SRI AUROBINDO

                                 ***

LETTERS ON YOGA

                                 ***

PART TWO AND THREE

                                 ***

Section One. THE OBJECT OF INTEGRAL YOGA

                                 ***

THE object of the yoga is to enter into and be possessed by the Divine
Presence  and Consciousness,  to love the Divine for the Divine's sake
alone, to be tuned in our nature into the nature of the Divine, and in
our  will  and works and life to be the instrument of the Divine.  Its
object is not to be a great yogi or  a  Superman  (although  that  may
come) or to grab at the Divine for the sake of the ego's power,  pride
or pleasure.  It is not for Moksha though liberation comes by  it  and
all else may come, but these must not be our objects. The Divine alone
is our object.

                                 ***

To come to this yoga merely with the idea of being a superman would be
an  act  of vital egoism which would defeat its own object.  Those who
put this object in the front of their preoccupations  invariably  come
to grief,  spiritually and otherwise.  The aim of this yoga is, first,
to enter  into  the  divine  consciousness  by  merging  into  it  the
separative  ego  (incidentaly,  in  doing  so  one  finds  one's  true
individual self which is not the limited,  vain and selfish human  ego
but  a  portion  of  the  Divine)  and,  secondly,  to  bring down the
supramental consciousness on earth to transform mind,  life and  body.
All  else  can  be  only  a result of these two aims,  not the primary
object of the yoga.

                                 ***

You must get out of certain wrong ideas that you seem  to  have  about
yoga, for  these  are  dangerous  and ought to be thrown away by every
sadhak:
    1. The object of yoga is not to become "like" Sri Aurobindo or the
Mother.  Those who cherish this idea easily come to the  further  idea
that  they  can become their equals and even greater.  This is only to
feed the ego.
    2. The  object  of yoga is not to get power or to be more powerful
than others or to have great slddhis or to do great  or  wonderful  or
miraculous things.
    3. The object of yoga is not to be a great  yogi  or  a  superman.
This  is  an  egoistic way of taking the yoga and can lead to no good;
avoid it altogether.
    4. To  talk about the supramental and think of bringing it down in
yourself is the  most  dangerous  of  all.  It  may  bring  an  entire
megalomania  and  loss of balance.  What the sadhak has to seek is the
full opening to the Divine,  the psychic change of his  consciousness,
the spiritual change.  Of that change of consciousness,  selflessness,
desirelessness,  humility,  bhakti,  surrender, calm, equality, peace,
quiet  sincerity are necessary constituents.  Until he has the psychic
and spiritual change,  to think of being supramental is  an  absurdity
and an arrogant absurdity.
    All these egoistic ideas,  if indulged,  can only  aggrandise  the
ego,  spoil  the  sadhana and lead to serious spiritual dangers.  They
should be rejected altogether.

                                 ***

Of course you can [do yoga without being great].  There is no need  of
being great.  On the contrary humility is the first necessity, for one
who has ego and pride cannot realise the Highest.

                                 ***

As for the book itself,  I am unfortunately  ignorant  of  the  Telugu
language  and cannot read the original,  but from the account given in
English I have formed some idea of the substance.  I gather that it is
in  the  main a statement and justification of the Puma Yoga and of my
message; I believe you have rightly stated the two main elements of it
- first,  the acceptance of the world as a manifestation of the Divine
Power,  not its rejection as a mistake or an illusion,  and, secondly,
the character of this manifestation as a spiritual evolution with yoga
as a means  for  the  transformation  of  mind,  life  and  body  into
instruments of a spiritual and supramental perfection. The universe is
not only a material but a spiritual fact,  life not  only  a  play  of
forces  or  a mental experience,  but a field for the evolution of the
concealed  spirit.  Human  life  will  receive  its   fulfilment   and
transformation  into  something  beyond itself only when this truth is
seized and made the motive force of our existence and the means of its
effective  realisation  discovered.  The means of realisation is to be
found man integral yoga,  a union in all parts of our being  with  the
Divine  and  a  consequent  transmutation  of  all  their  now jarring
elements into  the  harmony  of  a  higher  divine  consciousness  and
existence.

                                 ***

The way  of yoga followed here has a different purpose from others,  -
for its aim  is  not  only  to  rise  out  of  the  ordinary  ignorant
world-consciousness  into  the divine consciousness,  but to bring the
supramental power of that divine consciousness down into the ignorance
of mind, life and body, to transform them, to manifest the Divine here
and create a divine life in Matter.  This is an exceedingly  difficult
aim and difficult yoga;  to many or most it will seem impossible.  All
the established forces of the  ordinary  ignorant  world-consciousness
are  opposed  to it and deny it and try to prevent it,  and the sadhak
will find his own mind,  life and body  full  of  the  most  obstinate
impediments   to   its  realisation.  If  you  can  accept  the  ideal
whole-heartedly,  face all the difficulties,  leave the past  and  its
ties  behind  you  and  are  ready  to  give  up  everything  and risk
everything for this divine possibility,  then only  can  you  hope  to
discover by experience the Truth behind it.
    The sadhana of this yoga does not proceed through any  set  mental
teaching or prescribed forms of meditation,  Mantras or others, but by
aspiration,  by  a   self-concentration   inwards   or   upwards,   by
self-opening  to  an  Influence,  to the Divine Power above us and its
workings,  to the Divine Presence in the heart and by the rejection of
all that is foreign to these things.  It is only by faith,  aspiration
and surrender that this self-opening can come.

                                 ***

You have apparently a call and may be fit  for  yoga;  but  there  are
different paths and each has a different aim and end before it.  It is
common to all the paths to conquer  the  desires,  to  put  aside  the
ordinary  relations  of  life,  and to try to pass from uncertainty to
everlasting certitude.  One may also try to conquer dream  and  sleep,
thirst and hunger etc. But it is no part of my yoga to have nothing to
do with the world or with life or  to  kill  the  senses  or  entirely
inhibit their action. It is the object of my yoga to transform life by
bringing down into it the Light,  Power and Bliss of the divine  Truth
and its dynamic certitudes.  This yoga is not a yoga of world-shunning
asceticism, but of divine life. Your object on the other hand can only
be  gained  by  entering  into  Samadhi  and  ceasing  in  it from all
connection with worldmlstence.

                                 ***

It is not indispensable to be an ascetic - It is  enough  if  one  can
learn  to  live  within  in the inner being instead of on the surface,
discover the soul or true individuality which is veiled by the surface
mind and life forces and open the being to the superconscient Reality.
But in this one cannot  succeed  unless  one  is  wholly  sincere  and
one-pointed in the effort.
    As to  the  second  question,  participation  in  Sri  Aurobindo's
mission  depends  on  capacity  to do a difficult yoga or on a call to
devote oneself to that ideal without thought of the claims of the  ego
or the vital desires; otherwise it is better not to think of it.

                                 ***

Yes, unless the external nature is transformed,  one may go as high as
possible and have the largest experiences  -  but  the  external  mind
remains an instrument of Ignorance.

                                 ***

It is   always  possible  to  have  realisations  of  a  kind  on  the
mentalspiritual plane even if the vital is still impure.  There  is  a
sort of separation of the mental Purusha and Prakriti which results in
a knowledge that has no transforming  effect  on  the  life.  But  the
theory of these yogis is that one has to know the Self;  life and what
one does in life do not matter. Have you not read of the yogi who came
with  his  concubine and Ramakrishna asked him,  "Why do you live like
that?" He answered "All is Maya,  so it does not matter what I  do  so
long  as I know the Brahman.  It is true Ramakrishna replied,  "I spit
onyourVedanta",  but logically the yogi had a case - for if  all  life
and action are Maya and only the silent Brahman is real - well!

                                 ***

In the  Brahmic  condition one feels the self to be untouched and pure
but the nature remains imperfect. The ordinary Sannyasin does not care
about that, because it is not his object to perfect the nature, but to
separate himself from it.

                                 ***

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  Sannyasin.  In  some  cases  it  can liberate the
external also,  throwing the old nature  out  into  the  environmental
consciousness, but even this is liberation, not transformation.

                                 ***

They [the  ancient  yogas] aimed at realisation and did not care about
divinisation, except the Tantric and some others. The aim however even
in these was rather to become saints and siddhas than anything else.

                                 ***

The plane  makes a considerable difference in the power and luminosity
and completeness etc,  of the experience. A mental realisation is very
different  from  an  overmental  or  supramental  although  the  Truth
realised may be the same.  So also to know Matter as the Brahman has a
very different result from knowing Life,  Mind, Supermind or Ananda as
the Brahman.  If realising the Divine through the Mind  was  Just  the
same  as realising him on higher planes,  there would be no meaning in
this yoga at all-there would be no need of ascending to  supermind  or
bringing supermind down.

                                 ***

To be  in  full  union with the Divine is the final aim.  When one has
some kind of constant union,  one can be called a yogi,  but the union
has  to  be made complete.  There are yogis who have only the union on
the spiritual plane,  others who are united in mind and heart,  others
in  the  vital  also.  In  our yoga our aim is to be united too in the
physical consciousness and on the supramental plane.

                                 ***

But why should they [the yogis of  the  traditional  paths]  feel  any
pressure  [of  the  descent  of the supermind] when they are satisfied
with the realisation they have?  They live in the spiritual  mind  and
the  nature  of  the  mind is to separate - here to separate some high
aspect or state of the Divine and seek that to the  exclusion  of  all
else.  All the spiritual philosophies and schools of yoga do that.  If
they go beyond,  it is to the Absolute - and mind cannot  conceive  of
the  Absolute except as something inconceivable,  neti neti.  Moreover
for getting samadhi they concentrate on one single idea and what  they
reach  is  that  which is represented by that idea - the samadhi Is in
its nature an exclusive concentration on that.  So why should it  open
them  to  anything  else?  There  are  only a few who are sufficiently
plastic to escape from this self-limitation of the  sadhana-what  they
experience is that there is no end to the realisation, when you get to
one peak,  you find another beyond it.  In order to see more than this
one  has to get into conscious waking touch with the supramental or at
least get a glimpse of it - and that means  passing  beyond  spiritual
mind.

                                 ***

It is   the   very   principle   of   this   yoga  that  only  by  the
supramentalisation of the consciousness which means rising above  mind
to  supermind and the descent of the supermind into the nature can the
final transformation be made.  So if nobody can  rise  above  mind  to
supermind or obtain the descent of the supermind,  then logically this
yoga becomes impossible. Every being is in essence one with the Divine
and  in  his individual being a portion of the Divine,  so there is no
insuperable bar to his becoming supramental. It is no doubt impossible
for  the  human  nature  being  mental  in  its  basis to overcome the
Ignorance and rise to or obtain the descent of the  supermind  by  its
own unaided effort, but by surrender to the Divine it can be done. One
brings it down into the earth Nature through his own consciousness and
so opens the way for the others,  but the change has to be repeated in
each consciousness to become individually effective.

                                 ***

The aim of the yoga is to open the consciousness to the Divine and  to
live  in the inner consciousness more and more while acting from it on
the external life,  to bring the inmost psychic into the front and  by
the power of the psychic to purify and change the being so that it may
become ready for transformation  and  be  in  union  with  the  Divine
Knowledge,   Will   and   Love.   Secondly,   to   develop  the  yogic
consciousness,  i.  e.,  to universalise the being in all the  planes,
become  aware  of  the  cosmic being and cosmic forces and be in union
with the Divine on all the planes up to the overmind. Thirdly, to come
into  contact with the transcendent Divine beyond the overmind through
the supramental consciousness,  supramentalise the  consciousness  and
the  nature  and make oneself an instrument for the realisation of the
dynamic  Divine  Truth  and  its   transforming   descent   into   the
earthnature.

                                 ***

The Divine  has  three aspects for us:
    1. It is the Cosmic Self and Spirit that  is  in  and  behind  all
things  and  beings,  from which and in which all is manifested in the
universe-although It is now a manifestation in the Ignorance.
    2. It  is the Spirit and Master of our own being within us whom we
have to serve and learn to express his will in all  our  movements  so
that we may grow out of the Ignorance into the Light.
    3. The Divine is transcendent Being  and  Spirit,  all  bliss  and
light and divine knowledge and power,  and towards that highest divine
existence and its Light we have to rise and bring down the reality  of
it  more  and  more into our consciousness and life.
    In the ordinary Nature we live in the Ignorance and  do  not  know
the  Divine.  The  forces  of  the ordinary Nature are undivine forces
because they weave a veil of ego and desire and unconsciousness  which
conceals  the  Divine  from  us.  To  get  into  the higher and deeper
consciousness which knows and lives luminously in the Divine,  we have
to get rid of the forces of the lower nature and open to the action of
the Divine Shakti which will transform our consciousness into that  of
the Divine Nature.
    This is the conception of the Divine from which we have to start -
the  realisation  of  its  truth can only come with the opening of the
consciousness and Its change.

