{"id":3547,"date":"2013-07-13T01:49:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3547"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:49:26","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:49:26","slug":"003-experiences-of-the-inner-and-the-cosmic-consciousness-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\/003-experiences-of-the-inner-and-the-cosmic-consciousness-vol-on-yoga-2-tome-two","title":{"rendered":"-003_Experiences of the Inner and the Cosmic Consciousness.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\n

\n

 Section Three<\/i>
\n<\/b>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      EXPERIENCES OF
\nTHE INNER AND THE COSMIC <\/b>\n<\/p>\n

CONSCIOUSNESS <\/b>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nEXPERIENCES OF
\nTHE INNER AND THE COSMIC <\/b>\n<\/p>\n

CONSCIOUSNESS <\/b>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      I
\n<\/b>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      The piercing of
\nthe veil between the outer consciousness and the inner being is one of the
\ncrucial movements in yoga. For yoga means union with the Divine, but it also
\nmeans awaking first to your inner self and then to your higher self,\u2014a movement
\ninward and a movement upward. It is, in fact, only through the awakening and
\ncoming to the front of the inner being that you can get into union with the
\nDivine. The outer physical man is only an instrumental personality and by
\nhimself he cannot arrive at this union,\u2014he can only get occasional touches,
\nreligious feelings, imperfect intimations. And even these come not from the
\nouter consciousness but from what is within us.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      There are two
\nmutually complementary movements; in one the inner being comes to the front and
\nimpresses its own normal motions on the outer consciousness to which they are
\nunusual and abnormal; the other is to draw back from the outer consciousness, to
\ngo inside into the inner planes, enter the world of your inner self and wake in
\nthe hidden parts of your being. When that plunge has once been taken, you are
\nmarked for the yogic, the spiritual life and nothing can efface the seal that
\nhas been put upon you.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      This inward
\nmovement takes place in many different ways and
\nthere is
\nsometimes a complex experience combining all the signs of the
\ncomplete plunge. There is a sense of going in or deep\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage-103<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

down, a feeling
\nof the movement towards inner depths; there is often a stillness, a pleasant
\nnumbness, a stiffness of the limbs. This is the sign of the consciousness
\nretiring from the body inwards under the pressure of a force from above,\u2014that
\npressure stabilising the body into an immobile support of the inner life, in a
\nkind of strong and still spontaneous āsana. <\/i>There is a feeling of waves
\nsurging up, mounting to the head, which brings an outer unconsciousness and an
\ninner waking. It is the ascending of the lower consciousness in the Adhara to
\nmeet the greater consciousness above. It is a movement analogous to that on
\nwhich so much stress is laid in the Tantric process, the awakening of the
\nKunda-lini, the Energy coiled up and latent in the body and its mounting through
\nthe spinal cord and the centres (cakras) <\/i>and the Brahma-randhra to meet
\nthe Divine above. In our yoga it is not a specialised process, but a spontaneous
\nuprush of the whole lower consciousness sometimes in currents or waves,
\nsometimes in a less concrete motion, and on the other side a descent of the
\nDivine Consciousness and its Force into the body. This descent is felt as a
\npouring in of calm and peace, of force and power, of light, of joy and ecstasy,
\nof wideness and freedom and knowledge, of a Divine Being or a Presence\u2014sometimes
\none of these, sometimes several of them or all together. The movement of
\nascension has different results; it may liberate the consciousness so that one
\nfeels no longer in the body, but above it or else spread in wideness with the
\nbody either almost non-existent or only a point in one’s free expanse. It may
\nenable the being or some part of the being to go out from the body and move
\nelsewhere, and this action is usually accompanied by some kind of partial
\nsamādhi <\/i>or else a complete trance. Or, it may result in empowering the
\nconsciousness, no longer limited by the body and the habits of the external
\nnature, to go within, to enter the inner mental depths,\n<\/p>\n

 
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-104<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

the inner
\nvital, the inner (subtle) physical, the psychic, to become aware of its inmost
\npsychic self or its inner mental, vital and subtle physical being and, it may
\nbe, to move and live in the domains, the planes, the worlds that correspond to
\nthese parts of the nature. It is the repeated and constant ascent of the lower
\nconsciousness that enables the mind, the vital, the physical to come into touch
\nwith the higher planes up to the supramental and get impregnated with their
\nlight and power and influence. And it is the repeated and constant descent of
\nthe Divine Consciousness and its Force that is the means for the transformation
\nof the whole being and the whole nature. Once this descent becomes habitual, the
\nDivine Force, the Power of the Mother, begins to work, no longer from above only
\nor from behind the veil, but consciously in the Adhara itself, and deals with
\nits difficulties and possibilities and carries on the yoga.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      Last comes the
\ncrossing of the border. It is not a falling asleep or a loss of consciousness,
\nfor the consciousness is there all the time; only it shifts from the outer and
\nphysical, becomes closed to external things and recedes into the inner psychic
\nand vital part of the being. There it passes through many experiences and of
\nthese some can and should be felt in the waking state also; for both movements
\nare necessary, the coming out of the inner being to the front as well as the
\ngoing in of the consciousness to become aware of the inner self and nature. But
\nfor many purposes the ingoing movement is indispensable. Its effect is to break
\nor at least to open and pass the barrier between this outer instrumental
\nconsciousness and that inner being which it very partially strives to express,
\nand to make possible in future a conscious awareness of all the endless riches
\nof possibility and experience and new being and new life that lie untapped
\nbehind the veil of this small and very blind and limited material personality
\nwhich\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-105<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

 men erroneously
\nthink to be the whole of themselves. It is the beginning and constant enlarging
\nof this deeper and fuller and richer awareness that is accomplished between the
\ninward plunge and the return from this inner world to the waking state.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      The sadhak must
\nunderstand that these experiences are not mere imaginations or dreams but actual
\nhappenings, for even when, as often occurs, they are formations only of a wrong
\nor misleading or adverse kind, they have still their power as formations and
\nmust be understood before they can be rejected and abolished. Each inner
\nexperience is perfectly real in its own way, although the values of different
\nexperiences differ greatly, but it is real with the reality of the inner self
\nand the inner planes. It is a mistake to think that we live physically only,
\nwith the outer mind and life. We are all the time living and acting on other
\nplanes of consciousness, meeting others there and acting upon them, and what we
\ndo and feel and think there, the forces we gather, the results we prepare have
\nan incalculable importance and effect, unknown to us, upon our outer life. Not
\nall of it comes through, and what comes through takes another form in the
\nphysical\u2014though sometimes there is an exact correspondence; but this little is
\nat the basis of our outward existence. All that we become and do and bear in the
\nphysical life is prepared behind the veil within us. It is therefore of immense
\nimportance for a yoga which aims at the transformation of life to grow conscious
\nof what goes on within these domains, to be master there and be able to feel,
\nknow and deal with the secret forces that determine our destiny and our internal
\nand external growth or decline.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      It is equally
\nimportant for those who want that union with the Divine without which the
\ntransformation is impossible. The aspiration could not be realised if you
\nremained bound by your external self, tied to the physical mind and its petty
\nmovements.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-106<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

It is not the
\nouter being which is the source of the spiritual urge; the outer being only
\nundergoes the inner drive from behind the veil. It is the inner psychic being in
\nyou that is the bhakta, the seeker after the union and the Ananda, and what is
\nimpossible for the outer nature left to itself becomes perfectly possible when
\nthe barrier is down and the inner self in the front. For, the moment this comes
\nstrongly to the front or draws the consciousness powerfully into itself, peace,
\necstasy, freedom, wideness, the opening to light and a higher knowledge begin to
\nbecome natural, spontaneous, often immediate in their emergence.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      Once the
\nbarrier breaks by the one movement or the other, you begin to find that all the
\nprocesses and movements necessary to the yoga are within your reach and not, as
\nit seems in the outer mind, difficult or impossible. The inmost psychic self in
\nyou has already in it the yogin and the bhakta and if it can fully emerge and
\ntake the lead, the spiritual turn of your outward life is predestined and
\ninevitable. In the initially successful sadhak it has already built a deep inner
\nlife, yogic and spiritual, which is veiled only because of some strong outward
\nturn the education and past activities have given to the thinking mind and lower
\nvital parts. It is precisely to correct this outward orientation and take away
\nthe veil that he has to practise more strenuously the yoga. Once the inner being
\nhas manifested strongly whether by the inward-going or the outward-coming
\nmovement, it is bound to renew its pressure, to clear the passage and finally
\ncome by its kingdom. A beginning of this kind is the indication of what is to
\nhappen on a greater scale hereafter.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      The cry you
\nheard was not in the physical heart, but in the emotional centre. The breaking
\nof the wall meant the breaking\n<\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-107<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

of the obstacle
\nor at least of some obstacle there between your inner and your outer being. Most
\npeople live in their ordinary outer ignorant personality which does not easily
\nopen to the Divine; but there is an inner being within them of which they do not
\nknow, which can easily open to the Truth and the Light. But there is a wall
\nwhich divides them from it, a wall of obscurity and unconsciousness. When it
\nbreaks down, then there is a release; the feelings of calm, Ananda, joy which
\nyou had immediately afterwards were due to that release. The cry you heard was
\nthe cry of the vital part in you overcome by the suddenness of the breaking of
\nthe wall and the opening.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      It is rather a
\npity that the fear came in and spoiled the inward movement\u2014for this inward
\nmovement is exceedingly important for the sadhana. The increasing frequency and
\ncompleteness of the psychic consciousness in you coming in and replacing the
\nordinary one has hitherto been the most hopeful sign of progress \u2014but the
\nestablishment of an inward movement would be a still greater thing; for its
\nnatural result would be to liberate the soul within and to give you a stand in
\nthe inner being so that you would be able to regard any fluctuations in the
\nouter consciousness without being subjugated by them and without any
\ninterruption of the inner poise and freedom. But the movement is bound to come
\nback and fulfil itself. It is very good that the help comes when you call and
\nthat you can shake yourself free\u2014it is another sign of the psychic growth.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

  \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-108<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

What you say
\nwas not what is in yourself, but a symbol of the things that are in vital
\nNature. Scorpions and usually snakes also are symbols of harmful energies; the
\nvital nature of earth is full of these energies and that is why the purification
\nof man’s outer vital nature also is so difficult and there are so many wrong
\nmovements and happenings in him,\u2014because his vital is easily open to all these
\nearth movements. In order to get rid of them, the inner being must wake and grow
\nand its nature replace the outer nature. Sometimes serpents indicate energies
\nsimply, not harmful ones; but more often it is the other way. On the other hand,
\nthe peacocks you saw were powers of victory, the victory of the energies of
\nlight over the energies of darkness.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      What you say
\nabout the outer being is correct, it must change and manifest what is within in
\nthe inner nature. But for that one must have experiences in the inner nature and
\nthrough these the power of the inner nature grows till it can influence wholly
\nand possess the outer being. To change the outer consciousness entirely without
\ndeveloping this inner consciousness would be too difficult. That is why these
\ninner experiences are going on to prepare the growth of the inner consciousness.
\nThere is an inner mind, an inner vital, an inner physical consciousness which
\ncan more easily than the outer receive the higher consciousness above and put
\nitself into harmony with the psychic being; when that is done the outer nature
\nis felt as only a fringe on the surface, not as oneself, and is more easily
\ntransformed altogether.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      Whatever
\ndifficulties there may still be in the outer nature, they will not make any
\ndifference to the fact that you are now awake within, the Mother’s force working
\nin you and you her true child destined to be perfectly that in all ways. Put
\nyour\n<\/p>\n

  
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-109<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

faith and your
\nthought entirely on her and you will get through all safely.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      It is on the
\nsurface that the transformation is done. One comes up to the surface with what
\none has gained in the depths to change it. It may be your need to go in again
\nand find it difficult to make the movement back quickly. When the whole being
\nbecomes plastic you will be able to make whatever movement is needed more
\nquickly.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      It takes time
\nof course to make the transition from one state of consciousness to another. The
\ndepth of feeling will come more and more as your consciousness draws back from
\nthe claim of external things and goes deeper in into the heart region seeing and
\nfeeling from there with the psychic to prompt and enlighten it. Faith also will
\nincrease with that movement\u2014for it is the outer intellect that is infirm or
\ndeficient in faith\u2014,the inner being in the heart has it always.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      What you
\nexpress in the letter is the right way of thinking and seeing. The self-will of
\nthe mind wanting things in its own way and not in the Divine’s way was a great
\nobstacle. With that gone, the way should become much less rough and hard to
\nfollow.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      The outer being
\ncan grow in faith, fidelity to the Divine, reverence, love, worship and
\nadoration, great things in themselves,\n<\/p>\n

   
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-110<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

\u2014though in fact
\nthese things too come from within,\u2014but realisation can only take place when the
\ninner being is awake with its vision and feeling of things unseen. Till then,
\none can feel the results of the divine help and, if one has faith, know that
\nthey are the work of the Divine; but it is only then that one can feel clearly
\nthe Force at work, the divine Presence, the direct communion.\n<\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      Silence does
\nnot mean absence of experiences. It is an inner silence and quietude in which
\nall experiences can happen without producing any disturbance. It would be a
\ngreat mistake to interfere with the images rising in you. It does not matter
\nwhether they are mental or psychic. One must have experience not only of the
\ntrue psychic, but of the inner mental, inner vital and subtle physical worlds or
\nplanes of consciousness. The occurrence of the images is a sign that these are
\nopening and to inhibit them would mean to inhibit the expansion of the
\nconsciousness and experience without which this yoga cannot be done.\n<\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      The difficulty
\nindicated by you in your last (long) letter indicates that you enter into the
\ninner being and begin to have experiences there, but there is a difficulty in
\norganising them or seeing them coherently. The difficulty is because the inner
\nmind is not yet sufficiently habituated to act and see the inside things and
\ntherefore the ordinary outer mind interferes and tries to arrange them; but the
\nouter mind is unable to see the meaning of inner things. When the outer mind is
\nleft outside altogether, the things inside\n<\/p>\n

  
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-111<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

begin to be
\nseen vividly and clearly, but the inner mind not being active, either their
\ncoherence is not seen or the consciousness lingers in the confused experiences
\nof the lower vital plane and does not get through to the deeper, more coherent
\nand significant experiences. A development of the inner consciousness is
\nneeded\u2014when that development takes place, then all will become more clear and
\ncoherent. This development will take place if, without getting disturbed, you
\nquietly aspire and go on calling the Mother’s Force to do what is needed.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      Your call will
\nalways reach the Mother. If you remain quiet and confident, you will in time
\nbecome aware of the answer. The more the mind becomes quiet, the clearer will it
\nbecome to you and you will feel her working. From time to time you can write, of
\nyour experiences, wherever an answer is needed, I will answer.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      That is what is
\nmeant by contact and that is how it comes.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      As for not
\nhaving it always, it is because there are parts of the being that are still
\nunconscious or perhaps states of unconsciousness come. For instance, people
\nwrite letters to each other, but they are quite unconscious that they are
\nexchanging forces in doing so. You have become conscious of it, because of the
\ndevelopment of your inner consciousness by yoga\u2014and yet there are likely to be
\ntimes when you still write from the external awareness only, and then you will
\nsee the words only without being aware of what is behind. So, owing to the
\ndevelopment of the inner consciousness, you are able to understand what contacts
\nare and get the true contact, but at times the external\n<\/p>\n

    
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-112<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

consciousness
\nmay be stronger than the inner one, then you are no longer (for the time being)
\nable to get the contact.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      It is not that
\nanything has been taken from you, but as you say at the end, your being is seen
\nby you in two parts. That is a thing that happens as the sadhana proceeds and
\nmust happen in order that one may have completely the knowledge of oneself and
\nthe true consciousness. These two parts are the inner being and the outer being.
\nThe outer being (mind, vital and physical) has now become capable of quietude
\nand it gets in meditation in a free, happy, vacant quietude which is the first
\nstep towards the true consciousness. The inner being (inner mind, vital,
\nphysical) is not lost but gone inside\u2014the outer part does not know where\u2014but
\nprobably gone inside into union with the psychic. The only thing that can have
\ngone is something of the old nature that was standing in the way of this
\nexperience.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      What you feel
\nas the new life is the growth of the inner being in you; the inner being is the
\ntrue being and as it grows the whole consciousness begins to change. This
\nfeeling and your new attitude towards people are signs of the change. The seeing
\nof inner things also usually comes with this growth of the inner being and
\nconsciousness; it is an inner vision which awakes in most sadhaks when they
\nenter this stage.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      It is also a
\ncharacteristic of this inner consciousness that even when it is active, there is
\nfelt behind the action or containing it a complete quietude or silence. The more
\none concentrates, the\n<\/p>\n

