you will be able to have the two consciousnesses together, be in your psychic in one part of yourself with all the experience and activities of the psychic being and nature and yet with your surface self fully awake and active in physical things with the psychic support and inﬂuence behind this outer action.    It is a very good sign that when the thoughts and the attempt at disturbance come there is something that remains calm and cool — for that, like the psychic reply from within, shows that the inner consciousness is ﬁxed or ﬁxing itself in part of the being.  This is a well-recognised stage of the inner change in sadhana.  Equally good is the emerging of the self-existent Ananda from within not dependent on outward things.


Sri Aurobindo: It is a fact that this inner gladness and happiness is something peaceful and happy at once — it is not an excited movement like the vital outward pleasure, though it can be more ardent and intense. Another good result is the fading out of the feeling that “the work is mine” and the power to do it with the outward consciousness not engaging the inner being.  The sense of release as if from jail always accompanies the emergence of the psychic being or the realisation of the self above. It is therefore spoken of as a liberation,. It is a release into peace, happiness, the soul’s freedom not tied down by the thousand ties and cares of the outward ignorant existence.


Sri Aurobindo: It was of course the Mother’s face you saw in your vision, but probably in one of her supraphysical, not her physical form and face — that is also indicated by the great light that came from the form and rendered it invisible.    I am glad to hear of the development you speak of in your dealing with others. It is a power proper to the Yoga consciousness that is developing in you, because the Mother’s force is at work and is developing the inner consciousness. For it is one of the powers of this inner consciousness to bring about what it sees to be the right thing by simply communicating in entire silence to the consciousness of another.


Sri Aurobindo: That is the true way of acting — through the power of the inner consciousness, its knowledge, vision and will. The other thing, the coming of what you want to see on the street, is another form of the same action of the inner conscious force. As for the anger it is evidently in process of control and elimination and its recurrences cannot fail to disappear after a time as the new consciousness increases.  There is an inner being in man of which he is not usually conscious; he lives in a superﬁcial consciousness which he calls himself and which is normally concerned with outer things; one is aware of the inner being either not at all or only as something behind from which feelings, ideas, impulses, imperatives etc. come occasionally into the outer. When one ceases to be mainly concerned with outer and surface things one can go more inside nearer to this inner being and become aware of things other than the ego and the outer nature.


Sri Aurobindo: One can become aware of the inner being and live in it and get detached from the hold of outer things, dealing with them from an inner consciousness (felt as separate from the outer consciousness) according to an inner truth of the soul and spirit and no longer according to the demands of the outer Nature.   If one lives within, then it is the inner consciousness that one depends on, not the outer. The inner consciousness can then always go on independent of the outer state to which it gives attention only when it chooses.   It is good. Fasten on the true thing, the concentration in the inner being and the inner life.


Sri Aurobindo: All these outer things are of minor importance and it is only when the inner life is well established that the difﬁculties with which they are hampered can get their true solution. That you have seen several times when you went inside. To be too much occupied in mind with the outer difﬁculties keeps it externalised. Living inwardly you will ﬁnd the Mother close to you and realise her will and her action.


Sri Aurobindo:   Do not allow outward events to disturb you or be the cause of suggestions. It is as with the words of people and the suggestions they raise which disturb uselessly the consciousness. Both should be rejected. Live in the inner consciousness which can remain in its own calm and light whatever happens outside.


Sri Aurobindo:   To remain within, above and untouched, full of the inner consciousness and the inner experience, — listening, when need be, to or another with the surface consciousness, but with even that undisturbed, not either pulled outwards or invaded, that is the perfect condition for the sadhana.


Sri Aurobindo: You must gather yourself within more ﬁrmly. If you disperse yourself constantly, go out of the inner circle, you will constantly move about in the pettinesses of the ordinary outer nature and under the inﬂuences to which it is open. Learn to live within, to act always from within, from constant inner communion with the Mother. It may be difﬁcult at ﬁrst to do it always and completely, but it can be done if one sticks to it — and it is at that price, by learning to do that that one can have the siddhi in the Yoga.


Sri Aurobindo: It is a very serious difﬁculty in one’s Yoga — the absence of a central will always superior to the waves of the Prakriti forces, always in touch with the Mother, imposing its central aim and aspiration on the nature. That is because you have not yet learned to live in your central being; you have been accustomed to run with every wave of Force, no matter of what kind, that rushed upon you and to identify yourself with it for the time being. It is one of the things that has to be unlearned; you must ﬁnd your central being with the psychic as its basis and live in it.


Sri Aurobindo: To be aware of one’s central consciousness and to know the action of the forces is the ﬁrst deﬁnite step towards self-mastery.


