... widen into it and rise into it; we break out of the ego into its largeness and are that for ever. If this liberation is achieved, its power can take, if so we will, increasing possession of our lower being also until even our lowest and perversest activities are refashioned into the truth of the Vijnana. Page 492 This is the basis, this sense of the infinite and possession by the infinite... and wrong seeking and wrong reception; it teaches even our lower impulses to lay hold on the Divine and Infinite in the appearances after which they run. All this is done not in the values of the lower being, but by a lifting up of the mental, vital, material into the inalienable purity, the natural intensity, the continual ecstasy, one yet manifold, of the divine Ananda. Thus the being of Vijnana... by devotees and by many Yogins as snares, stumbling-blocks, diversions from the true seeking after the Divine. But they have that character and are dangerous here because they are sought in the lower being, abnormally, by the ego for an egoistic satisfaction. In the Vijnana they are neither occult nor siddhis, but the open, unforced and normal play of its nature. The Vijnana is the Truth-power and ...
... It is only by descending and occupying the inner being (which is again a separate consciousness) that it can proceed to act on the ordinary lower being. In my meditations I try to bring down a force from above which will change the lower being. You cannot change the lower (external) nature directly - it can only be changed from above through the within. A going up... of peace. During meditation I observed that there are two quite separate parts of my being - one is above the head, completely separate from mind, life and body. The other is of the lower being. The one Page 34 is high, wide, receptive; the other is inert and full of the ordinary stuff. The consciousness above is naturally a separate consciousness... Nirvana. I have always written that the descent is necessary to change the nature; ascent is useful to open the higher planes and exalt the level of the consciousness, 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 ...
... things, free from the duality, advaya , and has Diti the separative dualising consciousness for the obverse side of her cosmic creation,—her sister and a rival wife in the later myth. Here in the lower being where she is manifested as the earth-principle, her husband is the lower or inauspicious Father who is slain by their child Indra, the power of the divine Mind manifested in the inferior creation... existence, will, knowledge, joy move in a rapturous Page 474 and boundless infinity and are not limited and hedged as in this many-walled existence of the mind, life and body which form the lower being. That is the wideness of the higher being to which we have to ascend breaking beyond the two enclosing firmaments of the mental and physical; it is described as a divine existence free and large... divine horse Dadhikravan, the movement of the chariot-wheels of the gods travel on the straight path over wide and level ranges where all is open and the vision is not confined; but the ways of the lower being are crooked windings beset with pits and stumbling-blocks and they crawl unvisited by the divine impulsion over a rugged and uneven ground which screens in from men their goal, their road, their ...
... movement above. In a thought, in an act, in speech, you have in everything to reject the lower form and seek its truer forms in the Supramental. If you seek and yet cannot always get, it shows that the lower being is not yet used to refer above and act in response to movement from there. It cannot come all at once. Slowly and with great care it is to act always from an intense intuitive and psychic plane and... Then the unstability of the light is due to vital consciousness and stability is due to physical consciousness. Difficulty is experienced by everyone in making the higher experiences normal as the lower being gets hold of them and reduces them to their own level. That is what has happened also in Motilal Roy's case. The remedy is to increase the stability and purify the being by removing all hostile forces ...
... veil between them. The rending of the veil is the condition of the divine life in humanity; for by that rending, by the illumining descent of the higher into the nature of the lower being and the forceful ascent of the lower being into the nature of the higher, mind can recover its divine light in the all-comprehending supermind, the soul realise its divine self in the all-possessing all-blissful Ananda ...
... two movements or automatically before either has happened, through a sudden rift in the lid or a percolation, a downpour or an influx. A light descends and touches or envelops or penetrates the lower being, the mind, the life or the body; or a presence or a power or a stream of knowledge pours in waves or currents, or there is a flood of bliss or a sudden ecstasy; the contact with the superconscient... might be a sublimation or uplifting or the creation of a new structure compelled by the sheer force of the influence from above: but this change might not be accepted as native to itself by the lower being; it would not be a total growth, an integral evolution, but a partial and imposed formation, affecting or liberating some parts of the being, suppressing others or leaving them as they were; a creation ...
... high-seated above 2 and looks down undisturbed at whatever remnants of the old working of Nature may revisit the system. He cannot be moved by the workings of the three modes of Prakriti in his lower being, nor can he be shaken from his station by the attacks even of grief and suffering. And finally, there being no veil between, the higher peace overpowers the lower disturbance and mobility. There... itself, infinite in unity, infinite in multiplicity. When the individualised consciousness rises to and lives in that truth of the cosmic play, then even in full action, even in possession of the lower being the Jiva remains still one with the Lord, and there is no bondage and no delusion. He is in possession of Self and released from the ego. Page 367 ...
... is hymned in his all-pervading wisdom and purity opening the three worlds of our being to the Sun of knowledge, pouring down the streams of the Truth, purifying the soul from the falsehood of the lower being and its sin. The hymn is rendered here successively in its exoteric and its esoteric significance.] To the Omniscient Creator प्र सम्राजे बृहदर्चा गभीरं ब्रह्म प्रियं वरुणाय श्रुताय । वि यो... × The gnosis opens upward to receive the Infinite in its will and knowledge; here its doors open downwards to flood the lower being. × The milk of the Cow Aditi, the infinite consciousness. ...
... effort that's to be made, and they make this effort within themselves and cross the step. These acquire a much greater strength to cross the next step. When one has gained a small victory over his lower being, the next time he has a much greater strength to take the next step. On the contrary, if one is blind, ignorant, stupid or ill-willed and, instead of saying "yes" to the trial that faces him, he... have told them, "Don't ever take lightly all the circumstances of each day, all the tiny little things of life, all the small events, you know; never take all this lightly." Never react with your lower being. Each time you are told to do something or not to do it—you are not told this very often, but each time you are told, before reacting think a little, try to find in yourself the part which reacts ...
... 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 of the One to manifest in the being. Therefore both aspirations help each other. The seeking of the lower being is necessarily at first intermittent and oppressed by the ordinary consciousness. It has ...
... without ego is possible. "Prakriti is the dynamic side of the being." What is meant here by "the being"? Generally we use the term "lower being" for the Prakriti. Prakriti is Nature; being includes Purusha also. Prakriti is not the lower being - the word covers the whole of Nature. We speak of the lower nature, the higher nature. I cannot make out how the action of the ...
... fullness of the integral Yoga. When the psychic imposes its aspiration on the mind, vital and body, then they too aspire and this is what is felt as the aspiration from the level of the lower being. The seeking of the lower being is necessarily at first intermingled and oppressed by the ordinary consciousness; it becomes, however, by Yogic practice, clear, constant, strong and enduring. In the integral ...
... fullness of the integral Yoga. When the psychic imposes its aspiration on the mind, vital and body, they too aspire and this is what is felt as the aspiration from the level of the lower being. The seeking of the lower being is necessarily at first intermingled and oppressed by the Page 65 ordinary consciousness; however by Yogic practice it becomes clear, constant, strong and enduring. ...