 
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-113<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

more this
\nquietude and silence increases. That is why there seems to be all quiet within
\neven though all sorts of things may be taking place within.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      It is also
\nquite usual that what takes place in the inner consciousness should not express
\nitself at present in the outer physical. It at first creates changes outside,
\nbut takes possession of the outer instruments only afterwards.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      It is a very
\ngood sign that when the thoughts and the attempt at disturbance come there is
\nsomething that remains calm and cool \u2014for that, like the psychic reply from
\nwithin, shows that the inner consciousness is fixed or fixing itself in part of
\nthe being. This is a well recognised stage of the inner change in sadhana.
\nEqually good is the emerging of the self-existent Ananda from within not
\ndependent on outward things. It is a fact that this inner gladness and happiness
\nis something peaceful and happy at once\u2014it is not an excited movement like the
\nvital outward pleasure, though it can be more ardent and intense. Another good
\nresult is the fading out of the feeling that "the work is mine" and the power to
\ndo it with the outward consciousness not engaging the inner being.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      The sense of
\nrelease as if from jail always accompanies the emergence of the psychic being or
\nthe realisation of the self above. It is therefore spoken of as a liberation,
\nmukti. <\/i>It is a release into peace, happiness, the soul’s freedom not tied
\ndown by the thousand ties and cares of the outward ignorant existence.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      It was of
\ncourse the Mother’s face you saw in your vision, but probably in one of her
\nsupraphysical, not her physical form\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nPage-114<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

and face\u2014that
\nis also indicated by the great light that came from the form and rendered it
\ninvisible.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      The absence of
\nthought is quite the right thing\u2014for the true inner consciousness is a silent
\nconsciousness which has not to think out things, but gets the right perception,
\nunderstanding and knowledge in a spontaneous way from within and speaks or acts
\naccording to that. It is the outer consciousness which has to depend on outside
\nthings and to think about them because it has not this spontaneous guidance.
\nWhen one is fixed in this inner consciousness, then one can indeed go back to
\nthe old action by an effort of will, but it is no longer a natural movement and,
\nif long maintained, becomes fatiguing. As for the dreams, that is different.
\nDreams about old bygone things come up from the subconscient which retains the
\nold impressions and the seeds of the old movements and habits long after the
\nwaking consciousness has dropped them. Abandoned by the waking consciousness,
\nthey still come up in dreams; for in sleep the outer physical consciousness goes
\ndown into the subconscient or towards it and many dreams come up from there.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      The silence in
\nwhich all is quiet and one remains as a witness while something in the
\nconsciousness spontaneously calls down the higher things is the complete silence
\nwhich comes when the full force of the higher consciousness is upon mind and
\nvital and body.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      Things inside
\ncan be seen as distinctly as outward things whether in an image by the subtle
\nvision or in their essence by a still more subtle and powerful way of seeing;
\nbut all these things have to develop in order to get their full power and
\nintensity.\n<\/p>\n

 
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-115<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

  II <\/b>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      There is a
\nstage in the sadhana in which the inner being begins to awake. Often the first
\nresult is the condition made up of the following elements:\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      1) A sort of
\nwitness attitude in which the inner consciousness looks at all that happens as a
\nspectator or observer, observing things but taking no active interest or
\npleasure in them.\n<\/p>\n

      2) A state of
\nneutral equanimity in which there is neither joy nor sorrow, only quietude.\n<\/p>\n

      3) A sense of
\nbeing something separate from all that happens, observing it but not part of it.\n<\/p>\n

     
\n4) An absence of attachment to things, people or events.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      It seems as if
\nthis condition were trying to come in you; but it is still imperfect. For
\ninstance, in this condition (1) there should be no disgust or impatience or
\nanger when people talk, only indifference and an inner peace and silence. Also,
\n(2) there should not be a mere neutral quiet and indifference, but a positive
\nsense of calm, detachment and peace. Again, (3) there should be no going out of
\nthe body so that you do not know what is happening or what you are doing. There
\nmay be a sense of not being the body but something else,\u2014that is good; but there
\nshould be a perfect awareness of all that is going on in or around you.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      Moreover, this
\ncondition even when it is perfect is only a transitional stage\u2014it is intended to
\nbring a certain state of freedom and liberation. But in that peace there must
\ncome the feeling of the Divine Presence, the sense of the Mother’s power working
\non you, the joy or Ananda.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      If you can
\nconcentrate in the heart as well as in the head, then these things can more
\neasily come.\n<\/p>\n

    \n<\/p>\n

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

\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-116<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     The experience
\nyou have of a division in the being with the inner void and indifferent,
\nudasin,<\/i>\u2014not sorrowful, but neutral and indifferent, is an experience which
\nmany pass through and is highly valued by the Sannyasins. For us it is a passage
\nonly to something larger and more positive. In it the old small human feelings
\nfall away and a sort of calm neutral void is made for a higher nature to
\nmanifest. It must be fulfilled and replaced by a sense of large silence and
\nfreedom into which the Mother’s consciousness can flow from above.\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      The condition
\nin which all movements become superficial and empty with no connection with the
\nsoul is a stage in the withdrawal from the surface consciousness to the inner
\nconsciousness. When one goes into the inner consciousness, it is felt as a calm,
\npure existence without any movement, but eternally tranquil, unmoved and
\nseparate from the outer nature. This comes as a result of detaching onself from
\nthe movements, standing back from them and is a very important movement of the
\nsadhana. The first result of it is an entire quietude but afterwards that
\nquietude begins (without the quietude ceasing) to fill with the psychic and
\nother inner movements which create a true inner and spiritual life behind the
\nouter life and nature. It is then easier to govern and change the latter.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      At present
\nthere are fluctuations in your consciousness because this inner state is not yet
\nfully developed and established. When it is, there will still be fluctuations in
\nthe outer consciousness, but the inner quiet, force, love etc. will be constant
\nand the superficial fluctuations will be watched by the inner being without its
\nbeing shaken or troubled, until they are removed by the complete outer change.\n<\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-117<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

         As for X, it is
\nbest to let it pass and try to remain steady within and detached; one can’t
\nseparate from all contacts; one must become more and more superior to their
\ncustomary reactions.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      The
\nconsciousness you speak of would be described in the Gita as the witness
\nPurusha. The Purusha or basic consciousness is the true being or at least, in
\nwhatever plane it manifests, represents the true being. But in the ordinary
\nnature of man it is covered up by the ego and the ignorant play of the Prakriti
\nand remains veiled behind as the unseen Witness supporting the play of the
\nIgnorance. When it emerges, you feel it as a consciousness behind, calm,
\ncentral, unidentified with the play which depends upon it. It may be covered
\nover, but it is always there. The emergence of the Purusha is the beginning of
\nliberation. But it can also become slowly the Master\u2014slowly because the whole
\nhabit of the ego and the play of the lower forces is against that. Still it can
\ndictate what higher play is to replace the lower movement and then there is the
\nprocess of that replacement, the higher coming, the lower struggling to remain
\nand push away the higher movement. You say rightly that the offering to the
\nDivine shortens the whole thing and is more effective, but usually it cannot be
\ndone completely at once owing to the past habit and the two methods continue
\ntogether until the complete surrender is possible.\n<\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

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

      The attitude of
\nthe witness consciousness within\u2014I do not think it necessarily involves an
\nexternal seclusion, though one\n<\/p>\n

    
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-118<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

may do that
\nalso\u2014is a very necessary stage in the progress. It helps the liberation from the
\nlower Prakriti\u2014not getting involved in the ordinary nature movements; it helps
\nthe establishment of a perfect calm and peace within, for there is then one part
\nof the being which remains detached and sees without being disturbed the
\nperturbations of the surface; it helps also the ascent into the higher
\nconsciousness and the descent of the higher consciousness, for it is through
\nthis calm, detached and liberated inner being that the ascent and descent can
\neasily be done. Also, to have the same witness look on the movements of Prakriti
\nin others, seeing, understanding but not perturbed by them in any way is a very
\ngreat help towards both the liberation and the universalisation of the being. I
\ncould not therefore possibly object to this movement in a sadhak.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      As for the
\nsurrender it is not inconsistent with the witness attitude. On the contrary by
\nliberating from the ordinary Prakriti, it makes easier the surrender to the
\nhigher or divine Power. Very often when this witness attitude has not been taken
\nbut there is a successful calling in of the Force to act in one, one of the
\nfirst things the Force does is to establish the witness attitude so as to be
\nable to act with less interference or immixture from the movements of the lower
\nPrakriti.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      There remains
\nthe question of the avoidance of contact with others and there there is some
\ndifficulty or incertitude. Part of your nature has a strong turn towards contact
\nwith others, action on others, interchange, almost a need of it. This brings
\nabout some fluctuation between the turn to an inner isolation and the turn
\ntowards contact and action. There is the same double and fluctuating movement in
\nothers here like X. In such cases I generally do not stress upon either
\ntendency but leave the consciousness to find its own poise, because I have seen
\nthat to\n<\/p>\n

    
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-119<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

press too much
\non the isolation tendency when the nature is not mainly contemplative does not
\nsucceed very well\u2014unless of course the sadhak himself gets a strong and fixed
\ndetermination that way. This may be the cause of what you felt. But the question
\nbetween witness attitude and surrender does not arise, for the reason I have
\nexplained\u2014one can very well aid or lead to the other as ours is a yoga which
\njoins these things together and does not keep them always separate.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      The silence
\ndescends into the inner being first\u2014as also other things from the higher
\nconsciousness. One can become aware of this inner being calm, silent, untouched
\nby the movements of Nature, full of knowledge or light, and at the same time be
\naware of another lesser being, the small personality on the surface which is
\nmade up of the movements of Nature or else still subject to them or else, if not
\nsubject to them, still open to invasion by them. This is a condition that any
\nnumber of sadhaks and yogis have experienced. The inner being means the psychic,
\nthe inner mind, the inner vital, the inner physical. In this condition none of
\nthese can be even touched, so there has been an essential purification. All need
\nnot feel this division into two consciousnesses, but most do. When it is there,
\nthe will that decides the action is in the inner being, not in the outer\u2014so the
\ninvasion of the outer by vital movements can in no way compel the action. It is
\non the contrary a very favourable stage in the transformation because the inner
\nbeing can bring the whole force of the higher consciousness in it to change the
\nnature wholly, observing the action of Nature without being affected by it,
\nputting the force for change wherever needed and setting\n<\/p>\n

   
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-120<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

the whole being
\nright as one does with a machine. That is if one wants a transformation. For
\nmany Vedantins don’t think it necessary\u2014they say the inner being is mukta, <\/i>
\nthe rest is simply a mechanical continuation of the impetus of Nature in the
\nphysical man and will drop away with the body so that one can depart into
\nNirvana.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      You can
\ncertainly go on developing the consciousness of the Witness Purusha above, but
\nif it is only a witness and the lower Prakriti is allowed to have its own way,
\nthere would be no reason why these conditions should ever stop. Many take that
\nattitude \u2014that the Purusha has to liberate itself by standing apart, and the
\nPrakriti can be allowed to go on till the end of the life doing its own
\nbusiness\u2014it is prārdbdha karma; <\/i>when the body falls away, the Prakriti
\nwill drop also and the Purusha go off into the featureless Brahman! This is a
\ncomfortable theory, but of more than doubtful truth; I don’t think liberation is
\nso simple and facile a matter as that. In any case, the transformation which is
\nthe object of our yoga would not take place.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      The Purusha
\nabove is not only a Witness, he is the giver (or withholder) of the sanction; if
\nhe persistently refuses the sanction to a movement of Prakriti, keeping himself
\ndetached, then, even if it goes on for a time by its past momentum, it usually
\nloses its hold after a time, becomes more feeble, less persistent, less concrete
\nand in the end fades away. If you take the Purusha consciousness, it should be
\nnot only as the Witness but as the Anumanta, refusing sanction to the
\ndisturbing movements, sanctioning only peace, calm, purity and whatever else is
\npart of the divine nature. This refusal of sanction need not mean a struggle
\nwith\n<\/p>\n

  
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-121<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

the lower Prakriti; it should be a quiet, persistent, detached refusal leaving
\nunsupported, unassented to, without meaning or justification, the contrary
\naction of the nature.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      When one
\nfollows after the impersonal Self, one is moving between two opposite
\nprinciples\u2014the silence and purity of the impersonal inactive Atman and the
\nactivity of the ignorant Prakriti. One can pass ‘into the Self, leaving the
\nignorant nature or reducing it to silence. Or else, one can live in the peace
\nand freedom of the Self and watch the action of Nature as a witness. Even one
\nmay put some sattwic control, by tapasya, over the action of the Prakriti; but
\nthe impersonal Self has no power to change or divinise the nature. For that one
\nhas to go beyond the impersonal Self and seek after the Divine who is both
\npersonal and impersonal and beyond these two aspects. If, however, you practise
\nliving in the impersonal Self and can achieve a certain spiritual impersonality,
\nthen you grow in equality, purity, peace, detachment, you get the power of
\nliving in an inner freedom not touched by the surface movement or struggle of
\nthe mental, vital and physical nature, and this becomes a great help when you
\nhave to go beyond the impersonal and to change the troubled nature also into
\nsomething divine.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      As for the
\noffering of the actions to the Divine and the vital difficulty it raises, it is
\nnot possible to avoid the difficulty\u2014you have to go through and conquer it. For,
\nthe moment you make this attempt, the vital arises with all its restless
\nimperfections to oppose the change. However, there are three things you can do
\nto alleviate and shorten the difficulty:\n<\/p>\n

 
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-122<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     1. Detach
\nyourself from this vital-physical\u2014observe it as something not yourself; reject
\nit, refuse your consent to its claims and impulses, but quietly as the witness Purusha whose refusal of sanction must ultimately prevail. This ought not to be
\ndifficult for you, if you have already learned to live more and more in the
\nimpersonal Self.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      2. When you are
\nnot in this impersonality, still use your mental will and its power of assent or
\nrefusal,\u2014not with a painful struggle, but in the same way, quietly, denying the
\nclaims of Desire, till these claims by loss of sanction and assent lose their
\nforce of return and become more and more faint and external.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      3. If you
\nbecome aware of the Divine above you or in your heart, call for help, for light
\nand power from there to change the vital itself, and at the same time insist
\nupon this vital till it itself learns to pray for the change.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      Finally, the
\ndifficulty will be reduced to its smallest proportions the moment you can by the
\nsincerity of your aspiration to the Divine and your surrender- awaken the
\npsychic being in you (the Purusha in the secret heart) so that it will come
\nforward and remain in front and pour its influence on all the movements of the
\nmind, the vital and the physical consciousness. The work of transformation will
\nstill have to be done, but from that moment it will no longer be so hard and
\npainful.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      Obviously not.
\nThe witness attitude is not meant as a convenient means for disowning the
\nresponsibility of one’s defects and thereby refusing to mend them. It is meant
\nfor self-knowledge and, in our yoga, as a convenient station (detached and
\nuninvolved,\n<\/p>\n

   
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-123<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

therefore not
\nsubject to Prakriti) from which one can act on the wrong movements by refusal of
\nassent and by substituting for them the action of the true consciousness from
\nwithin or above.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

