IV
SOME CONTRIBUTION OF SRI AUROBINDO
TO PSYCHOLOGY
" Psychology is necessarily a subjective science and one must proceed in it from the knowledge of oneself to the knowledge of others. "
—Sri Aurobindo
" The material universe is only the facade of an immense building which has other structures behind it, and it is only if one knows the whole that one can have some knowledge of the truth of the material universe. There are vital, mental and spiritual ranges behind which give the material its significance. If earth is the only field of the spiritual evolution in Matter, (assuming that) then it must be a part of the total design. The idea that all the rest must be a waste is a human idea which would not trouble the vast Cosmic Spirit whose consciousness and life are everywhere in the slime and dust as much as the human intelligence. For us it is the development of the spiritual consciousness in the human body that matters.'¹
(A)
SOME ERRORS CORRECTED
" St. Augustine was a man of God and a great saint, but great saints are not always, or often, great psychologists or great thinkers. The Psychology here is that of the most superficial schools, if not that of the man in the street;... I am aware that these errors are practically universal, for
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¹On Yoga II, Tome One, P. 230
Page 132
psychological enquiry in Europe ( and without inquiry there can be no sound knowledge) is only beginning and has not yet gone very far, and what has reigned in man's minds up to now is a superficial statement of the superficial appearances of our consciousness as they look to us at first view and nothing more. But knowledge only begins when we get away from the surface phenomena and look behind them for their true operations and causes. To the superficial view of the outer mind and senses the sun is a little fiery ball circling in mid air round the earth and the stars twinkling little things stuck in the sky for our benefit at night. Scientific enquiry comes and knocks this infantile first view to pieces. The sun is a huge affair ( millions of miles away from our air ) around which the small earth circles, and the stars are huge members of huge systems indescribably distant which have nothing apparently to do with the tiny earth and her creatures. All science is like that, a contradiction of the sense view or superficial appearances of things and an assertion of truths which are unguessed by the common and the uninstructed reason. The same process has to" be followed in psychology if we are really to know what our consciousness is, how it is built and made and what is the secret of its functionings or the way out of its disorder."
"There are several capital and common errors here:
1. That mind and spirit are the same thing;
2. That all consciousness can be spoken of as "Mind".
3. That all consciousness therefore, is of a spiritual substance.
4. That the body is merely Matter, not conscious, therefore something quite different from the spiritual part of nature."²
SOME FUNCTIONS
" First the spirit and the mind are two different things
²On Yoga II Tome One, P. 331-332
Page 133
and should not be confused together. The mind is an instrumental entity or instrumental consciousness whose function is to think and perceive; the spirit is an essential entity or consciousness which does not need to think or perceive either in the mental or the sensory way, because whatever knowledge it has is direct or essential knowledge, 'Swayam- prakasa."³
" Next, it follows that all consciousness is not necessarily of a spiritual make and it need not be true and is not true that the thing commanding and the thing commanded are the same, are not at all different, are of the same substance and therefore are bound or at least ought to agree together." 4
"Third, it is not even true that it is the mind which is commanding the mind and finds itself disobeyed by itself. First, there are many parts of the mind, each a force in itself with its formations, functionings, interests, and they may not agree. One part of the mind may be spiritually influenced and like to think of the Divine and obey the spiritual impulse, another part may be rational or scientific or literary and prefer to follow the formations, beliefs or doubts, mental preferences and interests which are in conformity with its education and its nature. But quite apart from that, what was commanding in St. Augustine may very well have been the thinking mind or reason while what was commanded was the vital, and mind and vital, whatever anybody may say, are not the same. The thinking mind or ' Buddhi' lives, however imperfectly in man, by intelligence and reason. Vital, on the other hand, is a thing of desires, impulses, force-pushes, emotions, sensations, seekings after life-fulfilment, possession and enjoyment; these are its functions and its nature;- it is that part of us which seeks after life and its movements for their own sake and it does not want to leave hold of them
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³ On Yoga II, Tome One, P. 332
