Datasets:

Jaredquek
/

AuroMiraWorks

Dataset card Viewer Files Files and versions Community

Split (1)

train · 37.8k rows

text stringlengths 12 3.06k
Sri Aurobindo: But if we are awake in the inward physical, we shall feel the light, power or Ananda ﬂowing through the body, the limbs, nerves, blood, breath and, through the subtle body, affecting the most material cells and making them conscious and blissful and we shall sense directly the Divine Power and Presence. These are only two instances out of a thousand that are possible and can be constantly experienced by the sadhaka. So far as it [] can be said to be distinguishable by outward signs, it is a state of fundamental passivity in which one is and does what the forces of the physical plane make one be and do. When one lives in the mind, there is an active mental intelligence and mental will that tries to control and shape action and experience and life and everything else. When one is in the vital one is full of energy and enthusiasm and passion and force which may be right or wrong, but is very much alive.
Sri Aurobindo: These things in the physical inertia either disappear or become weak or are forces that act upon the system occasionally but are not possessed by it. This condition may not be absolute, for one has a mind and a vital, but it is what predominates. There are two ways of getting out of this — one is to rise above in the self and see the physical from there as an instrument, not oneself, the other is to bring down the divine Force from above and make the physical the instrument of that Force. The forces of the physical mind, vital physical, material consciousness [].
Sri Aurobindo: Of course, as I said, the statement must be taken with a qualiﬁcation, for the true mind and vital are also there, but in this condition [ ] it is the forces of the physical consciousness that predominate and determine the general condition which is a proneness to and sometimes. The physical consciousness? It opens just like the rest, receives a new consciousness, obeys the Force, feels a change even in the cells, aspires to and seeks self-giving and union with the Divine. It [] is to record the divine or true appearance of things and return to them the reaction of an equal Ananda without dislike or desire. Everything has a physical part — even the mind has a physical part; there is a mental physical, a mind of the body and the material.
Sri Aurobindo: So the emotional being has a physical part. It has no location separate from the rest of the emotional. One can only distinguish it when the consciousness becomes sufﬁciently subtle to do so. That is the nature of the mental physical to go on repeating without use the movement that has happened. It is what we call the mechanical mind — it is strong in childhood because the thinking mind is not developed and has besides a narrow range of interests.
Sri Aurobindo: Afterwards it becomes an undercurrent in the mental activities. It must now have risen up with the other characteristics of the mental physical because it is in the physical that the action has come down. Sometimes also when there is silence of the mind, these things come up till they also are quieted down.
Sri Aurobindo: The mechanical mind is a sort of engine — whatever comes to it it puts into the machine and goes on turning it round and round — no matter what it is. From what you describe it seems that you have got into contact with the mechanical mind whose nature is to go on turning round in a circle on the thoughts that come into it. This sometimes happens when the thinking mind is quiet.
Sri Aurobindo: This is part of the physical mind and you should not be disturbed or alarmed by its rising up, but see what it is and quiet it down or get control of its movements. What is called the mechanical mind is necessary for the maintenance (in the physical) of things gained — it is by conservation and repetition that Nature does that. The subconscient is the basis of conservation and the mechanical mind is the means of repetition. Only they have to be enlightened and change and conserve and repeat the new divine things and not the old undivine ones.
Sri Aurobindo: If there is a strong activity of the higher parts of the consciousness, the possibility of the mechanical mind working is very much diminished. It may come up in moments of relaxation or fatigue but usually it is active only in a subordinate way that does not attract notice. When the higher consciousness takes hold of the mechanical mind, it ceases to be mechanical.
Sri Aurobindo: The physical vital is the being of small desires and greeds etc. — the vital physical is the nervous being; they are closely connected together. The vital physical governs all the small daily reactions to outward things — reactions of the nerves and the body consciousness and the reﬂex reactions and sensations; it motives much of the ordinary actions of man and joins with the lower parts of the vital proper in producing lust, jealousy, anger, violence etc. In its lowest parts (vital-material) it is the agent of pain, physical illness etc.
Sri Aurobindo: The vital physical forces can be received from anywhere by the body, from around, below or above. The order of the planes is in reference to each other, not in reference to the body. In reference to each other, the vital physical is below the physical mind, but above the material: but at the same time these powers interpenetrate each other. The body energy is a manifestation of material forces supported by a vital-physical energy which is the vital energy precipitated into matter and conditioned by it.
Sri Aurobindo: By material is meant the body consciousness, the consciousness of Matter etc. Physical is a wider term. There is for instance a physical mind (which cannot be called material) dealing with outside earthly things.
Sri Aurobindo: A great part of the body consciousness is subconscient and the body consciousness and the subconscient are closely bound together. The body and the physical do not coincide — the body consciousness is only part of the whole physical consciousness. What you describe is the material consciousness; it is mostly subconscient, but the part of it that is conscious, is mechanical, inertly moved by habits or by the forces of the lower nature. Always repeating the same unintelligent and unenlightened movements, it is attached to the routine and established rule of what already exists, unwilling to change, unwilling to receive the Light or obey the higher Force.
Sri Aurobindo: Or, if it is willing, then it is unable. Or if it is able, then it turns the action given to it by the Light or the Force into a new mechanical routine and so takes out of it all soul or life. It is obscure, stupid, indolent, full of ignorance and inertia, darkness and slowness of tamas. It is this material consciousness into which we are seeking to bring ﬁrst the higher (divine or spiritual) Light and Power and Ananda, and then the supramental Truth which is the object of our Yoga. But there is an obstinate dark and inert resistance both from material Nature and from the physical consciousness of the sadhaks — of which the lower vital and the material consciousness, both of them still unregenerated, are the cause.
