{"id":1255,"date":"2013-07-13T01:33:36","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1255"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:33:36","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:33:36","slug":"13-the-triple-transformation-vol-19-the-life-divine-volume-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/19-the-life-divine-volume-19\/13-the-triple-transformation-vol-19-the-life-divine-volume-19","title":{"rendered":"-13_The Triple Transformation.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n
\n

\nC<\/font>HAPTER<\/font>
\nXXV<\/font><\/b><\/span> <\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/font><\/span>The Triple
\nTransformation<\/font><\/span><\/b> <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA conscious
\nbeing is the centre of the self, who rules past and<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n future; he is like a fire
\nwithout smoke…. That, one must disengage<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n with patience from one’s own body.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nKatha<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/i> Upanishad.<\/i>1<\/sup><\/font> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nAn intuition in
\nthe heart sees that truth.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nRig Veda.
\n<\/font> <\/i> 2<\/sup><\/font> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nI abide in the
\nspiritual being and from there destroy the darkness<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n born of ignorance with the
\nshining lamp of knowledge.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nGita<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/i>.<\/i> 3<\/sup><\/font> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nThese rays are
\ndirected downwards, their foundation is above:<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n may they be set deep within
\nus…. O Varuna<\/span>, here awake, make<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n wide thy reign; may
\nwe abide in the law of thy workings and be <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nblameless before the Mother
\nInfinite.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nRig Veda.<\/font><\/i> 4<\/sup><\/font> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nThe Swan that
\nsettles in the purity… born of the Truth,\u2014itself <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nthe Truth, the Vast.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nKatha<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/i> Upanishad.<\/i>
\n<\/font> 5<\/font><\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n       I<\/span><\/font>f it is the sole intention of Nature in the
\nevolution of the spiritual man to awaken him to the supreme Reality and release
\nhim from herself, or from the Ignorance in which she as the Power of the Eternal
\nhas masked herself, by a departure into a higher status of being elsewhere, if
\nthis step in the evolution is a close and an exit, then in the essence her work
\nhas been already accomplished and there is nothing more to be done. The ways
\nhave been built, the capacity to follow them has been developed, the goal or
\nlast height of the creation is manifest; all that is left is for each soul to
\nreach individually the right 
\n<\/span>stage and turn of its development, enter into the spiritual ways and
\npass by its own chosen path out of this inferior existence. But we have
\nsupposed that there is a farther intention,\u2014not only a revelation of the
\nSpirit, but a radical and integral transformation of Nature. There is a will in
\nher to effectuate a true manifestation of the embodied life of the Spirit, to
\ncomplete what she has begun<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

           
\n<\/font> 1<\/font><\/span><\/sup> II. 1. 12, 13; II. 3. 17.      <\/span>2<\/sup> I. 24. 12.      <\/span>3<\/sup> X. 11.    <\/span>4<\/sup> I. 24. 7, 11, 15.     <\/span> 5<\/sup> II. 2. 2.<\/font><\/span> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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\n889<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

\n
\n by a passage from the Ignorance to the
\nKnowledge, to throw off her mask and to reveal herself as the luminous
\nConsciousness-Force carrying in her the eternal Existence and its universal
\nDelight of being. It then becomes obvious that there is something not yet
\naccomplished, there becomes clear to view the much that has still to be done, bhūri<\/span> aspasta<\/span> kartvam<\/span>; there is a height still to be reached, a wideness
\nstill to be covered by the eye of vision, the wing of the will, the
\nself-affirmation of the Spirit in the material universe. What the evolutionary
\nPower has done is to make a few individuals aware of their souls, conscious of
\ntheir selves, aware of the eternal being that they are, to put them into
\ncommunion with the Divinity or the Reality which is concealed by her
\nappearances: a certain change of nature prepares, accompanies or follows upon
\nthis illumination, but it is not the complete and radical change which
\nestablishes a secure and settled new principle, a new creation, a permanent new
\norder of being in the field of terrestrial Nature. The spiritual man has
\nevolved, but not the supramental<\/span> being who shall
\nthenceforward be the leader of that Nature.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

This is because the
\nprinciple of spirituality has yet to affirm itself in its own complete right
\nand sovereignty; it has been up till now a power for the mental being to escape
\nfrom itself or to refine and raise itself to a spiritual poise, it has availed
\nfor the release of the Spirit from mind and for the enlargement of the being in
\na spiritualised<\/span> mind and heart, but not,\u2014or rather
\nnot yet sufficiently,\u2014for the self-affirmation of the Spirit in its own dynamic
\nand sovereign mastery free from the mind’s limitations and from the mental
\ninstrumentation. The development of another instrumentation has begun, but has
\nyet to become total and effective; it has besides to cease to be a purely
\nindividual self-creation in an original Ignorance, something supernormal to
\nearth-life that must always be acquired as an individual achievement by a
\ndifficult endeavour<\/span>. It must become the normal nature
\nof a new type of being; as Mind is established here on a basis of Ignorance
\nseeking for Knowledge and growing into Knowledge, so Supermind<\/span>
\nmust be established here on a basis of Knowledge growing into its own greater
\nLight. But this cannot be so long as the spiritual-mental being has not risen
\nfully to Supermind<\/span> and
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n890<\/span><\/p>\n

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brought down its powers into terrestrial
\nexistence. For the gulf between Mind and Supermind<\/span>
\nhas to be bridged, the closed  <\/span>passages
\nopened and roads of ascent and descent created where there is now a void and a
\nsilence. This can be done only by the triple transformation to which we have
\nalready made a passing reference: there must first be the psychic change, the
\nconversion of our whole present nature into a soul-instrumentation; on that or
\nalong with that there must be the spiritual change, the descent of a higher
\nLight, Knowledge, Power, Force, Bliss, Purity into the whole being, even into
\nthe lowest recesses of the life and body, even into the darkness of our subconscience<\/span>; last, there must supervene the supramental<\/span> transmutation,\u2014there must take place as the
\ncrowning movement the ascent into the Supermind<\/span> and
\nthe transforming descent of the supramental<\/span>
\nConsciousness into our entire being and nature. <\/span><\/p>\n

        At the beginning the
\nsoul in Nature, the psychic entity, whose unfolding is the first step towards a
\nspiritual change, is an entirely veiled part of us, although it is that
\nby which we exist and persist as individual beings in Nature. The other parts
\nof our natural composition are not only mutable but perishable; but the psychic
\nentity in us persists and is fundamentally the same always: it contains all
\nessential possibilities of our manifestation but is not constituted by them; it
\nis not limited by what it manifests, not contained by the incomplete forms of
\nthe manifestation, not tarnished by the imperfections and impurities, the defects
\nand depravations of the surface being. It is an ever-pure flame of the divinity
\nin things and nothing that comes to it, nothing that enters into our experience
\ncan pollute its purity or extinguish the flame. This spiritual stuff is
\nimmaculate and luminous and, because it is perfectly luminous, it is
\nimmediately, intimately, directly aware of truth of being and truth of nature;
\nit is deeply conscious of truth and good and beauty because truth and good and
\nbeauty are akin to its own native character, forms of something that is
\ninherent in its own substance. It is aware also of all that contradicts these
\nthings, of all that deviates from its own native character, of falsehood and
\nevil and the ugly and the unseemly; but it does not become these things nor is it
\ntouched or changed by these opposites of itself which so powerfully affect
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

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its outer instrumentation of mind, life and
\nbody. For the soul, the permanent being in us, puts forth and uses mind, life
\nand body as its instruments, undergoes the envelopment of their conditions, but
\nit is other and greater than its members.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

