Sri Aurobindo's diary of his yogic practice between 1909 and 1927.
Sri Aurobindo's diary of his yogic practice between 1909 and 1927. This two-volume record of sadhana contains fairly regular entries between 1912 and 1920 and a few entries in 1909, 1911 and 1927. It also contains related materials Sri Aurobindo wrote about his practice of yoga during this period, including descriptions of the seven 'chatusthayas' (groups of four elements), which are the basis of the yoga of the 'Record'.
The 21ṣṭ Dec marks the close of a period. The first chatusthaya, hitherto always subject to apparent & superficial relapse by adhyaropa & intrusion of trouble, asamata & nirananda from outside, is now superior, by reason of the final repulsion of desire and recognition of the conditions of the Yoga, to these intrusions, although a minor adhyaropa is still possible. The second is firm, under the surface and often on the surface, in all except sraddha, firm in itself, but not complete in its range or all its circumstances. Sraddha in the Yoga siddhi has been accepted by the intellect, but not sraddha in the kriti. There the surviving intellectuality demands certain objective proofs before assenting to the ideal faith as anything more than a possibility or probability justified by the general nature of past experience. The doubt resolves itself into a deficiency in the sraddha Bhagavati. The Allpowerful Master of the Yoga is accepted as the Master & Lover of the Jiva and there is faith in His grace for the Yoga, but not in His grace for the life, nor in His ritam, nor in His Adesha. For this reason the swashaktyam sraddha is also overcast by doubt and limited in its range, because it is thoroughly experienced and accepted that own-Power can do nothing without the divine sanction and grace. The third chatustaya is in all, but rupadrishti, so far established in self-expansive force & inevitability of self perfection that its entire fulfilment remains only a matter of time. Physical siddhi is moving towards that stage, but has not reached it. Brahmasiddhi is now deficient only in nityasmarana and
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depth. Karmasiddhi remains now as the sole nexus of the asiddhi.
The third chatusthaya is chiefly advanced in vangmaya thought, in general jnana where jnana does not pass into telepathy (prakamya-vyapti). The main difficulty lies in the defects of the interpretative power, daksha & ketu, which, although transferred in type to the ideality whether of vijnanabuddhi or vijnana, alternates practically between vijnana, vijnanabuddhi and those parts of manasabuddhi which are either pseudo-intuitional in the nature of their activity or else attempt to preserve the fragments of the old intellectual reasoning or of the undercurrent of habitual mentality. This defect is now being steadily mended; ideal interpretation is being applied to the material of telepathy, lipi, rupa, samadhi etc; but until this process is complete, the positive defects of knowledge, as opposed to mere occasional inactivity, incompleteness or limitation of range, must continue. Meanwhile the range has begun to be extended. Occasional inactivity of knowledge will remain & be used for ananda & uddeshya, the purposes of life & the joy of life. Power acts with frequency, but not with full mastery; nevertheless it is now often rapid, instantaneous[,] effortless & persistent in its efficacy. Lipi is organising itself materially, but lacks habituality of vividness & spontaneous fullness in the akasha. Chitra & sthapatya of rupa is now almost perfect, the human figure, animal, landscape & group being rich, various & perfect in all; the isolated object or object group is still obstructed, but is moving towards the same variety & richness. Perfection is already not uncommon. Akasharupa is now persistent in manifestation, but cannot yet acquire a free stability. The vishayadrishtis have all an occasional perfect action, but are limited to a few habitual forms. Samadhi is still deficient in free combination and prolonged continuity of vision and experience.
Kamananda is now fixed in the body as of frequent daily occurrence, but only sometimes (on some days, that is to say) continuous or intense in its frequency. Ahaituka tivrananda has acquired a great intensity & some persistence; raudra has intensity. Vishaya & still more vaidyuta are only occasional & still imperfectly developed. Health is strongly combated, utthapana likewise; but both have now begun a settled movement of struggle towards progress
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and in no feature yield for long to positive reaction. Saundarya is successfully obstructed; it is only rudimentary in a few features & still subject in a few to successful positive reactions.
Karma is established but of slow progress in Sahitya, Veda & Bhashatattwa; obstructed in dharma, rudimentary in kriti.
The last three chatusthayas are in the state of sure foundation, unfulfilled superstructure. Kali and Krishna are manifest, but not in their full power and being, and because they are not manifest in a sufficiently full power and being, therefore kama and karma linger. The fourfold Brahman, on which that manifestation rests, is realised subjectively, but not yet, except initially, in its objective effects. Shuddhi, mukti, bhukti are perfect except in the body & except in a few subjective terms, eg the imperfect exclusion of the active mentality, & even in the body are approaching that critical point of their progress after which completion becomes not only possible but easy; but siddhi is still kept back in parts, although it has now begun its finalities.
The forward movement of trikaldrishti, yesterday & this morning, received its seal of final and speedy inevitability; the positive defects that remain are occasional overstress on a telepathic perception marring the satyam and imperfect light of detail and arrangement limiting the ritam. Nevertheless even in the unillumined secondhand perceptions of mind the ritam is at last prevailing and the satyam is now dominant.
*Lipi.1 Effective fertility of the lipi; delight: utility of the lipi to the trikaldrishti.
In the drishtis full drishti of gandha is now accomplished, although still infrequent. Sparsha-drishti is strong, but not usually sufficiently materialised except in minor touches, eg touch of sukshma winds, insects, etc. Since writing the above gandha has founded its frequency; at first taking advantage of slight unnoticeable or distant physical gandha it has emphasised for the indriya to a
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violent intensity their psychical counterparts and taking advantage of the memory in the indriya it has established in it the capacity of receiving sukshmagandha without the aid of a physical suggestion. Finally, it has established the pure sukshma gandha in intensity & frequency.
Vishayananda is now finally generating itself subjectively in the mind's reception of all actions, sights, sounds, touches etc,—a few touches of pain & discomfort in the body alone resisting,—and objectively in the physical response to all experiences. It is now manifest in the other ananda touches, raudra, tivra, kama, vaidyuta; it is becoming frequent by itself in touches which ordinarily bring other anandas; but objectively, it is not yet usually either intense or prolonged in ahaituka touches. This defect has now begun to be remedied. In type it has already been remedied, and the movement has been extended by concentrated process to the positive vaidyutananda. Negative vaidyuta had already intensity and prolongation, though usually associated with raudra. It is now being manifested separately.
Lipi—sunlit tapas and tapatya.