Sri Aurobindo: It [] is the most physical grade of the physical — there is the mental physical, the vital physical, the material physical. Yes — or at least it [] is a separate part of the physical consciousness. Physical mind for instance is narrow and limited and often stupid, but not inert. Matter
Sri Aurobindo: consciousness is on the contrary inert as well as largely subconscious — active only when driven by an energy, otherwise inactive and immobile. When one ﬁrst falls into direct contact with this level, the feeling in the body is that of inertia and immobility, in the vital physical exhaustion or lassitude, in the physical mind absence of and or only the most ordinary thoughts and impulses. It took me a long time to get down any kind of light or power into this level. But when once it is illumined, the advantage is that the subconscient becomes conscient and this removes a very fundamental obstacle from the sadhana.
Sri Aurobindo: By the gross physical is meant the earthly and bodily physical — as experienced by the outward sense mind and senses. But that is not the whole of Matter. There is a subtle physical also with a subtler consciousness in it which can (for instance) go to a distance from the body and yet feel and be aware of things in a not merely mental or vital way. As for mind and vital they are everywhere — there is an obscure mind and life even in the cells of the body, the stones or in molecules and atoms.
Sri Aurobindo: It [] is difﬁcult to realise without deﬁnite experience, e.g. as when light or ananda or force come into the body and one feels it working as if in the cells, yet with a little attention it becomes clear that it is not the material cells, but something more subtle that feels it. There is what is called the nervous envelope surrounding the body — you are probably seeing the and the nervous envelope in one view.
Sri Aurobindo: The contains the. Only it is not bound to itself and can contract or expand unlike the material body. The physical nerves are part of the material body, but they are extended into subtle nerves in the subtle body and there is a connection between the two.
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, there are nerves in the subtle body. The physical nerves have many centres or plexuses. The nervous being proper is part of the physical — and it starts from the physical centre, the Muladhara.
Sri Aurobindo: The nerves are distributed all over the body — but the vitalphysical action is concentrated in its origin between the Muladhara and the centre just above it. Yes []. Sheaths is simply a term for bodies, because each is superimposed on the other and acts as a covering and can be cast off. Thus the physical body itself is called the food sheath and its throwing off is what is called death.
Sri Aurobindo: You can only distinguish [] either by intuition or by experience and then you have established direct knowledge of the different sheaths. Everyone carries around him an environmental consciousness or atmosphere through which he is in relation with others or with the universal forces. It is through this that these forces or the thoughts or feelings of others enter.
Sri Aurobindo: The environmental is not a world — it is an individual thing. The individual is not limited to the physical body — it is only the external consciousness which feels like that.
Sri Aurobindo: As soon as one gets over this feeling of limitation, one can feel ﬁrst the inner consciousness which is connected with the body but does not belong to it, afterwards the planes of consciousness above the body — also a consciousness surrounding the body, but part of oneself, part of the individual being, through which one is in contact with the cosmic forces and with other beings. This last is what I have called the environmental consciousness. Each man has his own personal consciousness entrenched in his body and gets into touch with his surroundings only through his body and senses and the mind using the senses. Yet all the time the universal forces are pouring into him without his knowing it.
Sri Aurobindo: He is aware only of thoughts, feelings etc. that rise to the surface and these he takes for his own. Really they come from outside in mind waves, vital waves, waves of feeling and sensation etc. which take particular forms in him and rise to the surface after they have got inside. But they do not get into his body at once. He carries about with him an environmental consciousness (called by the Theosophists the aura) into which they ﬁrst enter. If you can become conscious of this environmental self of yours, then you can catch the thought, passion, suggestion or force of illness, or whatever it may be, before it enters and prevent it from entering into you.
Sri Aurobindo: If things in you are thrown out, they often do not go altogether but take refuge in this environmental atmosphere and from there try to get in again or they go to a distance outside but linger on the outskirts or even perhaps far off, waiting till they get an opportunity to attempt entrance. It [] can become silent when there is the wideness. One can become conscious of it and deal with what passes through it. A man without it would be without contact with the rest of the world. These things [] usually hide in recesses of the vital or the physical in which there is not yet the full force of the Peace and Light.
Sri Aurobindo: When they are quite driven out from there, they may lodge in the subconscient and send up suggestions from there. Thrown out altogether they remain in the environmental consciousness and try to act from there, but then they are no longer part of one’s own consciousness and are not felt as such but as something trying to come in from outside. One can be free [], but one cannot say that the freedom has been made absolutely complete or secure until the complete transformation takes place. For these things always remain in the environmental consciousness or even at a distance in the universal itself and take any opportunity to come in from there.
Sri Aurobindo: These [] are things that wander about in the atmosphere and jump upon one without notice. It is often difﬁcult to see where precisely they come from and often there is no reason at all or any inviting cause in oneself. They have simply to be thrown off as when something falls on the body.
Sri Aurobindo: There is no mystery []. These things were violent and obstinate in you for a long time and you were indulging them — hence they acquired a great force to return even after you began rejecting them, ﬁrst because of habit, secondly because of their belief that they have acquired a right over you, thirdly because of the habit of assent and passive response to them or endurance of them that has been stamped on the physical consciousness. This physical consciousness is not as yet liberated, it has not begun to be as responsive to the higher force as the vital, so it cannot resist their invasion.