If the psychic entity
\nhad been from the beginning unveiled and known to its ministers, not a secluded
\nKing in a screened chamber, the human evolution would have been a rapid soul-outflowering<\/span>, not the difficult, chequered<\/span>
\nand disfigured development it now is; but the veil is thick and we know not the
\nsecret Light within us, the light in the hidden crypt of the heart’s innermost
\nsanctuary. Intimations rise to our surface from the psyche, but our mind does
\nnot detect their source; it takes them for its own activities because, before
\neven they come to the surface, they are clothed in mental substance: thus
\nignorant of their authority, it follows or does not follow them according to its
\nbent or turn at the moment. If the mind obeys the urge of the vital ego, then
\nthere is little chance of the psyche at all controlling the nature or
\nmanifesting in us something of its secret spiritual stuff and native movement;
\nor, if the mind is over-confident to act in its own smaller light, attached to
\nits own judgment, will and action of knowledge, then also the soul will remain
\nveiled and quiescent and wait for the mind’s farther evolution. For the psychic
\npart within is there to support the natural evolution, and the first natural
\nevolution must be the development of body, life and mind, successively, and
\nthese must act each in its own kind or together in their ill-assorted
\npartnership in order to grow and have experience and evolve. The soul gathers
\nthe essence of all our mental, vital and bodily experience and assimilates it
\nfor the farther evolution of our existence in Nature; but this action is occult
\nand not obtruded on the surface. In the early material and vital stages of the
\nevolution of being there is indeed no consciousness of soul; there are psychic
\nactivities, but the instrumentation, the form of these activities are vital and
\nphysical,\u2014or mental when the mind is active. For even the mind, so long as it
\nis primitive or is developed but still too external, does not recognise<\/span> their deeper character. It is easy to regard
\nourselves as physical beings or beings of life or mental beings using life and
\nbody and to ignore the existence of the soul altogether: for the <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n <\/span>only definite idea that we have of the soul is
\nof something that survives the death of our bodies; but what this is we do not
\nknow because even if we are conscious sometimes of its presence, we are not
\nnormally conscious of its distinct reality nor do we feel clearly its direct
\naction in our nature. <\/span><\/p>\n

            <\/span>As
\nthe evolution proceeds, Nature begins slowly and tentatively to manifest our
\noccult parts; she leads us to look more and more within ourselves or sets out
\nto initiate more clearly recognisable<\/span> intimations and
\nformations of them on the surface. The soul in us, the psychic principle, has
\nalready begun to take secret form; it puts forward and develops a
\nsoul-personality, a distinct psychic being to represent it. This psychic being
\nremains still behind the veil in our subliminal part, like the true mental, the
\ntrue vital or the true or subtle physical being within us: but, like them, it
\nacts on the surface life by the influences and intimations it throws up upon
\nthat surface; these form part of the surface aggregate which is the
\nconglomerate effect of the inner influences and upsurgings<\/span>,
\nthe visible formation and superstructure which we ordinarily experience and
\nthink of as ourselves. On this ignorant surface we become dimly aware of
\nsomething that can be called a soul as distinct from mind, life or body; we
\nfeel it not only as our mental idea or vague instinct of ourselves, but as a
\nsensible influence in our life and character and action. A certain sensitive
\nfeeling for all that is true and good and beautiful, fine and pure and noble, a
\nresponse to it, a demand for it, a pressure on mind and life to accept and
\nformulate it in our thought, feelings, conduct, character is the most usually recognised<\/span>, the most general and characteristic, though not
\nthe sole sign of this influence of the psyche. Of the man who has not this
\nelement in him or does not respond at all to this urge, we say that he has no
\nsoul. For it is this influence that we can most easily recognise<\/span>
\nas a finer or even a diviner part in us and the most powerful for the slow
\nturning towards some aim at perfection in our nature. <\/span><\/p>\n

      But this psychic
\ninfluence or action does not come up to the surface quite pure or does not
\nremain distinct in its purity; if it did, we would be able to distinguish
\nclearly the soul element in us and follow consciously and fully its dictates.
\nAn occult mental and vital and subtle-physical action intervenes, mixes <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n <\/span>with it, tries to use it and turn it to its own
\nprofit, dwarfs its divinity, distorts or diminishes its self-expression, even
\ncauses it to deviate and stumble or stains it with the impurity, smallness and
\nerror of mind and life and body. After it reaches the surface, thus alloyed and
\ndiminished, it is taken hold of by the surface nature in an obscure reception
\nand ignorant formation, and there is or can be by this cause a still further
\ndeviation and mixture. A twist is given, a wrong direction is imparted, a wrong
\napplication, a wrong formation, an erroneous result of what is in itself pure
\nstuff and action of our spiritual being; a formation of consciousness is
\naccordingly made which is a mixture of the psychic influence and its
\nintimations jumbled with mental ideas and opinions, vital desires and urges,
\nhabitual physical tendencies. There coalesce too with the obscured
\nsoul-influence the ignorant though well-intentioned efforts of these external
\nparts towards a higher direction; a mental ideation of a very mixed character,
\noften obscure even in its idealism, sometimes even disastrously mistaken, a fervour<\/span> and passion of the emotional being throwing up its
\nspray and foam of feelings, sentiments, sentimentalisms, a dynamic enthusiasm
\nof the life-parts, eager responses of the physical, the thrills and excitements
\nof nerve and body,\u2014all these influences coalesce in a composite formation which
\nis frequently taken as the soul and its mixed and confused action for the
\nsoul-stir, for a psychic development and action or a realised<\/span>
\ninner influence. The psychic entity is itself free from stain or mixture, but
\nwhat comes up from it is not protected by that immunity; therefore this
\nconfusion becomes possible. <\/span><\/p>\n

Moreover, the psychic
\nbeing, the soul-personality in us, does not emerge full-grown and luminous; it
\nevolves, passes through a slow development and formation; its figure of being
\nmay be at first indistinct and may afterwards remain for a long time weak and
\nundeveloped, not impure but imperfect: for it rests its formation, its dynamic
\nself-building on the power of soul that has been actually and more or less
\nsuccessfully, against the resistance of the Ignorance and Inconscience<\/span>,
\nput forth in the evolution upon the surface. Its appearance is the sign of a
\nsoul-emergence in Nature, and if that emergence is as yet small and defective,
\nthe psychic personality also will be <\/span><\/p>\n

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stunted or feeble. It is too, by the obscurity
\nof our consciousness, separated from its inner reality, in imperfect
\ncommunication with its own source in the depths of the being; for the road is
\nas yet ill-built, easily obstructed, the wires often cut or crowded with
\ncommunications of another kind and proceeding from another origin: its power to
\nimpress what it receives upon the outer instruments is also imperfect; in its
\npenury it has for most things to rely on these instruments and it forms its
\npush to expression and action on their data and not solely on the unerring
\nperceptions of the psychic entity. In these conditions it cannot prevent the
\ntrue psychic light from being diminished or distorted in the mind into a mere
\nidea or opinion, the psychic feeling in the heart into a fallible emotion or
\nmere sentiment, the psychic will to action in the life-parts into a blind vital
\nenthusiasm or a fervid excitement: it even accepts these mistranslations for
\nwant of something better and tries to fulfil<\/span> itself
\nthrough them. For it is part of the work of the soul to influence mind and
\nheart and vital being and turn their ideas, feelings, enthusiasms, dynamisms in
\nthe direction of what is divine and luminous; but this has to be done at first
\nimperfectly, slowly and with a mixture. As the psychic personality grows
\nstronger, it begins to increase its communion with the psychic entity behind it
\nand improve its communications with the surface: it can transmit its
\nintimations to the mind and heart and life with a greater purity and force; for
\nit is more able to exercise a strong control and react against false mixtures;
\nnow more and more it makes itself distinctly felt as a power in the nature. But
\neven so this evolution would be slow and long if left solely to the difficult automatic
\naction of the evolutionary Energy; it is only when man awakes to the knowledge
\nof the soul and feels a need to bring it to the front and make it the master of
\nhis life and action that a quicker conscious method of evolution intervenes and
\na psychic transformation becomes possible. <\/span><\/p>\n

This slow development
\ncan be aided by the mind’s clear perception and insistence on something within
\nthat survives the death of the body and an effort to know its nature. But at
\nfirst this knowledge is impeded by the fact that there are many elements in us,
\nmany formations which present themselves as soul-
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

