Questions and Answers (1955)

6 April 1955

This talk is based upon Bases of Yoga, Chapter 5, "Physical Consciousness, etc.".

What is this psychoanalysis of Freud, Sweet Mother?

Ah, my child, it is something that was in vogue, very much in vogue at the beginning of the century... no, in the middle of the century!

(Mother turns to Pavitra) Do you know, Pavitra, when it was in fashion?

(Pavitra) At the beginning of the century.

At the beginning of the century, that's it.

This is what Sri Aurobindo says: dangerous, useless, ignorant, superficial; and it was in fashion because people like these things, it corresponds precisely with all that is unhealthy in their nature. You know how children love to waddle in the mud! Well, big people are no better than that. There!

Sweet Mother, what does "the subliminal being" mean, exactly?

Well, it is what he says, you know. It's what is behind. I think it is what could be called the subtle physical, the subtle vital, the subtle mind. It is something that's behind what is manifested. One can imagine that what is manifested is like a layer or like a crust or a bark; it is that which we see and with which we are in touch. And it clothes something, it clothes or expresses something which is more subtle and serves as its support.

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When one dreams, one goes very often into his subliminal being, and there things are almost the same and yet not absolutely the same; there is a great resemblance and yet there is a difference; and usually this is greater. One has the impression of entering into something that's vaster; and, for example, one feels that one can do more, that one knows more, one has a power and clear-sightedness which one doesn't have in the ordinary consciousness; one has the impression while dreaming that one knows many more things than when one is awake. No? Doesn't this happen? You don't have dreams like that?... when one dreams and knows a lot, for example, about the secret causes of things, about what a movement expresses... all that, one feels that one knows it. For instance, when one dreams of someone, one knows better what he thinks, what he wants, all these things, better than when one is in waking contact with him. This happens when one has entered the subliminal. Very often one dreams in the subliminal.

Has the subliminal a contact with the psychic?

Not directly, not more directly than the outside being. If externally, in your ordinary consciousness you have a contact with the psychic, that also has a contact with the psychic, or rather one can put it the other way round: if that has a contact with the psychic, it helps you to have a contact with the psychic, but not necessarily, not always; it depends on the degree of development of the being. It is not necessarily more enlightened, more balanced—no. It is more subtle, it is less dull than our outer consciousness. Our external consciousness is so dull, it has no depth; as our outer understanding has no depth, our sensations have no depth; all this is something as though flat. So here it is fuller, but not necessarily more true.

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Then why is it the most important?

Because it is internal. This is what supports the outer. The outer is only an appearance of this. As I said, in a dream when one goes there, one knows things which one doesn't know, one can do things, one is in touch with things which one doesn't know in the waking consciousness, because it is too superficial.

It is like the inside of something. The outside is the expression of that, but an altogether surface expression. So naturally it looks the same; in any case more than a resemblance, it has an identity with what we see of it from outside. We see the form, don't we, the expression; well, this expression has necessarily an analogy—more than an analogy—an identity with what is inside. So if, externally, we see that someone is absolutely ignorant of his psychic being, it is impossible that internally he is quite conscious of it; he can be closer, but he cannot be conscious of the psychic without its being reflected outside. Therefore, if it is not reflected outside, it means that it is not truly established within.

Understand, no?

Not very well.

Then what shall we do? Ask another question about the same subject. Perhaps so you will understand.

Is the subliminal self the same thing?

That, my child, if you begin to ask me things like this, you must ask the gentleman who is seated behind you [Nolini], because these things I forget.

Where is the subliminal self mentioned here?

"The subliminal self stands behind and supports the whole superficial man..."

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This is what I have just told you. I have just told you this. How can we explain it?

(Long silence)

It is perhaps—perhaps—something like this, like the taste of a fruit. You know, you see a fruit, it has an appearance, it has a certain colour, it seems to you of a certain kind, but you cannot very well know what it tastes like until you taste it, that is, until you have entered inside it. It is something like this, something analogous to this.

Or maybe as in a watch—note that it is just to try to make myself understood, it is not really like that, it is only to try to make myself understood—when you see a watch, you see a dial and the hands moving, but if you want to know the watch you must open it and see the working inside.

It is something like that—you see only the effect, here; there is a cause behind. It is somewhat like that.

The world as we see it and our outer consciousness are the result of something which is behind, which Sri Aurobindo calls the subliminal. And this itself, as he says, is set in motion by impulses which come from the subconscient below and the superconscient above, and so it is as though it were assembled there, and once it is organised there it is expressed in the outer consciousness, the ordinary consciousness.

The best way is to go there; once you go there you understand what it is. And it is not difficult; one goes there constantly in dreams, very easily, without any effort.

How can we understand that we have gone there?

If you remember, you understand. If one remembers the kind of difference of impression one had: one has a certain impression, and when one returns one feels something like a disconnection, the impression is different, even the point of view one had about

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things is different. Well, if one remembers this, one understands. If one is in the habit, one can even while speaking or doing something, perceive very well—above all when speaking or thinking or reflecting on something—a second layer which is behind, much vaster, in which things are organised much more synthetically (not positively understandable) than in the outer consciousness. If one reflects just a little and looks at oneself thinking, one can see this at the back very well, one can see the two things moving together like this (gesture)... like the formulated thought and the source of the thought which is behind. And then when one thinks, you see, one has a feeling of being like this, enclosed in something; whereas, there, immediately one feels that one is in contact with many other things; and it is much greater.

Sweet Mother, what should true psychology be like?

True psychology, what do you mean by true psychology?

Because we said...

Sri Aurobindo says that this is not true psychology, he says that modern psychology has no knowledge. True psychology would be a psychology which has knowledge.

