... Page 86 Sri Aurobindo : I think so; many of the people who get possessed by Kali and such other gods are only possessed by these vital beings and much of the worship offered to them in the temples goes to these vital beings. Disciple : Then it is dangerous to worship these gods. Sri Aurobindo : If you mean "spiritually'' dangerous, yes. Disciple :... side-tracks in spiritual endeavour – Sadhana. Besides, as the writer himself admits, the evidence does not prove anything beyond the fact that supraphysical planes exist. These vital beings can take the substance from the vital plane and also gather stuff from the minds of those present and create a form. It does not prove that they are the persons they claim to be. Not that disembodied... All these are not effective in themselves, but they produce an influence by the power you put into them. In the case of incense, by the power of Agni a psychic influence is produced which these vital beings do not like, but a powerful Asura would not be influenced by sound. 11-6-1926 On Einstein's Theory : Disciple : According to Einstein's theory, although there is a ...
... splendour or light with them. It is the Rakshasas, Pisachas, etc. who are ugly or evil in appearance. Some of the vital beings are very intelligent—but they do not make friends with the Light—they only try to avoid destruction and wait their time. Very few [ vital beings ] come upon earth—they prefer to get hold of human beings and make them their instruments. They do not evolve. They have... psychic being and they dread to incarnate just because they would then be obliged to progress and evolve the psychic. There is no particular number [ of vital beings that surround a person ]—but sometimes there are particular vital beings that attach themselves to a man if he accepts them. Page 468 × One... Ignorance—in any complete transformation they must disappear and the Truth behind them be delivered. In this way they can be said to be transformed by destruction. Asuras, Rakshasas and Other Vital Beings The Asuras and Rakshasas etc. do not belong to the earth, but to supraphysical worlds; but they act upon the earth life and dispute the control of human life and character and action with the ...
... Yes — but they can change their shapes at will. Is each person surrounded by a particular number of vital beings or are there different vital beings entangling him at each attack? There is no particular number — but sometimes there are particular vital beings that attach themselves to a man if he accepts them. Do not the Gods of the vital world indulge in their... their own powers, and with a view to reign on the earth? Are they not individualised? Some are — but often the Forces play of themselves. I suppose by the Gods you mean the vital beings. But they are not Gods — they are Asuras, Rak-shasas or other undivine Powers. I am again feeling depressed; I can't understand the reason for it. Often waves of depression come from ...
... it was a charming incident. He was angry, he said, “This is a bad joke!” And all the clocks started going again! The Mother Questions and Answers (1950 - 1951): 2 April 1951 Have these vital beings a psychic being? No, I said that the first thing they have to do to incarnate is to drive away the psychic being of the person whom they possess. That may happen from the very birth. There are... little spot for meditation, very still, very silent, where there was some aspiration; but this was so rare! I have seen the beautiful churches of Italy, magnificent places; they were full of these vital beings and full of terror. I remember painting in a basilica of Venice, and while I was working, in the confessional a priest was hearing the confession of a poor woman. Well, it was truly a frightful... trembled to make the least mistake, for when catastrophes came they thought it was Kali who sent them! It is a frightful thing, thought. I know them, those entities. I know them very well, but they are vital beings, vital forms which, so to say, are given a form by human thought, and what forms! And to think that men worship such terrible and monstrous things… From this point of view, it is good that for ...
... a formidable vital Spider that is sucking your force.' Surely it would not have been very charitable on my part. But everywhere it is almost the same thing. There is a vital Force presiding. And vital beings feed upon the vibrations of human emotion. Very few are they, a microscopic number, who go to the temples and churches and holy places with the true religious feeling, that is to say, not to pray... everywhere it is but a web of adverse vital forces that use everything for their food. The bigger the congregation, the more portentous the vital deity. Besides, in the invisible world it is only the vital beings that like to be worshipped. For, as I have said, that pleases them, gives them importance. They are puffed up with pride and are happy; when they can have a troop of people adoring them, they reach... feels neither flattered nor satisfied nor glorified by your Puja. You must get that idea out of your head. There is an entire region between the spiritual world and the material, belonging to the vital beings and Page 109 it is this region that is full of such things as are liked by them, because they are their food. They are happy, they feel important when men call them, pray to them ...
... formidable vital Spider that is sucking your force,' surely it would not have been very charitable on my part. But everywhere it is almost the same thing. There is a vital Force presiding. And vital beings feed upon the vibrations of human emotion. Very few are they, a microscopic number, who go to the temples and churches and holy places with the true religious feeling, that is to say, not to pray... everywhere it is but a web of adverse vital forces that use everything for their food. The bigger the congregation, the more portentous the vital deity. Besides, in the invisible world it is only the vital beings that like to be worshipped. For, as I have said, that pleases them, gives them importance. They are puffed up with pride and are happy; when they can have a troop of people adoring them, they reach... nor satisfied nor glorified by your Puja. You must get that idea out of your head. There is an entire region between the spiritual world and the material, belonging to the Page 79 vital beings and it is this region that is full of such things as are liked by them, because they are their food. They are happy, they feel important when men call them, pray to them, make their offerings to ...
... creatures; you should avoid having any dealings with them unless you have the power to crush and destroy them. If you are forced into contact with them, beware of the spell they can cast. These vital beings, when they manifest on the physical plane, have always a great hypnotic power; for the centre of their consciousness is in the vital world and not in the material and they are not veiled and dwarfed... is on the same vital level; whatever does not belong to this category is closely questioned and scrutinised, grudgingly admitted and most often refused help in the end. In those who are slaves of vital beings, the desire for truth and light and spiritual achievement, even if it at all touches them, cannot balance the desire for money. To win money from their hands for the Divine means to fight the devil... manifesting the power, others are poor channels. There is no question of morality here. It is a fact of nature, a law of the great play. Can one meet the beings of the vital in their own domain? Vital beings move in a supraphysical world where human beings, Page 46 if they chance to enter, feel at sea, helpless and defenceless. The human being is at home and safe in the material body; the ...
... little spot for meditation, very still, very silent, where there was some aspiration; but this was so rare! I have seen the beautiful churches of Italy, magnificent places; they were full of these vital beings and full of terror. I remember painting in a basilica of Venice, and while I was working, in the confessional a priest was hearing the confession of a poor woman. Well, it was truly a frightful... all! He does not feel either flattered or happy or glorified by your pujas. You must get rid of that idea. There is an entire domain between the spiritual and the material worlds which belongs to vital beings, and it is this domain that is full of all these things, because these beings live upon that, are happy with it, and it immediately gives them importance; and the one who has the greatest number... trembled to make the least mistake, for when catastrophes came they thought it was Kali who sent them! It is a frightful thing, thought. I know them, those entities. I know them very well, but they are vital beings, vital forms which, so to say, are given a form by human thought, and what forms! And to think that Page 196 men worship such terrible and monstrous things; and what's more that these ...
... becoming conscious of the Divine. 1 July 1935 A few days ago X told me some stories about vital beings and ghosts. Since then I feel afraid in the dark. Why do you listen to these stories? They are very stupid. Most often ghosts exist only in people's imaginations. As for vital beings, if we do not fear them they can do us no harm. And with the divine protection what fear can one have... believe oneself to be on a very high plane. 4 June 1934 You say that there are as many lights in the vital world as one could wish for—but are they real lights or are they created by vital beings? The lights in the vital world are vital lights, of course. In my dreams I do not see daylight as I do here; I see everything very dim. That is because your vision is not fully developed ...
... instinct, the instinct of true spiritual purity, not to be deceived by them. Page 116 Many religions and sects are founded on revelations and miracles, and every bit of it comes from vital beings. It's one of the greatest problems in human life; I don't mean spiritual life, but the life of people who deal with the beyond. There are skies (not heavens) in the vital world that are truly... these beings beneficent? Ah, they aren't from the vital at all! Not at all! They are manifestations of Overmind 2 beings, projected into the vital world for a specific action. But they aren't vital beings: they have an Origin, they are still linked to a being from another world. Oh, no, not at all! The same goes for all those beings the Tantrics deal with—their origin is not vital, they belong... wonderfully obliging with me! But they are limited beings, with their own ideas and laws, their own volition, and when vexed they can do unpleasant things. Yet they are not hostile beings, nor are they vital beings: they are personified forces of physical Nature, in the subtle physical. A world of things could be said.... ( silence ) No, I don't know if it's wise to publish this Talk; if too incomplete ...
... vision of the tall white being armed with a kind of halberd: ) What was standing there was a manifestation of one of my states of being, a part of my vital being, or rather one of my innumerable vital beings—because I have quite a few! And this one is particularly interested in things on earth. A projection of yours—an emanation? You know, mon petit, I said one day that in the history of earth... were waiting. Some were simply waiting, others were working (they led their own independent lives) and they all gathered together again. That's how I got those memories. One after the other, those vital beings came—a deluge! I had barely enough time to assimilate one, to see, situate and integrate it, and another would come. They are quite independent, of course, they do their own work, but they are very... particularly true for the vital: there has always been a preoccupation with organizing, centralizing, developing and unifying the vital forces, and controlling them. So there's a considerable number of vital beings, each with its own particular ability, who have played their role in history and now return. But this one [the tall white Being] is not of human origin; it was not formed in a human life: it ...
... character. I may observe that although there is a real force behind them many of them are not of a real character, that is to say, the faces seen and touches felt were not in all cases of real vital beings but only forms suggested and created out of the stuff of your own surrounding vital atmosphere and can easily be dismissed by refusing to accept their reality or to admit their formation. It may... suggestion and silent influence. If you find the control increasing and these habits diminishing, you can understand, that the work of cure has begun. Its completion may take some time because these vital beings are very sticky and persistent and are always returning to the attack. The one thing which can make the cure rapid is if the boy himself develops a will in his mind to change for that will take... head; but I always feel strained on the middle part of the forehead. What should I do? Do not strain yourself. 5) How does the psychic being become open ? How to understand the psychic and vital beings in the adhar? By the force of aspiration and the grace of the Mother. Psychic : your true being, the being that is in the heart and that is the spark of the Mother's own consciousness. ...
... man is executed the being takes possession of another. Many of those who commit murder have admitted that they had their first impulse when they saw an execution Page 187 Some vital beings want to have their play here. Disciple : Why do they do like that ? Sri Aurobindo : They get supported. But these are not strong beings. Really strong beings are those that are behind... believed that those forces or beings who try to come in touch with the physical are destined to be converted. Disciple : Do they change their vital nature ? Sri Aurobindo : They remain vital beings but instead of aiming at power for themselves and manifesting it egoistically they consent to manifest something higher. They need not take up a body for that. They can remain on their own plane... by the aid of the same reasoning. And your preferences determine which one you accept. For the data of reasoning, again, you require to depend upon what you see and hear – on your senses. The vital beings are not so foolish as all that, they are not so limited. 22-6-1926 Disciple : What is the relation between the inner mental, vital and inner physical beings and the psychic being ...
... further cause for their existence. VII In Conversation VI, the Mother takes us to what is for us the uncharted world of the bodiless vital beings, and explains the dangers of our inadvertent or imprudent exposure to it. But sometimes such vital beings also inhabit human forms that have come to be known as vampires. Romen Palit writes that the Mother once warned him against someone who was... power, politics, fame, gambling, gluttony, drunkenness and luxurious living, they are insensitive to good causes and allergic to the intimations of the Spirit: In those who are slaves of vital beings, the desire for truth and light and spiritual achievement, even if it at all touches them, cannot balance the desire for money. 31 In our fight against the hostile forces of the vital world ...
... balance of forces had passed to the other side. 26 October 1934 The Kaiser, Hitler and His Lieutenants Hitler and his chief lieutenants Goering and Goebbels are certainly vital beings or possessed by vital beings, so you can't expect common sense from them. The Kaiser, though ill-balanced, was a much more human person; these people are hardly human at all. The nineteenth century in Europe was ...
... The vital being insists that the Truth should throw itself into its own movement of force. The vital being pulls at the Higher Power; it pulls at the vital being of the Guru. Both the mind and the vital beings have got an arrière pensée — a mental reservation in their surrender. But the psychic Bhakti is not like that. Because the soul is in contact with the Divinity behind, it is capable of true... these things." Psychic sadness is again different from mental dissatisfaction or vital sadness or physical depression. If the psychic being is strong it makes itself felt in the mental and the vital beings, and forces them to change. But if it is weak, the mental and the vital take advantage of its sadness and use it even to their own advantage. A weak psychic being is often an affliction. Take ...
... them at one period, but this gave a right of existence to many things which to me are not acceptable. What men call "miracles" nowadays are almost always performed by vital beings or by men who are in contact with vital beings, and this is a mixture—it accepts the reality of certain things, the truth of certain things that are not true. And this is the basis on which it works. So that is unacceptable ...
... at the same time ( gesture to the right and to the left ), a plate of grapes and yet another plate of grapes, like that. One was for you and one for me. Since two or three days, there are some vital beings eager to manifest their goodwill, and this was like the expression of their goodwill. In the vital, food is very often grapes, very frequently. Grapes of incomparable beauty, besides. And grapes... centimetres ). ( silence ) I tried to express what happened this morning, and what kept coming to me was: "But the experiences aren't literary, they can't be expressed." ( silence ) Some vital beings said to me, "There was a time when you used us and we were very happy. Why aren't you using us anymore now?" So I replied to them, "If you want to do work, I'm certainly not going to stop you!" ...
... interchange or drawing in of forces takes place unconsciously and sometimes in spite of oneself. Thus when a person doesn't like another, he doesn't always know the reason, but it means that the vital beings of the two don't agree; the interchanges are unpleasant. You know Sheridan's lines: I do not like thee. Doctor Fell. The reason why I cannot tell. But at times, even when there is incompatibility... after another means an incompatibility so that instead of supporting them he is eating them up. NIRODBARAN: What are vampires? SRI AUROBINDO: Those who constantly draw from other people's vital beings without giving anything in return. NIRODBARAN: Are they so by nature or through possession? SRI AUROBINDO: They may be so either way. And there are men vampires as there are women vampires ...
... the higher planes of mind which are always more luminous than the ordinary mental. How is it that the vital beings allow Gods to remain on their plane? The vital plane is not one world but many. In which of the worlds do the divine vital beings stay? There are worlds of the vital Gods, they stay there. How has the vital world which can ...
... evil will. They are fully conscious of their evil will and they exercise that will deliberately and with a set purpose. Man's bad will is often only a reflection, an imitation of the bad will of vital beings which is a will clearly hostile to created world and whose express intention it is to make things as painful, as difficult, as ugly, as monstrous as possible. It is these beings, some say, that... of self-preservation, obscure and violent reactions, but not the kind of evil that human will shows in the perverse human mental. I believe it is the human mind under the direct influence of vital beings that begins to work in the perverse way. Titans, Asuras are the beings of ill-will, they belong totally to the vital world and when they manifest themselves in this world of ours, they mean mischief ...
... close realm which is immune from the harsh clutch of Death and Time, All Page 173 beings there are living in the "griefless country under purple suns". To Aswapathy these vital beings and their realms were no longer dreams but realities. This realm of pure Vital Being rose to breathless summit regions where "Only a miracle's high transfiguring line Divided life... their veils And held up in his vision's sun-white blaze." He saw in that light motley 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 ...
... spiritual leadership of 537, 732, 756 choice before Indian Government 759, 779 Indo-Pak war 795, 808-10 action in union with the Divine 94-5 illness caused by disharmony in the being 95 by vital beings and vampires 189, 311-2 by fear 189-90 by disequilibrium 313-4, 785 consciousness as a ladder 97 First World War 113-7, 141-4, 566 man's key-role in evolution 115, 562-3, 567, 742, 774... 334-5, 557 the irrevocable plunge into the Divine 305, 308 getting out of the Karmic cycle 309 grappling with adverse forces 310ff, 557 place of adverse forces in the cosmic scheme 311, 526 vital beings, vampires 311-2 individual initiative and universal Will 314 psychological perfection 323 the five psychological perfections 612 total surrender 330, 526, 747 maladies of the vital 332 ...
... times there are things none present could know or remember; sometimes even, though that is rare, glimpses of the future. But usually these séances etc. put one into rapport with a very low world of vital beings and forces, themselves obscure, incoherent or tricky and it is dangerous to associate with them or to undergo any influence. Ouspensky and others must have gone Page 568 through these... g bhūtas and other well-known phenomena. (5) Apparitions which are the formations of one's own mind but take to the senses an objective appearance. (6) Temporary possession of people by vital beings who sometimes pretend to be departed relatives etc. (7) Thought-Image of themselves projected, often by people at the moment of death, which appear at that time or a few hours afterwards to their ...
... also. The same thing cannot be said of ordinary delirium, the cause of which is physical only—except in so far as all illness is an attack of lower forces of Nature, but these lower forces are not vital beings or what we call specifically hostile forces. They are simply performing their role in nature and of course there may be and probably is a being of some kind presiding over each kind of illness—in... illness—in Bengal they give a special name to some of them and worship them as goddesses to avert the visitation. But as I say these are really Forces, not vital hostiles. As for the interest of vital beings in possessing men—beings of the vital world are not constituted like men—they take a delight in struggle and suffering and disorder—it is their natural atmosphere. They want besides to get the taste ...
... Divine; for she is the Warrior of the Worlds who never shrinks from the battle.” 54 In the Agenda of 1962 there is a telling part of a conversation where the Mother describes one of her vital beings, l’être blanc avec la hallebarde , the white being with the halberd. (A halberd is a weapon consisting of a long shaft with an axe blade and a pick, topped by a spearhead. In this case the weapon... she returned to this experience: “It was one of my aspects of being who was present there, like that – who manifested itself like that. It’s a part of my vital being, or rather of my innumerable vital beings (for there are quite a lot). And it is the one who is particularly interested in things concerning the Earth. … But this one [the tall white being] is not a being of human origin, he has not been ...
... ’ We have already been reflecting on this. The vital beings perform their frenetic dance in an orgy of violence and stupefaction, in a hellish roar from batteries of loudspeakers with a power of thousands of watts, under flashing, blinding strobe lights and on pounding rhythms, with hair-dos, face paintings and clothing from the domains of vital beings or dwellings of vicious clowns. Fourthly: ‘The ...
... focus for the action. Had I not written it, I would not have been able to work so effectively—these are occult documents. 1 ( Regarding the last conversation and Mother's "innumerable vital beings," who reincarnated this time "in a deluge": ) As a child, when I was around ten or twelve years old, I had some rather interesting experiences which I didn't understand at all. I had some history... all clearly, understood and organized it. But a good deal of it happened before Page 232 —everything I have just told you happened before I met Théon. "One after the other, these vital beings came," you say, "and some of them have even been in men...." One of them was in Murat, on the day of his great victory. 6 It was a vital force that took possession of him and remained just ...
... evil will. They are fully conscious of their evil will and they exercise that will deliberately and with a set purpose. Man's bad will is often only a reflection, an imitation of the bad will of vital beings which is a will clearly hostile to the created world, whose express intention it is to make things as painful, as difficult, as ugly, Page 72 as monstrous as possible. It is these... instinct of self-preservation, obscure and violent reactions, but not the kind of evil that human will shows in the perverse human mental. I believe it is the human mind under the direct influence of vital beings that begins to work in the perverse way. Titans, Asuras are the beings of ill-will, they belong totally to the vital world and when they manifest themselves in this world of ours, they mean mischief ...
... each other means this interchange or drawing. Of course, it takes place unconsciously; even in ordinary life when a person does not like another he does not know the reason but it means that their vital beings don't agree. You know the lines. I do not like thee, Doctor Fell, The reason why I can not tell. One may not know exactly if it is the incapacity of the vital or disagreement. You see'... loses many wives one after another means that instead of supporting them he is eating them up. Disciple : What are vampires? Sri Aurobindo : Those who constantly draw from others' vital beings without giving anything in return we call vampires. Disciple : Are they so by nature or owing to some possession? Sri Aurobindo : May be either. There are men vampires as there are ...
... to the surface in the conscious being. Disciple : Do you mean that there are forces that intimate these occurrences ? Sri Aurobindo : Yes. Man is surrounded by these small physico-vital beings and some of them take a great interest in man. They know the near, the immediate future, what is just going to happen. They can intimate it to you if you are open. Disciple : Are these ghosts... Sri Aurobindo : Persons while dying may create thought-forms which can appear before relatives who are at a distance. Also dying persons may leave behind influences which may be taken up by vital beings and used. That would explain genuine cases of obsession or possession by the ghost of departed persons. Disciple : Can a devilish force appear in a human form ? Sri Aurobindo : It ...
... or aeroplanes; one moves from one state of being to another as one shifts from one flat or hotel-room to another; one canters across spaces, and leaps back again; and one has whole regiments of vital beings at one's beck and call - Imps with wry limbs and carved beast visages, Sprite-prompters goblin-wizened or faery-small, And genii fairer but unsouled and poor And fallen beings, their... definitive act of ātmasamarpana. She was herself nothing at all, being now dissolved in the living nectar of his Grace; and therefore she was everything! Beyonding Beauty, beyonding the worlds of the vital beings, beyonding the Kingdoms of the Little and the Greater Mind, beyonding her own past and all her tally of realisation through her intense sessions of prayers and meditations of the immediately preceding ...
... pose of virtue and try to recruit her worshippers. For these beings there is no common lot, "A mighty victory or a mighty fall, A throne in heaven or a pit in hell". These higher vital beings, if they manifest on earth, achieve some- thing and establish a stage in the evolutionary progress. They upset the balance on the material plane where gross things are regarded as more important... left far behind, but, "The miracle of the Superconscient still Unknown, self-wrapped, unfelt, unknowable," was yet far off. It looked down upon all of them from above. These higher vital beings were by no means highest in the rung of the ladder of creation. They were of a middle world, having "A darkness under them, a bright Void above, Uncertain they lived in a great climbing ...
... dependent on a material adjustment; for the individual, perhaps, Hathayoga and the conquest of the body by the physically effective Will would have been the one effective instrument. If we had been vital beings or centred in vitality, the knot would have been some vital obstruction and the release dependent on a vital adjustment; perhaps, then, Pranayama and the conquest by the vitally effective Will of ...
... suggestion and silent influence. If you find the control increasing and these habits diminishing, you can understand, that the work cure has begun. Its completion may take sometime because these vital beings are very sticky and persistent and are always returning to the attack. The one thing which can make the cure rapid is if the boy himself develops a will in his mind to change for that will take ...
... character. I may observe that although there is a real force behind them many of them are not of a real character, that is to say, the faces seen and touches felt were not in all cases of real vital beings but only forms suggested and created out of of your own surrounding vital atmosphere and can easily be dismissed by refusing to accept their reality or to admit their formation. It may be that ...
... 2 July 1932 The dream about Chandulal and the bandits was a happening in the vital world or else a symbolic scene witnessed there. In the first case, the bandits are vital beings attacking the work,—in the second, hostile forces, suggestions etc. The one thing clear in it is that Champaklal is a prompt and effective fighter on the vital plane. 2.7.1932 Sri Aurobindo ...
... head; but I always feel strained on the middle part of the forehead. What should I do? Do not strain yourself. 5) How does the psychic being become open? How to understand the psychic and vital beings in the adhar? By the force of aspiration and the grace of the Mother. Psychic: your true being, the being that is in the heart and that is the spark of the Mother's own consciousness. ...
... Even Cheloo, the day-labourer, is not interested in a four-anna piece for its own sake, but for some vital satisfaction it can bring him; even with the hoarding miser it is the same — it is his vital beings' passion for possession that he satisfies, and that is something not external but internal, part of his inner make-up, the unseen personality that moves inside behind the veil of the body. ...
... by a concentration of the will giving bangs to the furniture, making tables walk, and all such things.’ 8 She especially made it clear that most of the occult phenomena were caused by little vital beings, the ‘elementals,’ of which we have already heard as denizens of the lower vital world and who find their amusement in making fools of the by-and-large ignorant and defenceless human beings. ...
... Gurus. I have also the notion that, since a sincere sadhak has his mind and vital no less than his soul set to one note of devotion to the work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, the same mental and vital beings and not only the psychic being which naturally persists from life to life may return in a new body in the next birth. After death they may stick together or they may serve different functions but ...
... hereafter. The animal proper is a lower type. Certain devas of the manasic plane in the Bhuvarloka descend in the higher type of animal. They are not mental beings proper, but only half-mental vital beings. They live in packs, tribes etc with a communal existence. They are individual souls, but the individuality is less vigorous than the type soul. If they were not individual, they would not be able ...
... and its sanskaras that come up in these dreams from the subconscient. They have to be rejected till the impressions are rooted out. Page 161 Robbers The robbers are, as in the Veda, vital beings who come to steal away the good condition or else to steal the gains of the sadhana. Journeying The image of journeying always signifies a movement in life or a progress in sadhana. ...
... suggestion and silent influence. If you find the control increasing and these habits diminishing, you can understand that the work of cure has begun. Its completion may take some time because these vital beings are very sticky and persistent and are always returning to the attack. The one thing which can make the cure rapid is if the boy himself develops a will in his mind to change, for that will take ...
... Purusha. If any being of the typal worlds wants to evolve, he has to come down to earth and take a human body and accept to share in the evolution. It is because they do not want to do this that the vital beings try to possess men so that they may enjoy the materialities of physical life without having the burden of the evolution or the process of conversion in which it culminates. Sri Aurobindo Letters ...
... ion is hardly possible, unless the body has already been prepared in the past for the processes of Yoga. In the ordinary life of man a progressive dislocation is the rule. The mental and the vital beings of man follow as best they can the movement of the universal forces, and the stream of the world's inner transformation and evolution carries them a certain way; but the body bound to the law of ...
... illness disappears. I have seen this very often in the street. There might be a small hostile entity there, but these are very insignificant things. In other cases, in some temples, there are vital beings who are more or less powerful and have made their home there. But what Sri Aurobindo means here is that there is nothing, not even the most anti-divine force, which in its origin is not the Supreme ...
... see, for your sight is too limited, but which move about in your atmosphere. Some of them are quite nice, others very wicked. Generally these little entities are produced by the disintegration of vital beings—they pullulate—and these form quite an unpleasant mass. There are some which do very fine things. I believe I narrated to you the story of the little beings who tugged at my sari to tell me that ...
... organises the vital and the mind in such a way that they too participate in the general harmony and can be preserved. A high degree of development allows at least some parts of the mental and vital beings to be preserved in spite of the dissolution of the body. If, for instance, some parts—mental or vital—of the human activity have been particularly developed, these elements of the mind and vital ...
... trembled to make the least mistake, for when catastrophes came they thought it was Kali who sent them! It is a frightful thing, thought. I know them, those entities. I know them very well, but they are vital beings, vital forms which, so to say, are given a form by human thought, and what forms! And to think that men worship such terrible and monstrous things; and what's more that these poor gods are given ...
... enlightened compassion whose only purpose will be to provide a true remedy to suffering, not to perpetuate it. On the other hand, this conception describes fairly well what the reign of a race of vital beings upon earth would be like. They are immortal in their nature and much more powerful than man in their capacities, but they are also incurably anti-divine in their will, and their mission in the universe ...
... naturally, eat them all up. The day I came this had taken place that very morning—feathers littered everywhere! It was disgusting. And she was asking for my help! But the curious thing is that these vital beings are aware of what is happening. I knew nothing about any of it, neither the story, nor the being, nor the head sticking out of the ground—and she wanted me to get her out of it. They 'feel' the ...
... more and will never be satisfied. Y told me that very often he becomes an instrument of the adverse forces. Much of this is his own imagination ; if he thought less of these so-called vital beings, most of them would be immediately dissolved. If I can remain peaceful in the face of all circumstances, I can be sure that the hostile force is far from me. Yes, on condition that the ...
... all, it was rather amusing. You were disrupting their work, is that it? Yes, I am disrupting their work—I know perfectly well that I am disrupting their domination of the world! All these vital beings have taken possession of the whole of Matter ( Mother touches her body )—life and action—and have made it their domain, this is evident. But they are beings of the lower vital, for they seemed ...
... Mother’s Agenda 1969 May 7, 1969 ( Mother remains in meditation for a long time ) This Consciousness has started working in people's vital beings. Have you noticed? Some people had big vital difficulties—it's beginning to work in them. It's quite unexpected for me. You haven't noticed? Page 172 I have an impression that it's more easy, ...
... account of the supraphysical beings does not end even here. There are many more of them to speak about. For example, when men, particularly the evil-natured ones, die, their hungry and desire-driven vital beings may assume many forms and move about in the earth's atmosphere just beyond the gross physical plane, being made prisoners there because of their unsatisfied thirst. These are variously named as ...
... departed human being or a fragment of his vital personality...; 4.... formations of one's own mind... [taking] to the senses an objective appearance. 5.Temporary possession of people by vital beings.... 6.Thought-images of themselves projected often by people at the moment of death..." (Letters on Yoga, pp. 459-60) It is thus clear that the whole thing is a jumbled-up affair. ...
... madness".] Not necessarily madness. Plenty of people get afraid without getting mad. Madness is exceptional. What fear does is to stop the experience or else it exposes you to blows from the vital beings. If you don't fear, they can't hurt you. J's uncle was one. [Sri Aurobindo drew a line indicating "one".] One what? Got mad with fear? So fear must go. Fear must not enter in ...
... there, you cannot go elsewhere than the mental and vital worlds. While passing through the mental and vital worlds, does not the psychic draw back the substance from its mental and vital beings in order to use it for the next birth? It does not necessarily take the same substance as before. If it did, there would be no difference between Page 93 the ...
... the inhabitants of the higher worlds—the Higher Mind, the Overmind and other domains—do not have the psychic being. Naturally, the beings of the vital worlds have not got it either. But these vital beings do not regret, for they do not want to have it. There are, however, a few exceptional beings on this level who wish to be converted and therefore desire a physical body; but the rest do not want ...
... unitary consciousness, who are open to influences from a deeper or higher or subtler consciousness. Along with the demons there is also a line of daimona, guardian angels, in the hierarchy of vital beings. Much of what is known as aesthetic or artistic creation derives its spirit from this sphere. Many of the gods of beauty and delight are denizens of this heaven. Gandharvas and Kinnaras are here ...
... of unitary consciousness, who are open to influences from a deeper or higher or subtler consciousness. Along with the demons there is also a line of daimom, guardian angels, in the hierarchy of vital beings. Much of what is known as aesthetic or artistic creation derives its spirit from this sphere. Many of the gods of beauty and delight are denizens of this heaven. Gandhar-vas and Kinnaras are here ...
... the inhabitants of the higher worlds – the Higher Mind, the Overmind and other domains – do not have the psychic being. Naturally, the beings of the vital worlds have not got it either. But these vital beings do not regret, for they do not want to have it. There are, however, a few exceptional beings on this level who wish to be converted and therefore desire a physical body; but the rest do not want ...
... animals and birds. One day She told me: "In animals there is a simple, natural and strong beauty. Because of the remarkable resonance between Page 23 their, physical and vital beings - there is a beautiful balance and harmony. Wild birds and beasts have it no doubt, but tigers and snakes too have an ancient original beauty and grace derived from Nature's creation - a marvellous ...
... to see me ! I have no time to listen to his Sanskrit. 16–1–1924 The man who came with inspiration from Para Shakti was finally seen by Sri Aurobindo who found that his physical and vital beings were weak and his mind lacked discretion. He therefore decided to send him back. "These – the physical and vital and the mental – parts are the basis; unless the ground is there no structure can ...
... is art, there is literature. Sri Aurobindo : Humanity is not organised for art ! Disciple : And even art does not come from the physical plane ! Disciple : You spoke of the vital beings living on their own plane. Do they also fight each other on their own plane ?i Sri Aurobindo : Yes. That is what is meant by the struggle between the angels and the devils in the Bible. The ...
... the life-belt, the life-universe, which is independent of earth-life since all life is not confined to earth. There is a big belt of life-force and life-universe in which vital forces and vital beings, independent of earth, remain with their own different constitution. They have different kinds of bodies, different kinds of movements, different kinds of laws governing their own plane of consciousness ...
... by which the soul can go directly to the psychic world. It does not have to go through, after death, the suffering of the vital world. If someone leaves even with a little bit of desire then the vital beings will follow. And they cause a lot of suffering. Just imagine the state of the soul then. It is in that terrible state that one can understand how much the body protects the soul. Haven’t you ever ...
... of the vital world and not try to act as if you were still in your physical body. If you have the necessary knowledge of the state of things there, you can deal much more effectively with those vital beings who terrify you and give you such unpleasant nightmares. One of the characteristics of activity in the vital space and time is that these beings are able to assume huge shapes at will and create ...
... creatures; you should avoid having any dealings with them unless you have the power to crush and destroy them. If you are forced into contact with them, beware of the spell they can cast. These vital beings, when they manifest on the physical plane, have always a great hypnotic power; for the centre of their consciousness is in the vital world and not in the material and they are not veiled or dwarfed ...
... character. I may observe that although there is a real force behind them many of them are not of a real character, that is to say, the faces seen and touches felt were not, in all cases, of real vital beings but only forms suggested and created out of the stuff of your own surrounding vital atmosphere and can easily be dismissed by refusing to accept their reality or to admit their formation. It may ...
... dedness and physical-mindedness that dominates the atmosphere. 2 July 1936 The experience you had in your sleep was that of going into the vital world and meeting there one of the hostile vital beings who wished to menace or attack you, but could not attack you because of your call on the Mother. There are two things that must be acquired in these passages through the vital world—first this immediate ...
... organises the vital and the mind in such a way that they too participate in the general harmony and can be preserved. A high degree of development allows at least some parts of the mental and vital beings to be preserved in spite of the dissolution of the body. If, for instance, some parts — mental or vital — of the human activity have been particularly developed, these elements of the mind and vital ...
... higher planes. Then Mother passes on to another question, that of "possession" or the embodiment on earth of beings of the vital world (See Questions and Answers 1929 , 12 May ). Have these vital beings a psychic being? No, I said that the first thing they have to do to incarnate is to drive away the psychic being of the person whom they possess. That may happen from the very birth. There are ...
... Purusha. If any being of the typal worlds wants to evolve he has to come down to earth and take a human body and accept to share in the evolution. It is because they do not want to do this that the vital beings try to possess men so that they may enjoy the materialities of physical life without bearing the burden of the evolution or the process of conversion in which it culminates. I hope this is clear ...
... Mother was bringing down beings to aid in the work. Fragments of a Dead Person that Reincarnate All human incarnations or births have naturally a psychic being. It is only other types like the vital beings that have not, and that is precisely the reason why they want to possess men and enjoy physical life without being themselves born here, for so they escape the psychic law of evolution and spiritual ...
... shall or shall not admit into it—otherwise, if he does not keep this control, he is in danger of becoming a field of confused and disorderly experiences or a plaything of all sorts of mental and vital beings and forces. Only one rule or influence other than one's own should be admitted, the rule of the Divine Shakti over the adhar. Avoiding the Dangers of the Intermediate Zone You are taking the ...
... impulses coming up from the subconscient, not actual happenings. Dreams in which emission takes place are usually of the second kind—but not always; for sometimes they come through the touch of vital beings or forces in the vital plane or through a meeting of one's own sexual thought-forms with those of another there. Page 524 Apart from the total rejection of sex-thoughts and imaginations ...
... place on the vital plane. Things happen there that have some connection with the nature and life here, but they happen differently because there it is not the physical beings that meet, but the vital beings of people. One can gather what is the nature of one's own inner vital being—which is often very different from the physical personality that acts in front in the body. By the acting of the consciousness ...
... yielding from time to time, the part that wants was not acutely insistent and, when it pressed, it was not so acutely felt by the rest of the vital nature. It is your mental, psychic and higher vital beings that now stand completely apart from it. It is your physical vital that still keeps the desire and is pushed from time to time by opposite forces to make the desire active. It was also this desire ...
... occultism Page 37 with Théon in Algeria. Materialisation is possible but it does not happen easily—it demands a very rare and difficult concentration of forces or else an occult process with vital beings behind it such as materialises objects, like the stones that were daily thrown in the Guest House when we were there. In neither case it is a miracle. But to do as you suggest, make it a common ...
... on the Vital Plane 1932-07-02 The dream about Chandulal and the bandits was a happening in the vital world or else a symbolic scene witnessed there. In the first case, the bandits are vital beings attacking the work,—in the second, hostile forces, suggestions etc. The one thing clear in it is that Champaklal is a prompt and effective fighter on the vital plane. Sri Aurobindo ...
... her in the night for the passage to the other side,’ 60 wrote Sri Aurobindo. To make that passage safe for all of them, the Mother constructed with her occult powers paths of light which the vital beings would not venture to touch and where therefore they cannot bother the souls of the deceased any longer. In the Mother’s own words: ‘There are now what one might call “bridges”, “protected passages” ...
... gross kind of matter held by scientific materialism to be the only one existent, while in fact it is but one of the many gradations of substance which lend concreteness to the tiers of being. For vital beings exist in vital substance, mental beings in mental substance, supramental beings in supramental substance. “[Matter] is a fit and noble material out of which He weaves constantly His garbs, builds ...
... same as the subconscient or a bit civilized? The vital world is quite different from the physical subconscient which is closely connected with the human beings. The vital world is inhabited by vital beings who are not human, some are very beautiful and resemble gods, some are hideously ugly, but all or almost all are antidivine and try always to turn the human beings from their Divine Goal. The vital ...
... above the head; but I always feel strained in the middle part of the forehead. What should I do? Do not strain yourself. 5) How does the psychic being open? How to understand the psychic and vital beings in the Adhara? Page 38 By the force of aspiration and the grace of the Mother. Psychic: your true being, the being that is in the heart and that is the spark of the Mother's own ...
... and social classlessness. Stalin's pronouncements are all couched in noble-sounding terms borrowed from Marx and Lenin but directed to nefarious ends. There are several other orders of vital beings bent on harm — like those who bear the Pisacha-aspects. The Pishacha is the "Demon" obsessed with a defiling and mutilating mania: he is utter foulness and ugliness personified. The Pisacha ...
... was beyond his powers and he seems to have been indulging in practices such as not sleeping against which he had been warned as well as others (not allowed) which can put one into contact with the vital beings and lead to lunacy. I am not aware of any "development" of the mental etc. on their own planes; the development takes place on earth. The mental and other planes are not evolutionary ...
... single being? Naturally, from one point of view, they are one. But your being, though one, is composed of many distinct beings. Just as your mental being is different from your physical or vital beings, so the psychic being, the soul, is different from the central being. The psychic being is the transmitter which receives the light and transmits it to the lower personality. It is that which ...
... unitary consciousness, who are open to influences from a deeper or higher or subtler consciousness. Along with the demons there is also a line of daimona , guardian angels, in the hierarchy of vital beings. Much of what is known as aesthetic or artistic creation derives its spirit from this sphere. Many of the gods of beauty and delight are denizens of this heaven. Gandharvas and Kinnaras are here ...
... Kurukshetra, I mean an inner Kurukshetra, and everyone has to be a fighter like Arjuna. SRI AUROBINDO: Not necessarily; it depends on the nature of the being. For instance, some people in their vital beings or during dreams fight with the attacking forces, while others call for protection. Those who have the psychic attitude need not fight. It is the vital and mental types that make the fighter: the ...
... the influence or in the hands of the forces and beings of the vital world.... Always it [money] goes astray, because it is in the clutch of the hostile forces.... ...In those who are slaves of vital beings, the desire for truth and light and spiritual achievement, even if it at all touches them, cannot balance the desire for money. To win money from their hands for the Divine means Page 600 ...
... I succeeded in turning him back .... And I woke Up. 2 The three clear gains of this pretty agonising experience were, firstly, she saw that microbes were produced by the disintegration of vital beings, and with their ravenous appetites, they were themselves forces of further Page 189 disintegration; secondly, having decisively thrown back the vicious being with its "half a head" ...
... law of love and life and all physical indisposition ceases, to give place to a well-being calm, deep and peaceful. ³ Regarding the protection the human body affords against the attack of the vital beings, the Mother says, "The physical body acts as a protection by its grossness, by the very thing we charge against it. It is dull and insensitive, thick, rigid and hard; it is like a fortress with ...
... ask you to transform him – as some beings asked the Mother in her vision – by your spiritual power. If you try that, all the power goes to the Rakshasa and you may become powerless. When these vital beings incarnate in men then the compassion would not prevent you from killing them. Page 63 That the vegetable kingdom has got life is not something new to know and it is not necessary ...
... reflected in the actual works of art ? A. I admit they are sincere in their search for the world of beauty and harmony, but in their groping efforts they seem to stumble upon the underworld of vital beings, or even upon some lower—PAISHACHIC-world-very rarely upon the heavenly garden of Indra where one meets the Gods in their glorious forms and splendour and where even the trees and flowers ...
... not limited by the formula of material substance. There is no limit because there is no physical body to limit its working. We see something of it when a human being is possessed by some of these vital beings. It is said that Rasputin, the Russian monk, used to drink for the whole night and yet not get drunk. He remained conscious and normal which shows that the vital substance can impress itself upon ...
... not see any realisable action worthy of the whole being's concentrating on it and making it its purpose of existence. The vital being delights in adventure; but should it be allowed to fling Page 324 itself into some lamentable adventure unworthy of an instrument conscious of Thy Presence?"—"Fear nothing," was the reply. "The vital being will not be allowed to set itself in motion, it will... December 8, 1916 This was our conversation today morning, O Lord: Thou didst wake up the vital being with the magic wand of Thy impulsion and say to it: "Awake, bend the bow of thy will, for soon the hour of action will come." Suddenly awakened, the vital being rose up, stretched itself and shook off the dust of its long torpidity; from the elasticity of its members it realised... I have the power of organising what the vital being has the capacity to realise?"—"It is to prepare thee for this that I am working at the moment; this is why thou art undergoing a discipline of plasticity Page 325 and enrichment. Do not worry about anything: power comes with the need. Not because thou hast been confined, even as the vital being, to very small activities at a time when ...
... and my opinion"; it demands the Truth to cast itself in the mind's own forms. The vital being also insists on the Truth throwing itself into its own vital movement of force. The vital being pulls at the Higher Power and pulls and pulls at the vital being of the Guru. Both of them (the mental and the vital) have got an arrière pensée (mental reservation) in their surrender. Psychic Bhakti... the mental or the vital being, and forces them to change. But if it is weak, the other parts take advantage of it and use the psychic for their own advantage. In some cases it comes up to the surface and upsets the mental and the vital being and throws all their settled arrangements and habits into disorder, pressing for a new and divine order. But if the mind or the vital being is stronger than... the psychic being. That means failure of the Yoga at least for this existence. 6 February 1926 [2] When the psychic being awakens you grow conscious of your own soul; you know your Self. And you no longer commit the mistake of identifying yourself with the mental or with the vital being. You do not mistake them for the soul. Page 379 When awakened, the psychic being gives true ...
... belonging to the vital world and are hostile forces. Here we were speaking of the remnants of the vital being of a dead man. But even in cases of possession by hostile forces or beings, the real truth is most often of another kind. Usually these beings or spirits, as they are called, are nothing more than creations of men. That is to say, it is fear that produces them; it is a mere mental formation which... trees in order to be punished. When a person dies, his vital being leaves the body and goes out; but it finds itself in unfamiliar and inhospitable surroundings, especially if there is no one, none among his friends and relatives upon earth, to help him in the proper way, to guide or protect him in the new country where there are hostile beings to harm. In such a situation a tree is often a very ready... which the vital being of the dead man is drawn as its physical support and shelter. There is no question of forced imprisonment and a desire to be freed. Are they not harmful, these spirits? In what way? Usually they do not seem to be so. But we hear stories of people who are possessed by them and troubled and tortured. Those are of a different kind. They are beings belonging ...
... and troubled and tortured. Those are of a different kind. They are beings belonging to the vital world and are hostile forces. Here we were speaking of the remnants of the vital being of a dead man. But even in cases of possession by hostile forces of beings, the real truth is most often of another kind. Usually these beings or spirits, as they are called, are nothing more than creations of men... trees in order to be punished. When a person dies, his vital being leaves the body and goes out; but it finds itself in unfamiliar and inhospitable surroundings, especially if there is no one, none among his friends and relatives upon earth, to help him in the proper way, to guide or protect him in the new country where there are hostile beings to harm. In such a situation a tree is often a very ready... certain growth and organisation of the vital being is necessary to be able to persist after death. The vital being of an animal is too unformed and fluid, too bound to the body to continue as an independent entity. When an animal dies its vitality almost immediately disintegrates and merges into the general forces of Nature. It is only in man where there is a mental being to organise the vitality into some ...
... mental and vital ego also. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The Jivatman in the Integral Yoga In a certain sense the various Purushas or beings in us, psychic, mental, vital, physical, are projections of the Atman, but that gets its full truth only when we get into our inner being and know the inner truth of ourselves. On the surface in the Ignorance, it is the mental, vital, physical Prakriti... the action of Prakriti. It is not our true mental being, our true vital being, our true physical being even that we are aware of; these remain behind, veiled and silent. It is the mental, vital, physical ego that we take for our being until we get knowledge. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The Psychic Being The true being mental, vital or subtle physical has always the greater qualities... The True Being and the True Consciousness There is behind all the vital nature in man his true vital being concealed and immobile which is quite different from the surface vital nature. The surface vital is narrow, ignorant, limited, full of obscure desires, passions, cravings, revolts, pleasures and pains, transient joys and griefs, exultations and depressions. The true vital being on the contrary ...
... the longest after the dissolution of the body, it survives and may survive very long the disruption of the vital being. This vital being is next in the rung to be taken up, organised and individualised by and around the psychic being. Page 179 The organisation of the vital being in view of a particular object or aim in ordinary life is common enough: the purpose is limited, the scope... thoughts and ideas which do not particularly belong to him, but to everybody, being elements of the world-mind in general. His vital being too is a medley of desires, impulses, energies that are not personal in any sense, but pass through him or take a long or short-term asylum in him from the universal vital force. The body, being a definitely delimited object, is perhaps the only thing that appears to... first in itself and of itself, its inherent being and consciousness; then, the growth is that of its instrumentation, in other words, the development and organisation of the mind, the life and the body. So the individualisation and growth of the soul means a growth and individualisation of the mental being, the vital being and also of the physical being. Normally the purpose of intellectual culture ...
... the longest after the dissolution of the body, it survives and may survive very long the disruption of the vital being. This vital being is next in the rung to be taken up, organised and individualised by and around the psychic being. Page 297 The organisation of the vital. being in view of a particular object or aim in ordinary life is common enough: the purpose is limited, the scope... thoughts and ideas which do not particularly belong to him, but to everybody, being elements of the world-mind in general. His vital being too is a medley of desires, impulses, energies that are not personal in any sense, but pass through him or take a long or short-term asylum in him from the universal vital force. The body, being a definitely delimited object, is perhaps the only thing that appears to... first in itself and of itself, its inherent being and consciousness; then, the growth is that of its instrumentation, in other words, the development and organisation of the mind, the life and the body. So the individualisation and growth of the soul means a growth and individualisation of the mental being, the vital being and also of the physical being. Normally the purpose of intellectual culture ...
... Chandulal, The first conditions of this Yoga are: (1) A complete sincerity and surrender in the being. The divine life and the transformation of the lower human into the higher divine nature must be made the sole aim of all the life. No attachments, desires or habits of the mind, heart, vital being or body should be clung to which come in the way of this aspiration and one object of the life. ... One must be ready to renounce all these completely as soon as the demand comes from above and from the divine Shakti. (2) A fundamental calm, peace and purity in the mind, vital being and all the nature. The hours of meditation should be devoted to the formation of these two conditions in you, by aspiration and by self observation and rejection of all that disturbs the nature or keeps it troubled... will be felt to be external movements and you can deal with them or call down the divine aid to get rid of them. So long as the mind does not fall quiet, it is not possible to deal finally with the vital being from which these forces rise. 20 May 1927 Sri Aurobindo ...
... there is a physical vital—a vital turned entirely upon physical things, full of desires and greeds and seekings for pleasure on the physical plane. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The Vital Being and Vital Consciousness The physical vital is the being of small desires and greeds etc.—the vital physical is the nervous being; they are closely connected together. The vital physical governs... the lower vital or a part of the physical vital and then be astonished to find that something intangible but apparently invincible still resists—it is the material vital with so much of the rest as it can influence by its resistance. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The Vital Being and Vital Consciousness The nervous part of the being is a portion of the vital—it is the vital physical,... September 1956 … the vital soul is what animates the body, the life which animates the body. You see, in ordinary language it is said, “You die when your soul leaves your body” or “Your soul leaves your body when you die”, in one way or the other; but it is not the soul, it is not only this soul—what we call soul, I mean the psychic being—it is the vital being. When the vital being leaves the body for ...
... personal reference by the Mother to the vital being occurred when I wondered to her what had held me on to her through so many distracting vicissitudes of my career and despite such a multitude of frailties in me. She said: "Your vital being." I was quite taken by surprise. I said: "I thought it was my mind which kept in me some Godward balance." My vital being had always struck me as a part full of... It was quite fitting that the vital being was the vehicle of my visit. For it is through this component of the soul's many-aspected manifestation that the soul's emotion gets most effectively conveyed. Transposed to spiritual values its movement has been made most memorable to me by some words of the Mother. She once told me that the surrender of the vital being to the Divine is the most glorious... rather than by thought-out practice. And it was the vital being that reacted in two different ways. What the Mother communicated by those words which baffled one who was wont to take himself as predominantly a mental person was the fact that, once having found in the depths of me the sense of the Divine in Sri Aurobindo and her, the vital being refused to go under when its own pull towards outer ...
... itself in the mind's own forms. The vital being also insists on the Truth to throw itself into its own movement of force. The vital being pulls at the Higher Power and pulls and pulls at the vital being of the Guru. Both of them (the mental and the vital) have got an arrière pensée (mental reservation) in their surrender. But the psychic being and its bhakti are not like that. Because... itself felt on the mental or the vital being, and forces them — compels them — to change. But if it is weak, the other parts take advantage of it and use the psychic sadness to their own advantage. In some cases the psychic being comes up to the surface and upsets the mental or the vital being and throws everything into disorder. But if the mind Or the vital being is stronger than the psychic,... without the awakening of the psychic being. 90 — Sri Aurobindo * When the psychic being awakens, you grow conscious of your own soul; you know your self. And you no longer commit the mistake of identifying yourself with the mental or with the vital being. You do not mistake them for the soul. Secondly, when awakened, the psychic being gives true bhakti for God or for the ...
... thrown in the fire of aspiration burning in the true vital being. It [ the illumined vital ] is in contact with the Divine Power or the higher Truth and seeks to transform itself and become a true instrument—it rejects the ordinary vital movements. Parts of the Vital Being There are four parts of the vital being—first, the mental vital which gives a mental expression by thought, speech or... earthly beings tends to be very obscure and is full of perversions,—lust, greed of all kinds, vanity, small ambitions, petty anger, envy, jealousy are its ordinary guests,—still there is another side to it which makes it an indispensable mediator between the inner being and the outer life. It is not a fact that every psychic experience embodies itself in a purified and rightly directed vital current;... The Parts of the Being and the Planes of Consciousness The Parts of the Being and the Planes of Consciousness The Vertical System: Supermind to Subconscient Letters on Yoga - I Chapter VII The Vital Being and Vital Consciousness The Vital Mind and vital are two different processes of one consciousness. It [ vital ] means prāṇa —it is the ...
... opening of your being which will hasten the manifestation of Love the Victor . 26.10.1929 With simple sincerity, faithfulness and purity, open your vital being to the Divine's Love . 27.10.1929 Devoted loving consecration, faithfulness, purity, peace in the vital —these four are the conditions most important for conquest of the power over the most material vital . 28.10.1929... 23.12.1929 Be completely obedient to the Divine's Love . This will transform your being till it becomes supramentally plastic . 8.1.1930 First aspire for vital purity and fix firmly a thorough stability in the vital . Then only can you in truth make the offering of your vital being to the Divine. 18.1.1930 Silence all outside noise, aspire for the Divine's Help;... al perfection , the love of the physical being for the Divine , and when, through loving consecration , there will be a complete faithfulness to the Divine. (Fivefold psychological perfection: faith, sincerity, devotion, aspiration, surrender.) 24.9.1929 Open with devotion your vital being to Radha's influence and you will get vital peace , the peace which leads to transformation ...
... question: one offers one's vital being, one's heart and one's mind to the Divine, rejecting all desires, attachments, passions, and grows into the Divine's consciousness. DR. BECHARLAL: Are day-hours better than night-hours for meditation? I seem to get more concentrated at night. SRI AUROBINDO: That may be due to the calm and quiet atmosphere at night and also to your being accustomed to meditate... visions—perhaps in the surface consciousness. . SRI AUROBINDO: The surface consciousness of the inner vital being. Such experiences are common. Of course, when one goes still deeper, one doesn't see incoherent dreams and visions. There is a point between the surface consciousness and the deeper vital which is full of these fantasies. They are apparently incoherent, but when one gets the clue one finds... long time in meditation? SRI AUROBINDO: Not just by sitting like that; but if one keeps awake too much at night, there is the chance of a physical disturbance. The physical has its limits. The vital being can go on feeling energy or peace or any other thing, but the physical can't be taxed beyond its capacity. The overtaxing happened to many sadhaks here. Dr. Manilal once felt such a flow of energy ...
... on the Level of the Vital Sadhana on the Level of the Vital The Vital Being and Sadhana Letters on Yoga - IV Chapter 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... spiritual being and through them receive the higher consciousness which will change the vital nature. The Intuition and the Vital The vital controlled and transformed by the Intuition has the spontaneous right sense of things instead of groping and getting things by the wrong end due to passion, desire etc. The Psychic and the Vital Your former sadhana was mostly on the vital plane. The... As for the contact with the Mother in the vital and your sense of the fine, the magnificent experience it was,—that too is natural and right; for the vital, no less than the psychic and Page 116 every other part of the being, has to feel the Divine Mother and give itself entirely to her. But this must always be remembered that the vital being and the life-force in man are separated from ...
... difficulty in the way with almost everybody is the difficulty of controlling the desires and impulses of the vital being. In many cases as in yours, certain strong impulses run persistently counter to the ideal and demand of the reason and the will-The cause is almost always a weakness of the vital being itself, for, when there is this weakness it finds itself unable to obey the dictates of the higher mind... object of the one to be a great man or the object of the other to be a great Yogin. The ideal of human life is to establish over the whole being the control of a clear, strong and rational mind and a right and rational will to master the emotional, vital and physical being, create a harmony of the whole and develop the capacities whatever they are and fulfil them in life. In the terms of Hindu thought it... it could not obey the will and resist the demand of the external vital forces, and in the struggle there came an overstrain of the mind and the nerves and a collapse taking the form of an acute attack of neurasthenia. These difficulties do not mean that you cannot prevail and bring about a control of your nervous and vital being and build up a harmony of mind and character. Only you must understand ...
... difficulty in the way with almost everybody is the difficulty of controlling the desires and impulses of the vital being. In many cases as in yours, certain strong impulses run persistently counter to the ideal and demand of the reason and the will. The cause is almost always a weakness of the vital being itself, for, when there is this weakness it finds itself unable to obey the dictates of the higher mind... of the one to be a great man or the object of the other to be a great Yogin. The ideal of human life is to establish over the whole being the control of a clear, strong and rational mind and a right and rational will, to master the emotional, vital and physical being, create a harmony of the whole and develop the capacities whatever they are and fulfil them in life. In the terms of Hindu thought, it... weak; it could not obey the will and resist the demand of the external, vital forces, and in the struggle there came an overstrain of the mind and the nerves and a collapse taking the form of an acute attack of neurasthenia. These difficulties do not mean that you cannot prevail and bring about a control of your nerves and vital being and build up a harmony of mind and character. Only you must understand ...
... mind's will, the heart's seeking, the assent of the vital being, the will to open and make plastic the physical consciousness and nature; rejection of the movements of the lower nature—rejection of the mind's ideas, opinions, preferences, habits, constructions, so that the true knowledge may find free room in a silent mind,—rejection of the vital nature's desires, demands, cravings, sensations, passions... passions, selfishness, pride, arrogance, lust, greed, jealousy, envy, hostility to the Truth, so that the true power and joy may pour from above into a calm, large, strong and consecrated vital being,—rejection of the physical nature's stupidity, doubt, disbelief, obscurity, obstinacy, pettiness, laziness, unwillingness to change, tamas, so that the true stability of Light, Power, Ananda may establish ...
... individuality which we call usually the psychic being." He has often used the adjective psychic to mean this higher movement. Sometimes he has used the psychic as an abbreviation omitting being. The vital being by which he means the being behind life-force. He writes in one of his letters: "There are four parts of the vital being — first the mental vital which gives a mental expression by thought... otherwise to the emotions, desires, passions, sensations and other movements of the vital being." Those who would know more Page 375 about his classification must be referred to the first volume of his Letters! We need be concerned here only with his definition of two more of these. The higher vital by which the means "that larger movement of the conscious life-force which is concerned... concerned with creation, with power and force and conquest, with giving and self-giving... throwing itself out in the wider movements of life, responsive to the greater objects of Nature The lower vital by which he implies "the pettier movements of action and desire" such as "all physical sensations, hungers, cravings, satisfactions ... lust, greed of all kinds, vanity, small ambitions, petty anger ...
... Page 11 Mother in the vital and your sense of the fine, the magnificent experience it was, --that too is natural and right; for the vital, no less than the psychic and every other part of the being, has to feel the Divine Mother and give itself entirely to her. But this must always be remembered that the vital being and the life-force in man are separated from the... 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 action of the Divine... reaches and join it to the psychic, then your vital being fills with the pure aspiration and devotion natural to the psychic; a the same time it gives to the feelings its own abundant Page 13 energy, it makes them dynamic for the change of the whole nature down to the most physical and for the bringing down of the divine consciousness into earth matter. When it not ...
... disturbance to shake the being. Gradually the vital being grew accustomed to find Page 317 harmony in the intensest action as it had in passive surrender. And once this harmony was sufficiently established, there was light again in all the parts of the being, and the consciousness of what had happened became complete. Now in the heart of action the vital being has discovered the perception... of the flesh, Thou didst set again into motion, into activity this vital form, which, for the necessity of development and unification, had been living for years in a passivity that was receptive and harmonious but alien to all active manifestation of Thy will. This return to activity meant a completely new adaptation of the vital instrument, for its natural tendency is always to resume action with... , of passing from one equilibrium to another, vaster and more complete. The outer circumstances were manifold and new, as if the being needed to accumulate many perceptions and observations in order to give a more extensive and complex base to its experience. But, being entirely plunged within this experience, it did not have the necessary perspective to see it as a whole, to know what it was and above ...
... ing to the organ which sees. For example, to the individual vital plane there corresponds a cosmic vital world. When a human being is sufficiently developed he possesses an individualised vital being with organs of sight, hearing, smell, etc. So a person who has a well-developed vital being can see in the vital world with his vital sight, consciously and with the memory of what he has seen. This... This is what makes a vision. It is the same for all the subtle worlds—vital, mental, overmental, supramental—and for all the intermediate worlds and planes of the being. In this way one can have visions that are vital, mental, overmental, supramental, etc. On the other hand, Sri Aurobindo tells us that what is termed a hallucination is the reflection in the mind or the physical senses of that which ...
... divine world? It is exactly the same thing. It is like that. The vital being, the true vital being which Sri Aurobindo describes, is the vital being which is in contact with the Divine, which is entirely surrendered to the Divine and is His instrument; whereas in the ordinary earth consciousness the vital being and also the physical being do not at all belong to the Divine, they think they belong to ... Mother reads from Lights on Yoga , "Planes and Parts of the Being". Sweet Mother, has the vital nature of man come out from his true vital being? Come out? What do you call coming out? You mean that first there was the true vital being and that this expresses itself in the physical nature, the earth nature, by the vital which we see? Yes! Mother, why is it so contradictory? Why... intervening in the details there would have to be a conscious union between the outer being, that is, the vital and physical being, and the psychic being, but usually this does not exist. So externally, in the details... for example, there was someone who in deep perplexity said to me, "Well, if it is the psychic being or rather the Divine in the psychic who directs our life, is it He who decides the ...
... becomes hunger and conscious desire in the vital being. Love is the transfiguration of desire, a desire of possessing others but also of self-giving; at first subject to hunger and the desire of possession it reveals its own true law by an equal or greater joy in self-giving.—The inert subjection of the will in the atom to the not-self becomes in the vital being the sense of limited capacity and the struggle... firm basis for the creation of aggregate forms to be occupied by vital and mental individualities. In the next stage we have the general principle of death and dissolution by which the individual form fuses itself in its elements into other lives. This principle of constant fusion and interchange is the law of Life and extends into vital and mental existence as well as the physical. The two principles ...
... divine aid to get rid of them. So long as the mind does not fall quiet, it is not possible to deal finally with the vital being from which these forces rise. The way to realise is through a quiet mind and a vital free from desires. To reject the desires and demands of the vital and to quiet the excessive activity of the mind, so that a true consciousness and spiritual perception and knowledge... The first conditions of this Yoga are: (1) A complete sincerity and surrender in the being. The divine life and the transformation of the lower human into the higher divine nature must be made the sole aim of all the life. Page 43 No attachments, desires or habits of the mind, heart, vital being or body should be clung to which come in the way of this one aspiration and one object of... divine Mother to enter there and purify the mind and vital and unveil the psychic being so that her constant guidance and presence in it may be felt always and (3) to concentrate in the quiet mind and (in the head) open oneself first to the divine force and light which is always above the mind and call to it to descend into the body and the whole being—either of these or both, according to the capacity ...
... leave the Physical being to its obscurity. So in the transformation also, mind cannot be transformed unless the Vital Being is transformed. And if the Vital Being is not transformed nothing can be realized ; because it is (he Vital Being that realizes. So if the mind is only partially changed and if the Vital Being is open and also partially changed it is not sufficient for our purpose. Because... limit itself down to the material conditions. To the vital being, nothing, however fanciful and even idiotic, seems impossible. That is the grandeur of the vital being. When Napoleon said, "Nothing is impossible, erase the word 'impossible' from the dictionary", it was the vital being that was speaking through him. And it is true that the vital plane does not admit anything as impossible. It does... control of the vital being over physical functions. Our aim is not this attainment of the vital Siddhi, – the control of the physical substance and functions through vital force. What we are attempting to achieve is a complete transformation of our entire being in all its planes of manifestation. In the old disciplines the goal was not transformation or victory over the physical being. They did not ...
... progress. But it is the psychic being which always progresses. The physical being, in the state in which it is at present—well, having reached a certain point of ascent, it comes down again. There are elements which may not come down again grossly; but still it does come down, one can’t deny it. The vital being—not necessarily, nor the mental being. The vital being, if it knows how to get connected... participation of the being, the movement is relatively slow, even relative to the short duration of human life. And so it is quite possible, for example, that at the moment of death a being seems not to have progressed, and even sometimes it seems to have been going backwards, to have lost what it had at the beginning of its life. But if we take the great life-curve of its psychic being through many lives... a perfection sufficient for it to become a possible vehicle for the divine Force itself which will be able to use it as it uses the elements of the other parts of the creation, like the mind or the vital. And at that moment the physical substance will be ready to manifest in the world the new Consciousness, new Light, new Will. Through all the centuries, through countless lives, passing through ...
... mistake the vital being for the soul, because it is the vital which animates and moves the body. But this vital being is a thing made up of desires and executive forces, good and bad; it is the desire-soul, not the true thing. It is when the true soul (psyche) comes forward and begins first to influence and then govern the actions of the instrumental nature that man begins to overcome vital desire and... true mental being behind that superficial form of mental personality which we mistake for ourselves. So also we have two lives, one outer, involved in the physical body, bound by its past evolution in Matter, which lives and was born and will die, the other a subliminal force of life which is not cabined between the narrow boundaries of our physical birth and death, but is our true vital being behind the... the form of living which we ignorantly take for our real existence. Even in the matter of our being there is this duality; for behind our body we have a subtler material existence which provides the substance not only of our physical but of our vital and mental sheaths and is therefore our real substance supporting this physical form which we erroneously imagine to be the whole body of our spirit. ...
... the Vital Sadhana on the 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... way of escape from this siege of the lower vital nature. It is the entire rejection of all egoistic vital demand, claim and desire and the replacement of the dissatisfied vital urge by the purity of psychic aspiration. Not the satisfaction of these vital clamours nor, either, an ascetic retirement is the true solution, but the surrender of the vital being to the Divine and a single-minded consecration... resistance or even a strong resistance. That always happens; if the resistance is quietly and steadily rejected, then it can be overcome. Rejecting Wrong Movements of the Lower Vital The lower vital in most human beings is full of grave defects and of movements that respond to hostile forces. A constant psychic opening, a persistent rejection of these influences, a separation of oneself from all ...
... during his sleep he saw a vital being pointing to his abdomen and saying, "That is the source of your strength. I am going to finish it." Then the being struck at the pit of his stomach like a bull with his head down. Nishikanto groaned and retaliated by suddenly giving a sharp squeeze to the being's scrotum. At this the being fled. (Laughter) SRI AUROBINDO: The being appears to have been right... right about Nishikanto. The pit of the stomach is the vital-emotional centre, which is the source of his strength. But it would be interesting to know what happened to the scrotum of the vital being. (Laughter) After this, Satyendra gave Sri Aurobindo a Bengali poem to see, as requested by Mridu. The poem was written by Jyoti on the presentation copy of her book Red Rose to Mridu . SRI AUROBINDO:... AUROBINDO: He means the same way in the past because they all had the same experience now—quaked together? (Laughter) NIRODBARAN: Point 3: Sri Aurobindo has said that physical death is followed by vital and mental deaths hereafter. SRI AUROBINDO: I have never said that. I have spoken of the dissolution of the several sheaths. I have already answered such things in The Life Divine. Let the cor ...
... consciousness of the inner vital being. Such things are very common; of course, when one goes still deeper one does not see them. There is a point between the surface consciousness and the deeper vital which is full of these fantasies and dreams. They are apparently incoherent. In the physical a mouse turning into an elephant may have no meaning but it is not so in the vital. They have no coherence of... consciousness only I laugh so easily. Is it not? Sri Aurobindo : It is the reaction of the superficial vital which is touched easily by simple, outward things; there is a child in nature that bursts out like that. It is the same as the Balabhava – the child-like nature. The deeper vital being does not get so easily touched. The topic was changed at this point. Disciple : What is meant... lift all our movements towards the Divine. Disciple : That fear of falling ill by keeping awake, is it not a mental fear? Sri Aurobindo : The thing is, the physical being has got a limit. The vital being can feel the energy, peace, etc. but Page 52 the physical cannot be taxed beyond its capacity. That is what happened to many Sadhaks here. They overworked till a ...
... corresponding to the organ which sees. For example, to the individual vital plane there corresponds a cosmic vital world. When a human being is sufficiently developed he possesses an individualised vital being with organs of sight, hearing, smell, etc. So a Person who has a well-developed vital being can see in the vial world with his vital sight, consciously and with the memory of what he has seen. This... indulgence of the faculty of subtle vision? The answer is: Yes, all that comes in visions may not be true; some visions may be due to the mental or vital formations of the subject; some others may be introduced by some hostile occult forces and beings. Some visions may be nothing more than alluring falsehoods. Some others may come only with the purpose of sidetracking the spiritual aspirant from the... Aurobindo addressed to one of his disciples who wanted to know the truth about the matter: "... this power or gift of [supraphysical sight] ... is a universal faculty present in all human beings, but latent in most, in some rarely or intermittently active, occurring as if by accident in others, frequent and normally active in a few. ...almost anyone, if he wants, can with a little concentration ...
... function of evolution to give form. This spark is there in all living beings, from the lowest to the highest. The psychic being is formed by the soul in its evolution. It supports the mind, vital, body, grows by their experiences, carries the nature from life to life. It is the psychic or caitya puruṣa . At first it is veiled by mind, vital and body, but, as it grows, it becomes capable of coming forward... the psychic, for they don’t have it. These beings certainly have many qualities that men don’t, but they lack this divine presence, which is altogether exceptional and exists only on the earth and nowhere else. All these inhabitants of the higher worlds, the Higher Mind, Overmind and other regions have no psychic being. Of course, the beings of the vital worlds don’t have it either. But these latter... Divine—none could exist without that. But it is quite possible to have a vital and physical being supported by such a soul essence but without a clearly evolved psychic being behind it… The inner being composed of the inner mental, inner vital, inner physical,—but that is not the psychic being. The psychic is the inmost being of all and quite distinct from these. The word psychic is indeed used in ...
