{"id":3540,"date":"2013-07-13T01:49:20","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3540"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:49:20","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:49:20","slug":"007-transformation-of-the-physical-vol-on-yoga-2-tome-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/02-other-editions\/on-yoga-2-tome-two\/007-transformation-of-the-physical-vol-on-yoga-2-tome-two","title":{"rendered":"-007_Transformation of the Physical.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

Section
\nSeven <\/i><\/b>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nTRANSFORMATION OF THE PHYSICAL <\/b>\n<\/p>\n


\n
<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

    
\n TRANSFORMATION OF THE PHYSICAL <\/b>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nI <\/b>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nNo need to despise the physical being\u2014it is part of the intended manifestation.\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is because your consciousness in the course of the sadhana has come into
\ncontact with the lower physical nature and sees it as it is in itself when it is
\nnot kept down or controlled either by the mind, the psychic or the spiritual
\nforce. This nature is in itself full of low and obscure desires, it is the most
\nanimal part of the human being. One has to come into contact with it so as to
\nknow what is there and transform it. Most sadhaks of the old type are satisfied
\nwith rising into the spiritual or psychic realms and leave this part to
\nitself\u2014but by that it remains unchanged, even if mostly quiescent, and no
\ncomplete transformation is possible. You have only to remain quiet and
\nundisturbed and let the higher Force work to change this obscure physical
\nnature.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAll that may be very well in theory, but
\npractically it is found that the physical impurity is strong enough to bar the
\ninner progress and limit rigidly the inner experience to some passive peace.<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n


\n
<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage-508<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nThe opportunity for these contrary forces is given when the sadhak descends in
\nthe inevitable course of the sadhana from the mental or the higher vital plane
\nto the physical consciousness. Always this is accompanied by a fading of the
\nfirst deep experiences and a descent to the neutral obscure inertia which is the
\nbed-rock of the unredeemed physical nature. It is there that the Light, the
\nPower, the Ananda of the Divine has to descend and transform everything, driving
\naway forever all obscurity and all inertia and establishing the radiant Energy,
\nthe perfect Light and the unchanging Bliss. There and not in the mind or the
\nhigher vital is all the difficulty, but there too must be the victory and the
\nfoundation of the new world. I do not wish to disguise from you the difficulty
\nof this great and tremendous change or the possibility that you may have a long
\nand hard work before you, but are you really unwilling to face it and take your
\nshare in the great work? Will you reject the greatness of this endeavour to
\nfollow a mad irrational impulse towards some more exciting work of the hour or
\nthe moment for which you have no true call in any part of your nature?\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere is no true reason for despondency; in nothing that has passed do I find
\nany good ground for it. The difficulties you experience are nothing to those
\nthat others have felt and yet conquered them, others who were not stronger than
\nyou. All that has happened is that by this descent into the physical
\nconsciousness the ordinary external human nature has come to the front with its
\nelemental imperfections and subconscient unsatisfied impulses and it is to these
\nthat the contrary force is appealing. The mind and the higher vital have put
\naway from them the ideas and illusions which gave them a sanction, an illusion
\nof legitimacy and even nobility in their satisfaction. But the root of them,
\ntheir inherent irrational push for satisfaction, has not\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-509<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

yet gone\u2014this, for
\ninstance, is the reason for the sexual movements which you have recently felt in
\nsleep or in waking. This was inevitable. All that is needed is for your psychic
\nbeing to come forward and open you to the direct and real and constant inner
\ncontact of myself and the Mother. Hitherto your soul has expressed itself
\nthrough the mind and its ideals and admirations or through the vital and its
\nhigher joys and aspirations; but that is not sufficient to conquer the physical
\ndifficulty and enlighten and transform Matter. It is your soul in itself, your
\npsychic being that must come in front, awaken entirely and make the fundamental
\nchange. The psychic being will not need the support of intellectual ideas or
\nouter signs and helps. It is that alone that can give you the direct feeling of
\nthe Divine, the constant nearness, the inner support and aid. You will not then
\nfeel the Mother remote or have any further doubt about the realisation; for the
\nmind thinks and the vital craves, but the soul feels and knows the Divine.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nCast away from you these movements of doubt, depression and the rest which are
\nno part of your true and higher nature. Reject these suggestions of inability,
\nunfitness and all these irrational movements of an alien force. Remain faithful
\nto the Light of your soul even when it is hidden by clouds. My help and the
\nMother’s will be there working behind even in the moments when you cannot feel
\nit. The one need for you and for all is to be, even in the darkness of the
\npowers of obscurity of the physical consciousness, stubbornly faithful to your
\nsoul and to the remembrance of the Divine Call. Be faithful and you will
\nconquer.\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-510<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nWhen I spoke of being faithful to the light of the soul and the divine Call, I
\nwas not referring to anything in the past or to any lapse on your part. I was
\nsimply affirming the great need in all crises and attacks,\u2014to refuse to listen
\nto any suggestions, impulses, lures and to oppose to them all the call of the
\nTruth, the imperative beckoning of the Light. In all doubt and depression, to
\nsay, "I belong to the Divine, I cannot fail"; to all suggestions of impurity and
\nunfitness, to reply, "I am a child of Immortality chosen by the Divine; I have
\nbut to be true to myself and to Him\u2014the victory is sure; even if I fell, I would
\nrise again"; to all impulses to depart and serve some smaller ideal, to reply,
\n"This is the greatest, this is the Truth that alone can satisfy the soul within
\nme; I will endure through all tests and tribulations to the very end of the
\ndivine journey". This is what I mean by faithfulness to the Light and the Call.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThese are things which come almost inevitably in one degree or another at a
\ncertain critical stage through which almost everyone has to pass and which
\nusually lasts for an uncomfortably long time but which need not be at all
\nconclusive or definitive. Usually, if one persists, it is the period of darkest
\nnight before the dawn which comes to every or almost every spiritual aspirant.
\nIt is due to a plunge one has to take into the sheer physical consciousness
\nunsupported by any true mental light or by any vital joy in life, for these
\nusually withdraw behind the veil, though they are not, as they seem to be,
\npermanently lost. It is a period when doubt, denial, dryness, greyness and all
\nkindred things come up with a great force and often reign completely for a time.
\nIt is after this stage has been successfully crossed that the true light begins
\nto come, the light which is not of the\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-511<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

mind but of the spirit. The
\nspiritual light, no doubt, comes to some to a certain extent and to a few to a
\nconsiderable extent, in the earlier stages, though that is not the case with
\nall\u2014for some have to wait till they can clear out the obstructing stuff in the
\nmind, vital and physical consciousness, and until then get only a touch now and
\nthen. But even at the best this earlier spiritual light is never complete until
\nthe darkness of the physical consciousness has been faced and overcome. It is
\nnot by one’s own fault that one falls into this state, it can come when one is
\ntrying one’s best to advance. It does not really indicate any radical disability
\nin the nature but certainly it is a hard ordeal and one has to stick very firmly
\nto pass through it. It is difficult to explain these things because the
\npsychological necessity is difficult for the ordinary human reason to understand
\nor to accept.\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere is nothing to be discouraged about. The fact is that after having been so
\nlong in the mental and vital plane you have become aware of the physical
\nconsciousness, and the physical consciousness in everybody is like that. It is
\ninert, conservative, does not want to move, to change\u2014it clings to its habits
\n(what people call their character) or its habits (habitual movements) cling to
\nit and repeat themselves like a clock working in a persistent mechanical way.
\nWhen you have cleared your vital somewhat, things go down and stick there. You
\nsee, if you have become self-conscious, you put pressure, perhaps, but the
\nphysical responds very slowly, hardly at first it seems to move at all. The
\nremedy is aspiration steady and unchanging, patient work, the psychic in the
\nphysical, calling down the light and force into these obscure parts. The light
\nbrings the consciousness\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-512<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

of what is there; the force
\nhas to follow and work on them till! they change or disappear.\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is always the effect of the physical consciousness being uppermost (so long
\nas it is not entirely changed) that one feels like this \u2014like an ordinary man or
\nworse, altogether in the outer consciousness, the inner consciousness veiled,
\nthe action of yoga power apparently suspended. This happens in the earlier
\nstages also, but it is not quite complete usually then because something of the
\nmind and vital is active in the physical still, or even if the interruption of
\nsadhana is complete, it does not last long and so one does not so much notice
\nit. But when from the mental and vital stage of the yoga one comes down into the
\nphysical, this condition which is native to the physical consciousness’ fully
\nmanifests and is persistent for long periods. It happens because one has to come
\ndown and deal with this part directly by entering into it,\u2014for if that is not
\ndone, there can be no complete change of the nature. What has to be done is to
\nunderstand that it is a stage and to persist in the faith that it will be
\novercome. If this is done, then it will be easier for the Force, working behind
\nthe veil at first, then in front to bring out the yoga consciousness into this
\nouter physical shell and make it luminous and responsive. If one keeps steadily
\nthe faith and quietude, then this can be more quickly done\u2014if the faith gets
\neclipsed or the quietude disturbed by the long difficulty, then it takes longer
\nbut even then it will be done; for, though not felt, the Force is there at work.
\nIt can only be prevented if one breaks away or throws up the sadhana, because
\none becomes too impatient of the difficulty to go through with it. That is the
\none thing that should never be done.\n<\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-513<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nIt means that there is only one sadhana for all parts, not a separate mental
\nsadhana, vital sadhana or physical sadhana\u2014but the action of the sadhana is
\napplied sometimes separately to each part, sometimes on the contrary the action
\nis the mental and vital together, or vital and physical together, or all three
\ntogether. But it is the same sadhana always.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhen I explained about the physical inertia, I meant that it was this which had
\nbeen preventing the elimination of the old movements all along and enabled them
\nto return when they had been pushed out\u2014for it is in the material half-conscious
\nor subconscient that there is the bed-rock of the resistance. When this comes up
\nand shows itself in its separate existence, not sustained by the mind and vital,
\nacting by the power of its own inertia and not covered by the sanction of the
\nmind or the vital, only repeating the old movements by force of old habit\u2014it is
\nthen possible to meet the resistance at its root instead of cutting off the
\nflowers and fruits and branches when they appear.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is precisely this loathness to do anything that must be got rid of\u2014for it is
\nsimply an acquiescence in the force of the inertia. If you can do nothing else,
\nthe old methods of violence to yourself etc. will obviously be unfruitful\u2014you
\nshould call on the Divine Peace and force to descend and deal with it and open
\nyourself to the action. If this obstructing physical is made to admit and
\nrespond to that, then the key of the solution will be there.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nI have said that your consciousness has come down
\ninto direct contact with the external physical nature which is always full of
\nthe lower movements and when that happens you see them as<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-514<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

they are, when they are not
\nunder the control of the mind and \u201e psychic. Everybody has to come into this
\ndirect contact\u2014otherwise there can be no transformation of this part of the
\nbeing.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYes, certainly, that is what I am insisting on\u2014the bringing of realisation into
\nthis inert physical part which has made itself prominent. When any part of the
\nbeing becomes prominent like this showing all its defects and limitations\u2014here
\ninertia or incapacity (apravrtti), <\/i>obscurity or forgetfulness (aprakāśa), <\/i>
\nit is in order to get set right,\u2014it has come up for a first or preliminary
\ntransformation. Peace and light in the mind, love and sympathy in the heart,
\ncalm and power in the vital, a settled receptivity and response (prakāśa,
\npravrtti) <\/i>in the physical are the necessary change.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYou feel as you do only because you are largely identified with the part that
\nhas not undergone change and so you feel the difficulty, even the impossibility
\nof changing. But although the difficulty is there, the impossibility does not
\nexist. Even this identification may be helpful, for so the change can be radical
\nby a direct action in the part itself or an indirect influence upon it through
\nthe mind or higher vital. Rest and restore your physical forces, open so that
\nthe Mother’s Force may freely work on you, all trouble pass away and a new and
\nstronger movement commence.\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhat you describe is the material consciousness; it is mostly subconscient, but
\nthe part of it that is conscious is mechanical, inertly moved by habits or by
\nthe forces of the lower nature.\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-515<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nAlways repeating the same unintelligent and unenlightened movements, it is
\nattached to the routine and established rule of what already exists, unwilling
\nto change, unwilling to receive the Light or obey the higher Force. Or, if it is
\nwilling, then it is unable. Or, if it is able, then it turns the action given to
\nit by the Light or the Force into a new mechanical routine and so takes out of
\nit all soul and life. It is obscure, stupid, indolent, full of ignorance and
\ninertia, darkness and slowness of tamas.<\/i>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is this material consciousness into which we are seeking to bring first the
\nhigher (divine or spiritual) Light and Power and Ananda, and then the
\nsupramental Truth which is the object of our yoga.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nI do not see why you doubt the fulfilment in your
\nmaterial consciousness. If there is faith, quietude, openness in the rest of the
\nbeing, the material is bound to open also. Tamas, inertia, ignorance, stupidity,
\nlittleness, obstruction to the true movement are universal characteristics of
\nthe material consciousness, so long as it is not enlightened, regenerated and
\ntransformed from above,\u2014they are not peculiar to yours. Therefore, there is here
\nno sufficient reason or justification for the doubt you describe.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhen the supramental comes down fully into the material consciousness, it will
\ncreate the right conditions there. The oneness will be created, the constant
\npresence and sense of contact will be felt in the material and there will be all
\nthe actual physical contact that is needed. The sadness you speak of is not
\npsychic\u2014for "painful longing" belongs to the vital, not to the psychic. The
\npsychic never feels a sadness from disappointed desire, because that is not in
\nits nature; the sorrow it sometimes feels is when it sees the Divine rejected or
\nthe mental, vital,\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-516<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

physical in man or in
\nnature turning away from the Truth to follow perversion, darkness or ignorance.
\nHowever, with the reign of the supramental even the vital external nature is
\nbound to change and therefore there will be no chance of any feelings of this
\ncharacter.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is the most physical consciousness of which you have become aware; it is like
\nthat in almost everyone: when one gets fully or exclusively into it, one feels
\nit to be like that of an animal, either obscure and restless or inert and stupid
\nand in either condition not open to the Divine. It is only by bringing the Force
\nand higher consciousness into it that it can fundamentally alter. When these
\nthings show themselves do not be upset by their emergence, but understand that
\nthey are there to be changed.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nHere as elsewhere, quiet is the first thing needed, to keep the consciousness
\nquiet, not allow it to get agitated and in turmoil. Then in the quiet to call
\nfor the Force to clear up all this obscurity and change it.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\n"At the mercy of the external sounds and external bodily sensations", "no
\ncontrol to drop the ordinary consciousness at will", "the whole tendency of the
\nbeing away from yoga"\u2014all that is unmistakably applicable to the physical mind
\nand the physical consciousness when they isolate themselves, as it were, and
\ntake up the whole front, pushing the rest into the background. When a part of
\nthe being is brought forward to be worked upon for change, this kind of
\nall-occupying emergence, the dominant activity of that part as if it alone
\nexisted very usually happens, and unfortunately it is always what has to be
\nchanged, the unit\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-517<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

desirable conditions, the
\ndifficulties of that part which rise first and obstinately hold the field and
\nrecur. In the physical it is inertia, obscurity, inability that come up and the
\nobstinacy of these things. The only thing to do in this unpleasant phase is to
\nbe more obstinate than the physical inertia and to persist in a fixed endeavour\u2014steady
\npersistency without any restless struggle\u2014to get a wide and permanent opening
\nmade even in this solid rock of obstruction.\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe <\/b>physical sadhana is to bring down the higher light and power and
\npeace and Ananda into the body consciousness, to get rid of the inertia of the
\nphysical, the doubts, limitations, external tendency of the physical mind, the
\ndefective energies of the vital physical (nerves) and bring in instead the true
\nconsciousness there so that the physical may be a perfect instrument for the
\nDivine Will. The food and care for the body is only to get it into good
\ncondition, afterwards it would not be necessary to attend to such things.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYou need not worry about that. When there is a strong inward tendency, the body
\nnot being yet conscious enough to share the experience in a waking state tries
\nto assimilate the descending forces through sleep. This is a common experience.
\nWhen it has assimilated enough, it will be more ready.\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe <\/b>difference lies in the fact that those who are doing sadhana live on
\nthe physical plane in order to transform it\u2014under the pressure of a Force
\ncreated by the sadhana which urges towards that and must continue till it is
\nachieved. Those who do not do sadhana five on the physical plane not to
\ntransform it but to\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-518<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

continue it as it is\u2014there
\nis no such Force or pressure or necessity or urge. Those who are not sadhaks but
\nhave their minds turned to the higher consciousness are preparing for sadhana
\nand will one day do it\u2014whatever that sadhana may be.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe prevalence of the physical difficulties when one comes down into the
\nphysical is the same phenomenon as the prevalence of the vital difficulties when
\none is on the vital plane. Transformation implies facing the difficulties and
\nchanging or overcoming what arises in each part of the being so that that part
\nmay respond to what is higher, but the full change of the whole can only come by
\nthe ascent to the Above and the descent from Above. The first step of that
\n(usually though not always) is the realisation of the self above and the descent
\nof the higher peace into all the being, down to the most physical.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nSo far as it [living in the physical consciousness] can be said to be
\ndistinguishable by outward signs, it is a state of fundamental passivity in
\nwhich one is and does what the forces of the physical plane make one be and do.
\nWhen one lives in the mind, there is an active mental intelligence and mental
\nwill that tries to control and shape action and experience and life and
\neverything else. When one is in the vital one is full of energy and enthusiasm
\nand passion and force which may be right or wrong but is very much alive. These
\nthings in the physical inertia either disappear or become weak or are forces
\nthat act upon the system occasionally but are not possessed by it. This
\ncondition may not be absolute, for one has a mind and a vital, but it is what
\npredominates. There are two ways of getting out of this\u2014one is to rise above in
\nthe self and see the physical from there as an instrument, not oneself,,\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-519<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

the other is to bring down
\nthe divine Force from above and make the physical the instrument of that Force.\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\n[Defects of the physical consciousness:] There are many\u2014but mainly obscurity,
\ninertia, tamas, a passive acceptance of the play of wrong forces, inability to
\nchange, attachment to habits, lack of plasticity, forgetfulness, loss of
\nexperiences or realisations gained, unwillingness to accept the Light or to
\nfollow it, incapacity (through tamas or through attachment or through passive
\nreaction to accustomed forces) to do what it admits to be the Right and the
\nBest.\n<\/p>\n

    
\n<\/b>\n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThis negation is the very nature of the physical resistance and the physical
\nresistance is the whole base of the denial of the Divine in the world. All in
\nthe physical is persistent, obstinate, with a massive force of negation and
\ninertia\u2014if it were not so, sadhana would be extremely cursory. You have to face
\nthis character of the physical resistance and conquer it however often it may
\nrise. It is the price of the transformation of the earth-consciousness.\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nApart from the individual difficulty there is a general difficulty in the
\nphysical earth-nature. Physical nature fs slow and inert and unwilling to
\nchange; its tendency is to be still and take long periods of time for a little
\nprogress. It is very difficult for even the strongest mental or vital or even
\npsychic will to overcome this inertia. It is only by bringing down constantly
\nthe consciousness and force and light from above that it can be done.
\n
\n
<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-520<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nTherefore there must be a constant will and aspiration for that and for the
\nchange and it must be a steady and patient will not tired out even by the utmost
\nresistance of the physical nature.\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is the nature of the physical mind to be obstinate. Physical nature exists by
\nconstant repetition of the same thin<\/u>g\u2014only a constant presentation of
\ndifferent forms of itself. This obstinate recurrence is therefore part of its
\nnature when it is in activity; otherwise it remains in a dull inertia. When
\ntherefore we want to get rid of the old movements of physical nature, they
\nresist by this kind of obstinate recurrence. One has to be very persistent in
\nrejection to get rid of it.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere are two aspects of physical Nature as of all Nature\u2014 the individual and
\nthe universal. All things come into one from the universal Nature\u2014but the
\nindividual physical keeps some of them and rejects others, and to those it keeps
\nit gives a personal form. So these things can be said to be both inside it and
\ncoming outside from within or created by it because it gives a special form and
\nalso outside and coming in from outside. But when one wants to get rid of them,
\none first throws out all that is within into the surrounding Nature\u2014from there
\nthe universal Nature tries to bring them back or bring in new and similar things
\nof its own to replace them. One has then constantly to reject this invasion. By
\nconstant rejection, the force of recurrence finally dwindles and the individual
\nbecomes free and able to bring the higher consciousness and its movements into
\nthe physical being.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe earth-consciousness does not want to change, so it rejects what comes down
\nto it from above\u2014it has always done so. It\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-521<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

 is only if those who
\nhave taken this yoga open themselves and are willing to change their lower
\nnature that this unwillingness can disappear.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhat stands in the way, of course, is always the vital ego with its ignorance
\nand the pride of its ignorance, and the physical consciousness with its inertia
\nwhich resents and resists any call to change and its indolence which does not
\nlike to take the trouble \u2014it finds it more comfortable to go on its own way
\nrepeating always the same old movements and, at best, expecting everything to be
\ndone for it in some way at some time.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe first thing is to have the right inner attitude\u2014you have that; the rest is
\nthe will to transform oneself and the vigilance to perceive and reject all that
\nbelongs to the ego and the tamasic persistence of the lower nature. Finally, to
\nkeep oneself always open to the Mother in every part of the being so that the
\nprocess of transformation may find no hindrance.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nDullness and dispersion are the two sides of the physical’s resistance to the
\npeace and concentrated power. They correspond to the inertia and the chaotic
\nactivity of physical Nature, that aspect of it which makes some scientists now
\nsay that all is brought about by chance and there is no certitude of things but
\nonly probability.\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe <\/b>inertia of the physical consciousness is
\nalways a difficult thing to eliminate-it is that, more even than any vital
\nresistance, Which keeps all the movements of the ignorance recurring even When
\nthe knowledge is there and the will to change. But this difficulty has to be
\nfaced and overcome by an equal perseverance<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-522<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

in the will of the sadhak.
\nIt is a steady flame that must burn, as steady as the obstruction is obstinate.
\nDo not therefore be discouraged by the persistence of the obstruction of the
\nignorance. The persistence of your own will to conquer with the Mother’s force
\nsupporting it will come to the end of the resistance.\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe physical’s tendency to inertia is very great; even after the habit of living
\nin the higher consciousness is there, some part may feel the pressure of the
\ninertia\u2014generally the outermost or most material parts. The inertia usually
\nrises up from the subconscient. It does not abolish the higher consciousness in
\nthe physical, but dulls its action or else brings it down from a higher to a
\nlower level, e.g. from the intuition to the higher mind or from the higher to
\nthe lower ranges of overmind. For some time it resists the completeness <\/i>
\nof the siddhi. It is only when the most material and the subconscient and the
\nenvironmental consciousness are quite liberated that this retarding or lowering
\neffect of the primal Inertia is entirely overcome.\n<\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIn dealing with the physical and subconscient the working is always slower than
\nwhen it acts on the mind and vital because the resistance of physical stuff is
\nalways heavier and less intelligent and adaptable; but as a compensation the
\nwork done in the being by this slower movement is in the end more complete,
\nsolid and durable.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-523<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nThe physical obstruction is less boisterous [than the vital obstruction], but I
\nhave not found it less obstinate or less troublesome.\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe difficulty of the physical nature comes inevitably in the course of the
\ndevelopment of the sadhana. Its obstruction, its inertia, its absence of
\naspiration or movement have to show themselves before they can be got rid
\nof\u2014otherwise it will always remain undetected, hampering even the best sadhana
\nand preventing its completeness. This coming up of the physical nature lasts
\nlonger or less according to the circumstances, but there is none who does not go
\nthrough it. What is necessary is not to get troubled or anxious or impatient,
\nfor that only makes it last more, but to put entire confidence in the Mother and
\nquietly persist in faith, patience and steady will for the complete change. It
\nis so that the Mother’s force can best work in the being.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt [use of violence for the change of the physical] was done by some people, but
\nI don’t believe in its usefulness. No doubt the physical is an obstinate
\nobstacle, but it must be enlightened, persuaded, pressed even to change, but not
\noppressed or violently driven. People use violence with the mind, vital, body
\nbecause they are in a hurry, but my own observation has always been that it
\nleads to more reactions and hindrances and not to a genuinely sound advance.\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt [the result of the obstruction of the physical consciousness] depends on the
\nweak points of the individual and the stage of his progress. In a general way
\nthe obstruction creates an inertia\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-524<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

which impedes the working
\nof the higher Powers. In the early stage it can obstruct progress altogether.
\nAfterwards it works to slow it down or else impede it by intervals of stationary
\ninertia. The main difficulty of the physical consciousness is that it is unable,
\nbefore it is transformed, of maintaining any tension of tapasya\u2014it wants periods
\nof assimilation, sinking back into the ordinary consciousness to rest,\u2014also
\nthere is a constant forgetfulness of what has been done etc.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt [weakness of the will] is a first result of coming down into the physical
\nconsciousness or of the physical consciousness coming up prominently\u2014formerly
\nyou were much in the mind and vital. The physical consciousness is full of
\ninertia\u2014it wants not to move but to be moved by whatever forces and that is its
\nhabit. This inertia has to be cured by putting it into contact with the right
\nforces from above. That is why I asked you to aspire for the higher wideness,
\npurity and peace, so that that may occupu the physical and the true Force work
\ninstead of these invading ideas and impulses.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe greater difficulty is because the sadhana is now taking place directly on
\nthe physical plane, where the force of a habit or habitual movement once formed
\nis very great. When the sadhana is taking place on the mental or vital plane, it
\nis more easy to control or change, because the mind and vital are more plastic
\nthan the physical. But on the other hand if something is definitely gained on
\nthe physical plane, there is a more lasting and complete fulfilment than when it
\nis on the mental or vital alone.\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-525<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