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elements and can be mistaken for the psyche. In
\nthe early Greek and some other traditions about the after-life, the
\ndescriptions given show very clearly that what was then mistaken for the soul
\nwas a subconscious formation, a subphysical<\/span>
\nimpression-mould or shadow-form of the being or else a wraith or ghost of the
\npersonality. This ghost, which is mistakenly called the spirit, is sometimes a
\nvital formation reproducing the man’s characteristics, his surface
\nlife-mannerisms, sometimes a subtle-physical prolongation of the surface form
\nof the mind-shell: at best it is a sheath of the life-personality which still
\nremains in the front for some time after the departure from the body. Apart
\nfrom these confusions born of an after-death contact with discarded phantasms
\nor remnants of the sheaths of the personality, the difficulty is due to our
\nignorance of the subliminal parts of our nature and the form and powers of the
\nconscious being or Purusha<\/span> which preside over their
\naction; owing to this inexperience we can easily mistake something of the inner
\nmind or vital self for the psychic. For as Being is one yet multiple, so also
\nthe same law prevails in ourselves and our members; the Spirit, the Purusha<\/span> is one but it adapts itself to the formations of
\nNature. Over each grade of our being a power of the Spirit presides; we have
\nwithin us and discover when we go deep enough inwards a mind-self, a life-self,
\na physical self; there is a being of mind, a mental Purusha<\/span>,
\nexpressing something of itself on our surface in the thoughts, perceptions,
\nactivities of our mind-nature, a being of life which expresses something of
\nitself in the impulses, feelings, sensations, desires, external life-activities
\nof our vital nature, a physical being, a being of the body which expresses
\nsomething of itself in the instincts, habits, formulated activities of our
\nphysical nature. These beings or part selves of the self in us are powers of
\nthe Spirit and therefore not limited by their temporary expression, for what is
\nthus formulated is only a fragment of its possibilities; but the expression
\ncreates a temporary mental, vital or physical personality which grows and
\ndevelops even as the psychic being or soul-personality grows and develops
\nwithin us. Each has its own distinct nature, its influence, its action on the
\nwhole of us; but on our surface all these influences and all this action, as
\nthey come up, mingle and create an <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n
\n <\/span>aggregate surface being which is a composite, an
\namalgam of them all, an outer persistent and yet shifting and mobile formation
\nfor the purposes of this life and its limited experience.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

But this aggregate is,
\nbecause of its composition, a heterogeneous compound, not a single harmonious
\nand homogeneous whole. This is the reason why there is a constant confusion and
\neven a conflict in our members which our mental reason and will are moved to
\ncontrol and harmonise<\/span> and have often much difficulty
\nin creating out of their confusion or conflict some kind of order and guidance;
\neven so, ordinarily, we drift too much or are driven by the stream of our
\nnature and act from whatever in it comes uppermost at the time and seizes the
\ninstruments of thought and action,\u2014even our seemingly deliberate choice is more
\nof an automatism than we imagine; our co-ordination of our multifarious
\nelements and of our consequent thoughts, feelings, impulses, actions by the
\nreason and will is incomplete and a half-measure. In animal being Nature acts
\nby her own mental and vital intuitions; she works out an order by the
\ncompulsion of habit and instinct which the animal implicitly obeys, so that the
\nshiftings<\/span> of its consciousness do not matter. But man
\ncannot altogether act in the same way without forfeiting his prerogative of
\nmanhood; he cannot leave his being to be a chaos of instincts and impulses
\nregulated by the automatism of Nature: mind has become conscious in him and is
\ntherefore self-compelled to make some attempt, however elementary in many, to
\nsee and control and in the end more and more perfectly harmonise<\/span>
\nthe manifold components, the different and conflicting tendencies that seem to
\nmake up his surface being. He does succeed in setting up a sort of regulated
\nchaos or ordered confusion in him, or at least succeeds in thinking that he is
\ndirecting himself by his mind and will, even though in fact that direction is
\nonly partial; for not only a disparate consortium of habitual motive-forces but
\nalso newly emergent vital and physical tendencies and impulses, not always
\ncalculable or controllable, and many incoherent and inharmonious mental
\nelements use his reason and will, enter into and determine his self-building,
\nhis nature-development, his life action. Man is in his self a unique Person,
\nbut he is also in his manifestation of self a multiperson<\/span>;
\nhe will <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n <\/span> <\/span>never
\nsucceed in being master of himself until the Person imposes itself on his multipersonality<\/span> and governs it: but this can only be
\nimperfectly done by the surface mental will and reason; it can be perfectly
\ndone only if he goes within and finds whatever central being is by its
\npredominant influence at the head of all his expression and action. In inmost
\ntruth it is his soul that is this central being, but in outer fact it is often
\none or other of the part beings in him that rules, and this representative of
\nthe soul, this deputy self he can mistake for the inmost soul-principle. 
        This rule of different
\nselves in us is at the root of the stages of the development of human personality
\nwhich we have already had occasion to differentiate, and we can reconsider them
\nnow from the point of view of the government of the nature by the inner
\nprinciple. In some human beings it is the physical Purusha<\/span>,
\nthe being of body, who dominates the mind, will and action; there is then
\ncreated the physical man mainly occupied with his corporeal life and habitual
\nneeds, impulses, life-habits, mind-habits, body-habits, looking very little or
\nnot at all beyond that, subordinating and restricting all his other tendencies
\nand possibilities to that narrow formation. But even in the physical man there
\nare other elements and he cannot live altogether as the human animal concerned
\nwith birth and death and procreation and the satisfaction of common impulses
\nand desires and the maintenance of the life and the body: this is his normal
\ntype of personality, but it is crossed, however feebly, with influences by
\nwhich he can proceed, if they are developed, to a higher human evolution. If
\nthe inner subtle-physical Purusha<\/span> insists, he can
\narrive at the idea of a finer, more beautiful and perfect physical life and
\nhope or attempt to realise<\/span> it in his own or in the
\ncollective or group existence. In others it is the vital self, the being of
\nlife, who dominates and rules the mind, the will, the action; then is created
\nthe vital man, concerned with self-affirmation, self-aggrandisement<\/span>,
\nlife-enlargement, satisfaction of ambition and passion and impulse and desire,
\nthe claims of his ego, domination, power, excitement, battle and struggle,
\ninner and outer adventure: all else is incidental or subordinated to this
\nmovement and building and expression of the vital ego. But still in the vital
\nman too there are or can
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n <\/span>be other elements of a growing mental or
\nspiritual character, even if these happen to be less developed than his
\nlife-personality and life-power. The nature of the vital man is more active,
\nstronger and more mobile, more turbulent and chaotic, often to the point of
\nbeing quite unregulated, than that of the physical man who holds on to the soil
\nand has a certain material poise and balance, but it is more kinetic and
\ncreative: for the element of the vital being is not earth but air; it has more
\nmovement, less status. A vigorous vital mind and will can grasp and govern the
\nkinetic vital energies, but it is more by a forceful compulsion and constraint
\nthan by a harmonisation<\/span> of the being. If, however, a
\nstrong vital personality, mind and will can get the reasoning intelligence to
\ngive it a firm support and be its minister, then a certain kind of forceful
\nformation can be made, more or less balanced but always powerful, successful
\nand effective, which can impose itself on the nature and environment and arrive
\nat a strong self-affirmation in life and action. This is the second step of harmonised<\/span> formulation possible in the ascent of the
\nnature. <\/span><\/p>\n