                                 ***

The distinction between the Transcendental, the Cosmic, the Individual
Divine is not my invention,  nor is it native to India or to Asia - it
is,  on the contrary,  a recognised European teaching current  in  the
esoteric  tradition  of the Catholic Church where it is the authorised
explanation of the Trinity,-Father,  Son and Holy Ghost,  - and it  is
very well-known to European mystic experience. In essence it exists in
all spiritual disciplines  that  recognise  the  omnipresence  of  the
Divine - in Indian Vedantic experience and in Mahomedan yoga (not only
the Sufi,  but other schools also) - the Mahomedans even speak of  not
two  or  three  but  many  levels  of the Divine until one reaches the
Supreme.  As for the idea in itself,  surely  there  is  a  difference
between  the individual,  the cosmos in space and time,  and something
that exceeds this cosmic formula or any cosmic  formula.  There  is  a
cosmic  consciousness  experienced by many which is quite different in
its scope and action from the individual consciousness,  and if  there
is  a  consciousness  beyond  the  cosmic,  infinite  and  essentially
eternal, not merely extended in Time, that also must be different from
these  two.  And if the Divine is or manifests Himself in these three,
is  it  not  conceivable  that  in  aspect,  in  His  working  He  may
differentiate  Himself  so  much that we are driven,  if we are not to
confound all truth of experience,  if we are not to limit ourselves to
a  mere  static  experience  of  something indefinable,  to speak of a
triple aspect of the Divine?
    In the  practice  of  yoga  there is a great dynamic difference in
one's way of dealing with these  three  possible  realisations.  If  I
realise only the Divine as that, not my personal self, which yet moves
secretly all my personal being and which I can bring  forward  out  of
the veil, or if I build up the image of that Godhead in my members, it
is a realisation but a limited one. If it is the Cosmic Godhead that I
realise,  losing  in  it  all  personal  self,  that  is  a  very wide
realisation,  but I become a mere channel of the universal  Power  and
there is no personal or divinely individual consummation for me.  If I
shoot up to the transcendental realisation only,  I lose  both  myself
and the world in the transcendental Absolute.  If,  on the other hand,
my aim is none of these things by itself,  but to realise and also  to
manifest the Divine in the world,  bringing down for the purpose a yet
unmanifested Power,  -such as the supermind,-a  harmonisation  of  all
three  becomes  imperative.  I  have to bring it down,  and from where
shall I bring it down - since it is not yet manifested in  the  cosmic
formula - if not from the unmanifest Transcendence, which I must reach
and realise?  I have to bring it into the cosmic formula and, if so, I
must realise the cosmic Divine and become conscious of the cosmic self
and the cosmic forces. But I have to embody it here, - otherwise it is
left as an influence only and not a thing fixed in the physical world,
and it is through the Divine in the individual alone that this can  be
done.
    These are elements in the dynamics of spiritual experience  and  I
am obliged to admit them if a divine work has to be done.

                                 ***

Obviously to seek the Divine only for what one can get out of  Him  is
not  the proper attitude;  but if it were absolutely forbidden to seek
Him for these things,  most people in the world would not turn towards
Him at all.  I suppose therefore it is allowed so that they may make a
beginning - if they have faith,  they may get what they  ask  for  and
think  it  a  good  thing  to go on and then one day they may suddenly
stumble upon the idea that this is after all not quite the  one  thing
to  do and that there are better ways and a better spirit in which one
can approach the Divine.  If they do not get what they want and  still
come to the Divine and trust in Him, well, that shows they are getting
ready. Let us look at it as a sort of infants' school for the unready.
But  of  course  that is not the spiritual life,  it is only a sort of
elementary religious approach.  For the spiritual life to give and not
to  demand is the rule.  The sadhak,  however,  can ask for the Divine
Force to aid him in keeping his health or recovering  it  if  he  does
that  as  part of his sadhana so that his body may be able and fit for
the spiritual life and a capable instrument for the Divine Work.

                                 ***

Let us first put aside the quite  foreign  consideration  of  what  we
would  do  if  the  union with the Divine brought eternal joylessness,
Nirananda or torture.  Such a thing does not exist and to drag  it  in
only  clouds the issue.  The Divine is Anandamaya and one can seek him
for the Ananda he gives,  but he has also in him many other things and
one  may  seek  him for any of them,  for peace,  for liberation,  for
knowledge, for power, for anything else of which one may feel the pull
or the impulse.  It is quite possible for someone to say: "Let me have
Power from the Divine and do His work or His Will and I am  satisfied,
even  if  the  use of Power entails suffering also." It is possible to
shun bliss as a thing too tremendous  or  ecstatic  and  ask  only  or
rather   for   peace,  for  liberation,  for  Nirvana.  You  speak  of
self-fulfilment, - one may regard the Supreme not as the Divine but as
one's  highest Self and seek fulfilment of one's being in that highest
Self, but one need not envisage it as a self of bliss, ecstasy, Ananda
-  one  may  envisage  it as a self of freedom,  vastness,  knowledge,
tranquillity, strength, calm, perfection-perhaps too calm for a ripple
of  anything  so  disturbing  as  joy  to enter.  So even if it is for
something to be gained that one approaches the Divine,  it  is  not  a
fact  that  one  can  approach  Him or seek union only for the sake of
Ananda and nothing else.
    That involves something which throws all  your  reasoning  out  of
gear. For these are aspects of the Divine Nature, powers of it, states
of his being,  - but the Divine Himself is something absolute, someone
self-existent,  not limited by his aspects, - wonderful and ineffable,
not existing by them,  but they existing because of  Him.  It  follows
that if he attracts by his aspects, all the more he can attract by his
very absolute selfness which is sweeter, mightier, profounder than any
aspect.  His peace, rapture, light, freedom, beauty are marvellous and
ineffable,   because   he   is   himself   magically,    mysteriously,
transcendently  marvellous and ineffable.  He can then be sought after
for his wonderful and ineffable self and not only for the sake of  one
aspect or another of his. The only thing needed for that is, first, to
arrive at a point when the psychic being feels this pull of the Divine
in himself and,  secondly, to arrive at the point when the mind, vital
and each thing else begins to feel too  that  that  was  what  it  was
wanting  and  the  surface  hunt after Ananda or what else was only an
excuse for drawing the  nature  towards  that  supreme  magnet.
    Your argument  that because we know the union with the Divine will
bring Ananda,  therefore it must be for the Ananda that  we  seek  the
union,  is  not true and has no force.  One who loves a queen may know
that if she returns his love it will bring him power, position, riches
and yet it need not be for the power,  position,  riches that he seeks
her love.  He may love her for herself and could love her  equally  if
she were not a queen; he might have no hope of any return whatever and
yet love her,  adore her, live for her, die for her simply because she
is she. That has happened and men have loved women without any hope of
enjoyment or result,  loved steadily,  passionately after age has come
and beauty has gone.  Patriots do not love their country only when she
is rich,  powerful,  great and has much to give them; love for country
has been most ardent,  passionate, absolute when the country was poor,
degraded,  miserable,  having nothing to  of  her  service;  yet  even
knowing that they would never see her free, men have lived, served and
died for her-for her own sake,  not for what she could give.  Men have
loved  Truth  for her own sake and for what they could seek or find of
her,  accepted poverty,  persecution,  death itself;  they  have  been
content even to seek for her always,  not finding, and yet never given
up the search.  That means what?  That man,  country Truth  and  other
things  besides  can  be loved for their own sake and not for anything
else,  not for any circumstance  or  attendant  quality  or  resulting
enjoyment, but for something absolute that is either in them or behind
their appearance and circumstance.  The Divine is more than a  man  or
woman,  a stretch of land or a creed, opinion, discovery or principle.
He is the Person beyond all persons,  the Home and Country ofaU souls,
the Truth of which truths are only imperfect figures.  And can He then
not be loved and sought for his own sake,  as and more than these have
been  by  men  even  in  their  lesser  selves and nature?
    What your reasoning ignores is that which  is  absolute  or  tends
towards the absolute in man and his seeking as well as in the Divine -
something not to be explained by mental reasoning or vital  motive.  A
motive, but a motive of the soul, not of vital desire; a reason not of
the mind,  but of the self and spirit.  An asking too,  but the asking
that is the soul's inherent aspiration,  not a vital longing.  That is
what comes up when there is the sheer self-giving,  when ''1 seek  you
for  this,  I  seek  you  for that" changes to a sheer "I seek you for
you." It is that marvellous and ineffable absolute in the Divine  that
X means when he says,  "Not knowledge nor this nor that, but Krishna."
The pull of that is indeed a categorical imperative,  the self  in  us
drawn  to  the  Divine  because  of the imperative call of the greater
Self,  the soul ineffably drawn towards the object  of  its  adoration
because it cannot be otherwise, because it is it and He is He. That is
all about it.
    I have written all that only to explain what we mean when we speak
of seeking the Divine for himself and not for anything else -  so  far
as it is explicable. Explicable or not, it is one of the most dominant
facts of spiritual experience.  The will  to  selfgiving  is  only  an
expression of this fact.  But this does not mean that I object to your
asking for Ananda. Ask for that by all means, so long as to ask for it
is  a  need  of  any part of your being -for these are the things that
lead towards the Divine so long as the absolute  inner  call  that  is
there  all  the  time  does not push itself to the suface.  But it was
really that that has drawn from the beginning and is there behind - it
is the categorical spiritual imperative, the absolute need of the soul
for the Divine.
    I am  not  saying  that  there is to be no Ananda.  The selfgiving
itself is a profound Ananda and what it brings, carries in its wake an
inexpressible  Ananda-and  it is brought by this method sooner than by
any other, so that one can say almost, "A self-less self-giving is the
best  policy.  Only  one  does not do it out of policy.  Ananda is the
result,  but it is done not for the result,  but for  the  self-giving
itself  and for the Divine himself -a subtle distinction,  it may seem
to the mind, but very real.

                                 ***

It was not my intention to say that it was wrong  to  aspire  for  the
Ananda. What I wanted to point out was the condition for the permanent
possession of the Ananda (intimations,  visits,  downrushes of it  one
can  have  before);  the  essential  condition  for  it is a change of
consciousness, the coming of peace, light, etc., all that brings about
the  transition from the normal to the spiritualised nature.  And that
being so,  it is better to make this change of consciousness the first
object  of the sadhana.  On the other hand,  to press for the constant
Ananda immediately in a consciousness which is not yet able to  retain
it,  still more to substitute for it lesser (vital) joys and pleasures
may very well stop the flow of these spiritualised  experiences  which
make  the  continuous  ecstasy  essentially possible.  But I certainly
never intended to say that the Ananda was not to  be  attained  or  to
insist  on  your moving towards a nir€nanda (joyless) Brahman.  On the
contrary,  I said that Ananda was the crown of the yoga,  which surely
means  that  it was a part of the highest siddhi.
    Whatever one wants sincerely and persistently from the Divine, the
Divine  is  sure to give.  If then you want Ananda and go oil wanting,
you will surely have it In the end. The only question is what is to be
the  chief  power  in  your  seeking,  a  vital  demand  or  a psychic
aspiration manifesting through the heart and communicating  itself  to
the  meatal  and  vital and physical consciousness.  The latter is the
greatest power and makes the shortest way - and  besides  one  has  to
come that way sooner or later.

