... The Spiritual Transformation Letters on Yoga - III Chapter I Ascent and Descent The Meaning of Spiritual Transformation What I mean by the spiritual transformation is something dynamic (not merely liberation of the self, or realisation of the One which can very well be attained without any descent). It is a putting on of the spiritual consciousness... into the very body. Light also can descend and Force. The navel and the centres below it are those of the vital and the physical; something of the higher Force may have descended there. Both Ascent and Descent Necessary The lower consciousness ascends towards the higher to join it—the higher descends into the lower to transform it. It is the rule of the consciousness in this sadhana. A going... block below due to the physical consciousness and its natural slowness to change. Everybody has these blocks but by persistent will, aspiration or abhyāsa they can be overcome. The Order of Ascent and Descent There is no fixed rule in such things. With many the descent comes first and the ascension afterwards, with others it is the other way; with some the two processes go on together. If one can ...
... has given me two letters of yours to her explaining her experience of ascent and descent. She wants to know if the ascent and descent spoken of is the usual one or the major ascent and descent we heard about from you the other day. SRI AUROBINDO ( after reading both the letters ): The first one is the usual ascent and descent. The consciousness has not got fixed above in the higher planes. It is... between she had a lot of troubles and disturbances. NIRODBARAN: Can't one have experiences during such troubles and disturbances? SRI AUROBINDO: One can but they may not be of the higher ascent and descent because when such movements take place there comes a turn in the sadhana and these troubles and disturbances do not occur. NIRODBARAN: She says that now she doesn't get disturbed. SRI ...
... collective progress, and one cannot advance if the other does not advance.¹ The words 'ascent' and 'descent' have a relative significance—relative to our present composition and status of consciousness. But, as Mother explained: ... once the border has been crossed, there is no more 'ascent' and 'descent'; you have the feeling of rising up only at the very start, while leaving the terrestrial... no notion of rising; there's a sense, instead, of a sort of inner transformation.² *** In his magnum opus, The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo has explained at length the philosophy of ascent and descent in the context of spiritual evolution and provided a detailed exposition of the entire process of integral transformation, consisting of a triple transformation, the psychic, the spiritual and... certain—as soon as one goes beyond the terrestrial atmosphere, beyond the higher mind's 'highest' region, the sensation of 'high' and 'low' totally vanishes. There are no longer movements of ascent and descent, but (Mother turns her hand over) something like inner reversals. 'It is by rising to the summit of consciousness through a progressive ascent... that one unites with the Supermind ...
... having found the Transcendent, can return upon the universe and possess it, retaining the power freely to descend as well as ascend the great stair of existence. 170 This double movement of ascent and descent of the individual consciousness is the basic principle of the supramental discovery. But in the process Sri Aurobindo was to touch an unknown spring which would change everything. The Ascent... followed by a step downward. Page 209 Instead of taking these sharp jolts as a kind of fatality, the seeker will make them the basis of his work. Indeed, this dual movement of ascent and descent is the fundamental process of the integral yoga: On each height we conquer we have to turn to bring down its power and its illumination into the lower mortal movement. 227 Such is the price... are on our way to a far greater adventure than we had ever imagined. Page 211 Soon, a second paradox will strike us, which is perhaps the very same one. Not only is there a law of ascent and descent, but there is also, it seems, a kind of central contradiction. We all have a goal in this life and through all our lives, something unique to express, since every human being is unique; this ...
... of the Sun (the symbol of Supermind) and yet retain an earthly body. It was because of this failure that the spiritual effort of India culminated in Mayavada. Our Yoga is a double movement of ascent and descent; one rises to higher and higher levels of consciousness, but at the same time one brings down their power not only into mind and life, but in the end even into the body. And the highest of these... though the waking state becomes illumined and full of peace and brahmānanda. I never heard of silence descending in other Yogas—the mind goes into silence. Since however I have been writing of ascent and descent, I have been told from several quarters that there is nothing new in this Yoga—so I am wondering whether people were not getting ascents and descents without knowing it! or at least without noticing... speaks of being samāhita (which is equivalent to being in samadhi) and the Brahmi sthiti as a waking state in which one lives and does all actions. 9 June 1936 Such a concrete process of ascent and descent could not have escaped notice if other Yogis had it. They do mention a rising of Kundalini to the Brahmarandhra. Why then do they not mention a coming down of, say, a current of brahmānanda ...
... 'arohna' which etymologically means the process of upward rising. The process we call evolution is thus a process of ascent which is constantly aided by the process of descent. Even this process of ascent and descent manifests a discernible pattern. The Inconscience appears to be a sleeping rock that resists the pressure of the Infinite Consciousness that is below and the Infinite Consciousness that is above... be worked upon until the Inconscience consents to be awakened. It may be said that the Inconscience is being constantly teased and it is constantly sought to be entertained by the processes of ascent and descent so that every stage of awakening of the Inconscience is effected through the increasing consent to grow into higher and higher states of awakening. It is this process which can be seen in the... as the seed of the Mind (Kāma āsit agre manasah retam, to use again the Vedic phrases of the Nāsadīya Sukta). At the mental level of which we are now conscious, we can detect the play of the ascent and descent of consciousness with greater and greater Page 22 discernment, and we find here more and more clearly a double process. We find that there is an outward visible process of physical ...
... 9 MARCH 1940 SATYENDRA: Do ascent and descent of consciousness take place only through the head? SRI AUROBINDO: No, they can take place through the lower centres also. SATYENDRA: Nirod had the idea that they happen only through the head. I was thinking of Sahana's experience of ascent and descent. SRI AUROBINDO: Did she have that experience? NIRODBARAN:... told you about. SRI AUROBINDO: Oh that? Her usual ascent-descent? NIRODBARAN: Yes. SRI AUROBINDO: That is different. That is common among most people who have an opening. That is the ascent and descent of one's own consciousness, while what I am speaking of is the whole being going up to the Divine Consciousness and coming down with it. NIRODBARAN: The distinction is still not very clear... mental, vital or physical, that goes up to the higher planes above the mind and stays there for a time; some organisation takes place and then the consciousness comes down with some result. In the ascent and descent about which I have written in The Life Divine , the whole being—you may call it the Self—goes up, say, to the Overmind, settles there and meets the Divine and then the descent of the Divine ...
... consciousness, a principle of global knowledge which carries in it a delegated light from the supramental Gnosis. It is, therefore, only by an opening into the cosmic consciousness that the overmind ascent and descent can be made wholly possible: a high and intense individual opening upwards is not sufficient, – to that vertical ascent towards summit Light there must be added a vast horizontal expansion of... how could it reasonably be supposed that it could be bridged without something in between? “For the gulf between Mind and Supermind has to be bridged, the closed passages opened and roads of ascent and descent created where there is now a void and a silence”, 51 wrote Sri Aurobindo in the Arya, some thirty years before his articles were composed for the Bulletin. To put the progress of the Yoga ...