    
\nProbably in ’33 you were doing more tapasya and
\nputting a strong control on yourself? At any rate that was the state at one
\ntime. Afterwards when you came down from the mental-vital level, you let
\nyourself go for a time, removing much of the control, hence now you find a
\ndifficulty in re-establishing it,-due to the habit of automatic repetition which
\nis a characteristic of the physical nature. You have now to get the control in a
\ndifferent way by the establishment of the peace and building the higher
\nconsciousness upon <\/font>it, <\/font>
\nthe spiritual control replacing that of mental
\ntapasya.<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nNo, it is not necessary to lose the mental control; it is best to replace it
\ngradually by the psychic or spiritual. But it happens to many that they lose it
\nbefore the other is ready or while it is still imperfect and then the
\nNature-forces act in the physical consciousness which is sometimes held by the
\ndescending Peace or Power from above, sometimes by the ordinary Nature-forces.
\nThis alternation happens at one stage at least to almost everybody until the
\nhigher state prevails.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThis over-sensitive brooding on past blows to the vital is an unhealthy
\nsensitiveness. What is past ought not to have a hold like that but be allowed to
\nfade out.\n<\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIn the physical being the power of past impressions is very great, because it is
\nby the process of repeated impressions that consciousness was made to manifest
\nin matter\u2014and also by the habitual reactions of consciousness to these
\nimpressions, what the psychologists,\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-526<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

is the usual habit of
\nstretching one detail of Nature to explain the whole of her.\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhat you describe is what the Gita means by the realisation that all action is
\ndone by the Prakriti. You feel it mechanical because you are in the physical
\nconsciousness where all is mechanism. On the mental and vital plane one can have
\nthe same experience, but of the actions as a play of forces. What is lacking at
\npresent in you is the other side of the experience viz. that of the silent Atman
\nor else of the witness Purusha calm, tranquil, free, pure and undisturbed by the
\nplay of the Prakriti. It tries to come and you are on the point of going into
\nit, but the tendency of externalisation is still too strong. This tendency took
\nyou when you came down into the physical\u2014for it is the nature of the ordinary
\nphysical consciousness to precipitate itself into the action of the external
\npersonality. You have to get back the power of the internal consciousness\u2014above
\nas Atman, below as Purusha first witness and then master of the nature.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe physical is the slave of certain forces which create a habit and drive it
\nthrough the mechanical power of the habit. So long as the mind gives consent,
\nyou do not notice the slavery; but if the mind withdraws its consent, then you
\nfeel the servitude, you feel a force pushing you in spite of the mind’s will. It
\nis very obstinate and repeats itself till the habit, the inner habit revealing
\nitself in the outward act, is broken. It is like a machine which once set in
\nmotion repeats the same movement. You need not be\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-527<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

alarmed or distressed; a
\nquiet persistent aspiration will bring you to the point where the habit breaks
\nand you are free.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe habit in the physical is obstinate and seems unchangeable because it always
\nrecurs\u2014even when one thinks it is gone. But it is not really unchangeable; if
\nthe physical mind detaches itself, stands separate, refuses to accept it, then
\nthe habit in the physical begins to lose its force of repetition. Sometimes it
\ngoes slowly, sometimes (but this is less frequent) it stops suddenly and recurs
\nno more.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe condition is that you must bring the sadhana into your physical
\nconsciousness and live for the sadhana and the Divine only. You must give up
\npositively the bad habits that still persist and never resume those that have
\nceased or been interrupted. Inner experiences are helpful to the mind and higher
\nvital for change, but for the lower vital and the outer being a sadhana of
\nself-discipline is indispensable. The external actions and the spirit in them
\nmust change\u2014your external thoughts and actions must be for the Divine only.
\nThere must be self-restraint, entire truthfulness, a constant thought of the
\nDivine in all you do. This is the way for the change of the lower vital. By your
\nconstant self-dedication and self-discipline the force will be brought down into
\nthe external and the change made.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

  
\n   II<\/b>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe power to be separate is there in your psychic being and you have yourself
\nexperienced that condition. Naturally, it is\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-528<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

still only at times,
\nbecause the outer consciousness is being prepared to share in it, and it is only
\nwhen that is ready that the inner can show itself always and come out into the
\nouter being.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYou ask whether the mind and vital do not come in the way as well as the
\nphysical. Yes, but when I speak of the physical consciousness, I mean the
\nphysical mind and the physical vital as well as the body consciousness proper.
\nThis physical mind and physical vital are concerned with the small ordinary
\nmovements of life and are governed by a very external view of things and by
\nhabitual small reactions and do not respond at once to the inner consciousness
\nnot because they are in active opposition to it, as the vital mind and vital
\nproper can be, but because they find it difficult to change their habitual
\nmovements. It is this now that you feel and that makes you think you have a poor
\nresponsiveness to the inner experience. But that is not a fact; in your mind and
\nin a great part of your vital there is a considerable capacity of response. As
\nfor the physical its difficulty is universal in everybody and not peculiar to
\nyou. It has come up because it always comes up in the sadhana when the physical
\nconsciousness has to be worked upon for the necessary change. As soon as that is
\ndone, the difficulty you feel will first diminish and then go.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is this work that is going on and when you felt the white light in meditation
\nand the result which lasted even after opening the eyes, the head and eyes cool
\nand all vast and wide, it was this working taking place in your physical mind to
\nchange it. The rest of the physical consciousness was still undergoing another
\nkind of working and so felt heat and not this release and wideness. But
\nafterwards the working can go down first to the heart and then still lower and
\nto all the body and the same release and wideness come there. Naturally, at
\npresent these results are not permanent but only for a time, they come as
\nexperiences, not lasting realisations.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-529<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

    
\nBut it cannot be otherwise at the present stage. These experiences, however
\npassing, are meant to prepare and do prepare the different parts of the nature.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nI have told you that X has two different elements in her. It is the outer mind
\nin her that wants to do the embroidery with the idea that others are doing it
\nand that it will bring a special favour from the Mother (which is not true) and
\nsays that she is doing all the work etc. If we allow her to indulge it, it will
\nbe spiritually bad for her, especially just now when her inner being needs to be
\nstrengthened by submission, surrender and the sacrifice of her ego. That is why
\nwe have not looked with favour on making this change. When it was once done, she
\nherself repented of it and felt that she had made a mistake. But the physical
\nmind goes back constantly to its habitual movements and it takes time for it to
\nlearn by experience.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYou should keep the holder and use it. It is Mother’s gift to you. Write your
\nexperiences with it and take it as a sign of the Mother’s love and grace that
\nare working in you.\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe opening of the physical and the subconscient always takes a long time as it
\nis a thing of habits and constant repetition of the old movements, obscure and
\nstiff and not plastic, yielding only little by little. The physical mind can be
\nmore easily opened and converted than the rest, but the vital-physical and the
\nmaterial-physical are obstinate. The old things are always recurring there
\nwithout reason and by force of habit. Much of the vital-physical and most of the
\nmaterial are in the subconscience or depend on. it. It needs a strong and
\nsustained action to progress there.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-530<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

    
\nNo, there is a limit to the resistance [of the physical mind and vital
\nphysical]. At any rate a time comes when the fundamental resistance is broken
\nfor good and there is only left a dealing with details which is not troublesome.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYes\u2014or at least [the material consciousness] is a separate part of the physical
\nconsciousness. Physical mind for instance is narrow and hmited and often stupid,
\nbut not inert. Matter consciousness is on the contrary inert as well as largely
\nsubconscious\u2014active only when driven by an energy, otherwise inactive and
\nimmobile. When one first falls into direct contact with this level, the feeling
\nin the body is that of inertia and immobility, in the vital-physical exhaustion
\nor lassitude, in the physical mind absence of prakāśa <\/i>and pravrtti <\/i>
\nor only the most ordinary thoughts and impulses. It took me a long time to get
\ndown any kind of light or power into this level. But when once it is illumined,
\nthe advantage is that the subconscient becomes conscient and this removes a very
\nfundamental obstacle from the sadhana.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThey [the physical mind and the vital physical] are very near to it [the
\ninconscient]\u2014except that part of the physical mind which is trained to deal with
\nphysical objects and affairs. But that is agile and active and competent only in
\nits own limits. When it has to deal with supraphysical things it becomes
\nincompetent, often imbecile and yet positive and arrogant and dogmatic in its
\nignorance. The rest of the physical consciousness is near to the inconscient.
\nHere again in its own field it can have accurate perceptions and instincts if it
\nis able to act spontaneously; but usually in the human being it is not allowed
\nto\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-531<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

do so, for the mind and
\nvital intervene. The vital physical is entirely irrational in its action\u2014even
\nwhen it is right, it cannot explain why; for it is made more of automatic or
\nhabitual instincts, impulses, sensations and feelings than anything else. It is
\nthe mind that gives reasons and justifications to its movements and if the mind
\nstands back and judges and questions, the vital physical can only answer "I
\nwant", "I like", "I dislike", "I feel like that".\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nPersevere quietly and let nothing discourage you. If the quietness and
\ncheerfulness are not constant yet, that is to be expected; it is always like
\nthat at first when there is the working on the physical consciousness and its
\nobstructions. If you persevere, they will become more and more frequent and last
\nfor a longer time, until you have a basis of peace and happiness and whatever
\ndisturbances come on the surface will no longer be able to penetrate or shake
\nthis basis or even cover it over except perhaps for a moment.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe constant changing of the mood is also common enough because the physical
\nvital is being worked upon at the same time and this changeability is a
\ncharacter of the physical vital nature. Let not that discourage you,\u2014as soon as
\nthe basis is more fixed, this will diminish and the vital become more settled
\nand even.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe unsteadiness you speak of is the nature of the human physical mind\u2014almost
\neverybody has it, for the physical mind goes after all sorts of outward things.
\nTo fix the consciousness within, to keep it concentrated on the Divine alone is
\na great difficulty for\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-532<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

all, it is what makes
\nsadhana a thing for which long time and a slow development of the consciousness
\nis usually necessary, at first at any rate. So that need not discourage you. In
\nyour inner vital there is plenty of strong will and deep down in your psychic
\nthere is the true aspiration and love which come up when the psychic is active
\nand will eventually possess the whole nature.\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is quite natural that the unsteadiness of the physical mind should interfere
\nwith the settling of full and constant quietude and faith\u2014it always does with
\neverybody, but that does not mean that this quietude and faith will not or
\ncannot settle in the nature. All that I meant was that you should try to get a
\nconstant will for that quietude, so that when the restlessness or unsteadiness
\ncome across, your will to quiet might meet it or soon reappear and dispel the
\ndisturbance. That would make the elimination of the restlessness or impatience
\neasier; but in any case the Mother’s force is there working behind the
\nvariations of the surface consciousness and it will bring you through them.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe experiences you had were renewed glimpses of the psychic working that is
\ngoing on all the time even when there is no sign of it on the surface. The
\ngolden sword was the sword of Truth which will destroy the difficulties.\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThese small things of the physical mind are such as everybody has and they will
\nfall off when the truer wider consciousness comes out. You have the
\nunderstanding in your mind, but these things persist because they really belong
\nto the smaller vital part and when that part widens, then they will no longer be
\nable to recur. One can discourage them by keeping certain\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-533<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

ideas in mind, such as that
\nthe things which vex you belong to the nature and can go only with the change of
\nthe nature, that one has to do the work well oneself but not be troubled by the
\ndefects of others in their work, that a quiet inner will for their doing right
\nis more effective than getting vexed and disturbed by their lapses. But
\nfundamentally it is by the widened consciousness in your mind and vital and
\nphysical that you will be quite freed from these small reactions. You have only
\nto continue with the Mother’s Force working in you and these things will smooth
\nthemselves out hereafter.\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThese small movements [useless talking] are the most difficult of all to change
\nowing to their very smallness and the habit of frequent indulgence as natural
\nand trifling everyday movements of life. The best thing to do is to mass the
\nforce and fight and peace in the mind and higher vital until they can occupy the
\nphysical mind even\u2014then through the physical mind, which usually supports more
\nor less these movements, they can be worked on with more success.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIII <\/b>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe sense of helplessness, of impossibility of removal of the obstacle, is like
\nthe obscurity itself a characteristic of the physical consciousness which is
\ninert and mechanical and accustomed to be moved inertly by whatever forces take
\nhold of it. But this sense of helplessness or impossibility is unreal and not to
\nyield to it, not to accept it, to remove it, is quite possible and very\n<\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-534<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

necessary for overcoming
\nthe physical obstacle which would otherwise greatly delay the progress.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYes; that also is the fault of the physical consciousness. It is obsessed by the
\nidea that, "what is" must be,\u2014that the habit of things cannot be altered. This
\ninevitability it extends not only to what is but to what it merely thinks of as
\na fact\u2014it lays itself open inertly to every suggestion or possibility that seems
\nto be justified by the habit of things. It is the main obstacle to the material
\nchange.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYour suggestion that I am telling you things that are untrue in order to
\nencourage you is the usual stupidity of the physical mind\u2014if it were so, it is
\nnot you who would be unfit for the yoga, but myself who would be unfit to be, in
\nthe search for Divine Truth, anybody’s guide. For one can lead through lesser to
\ngreater Truth, but not through falsehood to Truth. As for your fitness or
\nunfitness for the yoga, it is not a question on which your physical mind can be
\na judge\u2014it judges by the immediate appearance of things and has no knowledge of
\nthe laws that govern consciousness or the powers that act in yoga. In fact, the
\nquestion is not of fitness or unfitness but of the acceptance of Grace. There is
\nno human being whose physical outer consciousness\u2014the part of yourself in which
\nyou are now living\u2014is fit for the yoga. It is by Grace and a fight from above
\nthat it can become capable and for that the necessity is to be persevering and
\nopen it to the Light. Everybody when he enters the physical consciousness has
\nthe same difficulty and feels as if he were unfit, and nothing done, nothing
\nchanged in him since\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-535<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

he began the yoga; he is
\napt to forget then all that has happened before or to feel as if he lost it or
\nas if it had all been unreal or untrue.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nI suppose that is why you object to my phrase about your having gone so far. I
\nmeant that you had had openings in your thinking mind and heart and higher vital
\nand experiences also and had seen very lucidly the condition of your own being
\nand nature and had gone so far that these parts were ready for the spiritual
\nchange\u2014what remains is the physical and outer consciousness which has to be
\ncompelled to accept the necessity of change. That is no doubt the most difficult
\npart of the work to be done, but it is also the part which, if once done, makes
\npossible the total change of the being and nature. I therefore said that having
\ngone so far, it would be absurd to turn back now and give up, because this
\nresists. It always resists in everybody and very obstinately too. That is no
\nreason for giving up the endeavour.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is this consciousness that has expressed itself in your letter \u2014or the
\nobscure part of it which clings to its old attitude. It does not want to fulfil
\nthe sadhana unless it can get by it the things it wanted. It wants the
\nsatisfaction of the ego, ”self-fulfilment", appreciation, the granting of its
\ndesires. It measures the Divine Love by the outward favours showered upon it and
\nlooks jealously to see who gets more of these favours than itself, then says
\nthat the Divine has no love for it and assigns reasons which are either
\nderogatory to the Divine, or, as in your letter, self-depreciation and a cause
\nfor despair. It is not in you alone that this part feels and acts like that, it
\nis in almost everybody. If that were the only thing in you or the others, then,
\nindeed, there would be no possibility of yoga. But though it is strong, it is
\nnot the whole \u2014there is a psychic being and a mind and heart influenced and
\nenlightened by it which has other feelings and another vision of\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-536<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

things and aim in sadhana.
\nThese are now covered in you by the upsurgence of this part which has to change.
\nIt is tamasic and does not want to change, does not want to believe unless it
\ncan be done by reassuring the vital ego. But there is nothing new in all that\u2014it
\nis part of human nature and has always been there, hampering and limiting the
\nsadhana. Its existence is no reason for despair\u2014everyone has it and the sadhana
\nhas to be done in spite of it, in spite of the mixture it brings till the time
\ncomes when it has to be definitely rejected. It is difficult to do it, but
\nperfectly possible. These things I know and realise and it is therefore that I
\ninsist on your persevering and encourage you to go on; it is not my statement of
\nthe position that is untrue, it is the view of it taken by this obscure part of
\nyour being that is unsound and an error.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is not because you cannot recover the true attitude, but because you admit in
\npart of your mind the false suggestion of your inability that this mixed
\ncondition lasts longer than it should. It is a part of your physical
\nconsciousness that keeps the memory of the old movements and has the habit of
\nadmitting them and thinking them inevitable. You must insist with the clearer
\npart of your consciousness on the true Truth, rejecting always these suggestions
\nand feelings, till this obscure part also is open and admits the Light.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe thoughts and feelings expressed in your letter are born of the depression
\nand have no truth in themselves apart from it. Your being here does not in the
\nleast take up space that could be occupied by better sadhaks. For a good sadhak
\nthere will\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-537<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

always be a place in one
\nway or another. The incapacity which you discover in yourself is simply the
\nresistance of the habitual external and physical nature, which everyone has and
\nwhich none, however good a sadhak, has yet been able to transform radically,
\nbecause it is the last thing to change and its resistance is acute just now
\nbecause it is against this that the power of the sadhana is now pressing so that
\nthe change may come. When this part presents itself, it always tries to appear
\nas something unalterable, incapable of change, impervious to the sadhana. But it
\nis not really so and one must not be deceived by this appearance. As for the
\nfear of madness, it is only a nervous impression which you should throw away. It
\nis not vital weakness that leads to such upsettings\u2014it is an obscurity and
\nweakness in the physical mind accompanied by movements of an exaggerated vital
\nnature (e.g., exaggerated spiritual ambition) which are too strong for the mind
\nto bear. That is not your case. You have had long experience of inner peace,
\nwideness, Ananda, and inner life turned towards the Divine and one who has had
\nthat ought not to speak of general incapacity, whatever the difficulties of the
\nexternal nature,\u2014difficulties common in one form or another to all.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nI have not the slightest doubt that you can do
\n<\/font>the <\/font>sadhana if you
\ncleave to it-not certainly by your own unaided strength, for nobody can do that,
\nbut by the will of the psychic being in you aided by the Divine Grace. There is
\na part in the physical and vital consciousness of every human being that has not
\nthe will for it, does not feel the capacity for it, distrusts any hope or
\npromise of a spiritual future and is inert and indifferent to any such thing. At
\none period in the course of the sadhana this rises up and one feels identified
\nwith it. That has happened to you now, but<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-538<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

along with an attack of
\nill-health and nervous indisposition which has turned this passage through the
\nobscure physical into a dark and intense trouble. With enough sleep and a
\nquieting of the nerves and return of physical energy that ought to disappear and
\nit would be possible to bring the Light and Consciousness down into this obscure
\npart. An intense concentration bringing struggle is not what is needed but a
\nvery quiet attitude of self-opening. Not any effort of sadhana just now, but the
\nrecovery of tranquillity and ease is what is wanted at present to restore the
\nopening of the nature.\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt was certainly not because the Mother was different to you from other days or
\npushed you to a distance, but because you came rather shut up in that part of
\nyour physical being which is still sin-inking from the Light. It is this part
\nwhich was always fundamentally responsible for all your bad passages and painful
\nmovements even when the direct difficulty was higher up. Its nature is to cling
\nto the old habitual movements, shrink from yogic consciousness and shut up doors
\nand windows against the help that is offered and lament in the darkness when it
\nfeels itself hurt. This is a thing that everybody must get rid of who wants to
\nprogress. Do not go on identifying yourself with this part and calling it
\nyourself. Get back into your inner being and look at this only as a small though
\nobstinate part of the nature that has to change. For apart from its insistence
\nthere is no reason why your way should enter into a desert. It should enter into
\na wideness of liberation\u2014open to the calm and peace and power and fight, a
\nconsciousness that is wider than the personal and into which the ego can happily
\ndisappear.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-539<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nAs to what has happened in your sadhana, it is that you have allowed yourself to
\nfall into a groove of the physical mind and of the external vital nature and got
\nfixed in a persistent or constantly recurrent repetition of the ideas and
\nfeelings which they present to you\u2014feelings of settled disappointment and
\ndiscouragement and pessimism about yourself and your spiritual future, and
\nideas\u2014or, if you will allow me to call them so, notions\u2014which come to the
\nsupport of these feelings and sustain them. The result of this is to shut you up
\nagainst the contact and spiritual influence and help you were once feeling or
\nbeginning to feel from us. It also shuts you up against your own deeper self and
\nsterilises your personal effort. An accident of this kind is common enough in
\nthe path of spiritual effort, and the first thing to be done to get rid of its
\neffects is to throw away resolutely the persistent ideas and feelings which keep
\nyou in the groove. I do not know whether you can return to the former condition,
\nfor it is seldom that one can go back to a point in the past; but it is always
\npossible for you to go forward, recovering the force for propulsion of what you
\nthen gained and have certainly still within you assimilated in your inner being.
\nIf you want to carry on some part of the yoga by your active efforts and^
\naspiration, there is no reason why you should not find back that capacity; but
\nthe first effort to be made is to reject persistently, fully and tenaciously\u2014not
\nfor two or three days, but always, so long as they insist or return\u2014these
\ndisabling thoughts and feelings which hamstring all hope and faith in you, not
\nto accept them, not to justify them, not to give them by your acquiescence the
\nright to go on harping on the same note always of discouragement, incapacity and
\nfailure. The ideas by which you justify them are, I repeat, notions only of the
\nphysical mind, not true things, e.g., the notion that you cannot <\/i>
\nunderstand a given idea<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-540<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

(intellectually accepting
\nor not accepting is another matter); for it is perfectly certain that your
\nthinking intelligence is quite trained enough to understand anything that is put
\nbefore it. It is only the physical mind that is limited even in the most
\nintelligent and opens up fits of stupidity or at least larger or smaller spaces
\nof blank non-understanding in the face of unaccustomed ideas or a new line of
\npossible experience or anything else either alien to the mind’s habits or
\nunwelcome to something in the vital parts. I suppose we have all had experience
\nof this incapable element in our nature, and if one fixes oneself in it, it can
\nmake even things that would ordinarily be easy for us seem difficult things and
\nthings difficult seem impossible. But why should a mind trained to think allow
\nthis poorer part of itself to dominate it? So with the other notions. There is
\nnothing anyone else can do in the way of yoga that you cannot do if you have the
\nfixed will to do it; some things may take a longer time because of past
\ntraining, habits, mental associations but there is nothing impossible, too
\ndifficult, no inherently insuperable obstacle.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is the instinctive (not mental) will in the outer being that is blind \u2014the
\ninner mind knows and understands and when it comes out it enlightens the rest so
\nthat all is clear. But the outer being readmits the darkness and confusion
\nthrough a wrong movement of the vital or through an inert acceptance of the
\nobscurity of the ignorant physical consciousness and the knowledge gets darkened
\nover. But it is there and has only to come out again. The physical consciousness
\nis constitutionally ignorant\u2014it may be made to understand, but it goes on
\nforgetting and feeling as if it had never known\u2014till the Force and Light finally
\nget hold of it and then it forgets no more.\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-541<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

 IV<\/b>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhat you have been doing is to penetrate more into the physical
\nconsciousness where the peace and light of the higher consciousness has to be
\nbrought down. This often brings at first some relaxation of the intensity of
\nexperience, dispersion or recurrence of old movements which had been pushed out
\nfrom the other levels, but one must not be discouraged by that. The remedy is to
\nbe more insistent on bringing down the higher forces (peace etc.) into this
\nfield.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe push to externalisation must be rejected always\u2014it is a way the
\nphysical consciousness has of slipping out of the condition of concentrated
\nsadhana. To keep in the inner consciousness and work from it on the external
\nbeing till that also is ready is very necessary when the work of change is being
\nspecially directed towards the physical consciousness.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe moonlit maidān <\/i>is the spiritual consciousness at the doors of
\nwhich you are standing as it were and feeling its peace and ease.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe obstacle or wall of bondage which you feel is simply that of the habits of
\nthe ordinary physical consciousness. It is so with all,\u2014the ordinary vital
\nnature with its ego, desire, passions, disturbances, and the ordinary physical
\nnature with its strong habits and outwardness are the chief obstacles that have
\nto be overcome in the nature. When they fall quiet, then it is easier to enter
\ninto the true consciousness and unite with the Mother. But they are not
\naccustomed to quietness and as soon as it is felt they want to come out of it
\nand resume their ordinary movements.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

\nPage-542<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nBut this will go when the inner has sufficiently gained on the outer to dominate
\nit. The inner things will grow and come out more and more as you feel the inner
\npath growing until they are strong enough to rule the outer conduct. The
\nobstacles you feel, the surging up of old things and repetition of restlessness
\netc. are due to this strength of habit of the physical nature\u2014it lives by
\nrepeating always the same things and the same movements to which it has been
\naccustomed in the past. The inner influence as it comes out will more and more
\ncreate for it new habits of thought and feeling and action and it will then
\ndwell firmly in these and not in the things of the old nature.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe narrowness etc. of which you complain are normal to the physical
\nnature. It is the same thing acting in a different way which makes X rebellious
\nto advice and full of irritation and bad temper when her mistakes are shown to
\nher. The physical nature of almost everybody is like that, intolerant, easily
\nirritated, lacking in patience when dealing with others. But this physical
\nnature can be replaced and changed by the psychic nature and you have had the
\nexperience of what this psychic nature is and how it acts. You know therefore
\nwhat change has to come in you and you know also that this new nature is already
\nthere in you preparing to come out. Have the faith therefore that it is sure to
\ncome\u2014and when the physical comes and covers with the old movements try to
\nremember that and remind the physical mind that it is only by this change in
\nyourself and all that things can change. What is needed now is all should make
\nthis psychic change their main object, each for himself. If some develop it,
\nthen it will spread more rapidly among the rest. It is so only\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