This has already (immediately after the lipi) been exemplified by certain movements of the aishwarya in which illumination of telepathy & trikaldrishti were perfectly combined with effective, though not immediately effective force of the will; both are still deficient in arrangement of ritam, but both work freely in particular effect. The resistance to the aishwarya, though still offered and often with obstinacy, is much weaker & less effective than formerly.
Rasadrishti is remanifesting combined usually with sparsha of the object, but as yet it is usually indistinct and insufficiently materialised. Shabda is also once more manifest, clear only in a few elementary sounds, strong but vague & remote in others, such as music, human voices etc. Neither has yet advanced beyond the stage arrived at long ago when these experiences were discontinued.
Rasa subsequently manifested great intensity and persistence in the bitter and bitter sour; the other tastes appear from time to time but without intensity or persistence, usually imperfectly materialised. Madhura is still involved in the sthula touches.
The siddhi descended again to the intellectuality to mould the
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mental pratistha more entirely to the passive reception of the vijnanamaya movements. In these descents jnana tends to keep its force & accuracy, receptive telepathy persists and sraddha in the yogasiddhi along with a provisional faith in the karma, recently imposed on the intellect. But trikaldrishti proper is much interrupted, & faith in the rapidity of the siddhi tends to be diminished, impaired or to disappear. Power increases without attaining at any time to definite mastery. Akasharupa cannot advance, being overmastered by the obstruction. Lipi grows in effective fertility, utility & just interpretation and is more often legible & vivid than before, but has not made the full material conquest of the Akasha. Samadhi keeps its gains, but fluctuates in its unestablished features.
It is indicated that the chief defect of the tapas in the yogasiddhi is the use of the physical insistence of the Will which is now out of date, though not ineffective, where direct physical tapasya has not to be used. Most of the reaction of asiddhi comes from the use of this force. On the other hand in the karmasiddhi, it has a permanent part to play, although always a subordinate part.
Yesterday's descent into the intellectuality gave an opportunity for an attack of the mortal mind which reproduced briefly & by a sort of violence certain features of the old asamata and duhkham connected with the asraddha. The effects were entirely physical and mechanical and had no psychological reality or importance or any just causality. They seem to be a physical adjunct always possible by mechanical revival of old sanskara when dwelling on the plane of mortal mind or in any condition exposed to shadows from the martya manas in the world. They are in the nature of the minor adhyaropa of the asiddhi to which the first chatusthaya is still liable.
Rasadrishti continues to develop. Many tastes manifest, mostly on the verge of sufficient materialisation, some just over it, a few depending on some material help and masquing behind an eatable object of quite different taste, eg sour behind pungent, or the memory of an eatable formerly eaten, either a little while ago or a few hours before or the last day. Sound quiescent since yesterday is
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again manifesting. The other drishtis are as yet stationary (touch) or imprisoned (satyarupa & hearing).
As the result of the recent struggle correct trikaldrishti is beginning to manifest in the intellectual response to the veiled vijnana.
Samadhi preserves its characteristics, but does not yet advance to a higher perfection. The satya of presentation is returning to the manasa swapna, but it still tends to reproduce more or less present personality & sanskara; occasionally however it is quite pure except for a feeble hardly noticeable touch of perversion. Today in the jagrat antardrishta the transfer of intellectual movements to the ideality has definitely begun.
Throughout the rest of the day, there were constant attacks of asiddhi, but the relapse into the Mahasaraswati form of udasina ananda could not again be enforced. The siddhi here appears to be complete. The only positive damage done by the attack was a partial bringing back of touches of physical discomfort disturbing the ananda of the indriyas in all touches & all sounds & restoring certain old sanskaras of unpleasant shrillness in sound or of dissatisfaction in the quality & effect of touch. The sensation however was confined to the physical organ & its nervous currents; the mind held its own.
Dream was ineffective.
In the morning the full siddhi reasserted itself. There is a preparation, as was predicted yesterday in the lipi, for the transfer of the knowledge to a higher ideality by enforcing more perfectly on the mortal & finite mind the brihat & compelling it to see the truth behind all suggestions even those apparently the most false. Constantly the mind is illumined in all its perceptions except those of the trikaldrishti, where it is only sure that all its perceptions represent actual truth of fact conveyed by prakamya vyapti, but cannot perceive consistently decisive event or true order. It is now being shown, more convincingly than before, that all false arrangements are true arrangements elsewhere, in other space or time or both, but here effective as only true type of a potential or actual possibility working as one of the forces of conscious knowledge in the world
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which determine partially the actual event in its preparation, its intermediate effectuation or its decisive finality. But the mind still revolts against even the actual possibility being enforced on it as or even instead of the actuality. This demand still strives to disturb the ananda of struggle & defeat & victory proper to the Mahakali tapas and temperament.
The tapas-siddhi, clouded and interrupted yesterday, again manifests in a series of aishwaryaprayogas (with vashita) in which there was no instance of failure, but always some element of resistance. There are three forms of resistance; 1, the will is exactly fulfilled in all its successive dictates, but there is an involved & concealed resistance not betrayed by any action or movement but obvious to the prakamya-vyapti which would or might have manifested itself if the action of the will had been farther pursued; 2, the will is fulfilled with a slight delay or a slight deflection of detail or both; 3, the will is fulfilled with a longer delay or a greater deflection of details or both, or with constant alternations of failure & success leading to an ultimate victory. If the will were jatavedas, attended with a constant & perfect knowledge or identical with knowledge in the divine identity of Chit-Tapas, these difficulties would not occur; but, before that consummation can be allowed, will force in mind has to be educated to the necessary force & firmness. First, eventual failure in the particular event has to be eliminated then failure in process, then limitation of success to the particular event & its extension to series of events constituting finally one grand result.
The tapas siddhi shows signs of entering on a new stage. From the movements of this stage it is evident that there are four forms of arrangement of Chit-Tapas which enter into the eventuality of things; first; arrangement of potential possibilities and their event, proper to the imagination, which may be eventually fulfilled but usually are not, except in quite another space or time or under quite other circumstances; 2, arrangement of actual possibilities and their reasonable event, proper to the judgment & reasoning intelligence, which often are fulfilled, but quite as often frustrated by forces behind the scene or impossible to be properly estimated by logic & mental reason; 3, arrangement of actualities on the
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basis of actual forces in operation seen or unseen, perceptible by mind or inferable, proper to the telepathic & intuitional mind, vijnanabuddhi, which are usually fulfilled & always more or less, but need not be, or, if fulfilled, need not continue to be fulfilled; 4, arrangement of absolute actuality, proper to the pure vijnana, which is invariably fulfilled, being equivalent to the intentions of Fate and Providence. A great obstacle to the development of Power has been the desistence from its use when an event seemed fixed either in a favourable or hostile sense on the strength of the telepathic dristi or even of the reasoning perceptions. The latter difficulty is beginning to disappear with the transference of knowledge to the vijnanabuddhi, & the disappearance of the reasoning intellect, but the former persists & is likely to persist until the knowledge has been transferred from the intuitional mind to the pure vijnana. This is being done with jnana; it has yet to be done with trikaldrishti.