... veil between them. The rending of the veil is the condition of the divine life in humanity; for by that rending, by the illumining descent of the higher into the nature of the lower being and the forceful ascent of the lower being into the nature of the higher, mind can recover its divine light in the all-comprehending Supermind, the soul realise its divine self in the all-possessing all- blissful Ananda ...
... veil between them. The rending of the veil is the condition of the divine life in humanity; for by that rending, by the illumining descent of the higher into the nature of the lower being and the forceful ascent of the lower being into the nature of the higher, mind can recover its divine light in the all-comprehending Supermind, the soul realise its divine self in the all-possessing all-blissful Ananda ...
... other verse brings out what we would Page 78 not gather from the former, that in its higher status of unity the self is for ever free, inactive, unattached, though it descends in its lower being into the multiplicity of the creatures of Prakriti and withdraws from it by reversion in any individual creature to the higher status. This theory of the double status of the one conscious soul opens... mamaiva aṁśaḥ , and it possesses all my powers; it is witness, giver of the sanction, upholder, knower, lord. It descends into the lower nature and thinks itself bound by action, so to enjoy the lower being: it can draw back and know itself as the passive Purusha free from all action. It can rise above the three gunas and, liberated from the bondage of action, yet possess action, even as I do myself ...
... 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 of the One to manifest. Therefore both aspirations help each other. The seeking of the lower being is necessarily at first intermittent and oppressed by the ordinary consciousness. It has by sadhana ...
... this is what was felt by you 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 of the One to manifest in all the being. Both aspirations help Page 65 and are necessary to each other. But the seeking of the lower being is at first intermittent and oppressed by the obscurity and limitations ...
... of the Vedic Horse, Ashwa, Dadhikravan, takes usually the place of Vayu. If we consider the fundamental ideas of the Rishis, this position of Vayu becomes intelligible. The illumination of the lower being by the higher, the mortal by the divine, was their principal concept. Light and Force, Go and Ashwa, the Cow and the Horse, were the object of the sacrifice. Force was the condition, Light the liberating... especially Agni Dadhikravan was the symbol. For it is Agni who is master of Tapas, the divine Consciousness formulating itself in universal energy, of which the Prana is only a representative in the lower being. Therefore in Vamadeva's hymn, the fifty-eighth of the fourth Mandala, it is Indra and Surya and Agni who effect the great manifestation of the conscious divinity out of the subconscient. Vata or ...
... movement above. In a thought, in an act, in speech, you have in everything to reject the lower form and seek its truer forms in the Supramental. If you seek and yet cannot always get, it shows that the lower being is not yet used to refer above and act in response to movement from there. It Cannot come all at once. Slowly and with great care it is to act always from an intense intuitive and psychic plane and... Then the unstability of the light is due to vital consciousness and stability is due to physical consciousness. Difficulty is experienced by everyone in making the higher experiences normal as the lower being gets hold of them and reduces them to their own level. That is what has happened also in Motilal Roy's case. The remedy is to increase the stability and purify the being by removing all hostile forces ...
... 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 from the level of the lower being. The seeking of the lower being is necessarily at first intermingled and oppressed by the ordinary consciousness; however by Yogic practice it becomes clear, constant, strong and enduring. In regard to the ...
... between them. The rending of the veil is the condition of the divine life in humanity, for by that rending, by the illumining descent of the higher into the nature of the lower being and the forceful ascent of the lower being into the nature of the higher, mind can recover its divine light in the all-comprehending Supermind, the soul realise its divine self in the all-possessing all-blissful Ananda ...
... various and conflicting rhythms. DANGERS IN SADHANA Two kinds of movements only are left open to the sadhakas of the yoga — one towards the higher and another towards the lower being and nature. To remain in one place and to stagnate there is an impossibility for any sadhaka . Even when he seems to stagnate, it is only either to rest in the hands of the higher and gather strength ...
... and conflicting rhythms. DANGERS IN SADHANA Two kinds of movements only are left open to the sadhakas of the yoga — one towards the higher and another towards the lower being and nature. To remain in one place and to stagnate there is an impossibility for any sadhaka . Even when he seems to stagnate, it is only either to rest in the hands of the higher and gather ...
... present various and conflicting rhythms. DANGERS IN SADHANA Two kinds of movements only are left open to the sadhakas of the yoga — one towards the higher and another towards the lower being and nature. To remain in one place and to stagnate there is an impossibility for any sadhaka Even when he seems to stagnate, it is only either to rest in the hands of the higher and gather strength ...
... of the upper hemisphere but working here in subjection to the principle of Ignorance, and in apparent self-forgetfulness of the divine One in his play of division and multiplicity. The lower being begins where a veil falls between Spirit in Supermind and Spirit in Mind, Life and Body. (Note: This whole section" Hemispheres of Existence" is a free adaptation of various passages from Sri ...
... The global consciousness would also suggest that. 24:12:1995 Sri Aurobindo was working in me. He told me: "Absorb my Consciousness-Force." I was doing it. The whole of the lower being was receiving it. It went on like that all the time during the day. Next day it opened out above. Very wide, opened out above. 28:12:1995 The Mother rarely speaks to me. She will do ...
... the Spirit, something even, — however secondary or indirect, — of the Supermind could receive a first expression, could make itself initially manifest, could intervene in the government of our lower being and help to remould it. Afterwards, by the force of that remoulded consciousness, the course of our evolution could rise by a sublimer ascent and get beyond the mental into the supramental and ...
... not abandon the animal reactions and enjoyments, but more lucidly, finely and sensitively mentalises them. This he does even on his normal and his lower levels, but, as he develops, he puts his lower being to a severer test, begins to demand from it on pain of rejection something like a transformation: that is the mind's way of preparing for a spiritual life still beyond it. But man not only turns ...
... transmissions from the spirit and are of another and a more and more pure, untroubled, powerful and luminous nature. This is one side of the change: the other is that whatever belongs still to the lower being, whatever still seems to us to come from outside or as a survival of the action of our old inferior personality, feels the pressure of the change and increasingly tends to modify and transform itself ...
... order of things. It is imperative to exchange this surface orientation for the deeper faith and vision which see only the Divine and seek only after the Divine. The next need is to compel all our lower being to pay homage to this new faith and greater vision. All our nature must make an integral surrender; it must offer itself in every part and every movement to that which seems to the unregenerated ...
... which the whole conscious existence dwells in the same status of being as the Divine, in the state of Sachchidananda; but also the acquisition of the divine nature by the transformation of this lower being into the human image of the Divine, sādharmya-mukti , and the complete and final release of all, the liberation of the consciousness from the transitory mould of the ego and its unification with ...
... by a merging into it in an inner Samadhi. If this be the process followed, then subsequently the Page 323 state into which we rise must still be called down to take possession of the lower being, to shed its light, power and bliss on our ordinary consciousness. For otherwise we may possess it, as many do, in the elevated condition or in the inward Samadhi, but we shall lose our hold of it ...
