... or vital may be spiritual without emptiness being an essential characteristic of the higher consciousness. If it were, there could be no Force, Light or Ananda in the higher Consciousness. Emptiness is only a result produced by a certain action of the higher Force on the system in order that the higher consciousness may be able to come into it. It is a spiritual emptiness as opposed to the dull and... having the essential character of the higher consciousness? There are many things that are spiritual that are not the essence of the higher consciousness. All that tends towards the transformation and helps to prepare it is spiritual. Psychic sorrow is a spiritual movement, but sorrow is not part of the essential character of the higher consciousness. Resignation, the ego's submission to... quietude of the vital and physical. First you wrote, "Emptiness as such is not a character of the higher consciousness..." Then, the next day you wrote, "If it is a spiritual emptiness..." If the emptiness is spiritual, is it not also "a character of the higher consciousness", just as Light, Ananda, Force, etc. are? It does not mean the same thing. An emptiness in the mind ...
... All the consciousness in the human being who is the mental embodied in living matter has to rise so as to meet the higher consciousness; the higher consciousness has also to descend into mind, into life, into matter. In that way the barriers will be removed and the higher consciousness will be able to take up the whole lower nature and transform it by the power of the supermind. The earth is a material... above the head, that means that it goes beyond the ordinary mind to the centre above which receives the higher consciousness or else towards the ascending levels of the higher consciousness itself. The first result is the silence and peace of the Self which is the basis of the higher consciousness; this may afterwards descend into the lower levels, into the very body. Light also can descend and Force... Page 416 higher consciousness into the lower. What you first experienced was an uprush of the lower consciousness from all parts so strong as to break the lid of the inner mind—that was the splitting of the skull—and to enable the joining of the two consciousnesses above to be complete. The result was a descent. Usually the first thing that descends from the higher consciousness is its deep and ...
... of the higher consciousness descends it works to change the lower consciousness into a part of itself. Calling in the Higher Consciousness All limitations [ in one's nature ] can be surmounted, but if they are ingrained in the formation of the present being, it can only be done by calling in a higher power and consciousness than that of the personal mind and will. The higher consciousness Page... The Spiritual Transformation Letters on Yoga - III Chapter III The Descent of the Higher Consciousness and Force The Purpose of the Descent The descent is that of the powers of the higher consciousness which is above the head. It usually descends from centre to centre till it has occupied the whole being. But at the beginning the action is very variable... descent of the higher consciousness into the mind and body. That was why it descended with such force and the difficulty of holding or assimilating it was simply because the body was unaccustomed. But as often happens the Force is preparing its own reception and habituating the body to the descent. Having done that sufficiently it is coming down as a massive peace. The higher consciousness in its descent ...
... the lower nature to join the higher consciousness so that (1) the limit or lid between the higher and the lower may be broken and disappear, (2) the consciousness may have free access to higher and higher planes, (3) a free way may be made for the descent of the higher Consciousness into the lower planes. The lower consciousness rises to meet the higher consciousness—when it joins there is the... its source in the central being. The psychic being and other parts can go up to join the higher consciousness there. It is part of the movement of ascent. Naturally the psychic wants a deeper union than can be had so long as it is veiled by the old ignorant nature; it wants the higher consciousness to come down and occupy and transform it so that complete union may be possible. The Shakti... the physical consciousness that makes you (and everybody) narrow and selfish and miserable. Hitherto the higher consciousness with its peace etc. has been descending into you with great difficulty and fighting out the vital and physical resistance. If this release upward into the higher consciousness can be maintained, then there will be no longer the same difficulty. Much will still remain to be done ...
... human relations or interchange or else some kind of mere enjoyment of its own. Page 490 The wideness is that of the higher consciousness, golden being the colour of the light of Truth, and the Cow is the symbol of the Light of the higher consciousness descending, turning all into the Truth light. The state of wideness and of quietude unaffected by anything that happens is the natural... that the vital mind is absolutely open or wholly converted so that there shall never again be any darkness or ignorance or error or resistance or anything else but the higher consciousness there. It only means that the higher consciousness is able to come down there and work and establish something of itself there—as has been done in the thinking mind. Each plane, one after the other, has to open initially... the Lower Nature The Resistance of the Lower Nature If the habit of the ordinary nature is not any obstacle to the descent, then what is the need of sadhana? What prevents the whole higher consciousness from coming down and changing you into a superman in one second? It is because the things of the lower nature offer an obstinate resistance that long sadhana is necessary. An uneasiness ...
... because it makes safe and easy the descent of the higher consciousness and the spiritual transformation without which the supramental must always remain far distant. Powers etc. have their place, but a very minor one so long as this is not done. The Psychic and the Higher Consciousness What you see above is of course the true or higher consciousness—the Mother's—in which one sees all the world as... development of a higher consciousness did not bring things that were not before heard of by the mind, it would not be good for much. The unification of the psychic and the higher consciousness forces and activities is indispensable for the sadhana at one time or another. Complete psychisation brings entire openness of the being to the Divine and to the Higher Consciousness and an entire inability... automatic so to speak. When the concentration is at the top of the head, it means that the mental being is joining the higher consciousness there and there is not much resistance or none. The other place indicates the joining is of the psychic being to the higher consciousness, hence the greater silence, as the psychic is more central than the mental being; but also there is the attempt to join through ...
... movements are active, it forms an obstacle to the establishment of the higher consciousness. But the higher can descend, if there is at all an opening, even before the lower movements have definitely gone—it has then to complete the work of displacing them. It [ the sex-impulse ] can be got rid of only when a higher consciousness comes down permanently into the vital. I don't think it [ sex... nature; he understands it and the place given to each of its activities with a clear and calm regard. Also, if an action can be done with self-control without desire under the direction of a higher consciousness, that is the better way and it can sometimes be followed for the fulfilment of the divine will in things that would not otherwise be undertaken by the Yogin, such as war and the destruction... sublimated.) The sex-impulse is certainly the greatest force in the vital plane; if it can be sublimated and turned upwards ojas is created which is a great help to the attainment of higher consciousness. But mere restraint is not sufficient. Doctors advise marriage because they think satisfaction of the sexual instinct is necessary for the health and repression causes Page 505 ...
... noticed that during the last two days the higher consciousness has again been pressing immensely. The head and forehead remain under strong and keen pressures which are often unbearable. That is simply the higher consciousness trying to come down. I would like to know if my former experiences and living in the higher consciousness have brought about any fundamental change... If you kindly permit, I would prefer to station myself in the higher consciousness, from where I have been absent for quite a time, to be up there and associate myself with the Mother in her working out the change of my lower nature. No objection — it is a very good thing to keep working in the higher consciousness. It is more effective than struggling all the time down below with... same as ever. The action of the higher consciousness does not usually begin by changing the outer nature — it works on the inner being, prepares that and then goes outward. Before that whatever change is done in the outer nature has to be done by the psychic. Do you think that I remained too much in the higher consciousness and in the yogic experiences ? That I really ...
... there is one that corresponds in our Yoga, the feeling of the consciousness ascending from the vital or physical to meet the higher consciousness. This is not necessarily through the chakras but is often felt in the whole body. Similarly the descent of the higher consciousness is not felt necessarily or usually through the chakras but as occupying the whole head, neck, chest, abdomen, body. 18 June... descent of the higher consciousness into this instrumental being and nature. Both aspirations are necessary for the fullness of this Yoga. When the psychic imposes its aspiration on the mind, vital and body, then they too aspire and this is what was felt as the aspiration from the level of the lower being. The aspiration felt above is that of the Jivatman for the higher consciousness with its realisation... sense of peace, purity and calm is brought about by the union of the lower with the higher consciousness. It cannot be permanent at first, but it can become so by increased frequency and endurance of the calm and peace and finally by the full descent of the eternal peace and calm and silence of the higher consciousness into the lower nature. 5 May 1935 I read a [copy of the preceding] letter on ...
... to the canalisation of Niagara. Wideness and the Higher Consciousness The first experience there [ on the higher plane ] is peace and calm and wideness. It is not till these are settled that other experiences of that plane can come. The experience you had of the wideness with many roads opening was an image of the higher consciousness in which all the movements of the being are open, true... not oneself there until that is done. If the workings are really those of the higher consciousness or if these predominate the ego fades out—but there is also often a wideness of opening to the universal mental, vital, physical existence and, if the sadhak responds more to these than to the higher consciousness, then he does not get free. Sometimes even the ego gets aggrandised. But if the psychic... no need of ascending to Supermind or bringing Supermind down. The consciousness which he calls supramental, is no doubt above the human mind, but it should be called the higher consciousness. In this higher consciousness there are many degrees, of which the supramental is the summit or the source. It is not possible to reach that summit or source all at once; first, all the lower consciousness ...
... call down that higher consciousness to which the ego is not a necessity? In the evolution of the lower consciousness here ego and selfishness were a necessity. So long as the higher consciousness above ordinary mind does not descend, ego remains a necessity even in aspiring towards the Divine or towards Mukti, even if it becomes a sattwic ego. It is only in the higher consciousness that ego can dissolve... within and bring down the higher consciousness from above. The psychic as it grows and manifests detects immediately all wrong movements or elements and at the same time supplies almost automatically the true element or movement which will replace them—this psychic process is much easier and more effective than that of a severe tapasya of purification. The higher consciousness in descending brings peace... divine consciousness into him—for in the divine consciousness there is no ego. All human beings are full of ego. If you want to change, you must be very quiet and always aspire for a higher consciousness to come down into you in which there is not the ego. When it comes down, the real change will come. But you must be quiet within, not worried and restless—you must open confidently to the Mother's ...
... current it is the familiar sign of a first touch of the higher consciousness flowing down in the form of a stream— like the "wave" of light of the scientist—to prepare its possession of mind, vital and physical in the body. So is the stillness and rigidity of the body in your former experience a sign of the same descent of the higher consciousness in its form or tendency of stillness and silence. It... so that it may feel, understand, recognise the response. Ordinarily, the spiritual or divine consciousness comes first—what I have called the higher consciousness—the presence or manifestation comes after- wards. But this descent of the higher consciousness is really the touch or influx of the Divine itself, though not at first recognised by the lower nature. I shall write about the touch before... will not, that has been amply proved by a troop of instances, I refrain from giving names. You need not therefore compare that wealth to your poverty. To open yourself to the descent of the higher consciousness (the true being) is the one thing needed and that, even if that comes after long effort and many failures is better than a hectic gallop leading nowhere. March 13, 1934 You ...
... because it has no right guidance; it must be connected with the dynamic power of the higher consciousness and with the Divine Force acting through it for a great and luminous purpose. There are two movements necessary for this connection to be established. One is upward; the vital rises to join with the higher consciousness and steeps itself in the light and in the impulsion of a higher force: the other... II The Vital and Other Levels of Being The Spirit and the Vital The Spirit itself if it wants to manifest in matter must use the vital. It is so that things are arranged. The Higher Consciousness and the Vital The two movements whose apparent contradiction confuses your mind, are the two ends of a single consciousness whose motions, now separated from each other, must join if the... and more perfect action and fulfilment or the transformation for which we hope. The vital being with the life-force in it is one of these ends; the other is a latent dynamic power of the higher consciousness through which the Divine Truth can act, take hold of the vital and its life-force and use it for a greater purpose here. The life-force in the vital is the indispensable instrument for all ...
... six or rather seven main centres. The crown centre open removes the difficulty of the lid between the ordinary mind and the higher consciousness above. If the ajnachakra also is open, then it is possible to have a clear communication between the higher consciousness and the inner mind and the outer mind (throat centre) also. That is the condition for the realisation of knowledge and the mental... centre below the navel (lower vital), another at the navel (central vital), another in the chest (emotional vital, heart centre), another in the throat (physical mind), another above the head (higher consciousness); besides these there is the centre in the forehead (mind, will, vision) and one at the bottom of the spine (muladhara, physical centre). The working in each will be according to the nature... the Divine above and with the psychic behind the heart and is aware of the Truth and has the psychic and spiritual insight and view into things. Page 234 Above the head extends the higher consciousness centre, sahasradala padma. But usually there is partial working of the forehead centre also when the sahasradala opens. The ordinary mind is at the highest the free intelligence, receiving ...
... the Force of the Higher Consciousness into the lower being. The higher Force is not likely to come down into the vital independently of the rest of the system. You wrote once that the outer being cannot be changed without bringing down the higher consciousness first into the inner. Shall I have to wait then for the inner being to get the higher consciousness before this depression... the sign that the consciousness has become liberated and the higher consciousness is there. It is the vital joy or pleasure I spoke of as the thing desired by the vital along with variations of grief and depression. The Page 82 deeper joy and delight comes only with the touch of the higher consciousness. "The ordinary vital movement is to go through... rejection. I find that even the descents cannot change or purify the ego and desire. It is not descents that can do [it]. It is either psychic rejection or the settling of the higher consciousness in the lower nature or both together that can do it. The ego comes out in most of my thoughts, feelings and actions, even in trifling and stupid movements where there is nothing ...
... or vital may be spiritual without emptiness being an essential characteristic of the higher consciousness. If it were, there could be no Force, Light or Ananda in the higher consciousness. Emptiness is only a result produced by a certain action of the higher Force on the system in order that the higher consciousness may be able to come into it. It is a spiritual emptiness as opposed to the dull and... rest knowledge would come from above; in place of the physical mind's stupidities, Page 73 the vital mind could be calm and quiet and the Mother's Force take up the action and the higher consciousness begin to come down. That is the proper sequel of emptiness. But nothing of this has happened because the "emptiness" could not complete itself, that is to say, the true silence and peace. ... even usually followed by the opening to inner experience. There is also an emptiness made of peace and silence, when the peace and silence come out from the psychic within or descend from the higher consciousness above. This is not neutral, for in it there is the sense of peace, often also of wideness and freedom. There is also a happy emptiness with the sense of something close or drawing near which ...
... coming—they are a sign of rapid progress coming. The descent as of a drizzling rain is a very characteristic and well-known way of descent of the higher Consciousness; it brings peace but it also brings all other possibilities of the higher Consciousness too and, as you Page 475 felt, the seeds of transformation of the physical consciousness—by the coming in it of the seeds of the powers... electrical vibrations are all signs of the working of the Force. The places indicate the field of action—the top of the head is the summit of the thinking mind where it communicates with the higher consciousness; the neck or throat is the seat of the physical, externalising or expressive mind; the ear is the place of communication with the inner mind centre by which thoughts etc. enter into the personal... the pressure of the Mother's Force. It comes like that to most people. Once the consciousness is open and the Force enters, there is no longer this feeling. It is the pressure of the higher consciousness (planes of blue light beyond the ordinary mind) that has come down and is pressing upon the resistances down to the body and below. At the same time the weight of the subconscient Matter is ...
... s; I have only hold up the [?] of turning it towards the Divine and away from the ego. To keep the vital full of life and energy and to trust mainly to the inner growth and the descent of a higher consciousness for a change, using the will too but for self-mastery, not for suppression, but for subordination of the lower to the higher, has been my teaching. The turn to Vairagya, to tapasya of an ascetic... that you say only amounts—on the general issue—to the fact that this is a world of slow evolution in which man has emerged out of the beast and is still not out of it, light out of darkness, a higher consciousness out of first a dead and then a struggling and troubled unconsciousness. A spiritual consciousness is emerging and it is through this spiritual Page 224 piousness that one can... grief and despair that reacts upon your efforts and makes it sterile. I simply want you to put yourself, if it is possible, in that state of quietude and openness which is favourable to the higher consciousness and its action; if it is not possible at present, I have still said that I will do my utmost to help you to the experience. That does not mean that the utmost has been yet done or that it can ...
... control from the higher Consciousness above the ordinary mental. When the mental consciousness finds that what it had accepted was not true, should it not reject it and accept what was true? It should do so, but it is not always so easy as that. Page 212 There is much unwillingness and resistance. Since the higher consciousness is active... Mother's Force had to continue its pressure on my lower nature to change. But now a mutual understanding seems strangely to emerge between the higher and the lower. Through my mental Purusha the higher consciousness points out to my lower being its obscurity and also shows the right movements in place of the habitual wrong ones. For example, while passing by a woman, the usual reaction was an automatic... effect of the working of the higher Force. It has only to watch and observe and wait for the knowledge. You once used the phrase, "the essential power of the higher consciousness". What is the meaning of "essential" here? Do you not know what "essential" means? There is a Page 220 difference between the essence of a thing which is always ...
... no carbon-dioxide in the brain. Disciple : What part does breathing exercise – Pranayama – play in bringing about the higher consciousness? Sri Aurobindo : It sets the Pranic – vital – currents free and removes dullness of the brain so that the higher consciousness can come down. Pranayama does not bring dullness in the brain. My own experience, on the contrary, is that brain becomes illumined... completely changed. In that condition one cannot continue the same intellectual activity as before. One has to wait till the higher consciousness begins to act. Of course, when the entire being is transformed then one has to accept all the planes of life and manifest the higher consciousness in life. (There was mention of "rich development" of sadhana) Sri Aurobindo : A well-trained intellect and... (A pause) This yoga, to be done well, requires perfect balance. Therefore, those who have merely a general call for yoga should not go in for it ; because it opens a possibility for the Higher Consciousness to work as well as a possibility for the powers of the vital world to come and take possession. If a man has not got the perfect balance, it becomes easier for these powers to take possession ...
... centre and the opening of the mind centres to all that is behind and above them. For the heart opens to the psychic being and the mind centres open to the higher consciousness and the nexus between the psychic being and the higher consciousness is the principal means of the siddhi. The Page 327 first opening is effected by a concentration in the heart, a call to the Divine to manifest within... can be the main motive of the heart and the ruler of thought, life and action in constant union with the Mother and in her Presence. 2) The descent of the Peace, Power, Light etc. of the Higher Consciousness through the head and heart into the whole being, occupying the very cells of the body. 3) The perception of the One and Divine infinitely everywhere, the Mother everywhere and living in that... on which the realisation has to be based—(1) on a rising to a station above the mind, (2) on the opening out of the cosmic consciousness, (3) on the psychic opening, (4) on the descent of the higher consciousness with its peace, light, force, knowledge, Ananda etc. into all the planes of the being down to the most physical. All this has to be done by the working of the Mother's force aided by your aspiration ...
... pure Consciousness in which there is the Light. The milk is the Knowledge and Power descending from the divine Consciousness. The Cow usually means the Higher Consciousness. Perhaps the calf indicates the truth of the higher consciousness (white) in the physical (red). The white calf is the sign of a pure and clear consciousness,—the cow or calf being the symbol of Light in the consciousness... feeling, true experience. The descent you felt must have been into some depth of light, probably in the psychic nature. Page 165 Milk is always the symbol of the flow of the higher consciousness. Bull The bull is an emblem of strength and force. It is also in the Veda an image of the Gods, the male powers in Nature. Again the bull is the vāhana of Shiva. It may in a dream or... up with you, perhaps to use you. This is what happens in the vital where there are these uncertain and elusive movements. The high platform was evidently the Page 166 level of a higher Consciousness which stilled this fluctuating movement and made control of the Power more possible, as it became still and near. The ass is the symbol of the inertia and obstruction in the body. The ...
... is still under a double pull, one upward to the higher consciousness so that the physical consciousness may unite itself with the spiritual, the other downward towards the lower consciousness. The looking towards me indicates the choice of the being for the upward movement. The Power and Peace that come down come down from the higher consciousness above your head, from a greater self of which... of consciousness where the separative self disappears into the universal. The second is an experience of the descent of the higher consciousness through the spinal cord from the mental to the vital centres with the result of a momentary experience of that higher consciousness in its wide universality. The experience once had repeated itself but always with the same momentariness. It is the permanence... the higher parts of the being open to it. The experience of faith, love or aspiration come from the psychic being. It is when the psychic being is in front and governs all the nature and the Higher Consciousness descends through an open mind, vital and physical that the transformation of the nature begins to take place. The opposite experience of dryness, despair etc. comes from the resistance of the ...
... from behind" act through the mind and the body? What are its conditions and how does this Force differ from "the Force coming down from above"? The Force from above is the Force of the Higher Consciousness. That from behind works as a mental, vital or physical force according to need. When the being is open to it and there is a certain passivity to its working, it takes the place of the personal... inner being remained separate and in peace. That at any rate is very good and signifies a great progress. Since 10 today, some parts of my being seem never to have left the higher consciousness, whether during action or inaction, during quiescence or outer restlessness. Along with this stationing above, there was a constant flow of Mother's Peace and Silence and a sense of living amid... amid a dynamic Power. What was missing was the bringing down of that Power right into the action itself. If that could be made permanent (some parts never leaving the higher consciousness), it would make the bringing of the Power in action easier. Today, though I happened to work much more than usual, there was much less fatigue. I presume it was due to shama [quiet, peace] ...
... vital, physical and sexual) were taken above the head and there connected with the higher consciousness. Yes, that is a normal movement of the sadhana. Today the above movement was repeated. In addition I became aware, for the first time, of the actual action of the higher consciousness on the ascended human consciousness. Usually when these things happen... If you can remove this fatigue by the will force, then that can be done. What sort of will force? The quiet but strong will that calls down the higher consciousness and force. One can bring down the strength, but it is also necessary to see that the body has sufficient food, sleep and rest — absence of these things strains the nerves and... pressed so powerfully? The power from above. Why was it doing so? It must have been to make a fresh opening. It is something in the higher consciousness evidently that is pressing. What has created such a strong resistance? When there is a pressure for a fresh opening, there is often a strong resistance from below ...
... experiences are going on to prepare the growth of the inner consciousness. There is an inner mind, an inner vital, an inner physical consciousness which can more easily than the outer receive the higher consciousness above and put itself into harmony with the psychic being; when that is done the outer nature is felt as only a fringe on the surface, not as oneself, and is more easily transformed altogether... thoughts and other movements of the surface consciousness, you cannot be conscious in the Yogic sense. It is when the mind becomes quiet that the real (inner) consciousness comes out or the higher consciousness above the mind comes down. It is only then also that the inner physical being becomes active and brings an alert consciousness and an intuitive sense into the body. Also the higher thought and... the cosmic consciousness. The outer consciousness has to be remoulded and reshaped through the inner consciousness and the processes that must do it are the psychic by its influence and the higher consciousness by its descent. Naturally, in the process the outer being also will lose its separativeness and become aware of and, in a way, unified with the universal. Page 212 Becoming Aware ...
... Letter to N. S. Chidambaram In order to get to the higher consciousness the essential condition is quietude of the mind. The ordinary nature of the mind is either to be active or if denied activity to go to sleep. The method of counting 1, 2, 3 only stupifies the mind and though this method once accidentally got you into the higher consciousness, it is not the right way. The other way which you yourself... desires and the higher Divine Shakti. When the first has been quieted and the higher consciousness made normal in you, it is possible for the Divine Shakti to take up all your activities. This action of yielding and giving place to the higher Shakti is the aim of the Shakti Upasana. Let the quietude and the higher consciousness establish themselves. The rest will come later on. The replacing of the power... one is at present doing. By the progressively increasing self-surrender the action of the higher consciousness will gradually begin to play in the place of the personal. That is how works in life and surrender are reconciled. The work in life will proceed as the result of surrender—from the higher consciousness instead of as now from the narrow personal. But this will come at a later stage: you need ...
... tries to put all in order. In that case it is the descent of the higher consciousness through the mind that opens the psychic, instead of the psychic opening directly. Cannot "the coming in front of the psychic" be brought about by a direct concentration on the heart? Why should it be done necessarily by the higher consciousness? Nobody said it must be done necessarily from above.... ess, but it does not change the lower being except superficially by opening to it certain possibilities it had not before. But the descent must first take place in the inner being. When the higher consciousness is settled in the inner being, then it can change the outer. But necessarily the descent must be dynamic, not merely that of a static peace; the inner peace must itself become dynamic. ... state. It was a sudden invasion by an intoxicating Peace. If such powerful states come twice a day, the mastery over the human nature will not be so difficult. But it depends on how far the higher consciousness can act without even a call from below and in spite of the pervading inertia. If the inner being once becomes separate, then inertia need not interfere at all with such states. The outer ...
... evening meditation. The object of meditation is to open to the Mother and grow through many progressive experiences into a higher consciousness in union with the Divine. To enter into a deeper or higher consciousness or for that deeper or higher consciousness to descend into you—that is the true success of meditation. Meditation Not Necessary for All One can have no fixed hours of... one gets perturbed or agitated over the difficulties, then the will of the Purusha cannot act effectively as it would otherwise. The dynamic realisation will probably take place when the higher consciousness comes fully down into the vital. When it comes into the mental it brings the peace of the Purusha and liberation and it may bring also knowledge. It is when it comes into the vital that the... corresponding parts in the gross physical body also) there are centres proper to each level of the being. There is a centre at the top of the head and above it which is that of the above-mind or higher consciousness; a centre in the forehead between the eyebrows which is that of the thinking mind, mental will, mental vision; a centre in the throat which is that of the expressive or externalising mind: these ...
... the push on the psychic centre—something is trying to remove the difficulty. The Power above the head is of course the Mother's—it is the power of the Higher Consciousness which is preparing its way of descent. This Higher Consciousness carrying in it a sense of wide and boundless existence, light, power, peace, Ananda etc. is always there above the head and when something of the spiritual Force... and more complete; but sufficient has been done for it to be possible to prepare the descent of the higher consciousness. There are two Page 458 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 it will... only by the descent of the Silence from above and even then it is not complete until the whole system has been occupied by the higher silence and peace. It is the silence and calm of the higher consciousness pressing down into the body. When it comes down fully then there is the "still statue" feeling at first. Afterwards the calm or silence becomes free and normal. It is the wideness and ...
... into a higher consciousness without being able to maintain contact with the instrumental nature. SATYENDRA: Is it the Absolute Consciousness. SRI AUROBINDO: If you mean the Supreme Consciousness, no. If it had been that, he would have either gone into it for good or come down and established a harmony and balance in his instrumental nature. But this must have been a higher consciousness in touch... y, it would mean perhaps that the higher consciousness failed to carry out his purpose. SATYENDRA: Could these eccentricities and incoherencies be due to egoism still remaining in the being? SRI AUROBINDO: Not necessarily. In the ordinary life the ego-construction holds things together and when that ego is removed by one's going into the higher consciousness, one behaves in this way, until a... SRI AUROBINDO: Now I can fix his position and everything is clear to me about him. Formerly I couldn't understand what he was. Yes, I can see him now clearly. He must have gone into that higher consciousness but not established a contact with the instruments, and so long as this contact is not there people behave incoherently; they have this Bala or Unmatta Bhava 1 because they allow any Force ...
... their minds and opinions, and correct temperamental tendencies and formations. Thus, these sittings contributed at least partly to the creation of an atmosphere amenable to the working of the Higher Consciousness. Far more important than the actual talk and its content was the personal contact, the influence of the Master, and the divine atmosphere he emanated; for through his outer personality it was... consciousness and also in drawing up all the movements of his nature into it. He was, besides, not impatient for action. He did not want to act from ignorant human instruments but from a Higher Consciousness. He had the confidence that if the Supramental descent could be established in its perfection, then other people would be able to profit by it with much less effort. It was when the Tapasya... . Sri Aurobindo called this link the Overmind. During the six years since the letter to Barin of 1920 it is evident that he had gone much further not only in the ascent towards and into the Higher Consciousness but also in bringing about its descent into Nature. Several times in the beginning of November 1926, the evening talks turned to the possibility of the descent of the Divine Consciousness and ...
... time is not permitted—for which there are many good occult reasons. 23 March 1933 What are the conditions for the descent of the Higher Consciousness in the Asram atmosphere? Or is it already there? Is it good to call it down for all? The Higher Consciousness is there already—it depends on the sadhak how much (or little) he receives of it and in what way. The supramental consciousness is not... physical has accepted and assimilated the higher consciousness that it can come. I understand that the transformation of the lower nature is not possible without the Supramental Force coming down and preparing the vessel for the complete perfection. Complete perfection is another matter. What must first be done is the fullness of the higher consciousness between the mind and supermind. 17 September... consciousness and have been for several years. At first it was a plunge into the physical—into all its obscurity and inertia, afterwards it was a station in the physical open to a higher and higher consciousness and slowly having fought out in it the struggle of transformation of the physical consciousness with a view to prepare it for the supramental change. It is possible to go back to the mental ...
... manifested nature, like the higher vital or the mind. It has Page 143 to be changed in the power of the higher consciousness, not left to itself or dropped from you. (3) If you do not so change it, if you simply remain content by living in the psychic or other higher consciousness internally then you raise the risk of doing like those who are satisfied to have experiences and some inner quietude... common, but there are plenty of others. It depends on what is meant by a wrong or unnecessary movement [ of the vital ]. Certain things have to fall off before the establishment [ of the higher consciousness ] can be complete . Others that are unnecessary have to be put aside if they are incompatible with the full sadhana or the growth of the inner consciousness, but can be continued if the co... this principle and your whole being will become one, under one rule, in the peace and sheltering Power and Light. Rejection of Wrong Vital Movements It is quite true that rising into a higher consciousness than the ordinary human consciousness is the right way towards transformation. Merely to remain in the ordinary lower consciousness and try to reject from there the wrong movements can produce ...
... calm ] is the basic experience of the higher consciousness—it is what is called the realisation of the Atman (the Self). It is the Atman, the spiritual being above the mind—the first experience of it is a silence and calm (which one perceives afterwards to be infinite and eternal) untouched by the movements of mind and life and body. The higher consciousness lives always in touch with the Self—the... movements or with the small ego, that is the release of the Self. And how is the outer nature to rise into the higher Prakriti before you realise the Self? The higher nature is that of the higher consciousness of which the first basis is the peace and wideness and realisation of the Self, the One that is all. The gaining of peace makes it easier to get the experience of the pure and free Self... in the vision was the wide and luminous infinite of what is called the universal Self or spirit. It is that which is one of the fundamental things into which one enters when one reaches the higher consciousness and goes above. The personal being naturally feels itself as something very small and insignificant in that Infinite. But in that Infinite there are higher and higher levels and it is to these ...
... N. S. Chidambaram In order to get to the higher consciousness the essential condition is quietude of the mind. The ordinary nature of the mind is either to be active or if denied activity to go to sleep. The method of counting 1,2,3 only stupefies the mind and though this method once accidentally got you into the higher consciousness, it is not the right way. The other way which you yourself... desires and the higher Divine Shakti. When the first has been quieted and the higher consciousness made normal in you, it is possible for the Divine Shakti to take up all your activities. This action of yielding and giving place to the higher Shakti is the aim of the Shakti Upasana. Let the quietude and the higher consciousness establish themselves. The rest will come later on. The replacing of the power... one is at present doing. By the progressively increasing self-surrender the action of the higher consciousness will gradually begin to play in the place of the personal. That is how works in life and surrender are reconciled. The work in life will proceed as the result of surrender — from the higher consciousness instead of as now from the narrow personal. But this will come at a later stage: you need ...
... sadhana. As Sri Aurobindo pointed out to me, "The principle of tamas is inertia, aprakasa (obscurity) and apravrti (non-activity) shown here by being unable to keep the prakasa (light) or the higher consciousness or answer continuously to the activity of sadhana." In another letter he explained the fundamental cause of the rise of inertia: "This negation is the very nature of the physical resistance... its own to replace them. One has then constantly to reject this invasion. By constant rejection, the force of recurrence finally dwindles and the individual becomes free and able to bring the higher consciousness and its movements into the physical being." 1 22-1-1937 THE NEGATION BY THE PHYSICAL Why is there such a mad revolt in... dynamic will to draw that down always. Is my sadhana dependent on the mental will alone? No, but it is when there is the absence of it and the nonaction of the higher consciousness, that the journey seems not to go on. Page 13 No sooner did I get up from sleep than I found tamas pressing heavily on me, as if inviting me. I accepted the challenge ...
... In my birthday book Sri Aurobindo has written, "Rise into the higher Consciousness, let its light control and transform the nature." Some time back you wrote to me, "One good jump to the higher consciousness where all problems are solved and you will get rid of your difficulties." Now what exactly is this higher consciousness and how may I rise or jump into it? And again you have said, "Let divine... love be your goal. Let pure love be your way. Be always true to your love and all difficulties will be conquered." Is this higher consciousness the same thing as a state of pure love and, if so, how would it be related to a state of higher knowledge? The higher Consciousness is a state of pure love but it is also a state of pure openness to divine knowledge. There is no opposition there between... never lose sight of your luminous smiling face through all these passing clouds! My very dear child, I truly hope you will soon be out of all your troubles. Just one good jump to the higher consciousness where all problems Page 212 are solved and you will get rid of your difficulties. I never feel that I am forgiving. Love does not forgive, it understands and cures. My love and ...
... You speak of the psychic transforming the lower vital. Can it do so completely or is it the higher consciousness that does it? I mean here a preliminary transformation turning it towards the Divine and purifying it so that it can receive the higher consciousness. How is it that when one is realising the Self above, one does not get the ecstasies one has... It is an immense progress. Through my forehead something has definitely been coming from above. The descent is powerful as well as rapid. It is the higher consciousness sending its force down into the inner mind centre. Page 76 The descent felt today has not been confined to me alone: it has been rather general. Will it not change... capable of ascent in the psychic, the inner mind, the inner vital. Page 83 During the sadhana, has the psychic also to ascend? It joins itself to the higher consciousness. THE POWER OF AGNI AND THE PSYCHIC FIRE Coming from the Mother, I felt as if a burning transformation had started. I feel around me a burning sensation ...
... straightforward, sincere and without false hood and unclean desires. Will not the lower movements fall off naturally when one begins to live in the higher consciousness? Not when one begins, but when the higher consciousness has fixed itself in the vital and physical. But meanwhile, if dealt with by the higher Light, they Page 40 can be pushed out and can no... in two ways — one to cloud the mind with the vital impulses, the other to aspire and join with the higher consciousness. If you noticed the aspiration, it was evidently the latter movement. The ascending movement is often felt. What does the vital do in joining with the higher consciousness? It comes under its influence first — afterwards it develops into the true vital, which... longer occupy an important place. The other day I became a bit more conscious. I felt I had overcome everything and asked directly for the divine consciousness! If one wave of the higher consciousness makes me so proud, what will happen when the whole thing comes down? I would like very much to know how a mere wave coloured my ideas so much — so that next time I may not make myself so absurd ...
... towards a high divine destiny. But the ego-being is frightened, while the higher consciousness has no worry. And yet the lower consciousness is aflame; for its veins are flowing with a secret fire which its own sister has kindled in it. Ignorance harbours within its bosom a secret knowledge that is a reflection of the higher consciousness. There are tranquil moments in the lower eternity that come from... rocher sauvage Le reine appuie son sein. Tu comprendras pourquoi, Et t' en consoleras.¹ RENE CHAR EXPLANATORY PARAPHRASE The queen upstairs is the higher consciousness. The king downstairs is the egoistic being in the lower consciousness. While it is dawn and daylight with the queen, it is night with the king - he is just entering into sleep. The king sees... climb the stairs upward. The king must shed all fear. There will be no palace to live in but a bare rock upon which he will find the queen lying down. The king will understand that the higher consciousness must come down and touch and kiss the bleak earth-consciousness. The spirit must embrace the cold bare earth. Then only the human soul, the king free of his ego, will attain peace and felicity ...
... high divine destiny. But the ego-being is frightened, while the higher consciousness has no worry. And yet the lower consciousness is aflame; for its veins are flowing with a secret fire which its own sister has kindled in it. Ignorance harbours within its bosom a secret knowledge that is a reflection of the higher consciousness. There are tranquil moments in the lower eternity that come... Tu comprendras pourquoi, Et t'en consoleras. RENÉ CHAR (from POETRY, Volume 104, No. 5, August 1964) Explanatory Paraphrase The queen upstairs is the higher consciousness. The king downstairs is the egoistic being in the lower consciousness. While it is dawn and daylight with the queen, it is night with the king—he is just entering into sleep. The king sees... stairs upward. The king must shed all fear. There will be no palace to live in but a bare rock upon which he will find the queen lying down. The king will understand that the higher consciousness must come down and touch and kiss the bleak earth-consciousness. The spirit must embrace the cold bare earth. Then only the human soul, the king free of his ego, will attain peace and felicity ...
... has no right guidance; it must be connected with the dynamic power of the higher consciousness and with the Divine Force acting through it for a great and luminous purpose. There are two movements necessary for this connection to beestablished. One is upward; the vital rises to join with the higher consciousness and steeps itself in the light and in the impulsion of a higher force: the... more perfect action and fulfilment or the transformation for which we hope. The vital being with the life-force in it is one of these ends; the other is a latent dynamic power of the higher consciousness through which the Divine Truth can act, take hold of the vital and its life-force and use it for a greater purpose here. The Life-Force in the vital is the indispensable instrument for... mixture of these opposites, or in an inconsequent oscillation serve now one and now the other. It is not enough then to have a great vital energy acting in you; it must be put in contact with the higher consciousness, it must be surrendered to the true control, it must be placed under the government of the Divine. That is why there is sometimes felt a contempt for the action of the vital force or a condemnation ...
... there is one that corresponds in our Yoga, the feeling of the consciousness ascending from the vital or physical to meet the higher consciousness. This is not necessarily through the chakras but is often felt in the whole body. Similarly the descent of the higher consciousness is not felt necessarily or usually through the chakras but as occupying the whole head, neck, chest, abdomen, body. In... centres, no raising up of the Kundalini by a set process either. Another method is used, but still there is the ascent of the consciousness from and through the different levels to join the higher consciousness above; there is the opening of the centres and of the planes (mental, vital, physical) which these centres command; there is also the descent which is the main key of the spiritual transformation... ascent is felt through the spine. Here it is the pressure of the Force from above that awakens it and opens the centres. There is an ascension of the consciousness going up till it joins the higher consciousness above. This repeats itself (sometimes a descent also is felt) until all the centres are open and the consciousness rises above the body. At a later stage it remains above and widens out into ...
... felt by you is brought about by a union or strong contact of the lower with the higher consciousness; it cannot be permanent at first, but it can be come so by an increased frequency and durability of the calm and peace and finally by the full descent of the eternal peace and calm and silence of the higher consciousness into the lower nature. The Jivatman in a Supramental Creation I have used... symbolic way of seeing the Jivatman, the individual self as a drop of the Sea, an individual portion of the universal Divine; the aspiration on that level would naturally be for the opening of the higher consciousness so that the being may dwell there and not in the ignorance. The Jivatman is already one with the Divine in reality, but its spiritual demand may be for the rest of the consciousness also to... mind, vital, body to the Divine, for the love and union with the Divine, for its presence and power within the heart, for the transformation of the mind, life and body by the descent of the higher consciousness into this instrumental being and nature. Both aspirations are necessary for the fullness of this Yoga, the demand of the self on the nature from above, the psychic aspiration of the nature ...