                                 ***

To find the  Divine  is  indeed  the  first  reason  for  seeking  the
spiritual   Truth  and  the  spiritual  life;  it  is  the  one  thing
indispensable and all the rest is nothing without it.  The Divine once
found, to manifest Him, - that is, first of all to transform one's own
limited consciousness into the Divine Consciousness,  to live  in  the
infinite Peace,  Light, Love, Strength, Bliss, to become that in one's
essential nature and,  as a consequence,  to be its  vessel,  channel,
instrument  in  one's  active  nature.  To  bring  into  activity  the
principle of oneness on the material plane or to work for humanity  is
a  mental  mistranslation  of  the  Truth - these things cannot be the
first true object of spiritual seeking.  We must find  the  Self,  the
Divine,  then only can we know what is the work the Self or the Divine
demands from us.  Until then our life and action can only be a help or
means  towards  finding  the Divine and it ought not to have any other
purpose.  As  we  grow  in  the  inner  consciousness,   or   as   the
spirituarTruth  of  the  Divine grows in us,  our life and action must
indeed more and more flow from that,  be one with that.  But to decide
beforehand  by  our limited mental conceptions what they must be is to
hamper the growth of the spiritual Truth  within.  As  that  grows  we
shall feel the Divine Light and Truth, the Divine Power and Force, the
Divine Purity and Peace working within us, dealing with our actions as
well  as our consciousness,  making use of them to reshape us into the
Divine Image,  removing the dross,  substituting the pure gold of  the
Spirit.  Only  when  the Divine Presence is there in us always and the
consciousness transformed,  can we have the right to say that  we  are
ready  to  manifest  the  Divine  on the material plane.  To hold up a
mental ideal or principle and impose that on the inner working  brings
the  danger  of  limiting  ourselves  to  a  mental  realisation or of
impeding or even falsifying by a halfway  formation  the  true  growth
into  the  full  communion  and union with the Divine and the free and
intimate outflowing of His will in our life.  This  is  a  mistake  of
orientation to which the mind of today is especially prone.  It is far
better to approach the Divine for the Peace or Light or Bliss that the
realisation of Him gives than to bring in these minor things which can
divert us from the one thing needful. The divinisation of the material
life  also  as  well  as  the inner life is part of what we see as the
Divine Plan,  but it can only be fulfilled by  an  outflowing  of  the
inner realisation,  something that grows from within outwards,  not by
the working out of a mental principle.
    You have asked what is the discipline to be followed in  order  to
convert  the  mental  seeking into a living spiritual experience.  The
first necessity is the practice of concentration of your consciousness
within  yourself.  The  ordinary  human  mind  has  an activity on the
surface which veils the real Self.  But there  is  another,  a  hidden
consciousness  within  behind  the  surface one in which we can become
aware of the real Self and of a larger deeper  truth  of  nature,  can
realise  the Self and liberate and transform the nature.  To quiet the
surface  mind  and  begin  to  live  within  is  the  object  of  this
concentration.  Of  this true consciousness other than the superficial
there are two main centres,  one in the heart (not the physical heart,
but  the cardiac centre in the middle of the chest),  one in the head.
The concentration in the heart opens  within  and  by  following  this
inward opening and going deep one becomes aware of the soul or psychic
being,  the divine element in  the  individual.  This  being  unveiled
begins to come forward,  to govern the nature,  to turn it and all its
movements towards the Truth, towards the Divine, and to call down into
it all that is above. It brings the consciousness of the Presence, the
dedication of the being to the Highest and invites  the  descent  into
our nature of a greater Force and Consciousness which is waiting above
us. To concentrate in the heart centre with the offering of oneself to
the  Divine  and  the  aspiration  for this inward opening and for the
Presence in the heart is the first way and,  if it can  be  done,  the
natural  beginning;  for  its result once obtained makes the spiritual
path far more easy and safe than if one begins the  other  way.
    That other  way  is  the concentration in the head,  in the mental
centre.  This,  if it brings about the silence of  the  surface  mind,
opens up an inner, larger, deeper mind within which is more capable of
receiving spiritual  experience  and  spiritual  knowledge.  But  once
concentrated here one must open the silent mental consciousness upward
to all that is above mind.  After a time one feels  the  consciousness
rising upward and in the end it rises beyond the lid which has so long
kept it tied in the body and finds a centre above the head where it is
liberated Into the Infinite. There it begins to come into contact with
the universal Self,  the Divine Peace, Light, Power, Knowledge, Bliss,
to  enter  into  that  and  become that,  to feel the descent of these
things into the nature. To concentrate in the head with the aspiration
for  quietude  in  the mind and the realisation of the Self and Divine
above is the second way of concentration. It is important, however, to
remember  that  the  concentration of the consciousness in the head is
only a preparation for its rising to the centre above;  otherwise, one
may  get  shut  up  in  one's  own mind and its experiences or at best
attain only to a reflection of the Truth above instead of rising  into
the  spiritual  transcendence  to  live  there.  For  some  the mental
concentration is easier,  for some  the  concentration  in  the  heart
centre; some are capable of doing both alternately - but to begin with
the heart centre,  if one can do it, is the more desirable.
    The other  side  of discipline is with regard to the activities of
the nature,  of the mind,  of the life-self or vital,  of the physical
being.  Here  the  principle  is  to  accord the nature with the inner
realisation so that one may not be divided into two discordant  parts.
There  are  here several disciplines or processes possible.  One is to
offer all the activities to the Divine and call for the inner guidance
and  the taking up of one's nature by a Higher Power.  If there is the
inward soul-opening, if the psychic being comes forward, then there is
no  great  difficulty-there comes with it a psychic discrimination,  a
constant intimation,  finally a governance which discloses and quietly
and  patiently removes all imperfections,  brings the right mental and
vital movements and reshapes the physical consciousness also.  Another
method is to stand back detached from the movements of the mind, life,
physical  being,  to  regard  their  activities  as  only  a  habitual
formation  of  general  Nature in the individual imposed on us by past
workings,  not as any part of our real being;  in  proportion  as  one
succeeds  in this,  becomes detached,  sees mind and its activities as
not oneself,  life and its activities as not oneself, the body and its
activities as not oneself,  one becomes aware of an inner Being within
us - inner mental,  inner vital,  inner physicalsilent, 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,  an inmost Will to perfection or a  call  to  the  Divine
Power  to  do  at  each  step  what is necessary for the change of the
Nature.  It can also-open mind,  life and body to the  inmost  psychic
entity and its guiding influence or its direct guidance. In most cases
these two methods emerge and work together and finally fuse into  one.
But one can begin with either, the one that one feels most natural and
easy to follow.
    Finally, in  all  difficulties  where personal effort is hampered,
the help of the Teacher can intervene and bring about what  is  needed
for the realisation or for the immediate step that is necessary.

                                 ***

This yoga demands a total dedication of the life to the aspiration for
the discovery and embodiment of the Divine Truth and to  nothing  else
whatever.  To divide your life between the Divine and some outward aim
and activity that has nothing to do with fee search for the  Truth  is
inadmissible.  The  least thing of that kind would make success in the
yoga impossible.
    You must  go  inside yourself and enter into a complete dedication
to the spiritual life.  All clinging to mental preferences  must  fall
away  from  you,  all  insistence  on  vital  aims  and  interests and
attachments must  be  put  away,  all  egoistic  clinging  to  family,
friends,  country  must  disappear  if  you  want  to succeed in yoga.
Whatever has to come as outgoing energy or action,  must proceed  from
the  Truth  once  discovered  and  not  from the lower mental or vital
motives,  from the Divine Will and not from  personal  choice  or  the
preferences of the ego.

                                 ***

It is a universally accepted principle of the spiritual endeavour that
one  must be prepared to sacrifice everything without reserve in order
to  reach  the  Divine  through  a  spiritualised  consciousness.   If
self-development  on  the mental,  vital and physical plane is his aim
that is another matter - that life is the life of  the  ego  with  the
soul kept behind undeveloped or half-developed.  But for the spiritual
seeker the only development he seeks is the development of the psychic
and  spiritual consciousness and that too only because It is necessary
to reach and to serve the Divine,  not  for  its  own  sake.  Whatever
mental,  vital, physical development or use of faculties can be made a
part of the spiritual life and an instrumentation for the  Divine  can
be  kept  on  condition  of  surrender  of them for transformation and
restatement on the spiritual basis.  But they must  not  be  kept  for
their  own  sake or for the sake of the ego or considered as one's own
possession or used for one's own purpose but only for the sake of  the
Divine.
    As for  James'  statement it is of course true except in so far as
the politician can indulge in other things as hobbies for his  leisure
hours,  but  if  he  wants to succeed as a politician he must give his
best energies to politics.  Conversely if Shakespeare  or  Newton  had
spent part of their energies in politics they would not have been able
to reach such heights in poetry and in science or  even  if  they  had
they  would  have  done  much  less.  The  main  energies  have  to be
concentrated on one thing;  the others can only be minor  pursuits  at
leisure  or  for  distraction or interests rather than pursuits useful
for keeping up a general culture.

                                 ***

All depends on the aim of the life.  To one whose aim is  to  discover
and possess the highest spiritual truth and the divine life,  I do not
think a University post can count for much,  nor do I see  that  there
can be any practical connection between them. It might be different if
the aim were the life of a writer  and  thinker  on  the  intellectual
level only,  without any higher flight or deeper seeking. I do not see
that your unwillingness to commit yourself to this kind of work is due
to  any weakness.  It is rather that only a small part of your nature,
and that not the deepest or strongest part would be satisfied with  it
or  with  the atmosphere in which it would have to be done.
    In these matters it  is  not  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 upon  it  from  above  and  within,
which has discouraged its old turn of desires and tendencies, its past
grooves,  those which would have decided its  direction  before;  this
vital has,  as its often one first result,  fallen silent and neutral.
It is no longer strongly moved towards the ordinary life;  it has  not
yet  received from or through the psychic centre and the higher mental
will a sufficient illumination and impulse to  take  up  a  new  vital
movement  and  run  vigorously on the road to a new life.  That is the
reason for the listlessness of which you speak and  the  mistiness  of
the future.

                                 ***

If your soul always aspires for the transformation,  then that is what
you have to follow after.  To seek the Divine or rather some aspect of
the Divine - for one cannot entirely realise the Divine if there is no
transformation  -  may  be  enough  for some,  but not for those whose
soul's aspiration is for the entire divine change.

                                 ***

At X's conscientious hesitations between Krishna and Shiva and  Shakti
I  could  not help indulging in a smile.  If a man is attracted by one
form or two forms of the Divine,  it is all right,  but if he is drawn
to  several  at  a time he need not torment himself over it.  A man of
some development has necesssrily several sides in his nature and it is
quite  natural  that different aspects should draw or govern different
personalities in him: he can accept them all and harmonise them in the
One Divine and the One Adya Shakti of whom all are the manifestations.

                                 ***

Synthetic Method and Integral Yoga

                                 ***

AS REGARDS  X's question-this is not a yoga of bhakti alone;  it is or
at least it claims to be an integral yoga,  that is,  a turning of all
the  being in all its parts to the Divine.  It follows that there must
be knowledge and works as well as bhakti, and in addition, it includes
a  total change of the nature,  a seeking for perfection,  so that the
nature also may become one with the nature of the Divine.  It  is  not
only the heart that has to turn to the Divine and change, but the mind
also - so knowledge is necessary, and the will and power of action and
creation  also - so works too are necessary.  In this yoga the methods
of other yogas are taken up - like this of PurushaPrakriti, but with a
difference in the final object.  Purusha separates from Prakriti,  not
in order to abandon her,  but in order to know himself and her and  to
be no longer her plaything,  but the knower,  lord and upholder of the
nature;  but having become so or even in becoming so,  one offers  all
that to the Divine. One may begin with knowledge or with works or with
bhakti or with Tapasya of self-purification for perfection (change  of
nature)  and  develop  the  rest  as  a subsequent movement or one may
combine all in one movement.  There is no  single  rule  for  all,  it
depends on the personality and the nature. Surrender is the main power
of the yoga,  but the surrender is bound to be progressive; a complete
surrender  is  not  possible in the beginning,  but only a will in the
being for that completeness,  - in fact it takes time;  yet it is only
when  the  surrender is complete that the full flood of the sadhana is
possible.  Till then  there  must  be  the  personal  effort  with  an
increasing reality 'of surrender. One calls in the power of the Divine
Shakti and once that begins to  come  into  the  being,  it  at  first
supports the personal endeavour, then progressively takes up the whole
action,  although the consent of the sadhak  continues  to  be  always
necessary.  As  the Force works,  it brings in the different processes
that are necessary for the sadhak, processes of knowledge, of bhaktl@,
of  spiritualised  action,  of transformation of the nature.  The idea
that they can not be combined is an error.

                                 ***

The object of the sadhana is  opening  of  the  consciousness  to  the
Divine  and  the change of the nature.  Meditation or contemplation is
one means to this but only one  means;  bhakti  is  another;  work  is
another.  Chitta-shuddhi  was  preached by the yogins as a first means
towards realisation and they got by it the saintliness  of  the  saint
and  the  quietude of the sage but the transformation of the nature of
which we speak is something more than that,  and  this  transformation
does  not  come by contemplation alone;  works are necessary,  yoga in
action is indispensable.

                                 ***

The growth out of the ordinary mind into the  spiritual  consciousness
can be effected either by meditation, dedicated work or bhakti for the
Divine. In our yoga, which seeks not only a static peace or absorption
but  a  dynamic  spiritual action,  work is indispensable.  As for the
supramental Truth,  that is a different matter; it depends only on the
descent  of  the Divine and the action of the Supreme Force and is not
bound by any method or rule.