\nPage-543<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

 that the present state of the physical consciousness full of ego and strife can
\nbecome what it should be.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhat has happened is that the psychic in you which had formerly been
\nconstantly in action in the mind and vital was for a time clouded or covered
\nover by the ignorance of the physical consciousness. It is the psychic that
\nconnects you with the Mother and turns all the movements of your being towards
\nher or drew them from her or made them united with and dependent on her. It had
\nso done with all your mental and vital being and its movements and it had
\nguarded you against all wrong mental and vital suggestions and attacks, showing
\nyou what was true and what was false. Now it is this psychic being which has
\nmanifested again in your physical consciousness also. You have only to live in
\nthat and your whole being will be turned towards the Mother, remain in union
\nwith her and be protected from doubt and error and false suggestion\u2014and you can
\nonce more progress as you did before towards the full realisation of the
\nsadhana.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      All that is very good\u2014it is the psychic condition that is increasing. The
\npeace and spontaneous knowledge are in the psychic being and from there they
\nspread to mind and vital and physical. It is in the outer physical consciousness
\nthat the difficulty still tries to persist and brings the restlessness sometimes
\ninto the physical mind, sometimes into the nerves, sometimes in the shape of
\nbodily trouble into the body. But all these things can and must go. Even the
\nillnesses can go entirely {with the growth of peace and power in the nerves and
\nphysical cells\u2014 stomach pains, weakness of the eyes and everything else.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

\nPage-544<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nThe habit of return of these feelings belongs to the physical
\nconsciousness and in his physical consciousness the human being is always weak
\nand unable to get rid of or resist its habitual movements. There are three
\nthings that help him to do so (apart from his mental will which is not always
\nstrong enough to do it). There is first the psychic being; for a few days your
\npsychic was extremely active and pushing these movements away whenever they
\ntried to come or throwing them out soon when they got in. This activity of the
\npsychic will return and eventually come down into the physical consciousness
\nitself; then there will be very little difficulty. The second is the inner
\nconsciousness always awake. At present that is difficult, because to keep the
\ninner consciousness awake at all times can only come by a deepening of yourself
\nso that the veil between the outer and inner which lifts only in concentration
\nmay cease to exist even when one is in the ordinary unconcentrated condition. It
\nis for this deepening that the strong tendency to go inside comes upon you.
\nLastly, the Mother’s force always there and receiving also a response at once
\nfrom the physical consciousness. These three things together can do anything. It
\ntakes time to make them all three constantly active together, but that is sure
\nto come and with them these inner difficulties will disappear.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is inevitable that in the course of the sadhana all sorts of conditions
\nshould come through which one is led towards the fullness of the true
\nconsciousness. You are now, as are most, in the physical consciousness and its
\nprincipal difficulty is externalisation and this covering up of the active
\nexperience so that one does not know what is going on inside or feels as if
\nnothing were going on. When that happens, it means that something\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

\nPage-545<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

has come up, some part or layer of the physical, which needs to be worked on
\nand, when that has been done,\u2014it may take longer or shorter,\u2014the conscious
\nactive inner experience recommences. The muteness in the mind is not a bad thing
\nin itself, it is a favourable condition for the working. Also what you describe
\nas taking place in the head, must be the working of the Force there,\u2014it
\nsometimes gives the impression of a headache. There must be a working in the
\nphysical mind to get rid of some difficulty or else to prepare it better for the
\nadmission of what comes from above.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is necessary to have a great patience\u2014so as to go through these conditions
\nand not get apprehensive or restless\u2014and a confidence that all difficulties will
\nbe overcome.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is not that something is always "wrong" within you but that there is
\nstill in the subconscient physical being a part that was accustomed to respond
\nvery strongly to the vibrations of these thoughts and feelings and can still
\nrespond. Usually you would not allow them to come up at all in thought or
\nfeeling form\u2014it would only manifest as a depression of the body or fatigue\u2014or,
\nif it came, you would get over it at once and the vibrations would sink down and
\ndisappear. But in the atmosphere heavily surcharged with this invasion of the
\nordinary consciousness there is a lessened elasticity in the physical
\nconsciousness and they were able to rise. This is an exceedingly common
\nexperience. One has to detach oneself from these still weak parts and regard
\nthem as if a detail in the machinery that has to be set right. In your case also
\nyour nervous (vital physical) being is exceedingly conscious and sensitive and
\nanything wrong\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

\nPage-546<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

 in the atmosphere affects it more than it would most of the others.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhat you felt in your chest was the attempt of the old Ignorance to bring
\nback the vital restlessness, depression, confusion, through the physical
\nattack\u2014for it is on the obscuration of the physical that they now depend for
\nstopping the Light and Force from coming and for obscuring their working and
\ncreating disturbance and destroying the quietude. Reject it as you did this
\ntime\u2014 whenever it tries to come.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is very good that all should have gone like that and the true
\nconsciousness affirmed its control in the physical. These things are indeed
\nattacks intended to prevent the control being established in the physical being
\nas it was in the inner parts. Wherever the physical consciousness opens, the
\nForce can sweep out all that could trouble. Sometimes it takes a little time to
\novercome the resistance, but finally all disappears before it.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is indeed the body consciousness that is still offering difficulties
\n\u2014but when the restlessness and confusion come, you must immediately offer it up
\nand call for the opening of the part that resists. In this way it is possible to
\nestablish a condition in which as soon as the difficulty is there, the
\ncounteracting Force also comes. Then no long continued difficulty will be
\npossible.\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-547<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nFor your sadhana it is necessary first to establish the entire openness of
\nthe physical being and stabilise in it the descent of calm, strength, purity and
\njoy with the feeling of the presence and the working of the Mother’s Force in
\nyou. It is only on that assured basis that one can become an entirely effective
\ninstrument for the work. Once that is done, there is still the dynamic
\ntransformation of the instrumental being to achieve and that depends on a
\ndescent of a higher and higher power of consciousness into the mind, vital and
\nbody\u2014by "higher" being meant nearer and nearer to the supramental Light and
\nForce. But that can only be done on the basis of which I have spoken and with
\nthe psychic being constantly in front and acting as an intermediary between the
\ninstrumental mind, vital and body and these higher planes of Being. So this
\nbasic stabilisation must first be completed.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYes, this is the time when you have to persist till you are quite settled
\nin the inner consciousness and the persistence of the silence and peace is a
\nsign that it is now possible. When one feels this kind of silence, peace and
\nwideness, one may be sure that it is that of the true being, the real self,
\npenetrating into the mind and vital and perhaps also the physical consciousness
\n(if it is complete). The restlessness of the physical is probably due to the
\npeace and silence having touched the physical but not yet penetrated the
\nmaterial or body consciousness. The old restlessness is there in the body
\nstruggling to remain, although it cannot invade either mind or vital or even in
\na general way the physical consciousness as a whole. If the peace descends
\nthere, the restlessness will disappear.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe sex-sensation comes from the waking subconscient. When it is unable to
\nmanifest in the waking consciousness, it comes\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

\nPage-548<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

up from the subconscient in sleep. The mind must not allow itself to be
\ndisturbed\u2014it will go out with the rest.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThis is a form that the resistance in the physical easily and often
\ntakes\u2014a restlessness of discomfort in the nervous system. When it is in the
\nlegs, it means that it is the most material part of the consciousness that is
\nthe seat of the trouble. Since it has come up, it ought to be thrown out for
\ngood. Probably this part has become sufficiently conscious to feel the greater
\npressure when Mother comes down, but not enough to be able to receive and
\nassimilate it, hence the uneasiness and resistance. If so, it should go of
\nitself with a little more opening there.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhat you describe\u2014dullness, uneasiness, weakness, feeling old and worn
\nout or ill, are the reactions that come when the inertia of the physical Nature
\nis resisting the Light\u2014the others about sense of feeling dignity, self-respect
\n(of the ego) are the reactions of the vital. Both must be refused acceptance.
\nThere is only one aim to be followed, the increase of the Peace, Light, Power
\nand the growth of a new consciousness in the being. With that new consciousness
\nthe true knowledge, understanding, strength, feeling will come, creating harmony
\ninstead of revolt and struggle and union with the Divine consciousness and will.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nA certain inertia, tendency to sleep, indolence,
\nunwillingness or inability to be strong to work or spiritual effort for long at
\na time, is in the nature of the human physical consciousness. When one goes down
\ninto the physical for its change (that has been the<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

\nPage-549<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

general condition here for a long time), this tends to increase. Even sometimes
\nwhen the pressure of the sadhana in the physical increases or when one has to go
\nmuch inside, this temporarily increases\u2014the body either needing more rest or
\nturning the inward movement into a tendency to sleep or be at rest. You need
\nnot, however, be anxious about that. After a time this rights itself; the
\nphysical consciousness gets the true peace and calm in the cells and feels at
\nrest even in full work or in the most concentrated condition and this tendency
\nof inertia goes out of the nature.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      There is always more chance of inertia at night because of the large part
\ntaken by the subconscient in sleep\u2014but, apart from that there should be a
\nreaction (internal) against the rising of inertia. A quietness in the cells of
\nthe body, even a sense of immobility (so that the body seems to be moved rather
\nthan to move) is a different thing and easily distinguishable from the inertia.
\nThe downflow of peace usually brings much of the static Brahman into the
\nconsciousness down to the physical, so that one feels the Upanishadic "unmoving
\nit moves".\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      It is quite true that the physical exercise is very necessary to keep off tamas. 
\nI am glad you have begun it and I trust you will keep it up.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nPhysical tamas in its roots can be removed only by the descent and the
\ntransformation, but physical exercise and regular activity of the body can
\nalways prevent a tamasic condition from prevailing in the body.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-550<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nA strong mind and body and life-force are needed in the sadhana, Especially
\nsteps should be taken to throw out tamas and bring strength and force into the
\nframe of the nature.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe way of yoga must be a living thing, not a mental principle or a set method
\nto be stuck to against all necessary variations.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nV <\/b>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is the attachment to food, the greed and eagerness for it, making it
\nan unduly important thing in the life, that is contrary to the spirit of yoga.
\nTo be aware that something is pleasant to the palate is not wrong; only one must
\nhave no desire nor hankering for it, no exultation in getting it, no displeasure
\nor regret at not getting it. One must be calm and equal, not getting upset or
\ndissatisfied when the food is not tasty or not in abundance\u2014 eating the fixed
\namount that is necessary, not less or more. There should be neither eagerness
\nnor repugnance.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nTo be always dunking about food and troubling the mind is quite the wrong way of
\ngetting rid of the food-desire. Put the food element in the right place in the
\nlife, in a small corner, and don’t concentrate on it but on other things.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nDo not trouble your mind about food. Take it in the right quantity (neither too
\nmuch nor too little), without greed or repulsion, as the means given you by the
\nMother for the maintenance of the body, in the right spirit, offering it to the
\nDivine in you; then it need not create tamas.<\/i>\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-551<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

      What is necessary is to take enough food and think no more about it,
\ntaking it as a means for the maintenance of the physical instrument only. But
\njust as one should not overeat, so one should not diminish unduly\u2014it produces a
\nreaction which defeats the object\u2014for the object is not to allow either the
\ngreed for food or the heavy tamas of the physical which is the result of
\nexcessive eating to interfere with the concentration on the spiritual experience
\nand progress. If the body is left insufficiently nourished, it will think of
\nfood more than otherwise.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThese things still rise in you because they have been for so long;
\nprominent difficulties and, as far as the first is concerned, because you gave
\nit much justification from the mind at one time. But if the inner consciousness
\nis growing like that they are sure to go. Only if they rise, don’t give them harbourage. Perhaps with regard to the greed for food, your attitude has not
\nbeen quite correct. Greed for food has to be overcome, but it has not to be
\ngiven too much thought. The proper attitude to food is a certain equality. Food
\nis for the maintenance of the body and one should take enough for that\u2014what the
\nbody needs; if one gives less the body feels the need and hankers; if you give
\nmore, then that is indulging the vital. As for particular foods the palate
\nlikes, the attitude of the mind and vital should be, "If I get, I take; if I
\ndon’t get, I shall not mind." One should not think too much of food either to
\nindulge or unduly to repress\u2014 that is the best.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nToo much eating makes the body material and heavy, eating too little makes it
\nweak and nervous\u2014one has to find the true\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-552<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

harmony and balance between the body’s need and the food taken.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt depends on what you can digest. If you can digest, there is no harm in
\ntaking more since you feel hungry. All these things depend upon what is the true
\nneed of the body and that may differ in different cases according to the
\nconstitution of the body, the amount of work done or exercise taken. It is
\npossible that you have reduced your food too much, so you can try taking more.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nBut it is quite natural. Exercise is always supposed to increase the
\nappetite as the body needs more food to restore the extra expense of energy put
\nout. Normally the more physical work the body has to do the more food it needs.
\nOn the other hand mental work requires no increase of food\u2014that has been
\nascertained scientifically by experiment. Hunger may increase by other causes,
\nbut when it coincides with the taking up of play or physical exercise of a
\nstrenuous character that is sufficient to explain it.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is true that as one reaches an advanced age a diminished diet may
\nbecome desirable.\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nNeither neglect this turn of the nature (food-desire) nor make too much
\nof it; it has to be dealt with, purified and mastered but without giving it too
\nmuch importance. There are two ways of\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

\nPage-553<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

 harmony and balance between the body’s need and the food taken.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt depends on what you can digest. If you can digest, there is no harm in
\ntaking more since you feel hungry. All these things depend upon what is the true
\nneed of the body and that may differ in different cases according to the
\nconstitution of the body, the amount of work done or exercise taken. It is
\npossible that you have reduced your food too much, so you can try taking more.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nBut it is quite natural. Exercise is always supposed to increase the
\nappetite as the body needs more food to restore the extra expense of energy put
\nout. Normally the more physical work the body has to do the more food it needs.
\nOn the other hand mental work requires no increase of food\u2014that has been
\nascertained scientifically by experiment. Hunger may increase by other causes,
\nbut when it coincides with the taking up of play or physical exercise of a
\nstrenuous character that is sufficient to explain it.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      It is true that as one reaches an advanced age a diminished diet may
\nbecome desirable.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nNeither neglect this turn of the nature (food-desire) nor make too much
\nof it; it has to be dealt with, purified and mastered but without giving it too
\nmuch importance. There are two ways of\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-554<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

conquering it\u2014one of detachment, learning to regard food as only a physical
\nnecessity and the vital satisfaction of the stomach and the palate as a thing of
\nno importance; the other is to be able to take without insistence or seeking any
\nfood given and to find in it (whether pronounced good or bad by others) the
\nequal rasa, <\/i>not of the food for its own sake, but of the universal
\nAnanda. <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      It is a mistake to neglect the body and let it waste away; the body is
\nthe means of the sadhana and should be maintained in good order. There should be
\nno attachment to it, but no contempt or neglect either of the material part of
\nour nature.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIn this yoga the aim is not only the union with the higher consciousness but the
\ntransformation (by its power) of the lower including the physical nature.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is not necessary to have desire or greed of food in order to eat. The yogi
\neats not out of desire, but to maintain the body.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      The attachment to good food must be given up as also the personal
\nattachment to position and service; but it is not indispensably necessary for
\nthat purpose to take to an ascetic diet or to give up all means of action such
\nas money and service. The yogin has to become nihsva <\/i>in this sense that
\nhe feels that nothing belongs to him but all to the Divine and he must be ready
\nat any time to give up all to the Divine. But there is no meaning in throwing
\naway everything in order to be externally nihsva <\/i>without any imperative
\ncause.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-555<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nI suppose you have become aware of the principle of
\nhunger in the vital-physical. It is not really either by satisfying it or
\nforcibly denying it that it will go-it is by putting a will on it to change and
\nbringing down a higher consciousness that it can change.<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nTo suppress hunger like that is not good, it very often creates disorders. I
\ndoubt whether fatness or thinness of a healthy kind depends on the amount of
\nfood taken\u2014there are people who eat well and remain thin and others who take
\nonly one meal a day and remain fat. By underfeeding (taking less than the body
\nreally needs) one may get emaciated, but that is not a healthy state. The
\ndoctors say it depends mostly on the working of certain glands. Anyhow the
\nimportant thing is now to get the nervous strength back.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAs for the liver also eating little does not help, very often it makes the liver
\nsluggish so that it works less well. What is recommended for liver trouble is to
\navoid greasy food and much eating of sweets and that is also one way of avoiding
\nfat. But to eat too little is not good\u2014it may be necessary in some stomach or
\nintestinal illness, but not for the ordinary liver trouble.\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAs for Sannyasis and food, Sannyasis put a compulsion on these desires in this
\nand other matters\u2014they take ascetic food as a principle; but this does not
\nnecessarily kill the greed for food, it remains compressed and, if the
\ncompulsion or principle is removed, it can come up again stronger than
\nbefore\u2014for compression without removal often increases the force of these things
\ninstead of destroying them.\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-556<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     When
\nthere is this suppression [of the desire to eat] I
\nhave always noticed that there comes for a time a strong eagerness or necessity
\nfor eating largely as if the body were taking its compensation for the past
\nwant.<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe first thing I tell people when they want not to eat or sleep is that
\nno yoga can be done without sufficient food and sleep (see the Gita on this
\npoint). Fasting or sleeplessness make the nerves morbid and excited and weaken
\nthe brain and lead to delusions and fantasies. The Gita says, yoga is not for
\none who eats too much or sleeps too much, neither is it for one who does not eat
\nor does not sleep, but if one eats and sleeps suitably\u2014yuktāhārī yuktanidrah<\/i>\u2014then
\none can do it best. It is the same with everything else. How often have I said
\nthat excessive retirement was suspect to me and that to do nothing but meditate
\nwas a lop-sided and therefore unsound sadhana?\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe idea of giving up food is a wrong inspiration. You can go on with a
\nsmall quantity of food, but not without food altogether, except for a
\ncomparatively short time. Remember what the Gita says, "Yoga is not for one who
\neats in excess nor for one who abstains from eating altogether." Vital energy is
\none thing \u2014of that one can draw a great amount without food and often it
\nincreases with fasting; but physical substance, without which life loses its
\nsupport, is of a different order.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nNot to eat as the method of getting rid of the greed of food is the
\nascetic way. Ours is equanimity and non-attachment.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-557<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

      It is a fact that by fasting, if the mind and the nerves are solid or the
\nwill-force dynamic, one can get for a time into a state of inner energy and
\nreceptivity which is alluring to the mind and the usual reactions of hunger,
\nweakness, intestinal disturbance, etc., can be wholly avoided. But the body
\nsuffers by diminution and there can easily develop in the vital a morbid
\noverstrained condition due to the inrush of more vital energy than the nervous
\nsystem can assimilate or co-ordinate. Nervous people should avoid the temptation
\nto fast, it is often accompanied or followed by delusions and a loss of balance.
\nEspecially if there is a motive of hunger-strike or that element comes in,
\nfasting becomes perilous, for it is then an indulgence of a vital movement which
\nmay easily become a habit injurious and pernicious to the sadhana. Even if all
\nthese reactions are avoided, still there is no sufficient utility in fasting,
\nsince the higher energy and receptivity ought to come not by artificial or
\nphysical means but by intensity of the consciousness and strong will for the
\nsadhana.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nI think it is not safe to admit any suggestion of not eating\u2014sometimes it
\nopens the door for the non-eating force to take hold of the mind and there is
\ntrouble. That comes easily because the inner being of course does not need any
\nfood and this non-need is attempted to be thrown by some forces on the body also
\nwhich is not under the same happy law. It is better to allow the condition [ of
\nconcentration and peace ] to grow in intensity until it can last even through
\nthe meal and after. I suppose it is not really the meal that disturbs but the
\ncoming out into the outer consciousness which is a little difficult to avoid
\nwhen one goes to eat; but that can be overcome in time.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-558<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

      The mental or vital vigour does not or need not depend on the food\u2014it is
\nthe physical that after a time begins to get strained if there is not sufficient
\nnourishment.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe transformation to which we aspire is too vast and complex to come at
\none stroke; it must be allowed to come by stages. The physical change is the
\nlast of these stages and is itself a progressive process.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe inner transformation cannot be brought about by physical means either of a
\npositive or a negative nature. On the contrary, the physical change itself can
\nonly be brought about by a descent of the greater supramental consciousness into
\nthe cells of the body. Till then at least the body and its supporting energies
\nhave to be maintained in part by the ordinary means, food, sleep, etc. Food has
\nto be taken in the right spirit, with the right consciousness; sleep has to be
\ngradually transformed into the yogic repose. A premature and excessive physical
\nausterity, Tapasya, may endanger the process of the sadhana by establishing a
\ndisturbance and abnormality of the forces in the different parts of the system.
\nA great energy may pour into the mental and vital parts, but the nerves and the
\nbody may be overstrained and lose the strength to support the play of these
\nhigher energies. This is the reason why an extreme physical austerity is not
\nincluded here as a substantive part of the sadhana.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere is no harm in fasting from time to time for a day or two or in reducing
\nthe food taken to a small but sufficient modicum; but entire abstinence for a
\nlong period is not advisable.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-559<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nI think the importance of sattwic food from the spiritual point of view
\nhas been exaggerated. Food is rather a question of hygiene, and many of the
\nsanctions and prohibitions laid down in ancient religions had more a hygienic
\nthan a spiritual motive. The Gita’s definitions seem to point in the same
\ndirection\u2014tama-sic food, it seems to say, is what is stale or rotten with the
\nvirtue gone out of it, rajasic food is that which is too acrid, pungent, etc.,
\nheats the blood and spoils the health, sattwic food is what is pleasing,
\nhealthy, etc. It may well be that different kinds of food nourish the action of
\nthe different gunas and so indirectly are helpful or harmful apart from their
\nphysical action. But that is as far as one can go confidently. What particular
\neatables are or are not sattwic is another question and more difficult to
\ndetermine. Spiritually, should say that the effect
\nof food depends more on the occult atmosphere and influences that come with it
\nthan on anything <\/font>in <\/font>
\nthe food itself. Vegetarianism is another question
\naltogether; it stands, as you say, on a will not to do harm to the more
\nconscious forms of life for the satisfaction of the belly.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      As for the question of practising to take all kinds of food with equal rasa, <\/i>
\nit is not necessary to practise nor does it really come by practice. One has to
\nacquire equality within in the consciousness and as this equality grows, one can
\nextend it or apply it to the various fields of the activity of the
\nconsciousness.\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      It is no part of this yoga to suppress taste, rasa, <\/i>altogether.
\nWhat is to be got rid of is vital desire and attachment, the greed of food,
\nbeing overjoyed at getting the food you like, sorry and discontented when you do
\nnot have it, giving an undue importance to it. Equality is here the test as in
\nso many other matters.\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-560<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

No\u2014it [taste] is not a bondage, if there is no attachment. Taste is natural and quite permissible so long as one is not the slave of the palate. Certainly, the enjoyment of taste can be offered up. I don’t know that there is any fruit of eating in the sense of the phrase in the Gita.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nTaste is no more a guilty thing than sight or hearing. It is the desire that it awakens that has to be thrown away.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is possible to get rid of taste like Chaitanya, for it is something that depends on the consciousness and so inhibition is possible. In hypnotic experiments it is found that suggestion can make sugar taste bitter or bitter things sweet. Berkeley and physiology are both right. There is a certain usually fixed relation between the consciousness in the palate and the guna <\/i>
\nof the food, but the consciousness can alter the relation if it wants or inhibit
\nit together. There are yogis who make themselves insensitive to pain also and
\nthat too can be done by hypnosis.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAnother method is to find all things good to the taste without attachment to any.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is better to be careful in these matters of food etc., as in the stage through which your sadhana is passing there is a considerable sensitiveness in the vital-physical part of the being and it may be easily disturbed by a wrong impact or a wrong movement like overfeeding.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhen the physical consciousness has been sensitivised, too much or heavy food becomes offensive to it.\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-561<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nIt is the habit in the subconscient material that feels an artificial need created by the past and does not care whether it is harmful or disturbing to the nerves or not. That is the nature of all intoxicants (wine, tobacco, cocaine etc.), people go on even after the deleterious effects have shown themselves and even after all real pleasure in it has ceased because of this artificial need (it is not real). The will has to get hold of this subconscient persistence and dissolve it.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThese intoxicants [Bhang etc.] put one in relation with a vital world in which such things [music, song etc.] exist.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nVI
\n<\/b>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThis is not a yoga in which physical austerities have to be done for their own sake. Sleep is necessary for the body just as food is. Sufficient sleep must be taken, but no excessive sleep. What sufficient sleep is depends on the need of the body.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIf you do not sleep enough the body and the nervous envelope will be weakened and the body and the nervous envelope are the basis of the sadhana.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt must be the want of sleep that keeps your nervous system exposed to weakness\u2014it is a great mistake not to take sufficient sleep. Seven hours is the minimum needed. When one has a very strong nervous system one can reduce it to six, sometimes even\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