4 Ibid P. 332.
Page 134
if they bring it suffering as well as or more than pleasure; it is even capable of luxuriating in tears and suffering as part of the drama of life. What then is there in common between the thinking intelligence and the vital and why should the latter obey the mind and not follow its own nature ? The disobedience is perfectly normal instead of being, as Augustine suggests, unintelligible. Of course, man can establish a mental control over his vital and in so far as he does it he is a man, because the thinking mind is a nobler and more enlightened entity and consciousness than the vital and ought, therefore, to rule and, if the mental will is strong, can rule. But this rule is precarious, incomplete and held only by much self discipline. For if the mind is more enlightened, the vital is nearer to earth, more intense, vehement, more directly able to touch the body. There is too a vital mind which lives by imagination, thoughts of desire, will to act and enjoy from its own impulse and this is able to seize on the reason itself and make it its auxiliary and its justifying counsel and supplier of pleas and excuses. There is also the sheer force of Desire in man which is the vital's principal support and strong enough to sweep off the reason, as the Gita says, " like a boat on stormy waters, Navamivambhasi"5
" Finally, the body obeys the mind automatically in those things in which it is formed or trained to obey it, but the relation of the body to the mind is not in all things that of an automatic perfect instrument. The body also has a consciousness of its own and, though it is a submental instrument or servant consciousness, it can disobey or fail to obey as well. In many things, in matters of health and illness for instance, in all automatic functionings, the body acts on its own and is not a servant of the mind. If it is fatigued, it can offer a passive resistance to the mind's
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5 On Yoga II, Tome One, P. 332-333
Page 135
will. It can cloud the mind with ' Tamas' inertia, dullness fumes of the subconscient, so that the mind cannot act. The arm lifts, no doubt, when it gets the suggestion, but at first the legs do not obey when they are asked to walk; they have to learn how to leave the crawling attitude and movement and take up the erect and ambulatory habits When you first ask the hand to draw a straight line or to play music, it can't do it and won't do it. It has to be schooled, trained, taught, and afterwards it does automatically what is required of it. All this proves that there is a body consciousness which can do things at the mind's order, but has to be awakened, trained, made a good and conscious instrument. It can even be so trained that a mental will or suggestion can cure the illness of the body. But all these things, these relations of mind and body, stand on the same footing in essence as the relation of mind to vital and it is not so easy or primary a matter as Augustine would have it."6
" This puts the problem on another footing with the causes more clear and, if we are prepared to go far enough. it suggests the way out, the way of Yoga."7
" All this is quite apart from the contributing and very important factor of plural personality of which psychological enquiry is just beginning rather obscurely to take account. That is a more complex affair."8
(B)
THE MECHANICAL METHOD IN PSYCHOLOGY
" In psychology one can say that the mechanical or physiological approach takes hold of the thing by the blind
6 On Yoga II Tome One, P. 334
7 IIbid P. 334
9 bid P. 334
Page 136
end and is least fruitful of all-for psychology is not primarily a thing of mechanism and measure, it opens to a vast field beyond the physical instrumentalities of the body- consciousness. In biology one can get a glimpse of something beyond mechanism, because there is from the beginning a stir of consciousness progressing and organising itself more and more for self-expression. But in physics you are in the very domain of the mechanical law where process is everything and the driving consciousness has chosen to conceal itself with the greatest thoroughness so that, " scientifically speaking ", it does not exist there. One can discover it there by occultism and yoga, but the methods of occult science and of yoga are not measurable or followable by the means of physical science, so the gulf remains in existence. It may be bridged one day, but the- physicist is not likely to be the bridge-builder, so it is no- use asking him to try what is beyond his province. "9
(C)
" To apply the same tests to phenomena of a different kind is as foolish as to apply physical tests to spiritual truth. One can't dissect God or see the soul under a microscope. So also the subjection of disembodied spirits or even of psycho-physical phenomena to tests and standards valid only for material phenomena is a most false and unsatisfactory method. Moreover, the physical scientist is for the most part resolved not to admit what cannot .be neatly packed and labelled and docketed in his own system and its formulas. Dr. Jules Remains, himself a scientist as well as a great writer, makes experiments to prove that man can see and read ' with eyes blind-folded. The scientists refuse even to admit or record the results. Khuda Baksha comes along and proves.
