Is any personal aspiration necessary during the state of blankness or self-forgetfulness? I ask this because once you wrote that if the silence is deep there is no need of personal aspiration; let the silence itself work.

Blankness is only a condition in which realisation has to come. If aspiration is needed for that, it has to be used; if the realisation comes of itself, then of course aspiration is not necessary.

You once wrote that aspiration is not needed in the state of blankness.

The "state" I was speaking of was not blankness but something else - I see by reference to the passage in your letter that it was a "state in which aspiration is not needed." Such a state is not blankness but a condition in which the Mother's Force is present to the consciousness and doing everything.

In any case, if the aspiration is used there is no harm at least. Is it not so?

No.

What kind of "realisation" did you mean when you wrote, "Blankness is only a condition in which the realisation has to come"?

Every kind of realisation - infinite self, cosmic consciousness, the Mother's Presence, Light, Force, Ananda, Knowledge, Sachchidananda realisation, the different layers of consciousness up to the Supermind. All these can come in the silence which remains but ceases to be blank.

If blankness is only a condition in which realisation has to come, what is the difference between the blankness and the silence?

The

silence can remain when the blankness has gone. All sorts

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of things can pour in and yet the silence still remains, but if you become full of force, light, Ananda, knowledge etc, you cannot call yourself blank any longer.

What are the stages of the silence? Is the non-existence one of them?

In the silence one comes to feel the Existence, not the non-existence, and afterwards all that is in the Divine Existence by direct realisation.

What is this Existence?

What one feels first is the pure existence of the self, without any idea, characteristic or movement - existence pure and simple, Sat Brahman - or else one feels that and a vast peace and wideness. Afterwards other things are felt such as Ananda, but always with this as the basis.

I have not tried to analyse mentally what I feel exactly in the silence. I took it as non-existence simply because once you wrote to me that it is only I who feel the silence as empty.

You must have misunderstood what I wrote. I cannot have written that it is only you who feel the silence as empty, as there are plenty who do so feel it at first. One feels it empty because one is accustomed to associate existence with thought, feeling and movement or with forms and objects, and there are none of these there. But it is not really empty.

The physical mind is still so active, in spite of the fact that several parts of the being remain in muteness.

If the silence is sufficiently intense, then no activity of the mind or anything else can disturb it.

Yesterday I tried to bring down the Mother's Force into the silence in order to make it solid and dynamic, as suggested by you. Was it all right?

If there is no disturbance of the silence, it is all right.

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Only a few days ago I was moving in a dark inertia - suggestions, turmoil, depression etc. Now I am in full peace and silence. Is this due to any conquest in the general Nature?

No, it is personal.

During this peace and silence, should not my aspiration also be strengthened and constant?

Not necessarily. The peace and silence are only a basis. Into that there must come a transformation of the active consciousness.

Sometime ago there was an overpowering peace and silence. When they descended into the physical they were met with a strong resistance. The present excess of inertia is the result of that resistance. This is what happens regularly at every descent into the body consciousness. Is this not true?

Yes.

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PEACE AND SILENCE

After two days of the higher state, inertia comes, covering up my consciousness. Then the restlessness becomes so overwhelming that I cannot even meditate. Can nothing be done to prevent this reaction?

The peace and silence have to come into the physical and replace the inertia.

I always feel the peace and silence coming down from above. Many sadhaks must have gone beyond me. Is their experience the same as mine?

Everybody does not get the peace and silence from above. I do not know what you mean by "gone beyond me" or to whom you refer.

The descents of peace and silence are ceaseless from morning to night. But even these descents are not able to control or quiet the subnature.

If peace becomes permanent in the inner being, then the subnature becomes an external and superficial thing - one part of the consciousness is then free, unmoved by anything that happens, it regards the surface turmoil as something not belonging to itself. If the peace extends in the same way to the external parts also, then the whole being becomes free and the surface nature is felt only as something moving about in the atmosphere, trying to enter but unable to do so. But this of course happens only when the descents of Peace have turned into a massive stability of Peace.

I am unable to have in action the same sadhana which is possible in static meditation. It is due to my too passive peace, which can concentrate only if I am inactive. But when the Force above is strong and intense, this difference between the action and inaction decreases. What about the coming down of the dynamic descent?

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It is not the innate character of passive peace that it can only concentrate in inaction. It can be there and concentrate in or behind action also.

As for the dynamic descent, you say that the Force has descended to your forehead (inner mind) centre. It seems to be very slow in coming through. It has to come down to the heart centre and below before it can begin to be fully effective. Probably there must be something either in the physical mental (throat) [or] the emotional vital that obstructs the descent. That may be the reason of the union of the upper Agni and the psychic fire and the push in the psychic centre - something is trying to remove the difficulty.

Is it true that the passive peace can stop the lower action?

The peace that descends from above can stop the lower action, if it settles in all the being. But that is not sufficient if one wants to develop the dynamic side of the being also on the lines of Yoga.

You asked me, "Then what do you feel? not even quietude or peace? What then is the experience?" The experience is often of a deep stillness - a state higher than the silence, of being high above. What 1 feel lacking is a definite sense of joy or Ananda.

I understand from what you wrote that there was nothing at all except the sense of being on high above. If there is a stillness higher than the silence, - the absence of joy or Ananda does not so much matter. What is lacking seems to be the sense of wideness, of mukti, of the free illimitable self which is usually the nature of these experiences of stillness high above the head.

Is this absence of Ananda common with other sadhaks?

Ananda is not so common a state as peace and with most, if it comes, it is not continuous.

Whatever peace I bring down is devoured by the inertia. Is there no way out?

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To bring down so much that the inertia can't devour it, but it devours the inertia.

For handling the present vital and physical difficulties it is very necessary to strengthen my passive peace. Can't it be done by bringing down the Force from above?

A tranquil force - not the force that fights - it is really a silent Strength that comes from above and is part of the complete Peace.

A dynamic descent brings tapas not shama. It is a greater and greater descent of peace that brings shama - the dynamic descent helps but by dispersing the element of rajasic disturbance and changing rajas into tapas.

Intervals of Passive Peace

There are long plunges into the passive peace and silence and yet no dynamic action in spite of my rejection of ego-centricity.

It always happens like that so long as the nature is not ready for the continued dynamic action. If the ego and its results are gone, then there can be no harm in having intervals of passive peace and silence.

I was not speaking about a state of lapse, but of a condition of continued sadhana without any dynamism.

My answer stands. There is nothing wrong in having intervals of passive peace without anything happening - they come naturally in the sadhana as a basis for fresh action when the nature is ready for it. It is only the vital attitude that turns it into a disharmony, because somewhere in its being there is not the assent to or participation in the peace and passivity. To be able often to rest, repose in all the being outspread in the silent Brahman is an indispensable thing for the Yogi. But the vital

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wants always fuss, action, to feel that it is somebody doing something, getting on, having progress, on the move. The counterpart to this rajasic fuss is inertia. If the whole being can widen itself out, rest outspread in the silence, then progressively inertia fades out and gives place to shama.

What happens when inertia turns into shama?

If it is turned into shama, then you will not feel tamasic or inert, only a calm repose pervading the being.

Passive peace is always the first proper basis. Those who get force first have no settled basis, so long as peace is not there.

You have said that most people do not find it difficult to bear the state of emptiness without any activity in the inner being. Then why do I find it difficult?

Most people means most who have the tendency or will to Yoga, for silence of the being is the first natural aim of the Yoga. You and some others do not find satisfaction in it because you have not overcome the vital mind which wants always some kind of activity, change, doing something or something happening. The eternal immobility of the silent Brahman is a thing it does not relish. So when emptiness comes, it finds it dull, inert, monotonous.

There is no necessity of explanation. Your mind creates problems and difficulties where none really exist. There is always the idea behind that passive peace is an undesirable thing. On the contrary it is the state of the silent Impersonal and an essential element and sure basis of the mukta condition and one can always rest in it whenever necessary with advantage.

During the morning meditation for some moments I felt as if I was a huge stone or a mountain. Was it an experience of wideness?

The wideness is rather a feeling of being far-spreading or

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all-pervasive to all sides and above and below without end. This must be an experience of the consciousness enlarged in a massive stillness.

Since 3 p.m. I feel much intoxicated. I find that the active parts of my being have fallen blank and the other parts are as if nonexistent. I feel myself nowhere, not even in Nothingness, Sunya. Enriched heavy peace and silence are obviously in their increasing fullness, Is this intoxication tamasic or spiritual?

If peace and silence are in their increasing fullness, it can't be a tamasic intoxication, - I don't know that there is such a thing. If there is, it could only be an overwhelming dullness. This is simply a deepening of the silence of the self in the whole being.

In such a condition what is best to be done - meditation, reading or working?

Any of them.

To my question, "In a deepened silence why do I feel myself nowhere, not even in Sunya? where then do I go?", you wrote, "I suppose you feel yourself nowhere because you are accustomed to regard the individual consciousness as somewhere and this experience goes outside that somewhere." What is this "somewhere" and what is meant by going out of it?

I said the individual consciousness is felt by you as the only definite plane of your existence. When your consciousness spreads out of it, you feel as if you had gone out of all planes of existence, that you are nowhere.