... to say of him, "He is a vital being." One ought to mistrust oneself first, and afterwards what the other says. There is another case, still more interesting: I knew two persons at least who were not only under the vital influence but incarnations of beings of the vital world. Well, it was these very persons who constantly denounced others as possessed by beings of the vital world! So then, it is better... all men. That is quite difficult. Before cutting one's relations with beings who are linked with a vital entity, one must be sure of their connection. How can one be sure? Evidently it is difficult to know, unless one has direct vision of the vital, that is to say, unless one is able to see directly into the vital world. I have seen many, many times... that two things may happen, and generally... have the necessary vital power. As for the mental nightmares, that kind of frightful saraband in the head, one has altogether the impression of going mad. At the time of death, the psychic being goes to take rest, doesn't it? But the vital is stopped in the vital world; does this prevent the psychic from going to rest? But the vital does not go to rest nor does the mental being. Generally they ...
... the vital is for praise. It hates to be criticised and treated as if it were of little importance. But it must be always prepared for rebuffs and stand them with absolute calm; nor must it pay attention to compliments, forgetting that each movement of self-satisfaction is an offering at the altar of the lords of falsehood. The beings of the subtle world of the life-force, with which our vital is connected... THE CAPRICIOUS VITAL Let endurance be your watchword: teach the life-force in you—your vital being—not to complain but to put up with all the conditions necessary for great achievement. The body is a very enduring servant, it bears the stress of circumstance tamely like a beast of burden. It is the vital being that is always grumbling and uneasy. The slavery... on the worship of their devotees, and that is why they are always inspiring new-cults and religions so that their feasts of worship and adulation may never come to an end. So also your own vital being and the vital forces behind it thrive—that is to say, fatten their ignorance—by absorbing the flatteries given by others. But you must remember that the compliments paid by creatures on the same level of ...
... Endurance - the Vital's Hunger for Praise - Signs of the Converted Vital Let endurance be your watchword: teach the life-force in you—your vital being—not to complain but to put up with all the conditions necessary for great achievement. The body is a very enduring servant, it bears the stress of circumstance tamely like a beast of burden. It is the vital being that is always grumbling... the vital is for praise. It hates to be criticised and treated as if it were of little importance. But it must be always prepared for rebuffs and stand them with absolute calm; nor must it pay attention to compliments, forgetting that each movement of self-satisfaction is an offering at the altar of the lords of falsehood. The beings of the subtle world of the life-force, with which our vital is connected... on the worship of their devotees, and that is why they are always inspiring new cults and religions so that their feasts of worship and adulation may never come to an end. So also your own vital being and the vital forces behind it thrive—that is to say, fatten their ignorance—by absorbing the flatteries given by others. But you must remember that the compliments paid by creatures on the same level of ...
... January 15, 1962 You spoke last time of putting a body on a vital being. Is that being still alive? Who was it? I have spoken of this before. I told the story of the Chinese revolution, and how this being left me, saying.... It was just five years before the Chinese revolution. I've told the story. Page 43 I know I've... But that vital being who was given a body—did it live on earth for any length of time? No, never. Never? He stopped at the subtle physical—he refused to go any farther. It was Satan, the Asura 1 of Light who, in cutting himself off from the Supreme, fell into Unconsciousness and Darkness (I've told the story many times). But anyway, when I was with Théon, I summoned that being and asked... With Théon too it was partial. But with Satan it was the central being; of course, he had millions of emanations in the world, but this was the central being in person. The others... let's keep that for another time. He agreed to take on a body. Theon wanted to keep him there: "Don't let him go," he told me. I didn't answer. This being told me he didn't want to be more material than that, it was ...
... my chest I feel too much weakness. Do not believe that your body is breaking; it is not true, your body is very strong and will be quite healthy as soon as the inner quiet and poise of your vital being will allow it to remain calm, balanced and restful. 19 November 1934 ...
... is not the external being, that which is formed by parents, environment and circumstances—the mental, the vital and the physical—that is born again: it is only the psychic being that passes from body to body. Logically, then, neither the mental nor the vital being can remember past lives or recognise itself in the character or mode of life of this or that person. The psychic being alone can remember;... time after death the vital and mental sheaths dissolve, leaving the soul free to retire to the psychic world before it takes up new sheaths. What becomes of the Karma and of the impressions—Samskaras—on the old sheaths? Do they also dissolve without producing any result, good or bad, which they should according to the theory of Karma? Also, what becomes of the vital and mental beings after the dissolution... which are mentioned in newspapers, are memories of the vital being that, exceptionally, has gone out of one body in order to enter another. It is something that can happen, but it is not frequent. The memory that I refer to is that of the psychic being, and one is conscious of it only when one is in conscious relation with one's psychic being. There is no contradiction between the two things. ...
... March 1961 The hell from which physical death cannot deliver you, is the hell of being in the grip of a devil who makes of you his plaything and takes his greatest pleasure in torturing you. When someone is in the grip of a devil, which is the cause of his sufferings, the body may die, but the vital being who feels the sufferings will, after the dissolution of the body, continue to feel as ...
... more or less, a child's psychic being is "in front", but as a result of intellectual education it is pushed behind by mental formations. Is it possible to educate a child by keeping the psychic being always in front? Yes, it is possible, provided the educator himself remains always in the psychic consciousness. Isn't a child mainly a vital being? He is vital in the sense that the mind is... is not sufficiently developed to govern—it is the vital that has the upper hand. 19 September 1947 ...
... a formation in your mind or on the vital plane in yourself—it is a kind of creation, but subjective only; it effects only your mental or vital being. You can create by ideas, thought-forces, images—a whole world in yourself or for yourself; but it stops there. Some have the power of making consciously formations that go out and effect the minds, actions, vital movements, external lives of others ...
... Part II — Spiritual Games Champaklal Speaks “What do You Want?” An all-surrendering love by which the whole vital being becomes purified and one-pointed.—Amal Full conversion and consecration of the physical consciousness. Liberation from all sexual impulses and desires.—Pavitra To be taken right into the Beyond in surrender.—Datta Deep and complete ...
... 1980-09-11 Some kind of activity of the vital being seems to be going on. Then a power from the higher world comes and takes up the individuals in a protective sheath of the inner self and absorbs their consciousness into the psychic plane. His hands with their various colours are imbuing each person with various phases of the beautiful inner consciousness. Being tied in the same bundle would suggest ...
... because her mind was in such a confusion as a result of her desires, that she would not have been able to understand what I would have written. Since then I have tried to work on her mental and vital being to make it a little more open and receptive, so that she may understand that love for children and the growing hope for future that they represent in the" creation, does not mean that each one and ...
... my head, Mahakali in my vital being and 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 which we are not ordinarily aware and can only know by going inside ourselves. So too what we know of the vital in us is only the outer vital, a surface activity partially expressing a larger secret vital which we can only know by going within. Equally, what we call our physical being is only a visible projection of a greater and subtler invisible physical consciousness which is much more complex... obscures and disfigures even this limited self-knowledge; our self-view is vitiated by the constant impact and intrusion of our outer life-self, our vital being, which seeks always to make the thinking mind its tool and servant: for our vital being is not concerned with self-knowledge but with self-affirmation, desire, ego. It is therefore constantly acting on mind to build for it a mental structure... ance; it is only by going within and seeing these things at their source that we can get out of this obscurity and tangle. For a larger mental being is there within us, a larger inner vital being, even a larger inner subtle-physical being other than our surface body-consciousness, and by entering into this or becoming it, identifying ourselves with it, we can observe the springs of our ...
... 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 they ...
... know it. What is called genius is the reflection from the higher planes—from the Intuitive Mind, for example. But it does not mean that one is living in that plane. There may be reflections in the vital being also. ... 26 MARCH 1940 NIRODBARAN: You have said in The Synthesis of Yoga, Volume II, in the chapter entitled "The Difficulties of the Mental Being", that there are divine planes in the mental being just as there are divine planes above into which one ordinarily enters in Samadhi. What are these planes? Higher Mind, etc.? SRI AUROBINDO: But there are divine planes ...
... are not the manomaya purusha or pranamaya purusha in each man. You have a mental being or purusha in you and a vital being or purusha, but you cannot say that you are in your mind Indra or in your vital Vayu. The Purusha is an essential being supporting the play of Prakriti—the Godhead (Indra, Vayu) is a dynamic being manifested in Prakriti for the works of the plane to which he belongs. There is an... be complete. But the supraphysical planes are not bound to the forms like the physical. The forms there are expressive, not determinative. What is important on the vital plane is the force or feeling and the form expresses it. A vital being has a characteristic form but he can vary it or mask his true form under others. What is primary on the mental plane is the perception, the idea, the mental significance... what is physical that denies them. There are also beings of other worlds—gods and Asuras etc. There are Gods everywhere on all the planes. The Gods are in the universal Self—if identified with the universal Self one can feel their presence there. While the Gods cannot be transformed, for they are typal and not evolutionary beings, they can come for conversion—that is to say, to ...
... referring to his vital being and his physical being. Even like the mind these too must admit into themselves the light of the consciousness in order to free themselves from the influence of other external forces and attain the sense of their own truth and self-fulfilment. Indeed each part, even each constituent element of our being has an individuality of its own, a personal being and consciousness... s, therefore it has entered into this life of bondage and slavery and mechanical existence. When life becomes conscious, the life-energy becomes luminous, the vital being gradually gains self-control and self-direction. Instead of being moved about by irresponsible and irrepressible desires and impulses it attains a clarity as to what it should desire and what it should effectuate; and along with... forget that it is only partially so. The autonomy is very limited, for a good part of the human mind is far from being conscious, there is a part half-conscious and a part almost wholly unconscious. This hemisphere so to say is under the influence of the vital and the physical being with their unconscious and ill-organised influence. The true light comes from elsewhere, the mind in so far as it ...
... referring to his vital being and his physical being. Even like the mind these too must admit into themselves the light of the consciousness in order to free themselves from the influence of other external forces and attain the sense of their own truth and self-fulfilment. Indeed each part, even each constituent element of our being has an individuality of its own, a personal being and consciousness... unconscious, therefore it has entered into this life of bondage and slavery and mechanical existence. When life becomes conscious, the life-energy becomes luminous, the vital being gradually gains self-control and self-direction. Instead of being moved about by irresponsible and irrepressible desires and impulses it attains a clarity as to what it should desire and what it should effectuate; and along with... not forget that it is only partially so. The autonomy is very limited, for a good part of the human mind is far from being conscious, there is a part half-conscious and a part almost wholly unconscious. This hemisphere so to say is under the influence of the vital and the physical being with their unconscious and ill-organised influence. The true light comes from elsewhere, the mind in so far as it receives ...
... referring to his vital being and his physical being. Even like the mind these too must admit into themselves the light of the consciousness in order to free themselves from the influence of other external forces and attain the sense of their own truth and self-fulfilment. Indeed each part, even each constituent element of our being has an individuality of its own, a personal being and consciousness... unconscious, therefore it has entered into this life of bondage and slavery and mechanical existence. When life becomes conscious, the life-energy becomes luminous, the vital being gradually gains self-control and self-direction. Instead of being moved about by irresponsible and irrepressible desires and impulses it attains a clarity as to what it should desire and what it should effectuate; and along with... not forget that it is only partially so. The autonomy is very limited, for a- good part of the human mind is far from being conscious, there is a part half-conscious and a part almost wholly unconscious. This hemisphere so to say is under the influence of the vital and the physical being with their unconscious and ill-organised influence. The true light comes from elsewhere, the mind in so far as it receives ...
... must learn to keep calm and quiet in the mind and vital being, to refuse to regard the illness and the tendency to it in the body as something normal to it, regarding it rather as something imposed from outside, and he must believe firmly that it must and will go. If he can keep this attitude and open to the true force, the mind and the nervous being, once strengthened, the illness and weakness will ...
... the departed come direct to the Mother, but this is a special action of hers and usually she sees the persons whom she has to help. But she has seen only X 's mental being and it was still interested in earthly things; his vital being she has not seen and it is that that usually comes for help. Some however come at a later stage of the passage and not at first. 8 December 1936 Page 583 ...
... true vital being now concealed within us. This implies not only the development of spiritual equality so that one becomes equal-soul to all things, unmoved by joy and sorrow, the pleasant and unpleasant, success or failure, but also the emergence of the Page 12 true vital being which is within us behind the veil of ignorance. According to the yogic psychology, there is a vital being, pranamaya... into life, in its true nature, — the vital being that is tranquil, strong, luminous, many-energied, obedient to the Divine Will, egoless, yet capable of all action, achievement, highest or largest enterprise. But there is a second condition, which also needs to be fulfilled. The pure vital being provides us the instrumentation of a divine life, but the vital being always needs a power that can govern... take place. A light in the mind may spiritualise or otherwise change the mind or part of it in one way or another, but it need not change the vital nature; a light in the vital may purify and enlarge the vital movements or else silence and immobilize the 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 ...
... greatness ? Most great men were immoral. Looseness in private morality arises from a strong vital being, and that strong vital being leads to success in great works. Immorality consists in allowing the vital impulses to go out unchecked. They may arise from strength or from weakness. In case of strength the vital impulses go out by the strength, in case of weakness they go out because they cannot be checked... but there are also the vital and mental parts. The external part of man is that portion which comes out but there is much more behind. Some portion is very near the surface ready for expression, some parts are so hidden that they may not come out in this life. It is the object of yoga to harmonies the different parts in the mental being, in the vital being and the physical being. Then the whole is to... different being. Thus when you are transformed by yoga, those who have not seen you for ten years would find it difficult to recognise you. Disciple : In the external personality there may : be a combination of different personalities. Sri Aurobindo : In the personality of man there may be mental, vital and physical elements. Man's personality is mainly physical—the mental and vital are there ...
... vital being leaves the body for whatever reason, the body dies or death cuts off the Page 355 vital being from the body... So it is in the sense of animating, that is, giving life. Is this the "vital desire-soul", Sweet Mother? Yes, the vital soul is full of desires. The vital being is full of desires. It is built of desires. Sweet Mother, here it is written: "A spiritual atmosphere... what is the "vital desire-soul"? My child, the vital soul is what animates the body, the life which animates the body. You see, in ordinary language it is said, "You die when your soul leaves your body" or "Your soul leaves your body when you die", in one way or the other; but it is not the soul, it is not only this soul—what we call soul, I mean the psychic being—it is the vital being. When the vital... you act only in conformity with what can lead you to the divine realisation, if you abolish in yourself all desires and impulses turned towards external things, if you calm your mental being, appease your vital being, if you shut yourself against suggestions coming from outside and become immune to the action of people surrounding you, you create such a spiritual atmosphere that nothing can touch ...
... will tell you what you should do and what you should not. This Consciousness does not do anything violently and forcibly but gently and gradually. It does not work only in the mind and the vital being but also in the body. It takes great care of the body and everything else. I am putting this Consciousness around you. You will see and feel it. It will tell you everything. It is always ...
... called the Mother. The appearance of X there might possibly have been some part of the vital of X himself, but was more probably a vital being in his shape, perhaps the very vital being who has been troubling him. When you go into the vital world, you meet many such things,—the one sufficient protection is to call the Mother. 7 September 1933 This morning after pranam I felt a sudden uprush... atmosphere was clear. What happened in your experience was that the vital being got free from the body through its desire to unite with the Mother Page 310 (you met the Mother on the border between the vital and physical) and lived with its own life independent of the body. It entered into the vital world and, not being sheltered any longer in the body, felt helpless at first, till it called... some place for her in the lower parts of my being? It is the forces of the Ignorance that begin to lay siege and then make a mass attack. Every time such an attack can be defeated and cast out, there is a clearance in the Adhar, a new field gained for the Mother in the mind, vital or physical or the adjacent parts of the being. That the place in the vital occupied by the Mother is increasing is shown ...
... joy, which has no excitement in it. Are the soul and the psychic being one and the same thing? That depends on the definition you give to the words. In most religions, and perhaps in most philosophies also, it is the vital being which is called "soul", for it is said that "the soul leaves the body", while it is the vital being which leaves the body. One speaks of "saving the soul", "wicked souls"... souls", "redeeming the soul"... but all that applies to the vital being, for the psychic being has no need to be saved! It does not share the faults of the external person, it is free from all reaction. When one works and wants to do one's best, one needs much time. But generally we don't have much time, we are in a hurry. How to do one's best when one is in a hurry? It is a very interesting... always, while desire is always something which one draws to oneself; aspiration is something which gives itself, not necessarily in the form of thought but in the movement, in the vibration, in the vital impulse. True aspiration does not come from the head; even when it is formulated by a thought, it springs up like a flame from the heart. I do not know if you have read the articles Sri Aurobindo ...
... centralised vital consciousness (dynamic centre) which ranges from the heart level (emotional) to the centre below the navel (lower vital, sensational desire centre). These three mark the domain of the vital being. It is therefore Page 196 clear that it was your inner vital being which had this experience, and its intensity and vehemence was probably due to the whole vital (or most of it)... experience stated it was probably in the vital plane and such suddennesses and vividnesses of experience are characteristic of the vital—but they are not lasting, they only prepare. It is when one has got into contact with what is beyond mind and vital and body and risen there that the great lasting fundamental realisations usually come. Influence or Possession by Beings of Other Planes The case of the... 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 one feels the inner being speaking to the outer or the mind or higher vital speaking to the lower so as to enlighten it. These things ...
... on and all the rest of the delusions to which you have surrendered yourself are not yoga or Sadhana. They are an illusion of your vital being and your brain. We tried to cure your and for a few days while you were obeying my instruction you were on the point of being cured. But you have called back your illness and made it worse than before. You see to be no longer capable even of understanding what... man who started Bahaism ? Disciple : I do not know, but it was Baha Ullah perhaps who started it. Sri Aurobindo : It seems he was an ignorant man in the beginning, but had a sort of vital being which received Page 245 the Light – perhaps, not from the very Highest but merit light and it is with that force that he created Bahais He used to see the Light descend on him... man's curse should prove true for a nation ? Sri Aurobindo : There is no reason why it should not. Do you think that one can't curse anybody? Especially if there is a strong support of a vital being it would be effective. Disciple : In that case the whole nation may be destroyed. Sri Aurobindo : It may be destroyed, if that is destined. He cursed in the same way as Mad did ...
... disturbed vital are simply legion. But we should not forget that this is one side of the vital being. The vital is not solely and exclusively negative in character. It possesses a very helpful positive side too. The problem is that, a strong dynamism being its essential virtue, the vital may equally take two distinctly different mutually opposed orientations depending on whether it is being rightly guided... the sadhana. The sadhana of the vital has five principal programme-elements. These are as follows: (i) The control and purification of the vital; (ii) the self-consecration of the vital; (iii) its liberation and conversion; (iv) a full collaboration of the vital in the sadhana-effort of the sadhaka; and (v) spiritual transformation of the vital being. But even before the sadhaka seriously... symptoms by which the sadhaka may come to know that he is at any particular moment mainly dominated by his vital being? Let Sri Aurobindo answer this question: "In others it is the vital self, the being of life, who dominates and rules the mind, the will, the action; then is created the vital man, concerned with self-affirmation, self-aggrandisement, life- Page 285 enlargement ...
... disgust for the world and life. the vital (being) —the life-nature made up of desires, sensations, feelings, passions, energies of action and of all the play of possessive and other related instincts, such as anger, fear, greed, lust, etc. The vital has three main parts: higher vital : the mental vital and emotional vital taken together. The mental vital gives a mental expression by thought,... of the vital being; the emotional vital is the seat of various feelings, such as love, joy, sorrow, hatred and the rest. central vital or vital proper : dynamic, sensational and passionate, it is the seat of the stronger vital longings and reactions, such as ambition, pride, fear, love of fame, attractions and repulsions, desires and passions of various kinds and the field of many vital energies... ss, referred to as our inner being, consists of the inner mental, the inner vital and the inner physical, with the psychic (the soul) as the innermost being which, as an aspect of the central being, supports all the different parts in the manifestation and which develops over the course of evolution an individuality which is called the psychic being. The inner being is also sometimes referred to ...
... He must learn to keep quiet and calm in the mind and vital being, to refuse to regard the illness and the tendency to it the body as something normal to it, regard it rather as something imposed from outside and he must believe firmly that it must and will go. If he keeps this attitude and opens to the true force, the mind and the nerves being once strengthened, the illness and weakness will disappear ...
... virtues. They appear in the consciousness only when the psychic being takes part in active life. The vital and the physical experience them as weaknesses, for they curb the free expression of their impulses, which are based on the power of strength. As always, the mind, when insufficiently educated, is the accomplice of the vital being and the slave of the physical nature, whose laws, so overpowering... at best into charity, and gratitude into the wish to repay, followed, little by little, by the capacity to recognise and admire. It is only when the psychic consciousness is all-powerful in the being that compassion for all that needs help, in whatever domain, and gratitude for all that manifests the divine presence and grace, in whatever form, are expressed in all their original and luminous purity ...
... true basis and atmosphere of your future development and experience, calm in the mind, the purified vital being and in the physical consciousness. A psycho-vital or psycho-physical Yoga will not be safe for you until you have this calm and an assured purity of being and a complete and always present vital and physical protection. Aurobindo. × ... one-sidedness and mixture and there are also psycho-vital and psycho-physical developments of a double nature. I do not mean that all is false in them but that there are many strong partial truths which need to be corrected by others which they seem to ignore and even to exclude. Besides there are suggestions from the intellect and the vital being and also suggestions from external sources which you... experience of the nature of the psychic being and the psychic worlds. Therefore it is not possible for you to put the true value on all that comes to you. When the psychic consciousness opens, especially so freely and rapidly as it has done in your case, it opens to all kinds of things and to suggestions, and messages from all sorts of planes and worlds and forces and beings. There is the true psychic which ...
... has a living soul; but it is not that, it is his vital which is developed, which has a special capacity, is stronger than the physical inertia and gives an intensity of vibration and life and action that those whose vital being is not developed do not possess. This confusion between the vital activity and the soul is a very frequent one…. The vital vibration is much more easily perceptible to the human... rules the being, is the master, one must have the psychic consciousness oneself, for that alone can judge definitively. But it is not altogether impossible to have that sort of inner vibration which makes you say, “Oh! This person has a soul.” Now, obviously, most often what people—unless they are initiated—call “soul” is the vital activity. If someone has a strong, active, obstinate vital which rules... speaking; that is just why it is quite difficult to see very distinctly and clearly in oneself the different parts of the being, unless one has had a very long training and a long discipline of study and observation. There are no watertight compartments between the soul and the mind, the vital and even the physical. There is an infiltration of the soul into the mind. In some people it is even quite considerable ...
... people I know! But there are some beings that have been in two or three persons: for example, a vital being that went from one person to another (a being I know very well, so I know it happened that way), and what I saw was the BEING, not the different persons. A vital, female-looking being (they take on a sexual appearance when they have been in human beings: they retain the female or male appearance)... plural: "They should have." They were the "all-powerful masters" or the "supreme masters." But there was nothing religious in the feeling, nothing spiritual either. It wasn't in the vital—the supreme beings of the vital? No, no! It was what corresponds to the "owners"—they were the owners, in the sense that they had built everything and everything belonged to them—built and organized everything... it, thinking, "Oh, they have control over that water!" It was like liquid diamond. It was a marvel, as if everything it touched were purified. And that being who came out of the huge swimming pool (it wasn't a human being: it looked like a vital being who was neither a man nor a woman) came out in a kind of bathing suit, wrapped himself up and disappeared. But otherwise ALL the doors were closed, there ...
... falsehood of the mental, vital and physical Powers and Appearances that still rule the earth-Nature. The surrender must be total and seize all the parts of the being. It is not enough that the psychic should respond and the higher mental accept or even the inner vital submit and the inner physical consciousness feel the influence. There must be in no part of the being, even the most external... the heart's seeking, the assent of the vital being, the will to open and make plastic the physical consciousness and nature; rejection of the movements of the lower nature — rejection of the mind's ideas, opinions, preferences, habits, constructions, so that the true knowledge may find free room in a silent mind, — rejection of the vital nature's desires, demands, cravings, sensations... revolts or refuses. If part of the being surrenders, but another part reserves itself, follows its own way or makes its own conditions, then each time that that happens, you are yourself pushing the divine Grace away from you. If behind your devotion and surrender you make a cover Page 29 for your desires, egoistic demands and vital insistences, if you put these things in ...
... has a living soul; but it is not that, it is his vital which is developed, which has a special capacity, is stronger than the physical inertia and gives an intensity of vibration and life and action that those whose vital being is not developed do not possess. This confusion between the vital activity and the soul is a very frequent one.... The vital vibration is much more easily perceptible to the... strong, active, obstinate vital which rules the body's activities, which has a very living or intense contact with people and things and events, if he has a marked taste for art, for all expressions of beauty, we are generally tempted to say and believe, "Oh! He has a living soul"; but it is not his soul, it is his vital being which is alive and dominates the activities of the body. That is the first... speaking; that is just why it is quite difficult to see very distinctly and clearly in oneself the different parts of the being, unless one has had a very long training and a long discipline of study and observation. There are no watertight compartments between the soul and the mind, the vital and even the physical. There is an infiltration of the soul into the mind. In some people it is even quite considerable ...
... which gradually enters the cells of the body and through an interplay of various forces—as indicated by the colours—it transforms them as symbolised by the numerous living figures representing the vital being 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 ...
... The vital being is not the I—the ego is mental, vital, physical. Ego implies the identification of our existence with outer self, the ignorance of our true self above and our psychic being within us. In a certain sense the various Purushas or beings in us, psychic, mental, vital, physical, are projections of the Atma, but that gets its full truth only when we get into our inner being and know... are many parts of your being, many personalities each acting on its own behalf and in its own way. The two different Page 120 beings you feel are—one, the psychic being which draws you towards the Mother, the other the external being mostly vital which draws you outward and downwards towards the play of the lower nature. There is also in you behind the mind the being who observes, the witness... could not be so defined. For the psychic being in animals or in most human beings is not in direct touch with the supramental—therefore it cannot be so described, by definition . But once the connection between the supramental and the human consciousness is made, it is the psychic being that gives the readiest response —more ready than the mind, the vital or the physical. It may be added that it ...
... of the vital being and the heart. Likewise vitalism stands over against materialism, and idealism or romanticism over against realism and naturalism. Bergson contra Haeckel, Paul Verlaine contra Guy de Maupassant and Théophile Gautier. But it does not mean that we shall arrive at the true universal literature if we solely cling to idealism, the vital being or emotion. True, the vital being is ... 53 above the body, and the creation has been extended and liberated to a great extent in it, but the universal is not met even here. The vital being is the second bondage of man. The poetry that has been created or based exclusively on the vital or the emotional stuff is clumsy and disorderly. There we find too much of the personality, the idiosyncrasy and fancy of the particular individual... and this also in our inner being, in our inner chamber. The Vedic sage Shunahshepa says that the God Varuna has three knots and they have to be cut away: then and then alone man will ascend to the infinite wideness of Varuna and will get the limitless and unfathomable ocean of delight of Eternal Life. And what are these three knots? They are the knots of the Body, the Vital and the Mind. For the poets ...
... ample, concentrated. They have to present a united front and function towards an ever-increasing consciousness and knowledge. As for the mental faculties so for the faculties of the vital. The normal vital being in man is in a greater and perhaps more dangerous chaos. The impulsions, emotions, upsurges that belong to this domain have not so much to be developed or increased as to be purified,... education and that too means perfect organisation. We have said that organisation means working for a common end and common purpose. That comes from an opening into a deeper and higher level of being. We name it the soul. The soul's purpose, the soul's destiny has to be achieved and fulfilled. An organised and educated mind and life and body means to be the best and the most perfect vehicle for ...
... ample, concentrated. They have to present a united front and function towards an ever increasing consciousness and knowledge. As for the mental faculties so for the faculties of the vital. The normal vital being in man is in a greater and perhaps more dangerous chaos. The impulsions, emotions, upsurges that belong to this domain have not so much to be developed or increased as to be purified, made... education and that too means perfect organisation. We have said that organisation means working for a common end and common purpose. That comes from an opening into a deeper and higher level of being. We name it the soul. Page 203 The soul's purpose, the soul's destiny has to be achieved and fulfilled. An organised and educated mind and life and body means to be the best ...
... the strictest scientific control. So they do genuinely occur in rare instances, but they are no sign of sanctity. There is nothing spiritual about them. What is at work is purely a capacity of the vital being. And often the mediums are people of very low character, with not a trace of anything saintly. But to come back to the point. In connection with great or holy men all sorts of stories get started ...
... ample, concentrated. They have to present a united front and function towards an ever-increasing consciousness and knowledge. As for the mental faculties so for the faculties of the vital. The normal vital being in man is in a greater and perhaps more dangerous chaos. The impulsions, emotions, upsurges that belong to this domain have not so much to be developed or increased as to be purified, made... education and that too means perfect organisation. We have said that organisation means working for a common end and common purpose. That comes from an opening into a deeper and higher level of being. We name it the soul. Page 189 The soul's purpose, the soul's destiny has to be achieved and fulfilled. An organised and educated mind and life and body means to be the best ...
... 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 disguises. ...
... 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 disguises. ...
... Divine Mother and on your side an inner state made up of faith, sincerity and surrender. Let your faith be pure, candid and perfect. An egoistic faith in the mental and vital being tainted by ambition, pride, vanity, mental arrogance, vital self-will, personal demand, desire for the petty satisfactions of the lower nature is a low and smoke-obscured flame that cannot burn upwards to heaven. Regard your ...
... the vital being of course, not the psychic being which goes to take rest), he may feel altogether lost, not know what to do and find himself in great distress; then he sees through affinity the light of those who are thinking of him with affection and he rushes there. It happens almost constantly that a vital formation, a part of the vital being of the dead person (or at times the whole vital if it... to understand and answer him, it is perfect gymnastics! (A mathematician disciple:) The same thing applies to mathematicians, I suppose ? Yes. If at the time of death the vital being is attacked in the vital world by hostile forces or entities, does it not look for a shelter somewhere? Yes, it is for this reason that in all countries and in all religions, it is recommended that for a... 1951 March Questions and Answers (1950-1951) 12 March 1951 In the vital world, forces exist: do mental forms exist in the mental world? Yes, there is a concrete mental world and there are mental forms which do not resemble vital forces but have their own law. There are many, innumerable mental forms. They are almost indestructible; one can only ...
... me to be so cold and dry? I feel, I see my soul living deep within my being, and my soul sees Thee, recognises Thee and loves Thee in all things, in everything that is; it is fully conscious of this, and as the outer being is surrendered to it, it too is conscious; the mind knows and never forgets; the purified vital being no longer has any attractions and repulsions, and more and more does it taste... would like, in exchange for these precious gifts, to pour out in inexhaustible streams the golden wine of tenderness which restores and fortifies, enlivens and consoles, the true wine of life for human beings. It would like to and tries... but how poor is what it does beside what it dreams of doing, how mediocre what it is able to do beside what it hopes, for it hopes always. It knows that Thy call is never ...
... questions. First, “What is the mental personality?” In each human being the body is animated by the vital being, and governed, or partially governed, by a mental being. This is a general rule, but the extent to which the mental being is formed and individualised varies greatly from one individual to the next. In the great mass of human beings the mind is something fluid which has no organisation of its... mental being dissolves in the mental region when the body, the substance which made up the body, dissolves in the physical substance. But as soon as the mental being is formed, organised, individualised, and has become a personality, it does not depend, it no longer depends on the body for its existence, and it therefore survives the body. The earth’s mental atmosphere is filled with beings, mental... Immortality is a life without beginning or end, without birth or death, which is altogether independent of the body. It is the life of the Self, the essential being of each individual, and it is not separate from the universal Self. And this essential being has a sense of oneness with the universal Self; it is in fact a personified, individualised expression of the universal Self and has neither beginning ...
... When the body is dissolved, the vital goes into the vital plane and remains there for a time, but after a time the vital sheath disappears. The last to dissolve is the mental sheath. Finally, the soul or psychic being retires into the psychic world to rest there till a new birth is close. This is the general course for ordinarily developed human beings. There are variations according to the... nature in man his true vital being concealed and immobile which is quite different from the surface vital nature. The surface vital is narrow, ignorant, limited, full of obscure desires, passions, cravings, revolts, pleasures and pains, transient joys and griefs, exultations and depressions. The true vital being, on the contrary, is wide, vast, calm, strong, without limitations, firm and immovable, capable... all divine realisations. It is the true vital being that has become awake and come in front within you. In the same way there is too a true mental being, a true physical being. When these are manifest, then you are aware of a double existence in you: that behind is always calm and strong, that on the surface alone is troubled and obscure. But if the true being behind remains stable and you live in it ...
... experience feels the unity. If in the mental, your mind feels one with the cosmic mind; if in the vital, your vital becomes part of the cosmic vital; if in the physical, the body is felt as a speck of universal Matter. Just as there is a wall that separates the outer nature from the soul, the psychic being, so also there is a wall above the head. You break that wall or what is called the lid and you... Becharlal's question) : What about it? DR. BECHARLAL: The effect of fasting on Yoga? SRI AUROBINDO (as if the question now were not so perplexing after all) : It gives a sort of excitement to the vital being, but the effect does not seem. to be very sound. I fasted twice—once in Alipore jail for ten days and the other time in Pondicherry for twenty-three days. At Alipore I was in full yogic activity... you feel your individual self in the Infinite or you feel you are the Infinite. The opening can be vertical or horizontal—at various levels, the vital being, the heart, etc. CHAMPAKLAL: Is it true that illness comes from sadhana? SRI AUROBINDO: From sadhana? NIRODBARAN: I think he means that illness may come in the course of sadhana for purification. SRI AUROBINDO: That's a different thing ...
... physical vital which will be presently explained. Though separate and distinct, the three main divisions of the outer being just mentioned are interconnected and interact on one another, giving rise to distinguishable subdivisions in the main parts of the being. Thus besides the thinking mind (the mind proper), there is a vital mind, which is the part of the mind that is intermixed with the vital. The... subdivision which is important for self-understanding is the physical vital; it is the part of the vital which is turned entirely upon physical things, and is full of desires and seekings for pleasure on the physical plane. Closely connected with it is the vital physical, the part of the vital force which constitutes the nervous being; it is the vehicle of the nervous responses and is related to the reactions... Selves The Outer Being There are three main parts in the outer or surface being: the mind (the mental), the life-nature (the vital) and the body (the physical). Each part has its own distinct type of consciousness, though in our ordinary awareness we are unable to distinguish among the mental, vital and physical constituents of our consciousness, and tend ...
... reading. Pepper is not to be eaten with fruits — it is very bad for it would spoil the effect of the fruit. Is not a greedy desire for food and drink a movement of the vital being? Can it be felt as a physical need? Yes. The first effect of such a desire is on the physical. Y told me that if anything comes to us without our Page 185 ...
... of man has natural limitations in this capacity which it imposes on the play of the higher parts of his being. And, secondly, it has a subconscient consciousness of its own in which it keeps with an obstinate fidelity the past habits and past nature of the mental Page 729 and vital being and which automatically opposes and obstructs any very great upward change or at least prevents it from... the other members, the vital being, heart and mind and reason. It has like them to be changed and perfected and to undergo a transformation. As we must get ourselves a new life, new heart, new mind, so we have in a certain sense to build for ourselves a new body. The first thing the will has to do with the body is to impose on it progressively a new habit of all its being, consciousness, force and... action without spilling and wasting it or itself getting cracked. It must be capable of being filled and powerfully used by whatever intensity of spiritual or higher mind or life force without any part of the mechanical instrument being agitated, upset, broken or damaged by the inrush or pressure,—as the brain, vital health or moral nature are often injured in those who unwisely attempt Yogic practice ...
... can alone transform and divinise not only the mind and the vital being but also the body. After another 12 years — in 1938 — there was, as certain words of the Mother seem to indicate, a momentous move onward. Before 1938 the Supermind had already been within Sri Aurobindo's body because it had descended into his mental and vital being and had been functioning in it. But now the Mother could see... truth that is meant to unfold itself in the course of earthly evolution Page 122 and fulfil here and now all the terms in which this evolution has occurred: the mental, the vital, the physical beings. Otherwise the universe in which we live fails to discover its final justification. Coming as an expression of the Divine it should in the end be able to express the Divine and not serve... outermost centre of consciousness rather than indirectly through his mental and vital being. But the problem was to fix it there, a permanent light in what we may pinpoint as the physical mind, so that an immediate and settled action of the Supramental Consciousness instead of a come-and-go of it might develop in the material being. Only in 1950 — when 12 years again had elapsed — this kind of action ...
... "materialize" something, to work occultly—to create a new body by occult means.... That was the idea: for a few beings to first attain, here in this physical world, a level of realization giving them the power to materialize a supramental being. I once told you I put a body on a vital being 7 —but I couldn't have made that body material; it would have been impossible: something is lacking. Something... we would never grow old. For instance, my vital being is more full of energy, and thus full of youth and power to grow, than when I was twenty. There's really no comparison. The power is INFINITELY greater... yet the body is going to pieces—it's really something unspeakable. So a way has to be found to bridge this gap between the vital and the material being. Not that the problem hasn't been partially... at the least little experience had better not dabble with this—they'd panic! But as it happens—through divine grace, you might say—my vital, the vital being of this present incarnation, was born free and victorious. It has never been afraid of anything in the vital world; the most fantastic experiences were practically child's play. But when I had that experience, it was so interesting that for a few ...
... feel the unity in the vital, then your vital being becomes a part of the cosmic vital, one with cosmic life. You can experience the Unity on the physical plane; then you feel your body as a speck of Universal Matter. Or, the identity can be above the Mind, by breaking open the lid that divides the Mind from the Infinite. Just as there is a wall that separates the psychic being from the outer nature... fasting on yoga? Sri Aurobindo : On what? Disciple : The effect of fasting on yoga. Sri Aurobindo : Oh, on yoga? It gives a sort of excitement or an impetus to the vital being but the general effect does not seem to be sound or healthy. I fasted twice : once in Alipore jail for ten days and another time in Pondicherry for twenty-three days. At Alipore I was in full... y while fasting I was in full mental and vital vigour. I was even walking eight hours a day and not feeling tired at all, and when I broke the fast I did not begin slowly but with the usual normal food. Page 88 Disciple : How is it possible to have such energy without food? Sri Aurobindo : One draws the energy from the vital plane instead of depending upon physical ...
... viewless palace of veridical dreams..." (484, 485) Thus, the subliminal reach of our being comprises our inner existence. It is the realm of subtle supraphysical experiences and visions and heavenly intimations, a veritable world of wonderful illuminations, and it is in this realm that our mind and vital being retire when they manage to withdraw by inward-drawn concentration from their absorption... the large luminous realm of interior consciousness, that corresponds to the subtler life-plane and mind-plane and even subtle physical plane of our being. Indeed, behind our outer existence, our outer mind and life and body, "Our larger being sits behind cryptic walls: There are greatnesses hidden in our unseen parts That wait their hour to step into life's front... Our inner... sight" (28) (5)"Lived on the tablets of my inner sight" (405) (6)"Upon an inner vision's motionless verge" (360) (7)"Plunged into an inner seeing Mind" (407) (8)"With the arrow-point of being's inmost gaze" (438) (9)"Her inner gaze [beheld] the movements of the soul" (416) (10)"Through an inner seeing and sense a wakening came" (404) (11)"Where all is deep and strange ...
... the Level of the Vital Sadhana on the Level of the Vital The Vital Being and Sadhana Letters on Yoga - IV Chapter I The Nature of the Vital Living in the Vital Man is a mental being and cannot come from the vital, although part of him may live on the vital plane or rather in connection with it. Most men in fact live much in the vital and therefore when... with the psychic being—it is the energy of the true vital being, but in the ordinary ignorant vital it is deformed into desire. You have to quiet and purify the vital and let the true vital emerge. Or you have to bring the psychic in front, and the psychic will purify and psychicise the vital and then you will have the true vital energy. Certainly it is better if the vital is brought to the... getting the true consciousness down into the vital, but as the old difficulty rose again in the physical, there is again the vital attack. The sign of complete liberation will be when your vital can face this attack always without being upset or crying out, repelling its force by a calm rejecting force from within. The Higher Vital Movement The higher vital movement is more refined and large in motion ...
... things. The physical being is plunged once again into the dull, monotonous night from which it wanted to withdraw too hastily; and Thy realised will, O Lord of Truth, has come to tell the constructing mind: "You don't think this is true, and yet it is ." The mind has readily recognised that it was mistaken and has surrendered completely to all that Thou willest. The vital being is quiet and satisfied... equal and pure peace; the whole being is flooded with Thy vast, eternal light; Thy love penetrates and animates it. And yet the impression that outer facts are a falsehood has not been effaced, and the body, despite its indisputable goodwill, is so profoundly shaken that it cannot manage to regain its equilibrium and health. The entire earthly life of this being, from its very beginning to the present... terms gradually settled in some weeks ago, and every passing day establishes it more definitively, more deeply, more irremediably so to speak. Without having wanted it, sought for it or desired it, the being sinks deeper and deeper into it, also gradually losing consciousness of itself in a Consciousness which is no longer individual and whose immobility is inexpressible—a Consciousness from which it is ...
... instrument. The true human being is- not the life-being or the vital-being in man. The true human being is not the body or force at work in the physical being. The true human being is a psychic being which uses mind, life and body as its instruments and is itself a projection of the delight of Satchidananda. You find a dichotomy even in his psychic being : there is a surface self, working as the desire-soul... ego and so on, and the subliminal Page 215 self. In the life also, there is an outer vital personality and an inner vital being, you can say, a subliminal vital being. There is a subtle physical body behind this gross physical body. Desire-soul is the projection of the psychic being in this world of ignorance—in the mind, life and body. When it withdraws the desire-soul and comes to... with the vibration of delight. It is the operation of the psychic being that has come to the front temporarily. Few artists can keep that personality all the time; if one could, then one would be a yogi. There is always the vital personality, the egoistic being, the mental being and the selfish being, perhaps a very unconventional being also. And this lower foundation of our nature has to be changed ...
... true vital — see Purusha. Truth-Consciousness — see Supermind. the vital (being) — the life-nature made up of desires, sensations, feelings, passions, energies of action and of all the play of possessive and other related instincts, such as anger, fear, greed, lust, etc. The vital has three main parts: higher vital: the mental vital and emotional vital taken together... The mental vital gives a mental expression by thought, speech or otherwise to the emotions, desires, passions, sensations or other movements of the vital being; the emotional vital is the seat of various feelings, such as love, joy, sorrow, hatred and the rest. central vital or vital proper: dynamic, sensational and passionate, it is the seat of the stronger vital longings and reactions... spark which supports the evolution of the being in Nature. In the course of the evolution the psychic essence grows and takes form as the psychic being. psychic personality — see soul-personality. psychic principle — psychic essence. psychicisation — the psychic change in which the psychic being comes forward to dominate the mind, vital and physical so as to change the lower nature ...
... Agni it attains to vision on its own vital plane, when it becomes, in the figure of the hymn, the illumined seer Ashwamedha. × The complete hundred powers of the Life by whom all the abundance of the vital plane is showered upon the growing man. The vital forces being the instrument of desire and enjoyment... dadhi and yava . × Perfect and vast energy in the vital being corresponding to the infinite and immortal light of the Truth in the mental being. ... seeks the truth, the mental intelligence and power of possession needed and may itself in return receive from Agni the peace and bliss. The LifeSoul on the other hand has given the hundred powers, the vital strength needed for the upward journey; the Rishi prays that this Life-Soul may attain to that vast strength which is the power of the Sun of Truth on the superconscient plane.] अनस्वन्ता सत ...
... manomaya puruṣa , on the vital plane the true vital being, prāṇamaya puruṣa , on the physical plane the true physical being, annamaya puruṣa . Each being therefore is, so long as the Ignorance lasts, centred round his mental, vital or physical Purusha, according to the plane on which he predominantly lives, and that is to him his central being. But the true representative all the time is concealed behind... behind the mind, vital and physical—it is the psychic, our inmost being. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The Jivatman in the Integral Yoga The true inner being—the true mental, the true vital, the true physical represent each on its plane and answer to the central being, but the whole of the nature and especially the outer nature does not nor the ordinary mental, vital or physical personality... personality. The psychic being is the central being for the purposes of the evolution—it grows and develops; but there is a central being above of which the mind is not aware which presides unseen over the existence and of which the psychic being is the representative in the manifested nature. It is what is called the Jivatman. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The True Being and the True Consciousness ...
... is a problem to us because we are not sufficiently creative." Is not sex a thing not only of the mind but also of the vital being and the physical? What is it essentially and intrinsically? And how is the attraction between the sexes to be completely erased from the being? Sex seems rather to be more of the body. It is only when you pass from the lower to the higher hemisphere that you can... human beings, then and then only Page 127 I will know that you are beginning to get cured. Sexual desires do not come from eating well but from thinking wrongly and concentrating on that. The less you think about it, the better it is. You should not concentrate on what you do not want to be, but on the contrary on what you want to become. 7 June 1964 Instead of being dominated... Elements of Yoga Elements of Yoga Love Words of the Mother - II Love and Sexual Desire Love is not sexual intercourse. Love is not vital attraction and interchange. Love is not the heart's hunger for affection. Love is a mighty vibration coming straight from the One, and only the very pure and very strong are capable of receiving and manifesting ...
... directly before there is any physical sign or even vital intimation of their working. We acquire too the knowledge and sense of the mind-action of other beings whether on the physical plane or on those above it; and the higher capacities of the mental being,—occult powers or siddhis, but of a much rarer or subtler kind than those proper to the vital plane,—naturally awake in our consciousness. All... on with its beings and powers. From that plane we behold the desire-world and the material existence as if below us, things that we can cast away from us if we will and in fact easily reject when we relinquish the body, so as to dwell in the mental or psychical heavens. But we can also, instead of being thus remote and detached, become rather superior to the life and body and the vital and material... the whole knowledge: his subjective being is full of hints and inklings of realities beyond, it is open to the sense of infinity and immortality, it is easily convinced of other worlds, higher possibilities of being, larger fields of experience for the soul. Science gives us the objective truth of existence and the superficial knowledge of our physical and vital being; but we feel that there are truths ...
... progress. But it is the psychic being which always progresses. The physical being, in the state in which it is at present—well, having reached a certain point of ascent, it comes down again. There are elements which may not come down again grossly; but still it does come down, one can't deny it. The vital being—not necessarily, nor the mental being. The vital being, if it knows how to get connected... is something. There is always a corner, a kind of rift, a sensitive point, which is usually called a weakness. But this actually is the strength of the being, the point by which it can be touched. For even in the most obscure and misled beings, even in those whose conscious will is to fight against the Divine, in spite of themselves, in spite of everything, their origin is divine. And they work... most monstrous being there is always a means to touch. The Divine, the Divine's action in the world, always acts as a limit to the excess of evil, and at the same time gives an unlimited power to the good. And it is this unlimited power of the good which, externally, in the manifestation, serves as a limit to the spreading of evil. Naturally, to the very limited vision of human beings it seems sometimes ...
... the desires of the mental, vital and physical beings, this transference and transformation cannot happen. Your attachment to your son is a thing of the vital parts in you, and if you are not prepared to give it up, it will inevitably clash with the demands of the Yoga and stop your progress. When you came here, your psychical being was opened up, and the mental, vital and physical obstacles sufficiently... the mind and the vital attachments of which this one to your son is the strongest, were the main instruments of this resistance. It is no use coming back with any of these things still cherished and supported by your mind and will. Page 369 Either you will make no progress at all here or if the power works on you it will work to break the resistance of the vital being and if you still support ...
... in the nervous and the physical being ? Sri Aurobindo : Generally the physical is not insincere. In fact, it is sincere, but very obscure, conservative, slow to change, it is inert and dull. In the nervous being the return to Ignorance comes because of the memory of the past, or because of the physical being throwing up its impurities, or the vital being throwing its impurities upon it... had to give up the idea of doing this work in my lifetime. There was a great push in the vital being trying to do the thing very soon. Then I had to learn to give up all those ideas and leave it to God to do whatever He likes, Page 100 The vital being is easily elated and the physical being is depressed. I too had periods of depression, but at no time I lost faith. I knew that the... Sri Aurobindo : The psychic being is behind the mental, vital, etc., while what I call the Central Being is generally something above the whole being which presses on the nature and gets the thing done. It is that which drives the man to yoga. All the rest is merely an excuse – circumstances, intellectual ideas and such other things are mere excuses. In my own case I started with the idea of ...
... psychic control to be got? SRI AUROBINDO: By constant remembrance, consecration of oneself to the Divine, rejection of all that stands in the way of the psychic influence. Generally it is the vital being that stands in the way with its desires and demands. But once the psychic opens, it shows at every step what is to be done. Soon after the Mother came in and all of us sat in meditation with her... in their work. They could work without fatigue for hours and hours. But they overdid it. One has to be reasonable even in spirituality. That tremendous force was felt when the sadhana was in the vital being. When the sadhana started in the physical, things were different. The physical is like a stone, full of Aprakasha and Apravritti, darkness and inertia. NIRODBARAN: Sometimes one feels a sort of... further experience of that sort? NIRODBARAN: It stimulates, but often the vital mixture tries to come in. Fortunately I could drive it out recently. SRI AUROBINDO: The mixture is the risk. The fact that the mixture tried to come shows that the wave came through the inner vital and thus took something from the vital. In the vital, one has to be careful to avoid sex impurities. There was a sadhak who ...
... Mother. It is better to write if you have them, than to be silent about it. 9 June 1933 Today a thought came to me: "Why are you forcing yourself so much with regard to the control of the vital being? Better not bother about opening your thoughts and desires to the Mother; rather leave her to work on you." If you want the Mother to work through you, you must lay before her your thoughts and... it is not submitted bodily to her), brings very often an immediate relief or response. 27 December 1933 The experience of being with the Mother and speaking to her is one that one can easily have when one is writing to her and is true because some part of the being does actually meet with her and open itself to her when one writes one's experiences. 23 December 1935 I find that when I... nature (mind, ego etc.) carried on by smooth gradations. To write as you do is helpful for opening oneself and for receiving the precise touch. X 's logic about the Mother knowing and therefore there being no need to write is applicable if there is a free or at least a sufficient flow of giving and reception between the Mother and the sadhak, but when a serious difficulty comes, this logic is not so ...
... suggestion send them to him, he can receive them. The most important point is that he should not indulge any spirit of greed or desire under any excuse or colour; and should be unaffected in his vital being by the presence or absence of these things that satisfy desire. Sri Aurobindo ###(Undated?) Q. What should be the true necessity of a sadhaka? Should he try to get extra things from ...
... them): There is a poetic competition between Yeats, R and J! When R was sending me his poems, I found some fine lines amidst a mass of nonsense. With his wonderful vital energy he could have succeeded in any line he took up, but his vital being was rather undisciplined. PURANI: When he showed me his poems I told him to try to improve his form and advised him to see Amal's poems. He saw them and said ...
... calls Asuric Tapasya. NIRODBARAN: Can one gain anything and advance by that? SRI AUROBINDO: Why not? But there is the question: what and how far? Physical and vital Tapasya can give some control over the body and the vital being. But it looks more like Nigraha, forceful suppression. NIRODBARAN: It doesn't seem to have anything to do with divine realisation. SRI AUROBINDO: What do you mean... him. SRI AUROBINDO: He is a man with an abundant vitality. With that vitality there is nothing that he could not have done. But at the same time there is no discipline, order and control in the vital being. He has written some very fine poems in English. He had made a name here as a doctor and, as soon as he entered the Ashram, people wanted to crowd in to be treated by him. He was successful with... static? SRI AUROBINDO: It is not the silence that is dynamic but you can have full dynamic activity out of the inner silence. Also you can remain without doing anything. People who are kinetic in a vital or mental way cannot remain like that. Some Marathas came to see me here and inquired what I was doing. I replied, "Nothing." One of them remarked that it was a great thing to do nothing. This is ...
... the mental and vital liberation or through the growth of a strong samata in the being. It is the action of the psychic being, not the being itself, that gets mixed with the mental, vital and physical distortions because it has to use them to express what little of the true psychic feeling gets through the veil. It is by the heart's aspiration to the Divine that the psychic being gets free from... the good and bad in beings, but is self-existent regarding them as souls who carry the Divine in them however thickly concealed and are children of the Mother. Once the condition has come in which the thoughts that cross are not believed, accepted or allowed to govern the conduct, it must be understood that the vital mind is no longer dominant—for the nature of the vital mind is always to cloud... forward ]. It is your psychic being which came in front, probably, or else it is the true vital being in you which was able to come in front because you took the psychic attitude. When the psychic being comes in front, then there is an automatic perception of the true and untrue, the divine and the undivine, the spiritual right and wrong of things and the false vital and mental movements and attacks ...
... in your mind or on the vital plane in yourself—it is a kind of creation, but subjective only; it affects only your own mental or vital being. You can create by ideas, thought-forms, images a whole world in yourself or for yourself; but it stops there. Some have the power of making consciously formations that Page 27 go out and affect the minds, actions, vital movements, external lives... ordinary human vital consciousness. They could not be changed if there were not a deeper consciousness within which is of quite another character. There is within you a psychic being which is divine, directly a part of the Mother, pure of all these defects. It is covered and concealed by the ordinary consciousness and nature, but when it is unveiled and able to come forward and govern the being, then it... psychic tact distinguishing the false from the true, putting each thing in its place and giving it its true value or absence of value, not carried away by the excitement of the mind or the vital being. What do you mean by true? You have a subjective experience belonging to a higher plane of consciousness; when you descend you come down with it into the material and the whole of existence is seen by ...
... Usually ordinary people get suggestions of illness from the subconscious in their sleep or dreams. They don't know it and get the disease. Moreover, the physical being is habituated to these things and easily accepts the suggestions; the vital being too. But if the inner consciousness is awake, the suggestions can't act. DR. MANILAL: I don't accept suggestions, Sir. SRI AUROBINDO: Who is "you"? ... NIRODBARAN: In her sleep X had an interesting experience of the action of the higher, and the lower forces on her body in connection with her haemorrhage. The lower forces wanted to make the physical being accept the suggestion that the bleeding should start again and the higher forces repelled the suggestion. DR. MANILAL: How can it be explained, Sir? (Laughter) SRI AUROBINDO: No explanation ...
... not conscious of their vital.... If one knows how it reacts on the physical, one goes to its source and can cure oneself in a few hours. In dreams, you must remember that you are in the space and time of the vital world and not to try to act as if you were still in your physical body. One of the characteristics of activity in the vital space and time is that these beings are able to assume huge... yourself into your normal physical consciousness.... In the world of the vital forces you are a stranger.... its beings gather round you and want to encompass and get out of you all you have, to draw what they can and make it a food and a prey... the body is your fortress and your shelter.... after death you have the same vital surroundings and are in danger from the same forces that are the cause of... very free are the spatio-temporal conditions there. In the vital world, however, you have to use your will: there, too, distance is less rigid, but the movement is not immediate: the will has to be exercised. Inevitably, (in a dream) a wound received in the vital being is translated in the physical body.... If you receive a blow in the vital, the body suffers the consequence. More than half of our ...
... The forces and beings of the vital world have a great influence on human beings. The vital world is on one side a world of beauty,—the poet, artist, musician are in close contact with it; it is also a world of powers and passions, lusts and desires,—our own lusts and desires, and passions and ambitions can put us into connection with the vital worlds and their forces and beings. It is again a world... in the vital or other plane itself, e.g. a vital being moved to extend his action Page 130 towards the earth and establish there a kingdom for himself or the play of the forces for which he stands in his own domain. Or it may be a pressure from above, let us say some supramental or mental power precipitating its formation from above and developing forms and movements on the vital level as... body correspond to are planes—subtle physical, higher, middle and lower vital, mental.. Each plane is in communication with various worlds that belong to it. The appearance of the being in other planes is not the same necessarily as that of the physical body. Very often the form taken by the vital or psychic or mental being is very different from the physical form. Even when they resemble on the ...
... 4. The Psychic Being and Sadhana The Psychic Being Psychic Change—First Necessity The soul, the psychic being is in direct touch with the divine Truth, but it is hidden in man by the mind, the vital being and the physical nature. One may practise yoga and get illuminations in the mind and the reason; one may conquer power and luxuriate in all kinds of... of experiences in the vital; one may establish even surprising physical Siddhis; but if the true soul-power behind does not manifest, if the psychic nature does not come into the front, nothing genuine has been done. In this yoga the psychic being is that which opens the rest of the nature to the true supramental light and finally to the supreme Ananda. Mind can open by itself to its own higher reaches;... mind alone. If the inmost soul is awakened, if there is a new birth out of the mere mental, vital and physical into the psychic consciousness, then this yoga can be done; otherwise (by the sole power of the mind or any other part) it is impossible. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - III: The Psychic Being and Its Role in Sadhana It is certainly better if the psychic is conscious and active ...
... the being is filled with peace, there is always a chance of falling? Yes—if the peace is established, then the falls are only on the surface, and do not affect the inner consciousness. Page 123 In one's working time, one's self can experience peace and watch quietly, but mechanical thoughts of an obscure type can still keep running. Is it the vital being that... that is non-cooperative in the sadhana? That is for you to observe. There are usually parts of the vital and physical which do not take great interest in the sadhana — until the whole being is converted. There is at times a strong concentration at the forehead centre and one feels as if something were flowing down into one from there. And yet one has a feeling of resistance... One can feel the experiences of any sadhana as a part of this one. Was the experience of the Mother's Force inter-fered with by the lower vital's depression because that Force entered this part of the being? It may have been —but very often the lower Nature pushes these things across an experience in opposition to the working of the force. Is ...
... as will help to bring out the deeper spiritual or psychic feeling or Bhava. The life depicted is the life of the soul and not, except as a form and a helping suggestion, the life of the vital being and the body. For the second more elevated aim of art is the interpretation or intuitive revelation of existence through the forms of life and Nature and it is this that is the starting-point of... severely restrained expression of eternal things and of the Page 83 fundamental truths behind the forms of things, but there is in compensation a moved wealth of psychic or warmth of vital suggestion, a lavish delight of the beauty of the play of the eternal in the moments of time and there the artist arrests it for us and makes moments of the life of the soul reflected in form of man... great artistic work proceeds from an act of intuition, not really an intellectual idea or a splendid imagination,-these are only mental translations,-but a direct intuition of some truth of life or being, some significant form of that truth, some development of it in the mind of man. And so far there is no difference between great European and great Indian work. " III "The highest ...
... Nirvana in, 226 Vidya, see Knowledge Vital (being), the, 17, 337 and the emotional being, 63 four parts of, 63-64 functions of, 64 higher vital, 63 lower vital, 63, 63-64 and mind distinguished, 339-40 outer (surface), 62-67 physical vital, 66 Vital mind, see under Physical (being), the Vivekananda, 38 Waking-State (jāgrat)... 361-62 psychic, see Psychic being and real Individuality, 136 soul-personality, see Psychic being stages of development, 17-19 Philistine, the (the sensational man), 275-78 Physical mind, see under Mind Physical vital, see under Vital (being), the Physical (being, outer, surface), the, 67-71, 337 vital-physical, 64 Prajna, 23, 209... see Central Being emotional, 63 inner, see Inner being outer, see Outer being parts and planes, 336-337, 348-49 physical, see physical, the psychic, see Psychic being structure and organisation of, 336-60 true, 91 vital, see Vital, the Body-consciousness, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 164, 339-41 Brahman, 96, 170-71, 296, 374, 375,378, 379 and the Self, 121 ...
... the vital being can also attain immortality, if it becomes similarly individualised and integrated and at the same time becomes open on the surface consciousness to the inner vital Purusha and to the progressive action of the Infinite. The wall between the inner Page 51 self and the outer individuality would have broken down. The immortality of the mental being and the vital being would... permanent mental and vital being from within, the mental and vital representatives of the immortal psychic entity would govern the life. The mental personality and the life-personality would then subsist without dissolution from birth to birth; they would be in this sense immortal, persistently surviving, continuous in their sense of identity. But the immortality of the mental and vital being would still not... But what has to emerge is something much more difficult and much more simple; it is a self-realised being, a building of the spiritual self, an intensity and urge of the soul and the deliverance and sovereignty of its light and power and beauty, — not an egoistic supermanhood seizing on a mental and vital domination over humanity, but the sovereignty of the Spirit over its own instruments, its possession ...
... precarious shifting order. The remedy can only come from the parts of the being that are already turned towards the Light. To call in the light of the Divine Consciousness from above, to bring the psychic being to the front and kindle a flame of aspiration which will awaken spiritually the outer mind and set on fire the vital being, is the way out. What you see and know at present is not the whole... The Parts of the Being and the Planes of Consciousness The Parts of the Being and the Planes of Consciousness The Organisation of the Being Letters on Yoga - I Chapter I The Parts of the Being Men Do Not Know Themselves Men do not know themselves and have not learned to distinguish the different parts of their being; for these are usually lumped together... Yoga to develop (if one has it not already) a strong central being and harmonise under it all the rest, changing what has to be changed. If this central being is the psychic, there is no great difficulty. If it is the mental being, Page 80 manomayaḥ puruṣaḥ prāṇa-śarīra-netā , then it is more difficult—unless the mental being can learn to be always in contact with and aided by the greater ...
... fall short and the movements in which we turn our back on our soul by listening to the clamour of our mental being and vital being. If we know how to accept these spiritual blows with due humility, we are sure to cover a great distance at a single bound. 22 February 1965 Be absolutely convinced that everything that happens, happens in order to give us precisely the lesson we needed, and... well, they are being done for us, come what may!" And if we could see to what extent all that seems to be, yes, a difficulty, a mistake, a failure, an obstacle―all that is just to help us, so that the realisation may be more perfect. Once you know that, everything becomes easy. 6 October 1958 Shocks and trials always come as a divine grace to show us the points in our being where we fall... Difficulties Words of the Mother - II The Cause and Utility of Difficulties The difficulties are always due to a resistance, some part or several parts of the being refusing to receive the force, the consciousness and the light put upon them and revolting against the divine influence. It is rare that somebody can surrender entirely to the Divine's Will without ...
... its own laws of being and action. Obviously we all know apart from the material or physical being there is the vital being, the Page 218 life-force and there is the mental being, the mind-force. And there are many other levels like these. A miracle happens, that is to say, a material formation behaves in an abnormal way because a force has come down from the vital region and has... has influenced or taken control of the material object. So the material object instead of obeying the material law is obliged to obey a vital law which is of a much greater potency. Yogis who do miracles possess this vital power, they have acquired it through a regular discipline and training. Spirit-calling, table-turning, even curing diseases and ailments in a moment and many other activities of the... of view these are very crude and rudimentary examples of what a different kind of force can achieve on a different plane. Even the vital plane possesses deeper and higher energies whose action on the material plane is of deeper and higher category. A deeper or higher vital power can change radically your character and long-standing habits, help to mould them into a different, nobler and more beautiful ...
... The Mother in Sole Charge of the Ashram What your vital being seems to have kept all along is the "bargain" or the "mess" attitude in these matters. One gives some kind of commodity which he calls devotion or surrender and in return the Mother is under obligation to supply satisfaction for all demands and desires spiritual, mental, vital and physical, and, if she falls short in her task, she has... charge and arranges things as best they can be arranged within the means at her disposal and the capacities of her instruments. She is under no obligation to act according to the mental standards or vital desires and claims of the sadhaks; she is not obliged to use a democratic equality in her dealings with them. She is free to deal with each according to what she sees to be his true need or what is ...
... the physical or material destiny of a being comes from his paternal and maternal forebears, from the physical conditions and circumstances in which he is born; one should be able to foresee the events of his physical life, his state of health and approximately how long his body will last. But then there comes into play the formation of his vital being (the being of desires and passions, but also of... must know that, to begin with, all living creatures, and more especially human beings, are made up of a combination of several entities that come together, interpenetrate, sometimes organising themselves and completing each other, sometimes opposing and contradicting one another. Each one of these beings or states of being belongs to a world of its own and carries within it its own destiny, its own ... live in very good health, is driven by his vital to all kinds of excesses, bad habits and even vices, he can in this way partly destroy his good physical destiny and lose the harmony of health and strength which would have been his but for this unfortunate interference. This is only one example. But the problem is much more complex, for, to the physical and vital destinies, there must be added the mental ...
... exclusively through those it considered till then as its own, that is, as its natural means of expression. The vital being had already realised this liberation long ago and knew how to enjoy the plenitude of sensations and emotions in all forms capable of manifesting life. But the mental being had not yet learnt how to animate, organise and illuminate consciously all lives without distinction. Thou didst... of Thy eternal will, without being limited in its realising constructions by the narrow field of possibilities of the external being. Till then this mind, except very rarely, was in the habit of coming out of its mute ecstasy, its silent contemplation before Thy ineffable infinity, only to concentrate its effort on the centre of action represented by the external being; and this was a sort of bondage... present, O Lord, the state of perfect and conscious Page 303 surrender to Thy eternal will is, as far as I can tell, constant, invariable behind every act, every movement of the mind, the vital or the body. This imperturbable calm, this deep, peaceful, unchanging bliss, which never leave me—are they not a proof of this? Passive or receptive identification with life, thought and love in ...
... AUROBINDO: Yes, he simply refused. They said, "You Bengali coward!" He replied, "Bengali or no Bengali, I am not doing it." (Laughter) PURANI: But this Mudra is very dangerous unless one's vital being is pure. SRI AUROBINDO: I am afraid Barin's wasn't quite pure! (Laughter) PURANI: (After some time) : To go back to X and Z: X said to Z that he could remain without company, etc., like ...
... demands? It is a sentimental demanding part of the vital ego Page 103 which makes demands and when they get no answer become despondent, revolted or miserable. If it gets an answer, even then it likes to think that it has not got one or that the answer was not sufficient or finds some other cause for being despondent, revolted or miserable. Something in it... Is that ego to be rejected outright? Or is it to be transformed so that it demands nothing but only gives itself to the Mother? The ego has to be thrown out— it is the true vital being that gives itself to the Mother. H told me, as one goes on progressing higher and higher one's ego tends to become greater and greater till the Overmind is reached. Is that so? ... not like that. Could you kindly explain what is meant by "draw-ing energy from others"? That is what the vital often or usually does if it is egoistic. People are always drawing forces from those around them, but they give also. But the vital ego tends often to draw without exchange, then there Page 104 comes the drain. Studying my ...
... and power, its own laws of being and action. Obviously we all know apart from the material or physical being there is the vital being, the life-force and there is the mental being, the mind-force. And there are many other levels like these. A miracle happens, that is to say, a material formation behaves in an abnormal way because a force has come down from the vital region and has influenced... or taken control of the material object. So the material object instead of obeying the material law is obliged to obey a vital law which is of a much greater potency. Yogis who do miracles possess this vital power, they have acquired it through a regular discipline and training. Spirit-calling, table-turning, even curing diseases and ailments in a moment and many other activities of the kind... view these are very crude and rudimentary examples of what a different kind of force can achieve on a different plane. Even the vital plane possesses deeper and higher energies whose action on the materiel plane is of deeper and higher category. A deeper or higher vital power can change radically your character and Page 65 long-standing habits, help to mould them into a different ...
... many states of being and each state of being has its own life. All this is put together in one single body, so long as you have a body, and acts through that single body; so that gives you the feeling that it is one single person, a single being. But there are many beings and particularly there are concentrations on different levels: just as you have a physical being, you have a vital being, you have a... with regard to the vital being, all your different desires will be separated and each one run towards its own realisation, quite independently, for the physical being will Page 133 no longer be there to hold them together. But if you have united your consciousness with the psychic consciousness, when you die you remain conscious of your psychic being and the psychic being returns to the psychic... you live with the psychic being dominant in you. Then, when you are about to leave your body, all these beings start to disperse. Only if you are a very advanced yogi and have been able to unify your being around the divine centre, do these beings remain bound together. If you have not known how to unify yourself, then at the time of death all that is dispersed: each one returns to its domain. For example ...