... the force has to follow and work on them till they change or disappear. What you have been doing is to penetrate more into the physical consciousness where the peace and light of the higher consciousness have to be brought down. This often brings at first some relaxation of the intensity of experience, dispersion or recurrence of old movements which had been pushed out from the other levels... its own to replace them. One has then constantly to reject this invasion. By constant rejection, the force of recurrence finally dwindles and the individual becomes free and able to bring the higher consciousness and its movements into the physical being. The difference [ between the physical consciousness of those who are doing sadhana and those who are not ] lies in the fact that those who are... live on the physical plane not to transform it but to continue it as it is—there is no such Force or pressure or necessity or urge. Those who are not sadhaks but have their minds turned to the higher consciousness are preparing for sadhana and will one day do it—whatever that sadhana may be. The prevalence of the physical difficulties when one comes Page 361 down into the physical is the ...
... or inner consciousness and the spiritual or higher consciousness, Sri Aurobindo writes: The inner consciousness means the inner mind, inner vital, inner physical and behind them the psychic which is their inmost being. But the inner mind is not the higher mind; it is more in touch with the universal forces and more open to the higher consciousness and capable of an immensely deeper and larger... subliminal. 13 The subliminal is often mistaken for the spiritual because of the failure to distinguish between the inner consciousness, which is behind the surface consciousness, and the higher consciousness which is above the normal consciousness. The 11. Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - Part Four, SABCL, Vol. 24, pp. 1164-65. 12. Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - Parts... larger range of action than the outer or surface mind - but it is of the same essential nature. The higher consciousness is that above the ordinary mind and different from it in its workings; it ranges from higher mind through illumined mind, intuition and overmind up to the border line of the supramental. 14 A more serious confusion found in modern psychology is due to the failure to distinguish ...
... forces and phenomena as proceeding from that essential Reality. Letters on Yoga, p. 316 The higher consciousness lives always in touch with the Self— the lower is separated from it by the activities of the Ignorance. Letters on Yoga, p. 1129 This Higher Consciousness carrying in it a sense of wide and boundless existence, light, power, peace, Ananda etc. is always there... Writings, pp. 262-63 (b) Normal (Ordinary) and Higher (Spiritual) Consciousness ...briefly... there are two states of consciousness in either of which one can live. One is a higher consciousness which stands above the play of life and governs it; this is variously called the Self, the Spirit or the Divine. The other is the normal consciousness in which men live; it is something quite... 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 it will take varies with each person. But this new consciousness is very different from the ordinary ...
... that inmost consciousness. Higher consciousness is the proper domain of what is normally called spiritual consciousness, although named differently in different traditions. It is the domain of cosmic and transcendental consciousness, the knowledge and the power of which varies according to the various levels of higher consciousness. The various levels of higher consciousness have been differently classified... to understand occultism, it would be convenient to distinguish between the surface consciousness, inner consciousness, (which can be called subliminal consciousness), inmost consciousness, higher consciousness, and highest consciousness. There is, also, a large domain of the Page 17 subconscious and the unconscious, which has come to be studied increasingly in the modem times under the... of physical life which admit a large gamut of emotional and mental life, farthest reaches of which fall short of the awareness that is normal to the dwelling in the subliminal consciousness, higher consciousness, and the subconsciousness. The inner or subliminal consciousness, which is the central domain of occultism, consists of the awareness of the subtle physical being, inner vital being and inner ...
... Is it not true that our vital lays bare all our hidden desires and impulses? It is not the vital that does that. It is either the psychic or something from the inner mind or the higher consciousness. I did some offering, but something was kept back. Someone from within me was constantly beating me for keeping that back. So there was depression. What was important... from within ? You have to be conscious of your inner being. I would very much like to bring out my inner being and live in it. If you call down the higher consciousness, its descent of itself will show you your inner being as separate from the outer. Until then you can only go on observing yourself and the movements of your nature till you see the difference... be quiet or unquiet like the outer. The psychic can have peace behind it — but the inner mind, vital and physical are not necessarily silent — they are full of movements. It is the higher consciousness that has a basis of peace. My inner concentration and quietude seem to be extending outwards. I feel quietude and can concentrate with eyes open. Now I would like to ask you ...
... is hard. Mind is a creation of the fall, of the duality, created by separation from the Supreme. It can be answered by mind rising to the Supreme. But mind cannot be easily raised to the Higher Consciousness unless it is willing. That means a process of growth—it means Sadhana. For that to become possible mind has to admit some Reality greater than itself—it has to become quiet and open to the... great change. As discribed in Savitri : In the worm he sees the coming God. In the ordinary view the worm is seen only as a worm but the vision of one who has attained the higher consciousness sees in the 'worm' the evolution of a divine being after a long time. The worm is not an isolated item of the universe, it is a link in a long chain in which the Divine Being would find its... admit the need of the fall into ego as an indispensable condition for creating innumerable points of individuality and then the need of overpassing or dissolving the ego and ascending to a higher consciousness. But is that possible here in life ? Many believe it is not possible. They try to prove that the law of imperfection is the only law for this world. There are schools of thought that ...
... term of this evolutionary movement. Man is, therefore, a transitional being. Page 73 The destiny of Man is to ascend beyond Mind to a Higher. Consciousness, to a new principle of being, to a greater Reality. That Higher Consciousness is spontaneously perfect. It is man's ascent to it and its descent into Man that can eliminate the fundamental ignorance of the Mind and fulfil man's seeking... with a view to reach the Higher Consciousness is called Yoga. It is the effort of the human being to unite himself with the Divine. The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo, like that of the Gita,-accepts life in a double sense: in the first case, it uses life as a field for training the various faculties to reach the Divine; secondly, after having reached the Higher Consciousness it uses life as a field for... of making art an avenue to reach the Divine. These paintings were done in the spirit of offering to the Divine so that the artist may grow into the truth of himself and bring something of the Higher consciousness and Truth in the forms of art, some ray of the Divine Beauty. How far this has been achieved is not for me to say. The general tendency in modernist art is towards subjectivity in ...
... and there is no clear order or rule. In the Yoga one becomes aware of the different parts and their proper action, and puts each in its place and to its proper action under the control of the higher consciousness or else under the control of the Divine Power. Afterwards all gets surcharged with the spiritual consciousness and there is an automatic right perception and right action of the different parts... separated and seen in the light of the deeper working behind which is hidden from the surface awareness. So we have to adopt a different classification. The physical mind has first to open to the higher consciousness—its limitations are then removed and it admits what is supraphysical and begins to see things in harmony with the higher knowledge. It becomes an instrument for externalising that knowledge... or around, it cannot stop doing it, it cannot of itself determine what it shall or shall not receive. It has to be assisted by the Buddhi, vital will or some higher power. Afterwards when the higher consciousness descends it begins to be transformed and capable of an automatic rejection of what is not true or right or divine or helpful to the growth of the divine in the being. The Chitta does ...
... spiritual that are not the essence of the higher consciousness. All that tends towards the transformation and helps to prepare it is spiritual. Psychic sorrow is a spiritual movement, but sorrow is not part of the essential character of the higher consciousness. Resignation, the ego's submission to the divine will, is a spiritual movement, but the higher consciousness has no need of resignation and a submitted... longing there may very well be, an ardent love and will for union; but there need be no sorrow or disturbance. The quiet and silence you feel in your heart is the result of the pressure of the higher consciousness to come down. That always brings a quietude in mind and heart and as it descends a great peace and silence. In the silent heart and mind, there must be the true attitude and thus you have the... have done. It is only when one lives centrally in the psychic with the mental, vital and physical as provinces held under its rule that one knows what psychic intensity is. It is only when the higher consciousness comes down in its floods that one can know what can be the intensities or ecstasies of spiritual peace, light, love, bliss. You can say, "I have not yet had these intensities", but you cannot ...
... and Light of the higher consciousness, the opening of the psychic and the centres of the mind, vital and physical, the consent and receptive opening of the nature to the workings of the psychic and the higher consciousness, finally the opening to the supramental are the conditions of transformation. What do you mean by "attaining" the higher consciousness? The higher consciousness is something above... when the whole being is spiritualised; supramental transformation is when the whole being is supramentalised— Page 331 that cannot be done automatically by merely being aware of the higher consciousness or attaining it in the ordinary limited sense. The physical is of course the basis—that of the Overmind is in between the two hemispheres. The lower hemisphere must contain all the mind including ...
... control of his actions and physical states would be complete, there would be no illness or, if there were, it could be immediately cured by mental action. But it is not so. For that reason the higher consciousness has to be brought down, the body and the subconscient enlightened by it and accustomed to obey its control. It is good. Emptiness and silence of the consciousness prepare the being to... communication and action on the physical world instead of living in the external only. As there is a superconscient (something above our present consciousness) above the head from which the higher consciousness comes down into the body, so there is also a subconscient (something below our consciousness) below the feet. Matter is under the control of this power, because it is that out of which it has... lower parts of the nature from the lower vital downwards. But it does send up good things also though more rarely. It has in the course of the sadhana to be illumined and made a support of the higher consciousness in the physical nature instead of a basis of the instinctive lower movements. The work [ going on in the subconscient ] is of a general nature, not individual, but necessarily everyone ...
... centre and the opening of the mind centres to all that is behind and above them. For the heart opens to the psychic being and the mind centres open to the higher consciousness and the nexus between the psychic being and the higher consciousness is the principal means of the Siddhi. The first opening is effected by a concentration in the heart, a call to the Divine to manifest within us and through... physical mind seems to become limitless, thoughtless and without obscurity. Is this a true feeling? Page 203 Yes. All the parts that have to be changed must widen like that before the higher consciousness can descend into them. Is there any relation between the Mother's descent into the physical parts and the descent of the forces that are working in me? Certainly. In a sense, the descent... Yoga. 11 September 1934 The experiences you have are a good starting-point for realisation. They have to develop into the light of a deeper state in which there will be the descent of a higher consciousness into you. Your present consciousness in which you feel these things is only a preparatory one—in which the Mother works in you through the cosmic power according to your state of consciousness ...
... it is so common. But imagine that you have a very high range of consciousness. If into the determinism down here you can bring, by aspiration, an urge, a prayer, a higher consciousness, if you can get hold of your higher consciousness, so to say, and bring it into the material destiny, everything would immediately be changed. But because you do not see or do not understand what is happening, you say... as they concern him personally. It is events of this kind that appear to the outer consciousness as miracles, as divine interventions." I shall give you an example of how consciousness, a higher consciousness, intervenes. A man steps out of his house to go to his office. He goes a certain way. Suddenly he remembers that he has left something behind. He steps back to go and get it and just then... the so-called "disaster" was in fact the starting-point of their ascension, an ascension which could not have taken place without it. If someone has the inner vision and is able to enter his higher consciousness at will, he will see that it is the greatest good that happens to him when he is in contact with his highest consciousness. But, to be able to understand this, there are two conditions. You ...
... have been there always, for by that time he must have realised some higher consciousness setting him free from them. NIRODBARAN: It may not have been merely a passing mood. These things he must have noticed in himself, and he wrote about them because he perceived or saw them. PURANI: Simultaneously with a higher consciousness, one can see these things in one's nature. NIRODBARAN: He had a double... towards work. Moreover, he admitted that he was doing things driven blindly by some unseen Force. SRI AUROBINDO (after some time) : It is not easy to get rid of these things. Even when the higher consciousness comes, they can go on in the lower nature. And if Vivekananda found himself driven blindly by some unseen Force, as you say, then it is quite possible for them to remain in the nature and get... its place in Reality. And to come out of it or get beyond it there are conditions laid down: for example, rejection and surrender. You have to get rid of desires and passions to arrive at the higher consciousness. SATYENDRA: And when in addition to our own burdens and difficulties and egoism we are asked to work for the Divine, for you and the Mother, the trouble increases! SRI AUROBINDO: There ...
... can you throw away the mind unless you Page 21 want to disappear from manifested existence? It has first to be made quiet and open to the higher consciousness and transformed by the descent of the higher consciousness. Does a quiet mind mean focussing attention one-pointedly on a particular subject? As for instance, while aspiring one should not allow any other thoughts... Page 15 doing it, it cannot of itself determine what it shall or shall not receive. It has to be assisted by the Buddhi, vital will or some higher power. Afterwards when the higher consciousness descends it begins to be transformed and capable of an automatic rejection of what is not true or right or divine or helpful to the growth of the divine in the being. When the vital... perceive and conceive? Certainly not—it is mechanical because it has no light in it and goes on like a machine. If there were light, it would not be like that. When the higher consciousness takes hold of the mechanical mind, it ceases to be mechanical. When the thinking mind and the physical mind become quiet, does not the mechanical mind cease by itself to be mechanical ...
... which is the centre of the higher consciousness. It is something new to me when my consciousness feels a depth in the heart and a height on the head simultaneously. That is what should be. You wrote, "All that dissatisfaction is of course an ignorant objection of the lower vital which does not know how the higher consciousness works or even what is real... me how the higher consciousness works and what is a real fullness, since I too am as ignorant about it as is the vital? By knowing I do not mean mental ideas about it — I mean it has not the consciousness and feeling of what these things are. What my physical mind considers as emptiness or nothingness — is it not a pure working of the higher consciousness? ... the outer nature rising upward to the higher Prakriti? And how is the outer nature to rise into the higher Prakriti before you realise the Self? The higher nature is that of the higher consciousness of which the first basis is the peace and wideness and realisation of the Self, the One that is all. In the quietness or silence, should not one feel the Mother's Force working ...
... things; I was fully conscious on the physical plane. It was at Baroda and it did not go away soon, it did not last only a few moments as Bucke lays down. It lasted for months... I could see the Higher Consciousness above the mind and I saw that it was that which was reflected in the mind. The world and all people appeared as in a cinema; all these things appeared very small. What Bucke and some of... convey. But they have self-consciousness. The cosmic consciousness, as he describes it, seems to be the coming down of Light with the intuitive mind. But that is not the whole level of the Higher Consciousness above the mind. There are other truths which are as real as those of which Dr. Bucke speaks. He got into that higher state and was evidently in exaltation; there must have been some play... complete transformation of the ignorant human nature into the divine : it transforms the aparā prakrti into the parā ) Sri Aurobindo : The aim of Patanjali was to rise to a higher consciousness. He proposed to do it by replacing the general Rajasic movements of nature by the Sattwic There was no idea of practising morality in it, or of ethics. Besides, Yama and Niyama were never the ...
... connects you with the higher consciousness and helps or prepares to bring down something from it. It [ the higher consciousness ] may not come exactly according to the aspiration, but the aspiration is not ineffective. It keeps the consciousness open, prevents an inert state of acquiescence in all that comes and exercises a sort of pull on the sources of the higher consciousness. Aspiration... equanimity, sorrow at not getting, all that is unyogic. Aspiration and Pulling Pulling comes usually from a desire to get things for oneself—in aspiration there is a self-giving for the higher consciousness to descend and take possession—the more intense the call, the greater the self-giving. It is certainly a mistake to bring down the light by force—to pull it down. The supramental cannot ...
... from a higher consciousness than the ordinary human mental, a greater light, a greater force; even an ordinary man can have strokes of genius resulting from such an intervention but it is only in a few that the rare phenomenon occurs of a part of the consciousness being moulded into a habitual medium of expression of its greater light and force. But the intervention of this higher consciousness may take... bring in, not the higher consciousness itself but a substitute for it, an uplifted movement of mind which gives a reflection of the character and qualities of the overhead movement. There is a substitute for the expression of the Higher Thought, the Illumination, the pure Intuition giving great or brilliant results, but these cannot be classed as the very body of the higher consciousness. So also there ...
... is in the physical consciousness. For there is an inertia in the physical nature that does not easily allow the intensity natural to the higher consciousness to remain constant,—the physical is always sinking back to something more ordinary; the higher consciousness and its force have to work long and come again and again before they can become constant and normal in the physical nature. Do not be disturbed... inertia fades out and gives place to śama . In the interim periods, if any come, to maintain the calm observing consciousness is the one great necessity. The dynamic activity of the higher consciousness may be suspended but once manifested its presence is always there. They [ certain experiences ] are first indications of an opening—but the opening has to be stabilised and enlarged.... particular parts of the day they feel concentrated and get results, and in others that condition is not there. This is especially in the earlier stages of the progress. It is only after the higher consciousness, peace etc. have settled in the being that one can usually be at all times in the active condition of sadhana. It is often like that—the period of intense activity is limited to a particular ...
... conscious physical activities. Just as what we call the superconscient is really a higher consciousness above from which things descend into the being, so the subconscient is below the body consciousness and things come up into the physical, the vital and the mind-nature from there. Just as the higher consciousness is superconscient to us and supports all our spiritual possibilities and nature, so... impresses the right movement on it, it will keep and send up that. That is why it has to be cleared of old movements before there can be a permanent and total change in the nature. When the higher consciousness is once established in the waking parts, it goes down into the subconscient and changes that also, makes a bedrock of itself there also. Then no farther trouble from the subconscient will be... end—the dark unconscious infinite out of which this material universe has arisen—it is walled with darkness on all sides, it seems also to have no bottom. The Light comes from above from the higher consciousness and coming down through the mind and heart and vital and physical has to pour down into this subconscient and make it luminous. "Patala" [ in an experience described by the correspondent ...
... necessary and without them the complete change cannot take place. It is good that the higher consciousness and its powers are descending into the parts below the head and heart. That is absolutely necessary for the transformation, since the lower vital and the body must also be changed into stuff of the higher consciousness. For this Yoga these divisions [ the classifications of samadhi in Vedanta... in this condition as well as in the waking state. It is a state of inner immobile silence that one gets in Samadhi when the outer mind is stilled and there is only some inner or some higher consciousness which may itself be either in silent concentration or else experiencing some state of Knowledge or Ananda or Peace. Going inside does not bring always Ananda. There are many kinds of... experience means merely that there is still no sufficient bridge between the inner consciousness which has the experience in a kind of samadhi and the exterior waking consciousness. It is when the higher consciousness has made the bridge between them that the outer also begins to remember. Samadhi and Sleep It [ a tendency to fall asleep while meditating ] is the result of the attempt to go above. It ...
... to discover. Our house here represents the higher consciousness in which we live and from which its light must come to you. Between you and it there is what the old books call a lid—represented by the blinds of the windows—created by the mind and the ordinary consciousness. This lid is changed to glass which means that between you and the higher consciousness there is left only a transparent lid (probably... or exploit old memories or else raise up things either passively stored or still active in the subconscient, a mass of various stuff which has to be changed or got rid of as one rises into a higher consciousness. If one learns how to interpret, one can get from dreams much knowledge of the secrets of our nature and of other-nature. Those [ dreams ] which are formed from subconscient impressions... (probably the higher mind which is the first stage of the higher consciousness) and through that the light can come to you in your own Adhar. It is a kind of promise or prospect held out to you in answer to your prayer. The three grey-white birds must be your mental, vital and physical consciousness, partly enlightened by the inner Peace etc., therefore white, but still not quite released from ...
... consciousness that must come in by the supramental change. Letters on Yoga, pp. 18-19 Transformation means that the higher consciousness or nature is brought down into the mind, vital and body and takes the place of the lower. There is a higher consciousness of the true self, which is spiritual, but it is above; if one rises above into it, then one is free as long as one remains there... being, but leave the body and the physical consciousness as it was, or even leave it inert or shake its balance. And the descent of Light is not enough, it must be the descent of the whole higher consciousness, its Peace, Power, Knowledge, Love, Ananda. Moreover, the descent may be enough to liberate, but not to perfect, or it may be enough to make a great change in the inner being, while the outer... n effected by the sadhana cannot be complete unless it is a supramentalisation of the being. Psychicisation is not enough, it is only a beginning; spiritualisation and the descent of the higher consciousness is not enough, it is only a middle term; the ultimate achievement needs the action of the supramental Consciousness and Force. Something less than that may very well be considered enough by ...
... actions, feelings and thoughts, we have to teach the outer being first with the mind. We cannot wait idly for the psychic or higher consciousness to take up that work. Obviously the mind has to teach the outer being, so long as the psychic or the higher consciousness are not ready to take up the work. It is impossible for a yogi to do anything without having more than one thought... - so you can go on with it. Making it [study] a part of your sadhana depends wholly on the spirit in which you do it. You seem to use the word meditation for a state of higher consciousness; or do you use it for thinking about the Divine? One can have a state of Yogic consciousness behind the reading or study or one can read or study from a state of Yogic consciousness, but that... of ideas. It is philosophic and metaphysical in its nature. How to get a strong, firm and clear mind? That can only come either by mental training or by a working of the higher consciousness on the parts from above. What sort of "mental training" do you mean here? Reading, learning about things, acquiring complete and accurate information, training oneself in ...
... recognising its descent. Is it the higher consciousness as a whole then? I am not yet definite about it. It came down only after a sound preparation of two hours, blankness and emptiness. It will have to be seen — it can hardly be the higher consciousness as a whole—in the sense of that with all its contents—it may be the essential power of the higher consciousness. At present... Page 157 much under the influence of the mechanical mind to come up in consciousness. These things also can be quieted — but it is more likely to happen when the higher consciousness Force is there all through in the calm and silence. The silence of the pure-existence takes part in nothing, but it can support anything. All work can be done in the blankness ...
... getting merged into the light of the higher consciousness. Outside was seen a golden universal Purusha, the physical embodiment of the Supramental Truth. His “body was composed only of suns, implying that each cell of His body was Supramentalised. The very glance and touch of this “Virat Purusha” of the material universe lifted Champaklal into a higher consciousness where “Life from beyond grew a conqueror... common type with doors, windows, etc., seen in the physical world. It is a place in the new world, filled with the golden light of the Supramental Truth and it can he-reached only through a higher consciousness that transcends all earthly consciousness. Here, “Self's vast spiritual silence” is experienced and a sweet, musical sound of a mantra is heard which gradually enters the cells of the body and... immortality” and the sound of victory bells. Thus, this beautiful vision begins with the “Forget thyself” 1 type of experience and gradually unfolds the process of transformation into a higher consciousness, immersing Champaklal in the light of the Supramental Truth: ”“His soul was a delegation of the All That turned from, itself to join the one Supreme.” || 83.23 || Champaklal ...
... differences. There will be no action where there is knowledge of only unity. True action is possible by reading the truth of all activities by means of higher consciousness. Human consciousness is limited and therefore called ignorance. The higher consciousness is bound to grow. Interview with a Sadhak 1924-10-26 In meditation, the light that I experienced here last year repeats itself. The... in the manifestation of the Divine on this earth. For some time I also could not—understand Vijnan and mistook higher mental consciousness for Vijnan. It is not sufficient to realise the higher-consciousness in meditation. Its working presence should be felt even while doing the ordinary works of life. But supermind proper is Divine Consciousness which arranges and guides the movements of the Universe... thing, one is not affected by birth and death. Then Buddha did not achieve perfection of his nature? He may have entered the higher ignorance. You see there are infinite movements of the higher consciousness in Nature. Human mind can occupy itself with certain mental absolutes, not all. It can confine itself to the absolute of the silent Brahman or the absolute of the Infinite Power, Mahashakti ...
... take place and the Divine Work be done. It [ the true vital ] is capable of receiving the movements of the higher consciousness, and afterwards it can be capable of receiving the still greater supramental power and Ananda. If it is not, then the descent of the higher consciousness would be impossible and supramentalisation would be impossible. It is not meant that it possesses these things itself... parts will be, what form it takes, because it may take different forms with different natures. It is quite normal that there should be some resistance almost at every point to the descent of the higher consciousness; for the different parts of the present nature are each more or less attached to their own established way of seeing, acting, feeling, reacting to things and to the habitual movements and formations... in his present life. What is needed is a general plasticity of the mind, the vital, the physical consciousness, a readiness to give up all attachment to these things, to accept whatever the higher consciousness brings down with it however contrary to one's own received ideas, feelings, habits of nature. The greater the plasticity in any part of the nature, the less the resistance there. By the higher ...
... certain abstract generalisations can be hazarded which may serve for an initial light of guidance. The one enabling circumstance here is that, however different in constitution and principle, the higher consciousness is still, in its evolutionary form, in what we can first achieve of it here, a supreme development of elements which are already present in ours in however rudimentary and diminished a figure... stamp itself upon mind and heart and life and give them their upward orientation; a subtle light or a great transmuting power must purify, refine and uplift their motions and suffuse them with a higher consciousness that does not belong to their own normal capacity and character. This can be done from within by an invisible action through the psychic entity and the psychic personality; a consciously felt... that other way of our mind at its keenest and swiftest, a rapid hazardous divination and insight, a play of the searchlight of intelligence probing into the little known or the unknown. This higher consciousness is a Knowledge formulating itself on a basis of self-existent all-awareness and manifesting some part of its integrality, a harmony of its significances put into thought-form. It can freely ...
... the release appears at first to be partial and temporary; the Jiva seems to descend again into the egoistic life and the higher consciousness to be withdrawn from him. In reality, what happens is that a cloud or veil intervenes between the lower nature and the higher consciousness and the Prakriti resumes for a time its old habit of working under the pressure but not always with a knowledge or present... aim is to raise human into divine nature. Experience shows that, in proportion as we deliver ourselves from the limiting mental and vital ego, we command a wider life, a larger existence, a higher consciousness, a happier soul-state, even a greater knowledge, power and scope. Even the aim which the most mundane philosophy pursues, the fulfilment, perfection, satisfaction of the individual, is best... Samadhi of the firmly founded Brahmic consciousness. 1 But if Page 364 or when our conscious being has become sufficiently pure and clear, then there is a firm station in the higher consciousness. The impersonalised Jiva, one with the universal or possessed by the Transcendent, lives high-seated above 2 and looks down undisturbed at whatever remnants of the old working of Nature may ...
... in its play and free in its essence. One has to get above the cosmic consciousness of the mind, life and matter by entering into the spiritual levels above the ordinary mind, into the higher consciousness. This does not cut one off from the cosmic consciousness, but one sees it without being involved in it. It [ the correspondent's experience ] is the release from the limitations by the... cease for a time, there may be nothing but a great limitless freedom and wideness, but into that silence, that empty wideness descends the vast peace from above, light, bliss, knowledge, the higher Consciousness in which you feel the oneness of the Divine. It is the beginning of the transformation and there is nothing in it to fear. If these were imaginations, you would be able to reproduce them... in the vision was the wide and luminous infinite of what is called the universal Self or spirit. It is that which is one of the fundamental things into which one enters when one reaches the higher consciousness and goes above. The personal being naturally feels itself as something very small and insignificant in that Infinite. But in that Infinite there are higher and higher levels and it is to these ...
... Sri Krishna's light. Whitish blue is Krishna's light or mine; deeper blues often indicate light from the higher consciousness. There are two pale blues, one which is whitish blue and is known as Sri Aurobindo's light, the other quite blue which is that of the higher consciousness just above mind. The meaning of blue light depends on the exact character of the colour, its shade and... there are other colours for the hostile vital forces. The lights one sees in concentration are the lights of various powers or beings or forces and often lights that come down from the higher consciousness. The violet light is that of the Divine Compassion ( karuṇā —Grace)—the white light is the light of the Mother (the Divine Consciousness) in which all others are contained and from which... light may be that of the higher or illumined mind. The plane with the blue light is the Higher Mind which is just above the ordinary human intelligence, the first of several planes of higher consciousness through which one has to pass in order to reach the Divine Truth. Something from your mind (thinking willing mind) is trying to rise up into the blue light of the Higher Mind so as to join and ...
... opening of the heart to the higher consciousness. The blue sky is that of the Higher Mind—the nearest of the planes between human mentality and the Supermind. The moon here [ in a vision ] is the symbol of spirituality in the mental planes. The world of the Higher Mind is above those directly connected with the body consciousness. The higher consciousness on any of its levels is seen... 148 one sees many levels of consciousness which appear as skies or else as seas. Rain, Snow, Clouds, Lightning, Rainbow The rain is the symbol of the descent of Grace or of the higher consciousness which is the cause of the riches—the spiritual plenty. The vision you saw of the snow is probably a symbol of the consciousness in a condition of purity, silence and peace like a snowy... the old mental and vital life which has been covered by that mantle of snowy whiteness. Clouds are a symbol of obscurity. The lightning is a symbol of the dynamic force of the higher consciousness acting at intervals to enlighten the rest of the being. The rainbow is the sign of peace and deliverance. Night and Dawn The Night is the symbol of the Ignorance or Avidya in which ...
... avoid the wrong ones. I mean [ by "the coming of consciousness into the body" ] the higher consciousness. The consciousness that is always there in the body is tamasic and obscure and the greater part of it is subconscient. If it opens then there will be an increasing union with the higher consciousness and it will be able to share the experiences and the developments in the mind and vital. ... be worn out by the action of the Force in time. It is a question of the Force, Peace, Light entering into the body and giving it the sense of not being only a body but the receptacle of a higher consciousness. It is indeed the body consciousness that is still offering difficulties—but when the restlessness and confusion come, you must immediately offer it up and call for the opening of the... to the habit of automatic repetition which is a characteristic of the physical nature. You have now to get the control in a different way by the reestablishment of the peace and building the higher consciousness upon it, the spiritual control replacing that of mental tapasya. The Physical and the Vital The physical depends on the vital at every step—it could not do anything without the help of ...
... psychic and the higher consciousness. It all depends on that. The psychic must be strong enough to compel the vital and physical to give themselves to the Divine—or the higher consciousness must so descend and occupy everything that the old movements can only at most move on the surface without being able to enter in or touch the inner calm—or the two together, psychic and higher consciousness, must occupy... purified and strengthened by it that there is in oneself no response to anything hostile. If there is a protecting envelopment, an inner purifying descent and, as a result, a settling of the higher consciousness in the inner being and finally, its substitution even in the most external outwardly active parts in place of the old ignorant consciousness, then the world and the hostile forces will no longer ...
... Ishwara. How is it possible for an individual to have such a vital? It is capable of receiving the movements of the higher consciousness, and afterwards it can be capable of receiving the still greater supramental power and Ananda. If it is not, then the descent of the higher consciousness would be impossible and supramentalisation would be impossible. It is not meant that it possesses these things itself... and there is no clear order or rule. In the Yoga one becomes aware of the different parts and their proper action, and puts each in its place and to its proper action under the control of the higher consciousness or else under the control of the Divine Power. Page 80 Afterwards all gets surcharged with the spiritual consciousness and there is an automatic right perception and right action... or subtle physical has always the greater qualities of its plane—it is the Purusha and like the psychic, though in another way, the projection of the Divine, therefore in connection with the Higher Consciousness and reflects something of it, though it is not altogether that—it is also in tune with the cosmic Truth. In the change of the vital nature, is the external surface vital to be entirely effaced ...
... current it is the familiar sign of a first touch of the higher consciousness flowing down in the form of a stream—like the "wave" of light of the scientist—to prepare its possession of mind, vital and physical in the body. So is the stillness and rigidity of the body in your former experience a sign of the same descent of the higher consciousness in its form or tendency of stillness and silence. It is... feel, understand, recognise the Page 17 response. Ordinarily the spiritual or divine consciousness comes first—what I have called the higher consciousness—the presence or manifestation comes afterwards. But this descent of the higher consciousness is really the touch or influx of the Divine itself, though not at first recognised by the lower nature. "I will try again" is not sufficient; ...
... to the human consciousness. The man in question is in touch with the higher consciousness, so he has not to put any kind of inner pressure on himself to oblige the mind and other parts to admit the higher state or movements—it needs only a turning of himself upward or a slight movement of opening to set the higher consciousness in motion and get results. This statement is of course true only up to... supramental is rare. Whatever comes to most comes from the intermediate planes. 16 April 1936 With your help I have been able to make this progress: whatever my state, I can rise into the higher consciousness and, so long as I am inactive, remain there undisturbed by revolt, resistance, impulses or desire. The men who live in the Self are always there at all times. Nothing in the outer nature... not many would be able to see the truth of our yoga of transformation. I suppose they are not intended to take it up—only an opening can be given for those who want to rise into a somewhat higher consciousness than they have now. 5 April 1934 Buddhism and Other Religions I find it difficult to emerge from the peace I found in meditation. How difficult it must be to come out of the peace ...
... centre and the opening of the mind centres to all that is behind and above them. For the heart opens to the psychic being and the mind centres open to the higher consciousness and the nexus between the psychic being and the higher consciousness is the principal means of the Siddhi. The first opening is effected by a concentration in the heart, a call to the Divine to manifest within us and through... process; he feels the peace settling in him or at least manifesting, but he has not been conscious how and whence it came. Yet it is the truth Page 31 that all that belongs to the higher consciousness comes from above, not only the spiritual peace and silence, but the Light, the Power, the Knowledge, the higher seeing and thought, the Ananda come from above. It is also possible that up to... which feels itself quite apart from the surface play of the mind and the vital and physical Nature. Usually when this takes place, it is possible very rapidly to bring down the peace of the higher consciousness and the action of the higher Force and the full march of the Yoga. But often the Force itself comes down first in response to the concentration and call and then, if these things are necessary ...
... PURANI: Nirodbaran was wondering what you meant by saying yesterday that he had got into a higher consciousness. NIRODBARAN: Isn't the higher consciousness a vast range? SRI AUROBINDO: The higher consciousness is anything above the mind. Of course, there are different levels of higher consciousness. NIRODBARAN: That's what I mean by a "vast range". SRI AUROBINDO: There is no indication ...
... opens out into a vast static silent Self and begins to communicate with the Oneself which is in all. The Second movement is that of a dynamic descent of light, knowledge, power etc. The Higher Consciousness descends after rending of the veil. So by a descent of Light, Power and Knowledge from above, or by an inward turn opening to the self, the universal consciousness, one knows the subliminal... mind, life and matter. It veils also the face of the higher worlds from the sight of the lower. In one sense, it brings the Light to the lower, in another sense it encloses the Light of the Higher consciousness. It is said in the Ishopanishad that, "Face of the truth is covered by the golden lid". Overmind can be said to be the 'golden lid', for, it is light which covers the whole cosmos and glows... out the Divine will and knowledge. Overmind is a delegate of the Supramental consciousness, —it is delegate of the Supermind to the Ignorance,—to Mind and a delegate of Ignorance to the Higher Consciousness. "It is by projection of this Luminous overmind corona that the diffusion of the diminished Light in the ignorance and the throwing of the contrary shadow which swallows up in itself all the ...
... necessary part of the manifested nature, like the higher vital or the mind. It has to be changed in the power of the higher consciousness, not left to itself or dropped from you. If you do not so change it, if you simply remain content by living in the psychic or other higher consciousness internally then you run the risk of doing like those who are satisfied to have experiences and some inner quietude... Part – III (Sri Aurobindo’s Letters) At the feet of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo 06 May 1932 It is quite true that rising into a higher consciousness than the ordinary human consciousness is the right way towards transformation. Merely to remain in the ordinary lower consciousness and try to reject from there the wrong movements can produce no permanent... which you must note or this perception may be accompanied by an error. As you have yourself subsequently seen, all the parts and personalities that constitute the being must share in the higher consciousness, otherwise the old movements under various pretexts will intervene. You speak of rejecting the lower vital, but it is only the unregenerated lower vital movements that can be got rid of, ...
... the bounds of human consciousness and go beyond to another state of consciousness higher than the mind. For, only so can man's problem be resolved. She found that she had within herself the Higher consciousness—in her the Divine Mother herself arose when she was preparing to face the danger. The other three Cantos of the first book describing the Raja Yoga--the Yoga of the King,—contain the kernal... also has got to receive the divine in order to undergo a change, otherwise soul alone would reach its perfection and nature remain imperfect and earth unfulfilled. He found 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... depths, A happier cosmic working could begin Page 154 And fashion the world-shape in him anew, God found in Nature, Nature fulfilled in God." The light of this higher consciousness penetrated his lower consciousness, or the lower parts of his nature. And knowledge used to come to bun by an act of intuition. Inspiration also came down into him often in silence. The ...
... all that is capable of perfection and to change all that is obscure and imperfect. Your first mistake is to imagine that it is possible to become divine in a moment. You imagine that the higher consciousness has only to descend in you and remain there, and all is finished. You imagine that no time is needed, no long, hard or careful work, and that all will be done for you in a moment by the Divine... realisation of the Divine Life. If the sexual impulse comes, do not be sorry or troubled, but look at it calmly, quiet it down, reject all wrong suggestions connected with it, and wait for the Higher Consciousness to transform it into the true force and ananda. As regards your friends and family, you must look at them normally as ordinary human beings. Here also have no attachments, no shrinkings;... calm of mind and the return of physical strength. Therefore do not scruple to rest much. It will be good to remain quiet for long periods of time and allow the calm and quiet effect of the higher consciousness to settle unobtrusively into the body. Your "tamasic" condition and pains are not in the least due to taking food from your people or to their atmosphere. Dismiss this kind of idea from your ...
... of this Yoga is not perfection of the human nature as it is but a psychic and spiritual transformation of all the parts of the being through the action of an inner consciousness and then of a higher consciousness which works on them, throws out the old movements or changes them into the image of its own and so transmutes lower into higher nature. It is Page 585 not so much the perfection... can take up the Yoga. 7 July 1938 Write that this Asram is not intended for religious teaching, but for the practice of Yoga; its object, like that of all Yoga, is the attainment of a higher consciousness and the spiritual life. But Sri Aurobindo's Yoga is a special path with its own special objects in addition to this common aim of all Yoga. Only those are admitted who have a call to this special... being so—that cannot be put forward as a reason for going away. It is the feeling of the vital-physical that has been stopped in its activities and is not yet able to receive the touch of the higher consciousness or keep it that makes you feel like that. I don't know that you would get so much interest or satisfaction from the life outside that it would be worth while to give up and go. To persist is ...
... disturbance in the physical is there. Is it due to some mistake I have made? Page 286 The Mother "manifesting" in you is an ambiguous expression—it is the Mother's consciousness, the higher consciousness with the light, strength that has to come down in each sadhak, with the Mother's presence always there. Along with this experience there must have been an attempt at surrender or an initial... it is there that the influence must fall so that the consciousness may go upward and spread itself out widely in a free peace, light and joy connecting them down to the subconscient with the higher consciousness. It is then that the loss of the ego in the Mother's consciousness becomes possible. 25 September 1935 Over my head I see a plane of infinite and eternal Peace. The Mother is the Queen... when one begins to have the widening of the consciousness in which it is not shut up in the personal self and the body but is extended everywhere. That comes usually with the descent of the higher consciousness from above. But one can also feel a beginning of it through the opening of the psychic. Then of course anger and jealousy do not remain—they fall away from the sense of spiritual oneness. ...