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9 On Yoga II. Tome One, P. 218
Page 137
it patiently, indubitably, under all legitimate tests. The scientists are quite unwilling to cede or record the fact even though his results are undeniable. He walks on fire unhurt and disproves all hitherto suggested explanations,—they simply cast about for another and still more silly explanation. What is the use of trying to convince people who are determined not to believe ? "10
(D)
" Psychologists of course, having to deal with mental movements, more easily recognise that there can be no real equation between them and physiological processes and at the most mind and body react to each other as is inevitable since they are lodging together. But even a great physical scientist like Huxley recognised that Mind was something quite different from Matter and could not possibly be explained in the terms of Matter. Only since then physical science became very arrogant and bumptious and tried to subject everything to itself and its processes. Now in theory it has begun to recognise its limitations in a general way, but the old mentality is still too habitual in most scientists) .to shake off yet."11
( i )
CONSCIOUSNESS
" Chitta really means the ordinary consciousness including the mind, vital and physical - but practically it can be taken to mean something central in the consciousness If that is centred in the Divine, the rest follows more or less
10 On Yoga II, Tome One, P. 219
11.Ibid P. 220
Page 138
quickly as a natural result."¹
" Consciousness is not, to my experience, a phenomenon dependent on the reactions of personality to the forces of Mature and amounting to no more than a seeing or interpretation of these reactions. If that were so, then when the personality becomes silent and immobile and gives no reactions as there would be no seeing or interpretative action, there would therefore be no consciousness. That contradicts some of the fundamental experiences of yoga, that is, a silent and immobile consciousness infinitely spread out, not dependent on the personality but impersonal and universal, not seeing and interpreting contacts but motionlessly self-aware, not dependent on the reactions, but persistent in itself even when no reactions take place. The subjective personality itself is only a formation of consciousness which is a power inherent, not in the activity of the temporary manifested personality, but in being, the Purusha. " ²
" Consciousness is a reality inherent in existence. It is there even when it is not active on the surface, but silent and immobile; it is there even when it is invisible on the surface, not reacting on outward things or sensible to them, but withdrawn and either active or inactive within; it is there even when it seems to us to be quite absent and the being to our view unconscious and inanimate."³
"Consciousness is not only power of awareness of self and things, it is or has also a dynamic and creative energy. it can determine its own reactions or abstain from reactions; It can not only answer to forces, but create or put out from itself forces. Consciousness is Chit but also Chit Shakti."4 Consciousness is usually identified with mind, but
¹ On Yoga II, Tome One, P. 347
² ibid P. 253-254
³ Ibid P. 254
4 Ibid P. 254
Page 139
mental consciousness is only the human range which no more exhausts all the possible ranges of consciousness than human sight exhausts all the gradations of colour or human hearing all the gradations of sound—for there is much above or below that is to man invisible and inaudible. So there are ranges of consciousness above and below the human range, with which the normal human has no contact and they seem to it unconscious,—supramental or overmental and submental ranges. "5
" When Yajnavalkya says there is no consciousness in the Brahman state, he is speaking of consciousness as the human being knows it. The Brahman state is that of a supreme existence supremely aware of itself, Swayamprakasa;it is Sachchidananda, Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. Even if it be spoken of as beyond That, parat param, it does not mean that it is a state of Non-existence or Non-consciousness, but beyond even the highest spiritual substratum (the " foundation above " in the luminous paradox of the Rig Veda ) of cosmic existence and consciousness.
"As it is evident from the description of Chinese Tao and the Buddhist Shunya that that is a Nothingness in which all is, so with the negation of consciousness here. Superconscient and subconscient are only relative terms; as we rise into the superconscient we see that it is a consciousness greater than the highest we yet have and therefore in our normal state inaccessible to us and, if we can go down into the subconscient, we find there a consciousness other than our own at its lowest mental limit and therefore ordinarily inaccessible to us. The Inconscient itself is only an involved state of consciousness which like the Tao or Shunya, though in a different way, contains all things suppressed within it so that under a pressure from above or within all can evolve out of it—" an inert Soul with a
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On Yoga II, Book One, P. 254-255.
Page 140
(Oinnambulist Force."6
" The gradations of consciousness are universal states not dependent on the outlook of the subjective personality: rather the outlook of the subjective personality is determined by the grade of consciousness in which it is organised according to its typal nature or its evolutionary stage. "7
" It will be evident that by consciousness is meant something which is essentially the same throughout but variable in states, condition and operation, in which in some grades or conditions the activities we call consciousness can exist either in a suppressed or an unorganised or a differently organised state; while in other states some other activities may manifest which in us are suppressed, unorganised or latent or else are less perfectly manifested, less intensive, extended and powerful than in those higher grades above our highest mental limit. "8
" It all depends upon where the consciousness places itself and concentrates itself. If the consciousness places or concentrates itself within the ego, you are identified with the ego - if in the mind, if is identified with the mind and its activities and so on. If the consciousness puts its stress outside, it is said to live in the external being and becomes oblivious of its inner mind and vital and in most psychic. If it goes inside, puts its centralising stress there, then it knows itself as the inner being or, still deeper, as the psychic being. If it ascends out of the body to the planes where self is naturally conscious of its wideness and freedom it knows itself as the Self and not the mind, life or body. It is this stress of consciousness that makes all the difference. That is why one has to concentrate the consciousness in heart or mind in