III<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      It is a very
\nserious difficulty in one’s yoga\u2014the absence of a central will always superior
\nto the waves of the Prakriti forces, always in touch with the Mother, imposing
\nits central aim and aspiration on the nature. That is because you have not yet
\nlearned to live in your central being; you have been accustomed to run with
\nevery wave of Force, no matter of what kind, that rushed upon you and to
\nidentify yourself with it for the time being. It is one of the things that has
\nto be unlearned; you must find your central being with the psychic as its basis
\nand live in it.\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      To be aware of
\none’s central consciousness and to know the action of the forces is the first
\ndefinite step towards self-mastery.\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      You must gather
\nyourself within more firmly. If you disperse yourself constantly, go out of the
\ninner circle, you will constantly move about in the pettinesses of the ordinary
\nouter nature and under the influences to which it is open. Learn to live within,\n<\/p>\n

     
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-124<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

to act always
\nfrom within, from a constant communion with the Mother. It may be difficult at
\nfirst to do it always and completely, but it can be done if one sticks to it\u2014and
\nit is at that price, by learning to do that, that one can have the siddhi in the
\nyoga.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      You must have
\nsomehow externalised yourself too much. It is only by living in one’s inner
\nconsciousness and doing everything from there that the right psychic condition
\ncan be kept. Otherwise it goes inside and the external covers it up. It is not
\nlost, but hidden\u2014one must go inside again to recover it.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      It is the past
\nhabit of the vital that makes you repeatedly go out into the external part; you
\nmust persist and establish the opposite habit of living in your inner being
\nwhich is your true being and of looking at everything from there. It is from
\nthere that you get the true thought, the true vision and understanding of things
\nand of your own self and nature.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      Yes. When one
\nis in the right consciousness, then there is the right movement, the right
\nhappiness, everything in harmony with the Truth.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      When there is
\nthe wrong consciousness, there is demand, dissatisfaction, doubt, all kinds of
\ndisharmony.\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

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

  
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-125<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

       The difference
\nis when a thing is done with the inner mind and when it is done only with the
\nouter brain. What you feel is the inner mind taking it up\u2014then it becomes part
\nof the consciousness and things are really learned\u2014the working of the outer mind
\nis always difficult and superficial.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      It is evident
\nthat the inner being in you is beginning to come more and more forward. As it
\ndoes so, these outer difficulties will be more and more pushed out and the
\nconsciousness will keep the peace and force at first in the greater part of it,
\nafterwards in the whole.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      Yes, that is
\nall right. Relying on outer methods mainly never succeeds very well. It is only
\nwhen there is the inner poise that the outer movement is really effective and
\nthen it comes of itself.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      It is good.
\nFasten on the true thing, the concentration in the inner being and the inner
\nlife. All these outer things are of minor importance and it is only when the
\ninner life is well established that the difficulties with which they are
\nhampered can get their true solution. That you have seen several times when you
\nwent inside. To be too much occupied in mind with the outer difficulties keeps
\nit externalised. Living inwardly you will find the Mother close to you and
\nrealise her will and her action.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      The difficulty
\nis that you attach so much importance to things that are of quite a small value.
\nYou behave as if to have or have\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

\nPage-126<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

not a table is something of supreme importance and worry and excite
\nyourself so much about the rights and wrongs of the matter that you allow it to
\nupset your whole peace of mind and make you fall from the true condition. These
\nthings are small and relative\u2014you may have a new table or you may not have a new
\ntable, neither way is of any very great importance and it makes no difference to
\nthe Divine Purpose in you. The one thing important is to increase calm and peace
\nand the descent of the Divine Force, to grow in equality and inward light and
\nconsciousness. Outward things have to be done with a great quiet, doing whatever
\nis necessary but not exciting or upsetting yourself about anything. It is only
\nso that you can advance steadily and quickly. When you feel the Mother’s Force
\nabout you, the peace closely round you that is the one thing of importance\u2014these
\nsmall outward things can be settled in a hundred different ways, it does not
\nreally matter.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      IV
\n<\/b>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      The dream about
\nX was of course a continuation of the process of clearing out remnants of the
\nold movement from the subconscious vital.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      The experience
\nyou relate, the stillness, the emptiness of mind and vital and cessation of
\nthoughts and other movements was the coming, of the state called "samadhi" in
\nwhich the consciousness goes inside in a deep stillness and silence. This
\ncondition is favourable to inner experience, realisation, the vision of the
\nunseen truth of things, though one can get these in the waking condition also.
\nIt is not sleep but the state in which one feels conscious within, no longer
\noutside.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      The diamond in
\nyour heart was a formation of the light of\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-127<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

Mother’s
\nconsciousness there,\u2014for the Mother’s light is of a white and at its most
\nintense of a diamond radiance. The light is a sign of the Mother’s presence in
\nyour heart and that is what you saw once and felt for a moment.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      The inability
\nto read books or papers is often felt when the consciousness is getting the
\ntendency to go inside.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      (1) No, it was
\nnot sleep. You went inside into an inner consciousness; in this inner
\nconsciousness one is awake inside, but not outside, not conscious of external
\nthings but of inner things only. Your inner consciousness was busy doing what
\nyour outer mind had been trying to do, that is to work upon the thoughts and
\nsuggestions that bring restlessness and to put them right; it can be done much
\nmore easily by the inner consciousness than by the outer mind.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      (2) As for the
\nthings that are necessary to be done, they can be done much more easily by the
\nForce and Peace descending, (bringing the solid strength) than by your own
\nmental effort.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      There is no
\nreason why one should not have a burning aspiration in sleep, provided one is
\nconscious in sleep. In fact, the condition you describe was not sleep\u2014it was
\nsimply that the consciousness was trying to go inside in a sort of indrawn
\ncondition (a kind of half-samadhi) while the external mind was constantly coming
\nout of it. What you have, if you go into this indrawn condition, is not dreams
\nbut spiritual experiences or visions or experiences\n<\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-128<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

in other supraphysical planes of consciousness. Your burning aspiration was just such a
\nspiritual experience.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

About your
\nexperiences:\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      (1) The sleep
\nwhich you felt when meditating was not sleep but an inward condition of the
\nconsciousness. When this inward condition is not very deep, one can be aware of
\nvarious scenes, voices, etc. which belong not to the physical but to some inner
\nplane of consciousness\u2014their value or truth depends on the plane to which one
\nreaches. Those of the surface are of no importance and one has simply to pass
\nthrough them till one gets deeper.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      (2) The fear,
\nanger, depression, etc. which used to rise when making the Japa of the names
\ncame from a vital resistance in the nature (this resistance exists in everyone)
\nwhich threw up these things because of the pressure on the vital part to change
\nwhich is implied in sadhana. These resistances rise and then, if one takes the
\nright attitude, slowly or quickly clear away. One has to observe them and
\nseparate oneself from them, persisting in the concentration and sadhana till the
\nvital becomes quiet and clear.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\n(3) The things you saw (moon, sky, etc.) are due to the opening of the
\ninner vision; this usually comes when the concentration begins to open up the
\ninner consciousness of which this subtle vision is a part. This faculty of
\nvision has its importance in the development of the inner being, and need not be
\ndiscouraged, even though too much importance should not be attached to the
\nthings seen in the earlier stages.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\n(4) There are some, however, that are part of the growing spiritual
\nexperience, such as the sun you saw overhead and the\n<\/p>\n

  
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-129<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

piece of golden
\nlight\u2014for these are signs of an opening within and symbolic. Both are symbols of
\nthe Divine Truth and Light and of one action of their influence.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\n(5) The most important experience, however, is that of the peace and
\nquiet which comes with a good concentration. It is this that must grow and fix
\nitself in the mind and vital and body \u2014for it is this peace and quiet that make
\na firm basis for the sadhana.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      As to the
\ndream, it was not a dream but an experience of the inner being in a conscious
\ndream-state, svapna-samādhi. <\/i>The numbness and the feeling of being about
\nto lose consciousness are always due to the pressure or descent of a Force to
\nwhich the body is not accustomed but feels strongly. Here it was not the
\nphysical body that was being directly pressed, but the subtle body, sūksma śarīra, <\/i>in which the inner being more intimately dwells and in which it goes
\nout in sleep or trance or at the moment of death. But the physical body in these
\nvivid experiences feels as if it was itself that was having the experience; the
\nnumbness was the effect in it of the pressure. The pressure on the whole body
\nwould mean a pressure on the whole inner consciousness, perhaps for some
\nmodification or change which would make it more ready for knowledge or
\nexperience; the third or fourth rib would indicate a region which belongs to the
\nvital nature, the domain of the life-force, some pressure for a change there.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      There is no
\nneed of the question. At this stage you have only to watch the experiences and
\nobserve their significance. It is only\n<\/p>\n

    
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-130<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

when the
\nexperiences are in the vital realm that some are likely to be false formations.
\nThese of which you write are simply the common experiences of an opening yogic
\nconsciousness and they have to be understood, simply.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      Here it is the
\nbreaking up of the small surface vital into the largeness of the true or inner
\nvital being which can at once open to the Higher Consciousness, its power, light
\nand Ananda. There is also begun a similar breaking of the small physical mind
\nand sense into the wideness of the inner physical consciousness. The inner
\nplanes are always wide and open into the Universal, while the outer surface
\nparts are shut up in themselves and full of narrow and ignorant movements.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      Your series of
\nexperiences are very interesting by the constant (though interspaced)
\ndevelopment they illustrate. These two new significant elements have been added
\nto the previous substance of the experience. The first is the very precise
\nlocalisation of the uprush of the consciousness from the pit of the stomach
\n\u2014that is to say, from above the navel, the movement itself starting from the
\nnavel itself, even below it. The navel-centre (nābhi-padma) <\/i>is the main
\nseat of the centralised vital consciousness (dynamic centre) which ranges from
\nthe heart level (emotional) to the centre below the navel (lower vital,
\nsensational desire centre). These three make the domain of the vital being. It
\nis therefore clear that it was your inner vital being which had this experience,
\nand its intensity and vehemence was probably due to the whole vital (or most of
\nit) being awake and sharing in it this time. The experience itself was psychic
\nin its origin, but was given a strong emotional-vital form in its expression. I
\nmay\n<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

\nPage-131<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

add, for
\ncompleteness, that the centre of the psychic is behind the heart and it is
\nthrough the purified emotions that the psychic most easily finds an outlet. All
\nfrom the heart above is connected with the mental-vital and above it is the mind
\nwith its three centres. One in the throat (the outward-going or externalising
\nmind), one between the eyes or rather in the middle of the forehead (the centre
\nof vision and will) and one above, communicating with the brain, which is called
\nthe thousand-petalled lotus, and where are centralised the highest thought and
\nintelligence, communicating with the greater mind planes (illumined mind,
\nintuition, overmind) above.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      The second new
\nsignificant feature is the self-manifestation of the inner mind; for it was your
\ninner mind that was watching, observing and criticising the vital being’s
\npsychic experience. You found this clear division in you curious, but it will no
\nlonger seem curious once you know the perfectly normal divisibility of the
\ndifferent parts of the being. In the outer surface nature, mind, psychic, vital,
\nphysical are all jumbled together and it needs a strong power of introspection,
\nself-analysis, close observation and disentanglement of the threads of thought,
\nfeeling and impulse to find out the composition of our nature and the relation
\nand interaction of these parts upon each other. But when one goes inside as you
\nhave done, we find the sources of all this surface action and there the parts of
\nour being are quite separate and clearly distinct from each other. We feel them
\nindeed as different beings in us, and just as two people in a joint action can
\ndo, they too are seen to observe, criticise, help or oppose and restrain each
\nother; it is as if we were a group-being, each member of the group with its
\nseparate place and function, and all directed by a central being who is
\nsometimes in front above the others, sometimes behind the scenes. Your mental
\nbeing was\n<\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-132<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

observing the
\nvital and not quite easy about its vehemence, for the natural base of the mental
\nbeing is calm, thoughtfulness, restraint, control and balance, while the natural
\nturn of the vital is dynamism, energy thrown into emotion, sensation and action.
\nAll therefore was perfectly natural and in order.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      The explanation
\nof your experience is plain. The lower being (vital and physical) was receiving
\nan influence (mental light, yellow) from the thinking mind and higher vital
\nwhich was clearing it of the old habitual lower vital reactions: very often in
\nthe sadhana one feels the inner being speaking to the outer or the mind or
\nhigher vital speaking to the lower so as to enlighten it.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      The important
\nexperience is that of the white ray in the heart\u2014 the white light and the
\nillumining of the heart by the light is a riling of great power in this sadhana.
\nThe intuitions she speaks of are a sign of the inner consciousness growing in
\nher\u2014the consciousness which is necessary for yoga.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      The three
\nexperiences of which you speak belong all to the same movement or the same stage
\nof your spiritual life: they are initial movements of the consciousness to
\nbecome aware of your inner being which was veiled, as in most, by the outer
\nwaking self. There are, we might say, two beings in us, one on the surface, our
\nordinary exterior mind, life, body consciousness, another\n<\/p>\n

 
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-133<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

behind the
\nveil, an inner mind, an inner life, an inner physical consciousness constituting
\nanother or inner self. This inner self once awake opens in its turn to our true
\nreal eternal self. It opens inwardly to the soul, called in the language of this
\nyoga the psychic being which supports our successive births and at each birth
\nassumes a new mind, life and body. It opens above to the Self or Spirit which is
\nunborn and by conscious recovery of it we transcend the changing personality and
\nachieve freedom and full mastery over our nature.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      You did quite
\nright in first developing the sattwic qualities and building up the inner
\nmeditative quietude. It is possible by strenuous meditation or by certain
\nmethods of tense endeavour to open doors on to the inner being or even break
\ndown some of the walls between the inner and outer self before finishing or even
\nundertaking this preliminary self-discipline, but it is not always wise to do it
\nas that may lead to conditions of sadhana which may be very turbid, chaotic,
\nbeset with unnecessary dangers. By adopting the more patient course you have
\narrived at a point at which the doors of the inner being have begun almost
\nautomatically to swing open. Now both processes can go on side by side, but it
\nis necessary to keep the sattwic quietude, patience, vigilance,\u2014to hurry
\nnothing, to force nothing, not to be led away by any strong lure or call of the
\nintermediate stage which is now beginning, before you are sure that it is the
\nright call. For there are many vehement pulls from the forces of the inner
\nplanes which it is not safe to follow.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      Your first
\nexperience is an opening into the inner mental self \u2014the space between the
\neyebrows is the centre of the inner mind, vision, will and the blue fight you
\nsaw was that of a higher mental plane, a spiritual mind, one might say, which is
\nabove the ordinary human mental intelligence. An opening into this\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

\nPage-134<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

higher mind is
\nusually accompanied by a silence of the ordinary mental thought. Our thoughts
\nare not really created within ourselves independently in the small narrow
\nthinking machine we call our mind; in fact, they
\ncome to us from a vast mental space or ether either as mind-waves or waves of
\nmind-force that carry a significance which takes shape in our personal mind or
\nas thought-formations ready-made which we adopt and call ours. Our outer mind is
\nblind to this process of Nature; but by the awakening of the inner mind we can
\nbecome aware of it. What you saw was the receding of this constant mental
\ninvasion and the retreat of the thought-forms beyond the horizon of the wide
\nspace of mental Nature. You felt this horizon to be in yourself somewhere, but
\nevidently it was in that larger self-space<\/p>\n

\nwhich even in its more limited field just between the eyebrows you felt to be
\nbigger than the corresponding physical space. In fact, though the inner
\nmind-spaces have horizons, they stretch beyond those horizons-illimitably. The
\ninner mind is something very wide projecting itself into the infinite and
\nfinally identifying itself with the infinity of universal Mind. When we break
\nout of the narrow limits of the external physical mind we begin to see inwardly
\nand to feel this wideness, in the end this universality and infinity of the
\nmental self-space. Thoughts are not the essence of mind-being, they are only an
\nactivity of mental nature; if that activity ceases, what appears then as a
\nthought-free existence that manifests in its place is not a blank or void but
\nsomething very real, substantial, concrete we may say-a mental being that
\nextends itself widely and can be its own field of existence silent or active as
\nwell as the Witness, Knower, Master of that field and its action. Some feel it
\nfirst as a void, but that is because their observation is untrained and
\ninsufficient and loss of activity gives them the sense of blank; an emptiness
\nthere is, but it is<\/p>\n