\nPage-562<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

five\u2014but it is rare and ought not to be attempted without necessity.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe normal allowance of sleep is said to be 7 to 8 hours except in advanced age when it is said to be less. If one takes less (5 to 6 for instance) the body accommodates itself somehow, but if the control is taken off it immediately wants to make up for its lost arrears of the normal 8 hours. So often when one has tried to live on too little food, if one relaxes, the body becomes enormously rapacious for food until it has set right the credit and loss account. At least it often happens like that.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nBoth for fevers and for mental trouble sleep is a great help and its absence very undesirable\u2014it is the loss of a curative agency.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is certain forces that work and certain parts of the personality that use them. In the ordinary consciousness, these part-personalities are veiled and the forces limited by the external mind, but when one gets behind the veil that limitation disappears, the action of the forces enlarges and works out automatically what has to be done.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nBut then these forces are each intent on its own work and do not care for anything else\u2014e.g., here they disregard the need of the body for rest and sleep, which is bad. The central consciousness must interfere and say, "no, this is the time for sleep, not for these activities, keep them for their proper place and time".\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-563<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nIt is a want of sleep itself that brings the symptoms of uneasiness. The action of sadhana cannot of itself bring this kind of reaction, it is only if the body gets strained by want of sleep, insufficient food, overwork or nervous excitement that there are these things. It is probably because the nerves are strained in the day time and you do not relax into ease that it is difficult to sleep.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is restlessness in you which prevents you from keeping sleep inwardly or outwardly. To sleep well the vital and physical and mind also must learn how to relax themselves and be quiet.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nTake care to rest enough. You must guard against fatigue as it may bring relaxation and tamas. To rest well is not tamas, as some people suppose; it can be done in the right consciousness to maintain the bodily energy\u2014like the
\nśavāsana <\/i>of the strenuous Hathayogin.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nSleep, because of its subconscient basis, usually brings a falling down to a lower level, unless it is a conscious sleep; to make it more and more conscious is the one permanent remedy: but also until that is done, one should always react against this sinking tendency when one wakes and not allow the effect of dull nights to accumulate. But these things need always a settled endeavour and discipline and must take time, sometimes a long time. It will not do to refrain from the effort because immediate results do not appear.\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-564<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nIt is not a right method to try to keep awake at night; the suppression of the needed sleep makes the body tamasic and unfit for the necessary concentration during the waking hours. The right way is to transform the sleep and not suppress it, and especially to learn how to become more and more conscious in sleep itself. If that is done, sleep changes into an inner mode of consciousness in which the sadhana can continue as much as in the waking state, and at the same time one is able to enter into other planes of consciousness than the physical and command an immense range of informative and utilisable experience.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhat he is having now are the true spiritual and psychic experiences\u2014not those of the vital plane which most have at the beginning. The experiences of the vital plane (in which there is much imagination and fantasy) are useful for opening up the consciousness; but it is when they are replaced by the spiritual and psychic consciousness that there is the beginning of the true progress.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe difficulty of keeping the consciousness at night happens to most\u2014it is because the night is the time of sleep and relaxation and the subconscient comes up. The true consciousness comes at first in the waking state or in meditation, it takes possession of the mental, the vital, the conscious physical, but the subconscious vital and physical remain obscure and this obscurity comes up when there is sleep or an inert relaxation. When the subconscient is enlightened and penetrated by the true consciousness this disparity disappears.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe Pisachic woman that tried to enter is the false vital impure Shakti\u2014and the voice that spoke was that of his psychic being.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

\nPage-565<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

If he keeps his psychic being awake and in front, it will always protect him against these dark forces as it did this time.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYou must not try to avoid sleep at night\u2014if you persist in doing that, the bad results may not appear immediately, but the body will get strained and there will be a breakdown which may destroy what you have gained in your sadhana.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIf you want to remain conscious at night, train yourself to make your sleep conscious\u2014not to eliminate sleep altogether, but to transform it.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nSleep cannot be replaced, but it can be changed; for you can become conscious in sleep. If you are thus conscious, then the night can be utilised for a higher working\u2014provided the body gets its due rest; for the object of sleep is the body’s rest and the renewal of the vital-physical force. It is a mistake to deny to the body food and sleep, as some from an ascetic idea or impulse want to do\u2014that only wears out the physical support and although either the yogic or the vital energy can long keep at work an overstrained or declining physical system, a time comes when this drawing is no longer so easy nor perhaps possible. The body should be given what it needs for its own efficient working. Moderate but sufficient food (without greed or desire), sufficient sleep, but not of the heavy tamasic kind, this should be the rule.\n<\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere is no reason at all why intensity of sadhana should bring insufficient sleep.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-566<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

Sadhana can go on in the dream or sleep state as well as in the waking.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAll dream or sleep consciousness cannot be converted at once into conscious sadhana. That has to be done progressively. But your power of conscious samadhi must increase before this can be done.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is usually only if there is much activity of sadhana in the day that it extends also into the sleep-state.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nOnce one is in full sadhana, sleep becomes as much a part of it as waking.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThat is all right. It shows that the sadhana is becoming continuous and that you are being conscious and using a conscious will in sleep as well as in waking. This is a very important stage forward in the sadhana.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt was not half sleep or quarter sleep or even one-sixteenth sleep that you had; it was a going inside of the consciousness, which in that state remains conscious but shut to outer things and open only to inner experience. You must distinguish clearly between these two quite different conditions, one is nidrā, <\/i>
\nthe other, the beginning at least of samādhi<\/i> (nor nirvikalpa<\/i>, of
\ncourse!). This drawing inside is necessary because the active mind of the human
\nbeing is\n<\/p>\n

     
\n<\/font>Page-567<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

at first too much turned to outward things; it has to go inside altogether in order to five in the inner being (inner mind, inner vital, inner physical, psychic). But with training one can arrive at a point when one remains outwardly conscious and yet fives in the inner being and has at will the indrawn or the outpoured condition; you can then have the same dense immobility and the same inpouring of a greater and purer consciousness in the waking state as in that which you erroneously call sleep.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYou are more conscious in your sleep than in your waking condition. This is
\nbecause of the physical consciousness which is not yet sufficiently open; it is
\nonly just beginning to open. In your sleep the inner being is active and the
\npsychic there can influence more actively the mind and vital. When the physical
\nconsciousness is spiritually awake, you will no longer feel the trouble and
\nobstruction you now have and will be as open in the waking consciousness as in sleep.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThis is the right attitude to have faith and not mind the difficulties.
\nDifficulties\u2014and serious ones\u2014there cannot fail to be in the path of yoga,
\nbecause it is not easy to change all at once the ignorant human consciousness
\nand make it a spiritual consciousness open to the Divine. But with faith one need not mind the difficulties; the Divine Force is there and will overcome them.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe sleep you describe in which there is a luminous silence or else the sleep in which there is Ananda
\nin the cells, these are obviously the best states. The other hours, those of
\nwhich you are unconscious, may be spells of a deep slumber in which you have got
\nout of the physical into the mental, vital or other planes.<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-568<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

You say you were unconscious, but it may simply be that you do not remember what happened; for in coming back there is a sort of turning over of the consciousness, a transition or reversal, in which everything experienced in sleep except perhaps the last happening of all or else one that was very impressive, recedes from the physical consciousness and all becomes as if a blank. There is another blank state, a state of inertia, not only blank, but heavy and unremembering; but that is when one goes deeply and crassly into the subconscient; this subterranean plunge is very undesirable, obscuring, lowering, often fatiguing rather than restful, the reverse of the luminous silence.\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIn sleep one very commonly passes from consciousness to deeper consciousness in a long succession until one reaches the psychic and rests there or else from higher to higher consciousness until one reaches rest in some silence and peace. The few minutes one passes in this rest are the real sleep which restores,\u2014if one does not get it, there is only a half rest. It is when you come near to either of these domains of rest that you begin to see these higher kinds of dreams.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAccording to a recent medical theory one passes in sleep through many phases until one arrives at a state in which there is absolute rest and silence\u2014it lasts only for ten minutes, the rest of the time is taken up by travelling to that and travelling back again to the waking state. I suppose the ten minutes sleep can be called suśupti<\/i>
\nin the Brahman or Brahmaloka, the rest is svapna <\/i>or passage through other
\nworlds (planes or states of conscious<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/font>Page-569<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

existence). It is these ten minutes that restore the energies of the being, and without it sleep is not refreshing.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAccording to the Mother’s experience and knowledge one passes from waking through a succession of states of sleep consciousness which are in fact an entry and passage into so many worlds and arrives at a pure Sachchidananda state of complete rest, light and silence,\u2014afterwards one retraces one’s way till one reaches the waking physical state. It is this Sachchidananda period that gives sleep all its restorative value. These two accounts the scientific and the occult-spiritual are practically identical with each other. But the former is only a recent discovery of what the occult-spiritual knowledge knew long ago.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nPeople’s ideas of sound sleep are absolutely erroneous. What they call sound sleep is merely a plunge of the outer consciousness into a complete subconscience. They call that a dreamless sleep; but it is only a state in which the surface sleep consciousness which is a subtle prolongation of the outer still left active in sleep itself is unable to record the dreams and transmit them to the physical mind. As a matter of fact the whole sleep is full of dreams. It is only during the brief time in which one is in the Brahmaloka that the dreams cease.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nA long unbroken sleep is necessary because there are just ten minutes of the whole into which one enters into a true rest\u2014a sort of Sachchidananda immobility of consciousness\u2014and that it is which really restores the system. The rest of the time is spent first in travelling through various states of consciousness towards that and then coming out of it back towards the waking state. This fact of the ten minutes true rest has been noted by medical men, but of course they
\n<\/sub>know nothing about Sachchidananda!\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

\nPage-570<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     VII
\n<\/b>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      The consciousness in the night almost always descends below the level of what one has gained by sadhana in the waking consciousness, unless there are special experiences of an uplifting character in the time of sleep or unless the yogic consciousness acquired is so strong in the physical itself as to counteract the pull of the subconscient inertia. In ordinary sleep the consciousness in the body is that of the subconscient physical, which is a diminished consciousness, not awake and alive like the rest of the being. The rest of the being stands back and part of its consciousness goes out into other planes and regions and has experiences which are recorded in dreams such as that you have related. You say you go to very bad places and have experiences like the one you narrate; but that is not a sign, necessarily, of anything wrong in you. It merely means that you go into the vital world, as everybody does, and the vital world is full of such places and such experiences. What you have to do is not so much to avoid at all going there, for it cannot be avoided altogether, but to go with full protection until you get mastery in these regions of supraphysical Nature. That is one reason why you should remember the Mother and open to the Force before sleeping; for the more you get that habit and do it successfully, the more the protection will be with you.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is the waking mind which thinks and wills and controls more or less the life in the waking state. In the sleep that mind is not there and there is no control. It is not the thinking mind\n<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

\nPage-571<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

that sees dreams etc. and is conscious in a rather incoherent way in sleep. It is usually what is called the subconscient that comes up then. If the waking mind were active in the body, one would not be able to sleep.\n<\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYou are mixing up different things altogether\u2014that is why you cannot understand. I was simply explaining the difference between the ordinary waking consciousness and the ordinary sleep consciousness, as they work in men whether sadhaks or not sadhaks\u2014and it has nothing to do with the true self or psychic being. Sleep and waking are determined not by the true self or psychic being, but by the mind’s waking condition or activity or its cessation\u2014when it ceases for a time, then it is the subconscious that is there on the surface and there is sleep.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThat is a different matter\u2014it is in the yogic consciousness that one feels the seat of the subconscient below the feet, but the influence of the subconscious is not confined there\u2014it is spread in the body. In the waking state it is overpowered by the conscious thinking mind and vital and conscious physical mind, but in the sleep state it comes on the surface.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThese dreams are not all mere dreams, all have not a casual, incoherent or subconscious building. Many are records or transcripts of experiences on the vital plane into which one enters in sleep, some are scenes or events of the subtle physical plane. There one often undergoes happenings or carries on actions that resemble those of the physical life with the same surroundings and the same people, though usually there is in arrangement\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

\nPage-572<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

and feature some or a considerable difference. But it may also be a contact with other surroundings and with other people, not known in the physical life or not belonging at all to the physical world.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIn the waking state you are conscious only of a certain limited field and action of your nature. In sleep you can become vividly aware of things beyond this field\u2014a larger mental or vital nature behind the waking state or else a subtle physical or a subconscient nature which contains much that is there in you but not distinguishably active in the waking state. All these obscure tracts have to be cleared or else there can be no change of Prakriti. You should not allow yourself to be disturbed by the press of vital or subconscient dreams\u2014for these two make up the larger part of dream-experience\u2014but aspire to get rid of these things and of the activities they indicate, to be conscious and reject all but the divine Truth; the more you get that Truth and cling to it in the waking state, rejecting all else, the more all this inferior dream-stuff will get clear.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAll dreams of this kind are very obviously formations such as one often meets on the vital, more rarely on the mental plane. Sometimes they are the formations of your own mind or vital; sometimes they are the formations of other minds with an exact or modified transcription in yours; sometimes formations come that are made by the non-human forces or beings of these other planes. These things are not true and need not become true in the physical world, but they may still have effects on the physical if they are framed with that purpose or that tendency and, if they are allowed, they may realise their events or their meaning \u2014for they are most often symbolical or schematic\u2014in the inner\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-573<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

or the outer. The Proper
\ncourse with them is simply to observe and understand and, if they are from a
\nhostile source, reject or destroy them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/b>     
\nThere are other dreams that have not the same character but are a representation or transcription of things that actually happen on other planes, in other worlds under other conditions than ours. There are, again, some dreams that are purely symbolic and some that indicate existing movements and propensities in us, whether familiar or undetected by the waking mind, or exploit old memories or else raise up things either passively stored or still active in the subconscient, a mass of various stuff which has to be changed or got rid of as one rises into a higher consciousness. If one learns how to interpret, one can get from dreams much knowledge of the secrets of our nature and of other-nature.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nDreams of this kind arise from the subconscient. It is one of the most embarrassing elements of yogic experience to find how obstinately the subconscient retains what has been settled and done with in the upper layers of the consciousness. But just for that reason these dreams are often a useful indication as they enable us to pursue things to their obscure roots in this underworld and excise them. No, it does not indicate that you are taking in any part of your consciousness your present pursuit of yoga as a stopgap, but merely that old vital tendencies and activities are still there in that mysterious and obscure subconscient limbo and that their ghosts can rise twittering to the surface when the conscious will is in abeyance. If the dream was trivial, it would seem to show that this ghost was not a strong demon\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

\nPage-574<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

like the militant Norwegian saga revenants <\/i>
\nbut a phantom from an unsubstantial Hades.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt often happens that when something is thrown out of the waking consciousness it still occurs in dream. This recurrence is of two kinds. One is when the thing is gone, but the memory and impression of it remains in the subconscient and comes up in dream form in sleep. These subconscient dream-recurrences are of no importance; they are shadows rather than realities. The other is when dreams come in the vital to test or to show how far in some part of the inner being the old movement remains or is conquered. For in sleep the control of the waking consciousness and will is not there. If then even in spite of that one is conscious in sleep and either does not feel the old movement when the circumstances that formerly caused it are repeated in dream or else soon conquers and throws it out, then it must be understood that there too the victory is won. Your dream which seems to have corresponded with realities was a true experience of this kind; the old movement did come from habit, but at once you became conscious and rejected it. This is an encouraging sign and promises complete removal in a very short time.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThose dreams which are formed from subconscient impressions arranged at haphazard (subconscient mind, vital or physical) either have no significance or some meaning which is difficult to find and not very much worth knowing even if it is found. Other dreams are either simply happenings of the mental, vital or subtle physical worlds or else belong to the wider mental,\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

\nPage-575<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

 vital or subtle physical planes and have a meaning which the figures of the dream are trying to communicate.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhen one is in the physical consciousness, then the sleep is apt to be of the subconscious kind, often heavy and unrefreshing, the dreams also of the subconscient kind, incoherent and meaningless or if there is a meaning the dream symbols are so confused and obscure that it is not possible to follow it. It is by bringing the Mother’s Light into the subconscient that this can be dispelled and the sleep becomes restful or luminous and conscious.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThese experiences are normal when the inner consciousness is growing and becoming more and more the natural seat of the being\u2014it is the spontaneous intuitive knowledge of this inner consciousness which is becoming prominent in place of the ordinary reliance of the external mind on sense data and external happenings. It is indeed the being as a whole that becomes conscious\u2014the substance of consciousness that becomes aware of things, not an outer instrumental part.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIn the sleep part of the consciousness goes out to other planes of being and sees and experiences things there. It is quite possible for the witness consciousness to follow these happenings which usually transmit themselves in a coherent transcription to the sleeping part of the consciousness\u2014the latter receives them and they appear as clear significant dreams as opposed to the incoherent dreams of the subconscient. Or else the witness consciousness may feel itself there watching the happenings as well as here. This will probably develop after a while.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-576<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nThe physical mind (or else the subconscient) almost always interferes in the dream and gives its own version. It is only when there is a clear experience on the mental or vital plane that it does not try to interfere.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThey are dreams of the mental and higher vital planes in which things happen with another rhythm than here and freer forces, but some of them are formative of things and events here\u2014not that they are fulfilled exactly like prophecies but they create forces for fulfilment.\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere is no solid connection [between the waking and the dream states], but there can be a subtle one. Events of the waking state often influence the dream world, provided they have a sufficient repercussion on the mind or the vital. Formations and activities of the dream planes can project something of themselves or of their influence into the waking physical state, though they seldom reproduce themselves with any exactness there. It is only if the dream consciousness is very highly developed that one can usually see things there that are afterwards confirmed by thoughts, speech or actions of people or events in the physical world.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThese are dreams of the vital plane in which the vital plane takes up the spiritual experience and tries to turn it into forms of ego with a suggestion afterwards of loss of power and of consciousness and a fall. You should attach no importance to these dreams except as an indication of nature in the sleeping state.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-577<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nThey simply mean that when they come back, they are not conscious of having dreamed. In the sleep the consciousness goes into other planes and has experiences there and when these are translated perfectly or imperfectly by the physical mind, they are called dreams. All the time of sleep such dreams take place, but sometimes one remembers and at other times does not at all remember. Sometimes also one goes low down into the subconscient and the dreams are there, but so deep down that when one comes out there is not even the consciousness that one had dreamed.\n<\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe alternation of quiet and much speaking is natural when the physical being is being worked upon from within. When the sleep is more awake, so to say, then one has dreams of all kinds; when there is no such awareness of dreams, it is because the sleep of the body is more deep,\u2014the dreams are there but the body consciousness does not note them or remember that it had them.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt depends on the connection between the two states of consciousness at the time of waking. Usually there is a turn over of the consciousness in which the dream-state disappears more or less abruptly, effacing the fugitive impression made by the dream events (or rather their transcription) on the physical sheath. If the waking is more composed (less abrupt) or, if the impression is very strong, then the memory remains at least of the last dream. In the last case one may remember the dream for a long time, but usually after getting up the dream memories fade away. Those who want to remember their dreams sometimes make a practice of lying quiet and tracing backwards,\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-578<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

recovering the dreams one by one. When the dream-state is very light, one can remember more dreams than when it is heavy.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yes, certainly, dream experiences can have a great value in them and convey truths that are not so easy to get in the waking state.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt often happens like that. There is a change or reversal of the consciousness that takes place and the dream consciousness in disappearing takes away its scenes and experiences with it. This can sometimes be avoided by not coming out abruptly into the waking state or getting up quickly, but remaining quiet for a time to see if the memory remains or comes back. Otherwise the physical memory has to be taught to remember.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nMost people move most in the vital in sleep because it is the nearest to the physical and easiest to remain. One does enter the higher planes but either the transit there is brief or one does not remember. For in returning to the waking consciousness it is again through the lower vital and subtle physical that one passes and as these are the last dreams they are more easily remembered. The other dreams are remembered only if (1)
\n<\/b>they are strongly impressed on the recording
\nconsciousness, (2) one wakes immediately after one of them, (3) one has learned
\nto be conscious in sleep, i.e., follows consciously the passage from plane to
\nplane. Some train themselves to remember by remaining without moving when they
\nwake and following back the thread of the dreams.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-579<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nThe expression was of the psychic plane\u2014and the music was of that domain. Very often coming out of a conscious sleep like that the inner consciousness (which heard the music) lasts for a few seconds even after waking, before it goes back and is entirely covered by the waking mind. In that case what was heard or seen in sleep would continue for those few seconds after waking.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIn dreams on the vital plane there is always a deviation from the norm of the physical fact\u2014sometimes this is because of the free play in the vital, but at others it is only a fantasy of formation either in the vital itself or in the subconscient mind which transcribes the incidents of the dream and sometimes alters them by contributions of its own.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe people of dream are very often different from the people of actuality. Sometimes it is the real man who comes on another plane\u2014sometimes it is a thought, force etc. that put on his appearance by some trick of association or other reason.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThat is unlike many others a symbol dream on the vital plane. But it is difficult to interpret these vital symbolic dreams unless they offer their own clue\u2014they are a sort of hieroglyph in their forms. Once one gets the clue some of them can be very significant\u2014others of course are rather trivial.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is a very small number of dreams that can be so explained [that they arise by external stimuli] and in many cases the\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

\nPage-580<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

explanation is quite arbitrary or cannot be proved. A much larger number of dreams arise from subconscient impressions of the past without any stimulus from outside. These are the dreams from the subconscient which are the bulk of those remembered by people who live in the external mind mostly. There are also the dreams that are renderings of vital movements and tendencies habitual to the nature, personal formations of the vital plane. But when one begins to live within then the dreams are often transcriptions of one’s experiences on the vital plane and beyond that there is a large field of symbolic and other dreams which have nothing to do with memory. Of course it has been proved that a very long and circumstantial dream can happen in a second or two, so that objection to Bergson’s statement does not stand. But there are also prophetic dreams and many others. Memory holds together the experiences but it is absurd to identify consciousness (even in the restricted European idea of consciousness) with memory. This theory of memory is part of Bergson’s fundamental idea that Time is everything. As for spirituelle <\/i>
\nin Europe mostly no distinction is made between the spiritual and the mental or
\nvital. <\/i>\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nA great many people have these dreams. It is the vital being that goes out in sleep and moves about in the vital worlds and has this sense of floating in the air in its own (vital) body. The waves of a sea having the colour of lightning must have been the atmosphere of some vital province. I have known of some sadhaks, when they go at first out of the body in a more conscious way, thinking they have actually levitated, the vividness of the movement is so intense, but it is simply the vital body going out.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-581<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     The dreams are experiences on the vital plane, actual contacts with myself and the Mother in your inner being, not symbolic though they may have symbolic elements, but expressing relations, influences or mutual workings of our consciousness with yours. The second dream has symbolic elements. The ladder is of course a symbol of an ascent from one stage to another. The snake indicates an energy, sometimes a good one, more often a bad one (vital or hostile). It may be that the energy was quiescent and therefore not alarming, but by touching it to see how it was you awoke it and you found it was something not safe to handle. There is no clear indication what this energy was. These dream-experiences do not depend on the waking thoughts as do ordinary subconscient dreams which are dreams only and not experiences. They have a life, a structure, an arrangement and forms and meanings of their own; but they are often connected with the inner condition and experiences or movements of the sadhana. It is not clear whether the flower-incident was symbolic or only something that happened on the inner plane. It might have been possible to say if it had been indicated what flower it actually was that you had given.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThese bad conditions are a lapse (often due to a very slight cause) from the inner poise to the outer consciousness. When they happen do not get affected, but remain quiet, call the Mother and get back inward.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe dreams you describe are very clearly symbolic dreams on the vital plane. These dreams may symbolise anything, forces at play, the underlying structure and tissue of things done or experienced, actual or potential happenings, real or suggested movements or changes in the inner or outer nature.\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

\nPage-582<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     The timidity of which the apprehension in the dream was an indication, was probably not anything in the conscious mind or higher vital, but something subconscient in the lower vital nature. This part always feels itself small and insignificant and has very easily a fear of being submerged by the greater consciousness \u2014a fear which in some may amount at the first contact to something like a panic, alarm or terror.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThese are experiences of the vital plane; they have a meaning if one knows how to interpret them. This one indicates the possibility of strong attacks on the vital plane, but at the same time promises protection. These are formations of the vital plane, sometimes things that try to happen but not necessarily effective. One can observe and understand, but not allow them to influence the mind; for often adverse forces try to influence the mind by suggestion through these dream experiences.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYes, your feeling about the protection is perfectly true.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe dream about X and going to the Mother was an experience of something that took place on the vital plane. Things happen there that have some connection with the nature and life here, but they happen differently because there it is not the physical beings that meet, but the vital beings of people. One can gather what is the nature of one’s own inner vital being\u2014which is often very different from the physical personality that acts on front in the body. By the acting of the consciousness in these dreams the inner parts of the being begin to be more active and have more influence on the outer nature. Your inner vital being seems from the dream experiences that you have related to be very strong,\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

\nPage-583<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

faithful, clear-minded, resolute, able to deal with the hostile forces and their activities in the right way and do the right thing.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe sensation of going somewhere means that part of the consciousness is going into some other plane than the physical. The men you saw and also the vision that came afterwards belonged to these supraphysical worlds. The vision seems to be symbolic of something from above, but of what is not quite clear from the details. Gold is the colour of the Truth that comes from above.\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe physical is not the only world; there are others that we become aware of through dream records, through the subtle senses, through influences and contacts, through imagination, intuition and vision. There are worlds of a larger subtler life than ours, vital worlds; worlds in which Mind builds its own forms and figures, mental worlds; psychic worlds which are the soul’s home; others above with which we have little contact. In each of us there is a mental plane of consciousness, a psychic, a vital, a subtle physical as well as the gross physical and material plane. The same planes are repeated in the consciousness of general Nature. It is when we enter or contact these other planes that we come into connection with the worlds above the physical. In sleep we leave the physical body, only a subconscient residue remaining, and enter all planes and all sorts of worlds. In each we see scenes, meet beings, share in happenings, come across formations, influences, suggestions which belong to these planes. Even when we are awake, part of us moves in these planes, but their activity goes on behind the veil; our waking minds are not aware of it. Dreams are often only incoherent constructions of\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