... the body is in pain, when one has fever or is ill, you see, or the body is very ill, the only thing to do is to come out of it, to bring out one's vital being. And then, if one is a yogi and knows, one rises just above—so as to see his body; the vital being, if it has come out in a fairly material form, can see the body; one sees his own physical body, and then at that moment, with the consciousness... its being like that. That's all. No questions? I have a question still. Still one? Sweet Mother, when one sleeps the consciousness is different from the waking consciousness... Yes, and so "Why?" ( Laughter ) How is it different? But you have never noticed that it is different? For example, your physical consciousness or your subtle physical consciousness, your vital con... even amidst activity. Vision is another plane of perception which awakes. It is the senses in the mind or vital or physical which wake up and manage to pass their experiences to the outer consciousness. It is as though one had another pair of eyes behind these, eyes which could see in the vital instead of seeing in the physical. And this is always there. Only, as one is concentrated on the most material ...
... mental being, a psychic being, and many others with all possible intermediaries.... So when you leave your body, all those beings will scatter. It's only if you are a very advanced yogi and have been capable of unifying your being around the divine center that those beings remain linked together. If you haven't been able to unify yourself, then at the time of death, all that will scatter: every being... states of being, and each state of being has its own life. All that is gathered together in a single body, as long as you have one, and acts through a single body; that's what gives you Page 247 the sense of a single person, a single being. But there are many of them, and there are in particular concentrations on different planes: just as you have a physical being, you have a vital being, a mental... own region. With the vital being, for example, your various desires will separate and each of them will go and chase its realization quite independently, because there will no longer be a physical being to hold them together. While if you have united your consciousness to the psychic consciousness, when you die you will remain conscious of your psychic being, and the psychic being will return to the ...
... hostile forces coming from cosmic nature must be conquered. Then when purification is completed, there will be liberation of mental and vital being and mental and vital forces. This is ordinarily called Moksha but the real Moksha comes when there is perfection of the being and then enjoyment follows. Is it possible to see the world by supramental sight as we see with our eyes and is there in man something... Yoga but apart from it he has something large about him. If he takes to Sadhana more intensely, he would find many difficulties in the way, especially in the vital being. It is a help as well as an obstacle. But if he can bring the psychic being to the surface and develop it, then he can overcome these difficulties and if he can go through, the result would be richer and more ample in his case. He is... 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. Calmness ...
... It comes in because it has been the habit of the vital to admit such movements. In what way does the vital being partake in matters of sex? Page 59 By desire, joy, personal attraction, passion and in many other ways. When one becomes more and more aware of the vital-physical, is sexual sensitivity a necessary stage in the... suffering. The other day you wrote to me: "If ego cannot trouble the being why should sex trouble it?" Is it not possible that one may be disturbed by one and not by the other? They are both rajasic forces of vital nature. It (ego) is a difficulty as sex is a difficulty. The inner being can put both out and regard them as foreign things. For a long time... lower vital and the sex centre. Is it not rather unusual that those parts should allow themselves to be influenced? When one is tamasic the sex plays very easily — that is not at all unusual. I do not mind so much the difficulties like inertia, desire, ego etc. They do not trouble me like sex which has become awful. If ego cannot trouble the being why should ...
... of the psychic, for they don't have it. These beings certainly have many qualities that men don't, but they lack this divine presence which is altogether exceptional and exists only on the earth and nowhere else. All these inhabitants of the higher worlds, the Higher Mind, Overmind and other regions have no psychic being. Of course, the beings of the vital worlds don't have it either. But these latter... have only to enter within yourself and you will find Him." It is something very particular to the human being or rather to the inhabitants of the earth. In the human being the psychic becomes more conscious, more formed, more conscious and more independent also. It is individualised in human beings. But it is a speciality of the earth. It is a direct infusion, special and redeeming, in the most inconscient... psychic which makes man an exceptional being—I don't like to tell him this very much, because already he thinks too much of himself; he has such a high opinion of himself that it is not necessary to encourage him! But still, this is a fact—so much so that there are beings of other domains of the universe, those called by some people demigods and even gods, beings, for instance, of what Sri Aurobindo ...
... considered: consciousness and the instruments through which consciousness manifests. Let us take the instruments: there is the mental being which produces thoughts, the emotional being which produces feeling, the vital being which produces the power of action and the physical being that acts. The man of genius may use anything at all and make something beautiful because he has genius; but give this genius... but give him a good piano, well-tuned, and he will do something still more beautiful. The consciousness is the same in either case but for expression it needs a good instrument—a body with mental, vital, psychic and physical capacities. If physically you are badly built, badly set up, it will be difficult for you, even with good training, to do gymnastics as well as one with a beautiful well-built ...
... could my physical being have peace and force? Only by the obstruction being penetrated or dismissed either by the inner will or by the Consciousness from above. It is only today that I became aware that my sadhana up to now was based on the vital. And what I thought of having done, a selfless surrender, was purely a display of the vital. The vital nature seems to be... transform. The working may take some time. Can sadness help one cure dryness in the vital being? I do not know that sadness has the power to cure. I have myself followed the Gita's path of equanimity — but for some the psychic sadness may be necessary. But I think it is more an indication of a mistake than a cure. Page 146 Tamasic indifference... selfless surrender and your psychic and mind together imposed it. But there were also vital and ego elements which hung on and these raised themselves as soon as the inertia came. When asked to disappear or change they refused and are still refusing. Do you really think that surrender will change these vital defects? A steady attitude of self-giving is bound to cure and transform ...
... trance). SRI AUROBINDO: There are other effects too—sometimes undesirable sexual ones. Very often the vital being, instead of the psychic, is roused. EVENING PURANI: Some people conjecture that Hore-Belisha has resigned because of his difference with the generals. SRI AUROBINDO: But, isn't the War Ministry that directs the war policy? PURANI: Lloyd George in his memoirs has severely ... What is the upshot then? SRI AUROBINDO: It all depends on the psychic being. If the psychic being is touched and wakens and throws its influence on the other parts, then the Name-repeating will have an effect. CHAMPAKLAL: Then mechanical repetition has no effect. SRI AUROBINDO: If somehow it touches the psychic being, yes. NIRODBARAN: In Kirtan, people easily go into Dasha (a kind of trance)... heroine ridicules is the ideal of immortal love. SRI AUROBINDO: Even from that point of view, the Europeans like it. Love has a great place in their life. NIRODBARAN: But love, in the sense of being faithful to one person alone, even if that person is dead—it is this that the heroine can't bear. Isn't this a European attitude? PURANI: Sarat Chatterji advocates free marriage or no marriage. He ...
... sleep for three nights. SRI AUROBINDO: What's the matter with these people? Why can't Dakshina sleep? Thinking? NIRODBARAN: No, vital restlessness. He says everything is a chaos. SRI AUROBINDO: Well, he has to build a cosmos out of it. He has to quiet the vital being. NIRODBARAN: S told me of an experience. She feels a stillness coming down upon her and she becomes perfectly still, without any... "I am in the heart." SRI AUROBINDO: Is the experience frequent and is she conscious of the nothingness? NIRODBARAN: She is conscious. SRI AUROBINDO: It is a kind of Nirvana of the personal being, where the cessation of breath usually occurs. It is not really a cessation but only apparently one. SATYENDRA: Is that Shunyam (void)? And is it really what we call Nirvana? SRI AUROBINDO: Yes... (after a pause) a temporary Nirvana of the personal self. NIRODBARAN: And what is that feeling in the heart? SRI AUROBINDO: That is the return of the sense of existence felt in the psychic being—what may be called the individual spiritual existence. SATYENDRA: In exteriorisation a cessation of breath also occurs. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, but here she loses the individual existence and is conscious ...
... part of the nature, the inner being (inner mind, inner vital, inner physical) of which you were 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... aware of the psychic being and its aspirations and experiences and of the external being in front, as two separate parts of your consciousness. You were not able to keep this experience because the vital was not purified and pulled you out into the ordinary external consciousness. Afterwards, you got back into the psychic and were at the same time able to see your ordinary vital nature, to become aware... of thought and will and vision in the inner mental being. These two centres are called the thousand petalled lotus and the ajnachakra between the eyebrows — you can ask Nolini to explain to you about them. Thirdly, by this working inner parts of the being are opened and freed; you are liberated from the limitations of the ordinary personal mind, vital, and physical and become aware of a wider consciousness ...
... begins his career as a vital-physical being, becomes a mental being at a later stage. But the trouble is that when he goes beyond his vital being into the mental, he tends to pass beyond mind into the gnosis and forgets his life and body; this is what is known as Nihilism or the Vedantic Illusionism. But as a social being, man has remained what he was, a being of the physical and vital planes, and these... not sought to reject and deny the existence of the vital and physical movements. Its aim has been to establish on a sound basis these so-called lower but stronger movements, by controlling them and purifying them into their true elements. The ordinary man, every man in fact, has to live with his body and vital being, with the physical life and the vital force as his main supports. Since these things exist... from the very beginning, he at first lived by his vital instincts; he did not start on his march on earth with an assured knowledge and a refined mind, he had to begin his journey with his body and vital being as the main props. Therefore his first problem was to solve the riddle of his body and life. He did not at first seek for the Self or Supreme Being, first he had to discover his inner self, the ...
... of being which it thus creates by the greater satisfaction and efficiency of the physical, the vital and the mental life of man, in a word, by the growth and advantages of civilisation. A good many losses have indeed to be written off as against these gains, but those are to be accepted as the price we must pay for civilisation. The normal society treats man essentially as a physical, vital and... and mental being. For the life, the mind, the body are the three terms of existence with which it has some competence to deal. It develops a system of mental growth and efficiency, an intellectual, aesthetic and moral culture. It evolves the vital side of human life and creates an ever-growing system of economic efficiency and vital enjoyment, and this system becomes more and more rich, cumbrous and complex... its own natural lines with no other yoke than the intimate law of its own being. Even with the lower nature of man, though here we are naturally led to suppose that compulsion is the only remedy, the spiritual aim will seek for a free self-rule and development from within rather than a repression of his dynamic and vital being from without. All experience shows that man must be given a certain freedom ...
... experience was different.... Previously, the consciousness of all the other inner beings was there and would fortunately counterbalance this idiotic tendency: even the vital, the vital being which also loves grand effects, but provided at least they are great, vast, powerful enough to be on a large scale and save it from being ridiculous; and then, positively above all that, all the rest, with a smile.... it, but it can be done. My psychic being stayed here with Sri Aurobindo, and I left with my mental, vital and physical beings. It was a ... slightly precarious condition. But as I also kept the contact quite consciously, it could be done. What people call "death"... I see lots of people who to me are living dead (they are those who are without their psychic being, or even those who have no contact... ... Diseases, accidents, catastrophes, wars, all that, is because the human material consciousness is so small, so narrow that it has a rabid taste for drama. And of course, behind there is the vital being having fun, influences too... anyway all that enjoys an opportunity to delay the divine Work and make things difficult. And all that takes pleasure in that naturally encourages drama. But the seed ...
... could be materialized, why not a human being? Disciple : The Egyptians preserved the human body after death, with the belief that the soul would return to it after some years. Paul Brunton claims to have met some spirit hoary with age on the hill near the pyramids. Sri Aurobindo : The Egyptians believed that at the time of death the Ka, the vital being, went out of the man and after a thousand... question is whether it is the being of the man that comes back to life, or it is some other spirit that wants to live and gets hold of the body. Both are possible, because revival is done in two ways : One, is to bring back the spirit of the man which is still not far away, the other is to get some other spirit that consents to come. Disciple : Can the vital-being be called back to the body... after her death. Mono Mohan told me the story, ascribing the experience to telepathic communication of the form. But I think it is not mere communication of form or cast by the mind only. There is the vital and the physical part which materializes. Disciple : You have already cited the other day the case of Lord Strethmore. But is it possible to materialize completely? Sri Aurobindo : ...
... multitude of vital formations of all kinds entered into the room: beings, things, embryos of beings, residues of beings—all kinds of things ... And it was a frightful assault, absolutely disgusting. In this swarming mass, I noticed the presence of some slightly more conscious wills—wills of the vital plane—and I saw how they try to awaken a reaction in the consciousness of human beings to make them... And this formation had a dagger in his hand (a vital dagger, you see, it was a vital being: gray and slimy, horrible), he was holding a very sharp dagger which he was flaunting, saying, 'When a person has done something like that (pretending that someone had done an unforgivable thing), this is what he deserves ...' and the scenario was complete: the being rushed forward, vitally, with his dagger. ... in my own way when I say 1 that thoughts come and go, flow in and out.' But thoughts concerning material things are formations originating in that world, they are kinds of wills coming from the vital plane which try to express themselves, and most often they are truly deadly. If you are annoyed, for example, if someone says something unpleasant to you and you react ... It always happens in the same ...
... you. I have seen this vision several times. What am I to do? You fill my whole being but, despite opening myself to the Mother, she is not allowed to approach me. The infant in the Mother's arms is the symbol of the psychic being. The soul in direct touch with the divine Truth is hidden in man by the mind, the vital being and the physical nature ( manas, prāṇa, anna of the Taittiriya Upanishad);... experiences in the vital, even physical siddhis, but if the true soul-power behind and the psychic nature do not come into the front, nothing genuine has been done. In this Yoga, the psychic being is that which opens the rest of the nature to the true supramental light and finally to the supreme Ananda. If the soul is awakened, if there is a new birth out of the mere mental, vital and physical into... the front it invades the mind and vital and body and psychicises their movements. It comes best by aspiration and an unquestioning and entire turning and surrender to the Mother. But also it sometimes comes of itself when the Adhar is ready. 5 May 1933 Is our inner being already open to the Mother or does it open in the course of the sadhana? The inner being does not open except by sadhana ...
... sign, even for him. Because ordinarily, when the psychic being goes away like that, it goes back to the psychic world and rests until the next life. But he has remained conscious and came to you. That's exceptional. ( silence ) We'll see what happens.... Perhaps he's sick? I don't know. Or else it left because the vital being (vital and physical) violently pushed it away. Page 243 ... grew and grew to about eight or ten years of age and then stopped. It is not a fully formed psychic being.... Perhaps it has left him. Perhaps he left it. ( silence ) Do you mean he has to go through another life to find his psychic being again? Oh, certainly. But once the psychic being has left someone, it doesn't come back anymore? Oh, yes, it can come back, but there must be a... with total trust. But it wasn't the physical being. Yes, I understand. ( silence ) It's night in France at this time? Now it must be.... It's the early hours of the morning, it must be five or six o'clock in the morning. Do you think he is sleeping at that hour? Yes, certainly. It means he would have a two-year old psychic being (you see, they don't have age per se, only in ...
... of the mechanism of the physical or an understanding nexus of the vital forces. There is a mental energy of his being that overtops, pervades and utilises the terrestrial action and his own terrestrial nature. This character of man's being prevents us from resting satisfied with the vitalistic law of Karma: the lines of the vital energy are interfered with and uplifted and altered for man by the... matter and has to act in and through this world of the vital and physical energy and to consent to and make something of the lines of the vital and physical Karma. Man, then, since he is a mental being, a means of the evolution of the mental self-expression of the spirit, cannot confine the rule of his action and nature to an obedience to the vital and physical law and an intelligent utilisation of... Right which man creates,—because ethics is concerned with action of life and his dealing with his vital being and with his fellow-men and that is always his first preoccupation and his most tangible difficulty, and because here first and most pressingly the desires, interests, instincts of the vital being find themselves cast into a Page 402 sharp and very successful conflict with the ideal ...
... consists in a will to delight, and the enjoyment of the satisfaction of craving is only a vital and physical degradation of the will to delight.... To tread down altogether the prāṇa, the vital being, is to kill the force of life by Page 255 which the large action of the embodied soul in the human being must be supported, to indulge the gross will to live is to remain satisfied with imp... rhythmic expression of the love and delight the being feels in its contacts with Reality, inner and outer. Their business is not to dictate or direct the thought of the mind or the actions of the vital-physical being. If they did, they would Page 258 give rise to a dharma-śankara, a confusion of the essential functions of the members of the being, which should act in a perfect autonomy... they convulse and tear the whole being; they even cloud and pervert the intellect and deflect it from its course. This automatic action of r ā g ā -dweṣa derives from our mental, vital and nervous habits in the formation of which the citta has a considerable hand. The whole structure of these formed habits has to be pulled down in order that our psychological being may be remoulded by the force and ...
... the excuse for setting into movement his inner being. This inner being has many levels of its natural self. It is this complexity of man's inner being that renders the task of the artist very difficult. Very often he mistakes his vital being, the being interested in life and action—for his true soul. It is certainly true that this vital being—the being of life-force—can and often does, create great... material not merely from the great ocean of life around the artist, but by help of imagination it can create powerful new forms which have a great appeal for life. There is a plane of the higher vital being—a higher vital world—far above the plane of ordinary life of everyday, where forms of great power and beauty exist. An artist can either rise to this plane occasionally and draw inspiration for his work... limited: Guitar, Violin, Brandy-Bottles, articles generally found in a wine-shop in poor locality. Could this be taken as his representation of the environment in his art or as an indication of his being away from the broad stream of life? It is true that after this period, the broad stream of life did enter with force in his art-creation and gave us "Guirnica". Some of his paintings—notably ...
... unless they are converted, which is not easy. There is a sort of association between the physical and the psychic and between the mental and the vital being. A mental being is very often a very vital being. A psychic being is very often a physical being. Children—just because this psychic consciousness is in front in them—live also altogether in their body. But as soon as one begins to develop the... goodwill which put it in a closer relation with the psychic than the passion of the vital or the pretensions of the mind. And it is probably because of that also that in children the psychic can feel more at ease, being less constantly jostled by mental and vital contradiction. How can one know whether the psychic being is in front or not? Who? Oneself?... It is not felt, no? You don't feel it?... if the head is clear or smoky. Yes? Yes. Page 7 So it is the same thing. In what part of the being does the power of observation develop? I think the power of observation develops in all the parts of the being. You may have a mental power of observation, a vital power of observation, a physical power of observation. When you observe ideas, for instance, the train of ideas, the ...
... itself the control of the mind and moral being only puts our normal consciousness into the right preliminary condition; it cannot bring about that evolution or manifestation of the higher psychic being which is necessary for the greater aims of Yoga. In order to bring about this manifestation the present nodus of the vital and physical body with the mental being has to be loosened and the way made clear... six chakras and the circulation of the vital energy between the mūlādhāra and the brahmarandhra . The Rajayogic Pranayama purifies and clears the nervous system; it enables us to circulate the vital energy equally through the body and direct it also where we will according to need, and thus maintain a perfect health and soundness of the body and the vital being; it gives us control of all the five... to one simple process and in their unison they are intended to serve only a limited and intermediate office. We can easily see how largely man, even though in his being an embodied soul, is in his earthly nature the physical and vital being and how, at first sight at least, his mental activities seem to depend almost entirely on his body and his nervous system. Modern Science and psychology have even ...
... train your vital to run the race here while you are in the body and, if possible, win it. You are sure to win provided your physical mind reforms itself and helps the vital to change, instead of playing the role of a robber who holds down his victim while his accomplice makes a haul of the victim's property. The condition of your being after death depends very much on whether the vital has been converted... developed persons who have organised, individualised and to a certain extent converted their vital being can be said to survive, because they have brought into their exterior consciousness some shadow of the psychic entity which is immortal by its very nature and whose aim is to progressively build up the being around the central Divine Will. Page 146 ... 1930 - 1931 1930 - 1931 Questions and Answers (1929-1931) Vital Conversion - Rebirth and Personal Survival It is very important that the vital should agree to change: it must learn to accept conversion. The vital is not in itself anything to be decried: in fact, all energy, dynamism and push comes from it—without it you may be calm and wise and detached ...
... train your vital to run the race here while you are in the body and, if possible, win it. You are sure to win provided your physical mind reforms itself and helps the vital to change, instead of playing the role of a robber who holds down his victim while his accomplice makes a haul of the victim's property. The condition of your being after death depends very much on whether the vital has been... developed persons who have organised, individualised and to a certain extent converted their vital being can be said to survive, because they have brought into their exterior consciousness some shadow of the psychic entity which is immortal by its very nature and whose aim is to progressively build up the being around the central Divine Will Page 77 ... The Signature Of Truth VITAL CONVERSION, REBIRTH AND PERSONAL SURVIVAL It is very important that the vital should agree to change; it must learn to accept conversion. The vital is not in itself anything to be decried: in fact, all energy, dynamism and push comes from it—without it you may be calm and wise and detached, but you will be absolutely immobile and ...
... satisfied. As for his internal world, he asks if it is his goal to suppress the limits to the expansion of his ego or to allow a free field to the unlimited desires of the force of his egocentric vital being; he seems to be wanting neither. A number of mental ideas and ideals are competing with each other for their full realization and fulfilment; for a time, he chooses one in preference to the other;... return to its original source. None of them explains how the soul, originating from the divine source, or eternally a portion of the Divine, could 'fall' by some mistake or temptation or why, itself being, pure, any chastisement or training is needed at all. If the soul is pure and if it has accepted the material world, it must be with some luminous understanding and for some noble or meaningful purpose ...
... is not the external being, that which is formed by parents, environment and circumstances—the mental, the vital and the physical—that is born again: it is only the psychic being that passes from body to body. Logically, then, neither the mental nor the vital being can remember past lives or recognise itself in the character or mode of life of this or that person. The psychic being alone can remember;... which are mentioned in newspapers, are memories of the vital being that, exceptionally, has gone out of one body in order to enter another. It is something that can happen, but it is not frequent. The memory that I refer to is that of the psychic being, and one is conscious of it only when one is in conscious relation with one's psychic being. There is no contradiction between the two things.... that you lead at present: apart from those exceptional moments when you are at the summit of your being, mental or vital or even physical, the rest of your life seems to melt into a kind of neutral colour which has no great interest, when it matters little whether you were at such a place instead of being at another, whether you did this thing or that. If you try to look at your life all at once, in ...
... unceasing—the mind's will, the heart's seeking, the assent of the vital being...rejection of the movements of the lower nature, rejection of the mind's Page 24 ideas, opinions, preferences, habits, constructions, so that the true knowledge may find free room in a silent mind, rejection of the vital nature's desires, demands, cravings, sensations, passions,... selfishness, pride, arrogance, lust, greed, jealousy, envy, hostility to the truth, so that the true power and joy may pour from above into a calm, large, strong and consecrated vital being, rejection of the physical nature's stupidity, doubt, disbelief, obscurity, obstinacy, pettiness, laziness, unwillingness to change, tamas, so that the true stability of light, power... the Supermind, is to be brought down and made to inhabit and energise the earth consciousness. The physical, vital, mental, all would then come under the supramental influence, just as now the mental consciousness is able—thanks to our arts and sciences— to influence our physical and vital life. Even now the human mind, while it has some influence on our body and passions, is unable to influence the ...
... the last particle of one's being are essential so that consecration to the Divine becomes the breath of life. Practice of Yoga demands that one must hold hard to one's spade and make an untiring personal effort, with a calm and steady aspiration, tremendous will and fearlessness. This requires a strong, courageous and at the same time peaceful and God-oriented vital being to develop during the sadhana... on the more subtle substance of our being and can bring in a fine attunement of the reader to the spiritual consciousness from which these experiences of Champaklal are born. What do these visions indicate? The growth of the Psychic Being dominating the whole consciousness can develop visions, till it penetrates the inconscient and rebuilds the entire being. As in the case of Champaklal, the soul... difficult thing to believe in God with the entire being. It requires a true hero and an inner warrior to do so. One must let a single consciousness ripen and take possession of one's entire being by means of steady contemplation. It is a very personal, intimate and inevitable process, which can be a “native act” to individuals like Champaklal, by which the being that holds an object before it, becomes held ...
... limitations and released into the broader reality. These threefold limitations are repeated in each of the statuses of being or consciousness. Thus the mind has a mental being, a vital being and a physical being. So the mind has mental limitations and vital limitations and also physical limitations. The mind's mental limitations are its notions and concepts, constructed ideas and fabricated... s. 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, it is called mental-vital, there is a vital in the vital, it is the vital proper, and there is a physical vital. The mental-vital means the field of sentiment and feeling and emotion, the vital proper is the field of passion, the intensity... intensity and even ferocity of its urge, and finally, the physical vital, which is the field of outward impulsion and drive, the push towards physical act and execution. Last, the physical too has the same threefold knots, first in the mental physical, second in the vital physical and thirdly in the physical physical, that is, the physical proper. The mind in the physical is the purely brain operation, ...
... particular limitations and released into the broader reality. These threefold limitations are repeated in each of the statuses of being or consciousness. Thus the mind has a mental being, a vital being and a physical being. So the mind has mental limitations and vital limitations and also physical limitations. The mind's mental limitations are its notions and concepts, constructed ideas and fabricated... 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, it is called mental-vital, there is a vital in the vital, it is the vital proper, and there is a physical vital. The mental-vital means the field of sentiment and feeling and emotion, the vital proper is the field of passion, the intensity... intensity Page 319 and even ferocity of its urge, and finally, the physical vital, which is the field of outward impulsion and drive, the push towards physical act and execution. Last, the physical too has the same threefold knots, first in the mental physical, second in the vital physical and thirdly in the physical physical, that is, the physical proper. The mind in the physical is the ...
... collapses. The demands of physical health are often in clash with the demands of the vital being. Again, the demands of the vital being are in conflict with the demands of the mind when it wants to pursue the purity of thought and knowledge and the purity of its ideals. Often the vital being tends to make the mental being the advocate of its desires and ambitions by means of rationalisation. At the same... and fulfil. Thus, each aspect of our being has its corresponding values: the values that the physical being seeks are those of health and harmony of physical beauty; the values of the development of the vital being at its highest are courage and heroism; the values of the mental being are those of clarity, impartiality and synthesis. The values of ethical being are those of goodwill and disinterested... and powers of human personality. It has now become clear that the human being has many parts and planes and that each one of them has its own thrust of development, and these thrusts are far from being homogenous or harmonious with one another. The physical being is often in conflict with the vital pursuits, and when the vital ambitions and attractions impose upon the physical body their own burden ...
... confidence in the Mother and the surrender that goes with it, i.e. “Whatever she wills is best for me” and the vastness which you feel now, — it is the wideness of the true self of the true mental, vital, physical being also, from which such things fall like dust, for they are of no importance to it whatever.... It is the one thing to do, to get permanently into the wideness, peace and silence and let the ...
... known psychological law that whatever is suppressed in the conscious mind remains in the subconscient being and recurs either in the waking state when the control by itself cannot eradicate anything entirely out of the being. The subconscient in the ordinary man includes the larger part of the vital being and the physical mind and also the secret body-consciousness. In order to make a true and complete... The reason probably is that he has done everything by a strong mental control and forcible stilling of the mind and emotional and vital movements, but he has not yet established the true spiritual calm which can only come by experience of or surrender to the higher being above the mind. It is this that he has to get in order to make a foundation for a more substantial progress. (1) He is right in... and Ananda. Moreover, the quieting of the mind only is not enough. The vital and physical consciousness have to be opened up and the same foundation established there. Also the spirit of devotion of which he speaks must be not merely a mental feeling but an aspiration of the deeper heart and will to the truth above, that the being may rise up into it and that it may descend and govern all the activities ...
... attraction or repulsion; for these movements are not the same for everybody and depend mostly on the quality of vibration of the vital being in different people. There are men who not only do not feel any repulsion for creatures like snakes, but have even a liking for them, a vital attraction and preference. The world is full of things that are not pleasing or beautiful, but that is no reason why one... when you have got rid of all craving and fear, when you have no mental prejudices, no vital preferences, no physical apprehensions or attractions to obscure or bind you. Repulsion is a movement of weakness. It comes because you have been touched and hurt and recoil from what hurts you. The atmosphere of a being or man or animal or its emanations may be harmful for you, although it may not be so felt... disturb and weaken the human mind can be overcome. A Yogi has to overcome these reactions; for almost the very first step in Yoga demands that you must keep a perfect equanimity in the presence of all beings and things and happenings. Always you must remain calm, untouched and unmoved; the strength of the Yogi lies there. An entire calmness Page 100 and quietness will disarm even dangerous ...
... an impulse in the vital or other plane itself, e.g., a vital being moved to extend his action towards the earth and establish there a kingdom for himself or the play of the forces for which he stands in his own domain. Or it may be a pressure from above; let us say, some supramental or mental power precipitating its formation from above and developing forms and movements on the vital level as a means... power and its action. The material world has evolved life in obedience to a pressure from the vital plane, mind in obedience to a pressure from the mental plane. It is now trying to evolve supermind in obedience to a preSSure from the supramental plane. In more detail, particular forces, movements, powers, beings of a higher World can throw themselves on the lower to establish appropriate and corresponding... which he lives behind theveil in direct connection with supra-physical planes of consciousness and can be influenced by their powers, movements and beings. What takes place in life has always behind it pre-existent movements and forms in the occult vital planes; what takes place in mind presupposes pre-existent movements and forms in the occult mental planes. That is an aspect of things Page ...
... the soul has no stain. PURANI: No, that's how I argued with him saying that according to Hindu philosophy the soul is pure and immaculate. It can have no stain. SRI AUROBINDO: He means the vital being, perhaps. PURANI: Yes, he was a very self-contradictory man. At one moment he would say one thing, at the next another. When others had gone, Purani said Hitler was not getting any inspiration... PURANI: It says war on England is to begin in a week. SRI AUROBINDO: A German paper says England won't enjoy another weekend. Hitler will appear in a triumphal march on 27th July for which windows are being hired. SATYENDRA: That means hardly two weeks. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes. I don't know how he is going to do it. NIRODBARAN: Italy says her navy will involve the British navy in engagements in the ...
... upon the part of our being from which it proceeds. It may be our physical being turning unintelligently, mechanically, inertly, under the dull drive of a secret impulsion, towards the Divine. Our love then takes a physical form—merely external, ritualistic or ceremonial—and partakes somewhat of the nature of our outer human relations. Or it may be our vital-emotional being turning towards the... disturbing and impeding movement of the vital being. "The sooner you get rid of abhimân," writes Sri Aurobindo to a disciple, "the better. Any one who indulges abhimân puts himself under the influence of the hostile forces. Abhimân has nothing to do with true love, it is, like jealousy, a part of the vital egoism."¹ Indulgence in maudlin emotions is also a vital perversion of true bhakti . Emotions... and transformation. It is oftenest through intensity of emotion that the psychic being awakes and there is an opening of the inner doors to the Divine."² But slushy emotionalism and effusive sentimentality are crudely egoistic, and suggest a weakness in the emotional being of the bhakta. They waste the energy of the vital and disturb concentration and peace, which are indispensable in sâdhanâ . The ...
... from vital passion and impulse. The Divine Purity is a more wide and all-embracing experience than the psychic. Purity or impurity depends upon the consciousness; in the divine Page 48 consciousness everything is pure, in the ignorance everything is subject to impurity, not the body only or part of the body, but mind and vital and all. Only the self and the psychic being remain... all yourself to Krishna. In your nature there are many obstacles, chiefly a great activity of the outward-going mind and a thick crust of the impure lower Prakriti that covers the heart and the vital being. Quieting of the mind and purification of the nature are what you must have before you can fulfil your aim. Aspire for these two things first; ask for them constantly from above. You will not be... reconsider the matter. Page 46 Very often the earlier stage of the sadhana is successful, because there is an opening of the mind to first workings of the Force—afterwards the lower vital consciousness and the physical rise up and if these are not ready or inclined for the sadhana, it ceases. The sadhaka has first to purify and open them and call in the Force to work there and make all ...
... Nirodbaran ): You have to take this extract back to Dilip and tell him I have read it. Say that it is a big yogic experience—a psycho-spiritual one. It shows a going through the psychic down into the vital being and finding there the unitarian principle, the principle of oneness with everybody. Huxley speaks of "dark peace" because it is down below that he goes and from there opens to the Light above. All... for which he got a licking from Saha. Some sadhaks were glad about X's defeat. At this, two other sadhaks were very puzzled. They couldn't understand how anybody could feel elated at one's own people being beaten. Y said that he hadn't seen such feelings even at Shantiniketan. SRI AUROBINDO: That may be true, but what was the point at issue? NIRODBARAN: I don't know. I haven't read the writings... powerful self-expression. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, he has a remarkable style and a subtle and plastic mind. He must have done Yoga for some time to get that experience. NIRODBARAN: I wonder how from being a cynic and atheist he got converted to this. SRI AUROBINDO: Cynicism and atheism were the inheritance of the age. Even then he was dissatisfied with world conditions and there was some psychic ...
... his body that after some hours the doctors believed he would be saved. But it couldn't last (it wasn't possible—a part of the brain had come out). Well, when not only his soul but his mental being, his vital being, and all the rest had been properly collected and organized over his body and had realized that the body had become quite unusable, it was over—they gave up the body and it was over. I... I began to work quite systematically. Every night, at the same hour, I was working to construct—between the purely terrestrial atmosphere and the psychic atmosphere—a path of protection across the vital, so that people wouldn't have to pass through it (for those who are conscious but without knowledge it's a very difficult passage—infernal.) I was preparing this path, doing this work (it must have... long stories.... Then, when I went to Tlemcen, I told Madame Theon about it. 'Yes,' she told me, 'it is part of the work you have come on earth to do. Everyone with even a slightly awakened psychic being who can see your Light will go to your Light at the moment of dying, no matter where they die, and you will help them to pass through.' And this work is constant. Constant. It has given me a considerable ...
... iii ) THE VITAL BEING "There are four parts of the vital being-first, the mental vital which gives a mental expression by thought, speech or otherwise to the emotions, desires, passions, sensations and other movements of the vital being; the emotional vital which is the seat of various feelings, such as love, joy, sorrow, hatred, and the rest; the central vital which is the seat... SOUL OR THE PSYCHIC BEING (a) The Psychic Being " The psychic being is in the evolution, part of the _______________ ¹ On Yoga II, Tome One, P. 353-354 Page 153 human being, its divine part.'¹ " The soul, the psychic being is in direct touch yyj, the divine Truth, but it is hidden in man by the mind H vital being and the physical nature. "²... The ghost is of course not the soul. It is either the man appearing in his vital body or it is a fragment of his vital that is seized on by some vital force or being. The vital part of us normally exists after the dissolution of the body for some time and passes away into the vital plane where it remains till the vital sheath dissolves. Afterwards it passes, if it is mentally evolved, in the mental ...
... The vital being will not be allowed to set itself in motion, it will not be asked of thee to contribute all the effort of thy organising faculties, except when the action proposed is vast and complete enough to fully and usefully employ all the qualities of the being. What exactly this action will be, thou wilt know when it comes to thee .... I also warn both thee and the vital being that the... is alive within and one with the Universal and the outer being too is conscious; her mind knows and never forgets the one Reality, and the purified vital has acquired equality, calm and joy. Only the heart's action is inadequate, not on a par with the rest. Is it because the heart, being weak, is too easily tired? Is it because, being bruised, it is ineffective? The heart has all along been... happiness ... has come to dwell in the house of this body. 22 The next day (8 December), Mirra has a serious dialogue vital being, and next the mind, respond to the call. But the mind observes that while there seems to be no limit to the range of movement of man's vital or his mind, his field of physical action alone is so constricted and petty. We may wonder why great ambitions, great ideas ...
... or the vital being will be pūrnatā, prasannatā, samatā and bhogasāmarthya. Pūrnatā is fullness. The prāna must be fall of strength and agility and a tireless drive of radiant energies. It is for the fairness and brimming wealth of the vital that the Vedic Rishis invoked the aid of the Aswins, "the twin divine powers whose special function is to perfect the nervous or vital being in man... will, sense-mind, heart, the vital and sensational being, and translate them by a luminous and harmonising conversion into a unity of the truth, power and delight of a divine existence. It will lift into that light and force and convert into their own highest sense our whole intellectual, volitional., dynamic, ethical, aesthetic, sensational, vital and physical being."¹ THE HEIGHTENING... the mind, the heart and the vital being, the body's divine potentialities were not fully explored, the traditional contempt for its grossness and inertia standing in the way of such an exploration. In the Integral Yoga the body is considered as important as any other instrument, and its divine perfection is sought with a most thorough and scrupulous care. A divine being in a divine body is the formula ...
... call to persist all along, and brought you safe to us through all dangers and deviations, is your vital being. It is the strength and loyalty of the Vital that has ensured your return in spite of numerous obstacles." The Mother's speech was quite a startler to me. I had always blamed my Vital for all the difficulties I had had in Yoga, and I must have been right on many occasions, but I... It is such hungers — the vital impulses in a super-state, as it were — that are responsible for all massive creations giving from to the Spirit's vision: a Pyramid of Gaza, a Borobudur temple-complex, a King Lear, a Ninth Symphony, a Sistine-Chapel-ceiling. And the supramentalisation of matter depends essentially on the reckless self-abandonment of man's vital being to the Divine's call. The... The Mother once told me: "When the Vital surrenders to the Divine we have a marvellous event. Something indescribably beautiful and grand takes place — the absolute sweep of the Vital's throwing itself at the Divine's feet is incomparable." The Mother also observed that the true joy of the sadhana comes when the Vital co-operates. Till then all happiness of Yoga comes and goes, and there is no fixity ...
... he take? Shall l warn him? First of all what is meant is not that the vampire or vital being even Page 309 in possession of a human body tries to possess yet another human being. All that is the description of how a disembodied (vampire) vital being takes possession of a human body without being born into it in the ordinary way—for that is their desire, to possess a human body but... not mean that she is one of these beings, but has to some extent the habit of feeding on the vitality of others. There is no need to say anything to X. It would only disturb him and not help in the least. The Mother speaks of the power of thoughts and gives the example that if "you have a keen desire for a certain person to come and that, along with this vital impulse of desire, a strong imagination... were not prominent because they were getting some satisfaction or at least the vital generally was getting indulged in one way or another. When they are no longer indulged then they become obstreperous. But they are not new forces created by the Yoga—they were there all the time. What is meant by the mental control being removed is that the mental simply kept them in check but could not remove them ...
... recollection crossed her mind, Mother said, "Do you remember I once told you I had clothed a vital Being in a body?" "Is that Being still alive?" Satprem queried. "Who was it?" "I have spoken of this before," she replied. "I recounted the story of the revolution in China, and how this Being left me, saying . . ." Mother did not complete her sentence. "It was just five years before... voice. "But had it been noted down hour by hour, minute by minute, it would have made an extraordinary scientific document on the occult. He never noted it down." Page 182 "But this vital Being clothed in a body," Satprem brought Mother back to his earlier question, "did he live on earth for any length of time?" "No, never." "Never?" "He stopped at the subtle physical... I called that Being up and asked him if he wanted to come into contact with the earth. It's worth mentioning that it was the first born's central being. Of course, he had millions of emanations in the world, but this was the central being in person. He agreed to be clothed in a body. Théon wanted to keep him there with him: 'Don't let him go,' he told me. I made no reply. This Being told me he didn't ...
... by psycho-mental, psycho-vital, etc. ? That is only a name. You can call it larger mental and larger vital. What is pure psychic? Pure psychic is Divine Principle. Should we not be conscious of our strength ? You say, what is strong in me. Yes, but you should be also conscious of your defects. You have a very strong vital being, and a good psychic being. Is it more easy to act... ease, and the power can come down very easily, without your feeling strain. You need not bring down fighting power, unless you have to fight very great forces. In the vital, you could safely bring it down, for the vital is a fighting being. 7 April 1925 What I am now getting is the consciousness of unity with everything. The knowledge of difference, feeling etc. will come afterwards? When you... law. 2) Spiritual being is Sachchidananda, which can be realised on the mental plane. One need not go to the Supermind at all. 3) First the whole physical being must be opened up; the Supermind must come and change the whole being from top to bottom; supramentalise it; then you get into the Supermind when you have the absolute truth. 4) Capacity of the physical being to extend depends upon ...
... and you ignore all the rest in which you were in fault. I will assume, however, that all this was unintentional and that, in writing such a letter, you were unconscious of the movements of your vital being which inspired its spirit and tone. I would suggest that in your relations with others,—which seem always to have been full of disharmony,—when incidents occur, it would be much better for you... mind or vital ego and demanding that she or I for her should plead her case. The Mother acts from her own knowledge and consciousness which is not that of 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... can they easily disappear if your faith breaks down every time that she does something which your limited intelligence cannot understand or which is displeasing to the feelings and demands of your vital nature. If you do not believe that she has a consciousness Page 341 greater and wider than yours and not measurable by ordinary standards and judgments, at the very least a Yogic consciousness ...
... could make your vital pure of all mixture, make the vital element attracted for the formation of the being a pure element, free from all contagion; I mean that if a psychic being enters there, it can gather elements favourable to its growth. In the world as it is, things are so mixed up, have been so mixed up in every way, that it is almost impossible to have elements of the vital sufficiently pure... what is happening. So, in these conditions how do you expect to be born with a vital being sufficiently pure to be of help to you? One is born with a slough to clean before one begins to live. And once you have made a good start on the way to the inner transformation and you go down to the subconscient root of the being—that exactly which comes from parents, from atavism—well, you do see what it is... Elements in One’s Make-Up Is the vital distorted from the very birth? If your birth has not been accidental, you could very well think there was no distortion, but what you are at your birth is most of the time almost absolutely what your mother and father have made you, and also, through them, what your grandparents have made you. There are certain vital traditions in families and, besides ...
... dazed even at this level. There are beings of the vital world who, whenever they appear to man, are taken by him for the supreme godhead. You may call it a disguise, but it is a very successful disguise, for people who see it most often get thoroughly convinced that what they see is indeed God himself. And yet such a god is only a vital being. Even so, the beings of the Over mind are stupendous in ... comparison with us, human beings, who are truly bewildered whenever we come in contact with such entities. And Supermind and supramental beings are yet beyond. So you realise the distance to be covered. But there is a kind of Grace that comes to your help. If a scientist had again to go over all the experiments that have been done, all that others have found in the past in his line in order... upon that, you rise up to still higher ranges. You may pertinently ask, however, why we have not started with overmental beings; we should have had here, say, Vivekanandas only and not ordinary frail human creatures. You think the work would have been easier? Such beings, on the contrary, would have been less manageable and malleable. Page 300 For what is ...
... even at this level. There are beings of the vital who, whenever they appear to man, are taken by him for the supreme godhead. You may call it a disguise, but it is a very successful disguise, for people who see it most often get thoroughly convinced that what they see is indeed God himself. And yet such a god is only a vital being. Even so, the beings of the Overmind are stupendous in comparison... comparison Page 4 with us, human beings, who are truly bewildered whenever we come in contact with such entities. And Supermind and supramental beings are yet beyond. So you realise the distance to be covered. But there is a kind of Grace that comes to your help. If the scientist had again to go over all the experiments that have been done, all what others have found in the... you rise up to still higher ranges. You may pertinently ask, however, why we have not started with overmental beings, we should have had here, say, Vivekanandas only and not ordinary frail human creatures. You think the work would have been easier? Such beings, on the contrary, would have been less manageable and malleable. For what is most difficult is to convince someone who has ...
... beginning in Yoga, first, because he was in dead earnest; secondly, because he had a clear and solid mind and a strong and tenacious will in complete control of the nerves; thirdly, because his vital being was calm, strong and solid; finally, and chiefly, because he had a complete faith and devotion to the Mother. As for seeing the Divine in the Mother at first sight, he is not the only one to do that... is now being convinced of her divinity. But why do I forget her divinity when I actually come before her? It is the physical mind in its most external action that sees physical things as only physical. 15 August 1937 How to convince the mind that the Mother is the Divine and that her workings are not human? It is by opening up the psychic and letting it rule the mind and vital that it... present themselves to you and something in you responds, it means that there is a part in you which is still open to the suggestions of doubt. Page 340 There is, I suppose, something in your vital and exterior mind which is still prone to the idea that the Mother cannot be divine because she does not satisfy their desires or act according to their ideas. ...
... place for a fixed object? What is it within us or without us that sends forth the mind on its errand ? What guides it to its object? Then there is the Life-force, the Prana, that works in our vital being and nervous system. The Upanishad speaks of it as the first or supreme Breath; elsewhere in the sacred writings it is spoken of as the chief Breath or the Breath of the mouth, mukhya, āsanya ; it... termed Apana, is the breath of death; for it gives away the vital force out of the body. A third, the Samana, regulates the interchange of these two forces at their meeting-place, equalises them and is the most important agent in maintaining the equilibrium of the vital forces and their functions. A fourth, the Vyana, pervasive, distributes the vital energies throughout the body. A fifth, the Udana, moves... by Sri Aurobindo Kena Upanishad Kena and Other Upanishads II The Question. What Godhead? Mind is the agent of the lower or phenomenal consciousness; vital force or the life-breath, speech and the five senses of knowledge are the instruments of the mind. Prana, the life-force in the nervous system, is indeed the one main instrument of our mental consciousness; ...
... there are people who can get them. without first establishing the quietude, but it is very difficult. NIRODBARAN: Is there a veil in the heart also? SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, a veil or wall of the vital being with its surface consciousness and emotional disturbances. One has to break through that to what is behind the heart. In some people the Force works behind the veil because it would meet with many... They are symbols: the sea of energy and the hill of being with its different planes and parts, with the Divine at the summit. They are quite common. When one feels the wideness, a vastness as if one were expanding, that increases the opening. The heart can expand just as the mind can. (Turning to Dr. Manilal) Have you never felt your inner being? DR. MANILAL: I have. Sir. I told you how I had found... breaking whatever is necessary till one day the veil drops off and one finds oneself living in the Infinite. NIRODBARAN: Does the Force work all the time, even when there is no aspiration in the being? SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, in those who have an inner urge. The intermittent bouts of aspiration may be due to the action of the Force behind. DR. MANILAL: We request you to tell us how to get all that ...
... Physical and vital tapasya can give you something. It can give you physical and vital control, though that is more a Nigraha – repressed control – rather than anything else. Disciple : Is it not a part of Divine realization? What is Divine realization? Page 82 Sri Aurobindo : Experience of peace and bliss is a spiritual realization. If one gains control of the vital being by the... on spinning? Disciple : I am already spinning away. Sri Aurobindo : There are all sorts of mental ideas, or rather mental formations which can be carried out and which are being carried out at the other places but this Ashram is not the fit place for carrying them out. Page 79 Disciple : In what way it is not fit? Sri Aurobindo : There are many ... and immediately they find themselves empty. They do not like it. They think that all that comes into the consciousness comes from outside. They have no idea that there are inner things with which the being can be filled. Disciple : But you said in one of your letters to "D" that one must be prepared to pass through the period of dryness. Sri Aurobindo : There is an experience of neutral ...
... conscious Being who supports all the action of Nature. There is no fixed place, but as the central being he usually stands above the adhar—he becomes also the mental, vital, physical, psychic being. The word being is used with all kinds of significances—it is a very imprecise word and can embrace everything. Purusha has a precise significance. It is the Soul or Spirit side of the being as opposed... passage in Bases of Yoga] is meant universal Prakriti. Universal Prakriti entering into the vital being creates desires which appear by its habitual response as an individual nature; but if the habitual desires she throws in are rejected and exiled, the being remains but the old individual prakriti of vital desire is no longer there,—a new nature is formed responding Page 43 to the Truth... response to vital movements ] and the soul or Purusha accepted it. In the acceptance lies the responsibility. The Purusha is that which sanctions or refuses. The vital being responds to the ordinary life waves in the animal; man responds to them but has the power of mental control. He has also as the mental Purusha is awake in him the power to choose whether he shall have desire or train his being to surmount ...
... of the desiring mental and vital self and see in this balance the golden mean of a sane mind and healthy human living. But none of these ways gives the perfection which we are seeking, the divine government of the will in life. To tread down altogether the prana, the vital being, is to kill the force of life by which the large action of the embodied soul in the human being must be supported; to indulge... the whole being, bhoga , without which the acceptance and possession by the mind, rasa-grahaṇa , would not be concrete enough, would be too tenuous to satisfy altogether the embodied soul. This contribution is its proper function. The deformation which enters in and prevents the purity, is a form of vital craving; the grand deformation which the psychic prana contributes to our being, is desire... The root of desire is the vital craving to seize upon that which we feel we have not, it is the limited life's instinct for possession and satisfaction. It creates the sense of want,—first the simpler vital craving of hunger, thirst, lust, then these psychical hungers, thirsts, lusts of the mind which are a much greater and more instant and pervading affliction of our being, the hunger which is infinite ...
... surely the plant has a vital being. Mother, does a plant have its own individuality and does it also reincarnate after death? This may happen, but it is accidental. There are trees—trees especially—which have lived long and can be the home of a conscious being, a vital being. Generally it is vital entities which take shelter in trees, or else certain beings of the vital plane which live in... in forests—as certain beings of the vital live in water. There were old legends like that, but they were based on facts. The plant serves as home and shelter, but the being is not created by the plant itself! ( Silence ) Page 26 Can the being who is chosen by the Divine know it from his very birth? Even before his birth. Perhaps his birth is the result of this choice; generally... and so could justify the height of his grandchildren or great-grandchildren. Page 25 Sweet Mother, can a plant grow otherwise than physically? In plants there is a great vital force. And this vital force has a considerable action. And there is also the genius of the species, which is a consciousness. There is already an active consciousness at work in plants. And in the genius of ...
... Instead of rejecting its weaknesses the vital goes on suffering inwardly. Or else it withdraws into neutrality which is not a healthy thing, as it makes the tender parts of my being sad and dry. Obviously all that must go — it is the old vital egoism of the human being always preoccupied with itself, so that the being cannot give itself simply and unquestioningly to the adoration... change? In its place there must be the true being. Some part in the vital wants to make an experiment: to come frequently in physical contact with the Mother to shake off the ego. I don't see how that could get rid of the ego. Once when the Mother was showing love, the vital being felt it should surrender itself to her. Now it keeps hankering... suppressed in the vital. When the inertia rose and the energy of will receded, it began to try to come in again. I had thought that at least the rajasic ego had been eliminated! Do you mean to say that you never had any rajasic element in you? There is not a human being who has not got it in him so long as he is not divinised in his vital. What were all the vital suggestions ...
... experience, the majority—the vast majority—of illnesses and bodily disorganizations come from the vital and the mind, from their influence. ( silence ) Recently, I got a letter, I forget from whom or where, but it was from someone in Europe, someone who saw my vital being, and someone else who saw my mental being. You know that they have been sent away (they go on working, seeing people, going and coming... receives only from the psychic consciousness, or directly from the supreme Consciousness. And now it's going about here and there! ( Mother laughs ) These two, the vital and the mind, care very little—very little—for the body's well-being: it's merely an instrument meant to be used, and it just has to obey But the body feels much freer than before. That's one of the reasons why they were sent away,... imagination" the body had—completely gone, finished, cleaned out! The moment the body reacted by saying, "No, it's disgusting, what's that!"—gone. That's what is so remarkable with this body: in the vital, in the Page 15 mind, you have to do things over and over again for the experience to be established; the body is less prompt in opening itself, but once it has understood or has had the ...
... bring the psychic being to the front and kindle a flame of aspiration which will awaken spiritually the outer mind and set on fire the vital being, is the way out. It is usually a psychic awakening or a series of strong experiences by which the sadhak comes out of this intermediary no man's land of the quiescent vital (few can avoid altogether this passage through a neutral vital indifference) into... the vital, an asking for Ananda or knowledge or power, yet if there is a true seeking for the Divine in the being, it must lead eventually to the realisation of the Divine. The soul within has always the inherent ( ahaitukī ) yearning for the Divine; the hetu or special motive is simply an impulsion used by it to get the mind and the vital to follow the inner urge. If the mind and the vital can feel... the thinking mind but the vital being—the life-force and the desire nature—or some part of it at least, that usually determines men's action and their choice—when it is not some outward necessity or pressure that compels or mainly influences the decision. The mind is only an interpreting, justifying and devising agent. By your taking up the sadhana this part of your vital being has had a pressure put ...
... right way of action, for any ignoring or misapplication of the laws that govern our psychical, vital and physical being; it is certain that knowledge is a power for life efficiency and success. Intelligence pays its way in the material world, guards itself against vital and physical suffering, secures its vital rewards more surely than moral right and ethical purpose. But the higher mind of humanity... of man out of the tangle of the vital and mental forces and opens to him a field in which the mind raises itself, raises at least the head of its thought and will, above the vital demands and standards and there at that top of its activities, whatever its other concessions to the lower Karma, lives for the sake of the true values, the true demands of a mental being, even though one imprisoned in a... no true law of the ethical being, but rather a mixed creation, a rule of his practical reason that seeks always after utility and holds that to be right which is helpful and expedient, a rule that looks first not at the growth of the soul but at the mechanical securing of Page 415 a regulated outward conduct and to secure it bribes and terrifies the vital being into acquiescence and a reluctant ...
... th& individual vital being. Society, or any collective unit, however large, is only the larger ego for the individual. The relation of the vital being of man to the higher activities of collective life is one of opposition. In fact, the individual's vital being has to be subjected to discipline in order to maintain society. If the collective life presses too much the vital being of the individual... ethical man, the artist, the thinker. Life seems to devote itself to efficiency in satisfying its vital desires. Life is a power of Being and its impulse is not merely to last but to assert, increase, expand, possess, to enjoy: it seeks growth, power, pleasure. " Collective life has come into being from the dynamic character of Life."³ It has brought into play two contradictory tendencies : mutual... which is behind the drive for collective expression in Nature. Life is the field for the working out of this impulse and it takes two lines in the human being. One is the creation of a distinct individual, say, an ego-centre, from physical, vital and mental elements and second is the creation of greater and greater, larger and larger units of collective life. But the drive towards collective living ...
... although it may take for the immediate purpose a mental, a vital or a physical appearance. It is when there is this death of desire and this calm equal wideness in the consciousness everywhere, that the true vital being within us comes out from the veil and reveals its own calm, intense and potent presence. For such is the true nature of the vital being, prāṇamaya puruṣa ; it is a projection of the Divine... is to be lifted from Life, the true soul, the psychic being, must be given its leading place and there must be a dissolution of the false soul of desire and ego. But this does not mean that life itself must be coerced and denied its native line of fulfilment; for behind this outer life soul of desire there is in us an inner and true vital being which has not to be dissolved but brought out into prominence... profound paths of the Spirit. Above all, the psychic being imposes on life the law of the sacrifice of all its works as an offering to the Divine and the Eternal. Life becomes a call to that which is beyond Life; its every smallest act enlarges with the sense of the Infinite. As an inner equality increases and with it the sense of the true vital being waiting for the greater direction it has to serve ...
... desire and emotion and, in order that it may have perfect immunity, it must get the vital parts and the emotions themselves purified. The will to enjoy is proper to the vital being but not the choice or the reaching after the enjoyment which must be determined and acquired by higher functions; therefore the vital being must be trained to accept whatever gain or enjoyment comes to it in the right functioning... The first cause of impurity in the understanding is the intermiscence of desire in the thinking functions, and desire itself is an impurity of the Will involved in the vital and emotional parts of our being. When the vital and emotional desires interfere with the pure will-to-know, the thought-function becomes subservient to them, pursues ends other than those proper to itself and its perceptions... purity and peace of the whole being and the soul transcends thought, can the Self which exceeds and originates all activities and becomings, the Silence from which all words are born, the Absolute of which all relativities are partial reflections manifest itself in the pure essence of our being. In a complete silence only is the Silence heard; in a pure peace only is its Being revealed. Therefore to us ...
... mental and on the vital being through the illumined mind; he represents the Purusha element whose strength is predominantly in illumined (intuitive, supramental or spiritual) knowledge and the power that acts in this knowledge, while the psychic being supports this action and helps to transform the physical and vital plane. Mirra acts directly on the psychic being and on the emotional, vital and physical... illumined intuitions from the supramental being give her the necessary knowledge to act on the right lines and at the right moment. Her force representing the Shakti element is directly psychic, vital, physical and her spiritual knowledge is predominantly practical in its nature. It is, that is to say, a large and detailed knowledge and experience of the mental, vital and Page 329 physical forces... chained or even suppresses the vital power behind the sexual impulse and does not really purify or change it. The true motive for overcoming the sexual impulse is the inner psychic and when that rises then comes the real will to an inner purity which makes it an inner necessity for the being to drop the animal sexual play and turn the life-force to greater uses. The vital power behind the sexual impulse ...
... mental, vital or physical personality. The psychic being is the central being for the purposes of the evolution—it grows and develops; but there is a central being above of which the mind is not aware which presides unseen over the existence and of which the psychic being is the representative in the manifested nature. It is what is called the Jivatman. The true being mental, vital or subtle... conscious Page 97 and separate from the old surface nature. For this rajasic vital nature is a surface creation of Prakriti, it is not the true being; however persistent it seems, it is only a temporary combination of vital movements. Behind is the true mental and vital being supported by the psychic—this true being is calm, wide, peaceful. By drawing back and becoming separate one creates the ... above, the surface being. The outward disturbances cannot touch the true being. If one is in the true being, they are not felt as belonging to oneself, but as outside or surface movements which leave one unmoved and unidentified with them. The true inner being—the true mental, the true vital, the true physical represent each on its plane and answer to the central being, but the whole of ...
... your soul will leap up in answer to its direct appeal and recognise at once the truth behind the object, behind your vanished physical self,—you will greet your psychic being or your Atman or at least your inner physical or vital being. Perhaps also you won't. Poetry also seems to be striving towards the same end by the same means—the getting away from mind into the depths of life or, as the profane... the up to date modernist poets of whom it has been said that their works are not at all either read or understood by the public, are read and understood only by the poet himself, and are read without being understood by his personal friends and admirers. When you speak of direct appeal, you are perhaps touching something true. Technique does not come in—for although to have a complete and expert judgment ...
... letter mean that you are going out in your vital body into the vital worlds and meeting the beings and formations of these worlds. The old man of the temple and the girls you saw are hostile beings of the vital plane. It is better not to go out in this way, unless one has the protection of someone (physically present) who has knowledge and power over the vital world. As there is no one there who can... to your experience about the inkstand. When the vital being goes out, it moves on the vital plane and in the vital consciousness, and, even if it is aware of physical scenes and things, it is not with a physical vision. It is possible for one who has trained his faculties to enter into touch with physical things although he is moving about in the vital body, to see and sense them accurately, even to... Aspire for perfect surrender, calm, peace, light, consciousness and strength in the mind and the heart. When the mental being and psychic being are thus open, luminous and surrendered, then the vital can open and receive the same illumination. Till then premature adventures on the vital plane are not advisable. If the movement cannot be stopped, then observe the following instructions: (1) Never ...
... you are sick, sick to the last degree, the only thing to do then is to come out of the body, come out with your vital being. If you are a yogi and have the knowledge, you remain outside the body but just above it so that you are able to look at it. You can see your own body if the vital form in which you go out is sufficiently materialised. You see your body and with the consciousness and the power... many things at night in your sleep. You forget most of them. If however you recall them, become conscious of them, you can begin controlling them. Before being conscious, without being conscious of a thing, you cannot have control over it. It is by being conscious that you get the power for control. If you can control your activities in sleep, you can have a restful sleep. Sometimes when you get up you... light reading or hear things read out, so that the attention may be diverted. When you go to sleep the ideal is to enter into integral rest, that is to say, immobility of the body, peace in the vital, absolute silence in the mind and the consciousness coming out of all activity and passing into Sachchidananda. If you can do that, then when you get up, you get up with a feeling of extraordinary power ...
... them away to disappointment and failure. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The Mind The vital mind is that part of the vital being which builds, plans, imagines, arranges things and thoughts according to the life-pushes, desires, will to power or possession, will to action, emotions, vital ego reactions of the nature. It must be distinguished from the reasoning will which plans and arranges... insight and judgment. The vital mind uses thought for the service not of reason but of life-push and life-power and when it calls in reasoning it uses that for justifying the dictates of these powers, imposes their dictates on the reason instead of governing by a discriminating will the action of the life-forces. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The Vital Being and Vital Consciousness The... To enlighten the physical mind by the consciousness of the higher spiritual and supramental planes is one object of this Yoga, just as to enlighten it by the power of the higher vital and higher mental elements of the being is the greatest part of human self-development, civilisation and culture. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The Physical Consciousness One of the chief functions of the ...
... mind's will, the heart's seeking, the assent of the vital being, the will to open and make plastic the physical consciousness and nature; rejection of the movements of the lower nature — rejection of the mind's ideas, opinions, preferences, habits, constructions, so that the true knowledge may find free room in a silent mind, — rejection of the vital nature's desires, demands, cravings, sensations... sensations, passions, selfishness, pride, arrogance, lust, greed, jealousy, envy, hostility to the Truth, so that the true power and joy may pour from above into a calm, large, strong and consecrated vital being, —rejection of the physical nature's stupidity, doubt, disbelief, obscurity, obstinacy, pettiness, laziness, unwillingness to change, Tamas, so that the true stability of Light, Power, and Ananda may... the side of the divine Light. As one has voluntarily resolved to undertake the process of yoga and transformation, one has to ensure that mental energies, the heart's emotions, the vital desires, the very physical being accept the discipline of vigilance so that there is constant right attitude and there is constant training to admit an answer to the right influences. It will not do, and it cannot ...
... came to take that strength away from Mother ). So I suspected that during my sleep, a part of the vital being ( laughing ) had come back, and naturally I was beginning to live again!... So it was taken away. And the body is being given an education: it's being taught how to will—the true way of being and willing. And over the entire material creation ( gesture covering and enveloping the earth )... there are all possible accidents, all possible bad wills. Like a web. And the Page 245 body is being taught to get out of it. 2 It's as if mingled with the Force that realizes and expresses itself; it's like something mingling with the material creation. And the body is being taught to break free from it. But it's difficult, very difficult. It's the cause of diseases, the cause... hesitated regarding the publication, then I thought, "If it has the same effect on others as it had on me, it will be good." ( Mother laughs ) As for me, I have nothing to say.... It's this poor body being educated. It's charming! (Nolini) So we'll publish it, won't we? (Satprem) We could also ask Pavitra? Pavitra will say, "As Mother says"!.. I, for one, find it very useful. Those who ...
... you are sick, sick to the last degree, the only thing to do then is to come out of the body, come out with your vital being. If you are a yogi and have the knowledge, you remain outside the body but just above it so that you are able to look at it. You can see your own body if the vital form in which you go out is sufficiently materialised. You see your body and with the consciousness and the power... sleep. You forget most of them. If however you recall them, become Page 30 conscious of them, you can begin controlling them. Before being conscious, without being conscious of a thing, you cannot have control over it. It is by being conscious that you get the power for control. If you can control your activities in sleep, you can have a restful sleep. Sometimes when you get up you... light reading or hear things read out, so that the attention may be diverted. When you go to sleep the ideal is to enter into integral rest, that is to say, immobility of the body, peace in the vital, absolute silence in the mind and the consciousness coming out of all activity and passing into Sachchida-nanda. If you can do that, then when you get up, you get up with a feeling of extraordinary ...
... certain gathered powers which impose themselves on the human being. Disciple : How to transform or change this human nature? Sri Aurobindo : In order to change human nature you have to work from level to level; you reject a thing from Page 103 the mind, it comes to the vital. When you reject it from the vital, then it comes to the physical and then you find it in the... the subconcient, and it is very difficult. Disciple : How can one replenish the exhausted nervous being? Can it be done by drawing energy from the Universal Vital or by the help of the Higher Power? Sri Aurobindo : Both ways can be combined : One can draw from the Universal Vital and the Higher Power can also work. But there should be no Tamas, inertia, and other excuses. Disciple... left to do, more or less, as you liked in your mind, and the vital and other parts. But when the change in the subconscious has to come about, many will find it difficult; there will be some who will progress and others who will not and will drop out. Already some like X had dropped out, when the Mother took a decision about his vital being –"you will have to change". Before that he was swimming in ...
... utmost self-transcendence of our being. Philosophers, scientists and thinkers in general attain to an intellectual eminence by the same double process of aspiration and renunciation. If they remained pre-occupied with physical interests, like the unenlightened portion of humanity, or fully lent themselves to the drive of vital desires and the ambition for vital success and satisfaction, Page... the Life Divine on earth. THE SURRENDER OF THE VITAL (PRANA) The surrender of the vital or prāṇa means, first and foremost, the surrender of all desires. At the very heart of life, the egoistic, separative life as is lived by man, there is a hard knot of desire, formed of many strands that are connected with each part of our being. Each motive, each impulse, each action of our life,... through with the threads of desire, whether it assumes physical forms, vital forms or mental. In the body it manifests as hunger and thirst, which engross and enslave our physical consciousness; and in the vital it manifests as turbulent lusts and passions, clamorous cravings and insatiate ambitions, that toss and torment our being and goad us into all sorts of actions, most of which entail considerable ...
... psycho-vital, etc.? A.G.: That is only a name. You can call it larger mental and larger vital. Tirupatti: What is pure psychic? A.G.: Pure psychic is Divine Principle. 2) Tirupatti: Should we not be conscious of our strength? You say, what is strong in me. A.G.: Yes, but you should be also conscious of your defects. You have a very strong vital being, and a good psychic being. ... hostile forces coming from cosmic nature must be conquered. Then when purification is completed, there will be liberation of mental and vital being and mental and vital forces. This is ordinarily called Moksha but the real Moksha comes when there is perfection of the being and then enjoyment follows. Is it possible to see the world by supramental sight as we see with our eyes and is there in man something... the Yoga but apart from it he has something large about him. If he takes to Sadhana more intensely, he would find many difficulties in the way, especially in the vital being. It is help as well as obstacle. But if he can bring the psychic being to the surface and develop it, then he can overcome these difficulties and if he can go through, the result would be richer and more ample in his case. He is not ...
... Puranic Age the vital being was touched by the light of the spirit and principally on the highest, the mental level of that domain. It meant the advent of the element of feeling and emotiveness and imagination into the play of the Light, the beginning of their reclamation. This was rendered more concrete and more vibrant and intense in the next stage of the movement. The whole emotional being was taken up... came burdened with a more positive mission. Its magic name was Romanticism. Man opened his heart, his higher feeling and nobler emotional surge, his subtler sensibility and a general sweep of his vital being to the truths and realities of his own nature and of the cosmic nature. Not the clear white and transparent almost glaring light of reason and logic, of the brain mind, but the rosy or rainbow tint... inevitably was man's preoccupation with his sense being, Page 212 his external, his physical and material personality. It is the age of Naturalism, Realism, Pragmatism, Scientism: it proclaims the birth of the economic man. From the heart and emotions we drop down into the field of the nervous and sensuous existence, from the vital sphere into the sphere of the body. And that is where ...
... action, battle and victory — the complex that is covered under the term "vital being"; and the third aspect is what we call mind, our instrument of conception and ideation, of reflection and reasoning. But deeper psychological explorations indicate that behind what we experience as our physical being, vital being and mental being, there are, as the Upanishads point out, inner sheaths supported by a... a kind of self-consciousness which sustains and nourishes the inner physical being, the Page 17 inner vital being and the inner mental being. The data of self-consciousness further reveal to us that there are deeper presences of self consciousness and deeper powers as also profounder states of intrinsic delight and sweetness which impart to us the experiences not only of the true source... matter, to some extent, if human beings were ready to forget their higher dimensions of personality and bury their higher aspirations in exchange for certain pleasures and securities that can be provided by the mechanizing and dehumanizing society with its uncontrollable structures and superstructures. But human beings are complex; they have many parts to their being; they are, therefore, obliged to ...
... Puranic Age the vital being was touched by the light of the spirit and principally on the highest, the mental level of that domain. It meant the advent of the element of feeling and emotiveness and imagination into the play of the Light, the beginning of their reclamation. This was rendered more concrete and more vibrant and intense in the next stage of the movement. The whole emotional being was taken up... came burdened with a more positive mission. Its magic name was Romanticism. Man opened his heart, his higher feeling and nobler emotional surge, his subtler sensibility and a general sweep of his vital being to the truths and realities of his own nature and of the cosmic nature. Not the clear white and transparent almost glaring light of reason and logic, of the brain mind, but the rosy or rainbow tint... and inevitably was man's preoccupation with his sense being, Page 102 his external, his physical and material personality. It is the age of Naturalism, Realism, Pragmatism, Scientism: it proclaims the birth of the economic man. From the heart and emotions we drop down into the field of the nervous and sensuous existence, from the vital sphere into the sphere of the body. And that is where ...
