In the Mother's Light

THE SOUL OR THE PSYCHIC (II)

How to Realise the Psychic?

IF it is true that the psychic is our true self, and that it is only when we identify ourselves with it that we can become real individuals, then it is obvious that nothing should be regarded as more pressingly important in life than the discovery and realisation of the psychic. Of what avail our humanitarian strivings, our struggles to reform others, to help others, to enlighten others, so long as we are ourselves unregenerate, helplessly tossed between the dualities of good and evil, success and failure, gain and loss, honour and dishonour, and pain and pleasure; so long as we are floundering in ignorance and torn between the conflicting tendencies of our heterogeneous being ? Self-realisation, which is the most pressing problem of our life, can be shelved for some time, for even a long time, if you will; but you cannot shelve it for ever. Your soul insists on being recognised and given an effective voice in your life. It is a subtle device of the ego— and it has its utility in the evolution of our being—to shift its focus of interest from its grossly selfish desires to the service of others; but whether it seeks petty personal satisfactions or the satisfaction of the collectivity, it remains essentially what it is—all that it does as a step to self-improvement is to rise from the restricted field of restless rajasic cravings to the comparative poise and wide, lucid outlook of the rajaso-sattwic nature. But the sattwic ego is even stronger than the rajasic ego, and, being justified in its own eyes and in the eyes of society, it is more difficult to get rid of. Many an honest philanthrope comes out of his benevolent obsessions, a disillusioned man, stung by the discovery of the corroding canker of the ego, the base self, in what he had fondly believed to be his selfless work. How can an action be selfless so long as our ego, the false self, has not faded in the eternal radiance of our true self, the psychic ? Deluded by the ego, we hug the illusion of disinterested work and drown

Page 85

the inner urges to self-discovery in the fervour of social and humanitarian activities; but however beneficial the activities may be, however much they may help the world and the development of our being, they are not an outcome of knowledge, and cannot, therefore, be a substitute for the action which wells out of the depths of the psychic. For, the activities of the psychic are directed by the Will of the Divine, and carry in them not only the fiat and force of the Divine, but also the light of His Knowledge, which knows what is best for the world and for each of its beings and things. To live in the psychic is to be in tune with the Divine Will and work in the unfaltering steps of Truth.

But how to discover and realise the psychic ? "How, you ask me, are we to know our true being ? Ask for it, aspire after it, want it as you want nothing else...All urge for perfection comes from it, but you are unaware of the source, you are not collaborating with it knowingly, you are not in identification with its light. Do not think that I refer to the emotional part of you when I speak of the psychic. Emotions belong to the higher vital, not to the pure psychic. The psychic is a steady flame that bums in you, soaring towards the Divine and carrying with it a sense of strength which breaks down all oppositions. When you are identified with it you have the feeling of the divine Truth—then you cannot help feeling also that the whole world is ignorantly walking on its head with its feet in the air.”¹

A constant and intense aspiration for the psychic, an ardent seeking for it at all times and in all that we do, and a simultaneous rejection of all desires and attachments and self-centred interests, is the best way to realise the psychic. Aspiration for the psychic is essentially an aspiration for the Divine, for the Divine dwells in the psychic, and our realisation of the psychic is the solitary gate of entry into the Presence of the Divine within us. "Concentrate in the heart. Enter into it; go within and deep and far, as far as you can. Gather all the strings of your consciousness that are spread abroad, roll them up and take a plunge and sink down. A fire is burning there, in the deep quietude of

¹ Words of the Mother, 3rd Series,

Page 86

your heart. It is the divinity in you—your true being. Hear its voice, follow its dictates.”¹ "In the depths of your consciousness is the psychic being, the temple of the Divine within you. This is the centre round which should come about the unification of all these divergent parts, all the contradictory movements of your being.”²

It is to be noted here that one may concentrate above the crown of the head or between the eyebrows; or, one may directly concentrate on the idea of the divine immanence in the world. There are as many ways and objects of concentration as there are aspects and poises of the Divine. But for the full realisation of the psychic, there is but one way—concentration in the deepest depths of the being, a plunge into the fathomless cave of the heart. And it is also to be noted that the total psychic realisation is indispensable for a dynamic union with the Divine and the transformation of nature.... "The central being lies in the heart and from the heart proceed all central movements—all dynamism and urge for transformation and power of realisation.” ³

Describing the most concrete and effective way in which the psychic can be discovered, the Mother says : "Very often at the beginning of sādhanā one has the impression as if the psychic being is shut up in a kind of shell or prison and it is that which prevents it from manifesting itself outside and coming into conscious and constant contact with the external consciousness, the surface being. In endeavouring to join with the psychic one feels exactly as if there was a wall in front which one must break through or there is a door which must be forced if one were to enter. If you can break through the wall, open the door, then the psychic being is freed and it can manifest itself externally.