6 On Yoga II, Tome One, P. 254-255
7 Ibid P. 255
8 Ibid P. 255-256
Page 141
order to go within or go above. It is the disposition of the consciousness that determines everything, makes one predominantly mental, vital, physical or psychic, bound or free separate in Purusha or involved in the Prakriti. "9
" Consciousness has no need of a clear individual " I" to dispose variously the centralising stress. Wherever the stress is put, the " I " attaches itself to that, so that one thinks of oneself as a mental being or physical being or whatever it may be. The consciousness in me can dispose its stress in this way or the other way; it may go down into the physical and work there in the physical nature keeping all the rest behind or above for the time or it may go up into the overhead level and stand above mind, life and body seeing them as instrumental lower forms of itself or act seeing them at all and merged in the free undifferentiated Self or it may throw itself into an active dynamic cosmic consciousness and identify with that or do any number of other things without resorting to the help of this much overrated and meddlesome fly on the wheel which you call the clear individual " I ". The real " I "—if you want to use that word—is not "clear individual", that is, a clear-cut limited separative ego, it is as wide as the universe and wider and can contain the universe in itself, but that is not the Ahankar, it is the Atman. "10
" Consciousness is a fundamental thing, the fundamental thing in existence-it is the energy, the motion, the movement of consciousness that creates the universe and all that is in it; not only the macrocosm but the microcosm is nothing but consciousness arranging itself. For instance, when consciousness in its movement or rather a certain stress of movement forgets itself in the action it becomes an apparently " unconscious " energy; when it forgets itself
9 On Yoga II, Book One P. 256
10 On Yoga II, Tome One P. 257
Page 142
in the form it becomes the electron, the atom, the material" object. In reality it is still consciousness that works in the energy and determines the form and the evolution of form. When it wants to liberate itself, slowly, evolutionarily, out of Matter, but still in the form, it emerges as life, as animal, as man and it can go on evolving itself still further out of its involution and become something more than mere man. If you can grasp that, then it ought not to be difficult to see further that it can subjectively formulate- itself as a physical, a vital, a mental, a psychic consciousness ; all these are present in man, but as they are all mixed up together in the external consciousness with their real status behind in the inner being, one can only become fully aware of them by releasing the original limiting stress of the consciousness which makes us live in our external being and become awake and centred within in the inner being. As the consciousness in us, by its external concentration or stress, has to put all these things behind—behind a wall or veil, it has to break down the wall or veil and get back in its stress into these inner parts of existence—that is what we call living within; then our external being seems to us. something small and superficial, we are, or can become, aware of the large and rich and inexhaustible kingdom within. So also consciousness in us has drawn a lid or covering, or whatever one likes to call it, between the lower planes of mind, life, body supported by the psychic and the higher planes which contain the spiritual kingdom where the self is always free and limitless, and it can break or open the lid or covering and ascend there and become the Self free and wide and luminous or else bring down the influence, reflection, finally even the presence and power of the higher consciousness into the lower nature."11
"Now that is what consciousness is - it is not composed.
11 On Yoga II, Tome One, P. 257-258
Page 143
of parts, it is fundamental to being and itself formulates any parts it chooses to manifest developing them from above downward by a progressive coming down from spiritual levels towards involution in Matter or formulating them in an upward working in the front by what we call evolution. If it chooses to work in you through the sense of ego, you think that it is the clear-cut individual " I" that does everything—if it begins to release itself from that limited working, you begin to expand your sense of " I" till it bursts into infinity and no longer exists or you .shed it and flower into spiritual wideness. Of course, this is not what is spoken of in modern materialistic thought as consciousness, because that thought is governed by science and sees consciousness only as a phenomenon that emerges out of inconscient Matter and consists of certain reactions of the system to outward things. But that is a phenomenon of consciousness, it is not consciousness itself it is even only a very small part of the possible phenomenon of consciousness and can give no clue to Consciousness the Reality which is of the very essence of existence."I2
( ii )
MIND
Mind is a faculty for seeking knowledge. Mind is that which does not know, which tries to know and which never knows except as in a glass darkly. It is a power which interprets truth of universal existence for practical uses of a certain order of things.
Mind is a reflective mirror which receives presentations or images of pre-existent Truth or Fact. It represents to itself the phenomena that is, or has been, from moment to moment.
12.On Yoga II, Tome One, P. 258
Page 144
Mind can conceive with precision divisions as real; it can conceive a synthetic totality.
But ultimate unity and absolute infinity are to it abstract notions and unseizable quantities; not something that is real to its grasp, much less something alone that is real.
Mind is only a preparatory form of our consciousness. It is an instrument of analysis and synthesis, but not of essential knowledge. Its function is to cut something from the Whole-Unknown-Thing-in-itself and call this delimitation whole.
Mission of mind is to train our obscure consciousness to enlighten its blind instinct, random intuition, vague perception till it becomes capable of a greater Light.
Mind is a passage, not a culmination.