At a higher stage of the
\nevolution of personality the being of mind may rule; there is then cr<\/span> eated<\/span> the mental man who lives
\npredominantly in the mind as the others live in the vital or the physical
\nnature. The mental man tends to subordinate to his mental self-expression,
\nmental aims, mental interests or to a mental idea or ideal the rest of his
\nbeing: because of the difficulty of this subordination and its potent effect when
\nachieved, it is at once more difficult for him and easier to arrive at a
\nharmony of his nature. It is easier because the mental will once in control can
\nconvince by the power of the reasoning intelligence and at the same time
\ndominate, compress or suppress the life and the body and their demands, arrange
\nand harmonise<\/span> them, force them to be its instruments,
\neven reduce them to a minimum so that they shall not disturb the mental life or
\npull it down from its ideative<\/span> or idealising<\/span>
\nmovement. It is more difficult because life and body are the first powers and,
\nif they are in the least strong, can impose themselves with an almost
\nirresistible insistence on the mental ruler. Man is a mental being and the mind
\nis the leader of his life and body; <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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\n
\n <\/span>but this
\nis a leader who is much led by his followers and has sometimes no other will
\nthan what they impose on him. Mind in spite of its power is often impotent
\nbefore the inconscient<\/span> and subconscient<\/span>
\nwhich obscure its clarity and carry it away on the tide of instinct or impulse;
\nin spite of its clarity it is fooled by vital and emotional suggestions into
\ngiving sanction to ignorance and error, to wrong thought and to wrong action,
\nor it is obliged to look on while the nature follows what it knows to be wrong,
\ndangerous or evil. Even when it is strong and clear and dominant, Mind, though
\nit imposes a certain, a considerable mentalised<\/span>
\nharmony, cannot integrate the whole being and nature. These harmonisations<\/span>
\nby an inferior control are, besides, inconclusive, because it is one part of
\nthe nature which dominates and fulfils itself while the others are coerced and
\ndenied their fullness. They can be steps on the way, but not final; therefore
\nin most men there is no such sole dominance and effected partial harmony, but
\nonly a predominance and for the rest an unstable equilibrium of a personality
\nhalf formed, half in formation, sometimes a disequilibrium or unbalance due to
\nthe lack of a central government or the disturbance of a formerly achieved
\npartial poise. All must be transitional until a first, though not a final, true
\nharmonisation<\/span> is achieved by finding our real centre.
\nFor the true central being is the soul, but this being stands back and in most
\nhuman natures is only the secret witness or, one might say, a constitutional
\nruler who allows his ministers to rule for him, delegates to them his empire,
\nsilently assents to their decisions and only now and then puts in a word which
\nthey can at any moment override and act otherwise. But this is so long as the
\nsoul-personality put forward by the psychic entity is not yet sufficiently
\ndeveloped; when this is strong enough for the inner entity to impose itself
\nthrough it, then the soul can come forward and control the nature. It is by the
\ncoming forward of this true monarch and his taking up of the reins of
\ngovernment that there can take place a real harmonisation<\/span>
\nof our being and our life. <\/span><\/p>\n

A first condition of the
\nsoul’s complete emergence is a direct contact in the surface being with the
\nspiritual Reality. Because  <\/span>it comes from
\nthat, the psychic element in us turns <\/span><\/p>\n

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always towards whatever in phenomenal Nature
\nseems to belong to a higher Reality and can be accepted as its sign and
\ncharacter. At first, it seeks this Reality through the good, the true, the
\nbeautiful, through all that is pure and fine and high and noble: but although
\nthis touch through outer signs and characters can modify and prepare the
\nnature, it cannot entirely or most inwardly and profoundly change it. For such
\nan inmost change the direct contact with the Reality itself is indispensable
\nsince nothing else can so deeply touch the foundations of our being and stir it
\nor cast the nature by its stir into a ferment of transmutation. Mental
\nrepresentations, emotional and dynamic figures have their use and value; Truth,
\nGood and Beauty are in themselves primary and potent figures of the Reality,
\nand even in their forms as seen by the mind, as felt by the heart, as realised<\/span> in the life can be lines of an ascent: but it is
\nin a spiritual substance and being of them and of itself that That which they
\nrepresent has to come into our experience. <\/span><\/p>\n

The soul may attempt to
\nachieve this contact mainly through the thinking mind as intermediary and
\ninstrument; it puts a psychic impression on the intellect and the larger mind
\nof insight and intuitional intelligence and turns them in that direction. At
\nits highest the thinking mind is drawn always towards the impersonal; in its
\nsearch it becomes conscious of a spiritual essence, an impersonal Reality which
\nexpresses itself in all these outward signs and characters but is more than any
\nformation or manifesting figure. It feels something of which it becomes
\nintimately and invisibly aware,\u2014a supreme Truth, a supreme Good, a supreme
\nBeauty, a supreme Purity, a supreme Bliss; it bears the increasing touch, less
\nand less impalpable and abstract, more and more spiritually real and concrete,
\nthe touch and pressure of an Eternity and Infinity which is all this that is
\nand more. There is a pressure from this Impersonality that seeks to mould the
\nwhole mind into a form of itself; at the same time the impersonal secret and
\nlaw of things becomes more and more visible. The mind develops into the mind of
\nthe sage, at first the high mental thinker, then the spiritual sage who has
\ngone beyond the abstractions of thought to the beginnings of a direct
\nexperience. As a result<\/span><\/p>\n

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the mind becomes pure, large, tranquil,
\nimpersonal; there is a similar tranquillising<\/span> influence
\non the parts of life: but otherwise the result may remain incomplete; for the
\nmental change leads more naturally towards an inner status and an outer
\nquietude, but, poised in this purifying quietism, not drawn like the vital
\nparts towards a discovery of new life-energies, does not press for a full
\ndynamic effect on the nature. <\/span><\/p>\n

A higher endeavour<\/span> through the mind does not change this balance;
\nfor the tendency of the spiritualised<\/span> mind is to go
\non upwards and, since above itself the mind loses its hold on forms, it is into
\na vast formless and featureless impersonality that it enters. It becomes aware
\nof the unchanging Self, the sheer Spirit, the pure bareness of an essential
\nExistence, the formless Infinite and the nameless Absolute. This culmination
\ncan be arrived at more directly by tending immediately beyond all forms and
\nfigures, beyond all ideas of good or evil or true or false or beautiful or
\nunbeautiful to That which exceeds all dualities, to the experience of a supreme
\noneness, infinity, eternity or other ineffable sublimation of the mind’s
\nultimate and extreme percept of Self or Spirit. A spiritualised<\/span>
\nconsciousness is achieved and the life falls quiet, the body ceases to need and
\nto clamour<\/span>, the soul itself merges into the spiritual
\nsilence. But this transformation through the mind does not give us the integral
\ntransformation; the psychic transmutation is replaced by a spiritual change on
\nthe rare and high summits, but this is not the complete divine dynamisation<\/span> of Nature. <\/span><\/p>\n

A second approach made
\nby the soul to the direct contact is through the heart: this is its own more
\nclose and rapid way  <\/span>because its occult
\nseat is there, just behind in the heart-centre, in close contact with the
\nemotional being in us; it is consequently through the emotions that it can act
\nbest at the beginning with its native power, with its living force of concrete
\nexperience. It is through a love and adoration of the All-Beautiful and
\nAll-Blissful, the All-Good, the True, the spiritual Reality of love, that the
\napproach is made; the aesthetic and emotional parts join together to offer the
\nsoul, the life, the whole nature to that which they worship. This approach
\nthrough adoration can get its full power and impetus only when the mind goes <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n <\/span>beyond impersonality to the awareness of a
\nsupreme Personal Being: then all becomes intense, vivid, concrete; the heart’s
\nemotion, feeling, spiritualised<\/span> sense reach their
\nabsolute; an entire self-giving becomes possible, imperative. The nascent
\nspiritual man makes his appearance in the emotional nature as the devotee, the bhakta<\/span>; if, in addition, he becomes directly aware of his
\nsoul and its dictates, unites his emotional with his psychic personality and
\nchanges his life and vital parts by purity, God-ecstasy, the love of God and
\nmen and all creatures into a thing of spiritual beauty, full of divine light
\nand good, he develops into the saint and reaches the highest inner experience
\nand most considerable change of nature proper to this way  <\/span>of approach to the Divine Being. But for the
\npurpose of an integral transformation this too is not enough; there must be a
\ntransmutation of the thinking mind and all the vital and physical parts of
\nconsciousness in their own character. <\/span><\/p>\n