Sri Aurobindo: So these forces when thrown out retreat into the environmental consciousness and remain there concealed and at any opportunity make an attack on the centres accustomed to receive them (external mind and the external emotional) and get in. This happens with most sadhaks. Two things are necessary — (1) to open fully the physical to the higher forces, (2) to reach the stage when even if the forces attack, they cannot come fully in, the inner being remaining calm and free. Then even if there is still a surface difﬁculty, there will not be these overpowerings. They [] are two quite different things.
Sri Aurobindo: What is stored in the subconscient — impressions, memories, rise up from there into the conscious parts. In the environmental things are not stored up and ﬁxed, although they move about there. It is full of mobility, a ﬁeld of vibration or passage of forces. In our Yoga we mean by the subconscient that quite submerged part of our being in which there is no wakingly conscious and coherent thought, will or feeling or organised reaction, but which yet receives obscurely the impressions of all things and stores them up in itself and from it too all sorts of stimuli, of persistent habitual movements, crudely repeated or disguised in strange forms can surge up into dream or into the waking nature. For if these impressions rise up most in dream in an incoherent and disorganised manner, they can also and do rise up into our waking consciousness as a mechanical repetition of old thoughts, old mental, vital and physical habits or an obscure stimulus to sensations, actions, emotions which do not originate in or from our conscious thought or will and are even often opposed to its perceptions, choice or dictates.
Sri Aurobindo: In the subconscient there is an obscure mind full of obstinate sanskaras, impressions, associations, ﬁxed notions, habitual reactions formed by our past, an obscure vital full of the seeds of habitual desires, sensations and nervous reactions, a most obscure material which governs much that has to do with the condition of the body. It is largely responsible for our illnesses; chronic or repeated illnesses are indeed mainly due to the subconscient and its obstinate memory and habit of repetition of whatever has impressed itself upon the body consciousness. But this subconscient must be clearly distinguished from the subliminal parts of our being such as the inner or subtle physical consciousness, the inner vital or inner mental; for these are not at all obscure or incoherent or ill-organised, but only veiled from our surface consciousness. Our surface constantly receives something, inner touches, communications or inﬂuences, from these sources but does not know for the most part whence they come. The subconscient is below the waking physical consciousness — it is an automatic, obscure, incoherent, half-unconscious realm into which light and awareness can with difﬁculty come.
Sri Aurobindo: The inner vital and physical are quite different — they have a larger, plastic, subtler, freer and richer consciousness than the surface vital and physical, much more open to the Truth and in direct touch with the universal. The subconscient is not the whole foundation of our nature; it is only the lower basis of the Ignorance and governs mostly the lower vital and physical exterior consciousness and these again affect the higher parts of the nature. While it is necessary to see what it is and how it acts, one must not be too preoccupied with this dark side or this apparent aspect of the instrumental being.
Sri Aurobindo: One should rather regard it as something not oneself, a mask of false nature imposed on the true being by the Ignorance. The true being is the inner with all its vast possibilities of reaching and expressing the Divine and especially the inmost, the soul, the psychic Purusha which is always in its essence pure, divine, turned to all that is good and true and beautiful. The exterior being has to be taken hold of by the inner being and turned into an instrument no longer of the upsurgings of the ignorant subconscient Nature, but of the Divine. It is by remembering always that and opening the nature upwards that the Divine Consciousness can be reached and descend from above into the whole inner and outer existence, mental, vital, physical, the subconscient, the subliminal, all that we overtly or secretly are. This should be the main preoccupation.
Sri Aurobindo: To dwell solely on the subconscient and the aspect of imperfection creates depression and should be avoided. One has to keep a right balance and stress on the positive side most, recognising the other but only to reject and change it. This and a constant faith and reliance on the Mother are what is needed for the transformation to come. The Subconscient is the basis of much of the lower activities — that is now generally admitted.
Sri Aurobindo: The subconscious is the evolutionary basis in us, it is not the whole of our hidden nature, nor is it the whole origin of what we are. But things can rise from the subconscient and take shape in the conscious part and much of our smaller vital and physical instincts, movements, habits, character-forms has this source. There are three occult sources of our action — the superconscient, the subliminal, the subconscient, but of none of them are we in control or even aware.
Sri Aurobindo: What we are aware of is the surface being which is only an instrumental arrangement. The source of all is the general Nature, — universal Nature individualising itself in each person; for this general Nature deposits certain habits of movement, personality, character, faculties, dispositions, tendencies in us, and that, whether formed now or before our birth, is what we usually call ourselves. A good deal of this is in habitual movement and use in our known conscious part on the surface, a great deal more is concealed in the other unknown three which are below or behind the surface. But what we are on the surface is being constantly set in motion, changed, developed or repeated by the waves of the general Nature coming in on us either directly or else indirectly through others, through circumstances, through various agencies or channels. Some of this ﬂows straight into the conscious part and acts there, but our mind ignores its source, appropriates it and regards all that as its own; a part comes secretly into the subconscient or sinks into it and waits for an opportunity of rising up into the conscious surface; a good deal goes into the subliminal and may at any time come out — or may not, may rather rest there as unused matter.
Sri Aurobindo: Part passes through and is rejected, thrown back or thrown out or spilt into the universal sea. Our nature is a constant activity of forces supplied to us out of which (or rather out of a small amount of it) we make what we will or can. What we make seems ﬁxed and formed for good, but in reality it is all a play of forces, a ﬂux, nothing ﬁxed or stable; the appearance of stability is given by constant repetition and recurrence of the same vibrations and formations. That is why our nature can be changed in spite of Vivekananda’s saying and Horace’s adage and in spite of the conservative resistance of the subconscient, but it is a difﬁcult job because the master mode of Nature is this obstinate repetition and recurrence. As for the things in our nature that are thrown away from us by rejection but come back, it depends on where you throw them.