... reality or Brahman hidden behind our mental being into which our consciousness widens out when it is liberated from the ego; we come to see all beings as becomings, bhūtāni , within that one self-existence. But this Self or immutable Brahman we see too to be the Page 122 self-presentation to our essential psychological consciousness of a supreme Being who is the source of our existence and... give up our actions; in His existence we live and move; unified with Him in our nature and with all existence in Him, we become one soul and one power of being with Him and with all beings; with His supreme reality we identify and unite our self-being. By works done for sacrifice, eliminating desire, we arrive at knowledge and at the soul's possession of itself; by works done in self-knowledge and Go... Swabhava is the principle of the self, adhyātma , operative as the original nature of the being, "own way of becoming", and this proceeds out of the self, the Akshara; Karma proceeds from that and is the creative movement, visarga , which brings all natural beings and all changing subjective and objective shapes of being into existence; the result of Karma therefore is all this mutable becoming, the changes ...
... body, but those of our subtler vital being, our life-energy, our desire-energy, our powers, strivings, passions enter both during our life and after our death into the life-existence of others. An ancient occult knowledge tells us that we have a vital frame as well as a physical and this too is after death dissolved and lends itself to the constitution of other vital bodies; our life energies while... mixing with the energies of other beings. A similar law governs the mutual relations of our mental life with the mental life of other thinking creatures. There is a constant dissolution and dispersion and a reconstruction effected by the shock of mind upon mind with a constant interchange and fusion of elements. Interchange, intermixture and fusion of being with being, is the very process of life, a... What is spoken of here is mind as it acts directly in life, in the vital being, through the heart. Love—the relative principle, not its absolute—is a principle of life, not of mind, but it can possess itself and move towards permanence only when taken up by the mind into its own light. What is called love in the body and the vital parts is mostly a form of hunger without permanence. ...
... upon body—also the force movements behind events. One becomes too directly aware of the vital plane, its worlds, its beings, and the direct action of their formations on the earthlife. One has to become aware also at the same time of one's own true vital being and act from it and not from the surface or desire vital in relation to all these things. All this effect does not come at once,—it develops as... as the contact with the cosmic Life increases. Page 284 In the universal vital especially there is a deceptive attraction and an exhilarating rush of power (not true quiet power but mere force) which those who yield to it cling to as a drunkard to his intoxicants. It gives them a sense of being strong and great and full of interesting things—when it is taken from them, they feel "like... because neither his vital nor his physical were cleared of certain very serious imperfections. Yes, it is the psychising and purification that have been going on, but you had some openings of contact with the cosmic consciousness which did not prolong themselves when you came into the physical. X 's ascents, I suppose, are more a going out of the body in his mind and vital than any stationing ...
... But Mind is not all; for beyond mind is a greater consciousness; there is a supermind and spirit. As Nature laboured in the animal, the vital being, till she could manifest out of him man, the Manu, the thinker, so she is labouring in man, the mental being till she can manifest out of him a spiritual and supramental godhead, the truth conscious Seer, the knower by identity, the embodied Transcendental... not final, but a middle term only, a transitional being, an instrumental intermediate creature. This character of evolution and this mediary position of man are not at first apparent; for to the outward eye it would seem as if evolution, the physical evolution at least were finished long ago leaving man behind as its poor best result and no new beings or superior creations were to be expected any longer... evolution of life was now her one intent purpose. And slowly too mind manifested in life, an intensely feeling, a crude thinking and planning vital mind in the animal, but in man the full organisation and apparatus, the developing if yet imperfect mental being, the Manu, the thinking, devising, aspiring, already self-conscient creature. And from Page 167 that time onward the growth of mind ...
... prepared a big scenario for a film (it's remarkable). She has read me half of it (really remarkable), and she's just read a description of the vital world, of life.... Mon petit, it's certainly beyond the human consciousness: it's the consciousness of a vital being that can write that—it gave me a fever. It's gone; now it's Page 30 completely gone, but it gave me a fever. And I didn't feel ...
... many... oh, you could practically say centuries will it be like this before the glorious body of a supramental being appears?... Something came yesterday evening (it seemed like mere excitation to me); it was a power of creative imagination attempting to visualize supramental forms, beings that live in other worlds, and all sorts of things like that. I saw many things. But it seemed so... like champagne... comes. You have to be very stubborn about these things. Try. Anyway, even if you don't sleep, it's always restful to stretch out on your bed or a mat and go limp; it's a good rest for the vital being, and it can't do you any harm. ( A little later, concerning the last conversation: "On the surface, it's a very humble work, nothing sensational. There are no illuminations filling you with... in the future, and I said, "What histrionics! Why go through all these theatrics?..." Jugglers. And it was supramental light, it originated in supramental light. How beings from other worlds would relate with the future beings, and all sorts of similar things—bedtime stories. But the vibration was there, you see, high above and all around the earth, very powerful (it was all around the earth) ...
... personality. * At the time of the publication of this talk, Mother added the following note for the sake of precision: “Some parts of the vital are worlds of disorder and the beings inhabiting the vital have no psychic being. The psychic being exists only upon earth, in the physical world. That is why I said in brief that the divine spark, which organises the psychic, passed over the worlds of disorder... any contact with one's psychic being? Some beings in the universe may have this direct contact with the eternal Truth without any contact with the psychic being, because they don't have any psychic being. But in man there is always a psychic being, and it is always through it that he comes into contact with the eternal Truth. And this contact with the psychic being is usually disclosed to him in... unless they are converted, which is not easy. There is a sort of association between the physical and the psychic and between the mental and the vital being. A mental being is very often a very vital being. A psychic being is very often a physical being. Children—just because this psychic consciousness is in front in them—live also altogether in their body. But as soon as one begins to develop the ...
... the body.. (3) The other prāṇa , the restless one of which you became aware, is the vital being, the being of desire and life-movement. The work of the Power has been directed towards quieting the restless movements and making it wide in consciousness as with the Mind. The large body you felt was the vital body, not the physical, sthūla śatīra . (4) The basis of your Sadhana must be silence... all that happens and write that here. There is no need of special instructions since what is needed is being done for you. (2) The first pressure was on your mind. The centres of the mind are (a) the head and above it, (b) the centre of the forehead between the eyes, (c) the throat and the vital mental (emotional) and sensational mind centres from the breast downward. It is this latter which is the... and pressing from above to envelop your being and enter the Adhar and pervade it—usually passing by degrees through the centres on its way downward. Sometimes it comes first as Peace, sometimes as Force, sometimes as the Mother's consciousness and her presence, sometimes as Ananda. When you lost it before, it must have been due either to some uprising of vital imperfections in yourself or an attack ...
... turned towards the Divine, aspiring for the Divine and capable of receiving the Divine's Force and Help. But often the vital being or some part of it takes a kind of perverse pleasure in giving a dramatic importance to each and every difficulty and thus cuts the contact with the inner being and the Divine's Force. Page 230 This bad habit which is common to many people must be stopped and then... then I shall go. This is the right attitude. Stick to it and you shall conquer. Sadhana is always difficult and everybody has conflicting elements in his nature and it is difficult to make the vital give up its ingrained habits. That is no reason for giving up sadhana. One has to keep up the central aspiration which is always sincere and go on steadily in spite of temporary failures; and it... one step obstruct the concentration on the Goal. Blessings. 14 May 1963 I would like to pray to the Mother to kindly explain to me the meaning of the dramatising of everything by the vital nature. What I meant is that life is always full of difficulties, hardships and sufferings; this is a common fact and each one has to face his own lot of them. The only way to face them properly ...
... and all in the terms of that one Ananda. His physical being will be one with all material Nature, his vital being with the life of the universe, his mind with the cosmic mind, his spiritual knowledge and will with the divine knowledge and will both in itself and as it pours itself through these channels, his spirit with the one spirit in all beings. All the variety of cosmic existence will be changed... infinite energy. The third element of perfection is, according to Sri Aurobindo, the evolution of the mental into the supramental Gnostic being which would progressively take up all the terms of intelligence, will, sense-mind, heart, the vital and sensational being and translate them by a luminous and harmonizing conversion into a unity of the truth, power and delight of a living existence. The next... human nature to that of higher condition of working pitch of the power and capacity on which they become capable of being divinised into true instruments of the free, perfect, spiritual and divine action. This would mean the perfection of the powers and capacities of the mind, the vital and the physical. This would also imply the perfect dynamic force of the temperament, character and inmost soul-nature ...
... occasions I seemed to listen to people's thoughts. What being in me did this? It is not a being listening. It is simply that your mind became aware of the others' thoughts. Page 207 After I become aware of others' thoughts, if I am not careful and if I let them enter me they may take hold of my vital being and disturb my consciousness. If they come and pass, it... beforehand things that happen in the physical. One can see them on the vital plane or on the subtle physical, — but the subtle physical foreseeing is usually more exact and sure. The Mother's Force has started working in my ears! Often it closes them as if with some physical substance. Then I feel quite deaf for the time being. It is through the ears that the thought vibrations... thoughts and find it more difficult to dismiss them. The year 1934 The Mother's body does not appear to me any longer a physical structure like that of other human beings. It is simply a particularised manifestation of a magnificent light. Is it really so? Or am I simply exaggerating my experience? No, that is all right — it so appears to the inner vision ...
... But it does not necessarily follow that because man is a mental being he has used his mind for his evolution. Exactly because he has a mind, man has an infinite capacity to be devilish. He brings to the help of his devil a mind, and the devil himself can't be so bad as man with his mind when he puts it at the service of his vital being It is the egoistic ignorance of man which makes him think... When he makes love to Bite-bite, he is physical; when he makes love to Baby, he is vital; when he makes love to Mimi, he is emotional and sentimental; and when he makes love to Girly, he is psychic!" A perplexed disciple asked, "Then how is it that man is Page 289 regarded as the highest being in creation?" "It is the egoistic ignorance of man that makes him think so." Sri... " "I knew it would astound you," came the rejoinder. 'You think the flowers have no soul? It is again man's ignorance that makes him think that he is the greatest being in creation. Many dogs have got a much finer psychic being than many men." The conversation was held in August 1926, as I said. By then Mother had been there already for several years. So it need not surprise us to learn that ...
... It is evident that you are suffering from a nervous reaction due to overstrain. You have allowed for a long time an excessive vital energy kept up by a concentration of vital excitement to tyrannise over your body. The body was being weakened all the time, but the vital excitement prevented you from feeling it. Now it is making itself felt. The pains you have seem to be partly rheumatic, partly due... you were easily able to do before. But then you were keeping some kind of harmonious balance between the mind, the vital being and the body, and all were strong. Afterwards you went entirely into the vital and neglected and fatigued the body; you kept yourself up only by an abnormal vital concentration and excitement. Now you are feeling the physical reaction. But this too will disappear with rest, calm... you must also strengthen your mind; you must absolutely get rid of these ideas about sin, this brooding upon suggestions of sexual impulse and this habit of seeing dark vital forces everywhere. Your people are quite ordinary human beings, they are not evil spirits or forces, your attitude to them must be one neither of attachment nor of fear, horror and shrinking, but of quiet detachment. Do not seek ...
... psychic (Fig.l). The outer being and the inner being have three corresponding parts — mental, vital, physical. Thus "There are, we might say, two beings in us, one on the surface, our ordinary exterior mind, life, body consciousness, another behind the veil, an inner mind, an inner life, an inner physical consciousness constituting another or inner self." 6 Figure 1. The Concentric... Similar subdivisions exist within the vital and the physical. Two of these subdivisions which generally play a prominent role in most human beings are the vital mind and the physical mind. The vital mind is the part of the mind which is intermixed and dominated by impulses, desires and feelings of the vital nature. The reasoning of the vital mind is a pseudo-reasoning as is well i... soul or spirit side of the Being called Purusha (Person or Conscious Being), which is the essential or true being, and the Nature side of Being called Prakriti (Nature), which is the phenomenal or instrumental being. Both the outer being and the inner being described previously belong to Prakriti. Behind the outer mind and the inner mind, the outer vital and the inner vital, the outer physical and ...
... marched in step, thus creating a deleterious division between the demands of the conscious being, Purusha, and the capacities of the force of nature, Prakriti-Shakti. In man, for example, there is not only a division and conflict between the diverse demands and pulls of the mental, the vital and the physical beings, but what is worse, each of them is also divided against itself. Thus, "the capacity... executive side of Chit-Shakti. This one and unique Being projects itself on each plane of nature, in the form of a representative Purusha or being that is proper to that particular plane. Thus, in man, there is a mental being corresponding to the mental nature, a vital being corresponding to the vital nature and a physical being answering to the physical nature. Now in the evolutionary... capacity of the body is less than the capacity of the instinctive soul or conscious being, the physical Purusha within it, the capacity of the vital force less than the capacity of the impulsive soul, the vital conscious being or Purusha within it, the capacity of the mental energy less than the capacity of the intellectual and emotional soul, the mental Purusha within it. For the soul is the inner ...
... 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 mental being, as also the awareness of what is cognized by these inner beings. It is recognized that it is always difficult for surface consciousness to open up to inner or subliminal consciousness; surface consciousness... surface personality. One discovers in oneself, the inner being that secretly thinks and perceives, the vital being that secretly feels and acts upon life through oneself, Page 19 and also the subtle physical being that secretly receives and responds to the context of things through one's body and its organs. In the subliminal being one can find the means of 'directly distinguishing between... on of latent forces,—mental and vital — in a restricted and specialized sense. Occultism: Science of the Subliminal Consciousness Occultism is essentially the science of the subtle physical, vital and mental realities that pervade a large part of the inner being of subjective existence" and a large part of the universe in its aspects of objective vital and mental existence. According to ...
... 4 January 1937 In Conversations the Mother says that if the central being has surrendered, then the chief difficulty is gone [ p. 7 ]. What is this central being? Is it the psychic? The central being is the Purusha. If it is surrendered, then all the other beings can be offered to the Divine and the psychic being brought in front. 18 April 1933 In Conversations the Mother says: "One... precautions should he take? Shall I warn him? First of all what is meant is not that the vampire or vital being even in possession of a human body tries to possess yet another human being. All that is the description of how a disembodied (vampire) vital being takes possession of a human body without being born into it in the ordinary way—for that is their desire, to possess a human body but not by the... one of these beings, but has to some extent the habit of feeding on the vitality of others. There is no need to say anything to your brother—it would only disturb him and not help in the least. 27 January 1937 In Conversations the Mother speaks of the power of thought: "Let us say, for instance, that you have a keen desire for a certain person to come and that, along with this vital impulse of ...
... The vision of which you give a description is the indication of a vital attack or of a vital danger throwing itself upon you. The form you saw was evidently a strong Power of the hostile vital world—a red hot copper-like bust can mean nothing else. If you thought it was your being, it must have been because something in your vital nature responded to the force which this form embodied. The serpent... you have experienced in the work you undertook arose partly from the general opposition of the money-power to the divine call, but also and very largely from your own vital being and its desires and self-regarding attitude. This vital nature of yours was always full of demands and desires and it came to regard their satisfaction as perfectly legitimate and even the right thing to do. As respects money... Bombay atmosphere. I am perfectly aware that you can advance many explanations justifying your action as against what I have written. All that makes no difference. 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 it still farther. For what we have within us creates the circumstances ...
... physical being, this son of Page 468 earth becomes a vehicle of the life energy, forceful in his desires, vehement in his passions and emotions, intensely dynamic in his action, more and more the rajasic man. It is possible now for him to awaken in his consciousness to the vital plane and to become the vital soul, prāṇamaya puruṣa , put on the vital nature and live in the secret vital as well... oppression by the vital or corporeal instruments; it rather rules and determines entirely the forms of its body and the powers of its life. For mind in its own plane is not limited by life and obstructed by matter as it is here in the earth-process. This mental soul lives in a mental or subtle body which enjoys capacities of knowledge, perception, sympathy and interpenetration with other beings hardly imaginable... and the energy of its impulses. This vital soul lives in a vital body composed of a substance much subtler than physical matter; it is a substance surcharged with conscious energy, capable of much more powerful perceptions, capacities, sense-activities than any that the gross atomic elements of earth-matter can offer. Man too has in himself behind his physical being, subliminal to it, unseen and unknown ...
... to undo and then redo—a sheer waste of time. In the lower mind there was a whole world of difficulties I was unaware of. In the vital I knew, because I'd had to do battle there—which was fine with me! Just imagine, this time I have been given a warrior as my vital being. A magnificent warrior, neither male nor female, and as tall as this room 1 —he is splendid. I was so happy when I first saw him... without knowing anything, Satprem had sensed a kind of warrior, very luminous and white, reminding him of the god Kartik , son of the Universal Mother, armed with a spear. Later, Mother said that her vital being was a "diamond-warrior." × Japa : the continuous repetition of a mantra. ... but the result of my observations is the following. (All this is purely from the body's standpoint; I mean it doesn't concern the conscious, living, independent being that would remain the same even without the body—to be exact, the being whose life, consciousness, freedom and action do not depend on the body. I am speaking here of that which needs the body for its manifestation; that alone was in ...
... living, desire must be abolished and replaced by a purer and firmer motive-power, the tormented soul of desire dissolved and in its stead there must emerge the calm, strength, happiness of a true vital being now concealed within us. Next, life as it is is driven or led partly by the impulse of the life-force, partly by a mind which is mostly a servant and abettor of the ignorant life-impulse, but in... progress, the realisation; but this does not mean that if one doesn't feel this joy, the action of the Grace is not there, the realisation not there. And after all, all the ways of being of the Divine, all the forms of being in the manifestation are necessary to express the Divine. It is this manifestation as a whole, in its totality, which progresses towards a growing, infinite, eternal perfection. It... life-impulse must cease to be anything but instruments and the inmost psychic being must take their place as the leader on the path and the indicator of a divine guidance. Last, life as it is is turned towards the satisfaction of the separative ego; ego must disappear and be replaced by the true spiritual person, the central being, and life itself must be turned towards the fulfilment of the Divine in ...
... only make your progress slow and stumbling. There must be something in you that will open itself directly to the Truth and Light. The unregenerated vital being of man cannot do that because it demands of the higher Power that it shall satisfy the vital desires, demands, ambitions, vanity, pride, etc., before it will accept the Truth. The unillumined mind also cannot do it because it refuses to recognise... Most people begin with the power [ of Yoga ] working in the Page 7 mind—it is only when the mind and vital have been changed to some extent that the psychic is ready to come forward. The chief obstacle in you is the mind. If you can quiet your mind and give the psychic being a chance, that will be your spiritual salvation. Your mind is inordinately active, too full of questionings, too... already a great progress. There is only one sadhana for all parts, not a separate mental sadhana, vital sadhana or physical sadhana—but the action of the sadhana is applied sometimes separately to each part; sometimes on the contrary the action is on the mental and vital together, or vital and physical together, or all three together. But it is the same sadhana always. Page 10 ...
... sheath. Finally the soul or psychic being retires into the psychic world to rest there till a new birth is close. This is the general course for ordinarily developed human beings. There are variations according to the nature of the individual and his development. For example, if the mental is strongly developed, then the mental being can remain; so also can the vital, provided they are organized by... not the psychic being. What comes through the medium is a mixture of the medium's subconscient (using subconscient in the ordinary, not in the yogic sense) and that of the sitters, vital sheaths left by the departed or perhaps occupied or used by some spirit or some vital being, the departed himself in his vital sheath or else something assumed for the occasion (but it is the vital part that communicates)... are other beings, guardians of the psychic world, but they are concerned only with the psychic world itself and the return of the souls to reincarnation, not with the earth. (4) A being of a psychic world cannot get fused into the soul of a human being on earth. What happens in some cases is that a very advanced psychic being sometimes sends down an emanation which resides in a human being and prepares ...
... questions. First, "What is the mental personality?" In each human being the body is animated by the vital being, and governed, or partially governed, by a mental being. This is a general rule, but the extent to which the mental being is formed and individualised varies greatly from one individual to the next. In the great mass of human beings the mind is something fluid which has no organisation of its... on the body for its existence, and it therefore survives the body. The earth's mental atmosphere is filled with beings, mental personalities which lead an entirely independent existence, even after the disappearance of the body; they can reincarnate in a new body when the soul, that is to say, the true Self, reincarnates, thus carrying with it the memory of its previous lives. But this is not what... unorganised, with no cohesive life of its own and without personality, it cannot survive. What made up the mental being dissolves in the mental region when the body, the Page 27 substance which made up the body, dissolves in the physical substance. But as soon as the mental being is formed, organised, individualised, and has become a personality, it does not depend, it no longer depends on ...
... longer periods. The other experiences show that the faculty of inner vision is opening; this is also a part of the yoga. The fire seen by you must have been the fire of aspiration lit in the vital being. The other things you saw are not definite enough to be interpreted. Continue your progress. Our blessings and protection are always with you. 1 11 March 1931 Last night after... from the most external consciousness into the Purusha, the witness in the physical. One finds there a great repose, indeed. One night I had a dream-experience, almost a waking vision. I saw two beings, whose faces I could not see, two tall and sturdily built persons, wearing what seemed to be heavy fur-coats (later I thought they might have been carrying a big load of herbs on their backs, as some... be otherwise dangerous for you. This does not mean that the realisation will not come. 19 May 1944 You had the experience you describe when the force was acting chiefly in the mind, the vital and, through it, in the physical. It is long since this time has passed. The force has come farther down in its action and now it is at work not only in the material but also in the subconscient and ...
... those mentioned in the newspapers, are the memories of the vital being, when exceptionally it has come out of a body in order to enter another. That happens, though not frequently. The memories I am referring to are those of the psychic being, and one is conscious of them only when one is in conscious relationship with one's psychic being. There is no contradiction between the two things." ... way of expressing himself—that happens very often. Often too, it's Durga, or Mahakali, or ... very often. Often, what manifests is a being from very high up, very permanent—very permanent—and then there comes into the being a sort of absoluteness. At times, it's beings from a nearby plane trying to make themselves felt, to express themselves, but that's under control. The body is used to it, you... where there is neither man nor woman. ( silence ) The body itself has more than an impression, it's ... a sort of knowledge—more than a knowledge, it's, well, a fact: there are lots and lots of beings, forces, personalities that manifest through it, at times even several at once. That's a very common experience. For instance, the experience that Sri Aurobindo is here, and that he speaks and sees ...
... a difference, because those human beings who have allowed adverse forces to take hold of them and govern their lives, as soon as they leave their body, they are just swallowed up, that's all! They have already cut off the connection with their psychic being, so their psychic being often has gone somewhere far off already in other worlds... and so, their vital being, which is the receptacle for these... for good. That won't make much difference in the world. It won't change things much. Sweet Mother, what will swallow them up? A still greater vital being! ( Laughter ) You see, they have in them an emanation of adverse vital forces, and the being or power which has emanated this force has done so in order to make Page 246 use of the body, to make it do in the material life exactly... usually this hastens their end. There are Asuras and Asuras... that is to say... no, the Asuras are Asuras, but there are all those who have come out of them, and who are beings of an inferior kind. An Asura is generally a conscious being and he knows he has an end. He knows that the attitude he has taken up in the universe is bound to destroy him after a certain time. Naturally, the time of an Asura ...
... nature. The Life Divine, p. 557 The Inner Being; the Psychical Consciousness The inner being means the inner mind, inner vital, inner physical with the psychic behind as the inmost. Letters on Yoga, p. 373 There is an inner mental, an inner vital, an inner physical which connects the psychic and the external being. Letters on Yoga, p. 1113 Most people... consciousness that emerges from below by evolution and the consciousness that has descended from above for involution. There is in it an inner mind, an inner vital being of ourselves, an inner or subtle-physical being larger than our outer being and nature. This inner existence is the concealed origin of almost all in our surface self that is not a construction of the first inconscient World-Energy... Superconscience. It is into this large realm of interior existence that our mind and vital being retire when they withdraw from the surface activities whether by sleep or inward-drawn concentration or by the inner plunge of trance. Our waking state is unaware of its connection with the subliminal being, although it receives from it, — but without any knowledge of the place of origin, — ...
... to develop the higher states of consciousness. So, to say "each one bears his cross" is true of the external consciousness (of material happenings, happenings which touch the vital being, the emotional being and the mental being); for such people there will always be a considerable number of catastrophes, all the more because catastrophes seem to be proportionate to the capacity of the individual, they... of "transformed" beings, for in them one can visualise a state of things in which even the physical being is above suffering; we are speaking of men as they are at present). If your consciousness is seated in a place where these external things do not exist, then it may be said that you do not bear your cross because you are above it. Yet there are exceptions, there are human beings who are above a... part of the being in everyone which is above all affliction. Z: There are different types of people in the world. W: The cross is necessary to leap beyond suffering. That is not a synthesis. X: In my thesis I spoke of ordinary men. In the antithesis I speak of extraordinary men. Yes, but you believe that extraordinary men do not have their cross! Even higher beings have their cross ...
... you act only in conformity with what can lead you to the divine realisation, if you abolish in yourself all desires and impulses turned towards external things, if you calm your mental being, appease your vital being, if you shut yourself against suggestions coming from outside and become immune to the action of people surrounding you, you create such a spiritual atmosphere that nothing can touch it... important key for the development of the being, and not only from the point of view of the possibilities of the being, but also from that of the control and choice of what one will be, of what one wants to be. This makes us understand the necessity of not admitting into ourselves any thought which destroys aspiration or the creation of the truth of our being. It reveals the considerable importance... importance of not allowing what one doesn't want to be or doesn't want to do to formulate itself into thought within the being. Because to think these things is already a beginning of their realisation. From every point of view it is bad to concentrate on what one doesn't want, on what one has to reject, what one refuses to be, for the very fact that the thought is there gives to things one wants to reject ...
... consciousness they find there great obstacles: for the stuff is missing there; there are not, in the vital and physical consciousness, elements enough to enable it to support a descent of the higher force. Page 69 How does fasting bring about a state of receptiviry? Usually the vital being is concentrated very much in the body. And when the body is well fed, it draws its force and energy... no longer to assimilate and transform within you: in order to liberate energy in you. Then, as there is an instinct in the being to make up for the energy spent, if you do not gather it from food i.e. from below, you make automatically an effort to draw it from the universal vital energy which is free around you. And if you can assimilate that energy, assimilate it directly, then there is no limit to... now. Originally very material in nature, much like the animal, man in he course of his progress through centuries or millenniums became more and more mental, more and more vital. And as he grew more mental and more vital, refinement became possible, the intelligence increased, but the possibility too of perversion and deformation. It is one thing to educate the senses so as to bring into them every ...
... supramentalise the body. Of course, by mantra-power one may subtilise the physical being but to supramentalise it is a different cup of tea - or, to hark back to Rigvedic terminology, a different goblet of Soma, the nectar of Immortality. Your friend appears to make his followers believe that by merely quieting the mind and the vital nature one can have the power to supramentalise the physical instrument by... -yes, by the Mother even in the period when she was busy with the Mantra's magic - is the sine qua non. What I understand your author to harp on is that a little quieting of the mind and of the vital being are all that is required as the background to the Mantric practice. Naturally, one has to reduce the great Supramental Yoga to this if one's purpose is to catch the ear of a large following, particularly... will-power. There have been occasions when I wanted something to happen or to be done and a force went forth from the ideative mind but backed by an urge from the heart-centre and a drive from the vital being - and Io, the impossible-looking event which had been willed and aspired after took place. But on other occasions there was only a passing on to the Mother of what I wished for and surrendering entirely ...
... Life on earth may be said to be the result of the pressure of this life-world on the material, inconscient existence of the physical universe. Our own manifest vital being is also only a surface result of a larger and profounder vital being which has its proper seat on the life-plane and through which we are connected with the life-world. Moreover, the life-world is constantly acting upon us and behind... of the vital and material existence. Our conscious spiritual being and our intuitive mind awaken in us as a result of the pressure of these highest worlds on the mental being in life and body. But this causal body is, as we may say, little developed in the majority of men and to live in it or to ascend to the supramental planes, as distinguished from corresponding sub-planes in the mental being, or still... and higher beings from which he can receive or be helped to knowledge, powers, joys, a growth of his being otherwise impossible. All these things, the ancient knowledge asserts, exist,—other worlds, higher planes, the possibility of Page 451 communication, of ascension, of growth by contact with and influence from that which is above him in the present scale of his realised being. As there ...
... Fire Nodhas Gautama SUKTA 58 A hymn to Agni of the woodlands, the Flame that feeds on and enjoys the pleasant things of the earthly being and when the emotional and vital being is offered to the gods becomes a creator of the divine birth and a giver of the supreme bliss and the immortal rapture. नू चित्सहोजा अमृतो नि तुन्दते होता यद् दूतो अभवद् विवस्वतः... quickly come rich with thought. SUKTA 59 A hymn to Agni Vaisvanara, the universal Force in all the worlds and in all beings who conducts the action of the universe and getting rid of the powers of darkness manifests to men the supreme heavenly world of light and truth and true being. वया इदग्ने अग्नयस्ते अन्ये त्वे विश्वे अमृता मादयन्ते । वैश्वानर नाभिरसि क्षितीनां ह्थूणेव जनाँ उपमिद् ययन्थ... the doer of the work with the Rudras and the Vasus, the vicar of sacrifice and seated offering priest, the Immortal, the conqueror of treasures. The godhead shining among the peoples of these living beings is like our chariot and moves uninterruptedly to desirable things. Page 133 वि वातजूतो अतसेषु तिष्ठते वृथा जुहूभिः सृण्या तुविष्वणिः । तृषु यदग्ने वनिनो वृषायसे कृष्णं त एम रुशदूर्मे ...
... always try my best to reject it, but still it comes constantly and forcibly and makes my consciousness disordered. I pray that the Mother may remove it. What is this being—is it vital? Yes, it is a being of falsehood from the vital world which tries to make one take its false suggestions for the truth and disturb the consciousness, and get it to leave the straight path and either get depressed or... this part of your vital being that you must change, its acceptance of these false suggestions, its want of fortitude in facing the difficulties of the sadhana. If you refused to indulge this vital tamasic tendency and the voices of darkness that come with it, there would be no such violent ups and downs in the sadhana. 24 January 1934 It is of course the resistance of the old vital in the past that... yourself open to her and feel with your heart—the inner heart, not the surface vital desire, but the heart of true emotion,—then you are more likely to find her and be always near her in your self and receive what constantly she is working to give you. 27 June 1931 When I see the Mother in the evening, I notice that some being in me is trying to bring catastrophes, such as the idea, "Mother Page ...
... within which is his real self. This failure to distinguish our true being from its surface instruments lies at the root of all our failures to tackle human problems. Ordinarily it is the vital being or the desire-self in us that rules and governs our conduct. It is the dominance of the crude, ignorant, selfish and dangerous vital nature of man that is at the base of all our troubles and difficulties... completely detached from his mental, vital and physical existence and transcend the limitations on knowledge imposed by an ignorant and only half enlightened mind. But a certain mental growth and development in the right direction is necessary as a preliminary condition and it is to live in the mind and be the mental witness of the activities of mind, life and body without being in any way identified with them... for the vital in us is not concerned Page 68 with truth, right or justice. It seeks self-affirmation, life-growth and satisfaction of all its desires and impulses. "It tries," says Sri Aurobindo, "to dominate the mind and get from it by dictation a sanction and order of execution for its own will of self-affirmation, a verdict of right and truth and good for its own vital assertions ...
... consciousness they find there great obstacles: for the stuff is missing there, there are not, in the vital and physical consciousness, elements enough to enable it to support a descent of the higher force. Page 95 How does fasting bring a state of receptivity ? Usually the vital being is concentrated very much in the body. And when the body is well fed, it takes its force and... have no longer to assimilate and transform within you: that liberates energy in you. Then, as there is an instinct in the being to make up for energy spent, if you do not gather it from food i.e. from below, you make automatically an effort to draw it from the universal vital energy which is free around you. And if you can assimilate that energy, assimilate it directly, then there is no limit to... Originally very material in nature, much like the animal, man in the course of his progress through centuries or millenniums became more and more mental, more and more vital. And as he grew more mental and more vital, refinement became possible, the intelligence increased, but the possibility too of perversion and deformation. It is one thing to educate the senses so as to bring into them ...
... called the masculine and feminine principles." (Ibid., pp. 447-48) (Q. 28): Can the psychic being take up more than one body at the same time? (A. 28): "No, the psychic being cannot take up more than one body. There is only one psychic being for each human being, but the beings of the higher planes, e.g., the Gods of the overmind can manifest in more than one human body at a time... it is your body which separates you from me is sheer stupidity.... To think that if you leave your body you will come closer to me is a big mistake; for the vital being remains what it is, whether the body be alive or dead, and if the vital being is, during one's life, incapable of feeling the nearness, the deep intimacy, how can one reasonably hope it will suddenly be able to do so just because it has... temporary mental, vital, physical formation which the being, the real Person, the psychic entity, puts forward on the surface, - it is not the self in its abiding reality. In each return to earth the Person, the Purusha, makes a new formation, builds a new personal quantum suitable for a new experience, for a new growth of its being. When it passes from its body, it keeps still the same vital and mental form ...
... collapses. The demands of physical health are often in clash with the demands of the vital being. Again, the demands of the vital being are in conflict with the demands of the mind when it wants to pursue the purity of thought and knowledge and the purity of its ideals. Often the vital being tends to make the mental being the advocate of its Page 207 desires and ambitions by means of ratio... and powers of human personality. It has now become clear that the human being has many parts and planes and that each one of them has its own thrust of development, and these thrusts are far from being homogenous or harmonious with one another. The physical being is often in conflict with the vital pursuits, and when the vital ambitions and attractions impose upon the physical body their own burden... the spontaneous action of the being in harmony with the truth of things and the truths of oneself and others and, therefore, sure of true and right results. In that society, the quarrel between the individual and the collectivity or the disastrous struggle between one community and another would not exist, since the cosmic consciousness imbedded in the embodied beings would assure a harmonious diversity ...
... the thinking mind, but the inner being, the psychic supporting the inner mental, vital, physical being, of which I have spoken. A time must come for every seeker of complete self-knowledge when he is thus aware of living in two worlds, two consciousnesses at the same time, two parts of the same existence. At present he lives in the outer consciousness, the outer being and sees within the inner self—but... which is awake in sleep are not the same—they are different parts of the being. When this growth of the inner sleep consciousness begins, there is often a pull to go inside and pursue the development even when there is no fatigue or need of sleep. Another cause aids this pull. It is usually the vital part of the inner being that first wakes in sleep and the first dream experiences (as opposed to... s of the vital plane, a world of supraphysical life, full of variety and interest, with many provinces, luminous or obscure, beautiful or perilous, often extremely attractive, where we can get much knowledge too both of our concealed parts of nature and of things happening to us behind the veil and of others which are of concern for the development of our parts of nature. The vital being in us then ...
... formed individuality, fully conscious and having its own qualities, you would all be fused into one another and be indistinguishable. Even if we go only a little inwards, into the most material vital being, there is such a mixture between the vibrations of different people that it is very difficult to distinguish any of you. And if you did not have a body, it would be a sort of inextricable pulp. Therefore... semi-liquid form, and when it cools down one can break the mould and have the object in a precise form. Well, the form of the body serves as a mould in which the vital and mental forces can take a precise form, so that you can become an individual being separate from others. It is only gradually, very slowly, through the movements of life and a more or less careful and thorough education that you begin... And it must have represented quite a considerable labour to make this multiplicity conscious of being multiple. And if one observes very attentively, if creation had kept the memory of its origin, it would perhaps never have become a diverse multiplicity. There would have been at the centre of each being the sense of perfect unity, and the diversity would—perhaps—never have been expressed. Through ...
... you not understood? Sri Aurobindo says that the vital part, the vital being is the greatest obstacle because it is unregenerate, and that there would be a possibility of transforming it if it surrendered entirely to Love and Knowledge; but as its predominant quality is force, energy, power, it does not like to submit to other parts of the being, and this justifies its refusal to submit itself, for... the situation. If the vital were a mediocre being without definite qualities, there would be no difficulty in its surrendering, but it would be altogether useless. But, on the contrary, the vital is a sort of stronghold of energy and power—of all powers. Yet generally this power is diverted; it is no longer at the service of the Divine, it is at the service of the vital itself for its own satisfaction... higher plane than that of the psychic being. The psychic being is, so to say, the vehicle of the Divine, it contains the Divine, is the habitation of the Divine, but the Divine is higher than it. For the psychic being is only an aspect of the divine manifestation. Is not the Supermind also the psychic being? The Supermind is far higher than the psychic being also. What Sri Aurobindo calls the ...
... was coolness and peace and quietude. The Page 139 voices and sounds and impression of X being there indicate a confused activity of the occult sense in the vital which hears things other than the physical. When this kind of thing comes, there has to be a quiet rejection in the being and the thing will pass away. Some people get interested and have a lot of trouble because they get into... are only partly or sometimes true but mixed with much that is false and misleading. It is good that there was something in your vital being which rejected it. The dream is evidently an indication of the difficulty you are experiencing. The sea is the sea of the vital nature whose flood is pursuing you (desires are the sea water) on your road of sadhana. The Mother is there in your heart but ... seems to you in the vital painful and dangerous may be the very means of bringing you the ecstasy of the Divine Presence. Less generally the cobras are the forces of the evolution, the evolution towards the Divine. Their taking the place of the legs means that their action here takes place in the physical or external consciousness, in the evolution of the external mind, vital, physical towards the ...
... the next Bulletin and selects this one: ) "What your vital being seems to have kept all along is the 'bargain' or the 'mess' attitude in these matters. One gives some kind of commodity which he calls devotion or surrender and in return the Mother is under obligation to supply satisfaction for all demands and desires spiritual, mental, vital and physical, and, if she falls short in her task, she has... charge and arranges things as best they can be arranged within the means at her disposal and the capacities of her instruments. She is under no obligation to act according to the mental standards or vital desires and claims of the Sadhaks; she is not obliged to use a democratic equality in her dealings with them. She is free to deal with each according to what she sees to be his true need or what is ...
... grateful also for what is given without grumbling because you are not given still more. My love is always with you. Have faith in it and you will cure. With simple sincerity offer your vital being to the Divine and the realisation will begin" ... feelings take you away from the Divine and throw you defenceless in the arms of the devil who wants only to swallow you—and that is the source of endless sorrow and suffering. In the human beings along with the growth of the mental activities grows the subtlety of self-deception. The more they are intellectual the more they are, in their self-deception, completely candid and insincere at the... it will be worth living. Be ever one-pointed in your surrender and sincere in your aspiration and you will constantly feel the presence of the Divine's help and guidance. Among human beings, the most widely spread disease is mental narrowness. They can understand only what they think or feel and cannot tolerate the rest. To realise a progressive truth theories must be remoulded ...
... what he has said in this connection: "What your vital being seems to have kept all along is the 'bargaining' or the 'mess' attitude in these matters. One gives some kind of commodity which he calls devotion or surrender and in return the Mother is under obligation to supply satisfaction for all demands and desires spiritual, mental, vital and physical, and, if she falls short in her task, she... for their stay here. Things cannot move smoothly in our community unless and until most if not all the Sadhaks here come to realise that "they are not here for their ego and self-indulgence of their vital and physical demands but for a high and exacting Yoga of which the first aim is the destruction of desire and the substitution for it of the Divine Truth and the Divine Will." (Ibid., p. 244) ... should do whenever we confront a situation like that. This has been clearly indicated in one of Sri Aurobindo's letters: "All this cannot be done in a day. So you are once more right in not being anxious or uneasy. One must be vigilant, but not anxious or uneasy. The Mother's Force will act and bring the result in its own time, provided one offers all to her and aspires and is vigilant, calling ...
... gradually evolving expansion up the ladders of the physical, the vital, the mental consciousness and towards the higher mental and overmental, indeed towards the Supramental. II It is not sufficient that the central psychic being comes forward and exercises what is at most a general influence on the other limbs of the being. It should enter into its counter-parts or counter-points... of each part and parcel and make them directly active. The central psychic – self – has its delegated selves everywhere in the global being. Indeed each particle of the being must itself be a psychic or psychicised particle: a consciousness-photon. There is thus a vital photon, a mental photon, a photon of the physical consciousness even as the material photon. And all these in their hierarchic harmonious... everyone. The whole forms an indissoluble integral and unitary life. This collective integration means all individuals have one mind, one vital being, even one physical consciousness, not of course one material body but still a feeling of the' kind. One mind or one vital or one physical consciousness does not mean everyone has the same identical formations and movements in these respective regions, but ...
... him alone, nor with the will alone, nor with the heart alone, but with all these equally and also with the whole mental and vital being in him he aspires to the Godhead and labours to convert their nature into its divine equivalents. And since God meets us in many ways of his being and in all tempts us to him even while he seems to elude us,—and to see divine possibility and overcome its play of obstacles... kingdom. So too to seek him only in ourselves and for ourselves, is to limit both ourselves and our joy in him. The integral delight embraces him not only within our own individual being, but equally in all men and in all beings. And because in him we are one with all, it seeks him not only for ourselves, but for all our fellows. A perfect and complete delight in the Divine, perfect because pure and se... impersonal being and delight, but since he meets us also in our personality and through personal relations of the Divine with the human, that too we shall not deny ourselves; we shall admit both the play of the love and the delight and its ineffable union. By knowledge we seek unity with the Divine in his conscious being: by works we seek also unity with the Divine in his conscious being, not statically ...
... Varuna as the Lord of infinite purity and wisdom who opens our earthly being to the unclouded light of the sun of knowledge, pours out the waters of the Truth upon all our triple existence mental, vital and physical and by its power removes all sin and evil and falsehood from our lives. He creates the free wideness of our vital being above our broken search for the delightful objects of our desire, sets... × Man lives in the physical being; Varuna brings the light of the gnosis into it and measures it out, that is, shapes and plans out our earth-existence in the measures of the Truth by means of the mind enlightened by the sun of gnosis: he takes his stand as the Asura in our vital plane, the link between mental and physical, there to receive the light and... × The forests or delightful growths of earth ( vana means also pleasure) are the basis of the mid-world, the vital world in us which is the realm of Vayu, the Life-God. That is the world of the satisfaction of desires. This also is spread out in its full wideness, free from limitation, to receive the Ananda or divine ...
... if it is sincere, brings to the being a nobility and generosity which will spontaneously find expression in his behaviour and will protect him from many base and perverse movements. And this brings us quite naturally to the second aspect of vital education which concerns the character and its transformation. Generally, all disciplines dealing with the vital being, its purification and its control... This vital education has two principal aspects, very different in their aims and methods, but both equally important. The first concerns the development and use of the sense organs. The second the progressing awareness and control of the character, culminating in its transformation. The education of the senses, again, has several aspects, which are added to one another as the being grows; indeed... Articles Articles On Education Vital Education Of all education, vital education is perhaps the most important, the most indispensable. Yet it is rarely taken up and pursued with discernment and method. There are several reasons for this: first, the human mind is in a state of great confusion about this particular subject; secondly, the undertaking is ...
... used by the forces. What is hypnotism? Doesn't it mean that the subject's will-power is replaced by somebody else's? I know a case of exteriorisation where the operator was able to exteriorise the vital being of the subject in an almost material form and replace it by another's and not by the operator's own. If one replaced it by one's own, there could be no operation. But these operations are extremely... Since the sensation of sweetness is a common human reaction, there must be something in the object. SRI AUROBINDO: But is this reaction confined to humanity or is it a common reaction of all living beings? SATYENDRA: What is your conclusion. Sir? SRI AUROBINDO: I don't know. At this point the Mother came in and asked, "What is the subject of our talk today?" Satyendra reported the conversation... fainting. Nirodbaran enumerated a few instances of fainting even while slight finger-cuts were being dressed. He said that Dilip too had fainted. SRI AUROBINDO: Even Dilip did it? NIRODBARAN: Yes. He came in boldly, but as soon as we started he went off! Curious! SRI AUROBINDO: Perhaps these people are being Yogicised! Or is it a reaction of the subconscient? Or may be they are trying to go into ...
... SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, it is the vital-physical way. SATYENDRA: But he is waiting to break his silence and he writes that when he does speak a great miracle will take place. SRI AUROBINDO: He wants to act by the mind, I suppose. Now he is acting through the vital being, but the mental is more effective and so he is waiting for it. Lele also used to act through the vital. Once I remember somebody wanted... know of another Yogi who remained in a similar strange state for a considerable number of years. What could such a state have been? SRI AUROBINDO: It is going 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... philosophically, 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 ...
... right. How is one to establish a homogeneity in the vital being? Reject all disturbance and call in more and more peace and equality from above into the vital. If you get peace then to clean the vital becomes easy. If you simply clean and clean and do nothing else, you go very slowly — for the vital gets dirty again and has to be cleaned a hundred times. The peace... whether it is intense or not. One has to be accurate in one's self-observation and not establish wrong notions like that. There can be peace in the mind even when the vital is not quite at rest or peace in the inner being even if the surface is disturbed. Consciousness cannot feel at rest and free, if there is no peace. Can silence and peace be established without the descent... on the vital also. If there is absolute silence within it is quite natural Page 133 that the thoughts on entering and touching it should fall off. It is the way in which the silence of the outer mind usually comes. The peace has to spread in all the parts. In the peace one must become conscious of the Mother's Force descended and working in all the being. ...
... alone make possible a similar survival of the life-part in us, the outer vital personality representative of the inner life-being, the vital Purusha. What would really happen then is that the wall between the inner self and the outer man would have broken down and the permanent mental and vital being from within, the mental and vital representatives of the immortal psychic entity, would govern the life... man the mental being the attraction of that plane, already active in life, must prevail when there is not the obstacle of the attachment to the body, and because the mental plane should be, evidently, the native and proper habitat of a mental being. But this does not automatically follow, because of the complexity of man's being; he has a vital as well as a mental existence,—his vital part often more... by this translation the vital joy and vital suffering of the physical being into supraphysical conditions in which they have a greater scope, fullness and endurance. These constructive environments must therefore be considered, so far as they have any supraphysical habitat, as annexes of the vital or of the lower mental planes of existence. But there are also the true vital worlds,—original constructions ...
... interior existence that our mind and vital being retire when they withdraw from the surface activities whether by sleep or inward-drawn concentration or by the inner plunge of trance." 29 Page 40 Sri Aurobindo has called the subliminal self the inner being as distinguished from the outer or surface being. Thus he states: "There are, we might say, two beings in us, one on the surface, our... in the subconscient being and recurs either in the waking state when the control is removed or else in sleep. Mental control by itself cannot eradicate anything entirely out of the being. The subconscient in the ordinary man includes the larger part of the vital being and the physical mind and also the secret body-consciousness." 21 "When something is thrown out of the vital or physical, it very... like our surface physical being, an outcome of the energy of the Inconscient; it is Page 39 a meeting-place of the consciousness that emerges from below by evolution and the consciousness that has descended from above for involution. There is in it an inner mind, an inner vital being of ourselves, an inner or subtle-physical being larger than our outer being and nature. ... There is here ...
... to an influence which is outside your individual conscious being. Indeed, one can have also an inspiration to commit a murder! In countries where they decapitate murderers, cut off their heads, this causes a very brutal death which throws out the vital being, not allowing it the time to decompose for coming out of the body; the vital being is violently thrown out of the body, with all its impulses;... thing in the making. For a long time, in most human beings the psychic is a being in the making. It is not a fully individualised, fully conscious being and master of itself and it needs all its rebirths, one after another, in order to build itself and become fully conscious. But this sort of progress has an end. There comes a time when the being is fully developed, fully individualised, fully master... master of itself and its destiny. When this being or one of these psychic beings has reached that stage and takes birth in a human being, that makes a very great difference: the human being, so to say, is born free. He is not tied to circumstances, to surroundings, to his origin and atavism, like ordinary people. He comes into the world with the purpose of doing something, with a work to carry out, a ...
... "This central being has two forms - above, it is Jivatman...below, it is the psychic being..." (P. 15) (a)Is it meant that the Jivatman and the psychic being are different forms of the central being? If they are forms of the central being, how can they be beings or selves? (b)Again, when one rises from the state below to the Jivatman above, does the psychic being cease to be?... developed, then the mental being can remain; so also can the vital, provided they are organised by and centred around the true psychic being; they share the immortality of the psychic." (P. 18) Does this mean that the vital of strong persons like Napoleon is carried forward in the future lives? But how can it be said that their vital was centred round the psychic being? It is only about the Bhaktas... supramentalisation meant inability to change or put off a form, but it is not so. * "It is really for the vital part of the being that Shraddha and rites are done - to help the being to get rid of the vital vibrations which still attach it to the earth or to the vital worlds, so that it may pass quickly to its rest in the psychic peace." (P. 18) Does this mean that the Shraddha ...
... considered: consciousness and the instruments through which consciousness manifests. Let us take the instruments: there is the mental being which produces thoughts, the emotional being which produces feeling, the vital being which produces the power of action and the physical being that acts. The man of genius may use anything at all and make something beautiful because he has genius; but give this genius... but give him a good piano, well-tuned, and he will do something still more beautiful. The consciousness is the same in either case but for expression it needs a good instrument—a body with mental, vital, psychic and physical capacities. If physically you are badly built, badly set up, it will be difficult for you, even with good training, to do gymnastics as well as one with a beautiful well-built... movements (of our being) with great care, by bringing them, as it were, before the tribunal of our highest ideal, with a sincere will to submit to its judgment, that we can hope to educate in us a discernment which does not err." "The Science of Living" , On Education One must be clearly aware of the origin of one's movements because there are contradictory velleities in the being—some pushing ...
... take an unprepared plunge into it might make it still more difficult. You should read first and understand the "Life Divine" and make sure that your resolution is on a firm basis and your mind and vital being ready to enter into a new inner life. Our help will be with you and our blessings. 24 February 1941 It is true that I have pardoned X, for the Divine Grace pardons everything, but it... time more. Well, it will surely depend on the length of the time. Because little by little you forget that you have (or had) a true being and you will get so accustomed to being a "thoughtful", "tactful" and "reasonable" creature that you will no more dream of being otherwise. In any case you have to make the decision yourself; neither your parents nor I can take the decision for you. They have... your letter of 21st; it came to me directly (without the written words) three days ago, probably when you were writing it, and my silent answer was categorical: remain there until the necessity of being here will become so imperative that all else will completely lose all value for you. My answer now is exactly the Page 130 same. I want only to assure you that we are not abandoning you ...
... appear in the consciousness only with the participation of the psychic being in active life. The vital and physical feel them as weaknesses because they put a check upon the free expression of their impulsions based on the power of force. As usual, the mind, when it is not sufficiently educated, is the accomplice of the vital being and the slave of the physical nature whose crushing laws it does not... (first and last) show how things appear in the physical world, the coloured one expresses a similar sequence of events in the vital world, the world where one can go in deep sleep when one gets out of the body. So long as you have a body no true harm can happen to you in the vital world for the physical body acts like a protection and you can always return into it at will. This is expressed in the picture... One is the snow shower that saves the party from the influence of the wicked witch who by her black magic has stopped their advance towards the blue castle of knowledge and intellectual power. In the vital, snow is the symbol of purity itself. It is the purity of their feelings and intentions that saves them from the great danger. Note that to go to the castle of the good wizard they must follow the ...
... hymn, Sri Aurobindo writes: The Aswins...are born or manifested from Heaven...their movement pervades all the worlds, the effect of their action ranges from the body through the vital being and the thought to the superconscient Truth...They are therefore N ā saty ā , lords of the movement, leaders of the journey or voyage... Page 285 'In... possibility, and "even into the solar worlds of the Truth he can rise, enter the portals of the Superconscient, cross the threshold of the Supreme.. .This human ascension is possible because every being really holds in himself all that his outward vision perceives as if external to him." 65 But it is possible only if man thirsts to break the bonds of his limited earth-life. The same gods who have... much the same reason; they are really awakening the light and force of the indwelling God so as to grow in Truth-consciousness and labour towards the peaks of Realisation. Savitri on the other hand, being a woman, doesn't offer regular agnihotra oblations; her three-nights' vrata or vow ending with an oblation to the fire on the fatal morning has, however, the same essential purpose. She concentrates ...
... one, as I did with the thoughts when I was at Baroda. This method is more powerful and the results too are quicker. There is also a mental control, but there it is the mind trying to control the vital being. The control is only partial and temporary. The thing is rather suppressed within and can come out on any opportunity. I have heard of a Yogi in Benares who was bathing in one of the ghats. In... whether in a cat or a dog or a man. There is no difference as regards that. The difference is a conception of human beings—for their own advantage perhaps. The Mother now departed. Then the talk shifted to homoeopathy, and everyone, including Dr. Savoor who happened to be present, started citing instances in favour of homoeopathy and mentioning its miraculous cures. It was said even to cure religious... : People say that killing a dog or a cat is not so harmful as taking the life of a human being. Do you agree? The question was lost in a volley of other questions fired by some of the attendants. SRI AUROBINDO: Did you say that killing a dog or a cat is not so harmful as taking the life of a human being? THE MOTHER: Nirodbaran seems to be a humanitarian. SRI AUROBINDO: Life is life, whether ...
... attitude towards the contacts of the world and, standing back in our entire consciousness from the pleasures and pains of the body, vital being and mind, possess them as experiences whose nature being superficial does not touch or impose itself on our core and real being. In the entirely expressive Sanskrit terms, there is an ānandamaya behind the manomaya , a vast Bliss-Self behind the limited mental... embraces all; his narrow heart has to learn the infinite embrace and replace its lusts and discords by universal love and his restricted vital being to become equal to the whole shock of the universe upon it and capable of universal delight; his very physical being has to know itself as no separate entity but as one with and sustaining in itself the whole flow of the indivisible Force that is all things;... and means of action, subjected to their limitations and to the egoistic impulses and aims which are born of those limitations. But if and when Mind in man becomes capable of being free, unegoistic, in harmony with all other beings and with the play of the universal forces, the use and office of suffering diminishes, its raison d'être must finally cease to be and it can only continue as an atavism of ...
... attitude towards the contacts of the world and, standing back in our entire consciousness from the pleasures and pains of the body, vital being and mind, possess them as experiences whose nature being superficial does not touch or impose itself on our core and real being. In the entirely expressive Sanskrit terms, there is an anandamaya behind the manomaya, a vast Bliss-Self behind the limited mental... embraces all; his narrow heart has to learn the infinite embrace and replace its lusts and discords by universal love and his restricted vital being to become equal to the whole shock of the universe upon it and capable of universal delight; his very physical being has to know itself as no separate entity but as one with and sustaining in itself the whole flow of the indivisible Force that is all things;... and means of action, subjected to their limitations and to the egoistic impulses and aims which are born of those limitations. But if and when Mind in man becomes capable of being free, unegoistic, in harmony with all other beings and with the play of the universal forces, the use and office of suffering diminishes, its raison d'etre must finally cease to be and it can only continue as an atavism of ...
... is mental and vital and cannot succeed; it is in the quiet mind that the opening must come. Then the psychic being, the soul in you, begins to come forward. The soul knows and sees the Truth; the mind and vital do not—until they are enlightened by the soul's knowledge. Page 348 Then only can the psychic being fully open when the sadhaka has got rid of the mixture of vital motives with... the psychic. The Manipura (navel centre) and the Swadhisthana below it are the seats of the vital being, the Muladhara is the seat of the physical. The opening of the Manipura gives one the free play of the inner vital consciousness and it is very helpful, no doubt, for the influence of the psychic on the vital, but it is not the direct or first condition of the psychic opening itself. But so also the... psychic in the ignorant human being is always behind a veil and can act on the mind or vital but not in its own power, for that is limited and obscured by the instruments. A psychic opening means the removal of the veil and the increasingly direct action of the psychic. The present nature is ignorant and full of wrong actions and reactions. But there is a being within you, the psychic, which ...
... not speak of thought but of desire. Desire belongs to the vital domain but at the core of this desire there is always a thought, and Page 58 the desire becomes all the more active and dynamic when it holds in itself this power of mental formation and the power of vital realisation. The vital is the centre of dynamism of the being, of active energy, and the two combined make something very... slight, is sufficient to startle you out of your sleep. During the night I am not afraid of certain things, but during the day I am afraid of them. Why? That means your vital being is older than your physical being. "There is no doubt that from many points of view our subconscient has greater knowledge than our habitual consciousness." "On Dreams" , Words of Long Ago Here I am... able to immobilise everything in you, then your whole being participates in this supreme consciousness and I have well observed that as regards rest (and I mean by rest bodily rest, the repose of the muscles) three minutes of that state were equivalent to eight hours of ordinary sleep. Does the vital body also need rest? Yes. The vital body surrounds the physical body with a kind of envelope ...
... formed individuality, fully conscious and having its own qualities, you would all be fused into one another and be indistinguishable. Even if we go only a little inwards, into the most material vital being, there is such a mixture between the vibrations of different people that it is very difficult to distinguish any of you. And if you did not have a body, it would be a sort of inextricable pulp. Therefore... semi-liquid form, and when it cools down one can break the mould and have the object in a precise form. Well, the form of the body serves as a mould in which the vital and mental forces can take a precise form, so that you can become an individual being separate from others. It is only gradually, very slowly, through the movements of life and a more or less careful and thorough education that you begin... And it must have represented quite a considerable labour to make this multiplicity conscious of being multiple. And if one observes very attentively, if creation had kept the memory of its origin, it would perhaps never have become a diverse multiplicity. There would have been at the centre of each being the sense of perfect unity, and the diversity would—perhaps—never have been expressed. Page ...
... Any higher structure of the mind and overmind must be built upon man's vital being and physical life. The new creation left out of account these realities of basement, so one had to come down, forgetting for the moment the higher realisation, into these darker regions and make a thorough cleaning of them. The regions of the vital consciousness and physical consciousness are, as we all know, full of... radiance. The lower sphere of the vital and the physical is a mass of ignorant nature ( prakriti ) – all moving together helplessly, mechanically, bound together indissolubly to one inexorable fate, and it stands on the rock of utter unconsciousness – the Inconscient – which is the very basis and stuff of that sphere. Consciousness, the conscient Being has to come down or emerge and penetrate... It was the creation of a world – a region at least – of the higher consciousness in which everyone who participated had his own place, everyone with his soul-being sufficiently in front; and this being she could connect or link up with a being of the higher sphere – a counterpart, an over-soul as it were for each soul. It was a kind of descent – a subtle incarnation of Gods which the Mother's Grace ...
... goodwill. Here must be mentioned the training of the vital. The vital being in us is the seat of impulses and desires, of enthusiasm and violence, of dynamic energy and desperate depression, of passions and revolt. It can set in motion everything, build up and realise, it can also destroy and mar everything. It seems to be, in the human being, the most difficult part to train. It is a long labour... docile and faithful servant. Unfortunately it has not often the capacity of discernment with regard to its masters, the mind and the vital. It obeys them blindly, at the cost of its own well-being. The mind with its dogmas, its rigid and arbitrary principles, the vital with its passions, its excesses and dissipations will have soon done everything to destroy the natural balance of the body and create... of less duration and are less dangerous in the case of those who have established a contact with their psychic being sufficient to keep alive in them the flame of aspiration and the consciousness of the ideal to be realised. They can, with the help of this consciousness, deal with their vital as one deals with a child in revolt, with patience and perseverance showing it the truth and light, Page ...
... Page 42 For human beings who have not got deeper into themselves, mind and consciousness are synonymous. Only when one becomes more aware of oneself by a growing consciousness, then one can see different degrees, kinds, powers of consciousness, mental, vital, physical, psychic, spiritual. Letters on Yoga, p. 686 Planes of the Mental Being In mind itself there... in Page 63 earthly beings tends to be very obscure and is full of perversions, — lust, greed of all kinds, vanity, small ambitions, petty anger, envy, jealousy are its ordinary guests, — still there is another side to it which makes it an indispensable mediator between the inner being and the outer life. Letters on Yoga, pp. 338-39 Vital... is a thing of desires, impulses... parts of the vital being — first, the mental vital which gives a mental expression by thought, speech or otherwise Page 62 to the emotions, desires, passions, sensations and other movements of the vital being; the emotional vital which is the seat of various feelings, such as love, joy, sorrow, hatred, and the rest; the central vital which is the seat of the stronger vital longings and ...
... agitating reaction of pleasure and the vital being will be simply beside itself. This sudden excitement is an unmistakable sign of desire. Next, to ask oneself, "If I don't get it ?". The immediate reaction of this thought will be a depression or a sense of uneasiness or disquiet, or even revolt in the vital being, which is another sign of desire. But if the vital being remains calm in either case, then... from the universal Nature, and take shelter in our subconscient vital. It is only when they rise from there into our conscious mind that we become aware of them. It is our ignorance that makes us think that they are ours and that we must exert ourselves either to satisfy or suppress them. They belong to a world of their own, the beings of which seek to make us their tools for perpetuating the reign... which is the sap and sustenance of all things and beings in the universe. "To conquer a desire brings more joy than to satisfy it.”¹ Disguises of Desire Desire assumes many disguises to beguile the unwary soul. .If we reject a gross physical desire, it appears in the form of a ¹ Words of the Mother., Page 238 Vital ambition tempting us to a great adventure and promising ...
... it happens that once the physical being is developed and conscious enough and has enough goodwill to be able to become fully aware of the psychic being, it can then and there create all the circumstances, the outer experiences necessary for the psychic being to attain its maturity in this very life. ( Long silence ) Do people who roam about in the lower vital domain during the night suffer much... when they leave their body are flung into a domain of the lower vital which has nothing particularly pleasant about it. And strange, there is still another thing I was speaking about today. The most important thing in this case is the last state of consciousness in which one was while both were joined together, when the vital being and the body were still united. So the last state of consciousness... individual's life depend on the experience his psychic being wants to have? Very much! I was just speaking about just this with someone today, and I said this, that if one can become fully conscious of his psychic being, at the same time one understands, necessarily, the reason of his present existence and the experience this psychic being wants to have; and instead of having it somewhat half ...
... intervening in the details there would have to be a conscious union between the outer being, that is, the vital being and physical being, and the psychic being, but usually this does not exist. So externally, in the details... for example, there was someone who in deep perplexity said to me, "Well, if it is the psychic being or rather the Divine in the psychic who directs our life, is it He who decides the... organising all the circumstances of your life but not with a deliberate choice of the details; and in fact very few things are deliberate and conscious in the organisation of the physical life of human beings. Most of the time that's what happens. If you ask someone, "Why have you done this?"—"That's how it happened." It is always like that: "That's how it happened." At least seventy-five times out of a... 2. Role, Function and Action of the Psychic The Psychic Being Guidance through Organisation of Life Has the psychic any power? Power? It is usually the psychic which guides the being. One knows nothing about it because one is not conscious of it but usually it is that which guides the being. If one is very attentive, one becomes aware of it. But the ...
... go out in the vital and move about quite consciously, Page 276 acting quite consciously in this vital world; then to leave one's vital being asleep and go out mentally, acting and living in the mental world quite consciously and with similar relations—for the mental world is in relation with the mental being, as the physical world is in relation with the physical being—and so on, progressively... confusion in the words. Page 275 When you leave a part of your being—for example, when you enter quite consciously the vital world—your body can enter into a trance, but this is not samadhi. It is rather what might be called a lethargic or cataleptic state. When extreme, it is a cataleptic state because the part of the being which animates the body has gone out of it, so the body is half dead;... will and action of the part which has gone out, the vital part. Only, as this is not the effect of a willed action and a regulated, progressive education, this state is not desirable, for it may produce disorders in the being. But it is an illustration of what I have just said, of a body which while three-quarters asleep can obey the part of the being which has gone out and is itself fully awake and quite ...
... illness. The remaining parts seem to be still egoistic. Perhaps if his vital being were less egoistic, he would achieve greater things in his medical practice and in his inner sadhana. He can cure the people all right, in spite of ego — the force too does work through his vital and not his mind only, because his vital is strong, ardent and enthusiastic. Most people's vitals are half-dead... poet. So what is the difficulty in recognising his greatness? Men with great capacities or a powerful mind or a powerful vital have very often more glaring defects of character than ordinary men — or at least the defects of the latter do not show so much, being like themselves, smaller in scale. What particularly is there in these men that you call great? By greatness... If greatness is not appreciated by men, the world will become small, dull, narrow and tamasic. I cannot understand how these men with a big and generous vital manage to stock in themselves all kinds of vital vices. Why not? Vices are simply an overflow of energy in unregulated channels. Why do great persons have so often more glaring defects of character ...
... Any higher structure of the mind and Overmind must be built upon man's vital being and physical life. The new creation left out of account these realities of basement, so we had to come down, forgetting for the moment the higher realisation, into these darker regions and make a thorough cleaning of them. The regions of the vital consciousness and physical consciousness are, as we all know, full of human... into radiance. The lower sphere of the vital and the physical is a mass of ignorant Nature (Prakriti), all moving together helplessly, mechanically, bound together indissolubly to one inexorable fate, and it stands on the rock of utter unconsciousness—the Inconscient which is the very basis and stuff of that sphere. Consciousness, the conscient Being, has to come down and penetrate there, break... for the final consummation, the supreme transformation. One had to face the statk realities here and master them before one could think of a heavenly ascent. So we all became once more ordinary human beings with human weaknesses and a modicum of aspiration perhaps. This was the task given to all of us—to battle through and conquer here below. The scene changed completely. A mid-summer-night's dream turned ...
... Education for further details. Vital Education All about Vital Education is discussed in the Mother's writing on 'Vital Education.' People should be educated through exhibitions and teaching to understand, appreciate and develop all kinds of Page 15 arts, literature, poetry, music, etc., so that their vital being gets trained in refinement and beauty. ... body consisting of people who have achieved all the qualities mentioned above. They will be engaged in educating the people from four points of view: Page 5 (i) Physical. (ii) Vital . (iii) Mental. (iv) Psychic and Spiritual. Each section will work for the culture and appreciation of its own subject quite independently but in collaboration with others and must ...
... artist very difficult. Very often he mistakes his vital being that is interested in life and movement, his desire-soul, for his true being. It is even true that this Vital being in man, his being of life-force, can and often does create great art. In all true artistic creation this vital element is needed to give life to it. It draws its material not merely from the great ocean of life around but with the... the help of imagination it can create powerful, new forms which have a great appeal for life. There is a plane of higher vital being, a higher vital world, —far above the plane of ordinary life of every day where forms of great power and beauty exist. An artist can either rise to this plane occasionally and draw inspiration for his work from there. He can straightway bring down forms— either literary... the soul or more correctly, the inner being, of the artist, even though outer objects, environment, life-experience may act as stimulating influences to set his creative inner being into movement. But this inner being of man is surrounded by instruments of Nature which are very complex. It has many levels of being. In fact, it is this complexity of man's inner being that renders the task of the artist ...
... good for metrical romances of a sort, for Page 21 war poetry and popular patriotic poetry, or perhaps any poetry which wants to be an "echo of life"; it may stir, not the soul, but the vital being in us like a trumpet or excite it like a drum. But after all the drum and the trumpet do not carry us far in the way of music. But even high above this level we still do not get at once the greater... imagination and the ear; but there the charm ends. Once we have heard its rhythm, we have nothing new to expect, no surprise for the inner ear, no danger of the soul being suddenly seized and carried away into unknown depths. It is sure of being floated along evenly as if upon a flowing stream. Or sometimes it is not so much a flowing stream as a steady march or other even movement: this comes oftenest in ...
