The question which Arjuna asks
Sri Krishna in the Gita (2nd Chap.) occurs pertinently
to many about all spiritual personalities: "What is the
language of one whose understanding is poised? How does
he speak, how sit, how walk?"
Men want to know the outer signs of the
inner attainment,--the way in which a spiritual person
differs outwardly from other men. But all the tests
which the Gita enumerates are inner and therefore
invisible to the outer view. It is true also that the
inner or the spiritual is the essential and the outer
derives its value and form from the inner. But the
transformation about which Sri Aurobindo writes in his
books has to take place in nature. So, all the parts of
nature--including the physical and the external--are to
be transformed. In his own case the very physical
became the transparent mould of the Spirit as a result
of his intense Sadhana. This is borne out by the
impression created on the minds of sensitive outsiders
like Sj. K. M. Munshi who was deeply impressed by his
radiating presence when he met him after nearly forty
years.
The Evening-Talks collected
here may afford to the outside world a glimpse of its
richness, its many-sidedness, its uniqueness. One can
also form some notion of Sri Aurobindo's personality
from the books in which the height, the universal sweep
and clear vision of his integral ideal and thought can
be seen.
His writings are, in a sense, the best
representative of his mental personality. The versatile
nature of his genius, the penetrating power of his
intellect, his extraordinary power of expression, his
intense sincerity, his utter singleness of purpose--all
these can be easily felt by any earnest student of his
works. He may discover even in the realm of mind that
Sri Aurobindo brings the unlimited into the limited.
Another side of his dynamic personality is represented
by the Ashram as an institution.
But the outer, if one may use the
phrase, the human side of his personality, is unknown
to the outside world because from 1910 to 1950--a span
of forty years--he had led a life of outer
retirement.
No doubt, many knew about his staying
at Pondicherry and practicing some kind of very special
yoga to the mystery of which they had no access. To
some, perhaps, he was living a life of enviable
solitude enjoying the luxury of spiritual endeavour.
Many regretted his retirement as a great loss to the
world because they could not see any external activity
on his part which could be regarded as "public",
"altruistic" or "beneficial." Even some of his admirers
thought that he was after some kind of personal
salvation which would have very little significance for
mankind in general. His outward non-participation in
public life was construed by many as lack of love for
humanity.
But those who knew him during
the days of the national awakening--from 1900 to
1910--could not have these doubts. And even
these initial misunderstandings and false notions of
others began to evaporate with the growth of the Sri
Aurobindo Ashram from 1927 onwards. The large number of
books published by the Ashram also tended to remove the
idea of the other-worldliness of his yoga and the
absence of any good by it to mankind.
This period of outer retirement was one
of intense Sadhana and of intellectual activity--it was
also one during which he acted on external
events,--though he was not dedicated outwardly to a
public cause. About his own retirement he writes, "But
this did not mean, as most people supposed, that he
(Sri Aurobindo) had retired into some height of
spiritual experience devoid of any further interest in
the world or in life. It could not mean that, for the
very principle of his yoga is not only to realize the
Divine and attain to a complete spiritual
consciousness, but also to take all life and all
world-activity into the scope of this Spiritual
Consciousness and action and to base life on the Spirit
and give it a spiritual meaning.
In his retirement Sri Aurobindo kept a
close watch on all that was happening in the world and
in India and actively intervened, whenever necessary,
but solely with a spiritual Force and silent spiritual
action; for it is part of the experience of those who
have advanced in yoga that, besides the ordinary forces
and activities of the mind and life and body in Matter,
there are other forces and powers that can and do act
from behind and from above; there is also a spiritual
dynamic Power which can be possessed by those who are
advanced in spiritual consciousness,--though all do not
care to possess, or possessing, to use it, and this
Power is greater than any other and more effective. It
was this force which Sri Aurobindo used at first only
in a limited field of personal work, but afterwards, in
a constant action upon the world forces.
Twice he found it necessary to go out
of his way to make public pronouncements on important
world-issues, which shows distinctly that renunciation
of life is not a part of his yoga. "The first was in
relation to the second world-war. At the beginning he
did not actively concern himself with it, but when it
appeared as if Hitler would crush all the forces
opposed to him and Nazism dominate the world, he began
to intervene."
The second was with regard to Sir
Stafford Cripps' proposal for the transfer of power to
India.
Over and above Sadhana, writing-work
and rendering spiritual help to the world during his
apparent retirement there were plenty of other
activities of which the outside world has no knowledge.
Many prominent as well as less known persons sought and
obtained interviews with him during these years. Thus,
among the well-known persons may be mentioned C. R.
Das, Lala Lajpat Rai, Sarala Devi, Dr. Munje, Khasirao
Jadhava, Tagore Sylvain Levy.
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The great national poet of
Tamilnad, Subramania Bharathi, was in
contact with Sri Aurobindo for some years
during his stay at Pondicherry; so was V. V. S.
Aiyar. The famous V. Ramaswamy Aiyangar--Va.
Ra. of Tamil literature--stayed with Sri
Aurobindo for nearly three years and was
influenced by him. Some of these facts have
been already mentioned in "A Life of Sri
Aurobindo."
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Jung has admitted that there is an
element of mystery, something that baffles the reason,
in human personality. One finds that the greater the
personality the greater is the complexity. And this is
especially so with regard to spiritual personalities,
what the Gita calls "Vibhutis" and "Avatars."
Sri Aurobindo has explained the mystery
of personality in some of his writings. Ordinarily by a
personality we mean something which can be described as
"a pattern of being marked out by a settled combination
of fixed qualities, a determined character." In one
view personality is regarded as a fixed structure of
recognizable qualities expressing a power of being;"
another idea regards "personality as a flux of
self-expressive or sensitive and responsive being."
"But flux of nature and fixity of nature--which some
call character--are two aspects of being, neither of
which, nor indeed both together, can be a definition of
personality."
Besides this flux and this fixity there
is also a third and occult element, the Person behind
of whom the personality is a self-expression; the
Person puts forward the personality as his role,
character, persona, in the present act of his long
drama of manifested existence. But the Person is larger
than his personality, and it may happen that this inner
largeness overflows into the surface formation; the
result is a self-expression of being which can no
longer be described by fixed qualities, normalities of
mood, exact lineaments, or marked out structural
limits."