Sri Aurobindo: Very often there is a sort of procedure about it. The mind rejects its mentalities, the vital its vitalities, the physical its physicalities — these usually go back into the corresponding domain of general Nature. It all stays at ﬁrst, when that happens, in the environmental consciousness which we carry about with us, by which we communicate with the outside Nature, and often it persistently rushes back from there — until it is so absolutely rejected, or thrown far away as it were, that it cannot return upon us any more. But when what the thinking and willing mind rejects is strongly supported by the vital, it leaves the mind indeed but sinks down into the vital, rages there and tries to rush up again and reoccupy the mind and compel or capture our mental acceptance. When the higher vital too — the heart or the larger vital dynamis rejects it, it sinks from there and takes refuge in the lower vital with its mass of small current movements that make up our daily littleness.
Sri Aurobindo: When the lower vital too rejects it, it sinks into the physical consciousness and tries to stick by inertia or mechanical repetition. Rejected even from there it goes into the subconscient and comes up in dreams, in passivity, in extreme tamas. The Inconscient is the last resort of the Ignorance. As for the waves that recur from the general Nature, it is the natural tendency of the inferior forces there to try and perpetuate their action in the individual, to rebuild what he has unbuilt of their deposits in him, so they return on him, often with an increased force, even with a stupendous violence, when they ﬁnd their inﬂuence rejected. But they cannot last long once the environmental consciousness is cleared — unless the “Hostiles” take a hand.
Sri Aurobindo: Even then they can indeed attack, but if the sadhak has established his position in the inner self, they can only attack and retire. It is true that we bring most of ourselves — or rather most of our predispositions, tendencies of reaction to the universal Nature — from past lives. Heredity only affects strongly the external being; besides, all the effects of heredity are not accepted even there, only those that are in consonance with what we are to be or not preventive of it at least. The subconscient is a concealed and unexpressed inarticulate consciousness which works below all our conscious physical activities. Just as what we call the superconscient is really a higher consciousness above from which things descend into the being, so the subconscient is below the body consciousness and things come up into the physical, the vital and the mind-nature from there.
Sri Aurobindo: Just as the higher consciousness is superconscient to us and supports all our spiritual possibilities and nature, so the subconscient is the basis of our material being and supports all that comes up in the physical nature. Men are not ordinarily conscious of either of these planes of their own being, but by sadhana they can become aware. The subconscient retains the impressions of all our past experiences of life and they can come up from there in dream forms. Most dreams in ordinary sleep are formations made from subconscient impressions. The habit of strong recurrence of the same things in our physical consciousness, so that it is difﬁcult to get rid of its habits, is largely due to a subconscient support.
Sri Aurobindo: The subconscient is full of irrational habits. When things are rejected from all other parts of the nature, they go either into the environmental consciousness around us through which we communicate with others and with universal Nature and try to return from there or they sink into the subconscient and can come up from there even after lying long quiescent so that we think they are gone. When the physical consciousness is being changed, the chief resistance comes from the subconscient. It is constantly maintaining or bringing back the inertia, weakness, obscurity, lack of intelligence which afﬂict the physical mind and vital or the obscure fears, desires, angers, lusts of the physical vital, or the illnesses, dullnesses, pains, incapabilities to which the body-nature is prone. If light, strength, the Mother’s consciousness is brought down into the body it can penetrate the subconscient also and convert its obscurity and resistance.
Sri Aurobindo: When something is erased from the subconscient so completely that it leaves no seed and thrown out of the circumconscient so completely that it can return no more, then only can we be sure that we have ﬁnished with it for ever. About the subconscient — it is the submaterial base of the being and is made up of impressions, instincts, habitual movements that are stored there. Whatever movement is impressed on it, it keeps.
Sri Aurobindo: If one impresses the right movement on it, it will keep and send up that. That is why it has to be cleared of old movements before there can be a permanent and total change in the nature. When the higher consciousness is once established in the waking parts, it goes down into the subconscient and changes that also, makes a bedrock of itself there also. Then no farther trouble from the subconscient will be possible. But even before that one can minimise the trouble by putting the right will and the right habit of reaction on the subconscient parts.
Sri Aurobindo: All that one does and thinks leaves its trace in the subconscient. Yes, the subconscient is a cosmic as well as an individual plane.
Sri Aurobindo: I don’t know that there is any [ ] — this plane was spoken of more as inconscient than subconscient — it is practically the indiscriminate or, perhaps — or the seed state. In the Veda it is symbolised by the cave of the Panis. Perhaps by looking through books like the Yogavasishtha one could ﬁnd something about the subconscient in fact though not in express terms. You had asked the other day about the subconscient, what it was.
Sri Aurobindo: In the vision you describe you were shown the universal subconscient in the ﬁgure of Patala, a place without light of consciousness and, because universal, therefore without bounds or end — the dark unconscious inﬁnite out of which this material universe has arisen — it is walled with darkness on all sides, it seems also to have no bottom. The Light comes from above from the higher consciousness and coming down through the mind and heart and vital and physical has to pour down into this subconscient and make it luminous. “Patala” [] is a name for the subconscient — the beings there had no heads, that is to say, there is there no mental consciousness; men have all of them such a subconscient plane in their own being and from there rise all sorts of irrational and ignorant (headless) instincts, impulsions, memories etc. which have an effect upon their acts and feelings without their detecting the real source. At night many incoherent dreams come from this world or plane. The world above is the superconscient plane of being — above the human consciousness — there are many worlds of that kind; they are divine worlds.