... dripping with clarified butter); spread the seat of fullness effective for the sacrifice; high rise the flames of light seeking the godhead (or the flames of light effective for the sacrifice of the lower being). (3) Like sons sustaining wholly their mother let the gods sit on Page 434 the high level of the seat of fullness; may the universal power of thee set in action the force of knowledge; ...
... & rather in the nature of a monologue. In Kriti there is some confusion owing to the sudden change both in circumstance & attitude. The removal of all habit of choice from the lower being is essential. The buddhi has entirely understood, the manas understands and no longer sanctions choice; it is now only the physical & pranic elements that have the habitual reactions which come from ...
... the surface mind, life and body; (2) the opening of the psychic being or soul by which it comes forward and governs the mind, life and body turning all to the Divine; (3) the opening of the whole lower being to the spiritual truth—this last may be called the psycho-spiritual part of the change. It is quite possible for the psychic transformation to take one beyond the individual into the cosmic. Even ...
... nature of man always demands things; it says, "These are necessities, these are needs, I can't do without them." Then, the instincts—a sort of instinct for one's own satisfaction—and pretensions: the lower being claims that it has a considerable importance and must be given what is necessary for it, otherwise it won't be able to live; it asserts that it alone is important, and so on. It is all this which ...
... men living there that do not want it! What does the Divine want of me? He wants that you first find yourself; that with your true being, your psychic being, you master and govern the lower being, and then you will quite naturally take your proper place in the great Divine Work. Where is my true being? Farther within or higher above, on the other side of the emotions, beyond the ...
... might be a sublimation or uplifting or the creation of a new structure compelled by the sheer force of the influence from above: but this change might not be accepted as native to itself by the lower being; it would not be a total growth, an integral evolution, but a partial and imposed formation;... a creation from outside the normal nature, by imposing upon it, it could be durable in its entirety ...
... touch their lower nature. They merely keep it quiet by the force of their higher or inner being. Since they consider the world as Maya, these Yogis do not bother to fix the true consciousness in the lower being. But is it not rather an excuse for not leading a yogic life? All that is simply an excuse. The Yogis of other Yogas do at least try to keep the lower nature quiet by tapasya; they do not ...
... directly on the lower vital to remove the particular difficulty there? Page 88 The only action has been for bringing down 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 ...
... of possession SRI AUROBINDO: I haven't seen the pictures. Yogic madness is a very rare thing. It is due to some overpowering experience such as Paramahansa bhava disturbing the balance of the lower being. NIRODBARAN: Some people come out of meditation in a mad state. Why? SRI AUROBINDO: They open themselves, while meditating, to vital forces, forces of the occult life plane. In Yoga, madness ...
... might be a sublimation or uplifting or the creation of a new structure compelled by the sheer force of the influence from above; but this change might not be accepted as native to itself by the lower being; it would not be a total growth, an integral evolution, but a partial and imposed formation...; a creation from outside the normal nature, by imposition upon it, it could be durable in its entirety ...
... only salokya mukti by which the whole conscious existence dwells in the state of Sachchidananda, but also sadharmya mukti, in which the divine nature is acquired by the transformation of the lower being. Transformation is the keyword of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo explains this as follows: By transformation I do not mean some change of the nature - I do not mean ...
... will extend in harmony the effective inner action on the plane of the pure Intelligence so that it may enrich itself there and attain beyond. For it is precisely by the progressive surrender of the lower being to the divine activities that the limited and egoistic consciousness of the mortal awakens to the infinite and immortal state which is its goal. Agastya accepts the will of the God and submits ...
... sense-emotion, vital desire and pleasure. He does not abandon the animal reactions and enjoyments, but more lucidly, finely and sensitively mentalizes them. But as he develops further, he puts his lower being to a severer test, begins to demand from it on pain of rejection something like a transformation that is the mind's way of preparing for a spiritual life still beyond it. As there are several ...
... too tamasic and replied to the descent of peace by inertia. I wonder how absolute silence could come down yesterday when there was an utter darkness and restlessness all over my lower being. That is quite possible and frequently happens. During the morning hours the Self is spontaneously revealed now and then. Do you think the consciousness of the Self ...
... process of Involution would appear as a series of stages in a descending order, a movement along a vertical line, as it were, one stage following another, more or less separate from each other, the lower being ever more ignorant, more separative, more exclusive. But this is not the whole picture. At each lower stage the higher is not merely high above, but also comes down and stands behind or becomes immanent ...
... which the whole conscious existence dwells in the same status of being as the Divine, in the state of Sachchidananda, and (iii) the acquisition of the divine nature by the transformation of the lower being into the human image of the divine, sddharmya mukti, and the complete and final release of all, the liberation of the human consciousness of the mind, life and body from the transitory page ...
... which the whole conscious existence dwells in the Same£ status of being as the Divine, in the state of Sachchidananda; but also the acquisition of the divine nature by the transformation of this lower being into the human image of the divine, sādharmyamukti, and the complete and final release of all, the liberation of the consciousness from the transitory mould of the ego and its unification with ...
... practice of Siddhis) the law of the divine Nature. This is what is meant in the Yoga of Sri Aurobindo as the sādharmya mukti, 'the acquisition of the divine nature by the transformation of this lower being into the human image of the divine.' IV The entire process of transformation is that of a triple transformation, the psychic, the spiritual and the supramental. Sri Aurobindo uses ...
... takes place in the vital or the mental is very subtle and creates new forms. These difficulties persist to the very end. You must clearly distinguish between various movements in the lower being. We do not want to leave out in our yoga the common and even the petty things". 4–8–1924 Morning talk on Sādhanā : Disciple : What is the distinction between the vital mind ...
... was the first time I could manifest in a particular terrestrial form, an individual form —not a general life but an individual form —that is to say, the junction between the higher Being and the lower being was made for the first time, through the mentalization of this material substance. I have lived that several times, and always in a similar setting and with quite a similar feeling of SUCH joyous ...
... has to be slain. Abstention from evil-doing it declares to be the first condition for liberation, and always it enjoins self mastery, self-control, saṁyama , control of the mind, senses, all the lower being. There is therefore a distinction to be made between what is essential in the nature, its native and inevitable action, which it avails not at all to repress, suppress, coerce, and what is accidental ...
... Prayers and Meditations July 5, 1914 All that belongs to the outer, lower being which is still obscure, prostrates itself before Thee in a mute and fervent adoration, calling with all its strength Thy purifying action which will make it fit to manifest Thee fully. And in this adoration is found perfect silence and perfect beatitude. Thou repliest ...
... surface mind, life and body — (2) the opening of the psychic being or soul by which it comes forward and governs the mind, life and body turning all to the Divine — (3) the opening of the whole lower being to the spiritual truth — this last may be called the psycho-spiritual part of the change. It is quite possible for the psychic transformation to take one beyond the individual into the cosmic. Even ...
... the latter, to impoverish the vital and physical existence and even to depress the mental as well in order to give the spiritual an easier domination, or else to make a compromise and leave the lower being to its pasture on condition of its doing frequent homage to the spiritual existence, admitting to a certain extent, greater or less, its influence and formally acknowledging it as the last state ...