The gospel of the Supermind which Sri
Aurobindo brought to man envisages a new level of
consciousness beyond Mind. When this level is attained
it imposes a complete and radical reintegration of the
human personality. Sri Aurobindo was not merely the
exponent but the embodiment of the new, dynamic truth
of the Supermind. While exploring and sounding the
tremendous possibilities of human personality in his
intense spiritual sadhana, he has shown us that
practically there are no limits to its expansion and
ascent. It can reach in its growth what appears to man
at present as a "divine" status. It goes without saying
that this attainment is not an easy task; there are
conditions to be fulfilled for the transformation from
the human to the divine.
The Gita in its chapters on the Vibhuti
and the Avatar takes in general the same position. It
shows that the present formula of our nature, and
therefore the mental personality of man, is not final.
A Vibhuti embodies in a human manifestation a certain
divine quality and thus demonstrates the possibility of
over coming the limits of ordinary human personality.
The Vibhuti,--the embodiment of a divine quality or
power,--and the Avatar--the divine incarnation--are not
to be looked upon as supraphysical miracles thrown at
humanity without regard to the process of evolution;
they are, in fact, indications of human possibility, a
sign that points to the goal of evolution.
In his Essays on the Gita, Sri
Aurobindo says about the Avatar:
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"He may on the other hand
descend as an incarnation of divine life, the
divine personality and power in its
characteristic action, for a mission ostensibly
social, ethical and political, as is
represented in the story of Rama and Krishna;
but always then his descent becomes in the soul
of the race a permanent power for the inner and
Spiritual rebirth."
"He comes as the divine power
and love which calls men to itself, so that
they may take refuge in that and no longer in
the insufficiency of their human wills and the
strife of their human fear, wrath and passion,
and liberated from all the unquiet and
suffering may live in the calm and bliss of the
Divine."
"The Avatar comes to reveal the
divine nature in men above their lower nature
and to show what are the divine works, free,
unegoistic, disinterested, impersonal,
universal, full of the divine light, the divine
power and the divine loves. He comes as a
divine personality, which shall fill the
consciousness of the human being, to replace
the limited egoistic personality, so that it
shall be liberated out of ego into infinity and
universality, out of birth into
immortality,"
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It is clear that Sri Aurobindo
interpreted the traditional idea of the Vibhuti and the
Avatar in terms of the evolutionary possibilities of
man. But more directly he has worked out the idea of
the "gnostic individual" in his masterpiece The Life
Divine. He says: "A Supramental gnostic individual will
be a Spiritual Person, but not a personality, in the
sense of a pattern of being marked out by a settled
combination of fixed qualities, a determined character;
he cannot be that since he is a conscious expression of
the Universal and the Transcendent." Describing the
gnostic individual he says: "we feel ourselves in the
presence of a light of consciousness, a potency, a sea
of energy, can distinguish and describe its free waves
of action and quality, but not fix itself; and yet
there is an impression of Personality the presence of a
powerful being, a strong, high or beautiful
recognizable Someone, a Person, not a limited creature
of Nature but a Self or Soul a Purusha."
One feels that he was describing the
feeling of some of us--his disciples--with regard to
him in his inimitable way.
This transformation of the human
personality into the Divine--perhaps even the mere
connection of the human with the Divine--is probably
regarded as a chimera by the modern mind. To the modern
mind it would appear as the apotheosis of a human
personality which is against its idea of equality of
men. Its difficulty is partly due to the notion that
the Divine is unlimited and illimitable while a
"personality", however high and grand, seems to demand
imposition, or assumption, of limitation. In this
connection Sri Aurobindo said during an Evening Talk:
"No human manifestation can be illimitable and
unlimited but the manifestation in the limited should
reflect the unlimited, the "Transcendent Beyond."
(28-4-1923)
This possibility of the human touching
and manifesting the Divine has been realized during the
course of human history whenever a great spiritual
Light has appeared on earth. One of the purposes of
this book is to show how Sri Aurobindo himself
reflected the unlimited Beyond in his own self.
Greatness is magnetic and in a sense
contagious. Whenever manifested, greatness is claimed
by humanity as something that reveals the possibility
of the race. The highest quality of greatness is not
merely to attract us but to inspire us to follow it and
rise to our own highest spiritual stature. To the
majority of men Truth remains abstract, impersonal and
far unless it is seen and felt concretely in a human
personality. A man never knows a truth actively except
through a person and by embodying it in his
personality. Some glimpse of the Truth-Consciousness
which Sri Aurobindo embodied may be caught in these
Evening Talks.
II
Guru griha vasa--"staying in
the home of the Guru"--is a very old Indian ideal
maintained by seekers through the ages.
The Aranyakas--"the ancient teachings
in the forest groves"--are perhaps the oldest records
of the institution. It was not for "education" in the
modern sense of the term that men went to live with the
Guru; for the Guru is not a "teacher". The Guru is one
who is "enlightened," who is a seer, a Rishi, one who
has the vision of and has lived the Truth. He has,
thus, the knowledge of the goal of human life and has
learnt true values in life by living the truth. He can
impart both these to the willing seeker. In ancient
times seekers went to the Guru with many questions,
difficulties and doubts but also with earnestness.
Their questions were preliminary to the quest.
The Master the Guru, set at rest the
puzzled human mind by his illuminating answers, perhaps
even more by his silent consciousness, so that it might
be able to pursue unhampered the path of realization of
the Truth. Those ancient discourses answer the mind of
man to-day even across the ages. They have rightly
acquired--as everything of the past does--a certain
sanctity. But sometimes that very reverence prevents
men from properly evaluating, and living in, the
present. This happens when the mind instead of seeking
the Spirit looks at the form. For instance, it is not
necessary for such discourses that they take place in
forest groves in order to be highly spiritual. Wherever
the Master is, there is Light And Gura griha--the house
of the Master--can be his private dwelling place.
So much was this feeling a part
of Sri Aurobindo's nature and so particular was he to
maintain the personal character of his work that during
the first few years--after 1923--he did not like his
house to be called an "Ashram", as the word had
acquired the sense of a public institution to the
modern mind.
But there was no doubt that the flower
of Divinity had blossomed in him; and disciples, likes
bees seeking honey, came to him. It is no exaggeration
to say that these Evening-Talks were to the small
company of disciples what the Aranyakas were to the
ancient seekers.
Seeking the Light, they came to the
dwelling place of their Guru, the greatest seer of the
age, and found it their spiritual home--the home of
their parents, for, the Mother, his companion in the
great mission, had come. And these spiritual parents
bestowed upon the disciples freely of their Light,
their consciousness, their power and their grace.