                                 ***

I have never disputed the truth of the old yogas - I have  myself  had
the  experience  of Vaishnava Bhakti and of Nirvana in the Brahman;  I
recognise their truth in their own field and for their own  purpose  -
the  truth  of  their experience so far as it goes - though I am in no
way bound to accept the truth of the mental  philosophies  founded  on
the experience. I similarly find that my yoga is true in its own field
- a larger field, as I think - and for its own purpose. The purpose of
the old is to get away from life to the Divine - so, obviously, let us
drop Kama. The purpose of the new is to reach the Divine and bring the
fullness  of  what  is  gained  into  life-for that,  yoga by works is
indispensable.  It seems to me that there is no mystery about that  or
anything to perplex anybody - it is rational and inevitable.  Only you
say that the thing is impossible;  but that  is  what  is  said  about
everything before it is done.
    I may  point  out that Karmayoga is not a new but a very old yoga;
the Gita was not written yesterday and Karmayoga  existed  before  the
Gita.  Your  idea that the only justification in the Gita for works is
that it is an unavoidable nuisance, so better make the best use of it,
is rather summary and crude.  If that were all,  the Gita would be the
production of an imbecile and I would hardly have  been  justified  in
writing  two  volumes  on it or the world in admiring it as one of the
greatest scriptures,  especially for its treatment of the  problem  of
the place of works in spiritual endeavour.  There is surely more in it
than that. Anyhow, your doubt whether works can lead to realisation or
rather  your  flat  and sweeping denial of the possibility contradicts
the experience of those who have achieved this supposed impossibility.
You  say  that  work  lowers the consciousness,  brings you out of the
inner into the outer-yes, if you consent to externalise yourself in it
instead of doing works from within;  but that is what one has to learn
not to do.  Thought and feeling can also externalise one in  the  same
way;  but it is a question of linking thought,  feeling and act firmly
to the inner consciousness by living there  and  making  the  rest  an
instrument.  Difficult?  Even  Bhakti is not easy and Nirvana for most
men more  difficult  than  all.
    I do   not   know  why  you  drag  in  humanitarianism,  activism,
philanthropical sev€,  etc.  None of these are part of my yoga  or  in
harmony with my definition of works,  so they don't touch me.  I never
thought that politics or feeding the poor or writing  beautiful  poems
would  lead  straight  to  Vaikuntha  or the Absolute.  If it were so,
Romesh Dutt on one side and Baudelaire on the other would be the first
to attain the Highest and welcome us there.  It is not the form of the
work itself or mere activity but the consciousness  and  Godward  will
behind  it  that  are  the essence of Karmayoga;  the work is only the
necessary instrumentation for the union with the Master of works,  the
transit to the pure Will and power of Light from the will and power of
the Ignorance.
    Finally, why  suppose  that  I am against meditation or bhakti?  I
have not the slightest objection to your taking either or both as  the
means  of  approach  to  the  Divine.  Only I saw no reason why anyone
should fall foul of works  and  deny  the  truth  of  those  who  have
reached,  as  the  Gita  says,  through  works perfect realisation and
oneness of nature with  the  Divine,  saŒsiddhim  s€dharmyam  (as  did
Janaka  and others) - simply because he himself cannot find or has not
yet found their deeper secret - hence my defence of works.

                                 ***

I do  not  mean by work action done in the ego and the ignorance,  for
the satisfaction of the ego and in the drive ofrajaslc  desire.  There
can  be  no  Karmayoga  without the will to get rid of ego,  rajas and
desire,  which are the seals of ignorance.
    I do not mean philanthropy or the service of humanity or  all  the
rest  of  the  things  -  moral  or idealistic - which the mind of man
substitutes for the deeper truth of works.
    I mean  by  work  action  done for the Divine and more and more in
union with the Divine-for the Divine alone and nothing else. Naturally
that  is not easy at the beginning,  any more than deep meditation and
luminous knowledge are easy or even true love and bhakti are easy. But
like  the  others it has to be begun in the right spirit and attitude,
with the right will in you,  then all the rest will come.
    Works done  in  this  spirit  are  quite as effective as bhakti or
contemplation.  One gets by the rejection of desire,  rajas and ego  a
quietude  and  purity into which the Peace ineffable can descend;  one
gets by the dedication of one's will to the Divine,  by the merging of
one's  will in the Divine Will the death of ego and the enlarging into
the cosmic consciousness or else the uplifting into what is above  the
cosmic; one experiences the separation of Purusha from Prakriti and is
liberated from the shackles of the outer nature;  one becomes aware of
one's  inner being and sees the outer as an instrument;  one feels the
universal Force doing one's works and the Self or Purusha watching  or
witness but free; one feels all one's works taken from one and done by
the universal or supreme Mother or by the Divine Power controlling and
acting from behind the heart.  By constant referring of all one's will
and works to the Divine,  love and adoration grow,  the psychic  being
comes  forward.  By  the reference to the Power above,  we can come to
feel it above and  its  descent  and  the  opening  to  an  increasing
consciousness and knowledge.  Finally,  works, bhakti and knowledge go
together and self-perfection becomes  possible  -  what  we  call  the
transformation of the nature.
    These results certainly do not come all at once; they come more or
less  slowly,  more  or less completely according to the condition and
growth of the being. There is no royal road to the divine realisation.

    This is the Karmayoga laid down in the Gita as I have developed it
for the integral spiritual life.  It is founded not on speculation and
reasoning but on  experience.  It  does  not  exclude  meditation  and
certainly does not exclude bhakti, for the selfoffering to the Divine,
the consecration of all oneself to the Divine which is the essence  of
this  Karmayoga  are  essentially  a movement of bhakti.  Only it does
exclude a life-fleeing exclusive meditation  or  an  emotional  bhakti
shut  up  in  its  own  inner dream taken as the whole movement of the
yoga.  One may have hours of pure absorbed meditation or of the  inner
motionless  adoration  and ecstasy,  but they are not the whole of the
integral yoga.

                                 ***

I have never put any ban on bhakti.  Also I am not conscious of having
banned meditation either at any time.  I have stressed both bhakti and
knowledge in my yoga as well as works, even if I have not given any of
them   an  exclusive  importance  like  Shankara  or  Chaitanya.
    The difficulty you feel or any sadhak feels about sadhana  is  not
really  a  question of meditation versus bhakti versus works.  It is a
difficulty of the attitude to be taken,  the approach or whatever  you
may like to call it.
    If you can't as yet remember the  Divine  all  the  time  you  are
working,  it does not greatly matter.  To remember and dedicate at the
beginning and give thanks at the  end  ought  to  be  enough  for  the
present.  Or  at the most to remember too when there is a pause.  Your
method seems to me rather painful and difficult,  -  you  seem  to  be
trying to remember and work with one and the same part of the mind.  I
don't know if that is possible.  When people  remember  all  the  time
during  work  (it  can be done),  it is usually with the back of their
minds or else there is created gradually a faculty of  double  thought
or else a double consciousness-one in front that works, and one within
that witnesses and remembers. There is also another way which was mine
for  a  long  time  -  a  condition  in  which  the  work  takes place
automatically and without intervention of personal thought  or  mental
action,  while  the  consciousness  remains silent in the Divine.  The
thing,  however,  does not come so much by trying as by a very  simple
constant  aspiration  and will of consecration - or else by a movement
of the consciousness separating the inner from the instrumental being.
Aspiration and will of consecration calling down a greater Force to do
the work is a method which brings great results,  even if in  some  it
takes a long time about it. That is a great secret of sadhana, to know
how to get things done by the Power behind or above instead  of  doing
an by the mind's effort. I don't mean to say that the mind's effort is
unnecessary or has no result - only if it tries to  do  everything  by
itself,  that  becomes a laborious effort for all except the spiritual
athletes.  Nor do I mean that the other method is the longed-for short
cut;  the result may,  as I have said,  take a long time. Patience and
firm resolution are necessary in every method of sadhana.
    Strength is  all  right  for  the  strong - but aspiration and the
Grace answering to  it  are  not  altogether  myths;  they  are  great
realities of the spiritual life.

                                 ***

The including of the outer consciousness @n the transformation  is  of
supreme importance in this yoga - meditation cannot do it.  Meditation
can deal only with the inner being. So work is of primary importance -
only  it  must  be  done  with  the  right  attitude  and in the right
consciousness, then it is as fruitful as any meditation can be.

                                 ***

To keep up work helps to keep up  the  balance  between  the  internal
experience  and  the external development;  otherwise onesidedness and
want of measure and balance may develop.  Moreover, it is necessary to
keep  the  sadhana  of  work  for  the  Divine because in the end that
enables the sadhak to bring out the inner progress into  the  external
nature and life and helps the integrality of the sadhana.

                                 ***

There is  no  stage  of the sadhana in which works are impossible,  no
passage in the path where there is no foothold and action  has  to  be
renounced  as  incompatible  with  concentration  on  the Divine.  The
foothold is there always ; the foothold is the reliance on the Divine,
the opening of the being,  the will,  the energies to the Divine,  the
surrender to the Divine.  All work done in that spirit can be  made  a
means for the sadhana.  It may be necessary for an individual here and
there to plunge into meditation for a time and suspend work  for  that
time or make it subordinate ;  but that can only be an individual case
and a temporary retirement. Moreover, a complete cessation of work and
entire withdrawal into oneself is seldom advisable; it may encourage a
too onesided and visionary condition in which one lives in a  sort  of
midworld  of  purely  subjective  experiences  without  a firm hold on
either external reality or on the  highest  Reality  and  without  the
right  use of the subjective experience to create a firm link and then
a unification between the highest Reality and the external realisation
in  life.
    Work can  be of two kinds - the work that is a field of experience
used  for  the  sadhana,   for   a   progressive   harmonisation   and
transformation  of  the  being and its activities,  and work that is a
realised expression of the Divine.  But the time for the latter can be
only  when  the  Realisation  has  been  fully  brought  down into the
earth-consciousness;  till then all work must be a field of  endeavour
and a school of experience.

                                 ***

Work by itself is only a preparation,  so is meditation by itself, but
work done  in  the  increasing  yogic  consciousness  is  a  means  of
realisation as much as meditation is...  I have not said, I hope, that
work only prepares.  Meditation also prepares for the direct  contact.
If  we are to do work only as a preparation and then become motionless
meditative ascetics,  then aU my spiritual teaching is false and there
is  no  use  for supramental realisation or anything else that has not
been done in the past...
    The ignorance  underlying  this attitude is in the assumption that
one must necessarily do only work or only meditation.  Either work  is
the means or meditation is the means, but both cannot be! I have never
said,  so far as I know, that meditation should not be done. To set up
an  open  competition or a closed one between work and meditation is a
trick of the dividing  mind  and  belongs  to  the  old  yoga.  Please
remember  that  I  have  been  declaring all along an integral yoga in
which Knowledge,  Bhakti,  Works-light of  consciousness,  Ananda  and
love,  will and power in works - meditation, adoration, service of the
Divine have all their place.  Meditation is not greater than  yoga  of
works  nor  works  greater  than  yoga  by  knowledge-both  are equal.

    Another thing  -  it  is  a  mistake  to argue from one's own very
limited experience,  ignoring that of others and  build  on  it  large
generalisations about yoga.  This is what many do,  but the method has
obvious demerits. You have no experience of major realisations through
works,  and  you  conclude that such realisations are impossible.  But
what of the many who have had them -elsewhere  and  here  too  in  the
Ashram?
    Don't conclude however that I am exalting works as the sole  means
of realisation. I am only giving it its due place.

                                 ***

You forget  that men differ in nature and therefore each will approach
the sadhana in his own way - one through work, one through bhakti, one
through  meditation  and  knowledge  -and those who are capable of it,
through all together.  You are perfectly justified in  following  your
own  way,  whatever may be the theories of others -but let them follow
theirs. In the end all can converge together towards the same goal.

                                 ***

What you felt before was in your mental being and consciousness, after
coming  here  you  have  evidently  come  out  into  your external and
physical consciousness,  that is why you feel as if all you had before
was  gone.  It  is  only covered over by the obscurity of the physical
consciousness and not gone.
    As for  sadhana,  I presume you mean by that some kind of exercise
of concentration etc.  For work also is sadhana,  if done in the right
attitude  and spirit.  The sadhana of inner concentration consists in:

    1. Fixing  the  consciousness in the heart and concentrating there
on the idea,  image or name of  the  Divine  Mother,  whichever  comes
easiest to you.
    2. A  gradual  and  progressive  quieting  of  the  mind  by  this
concentration  in  the  heart.
    3. An aspiration for the Mother's presence in the  heart  and  the
control  by her of mind,  life and action.
    But to quiet the mind and  get  the  spiritual  experience  it  is
necessary first to purify and prepare the nature. This sometimes takes
many years. Work done with the right attitude is the easiest means for
that - i.e.  work done without desire or ego,  rejecting all movements
of desire,  demand or ego when they come,  done as an offering to  the
Divine  Mother,  with  the  remembrance  of  her  and prayer to her to
manifest her force and take up the action so that there  too  and  not
only in inner silence you can feel her presence and working.