... process. Therefore the necessity of a process of elimination or transformation of the inferior mentality remains always imperative,—or perhaps both at once, an elimination of all that is native to the lower being, its disfiguring accidents, its depreciations of value, its distortions of substance and all else that the greater truth cannot harbour, and a transformation of the essential things our mind derives ...
... change the terms of the Death into the terms of the Immortality; to have the freedom and peace of the Non-Birth simultaneously with the activity of the Birth. ( Verses 9-14 ) All parts of the lower being must consent to this realisation; to perceive with the intellect is not enough. The heart must consent in a universal love and delight, the sense-mind in a sensation of God and self everywhere, the ...
... throne of world rule, the home & fortress of the divine Master, and employing as its distributing & arranging minister the truth-seeing ideal mind to feed, supply & compel the activities of the lower being. They saw, then, being arranged in seven stairs, seven worlds, seven streams of world movement, seven bodies of things, seven states of consciousness which inform & contain the bodies. They saw this ...
... source of the action and its plane to the level of the higher idealities. The intellect-regarding vijnana must take a lower place as part of this higher movement. Absolute passivity of the lower being is demanded in order that all action and all siddhi may be conducted openly by the Ishwara from the higher nature. Kamananda tested, momentarily depressed, survives the test and continues ...
... The inner planes are always wide and open into the Universal while the outer surface parts of the being are shut up in themselves and full of narrow and ignorant movements. It is plain. The lower being (vital and physical) was receiving an influence (mental light, yellow) from the thinking mind and higher vital which was clearing it of the old habitual lower vital reactions: very often in the sadhana ...
... Nirvana. I have always written that the descent is necessary to change the nature; ascent is useful to open the higher planes and exalt the level of the consciousness, 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 ...
... real love? Get clear of all the sentimental sexual turmoil and go back to the soul,—then there is real love. It is then also you would be able to receive the overwhelming love without getting the lower being into an excitement which might be disastrous. What is this idea that this desire of the heart hungering to love women is not sex-desire? That and the physical lust are both forms of sex-desire ...
... It is only by the constant repetition and persistence of the Mother's light and force that the habit of disturbance and lack of organisation can diminish and finally disappear. Only so can the lower being be prepared and the decisive descent of the Truth and Light be finally made possible. 23 August 1931 The Mother's Peace is above you—by aspiration and quiet self-opening it descends. When it ...
... of the mental energy carries it therefore into its own native field and kingdom above the pressing subjection to the lowering and limiting claim of a vital and physical Karma. It is true that his lower being remains subject to the law of life and of the body, and it is true also that he must strive either to find in life or to bring into the world around him some law of truth, of right and good, of beauty ...
... will extend in harmony the effective inner action on the plane of the pure Intelligence so that it may enrich itself there and attain beyond. For it is precisely by the progressive surrender of the lower being to the divine activities that the limited and egoistic consciousness of the mortal awakens to the infinite and immortal state which is its goal. Page 255 Agastya accepts the will of the ...
... power of the spirit, something even—however secondary or indirect—of the supermind could receive a first expression, could make itself initially manifest, could intervene in the government of our lower being and help to remould it. Afterwards, by the force of that remoulded consciousness, the course of our evolution could rise by a sublimer ascent and get beyond the mental into the supramental and the ...
... and supernally is that we cannot while dwelling in the cause of these opposites, cannot while contained in the lower triple term of existence attain to the divine living. We must either exalt this lower being into that higher status or exchange body for that pure existence, life for that pure condition of conscious-force, sensation and mentality for that pure delight and knowledge which live in the truth ...
... the ego is only a lower and partial manifestation of ourselves through which a certain limited and preparatory experience becomes possible and is for a time indulged. But this indulgence of the lower being is not our whole possibility; it is not the sole or crowning experience for which we exist as human beings even in this material world. This individual being of ours is that by which ignorance ...
... unity and it takes joy in unity. These ranges of consciousness are beyond our present level; they are superconscious to our normal mentality. That belongs to a lower hemisphere of being. This lower being begins where a veil falls between soul and nature, between spirit in supermind and spirit in mind, life and body. Where this veil has not fallen, these instrumental powers are not what they are in ...
... minds of men and the workings of Nature, which reflects the divine effective immanence and the divine effective mastery. Nor can it do this without becoming the active enjoyer, bhoktā . In the lower being the enjoyment is of a twofold kind, positive and negative, which in the electricity of sensation translates itself into joy and suffering; but in the higher it is an actively equal enjoyment of the ...
... out with the creature's pain and the weal of the lash was found reproduced on his own flesh. But there must be a oneness with Sachchidananda in his freedom as well as with the subjection of the lower being to the reactions of Prakriti. This is achieved when the soul is free and superior to the cosmic reactions which are then felt only in the life, mind and body and as an inferior movement; the soul ...
... indefinitely long period, it is always likely to be broken in upon by any strong or persistent call on the bodily life. And when one returns to the mental consciousness, one is back again in the lower being. Therefore it has been said that complete liberation from the human birth, complete ascension from the life of the mental being is impossible until the body and the bodily life are Page 395 ...
... inspired revelation as the type of all the thought especially in T². At first this brought about a descent from the revelatory to the inspired levels. Then there came above, with no hold on the lower being, a highest form of the full (not inspired) revelation, holding in itself the prominent element of inspiration. A difference has to be drawn between the inspired revelation and full most luminous ...
... leading to the transfiguration of our waking existence necessitates then not merely an ascension to the planes above nor even the exertion from there of an indirect pressure and influence upon our lower being but the bringing down of the Power and Light of the supernal reaches in the very field of our normal being, consciousness and action. For "there is a dynamism proper to the spiritual consciousness ...
... here with life outside. I need a change, and for this change to take place I need to know the other life. You may go if you like, but since I do not see how it can help you to overcome your lower being and go beyond the limits of your ego, do not expect any financial help from me in this affair. 28 November 1948 Page 172 May I go to Madras to see the city and the surrounding ...
... particular terrestrial form (not a general life but an individual form); that is, for the first time, through the mentalization of this material substance, the junction between the higher Being and the lower being was made. I have lived that several times, and always in a similar setting and with quite a similar feeling of such joyous simplicity, without complexity, without problems, without all these questions ...
... personal. But this will come at a later stage: you need not mind about it now. But go on with the method indicated. Only take care not to surrender to any suggestions or forces coming from the lower being as that is the chief danger of the Sadhana. Aurobindo Ghose Letter to Motilal Mehta About your difficulty in explaining to people what A.G. is doing—it will of course be useless to ...
... indefinitely long period, it is always likely to be broken in upon by any strong or persistent call on the bodily life. And when one returns to the mental consciousness, one is back again in the lower being. Therefore it has been said that complete liberation from the human birth, complete ascension from the life of the mental being is impossible until the body and the bodily life are finally cast ...