Sometimes I go out of my small self and enter into some other plane of consciousness or existence. In this plane there seems to be no thought, movement or action of its own. How can I then distinguish it as a definite plane? I feel there only empty peace and silence.

Because it is the silent static self into which you rise.

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From 12 noon to 5 p.m. my inner being was in a quiet repose. During this long period of peace there was no intensity or zeal.

A peaceful state is the basis of the Yogic consciousness. It is only when that is accepted and fully established that the true intensity and energy can come.

Equanimity and peace in all conditions in all parts of the being is the first foundation of the Yogic status. Either Light (bringing with it knowledge) or Force (bringing strength and dynamism of many kinds) or Ananda (bringing love and joy of existence) can come next according to the trend of the nature. But peace is the first condition without which nothing else can be stable.

Since yesterday, so far as I am conscious, I try to live in the Self. This has such an effect on the lower nature that it gives up any attempt to pull me down. However, this is not enough. I must be able to live in the Self all the time and not merely during motionless meditations.

Yes, that is it.

The peace, silence or pure-existence is no more felt merely as an experience.

Good.

Passive peace is not supposed to do anything. It is by its complete solid presence alone that all disturbance is pushed out to the surface or outside the consciousness.

Today during the work J felt a special peace which gave me an automatic separateness — a peace which was not experienced even in my static meditation. The inertia had no effect on it!

Peace and separateness need not be affected and have not to be affected by inertia - it is only so affected if it is incomplete.

Yesterday I realised that my mental ideas about the lack of dynamic action were wrong. Why? The mind brings in its own

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ignorant methods of understanding what is beyond its range. Let me describe my experience.

After half an hour of feeling Mother's touch, even my subtle body was falling slowly into silence. Then such a complete peace and silence possessed my mind and body that one may call it a conscious samadhi. In place of my outer self I experienced a solid peace and stillness almost unconnected with me. Then came Mother's Force which reached up to the inner physical. As the descent took place in the midst of solid peace and silence, there was no rajasic movement, which is otherwise so common. The Force came and worked in such a quiet and spontaneous way that one may well doubt if it was really a Force and not merely a deep peace.

It is this quiet and spontaneous action that is the characteristic divine action. The aggressive action is only, as you say, when there is resistance and struggle. This does not mean that the quiet force cannot be intense. It can be more intense than the aggressive, but its intensity only increases the intensity of the peace.

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SPIRITUAL EMPTINESS

Voidness can come from anywhere, mind, vital or from above.

Voidness may be of different kinds - a certain kind of spiritual voidness, or the emptiness that is a preparation for new experience.

There are two types of emptiness, I think: I) a mere inert condition; 2) a spiritual emptiness to create a sort of vacuum in order to receive a greater fullness.

If it is the spiritual emptiness, then it will not be felt as interfering with the sadhana.

What is the function of the emptiness?

Emptiness usually comes as a clearance of the consciousness or some part of it. The consciousness or part becomes like an empty cup into which something new can be poured. The highest emptiness is the pure existence of the Self in which all manifestation can take place.

Sometimes the emptiness in the vital becomes unbearable in its influence. If it comes only to clean the vital, why such a forceful action?

I suppose because the vital is very forceful in its clinging to old movements.

If the emptiness comes to clear the consciousness, then it would mean that it is something spiritual and comes from above.

Emptiness as such is not a character of the higher consciousness, though it often looks like that to the human vital when one has the pure realisation of the Self, because all is immobile, and for the vital all that is not full of action appears empty. But the emptiness that comes to the mind, vital or physical is a special thing intended to clear the room for the things from above.

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The stronger the descent in the morning, the greater is the emptiness in the evening!

If it is a spiritual emptiness, that could easily happen - that is to say, if it is a pressure for the quietude of the vital and physical.

First you wrote, "Emptiness as such is not a character of the higher consciousness..." Then, the next day you wrote, "If it is a spiritual emptiness..." If the emptiness is spiritual, is it not also "a character of the higher consciousness", just as Light, Ananda, Force, etc. are?

It does not mean the same thing. An emptiness in the mind or vital may be spiritual without emptiness being an essential characteristic of the higher consciousness. If it were, there could be no Force, Light or Ananda in the higher Consciousness. Emptiness is only a result produced by a certain action of the higher Force on the system in order that the higher consciousness may be able to come into it. It is a spiritual emptiness as opposed to the dull and inert emptiness of complete tamas which is not spiritual.

After the noon-sleep, which you have termed as "some kind of samadhi", I feel a greater emptiness or voidness than at other times. Could you kindly explain what kind of connection the emptiness has with the samadhi?

I don't know that I understand altogether even now. If you mean that after this kind of samadhi, you feel a greater emptiness or voidness, it is quite natural. To void the being of the old consciousness and its movements and to fill the void from above are the two main processes used by the Force from above.

I feel the voidness of the being but why do I never experience the fullness which usually ought to follow the emptiness?

You have written of the Force coming down - even sometimes of its filling all parts - so what is this "never"? I did not at all mean that there is a mechanical process by which every time there is emptiness afterwards there comes an entire filling up. It

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depends on the stage of the sadhana. The emptiness may come often or stay long before there is any descent - what fills may be silence and peace or Force or Knowledge and they may fill only the mind or mind and heart or mind and heart and vital or all. But there is nothing fixed and mechanically regular about these two processes.

When my nature is being voided of the old consciousness and its movements, why does the tamos rise up in greater waves than before?

When the working is in the physical consciousness, it is the tamas which is the main physical force that comes in whenever it can.

In such states of inertia does the higher action really retire and keep no contact with the being?

It remains in contact, but not active, and you are not aware of it, because you are too much identified with the inertia.

The emptiness is in the mind, vital and physical. But when the fullness comes, it is in the mind or at most in the mind and vital.

That ought to be quite enough until you are ready for the fuller descent of the Force.

Do you not think an entire fullness of the Force should come by this time?

There is no should about it. It will come when you are ready for it and able to receive it.

You had the emptiness for several years together. But yours seemed to be of a different kind than mine. For you could use it as a wall against anything undesirable.

I never used it as a wall against anything. You seem to know more about my sadhana than I do.

I recall that you wrote that whenever some undesirable activity came, you could retire into this emptiness and take refuge there.

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It is very strange if I wrote that; for certainly I never did anything of the kind. I don't even know what this "undesirable activity" can mean. The Nirvanic peace and calm has a perpetual support but not a refuge in which one can avoid the necessary struggle and play of forces that occur in the movement of transformation. These things can go on without breaking the supporting calm and peace.

For the past few days, I feel much too void or neutral. But I try not to allow any feeling of unhappiness or dullness. For why should only a rapid progress or a flood of experiences be a source of delight and not an empty period which prepares that state of progress?

There is no reason why the void should be a dull or unhappy condition. It is usually the habit of the mind and vital to associate happiness or interest only with activity, but the spiritual consciousness has no such limitations.

If it is real emptiness, one can last in it for years together, - it is because the vital is restless and full of desires (not empty) that it is like that. Also the physical mind is by no means at rest. If the desires were thrown out and the ego less active and the physical mind at rest knowledge would come from above in place of the physical mind's stupidities, the vital mind would be calm and quiet and the Mother's Force take up the action and the higher consciousness begin to come down. That is the proper sequel of emptiness. But nothing of this has happened because the "emptiness" could not complete itself, that is to say, the true silence and peace -

There is no such thing as neant. By "void" is meant emptiness clear of all contents except existence pure and simple. Without that one cannot realise the silent Brahman.

To be an empty vessel is a very good thing if one knows how to make use of the emptiness.

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The emptiness felt in the mind and physical is calm and quiet. But in the vital, though peaceful, it seems to take a dynamic form. It acts like a powerful bellows and I have to concentrate on it in order to bear it.

I don't see how emptiness can be tike a bellows? Do you mean that there is a force that acts on the emptiness like a bellows or that there is a breathing. The latter often happens when a Force is being brought down and there is some difficulty.

I feel only a powerful breathing but not the Force that is being brought down.

You feel the process but not the Force that is acting. That is quite possible.

Today's emptiness is greater than the last fullness! It sinks deeper and deeper. There is also a difference in the place it is felt. It has occupied the area between the navel and sex-centre.

If it is only emptiness, there is nothing wrong. Alternations of emptiness and fullness are quite a normal feature of experience in sadhana.

Every evening an increasingly greater emptiness comes in the mind, vital and physical. The vital feels it more deeply. What is this emptiness and why only in the evening?

It is the emptiness, I suppose. I can't say why it comes in the evening. It is, I presume, a rhythm it has taken.

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TRANCE AND THE WAKING STATE

A waking state cannot be called trance, as the word trance refers specially to a condition in which the outer waking state disappears and the consciousness goes entirely inside.

X told me that if one leaves the physical consciousness one can easily have the experience of the Brahman everywhere and in all things.

If he means by leaving the physical consciousness going into samadhi that is not much use - it is the waking consciousness of the Brahman everywhere that is needed - and for that the physical consciousness must be there.

During today's experience, even my body consciousness was so much submerged in peace and silence that had it not been for the last vestiges of my sense of the mind, it would have been a complete trance.

Trance would be not sufficient - the waking consciousness must be the same.

Why is trance not sufficient? Is it not my present need?

It is not a trance but a new consciousness that is wanted.

During the noon nap I sometimes enter into a vaster and more solid peace than during the waking state.