\nPage-584<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

our subconscient, but others are records (often much mixed and distorted) or transcripts of experiences in these supraphysical planes. When we do sadhana, this kind of dream becomes very common; then subconscious dreams cease to predominate.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe forces and beings of the vital world have a great influence on human beings. The vital world is on one side a world of beauty,\u2014the poet, artist, musician are in close contact with it; it is also a world of powers and passions, lusts and desires,\u2014our own lusts and desires, and passions and ambitions can put us into connection with the vital worlds and their forces and beings. It is again a world of things dark, dangerous and horrible. Nightmares like X’s are contacts with this side of the vital plane. Its influences are also the source of much in men that is demoniac,, dirty, cruel and base.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThis experience of X is a contact with something on the wrong side of the vital plane. Her visions of gods, goddesses, etc., are vital world experiences on the other side. This one is an attempt of some vital force to get some kind of control on her acting on her through her fear. If she were not afraid, it could not invade her. If she suffers in her waking hours from desires or despondencies and depressions, that
\nalso would help to make her enter these worlds in sleep or have a connection with them. Her experiences as you reported them showed a very great power of entry into the vital plane on the good side\u2014these dream experiences are the other side. As they are dreams, they are not so dangerous as a similar experience in meditation would be, but all the same they are very undesirable.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

       If such an invasion is attempted, the one thing to do is to fight it out as she did and at the same time to call the Mother. The rule should be to call the Mother before sleeping, to concentrate on her and try to feel the Mother’s protection around her\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

\nPage-585<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

and go with that into sleep. In the dream itself a habit of calling the Mother when in difficulty or peril should be formed; many sadhaks do it. Not to allow the invasion, any invasion of any power or being, whether in dream, meditation or otherwise \u2014no force except the Divine Force, means to reject it, never to give assent, whether through attention or through weakness. To cut connection can be done by will within, a will of rejection, a concentration on higher things than the things of the vital plane; also by rejection of vital desires or despondencies and depressions, if she has them. Let her aspire most for the higher spiritual experiences, the psychic opening, calm, peace, purity, the opening to the higher light, strength, bliss, knowledge.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nOne thing, she should not lead too sequestered a life; some opening on the physical world is needed, also some normal mental activities of a healthy character.\n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThese are dreams sent from the vital world. There are three things she must develop with regard to them:\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\n(1) to get the habit of calling the Mother at once in the dream itself;\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\n(2) not to fear\u2014if one does not fear, these other world forces become helpless;\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\n(3) to put no belief in the reality of such formations and regard them only as suggestions put into form, just as one gets a frightful imagination of this or that happening but the reason knows it to be a mere work of imagination and is not moved by it.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThese things that come to frighten you are merely impressions thrown on you by small vital forces which want to prevent you\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

\nPage-586<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

(by making you nervous) pushing on the sadhana. They can really do nothing to you, only you must reject all fear. Keep always this thought when these things come "The Mother’s protection is with me, nothing bad can happen",\u2014for when there is the psychic opening and one puts one’s faith in the Mother, that is sufficient to ward these things off. Many sadhaks learn, when they have alarming dreams, to call the Mother’s name in the dream itself and then the things that menace them become helpless or cease. You must therefore refuse to be intimidated and reject these impressions with contempt. If there is anything frightening, call down the Mother’s protection.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe heat you felt was probably due to some difficulty in the force coming down below the centre between the eyes where it has been working up till now. When such sensations or the unease you once felt or similar things come, you must not be alarmed, but remain quiet and let the difficulty pass.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhat you had before that, the moonlight in the forehead was this working on the centre there between the eyebrows, the centre of the inner mind, will and vision. The moonlight you saw is the light of spirituality and it was this that was entering into your mind through the centre, with the effect of the widening in the heart like a sky filled with moonlight. Afterwards came some endeavour to prepare the lower part of the mind whose centre is in the throat and join it with the inner mind and make it open; but there was some difficulty, as is very usually the case, which caused the heat. It was probably the fire of tapas, Agni, trying to open the way to this centre.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe experience of being taken up into the sky is a very common one and it means an ascent of the consciousness into a higher world of light and peace.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe idea that you must go more and more within and turn\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-587<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

wholly to the Mother is quite right. It is when there is no attachment to outward things for their own sake and all is only for the Mother and the life through the inner psychic being is centred in her that the best condition is created for the spiritual realisation.\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe dream was of a kind one often has in the vital plane\u2014in which one gets into inextricable difficulties till suddenly one finds the way out. Gujerat in the dream was not Gujerat, but only a symbol of one part of the vital world which is opposed to the spiritual life and full of vital powers that come in the way either by fraud or by force. These dreams are indications of certain parts of vital nature (not one’s own, but the general vital Nature) which stand in the way of spiritual fulfilment. When one goes there and masters them, then one is free from any intervention of these parts of Nature in the sadhana.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThese dreams are quite symbolical of the vital forces that come and attack you. If you face them with courage they are reduced to helplessness. I don’t think that it is at all your father and brother that you meet\u2014although something of their hostile feelings may be taken advantage of by those forces to take their figures\u2014also they may do it in order to create sympathy in you and prevent you from acting against them. But apart from that the figures of the physical mother and father and relatives are very often symbolical of the physical or the hereditary nature or generally of the ordinary nature in which we are born.\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-588<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nWhen you practise yoga, the consciousness opens and you become aware\u2014especially in sleep\u2014of things, scenes, beings, happenings of other (not physical) worlds and yourself in sleep go there and act there. Very often these things have an importance for the sadhana. So you need not regret seeing all this when you sleep or meditate.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nBut in no case should you fear. The fact that you were able to destroy the beings that fought with you (these were beings of a hostile vital world) is very good, for it shows that in your vital nature somewhere there is strength and courage. Moreover, using the Mother’s name and having her protection, you should fear nothing.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is evident that X’s experience was only what is called a nightmare\u2014an attack in sleep from some force of the vital world, to which he probably opened himself in some way, it may be by answering to the man from the street who carried the worst vital atmosphere around him. The figure of the woman was only a form given by his subconscient mind to this force. These forces are around everywhere, not only in one particular room or house, and if one opens the door to them, they come in wherever you are. It would have no importance but for the nervous reaction of irrational terror indulged in by X. One who wants to do sadhana has no business to indulge in such panics; it is a weakness incompatible with the demands of the yoga and, if one cannot throw it aside, it is safer not to try the yoga.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe depression coming on you in sleep must have been due to one of two causes.
\nIt might have been the trace left by an\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

\nPage-589<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

unpleasant experience in some disagreeable quarter of the vital world and there are places in plenty of that kind there. It can hardly have been an attack, for that would surely have left a more distinct impression of something having happened, even if there was no actual memory of it; but merely to enter into certain places or meet their inhabitants or enter into contact with their atmosphere can have, unless one is a born fighter and takes an aggressive pleasure in facing and conquering these ordeals, a depressing and exhausting effect. If that is the cause, then it is a question of either avoiding these places, which can be done by an effort of will, once one knows that it is this which happens, or putting around you a special protection against the touch of that atmosphere. The other possible cause is a plunge into a too obscure and subconscient sleep\u2014that has sometimes the effect you describe. In any case, do not allow yourself to be discouraged when these things happen; they are common phenomena one cannot fail to meet with as soon as one begins to penetrate behind the veil and touch the occult causes of the psychological happenings within us. One has to learn the causes, note and face the difficulty and always react\u2014never accept the depression thrown on one, but react as you did the first time. If there are always forces around which are concerned to depress and discourage, there are always forces above and around us which we can draw upon,\u2014draw into ourselves to restore, to fill up again with strength and faith and joy and the power that perseveres and conquers. It is really a habit that one has to get of opening to these helpful forces and either passively receiving them or actively drawing upon them\u2014for one can do either. It is easier if you have the conception of them above and around you and the faith and the will to receive them\u2014for that brings the experience and concrete sense of them and the capacity to\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-590<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

receive at need or at will. It is a question of habituating your consciousness to get into touch and keep in touch with these helpful forces\u2014and for that you must accustom yourself to reject the impressions forced on you by the others, depression, self-distrust, repining and all similar disturbances.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAs for the actual mastery of a situation by occult powers, it can only come by use and experiment\u2014as one develops strength by exercises or develops a process in the laboratory by finding out through the actual use of a power how it can and ought to be applied to the field in which it operates. It is of no use waiting for the strength before one tries; the strength will come with repeated trials. Neither must you fear failure or be discouraged by failure\u2014for these things do not always succeed at once. These are things one has to learn by personal experiences, how to get into touch with the cosmic forces, how to relate or equate our individual action with theirs, how to become an instrument of the Master Consciousness which we call the Divine.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere is something a little too personal in your attitude. I mean the insistence on personal strength or weakness as the determining factor. After all, for the greatest as for the smallest of us our strength is not our own but given to us for the game that has to be played, the work that we have to do. The strength may be formed in us, but its present formation is not final,\u2014 neither formation of power nor formation of weakness. At any moment the formation may change\u2014at any moment one sees, especially under the pressure of yoga, weakness changing into power, the incapable becoming capable, suddenly or slowly the instrumental consciousness rising to a new stature or developing its latent powers. Above us, within us, around us is the All-Strength and it is that that we have to rely on for our work, our development, our transforming change. If we proceed with the\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-591<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

faith in the work, in our instrumentality for the work, in the Power that missions us, then in the very act of trial, of facing -and surmounting difficulties and failures, the strength will come and we shall find our capacity to contain as much as we need of the All-Strength of which we grow more and more perfect vessels.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      VIII<\/b>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe whole principle of this yoga is to give oneself entirely to the Divine alone and to nobody and nothing else, and to bring down into ourselves by union with the Divine Mother-Power all the transcendent light, force, wideness, peace, purity, truth consciousness and Ananda of the supramental Divine. In this yoga, therefore, there can be no place for vital relations or interchanges with others; any such relation or interchange immediately ties down the soul to the lower consciousness and its lower nature, prevents the true and full union with the Divine and hampers both the ascent to the supramental Truth-consciousness and the descent of the supramental Ishwari Shakti. Still worse would it be if this interchange took the form of a sexual relation or a sexual enjoyment, even if kept free from any outward act; therefore these things are absolutely forbidden in the sadhana. It goes without saying that any physical act of the kind is not allowed; but also any subtler form is ruled out. It is only after becoming one with the supramental Divine that we can find our true spiritual relations with others in the Divine; in that higher unity this kind of gross lower vital movement can have no place.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nTo master the sex-impulse,\u2014to become so much master of the sex-centre that the sexual energy would be drawn upwards, not thrown outwards and wasted\u2014it is so indeed that the force\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

\nPage-592<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

faith in the work, in our instrumentality for the work, in the Power that missions us, then in the very act of trial, of facing -and surmounting difficulties and failures, the strength will come and we shall find our capacity to contain as much as we need of the All-Strength of which we grow more and more perfect vessels.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nVIII
\n<\/b>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe whole principle of this yoga is to give oneself entirely to the Divine alone and to nobody and nothing else, and to bring down into ourselves by union with the Divine Mother-Power all the transcendent light, force, wideness, peace, purity, truth consciousness and Ananda of the supramental Divine. In this yoga, therefore, there can be no place for vital relations or interchanges with others; any such relation or interchange immediately ties down the soul to the lower consciousness and its lower nature, prevents the true and full union with the Divine and hampers both the ascent to the supramental Truth-consciousness and the descent of the supramental Ishwari Shakti. Still worse would it be if this interchange took the form of a sexual relation or a sexual enjoyment, even if kept free from any outward act; therefore these things are absolutely forbidden in the sadhana. It goes without saying that any physical act of the kind is not allowed; but also any subtler form is ruled out. It is only after becoming one with the supramental Divine that we can find our true spiritual relations with others in the Divine; in that higher unity this kind of gross lower vital movement can have no place.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nTo master the sex-impulse,\u2014to become so much master of the sex-centre that the sexual energy would be drawn upwards, not thrown outwards and wasted\u2014it is so indeed that the force\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

\nPage-593<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

in the seed can be turned into a primal physical energy supporting all the others, retas<\/i>
\ninto ojas<\/i>. But no error can be more perilous than to accept the immixture
\nof the sexual desire and some kind of subtle satisfaction of it and look on this
\nas a part of the sadhana, It would be the most effective way to head straight
\ntowards spiritual downfall and throw into the atmosphere forces that would block
\nthe supramental descent, bringing instead the descent of adverse vital powers to
\ndisseminate disturbance and disaster, This deviation must be absolutely thrown
\naway, should it try to occur and expunged from the consciousness, if the Truth
\nis to be brought down and the work is to be done.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is an error too to imagine that, although the physical sexual action is to be abandoned, yet some inward reproduction of it is part of the transformation of the sex-centre. The action of the animal sex-energy in Nature is a device for a particular purpose in the economy of the material creation in the Ignorance. But the vital excitement that accompanies it makes the most favourable opportunity and vibration in the atmosphere for the inrush of those very vital forces and beings whose whole business is to prevent the descent of the supramental Light. The pleasure attached to it is a degradation and not a true form of the divine Ananda. The true divine Ananda in the physical has a different quality and movement and substance; self-existent in its essence, its manifestation is dependent only on an inner union with the Divine. You have spoken of Divine Love; but Divine Love, when it touches the physical, does not awaken the gross lower vital propensities; indulgence of them would only repel it and make it withdraw again to the heights from which it is already difficult enough to draw it down into the coarseness of the material creation which it alone can transform. Seek the Divine Love through the only gate through which it will consent to enter,\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

\nPage-594<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

the gate of the psychic being, and cast away the lower vital error.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe transformation of the sex-centre and its energy is needed for the physical siddhi; for this is the support in the body of all the mental, vital and physical forces of the nature. It has to be changed into a mass and a movement of intimate Light, creative Power, pure divine Ananda. It is only the bringing down of the supramental Light, Power and Bliss into the centre that can change it. As to the working afterwards, it is the supramental Truth and the creative vision and will of the Divine Mother that will determine it. But it will be a working of the conscious Truth, not of the Darkness and Ignorance to which sexual desire and enjoyment belong; it will be a power of preservation and free desireless radiation of the life-forces and not of their throwing out and waste. Avoid the imagination that the supramental life will be only a heightened satisfaction of the desires of the vital and the body; nothing can be a greater obstacle to the Truth in its descent than this hope of glorification of the animal in the human nature. Mind wants the supramental state to be a confirmation of its own cherished ideas and preconceptions; the vital wants it to be a glorification of its own desires; the physical wants it to be a rich prolongation of its own comforts and pleasures and habits. If it were to be that, it would be only an exaggerated and highly magnified consummation of the animal and the human nature, not a transition from the human into the Divine.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is dangerous to think of giving up "all barrier of discrimination and defence against what is trying to descend" upon you. Have you thought what this would mean if what is descending is something not in consonance with the divine Truth, perhaps even adverse? An adverse Power would ask no better condition for getting control over the seeker. It is only the Mother’s force\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-595<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

and the divine Truth that one should admit without barriers. And even there one must keep the power of discernment in order to detect anything false that comes masquerading as the Mother’s force and the divine Truth, and keep too the power of rejection that will throw away all mixture.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nKeep faith in your spiritual destiny, draw back from error and open more the psychic being to the direct guidance of the Mother’s light and power. If the central will is sincere, each recognition of a mistake can become a stepping-stone to a truer movement and a higher progress.\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nI have stated very briefly in my previous letter my position with regard to the sex-impulse and yoga. I may add here that my conclusion is not founded on any mental opinion or preconceived moral idea, but on probative facts and on observation and experience. I do not deny that so long as one allows a sort of separation between inner experience and outer consciousness, the latter being left as an inferior activity controlled but not transformed, it is quite possible to have spiritual experiences and make progress without any entire cessation of the sex-activity. The mind separates itself from the outer vital (life-parts) and the physical consciousness and lives its own inner life. But only a few can really do this with any completeness and the moment one’s experiences extend to the life-plane and the physical, sex can no longer be treated in this way. It can become at any moment a disturbing, upsetting and deforming force. I have observed that to an equal extent with ego (pride, vanity, ambition) and rajasic greeds and desires it is one of the main causes of the spiritual casualties that have taken place in sadhana. The attempt to treat it by detachment without complete excision breaks down;\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

\nPage-596<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

the attempt to sublimate it, favoured by many modern mystics in Europe, is a most rash and perilous experiment. For it is when one mixes up sex and spirituality that there is the greatest havoc. Even the attempt to sublimate it by turning it towards the Divine as in the Vaishnava madhura bhāva <\/i>
\ncarries in <\/font>it <\/font>
\na serious danger, as the results of a wrong turn or
\nuse in this method so often show. At any rate in this yoga which seeks not only
\nthe essential experience of the Divine but a transformation of the whole being
\nand nature, I have found it an absolute necessity of the -sadhana to <\/font>
\naim <\/font>at a complete mastery
\nover the sex-force; otherwise the vital consciousness remains a turbid mixture,
\nthe turbidity affecting the purity of the spiritualised mind and seriously
\nhindering the upward turn of the forces of the body. This yoga demands a full
\nascension of the whole lower or ordinary consciousness to join the spiritual
\nabove it and a full descent of the spiritual (eventually of the supramental)
\ninto the mind, life and body to transform it. The total ascent is impossible so
\nlong as sex-desire blocks the way; the descent is dangerous so long as
\nsex-desire is powerful in the vital. For at any moment an unexcised or latent
\nsex-desire may be the cause of a mixture which throws back the true descent and
\nuses the energy acquired for other purposes or turns all the action of the
\nconsciousness towards wrong experience, turbid and delusive. One must,
\ntherefore, clear this obstacle out of the way; otherwise there is either no
\nsafety or no free movement towards finality in the sadhana.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe contrary opinion of which you speak may be due to the idea that sex is a natural part of the human vital-physical whole, a necessity like food and sleep, and that its total inhibition may lead to unbalancing and to serious disorders. It is a fact that sex suppressed in outward action but indulged in other ways may lead to disorders of the system and brain troubles. That is\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

\nPage-597<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

the root of the medical theory which discourages sexual abstinence. But I have observed that these things happen only when there is either secret indulgence of a perverse kind replacing the normal sexual activity or else an indulgence of it in a kind of subtle vital way by imagination or by an invisible vital interchange of an occult kind,\u2014I do not think harm ever occurs when there is a true spiritual effort at mastery and abstinence. It is now held by many medical men in Europe that sexual abstinence, if it is genuine, <\/i>
\nis beneficial; for the element in the retas <\/i>
\nwhich serves the sexual act is then changed into its other element which feeds
\nthe energies of the system, mental, vital and physical and that justifies the
\nIndian idea of Brahmacharya, the transformation of retas <\/i>into ojas <\/i>
\nand the raising of its energies upward so that they change into a spiritual
\nforce.<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAs for the method of mastery, it cannot be done by physical abstinence alone\u2014it proceeds by a process of combined detachment and rejection. The consciousness stands back from the sex-impulse, feels it as not its own, as something alien thrown on it by Nature-force to which it refuses assent or identification \u2014each time a certain movement of rejection throws it more and more outward. The mind remains unaffected; after a time the vital being which is the chief support withdraws from it in the same way, finally the physical consciousness no longer supports it. This process continues until even the subconscient can no longer rouse it up in dream and no further movement comes from the outer Nature-force to rekindle this lower fire. This is the course when the sex-propensity sticks obstinately; but there are some who can eliminate it decisively by a swift radical dropping away from the nature. That, however, is more rare.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt has to be said that the total elimination of the sex-impulse is one of the most difficult things in sadhana and one must be\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-598<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

prepared for it to take time. But its total disappearance has been achieved and a practical liberation crossed only by occasional dream-movements from the subconscient is fairly common.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe Mother has already told you the truth about this idea. The idea that by fully indulging the sex hunger it will be finished and disappear for ever is a deceptive pretence held out by the vital to the mind in order to get a sanction for its desire; it has no other ration
\nd’\u00eatre <\/i>or truth or justification. If an occasional indulgence keeps the sex
\ndesire simmering, a full indulgence would only sink you in its mire. This hunger
\nlike other hungers does not cease by temporary satiation; it revives itself
\nafter a temporary abeyance and wants again indulgence. It can only go by a
\nradical psychic rejection or a full spiritual opening with the increasing
\ndescent of a consciousness that does not want it and has the truer Ananda.<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

       It is not a question of fear\u2014it is a question of choosing between the Divine Peace and Ananda and the degraded pleasure of sex, between the Divine and the attraction of women. Food has to be taken to support the body but sex-satisfaction is not a necessity. Even for the rasa <\/i>
\nof food it can only be harmonised with the
\nspiritual condition if all greed of food and desire of the palate disappears.
\nIntellectual or aesthetic delight can also <\/font>be <\/font>
\nan obstacle to the spiritual perfection if there is
\nattachment to it, although it is much nearer to the spiritual than a gross
\nuntransformed<\/p>\n

\nbodily appetite; in fact in order to become part of the spiritual consciousness
\nthe intellectual and aesthetic delight has also to change and become something
\nhigher. But all things<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-599<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

that have a rasa <\/b> <\/i>
\ncannot be kept. There is a rasa <\/i>in
\nhurting and <\/font>killing others, the sadistic
\ndelight, there is a rasa <\/i>in torturing oneself, the masochistic
\ndelight-modern psychology is full of these two. Merely having a rasa <\/i>is
\nnot a sufficient reason for keeping things as part of the spiritual life.<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere is no "delight" in the sex affair, it is necessarily and can only be a passing excitement and pleasure which finally wears itself out with the wearing out of the body.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe idea of the new European mystics like Lawrence and Middle-ton Murry etc. is that the indulgence of sex is the appointed way to find the Overself or the Under Self, for that is what it really seems to be! X of course knows better. But if the personal Overself is all that is wanted and not the Divine, then sex and many other things are permissible. One has only to realise that one is not the body, not the fife, not the mind, but the Overself and then do whatever the Overself tells you to do.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nI spoke of the personal <\/i>Overself-meaning the
\nrealisation of something in us (the Purusha) that is not the Prakriti, not the
\nmovements of mind, vital or physical, but something that is the Thinker, etc.
\nThis Purusha can give assent to any movement of nature or withhold <\/font>
\nit <\/font>or it can direct the
\nPrakriti what to do or not to do. It can allow <\/font>it
\n<\/font>to indulge sex or withhold indulgence. It is
\nusually the mental Purusha (Manomaya Purusha) that one thus realises, but there
\nis also the Pranamaya<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-600<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

or vital Purusha. By the word Overself they probably mean this Purusha\u2014they take it as a sort of personal Atman.\n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nOneness with all would then mean satisfying the sex instinct with all\u2014that would be a rather startling siddhānta, <\/i>
\nthough there is something like it in the practice
\nof Tantra of the left hand. But the left hand Tantriks are more logical than
\nyou-for why should oneness, <\/font>if <\/font>
\nit is to justify sex expression, support only the
\nlighter and not the cruder forms of love-expression. But is sex really based on
\nlove or sex love based on sex instinct? and is sex instinct an expression of the
\nspiritual feeling of the One in all? Is it not really based on duality, except
\nwhen it simply seeks satisfaction and pleasure where there is no question of
\nlove at all? Is one attracted to a woman by the sense that she is oneself or by
\nthe fact that she is somebody else attracting one by some charm or beauty which
\none wants to enjoy or possess or simply by the fact of the difference from
\noneself, the fact of her being a female and not a male so that the sex instinct
\ncan find a full field there.<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nSex (occult) stands on a fair level of equality with ambition etc. from the point of view of danger, only its action is usually less ostensible\u2014i.e. the Hostiles don’t put it forward so openly as a thing to be followed after in the spiritual life.\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe sex-impulse is certainly the greatest force in the vital plane; if it can be sublimated and turned upwards, ojas
\nis created<\/i><\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-601<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