The modern reader may find that the
form of these discourses differs from those of the past
but it was bound to be so for the simple reason that
the times have changed and the problems that puzzle the
modern mind are so different. Even though the disciples
may be very imperfect representations of what he aimed
at in them, still they are his creations. It is in
order to repay, in however infinitesimal a degree, the
debt which we owe to him that the effort is made to
partake of the joy of his company--the
Evening-Talks--with a larger public.
III
Evening Sittings
Sri Aurobindo was never a social man in
the current sense of the term and definitely he was not
a man of the crowd. This was due to his grave
temperament, not to any feeling of superiority or to
repulsion for men. At Baroda there was an Officer's
Club which was patronized by the Maharajah and though
Sri Aurobindo enrolled himself as a member he hardly
went to the Club even on special occasions. He rather
liked a small congenial circle of friends and spent
most of his evenings with them whenever he was free and
not occupied with his studies of other works.
After Baroda when he went to Calcutta
there was hardly any time in the storm and stress of
revolutionary politics to permit him to lead a "social
life." What little time he could spare from his
incessant activities was spent in the house of Raja
Subodh Malick or at the Grey Street house. In the Karma
yogin office he used to sit after the office hours till
late chatting with a few persons or trying automatic
writing. Strange dictations used to be received
sometimes: one of them was the following: "Moni (Suresh
Chakarvarty) will bomb Sir Edward Grey when he will
come as the Viceroy of India." In later years at
Pondicherry there used to be a joke that Sir Edward
took such a fright at the prospect of Moni's bombing
him that he never came to India!
After Sri Aurobindo had come to
Pondicherry from Chandranagore he entered upon an
intense period of spiritual sadhana and for a few
months he refused to receive anyone. After a time he
used to sit down to talk in the evening and on some
days tried automatic writing. Yogic Sadhana--a small
book--was the result. In 1913 Sri Aurobindo removed to
Rue Francois Martin No. 41 where he used to receive
persons at fixed times. This was generally in the
morning between 9 and 10. 30.
But, over and above newcomers, some
local people and the few inmates of the house used to
have informal talk with Sri Aurobindo in the evening.
In the beginning the inmates used to go out for playing
foot-ball, and during their absence known local
individuals would come in and wait for Sri Aurobindo.
Afterwards regular meditation began at about 4. p. m.
in which practically all the inmates participated.
After the meditation all of the members and those who
were permitted shared in the evening sitting. This was
a very informal gathering depending entirely upon Sri
Aurobindo's leisure. When Sri Aurobindo and the Mother
removed to No. 9 Rue de la Marine in 1922 the same
routine of informal evening sittings after meditation
continued.
I came to Pondicherry for Sadhana in
the beginning of 1923. I kept notes of the
important talks I had with the four or five disciples
who were already there. Besides, I used to take
detailed notes of the evening-talks which we all had
with the Master. They were not intended by him to be
noted down. I took them down because of the importance
I felt about everything connected with him, no matter
how insignificant to the outer view. I also felt that
everything he did would acquire for those who would
come to know his mission a very great
significance.
As years passed the evening sittings
went on changing their time and often those disciples
who came from outside for a temporary stay for Sadhana
were allowed to join them. And, as the number of
Sadhaks practicing the yoga increased, the evening
sittings also became more full, the small verandah
upstairs in the main building was found insufficient.
Members of the household would gather every day at the
fixed time with some sense of expectancy and start
chatting in low tones. Sri Aurobindo used to come last
and it was after his coming that the session would
really commence.
He came dressed as usual in Dhoti, part
of which was used by him to cover the upper part of his
body. Very rarely he came out with Chaddar or Shawl and
then it was "in deference to the climate" as he
sometimes put it.
At times for minutes he would be
gazing at the sky from a small opening at the top of
the grass-curtains that covered the verandah of the
upstairs in No. 9 Rue de la Marine.
How much were these sittings dependent
on him may be gathered from the fact that there were
days when more than three-fourths of the time passed in
complete silence without any outer suggestion from him,
or there was only an abrupt "Yes" or "No" to all
attempts at drawing him out in conversation. And even
when he participated in the talk one always felt that
his voice was that of one who does not let his whole
being flow into his words; there was a reserve and what
was left unsaid was perhaps more than what was spoken.
What was spoken was what he felt necessary to
speak.
These sittings, in fact, furnished Sri
Aurobindo with an occasion to admit and feel the outer
atmosphere and that of the group living with him. It
brought to him the much-needed direct contact of the
mental and vital make-up of the disciples, enabling him
to act on the atmosphere in general and to the
individual in particular. He could thus help to remould
their mental make-up by removing the limitations of
their minds and opinions, and correct temperamental
tendencies and formations. Thus, these sittings
contributed at least partly to the creation of an
atmosphere amenable to the working of the Higher
Consciousness.
Far more important than the actual talk
and its content was the personal contact, the influence
of the Master, and the divine atmosphere he emanated;
for through his outer personality it was the Divine
Consciousness that he allowed to act. All along behind
the outer manifestation that appeared human, there was
the influence and presence of the Divine.
What was talked in the small group
informally was not intended by Sri Aurobindo to be the
independent expression of his views on the subjects,
events or the persons discussed. Very often what he
said was in answer to the spiritual need of the
individual or of the collective atmosphere. It was like
a spiritual remedy meant to produce certain spiritual
results, not a philosophical or metaphysical
pronouncement on questions, events or movements. The
net result of some talks very often was to point out to
the disciple the inherent incapacity of the human
intellect and its secondary place in the search for the
ultimate Reality.
But there were occasions when he did
give his independently personal views on some problems,
on events and other subjects. Even then it was never an
authoritarian pronouncement. Most often it appeared to
be a logically worked out and almost inevitable
conclusion expressed quite impersonally though with
firm and sincere conviction. This impersonality was
such a prominent trait of his personality! Even in such
matters as dispatching a letter or a telegram it would
not be a command from him to a disciple to carry out
the task. Most often during his usual passage to the
dining room he would stop on the way, drop in on the
company of four or five disciples and, holding out the
letter or the telegram, would say in the most amiable
and yet the most impersonal way: "I suppose this has to
be sent." And it would be for some one in the group
instantly to volunteer and take it. The expression very
often he used was "It was done", "It happened" not "I
did."
There were two places where these
sittings took place. At the third place there was no
sitting but informal talk to a small number of
disciples who were attending him after the accident in
November 1938.