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

 
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-135<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

an emptiness of
\nthe ordinary activities, not a blank of existence.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      The recurrence
\nof the experience of the receding away of thoughts, the cessation of the
\nthought-generating mechanism and its replacement by the mental self-space, is
\nnormal and as it should be; for this silence or at any rate the capacity for it
\nhas to grow until one can have it at will or even established in an automatic
\npermanence. For this silence of the ordinary mind-mechanism is necessary in
\norder that the higher mentality may manifest, descend, occupy by degrees the
\nplace of the present imperfect mentality and transform the activities of the
\nlatter into its own fuller movements. The difficulty of its coming when you are
\nat work is only at the beginning\u2014afterwards, when it is more settled, one finds
\nthat one can carry on all the activities of life either in the pervading silence
\nitself or at least with that as the support and background. The silence remains
\nbehind and there is the necessary action on the surface or the silence is our
\nwide self and somewhere in it an active Power does the works of Nature without
\ndisturbing the silence. It is therefore quite right to suspend the work while
\nthe visitation of the experience is there\u2014the development of this inner silent
\nconsciousness is sufficiently important to justify a brief interruption or
\npause.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      In the case of
\nthe other two experiences, on the contrary, it is otherwise. The dream
\nexperience must not be allowed to take hold of the waking hours and pull the
\nconsciousness within; it must confine its operation to the hours of sleep. So
\ntoo there should be no push or pressure to break down the wall between the inner
\nself and the outer "I"\u2014the fusion must be allowed to take place by a developing
\ninner action in its own natural time. I shall explain why in another letter.\n<\/p>\n

 
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-136<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

    Your second
\nexperience is a first movement of the awakening of the inner being in sleep.
\nOrdinarily when one sleeps a complex phenomenon happens. The waking
\nconsciousness is no longer there, for all has been withdrawn within into the
\ninner realms of which we are not aware when we are awake, though they exist; for
\nthen all that is put behind a veil by the waking mind and nothing remains except
\nthe surface self and the outward world\u2014much as the veil of the sunlight hides
\nfrom us the vast worlds of the stars that are behind it. Sleep is a going inward
\nin which the surface self and the outside world are put away from our sense and
\nvision. But in ordinary sleep we do not become aware of the worlds within; the
\nbeing seems submerged hi a deep subconscience. On the surface of this
\nsubconscience floats an obscure layer in which dreams take place, as it seems to
\nus, but, more correctly it may be said, are recorded. When we go very deeply
\nasleep, we have what appears to us as a dreamless slumber; but, in fact, dreams
\nare going on, but they are either too deep down to reach the recording surface
\nor are forgotten, all recollection of their having existed even is wiped out in
\nthe transition to the waking consciousness. Ordinary dreams are for the most
\npart or seem to be incoherent, because they are either woven by the subconscient
\nout of deep-lying impressions left in it by our past inner and outer life, woven
\nin a fantastic way which does not easily yield any clue of meaning to the waking
\nmind’s remembrance, or are fragmentary records, mostly distorted, of experiences
\nwhich are going on behind the veil of sleep\u2014very largely indeed these two
\nelements get mixed up together. For, in fact, a large part of our consciousness
\nin sleep does not get sunk into this subconscious state; it passes beyond the
\nveil into other planes of being which are connected with our own inner planes,
\nplanes of supraphysical existence, worlds of\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-137<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

a larger life,
\nmind or psyche which are there behind and whose influences come to us without
\nour knowledge. Occasionally we get a dream from these planes, something more
\nthan a dream,\u2014 a dream experience which is a record direct or symbolic of what
\nhappens to us or around us there. As the inner consciousness grows by sadhana,
\nthese dream experiences increase in number, clearness, coherence, accuracy and
\nafter some growth of experience and consciousness, we can, if we observe, come
\nto understand them and their significance to our inner life. Even we can by
\ntraining become so conscious as to follow our own passage, usually veiled to our
\nawareness and memory, through many realms and the process of the return to the
\nwaking state. At a certain pitch of this inner wakefulness this kind of sleep, a
\nsleep of experiences, can replace the ordinary subconscious slumber.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      It is of course
\nan inner being or consciousness or something of the inner self that grows in
\nthis way, not as usually it is, behind the veil of sleep, but in the sleep
\nitself. In the condition which you describe, it is just becoming aware of sleep
\nand dream and observing them\u2014but as yet nothing farther\u2014unless there is
\nsomething in the nature of your dreams that has escaped you. But it is
\nsufficiently awake for the surface consciousness to remember this state, that is
\nto say, to receive and keep the report of it even in the transition from the
\nsleep to the waking state which usually abolishes by oblivion all but fragments
\nof the record of sleep happenings. You are right in feeling that the waking
\nconsciousness and this which is awake in sleep are not the same\u2014they are
\ndifferent parts of the being.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      When this
\ngrowth of the inner sleep consciousness begins, there is often a pull to go
\ninside and pursue the development even when there is no fatigue or need of
\nsleep. Another cause aids this\n<\/p>\n

    
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-138<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

pull. It is
\nusually the vital part of the inner being that first wakes in sleep and the
\nfirst dream experiences (as opposed to ordinary dreams) are usually, in the
\ngreat mass, experiences of the vital plane, a world of supraphysical life, full
\nof variety and interest, with many provinces, luminous or obscure, beautiful or
\nperilous, often extremely attractive, where we can get much knowledge too both
\nof our concealed parts of nature and of things happening to us behind the veil
\nand of others which are of concern for the development of our parts of nature.
\nThe vital being in us then may get very much attracted to this range of
\nexperience, may want to live more in it and less in the outer life. This would
\nbe the source of that wanting to get back to something interesting and
\nenthralling which accompanies the desire to fall into sleep. But this must not
\nbe encouraged in waking hours, it should be kept for hours set apart for sleep
\nwhere it gets its natural field. Otherwise there may be an unbalancing, a
\ntendency to live more and too much in the visions of the supraphysical realms
\nand a decrease of the hold on outer realities. The knowledge, the enlargement of
\nour consciousness of these fields of inner nature is very desirable, but it must
\nbe kept in its own place and limits.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      In my last
\nletter I had postponed the explanation of your third experience. What you have
\nfelt is indeed a touch of the Self, not the unborn Self above, the Atman of the
\nUpanishads, for that is differently experienced through the silence of the
\nthinking mind, but the inner being, the psychic supporting the inner mental,
\nvital, physical being, of which I have spoken. A time must come for every seeker
\nof complete self-knowledge when he is thus aware of living in two worlds, two
\nconsciousnesses at\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-139<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

the same time,
\ntwo parts of the same existence. At present he lives in the outer self, but he
\nwill go more and more inward, till the position is reversed and he lives within
\nin this new inner consciousness, inner self and feels the outer as something on
\nthe surface formed as an instrumental personality for the inner’s
\nself-expression in the material world. Then from within a Power works on the
\nouter to make it a conscious plastic instrument so that finally the inner and
\nthe outer may become fused into one. The wall you feel is indeed the wall of the
\nego which is based on the insistent identification of oneself with the outer
\npersonality and its movements. It is that identification which is the keystone
\nof the limitation and bondage from which the outer being suffers, preventing
\nexpansion, self-knowledge, spiritual freedom. But still the wall must not be
\nprematurely broken down, because that may lead to a disruption or confusion or
\ninvasion of either part by the movements of the two separated worlds before they
\nare ready to harmonise. A certain separation is necessary for some time after
\none has become aware of these two parts of the being as existing together. The
\nforce of the yoga must be given time to make the necessary adjustments and
\nopenings and to take the being inward and then from this inward poise to work on
\nthe outer nature.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      This does not
\nmean that one should not allow the consciousness to go inward so that as soon as
\npossible it should live in the inward world of being and see all anew from
\nthere. That inward going is most desirable and necessary and that change of
\nvision also. I mean only that all should be done by a natural movement without
\nhaste. The movement of going inward may come rapidly, but even after that
\nsomething of the wall of ego will be there and it will have to be steadily and
\npatiently taken down so that no stone of it may abide. My warning against\n<\/p>\n

   
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-140<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

allowing the
\nsleep world to encroach on the waking hours is limited to that alone and does
\nnot refer to the inward movement in waking concentration or ordinary waking
\nconsciousness. The waking movement carries us finally into the inner self and by
\nthat inner self we grow into contact with and knowledge of the supraphysical
\nworlds, but this contact and knowledge need not and should not lead to an
\nexcessive preoccupation with them or a subjection to their beings and forces. In
\nsleep we actually enter into these worlds and there is the danger, if the
\nattraction of the sleep consciousness is too great and encroaches on the waking
\nconsciousness, of this excessive preoccupation and influence.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      It is quite
\ntrue that an inner purity and sincerity, in which one is motived only by the
\nhigher call, is one’s best safeguard against the lures of the intermediate
\nstage. It keeps one on the right track and guards from deviation, until the
\npsychic being is fully awake and in front and, once that happens, there is no
\nfurther danger. If, in addition to this purity and sincerity, there is a clear
\nmind with a power of discrimination, that increases the safety in the earlier
\nstages. I do not think I need or should specify too fully or exactly the forms
\nthe lure or pull is likely to take. It may be better not to call up these forces
\nby an attention to them which may not be necessary. I do not suppose you are
\nlikely to be drawn away from the path by any of the greater perilous
\nattractions. As for the minor inconveniences of the intermediate stage, they are
\nnot dangerous and can easily be set right as one goes by the growth of
\nconsciousness, discrimination and sure experience.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      As I have said,
\nthe inward pull, the pull towards going inward is not undesirable and need not
\nbe resisted. At a particular stage it may be accompanied by an abundance of
\nvisions due to the growth of the inner sight which sees things belonging to all
\nthe\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

\nPage-141<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

planes of
\nexistence. That is a valuable power helpful in the sadhana and should not be
\ndiscouraged. But one must see and observe without attachment, keeping always the
\nmain object in front, realisation of the inner Self and the Divine\u2014these things
\nshould only be regarded as incidental to the growth of consciousness and helpful
\nto it, not as objects in themselves to be followed for their own sake. There
\nshould also be a discriminating mind which puts each thing in its place and can
\npause to understand its field and nature. There are some who become so eager
\nafter these subsidiary experiences that they begin to lose all sense of the true
\ndistinction and demarcation between different fields of reality. All that takes
\nplace in these experiences must not be taken as true\u2014one has to discriminate, see
\nwhat is mental formation or subjective construction and what is true, what is
\nonly suggestion from the larger mental and vital planes or what has reality only
\nthere and what is of value for help or guidance in inner sadhana or outer life.\n<\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      X’s experiences
\nare those which usually attend the withdrawal from the outer consciousness into
\nan inner plane of experience. The feeling of coldness of the body in the first
\nis one of the signs \u2014like the immobility and stiffness of Y’s experience\u2014that
\nthe consciousness is withdrawing from the outer or physical sheath and retiring
\ninside. The crystallisation was the form in which he felt the organisation of an
\ninner consciousness which could receive at once firmly and freely from above.
\nThe crystals at once indicate organised formation and a firm transparence in
\nwhich the greater vision and experience descending from the higher planes could
\nbe clearly reflected.\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nPage-142<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     As for the
\nother experience, his rejection of the waking consciousness evidently had the
\nresult of throwing him into an inner awareness in which he began to have contact
\nwith the supraphysical planes. What was meant by the sea of red colour and stars
\ndepends on the character of the red colour. If it was crimson, what he saw was
\nthe sea of the physical consciousness and physical life as it is represented to
\nthe inner symbolic vision; if it was purple red, then it was the sea of the
\nvital consciousness and the vital life-force. Perhaps, if he had not stopped his
\nsense of the Mother’s presence, it would have been better,\u2014he should rather, if
\nhe can, take it with him into the inner planes, then he would have had no
\noccasion to fear.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      In any case, if
\nhe wants to go into the inner consciousness and move in the inner planes\u2014which
\nwill inevitably happen if he shuts off the waking consciousness in his
\nmeditation\u2014he must cast away fear. Probably he expected to get the silence or
\nthe touch of the Divine Consciousness by following out the suggestion of the Gita. But the silence or the touch of the Divine Consciousness can be equally
\nand for some more easily got in the waking meditation through the Mother’s
\npresence and the descent from above. The inward movement, however, is probably
\nunavoidable and he should try to understand and, not shrinking or afraid, to go
\nto it with the same confidence and faith in the Mother as he has in the waking
\nmeditation. His dreams are, of course, experiences on the inner (vital) plane; I
\nneed not repeat the explanation I have already given to Y.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      P.S. The dream
\nabout the Mahadeva image may mean that someone (not of this world, of course)
\nwanted to mislead him and make him confuse some narrower traditional form of the
\npast with the greater living Truth that he is seeking.\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

\nPage-143<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

      The things you
\nfeel are due to the fact that the consciousness goes inside, so physical things
\nare felt as if they were at a distance. The same phenomenon can happen when one
\ngoes into another plane of consciousness and sees physical things from there.
\nBut it is probably the first that is happening with you. When one goes quite
\ninside, then physical things disappear,\u2014when some connection is kept, then they
\nbecome distant. But this is a transitory change. Afterwards, you will be able to
\nhave the two consciousnesses together, be in your psychic in one part of
\nyourself with all the experience and activities of the psychic being and nature
\nand yet with your surface self fully awake and active in physical things with
\nthe psychic support and influence behind this outer action.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      It is evidently
\nin a subtle world, not the physical that you move; that is evident from the
\ndifferent arrangement of things, but such details as the third arm and the
\nbook-marker removed yet there show that it is a subtle world very near to the
\nphysical; it is either a subtle-physical world or a very material vital domain.
\nIn all the subtle domains the physical is reproduced with a change, the change
\ngrowing freer and more elastic as one gets farther away. Such details as the
\nlameness show the same thing,\u2014the hold of the physical is still there. It is
\npossible to move about in the physical world, but usually that can only be done
\nby drawing on the atmosphere of other physical beings for a stronger
\nmaterialisation of the form\u2014when that happens one moves among them and sees them
\nand all the surroundings exactly as they are at that time in the physical world
\nand one can verify the accuracy of the details if immediately after returning to
\nthe body (which is usually\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-144<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

done with a
\nclear consciousness of the whole process of getting into it) one can traverse
\nthe same scene in the physical body. But this is rare; the subtle wandering is
\non the contrary a frequent phenomenon, only when it is near to the physical
\nworld all seems very material and concrete and the association of physical
\nhabits and physical mental movements with the subtle events is closer.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      It was a
\npartial exteriorisation, part of the consciousness going out to the scene and
\nsurroundings described by you while the rest remained in the body and was aware
\nboth of the normal surroundings and, by communication or indirect participation,
\nof what the other was experiencing. This is quite possible and for that no form
\nof trance or loss of external consciousness is necessary. As for the cause of
\nsuch an experience, it does not depend at all on one’s own ordinary mental or
\nother interests; it comes by a sort of attraction or touch from someone who is
\nthere on the scene and who feels the need of sympathy, support or help of some
\nkind, a need so strong that it forms a sort of call; it is very usually somebody
\nquite unknown and it just depends on whom the call happens to touch because he
\nis open at the time and receives the vibration and has the capacity to answer.
\nUsually there is a sort of identification of consciousness with that of the
\nperson calling so that one can see the surroundings and the things happening
\nthrough him. It is the physical that becomes nervous at these experiences and
\nthis must be overcome; as the inner mental, vital, physical consciousness opens
\nto things behind the thick physical veil all kinds of experiences may happen
\nthat are strange to the physical mind and its tendency to be apprehensive or
\nnervous at these things must disappear. It must be able to face even formidable
\nthings without fear.\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nPage-145<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