That is why people used to seek it most in the samadhi. But for us it must be there both in sleep and waking.

For the last two days there has been a strong urge to sleep at noon. Does the higher action on the body need this noon sleep? Normally I don't sleep at that time.

Sometimes the pressure brings a tendency to go inside which takes the form of sleep.

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Can I not turn this push for sleep into something better than a mere unconscious sleep?

It can only be either thrown off in favour of waking concentration or turned into some form of insideness (usually called samadhi).

But how can this be when the pressure brings only slumber — an unconscious sleep?

The slumber can change into insideness.

Why does this pressure for sleep come?

Such pressure only comes (1) when the body needs sleep, not having had enough or because enough rest is not given, (2)when it wan ts to recuperate after illness or strong fatigue , (3) when there is a pressure from above which the physical consciousness or part of it replies to by trying to go inside .

How can the slumber be changed into insideness?

There is no device for it. It comes with the growth of the inner consciousness.

Is our normal sleep such that the physical consciousness can go inside and reply to the higher pressure?

No. But when the pressure gives a tendency to insideness (samadhi), the physical being, not being accustomed to go inside except in the way of sleep, translates this into a sense of sleepiness.

I thought our sleep brought us down into the depths of the subconscient and inertia.

That is the ordinary sleep, but under pressure of Yogic force sleep often gets a tendency to change into the Yogic Swapna-samadhi.

To enter the trance I always have to pass through a sleep-state. But the mind felt as if the outer being disappeared even without

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needing to pass through a sleep-state, as was the normal process.

Do you mean by the sleep state a state of dreaming sleep or swapna samadhi or what? It is not usual to go through ordinary sleep into trance, but one often enters into a state of swapna samadhi which can be mistaken for sleep.

In our Yoga is not trance necessary? Does it not help in working out certain things?

Yes; but it is not so important or indispensable as in other Yogas. But plenty of people have the easier forms of samadhi here.

What are these easier forms of samadhi?

The forms of swapna samadhi in which they go inside and are conscious and have visions and experiences within, but are unconscious of outer things.

Why do some people get this kind of samadhi and not others?

There is no fixed reason for these things. It depends on the turn of the nature,

I seem to be passing through a strange phase. The sadhana stops and the pressure for noon-slumber starts. Would it be better to take half-an-hour's nap just after the pranam?

Yes, especially if it turns out to be as pleasant as the noon sleep.

Yesterday when I slept at noon, I found myself floating effortlessly in some other world where I had a fine experience. It was not a dream or a dream-vision.

This pressure for the noon-slumber is sweet, pleasant, deep and high. It lulls the entire nature except for the submind.

Then why object? That is much better than submind and inertia.

Until noon, the higher pressure was too strong. There was

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something in its nature by which I could neither attend to it nor study.

Possibly the pressure was trying to put you into some kind of trance.

But is not our work much more important than any number of trances or experiences?

Trances and experiences have their value. There is no question of less or more important - each thing has its place.

You asked me what I mean by a "waking state". I meant not quite an ordinary state but the one called swapna awastha where one is aware of what happens inwardly, but is unconscious of the outer condition.

That is not waking state; it is swapna samadhi.

Today I was almost spellbound by the higher pressure and its calming effect. So I retired to my bed. I don't know if it was sleep or trance into which I fell. The only thing I remember is that I was conscious of myself all the time but quite unaware of the surroundings. It lasted for one and a half hours.

It was not sleep evidently.

These days there is a descent of the Force which lasts from 10 a.m. until 2.30 p.m. When this movement does not take place due to depression or inertia, I feel a strong impulse to sleep at noon. But the sleep is not ordinary; it is spiritual and positive. What kind of sleep is this and why does it happen only under these circumstances?

That is quite natural. The usual movement does not take place, but there is still a pressure habitual at the time under which the consciousness goes inside not into sleep but into some kind of samadhi in which a working takes place in the inner consciousness. As yet you have not developed the power of being conscious in this state nor the power of remembering what took place.

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Why does the tendency for sleep at noon come under these circumstances only?

The tendency for sleep under such circumstances is always the same thing, the tendency of the physical consciousness to go inside under the pressure from above.

Does the samadhi during the afternoon nap come to bring a greater emptiness or voidness than at other times?

If you mean that after this kind of samadhi, you feel a greater emptiness or voidness, it is quite natural. To void the being of the old consciousness and its movements and to fill the mind from above are the two main processes now by the Force from above.

Why do I have samadhi only during the noon sleep and not during the night sleep?

Because at night the body needs and is accustomed to sleep as rest, not to sleep-samadhi.

During the noon sleep, dreams come sometimes just as in the night sleep. Can it still be called a swapna-samadhi?

It may pass into only a dream sometimes, - that often happens; there is a fluctuation between the two states.

During yesterday's swapna-samadhi it became a little clearer why I am unable to record all that happens in the trance. When the consciousness rises, my mental Purusha can follow it only up to a certain distance on the higher planes, after which the consciousness flies away, leaving the mental Purusha behind.

That is quite natural. The higher planes are not planes on which man is naturally conscious and he is even not open to their direct influence - only to some indirect influence from those nearest to the human mind. He can reach them only in a deep inner condition or trance and the higher he goes the less easy is it for him to be conscious of them even in trance. If you are not conscious of your inner being, then it is more difficult to be conscious in trance.

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Is it not possible for me to respond to the spiritual pressure without passing through a sleep in which I enter into samadhi?

Samadhi is not a thing to be shunned - only it has to be made more and more conscious.

While coming out of samadhi, my body was conscious for the first time that it had not been sleeping, but had passed into a certain inner state.

That is a progress - the next step is to be conscious in the samadhi.

The body also felt a new kind of energy, with a strength and intensity which I can only call spiritual.

Good.

Ordinarily it is said that samadhi does not bring any change in the outer being. But I think it is not so in the samadhi of our Yoga.

There is no reason why samadhi should have no effect on the waking being.

But why are some experiences received more easily in samadhi? I think one reason is that in samadhi our central consciousness gets separated from the mind no less than from the body.

In samadhi it is the inner mental, vital, physical which are separated from the outer, no longer covered by it - therefore they can freely have inner experiences. The outer mind is either quiescent or in some way reflects or shares the experience. As for the central consciousness being separated from all mind that would mean a complete trance without any recorded experiences.

Why are certain things of the sadhana better worked out in samadhi than in the waking state?

It is easier to do it in samadhi so long as the waking consciousness is not governed consciously by the inner being.

In that case samadhi is a useful state even for our Yoga. But

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some time ago you wrote to me, "It is not the samadhi that is needed but a new consciousness."

Certainly, samadhi is not barred from this Yoga. The fact that the Mother was always entering into it is proof enough of that. What I said then was not a general statement that samadhi is never needed and never helpful, but referred to your then need. Particular statements must not be converted by the mind into exclusive and absolute laws.

How does a samadhi differ from a trance?

Trance in English is usually used only for the deeper kinds of samadhi; but, as there is no other word, we have to use it for all kinds.

Is it really too early for me to change the dream or sleep consciousness into a swapna-samadhi, or into a conscious and waking sadhana?

All dream or sleep consciousness cannot be converted at once into conscious sadhana. That has to be done progressively. But your power of conscious samadhi must increase before this can be done.

In samadhi the physical consciousness goes inside due to the pressure from above. What does it do after going in?

It remains quiet within and supports by its quiescence the experiences of the other parts of the being or, if it is conscious, shares them. Or it sleeps and has dreams or else is quiet in sleep and by its quiescence supports the dream experiences of the mind and vital.

The other day you asked me to be conscious in trance; I tried hard and this is the result: In trance I saw a Holy Woman entering a place where a few sadhakas were assembled for her darshan. She went into a closed room where we were to go one by one. I noticed that everyone was allowed one or two minutes, as is done on our Darshan days. My turn was last.

In the centre of the room the Holy Woman was seated dressed in

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simple clothes. Without looking at her face I put my head on her lap. She placed her hands on my head and caressed me softly, meanwhile murmuring as if to herself: "Let him have..."; the last word of the sentence I caught quite distinctly then, but cannot recall now. It was the name of some spiritual power. No sooner had she said this than I felt a sudden rush of that power entering through my head.

After a few seconds she uttered the name of another power. This power struck me with a tremendous force - it was shattering in its intensity.

After a while I raised my head and looked at the Holy Woman for the first time. Her face appeared like the Mother's. Then I said to her, "May I ask you a question?" She did not seem to like this, but as she had not refused, I repeated the question. This time she said, "I don't like questions." (I wanted to inquire about the two gifts of different powers she had conferred on me.) Then I don't remember what I said. After a long time we both came back to consciousness, for we had both entered into a trance together. We knew it only when we asked the door-keeper how much time we had spent together. Afterwards I told her, "You must have entered into a trance and I simply followed you."

This whole phenomenon is beyond my understanding.

(1) Who was the Holy Woman?

(2) Why did she grant me the gifts of higher powers?

(3) Trance within trance! This is something new.

Obviously the Holy Woman was the Mother herself in a supraphysical form. It was natural that she should not like questions - the Mother does not like mental questions very much at any time and least of all when she is giving meditation as she was doing in this experience. It is rather funny to ask "Why" (your eternal why) higher powers should be given. People do not question the gifts of the Shakti or demand reasons for her giving them, they are only too glad to get them. Trance within trance of course, since your sadhana was going on in the trance, according to the ways of trance. It is also in this way that it can go on in conscious sleep.