... obscurer parts of the vital nature. 2 February 1942 Keep yourself ready by faith and self-opening to receive the Light when it comes. 2 February 1943 Let the mind be quiet and receive the Light; let the vital be quiet and receive the Force that delivers. 2 February 1944 Let the year that is beginning mark a definitive stage in the growth of your psychic being and its power over your... the mind and vital being. 2 February 1946 An increasing advance on the road to the entire psychic change is what is most important in the sadhana, for that is the straight road to the spiritual transformation. Devotion, harmony Page 842 and scrupulousness in work, a growing inner perception and consciousness, more and more fading of the more vehement movements of the vital ego are among... there even in the inconscience and prepare the nature for the true light and consciousness through the whole range of the being. 9 September 1940 Put stress always on the aspiration within; let that get depth and steadiness in the heart; the outer obstacles of mind and the vital will recede of themselves with the growth of the heart's love and aspiration. 9 September 1941 Keep the mind and ...
... call "death". As soon as a vital being is fully harmonised, it becomes immortal. What dissolves it and breaks it up are all the disorders within it and all the tendencies towards destruction and deposition; but if it is fully harmonised and organised and, so to say, divinised, it becomes immortal. It is the same thing for the mind. And even in the subtle physical, beings who are fully developed and... instance, of someone who has unified his being completely around the divine Presence within him, who is now only one will, one consciousness, this person will have grouped around his central psychic being a fully developed and organised mind, an absolutely surrendered and collaborating vital and an obedient, docile and supple physical being. This physical being, as it is fully developed, will have... body. The question here was about fully developed beings, that is, fully developed psychic beings—and I don't know if it means a psychic being which has profited by its presence in a physical body to do yoga, for then the conditions are quite different. But in a more general way, I have often told you that, with regard to the external envelope of the being, everything depends on its attitude at the moment ...
... could make your vital pure of all mixture, make the vital element attracted for the formation of the being a pure element, free from all contagion; I mean that if a psychic being enters there, it can gather elements favourable to its growth. In the world as it is, things are so mixed up, have been so mixed up in every way, that it is almost impossible to have elements of the vital sufficiently pure... happening. So, in these conditions how do you expect to be born with a vital being sufficiently pure to be of help to you? One is born with a slough to clean before one begins to live. And once you have made Page 260 a good start on the way to the inner transformation and you go down to the subconscient root of the being—that exactly which comes from parents, from atavism—well, you do see... city where they were born. Is the vital distorted from the very birth? If your birth has not been accidental, you could very well think there was no distortion, but what you are at your birth is most of the time almost absolutely what your mother and father have made you, and also, through them, what your grandparents have made you. There are certain vital traditions in families and, besides ...
... conscious of what can happen. Suppose that you have gone for a stroll in the vital world; there you meet beings who attack you (that's what happens usually), if you know that it is a dream, you can very easily gather your vital forces and conquer. That's a true fact; you can with a certain attitude, a certain word, a certain way of being do things you would not do if you were just dreaming. If in the dream... cheek.... Inevitably, Page 26 a wound received in the vital being is translated in the physical body. But how does it happen? There must be some intermediary? It was in the vital that I was beaten. It is from within that this comes. Nothing, nobody touched anything from outside. If you receive a blow in the vital, the body suffers the consequence. More than half of our illnesses... illnesses are the result of blows of this kind, and this happens much more often than one believes. Only, men are not conscious of their vital, and as they are not conscious they don't know that fifty per cent of their illnesses are the result of what happens in the vital: shocks, accidents, fighting, ill-will.... Externally this is translated by an illness. If one knows how it reacts on the physical, one ...
... must mention the discipline of the vital. The vital being in us is the seat of impulses and desires, of enthusiasm and violence, of dynamic energy and desperate depressions, of passions and revolts. It can set everything in motion, build and realise; but it can also destroy and mar everything. Thus it may be the most difficult part to discipline in the human being. It is a long and exacting labour requiring... faithful servant. Unfortunately, it rarely has the capacity of discernment it ought to have with regard to its masters, the mind and the vital. It obeys them blindly, at the cost of its own well-being. The mind with its dogmas, its rigid and arbitrary principles, the vital with its passions, its excesses and dissipations soon destroy the natural balance of the body and create in it fatigue, exhaustion and... crises are shorter and less dangerous for those who have established a contact with their psychic being which is sufficient to keep alive in them the flame of aspiration and the Page 6 consciousness of the ideal to be realised. They can, with the help of this consciousness, deal with their vital as one deals with a rebellious child, with patience and perseverance, showing it the truth and ...
... goodwill. Here must be mentioned the training of the vital. The vital being in us is the seat of impulses and desires, of enthusiasm and violence, of dynamic energy and desperate depression, of passions and revolt. It can set in motion everything, build up and realise, it can also destroy and mar everything. It seems to be, in the human being, the most difficult part to train. It is a long labour... docile and faithful servant. Unfortunately it has not often the capacity of discernment with regard to its masters, the mind and the vital. It obeys them blindly, at the cost of its own well-being. The mind with its dogmas, its rigid and arbitrary principles, the vital with its passions, its excesses and dissipations soon do everything to destroy the natural balance of the body and create in it fatigue... of less duration and are less dangerous in the case of those who have established a contact with their psychic being sufficient to keep alive in them the Aame of aspiration and the consciousness of the ideal to be realised. They can, with the help of this consciousness, deal with their vital as . one deals with a child in revolt, with patience and perseverance showing it the truth and light, endeavouring ...
... works through the mass, which again is a sign of working from the vital plane. NIRODBARAN: He seems to be an interesting fellow anyhow. SRI AUROBINDO: Yes, he is interesting. SATYENDRA: He lays great stress on love. SRI AUROBINDO: That means the heart. And that again is a sign of his action working through the vital being. : SATYENDRA: Some of the people who go to see him are not impressed... That means he is living and acting from the Cosmic Consciousness. I don't know what realisation he has reached. Perhaps it is on the vital plane. That is a plane of possibility or idea or suggestion comes to him with some force, he accepts it. The nature of these vital formations is to present themselves with a force. And when another possibility comes with the same force, Meher Baba accepts that too... conscious of other worlds. SRI AUROBINDO: For that one must have the visionary power and know the workings of these worlds and their influence on you. It is sometimes done by coming in contact with beings of those worlds. Otherwise one is only conscious of the planes within oneself. SATYENDRA: People who go to him feel a great bustle and activity. One biographer has written about that. SRI AUROBINDO: ...
... In Macbeth we move up one step farther; human consciousness attains here a higher level. Something of the mental being enters into the purely vital creature: instead of the Eater, the man with the mere stomach, we have here the Ruler, the Tyrant, the human being with its will – and its arms that execute the will: the dominating motive is no longer hunger and greed and cruelty for cruelty's... of a raw and crude and aboriginal nature. Man is here simply the eater, a true brother of the rest of the animal kind, one in blood with the tiger and the wolf. He is the sheer biological or vital being – the Rakshasa – into whom the light of the Mind has not yet descended, at least not to the extent of effecting an appreciable change in his original and primitive texture. It is a world... creation of the mode of rajas. Hamlet is the third stage; it is a vision of sattva-guna and a creation attempted by that vision. The human consciousness that was imprisoned in the vital mind, is released here into the higher or pure mind. The soul escapes from its sheath of sheer hunger and desire and egoism and self-aggrandisement – yearns for light, more light. Lear is a dark mass ...
... 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 forget... through the Sadhaks are: (1)the preconceived ideas and mental constructions which block the way to the influence and the working of the Conscious Force; (2)the preferences and impulses of the vital which distort and falsify the expression. Both these things are the natural output of the ego." (The Mother, p. 227) We should have no hesitation in admitting that many of us, the sadhaks and... 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 ...
... power can come, but it comes automatically without one asking for it. Y. was another M. with a powerful vital being. At one time I had strong hopes about him. But people whose sadhana is on a vital basis pass into what I have called the Intermediate Zone and hardly go beyond the vital. It is like a jungle and it is comparatively much easy with those people who are weak and have no such power.... to further experience of that sort? Disciple : It stimulates but sometimes vital mixture tries to come in. Fortunately I could drive it out. Sri Aurobindo : That is the risk. The fact that mixture tried to come in means that the wave came through the inner vital and thus took something from the vital. One has to be very careful in order to avoid these sex impurities. In spite of his... was not personally attracted by him. Sri Aurobindo : When I saw his photo I had an impression that he is a man with strong vital power. When I saw that he was advertising about himself as Messiah I began to doubt his genuineness. His sadhana seems to be in the vital and it is in these cases that the power descends and unfortunately people are attracted by these powers. In the spiritual and the ...
... in the physical being; or a vital man, if he lives predominantly in the tossing desires and ambitions and passions of his life- being or vital being. Similarly a man may be called mental or intellectual, if he lives not so much in his physical and vital as in his mental being. But a physical man. may have vital desires and ambitions and also mental interests and pursuits, or a vital man may have the... communism dreams of bringing all mankind down to the level of the vital-physical being, and achieve there an equality which will do away with all differences and disparities of life and establish a reign of unity, both physical and mental. It is a dream which runs counter to the ideal of ancient culture, which was to raise the physical being of man, by progressive stages, towards the glories of the infinite... CHAPTER XV THE PHYSICAL NATURE AND ITS PURIFICATION PART I BY physical nature Sri Aurobindo means the physical mind, the physical part of life, called the physical-vital or nervous being, and the body. Before we enter upon the process of their purification, we had better be clear about what these terms signify. As I have already indicated elsewhere, there is no Hegelian obscurity ...
... which we are not yet, but have to become and which is not the strong and enlightened vital Will hymned by Nietzsche, but a spiritual self and spiritual nature that will use the mental being which we already are, but the mental being spiritualised, and transform by a spiritual ideality the aim and action of our vital and physical nature. For this is the formula of man in his highest potentiality, and... for it this lower reality of our sensational, vital and physical nature. This upward transference of our will to be and our power of life we have, then, to make the very principle of our perfection. That will, that power must choose between the domination of the vital part in us and the domination of the spirit. Nature can rest in the round of vital being, can produce there a sort of perfection, but... action and, secondly, whatever modifying will can come in from the Idea in mind—for man is a mental being—and operate through our as yet imperfect mental instruments to give this life force a conscious orientation and a conscious method. Life normally finds its own centre in our vital and physical being, in its cravings and its needs, in its demand for persistence, growth, expansion, enjoyment, in its ...
... which supports the evolution of the being in Nature. In the course of the evolution the psychic essence grows and takes form as the psychic being. Psychicisation — the psychic change in which the psychic being comes forward to dominate the mind, vital and physical and change the lower nature. Purusha — Conscious Being; Conscious-Soul; essential being supporting the play of Prakriti... otherwise to the emotions, desires, passions, sensations or other movements of the vital being; the emotional vital is the seat of various feelings, such as love, joy, sorrow, hatred and the rest. central vital or vital proper : dynamic, sensational and passionate, it is the seat of the stronger vital longings and reactions, such as ambition, pride, fear, love of fame, attractions... —faith. the Subconscient — the part of the being which is below the level of the mental, vital and physical consciousness; in the average person, it includes the larger part of the physical mind, the vital being and the body-consciousness. Subconscious mind — the inner or subliminal mind. the Subliminal —comprises the inner being, taken in its entirety of inner mind, inner life ...
... experienced as a conscious form and the vital being as an outpouring of the power and possession of the life of the spirit. The action of the supermind in the development is to manifest and organise this highest consciousness so as to exist and act no longer only in the infinite above with some limited or veiled or lower and deformed manifestations in the individual being and nature, but largely and totally... conscient to us as a greater self at once above and in and around us of which our present self, our mental, vital and physical personality and nature, is an imperfect portion or a partial derivation or an inferior and inadequate symbol, and as the intuitive mind grows in us, as our whole being grows more moulded to an intuitive substance, we feel a sort of half transformation of our members into the... our thought, will, impulse, feeling, even in the end our more outward vital and physical sensations become more and more direct 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 ...
... expresses itself at the present day, there is much in it that is exaggerated and imperfect. Its seers seem often to preach an impossible self-abnegation of the vital life and an asceticism which instead of purifying and transforming the vital being, seeks to suppress and even kill it; life itself is impoverished or dried up by this severe austerity in its very springs. Carried away by a high-reaching spirit... inherent weakness of this exclusive idea are sufficiently evident. Man does not actually live as an isolated being, nor can he grow by an isolated freedom. He grows by his relations with others and his freedom must exercise itself in a progressive self-harmonising with the freedom of his fellow-beings. The social principle therefore, apart from the forms it has taken, would be perfectly justified, if by... individualism is that in insisting upon the free development and self-expression of the life and the mind or the life-soul in the individual, it tends to exaggerate the egoism of the mental and vital being and prevent the recognition of unity with others on which alone a complete self-development and a harmless freedom can be founded. Collectivism at least insists upon that unity by entirely subordinating ...
... work and carry on their affairs from the ordinary motives of the vital being, need, desire of wealth or success or position or power or fame or the push to activity and the pleasure of manifesting their capacities,... When one takes up the yoga and wishes to consecrate one's life to the Divine, these ordinary motives of the Vital being have no longer their full and free play; they have to be replaced... (p. 903) Thus, the Divine being the actor of all one's actions and one-self being the joyously interested witness of this divine play, is the nature of the siddhi of this stage of Yoga. 7. Experience of identity with the Divine After the annulment of the sense of 'I' being the actor, after the abrogation of even the sense of oneself being an instrument of divine action... thereof — "karmanyevādhikāraste mā phalesu kadācana". (Gita, 11.47.1) But it is not so easy for the sadhaka to detect if any desire for fruit has sneaked in or not. As a matter of fact, our vital self's craving or seeking after the fruit can take many forms some of which are so camouflaged in their disguises that it becomes highly difficult to discern them in their true nature. Sri Aurobindo ...
... ensemble of the being.”² Describing the detailed action of transformation leading to the integral union, the Mother says at one place :— "Little by little, the vital being was habituated to find harmony in the most intense action, as it had found it in passive surrender. And once this harmony was sufficiently established, there was light again in all parts of the being, and the consciousness... ecstasy, depriving me of all freedom to concentrate exclusively on Thee, Thou hast said to me, 'Work as an ordinary man in the midst of ordinary beings; learn to be nothing more than they are in all that is manifesting; associate with the integral way of their being; for, beyond all that they know, all that they are, thou earnest in thyself the torch of the eternal splendour which does not waver, and by... consciousness of what had happened became complete. "Now the vital being has recovered in the midst of action the perception of Infinity and Eternity. It can, through all sensations and all forms, perceive Thy supreme Beauty and can live it. Even in its sensation, extended, active and fully developed, it can feel the contrary sensations at the same time and always it perceives Thee.”³ ...
... constituting and reconstituting beings and objects, movements and happenings, entering into them, passing through them, forming themselves in them, throwing themselves out from them on other beings and objects. Each natural individual is a receptacle of these cosmic forces and a dynamo for their propagation; there passes from each to each a constant stream of mental and vital energies, and these run too... which obscures and disfigures even this limited self-knowledge; our self-view is vitiated by the constant impact and intrusion of our outer life-self, our vital being, which seeks always to make the thinking mind its tool and servant: for our vital being is not concerned with self-knowledge but with self-affirmation, desire, ego. It is therefore constantly acting on mind to build for it a mental structure... self-ignorance; it is only by going within and seeing these things at their source that we can get out of this obscurity and tangle. For a larger mental being is there within us, a larger inner vital being, even a larger inner subtle-physical being other than our surface body-consciousness, and by entering into this or becoming it, identifying ourselves with it, we can observe the springs of our thoughts ...
... life's true ardour and plenitude of movement from vital passion and the turbid falsehoods of our vital nature and its dark self seekings. This is the first step of self-realisation, to enthrone the soul, the divine psychic individual in the place of the ego. The next step is to become aware of the eternal self in us unborn and one with the self of all beings. This self-realisation liberates and universalises;... action and fulfilment. This character of vital being and its trend of existence in which what we term good and evil are items but not the mainspring, is evident in subhuman life; in the human being, since there a mental, moral and psychic discernment has developed, it is subjected to control or to camouflage, but it does not change its character. The vital being and its life-force and their drive towards... instead to unenlightened mental and vital suggestions, or acts in accordance with the demands and impulsions of the vital ego. Here the second of the primary conditions of the evolution, the law of a separate life-being affirming itself in a world which is not-self to it, comes into prominence and assumes an immense importance. It is here that the surface vital personality or life-self asserts its ...
... activities of our physical nature. These beings or part selves of the self in us are powers of the Spirit and therefore not limited by their temporary expression, for what is thus formulated is only a fragment of its possibilities; but the expression creates a temporary mental, vital or physical personality which grows and develops even as the psychic being or soul personality grows and develops within... subliminal or cosmic forces, subconscient, mental, vital, subtle-physical, which may unduly sway or chaotically drive the being, encircle it in a cave of darkness, or keep it wandering in a wilderness of glamour, allurement, deception, or push it into an obscure battlefield full of secret and treacherous and misleading or open and violent oppositions; beings and voices and influences may appear to the inner... balance, but it is more kinetic and creative: for the element of the vital being is not earth but air; it has more movement, less status. A vigorous vital mind and will can grasp and govern the kinetic vital energies, but it is more by a forceful compulsion and constraint than by a harmonisation of the being. If, however, a strong vital personality, mind and will can get the reasoning intelligence to give ...
... degrees, many forms of energy of Nature. There is in the world of birth an energy of physical being and nature, arising out of the physical an energy of vital being and nature, arising out of the vital an energy of mental being and nature, arising out of the mental an energy of spiritual or supramental being and nature. And each of these forms of energy has a law of its own, lines of its own action,... consequence of the effect upon our own life and being. But the energy we put forth on others is ordinarily of a mixed character, physical, vital, moral, mental and spiritual, and the return and consequence too are of a mixed character. A physical action, a vital pressure thrown forth from ourselves carries in it a mental or moral as well as a physical and vital power and issues often quite beyond our conscious... highest or its integral principle. The will in the intellectual being may erect knowledge and truth of knowledge as the governing principle of the Spirit, the will in the volitional being may see Will or Power as very God, the will in the aesthetic being enthrone beauty and harmony as the sovereign law, the will in the ethical being have a vision of it as Right or Love or Justice, and so on through ...
... 227 beings, but they were living with human beings. Cats and dogs, for example, which lived in a close intimacy with human beings, truly had an aspiration. I had a cat which was very, very unhappy for being a cat, it wanted to be a man. It had an untimely death. It used to meditate, it certainly did a kind of sadhana of its own, and when it left, even a portion of its vital being reincarnated... ed in a human being. The little psychic element that was at the centre of the being went directly into a man, but even what was conscious in the vital of the cat went into a human being. But these are rather exceptional cases. You say that perhaps stones also feel love? 1 It is possible. Can it be known? One can feel it. There is a certain state of consciousness in which one perceives... under the influence of the adverse forces, particularly the vital force which is dynamic and generally makes you act. This force is largely under the influence of the adverse vital, that is, forces which like to hurt, destroy, damage. That kind of will to spoil things: when one sees something beautiful, instead of admiring, loving, being happy, wishing that it grows and progresses (which is the true ...
... misfortune is that usually either the vital being or the mental being or even the physical being is very anxious to play a part, very anxious. So it swells up, takes up a lot of place, covers the rest; and it covers it so well that one can't even become aware of the presence of the divine Force because the personal movement of the physical, the body, the vital, the mind, covers everything with its... make the mind and vital a "clear field"? Make what?... Yes, it is difficult. ( Laughter ) It is a great task. Well, it is always the same thing; first of all you must understand what is meant by being clear. And then you must aspire, and with persistence; and each time something comes to obstruct you, you must brush it aside, push it back, not accept it. The mind and vital have a very bad habit:... aspiration in having an experience, being in contact with the divine force, immediately they rush forward to make it their own property, you see, like that ( gesture ), as a cat jumps on a mouse. And then they catch it and say, "It is for me." And then the mind turns it into all kinds of speculations and affirmations and constructions and takes great pride in it, and the vital uses the power to fulfil its ...
... are two centres or parts of the consciousness—one is a witness, sākṣī , and observes, the other consciousness is active and it is this active consciousness that you felt going down deep into the vital being. If your mind had not become active, you would have known where it went and what it went there to experience or do. When there is an experience, you should not begin to think about it, for that is... realise what it is in you that has come across and created this upsetting. It is not 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... Spain, something common and trivial for the vital mass-mind to chew or gobble. To show what is written about experiences or to speak about one's experiences to others is always risky. They are much better kept to oneself. I rather doubt whether it should be done. 1 There is a privacy about experiences which stands in the way of their being dealt with like that, at least until the sadhak ...
... of that Page 696 one Ananda. His physical being will be one with all material Nature, his vital being with the life of the universe, his mind with the cosmic mind, his spiritual knowledge and will with the divine knowledge and will both in itself and as it pours itself through these channels, his spirit with the one spirit in all beings. All the variety of cosmic existence will be changed... , will, sense-mind, heart, the vital and sensational being and translate them by a luminous and harmonising conversion into a unity of the truth, power and delight of a divine existence. It will lift into that light and force and convert into their own highest sense our whole intellectual, volitional, dynamic, ethical, aesthetic, sensational, vital and physical being. It has the power also of overcoming... action and being to the Anandamaya Ishwara, the Lord of existence and works and Spirit of bliss, who presides over and governs her workings. The individual soul will be the channel of this action and offering, and it will enjoy at once its oneness with the Ishwara and its oneness with the Prakriti and will enjoy all relations with Infinite and finite, with God and the universe and beings in the universe ...
... expresses itself at the present day, there is much in it that is exaggerated and imperfect. Its seers seem often to preach an impossible self-abnegation of the vital life and an asceticism which instead of purifying and transforming the vital being, seeks to suppress and even kill it; life itself is impoverished or dried up by this severe austerity in its very springs. Carried away by a high-reaching spirit... man where there are plenty of other passions to combat it. It is in the soul that it must find its roots; the love which is founded upon a deeper truth of our being, the brotherhood or, let us say, - for this is another feeling than any vital or mental sense of brotherhood, a calmer more durable motive-force, - the spiritual comradeship which is the expression of an inner realisation of oneness. For... than the rational enlightenment that can alone illumine the vital nature of man and impose harmony on its self-seekings, antagonisms and discords. A deeper brotherhood, a yet unfound law of love is the only sure foundation possible for a perfect social evolution, no other can replace it. But this brotherhood and love will not proceed by the vital instincts or the reason where they can be met, baffled or ...
... nature, just as when the Mother stands in meditation each receives according to his mode of being. SRI AUROBINDO: That is a different matter. Each one will of course receive in his own language. An Englishman won't receive in Bengali or Gujarati. That depends on the response of the mind, the vital being or whatever it may be . About Ahimsa (non-violence), animals feel if a person is really non violent... Something in you may want it. Otherwise why should it come? DR. MANILAL: Which part of me wants it, Sir? I myself don't know. SRI AUROBINDO: The body consciousness may respond to the habit and the vital consciousness may want to accept the law of pain. PURANI: The Pudgals (material elements), perhaps. (Laughter) SRI AUROBINDO: The Pudgals are hard to deal with. DR. MANILAL: But can't one... in a small quantities. You know the story of Mithridates, the great enemy of the Romans. He accustomed himself to all poisons. There was no poison that could kill him. But when he was in danger of being caught by the Romans, he couldn't kill himself by taking poison. He had to ask somebody to slay him. EVENING SATYENDRA: You have said, Sir, in The Life Divine that only the absolute idealist ...
... unwilled effectiveness on our minds or vital being or through them even on the body. These transcriptions, impresses, thought images, life images, projections of the consciousness may also be representations or creations not of the physical world, but of vital, psychic or mental worlds beyond us, seen in our own minds or projected from other than human beings. And as there is this psychical vision... operations. These emergent operations of the subliminal being or some of them are now fragmentarily studied under the name of psychic phenomena, — although they have ordinarily nothing to do with the psyche, the soul, the inmost entity in us, but only with the inner mind, the inner vital, the subtle-physical parts of our subliminal being;... The Life Divine, pp. 535-37 Page 249 ... mental being in the depths, Page 246 the inner mental being who is master, if he wills, of the nerves and the body. But this freedom which is effected by hypnosis abnormally, rapidly, without true possession, by an alien will, may equally be won normally, gradually, with true possession, by one's own will so as to effect partially or completely a victory of the mental being over the ...
... seeking; it has not the knowledge that it is not the union of one being with another that it is seeking after but the union of all beings with the Divine. Love is a supreme force which the Eternal Consciousness sent down from itself into an obscure and darkened world that Page 73 it might bring back that world and its beings to the Divine. The material world in its darkness and ignorance... union becomes constant and complete. Great beings have taken birth in this world who came to bring down here something of the sovereign purity and power of Divine love. The Divine love has thrown itself into a personal form in them that its realisation upon earth may be at once more easy and more perfect. Divine love, when manifested in a personal being, is easier to realise; it is more difficult... it is something weak and sentimental, made up of the pettiest feeling, brittle, superficial, exacting. And this baseness and brutality or this self-regarding weakness they call love! Is our vital being to take part in the Divine love? If it does, what is the right and correct form of participation it should take? Where is the manifestation of Divine love intended to stop? Is it to be confined ...
... very near the animal. And as the centuries pass, man becomes more mental and more vital; and as he becomes more vital and mental, naturally refinement is possible, intelligence grows, but also the possibility of perversion and distortion. You see, there is a difference between educating one's senses to the point of being able to bring in all kinds of refinements, developments, knowledge, all the pos... usually the vital being is very closely concentrated on the body and when the body is well fed it takes its strength from the food, its energy from the food, and it is one way... it is obviously almost the only way; not the only one, but the most important in the present conditions of life... but it is a very tamasic way of absorbing energy. If you think about it, you see, it is the vital energy which... which is in either plants or animals, that is, logically it is of an inferior quality to the vital energy which should be in man, who is a slightly higher being in the gradation of the species. So if you draw from below you draw at the same time the inconscience that is below. It is impossible to eat without absorbing a considerable amount of inconscience; this makes you heavy, coarsens you; and then ...
... essence of all our mental, vital and bodily experience and assimilates it for the farther evolution of our existence in Nature; but this action is occult and not obtruded on the surface. In the early material and vital stages of the evolution of being there is indeed no consciousness of soul; there are psychic activities, but the instrumentation, the form of these activities are vital and physical,—or mental... principle, has already begun to take secret form; it puts forward and develops a soul-personality, a distinct psychic being to represent it. This psychic being remains still behind the veil in our subliminal part, like the true mental, the true vital or the true or subtle physical being within us: but, like them, it acts on the surface life by the influences and intimations it throws up upon that surface;... Function and Action of the Psychic The Psychic Being Influence and Action of the Psychic At the beginning the soul in Nature, the psychic entity, whose unfolding is the first step towards a spiritual change, is an entirely veiled part of us, although it is that by which we exist and persist as individual beings in Nature. The other parts of our natural c ...
... central being—the Jivatman which is not born nor evolves but presides over the individual birth and evolution—puts forward a representative of himself on each plane of the consciousness. On the mental plane it is the true mental being, manomaya puruṣa , on the vital plane the true vital being, prāṇamaya puruṣa , on the physical plane the true physical being, annamaya puruṣa . Each being, therefore... this projection of the spirit. The central being is the being which presides over the different births one after the other, but is itself unborn, for it does not descend into the being but is above it—it holds together the mental, vital and physical being and all the various parts of the personality and it controls the life either through the mental being and the mental thought and will or through... part of the inner being, sometimes the inner mental, sometimes the inner vital, sometimes, it may be, the inner or subtle physical Purusha. The inner being—inner mind, inner vital, inner or subtle physical—knows much that is unknown to the outer mind, the outer vital, the outer physical, for it is in a more direct contact with the secret forces of Nature. The psychic is the inmost being of all; a perception ...
... materialise something, to create a new body by occult processes? The idea is that first of all some beings must reach a certain Page 117 realisation here in the physical world that would give them the power to materialise a supramental being. I told you that once I endowed a vital being with a body, but I would never have been able to... it would have been impossible to make this body... here in India as necessary for the spiritual life. From this point of view it was very instructive. First of all this kind of so-called ascetic purity. Ascetic purity is simply the rejection of all vital movements; instead of taking up these movements and turning them towards the Divine, that is to say, instead of seeing the supreme Presence in them and letting the Supreme act freely on them, you tell... "No, that is not your concern." He is not allowed to interfere with them. As for the physical, it is an old story, everyone knows: the ascetics have always rejected it, but then they added the vital. Only the things that were classically recognised as sacred or permitted by religious tradition, as for example, the sanctity of marriage and things like that, were accepted, but to live freely—oh! ...
... Aitareya Upanishad, I .2. 2 Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad, p. 24. 3 Sri Aurobindo, On the Veda, p. 575. Page 247 been brought into being, annabhūtamidaṁ jagat. And this being so, "a physical, vital, moral, mental increase by a more and more all-embracing experience, a more and more all-embracing possession, absorption, assimilation, enjoyment is the inevitable... sorts of malaise to the embodied life, culminating in the sombre finale of death. This world has been created out of the Self-Being of Sachchidananda for His possession and creative enjoyment, prajāvat saubhagam, and it is He who is tasting all Beings and Becomings in an all-possessing and self-possessing self-existent delight. Now all that is is Sachchidananda, v ā sudeva ḥ... abundance of heaven', and all the treasures of the mental, vital and physical existence multiplied a million-fold. Indeed, the goal of individual existence is the divine beatitude in dynamis as much as in status, and in consequence a total and perfect possession and enjoyment of all that enters the field of universal movement. "All being has this divine enjoyment of existence for its aim and end ...
... of the silent symphony of spaces. Individualities are the freedoms of the collective being and collectivity the concentration of individual beings. The same soul looking inward appears as the individual being and looking outward appears as the collective being. Communism takes man not as ego or the vital creature; it turns him upside down –urdhomulo' vaksakhah-and establishes him upon his... that individuality and ego are not the same thing, that the individual may have his individuality intact and entire and yet sacrifice his ego, that the soul of man is a much greater thing than his vital being. It is simply ignoring the fact and denying the truth to say that man is only a fighting animal and not a loving god, that the self within the individual realises itself only through competition... sense would like to have it. The sharp angularities of the individual are being, at every moment, chastened by the very primary conditions of life; and to fail to recognise this is the blindest form of ignorance. It is no easy task to draw exactly the line of distinction between our individual being and our social or communal being. In actual life they are so blended together that in trying to extricate ...
... individualism is that in insisting upon the free development and self-expression of the life and the mind or the life-soul in the individual, it tends to exaggerate the egoism of the mental and vital being and prevent the recognition of unity with others on which alone a complete self-development and a harmless freedom can he founded. Collectivism at least insists upon that unity by entirely subordinating... likely to be the last stage of social evolution, but it is still the necessary broad standing-ground upon which the self-consciousness of the social being can come to its own." "It does not follow that a true democracy must necessarily come into being at some time. For man individually or collectively to come to a full self-consciousness is a most difficult tangle. Before a true democracy can be... the Self, the Spirit, the Divine which is in him and in all; not to subordinate or lose himself in the mass, but to find and express that truth of being in himself and help the community and humanity in its seeking for its own truth and fullness of being must be his real object of existence." Unity, not uniformity, is the law of life "Absolute uniformity would mean the cessation of life ...
... apply this Power [Supermind] to the physical plane," Sri Aurobindo told the assembled group of disciples in Page 314 July 1926. "Something was done in the mind and also in the vital being but not in the physical." He explained. "Firstly, the Yogis did not care for these questions of the physical plane. Secondly, they had other, more direct, means of dealing with them." But... preferring darkness to light, ignorance to knowledge, falsehood to truth. Life and matter were constantly preyed upon by the nasty undivine forces, as they had always been. Why? What happened? "It is the vital mixture—" Sri Aurobindo explained, "the mixture of the life-forces—that comes in and corrupts the whole spiritual movement." And leaves our life and body ignorant, imperfect, impotent as before. ... the Divine in our entire being and daily life." 1 Even to arrive at those planes of the Supermind, Sri Aurobindo had to, first of all, traverse the maze of continents that lay in between. Like any rational person Sri Aurobindo did not believe that man was confined to the physical body alone. Actually there are many planes and parts that go into the making of a human being. These planes were fairly ...
... 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 on... inner view of things on the vital plane have plenty of experience of the hostile forces. However, you need not personally concern yourself with them so long as they remain incognito... One may have the experiences on the mental plane without this knowledge coming — for there mind and idea predominate and one does not feel the play of Forces — it is only in the vital that this becomes clear. In the... *A man grows into what he worships. Page 55 what is happening in the world around us, in and through every power-addict Dictator who inflates himself into a colossal Demon of the vital, a veritable Titan of whom Sri Aurobindo says: A mighty energy, a monster god, Hard to the strong, implacable to the weak... To have power, to be master, was sole virtue and good ...
... alone make possible a similar survival of the life part in us, the outer vital personality representative of the inner life being, the vital Purusha. What would really happen then is that the wall between the inner self and the outer man would have broken down and the permanent mental and vital being from within, the mental and vital representatives of the immortal psychic entity, would govern the life... our mental being came to be so powerfully individualised on the surface and so much one with the inner mind and inner mental Purusha and at the same time so open plastically to the progressive action of the Infinite that the soul no longer needed to dissolve the old form of mind and create a new one in order to progress. A similar individualisation, integration and openness of the vital being on the surface... persist in the subtle body; the being would still have to discard its physical form, pass to other worlds and in its return put on a new body. The awakened mental Purusha and vital Purusha, preserving the mind sheath and the life sheath of the subtle body which are usually discarded, would return with them into a new birth and keep a vivid and sustained sense of a permanent being of mind and life constituted ...
... genuine poetry can be stirred more continually when the poetic part in one is functioning from within the vital being or in close contact with it even when the intellectual being is lord of one's self. And there is one particular element which the intellectual Milton, by outgrowing his vital being's Elizabethan inspira-tion, lost to the radical detriment of the substance of his great epic. A poem dealing... romantic poignancy, the emotional vital intuition: it is as if Milton matured the rare rich promise of his life's dawn within the spacious "intellectual being" of its evening - it is as if, recalling and addressing that promise, he worked with the resolution of Ruru, to bring Thy old warm beauty back beneath the stars. No doubt, the "intellectual being" is more active in Paradise Lost... stress of an increasing intellectuality." 2 "Milton's early poetry is the fruit of a strong classical intellectuality still touched with the glow and beauty of a receding romantic colour, emotion and vital intuition. Many softer influences have woven themselves together into his high language and rhythm and been fused in his personality into something wonderfully strong and rich and beautiful. Sug- ...
... indeed consents to assume the apparent form of itself which Prakriti constructs for it; it seems to become the Inconscient, the physical being, the vital being, the mental being: but in all these it remains still in reality itself; the light of the secret conscious Being supports and informs the action of the inconscient or emergingly conscious energy of Nature. The inconscience is superficial like... consciousness and concentrates exclusively on the concealed inner being,—on the Self or on the true inner, psychic or mental or vital being, the Purusha,—to disclose it. But when it has done so, it need not remain in this opposite exclusiveness; it can resume its integral consciousness or a global consciousness which includes both being of Purusha and action of Prakriti, the soul and its instruments... the object of the limitation and of this partiality of knowledge; and the object being admitted, the power to fulfil it must be admitted also in the absolute force of the absolute Being. This power of self-limitation for a particular working, instead of being incompatible with the absolute conscious-force of that Being, is precisely one of the powers we should expect to exist among the manifold energies ...
... it. But when men suffer, or subject themselves to voluntary suffering, what happens is that their vital being gets strengthened. These movements affect the vital being only and not any other part. Now, when you cannot oppose the force that oppresses, you say that you will suffer. That suffering is vital and it gives strength. When the man who has thus suffered gets power he becomes a worse oppressor... of violence, as I said. In that respect the old system in India was much better: the man who had the fighting spirit became the Kshatriya and then the fighting spirit was raised above the ordinary vital influence. The attempt was to spiritualize it. It succeeded in doing what passive resistance cannot and will not achieve. The Kshatriya was the man who would not allow any oppression, who would fight... politics; women would succeed better. Man is able to put more mental power, while the woman acts more psychically. Man is more intellectual and woman more intuitive. She is also very active on the vital plane. (A disciple:) But while woman has often been the source of inspiration to man, she has not produced any great creative work. Because she was not given any opportunity by social ...
... This duality in the being on all its planes — for it is true in different ways not only of the Self and the psychic but of the mental, vital and physical Purushas — has to be grasped and accepted before the experiences of the yoga can be fully understood. Letters on Yoga, pp. 284-85 In a certain sense the various Purushas or beings in us, psychic, mental, vital, physical are projections... our inner being and know the inner truth of ourselves. On the surface, in the Ignorance, it is the mental, vital, physical Prakriti that acts and the Purusha is disfigured, as it were, in the action of the Prakriti. It is not our true mental being, our true vital being, our true physical being even that we are aware of; these remain behind, veiled and silent. It is the mental, vital, physical... Spirit or Conscious Being in its relations to Nature, is of immense pragmatic importance; for on these relations the whole play of the consciousness depends in the embodied being. If the Purusha in us is passive and allows Nature to act, accepting all she imposes on him, giving a constant automatic sanction, then the soul in mind, life, body, the mental, vital, physical being in us, becomes subject ...
... forms of Nature, the individual soul, caitya puruṣa, supporting mind, life and body, standing behind the mental, the vital, the subtle-physical being in us and watching and profiting by their development and experience. These other person-powers in man, these beings of his being, are also veiled in their true entity, but they put forward temporary personalities which compose our outer individuality... projection of the spirit. The central being is the being which presides over the different births one after the other, but is itself unborn, for it does not descend into the being but is above it — it holds together the mental, vital and physical being and all the various parts of the personality and it controls the life either through the mental being and the mental thought and will or through... the inner being, sometimes the inner mental, sometimes the inner vital, sometimes, it may be, the inner or subtle physical Purusha. The inner being — inner mind, inner vital, inner or subtle physical — knows much that is unknown to the outer mind, the outer vital, the outer physical, for it is in a more direct contact with the secret forces of Nature. The psychic is the inmost being of all; a ...
... intervening in the details there would have to be a conscious union between the outer being, that is, the vital and physical being, and the psychic being, but usually this does not exist. So externally, in the details… for example, there was someone who in deep perplexity said to me, “Well, if it is the psychic being or rather the Divine in the psychic who directs our life, is it He who decides the number... essence of all our mental, vital and bodily experience and assimilates it for the farther evolution of our existence in Nature; but this action is occult and not obtruded on the surface. In the early material and vital stages of the evolution of being there is indeed no consciousness of soul; there are psychic activities, but the instrumentation, the form of these activities are vital and physical—or mental... principle, has already begun to take secret form; it puts forward and develops a soul personality, a distinct psychic being to represent it. This psychic being remains still behind the veil in our subliminal part, like the true mental, the true vital or the true or subtle physical being within us: but, like them, it acts on the surface life by the influences and intimations it throws up upon that surface; ...
... or in Page 118 another sphere,—but because they belong to the impulses or forces that, being unillumined and ignorant, stand in the way of your approach to the Divine. All desires, whether good or bad, come within this description; for desire itself arises from an unillumined vital being and its ignorance. On the other hand you must accept all movements that bring you into contact with... In the same way you could take all other types and trace them to some original intention in the Divine Force. Each is a diminution or caricature of the type intended by the Divine, a mental and vital distortion of things that have a greater spiritual value. It is a wrong movement that creates the distortion or the caricature. Once this false impulsion is mastered, the right attitude taken, the right... self-immolation. It is your possibilities that you sacrifice, the possibilities and realisations of your personality from the most material to the highest spiritual range. Sacrifice diminishes your being. If physically you sacrifice your life, your body, you give up all your possibilities on the material plane; you have done with the achievements of your earthly existence. In the same way you can ...
... pp. 38-39 It is quite difficult to free oneself from old habits of being and to be able to freely conceive of a new life, a new world. And naturally, the liberation begins on the highest planes of consciousness: it is easier for the mind or the higher intelligence to conceive of new things than for the vital being, for instance, to feel things in a new way. And it is still more difficult for... be what men now call gods. These great divine beings themselves will be able to participate in the new creation; but to do so, they will have to put on what we could call the "supramental substance" on earth. And if some of them choose to remain in their world as they are, if they decide not to manifest physically, their relation with the beings of a supramental earth will be a relation of friends... through me he would do the work. Suddenly, immediately, things took a certain shape: a very brilliant creation was worked out in extraordinary detail, with marvellous experiences, contacts with divine beings, and all kinds of manifestations which are considered miraculous. Experiences followed one upon another, and, well, things were unfolding altogether brilliantly and... I must say, in an extremely ...
... mind and vital and body—for it is this peace and quiet that make a firm basis for the sadhana. The starting of the body happens very often when it is in a kind of sleep of samadhi and something touches whether from within or without. The Trance of Mediums The medium trance is of a different kind—they get not into touch with Sachchidananda but with the beings of the lower vital plane. To... inside is necessary because the active mind of the human being is at first too much turned to outward things; it has to go inside altogether in order to live in the inner being (inner mind, inner vital, inner physical, psychic). But with training one can arrive at a point when one remains outwardly conscious and yet lives in the inner being and has at will the indrawn or the out-poured condition; you... of the Inner Being and the Inner Consciousness Letters on Yoga - III Chapter III Inner Experiences in the State of Samadhi Samadhi or Trance The experience you had is of course the going inside of the consciousness which is usually called trance or samādhi . The most important part of it however is the silence of the mind and vital which is fully ...
... Mother and Sri Aurobindo and himself is to change the "programming" of the cells and reveal the Supermind in them by a certain inner process? Except for an endeavour to silence the intellect, the vital being and the physical mind, no sadhana is required. It is as if the numberless spiritual experiences which lay behind the final stage of the Mother's sadhana for the world were of no importance and... negative instead of the positive side of Satprem's work. The basic negative side is that he has not attended to the Mother's wish that Andre should read and judge things. To avoid this wish from being carried out he managed to take charge of the typed copy of the Agenda which used to be kept in the Mother's room and towards which she had pointed when giving Andre her instructions. When the basis... the Ashram don't always realise this but people outside who have no feel of the divine consciousness in the Mother are liable to be completely misguided both as to her aim and as to the level of being from which she spoke. While getting a bad opinion of those whom at a particular moment she has criticised they Page 223 are likely also to see her as a repeatedly grumbling back-biter ...
... or part of it but into all the being down to the physical and below before a real transformation can take place. A light in the mind may spiritualise or otherwise change the mind or part of it in one way or another, but it need not change the vital nature; a light in the vital may purify and enlarge the vital movements or else silence and immobilise the vital being, but leave the body and the physical... and devotees and yogis and sadhaks throughout the ages would have been supramental beings and all I have written about the supermind would be so much superfluous stuff, useless and otiose. Anybody who had spiritual experiences would then be a supramental being; the Ashram would be chock-full of supramental beings and every other Ashram in India also. Spiritual experiences can fix themselves in... certain specific kind which is so conceived as to bring about a strong and assured step forward in the spiritual evolution of the being of a greater and higher kind and of a larger sweep and completeness than what took place when a mentalised being first appeared in a vital and material animal world. If anything short of that takes place or at least if a real beginning is not made on that basis, a ...
... He has first of all a body, which is made of matter. Next he has a vital being, which is the energy, power, or prana element in him; then he has the mind, which is his rational, intellectualizing element. The vital is that in man which gives him life, energy, power dynamism, desires, emotions or feelings, ambitions, etc. Page 23 quarrels are necessary. I was saying, "You're not giving... Perhaps the psychic influence was too strong that day and things got exchanged - my pen-holder came in my paperweight's place, and the paperweight went to the windowsill, etc. Naturally I, or rather, my vital, 42 got vexed, annoyed, and I felt like telling him, "Leave my table alone." I was looking for a notebook or some paper to write on, and I came upon this notebook once more and thought of using... simple, gentle manner of a good man, sometimes 41The psychic being is the Divine spark in every living creature, which develops into a fully conscious and individualized Divine presence through spiritual evolution. It is the Antaryamin, a delegate of the Divine self in the lower planes of body, life and mind. 42The human being has many elements in himself, quite distinct from each other. He ...
... what minuteness. After all, he did say that "it is not sufficient to open the mind and the vital being and leave the physical being to its obscurity." If we simply look, for instance, at a few first entries in his diary of 1912, what do we find? "18.1.1912—The roga [disease or disorder] that came, is being slowly eliminated. Its chief characteristic is a dull form of watery nausea, slight in substance... so did Sri Aurobindo on these young men. He would put forth some force and see how the boys reacted. "I have also to see," he explained, "how they would react if I put the force in a different way." Being scientific in his methods, he studied the laws that govern a force, under what conditions would it work and give tangible results. Saurin, Mrinalini Devi's cousin, shared a room with Moni in Sundar... house-dog, having lost the intellectual idea of the time, I ideally cognised it to be just 2-50. Verified, exact to the second." The cognition worked for other things than divining time. "All rooms being closed, I ideally perceived that all were asleep. Verified immediately afterwards by no one moving when the servant repeatedly banged for admission at the door." As a matter of fact the siddhis ...
... to read it. But when Amrita asked if he too could do so she refused. It would seem that its frankness in sexual matters would have brought it unnecessary trouble for Amrita's non-experienced vital being, whereas Udar was too blasé to be affected. I am sure the Mother would have thought of me also in the same way as of Udar. It was rather surprising to see her admiring Lenin. Sri Aurobindo... had lived from 1782 to 1840. But on listening to the Mother's praise of Ysayë I came to believe that he must have been superior to all of these. He could not have been so memorable to a being with such profound insight into the values of art unless he had been the very personification of the spirit of violin-playing. I remember her once alluding to his presence as having a head like a... always of such unmixed quality as those two. I recall a special reference by her to one of his operas. I recall it all the more distinctly because I happened to distinguish myself on the occasion by being the only one to be able to name the opera about which she was speaking. She could not get the title from her own memory and nobody in the company — we were more than a dozen and a half, including ...
... 1944 Let the mind be quiet and receive the Light; let the vital be quiet and receive the Force that delivers. Sri Aurobindo Let this year bring to you the true faith—a faith that no darkness can obscure. The Mother 2.2.1945 Let the year that is beginning mark a definitive stage in the growth of your psychic being and its power over your nature and your life. Sri Aurobindo... blessings The Mother 2.2.1946 Continue to open yourself and the psychic consciousness will grow in you and the Light refine and illumine whatever is left of the shadows in the mind and vital being. Sri Aurobindo My dear child, now I can call you in truth my dear child as I feel you quite close to me having taken shelter in my arms for good—and you are welcome there with all my love.... here. The Mother 2.2.1942 Aspire always to grow more and more conscious so that all the small obstacles shall disappear from the physical consciousness and the obscurer parts of the vital nature. Sri Aurobindo In front of the repeated attacks from the enemy you must keep your faith intact and endure till the Victory is won. The Mother 2.2.1943 Keep yourself ready ...
... stages spoken of by Sri Aurobindo: first and foremost, becoming inwardly free by being the impartial Witness of the movements in one's outer egoic being; secondly, being the Sanctioner, consenting only to what accords with one's true inner nature; thirdly, becoming the Master of all the movements of one's body, vital, and mind. Eckhart's teaching has also helped me to understand that what is... not repressed. Sri Aurobindo has often remarked about the way in which the mind is thus used by the desire-nature for rationalizing the urges of the vital being. Regarding this aspect of the mind, which he calls the vital mind, he writes: The vital started in its evolution with obedience to impulse and no reason—as for strategy, the only strategy it understands is some tactics by which it can... s of incredible beauty, stillness, and sacredness. He sees animals living primarily in the joy of being rather than involved merely in a perpetual struggle for existence as they appear through the mental screen. A human being is perceived by him as a beautiful though unconscious form of the One Being in temporary disguise that is thick or thin, depending on the transparency of the human form. I do ...
... 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 the subconscient is the basis of our material being and supports all that comes up in the physical... think they are gone. When the physical consciousness is being changed, 1 the chief resistance comes from the subconscient. It is constantly maintaining or bringing back the inertia, weakness, obscurity, lack of intelligence which afflict the physical mind and vital or the obscure fears, desires, angers, lusts of the physical vital, or the illnesses, dullnesses, pains, incapabilities to which... repetition of whatever has impressed itself upon the body-consciousness. Letters on Yoga, p. 353 The subconscient in the ordinary man includes the larger part of Page 33 the vital being and the physical mind and also the secret body-consciousness. Letters on Yoga, p. 898 The subconscient is universal as well as individual like all the other main parts of the Nature ...
... and silence of the Divine into the mind and the vital and physical being. In that peace and silence there is a true possibility that the mental and vital formations will fall to rest and the supramental creation can have free space. The second safeguard is to remain entirely detached even from the most absorbing experiences and observe them without being carried away by their brilliance. The power of... carried away [ ] 3 by the brilliance and splendour and delight of his experiences, he can easily wander far from the highest way. But the Forces and Beings that are behind them are sometimes adverse Forces, sometimes the lesser Gods of the mental and vital planes. In either case they try to occupy and use the instrument, but for their own purpose, for the play of the Ideas and Forces they represent, not... unhappily you seem to have departed from the guidance of the Mother in the crucial point. You seem to have deliberately rejected the peace and silence of the vital being in the fear that it would bring stagnation. As a result the strong habit [of] vital formation came into play and you began to call down lights and powers and build things in [yourself] 4 in your own way. In this condition, when the disciple ...
... takes time to recover, it comes as one progresses, through successive illuminations. Between the vital being and the mental, which progresses faster generally? That depends on people. It is the vital in those who have a stronger vital and the mental in those who have a stronger mental being. You mean in the same person? That depends absolutely on which one is more active and more strong. In... beautiful, but it is beyond my capacity." But this vital is a strange creature. It is a being of passion, enthusiasm and naturally of desire; but, for example, it is quite capable of getting enthusiastic over something beautiful, of admiring, sensing anything greater and nobler than itself. And if really anything very beautiful occurs in the being, if there is a movement having an exceptional value... comes precisely from its capacity to get enthused and throw itself wholly without reserve into what it does. Heroes are always people who have a strong vital, and when the vital becomes passionate about something, it is no longer a reasonable being but a warrior; it is wholly involved in its action and can perform exceptional things because it does not calculate, does not reason, does not say "One ...
... what exactly happened? The Egyptians held that at the time of death the Ka or vital being goes out of the body and after many years can return to it if preserved. That is the tradition behind mummification. Perhaps Brunton materialised the tradition? (Laughter) PURANI: Brunton cites the instance of a dead sparrow being revived by an Egyptian. NIRODBARAN: He says that of Vishuddhananda also. The... was a friend of Oscar Wilde. (Laughter) People say that one telepathises a mental idea and this makes the person appear. It can't be a mere projection of form by the mind only. There is also the vital-physical part that materialises. PURANI: Paul Brunton writes that when he was in Egypt he met near a hill an ancient Egyptian who had died thousands of years ago and had been mummified. Brunton talked... permanent materialisation, theoretically it is not impossible, but I haven't heard of any case. Well, if stones can be materialised, as in "the famous incident of our Guest House, I don't see why human beings cannot. When materialisation takes place, it is most often immediately before death or after. The man in question visits some friend or relative, and if the dying condition or the death is not known ...
... movement Page 150 was carrying – the whole merging as it were into a sea of rich peace and silence. The poet's eloquence is most intimately married to his silence. On one side, his vital being, athirst for delight, is overwhelmed with the mass of Nature's wealth, luxuriant in colours and smells, in peals of laughter and rhythms of dance; his senses enamoured of beauty are eagerly prone... ecstasy In the core of Man's being: Blood runs riot in his veins. Suddenly your girdles give way On the horizon, O naked beauty! What a visionary world of matchless and unique beauty is unveiled before the mind's eye! That is the true Rabindranath, the creator of such magic wonders. Perfect 'perfection of beauty is inherent in the nature of his inner being. The advance he has made in respect... to evaluate him we must consider him as a poet. What he has done or not done as a man is insignificant; he has stored up in his poetry whatever eternal and everlasting was there in him, in his true being and real nature. The rest is of no real significance or value. In that respect he may not have a good deal of difference from others, any marked speciality. The greatest recognition of a poet lies in ...
... mental being, he is rather a mental animal. Page 59 The mind is not yet the master in his Adhara; the true master who rules and handles the mental faculty is the life principle, the animal in him, his vital being, which again in its turn is a slave of the obscure brute matter in him. So man, in spite of all his mental splendour, is a dangerous creature—dangerous, for the vital in him... came along with them. Mother and Sri Aurobindo offered their physical forms and presence as a ladder for them to climb—no, to be carried up. They arranged so that human beings could grow into superhuman spiritual beings, shaking off their ignorant human consciousness, as the caterpillar grows into a butterfly shaking off its cocoon—but alas, man failed. Perhaps the new destiny was too new for... aspiration, on that one arduous effort. For them the only thing to do is self-purification—purification of the body, purification of the vital, the reorientation and reorganisation of the entire lower base of consciousness, its physical and especially its lower vital parts. Those who want spirituality in practical life must go down to the bottom and accomplish this purification. And the future ...
... attraction for the light of the stars and even the dark night holds in her heart the immortal hope for the Dawn; from the world of sorrows the human being feels devotion for the Divine. Here there is no distracted cry of the human vital being to possess beauty. There is instead an ardent aspiration to offer his devotion to the object of love which the poet feels akin to the Divine, Page... beauty exerts on the human heart. But it also expresses the most common reaction of the desire-soul, the Kamanamaya Purusha, to the experience of beauty. Byron here represents the ardent cry of the vital being in man for the possession of beauty. Coupled Page 99 with the experience of beauty is the tragic vein of disappointment and a justification of the possessive impulse. ... creator enjoys the delight while creating and imparts the same to others. The capacity of aesthetic enjoyment is limited at present by man's nature, i.e. by his mental, emotional, vital and physical being. Man has been using the material of his experience from these fields for aesthetic enjoyment. Now and then, some sparks from some unknown higher regions have illumined his experience with ...
... human vital being Page 83 to possess beauty. There is instead an ardent aspiration to offer his devotion to the object of love which the poet feels. akin to the Divine. Keats wrote those immortal lines : "Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all Ye know on earth and all ye need to know." Beauty is one with Reality. But Keats found the world far from being beautiful... , Page 82 expresses the most common reaction of the desire-sou1,-the Kamanamaya purusha-to the experience of beauty. Byron here represents the ardent cry of the vital being in man for the possession of beauty. Coupled with the experience of beauty is the tragic vein of disappointment and a justification of the possessive impulse. In Shelly's experience of beauty... of the universe, and lays down rules to govern man's relation with __________________________ ¹ Future Poetry, Sri Aurobindo. ² Ibid. Page 72 Him and with his fellow beings. It attempts to bring a higher Truth into man's individual and collective life. Art too tried to reach out the same Reality through aesthetic Sensibility, creative urge and a sense of beauty. It ...
... of Yoga recognises besides the status of our physical and vital being, termed the gross body and doubly composed of the food-sheath and the vital vehicle, besides the status of our mental being, termed the subtle body and singly composed of the mind-sheath or mental vehicle 6 , a third, supreme and divine status of supra-mental being, termed Page 259 the causal body and composed... essentially as a physical, vital and mental being. For the life, the mind, the body are the three terms of existence with which it has some competence to deal. It develops a system of mental growth and efficiency, an intellectual, aesthetic and moral culture. It evolves the vital side of human life and creates an ever-growing system of economic efficiency and vital enjoyment, and this system becomes... mental best, he is still not a pure mental being, a pure intelligence; even the most perfect intellectual is not and cannot be wholly or merely rational, — there are vital urgings that he cannot exclude, visits or touches of a light from above that are not less suprarational because he does not recognise their source. No god, but at his highest a human being touched with a ray of the divine influence ...
... 25 January 1951 "The vital being in us is the seat of impulses and desires, of enthusiasm and violence, of dynamic energy and desperate depression, of passions and revolt. It can set in motion everything, build up and realise, it can also destroy and mar everything. It seems to be, in the human being, the most difficult part to train. It is a long labour requiring... themselves in our being. The psychic will be the vehicle of true and pure love, the mind that of infallible knowledge, the vital will manifest an invincible power and strength and the body will be the expression of a perfect beauty and a perfect harmony." "The Science of Living" , On Education This is a thing very little known among mystics and religious people: in each part of the being the Divine... are less dangerous Page 51 in the case of those who have established a contact with their psychic being sufficient to keep alive in them the flame of aspiration and the consciousness of the ideal to be realised. They can, with the help of this consciousness, deal with their vital as one deals with a child in revolt, with patience and perseverance showing it the truth and light, endeavouring ...
... body is or seems to be the frame and determinant here of the mental and vital movements and capacities. Or it may identify itself with the vital being, the life-soul in us and its emotions, desires, impulses, seekings for power and growth and egoistic fulfilment. Or it may rise to a conception of man as a mental and moral being, exalt to the first place his inner growth, power and perfection, individual... Chapter VI The Objective and Subjective Views of Life The principle of individualism is the liberty of the human being regarded as a separate existence to develop himself and fulfil his life, satisfy his mental tendencies, emotional and vital needs and physical being according to his own desire governed by his reason; it admits no other limit to this right and this liberty except the obligation... religious, aesthetic, intuitive, his highest intellectual and ethical, his deepest sympathetic and emotional nature and, regarding this as the fullness of our being and the whole object of our being, tries to subject to it the physical and vital existence. These come to be considered rather as a possible symbol and instrument of the subjective life flowing out into forms than as having any value in ...
... working laid down by the Divine from his light above, not anything claimed by the ego for its own separate sake. The mind, the heart, the vital being, the body itself will be satisfied with whatever comes to them from the dispensation of the Master of the being and in that find a subtlest and yet fullest spiritualised satisfaction and delight; but the divine knowledge and will above will work forward... mastery of existence. When we have it in perfection, we are admitted to the very ground of the divine spiritual nature. The mental being in the body tries to compel and conquer life, but is at every turn compelled by it, because it submits to the desire reactions of the vital self. To be equal, not to be overborne by any stress of desire, is the first condition of real mastery, self-empire is its basis... most concrete practical sense of the word, samatā , freedom from mental, vital, physical preferences, an even acceptance of all God's workings within and around him; secondly, a firm peace and absence of all disturbance and trouble, śānti ; thirdly, a positive inner spiritual happiness and spiritual ease of the natural being which nothing can lessen, sukham ; fourthly, a clear joy and laughter of ...
... because her mind was in such a confusion as a result of her desires, that she would not have been able to understand what I would have written. Since then, I have tried to work on her mental and vital being to make it a little more open and receptive, so that she may understand that Page 251 love for children and the growing hope for the future that they represent in the creation, does not... those who are not steady in their faith cannot be steady in their love either. Surely I am not angry with you and my help is always there whenever you want it. As for doing anything wrong, all human beings do wrong things so long as they live in this world of ignorance, because even if they wish to do right, they do not know what is the right thing to do until their consciousness is transformed, and... me. Man cannot be at the summit of the scale. The animals are very near to him; is he not very near to the following state?" First of all, what maintains the relation with the earth is not only vital desire but any specifically human movement, and affections certainly form part of this. One is bound to the necessity of reincarnation as much by one's affections, by one's feelings, Page 244 ...
... of self-possession and self-mastery. We can then experience our true being and discover the secret of our perpetual being. We need to emphasise therefore, the education of all our parts of being, physical, vital rational, aesthetic, moral and spiritual. And the development of faculties and capacities of these parts of the being closely connected with the question of the values that they seek. Values... Values are the ultimate ends that personality seeks to embody express and fulfil. Corresponding to each capacity, there are; specific values. Our physical being seeks the value of health and strength; our vital being seeks the value of harmony and heroism; our rational Acuity seeks the value of truth and universality; our moral will seeks the good and the right; our aesthetic sensitivity seeks the... of the change of human nature, we speak of radical operations of the maladies of human nature. We need to create human beings who will feel spontaneous brotherhood with all; we need human beings who will effortlessly extend cooperation in tasks of development; we need human beings who will have peace within them selves so that they will radiate peace in their environment. This goal that we need ...
... aim will seek to fulfil itself... in a fullness of life and man's being in the individual and the race which will be the base for the heights of the spirit, the base Page 41 becoming in the end of one substance with the peaks. It will not proceed by a scornful neglect of the body, nor by an ascetic starving of the vital being and an utmost bareness or even squalor as the rule of spiritual... the soul, the yet imperfect instruments of an unsealed diviner purpose." "Therefore it will hold sacred all the different parts of man's life which correspond to the parts of his being, all his physical, vital, dynamic, emotional, aesthetic, ethical, intellectual, psychic evolution, and see in them instruments for a growth towards a diviner living. It will regard every human society, nation,... ceases to be a living growth. Therefore the coming of a spiritual age must be preceded by the appearance of an increasing number of individuals who are no longer satisfied with the normal intellectual, vital and physical existence of man, but perceive that a greater evolution is the real goal of humanity and attempt to effect it in themselves, to lead others to it and to make it the recognised goal of the ...
... in the last analysis, of starry vocables, quanta of articulate life-energy. Yes, Shakespearean syllables are indeed the glorious members cut out of the body as it were of a beautiful vital being transmuted into heavenly luminaries. In the world of poetry Dante is a veritable avatar. His language is a supreme magic. The word-unit in him is a quantum of highly concentrated perceptive... awakens the Divinity, establishes Him in a dead material form. Shakespeare has, as it were, instilled his life's breath into his words and made them move and live as living creatures, physical beings upon earth. Borrowing an analogy from modem knowledge, I may say that the Shakespearean word is a particle or wave of life-power. Modem science posits as the basis of the material creation... the great poets have done. They have presented living and moving bodies as fixed, stable entities, as a procession of statues. But Shakespeare's are not fixed stable pictures but living and moving beings. They do not appear as pictures, even like moving pictures on a screen, a two-dimensional representation. Life in Shakespeare appears, as in life, exactly like a three-dimensional phenomenon. You ...
... question settles itself. PURANI: Could they really drop their nature? What becomes the mind, the vital being and the physical? SRI AUROBINDO: What do you mean by "their nature"? They no longer have any nature when they enter into Laya; they drop it. SATYENDRA: Cannot the human soul, the psychic being, escape? SRI AUROBINDO: As I say, if you want to escape, you may. To accept transformation or... revenge for what they were made to suffer. And the Christians did take revenge when they got the power. So the passive resistance of Christianity became in the end a movement of persecution. It is the vital mixture—the mixture of the life-forces—that comes in and corrupts the whole spiritual movement. Even Lenin had an idea of this truth. He said, "We must keep our ideal absolutely pure. So long as... for immorality, he was not quite hypocritical even though he had known about it before. In some vague way he felt that the Nazi Party must be kept pure if it were to succeed. It is because of the vital mixture that I want to bring down a Power which I call the Truth-Consciousness, which will admit none of it, no compromise with the lower forces, the powers of Falsehood. By the Truth-Consciousness ...
... can alone endure. If the supramental can stand in the mind and vital, then it must stand in the physical also. If it does not stand in the physical, it cannot stand in the mind and vital also; it will be something else, not the supramental. It [ the supermind ] cannot be brought down into the mind and vital without being brought down into the physical also. One can feel its influence or... Supramentalisation Who told you that it [ the supermind ] was descending on the physical consciousness without touching the mind and vital? Page 301 Certainly no part of the Nature has been supramentalised—that is not possible, until the whole being has been put under the supramental influence. The supramental influence must come first, the supramental transformation can only come afterwards... by stage until the being is ready and even then it is only the Grace that can bring the real supramental change. The action that took place was not supramental; the fact that you were aware of a centre in the brain shows that it was through the mind that it was done. The force that acted was the Divine Power which can work in this way on any plane, supramental, mental, vital or physical or on ...
... more centrally in the psychic and other parts and by them transform the physical. The Ascent of the Being The being is here on the physical plane although in touch with the mental and vital. The being that is the individual consciousness has to ascend and become conscious of all the planes (vital, mental and those above the mental) until it reaches the Divine Oneness which is above all the planes... prepared or foreshadowed in the vital; it does not happen exactly as represented in the vital, but with a change suitable for the material world. Page 384 The Physical and the Psychic All that is very good—it is the psychic condition that is increasing. The peace and spontaneous knowledge are in the psychic being and from there they spread to mind and vital and physical. It is in the outer... constantly in action in the mind and vital was for a Page 385 time clouded or covered over by the ignorance of the physical consciousness. It is the psychic that connected you with the Mother and turned all the movements of your being towards her or drew them from her or made them united with and dependent on her. It had so done with all your mental and vital being and its movements and it had ...
... by the mental, vital and physical defects is not the psychic being itself but the action of the psychic being as it comes up from the depths to the surface of the being. It is only as the psychic being emerges more and more in front that it gets clear of the distorting mental, vital and physical mixture. Influence of the Psychic Though the psychic in most human beings is entirely veiled... actuality in most human beings the psychic is entirely veiled and overshadowed by its mental, vital and physical instruments. The outer consciousness of the human being "lives amongst all the external noises and movements in what it sees, what it does, what it says, instead of looking within, into the depths of the being and listening to the inner inspirations" (p. 42). So the psychic being remains behind the... subjection to the vital in their ordinary movements)." (p. 88) Because of the fact that the psychic is veiled by and identified with its instruments, most human beings are almost totally unconscious of their psychic being. "In the ordinary life there's not one person in a million who has a conscious contact with his psychic being, even momentarily. The psychic being may work from ...
... in the impulses, feelings, sensations, desires, external life-activities of our vital nature, a physical being, a being of the body which expresses something of itself in the instincts, habits, formulated activities of our physical nature. These beings or part selves of the self in us are powers of the Spirit and therefore not limited by their temporary expression, for what is thus formulated is... balance, but it is more kinetic and creative: for the element of the vital being is not earth but air; it has more movement, less status. A vigorous vital mind and will can grasp and govern the kinetic vital energies, but it is more by a forceful compulsion and constraint than by a harmonisation of the being. If, however, a strong vital personality, mind and will can get the reasoning intelligence to... and building and expression of the vital ego. But still in the vital man too there are or can be other elements of a growing mental or spiritual character, even if these happen to be less developed than his life-personality and life-power. The nature of the vital man is more active, stronger and more mobile, more turbulent and chaotic, often to the point of being quite unregulated, than Page ...
... letting each verbal vibration surround and penetrate you. A mantra like them has both an illuminative and a formative power in the highest degree to evoke the soul and open not only the mental and the vital being but also the body to the Ineffable that presses Page 237 towards us to make all things new and true. In the midst of the inner and outer atmosphere created by such lines, the... "Thinkest thou that I have made the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in a jest?" Here is a truth not properly gauged by Allah's own followers. Though they have rightly felt a great vital force released by their Prophet, their goal is still the life beyond just as in Christianity and Zoroastrianism, Judaism and Buddhism, except that Buddhism for all its emphasis on a supra-cosmic Nirvana... movement" is the "within" to the emotional self and there glides forward the divine flute-player who is the unfailing Page 231 saviour calling us to himself and guiding us to our own being's secret plenitude. In this secret plenitude the essence of our whole existence, our entire multiform activity, is treasured . From that concealed core emanate the warmth and the glow I have spoken of ...
... horse buckled except those of the one named Ruksh. "Ruksh" is the later Persian form of the ancient Aryan word "Rakshasa", meaning "Giant" and denoting a type of what Sri Aurobindo would call a Vital Being. The Rakshasa is the violent devourer as distinguished from the Asura who is the cold-blooded scheming destroyer and dictator, as well as from the Pishacha, who is the foul-minded perverted filth-fiend... am a little late in replying. Quite a heap of work suddenly descended upon me, submerging the letter-writer out of sight. The work sometimes becomes a heap just because, like you, I am a variety of beings - and that too not in succession as with most people but simultaneously. So a great number of things lure me at the same time and it's a job dealing with all of them almost together. One of the results... are not only given the glimpse of a rich meaning behind the surface, a meaning opening up happy surprises. We also get the sense of a more-than-earthly truth silently at work within the many-motioned vital force to reveal through the play of this force a secret splendour whose power of transfiguring earth overpasses our largest dreams. * Your reference to horse-racing has stirred me a great ...