        For the eyes,
\nthat experience had got a certain hold and it was not to be expected that it
\nwould altogether disappear all at once. These things try to persist, but if the
\nrefusal is firm and unchanging, they fade away after a time or cease. The
\nlessening of the intensity of the Ananda is already a sign that the rejection is
\nhaving its effect. You have only to persist and after a time the vital
\nconsciousness will be free.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      When the vital
\nbeing goes out, it moves on the vital plane and in the vital consciousness and,
\neven if it is aware of physical scenes and things, it is not with a physical
\nvision. It is possible for one who has trained his faculties to enter into touch
\nwith physical things although he is moving about in the vital body, to see and
\nsense them accurately, even to act on them and physically move them. But the
\nordinary sadhak who has no knowledge or organised experience or training in
\nthese things cannot do it. He must understand that the vital plane is different
\nfrom the physical and that things that happen there are not physical happenings,
\nthough, if they are of the right kind and properly understood and used, they may
\nhave a meaning and value for the earth life. But also the vital consciousness is
\nfull of false formations and many confusions and it is not safe to move among
\nthem without knowledge and without a direct protection and guidance.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      You must have
\ngone out of your body leaving it unprotected and there was an attack which you
\ngot rid of after coming into the body. This part of the head from the ears down
\nto the neck is\n<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

\nPage-146<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

the seat of the
\nphysical mind\u2014the centre of the physical or externalising mind is in the throat
\njoining the spine at the back. It was an attack on the physical mind.\n<\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      Your three
\nexperiences related in your letter mean that you are going out in your vital
\nbody into the vital worlds and meeting the beings and formations of these
\nworlds. The old man of the temple and the girls you saw are hostile beings of
\nthe vital plane.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      It is better
\nnot to go in this way unless one has the protection of someone (physically
\npresent) who has knowledge and power on the vital world. As there is no one
\nthere who can do this for you, you should draw back from this movement. Aspire
\nfor perfect surrender, calm, peace, light, consciousness and strength in the
\nmind and the heart. When the mental being and the psychic being are thus open,
\nluminous and surrendered, then the vital can open and receive the same
\nillumination. Till then premature adventures on the vital plane are not
\nadvisable.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      If the movement
\ncannot be stopped, then observe the following instructions:\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      1. Never allow
\nany fear to enter into you. Face all you meet and see in this world with
\ndetachment and courage.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      2. Ask for our
\nprotection before you sleep or meditate. Use our names when you are attacked or
\ntempted.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      3. Do not
\nindulge in this world in any kind of sympathy for the old man in the temple or
\naccept such suggestions, e.g., that he was your spiritual preceptor, which was
\nobviously false since you could have no other spiritual preceptor than us. It
\nwas because of this sympathy and the accepted suggestion that he was able to go
\ninside you and create the pain you felt.\n<\/p>\n

 
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-147<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

       4. <\/b>Do not allow any foreign personality to enter into you, only the
\nLight, Power etc. from above.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      There is no
\nutility in such experiences; they may happen on the vital plane so long as one
\nhas still to pass through the vital range of experiences, but the aim should be
\nto get beyond them and live in a pure psychic and spiritual experience. To admit
\nor call the invasion of others into one’s own being is to remain always in the
\nconfusions of the intermediate zone. Only the Divine should be called into one’s
\npersonal Adhar\u2014by which is not meant the loss of one’s personal being or any
\nidea of becoming the Divine, for that should be avoided. The ego has to be
\novercome, but the central personal being (which is not the ego but the
\nindividual self, soul, a portion of the Divine) has to remain a channel and
\ninstrument of the Divine Shakti. As for others, sadhaks, etc. one can feel them
\nin one’s universalised consciousness, be aware of their movements, live in
\nharmony with them in the Divine All, but not allow or call their presence within
\nthe personal Adhar. Very often that leads to the invasion of the consciousness
\nby vital powers or presences which assume the forms of those who are so
\nadmitted\u2014and that is most undesirable. The sadhak must make his basic
\nconsciousness silent, calm, pure, peaceful and preserve or attain an absolute
\ncontrol over what he shall or shall not admit into it\u2014otherwise, if he does not
\nkeep this control, he is in danger of becoming a field of confused and
\ndisorderly experiences or a plaything of all sorts of mental and vital beings
\nand forces. Only one rule or influence other than one’s own should be admitted,
\nthe rule of the Divine Shakti over the Adhar.\n<\/p>\n

    
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-148<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     I am not very
\nsure of the significance of your friend’s statement about experiences. The
\n"double" voice is a frequent phenomenon; it happens very often when one has been
\nlong repeating a mantra that a voice or consciousness within begins to repeat it
\nautomatically\u2014also prayer can be taken up in the same way from within. It is
\nusually by an awakening of the inner consciousness or by the going in of the
\nconsciousness more deeply within from its outward poise that this happens. This
\nis supported in his case by the fact that he feels himself half way to trance,
\nhis body seems to melt away, he does not feel the weight of the book etc.; all
\nthese are well-known signs of the inner consciousness getting awake and largely
\nreplacing the outer. The moral effects of his new condition would also indicate
\nan awakening of the inner consciousness, the psychic or psychic-mental perhaps.
\nBut on the other hand he seems to feel this other voice as if outside him and to
\nhave the sense of another being than himself, an invisible presence in the room.
\nThe inner being is often felt as someone separate from or other than the
\nordinary self, but it is not usually felt outside. So it may be that in this
\nstate of withdrawal he comes into contact with another plane or world and
\nattracts to himself one of its beings who wants to share in his sadhana and
\ngovern it. The last is not a very safe phenomenon, for it is difficult to say
\nfrom the data what kind of being it is and the handing over of the government of
\none’s inner development to any other than the Divine, the Guru or one’s own
\npsychic being may bring with it serious peril. That is all I can say at present.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      It is evident
\nfrom your description that it was a vital force trying to take violent
\npossession of the body. Nothing can be more\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

\nPage-149<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

dangerous than
\nto allow this kind of loss of control and intrusion of an alien influence. In
\nyour present condition of ignorance, the vital being not yet sufficiently open,
\nthe psychic not yet sufficiently awake, a hostile power can easily intrude and
\npass itself off as the Divine Force. Remember that no personality and no power
\nis to be allowed to possess you. The Divine Force will not act in this way; it
\nwill work first to purify, to widen and enlighten the consciousness, to open it
\nto Light and Truth, to awake the heart and the psychic being. Only afterwards
\nwill it take gradual and quiet control through a pure and conscious surrender.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      You must also
\nunderstand that there is only one Power at work and neither you nor he nor
\nanybody else, matters. Let each one open himself to the workings of that Power
\nin him and let there be no attempt at forming a body of sadhaks with somebody
\nleading or intervening between the one Power and the sadhaks.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      All the other
\ncircumstances which you relate are normal and would be the phenomena of an
\ninvasion of Ananda occupying the whole instrumental being while the silent inner
\nbeing within remains separate as it does usually from all that comes from
\noutside. The circumstance that is not clear is the Presence. There is nothing to
\nindicate who or what it is. If it were an undesirable vital Presence producing a
\nvital joy, there would usually be vital phenomena which would enable you to
\ndetect their origin, but these are not apparent here. In the circumstances the
\nonly course is to observe the experience without accepting any occupation of the
\nbeing by what comes, taking it as only an experience which the inner being looks
\non as a witness, until the point that remains veiled is made clear.\n<\/p>\n

   
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-150<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

      P.S. There are
\nseveral possible explanations but I do not speak of them as that might influence
\nand interfere with the pure observation of the experience by bringing in a
\nmental suggestion.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      I have read
\nyour letter and I have read it to the Mother. My conclusion about the
\nexperience\u2014I had suspended judgement till now\u2014is the same as hers.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      We consider
\nthat it will be wiser for you to be on your guard about it in future. In the
\nfirst place it cannot be the Buddha\u2014 the Buddha’s presence would bring peace but
\nwould never give this kind of Ananda. Next, the suggestion based on an old
\nsubjective feeling of yours seems to be thrown on you to make you more readily
\nadmit the emprise <\/i>that the experience is a means of establishing on you.
\nAgain the feeling you have that the Ananda is more than you can bear is a sign
\nnot favourable to the experience; you suppose that it is a want of adaptation
\nthat gives you the feeling, but it is more likely that it is something foreign
\nthrown on you through the vital with which the psychic being in you does not
\nfeel at home. Finally, it is not safe to admit while you are doing the yoga here
\nanother influence, whatever it may be, <\/i>which is not ours or part of the
\nmovement of this sadhana. If that takes place anything might happen and we would
\nnot be able to protect you against it because you would have stepped out of the
\ncircle of protection. You have hitherto been proceeding on a very sound fine of
\ndevelopment; a diversion of this kind which seems to be on the vital level might
\nbe a serious interference. Mo trust can be put on the beauty of the eyes or the
\nface. There are many Beings of the inferior planes who have a captivating\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

\nPage-151<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

beauty and can
\nenthrall with it and they can give too an Ananda which is not of the highest and
\nmay on the contrary by its lure take away from the path altogether. When you
\nhave reached the stage of clear discernment where the highest Light is turned on
\nall things that come, then experiences of many kinds may be safely faced, but
\nnow a strict vigilance must be exercised and all diversions rejected. It is
\nnecessary to keep one’s steps firmly on the straight road to the Highest; all
\nelse must wait for the proper time.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      I have no doubt
\nthat the action of this force once rejected will disappear in time. It is
\nsomething with which you have been brought into contact, not something intimate
\nto yourself to which part of your being is naturally responsive. That is shown
\nby the inability to catch what the being who manifested wanted to convey to you.
\nIt seems to have been an onslaught, as you say, an attempted invasion by force
\nand ruse. It is quite true that when there is the opening to the Light, the
\nadverse Forces as well as the lower forces become active when they can do so.
\nThe consciousness of the seeker has come out of its normal limits and is opening
\nto the universal as well as upwards to the Self above and they take advantage of
\nthat to attempt an entrance. Such onslaughts however are not inevitable and you
\nare probably right in thinking that you caught it in the atmosphere of X. He has
\nmade experiments of many kinds in the occult field and there one comes easily
\ninto contact with forces and beings of a dark nature and one needs a great power
\nand light and purity \u2014one’s own or a helping Power’s\u2014to face them and overcome.
\nThere are also deficiencies or errors in one’s own nature which\n<\/p>\n

 
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-152<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

can open the
\ndoor to these beings. But the best is if one can have nothing to do with them;
\nfor the conquest of the forces of the lower nature is a sufficiently heavy task
\nwithout that complication. If the work one has to do necessitates the contact
\nand conflict with them, that is another matter. In your case I think this has
\nbeen something of an accident and not a necessity of the development of your sadhana.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

      No, there was
\nno special concentration or call from the Mother at that time. It was at a time
\nwhen she never sees anyone, so evidently she would not have put such a force
\nupon you, nor does she usually exercise her power in this way. You did well to
\nresist the impulsion. It is always necessary to keep the inner perception and
\nwill clear, conscious and in perfect balance and never to allow any force of
\nimpulsion, however it may present itself, to sweep without their discerning
\nconsent the vital or the body into action. Whatever appearance they may assume,
\nsuch forces cannot be trusted; once the discriminating intelligence gives up its
\ncontrol, any kind of force can intervene in this way and a path is opened for
\nthe unbalanced vital impulses to be used to the detriment of the sadhana. A
\npsychic or spiritual control replacing the mental would not act in this way,\u2014but
\nwhatever intensity or ardour it may give, would maintain a clear perception of
\nthings, a perfect discrimination, a harmony between the inward and the outward
\nreality. It is only the vital that is swept by these impulses; the vital must
\nalways be kept under the control of the intelligence, the psychic or when that
\nbecomes dynamic, the higher spiritual consciousness.\n<\/p>\n

   <\/p>\n

\nPage-153<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

 V<\/b>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      All these
\nexperiences are of the same nature and what applies to one applies to another.
\nApart from some experiences of a personal character, the rest are either
\nidea-truths, such as pour down into the consciousness from above when one gets
\ninto touch with certain planes of being, or strong formations from the larger
\nmental and vital worlds which, when one is directly open to these worlds, rush
\nin and want to use the sadhak for their fulfilment. These things, when they pour
\ndown or come in, present themselves with a great force, a vivid sense of
\ninspiration or illumination, much sensation of light and joy, an impression of
\nwidening and power. The sadhak feels himself freed from the normal limits,
\nprojected into a wonderful new world of experience, filled and enlarged and
\nexalted; what comes associates itself, besides, with his aspirations, ambitions,
\nnotions of spiritual fulfilment and yogic siddhi; it is represented even as
\nitself that realisation and fulfilment. Very easily he is carried away by the
\nsplendour and the rush, and thinks that he has realised more than he has truly
\ndone, something final or at least something sovereignly true. At this stage the
\nnecessary knowledge and experience are usually lacking which would tell him that
\nthis is only a very uncertain and mixed beginning; he may not realise at once
\nthat he is still in the cosmic Ignorance, not in the cosmic Truth, much less in
\nthe Transcendental Truth, and that whatever formative or dynamic idea-truths may
\nhave come down into him are partial only and yet further diminished by their
\npresentation to him by a still mixed consciousness. He may fail to realise also
\nthat if he rushes to apply what he is realising or receiving as if it were
\nsomething definitive, he may either fall into confusion and error or else get
\nshut up in some partial formation in which\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-154<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

there may be an
\nelement of spiritual Truth but it is likely to be outweighted by more dubious
\nmental and vital accretions that deform it altogether. It is only when he is
\nable to draw back (whether at once or after a time) from his experiences, stand
\nabove them with the dispassionate witness consciousness, observe their real
\nnature, limitations, composition, mixture that he can proceed on his way towards
\na real freedom and a higher, larger and truer siddhi. At each step this has to
\nbe done. For whatever comes in this way to the sadhak of this yoga, whether it
\nbe from overmind or Intuition or Illumined Mind or some exalted Life Plane or
\nfrom all these together, it is not definitive and final; it is not the supreme
\nTruth in which he can rest, but only a stage. And yet these stages have to be
\npassed through, for the supramental or the Supreme Truth cannot be reached in
\none bound or even in many bounds; one has to pursue a calm patient steady
\nprogress through many intervening stages without getting bound or attached to
\ntheir lesser Truth or Light or Power or Ananda.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      This is in fact
\nan intermediary state, a zone of transition between the ordinary consciousness
\nin mind and the true yoga knowledge. One may cross without hurt through it,
\nperceiving at once or at an early stage its real nature and refusing to be
\ndetained by its half-lights and tempting but imperfect and often mixed and
\nmisleading experiences; one may go astray in it, follow false voices and
\nmendacious guidance, and that ends in a spiritual disaster; or one may take up
\none’s abode in this intermediate zone, care to go no farther and build there
\nsome half-truth which one takes for the whole truth or become the instrument of
\nthe powers of these transitional planes,\u2014that is what happens to many sadhaks
\nand yogis. Overwhelmed by the first rush and sense of power of a supernormal
\ncondition, they\n<\/p>\n

    
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-155<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

get dazzled
\nwith a little light which seems to them a tremendous. illumination or a touch of
\nforce which they mistake for the full Divine Force or at least a very great yoga
\nShakti; or they accept some intermediate Power (not always a Power of the
\nDivine) as the Supreme and an intermediate consciousness as the supreme
\nrealisation. Very readily they come to think that they are in the full cosmic
\nconsciousness when it is only some front or small part of it or some larger
\nMind, Life-Power or subtle physical ranges with which they have entered into
\ndynamic connection. Or they feel themselves to be in an entirely illumined
\nconsciousness, while in reality they are receiving imperfectly things from above
\nthrough a partial illumination of some mental or vital plane; for what comes is
\ndiminished and often deformed in the course of transmission through these
\nplanes; the receiving mind and vital of the sadhak also often understands or
\ntranscribes ill what has been received or throws up to mix with it its own
\nideas, feelings, desires, which it yet takes to be not its own but part of the
\nTruth it is receiving because they are mixed with it, imitate its form, are lit
\nup by its illumination and get from this association and borrowed light an
\nexaggerated value.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      There are worse
\ndangers in this intermediate zone of experience. For the planes to which the
\nsadhak has now opened his consciousness,\u2014not as before getting glimpses of them
\nand some influences, but directly, receiving their full impact,\u2014send a host of
\nideas, impulses, suggestions, formations of all kinds, often the most opposite
\nto each other, inconsistent or incompatible, but presented in such a way as to
\nslur over their insufficiencies and differences, with great force, plausibility
\nand wealth of argument or a convincing sense of certitude. Overpowered by this
\nsense of certitude, vividness, appearance of profusion and richness, the mind of
\nthe sadhak enters into a great confusion\n<\/p>\n