From 1918 to 1922 we gathered at No: 41
Rue Francois Martin, called the Guest House, upstairs,
on a broad verandah into which four rooms opened and
whose main piece of furniture was a small table 3'/x 1
1/2', covered with a blue cotton cloth. That is where
Sri Aurobindo used to sit in a hard wooden chair behind
the table with a few chairs in front for the visitors
or for the disciples.
From 1922 to 1926 No. 9 Rue de la
Marine, where he and the Mother had shifted, was the
place where the sittings were held. There, also
upstairs, was a less broad verandah than at the Guest
House, a little bigger table in front of the central
door out of three, and a broad Japanese chair--the
table covered with a better cloth than the one in the
Guest House, a small flower vase, an ash-tray, a block
calendar indicating the date and an ordinary
time-piece, a number of chairs in front in a line. The
evening sittings used to be after meditation at 4 or
4-30 p.m. After November 24, 1926, the sitting began to
get later and later, till the limit of 1 o'clock at
night was reached. Then the curtain fell. Sri Aurobindo
retired completely after December 1926 and the evening
sittings came to a close.
Then, on November 23, 1938 I got up at
2 o'clock to prepare hot water for the Mother's early
bath because the 24th was Darshan day. Between 2.20 and
2.30 the Mother rang the bell. I ran up the staircase
to be told about an accident that had happened to Sri
Aurobindo's foot and to be asked to fetch the doctor.
This accident brought about a change in his complete
retirement, and rendered him available to those who had
to attend on him. This opened out a long period of 12
years during which his retirement was modified owing to
circumstances, inner and outer, that made it possible
for him to have direct physical contacts with the world
outside.
The long period of the second world war
with all its vicissitudes passed through these years.
It was a priceless experience to see how he devoted his
energies to the task of saving humanity from the
threatened reign of Nazism. It was a practical lesson
of solid work done for humanity without any thought of
return or reward, without even letting humanity know
what he was doing for it! Thus he lived the Divine and
showed us how the Divine cares for the world, how he
comes down and works for man. I shall never forget how
he who was at one time--in his own words--"not merely a
non-co-operator but an enemy of British Imperialism"
bestowed such anxious care on the health of Churchill,
listening carefully to the health bulletins! It was the
work of the Divine, it was the Divine's work for the
world.
There were no formal evening sittings
during these years but what appeared to me important in
the talks was recorded and has been incorporated in
this book.
DECEMBER, 1938
10-12-1938
Disciple: Why did you choose
Pondicherry as the place for your Sadhana?
Sri Aurobindo: Because it was by an
Adesh--command from Above--I was asked to come here.
When I was leaving Bombay for Calcutta I asked Lele
what I should do regarding my Sadhana. He kept silent
for some time [probably waiting to hear a voice from
the heart] and replied, "Meditate at a fixed time and
hear the voice in the heart."
I did not hear the voice from the
heart, but a different voice and I dropped meditation
at fixed time because meditation was going on all the
time. When Lele came to Calcutta and heard about it, he
said that the devil had caught hold of me. I said, "If
it is the devil, I will follow him."
Disciple: People say that 'Yogic
Sadhan' was written by the being of Keshab Sen?
Sri Aurobindo: Keshab Sen? When I was
writing it, every time at the beginning and at the end
the image of Ram Mohan Roy came before me. So perhaps,
Ram Mohan has been changed to Keshab Sen. Do you know
the origin of the name "Uttara Yogi?"
Disciple: No, Sir.
Sri Aurobindo: There was a famous Yogi
in the South who while dying said to his disciples that
a Purna Yogi from the North would come down to the
South and he would be known by his three sayings. The
three sayings were those I had written to my wife. A
Zamindar--disciple of that Yogi--found me out and bore
the cost of the book "Yogic Sadhan."
Disciple: Tagore never spoke at any
time about Ramakrishna and Vivekananda except recently
when he wrote a very ordinary poem on Ramakrishna
during his centenary. He used to tell girls that
Ramakrishna used very often to deride women saying
"Kamini Kanchan" are the roots of bondage and still
women worshipped him.
Sri Aurobindo: I understand that
Ramakrishna used to say "Kama Kanchana". When the
division came after his death one party said that he
never uttered "Kamani" but "Kama". I don't think there
was any one in Brahmo Samaj with spiritual realization.
Dwijendra Nath had something in him and Shiva Nath
Shastri too and perhaps Kesab Sen. Bejoy Goswami ceased
to be a Brahmo.
Disciple: Lele had realization?
Sri Aurobindo: Of course, he had some,
but as I said he had ambition and ego.
Disciple: It is said that Christ used
to heal simply by a touch. Is it possible?
Sri Aurobindo: Why not? There are many
instances of such cures. Of course, faith is necessary.
Christ himself said "Thy faith has made thee
whole."
Disciple: Is faith always necessary for
such a cure?
Sri Aurobindo: No, cure can be done
without faith, especially when one does not know what
is being done. Faith is above the mind so that any
discussion or dispute spoils the action of the
faith.
Disciple: I knew also such instances of
cure or help by faith. When I came to see you first,
you told me to remember you in my difficulties. As I
returned I did so and I passed through all the
difficulties, but as soon as I came here I heard many
things from Sadhaks and did not get the same result. I
thought, perhaps, I was, not able to open myself to
you.
Sri Aurobindo: That is called simple
faith, or as some call it, "blind faith." When
Ramakrishna was asked about faith, he said, "all faith
is blind otherwise there is no faith." He was quite
right.
Disciple: Is it because there is
something in the nature of environmental influence that
doubt come and one does not get the same result as
before?
Sri Aurobindo: Both; the physical mind
has these things, doubt, etc. and they come up at one
time or the other. And by contact with other people
also faith gets obscured. I knew a shocking instance in
the Ashram. A truthful man came here. A Sadhak told him
that speaking of the truth always is a superstition.
One must be free to say what one likes. And then there
is another instance of a Sadhak who said that sex
indulgence is no hindrance to yoga, it can be allowed,
and everyone must have his Shakti. When such ideas are
prevalent no wonder that they cast bad influence on
others.
Disciple: Such people ought to be
quarantined?
Sri Aurobindo: I thought of that but it
is not possible. Mother at one time tried to impose
some restrictions and regulations but it did not work.
One has to change from within. There are, of course,
other yogic systems which have such strict regulations.
Buddhism is unique in that respect. There is a school
in France [Labratte?] which enjoins strict silence.
Disciple: Is such exterior imposition
good?