Lipi satyatejas is being fulfilled. All the powers are gaining in strength; aishwarya with vashita, not invariably successful in event, yet succeeds now far oftener than it fails, at any rate in the sadhan-kshetra; ishita is less powerful, but exercises a visible pressure & often fulfils itself; aishwarya with ishita stands between the two in effectiveness; both aishwarya & [vashita]2 have also a field of exercise involved in ishita. But ill-ordered as is still the action of the Power, it is now recognised as satyatejas, always either producing some kind of effect or motion, if not the exact effect intended, and, if not at the time, in the object, under the circumstances intended, then at another time or place, or in another object or under other circumstances. There is delay, there is deflection, there is even final frustration, but never entire inutility. The ritam yet remains to be brought into this disordered mass of satyam.
Kamananda has been seeking for the last three days to impose itself on the body, not as a circumstance, but as a law of its activities. It is this afternoon stronger in essential continuity than it has been in the past.
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The remnants of anritam are now being persistently attacked & dominated in the telepathy & telepathic trikaldrishti; often even the unillumined mental movements constitute perfect ritam not only in telepathy but in trikaldrishti & when they are not so, they are always a full satyam with an imperfect ritam, an arrangement struggling to be right & attaining a half rightness, not as before entirely confused. Power grows, the sraddha of perfect power is taking possession of the mentality and preparing the eventual ritam of the tapas. The object can now be forced very often to the action it never intended contrary to its actual intention and endeavour, but this in living beings is effected through the mind & temperament by introducing a minor, weaker or side impulse which triumphs over the major, main or dominant impulses. Hence, usually, a long resistance occurs before the action is effected and often the object succeeds in getting away from the field of the vashikarana.
The Personality of the Ishwara & His relation with the Jiva are becoming more & more determined and frequent in action. Today there was a descent into the adhar of the Aniruddha-Balarama balakabhava, powerful in temperament & using life & action as a boy's game,—the seat being not as formerly the mind & buddhi, but the intuitional mind and the temperament.
Kamananda is now in possession of the physical system so far as to make itself always felt either in intensity, in subdued action or in a suppressed action effective on the body in secondary sensation, so that the system is not allowed to forget the ananda or to imagine its essential absence.
The Mahakali tapas has developed so far that now no defeat is taken as even temporarily final,—except in temporary particulars,—no nirananda is accepted, but at once converted wholly or partially into ananda, every suggestion of impossibility is rejected. Even the spirit of postponement of results is losing strength & the sraddha of immediate effect & rapidity is growing. These things, however, have not yet conquered the whole field, and a reserve still holds its own in the karma-sraddha & the sraddha of immediate actuality.
After a prolonged struggle with the fragmentary elfin agencies
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of the Manoloka there was a fresh emergence of a more perfect ideality.
Kamananda was almost entirely suspended as a result of physical expenditure in the second half of the day; only the faintest form of its suppressed existence subsisted.
Telepathic drishti aided by the intuition arranged a kind of trikaldrishti perfect in all but exact detail of perspective. A more settled ideality, intolerant of intellectual tapas and manasic stress, now holds all the forms and instruments of knowledge and is extending itself to the Tapas. The mind in ketu is still active, but only for more perfect training in passive receptivity of the vijnana; this manasa ketu is almost entirely void of intellectuality, at most there is sometimes a vague involved reasoning in the perception or, more often, a fantasy of stress upon remote or frail possibilities not properly connected with the actualities of the life or its proper mass of creative effort & forecast. The transformation of this manasic perception is now one of the main movements of the siddhi.
Kamananda is again recovering its force; tivrananda, for some time a little discouraged, is regularising its action and local arrangement; the rest are still irregular in their manifestation. Subjective ananda is being exposed to a revival of discomfort in its parts of physical nerve-organism, mainly in the sravana, in order that ananda even in the most effective forms of physical discomfort may be more firmly stamped on the nervous system, first psychically, then physically. The doubt about the sukshma character of the gandhadrishti,—the idea, that is to say, that the abnormal perception of objective scents was being mistaken for sukshmadrishti,—revived, but has once more been removed by still more unmistakable examples. The physical prakamya exists & will grow, but accounts for only a small part of the phenomena. Eg the smell of food at midnight, in a shut room, under the bed-clothes cannot be physical gandhadrishti.
All the physical (ahaituka) anandas are now firm in the body; vaidyuta is still comparatively rare, vishaya seldom intense or prolonged, but all five are repeatedly present, kama & tivra both
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intense & prolonged, raudra sufficiently intense & somewhat prolonged. Tivra is generalising itself locally, kamananda has begun the generalisation in type, raudra is normally general; none, however, at any time cover the whole surface of the body, but are localised in their particular contacts. Kama is most self-diffusive in its single touches. All are steadily increasing themselves & their hold on the sthula body.
Telepathy is now entirely justified to the intellectual sraddha; it is seen now that every telepathic suggestion is true, all are being except for slight perversions correctly placed and only in their exaggeration by tapas into trikaldrishti is there any serious error or distortion. So also the wisdom & kalyanechcha of the Master of the Yoga are justified in every detail of priya apriya, mangala amangala, the exact use & intention even being now generally evident either vaguely or precisely to the mental perception aided by the ideality. The absolute power over the Yoga is also evident, but the absolute power over the world is still a matter of ideal faith &, to the mind, of inferential faith, not of intellectual pratyaksha. So also the personal Love (prema & not kama) is not entirely justified to the perceptive manas & the prana, although justified to the heart.
In the evening a shroud was drawn over the siddhi which seemed in great parts of it to become inactive or ineffective. At the same time it was evident that a process of purification of the old ideas & sanskaras formed in the course of the sadhan & no longer suited to the actual state or future course of the siddhi was in process.