    
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-156<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

which it takes
\nfor some larger organisation and order; or else it whirls about in incessant
\nshiftings and changes which it takes for a rapid progress but which lead
\nnowhere. Or there is the opposite danger that he may become the instrument of
\nsome apparently brilliant but ignorant formation; for these intermediate planes
\nare full of little Gods or strong Daityas or smaller beings who want to create,
\nto materialise something or to enforce a mental and vital formation in the earth
\nlife and are eager to use or influence or even possess the thought and will of
\nthe sadhak and make him their instrument for the purpose. This is quite apart
\nfrom the well-known danger of actually hostile beings whose sole purpose is to
\ncreate confusion, falsehood, corruption of the sadhana and disastrous
\nunspiritual error. Anyone allowing himself to be taken hold of by one of these
\nbeings, who often take a divine Name, will lose his way in the yoga. On the
\nother hand, it is quite possible that the sadhak may be met at his entrance into
\nthis zone by a Power of the Divine which helps and leads him till he is ready
\nfor greater things; but still that itself is no surety against the errors and
\nstumblings of this zone; for nothing is easier than for the powers of these
\nzones or hostile powers to imitate the guiding Voice or Image and deceive and
\nmislead the sadhak or for himself to attribute the creations and formations of
\nhis own mind, vital or ego to the Divine.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      For this
\nintermediate zone is a region of half-truths\u2014and that by itself would not
\nmatter, for there is no complete truth below the supermind; but the half-truth
\nhere is often so partial or else ambiguous in its application that it leaves a
\nwide field for confusion, delusion and error. The sadhak thinks that he is no
\nlonger in the old small consciousness at all, because he feels in contact with
\nsomething larger or more powerful, and yet the old\n<\/p>\n

    
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-157<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

consciousness
\nis still there, not really abolished. He feels the control or influence of some
\nPower, Being or Force greater than himself, aspires to be its instrument and
\nthinks he has got rid of ego; but this delusion of egolessness often covers an
\nexaggerated ego. Ideas seize upon him and drive his mind which are only
\npartially true and by over-confident misapplication are turned into falsehoods;
\nthis vitiates the movements of the consciousness and opens the door to delusion.
\nSuggestions are made, sometimes of a romantic character, which flatter the
\nimportance of the sadhak or are agreeable to his wishes and he accepts them
\nwithout examination or discriminating control. Even what is true, is so exalted
\nor extended beyond its true pitch and limit and measure that it becomes the
\nparent of error. This is a zone which many sadhaks have to cross, in which many
\nwander for a long time and out of which a great many never emerge. Especially if
\ntheir sadhana is mainly in the mental and vital, they have to meet here many
\ndifficulties and much danger; only those who follow scrupulously a strict
\nguidance or have the psychic being prominent in their nature pass easily as if
\non a sure and clearly marked road across this intermediate region. A central
\nsincerity, a fundamental humility also save from much danger and trouble. One
\ncan then pass quickly beyond into a clearer Light where if there is still much
\nmixture, incertitude and struggle, yet the orientation is towards the cosmic
\nTruth and not to a half-illumined prolongation of Maya and ignorance.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      I have
\ndescribed in general terms with its main features and possibilities this state
\nof consciousness just across the border of the normal consciousness, because it
\nis here that these experiences seem to move. But different sadhaks comport
\nthemselves differently in it and respond sometimes to one class of
\npossibilities, sometimes to another. In this case it seems to have been entered\n<\/p>\n

     
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-158<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

through an
\nattempt to call down or force a way into the cosmic consciousness\u2014it does not
\nmatter which way it is put or whether one is quite aware of what one is doing or
\naware of it in these terms, it comes to that in substance. It is not the overmind which was entered, for to go straight into the overmind is impossible.
\nThe overmind is indeed above and behind the whole action of the cosmic
\nconsciousness, but one can at first have only an indirect connection with it;
\nthings come down from it through intermediate ranges into a larger mind-plane,
\nlife-plane, subtle physical plane and come very much changed and diminished in
\nthe transmission, without anything like the full power and truth they have in
\nthe overmind itself on its native levels. Most of the movements come not from
\nthe overmind, but down from higher mind ranges. The ideas with which these
\nexperiences are penetrated and on which they seem to rest their claim to truth
\nare not of the overmind, but of the higher Mind or sometimes of the illumined
\nMind; but they are mixed with suggestions from the lower mind and vital regions
\nand badly diminished in their application or misapplied in many places. All this
\nwould not matter; it is usual and normal, and one has to pass through it and
\ncome into a clearer atmosphere where things are better organised and placed on a
\nsurer basis. But the movement was made in a spirit of excessive hurry and
\neagerness, of exaggerated self-esteem and self-confidence, of a premature
\ncertitude, relying on no other guidance than that of one’s own mind or of the
\n"Divine" as conceived or experienced in a stage of very limited knowledge. But
\nthe sadhak’s conception and experience of the Divine, even if it is
\nfundamentally genuine, is never in such a stage complete and pure; it is mixed
\nwith all sorts of mental and vital ascriptions and all sorts of things are
\nassociated with this Divine guidance and believed to be part of it which come
\nfrom quite other sources.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-159<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

         Even supposing
\nthere is any direct guidance,\u2014most often in these conditions the Divine acts
\nmostly from behind the veil,\u2014it is only occasional and the rest is done through
\na play of forces; error and stumbling and mixture of Ignorance take place freely
\nand these things are allowed because the sadhak has to be tested by the
\nworld-forces, to learn by experience, to grow through imperfection towards
\nperfection\u2014if he is capable of it, if he is willing to learn, to open his eyes
\nto his own mistakes and errors, to learn and profit by them so as to grow
\ntowards a purer Truth, Light and Knowledge.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      The result of
\nthis state of mind is that one begins to affirm everything that comes in this
\nmixed and dubious region as if it were all the Truth and the sheer Divine Will;
\nthe ideas or the suggestions that constantly repeat themselves are expressed
\nwith a self-assertive absoluteness as if they were Truth entire and undeniable.
\nThere is an impression that one has become impersonal and free from ego, while
\nthe whole tone of the mind, its utterance and spirit are full of vehement
\nself-assertiveness justified by the affirmation that one is thinking and acting
\nas an instrument and under the inspiration of the Divine. Ideas are put forward
\nvery aggressively that can be valid to the mind, but are not spiritually valid;
\nyet they are stated as if they were spiritual absolutes. For instance, equality,
\nwhich in that sense\u2014for yogic Samata is a quite different thing\u2014is a mere mental
\nprinciple, the claim to a sacred independence, the refusal to accept anyone as
\nGuru or the opposition made between the Divine and the human Divine etc., etc.
\nAll these ideas are positions that can be taken by the mind and the vital and
\nturned into principles which they try to enforce on the religious or even the
\nspiritual life, but they are not and cannot be spiritual in their nature. There
\nalso begin to come in suggestions from the vital planes, a\n<\/p>\n

    
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-160<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

pullulation of
\nimaginations romantic, fanciful or ingenious, hidden interpretations,
\npseudo-intuitions, would-be initiations into things beyond, which excite or
\nbemuse the mind and are often so turned as to natter and magnify ego and
\nself-importance, but are not founded on any well-ascertained spiritual or occult
\nrealities of a true order. This region is full of elements of this kind and, if
\nallowed, they begin to crowd on the sadhak; but if he seriously means to reach
\nthe Highest, he must simply observe them and pass on. It is not that there is
\nnever any truth in such things, but for one that is true there are nine
\nimitative falsehoods presented and only a trained occultist with the infallible
\ntact born of long experience can guide himself without stumbling or being caught
\nthrough the maze. It is possible for the whole attitude and action and utterance
\nto be so surcharged with the errors of this intermediate zone that to go farther
\non this route would be to travel far away from the Divine and from the yoga.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      Here the choice
\nis still open whether to follow the very mixed guidance one gets in the midst of
\nthese experiences or to accept the true guidance. Each man who enters the realms
\nof yogic experience is free to follow his own way; but this yoga is not a path
\nfor anyone to follow, but only for those who accept to seek the aim, pursue the
\nway pointed out upon which a sure guidance is indispensable. It is idle for
\nanyone to expect that he can follow this road far,\u2014much less go to the end by
\nhis own inner strength and knowledge without the true aid or influence. Even the
\nordinary long-practised yogas are hard to follow without the aid of the Guru; in
\nthis which as it advances goes through untrodden countries and unknown entangled
\nregions, it is quite impossible. As for the work to be done it also is not a
\nwork for any sadhak of any path; it is not, either, the work of the "Impersonal"
\nDivine who, for that matter, is not an active Power but supports impartially<\/p>\n

    
\n\n<\/p>\n

\nPage-161<\/p>\n

\n

all work in the universe. It is a training ground for those who have to pass through the difficult and complex way of this yoga and none other. All work here must be done in a spirit of acceptance, discipline and surrender, not with personal demands and conditions, but with a vigilant conscious submission to control and guidance. Work done in any other spirit results in an unspiritual disorder, confusion and disturbance of the atmosphere. In it too difficulties, errors, stumblings are frequent, because in this yoga people have to be led patiently and with some field for their own effort, by experience, out of the ignorance natural to Mind and Life to a wider spirit and a luminous knowledge. But the danger of an unguided wandering in the regions across the border is that the very basis of the yoga may be contradicted and the conditions under which alone the work can be done may be lost altogether. The transition through this intermediate zone\u2014not obligatory, for many pass by a narrower but surer way\u2014is a crucial passage; what comes out of it is likely to be a very wide or rich creation; but when one founders there, recovery is difficult, painful, assured only after a long struggle and endeavour.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe intermediate zone means simply a confused condition or passage in which one is getting out of the personal consciousness and opening into the cosmic (cosmic Mind, cosmic vital, cosmic physical, something perhaps of the cosmic higher Mind) without having yet transcended the human mind levels. One is not in possession of or direct contact with the divine Truth on its own levels, <\/i>but one can receive something from them, even from the overmind, indirectly. Only, as one is still immersed in the cosmic\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Page-162<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

Ignorance, all that comes from above can be mixed, perverted, taken hold of for their purposes by lower, even by hostile Powers.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is not necessary for everyone to struggle through the intermediate zone. If one has purified oneself, if there is no abnormal vanity, egoism, ambition or other strong misleading element, or if one is vigilant and on one’s guard, or if the psychic is in front, one can either pass rapidly and directly or with a minimum of trouble into the higher zones of consciousness where one is in direct contact with the Divine Truth.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nOn the other hand the passage through the higher zones\u2014 higher Mind, illumined Mind, Intuition, overmind is obligatory \u2014they are the true Intermediaries between the present consciousness and the supermind.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nI mean by it [the intermediate zone] that when the sadhak gets beyond the barriers of his own embodied personal mind he enters into a wide range of experiences which are not the
\nlimited solid physical truth of things and not yet either the spiritual truth of things. It is a zone of formations, mental, vital, subtle physical, and whatever one forms or is formed by the forces of these worlds in us becomes for the sadhak for a time the truth\u2014unless he is guided and listens to his guide. Afterwards if he gets through he discovers what it was and passes on into the subtle truth of things. It is a borderland where all the worlds meet, mental, vital, subtle physical, pseudo-spiritual\u2014but there is no order or firm foothold\u2014a passage between the physical and the true spiritual realms.\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

Page-163<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     You are taking the first steps towards the cosmic consciousness in which there are all things good and bad, true and false, the cosmic Truth and the cosmic Ignorance. I was not thinking so much of ego as of the thousand voices, possibilities, suggestions. If you avoid these, then there is no necessity of passing through the intermediate zone. By avoid I mean really not admit\u2014one can take cognizance of their nature and pass on.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAnyone passing the border of ordinary consciousness can enter into this [intermediate] zone, if he does not take care to enter into the psychic. In itself there is no harm in passing through, provided one does not stop there. But ego, sex, ambition, etc., if they get exaggerated, can easily lead to a dangerous downfall.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt [the breaking of the veil] comes of itself with the pressure of the sadhana. It can also be brought about by specific concentration and effort.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is certainly better if the psychic is conscious and active before there is the removing of the veil or screen between the individual and the universal consciousness which comes when the inner being is brought forward in all its wideness. For then there is much less danger of the difficulties of what I have called the Intermediate Zone.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

<\/p>\n

Page-164<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

       
\nThis kind of manifestation (Adesh) comes very often at a certain stage of the practice of yoga. My experience is that it does not come from the highest source and cannot be relied upon and it is better to wait until one is able to enter a higher consciousness and a greater truth than any that these communications represent. Sometimes they come from beings of an intermediate plane who want to use the sadhak for some work or purpose. Many sadhaks accept and some, though by no means all, succeed in doing something, but it is often at the cost of the greater aims of yoga. In other cases they come from beings who are hostile to the sadhana and wish to bring it to nothing by exciting ambition, the illusion of a great work or some other form of ego. Each sadhak must decide for himself (unless he has a Guru to guide him) whether to treat it as a temptation or a mission.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe sounds or voices you hear are like the sights (persons, objects) you see. As there is an inner sight other than the physical, so there is an inner hearing other than that of the external ear, and it can listen to voices and sounds and words of other worlds, other times and places, or those which come from supraphysical beings. But here you must be careful. If conflicting voices try to tell you what to do or not to do, you should not listen to them or reply. It is only myself and the Mother who can tell you what you should or should not do or guide or advise you.\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAnybody can get "voices"\u2014there are first the movements of one’s nature that take upon themselves a voice\u2014then there are\n<\/p>\n

 
\n\n<\/p>\n

Page-165<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

all sorts of beings who either for a joke or for a serious purpose invade with their voices.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere is in this condition more a sense of having power than real power. There are some mixed and quite relative powers\u2014 sometimes a little effective, sometimes ineffective\u2014which could be developed into something real if put under the control of the Divine, surrendered. But the ego comes in, exaggerates these small things, and represents them as something huge and unique, and refuses to surrender. Then the sadhak makes no progress \u2014he wanders about in the jungle of his own imaginations without any discrimination or critical sense, or brings in a play of confused forces he is unable to understand or master.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe first result of the downflow of the overmind forces is very often to exaggerate the ego, which feels itself strong, almost irresistible (though it is not really so), divinised, luminous. The first thing to do, after some experience of the thing, is to get rid of this magnified ego. For that you have to stand back, not allow yourself to be swept in by the movement, but to watch, understand, reject all mixtures, aspire for a purer and yet purer light and action. This can only be done perfectly if the psychic comes forward. The mind and vital, especially the vital, receiving these forces, can with difficulty resist the tendency to seize on and use them for their ego’s objects or, which comes practically to the same thing, they mix the demands of the ego with the service of a higher object.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

<\/p>\n

Page-166<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

      
\nIn the first place one is not obliged to believe all that X’s disciples have written about him after his death. Besides, the experiences they relate about him are of the intermediate planes, not of the highest spiritual consciousness. Whatever experience he had of the highest was hidden by them in a jungle of miraculous and romantic legends. It is probable that in trying to make him out a great Siddha, they have lowered him below what he really was.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nTo have the true intuition one must get rid of the mind’s self-will, and the vital’s also, their preferences, fancies, fantasies, strong insistences and eliminate the mental and vital ego’s pressure which sets the consciousness to work in the service of its own claims and desires. Otherwise these things will come in with force and claim to be intuitions, inspirations and the rest of it. Or if any intuitions come, they can be twisted and spoiled by the mixture of these forces of the Ignorance.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nNo, these indications of time and these voices were not commands from the Mother. I have indicated to you the truth of this matter; you must follow the rules laid down by the Mother for the physical life; if any change has to be made, either she herself will let you know or you have to get sanction for it from her. No voice heard within can prevail against her word and no intimation that comes through your mind can be accepted as binding unless it is confirmed by her.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYou have made a confusion which is often made at the beginning of this kind of experience. It is no doubt the Mother’s\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