       The sex-energy utilised by Nature for the purpose of reproduction is in its real nature a fundamental energy of Life. It can be used not for the heightening but for a certain intensification of the vital-emotional life; it can be controlled and diverted from the sex-purpose and used for aesthetic and artistic or other creation and productiveness or preserved for heightening of the intellectual or other energies. Entirely controlled it can be turned into a force of spiritual energy also. This was well known in ancient India and was described as the conversion of retas <\/i>
\ninto ojas <\/i>by Brahmacharya. Sex-energy misused turns to disorder and
\ndisintegration of the life-energy and its powers.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe terrestrial sex-movement is a utilisation by Nature of the fundamental physical energy for purposes of procreation. The thrill of which the poets speak, which is accompanied by a very gross excitement, is the lure by which she makes the vital consent to this otherwise unpleasing process; there are numbers who experience a recoil of disgust after the act and repulsion from the partner in it because of the disgust, though they return to it when the disgust has worn off for the sake of this lure.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe sex-energy itself is a great power with two components in its physical basis, one meant for procreation and the process necessary for it, the other for feeding the general energies of the body, mind and vital,\u2014also of the spiritual energies of the body. The old yogis call these two components retas <\/b>
\n<\/i>and ojas<\/i>. The European scientists generally pooh-poohed the idea, but
\nnow they are beginning to discover the same fact for themselves. As for the
\nthrill,-the poets make so much of-it is simply a very gross distortion and
\ndegradation of the physical Ananda which<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-602<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

by the yoga can establish itself in the body, but this it cannot do so long as there is the sex-deviation.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThat is correct\u2014if the sex-fluid is prevented from being spent away, it turns into tejas <\/i>
\nand ojas. <\/i>The whole theory of brahmacarya
\n<\/i>is based upon that by the yogis. If it were not so, there would be no need
\nof brahmacarya <\/i>for producing tejas <\/i>and <\/font>
\nojas.<\/i><\/font>
\n<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    
\nIt is not a question of vigour and energy <\/font>
\nper <\/font>
\nse, <\/font><\/i>but of
\nthe physical support-in the physical support the ojas <\/i>produced by
\nbrahmacarya <\/i>counts greatly. The transformation of the retas <\/i>into
\n<\/font>ojas <\/i><\/font>
\nis a transformation of physical substance into a
\nphysical (necessarily producing also a vital-physical) energy. The spiritual
\nenergy itself can only drive the body, like the vital and mental, but in driving
\nit it would exhaust it if it has not a physical support. (I speak of course of
\nthe ordinary spiritual energy, not of the supramental to be, which has not only
\nto transmute retas <\/i>into ojas <\/i>but ojas <\/i>into something more
\nsublimated.)<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAs for scientists, the product of sex-glands is considered by them (at least so I have read) as a great support and feeder of general energies. It has even been considered that sex-force has a great part to play in the production of poetry, art, etc. and in the action of genius generally. Finally, it is a doctor who has discovered that sex-fluid consists of two parts, one meant for sex-purposes, the other as a basis of general energy, and if the sex-action is not indulged, the first element tends to be turned into the second (retas<\/i>
\n<\/font>into ojas, <\/i>as the yogis had
\nalready discovered).<\/font> Theories? So are the
\nstatements or inferences of the opposite side-one theory is as good as another.
\nAnyhow, I<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

\nPage-603<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

don’t think that the atrophy of sex-glands by abstinence can be supported by general experience. X’s contention is however logical if we take not individual results but the course of evolution and suppose that this evolution will follow the line of the old one, for these useless organs are supposed to disappear or deteriorate. But will the supramental evolution follow the same course as the old one or develop new adaptations of its own making?\u2014that is the uncertain element.\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

       In most men the sexual is the strongest of all the impulses of Nature.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAll movements are in the mass movements of Nature’s cosmic forces, they are movements of universal Nature. The individual receives something of them, a wave or pressure of some cosmic force, and is driven by it; he thinks it is his own, generated in himself separately, but it is not so, it is part of a general movement which works just in the same way in others. Sex, for instance, is a movement of general Nature seeking for its play and it uses this or that one\u2014a man vitally or physically "in love" as it is called with a woman is simply repeating and satisfying the world-movement of sex; if it had not been that woman, it would have been another; he is simply an instrument in Nature’s machinery, it is not an independent movement. So it is with anger and other Nature-motives.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nNaturally, the sex movement is a force in itself, impersonal and not dependent on any particular object. It fastens on one or\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

\nPage-604<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

another only to give itself body and a field of enjoyment. When it is checked in the vital interchange, it tends to lose its vital character and attacks through its most physical and elemental movement. It is only when it is thrown out from the vital physical and most physical that it is conquered.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe sex exists for its own satisfaction and this or that person is only an excuse or occasion for its action or a channel for awakening its activity. It is from within, by the peace and purity from above coming into that part and holding it that it must disappear.\n<\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is of course the universal sex force that acts, but certain people are more full of it than others, have the sex-appeal as they now say in Europe. This sex-appeal is exercised expecially by women even without any conscious intention of putting it on a particular person. Consciously they may turn it on a particular person, but it may exercise itself on many others whom they do not wish particularly to capture. All women have not the sex-appeal, but some force of sex-pull there is in most. There is of course a similar pull in men for women.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nNature in the material world started with the physical sex-pull for her purpose of procreation and brought in the love on the basis of sex-pull, so the one has a tendency to wake the other. It is only by a strong discipline or a strong will or a change of consciousness that one can eliminate the pull.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-605<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nIt is not that it is not possible to keep the love pure [of sex-desire], but the two things are so near each other and have been so much twined together in the animal beginnings of the race that it is not easy to keep them altogether separate. In the pure psychic love there is no trace of the sex-desire, but usually the vital affection gets very strongly associated with the psychic which is then mixed though still not sexual; but the vital affection and the vital physical sex-emotion are extremely close to each other, so that at any moment or in any given case one may awake the other. This becomes very strong when the sex-force is strong in an individual as it is in most vitally energetic people. To increase always the force of the psychic, to control the sex-impulse and turn it into the ojas,<\/i>
\nto turn the love towards the Divine are the true remedies for this difficulty.
\nSeminal force not sexually spent am always be turned into ojas.<\/i><\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhen the psychic puts its influence on the vital, the first thing you must be careful to avoid is any least mixture of a wrong vital movement with the psychic movement. Lust is the perversion or degradation which prevents love from establishing its reign; so when there is the movement of psychic love in the. heart, lust or vital desire is the one thing that must not be allowed to come in\u2014just as when strength comes down from above, personal ambition and pride have to be kept far away from it; for any mixture of the perversion will corrupt the psychic or spiritual action and prevent a true fulfilment.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhat is this idea that this desire of the heart hungering to love women is not sex desire? That and the physical lust are both forms of sex desire.\n<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

\nPage-606<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nWhy hanker when it is a vital desire? It is a form of sex and usually calls up a more physical desire.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe sex-push is not merely the impulse to the act, as X perhaps thinks, as the push to envelop and occupy the man and to possess and be possessed. That is so especially with women, the sex act being very often less attractive to them than to men; but of course always, if the vital physical reaches a certain point, the physical sex-movement tends to follow.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nSex sensation may begin anywhere. As vital love it begins in the vital centre, heart or navel\u2014many romantic boys have this and it starts a love affair (often at the age of 10 <\/b>
\nor even 8) before they know anything about sex
\nconnection. With others it begins with the nerves or with that and the sex-organ
\nitself. There are others who do not have it. Many girls would not have it at all
\nthroughout life if they were not taught and excited by men. Some even then hate
\nit and tolerate only under a sort of social compulsion or for the sake of having
\nchildren.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

     
\nThere are a number of women who can love with the mind, the psychic, the vital (heart), but they shrink from a touch on the body and even when that goes, the physical act remains abhorrent to them. They may yield under pressure, but it does not reconcile them to the act which always seems to them animal and degrading. Women know this, but men seem to find it hard to believe; but it is perfectly true.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n Page-607<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nAbnormal is a word which you can stick on anything that is not quite cheap and ordinary. In that way genius is abnormal, so is spirituality, so is the attempt to live by high ideals. The tendency to physical chastity in women is not abnormal, it is fairly common and includes a very high feminine type.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe mind is the seat of thought and perception, the heart is the seat of love, the vital of desire\u2014but how does that prevent the existence of mental love? As the mind can be invaded by the feelings of the emotional or the vital, so the heart too can be dominated by the mind and moved by mental forces.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere is a vital love, a physical love. It is possible for the vital to desire a woman for various vital reasons without love \u2014in order to satisfy the instinct of domination or possession, in order to draw in the vital forces of a woman so as to feed one’s own vital, for the exchange of vital forces, to satisfy vanity, the hunter’s instinct of the chase, etc., etc. (This is from man’s view-point\u2014but the woman also has her vital motives.) This is often called love, but it is only vital desire, a kind of lust. If, however, the emotions of the heart are awakened, then it becomes vital love\u2014a mixed affair with any or all of these vital motives, strong, but still vital love.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere may too be a physical love, the attraction of beauty, the physical sex-appeal or anything else of the kind awakening the emotions of the heart. If that does not happen, then the physical need is all and that is sheer lust, nothing more; but physical love is possible.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIn the same way there can be a mental love. It arises from the attempt to find one’s ideal in another or from some strong mental passion of admiration and wonder or from the mind’s seeking for a comrade, a complement and fulfiller of one’s nature, a\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-608<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

sahadharmi, <\/i>a guide and helper, a leader and master or from a hundred other mental motives. By itself that does not amount to love, though often it is so ardent as to be hardly distinguishable from it and may even push to sacrifice of life, entire self-giving, etc., etc. But when it awakes the emotions of the heart, then it may lead to a very powerful love which is yet mental in its root and dominant character. Ordinarily, however, it is the mind and vital together which combine; but this combination can exist along with a disinclination or positive dislike for the physical act and its accompaniments. No doubt, if the man presses, the woman is likely to yield, but it is
\ncontre coeur<\/i>, as they say, against her feelings and their deepest
\ninstincts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is an ignorant psychology that reduces everything to the sex-motive and the sex-impulse.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nDoctors advise marriage because they think satisfaction of the sexual instinct is necessary for the health and repression causes disturbances in the system. This is true only when there is no true giving up of the sexual indulgence, but only a change in the way of indulging it. Nowadays a new theory has come up which confirms the Indian theory of Brahmacharya, viz. that by continence retas <\/i>
\ncan be changed into ojas<\/i> and the vigour and power of the being enormously
\nincrease.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAs for what you say about the stimulus of the vital interchange, it is true of the vital life. Men are constantly spending the vital energy and need to renew it; one way to do it is by pulling from others in a vital interchange. This however is not necessary if one knows how to draw from the universal Nature or from the Divine, i.e. from above. Moreover when the psychic\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

\nPage-609<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

is active\u2014there is always more lost than gained by the vital interchange.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nCelibacy means first "not marrying"\u2014it can be extended to not having sexual
\n(physical) relations with any women, though that is not its proper meaning. It
\nis not equivalent to Brahmacharya. Brahmacharya is not binding in bhaktimārga <\/b> <\/i>
\nor karmayoga, <\/i>but it is necessary for
\nascetic jn<\/i><\/font>ā<\/i>nayoga <\/i>as
\nwell as for Raja and Hathayogas. It is also not demanded from grhastha <\/i>
\nyogis. In this yoga the position is that one must overcome sex, otherwise there
\ncan be no transformation of the lower vital and physical nature. All physical
\nsexual connection should cease, otherwise one exposes oneself to serious
\ndangers. The sex-push must also be overcome but it is not a fact that there can
\nbe no sadhana or no experience before it is entirely overcome, only without that
\nconquest one cannot go to the end and it must be clearly recognised as one of
\nthe more serious obstacles and indulgence of it as a cause of considerable
\ndisturbance.<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nCelibacy is one thing and freedom from sex pushes is another. These have to be conquered and got rid of, but if freedom from them were made a test of fitness to go on, I wonder how many could be declared fit for my yoga. The will to conquer must be there, but the elimination of the sex impulse is one of the most difficult things for human nature, and if it takes time, that is only natural.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nI think not. It [inhibition] would not be permanently effective in itself, because the seed would always be there unless removed by\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

\nPage-610<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

a transformation of the sex impulse; but the inhibition can help towards this transformation. It is now being recognised in Europe by the doctors\u2014who used formerly to say that sex was to be indulged at the risk of complications in the body, that on the contrary there is part of the seminal force that is used for health, strength, youth etc. (turned into ojas, <\/i>
\nas yogins say), another that serves for sexpurposes,-if
\na man is perfectly chaste, the latter turns more and more into the former. Only
\nof course the external inhibition does not help this change, if the mind
\nindulges in sex thought or the vital or body in the unsatisfied sex desire or
\nsex-sensation. But if all these are stopped then the inhibition is useful.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAs for the other point, the right attitude is neither to worry always about the sex weakness and be obsessed by its importance so as to be in constant struggle and depression over it, nor to be too careless as to allow it to grow. It is perhaps the most difficult of all to get rid of entirely; one has to recognise quietly its importance and its difficulty and go quietly and steadily about the control of it. If some reactions of a slight character remain, it is not a thing to get disturbed about\u2014only it must not be permitted to increase so as to disturb the sadhana or get too strong for the restraining will of the mental and higher vital being.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAs to sexual impulse. Regard it not as something sinful and horrible and attractive at the same time, but as a mistake and wrong movement of the lower nature. Reject it entirely, not by struggling with it, but by drawing back from it, detaching yourself and refusing your consent; look at it as something not your own, but imposed on you by a force of Nature outside you. Refuse all consent to the imposition. If anything in your vital consents, insist on that part of you withdrawing its consent.\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

\nPage-611<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

      
\nCall in the Divine Force to help you in your withdrawal and refusal. If you can do this quietly and resolutely and patiently,, in the end your inner will will prevail against the habit of the outer Nature.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe small tendencies, rajasic-vital, which you enumerate are of minor importance. They have to be removed in this sense that attachment to these things has to be given up; the vital part of the being must be prepared to consent to their absence with quietude and indifference, taking them only if they are given freely by the Divine without demand or claim or clinging, but there is nothing very serious about them otherwise.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe one serious matter is the sex-tendency. That must be overcome. But it will be more easily overcome if instead of being upset by its presence you detach the inner being from it,, rise up above it and view it as a weakness of the lower nature. If you can detach yourself from it with a complete indifference in the inner being, it will seem more and more something alien to yourself, put upon you by the outer forces of Nature. Then it will be easier to remove.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe trouble of the sex-impulse is bound to dwindle away if you are in earnest about getting rid of it. The difficulty is that part of your nature (especially, the lower vital and the subconscient which is active in sleep) keeps the memory and attachment to these movements, and you do not open these parts and make them accept the Mother’s Light and Force to purify them. If you did that and, instead of lamenting and getting troubled and clinging to the idea that you cannot get rid of these things,\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

\nPage-612<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

insisted quietly with a calm faith and patient resolution on their disappearance, separating yourself from them, refusing to accept them or at all regard them as part of yourself, they would after a time lose their force and dwindle.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYour difficulty in getting rid of the aboriginal in your nature will remain so long as you try to change your vital part by the sole or main strength of your mind and mental will, calling in at most an indefinite and impersonal divine power to aid you. It is an old difficulty which has never been radically solved in life itself because it has never been met in the true way. In many ways of yoga it does not so supremely matter because the aim is not a transformed life but withdrawal from life. When that is the object of an endeavour, it may be sufficient to keep the vital down by a mental and moral compulsion, or else it may be stilled and kept lying in a kind of sleep and quiescence. There are some even who allow it to run and exhaust itself if it can while its possessor professes to be untouched and unconcerned by it; for it is only old Nature running on by a past impetus and will drop off with the fall of the body. When none of these solutions can be attained, the sadhak sometimes simply leads a double inner life, divided between his spiritual experiences and his vital weaknesses to the end, making the most of his better part, making as little as may be of the outer being. But none of these methods will do for our purpose. If you want a true mastery and transformation of the vital movements, it can be done only on condition you allow your psychic being, the soul in you, to awake fully, to establish its rule and opening all to the permanent touch of the Divine Shakti, impose its own
\nway of pure devotion, whole-hearted aspiration and complete.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-613<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

uncompromising urge to all that is divine on the mind and heart and vital nature. There is no other way and it is no use hankering after a more comfortable path. Nānyah panthā vidyate ayanāya.<\/i>\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is the reason why the vital sex-difficulty is the hardest to get rid of\u2014even those who have sincerely given up the more physical form are liable to the vital form of the impulse. But it is harmful because it allows a subtle infiltration of the forces that stand in the way of the sadhana. One must get rid of them if the vital is to become entirely pure and able to contain the divine love and Ananda.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIn the vital physical the "response" lingers long after the mind and higher vital have turned from it. I have seen that in men who were mentally and emotionally quite sincere. A few get rid of it easily, but these are a small minority. But there must be no justification on the "what harm" basis\u2014that is an attempt of the lower vital to get the mind and higher vital to adhere. There is always room for harm so long as the sex-response is not eliminated in both, <\/b> <\/i>
\nnot in you only.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe sexual urge is something that tries to take complete hold and leave no room for inhibition or control. It has a power of temporary possession which no other passion or life-impulse has to the same degree, more even than anger which comes second to it. That is why it is so difficult to get rid of it\u2014because even when the mind or higher vital refuses, the vital physical feels\n<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

\nPage-614<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

this possessive force and has an ingrained tendency to be passive to its urge.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe sex-trouble is serious only so long as it can get the consent of the mind and the vital will. If it is driven from the mind, that is, if the mind refuses its consent, but the vital part responds to it, it comes as a large wave of vital desire and tries to sweep the mind away by force along with it. If it is driven also from the higher vital, from the heart and the dynamic possessive life-force, it takes refuge in the lower vital and comes in the shape of smaller suggestions and urges there. Driven from the lower vital level, it goes down into the obscure inertly repetitive physical and comes as sensations in the sex-centre and a mechanical response to suggestion. Driven from there too, it goes down into the subconscient and comes up as dreams and night-emissions even without dreams. But to wherever it recedes, it tries still for a time from that base or refuge to trouble and recapture the assent of the higher parts, until the victory is complete and it is driven even out of the surrounding or environmental consciousness which is the extension of ourselves into the general or universal Nature.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIs it that the body does not accept the sex-thoughts and desires? If so, you are entitled to reject it as something external to you or at most existing only in the subconscient. For it is only what something in us accepts, supports, takes pleasure in, or still mechanically responds to, that can still be called ours. If there is nothing of that, it belongs to general Nature but not to us. Of course, it returns and tries to take possession of its lost territory,\n<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

\nPage-615<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

but that is a foreign invasion. The rule of these things is that they have to be extruded outside the individual consciousness. Rejected by the mind and higher vital, they still try to hold on to the lower vital and physical. Rejected from the lower vital, they still hold the body by a physical desire. Rejected from the body, they retire into the environmental consciousness (sometimes into the subconscient also, rising in dreams)\u2014I mean by the environmental a sort of surrounding atmosphere which we carry about with us and by which we communicate with the universal forces\u2014and try to invade from there. Rejected from there, they become in the end too weak to be more than external suggestions till that too ends\u2014and they are finished and non-existent.\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe sex-impulse is the chief difficulty in your way. If it persists, it is because some part of your being still clings to it and your mind and will have remained divided and found some kind of half-justification for the continuance. The first thing is for the mind and also the higher vital to withdraw their consent altogether; if that is done, it becomes only a mechanical return from outside on the physical and finally only an active memory which will disappear when it is able to find no welcome in any part of the nature.\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is only if the whole consciousness is awake and aware of its concealed movements that such sex reactions can be avoided. It does not mean that you are worse than others but that in all men the sexual element is there, active or dormant, indulged or\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

\nPage-616<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

suppressed. It can only be overcome by a spiritual awakening in all <\/i>
\nparts of the nature.<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe sex impulse is deeply rooted in the subconscient and it is difficult to get rid of it. Only the full transformation of the physical consciousness can do that\u2014except for a few who are not strongly bound by it.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is of course the physical that is at once responsive in the most material way to sex suggestions. What you are doing is right. As you are controlling it in the waking state, it comes out at night. That too has to be got rid of.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nPersist in concentrating in the heart and remaining unmoved by the obstacles. The suggestions must never <\/i>
\nbe accepted-for<\/p>\n

\nacceptance gives them the right to return or continue. If there is no sex
\nresponse in the mind or vital and the sensation in the organic centre is
\nisolated and without any support in the being, then it can be separately
\novercome. Therefore, there must be no mental assent or vital response-that is
\nthe first necessary step.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

     
\nSex is strongly connected with the physical centre but also with the lower vital\u2014it is the lower vital that gives it most of its intensities and excitement. It can be disconnected from the lower vital and then it becomes a purely physical movement of\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

\nPage-617<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

the mechanical kind which has no great force except for the mechanical natures. If the physical centre is also freed then the sex impulse ceases.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is the physical centre\u2014sex is only one of its movements. Naturally, if the sex is active (instead of giving place to Beauty and Ananda) and if the lower movements are active, it forms an obstacle to the establishment of the higher consciousness. But the higher can descend, if there is at all an opening, even before the lower movements have definitely gone\u2014it has then to complete the work of displacing them.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nPranayama and other physical practices like Asana do not necessarily root out sexual desire\u2014sometimes by increasing enormously the vital force in the body they can even exaggerate in a rather startling way the force too of the sexual tendency, which, being at the base of the physical life, is always difficult to conquer. The one thing to do is to separate oneself from these movements, to find one’s inner self and five in it; these movements will not then any longer appear as belonging to oneself but as surface impositions of the outer Prakriti upon the inner self or Purusha. They can then be more easily discarded or brought to nothing.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nHurting the flesh is no remedy for the sex-impulse, though it may be a temporary diversion. It is the vital and mostly the vital-physical that takes the sense-perception as pleasure or otherwise. \n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-618<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nReduction of diet has not usually a permanent effect. It may give a greater sense of physical or vital-physical purity, lighten the system and reduce certain kinds of
\n<\/b>tamas.  But the sex impulse can very well accommodate itself to a
\nreduced diet. It is not by physical means but by a change in the consciousness
\nthat these things can be surmounted.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhat seems to be best is that the movement of rising above should be completed and if you can feel there the wideness, peace, calm, silence of the Self and that can come down into the body through all the centres and there can be the working of the Force in that condition of the physical being, then the vital-physical difficulty can be faced. The effort to do it by personal tapasya can carry one to a certain point, it can throw out sex etc., but for most it does not prevent all coming back by attack \u2014unless the force of tapasya is so great and continuous that these forces get no chance. But the elimination of these things can only come, I think, by the descent of the higher consciousness \u2014bringing it the self-existent calm and wideness, the higher force and the Ananda occupying all down to the cells of the body. It is quite certain that these three together in the body can leave no room for sex\u2014even if sex came, it would at once get so transmuted that it would be sex no longer.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere is a force of purity, not the purity of the moralist, but an essential purity of spirit, in the very substance of the being. When that comes, then sex waves either cannot approach or they pass without imparting any impulse, without touching anywhere.\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-619<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nNecessarily, you must give up the perverse habit which is one of the main causes of your despondency, vital weakness, etc. There is nothing that has more power to derange and weaken the system. If not only in your mind but in your vital also you had made the resolution to give it up, it would have disappeared long ago.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere is one way by which it is possible for you to get rid of the perverse habit: to establish a strong mental control and so get rid of the wrong movement. It is not true that it is unconquerable; on the contrary, the fact that you were able to interrupt it for some time shows that you can conquer it. It returned because these things are a movement of certain universal life-forces that, once allowed a habitual wrong response in the individual system, tend to continue in that form and, even if evicted, try always to recur. Your mind has rejected them, but something in your vital nature\u2014the part that responds directly to the universal life-forces\u2014still takes pleasure and has preserved the capacity and desire of the wrong response. A resolute and persistent effort of will can enforce in the end the rejection of the desire and finally even of any mechanical habit of the movement upon this part of the nature also. Only you must not be discouraged by relapses; your will must be more persevering than the habit and persist till there is a complete conquest.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is the entire inner rejection of the sex pulls and vital pulls that is necessary, a rejection by the whole lower vital itself\u2014 the outer rejection can only be effective if this inner rejection comes to reinforce it. Usually people attempt the outer rejection<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

\nPage-620<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

because otherwise (if these things are indulged) the inner rejection is not likely to come since the vital trend is always being confirmed by the outer action\u2014but if the outer is rejected, then the conflict is confined to the internal desire and fought out there. Naturally an outer renunciation by itself does not liberate.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nOf course one must be able to come in contact with women without feeling or thinking about sex; but to seek contact and test is not the way, it can too easily turn the other side when the mastery is not complete. The feeling and conquering must be an inner process\u2014the Tantric outer method is not indicated.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAll that happens because the vital is conscious of sex in the approach and immediately assumes the "man to woman" attitude. To get rid of that, one must be able to look on the woman and feel to her as to a human being only. That is difficult and needs a certain training; for even if the mind is able to take the position, the vital is unreliable and one has to be on guard that it does not suddenly or surreptitiously get in into the relation with its partiality for the sex interchange.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nStrength and purity in the lower vital and wideness in the heart are the best condition for meeting others, especially women, and if that could always be there sex could hardly have a look in.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt usually happens that when actual indulgence of the vital [in sex] is given up (external exchange, touch or contact), imagination still.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

\nPage-621<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

goes on. But if this can be overcome, then the whole thing is overcome. External indulgence on the other hand keeps the activity alive. This is the raison d’
\n\u00eatre <\/i>of the external avoidance. If anything can be got rid of without the
\nnecessity of avoidance, so much the better.<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nBy giving up contact it [sex] can be reduced to two forms\u2014dream and imagination. Dream is not of much importance unless it affects the waking mind which it need not at all do; it can besides be discouraged and, if not fed, fades out in the end. Imaginations can only be got rid of by a tapasya of the will not allowing them to run their course, but breaking them off as soon as they begin. They come most easily when lying in bed after waking from sleep in a tamasic condition. One has to break them off either by shaking off the tamas or by emptying the mind and going to sleep again. At other times one ought to be able to stop it by turning the mind elsewhere.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is the most dangerous movement for sex things, when just after waking one remains lying in bed; one should either go to sleep again, if there is time, or else fix the mind on wholesome things.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThat is a right change. There is no condition more dangerous for the sex-imagination to come than this lying in bed in a half-awake or else a relaxed inert condition unoccupied by any activity or any experience.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-622<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