... personal. But this will come at a later stage: you need not mind about it now. But go on with the method indicated. Only take care not to surrender to any suggestions or forces coming from the lower being as that is the chief danger of the Sadhana. 24 December 1924 AUROBINDO GHOSE ...
... purify them and eventually to transform them. Man does not abandon the animal reactions and enjoyments, but mentalises them more lucidly, finely and sensitively. As he develops farther, he puts his lower being to severer tests, begins to demand from it on pain of rejection something like a transformation. A special characteristic of human mentality is not only to gaze downward and around himself, but ...
... sense-emotion, vital desire and pleasure. He does not abandon the animal reactions and enjoyments, but more lucidly, finely and sensitively mentalizes them. But as he develops further, he puts his lower being to a severer test, begins to demand from it on pain of rejection something like a transformation; that is the mind's way of preparing for a spiritual life still beyond it. As there are several lower ...
... of the upper hemisphere but working here in subjection to the principle of Ignorance, and in apparent self-forgetfulness of the Divine One in his play of division and multiplicity. The lower being begins where a veil falls between spirit in supermind and spirit in mind, life and body. (Note: this whole section "Hemispheres of Existence" is a free adaptation of various passages from Sri Aurobindo's ...
... might be a sublimation or uplifting or the creation of a new structure compelled by the sheer force of the influence from above: but this change might not be accepted as native to itself by the lower being; it would not be a total growth, an integral evolution, but a partial and imposed formation... a creation from outside the normal nature, by imposition upon it, it could be durable in its entirety ...
... order of things. It is imperative to exchange this surface orientation for the deeper faith and vision which see only the Divine and seek only after the Divine. The next need is to compel all our lower being to pay homage to this new faith and greater vision. ... This is no easy task; for everything in the world follows the fixed habit which is to it a law and resists a radical change. And no change ...
... real love? Get clear of all the sentimental sexual turmoil and go back to the soul,—then there is real love. It is then also you would be able to receive the overwhelming love without getting the lower being into an excitement which might be disastrous. January 12, 1936 "Like a flame of flowers on yonder tree, Like the rippling waves of the sea, Dance, dance, O my soul, thou playmate ...
... supermind. The psychic, mind, vital, physical belong to the ordinary manifestation. I am afraid my interpretation of the carriage with three horses as the psychic and the triple lower being was not true. It may be true. But all the details are not clear. Here I send you three dreams. I had them one after another last night. The first one: The ...
... done] (1) if he is always in trance, (2) if he does not want transformation of the rest of the nature , (3) if he cuts himself off from life and action, (4) if he does not allow anything in the lower being or the outer being to draw any part of his upgathered consciousness to go down or out from the upper silence. Even during these difficult times I can detach and separate myself ...
... 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 sex imagination and sensation in my ...
... Meditation is painful and without much profit. It is at other moments that I feel sometimes how thin the veil is. The best method I have found consists precisely in climbing as high as possible—then the lower being is calmed. The three centres (Sahasrara, Ajna and Solar) are then united. When not in meditation the mechanical mind is very restless and I have difficulty even in reading—in concentrating on anything ...
... the Supra-mental level, why is śraddhā – faith – required ? Sri Aurobindo : śhraddha here means that when you see the Truth, you are ready to accept it. "Yoga Atma" means that the lower being has to attain the union with the higher being in order to go up to the level higher than the Mind. Disciple : About the pr ā nā maya also it speaks and adds that it is fulfilled by it ...
... infra-rational. It is because they are not all rational that they are considered as inspiration. They are even called mystical. They are really nothing but narrow-pointed impulses rising from the lower being. But perhaps this rise of the infra-rational has been necessary in order that the supra-rational may be accepted and that reason may not be able to offer as obstruction to it. The infra-rational ...
... mental; it has yet to awake in the supra- mental or Vijnâna sheath, and the sheath of Bliss (ānanda- maya kosa). This awakening, unaccompanied by any ataxy or catalepsy in any part of the lower being, is what is known as ascent in the Integral Yoga. Sri Aurobindo says that as man has risen from the life-mind of the animal, wrapped up in the chaotic cravings and appetites of the lower nature ...
... and act, in art, literature and life, in wealth-getting, wealth-having or wealth-spending, in home, government and society, the One Immortal in His lower mortal being. No doubt, this is the description of man when he reaches the summit of his being. But it is only the first step of the superman. 24 November 1969 Page 271 ...
... this beautiful and really genuine feeling? I wish I could keep up this sweet feeling and not trouble you with all these silly things any more. SRI AUROBINDO: It is the small habits of the lower vital being which gather all their strength to resist correction and try to occupy the consciousness. When they come you must learn to detach your inner consciousness from them entirely so that even when ...
... choice has been made — the mighty Purusha above the head has thrown in the lower being's lot with the Eternal, and the Purusha behind the heart, "no bigger than a man's thumb" as the Upanishad describes the evolving soul, has tuned in to the God-affirmative broadcast of that lordly dweller in the Infinite's ether and his whole being vibrates in unison with that music of the spheres. Difficulties, tensions... towards some kind of sweet security in a background region midway between the heart and the mind, until one shall be quite out of the problem of the lower nature — all this seems to be the sadhana at present. I said: "Out of the problem of the lower nature." This does not mean that the problem ceases. No, it remains there — but oneself is no longer in it. One deals with it as if from outside it... of freedom in which one may turn to the Mother and be her child in every detail and on every layer of one's being. A more complicated process is this and one does not remain in a fixed felicity or a constant flame. But the sense is there, all the same, that a far greater thing is being done than during any flying visit, however resplendent. And the light that gets kindled in one is more effective ...
... Answers (1929-1931) Victory over Falsehood The lords of Falsehood hold, at present, almost complete sway over poor humanity. Not only the lower life-energy, the lower vital being, but also the whole mind of man accepts them. Countless are the ways in which they are worshipped, for they are most subtle in their cunning and seek their ends in variously seductive ...
... The Signature Of Truth VICTORY OVER FALSEHOOD The lords of Falsehood hold, at present, almost complete sway over poor humanity. Not only the lower life-energy, the lower vital being, but also the whole mind of man accepts them. Countless are the ways in which they are worshipped, for they are most subtle in their cunning and seek their ends in variously seductive ...
... Level of the Vital The Vital Being and Sadhana Letters on Yoga - IV Chapter IV The Lower Vital Being The Decisive Ordeal of This Yoga The cardinal defect, that which has been always standing in the way and is now isolated in an extreme prominence, is seated or at least is at present concentrated in the lower vital being. I mean that part of the vi... the Lower Vital The peacefulness in the lower abdomen is very good, for it means that the true consciousness is settling down in the lower vital—if the lower vital is liberated and peaceful, there is little ground for any perturbations to come. It is what I meant when I spoke of something remaining calm even behind the surface disturbances. What happens is that some part of the being becomes... feeling, character and action. I am not concerned here with the other parts of the being and I do not speak of anything in the higher mind, the psychic self or the higher and larger vital nature; for when the lower vital rises, these are pushed into the background, if not covered over for the time, by this lower vital being and this external personality. Whatever there may be in these higher parts, aspiration ...