Sri Aurobindo: In the things of the subtle kind having to do with the working of consciousness in the sadhana, one has to learn to feel and observe and see with the inner consciousness and to decide by the intuition with a plastic look on things which does not make set deﬁnitions and rules as one has to do in outward life.     Yes. When one is in the right consciousness, then there is the right movement, the right happiness, everything in harmony with the Truth.


Sri Aurobindo: When there is the wrong consciousness, there is demand, dissatisfaction, doubt, all kinds of disharmony.     It [] is only the proper condition for receptivity. Naturally, it is the proper thing to do if you want to be receptive or become conscious of inner things.


Sri Aurobindo: So long as the mind is jumping about or rushing out to outside things, it is not possible to be inward, collected, conscious within.     Obviously to live in the silent Brahman, the best way is to live within where one can have the silence and resist all outward pulls. As much avoidance of outer pulls — contact does not matter, if there is no pull outward — as will help that, can be very helpful.


Sri Aurobindo: It is only an entire seclusion that for occult rather than mental reasons is not altogether desirable unless one has already a great inner strength and poise.  It is the past habit of the vital that makes you repeatedly go out into the external part; you must persist and establish the opposite habit of living in your inner being which is your true being and of looking at everything from there. It is from there that you get the true thought, the true vision and understanding of things and of your own self and nature.


Sri Aurobindo: You must have somehow externalised yourself too much. It is only by living in one’s inner consciousness and doing everything from there that the right psychic condition can be kept. Otherwise it goes inside and the external covers it up. It is not lost, but hidden — one must go inside again to recover it.


Sri Aurobindo: When one comes out of the inner condition, one gets externalised in the outer consciousness. It is difﬁcult for the outer nature to remain always within, its nature is to pull outward. But when this happens, one must learn to look quietly at what is happening, observe what the outer nature does but not identify with it, not feel that it is oneself that is doing that, but only something that one is observing, while one’s real self is that which observes and that which goes within. If one can do that, then there is no disturbance and it is easier to go back again inward.


Sri Aurobindo:  As for the activity going on, it is so with everybody. What has to be done, is not to be upset by it, but to learn to live inside where one always feels the force — or even if one does not feel because the consciousness is covered up, it is still there and after a time dispels the covering and is visible again. Outside the imperfect activities will go on till the whole being is changed and that cannot be done in a day.  Your mistake is to get upset because the exterior being is still there with its imperfections. What you ought to do is not to mind too much, to aspire for changing it but not get upset, to have conﬁdence that it will change in time and meanwhile to stand back from it, to live in the part of you that is open to the force and to regard the rest as you would a cut that has to be cleaned or anything else belonging to you but external.


Sri Aurobindo:   The large inner mind and the true vital having shown themselves are bound to get the mastery; but the old lower nature, especially the vital part of it, is bound to struggle for reafﬁrming its hold on the consciousness. To remain very ﬁrm and repel its attacks till they lose their strength, is necessary.


Sri Aurobindo: The difﬁculty is that you attach so much importance to things that are of quite a small value. You behave as if to have or have not a table is something of supreme importance and worry and excite yourself so much about the rights and wrongs of the matter that you allow it to upset your whole peace of mind and make you fall from the true condition. These things are small and relative — you may have a new table or you may not have a new table, neither way is of any very great importance and it makes no difference to the Divine Purpose in you. The one thing important is to increase calm and peace and the descent of the Divine Force, to grow in equality and inward light and consciousness. Outward things have to be done with a great quiet, doing whatever is necessary but not exciting or upsetting yourself about anything.


Sri Aurobindo: It is only so that you can advance steadily and quickly. When you feel the Mother’s Force about you, the peace closely round you that is the one thing of importance — these small outward things can be settled in a hundred different ways, it does not really matter.    The entire dependence on the inner realisation and not on outward things for their own sake and the seeking of the Divine for the sake of the Divine and without any tinge of ego motive is indeed the most difﬁcult thing for the mind even of the Sadhak to learn; but it is the essence of the highest realisation and the condition of a perfect self-ﬁnding.


Sri Aurobindo:   When you come to the Divine, lean inwardly on the Divine and do not let other things affect you.  Detach yourself from the outer being; live in the inner; let the Force work from the inner being — it will change the outer being.


Sri Aurobindo: It is on the surface that the transformation is done. One comes up to the surface with what one has gained in the depths, to change it. It may be you need to go in again and ﬁnd it difﬁcult to make the movement back quickly. When the whole being becomes plastic you will be able to make whatever movement is needed more quickly.


Sri Aurobindo: Yes, that is right. Relying on outer methods mainly never succeeds very well. It is only when there is the inner poise that the outer movement is really effective — and then it comes of itself.