... be possible for the individual being to have such a vital? It is capable of receiving the movements of the higher consciousness, and afterwards it can be capable of receiving the still greater supramental power and Ananda. If it is not, then the descent of the higher consciousness would be impossible and supramentalisation would be impossible. It is not meant that it possesses these things itself... or subtle physical has always the greater qualities of its plane - it is the Purusha and like the psychic though in another way a projection of the Divine, - therefore in connection with the higher consciousness and reflects something of it, though it is not altogether that - it is also in tune with the cosmic Truth. * Page 55 If the true vital is "capable of all power, all ...
... Superconscient … there is a superconscient (something above our present consciousness) above the head from which the higher consciousness comes down into the body… Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - IV: The Subconscient and the Integral Yoga The higher consciousness is that above the ordinary mind and different from it in its workings; it ranges from higher mind through illumined mind... mind, intuition and overmind up to the border line of the supramental. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: Classification of the Parts of the Being In this higher consciousness there are many degrees, of which the supramental is the summit or the source. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - III: Experiences on the Higher Planes There are above us… successive states, levels or graded powers ...
... long as that is not done, the attacks of the lower Nature can always continue. Experience and the Change of One's Nature Merely to have experiences of the higher consciousness will not change the nature. Either the higher consciousness has to make a dynamic descent into the whole being and change it—or it must establish itself in the inner being down to the inner physical so that the latter feels... superficial and the sadhana increases in spite of them. There is no question of good or wicked. If some part of the being even has been opened the experiences come. The action of the higher consciousness does not usually begin by changing the outer nature—it works on the inner being, prepares that and then goes outward. Before that, whatever change is done in the outer nature has to be done ...
... The Vertical System: Supermind to Subconscient Letters on Yoga - I Chapter IV The Higher Planes of Mind The Higher Planes and Higher Consciousness The higher planes are the higher mind, illumined, intuitive, over mind, supermind. The psychic, mind, vital, physical belong to the ordinary manifestation. The planes and the body are not the same... gets its full liberated movement, its central station is very usually felt above the head, though its influence can extend downward through all the being and outward through space. It [ higher consciousness ] means the larger spiritual conscious ness which contains all these things [ cosmic consciousness, intuitive consciousness, other planes of consciousness between Intuition and mind ] in possibility... itself to the rule of the Ignorance, the cosmic necessity in a world of Ignorance. If their action was that of the full Knowledge, there would be no need of any supramental descent. The higher consciousness is a concentrated consciousness, concentrated in the Divine Unity and in the working out of the Divine Will, not dispersed and rushing about after this or that mental idea or vital desire or ...
... But the inner mind is not the higher mind; it is more in touch with the universal forces and more open to the higher consciousness and capable of an immensely deeper and larger range of action than the outer or surface mind—but it is of the same essential nature. The higher consciousness is that above the or dinary mind and different from it in its workings; it ranges from higher mind through illumined... to act through them according to the law of the Ignorance. If it is liberated from this covering, then it can act according to its own nature with a free aspiration, a direct contact with the higher consciousness and a power to change the ignorant nature. Higher Mind is one of the planes of the spiritual mind, the first and lowest of them; it is above the normal mental level. Inner mind is that ...
... hand there is no necessity to live the family life—one can leave it and take any kind of works as a field of action. In the Yoga practised here the aim is to rise to a higher consciousness and to live out of the higher consciousness alone, not with the ordinary motives. This means a change of life as well as a change of consciousness. But all are not so circumstanced that they can cut loose from the... speak of with regard to right and wrong, beauty and ugliness etc. are necessary for the human being and for the guidance of his life. He cannot do without the distinctions they involve. But in a higher consciousness when he enters into the Light or is touched by it, these distinctions disappear, for he is then approaching the eternal and infinite good and right which he reaches perfectly when he is able ...
... come in and bring with them the danger of a false experience. One has to watch, observe one's experiences and try to discriminate and understand,—waiting for two things, the opening of a wider higher consciousness from above and the coming forward of the psychic being from behind. When these two things happen, then the chance of error is diminished and the true inner guidance begins to make itself more... towards each other and move to meet, one descending, the other ascending. What happens when they meet, depends on the sadhaka. If his constant will is for the purification of the lower by the higher consciousness, then the meeting results in that and in spiritual progress. If his mind and vital are turbid and clouded, there is a clash, an impure mixture and much disturbance. The division of the being... the course of the sadhana. On the whole aspire for the growth of the psychic and its control of the rest of the nature and for the opening, not to a larger vital consciousness, but to the higher consciousness above. And at all stages open yourself to the protection of the Mother and her grace and call on that for your safeguard and your guidance. There is no utility in such experiences; they ...
... shield means protection. Crown The crown is the sign of fulfilment (here in the intuitive consciousness) and the going up means an ascent to higher planes. The crown indicates the higher consciousness in its static condition, the wheel its dynamic action. The red light is the Power sent down to change the physical. Diamond The diamond is the symbol of the Mother's light and energy—the... The flute is the call of the Divine which descends into you from above and awakes the psychic yearning (the tears) and ends by bringing a vast peace and shows to you the clear sky of the higher consciousness in which there are the Truth-formations (golden stars) some of which begin to descend in a rain upon the physical consciousness (the earth). Conch The conch is often the symbol of call... of an action of Force (whatever force may be indicated by the nature of the symbol) and as it was surging upwards it must be the fire of aspiration rising from the vital (navel centre) to the Higher Consciousness above. A revolving disc means a force in action on the nature. The whitish blue light is known as Krishna's light, also as Sri Aurobindo's light. White is the Mother's. Perhaps here it ...
... The physical's tendency to inertia is very great; even after the habit of living in the higher consciousness is there, some part may feel the pressure of the inertia—generally the outermost or most material parts. The inertia usually rises up from the subconscient. It does not abolish the higher consciousness in the physical, but dulls its action or else brings it down from a higher to a lower level... higher forces. If one has a perfect equality and peace then one can be unaffected by the spreading of the inertia and bring down into it gradually or quickly the same peace with a force of the higher consciousness which can alter it. When that is there there can be no longer the difficulty and fluctuations with a preponderance of inertia such as you are now having. The first means [ of changing ...
... in the scale of evolution led to the formation of Homo sapiens , so a higher consciousness, called “supermind” by Sri Aurobindo, is necessary to form the new, higher species in the scale. The yogic effort of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother consisted in preparing humanity and the Earth for the descent of this higher consciousness. The literature and testimonies they have left behind provide anybody... Ervin Laszlo: The Reenchanted Cosmos – Welcome Home in the Universe (2005), The Chaos Point – The World at the Crossroads (2006), and Worldshift 2012: Making Green Business, New Politics & Higher Consciousness Work Together (2009). × Sri Aurobindo: The Human Cycle , p. 221. ...
... reactions occur. If there were no reactions, there would be no need to make an effort. 28 May 1936 I am quite willing to do as You say, but tell me how to rise from the lower to the higher consciousness. I have already told you that the first condition is to quiet your mind and to make an effort to quiet your vital as well. Do You want me to avoid everything that can prevent me from... outer consciousness that they would never understand anything unless I told them plainly. 15 April 1937 Would You tell me what place play has in this yoga, from the viewpoint of the higher consciousness? No special place so far as I know. 28 April 1937 If You think there is no place for play in this yoga, why did You give me permission to play? I did not say that play has... lack the mental calm that makes study profitable and you find great difficulty in concentrating on what you are doing. I would like to know how play is regarded from the viewpoint of the higher consciousness—as a vital pleasure. Playing can be a useful relaxation, especially for young children; it can be a vital pleasure if the vital turns it to its own advantage. It all depends on your attitude ...
... material world. The Mother employs a fourth sense. In her talk of 21 October 1953 she opposes to the phenomenon of evolution in which there is an ascent towards an ever higher consciousness the descent of a higher consciousness into the mould of an already evolved lower one: this to her is a phenomenon of involution. Thus the animal nature growing human is evolutionary: a mental being, entering from... 369-70. Page 17 years. At first it was a plunge into the physical - into all its obscurity and inertia, afterwards it was a station in the physical open to the higher and higher consciousness and slowly having fought out in it the struggle of transformation of the physical consciousness with a view to prepare it for the supramental change."¹ To an inquiry whether with the Sadhana ...
... with ever-new riches. The vessel of the human consciousness has to be kept free and ready for the advent of the felicities of the higher altitudes of being. For what prevents the inflow of the Higher Consciousness into the Lower is precisely the spirit of holding, grabbing and egoistic appropriation. Such a spirit not only insulates the gifts of Grace and therefore shuts the personality from the Source... round, She spoke the words that she was wont to speak And did the things she had always done.* The glow and warmth of her psychicised personality manifesting the wideness of the higher consciousness have been the experience of all before and they feel the same even now. They are not aware of the inner transformation in her consciousness. They saw a person where was only God's vast... the secret of World-personality Was the creator and the lord of all. Mind, Life and Body are not opposites of the Spirit but fields for the manifestation of endless powers of the higher consciousness. Mind was a single innumerable look Upon himself and all that he became, Life was his drama and the Vast a stage, The universe was his body, God its soul. Page 92 ...
... . There will be no action where there is knowledge of only unity. True action is possible by reading the truth of all activities by means of the higher consciousness. Human consciousness is limited and therefore called ignorance. The higher consciousness is bound to grow. 26 October 1924 In meditation, the light that I experienced here last year repeats itself. The only difference is that, while... in the manifestation of the Divine on this earth. For some time I also could not understand Vijnan and mistook higher mental consciousness for Vijnan. It is not sufficient to realise the higher consciousness in meditation. Its working presence should be felt even while doing the ordinary works of life. But Supermind proper is Divine Consciousness which arranges and guides the movements of the Universe ...
... nature. We have already seen that a mere static possession of the domain s of the spirit in our inner and higher consciousness is not sufficient for the physical transformation; for that to be made feasible there must come about a dynamic descent of the higher consciousness in to our physical nature and, at the same time or subsequent to it, a luminous awakening from with in evoked in the... desired transformation. It has to grow self-aware of the necessity for the change and at the same time acquire the requisite capacity to bear the transfiguring touch when it comes. 2.A higher consciousness acting from above and imposing its influence on any lower part of the being, without the latter's self-conscious and willing collaboration, may indeed modify to some extent the prevailing ...
... the atmosphere for me to see—things I see and which have to be acted upon.' Page 135 costs, it must change! I was above, as usual (Mother points above her head, indicating the higher consciousness), and I looked at that (Mother bends over, as if looking down at the earth), and said to myself, 'Hmm, this is getting dangerous. If it continues like this, it will result in... in a war... You see, it's not a question of just these cells here: it's a question of cells in, well, quite a lot of people, hundreds, maybe thousands—all that clings anywhere and in any way to the higher Consciousness. And since my mind is silent (I deliberately keep the mind absolutely still, trying not to react to all that constantly comes to it from 'outside', or trying to react almost subconsciously)... last few days (yesterday or the day before), there was this: a sort of completely decentralized consciousness (I am always referring to the physical consciousness, of course, not at all to the higher consciousness), a decentralized consciousness that happened to be here, there, there, in this body, that body (in what people call 'this person' and 'that person', but that notion doesn't quite exist anymore) ...
... accepted and assimilated the higher consciousness that it can come. I understand that the transformation of the lower nature is not possible without the Supramental Force coming down and preparing the vessel for the com-plete perfection. Am I right? Complete perfection is another matter. What must first be done is the fullness of the higher consciousness between human mind and... this a right movement? Page 271 It is not possible to go straight to the Supermind. That should not be his preoccupation, but to become more and more strong in the higher consciousness so that it may be possible for it to become dynamic in the whole nature. I asked you this question because I feel that it is too much for us, at the present stage of our sadhana ...
... discouraged by what you call the evaporation of the consciousness that you got on the darshan day. It has not evaporated but drawn back from the surface. That usually happens—when there is not the higher consciousness or some experience. What you have to learn is not to allow depression, but remain quiet allowing time for the assimilation and ready for fresh experience or growth whenever it comes. I... rushing about, thinking this, wanting that, trying to perform mountaineering feats on all the hillocks of the lower nature instead of nourishing a stronger and simple aspiration and opening to the higher consciousness that it may come in and do its own work. Rasa of poetry, painting or physical work is not the thing to go after. What gives the interest in Yoga is the rasa of the Divine and of the divine ... undivines and inframentals like us? Between concentration on correspondence alone and the full many-sided work— not between work and correspondence. It does not mean that I lose the higher consciousness while doing the work of correspondence. If I did that, I would not only not be supramental, but would be very far even from the full Yogic consciousness. [Sri Aurobindo underlined the phrase ...
... and simplicity and his Ahimsa, love etc. Sri Aurobindo : There is a great difference between the aim Of Patanjali and that of Gandhi and Tolstoi. The aim of Patanjali was to rise to a Higher Consciousness. He Page 199 proposed to do it by replacing the general Rajasic movements of nature by the Sattwik ones. There no idea of morality or ethics in it, and they never made... true gods; it should he noted that there are gods – little & great gods – on many planes of consciousness. Worship of this binds the human soul to the lower levels & thus prevents its ascent to Higher Consciousness beyond mental, vital & physical consciousnss? Page 206 suffering. They don't want self-purification through suffering. They had the idea of self-mastery, that the body... Aurobindo : Prana is the basic stuff of consciousness according to the old phraseology. It is that which is behind all the movements of the being here. It is different from citta which is the higher consciousness. There is, for instance, pr āna ā kā sa and citta- ā kāsa. Page 231 Then there is the Physical being. There you have the physical mind, which most men have got ...
... pause : ) This yoga, to be done well, requires perfect balance. Therefore, those who have merely a general call for yoga should not go in for this yoga because it opens a possibility for the Higher Consciousness to work as well as a possibility for the powers of the vital world to come and take possession. If a man has not got the perfect balance, it becomes easier for these powers to take possession... : I don't understand why it should not be possible to bring about the transformation without a Page 97 Shakti. Transformation would be complete if one can bring down the Higher Consciousness that you get in the mind and the vital being into the physical being and even into the very cells of the material body. The condi tions of complete transformation are that you should be able... fundamental difference between his external life and that of an ordinary man ? Sri Aurobindo : All fundamental change will be inner and not outer. That is to say, we shall have attained a higher consciousness and all we do will proceed from that consciousness. But why this haste to know what would be the forms and lines" of the Truth that has not yet come down into the physical? It is just the ...
... beyond into the Spirit of cosmic consciousness, allow the cosmic nature to act through them without any sense of individual responsibility. They remain concentrated in or identified with the higher consciousness and their nature sometimes moves in an uncontrolled way; then you find them using the foul language of which Dilip complains. The Yogis are not bound by manners or the rules of decency. They... They act like Jada, Bala, Unmatta or Pishacha, because their consciousness is linked up with something above while their nature is allowed to act freely.3 When one attains that higher consciousness, one doesn't regret, saying, "I didn't do that which was good, I did that which was evil.". Another difficulty—most of the Yogis are very bad philosopher and can't put their experience into mental terms... or a political opponent to the teacher of Truth. NIRODBARAN: You said experience brings knowledge. But sometimes when I feel a pressure in the head I don't know if it is a working of the higher consciousness. SRI AUROBINDO: You will know it slowly. Till then you have to accept it from the Guru. First Shravana (hearing) and then, Manana (remembering), as they say. ...
... and poison and perdition of all phenomenal existence, when such hell is let loose indeed, how shall the ādhāra bear the impact and the invasion and the insurrection? To bring the higher consciousness to the lower planes is to be able to feel everybody's pain and pleasure, to bear everybody's kicks and caresses, to stomach everybody's nightmarish visions and fantasies, to survive everybody's... if man were really destined to rise higher still and enact the Life Divine even here on this earth, it must then be possible for him to change his present nature totally into supernature. The higher consciousness must be lured to descend and inhabit and transform the lower planes (the lowest inconscient not excluded) - Page 588 and this must be done regardless of the difficulties involved... consciousness and have been for several years. At first it was a plunge into the physical - into all its obscurity and inertia, afterwards it was a station in the physical open to the higher and higher consciousness and slowly having fought out in it the struggle of transformation of the physical consciousness with a view to prepare it for the supramental change. 42 But, of course, anyone who ...
... words of Mother, I want to receive that which they contain and which is behind them. That is possible when the mind knows how to fall quiet, turning in an attentive silence towards the Higher Consciousness. 19.2.1969 This day of Grace, O Mother, I wanted to offer You something worthy, but I found nothing. Perhaps only a pure Pranam. No material thing can be more valuable than... leave me two free hours, from 1.30 to 3.30. How to utilise them? It is an excellent hour for reading, meditating and entering little by little in a receptive silence which allows the Higher Consciousness to enter the body to transform it. 13.12.1969 Page 117 I find that after the recent fever I sleep more; this I don't like. Since the arrival of the new Consciousness... enlightened. 27.12.1969 Page 119 The plans drawr by the mind are losing their charm, but that which should replace them is not yet there. The indications of the Higher Consciousness do not come in advance, but as and when needed. It is almost at every minute that one knows what has to be done, and this is why those who have the mental habit of making plans long in ...
... by the mind is not a perfect Reality, it is imperfect and the human being moves from imperfect idealism to a Transcendent Page 137 Reality. Thus we see that the pull of the Higher consciousness is already acting on the mind even when the veil intervens between the two. Mind cannot explain the universe. The Infinite Consciousness must become an infinite faculty of knowledge to... infinite Consciousness; infinite Consciousness and Power is Omnipotent Force. And when it makes the world the object of its consciousness then it becomes seizable by our thought. The Higher Consciousness has no need to reason because it knows. Questions and Answers Q : How does one enter the life of yoga ? because, ordinarily man has many motives that satisfy him in life... the work of transforming one's nature. One has only to give the necessary consent, the rest of the work is done by the Higher Power. Permanent ascent—not merely an occasional glimpse—to the Higher Consciousness or a steady status in the inner soul is needed to carry out thoroughly the process of change. It is so because when one begins yoga the problem seems individual—in a certain sense it is even ...
... that that which is envisaged by the mind is already in the Real-Idea. It is the Real-Idea which is at work. The whole of mental working, therefore, is reaching out to the Truth held in the Higher Consciousness. The Divine Maya comprehends both vidy ā The Divine Maya which creates the world has the comprehension of knowledge and of ignorance. Ignorance of the mind also is held in it, so to say,... Truth-Consciousness. Only the difficulty is being created by a complete isolation of the ego, a division of the being. But when the division is removed, mind would become an instrument of the Higher Consciousness. Immediately when the veil is removed, mind would not have to be rejected. It is not that you would have to tolerate it somehow, until you ended bodily existence. When the mind becomes conscious... beyond its limits. It cannot conceive the infinite, it can figure it as the vast. Possession of the Infinite can come only by the ascent of consciousness, an opening to the descent of the Higher Consciousness. It is the mind's way of functioning that brought the elements of division into being. For example, the infinity of the One came to be translated into extension in conceptual time and space ...
... Page 34 activities. Just as what we call the superconscient is really a higher consciousness above from which things descend into the being, so the subconscient is below the body-consciousness and things come up into the physical, the vital and the mind-nature from there. Just as the higher consciousness is superconscient to us and supports all our spiritual possibilities and nature... all below in the body is the sheer physical, which as it goes downward becomes increasingly subconscient, but the real seat of the subconscient is below the body, as the real seat of the higher consciousness (superconscient) is above the body. At the same time, the subconscient can be felt anywhere, felt as something below the movement of the consciousness and, in a way, supporting it from beneath ...
... see how far and whither the human consciousness would go through an intellectual and external control of Nature with physical and intellectual means only and without the intervention of any higher consciousness and knowledge—or that it may help by resistance to draw the spiritual consciousness that is growing behind all vicissitudes to attempt the control of Matter and turn it towards the Divine, as... you say only amounts, on the general issue, to the fact that this is a world of slow evolution in which man has emerged out of the beast and is still not out of it, light out of darkness, a higher consciousness out of first a dead and then a struggling and troubled unconsciousness. A spiritual consciousness is emerging and it is through this spiritual consciousness that one can meet the Divine. Religions... forecast what would be the workings of Mind and a mentalised race of beings here. The supermind is a different order of consciousness far removed from the mental—there are in fact several grades of higher consciousness between the human mind and the supramental. If the earth were not evolutionary but a typal world, then indeed one could predict that the descent of a higher type of conscious ness would swallow ...
... 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 (there 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... light of the higher can pour out—here it is the Mother's white light that was pouring out through the opening. The lights you saw were the many lights (powers, forces full of light) of the higher consciousness, the Truth consciousness or divine consciousness. Their pouring down was preceded and made possible by the appearance of the moon, the spiritual light. It is when the spiritual light is there ...
... The mountain is a very usual symbol of the consciousness with its ascending levels. The flowing of water from the peak indicates some flow from the higher consciousness above. The mountain represents the ascending planes of the higher consciousness. The journey in the train is the passage from one consciousness to another. The bucket is the physical consciousness; milk is always a symbol... end—the dark unconscious infinite out of which this material universe has arisen—it is walled with darkness on all sides, it seems also to have no bottom. The Light comes from above from the higher consciousness and coming down through the mind and heart and vital and physical has to pour down into this subconscient and make it luminous. "Patala" is a name for the subconscient—the beings there ...
... Rest which Restores In sleep one very commonly passes from consciousness to deeper consciousness in a long succession until one reaches the psychic and rests there or else from higher to higher consciousness until one reaches rest in some silence and peace. The few minutes one Page 441 passes in this rest are the real sleep which restores—if one does not get it, there is only a half... feel the need of sleep you ought to sleep. The pressure of sadhana should not be allowed to become excessive. It [ sleepiness during the day ] may possibly be due to the attempt of the higher consciousness to descend then. It sometimes produces this effect of sleepiness on the body, for the physical attempts to go inside to meet the descending consciousness and if it is not accustomed to enter... after sleep—not the sleep of meditation, but the ordinary sleep—one finds one's consciousness has gone down. It is no use getting distressed by that; one has to remain quiet and call back the higher consciousness. The consciousness in the night almost always descends below the level of what one has gained by sadhana in the waking consciousness—unless there are special experiences of an uplifting ...
... The first thing that you have to bring down is a positive, complete and enduring peace from above—that is the only foundation on which the rest can be done, i.e. the development of the higher consciousness, force, knowledge, love, Ananda. What you are doing is entirely the right thing and nothing more is needed. The peace you feel is the basis, the foundation for Page 123 the... must achieve. It has been evident throughout since the working in you began that this is the only possible foundation for your sadhana. That is the right way—to keep the peace of the higher consciousness, then even if there is vital disturbance, it will be only on the surface. The foundation will remain till the Force can release the true vital. Detachment, silence, inner peace are certainly... there be the full downflow of Power and Ananda, but into a firm adhara capable of containing it—it is a complete equality that gives that capacity and firmness. When the peace of the higher consciousness descends, it brings always with it this tendency towards equality, samata, because without samata peace is always liable to be attacked by the waves of the lower nature. Page 128 ...
... ceases usually when the body is accustomed to assimilate the descent. The peace comes fully at the meditation time because the Mother's concentration at that time brings down the power of the higher consciousness and one can receive it if one is able to do so. Once it begins to come, it usually increases its force Page 481 along with the receptivity of the sadhak until it can come at all... The sensation of coolness is a very good sign. Talking Loudly The sensations you describe in the crown of the head and the upper part of the forehead are such as one often gets when the higher consciousness or Force is trying to make an open passage through the mind for itself. So it is possibly that that is happening. As for the uneasiness or feebleness there when you talk loudly etc., that also... on the victory in the matter of sex—it is very important to have that when the intense definitive experiences are beginning. For if once the actual penetrative descent is felt, the less the higher consciousness is met by the sex force the better, for then a dangerous mixture may take place or else a struggle which is better avoided. The description of the Power he feels—which is obviously the true ...
... downward. It is this latter which is the first prāṇa of which you became aware. The action of the Power was to widen these two parts of you and raise them up towards the lowest centre of the higher consciousness above your head, so that hereafter they might both be consciously governed from there and that these might both move in a wide universal consciousness not limited by the body.. (3) The other... pressure need not always be there, but if things take the ordinary course, it usually recurs or else continues until the Adhar is open and there is no further obstacle to the descent of the higher consciousness. 18 September 1933 From time to time, I feel a pressure above my head and also in my head and forehead. For the last few days, when I sit for Page 209 meditation, there is... the top of my neck and in the spinal cord. Does this have any value? You can write to him 1 that the pressure he feels on his head is the pressure of the Mother's force (the force of the higher consciousness) preparing an opening through the three upper centres (brahmarandhra, base of sahasradala; inner mind centre in the forehead; and the heart or psychic-emotional centre). The feeling in the spine ...
... insignificant. 52 * Page 47 "The nexus between the psychic being and the higher consciousness is the principal means of the siddhi." Sri Aurobindo, Lights on Yoga Ordinarily is there not a nexus between the psychic being and the higher consciousness? Ordinarily means in the ordinary life? A relation between the psychic being... Yes.... which are not insignificant; all your ordinary reactions, ordinary thoughts, sensations, actions, movements, — all this is very insignificant. It is only at times, when there is a flash of the higher consciousness through the psychic, an opening into something else, a contact with the psychic being (which may last for a second), at that moment, it is not insignificant. Otherwise, all the rest is repeated ...
... All the consciousness in the human being who is the mental embodied in living Matter has to rise so as to meet the higher consciousness; the higher consciousness has also to descend into mind, into life, into Matter. In that way the barriers will be removed and the higher consciousness will be able to take up the whole lower nature and transform it by the power of the supermind. The earth is a ...
... the higher consciousness into this instrumental being and nature. Both aspirations are essential and indispensable for the fullness of this yoga. When the psychic imposes its aspiration on the mind, vital and body, then they too aspire and this is what was felt as the aspiration from the level of the lower being. The aspiration felt above is that of the Jivatman for the higher consciousness with... it does not change into it. The bindu seen above may be a symbolic way of seeing the Jivatman, the portion of the Divine; the aspiration there would naturally be for the opening of the higher consciousness so that the being may dwell there and not in the Ignorance. The Jivatman is already one with the Divine in reality, but what is needed is that the rest of the consciousness should realise it ...
... Page 198 Organisation is a discipline of action, but for Auroville we aspire to go beyond arbitrary and artificial organisation. We want an organisation which is the expression of a higher consciousness working to manifest the truth of the future. Until this group consciousness appears, and until we can work collectively in the true and right way, what should we do? A hierarchical ... should organise one's life not according to outer and artificial rules, but according to an organised inner consciousness, for if one lets life go on without subjecting it to the control of the higher consciousness, it becomes fickle and inexpressive. It is to waste one's time in the sense that matter remains without any conscious utilisation. 5) The whole earth must prepare itself for the advent of... the growth of the collective and individual consciousness. 28 February 1971 To be an Aurovilian one must at least belong to the enlightened portion of humanity and aspire for the higher consciousness which will govern the species of tomorrow. Always higher and always better,―beyond egoistic limitations. February 1971 Page 210 Auroville is not a work of charity. A night ...
... answer that should be given.... It is, so to speak, the practical means to compel the doctor to enter a higher consciousness. That must be the crisis that has come to your brother; he has come to a point when he is imperatively obliged—professionally obliged—to enter a higher consciousness. Page 208 Because, in his present state, he must be lying very badly—he says he is a very good... I have been in search of a doctor, a man with full medical knowledge, knowing all that they now know about the human body and the way to cure it, AND capable of having the contact with the higher consciousness. Because through such an instrument, one could do very, very interesting things—very interesting. 1 ( silence ) There is a domain in which "disease" and "cure" no longer exist, but ...
... itself seek for this desired transformation. It has to grow self-aware of the need for the change and acquire the necessary capacity to bear the transfiguration when it comes. (ii)A higher consciousness acting from above or imposing its influence on the lower part of the being, without the latter's self-conscious and willing collaboration, may indeed modify to some extent the prevailing nature... 'static seizure' of the domains of the spirit in our inner consciousness is not sufficient for the physical transformation; for this to be possible there must occur a dynamic descent of the higher consciousness into our physical nature and a luminous awakening evoked therein in the very body-consciousness itself. Now, it is only the supramental Force, the original and final self-determining... result." 1 Then The Mother adds significantly: "This new vibration in the body has made me understand the mechanism of the transformation. It is not a thing that comes with a Higher Will, a Higher Consciousness imposed upon the body, it is the body itself that wakes up in the cells, it is a freedom of the cells themselves, altogether a new vibration, and the disorders are mended, disorders even ...
... y of its degradation? A base and evil life can only have the effect of separating the outer being more and more completely from the psychic being, which retires into the depths of the higher consciousness and sometimes even cuts off all relation with the body, which is then usually possessed by an asuric or rakshasic being. The psychic being itself is above all possibility of... is to bring peace, silence, liberation from the body sense, the identification with mind and life and open the way for the lower (mental, vital, physical) consciousness to rise up to meet the higher consciousness above and for the powers of the higher (spiritual nature) consciousness to descend into mind, life and body. This is what is called in this yoga the spiritual transformation. If one begins with... physical consciousness also may offer a resistance which is usually that of a fundamental inertia, an obscurity in the very stuff of the physical, an incomprehension, an inability to respond to the higher consciousness, a habit of helplessly responding to the lower mechanically, even when it does not want to do so; both vital and physical suffering may be the consequence. There is, moreover, the ...
... need for the change and acquire the necessary capacity to bear the transfiguring touch when it comes. 5. Sri Aurobindo, On Yoga II, Tome Two, p. 567. Page 228 (2)A higher consciousness acting from above or imposing its influence on any lower part of the being, without the latter's self-conscious and willing collaboration, may indeed modify to some extent the prevailing... 'static seizure' of the domains of the spirit in our inner consciousness is not sufficient for the physical transformation; for that to be possible there must come about a dynamic descent of the higher consciousness into our physical nature and a luminous awakening evoked in the very bosom of body-consciousness itself. Now, it is only the supramental Force, the 'original and final self-determining... Then the Mother adds significantly: "This new vibration in the body has made me understand the mechanism of the transformation. It is not a thing that comes with a Higher Will, a higher consciousness imposed upon the body, it is the body itself that wakes up in the cells, it is a freedom of the cells themselves, altogether a new vibration, and the disorders are mended, disorders even ...
... Consciousness cannot feel at rest and free, if there is no peace. Can silence and peace be established without the descent of the Higher Consciousness? The silence and peace are themselves part of the higher consciousness—the rest comes in the silence and peace. Is it possible to feel peace in the midst of a disturbance in one's being? Of course... quite stable in the beginning — but it returns always till it fixes itself, provided you quietly aspire. From where does the silence come to us? From above — from a higher consciousness in which silence is always the background even of thought and action. We usually speak of complete silence, calm, peace, etc. Will you kindly say something about these so that ...
... want to know if the method adopted for the Force was quite the right one. It is quite the right way. It is very good that you are learning to use the Force. The higher consciousness flows down perpetually with its force. Coming down the nose it has begun to work on my throat. It has then touched the externalising mind centre. During the evening... 140 During the blank state my consciousness shifts its lodging from the inner mind centre to the centre on the top of my head. That is a first entry into the higher consciousness. When the pressure on the temples of the head becomes stronger there comes a spontaneous tendency to soar upwards. It is through the inner mind that one ... only come by the Force as well as the Peace descending." I think I was wrong in taking that the Mother's Force and Peace were already there. You have not said that the Force of the Higher Consciousness has come down and settled itself in the body. It is only now that you are speaking of the descent of that Force. Mother's Force is acting all the time, but that can act upon or through the ordinary ...
... emptiness at the same time? I meant that in the higher consciousness that simultaneous experience was quite natural. It is the same with complete rest and full activity, — experience of infinite impersonality and of the true person. All these (and many other things also) are to the mind incompatible, but in the higher consciousness they go together. In my present state, I... This voidness is a new thing for me. Kindly explain it. The voidness (if by that you mean silence and emptiness of thoughts, movements etc.) is the basic condition into which the higher consciousness can flow. This morning and evening my consciousness was silent and receptive as usual; it received the Mother's grace and at the same time felt a voidness. That is, there was ...
... environmental consciousness. The right consciousness may on the other hand come from above, in the for of a higher consciousness. The "above" too has many levels or planes. The highest of these is called the Supreme Consciousness. There may be added an intermediary level of the higher consciousness which we term in general the Supramental, a consciousness which begins the first step rising beyond the ... must not only become conscious, it must become rightly conscious. My consciousness, the one that stands behind all my action, is not mine, at least not exclusively mine; it is a deeper, wider, higher, consciousness. What works and manifests itself through my personal consciousness is another kind of consciousness. Thus we find ourselves within the realm of spiritual discipline, yoga-sadhana, by following ...
... being, but leave the body and the physical consciousness as it was, or even leave it inert or shake its balance. And the descent of Light is not enough, it must be the descent of the whole higher consciousness, its Peace, Power, Knowledge, Love, Ananda. Moreover, the descent may be enough to liberate, but not to perfect, or it may be enough to make a great change in the inner being, while the outer... sadhana cannot be complete unless it is a supramentalisation of the Page 85 being. Psychicisation is not enough, it is only a beginning; spiritualisation and the descent of the higher consciousness is not enough, it is only a middle term; the ultimate achievement needs the action of the supramental Consciousness and Force. Something less than that may very well be considered enough... Truth-creation for the rest, well, it will be the rest that is all. (Letters on Yoga, p. 13.) * * * The whole of humanity cannot be changed at once. What has to be done is to bring the Higher Consciousness down into the earth-consciousness and establish it there as a constant realised force. Just as mind and life have been established and embodied in Matter, so to establish and embody the ...
... overpowers the reasoning faculty. Sri Aurobindo has answered this question in some of his writings and I think it is necessary for us to understand, side by side, that the attainment of this Higher Consciousness, this Infinite Consciousness, is not something abstract and without any dynamic consequence in life. Sri Aurobindo was not a Guru in the traditional sense; so, he allowed his disciples... what do you do ?" He answered : "When I concentrate I work upon others, upon the world, upon the play of force." (19-12-1934) To a question whether an invisible force—like the force of a Higher Consciousness —can produce tangible results, he wrote : "The invisible Force producing tangible results both inward and outward is the whole meaning of the yogic consciousness.. .Who would be satisfied... true being, the true Self trying to express itself. The constantly awake ideal in the mind, a flame in the heart, a will in the vital repeating "I want to change," "I must widen into the Higher Consciousness", is the sign that the being is active. Page 72 For the practice of yoga it is not necessary to give up life, to renounce things externally. Aspiration—a constant will is ...
... truth to be realized. And because it is the Divine that has allowed the multiplicity and flux of the many and the movement of the universe man has to open his consciousness and ascend to the Higher consciousness and take a permanent station in it. Earth-consciousness would begin to solve its problem when man who is the embodiment of mind, life and body consciousness,—the lower triplicity— consciously... vision of Truth—something that is there as seen, not something that can work and is dynamic ? These questions the mind can ask. One way of solving them is for the mind to make an ascent to the Higher Consciousness and learn the truth. In fact mind is derivative from Supermind. You can see that the process of creation, from being to becoming, from the One to the Many, from the absolute, to the relative... merely avoidance of death of the body, it is participation in the immortality of the Spirit by the instruments of nature. Ordinarily, the mind refuses to accept the possibility of attaining a Higher Consciousness and of transformation of nature. Supermind, on the contrary, working as Truth-Consciousness embraces the whole and unifies the succession of time and divisions of space. When we say Supermind ...
... 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... 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 ...
... with the Page 175 Higher Consciousness uncontrolled And you find as X found that the spiritual man uses foul language : of course, the yogi or the spirit in him is not bound by the rules of decency. That is why such yogis act like Jada, Pishacha or Bala – allowing nature to play freely in them. When one has attained the higher consciousness then, as the Upanishad says, one does... their experiences in mental terms. But that does not mean that they have no real spiritual experience. They do not want to acquire intellectual development; for, they wanted only to reach a Higher consciousness and they are satisfied with that. When you look for things the yogi has never tried to have then you get disappointed like the American lady who objected to Raman Maharshi's spitting and biting ...
... Instead of giving a direct reply he parried the question, as I had grown a beard: "And what has happened to you?” But afterwards in the course of talk he explained to me that when the Higher Consciousness, after descending to the mental level, comes down to the vital and even Page 21 below the vital, then a transformation takes place in the nervous and even in the physical... The main topic was sadhana. When I got up to take leave I asked him: "What are you waiting for?" I put the question because it was clear to me that he had been constantly living in the Higher Consciousness. "It is true," he said, "that the Divine Consciousness has descended but it has not yet descended into the physical being. So long as that is not done the work cannot be said to be accomplished... primarily. What one puts forth generally outside in the form of action is what one internally is. Our first aim is not to work for humanity in the current sense of the term, but to found life on a Higher Consciousness than the present ignorant and limited consciousness of mind, Life and Body. At present, man – I mean the average man – is physical and vital in his nature, using Mind for satisfying his vital ...
... power but by man opening to the higher consciousness, as Aswapathy opened himself and found that the descent of the higher power was taking place in him, and he was able to ascend and descend. With every descent some element of the divine power enters into human nature - more peace, more control, more detachment, more purity. Every time one goes to the higher consciousness, one comes down with some element... is a divine experiment and cosmos is the soul's opportunity. This he realized when he put himself more and more in communication with his inner self; the problem for him was how to bring this higher consciousness and power more and more into life. This knowledge he got, but how to bring the process into Page 47 life? By maintaining the inward turn. And he found that in ...
... Instead of giving a direct reply he parried the question, as I had grown a beard: "And what has happened to you?” But afterwards in the course of talk he explained to me that when the Higher Consciousness, descends from the Page 296 mental level to the vital and even below the vital, then a transformation takes place in the nervous and even in the physical being. He asked... reason for accepting life. In his vision of the Reality Sri Aurobindo shows the rationality and the inevitability of an ascent by man to a higher consciousness than Mind. This ascent to the Higher Consciousness must lead to its descent in man. If the new element, the Supermind, is to become a permanent part of the earth-consciousness, then not only should Page 297 it descend into... topic was sadhana. When I got up to take leave of him I asked him: "What are you waiting for?" I put the question because it was clear to me that he had been constantly living in the Higher Consciousness. "It is true," he said, "that the Divine Consciousness has descended but it has not yet descended into the physical being. So long as that is not done the work cannot be said to be accomplished ...