                                 ***

Prayer and meditation count for so much in yoga.  But the prayer  must
well  up from the heart on a crest of emotion or aspiration,  the Japa
or meditation come in a live push carrying the joy or the light of the
thing in it.  If done mechanically and merely as a thing that ought to
be done (stern grim duty!),  it must tend towards want of interest and
dryness  and  so  be ineffective...  You were doing Japa too much as a
means for bringing about a result,  I meant too much as  a  device,  a
process  laid  down for getting the thing done.  That was why I wanted
the psychological conditions in  you  to  develop,  the  psychic,  the
mental,  for when the psychic is forward, there is no lack of life and
joy in the prayer,  the aspiration,  the  seeking,  no  difficulty  in
having  the  constant  stream of bhakti and when the mind is quiet and
intoned and upturned there is no difficulty or  want  of  interest  in
meditation.  Meditation,  by  the  way,  is  a process leading towards
knowledge and through knowledge,  it is a thing of the head and not of
the  heart,  so  if  you  want  dhy€na,  you can't have an aversion to
knowledge.  Concentration in the heart is not meditation,  it is a can
on  the  Divine,  on  the  Beloved.  This  yoga  too  is not a yoga of
knowledge alone,  knowledge is one of its means,  but its  base  being
self-offering, surrender, bhakti, it is based in the heart and nothing
can be eventually done without this base.  There are plenty of  people
here who do or have done Japa and base themselves on bhakti,  very few
comparatively who have done the "head" meditation; love and bhakti and
works  are usually the base;  how many can proceed by knowledge?  Only
the few.

                                 ***

I was quite in earnest in speaking of the progress you had made by the
psychic movement and the endeavour to detect and remove the ego. I had
already written to you strongly approving of that way.  It is  in  our
yoga the way to devotion and surrender -for it is the psychic movement
that brings the constant and pure devotion and the removal of ego that
makes  it  possible  to surrender.  The two things indeed go together.

    The other way, which is the way to knowledge, is the meditation in
the  head  by  which  there  comes the opening above,  the quietude or
silence of the mind and the descent  of  peace,  etc.  of  the  higher
consciousness  generally till it envelops the being and fills the body
and begins to take up all the movements.  But this involves a  passage
through silence and certain emptiness of the ordinary activities -they
being pushed out and done as a  purely  superficial  action  -and  you
strongly dislike silence and emptiness.
    The third way which is one of the two ways towards yoga  by  works
is  the separation of the Purusha from the Prakriti,  the inner silent
being from the outer active one,  so that one has two  consciousnesses
or  a  double  consciousness,  one  behind  watching and observing and
finally controlling and changing the other which is active  in  front.
But  this  also means living in an inner peace and silence and dealing
with the activities as if they were a thing of the surface.  The other
way  of  beginning  the yoga of works is by doing them for the Divine,
for the Mother,  and not for oneself, consecrating and dedicating them
till  one  concretely  feels the Divine Force taking up the activities
and doing them for one.
    If there  is  any  secret or key of my yoga which you say you have
not found, it lies in these methods -and, in reality, there is nothing
so mysterious,  impossible or even new about them in themselves. It is
only the farther development at a later stage and the aim of the  yoga
that  are  new.  But  that  one  need  not concern oneself with in the
earlier stages unless one wishes to  do  so  as  a  matter  of  mental
knowledge.

                                 ***

Meditation is one means of approach to the Divine and a great way, but
it cannot be called a short cut - for most  it  is  a  long  and  most
difficult  though  a  very  high  ascent.  It can by no means be short
unless it brings a descent, and even then it is only a foundation that
is quickly laid;  afterwards meditation has to build laboriously a big
superstructure on that foundation.  It is very indispensable but there
is  nothing  of  the  short  about  it.
    Karma is a much simpler road provided one's mind is not  fixed  on
the  Karma to the exclusion of the Divine.  The aim must be the Divine
and the work can only be a means.  The use of poetry etc,  is to  keep
one  in  contact  with one's inner being and that helps to prepare for
the direct contact with the inmost,  but one must not stop with  that,
one  must  go on to the real thing.  If one thinks of being a literary
man or a poet or a painter as things worthwhile for  their  own  sake,
then it is no longer the yogic spirit. That is why I have sometimes to
say that as our business is to be yogis,  not merely poets,  painters,
etc.
    Love, bhakti,  surrender,  the psychic opening are the only  short
cuts  to  the  Divine - or can be;  for if the love and bhakti are too
vital,  then  there  is  likely  to  be  a  seesaw  between   ecstatic
expectation  and Viraha,  Abhiman,  despair,  etc.,  which makes not a
short cut but a long one,  a zigzag  -  not  a  straight  flight  -  a
whirling round one's own ego instead of a running towards the Divine.

                                 ***

I have always said that work done as sadhana - done,  that is to  say,
as  an  outflow of energy from the Divine and offered to the Divine or
work done for the sake of the Divine or  work  done  in  a  spirit  of
devotion  is  a  powerful  means  ofsadhana  and  that  such  work  is
especially necessary in this yoga. Work, bhakti and meditation are the
three supports of yoga. One can do with all three or two or one. There
are  people  who  can't  meditate  in  the  set  way  that  one  calls
meditation,  but  they  progress  through  work  or  through bhakti or
through the two together.  By  work  and  bhakti  one  can  develop  a
consciousness in which eventually a natural meditation and realisation
becomes possible.
    All that is quite  different  from  X's  idea  of  making  oneself
virtuous  and self-controlled and pure by some mysterious innate power
in the pursuit of literature.  If he had asked me the  question  about
work  and  sadhana,  I  would  have answered him otherwise.  Of course
literature and art are or can be a first  introduction  to  the  inner
being-the  inner  mind,  inner  vital;  for it is from there that they
come. And if one writes poems of bhakti, poems of divine seeking, etc,
or  creates  music  of  that kind,  it means that there is a bhakta or
seeker inside who is supporting himself by that  self-expression.  But
it  was  not  from any point of view like that that X put his question
and it was not from that point of view that I gave my answer.  It  was
about   some  especial  character-making  virtue  that  he  seemed  to
attribute to literature.

                                 ***

It is altogether unprofitable to enquire who or what class will arrive
first  or  last  at  the  goal.  The  spiritual path is not a field of
competition or a race that this should matter.  What matters is  one's
own aspiration for the Divine,  one's own faith,  surrender,  selfless
self-giving.  Others can be left to the  Divine  who  will  lead  each
according to his nature.  Meditation,  work,  bhakti are each means of
preparative help towards fulfilment; all are included in this path. If
one  can  dedicate  oneself  through  work,  that  is  one of the most
powerful means towards  the  self-giving  which  is  itself  the  most
powerful  and indispensable element of the sadhana.
    To cleave to the path means to follow it  without  leaving  it  or
turning aside. It is a path of self-offering of the whole being in all
its parts,  the offering of the thinking mind and the heart,  the will
and  actions,  the  inner  and  the  outer instruments so that one may
arrive at the experience of  the  Divine,  the  Presence  within,  the
psychic  and  spiritual  change.  The more one gives of oneself in all
ways,  the better for the sadhana.  But all cannot do it to  the  same
extent,  with the same rapidity,  in the same way. How others do it or
fail to do it should not be one's concern - how to  do  it  faithfully
oneself is the one thing important.

                                 ***

To say  that  one enters the stream of sadhana through work only is to
say too much.  One can enter it through meditation or bhakti also, but
work  is  necessary  to get into full stream and not drift away to one
side and go circling there.  Of course all work helps provided  it  is
done in the right spirit.

                                 ***

There are  several  sadhaks  who have advanced very far by work alone,
work consecrated to the Mother or else by work mainly with very little
time  for  meditation.  Others have advanced far by meditation mainly,
but work also.  Those who tried to  do  meditation  alone  and  became
impatient of work (because they could not consecrate it to the Mother)
have generally been failures like X and Y.  But one or two may succeed
by  meditation  alone,  if  it  is  in their nature or if they have an
intense and unshakable faith and bhakti.  All depends on the nature of
the  sadhak.
    As for the pur€tan m€nu˜ I do not see that the workers have  their
external being less changed than others.  There are some who are where
they were or only a little progressive,  there  are  others  who  have
changed a great deal-none is transformed altogether,  though some have
found a sure and sound spiritual and psychic basis.  But that  applies
equally  to  workers  who do not spend time in meditation and to those
who spend a long time in meditation.
    Each sadhak  must  be  left  to himself and the Mother to find his
right way which need not be that of his neighbour.

                                 ***

As for  the  line  on  which  most  stress is laid,  it depends on the
nature.  There are some people who are not cut out for meditation  and
it  is  only by work that they can prepare themselves;  there are also
those who are the opposite. As for the enormous development of egoism,
that  can  come  whatever  one follows.  I have seen it blossom in the
dhy€nˆ as well as in the worker;  X says it does so in the bhakta.  So
it  is evident that all soils are favourable to this Narcissus flower.
As for "no need of sadhana", obviously one who does not do any sadhana
cannot change or progress.  Work, meditation, bhakti, all must be done
as sadbana.

                                 ***

Why argue from your personal experience,  great or little, and turn it
into a generalisation? A great many people (the majority perhaps) find
it (sadhana through work) the easiest of all.  Many find  it  easy  to
think of the Mother when working;  but when they read or write,  their
mind goes off to the thing read or written and they forget  everything
else.  I think that is the case with most.  Physical work on the other
hand can be done with the most external part of the mind,  leaving the
rest free to remember or to experience.

                                 ***

What do you call meditation?  Shutting the eyes and concentrating?  It
is only one method for calling down the true  consciousness.  To  join
with  the  true  consciousness  or  feel its descent is the only thing
important and if it comes without the orthodox method,  as  it  always
did with me, so much the better. Meditation is only a means or device,
the true movement is when even walking,  working or  speaking  one  is
still in sadhana.

                                 ***

It is  not  meditation (thinking with the mind) but a concentration or
turning of the consciousness that is important,  - and that can happen
in work,  in writing, in any kind of action as well as in sitting down
to contemplate.

                                 ***

Meditation is best when it comes spontaneously.  But there  should  be
full  concentration  in  the  work  if  it  is  to  take  the place of
meditation.

                                 ***

You need not have qualms  about  the  time  you  give  to  action  and
creative  work.  Those who have an expansive creative vital or a vital
made for action are usually at their best when the vital is  not  held
back  from  its  movement  and  they  can develop faster by it than by
introspective meditation. All that is needed is that the action should
be  dedicated,  so  that they may grow by it more and more prepared to
feel and follow the Divine Force when it moves them.  It is a  mistake
to  think  that  to  live  in introspective meditation all the time is
invariably the best or the only way of yoga.

                                 ***

Then how is it [meditation] necessary for all,  if some are asked  not
to do it?  Much meditation is for those who can meditate much. It does
not follow that because much meditation is 540 Letters on  Yoga  good,
therefore nobody should do anything else.

                                 ***

I have not suggested that you are to progress by dhy€na alone; but you
have a great capacity for that and you cannot progress  fully  without
it.  In  this yoga some kindof action is necessary for all - though it
need not take the form of some set labour. But for the moment progress
through  concentration and inner experience is the first necessity for
you.
    This is what we call the activity of the mind,  which always comes
in  the  way  of  the  concentration  and  tries  to  create doubt and
dispersion of the energies.
    It can  be got rid of in two ways,  by rejecting it and pushing it
out,  till it remains as an outside force only - by bringing down  the
higher peace and light into the physical mind.

                                 ***

He has  to  learn  to  consecrate his work and feel the Mother's power
working through it.  A purely sedentary subjective realisation is only
a half realisation.

                                 ***

I may stress one point,  however,  that there need not be only one way
to the realisation of the Divine.  If one does not succeed or has  not
yet  succeeded  in  reaching  him,  feeling  him  or seeing him by the
established process of meditation or by processes like japa,  yet  one
may have made progress towards it by the frequent calling of bhakti in
the  heart  or  a  constantly  greater  enlargement  of  it   in   the
consciousness  or by work for the Divine and by dedication in service.
You have  certainly  progressed  in  these  directions,  increased  in
devotion  and shown your capacity for service.  You have also tried to
get rid of obstacles in your vital nature and so effect a purification
not  without  success  in  several  difficult directions.  The path of
surrender is indeed difficult,  but  if  one  perseveres  in  it  with
sincerity,  there is bound to be some success and a partial overcoming
or diminution of the ego which may help greatly a further advance upon
the way. One must learn to go forward on the path of yoga, as the Gita
insists,  with a consciousness free from despondency - anirviššacetas€
Even  if one slips,  one must rectify the posture;  even if one falls,
one has to rise and go undiscouraged on the Divine Way.  The  attitude
must  be:
    "The Divine has promised Himself to me if I cleave to Him  always;
that I will never cease to do whatever may come."