... about the psychic being—that it is behind the veil and its consciousness also; only a little comes out into the mind and vital and physical. When that consciousness is not concealed, when you are aware of your soul (the psychic being), when its feelings and aspirations are yours, then you have got the consciousness of the psychic being. The feelings and aspirations of the psychic being are all turned... mental, an inner vital, an inner physical which connect the psychic and the external being. About this, however, you need not be anxious at present. The important thing is to keep what you have and let it grow, to live always in the psychic being, your true being. The psychic will then in due time awaken and turn to the Divine all the rest of the nature, so that even the outer being will feel itself... entirely forward, breaking through the mental, vital and physical screen, govern the instincts and transform the nature. Nature no longer imposes itself on the soul, but the soul, the Purusha, imposes its dictates on the nature. The soul, the psychic being, is in direct touch with the divine Truth, but it is hidden in man by the mind, the vital being and the physical nature ( manas, prāṇa, anna ...
... very small and ignorant consciousness in which your vital defects get free play and this is likely to bring you out of what you have developed in your inner consciousness. That was why we said that if you felt a reaction against these things when you went to X 's, it was a sign of (psychic) sensitiveness coming into you—into your vital and nervous being—and we meant that it was all for the good. But in... March 1933 I am sure there are reasons for everything the Mother does and that what she does is suited to the needs of each one, but the vital does not believe it, and it is not yet well established Page 350 in the mind. How can I make my vital being understand that the Mother is never partial? One way is to have entire faith in the Mother—the other is to believe that she is wiser than... each step what is to be done or not done. If the psychic is uppermost, if the being is entirely turned towards the Mother and follows the psychic, this can be increasingly done. All depends therefore not on a mental rule to follow in practice, but on getting the psychic consciousness back and putting its light into this vital part, and making that part turn wholly to the Mother. It is not that the question ...
... desire or care for it. There are some men who have a very strong formative power of this kind and always they see their formations realised; but because they have not a well-disciplined mental and vital being, they want now one thing and now another and these different or opposite formations and their results collide and clash with one another. And these people wonder how it is that they are living in... every disease. How is it that all of a sudden you succumb to an illness which you did not have for years? You will say it is due to a "depression of the vital force". But from where does the depression come? It comes from some disharmony in the being, from a lack of receptivity to the divine forces. When you cut yourself off from the energy and light that sustain you, then there is this depression, there... and discipline. And even if by discipline and effort you have liberated your mind and your vital of apprehension and fear, it is more difficult to convince the body. But that too must be done. Once you enter the path of Yoga you must get rid of all fears—the fears of your mind, the fears of your vital, the fears of your body which are lodged in its very cells. One of the uses of the blows and knocks ...
... where my night was, I wake up discouraged. "What's the matter with me!" I wonder. Page 166 Yes. That's where the physical side.... It is in the vital, mon petit. Something happened while you were being formed—your vital isn't strong enough. You know, I am absolutely convinced that when I have found what I seek [the third position] everything will change for you instantly, like... you can master the body and its needs." I can't tell you that, because that's not how it is for you. I mean it may be—it may be—that even an inner transformation (a complete conversion of the vital being, for instance) wouldn't necessarily bring an improvement in your health. It is here where.... It's not something I see imperatively. And to go back to ordinary life would be the end of everything—of... a very pleasant fairy tale! If you could just give me a hint.... ( After a silence ) Among those who have gone beyond the stage of needing successive reincarnations to develop their psychic beings, among those whose souls are conscious, fully developed, there are some who (what shall I say?)... who are chosen or destined to participate in a certain terrestrial action. And in the process of ...
... interior existence, the realm of subtle subjective supraphysical experiences and of dreams and visions and heavenly intimations, a veritable world of wonderful illuminations, that our mind and vital being retire when they withdraw by inward-drawn concentration from their absorption in surface activities. 1 Katha Upanishad, II. 1.1. 2 Mandukya Upanishad, 3. 3 Savitri... finally the supreme or absolute self of being, the Fourth (caturtha), the Incommunicable (avyavahārya), the One without second (advaita), of which the three before are derivations. In less abstruse and mystical terms, we may state that the fourfold scale of being delineated above represents, so to say, the 'degrees of the ladder of being' that an embodied soul must successively attain... of the totality of our existence, and true knowledge, that is to say, spiritual knowledge about our self-being as well as about the world-being becomes available to us only when we succeed in establishing a conscious rapport with the subliminal and the now superconscient realms of our being. But unfortunately our waking state is blissfully ignorant of its connection with or even the very existence ...
... forms of obstruction even with a neutral vital. How do the small forces and beings of the vital plane come in just at the right time to interfere with one when he is about to achieve something in sadhana? They act at all times when they see anything in the mind, vital or body off its guard. I doubt if such a vital as mine can ever be changed. ... the next step is to get it to join entirely in the aspiration of the higher being. What about the vital quiescence? Has not the vital decided yet what side to take — right or wrong? If the sadhana is coming back it should mean that the vital quiescence is diminishing. My vital was so particular up to yesterday about its bargaining Page 79 ... nature. And now what a change! At that time the vital demand was kept in abeyance at the pranam and the other part of the vital which wanted the inner contact and not anything else was able to act and open the being to the inner experience. When the physical inertia came and suspended the higher experience, the vital demand awoke, demand for the physical love and its satisfaction ...
... subconscious, unconscious and even inconscient. These three, the mental, the vital and the physical, are interrelated in the complexity of our being. As a result, there is in us what Sri Aurobindo calls the mental-vital (vital mind), mental-physical (physical mind), vital-mental, vital-physical and physical-vital; all these distinctions are necessary because the aim of total transformation implies... parts of the being right up to the inconscient. The integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo aims at perfect integration and perfection and integral transformation so that ultimately the mental, the vital and the physical can all be transformed by the supra- mental consciousness. The mental-vital, which is also called the vital mind, is the mind which is at the service of vital desires and vital emotions... taken together and referred to as the higher vital, in contrast to the lower vital which is concerned with the bottom movements of action and desire and stretches down into the vital-physical. The vital-physical is the vital at the service of the physical. It is the nervous being, and it governs all the small daily reactions to outward things. It governs also reactions of the nerves and the body consciousness ...
... happened often to me. A being who claims he comes to cure you: a "doctor." I think that's it, I think there are beings from the vital who use... who use what's left of unconsciousness in doctors. ( silence ) But once it happened to Sri Aurobindo: at night—once at night—he screamed. And afterwards he said it was in the material world: beings from the most material vital, but which are in the... the earth atmosphere, not in the vital atmosphere. Page 83 It may be vital entities that are the residues of dead people—it's possible. But it may also be kinds of half materializations of beings from the vital itself: beings from the vital. But my whole life I've had that sort of white light—not transparent white, white like... like WHITENESS, you understand. That light, which is extremely... were discussing. My body was on the bed (though I think I wasn't sitting, yet I wasn't standing!), and they were discussing together but without words. It looked like kinds of beings in a lower vital world, huge , tall beings—tall, strong, formidable. Then one of them, in his demonstration, pointed to my heart with his finger, and his finger touched—I let out a scream! A physical scream! I wasn't ...
... Sadhana on the Level of the Vital Sadhana on the Level of the Vital The Vital Being and Sadhana Letters on Yoga - IV Chapter III Wrong Movements of the Vital The Phrase "Wrong Movements" The phrase [ "wrong movements" ] covers pretty nearly everything that is hurtful to spiritual progress—movements of doubt, revolt, egoistic desire or ambition, sexual... resists and tries to retard, but if the inner being opens sufficiently and you can live in the inner being, peace can descend and establish itself there in such a way that the vital movements of the surface may be there but will not be able to break the inner peace. Vital Dissatisfaction and Non-Cooperation It is because the vital was very much under the grip of its desires and so, now that it is... that constitute the being must share in the higher consciousness, otherwise the old movements under various pretexts will continue. (2) You speak of rejecting the lower vital, but it is only the unregenerated lower vital movements that can be got rid of; you cannot get rid of the lower vital itself, for it is a necessary part of the manifested nature, like the higher vital or the mind. It has ...
... mental and on the vital being through the illumined mind; he represents the Purusha element whose strength is predominantly in illumined knowledge (intuition, supramental or spiritual) and the power that acts in this knowledge, while the psychic being supports this action and helps to transform the physical and vital planes. Mirra acts directly on the psychic and on the emotional vital and physical... and the supramental being created in the supramental way" — that is, created not by the animal mode of birth to which all of us, including the Mother, have owed our bodies, but by a direct "materialisation", an occult method to be found by the transformed human being. The talk of April 16 in the next year returns to the theme of discovering "the means of producing new beings without going through... physical being through the illumined psychic consciousness while the illumined intuitions of the supramental being give her the necessary knowledge to act on the right lines and at the right moment. Her force representing the Shakti element is directly psychic, vital, physical and her spiritual knowledge is predominantly practical in its nature. It is, that is to say, a large and detailed knowledge ...
... When the outer being is so totally obscured how to keep an aspiration? One can always have an aspiration in the inner being, if the inner being keeps its separateness. This difficulty is due to old habits of the physical mind and vital, which still have the power to repeat themselves by rising from the subconscient and as your physical mind and vital still respond you are... of mind or vital. The other day you wrote that some people have less of this tamas because of the good activity of their mind or vital. In which way good? I do not remember to have written 'good' — but maybe I meant people who have either a clear and strong activity Page 14 of the mind (the intellectuals) or an energetic vital being which rejects... that when there is inertia it diffuses itself by creating a vital activity? No. I mean that the Prakriti seeks relief from inertia by calling in vital rajas — that is the case in the ordinary movement of Nature. What is the remedy for the increasing tamas? How to get rid of it even from the external being? More strength and force from above pouring into ...
... self is not, like our surface physical being, an outcome of the energy of the Inconscient; it is a meeting-place of the consciousness that emerges from below by evolution and the consciousness that has descended from above for involution. There is in it an inner mind, an inner vital being of ourselves, an inner or subtle-physical being larger than our outer being and nature. This inner existence is the... some of a vital nature: the former are precise in their figures, clear in their significance; the latter are often complex and baffling to our waking consciousness, but, if we can seize the clue, they reveal their own sense and peculiar system of coherence. Finally, there can come to us the records of happenings seen or experienced by us on other planes of our own being or of universal being into which... Superconscience. It is into this large realm of interior existence that our mind and vital being retire when they withdraw from the surface activities Page 442 whether by sleep or inward-drawn concentration or by the inner plunge of trance. Our waking state is unaware of its connection with the subliminal being, although it receives from it—but without any knowledge of the place of origin—the ...
... governed mostly by his mental or vital being. But man can govern his nature by the spiritual entity, his psychic being that is in him. The being that ordinarily acts in man is some part of his nature, either his mental or his vital personality. It is really speaking awareness of becoming. One experiences something on the substratum of being. It is the "being" that undergoes the various states... processes of our nature, of the mental and the vital being. They are—even when they act powerfully in nature, from the 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... the infinite Being, in the universe. It is an intuition that has been accepted by man from the beginning of history. If reason accepts Something—an Infinite Being, or a Purusha, a Self—then you can think about the process of growth. It is easy to see that the human being should give Page 71 himself up to the Infinite Being in order to allow the Infinite Being to work in him ...
... true, intuition works in the mind, it works in the vital being, it can work in the body. But that is not the Intuitive Consciousness. It is intuition coming down in the nature of man. In fact, many people come to know many things by intuition in ordinary life. They just simply have the knowledge. That is the operation of this plane of Intuitive being penetrating into the mind or into the life or into... Q : You spoke about two processes for rending the Veil, What are they? A : One is by going within—that is, withdrawing the consciousness from outside and entering the inner mind, inner vital being and other subliminal parts. The second process is by allowing the Higher Power to descend into oneself. Q : There are so many persons who speak about the All, the One as the Real and rest... Truth-Consciousness, from the Supermind ? Truth-Consciousness is the first projection from the nature of the Divine Being, from the Satchidananda. How did it lapse into Mind ? This lapse is not yet explained. Mind, being the consciousness of division, is the basis of ignorance. Supermind being based on the infinite consciousness, existence and bliss is founded on Truth, is based on Reality. How did this ...
... living." Those whose vital being is very active and dominating may succeed in awakening the body, and if they have the spirit of Page 366 adventure (which happens very often, for the vital is an adventurous being), the physical obeys, it obeys the impulse, the inner order; then it consents to the change, the novelty, but it is an effort for it. But for the physical being and physical consciousness... played; that the Divine hides himself behind material Nature to compel all conscious beings to find Him. That is an opinion... people say many things. One of the great difficulties for most philosophies is that they have never recognised or studied the different planes of existence, the different regions of the being. They have the Supreme and then the Creation and then that's all, nothing between... divine impulsion, they must be extremely plastic, because the vital uses coercion, it imposes its will, and the poor body has but to obey, while the Divine just shows the light, gives the consciousness, and so one must obey consciously and willingly—it is a question of collaboration, it is no longer a question of coercion. The physical being and physical consciousness must be very plastic to be able to ...
... determined by the physical being of man, his environment, his evolutionary history, his physical and vital, his individual and collective need. But after a time it must become apparent that the knowledge of the physical world is not the whole of knowledge; it must appear that man is a mental as well as a physical and vital being and even much more essentially mental than physical or vital. Even though his ... century gave place first to a novel and profound vitalism which has taken various forms from Nietzsche's theory of the Will to be and Will to Power as the root and law of life to the new pluralistic and pragmatic philosophy which is pluralistic because it has its eye fixed on life rather than on the soul and pragmatic because it seeks to interpret being in the terms of force and action rather than of... the psychological being towards a realisation of its potentialities of which our present mechanical view of life and man and external routine methods of dealing with them prevent us from having any experience or forming any conception. These new educational methods are on the straight way to this truer dealing. The closer touch attempted with the psychical entity behind the vital and physical mentality ...
... regarded, the whole Asram would be an asylum of untouchables. 13 May 1933 Sometimes my mental, vital and physical beings work together in harmony. At other times one being dominates the others, and there is disorder. How can this disorder be removed? The best way is to live in the psychic being, for that is always surrendered to the Mother and can lead the others in the right way. For control... the supramental Truth for the 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... you are here, try to enter into the higher ways of the sadhana. Withdraw from the vital and its demands and desires, make the inner heart and the psychic being your centre and seek union with the Mother's consciousness through self-giving and surrender. 22 August 1933 Page 145 You have to make your vital single-pointed towards the Mother, peaceful, without demands and desires, aspiring ...
... × It will break and dissolve a year later. As Mother will explain to Satprem later, the "transition" consisted in removing Satprem's entire vital being (which normally causes one to die) in small doses. × It is the same experience as that of the two... is very small and all the way down. I didn't want to put it into English. But today, all at once it came to me in English and I wrote it down: This world is full of pitiable miseries, but of all beings those I pity most are those who are so small and so weak that they are compelled to be nasty. It's seen from the opposite side, but there is as much in it as in the first. Soon afterwards:... × A literal translation, using the words of Mother's own English translation which follows, would give: This world is full of pitiable miseries, but the beings I pity most are those who are not vast and strong enough to be good. × A state of continuous exhaustion ...
... contacts which our surface-being maintains with the universe with the sense-mind and the senses. As Sri Aurobindo explains: "The subliminal has the right of entry into the mental and vital and subtle-physical planes of the universal consciousness, it is not confined to the material plane and the physical world; it possesses means of communication with the worlds of being which the descent towards... or worlds that may have arisen or been constructed to serve the purpose of the re-ascent from Inconscience to Superconscience. It is into this large realm of interior existence that our mind and vital being retire when Page 39 they withdraw from the surface activities whether by sleep or inward-drawn concentration or by the inner plunge of trance." 31 According to the Mandukya Upanishad... projection of ourselves, in a subtle form of the mental or vital body, actually enter into other planes and worlds or into distant places and scenes of this world, move among them with a sort of bodily presence and bring back the direct experience of their scenes and truths and occurrences. It may even project actually the mental or vital body for the same purpose and travel in it, leaving the physical ...
... consisting, in the last analysis, of starry vocables, quanta of articulate life-energy. Yes, Shakespearean syllables are indeed the glorious members cut out of the body as it were of a beautiful vital being transmuted into heavenly luminaries. In the world of poetry Dante is a veritable avatar. His language is a supreme magic. The word-unit in him is a quantum of highly concentrated perceptive... material ¹ Hamlet, Act I, Sc. 1. Page 175 form. Shakespeare has, as it were, instilled his life's breath into his words and made them move and live as living creatures, physical beings upon earth. Borrowing an analogy from modern knowledge, I may say that the Shakespearean word is a particle or wave of life-power. Modern science posits as the basis of the material creation, as... the great poets have done. They have presented living and moving bodies as fixed, stable entities, as a procession of statues. But Shakespeare's are not fixed stable pictures but living and moving beings. They do not appear as pictures, even like moving pictures on a screen, a two-dimensional representation. Life in Shakespeare appears, as in life, exactly like a three-dimensional phenomenon. You seem ...
... reappear in the human being in the atavistic period of boyhood,—when, be it noted, the development of the body is of the greatest importance,—but to the adult man in civilised humanity it is ceasing to be possible. For, in the first place, by the stress of modern life even the vital attitude of the race is changing. Man is ceasing to be so much of a physical and becoming much more of a vital and economic animal... no other name,—that of the industrial, the commercial, the economic age which is now progressing to its culmination and its close. This economic barbarism is essentially that of the vital man who mistakes the vital being for the self and accepts its satisfaction as the first aim of life. The characteristic of Life is desire and the instinct of possession. Just as the physical barbarian makes the excellence... commercial age and the true, if often occult rulers of its society. The essential barbarism of all this is its pursuit of vital success, satisfaction, productiveness, accumulation, possession, enjoyment, comfort, convenience for their own sake. The vital part of the being is an element in the integral human existence as much as the physical part; it has its place but must not exceed its place. A ...
... man was in the group primarily a political being, in the Aristotelian sense,—as soon as he ceased to be primarily religious,—and to this preoccupation he added, wherever he was sufficiently at ease, the preoccupation of thought, art and culture. The economic impulses of the group were worked out as a mechanical necessity, a strong desire in the vital being rather than a leading thought in the mind.... Therefore these interrelations produced at once the necessity of peace and the unavoidability of war. Peace was necessary for their normal action, war frightfully perturbatory to their whole system of being. But because the organised units were politically separate and rival nations, their commercial interrelations became relations of rivalry and strife or rather a confused tangle of exchange and inte ...
... he had gone out altogether from his body and wanted definitely to inform me about what had happened and he had found that cat. For cats live in the vital being, they have a very developed vital consciousness and can easily be taken possession of by vital forces. But these two examples are quite extraordinary, for they both came about almost in the same way, and in both instances the eyes of these... beautiful, the most striking ones—I had seen in vision in France; and yet I had not seen any pictures or photographs of Japan, I knew nothing of Japan. And I had seen these landscapes without human beings, nothing but the landscape, quite pure, like that, and it had seemed to me they were visions of a world other than the physical; they seemed to me too beautiful for the physical world, too perfectly... positive sensation of having risen into something other than one's ordinary life, of no longer being the same person. But when one has altogether lost contact with one's ordinary consciousness, generally it is that one has slept and been for a long time in the inconscient. Then Page 317 the being is scattered, it is absorbed by this inconscient and all the pieces have to be put together again ...
... is like that. However, not once do you have the feeling that you are in contact with something other than a marvellously organised mental-physical domain. And what energy they have! Their whole vital being is turned into energy. They have an extraordinary endurance but no direct aspiration: one must obey the rule, one is obliged. If one does not submit oneself to rules there, one may live as Europeans... formation of civilisations. There is another, this is that from an occult point of view it is almost always the same forces and same beings which incarnate during all the ages of artistic beauty upon earth and that, according to occultists, there are cycles of rebirth: beings return, group themselves through affinity at the time of birth; so it happens that regularly, almost all come together for a similar... that such stories are often told in Japan. Their literature is full of fairy-lore. They tell you a story in which the hero comes suddenly to an enchanted place: he sees fairies, he sees marvellous beings, he spends exquisite hours among flowers, music; all is splendid. The next day he is obliged to leave; it is the law of the place, he goes away. He tries to come back, but never does. He can no longer ...
... into the Divine.” But this was absolutely necessary, for without this… if you simply went out of your body (most of you can’t do it because the vital being is hardly more individualised than the physical), if you came out of your body and went into the vital world, you would see that all things there intermingle, they are mixed, they divide; all kinds of vibrations, currents of forces come and go, struggle... remain what one is. This of course is the super-ego. Certainly, if one were to lose one’s ego too soon, from the vital and mental point of view one would again become an amorphous mass. The ego is surely the instrument for individualisation, that is, until one is an individualised being, constituted in himself, the ego is an absolutely necessary factor. If one had the power of abolishing the ego ahead... it is terribly rigid, isn’t it?—well, if all that were not so fixed, if you had no skin, here, like this, solid, if externally you were the reflection of what you are in the vital and mental fields, it would be worse than being a jelly-fish! Everything would fuse into everything else, like this… Oh, what a mess it would be! That is why it was at first necessary to give a very rigid form. Afterwards ...
... The first step: you must be able to discern the various inner states of being and know for sure: this belongs to the vital, this belongs to the mind, this belongs to the psychic, this belongs to matter. And as I said earlier, there are subdegrees in all that. There is a material vital, a vital vital, a mental vital, a vital under the psychic influence. You must be able to classify things very clearly... when love is in the vital, when it comes with all the movements of the vital, all this intensity, this violence, this precision, this glamour, this brightness. And when that is absent they say, "Oh, this is not love." And yet that is exactly how love gets distorted: already it is no longer love, it is beginning to be passion. And this is an almost universal error among human beings. Some people are... "invisible worlds"? That is a formidable question! You have heard and read that we are made up of various states of being: physical, vital, mental, psychic, spiritual, etc. Well, all these inner states of being correspond to invisible worlds. There is a physical world, a vital world, a mental world, a psychic world, and many spiritual worlds, a whole range of more and more subtle worlds approaching ...
... is the vital possession that gives him his size and greatness. Without this possession he would be a crudely amiable person with some mental hobbies and eccentricities. This possession becomes possible because the psychic being in him is undeveloped. There is nothing in his being that can resist the vital force. Mussolini has, comparatively, a developed psychic being and a very strong vital being... Disciple : You said that the psychic being also is a personality. Page 171 Sri Aurobindo : Yes, the psychic being also is a Psychic Purusha. Disciple : Does the psychic being develop from birth to birth? Sri Aurobindo : It is not the psychic being itself that develops, but it guides the evolution of the individual being by increasing the psychic element in the... Cosmic Spirit acts not through the true individuality but through the individual in Nature. It acts through personality and personality is not the person. Personality is something formed of the mental vital and physical nature. This personality is responsible because it accepts the Gunas – the modes through ego and Nature. As I said, the Cosmic Spirit works through Nature and not direct. Disciple ...
... receive the Light; let the vital be quiet and receive the Force that delivers. SRI AUROBINDO Let this year bring to you the true faith - a faith that no darkness can obscure. THE MOTHER Page 14 Page 15 2.2.1945 Let the year that is beginning mark a definitive stage in the growth of your psychic being and its power over your... 17 2.2.1946 Continue to open yourself and the psychic consciousness will grow in you and the Light refine and illumine whatever is left of the shadows in the mind and vital being. SRI AUROBINDO My dear child, now I can call you in truth my dear child as I feel you quite close to me having taken shelter in my arms for good — and you are welcome there with... 2.2.1942 Aspire always to grow more and more conscious so that all the small obstacles shall disappear from the physical consciousness and the obscurer parts of the vital nature. SRI AUROBINDO In front of the repeated attacks from the enemy you must keep your faith intact and endure till the Victory is won. THE MOTHER Page 10 ...
... 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 the mind, vital and body of the human being. It is wholly spiritual.... main elements: (1) the opening of the occult inner mind, inner vital, inner physical, so that one becomes aware of all that lies behind 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... ego the true being—a portion of the Divine, issued from the World-Mother and an instrument of the manifestation. This sense of being a portion of the Divine and an instrument should be free from all pride, sense or claim of ego or assertion of superiority, demand or desire. For if these elements are there, then it is not the true thing. Most, even in doing Yoga, live in the mind, vital, physical, ...
... capacity and vital force for its ends. In your case it is the psychic being and a part of the mind that have drawn you to the Yoga and were predisposed to it, but the vital nature or at least a large part of it has not yet put itself into line with the psychic movement. There is not as yet the full and undivided consecration of the active vital nature. The signs of the consecration of the vital in action... consecrate one's life to the Divine, these ordinary motives of the vital being have no longer their full and free play; they have to be replaced by another, a mainly psychic and spiritual motive, which will enable the sadhak to work with the same force as before, no longer for himself, but for the Divine. If the ordinary vital motives or vital force can no longer act freely and yet are not replaced by something... on, watchful in all things is the condition for being a flawless servant. Yes, the use to which you have turned your vital capacities in Bengal and Bombay,—to turn them into instruments of service and the Divine Work, is certainly the best possible. Through such action and such use of the vital power, one can certainly progress in Yoga. Vital power is necessary for work and you Page 245 ...
... start the Psychic Research Society of London. There were eminent intellectuals and scientists who joined that body. The medium of the phenomena was a lady who used to be possessed by a vital being, and that vital being was capable of handling material things in such a way as to defy all the laws of physical science. The lady was lifted out of her chair to the ceiling directly without any intervening... question. And therefore the evoking of faculties and powers potential but dormant now in man, is a necessary condition to man's solving his own problems. The latent faculties which are in all human beings are not the special privilege of only a particular class or of individuals. They are possible and potential in all mankind. To prove the existence and working of those new faculties there... then naturally many things are impossible for him. But as in trying to find the potentiality of Matter man did not limit the field of experiment and experience, the same holds good for his mental and vital consciousness. One should not arbitrarily say that certain things cannot happen. One must leave the field open for experiment and experience. What is this whole universal energy ? One would say it is ...
... becoming hostile. It is men who are under the influence of truly hostile beings who become like that. The hostile beings generally attack, then make some way in, lay siege and create conditions for invasion and ultimately lead or compel the human being to fall. I am quite aware of the way in which the unconverted hostile beings, who have a hostile intention, get inside—there have been plenty of... about their not being Asuras. I said those to whom the Mother referred were not Asuras who had manifested in the Asram, but outside the Asram and before it was formed—as human beings who wanted to help and prepare the Divine Advent but spoiled their work, not by hostility, but by egoism—just as human beings with an Asuric temperament often do. (6) The transformation of hostile beings is no part of... existence in the eight planes of consciousness, manifestly. Innocence has two meanings—sinlessness and ignorance. The psychic innocence is not an ignorant condition. An ordinary vital being or a hostile vital being driven into the Asrama atmosphere by some presence from above or other wise may at any time open to its own world and source in its darker aspects and then become the cause of much ...
... supermind, four divine principles; to the latter belong mental being, vital being, physical being, three human principles. In their apparent nature the two are opposed; each is the reverse of the other. The divine is infinite and immortal being; the human is life limited in time and scope and form, life that is death attempting to become life that is immortality. The divine is infinite consciousness... consciousness being the determining fact and not the bodily existence which is only a result, the man still belongs normally to the status of human, or at least mental activity and this cannot be abrogated by the fact of passing out of the physical body; to get rid of mortal body is not to get rid of mortal mind. Nor is it sufficient to have a dominant disgust of the world or an anti-vital indifference... even in a sense, but with a gulf between that being and our being, an unbridged or even an unbridgeable chasm. There is this infinite existence; but it is quite other than the mental being who becomes aware of it, and we cannot either raise ourselves to it and become it or bring it down to ourselves so that our own experience of our being and world-being shall be that of its blissful infinity. There ...
... - Purusha and Prakriti, conscious being and Nature. Wherever consciousness plays, this biune reality is present in one form or another, openly concordant or apparently divided. We have thus in the realm of evolutionary existence a mental being facing mental Nature, a vital being fronting vital Nature, a physical being opposite physical Nature: these beings are experienced by us according... according as our consciousness assumes a mental or vital or physical poise. And all of them are representative of the true psychic Purusha. When the multi-possible Purusha of us with its centre in the psychic being stands fully back, uninvolved in Prakriti and lord of it, though not united altogether with the Jivatman above, we have a clear realisation of some measure of Page 94 ... creative of the world-play from its eternal poise in the Divine, cannot but keep of its vast freewill a pin-point in conscious co-operators, in minds that discriminate and argue and weigh, in beings that have enough detachment from Nature to at least enable them to reflect on themselves and to study and judge Nature. On that pin-point the whole of mental human life is fulcrummed for activity ...
... predominates in one's consciousness depends upon the part of one's being with which one is most identified. Most human beings usually identify themselves predominantly with one or another part of the outer being - the body, or the vital (consisting of life energy, impulses, desires, feelings), or the mind. Each of these parts of the being has its own characteristic consciousness and attitudes. The physical... and objective view of things, and an inclination towards ideals. All human beings are endowed with physical, vital and mental consciousness, and are therefore influenced by qualities of all the three parts of the outer being in different degrees. But in the majority of people, it is the Page 118 vital consciousness that is generally predominant, and exercises the strongest influence... psychology, the predominance of the vital nature is the chief cause of psychological disturbances. For, the human being at the present stage of evolution is primarily a mental being; therefore to be dominated by the vital being is to act contrary to one's nature as a mental being. So, in order to overcome the force of instincts, impulses, desires and feelings of the vital nature, it is necessary to have ...
... parts of our nature may aspire for. Mahālaksmī floods our heart and our higher vital being with love and sweetness, with harmony and happiness, and a serene peace and repose even in the midst of a thousand calls of our creative energies. Mahāsaraswatī fulfils all the high aspirations of our physical and active being. No single aspect of the Divine, even that of the All Beautiful and All-Blissful... quintessential truth of creation and evolution. All beings, all creatures, even all things which appear as inanimate, are impelled by this emergent love, consciously or subconsciously, towards this union and identity. In all our desires and lusts and longings we really seek, not the fleeting, finite forms we blindly pursue, but the infinite Beloved of our being, who has assumed all these forms. But the seeking... the object of the sâdhaka's love and devotion. His transcendence is sought to be embraced in "the ecstasy of an absolute union", his universality in "infinite quality and every aspect and in all beings with a universal delight and love", and his individuality in "all human relations with Him that love creates between person and person". But when the sâdhaka turns to this integral Divine, this P ...
... self is not, like our surface physical being, an outcome of the energy of the Inconscient, it is a meeting place of the consciousness that emerges from below by evolution and the consciousness that has descended from above for involution. There is in it an inner mind, an inner vital being of ourselves, an inner or subtle-physical being larger than our outer being and nature. This inner existence is the... of a vital nature : the former are precise in their figures, clear in their significance; the later are often complex and baffling to our waking consciousness, but, if we can seize the clue, they reveal their own sense and peculiar system of coherence. Finally, there can come to us the records of happenings seen or — experienced by us on other planes of our own being or of universal being into... its direct experience of objects...The subliminal has the right of entry into the mental and vital and subtle-physical planes of the universal consciousness, it is not confined to the material plane and the physical world, it possesses means of communication with the worlds of being which the descent towards involution created in its passage and with all corresponding planes or worlds ...
... appear in the consciousness only with the participation of the psychic being in active life. The vital and physical feel them as weakness because they put a check upon the free expression of their impulsions based on the power of force. As usual, the mind, when it is not sufficiently educated, is the accomplice of the vital being and the slave of the physical nature whose crushing laws it does not... (first and last) show how things appear in the physical world, the coloured one expresses a similar sequence of events in the vital world, the world where one can go in deep sleep when one gets out of the body. So long as you have a body no true harm can happen to you in the vital world for the physical body acts like a protection and you can always return into it at will. This is expressed in the picture... will no longer be any religions, the whole of life will be the expression, the flowering into forms of the divine Unity manifesting in the world, and there will no longer be any gods. The great divine beings who will choose not to manifest physically will be friends and collaborators on a footing of equality. When the physical substance is supramentalised, to be incarnated upon earth will not be a cause ...
... beauty or responsive in mood, a response of satisfaction and possession or of dissatisfied yearning and seeking, in the whole an attempt to relate or harmonise the soul and mind and sensational and vital being of the human individual with the soul and mind and life and body of the visible and sensible universe. Ordinarily it is through the imagination Page 110 and the intellect and the soul... in which the leader of the march shall be intuition rather than the reasoning and critical intelligence. The long intellectual search for truth that went probing always deeper into the physical, the vital and the subjective, into the action of body and life, into the yet ill-grasped motions of mind and emotion and sensation and thought, is now beginning to reach beyond these things or rather through... antiquity and history of the race, into the sources of its present development, into all its physical, psychological, sociological being and the many ideal speculations and practical aspirations of its future which have arisen from this new knowledge of the human being and his possibilities. Formerly, the human mind in its generality did not go very far in these directions. Its philosophy was speculative ...
... not change one individual, who is but a second of time in eternity. They believe they can serve eternity? There are even beings higher than man who have come, have brought the light, given their life, and that has not changed things much. So how can a little man, a microscopic being, truly help? It is pride. The argument given is: "If everyone did his best, all would go well." I don't think so and, even... one about that miser who thought of nothing but his money; he had hidden his hoard somewhere and always used to go to see it. After his death he continued to come as a ghost (that is to say, his vital being), to watch over his money. Nobody could go near the place without meeting with a catastrophe. It is like that, if you have worked to bring out something, it is always realised. It may be realised... tells oneself: "How disinterested I am! I am going to help humanity." All this is nothing but egoism. In fact, the first human being that concerns you is yourself. You want to diminish suffering, but unless you can change the capacity of suffering into a certitude of being happy, the world will not change. It will always be the same, we turn in a circle—one civilisation follows another, one catastrophe ...
... good for another man or in another sphere,—but because they belong to the impulses or forces that, being unillumined and ignorant, stand in the way of your approach to the Divine. All desires, whether good or bad, come within this description; for desire itself arises from an unillumined vital being and its ignorance. On the other hand you must accept all movements that bring you into contact with... tells oneself: "How disinterested I am! I am going to help humanity." All this is nothing but egoism. In fact, the first human being that concerns you is yourself. You want to diminish suffering, but unless you can change the capacity of suffering into a certitude of being happy, the world will not change. It will always be the same, we turn in a circle—one civilisation follows another, one catastrophe... assert this is true and that is not; but such an assertion becomes impossible for anyone who has read and understood what Sri Aurobindo has written. Religion and Yoga do not belong to the same plane of being and spiritual life can exist in all its purity only when it is free from all mental dogma. Source The Resolution to Do Yoga You see, one may have a very good will, a life oriented towards ...
... did not even touch a drop of water during the twenty-four hours. But that did not keep me indoors doing nothing. I roamed the streets as usual, shouting "Bande Mataram" with the processions. The vital being in us, in its enthusiasm and excitement, cares not a whit for anything. Something rather out of the ordinary came to pass one day. There was an order served on the town as a whole and on certain ...
... light and hold up their flag. It is there that the powers of darkness again and again cover up the being and even when the physico-vital is opened the elements of ignorance come up from the lower levels of the physical being. This 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 intellectual... al and other justifications and thus try to deceive the sadhaka under various guises. "Generally, the vital being is very impatient and wants to get things done quickly, on the physico-vital and physical planes. But this has very violent reactions and therefore the mental and the vital being, instead of seizing upon the higher light and power, should surrender themselves to the higher Power. We... and in order to realize Him we have to grow conscious of our own true personality. You must know your own inner being. This Personality is not the inner mental, the inner vital and the inner physical being and its consciousness as is many times wrongly described, but it is your true Being which is in direct communication with the Highest. Man grows by gradual growth in nature and each has to realize ...
... or the ego. 3 Who desires external things for their own sake and not for some value to the conscious being? Even Cheloo is not interested in a two anna piece for its own sake, but for some vital satisfaction it can bring him; even with the hoarding miser it is the same. It is his vital being's passion for possession that he satisfies and that is something not external but internal, part of his inner... a very accurate indication of the process of the change, the putting away of the old mind, vital, physical consciousness and the emergence of a new consciousness from the now invisible Within, not an illusory periphery like the present mental, vital, physical ignorance but a truth-becoming from the true being within us. He speaks of the transition as a darkness created by the rejection of the outer... intervening before the true light from the Invisible can come. Certain Christian mystics have said the same thing and the Upanishad also speaks of the luminous Being beyond the darkness. But in India the rejection of the mental light, the vital stir, the physical hard narrow concreteness leads more often, not to a darkness, but to a wide emptiness and silence which begins afterwards to fill with the ...
... depression or negligence and without excitement, impatience or violence. Page 763 No, [ the vital ego is ] certainly not [ a hostile power ]—it is part of the ordinary human nature, everybody has it. It has to be purified and transformed, the ego being replaced by the true vital being of which it is a distorted shadow. The forces of the lower nature are often rebellious and resist transformation... are destroyed seems to be left very much to them to choose. Page 766 Vital Resistance, Physical Inertia and the Hostile Forces There are almost always some parts of the being that are either unwilling or feel an incapacity for the effort demanded of them. It is the psychic and the mind and the higher vital usually that join together for the Yoga—for if these three do not join, it is difficult... in the lower vital there is almost always something recalcitrant and there is much of the physical that is too obscure. If the sadhak were left to himself this could be remedied without much difficulty, but it is here that the hostility in the universal (lower) forces comes in—they want to keep their reign over the being. The result is an exacerbation of the resistance of the lower vital and an exaggeration ...
... our ideas, our knowledge, Page 756 our more enlightened volition and thus more effectively bring our life and vital being into harmony with our higher powers of being, ideals and spiritual aspirations. In our ordinary state these two, the mental and the pranic being and energies, are very much mixed up and run into each other, and we are not able clearly to distinguish them or get a full... a discovery of the eternal truth Page 752 of our being and a passing above the limited truth of the mental, vital and physical to the full truth of our spiritual nature. But when we look, not at external mechanical Nature to the exclusion of our personality, but at the inner subjective experience of man the mental being, our nature takes to us a quite different appearance. We may believe... formulated in our physical mind, nervous being and corporeal case sustaining our various activities. But if we can once get beyond this first formation by some liberation of the hidden, recondite, subliminal parts of our existence by Yoga, we become aware of a greater life force, a pranic Shakti, which supports and fills the body and supplies all the physical and vital activities,—for the physical energy ...
... its rajasic motions are contributed by the life-power and all the overt consciousness by the mental being. The principle of rajas has its strongest hold on the vital nature. It is Page 684 the Life within us that is the strongest kinetic motor power, but the life-power in earthly beings is possessed by the force of desire, therefore rajas turns always to action and desire; desire is the... selfishness, ambition, lust, greed, cruelty, hatred, jealousy, the egoisms of love, all the vices and passions, the exaggerations of the aesthesis, the morbidities and perversions of the sensational and vital being. Tamas in its own right produces the coarse, dull and ignorant type of human nature, rajas the vivid, restless, kinetic man, driven by the breath of action, passion and desire. Sattwa produces a... gunas, a multiple personality and in most a good deal of shifting and alternation from the predominance of one to the prevalence of another guna; even in the governing form of their nature most human beings are of a mixed type. All the colour and variety of life is made of the intricate pattern of the weaving of the gunas. But richness of life, even a sattwic harmony of mind and nature does not constitute ...
... centre of the being. The rock may be covered awhile by surges of doubt and despondency, but the rock will emerge firm and indestructible. Faith is of the heart, the inner heart where lives the psychic being. The outer heart is the seat of the vital being, the life personality. That like the mind may Page 347 believe and then lose its belief, doubt comes from the mind, the vital and the physical... first condition is the elimination of personal vital desire, for if desire intervenes, all harmony with the supreme Divine Will becomes impossible. Even if we receive it, we shall disfigure its working and distort its dynamic impulse. To give up all desire, all insistence upon fruit and reward and success must be renounced from our will and all vital attachment to the work itself excised from our nature;... eternal, infinite, absolute is superconscient to mind; mind and its ego cannot remain awake in that greater consciousness, they must disappear. But if we can change or evolve from mental into supramental beings, then the superconscient becomes our normal consciousness. We can then hope to wake in That and not fall asleep in it, to grow into it and not abolish ourselves in it, to last in identity and not lose ...
... Mother to have an experienced and seasoned "vital being" where sensual matters were concerned. Thus, while admiring Jules Romain's psychological acumen along with his style in his famous series of novels, Les Hommes de la bonne volonté, she asked Udar to go through the books but did not advise Amrita to read them. Evidently he was considered as being still a bit of an "innocent". Once he proved... before coming to you. Other- wise your palm might have got hurt by my bristles!" On one of his visits to me we talked of subtle bodies. He said: "The Mother has a huge vital body. Anything even distantly approaching it is the vital body of Purani." Purani was another sadhak with whom I was in close touch. Indeed, with the exception of Pujalal, he was the first Ashramite I met. Pujalal had taken us... Embroidery Department functions, to the rooms in the then-called "Guest House"—rooms which Sri Aurobindo had once occupied for nearly six years and were later Purani's for about two and a half and went on being mine for over fourteen (1928-1942)—Amrita was a frequent visitor to them. It was on my typewriter that, day after day, he tried to master the touch-system with the help of Pitman's exercise-manual. ...
... awakened psychic page - 33 being in the inner heart, and he has grown powerful to govern the emotional and vital being. The saint is also marked by devotion that lives in the spiritual aspiration of the heart, its self-offering and its seeking. The soldier of the spirit, the hero of God's battle and the gentle and puissant servant of God stand in the vital kinetic nature driven by a higher spiritual... and there develops a spiritualized turn of thought with uplifting illuminations, or a spiritualized turn of the emotional or the aesthetic being, a spiritualized ethical formation in the character, a spiritualized urge in some life-action or other dynamic vital movement of the nature, increasing awareness of inner light, of a guidance or a communion, of a greater Control than the mind and will to which... faculty of second sight and also of those of psychic faculties, this is what happens. It is through those subtle faculties that one can gain various kinds of evidence of the existence of other planes of beings and communication with them. It is then that one becomes aware that our physical mind and our physical senses are not the whole of us or the best or greatest part of us; and one begins to realize that ...
... and all in the terms of that one Ananda. His physical being will be one with all material Nature, his vital being with the life of the universe, his mind with the cosmic mind, his spiritual knowledge and will with the divine knowledge and will both in itself and as it pours itself through these channels, his spirit with the one spirit in all beings. All the variety of cosmic existence will be changed... the divine unity with all beings by a sympathy and participation in the spiritual purpose of the Divine in Page 65 humanity. The individual Yoga then turns from its separateness and becomes a part of the collective Yoga of the divine Nature in the human race. The liberated individual being, united with the Divine in self and spirit, becomes in his natural being a self-perfecting instrument... highest into the full and infinite Ananda, The supermind or gnosis, when it begins to act effectively, will progressively take up all the terms of intelligence, will, sense- mind, heart, the vital and sensational being and transmute them by a luminous and harmonizing conversion into a unity of the truth, power and delight of a divine existence. The super mind has the power even of overcoming physical limitation ...
... n of Rabindranath. Not that the movement was totally absent before the advent of Rabindranath. But it is from him that the current has received the high impetus and overflooded the mind and the vital being of the Bengali race. We can recall here the two great artists who commenced modernism – Madhusudan and Bankim. But in their outlook there was still a trace of the past, in their ideas and expressions... delight. Rabindranath has the intuition of the Brahman, the infinite Bliss, the One without a second, which is beyond all limits and is the support of all, as the vital principle. He has, at every step, sung the victory and glory of this vital aspect of the Brahman. He has often cited this aphorism of the Upanishad: All created things are moved by the pranic power. Inspired by this idea he... have induced some echoing waves in the works of Tagore here and there. Some of the things, specially characteristic of the West, were fused into his inspiration, became his own and formed part of the being of the pure Bengali race: these have grown now its permanent assets. Rabindranath's experience has, so to say, travelled across space to embrace the universe. On the other side, in the matter of time ...
... without any peace or restraint or harmony. If the mind is in such a state, the vital being is still worse. You cannot keep count of the strange desires and impulses that play about there. If the brain is a marketplace, the heart is no better than a mad-house. Well, I shall not now enlarge further on the state of our inner being. One of the things the Mother has been trying to teach us both by her word... Stores, the object being to bring in some money: we were very hard up in those days—not that we are particularly affluent now, but still...The Mother kept up correspondence with Sauren in connection with these business matters even after she left here for Japan. At one stage, the Mother showed a special interest in cats. Not only has she been concerned with human beings, but the animal creation... an entire rejection of the past has been one of the powers of her spiritual consciousness and realisation. It is not an easy thing for a human being to wash himself clean of all his past acquisitions, be it intellectual knowledge or the habits of the vital, not to speak of the body's needs, and step forth in his nude purity. And yet this is the first and most important step in the spiritual discipline ...
... developed persons who have organised, individualised and to a certain extent converted their vital being can be said to survive, because they have brought into their exterior consciousness some shadow of the psychic entity which is immortal by its very nature and whose aim is to progressively build up the being around the central Divine Will." 14 IV In her brief talk on "Resurrection",... actions should be unified around the psychic will: Patiently you have to go round your whole being, exploring each nook and corner, facing all those anarchic elements in you which are waiting for their psychological moment to come up. And it is only when you have made the entire round of your mental, vital and physical nature, persuaded everything to give itself to the Divine and thus achieved an absolute... the vital under Agni's influence, one is also able to face one's difficulties and ordeals - "you simply chase away depression with a smile. " 11 The vital or the life-force is in itself not a thing to be decried, for without it there would be no impulse whatsoever to change: "The body would be inert, just like a stone, without the force infused into it by the vital. "12 But the vital must ...
... very open and ready to change all one's ideas, be they personal, social or national. "Take taste and food," Sri Aurobindo said. "I was once a violent non-vegetarian. Then I found that it was my own vital being that was demanding meat. Well, I gave it up and for years together I went on taking whatever came my way. Then I found even what people call 'tasteless' and 'bad' food has got a taste in it." Isn't... sober." However, ninety per cent of those who take external Page 188 stimulants never go beyond the vital plane. Because "once you get into the vital plane you find it extremely difficult to get to the Truth." What happens is that "experiences on the vital plane are most exalting and exhilarating at the same time that they are most dangerous and terrible. There are many pitfalls... It was therefore with quiet competence that Sri Aurobindo could tell the sadhaks what results might be expected from the use of such stimulants. "These intoxicants put one in relation with a vital world in which such things (music, song, etc.) exist." A pleasurable world ... while it lasts. But there is the other side of the coin, as he was quick to point out. "It is the habit in the subconscious ...
... action, battle and victory - the complex that is covered under the term "vital being"; and the third aspect is what we call mind, our instrument of conception and ideation, of reflection and reasoning. But deeper psychological explorations indicate that behind what we experience as our physical being, vital being and mental being, there are as the Upanishads point out, inner sheaths supported by a kind... kind of self-consciousness which sustains and nourishes the inner physical being, the inner vital being and the inner mental being. The data of self-consciousness further reveal to us that there are deeper presences of self-consciousness and deeper powers as also profounder states of intrinsic delight and sweetness which impart to us the experiences not only of the true source of our sincerity, but... matter, to some extent, if human beings were ready to forget their higher dimensions of personality and bury their higher aspirations in exchange for certain pleasures and securities that can be provided by the mechanizing and dehumanizing society with its uncontrollable structures and superstructures. But human beings are complex; they have many parts to their being; they are, therefore, obliged to ...
... from Heaven, from Dyaus, the pure Mind; their movement pervades all the worlds,—the effect of their action ranges from the body through the vital being and the thought to the superconscient Truth. It commences indeed from the ocean, from the vague of the being as it emerges out of the subconscient and they conduct the soul over the flood of these waters and prevent its foundering on its voyage. They... encompasses the worlds of being in us is rolled away. All these worlds, mind, life, body, are opened to the rays of the Sun of Truth. This lower world in us, rajas , is extended and shaped by this ascending movement of all its powers and satisfactions into the very brightness of the luminous intuitive mind, Swar, which receives directly the higher Light. The mind, the act, the vital, emotional, substantial... that unconquerably abundant and infinite sweetness breaks out and overflows everywhere drenching with delight the whole of our existence. With that honey the three pairs of satisfactions, mental, vital, bodily are impregnated by this all-pervasive overflowing plenty and they become full of its sweetness, madhumantaḥ . And so becoming, at once they begin to move upward. Touched Page 330 ...
... surrender. Aspiration is a call of the mind, the heart, and the physical being for Peace, Light, Force, and spiritual realization. Rejection is a refusal of the ignorant movements of one's mental, vital, and physical nature that stand in the way of spiritual realization, being contrary to or incompatible with the truth of one's being. It lies in ... rejection of the mind's ideas, opinions, preferences... find free Page 107 room in a silent mind—rejection of the vital nature's desires, demands, cravings, sensations, passions, selfishness, pride, arrogance, lust, greed, jealousy, envy, hostility to the Truth, so that the true power and joy may pour from above into a calm, large, strong and consecrated vital being—rejection of the physical nature's stupidity, doubt, disbelief, obscurity... difficult to have. 63 A complete surrender is not possible in so short a time—for a complete surrender means to cut the knot of the ego in each part of the being and offer it, free and whole, to the Divine. The mind, the vital, the physical consciousness (and even each part of these in all its movements) have one after the other to surrender separately, to give up their own way and to accept ...
... without any peace or restraint or harmony. If the mind is in such a state, the vital being is still worse. You cannot keep count of the strange desires and impulses that play about there, If the brain is a market-place, the heart is no better than a madhouse. Well, I shall not now enlarge further on the state of our inner being. One of the things the Mother has been trying to teach us both by her word... Stores, the object being to bring in some money: we were very hard up in those days – not that we are particularly affluent now, but still... The Mother kept up a correspondence with Saurin in connection with these business matters even after she left here for Japan. At one stage, the Mother showed a special interest in cats. Not only has she been concerned with human beings, but the animal creation... an entire rejection of the past has been one of the powers of her spiritual consciousness and realisation. It is not an easy thing for a human being to wash himself clean of all his past acquisitions, be it intellectual knowledge or the habits of the vital, not to speak of the body's needs, and step forth in his nude purity. And yet this is the first and most important step in the spiritual discipline ...
... clear and constant perception, which deepens into experience, of the one Self or the one Divine everywhere, in all beings and all things. In its perfect state, it is "a calm, impartial and equal self-identification" with all beings and things. One comes to see and feel the one Being gleaming from behind the mask of every form, be it the form of a sage or a sinner, 1 Letters of Sri Aurobindo... ceasing—the mind's will, the heart's seeking, the assent of the vital being, the will to open and make plastic the physical consciousness and nature." 1 Nothing like it has ever been conceived or attempted before in the past, for at no period of the spiritual history of the world was .humanity so athirst and ripe in its elite for being a manifesting channel of Sachchidânanda in the material world,... it in oneself which they are cast against and what inner profit or progress one can make out of them, it means self-mastery over the vital movements,—- anger and sensitiveness and pride as well as desire and the rest,—not to let them get hold of the emotional being- and disturb the inner peace, not to speak and act in the Page 79 rush and impulsion of these things, always to act ...
... wideness of the true self, of the true mental, vital, physical being also, from which such things fall off like dust, for they are of no importance to it whatever. It is the one thing to do, to get permanently into the wideness, peace and silence and let the ego dissolve in it and the attachments fall away. The portion below the navel is the lower vital,—in your case it has become very sensitive... to know and their grasp is less intimate. It [ vital sensitiveness ] is neither good nor bad. It comes like that in the course of the development. Some are incapable of consciously or visibly opening to others because they are insensitive. On the other hand to be too open is troublesome. There can be no transformation of the being in an insensitive consciousness. Most sensitiveness... is egoistic, being ashamed of expressing the Truth or showing allegiance to it in ways which would not be understood by others—the other is a certain reserve, an unwillingness to expose one's deeper feelings to the gaze of others, the wish to keep sacred and secret the relations of love with the Divine—that is a psychic feeling. Indecision and Instability The first [ case ] is vital indecision—the ...
... integral beauty and harmony. This brings us quite naturally to vital austerity, the austerity of the sensations, the Tapasya of power; for the vital being is indeed the seat of power, of enthusiasms that realise. It is in the vital that thought changes into will and becomes a dynamism of action. It is also true that the vital is the seat of desires and passions, of violent impulses and equally... power to discriminate the quality, origin and result of various vital vibrations, so as to know whether they are favourable to the harmony, the beauty and the good health or are harmful to the poise and progress of the physical and vital being. Moreover, the senses should be utilised as instruments to approach and study the physical and vital worlds in all their complexity. Thus they will take their true... progress as all the other parts of the being. It is by educating the vital, by making it more refined, more sensitive, more subtle, one should almost say, more elegant, in the best sense of the word, that one can overcome its violences and brutalities which are, in general, movements of crudity and ignorance, of a lack of taste, In reality, the vital, when educated and illumined, can be ...
... unwilled effectiveness on our minds or vital being or through them even on the body. These transcriptions, impresses, thought images, life images, projections of the consciousness may also be representations or creations not of the physical world, but of vital, psychic or mental worlds beyond us, seen in our own minds or projected from other than human beings. And as there is this psychical vision... as its mental and purely vital truth and significance. The supermind in its descent into the physical being awakens, if not already wakened by previous yogic sadhana, the consciousness—veiled or obscure in most of us—which supports and forms there the vital sheath, the prāṇa koṣa . When this is awakened, we no longer live in the physical body alone, but also in a vital body which penetrates and... supramentalised and it becomes aware, directly and with a physical participation and, finally, a unity with the subtler instrumentation, of forces and movements and the physical, vital, emotional, mental vibrations of things and beings and feels them all not only spiritually or mentally but physically in the self and as movements of the one self in these many bodies. The wall that the limitations of the body ...
... not the external being, that which is formed by parents, environment and circumstances,—the mental, the vital and the physical,—that is born again: it is only the psychic being that passes from body to body. Logically, then, neither the mental nor the vital being can remember past lives or recognise itself in the character or mode of life of this or that person. The psychic being alone can remember;... conscious of our psychic being that we can have at the same time exact impressions about our past lives. "Besides, it is much more important for us to fix our attention upon what we want to become than upon what we have been." Words of the Mother, CWM Vol. 15, p. 124 If it is not the mind, vital or physical which take birth again but only the psychic being, then the vital or mental progress... the progress lies in putting all the parts of the being successively under the psychic influence. For all that is under the psychic influence and identified with the psychic continues, and it is that alone which continues. But if the psychic is made the centre of one's life and consciousness, and if the whole being is organised around it, the whole being passes under the psychic influence, becomes united ...
... everything you were thinking of is now escaping you, you wait very quietly for something in your head to begin to understand the content of the experience. There are people—many—who are weak in their vital being. When they have this sensation of infinity, eternity, in their very small person, in their very little strength, it is so different from the impression they have constantly, that they understand... inopportunely like that is always the result of some pride or ambition or some lack of balance within, due to having neglected one part of the being for the benefit of another. Those who think they can advance in yoga by leaving their body completely inert, their vital asleep and their mind in a kind of stupefaction (for often, what they call "silence" is just stupefaction), get completely upset, you may... extravagant things or otherwise something very unfortunate happens to them.... One must have a solid well-balanced body, a well-controlled vital and a mind organised, supple, logical; then, if you are in a state of aspiration and you receive an answer, all your being will feel enriched, enlarged, splendid, and you will be perfectly happy and you will not spill your cup because it is too full, like a clumsy ...
... which is most intimately spiritual. It awakens rare outbreaks of mysticism, a vein of subtler sentiment, a more poignant pathos; it refines passion from a violence of the vital being into an intensity of the soul, modifies vital sensuousness into a thing of imaginative beauty by a warmer aesthetic perception. It carries with it a seeking for exquisite lyrical form, touches narrative poetry to finer... there is still something too thick and heavy in the strength and depth of the Teutonic composition for the ethereal light and fire of the poetic word to make its way freely through the intellectual and vital envelope. What has saved the English mind from a like taciturnity? It must have been the mixture of other racial strains, sublimating this strong but heavy material temperament with a quicker and more... life, a ready and energetic portrayal of action and character in action, the pleasant or the melancholy outsides of Nature, the robust play of the will and the passions, a vigorous flow of a strenuous vital and physical verse creation. Even we might look for a good deal of deviation into themes and motives for which prose will always be the more adequate and characteristic instrument; we should not be ...
... meditations in the same poise. Ascent and the Body The ordinary movement of sadhana is that of the inner being (mind, psychic, higher vital) rising towards the Divine Consciousness,—leaving the external being behind—but for this Yoga that is not enough, the physical and external being must also be able to rise into the Divine Consciousness. What you have written is quite correct. The body... levels while the permanently high-stationed being above presides over all that is experienced and done. It [ walking around as if in a dream ] is a very usual experience. It means that for a moment you were no longer in your body, but somehow either above or outside the body consciousness. Page 436 This sometimes happens by the vital being rising up above the head or, more rarely,... above the mind one must first realise the self above the mind and live there. Do you realise it [ the higher being ] as wide and infinite? When you are there do you feel it spread through infinity? Do you feel all the universe within you, yourself one with the self of all beings? Do you feel the one cosmic Force acting everywhere? Do you feel your mind one with the cosmic mind? your life one ...
... y of Yoga recognises besides the status of our physical and vital being, termed the gross body and doubly composed of the food sheath and the vital vehicle, besides the status of our mental being, termed the subtle body and singly composed of the mind sheath or mental vehicle, 5 a third, supreme and divine status of supra-mental being, termed the causal body and composed of a fourth and a fifth... intellect, the protagonist of this tendency, with material Nature and the externalities of existence is a necessary part of the effort. It seeks to prepare a sufficient basis in man's physical being and vital energies and in his material environment for his full mental possibilities. By the spread of education, by the advance of the backward races, by the elevation of depressed classes, by the mult... truth that is secretly their source, a deformation of the divine knowledge. Our sensations and emotions have the same relation to the Bliss, our vital forces and actions to the aspect of Will or Force assumed by the divine consciousness, our physical being to the pure essence of that Bliss and Consciousness. The evolution which we observe and of which Page 17 we are the terrestrial summit ...
... the mental or the vital, be retained after death by the true soul, the psyche, and carried over to the next birth instead of there being a complete reinsouling, the taking up of an altogether new subtle vehicle along with the physical by the psyche? Sri Aurobindo's answer is that, while a person with "a strong spiritual development" could certainly retain his vital-mental being, the carrying-over... think of a divine counterpart to the whole triple strain of mental-vital-physical being: we have also to think of a divine mentality, a divine vitality and even a divine physicality as forming the covert nature of the Platonic "chaos" and unfolding on earth in answer to their counterpart in the Supermind. For, the fluctuant "non-being" in which the Real-Idea comes to have a partial play is nothing save... Pertinent here is a reply by Sri Aurobindo to a question concerning the following quotation from Plato: "The world of sense is the copy of the world of Ideas. In our visible world there is a graduation of beings.... The same holds true of the intelligible realm or pattern of the world; the Ideas are joined together by means of other Ideas of a higher order;...the Ideas constantly increase in generality and ...
... portion of its rajasic motions is contributed by the life-power and all the overt consciousness by the mental being. The principle of rajas has its strongest hold on the vital nature. It is the Life within us that is the strongest kinetic motor power, but the life-power in earthly beings is possessed by the force of desire, therefore rajas turns always to action and desire; desire is the strongest... the prevalence of another guna; even in the governing form of their nature most human beings are of a mixed type. All the colour and variety of life is made of the intricate pattern of the weaving of the gunas. The Synthesis of Yoga, pp. 656-60 Page 112 The individual soul or the conscious being in a form may identify itself with this experiencing Purusha or with this active Prakriti... ambition, lust, greed, cruelty, hatred, jealousy, the egoisms of love, all the vices and passions, the exaggerations of the aesthesis, the morbidities and perversions of the sensational and vital being. Tamas in its own right produces the coarse, dull and ignorant type of human nature, rajas the vivid, restless, kinetic man, driven by the breath of action, passion and desire. Sattwa produces ...
... but that which is the truth of all this deviation and deformation, lying behind in the inner heart. The psychic being is a special creation in and for earth, in and for man, the earthly creature. It is, as we have said, divine Grace imbedded in Matter. The gods are glorious beings; they are aspects and personalities of the Divine, presiding and ruling over the cosmic laws, each with his own truth... egoism of an ascetic, of a saint – it is s ā ttwic; still it is egoism. It may prove even more difficult to break and dissolve than the violent and ebullient r ā jasic pride of a vital being. Human failings in this respect are generally more complex and contain all shades and rhythms. And yet that is not the whole or dominant mystery of man's nature. His egoism is thwarted at every step... the logical and inevitable happening in the course of things, nor does it depend wholly upon any personal choice of the psychic being, so to say. It occurs when the force of a higher destiny operates, for a special work and at a special time. It is when the psychic being is contacted with, made to identify itself with, a godhead under a higher dispensation, when, in a word, a divinity descends into ...
... problems of our actual human life, often turns away from them to an exclusive acceptance of the vital and material existence and the reasoned or instinctive pursuit of its utmost possible efficiency, well-being and organised satisfaction. A gospel of the will to live or the will to power or of a rationalised vital and material perfection becomes the recognised dharma of the human race and all else is considered... or a compromise, a spiritualising of life and mind as much as possible. And because the difficulty most constantly insistent on man's mentality in practice is that presented by the claims of his vital being, by life and conduct and action, the direction taken by this preparatory endeavour consists mainly in a spiritualising of the ethical supported by the psychical mind—or rather it brings in the spiritual... a spiritual existence remote and ineffable; he is here in the universe at once hidden and expressed through man and the gods and through all beings and in all that is. And it is by finding him not only in some immutable silence but in the world and its beings and in all self and in all Nature, it is by raising to an integral as well as to a highest union with him all the activities of the intelligence ...
... many directions in the stalk and branches of the vital being; it puts forth the opulence of the buds of mind and there, nestling in the luxuriant leaves of mind and above it, out from the spirit which was concealed in the whole process must blossom the free and infinite soul of man, the hundred-petalled rose of God. Man indeed, unlike other forms of being in terrestrial Nature, though rooted in body,... surge of self, cannot permanently hold the greater activities of the mental being. He ceases to identify himself entirely with the passion, the emotion, the thought-suggestions of life; for he needs to know from a freer height what it is and what he is, to get a clear detached idea of its workings, to dominate his emotions and vital intuitions and see with the calm eye of his reason, to probe, analyse,... thinking, constructing intelligence. But then comes the now vital question in this cultural evolution,—in what is this intellectualism to culminate? For if it leads to nothing beyond itself, it must end, however brilliant its work, in a poetic decadence, and that must come nearer, the more intellect dominates the other powers of our being. The intellect moves naturally between two limits, the abstractions ...
... is, of the vital world, the subtler region beyond the fourfold earth-atmosphere, 6 and this vital world which is not under the influence of the psychic forces or the psychic consciousness is essentially a world of ill-will, of disorder, disequilibrium, indeed of all the most anti-divine things one could imagine. This vital world is constantly penetrating the physical world, and being much more subtle... people, and even in the very best at very rare moments in life, does the will of the being express that deep inner, higher truth. (After a silence Mother continues:) The individual consciousness extends far beyond the body; we have seen that even the subtle physical which is yet material pared with the vital being and in certain conditions almost visible, extends at times considerably beyond the visible... is not that, it is a perception of another sense. It is a physical sense, it is not a vital or mental sense; it is a sense of the physical world, but there are other senses than the five that we usually have at our disposal—there are many others. In fact, for the physical being—note that I say the physical being—to be fully developed, it must have twelve senses. It is one of these senses which gives ...
... it's the inner, vital being [ Mother touches the heart center ] that's conscious of oneness, that is, conscious of being a being), that this aggregate of cells is now an aggregate OF ITS OWN WILL, with an organized consciousness which is a sort of collective gathering of that cellular consciousness; well... Obviously this is an exceptional condition, but even in the past, in those beings who were very... very developed outwardly, there was a beginning of willed, conscious cellular gathering, and that's certainly why in ancient Egypt, where occultism was very developed. exceptional beings such as the pharaohs, the high priests, etc., were mummified, so as to preserve the form as long as possible. Even here in India, generally they were petrified (in the Himalayas there were petrifactive springs). There... which men... They want to get rid of the dead, don't they! And the faster the better. I remember someone who told me (someone who claimed to be a sage), he told me, "But if it's untrue that the same beings reincarnate many times, then the dead increase more and more in number, and the atmosphere is going to be terribly crowded with all those Page 273 dead!... They'll become a plague. What ...
... universally appreciated and recognised as being divine; but progress is well-received only by those who have an intense and courageous aspiration.) * (The Mother wrote to Dada about how to control human beings:) (In their ordinary consciousness human beings cannot tolerate any authority imposed upon them by any other human being who seems to be on the same level as themselves... and collective. The vital, the life-energy part of man, is more difficult. "The vital being in us is the seat of impulses and desires, of enthusiasm and violence, of dynamic energy and desperate depression, of passion and revolt. It can set in motion everything, build up and realise, it can also destroy and mar everything.” Education of the vital proceeds in various stages... stages. Firstly, a good amount of life energy must be generated by the vital. When the body functions in its optimum health and fitness, and there is harmony between the body, the vital and the mind, plenty of vital energy is generated in the system. This balanced state of the various parts of the being also creates a very congenial condition for contact with the universal energy from which, if one is trained ...
... one is aware of the true vital, one gets all these things as inherent in the true vital. 20 October 1935 "This central being has two forms—above, it is Jivatman, ... below, it is the psychic being ..." [p. 15]. Is it meant that the Jivatman and the psychic being are different forms of the central being? If they are forms of the central being, how can they be beings? "Forms" is not used in... within and is in consonance with the psychic being—it is the energy of the true vital being, but in the ordinary ignorant vital it is deformed into desire. You have to quiet and purify the vital and let the true vital emerge. Or you have to bring the psychic in front, and the psychic will purify and psychicise the vital and then you will have the true vital energy. 11 September 1933 The Synthesis... can hardly be said. Napoleon had a strong vital but not one organised round the psychic being. 12 October 1935 "It is really for the vital part of the being that Shraddha and rites are done—to help the being to get rid of the vital vibrations which still attach it to the earth or to the vital worlds, so that it may pass quickly to its rest in the psychic peace" [p. 18]. Does this mean that the ...
... many states of being and each state of being has its own life. All this is put together in one single body, so long as you have a body, and acts through that single body; so that gives you the feeling that it is one single person, a single being. But there are many beings and particularly there are concentrations on different levels: just as you have a physical being, you have a vital being, you have a... When the body is dissolved, the vital goes into the vital plane and remains there for a time, but after a time the vital sheath disappears. The last to dissolve is the mental sheath. Finally the soul or psychic being retires into the psychic world to rest there till a new birth is close. This is the general course for ordinarily developed human beings. There are variations according to... But I had the experience of doing it deliberately, so I KNOW. One has to know how to do it, but it can be done. My psychic being stayed here with Sri Aurobindo, and I left with my mental, vital and physical beings. It was a ... slightly precarious condition. But as I also kept the contact quite consciously, it could be done. Page 52 Communications from the psychic do not come ...
... work of self-development and organisation and being aware of all the elements is not within the reach of the beings of the vital and mental planes, nor even of the beings who are usually called “gods”; and when they want to do it, when they really want to organise themselves and become completely conscious, they have to take a body. And yet, human beings come into a physical body without knowing why... the being around the divine Centre can only be done in a physical body and on earth. That is truly the essential and original reason for physical life. For, as soon as you are no longer in a physical body, you can no longer do it at all . And what is still more remarkable is that only human beings can do it, for only human beings have at their centre the divine Presence in the psychic being. For... Mother More Answers from the Mother: 23 December 1936 The centre of the human being is the psychic which is the dwelling-place of the immanent Divine. Unification means organisation and harmonisation of all the parts of the being (mental, vital and physical) around this centre, so that all the activities of the being may be the correct expression of the will of the Divine Presence. The Mother ...
... Divinity is there in all terrestrial living beings from the earth's highest to its lowest creatures. The psychic being is a spiritual personality put forward by the soul in its evolution; its growth marks the stage which the spiritual evolution of the individual has reached and its immediate possibilities for the future. It stands behind the mental, the vital, the physical nature, grows by their experiences... central being—the Jivatman which is not born nor evolves, but presides over the individual birth and evolution—puts forward a representative of himself on each plane of the consciousness. On the mental plane it is the true mental being, manomaya puruṣa , on the vital plane the true vital being, prāṇamaya puruṣa , on the physical plane the true physical being, annamaya puruṣa . Each being therefore... projection of the spirit. The central being is the being which presides over the different births one after the other but is itself unborn, for it does not descend into the being but is above it—it holds together the mental, vital and physical being and all the various parts of the personality and it controls the life either through the mental Page 58 being and the mental thought and will or ...