( iii )
THE VITAL BEING
"There are four parts of the vital being-first, the mental vital which gives a mental expression by thought, speech or otherwise to the emotions, desires, passions, sensations and other movements of the vital being; the emotional vital which is the seat of various feelings, such as love, joy, sorrow, hatred, and the rest; the central vital which is the seat of the stronger vital longings and reactions, that is, ambition, pride, fear, love of fame, attractions and repulsions, desires and passions of various kinds and the field of many vital energies; last, the lower vital which is occupied with small desires and feelings, such as make the greater part of daily life, that is, food desire, sexual desire, small likings, dislikings, vanity, quarrels, love of praise, anger at blame, little wishes of all kinds, and a numberless host of other things. Their respective seats are : (1 ) The
Page 145
region from throat to the heart, (2) the heart (it is a double centre, belonging in front to the emotional and vital and behind to the psychic), (3 ) from the heart to the navel, ( 4 ) below the navel.'¹
"There is a part of the nature which I have called the vital mind; the function of this mind is not to think and reason, to perceive, consider and find out or value things, for that is the function of the thinking mind proper, buddhi, -but to plan or dream or imagine what can be done. It makes formations for the future which the will can try to carry out if opportunity and circumstances become favourable or even it can work to make them favourable. In men of action this faculty is prominent and a leader of their nature; great men of action always have it in a very high measure. But even if one is not a man of action or practical realisation or if circumstances are not favourable or one can do only small and ordinary things, this vital mind is there. It acts in them on a small scale, or if it needs some sense of largeness, what it does very often is to plan in the void, knowing that it cannot realise its plans or else to imagine big things, stories, adventures, great doings in which oneself is the hero or the creator, "²
* * *
" By material vital we mean the vital so involved in Matter as to be bound by its movements and gross physical character; the action is to support and energise the body and keep in it the capacity of life, growth, movement, etc., also of sensitiveness to outside impacts.³
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¹ On Yoga II, Tome One, P. 341-342
² Ibid P. 342
³ Ibid P. 349
Page 146
" The nervous part of the being is a portion of the vital—it is the vital-physical, the life-force closely enmeshed in the reactions, desires, needs, sensations of the body. The vital proper is the life-force acting in its own nature, impulses, emotions, feelings, desires, ambitions, etc., having as their highest centre what we may call the outer heart of emotion, while there is an inner heart where are the higher or psychic feelings and sensibilities, the emotions or intuitive yearnings and impulses of the soul. The vital part of us is, of course, necessary to our completeness, but it is a true instrument only when its feelings and tendencies have been purified by the psychic touch and taken up and governed by the spiritual light and power."4
" I make the distinction (Between the lower vital movements and the emotions of the heart ) by noting where these things rise from. Anger, fear, jealousy touch the heart no doubt just as they touch the mind but they rise from the navel region and entrails (i.e. the lower or at highest the middle vital). Stevenson has a striking passage in the " Kidnapped" where the hero notes that his fear is felt primarily not in the heart but the stomach. Love, hope have their primary seat in the heart, so with pity etc."5
" But is it true that even anger which is of the lower vital and therefore close to the body, invariably produces these effects ? Of course the psychologist can't know that another man is angry unless he shows physical signs of it, but also he can't know what a man is thinking unless the man speaks or writes-does it follow that the state of thought cannot be "perceived" without its sign in speaking or
4. On Yoga II, Tome One, P. 349
5. Ibid P. 347
Page 147
writing ? A Japanese who is accustomed to control all his emotions " and give no sign (if he is angry the first sign you will have of it is a knife in your stomach from a calm or smiling assailant) will have none of these things when he is angry, not even the ' ebullition' in the chest; in its place there will be a settled fire that will burn till his anger achieves itself in action. "6
" A strong vital is one that is full of life-force, has ambition courage, great energy, a force for generosity in giving or for possession and lead and domination, a power to fulfil and materialise many other forms of vital strength there are also. It is often difficult for such a vital to surrender itself because of this sense of its own powers - but if it can do so, it becomes an admirable instrument for the Divine Work."7
" No, a weak vital has not the strength to turn spiritually-and being weak, more easily falls under a wrong influence and even when it wants, finds it difficult to accept anything beyond its own habitual nature. The strong vital, when the will is there, can do it much easily; its one central difficulty is the pride of the ego and the attraction of its powers. "
" The chest has more connection with the psychic than the vital. A strong vital may have a good physique, but as often it has not - it draws too much on the physical, eats it up as it were."8
6On Yoga II, Tome One, P. 347-348
7 Ibid, P. 348
8 Ibid P. 348
Page 148I
" The physical-vital is the being of small desires and greed etc. — the vital-physical is the nervous being; they are closely connected together."9
" I do not know about subtle vital. One says subtle physical to distinguish from gross material physical, because to our normal experience all physical is gross, sthula. But the vital is in its nature non-material, so that the adjective is superfluous."10
" This question has no practical meaning for the vital physical forces can be received from anywhere by the body, from around, below or above. The order of the planes is in reference to each other, not in reference to the body. In reference to each other, the vital physical is below the physical mind, but above the material; but at the same time these powers interpenetrate each other."11