Recently the lipi appeared "Do not judge by the telepathy". This command to the nature is now being brought home to the mind by the continual demonstration of the uselessness of the telepathy unsupported by viveka & intuition for the decision of actual eventualities. Telepathy only brings to the knowledge actual forces, thoughts, states, tendencies, intentions etc; when it goes beyond and gives the event, as it can & does give, it is only
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[temporarily]3 fulfilling a function beyond itself and merging into revelation & inspiration. But when it does so in intuitional mind, it assists the manasa ketu to make mistakes of overstress by accustoming it to expect such monitions usually & not exceptionally from prakamya vyapti, so that it comes to take any & every vyapti & prakamya as an indication of actual event, in which case it falls into numberless errors, or as at least possible or probable event, in which case it flounders amid a chaos of uncertainties. The mind is now convinced of the proper limitations of telepathy & the intuitional mind as it was formerly of the insufficiency, proper limitations in the past & future uselessness of the intellect.
The telepathy is now beginning to work again in harmony with the pure vijnana, and, more important, the tapas of effectuality is beginning to distinguish itself from the tapas of knowledge, while at the same time looking forward to a higher fulfilment in which the two again become one. Forces are now perceived at work long before they are fulfilled and the old tendency to insist on their immediate or rapid fulfilment and in default of that satisfaction to dismiss the perception of them as error or the forces themselves as futile, is passing away. It is now seen that all forces are effectual and must produce their result; until that result is seen & determined, they must not be dismissed from consideration, nor from use. The Will therefore is now working with this knowledge of the forces as its medium, making use of those that are favourable to its intention, discouraging those that are adverse. In this working it is generally successful, sooner or later, except when the object passes out of the field of operation & the idea or hope of bringing it back or distinguishing it if it returns is abandoned. The ritam or right working of the power is not yet advanced beyond its former stage of initial & inchoate development. It is also now seen by the duller parts of manas that a force which seems to be prevailing & its victory inevitable & intended, need not prevail at all; some other force may intervene or the will of God may strike the object and drive it towards other ends; the movement of the once dominant force then takes its place in the history of the total motion & final event as one of the forces of variation that modified or advanced the course of their fulfilment. The way is therefore clear for the
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entire perception of Ananta Brahman (guna, constituent forces and determining force or will), for its union in the Sarvam Brahma with the Jnanam Brahma and for its perfection in the sarvam samam anandam Brahma.
Vishayananda (ahaituka) now manifests sufficient intensity & continuity when it enters the physical system in company with the other physical anandas. When it comes by itself, involving in itself the others, it tends, if the intensity is too sthula or prolongs itself, to pass into the others, especially raudra and tivra. For the rest, this conjunction of all the anandas is intended as the normal state of ecstasy, except in its more particular movements of vishesha-radhas. Vishaya is in its nature a saumya ananda, the rest in their nature chanda anandas; hence states of chandata tend naturally to pass out of vishaya into its fiercer fellows. It is noticeable also that the other anandas obstructed or denied tend more & more, instead of at once extinguishing themselves in avyaktam, to pass into the raudra. This circumstance throws a considerable light on the true nature of pain.
Sortilege. RV I. 93 अग्निषोमविमं सु मे शुणुतं वृषणा हवं । प्रति सूक्तानि हर्यतं भवतं दाशुषे मयः ।। O Agni (lord of divine Tapas) and Soma (lord of Ananda), hear perfectly my call, take joy in the things perfectly expressed in me, become Ananda to the giver (of the sacrifice of action). This expresses the next necessity of the siddhi. Hitherto the full Anandamay state (Soma) has been associated with shama; tapas has always brought either partial Ananda or disturbance. The siddhi is now ripe for the perfect combination. It is noticeable that the sortilege has for some time been illuminated by the pure vijnana; the lipi as yet is not free from the pursuit of the manasa ketu and has often to be interpreted through the vijnana-buddhi; this is still more the case with rupa. Now, however, the ideality is steadily pressing on all the instruments of knowledge to take them over into its own domain, swe dame.
The lipi in the samadhi is still fragmentary except in rare short sentences, sometimes even incoherent in the single word. eg "In the bath of men voltithaire impressionably" where voltithaire represents primarily Voltaire's Theatre (dramas) and the expressions "in the bath", "of men" "Voltaire's theatre" "impressionably",
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although separate, are run together as if forming one sentence. A less confused instance runs "demain matin (one of the illustrators in Paris ... country." In jagrat samadhi antardrishta a series of clear and stable images have manifested, but they are all crude in nature and struggle out of the old long-standing obstruction and obscurity.
A movement has now taken place which marks the final liberation of the jiva from the fragments of dwandwa ragadwesha in the outward world-consciousness (priya-apriya, mangala-amangala) by the disappearance of the kartavya-akartavya, aptavya-anap-tavya. These things exist in the knowledge, but no longer in the emotional consciousness. The shadow of the old touches will fall for some time on the outer jada prakriti, but they will not be accepted by the organised consciousness of the jiva. Universal ananda is now hampered only by deficient physical mukti.
Clear & stable rupa is now establishing itself again with greater freedom in the Akasha, but as yet nothing entirely decisive has been attained. Perfect rupas are still transitory & rare, developed rare &, though not always transitory, fleeting in their momentary stability; in the stable forms the crude predominate & even the ghana is infrequent & less stable, nor are these stable crude forms plentiful in their variety.
The resistance to tapas is becoming less prolonged, its success less successful. There are exceptions, but these are principally in particular detail or to less constant aishwarya. Ishita is still insufficient. Will was successful in recalling lines of verse entirely forgotten. They welled up from passive or concealed memory immediately in answer to the touch after long vain striving by mental pressure.
In the samadhi, as a result of ishita, the supreme type of image, eg a city on the hills, once more recurred, but the prolonged continuous experience of these images and of continued movements & occurrences in the scene they represent, formerly not infrequent though imperfect either in prolongation or in continuity, do not yet recur. The type is still only a complete isolated incident in a limited scene rapidly represented or a momentary cinematographic glimpse on a more extended scale, eg a street and its movements etc.
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The Shakti is busy extending the subjective & pranic ananda in objective touches which are still discomfortable, eg heat in the entrails, nausea, tejas effective of discharge of purisha etc and purging out all tendencies to return of asantosha in ill-effect. Increasing premananda, shuddha, old sanskaras of unalterablechidghana are still debating the ground with the fragmentary relics of the lower jaghanya or bibhatsa virati; ahaituka is firm but sometimes touched by the clouding of the others.
Tapas still grows in power, but its hold is still insufficient because not yet automatically effective, except occasionally; it is effective, usually, only by overcoming the resistance of the bhumayi prakriti, a resistance which still fights, if no longer every inch of ground, yet all possible terrain and is still liable to revive even where it has been partially & seems to be entirely conquered. Its faculty of resistance is, however, visibly dwindling.