... thing large, calm, equal, luminous, divine. These things are not incumbent on the essential nature of our being, but the creations of the present make of our outward active mental and vital nature and its transactions with its surroundings. The ego-sense which induces us to act as separate beings who make their isolated claim and experience the test of the values of the universe, is responsible for these... spiritual power acting upon finite things, that some highest integral perfection of our being and nature finds its own native foundation. A perfect equality not only of the self, but in the nature is a condition of the Yoga of self-perfection. The first obvious step to it will be the conquest of our emotional and vital being, for here are the sources of greatest trouble, the most rampant forces of inequality... impersonal and equal self-identification with all beings, an understanding of all energies. The Divine acts with a mighty power in the myriad workings of the universe, but with the supporting light and force of an imperturbable oneness, freedom and peace. That must be the type of the perfected soul's divine works. And equality is the condition of the being which makes possible this changed spirit in the ...
... In Sri Aurobindo's and Mother's terminology, 'psychic' or 'psychic being' means the soul or the portion of the Supreme in man which evolves from life to life until it becomes a fully self-conscious being. The soul is a capacity or grace particular to human beings on earth. × ... his body that after some hours the doctors believed he would be saved. But it couldn't last (it wasn't possible—a part of the brain had come out). Well, when not only his soul but his mental being, his vital being, and all the rest had been properly collected and organized over his body and had realized that the body had become quite unusable, it was over—they gave up the body and it was over. I... I began to work quite systematically. Every night, at the same hour, I was working to construct—between the purely terrestrial atmosphere and the psychic atmosphere—a path of protection across the vital, so that people wouldn't have to pass through it (for those who are conscious but without knowledge it's a very difficult passage—infernal.) I was preparing this path, doing this work (it must have ...
... often defined them in his writings.) In the view of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, the Earth is an evolutionary field in which the mental being we call human must be succeeded by a supramental being, just as man has been preceded by a whole series of inframental beings. Man is a transitional creature. For every material, terrestrial embodiment of a new evolutionary gradation, a direct intervention of the... foreseen that it will discover the way in which to produce new beings without using the old animal method. And it will be these beings — who will be born in a really spiritual way — who will constitute the elements of the new race, 94 the overmental race.’ 10 This means that henceforth we will have to use the word ‘overman’ for the being which is procreated and born in the normal human way but which... which has acquired a supramental consciousness; the ‘supramental being’ is then the future, truly new species which has as yet no name and of which the procreation will no longer happen in the animal-human way. ‘From the new race [of intermediary beings] would be recruited the race of supramental beings who would appear as the leaders of the evolution in earth-nature.’ 11 (Sri Aurobindo) All of ...
... must have been life on the moon, and these beings (or a few of them, I don't know) took refuge on the earth when the moon was dying. And that was the origin of the Chinese race. They are very peculiar.... They don't at all have the same kind of vital being as all the other human beings, not at all. Theirs is a strange vital. What kind of vital? Page 217 Cold. Cold: intellectual... lives and which, at such moments, touched Matter concretely. And all that is gathered, collected together little by little, gradually, until it produces a conscious being. Now, this ( Mother's being ) is a rather special conscious being.... The psychic of this life ( laughing ) was rather collective! Memories of Catherine the Great, memories of Elizabeth, memories of two lives at the same time (!)... scarcely know it, and it is just what in us does not know it or is unaware of being divine that we call ourselves!" I'll see his reaction. Afterwards something came, and I wrote it in its definitive form (in English it's better): "For the Truth-vision all of us are divine, but we scarcely know it and in our being it is just what does not know it that we call ourselves." ( A little ...
... connection the topic you have raised of X is pertinent. He is claiming to be supramentalising his body. Both Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have clearly said that the supramentabsation of the mind, the vital being and the physical consciousness have to precede the body's supramentalisation - and that there would be a failure in the Integral Yoga if the true soul has not emerged and taken charge of the sadhana... me. Through curious circumstances I was thrown into a search for the invisible, a grope for the unthinkable. Luckily, they brought me before Sri Aurobindo and face to face with the Mother. Here were beings of flesh and blood, concretely on earth, who yet stood for the Beyond and the Boundless. Because of them I could turn to the spiritual life. They also showed through their spirituality a firm... Here is Sri Aurobindo writing to Sahana on 14.11.1933: "It is quite impossible for the Supramental to take up the body before there has been the full supramental change in the mind and the vital." And what has the Mother to say? "Before you take up the work of physical transformation, which is of all things the most difficult, you must have your consciousness firmly, solidly established in ...
... symbolise difficulties from the "vital" plane, the unspiritual "desires" sweeping over it. But the vital plane has also features that can be of help to spirituality. Such is the "sturdy white horse" that meets you while you are running away from the floods. Here is a representation of the purified vital force. Your mounting it proves that you are not a helpless being but have a will-power which can... from that heart straight, untouched by the circumspect mind. Not that the mind has no role to play in matters of the depths. Sometimes what hails from them is interfered with by the dramatising vital being so that the psychic form does not emerge in all its truth. Then the mind, if it has been well trained, gets the authentic sense of that form and cuts away the excrescences. Occasionally, even the... pitch to confer on the aesthetic faculty. And if the soul is not awake, the reader will not be able to have aesthetic appreciation at the soul's pitch. The art will be perceived with just a mental-vital sensitivity instead of a spiritual or "soulful" one. I am sure a man who has lived with poetry of all kinds and is alert to various types of vision, emotion and rhythm will get a pretty keen perception ...
... speaks of three fires and five fires, indicating that the soul that is fire is to be found at three levels, the level of the body, the level of the vital being, and the level of the mental being. The Kathopanishad also tells us that the mental being is not the highest, since the faculty of knowledge is even higher than the mind. It further tells us that there is even a greater self higher than the... and our soul is encaged in these koshas. The first is called the Page 17 annamaya, which refers to the physical sheath; the second is called the prāṇamaya, which refers to the vital sheath; the third is called, the manomaya, which refers to the mental sheath. These three are familiar to all of us who have risen above the animal level of existence and have even gone above the... Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library, Volume 12, 1972. ². Or, increase, (foot-note from original text) Page 18 than this that is of the substance of food; and it is made of the vital stuff called Prana. And the Self of Prana fills the Self of food. Now the Self of Prana is made in the image of a man; according as is the human image of the other, [...] Prana is the life of created ...
... and preferences and because of that acts as an obstacle to the action of the divine Shakti in its ādhāra; "if it is found that the vital being of the sadhaka is whirling in the vortex of its greeds and desires; "if it is found that the physical being of the sadhaka has mortgaged itself to the inert movements and habits that normally activate it, and because of that is unwilling to admit... s words, "an opening inwards of the inner mind, vital, physical to the inmost part of us, the psychic, and an opening upwards to what is above the mind." The necessity of this double opening can be easily understood if we remember that the superficial outward-looking life and existence that we normally function with is not our true real being. "The real self is not anywhere on the surface but... "If there is any kind of egoistic turn or insincerity of motive, if yoga is done under a pressure of vital demands, or partly or wholly to satisfy some spiritual or other ambition, pride, vanity or seeking for power, position or influence over others or with any push towards satisfying any vital desire with the help of the yogic force, then not much of opening is possible." Concerning this ...
... according to the ancient Indian idea by each individual being following faithfully his swadharma, the true law and norm of his nature and the nature of his kind and by the group being, the organic collective life, doing likewise. The family, clan, caste, class, social, religious, industrial or other community, nation, people are all organic group beings that evolve their own dharma and to follow it is the... China perished,—as a man dies of old age. But the collective being has too the capacity of renewing itself, of a recovery and a new cycle. For in each people there is a soul idea or life idea at work, less mortal than its body, and if this idea is itself sufficiently powerful, large and force-giving and the people sufficiently strong, vital and plastic in mind and temperament to combine stability with... intention, the communal psychology, temperament, vital and physical need, and persisting or altering partly under the pressure of an internal impulse, partly under that of the environment acting on the communal mind and temper. In this stage the people is not yet intelligently self-conscious in the way of the reason, is not yet a thinking collective being, and it does Page 398 not try to govern ...
... Sri Aurobindo would complete the Integral Yoga by a transformation of his very body so that, just as there would be no ignorance or obscurity in the mind and no impurity and incapacity in the vital being, the body would acquire a divine nature and be free from disease, ageing and death. What he as well as the Mother would achieve was intended to be repeated in their disciples. Not that one would... completely satisfied the Mother when Richard conveyed it to her on his return to Paris. Unfortunately this fascinating tale has turned out to be mythical. When a biography of Sri Aurobindo was being prepared by A. B. Purani in 1957, the Mother was asked to consider the statement: "Mother had given Richard some questions which he had to get solved by some spiritual person in India." The Mother... that she was putting something of her own spiritualised subtle-physical substance into the soup in our cups. This was naturally a strain on her which could be compensated only if something in our being went out to her in return. Unfortunately the yogic traffic was often one-way. The consequence was a severe strain on the Mother's body. This strain was the real cause of her illness. Sri Aurobindo ...
... possessing enjoyment, bhoga , which makes the whole life-being vibrate with it and accept and rejoice in it; but ordinarily it is not, owing to desire, equal to its task, but turns it into the three lower forms,—pain and pleasure, sukha-bhoga duḥkha-bhoga , and that rejection of both which we call insensibility or indifference. The prana or vital being has to be liberated from desire and its inequalities... 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 the third power and result, the power by this endurance and mastery, this separation and rejection of the lower nature, to get rid of the normal reactions and even, if we will... is an attitude which regards these passions of the mind as things born of the illusion of the outward mentality or inferior movements unworthy of the calm truth of the single and equal spirit or a vital and emotional disturbance to be rejected by the tranquil observing will and dispassionate intelligence of the sage. It puts away desire from the mind, discards the ego which attributes these dual values ...
... Ashwins are twin divine powers whose special function is to perfect the nervous or vital being in man in the sense of action and enjoyment. But they are also powers of Truth, of intelligent action, of right enjoyment, they are powers that appear with the Dawn, effective powers of action born out of the ocean of being who, because they are divine, are able to mentalise securely the felicities of the... second hymn, so in the third the Rishi begins by invoking deities who act in the nervous or vital forces. But there he called Vayu who supplies the vital forces, brings his steeds of life; here he calls the Ashwins who use the vital forces, ride on the steed. As in the second hymn, he proceeds from the vital or nervous action to the mental; he invokes in his second movement the might of Indra. The ... tūtujāna upa brahmāṇi harivaḥ , and the Rishi prays to him to confirm or hold the delight in the Soma offering, sute dadhiṣva naś canaḥ . The Ashwins have brought and energised the pleasure of the vital system in the action of the Ananda. Indra is necessary to hold that pleasure firmly in the illuminated mind so that it may not fall away from the consciousness. "Come, O Indra, with thy rich lustres ...
... part of the nature, the inner being (inner mind, inner vital, inner physical) of which you were 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... aware of the psychic being and its aspirations and experiences and of the external being in front, as two separate parts of your consciousness. You were not able to keep this experience because the vital was not purified and pulled you out into the ordinary external consciousness. Afterwards, you got back into the psychic and were at the same time able to see your ordinary vital nature, to become aware... into the head and liberates the inner mind centres, then into the heart centre and liberates fully the psychic and emotional being, then into the navel and other vital centres and liberates the inner vital, then into the Muladhara and below and liberates the inner physical being. It works at the same time for perfection as well as liberation; it takes up the whole nature part by part and deals with it ...
... character. In fact each human being is composed of different personalities that feel and behave in a different way and his action is determined by the one that happens to be prominent at the time. The one that has no feelings against anyone is either the psychic being or the emotional being in the heart, the one that feels anger and is severe is a part of the external vital nature on the surface. This... is so, that they are being dealt with in all uprightness and justice and Page 281 by a man who has sympathy and insight and not only severity and energy. It is a question of vital tact and a strong and large vital finding always the right way to deal with the others. To be able to see the viewpoint of others and make allowance for their nature—neither being too harsh, authoritative... Keep unmoved, unoffended, do your work without being discouraged, call on the Force to act for you. It is a field of trial for you—the inward result is more important than the outward. Page 283 As for the work, I have already told you that it is not by your going away that there will be harmony and peace. Wherever there are human beings working together, differences and disagreements ...
... when they are expressed through the external mind, that have stood much in the way of your sadhana. There is the vital personality which was turned towards success and enjoyment and got it and wanted to go on with it but could not get the rest of the being to follow. There is the vital personality that wanted enjoyment of a deeper kind and suggested to the other that it could very well give up these... to the promised land, that does not matter. But— Well, if it is not, then there is another way—it is what we call the integration, the harmonisation of the being. That cannot be done from outside, it cannot be done by the mind and vital being—they are sure to bungle their affair. It can be done only from within by the soul, the Spirit which is the centraliser, itself the centre of these radii. In... were not merely a mood of the mind and vital but an indication of the mind's true road and the soul's issue. But it seems to me that it is only the vital recoiling from its own disappointed desires in an extreme dissatisfaction, not the soul leaping gladly to its true path. This vairagya is itself a vital movement; vital vairagya is the reverse side of vital desire—though the mind of course is there ...
... (and what he [ a sadhak ] has described is very much Page 194 like undergoing an influence). Otherwise there may be harm done by two different methods getting mixed together—e.g. the vital being awakened to a Bhakti-Ananda influence on that plane before it is purified and ready. The Guru's Help in Difficulty I think this saying of Ramakrishna's 2 expresses a certain characteristic... is the mind wanting to follow its own way of thinking and the vital seeking freedom for its desires which argue in this manner. If you do not follow the rules laid down by the spiritual guide or obey one who is leading you to the Divine, then what or whom are you to follow? Only the ideas of the individual mind and the desires of the vital: but these things never lead to siddhi in Yoga. The rules are... then what you want will have a chance of coming to you. Up to now no liberated man has objected to the Guruvada; it is usually only people who live in the mind or vital and have the pride of the mind or the arrogance of the vital that find it below their dignity to recognise a Guru. One has to learn from the master and act according to his instructions because the master knows the subject ...
... part of it but into all the being down to the physical and below before a real and total transformation can take place. A light in the mind may spiritualise or otherwise change the mind or part of it in one way or another, but it need not change the vital nature; a light in the vital may purify and enlarge the vital movements or else silence and immobilise the vital being, but leave the body Page... conceived as to bring about a strong and assured step forward in the spiritual evolution of the being, an advance of a greater and higher kind and of a larger sweep and completeness than that smaller though decisive achievement of the emerging Consciousness when a mentalised being first appeared in a vital and material animal world. If anything short of that takes place or at least if a real beginning... a putting on of the spiritual consciousness dynamic as well as static in every part of the being down to the subconscient. That cannot be done by the influence of the Self leaving the consciousness fundamentally as it is with only purification, enlightenment of the mind and heart and quiescence of the vital. It means a bringing down of Divine Consciousness static and dynamic into all these parts and ...
... physical world, and being much more subtle than the physical, it is very often quite imperceptible except to a few rare individuals. There are entities, beings, wills, various kinds of individualities in that world, who have all kinds of intentions and make use of every opportunity either to amuse themselves if they are small beings or to do harm and create disorder if they are beings with a greater capacity... people, and even in the very best at very rare moments in life, does the will of the being express that deep inner, higher truth. ( After a silence Mother continues :) The individual consciousness extends far beyond the body; we have seen that even the subtle physical which is yet material compared with the vital being and in certain conditions almost visible, extends at times considerably beyond the... What you call yourself, the individual being enclosed within the limits of your present consciousness, is constantly penetrated by vibrations of this kind, coming from outside and very often presenting themselves in the form of suggestions, in the sense that, apart from a few exceptions, the action takes place first in the mental field, then becomes vital, then physical. I want to make it clear that ...
... hostile being which gets hold of this body. There have been cases like that, children who seemed to be dead, that is, the psychic being had left the body, and before it had died completely, a vital being had entered and taken its place. Such cases have been known. And these beings are demons. In life they become veritable demons. There are not many of them. There are beings of the vital, but of... body in order to be under the control of a psychic being. And they incarnate in human bodies, but not with the intention of driving out the psychic being, on the contrary, to try to submit to the influence of the psychic being and be converted by it. These cases also are not frequent, but still they have been known, and in these cases these human beings are gifted with very exceptional capacities, but... require much more effort from them than is necessary for a human being to change his defects, that of course is obvious. It is a much greater effort and, above all, much deeper, because the origin of their revolt is very deep; it is not superficial. But still, they can manage it. They have the power also; these are very powerful beings who, if they resolve to be converted, can do it; and then they become ...
... the psychic, for they don't have it. These beings certainly have many qualities that men don't, but they lack this divine presence, which is altogether exceptional and exists only on the earth and nowhere else. All these inhabitants of the higher worlds, the Higher Mind, Overmind and other regions have no psychic being. Of course, the beings of the vital worlds don't have it either. But these latter... to enter within yourself and you will find Him." It is something very particular to the human being or rather to the inhabitants of the earth. In the human being the psychic becomes more conscious, Page 160 more formed, more conscious and more independent also. It is individualised in human beings. But it is a speciality of the earth. It is a direct infusion, special and redeeming, in the... psychic which makes man an exceptional being—I don't like to tell him this very much, because already he thinks too much of himself; he has such a high opinion of himself that it is not necessary to encourage him! But still, this is a fact—so much so that there are beings of other domains of the universe, those called by some people demigods and even gods, beings, for instance, of what Sri Aurobindo ...
... appearance of 'equality'. These phoney samat ā s may be recognised by the following signs: (i) Tamasic samat ā : The blind torpor of the physical nature and the heavy inertia of the vital being may lead to a temporary numbness of the reacting consciousness, which, in its turn, may create in the sadhaka a distaste for the joys of life and an ossified insensibility. (ii) Rajasic samat... Master... demands a clear recognition and glad acknowledgement of him in ourselves, in all things and in all happenings. Equality is the sign of this adoration.... The Lord is there equally in all beings, we have to make no essential distinctions between ourselves and others, the wise and the ignorant, friend and enemy, man and animal, the saint and the sinner.... in all we have to see the One disguised... shown by some men who are hardened in their feelings by the lack of sufficient sensitivity. is not judged as such in spiritual parlance. In fact, true equality is an elevated status of the being, very much positive and dynamic, surcharged with great power, but absolutely calm and quiet in every way. This equality is the reflection in the consciousness of the siddha-yogi, of the eternal and ...
... intimations of his 'central will' , the'voice' of his psychic being: "But (his psychic influence or action does not come up to the surface quite pure or does not remain distinct in its purity; if it did, we would be able to distinguish clearly the soul element in us an4 follow consciously and fully its dictates. An occult mental and vital and subtle-physical action intervenes, mixes with it,... wrong application, a wrong formation, an erroneous result of what is in itself pure stuff and action of our spiritual being; a formation of consciousness is accordingly made which is a mixture of the psyj| chic influence and its intimations jumbled with mental ideas and opinions, vital desires and urges, habitual physical tendencies.", (The Life Divine, Cent. Ed., pp. 893-94. Paragraphing ours.)... Sri Aurobindo has this to say: "The will itself takes different shapes, [i] the will of the intelligence, [ii] the wishes of the emotional mind, [iii] the desires of the passion and the vital being, [iv] the impulsions and blind or half-blind compulsions of the nervous and the subconscient nature. And all these make by no means a harmony, but at best a precarious concord among discords. The ...
... deeper ethical, aesthetic, psychic and spiritual realities, but also for manifesting their truths and powers. The vital being in us is the seat of impulses and desires, of enthusiasm and violence, of dynamic energy and desperate depression, of passions and revolt. The vital is a good worker, but most often it seeks its own satisfaction. If that is refused totally or even partially, it gets vexed... the progress made. Page 28 Another exercise is to deal with the vital as one deals with a child in revolt, with patience and perseverance showing it the truth and light, endeavouring to convince it and awaken in it the goodwill which for a moment was veiled. A wide, strong, calm but dynamic vital capable of right emotion, right decision, and right execution by force and energy... is very often misused by the mind with its dogmas, its rigid and arbitrary principles, and by the vital with its passions, its excesses and dissipations. It is these which are the cause of bodily fatigue, exhaustion and disease. The body must therefore be free from the tyranny of the mind and of the vital; and this can be done by training the body to feel and sense the psychic presence within and to ...
... diminution the divine Will in the world. Now, the mind, the heart, the vital and the body are the four instruments of manifestation of the Spirit. Thus, there is the mental being which produces thoughts, the emotional being which produces feelings, the vital being which produces the power of action and the physical being that acts and gives form to everything else. Now, the basic duty of a teacher... live in the right way. Second Goal: To Acquire a Mould of Aspiring Consciousness The students should not degenerate into actuality-bound, "practical-minded", unprogressive human beings possessing nothing else but a dull and coarse common sense. Instead, they should be helped to develop in themselves the spirit of Page 31 adventurous optimism and to look towards all... thing.' If you do not have reason, you will be like a cork on a stormy sea." (CWM, Vol. 8, p. 184) To make the enlightened reason, the liberated intelligence free from the slavery to vital impulses and physical appetites, the governor of life is, then, the seventh educational goal envisaged in the Mother's philosophy of education. Eighth Goal: To Be Self-disciplined ...
... consciously, more or less willingly". The problem is to encourage in the vital being "the movements that express the light". If the education of the vital is begun as soon as the child can use his senses, "many bad habits will be avoided and many harmful influences eliminated". To facilitate and promote movements in the vital expressing light two things have to be done: the proper growth and efficient... country where you are born or the age to which you belong. You must find, in the depths of your being, that which carries in it a sense of universality, limitless expansion, unbroken continuity. Then you decentralise, extend and widen yourself; Page 514 you begin to live in all things and in all beings; the barriers separating individuals from each other break down. You think in their thoughts... On the other hand, the discovery of the psychic centre - the soul, the real truth of our being - can defy easy accomplishment. One must first purify the instruments, and one must learn to harmonise and unify them. While the Mother devotes separate chapters to the different disciplines - psychic, mental, vital, physical - here she sees them really as a single integrated discipline. But it often becomes ...
... The tamas is still occupying some space in my being. Something ought to be done. I could have easily fought it out as before. But I don't understand why the vital emptiness does not allow me to make any attempt. These alternations always come till the thing is perfect. But probably the vital emptiness being less old is less ripe than that of the higher part of the con... you think that has made any fundamental change in my lower nature? At present at least I see my ego, vital and physical practically in the same condition as ever before. Peace is a necessary basis but peace is not sufficient. Peace if it is strong and permanent can liberate the inner being which can become a calm and unmoved witness of the external movements. That is the liberation of the... 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 alone can solve the difficulties of the vital nature? If the peace of the higher Self and the force from these ...
... on perversities, on all that is ugly, glaring and coarse on the plea of their greater reality, on exaggerations of vital instinct and sensation, on physical wrynesses and crudities and things unhealthily strange. The thought-mind, losing the natural full-blooded power of the vital being, pores on these things, stimulates the failing blood with them and gives itself an illusion of some forceful sensation... beauty or responsive in mood, a response of satisfaction and possession or of dissatisfied yearning and seeking, in the whole an attempt to relate or harmonise the soul and mind and sensational and vital being of the human individual with the soul and mind and life and body of the visible and sensible universe." Man's modern outlook on himself, in the warp and weft of Space and Time and in the stress... in his external visible being, it has been the cause of a large and "minute enquiry into the origins and antiquity and history of the race, into the sources of its present development, into all its physical, psychological, sociological being and the many ideal speculations and practical aspira-tions of its future which have arisen from this new knowledge of the human being and his possibilities". 11 ...
... mental, the vital and the physical, are interrelated in the complexity of our being. As a result, there is in us what Sri Aurobindo calls the mental-vital (vital mind), mentalphysical (physical mind), vital-mental, vital-physical and physical-vital. The mental-vital or the vital mind is the mind which is at the service of vital desires and vital emotions. It is a so-t of mediator between vital emotion... Sri Aurobindo: 'His physical being will be one with all material Nature, his vital being with the life of the universe, his mind with the cosmic mind, his spiritual knowledge and will with the divine knowledge and will both in itself and as it pours itself through these channels, his spirit with the one spirit in all beings. All the variety of cosmic existence will be changed to him in that unity... central vital are sometimes taken together and referred to as the higher vital, in contrast to the lower vital which is concerned with the bottom movements of action and desire and stretches down into the vital-physical. The vital-physical is the vital at the service of the physical. It is the nervous being, and it governs all the small daily reactions to outward things. It governs also reactions of ...
... surging of the opposite powers into the being,—ascent and sinking, tenderness and hate, laughter and tears, fears and joys, ecstasy and despair, These were the movements of the Life-force, ''full of ardour". They had their higher movements full of mixture. For example, one could enter here into "the valley of the wondering Gleam", intermediate zone of the vital being full of deceit and danger because of... glad uplift and a new working came." Then a transformation of nature followed in which "every act" of Savitri "became an act of God." In her heart "all the emotions gave themselves to God". Her vital being was tamed "to do a work of God on earthly soil." In the body "a firm ground was made for Heaven's descending might." Thus the entire human part of Savitri became harmonious. Once Nature's veil... nt's ray", It was the deepest truth of the individual, one with the universal Being and a projection of the Transcendent. Earth's bliss and grief this Being her soul—welcomed with a smile. This Being, "knows the toil of mind and life". It is this soul that "puts forth a small portion of herself" "A being no bigger than the thumb of man Into a hidden region of the heart To face the ...
... mental and on the vital being through the illumined mind; he represents the Purusha element whose strength is predominantly in illumined knowledge and the power that acts in this knowledge, while the psychic being supports this action and helps to transform the physical and the vital plane. Mina acts directly on the psychic being and on the emotional vital and physical being through the illumined... first conditions .... The second thing we have to know and remember is that nothing is perfectly done unless all is perfectly done. It is not sufficient to open the mind and the vital being and leave the physical being to its obscurity. ... The third thing to remember is that if all is to be changed and done then there must be complete surrender. ... ... on one side no lack of resolution... 223 digging from Supermind above to Supermind below. The being has become conscious and there is constant movement up and down. The Veda calls it "the two ends" - the head and the tail of the dragon completing and compassing the consciousness. I find that so long as Matter is not Supramentalised the mental and the vital also cannot be fully Supramentalised. 15 Sri Aurobindo also ...
... Necessarily, the resistance in the vital being and the body, based on all their past habits, cannot be overcome in a day. In his case, it is probable that the mental has reached the point where the surrender can be made, but the vital puruṣa still refuses. If he can become conscious in his sadhana not only of the resistance on the surface but of the vital being behind in its entirety, separately... precipitate another for which he is not ready. At present his experience is that of the mental being and mental nature opening to the Light and to some touch of a higher Ananda, with a basis of calm—the indispensable basis. This movement should continue till the heart and the vital being and vital nature also open. It is not necessary for him to make a special effort for these things. If he keeps... restore or give a fresh forward impulse to the development. The aspiration for such nearness from time to time is not a vital desire; it becomes a vital desire only when it is egoistically insistent or mixed with a vital motive,—but not if it is an aspiration of the psychic being calm, deep and without clamour in it or perturbing insistence. This is for those who are not called upon or are not yet ...
... them. The will is a part of the consciousness and ought to be in human beings the chief agent in controlling the activities of the nature. If there is a constant use of the will the rest of the being learns however slowly to obey the will and then the actions become in conformity with the will and not with the vital impulses and desires. As for the rest (the feelings and desires etc. themselves)... inferior impulses and desires. It is this adhesion of the vital being that brings the full satisfaction and joy of the whole nature in the spiritual life. When that is there, it will be impossible even to think of returning to the ordinary existence. Meanwhile the mental will and the psychic aspiration must be your support; if you insist, the vital will finally yield and be converted and surrender. ... action. These things [ the removal of vital demand and ego ] cannot be done in that way [ by a direct higher action ]. For transformation to be genuine, the difficulty has to be rejected by all the parts of the being. The Force can only help or enable them to do that, but it cannot replace this necessary action by a summary process. Your mind and inner being must impart their will to the whole. ...
... not only because its perceptions and discriminations are Spirit-touched but also because the poet puts behind them a vigorous "vital" being, carried over from his youth when it had its royal self-deployment in the impassioned narratives. Invitation brings this elan vital very effectively forward, even swamping the play of ideas yet channelling a wide intellectual sight of the Yogi Soul mounting... her ear and at the other, in sweet secrecy again, Bridal outpantings of her broken name. Who save Kalidasa could match the happy audacity of this compact phrase about the name being uttered brokenly because of the quivering gasps of excited delight during the act of union? The fine this-worldly energy shown thus here and variously elsewhere under the Romanticist aspect persists... and you will receive my guidance. I will accept your limitations and lead you through them. Nothing human is alien to me and nothing Aurobindonian should be alien to you. There is always a mode of being human, which can prepare for the divine without ceasing to be itself. My demands are never fanatic. To those who are ready to plunge into spirituality, I disclose the wonderful short cut. To those who ...
... whether the spiritual and religio-philosophical view of life and the government of civilisation by its ideas and motives or the rationalistic and external view of life and the satisfaction of the vital being governed by the intellectual and practical reason give the best lead to mankind. And granting the value and power of a spiritual conception of life, we can ask whether the expression given to it... and the soul's aspirations towards the fulfilment of its highest ideal and impulse. Its art, poetry, literature provide for us the creative expression and impression of its intuition, imagination, vital turn and creative intelligence. Its society and politics provide in their forms an outward frame in which the more external life works out what it can of its inspiring ideal and of its special character... rational tendency; it has largely rejected them or thrust them into a corner. Its religion is the religion of life, a religion of earth and of terrestrial humanity, an ideal of intellectual growth, vital efficiency, physical health and enjoyment, a rational social order. This mind confronted by Indian culture is at once repelled, first by its unfamiliarity and strangeness, then by a sense of irrational ...
... Integral Yoga in particular. Extra power, force and protection are needed and numbers are one way of achieving this. I am not a visionary person. One cannot have all the powers to be had, but my vital being can detach itself and travel off to other levels. Some years ago I flew over the Himalayas. I went to a spot in Central Asia. When I entered a doorway there was a long hall full of men from around... see a vaster occult splendor and a deeper inner sense of union with the Ashram. What do you see specifically? It will become necessary for some people to do a deeper tapasya. The raw physical-vital forces present in the very land of Auroville must be dealt with. This has not been dealt with sufficiently. The Matrimandir will have a tremendous effect on this. Auroville land is of the raw earth... the two cultures. Would you give advice to new spiritual aspirants that would help in their development and help them to integrate their lives in the world with its focus on materialism and the vital life, or is each better off seeking their own way? My main advice is: 1) Silence the mind by concentrating on Sri Aurobindo’s name and allow the breathing to become slower and deeper. 2) Imagine ...
... certainty. The God within takes no account of these hindrances and deficiencies. He breaks his way out. Was the amount of my failings a small one? Were there less obstacles in my mind and heart and vital being and body? Did it not take time? Has God hammered me less? Day after day, minute after minute, I have been fashioned into I know not whether a god or what. But I have become or am becoming something... Ananda. One attains a firm foundation in the condition of the indivisible and infinite Ananda, not only in the timeless Parabrahman [Absolute] but in the body, in life, in the world. The integral being, the integral consciousness, the integral Ananda blossoms out and takes form in life. This is the central clue of my yoga, its fundamental principle. This is no easy change to make. After these fifteen... not there. The tendency to create sects which you have noticed was inevitable. The nature of the mind is to take a part and call it the whole and exclude all other parts. The Siddha [illuminated being] who brings the bhava, although he leans on its partial aspect, yet keeps some knowledge of the integral whole, even though he may not be able to give it form. But his disciples do not get that knowledge ...
... momentary exuberance of the vital or by being spurred to action through the egoistic expectation of receiving some cheap accolades from others as if he is proving himself to be an ideal sadhaka of the Path! But the result of such an enterprise will be simply disastrous for the sadhaka. Page 58 For any premature attempt at copying the examples of some great beings of the past, even when... for the time being the lucidity of his consciousness; his mind forfeits all impartiality of judgment; and his dissatisfied vital chases him around like a wild boar. In short, at these critical moments the sadhaka falls an easy prey to the destructive fury of a psychological storm. But why does this adverse situation develop? It is because the sadhaka is not yet an integrated being. A preponderant... knowledge may find free room in a silent mind, — rejection of the vital nature's desires, demands, cravings, sensations, passions, selfishness, pride, arrogance, lust, greed, jealousy, envy, hostility to the Truth, so that the true power and joy may pour from above into a calm, large, strong and consecrated vital being, — rejection of the physical nature's stupidity, doubt, disbelief ...
... . If you want a solution which will be agreeable to the human mind and feelings, I am afraid there is none. No doubt if human beings had made the universe, they would have done much better, but they were not there to be consulted when they were made. Only your central being was there and that was much nearer in its temerarious foolhardiness to Vivekananda's or A.B.'s than to the repining prudence of... the normal existence of the human race. Even with all this trouble and disorder are all these human beings feeling so miserable as you say? They have so much to vex and trouble them, yet they go on chatting and laughing and enjoying what they can. Why? And still the Ananda of simply being in bone and flesh surpasses all sorrow! I would like to be an optimist, but surely not in excess! For... beginning in Yoga, first, because he was in dead earnest; secondly, because he had a clear and solid mind and a strong and tenacious will in complete control of the nerves; thirdly, because his vital being was calm, strong and solid; finally and chiefly, because he had a complete faith and devotion to the Mother. As for seeing the Divine in the Mother at first sight, he is not the only one to do that ...
... very source, is that of the inmost soul, what we call the "psychic being" pure and simple, referred to in the book we are considering; as: "His sweet privy voice... stirreth thine heart full stilly." Whereas the Vaishnava reaches out to his Lord with his outer heart too aflame with passion; not only his inmost being but his vital being also seeks the Divine. This bears upon the occult story of man's... individual being in the world, "I", is the transcendent being itself and when it withdraws, it withdraws itself and the whole world with it and merges into the Absolute. Even the Maya of the Mayavadin, although it is viewed as something not inherent in Brahman but superimposed upon Brahman, still, has been accepted as a peculiar power of Brahman itself. The Christian doctrine keeps the individual being separate... the elephant. It is his own self he finds in every person and every object – sarvabhūt ā sthitam yo mām bhajati ekatvamāsthitah – "he has taken his stand upon oneness and loves Me in all beings."¹ This will elucidate another point of difference between the Christian's and the Vaishnava's love of God, for both are characterised by an extreme intensity and sweetness and exquisiteness ...
... Yoga meant only service of the Mother, being a plastic instrument in her hands, being in full rapport with her and feeling totally consecrated to her. VII Another exercise set by the Mother was "What do you want?", and this question also elicited a few revealing answers: Page 328 An all surrendering love by which the whole vital being becomes purified and one-pointed. (Amal)... of the physical being for the Page 323 Divine - and when, through loving consecration , there will be a complete faithfulness to the Divine. (24.9.1929) Only to those who have a true humility will power be given. (10.10.1929) The power of Agni will keep the aspiration flaming in the physical being. Then can be founded and established in a vital opened to Radha's... . Then you will obtain mastery over the sex centre . (13.11.1929) With aesthetic taste and vital purity build up vital harmony . This will make possible the manifestation of the supramental beauty in the physical . (14.11.1929) Let an integral offering of your being be the form of your purified worship. (10.12.1929) Let gold be turned to the service of the Divine; ...
... subconscious that determinates his vital being, full of fright, insecurity, egoism, aggression, cruelty. And it is his vital being that predominantly determines his mentalisations and thinking. Add to that a physical body subject to injury, illness and death, subject to a sexual urge that may be unsubduable, confused and insecure, and a life in the company of beings in the same tangled situation – and... d. Between the descent of the rational mind and the first human beings about one million years elapsed, according to the Mother. Now that the Supermind has descended things will go faster. She and Sri Aurobindo estimated that it would be three hundred years before the visible, concrete appearance of the first supramental being. But in the meantime Overman and Overwoman are taking the lead in the... and can be no other magic than the utilisation of secret truths of being, secret powers and processes of Nature. It may even be found that a supraphysical knowledge is necessary for the completion of physical knowledge, because the processes of physical Nature have behind them a supraphysical factor, a power and action mental, vital or spiritual which is not tangible to any outer means of knowledge ...
... forms of Nature. In this disparity there is no contradiction. There are two aspects of all existence, the Being & the Becoming, Atman & Sarvabhutani. According as the soul of man either stands out in its human becoming & lives in the twisted triple strand of the mind, body & vital being, of which we are conscious now & here, or, on the contrary, stands back in the divine unity of Sacchidananda,... having discovered [and] separated the life-principle & its workings from the material processes in which they are fettered so that our vital life & forces may be raised into a sufficient instrument for infinite Mind, having the true pranayama or control of his vital being, to discover & separate also the principle & workings of pure mind from both life & matter and use them for the attainment of an entire... knows itself also both independently of the workings & in their more subtle movements, by itself, in itself, atmanyatmanam atmana. We perceive, besides, that man is essentially a mental and not a vital being; he lives for himself in the mind, is aware of his existence through the mind, knows & judges all things only as they form themselves to his mind. The speculation then inevitably arises whether as ...
... living beings who appear in it. To the subliminal being in life and after death,—for it is the inner being that survives the death of the body,—these worlds might be real because sensible to its wider range of consciousness; it would move in them with that sense of reality, derivative perhaps but convincing, and it would send up its experience of them as belief and imagination to the surface being. This... be the fact that the vital worlds are the natural home of the Powers that most disturb human life; this is indeed logical, for it is through our vital being that they sway us and they must therefore be powers of a larger and more powerful life-existence. The de scent of Mind and Life into evolution need not have created any such untoward developments of the limitation of being and consciousness: for... solitary and limited possibility of manifestation of the All-being. That could only be if Matter were the original power and form of manifested being and the spirit had no other choice, could not manifest except through Inconscience into Matter as a basis. This would bring us to a materialistic evolutionary Pantheism; we would have to regard the beings who people the universe as souls of the One, souls born ...
... Infinite Being loses Itself in the appearance of non-being first and emerges in the appearance of a finite soul. Infinite consciousness loses itself in appearance of insensible matter, discordant rhythm of life, where it experiences pleasure, pain and neutral indifference; and infinite Unity loses itself in appearance of chaos of multiplicity, then emerges in discord of forces and beings seeking to... to the Supraconscient in whom unity is the law, and each embraces all. Then the narrowness is lost in the universal love, the vital restricted being returns equal shock to the whole universal contact, and then it becomes capable of universal delight. Even the physical being has to know the One with the indivisible force that is All, and individual nature has to reproduce the nature of the original... and Time". He wants to prove, roughly, that pain, sex and time, give you the three levels of rise of the organism in the process of evolution. With pain, the evolution of the living organism or vital being begins and in sex it reaches a certain animal level, so to say, and in 'time' it comes to mental consciousness. This is just mentioned to show that in living organism, in matter, there is no experience ...
... ascents from the physical being and consciousness to the vital, the being dominated by the life-self, thence to the mental being realised in the fully developed man and thence into the perfect consciousness which is beyond the mental, into the Supramental consciousness and the Supramental being, the Truth-Consciousness which is the integral consciousness of the spiritual being. Mind cannot be our last... spiritual being which is sometimes described as an eternal portion of the Divine but can also be described as the Divine himself supporting his manifestation as the Many. This is the true spiritual individual which appears in its complete truth when we get rid of the ego and our false separative sense of individuality, realise our oneness with the transcendent and cosmic Divine and with all beings. It is... itself real. The reality is the infinite and eternal Divine, infinite and eternal Being, Consciousness-Force and Bliss. This Divine by his power has created the world or rather manifested it in his own infinite Being. But here in the material world or at its basis he has hidden himself in what seem to be his opposites, Non-Being, Inconscience and Insentience. This is what we nowadays call the Inconscient ...
... difference between a human being and these beings of the vital plane. I have told you this many times, I am going to repeat it: In a human being, there is the divine Presence and the psychic being—at the beginning embryonic, but in the end a being wholly formed, conscious, independent, individualised. That does not exist in the vital world. It is a special grace given to human beings dwelling in matter... matter and upon earth. And because of this, there is no human being who cannot be converted, if he wants it; that is, there is a possibility of his wanting it and the moment he wants it, he can do it. He is sure to succeed the moment he wants it, whereas those beings of the vital do not have a psychic being in them, they do not have the direct divine Presence (naturally, at the Origin, they descended directly... it exists in someone, he can reconstitute it. It is the same thing when people are attacked by small beings of the vital world, hostile beings who attack them, install themselves in their atmosphere, trying to possess them, that is, enter into them and use their body and all the rest. These beings—it is very difficult for the individual to get Page 95 rid of them: that needs a very, very ...
... It is the vital being when it is converted. The vital turned completely to the Divine is like a warrior. It has even the appearance of a warrior. The vital is the place of power and it is this power which impels it to fight, which can fight and conquer, and of all things this is the most difficult, for it is precisely these very qualities of fighting which create in the vital the sense of revolt... lower 2 vital submit and the inner physical consciousness feel the influence." Does this mean that there is also a higher vital? Yes, the higher vital is usually much less difficult to surrender, for it is under the influence of the mind and at times even of the psychic; so it understands more easily. It is much easier to convert this than the lower vital which is essentially the vital of desires... There is a mistake! Here, in French, we have "the lower (inférieur) vital", but in English it is "the inner vital"! Inner? The inner vital? Yes. But here the mistake has been carefully reproduced! This edition is ours. ( Mother shows the book printed at the Ashram Press. ) Exactly! Yes, it is "inner". It is the inner vital. Yes, it should be "inner" here, as "the inner physical". ( Pavitra asks ...
... on perversities, on all that is ugly, glaring and coarse on the plea of their greater reality, on exaggerations of vital instinct and sensation, on physical wrynesses and crudities and things unhealthily strange. The thought-mind, losing the natural full-blooded power of the vital being, pores on these things, stimulates the failing blood with them and gives itself an illusion of some forceful sensation... more cultured race, the poet's difficulty also begins and increases as that reign becomes more sovereign and imperative. For intellectual thought makes a sort of scission in our being and on one side of the line is the vital urge carrying on life and on the other side the deliberate detached reason trying to observe it, take an intelligent view and extract from it all its thought values. The poet, as... description of life, nor even in a more vitally forceful thinking, but in another kind of thought mind. The filled activity of the thinking mind is as much part of life as that of the body and vital and emotional being, and its growth and predominance are a necessary stage of human progress and man's self-evolution. To go back from it is impossible or, if possible, would be undesirable, a lapse and not a ...
... as if they were separate beings, of will-of-being with will-of-being as if they were separate forces, of knowledge-of-being with knowledge-of-being as if they were separate consciousnesses has already been founded. It is as yet only "as if"; for the divine soul is not deluded, it is aware of all as phenomenon of being and keeps hold of its existence in the reality of being; it does not forfeit its... both our life and our death are a constant effort of being to return. Page 184 × Perceived as the life being or vital being, prāṇamaya puruṣa . × The mental being, manomaya puruṣa . ... is what our human mentality names and seeks as the Ideal. The Ideal is an eternal Reality which we have not yet realised in the conditions of our own being, not a non-existent which the Eternal and Divine has not yet grasped and only we imperfect beings have glimpsed and mean to create. Mind, first, the chained and hampered sovereign of our human living. Mind in its essence is a consciousness which ...
... nment to the great world-energy in its vitalistic dance. The outer being lives in a God-possessed frenzy careless of itself and the world, unmattavat , or with an entire disregard whether of the conventions and proprieties of fitting human action or of the harmony and rhythms of a greater Truth. It acts as the unbound vital being, piśācavat , the divine maniac or else the divine demoniac. Here too... its powers and happenings and there will be banished for ever the sorrow and fear, the hunger and pain of our poor and darkened mental and vital and physical existence. He will get that power of the bliss-freedom in which all the conflicting principles of our being shall be unified in their Page 509 absolute values. All evil shall perforce change itself into good; the universal beauty of... that gives him the sense of an ecstasy and an unsurpassable beatitude. And what will be the bliss nature when it manifests in a new supramental race? The fully evolved soul will be one with all beings in the status and dynamic effects of experience of a bliss-consciousness intense and illimitable. And since love is the effective power and soul-symbol of bliss-oneness he will approach and enter into ...
... Mother to have an experienced and seasoned "vital being" where sensual matters were concerned. Thus, while admiring Jules Romain's psychological acumen along with his style in his famous series of novels, Les Homines de la bonne volonte, she asked Udar to go through the books but did not advise Amrita to read them. Evidently he was considered as being still a bit of an "innocent". Once... coming to you. Otherwise your palm might have got hurt by my bristles!" On one of his visits to me we talked of subtle bodies. He said: "The Mother has a huge vital body. Anything even distantly approaching it is the vital body of Purani." Purani was another sadhak with whom I was in close touch. Indeed, with the exception of Pujalal, he was the first Ashramite I met. Pujalal had taken us... Department functions, to the rooms in the then-called "Guest House" - rooms which Sri Aurobindo had once occupied for nearly six years and were later Purani's for about two and a half and went on being mine for over fourteen (1928-1942) - Page 293 Amrita was a frequent visitor to them. It was on my typewriter that, day after day, he tried to master the touch-system with the help of ...
... Or else, to use the terms of the Taittiriya Upanishad, we may perfect the faculties and activities of the annamaya purusha, pranamaya purusha, and manomaya purusha, the physical being, vital being and mental being, develop the operations and faculties of the vijnanamaya purusha and anandamaya purusha, and come to know the law in the universe of the Truth and of the Bliss, and realise the Anandabrahman... everywhere oneness?" 43 In the Kena Upanishad, we have a parable that describes Page 29 the process of passage from Ignorance to Knowledge. Three powers in the physical, vital and mental being, symbolised as Agni, Vayu and Indra, have grown and affirmed the Good, the Light, the Joy and Beauty, the Strength and Mastery; they have found themselves victorious in their eternal battle... and movements. There is still something more to do. He has to see that is Universal One is something entirely transcendent, the sole Being and that this universe and all its forms, actions, egos are only becomings of that Being. "He in whom it is the Self-Being that has become all existences that are Becomings, ' for he has the Perfect knowledge, how shall he be deluded, whence sha11 he have grief ...
... greater Truth. It acts as the unbound vital being, piśācavat, the divine maniac or else the divine demoniac." 2 But this sort of 'static possession by the Self' or 'the unregulated 1 Letters on Yoga, pp. 64-65. (Italics ours) 2 The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 479. Page 113 dynamic possession by the physical and vital Nature' is far removed from the goal... Tapasya or by an act of Grace from above, when the mental being succeeds in putting off the veil, it sees the Divine "as something above, beyond, around even in a sense, but with a gulf between that being and our being, an unbridged or even an unbridgeable chasm. There is this infinite existence; but it is quite other than the mental being who becomes aware of it....There is this great, boundless... 389. Page 114 possible for the mental being in his actually evolved status to embrace at once, equally and fully, both the world and the being, both consciousness and action? The Intrinsic Incapacity: To answer the above question we must first note that between the normal consciousness of man the mental being and a truly spiritual supra-mental consciousness, there ...
... soul of a seeker is overpowered by (i) spiritual enthusiasm, (ii) by the ardour of aspiration, (iii) by the philosophic aloofness, (iv) by the eagerness of will, or (v) by a sick disgust in the vital being discouraged by the difficulties or disappointed by the unexpected results of life, the sadhaka may be led to experience "a sense of the entire vanity and unreality of all else than this remote Supreme... without the need of a personal or physical possession of the thing itself; self-denial loses its field when the soul no longer claims anything, but obeys consciously the will of the one Self in all beings. It is then that we are freed from the Law and released into the liberty of the Spirit. Page 73 Let us close this essay on Renunciation with a significant passage from the Mother's... matter-bound mortality. And man the mental being has appeared at a crucial turning-point of that evolutionary ascension. For, this man, the transitional being, is destined to become the vehicle of the establishment and manifestation of divine life upon earth. And for that, the Transcendent-Universal Lord of existence has come down into the heart of every human being to take His permanent position there as ...
... the man. It is really something that belongs to the inner man; in a game, it is a quality of the inner body-consciousness. It needs a harmony between the consciousness of the body and the inner vital being, it implies a natural sense of measure and rhythm. - In our days, we did not know anything of all this. We did have the gift of imagination and feeling, but now is the day of science. You have... that he broke any of the rules of the game, but there was about his manner something loose' and slovenly; he had no style or system. But often enough he hacked his way to victory by sheer force of vital energy. Bejoy and our Benjamin with his leech like grip – they were the two half-backs in our team followed exactly the same method. In fact, there are two essentials to a good game: grammar and style... He went on winning his victories without end and no one could stop his onward march. The old experienced generals of the enemy Powers, the Austrians for example, practically gave up trying. On being criticised for their failure, they said, "But what on earth can we do? The fellow does not observe any of the principles of warfare. How can one fight under such conditions? He breaks every rule ...
... individual soul, Page 238 caitya puruṣa , supporting mind, life and body, standing behind . the mental, the vital, the subtle-physical being in us and watching and profiting by their development and experience. These other person-powers in man, these beings of his being, are also veiled in their true entity, but they put forward temporary personalities which compose our outer individuality... true mental being behind that superficial form of mental personality which we mistake for ourselves. So also we have two lives, one outer, involved in the physical body, bound by its past evolution in Matter, which lives and was born and will die, the other a subliminal force of life which is not cabined between the narrow boundaries of our physical birth and death, but is our true vital being behind the... alone true; it can regard the Lover as only a means of expression of eternal Love or love as only the self-expression of the Lover; it can see beings as only personal powers of an impersonal Existence or impersonal existence as only a state of the one Being, the Infinite Person. Its spiritual achievement, its road of passage towards the supreme aim will follow these dividing lines. But beyond this ...
... be got rid of is vital desire and attachment, the greed of food, being overjoyed at getting the food you like, sorry and discontented when you do not have it, giving an undue importance to it, etc. If one wants to be a Yogin, it will not do to be like the ordinary man to whom food, sex and gain are nine-tenths of life or even to keep in any of these things the reactions to which vital human nature is... of the phrase in the Gita. Sensitivity to Smell This [ reaction of uneasiness after smelling food ] is due to an acute consciousness and sensitiveness of the physical being, especially the vital physical. The sense of being fed by smell has become thereby very acute—the feeding by smell is a well known thing, and there is the Sanskrit proverb, ghrāṇam ardhabhojanam , "smell is a half eating"... ordinary liver trouble. Page 426 This feeling of not being able to eat and of eating being unnecessary is a sort of suggestion that is coming to several people. It should be rejected and cleared out of the system as it may lead to weakening of the body by taking insufficient food. Often one does not feel weak at first, a vital energy comes which supports the body, but later on the body weakens ...
... psychic being, is less easy because it is covered up with a thick veil of ego, passion and desire. One is apt to be swallowed up in a maze of vital experiences, not always reliable, the temptation of small siddhis, the appeal of the powers of darkness to the ego. One has to struggle through these densities to the psychic being behind and bring it forward; then only can the sadhana on the vital plane... of the sadhana, of the action of the Force into the vital plane of our being becomes after some time necessary. The Force does not make a wholesale change of the mental being and nature, still less an integral transformation before it takes this step: if that could be done, the rest of the sadhana would be comparatively secure and easy. But the vital is there and always pressing on the mind and heart... difficulties, revolts and dangers. The vital ego hates being opposed in its desires, resents disappointment, is furious against wounds to its pride and vanity; it does not like the process of purification and it may very well declare Satyagraha against it, refuse to cooperate, justify its own demands and inclinations, offer passive resistance of many kinds, withdraw the vital support which is necessary both ...
... Ignorance. * Page 30 The soul, the psychic being is in direct touch with the divine Truth, but it is hidden in man by the mind, the vital being and the physical nature. One may practise Yoga and get illuminations in the mind and the reason; one may conquer power and luxuriate in all kinds of experiences in the vital; one may establish even surprising physical Siddhis; but if the... and liberates the inner mind centres, then into the heart centre and liberates fully the psychic and emotional being, then into the navel and other Page 35 vital centres and liberates the inner vital, then into the Muladhara and below and liberates the inner physical being. It works at the same time for perfection as well as liberation; it takes up the whole nature part by part and... confusion and a wrong movement. * Then only can the psychic being fully open when the Sadhak has got rid of the mixture of vital motives with his Sadhana and is capable of a simple and sincere self-offering to the Mother. If there is any kind of egoistic turn or insincerity of motive, if the Yoga is done under a pressure of vital demands, or partly or wholly to satisfy some spiritual or other ambition ...
... you are telling me about the goodwill among human beings, this is in the psychic, there's no shadow of a doubt about it. But there is a kind of vital interdependence, quite considerable, more than the physical, I believe. For instance, the First World War was the result of a tremendous descent of the forces of the vital world (hostile forces of the vital world) into the material world. Even those who... enables it to move, to do all kinds of very simple things without the vital's being there, quite independently. The body can learn how to speak: the mind and the vital may be outside it, very far away, busy elsewhere, but due to the link joining them with matter, they can still find expression through a body wherein there is no mind or vital, and which yet can learn to speak and repeat what the others say... became extraordinarily interested in all the animals living in the forest: it is the need of physical relationship with other living beings. It is possible that some do not need this, but it is a fairly general rule. But solidarity does not stop there. There is a vital solidarity and a mental solidarity which you cannot prevent. There is, after all (though men are much more individualised than animals) ...
... The true solution will come only when man accepts the spiritual aim of life, which fulfils itself in the fullness of life and man's being in the individual and the group. It will not proceed by a scornful neglect of the body, nor by an ascetic starving of the vital being and an utmost bareness or even squalor as the rule of spiritual living, nor by a puritanic denial of art and beauty, nor by a neglect... beginnings of the anti-colonial movement. Their spirit found manifestation in Abul Kalam Azad, Mohmoodul Hasan, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Dr. M.A. Ansari and Maulana Abdul Bari of Firangi Mahal who provided vital support to Gandhi's movement for building national unity on the principles of non-discrimination and social justice. In this context, the contribution of Maulana Hussain Ahmad Madni is worthy of special... political creation on the Indian spirit and not on imitative European lines. This movement pursued a new conception of the nation not merely as a country, but as a soul, a psychological, almost a spiritual being and, even when acting from economical and political motives, it sought to dynamise them by this subjective conception and to make them instruments of self-expression rather than objects in themselves ...
... goodwill. Here must be mentioned the training of the vital. The vital being in us is the seat of impulses and desires, of enthusiasm and violence, of dynamic energy and desperate depression, of passions and revolt. It can set in motion everything, build up and realise, it can also destroy and mar everything. It seems to be, in the human being, the most difficult part to train. It is a long labour... docile and faithful servant. Unfortunately it has not often the capacity of discernment with regard to its masters, the mind and the vital. It obeys them blindly, at the cost of its own well-being. The mind with its dogmas, its rigid and arbitrary principles, the vital with its passions, its excesses and dissipations soon do everything to destroy the natural balance of the body and create in it fatigue... the country where you are born or the age to which you belong. You must find, in the depths of your being, that which carries in it the sense of universality, limitless expansion, termless continuity. Then you decentralise, spread out, enlarge yourself; you begin to live in everything and in all beings; the barriers separating individuals from each other break down. You think in their thoughts, vibrate ...
... the man. It is really something that belongs to the inner man; in a game, it is a quality of the inner body-consciousness. It needs a harmony between the consciousness of the body and the inner vital being, it implies a natural sense of measure and rhythm. In our days, we did not know anything of all this. We did have the gift of imagination and feeling, but now is the day of science. You have the... that he broke any of the rules of the game, but there was about his manner something loose and slovenly; he had no style or system. But often enough he hacked his way to victory by sheer force of vital energy. Page 94 Bejoy and our Benjamin with his leech-like grip— they were the two half-backs in our team—followed exactly the same method. In fact, there are two essentials to a good... too. He went on winning his victories without end and no one could stop his onward march. The old experienced generals of the enemy Powers, the Austrians for example, practically gave up trying. On being criticised for their failure, they said, "But what on earth can we do? The fellow does not observe any of the principles of warfare. How can one fight under such conditions? He breaks every rule ...
... Sri Aurobindo wrote a poem "In hori's aeternum" "Eternity in an hour". Blake, I think, wrote about "Eternity in a grain of sand." Man has in him his natural instruments —mind, heart, vital being, nervous and physical being—and Page 152 the true Self, the Spark of the Divine. Man can awaken his true Self and identify it with the Eternal, and immortal. It is then possible for it to project... Nature really is seer-will, knowledge-force of the Conscious-being at work. In the mind thought seems separate from existence, in the mind abstract thought and Reality are distinct from each other, so also are will and idea. In the Supermind all being is consciousness and all consciousness is being. In the Supermind consciousness of being, consciousness of knowledge and consciousness of will— all is... 142 possibility or the highest self. Man can and does occasionally open to that consciousness. Mind means the mental consciousness including the intellect and the heart, and generally the vital will-power is added to it. Sometimes the mind ascends and opens to it, or glimpses it, but then it closes; the door opens again and something comes down,—either the light of knowledge or power of it ...
... speak of an individual we mean ordinarily an individualisation of mental, vital, physical being separate from all other beings, incapable of unity with them by its very individuality. If we go beyond these three terms of mind, life and body, and speak of the soul or individual self, we still think of an individualised being separate from all others, incapable of unity and inclusive mutuality, capable... a condition and cause of conditions, varies on different planes of existence, varies even for beings on one and the same plane: that is to say, it is not an Absolute and cannot explain the primary relations of the Absolute. They work themselves out in detail by Time and seem to our mental and vital being to be determined by it; but that seeming does not carry us back to their sources and principles... individual being and in all individual beings it is aware of the same Self manifesting and experiencing its various manifestations. That then is a Self which must be one in its being,—otherwise we could not have this experience of unity,—and yet must be capable in its very unity of cosmic differentiation and multiple individuality. The unity is its being,—yes, but the cosmic differentiation and the multiple ...
... hostile forces are, as we know, real and conscious beings. They exist in a double hierarchy. There is, on the one hand, the hierarchy descending from the Asuras (mental and higher vital) downwards via the Rakshasas (lower vital) to the Pishachas (lowest vital); there are, on the other hand, the hierarchies descending in uncountable strata of beings cascading, as it were, from the main forces in each... Hitler was an ordinary human being, with a soul and a rather elementary, sentimental but cruel psychological makeup, once compared by Sri Aurobindo to that of a street criminal with the psychic being of a London cab driver. (Stalin, on the contrary, was not human, in the sense that he did not have a soul but was a direct incarnation of a vital being.) ‘It is the vital possession that gives [Hitler]... [Hitler] his size and greatness,’ said Sri Aurobindo. ‘Without this vital Power he would be a crudely amiable fellow with some hobbies and eccentricities. It is in these kind of people whose psychic is undeveloped and weak that possession is possible. There is nothing in the being that can resist the Power.’ 26 Hitler went through an occult schooling that is not difficult to trace. It is well-known ...
... the symbol of the soul—silvery colour = the spiritual consciousness—golden wings = the power of the Divine Truth. The duck is usually a symbol of the soul or inner being; perhaps it was the four beings—mental, psychic, vital and physical—that you saw. 3 Crane The crane is the messenger of happiness. Peacock The peacock is the Bird of Victory. A peacock is the symbol of... that are in vital Nature. Scorpions and usually snakes also are symbols of harmful energies; the vital nature of earth is full of these energies and that is why the purification of man's outer vital nature also is so difficult and there are so many wrong movements and happenings in him,—because his vital is easily open to all these earth movements. In order to get rid of them, the inner being must wake... threats from the vital plane or hostile influences on the physical. The serpent is a symbol of force, very often a hostile or evil force of the vital plane. The sea is a symbol of a plane of consciousness. The white light is a manifestation of pure divine force descending from one of the truth-planes leading to the supramental. The indication is that of a hostile vital force being expelled and ...
... what is raised, as Sri Aurobindo puts it, expunged and utterly expelled from the nature, disappears for ever. It is clear from the above description that the roots of our being, especially of the vital-physical being, lie deep in the Subconscient and the Inconscient out of which we have emerged by evolution, and unless we illumine and transform them, our nature cannot become free and pure, as... February 9, 1914, Page 182 mean the conquest of material life and nature, and the conversion of human nature into divine nature. The Mother says that the majority of beings, even of human beings, live constantly in the Subconscient, "few, emerge from it,” and she affirms that "this is the conquest that has to be made; for, to be conscious in the true sense of the word is to be... surface physical consciousness, below the threshold, as it is called. It is, to quote Sri Aurobindo, "the extreme border of our inner existence where it meets the Inconscient; it is a degree of our being in which the Inconscient struggles into a half-consciousness; the surface physical consciousness also, when it sinks back from the working level and retrogresses towards the Inconscient, retires into ...
... son of Varuna. For first the seeker found the ultimate reality to be Matter and the physical, the material being, the external man our only self and spirit. Next he fixed on life as the Reality and the vital being as the self and spirit; in the third essay he penetrated to Mind and the mental being; only afterwards could he get beyond the superficial subjective through the supramental Truth-Consciousness... through material efficiency alone or the complex play of his vital and dynamic powers, not solely by mastering through the aid of the intellect the energies of physical Nature for the satisfaction of the life-instincts, which can only be an intensification of his present mode of existence, but through the greatening of his mental and psychic being and a discovery, bringing forward and organisation of his... violent endeavours; she waits to master them by their concessions to her own law. If mankind is to be spiritualised, it must first in the mass cease to be the material or the vital man and become the psychic and the true mental being. It may be questioned whether such a mass progress or conversion is possible; but if it is not, then the spiritualisation of mankind as a whole is a chimera. From this ...
... picturesque phrases. That is what you may call the illumined style in a semi-decorative form; the illumined style as such in its proper functioning is something which is beyond both the vital being and the mental being. You have some inward glow of things by which you feel the hidden significance of objects and of persons and of occasions. You have the illumined style wherever imagery is at play but... two or three of his dramas we do find a marked stamp of occult action and the two most outstanding of these dramas are Macbeth and Lear. In Lear it seems the gigantic powers, which move human beings and make them their puppets, come out in a most notable, conspicuous, gross and colossal form. Goneril and Regan, two daughters of Lear, are real devils incarnate, Cordelia the youngest is just the... behind the physical scene persisted down to Shakespeare's day although by then the great movement which swept the Middle Ages off had already come to pass, the Renaissance. The Renaissance had a great vital gusto and a sense of things of the earth and also a humanist enthusiasm which refused to take interest in religious things or in things which could not be seen and touched. Naturally, devils and angels ...
... of the delicate and beautiful, the imagina-tive and spiritual. "It awakens... a vein of subtler sentiment, a more poignant pathos; it refines passion from a violence of the vital being into an intensity of the soul, modifies vital sensuous-ness into a thing of imaginative beauty by a warmer aesthetic perception" and, throwing its force and fire and greater depth of passion across the drama, "makes it... another term of Sri Aurobindo's) is not necessarily Romantic any more than all poetic production from the plane of the Intelligence is bound to be Classical: still the real Romanticism springs from vital passion and power, the joy and pain, wonder and terror and beauty of the life-soul feeling, thinking, imagining, and turning everything into the values proper to its own drive of desire. The poetic... and Sri Aurobindo does refer to it as "Romanticism of the modern type"; 14 yet for him the speci- Page 49 fically Romantic remains a certain sight and sensibility and speech of the vital energy such as we find amongst the Elizabethans. Even Tasso and Ariosto whom Lucas criticises are not really Classical: they are Romantic but quasi-Romantic and open to criticism because something ...
... physical and vital being which is formed in this life and is not yet under the rule and influence of the psychic. As soon as one is united with one's psychic, all the conflicts of clashing bad wills can no longer exist. 24.8.1967 (Mother asked me to formulate four prayers and I wrote;) The four prayers are formulated thus: May the psychic dominate my entire being. May the... that the aspiration of every sincere sadhak? Total means vertically in all the states of the being, from the most material to the most subtle. Page 27 Integral means horizontally in all the different and often contradictory parts which make up the outer being (physical, vital and mental). 4.12.1967 When I contemplate Sri Aurobindo, sometimes it is Your image that appears... in us which is unaware that it is divine, is what we call "ourselves". 13.7.1967 A divine face, the eyes radiating two rays of light, the rays being white, vertical and immobile—what is its significance, sweet Mother? When the beings or forces of invisible worlds manifest themselves before an individual consciousness, they put on Page 15 forms suitable to the symbolism ...
... —in the wideness of earth, our physical being and consciousness; in the full force of vital speed and action and enjoyment and nervous vibration, typified as the Horse which must be brought forward to upbear our endeavour; in the perfect gladness of the heart of emotion and a brilliant heat and clarity of the mind throughout our intellectual and psychical being; in the coming of the supramental Light... shining gold of the Truth; we lust after a heavenly treasure. The soul of man is a world full of beings, a kingdom in which armies clash to help or hinder a supreme conquest, a house where the gods are our guests and which the demons strive to possess; the fullness of its energies and wideness of its being make a seat of sacrifice spread, arranged and purified for a celestial session. Such are some... Night the worlds as he sees them are born. And these other worlds between the luminous upper and the tenebrous lower ocean? They are here. Page 373 Man draws from the life-world his vital being, from the mind world his mentality; he is ever in secret communication with them; he can consciously enter into them, be born into them, if he will. Even into the solar worlds of the Truth he can ...
... desires external things for their own sake and not for some value to the conscious being? Even Cheloo, the day-labourer, is not Page 51 interested in a two-anna piece for its own sake, but for some vital satisfaction it can bring him; even with the hoarding miser it is the same. It is his vital being's passion for possession that he satisfies. What then is meant by Russell's "for their... recently felt in sleep or in waking. This was inevitable. All that is needed is for your psychic being to come forward and open you to the direct and real and constant inner contact of myself and the Mother. Hitherto your soul has expressed itself through the mind and its ideals and admirations or through the vital and its higher joys and aspirations; but that is not sufficient to conquer the physical difficulty... finished and brought to a full and lasting success. June 1, 1930 Re the dreams. You do not realise how much of the ordinary natural being lives in the subconscient physical. It is there that habitual movements, mental and vital, are stored and from there they come up into the waking mind. Driven out of the upper consciousness, it is in this cavern of the Panis that they take refuge ...
... will and power of being, a free delight of being. This is the essential difference between the ordinary mortal mind in which we live and the spiritual consciousness of our divine and immortal being which is the highest result of Yoga. It is a radical conversion as great as and greater than the change which we suppose evolutionary Nature to have made in its transition from the vital animal to the fully... powers; but the secret self within assures in spite of the groping of the vital mind the action of the nature and the result needed for the necessity, the purpose and the destiny of the being. This continues on a higher and higher scale up to the human reason and intelligence. The being of man also is full of physical, vital, emotional, psychical and dynamic instincts and intuitions, but he does not... Self-Perfection The Synthesis of Yoga Chapter XIX The Nature of the Supermind The object of Yoga is to raise the human being from the consciousness of the ordinary mind subject to the control of vital and material Nature and limited wholly by birth and death and Time and the needs and desires of the mind, life and body to the consciousness of the spirit free ...
... and all embracing realisation of the integral Divine Reality is its consequence. There is too implied in it a radical change and transformation of the whole being and of every part of the nature. Our being is a nexus of the human mental-vital-physical nature of Ignorance, it is transmuted into a spiritual and supramental consciousness: it becomes a divine unity in a harmony of the infinite and universal... Again there is a constant confusion between the mentalised desire-soul which is a creation of the vital urge in man, of his life-force seeking for its fulfilment and the true soul which is a spark of the Divine Fire, a portion of the Divine. Because the soul, the psychic being uses the mind and the vital as well as the body as instruments for growth and experience it is itself looked at as if it were... enlightened and psychically consenting body. But this is not all; for soul-discovery is not complete without a psychic new creation of the mental, vital and physical instrumentation of nature. The mind will be recast by the soul's intuition of Truth, the vital being by its perception of power and good, the body and whole nature by its command for light, harmony and beauty. Our nature will become that of a ...