Sri Aurobindo: It can be good provided
one sincerely keeps to it. For instance, in that school
in France, people who enter there know what they want
and so keep to the regulation that are meant to help
them in achieving their aim.
The world has to change,--people here
are epitomes of the world. Each one represents a type
of humanity and if one type is conquered that means a
great victory for the work. And for this change a
constant will is required. If that is there, lots of
things can be done for the Sadhak as they were
done.
Disciple: Things became sluggish
afterwards.
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, it is when the
Sadhana came down in the physical and the subconscient
that things became very difficult. I myself had to
struggle for two years; for the subconscient is
absolutely inert like stone. Though my mind was quite
awake above, it could not exert and influence down
below. It is a Herculean labour, for when one enters
there, it is a sort of an unexplored continent.
Previous Yogis came down to the vital. If I had been
made to see it before, probably, I would have been less
enthusiastic about it. That is the instance of blind
faith. The ancients were quite right perhaps in leaving
the physical, but if I had left it there, the real work
would have remained undone. And once it is conquered,
it becomes easy for people who come after me, which is
what is meant by realization of one in all.
Disciple: Then we can wait for that
victory!!
Sri Aurobindo: You want an easy
path!
Disciple: Not only easy but like a baby
we want to be carried about. Is it possible?
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, but one has to be a
baby--and a genuine baby.
Disciple: Ramakrishna has said a Yogi
need not be always like a drawn sword.
Sri Aurobindo: When did he say that and
what did he mean by that? A Yogi has always to be
vigilant, especially in the early part of one's
Sadhana. Otherwise all one has gained can come down
like a thud. People here usually don't make Sadhana the
one part of their life. They have two parts: one, the
internal and other external, which goes on with
ordinary movements, social contacts, etc. Sadhana must
be made the one part of the being.
Disciple: You spoke about the brilliant
period of the Ashram.
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, it was when Sadhana
was going on in the vital and when it is that,
everything is joy, peace, etc. and if I had stopped
there, we could have started a big religion, or
something like it. But the real work would have been
left undone.
Disciple: Why did you retire? To
concentrate more on your work?
Sri Aurobindo: No, to withdraw from the
physical atmosphere. If I had to do the work the Mother
is doing, I would have hardly time to do my own work,
besides its being a tremendous labour.
Disciple: Vishudhanand of Banares is
said to be able to produce all sorts of perfumes,
scents, etc.
Sri Aurobindo: It is difficult to know
if they (perfumes) are all materialization or subtle
perfumes projected into the physical or on the senses.
Paul Brunton saw always some pressure accompanying him.
When he saw my photo, it had nothing to resemble it but
when he saw me at the Darshan, he at once recognized me
as that pressure.
Disciple: Why does one rise and fall
physically in meditation?
Sri Aurobindo: It is not the physical
but the vital body separating itself from the body. At
one time I thought physical Siddhi was impossible. But
in Alipore jail, once I found that my body had occupied
a position which it was physically impossible to have.
Then again; I was practicing to raise my hands and keep
them suspended without any muscular control. Once in
that raised condition of hands I fell off to sleep. The
warder saw this condition and reported that I had died.
Authorities came and found me quite alive. I told them
he was a fool.
There is a French author Joules Romain.
He is a medical man and a mystic. He can see with other
parts of the body with eyes closed. He says, "Eyes are
only a specialized organ." Other parts can as well be
trained to see. But scientists refused to admit his
demonstration.
Disciple: Ramana Maharshi does not
believe in the descent (of the Supermind).
Sri Aurobindo: It--the descent is the
experience of many Sadhaks even outside our Yoga. An
old Sanyasi of the Ramakrishna Mission saw a flood of
light descending and when he asked he was told it was
all the work of the devil and the whole experience
stopped afterwards. In Maharshi's case he has received
the thing in the heart and has worked with it, so he
does not feel the descent.
Disciple: I believe that grace is
without condition.
Sri Aurobindo: That may be true from
the side of the Divine but the man must try to fulfill
the condition under which alone grace can act.
[In this respect Sir Aurobindo's
writing in The Mother was quoted by a disciple where he
lays down that "the grace will work under the
conditions of the Truth, not under those imposed upon
it by falsehood."
Disciple: Grace is grace, but one need
not sit with folded hands. What is achieved is by the
divine grace.
Sri Aurobindo: Grace is of course
unconditional, but it is for men to fulfill the
conditions. It is as if man was continually spilling
from a cup in which something was being poured.
11-12-1938
Disciple: Is there no justice for the
misdeeds of people like S, V and N? Surely they will
have to bear the consequences of their actions? And yet
how is it these people succeed in life?
Sri Aurobindo: Justice in this life?
May not be. Most probably not. But justice is not what
most people believe it to be. It is said that virtuous
people will have happiness, prosperity etc. in another
life while in this life they have the opposite effects.
In that case, the people you speak of must have been
virtuous in their previous life. There is justice in
the sense that the virtuous and pious people advance
towards Sattwic nature while the contrary one goes down
the scale of humanity and become more and more
Asuric. That is what I have said in the "Arya."
(At this moment Mother came in and
asked what was the subject of talk.)
Sri Aurobindo replied that X was asking
about justice, whether it exists. After some moments'
pause Mother said: "Of course, there is justice; these
people suffer, they are tormented and not happy within.
But that unhappiness does not seem to change them. They
go from worse to worse; yes; but in some cases as the
divine pressure goes on acting, at some time,
especially during some impending catastrophe, suddenly
some change takes place in these people. We saw a
number of people like that. e.g. those who were trying
to persecute Sri Aurobindo.
Disciple: You have said in your Prayers
that justice exists. One cannot avoid the law of Karma
except by Divine Grace.
Sri Aurobindo: N. may be a scoundrel
but he has capacity and cleverness and so he will
surely succeed. It is that capacity and cleverness that
succeeds in life not virtues etc.
Disciple: To cheat people and get
money? Is it cleverness?
Sri Aurobindo: Of course, it is
cleverness or you may say, misuse of cleverness. But I
don't say that cleverness will not have its
consequences, but at the same time it is these
qualities that succeed in life.
Disciple: Why does not one believe in
Grace?
Mother: It is because the human mind
arranges and combines things and does not leave any
room for the Grace. For instance, when one is cured of
a disease or passes an examination, he thinks it is due
to medicine or some chance. He does not see that in
between, or behind, there may be Grace acting on him.
Is it not so?
Sri Aurobindo: They would call it
luck.