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Today the inner process of the sadhana began at 10.15 a.m. At 1 p.m. it turned first into samadhi and then trance. At 2.30 p.m. it came back again to samadhi and remained till 3.30. Then some parts of my being were in trance while others were in the higher consciousness. The deep intoxication of the samadhi is still there everywhere.

This time my consciousness went too deep into trance to be able to record anything, but I was quite aware of the sadhana which was going on during the samadhi, as much as one is aware of it out of samadhi. Is this distinction between samadhi and trance correct?

Trance also is samadhi but deep samadhi.

Whatever is experienced in the waking state leaves its effect upon the outer being; does the samadhi-experience act in the same way?

Not necessarily, but it helps to prepare the inner being.

The samadhi sometimes leaves a strong after-effect and sometimes nothing. For instance, yesterday the Mother brought down two kinds of Forces in my samadhi, and yet when all was over I did not feel anything in particular; while in today's samadhi there seemed to be no descent, and yet the outward effect was powerful enough to continue not only during the waking state but even during the working hours.

It happens in both ways. When there is no outward effect, it means that it was something deep within meant for the preparation of the inner being.

Should the trance become a normal state of our consciousness?

No. It is the waking realisation of the inner consciousness separate from the outer that has to be the normal state. But it is the trance experience that is bringing this separateness.

Sometimes a strong pressure to go into sleep or samadhi is felt. It is so compelling that no physical or mental activity can be

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attended to; but when I lie down, I can't sleep, nor do I go into samadhi.

It is probably because there is a pressure from above but a contrary reaction comes from the ordinary consciousness and stops the sleep or samadhi.

At night the working of the higher Force is rather strong; but just when a new and still higher pressure is felt on the head, the body feels an irresistible push to fall asleep.

It interprets the new pressure as something to be met by going inside, I suppose, and the inward movement is sleep.

In such circumstances, is it better to sleep or meditate?

It depends on the nature of the sleep.

The day before yesterday there was a prolonged tussle with the lower physical nature. I could not control the obscure forces which invaded, so I left the outer being. Then to my utter surprise I was pulled into an experience of stillness where I saw myself as a huge globe which was as wide as the universe. Its top was the sky and its bottom the earth. In that ball my being began to expand and tended to be as vast as the globe itself. This widening movement was recorded down to my inner physical.

That is a symbolic experience of the cosmic consciousness - it is that widening which is still lacking in your experience of peace.

Yesterday at 6 p.m. (which is not my usual time for trance) I felt very deeply some call from above and felt also that I must rise to it at once. Then my being fell into trance by itself. Kindly explain this experience.

What is there to be explained in it? There was a call or pull from above which was drawing you into a state of trance.

I think that what my inner being wants is complete separation from the outer being. But this is not possible at this stage during the waking meditation, so it takes refuge in trance. It must be

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difficult to have trance in a waking state.

How do you mean trance in a waking state? Trance is a going inside away from the waking state. What corresponds to trance in the waking state would be a complete concentration indifferent to outward movements or else a silence of the whole being in Brahman realisation, the samahita state of the Gita.

By "trance in a waking state" I meant that in order to enter the trance I have to pass through a state of sleep. But some people do not need this step - they simply sit and plunge into trance.

That does not explain the phrase. Many people pass through sleep to trance.

During today's noon sleep, intense waves of love were flowing out from me towards the Mother while she was giving me an interview. The Mother was holding me close to her. What was it - sleep or samadhi?

If it was sleep, you must have got into the vital plane or some supraphysical plane and met the Mother there.

During the samadhi states the Mother's Force was quite solid. During the waking state, however, the action induced a certain emptiness or voidness in my being, right down to the body. I am unable to say whether it was in the subtle body or the outer that the density was felt.

It must be in the subtle body, for it is that one feels in trance or sleep - besides, if it were the physical body, the density would usually last for some time after waking.

For the last three days the trance comes at noon. After it is over the dense energy it brings lasts up to the night. What is this dense energy?

I don't know what it should be other than a form of the Force.

For several days there was no trance. However, there was a continued sadhana.

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If there was a continued sadhana, it does not matter about the samadhi. The sadhana took another form, that is all.

Now the pressure for the samadhi comes at the usual time, but there is no samadhi. If it is due to the rising of inertia, how is it that I can concentrate and live without effort in the higher consciousness but can't withdraw into samadhi?

There is no answer to these hows and whys except that your consciousness has sufficiently developed the capacity to ascend into the higher consciousness so as to be able to do it at will, but has not to an equal extent developed the capacity of going into samadhi. But that is obvious and is simply the statement of the fact.

In one letter you have written that the Mother always sees things when she goes into trance. Is it not natural for one to see things in trance, even though in the waking state one does not have even a single vision?

Vision in trance is vision no less than vision in the waking state. It is only the condition of the recipient consciousness that varies -in one the waking consciousness shares in the vision, in the other it is excluded for the sake of greater facility and range in the inner experience. But in both it is the inner vision that sees.

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HIGHER KNOWLEDGE AND

MENTAL KNOWLEDGE

How is it that at times I feel myself in the proximity of knowledge and at times miles away from it?

Neither knowledge nor anything else is constant at first - and even when it is there one cannot expect it to be always active. That comes afterwards.

I understand that knowledge cannot be constant or active at all times. But why is it completely absent, even when silence is there?

There is no definite reasoning why to these things.

The Mother's peace and silence have pressed down on me from all sides. Why do I feel myself beyond the need even of knowledge?

It is the condition of the silent self in which there is no need of knowledge or action.

Is spiritual knowledge an active thing in itself?

Yes. Active in an imperturbable calm.

At times, when I bring down knowledge the intensity, depth and height of the silence are diminished.

That must be because the mind becomes active instead of receiving the knowledge in silence.

On one side the useless mechanical mind is active, while on the other the useful recording mind has fallen completely silent. It cannot do any thinking or even recording of the experiences!

Perhaps it is waiting for a higher mind to act from above.

My mental control seems to have been removed completely. So I miss the service of my mind proper (the intellect). I think, act, write only with the physical mind. This mind, since it is still undeveloped, is moved by the ordinary nature and its ignorance.

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Is there no way to prevent my mind from being removed or falling neutral?

It can come only by farther development and the activity of another kind of knowledge communicating itself to the physical and taking up gradually the functions of the mind in all its parts.

There is nothing out of the normal in what you describe - it happens in the course of the change of consciousness.

The flow of the higher knowledge has been missing for a long time.

It is probably because the physical mind has come up into activity and finds difficulty in receiving the knowledge.

But even when the physical mind is quiescent and there is only silence, still the knowledge does not come.

It is still the stuff of the physical mind which must receive it and, as that physical mind is too obscure, it does not come.

I feel somewhere a dark veil which keeps the knowledge from descending. Is it a strain of inertia?

It must be a mental inertia or tamas of some kind - perhaps in the physical brain.

I find that no amount of knowledge and experiences has been able to decrease the strength of my external mind.

Knowledge and experiences can change it only if they act within it and occupy it driving out the old things. The other way to get rid of it is to develop the psychic being and its power over the nature.

Is it possible to change it by a direct higher action?

It is possible if you can bring the direct higher action into this part of the consciousness or else let the Force pass there.

From where does the higher knowledge descend - the knowledge that gives Truth?

As for the knowledge in Yoga it comes first from the higher

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mind, but even that does not see the whole Truth, only sides of it.

What are these sides? How many sides has the higher Truth?

You will have to let it develop till you can see what the sides are. There is no limitation to one side or two or three, there may be a hundred.

How many sides of a Truth can the higher mind and the illumined mind give at one time?

There is no fixed number of sides. In fact the attempt to put such rules and limitations and to define the field of these higher things is useless; such an attempt is mental and ceases to have any meaning as one goes upward.

What is the difference between the knowledge of the higher mind and that of the illumined mind?

The substance of knowledge is the same, but the higher mind gives only the substance and form of knowledge in thought and word-in the illumined mind there begins to be a peculiar light and energy and ananda of knowledge which grows as one rises higher in the scale or else as the knowledge comes from a higher and higher source. This light etc. are still rather diluted and diffused in the illumined mind; it becomes more and more intense, clearly defined, dynamic and effective on the higher planes so much so as to change always the character and power of the knowledge.

About the illumined mind, you wrote, "There begins to be a peculiar light and energy and ananda of knowledge." Could you kindly give me some idea of this light, energy and ananda?

No. It has to be experienced first. Things that are above the ordinary mind (intellect) cannot be submitted to rules and descriptions.

Is it true that the knowledge of the higher mind always brings down with it light and force in so far as they belong to its plane?

Light, not necessarily force.

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You said that one has to go by stages. While rising above, some parts of the being ask, "Which plane should I attempt first?"

It is not necessary for the parts of the being to understand mentally where they have to rise or determine that by the mind. That is determined by a higher power than the mind and, if any knowledge comes, it must be from above or as a part of the ascending movement.

When you get the true intuitive plane, there will be no need for instructions or questions as to how to do sadhana. The sadhana will do itself under the light of the intuition.