... into the Divine." But this was absolutely necessary, for without this... if you simply went out of your body (most of you can't do it because the vital being is hardly more individualised than the physical), if you came out of your body and went into the vital world, you would see that all things there intermingle, they are mixed, they divide; all kinds of vibrations, currents of forces come and go, struggle... it is terribly rigid, isn't it?—well, if all that were not so fixed, if you had no skin, here, like this, solid, if externally you were the reflection of what you are in the vital and mental fields, it would be worse than being a jelly-fish! Everything would fuse into everything else, like this... Oh, what a mess it would be! That is why it was at first necessary to give a very rigid form. Afterwards... the vital and physical, doesn't he?... that it is a force which manifests on the vital plane and the physical plane. The vital forces have a very great influence over money. ( After a silence ) You see, when one thinks of money, one thinks of bank-notes or coins or some kind of wealth, some precious things. But this is only the physical expression of a force which may be handled by the vital and ...
... reasoning, judging and deciding, knowledge grows and the capacity of using that knowledge. Growth is an activity that interests the whole being. The body grows by the assimilation of suitable food, by exercise, practice and training. The emotional and vital being grows by contacts with other forms of life and beauty, by exchange of feelings and emotions, by a natural expansion in a suitable harmonious... that the child has to cross to reach his goal. A step, a room is lifeless and remains outside the being, while each stage of growth is not only a means for the soul to get experience and grow, but it is also the creation of the child and a part of his being, in fact it is at that time the whole of his being. It is certainly true that childhood recapitulates the whole human evolution. Every educator... experiment with him as he does with the other objects of interest. He tries to evoke reactions and studies his own reactions, and by these exchanges comes to know Page 104 his fellow-beings, and thus prepares himself for life in a society. Such association has to be accepted and helped to grow in a spirit of collaboration and mutual respect. It can become very fruitful and provision must ...
... ss. And this can be done not by simply wanting it, but by increasing the instrumental capacities of human nature. Man is given certain instruments,—senses, nervous being, vital being, emotional being and mental being. These have certain capacities and they are capable of development. Man's intellectual capacity, his reasoning power, comprehension etc. can be developed. When the powers of... systems of thought have ended by accepting the silence as 'non-being'—' asat'. In an Upanishad it is stated that "Being came out of Non-Being" The meaning of the statement is that 'Being' comes out of that which to the human mind is 'Non-Being'. But if one accepts the idea of non-being as the ultimate truth then to merge into non-being, annihilation of oneself in it, would be the summum bonum. ... non-existence. When it is stated that 'Being' came out of 'Non-Being' one can ask: when did it come out ? In fact, it is an eternal reality that exists and therein what mind calls 'Being' as well as 'Non-Being' have both existed simultaneously. There was no particular point of time at which 'Being' or 'Non-Being' began. Does entry into non-being mean negation of all experience ? How can such ...
... hypnotism: What is hypnotism? Doesn't it mean that the subject's will-power is replaced by somebody else's? I know a case of exteriorisation where the operator was able to exteriorise the vital being of the subject in an almost material form and replace it by another's and not by the operator's own. If one replaced it by one's own, there would be no operation. But these operations are extremely... evil Force or nefarious being that dazzled and led him on and on, Page 396 seemingly from one sensational victory to another and still another: Hitler used to retire into solitude and remain there as long as it was necessary to come into contact with his "guide" and receive from him :inspirations which he carried out later very faithfully. This being which Hitler took for... the timing of the fall and the seriousness of the fracture hinted at some occult intervention. 14 The Hitler-peril, although halted for the nonce by the Munich Agreement, was far from being exorcised away and the real trial of strength between the forces of Light and Darkness was still to come. The world was very near the brink, it was almost touch and go. But in their anxiety for ...
... mind's will, the heart's seeking, the assent of the vital being, the will to open and make plastic the physical consciousness and nature; rejection of the movements of the lower nature-rejection of the mind's ideas, opinions, preferences, habits, constructions, so that the true knowledge may find free room in a silent mind, - rejection of the vital nature's desires, demands, cravings, sensations... of That which is known; dedicated Works to the entire love of the Master of the Sacrifice and the deepest knowledge of His ways and His being. It is in this triple path that we come most readily to the absolute knowledge, love and service of the One in all beings and in Its entire manifestation. 18 While such a happy convergence of the triple paths is no doubt a possibility, it is nevertheless... spiritual and the physical being", and his whole aim is to awaken (he soul in the physical body and make it realise the purity, power, light, and freedom that are native to it. Through the disciplines of āsana and prānāyāma - in other words, through the systematic and complete control of the limbs and of breathing - the Hathayogin achieves control of his body's vital energy and links it with ...
... come, reject them. Page 562 The nervous (vital-physical) being supports the body—if it is calm and strong and solid, then the body is well supported and can withstand illness and weakness or, if illness comes, it will bear and more easily get rid of it. If the nervous being is weak, then it is the opposite. If the nervous being is not merely weak, but nervous and unstable, over-sensitive... Illness It is not anything physical but a vital depression (in some part of the vital, not the whole) that prevents the body from recovering its elasticity. There was some part of the vital that was resisting a radical change and even, unknown to your mind, trying to go Page 567 on as it was under cover of the change in the rest of your being. This has now, owing to this last affair, received... because the opposing forces find it more difficult than before to upset the mind or vital directly, so they fall on the physical in the hope that that will do the trick, the physical being more vulnerable. But the sensibility of the body to attacks is no proof of incapacity, just as a finer sensibility of the mind or vital to attacks was no proof—it can in due time be overcome. As for the feelings about ...
... food we take can be reduced by contrary habit and new relation to a minimum without the mental or vital vigour being in any way reduced; even on the contrary with a judicious development they can be trained to a greater potentiality of vigour by learning to rely on the secret fountains of mental and vital energy with which they are connected more than upon the minor aid of physical aliments. This aspect... agency of the vital force. This will come to be so much the normal attitude of the whole being to the physical frame that the latter will feel to us as if something external and detachable like the dress we wear or an instrument we happen to be carrying in our hand. We may even come to feel that the body is in a certain sense non-existent except as a sort of partial expression of our vital force and of... we feel the physical being to be not ourselves, but only a dress or an instrument, the repulsion to the death of the body which is so strong and vehement an instinct of the vital man must necessarily weaken and can be thrown away. Thrown away it must be and entirely. The fear of death and the aversion to bodily cessation are the stigma left by his animal origin on the human being. That brand must be ...
... something like a quiet ease (there's no equivalent in French). A quiet ease. It has been all cramped up, and now it must widen. The inner life of the prana must be widened (the inner vital, the true vital, the being that has the experiences I told you about—the piece of glass, the glimpse of the sea); that's what must widen. And vast, vast.... It is all cramped up and it suffers. It has to be relaxed... Mother laughs ) I don't think it's at all practical to teach them that life is for developing yourself, expressing yourself, being happy—they're unbearable as it is! ( Mother laughs. ) We have some real little devils in the making here. Interesting, true enough—oh, the vital is definitely not suppressed! But really.... There's a little American boy here (I don't know if his mother is completely... me, one thing alone: your physical health. But to tell the truth (the true truth of what I KNOW), I don't think there's any climate a body can't adapt to. But I don't think so either! Human beings aren't that limited, after all! It is rather... yes, it's a matter of atavism, of education, of all sorts of things; and above all, I think the main reason is that you have no desire to—it's no fun ...
... grosser intensity which emotion puts on in the stress of the active outward nature. The life depicted is the life of the soul and not, except as a form and a helping suggestion, the life of the vital being and the body. For the second more elevated aim of art is the interpretation or intuitive revelation of existence through the forms of life and Nature and it is this that is the starting-point of... from the moved and indulgent dwelling on what one might call the mobilities of the soul rather than on its static eternities, on the casting out of self into the grace and movement of psychic and vital life (subject always to the reserve and restraint necessary to all art) rather than on the holding back of life in the stabilities of the self and its eternal qualities and principles, guna and tattwa... way of working, a less severely restrained expression of eternal things and of the fundamental truths behind the forms of things, but there is in compensation a moved wealth of psychic or warmth of vital suggestion, a lavish delight of the beauty of the play of the eternal in the moments of time and there the artist arrests it for us and makes moments of the life of the soul reflected in form of man ...
... jīva the combined and the fundamental being of all the beings—the vital, the psychic and others? चैत्य पुरुष [ caitya puruṣa ] means rather the पुरुष [ puruṣa ] in the चित् [ cit ], the fundamental (inner) consciousness. जीव [ jīva ] is the fundamental, or as we call it, the central being. But the fundamental being is not combined of the mental, vital, psychic etc., these are only expressions... evolution to give form. This spark is there in all living beings, from the lowest to the highest. The psychic being is formed by the soul in its evolution. It supports the mind, vital, body, grows by their experiences, carries the nature from life to life. It is the psychic or caitya Page 148 puruṣa. At first it is veiled by mind, vital and body, but, as it grows, it becomes capable of coming... of it but into all the being down to the physical and below before a real transformation can take place. A light in the mind may spiritualise or otherwise change the mind or part of it in one way or another, but it need Page 153 not change the vital nature, a light in the vital may purify and enlarge the vital movements or else silence and immobilise the vital being, but leave the body and ...
... Peace, Light, Force, Ananda in the consciousness, their workings there, the realisation of the divine or spiritual love, the perception of one's own psychic being, the discovery of one's own true mental being, true vital being, true physical being, the realisation of the overmind or the supramental consciousness, the clear perception of the relation of all these things to our present inferior nature... must get your vital purified and calm so that these movements may not come. Nothing abnormal like not sleeping, not eating—all that is the vital trying to do extraordinary things so as to imagine it is going fast and doing high sadhana. A pure, simple, quiet, well-balanced vital is necessary for this Yoga. The automatic tendency is a good sign as it shows that it is the inner being opening to the... certain exaltation of the being comes naturally with the stronger experiences and the sense of marvel or miracle may go with it, but there should be no egoistic feeling in the exaltation. What you have to be careful about is, when the feeling of power and strength comes into you or when you have experiences, not to allow it to be seized on by any kind of egoistic or vital desire, pride, ambition ...
... enlightened Purusha in some level of their being— Vital, Mental or Overmental or very rarely indeed Supramental. But the Purusha so formed however great and unique and full of Light and Plenitude of the Higher and sometimes even the Highest Truth-Consciousness remains an isolated miracle of creation, a Siddha or Perfect Man in a world of imperfect beings. For, even the formation of one Gnostic Individual... is felt in the self. All Nature's happenings were events in her, The heart-beats of the cosmos were her own, All beings, thought and felt and moved in her. This identity with the universal consciousness and beings is not limited to the mental or the vital but extends and includes all the physical consciousness as well. Her mind became familiar with its mind, Its body was... the separate formation of the individual personality is dissolved and the separate limited functioning of the instruments is made silent. The organs in man—his senses, vital being, heart, mind and the inner being—are so many concentrations and therefore limitations of consciousness meant and developed to cognise, express and execute very finite movements of the finite and finitising lower ...
... its evolutionary process; it is the individual being who in the human consciousness is found to have assumed in its Purusha consciousness various beings corresponding to the physical, the vital, the mental and the psychic; it is that which is capable of developing and formulating, by overcoming the Ignorance, the supramental being and even the bliss being. It is these states of the Purusha which are... Upanishad as annamaya purusa, the physical being, prānamaya purusa, the vital being, manomaya purusa, the mental being, vijanānamaya purusa, the supramental being, and ānandamaya purusa, the bliss being. It is the individual being that accepts the identification, by means of exclusive concentration of consciousness, with the physical, vital and mental consciousness as also with the egoistic... yoga, as also the Tantrik view of siddhis or accomplishments, including those of mental, vital and physical being, we are obliged to bring out full value of the idea of perfection as distinguished from that of liberation. The Vedic yoga may be looked upon as an earliest synthesis of the psychological being of man in its highest Page 65 flights and widest rangings of divine knowledge ...
... of the Supermind is also present in the Upanishads when we see it in the conception of Being of Knwoledge, vijnanamaya Purusha, exceeding the mental, vital and physical being. But going beyond all this, Sri Aurobindo envisages the working of the supramental power not only as an influence on the Physical being, giving it abnormal faculties, but as an entrance and permeation, changing it wholly into... be attained at all our levels, in the wideness of earth, our physical being and consciousness; in the full force of vital speed and action and enjoyment and nervous vibrations typified as the horse; in the perfect gladness of heart of emotion and a brilliant heat and clarity of mind throughout our intellectual and psychical being, in the coming of supramental light, which would transform all our existence;... itself out of the secrecy of things as God or deva, the nameless that has many names. The Supreme Reality is divine existence, builder of the worlds, lord and begetter of all beings, Male and Female, Being and Consciousness, Father and Mother of the worlds and their inhabitants. He is also their son, and ours; for he is the Divine Child born into the worlds, who manifests himself in the growth ...
... appearance and expression of life-force, the vital consciousness—energies and forms of the small lower vital. He moves on, moves upward, there is a growing light in Page 257 and mixed with the obscurity; ignorance begins to shed its hard and dark coatings one by one and gives place to directed and motivated energies. He meets beings and creatures appropriate to those levels crawling... crawling and stirring and climbing, moved by the laws governing the respective regions. In this way Ashwapati passes on into the higher vital, into the border of the mental. Ashwapati now observes with a clear vividness that all these worlds and the beings and forces that inhabit them are stricken as it were with a bar sinister branded upon their bodies. In spite of an inherent urge of ascension... I am God still unevolved in human form; Even if he is not, he becomes in me. . No magic can surpass my magic's skill. There is no miracle I shall not achieve. 2 So this vital being in man in his Rakshasic hunger and Asuric self-conceit rejects the Divine Power that is in fact behind him too, supporting him. The Goddess, in the wake of her predecessor, goes back from where ...
... first appearance and expression of life-force, the vital consciousness – energies and forms of the small lower vital. He moves on, moves upward, there is a growing light in Page 237 And mixed with the obscurity; ignorance begins to shed its hard and dark coatings one and gives place to directed and motivated energies. He meets beings and creatures appropriate to those levels crawling... crawling and stirring and climbing, moved by the laws governing the respective regions. In this way Ashwapati passes on into the higher vital, into the border of the mental. Ashwapati now observes with a clear vividness that all these worlds and the beings and forces that inhabit them are stricken as it were with a bar sinister branded upon their bodies. In spite of an inherent urge of ascension the way... first. . I am God still unevolved in human form; Even if he is not, he becomes in me. . No magic can surpass my magic's skill. There is no miracle I shall not achieve. ² So this vital being in man in his Rakshasic hunger and Asuric self-conceit rejects the Divine Power that is in fact behind him too, supporting him. The Goddess, in the wake of her predecessor, goes back from where she ...
... kind of fatigue. We must change our idea of 'Life' which is generally confined to living beings. Life can have a submental organisation,—the nervous system in the plants is not mental. Mind can continue when Life is suspended. Attraction and repulsion of elements is a sign of some movement which to the conscious being would become "like and dislike." Positive and negative in the material world become in... life we will come to the subject when we take Page 165 up the detail of the process. Then he takes up the three powers, and that is important to understand. They are mind, vital being and matter— mind, life and body. In Chapters 18,19 and 20, he deals with the Mind and Life to show how they are derived from the Supermind, how there is a derivative action from the Supra-mental... evolute. It has brought Life into being appa-rendy from Matter and Mind from Life. Matter, Life and Mind is the accomplished triple evolution. We have also seen that Supermind is working behind the veil in Mind which is its derivative. Man is the epitome of evolutionary process already accomplished having in him the Body-consciousness which is based on Matter,—Vital-consciousness which is based on the ...
... ladder, the first appearance and expression of life-force, the vital consciousness — energies and forms of the small lower vital. He moves on, moves upward, there is a growing light in and mixed with the obscurity; ignorance begins to shed its hard and dark coatings one by one and gives place to directed and motivated energies. He meets beings and creatures appropriate to those levels crawling and stirring... stirring and climbing, moved by the laws governing the respective regions. In this way Aswapati passes on into the higher vital, into the border of the mental. Aswapati now observes with a clear vividness that all these worlds and the beings and forces that inhabit them are stricken as Page 52 it were with a bar sinister branded upon their bodies. In spite of an inherent... am God still unevolved in human form; Even if he is not, he becomes in me... No magic can surpass my magic's skill. There is no miracle I shall not achieve. 27 So this vital being in man in his Rakshasic hunger and Asuric self-conceit rejects the Divine Power that is in fact behind him too, supporting him. The Goddess, in the wake of her predecessor, goes back from where ...
... mind has survived the death of her body." It is the last phrase which is revelatory. Not only the transformed vital being and the subtle-physical have survived her body's death and been assimilated into her new mode of existence and accompany her supramental form: even the bodily mind, by being transformed to a considerable degree, has been given an immortality and is part and parcel of her new mode of... November 1966, p. 61. Page 51 discover the secret of direct supramental creation, the advent of supramental beings formed in a supramental way (the type in which Sri Aurobindo has promised to return) and She announced in 1969 the certitude of its accomplishment, 1969 being the year at the end of which the Superman Consciousness came to earth and went out in search of those few who might be... Mother shows her own skin, but also when she refers to a state of consciousness which abolishes the sense of wear and tear and she speaks of it as "being established", the talk turns upon the transformation going on in her physical being, for what is "being established" is evidently in herself. It is personal and it points at the end not to failure but to a long future before "the state of spontaneous ...
... as the heart. But the vital being and nature and the physical consciousness are under the influence of the lower nature. As long as the vital and physical being are not surrendered or do not on their own account call for the higher life, this struggle is likely to continue. Surrender everything, reject all other desires or interests, call on the divine Shakti to open the vital nature and bring down... necessity of the constant assent of the being and a vigilance so that one may not admit a false Force at any point. It is never too early to make the complete surrender. Some things may need to wait, but not that. The Surrender of the Vital The surrender of the vital is always difficult, because of the unwillingness of the forces of the universal vital Ignorance. But that does not mean a ... inertia. (See The Mother , Part I.) It is only the more mechanical parts of the being that can truly say they are helpless: the physical (material) consciousness, especially, is inert in its nature and moved either by the mental and vital or by the higher forces. But one has always the power to put the mental will or vital push at the service of the Divine. One cannot be sure of the immediate result ...
... all human beings. Only, here again I repeat Page 50 my argument that animals also have fear—animals have not sinned, haven't eaten the apple, so they shouldn't have any fear! It is a half-consciousness mixed with a sort of ignorant instinct, which stresses a danger and at the same time does not know its remedy. But certainly, the fact is that the adverse beings, beings of the vital world who... what belongs to their own domain, that is, the most material vital—the higher vital escapes them altogether, they can do nothing there. And so, this material vital goes out but the other remain; and this higher vital is attacked by other dangers, simply that. And if it also disappears, the mind remain. But behind all this is the psychic being which nothing can touch, which is above all possible attacks... centralised around the psychic being and to the extent it is perfectly unified with the psychic. Otherwise all this mixture is dissolved and the psychic being alone remain, at times just as a flame, at times as a completely conscious being. This of course is the general law. Now there are bridges, as it were, "protected passages" which have been built in the vital world in order to cross over all ...
... the psychic and spiritual realities, but also for manifesting the psychic and spiritual truths and powers. (ii) The vital being in us is the seat of impulses and desires, of enthusiasm and violence, of dynamic energy and desperate depression, of passions and revolt. The vital is a good worker, but most often it seeks its own satisfaction. If that is refused totally or even partially, it gets vexed... the Synthesis of Yoga Analysis of Personality; Parts of the Being; Inconscient, sub-conscient, physical, vital, mental, subliminal, psychic, superconscient Ego, Memory, Self-consciousness, Concept of dynamic nature of Prakriti and static Purusha The Jivatman and Psychic Entity, Psychic Being and its character, growth, development, fulfilment Psychic and... effort, losing thus all the progress made. Another exercise is to deal with the vital as one deals with a child in revolt, with patience and perseverance showing it the truth and light, endeavouring to convince it and awaken in it the goodwill which for a moment was veiled. A wide, strong, calm but dynamic vital capable of right emotion, right decision, and right execution by force and energy ...
... ladder, the first appearance and expression of life-force, the vital consciousness—energies and forms of the small lower vital. He moves on, moves upward, there is a growing light in and mixed with the obscurity; ignorance begins to shed its hard and dark coatings one by one and gives place to directed and motivated energies. He meets beings and creatures appropriate to those levels crawling and stirring... stirring and climbing, moved by the laws governing the respective regions. In this way Ashwapati passes on into the higher vital, into the border of the mental. Ashwapati now observes with a clear vividness that all these worlds and the beings and forces that inhabit them are stricken as it were with a bar sinister branded upon their bodies. In spite of an inherent urge of ascension the way is not... I am God still unevolved in human form; Even if he is not, he becomes in me... No magic can surpass my magic's skill. There is no miracle I shall not achieve." 1 So this vital being in man in bis Rakshasic hunger and Asuric self-conceit rejects the Divine Power that is in fact behind him too, supporting him. The Goddess, in the wake of her predecessor, goes back from where she ...
... ladder, the first appearance and expression of life-force, the vital consciousness - energies and forms of the small lower vital. He moves on, moves upward, there is a growing light in and mixed with the obscurity; ignorance begins to shed its hard and dark coatings one by one and gives place to directed and motivated energies. He meets beings and creatures appropriate to those levels crawling and stirring... and climbing, moved by the laws governing the respective regions. In this way Ashwapati passes Page 1 on into the higher vital, into the border of the mental. Ashwapati now observes with a clear vividness that all these worlds and the beings and forces that inhabit them are stricken as it were with a bar sinister branded upon their bodies. In spite of an inherent urge of ascension... still unevolved in human form; Even if he is not, he becomes in me.... No magic can surpass my magic's skill. There is no miracle I shall not achieve. 25 So this vital being in man in his Rakshasic hunger and Asuric self-conceit rejects the Divine Power that is in fact behind him too, supporting him. The Goddess, in the wake of her predecessor, goes back from where she ...
... where there is no Karma but only the central being. This central being, it seems, chooses its particular sheath—mental, vital etc.—and upon that choice depend the evolutionary consequences. Is that correct? What is this central being you are speaking of—the Jivatma or the psychic being? or an amalgam of both? I don't quite understand. The psychic being is supposed not to choose, but rather to form... you his will, his inner sanction, when he came here. You have never heard of a double being? If I want to hang myself, would you say, "I can't help him against his will"? If that were your will and not merely an impulse of the vital being, nobody could stop you. This is what, perhaps, a human being would say, who has no knowledge of the play of forces? If I have knowledge of the play... complete. But the supra-physical planes are not bound to the forms like the physical. The forms there are expressive, not determinative. What is important on the vital plane is the force or feeling and the form expresses it. A vital being has a characteristic form but he can vary it or mask his true form under others. What is primary on the mental plane is the perception, the idea, the mental significance ...
... ready. Why cannot the Supramental be brought down stage by stage — that is, first into the mind and the vital till the physical is ready? It cannot be brought down to the mind and vital without being brought down into the physical, — also one can feel its influence or get something of it but Page 262 bringing down means much more than that. ... Illumined Mind can be very intense and fiery. They have divine powers in them. You said that "the Supermind descent into Matter is what is being attempted". In that case, has the Supermind already conquered the mental plane, the vital plane and the physical now that it is attempting to conquer Matter? There can be no conquest of the other planes by the Supermind but only an... who are attempting. Unless the mind and the vital are perfectly prepared how is it possible to bring the Supermind down into the physical or Matter? And how is it possible to perfect the mind and vital unless the physical is prepared, — for there is such a thing as the mental and vital physical and mind and vital cannot be said to be perfectly prepared until these are ready ...
... not tied down to mental and vital values must be dismissed as a superfluous dream for which there is neither place nor necessity here. Yet these things have been not only dreamed of and hungered after but reached and tasted by beings born in a mortal and human body. Spirituality lies there; its essence consists in a bursting of the human mental, moral, aesthetic, vital moulds in order to reach beyond... cleared out of the being. As for some men being able to control themselves and others being swept away, that is due to difference of temperament. Some men are sattwic and control comes easy to them, up to a certain point at least; others are more rajasic and find control difficult and often impossible. Some have a strong mind and mental will and others are vital men in whom the vital passions are stronger... Will, calling into the being the Divine Peace, Purity, Oneness, Knowledge, Light, Ananda, replacing the ego by the psychic being devoted and surrendered to the Divine. It is the love of the Divine that saves, not a love turned towards human beings. When the Divine Consciousness is there, then there comes based on the love of the Divine a true love and oneness for all beings. But that does not act ...
... adequate limpidity that deeply moves us without directly shaking up our sensations as Shakespeare does and tearing like him at our emotional roots. The typical Shakespearian seizure of our vital being in the Macbeth-passage can be gauged also by comparing it to Gray's eighteenth-century "gem": The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, ... His dramatic method seems indeed to have usually no other intellectual purpose, aesthetic motive or spiritual secret: ordinarily it labours simply for the joy of a multiple poetic vision of life and vital creation with no centre except the life-power itself, no coordination except that thrown out sponta-neously by the unseizable workings of its energy, no unity but the one unity of man and the life-spirit... to speak of his limita-tions, - arise from this character of the force that moved him to poetic utterance. He is not primarily an artist, a poetical thinker or anything else of the kind, but a great vital creator and intensely, though within marked limits, a seer of life. His art itself is life arranging its forms in its own surge and excitement, not in any kind of symmetry, - for symmetry here there ...
... releasing the wings of the Soul into superconscient heights; the middle cord of the vital being parts both ways and all ways, and the constrained life breaks out into a happy breadth of existence; the lower cord of the Physical being collapses downward taking with it the alloy of our bodily consciousness and being to disappear and De dissolved in the stuff below the human ocean of consciousness in... at its highest; Agni is not merely the heat or the energy, not merely the mined will working out evolutionary process in Matter and of the human soul, it is not merely a cosmic being in the of various other cosmic beings, it is an aspect of the Supreme Godhead itself verily, it is one of the sacred Page 17 Names of the Supreme Divine Himself, It is this Agni that is invoked by the Vedic... supermind, the world beyond which is a triple world of the Supreme Conscious Being who is All-Delight ( Madhu ) The realm of the supermind is the realm of plenary light in which is the power of all-comprehending truth- consciousness (r ita chit ) It is at the gates of the realm of the supermind that one encounters the powers and beings of Varuna, Mitra, Aryaman and Bhaga, and it is only by an integral mastery ...
... are able to help human beings in their journey, which is represented by the rising wave that emerges from the ocean of the inconscient. The movement of Ashwins is a movement of Ananda that always bestows health, youth, strength, wholeness to the physical man; it bestows capacity of action and enjoyment to the vital being; and it imparts energy of the light to the mental being. To fashion the chariot... chariot of the Ashwins is to provide to the physical, to the vital and to the mental members of the human personality with the force of the pure delight of the being. It is only by a tremendous training and cultivation of the body, life and mind, and it is only by a great purification of these parts of the being that the force of the pure delight, the boon of the Ashwins, can be brought in the instrumental... descent of the power of the great godheads, the limitations of the 'physical being are broken; the light of the infinite planes which reigns above enters into lower levels of being right up to physical being; the physical being opens out to the Light and is upheld in its new wideness by the action of Aditi, supreme power of the infinite consciousness. We may take another example of the idea of ...
... Aurobindo addressed to the sadhakas who would like to grow in true faith: "Let your faith be pure, candid and perfect. An egoistic faith in the mental and vital being tainted by ambition, pride, vanity, mental arrogance, vital self-will, personal demand, desire for the petty satisfactions of the lower nature is a low and smoke-obscured flame that cannot burn upwards to heaven." (SABCL,Vol... reply the Master explained to the disciple the exact position in a most lucid and soul-consoling way. We are basing our elucidation on his luminous observations. All of us, embodied human beings, have come down upon earth and been active there in the terrestrial field. But in the actual state Page 98 of affairs of the world and life, most of our existence is under the siege... and this should be cleared at the very earliest. The sadhaka has not already become a Siddha Yogi who has attained to the union with the Divine's Consciousness; his personal will is far from being identified with the Divine's Will. Sohe cannot try to behave in a way as if he has reached the end of the spiritual path. He is still living in his separative ego-consciousness ever impelled by the ...
... not feel it because you were living on the surface altogether, and the surface is all crowd and clamour. But in all men there is this silent Purusha, base of the true mental being, the true vital being, the true physical being. It was by your prayer and aspiration that the thing came, to show you in what direction you must travel in order to have the true rasa of things, for it is only when one is... condition was of the inner being and its silence, the separation of Purusha from Prakriti. Yes, but it seems also to be the beginning of liberation from identification with the body consciousness. That easily comes with the Purusha-consciousness in the inner being. Is this inner being or the Purusha the same as the psychic being? No, not necessarily—the inner being is composed of the inner... inner mental, the inner vital, the inner physical. The psychic is the inmost supporting all the others. Usually it is in the inner mental that this separation first happens and it is the inner mental Purusha who remains silent, observing the Prakriti as separate from himself. But it may also be the inner vital Purusha or inner physical or else without location simply the whole Purusha-consciousness separate ...
... entity - be it the subtle physical, the vital or the mental being - returns to its tenement: It is dangerous if you sleep surrounded by people who may come and shake you up, believing that something has happened to you. But if you are alone and sleep quietly, there is no danger. 20 The more serious danger is for some evil being of the vital world that doesn't have a body, seeing a vacant... and tricky business really. Something goes out - but exactly what? Not the psychic being, since "one would not be aware of it, the more so as most of the time it is not within you!... What goes out is sometimes the subtle physical.... But usually it is the vital which goes out and still more often, the mental being." 19 The more important problem, however, is for the temporarily vacated body to... consciousness up to the frontier of all form. But in her own being she became aware that there was between the subtle-physical and the most material vital a small region, very small, which was not sufficiently developed to serve as a conscious link between the two activities. So what took place in the consciousness of the most material vital did not get translated exactly in the consciousness of ...
... capacity of the cells though not in their surface consciousness, otherwise all of us would be conscious cosmic beings, which we are not. (Consisting of cells, elementary particles, a subliminal mind and vital, and a soul, we are indeed cosmic beings unconsciously, and even more than cosmic beings.) To put it graphically, we could say that the cell shows the respective gradations of the evolution going... everybody [has this experience]! Everybody! And I myself, when I see myself, I am very tall. What has happened? … It is the new being … When is this going to express itself physically? I don’t know. It is a being from the subtle physical. It is not a vital being, it is a being from the subtle physical. And I am tall and strong … It has no age, it is neither young nor old … it is completely different.... Power and Force to be able of being the instrument of a higher truth. At the present moment this state can be realized upon earth by those who are ready to receive the supramental Force that is manifesting.’ 7 September 1957: ‘It is evident that intermediary beings are needed, that it is these intermediary beings who have to find the means to create the beings of the Supramental. And without ...
... gross body. Similarly, behind the complex of our desires, emotions and superficial or deep-seated longings and attractions and repulsions, in short, what we may call the superficial vital being, there is the inner vital which is the source of our larger and wider action which is the cause of our frequent or rare outbursts of exhibition of superhuman strength and power. There is also behind our groping... some of a vital nature: the former are precise in their figures, clear in their significance; the latter are often complex and baffling to our waking consciousness, but if we can seize the clue they reveal their own sense and peculiar system of coherence. Finally, there can come to us the records of happenings seen or experienced by us on other planes of our own being or of universal being into which... arisen, it seems, from the fact that, while on the one hand, it does not seem unlikely that we may succeed in creating a system of life, practically covering the whole globe, which can provide to human beings means and materials to satisfy hedonistic, selfish and egoistic wants on such a scale that, for quite a long indefinite period, humankind might remain chained to circles of lower life marked by hunger ...
... species. Human beings have an individual consciousness, developed in various degrees, but animals have a collective consciousness that is mostly called instinct and centered in the ‘king’ of their species – which goes to show how much truth there actually is in legends and folktales. The ‘king of cats’ is a being from the vital world, which means that the members of his species incarnate vital forces. Cats... about being a cat, it wanted to be a human being. It had an untimely death. It used to meditate, it certainly did a kind of sadhana of its own, and when it left, a portion of its vital being reincarnated in a human being. The little psychic element that was at the centre of the being went directly into the human species, and even what was conscious in the vital of the cat went into a human being. But... the entire being even in its external parts – Mental, Vital and Physical – undergoes the consequences of this identification, and a change occurs which is sometimes even perceptible in the physical appearance.’ 15 The testimony to this astonishing fact is unequivocal. ‘When I began with Sri Aurobindo to descend for the yoga,’ said the Mother, ‘to descend from the Mind into the Vital, when we brought ...
... consciousness is relatively undeveloped in a human being, one is unable not only to separate the witness part from the active part of the consciousness but also to distinguish among different kinds of consciousness—physical, vital, mental, etc. All of consciousness is experienced simply as mental consciousness. In Sri Aurobindo's words: For human beings who have not got deeper into themselves, mind... mind, vital, body, saying continually "I am not the mind", I am not the viral", I am not the body", seeing these things as separate from one's real self—and after a time one feels all the mental, vital, physical processes and the very sense of mind, vital, body becoming externalized, an outer action, while within and detached from them there grows the sense of a separate self-existent being which... of the Purusha from the active consciousness of Prakriti is more difficult with regard to the mind than it is in relation to the vital and physical parts of the being because the human being is most identified with the mind. As Sri Aurobindo states: ... man being primarily a creature of mental Prakriti identifies himself with the movements of his mind and cannot at once dissociate himself and ...
... into this truth gets expressed variously. Of course, a certain central mould of soul-personality persists throughout a life-time, but it is not a rigid cast either. Always the outer mental-vital physical being is a constantly changing mixture, and according as the sun-white rainbow-shimmered soul looks out or not, the Mother responds with compliments or criticisms, while keeping always the vision... The Mother's Compliments and Criticisms The Mother, although capable of being a "supreme Diplomat" (a phrase from Savitri) when the Divine Guidance required it, could be quite uninhibited both in the tenderness of Mahalakshmi's Grace and in the severity of Mahakali's Grace — both the movements being straightforward acts for the soul's good and having behind them the Grace of Maheshwari's... happened to drift away from the Ashram after a number of years. I was confused —until the Mother explained that the subconscient could hold the very opposite of the qualities present in the conscious being and this opposite might erupt at any moment under the pressure of circumstances. If one was not sufficiently on guard, the upsurge could bring about a "fall". According to the Mother, the mistake ...
... deep within. Very few people are aware of their souls—when they speak of their soul, they usually mean the vital + mental being or else the (false) soul of desire. The psychic remains behind and acts only through the mind, vital and physical wherever it can. For this reason the psychic being except where it is very much developed has only a small and partial, concealed and mixed or diluted influence... and its consciousness also; only a little comes out in the mind and vital and physical. When that consciousness is not concealed, when you are aware of your soul (the psychic being), when its feelings and consciousness are yours, then you have got the consciousness of the psychic being. The feelings and aspiration of the psychic being are all turned towards truth and right consciousness and the Divine;... weak; in some people the mind is the strongest part and governs, in others the vital is the strongest part and leads or drives. But by sadhana the psychic being can be more and more brought forward till it is dominant and governs the rest. If it were already governing, then the struggles and difficulties of the mind and vital would not at all be severe; for each man in the light of the psychic would see ...
... simulate different illnesses. Probably it is an after result of the ravage on the organism created by the Kalazar. In most cases it indicates a weakness in the vital being which opens it to pressure from hostile influences belonging to the lower vital worlds. [3] I had given Barin an answer to your former letter, but it may either not have been sent or else delayed or lost owing to the railway strike... 422 come and stay here. But considering your bad health and the sensitiveness and delicacy of your vital nature, I hesitate to do so, because I do not know whether you would be able vitally and physically to be at ease amidst this fierce struggle of forces on the physical and lower vital plane. On the other hand I am not fixed as to what climate or surroundings would suit you elsewhere or of... anything precise from Durgadas' letter. I gather that his personal and his financial condition are not very good and that his inner condition, if not too bad, is not famous, finally that he is empty of vital force and the joy of life. All that, however, is exceedingly imprecise and does not help me to help him. The source of his difficulty is in his mind; it is too full of uncertainties, useless complexities ...
... them, assigns some room to the things they represent, but for itself it is content to follow mainly after its own inherent principle of vital satisfaction, vital necessity and utility, vital efficiency. The reason is that here we get to another power of our being which is different from the ethical, aesthetic, rational and religious,—one which, even if we recognise it as lower in the scale, still... growing collectivist or cooperative tendency embodies the second instinct of the vital or practical being in man. It shows itself first in the family ideal by which the individual subordinates himself and finds his vital satisfaction and practical account, not in his own predominant individuality, but in the life of a larger vital ego. This ideal played a great part in the old aristocratic views of life;... practical, vitalistic and economic creation. It is simply a larger vital ego, a more complex vital organism that takes up the individual and englobes him in a more effective competitive and cooperative life unit. The family like the individual accepts and uses society for its field and means of continuance, of vital satisfaction and well-being, of aggrandisement and enjoyment. But this life unit also, this ...
... body are results of the energy of being and supports of its action, of vital and physical utility. Two great utilities open before psychology. We may acquire the possibility of a greater being, consciousness and energy. We may open up the possibility and discover the psychical means or process [of] becoming consciously one with our original self-existent Being, with God, the Absolute, the Transcendence... nature and with his type, race, class, nation, but yet possessed of its own principle of particular individuation. It is this which reigns in his mentality, vital being, physical being and stamps itself upon them, but in itself it is neither mental, vital nor physical, but proceeds from a secret principle superior to all these; mind, life and body are only means and values of his self-expression. So is it... to create mentality, for the plant too possesses them, yet does not appear to be a mental being, but it is the first condition of embodied mentality. A power of biological and physiological development is the secondary, continuative factor necessary to farther evolution of mentality. Once the nervous vital power appears in material body, it shows a biological power of developing a more complex physical ...
... Page 79 That is what happens usually but there are some beings who are more developed and do not follow this course.'Ibid., p. 435 'The movement of the psychic being dropping the outer sheaths on its way to the psychic plane is the normal movement. But there can be any number of variations; one can return from the vital plane and there are many cases of an almost immediate birth,some... the body comes to an end. The psychic being is immortal and it continues to live, though no more in the body which is now dead; it has its own inherent life and is able to conduct a journey. When the psychic being leaves the body on the death of the body, it carries three elements with it, namely, the mental being, the vital being and the subtle physical being which were developed in the body during... the vital worlds, proceeding on its journey...' Volume 22, Letters on Yoga I, pp. 436-37 We may also study the following statement of Sri Aurobindo: Page 78 'When the body is dissolved, the vital goes into the vital plane and remains there for a time, but after a time the vital sheath disappears. The last to dissolve is the mental sheath. Finally the soul or psychic being retires ...
... less recalcitrant beings on some Playground are not enough. Every man who has gone beyond the stage of animal-man and becomes man-man truly feels a need—which I could call "incorrigible"—to be something other than this wholly unsatisfying semi-animal. 5 It is this "incorrigible" need that must become utterly incorrigible in humans. They must no longer be able to endure being stuck in their as... begins, in this microscopic cleansing. The cleansing must begin somewhere. "When is it going to happen?" For the mind or the higher intelligence to conceive of new things is easier than for the vital being, say, to feel things in a new way. And for the body it is still more difficult to have a purely material perception of what a new world will be. Yet, this perception must PRECEDE the material tr... towards breaking the veil between the outer and the inner mental, the outer and the inner vital and even the outer and the inner physical [this "inner physical," still unknown to us, is precisely where the vibratory foundation underlying what we call Matter lies]: Men are becoming more "psychic." Thirdly, the vital 200 is trying to lay its hold on the physical as it never did before. It is always ...
... psychic being is less easy because it is covered up with a thick veil of ego, passion and desire. One is apt to be swallowed up in a maze of vital experiences, not always reliable, the temptation of small siddhis, the appeal of the powers of darkness to the ego. One has to struggle through these densities to the psychic being behind and bring it forward; then only can the sadhana on the vital plane... the action of the Force into the vital plane of our being becomes after some time necessary. The Force does not make a wholesale change of the mental being and nature, still less an integral transformation before it takes this step: if that could be done, the rest of the sadhana would be comparatively secure and easy. Page 199 But the vital is there and always pressing on... , revolts and dangers. The vital ego hates being opposed in its desires, resents disappointment, is furious against wounds to its pride and vanity; it does not like the process of purification and it may very well declare Satyagraha against it, refuse to co-operate, justify its own demands and inclinations, offer passive resistance of many kinds, withdraw the vital support which is necessary ...
... its thoughts, the vital and its feelings, the body and its actions—something standing back from all these, something that you can come to feel concretely as an Existence or Consciousness, separate from all that yet freely pervading all without being involved in these things. You have to separate yourself from the mind also. You have to feel yourself even in the mental, vital, physical levels... are in the psychic and the psychic is very deep within us, covered over by the mind and vital. When you meditate you open to the psychic, become aware of your psychic consciousness deep within and feel these things. In order that this ease and peace and happiness may become strong and stable and felt in all the being and in the body, you have to go still deeper within and bring out the full force of the... great peace and quiet and joy. The Light also may come and other spiritual experiences. But it leaves the vital and body passive and without defence against inertia, illness etc. instead of bringing it either a dynamic force or a strong self-contained peace. The consciousness instead of being concentrated gets widely diffused and loosely extended. From the passivity came the weakness and disinclination ...
... change made would be far reaching, even enormous: it would not only establish the Supermind and supramental race of beings upon the earth, it could bring about an uplifting and transforming change in mind itself and as an inevitable consequence in the consciousness of man, the mental being and would equally bring about a radical and transforming change in the principles and forms of his living, his ways... approach and arrival of the descending Supermind that it can be liberated upon earth and reveal itself in the action of our material, vital and mental parts so that these lower powers can become portions of a total divinised activity Page 24 of our whole being: it is that will bring to us a completely realised divinity or the divine life. It is indeed so that life and mind involved in Matter... acceleration of the evolution of Nature. Thus, Hatha Yoga selects the body and vital functionings as its instrument of perfection and realisation. The method is a concentration and effort of energy released by Āsana and Prānāyāma in the outer and inner body for an object of physical perfection. Rāja Yoga selects the mental being in its different parts as its lever- power. It effects a change of the ordinary ...
... Aurobindo himself who had first given the idea to Motilal Roy - it was evidently intended to be a sort of controlled experiment. But Motilal "took it up with all his vital being and in an egoistic way", with the result that the lower vital forces took possession of the work and gave it a direction that was far from satisfactory. The Chandernagore group made "Commune, Culture and Commerce" the watchwords... present we have to bring down a change in the physical mind, the nervous being, and the vital mind, so that they may become fit instruments of the Truth. That is a big enough work.... 52 On 13 July, he said that, for bringing down any higher spiritual force (especially the Supermind) into the earth-plane and the physical being, one had to sit down to it and call it down and hold it, and not p... The God within takes no account of these hindrances and deficiencies. He breaks his way out. Was the amount of my own failings a small one? Were the obstacles less in my mind and heart and vital being and body? Did it not take time? Has God hammered me less? Day after day, minute after minute, I have been fashioned into I know not whether a god or what. But I have become or am becoming something ...
... the true vital and physical being become fit instruments of the Divine Mother. Yes, these experiences [ of the smallness of the egoistic person ] always come when one is opening into the wideness of the cosmic consciousness and your conclusions are correct. The self-importance of the ego has to dissolve—the importance of life or the progress of the being can come only from its being a vehicle... whirl of the vital mind and ego and have gone on justifying it and indulging it. The only result was a constant repetition of vital crises sometimes ending in departure and the failure of the sadhana; others by a repeated reaction of their psychic being finally succeeded in emerging out of the chaos. But we have found that to comply with the claims, demands, clamours, ultimatums of the vital mind in this... that should be an excellent discipline for the rajasic ego and bring into the vital a greater power of self-giving and peace. Do you mean to say that you never had any rajasic element in you? There is not a human being who has not got it in him so long as he is not divinised in his vital. What were all the vital suggestions coming to you so insistently always except appeals to the rajasic ego ...
... mental, the vital and the physical, are interrelated in the complexity of our being. As a result, there is in us what Sri Aurobindo calls the mental-vital (vital mind), mental-physical (physical mind), vital-mental, vital-physical and physical-vital. The mental-vital or the vital mind is the mind which is at the service of vital desires and vital emotions. It is a sort of mediator between vital emotion... sometimes taken together and referred to as the higher vital, in contrast to the lower vital which is concerned with the bottom movements of action and desire and stretches down into the vital-physical. The vital-physical is the vital at the service of the physical. It is the nervous being, and it governs all the small daily reactions to outward things. It governs also reactions of the nerves and the... its undeveloped state, the psychic being is called the soul. The soul developed is properly termed the psychic being. The psychic being is also termed as the central being for the purposes of the evolution, for it grows and develops, and it is that which can effectuate a harmonious integration of the mental, vital and physical personality. The term 'central being' is also used for Jivatman, the individual ...
... the sequence of states in which man's spiritual consciousness unfolds itself and which form the consummation of mystic life." I don't agree—unless it is a sadhana of the vital plane which then naturally expresses the vital being = love-excitement, love-quarrels, viraha , 75 revolt, despair, rupture etc., etc., frequent surrenders, unions, partings. Dutt has said that according to the Ancients... The word vulgar is only used for coarse and crude expressions of the sensual, trivial or ugly. But it does not seem to me that it should naturally be taken = breast, but indicate the whole vital and physical being regarded as a vessel or jar which can be filled with honey or water or poison. Nothing vulgar in that. Why not send that surrealist poem? I would very much like to see what is spiritual... Kundalini], then it's not at all bad. But Nolini thinks that there is not much of spiritual surrealism there. Well, if spiritual is objected to, let us say mystic surrealism. The European kind is vital swapnic. Why not send me that surrealist sonnet of yours? No such thing exists, for it was not a sonnet. By your statement' we fear that a mixture is coming up in our poetry, and you will ...
... the vital being seemed to have maintained a commercial attitude towards the Ashram, treating it as a sort of communal hotel or mess, and the Mother as the dignified hotel-keeper or mess-manager: "One gives some kind of commodity which he calls devotion or surrender and in return the Mother is under obligation to supply satisfaction for all demands and desires spiritual, mental, vital and... body and physical being for several months: In those days when the Mother was either receiving the Sadhaks for meditation or otherwise working and concentrating· all night and day without sleep and with very irregular food, there was no ill-health and no fatigue in her and things were proceeding with a lightning swiftness .... Afterwards, because the lower vital and the physical of... divine life in the Mother's consciousness". On the contrary, "To insist upon one's own mind and its ideas, to allow oneself to be governed by one's own vital feelings and reactions should not be the rule of life here." The Mother's being a greater or above-mind Consciousness, "at the very least a Yogic consciousness", it would be wrong to judge it by mental categories. As for understanding ...
... during his sleep he saw a vital being pointing to his abdomen and saying, “That is the source of your strength. I am going to finish it.” Then the being struck at the pit of his stomach like a bull with his head down. Nishikanto groaned and retaliated by suddenly giving a sharp squeeze to the being’s scrotum. At this the being fled. (laughter) Sri Aurobindo: The being appears to have been right... edrājasik vital—the malancha is the psychic in the vital. The moon is the symbol of spiritual light, faint at first, it being cleared and bright and illumining the obscuration of the mind (the cloud) obliges it to allow the higher ray to pass through it. The white peacock is the spiritual victory. The rest is a symbol of the transformation of the vital—or changes into the psychised vital if not the... also. Also it opens a passage between the exterior consciousness and the inner mind or vital. But if one stops at that, then nothing much is gained. Sadhana must be the main thing and sadhana means purification of the nature, the consecration of the being, the opening of the psychic and the inner mind and vital, the contact and presence of the Divine, the realization of the Divine in all things, surrender ...
... soul and determine the complex movement of forces. It can feel too the movement of forces that represent or respond to the pressure—as it can perceive the presence and the action—of the beings of the mental, vital and other worlds who concern themselves with our lives. It can gather on all hands all kinds of indications of happenings in past, present and future time. It can receive before its sight... potentially feasible. First, there are certain movements of the mind sense and the vital consciousness that are of this character—of which one kind, that which has most struck our perceptions, has been called presentiment. These movements are instinctive perceptions, obscure intuitions of the sense mind and the vital being, and like all that is instinctive in man have been suppressed, rendered rare or... distortion of the truth is inevitable. There is a possibility of the will element being entirely excluded and the mind being made a silent and passive register of a higher Page 899 luminous knowledge, and in that case a much more accurate reception of time intuitions becomes possible. The integrality of the being demands however a will action and not only an inactive knowing, and therefore ...
... psychic, for they don't have it. These beings certainly have many qualities that men don't, but they lack this divine presence which is altogether exceptional and exists only on the earth and nowhere else. All these inhabitants of the higher worlds, the Higher Mind, Overmind and other regions have no psychic being. Of course, the beings of the vital worlds don't have it either. But these latter... are purely vital. They are the most subtle part of the vital, if you like, but they are vital. It's not through the feelings that one goes to the psychic, it is through Page 19 a very intense aspiration and a self-detachment. 16 The Mother * Don't mix up the psychic being with the outer being. The psychic being may be perfect and the outer being may be idiotic... projection of the spirit. The central being is the being which presides over the different births one after the other, but is itself unborn, for it does not descend into the being but is above it — it holds together the mental, vital and physical being and all the various parts of the personality and it controls the life either through the mental being and the mental thought and will or through ...
... perfect and infallible. 2 April 1968 The Upanishad says that when one sleeps, one reaches pure Being. Does this apply only to the Yogi or to everyone? In theory, it applies to everyone. But the vast majority of human beings fall into unconsciousness, and if there is a contact with pure Being it is quite unconscious. Very few persons are conscious of this relation. It is usually the result of... consecration. But isn't that the aspiration of every sincere sadhak? Total means vertically in all the states of being, from the most material to the most subtle. Integral means horizontally in all the different and often contradictory parts which make up the outer being (physical, vital and mental). 4 December 1967 The fragrance of the flowers given by the Mother is often something ex... of Yoga. 8 April 1968 Page 376 ( Concerning unconsciousness during sleep ) During sleep the inner beings become consciously active. When one wakes up, it is the waking being that is not conscious of the activities of the night. 16 April 1968 In the quotation chosen for tomorrow 6 Sri Aurobindo speaks of "the Truth that seeks to descend upon us" and "is already ...
... less than the human being, because some human beings are not cruel and are very strict in their judgement, so they are very impartial. Well, in that case God would be less than His own creation. Who created pain, whence was pain created, why was pain created ? In trying to answer these questions, Sri Aurobindo says that one must forget the idea of God as an Extra-cosmic Being, somebody who is away... and pain attach themselves to mental and vital consciousness through the instrumentality of the nerves. They are limited by the capacity of the nervous being. They are, therefore, relative. But true delight does not belong to the mental consciousness. It comes from the Omnipresent Reality,—the supernal Satchidananda —and may be felt in the mental, the vital and even the physical consciousness. It is... one says "How is it that He has inflicted pain on Himself?" The problem is not why God is subjecting us to pain, but why does an Infinite Being, Consciousness, and Bliss, which is the world Becoming, inflict upon Himself, what we as human beings feel as pain and suffering ? That is the correct way of putting the question. Then, he says, there is some answer possible. Therefore the God of this ...
... also did, into the regions of the vital being and often neglected the eightfold path for the grace of the various powers of the Buddhistic pantheon. Buddhism accepts rebirth as a necessary corollary to the doctrine of Karma which renders the temporary subject to re- actions of Karma and consequently to rebirth. In the Nirvana the ego, perhaps the entire being, ceases and according to some schools... undulations of Chitta, the basic stuff of consciousness. It prescribes Yama and Niyama in order to establish firm control of the vital nature which enables the mind to concentrate. Meditation, Japa etc., are means to achieve Samadhi— complete absorption of the being into a state which may be Savikalpa or Nirvikalpa—that is to say, absorption with only one idea or vibration of consciousness or... abandons, by implication, at least, the naturalistic stand in psychology; for, one could ask, where does the " Collective Unconscious " abide ? Is it in the material or non-material medium? Is it of the vital or mental stuff ? So far as the study of human personality is concerned Jung admits that the roots of personality are veiled in mystery. The term "Collective Unconscious" reminds the Indian ...
... in that case as its last stride has been the evolution of the mental being, man, out of the vital being, the animal, so its next stride will be to evolve out of mental man a greater spiritual and supramental creature. Page 223 50 All mind and life on earth are the progressive manifestation of a Spirit or Being that has involved itself in Matter and is slowly evolving in Matter,... only this material plane of being that we see, there is a physical life plane proper to the vital physical operation of Nature. There is a physical mind plane proper to a mental physical operation of Nature. There is a physical supermind plane proper to the supramental physical operation of Nature. There is too a plane of physical spirit power or infinite physical Being-Consciousness-Force-Bliss proper... rising to an instinctive reason and mind and purposeful force in the insect, as a more organised and Page 222 conscious and emotional, even a roughly and narrowly thinking and planning vital being in the animal, and has persevered till it has broken into some half opening on itself in the thinking, reasoning, willing and aspiring nature of man, the Manu, the mental creature. Here at present ...
... constituting a cosmic being, a universal individual. In one state of the cosmic consciousness there is an individual included in the cosmos but identifying himself with all in it, with the things and beings, with the thought and sense, the joy and grief of others; in another state there is an inclusion of beings in oneself and a reality of their life as part of one's own being. Often there is no rule... for the mind centres are not a region isolated from the rest of the being; the mind action is penetrated by the action of the vital and physical parts, and in those parts themselves are lower formations of mind, a vital mind, a physical mind, and these have to be changed before there can be an entire transformation of the mental being. The higher transforming power has, therefore, to descend, as soon... is doing, the first result is kin to this appearance; it is the phenomenon of an inconscient physical individualisation, a creation not of beings but of objects. These are formed existences with their own qualities, properties, power of being, character of being; but Nature's plan in them and organisation of them have to be worked out mechanically without any beginning of participation, initiation or ...
... main elements: (1) the opening of the occult inner mind, inner vital, inner physical, so that one becomes aware of all that lies behind 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 psych... knowledge and integral change of the being and nature. 123 * The first thing to be done is the psychic change and until that has progressed sufficiently, supermind is a far-off thing and people need not think of it at all. 124 * It is the supramental alone that can transform the material being, but the physical mind and the physical vital can be very much changed by the action... result of an opening outward of the inner and inmost being and nature; for then there comes into play the soul's power of unerring inherent consciousness, its vision, its touch on things which is superior to any mental cognition; there is there, native to the psychic consciousness in its pure working, an immediate sense of the world and its beings, a direct inner contact with them and a direct contact ...
... life. God, soul, the beyond, or the higher worlds, in these things the new Russians of today have no faith, none. Their entire stress or sraddha is on this world, this life, on the physical-vital-mental being whom they call Man. It was arranged that I should talk to the gymnasts. Following civilised traditions, this was to be a post-prandial session; that is, the conversation was to follow a rather... ess, name how you will, these do not depend so much on physical factors and formation. The source is elsewhere, it is really a reflection or shadow that is derived from the ease and clarity of the vital Force in us and if, somehow, we can add to that the soul's ease and clarity, then only do we have genuine beauty, beauty from within. It is as if the Russians have discovered a new dimension of the... can end all of a sudden so also it can stay on and withstand apparently impossible conditions. But this, it may be said again, is due to compulsion, it is not a healthy or a natural condition of our being. It is indeed painful, and what men really wish for is to come out of it – into a world of natural freedom. The new physical culture that the Russians are now following is meant to open up the hidden ...
... life. God, soul, the beyond or the higher worlds, in these things the new Russians of today have no faith, none. Their entire stress or śraddhā is on this world, this life, on the physical-vital-mental being whom they call Man. It was arranged that I should talk to the gymnasts. Following civilised traditions, this was to be a post-prandial session; that is, the conversation was to follow a... these do not depend so much on physical factors and formation. The source is elsewhere, it is really a reflection or shadow that is derived Page 98 from the ease and clarity of the vital Force in us and if, somehow, we can add to that the soul's ease and clarity, then only do we have genuine beauty, beauty from within. It is as if the Russians have discovered a new dimension of... end all of a sudden so also it can stay on and withstand apparently impossible conditions. But this, it may be said again, is due to compulsion, it is not a healthy or a natural condition of our being. It is indeed painful, and what men really wish for is to come out of it —into a world of natural freedom. The new physical culture that the Russians are now following is meant to open up the hidden ...
... effective method of Karmayoga. As most men live in their vital-physical being, predominantly concerned with the satisfaction of their desires and wants, the practice of Karmayoga is usually attended with rapid and remarkable results in the general purification of the nature, Page 23 and the opening and orientation of the being to the Divine. It is a dynamic Yoga, which has to be pursued... the ego; to move, vastly founded, not in the little egoistic consciousness, but in the consciousness of the All-Soul and the Transcendent. "To be perfectly equal in all happenings and to all beings, and to see and feel them as one with oneself and one with the Divine; to feel all in oneself and all in God; to feel God in all and oneself in all. "To act in God and not in the ego. And here... discovery of the potential powers and capacities of the human body and the life-energy: playing in it. In the dynamic synthesis of the Integral Yoga, this contribution has been incorporated with certain vital modifications and given an important place in its comprehensive scheme of spiritual values. RAJAYOGA Unlike Hathayoga, Râjayoga does not start with the body and the life-energy ...
... knowledge of oneself and the true consciousness. These two parts are the inner being and the outer being. The outer being (mind, vital and physical) has now become capable of quietude and it sits in meditation in a free, happy, vacant quietude which is the first step towards the true consciousness. The inner being (inner mind, vital, physical) is not lost but gone inside—the outer part does not know where—but... . The inner being means the psychic, the inner mind, the inner vital, the inner physical. In this condition none of these can be even touched, so there has been an essential purification. All need not feel this division into two consciousnesses, but most do. When it is there, the will that decides the action is in the inner being, not in the outer—so the invasion of the outer by vital movements can... Nature in the physical man and will drop away with the body so that one can depart into Nirvana. In fact all these ignorant vital movements originate from outside in the ignorant universal nature; the human being forms in his superficial parts of being, mental, vital, physical a habit of certain responses to these waves from outside. It is these responses that he takes as his own character (anger ...
... sacrifice—the one thing needful—is the Divine Presence and the Divine Consciousness and Power in us, and if that is gained, all else will be added. This is a transformation of the egoistic will in our vital being, our desire-soul and desire-nature, and it is far more difficult than the other. The third step is to get rid of the central egoism and even the ego-sense of the worker. That is the most difficult... is the Master whom they serve. This happens only too often in Yoga to strong but crude vital natures or minds too easily exalted when they allow ambition, pride or the desire of greatness to enter into their spiritual seeking and vitiate its purity of motive; a magnified ego stands between them and their true being and grasps for its own personal purpose the strength from a greater unseen Power, divine... feeling but of that moving, feeling and thinking in us. This force that we feel is the universal Force of the Divine, which, veiled or unveiled, acting directly or permitting the use of its powers by beings in the cosmos, is the one Energy that alone exists and alone makes universal or individual action possible. For this force is the Divine itself in the body of its power; all is that, power of act, ...
... What prevents the Divine from doing the same? What is continued from birth to birth is the inner being." Evidently the Avatar is not only a descent from above but also an "inner being", a soul, evolving from below an individual psychic entity passing from life to life with a new mind, vital being and body are each birth in order to compass a manifold experience. The next problem is expressed... from above; there is an evolution of a soul-centred mould, physical-vital-mental, in which at certain critical points the descending Avatar Self is revealed. The letter¹ runs: "...each being in a new birth prepares a new mind, life and body — otherwise John Smith would always be John Smith and would have no chance of being Piyush Kanti Ghose. Of course inside there are old personalities... this world?... If you were on the earth constantly it would mean that you were here when those great beings descended. Whatever your external cloak, how could you hide your inner self — the true divinity — from them?"6 The sense is that neither Sri Krishna, Buddha nor Christ — in spite of being Avatars — were past births of Sri Aurobindo. And in view of the advent of several Avatars before Sri ...
... the nature. 120 "I won't desire" is quite the right thing to say, even if "I don't desire" cannot yet be said by the vital. Still there is something in the being that can even say "I don't desire" and refuse to recognise the vital desire as part of the true being. 121 Page 130 No, it is not necessary to lose the mental control; it is best to replace it gradually... becomes aware of an inner Being within us—inner mental, inner vital, inner physical—silent, calm, unbound, unattached which reflects the true Self above and can be its direct representative; from this inner silent Being proceeds a rejection of all that is to be rejected, an acceptance only of what can be kept and transformed. .. . 128 Detach yourself from this vital-physical 129 —observe... come from outside, enter the subconscious vital and rise to the surface. It is only when they rise to the surface and the mind becomes aware of them, that we become conscious of the desire. It seems to us to be our own because we feel it thus rising from the vital into the mind and do not know that it came from outside. What belongs to the vital, to the being, what makes it responsible is not the desire ...
... to work here, Mina too will have to come here and work." After this I began to talk of my personal difficulties. I put before the Mother a map of my vital being so that she might work on it. I drew her attention again to the need in me for being poised not only in the psychic but also overhead. She agreed. "You must break through the lid and sit above. Have you had some experience of the Kundalini... meaning in the term 'descent'. There is only manifestation." I understood that we individuals have various levels connected with our bodies. The vital plane is connected with our abdominal region. The heart region has to do with the emotional being, the head with the mind plane. And above the head there are the spiritual ranges and on top of them the Supermind. Our consciousness can ascend and the... release in the consciousness. A gate long shut had burst open. A tiny lamp of God had been lit in the unchartered chaos of the lower vital. The morning did not appreciably differ from other mornings. Some aspiration was going on, but nothing unusual. Then I went to the Samadhi. There a strong opening took place. The psychic started flowing and flaming. This was like old times. This was what I had been ...
... your soul will leap up in answer to its direct appeal and recognise at once the truth behind the object, behind your vanished physical self, - you will greet your psychic being or your Atman or at least your inner physical or vital being. Perhaps also you won't.... I have written so much, you will see, in order to say nothing - or at least to avoid your attempt at putting me in an embarrassing dilemma... poetry, but put it in prose and it sounds insane." (10) Poetry of the lower vital: AK: Here is a poem which seems to me an expression of the lower vital - to use our yogic classification - lashed to imaginative fury. Any real possibilities along this line? Sri Aurobindo: An expression of the lower vital lashed to imaginative fury is likely to produce not poetry but simply 'sound and... Sri Aurobindo: The line strikes at once the romantically sentimental note of more than a hundred years ago which is dead and laughed out of court nowadays. Especially in writing anything about vital love, avoid like the plague anything that descends into the sentimental or, worse, the namby-pamby.... Romantic poetry could be genuine in the early nineteenth century, but the attempt to walk back ...
... which one meets mostly on the vital plane, at times on the mental plane. Sri Aurobindo has this to say about these 'dream formations': Sometimes they are the formations of your own mind or vital; sometimes they are the formations of other minds with an exact or modified transcription in yours; sometimes formations come that are made by the non-human forces or beings of these other planes. These... profounder dreams in which one goes out into other planes of consciousness, mental, vital, subtle physical, it is part of our subliminal inner being — inner mental, inner vital or subliminal physical - that is usually active. (What we mean by the subconscient, subliminal, circumconscient and superconscient part s of our being will be explained somewhat later on.) At this point we must hasten to... meditation, it takes possession of the mental, the vital, the conscious physical, but the subconscious vital and physical remain obscure and this obscurity comes up when there is sleep or an inert relaxation." (Sri Aurobindo: Letters on Yoga, p. 1480) But with the growth of an intense sadhana in our waking state, and when we develop our inner being, live from within outward, and our subconscient ...
... Page 76 In the Bulletin Mother has spoken of a body without mind and vital. That is to say, the body has its own means of living, something different from what is called the vital force or Prana? It is a rather special case. The body (in all well developed beings) has a mind and a vital more or less rudimentary which are its particularities and can be fully developed... of him. Because for the true sadhak it is only this that matters. Is it the psychic being that knows or can know what the Supreme Lord expects of me? 19.3.1969 Yes, the psychic being has not only the capacity to know but also to realise. The psychic being, much better than the mind and vital, understands the body and knows how to gain its obedience. 21.3.1969 There is a... interested in the outer cure of my cough than in profiting inwardly by it. It is obvious that if you discover the psychological reason of the cough, that is to say what in your physical or vital being resists the penetration of the Divine Force in your body, not only will you have profited from the illness for making a big progress, but also, the body itself will begin the long work of transformation ...
... to the intellect, but as a matter of fact it is a throw-up from Macbeth's vital being, an emotional or sensational, not an intellectual judgment and its whole turn and rhythm are strongly vital in their vibration and texture. But yet in this passage there is a greater power that has rushed down from above and taken up the vital surge into its movement—so much so that if it had been a spiritual experience... our parts so poor But was a race of heaven— they are plainly vital in their excited thrill, for only the vital can speak with that thrill and pulse of passion—the rhythm also has the vital undulation and surge so common in Shakespeare. I have given an instance elsewhere of Shakespeare's thought-utterance which is really vital, not intellectual— Life is a tale Told... an Overmind movement as well as substance coming strongly coloured by the vital. But where and in what lies the vital colour which makes it the highest Shakespearean and not, say, the highest Wordsworthian—the line inspired by Newton? It is a question of feeling, not of intellectual understanding; to distinguish the vital or psychic or any other element one must have the feeling for its presence—an ...
... renounce being adapted to life as it is and succeeding in it if one wants to prepare for life as it will be and to become an active and efficient part of it. One must refuse pleasure if one wants to open to the delight of existence, in a total beauty and harmony. This brings us quite naturally to vital austerity, the austerity of the sensations, the tapasya of power. For the vital being is the... discerning the quality, origin and effect of the various vital vibrations in order to know whether they are favourable to harmony, beauty and good health or whether they are harmful to the balance and progress of the physical being and the vital. Moreover, the senses should be used as instruments to approach and study the physical and vital worlds in all their complexity; in this way they will take... of sensations and their control should be made with a very scientific austerity and solely for the growth and perfection of the vital, of this highly dynamic instrument, which is as essential for progress as all the other parts of the being. It is by educating the vital, by making it more refined, more sensitive, more subtle and, one should almost say, more elegant, in the best sense of the word ...
... out into open expression what was held covered in the symbolic language of the Veda as a mystery and a secret. Ajataśatru's explanation of sleep and dream, passages of the Praśna Upanishad on the vital being and its motion are some of the examples of Upanishadic symbolism. Along with the Veda, Upanishads rank as Śruti, since they embody revelations and intuitions of spiritual experience. The Upanishads... human being and to develop them in such a way that they could all open up to the spiritual light and force. This attempt had not only an individual aspect but also a collective one. This was a remarkable attempt which could have revolutionised the collective life of India. But this was interrupted on account of several factors. Among these factors was the fact of the exhaustion of the vital force... conflicts and even exclusive affirmations and denials under an overarching tendency towards Page 34 multisided development of the spiritual, ethical, intellectual, aesthetic, vital and physical parts of the being and some kind of synthesis. The latest trend takes up the burden and treasure of the gains of the past and looks towards the future with some kind of basis of effective realisation where ...
... to go?" I admit it was a mistake, probably it was my vital which made me go. My inquiry was about the general rather than the individual effect. The general effect was a quite absurd vital excitement Page 106 rather than dullness — the Mother attached no more importance to X's being here than to any other being here. Also he refused to dance. So what was all the ... would admit that he advanced so quickly because his vital and ego were helping his sadhana, as he wanted to be a great yogi, a superman. With us, the vital and the ego are the two greatest stumbling-blocks all along the path. I admit nothing of the kind. He went quickly because the inner mental being had a great receptivity and the vital a great ardour. But the ego was a stumbling-block... told that when the struggle is strong there intervene some forces of light against the ego and the vital being. May I be told what forces of light are concerned with my present condition? Forces that try to bring the true consciousness and to replace these stupidities of the ordinary vital nature (ego, 1 I soon found out that H's difficulties were much more serious ...
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