Mother: If you don't recognize the
Grace how can it work? It is as if you had shut your
doors against it, Of course, it can work below,
underneath so to say.
Disciple: Doesn't it act
unconditionally?
Mother: It does, especially in those
people who have been predestined for some thing; but if
one recognizes and expresses gratitude, it acts more
forcefully and quickly.
Disciple: Isn't it because we are
ignorant?
Mother: No, I know many ignorant people
having the Grace expressing a deep gratitude rising
from the heart.
Disciple: We would like the Grace to
act like a mother feeding a hungry baby, giving things
when it needs etc.
Sri Aurobindo: And who is the baby?
(loud laughter)
Mother: But the Grace does not work
according to human demands or conceptions. It has its
own law and way. How can it? Very often what seems to
be a great blow or calamity at the present moment may
appear to be a great blessing after ten years and
people say that their real life began after that.
Sri Aurobindo: Grace is unconditional
but at the same time, how will it work if a man is
throwing away the Grace, or does not recognize it? It
is like a man spilling away from the cup in which
something is being poured. Mother said that she is
interested to see the reactions with the two fellows.
It may have different results in both. She can't say
how it will be different.
Disciple: Will it be a question of a
degree?
Sri Aurobindo: No, difference of
quality also. One is more stupid and blind than the
other who knows consciously what he is aiming at. So
the former has less power to harm.
Disciple: Perhaps one may change for
the better during life?
Mother: That is romance.
Disciple: Especially S. may return to
Ashram again.
Mother: {looked very amused and said)
Do you think so? When a man turns his back he has no
chance, no possibility. One who is given a chance may
have a possibility.
Disciple: The law of Karma according to
Jainism is inexorable. Even the Tirthankars can't
escape it, and have to pay in exact mathematical
proportion.
Sri Aurobindo: It is a great thing. But
too wonderful and mathematical to be true. e.g. a son
who lived for a short time cost a great deal of money
to the father for his ill-health. It was said that the
father had been the debtor to the son in previous life
and the son realized exactly the same amount of money
which he had lent by means of his illness and died.
(Laughter)
Disciple: There is what is Nikachit
Karma or Utkata Karma which cannot be avoided. It is
like a knot that cannot be untied. It is like a silk
thread tied and burnt.
Sri Aurobindo: It may be this Utkata
Karma that brought about the accident (to his
foot).
Disciple: What is incomprehensible is
the unmerited suffering of the physical consciousness
in your case.
Sri Aurobindo: How do you know it is
unmerited? Perhaps it was to give me knowledge of what
intense pain is. I had ordinary pains before which I
could turn into Ananda. But this was intense. I never
had the experience when it came suddenly and abruptly,
I could not change it into Ananda. When it became of
steady nature I could. Besides, we shall see afterwards
the full significance. Of course, I accept it as a part
of the battle.
Disciple: When will you be cured?
Sri Aurobindo: Don't ask me the
question. It is just what I can't know, for,
immediately I say something the hostile forces would at
once rush to prevent it. That is why I don't want to
prophesy. Not that things are not known, or
possibilities not seen. For instance, there are things
about which I had definitely said. But where it is a
question of possibilities, I don't tie myself to that
chain of possibilities For if I do that I commit myself
in advance to certain lines of movement and the result
of it may not be what I want, and I won't be able to
bring down that for which I am striving, it may not be
the highest but something partial. But plenty of people
can prophesy. That capacity is common among Yogis. When
I was arrested, my maternal-grand-aunt asked Swami
Bhaskaranand, "What will happen to our Aurobindo?" He
replied, "The Divine Mother has taken him in her arms;
nothing will happen to him. But he is not your
Aurobindo. He is world's Aurobindo and the world will
be filled with his perfume.". Another time I was taken
by Jatin Banerji to a Swami Narayan Jyotishi who
foretold about my three trials, white enemies and also
my release. When my horoscope was shown he said that
there was some mistake about time and when the time was
corrected he replied, "Oh, the lead is turned into gold
now."
Disciple: Have you had any prophesy in
dreams? Many people get dreams or vision of coming
events.
Disciple: I know the instance of A's
daughter-in-law who saw him carried to cemetery and
exactly two hours after he died of heart failure.
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, that is a good
instance of that.
Disciple: Even without knowing the
person concerned can one prophesy like that? i.e. like
Bhaskaranand?
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, it is an intuitive
power. I once tried to see a man who was to be elected
and saw a figure seated in the office but quite
different and unknown, not the one elected. After some
time a quarrel took place between my brother-in-law and
a Government official and he was called. But my mistake
"Bose" became "Ghose", and I had to go and see the man.
I found the same man of my vision sitting as the
Governor and I was much surprised.
On another occasion a friend of X. (V.
Ramaswamy Aiyanger) was coming to see me and I wanted
to have a vision of the man. I saw him as having clean
shaven head, bull-dog face; but when he came, I found
his appearance quite different, regular South Indian
Brahmin features. But curiously enough, exactly after
two years I saw that the man had changed to what I had
seen of him in vision. These thing are thrown out from
the subtle world to the surface consciousness. There is
another instance; I was a great tea addict and could
not do any work without a cup of tea. The management of
tea was in charge of my brother-in-law. He used to
bring the tea at any time he woke up from sleep. One
day though I had much work to do I was thinking, "When
will he bring tea?" "Why does he not come?" and looked
at the watch when exactly, at the very moment, the tea
was brought. I had made a rule never to ask anything
from anybody.
Disciple: Is consciousness of the
Divine possible in the physical cells even?
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, the cells can have
peace, joy, etc. and when they are quite conscious,
they can throw out the opposing forces. When peace
descends in the physical it is a great force for
cure.
Disciple: Can one have peace without
knowing it?
Sri Aurobindo: That is natural peace
which is more than quietude. But there is a positive
peace which one knows and feels. Truth also can descend
in the physical, and also Power, but very few can bear
Power. Light also descends. I remember a disciple
telling his Guru about the descent of Light in him.
The Guru said, "The devil has caught
hold of you", and from that time the disciple lost
everything.
There is an infinite sea of peace,
ananda, above the head; if one is in contact with it
one can get them always.
Disciple: Do any thoughts or
suggestions come to you?
Sri Aurobindo: What do you mean?
Thoughts and suggestions come to me from every side and
I don't refuse them. I accept them and see what they
are. But what you call "thinking" that I never do.
Thinking in that sense had ceased long ago since I had
that experience with Lele. Thoughts, as I said; come to
me from all sides and from above and the transmitting
mind remains quiet, or it enlarges to receive them.