It is only the supramental that is all Knowledge. All below that from Overmind to Matter is Ignorance - an Ignorance growing at each level nearer to the full knowledge. Below Supermind there may be knowledge but it is not all Knowledge.

Absolute certitude about all things can only come from the supermind. Meanwhile one has to go on with what knowledge the other planes give.

During the descent of the higher knowledge, at times I ask questions or show hesitation in accepting it as perfect. But this stops or interferes with the free flow of the knowledge. Afterwards I find it difficult to reconnect myself with the flow.

Such questions should not be allowed to stop the flow. Afterwards one can consider them and get the answer. The knowledge that comes is not necessarily complete or perfect in expression, but it must be allowed to come freely and amplifications or corrections can be made afterwards.

Answering My Own Questions

The suggestion came to me that it is due to ego that I have been trying to answer the questions I write to you.

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There may be an egoism in making answers according to one's own mental or vital preference - but there is no egoism in trying to get an answer inwardly from the source of Truth. One may not succeed perfectly because the consciousness is not perfect, but to be inactive and inert out of fear of error is not the right thing.

But what about the ego getting into my answering the questions with the higher knowledge?

The only thing necessary is to do the thing without the ego, but to stop doing it because the ego gets in would end in an entire inaction; for the ego can get into any action - into your asking questions from me as well as into your answering them yourself.

Was there any egoism in my answers about the sadhana?

Sometimes the ego may have mixed itself. Questions and answers in themselves are not egoistic.

Now I feel a great disgust with my way of answering the questions myself. I seek permission to give it up in the future.

How then do you propose to grow in consciousness and knowledge? Simply by reading my written answers? Unless something within you responds and sees what I mean and sees it in the right way. But that something can also get answers from within. The only safeguard necessary is that the answers should be placed before me so that if there is anything seriously incorrect it may be put right.

When what you write is correct, I say nothing - when it is your physical mind that brings in wrong ideas, I correct.

Formerly you had to correct hardly anything I wrote! Why this difference between now and then?

It is because you have come down from the mental into the physical - therefore the physical mind comes across the knowledge.

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If I am not able to answer my own mental questions properly, what shall I be able to answer? Are not the inner, subtle and higher questions even more difficult to answer?

Certainly they are if you try to answer them mentally. In the things of the subtle kind having to do with the working of consciousness in the sadhana, one has to learn to feel and observe and see with the inner consciousness and to decide by the intuition with a plastic look on things which does not make set definitions and rules as one has to do in outward life.

My inner being does not like this questioning business. It often gets tired of it since it is all mental. But what to do when the intuition is not available?

So long as the outer mind is not quiet, it is impossible for intuition to develop. So if you want to go on asking intellectual questions about what is beyond the intellect until the intuition develops in spite of this activity, you will have to go on forever.

Now I want to put aside mental questioning and return to knowledge. Was anything wrong in the way it was descending before?

It was all right. It is not the way of descending that can be wrong - what one has to guard against is the mind making a wrong transcript of it or a lower mental mixture.

For some time I have discontinued writing with the help of the higher knowledge because I found that there was an egoism lurking in the mind, which was answering my questions according to its own ideas.

That is the mixture which has to be kept out.

I wonder if you find some ego in the knowledge I am reporting to you. I did experience distinctly some restlessness in my consciousness while writing it down.

There is a shade of ego in the tone perhaps but the substance has not been altered by it.

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I want to know why even the tone of the knowledge was influenced by the ego. What form of ego still has a hold on me?

It is the sense of superiority in passing judgment on others that is still there, subconsciently at least.

Now I know how to keep out the ego from the higher knowledge, but not the limitation. I can't express more than one or two sides of the truth and I lack an integral grasp over things.

What is to be kept out is the ego. Limitation of knowledge will necessarily be there so long as there is not the fullest wideness from above; that does not matter.

Human Defects and Knowledge

In order to bring down the higher knowledge, has one not to give up all one's mental desires and satisfactions?

Yes, the human mind's activities very often come much in the way.

Nine days ago, you pointed out to me a shade of ego in the tone of my expression of knowledge. Since then I have become attentive to that point. Do you find now some improvement?

Yes.

Usually it is my mind that determines the subject on which I write. But now I don't want the mind to do it, and suggest rather that you fix a subject on which the knowledge may express itself.

No. The knowledge and the subjects on which it works have to come from within.

You wrote, "It may have been a partial knowledge, but badly expressed by the mind." How did the knowledge become erroneous in the act of transmission?

It comes through the mind, so the mind can always modify its expression unless it is entirely and absolutely still.

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About my mental defects you said, "They are more likely to go by an increasing capacity coming from above." Did they not disappear when the knowledge was descending?

They did not disappear - they were only quiescent. However, your mental capacity has already increased by what knowledge came. For instance there is a great superiority to X in your understanding power which was not there at the beginning.

The Mother's Force seems to be pressing strongly on my forehead. Is the resistance at the throat-centre still very strong?

It has evidently diminished - otherwise so much knowledge would not be coming through.

At the Pranam ceremony I am unable to fathom the mystery of the Mother's working: what she gives and how I receive it. What is the inner meaning of her touch on my head or her look into my eyes?

You have to develop the inner intuitive response first - i.e. to think and perceive less with the mind and more with the inner consciousness. Most people do everything with the mind and how can the mind know? The mind depends on the senses for its knowledge.

Sometimes it happens that the flow of knowledge starts from a certain kind of realisation or a deeper perception. But afterwards it develops and runs to other things which have no connection with the fundamental realisation or perception.

Yes, it happens like that. A touch of realisation is enough to set the higher mind knowledge or the illumined mind knowledge flowing.

While writing with the help of the knowledge, why do I so often write about lower movements rather than about higher things?

It is the things which are practically necessary that the knowledge brings at the moment, I suppose.

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When one forgets oneself entirely and moves only in the Mother's consciousness, one actually feels whatever one thinks. This statement may appear strange to the limited human mind. But the experiences when sufficiently developed will prove its truth.

Do you mean by "one actually feels whatever one thinks" that instead of knowing things only by thought one knows them by direct contact in the consciousness, a sort of concrete spiritual sense?

Yes. I meant that.

When the knowledge comes strongly from above, it very often brings its own language and the defects of the instrument are overcome. There are people who knew very little but when the knowledge began to flow they wrote wonderfully - when it was not flowing, their language became incorrect and ordinary.

How is it that when the knowledge was descending in me I hardly felt myself inspired? It seemed like natural phenomena.

The knowledge is not inspiration. I repeat that you did not write of it at that time as natural phenomena but as knowledge coming down. Your mind at the time was quite incapable of such knowledge or of expressing it as you did.

No poet feels his poetry as a "normal phenomenon" - he feels it as an inspiration - of course anybody could "make" poetry by learning the rules of prosody and a little practice. In fact many people write verse, but the poets are few. Who are the ordinary poets? There is no such thing as an ordinary poet.

Thought and expression always give one side of things; the thing is to see the whole but one can express only a part unless one writes a long essay. Most thinkers do not even see the whole, only sides and parts - that is why there is always conflict between philosophies and religions.

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THE HIGHER PLANES

What is the source of peace, silence and knowledge?

That comes from above the mind.

As there is love and joy on the higher planes, is there not also devotion and surrender as in the psychic?

There can be, but it is not inevitable as in the psychic. In the higher mind one may be too conscious of identity with the "Brahman" to have devotion or surrender.

What is the position of the 7th centre in connection with the higher planes?

The 7th centre is a place of communication with the higher planes of consciousness - the planes themselves are mostly above.

What is the difference between a spiritual thing and a thing having the essential character of the higher consciousness?

There are many things that are spiritual that are not the essence of the higher consciousness. All that tends towards the transformation and helps to prepare it is spiritual. Psychic sorrow is a spiritual movement, but sorrow is not part of the essential character of the higher consciousness. Resignation, the ego's submission to the divine will is a spiritual movement, but the higher consciousness has no need of resignation and a submitted ego is not a part of its essence, for it has no ego.

You wrote that the planes between the Mind and Overmind came down long ago. But why do we not feel their presence here?

Why should there be a "presence here", or in what sense? It is for each one to open to these levels in his own being when he is ready to do so.

H has written something about the Overmind in his poems. He used to tell me about the falsehood and ignorance of the Overmind

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and of the possible dangers there.

He certainly knew nothing about it by experience. There are no Overmind dangers - it is only the lower consciousness misusing overmind or higher consciousness intimations that can make a danger. There are also no Overmind Falsehoods. The Overmind is part of the Ignorance in this sense that it is the highest knowledge to which the Ignorance can attain, but the knowledge is still divided and so can be a knowledge of parts and aspects of the Truth, not the integral knowledge. As such it can be misused and turned into falsehood by the Mind.

When can one make an attempt at the Supermind?

One has to go by stages and to reach and be conscious on the higher planes between mind and Overmind is already sufficiently difficult without insisting on Supermind as the immediate goal.

Would you say something in brief about how the Supermind works on the earth consciousness in order to transform it?

No. I have never written on that except in Arya and do not propose to start now. It would be mere words to the mind which would be likely to make its own wrong constructions about it. The sadhak should first get the higher consciousness down and know something by experience of the higher planes before trying to know what is the Supermind.

What is the difference between spiritualisation and supra-mentalisation?