( iv)
SUBCONSCIENT
" In our yoga we mean by the subconscient that quite submerged part of our being in which there is no awakenly conscious and coherent thought, will or feeling or organised reaction, but which yet receives obscurely the impressions of all things and stores them up in itself and from it too all sorts of stimuli, of persistent habitual movements, crudely repeated or disguised in strange forms can surge up into
9 On Yoga II, Tome One, P. 349
10 Ibid P. 349
11.Ibid P. 350
Page 149
dream or into the waking nature. For if these impressions rise up most in dream in an incoherent and disorganised manner, they can also and do rise up into our waking consciousness as a mechanical repetition of old thoughts old mental, vital and physical habits or an obscure mind full of obstinate Sanskaras, impressions, associations, fixed notions, habitual reactions formed by our past, an obscure vital full of the seeds of habitual desires, sensations and nervous reactions, a most obscure material which governs much that has to do with the condition of the body. If is largely responsible for our illnesses; chronic or repeated illnesses are indeed mainly due to the subconscient and its obstinate memory and habit of repetition of whatever has impressed itself upon the body-consciousness. But this subconscient must be clearly distinguished from the subliminal parts of our being such as the inner or subtle physical consciousness, the inner vital or inner mental; for these are not at all obscure or incoherent or ill-organised but only veiled from our surface consciousness. Our surface constantly receives something, inner touches, communications or influences, from these sources but does not know for the most part whence they come."¹
" The subconscient is universal as well as individual like all the other main parts of the Nature. But there are different parts or planes of the subconscient. All upon earth is based on the Inconscient as it is called, though it is not really inconscient at all, but rather a complete "Sub" conscience, a suppressed or involved consciousness, in which there is everything but nothing is formulated or expressed, The subconscient lies between this Inconscient and the conscious mind, life and body. It contains the potentiality of all the primitive reactions to life which struggle out to the surface from the dull and inert strands of Matter and form by a
¹ On Yoga II, Tome One, P. 358-359
Page 150
constant development a slowly evolving and self-formulating consciousness; it contains them not as ideas, perceptions or conscious reactions but as fluid substance of these things. But also all that is consciously experienced sinks down into the subconscient, not as precise though submerged memories but as obscure yet obstinate impressions of experience, and these can come up at any time as dreams, as mechanical repetitions of past thought, feelings, actions etc. as 'complexes' exploding into action and event, etc., etc., the subconscient is the main cause why all things repeat themselves and nothing ever gets changed except in appearance. It is the cause why people say character cannot be changed, the cause also of the constant return of things one hoped to have got rid of for ever. All seeds are there and all Sanskaras of the mind, vital and body,—it is the main support of death and disease and the last fortress (seemingly impregnable) of the Ignorance. All too that is suppressed without being wholly got rid of sinks down there and remains as seed ready to surge up or sprout up at any moment. "²
" The subconscient is not the whole foundation of the nature; it is only the lower basis of the Ignorance and affects mostly the lower vital and physical exterior consciousness and these again affect the higher parts of the nature. While it is well to see what it is and how it acts, one must not be too preoccupied with this dark side or this apparent aspect of the instrumental being. One should rather regard it as something not oneself, a mask of false nature imposed on the true being by the Ignorance. The true being is the inner with all its vast possibilities of reaching and expressing the Divine and especially the inmost, the soul, the psychic Purusha which is always in its essence pure, divine, turned to all that is good and true and beautiful. The exterior being has to be taken hold of by the inner being and turned
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² On Yoga II, Tome One, P. 359-360
Page 151
into an instrument no longer of the upsurging of the ignorant subconscient Nature, but of the Divine. It is by remembering always that and opening the nature upwards that the Divine Consciousness can be reached and descend from above into the whole inner and outer existence, mental, vital, physical, the subconscient, the subliminal, all that we overtly or secretly are. This should be the main preoccupation. To dwell solely on the subconscient and the aspect of imperfection creates depression and should be avoided. One has to keep a right balance and stress on the positive side most, recognising the other but only to reject and change it. This and a constant faith and reliance on the Mother are what is needed for the transformation to come. "
" P. S. It is certainly the abrupt and decisive breaking that is the easiest and best way for these things-vital habits."³
(v)
THE SUBLIMINAL
" There is an inner as well as an outer consciousness all through our being, upon all its levels. The ordinary man is aware only of his surface self and quite unaware of all that is concealed by the surface. And yet what is on the surface, what we know or think we know of ourselves and even believe that that is all we are, is only a small part of our being and by far the larger part of us is below the surface, or, more accurately, it is behind the frontal consciousness, behind the veil occult and known only by an occult knowledge. Modern psychology and psychic science have begun to perceive this truth just a little. Materialistic psychology calls this hidden fact the Inconscient, although practically admitting that it is far greater, more powerful and profound than the
³ On Yoga II, Tome One, P. 360-361
Page 152