This larger change can
\nbe partly attained by adding to the experiences of the heart a consecration of
\nthe pragmatic will<\/span><\/p>\n

which must succeed in carrying with it,\u2014for
\notherwise it cannot be effective,\u2014the adhesion of the dynamic vital part which
\nsupports the mental dynamis<\/span> and is our first
\ninstrument of outer action. This consecration of the will in works proceeds by
\na gradual elimination of the ego-will and its motive-power of desire; the ego
\nsubjects itself to some higher law and finally effaces itself, seems not to
\nexist or exists only to serve a higher Power or a higher Truth or to offer its
\nwill and acts to the Divine Being as an instrument. The law of being and action
\nor the light of Truth which then guides the seeker, may be a clarity or power
\nor principle which he perceives on the highest height of which his mind is
\ncapable; or it may be a truth of the divine Will which he feels present and
\nworking within him or guiding him by a Light or a Voice or a Force or a divine
\nPerson or Presence. In the end by this way one arrives at a consciousness in
\nwhich one feels the Force or Presence acting within and moving or governing all
\nthe actions and the personal will is entirely surrendered or identified with
\nthat greater Truth-Will, Truth-Power or Truth-Presence. A combination of all
\nthese three approaches, the approach of the mind, the approach of <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n <\/span>the will, the approach of the heart, creates a
\nspiritual or psychic condition of the surface being and nature in which there
\nis a larger and more complex openness to the psychic light within us and to the
\nspiritual Self or the Ishwara<\/span>, to the Reality now
\nfelt above and enveloping and penetrating us. In the nature there is a more
\npowerful and many-sided change, a spiritual building and self-creation, the
\nappearance of a composite perfection of the saint, the selfless worker and the
\nman of spiritual knowledge. <\/span><\/p>\n

But, for this change to
\narrive at its widest totality and profound completeness, the consciousness has
\nto shift its centre and its static and dynamic position from the surface to the
\ninner being; it is there that we must find the foundation for our thought, life
\nand action. For to stand outside on our surface and to receive from the inner
\nbeing and follow its intimations is not a sufficient transformation; one must
\ncease to be the surface personality and become the inner Person, the Purusha<\/span>. But this is difficult, first because the outer
\nnature opposes the movement and clings to its normal accustomed poise and externalised<\/span> way of existence and, in addition, because
\nthere is a long way from the surface to the depths in which the psychic entity
\nis veiled from us, and this intervening space is filled with a subliminal
\nnature and nature-movements which are not by any means all of them favourable<\/span> to the completion of the inward movement. The
\nouter nature has to undergo a change of poise, a quieting, a purification and
\nfine mutation of its substance and energy by which the many obstacles in it
\nrarefy, drop away or otherwise disappear; it then becomes possible to pass
\nthrough to the depths of our being and from the depths so reached a new
\nconsciousness can be formed, both behind the exterior self and in it, joining
\nthe depths to the surface. There must grow up within us or there must manifest
\na consciousness more and more open to the deeper and the higher being, more and
\nmore laid bare to the cosmic Self and Power and to what comes down from the
\nTranscendence, turned to a higher Peace, permeable to a greater light, force
\nand ecstasy, a consciousness that exceeds the small personality and surpasses
\nthe limited light and experience of the surface mind, the limited force and
\naspiration of the normal <\/span><\/p>\n

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\nlife-consciousness, the obscure and limited
\nresponsiveness of the body.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even before the tranquillising<\/span> purification of the outer nature has been
\neffected or before it is sufficient, one can still break down the wall
\nscreening our inner being from our outer awareness by a strong force of call
\nand aspiration, a vehement will or violent effort or an effective discipline or
\nprocess; but this may be a premature movement and is not without its serious
\ndangers. In entering within one may find oneself amidst a chaos of unfamiliar
\nand supernormal experiences to which one has not the key or a press of
\nsubliminal or cosmic forces, subconscient<\/span>, mental,
\nvital, subtle-physical, which may unduly sway or chaotically drive the being,
\nencircle it in a cave of darkness, or keep it wandering in a wilderness of
\nglamour, allurement, deception, or push it into an obscure battlefield full of
\nsecret and treacherous and misleading or open and violent oppositions; beings
\nand voices and influences may appear to the inner sense and vision and hearing
\nclaiming to be the Divine Being or His messengers or Powers and Godheads of the
\nLight or guides of the path to realisation<\/span>, while in
\ntruth they are of a very different character. If there is too much egoism in
\nthe nature of the seeker or a strong passion or an excessive ambition, vanity
\nor other dominating weakness, or an obscurity of the mind or a vacillating will
\nor a weakness of the life-force or an unsteadiness in it or want of balance, he
\nis likely to be seized on through these deficiencies and to be frustrated or to
\ndeviate, misled from the true way of the inner life and seeking into false
\npaths, or to be left wandering about in an intermediate chaos of experiences
\nand fail to find his way out into the true realisation<\/span>.
\nThese perils were well-known to a past spiritual experience and have been met
\nby imposing the necessity of initiation, of discipline, of methods of
\npurification and testing by ordeal, of an entire submission to the directions
\nof the path-finder or path-leader, one who has realised<\/span>
\nthe Truth and himself possesses and is able to communicate the light, the
\nexperience, a guide who is strong to take by the hand and carry over difficult
\npassages as well as to instruct and point out the way. But even so the dangers
\nwill be there and can only be surmounted if there is or there grows up a
\ncomplete sincerity, a will<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n <\/span> <\/span>for
\npurity, a readiness for obedience to the Truth, for surrender to the Highest, a
\nreadiness to lose or to subject to a divine yoke the limiting and
\nself-affirming ego. These things are the sign that the true will for realisation<\/span>, for conversion of the consciousness, for
\ntransformation is there, the necessary stage of the evolution has been reached:
\nin that condition the defects of nature which belong to the human being cannot
\nbe a permanent obstacle to the change from the mental to the spiritual status;
\nthe process may never be entirely easy, but the way will have been made open
\nand practicable. <\/span><\/p>\n

One effective way often
\nused to facilitate this entry into the inner self is the separation of the Purusha<\/span>, the conscious being, from the Prakriti<\/span>,
\nthe formulated nature. If one stands back from the mind and its activities so
\nthat they fall silent at will or go on as a surface movement of which one is
\nthe detached and disinterested witness, it becomes possible eventually to realise<\/span> oneself as the inner Self of mind, the true and
\npure mental being, the Purusha<\/span>; by similarly standing
\nback from the life-activities, it is possible to realise<\/span>
\noneself as the inner Self of life, the true and pure vital being, the Purusha<\/span>; there is even a Self of body of which, by standing
\nback from the body and its demands and activities and entering into a silence
\nof the physical consciousness watching the action of its energy, it is possible
\nto become aware, a true and pure physical being, the Purusha<\/span>.
\nSo too, by standing back from all these activities of nature successively or
\ntogether, it becomes possible to realize one’s inner being as the silent
\nimpersonal self, the witness Purusha<\/span>. This will lead
\nto a spiritual realisation<\/span> and liberation, but will
\nnot necessarily bring about a transformation; for the Purusha<\/span>,
\nsatisfied to be free and himself, may leave the nature, the Prakriti<\/span>,
\nto exhaust its accumulated impetus by an unsupported action, a mechanical
\ncontinuance not renewed and reinforced or vivified and prolonged by his
\nconsent, and use this rejection as a means of withdrawing from all nature. The Purusha<\/span> has to become not only the witness but the knower
\nand source, the master of all the thought and action, and this can only be
\npartially done so long as one remains on the mental level or has still to use
\nthe ordinary instrumentation of mind, life and body. A certain mastery can
\nindeed be achieved, but mastery is
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n <\/span>not transformation; the change made by it cannot
\nbe sufficient to be integral: for that it is essential to get back, beyond
\nmind-being, life-being, body-being, still more deeply inward to the psychic
\nentity inmost and profoundest within us,\u2014or else to open to the superconscient<\/span> highest domains. For this penetration into
\nthe luminous crypt of the soul one has to get through all the intervening vital
\nstuff to the psychic centre within us, however long, tedious or difficult may
\nbe the process. The method of detachment from the insistence of all mental and
\nvital and physical claims and calls and impulsions, a concentration in the
\nheart, austerity, self-purification and rejection of the old mind-movements and
\nlife-movements, rejection of the ego of desire, rejection of false needs and
\nfalse habits, are all useful aids to this difficult passage: but the strongest,
\nmost central way is to found all such or other methods on a self-offering and
\nsurrender of ourselves and of our parts of nature to the Divine Being, the Ishwara<\/span>. A strict obedience to the wise and intuitive
\nleading of a Guide is also normal and necessary for all but a few specially
\ngifted seekers. <\/span><\/p>\n