                                 ***

Sadhana is the practice of yoga.  Tapasya is the concentration of  the
will  to  get  the results of sadhana and to conquer the lower nature.
Aradhana is worship of the Divine, love, self-surrender, aspiration to
the Divine, calling the name, prayer. Dhyana is inner concentration of
the  consciousness,  meditation,  going  inside  in  Samadhi.  Dhyana,
Tapasya and Aradhana are all parts of sadbana.

                                 ***

Basic Requisites of the Path

                                 ***

THE goal  of  yoga  is  always  hard  to  reach,  but this one is more
difficult than any other,  and it is only for those who have the call,
the capacity,  the willingness to face everything and every risk, even
the risk of failure,  and the  will  to  progress  towards  an  entire
selflessness, desirelessness and surrender.

                                 ***

This yoga  implies  not  only  the  realisation of God,  but an entire
consecration and change of the inner and outer life till it is fit  to
manifest a divine consciousness and become part of a divine work. This
means an inner discipline far more exacting and  difficult  than  mere
ethical and physical austerities. One must not enter on this path, far
vaster and more arduous than most ways of yoga,  unless one is sure of
the psychic call and of one's readiness to go through to the end.

                                 ***

By readiness, I did not mean capacity but willingness. If there is the
will within to face all difficulties and go  through,  no  matter  how
long it takes, then the path can be taken.

                                 ***

A mere  restless  dissatisfaction  with  the  ordinary  life  is not a
sufficient preparation for this yoga.  A positive inner call, a strong
will and a great steadiness are necessary for success in the spiritual
life.

                                 ***

Mental theories are of no fundamental importance,  for the mind  forms
or  accepts  the theories that support the turn of the being.  What is
important is that turn and the call within you.
    The knowledge that there is a Supreme Existence, Consciousness and
Bliss  which  is  not  merely  a  negative  Nirvana  or  a  static and
featureless Absolute,  but dynamic,  the perception that  this  Divine
Consciousness  can  be  realised  not  only  beyond but here,  and the
consequent acceptance of a divine life as the  aim  of  yoga,  do  not
belong  to  the  mind.  It  is  not a question of mental theory - even
though mentally this outlook can be as well supported as any other, if
not better,  - but of experience and,  before the experience comes, of
the soul's faith bringing with it the mind's and the life's  adhesion.
One who is in contact with the higher Light and has the experience can
follow this way,  however difficult it may be for the lower members to
follow;  one who is touched by it,  without having the experience, but
having  the  call,  the  conviction,  the  compulsion  of  the  soul's
adherence, can also follow it.

                                 ***

An idealistic notion or religious belief or emotion is something quite
different  from  getting  spiritual light.  An idealistic notion might
turn you towards getting spiritual light,  but it  is  not  the  light
itself.  It is true however that "the spirit bloweth where it listeth"
and  that  we  can  get  an  emotional  impulse  or  touch  or  mental
realisation  of  spiritual  things  from  almost any circumstance,  as
Bilwamangal  got  it  from  the  words  of  his  courtesan   mistress.
Obviously,  it happens because something is ready somewhere,  - if you
like,  the psychic being  waiting  for  its  chance  and  taking  some
opportunity in mind, vital or heart to knock open a window somewhere.

                                 ***

Mere idealism  can only have an effect if one has a strong will in the
mind capable of forcing the vital to follow.

                                 ***

The push to drown oneself in the Divine is very rare.  It is usually a
mental idea,  a vital urge or some quite inadequate reason that starts
the thing - or else no reason at all.  The only reality is the  occult
psychic push behind of which the surface consciousness is not aware or
else hardly aware.

                                 ***

What you write is quite accurate about  the  true  soul,  the  psychic
being.  But  people mean different things when they speak of the soul.
Sometimes it is what I have called in the Arya the desiresoul,-that is
the  vital with its mixed aspirations,  desires,  hungers of all kinds
good and bad,  its emotions,  finer and grosser,  or sensational urges
crossed by the mind's idealisings and psychic stresses.  But sometimes
it is also the inhyl and vital under the stress of a psychic urge. The
psychic, so long as it is veiled, must express itself through the mind
and vital and its aspirations are mixed  and  coloured  there  by  the
vital  and  mental  stuff.  Thus  the  veiled psychic urge may express
itself in the mind by a hunger in the thought for the knowledge of the
Divine,  what the Europeans call the intellectual love of God.  In the
vital it may express itself as a hunger or hankering after the Divine.
It  can  bring much suffering because of the nature of the vital,  its
unquiet passions,  desires,  ardours,  troubled  emotions,  cloudings,
depressions,  despairs.  Nevertheless  all  cannot approach,  at least
cannot at once approach the Divine in  the  pure  psychic  way  -  the
mental  and vital approaches are often necessary beginnings and better
from the spiritual point of view than unsensitiveness to  the  Divine.
It  is  in  both  cases a call of the soul,  the soul's urge - it only
takes a form or colour due to the stress of the mind or vital nature.

                                 ***

It is very evident that X  has  had  a  sudden  opening  to  spiritual
experience  - a surprisingly sudden opening,  one would think,  but it
happens often in that way,  especially if there is  a  sceptical  mind
outside and a soul ready for experience within.  In such cases also it
comes often after a blow such as his brother's illness,  but  I  think
there was already a turning of the mind which prepared it. This sudden
and persistent visualisation also shows that there is a faculty within
that   has   broken   the  gates  which  shut  it  in  -  the  faculty
ofsupraphysical vision.  The coming up of the word "consecration'@  is
also  a  familiar  phenomenon of these experiences - it is what I call
the voice of the psychic,  an intimation from his own soul to the mind
as to what it wants him to do. Now he has to accept it, for the assent
of the natllre, of the outward man to the inner voice, is necessajy so
that it may be effective.  He is standing at the turning-point and has
been given an  indication  of  the  new  road  his  inner  being,  the
Antaratman,  wants  him to follow - but,  as I say,  the assent of his
mind and vital is necessary.  If he can decide to consecrate,  he must
make  the  saškalpa  of consecration,  offer himself to the Divine and
call for the help and the guidance.  If he is not able to do  that  at
once,  let him wait and see,  but keeping himself open, as it were, to
the continuation and development of the  experience  that  has  begun,
till  it  becomes  definitely  imperative to his own feeling.  He will
receive help and,  if he becomes conscious of it, then there can be no
further question - it will be easy for him to proceed on the way.

                                 ***

Your influence  on  him for turning towards the yoga was good,  but it
was not able to change his vital nature.  No human influence  -  which
can  only  be  mental and moral - can do that;  you can see that he is
just what he was before. It can be done only from his own soul turning
towards the Divine.

                                 ***

Knowledge of  the  way  is  not enough - one must tread it,  or if one
cannot do that,  allow oneself to be carried along it. The human vital
and  physical external nature resist to the very end,  but if the soul
has once heard the call, it arrives, sooner or later.

                                 ***

For those who have within them a sincere call for the Divine,  however
the  mind  or  vital  may  present difficulties or attacks come or the
progress be slow and painful,  - even if they fall back or  fall  away
from  the path for a time,  the psychic always prevails in the end and
the Divine Help proves effective.  Trust in that and persevere -  then
the goal is sure.

                                 ***

I have  already  finswered your question.  You came because your soul,
was moved@ to seek the Divine. That some part of your vital has strong
attachments to the people you left behind,  is a fact, but it does not
make your soul's seeking unreal.  If the presence and  persistence  of
vital  difficulties  were  to  prove that a sadhak is unfit and has no
chance,  then only one or two in the Ashram - and'  perhaps  not  even
they  -  would survive the test.  The feeling of dryness and not being
able to aspire is also no proof.  Every sadhak gets periods  and  even
long  periods  of  such  emptiness.  I  could  point  to  some who are
considered among the most "advanced" sadhaks and yet are not free  yet
altogether   from   the   family   instinct.  It  is  therefore  quite
unreasonable to be upse@ because these reactions still linger in  you.
These  reactions  come and go,  but the need of the soul is permanent,
even when covered up and silent, and will always stay and re-emerge.

                                 ***

All who came here did not come with a conscious seeking for the Mvine.
It  is  without  the mind knowing it the soul within that brought them
here. In your case it was that and the relation your soul had with the
Mother.  Once here the force of the Divine works upon the human nature
till a way is opened for the soul within to come out  from  the  veil.
The  conscious  seeking  for the Divine does not by itself prevent the
struggle with the ignorance 'of the nature;  it is only self-giving to
the Mother that can do that.

                                 ***

When someone  is destined for the Path,  all circumstances through all
the deviations of mind and life help in one way or another to lead him
to  it.  It is his own psychic being within him and Divine Power above
that use to that  end  the  vicissitudes  both  of  mind  and  outward
circumstance.

                                 ***

When the soul is meant to go forward and there is an external weakness
like that,  circumstances do come like that to help the external being
against  itself-which  means  that  there  must  be  a  truly  sincere
aspiration behind; otherwise it does not happen.

                                 ***

The spiritual destiny always stands - it may be delayed or seem to  be
lost for a time, but it is never abolished.

                                 ***

A spiritual  opportunity  is not a thing that should be lightly thrown
away with the idea that it will be all right some  other  time  -  one
cannot  be  so sure of the other time.  Besides,  these things leave a
mark and at the place of the mark there can be a recurrence.

                                 ***

The vision of the Light and the vision of the  Lord  in  the  form  of
Jagannath  are  both  of them indications that he has the capacity for
yoga and that there is a call of the Divine on his  inner  being.  But
capacity is not enough;  there must be also the will to seek after the
Divine and courage and persistence in following the path.  Fear is the
first thing that must be thrown away and, secondly, the inertia of the
outer being which has prevented him from responding to the call.
    The Light is the light of the Divine  Consciousness.  The  aim  of
this  yoga  is  first to come into contact with this consciousness and
then to live in its light and allow the light to transform  the  whole
nature,  so  that  the being may live in union with the Divine and the
nature become a field for the action  of  the  divine  Knowledge,  the
divine Power and the divine Ananda.
    He can succeed in this only if he makes it the supreme  object  of
his  life  and  is prepared to subordinate everything else to this one
aim.  Otherwise all that can be done is only to make some  preparation
in this life - a first contact and some preliminary spiritual ' change
in part of the nature.

                                 ***

All can do some kind of yoga,  according to their nature, if they have
the  will  to  it.  But there are few of whom it can be said that they
have capacity for this yoga.  Only some can develop a capacity, others
cannot.

                                 ***

Nobody is fit for the sadhana - i.e.  nobody can do it by his own sole
capacity.  It is a question of preparing oneself to bring in fully the
Force not one's own that can do it with one's consent and aspiration.

                                 ***

It is  difficult  to  say that any particular quality makes one fit or
the lack of it  unfit.  One  may  have  strong  sex-impulses,  doubts,
revolts and yet succeed in the end, while another may fail. If one has
a fundamental sincerity,  a will to go through in spite of all  things
and readiness to be candid, that is the best security in the sadhana.

                                 ***

When one  enters into the true (yogic) consciousness then you see that
everything can be done, even if at present only a slight beginning has
been made;  but a beginning is enough,  since the Force, the Power are
there.  It is not really on the capacity  of  the  outer  nature  that
success  depends,  (for  the  outer  nature  all  self-exceeding seems
impossibly difficult,) but on the inner being and to the  inner  being
all is possible. One has only to get into contact with the inner being
and change the outer view and consciousness from the  inner;  that  is
the  work  of  the  sadhana  and  it  is  sure to come with sincerity,
aspiration and patience.

                                 ***

You must realise that these moods are attacks which should be rejected
at  once - for they repose on nothing but suggestions of self-distrust
and incapacity which have no meaning,  since it is by the Grace of the
Divine  and the aid of a Force greater than your own,  not by personal
capacity and worth that you can attain the goal of  the  sadhana.  You
have  to  remember that and dissociate yourself from these suggestions
when they come,  never accept or yield to them.  No sadhak even if  he
had the capacity of the ancient Rishis and Tapaswis or the strength of
a Vivekananda can hope to keep during the early years of his sadhana a
continuous good condition or union with the Divine or an unbroken call
or height of aspiration.  It takes a long  time  to  spiritualise  the
whole nature and until that is done,  variations must come. A constant
trust and patience must be cultivated - must be acquired -  not  least
when  things  go  against  -  for when they are favourable,  trust and
patience are easy.