Sri Aurobindo: Below the feet is the subconscient, just as above the head is the superconscient. Subliminal is a general term used for all the parts of the being which are not on the waking surface. Subconscient is very often used in the same sense by European psychologists because they do not know the difference. But when I use the word, I mean always what is the ordinary physical consciousness, not what is behind it. The inner mental, vital, physical, the psychic are not subconscious in this sense, but they can be spoken of as subliminal.
Sri Aurobindo: What he [] has written about the subconscient and the outer nature is true. But the role of subliminal forces cannot be said to be small, since from there come all the greater aspirations, ideals, strivings towards a better self and better humanity without which man would be only a thinking animal — as also most of the art, poetry, philosophy, thirst for knowledge which relieve if they do not yet dispel the ignorance. The role of the superconscient has been to evolve slowly the spiritual man out of the mental half-animal. That also cannot be called an insigniﬁcant role. Exact images are retained by the subliminal memory.
Sri Aurobindo: All that is subliminal is described by ordinary psychology as subconscient; but in our psychology that cannot be done, for the consciousness that holds them is as precise and far wider and fuller than our waking or surface consciousness, so how can it be called subconscient? Conscious memory is that which can bring up at any moment we like the memory of a thing, it is under our control. Subliminal memory can hold all things, even those which the mind cannot understand, e.g. if you hear somebody talking Hebrew, the subliminal memory can hold that and bring it up accurately in some abnormal state, e.g. the hypnotic. Subconscient memory is a memory of impressions; when they come up as in dream, either the result is something incoherent or fancifully rearranged or it is only the essence of the thing, its psychological deposit that comes up, e.g. sex, fear, some particular libido as the psychoanalysts call it, but the expression given to the latter need not be the same as memory would give; it may repeat the same forms if it gets hold of the mechanical mind in the physical to help its expression, but also it may be quite different from anything in real life.
Sri Aurobindo: The clear memory of words, images and thoughts is an action of the conscious mind, not the unconscious. Of course the memory goes behind, so to speak, in the back part of the mind, but it can be brought out. Also the memory can be lost or defaced, so that one remembers wrongly or forgets altogether, but that is still an imperfect action of the conscious mind, not an action of the subconscious. What the subconscious keeps is a mass of impressions, not of clear or exact images and these can come up as in dreams in an incoherent jumble distorted altogether or else in the waking state as a mechanical recurrence or repetition of the same suggestions, impulses (subconscient vital) or sensations. There is a recognisable difference between the two functionings.
Sri Aurobindo: It [] is not in the mind alone; it is stored in the subconscient (mind, vital and physical) as impressions — also in the inner being all is present but held back as a store of past experience. All that our consciousness meets in day-to-day experience is registered in subconscient memory and from there can be brought up to the mind or come of itself. But what we call memory is when the thing registered is kept in the conscious mind at its back and brought forward at will — that is conscious memory.
Sri Aurobindo: No — that [] is quite different [ ], since it belongs to something where the records are precise and accurate. The subconscient is a suppressed and obscure seed state where things are emerging out of the indeterminate inconscience of original Nature but are yet ﬂuent and imprecise, having all the potentiality of determination in them, but not yet determinate. The past things fall back into it not as memories, but as impressions which is a quite different thing. When they come up from there it is in all sorts of queer forms with variations and mixtures.
Sri Aurobindo: There is very often a complaint of this kind [ ] made during the course of the sadhana. I suppose that the usual action of memory is for a time suspended by the mental silence or else by the physical tamas.
Sri Aurobindo: By the change of consciousness there can be a more conscious and perfect functioning of the memory replacing the old mechanism. The subconscient is universal as well as individual like all the other main parts of the nature. But there are different parts or planes of the subconscient. All upon earth is based on the Inconscient as it is called, though it is not really inconscient at all, but rather a complete “sub”-conscience, a suppressed or involved consciousness, in which there is everything but nothing is formulated or expressed. The subconscient lies in between this Inconscient and the conscious mind, life and body.
Sri Aurobindo: It contains the potentiality of all the primitive reactions to life which struggle out to the surface from the dull and inert obscurity of Matter and form by a constant development a slowly evolving and self-formulating consciousness; it contains them not as ideas or perceptions or conscious reactions but as the ﬂuid substance of these things. But also all that is consciously experienced sinks down into the subconscient, not as precise though submerged memories but as obscure yet obstinate impressions of experience, and these can come up at any time as dreams, as mechanical repetitions of past thought, feelings, action etc., as “complexes” exploding into action and event etc. etc. The subconscient is the main cause why all things repeat themselves and nothing ever gets changed except in appearances. It is the cause why people say character cannot be changed, the cause also of the constant return of things one hoped to have got rid of for ever. All seeds are there and all the sanskaras of the mind and vital and body, — it is the main support of death and disease and the last fortress (seemingly impregnable) of the Ignorance.
Sri Aurobindo: All too that is suppressed without being wholly got rid of sinks down there and remains in seed ready to surge up or sprout up at any moment. The centres or Chakras are seven in number — (1) The thousand-petalled lotus on the top of the head. (2) In the middle of the forehead — the Ajna Chakra — (will, vision, dynamic thought). (3) Throat centre — externalising mind.
Sri Aurobindo: (4) Heart-lotus — emotional centre. The psychic is behind it. (5) Navel — higher vital (proper). (6) Below navel — lower vital. (7) Muladhara — physical.