Inactivity is an atmosphere in which sex easily rises.\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThat is the difficulty. The imagination means a consent of the physical or else the vital mind. Otherwise the [sex] sensation is often only due to physical causes and, if not supported by this automatic assent of a part of the mind, would before long diminish in its habit of recurrence.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere is no reason for you to be depressed or discouraged. The defects of the nature of which you speak are habits of the lower vital and the external being; if you recognise them fully and frankly and detect them and reject whenever they act or try to act upon you, they will in time disappear. The sexual desires show that the subconscient still retains the old impressions, movements and impulses; make the conscious parts of the being entirely free and aspire and will for the higher consciousness to come fully into the subconscient so that even in sleep and dream something in you may be aware and on guard and reject these things when they try to take form at that time.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nI have already told you not to get upset over these dreams and accidents of sleep. They come from outside yourself and something replies from the subconscient which keeps for a long time all that the conscious being rejects. It is only in the later stages of the yoga that this subconscient part can be made conscious and liberated. It is the waking consciousness that you must keep\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-623<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

free from sexual acts and sexual suggestions. If you do that, the subconscient part can be easily liberated afterwards.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nNight-dreams are involuntary upsurgings of the sex impressions from the subconscient; most, even when they are not indulging in the sex act, have it from time to time though it varies in period from a week, a fortnight, a month to three or four months or even less. To have it more frequently indicates either indulgence in sex-imaginations which stimulate the sex-centre or else a nervous weakness in that part due to past indulgence. Some have benefited by putting a will on the body before going to sleep a: night that these dreams should not happen\u2014though it may not succeed at the beginning, it tells in most cases after a time by fixing a certain inhibitory force on the subconscient from which these dreams arise. As to children indulging, that is not hereditary, but a thing taught by bad company and these children are sometimes spoiled in this way at a very early age.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is a mistake to make so much of emissions\u2014everybody has them. The subconscient has its own movement and the want of control there is a thing one can get rid of only when there is the full light down there. At most one can deal with this special factor by putting a will into the subconscient (in the sex centre or the organ itself) for prohibition, so that even in the subconscient during sleep there may be something that reacts. Many have been able to diminish and almost get rid of the recurrence by this means, but others have succeeded less well. In one case there was a recurrence every fortnight and that stood in spite of the will….As for the waking difficulty do not make too much of it.\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

\nPage-624<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

Press on with the positive side of the sadhana towards realisation \u2014these things will fade and disappear when the higher consciousness is down in the sex centre. Meanwhile it has first to be controlled and got rid of as much as possible.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere is no reason to be depressed to this extent or to have these imaginations about failure in the yoga. It is not at all a sign that you are unfit for the yoga. It simply means that the sexual impulse rejected by the conscious parts has taken refuge in the subconscient, somewhere probably in the lower vital-physical and the most physical consciousness where there are some regions not yet open to the aspiration and the light. The persistence in sleep of things rejected in the waking consciousness is a quite common occurrence in the course of the sadhana.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The remedy is\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\n(1) to get the higher consciousness, its light and the workings of its power down into the obscurer parts of the nature,\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\n(2) to become progressively more conscious in sleep, with an inner consciousness which is aware of the working of the sadhana in sleep as in waking,\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\n(3) to bring to bear the waking will and aspiration on the body in sleep.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nOne way to do the last is to make a strong and conscious suggestion to the body, before sleeping, that the thing should not happen; the more concrete and physical the suggestion can be made and the more directly on the sexual centre, the better. The effect may not be quite immediate at first- or invariable; but usually this kind of suggestion, if you know how to make it, prevails in the end: even when it does not prevent the dream, it\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-625<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

very often awakes the consciousness within in time to prevent untoward consequences.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is a mistake to allow yourself to be depressed in the sadhana even by repeated failures. One must be calm, persistent and more obstinate than the resistance.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhen the waking consciousness has renounced the indulgence of the sexual desires and impulses, these take refuge in the subconscient as impressions, memories, suppressed desires and come up in sleep as dreams and involuntary sleep emissions. If the waking consciousness is not itself clear, if, that is to say, though there is no physical indulgence, yet there are imaginations in the mind or desires in the vital or the body, then these dreams and emissions can be frequent. Even if the waking consciousness is clear, the subconscient emergences can still come for a time, but in time they diminish. Some are able to get rid of this by putting a strong prohibiting will or force on the subconscient or on the sex-centre before going to sleep, but this does not succeed with everyone. The main thing is to get the increasing force of brahmacarya <\/i>
\nin the waking consciousness , complete expulsion, of sex-thoughts, speech,
\nphysical craving or impulse the subconscient remnants will either die out or be
\ncleared out afterwards when one is able to bring the higher consciousness down
\nhere.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nApart from the total rejection of sex-thoughts and imaginations and actions, which ends by acting in the subconscient also, I don’t know any remedy for sex-dreams except the putting of a force as concrete as possible on the sex-centre and organ prohibiting this urge and its result, put when about to sleep and renewed\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

\nPage-626<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

each time one wakes and goes to sleep again. But this all cannot manage to use, for they employ a mental will instead of a concrete force (the mental will can be effective, but is not always so). This method, besides, only acts for the time, it inhibits but except in rare cases does not permanently cure; it does not get rid of the sex-impressions in the subconscient, and of course it means thinking of the sex-affair though only negatively.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nI have heard it said that even very advanced yogis get the dreams at least once in six months\u2014I don’t know how far it is true or what the yogis themselves say about it. But the sex-impressions in the heart can be got rid of long before the end of life, and even the seed state in the subconscient which comes up in dreams, though sticky enough, is not quite so irremovable as all that.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAnyway, the dreamkind is not so much to trouble about, unless it is frequent\u2014it is the waking state that must be rigorously cleared out. Sometimes, if that is done, there is automatic extension of the habit of rejection to the subconscient, so that when the dream is coming there is an automatic prohibition that stops it. Under a regime like that I think the sex-pressure would become, if not non-existent, yet permanently quiescent in its seed state and so practically non est.<\/i>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe first thing necessary in such matters is to be perfectly calm and refuse to be upset by these difficulties. If they rise, one must take it that they do so in order to be worked out. If there is nothing in the waking consciousness to encourage the sex-difficulty, then these dreams or discharges without dreams can only be a rising up of old dormant impressions in the subconscient. Such risings often take place when the Force is working in the\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

\nPage-627<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

subconscient to clear it. It is also just possible that the discharges may be due, especially where there are no dreams, to purely material causes, e.g., the pressure of undischarged urine or faecal matter near the bladder. But in any case, the thing is not to be disturbed and to put a force or will on the sex-centre or sex-organ, for these things to cease. This can be done just before sleeping. Usually after a time, if done regularly, it has an effect. A calm general pressure of will or force on the physical subconscient is to be put. The subconscient may be often obstinate in its continual persistence, but it can and does accommodate itself quickly or slowly to the will of the conscious being.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYour dreams were mostly on the vital-physical plane. There if there is any physical contact of a sexual or other kind that acts strongly on the sexual centre or on a sensory contact\u2014it may even without raising any lust produce an emission by a mechanical blind and unconscious action of the purely physical (not even vital-physical) kind. It is only when the sex centre has become strong that this becomes impossible.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIf it [sex emission] were normal why should it depress and weaken the system so
\nmuch? People always complain of this enfeeblement and if it happens often get seriously depressed and tamasic. It is not necessary of course that it should be so, for if one reacts one can prevent the depression or weakness, but most feel it. It is of course normal in the sense that it happens when one has discontinued sex activity without getting free of the sex imagination or impulse or even afterwards when one is no longer troubled by sex it may continue for some time due to ineradicated\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

\nPage-628<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

impressions in the subconscient. It may sometimes relieve of an excess of secretion, but the result of weakness seems to indicate more often a loss of necessary vigour-stuff. The proper way of dealing with excess, is to turn the excess into pure energy-stuff, retas<\/i>
\ninto ojas.<\/i><\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is obviously an attack which falls upon your nervous system through the subconscient. It comes in sleep because in the waking consciousness you are more on your guard and able to react against attacks. Usually this kind of dream and discharge come when the physical consciousness is in a tamasic condition through fatigue or strain or any other cause, in a heavy sleep or under a stress of inertia.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe first thing to do is to reject the after consequences as you have done this time\u2014for you say you do not feel any weakness, but rather as if nothing had happened. It is not at all inevitable that one should feel weakness after a dream of this kind and a discharge; it is only by a habitual association in the physical mind that these forces can bring these reactions of nervous weakness.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAs for preventing the discharge, it can be done by becoming more conscious in sleep. You were conscious of all that happened, but you must besides develop the power of a conscious will which sees what is going to happen and interferes to prevent it, either by waking in time or by stopping the dream or prohibiting the discharge. All this is perfectly possible, it is a matter of habit and a little persistence.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is also often found very effective to put a will or force upon the body consciousness before going to sleep that it shall not happen\u2014especially when you feel the predisposing condition of heaviness and inertia, it should be done. This will is not always\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

\nPage-629<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

immediately successful, but after a time the subconscient gets the habit of responding to the will or force thus laid upon it and the trouble dwindles and finally disappears altogether.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThis kind of sexual attack through sleep does not depend very much on food or anything else that is outward. It is a mechanical habit in the subconscient; when the sexual impulse is rejected or barred out in the waking thoughts and feelings, it comes in this form in sleep, for then there is only the subconscient at work and there is no conscious control. It is a sign of sexual desire suppressed in the waking mind and vital, but not eliminated in the stuff of the physical nature.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nTo eliminate it one must first be careful to harbour no sexual imagination or feeling in the waking state, next, to put a strong will on the body and especially on the sexual centre that there should be nothing of the kind in sleep. This may not succeed at once, but if persevered in for a long time, it usually has a result; the subconscient begins to obey.\n<\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe pressure from the kidneys or the intestines bringing dream of sex tendency or imagination is the last and most physical form\u2014it often remains when the others have gone. The body dull and the mind half awake is indeed what gives it its opportunity. But if it is only for a few minutes and leaves no after effect, then the tendency ought to disappear after a time.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYes, of course, skin diseases have much to do with sexual desires \u2014not of course always, but often.\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-630<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     I suppose it [pimples on the face] is often the result of suppressed sexuality\u2014suppressed in act but still internally active. These things do not act in the same way with all, with some it may act on the blood, with some it may not or else not in the same form. Moreover I do not suppose that sex is the only cause of pimples on the face\u2014there are other things also that can give that.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIX <\/b>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nControl of speech is very necessary for the physical change.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThat is not the way. Absolute silence and looseness of talk are two extremes; neither is good. I have seen many people practising maunavrata, <\/i>
\nbut afterwards they are just as as talkative as before. It is a self-mastery you
\nmust get.<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nOn the whole you are right. Useless conversation which lowers the consciousness or brings back something of a past consciousness is better avoided. Talking about sadhana also comes under the category when it is merely mental discussion of a superficial kind.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is something very external that takes pleasure in light talk, and it is only when the quietude and with it a certain spontaneous self-control is established in the lower vital nature that this tendency can be entirely conquered in those who have it\u2014i.e. in most people.\n<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

\nPage-631<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

      All these things will be worked out in time. What is most important is to get down the quietude into all the being and with it the true force bringing the energy which you describe above.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nTalk\u2014of the usual kind\u2014does very easily disperse or bring down the inner condition because it usually comes out of the lower vital and the physical mind only and expresses that part of the consciousness\u2014it has a tendency to externalise the being. That is of course why so many yogis take refuge in silence.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere are some who have the flow of speech by nature and those who are very vital cannot do without it. But the latter case {not being able to do without it) is obviously a disability from the spiritual point of view. There are also certain stages in the sadhana when one has to go inward and silence is at that time very necessary while unnecessary speech becomes a dispersion of the energies or externalises the consciousness. It is especially this chat for chat’s sake tendency that has to be overcome.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nChat of that kind has indeed a very tiring effect when one is at all in the stream of true experience, because it dissipates the energy uselessly and makes the mind movement a thing of valueless shreds and patches instead of gathered and poised in itself so as to receive.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere is always a chance of something light and unbalancing coming in when there is levity indulged in for its own sake. The\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

\nPage-632<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

consciousness feels a little shaken in its seat, if not pulled out. Once the consciousness is well set inside, then the outward movement gets determined from within and there is no such trouble.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe difficulty you experience exists because speech is a formation which in the past has worked much more as an expression of the vital in man than of the mental will. Speech breaks out as the expression of the vital and its habits, without caring to wait for the control of the mind; the tongue has been spoken of as the unruly member. In your case the difficulty has been increased by the habit of talk about others,’\u2014gossip, to which your vital was very partial, so much that it cannot even yet give up the pleasure in it. It is therefore this tendency that must cease in the vital itself. Not to be under the control of the impulse
\nto speech, to be able to do without it as a necessity and to speak only when one sees that it is right to do so and only what one sees to be right to say, is a very necessary part of yogic self-control.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is only by perseverance and vigilance and a strong resolution that this can be done, but if the resolution is there, it can be done in a short time by the aid of the Force behind.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is obvious that things which are a long habit cannot go at once. Especially, speech is a thing which in most people is largely automatic and not under their control. It is the vigilance that establishes the control, so one must be on guard against the danger of which you speak, the slacking of the vigilance. Only, the more it can be a quiet and unmixed, not an anxious vigilance, the better.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-633<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nThe habits of the physical or the vital-physical nature are always the most difficult to change, because their action is automatic and not governed by the mental will and it is therefore difficult for the mental will to control or transform them. You have to persevere and form the habit of control. If you can succeed in controlling the speech often,\u2014it needs a constant vigilance,\u2014you will finally find that the control stamps itself and can in the long run always intervene. This must be done so long as that movement is not fully opened to the Mother’s Light and Force, for if that happens the thing can be done more quickly and sometimes with a great rapidity. There is also the intervention of the psychic, \u2014if the psychic being is sufficiently awake and active to intervene each time you are going to speak at random and say "No", then the change becomes more easy.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe headache and the fatigue is always a sign that the consciousness no longer wants this outward-going thought and speech and is even physically strained by it. But it is the subconscient habit that wants to continue. Mostly human speech and thought go on mechanically in certain grooves that always repeat themselves and it is not really the mind that controls or dictates them. That is why this habit can go on for some time even after the conscious mind has withdrawn its support and consent and resolved to do otherwise. But if one perseveres, this subconscious mechanical habit runs down like all machinery that is not kept wound up to go on again. Then one can form the opposite habit in the subconscient of admitting only what the inner being consents to think or speak.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-634<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nThat happens very usually. Talking of an unnecessary character tires the inner being because the talk comes from the outer nature while the inner has to supply the energy which it feels squandered away.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nEven those who have a strong inner life, take a long time before they can connect it with the outer speech and action. Outer speech belongs to the externalising mind\u2014that is why it is so difficult to connect it with the inner life.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYes, of course, complete truth of speech is very important for the sadhak and a great help for bringing Truth into the consciousness. It is at the same time difficult to bring the speech under control; for people are accustomed to speak what comes to them and not to supervise and control what they say. There is something mechanical about speech and to bring it to the level of the highest part of the consciousness is never easy. That is one reason why to be sparing in speech is helpful. It helps to a more deliberate control and prevents the tongue from running away with one and doing whatever it likes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nTo stand back means to become a witness of one’s own mind and speech, to see them as something separate from oneself and not identify oneself with them. Watching them as a witness, separate from them, one gets to know what they are, how they act and then put a control over them, reject what one does not approve and think and speak only what one feels to be true. This cannot, of course, be done all at once. It takes time to establish this attitude of separateness, still more time to establish the control. But it can be done by practice and persistence.\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-635<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nIt is really an inner silence that is needed\u2014a something silent within that looks at outer talk and action but feels it as something superficial, not itself and is quite indifferent and untouched by it. It can bring forces to support speech and action or it can stop them by withdrawal or it can let them go on and observe without being involved or moved.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is of course because the consciousness is thrown out in these things [discussions and laughter] and one comes out of the inner poise and has difficulty in going back to it\u2014especially as there is a sort of dispersion of the vital energy. If one attains to a condition in which one can do these things only with the surface of the consciousness, keeping inside and observing what is done on the surface, but not forgetting oneself in it, then the poise is not lost. But it is a little difficult to get at this duplication of oneself\u2014one comes to it however in time especially if the inner peace and calm become very intense and durable.\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIf the peace is very strong within, talking does not cloud it\u2014 because this peace is not mental or vital even when it pervades the mind and vital\u2014or else it is a cloud that quickly passes without touching deeply. Usually however such talk disperses the consciousness and one can lose much. The only disadvantage of not talking is that it isolates too much, if it is absolute, but by not talking these things [news etc.] one loses nothing.\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThat (thinking over what was talked) is a physical mind habit which should in course of time wear out. The mind\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-636<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

should be free to shut off immediately as soon as the talk is done.\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nHastiness of speech and action\u2014(in excess, because to a certain extent it exists in everybody)\u2014is a matter of temperament. I do not suppose it is more in you than in many others here. Of course it has to be got rid of, but it is one of the lesser, not one of the major imperfections of nature with which the yogic Force has to deal. It is the externalising mind that has to be disciplined so that it may not leap too soon to conclusions or rush immediately from thought to speech and action.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThese discussions are perfectly useless, they only deflect the mind and open the gate to falsehoods.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe psychic self-control that is desirable in these surroundings and in the midst of discussion would mean among other things:\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      (1) Not to allow the impulse of speech to assert itself too much or say anything without reflection, but to speak always with a conscious control and only what is necessary and helpful.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\n(2) To avoid all debate, dispute or too animated discussion and simply say what has to be said and leave it there. There should also be no insistence that you are right and the others wrong, but what is said should only be thrown in as a contribution to the consideration of the truth of the matter.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\n(3) To keep the tone of speech and the wording very quiet and calm and uninsistent.\n<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

\nPage-637<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\n(4) Not to mind at all if others are heated and dispute, but remain quiet and undisturbed and yourself speak only what can help things to be smooth again.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\n(5) If there is gossip about others and harsh criticism (especially about sadhaks), not to join\u2014for these things are helpful in no way and only lower the consciousness from its higher level.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\n(6) To avoid all that would hurt or wound others.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nHarangues and exhortations touch only the surface of the mind. If the mind is in agreement it is pleased and stimulated, but that is all. If it is not in agreement the mind criticises or becomes impatient and turns aside. If the harangue is very forcible it may touch the vital sometimes and produce a momentary effect.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe depression came into you subconsciously because you had the discussion with X. When you discuss like that with people, you put something in them, but something also comes from them to you. So, as X was not in quite a good condition, though nothing like what he used to be in his depressions, you easily got a touch of it and as soon as the subconscious could find a habitual excuse it sent it up to the mind. You should always be on your guard against these automatic interchanges. A little care is sufficient \u2014and no needless discussion.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIn speaking there should be always a sort of instinctive defence \u2014except with those who are free from the ordinary vital impulse.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-638<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

      
\nIt is the nervous envelope that is weak\u2014it is this that you saw. The fact that you feel weak when talking with people shows that the origin of the whole trouble is a weakened nervous force. It is this that you have to get strong. You should avoid much talking with others\u2014you can also take rest when you feel the symptoms very strong. But faith, quietude and openness to the higher force are the fundamental cure.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYes, obviously, the power to say "No" is indispensable in life and still more so in sadhana. It is the power of rejection put into speech.\n<\/p>\n

     
\n <\/b><\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n


\n<\/b>      
\nThe habit of criticism\u2014mostly ignorant criticism of others\u2014 mixed with all sorts of imaginations, inferences, exaggerations, false interpretations, even gross inventions is one of the universal illnesses. It is a disease of the vital aided by the physical mind which makes itself an instrument of the pleasure taken in this barren and harmful pursuit of the vital. Control of the speech, refusal of this disease and the itch of the vital is very necessary, if inner experience has to have any true effect of transformation in the outer life.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is also better to be more strict about not talking of others and criticising them with the ordinary mind. It is necessary in order to develop a deeper consciousness and outlook on things that understands in silence the movements of Nature in oneself and others and is not moved or disturbed or superficially interested and drawn into an external movement.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-639<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

      The sadhaks of this Ashram are not perfect\u2014they have plenty of weaknesses and wrong movements. It is blindness not to be able to see that; only it should not lead to a criticising or condemnatory attitude towards persons\u2014and it should be regarded as the play of forces which have to be overcome.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is very evident from this inward control which you feel enlightening and guiding you and the resolution of truth-speaking that it made you take, that your psychic being is awake within you.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe fault of character of which you speak is common and almost universal in human nature. The impulse to speak what is untrue or at least to exaggerate or understate or twist the truth so as to flatter one’s own vanity, preferences, wishes or to get some advantage or secure something desired is very general. But one must learn to speak the truth alone if one is to succeed truly in changing the nature.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nTo become conscious of what is to be changed in the nature is the first step towards changing it. But one must observe these things without being despondent or thinking "it is hopeless" or "I cannot change". You do right to be confident that the change will come. For nothing is impossible in the nature if the psychic being is awake and leading you with the Mother’s consciousness and force behind it and working in you. This is now happening. Be sure that all will be done.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-640<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nIf you get the English original1<\/sup> from X, you will see that what is
\nwritten is from the highest standpoint. If you want to be an instrument of the
\nTruth, you must always speak the truth and not falsehood. But this does not mean
\nthat you must tell everything to everybody. To conceal the truth by silence or
\nrefusal to speak is permissible, because the truth may be misunderstood or
\nmisused by those who are not prepared for it or who are opposed to it-it may
\neven be made a starting point for distortion or sheer falsehood. But to speak
\nfalsehood is another matter. Even in jest it should be avoided, because it tends
\nto lower the consciousness. As for the last point, it is again from the highest
\nstandpoint-the truth as one knows it in the mind is not enough, for the mind’s
\nidea may be erroneous or insufficient-it is necessary to have the true knowledge
\nin the true consciousness.<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n


\n<\/b> <\/p>\n

     
\nWhy should it be lying? One is not bound to tell everything to everybody\u2014it might often do more harm than good. One has only to say what is necessary. Of course what is said must be true and not false and there must never be any intention to deceive.\n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\n"As one likes" is never a formula that leads to truth, it implies enthroning the vital and its desire as the standard or following the mind’s preferences\u2014which even in any mental discipline is\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

         1<\/sup> "If we allow a falsehood, however small, to express itself through our mouth or our pen, how can we hope to become perfect messengers of Truth ? A perfect servant of Truth should abstain even from the slightest inexactitude, exaggeration or deformation." The Mother
\n<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

\nPage-641<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

regarded as contrary to the very principle of the search for Truth.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIn the first place, there is a great difference between uttering as truth what one believes or knows to be false and uttering as truth what one conscientiously believes to be true, but is not in fact true. The first is obviously going against the spirit of truth, the second does homage to it. The first is deliberate falsehood, the second is only error at worst or ignorance.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThis is from the practical point of view of truth-speaking. From the point of view of higher Truth, it must not be forgotten that each plane of consciousness has its own standard\u2014what is truth to the mind, may be only partial truth to a higher consciousness, but it is through the partial truth that the mind has to go in order to reach the wider more perfect truth beyond. All that is necessary for it is to be open and plastic, to be ready to recognise the higher when it comes, not to cling to the lower because it is its own, not to allow the desires and passions of the vital to blind it to the Light or to twist and pervert things. When once the higher consciousness begins to act, the difficulty diminishes and there is a clear progress from truth to greater truth.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is not the fact that if a man is truthful (in the sense of not lying), all he says happens. For that he must know the Truth\u2014 be in touch with the truth of things, not merely speak the truth as his mind knows, it.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-642<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     As for shyness, there are two kinds: one is egoistic, being ashamed of expressing the Truth or showing allegiance to it in ways which would not be understood by others, the other is a certain reserve, an unwillingness to expose one’s deeper feelings to the gaze of others, the wish to keep sacred and secret the relations of love with the Divine\u2014that is a psychic feeling.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

  
\nX <\/b>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nI do not think X’s trance has anything to do with her ill-health; I have never known the habit of trances of that kind to have any such result, only the violent breaking of a trance might have a bad result, though it would not necessarily produce a disaster. But there is the possibility that if the conscious being goes out of the body in an absolutely complete trance, the thread which connects it with the body might be broken or else cut by some adverse force and it would not be able to return into the physical frame. Apart from any such fatal possibility there might be a shock which might produce a temporary disorder or even some kind of lesion; as a rule, however, a shock would be the only consequence. The general question is a different matter. There is a sort of traditional belief in many minds that the practice of yoga is inimical to the health of the body and tends to have a bad effect of one kind or another and even finally leads to a premature or an early dropping of the body. Ramakrishna seems to have held the view, if we can judge from his remarks about the connection between Keshav Sen’s progress in spirituality and the illness which undermined him, that one was the result and the desirable result of the other, a liberation and release from life in this world,
\nmukti. <\/i>That may or may not be; but I find it difficult to believe that
\nillness and deterioration of<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-643<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

the body is the natural and general result of the practice of yoga or that that practice is the cause of an inevitable breakdown of health or of the final illnesses which bring about their departure from the body. On what ground are we to suppose or how can it be proved that while non-yogis suffer from ill-health and die because of the disorders of Nature, yogis die of their yoga? Unless a direct connection between their death and their practice of yoga can be proved\u2014and this could be proved with certainty only in particular cases and even then not with an absolute certainty\u2014there is no sufficient reason to believe in such a difference. It is more rational to conclude that both yogis and non-yogis fall ill and die from natural causes and by the same dispensation of Nature; one might even advance the view, since they have the Yoga-Shakti at their disposal if they choose to use it, that the yogi falls ill and dies not because of but in spite of his yoga. At any rate, I don’t believe that Ramakrishna (or any other yogi) fell ill because of his trances; there is nothing to show that he ever suffered in that way after a trance. I think it is said somewhere or he himself said that the cancer in his throat of which he died came by his swallowing the sins of his disciples and those who approached him: that again may or may not be, but it will be his own peculiar case. It is no doubt possible to draw the illnesses of others upon oneself and even to do it deliberately, the instance of the Greek king Antigonus and his son Dimitrius is a famous historical case in point; yogis also do this sometimes; or else adverse forces may throw illnesses upon the yogi, using those round him as a door or a passage or the ill wishes of people as an instrumental force. But all these are special circumstances connected, no doubt, with his practice of yoga; but they do not establish the general proposition as an absolute rule. A tendency such as X’s to desire or welcome or\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