Spiritualisation means the descent of the higher peace, force, light, knowledge, purity, Ananda etc. which belong to any of the higher planes from higher mind to Overmind, for in any of these the Self can be realised. It brings about a subjective transformation; the instrumental Nature is only so far transformed that it becomes an instrument for the Cosmic Divine to get some work done while the Self within remains calm and free and united to the Divine. But this is an incomplete individual transformation -

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the full transformation of the instrumental Nature can only come when the Supramental change takes place. Till then the nature remains full of many imperfections, but the Self in the higher planes does not mind them, as it is itself free and unaffected. The inner being down to the inner physical can also become free and unaffected. The Overmind itself is subject to limitations in the working of the effective knowledge, limitations in the working of the Power, subject to a partial and limited Truth, etc. It is only in the Supermind that the full Truth-consciousness comes into being.

There is a popular idea here that whenever one experiences a rapid and powerful action from above, it is the Supermind preparing to descend - as if no such action was possible from the planes below the Supramental.

Obviously - but it is so nice to think that at the first leap one is becoming a supramental being!

When some people here feel a higher pressure they pronounce it to be of the Supermind!

That is also so nice and self-flattering an idea.

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THE HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS AND FORCE

It is said that in the beginning whatever comes down or develops is confined to the inner being. The outer is dealt with only after a long time.

This does not mean that there should be no progress at all in the outer. One may not get the higher consciousness into the outer as yet, but that is no reason why one should not expunge from it whatever is of the nature of a wrong attitude.

Is it only in this Yoga that difficulties must be rejected by all the parts of our being? Is it true that your Force alone cannot work them out, even if our inner being and outer mind are there to help the Force?

It is not a question of "can" or "cannot" - it is a question of what is necessary for the true transformation. Theoretically the Force can transform you in one hundredth of a second from an animal to a god, but that would not be transformation or the working out of a spiritual evolution, it would be mere thaumaturgy, i.e. miracle-working without a significance or purpose.

Is it true that the dynamic descent has resulted badly in some sadhaks?

It seems to me that there are a fair number who have left because of that, like Bejoy, Nolinbehari etc. and others who fell in the same way, e.g. X. And yet that was not a full descent, but only a very little bit of a thing.

Can one understand the Force before it descends?

One may feel the Force above, for instance, and know what it is and even be governed by it before it has descended into the mind, heart, vital or body.

Is there any force on the higher planes which is not dynamic in itself and may be distinguished as passive?

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A passive Force has no meaning - Force is always dynamic. Only a Force can act on a basis of calm passivity just as in the material world the Force acts on the basis of inertia.

To live always above, behind or at least in the mind would be good for my nature as well as for the Mother's working in me.

If you can do that, it will be good.... It will need a strong will on your part to do it.

There is no need to bring down the help - it is there. Whether it [the will] makes the help effective and affects the opposite forces depends on the perseverance. You can see for yourself that it has momentary effects, but it needs a sustained effort before the effect can be more than temporary.

Help is given in whatever way is necessary or possible. It is not limited to Force, Light, Knowledge.

It [the help] diminishes as one gets higher and higher or rather fuller and fuller, being replaced more and more by the automatic action of the Force.

While working one can remain always separate within. Can one also remain separate while stationing oneself above?

It can with difficulty [be done] (1) if he is always in trance, (2) if he does not want transformation of the rest of the nature , (3) if he cuts himself off from life and action, (4) if he does not allow anything in the lower being or the outer being to draw any part of his upgathered consciousness to go down or out from the upper silence.

Even during these difficult times I can detach and separate myself from the mind and body and touch the pure self-consciousness above. But such experiences do not last long; the ascent is not complete and there is a strong pull from below.

That is to be expected. It is only if one gains the wideness of

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the infinite Self that one can remain above - or, if all the parts of the being share in the peace and freedom of the self.

Inner Being and the Self-Realisation

Is not our lack of wideness because the inner being is seized by inertia and ego?

Yes, I suppose so.

A complete silence makes realisation of the Self more possible -but that can be had on the Higher Mind level far below Overmind.

I can understand that the psychic development and the conquest of ego would have been easier if I had lived in the inner being rather than in the higher. But how would the widening of the consciousness have been easier? Is not the higher being wide and infinite in itself?

Do you realise it as wide and infinite? When you are there do you feel spread through infinity? Do you feel all the universe within you, yourself one with the self of all beings? Do you feel the one cosmic Force acting everywhere? Do you feel your mind one with the cosmic mind? your life one with the cosmic life? your matter one with the cosmic Matter? separative ego unreal? the body no longer a limitation? What is the use of merely arguing that the higher being is wide and infinite? Do these realisations come when you are in the higher being and if not why not? The inner being easily opens to all these realisations, the outer does not. So unless your inner being becomes conscious of itself, the mere ascent gives only height or some vague sense of other planes, not these concrete realisations.

At times my experience is as if my mind, life and body have shifted away from me or from their old lodging.

It means only that the consciousness has gone above.

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Until yesterday, whenever I felt myself above, my station was just above the head. But now I find myself about afoot higher than the head.

"Above" the head means higher than the head. You meant that you were on the top of the head?

At times, the whole of my consciousness feels like a single block situated below the head. It then rises up, as a wooden block rises up from beneath the sea. After the ascent it experiences itself as moving there as a part of the higher consciousness. Then it experiences positively - not merely feels - that it truly is the Self. It experiences all this with such an intensity that I can't refuse to believe it.

That is the ascent of the lower consciousness to meet the Above consciousness. Such ascent usually prepares the lower parts to receive the descent from above.

This morning, during the meditation, I felt concretely that I am stationed above the head; it is from that centre that I do my inner sadhana, aspire, will or bring down things.

That is the proper station of the consciousness.

When there, I feel myself made up more of solid peace, silence, force, than of bones, flesh or skin.

You are there the Self or Purusha, spiritual in consciousness and the spiritual consciousness is made of peace, force, silence and in its greater intensities of light and ananda also.

Above the head I see a plane of infinite and eternal Peace. The Mother is the Queen of this world. From there I feel an unceasing flow coming down towards me. It first touches my higher being and passes through it without any resistance. But on its way downwards the flow narrows to a small current which passes through the Brahmic hole. How do you find this description?

That is quite correct. In many however it descends in a mass through the whole head and not in a current through the Brahmic hole.

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That is the usual movement of the descent. But at times I experience that the plane of Peace and Silence, and my higher and inner consciousness are as if packed together, one and inseparable.

This is felt in the consciousness only or through the whole body? Or does it ever extend through space, space becoming identical with your own consciousness?

Some suggestions say, "You remain on the higher station satisfied with its peace and silence and do practically nothing for the parts below." Is it correct?

Not altogether, but the higher peace and silence has to come down fully and not merely remain above - so the other contents of the higher consciousness may have a chance of descending too and stabilising themselves.

In the integral Yoga what is the place of the capacity for rising above?

Both ascent and descent are necessary.

That capacity does not seem to be so easy to acquire for those who do not shut themselves up in a room.

It is not necessary to be shut up in order to have it. Many go up but cannot stay there. Some open into the wideness before they undertake a higher ascent. You have risen above but you have not yet opened into the Brahman consciousness where one begins to lose the ego.

What is the Brahman Consciousness and where is it spread out?

In the wideness of the Self and of the universal Divine Consciousness - these two together are the Brahman consciousness.

I have asked so many questions about dwelling on the higher planes. I want to know now if you want me to come down from the above-station into the inner being.

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No. That is not the point.

I have said that the higher station must be accompanied by the action on the inner being. You have to stabilise peace everywhere, to separate from the outer disturbances, to establish such a condition that it would be possible for the Force to descend and work on the outer to get rid of the persistent difficulties there.

Some of the outer parts of my being feel it is no use being stationed on the higher plane. It has brought no change in the nature.

Do they think they will get changed quicker by not living in the higher consciousness at all?

Nobody said that you should not take the higher being as a first station. The question was about enforcing the peace of the higher being on the lower parts down to the physical so as (1) to create that separateness which could prevent the inner being affected by the superficial disturbance and resistance, (2) to make.it easier for the force and other powers of the higher being to descend .

Now I find that I have stayed too long above and did not work enough for the inner development, not to speak of the outer.

It is a thing that can be done for a time so as to strengthen the capacity for remaining above - but if the lower consciousness is left to itself there can be no transformation. The higher position has to be used for bringing down the higher forces below.

From the higher station shall I start working on the inner being?

It may be better to let the general pressure proceed as it has been doing.

What is this general pressure?

The pressure

of the Force.

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The Dynamic Descent and the Lower Nature

You will agree that it is just a dynamic descent of the Force that is wanting; my being is already prepared.

Except for the recurrent difficulty of the vital and the ego.

Cannot the descent take place in spite of that?

Not

fully. There are alternations of descent and interruption of descent.

If there are no descents from the higher planes, how are these difficulties to go? I thought it was the descents that would work on them and bring about the necessary change.

Descents there can be, but not the permanent descent.

Cannot the descent be used for lessening or destroying the ego and its desires?

That is its proper working, but if the ego is not rejected, then the wrong use may take place.

If the proper working of the descent is to lessen or destroy the ego, where does the question of rejection or wrong use come in?

The sadhaka is not an automaton. He can receive the force wrongly, use it for his ego. Do you think only proper workings take place in the world and improper workings never happen? What kind of question is this?