Sri Aurobindo: All these centres are in the middle of the body; they are supposed to be attached to the spinal cord; but in fact all these things are in the subtle body,, though one has the feeling of their activities as if in the physical body when the consciousness is awake. Chakras The thousand-petalled Chakra or centre of the higher (head) lotus will and knowledge The lotus in the forehead Will, vision, mental dynamism The lotus in the throat Expression — external mind The lotus of the heart Emotion, dynamic vital feeling (behind the heart is the seat of the psychic being)
Sri Aurobindo: The lotus of the navel Higher vital The lotus of the abdomen Lower vital The lotus at the end of Physical consciousness the spine (Muladhara) In the process of our Yoga the centres have each a ﬁxed psychological use and general function which base all their special powers and functionings.
Sri Aurobindo: The governs the physical down to the subconscient; the abdominal centre — — governs the lower vital; the navel centre — or — governs the larger vital; the heart centre — or — governs the emotional being; the throat centre — — governs the expressive and externalising mind; the centre between the eyebrows — — governs the dynamic mind, will, vision, mental formation; the thousand-petalled lotus — — above commands the higher thinking mind, houses the still higher illumined mind and at its highest opens to the intuition through which or else by an overﬂooding directness the overmind can have with the rest communication or an immediate contact. I never heard of two lotuses in the heart centre; but it is the seat of two powers, in front the higher vital or emotional being, behind and concealed the soul or psychic being.
Sri Aurobindo: The colours of the lotuses and the numbers of petals are respectively, from bottom to top: — (1) the Muladhara or physical consciousness centre, four petals, red; (2) the abdominal centre, six petals, deeper purple red; (3) the navel centre, ten petals, violet; (4) the heart centre, twelve petals, golden pink; (5) the throat centre, sixteen petals, grey; (6) the forehead centre between the eyebrows, two petals, white; (7) the thousandpetalled lotus above the head, blue with gold light around. The functions are, according to our Yoga, — (1) commanding the physical consciousness and the subconscient; (2) commanding the small vital movements, the little greeds, lusts, desires, the small sense-movements; (3) commanding the larger life-forces and the passions and larger desire-movements; (4) commanding the higher emotional being with the psychic deep behind it; (5) commanding expression and all externalisation of the mindmovements and mental forces; (6) commanding thought, will, vision; (7) commanding the higher thinking mind and the illumined mind and opening upwards to the intuition and overmind. The seventh is sometimes confused with the brain, but that is an error — the brain is only a channel of communication situated between the thousand-petalled and the forehead centre. The former is sometimes called the void centre,, either because it is not in the body, but in the apparent void above or because rising above the head one enters ﬁrst into the silence of the self or spiritual being.
Sri Aurobindo: There is one centre below the navel (lower vital), another at the navel (central vital), another in the chest (emotional vital, heart centre), another in the throat (physical mind), another above the head (higher consciousness); besides these there is the centre in the forehead (mind, will, vision) and one at the bottom of the spine (muladhara, physical centre). The working in each will be according to the nature of the centre. One can speak of the chakras only in reference to Yoga. In ordinary people the chakras are not open, it is only when they do sadhana that they open.
Sri Aurobindo: For the chakras are the centres of the inner consciousness and belong organically to the subtle body. So much as is active in ordinary people is very little — for in them it is the outer consciousness that is active. The centres of consciousness [], the chakras. It is by their opening that the Yogic or inner consciousness develops — otherwise you are bound to the ordinary outer consciousness.
Sri Aurobindo: One does not pass through the psychic centre or any centre []. The centres open under the pressure of the sadhana. You can say that the Force descends or ascends into a centre.
Sri Aurobindo: The spine is the support of the centres and it is through the spine that in the Tantric sadhana the Kundalini rises. Allow me to state my difﬁculty [ ].
Sri Aurobindo: How the devil can a spirit entity be enclosed in a material gland? So far as I know the self or spirit is not enclosed in the body, rather the body is in the Self. When we have the full experience of the Self, we feel it as a wide consciousness in which the body is a very small thing, an adjunct, or a thing contained, not a container. What then is this spirit entity? There can be a small formation which stands for the Self or Spirit, like the Upanishad’s Purusha no bigger than a man’s thumb.
Sri Aurobindo: Is this the spirit entity? But even then in which sense, in what relativity of space can it be said to be the very material pineal gland? A spirit conﬁned in a gland and dislodged from it by a pistol shot is a kind of language which I buck at. A spirit touching grey brain matter and so entering into contact with universal mind and touching white matter and so entering into contact with loftier spiritual realities is also too weird a conception for my intelligence. What happens to it when it has no matter to touch?
Sri Aurobindo: Dissolution? laya? When we speak of the Purusha in the head, heart etc., we are using a ﬁgure. The Muladhara from which the Kundalini rises is not in the physical body, but in the subtle body (the subtle body is that in which the being goes out in deep trance or more radically, at the time of death); so also are all the centres. But as the subtle body penetrates and is interfused with the gross body, there is a certain correspondence between these chakras and certain centres in the physical proper.
Sri Aurobindo: So ﬁguratively we speak of the Purusha in this or that centre of the body. Owing to this correspondence, again, when the Ananda or anything else comes down into the being, it is the subtle body that it pervades, but it communicates itself through it to the gross body and its consciousness, so that it is felt as if pervading the body. But all that is very different from saying that the spirit is lodged in a gland. The gross body is an engine, a means of communication and action of the spirit upon the world and it is only a small part of the instrumentation. It is absurd to make so much of it as all that.
Sri Aurobindo: It is a sort of false materialism intended to placate minds that have a scanty knowledge of science. But what is the use of that? Everybody now knows that science is not a statement of the truth of things, but only a language expressing a certain experience of objects, their structure, their mathematics, a coordinated and utilisable impression of their processes — it is nothing more. Matter itself is something (a formation of energy perhaps?) of which we know superﬁcially the structure as it appears to our mind and senses and to certain examining instruments (about which it is now suspected that they largely determine their own results, Nature adapting its replies to the instrument used), but more than that no scientist knows or can know. If the Radhasoami afﬁrmations [ ] are meant to be another kind of language expressing certain psycho-physical experiences, I have no objection.