... prototype of the supramental form.' I saw it several times again, later on, and this proved to be true. But naturally, you understand, once the border has been crossed, there is no more 'ascent' and 'descent'; you have the feeling of rising up only at the very start, while leaving the terrestrial consciousness and emerging into the higher mind. But once you have gone beyond that, there's no notion... certain—as soon as one goes beyond the terrestrial atmosphere, beyond the higher mind's 'highest' region, the sensation of 'high' and 'low' totally vanishes. There are no longer movements of ascent and descent, but ( Mother turns her hand over ) something like inner reversals. I think the problem arises only when you try to see and understand with the mental consciousness, even with the higher mind ...
... inconcience is manifested. None of the powers of the mind or even of the Overmind can, according to the yogic experience of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, accomplish this task. Only a process of an ascent and descent that involves three steps can effectuate and accomplish this task. The first step is to arrive at the loftiest peaks of supramental consciousness; next is the gradual descent of the supermind... between the mind and supennind which are closed at present have to be opened; there are voids and silences between the mind and supennind and these have to be crossed and connected and new roads of ascent and descent have to be created. This can be done only by the triple transformation. In the words of Sri Aurobindo, "There must first be the psychic change, the conversion of our whole present nature into ...
... first an ascension of consciousness to its higher plane and then descent of Peace, Light and Power of the higher into the lower so as to transform the latter. These two vertical movements of ascent and descent in Integral Yoga find powerful symbolic expressions in the following two images: An arrow leaping through eternity Suddenly shot from the tense bow of Time, A ray returning to... epihpany: His nature shuddered in the Unknown's grasp. 45 The World-Stair symbol used in the Book of the Traveller of the Worlds describes the double movement of consciousness, of Ascent and Descent, as experienced by the Yogi-Poet. In fact the whole of Book Two comprising more than 7000 lines rests on this one central metaphor. Hardly another such sustained metaphor could be found in world ...
... Supreme Goddess, the steps of ascent and descent of the Divine Transcendent and Universal Adyashakti. Above are the thrice seven supreme planes of Sat-Chit-Ananda, त्रिः सप्त परमा पदानि मातुः in between are the seven planes of the Page 1339 Divine Truth and Vastness, Mahad Brahma, सत्यमृतं बृहत्; below are the thrice seven steps of the ascent and descent into this evolutionary world of ...
... the Sun (the symbol of the supermind) and yet retain an earthly body. It was because of this failure that the spiritual effort of India culminated in Mayavada. Our Yoga is a double movement of ascent and descent; one rises to higher and higher levels of consciousness, but at the same time one brings down their power not only into mind and life, but in the end even into the body. And the highest of these... transformation possible in the earth-consciousness. Page 376 I never heard of silence descending in other Yogas—the mind goes into silence. Since however I have been writing of ascent and descent, I have been told from several quarters that there is nothing new in this Yoga—so I am wondering whether people were not getting ascents and descents without knowing it! or at least without noticing ...
... between. It is like a stairway, and the way up is but the reverse of the way down: ...we perceive that our existence is a sort of refraction of the divine existence, in inverted order of ascent and descent, thus ranged, - Existence Consciousness-Force Bliss Supermind Matter Life Psyche... every stage of the forward movement of consciousness; and thirdly, the identification of the sovereign creative role of the Supermind. It is, however, important to remember that words like "ascent" and "descent" - or "upward", "downward" or "inward" - have to be understood in a psychological and not a strictly physical sense, and our temporal images are but desperate attempts to convey the realities ...
... nature. That is not the transformation I envisage. 12 October 1935 People seem to misunderstand certain words used by Dr. Sircar in his lectures: "supermind" or "supramental", "psychic", "ascent and descent" etc. I think such terms should be defined precisely when used. The words supermind and supramental were first used by me, but since then people have taken up and are using the word supramental ...
... Ananda above, to rise up into it and bring it down into the nature and the body. Neither of these two movements, the psychic and the spiritual, is complete without the other. If the spiritual ascent and descent are not made, the spiritual transformation of the nature cannot happen; if the full psychic opening and connection is not made, the transformation cannot be complete There is no inco ...
... being has not risen fully to Supermind and brought down its powers into terrestrial existence. For the gulf between Mind and Supermind has to be bridged, the closed passages opened and roads of ascent and descent created where there is now a void and a silence. This can be done only by the triple transformation to which we have already made a passing reference: there must first be the psychic change, ...
... impatience as if they were untoward gaps in the sadhana. Besides, the Force rises up lifting part of the nature on a higher level and then comes down to a lower layer to raise it; this motion of ascent and descent is often extremely trying because the mind partial to an ascent in a straight line and the vital eager Page 63 for rapid fulfilment cannot understand or follow this intricate movement ...
... the head takes place though the sensation is felt as if physical. The Force came down and went up presided over by the Mother's forms of Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati and made the movement of ascent and descent (here in the spinal column which is the main channel of the Yogic force passing through the centres) which helps to join the higher with the lower consciousness. As a result came the feeling ...
... Ananda above, to rise up into it and bring it down into the nature and the body. Neither of these two movements, the psychic and the spiritual, is complete without the other. If the spiritual ascent and descent are not made, the spiritual transformation of the nature cannot happen; if the full psychic opening and connection is not made, the transformation cannot be complete. There is no incompatibility ...
... a transcendental Descent, the ambiguous symbols and veiled mysteries of a world of Ignorance. Ourselves are free, but the earth-consciousness remains in bondage; only a further transcendental ascent and descent can entirely heal the contradiction and transform and deliver. For there is yet a third intensely close and personal aspect of the Master of Works which is a key to his sublimest hidden mystery ...
... physically so changed as to be able to live masterfully in spatio-temporal terms: such is the state of him who, in one birth or after many, has consummated Sri Aurobindo's Yoga of supramental ascent and descent. Page 266 I may well stop here. But I am tempted to continue a little further by some remarks you have made on modern physics: "Scientists to-day recognise that there ...
... to the lower Prakriti, but by spiritual evolution he becomes aware of the higher Nature and seeks to come into contact with it. He can ascend into it and it can descend into him — such an ascent and descent can transform the lower nature of mind, life and Matter. Letters on Yoga, p. 287 In the experience of yoga the self or being is in essence one with the Divine or at least it is ...
... explains, this synthesis aims at the bringing down on the physical earth the supramental knowledge and power by means of which alone can the crisis of today be met and resolved. The Vedic method of ascent and descent, — ascent to the higher levels of consciousness and descent of those levels of higher consciousness on lower levels of consciousness has been given by Sri Aurobindo a new direction and a new ...
... 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 ...
