My Pilgrimage to the Spirit

May 28, 1930

Experience: All of a sudden I found as if the whole house was on fire. So vivid was the scene that in the quietude of the night the crackling of the fire and the falling of burning logs were heard....

There was nobody in the house in reality, but the cries of weeping people and their pathetic appeal to save their lives were heard....

I separated myself and began to look from above. I saw there was nothing like real fire; but there were some half-visible forms making this scene so vivid by adding their appeal to save their lives....

As soon as I came to the decision, they changed their plan and began to encircle me and to spin circles around me. I decided to meet them face to face and challenged....

I made a circle over them, beginning from the left side. They fell into pieces and merged away—melted away in the air....

Again, they began to come in groups.... I kept my "finger of Light" outstretched and the finger began to throw sparks of fire.... all of them were burnt down....

This was not all. These beings are very clever and the most cunning one of them took the form of the Mother and came.... But it was quite visible from its atmosphere and the lines of its masked face that it was a blood-hound.... It came near the windows and the windows got closed of themselves automatically.... It could not enter the room....

Explanation: These are the usual forms of the Rakshasi Maya, illusory formations of the vital world. They wanted to make a formation of the house on fire in order that you might accept it and then with the help of your acceptance they would have tried actually to put the house on fire. Reject and dissolve these formations as soon as they appear. To take the appearance of myself or the Mother is also a familiar trick and a dangerous one. But as long as you keep the power of discrimination, all is well.

Sri Aurobindo