As the crust of the
\nouter nature cracks, as the walls of inner separation break down, the inner
\nlight gets through, the inner fire burns in the heart, the substance of the
\nnature and the stuff of consciousness refine to a greater subtlety and purity,
\nand the deeper psychic experiences, those which are not solely of an inner
\nmental or inner vital character, become possible in this subtler, purer, finer
\nsubstance; the soul begins to unveil itself, the psychic personality reaches
\nits full stature. The soul, the psychic entity, then manifests itself as the
\ncentral being which upholds mind and life and body and supports all the other
\npowers and functions of the Spirit; it takes up its greater function as the
\nguide and ruler of the nature. A guidance, a governance begins from within
\nwhich exposes every movement to the light of Truth, repels what is false,
\nobscure, opposed to the divine realisation<\/span>: every
\nregion of the being, every nook and corner of it, every movement, formation,
\ndirection, inclination of thought, will, emotion, sensation, action, reaction,
\nmotive, disposition, propensity, desire, habit of the conscious or subconscious
\nphysical, even the most concealed, camouflaged, mute, recondite, is lighted up
\nwith the<\/span><\/p>\n

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 <\/span>unerring psychic
\nlight, their confusions dissipated, their tangles disentangled, their
\nobscurities, deceptions, self-deceptions precisely indicated and removed; all
\nis purified, set right, the whole nature harmonised<\/span>,
\nmodulated in the psychic key, put in spiritual order. This process may be rapid
\nor tardy according to the amount of obscurity and resistance still left in the
\nnature, but it goes on unfalteringly so long as it is not complete. As a final
\nresult the whole conscious being is made perfectly apt for spiritual experience
\nof every kind, turned towards spiritual truth of thought, feeling, sense,
\naction, tuned to the right responses, delivered from the darkness and
\nstubbornness of the tamasic<\/span> inertia, the turbidities
\nand turbulences and impurities of the rajasic<\/span> passion
\nand restless unharmonised<\/span> kinetism<\/span>,
\nthe enlightened rigidities and sattwic<\/span> limitations or
\npoised balancements<\/span> of constructed equilibrium which
\nare the character of the Ignorance.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

This is the first
\nresult, but the second is a free inflow of all kinds of spiritual experience,
\nexperience of the Self, experience of the Ishwara<\/span> and
\nthe Divine Shakti<\/span>, experience of cosmic
\nconsciousness, a direct touch with cosmic forces and with the occult movements
\nof universal Nature, a psychic sympathy and unity and inner communication and
\ninterchanges of all kinds with other beings and with Nature, illuminations of
\nthe mind by knowledge, illuminations of the heart by love and devotion and
\nspiritual joy and ecstasy, illuminations of the sense and the body by higher experience,
\nilluminations of dynamic action in the truth and largeness of a purified mind
\nand heart and soul, the certitudes of the divine light and guidance, the joy
\nand power of the divine force working in the will and the conduct. These
\nexperiences are the result of an opening outward of the inner and inmost being
\nand nature; for then there comes into play the soul’s power of unerring
\ninherent consciousness, its vision, its touch on things which is superior to
\nany mental cognition; there is there, native to the psychic consciousness in
\nits pure working, an immediate sense of the world and its beings, a direct
\ninner contact with them and a direct contact with the Self and with the
\nDivine,\u2014a direct knowledge, a direct sight of Truth and of all truths, a direct
\npenetrating spiritual emotion and feeling, a direct intuition of right will and
\nright action, a power to rule and to <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n <\/span> <\/span>create an
\norder of the being not by the gropings<\/span> of the
\nsuperficial self, but from within, from the inner truth of self and things and
\nthe occult realities of Nature. <\/span><\/p>\n

Some of these
\nexperiences can come by an opening of the inner mental and vital being, the
\ninner and larger and subtler mind and heart and life within us, without any
\nfull emergence of the soul, the psychic entity, since there too there is a
\npower of direct contact of consciousness: but the experience might then be of a
\nmixed character; for there could be an emergence not only of the subliminal
\nknowledge but of the subliminal ignorance. An insufficient expansion of the
\nbeing, a limitation by mental idea, by narrow and selective emotion or by the
\nform of the temperament so that there would be only an imperfect self-creation
\nand action and not the free soul-emergence, could easily occur. In the absence
\nof any or of a complete psychic emergence, experiences of certain kinds,
\nexperiences of greater knowledge and force, a surpassing of the ordinary
\nlimits,  <\/span>might lead to a magnified ego
\nand even bring about instead of an out-flowering of what is divine or spiritual
\nan uprush<\/span> of the titanic or demoniac, or might call
\nin agencies and powers which, though not of this disastrous type, are of a
\npowerful but inferior cosmic character. But the rule and guidance of the soul
\nbrings into all experience the tendency of light, of  <\/span>integration, of harmony and intimate
\nrightness which is native to the psychic essence. A psychic or, more widely
\nspeaking, a psycho-spiritual transformation of this kind would be already a
\nvast change of our mental human nature. <\/span><\/p>\n

But all this change and
\nall this experience, though psychic and spiritual in essence and character,
\nwould still be, in its parts of life-effectuation, on the mental, vital and
\nphysical level; its dynamic spiritual outcome 1 <\/sup>would be a flowering
\nof the soul in mind and life and body, but in act and form it would be
\ncircumscribed within the limitations,\u2014however enlarged, uplifted and
\nrarefied,\u2014of an inferior instrumentation. It would be a reflected and modified
\nmanifestation of things whose full reality, intensity, largeness, oneness and
\ndiversity of truth and power and delight <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

1<\/span><\/sup> The psychic and the spiritual opening
\nwith their experiences and consequences can lead away from life or to a<\/span><\/p>\n

Nirvana; but they are here being
\nconsidered solely as steps in a transformation of the nature.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

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are above us, above mind and therefore above any
\nperfection, within mind’s own formula, of the foundations or superstructure of
\nour present nature. A highest spiritual transformation must intervene on the
\npsychic or psycho-spiritual change; the psychic movement inward to the inner
\nbeing, the Self or Divinity within us, must be completed by an opening upward
\nto a supreme spiritual status or a higher existence. This can be done by our
\nopening into what is above us, by an ascent of consciousness into the ranges of
\novermind<\/span> and supramental<\/span>
\nnature in which the sense of Self and Spirit is ever unveiled and permanent and
\nin which the self-luminous instrumentation of the Self and Spirit is not
\nrestricted or divided as in our mind-nature, life-nature, body-nature. This
\nalso the psychic change makes possible; for as it opens us to the cosmic
\nconsciousness now hidden from us by many walls of limiting individuality, so
\nalso it opens us to what is now superconscient<\/span> to our
\nnormality because it is hidden from us by the strong, hard and bright lid of
\nmind,\u2014mind constricting, dividing and separative<\/span>. The
\nlid thins, is slit, breaks asunder or opens and disappears under the pressure
\nof the psycho-spiritual change and the natural urge of the new spiritualised<\/span> consciousness towards that of which it is an
\nexpression here. This effectuation of an aperture and its consequences may not
\nat all take place if there is only a partial psychic emergence satisfied with
\nthe experience of the Divine Reality in the normal degrees of the spiritualised<\/span> mind: but if there is any awakening to the
\nexistence of these higher supernormal levels, then an aspiration towards them
\nmay break the lid or operate a rift in it. This may happen long before the
\npsycho-spiritual change is complete or even before it has well begun or
\nproceeded far, because the psychic personality has become aware and has an
\neager concentration towards the superconscience<\/span>. An
\nearly illumination from above or a rending of the upper velamen<\/span>
\ncan come as an outcome of aspiration or some inner readiness, or it may even
\ncome uncalled for or not called for by any conscious part of the mind,\u2014perhaps
\nby a secret subliminal necessity or by an action or pressure from the higher
\nlevels, by something which is felt as the touch of the Divine Being, the touch
\nof the Spirit,\u2014and its results can be exceedingly powerful. But if it is
\nbrought about
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n <\/span>by a premature pressure from below, it can be attended
\nwith difficulties and dangers which are absent when the full psychic emergence
\nprecedes this first admission to the superior ranges of our spiritual
\nevolution. The choice, however, does not always rest with our will, for the
\noperations of the spiritual evolution in us are very various, and according to
\nthe line it has followed will be the turn taken at any critical phase by the
\naction of the Consciousness-Force in its urge towards a higher
\nself-manifestation and formation of our existence.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