... Page 22 (Muslim congregation for namaz) and stretched them in front of the portals of every mosque, so that the body and sides of the images might be trampled at the time of ascent and descent, entrance and exit, by the shoes on the feet of the Muslims."Within a few centuries, almost the whole of India had come under the Muslim sway. The Delhi Sultanate had taken control of India. ...
... on of these under-worlds (concerning sex and food), it endows them with a perspective sub specie aeternitatis. The sexual function, for example, is easily equated to the double movement of ascent and descent that is secreted in nature, or to the combined action of Purusha and Prakrit! in the cosmic Play, or again to the hidden fount of Delight that holds and moves the universe. In this view there ...
... perhaps and the first sign was a little aggravation. (Laughter) You don't believe in the Kundalini? DR. MANILAL: No, Sir. SRI AUROBINDO: But you were telling us about your experience of ascent and descent. DR. MANILAL: Was it an experience of the Kundalini? I didn't know it. (Laughter) But the Kundalini is not in the line of our Yoga and you haven't mentioned about it anywhere. PURANI: ...
... and development of souls is a twofold process. First, there is the process of growth from below, and secondly there is the process of manifestation or expression from above, the movements of ascent and descent, as spoken of by Sri Aurobindo. The souls start on their evolutionary journey on the material plane as infinitesimal specks of consciousness imbedded in the vast expanse of the Inconscient; but ...
... No, Sir! SRI AUROBINDO: You are closed in the vital then and, when the vital opens, you may be closed in the physical. (Laughter) DR. MANILAL: Tragedy after tragedy, Sir. Experience of ascent and descent also stopped. Sir. SRI AUROBINDO: Why? Didn't you find it interesting? DR. MANILAL: Very interesting. ...
... that this new heaven or new combination may enter Matter without exploding everything. For the gulf has to be bridged, Sri Aurobindo would soon say, the closed passages opened and roads of ascent and descent created where there is now a void and a silence. 21 A perilous adventure. A perilous transition for the earth. The Last Sedition Around 1906, a little corner of the Atlas Mountains ...
... distinguish it from the mental idea. There are two ways of looking at the problem—from above—a descending point of view, from below, an ascending point of view. One can say it is a double ladder of ascent and descent—of involution and evolution. At one end in Matter the Spirit is involved, at the other end in Spirit, Matter is involved. All creation is nothing but self-manifestation: Existence acts ...
... in Kundalini? Disciple : No, Sir. Page 28 Sri Aurobindo : But you were telling about your "ascent and descent" experience. Disciple : Is that Kundalini? I did not know it ( laughter) . But Kundalini is not the line of our yoga and you have not mentioned about it any where. Disciple : ...
... its eyes to the light of the dawn." And there are not a few subsequent Prayers depicting Remarkable transitions and new conquests. The Mother's sadhana has followed strange curves of ascent and descent, for it has not been so much an individual as a collective sadhana for the conversion of the earth-consciousness and the supramental self-expression of God in man. It would, therefore, be a ...
... its eyes to the light of the dawn.” And there are not a few subsequent Prayers depicting remarkable transitions and new conquests. The Mother's sadhana has followed strange curves of ascent and descent, for it has not been so much an individual as a collective sadhana for the conversion of the earth-consciousness and the supramental self-expression of God in man. It would, therefore, be a great ...
... beyond Mind and also the descent of the higher Power into himself. He remained a witness maintaining complete silence. He saw the resistance of the inconscient Nature and the alternate movement of ascent and descent. The resistance was due to Nature not being ready for a radical change. He knew by an inner experience that the Self is something greater than the instruments of nature—mind, life and body ...
... to that mediating eminence of the consciousness from which a clear vision of the ascending and descending stairs of manifested existence is commanded and the possession of the free power of ascent and descent becomes a spiritual prerogative. An independent completeness of identity with each of the primal aspects and powers—not narrowing as in the mind into a sole engrossing experience seeming to be ...
... break the present barriers of Mind and go to the higher reaches of Mind, there has to be the descent of another higher power to effectuate his effort at this evolutionary point so that this ascent and descent could establish the higher principle beyond mind. This descent is represented by Savitri. Satyavan and Savitri have to unite in order to create the new world because it is only in their ...
... of the evolution, but Will and its purpose must be there as part of the instrumentation,... 9 To fulfil the evolutionary intent, spiritual growth needs to be a double movement of ascent and descent; the individual consciousness must ascend to progressively higher levels of consciousness and then must bring down the dynamism of the higher levels into the mental, vital and physical con ...
... ess, a principle of global knowledge which carries in it a delegated light from the supramental Gnosis. It is, therefore, only by an opening into the cosmic consciousness that the overmind ascent and descent can be made wholly possible: a high and intense individual opening upwards is not sufficient, — to that vertical ascent towards summit Light there must be added a vast horizontal expansion ...
... vivid sense of the Mother's force working in you, descending from above and taking possession of the different planes of your being. That is often a prior condition for the twofold movement of ascent and descent, and it will surely come in time. These things often take a long time to begin visibly, especially when the mind is accustomed to be very active and has not the habit of mental silence. When ...
... midst of the world —without renouncing the world. It was for this reason that I turned and selected Sri Aurobindo as my Guide and Guru. Sri Aurobindo's sadhana consisted of a double process —ascent and descent. One is to rise to the Truth-consciousness and from there bring down the light and power of that consciousness and apply it for the transformation of the animal-human nature, and divinize the ...
... subject to the lower Prakriti, but by spiritual evolution he becomes aware of the higher Nature and seeks to come into contact with it. He can ascend into it and it can descend into him—such an ascent and descent can transform the lower nature of mind, life and matter. Prakriti is only the executive or working force—the Power be hind Prakriti is Shakti. It is the Chit-Shakti in manifestation: that ...
... of global knowledge which Page 984 carries in it a delegated light from the supramental gnosis. It is, therefore, only by an opening into the cosmic consciousness that the overmind ascent and descent can be made wholly possible: a high and intense individual opening upwards is not sufficient,—to that vertical ascent towards summit Light there must be added a vast horizontal expansion of the ...
... about a descent of this Light and Truth into all our being and all our parts of nature. All then becomes part of the Divine Truth, an element and means of the supreme union and oneness; this ascent and descent must be therefore an ultimate aim of this Yoga. A union with the Divine Reality of our being and all being is the one essential object of the Yoga. It is necessary to keep this in mind; we ...
... . We may, therefore, if we will, pose eight 1 principles instead of seven, and then we perceive that our existence is a sort of refraction of the divine existence, in inverted order of ascent and descent, thus ranged,— Existence Matter Consciousness-Force Life Bliss Psyche Supermind Mind The Divine descends from pure existence through the play ...
... being has not risen fully to supermind and brought down its powers into terrestrial existence. For the gulf between mind and supermind has to be bridged, the closed passages opened and roads of ascent and descent created where there is now a void and a silence. This can be done only by the triple transformation to which we have already made a passing reference: there must first be the psychic change, ...