surface conscious self,—very much as the Upanishads called in us the superconscient in us the Sleep-Self, although this Sleep-Self is said to be an infinitely greater Intelligence,Omniscient, Omnipotent, Prajna, the Ishwara. Psychic Science calls this hidden consciousness the Subliminal self and here too it is seen that this Subliminal self has more- powers, more knowledge, a freer field of movement than the smaller self that is on the surface. But the truth is that all that is behind, this sea of which our waking consciousness is only a wave or series of waves, cannot be described by any one term, for it is very complex. Part of it is subconscient lower than our waking consciousness, part of it is on a level with it but behind and much larger than it; part is above and superconscient to us. What we call our mind is only an outer mind, a surface mental action, instrumental for a partial expression of a larger mind behind of which we are not ordinarily aware and can only know by going inside ourselves. So" too what we know of the vital in us is only the outer vital, a surface activity partially expressing a larger secret vital which we can only know by going within. Equally, what we call our physical being is only a visible projection of a greater and subtler invisible physical consciousness which is much more complex, much more aware, much wider in its receptiveness, much more open and plastic and free."¹
( VI )
SOUL OR THE PSYCHIC BEING
(a)
The Psychic Being
" The psychic being is in the evolution, part of the
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¹ On Yoga II, Tome One, P. 353-354
Page 153
human being, its divine part.'¹
" The soul, the psychic being is in direct touch yyj, the divine Truth, but it is hidden in man by the mind H vital being and the physical nature. "²
"The psychic being has always been valid, consenting to the play of mind, physical and vital, experiencing everything through them in the ignorant mental, vital and physical way." ³
" Atma is not the same as psychic-Atma is the self which is one in all, calm, ever at peace, always free. The psychic being is the soul within that experiences life and develops with evolving mind and life and body."4
" The psychic being is in the heart centre in the middle of the chest (not in the physical heart, for the centres are "in the middle of the body,) but it is deep behind."5
" The psychic being is a Purusha, not a flame, - the psychic fire is not the being, it is something proper to it."6
" The opening of the heart centre releases the psychic being which proceeds to make us aware of the Divine within us and of the higher Truth above us. "7
(b)
Soul
" A Distinction has to be made between the soul in its essence and the psychic being. Behind each and all there is the soul which is the spark of the Divine; none could
¹ On Yoga II, Tome Two, P. 205
² Ibid, P. 206
³Ibid, P. 221
4 Ibid, P. 222
5 Ibid, P. 226
6 Ibid, P. 231
7 Ibid, P. 275
Page 154
exist without that. But it is quite possible to have a vital and physical being without a clearly evolved psychic being behind it. Still, one cannot make general statements that no aboriginal has a soul or there is no display of soul anywhere. "8
" The inner being is composed of the inner mental, inner vital, inner physical, but that is not the psychic being. The psychic is the inmost being and quite distinct from these. The Word ' psychic' is indeed used in English to indicate anything that is other or deeper than the external mind, life and body, anything occult or supraphysical, but that is a use which brings confusion and error and we entirely discard it when we speak or write about yoga. In ordinary parlance we may sometimes use the word ' psychic' in the looser popular sense or in poetry, which is not bound to intellectual accuracy, we may speak of the soul - sometimes in the ordinary and more external sense or in the sense of the true psyche."9
" The psychic being is veiled by the surface movements and expresses itself as best it can through these outer instruments which are more governed by the outer forces than by the inner influences of the psychic. But that does not mean that they are entirely isolated from the soul. The soul is in the body in the same way as the mind or vital— but the body it occupies is not this gross physical frame only, but the subtle body also. When the gross sheath falls away, the vital and mental sheaths of the body still remain as the soul's vehicle till these too dissolve. "10
" The soul of a plant or an animal is not altogether dormant-only its means of expression are less developed
8 On Yoga II, Tome One, P. 309
9 Ibid P. 309-310
10 Ibid P. 310
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than those of a human being. There is much that is psychic in the plant, much that is psychic in the animal. The plant has only the vital-physical evolved in its form, so cannot express itself; the animal has a vital mind and can, but its consciousness is limited and its experiences are limited so the psychic essence has a less developed consciousness and experience than is present or at least possible in man. All the same, animals have a soul and can respond very readily to the psychic in man."11
" The ghost is of course not the soul. It is either the man appearing in his vital body or it is a fragment of his vital that is seized on by some vital force or being. The vital part of us normally exists after the dissolution of the body for some time and passes away into the vital plane where it remains till the vital sheath dissolves. Afterwards it passes, if it is mentally evolved, in the mental sheath to some mental world and finally the psychic leaves its mental sheath also and goes to its place of rest. If the mental is strongly developed, then the mental part of us can remain; so also can the vital, provided they are organised by and centred round the true psychic being for they then share the immortality of the psychic. Otherwise the psychic draws mind and life into itself and enters into an inter-natal quiescence. "I2
( vii )
CENTRES OR CHAKRAS
"Everything here that belongs strictly to the earth plane is evolved out of the Inconscient, out of Matter - but the essential mental being exists already, nor involved, in the
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11On Yoga II, Tome One, P. 310
12 Ibid, P. 310-311
Page 156
mental plane. It is only the personal mental that is evolved here by something rising out of the Inconscient and developping under a pressure from above.