If the rift in the lid
\nof mind is made, what happens is an opening of vision to something above us or
\na rising up towards it or a descent of its powers into our being. What we see
\nby the opening of vision is an Infinity above us, an eternal Presence or an
\ninfinite Existence, an infinity of consciousness, an infinity of bliss,\u2014a
\nboundless Self, a boundless Light, a boundless Power, a boundless Ecstasy. It
\nmay be that for a long time all that is obtained is the occasional or frequent
\nor constant vision of it and a longing and aspiration, but without anything
\nfurther, because, although something in the mind, heart or other part of the
\nbeing has opened to this experience, the lower nature as a whole is too heavy
\nand obscure as yet for more. But there may be, instead of this first wide
\nawareness from below or subsequently to it, an ascension of the mind to heights
\nabove: the nature of these heights we may not know or clearly discern, but some
\nconsequence of the ascent is felt; there is often too an awareness of infinite
\nascension and return but no record or translation of that higher state. This is
\nbecause it has been superconscient<\/span> to mind and
\ntherefore mind, when it rises into it, is unable at first to retain there its
\npower of conscious discernment and defining experience. But when this power
\nbegins to awake and act, when mind becomes by degrees conscious in what was to
\nit superconscient<\/span>, then there begins a knowledge and
\nexperience of superior planes of existence. The experience is in accord with
\nthat which is brought to us by the first opening of vision: the mind rises into
\na higher plane of pure Self, silent, tranquil, illimitable; or it rises into
\nregions of Light or of Felicity, or into planes where it feels an infinite
\nPower or a divine Presence or experiences the contact of a divine Love or
\nBeauty or the <\/span><\/p>\n

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\natmosphere of a wider and greater and luminous
\nKnowledge. In the return the spiritual impression abides; but the mental record
\nis often blurred and remains as a vague or a fragmentary memory; the lower
\nconsciousness from which the ascent took place falls back to what it was, with
\nonly the addition of an unkept<\/span> or a remembered but no
\nlonger dynamic experience. In time the ascent comes to be made at will and the
\nconsciousness brings back and retains some effect or some gain of its temporary
\nsojourn in these higher countries of the Spirit. These ascents take place for
\nmany in trance, but are perfectly possible in a concentration of the waking
\nconsciousness or, where that consciousness has become sufficiently psychic, at
\nany unconcentrated<\/span> moment by an upward attraction or
\naffinity. But these two types of contact with the superconscient<\/span>,
\nthough they can be powerfully illuminating, ecstatic or liberating, are by
\nthemselves insufficiently effective: for the full spiritual transformation more
\nis needed, a permanent ascension from the lower into the higher consciousness
\nand an effectual permanent descent of the higher into the lower nature.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

This is the third
\nmotion, the descent which is essential for bringing the permanent ascension, an
\nincreasing inflow from above, an experience of reception and retention of the
\ndescending Spirit or its powers and elements of consciousness. This experience
\nof descent can take place as a result of the other two movements or automatically
\nbefore either has happened, through a sudden rift in the lid or a percolation,
\na downpour or an influx. A light descends and touches or envelops or penetrates
\nthe lower being, the mind, the life or the body; or a presence or a power or a
\nstream of knowledge pours in waves or currents, or there is a flood of bliss or
\na sudden ecstasy; the contact with the superconscient<\/span>
\nhas been established. For such experiences repeat themselves till they become
\nnormal, familiar and well-understood, revelatory of their contents and their
\nsignificance which may have at first been involved and wrapped into secrecy by
\nthe figure of the covering experience. For a knowledge from above begins to
\ndescend, frequently, constantly, then uninterruptedly, and to manifest in the
\nmind’s quietude or silence; intuitions and inspirations, revelations born of a
\ngreater sight,
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

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a higher truth and wisdom, enter into the being,
\na luminous intuitive discrimination works which dispels all darkness of
\nunderstanding or dazzling confusions, puts all in order; a new consciousness
\nbegins to form, the mind of a high wide self-existent thinking knowledge or an
\nillumined or an intuitive or an overmental<\/span>
\nconsciousness with new forces of thought or sight and a greater power of direct
\nspiritual realisation<\/span> which is more than thought or
\nsight, a greater becoming in the spiritual substance of our present being; the
\nheart and the sense become subtle, intense, large to embrace all existence, to
\nsee God, to feel and hear and touch the Eternal, to make a deeper and closer
\nunity of self and the world in a transcendent realisation<\/span>.
\nOther decisive experiences, other changes of consciousness determine themselves
\nwhich are corollaries and consequences of this fundamental change. No limit can
\nbe fixed to this revolution; for it is in its nature an invasion by the
\nInfinite. <\/span><\/p>\n

This, effected little by
\nlittle or in a succession of great and swift definitive experiences, is the
\nprocess s of the spiritual transformation. It achieves itself and culminates in
\nan upward ascent often repeated by which in the end the consciousness fixes
\nitself on a higher plane and from there sees and governs the mind, life and
\nbody; it achieves itself also in an increasing descent of the powers of the
\nhigher consciousness and knowledge which become more and more the whole normal
\nconsciousness and knowledge. A light and power, a knowledge and force are felt
\nwhich first take possession of the mind and remould<\/span>
\nit, afterwards of the life-part and remould<\/span> that,
\nfinally of the little physical consciousness and leave it no longer little but
\nwide and plastic and even infinite. For this new consciousness has itself the
\nnature of infinity: it brings to us the abiding spiritual sense and awareness
\nof the Infinite and Eternal with a great largeness of the nature and a breaking
\ndown of its limitations; immortality becomes no longer a belief or an
\nexperience but a normal self-awareness; the close presence of the Divine Being,
\nhis rule of the world and of our self and natural members, his force working in
\nus and everywhere, the peace of the infinite, the joy of the Infinite are now
\nconcrete and constant in the being; in all sights and forms one sees the
\nEternal, the <\/span><\/p>\n

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Reality, in all sounds one hears it, in all
\ntouches feels it; there is nothing else but its forms and personalities and
\nmanifestations; the joy or adoration of the heart, the embrace of all
\nexistence, the unity of the spirit are abiding realities. The consciousness of
\nthe mental creature is turning or has been already turned wholly into the
\nconsciousness of the spiritual being. This is the second of the three
\ntransformations; uniting the manifested existence with what is above it, it is
\nthe middle step of the three, the decisive transition of the spiritually
\nevolving nature. <\/span><\/p>\n

If the spirit could from
\nthe first dwell securely on the superior heights and deal with a blank and
\nvirgin stuff of mind and matter, a complete spiritual transformation might be
\nrapid, even facile: but the actual process of Nature is more difficult, the logic
\nof her movement more manifold, contorted, winding, comprehensive; she recognises<\/span> all the data of the task she has set to herself
\nand is not satisfied with a summary triumph over her own complexities. Every
\npart of our being has to be taken in its own nature and character, with all the
\nmoulds and writings of the past still there in it: each minutest portion and movement
\nmust either be destroyed and replaced if it is unfit, or, if it is capable,
\ntransmuted into the truth of the higher being. If the psychic change is
\ncomplete, this can be done by a painless process, though still the programme<\/span> must be long and scrupulous and the progress
\ndeliberate; but otherwise one has to be satisfied with a partial result or, if
\none’s own scrupulousness of perfection or hunger of the spirit is insatiable,
\nconsent to a difficult, often painful and seemingly interminable action. For
\nordinarily the consciousness does not rise to the summits except in the highest
\nmoments; it remains on the mental level and receives descents from above,
\nsometimes a single descent of some spiritual power that stays and moulds the
\nbeing into something predominatingly<\/span> spiritual, or a
\nsuccession of descents bringing into it more and more of the spiritual status
\nand dynamis<\/span>: but unless one can live on the highest
\nheight reached, there cannot be the complete or more integral change. If the
\npsychic mutation has not taken place, if there has been a premature pulling
\ndown of the higher Forces, <\/span><\/p>\n