I thought the descent would give us more strength to reject wrong things.

It gives more force, but the force can be misused, as it has been misused by many.

I would very much like to know why the dynamic descent is prevented or obstructed.

It is, I suppose, because the greater part of the nature is accustomed to identify dynamism with the movements of the

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ordinary consciousness and to let these have free play.

It [the dynamic descent] tries to come, but the habit of falling back into the physical inertia is still too strong.

I suppose it [the dynamic descent] is waiting for you to bring it down.

I cannot understand how physical inertia prevents the dynamic descent. I thought it would rather relieve me from inertia, ego and vital difficulties.

If the habit of the ordinary nature is not any obstacle to the descent then what is the need of sadhana? What prevents the whole higher consciousness from coming down and changing you into a superman in one second? It is because the things of the lower nature offer an obstinate resistance that long sadhana is necessary.

Are not the dynamic means necessary for turning tamas into shama (repose, peace)?

The dynamic means are not necessary for that - they are needed for bringing tapas into shama and they are useful for repelling the obstruction of inertia to other lines of progress.

Can all the parts of the outer being accept a complete peace without any helping action of the higher Force?

Yes, if you mean without any descent of the dynamic Force. Action of the higher Force is implied in all spiritual change, but it may be an action without dynamic descent.

After rising to a certain height, I feel I cannot go beyond. What is the cause?

Probably because there is too much drag from below. As the lower drag diminishes, one can go higher.

The Force gets diffused a few minutes after its descent.

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Because of the mass of inertia, I suppose.

Could we not press it a little more so that it may come down earlier?

It can be pressed.

The Force is there, but the Force is not going to push and trundle you along while you loll back and allow the vital and the inertia to play with you.

In which part of my being is the Force present?

It is not in the being. It is there with you and near you ready to act whenever your nature will allow it. It is so with everybody here.

One feels the Force only when one is in conscious contact with it.

Peace flows into me freely and abundantly, especially in the evening. But why does it not turn into a dynamic peace or bring a Force along with it?

Peace is the first condition, but peace of itself does not bring Force - it is a receptacle of Force, not a bringer of Force.

All that is true is that peace, calm, purity are the proper basis of the descent of Force and if Force comes before the peace, calm, purity are sufficient, it may not be safe.

A Higher Process in the Sadhana

Is this not a period of rest in which the higher Force prepares my nature for a new opening while the assimilation of the previous descent is still going on?

It is often so.

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Some parts of the being feel tired of the peace as it never brings anything but passivity!

It is very stupid of these parts to be tired of Peace. Would restlessness be better? Without Peace either Force cannot descend or it would be a mixed or Asuric force.

What is this tremendously passive state that has come to me?

Probably only as a preliminary to the dynamic descent.

Yesterday my state was all peace and silence - an entire stillness. But nothing more. Today, along with yesterdays condition, I feel strong vibrations of the Force - not only above the head but as if around my whole body. Has a dynamic Force started to work?

Evidently, if you feel its vibrations round you.

Today the action of the Force was felt above the head and on the face and hands, but only while I was strongly concentrated on it. Instead of increasing its field of action, why such a restraint in its movement?

There seems to be a special difficulty about the Force descending. It must be that something in the vital is not ready.

Often a new thing descends from above, increases in power for a time, then begins to disperse and finally fades away completely.

It is because only a part of the being receives it and only as an experience, not as a settled or a dynamic realisation in the nature -even in that part of the nature.

Merely to have experiences of the higher consciousness will not change the nature. Either the higher consciousness has to make a dynamic descent into the whole being and change it - or it must establish itself in the inner being down to the inner physical so that the latter feels itself separate from the outer and is able to act freely upon it - or the psychic must come forward and change the nature - or the inner will must awake and force the nature to change. These are the four ways in which change can be brought about.

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What happened to the dynamic descent? I thought something was trying to remove the obstacle it met in the physical mind and heart centres.

Such a working does not always immediately fulfil the object. It works and waits and works again and that may go on for a long time.

What good is this dynamic descent if it needs years and years merely to touch the heart centre? Just what is this dynamic descent?

It is a thing which is new and has to be worked out by this Yoga.

Why such a long period of emptiness after a descent?

There is no special why, it is a process of the consciousness in the preparation of the lower by the higher.

It is true that the preparation is going on and much progress has been made.

After a descent into the physical, why is there a long period of emptiness? If it is for assimilation, cannot the other parts, - mind, vital and the higher consciousness - continue their normal progress?

No, it is not done in that way.

The higher Force cannot descend fully and permanently unless the ground is well laid out and secured. But our attempts to make it descend are always fruitful. Either a part of the Force comes down or it at least sends a pressure which is felt like a generating power. This pressure cuts asunder the obstructing veils between the higher nature and ours.

Yes.

A Force is felt in the body. But as it is not tangible, I am not sure if it has really come inside the body. It is said that when the

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Force works in the physical, it has to be tangible.

Don't understand - the Force can be felt above, around, or anywhere else and yet be quite tangible. If it is felt in the body, then it must be in the body.

Heavy Pressure on the Head

I sit up to the end of the Pranam ceremony in the Meditation Hall. A strong pressure is felt just when I stand up. It is like a heavy load pressing me down to the floor.

It must be the pressure of the Force present there which you feel at that moment because of some shifting of the consciousness at the moment of preparing to go.

There is a certain state of consciousness while sitting there [in the Meditation Hall] in which one is under the Force but does not feel it as a pressure because there is a sufficient assimilation of the Force. When one rises there is a change of consciousness and the Force is felt as a pressure. As soon as the transition to the ordinary consciousness is complete, the pressure is no longer there.

During this period in the Hall, the higher things or experiences are felt either above or in the body. My mind and vital seem to be kept aside!

That is because it is in the physical that they have to be established.

Is such a state of consciousness always there in the Hall? Does everybody there always come under that Force?

No - there are plenty who are not in that state. The same person may be in one day and not be in another day.

While meditating in my room, I feel a tremendous heaviness on the head - a mighty pressure. Whenever I get up from the chair, it

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is disturbed because it gets shaken. This affects the whole being.

It is probably a weight of the higher consciousness or its force there. I don't know why it gets shaken by getting up. If its presence were dependent on the concentration and stillness in the body, that would be quite understandable, but you say it is there all the time.

This heaviness on the head and forehead is constant, while other pressures of different kinds knock there only at times. The heaviness is not passive even when I am not working. It seems rather powerfully active. Even my teeth feel as if they have something like a dynamic force in them! Is such writing of small details necessary for your work?

Yes, it is better to write them.

What was the reason for the higher consciousness remaining in the form of a heavy pressure on the head? Could not something of it come down?

It depends on what is pressing and also it may depend on the condition of the consciousness.

By the descent we usually mean something that comes down up to the physical consciousness, otherwise it would not be a full descent.

Descent means into the centres and their field - the descent would therefore be registered in the body, but that would not necessarily mean that it had come down in the physical consciousness. When the descent is in the head that means that it is in the mind - not in the physical consciousness.

When does the full descent take place?

It comes down when things have been made ready for it.

If a higher descent is not felt or if it is stopped on its way, could it still be called descent?

If a descent is not felt, one cannot know that there was a

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descent, so no question about it can arise - unless one knows that there has been an unfelt descent by the results it leaves behind. Also its descending only up to the mental or other level and no farther does not make it a non-descent.

The previous descent came down only up to the mind centre.

I suppose so.

If so, I wonder what was new in it. We know that there had already been a descent into the mind centre long ago.

I don't know what was new in it - but the descent is not always of the same things, it may bring or try to bring new things that were not there before or it may bring more of the force or peace or anything else that was descending or had come in the former descents.

The higher pressures are becoming sharp and powerful. They have occupied not only the Brahmic centre but the whole head and forehead.

Good.

If I were to judge the higher working by the quality of subtle sounds, I would say it is increasing all the time. What do you say?

The working is all the time for its increase.

Sometimes the higher Power presses my head so much that it is extremely difficult to use my hand for writing. In such a condition, could I stop my correspondence for the time being?

No, it is better to write.

When there is a good opening to the higher things, sometimes the Force descends like an armour down to my navel centre.

When you say like an armour, do you mean that you feel it outside you and surrounding you, but not within the body?

At times it is hard to distinguish a pressure of the Force from the Force itself.

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The pressure is of the Force, it is not the Force itself. The Force is felt as a Power and not merely a pressure.

Agni and the Psychic Fire

During the evening meditation, when concentrated above, I felt the Agni [Fire] of the Higher Consciousness coming down and uniting below with the psychic fire. Their oneness was experienced deep down in the heart centre. I have never heard of such a unity of the two fires.

If the development of a higher consciousness did not bring things that were not before heard of by the mind, it would not be good for much. The unification of the psychic and the higher consciousness forces and activities is indispensable for the sadhana at one time or another.

What about the dynamic descent we have been discussing of late? Are my peace and silence not enough to keep up the descent? It seems that such a descent is absolutely necessary at present; it will help me to bring active sadhana into the work also.

When I become conscious of the Fire or of Mother's Force, my heart feels a great fire deep in itself. Though the centre of the fire is in the human heart, it is not confined to my being. It is experienced as a vast and limitless fire stretching out everywhere.