Psychology means... What is the precise meaning of logos? It is knowing, science; and psyche means soul. So it means the science of the soul or the science of the psychic, you see. This is the original sense. Now one has made of that the knowledge of all the inner movements, of all feelings, all the inner movements which are not purely physical movements, you see, all that concerns the feelings, thoughts, even the sensations in their subtlety. But true psychology is the knowledge of the soul, that is, the knowledge of the psychic being. And if one has the knowledge of the psychic being, one has at the same time the knowledge of all the true movements of the being, the inner laws of the being.

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This is true psychology but it is the etymological meaning of the word, not as it is used nowadays.

Why is it less easy for oneself to go down into the lower parts of nature than to bring down the light?

Oh! Is it about that? These are theories, you know. Is this what I read this evening?

No, Sweet Mother, last time... "Easier!"... I made a mistake. It is "easier"...

Ah! Good. So, re-read the sentence clearly.

Why is it easier for oneself to go down into the lower parts of nature than to bring down the light...

Is it written like that?

I don't know.

You can't find it?

It is perhaps the other way...

Perhaps the other way!...

It is not written here.

It is not written? Then where did you pick it up?

"If you go down into your lower parts or ranges of nature, you must be always careful to keep a vigilant connection with..."

But there's no question about its being easier or more difficult. What does she want to say?

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(Pavitra) There is a paragraph: "If you go down into your lower parts or ranges of nature, you must be always careful to keep a vigilant connection with the higher... levels of the consciousness," etc. Then later: "The safest way is to remain in the higher part of the consciousness and put a pressure from it on the lower to change."

Yes, but this has no connection with what you were asking.

The safest way is precisely not to go down, it is to remain above and from there to put a pressure on what is below. But if you go down it is very difficult to keep the contact with what is above; so if one forgets one can do nothing, one becomes like the part into which one has gone down. So, as it is something very difficult to do, on the contrary, it is better to remain in one's higher consciousness and from there act upon the lower movements without going down into them.

For example, it is as when one feels anger rising up from the subconscient; well, if one wants to control it one must be very careful not to be identified with it. One must not go down into it. One must remain in one's consciousness, above, quiet, peaceful, and from there look at this anger and put the light and quietude upon it so that it calms down and vanishes. But if one gets identified with it, one is also in anger, one can't change it.

Anything? Nothing! Nowhere. Nobody has anything to say? Nothing! Up there? No? That's all? You are all convinced? Good, then we'll stop, if everyone is convinced.

(To the child who had asked the question) You had something else to ask? Oh! She had prepared a heap of questions. But not like that one! You must at least understand the text before asking. Now, what is your other question?

It is about what you read last time: "the higher already regenerated levels of the consciousness" which are spoken about.

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Yes, and so?

I don't understand.

What don't you understand? You don't know what "regenerated" means?

Yes, to reproduce what was...

Regenerated means transformed, made perfect, and purified, enlightened. And then it is a question, there, of all the levels of consciousness, from the most material to the most subtle. So in these planes of consciousness there are parts which are more enlightened than others.

And so, what is your question? You want to know which parts of your being are more enlightened?

Yes.

Ah! Let us see. We could play a little game like this:

Which part of the being in everyone has a more total faith in the divine Grace?

The psychic.

Ah, no! I am speaking of an experience, I am not speaking of a verbal knowledge. I am speaking... which is the part in everyone of you in which you have the greatest faith in the divine Grace? It can be in the physical, it can be in the vital, it can be in the psychic, and it can be in this part or that, or this activity or that other. There are people, for example, who have absolutely a kind of mental realisation of contact with the Grace, of faith in the Grace; and then, as soon as they are in their vital or physical consciousness, there is nothing any more. There are others, on the contrary, who, even physically, in their body... who perhaps

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don't have much mental knowledge, but who in their physical consciousness have an absolute faith in the divine Grace, and a total trust, and they live like that in this faith and trust. Others still have it only in their deep feelings; and their thoughts are vagabond. And there are others who have even a vital faith—these are rare but they exist—who have a vital faith in the divine Grace, that all will always go absolutely well—with a considerable sense of power.

But haven't you ever lent yourself to this little exercise, to see? First, have you faith in the divine Grace?

Yes.

Yes! Good, that's already good. And where then, in which part of your being? Is it in your thought, is it in your feelings, is it in your sensations, is it in your physical activity? If it is everywhere at the same time, you are perfect beings, and I congratulate you.

Sensations.

Sensations? You have a sensation of this? Then you are a very rare person! (Laughter)

No, it is in the feeling.

Ah, the feeling, that's different. Usually it is in the feeling, but there are people who have it first in thought, who have a kind of mental knowledge, and then that's all, it stops there. And some people have the feeling and don't have the mental experience, their mind is like that...

Can't it be like this, that sometimes one has a feeling in oneself and another time it is the thought?

This is another phenomenon. It means that this faith, this trust in the divine Grace is in the psychic—behind, there, like that, in the

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psychic, always there. So sometimes it is the feeling, sometimes it is the thought, sometimes even it is the body which is in contact with the psychic, under the influence of the psychic even without knowing it; and at that moment this kind of trust, of faith comes in front like that and supports. This happens when one has momentary contacts with his psychic. For example, when you find yourself in a very great difficulty or a very great physical danger, and suddenly feel this, this force coming into you, the force of a faith, an absolute trust in the divine Grace which helps you. So it means that there is a conscious contact with one's psychic and it comes to help you—it is a special grace bestowed. This is the condition which ought to be the most frequent here, for this contact is established all the time, consciously, deliberately, in everyone. So this instance ought to be the most frequent, it is the most normal—here. That is, according to the part which is active or according to the necessity of the moment, it is here or there or there that suddenly you feel this trust which takes possession of you and guards you. It is like that.

There we are!

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