The sthula human touch is today being felt in addition to other touches but still in an initial & sukshma form, although it has passed the stage when it could only be felt perfectly in the pranakosha & its effects alone reached the annakosha. Certain forms of the prana jagat, rain, cloud, insects, etc are nowadays once again commonly visible though still vague & more often seen in their image or chhaya than in their proper bodies. Shabdadrishti is still behindhand & remains except for an occasional elementary or distant sound in the avyakta. It is however tending to gain strength.
Akasharupa laboured strongly to generalise itself; rupas seen in one form or state now tend more easily to be seen in others, eg, antardrishta jagrat in bahirdrishta, rupa on background in akasha & vice versa, & even swapna rupas in antardarshi jagrat, but this is as yet only after awakening & in the more ghana states of the antardrishta. Stability in the swapna rupas progresses by a gradual tendency. Very rich images, as in former times, now manifest in the mental akasha and half appear on the borders of the sthula. Swapnasamadhi is rich & varied.
The chief activity of the siddhi is now to prepare the thirteenth siddhi in the adhara subjectively and physically; all that is deficient subjectively is the survival of certain old sanskaras of unalterable
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cause & effect, physical possibility & impossibility. These removed the physical siddhi will be facilitated. The other main activity is the manifestation of the personal Shaktis of the Alipur sadhana in the anandatattwa of the mind, the explanation & justification of many dubious features and abandoned assertions of that sadhana, the justification of the mental tejas against the mental inertia, the extension of the dasya by submission to those chosen & allowed by the Ishwara, the removal of the fragments of straining, desire, nirananda, doubt of siddhi etc in the jada prakriti.
The mental ideas & suggestions are now usually justified in their substance; but at the same time their wanderings from the ritam in time, place, patra & placement of circumstance are often so much exaggerated that the unaided mind stumbles & cannot get a fixed conviction. The sraddha in the guidance grows, however, firmer & firmer behind and even through the perplexity, for the vijnana constantly returns and lightens up what had been dark or confused. There is now no unfriendly struggle in the vijnana chatusthaya, but only the clashes that attend natural growth & progressive adjustment. The struggle is now keenest in health & ananda; utthapana is in abeyance. Occasionally karmasiddhi of sahitya & dharma is taken in hand, but the serious pursuit is deferred, till the vijnana is essentially perfected and the sraddha justified. A certain amount of physical siddhi (mainly arogya & general utthapana) is also essential before the karma can be powerfully pursued.
For some time pure vijnana has been quiescent, vijnanabuddhi subordinately active & a free play given to the anandatattwa of the manas. The object & so far the result has been to secure entire passivity in the mental parts of the mortality, both knowledge & tejas and a purification of the jada nirananda. The jada Bharata stage has again been realised and emphasised. The Sat & Tapas of the manas has been manifested so far as they can be with a complete absence of initial vijnana, and it has been shown both how the thing to be manifested rises out of the indeterminate Sat, how the Tapas selects & moves towards mental vijnana, what place is filled by sraddha & asraddha, rajas & tamas & how the birth of
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ananda & nirananda born of their play effects the dwandwas. The movement is now towards reactivity & fulfilment of vijnana. The preparation of the thirteenth siddhi continues.
The attempt to rise out of the jada passivity resulted immediately in a relapse of parts of the mortal mind into the old forms of tejas & dwandwa and a struggle of these elements to force themselves again on the jada prakriti as the law of its activity. Although this endeavour has been repelled, it is only by a cessation of all activity to which the Vritras seek to bind the system. It is after a long time that this faculty of Vritra has been restored & enabled it to estop entirely both active knowledge & active ananda. The tapas has also temporarily drawn back into the old successfully resisted mental tapas.
The indeterminate position continued through the rest of the day, prolonged by the jada tendency in the Manas to attempt its own fulfilment without referring always or being lifted up into the Vijnana.
Tapas now fulfils itself with great frequency in a perfect manner, instantaneously or almost instantaneously, sometimes without use of force in the will or pressure on the object, sometimes with slight force or a little pressure. The old ineffectuality, however, remains in all its outward types & recurs sufficiently often; this ineffectuality is especially strong where an impetus has already been given to another action or there is a powerful adverse bent in the object or when the attention of the Asiddhi has been called to it by a success of the will. These, however, are only the survival of a habit in the physical parts of the swabhava in the Bhumayi Prakriti.
Yesterday utthapana was resumed—utthapana of the neck for half an hour without effort or difficulty and with only an ineffective & moderate an-anima. Today there came utthapana of both legs in the medial position for quarter of an hour, with difficulty because of defect of mahima which finally induced abandonment, although there were signs that the asiddhi would diminish if the attempt were prolonged. Afterwards the left leg was supported in the horizontal position (reclining on the side) for an hour by a perfectly sufficient laghima & mahima & at the end could have been maintained for
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an indefinitely longer period. The pain of the sinews peculiar to this position was recurrent, but had no longer its old force; nevertheless it prevented the maintenance in a single position straight or crooked, change of position giving relief. Except when the mahima is withheld, the utthapana now can always be maintained owing to the great accomplished force of laghima in the body. An-anima is now the only substantial opponent. It is noticeable that physical tapasya has been greatly diminished & seems on the point of abandonment in favour of pure Tapas of willpower. The utthapana of the back & loins has, however, still to be tried; hitherto it has only once succeeded. The time for the horizontal position of the legs has not before been equalled, but the alteration of the method & the disappearance of true opposition is now the real siddhi, time only a test of its completeness or a circumstance. Vepathu remains, but it is now seen as the sign of a helpful agent which increases mahima & diminishes both muscular stress & muscular pain and strain; it is the sign of the pranashakti at work improving an unfit adhara.
In the afternoon there was a strong effort to reidealise the whole consciousness as well as the activity which succeeded with the thought but only partially with the trikaldrishti. In the evening there was, after a short struggle in which the trikaldrishti was almost unerring but the tapas only partially & defensively effective, an unprecedented sequent faultlessness of the effective will and, with one or two slight deflections, of the perceptive knowledge, but all this was in the manasa ketu and not in the daivya. So far it was a success for the manasa element which seeks to use the vijnana for its own development while refusing to the vijnana the possession & enjoyment of the system. The results however failed to give satisfaction to the Jiva or to the system which now demands vijnana and rejects the manasa perceptions whether true or false. This virati is the security that the attempt of the lower to use & dominate the higher cannot eventually succeed.