... contrary to all our “you-can'ts” — they abolish this physical mind for a moment. In fact, all doctors act on this physical mind — sometimes to heal but more often to fix the illness. In our higher consciousness, we make fun of this repetitious, timorous caricature, we scoff at it and send it packing — but it remains beneath, winding its little deaths around, its little illnesses and little accidents... actual fact, once one descends again into matter, it's like water disappearing into sand. Well, things have changed: the body has a direct power, without any external intervention. It's not a higher consciousness that imposes itself on the body: it's the body itself awakening in its cells, it's a freedom of the cells. 61.311 I had a kind of perception of the almost total unimportance of the external... the inner or higher consciousnesses. It entered through the feet.... A highly significant detail, for all the experiences of yogis take place above the head, in the layers of the so-called higher consciousness — Mother worked at the other end. ... A red and gold colour, marvellous, warm, intense. And it rose up and up. And as it rose, so did the fever, because the body was not accustomed to that ...
... growing spontaneity in devotion and surrender, are the most potent means for the opening of the psychic. The second way of opening is "the descent of the higher consciousness through the mind". The higher Page 167 consciousness, descending from above, releases the heart-centre and opens the psychic. This happens in cases in which the emotional being is not much developed, and the... mind, vital, body to the Divine, for the love and union with the Divine, for Its presence and power within the heart, for the transformation of the mind, life and body by the descent of the higher consciousness into this instrumental being and nature."¹ It is quite possible that, emphasising its tendency to peace and silence, the psychic may turn to the immutable Self and merge in its vast freedom ...
... with his work of correspondence etc., what about undivines and inframentals like us? [ Underlining "contemporaneously with his work of correspondence": ] It does not mean that I lose the higher consciousness while doing the work of correspondence. If I did that, I would not only not be supramental, but would be very far even from the full Yogic consciousness. Say "by correspondence alone". If... The work is the work of the Divine and it is best to regard oneself as an instrument. The word mission is apt to accentuate the sense of ego and should be avoided. 5 January 1935 The higher consciousness keeps contact with me only through my passive self. If I do more work, it disturbs the higher working. I don't know what the cause of this is. There is no special cause for it. It is always ...
... replied that every day should be considered as the 15th. That is the right attitude. Every day should be regarded as a day when a descent may take place or a contact established with the higher consciousness. Then the 15th itself would be more successful. 4 August 1934 As to the 15th August, well, don't lay too much stress on it which is after all more a general than a personal occasion—for... discouraged by what you call the evaporation of the consciousness that you got on the darshan day. It has not evaporated but drawn back from the surface. That usually happens, when there is not the higher consciousness or some experience. What you have to learn is not to allow depression, but remain quiet allowing time for the assimilation Page 523 and ready for fresh experience or growth whenever ...
... I do not mean that these movements are not to be rejected—but all the energy should not be directed solely to rejection. It must also be directed to the positive replacement of them by the higher consciousness. The more this consciousness comes, the easier also will the rejection be. 19 November 1933 Your condemnation of asceticism is often taken by the vital as giving sanction to the continuation... seek in the ordinary life. The spiritual life has nothing to do with these things. One is here only for two things, to realise the Divine and to transform the consciousness and nature into the higher consciousness and nature. That is what the Power that works on you intends and nothing else. The influence upon you which struggles against it has to disappear and no more be a part of your nature. 8 June ...
... presence are indispensable—for it would be impossible otherwise to go through it without much stumbling and error which would prevent all chance of success. The Master is one who has risen to a higher consciousness and being and he is often regarded as its manifestation or representative. He not only helps by his teaching and still more by his influence and example but by a power to communicate his own... away from his central purpose. The one aim of his Yoga is an inner self-development by which each Page 549 one who follows it can in time discover the one Self in all and evolve a higher consciousness than the mental, a spiritual and supramental consciousness which will transform and divinise human nature. February 1934 Page 550 ...
... —the heart and the navel centre and the two below the navel. Also the mind and vital are not abolished—they are brought under the psychic influence and psychicised, or they are occupied by the higher consciousness from above and transformed into its instruments. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The System of the Chakras Is there a psychic being in the atom? No, it is not yet there.... through the psychic; because the psychic consciousness is certainly the medium with the greatest affinity with the divine Truth. Later, when one has emerged from the mental consciousness into a higher consciousness beyond the mind, beyond even the higher mind, and when one opens oneself to the Overmind regions, and through the Overmind to the Supermind, one can receive inspirations directly. And naturally ...
... with the human consciousness as it is harmony is impossible. It is always what I have told you, that the human consciousness is defective and simply impossible—and that is why I strive for a higher consciousness to come and set right the disturbed balance. I am glad you are getting converted to silence, and even Nirvana is not without its uses—in my case it was the first positive spiritual experience... the pure experience of the Self. Your mind accustomed to all sorts of movements looks at it in a negative way, that is all. 22 September 1934 I found it difficult to read, because the higher consciousness was trying to come down and I felt much pressure on the head. It ought to be possible to read with the inner consciousness looking on and, as it were, seeing the act of reading. In the condition ...
... consciousness. 5 May 1930 Sadhana for the Earth Consciousness Does not the "earth consciousness" include all humanity? And also animals, the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, etc.? Will the higher consciousness be established only in a few people? Yes, all that is the earth consciousness—mineral = matter, vegetable = the vital-physical creation, animal = the vital creation, man = the mental creation... and do not propose to start now. It would be mere words to the mind which would be likely to make its own wrong constructions about it. Page 284 The sadhak should first get the higher consciousness down and know something by experience of the higher planes before trying to know what is the Supermind. 10 January 1936 Somewhere you said that it would be sufficient for most sadhaks ...
... change. 116 * This psychic development and the psychic change of mind, vital and physical consciousness is of the utmost importance because it makes safe and easy the descent of the higher consciousness and the spiritual transformation without which the supramental must always remain far distant. Powers etc. have their place, but a very minor one so long as this is not done. 117 * ... is to bring peace, silence, liberation from the body sense, the identification with mind and life and open the way for the lower (mental, vital, physical) consciousness to rise up to meet the higher consciousness above and for the powers of the higher (spiritual nature) consciousness to descend into mind, life and body. This is what is called in this yoga the spiritual transformation. If one begins with ...
... have attained a certain higher consciousness who have the right to govern—not others, regardless of their social class. This would be the true vision. All those who participate in the experiment should be absolutely convinced that the highest consciousness is the best judge of the most material things. What has ruined India is this idea that the higher consciousness deals with higher things ...
... things, but to give the body the possibility of being strong and supple enough to express a higher consciousness. 2.6.1970 * Q : Divine Mother, there is great confusion concerning Auroville's organisation, inner as well as outer. How can we work together towards the realisation of a higher consciousness? In order to realise a greater sense of unity would it be possible for all the inhabitants ...
... 5 March 1951 Mother reads a passage about natural calamities ( Questions and Answers 1929 , 5 May ). Why do disasters occur? Because a higher consciousness wants to manifest itself in the world, and man and Nature resist it. This is partly true. But I don't think Nature has this feeling. When there is an earthquake, for instance, or a volcano... level far above the level which governs the material world and, from this high level, the Force can descend and cancel all the material consequences. If one realises a certain truth in the higher consciousness but the mind resists, should the mind be forced to accept this new truth? If you succeed in forcing it, very well. But it is not so easy. It is not enough to decide to force it for this ...
... vital or the mental worlds as in the physical world. For example, those who are in the physical consciousness have the impression that shiftings in the mind are instantaneous—compared with the higher consciousness they are not instantaneous, but compared with the physical consciousness, they are instantaneous, of an extreme rapidity. The beings of the mental world also have an individuality of their... or preconceived will has no value from the spiritual point of view. But were you not in a state, so to say, "favourable" to this sensation? There are people who live constantly in a higher consciousness, while others have to make an effort to enter there. But here it is an altogether different thing; in the experience I was speaking about, what gave it all its value was that I was not expecting ...
... into contact with one's psychic being. Sweet Mother, here Sri Aurobindo says: "The nexus between the psychic being and the higher consciousness is the principal means of the siddhi." Ordinarily is there not a nexus between the psychic being and the higher consciousness? Page 268 Ordinarily means in the ordinary life? A relation between the psychic being... Yes. It is almost ...
... recognise whatever is or has been a wrong movement in any part of the nature,—wrong idea, wrong feeling, wrong speech, wrong action,—and by wrong is meant what departs from the Truth, from the higher consciousness and higher self, from the way of the Divine. Once recognised it is admitted,—not glossed over or defended,—and it is offered to the Divine for the Light and Grace to descend and substitute for... on the surface, there will be no violent reaction and they can be rejected with more ease. The sadhak has to keep his quietude and faith and equanimity in all conditions—even when the higher consciousness and experience are not there. One has to proceed on a basis of firm quietude and equanimity with a steady aspiration. It is only if there is a vital excitement that progress becomes a ...
... he rest is good only if it is a means of manifestation of the soul's love. The soul's love and joy come from within from the psychic being. What comes from above is the Ananda of the higher consciousness. Page 336 The love that belongs to the spiritual planes is of a different kind—the psychic has its own more personal love, bhakti, surrender. Love in the higher or spiritual... opening of the heart came you began to associate it with vital enjoyment and turned it upon others instead of turning the love towards the Divine and keeping its essential purity—so also the higher consciousness when it came down was being dispersed in mental movements. This time they were both coming in a purer form, but the danger of the mental and vital forces catching hold of them is still there ...
... the rest of the being to greater things, sometimes to the cosmic consciousness, sometimes to the experience of the silent Self, sometimes to the presence or power of the Divine, sometimes to a higher consciousness than that of the human mind; the mind's silence is the most favourable condition for any of these things to happen. In this Yoga it is the most favourable condition (not the only one) for the... loses the inner contact. If it is psychic, the inner contact remains, the Force is felt supporting or doing the work and the sadhana progresses. The Force from above is the Force of the Higher Consciousness. That from behind works as a mental, vital or physical force according to need. When the being is open to it and there is a certain passivity to its working, it takes the place of the personal ...
... aggrandised through pride and wrong reception of the experience. Also by entering into the larger mental and vital planes one may aggrandise the ego. These things are always possible so long as the higher consciousness and the lower are not harmonised in the being and the lower transformed into the nature of the higher. The first result of the downflow of the overmind forces is very often to exaggerate... intermediate Yogic experiences will not, that has been amply proved by a host of instances. You need not therefore compare that wealth to your poverty. To open yourself to the descent of the higher consciousness (the true being) is the one thing needed and that, even if that comes after long effort and many failures, is better than a hectic gallop leading nowhere. You have missed my rather veiled ...
... By going deep [ in meditation ] one person may see visions; another may fall in deeper consciousness but see no vision—and so on. The result varies with the nature. Yes, it [ the higher consciousness ] can come down into the mind planes bringing peace, wideness, the cosmic consciousness, the realisation of the Divine, the sense of the cosmic forces and other things—without any breaking of... If that were not possible, how could the transformation take place—the lower Page 88 nature cannot change of itself, it changes by the growing vision, perception, descent of the higher consciousness belonging to the higher planes? It is through aspiration, through an increasing opening that these visions and perceptions begin to come—the realisation comes afterwards. Sensing Supraphysical ...
... at all possible—for the Overmind is the passage through which one passes from mind to Supermind. The Overmind and the Kāraṇa Deha The kāraṇa deha may be simply a form answering to the higher consciousness (overmental, intuitive etc.) and I suppose a being could be there working in that consciousness and body. It is not likely to be the supramental being and supramental body—for in that case the... myself, either unrealised or only an influence mostly subjective. The Dividing Aspect of the Overmind There are no Overmind dangers—it is only the lower consciousness misusing overmind or higher consciousness intimations that can make a danger. There are also no Overmind Falsehoods. The Overmind is part of the Ignorance in this sense that it is the highest knowledge to which the Ignorance can attain ...
... experience would be called psychological (surface or occult). "Spiritual" has nothing to do with the Absolute, except that the experience of the Absolute is spiritual. All contacts with self, the higher consciousness, the Divine above are spiritual. There are others that could not be so sharply classified and set off against each other. The spiritual realisation is of primary importance and in dispensable... people call a miracle is only something done in a striking way by a process unknown to them which their minds cannot follow. I have explained that there is no such thing as a miracle. If a higher consciousness opens a higher power in him, the sadhak has to use it as part of the new consciousness but in the right way, without egoism, selfishness, vanity or pride. Magic Jādu (magic) is a special ...
... behind there is the consciousness of the Divine always. A time must come when the reading as well as any other outward occupation does not interfere with the presence or activity of the higher consciousness. The reading must learn to accommodate itself to the pressure [ of sadhana ]—that is, be done by the outer mind while the inner being remains in concentration. That is good. Reading... reading is not helpful to the sadhana and is at best a concession to the vital which is not yet ready to be absorbed in the sadhana—unless and until one is able to read in the right way with a higher consciousness which is not only not "disturbed" by the reading or distracted by it from the concentrated Yoga-consciousness but is able to make the right use of what is read from the point of view of the ...
... comes from two sources, the psychic behind the heart and the higher consciousness from above the head. Your nature has always been very self-centred and the mind active—in such a nature it is easier for the higher mind to act than for the psychic. The Mind and the Lower Nature It is necessary first to found the higher consciousness in the mind and heart. To deal with the lower nature before ...
... of itself. But when these different parts are all under the control of the psychic and turned by it towards the reception of the higher consciousness, then there begins the harmonisation of all the parts and their progressive recasting into moulds of the higher consciousness growing in peace, light, force, love, knowledge, Ananda which is what we call the transformation. Page 355 The ...
... prolong its opposite. Page 549 All illnesses are obviously due to the imperfect nature of the body and the physical nature. The body can be immune only when it is open to the higher consciousness and the latter can descend into it. Till then what he writes is the remedy—if he can also call in the force to throw out the illness, that is the most powerful help possible. It is only... of the physical consciousness, while the right reaction in the lower vital brings on the contrary a sense of peace, release, quietude which definitely opens the lowest physical parts to the higher consciousness and force. If you can get over this and get back the old poise, then all these things can be made to disappear. X was of course right from the medical point of view in recommending exe ...
... be done and all will surely be done. This purification is made just in order that no trouble may occur in the future such as happened to some because they were not purified—in order that the higher consciousness may come into a purified nature and the inner transformation securely take place. Go on therefore with faith and courage putting your reliance on the Mother. These questionings and d... growth in consciousness—and not invite battle—though, if a struggle is forced on you, you must meet it with calm and courage. No objection—it is a very good thing to keep working in the higher consciousness. It is more effective than struggling all the time down below with the lower forces. There is no objection to doing the sadhana, but it must be done quietly without this constant struggle ...
... physical consciousness also may offer a resistance which is usually that of a fundamental inertia, an obscurity in the very stuff of the physical, an incomprehension, an inability to respond to the higher consciousness, a habit of helplessly responding to the lower mechanically, even when it does not want to do so; both vital and physical suffering may be the consequence. There is moreover the resistance of... the world, but that is after all the very reason why Yoga has to be done. If the world were all happy and beautiful and ideal, who would want to change it or find it necessary to bring down a higher consciousness into earthly Mind and Matter? Your other argument is that the work of the Yoga itself is difficult, not easy, not a happy canter to the goal. Of course it is, because the world and human nature ...
... descends or expands slowly conquering each layer of the being one after the other, but each step takes time. All comes in its time. One has to go on quietly and steadily increasing the higher consciousness till it takes possession of the vital and physical parts. I want you to be open and in contact with the Peace and Presence and Force. All else will come if that is there and then one... in the heart which opens the inner emotional being. Another is the concentration in the head of which I spoke which opens the inner mind or opens the passage through the Brahmarandhra to the higher consciousness. These things are no fantastic invention of mine which one can dismiss as a new-fangled and untested absurdity; they are recognised methods which have succeeded in thousands of cases and here ...
... symbol of the spiritual consciousness in higher Mind one and indivisible. Normally, the ocean of higher consciousness is above the head (mind) and all below is that of the lower consciousness. Your seeing of the two oceans rather means that in the descent the influence of the higher consciousness reaches down to the heart (emotional being with the psychic behind it), but does not yet reach below ...
... nature), emotional etc. The ceiling (yellow) may be the intellect or thinking mind which walls one in and prevents from getting into the open spaces of the higher consciousness. But through all a way lies to the open way of the higher consciousness full of peace, light and Ananda. Temple The temple means religious feeling, worship, adoration, consecration. It is a temple and the temple is ...
... it a chance. Do not give it a chance. Do not give it a room to live in if it comes. Depression should not be indulged, for all who do the Yoga have difficulties with their ego; but the higher consciousness will always prevail with a true aspiration. Do not allow yourself to admit any movement of vital depression, still less a depressed condition. As for the external being, it is always... full of them; to become aware of them is necessary for the transformation, but it must be done with a quiet mind and with the faith and surrender to the Divine and assured aspiration to the higher consciousness which are proper to the psychic being. The transformation of the external being is the most difficult part of the Yoga and it demands faith, patience, quietude and firm determination. It is ...
... think oneself unfit. It is easier for most to realise the Divine or enter into the psychic consciousness than to change this part of the nature; but once the psychic consciousness governs or the higher consciousness descends then it is much easier for these to go. You must not therefore be discouraged by these recurrences or persistences, but try always to stand back in an inner quietude and if they come... the tendency to anger can entirely disappear. When it is the psychic that rules all the movements of the being, then it [ anger ] completely disappears and when the equanimity of the higher consciousness takes complete possession of the Page 274 lower vital. Till then one can establish a control, diminish and reduce it to a touch that has no outward effect or a wave that passes without ...
... of the higher consciousness to which those workings belong and to which man rises in his ascent; universal and all-knowing they destroy these enemies who are the forces of egoism and limiting ignorance. True in their being, they are the powers that possess and touch the Truth in each individual being; leaders of the journey and the battle they create the wideness of that higher consciousness even out ...
... থাক ৷ 9.2.34 Persevere in this attitude of firmness and courage. এই দৃঢ়তা ও সাহসের ভাবকে সব সময় ধরে থাক ৷ 9.2.34 (Red Lotus) — The Divine Harmony. (Blue Light) — The Higher Consciousness. (Golden Temple) — The Temple of the Divine Truth. স্থির ধীর হয়ে থাক, তবে তােমার বাহিরেও, তােমার বহিঃপ্রকৃতিতে, তােমার জীবনে আস্তে আস্তে এই সকল ফলবে ৷ 12.2.34 বাধা সকলের থাকে... ক্ষেত্রে) তার পর হৃদয়ে (emotional vital ও psychicএ) তার পরে নাভিতে ও নাভির নীচে (vital) শেষে সমস্ত physicalকে ব্যাপ্ত করে ৷ 28.3.36 নীল আলাে আমার, সাদা আলাে মায়ের – যখন ঊর্ধচেতনা (higher consciousness) বিশ্বময় ভাব নিয়ে আধারে প্রথম নামতে আরম্ভ করে তখন নীল আলাে খুব দেখা স্বাভাবিক ৷ 28.3.36 ভিতরে মায়ের সঙ্গে যুক্ত হয়ে থাকতে হয় আর সেখান থেকে বাহিরের প্রকৃতির বাধা দোষ ত্রুটি দেখতে ...
... ( long silence ) I remembered the time when Sri Aurobindo was here.... You see, the inner part of the being used to enter into a consciousness that felt and saw things according to the higher consciousness—they were quite different; then, when Sri Aurobindo fell ill, in fact, when there were all those things, first that accident (he broke his leg 2 )... then the body, the BODY used to say constantly... would say, "Yes, up above, that's the way it is, but here..." Now the "but here" will soon cease to be. This tremendous change is what's being conquered, so physical life may be ruled by the higher consciousness and not by the mental world. It's the change of authority.... It's difficult. It's hard. It's painful. There is some damage done, naturally, but... But truly, one can see—one can see. And that's ...
... vital and the physical ? Sri Aurobindo has shown that the consciousness and force necessary for the integration of the being resides not in the mental, vital or physical components but in a higher consciousness which both transcends and is immanent in the three aspects of our being, - in the spiritual dimension of our being. The spiritual, according to Sri Aurobindo, is "the true foundation of... forces apparent Page 267 and hidden that move us. In this attempt to be conscious of all the parts of our being, we discover our spiritual being as well. This higher consciousness of the spirit is knowledge as well as power and holds the key to a total healing and integration of the being. He views the problem also from the evolutionary perspective. He looks ...
... also could be seen in his, new supramentalised body. A number of persons come, offer their salutations to Sri Aurobindo and disappear, signifying that most people cannot stay in a state of higher consciousness for a long time, their visits are only momentary. Each one has his own unique way of doing “Pranam”, one of them even formulates a variety of “Mudras”. All-these reveal one truth or another... multi-faceted development of the human personality. The last person, after doing the “Pranam”, Chants “OM”—the word symbolising the “Brahman”—which appears to bring down the golden light of the higher consciousness. This person ultimately seems to expand and merge into the gross universe. The Mother now leads Champaklal in the new world, towards the Divine Truth symbolised by the golden sun. The saviour ...
... a new era initiating the transformation of the human race into a race of higher beings he also called “supermen”, and as these higher beings would populate a new world, the expression of the higher consciousness which they would embody, it could be said that in broad outline Hitler’s vision was the shadow of Sri Aurobindo’s vision. Considerations of this sort have indeed led some to declare Hitler an... Hitler had left the earthly stage? In contrast with this terrible prospect of a world ruled by racial robots, Sri Aurobindo stressed the crucial importance of the individual, always of a higher consciousness than the group or the mass, and the centre or “dynamo” of the cosmic forces in humanity. “The communal mind holds things subconsciously at first or, if consciously, then in a confused chaotic ...
... on Earth: the human species has reached its ceiling; because of the irresistible evolutionary impulse in it, its soul has called for the manifestation on Earth of a higher consciousness in a new material form; this higher consciousness, in this case the supramental Unity-consciousness, has answered from its own typal world where it is already a part of the infinite Self-manifestation; and to render ...
... between our species of “animal man,” as Sri Aurobindo and the Mother called it, and the supramental being. In the course of the evolution of life on Earth the formation of a species with a higher consciousness, succeeding Homo sapiens , is inevitable. Between the primates and Homo sapiens in its various appearances the gap was enormous; between Homo sapiens and the supramental being the gap is... this, he was convinced that this is what we have to do.” 10 The Manifestation of the Supermind The avataric task of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother consisted in bringing down a new, higher consciousness into the Earth atmosphere: the consciousness of the Supermind. Life on Earth is still predominantly the fiefdom of the “hostile powers,” which are the direct descendants of the Inconscient from ...
... who have attained a certain higher consciousness who have the right to govern―not others, regardless of their social class. This would be the true vision. All those who participate in the experiment should be absolutely convinced that the highest consciousness is the best judge of the most material things. What has ruined India is this idea that the higher consciousness deals with higher things ...
... that the lesson might be learnt. I remembered the time when Sri Aurobindo was there.... Well, the inner part of the being was in a consciousness that felt, that saw things according to the higher consciousness: altogether different; and then, just when Sri Aurobindo fell ill and when there were all those things, first of all the accident (he broke Page 226 his thigh)... then the body... "Yes, up there it is so, but here..." Now the "but here" very soon will no longer be. This is the conquest that is being done, this tremendous change: that physical life must be governed by the higher consciousness and not by the mental world. It is a change over of authority.... It is difficult. It is hard. It is painful. Naturally there is breakage, but... But truly one can see—one can see. And that ...
... like a fool." That's new. ( silence ) We could say this: if you compare the consciousness, not of ordinary humanity but the higher consciousness of humanity, the consciousness one has when one is a man and endeavors to come into contact with the higher consciousness (the contact one has with it), if you compare that with this Consciousness, you feel that as soon as the human consciousness tried ...
... grand organ, and someone (whom I am trying to prepare, who can play the organ very well and whom I am trying to prepare inwardly) was playing (I SAW that, I saw it), playing the music of the higher Consciousness. It was a place where all those who wanted to come and listen could do so; some people came from far away, they came in, sat down, listened, and then went away And this music was like a Con... Future. Organization is a discipline of action, but for Auroville we aspire to go beyond organizations, which are arbitrary and artificial. We want an organization that is the expression of a higher consciousness working for the manifestation of the Truth of the Future. 3) Until we have a common consciousness and the true and correct way of working collectively is in operation, what should we do ...
... reached a higher consciousness would have the right to govern, whatever class they belong to—and no others. Page 106 That would be the true vision. But all those participating in the experience would have to be absolutely convinced that the highest consciousness is the best judge of the MOST MATERIAL THINGS. You see, what has ruined India is this idea that the higher consciousness has to ...
... remember (I don't know how to put it), made the body remember its universality, and as if it weren't only for itself that the body is expressing movements of consciousness—the movements of the higher Consciousness that it expresses: the effect is general. We'll know that. We'll know all that... later, in... But the body has a strange sensation, really strange, of being as vast as the earth, even... expressed, because that's not the true way of saying it), but there's something like this: a sort of inner identity expressing itself in the plane... ( Mother searches for words )... In the higher Consciousness, it has an effect. I don't know how to put it. And in that consciousness, the strange thing is the importance of one minute, which to our consciousness is nothing—there it has an importance ...
... I say that because there is confusion in many people's minds. When, from the standpoint of progress, for instance, I speak of progress, I mean "going from the mental consciousness to a higher consciousness," but people generally understand "to make progress materially or mentally or..." So when they are told of transformation, all kinds of queer things come to their minds.... As for us, when we... consciousness, but the other person doesn't have their consciousness! Therefore they can't judge (I am only talking about people of goodwill, of course). To the vision of a more complete or higher consciousness, someone else is in error, but to the person himself, he's doing as best as he can what he thinks he has to do. Which amounts to saying that it's absolutely impossible to blame someone who ...
... there is no clear order or rule. In the yoga one becomes aware of the different parts and their proper action, and puts each in its place and to its proper action under the control of the higher Consciousness.... Letters on Yoga, p. 330 Page 49 ...we have to make clear the distinction, ignored in ordinary speech, between the manas, mind, and buddhi, the discerning intelligence... own to replace them. One has then constantly to reject this invasion. By constant rejection, the force of recurrence finally dwindles and the individual becomes free and able to bring the higher consciousness and its movements into the physical being. Letters on Yoga, pp. 1434-35 Classification It must be remembered that while this classification is indispensable for ...
... Presence are indispensable—for it would be impossible otherwise to go through it without much stumbling and error which would prevent all chance of success. The Master is one who has risen to a higher consciousness and being and he is often regarded as its manifestation or representative. He not only helps by his teaching and still more by his influence and example but by a power to communicate his own... Page 159 lead away from his central purpose. The one aim of his Yoga is an inner self-development by which each one who follows it can in time discover the One Self in all and evolve a higher consciousness than the mental, a spiritual and supramental consciousness which will transform and divinize human nature. Sri Aurobindo's Teaching and Method of Practice (On Himself, SABCL Vol. ...
... not in the human way — according to His will, not according to the will of men. The Lord is always present, only we do not realise it. When somebody lives in a higher Consciousness, the vibrations of this higher Consciousness are manifested in whatever this person does, says or thinks. These higher vibrations are manifested by the very fact of the presence of this person upon earth. It ...
... the world, but that is after all the very reason why Yoga has to be done. If the world were all happy and beautiful and ideal, who would want to change it or find it necessary to bring down a higher consciousness into the earthly Mind and Matter? Your other argument is that the work of the Yoga itself is difficult, not easy, not a happy canter to the goal. Of course it is, because the world and human... poems on vital love. I could not do it now (for if I wrote of love, it would be the psychic and spiritual feeling)—not because I have narrowed or deteriorated, but I have centred myself in a higher consciousness and anything merely vital would not express me. It must be the same with anyone who changes his level of consciousness. Can one say of the man who has grown out of childishness and no longer ...
... merely religious devotees, we have to develop in ourselves the higher spiritual corn sciousness as a first necessity. But what is the form and nature of this higher consciousness? Let us listen to Sri Aurobindo: "The higher consciousness is a concentrated consciousness, concentrated in the Divine Unity and in the working out of the Divine Will, not dispersed and rushing about after this or ...
... on the victory in the matter of sex—it is very important to have that when the intense definitive experiences are beginning. For if once the actual penetrative descent is felt, the less the higher consciousness is met by the sex force the better, for then a dangerous mixture may take place or else a struggle which is better avoided. The description of the Power he feels—which is obviously the true... purified and strengthened by it that there is in oneself no response to anything hostile. If there is a protecting envelopment, an inner purifying descent and, as a result, a settling of the higher consciousness in the inner being and finally, its substitution even in the most external outwardly active parts in place of the old ignorant consciousness, then the world and the hostile forces will no longer ...
... Instead of giving a direct reply he parried the question; as I had grown a beard he asked: "And what has happened to you?" But afterwards in the course of our talk he explained to me that when the Higher Consciousness, after descending to the mental level, comes down to the vital and even below the vital, then a transformation takes place in the nervous and even in the physical being....' I shall now turn... disciples were receiving blessings from their Supreme Master and the Mother in one little corner of the earth. The significance of the occasion was far greater than that. It was certain that a Higher Consciousness had descended on earth. In that deep silence had burgeoned forth, like the sprout of a banyan tree, the beginning of a mighty spiritual work. This momentous occasion carried its significance ...
... even when the mind or the vital are after these deeper things. There is a flower called "Aspiration in the Physical", what does it mean? Aspiration means aspiration for the Divine, for higher consciousness etc. February 3, 1937 About Mulshankar's vomiting, Manilal says that it is there from his birth, it has nothing to do with the accident. I wonder if it is the result of too much... that from him as I thought Power, Peace, vastness, etc., come from the spiritual consciousness from above... Power can be everywhere, on any plane. What descends from above is power of the higher Consciousness—but there is a Power of the vital, mental, physical planes also. Power is not a special characteristic of the psychic or of the spiritual plane. February 16, 1937 So you also fail ...
... an interference. As a process, as a passage needed for a time, for a special purpose and under special circumstances, it was necessary and welcome. But circumstances have changed. The higher consciousness has not to remain always high but to become level with the normal. Either the higher must come down and mingle totally with the lower, or the lower has to rise and merge altogether into the... even coercion might be needed or inevitable. But that stage passed, the higher realisation has to be the natural expression of ordinary earth-life: its normal state has to be the state of the higher consciousness, its life naturally moved by its self-nature expressing its own truth. If there is to be a Divine destiny for earth, it must be because of its free choice. There must be no pressure or ...
... Page 83 the subject chosen are conveyed by the mind to the higher Consciousness. The mind receives a response from that Consciousness and conveys it through the word. This is what generally happens in all teachings, provided that the one who teaches has the capacity to pass the question on to the higher Consciousness—a capacity not always present. I should tell you that the second ...
... eternal portion of the Divine, one with the Divine and yet not dissolved and lost in it. The psychic Page 21 being is thus on the one hand in direct contact with the Divine and the higher consciousness, and on the other it is the secret upholder and controller (bhart ā , antary ā min) of the inferior consciousness, the hidden nucleus round which the body and the life and the mind of the... and its release from the obscurity and limitation of the inferior Prakriti, confined to the lower threefold status, into what is behind and beyond; it means also a return of the deeper and higher consciousness upon the lower hemisphere and a consequent purification and illumination and regeneration of the latter. Page 22 Finally, when the psychic being is in full self-possession and ...
... that is above, an eternal portion of the Divine, one with the Divine and yet not dissolved and lost in it. The psychic being is thus on the one hand in direct contact with the Divine and the higher consciousness, and on the other it is the secret upholder and controller (bharta, antaryamin) of the inferior consciousness, the hidden nucleus round which the body and the life and the mind of the individual... Page 21 from the obscurity and limitation of the inferior Prakriti, confined to the lower threefold status, into what is behind and beyond; it means also a return of the deeper and higher consciousness upon the lower hemisphere and a consequent purification and illumination and regeneration of the latter. Fin ally, when the psychic being is in full self-possession and power, it can be the ...
... or I fall into a half-dream state, although keeping my consciousness for a time attentive. It is not necessary to fix the consciousness anywhere. When you begin to participate in the higher consciousness, you will find it diffuse, englobing everything and without any particular centre. One makes for oneself one's own centre (above the head). In the beginning, what you are doing is natural ;... mulddhara the force proceeds downwards towards the legs and feet or permeates the whole physical consciousness. But the centre of consciousness, which appears as separate in meditation from the higher consciousness, is felt where I said. Now there is something I don't understand. When I meditated with Mother last Tuesday the divine force came down. But what is the part of either you or Mother in ...
... that is above, an eternal portion of the Divine, one with the Divine and yet not dissolved and lost in it. The psychic being is thus on the one hand in direct contact with the Divine and the higher consciousness, and on the other it is the secret upholder and controller' (bharta, antaryamin) of the inferior consciousness, the hidden nucleus round which the body and the life and the mind of the individual... Page-13 from the obscurity and limitation of the inferior Prakriti, confined to the lower threefold status, into what is behind and beyond; it means also a return of the deeper and higher consciousness upon the lower hemisphere and a consequent purification and illumination and regeneration of the latter. Finally, when the psychic being is in full self-possession and power, it can be the vehicle ...
... supple and elastic, tempered, refined and enriched it; that is comparable to what we call the aspiration or call from below. Now the Grace must descend and fulfil. And when one rises into this higher consciousness beyond the brain and mind, when one lives there habitually, one knows the why and the how of things, one becomes a perfectly conscious operator and still retains all spontaneity and freshness... spontaneity of instinct, there is likewise also a spontaneity of vision: a child is spontaneous in its movements, even so a seer. Not only so, the higher spontaneity is more spontaneous, for the higher consciousness means not only Page 90 awareness but the free and untrammeled activity and expression of the truth and reality it is. Genius had to be generally more or less unconscious in ...
... question posed and the subject chosen are conveyed by the mind to the higher Consciousness. The mind receives a response from that Consciousness and conveys it through the word. This is what generally happens in all teachings, provided that the one who teaches has the capacity to pass the question on to the higher Consciousness – a capacity not always present. I should tell you that the second method ...
... Truth we want to attain. The idea, no doubt, has its utility; it becomes for the time being the focal point of the progressive energies of our nature. But as soon as our mind opens into a higher consciousness and new truths begin to dawn upon it, it must know how to give up its preconceived ideas, its rigid constructions, and hail the new truths. Without this readiness to renounce the old, limited... heights. This inert, mechanical persistence of the ego in the physical consciousness is considerably due to its roots being in the obscure regions of the subconscient, where the light of the higher consciousness does not reach and act. The way to eliminate this ego is not, therefore, an aversion to action and a retreat into the depths, but a constant and conscious Page 320 offering ...
... emotion has two sides which are possible only to a consciousness that has a power of double identification,—an identification with the life of ignorance here, and an identification with the Higher consciousness above. When he comes to view the human, he brings with him the supporting and sustaining sympathy, faith and love from Above; and when he sees the labour of the Gods in the midst of this human... The intensity of the experience of Delight and Power and its transforming influence penetrating right upto the physical body is vivid here. If this one gives us an experience of the higher consciousness and its nearness with at! the exaltation that accompanies it, there is another type in which Aswapathy comes down to his physical consciousness from Trance,—after the intense experience on ...
... not yet aware, but which must also open in time. It is this that has happened in your last experience. What you felt as a part of you, yourself but not your physical self, rising to meet the higher consciousness above, was this inner being; it was your (inner) higher vital being which rose in that way to join the highest self above — and it was able to do so because the work of purifying the outer vital... vital nature had begun in earnest. Each time there is a purification of the outer nature, it becomes more possible for the inner being to reveal itself, to become free and to open to the higher consciousness above. When this happens, several other things can happen at the same time. First, one becomes aware of the silent Self above — free, wide, without limits, pure, untroubled by the mental, vital ...
... tried to cabin the "supramental" in the customary "mental" moulds, Sri Aurobindo said: All fundamental change will be inner and not outer. That is to say, we shall have attained a higher consciousness and all we do will proceed from that consciousness.... The one thing that Sadhana has done for me is that it has destroyed alt "isms" from my mind. If you had asked this question a... .After the blessings, in the same silence there was a short meditation. In the interval of silent meditation and blessings many had distinct experiences. ... It was certain that a Higher Consciousness had descended on earth.... Sri Aurobindo and the Mother went inside. Immediately Datta was inspired. In that silence she spoke: "The Lord has descended into the physical today." 59 ...
... the whole thing, he went on teaching me and impressed upon my mind the working of the Higher Consciousness — the Truth-Consciousness in general — which leads towards the Supermind. He would not leave until he had put it all into my head." Sri Aurobindo disclosed, "I had no idea about things of the Higher Consciousness. I never expected him and yet he came to teach me. And he was exact and precise even ...
... naturally exceed that which has been recorded by the most inspired men. But they will differ from the latter in that they will not have to take recourse to asceticism to attain to and maintain a higher consciousness. The catharsis of which visionaries have made a strict rule has, in effect, as objective to enable them to raise themselves above Nature—while in the case of the new beings this perception will... the newly rising Sun. This can only be done, in human terms, with an inexhaustible perseverance covering a long period of time, even should the action possess the brightness of lightning for a higher consciousness. We can doubt or deny, nevertheless, things will be accomplished. We who today attempt to confine Time in mathematical formulae live, as it were, in slow motion what, with another consciousness ...
... nature), emotional etc. The ceiling (yellow) may be the intellect or thinking mind which walls one in and prevents from getting into the open spaces of the higher Consciousness. But through all a way lies to the open way of the higher Consciousness full of peace, light and Ananda. Sri Aurobindo ...
... emotional etc. The ceiling (yellow) may be the intellect or thinking mind which walls one in and prevents [one] from getting into the open spaces of the higher consciousness. But through all a way lies to the open way of the higher Consciousness full of peace, light and Ananda. 16.3.1935 Sri Aurobindo ...
... A Greater Psychology 12 The Superconscient: Gradations of the Higher Consciousness We become aware, in a certain experience, of a range of being superconscient to all these three [the waking consciousness, the subconscient and the subliminal], aware too of something, a supreme highest Reality sustaining and exceeding them all, which humanity speaks of... that other way of our mind at its keenest and swiftest, a rapid hazardous divination and insight, a play of the searchlight of intelligence probing into the little known or the unknown. This higher consciousness is a Knowledge formulating itself on a basis of self-existent all-awareness and manifesting some part of its integrality, a Page 144 harmony of its significances put into th ...
... attacks is only the phenomenon of a stage and does not in the end matter. June 25, 1932 One is not to cure oneself of one's sensitiveness, but only acquire the power to rise to a higher consciousness taking such disenchantments as a sort of jumping-board. One way is not to expect even square dealing from others no matter who the others are. In your case you might have expected such denials... truer knowledge, but a greater power comes to one in the quietude and silence of a mind that, instead of bubbling on the surface, can go into its own depths and listen for what comes from a higher consciousness. It is probably this that is meant—these are things known to all who have some experience of Yoga. December 1932 The Synthesis of Yoga is being revised and largely rewritten ...