... ghost of the old ego supporting a mechanical repetition of the old habits upon the remnants of confusion and impurity still left in the system. The cloud intervenes and disappears, the rhythm of ascent and descent renews itself until the impurity has been worked out. This period of alternations may easily be long in the integral Yoga; for there an entire perfection of the system is required; it must be ...
... s of the surface; it helps also the ascent into the higher consciousness and the descent of the higher consciousness, for it is through this calm, detached and liberated inner being that the ascent and descent can easily be done. Also, to have the same witness look on the movements of Prakriti in others, seeing, understanding but not perturbed by them in any way is a very great help towards both the ...
... Mother's force working in you, descending Page 138 from above and taking possession of the different planes of your being. That is often a prior condition for the twofold movement of ascent and descent; it will surely come in time. These things can take a long time to begin visibly, especially when the mind is accustomed to be very active and has not the habit of mental silence. When that veiling ...
... Divine. The object of the concentration in the head is to rise to the Divine Consciousness and bring down the Light of the Mother or her Force or Ananda into all the centres. This movement of ascent and descent is implied in the process of your japa and it is not therefore necessary to renounce it. There is a level corresponding to the Satya Loka in the head Page 325 but the consciousness ...
... subject to the lower Prakriti, but by spiritual evolution he becomes aware of the higher Nature and seeks to come into contact with it. He can ascend into it and it can descend into him - such an ascent and descent can transform the lower nature of mind, life and Matter. * The Overmind has to be reached and brought down before the supermind descent is at all possible - for the Overmind is the ...
... the Sun (the symbol of the Supermind) and yet retain an earthly body. It was because of this failure that the spiritual effort of India culminated in Mayavada. Our Yoga is a double movement of ascent and descent; one rises to higher and higher levels of consciousness, but at the same time one brings down their power not only into mind and life, but in the end even into the body. And the highest of these ...
... a principle of global knowledge which carries in it a delegated light from the supramental Gnosis. It is, therefore, only by an opening into the cosmic consciousness that the overmind ascent and descent can be made wholly possible: a high and intense individual opening upwards is not sufficient,—to that vertical ascent towards summit Light there must be added a vast horizontal expansion of ...
... prototype of the supramental form.' I saw it several times again, later on, and this proved to be true. But naturally, you understand, once the border has been crossed, there is no more 'ascent' and 'descent'; you have the feeling of rising up only at the very start, while leaving the terrestrial consciousness and emerging into the higher mind. But once you have gone beyond that, there's no notion ...
... remain in bh ā va for long', 1 as Sri Ramakrishna would say. So long as the body exists, one is perforce brought down 2 from the absorbed state of illumination, and a recurring rhythm of ascent and descent intervenes. This state of constant wavering, of soaring and descending, this oscillation between the withdrawn status of blissful realisation and the darkened status of waking existence, is ...
... transition to that mediating eminence of the consciousness from which a clear vision of the ascending and descending stairs of manifested existence is commanded and the position of the freed power of ascent and descent becomes a spiritual prerogative. Again, there are three important varieties of yogic experience on the basis of which the rival philosophies of Vedanta have come to be formulated; these ...
... right? I would also like to know if there is really something great in him. Of course there is. But I know nothing about the similitudes. So far as I know he does not believe in the ascent and descent. He dissuaded all his disciples from visions and voices and said that such things have nothing to do with the true realisation of the Self or with one's own goal. What is your ...
... worlds to materialise to such an extent or for a long time. They prefer to act by influencing human beings, using them as instruments or taking possession of a human mind and body. ASCENT AND DESCENT OF THE HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS-FORCE Sometimes in my forehead I feel as if a burning spark has entered, though it remains within only for a while. What is this spark? ...
... spiritual world too need not transcend matter; the establishment of the spirit will not mean the extinction of the material world in a final dissolution. This twofold movement, this dual line of ascent and descent, carries forward the entire creation, including in it man on earth as a collectivity as well as all the parts of creation, through an integrated harmony, not through any inescapable and huge ...
... delineation of these under-worlds (concerning sex and food), it endows them with a perspective sub specie aeternitatis. The sexual function, for example, is easily equated to the double movement of ascent and descent that is secreted in nature, or to the combined action of Purusha and Prakriti in the cosmic Play, or again to the hidden fount of Delight that holds and moves the universe. In this view there ...
... must be added a vast horizontal expansion of the consciousness in some totality of Spirit. According to Sri Aurobindo, it is only by an opening into the cosmic consciousness that the Overmind ascent and descent can be made wholly possible. An important precondition is that the inner being must already have replaced by its deeper and wider awareness the surface mind and its limited outlook and learn ...
... the Sun (the symbol of the supermind) and yet retain an earthly body. It was because of this failure that the spiritual effort of India culminated in Mayavada. Our yoga is a double movement of ascent and descent; one rises to higher and higher levels of consciousness, but at the same time one brings down their power not only into mind and life, but in the end even into the body. And the highest of these ...
... dynamic action and the descent of the powers of these planes into our mind, life and body. These planes are those of the Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuitive Mind, and Overmind preparing the ascent and descent of the Supermind.13 It is this process that is specifically called in the Yoga of Sri Aurobindo the process of spiritual transformation. This process is extremely complex and it is impossible ...
... involution, expression and withdrawal, Being and Non-Being, Knowledge and Ignorance. The image of twin sisters (rivers) refers also to this double movement of consciousness, everywhere in Nature: ascent and descent, inward and outward, the two wings of the Cosmic Bird flying through eternity and infinity. To mark the progress of Time or in Time, cycles of duration (months, half months, seasons etc.) are ...
... compared with the European, is poor in symphony, but it has developed a remarkable range of melodies. Each melody is a fixed pattern of rhythm having fixed musical notes in an ordered scale of ascent and descent. But this fixed scale does not limit the scope for original improvisation by the artist which becomes his free self-expression. Having mainly to depend on melody Indian music developed subtleties ...
... it from the Guru who has gone through the experience – that is to say, you have to accept it by Sravana, hearing, and Manana – meditating upon it. Disciple : It is said that ascent and descent take place; how to know it? Sri Aurobindo : You will yourself know it when it takes place; you can't miss it. Disciple : I hear that the American lady B remained in Ramanashram ...
... That is why these experiences are brief and do not last very long in the beginning. Well, that is what Aswapathy found was happening with himself, and then he saw that a movement of ascent and descent was taking place. He goes up and comes down, sometimes he comes down with a gain, sometimes he is dull afterwards. Then he found pure perception growing, intuition coming, inspiration coming ...