True thoughts come in this way. You can't think out
such thoughts, what Mother call
"mental-constructions."
Disciple: Was "Arya" written in that
way?
Sri Aurobindo: No, it was directly
transmitted into the pen. It is a great relief to get
out of that responsibility.
Disciple: Yes, Sir?
Sri Aurobindo: I don't mean
responsibility in general but that of thinking about
everything. Some thoughts are given or reflected from
outside. It is not that I don't ask for knowledge. When
I want knowledge I call for it. The Higher faculty sees
thoughts as if written on a wall.
13-12-1938
Mother came at 5-55 and meditated till
after 7-5. It is difficult to say whether the feast of
silent meditation was more precious than the
conversation which happened to take place after Mother
left for evening meditation.
Sri Aurobindo: (with a smile to X.)
Meditating?
Disciple: I am trying hard; Sir, for
the last three-fourths of an hour but have not
succeeded. Many unwanted thoughts come.
Sri Aurobindo: What are they?
Disciple: Some nonsense.
Sri Aurobindo: Some extraordinary
non-sense like perpetual attendance on the Maharajah or
successor to Mussolini?
Disciple: No sir, the thought of the
Maharajah comes very rarely. But why does not one
succeed in meditating even after so many trials? The
last time I had fine meditation was when Dr. N. came
from Madras.
But I see my friend N. at once bends
his head down and I believe he is merged in
Satchidananda.
Disciple: Yes, in despair, perhaps. I
go to sleep.
Sri Aurobindo: But there is power of
deep concentration on your face (laughter).
Disciple: Can one go to sleep in
despair?
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, as a refuge out of
the despair. Apart from that, it happens to everybody
except for yogis who have made it their business to
meditate. And even they find there are periods of
blankness when nothing seems to be done or going
on.
Disciple: As he is a poet he may be
living in higher regions.
Sri Aurobindo: You must no forget
Shakespeare's saying that "All poetry is telling lies."
(laughter)
Disciple: He is not a poet of that
sort.
Disciple: Perhaps you had a dose of
meditation last week which you are now assimilating;
you are suffering from spiritual dyspepsia.
Disciple: But some people go into
unconsciousness as soon as they begin meditation. For
example R. and C. Even P. when he used to join became
unconscious of the body.
Sri Aurobindo: Some yogis require a
support to prevent their bodies from falling while they
are in meditation. Those who practice Asan can remain
erect. There are some who go to sleep standing like the
horse. My grand-father, Raj Narayan Bose, was like
that. One day we were walking together at night.
Suddenly we missed him. When we came back we saw him
sleeping standing.
Disciple: It is a question of habit and
convenience, I think.
Disciple: Was Raj Narayan practicing
meditation?
Sri Aurobindo: Not much. It was a
Brahmo-meditation. (Laughter)
Disciple: Sometimes meditation used to
come to me spontaneously at my place and I used to get
into a condition when I would be compelled to sit down
to meditate.
Sri Aurobindo: It was probably the
inner being insisting on it. It is always better to
allow it to work.
Disciple: It used to happen even when I
would be leaving for my work. For days I used to feel
that my head was resting on the Mother's feet. What is
that?
Sri Aurobindo: It was the experience of
Psychic Bhakti.
Disciple: But then it went away. How to
retain that experience?
Sri Aurobindo: The condition is "to
want that and nothing else." If you have that intense
passion for union with the Divine then it can remain.
It is too difficult, is it? So, it is better to allow
the higher Power to work.
Disciple: We have been trying hard to
make him remain here for three months but he is all the
time thinking of his family.
Disciple: I feel a pull upward in the
head while meditating.
Sri Aurobindo: It is the mind trying to
ascend to the Higher consciousness.
Disciple: Sometimes I feel myself
widening.
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, sometimes one feels
the head opening or expanding. That is the sign of the
mental being opening to the Power.
Disciple: Sometimes I see sky, ocean,
or mountains and forests.
Sri Aurobindo: Yes. One sees many
things i.e. by the inner sight. These are symbols of
life or energy. Sky is the symbol of the mind. Mountain
is the symbol of the being with its different planes
and parts with the Divine as the summit. Forests are
symbols of the vital.
Disciple: These visions are seen by
many (quite common).
Sri Aurobindo: Oh yes, as the mind
expands so also the heart expands and also the vital.
If one sees those things outside oneself then that has
only symbolic significance but if one feels the
widening or coming of Light in himself then that
increases the opening and the receptivity of the
being.
Disciple: What do you mean by the
Divine or the Supreme?
Sri Aurobindo: I mean by it a
consciousness of which the Gita speaks as Param Bhavam,
Purushottama, Parabrahman, Paramatman. That is to say,
the origin and the support and cause of every thing. It
is Omnipotent, Omnipresent, everywhere, You can't
define it. You limit it if you define it. It can be
described as Satchidananda. It is everything, it is
everywhere, it is in everything. It is impersonal,
'Neti, Neti;' it is also 'Iti, Iti'. You can have the
experience of Satchidananda on any plane. These things
cannot be known by the mind or by discussion. The
"Golden lid has to be broken".
Disciple: What will happen if one
realizes the divine consciousness?
Sri Aurobindo: First thing, you will
become calm, quiet; secondly, there will be the feeling
of strength, I mean the presence of a Force. Thirdly,
the sense of the Infinite will be felt, you will feel
yourself as the Infinite. Fourthly, something will be
always there behind which will be able to govern the
nature. Also the sense of Eternity and of yourself as
Immortal. Even though the body dies you know you are
immortal. Also there are many things more. For example,
freedom from every thing even from the world. You
realize the Transcendental and the Universal
consciousness.
Realization of the fundamental being
may be the beginning i.e. of the Essential being,
Consciousness and Delight. Then, everything is divine,
you are divine, you live in the divine: it is one of
the most Anandamaya experiences. It is a concrete and
real thing and not an idea. You cannot explain these
things. You can't explain even a stone in spite of your
science. Everything is not material but mystical at
bottom.
Disciple: Is it that this experience
formulates itself differently in different Yogis to
suit their personalities? or the difference is due to
nature or personality itself?
Sri Aurobindo: There, personality is no
longer separate. It is the One putting itself forward
with a special quality, stress or emphasis. Nimbarka's
Bhedabheda means that.
Disciple: You have also spoken of the
veil in the heart.