... matter of time and process—and there is no reason for disturbance. The central and effective surrender has been made. Complete or Absolute Surrender If you are surrendered only in the higher consciousness, with no peace or purity in the lower, certainly that is not enough and you have to aspire for the peace and purity everywhere. It [ surrender ] cannot be absolutely complete in the beginning... demand of the Divine to do everything by a violent miracle. When the will and energy are concentrated and used to control the mind, vital and physical and change them or to bring down the higher consciousness or for any other Yogic purpose or high purpose, that is called Tapasya. Tapasya has predominated in your sadhana, for you have a fervour and active energy which predisposes you to that ...
... workings of the Page 88 world are too subtle and strange and complex for the human mind to understand it—it is only when the knowledge comes from above and one is taken into the higher consciousness that the understanding can come. Meanwhile what one has to follow is the dictates of the deeper psychic heart within based on that faith and love which is the only sure guiding star. ... naturally doubts everything supraphysical and believes only in its own domain. Mental faith is very helpful, but it is a thing that can always be temporarily shaken or quite clouded—until the higher consciousness and experience get fixed for good. What endures even if concealed is the inner being's aspiration or need for something higher which is the soul's faith. That too may be concealed for a time ...
... to the truths of the self and spirit. The spiritual reason takes also the emotions and psychic sensations, relates them to their spiritual equivalents and imparts to them the values of the higher consciousness and Ananda from which they derive and are its modifications in an inferior nature and it corrects their deformations. It takes similarly the movements of the vital being and consciousness and... present, always active realisation in the supramental nature. There is thought here and will and sensation and everything that belongs to our nature, but it is transfigured and elevated into a higher consciousness. All thought is here seen and experienced as a luminous body of substance, a luminous movement of force, a luminous wave of Ananda of the being; it is not an idea in the void air of mind, but ...
... powerfully illuminating, ecstatic or liberating, are by themselves insufficiently effective: for the full spiritual transformation more is needed, a permanent ascension from the lower into the higher consciousness and an effectual permanent descent of the higher into the lower nature. This is the third motion, the descent which is essential for bringing the permanent ascension, an increasing inflow... which in the end the consciousness fixes itself on a higher plane and from there sees and governs the mind, life and body; it achieves itself also in an increasing descent of the powers of the higher consciousness and knowledge which become more and more the whole normal consciousness and knowledge. A light and power, a knowledge and force are felt which first take possession of the mind and remould it ...
... back the consciousness tumbling out of such gnostic Truth as it has attained into the falsehoods of the divided mind-nature. A secure universality of being is the very basis of this luminous higher consciousness. Abandoning all rigid separateness (but getting instead a certain transcendent overlook or independence) we have to feel ourselves one with all things and beings, to identify ourselves with... delight-power, raised to a higher than the mental, vital and bodily level. All-pervasive, universalised, freed from egoistic personality and individuality, it is the play of a higher Self, a higher consciousness and therefore a higher force and higher delight of being. All that acts in the Vijnana in the purity, in the right, in the truth of the superior or divine Prakriti. Its powers may often seem ...
... from the higher consciousness which have their origin in the Sun of Light, the Sun of Truth? Is not Swar itself the world or plane of immortality governed by that Light or Truth of the all-illumining Sun called in Veda the vast Truth, ṛtaṁ bṛhat , and the true Light? and are not the divine waters, āpo devīḥ, divyāḥ Page 109 or svarvatīḥ , the floods of this higher consciousness pouring ...
... then one part of the being which remains detached and sees without Page 244 being disturbed the perturbations 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 ...
... allowing it to be useful whenever one can clearly feel that it is intended. Also one must be careful that no force comes through one except the right forces, those which are in harmony with the higher consciousness and help. If one does always in that spirit and with that care, then even if mistakes are made, it does not matter—the growing consciousness will set them right and progress towards a more perfect... progress might have gone thrice as far as he has done. Moreover, your nature is intense in all it does and it was therefore quite its natural path to take the straight way. Naturally, when once the higher consciousness is settled and both the vital and physical sufficiently ready for the sadhana to go on of itself, strict tapasya will no longer be necessary. But till then we consider it very useful and helpful ...
... be maintained in good order. There should be no attachment to it, but no contempt or neglect either of the material part of our nature. In this Yoga the aim is not only the union with the higher consciousness but the transformation (by its power) of the lower including the physical nature. It is not necessary to have desire or greed of food in order to eat. The Yogi eats not out of desire, but... of the principle of hunger in the vital physical. It is not really either by satisfying it or forcibly denying it that it will go—it is by putting a will on it to change and bringing down a higher consciousness that it can change. To suppress hunger like that is not good, it very often creates disorders. I doubt whether fatness or thinness of a healthy kind depends on the amount of food taken—there ...
... rising from the psychic centre, so much the better. What you say indicates that the psychic and mental centres are in communication and through them you are able to bring down things from the higher consciousness. But you have not changed your head centre for the above-head centre or for the above-head wideness. That usually comes by a gradual rising of the consciousness first to the top of the head... present. To answer them would be to stimulate merely the curiosity of the mind—what is important now is to liberate the psychic from its veils and to open the mind and vital and body to the higher consciousness. Until that is done, there can be no individual transformation and so long as there is not the individual transformation what is the use of speculating about the transformation of worlds and ...
... opening, then experiences begin to come of themselves. The first two at least had started of themselves in you—let them grow and the third should necessarily follow. The psychic opening first, the higher consciousness and its experiences afterwards. What you desire about the self-giving free from demand is sure to fulfil itself when there is the full opening of the psychic. X has been always... movements for the wrong ones. It is this that is difficult and rare, more often the discernment is mental and it is the mind that tries to put all in order. In that case, it is the descent of the higher consciousness through the mind that opens the psychic, instead of the psychic opening directly. Nobody said it [ the opening of the psychic ] must be done necessarily from above. Naturally it is done ...
... It is the nature of the mind to make such mistakes. It is only a higher consciousness that can set them right—the mind can be sure only after a very long training in each particular action and even then it has only to be off-guard for something untoward to occur. Do as well as you can, and for the rest let the higher consciousness grow till it can enlighten all the movements of the physical mind. ...
... occupy the whole system. How can you throw away the mind unless you want to disappear from manifested existence? It has first to be made quiet and open to the higher consciousness and transformed by the descent of the higher consciousness. First aspire and pray to the Mother for quiet in the mind, purity, calm and peace, an awakened consciousness, intensity of devotion, strength and spiritual ...
... a truer knowledge, but a greater power comes to one in the quietude and silence of a mind that instead of bubbling on the surface can go into its own depths and listen for what comes from a higher consciousness. It is probably this that is meant—these are things known to all who have some experience of Yoga. Silence and Quietness of Mind Silence is a state of the consciousness which comes... because there is no immediate success; that can only make things difficult and stop any progress that is preparing. Silence, Peace and Calm The silence and peace are themselves part of the higher consciousness—the rest comes in the silence and peace. When the mind is silent, there is peace and in peace all things that are divine can come. When there is not the mind, there is the Self which ...
... from within or above, from the psychic or from the higher consciousness. Knowledge, Experience and Realisation Knowledge by thinking process would not be spiritual knowledge. True knowledge comes by spiritual realisation and experience. There are such realisations and experiences. I was speaking of your experiences of the higher consciousness, of your seeing the Mother in all things—these ...
... truth-speaking. From the point of view of the higher Truth, it must not be forgotten that each plane of consciousness has its own standard—what is truth to the mind, may be only partial truth to a higher consciousness, but it is through the partial truth that the mind has to go in order to reach the wider more perfect truth beyond. All that is necessary for it is to be open and plastic, to be ready to recognise... higher when it comes, not to cling to the lower because it is its own, not to allow the desires and passions of the vital to blind it to the Light or to twist and pervert things. When once the higher consciousness begins to act, the difficulty diminishes and there is a clear progress from truth to greater truth. If you get the English original 1 from X , you will see that what is written is ...
... outer discipline is necessary for the purification, otherwise it remains restless and fanciful and at the mercy of its own impulses—so that no basis can be built there for a quiet and abiding higher consciousness to remain firmly. The attitude you have taken for the work is of course the best one and, applying it steadily, the progress you feel was bound to come and is sure to increase. To live... is the one-pointed will in the vital to be transformed. The vital can rise to the head in two ways—one to cloud the mind with the vital impulses, the other to aspire and join with the higher Consciousness. If you noticed the aspiration, it was evidently the latter movement. It [ vital consecration ] is to offer all the vital nature and its movements to the Divine so that it may be purified ...
... psychic being is more than a spark at this stage of its evolution. It is a flame. Even if the flame is covered by mist or smoke, the mist or smoke can be dissipated. To do that and to open to the higher consciousness is what is wanted, not to become a Sri Aurobindo or equal to the Mother. So to say that parts can be equal to the whole is geometrically and logically impossible. Page 406 But... have had sufferings and struggles to which yours are mere child's play,—I have not made our cases equal to yours. I have said that the Avatar is one who comes to open the Way for humanity to a higher consciousness—if nobody can follow the Way, then either our conception of the thing, which is that of Christ and Krishna and Buddha also, is all wrong or the whole life and action of the Avatar is quite futile ...
... discipline. I do not know whether this has been rightly explained to Your Highness. I may say briefly that there are two states of consciousness in either of which one can live. One is a higher consciousness which stands above the play of life and governs it; this is variously called the Self, the Spirit or the Divine. The other is the normal consciousness in which men live; it is something quite... of [the] external nature as many Yogins do—though I do not refuse to do it in certain cases. My aim is to create a centre of spiritual life which shall serve as a means of bringing down the higher consciousness and making it a power not merely for "salvation" but for a divine life upon earth. It is with this object that I have withdrawn from public life and founded this Asram in Pondicherry (so-called ...
... made itself real and strong, these crises would be met and overcome, or at least pass without leading to indulgence in one form or another. The other possibility is the settled descent of the higher consciousness into the physical being. It is in these two ways that liberation from sex is possible. 5 April 1936 You write [in the preceding letter], "you have ... never cut with it entirely." In... very dangerous. It must be so in the end, but it is difficult to do that until one is strong enough in the settled spiritual consciousness. The avoidance is sometimes the only way until the higher consciousness is settled in the vital and vital-physical. 22 October 1934 Someone said that if a yogi has his Shakti and if the Shakti demands physical contact the yogi has to fulfil it. Is that correct ...
... according to men's ideas about what it should or should not do"? There are plenty who do not realise it—they expect the Mother to act according to their ideas and wishes, not according to a higher consciousness. 20 October 1934 When the Mother pointed out my mistake, I became discontented. Misguided by the suggestions of the refractory parts of my being, I took it as an undeserved reproach.... the sadhaks; their ideas of what she ought to do or ought not to do have no place. Rather they are here to discard such ideas and accept her guidance by which they can themselves enter into a higher consciousness where these mental and vital errors have no right of existence. I have already pointed out to you that your action was entirely mistaken. You had no right to ask for a letter placed there ...
... consciousness is not capable of receiving it as knowledge except in a fragmentary way because it belongs to a deeper consciousness within or a higher consciousness above the mind. The ordinary consciousness has therefore to open to the deeper and the higher consciousness. It has to receive the knowledge from within and above. It cannot do this if it does not open. There must, therefore, first necessarily ...
... the body Page 398 and the physical consciousness as it was, or even leave it inert or shake its balance. And the descent of Light is not enough, it must be the descent of the whole higher consciousness, its Peace, Power, Knowledge, Love, Ananda. Moreover, the descent may be enough to liberate, but not to perfect, or it may be enough to make a great change in the inner being, while the outer... transformation effected by the sadhana cannot be complete unless it is a supramentalisation of the being. Psychisation is not enough, it is only a beginning; spiritualisation and the descent of the higher consciousness is not enough, it is only a middle term; the ultimate achievement needs the action of the supramental Consciousness and Force. Something less than that may very well be considered enough by ...
... Sitting in meditation today I saw a river flowing from the higher consciousness level to the heart level in me. On this river was a golden boat and seated in it was Mahasaraswati, travelling down the river in golden and white light. What is the meaning of this? That is the work of Mahasaraswati to move between the higher consciousness and the heart and through them establish the rule of the Truth ...
... 1934 The Descent into the Physical What you are experiencing is the condition which comes when the whole consciousness has come down into the physical—with the object of bringing down the higher consciousness into the external nature. At first there seems to be the external nature only with a tendency to more peace and quiet than before, but no new positive experience. The first thing the physical... disturbing forces. I had to pass through the same stage myself and it took me 2 years at least to get out of it. To develop in the physical itself a constant will for the drawing down of the higher consciousness—especially the Peace and Force from above, is the best way out of it. 8 July 1935 Transforming Tamas into Śama Either because the silence deepened or because the dullness increased ...
... was not happy, but all that changed during the night; the next day the uneasiness had gone. Page 19 It was undoubtedly a mental opening to the higher consciousness, an ascent of the mental consciousness towards the higher consciousness. And it was probably a resistance in the emotional vital which caused the pain, that disagreeable sensation which disappeared during the night with the liberation ...
... Yogis, they are not gurus and have no disciples; the world does not know what they do; they are not anxious for fame and do not attract to themselves the attention of men; but they have the higher consciousness, are in touch with a Divine Power, and when they create they create from there. The best paintings in India and much of the best statuary and architecture were done by Buddhist monks who passed... anything can pretend to be the Divine and yet be of the mushroom species. Among the great modern musicians there have been several whose consciousness, when they created, came into touch with a higher consciousness. César Franck played on the organ as one inspired; he had an opening into the psychic life and he was conscious of it and to a great extent expressed it. Beethoven, when he composed the Ninth ...
... Yogis, they are not gurus and have no disciples; the world does not know what they do; they are not anxious for fame and do not attract to themselves the attention of men; but they have the higher consciousness, are in touch with a Divine Power, and when they create they create Page 106 from there. The best paintings in India and much of the best statuary and architecture were done... can pretend to be the Divine and yet be of the mushroom species. Among the great modern musicians there have been several whose consciousness, when they created, came into touch with a higher consciousness. Cesar Franck played on the organ as one inspired; he had an opening into the psychic life and he was conscious of it and to a great extent expressed it. Beethoven, when he composed the Ninth ...
... not a knowledge that comes from the mind, it is a knowledge which comes, as I said, from the mystic depths of the soul or from a higher consciousness; and the mind concentrates it in the physical world and organises it to give a basis of action to the higher consciousness. One has this experience very clearly when one wants to organise one’s life. Then, there is another use. When one is in contact ...
... impresses the right movement on it, it will keep and send up that. That is why it has to be cleared of old movements before there can be a permanent and total change in the nature. When the higher consciousness is once established in the waking parts, it goes down into the subconscient and changes that also, makes a bedrock of itself there also. Then no farther trouble from the subconscient will be... parts. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The Subconscient and the Inconscient As there is a superconscient (something above our present consciousness) above the head from which the higher consciousness comes down into the body, so there is also a subconscient (something below our consciousness) below the feet. Matter is under the control of this power, because it is that out of which it has ...
... case, the question asked or the subject chosen is conveyed by the mind to the higher Consciousness, then the mind receives a reply and transmits it again through the word. This is what usually happens in all teachings, provided that the person who teaches has the ability to pass on the question to the higher Consciousness, which is not always the case. I must say the second method does not interest ...
... what is it to you whether a thousand odd fools see or not the effort you have made?" For it is truly... one thing is certain, that if you see the deep law of things and are in contact with a higher consciousness in order to realise something that far surpasses all human conceptions, what can a human opinion mean to you? It is as though you asked a dog the value of a problem of science you have solved... importance you give to the things which concern you, and the universal immensity; this is enough. Naturally, there is another way, it is to free oneself from the earth consciousness and rise into a higher consciousness where these terrestrial things take their true place—which is quite small, you see. But... indeed, once, very long ago, when I was still in Paris and used to see Mme. David-Neel almost every ...
... are sincere and have an aspiration, you emanate a certain vibration, the vibration of your aspiration which goes Page 162 and meets the corresponding force in the book, and it is a higher consciousness which gives you the answer. Everything is contained potentially. Each element of a whole potentially contains what is in the whole. It is a little difficult to explain, but you will understand... opens the book and reads silently. ) This is the problem you are interested in: the purpose of the Avatar: "I have said that the Avatar is one who comes to open the Way for humanity to a higher consciousness...." This is where I put my paper-knife. He adds this: " If nobody can follow the Way, then either our conception of the thing, which is also that of Christ and Krishna and Buddha also ...
... not a knowledge that comes from the mind, it is a knowledge which comes, as I said, from the mystic depths of the soul or from a higher consciousness; and the mind concentrates it in the physical world and organises it to give a basis of action to the higher consciousness. One has this experience very clearly when one wants to organise one's life. Then, there is another use. When one is in contact ...
... physical determinism. These can change the hour of death. This is exactly what I have just been explaining at full length. The power lies in bringing down a higher consciousness into the material consciousness, and with the higher consciousness bringing down a higher determinism, which changes the material determinism. Page 51 And not many have that power. I have said a very few do. In fact ...
... Tamas A quality of Nature: the force of inconscience and inertia which translates in quality as incapacity and inaction. transformation In an individual, transformation means that the higher consciousness or nature is brought down into the mind, vital and body and takes the place of the lower. Truth-Consciousness The highest divine consciousness and force operative in the universe; a principle... light and power. yoga Union with the Self, the Spirit, the Divine; the discipline by which one seeks deliberately and consciously to attain that union or, more generally, to attain a higher consciousness. Yoga is a generic name for the processes and the result of processes by which one transcends one's present mode of being and rises to a new, a higher, a wider mode of consciousness. yogi ...
... prepare the upbuilding of divinity in the earthly nature." (p. 19) Transformation "The upbuilding of divinity in the earthly nature" as a result of the action of the psychic and the higher consciousness is what is meant by transformation. In the spiritual evolution of mankind, the goal hitherto has been the attainment of liberation from the bondage and suffering imposed by mind, life and body... disease, duration of life at will, and a change in the functionings of the body". 12 Psychic transformation is the first necessity, "because it makes safe and easy the descent of the higher consciousness and the spiritual transformation without which the supramental must always remain far distant" (p. 100). A. S. Dalal 9. Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, SABCL Vol. 23, p. 1093 ...
... conscious physical activities. Just as what we call the superconscient is really a higher consciousness above from which things descend into the being, so the subconscient is below the body consciousness and things come up into the physical, the vital and the mind-nature from there. Just as the higher consciousness is superconscient to us and supports all our spiritual possibilities and nature, so ...
... about what I told you the other day, when we discussed the distinction between will and willings. I told you that willings—what Sri Aurobindo calls willings―are movements arising not from a higher consciousness coming down into the being and expressing itself in action, but from impulses or influences from outside. We reserved the word will to express what in the individual consciousness is the expression... thought or preconceived will has no value from the spiritual point of view. But were you not in a state, so to say, “favourable” to this sensation? There are people who live constantly in a higher consciousness, while others have to make an effort to enter there. But here it is an altogether different thing; in the experience I was speaking about, what gave it all its value was that I was not expecting ...
... We should organise our lives not according to outer artificial rules, but according to an organised inner consciousness, for if we let life go on without subjecting it to the control of the higher consciousness, it becomes dispersed and inexpressive. It is a waste of time in the sense that no conscious use is made of matter. 5.The whole earth must prepare itself for the advent of the new species... have in order to acquire the new wealth. 5.8.1968* To be an Aurovilian one must at least belong to the enlightened Page 33 portion of humanity and aspire for the higher consciousness which will govern the species of tomorrow. Always higher and always better,—beyond egoistic limitations. Feb., 1971 * The ideal of the Aurovilians must be to become ...
... certain chords of music create the necessary vibrations for the manifestation of the higher Force which the Mother wants to establish on earth? When somebody lives in a higher consciousness, the vibrations of this higher consciousness are manifested in whatever this person does, says or thinks. These higher vibrations are manifested by the very fact of the presence of this person upon earth. Blessings ...
... cultivation of the body must be done with an enlightened sense, not to do eccentric or marvellous things, but to give the body the possibility of being strong and supple enough to express a higher consciousness. That will be part of the long list. They need to be told a little.... Each has come with an aspiration, the idea that he would find something new, but it is not very clear. And so they... Page 340 Yes. A: (Reading) "Divine Mother, there is great confusion about Auroville's organisation, inner as well as outer. How can we work together towards the realisation of a higher consciousness? It seems that Auroville should become a more homogeneous community with a greater sense of unity. In order to realise this, would it be possible for all the inhabitants of Promesse, Hope, ...
... an obvious sign of a change from the political viewpoint; it is no longer a matter of classes or categories or of birth (all that is obsolete). It is the individuals who have attained a higher consciousness who have the right to govern — but not others — regardless of their social class. Page 87 That would be the true vision. But all those who participate in the experiment... would have to be absolutely convinced that the highest consciousness is the best judge of THE, MOST MATERIAL things. You know, what has ruined .India is this idea that the higher consciousness is only "Concerned with ''higher" things and lower things don't interest ,it at all and .it doesn't understand anything about them! That's what has; ruined. India. Well, that error must be completely ...
... 9 I don't understand this sentence. How can one soar? What is the figurative sense of this word? It simply means to rise (soar into the air) above the ordinary consciousness, into a higher consciousness from which one can see things from above, and thus see them more profoundly. 9 December 1932 If you try to hide something from the Divine, you are sure to fall flat on your nose, plop... I am afraid it is a lack of affinity in the vital and even in the Page 53 mind. These things are very difficult to overcome, for it requires that both of you open yourselves to a higher consciousness. This needs time and a continuous effort of sadhana from both of you. In the present conditions I think it would be better not to persist in your attempt at friendly relations with him, for ...
... unconsciousness.) April 1932 Has the subconscient accepted the Higher Consciousness? If the subconscient were to accept the Consciousness, it would no longer be the subconscient, it would become consciousness. I think that you mean: has the subconscient submitted to the rule, to the law of the higher Consciousness? This is not done as a whole, for the subconscient is vast and complex; ...
... shouldn't have done this—I should have done that" or "I shouldn't have felt this way—I should have felt that way...," afterwards, when I looked at it carefully with the higher knowledge and higher consciousness, I saw that it was EXACTLY what I should have done under the circumstances! But instead of doing it knowingly and consciously, I did it in the usual ignorant way of human beings. And if I had... isn't a shadow of doubt—not a shadow of doubt. And as always, when there is nothing pleasant to say, it's better to keep quiet. One has no right to give one's Knowledge, which stems from a higher Consciousness, to those who aren't capable of having it; this is why, in fact, from the beginning I decided never to talk to X: I never tell him anything, I will never tell him anything, because there are ...
... it was so. NIRODBARAN: You said the other day that his spirit visited you in Alipore Jail and told you about the higher consciousness from which, I suppose, these intuitive flashes come. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, he did tell me. I had no idea about things of the higher consciousness. I never expected him and yet he came to teach me. And he was exact and precise even in the minutest details. NIRODBARAN: ...
... in all Page 4 parts of the being. The former may easily come at any time; it is the latter that takes time to complete. If you are surrendered only in the higher consciousness, with no peace or purity in the lower, certainly that is not enough and you have to aspire for the peace and purity everywhere. If the surrender is complete, then that certainly is... on of Mother's power and not of any effort on my part. All the same, there must be a will acting on the vital in the way you describe. Such a use of will is essential so long as the Higher Consciousness has not occupied the being. You had written, "I need not bother about it - if peace is needed it will bring itself." Certainly the main stress should be on the Force, but the active ...
... is there behind while the Yogi allows the external nature to play about as it likes. In the other the contact has not yet been established between the higher consciousness and the lower, though there may be some influence of the higher consciousness in the being. NIRODBARAN: Regarding the form and the Presence, you said the Presence is greater. SRI AUROBINDO: Not greater but much more than the ...
... knowledge, in order to be true and complete, must be a knowledge by identity. The subliminal knowledge is a knowledge by direct contact but not knowledge by identity. Therefore, a deeper and higher consciousness is needed to cure the deficiencies and mixtures of ignorance and knowledge that we obtain at the level of subliminal consciousness. (g) That which is still deeper behind the ... mind, vital, body to the Divine, for the love and union with the Divine, for its presence and power within the heart, for the transformation of the mind, life and body by the descent of the higher consciousness into our nature. This aspiration of the psychic being is essential and indispensable for the fullness of the integral Yoga. When the psychic imposes its aspiration on the mind, vital and body ...
... no miraculous force and I do not deal in miracles. The word Divine here is out of place, if it is taken as an always omnipotently acting Power. Yogic Force is then better; it simply means a higher Consciousness using its power, a spiritual & supraphysical force acting on the physical world directly. One has to train the instrument to be a channel of this force; it works also according to a certain... psychic being is more than a spark at this stage of its evolution. It is a flame. Even if the flame is covered by mist or smoke, the mist or smoke can be dissipated. To do that and to open to the higher consciousness is what is wanted, not to become a Sri Aurobindo or equal to the Mother. But if we are the Divine, what is the harm of evolving into a portion of the Divine, living in the divine Consciousness ...
... range of consciousness than Life. Sri Aurobindo tells us that in its passage to the Supermind the mind must learn to fall into silence and then progressively open itself to the ranges of the Higher Consciousness. As the disciples gradually came to know that Sri Aurobindo had retired into complete seclusion in order to concentrate on his task of hastening the Supramental Descent, their minds were... living force just as the thinking mental and higher mental are already there.' In another letter he wrote: 'The whole of humanity cannot be changed at once. What has to be done is to bring the Higher Consciousness down into the earth-consciousness and establish it there as a constant realised force, just as mind and life have been established and embodied in Matter, so as to establish and embody the ...
... moved profoundly by its sublime pathos. To Sarada Mata she was a heavenly being. To talk of such a person is to be inspired with noble feelings of love and self-giving and to be lifted into a higher consciousness permeated with beauty, purity and love. Mrinalini who was born a hundred years ago and brought up in the natural surroundings of Shillong, exquisitely matched to her name, was married to a Virat... Sri Ramakrishna? We cannot find any other satisfactory solution to the apparent contradiction. Also it is consonant with Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga where all relations are sublimated into a higher consciousness, not rejected. Then comes the stupendous phrase, "The one sorrow that could still touch me to the centre", rising in a crescendo to "where I have once loved, I do not cease from loving", and ...
... these things when it dominates; when it docs not dominate or is not present then these motives can have no effect. The whole question is whether the ego leads or something else leads. If the higher consciousness leads, then even if the Mother does not smile or put her hand at all. there will be no egoistic reaction. Once the Mother did that with a sadhika. being herself in trance — the result was that... aggrandised through pride and wrong reception of the experience. Also one may by entering into the larger mental and vital planes aggrandise the ego. These things are always possible so long as the higher consciousness and the lower are not harmonised in the being and the lower transformed into the nature of the higher. In effect, a poet sadhak, H, sang to the Mother: "One day from ...
... and hold the love rightly. The action from the higher consciousness increases its intensity. However, what is the use of all that if it has no connection below with my heart that longs for love? You might just as well say what is the use of any sadhana. For the separation of the higher consciousness from the lower, the refusal to mix their movements, e.g. love of the ...
... down from them if they get mixed with the mind or the vital. When one lives in the higher consciousness, will the lower nature still act in us, doing the same things in the same way as now? No, it will be the higher Nature, provided the body also lives in the higher consciousness. What brings about death? Is it the hostile forces? It is the decay of the ...
... Mother's Force to take up one's activity in due course. What should one aspire for when one is not working? For the Mother's power to work and bring down by the proper stages the higher consciousness. Also for the system to be more and more fit — quiet, egoless surrendered. What is meant precisely by surrender to the Mother? Surrender means to be entirely in... in the way than that. Kindly tell me what I should aspire for at present when I am quiet? For the Mother's power to work and bring down by the proper stages the higher consciousness. Also for the system to be more and more fit, quiet, egoless, surrendered. You often speak of the Mother's Force. What is it really? When I speak of the Mother's ...
... evenings must be the close or end or setting of the three domains of worldly existence – body, life and mind. The thief is the higher consciousness guarding at the top and he has stolen away the world and the worldly objects. Similarly the lion is the Power of the Higher Consciousness and the jackal the prowling creature of the dark world. But the fight between the two is hard and equal, neither wanting ...
... supple and elastic, tempered, refined and enriched it; that is comparable to what we call the aspiration or call from below. Now the Grace must descend and fulfil. And when one rises into this higher consciousness beyond the brain and mind, when one lives there habitually, one knows the why and the how of things, one becomes a perfectly conscious operator and still retains all spontaneity and freshness... spontaneity of instinct, there is likewise also a spontaneity of vision: a child is spontaneous in its movements, .even so a seer. Not only so, the higher spontaneity is more spontaneous, for the higher consciousness means not only Page 318 awareness but the free and untrammelled activity and expression of the truth and reality it is. Genius had to be generally more or less unconscious ...
... an interference . As a process, a passage needed for a time, for a special purpose and under special circumstances, it was necessary and welcome. But circumstances have changed. The higher consciousness is not to remain always high but become level with the normal. Either the higher must come down and mingle totally with the lower or the lower has to rise and merge altogether into the higher... even coercion might be needed or inevitable. But that stage passed, the higher realisation is to be the natural expression of ordinary earth-life: its normal state is to be the state of the higher consciousness, its life naturally moved by its self-nature expressing its own truth. If there is to be a Divine destiny for earth, it must be because of its free choice. There must be no pressure ...
... vital being, but leave the body and the physical consciousness as it was, or even leave it inert or shake its balance. And the descent of Light is not enough; it must be the descent of the whole higher consciousness, its Peace, Power, Knowledge, Love, Ananda. Moreover, the descent may be enough to liberate, but not to perfect, or it may be enough to make a great change in the inner being, while the outer... tion effected by the sadhana cannot be complete unless it is a supramentalisation of the being. Psychicisation is not enough, it is only a beginning; spiritualization and the descent of the higher consciousness in not enough, it is only a middle term; the ultimate achievement needs the action of the supramental Consciousness and Force. Something less than that may very well be considered enough by ...
... knowledge, in order to be true and complete, must be a knowledge by identity. The subliminal knowledge is a knowledge by direct contact but not knowledge by identity. Therefore, a deeper and higher consciousness is needed to cure the deficiencies and mixtures of ignorance and knowledge that we obtain at the level of subliminal consciousness. VII That which is still deeper behind the subliminal... mind, vital, body to the Divine, for the love and union with the Divine, for its presence and power within the heart, for the transformation of the mind, life and body by the descent of the higher consciousness into our nature. This aspiration of the psychic being is essential and indispensable for the fullness of the integral Yoga. When the psychic imposes its aspiration on the mind, vital and body ...
... or spirituality must also pervade life. Life must become a field, first, for attaining to this Higher Consciousness, and after it is attained, for expressing it in life. That is what the Gita says, that when one is in the stage of the aspirant, he uses life as a ladder to rise to the Higher Consciousness. When he has risen to the top, then he uses it to bring it down into life. Q : Which is ...
... becomes necessary. These three have been, so to say, passed by Nature, by life in Nature. Life has gone through these three phases. The fourth will be the stage in which the coming down of the Higher Consciousness, the Truth-Consciousness, will operate. Now, Truth-Consciousness holds within itself the principle of knowledge. It is Being with knowledge,—it is consciousness and power, or consciousness and... or what to create. It knows what world it is going to create. The difficulty is with the mind all the time saying "I know everything; and I will do it." When the mind is receptive, then the Higher Consciousness that knows what is to be done, gives the right guidance to the mind, to life and to the physical being of man so as to create a mould for its own expression —the expression of the Truth-Con ...
... ( Savitri : Book III Canto 4, P . 308. Page 8 has proceeded from Matter to Life, from Life to Mind. Man, the mental being, is transitional because he has yet to ascend to higher Consciousness beyond Mind. This is the great spiritual Odvssey that man has now to undertake consciously.If material science lays open before man a wide—practically unlimited- field of adventure, research... than this world dreams of." Even prayer can be a method. Some quotations from Sri Aurobindo's letters and other writings would be helpful in dispelling the notion that the attainment of the higher consciousness is something abstract and without any dynamic consequence. Page 12 (1) " I must remind you that I have been an intellectual myself and no stranger to doubts - both the ...
... minutes. There were twenty-four of them. “Every one present felt a kind of pressure above his head. The whole atmosphere was surcharged with some electrical energy.... It was certain that a Higher Consciousness had descended on earth,” 4 wrote Purani. And that was all. All my cells thrill swept by a surge of splendour ... Rigid, stone-like, fixed like a hill or statue, Vast my body feels... me back into the physical consciousness!” he exclaimed in a conversation with Sri Aurobindo. And Mother replied, Yes. The question is to link both consciousnesses, which means to bring the higher consciousness down into the physical body. Everything must be present, here, in the natural consciousness. 14 We do not know the extent of the profound revolution Sri Aurobindo and Mother have brought ...
... who were born (the sons of the sacrifice), by the offerings, by the hymns of illumination released upward the shining ones; the wide and delightful Cow (the cow Aditi, the vast and blissful higher consciousness) bringing for him the sweet food, the honey mixed with the ghṛta , yielded it as her milk. For this Father also (for Heaven) they fashioned the vast and shining abode; doers of perfect works ...
... is the symbol of our obscure consciousness full of ignorance in knowledge and of stumblings in will and act, therefore of all evil, sin and suffering; light is the coming of the illuminated higher consciousness which leads to truth and happiness. We find constantly the opposition of the two words duritam and suvitam . Duritam means literally stumbling or wrong going, figuratively all that is wrong ...
... mid-region is the belly because vital energy is that which hungers & devours, moves restlessly everywhere seizing everything and turning it into food or else because mind is the womb of all our higher consciousness;—earth is the footing because matter here, outward form, is the fundamental condition for the manifestation of life, mind and all higher forces. On Matter we rest and have our firm stand; out ...
... thither tends the perfection of his normal humanity. But is the condition of the predominantly sattwic nature freedom and is this will in man a free will? That the Gita from the standpoint of a higher consciousness in which alone is true freedom, denies. The buddhi or conscious intelligent will is still an instrument of Nature and when it acts, even in the most sattwic sense, it is still Nature which acts ...
... action when all the mental, moral, emotional values of the ordinary egoistic and social life of man have collapsed in a sudden bankruptcy, and he has to lift him up out of this lower life into a higher consciousness, out of ignorant attachment to action into that which transcends, yet originates and orders action, out of ego into Self, out of life in mind, vitality and body into that higher nature beyond ...
... with, and that they still can be dispensed with, at present. As for what can be done at the present time, that is just what is being fought out. But there are two parties to the issue, the higher consciousness and the earth consciousness, the latter largely represented by the sadhaks here. If the earth consciousness is ready an easy descent is quite possible, but if it resists, then there is in the ...
... in withholding it. But if you keep your mind filled with thoughts of this kind, about X and others, and your needs and grievances, you shut yourself up in that and there is no room for the higher consciousness and its force to come in. ...
... Once I saw the Mother sitting on the peak of an icy mountain; a narrow path led there and I was gradually advancing towards that. This is simply a symbol of the purity and silence of the higher consciousness which has to be reached by the path of sadhana. The narrowness symbolises the difficulty because one has not to slip to one side or the other, but go straight. 7 December 1936 I saw the ...
... that the vital has to go its own way and do according to its fancy. It is not coercion that is the way, but an inner change, in which the lower vital is led, enlightened and transformed by a higher consciousness which is detached from the objects of vital desire. But in order to let this grow an attitude has to be taken in which a decreasing importance has to be attached to the satisfaction of the claims ...
... you are writing on her behalf. What is given by the Mother is not a development of supernatural force, but if someone is accepted to take up this path of Yoga he is led towards a deeper and higher consciousness in which he can attain union with the Divine Mother. This however is a path long and full of difficulties—Sri Aurobindo and the Mother do not admit anyone to it unless they are sure of his call ...
... and someone (whom I'm trying to prepare, who knows how to play the organ very well and whom I'm trying to prepare inwardly), who was playing (I SAW that, I saw it); playing the music of the higher Consciousness. And it was a place where all those who wanted to come to listen could come, and there were people who came from very far away, they came in and sat down there and listened, and then they ...
... you are obliged to enter into samadhi , your waking consciousness always remain what it is, without ever changing. That's what I said in other words, you see, when I said that people have a higher consciousness only in very deep meditation. When they come out of their meditation they are no Page 427 better than they were before. All their defects are there which come back as soon as they ...
... usually what they do is to cling to him as much as they can, and to pull him towards them with a fierce selfishness; the result, you see, is that instead of being able to withdraw in a slightly higher consciousness which will protect him in his exit, he is gripped by material things and it is a terrible inner battle to free himself from both his body and his attachments. In fact, you see—I say except ...
... which are not insignificant; all your ordinary reactions, ordinary thoughts, sensations, actions, movements,—all this is very insignificant. It is only at times, when there is a flash of the higher consciousness through the psychic, an opening into something else, a contact with the psychic being (which may last for a second), at that moment, it is not insignificant. Otherwise, all the rest is repeated ...
... said that it was an exceptional Statesman. Well, we can say this time that it is an exceptional Writer who has reached the psychological point where he can awaken to another consciousness, a higher consciousness. And yet the description he gives is truly that of the highest human possibilities. He did not see things as they are, lifeless, he saw the spirit which was behind, he communicated with it, ...
... that it may descend and govern all the activities. 2) The void he feels in the mind is often a necessary condition for the clearing of it from its ordinary movements so that it may open to a higher consciousness and a new experience, but in itself it is merely negative, a mental calm without anything positive in it and if one stops there, then the dullness and inertia of which he complains must come ...
... much as it can make helpful for the present life; 2. the present formation due to this birth and made up of many complex factors; 3. the future being, which in our case means the great lines of higher consciousness above the present manifestation by joining which the transformation becomes more possible and the work attempted can be done. It is the psychic being which brings in the contact through past ...
... itself at once into a mixing with all—it can only express itself in a general and when need be dynamic universal goodwill, but for the rest it must find vent in this labour of bringing down the higher consciousness with all its effect for the earth. As for accepting the working of the Divine in all things that is necessary here too in the sense of seeing it even behind our struggles and difficulties, but ...
... set right by a strengthening of this nervous envelope. That can be done partly by a healthy climate and a life without anxieties, but the only radical cure is to bring down the strength of the higher consciousness into the nervous being and the body and refortify the nervous envelope. This depends on the progress of your sadhana. Meanwhile report to me from time to time the state of your health and I ...