... no true and radical change in the law of the external nature. If, then, any sadhak refuses in practice to admit this change or if he refuses even to admit the necessity for any change of his lower vital being and his habitual external personality, I am entitled to conclude that, whatever his professions, he has not accepted either myself or my yoga." (Letters on Yoga, p. 1306) We should not... symptoms of the forthcoming decay and decline of our group as a spiritual institution? Only the Mother and Sri Aurobindo know the answer. But on our part we have to be on our guard so that the apparent lowering of values may not lead to an irreversible degeneration of the Ashram. We know there have already been sounded in some very responsible and respectable quarters some honest misgivings about... supramental Truth-Consciousness into the earth atmosphere, and once that mission was adequately fulfilled, the Ashram lost its functional utility for their purpose and may now be passing into the phase of being pulled down. And that the real mission of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo has been accomplished can be gathered from the following statement of the Mother herself: "What has happened [after the ...
... the ugly little brat was an exteriorisation of his lower-vital being of lust and concupiscence and possessiveness. "Do you understand now," he wrote, "why you are not allowed to stay here? It is this formation of your life in the past. He wants food which is wholly denied here. That is why you have to depart again and again. Your lower vital being is still too much alive and kicking to let you stay... could well do without this so-called freedom to follow the ego's unruly cravings and subtle promptings. The trouble arose, as I came to realise, because my lower nature did not want to waive its native right to its unlovely enjoyments. But my lower nature, like Goldsmith's famous schoolmaster, "though vanquished argued still", resisting transformation till, at last, matters were brought to a head,... from the great mystic William Law the purport of which is that none can turn towards God without turning his back upon his ego, because none can be fully alive to God till he completely dies to his lower nature. But I must pause here a little to stress an experience of mine which grew from day to day till I could not deny its vivid, concrete reality. I refer to what Gurudev called the "hostile ...
... freedom to follow the will of the soul, not all the whims of the mind and vital. The freedom I speak of is an austere truth which strives to surmount all the weaknesses and desires of the lower, ignorant being. The freedom I speak of is the freedom to consecrate oneself wholly and without reserve to one's highest, noblest, divinest aspiration. Who among you sincerely follows this path? It... * The days pass, the weeks pass, the months pass, the years pass and time fades into the past. And later on, when they have grown up, those who no longer have the immense advantage of being Children regret the time that they have wasted and that they could have used to learn all the things which are needed to know how to live. March 1961 * Never believe that you... teachings of Sri Aurobindo regularly and very attentively. To develop and master your vital, carefully observe your movements and reactions with a will to overcome desires, and aspire to find your psychic being and unite with it. Physically, continue with what you are doing, develop and control your body methodically, make yourself useful by working at the Playground and your place of work, and try to do it ...
... these methods were those of purification of our ordinary consciousness, methods of concentration of our consciousness on higher states of being and consciousness, methods of perfection by which the lower can be transcended into the corresponding higher realms of being, — and these are again the same methods which we find repeated in the same way or in a more modified manner in subsequent developments... which the normal existence of man even in its higher and widest flights is still a stranger. And this hierarchy of infinitudes is achieved in the Vedic Yoga by the transcendence of the lower triple being and our lower triple world, a transcendence which has been described by the Vedic seers as an exceeding or breaking beyond the two firmaments of heaven and earth. Commenting on the basic nature... of the ascent and the descent. As he points out: "The link between the Spiritual and the lower planes of the mental being is that which is called in the old Vedantic phraseology the vijnana and which we may term the Truth-plane or the ideal mind or the supermind where the One and Many meet and our being is freely open to the revealing light of the Divine Truth and the Inspiration of the Divine ...
... ic system, and spatially on an entire cosmos in which higher and lower worlds are marshalled "in concentric circles around this wild but pivotal lump of earth;" Hell and Heaven and tiers upon tiers of spheres fitting into the Neo-Platonic cosmology, inhabited by devils, angels, spirits, and all sorts of higher and lower beings, — its a strange complex world "made alive with vivid, graphic details... while Incessantly being bom in every form Of dying, taking in abhorred exchange One of life's wretched curses after another. 4 The Daemon himself says: I have been ere this a boy, a girl, A plant in the woods, an eagle in the heights, And in the sea the glancing life of a fish. 5 But till he was confined merely to the vegetable and lower animal forms of life... strata both in the Mind and the Cosmos. What for Dante are sin and vice, accepted 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 ...
... divine life and the divine work; they must not be determined by his mind and his vital desires. This is the thing you have to remember. Your psychic being is capable of giving itself to the Mother and living and growing in the Truth; but your lower vital being has been full of attachments and sanskaras and an impure movement of desire and your external physical mind was not able to shake off its ignorant... beginning that this might happen and put them on their guard in due time. If they fell, it was because they preferred to follow their lower nature and side with the lower forces. The Divine can lead, he does not drive. There is an internal freedom permitted to every mental being called man to assent or not to assent to the Page 144 Divine leading—how else can any real spiritual evolution be done... the habitual defects of your external being and reject them, (3) to open these obscure parts to the light and change their movement. This was the twist—the mental turn of giving up all reserve—interpreted not as a complete surrender to the Divine Shakti, but as giving yourself up to anything that came, which might very well be a wrong movement of the lower vital Nature or even a hostile force. ...
... follow the soul's will and not that of mental and vital whims and fancies. The freedom of which I speak is an austere truth which tends to surmount all the weaknesses and desires of the lower, ignorant being. The freedom of which I speak is the freedom to consecrate oneself entirely and without reserve to one's highest, noblest and most divine aspiration. Who amongst you follows sincerely... books (English classics) was sent to you for Your approval, but that You wish only the works of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo to be read. You have even remarked that to read these old classics is to lower the level of one's consciousness. Mother, is it only for those who are practising yoga that You advise this or is it for everybody? First of all, what has been reported is not correct. Secondly... atavistic and comes from the subconscient. This instinct is based both on masculine pride, the foolish idea of superiority, and the still more foolish fear caused by the idea that a woman is a dangerous being who entices you into sin. In children, all this is still subconscious, but it influences their actions. 3 July 1963 Sweet Mother, You have explained that this separation of girls and boys ...
... Page 35 the powers of disorder. The preliminary movement of Rajayoga is a careful self-discipline by which good habits of mind are substituted for the lawless movements that indulge the lower nervous being. By the practice of truth, by renunciation of all forms of egoistic seeking, by abstention from injury to others, by purity, by constant meditation and inclination to the divine Purusha who is... as its instruments of perfection and realisation; its concern is with the gross body. Rajayoga selects the mental being in its different parts as its lever-power; it concentrates on the subtle body. The triple Path of Works, of Love and of Knowledge uses some part of the mental being, will, heart or intellect as a starting-point and seeks by its conversion to arrive at the liberating Truth, Beatitude... lead to an active conquest of the cosmic existence for the Divine no less than to a transcendence. The point of this departure is the realisation of the supreme Self not only in one's own being but in all beings and, finally, the realisation of even the phenomenal aspects of the world as a play of the divine consciousness and not something entirely alien to its true nature. And on the basis of this ...