Sri Aurobindo: But why all this pineal glandism and talk about entities and bullets? N.B. If I say the Purusha is in the heart, do I mean it is there in the physical heart, tumbling about in the ﬂow of the blood or stuck in the valves or muscular portions and when a bullet is lodged in the heart it jumps with an Ooah! and tumbles down dead or goes off skating and swimming into some grey or white matter worlds beyond? Certainly not. I am using a signiﬁcant language which expresses certain relations between the psychic consciousness and the physical of which we become aware by Yoga.
Sri Aurobindo: Each centre of the system () represents or centralises a plane of experience and each is supported on the spine which is the support of the nervous energies. When the serpent Energy from above and below have free passage through the centres (which is represented by the spine appearing like a serpent) then they open and there is the free wideness of the universal or inﬁnite consciousness on all these planes. All the centres above the Muladhara are connected with the higher worlds above the physical, with the vital, mental, psychic and still higher worlds — the Muladhara and below with the physical and subconscient worlds (subconscient physical and sub-physical). The whole physical body of course belongs to the earth-world, but it is connected through these centres with the other worlds.
Sri Aurobindo: According to our system the three lower centres are the vital, the lower vital and the physical — but the planes are quite different. The three lower planes are mind, life and matter and it is true that the human mind conﬁnes itself to these three activities. But it is not true that its activities are conﬁned to the vital and physical things.
Sri Aurobindo: What is the fourth centre? In our system the fourth centre is the heart and the Divine is there in the psychic, behind the heart. But the fourth of our seven planes is the supramental which is far above the head, but can be communicated with through the seventh centre, the Sahasradala padma. This must be the psychicised higher mental being — the position above the head points to that. In other words, you have become aware of your higher mental being which is in contact at once with the Divine above and with the psychic behind the heart and is aware of the Truth and has the psychic and spiritual insight and view into things.
Sri Aurobindo: Above the head extends the higher consciousness centre, sahasradala padma. But usually there is partial working of the forehead centre also when the sahasradala opens. The ordinary mind is at the highest the free intelligence, receiving perhaps intuitions and intimations from above which it intellectualises. It is on the surface and sees things from outside except in so far as it is helped by intuition and other powers to see a little deeper. When this ordinary mind opens within to inner mind and psychic and above to higher mind and higher consciousness generally, then it begins to be spiritualised and its highest ranges merge into the spiritual mind-consciousness of which this higher mind can be a beginning.
Sri Aurobindo: This merging is part of the spiritual transformation. For the mind there are many centres: (1) the sahasradala which centralises spiritual mind, higher mind, intuitive mind and acts as a receiving station for the intuition proper and overmind, (2) the centre in the forehead for inner thought, will and vision, (3) the throat centre for the externalising or physical mind. The thousand-petalled lotus is above the head. It is the seventh and highest centre. Usually those who take the centres in the body only, count six centres, the Sahasrara being excluded.
Sri Aurobindo: It is evidently the sahasradala padma through which the higher intuition, illumined mind and overmind all pass their rays. The sahasradala commands all between the ordinary mind and the supermind — therefore its opening necessarily takes long. But opening by itself only creates a connection or communication — to dwell in that centre, one needs to have overpassed the mind and be able to live mainly in the spiritual self.
Sri Aurobindo: The Supramental is not organised in the body so there is no separate centre for it; but all that comes from above the Mind uses the Sahasrara for its transit and so opens something there. The centre at the crown must be part of the, the centre of communication direct between the individual being and the Inﬁnite Consciousness above. There is not supposed to be any other main centre of dynamism between that and the Ajna Chakra. But there can be many nerve-centres in various parts of the body, apart from the six or rather seven main centres.
Sri Aurobindo: The crown centre open removes the difﬁculty of the lid between the ordinary mind and the higher consciousness above. If the ajnachakra also is open, then it is possible to have a clear communication between the higher consciousness and the inner mind and the outer mind (throat centre) also. That is the condition for the realisation of knowledge and the mental illumination and transformation. The heart centre commands the psychic and vital — that opening enables the psychic inﬂuence to work in the vital and ends in the coming forward of the psychic being.
Sri Aurobindo: It [] is the Brahmarandhra through which there is the communication between the higher consciousness and the lower in the body. It is a passage, not a centre. The centre is the thousand-petalled lotus just above the head, at that part.
Sri Aurobindo: The crown is the place of passage between the body consciousness with all it contains of mind and life and the higher being above the body. It is there that the two consciousnesses begin to meet. The brain is only a centre of the physical consciousness.
Sri Aurobindo: One feels stationed there so long as one dwells in the physical mind or is identiﬁed with the body consciousness, then one receives through the sahasradala into the brain. When one ceases to be stationed in the body, then the brain is not a station but only a passive and silent transmitting channel. There are different centres in the body which are represented in vision by these lotuses — one is between the eyebrows in the forehead, a centre of inner consciousness, will and visions — that is opening in you. If the forehead centre opens, it is fairly certain that the crown centre must have opened sufﬁciently at least to allow the passage of the higher force which is above it.
Sri Aurobindo: The psychic is a different matter — it stands behind the centres and the time of its opening varies with different people — in fact it is not so much the opening of a centre as the coming forward of the psychic being. The usual rule in this Yoga is from above downwards. There may be variations in the preparatory stage. There may for instance be a partial opening ﬁrst of the heart centre. The higher vital centre may become active ﬁrst also, but that means much struggle and difﬁculty.