In the night for the first time there was entire success of the stability of rupa in the swapna samadhi, one scene, a street & the exterior of a house & its environment, lasting in spite of attempts of the asiddhi for many seconds before first one or two details became inconstant and then a swift shifting series of similar scenes
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was substituted for the one stable scene. Like the vision of the city on the hill some days ago, this was an unique instance & a success only in type, but it is an assurance of success in the near future.
Utthapana of the right leg, horizontal position, recumbent on the back, could be maintained only for 9 or 10 minutes; the ananima was strong & the mahima, though present, defective.
The principal work of the [year] 1913 has been the reduction of asiddhi to a survival in the external environmental swabhava, the purification of that swabhava from the contradictions of the first & second chatusthayas, the sure foundation of the siddhi in the third, fourth & sixth & its preparation in the fifth. The finality of the first chatusthaya is perfect in itself, though not yet entirely absolute, touches still surviving as an occasional insistence from the outer nature. Fierce trouble & distress is obsolete, distress itself & even impatience only an occasional & momentary memorial return, but temporary discouragement & distrust with a tendency to indifference & weariness are still able to make a superficial impression. This insecurity of the sraddha & tejas & their incomplete hold in regard to the karmasiddhi & the necessary rapidity of Yogasiddhi prevents a complete & forcible finality of the shakti, retains the excess of the Mahasaraswati-Maheswari combination in the Mahakali Mahasaraswati temperament and hampers the expression & activity of the Mahakali tapas. The third chatusthaya is founded in all its parts, but insecure in the jnana, unfinished in the trikaldrishti, wide & secure but still uncertain & variable in vyaptiprakamya, both imperfect & uncertain in the parts of Tapas and ill-developed in samadhi; nevertheless it is now powerfully & inevitably progressive. The fourth chatusthaya is somewhat advanced but insecure in physical ananda, growing persistently in arogya but obstinately haunted by the old mechanical recurrence of fragmentary defects, growing in secondary utthapana, merely initial & without force of progression in saundarya. The fifth is still in a state of preparation, seed-sowing & crude initial consistencies. The sixth is well advanced, but unable to hold its own without smarana except in the sarvam Brahma. The seventh is well advanced except in certain parts of the siddhi, especially in ritam.
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विश्रयंतामृतावृधो द्वारो देवीरसश्र्चतः
Let the divine doors swing wide open for him who is not attached, who increases in himself the Truth.
The day was chiefly occupied with the struggle of the manasaketu to survive as an active factor in the consciousness instead of a passive unreacting recipient. At first, all the justifications that could still be advanced for its survival had to be allowed to rise in order that they might be refuted & destroyed. Subsequently, the manasa element in the tapas had to be rejected. As a result the action of the Mahakali tapas has been cleared of its besetting difficulty and a coordination of vijnanamaya knowledge and vijnanamaya tapas is being prepared. The manasaketu remains as an otiose but habitually recurring survival which cannot yet be entirely expelled.
Kamananda again became active; ahaituka tivrananda showed in its recurrence a considerable increase of generality and of force. The pure unaccompanied or unaided ahaituka vishaya is slowly emerging, but still usually stifled by the other anandas. Stability is growing firmer in the rupas of the swapna samadhi.
The pure vijnanamaya trikaldrishti is once more disengaging itself from the telepathic basis over which it has to stand. Revelation & inspiration (drishti sruti) now take a leading part in the vijnana and intuition & viveka (smriti) are subordinate & secondary to them. The struggle is now definitely proceeding between the new tapas & the old prakriti for the expulsion of those elements which insist on the old slow & meticulous progress & prevent great results & rapid effectivity.
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The vijnana gained throughout the day and finally reestablished the decisive general trikaldrishti which selects discriminatively the right event out of several telepathic perceptions of the actual forces at work, their varying strengths and possible eventualities. At the same time the aishwarya & vashita recovered and, especially the former, increased their dominance over the objects of the Bhumaya Akasha. Hitherto aishwarya has usually had to take the help of vashita; this dependence is now disappearing. Ishita is still slow & uncertain in its results.
The freedom of crude akasharupa greatly increased, & the tendency to take the use of the pranic pressure on the akasha in determining them has now taken a secondary place. More & more it is the pure mind that determines successfully results in the objective existence. For the rest this is the lipi that has already been given, "Subject control & perfect objects."
Dasya & tapas, samata and aishwarya are now being more successfully & perfectly combined in the total swabhava.
Above the discriminative (vivekamaya) & intuitional trikaldrishti the revelatory trikaldrishti is remanifesting itself. The manasic perceptions are now being used in their very confusion for the assertion of the liberty of this revelatory knowledge and its disregard of the false limitations of present and outward appearances. The same liberty is being asserted also for the Will and its instruments. The ananda of temporary defeat & the perception of God's purpose in it is now being finally imposed on the rebellious pranic element in the outer swabhava. This perception precludes the conception of ultimate defeat for the Jiva,—there can be no ultimate defeat except where God's will & man's are at variance. The utility of the recent relapse & crisis now appears; the transfer of the intellectuality to the ideality had been burdened by the continued activity of manasa ketu and the supporting idea of the anandamaya pranic manas that the fulfilment of this infallible manasic activity using the vijnana as a referee was a main part of the siddhi. The main chaitanya had to come back into the manas in order to convince them, first, that the mind cannot be infallible except as a
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mere echo of the manifest or veiled vijnana and, secondly, that this fulfilment of an echo could not be the main intention of the Yoga.
The aishwarya-vashita which triumphs over the fixed intention of the object is now manifesting clearly & powerfully.
Shabdadrishti of the daivya turi (horn), indicating victory, & subsequently of divine music,—first heard (with long continuity) only in the left ear when closed by the hand to earthly shabda, but afterwards when the hand was removed. The whole sukshmabodha is now extending its sense-perceptions to the mental & pranic heavens as well as to the mental & pranic koshas of the material world. This movement initiates the completion of the trailokyadrishti first indicated in the Alipur jail. It marks also the growing emergence of the sukshma shabdadrishti in the sthula hearing.
In the tapas the mental energies of will at the side which were formerly confused by the mental tejas with the energies of knowledge, are now being devoted to their proper object, the development of vashita; aishwarya, vashita, ishita properly divided & combined are preparing the fullness of the Tapas.