                                 ***

It goes without saying that the qualities you speak of are helpful  in
the  approach  to the spiritual path,  while the defects you enumerate
are each a serious stumbling-block in the way. Sincerity especially is
indispensable  to the spiritual endeavour,  and crookedness a constant
obstacle.  The sattwic nature has always been held to be the most  apt
and  ready  for  the  spiritual  life,  while  the  rajasic  nature is
encumbered by its desires and passions. At the same time, spirituality
is something above the dualities,  and what is most needed for it is a
true upward aspiration. This may come to the rajasic man as well as to
the  sattwic.  If  it  does,  he can rise by it above his failings and
desires and passions,  just as the other can rise beyond his  virtues,
to  the Divine Purity and Light and Love.  Necessarily,  this can only
happen if he conquers his lower nature and throws it from him;  for if
he relapses into it, he is likely to fall from the path or at least to
be, so long as the relapse lasts, held back by it from inner progress.
But for all that the conversion of great sinners into great saints, of
men of little or no virtue into spiritual seekers and  God-lovers  has
frequently  happened in religious and spiritual history - as in Europe
St.  Augustine, in India Chaitanya's Jagai and Madhai, Bilwamangal and
many  others.  The  house of the Divine is not closed to any who knock
sincerely at its gates, whatever their past stumbles and errors. Human
virtues  and  human  errors  are bright and dark wrappings of a divine
element within which once it pierces the veil,  can burn through  both
towards the heights of the Spirit.
    Humility before the Divine is also a sine qua non of the spiritual
life,  and  spiritual pride,  arrogance,  or vanity and self-assurance
press always downward.  But confidence in the Divine and  a  faith  in
one's  spiritual  destiny  (i.e.  since my heart and soul seek for the
Divine, I cannot fail one day to reach Him) are much needed in view of
the  difficulties of the Path.  A contempt for others is out of place,
especially since the Divine is in all.  Evidently,  the activities and
aspirations  of  men are not trivial and worthless,  for all life is a
growth of the soul out of the darkness  towards  the  Light.  But  our
attitude  is  that  humanity cannot grow out of its limitations by the
ordinary means adopted by the human  mind,  politics,  social  reform,
philanthropy,  etc, -these can only be temporary or local palliatives.
The only true escape is a change of consciousness,  a  change  into  a
greater,  wider  and  purer way of being,  and a life and action based
upon that change.  It is therefore to that that the energies  must  be
turned,  once  the spiritual orientation is complete.  This implies no
contempt,  but the preference of the only effective means  over  those
which have been found ineffective.

                                 ***

It can be  put  like  that;  but  virtuous  and  sinners  is  a  wrong
description;  for it is not true that virtuous people suffer more than
sinners.  Many sinners are people who are preparing to turn @tters  on
Yoga  to  the Divine and many virtuous people have a long run of lives
yet to go through before they will think of it.

                                 ***

Such qualities as faith, sincerity, aspiration, devotion, etc, make up
the  perfection indicated in our language of the flowers.  In ordinary
language  it  would  mean  something  else  such  as   purity,   love,
benevolence, fidelity and a host of other virtues.

                                 ***

Get the psychic being in front and keep it there, putting its power on
the mind, vital and physical, so that it shall communicate to them its
force of single-minded aspiration, trust, faith, surrender, direct and
immediate detection of whatever is wrong  in  the  nature  and  turned
towards ego and error, away from Light and Truth.
    Eliminate egoism  in  all  its  forms;  eliminate  it  from  every
movement of your consciousness.
    Develop the   cosmic  consciousness-let  the  ego-centric  outlook
disappear in wideness,  impersonality, the sense of the Cosmic Divine,
the perception of universal forces,  the realisation and understanding
of the cosmic manifestation,  the play.
    Find in  place  of  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 in  doing  yoga  live in the mind,  vital,  physical,  lit up
occasionally or to some extent by the higher mind and by the illumined
mind;  but  to  prepare for the supramental change it is necessary (as
soon as,  personally,  the time has come) to open up to the  Intuition
and the overmind, so that these may make the whole being and the whole
nature ready for  the  supramental  change.  Allow  the  consciousness
quietly  to  develop  and widen and the knowledge of these things will
progressively  come.
    Calm, discrimination,  detachment  (but  not indifference) are all
very important,  for their opposites impede very much the transforming
action.  Intensity of aspiration should be there, but it must go along
with these.  No hurry,  no inertia, neither rajasic over-eagerness nor
tamasic  discouragement  -  a steady and persistent but quiet call and
working.  No snatching  or  clutching  at  realisation,  but  allowing
realisation to come from within and above and observing accurately its
field,  its nature,  its limits.
    Let the  power of the Mother work in you,  but be careful to avoid
any mixture or substitution,  in its  place,  of  either  a  magnified
ego-working or a force of Ignorance presenting itself as Truth. Aspire
especially for the elimination of all obscurity and unconsciousness in
the  nature.
    These are the main conditions of preparation for  the  supramental
change; but none of them is easy, and they must be complete before the
nature can be said  to  be  ready.  If  the  true  attitude  (psychic,
unegoistic,  open  only to the Divine Force) can be established,  then
the process can go on much more quickly.  To take and  keep  the  true
attitude,  to  further the change in oneself,  is the help that can be
given, the one thing asked to assist the general change.

                                 ***

The best  way  to  answer  your  letter  will  be,  I  think,  to take
separately the  questions  implied  in  it.  I  will  begin  with  the
conclusion  you  have  drawn  of  the  impossibility of the yoga for a
nonoriental nature.
    I cannot see any ground for such a conclusion;  it is contrary  to
all experience. Europeans throughout the centuries have practised with
success spiritual disciplines which were akin  to  oriental  yoga  and
have followed, too, ways of the inner life which came to them from the
Eas@.  Their non-oriental nature did  not  stand  in  their  way.  The
approach  and  experiences  of  Plotinus  and the European mystics who
derived from him were identical,  as has been shown recently, with the
approach and experiences of one type of Indian yoga. Especially, since
the introduction of Christianity,  Europeans have followed its  mystic
disciplines which were one in essence with those of Asia, however much
they may have differed in forms, names and symbols. If the question be
of  Indian  yoga itself in its own characteristic forms,  here too the
supposed inability is  contradicted  by  experience.  In  early  times
Greeks and Scythians from the West as well as Chinese and Japanese and
Cambodians from the East followed without difficulty Buddhist or Hindu
disciplines;  at  the  present day an increasing number of occidentals
have  taken  to  Vedantic  or  Vaishnava  or  other  Indian  spiritual
practices and this objection of incapacity or unsuitableness has never
been made either from the side of the disciples or from  the  side  of
the  Masters.  I  do  not  see,  either,  why there should be any such
unbridgeable gulf;  for there is no essential difference  between  the
spiritual  life  in the East and the spiritual life in the West;  what
difference there is has always been of names,  forms  and  symbols  or
else of the emphasis laid on one special aim or another or on one side
or another of psychological  experience.  Even  here  differences  are
often  alleged  which  do  not  exist or else are not so great as they
appear.  I have seen it alleged by a Christian writer  (who  does  not
seem  to  have shared your friend Angus' objection to these scholastic
small distinctions) that Hindu spiritual thought and life acknowledged
or  followed  after  only  the Transcendent and neglected the Immanent
Divinity,  while Christianity gave due place to both Aspects;  but  in
point of fact,  Indian spirituality,  even if it laid the final stress
on the Highest beyond form and name,  yet gave ample  recognition  and
place  to  the Divine immanent in the world and the Divine immanent in
the human being. Indian spirituality has, it is true, a wider and more
minute  knowledge  behind  it;'  it has followed hundreds of different
paths, admitted every kind of approach to the Divine and has thus been
able  to  enter  into fields which are outside the less ample scope of
occidental practice;  but that makes no difference to the  essentials,
and  it is the essentials alone that matter.
    Your explanation of the ability of  many  Westerners  to  practise
Indian  yoga  seems  to  be  that  they  have a Hindu temperament in a
European  or  American  body.  As  Gandhi  is  inwardly  a  moralistic
Westerner and Christian,  you say, so the other nonoriental members of
the Ashram are essentially Hindus in outlook. But what exactly is this
Hindu outlook?  I have not myself seen anything in them that can be so
described nor has the Mother.  My own experience contradicts  entirely
your  explanation.  I knew very well Sister Nivedita (she was for many
years a friend and a comrade in the political field)  and  met  Sister
Christine,  - the two closest European disciples of Vivekananda.  Both
were Westerners to the core and  had  nothing  at  all  of  the  Hindu
outlook;  although Sister Nivedita,  an Irish woman,  had the power of
penetrating by an intense sympathy into the ways of life of the people
around her,  her own nature remained non-oriental to the end.  Yet she
found no difficulty  in  arriving  at  realisation  on  the  lines  of
Vedanta.  Here  in this Ashram I have found the members of it who came
from the West (I include especially those who have been here  longest)
typically   occidental   with   all  the  quality  and  also  all  the
difficulties of the Western mind and temperament and they have had  to
cope  with  their  difficulties,  just as the Indian members have been
obliged to struggle with the  limitations  and  obstacles  created  by
their  temperament  and  training.  No  doubt,  they  have accepted in
principle the conditions of the yoga,  but they had no  Hindu  outlook
when they came and I do not think they have tried to acquire one.  Why
should they do so?  It is not the Hindu outlook or  the  Western  that
fundamentally matters in yoga,  but the psychic turn and the spiritual
urge,  and these are the same everywhere.
    What are  the  differences  after  all  from the viewpoint of yoga
between the sadhak of Indian and the sadhak of occidental  birth?  You
say the Indian has his yoga half done for him,  -first, because he has
his psychic much  more  directly  open  to  the  Transcendent  Divine.
Leaving out the adjective, (for it is not many who are by nature drawn
to the Transcendent,  most seek more readily the Personal,  the Divine
immanent here,  especially if they can find it in a human body,) there
is there no doubt an advantage.  It  arises  simply  from  the  strong
survival  in  India  of  an atmosphere of spiritual seeking and a long
tradition of practice and experience,  while in Europe the  atmosphere
has been lost, the tradition interrupted, and both have to be rebuilt.
There is an absence too of the essential doubt which so much  afflicts
the  minds  of  Europeans or,  it may be added,  Europeanised Indians,
although that does not prevent a great activity  of  a  practical  and
very operative kind of doubt in the Indian sadhak.  But when you speak
of indifference to fellow human beings in  any  deeper  aspect,  I  am
unable  to  follow  your  meaning.  My  own  experience  is  that  the
attachment to persons -to mother,  father, wife, children, friends-not
out  of  sense  of  duty  or  social  relationship,  but through close
heart-ties is quite as strong as in Europe and often more intense;  it
is  one of the great disturbing forces in the way,  some succumbing to
the pull and many, even advanced sadhaks, being still unable to get it
out  of  their  blood  and their vital fibre.  The impulse to set up a
"spiritual" or  a  "psychic"  relationship  with  others-very  usually
covering  a vital mixture which distracts them from the one aim - is a
persistently common feature.  There is no difference here between  the
Western  and  Eastern  human nature.  Only the teaching in India is of
long  standing  that  all  must  be  turned  towards  the  Divine  and
everything  else  either  sacrificed or changed into a subordinate and
ancillary movement or made by sublimation a first  step  only  towards
the  seeking for the Divine.  This no doubt helps the Indian sadhak if
not to become single-hearted at once,  yet to orientate  himself  more
completely  towards  the  goal.  It  is  not always for him the Divine
alone,  though that is considered the highest state;  but the  Divine,
chief  and first,  is easily grasped by him as the ideal.
    The Indian sadhak has his own difficulties in his approach to  the
yoga  - at least to this yoga - which a Westerner has in less measure.
Those of the occidental nature are born of the dominant trend  of  the
European mind in the immediate past.  A greater readiness of essential
doubt and sceptical reserve; a habit of mental activity as a necessity
of  the  nature  which  makes  it more difficult to achieve a complete
mental silence;  a stronger turn towards outside things  born  of  the
plenitude  of  active  life  (while  the  Indian commonly suffers from
defects born rather of a depressed or suppressed vital force); a habit
of  mental  and  vital  self-assertion  and  sometimes an aggressively
vigilant independence which  renders  difficult  any  completeness  of
internal surrender even to a greater Light and Knowledge,  even to the
divine Influence - these are frequent obstacles.  But these things are
not universal in Westerners,  and they are, on the other hand, present
in many Indian sadhaks; they are, like the difficulties of the typical
Indian nature,  superstructural formations,  not the very grain of the
being.  They cannot permanently stand in the way of the soul,  if  the
soul's  aspiration  is  strong  and firm,  if the spiritual aim is the
chief thing in the life.  They are impediments which the  fire  within
can  easily  burn  away if the will to get rid of them is strong,  and
which it will surely burn away in the end,  -though less easily, -even
if  the outer nature clings long to them and justifies them - provided
that the fire,  the central will,  the deeper impulse is  behind  all,
real  and  sincere.
    This conclusion of yours about the incapacity of  the  nonoriental
for  Indian  yoga  is simply born of a too despondently acute sense of
your own difficulties; you have not seen those equally great that have
long troubled or are still troubling others.  Neither to Indian nor to
European can the path of yoga be smooth and easy;  their common  human
nature  is  there  to  see to that.  To each his own difficulties seem
enormous and radical  and  even  incurable  by  their  continuity  and
persistence  and  induce  long  periods  of  despondency and crises of
despair. To have faith enough or enough psychic sight to react at once
or  almost at once and prevent these attacks is given hardly to two or
three in a hundred. But one ought not to settle down into a fixed idea
of  one's own incapacity or allow it to become an obsession;  for such
an attitude has no true justification and  unnecessarily  renders  the
way harder. Where there is a soul that has once become awake, there is
surely a capacity within that can outweigh all surface defects and can
in  the end conquer.
    If your conclusion were true,  the whole aim of this yoga would be
a  vain  thing;  for  we  are  not working for a race or a people or a
continent or for a realisation of which only Indians or only orientals
are capable.  Our aim is not,  either, to found a religion or a school
of philosophy or a school of yoga, but to create a ground of spiritual
growth  and experience and a way which will bring down a greater Truth
beyond  the  mind  but  not  inaccessible  to  the  human   soul   and
consciousness.  All can pass who are drawn to that Truth, whether they
are from India or elsewhere,  from the East or from the West.  All may
find great difficulties in their personal or common human nature;  but
it is not their physical origin or their racial temperament  that  can
be an insuperable obstacle to their deliverance.