... Living in The Presence Om For the 1 st December programme of 1955, the Mother had selected four girls to recite two poems of Sri Aurobindo, Ascent and Descent: Arati-di, Light (Manoranjan-da's daughter), Chhanda and myself. In those days, the Mother had given the responsibility of this annual programme to three people: Anu-ben was in charge of dance, Sunil-da was ...
... to live in Sri Aurobindo's Presence. For the entire day, we tried to remain in that state of consciousness. Page 85 The programme started in the evening. Our recitation of Ascent and Descent marked the opening. I had to recite the first lines. The programme did not take place at the Theater then, but at the Playground. The Mother sat right in front of the stage in a chair. On either ...
... majority, that "little inner contact" — the psychic antennae? — had been wanting. Affirming that "it is only like that knows like" the Mother makes an enlightening distinction between the individual ascent and descent of consciousness, and the general coming down or manifestation of the Consciousness: Page 619 ...certain individuals, who are the pioneers, the vanguard, through inner effort and ...
... that, at times, the higher consciousness came down like rain from above, sometimes a flood of illumination descended and he could retain the Light for longer periods. During these periods of ascent and descent, his being was integrated in the process and attained complete equality, tranquil purity, serene strength and lasting peace. He also saw that this tranquillity, was not merely a static condition ...
... ess—that's it exactly. You say it yourself: the transition from the true Consciousness to ordinary consciousness. That's it exactly. "Descent" doesn't convey the actual sensation—there was no sensation of descent. None. Neither of ascent nor descent. None at all. Those creative gusts had no POSITION in relation to the creation; it was.... There was ONLY THAT. THAT ALONE existed. Nothing else... is a world of battles. It is the battlefield. ( When this text was read to Mother, she gave the following modification: ) I would prefer a word other than "descent," because there was no sensation or notion of descent—none at all.... It could be called the process of materialization or individualization—"transformation of consciousness" would be more exact. It is the process of changing... that's when that sort of Voice reminded me of my promise, that I had promised to do the Work on earth and it would be done. "I promised to do the Work and it will be done." Then began the process of descent, 1 and the Voice was explaining it to me—I lived through it all in detail, and it wasn't pleasant. It took an hour and a half to change from that true Consciousness to the individual consciousness ...
... Integral Yoga ] no willed opening of the chakras, they open of themselves by the descent of the Force. In the Tantrik discipline they open from down upwards, the Muladhara first—in our Yoga, they open from up downward. But the ascent of the force from the Muladhara does take place. The ascent of the Kundalini—not its descent, so far as I know—is a recognised phenomenon; there is one that corresponds... integral Yoga needs to develop its own forms and processes, but the ascent of the consciousness through the centres and other Tantrik knowledge are there behind the process of transformation to which so much importance is given by me—also the truth that nothing can be done except through the force of the Mother. The ascension and descent of the Force in this Yoga accomplishes itself in its own way... way without any necessary reproduction of the details laid down in the books [ on Tantra ]. Many become conscious of the centres, but others simply feel the ascent or descent in a general way or from level to level rather than from centre to centre, that is to say, the Force descending first to the head, then to the heart, then to the navel and still below. It is not at all necessary to become aware of ...
... spiritual experience." 110 Now this was by no means peculiar to Sri Aurobindo. Planes, ascents, descents, explorations, although they evoke physical realities, have also corresponding non- Page 326 physical parallels. 111 It is thus not at all surprising that the imagery of ascent-descent and planes is employed purposively with regard to the mystic experiences as well. As... 'mystic way', 'this flight of the alone to the Alone', is described as steep and hard, lonely and arduous, a way of 'ladders' and 'steps' and 'ascents'. The historic 'grades' which divide the 'way' into well-marked levels, or heights of ascents, are the 'purgative', the 'illuminative' and the 'unitive' stages...the carefully labelled stages of the 'mystic way' only loosely sum up ...
... variety of chemical reactions 1 Encyclopaedia Britannica (1956), Vol. 3, p. 605. 2 J. A. V. Butler, Inside the Living Cell (1962), p. 287. 3 From Gk. anabole, ascent; catabole, descent; metabole, change. Page 270 in the body such as synthetic, degradative, hydrolytic, oxidative or condensation reactions, so essential for the maintenance of bodily ...
... small, and proceed quietly in the direction indicated. Page 300 [4] [4 October 1924] He asks me to tell you that there are two kinds of movements in the Sadhana, the ascent and the descent. The ascent or the upward movement takes place when there is a sufficient aspiration from the being, i.e. from the various mental, vital and physical planes. Each in turn ascends above the mind to ...
... immanent Godhead, the emanation, the extension or projection of the transcendent into the external material appearance. This immanent Godhead has its own function, it is the initiation of the ascent after the descent, in the vast field of an apparent total ignorance it is as it were the catalytic element introducing a reverse movement upward. Left to itself, Nature, the inferior inconscient Nature would... different functions, standing on different levels. Thus, as we say, the one below is not a vain image, or a mere reflection, but a descent here in the manifestation, of the reality above. This is also as real as that, the other, only it functions differently. The descent means two things, a double operation, first, the assumption of ignorance: what was light becomes obscurity, what was vast and infinite... secreted and unobserved; that gives only just a basis for the progressive upward movement. It initiates a mere possibility. For a more effective power, for the dynamic upward drive other descents are necessary, descents of individual formations, individualities and personalities embodying the light and force of conscious ness. This becomes tangible when the light enters into the human creation. All men ...
... supreme Mother, and never an achievement of the will and force of man. The ascent to the Supermind is an ascent to the eternal home of the supernal Light and Force, the all-comprehending and all-controlling status of Sachchidânanda, the sun-realm of Purushottama. This initial ascent is answered at every step by a descent of the characteristic power of the plane attained, which performs a dual... it is only a partial and preliminary work of liberation and transformation that can be done by this initial ascent. The final ascent implies an irrevocable transformation, integration and sublimation of the whole being of man consequent upon a series of initial ascents and descents. It consummates the establishment of the entire conscious- ness of man upon the infinite pedestal of the Knowledge-... the supreme Force, and wears his humanity as a transparent vesture of the unveiled Divine. This ascent to the Supermind or the Vijâna was attempted individually by some of the Vedic Rishis, but there is no record of a collective endeavour for such aa ascent, nor was any systematic descent of the Supermind for the transformation of the earth-consciousness envisaged in their aim. But the most ...
... the poetic vision, like everything else, follows necessarily the evolution of the human mind and according to the age and environment, it has its ascents and descents, its high levels and its low returns. Ordinarily, it follows the sequence of an abrupt ascent pushing to a rapid decline. The eye of early man is turned upon the physical world about him, the interest of the story of life and its primary ...