Stability of the rupa background & continuity of a single complete event on the stable background seem now to be confirmed in the swapna samadhi & are seeking to extend themselves to the antardrishta jagrat; but transient scenes & figures still predominate in the swapna, while the stability in the jagrat lacks freedom and perfection. Kamananda is now well assured; nothing is able to break down its daily frequent manifestation and its tendency to persistence which promises before long to be victorious. Sparshadrishti hitherto confined to touches is adding continuity to frequency. Shabdadrishti also last night suddenly manifested in one sound, (flute-whistle,) an absolute clearness, vividness & continuity near the ear but entirely in the sthula akasha. Hitherto, however, this is an isolated incident.
The Shakti is now bringing forward the ishita, ishita-vashita & effective vyapti and it is immediately found that in actual inherent power, vaja, all these are as strong as the other parts of tapas, but owing to the akasha being less habituated to their impact not so
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readily or accurately effective as the vashita, aishwarya-vashita or even the pure aishwarya. Nevertheless the accuracy & readiness are already prepared and glimpsed in the action; they will soon develop in the mobile actuality.
The vijnanabuddhi is now acting with full brihat of satyam and the incipient brihat of ritam taking up all the obscure or half illumined movements of the manasaketu & putting them in their place even in the trikaladrishti; this movement covers the perception & vangmaya thought and the script. The vani is now anandamaya, but like the pure vijnana it works either in the manasaketu or in the vijnanabuddhi after traversing to the consciousness the Sat, Tapas & ananda of the manas tattwa. This movement often wakes a transient pain of dissatisfaction in the mortal mind of the outer swabhava, but that habitual reaction is being removed.
The higher anandamaya vani has once more manifested, deploying and overpowering the old sanskaras which hampered its fullness and possession, personality and delight. It is not yet settled in possession of the whole vani.
In the swapna samadhi large combined images like the city are now occurring and appear also dimly in the antardrishta jagrat, but as they pass the borders between the swapna and antardrishta, tend to disappear or fade into a more unsubstantial dimness.
The struggle over the ritam and the finality of the vijnana and ananda continues. The manas tattwa struggles, successfully so far, for survival and seizes hold of its own errors to discredit the vijnana & justify its own survival as a means for judging the vijnana. Health is once more strongly attacked, even cold and fever being threatened. The combination of dasatya & tapas continues to progress with the growth of the bhagavati sraddha.
The struggle over the arogya continues, the symptoms of fever & cold spending themselves in the sukshma parts without being able to materialise firmly in the body in spite of the opportunities given. The mind is assailed with suggestions of illness, but resists
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& expels them while the bodily parts which have now learned to look up to the mind for light & impulse, are only slightly affected & chiefly in their subtle parts. The whole psychic mechanism of illness is now evident to the understanding.
Full light and ananda are being steadily combined, but their arrangement is hampered by the imperfect finality of the decisive or higher trikaldrishti which is largely held in abeyance. Meanwhile the sraddha in Yogasiddhi & in the guidance & kalyana of the Master of the Yoga has been firmly generalised, and the recurrence of touches of distress & disheartenment are becoming more & more fragile & momentary. Faith in rapidity & adeshasiddhi is still withheld from the manasaketu which only admits them by an indirect & wavering deduction. For this reason the tapas is unable to maintain ugrata & swiftness.
Mainly occupied with the struggle in the body over the arogya.
During the last two or three days samata & ananda have undergone a prolonged ordeal. Titiksha is absolutely firm except for slight & momentary failings in the body, udasinata & nati equally firm except for similar slight failings, a little more pronounced in the body than the failures of titiksha; sama ananda is firm in the core & the mass of the chaitanya, less firm on the surface, but its failings are now negative & do not, except in a very slight degree, amount to positive distress or even, to a sensible extent, to positive discomfort, except in the body where suffering still has its hold. It is on this point that the bodily attack has been principally determined. In certain points the attack has failed; the fragments of the tendency to slight itch & eruption after showing a false activity have retired weakened, the attempt to reestablish cold & fever has so far failed, but disorder of the assimilative functions amounting to flatulence, dull pain & heaviness in the region of the liver, & looseness of purisha, but not diarrhoea, has again appeared, contradicting the temporary siddhi of arogya which had exiled all pain & positive disorder, leaving only discomfort of ill-regulated apana
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and unrealised tendencies of alternate constipation & looseness. It is found, however, that the body has learned to retain its vital force & working energy, recovering elastically even from the brief after result of fever in the pranakosha. Kamananda continues obstinately though as yet unable to establish uninterrupted continuity in the body. The other physical anandas are occasional; tivra continues to grow in intensity and spontaneity. Subjective ananda is now seated & complete, including sakama prema. Hitherto the universal prema even when directed towards the material form was in the heart only; it has now extended to the whole system including the body. However the kamic element is not yet always automatically present. Vijnana has been dull and clouded for the last two or three days. Sraddha in the guidance remains firm, though sometimes darkened & bewildered in knowledge; sraddha in the Yogasiddhi persists against all attack. The sahityasiddhi (Veda, Bhashatattwa, Darshana) is now growing in steady working & with it the sraddha in this part of the karma; but the sraddha in the rest still awaits objective proof for its entire stability & is distrustful of the proposed extent of the karma.
At night dream became, for the most part, entirely coherent and at times identical with swapna samadhi in its chhayamaya movements. Swapnasamadhi also in its chhayamaya movement initiated long & coherent continuity & a greater stability of forms. These movements were repeated frequently & for a long time, fluctuating between the two conditions of dream and vision. At the end in the deeper tamomaya nidra the old incoherence of the lower fragmentary mind dominated by present impressions & associations reasserted its presence, but, although it persists, its hold and potency is greatly weakened.
The attack on the health is steadily weakening and vijnana reasserting its activity, not yet the pure vijnana, but the vijnana-buddhi, even in trikaldrishti. It takes, assumes to itself, explains and often distinguishes in eventuality the perceptions of the manasaketu, which, as a consequence, is now working more passively & with less selfwill and obstinacy. Distress continues to fade steadily
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out of the conscious experience even in the outer nature; distrust & discouragement still recur.
Subsequently, the higher tapas of the mind, first sakama, then indifferent, then anandamaya emerged again after long struggle, failure & eclipse. It is now the tapas of Sacchidan[an]da in the mind, although it still awakens usually the tapas of the mortal mind as its accompaniment or medium of manifestation or partially effective agent. To get rid of the agent it is necessary first to perfect it as a medium and passive channel of communication for the daivya tapas working on the world. It must for that purpose become entirely sanmaya (shanta) & anandamaya without losing its chinmaya & tapomaya activity.
Cold failed to reassert itself; but the fragmentary skin affectation has once more manifested. The struggle continues in the assimilation, etc.