Page-167<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

Force that was working within you or upon you, and some of the experiences, such as that of feeling the Mother in your heart, were perfectly genuine. But when the pressure of the Force works upon the consciousness, then in the plane on which it happens to be working, a great activity of different forces is set in play, e.g. if it is the mind, various mental forces, if it is the vital, various vital forces. It is not safe to take all these for true things, to be accepted without question and followed as commands of the Mother. You received a pressure of a force so strong that it made your head shake for a long time; if the head shook like that, it is a sign that the mind or at least the mental physical was not able yet to receive all the force and assimilate it; if it had done so, there would have been no movement of the head, all would have been perfectly at ease, calm and still. But your mind started working, interpreting, beginning to put its own meaning on this particular phenomenon and again on others, trying to make a system by which to regulate your conduct and to give it authority, put it as the command of the Mother. The action of the Force was a fact, the interpretation you put on its details of coming and going was a mental formation and had no very positive value.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIf you look at it carefully\u2014as I have looked at the details reported by you\u2014you will see that these suggestions were of a very shifting and changeful character, now one thing, now the other; only your mind adapted itself to the changes, adjusted its interpretation to suit them and tried to keep the consistency of a system. But in fact all was irregular and chaotic and it tended to make your action and conduct irregular and chaotic. True intuition would not do that; it would at least tend to balance, harmony, order.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYou speak of intuition as regards the indication of time. There is an intuition of Time which is not of the mind and when it\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

Page-168<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

plays is always accurate to the very minute and if need be to the very second; but this was not that Intuition,\u2014for it was not always accurate; it came right perhaps several times, then it began to be deceptive, it made you late for Pranam; it began to push toward lateness for the noon meal, make you clash with the convenience of the dining-room workers. It pushed you to be late for the evening and abandoned you altogether, so that in the end you had no evening meal. But your mind had got attached to its own formations and tried to justify, to put a meaning on these chaotic caprices, to explain them by the (very changeful) will of the Mother. All this is well-known to those experienced in yoga and it means that these things were not intuitions, but constructions of the mind, mental formations. If there was an intuition at all, it was a movement of the intuitive mind, but what the intuitive mind gives to us is the intuition of possibilities, some of which realise themselves, some do not or do it partly only, others miss altogether. Behind these mental constructions are Forces that want to realise themselves and try to use men as their instruments of realisation. These Forces need not be hostile, but they play for their own hand, they want to rule, use, justify themselves, create their own results. If they can do it by getting the Mother’s sanction or passing themselves off as commands of the Mother, they are ready to do so; if they cannot get the embodied Mother’s sanction, they are ready to represent themselves as sanctions of the Mother in her subtle unseen universal Form or Presence. Some they persuade to make not only a distinction but an opposition between their inner Mother who always tells them what they want to hear and the embodied Mother who, they find, is not so complaisant, checks them, corrects their fancies and their errors. At this stage there is the danger of a more serious invasion of Falsehood, of a hostile vital Force corning in, taking\n<\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

Page-169<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

advantage of the mind’s errors, which either tries to take the place of the Mother, using her name or else creates revolt against her. A persuasion not to come to Pranam, not to keep her acquainted with your experiences and submit to correction, not to accord the life with her expressed will is a danger-signal at this stage \u2014for it means that the intruding Force wants space to work free from control\u2014and that was why I felt compelled to call your attention to the peril of a hostile Maya.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAs for voices, there are many voices; each Force, each movement of the mental, vital, physical plane may equip itself with a voice. Your voices were not even at one with each other; one said one thing, when it did not work out, another said something inconsistent. with it; but you were attached to your mental formation and still tried to follow.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAll this happens because the mind and vital in these exaltations of the stress of the sadhana become very active. That is why it is necessary, first to found your sadhana on a great calm, a great equality, not eagerly rushing after experiences or their fruit, but looking at them, observing, calling always for more and more Light, trying to be more and more wide, open, quietly and discerningly receptive. If the psychic being is always at the front, then these difficulties are greatly lessened, because there is here a light which the mind and vital have not, a spontaneous and natural psychic perception of the divine and the undivine, the true and the false, the imitation and the genuine guidance. It is also the reason why I insist on your referring your experiences to us, because, apart from anything else, we have the knowledge and experience of these things and can immediately put a check on any tendency to error.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nKeep yourself open to the Mother’s Force, but do not trust all forces. As you go on, if you keep straight, you will come to a time\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

Page-170<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

when the psychic becomes more predominantly
\nactive and the Light from above prevails more purely and strongly so that the
\nchance of mental constructions and vital formations mixing with the true
\nexperience diminishes. As I have told you, these are not and cannot be the
\nsupramental Forces; it is a work of preparation which is only making things
\nready for a future yoga-siddhi.
\n <\/p>\n

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

\nHow can the people in this Ashram judge whether a man has progressed in yoga or
\nnot ? T hey judge from outward appearances- if a sadhak secludes himself, sits
\nmuch in meditation, gets voices and experiences, etc. etc., they think he is a
\ngreat sadhak! X was always a very poor Adhar. He had a few experiences of an
\nelementary kind-confused and uncertain, but at every step he was getting into
\ntrouble and going off on a side-path and we had to pull him up. At last he began
\nto get voices and inspirations which he declared to be ours-I wrote to him many
\nletters of serious warning and explantion but he refused to listen, was too much
\nattached to his false voices and inspirations and, to avoid rebuke and
\ncorrection , ceased to write or inform us. So he went wholly wrong and finally
\nbecame hostile. You can tell this by my authority to anybody who is puzzled like
\nyourself about this matter.
\n <\/p>\n

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

\nI MEAN what happened to X and others like Y, Z and others. Higher experiences
\nhurt nobody-the question is what is meant by higher? Y for instance thought his
\nexperiences to be the highest Truth itself-I told him they were all imaginations
\nbut only with the result that he became furious with me. There are<\/p>\n

\n\n<\/p>\n

Page-171<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

imitation higher experiences when the mind or vital catches hold of an idea or suggestion and turns it into a feeling, and while there is a rush of forces, a feeling of exultation and power etc. All sorts of "imperatives" come, visions, perhaps "voices". There is nothing more dangerous than these voices\u2014when I hear from somebody that he has a "voice", I always feel uneasy, though there can be genuine and helpful voices, and feel inclined to say "No voices please,\u2014silence, silence and a clear discriminating brain". I have hinted about this region of imitation experiences, false inspirations, false voices into which hundreds of yogins enter and some never get out of it in my letter about the intermediate zone. If a man has a strong clear head and a certain kind of spiritual scepticism, he can go through and does\u2014but people without discrimination like Y or Z get lost. Especially ego enters in and makes them so attached to their splendid (?) condition that they absolutely refuse to come out. Now a retirement into seclusion gives free scope for this kind of action, as it makes one live entirely in one’s own subjective being without any control except what one’s own native discernment can bring in\u2014and if that is not strong? Ego is of course the strong support of these subjective falsehoods, but there are other supports also. Work and mixing with others\u2014with the contact of the objective that that brings\u2014is not an absolute defence against these things, but it is a defence and serves as a check and as a kind of corrective balance. I notice that those who enter into this region of the intermediate zone usually make for retirement and seclusion and insist on it. These are the reasons why I prefer usually that sadhaks should not take to an absolute retirement but keep a certain poise between silence and action, the inner and the outer together.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

<\/p>\n

Page-172<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nAs to the dangers, the one real danger in these retirements (apart: from the pride) is the becoming a prey of subjective influences and imaginations and losing the hold of reality which work and contact with others help to keep up. Of course one can lose that even while keeping contact as happened to X and others. But I suppose you have a sufficiently cool and critical head to avoid, that danger.\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nTo live in the self is of course the proper object of withdrawal and to live in the self brings the higher experiences which must obviously be helpful and not harmful. What I wrote was only to explain what I meant by the danger of too complete retirement and why it turned out to be harmful to Y, Z and others. There are some like A who derived unmixed profit from it. It altogether depends on one’s temperament and on one’s attitude and aim and inner poise during the silence.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe impulse to retire comes from some push to concentrate within\u2014but the cause of the push varies in different cases. There are certain cases in which there was a desire to isolate oneself from the Mother’s influence (Pranam, meditation etc.) and follow one’s own fancies, e.g. X, Y, also perhaps with a sense of superiority = "no need of these things for so great a yogi as I". In other cases there was a marked desire for isolation, but that was where the brain was already upset (C) or a wrong influence at work(Z). It is to these I suppose that B was referring. But others have simply desired concentration or wished not to spend them-\n<\/p>\n

     
\n\n<\/p>\n

Page-173<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

selves in externalisation (A, D in their period of retirement). So all cannot come under one sentence.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nNot speaking or contacting when one is in the intensity of the peace is one thing\u2014that can be done. Remaining isolated at other times as a rule of life does not seem to me necessary\u2014it is safe only for those who can live entirely within without losing their hold on outer reality. If one has always a solid poise of peace one can do that or a clear mind balanced and discriminating along with constant experiences which it is able to put in
\nthe right place. But some get absorbed in inner experiences which they get lost
\nin and get passionately attached to and this inner life becomes for them the
\nsole reality without the outer to poise it and keep it under check and
\ntest\u2014there lies a danger. Again if one remains isolated without the support of a
\nsettled inner poise and constant experience over which one has a discriminating
\ncontrol, then in periods of emptiness the vital can arise bringing struggles,
\ndifficulties, unrest, suggestions of all kinds, a troubled and turbid
\nstate\u2014rather than spend the time in that, as some do, it is better to mix with
\nothers or do some work or otherwise externalise oneself in a healthy way.<\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nHow are you going to find the right external relations by withdrawing altogether from external relations? And how do you propose to be thoroughly transformed and unified by living only in the internal life, without any test of the transformation and unity by external contact and the ordeals of the external work\n<\/p>\n

     
\n\n<\/p>\n

Page-174<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

and life? Thoroughness includes external work and relations and not a retired inner life only.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is only by the vital ego giving up its demands and claims and the reactions these produce when not satisfied, that the transformation and unification can come, and there is no other way.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

      VI
\n<\/b>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere is no difference between the terms "universal" and "cosmic" except that "universal" can be used in a freer way than "cosmic". Universal may mean "of the universe", cosmic in that general sense. But it may also mean "common to all", e.g., "This is a universal weakness"\u2014but you cannot say "This is a cosmic weakness."\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe cosmic consciousness does not belong to overmind in especial; it covers all the planes.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nMan is shut up at present in his surface individual consciousness and knows the world (or rather the surface of it) only through his outward mind and senses and by interpreting their contacts with the world. By yoga there can open in him a consciousness which becomes one with that of the world; he becomes directly aware of a universal Being, universal states, universal Force and Power, universal Mind, Life, Matter and fives in conscious relations with these things. He is then said to have cosmic consciousness.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

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

<\/p>\n

Page-175<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     
\nThere are in the cosmic consciousness two sides\u2014one the contact with and perception of the ordinary cosmic forces and the beings behind these forces, that is what I call the cosmic Ignorance\u2014the other is the perception of the cosmic Truths, the realisation of the one universal, the one universal Force, all the Vedantic truths of the One in all and all in one, all the various aspects of the Divine in the cosmic and a host of other things can come which do help to realisation and knowledge\u2014provided they are taken in the right way. However all that can be best dealt with when it actually comes. It does not always come as soon as there is the widening\u2014many pass through the widening of the consciousness to what is beyond the cosmic and take the cosmic in detail afterwards\u2014and it is perhaps the safest order,\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhen one has the cosmic consciousness, one can feel the cosmic Self as one’s own self, one can feel one with other beings in the cosmos, one can feel all the forces of Nature as moving in oneself, all selves as one’s own self.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

        There is no why except that it is so, since all is the One.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAll is in the Self; when identified with the universal self all is in you. Also the microcosm reproduces the macrocosm\u2014so all is present in each, though all is not expressed (and cannot be) in the surface consciousness.\n<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

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

<\/p>\n

Page-176<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

       The Self is being, not a being. By Self is meant the conscious essential existence, one in all.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe original substance of all spirit is pure existence carrying in it pure self-existent consciousness (or consciousness-force) and pure self-existent Ananda.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nSubstance and being are the same thing. In the creation they can be looked upon as two aspects of the spirit.\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe Self is essentially universal; the individualised self is only the universal experienced from or in an individual centre. If what you have realised is not felt to be one in all, then it is not the Atman; it is the central being not yet revealing its universal aspect as Atman.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe usual experience of the Impersonal is that It is everywhere without form or limitation in any place or time.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe impersonal Divine has no abode and cannot have; it is all-pervading. If anybody says the impersonal Divine has its abode\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

Page-177<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

in the heart he can be asked what he means by the impersonal Divine.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIn the cosmic consciousness the personal ‘I’ disappears into the one Self of all. The
\n‘I’ which alone exists is not that of the person, the individualised ‘I’, but the universalised
\n‘I’ identical with all and with the cosmic Self (Atman).\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhat will remain after liberation is the central being\u2014not the ego. The central being will live in the consciousness of the Divine everywhere and in all other beings also; so it will not have the consciousness of a separate ego but of one centre among many of the Divine Multiplicity.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhat you feel is the normal condition when the liberation takes place. The work of the senses etc. goes on as before, but the consciousness is different, so that one feels not only the sense of liberation, separation, etc., but that one is living in quite another world than that of the ordinary mind, life or senses. It is another consciousness with another knowledge and way of looking at things that begins. Afterwards as this consciousness takes possession of the instruments, there is a harmony of it with the sense and life; but these too become different, with a changed outlook, seeing the world no more as before but as if made of another substance with another significance.\n<\/p>\n

     
\n\n<\/p>\n

Page-178<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

       Liberation is the first necessity, to live in the peace, silence, purity, freedom of the self. Along with that or afterwards if one wakens to the cosmic consciousness, then one can be free, yet one with all things.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nTo have the cosmic consciousness without liberation is possible, but then there is no freedom anywhere in the being from the lower nature and one may become in one’s extended consciousness the playground of all kinds of forces without being able to be either free or master.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nOn the other hand, if there has been Self-realisation, there is one part of the being that remains untouched amid the play of the cosmic forces\u2014while if the peace and purity of the self has been established in the whole inner consciousness, then the outer touches of the lower nature can’t come in or overpower. This is the advantage of Self-realisation preceding the cosmic consciousness and supporting it.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhen there is the development of the Self-realisation or of the cosmic consciousness or if there is the emptiness which is the preliminary condition for these things, there comes an automatic tendency for a unity with all\u2014their affections, mental, vital, physical may easily touch. One has to keep oneself free.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYou had a mental and the beginning of a vital opening to the cosmic consciousness\u2014kept on the spiritualised level, the vision or feeling of the Divine Ananda without seeking for possession or a gross outer enjoyment, it would have established a yogic\n<\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

Page-179<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

consciousness and made a base for knowledge and peace and power and psychic love and surrender to come down.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is very good. The widening of the consciousness so as to be at one with the universal Infinite is an important stage in the sadhana.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYes, your experience was a very good one and your feeling about it was correct. When the consciousness is narrow and personal or shut in the body, it is difficult to receive from the Divine \u2014the wider it expands, the more it can receive. A time comes when it feels as wide as the world and able to receive all the Divine into itself.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is an experience of the extension of consciousness. In yoga experience the consciousness widens in every direction, around, below, above, in each direction stretching to infinity. When the consciousness of the yogi becomes liberated, it is not in the body, but in this infinite height, depth, and wideness that he lives always. Its basis is an infinite void or silence, but in that all can manifest\u2014Peace, Freedom, Power, Light, Knowledge, Ananda. This consciousness is usually called the consciousness of the Self or Atman, for it is a pure existence or self that is the source of all things and contains all things.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