Sri Aurobindo: The psychic being is behind the heart-centre — the centre between the eyes is that of inner (occult) thought, will and vision. This inner or occult vision is called by ordinary people psychic vision.
Sri Aurobindo: It [] is the centre of the inner mind — therefore also of the inner mental will and inner mental vision. The centre of vision is between the eyebrows in the centre of the forehead. When it opens one gets the inner vision, sees the inner forms and images of things and people and begins to understand things and people from within and not only from outside, develops a power of will which also acts in the inner (Yogic) way on things and people etc.
Sri Aurobindo: Its opening is often the beginning of the Yogic as opposed to the ordinary mental consciousness. In the forehead between the eyes but a little above is the Ajnachakra, the centre of the inner will, also of the inner vision, the dynamic mind etc. (This is not the ordinary outer mental will and sight, but something more powerful, belonging to the inner being.) When this centre opens and the Force there is active, then there is the opening of a greater will, power of decision, formation, effectiveness beyond what the ordinary mind can achieve.
Sri Aurobindo: The centre Ajnachakra is in the place I indicated [ ], but the pressure can be felt in all the forehead and the eyebrows also or anywhere there. It radiates from the centre. The forehead centre is that of inner mind and vision.
Sri Aurobindo: It is really through that inner vision that one sees the lights — the open eyes are only a channel for seeing them outside as well as within. The pressure from within upon the forehead centre begins very often after the pressure from above on the forehead — something of the Force has come in sufﬁciently to exercise this second pressure. That on the back must be a direct pressure on the psychic region (if it is in or near the middle of the back) mainly to prepare the action in the heart.
Sri Aurobindo: When the centres begin to open, inner experiences such as the seeing of light or images through the subtle vision in the forehead centre or psychic experiences and perceptions in the heart, become frequent — gradually one becomes aware of one’s inner being as separate from the outer and what can be called a Yogic consciousness with all its deeper movements develops in the place of the ordinary superﬁcial mental and vital movements. A third eye does open there [] — it represents the occult vision and the occult power which goes with that vision — it is connected with the Ajnachakra. The throat centre is the centre of the physical mind, the external will and the expression.
Sri Aurobindo: Yes []. It is the centre of externalisation, — speech, expression, the power to deal mentally with physical things etc. Its opening brings the power to open the physical mind to the light of the divine consciousness instead of remaining in the ordinary outward-going mentality.
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, it is so — it is the physical mind that acts like that [ ]. The centre of the physical mind or externalising mind is in the subtle body in the throat and connected strongly with the speech — but it acts by connection with the brain. All forces that want to cover the consciousness rise up to do it, covering and acting on the mind centres if they can — because otherwise the covering is not complete. Speech comes from the throat centre, but it is associated with whatever is the governing centre or level of the consciousness — wherever one thinks from.
Sri Aurobindo: If one rises above the head, then thought takes place above the head and one can speak from there , that is to say, the direction of the speech is from there. The throat centre is the externalising (physical) mind, the heart is the emotional mind and beginning of the higher vital. If the heart centre is dominated by the physical mind to any extent, it will necessarily be open to the outer attacks that affect the physical and nervous consciousness. The heart has to be in connection with the psychic and the higher consciousness.
Sri Aurobindo: The centre in the throat is that of the physical mind and all between it and the centre in the heart is the joining place of the mind and the vital-emotional being. If the pain is of the nerves, then there must be some resistance and difﬁculty there which should go with the full opening. The heart is the centre of the emotional being, the highest part of the vital.
Sri Aurobindo: The navel is the centre of the dynamic and sensational vital (this is the source of pride, sense of possession, ambition, anger and other passions — but it expresses them often through the heart centre). The centre between the navel and the Muladhara commands the lower vital (physical desires, small greeds, passions etc.). The throat centre is not the vital — it is the physical mind, the expressive externalising consciousness. What you feel may be the vital taking hold of the physical mind and using it for expression.
Sri Aurobindo: The physical mind centre is in the throat and mouth — the vital physical is between the two lowest centres — the material consciousness is in the. The heart is the centre of the being and commands the rest, as the psychic being or chaitya purusha is there. It is only in that sense that all ﬂows from it, for it is the psychic being who each time creates a new mind, vital and body for himself.
Sri Aurobindo: There is one centre for the heart, although it is a double centre, in front the emotional, behind the psychic. The apex of the psychic and emotional centre (like the apex of all centres) is in the backbone, the base in front in the middle of the sternum. The physical heart is in the left side, but the heart centre of Yoga is in the middle of the chest — the cardiac centre.
Sri Aurobindo: I do not quite understand what you mean by soul. The psychic being (which is the soul) does not make centres for itself in the Adhar — the centres are there. The psychic being can take control of the centres that are already there — the heart and the navel centre and the two below the navel. Also the mind and vital are not abolished — they are brought under the psychic inﬂuence and psychicised, or they are occupied by the higher consciousness from above and transformed into its instruments.
Sri Aurobindo: The heart-centre is the emotional centre. The navel is the main vital centre. In the abdomen is the lower vital centre. It is in these two that there is the origination of desire — but desire rises and becomes emotional in the heart and mental in the higher centres above.
Sri Aurobindo: The navel is the chief vital centre below the emotional — there is another centre of small vital movements below it, between the navel and Muladhara. The navel is the vital centre in the physical body but the natural seat of the vital is in the vital sheath of the subtle body, which sheath it pervades; but for action through the gross body it is centred at the navel and below it.