Sri Aurobindo: It is also true. It
sometimes requires removing the veil and breaking the
wall (in the heart).
Sometimes after this experience of
opening it seems to close again. Most of the
obstruction comes from the vital. So, the being is
prepared behind the veil and when everything is ready
it is projected in the outer nature. But the demand of
this Yoga is much more than in any other and so it
takes a long time. All yoga requires patience above
everything else.
Disciple: We must have been working for
it for many lives.
Sri Aurobindo: According to some yogas
you have no right to the result for twelve years. After
twelve years you have to see if anything has happened
or not.
Disciple: When the preparation is being
done behind, can we say that some of the Sadhaks have
achieved very great advance like the Vedic Rishis.
Sri Aurobindo: How do you mean? Their
outer nature is not ready and so they can't be said to
have realized the Truth. Nature is full of difficulties
and obstacles and so the Higher Power works behind. If
it worked in the outer nature, it would meet too many
obstacles.
Disciple: So it is the Bhedabheda
philosophy?
Sri Aurobindo: It is not merely
philosophy, but the fact is there corresponding to the
philosophy. The Gita speaks of it as "Avibhaktam
Vibhkteshu Vibhaktam iva cha Sthitam", "Undivided in
the midst of divided things, appearing as if divided."
This is not an illusion. I see a tree. The tree appears
to me as separate from me. But it is the One, because
one with Him. It is myself. It is something else than a
tree. It is impossible to think of it as something else
than the Brahman.
When I cast my eyes round the room
everything,--objects and the persons--, appears the
Brahman. I call you so and so but you are not that.
Ordinarily, one tags on everything to
the "ego". But in that higher state you understand the
divine working better than when you are a separate
"ego". It is when you can become "nobody" and have
experience of the Divine that you can be free. That is
Mukti. I realized the One, my self disappeared. It is
difficult to think of my self as so and so, son of so
and so. It is a relief and freedom to be "That" and to
remain in "It".
Disciple: Can it be called Shankara's
Vedantic realization?
Sri Aurobindo: About Shankara's
Vedanta, difficulty is that there are different
explanations by various people. The world is an
illusion--and the Illusion is indescribable. This is
the common basis of all Shankara Adwaita--monism.
According to him soul also is Maya--as it has no real
existence. But I found that the experience behind this
idea is quite different. I had that experience at
Baroda, and if I had stopped there I would have been an
orthodox Vedantin.*
14-12-1938.
Time: about 5-30 P. M.
Silent atmosphere. M. meditating, P.
sitting by his side. Sri Aurobindo cast a glance at M.
After few minutes P. tried to kill a mosquito with a
clapping of hands. Sri Aurobindo looked at P. M. opened
his eyes. P. felt much embarrassed.
Disciple: Were you ever a Free Mason,
Sir?
Sri Aurobindo: My eldest brother was;
from him I gathered that it was nothing. But Free
Masons had something when it was started. Have you
heard of Kaliostro? He was a mystic and a Free Mason
with a great prophetic power. He prophesied about the
French Revolution, the raising of Bastille and
guillotining of the King and Queen. He used to prophesy
about race-horses. He got into trouble and was
imprisoned and died in prison. He never charged any
money from any one and yet he was affluent. It was said
he knew alchemy and could make gold. (There was a few
minutes silence.)
Sri Aurobindo: Have you heard about
Nosterdamus? No? He was a Jew. At that time Jews had
great knowledge. He wrote a book of prophecy in some
obscure language and prophesied about the execution of
Charles I, the end of the British Empire and the
lasting of the Empire for about 330 years.
Disciple: Then there is still a long
time?
Sri Aurobindo: No, it was to be counted
from the beginning of her colonies. That means from
James I. In that case it should end now.
Disciple: From Chamberlain's speech
today it seems Britain is not obliged to side with
France in case of war,--it looks like it.
Sri Aurobindo: The English always keep
their policy open so that they may change and correct
as they like or want.
Disciple: But they cannot join Italy or
Germany?
Sri Aurobindo: Why not? They can share
with them France's African Colonies.
(At this time Mother came. We looked
towards her and changed our position from near Sri
Aurobindo's head.) She said, "Don't move, don't
move."
Disciple: We have decided to meditate
when you come. (Mother made big eyes and we all
laughed.)
Mother: But if I want to hear the
talk?
Disciple: Then we will talk.
Sri Aurobindo: (addressing the Mother):
I am giving him a few prophecies of Kaliostro and
Nosterdamus whom he has never read, he says.
Disciple: You know Bhikshu X was quite
illogical; he called me back from here?
Sri Aurobindo: All preachers are
illogical. Were you a fervent Buddhist? Is there much
Buddhism in your parts?
Disciple: About one or two million
people are Buddhists and there is nothing of Buddhism
in what they follow.
Mother: Nothing or something of
Buddhism?
Disciple: Something.
Mother: In China and Japan also no
Buddhism is left. Only ceremonies remain. In Ceylon
they say there is still some authentic Buddhism.
Disciple: In Burma also the same is the
case. There, people put on ochre clothes at day and
throw them away at night. But the Burmese people show a
great respect for their Bikshus.
Disciple: Yes. Respect to dress and not
to the reality.
Sri Aurobindo: Lele used to have the
same idea. Once I met a Sanyasi with him. Lele asked
me: "You don't bow down to him?" I replied: "I don't
believe in the man". Lele said: "But you must respect
the yellow robe". The Sanyasi was one of the three
people whom Vivekananda drove out of his house and they
became Avatars in one day (Laughter). Is he just the
man to be so treated?
(As Mother had fallen into meditation
we all tried to meditate with her. At about 7 P. M. she
went for the group meditation and we rallied again
round Sri Aurobindo.)
Addressing X,
Sri Aurobindo: You seemed to have
Ananda in your meditation. Your face is beaming with
it.
Disciple: Yes Sir. He is nowadays
beaming with Ananda.
Disciple: (shyly), "I fell into deep
sleep I think, but I had some visions also which seem
to be quite distinctly outside.
Sri Aurobindo: Then why do you call it
sleep? It may be the psychic being, or the inner being
watching what is happening. Sometimes one goes into
deeper state and remembers nothing in his outer
consciousness, though many things may be going on
within. What is called dreamless sleep is really a
sleep in which dreams are passing on, only one does not
know. Sometimes one discusses problems in such a
condition, gets the ecstasy of union, etc. One may also
go into other worlds with one part of this being and
meet other forms etc. This is of course the first
condition and a kind of a beginning