The Tapas has at last effected firmly its combination with dasya, although the dasyabuddhi is not always at the surface of the consciousness in its action; it has now to be combined perfectly with sraddha. For that purpose the vijnana is once more becoming active in the vijnanabuddhi governed and informed by the pure vijnana. The telepathic mind or manasaketu is being trained not only to recognise the satyam in the telepathies it receives (when the buddhi is active, it is now only a few suggestions the justification of which cannot be eventually perceived or is wrongly placed), but to distinguish immediately the ritam and anritam. To this end the various sorts of lower truth, truth of potential fact, truth of actual developing or developed fact, truth of developing & struggling force, truth of actualising force, truth of eventuality have to be rapidly & automatically distinguished and the exact power & meaning of each & all in time[,] place & circumstance properly seen. Telepathy of thought which was hitherto limited by unwillingness to accept unverifiable suggestions or uncertainty & confusion in their acceptance or the inability to place conflicting vyaptis is now being brought forward, determined & arranged. The lower perceptions are being taught to yield without self-judgment
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or questioning to the pure vijnana & leave the latter to distinguish between truth & error. Ananda in the tapas, in struggle, in failure as a step towards success have been strengthened and discouragement is being eliminated like distress, though both return in momentary & often causeless stresses or touches. Distrust remains in its usual field, rapidity & adeshasiddhi, but the latter is now centred in the kriti from which by an inferential process it returns on the other parts of the karma. Once exiled thence by objective proof, its hold will be finally & effectually destroyed.
There is the attempt now firmly to establish the ugrata & shaurya, to banish the last traces of the dependence on fruits, phalahetu not the phalakanksha which is already disappearing while preserving the lipsa and the kaushalam, the one to be established free from kama, the other to be used when the perfected tapas is ready. The activity of the vijnana has revived, but is not yet universal or firmly stable. The other siddhis are mostly preparing behind the veil of Night. The nature of the difficulty in telepathy, the mutual confusion of the retrospective, prospective, near present & distant present in addition to errors of placement in patra, desha, kala etc is now being fully displayed & worked out without disturbing the sraddha of Yogatattwa & Yogasiddhi.
The vishayadrishtis are beginning slowly to regularise themselves. The one or two clear symbol shabdas (watch, flute, horn etc) are now coming more often & quite unmistakably sukshma. The rupa, apart from image, is confined to a few forms already familiar to the eye, rain etc. Touch has not yet passed beyond its former limits although it is more common & spontaneous; but taste & smell are increasing in force & frequency, especially in the sadharadrishti, eg the violent, intense, almost acridly intense & long continued taste in the mouth of the sweetness of sugar or molasses after the first puff of a cigarette, the smell amounting to nasikya aswada of the same sweet substance in the end of a cigarette thrown aside & smoking itself out, smell of strong perfumes etc on the basis of an unperfumed object or a slightly perfumed object at a great distance. The taste of madhura rasa is now well established.
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All ordinary discomfort has now been invested with the ananda. Only the strong touches of pain remain to be conquered. Here dull pain even if strong & persistent offers little difficulty; acute pain beyond a certain degree still exceeds the titiksha & therefore passes beyond the scale of ananda.
Sahityasiddhi has for some time been developing, tamasi, and is now coming forward. For some days the work at the Veda has been continuing with great force & persistence & overcoming the tamasic reactions, even the bodily, which used formerly to hamper long continued intensity of labour. The brain still becomes a little dull at times, but usually recovers itself rapidly & is always capable at its worst of an intermittent luminosity.
The siddhi of the last few days has been directed mainly towards the removal in the natural mind of the obstacles to the right activity of the vijnana especially in trikaldrishti & the preparation of the general effective vijnanamaya tapas. The vijnanamaya action in the buddhi is now generalised, tending always, except for short intervals of relapse, to take the place of manasic perception, and by its very activity diminishing steadily, though it has not yet removed, the persistent recurrence of the manasic false response and distortion of vijnanamaya messages. In the light of this self-perfecting jnana all the past vicissitudes of the sadhana are seen in their right light, their reasons, necessity, utility, essential cause & teleological purpose; for better impression on the natural mind, they recur in slight & fleeting instances, repeat their old action[,] are understood and dissolve themselves. This process, perfected in the jnana, is being applied more & more powerfully & steadily to Veda, sahitya, trikaldrishti, telepathy. The mechanism of the tapas, its defects, causes, working & the teleological purpose of the defects arising from their essential causes, is also being exposed, the first effect being to remove the last remaining obstacles to faultless subjective persistence in the tapas even when it fails & is or seems hopeless of its purpose (the objective persistence is limited by physical fatigue or incapacity), and, secondly, to the ugrata of the tapas. It was formerly the mind's habit to take failure
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as a sign of God's adverse will & cease from effort, & as ugra tapas usually failed of its immediate purpose, unless very persistent & furious, it was thought ugra tapas was forbidden. The failure, however, was due to the immixture of effort & desire & anishata generally & the mental nature of the tapas and these again to the necessities, essential & teleological, of the process of the transition from the mental to the ideal being. The second chatusthaya is, therefore, nearing full completion, the third preparing it; the first now only suffers momentarily in samata by passing depressions & in ananda by general limitation of the second; the third is delayed by insufficiency of tapas in the second, the second held back in sraddha & tapas by insufficient light & effectuality in the third. These two chatusthayas must therefore for a little time longer move forward together helping each other's fullness until the still watching intellect in the outer nature is sufficiently assured of its ground to allow fullness of tapas & sraddha. Samadhi has not moved forward except in the fullness & comparative frequency of the spontaneous sukshma ghrana & the increasing tendency of the other sukshma indriyas. The rupa drishti still struggles with the opposition in the material akasha to its combined perfection & stability; both perfection & stability have been carried separately in the jagrat to a high efficiency, but they cannot yet combine their forces. There are occasional images in which they meet, eg the reel of cotton thread, (1ˢᵗ degree), the card of d[itt]o (3ᵈ degree), the playing card in the ghana & developed forms (2ᵈ degree of stability); but this combined siddhi cannot yet generalise itself or even establish either frequency in the habitual forms or an initial freedom & variety of the higher forms. It is only in the crude forms that there is an initial freedom & variety accompanied with some stability. The physical siddhi has been for some time badly afflicted & depressed; the signs of progress are more subliminal than supraliminal. Karmasiddhi progresses rapidly in sahitya where the body alone is now a real obstacle, but is obstructed or attacked in dharma & kriti; especially in the latter there is violent negation & menace of destruction, eg, in the therapeutic pressure on N. [Nolini] etc.
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