... thing which is the aim of our endeavour, a Page 294 fixed and unfailing aspiration that calls from below and a supreme Grace from above that answers. 10 Ascent, descent, integration; aspiration, response, realisation: such are the classic terms of the Aurobindonian dialectic of spiritual evolution. Once spiritually awakened, mental man strives to exceed himself... place when man the mental being aspires with his whole heart and soul to the 'higher' knowledge, and is seized and overwhelmed by it: The possession of the Infinite cannot come except by an ascent to those supramental planes, nor the knowledge of it except by an inert submission of Mind to the descending messages of the Truth-conscious Reality. 9 Or, as the same process ...
... These ascents of the consciousness take place usually in trance, but are "perfectly possible in a concentration of the waking ¹ The Life Divine by Sri Aurobindo, ² ibid. Page 431 consciousness or, where that consciousness has become sufficiently psychic, at any unconcentrated moment by an upward attraction or affinity."¹ Consequent upon the ascents, the descents of light... has to ascend .above the human mind into the Higher mind, the Illumined mind, the plane of Intuition and the Overmind, .and receive from them the transmuting light and force peculiar to them. This ascent may not take place if he ¹ The Life Divine by Sri Aurobindo. ² a ibid. Page 430 remains satisfied with the experiences of the Spirit in the terms of his human mind;... diminution or dilution, and effect a radical and integral conversion and transformation. The Creator alone can refashion, remould and transmute into its own substance and force what it has created. The descent of the Supramental Truth-Force is, therefore, indispensable for the supramental transformation. But the Supermind is not only above, exerting from there its transforming pressure upon the evolving ...
... this world out of the Supreme is accomplished through a double movement of descent and ascent. The descent is an involution, a veiling, a limitation of consciousness by successive steps. Thus the various worlds or planes of existence were brought into existence with physical matter as the ultimate densification. The ascent is an evolution, that is an emergence from matter and a development of the... instrument permitting them to establish contact with matter: thought is born in the physical world. Consciousness buried in the substance of the mineral kingdom has thus traversed by a slow and multiform ascent the stages of the two other kingdoms in order to arrive at man: Homo sapiens. Intelligence is in full bloom. Man is the brightest product of our universe. But has he the character of a work... why evolution should cease with him and not produce a subsequent type, which will differ from him as much as he differs from the animal, or the animal from the plant. This next step in the ascent of embodied consciousness will be taken under the pressure of forces of a realm higher than the mental. Sri Aurobindo calls it simply the Supermind.¹ We speak of the evolution of Life in Matter ...
... in his realisation. NIRODBARAN: Does he believe in transformation of this life? SATYENDRA: No. He says he has no such Sankalpa (will). Dilip asked him once what he thought of your idea of ascent, descent, transformation, etc., and whether he wanted to change earth-life. He replied that there was no Sankalpa in him for it. SRI AUROBINDO: The Mother also believes in Sankalpa, as you can see from ...
... Jivakoti might be those who describe only the curve from Matter through Mind into the silent Brahman and the Ishwarakoti those who get to the integral Reality and can therefore combine the Ascent with the Descent and contain the "two ends" of existence in their single being. The realisation of this Yoga is not lower but higher than Nirvana or Nirvikalpa Samadhi. In our Yoga the Nirvana ...
... or breaking beyond the two firmaments of heaven and earth. Commenting on the basic nature of the methods and results of the Vedic Yoga, Sri Aurobindo refers to the Vedic movement of the ascent and the descent. As he points out: "The link between the Spiritual and the lower planes of the mental being is that which is called in the old Vedantic phraseology the vijnana and which we may term the... be imposed on our mentality, vitality, physical existence till the lower is transformed into the perfect vessel of the higher. This was the double Vedic movement of the descent and birth of the gods in the human creature and the ascent of the human powers that struggle towards the Divine knowledge, power and delight and climb into the godheads, the result of which was the possession of the One, the Infinite ...
... the rest passes on the surface ruffling it perhaps, but not breaking the calm. She has also a day or two ago had the experience of the ascent above and of the wideness of peace and joy of the Infinite (free from the bodily sense and limitation) as also the descent down to the Muladhar. She does not know the names or technicalities of these things, but her description which was minute and full of details... temple. Sweep me the temple clean." Or the emergence of the psychic purges the vital of its impurities? Yes, provided you give your assent. I find that so long as sex is strong, no ascent or descent is possible. That is not true. It is possible but damnably unsafe. But in spite of these things which you say are not mine alone, if I could get rid of these two devils—doubt and despondency... all this, while giving an impersonal account of material suffering? Z is a humbug and I don't believe in her atoms. She has had experiences but on the mental and vital plane. It is only a real descent of the higher consciousness from above that can give a peaceful and beautiful merging of the atoms (?) into the wideness of the Divine—that is to say one feels the very cells sharing in that peace ...
... sought to mould it, remake it, put into it something which his aspiration and inspiration called the True, the Beautiful, the Good. There was always this double aspiration in man, one of ascent and the other of descent, one vertical and the other horizontal, one leading up and beyond—totally beyond, in its extreme urge—the other probing into the mystery locked up there below, releasing the power to reform... complementary movements can be described in several other graphic terms. Instead of a movement from the summit to the base and of another from the base to the apex, that is to say, a movement of ascent and of descent, we can speak of a movement from within outward and of that from outside inward, that is to say, from the centre to the periphery and from the periphery to the centre; we can speak also of a ...
... sought to mould it, remake it, put into it something which his aspiration and inspiration called the True, the Beautiful, the Good. There was always this double aspiration in man, one of ascent and the other of descent, one vertical and the other horizontal, one leading up and beyond – totally beyond, in its extreme urge – the other probing into the mystery locked up there below, releasing the power to... complementary movements can be described in several other graphic terms, Instead of a movement from the summit to the base and of another from the base to the apex, that is to say, a movement: of ascent and of descent, we can speak of a movement from within outward and of that from outside inward, that is to say, from the centre to the periphery and from the periphery to the centre; we can speak also of a ...
... the true characteristic method and power of spirit in the body. We may say therefore that the universal Consciousness after its descent into Matter has conducted the evolution there along two lines, one of ascent to the discovery of the self and spirit, the other of descent through the already evolved levels of mind, life and body so as to bring down the spiritual consciousness into these also and to... rejects spiritual knowledge. The cycles of evolution tend always upward, but they are cycles and do not ascend in a straight line. The process therefore gives the impression of a series of ascents and descents, but what is essential in the gains of the evolution is kept or, even if eclipsed for a time, reemerges in new forms suitable to the new ages. The Creation has descended all the degrees of... often egoistic romanticism which distracts the attention from the real work, that of the realisation of the Divine and the transformation of the nature. In the descent it [ falsehood ] begins with Mind, in the evolutionary ascent it is difficult to say where it begins—for here the beginning is Inconscience and Ignorance; but I suppose we may say that conscious falsehood begins with the beginnings ...