It is so that all that belongs to the spiritual consciousness is

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experienced. One's own self and consciousness is felt like that, something vast and limitless and stretched out everywhere, - so too the force and everything else. It is in that universality that all special action in one's own mind and body or in others takes place.

I awoke at 4 a.m. with powerful pressures on the head. The body felt weak, sluggish and unusually warm. In short, its condition was no better than that of one suffering from a high fever. Such higher pressures I have never had before. It seemed like burning coal pressing down! Was there really any descent that gave the material being a cause for such strong resistance?

It must have been if you felt it so. The feeling of fever, as of headache, can often be the body's misinterpretation of the tapas heat and pressure and working, and this misinterpretation may develop some fever or headache. If the mind can convert the body feeling then it can pass away as a mere feeling of heaviness or of heat in the body.

Did the body make a fuss because the descent took place during the night?

I suppose so.

Is the heat felt in the body due to the fever I am having or to the Mother's Force, which has put a tremendous pressure on the adhar?

That has still to be seen. It is most probably the tapas heat; the question is whether it is turned partially in the body into fever.

This morning some of my physical parts experienced much heat while other parts were cold. Was the heat from the Agni and the cold from the calm peace?

It is probably that.

A strong higher working has started between my thighs and the soles of the feet. The Peace, Force and stillness are there. At times

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there is a sense of Agni also in it. In another experience I felt the Mother's working as a burning fountain in the arms and the feet.

Very good.

On the spiritual path there are few things that are really abnormal. It is rather the habit of our ego or ignorance to take any new step, pressure or experience as something rare and miraculous.

Obviously.

A certain exaltation of the being comes naturally with the stronger experiences and the sense of marvel or miracle may go with it, but there should be no egoistic feeling in the exaltation.

Did the descent of the new Force come before or after the Pranam ceremony? I saw some signs of it when I went for the Mother's Blessings.

That you must know best. Yesterday [16-9-36] the Mother put the new Force that came down on everyone. Each had his own reaction.

At pranam my vital felt that the Mother was not so pleased with me.

That means that it felt the new Force that had come down and did not like it.

Nobody can prevent it [the new Force] from entering, if you accept it.

If the Force is not received completely, is there any chance of its being withdrawn?

It has not "withdrawn" - it is in the atmosphere permanently.

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PROCESS OF BRINGING DOWN

THE HIGHER FORCE

When there is a spiritual emptiness I call down or draw the Mother's Force in order to fill it. Do you have any objection to this process?

No. It is all right.

Whenever possible should I draw down the Mother's Force?

Yes, you can do so.

When I make an attempt at drawing down the Force, I experience it as much in my body as above the head. It seems to be a very dense and powerful Force.

Very good.

Drawing the Force has a good effect on my lower nature which feels it as a pressure for change. Shall I continue it?

Yes - it is better than being always passive.

Yesterday's experience of drawing down the Mother's Force was rather unusual. It did not come down when I used my personal efforts but only afterwards, when I had forgotten all about it! However, when it did descend, some concentration was needed to sustain it. I do not know how my body will stand this process; please tell me if I am to continue it.

You can do so and see what the result is - whether the physical accommodates itself, etc.

When the peace descends, especially in the evening, should I try to draw down the Mother's Force with it by active means? Is there any fear of the descending peace getting disturbed by that?

If it is done in the wrong way it may - i.e. if it is not done quietly.

One must be able to keep as well as pull.

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Usually absence of an active sadhana means for me the prominence of inertia. But today I noticed rajas in full action supported by the inertia. The vital was restless, agitated and wanted activity, like talking etc. The inner being was feeling void since it could not supply as much energy as the vital being needed. Could you kindly explain such a reaction?

It may be because you have been bringing down Force. So the vital got a reaction, "Let me be forceful and active too." Or it may be that some force reached the subconscient and got deposited and the vital took it and turned it into talking etc. Or it may be - well, a hundred other things.

You said, "It means that you are evidently not able to remain there and until you can, it is not possible to send down things from there." At present I cannot remain in the higher consciousness all the time. But as long as I can, is it not possible to send down the higher things without my accompanying them?

If you are not able to stay a sufficiently long time that means you have not a secure seat there, so if you send down things you are likely to come down too with them. But that would perhaps not matter if you kept the thing with which you came down!

Sometimes the higher action is too strong to let me write or even read your letters. I wonder why it takes my consciousness away even from mental activities.

That is quite natural. The higher action is not mental so it brings something else than the mental. When the mind is transformed, then it will be different.

To my question why the higher action does not take place at times even when my state seems to be quite good, you replied, "Cannot say. These things, as I have told you, depend on the general state of consciousness and the mind cannot always determine that for this or for that it happened or did not happen. One has to go on till it does happen." Could you clarify what you mean by the general "condition". Does it not mean the surface state of our consciousness?

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The general "condition" does not mean, in my sentence, the surface condition as known to you. It contains many things in it unknown to you. What comes from above can come when one is in a clear mind or when the vital is disturbed, when one is meditating or when one is moving about, when one is working or when one is doing nothing. Most often it comes in a clear concentrated state, but it may not; there is no absolute rule. Moreover the pull or call may produce no immediate effect and yet there may be an effect when one is no longer actually pulling or calling. All these mental reasons alleged for its coming or going are too rigid - sometimes they apply, very often they don't apply. One has to have faith, confidence, aspiration, but one cannot bind down the Force as to when, how and why it will act.

I asked you if it was possible to change the mechanical mind by a direct higher action. Your reply was, "It is possible if you can bring the direct higher action into this part of the consciousness or else let the Force pass there." Well, I have often concentrated the higher Force there, but there is no change whatever.

It is a question not merely of concentrating but of bringing the Force into that part and keeping it there long enough to bring light and silence. If the Force does not pass there, it means that something obstructs and does not let it pass.

The whole of my human nature was under a blaze of suggestions and attacks not only from the vital but also from the subconscient. The resulting depression was stronger than ever before. For about twenty minutes I was almost unconscious. When I came back to awareness, I found that a strong process was already taking place-as if the Mother had come to my rescue. She was bringing down force after force into my lower nature. She looked as if in wrath that the powers of falsehood should trouble her child so constantly! I remained in my chair to allow the Mother's forces to work. This process continued for about two hours. Is my above description correct?

It seems to be correct.

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Anything to say about my cooperation with the Mother's process of bringing down the forces?

It was all right.

Should I busy myself with such processes? If so, how often?

You might do it

once at first. We will see afterwards.

After the withdrawal of the process, there surged up a new and a greater resistance.

That is quite normal. The lower movements, especially after holding the field so long, are bound to resist.

Even after the process did its work, I still feel the lower resistance.

You cannot expect to get rid of it in a single day. Persistence is needed.

There is an attempt to keep a part of my human consciousness on the higher plane, so that at least half of myself stays exclusively in the Mother's Consciousness and so that her Force can work freely through this part into my whole nature.

Yes, that would be very good.

After receiving the Mother's touch at the Pranam I found myself in the higher consciousness. I was there from morning till 1 p.m. Today I felt that the movement of sending down the Force was a little different than before - I had not to take active part in it. I simply watched how the Mother's Force was moving from above downwards, as if in calm waves. Once it was experienced as an armour shielding my body from head to foot. It remained thus for about half an hour. Can it be called a process? I am not able to understand the movement of the descending Force.

Of course it can be called a process. But it is the natural and right movement of the descent of Force. I do not see what there is that is not understandable. The Silence or the Force or whatever comes down is at first felt above and then in the mind

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also, but it must descend afterwards into the heart and vital and physical and everywhere else within and around, if it is to do its work.

In spite of that process, how is it my vital and physical mind do not yet turn away from the lower nature?

What I said was, it could not be done at once - e.g. by a single descent. Whatever the process or movement the lower nature takes time to receive. What is first necessary is to get down the higher consciousness into all the inner being down to the inner physical and live in that, so that anything lower should be quite superficial and unable to invade or trouble.

You wrote, "But it was the natural and right movement of the descent of Force. I don't see what is there that is not understandable." I felt the Force like a whole armour at a standstill, whereas the action of the Force the other day was quite different. At that time I felt the forces descending one by one and meeting the lower resistance. Therefore I could not understand what this armour-like stillness was - whether it was only remaining still or passing into processes.

If there was stillness like an armour, a Force merely at a standstill and like a whole armour - what ground has the mind for speculating whether it is passing into processes? The experience must be taken as it is - the mind ought not to speculate whether it is not something quite different from what the observation sees it to be. Because the Force descends one day as an active and aggressive force, it does not follow that it cannot descend another day as a static and defensive one.

But you have still not explained what was the "natural and right movement" of the Force.

You do not seem to notice what you yourself have written. You said that it came without pulling - and I replied that was quite a natural and right process. You said nothing till afterwards about one descent being active, the other still. A descent is a

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process whatever the result. But a "passing to processes" in the sense of being active and aggressive against the lower nature movements is quite a different thing, and you wrote about that afterwards only. I never said anything in my first letter about passing to processes.

Even if the Force which descended was at an absolute standstill, it must have, been doing something - not in a human but in an inner or mystic sense. When something descends in us, it is not merely to be motionless in us.

There was no necessity of its doing anything. It came to fill the stillness with force and itself became still though with a forceful stillness.

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