The tendency to inquire and know is in itself good,but it must be kept under control. What is needed for progress in Sadhana is gained best by increase of consciousness and experience and of intuitive knowledge.
Above the head is the universal or Divine Consciousness and Force. The Kundalini is the latent power asleep in the Chakras."¹
" It is so that the inner consciousness is arranged. There are five main divisions of this ladder. At the top above the head are layers (or as we call them planes) of which we are not conscious and which become conscious to us only by sadhana—those above the human mind that is the higher consciousness. Below from the crown of the head to the throat are the layers (they are many of them) of the mind, the "three principal being one at the top of the head communicating with the higher consciousness, another between the eyebrows where is the thought, sight and will, a third in the throat which is the externalising mind. .A second division is from the shoulders to the navel ;these are the layers of the higher vital presided over by the heart centre where is the emotional being with the psychic hidden behind it. From the navel downwards is the rest of the vital being containing several layers. From the bottom of the spine downward are the layers of the physical consciousness proper, the material, and below the feet is the subconscient which has also many levels. "²
The Centres or Chakras are Seven in numbers :
¹ On Yoga II, Tome One, P. 336
² Ibid, P. 372
Page 157
1. The thousand-petalled lotus on the top of the head.
2. In the middle of the forehead, the Agna Chakra—; ( will, vision, dynamic thought. )
3. Throat-Centre-externalising mind.
4. Heart-lotus-emotional centre. The psychic is behind it.
5. Navel centre, higher vital ( proper )
6. Below navel—the lower vital.
7. Muladhara—the physical.
All these centres are in the middle of the body; they are supposed to be attached to the spinal chord; but in fact all these things are in the subtle body, ' Sukshma Deha ', though one has the feeling of their activities as if in the physical body when the consciousness is awake. "³
In the process of our yoga the centres have each a fixed psychological use and general function which base all their special powers and functionings. The Muladhara governs the physical down to the subconscient; the abdominal centre, Svadhishthana, governs the lower vital; the navel centre, Nabhi padma, or manipura, governs the larger vital; the heart centre—hrt-padma, or Anahata, governs the emotional being; the throat centre, Vishuddha, governs the expressive and externalising mind; the centre between the eye-brows, Agnachakra, governs the dynamic mind, will, vision, mental formation; the thousand-petalled lotus, Sahasradala, above commands the higher thinking mind, houses the still higher illumined mind and at the highest opens to the intuitive through which or else by an over- flooding directness the overmind can have the rest communication or an immediate contact. "4
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³OnYoga lI, Tome One, P. 368-369
4 Ibid, P. 369
Page 158
" Heart is the seat of two powers; in front the higher vital or emotional being, behind and concealed the soul or psychic being. "
" The colours of the lotuses and number of petals are respectively from bottom to top:- (i) Muladhara, or physical consciousness centre, four petals, red; [ii) the abdominal centre, six petals, deep purple red; (iii) the navel centre, ten petals, violet; (iv) the heart centre, twelve petals,, golden pink; (v) the throat centre, sixteen petals, grey; (vi) the forehead centre between the eye-brows, two petals, white; (vii) the thousand-petalled lotus above- the head, blue with gold light around.
' -The functions are, according to our yoga, (1) Commanding physical consciousness and the subconscient, ( 2 ) commanding the small vital movements, the little greeds, lusts, desires, the small sense-movements; ( 3 ) commanding the- larger life-forces and the passions and larger desire-movements (4) commanding the higher emotional being with the- psychic deep within it; ( 5 ) commanding expression and externalisation of the mind movements and mental forces; (6) commanding thought, will and vision;( 7 ) commanding the higher thinking mind and the illumined mind and opening upward to intuitive and overmind."5
" When we speak of Purusha in the head, heart, etc, we are using a figure. The Muladhara from which the Kundalini rises is not in the physical body, but in the subtle body (the subtle body is that in which the being goes out in deep trance, or more radically, at the time of death); so also are all the centres. But as the subtle body penetrates and is. interfused with the gross body, there is a certain correspondence between these Chakras and certain centres in the-' physical proper. So figuratively we speak of the Purusha in this or that centre of the body."6
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5 On Yoga II, Tome One, P. 370
6 Ibid, P. 373
Page 159
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