"You sit in meditation before a closed door, as it were, heavy as a door of bronze. You sit still with a will that the door must open so that you may cross over to the other side. The entire concentration, the entire aspiration is gathered together and made to push and push against the door, push more and more with increasing

¹ Words of the Mother.

² ibid.

³ ibid,

Page 87

energy until all on a sudden the door gives way and you enter thrown as it were into the light. It is a powerful, unforgettable experience : you go through a sudden and radical change of consciousness, with an illumination that completely seizes hold of you, giving you the sensation that you have become another person. This is a very concrete and effective way of entering in contact with one's psychic being.”¹

One remembers in this connection the teaching of the Christ: "Knock, and it shall be opened unto thee.” It is the intense, unwavering sincerity of the will, the inflexible determination, the stubborn, indefatigable perseverance, vyavasāyātmikā buddhi, the indomitable courage and tireless patience with which the Buddha clove through the meshes of samskāras into the heart of Truth that are needed for the discovery and realisation of the psychic. One has to knock, and knock hard, and harder, till the door flies open, and the long-cherished treasure of our seeking stands gleaming before our eyes.

The Mother says that there is not one person in a million who has a conscious relation with his psychic being, even for a moment. "The psychic being can work from within, but, for the external being, in such an invisible and unconscious way as if it did not exist. In most cases, in almost all cases, in fact, the psychic being is asleep, as it were, not active at all, but in a kind of torpor.”² "A very sustained effort is needed to become conscious of one's psychic being. You would be considered very fortunate if you succeeded in doing so after having put in thirty years of assiduous labour.”³

The Mother says that when the intensity of loving aspiration reaches a flaming point, all of a sudden there takes place a reversal of consciousness, and one is no more what one was the moment before. "Everything changes in a second: you know, you are, you live, you see the unreality of what seemed so real.” One may have to wait for this moment "through days and

¹ Bulletin of Physical Education.

² ibid.

³ ibid,

Page 88

months and centuries.” "But if you intensify your aspiration, the pressure becomes so great...that something veers round in your consciousness. Instead of being outside and trying to look inside, you are inside; and as soon as you are inside, all changes absolutely, completely. All that seemed to you true, natural, normal, real, tangible, all, all immediately appears to you as very grotesque, extremely funny, quite unreal, quite absurd. ”¹ You find yourself in the luminous depths of your being, reborn, as it were, into the unbanked light and peace and bliss of your eternal soul. "Yes, you have touched something that is supremely true and eternally beautiful, and that you never lose anymore.”² It may be that you cannot always remain stably and securely poised in that experience. There may be occasional lapses into the old consciousness of ignorance, division and discord, but something of the experience will always abide with you, and pull you out of the lapses and aberrations. "Once this reversal has happened, you can slip into the outer consciousness, you may, in dealing with others, fall back some- what into their ignorance and blindness, but always there will be something living, erect, that moves no more, until that thing enters everywhere, and the blindness disappears for ever.” ³ The experience of the psychic is something crucial and decisive, unforgettable and indubitable. It changes the orientation of the being and gives it a new vision, a new outlook, and a new aim to pursue in life. ”

In no yoga the complete psychic realisation is so much insisted upon as in the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother; for, the secret of divine fulfilment lies in the psychic, and also the key to the transformation of nature. It is true that the supreme transforming power comes from the Supermind, but for the descent of the supramental power, it is essential that the psychic should purify and unify the whole nature and remould it in its own image. Psychic transformation, as Sri Aurobindo says, must precede the other two transformations,

¹ Bulletin of Physical Education.

² ibid.

³ ibid.