... earthly existence by providing the basic unit weaving everything together instead of setting one part over against the others as here below. And the correspondence of the higher with the lower in being no void, no wordlessness, leads to the compatibility of the Here and the Beyond so that the Seers, once they have realised the underlying unity of things by constant contact with the Beyond... (Yuga). You write: "He did not answer, kept quiet. When pressed again, he replied very softly: 'He was a friend of mine.'" No wonder you were "overjoyed", thinking "being his friend I was not far away from the Divine, - he being with the Divine." I am glad to mark that for all your devotion to Nolini the topmost concern in you was the Divine and you did not stop short with whatever was noteworthily... the "fear-free" state desired, aspired after, is the epithet "wide'" in the Rigvedic phrase. Our non-spiritual condition, our delusive ignorance consists essentially in being locked up in oneself, being exclusive of one's true reality which includes everyone and everything, an inner vastness which rules out the feeling of the other, the alien that can oppose and injure one. Do you ...
... The Yoga of Integral Knowledge The Synthesis of Yoga Chapter XXI The Ladder of Self-Transcendence The transcendence of this lower triple being and this lower triple world, to which ordinarily our consciousness and its powers and results are limited,—a transcendence described by the Vedic seers as an exceeding or breaking beyond the two firmaments of... to the lowest step of its hierarchy, it is difficult for him to rise. A separation, acute in practice though unreal in essence, divides the total being of man, the microcosm, as it divides also the world-being, the macrocosm. Both have a higher and a lower hemisphere, the parārdha and aparārdha of the ancient wisdom. The higher hemisphere is the perfect and eternal reign of the Spirit; for there... consciousness bound to the law of its lower hemisphere of being. To understand the possibility of transcending it at all, we must restate in a practical formula the relations of the worlds which constitute the two hemispheres. All is determined by the Spirit, for all from subtlest existence to grossest matter is manifestation of the Spirit. But the Spirit, Self or Being determines the world it lives in ...
... multiple earthly existence by providing the basic unity weaving everything together instead of setting one part over against the others as here below. And the correspondence of the higher with the lower in being no void, no worldlessness, leads to the compatibility of the Here and the Beyond so that the Seers, once they have realised the underlying unity of things by constant contact with the Beyond, do... (Yuga). You write: "He did not answer, kept quiet. When pressed again, he replied very softly: 'He was a friend of mine.' " No wonder you were "overjoyed", thinking: "being his friend I was not far away from the Divine, - he being with the Divine." I am glad to mark that for all your devotion to N the topmost concern in you was the Divine and you did not stop short with whatever was noteworthily... Aurobindo, "is her face to the Asura." (10.9.1991) According to the ancient Indian wisdom, our non-spiritual condition, our delusive ignorance consists essentially in being locked up in ourselves, being exclusive of our true reality which includes everyone and everything, an inner vastness which rules out the feeling of the other, the alien that can oppose and injure one. Do you remember ...
... on their strength lies, to accumulate in a mass, so as to carry us away, things attracting, things amusing, things striking, things horrible; they will get at us through the nerves and the lower emotional being,—and in this they succeed eminently,—since they cannot get at us through a higher intellectual and imaginative appeal. The evolution of the action is rather theatrically effective than poetic... the limits within which Shakespeare did his work, so that we may fix the point reached; but still within the work itself his limitations do not matter. And even his positive defects and lapses cannot lower him, because there is an unfailing divinity of power in his touch which makes them negligible. He has, however much toned down, his share of the Elizabethan crudities, violences, extravagances; but... ideal or spiritual result. His development of human character has a sovereign force within its bounds, but it is the soul of the human being as seen through outward character, passion, action,—the life-soul, and not either the thought-soul or the deeper psychic being, still less the profounder truth of the human spirit. Something of these things we may get, but only in shadow or as a partial reflection ...
... equality that this equality has two sides. It must therefore be arrived at by two successive movements. One will liberate us from the action of the lower nature and admit us to the calm peace of the divine being; the other will liberate us into the full being and power of the higher nature and admit us to the equal poise and universality of a divine and infinite knowledge, will of action, Ananda. The first... passion of this lower nature, does not accept it as its own, does not approve, sanction or participate. Then the lower nature begins to lose the force and power of its reactions, to submit to the suggestions of calm and strength from the higher reason and will, and gradually that calm and strength take possession of the mental and emotional, even of the sensational, vital and physical being. This brings... struggle between that higher reason and will and the lower mental being which clings to the old egoistic way of seeing the world and reacting to its impacts. Then we find that these two, though at first confused, mingled together, alternating, acting on each other, striving for possession, can be divided, the higher spiritual disengaged from the lower mental nature. But in this stage, while the mind is ...
... soul's will and not that of mental and vital whims and fancies. The freedom of which I speak is an austere truth which tends to surmount all the weaknesses and desires of the lower, ignorant being. The freedom of which I speak is the freedom to consecrate oneself entirely and without reserve to one's highest, noblest and most divine aspiration. ... The Mother Mastering one's lower nature To be a man, discipline is indispensable. Page 13 Without discipline one is only an animal. One begins to be a man only when one aspires to a higher and truer life and when one accepts a discipline of transformation. For this one must start by mastering one's lower nature and its desires. The Mother... Divine work and unassailable trust in the Divine Grace. All this must be accompanied by a sustained, ardent and persevering aspiration, and by a limitless patience. The Mother Being a sadhaka What is the use of being a sadhak if, as soon as we act, we act like the ignorant ordinary man? The Mother An example We are expected to give to the world an example of Page 20 ...
... tissue are characterized by stability, heaviness, beautiful appearance and plumpness of temples, forehead, nape, eyes, cheeks, jaws, neck, shoulder, abdomen, axillae, chest and joints of upper and lower limbs being covered with flesh. Such individuals are endowed with forgiveness, patience, non-greediness, wealth, knowledge, happiness, simplicity, health, strength and longevity. (d) Medah sara (Excellence... The entire effort of the four, viz., physician, medicament, attendant and patient, possessing requisite qualities, for the revival of the equilibrium of dhatus in the event of their equilibrium' being disturbed, is known as therapeutics. Effort of a physician includes his judgement about his duties and otherwise; that of the medicament includes therapeutic action when administered; an attendant's... mental faculties. Sattva is mind and it regulates the body because of its association with the soul. Depending upon its strength, it is of three types, viz. superior, mediocre and inferior. Thus human beings are classified into three categories depending upon the superiority, mediocrity or inferiority of their mental faculties. Individuals having mental faculties of superior type are possessed of the ...