<\/p>\n

Page-180<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

       Yes\u2014it [wideness] is "felt as if a great substantial vastness full of power and giving the sense of oneness free and infinite and the same from top to bottom.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAt the beginning the experience of wideness like other experiences comes only from time to time. It is only afterwards that it becomes frequent and remains long, till finally it settles and the consciousness remains always wide.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYou must dismiss the fear of the concentration. The emptiness you feel coming on you is the silence of the great peace in which you become aware of your self, not as the small ego shut up in the body, but as the spiritual self wide as the universe. Consciousness is not dissolved; it is the limits of the consciousness that are dissolved. In that silence thoughts may cease for a time, there may be nothing but a great limitless freedom and wideness, but into that silence, that empty wideness descends the vast peace from above, light, bliss, knowledge, the higher Consciousness in which you feel the oneness of the Divine. It is the beginning of the transformation and there is nothing in it to fear.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt means the liberation from the body sense in which one can truly say, "I am not the body". This liberation is part of the cosmic consciousness\u2014as is also the realisation of the cosmic Will.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Page-181<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

       It is the liberation from the body sense only. That is quite different from the control of the body.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhat you felt as a strong subtle air was the concrete expression of consciousness or conscious existence in itself independent of the body. As yet the experience is still limited by the body, but when it is felt without that limit then it is a sense of a wide ether filling all space, Akasha Brahman. As this grows, the body sense disappears and when the mind also is quite inactive, one feels oneself to be that spreading out to all Infinity.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is more, I think, forgetting the body than non-identification with it. In an intense mentalisation or an intense vital activity, the body takes a second place and becomes more outward and the same may happen to a certain extent more constantly in a man who lives in his mind or his vital and is identified more closely with that. But still it is the mental in the body, the vital in the body. There is no release, no getting entirely separate as in the spiritual liberation.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nYes, it is not possible for the human mind to live entirely in itself to such a degree as to ignore the body altogether\u2014a real or complete liberation or non-identification is not possible without the spiritual release. All that is possible to the mind is a constant absorption in itself and an ignoring or
\nforgetfulness as much\n<\/p>\n

   
\n\n<\/p>\n

Page-182<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

as possible of
\nthe body. That one finds often in people who live a retired mental life
\n(scholars, thinkers etc.) without the need to trouble themselves about their
\nlivelihood, family etc.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

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

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

<\/p>\n

\nThe sun rising on the horizon is the direct light of the Divine Truth rising in
\nthe being-the ray upwards opens the being to the Truth as it is above mind, the
\nray in front opens it to what we call the cosmic consciousness, it becomes
\nreleased from the personal limitation and opens and becomes aware of the
\nuniversal mind, universal physical, universal vital. The action on the heart was
\nthe pressure of this Sun on it to have this direct opening, so that the
\nconsciousness may become free, wide and wholly at peace.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It
\nis a great thing that you have been able to keep untroubled and undisturbed in
\nthe presence of the adverse pressure and kept the consciousness of the Peace
\nstill there behind. It is a sign that it is becoming more consolidated and
\neffective.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

\nThe wideness comes when one exceeds or begins to exceed the individual
\nconsciousness and spread out towards the universal. But the psychic can be
\nactive even in the individual consciousness.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

\nThe psychic is the support of the individual evolution; it is connected with the
\nuniversal both by direct contact and through the mind, vital and body.<\/p>\n

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

\n\n<\/p>\n

Page-183<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

Love, joy and happiness come from the psychic. The Self gives peace or a universal Ananda.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAs for the spectator and the coils of the dragon, it is the Chino-Japanese image for the world-force extending itself in the course of the universe and this expresses the attitude of the witness seeing it all and observing in its unfolding the unrolling of the play of the Divine Lila. It is this attitude that gives the greatest calm, peace, samatā <\/i>in face of the riddle of the cosmic workings. It is not meant that action and movement are not accepted but they are accepted as the Divine Working which is leading to ends which the mind may not always see at once, but the soul divines through all the supreme purpose and the hidden guidance.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nOf course, there is afterwards an experience in which the two sides of the Divine Whole, the Witness and the Player, blend together; but this poise of the spectator comes first and leads to that fuller experience. It gives the balance, the calm, the increasing understanding of soul and life and their deeper significances without which the full supramental experience cannot come.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

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

     
\nThe universal forces move by their own force and the consciousness within them,\u2014but there is also the Cosmic Spirit who supports them and determines by his onlook and disposing will their play\u2014although the direct action is left to the forces\u2014it is the play of universal Prakriti with the universal Purusha watching behind it. In the individual also there is the individual Purusha who can, if he wills, not merely assent to the play of Prakriti, but accept\n<\/p>\n

     
\n\n<\/p>\n

Page-184<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

or reject or will for its change. All that is in the play itself as we see it here. There is something above\u2014but the action of that is an intervention rather than a moment to moment control; it can become a constant direct control only when one replaces the play of the forces by the government of the Divine.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

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

     
\nIt is the Purusha and Prakriti sides of the nature\u2014one leading to pure conscious existence, static, the other to pure conscious force, dynamic. The past darkness they have come out of is that of ignorance, the future darkness that is felt above is superconscience. But, of course, the superconscience is really luminous \u2014only its light is not seen. The three forms of consciousness are the three sides of Nature represented by the three gunas\u2014force of subconscious tamas, Inertia, which is the law of Matter, force of half-conscious desire, Kinesis, which is rajas, which is the law of Life, and force of sattwic Prakasha, which is the law of Intelligence.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

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

     
\nThere is one Purusha\u2014its action is according to the position and need of the consciousness at the time.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is the nature of the action above the ordinary mind or in the cosmic consciousness which is many-sided.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

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

     
\nPrakriti is only the executive or working force\u2014the Power behind the Prakriti is Shakti. It is the Chit-Shakti in manifestation: that is the spiritual consciousness.\n<\/p>\n

     
\n\n<\/p>\n

Page-185<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

      This is true of mental knowledge and will, but not of the higher knowledge-will. In the supermind, knowledge and will are one.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nAll energies derive from the Chit-Shakti, but they differentiate from it as they descend.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThis much is true that Life is characteristically Force\u2014the Physical is characteristically substance, but the dynamism of both derives from Chit\u2014mind dynamism also, all dynamism.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

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

     
\nThere is one common Force working in all and a vibration of that Force or any one of its movements can awake (it does not always) the same vibration in another.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere is a constant movement (Prakriti) and a constant silence (Purusha).\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is a statement of the Upanishad that there is an ether of Ananda in which all breathe and live; if it were not there, none could breathe or live.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

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

     
\nThe force "created" is not yours\u2014it is Prakriti’s\u2014your will sets it in motion, it does not really create it; but once set in motion, it tends to fulfil itself so far as the play of other forces will allow it. So, naturally, if you want to stop it, you have to set a contrary force in motion which will be strong enough to prevail against its momentum.\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

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

 Page-186<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

     This vision is the perception of cosmic movement of things developing from state to state and in that the individual movements which make it up. There is also possible a sense of the All as Time in flow or of the same as a dimension interwoven with Space like warp and woof of a cloth, etc.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe Supreme cannot create through the Transcendent because the Transcendent is the Supreme. It is through the Cosmic Shakti that the Divine creates.\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe cosmic Force is under the control of the overmind. The supermind does not act on it directly\u2014whatever comes down from there is modified so as to pass through the overmind and take a lesser form suitable to the plane on which it acts, mental, vital or physical. But this intervention is exceptional in the ordinary play of the cosmic forces.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe cosmic spirit contains the supermind, but it keeps it above and works for the present between the overmind and the physical. It is only when the Ignorance is removed that the supramental becomes directly a dynamic part of the workings of cosmic Nature here. Till then there are only reflections of it.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

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

\n\n<\/p>\n

Page-187<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

       It [the Cosmic Spirit] uses Truth and Falsehood, Knowledge and Ignorance and all the other dualities as elements in the manifestation and works out what has to be worked out till all-is ready for a higher working.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe cosmic forces here whether good or bad are forces of the Ignorance. Above them is the Truth-Consciousness that can only manifest when ego and desire are overcome\u2014it is the force from the Divine Truth-Consciousness that must descend; the higher Peace, Light, Knowledge, Purity, Ananda
\nmust work upon the cosmic forces in the individual so as to change them and
\nsubstitute the Truth-Force in place of the ordinary working.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nA cosmos or universe is always a harmony, otherwise it could not exist, it would fly to pieces. But as there are musical harmonies which are built out of discords partly or even predominantly, so this universe (the material) is disharmonious in its separate elements\u2014the individual elements are at discord with each other to a large extent; it is only owing to the sustaining Divine Will behind that the whole is still a harmony to those who look at it with the cosmic vision. But it is a harmony in evolution in progress\u2014that is, all is combined to strive towards a goal which is not yet reached, and the object of our yoga is to hasten the arrival to this goal. When it is reached, there will be a harmony of harmonies substituted for the present harmony built up on discords. This is the explanation of the present appearance of things.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

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

\n\n<\/p>\n

Page-188<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

      The harmony of the lower consciousness is a harmony of discords brought about by a clash and mixture of forces.\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

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

     
\nThis vision is a representation in sound of the cosmic harmony from which the Ignorance is a fall and a discord.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThere is a rhythm in everything unheard by the physical ear and by that rhythm things exist.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

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

     
\nBoth of these [OM and the sound of church-bells] are usually sounds that indicate the opening or attempt to open to the cosmic consciousness.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nIt is when you feel the universal or divine beauty or presence in things that the senses are open to the Divine.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nOne can live in contact with the Divine even amidst the universal forces\u2014but to live in the Divine one must be able to rise beyond the lower universal Nature or to call down the Divine consciousness here. The beginnings are difficult for most\u2014and at no time is it really easy.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

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

Page-189<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

        The Cosmic Spirit or Self contains everything in the cosmos\u2014 it upholds cosmic Mind, universal Life, universal Matter as well as the overmind. The Self is more than all these things which are its formulations in Nature.\n<\/p>\n

     \n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

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

     
\n{The results of the opening to the cosmic Mind:] One is aware of the cosmic Mind and the mental forces that move there and how they work on one’s mind and that of others and one is able to deal with one’s own rnind with a greater knowledge and effective power. There are many other results, but this is the fundamental one. This is of course if one opens in the right way and does not merely become a passive field of all sorts of ideas and mental forces.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe opening to cosmic Mind makes the experience of the Divine everywhere for instance more easy\u2014but it is not essentially spiritual; if there is not a coming of wider spiritual experiences, then it need not be spiritual at all.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nWhat is happening is that you have got into touch with the cosmic Mind where all sorts of ideas, possibilities, formations are moving about. The individual mind takes up those which appeal to it or perhaps come into distinct form when they touch it. But these are possibilities, not truths, so it is better not to let them run free like that.\n<\/p>\n

   \n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

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

Page-190<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

      Mind has its own realms and life has its own realms just as matter has. In the mental realms life and substance are entirely subordinated to Mind and obey its dictates. Here on earth there is the evolution with matter as the starting point, life as the medium, mind emerging from it. There are many grades, realms, combinations in the cosmos\u2014there are even many universes. Ours is only one of many.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\n[The effect of opening to the cosmic Life:] One becomes aware of all the life-forces and of how they act upon oneself and others, upon mind, upon body\u2014also the force movements behind events. One becomes too directly aware of the vital plane, its worlds, its beings, and the direct action of their formations on the earth-life. One has to become aware also at the same time of one’s own true vital being and act from it and not from the surface or desire vital in relation to all these things. All this effect does not come at once,\u2014it develops as the contact with the cosmic Life increases.\n<\/p>\n

  \n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

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

     
\nIn the universal vital especially there is a deceptive attraction and an exhilarating rush of power (not true quiet power but mere force) which those who yield to it cling to as a drunkard to his intoxicants. It gives them a sense of being strong and great and full of interesting things\u2014when it is taken from them, they feel "like ordinary people" and ask for it back again.\n<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

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

Page-191<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

      Universal forces means all forces good or bad, favourable or hostile, of light and darkness that move in the cosmos.\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

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

 <\/p>\n

     
\nThe earth is the place of evolution in which all these forces meet and try to manifest and out of their working something has to develop. On the other planes (the mental, vital etc.) there is not the evolution\u2014there each acts separately according to its own law.\n<\/p>\n

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\nUniversal applies to everything in the universe\u2014there are individual beings everywhere, but not physical in the terrestrial sense\u2014the composition being different.\n<\/p>\n

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\nNo, they [the hostile beings] do not create universal forces; they are themselves moved by them and move them.\n<\/p>\n

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\nYes, of course, there is always a fight between the forces of Light and Darkness.\n<\/p>\n

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\nIn sadhana it becomes concentrated and conscious to us.\n<\/p>\n

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      As for the hostile beings, they are always in battle with each other; but they make common cause against the Truth and Light.\n<\/p>\n

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Page-192<\/p>\n

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\nThe forces are conscious. There are besides individualised beings who represent the forces or use them. The wall between consciousness and force, impersonality and personality becomes much thinner when one goes behind the veil of matter. If one looks at a working from the side of impersonal force one sees a force or energy at work acting for a purpose or with a result, if one looks from the side of being one sees a being possessing, guiding and using or else representative of and used by a conscious force as its instrument of specialised action and expression. You speak of the wave, but in modern science it has been found that if you look at the movement of energy, it appears on one side to be a wave and act as a wave, on the other as a mass of particles and to act as a mass of particles each acting in its own way. It is somewhat the same principle here.\n<\/p>\n

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\nNature-forces are conscious forces\u2014they can very well combine all that is necessary for an action or a purpose and when one means fails, take another.\n<\/p>\n

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\nYes. They [the forces] are able to act with a greater force if they can make a special formation than by general psychological action common to all human nature.\n<\/p>\n

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\nThey [the cosmic forces] act on everyone, according to the person’s nature\u2014and his will and consciousness.\n<\/p>\n

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     Egoism is part of the machinery\u2014a chief part\u2014of universal Nature, first to develop individuality out of indiscriminate force and substance of Nature and, secondly, to make the individual (through the machinery of egoistic thought, feeling, will and desire) a tool of the universal forces. It is only when one gets into touch with a higher Nature that it is possible to get free of this rule of ego and subjection to these forces.\n<\/p>\n

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\nYes, if there is the solid experience [that all one’s energies and capacities come from the universal forces], the ego habit is much diminished, but it does not go altogether. It takes refuge in the sense of being an instrument and\u2014if there is not the psychic turn\u2014it may easily prefer to be the instrument of some Force that feeds the satisfaction of the ego. In such cases the ego may still remain strong although it feels itself instrumental and not the primary actor.\n<\/p>\n

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\nIf the psychic is active\u2014or in so far as it is active, there is something in it which is like an automatic test for the universal forces \u2014warning against, (not by thought so much as by an essential feeling) and rejecting what should not be, accepting and transmuting what should be.\n<\/p>\n

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\nYes, it is so. The universal forces act very often through the subconscient\u2014especially when the force they send is something\n<\/p>\n

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Page-194<\/p>\n

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the person has been in the habit of obeying and of which the seeds, impressions, "complexes" are strongly rooted in the subconscient\u2014or, even if that is no longer the case, of which there is a memory still in the subconscient.\n<\/p>\n

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\nThere is no rule for that. The human being is ordinarily conscious only on the surface\u2014but the surface records only the results of subliminal agencies at work. It is often through the centres that the forces come in, for then they get the greatest power to act on the nature\u2014but they can enter anywhere.\n<\/p>\n

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\nThey [pain and grief] are perhaps rather the result of the action of universal forces\u2014but in a certain sense grief and pain may be said to be universal forces\u2014for there are waves of these things that arrive and invade the being often without apparent cause.\n<\/p>\n

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\nIt [death] is a universal force\u2014the happening or change called death is simply one result of the working of the force.\n<\/p>\n

   
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Page-195<\/p>\n

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\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 Section Three         EXPERIENCES OF THE INNER AND THE COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS         EXPERIENCES OF THE INNER AND THE COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS         I…<\/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-3547","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\/3547","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=3547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3547\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}