Page 89

spiritual and supramental. Those schools of yoga which have as their aim an escape of the human soul from the material world into some state of Brahmic peace and silence, or into the rapt bliss of inner union and communion with the Divine, do not, as a rule, lay so much stress on a full and dynamic realisation of the psychic. According to them, the soul or the psychic has no mission here to fulfil, nor has it any necessity to transform the physical consciousness and nature of man. Such transformation is deemed rather Utopian and impracticable. But for the Integral Yoga, which has as its sole object a dynamic union with the Divine and a divine transformation of the entire human consciousness and nature, a complete and dynamic realisation of the psychic and a resultant psychicisation of the whole being is an indispensable prerequisite. It may be argued that the realisation of the soul or the psychic is common to most forms of the spiritual sadhana, and that it is no special feature of the Integral Yoga. But what is actually realised in the other yogas does not necessarily lead to the discovery of the mission of the psychic or the transformation of the physical nature. One usually stops short at one phase of the psychic realisation, the phase of passive peace and silence, as do Sankhya and Jainism; or, one may proceed through it, by a deepening and widening of the consciousness of peace and silence, to the realisation of the universal and transcendent Brahman. There is another phase at which one also stops short—the phase of love and devotion for the Divine in the heart. One may intensify this phase and enjoy a blissful union and communion with the Divine. The truth of the matter is that usually one realises only the static aspect of the psychic, and not the dynamic, or, eve before having a definite experience of the psychic, one may widen out into an experience of the Self, the silent, witness Purusha, detached from the working of nature and indifferent to it, udāsīnavadāsīnaḥ. There are different realisations possible, and unless we have a clear perception of their distinctive characteristics, we are likely to confound one with the other in our estimate of them, or lump them all together under the blanket term of self-realisation. Whatever that may be, we must not

Page 90

forget that the psychic has a specific mission to fulfil in the material world—it is the transformation of Matter, and the Epiphany of God in material life. It cannot, therefore, stop short at its own liberation, but securely established in it, must work for the fulfilment of its mission. It progress lies along a road which is interminable, indeed, infinite. It has to prepare its nature in such a way that it may express better and better the Divine's Will and the splendour of its purpose on earth. "It is not merely a matter of ameliorating the world. There are people who clomour for change of government, social reform and philanthropic work, believing that they can thereby make the world better. We want a new world, a true world, an expression of the Truth-Consciousness. And it will be, it must be—and the sooner the better. It should not, however, be just a subjective change. The whole physical life must be transformed. The material world does not want a mere change of consciousness in us. It says in effect: 'You retire into bliss, become luminous, have the divine knowledge; but that does not alter me. I still remain the hell I practically am!’ The true change of consciousness is one that will change the physical conditions of the world and make it an entirely new creation.”¹ And who will do it, if not the psychic ? For, the psychic is the only channel through which the Truth-Consciousness and the Truth-Force can flow down into Matter and transform it. This work of the psychic must necessarily be long and chequered. We can call it the psychic's post-liberation progress in the material world. And this, indeed, is its raison d'être. Its mission is bound up with the earth. Its presence in the world is a pledge of the earth's deliverance and transformation, of the establishment of Light in the kingdom of darkness, of unity and harmony in the hurtling arena of divisions and discord, of blissful immortality in this undisputed empire of death and suffering.

When the psychic is realised, it is our second birth, we attain to dwijattwa, we step into Brahminhood. A new sense of universality, of illimitable expansion, of termless continuity develops in us. We find our existence infinitely enlarged, our

¹Words of the Mother.

Page 91

consciousness illumined and extended beyond all horizons, our thoughts and feelings, delivered from their narrow moulds, embracing the whole world. "Then you decentralise, spread out, enlarge yourself; you begin to live in everything and in all beings; the barriers separating individuals from each other break down. You think in their thoughts, vibrate in their sensations, you feel in their feelings, you live in the life of all. What seemed inert suddenly becomes full of life, stones quicken, plants feel and mil and suffer, animals speak in a language more or less inarticulate, but clear and expressive; everything is animated with a marvellous consciousness without time and limit. And this is only one aspect of the psychic realisation. There are many others. All combine in pulling you out of the barriers of your egoism, the walls of your external personality, the impotence of your reactions and the incapacity of your will.”¹

The psychic experience is, as I have said above, indubitable —it carries with it a sense of absolute certainty, of unchallengeable authenticity. One knows without doubt that one is immortal; that one has always existed and will never cease to exist; that one assumes different names and forms in different lives, passes through various experiences, and grows and profits by them all, but remains essentially the same—the same luminous being of love and bliss, infinite and immortal. And he who has realised his psychic means every letter of what he says when he asserts that no price is too heavy to pay for this sublime experience, no sacrifice, no renunciation, no tapasya too difficult to make. The experience is revolutionary. It unseals a new vision, initiates a new life of glorious possibilities, cuts at the roots of sorrow and suffering, and excises death out of one's existence for ever. It is the bridge to immortality, as the Upanishad puts it.

Will not man, in his present crisis, turn his gaze inwards and discover his psychic, his real self, the eternal fount of love and light, the living ocean of peace and power, the potential architect of the kingdom of God upon earth ?

¹Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on Education,

Page 92