... asked Mira had no true connection with the vital-physical weakness of which you complain, nor can that kind of practice help you to transmit to the physical the exact light of Truth from the higher consciousness. It was the ignorant Mind in you which was attaching an undue importance to this "practical occultism" and it is the same mind which tries to connect two unconnected things. This mind in you ...
... there is any ethics; because ethics depends upon fixed principles and rules of conduct, whereas here any such thing can only be for sadhana purposes as conditions for getting the spiritual or higher consciousness and afterwards everything is freely determined by that consciousness and its movements and dictates. 26 July 1936 You wrote to X that though people call you a philosopher you have never ...
... follow after. It acts also according to a greater Truth than men conceive. It is for this reason that the human mind cannot understand the divine action and its motives—he must first rise into a higher consciousness and be in spiritual contact or union with the Divine. But if anyone recognises that, he can no longer judge the divine action with his human mind and from a human point of view. The two things ...
... 1933 The one thing that is most needed for this sadhana is peace, calm, especially in the vital—a peace which depends not on circumstances or surroundings but on the inner relation with a higher consciousness which is the consciousness of the Divine, of the Mother. Those who have not that or do not aspire to get it can come here and live in the Asram for ten or twenty years and yet be as restless ...
... 1935 I wish at times to ask the Mother for some instructions for my sadhana. Mental instructions are not of much use. The condition has to grow in peace and light and clarity till the higher consciousness can act continuously and perfectly. 12 September 1935 Could I have an interview with the Mother? Two or three difficulties have been troubling me since the beginning of my sadhana. I ...
... to these things when it dominates; when it does not dominate or is not present, then these motives can have no effect. The whole question is whether ego leads or something else leads. If the higher consciousness leads, then even if the Mother does not smile or put her hand at all, there will be no egoistic reaction. Once the Mother did that with a sadhika, being herself in trance—the result was that ...
... fatigue and leads in the end to degeneration and decomposition of the material elements. Physical culture which aims at building a body capable of serving as a fit instrument for the higher consciousness Page 135 demands very austere habits; a great regularity in sleep, food, physical exercises and in all activities. One should study scrupulously the needs of one's body — for ...
... Divine; the discipline by which one enters through an awakening into an inner and higherconsciousness. yoga-śakti ( Yoga-Shakti): The power that comes with the awakening of the inner and higher consciousness, yoga siddhi: Fulfilment or realisation of the aims of theYoga. Page 63 ...
... you are obliged to enter into samādhi , your waking consciousness always remain what it is, without ever changing. That’s what I said in other words, you see, when I said that people have a higher consciousness only in very deep meditation. When they come out of their meditation they are no better than they were before. All their defects are there which come back as soon as they come back into their ...
... Tapasya (tapasyā) — effort, energy, austerity of the personal will; concentration of the will and energy to control the mind, vital and physical and to change them or to bring down the higher consciousness or for any other yogic or high purpose. transformation — not just a change of consciousness, but the bringing down of the higher, divine consciousness and nature into the lower nature ...
... phenomena and experiences—which pertain to the inner or subliminal consciousness, a realm of darkness as well as light—are often confused with spiritual experiences, which pertain to the higher consciousness. Regarding the vague and imprecise way in which the term "spiritual" is used not only in popular literature but also in serious writings, the Mother remarks: "... philosophical, yogic and ...
... Organisation is a discipline of action, but for Auroville, we aspire to go beyond arbitrary and artificial organisations. We want an organisation which is the expression of a higher consciousness working to manifest the truth of the future. Q : Until this group consciousness appears, and until we can work collectively in the true and right way, what should we do? A ...
... say: "It is either one or the other." We say, "That is not true." It is in life and by living life entirely that one can live the spiritual life, that one must live the spiritual life. The higher consciousness has to be brought here. From the purely material and physical point of view, man is not the last race. As man came after the animal, so another being must come after man. And as there is only ...
... generated on the human plane, is only a reflection of the will, knowledge, joy of the divine Purushottama. Sri Aurobindo Action of the Force The Force from above is the Force of the Higher Consciousness. That from behind works as a mental, vital or physical force according to need. When the being is open to it and there is a certain passivity to its working, it takes the place of the personal ...
... here upon earth as if she did not know the whole story; she works as if it was a new and untried thread that she was weaving. It is this apparent forgetfulness of her own foreknowledge in the higher consciousness that gives to the individual in the active life of the world his sense of freedom and independence and initiative. These things in him are her pragmatic tools or devices, and it is through this ...
... repetition of the most ancient cultures, and yet one cannot say that there has been no progress anywhere. An inner progress at least has been achieved and a greater readiness to respond to the higher consciousness has been born into the material parts. It has been necessary to do over and over again the same things, because what was attempted was never sufficiently done; but each time it has come nearer ...
... not a true ascetic. Neither to offend, nor to do wrong to anyone, to practise discipline according to the Law, to be moderate in eating, to live in seclusion, and to merge oneself in the higher consciousness, this is the teaching of the Awakened Ones. Page 246 Even a rain of gold would not be able to quench the thirst of desire, for it is insatiable and the origin of sorrows. This ...
... than the first one. You must persevere in your concentration till you come to the point when you no longer lose the inner contact. From that time onward you must remain in this inner and higher consciousness from where you can do everything. You see your body and the material world and you know what is to be done and how to do it. That is the first aim of concentration, but naturally not the ...
... express itself gradually in the forms and features, for it is a fact that the body expresses the inner states. But you forget one thing. If you have in the whole day five or six hours of higher consciousness, you feel that it is already much, and the rest of the time you live more or less like a little animal, you let yourself go, you are driven by circumstances. And you forget completely to approach ...
... want to make use of it, and if you have also gathered all necessary notes and notions all will go very well. But if you have nothing in your head and, besides, you are not in contact with your higher consciousness, then you have no other recourse than to take a book and read out your lesson—you will be obliged to make use of someone else's mind. Take games. There too you find days when everything goes ...
... understand, to feel from within yourself that they are absolutely relative and that what seems completely similar, identical in everyone's experiences, these very things, if seen from above with a higher consciousness, become absolutely subjective and relative and are only individual formations adapted to the individual need and consciousness, and that instead of having an absolute reality, they have only ...
... at the top of the ladder. But, Mother, then the question arises: Does the descent of the consciousness develop the form or is it the development of the form that compels the descent of a higher consciousness? There would be no universe without the descent of consciousness. Where would your universe begin, and with what? In the case of man, did the animal man bring down the mind or was it ...
... enters, and destroys all the work. Mentally, one arrives at very few results, and they are always mixed. Something else is needed. One must pass from the mind into the domain of faith or of a higher consciousness, to be able to act with safety. It is quite obvious that one of the most powerful means for acting on the body is faith. People who have a simple heart, not a very complicated mind—simple ...
... movements for the wrong ones. It is this that is difficult and rare, more often the discernment is mental and it is the mind that tries to put all in order. In that case, it is the descent of the higher consciousness through the mind that opens the psychic, instead of the psychic opening directly. 93 — Sri Aurobindo * What is meant by [the psychic's] coming to the front is simply this ...
... Introduction Our Many Selves The Superconscient The superconscient consists of higher levels of consciousness above the ordinary mind from which the higher consciousness comes down into the lower planes of the being. "The role of the superconscient has been to evolve slowly the spiritual man out of the mental half-animal." 26 The superconscient includes the ...
... want to make use of it, and if you have also gathered all necessary notes and notions all will go very well. But if you have nothing in your head and, besides, you are not in contact with your higher consciousness, then you have no other recourse than to take a book and read out your lesson—you will be obliged to make use of someone else’s mind. Take games. There too you find days when everything goes ...
... perhaps misinterprets and misuses and mislives it. His true staff of walking is made more of a fire of faith than any ascertained and indubitable light of knowledge. It is only by rising toward a higher consciousness beyond the mental line and therefore superconscient now to him that he can emerge from his inability and his ignorance. His full liberation and enlightenment will come when he crosses the line ...
... vital forces, which enter them and renew the dose of energy they need. There are others, very rare ones—or maybe in very rare moments of their individual life—who have an aspiration for the higher consciousness, higher force, higher knowledge, and who, by this call, draw to themselves the forces of higher domains. And so this also renews in them very special energies, of a special value. But unless ...
... flooded by that higher light which transforms it. In fact, this is even the only way of establishing a constant silence in one's mind. It is to open oneself to higher region and let this higher consciousness, force, light descend constantly into the lower mind and take possession of it. And here, when this happens, this lower mind can remain constantly quiet and silent, because it is this one which ...
... In the last few days, yesterday or the day before, there was this experience: a kind of consciousness wholly decentralised (I am speaking always of the physical consciousness, not of the higher consciousness at all), a decentralised consciousness which happened to be here, there, there, in this body, in that body (in what people call "this person" and "that person", but this notion does not exist ...
... example, take an external field of action, with the external world, external things—of course, to say that it is "external" is simply to put oneself in a false position—but, for example, from the higher consciousness, the Truth-consciousness, you tell someone, "Go",—I giving one example among millions—"Go and see this person and tell him this in order to obtain that." If this person is receptive, immobile ...
... good and the good of others? None of you have found the solution, for this riddle of life cannot be solved by mental man, however superior he may be. For that, one must be born into a new and higher consciousness, the Truth-Consciousness. For behind these fleeting appearances there is an eternal reality, behind this unconscious and warring multitude there is a single, serene Consciousness, behind these ...
... your consciousness—unchangeably there. Peace in the Mind, Vital and Physical Yes, certainly, there is a mental peace, a vital peace, a peace of the physical Nature. It is the peace of a higher consciousness that descends from above. Page 151 The silence and peace are there waiting to manifest. Let the mind and vital give all themselves and they will pour in and reveal themselves ...
... ss is ready. Page 106 In this Yoga all depends on whether one can open to the Influence or not. If there is a sincerity in the aspiration and a patient will to arrive at the higher consciousness in spite of all obstacles, then the opening in one form or another is sure to arrive. But it may take a long or a short time according to the prepared or unprepared condition of the mind, heart ...
... stopping the movements of the chitta ] has a different function [ in this Yoga ]. The movements of the ordinary consciousness have to be quieted and into the quietude there has to be brought down a higher consciousness and its powers which will transform the nature. If you suppress [ the cittavṛttis], you will have no movements of the chitta at all; all will be immobile until you remove the suppression ...
... their métier as the highest reach of human capacity and themselves as the top of creation; it is also natural for the intellectuals to run down the Yogi or the Rishi who claims to reach a higher consciousness than that which they conceive to be the summit of human achievement. The poet indeed lives still in the mind and is not yet a spiritual seer, but he represents to the human intellect the highest ...
... under conditions imposed by the Divine Will and Law; it has to take up an immense mass of conflicting forces, conditions, habits and movements of Nature and out of it arrive at the result of a higher consciousness on earth and a higher state. If it were to act otherwise, then all would be done by a miracle or magic, no sadhana would be needed, no way beaten out for the process of spiritual evolution to ...
... I have only held up the ideal of turning it towards the Divine and away from the ego. To keep the vital full of life and energy and to trust mainly to the inner growth and the descent of a higher consciousness for a change, using the will too but for self-mastery, not for suppression, but for subordination of the lower to the higher, has been my teaching. The turn to vairagya, to tapasya of an ascetic ...
... The other way, which is the way to knowledge, is the meditation in the head by which there comes the opening above, the quietude or silence of the mind and the descent of peace etc. of the higher consciousness generally till it envelops the being and fills the body and begins to take up all the movements. But this involves a passage through silence, a certain emptiness of the ordinary activities—they ...
... the descent and the experiences, for many have had them or similar things without being any the worse. It is something in you, probably in your lower vital and physical, that does not want the Higher Consciousness because it will have to change and it has no intention of changing. When this pressure acts, it gets at once a fear and shakes the physical mind and system by its fear. You will have then to ...
... steep way that lies before man towards his perfection and the transformation that it has to achieve. The secret of the transformation lies in the transference of our centre of living to a higher consciousness and in a change of our main power of living. This will be a leap or an ascent even more momentous than that which Nature must at one time have made from the vital mind of the animal to the thinking ...
... contented with none of the combinations it has made because none brings about their perfect reconciliation or their satisfied oneness. That indeed Page 116 belongs to a larger and higher consciousness, not yet attained by mankind, where these opposites are ever harmonised and even unified because in their origin they are eternally one. But still every enlarged attempt of the intelligence ...
... results must have at its root some radical falsity, some cardinal error. I pass now to a third passage, also instructive, also full of that depth and fine knowledge of the movements of the higher consciousness which every Yogin must find in the Veda. It is in the 9th hymn of the Mandala and forms the seventh verse of that hymn. Sam gomad Indra vajavad asme prithu sravo brihat, visvayur dhehi akshitam ...
... of grief and despair that reacts upon your effort and makes it sterile. I simply want you to put yourself, if it is possible, in that state of quietude and openness which is favourable to the higher consciousness and its action; if it is not possible at present, I have still said that I will do my utmost to help you to the experience. That does not mean that the utmost has been yet done or that it can ...
... mechanical mind working is very much diminished. It may come up in moments of relaxation or fatigue but usually it is active only in a subordinate way that does not attract notice. When the higher consciousness takes hold of the mechanical mind, it ceases to be mechanical. The Vital Physical The physical vital is the being of small desires and greeds etc.—the vital physical is the nervous being; ...
... or subtle physical has always the greater qualities of its plane—it is the Purusha and like the psychic, though in another way, the projection of the Divine, therefore in connection with the Higher Consciousness and reflects something of it, though it is not altogether that—it is also in tune with the cosmic Truth. Page 98 The True Consciousness The condition you describe 1 is the ...
... 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. Now that is what consciousness is—it is not composed of parts, it is fundamental to being and itself formulates any parts it chooses to manifest—developing them from ...
... psychic only and not to other universal forces. The psychic can have peace behind it—but the inner mind, vital and physical are not necessarily silent—they are full of movements. It is the higher consciousness that has a basis of peace. Page 94 The psychic being is described in the Upanishads as no bigger than the size of one's thumb! That of course is a symbolic image. For usually ...
... works to purify or open the system, or brings with it light or peace or Page 463 prepares the change of the thought, ideas, feelings, character in the sense of a turning towards a higher consciousness, then it is the right force. If it is dark or obscure or perturbs the being with rajasic or egoistic suggestions or excites the lower nature, then it is an adverse Force. The hostiles ...
... consciousness and they have to be understood, simply. Here it is the breaking up of the small surface vital into the largeness of the true or inner vital being which can at once open to the Higher Consciousness, its power, light and Ananda. There is also begun a similar breaking of the small physical mind and sense into the wideness of the inner physical consciousness. The inner planes are always wide ...
... in the movements of the lower nature, ideas of the mind, desires and attractions of the vital, habits of the body consciousness that stand in the Page 638 way of the growth of the higher consciousness—there are other difficulties, but these make the bulk of the opposition. Each part of the nature wants to go on with its old movements and refuses, so far as it can, to admit a radical ...
... It is not the right kind of will-power then [ if it increases fatigue ]—probably they use some fighting or effortful will-power instead of the quiet but strong will that calls down the higher consciousness and force. Will is will whether it is calm or restless, whether it acts in a Yogic or unyogic way, for a Yogic or an unyogic object. Do you Page 718 think Napoleon and Caesar ...
... endeavour to rise up and get the sanction of the mind and higher vital—or if they cannot do that, to cover them up so that the lower nature may act in its ordinary way without being pressed by the higher consciousness to change. The first thing necessary for the sadhak is not to give any consent of his mind or higher vital and to keep them from being covered. If that can be done, then it becomes possible ...
... is above the mind, these lights descend into the body and with them the divine influence. Light and the Illumination of the Consciousness Light or rays of light are always light of the higher consciousness working in the being to illumine or to purify or to awaken the consciousness or attune it to the Truth. It [ Light ] is the power that enlightens whatever it falls upon—the result may ...
... advance. When he lets him pass, then is the rush of new and higher experiences, the march and progress of the divine forces, the Gods and their powers, the transformation of the nature into a higher consciousness. It was these powers that you saw passing in your vision. Parvati-Shankara It is probably the realm of the dynamic creative Spirit on the highest mental plane which you saw as the world ...
... is not so easy to remember when waking unless you train yourself to remember. OM OM there [ above the crown of the head ] indicates the realisation of the Brahman on that level of the (higher) consciousness. Page 188 ...
... what is left of desire or attachment and reject it. This is difficult for the ordinary consciousness and never wholly achieved by it, even if things are outwardly given up; it is easy if the higher consciousness is there in all the parts of the being, provided one opens all one's movements to its Light. About the attachment to things, the physical rejection of them is not the best way to get ...
... its purpose? If it works to purify or open the system, or brings with it light or peace or prepares the change of the thoughts, ideas, feelings, character in the sense of a turning towards a higher consciousness, then it is the right force. If it is dark or obscure, or perturbs the being with rajasic or egoistic suggestions or excites the lower nature, then it is an adverse Force. The Forces of the ...
... Mahalakshmi seated in my mind and heart. Each one radiated a different light from her body. Then I saw a few subtle powers descending into my being. Maheshwari's natural place is in the higher consciousness above mind, for she is the wideness and largeness and wisdom of the Divine. Mahakali acts most naturally through the higher vital which is the instrument of force and power. Mahalakshmi acts ...
... right". The word "pressure" besides is an entirely wrong one to use; the only thing we put is a supporting force to help you in your difficulties or else to bring down more peace and more of the higher consciousness. I do not see how that can be described as an unnecessary pressure or produce bad consequences. But the idea that we were displeased about X 's letter or withdrew our support or were putting ...
... Prakriti, the power of consciousness. The creation of the godhead, the Son, comes by the fertilising of the triple luminous consciousness by the triple luminous soul of the Truth-being so that that higher consciousness becomes active, creative and fruitful in man. × The action of the sacrifice consists in the ...
... and natural features and consequences of a world of ignorance and inconscience or admit all with calm and compassion as a part of the divine working, but, while it awaits the awakening of a higher consciousness and knowledge as the sole escape from what presents itself as evil, is ready with help and intervention where that is truly helpful and possible. But, nonetheless, there is also this other middle ...
... out of the depths to the surface or down from the heights which he has climbed or is nearing to lower levels. These activities then may have to be intermitted or put aside until, secure in a higher consciousness, he is able to turn its powers on all the mental fields; then, subjected to that light or taken up into it, they are turned, by the transformation of his consciousness, into a province of the ...
... open to us, not to have the experience of them, not to know and manifest their law in Page 706 ourselves is to fall short of the height and fullness of our being. But worlds of a higher consciousness are not the only possible scene and habitation of the perfected soul; nor can we find in any unchanging typal world the final or total sense of the Spirit's self-expression in the cosmos: the ...
... of the evolution, the principle of evolutionary process, although modified, will not fundamentally change but, on a vaster scale and in a liberated movement, royally continue. A change into a higher consciousness or state of being is not only the whole aim and process of religion, of all higher askesis, of Yoga, but it is also the very trend of our life itself, the secret purpose found in the sum of ...
... hallucination; but the absolute satisfaction Page 426 and sense of illumination which it gives and alone can give is really a proof of its greater validity; we get by that a ray from the higher consciousness and the diviner sense into which our subjective being is intended eventually, if we will only allow it, to be transfigured. We have seen that this applies to the highest principles of the ...
... for liberation with all its mental concomitants must be surpassed before the soul can be entirely free. Therefore not only must the mind be able to rise in abnormal states out of itself into a higher consciousness, but its waking mentality also must be entirely spiritualised. This brings into the field the second possibility open to the Page 396 mental being; for if its first possibility ...
... felt at the same time something like an extraordinary Protection which prevented from going mad.... It was a VERY concrete experience for several hours: the protection of a Consciousness... a higher consciousness, and a sort of power dominating the thing, with the perception that if That weren't there, there was enough to make lots of people go mad. But the body is very... the body is very affected ...
... man, but if there is the same difference between that being and man as between man and the ape... It would be something already! It's a lot! It's a lot. But one may conceive that a higher consciousness would "aestheticize," harmonize this material substance.... Yes. But the step beyond that is what's more incomprehensible. Yes. You understand, it's the functioning of the organs ...
... ideas. Jewish Kabbalah also presents four 'worlds' with a descent to the lowest world and a reascent of the divine to the Source. You say that Sri Aurobindo was made aware of these things by a higher consciousness, and that is something one must accept. Blake knew it, but in the West 'knowledge' is always a process of acquiring and relating more facts, more information, not, as with you (and as it should ...
... co-operation and preparation: even if the Supreme Grace makes the first move, the beneficiary has to follow up and carry out a course of sadhana, launch on a definite via mystica for receiving the higher consciousness in a continuous stream and for ultimately settling it in himself. The descent which Sri Aurobindo laboured to effect was of a new power which he distinguished as Supermind or Truth-Consciousness ...
... blessings from their Supreme Master and the Mother in one little Page 95 corner of the earth. The significance of the occasion was far greater than that. It was certain that a Higher Consciousness had descended on earth. In that deep silence had burgeoned forth, like the sprout of a banyan tree, the beginning of a mighty spiritual work. This momentous occasion carried its significance ...
... home-sickness for a post-mortem paradise but rather as the evolutionary urge by which Nature is striving to produce the superman in whom mind, life and body have received the law and light of a higher Consciousness and Power which have purified, subtilised, intensified and transformed them Page 2 into perfect images on earth of their own ideality. In that case, Nature is at bottom a supreme ...
... consciousness and force with the Universal. The ecstasy of the pure being absolute and one with the Transcendent. Karma Yoga: The Yoga of Works 138 All spiritual paths lead to a higher consciousness and union with the Divine and among the many paths one of the greatest is the Page 348 Way of Works: it is as great as the Way of Bhakti or the Way of Knowledge. Do not imagine ...
... then it's fine.... It's far from having reached perfection—to begin with, it's... I don't know if it's being transformed, that's not visible, but at any rate its functioning depends on the higher Consciousness, it no longer depends on the ordinary mechanism (that's taking place gradually). Well, even in the middle of that, there's a sort of smiling trust as a result of which, even when there's some ...
... hours a day, ceaselessly, day after day, changelessly; even when something goes wrong (you have a pain or something), the first movement is this: it's to offer it, to give it—spontaneously. The higher consciousness doesn't intervene, it's spontaneous: it's the consciousness contained in the cells. It's the vital and the mind that are like this ( zigzagging gesture ), unsteady Especially the vital, which ...
... y—they deceive themselves. They see things like this ( Mother makes a twisting gesture ), never straight.... But when one isn't constantly led—exclusively led—by Page 377 the higher Consciousness, one does it almost automatically: a slight "this way" ( same gesture of twisting ), without knowing it, without premeditation. That [the twist], I saw it in the past. It became impossible ...
... with the soul of the earth and together they do the work; She has chosen the soul of the earth for her work, saying, 'HERE is where I will do my work.' Elsewhere ( Mother indicates regions of higher Consciousness ), it's enough just to BE and things Simply ARE. Here on earth you have to work. There are clearly universal repercussions and effects, of course, but the thing is WORKED OUT here, the place ...
... ), the mind has been worked upon for years, so that it doesn't meddle when it's none of its business and lets Nature take care of all the damage; but now Nature is being told, "Keep quiet, a higher Consciousness will settle things." But that means the consciousness must be CONSTANTLY alert. Constantly alert. The consciousness' own attitude towards the Divine is to be as if nestling in the Divine—I ...
... "toughness" here and there. Your picture of the Johnsonian critic is both effective and amusing. I suppose most of us who have not gone beyond the intellect into a deeper and higher consciousness have him in some form or other lurking within us. I try my best to keep at bay whatever remnant of him is still in me — and I think my various essays on poetry in general and on your poetry ...
... this dream yesterday, but, it came earlier. What does it mean? It is a symbol of the difficult seeking in the mind, vital and physical which one goes through until one looks up to the higher consciousness and follows the way of the Mother's white light; then the road becomes straight and luminous. Sri Aurobindo ...
... 1978-06-17 Zigzag paths seem to indicate that movement in life is intricate and progress in sadhana does not occur easily. Mountains of various colours signify the ascent towards the higher consciousness through various planes. The illumined place is first seen (where some persons are there). After making a lot of effort, the consciousness becomes illumined. ...
... Visions of Champaklal Wonderful Lion-shaped Figure 1978-06-08 The seeing of a waterfall shows that the “seer” is a recipient of some flow from the higher consciousness above, and golden sunlight symbolises the seeing of the direct light of the Truth. As a symbol, the Lion means the vital force, strength, courage and power. Here this force is in service ...
... so that all in you shall belong to the Divine Mother.” Such an extraordinary ceremony of offering can be done only by a few people, not everyone can do it. One can visualise the ascent to the higher consciousness (Range of Mountains) only after such an offering and explore the vast expanse of Truth which is full of glittering sand. One may, first, see one's individualised consciousness (Pool of Water); ...
... forgot his own name, signifying that he perhaps lost his own sense of identity. This is but natural as the ego should get gradually eliminated when one gets more and more identified with the higher consciousness as one gets closer to it. Even the Mother wanted a hew world with a new race “that has no ego, that has in place of the ego the Divine Consciousness,... which will allow the race to develop ...
... realise and can realise if it gives up the superficial course of ordinary thought. The next phase, after the liberation of this white light, is the turning of the whole truth of mind into a higher consciousness which is symbolised by the golden light going more and more upward to the Divine Goal. Auroville is essentially meant to be the precipitation of a consciousness of divine unity. This con ...
... Consciousness (Sri Aurobindo and the Mother). The obstacles are broken and “the door opens automatically.” The “Yajna” of self-purification is to be performed if one is to enter the realm of higher consciousness. Sri Aurobindo chanting vedic hymns perhaps symbolises that one has to go beyond the mind and experience directly the various forces or the free play of the Divine. Initially, these are experienced ...
... body in transformation did not know what was awaiting her the next moment or at the end of her adventure, the consciousness of her body did not know that; but her soul (as we will see), her higher consciousness (supramentalized and therefore essentially divine) and her inner being as the Great Mother of course knew every bit of it. For anything whatsoever, including her incarnated existence and her ...
... us perceptible one that she only had to make ‘a step backwards,’ in a movement of the consciousness of the cells, to pass from the one into the other, just as she had always crossed with her higher consciousness from our world into the subtle physical ones. The Mother had discarded her ego long ago. The ego is one of the least palpable but nonetheless the most real things existing. It is the ...
... to illumine, to transform, instead of having to destroy brutally.’ 21 ‘We do not want any catastrophes,’ she emphasized, and she called catastrophes ‘a terrible waste’. ‘Up there [in her higher consciousness] one is not in favour of breaking things, for that is a waste of time.’ She once said in a certain context: ‘To kill is not on my programme.’ When somebody wrote to him about the terrible ...
... and thought patterns proper to their ages. Now the times seem to have ripened and may bear fruit in the realization by mature souls of their presence in this material world, transformed by a higher Consciousness. The “anthropocentric illusion” will then be changed into a divine Reality. Which is why Sri Aurobindo had Narad say to Savitri’s royal father: Earth is the chosen place of mightiest souls; ...
... evolution which is the evolution of the embodied spirit through successive stages towards the Divine.” 6 “I have said that the Avatar is one who comes to open the Way for humanity to a higher consciousness – if nobody can follow the way, then either our conception of the thing, which is also that of Christ and Krishna and Buddha also, is all wrong or the whole life and action of the Avatar is ...
... contradicted in this Yoga? A. It has a different function. The movements of the ordinary consciousness have to be mastered and quieted, and into the quietude, there has to be brought down a higher consciousness and its powers which will transform the nature. Sri Aurobindo ...
... symbolic; and others again that indicate movements and propensities or old memories or things stored or still alive in the subconscient which have to be changed or got rid of as one rises into a higher consciousness. Sri Aurobindo ...
... unfolding. The manifestation, its crises included, expresses only what exists within the One, within the Divine, in all eternity. ‘The Avatar is one who comes to open the Way for humanity to a higher consciousness’ 14 (Sri Aurobindo) — in the evolutionary stage of the Earth in which humankind has been present, that is, for previously Avatars have also helped in creating higher forms of animal life ...
... another was Vivekananda. ‘[Vivekananda] visited me for fifteen days in Alipore Jail and, until I could grasp the whole thing, he went on teaching me and impressed upon my mind the working of the Higher Consciousness … He would not leave me until he had put it all into my head,’ 7 Sri Aurobindo later confided to some of his disciples. Swami Vivekananda, that pillar of strength and the spiritual crown-prince ...
... whole evolutionary process beginning from vegetable to life-consciousness in the worms, insects, reptiles, birds and thence to the mental consciousness of the animals and finally to the emerging higher consciousness of man, the mental being, the earth is progressively moving towards the yet un evolved spiritual and supra-mental consciousness which is at the summit of our evolutionary destiny ...
... these higher luminous planes, even if permanently centred there, does not suffice for the spiritual transformation of our being and nature. The permanent ascent from the lower to the higher consciousness must be followed by the complementary process of a permanent descent of the higher into the lower . The transmutation of our present modes of being and activities into spiritual values leading ...
... mechanism of express or implied deductions and inferences, no building or deliberate concatenation of idea with idea in order to arrive at an ordered sum or outcome of knowledge.... This higher consciousness is a Knowledge formulating itself on a basis of self-existent all-awareness. ... It can freely express itself in single ideas, but its most 72.This particular paragraph is an adapted ...
... conscious of all the movements of one’s being is not enough, is it? One must also know how to change them. How to do this? This is precisely the object of the integral yoga. It is by making the higher consciousness come down into the fourfold material 35 that one can change one’s character and all the movements of one’s being. 6 January 1966 × ...
... 09 February 1961 Whether I liked to undergo the hideous difficulties or not, I was compelled to accept them to purify my whole being and to prepare myself for the higher Consciousness. I was inspired to write a letter to the Mother on 9th February 1961 expressing that I should make my life worth living by doing something concrete and genuine which might be profitable to others ...
... Victorious, calm, immortal, infinite. 22.9.1939 Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems: The Inner Sovereign ============= Light or rays of light are always light of the higher consciousness working in the being to illumine or to purify to awaken the consciousness or attune it to the Truth. Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III: Light Light is the light of Consciousness ...
... for quite a long time. She awoke and revealed: Gods and Goddesses of the Overmind haven't yet surrendered to the Supreme Lord because they have their own great power and they live in the Higher Consciousness. When Sri Aurobindo was in his body, I used to give blessings on the Puja days. They used to come.... Also when I was going downstairs and giving meditations all these Gods and Goddesses ...
... marvelled at the Mother's description According to Sri Aurobindo: Rainbow — signifies Peace and Deliverance. Square — signifies Supermind. Mountain — Ascending planes of the higher consciousness. Symbol of the embodied consciousness based upon earth but rising up towards the Divine. Lake — The Lake is the being in its individualised consciousness. Trees — Standing image ...
... only the supramental manifestation can dissolve it. 26 August 1954 Let us advance always, without stopping, towards an always more complete manifestation, an always more complete and higher consciousness. 31 August 1954 Page 92 The supramental force has the power to transform even the darkest hate into luminous peace. 11 October 1954 We aspire to be liberated from ...
... possibility of its degradation? A base and evil life can only have the effect of separating the outer being more and more completely from the psychic being, which retires into the depths of the higher consciousness and sometimes even cuts off all relation with the body, which is then usually possessed by an asuric or rakshasic being. The psychic being itself is above all possibility of degradation. ...
... another one and they go on clamouring more and more. It is only by conquering the desires that you can get rid of them, by coming out of this consciousness of the lower nature and rising to a higher consciousness. 29 April 1930 Page 253 Refuse to do anything whatsoever which leads you away from the Divine. 18 October 1934 If you want to become conscious of my presence in ...
... the laws of that community, otherwise you become an element of disorder and confusion. But a discipline willingly accepted cannot be harmful to the inner development and the growth of the higher consciousness. 3 October 1969 ...
... to their own consciousness, but the other has not their consciousness! Therefore they cannot judge (I speak only of people of goodwill, naturally). According to the vision of a more total or higher consciousness, another person deceives himself, but according to the person himself, he does to the utmost whatever he believes he must do. This amounts to saying that it is absolutely impossible to lay ...
... there is no change. Even if there be something that is not all right (either a pain or something else), the first movement, yes, it is that, it is to offer itself, give itself—spontaneously. The higher consciousness does not intervene. It is spontaneous, it is Page 189 the consciousness contained in the cells. It is the vital and the mental that are unstable in that way ( gesture of zigzagging ...
... Harmony must be there, it is that which we want; and then those who have revolted against the ordinary law of things and the ordinary social conventions: prove that you are in relation with a higher consciousness and a truer truth. It is time to do it ( gesture of a leap upward ). And from the point of view of organising power, it is a power... extremely powerful. It is a wonder. And then, if this ...
... And then there was nothing, nothing but... THE thing, WITHOUT ANY PERSONAL PARTICIPATION WHATSOEVER: no will, no aspiration, not even the satisfaction of it—nothing. It was.... I was (in my higher consciousness) filled with wonder at the ABSOLUTENESS of the experience. It came, a thing DECREED and eternal—like that ( same irresistible gesture ). ( silence ) This detachment, as I told you, came ...
... compact power moving forward with the intention of changing all this! It had to change. At all costs, it must change! I was above, as usual ( Mother points above her head, indicating the higher consciousness ), and I looked at that ( Mother bends over, as if looking down at the earth ), and said to myself, 'Hmm, this is getting dangerous. If it continues like this, it will result in ... in a war ...
... just what the body's transformation is about! It's when the physical cells become not only conscious, but RECEPTIVE to the true Consciousness-Force, that is, when they allow the working of that higher Consciousness. That's the work of transformation.... Not so easy! The other question: "How does the central Will and Light, which is nonmaterial, act on the gross matter of the cells?" It's exactly ...
... Certainly it acts! It's ALREADY been acting, for a long time. It's because the body is used (was used) to obeying the vital and especially the mind, so it's to change its habit, to make it obey the higher Consciousness alone. That's why. It's to make things go faster. In people, That acts through the mind and vital—and as I said, it's safer that way. As an experience it's rather risky, but it makes things ...
... into a swamp without stirring up any mud—it cannot be done, the "milieu" is like that. And when one knows how much transparency, clarification and inner stillness it takes to slowly rise to a higher consciousness, or to allow a higher light to enter our waters without being instantly darkened, one fails to see how sexual activity can help you attain that still limpidity in which things can start happening ...
... presence are indispensable - for it would be impossible otherwise to go through it without much stumbling and error which would prevent all chances of success. The Master is one who has risen to a higher consciousness and being and he is often regarded as its manifestation or representative. He not only helps by his Yogic teaching and still more by his influence and example but by a power to communicate his ...
... You see, it's not a question of just these cells here: it's a question of cells in, well, quite a lot of people, hundreds, maybe thousands—all that clings anywhere and in any way to the higher Consciousness. And since my mind is silent (I deliberately keep the mind absolutely still, trying not to react to all that constantly comes to it from "outside," or trying to react almost subconsciously) ...
... thought—enlightened thought, surrendered thought, the thought that is nothing more than an instrument, that no longer tries to set things in motion, that is satisfied with being moved by the higher Consciousness—thought is used as an intermediary to make contact, to build a connection and allow this impersonal Force to act wherever it's necessary, on precise points. ( silence ) We may say in an ...
... last few days (yesterday or the day before), there was this: a sort of completely decentralized consciousness (I am always referring to the physical consciousness, of course, not at all to the higher consciousness), a decentralized consciousness that happened to be here, there, there, in this body, that body (in what people call "this person" and "that person," but that notion doesn't quite exist anymore) ...
... everything. Yes, yes. Page 230 What can you do?! Persist. I saw it in my own case. It was interesting enough, because from my earliest childhood, I was in contact with the higher consciousness ( gesture above the head ) and in a real stupefaction at the state of the earth and people—when I was very little. I was in a stunned amazement all the time. And the blows I received!... Constantly ...
... their physical consciousness) can see that it's memories. The number of memories of this kind I've had is almost incalculable. But it doesn't have the same character as the memories of the higher consciousness (then it's not a "memory": it's a sort of vision the higher beings 2 have of life; but that's something else). The memories I speak of are memories of the psychic being, they have a different ...
... arrived. But she exclaimed: "What has happened shows that the Divine Force also can now have a direct effect upon the body. If the dark powers have this new possibility, the inner Light and the higher Consciousness can just as well emerge into the body with concrete changes in it if we are truly receptive!" Page 179 ...
... the prolongation of the "mega-synthesis" which has dominated evolution over its entire course and is the application, at the human thought-level, of the law of higher complexity engendering a higher consciousness, Jan Feys, S.J., 19 writes of that view of Teilhard's: "This permits him to attribute an operative value in the building of future humanity to social structures, cultural exchange, economic ...
... and tangible, a supreme Presence in our midst to bring about our evolutionary completion. But, just as the Mother's sadhana before her passing away was linked with our receptivity to the higher consciousness and could be to a considerable extent quickened or slowed down by the state in which we were, so also her progress towards materialisation from the boundary between two worlds is conditioned ...
... aim is to raise human into divine nature. Experience shows that, in proportion as we deliver ourselves from the limiting mental and vital ego, we command a wider life, a larger existence, a higher consciousness, a happier soul-state, even a greater knowledge, power and scope. Even the aim which the most mundane philosophy pursues, the fulfilment, perfection, satisfaction of the individual, is best ...
... the ego is an illusion. According to yoga psychology, the true view of things can be obtained only by going beyond the normal superficial mental consciousness and looking from a deeper or higher consciousness. ...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 ...
... 1920s to the early 1940s, when Sri Aurobindo set aside most of the rest of the poem in order to concentrate on what became Part One. Aswapati's part in the epic represents the ascent into a higher consciousness which is one of two principal movements in Sri Aurobindo's Yoga, the other being the descent of that consciousness and its forces into human nature, represented by Savitri. It was only after ...
... Sri Aurobindo In the calm sea, on the horizon, I saw a fire whose flames gradually reached the sky. The calm sea is the quiet vital, the flames are the aspiration rising to the higher consciousness to bring it down; on the horizon means this is the development before you to which you have to move. Sri Aurobindo Night before last in a dream I quarrelled with Mother and left her; ...
... arranged in order to make possible a spiritual and psychic communion on the most physical and external planes, by which there would be an interchange of forces, a continuous increase of the higher consciousness on the physical plane, a more and more rapid change of the external nature of the sadhaks and afterwards an increasing descent of the supramental light and power into Matter. Meditation at ...
... thing, one is not affected by birth and death. Then Buddha did not achieve perfection of his nature? He may have entered the higher ignorance. You see there are infinite movements of the higher consciousness in Nature. Human mind can occupy itself with certain mental absolutes, not all. It can confine itself to the absolute of the silent Brahman or the absolute of the Infinite Power, Mahashakti ...