... works within, the psychic and spiritual, and they have to put their nature under the influence of the psychic being and the higher spiritual self or of the Divine. Not only the vital and the body but the mind also has to learn the Divine Truth and obey the divine rule. But because of the lower nature and its continued hold on them, they are unable at first and for a long time to prevent their nature... service of the Divine and as an instrument of the Divine. The seat of desire is not so much in the emotional as in the lower vital—but the desires rise up from there into the emotional part and even into the thinking mind. It is always the habit of the vital being to find out things by which it persuades the mind and justifies its desires; and circumstances usually shape themselves to justify... reflex action. You should not therefore be discouraged by the difficulty, but go on with the necessary perseverance of the will to press it out of existence. It is the small habits of the lower vital being which gather all their strength to resist eviction and try to occupy the consciousness. Page 256 When they come you must learn to detach your inner consciousness from them entirely ...
... knows this light to be his own self-luminous being and he sees besides all that dwells in the rays of the sun, sees the whole truth of the lower triplicity and each thing that is in it. He sees it not by reflection in a mental organ of vision, but with the Sun of gnosis itself as his eye,—for the Sun, says the Veda, is the eye of the gods. The mental being, even in the intuitive mind, can perceive the... supreme plane of our consciousness, but a middle or link plane. Interposed between the triune glory of the utter Spirit, the infinite existence, consciousness and bliss of the Eternal and our lower triple being and nature, it is as if it stood there as the mediating, formulated, organising and creative wisdom, power and joy of the Eternal. In the gnosis Sachchidananda gathers up the light of his unseizable... truth-force; and it brings out what is latent in being, it does not create a fiction that never Page 484 was in being. The ideation of the gnosis is radiating light-stuff of the consciousness of the eternal Existence; each ray is a truth. The will in the gnosis is a conscious force of eternal knowledge; it throws the consciousness and substance of being into infallible forms of truth-power, forms ...
... creatures, innumerable in their multitudes, spirits, imps, goblins, genii, all kinds of lower vital beings who were "Ignorant and dangerous wills but armed with power, Half-animal, half-god their mood, their shape." It is these beings who were seen by him to act upon the inner beings of man and to turn them round and round in the inescapable circle of ignorance. For ... meet". After the death of the gross body, the subtle body of man persists which, in fact, existed before the gross was created. On the level of the subtle material being there is a perfection of form and a perfection of expression. On the lower level, this subtle material world "...has dangerous nether planes" and though on the height it is immortal, still, it weaves for us ".. .death's sombre robe". It... the glory of God in Nature's mud" and behind all this lower play of life-force he felt a mystic Presence that was the "Creator of this game of ray and shade" who "...by the swift vibration of a nerve Links its mechanic throbs to light and love." This divine Presence behind the working of the lower vital force drives the course of evolution towards, first, the ...
... inertia and darkness, because our substance is so accustomed to obeying the mind’s orders and being manipulated by the mind that it no longer knows how to live by itself; everything is covered over by a mental crust which lets nothing filter through. We are the pioneers hewing our way through the jungle of the lower Prakriti [Nature]. 27 The body must slowly be taught to live its own life again, and... 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 through that weak point. They can create a combination of circumstances which would give rise to the thing not worked out and before... Delta. One clear little cell clears up the whole terrestrial field, prepares and brings the transformation of the great body closer. We become "representative” beings. Maybe if there is a symbolic being, said Mother, a symbolic being who has the power (it takes a great deal of endurance I), the power to CONTAIN the representation of all those disorders and to work on that symbolic representation ...
... the superman emerges. 163) The power to observe law rigidly is the basis of freedom; therefore in most disciplines the soul has to endure & fulfil the law in its lower members before it can rise to the perfect freedom of its divine being. Those disciplines which begin with freedom are only for the mighty ones who are naturally free or in former lives have founded their freedom. 164) Those who are... of symbolising & manifesting in every thought & act, in wealth getting, wealth having or wealth spending, in home & government & society, in art, literature and life, the One Immortal in this lower mortal being. Page 449 ... The animal, before he is corrupted, has not yet eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; the god has abandoned it for the tree of eternal life; man stands between the upper heaven and the lower nature. Page 429 60) One of the greatest comforts of religion is that you can get hold of God sometimes and give him a satisfactory beating. People mock at the folly of savages who beat ...
... and hold up their flag. It is there that the powers of darkness, again and again, cover the being and even when the physico-vital is opened the elements of ignorance come up from the lower levels of the physical being. To deal with them is a work of great patience. The physico-vital and the physical being do not accept the Higher Law and persist. They justify their persistence and their play by... preparation for the yoga. The vast mental expansion, the difficult long and arduous task of rejecting the lower movements of the vital nature and the still harder task of bringing about a change in the physical being, all this cannot be attempted by all. We want first to transform all our being into the Supramental nature. But that is not all, we have to call down and throw that Power upon the external... anything in the being and show it to me "Look here, this you have not conquered." They can also attack. Page 300 Disciple : Is this idea of the Supermind present in the Veda ? Sri Aurobindo : Yes, it is very clear, though the emphasis of the Vedic Rishis is more on going above – ascending – than on the return movement of conquering and transforming the lower nature. ...
... (Pranamaya), mental (Manomaya) which together make up the aparardha or Page 33 lower half of our conscious-being; the ideal (vijnanamaya) which links the lower to the parardha or higher half; the divine or Anandamaya in which the divine existence (Amrita) is concentrated for communion with our lower human being. These are the pancha kshitis, five earths or rather dwelling places of the Veda. But... therefore mankind’s greatest helpers. (9) But in order that they may help, it is necessary to reinforce them in these lower worlds, which are not their own, by self-surrender, by sacrifice, by a share in all man’s action, strength, being & bliss, and by this mutual help man’s being physical, vital, mental, spiritual is kept in a state of perfect & ever increasing force, energy & joy favourable to the... Bhuvarloka (Prana-Manas, the lower subjective world), Swarloka (Manas- Buddhi, the higher subjective world). These are the tribhuvana of Hinduism. (3) Corresponding to Mahas is Maharloka or Mahi Dyaus, the great heavens (pure Buddhi or Vijnana, the ideal world). The Pranava in its three essentialities rules over the three supreme worlds, the Satyaloka (divine being), Tapoloka (divine Awareness & ...
... Divine and the transcendence of ego. So long as that basis is not established, a sadhak is only an ignorant and imperfect human being struggling with the evils of the lower nature.... What is created by spiritual progress is an inner closeness and intimacy in the inner being, the sense of the Mother's love and presence etc." 24 February 1965 Sweet Mother, What is the best way of expressing... freedom to follow the will of the soul, not all the whims of the mind and vital. The freedom I speak of is an austere truth which strives to surmount all the weaknesses and desires of the lower, ignorant being. The freedom I speak of is the freedom to consecrate oneself wholly and without reserve to one's highest, noblest, divinest aspiration. Who among you sincerely follows this path? It is... the bad habit of nearly always being late everywhere. There is no habit that cannot be changed. 14 October 1963 Sweet Mother, It seems that a list of books (English classics) was sent to You for Your approval, but that You wish only the works of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo to be read. You have even remarked that to read these old classics is to lower the level of one's consciousness ...
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