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their contact may be too strong for the flawed
\nand impure material of Nature and its immediate fate may be that of the unbaked
\njar of the Veda which could not hold the divine Soma Wine; or the descending
\ninfluence may withdraw or be spilt because the nature cannot contain or keep
\nit. Again, if it is Power that descends, the egoistic mind or vital may try to
\nseize on it for its own use and a magnified ego or a hunting after powers and
\nself-aggrandising<\/span> masteries may be the untoward result.
\nThe Ananda<\/span> descending cannot be held if there is too
\nmuch sexual impurity creating an intoxicant or degrading mixture; the Power
\nrecedes, if there is ambition, vanity or other aggressive form of lower self,
\nthe Light if there is an attachment to obscurity or to any form of the
\nIgnorance, the Presence if the chamber of the heart has not been made pure. Or
\nsome undivine<\/span> Force may try to seize hold, not of the
\nPower itself, for that withdraws, but of the result of force it leaves behind
\nin the instrument and use it for the purposes of the Adversary. Even if none of
\nthese more disastrous faults or errors should take place, still the numerous
\nmistakes of reception or the imperfections of the vessel may impede the transformation.
\nThe Power has to come at intervals and work meanwhile behind the veil or hold
\nitself back through long periods of obscure assimilation or preparation of the
\nrecalcitrant parts of Nature; the Light has to work in darkness or semi-darkness
\non the regions in us that are still in the Night. At any moment the work may be
\nstayed, personally for this life, because the nature is able to receive or
\nassimilate no more,\u2014for it has reached the present limits of its capacity,\u2014or because
\nthe mind may be ready but the vital, when faced with a choice between the old
\nlife and the new, refuses, or if the vital accepts, the body may prove too
\nweak, unfit or flawed for the necessary change of its consciousness and its
\ndynamic transformation. <\/span><\/p>\n

            <\/span>Moreover,
\nthe necessity of working out the change separately in each part of the being in
\nits own nature and character compels the consciousness to descend into each in
\nturn and act there according to its state and its possibility. If the work were
\ndone from above, from some spiritual height, there might be a sublimation or
\nuplifting or the creation of a new structure
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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compelled by the sheer force of the influence
\nfrom above: but this change might not be accepted as native to itself by the lower
\nbeing; it would not be a total growth, an integral evolution, but a partial and
\nimposed formation, affecting or liberating some parts of the being, suppressing
\nothers or leaving them as they were; a creation from outside the normal nature,
\nby imposition upon it, it could be durable in its entirety only as long as
\nthere was a maintenance of the creating influence. A descent of consciousness
\ninto the lower levels is therefore necessary, but in this way also it is
\ndifficult to work out the full power of the higher principle; there is a
\nmodification, dilution, diminution which keeps up an imperfection and
\nlimitation in the results: the light of a greater knowledge comes down but gets
\nblurred and modified, its significance misinterpreted or its truth mixed with
\nmental and vital error, or the force, the power to fulfil<\/span>
\nitself is not commensurate with its light. A light and power of the Overmind<\/span> working in its own full right and in its own
\nsphere is one thing, the same light working in the obscurity of the physical
\nconsciousness and under its conditions is something quite different and, owing
\nto dilution and mixture, far inferior in its knowledge and force and results. A
\nmutilated power, a partial effect or hampered movement is the consequence. <\/span><\/p>\n

            <\/span>This
\nis indeed the reason of the slow and difficult emergence of the
\nConsciousness-Force in Nature: for Mind and Life have to descend into Matter
\nand suit themselves to its conditions; changed and diminished by the obscurity
\nand reluctant inertia of the substance and force in which they work, they are
\nnot able to make a complete transformation of their material into a fit
\ninstrument and a changed substance revelatory of their real and native power.
\nThe Life-consciousness is unable to effectuate the greatness and felicity of
\nits mighty or beautiful impulses in the material existence; its impetus fails
\nit, its force of effectuation is inferior to the truth of its conceptions, the
\nform betrays the Life-intuition within it which it tries to render into terms
\nof Life-being. The Mind is unable to achieve its high ideas in the medium of
\nLife or Matter without deductions and compromises which deprive them of their
\ndivinity; its clarities of knowledge and will are not matched by its force
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

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to mould this inferior substance to obey and
\nexpress it: on the contrary, its own powers get affected, its will is divided,
\nits knowledge confused and clouded by the turbidities of life and the
\nincomprehensiveness of Matter. Neither Life nor Mind succeeds in converting or
\nperfecting the material existence, because they cannot attain to their own full
\nforce in these conditions; they need to call in a higher power to liberate and fulfil<\/span> them. But the higher spiritual-mental powers also
\nundergo the same disability when they descend into Life and Matter; they can do
\nmuch more, achieve much luminous change, but the modification, the limitation,
\nthe disparity between the consciousness that comes in and the force of
\neffectuation that it can mentalise<\/span> and materialise<\/span>, are constantly there and the result is a
\ndiminished creation. The change made is often extraordinary, there is even
\nsomething which looks like a total conversion and reversal of the state of
\nconsciousness and an uplifting of its movements, but it is not dynamically
\nabsolute. <\/span><\/p>\n

Only the Supermind<\/span> can thus descend without losing its full power of
\naction; for its action is always intrinsic and automatic, its will and
\nknowledge identical and the result commensurate: its nature is a self-achieving
\nTruth-Consciousness and, if it limits itself or its working, it is by choice
\nand intention, not by compulsion; in the limits it chooses its action and the results
\nof its action are harmonious and inevitable. Again, Overmind<\/span>
\nis, like Mind, a dividing principle, and its characteristic operation is to
\nwork out in an independent formation a selected harmony; its global action
\nenables it indeed to create a harmony whole and perfect in itself or to unite
\nor fuse its harmonies together, to synthetise<\/span>; but, labouring<\/span> under the restrictions of Mind, Life and Matter,
\nit is obliged to do it by sections and their joinings<\/span>.
\nIts tendency of totality is hampered by its selective tendency which is
\naccentuated by the nature of the mental and life material in which it is
\nworking here; what it can achieve is separate limited spiritual creations each
\nperfect in itself, but not the integral knowledge and its manifestation. For
\nthis reason and because of the diminishing of its native light and power it is
\nunable to do fully what is needed and has to call in a greater power, the supramental<\/span> force, to liberate and fulfil<\/span>
\nit. As the psychic change
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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has to call in the spiritual to complete it, so
\nthe first spiritual change has to call in the supramental<\/span>
\ntransformation to complete it. For all these steps forward are, like those
\nbefore them, transitional; the whole radical change in the evolution from a
\nbasis of Ignorance to a basis of Knowledge can only come by the intervention of
\nthe supramental<\/span> Power and its direct action in earth-existence. <\/span><\/p>\n

This then must be the
\nnature of the third and final transformation which finishes the passage of the
\nsoul through the Ignorance and bases its consciousness, its life, its power and
\nform of manifestation on a complete and completely effective self-knowledge.
\nThe Truth-Consciousness, finding evolutionary Nature ready, has to descend into
\nher and enable her to liberate the supramental<\/span>
\nprinciple within her; so must be created the supramental<\/span>
\nand spiritual being as the first unveiled manifestation of the truth of the
\nSelf and Spirit in the material universe. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
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CHAPTER XXV   The Triple Transformation    A conscious being is the centre of the self, who rules past and  future; he is like a fire…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-19-the-life-divine-volume-19","wpcat-27-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1255\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}