... another one and they go on clamouring more and more. It is only by conquering the desires that you can get rid of them, by coming out of this consciousness of the lower nature and rising to a higher consciousness. 29 April 1930 Sri Aurobindo A desire which knows that it will never be satisfied at once vanishes. The Mother René, Come quick. I have a letter for you. Love from your ...
... not, I felt deep peace behind and around my head and I like to enter into it. How nice if it would descend into me! Is it imagination or truth? You are probably feeling the peace of the higher consciousness with a tendency to enter into it. Afterwards this usually descends into the head and body, but as yet there is not this movement. / couldn 't stop my currents of useless thoughts, even ...
... self and nature clinging and trying to pull downwards; it refuses to let go, bur finally it has to fall off and the being can ascend without downward pull or fear of fall, into the skies of the higher consciousness above. 12.10.1936 ...
... is gone for good and all ? Who ? What ? I am quite delighted to hear it—also of the pressure on the head and between eyebrows—for that is the classic unmistakable sign that the higher consciousness is thinking of getting to its business—viz, to open the two higher centres that are there. I hope it will stick to its job and get through. P.S. Last night also did a lot of japa ...
... Supermind. The lower world of the earth of physical consciousness and the world of sensations, emotions, intellectual thought and intuitive mind are reconciled with their counterparts in the higher consciousness of the Supermind. The Ignorance in which one lives, the Night, is illumined upon both sides of our complete being. That state of complete illumination is the state of Beatitude or the principle ...
... 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 aim. As Sri Aurobindo points out, the object of his synthesis of Yoga is not an individual achievement ...
... where the realization of the one is the natural basis of consciousness. That sense of unity and oneness is common on all the planes from higher mind upwards, but what is new at every level of higher consciousness is the degree and kind of power of consciousness and the degree and kind of intensity and potency of the Light. Sri Aurobindo states: "The Self governs the diversity of its creation by ...
... mind, vital, body to the Divine, for the love and union with the Divine, for its presence and power within the heart for the transformation of the mind, life and body by the descent of the higher consciousness into our nature. When the psychic being reaches a point of its evolution where it can impose its aspiration on the mind, vital and body, they too aspire and this is what is felt as the aspiration ...
... not a true ascetic. Neither to offend, nor to do wrong to anyone, to practise discipline according to the Law, to be moderate in eating, to live in seclusion, and to merge oneself in the higher consciousness, this is the teaching of the Awakened Ones. Even a rain of gold would not be able to quench the thirst of desire, for it is insatiable and the origin of sorrows. This the sage knows. Even ...
... to see themselves as though they had even today personally left Egypt. But which Egypt? There are many kinds of Egypts; material, psychological and spiritual, and ultimately the Jew, seeking higher consciousness, must break out of all of them. It is the inner freedom from desire, anger and so on, all of which keep not only the Jew, but all human beings from truly interacting with God. And of course ...
... Gita we have an elaborate description of the Vibhutis of various levels of evolution, — physical, vegetal, animal and human. All the vibhutis may be regarded as special manifestations of the higher consciousness, and, in a sense, they indicate special descents of consciousness that have come down from above from the ever-awake Infinite Consciousness. However, there are moments in the history of ...
... perhaps misinterprets and misuses and mislives it. His true staff of walking is made more of afire of faith than any ascertained and indubitable light of knowledge. It is only by rising toward a higher consciousness beyond the mental line and therefore superconscient now to him that he can emerge from his inability and his ignorance. His full liberation and enlightenment will come when he crosses the line ...
... exhausting fatigue and leads in the end to degeneration and decomposition of the material elements. Physical culture which aims at building a body capable of serving as a fit instrument for the higher consciousness demands very austere habits: a great regularity in sleep, food, physical exercises and in all activities. One should study scrupulously the needs of one's body — for these vary according to ...
... it depending on the free choice of the Witness. It is a very helpful stage in our sadhana of transformation; for in this way the detached inner being of the sadhaka can bring the force of the higher consciousness to act to change the nature wholly, observing all the time the action of nature without being in any way affected by it, putting the force for change wherever needed and setting the whole being ...
... date, (viii) By sustained practice one can, in sleep, pass from consciousness to deeper consciousness in a long succession until one reaches the psychic and rests there, or else from higher and higher consciousness until one attains rest in Sachchidananda silence and peace. (ix) One can progressively change one's sleep into a yogic repose and transform one's dreams into various dream-experiences or, even ...
... in his being and open wide all the closed nooks and corners of his nature. Sri Aurobindo has assured us: "If there is a sincerity in the aspiration and a patient will to arrive at the higher consciousness in spite of the obstacles, then the opening in one form or another is sure to come." {Letters on Yoga, p. 605) But while speaking about the necessity of aspiration we must remind that ...
... of ignorance surrounding the sadhaka or removes for a short while the impenetrable veil obscuring his vision. Through this chink and because of this removal, the sadhaka gets a glimpse of the higher consciousness, of the glories and opulence of the supernal realms. And that begins attracting the amazed sadhaka as a powerful magnet and he loses very soon even the vestiges of his previous fascination for ...
... Integral Yoga has for its aim: "The one aim of his [Sri Aurobindo's] Yoga is an inner self-development by which each one who follows it can in time discover the One Self in all and evolve a higher consciousness than the mental, a spiritual and supramental consciousness which will transform and divinise human nature." (Ibid.) Referring specifically to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram at Pondicherry ...
... quantity asked for only because R insisted on it. He adds that you come down to common human consciousness level and listen to these suggestions!! He also says you have no time to go into higher consciousness to ascertain the validity of these statements. What an imbecile! As if one could not know about orange juice and its effects without shooting up into the Supermind. Does he think his ex ...
... emotionalist may receive and express a wider knowledge than his intellect or even the intellect of the intellectual man could have harboured or organised. Let us not bind the phenomena of the higher consciousness by the possibilities and probabilities of a lower plane. Nirod, 9-5-35 What is the use and limitations of mercury powder? Is it not an unsafe thing which may do harm as well as good ...
... things can be done. You said that the transformation could only be made by becoming conscious. I would like to know, "conscious" of what? Conscious with the inner and higher consciousness. It is true that everything one does should be offered to the Mother. But how is one to consecrate Page 193 to her one's personal actions? Of what one ...
... love and joy too Page 241 descend from above? The soul's love and joy come from within, from the psychic being. What comes from above is the Ananda of the higher consciousness. How is it that only a rose looks beautiful and not many other flowers? The rose is not the only beautiful flower, there are hundreds of others; most flowers are ...
... throat. An opening is felt in the central part of the head. What is this part? Is it a centre? It is the Brahmarandhra through which there is the communication between the higher consciousness and the lower in the body. It is a passage not a centre. The centre is the thousand petalled lotus just above the head, at that part. The station in the heart centre is for the psychic ...
... sometimes increases. It is not the right kind of will-power then, probably they use some fighting or effortful will-power instead of the quiet but strong will that calls down the higher consciousness and force. The adverse forces feel that there is something in you that is discontented and restive because of the continuance of the inertia and they hope that by pressing ...
... There is a possibility of it, it is an element, but there was also too much tamas for it to dominate the whole nature. Before I came down into the physical from the higher consciousness, I had the belief that I could remain always on the sunlit path. Was it wrong? It was not wrong but a part of your being, the tamasic part has not allowed you to realise it all ...
... race of elite in whom the grosser elements of humanhood, its physical animality and mentality have been purified of their dross, refined into something of the pure luminous reflection of the higher consciousness—that is the immediate end for which the new force seems to be labouring. And the consequence too of this achievement is expected to be also very considerable. The whole human race or even ...
... Nature's current, we should be buffeted along, the good and the evil, as we conceive them to be, befalling us indiscriminately. Or, again, if we happen to live in part or even mainly in an inner or higher consciousness, more or less in a mood of withdrawal from the current of life allowing the life movements to happen as they list, then too we remain, in fact, creatures and playthings of Nature and we must ...
... into his mouth—well, this does not seem to be a likely happening. If one wishes to enjoy the fruit, one must share in the effort to sow and" grow. Indeed, the process itself of reaching the higher consciousness involves a gradual heightening of the consciousness. The means is really part of the end. The joy of victory is the consummation of the joy of battle. Man can help or retard the process ...
... most puffed up. How can you imagine that a true god, a god even of the Overmind—although those of this region are already somewhat touched by human frailties—that is to say, one who has the higher consciousness, would get any pleasure out of these things? I repeat, an act of real kindness, intelligence, unselfishness or fine understanding or sincere aspiration is for him an altogether higher and more ...
... that way it proved to be useful. But taken in its fundamental principle it has not helped much in the transformation of earth and earthly life. It has not encouraged the descent of a higher Consciousness into earthly life; instead it has very strongly encouraged Page 146 the separation of the Consciousness, which he said was the only truth, from all external expression, ...
... y elements of spiritual life. The work that Mother could do then and was doing, she herself has described and explained to us. It was the creation of a world—a region at least—of the higher consciousness in which every one who participated had his own place, every one with his soul-being sufficiently in front, and this being she could connect or link up with a being of the higher sphere—a c ...
... directing knowledge. This triune world forms the humanity of man. But there is another aspect hidden behind this apparent nature, there is another world where man dwells in his submerged, larger and higher consciousness. To that his soul—the Purusha in his heart only has access. It is the world where man's nature is transmuted into another triune reality—Sat, Chit and Ananda. The one, however, is not ...
... oppresses others. [7] Do not blame anyone, do not hurt anyone. Concentrate upon the discipline according to the Law. Be moderate in your food, live apart, merged in the higher consciousness. [8] A shower of gold coins brings no satisfaction to desires. The wise know that desires satiate little and cause only grief. [9] The aspirant ...
... experiences, to assimilate and utilise them so as to transform them into powers of being, Page 5 time, that is to say, to build and forge the instrument so that it may house the higher consciousness and existence. In the present make-up, the body, at a certain stage has to be given up; for the frame becomes too rigid and stiff to keep pace with the growing and fast moving inner consciousness ...
... you as against the boundless infinity of the universe. Naturally, there is the other way of separating yourself from the earthly consciousness Page 60 and rising into a higher consciousness, there earthly things take their true place, that is to say, they become small things. Page 61 ...
... also his vital and physical life. In other words, we have to come down to the lower levels and work for the purification there, in order to raise them beyond themselves by the infusion of the higher consciousness and make them fit instruments for the higher things. We are still continuing with that work, through the "ups and downs of an uneven path". Let me just illustrate, from my own experience ...
... the impressions of the senses; its structure is patterned according to the impact of the physical and material objects. A clear, free physical mind embodies the pattern of the movements of the higher consciousness, not of the sense-dominated consciousness. Even like the mind, the vital too has its threefold knots according to the three elements that constitute it. First, there is a mind ...
... returns is once more to embrace ignorance, but with a view to bringing into it the light and bliss that he gained from above, permeating the stuff of the present world with the substance of the higher consciousness. It is a sacrifice demanded of him, thus to abandon the eternal felicity of the high heavens—the unbroken union with the Divine above —and to enter into the depths of "this great perilous ...
... any and every work that an ignorant man, an ordinary man steeped in the three Gunas does or can do? It cannot be so. For, although all activity, all energy has its source and impetus in the higher consciousness of the Divine, it assumes on the lower ranges indirect, diverted or even perverted formulations and expressions, not because, indeed, of the inherent falsity of these so-called inferior strata ...
... movement to lean upon something, something outside itself; alone and within itself it feels a void and is uneasy and short of breath, as if in a rarefied atmosphere. The Higher Consciousness feels a completeness in itself, is full to the brim with its own reality and needs no going out for materials and objects necessary to fill a vacuity. * ...
... that it is renewed and transformed. As flowers spontaneously blossom at the coming of light, so will man's life become beautiful at the touch of the light of the new conscious ness. This higher consciousness has been brought down through the sadhana and tapasya of Mother and Sri Aurobindo. And if we see today all around our lives all this breaking and destruction, all this turmoil and disorder ...
... wound. On the physical plane something you have not worked out turns up and shows that your conquest is not complete. That is why the process takes such a long time. You must establish the higher Consciousness in every atom of the body, otherwise what happens is that something escapes your view in the hidden depth of the lower physical being which is known to the hostile forces and then they can ...
... different visions on the same plane. Disciple : Whenever the Avatar – the incarnation – comes, does he not undergo a period of Sadhana to make it possible for humanity to attain a higher consciousness ? Sri Aurobindo : What exactly do you mean ? Disciple : In the Bhdgawata Krishna is represented as a Purna Avatar – as manifesting full knowledge, power and delight, even from ...
... minds and opinions, and correct temperamental tendencies and formations. Thus, these sittings contributed at least partly to the creation of an atmosphere amenable to the working of the Higher Consciousness. Far more important than the actual talk and its content was the personal contact, the influence of the Master, and the divine atmosphere he emanated; for through his outer personality it ...
... reply : It is no use her feeling the ascetic tendency. She must combine life and yoga. There is growth by meditation and also by life. She ought to try to be unattached and must bring the Higher Consciousness to bear upon life. She must do actions from that Consciousness. As to external disturbance, tell her not to depend too much on outside circumstances for her Sadhana. In fact, "one never gets ...
... a fortnight? Sometimes I feel a pull on the head upwards. SRI AUROBINDO: Of course, it isn't the physical head. It is a happening in the subtle body, the mind trying to ascend towards the higher consciousness. NIRODBARAN: One sees things like hills or seas in dreams or visions. What is their significance? SRI AUROBINDO: They are symbols: the sea of energy and the hill of being with its different ...
... above in the higher planes. It is the mental opening through the head and going up. The second one is the major ascent, rather the beginning. It has to become fixed above and the descent of the higher consciousness has to take place and transform the nature. Her later experiences are a continuation of this, I suppose. NIRODBARAN: The first letter is dated 1931, the second 1936. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes; ...
... in its ordinary movement to lean upon something, something outside itself; alone and within itself it feels a void and is uneasy and short of breath, as if in a rarefied atmosphere. The Higher Consciousness feels a completeness in itself, is full to the brim with its own reality and needs no going out for materials and objects necessary to fill a vacuity. *** Two consciousnesses ...
... proceeded—by pointing and indicating. He visited me for fifteen days in Alipore Jail and, until I could grasp the whole thing, he went on teaching me and impressed upon my mind the working of the higher consciousness—the Truth-Consciousness in general—which leads towards the Supermind. He would not leave until he had put it all into my head. NIRODBARAN: Do Gurus come in that way and give teachings? ...
... parts of the being. You know, I am not satisfied with an effort to make the Peace come down into the system, or even to realise the Divine. It is not enough to change your consciousness by a higher consciousness. There must be a radical transformation of each part of the being. To change them is not enough. It is not a mere change I want. I want a complete transformation, and nothing less. To make the ...
... an utter quietness be maintained? You cannot drive out rajas and tamas, you can only convert them and give the predominance to sattwa. Tamas and rajas disappear only when the higher consciousness not only comes down but controls everything down to the cells of the body. They then change into the divine rest and peace and the divine energy or Tapas,— finally sattwa also changes into divine ...
... whole of it. One may be in contact with it or able to go into it at will or there may be the reflection of it in the mind and the vital. All that is partial. One has to go further, into the higher consciousness above the head and remain there. NIRODBARAN: Then I suppose one won't be disturbed by these things. SRI AUROBINDO: Even if they come, one won't be touched by them. They will be on the ...
... I didn't use the word "complex". I said "extremely confused" and added that the Indian situation is no less so with its Muslims, Parsis, X, Y, etc. SATYENDRA: When one has attained to the higher consciousness and is firmly seated in that consciousness, then one can slowly take up any activity without getting disturbed. SRI AUROBINDO: Quite so. NIRODBARAN: In the transitional stage till the ...
... y, shows that he is, talking from his mental imagination. For, if one attains to the Sachchidananda consciousness, one is no longer bound by such ideas, one is led to accord oneself to that higher consciousness. SRI AUROBINDO: And if he wants to keep his individuality, for that he has to accept the Supramental Truth; for in the Supermind alone there is diversity and difference but without divis ...
... most puffed up. How can you imagine that a true god, a god even of the Overmind – although those of this region are already somewhat touched by human frailties – that is to say, one who has the higher consciousness, would get any pleasure out of these things? I repeat, an act of real kindness, intelligence, unselfishness or fine understanding or sincere aspiration is for him an altogether higher and more ...
... race of elite in whom the grosser elements of humanhood, its physical animality and mentality have been purified of their dross, refined into something of the pure luminous reflection of the higher consciousness – that is the immediate end for which the new force seems to be labouring. And the consequence too of this achievement is expected to be also very considerable. The whole human race or even ...
... show. But is it by any sort of virtuous act that a lower form of life becomes a higher one? SRI AUROBINDO: Virtuous act? No, it is a question of consciousness, a change from a lower to a higher consciousness. DR. MANILAL (after a while): My shoulder is still resistant. Sir. The pain in the joint continues. SRI AUROBINDO: Apply the Force. DR. MANILAL: I have done so. Sir, but no result ...
... a process of purification and new organisation. This has been done with considerable success. This is the Vedantic way. But, there is a but, that is to say, a limitation in this line. The higher consciousness is brought down, it descends, but normally it does not penetrate far enough; it penetrates only very partially, slowly, intermittently and in a gradually diminishing strength. The top region ...
... the impressions of the senses; its structure is patterned according to the impact of the physical and material objects. A clear, free physical mind embodies the pattern of the movements of the higher consciousness, not of the sense-dominated consciousness. Even like the mind, the vital too has its threefold knots according to the three elements that constitute it. First, there is a mind in the vital ...
... will'. - Oct 17 'One of the very first results of the supramental manifestation was to give the body a freedom... a direct power... not Something that comes from a higher Will, not a higher consciousness that imposes itself upon the body: it is the body itself awakening in its cells, a freedom of the cells themselves, an absolutely new vibration....' 1958 Feb 3 Her earth-consciousness ...
... 1922 November: Deshabandhu Chittaranjan Das's invitation to Sri Aurobindo to return to politics. His 'No', as he was then engaged in preparing to build on a 'perfect foundation' 'a higher consciousness.' 1923 June: Deshabandhu himself called on Sri Aurobindo and discussed with him political and spiritual problems. Sri Aurobindo suggested the convening of a Parliament ...
... depths or rungs of life, passes through successive stages of evolution, and at last attains the highest, the Superconscient. In the first canto itself Sri Aurobindo hints at these vistas of higher consciousness, leading man from the lowest to the topmost rung of the evolutionary ladder. The key symbol is Dawn. It is preceded by Night which is both silent and grim: Almost one ...
... wound. On the physical plane something you have not worked out turns up and shows that your conquest is not complete. That is why the process takes such a long time. You must establish the higher Consciousness IN EVERY ATOM OF THE BODY, otherwise what happens is that something escapes your view in the hidden depth of the lower physical being which is known to the hostile forces and then they can attack ...
... soul) and of man and Nature provide the basis of a universal harmony, this is often upset and Nature is 'ridden with calamities' and humanity has become a byword for disharmony. While a higher consciousness is pressing down for manifestation, it is also meeting with stubborn resistance: All the disorder and disharmony that we see upon earth is the result of this resistance. Calamity ...
... Mother, coming fully charged with hieratic and prophetic power, are to be received and cherished. In the second place, "the question asked or the subject chosen is conveyed by the mind to the higher Consciousness, then the mind receives a reply and transmits it again through the word." Although this method, in which the mind had necessarily to take the leading part, didn't interest the Mother very much ...
... manifold but enlightened human activity. As he wrote to the Maharani of Baroda in 1930, "My aim is to create a centre of spiritual life which shall serve as a means of bringing down the higher consciousness and making it a power not merely for 'salvation' but for a divine life upon earth. It is with this object that I have withdrawn from public life and founded this Ashram .... " 5 The ...
... The crux of the problem is to rise from the lower human (or still lower bestial) to the higher divine consciousness. But how exactly is one to know that one has in fact risen to the higher consciousness? Doubtless it will be an exhilarating but ineffable state of poise and peace and power, but it is not possible for the mere mind, to measure or formulate its nature. And yet the experience ...
... earth consciousness for the transformation praying to herself above from whom the forces of transformation come. This continues till the identification of the earth-consciousness and the higher consciousness is effected .... It is the Divine who is always referred to as Divine Maitre and Seigneur. There is the Mother who is carrying on the sadhana and the Divine Mother, both being one but in ...
... far above the mental and its slavery to ignorance". It was Sri Aurobindo who had visioned this truth, and who saw man as but a "transitional being", but "with the possibility of acquiring" a higher consciousness. Sri Aurobindo had tried to establish in himself this supramental consciousness, and to "help those gathered around him to realise it". The children of the Ashram, still plastic enough for ...
... and the cosmic Ignorance." Page 90 Such an ascent of consciousness, it is often feared, would mean renunciation of, or at least indifference to, life. That such an ascent to a higher consciousness must mean a negative condition is a current but mistaken idea. On the contrary, such a rise brings out an intensification of the powers of nature. So, the power of aesthetic enjoyment also increases ...
... ng. The dawn has already come—people may not know about it. The problem is not outer, not of nations but of humanity. The problem is to bring into the earth consciousness a new element, a Higher Consciousness. The great obstacle that prevents the descent is the materialistic outlook and domination of economy in collective life. Economic organization and scientific advance are in themselves great ...
... descending supramental Force. 2.10.65 * * * I am glad to be assured that you are "doing all" you can to eliminate "the deterrent effect of the mental ego in progress towards the higher consciousness". Indeed, my friend, we have embarked upon a very difficult adventure—the supramentalisation of the whole of our being down to the cells of our body. Liberation from the ego and transcendence ...
... fresh and creative, inspiring and ennobling and exalting, because they were not manufactured in the mind of reason, in the shadow of human ignorance, but flashed as revelation in the deeper or higher consciousness of man, which can be attained only by silencing and over- passing reason. Denouncing all mental judgements as ignorant and erroneous, and describing the way to receive the higher light, the ...
... Sometimes I feel a pull on the head upwards. What is it due to? Sri Aurobindo : Of course, it is not in the physical head but in the subtle body, the Mind trying to ascend towards the Higher Consciousness. Disciple : If one dreams or sees visions of seas, hills, etc., – what do they mean? Sri Aurobindo : These are symbols; the sea of energy, the hill of the Being with its ...
... nature is meant to incarnate and reveal, and all that is the ultimate sense and destiny of the human birth are found in the ṛtam jyotiḥ or Truth-Light of the Supermind. If an ascent to a higher consciousness is a new birth, an ascent to the supramental consciousness is a birth into the Supernature, parā prakrti. The ascent has two stages, initial and final. At the initial stage, the most ...
... their minds and opinions, and correct temperamental tendencies and formations. Thus, these sittings contributed at least partly to the creation of an atmosphere amenable to the working of the Higher Consciousness. Far more important than the actual talk and its content was the personal contact, the influence of the Master, and the divine atmosphere he emanated; for through his outer personality it was ...
... I fully approve of your singing in your room and see no necessity to stop it. As for the change in the vital, it will come by itself when you will take the habit of remaining in your higher consciousness where all these petty things and movements are tasteless. With love and blessings. (17 April 1939) Sadhana is always difficult and everybody has conflicting elements in his nature ...
... image of the Sun of Truth—an image which in this experience becomes a reality,— we may compare the action of the Higher Mind to a composed and steady sunshine".— Life Divine. "This higher consciousness is a knowledge formulating itself on a basis of self-existent all-awareness and manifesting some part of its integrality, a harmony of its significances put into thought-form".-— Life Divine ...
... instruct the seeker before you do. " Fire as a God was worshipped by the seers of the Upanishads. In Kathopanishad Nachiketa-Fire is mentioned as the deity that can help the aspirant to realise the Higher consciousness. The Upanishads accepted the Vedic symbols in their psychological significance; for instance, Dhenu ' the fostering cow is spoken as' " The fostering cow, the speech, ...
... that at the end there is the fact of the corpse. And that all the changes in time and consciousness change nothing of this fact. The corpse is the proof. You simply live within a fantasy of "higher" consciousness (unless it is the fantasy that is higher, the other being of course a lesser one). Your vibration changes nothing. True, the ape could have also said (if he spoke) that that stupid mental ...
... were: if it goes through your fingers, it’s so concrete that you feel it go through. A deep golden light. We could say this: if you compare the consciousness, not of ordinary humanity but the higher consciousness of humanity, with this Consciousness, you feel that as soon as the human consciousness tried to contact higher things, to purify lower movements, to widen, it used to become fluid, transparent ...
... If you keep the wideness and calm as you were keeping it and also the love for the Mother in the heart, then all is safe — for it means the double foundation of the yoga — the descent of the higher consciousness with its peace and freedom and security from above and the openness of the psychic which keeps all the effort or all the spontaneous movements turned towards the true goal. (10.10.34) ...
... part of my meeting with the Mother passed in silence. The Mother kept sitting in Her chair, while I sat at Her Feet. She was looking at me, she was looking at me as if from a height, from a higher consciousness. She gave me some flowers and blessed me by placing Her hand on my head. After getting Her blessing I came out of Her room. That day's experience is still as ...
... about although not enslaved by them, and he was continually deploying his attention to the drift of world affairs and the course of human destiny - but from the vantage point of his achieved higher consciousness. It was not as though he had shut out from his mind the whole problem of India's fight for independence: that couldn't be; only, it had now become part of the larger problem of human destiny ...
... smriti; when the truth is presented to the soul and its truth immediately & directly recognised by a movement resembling memory—a perception that this was always true and already known to the higher consciousness. It is smriti that is nearest to intellect action and forms the link between vijnanam & prajnanam, ideal thought & intellectual thought, by leading to the higher forms of intellectual activity ...
... required to be earned for the maintenance of our life on earth (and money is indispensable for this). This earning, I think, is not for the Mother. Till the time arrives when one can live in the higher consciousness and constantly feel the Mother within, I believe the earning is for the ego. One may say at any time that the earning is for the Mother within, but without the constant feeling of unity with ...
... provide a reflection of the beauty and depth of the experiences of Champaklal to the reader. We believe that if an individual does not at least make an attempt towards the realisation of the higher consciousness, his life will be spent in vain. Our attempt is, therefore, to persuade the reader to take upon himself the task of his own re-building so that he may in turn feel the urge to be liberated and ...
... expression of the Higher Thought, the Illumination, the pure Intuition giving great or Page 67 brilliant results, but these cannot be classed as the very bod} of the higher consciousness.... Shakespeare's poetry coruscates with a play of the hues of imagination which we may regard as a mental substitute for the inspiration of the Illumined Mind and sometimes by aiming at an ...
... 1979 I went to a book fair and found a book on the I CHING. I was most interested in how, by dividing up the sticks, one could get answers. Was it coming from the subconscious or was it the higher consciousness? I asked this question. Also in 1979, after many years, I visited England again. Returning to India I purchased a book in the airport on occultism in England. There was a section on divining ...
... the transformation. If that were not possible, how could the transformation take place—the lower nature cannot change by itself, it changes by the growing vision, perception, descent of the higher consciousness belonging to the higher planes. Yoga experience often begins with some opening of the third eye in the forehead (the centre of vision in the brows) or with some kind of beginning and extension ...
... The Calm Sea In the calm sea, on the horizon, I saw fire and the flames gradually reached the sky. The calm sea is the quiet vital, the flames are the aspiration rising to the higher consciousness to bring it down; on the horizon means this is the development before you to which you have to move. Sri Aurobindo ...
... self and nature clinging and trying to pull downwards; it refuses to let go, but finally it has to fall off and the being can ascend without downward pull or fear of fall into the skies of the higher consciousness above. Sri Aurobindo ...
... work. They are still taking care of all (as indicated by the appearance of a body with many hands and then with many eyes). The flow of bright glistening liquid could mean a flow from the higher consciousness (lake). Then, the golden light of Supramental Truth spreads all around from the huge figure. This would bring in its wake the increase in the activities of the inner consciousness and progress ...
... of darkness and obscurity, which are gradually vanquished with the appearance of a huge ball of dark red colour, symbolising the appearance of Divine Love. The “Waterfall” is a flow from the higher consciousness that dispels the hostile forces and paves the way for a “rainbow”—the sign of peace and deliverance. Finally, there is transparent golden water indicating a plane of consciousness that receives ...
... should demand God. It is significant that some persons do reject the “aspiration” flowers. Their whole being is hard and closed. However, those who received them in their bodies merged into the higher consciousness which is invisible to physical eyes. This vision shows a combined effect of Grace from above and a strong aspiration from below. The Mother has given the significance of “aspiration” flowers ...
... bom on earth or hidden from sight in its occult folds, a prerogative exercised in its fullness only since the late 19 th c. However, lacking a tradition in the disciplined invocation of a higher consciousness, the art of modem subjectivism is yet to live up to its promise: Even in the littleness of our mortal state, Even in this prison-house of outer form, A brilliant passage for ...
... wrote this dream yesterday, but it came earlier. What does it mean? It is a symbol of the difficult seeking in the mind, vital and physical which one goes through until one looks up to the higher consciousness and follows the way of the Mother's white light—then the road becomes straight and luminous. 19.3.1935 Sri Aurobindo ...
... it may descend and govern all the activities. (2) The void he feels in the mind is often a necessary condition for the clearing of it from its ordinary movements so that it may open to a higher consciousness and a new experience but in itself it is merely negative, a mental calm without anything positive in it and if one stops there, then dullness and the inertia of which he complains must come ...
... as coetemal with the Devil, irredeemable and permanent, are for Sri Aurobindo ignorance and concomitants of the lower conscious-ness, which must disappear at the emergence of higher Page 472 consciousness. Redemption for Dante, even though he may have achieved "an actual insight into the great dilemma, eternal life or eternal death" 10 was elsewhere and not, as for Sri Aurobindo ...
... "buzz" the activity, particularly of the mechanical mind, that is closely connected with the physical mind. Silence, he says, has to be established in all parts of the ordinary mind so that the higher consciousness may manifest. However, he considers the mind to be as indispensable an instrument as the physical body for life on earth, every part of the ordinary mind having its own useful functions; these ...
... he began doing all sorts of things he might never otherwise have done. 41 In the evolution of the lower consciousness here ego and selfishness were a necessity. So long as the higher consciousness above ordinary mind does not descend, ego remains a necessity even in aspiring towards the Divine.... 42 ...the ego is the lynch-pin invented to hold together the motion of our ...
... to depend on himself, and as he does not have the necessary knowledge the result is a perpetual Page 89 torment. This torment can come to an end only with a total surrender to a higher consciousness than his own to which he can totally entrust himself, hand over his worries and leave the care of guiding his life and organising everything. "How can a problem be solved when one doesn't ...
... 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. Now that is what consciousness is — it is not composed of parts, it is fundamental to being and itself formulates any parts it chooses to manifest — developing ...
... It was this Power, the Lord of Falsehood who calls himself “the Lord of the Nations”, by whom Hitler was possessed. At the time the nations were undergoing a decisive change towards a new, higher consciousness of truth and harmony, this asuric Power fought with all its might to conserve the status quo of its dominion over the earth. It was, according to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, the initiator ...
... Hewing out a new road, broadening and deepening the destiny of humankind, is the task of the Avatar. In Sri Aurobindo’s words: “The Avatar is one who comes to open the Way for humanity to a higher consciousness. … The Divine being all-powerful can lift people up without bothering to come down on earth. It is only if it is a part of the world-arrangement that he should take upon himself the burden of ...
... portent of their joint undertaking. It was indeed, as Mirra wrote in her diary, “a veritable work of creation”. To put it briefly, Aurobindo and Mirra knew that they were missioned to bring a higher consciousness onto the earth, a consciousness intended to become embodied in a new species beyond present humanity, just as the mental consciousness had embodied itself in a new species beyond the primates ...
... ” Instead of giving a direct reply he parried the question, as I had grown a beard: “And what has happened to you?” But afterwards in the course of the talk he explained to me that when the Higher Consciousness, after descending to the mental level, comes down to the vital and even below the vital, then a transformation takes place in the nervous system and even in the physical being. He asked me to ...
... by only a very few and best of all by Nolini, who had the privilege of distributing the ‘heavenly mail’ in the morning. Sri Aurobindo has written himself: ‘It does not mean that I lose the higher consciousness while doing the work of correspondence. If I did that, I would not only not be supramental, but would be very far even from the full Yogic consciousness.’ 28 As mentioned earlier, many ...
... inimical to the Divine Work. 2. Hitler was an instrument of those forces. 3. War could have erupted at that moment but was provisionally prevented. The Divine Work was the effort of materializing a higher consciousness, the Supermind, in the terrestrial evolution. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother were the protagonists of this Work, which in 1938 had reached a critical phase and could have been accomplished any ...
... steadfastness is necessary. May we remain calm and quiet in this period and cross over the obstacles of the dark and ignorant physical nature. Indeed it is only the calm and luminous peace of a higher consciousness that can conquer these difficulties. 15 June 1936 ...
... musical genius of Beethoven was in him.’ 4 Cranks, Seekers and Sages It is undeniable that in our human world today an elite manifests itself of which the distinctive mark is a higher Consciousness that wants to participate in a wisdom beyond the rational knowledge. 5 – M. Schwaller de Lubicz ‘When I was in Paris, I went to many places where there were meetings of all kinds ...
... As she once said: ‘In the last few days … there was this experience: a kind of consciousness completely decentralized (I am always speaking of the physical consciousness, not at all of the higher consciousness) a decentralized consciousness which happened to be here, and there, and there, in this body, in that body – in what people call “this person” and “that person,” but this kind of notion does ...
... person remaining in the Ashram if not the most important person anywhere. If, as stated, the Great Transformation will take at least 300 years from the time of the definite installation of the higher consciousness (of which I don't even know whether you have already achieved it), we may expect you to be seen on earth for much longer than we shall have eyes to see. So what 1 wanted to ask you is whether ...
... But she exclaimed: "What has happened shows that the Divine Force also can now have a direct effect upon the body. If the dark powers have this new possibility, the inner Light and the higher Consciousness can just as well emerge into the body with concrete changes in it if we are truly receptive!" The Mother, while teaching me occultism during our Savitri Page 223 ...
... of poetry as in the draft below' '"Poetry is the power of the word; the word that comes accompanied with vision; both the word and the vision mostly rising from their source in a higher consciousness - in Eternity - and coming up not necessarily to amuse, or teach, or earn, but as the inner being's own expressive impulse, an impulse for self-expression seeking liaison with Reality, the meaning ...
... ” Instead of giving a direct reply he parried the question, as I had grown a beard: “And what has happened to you?” But afterwards in the course of the talk he explained to me that when the Higher Consciousness, after descending to the mental level, comes down to the Vital and even below the Vital, then a transformation takes place in the nervous and even in the physical being.’ 17 T.V. Kapali ...
... Experiences of Cosmic Consciousness My Pilgrimage to the Spirit March 9, 1932 Experience: As soon as I rise in the higher consciousness, first, the heart begins to feel a pain of unbearable expansion. It gets expanded and there comes a descent of that wide consciousness—with a jerk as if the heart is bursting;—Light makes its way and shoots out in all ...
... planes is indeed for me a capital and fundamental part of spiritual experience without which Yoga as I practise it and its aim could not exist. For that aim is to manifest, reach or embody a higher consciousness upon earth and not to get away from earth into a higher world or some supreme Absolute. The old Yogas (not quite all of them) tended the other way—but that was, I think, because they found the ...
... that authority—for the authority here has no sufficient jurisdiction or competence. The Work of the Avatar I have said that the Avatar is one who comes to open the Way for humanity to a higher consciousness—if nobody can follow the Way, then either our conception of the thing, which is also that of Christ and Krishna and Buddha, is all wrong or the whole life and action of the Avatar is quite futile ...
... misfortunes, calamities are steps in the journey, the soul gathering experience as it passes through and beyond them until it is ripe for the transition which will carry it beyond these things to a higher consciousness and higher life. When one comes to that line of crossing one has to leave behind one the old mind and feelings. One looks then on those who are still fixed in the pleasures and sorrows of the ...
... perhaps misinterprets and misuses and mislives it. His true staff of walking is made more of a fire of faith than any ascertained and indubitable light of knowledge. It is only by rising toward a higher consciousness beyond the line and therefore superconscient now to him that he can emerge from his inability and his ignorance. His full liberation and enlightenment will come when he crosses the line into ...
... be mere thaumaturgy, i.e. miracle Page 297 working without a significance or purpose. The whole of humanity cannot be changed at once. What has to be done is to bring the Higher Consciousness down into the earth-consciousness and establish it there as a constant realised force, just as mind and life have been established and embodied in Matter, so to establish and embody the Supramental ...
... to life carrying its experience in essence and the continuity of the evolution of the individual. It is the whole consciousness, mental, vital, physical also, that has to rise and join the higher consciousness and, once the joining is made, the higher has to descend into them. The psychic is behind all that and supports it. The soul is always pure, but the knowledge and force in it are involved ...
... becomes śama , the divine quiet, rest, peace. You cannot drive out rajas and tamas, you can only convert them and give the predominance to sattwa. Tamas and rajas disappear only when the higher consciousness not only comes down but controls everything down to the cells of the body. They then change into the divine rest and peace and the divine energy or Tapas; finally sattwa also changes into the ...
... suggest a way to increase thought-power in poetry? There is no device for that. You have to open from within to a deeper or higher source of inspiration or grow from within into a deeper or higher consciousness—there is no other way for it. 4 May 1934 Today another poem by Jyoti. I'm staggered by her speed in writing. She says lines, chanda, simply drop down, and she jots them down. She feels ...
... our consciousness into the divine consciousness, our energy into the divine energy, our delight of existence into the divine delight of being. And it is not only to lift ourselves into this higher consciousness, but to widen into it in all our being, because it is to be found on all the planes of our existence and in all our members, so that our mental, vital, physical existence shall become full of ...
... ভাসিয়ে দেবার জন্য অথবা বুদ্ধির সম্মতি ও সাহায্য পাবার জন্য – তারপর নিজেকে সজোরে কথায় বা কাৰ্য্যে পরিণত করে ৷ তাহা না পারলে নিদান বুদ্ধিকে স্থগিত করে নিজের আধিপত্য স্থাপন করবার চেষ্টা করে ৷Higher consciousness and will ও psychicকে আধারে বেশী সজাগ ও বলবান করা, সর্বত্র সক্রিয় করে রাখা ত ইহার অপনােদনের আসল উপায় ৷ 26.5.34 স: কখন মনে হচ্ছে তােমার ইচ্ছার বিরুদ্ধে আবার পড়া আরম্ভ করেছি, তাই আমি ...