... chakras, they open of themselves by the descent of the Force. In the Tantric discipline they open from down upwards, the Muladhara first; in our yoga, they open from up downward. But the ascent of the force from the Muladhara does take place." For the pleasure of the readers let me quote a few lines from Sri Aurobindo's Savitri describing the ascent and the descent of Kundalini. Out of the ... extended and wide; it is there waiting for manifestation and to this force we have to open ourselves—to the power of the Mother." In the Tantra the emphasis is on the ascent of the Kundalini. In Sri Aurobindo's Yoga the descent plays a crucial role. He conceived it as the 'Seven Suns of the Supermind.'' "The sun in the yoga is the symbol of the supermind and the supermind is the first power of... the supra-mental creation. Descent into the Throat Centre. 4.The Sun of Supramental Love, Beauty, and Bliss, releasing the Soul of the Knowledge-Power to vivify and harmonize the supramental creation. Descent into the Heart-Lotus. 5.The Sun of Supramental Force dynamited as a power and source of life to support the supramental creation. Descent into the Navel Centre. 6 ...
... vision, like everything else, follows necessarily the evolution of the human mind and, according to the age and environment, it has its levels, its ascents and descents and its returns." 8 There are periods when "the eye of... man is turned upon the physical world about him, the interests of the story of life and its primary ... brevities of wisdom: Facilis descensus Avemo... Sed revocare gradum superasque evadare ad auras, Hoc opus, hoc labor est. Easy the descent into Darkness; Turning our feet and escaping back to the shining spaces - There lies the task and that is the labour. (K.D.S.) ...
... e or incidental, but as a distinct and central object. If there is a descent in other yogas, yet it is only an incident on the way or resulting from the ascent the ascent is the real thing. Here the ascent is the first step, but it is a means for the descent. It is the descent of the new consciousness attained by the ascent that is the stamp and seal of the sadhana. Even the Tantra and Vaishnavism... true characteristic method and power of Spirit in the body. We may say therefore that the universal Consciousness after its descent into Matter has conducted the evolution there along two lines, one of ascent to the discovery of the Self and Spirit, the other of descent through the already evolved levels of mind, life and body so as to bring down the spiritual consciousness into these also and... knowledge. The cycles of evolution tend always upward, but they are Page 92 cycles and do not ascend in a straight line. The process therefore gives the impression of a series of ascents and descents, but what is essential in the gains of the evolution is kept or, even if eclipsed for a time, re-emerges in new forms suitable to the new ages. The creation has descended all the degrees ...
... there is his threefold adventure in the Beyond: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso. Face to face with the recent catastrophe in Chicago, perhaps he would pen a Divina Tragedia and trace not an ascent but a descent from Florence's paradisal straight posture to a purgatorial downward bending and then the infernal nuisance of a thump on terra firma. Not being as open to inspiration, whether soaring ...
... is the very summit of the soul's perfection; but in Sri Aurobindo's Yoga this psychic conversion and transformation of the nature is but the first decisive achievement, and beyond it lie the ascents and descents and conquests which culminate in an integral union with the Divine, and His manifestation upon earth. The Divine completes what the psychic being commences. Page 195 ... to the current interpretations of Karma, rebirth comes to an end as soon as the mental consciousness of the individual abolishes itself in the spiritual, Sri Aurobindo regards rebirth as a means of ascent into "a higher scale of Nature." The mind is not the highest degree of consciousness accessible to man on earth; there are higher degrees and levels hierarchically graded and leading to the supreme... Karma is the salvation so strenuously sought after. But this connotation is indefinite and incomplete, as it leaves the origin and swabh ā va (essential nature) of the soul and the purpose of its descent into birth unexplained, and rather obscure. As in everything else, Sri Aurobindo's description and differentiation of the Jivâtmâ, the psychic entity and the psychic being are characterised by a clarity ...
... integral perfection can come only by a mounting ascent of the lowest into the highest and an incessant descent of the highest into the lowest till all becomes one at once solid block and plastic sea-stuff of the Truth infinite and eternal. The very physical consciousness in man, the annamaya puruṣa , can without this supreme ascent and integral descent yet reflect and enter into the self of Sachchidananda... The Yoga of Integral Knowledge The Synthesis of Yoga Chapter XXIV Gnosis and Ananda The ascent to the gnosis, the possession of something of the gnostic consciousness must elevate the soul of man and sublimate his life in the world into a glory of light and power and bliss and infinity that can seem in comparison with the lame action and limited realisations... gnosis and the soul in the Bliss? There is no essential difference, but yet a difference, because there is a transfer to another consciousness and a certain reversal in position,—for at each step of the ascent from Matter to the highest Existence there is a reversal of consciousness. The soul no longer looks up to something beyond it, but is in it and from it looks down on all that it was before. On all ...
... Jivakoti might be those who describe only the curve from Matter through Mind into the silent Brahman and the Ishwarakoti those who get the integral Reality and can therefore combine the Ascent with the Descent and contain the “two ends” of existence in their single being. * November 18, 1942 I thought that my letter, however brief, would make clear my reason for not ...
... Can you find anyone who does these things better and more clearly than Sri Aurobindo? Do you think any mere Yogi can come to effect so revolutionarily evolutionary a change on earth as the ascent to and descent of the Supermind - and that too for the collectivity and not only for a few individuals? Of course, most disciples of every spiritual figure in India claim their master to be an Avatar... 128 two monsters on either side of us. One last point. Your distinction between a Yogi and an Avatar does not go to the root of the matter. You say: "A Yogi is one who attempts an ascent to Divine Consciousness. An Avatar is one who is born in Divine Consciousness." An Avatar is surely born and not made, in the sense that anybody and everybody can't be an Avatar, but whether the Divine... represent all the sides and tendencies of evolving man, assume even the agnostic aspect of the modern mind and show ultimately how all Nature is to be taken into Super-nature and how by the latter's descent an integral transformation is to be accomplished in terms of the Truth-Consciousness. The final Avatar who would bring God to earth and establish Him here was called Kalki by Hindu tradition and to ...
... Thought, pp. 1-3, 6-10 The cycles of evolution tend always upward, but they are cycles and do not ascend in a straight line. The process therefore gives the impression of a series of ascents and descents, but what is essential in the gains of the evolution is kept or, even if eclipsed for a time, re-emerges in new forms suitable to the new ages. The creation has descended all the degrees of ...
... darknesses in the mind and vital have to be combated and thrown out and the physical also prepared in a material way so that the descent may be possible.... There are two things that take place; an ascent of one's consciousness to the higher levels in and above the head, and a descent of the higher consciousness which is above into one's mind, vital and body. How it is done or by what stages or how long... the Divine. This could only be gained by an ascension into higher planes of cosmic existence or their descent Page 223 into one's consciousness — and, if this were not envisaged or accepted, the push to Nirvana would still remain as a way of escape. The other way would be the ascent after death into these higher planes — the heavens of the religions signify after all nothing but such... Jivakoti might be those who describe only the curve from Matter through Mind into the silent Brahman and the Ishwarakoti those who get to the integral Reality and can therefore combine the Ascent with the Descent and contain the "two ends" of existence in their single being. Letters on Yoga, p. 59 There are a hundred ways of approaching the Supreme Reality and, as is the nature of the ...