\nPage-644<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

accept death as a release could have a force because of her advanced spiritual consciousness which it would not have in ordinary people. On the other side, there can be an opposite use and result of the yogic consciousness: illness can be repelled from one’s own body or cured, even chronic or deep-seated illnesses and long-established constitutional defects remedied or expelled and even a predestined death delayed for a long period. Narayan Jyotishi, a Calcutta astrologer, who predicted, not knowing then who I was, in the days before my name was politically known, my struggle with Mleccha enemies and afterwards the three cases against me and my three acquittals, predicted also that though death was prefixed for me in my horoscope at the age of 63, I would prolong my life by yogic power for a very long period and arrive at a full old age. In fact, I have got rid by yogic pressure of a number of chronic maladies that had got settled in my body. But none of these instances either on the favourable or unfavourable side can be made into a rule; there is no validity in the tendency of human reason to transform the relativity of these things into an absolute. Finally I may say of X’s trances that they are the usual savikalpa <\/i>
\nkind opening to all kinds of experiences, but the large abiding realisations in
\nyoga do not usually come in trance but by a persistent waking sadhana. The same
\nmay be said of the removal of attachments; some may be got rid of sometimes by
\nan experience in trace, but more usually it must be done by persistent endeavour
\nin waking sadhana.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe human body has always been in the habit of answering to whatever forces chose to lay hands on it and illness is the price\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

\nPage-645<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

it pays for its inertia and ignorance. It has to learn to answer to the one Force alone, but that is not easy for it to learn.\n<\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAttacks of illness are attacks of the lower nature or of adverse forces taking advantage of some weakness, opening or response in the nature,\u2014like all other things that come and have got to be thrown away, they come from outside. If one can feel them so coming and get the strength and the habit to throw them away before they can enter the body, then one can remain free from illness. Even when the attack seems to rise from within, that means only that it has not been detected before it entered the subconscient; once in the subconscient, the force that brought it rouses it from there sooner or later and it invades the system. When you feel it just after it has entered, it is because though it came direct and not through the subconscient, yet you could not detect it while it was still outside. Very often it arrives like that frontally or more often tangentially from the side direct, forcing its way through the subtle vital enevelope which is our main armour of defence, but it can be stopped there in the envelope itself before it penetrates the material body. Then one may feel some effect, e.g., feverishness or a tendency to cold, but there is not the full invasion of the malady. If it can be stopped earlier or if the vital envelope of itself resists and remains strong, vigorous and intact, then there is no illness; the attack produces no physical effect and leaves no traces.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAll illnesses pass through the nervous or vital-physical sheath of the subtle consciousness and subtle body before they enter the physical. If one is conscious of the subtle body or with the\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

\nPage-646<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

subtle consciousness, one can stop an illness on its way and prevent it from entering the physical body. But it may have come without one’s noticing, or when one is asleep or through the subconscient, or in a sudden rush when one is off one’s guard; then there is nothing to do but to fight it out from a hold already gained on the body. Self-defence by these inner means may become so strong that the body becomes practically immune as many yogis are. Still this "practically" does not mean "absolutely". The absolute immunity can only come with the supramental change. For below the supramental it is the result of an action of a Force among many forces and can be disturbed by a disruption of the equilibrium established\u2014in the supramental it is a law of the nature; in a supramentalised body immunity from illness would be automatic, inherent in its new nature.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere is a difference between yogic Force on the mental and inferior planes and the supramental Nature. What is acquired and held by the yoga-Force in the mind-and-body consciousness is in the supramental inherent and exists not by achievement but by nature\u2014it is self-existent and absolute.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThat is how illnesses try to come from one person to another \u2014they attack, by a suggestion like this or otherwise, the nervous being and try to come in. Even if the illness is not contagious, this often happens, but it comes more easily in contagious illnesses. The suggestion or touch has to be thrown off at once.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere is a sort of protection round the body which we call the nervous envelope\u2014if this remains strong and refuses entrance to the illness force, then one can remain well even in the midst of plague or other epidemics\u2014if the envelope is pierced or weak, then the illness can come in.\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

\nPage-647<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nWhat you felt attacked was not really the physical body, but this nervous envelope and the nervous body (prāna kosa) <\/i>
\nof which it is an extension or cover. <\/i>\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nPhysical sufferings are due to attacks of the forces of the Ignorance. But if one knows how to do it, one can make them a means of purification. There are however better and less difficult means of purification.\n<\/p>\n

     
\n <\/b><\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYour theory of illness is rather a perilous creed\u2014for illness is a thing to be eliminated, not accepted or enjoyed. There is  <\/i>
\nsomething in the being that enjoys illness, it is
\npossible even to turn the pains of illness like any other pain into a form of
\npleasure; for pain and pleasure are both of them degradations of an original
\nAnanda and can be reduced into the terms of each other or else sublimated into
\ntheir original principle of Ananda. <\/font>It <\/font>
\nis true also that one must be able to bear illness
\nwith calm, equanimity, endurance, even recognition of it, since it has come, as
\nsomething that had to be passed through in the course’ of experience. But to
\naccept and enjoy it means to help it to last and that will not do; for illness
\nis a deformation of the physical nature just as lust, anger, jealousy, etc., are
\ndeformations of the vital nautre and error and prejudice and indulgence of
\nfalsehood are deformations of the mental nature. All these things have to be
\neliminated and rejection is the first condition of their disappearance while
\nacceptance has a contrary effect altogether.<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-648<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nBy will to illness I meant this that there is something in the body that accepts the illness and has certain reactions that make this acceptance effective\u2014so there must always be a contrary will in the conscious parts of the being to get rid of this most physical acceptance.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhat I meant was that the body consciousness through old habit of consciousness admits the force of illness and goes through the experiences which are associated with it\u2014e.g., congestion of phlegm in the chest and feeling of suffocation or difficulty of breathing, etc. To get rid of that one must awaken a will and consciousness in the body itself that refuses to allow these things to impose themselves upon it. But to get that, still more to get it completely is difficult. One step towards it is to get the inner consciousness separate from the body\u2014to feel that it is not you who are ill, but it is only something taking place in the body and affecting your consciousness. It is then possible to see this separate body consciousness, what it feels, what are its reactions to things, how it works. One can then act on it to change its consciousness and reactions.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAs the body consciousness becomes more open to the Force (it is always the most difficult and the last to open up entirely), this frequent stress of illness will diminish and disappear.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIllness marks some imperfection or weakness or else opening to adverse touches in the physical nature and is often connected also with some obscurity or disharmony in the lower vital or the physical mind or elsewhere.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-649<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nIt is very good if one can get rid of illness entirely by faith and yoga-power or the influx of the Divne Force. But very often this is not altogether possible, because the whole nature is not open or able to respond to the Force. The mind may have faith and respond, but the lower vital and the body may not follow. Or, if the mind and vital are ready, the body may not respond, or may respond only partially, because it has the habit of replying to the forces which produce a particular illness, and habit is a very obstinate force in the material part of the nature. In such cases the use of the physical means can be resorted to,\u2014not as the main means, but as a help or material support to the action of the Force. Not strong and violent remedies, but those that are beneficial without disturbing the body.\n<\/p>\n

     
\n <\/b><\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nCertainly, one can act from within on an illness and cure it. Only it is not always easy as there is much resistance in Matter, a resistance of inertia. An untiring persistence is necessary; at first one may fail altogether or the symptoms increase, but gradually the control of the body or of a particular illness becomes stronger. Again, to cure an occasional attack of illness by inner means is comparatively easy, to make the body immune from it in future is more difficult. A chronic malady is harder to deal with, more reluctant to disappear entirely than an occasional disturbance of the body. So long as the control of the body is imperfect, there are all these and other imperfections and difficulties in the use of the inner force.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIf you can succeed by the inner action in preventing increase, even that is something; you have then by abhyāsa <\/i>
\nto strengthen the power till it becomes able to cure. Note that so long as the\n<\/p>\n

Page-650<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

power is not entirely there, some aid of physical means need not be altogether rejected.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

     
\nMedicines are a pis aller <\/b> <\/i>that have
\nto be used when something in the consciousness does not respond or responds
\nsuperficially to the Force. Very often it is some part of the material
\nconsciousness that is unreceptive-at other times it is the subconscient which
\nstands in the way even when the whole waking mind, life, physical consent to the
\nliberating influence. If the subconscient <\/font>
\nalso answers, <\/font>
\nthen even a slight touch of the Force can not only
\ncure the particular illness but make that form or kind of illness practically
\nimpossible hereafter.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nNot necessarily, but if there is a strong force of resistance behind the illness or if there is something hiding there it may come out under the pressure. This is not however the invariable rule. Often the result of the force is immediate and without reactions or there is an oscillation, but no aggravation or increase.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

     
\nThe suggestions that create illness or unhealthy conditions of the physical being come usually through the subconscient\u2014for a great part of the physical being, the most material part, is subconscient,
\ni.e. to say, it has an obscure consciousness of its own but so obscure and shut up in itself that the mind does not know its movements or what is going on there. But all the same it is a consciousness and can receive suggestions from Forces outside, just as the mind and vital do. If it were not so, there would not be any possibility of opening it to the Force and the\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

\nPage-651<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

Force curing it; for without this consciousness in it it would not be able to respond. In Europe and America there are many people now who recognise this fact and treat their illnesses by making conscious mental suggestions to the body which counteract the obscure secret suggestions of illness in the subconscient. There was a famous Doctor in France who cured thousands of people by making them persistently put such counter-suggestions upon the body. That proves that illness has not a purely material cause, but is due to a disturbance of the secret consciousness in the body.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nTo bear quietly and in silence does help to release from the reaction of grief, if one makes the vital quiet; but it should be at the same time surrendered to the Mother. For the Mother to know from within is not enough; there must be this laying before her and giving up to her so that the reaction may disappear.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe feeling of illness is at first only a suggestion; it becomes a reality because your physical consciousness accepts it. It is like a wrong suggestion in the mind,\u2014if the mind accepts it, it becomes clouded and confused and has to struggle back into harmony and clearness. It is so with the body consciousness and illness. You must not accept but reject it with your physical mind and so help the body consciousness to throw off the suggestion. If necessary, make a counter-suggestion "No, I shall be well; I am and shall be all right." And in any case call in the Mother’s Force to throw out the suggestion and the illness it is bringing.\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-652<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nBy suggestion I do not mean merely thoughts or words. When the hypnotist says "sleep", it is a suggestion; but when he says nothing, but only puts his silent will to convey sleep or makes movements of his hands over the face, that also is a suggestion.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhen a force is thrown on you or a vibration of illness, it carries to the body
\nthis suggestion. A wave comes in the body\u2014with a certain vibration in it, the
\nbody remembers "cold" or feels the vibrations of a cold and begins to cough or
\nsneeze or to feel chill \u2014the suggestion comes to the mind in the form "I am
\nweak,, I don’t feel well, I am catching a cold".\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nHostile here means hostile to the yoga. An illness which comes in the ordinary course as the result of physical causes\u2014even though adverse universal forces are the first cause\u2014is an ordinary illness. One brought by the forces hostile to yoga to upset the system and prevent or disturb progress\u2014without any adequate physical reason\u2014is a hostile attack. It may have the appearance of a cold or any other illness, but to the eye which sees the action of forces and not only the outward symptoms or results, the difference is clear.\n<\/p>\n

     
\n <\/b><\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe suggestion of weakness comes to the subconscient part of the body consciousness and therefore the mind is most often unaware of it. If the body itself were truly conscious, then the suggestions could be detected in time and thrown off before they took effect. Also the rejection by the central consciousness would be supported by a conscious rejection in the body and act more immediately and promptly.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

\nPage-653<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nA suggestion is not one’s own thought or feeling, but a thought or feeling that comes from outside, from others, from the general atmosphere or from external Nature,\u2014if it is received, it sticks and acts on the being and is taken to be one’s own thought or feeling. If it is recognised as a suggestion, then it can be more easily got rid of. This feeling of doubt and self-distrust and hopelessness about oneself is a thing moving about in the atmosphere and trying to enter into people and be accepted; I want you to reject it, for its presence not only produces trouble and distress but stands in the way of restoration of health and return to the inner activity of the sadhana.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAs for medical treatment it is sometimes a necessity. If one can cure by the Force as you have often done it is the best\u2014but if for some reason the body is not able to respond to the Force (e.g. owing to doubt, lassitude or discouragement or for inability to react against the disease), then the aid of medical treatment becomes necessary. It is not that the Force ceases to act and leaves all to the medicines,\u2014it will continue to act through the consciousness but take the support of the treatment so as to act directly on the resistance in the body, which responds more readily to physical means in its ordinary consciousness.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThese are waves of the hostile force which come trying whom they can touch. When you feel an attack of this kind, you must realise that this comes on you from outside and touches some weak point in you, and you have to remain as quiet as you can, reject it and open yourself. I judge from what you have written that it was the physical and vital-physical consciousness that it made restless and inclined to revolt and it did not take the whole of your consciousness. If you can keep it localised like that when it\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-654<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

comes and remain quiet in mind and heart and reject it, then it will not be so difficult to throw it out. The peace and force must be called down into this vital-physical (nervous) part and the whole body until you feel the atmosphere and force pervading you and in you always in all the body and not only upon or around you. If you still find a difficulty, it is because of the past habit of reaction in the nervous being and a certain weakness there; but persevere, do not consent to the invasion of the old forces. The habit will lessen and disappear and the true Force occupying the body will remove the weakness.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is the crude vital-physical that returns upon you in this way \u2014and these returns must be the cause of all the feelings of illness, weakness, tamas that you get. A purification of this part by the descent of the higher consciousness into it is a very great necessity for your sadhana.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere are two places into which it (the crude vital-physical) can retire\u2014the subconscient vital below or the environmental consciousness around. When it returns, it surges up from below, if it is the former, or approaches and invades from outside if it is the latter.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere is no mystery. These things were violent and obstinate in you for a long time and you were indulging them\u2014hence 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\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

\nPage-655<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

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. 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 \u2014(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.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      
\nAll these suggestions that came to you were of course part of the attack on the physical consciousness,\u2014the attack on the body is used to raise these ideas and ideas are used to make it more dim-cult for the body to recover. At a certain stage attacks fall heavily on the body because the opposing forces find it more difficult than before to upset the mind and vital directly, so they fall on the physical in the hope that that will do the trick, the physical being more vulnerable. But the sensibility of the body to attacks is no proof of incapacity, just as a finer sensibility of the mind or vital to attacks was no proof\u2014it can, in due time, be overcome. As for the feelings about the Mother and that her love is only given for a return in work or to those who can do sadhana well, that is the usual senseless idea of the vital-physical mind and has no value.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere is nothing wrong in taking care of the body in regard to health and, if the liver has gone wrong, the instinct to refuse too\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

\nPage-656<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

sweet or greasy or heavy food is a right instinct. Mother has no objection to your abstaining while the illness is there nor has she insisted on your taking dal.
\n<\/b> <\/i>Her objection is only to that which people
\noften do, getting ideas about this food and that food and abstaining even when
\nthere is no acute illness. During an acute state of bad liver, abstaining is
\noften necessary. Only one must not create by wrong ideas a nervous incapacity of
\nthe stomach or a chronic nervous dyspepsia. She had no other meaning.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nI hope you will be all right soon. If the body does not right itself, you must keep me informed from time to time.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere seem to be two elements in the physical difficulty that is weighing on you. The first is the liver trouble which weakens and must weaken still more if it leads you to diminish your food below what the body needs for maintaining sufficient strength to react\u2014also probably the nervous tendency to insomnia with its consequences. The second is an inertia of the lower vital and physical consciousness which prevents it from throwing off the lassitude, from reacting against the attacks and from opening steadily to the Force which would remove these things. All that is due to the breakdown of the poise that you had for so long, the vital trouble that caused it and the reaction of the lower vital to the insistence on throwing out the causes of the trouble. This reaction seems to have been a restlessness at losing the things to which it was still holding\u2014such a reaction always brings the inertia of the physical consciousness, while the right reaction in the lower vital, on the contrary, brings a sense of peace, release, quietude which definitely opens the lowest physical parts to the higher consciousness and force. If you can get over this and get back the old poise, then all these things can be made to disappear.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

\nPage-657<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

       Care should be taken of the body certainly, the care that is needed for its good condition, rest, sleep, proper food, sufficient exercise; what is not good is too much preoccupation with it, anxiety, despondency in the illness, etc., for these things only favour the prolongation of ill-health or weakness. For such things as the liver attacks treatment can always be taken when necessary.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nBut it is always the right inner poise, quietude inward and outward, faith, the opening of the body consciousness to the Mother and her Force that are the true means of recovery\u2014other things can only be minor aids and devices.\n<\/p>\n

     
\n <\/b><\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is a great gain if you feel no depression when the attack on the body comes.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe pain itself is, from your description, evidently nervous and, if you develop openness in the more physical layers of the being, then the action of the Force can always remove it or you will yourself be able to use the Force to push it away. It is a matter of getting the habit of opening in the body consciousness.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe consciousness or unconsciousness, as you have seen in the matter of the French studies, is dependent on the condition. It is not that you are unconscious, but that the physical being is prone to the tamasic condition (the condition of inertia) and then it becomes either inactive or obscure, stupid and unconscious; when the tamas goes away the condition becomes bright and what was difficult before becomes natural and easy. The whole thing is to get the physical out of its habit of falling back into tamas or inertia, and that can be done by opening and accustoming<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

\nPage-658<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

it to the action of the Force. When the action of the Force becomes constant, then there will be no more tamas.\n<\/p>\n

     
\n <\/b><\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is not anything physical but a vital depression (or some part of the vital, not the whole) that prevents the body from recovering its elasticity. There was some part of the vital that was resisting a radical change and even unknown to your mind trying to go on as it was under cover of the change in the rest of your being. This has now, owing to this last affair, received a blow and got depressed and, when the vital is depressed like that it affects the body. You say rightly that it is part of a change or turn that is taking place. But these effects of inertia and weakness ought not to continue; as soon as the vital part acquiesces gladly in the turn or change the elasticity and energy will return.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe pains in the body come from the same source as the trouble in the vital nature; both are attacks from the same outside force that wants to mislead or, when it cannot mislead, to trouble and disturb you. When once you can get rid of the vital invasion and prevent its recurrence, it will be easier to get rid too of the physical trouble whose origin is nervous (vital-physical); although its symptoms seem to be those of a physical illness, it is usually an attack on the nervous part and weakening of it for the time that gives you the pain.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nRemain always quiet and persist in opening yourself. The Force that releases you from the vital trouble can also remove the disturbance in the nervous part and the physical body.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-659<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

      
\nIt is neither the vital nor the body that contains these illnesses \u2014it is a force from outside that creates these, and the nervous being (physical vital) and the body respond from habit or inability to throw it away. It is always better not to say "I will now have no more illness"; it attracts the attention of these malevolent powers and they immediately want to prove that they can still disturb the body. Simply when they come, reject them.\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is by an attack on your physical consciousness that the old forces are bringing back the wrong condition. As you got the power before to stand back from the vital movement and localise it, while the rest of your consciousness observed and was not overpowered, so you must learn to stand back from the physical pain or uneasiness and localise it. If you can do that and do it completely, the pain or uneasiness itself will be more easily and quietly removed and you will not be overpowered like this with the sense of weakness. You can see that the Force has the power to take away the pains; but you allow yourself to be nervously overcome and therefore it is difficult for it to act with a continuous result. What was done at that time in the vital, must be done in the physical also. It is the only way to get free from the attacks.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe main difficulty seems to be that you are too subject to an excitement of the nerves\u2014it is only by bringing quietude and calm into the whole being that a steady progress in the sadhana can be assured.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe first thing to be done in order to recover is to stop yielding to the attack of the nerves\u2014the more you yield and identify\n<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

\n Page-660<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

yourself with these ideas and feelings, the more they increase. You have to draw back and find back something in you that is not affected by pains and depressions, then from there you can get rid of the pains and depressions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

If you listen to what others say and base your action on satisfying their ideas, how will you keep the right attitude which can alone support you in work? It is for the Mother that you have to work, to find her in yourself through work,\u2014not to protect yourself from the criticism of others.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

I am <\/p>\n

glad to know the disturbance was expelled last
\nnight now the receptivity of the body consciousness has to be kept so that it
\nmay not at all return or, <\/font>if <\/font>
\nit tries, may immediately be expelled. You must
\nalways try to keep the quietude, not allow depressing or disturbing thoughts or
\nfeelings to enter you or take hold of your mind or your speech-there is no true
\nreason after one has gained the inner quietness and wideness why that should be
\nallowed to lapse and these things enter. And if the mind keeps its quietude and
\nreceptivity to higher forces only, it can then easily pass on that quietude and
\nreceptivity to the body consciousness and even to the material cells of the
\nbody.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

It is a hostile pressure that is organising a habit in the body of recurrence at a fixed time or times. This habit of fixed recurrence gives a great force for any illness to persist, as the body consciousness expects the recurrence and the expectation helps it to come.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Page-661<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

It is this expectation in the mind that helps most to maintain the rhythm of the attack. If it could be got rid of, the rhythm also could be broken.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

Fever is of course more often than not a struggle of the body to fight out impurities that have got in, but sometimes the remedy is as bad if not worse than the disease. It is the same with the difficulties\u2014an illness sometimes results in a throwing out of some impurities but it can also do more harm than good.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

T.B. is the result of a strong psychic-vital depression. Sex cannot directly cause T.B. though it may be a factor in bringing about a fall of the vital forces and a withdrawal of the psychic supporting forces leading to T.B. The lack of vitality which easily comes as a result of modern civilisation is therefore a very strong contributing cause. Moderns have not the solid nervous system and the natural (as opposed to the artificial and morbid) zest of life that their ancestors had. But I don’t know about the soldiers\u2014the hideous trench war with all its ghastly circumstances and surroundings was, I imagine, far more difficult to bear than the open air marching and fighting of the Napoleonic times.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

According to all statements the deaths in early age are much less in Europe and men five longer on the whole. But certain diseases have greatly increased in spite of the advance in hygiene\u2014 influenza, T.B. and venereals. There are also new diseases<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Page-662<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

coming in that hardly existed before. That seems obviously the work of the Hostiles.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

I don’t think stammering has anything to do with insufficient lung-power nor is it caused by malformation of the vocal organs \u2014it is commonly a nervous (physico-nervous) impediment and is perfectly curable.
\nI can’t say that I know of any especial.device for
\nit-people have used various kinds of devices to get over it, but behind them all
\nwill-power and a patient discipline of the utterance are indispensable.<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

Injections are all the fashion; for everything it is "inject, inject and again inject". Medicine has gone through three stages in
\n<\/sup>modern times\u2014first (at the beginning in Moliere’s days) it was "bleed and douche"\u2014then "drug and diet"\u2014now it is "serum and injection". Praise the Lord! not for the illnesses, but for the doctors. However, each of these formulas has a part truth behind it\u2014with its advantages and disadvantages. As all religions and philosophies point to the Supreme but each in a different direction, so all medical fashions are ways to health \u2014though they don’t always reach it.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

These things are a matter of evidence and the evidence for Coue’s success is overwhelming. There have also been many great healers
\n(gu\u00e9risseurs) <\/i>
\nall over the world whose successes are well-attested. Faith-healing and psycho-therapy are also facts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

Page-663<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     <\/p>\n

These auto-suggestions\u2014it is really faith, in a mental form\u2014act both on the subliminal and the subconscient. In the subliminal they set in action the powers of the inner being, its occult power to make thought, will or simple conscious force effective on the body\u2014in the subconscient they silence or block the suggestions of death and illness (expressed or unexpressed) that prevent the return of health. They help also to combat the same things (adverse suggestions) in the mind, vital, body consciousness. Where all this is completely done or with some completeness, the effects can be very remarkable.<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

Pain is caused because the physical consciousness in the Ignorance is too limited to bear the touches that come upon it. Otherwise, to cosmic consciousness in its state of complete knowledge and complete experience all touches come as Ananda.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

To bear extreme heat and cold it is necessary to have peace in the cells first, then consolidated force. Pain and discomfort come from a physical consciousness not forceful enough to determine its own reactions to things.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

The body, naturally [experiences physical pain]\u2014but the body transmits it to the vital and mental. With the ordinary consciousness the vital gets disturbed and afflicted and its forces diminished, the mind identifies and is upset. The mind has to remain unmoved, the vital unaffected, and the body has to learn to take it with equality so that the higher Force may work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 *                                                            
\n*<\/b><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Page-664<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

The Self is never affected by any kind of pain. The psychic takes it quietly and offers it to the Divine for what is necessary to be done.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Page-665<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Section Seven   TRANSFORMATION OF THE PHYSICAL       TRANSFORMATION OF THE PHYSICAL         I         No need to despise the physical being\u2014it is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-yoga-2-tome-two","wpcat-85-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3540","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=3540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}