... Essays on the Gita XVIII The Divine Worker To attain to the divine birth,—a divinising new birth of the soul into a higher consciousness,—and to do divine works both as a means towards that before it is attained and as an expression of it after it is attained, is then all the Karmayoga of the Gita. The Gita does not try to define works by any outward ...
... ess is that which makes them one and that also in which they communicate; for we hear of the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus and it is the same descent which brings down the powers of the higher consciousness into the simple humanity of the Apostles. But also the higher divine consciousness of the Purushottama may itself descend into the humanity and that of the Jiva disappear into it. This is ...
... perdition, vinaṣṭi ; for it will be a definite falling away from a greater truth of his being than that which he has followed in the ignorance of the lower nature. He has been admitted to a higher consciousness, a new self-realisation, he has been shown the possibility of a divine instead of an egoistic action; the gates have been opened before him of a divine and spiritual in place of a merely in ...
... Swan) can manifest with all the consequences of that opening. The lotus must represent owing to its numerous petals the "thousand petalled" lotus above the head which is the seat of the higher consciousness above the thinking intelligence. The vision may mean the opening of the consciousness there and in it the adoration of the Divine. A lotus usually indicates an opening into the spiritual ...
... that there may be no rival to the Divine, but love and affection can be there—only as a new basis of consciousness has to be reached love and affection have to be rebased on that deeper and higher consciousness, not allowed to remain in their old form or on their old level—all the life must be centred round the Divine. It is so in this Yoga at least. There are others in which a man must become aloof ...
... it and rejection of it when it comes. A partial retirement may sometimes be helpful for concentration,—but not for these things; there the only cure is what I suggest or else the descent of a higher consciousness to replace the present imperfect nature. Benefiting from Criticism Even sometimes a malignant (not fair or well-intentioned) criticism can be helpful by some aspect of it, if one can look ...
... condition of others do it as an act of perception or knowledge without any reaction or reflection. One has not to cure oneself of one's sensitiveness, but only acquire the power to rise to a higher consciousness taking such disenchantments as a sort of jumping-board. One way is not to expect even square dealings from others, no matter who the others are. And besides, it is good to have such experiences ...
... often at a certain stage of the practice of Yoga. My experience is that it does not come from the highest source and cannot be relied upon and it is better to wait until one is able to enter a higher consciousness and a greater truth than any that these communications represent. Sometimes they come from beings of an intermediate plane who want to use the sadhak for some work or purpose. Many sadhaks accept ...
... Arrest Imperfections and Progress towards Perfection Human nature is always full of impurities and imperfections and of itself cannot reach the Divine. It is by the descent of the higher consciousness from above that all that can change; but you must not expect the change to take place in a few days. It is not my working, but your moods that are queer. You get something 1 no reasonable ...
... takes long to get them out, as it does even with the best sadhaks, that is no proof that one is not fit for the sadhana. Reject all that and go on steadily—aim always at getting more of the higher consciousness down, that is the cure for all these things. What is there in you is the capacity for response to these suggestions [ of unfitness for Yoga ] that still remains owing to the stamp of ...
... introspection one comes to see that, but by itself that can only create distrust of oneself, loss of motive to action, cynicism and weakness. One must have the faith and aspiration towards a higher consciousness which one has to build up in place of this lower nature, then the introspection and the knowledge of the defects of the nature it gives become useful, as it helps one to see what has to be changed ...
... emotionalist may receive and express a wider knowledge than his intellect or even the intellect of the intellectual man could have harboured or organised. Let us not bind the phenomena of the higher consciousness by the possibilities and probabilities of a lower plane. Page 18 An unintellectual mind cannot bring down the Knowledge? What then about Ramakrishna? Do you mean to say that ...
... the earth-consciousness for the transformation praying to herself above from whom the forces of transformation come. This continues till the identification of the earth-consciousness and the higher consciousness is effected. The word " notre " is general, I believe, referring to all born into the earth-consciousness—it does not mean "the Mother of Page 601 the 'Divin Maître' and myself" ...
... Yogic Truth that is descending here and some part of the outside world, e.g. the Mahomedan world, it is necessary first that he should get a calm and complete balance, a full foundation in the higher consciousness and the permanent Light in his being,—otherwise he will not be able to do his work. If he tries before he is ready, he will fail—therefore let there be nothing done that is premature. 16 ...
... quietude of the mind open to the presence of the Divine in your heart and everywhere; in a still mind and heart the Divine is seen like the sun in still water. 9 September 1938 Rise into the higher consciousness, let its light control and transform the nature. 9 September 1939 By the heart's self-giving the Presence and the Influence will be there even in the inconscience and prepare the nature ...
... of her Force in the nature. The other opens the mind to self-realisation, to the consciousness of what is above mind, to the ascent of the consciousness out of the body and the descent of the higher consciousness into the body. 13 October 1934 OM is the mantra, the expressive sound-symbol of the Brahman Consciousness in its four domains from the Turiya to the external or material plane. The function ...
... physical pursuits, I find that the Mother's Force takes them up. But when I am not working, what should I aspire for? For the Mother's power to work and bring down by the proper stages the higher consciousness. Also for the system to be more and more fit—quiet, egoless, surrendered. 5 June 1934 It is not our experience that by meditation alone it is possible to change the nature, nor has retirement ...
... The heaviness in the head due to the pressure is pleasant and not harmful because it is due to the higher force pressing down and bringing into the head something of the substance of the higher consciousness. 1 November 1935 If there is an obstacle at pranam, it must be something wrong in the attitude—perhaps the old error of expecting some outward sign of love, approval or favour from the ...
... constant remembrance that the being is prepared for the full opening. By the opening of the heart the Mother's presence begins to be felt and by the opening to her Power above the Force of the higher consciousness comes down into the body and works there to change the whole nature. 7 August 1934 The Mother says, "Keep yourself always open to me" and "I am always with you and around you." How am ...
... creation are the expression not of ignorance and imperfection, but of the Truth, the Light, the Divine Ananda. Page 447 But for that, surrender of the mortal mind, life and body to that Higher Consciousness is indispensable, since it is too difficult for the mortal human being to pass by its own effort beyond mind to a supramental consciousness in which the dynamism is no longer mental but of quite ...
... of her Force in the nature. The other opens the mind to self-realisation, to the consciousness of what is above mind, to the ascent of the consciousness out of the body and the descent of the higher consciousness into the body. There is not necessarily any difference of Force. 1 Usually the Mother's name has the full power in it; but in certain states of consciousness the double Name may have ...
... morning I perceived the Mother both as with Form and as the Formless. Both experiences are correct. What is opposite and incompatible to the mind which thinks by limitations is not so to the Higher Consciousness. Neither Form nor Formlessness is the sole truth by itself excluding the other; the Divine manifests through both, but is bound by neither. 4 September 1933 My wife wishes to have explicit ...
... myself or the Mother act from ordinary movements of anger, vexation or displeasure; there was nothing of the kind in what I wrote. You had been repeatedly falling from your attained level of a higher consciousness and, in spite of our suggestions to you to see what was pulling you down, your only reply was that you could see nothing. We knew perfectly well that it was part of the vital which did not want ...
... means and it is not always necessary if the great experiences come easily without it. 8 April 1934 Yes, that is the true basis. In the perfect equality wholly united with the Mother—so the higher consciousness can be lived and brought even into the outermost parts of the nature. 22 May 1934 Page 190 I wrote a prayer to the Mother. Her answer to it was: "Open your heart and you will ...
... no miraculous force and I do not deal in miracles. The word Divine here is out of place, if it is taken as an always omnipotently acting Power. Yogic Force is then better; it simply means a higher Consciousness using its power, a spiritual and supraphysical force acting on the physical world directly. One has to train the instrument to be a channel of this force; it works also according to a certain ...
... vital takes a decision (and I have told you, it is not very easy for it to take a decision), a light must begin to dawn in the highest part of the mind, a light which puts you in touch with a higher consciousness or with your psychic, and it is upon this light that you must take your support to explain things to the mind, to the vital and finally to the body. Page 79 ...
... do things, not with a fixed end in view, but because you know within yourself that this is the thing to be done, whatever the result, then with this kind of detachment you know and see in the higher Consciousness that all action is done exclusively because it has to be done whatever may be the result; and generally you are sufficiently clear-sighted to know, at least vaguely, what will be the result ...
... said to have authentically manifested. At the same time, we must steer clear of the dangerous exaggeration of the sense of the falsehood of the world, which comes to those who have risen to the higher consciousness. What happened with Shankara and others like him was that they had a glimpse of the true consciousness, which threw the falsehood of this world into such sharp contrast that they declared the ...
... can pretend to be the Divine and yet be of the mushroom species. Among the great modern musicians there have been several whose consciousness, when they created, came into touch with a higher consciousness. Cesar Franck played on the organ as one inspired; he had an opening into the psychic life and he was conscious of it and to a great extent expresed it. Beethoven, when he composed the Ninth ...
... point of view it was very necessary. But in its deeper principle it has not helped very much in the transformation of the earth. As I said, you see, instead of helping the descent of the higher Consciousness into the terrestrial life, it has strongly encouraged the separation of the deeper consciousness, which he said was the only true one, from all outer expression. Now, you see, this question ...
... physical transformation does not exist. As I was explaining to you the other day, the world is as it is and you have but to take it as it is, and not be affected by what it is. For you enter a higher consciousness, you are liberated from outer forms, but they remain as they are. Indeed, some slight mention is made of changing one's character, but there is no question of changing the material world. ...
... about what I told you the other day, when we discussed the distinction between will and willings. I told you that willings—what Sri Aurobindo calls willings―are movements arising not from a higher consciousness coming Page 388 down into the being and expressing itself in action, but from impulses or influences from outside. We reserved the word will to express what in the individual co ...
... But once you are born into consciousness, this very desire which helped you to come out of the inconscience prevents you from liberating yourself from the bonds of matter and rising to a higher consciousness. It is the same thing for the ego, the self. In order to pass on to a higher plane, one must first exist; and to exist one must become a conscious, separate individual, and to become a conscious ...
... carries this a little further, one should never think and plan beforehand what one ought to say or write. One should simply be able to silence one's mind, to turn it like a receptacle towards the higher Consciousness and express as it receives it, in mental silence, what comes from above. That would be true spontaneity. Naturally, this is not very easy, it asks for preparation. And if one comes down ...
... above; so if one forgets one can do nothing, one becomes like the part into which one has gone down. So, as it is something very difficult to do, on the contrary, it is better to remain in one's higher consciousness and from there act upon the lower movements without going down into them. For example, it is as when one feels anger rising up from the subconscient; well, if one wants to control it one ...
... can see, but not see with a physical image. There is not only the physical sight, it is not seeing with... And in fact, one can see with one's eyes, if the eyes are plastic enough to allow the higher Consciousness, the divine Consciousness to pass through them. Page 364 One can see also, one can see also, but one no longer sees things as they are physically, that's natural. If you keep ...
... 2, "Faith—Aspiration—Surrender". "In this Yoga all depends on whether one can open to the influence or not. If there is a sincerity in the aspiration and a patient will to arrive at the higher consciousness in spite of all obstacles, then the opening in one form or another is sure to come." "The opening in one form or another is sure to come"... Are there many kinds of openings? Oh, yes ...
... speaking of the true gods, even those of the Overmind, though they are still a bit... well, so-so... they seem to have taken on many human defects, but still, despite all that, they really have a higher consciousness—it does not please them at all. An act of true goodness, intelligence, unselfishness or a subtle understanding or a very sincere aspiration are for them infinitely higher than a small religious ...
... ideas about other people, other things; it is interesting! And later, if you have had enough of this, you say, "Keep quiet, sleep, don't move", and you put that to sleep, and rise to a still higher consciousness, and so on, till you reach a state where you are on the borders of form , I am not speaking of physical form—on the borders of all form, much higher than the form of thought, naturally; on ...
... are serving. How can you change anything without indeed having changed yourself? In any case, you are not powerful enough to do it. How do you expect to help another if you do not have a higher consciousness than he? It is such a childish idea! It is children who say: "I am opening a boarding-house, I am going to build a crèche, give soup to the poor, preach this knowledge, spread this religion ...
... must not just grin or simper and think one... ( laughter ) I take "smile" in a rather complete meaning. That is to say, if one can be sufficiently master of oneself and above things, in a much higher consciousness which can see from above—even that which appears the most terrible and most dramatic to the ordinary human consciousness makes you smile as at a childishness. And so, if one is in that consciousness ...
... physical consciousness also may offer a resistance which is usually that of a fundamental inertia, an obscurity in the very stuff of the physical, an incomprehension, an inability to respond to the higher consciousness, a habit of helplessly responding to the lower mechanically, even when it does not want to do so; both vital and physical suffering may be the consequence. There is, moreover, the resistance ...
... them in the psychic fire. This psychic development and the psychic change of mind, vital and physical consciousness is of the utmost importance because it makes safe and easy the descent of the higher consciousness and the spiritual transformation without which the supramental must always remain far distant. Powers etc. have their place, but a very minor one so long as this is not done. Sri Aurobindo ...
... arranged in order to make possible a spiritual and psychic communion on the most physical and external planes by which there would be an interchange of forces, a continuous increase of the higher consciousness on the physical plane, a more and more rapid change of the external nature of the sadhakas and afterwards an increasing descent of the supramental light and power into Matter. But for this to ...
... the reactions, desires, needs, sensations of the body. Yoga —the discipline by which one seeks consciously and deliberately to realise union with the Divine or, more generally, to attain a higher consciousness. ...
... usually what they do is to cling to him as much as they can, and to pull him towards them with a fierce selfishness; the result, you see, is that instead of being able to withdraw in a slightly higher consciousness which will protect him in his exit, he is gripped by material things and it is a terrible inner battle to free himself from both his body and his attachments. Source Religious Ceremony ...
... even a fringe of the being. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - III: The Emergence or Coming Forward of the Psychic Ordinarily is there not a nexus between the psychic being and the higher consciousness? Ordinarily means in the ordinary life? A relation between the psychic being… Yes. It is almost, almost totally unconscious. In the ordinary life there’s not one person in a million ...
... or subtle physical has always the greater qualities of its plane—it is the Purusha and like the psychic, though in another way, the projection of the Divine, therefore in connection with the Higher Consciousness and reflects something of it, though it is not altogether that—it is also in tune with the cosmic Truth. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The True Being and the True Consciousness ...
... here upon earth as if she did not know the whole story; she works as if it was a new and untried thread that she was weaving. It is this apparent forgetfulness of her own foreknowledge in the higher consciousness that gives to the individual in the active life of the world his sense of freedom and independence and initiative. These things in him are her pragmatic tools or devices and it is through this ...
... the sense of having to depend on himself, and as he does not have the necessary knowledge the result is a perpetual torment. This torment can come to an end only with a total surrender to a higher consciousness than his own to which he can totally entrust himself, hand over his worries and leave the care of guiding his life and organising everything. How can a problem be solved when one doesn't ...
... to this kind of levelling effect, he resisted it in order to transform, transmute, uplift the elements, influences, currents he receives from the group, then the whole would rise up into a higher consciousness far ahead of where it was before. This is what I was aiming at—without explaining the thing to you in detail—when I spoke to you of a more and more Page 174 urgent need to make ...
... And thought—illumined thought, surrendered thought, thought which is no longer anything but an instrument, which tries no longer to initiate things, which is satisfied with being moved by the higher Consciousness—thought serves as an intermediary to establish a contact, a relation, and to enable this impersonal Force to act wherever it is necessary, upon definite points. It may be said in an absolute ...
... time. It is because the body is accustomed—was accustomed—to obeying the vital and particularly the mind, and therefore this was in order to change its habit, so that it would obey only the higher consciousness. It is for that, so that the thing would go faster. In people it is through the mind and the vital that That acts, but I have said it was also more sure. As an experience this is rather risky ...
... everything that causes exhaustion and leads in the end to physical decline and disintegration. A physical culture which aims at building a body capable of serving as a fit instrument for a higher consciousness demands very austere habits: a great regularity in sleep, food, exercise and every activity. By a scrupulous study of one's own bodily needs—for they vary with each individual—a general programme ...
... unavoidable, unless human beings rise above their ordinary consciousness to identify themselves with the perfect consciousness and unite with the Supreme Reality. For as soon as one attains this higher consciousness one realises that the difference between man and woman reduces itself to a purely physical difference. As a matter of fact, there may have been on earth in the beginning a pure masculine ...
... That is precisely what the transformation of the body is: the physical cells not only become conscious, but receptive to the true Consciousness-Force; that is, they allow the working of this higher Consciousness. That is the work of transformation. How does the will, the central light, which is not material, act on the gross matter of the cell? It is just like asking, "How does the will act ...
... itself at once into a mixing with all―it can only express itself in a general and when need be dynamic universal good-will, but for the rest it must find vent in this labour of bringing down the higher consciousness with all its effect for the earth. As for accepting the working of the Divine in all things that is necessary here too in the sense of seeing it even behind our struggles and difficulties, but ...
... should organize one's life not according to outer and artificial rules, but according to an organized inner consciousness, for if one lets life go without subjecting it to the control of the higher consciousness, it becomes fickle and inexpressive. It is to waste one's time, in the sense that matter remains without any conscious utilization. June 13, 1970 AM XI-248 We have to finish ...
... the earth-consciousness for the transformation, praying to herself above from whom the forces of transformation come. This continues till the identification of the earth-consciousness and the higher consciousness is effected. The word "notre" is general, I believe, referring to all born into the earth-consciousness—it does not mean the Mother of the "Divin Maître" and myself. It is the Divine who is ...
... is to bring peace, silence, liberation from the body sense, the identification with mind and life and open the way for the lower (mental, vital, physical) consciousness to rise up to meet the higher consciousness above and for the powers of the higher (spiritual nature) consciousness to descend into mind, life and body. This is what is called in this yoga the spiritual transformation. If one begins with ...
... Page 193 idealists I have not shared them, so I am not disappointed. * * * January 14, 1934 [The aim of the yoga I practise] is to manifest, reach or embody a higher consciousness upon earth and not to get away from earth into a higher world or some supreme Absolute. The old Yogas (not quite all of them) tended the other way —but that was, I think, because they found ...
... through the psychic; because the psychic consciousness is certainly the medium with the greatest affinity with the divine Truth. Later, when one has emerged from the mental consciousness into a higher consciousness beyond the mind, beyond even the higher mind, and when one opens oneself to the Overmind regions, and through the Overmind to the Supermind, one can receive inspirations directly. And naturally ...
... with something very, very material)... I have sometimes gone through it without experiencing ANY CHANGE OF EFFECT, which probably means I was centered not in the material consciousness but in a higher consciousness dwelling and looking on from elsewhere —a witness consciousness—and I was in a state where everything flows... flows like a river of tranquil peace.... Truly, it's marvelous—all creation, all ...
... enter into relation with the Inner Divine; it is only gradually, through thousands of years of ascending evolution, that men have learned to be conscious. Now they are ready to manifest a far higher consciousness, the consciousness that will act fully in the superman; and that is why this consciousness has come down on earth to work in all who are ready to receive it. Blessings. 30 December 1969 ...
... scale of human bad will. September 1964 Sweet Mother, I have received a question. In the Tantric system, Page 386 the lower consciousness rises to meet and join the Higher Consciousness through the six centres or knots which are broken in the course of the ascent. Are the knots broken in our yoga also? Or are they loosened and resolved? If so, what is the process? It looks ...
... former normal consciousness. That's where I saw the difference—a fantastic difference! I was perfectly conscious (now when I say 'I', it refers to my body, I am not speaking of the whole higher consciousness), the body was perfectly conscious of its suffering, the reason for its suffering, the cause of its suffering, everything—and it did not suffer. You understand, the two perceptions were there ...
... to be a very important result. And this new vibration in the body has allowed me to understand the mechanism of the transformation. It is not something that comes from a higher Will, not a higher consciousness that imposes itself upon the body: it is the body itself awakening in its cells, a freedom of the cells themselves, an absolutely new vibration that sets disorders right—even disorders that ...
... mental realm); then, when they are sure you trust them, they may start telling you fibs and, as they say in English, you make a fool of yourself . This happens frequently! You have to be in a higher consciousness than these fellows, these entities (or these minor gods, as some call them) and able to check from above the value of their statements. Page 96 With a universal mental vision, you ...
... through a prism. Or else it's as if you turned a ball inside out, which can be done only in the fourth dimension. You emerge from the ordinary consciousness of the third dimension to enter the higher consciousness of the fourth dimension, and then an infinite number of dimensions. This is the indispensable starting point." ) That's what I had told you already: the whole basis of the yogic effort is ...
... of an exclusive human consciousness. The best way of helping others is to transform oneself. Be perfect and you will be in a position to bring perfection to the world. Rise to a higher consciousness for the world to be saved. Change your consciousness for the world to be saved. Change yourself if you wish to change the world. Prove by your inner transformation that a truth-co ...
... discipline, vigilance, self-detachment and a quiet but strict rejection. Page 356 As for the change in the vital, it will come by itself when you form the habit of remaining in your higher consciousness where all these petty things and movements are worthless. How can one conquer the obscure vital? Rather, how is it possible to change the obscure vital into a luminous vital? By ...
... "There is a substitute for the expression of the Higher Thought, the Illumination, the pure Intuition giving great or brilliant results, but these cannot be classed as the very body of the higher consciousness.... Shakespeare's poetry coruscates with a play of the hues of imagination which we may regard as a mental substitute for the inspiration of the Illumined Mind and sometimes by aiming at an ...
... appears childish—everything appears to be childish. The most sublime intelligence seems to me childish. All the attempts that are made to enlighten, organize, educate mankind, to awaken it to a higher consciousness, to give it mastery over Nature and its forces, all of it—all of it, which for a human vision is sometimes utterly sublime, seems absolutely like children playing and having fun in a nursery ...
... the impression it leaves is relative to the individual perceiving it. I am trying to express it, but it was a concrete experience: the relativity of the mental clothing on the action of the higher Consciousness. So then, the experience came to this: being as passive and translucent as possible so as to let the vibration of the Consciousness express itself with the least possible distortion in its ...
... readable? Because I'm not sure, I don't see clearly. ( Satprem reads ) "It is an excellent time to read, meditate, and, little by little, go into a receptive silence that will enable the higher Consciousness to enter the body in order to transform it." It came like that; that's how it takes place: all of a sudden, brff! and it stays on, it won't go away until I've written. It's amusing! ...
... in the body, the very constitution of the body must change—it will have to change. How? That I don't know yet. It's in the direction of Matter's perfect obedience to the Consciousness (the higher Consciousness); to the present experience, it's the divine consciousness, but it's very probably what Sri Aurobindo called the supramental consciousness. Because there must be... ( gesture in gradations ) ...
... I noticed that my hands were very conscious, that is to say, extremely receptive, they found it perfectly natural—there was no connection with the body consciousness, they were moved by the higher Consciousness.... The hands have had a special education. But you understand... And there is a part, the part of the body most in contact with outside ( Mother touches the region of the mouth and throat ...
... impression more than a certainty) is that there is a more subtle part (that's where Sri Aurobindo is [Mother raises her right hand slightly] ), a part that depends on the above, that is to say, the higher consciousness and the psychic; then there is a part that tries to take form in the body ( gesture of connection between the two or of descent of the one into the other ), that is, a way of being of the cells ...
... least I may say is a complete lack of interest: whether I eat or not... The only thing is that I can't rest, in fact I can't... ( Mother gestures as if withdrawing from her body ) go into a... [higher consciousness]. That's something... For SO MANY years, so many years, more than twenty years maybe, I would lie down in bed and phew! ( gesture of withdrawal ) I would go into the Lord. And I am now forbidden ...
... and all below in the body is the sheer physical, which as it goes downward becomes increasingly subconscient, but the real seat of the subconscient is below the body, as the real seat of the higher consciousness (superconscient) is above the body." ( Bases of Yoga , p. 133) ...
... the Divine Harmony, that is what we want; and as for those who are rebelling against the ordinary order of things and the ordinary social conventions: well, prove that you are in touch with a higher consciousness and a truer truth. It's the time to make a ...( gesture of a leap upward ). As for the power of organization, it's... an extremely powerful power that has come—I feel that just by doing ...
... organize one's life not according to external and artificial rules, but according to an organized inner consciousness, because if one leaves life alone without imposing on it the control of a higher consciousness, it becomes hazy and inexpressive. It means wasting one's time, in the sense that matter remains without conscious utilization. Have you seen the aphorism? ( Satprem reads ) ...
... forms of some other reality which contains the archetypes of them both, archetypes from which they have derived and deflected. Only when the mind is stilled, there dawns a deeper and higher consciousness which bears golden within it the harmony we are hungering for. Yes, it bears it within itself, but for us to get that harmony we need profound progress in the supramental domain. The ...
... connecting line kept between that amplitude and the individual existence here until the hour of the body's death. He declares that evolution lacks its total sense if there is not a descent of the higher consciousness together with an ascent of the lower. Those evolutionary terms, mind and life-force and matter - what is their fulfilment if the Divine Being from whom they have emanated carries only a sojourning ...
... him only one passage : "In sleep one ... passes from consciousness to deeper consciousness in a long succession until one reaches the psychic and rests there or else from higher to higher consciousness until one reaches rest in some silence and peace. The few minutes one passes in this rest are the real sleep which restores, — if one does not get it, there is only a half rest." 2 ...
... Sky: A symbol of the mental consciousness (or the psychic) or other consciousnesses above the mind. Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III: Sky, Weather, Night and Dawn The higher consciousness in any of its levels is seen usually as a sky or ether but when felt through the vital it is often perceived as a sea. In this yoga one sees many levels of consciousness which appear as skies ...
... it is possible in your worldly surroundings. What I would like to advice you, is not to judge spiritual ii&ma. personalities and spirituality from your mental standpoint Spiritual is a higher consciousness than mental which is almost ignorant compared with spiritual consciousness which is the consciousness of truth. So., to judge Sri Krishna and Sri Rama from your ignorant and mental con ...
... your finishing the circle M. V. Ph. Afterwards possibly there will be a chance for the line Ps. HC. S. Rejoice! October 1, 1935 What are the abbreviations Ps. HC. S.? Psychic—Higher Consciousness—Supramental. You are trying to adopt shorthand now! Of coursel what to do? Shorthand lessens the labour of the writer, even if it increases that of the reader. Besides the attempt to ...
... first I was afraid you meant you felt blockheaded or felt foolish! but remembered in time the "block" of descent. Is it the descent of Force? Usually the feeling comes from a mass of the higher consciousness coming down either as peace or as force. Dr. Becharlal and I are again strongly suspecting D.L. of a double infection: hookworm with Trichomonas... We'll make another stool examination. ...
... 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 and wideness. This is ...
... taking part in all activities without any distinction of gender. Mother wants me to forget, to banish this old conventional sense of man and woman. We must forget that. We must live in a higher consciousness where this distinction does not exist. At one time in India, I don't know how this concept originated, but there was a ban on women taking part in spiritual life. Perhaps you know the Sanskrit ...
... "I have had my initiation." SRI AUROBINDO: S has the ambition to be a Guru. PURANI: It's very strange he didn't feel anything else here, while Ganapati who is also not a disciple felt a higher consciousness here. SRI AUROBINDO: Ganapati had considerable spiritual experience. S didn't appear to have gone very deep. Does he know the source of his voices? PURANI: He says that they come from ...
... also the talk of 25 January 1939. Nirodbaran's report of Sri Aurobindo's statement about his discovery of the Supermind after the pointer, given in Alipore by Vivekananda's "spirit", to the Higher Consciousness-planes of divine dynamism above the mind—provides some body of detail to the general indications found in the published writing of Sri Aurobindo on this subject. Thus we read in Sri Aurobindo ...
... transformation, no. NIRODBARAN: I thought there would be a general heightened consciousness. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, in some persons. PURANI: I told him there would be a move towards a higher consciousness through the influence of people who have attained to that consciousness. SRI AUROBINDO: That is what I have said myself. PURANI: He wants also to know how humanity today is better fitted ...
... order. It is like the Sankhya Prakriti which is Jada and at the same time intelligent. NIRODBARAN: What are effects of the working out of the mind and vital? SRI AUROBINDO: Opening to the higher consciousness and a capacity to receive it. NIRODBARAN: Why don't we see any effect then? SRI AUROBINDO: It is only in principle. If everybody were able to receive it, then the whole of humanity would ...
... the achieved access to the overhead substance and movement in it—it looks rather like that.” Jyotirmoyo Sharmeyo [The Luminous Dog]: “The satadal [lotus] is, I suppose, the lotus of the higher consciousness represented here in a house; the krishnakāye louhokalsi [the dark iron-pitcher] must represent a formation in the subconscient. The poem is fine and the form a great improvement on your previous ...
... Raghus: They devoted themselves to study in their boyhood, in youth they pursued the objects of life; when old they took to spiritual austerities, and in the end they died united with the higher consciousness. Only this process of integration was not done in a day, it took some centuries and had to pass through some unpleasant intermediary stages. And still this was not the last – it ...
... cling to him as much as they can, and to pull him towards them Page 72 with a fierce selfishness; the result, you see, is that instead of being able to withdraw in a slightly higher consciousness which will protect him in his exit, he is gripped by material things and it is a terrible inner battle to free himself from both his body and his attachments." (CWM, Vol. 6, pp. 449-50) ...
... tail which, every time you straighten it, goes back to its original curl' 1 . Hence, the only aim for a sane seeker should be — not to make any futile attempt at embodying or manifesting a higher consciousness here upon earth — but rather to escape from life, to get away from earth into some other higher world like Goloka, Brahmaloka, Shiva-loka, or perhaps to seek mukti and mok ṣ a in some ...
... subordinate or incidental, but as a distinct and central object." 1 Elsewhere Sri Aurobindo points out that "not only must the mind be able to rise in abnormal states out of itself into a higher consciousness, but its waking mentality also must be entirely spiritualised." 2 This then is our goal, and hence trance-experiences alone cannot help us much in achieving our objective. Moreover ...
... its absolute freedom and the claim of universal Matter to be the mould and condition of our manifestation", 7 and heroically proceeded to embody here upon earth and not elsewhere, ihaiva, a higher consciousness and a spiritually moulded life. What India wants today is not an obscurantist credal religionism nor the vitalistic occult and pseudo-spiritual practices, but the integral all-embracing ...
... your finishing the circle M. V. Ph. Afterwards possibly there will be a chance for the line Ps. HC. S. Rejoice! NB: What are these abbreviations - Ps. HC. S.? Sri Aurobindo: Psychic — Higher Consciousness — Supra-mental. NB: You are trying to adopt shorthand now? Sri Aurobindo: Of course! what to do? Shorthand lessens the labour of the writer, even if it increases that of the reader ...
... this context, we may cite the following remarks that Sri Aurobindo had made in his Letters on Yoga: The whole of humanity cannot be changed at once. What has to be done is to bring the Higher Consciousness down into the earth- consciousness and establish it there as a constant realised force. Just as mind and life have been established and embodied in Matter, so to establish and embody the ...
... as an expression of certain qualities which are for the time being necessary and useful for a given individual in an upward journey. Again, these qualities become modified and enriched as the higher consciousness develops higher Page 81 levels of attitudes and stabilises higher states of consciousness in which the divine qualities manifest more and more spontaneously. Yoga is not confined ...
... 25, 36,59, 65 (The) Foundations of Indian Culture 3 (The) Future Poetry 3 Page 103 God 89 (The) Godhead 3, 25, 31 HathaYoga 26,73,91,95 higher consciousness 99 (The) Human Cycle 3 idea-will 71 (The) Ideal a/Human Unity 3 ignorance 42, 63,64,69,71,96 immortality, the Vedic4'7; the Vedic and Upanishadic concept of 46 ...
... things must be the result either of desires or of inertia or of vital restlessness. If you stop meditation, I do not see how you are going to get rid of these things. It is only by bringing in a higher consciousness that you can get rid of the habitual conditions of the old consciousness. October 15, 1934 Last night I dreamt of two huge snakes with their hoods spread out and when I woke up ...
... suggest a way to increase thought power in poetry? There is no device for that. You have to open from within to a deeper or higher source of inspiration or grow from within into a deeper or higher consciousness—there is no other way for it. May 4, 1934 I seem to be contented with myself, in peace and bliss and have nothing to pray for. Is this not tamasic peace in a sattwic garb? It ...
... you say that a fellow who is supposed to be hale and hearty, is brown and grey with a mysterious hepatisation and suffering a hell of agony and not yet in Paradise! ... Please help me to a higher consciousness. Where is the higher Being that I had met with? I seem to have lost everything. Everything once gained is there and can be regained. Yoga is not a thing that goes by one decisive rush one ...
... normal state of consciousness you can never do. The phenomenon or the way on which this is based is obvious - because our normal waking consciousness goes to sleep and makes it easy for the higher consciousness to act in us, to pour things into us, and we become nothing but passive instruments for the downpour from the superior consciousness. That is one of the ways in which we get it. The other way: ...
... for Yoga, it must stop being lazy. But a fatigued and unwilling body also cannot receive properly or be a good instrument. The proper thing is to avoid either extreme. The higher consciousness keeps contact only through my passive self and if I do more work some part in me feels disturbed. It is always so with everybody unless one feels the Mother's Force working through ...
... fires are indispensable. One is in the heart; it will go on tirelessly putting its pressure upon the unconverted parts, and helping their purification and transformation. The other is in the higher consciousness, the Agni of the self; this will support the psychic fire and keep it alive all the time. For, the psychic fire, being already in the evolution, may get veiled by the lower nature, but the Agni ...
... seeks the Divine through men and things much more than directly. Whatever purity, knowledge and force the soul has, are they of its own nature or does it derive them from the higher consciousness? The soul is always pure, but the knowledge and force in it are involved and come out only as the psychic being evolves and grows stronger. PSYCHIC TEARS AND PSYCHIC ...
... sounds of a hammer striking on the Brahmic centre on the top of the head. Have they also a significance? Yes. The same, but here a working to remove some obstacle which prevents the higher consciousness from coming down into the physical. Page 187 If the sadhana were to be judged by the inner states and experiences, it is obviously suspended. But the subtle sounds ...
... Divine, and they follow their own ignorant light and cling to it instead of opening to the Divine Knowledge. What are the conditions in the lower vital and physical for the higher consciousness to begin action? There must be the will to purify, the will of sadhana, some capacity for introspection and experience. The year 1934 From ...
... message I put in the flowers I give you. When I give them, I give you states of consciousness: the flowers are the mediums." Page 175 It meant that she offered the higher consciousness or her consciousness to you — that is all. In a dream I saw a flower signifying "Victorious Love". Has it any connection with my sadhana? It is usually some force ...
... Raghus: They devoted themselves to study in their boyhood, in youth they pursued the objects of life; when old they took to spiritual austerities, and in the end they died united with the higher consciousness. Only this process of integration was not done in a day, it took some centuries and had to pass through some unpleasant intermediary stages. And still this was not the last—it could ...
... yoked, reined in and guided by the higher light, it is a help, even a necessity; for it gives the immediate form in which to hold and fix in the physical world the truth-movements of the higher consciousness. Page 136 ...
... any and every work that an ignorant man, an ordinary man steeped in the three Gunas does or can do? It cannot be so. For, although all activity, all energy has its source and impetus in the higher consciousness of the Divine, it assumes on the lower ranges indirect, diverted or even perverted formulations and expressions, not because of the inherent falsity of these so-called inferior strata, the ...
... meditation or contact with the inner world, if you are obliged to go into Samadhi, then your normal consciousness will remain always the same without changing. In other words, people who have a higher consciousness only in deep meditation, once they come out of it, are not worth more than what they were before. All their defects are there which they get back as soon as they get back their previous con ...
... the weather to change, but I am afraid you thought I was joking. One thing is certain. It is this. If you are able to see the deeper law of things and if you are in contact with a higher consciousness in order to realise something that is far beyond all human conceptions, why should you be concerned with any human opinion ? Ordinary men have no notion of what spiritual life or divine r ...
... purification and new organisation. This has been done with considerable success. This is the Vedantic way. But, there is a but, that is to say, a limitation in this line. The higher consciousness is brought down, it descends, but normally it does not penetrate far enough; it penetrates only very partially, slowly, intermittently and in a gradually diminishing strength. The top region ...
... adoration, one's adhesion to the ideal, to the deity one worships. Work or service expressing harmonisation needs to be based, as I have said, upon a higher and higher Page 49 consciousness. Work done as prayer is the best means of effecting an ascent in consciousness. This is the lesson that each individual of a centre must learn from the very outset and ever afterwards ...
... problem. He too has suggested that the world is not something that is static with all things fixed and settled for good. The world is in movement, and the movement is ever forward, towards a higher consciousness that progressively unfolds its riches. As first results of this urge towards the heights" there have appeared all sorts of cracks and rifts, acute pulls and strains; these are translated into ...
... returns is once more to embrace ignorance, but with a view to bringing into it the light and bliss that he gained from above, permeating the stuff of the present world with the substance of the higher consciousness. It is a sacrifice demanded of him, thus to abandon the eternal felicity of the high heavens – the unbroken union with the Divine above – and to enter into the depths of "this great perilous ...
... directing knowledge. This triune world forms the humanity of man. But there is another aspect hidden behind this apparent nature, there is another world where man dwells in his submerged, larger and higher consciousness. To that his soul – the Purusha in his heart only has access. It is the world where man's nature is transmuted into another triune reality – Sat, Chit and Ananda. The one, however, ...
... physical, material life, one's adoration, one's adhesion to the ideal, to the deity one worships. Work or service expressing harmonisation needs to be based, as I have said, upon a higher and higher consciousness. Work done as prayer is the best means of effecting an ascent in consciousness. This is the lesson that each individual of a centre must learn from the very outset and ever afterwards., He must ...
... wanted the weather to change, but I am afraid you thought I was joking. One thing is certain. It is this. If you are able to see the deeper law of things and if you are in contact with a higher consciousness in order to realise something that is far beyond all human conceptions, why should you be concerned with any human opinion? Ordinary men have no notion of what spiritual life or divine realisation ...
... you attach to things concerning you as against the boundless infinity of the universe. Naturally, there is the other way of separating yourself from the earthly consciousness and rising into a higher consciousness, there earthly things take their true place, that is to say, they become small things. Page 145 ...
... into his mouth – well, this does not seem to be a likely happening. If one wishes to enjoy the fruit, one must share in the effort to sow and grow. Indeed, the process itself" of reaching the higher consciousness involves a gradual heightening of the consciousness. The means is really part of the end. The joy of victory is the consummation of the joy of battle. ¹ Sri Aurobindo: The Mother ...
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