... scaling the stairs - now in one direction now in another - and at last reaching the very hall, the very spot... such a long long queue with its cusps and crests, its links and breaks, its ascents and descents, swaying and moving and stopping and moving again. How patiently the pilgrims awaited their chance, how self-absorbed many of them stood, how reverently they clutched the tulsi garlands or... condition of the individual, of the work, of the earth itself and their readiness for the spiritual descent and fulfilment". The force necessary to enable one to walk on level ground is much less than the force needed to go uphill, for now the formidable force of gravity also has to be overcome. Ascent in the spiritual life involves overcoming the pull of the 'hostile' forces (which are analogous to... Nobel laureates, and there have been whole genealogies of Noble laureates. Himself a Nobel laureate, H.A. Krebs has illustrated this point by a reference to the von Baeyer family: tracing his own descent from Berthollet, Gay-Lussac, Liebig and Kekule, in the course of five or six generations von Baeyer and his scientific descendents seem to have accounted for nearly twenty Nobel laureates. There is ...
... the right side of the adhara, and the other controls the left side – the twin movements of knowledge and action. It refers also to the double action of consciousness in yogic practice – the ascent and the descent. Page 255 II A tortoise has yielded milk the jar cannot contain¹ And a crocodile has eaten all the tamarind up the ...
... Chandernagore. Neither the heights nor the depths were thus foreign to him. The descent from mind to matter, the ascent from mind to Supermind: he had advanced in both. The problem was, at each stage of ascent, to link it with all the steps of descent; and, in each span of descent, to infer all the involved tiers of ascent. To mark the fission between the higher and lower spheres of Reality and at the... feat of transformation! If the ascent is not to be a flight and an escape for ever but is designed to bring the new gains to the depths: if the exploration of the depths is not to be a drowning and a dissolution but a scouring and churning resulting in the surfacing of involved nectar - then it follows that the upward and the downward movements, the ascent and the descent, must be continuously teamed... unhorizoned widens to measureless sight, My body is God's happy living tool, My spirit a vast sun of deathless light. 30 Now it is deliberate descent, a purposeful push into the interior of Night; the descent is to bring up the hidden pearls of great price, the push is for the purpose of opening up a corridor for the Light streaming from above. Every upward leap is to be followed ...
... 8 principles, 423; the double soul, 423; 2 hemispheres, 424; Supermind the link-principle, 424, Vedic intimations, 424; middle state of mental man, 425, involution-evolution, 425; ascent-descent-integration, 426; lights from Taittiriya, 426; other past intimations, 426; founding the Life Divine upon earth, 427; world-existence as Shiva's dance, 427; origin of ignorance, 428; lila, tapas... 430; origin and nature of error, 430; good and evil, 432; the turn towards Knowledge, 433; from Ignorance to Knowledge, 434; Karma and rebirth, 434; dynamics of spirituality, 434; ascent towards Supermind, 436ff; steps of ascent, 436ff; higher mind, illumined mind, intuition, overmind, 436-7; emergence of Gnostic being, 437ff; current evolutionary crisis, 438; Mind of light, 439; a Manifesto for the Future... Yoga", 541; birthday celebrations, 541ff; on 3 layers of supermind, 542; on possibility of his own death, 542; on conditions favouring supramental descent, 543,544ff; on Gayatri, 544; Overmind world of the Gods, 545-6; siddhi (24 Nov. 1926), 5478; "descent of Krishna", 549; significance of withdrawal, 549-50, 586; The Synthesis of Yoga, 550ff; on Yoga Siddhi, 567ff; the Ashram, 571ff, 580; coming of ...
... but we must understand each other. What I call a 'descent' takes place in the individual consciousness. In the same way, we speak of 'ascent' (there is no ascent really, there is no high or low, no direction: it's all a manner of speaking)—we speak of 'ascent' when we feel ourselves rising up towards something, and we call it a 'descent' when, after having caught this thing, we bring it down... evening class: What I call a 'descent' is this: first of all, the consciousness climbs in ascent, then you catch the Thing up above and redescend with it. This is an INDIVIDUAL event. When this individual event has taken place sufficiently to allow a more general possibility to emerge, it is no longer a 'descent' but a 'manifestation'. What I call a 'descent' is the individual movement in... bodies are like this, but MY body—what has become my body—is like this.' Page 147 ordinary consciousness. That's it exactly. 'Descent' doesn't convey the actual sensation—there was no sensation of descent. None. Neither of ascent nor descent. None at all. Those creative gusts had no POSITION in relation to the creation; it was.... There was ONLY THAT. THAT ALONE existed. Nothing else ...
... by two trochees, and the last syllable of the closing trochee is generally dropped altogether: Perhaps the rhythm itself is meant to suggest the idea of evolution-involution or ascent-descent inherent in the poem. And the rhyme-scheme too - aa; bcdcdebe; fgfg; hiijjh;kk - is suggestive of a rising movement intersecting again and again a falling movement, as if the two movements are... movement, the aspiration from below and the response from above, and either movement implies the other too. Thought the Paraclete has been described as "a vision or revelation of an ascent through spiritual planes", but the ascent of consciousness is suggested by the imagery and the music rather than closely argued out in terms of logical reason: As some bright archangel in vision flies ... consciousness to a mental one is as noticeable as the change from "green" to "orange" in the third and fourth lines above; but Thought rises higher still, seeking other colours in the spectrum of its steep ascent. The next ten lines constitute the second great movement, from Mind to Higher Mind, then Illumined Mind, then Intuition, then Overmind - "glimmering wings" "gold-red seeking" "pale-blue-lined" "cr ...
... each cell, each second of time. In short, the method will not be arrowlike, spurning all hindrances in order to soar to spiritual heights, but all-embracing; it will not be a precipitous ascent but a descent or, rather, an unveiling of the Truth which pervades everything, down to the very cells of our body. 5 The New Consciousness There is a radically new fact. It is... that of the age of the nobles was at the level of the heart, that of the age of the merchants, at the stomach, and the one governing our age is at the level of sex and matter. The descent is complete. But that descent has a meaning – a meaning for matter. Had we stayed forever at the forehead level of the divine truths of the mind, this earth and body would never have been changed, and we would... low only for us. In fact, there is no descent, no fall, no move backward; there is a never-ending precipitation of truth and harmony, which touches deeper and deeper layers to reveal to them the light and joy they always were – had we not fallen, the light would never have penetrated our hovel, matter would never have gotten out of its night. Each descent is an opening of light, each fall, a new ...
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