Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo

JANUARY, 1939

1st January, 1939

Disciple : How can one succeed in meditation?

Sri Aurobindo :  By quietude of the mind. Above the Mind there is not only the Infinite in itself but infinite sea of peace, joy, light, etc. – above the head. The golden lid – Hiranmaya patra – intervenes between that which is above Mind and what is below. Once one can break that lid those elements can come down at any time one wills, and for that, quietude is necessary. There are people who get those things without quietude, but it is very difficult.

 Disciple : It is said that there is also a veil in the heart, is it true?

Sri Aurobindo :  Yes, a veil or a wall, if you like. The vital with its surface consciousness, the emotional with its disturbances and veils and one has to break through these and get to what is behind them. There, one finds the heart. In some people the higher force works behind the veil because it would meet with many obstacles if it worked in front; it builds or breaks whatever is necessary till one day the veil is withdrawn and one finds oneself in the Infinite.

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Disciple : Does the Higher Force work all the time, even when there is no aspiration in the individual.

Sri Aurobindo :  Yes. In those who have the inner urge, the intermittent action of aspiration itself may be due to the action of the Higher Force from behind.

Disciple : We want to know how to get the infinite peace, etc.

Sri Aurobindo :  First, to want only that. It is difficult, is it not? In that case you have to wait; yoga demands patience. The old yogas say that one has to wait twelve years to get any experience at all. After that period one can complain; but you said that you had many experiences. So, it is not so bad.

Disciple : Yes. I told you that meditation used to come to me at my place spontaneously, – at any time and I had to sit down and meditate. Sometimes, it used to come to me while I was just going to my office and the experience of peace etc. used to last for some days. But sometimes for a long period nothing happens. One should get some experience at least once in a fortnight.

Disciple : Sometimes I feel a pull on the head upwards. What is it due to?

Sri Aurobindo :  Of course, it is not in the physical head but in the subtle body, the Mind trying to ascend towards the Higher Consciousness.

Disciple : If one dreams or sees visions of seas, hills, etc., – what do they mean?

Sri Aurobindo :  These are symbols; the sea of energy, the hill of the Being with its different planes and parts, – the Spirit at the summit. These visions are quite common, – one sees them as the mind and the heart expands.

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Disciple : I felt at one time that my head was at the Mother's feet. What is it, Sir!

Sri Aurobindo :  It is the experience of the psychic being. So, you had the psychic experience.

Disciple : I told you how I had it and lost it through fear that I was dying. But I could not recognize this experience as psychic (Laughter).

Sri Aurobindo :  It is this "I" that comes in the way. One must forget it and experience as if it were happening to somebody else. If one could do that it would be a great conquest. When I had the Nirvana experience I forgot myself completely. I was a sort of nobody.

What is the use of your being Mr. so and so, son of so and so? If your "I" had died it would have been a glorious death.

Disciple : What happens when the human consciousness is replaced by the Divine Consciousness?

Sri Aurobindo :  One feels perpetual calm, perpetual strength, – one is aware of Infinity, lives not only in Infinity but in Eternity. One feels the immortality and does not care about the death of the body, and one has the consciousness of the One in all. Everything becomes the manifestation of the Brahman. For instance, as I look around the room I see everything as the Brahman – it is not thinking, it is a concrete experience, – even the wall, the book is Brahman. I see you not as X. but as a divine being in the Divine. It is a wonderful experience.

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