                                 ***

II

                                 ***

There is one indispensable condition, sincerity.

                                 ***

Sincere is  simply  an  adjective meaning that the will must be a true
win.  If you simply think "I aspire" and do things  inconsistent  with
the  aspiration,  or  follow your desires or open yourself to contrary
influences, then it is not a sincere will.

                                 ***

It is true that  a  central  sincerity  is  not  enough  except  as  a
beginning  and  a  base;  the  sincerity  must  spread as you describe
through the whole nature.  But still unless there is a  double  nature
(without  a  central harmonising consciousness),  the basis is usually
sufficient for that to happen.

                                 ***

When all is in agreement with the one Truth or an  expression  of  it,
that is harmony.

                                 ***

Sincerity in  the  vital  is  the  most difficult to have and the most
needful.

                                 ***

You speak of insincerity in your  nature.  If  insincerity  means  the
unwillingness  of  some  part  of  the  being to live according to the
highest light one has or to equate the outer with the inner man,  then
this part is always insincere in all. The only way is to lay stress on
the  inner  being  and  develop  in  it  the  psychic  and   spiritual
consciousness till that comes down in it which pushes out the darkness
from the outer man also.
    I have  never  said  that the vital is to have no part in the love
for the Divine,  only that it must purify and ennoble  itself  in  the
light  of  the psychic being.  The results of self-loving love between
human beings are so poor and contrary in the end-that is what  I  mean
by  the ordinary vital love-that I want something purer and nobler and
higher in the vital also for the movement towards the Divine.

                                 ***

Men are always mixed and  there  are  qualities  and  defects  mingled
together  almost inextricably in their nature.  What a man wants to be
or wants others to see in him or what he is sometimes on one  side  of
his  nature or in some relations can be very different from what he is
in the actual fact or in other relations or on  another  side  of  his
nature.  To be absolutely sincere,  straightforward,  open,  is not an
easy achievement for human nature.  It is only by spiritual  endeavour
that  one  can  realise  it  -  and  to  do  it  needs  a  severity of
introspective self-vision,  an unsparing scrutiny of  self-observation
of which many sadhaks and yogis even are not capable and it is only by
an illumining Grace that reveals the sadhak to himself and  transforms
what is deficient in him that it can be done. And even then only if he
himself consents and lends himself wholly to the divine working.

                                 ***

There are certain things that it is  absolutely  necessary  for  X  to
realise   in   a   sincere   and   straightforward   spirit,   without
self-justification if his sadhana is not to turn about in  a  constant
circle to the end or else fail and fall into pieces.
    The aim of this yoga is an opening to a higher Divine Truth beyond
life,  mind and body and the transformation of these three things into
its image.  But that transformation cannot take place,  and the  Truth
itself  cannot be known in its own unmistakable spirit,  perfect light
and real body until the whole of the €dh€ra has been fundamentally and
patiently purified,  and made plastic and capable of receiving what is
beyond the constructions of the mind,  the desires of the vital  being
and the habits of the physical consciousness and physical being.
    His most obvious obstacle,  one which he has not in the least  got
rid  of up to now,  is a strongly rajasic vital ego for which his mind
finds justifications and covers.  There is nothing more  congenial  to
the  vital  ego  than to put on the cloak of yoga,  and imagine itself
free,  divinised,  spiritualised,  siddha and all the rest of  it,  or
advancing  towards  that  end,  when it is really doing nothing of the
kind,  but is just its old self in new forms.  If one does not look at
oneself with a constant sincerity, it is impossible to get out of this
circle.
    Along with  the exclusion of self-deceiving vital ego,  there must
go that which accompanies it,  usually in  the  mental  parts,  mental
arrogance,  a  false  sense  of  superiority  and  an  ostentation  of
knowledge.  All pretence and all pretensions must be given  up  ;  all
pretence to oneself or others of being what one is not,  or of knowing
what one does not know,  and all idea of being higher than  one's  own
spiritual  stature.
    Over against the  vital  ego  there  is  a  great  coarseness  and
heaviness  oftamas in the physical being and an absence of psychic and
spiritual refinement.  That must be eliminated or it will stand always
in  the  way  of a true and complete change in the vital being and the
mind.
    Unless these   things   are   radically   changed,  merely  having
experiences or establishing a temporary and precarious calmness in the
mental  and  vital  parts  will not help in the end.  There will be no
fundamental change,  only a constant going from one state to  another,
sometimes  a  return  of  disturbances  and  always  the  same  defect
persisting to the end of the chapter.
    The one  condition of getting rid of things is an absolute central
sincerity in all the parts of the being,  and that means  an  absolute
insistence on the Truth and nothing but the Truth.  There will then be
a readiness for unsparing self-criticism and vigilant openness to  the
light,  an  uneasiness  when  falsehood  comes in,  which will finally
purify the whole being.
    The defects  mentioned  are more or less common in various degrees
in almost every sadhak,  though there are some who are not touched  by
them. They can be got rid of, if the requisite sincerity is there. But
ifthey occupy the central parts ofthe being and vitiate the  attitude,
then  the  sadhak will give a constant open or covert support to them,
his mind will always be ready to give disguises and justifications and
try to elude the searchlight of the self-critical faculty and protests
of the psychic being.  That means a failure in the yoga at  least  for
this existence.

                                 ***

It is quite natural that there should be much mixture in the  attitude
till  all  is clear - the ordinary nature clings to the action and the
transformation in its completeness cannot be sudden. What is necessary
is  that  the  basic consciousness should become firmly established in
the Divine,  then the mixture in the rest can  be  seen  and  steadily
worked  out.  To  have  this  outwardly as well as inwardly is a great
progress.

                                 ***

It is difficult for the ordinary Christian to be of a  piece,  because
the   teachings  of  Christ  are  on  quite  another  plane  from  the
consciousness of  the  intellectual  and  vital  man  trained  by  the
education  and  society  of  Europe-the latter,  even as a minister or
priest,  has never been called upon to practise what  he  preached  in
entire  earnest.  But it is difficult for the human nature anywhere to
think,  feel and act from one centre of true faith,  belief or vision.
The  average  Hindu considers the spiritual life the highest,  reveres
the Sannyasi,  is moved by the Bhakta; but if one of the family circle
leaves   the   world   for  spiritual  life,  what  tears,  arguments,
remonstrances,  lamentations! It is almost worse than if he had died a
natural  death.  It  is  not  conscious mental insincerity - they will
argue like Pandits and go to Shastra to prove you in the wrong;  it is
unconsciousness,  a  vital insincerity which they are not aware of and
which uses the reasoning mind as an accomplice.
    That is why we insist so much on sincerity  in  the  yogaand  that
means  to have all the being consciously turned towards the one Truth,
the one Divine. But that for human nature is one of the most difficult
of  tasks,  much  more  difficult than a rigid asceticism or a fervent
piety.  Religion  itself  does  not  give  this  complete   harmonised
sincerity  - it is only the psychic being and the one-souled spiritual
aspiration that can give it.

                                 ***

III

                                 ***

The aspiration  should  be  for  the full descent of the Truth and the
victory over falsehood in the world.

                                 ***

Those who come here have an aspiration and a  possibilitysomething  in
their psychic being pushes and if they follow it they will arrive; but
that is not conversion. Conversion is a turning of the being away from
lower  things  towards  the Divine.
    Aspiration can lead hereafter to conversion, but aspiration is not
conversion.  Mother spoke of three different things:  conversion,  the
turning of the soul decisively towards the Divine, - inner realisation
of the Divine,  - transformation of the nature.
    The first  two  can  happen swiftly and suddenly and once for all,
the third always takes time and cannot be done at  one  stroke,  in  a
moment.  One may become aware of a rapid change in this or that detail
of the transformation,  but even this is the rapid result  of  a  long
working.

                                 ***

Consecration is  a  process  by  which one trains the consciousness to
give itself to the Divine. But conversion is a spontaneous movement of
the  consciousness,  a turning of it away from external things towards
the Divine.  It comes as well as is the result of a touch from  within
and above.  Self-consecration may help one to open to the touch or the
touch may come  of  itself.  But  conversion  may  also  come  as  the
culmination  of a long process of aspiration and Tapasya.  There is no
fixed rule in these things.
    If the  psychic being comes to the front,  then conversion becomes
easy or may come instantaneously  or  the  conversion  may  bring  the
psychic being to the front.  Here, again, there is no rule.
    It may be either way,  there is a touch and the  realisation  also
and  the  psychic  takes its proper place as the result or the psychic
may come to the front and prepare  the  nature  for  the  realisation.

    Transformation is something progressive,  but certainly there must
be realisation before the aim of the transformation is possible.

                                 ***

What you say is quite true.  A simple,  straight and sincere call  and
aspiration  from  the  heart  is  the  one  important  thing  and more
essential and effective than capacities. Also to get the consciousness
to turn inwards,  not remain outward-going is of great importance - to
arrive at the inner call,  the inner experience,  the inner  Presence.

    The help  you  ask  will be with you.  Let the aspiration grow and
open the inner consciousness altogether.

                                 ***

What "reason" do you need to aspire for peace,  purity,  freedom  from
the  lower  nature,  light,  strength,  Ananda,  divine  love,  divine
service?  These are things good in themselves and the highest possible
aim of human endeavour.

                                 ***

Yes, that  is  the  way  -  the intensity of the aspiration brings the
intensity  of  the  experience  and  by  repeated  intensity  of   the
experience, the change.

                                 ***

Aspiration is  a  call  to  the  Divine,  -  will is the pressure of a
conscious force on Nature.

                                 ***

There is no need of words  in  aspiration.  It  can  be  expressed  or
unexpressed in words.

                                 ***

The aspiration  need  not  be  in  the  form  of thought - it can be a
feeling within that remains even when the mind  is  attending  to  the
work.

                                 ***

Aspiration is to call the forces. When the forces have answered, there
is a natural state of quiet receptivity concentrated but spontaneous.

                                 ***

One has to aspire to the Divine and surrender  and  leave  it  to  the
Divine  to  do  what  is  true  and  right  with the €dh€ra once it is
perfected.

                                 ***

It depends on the stage which one has reached.  Personal aspiration is
necessary   until   there   is   the  condition  in  which  all  comes
automatically and only a certain knowledge and assent is necessary for
the development.

                                 ***

Pulling comes  usually  from  a  desire to get things for oneself - in
aspiration there is a self-giving  for  the  higher  consciousness  to
descend  and take possession-the more intense the call the greater the
self-giving.

                                 ***

There is no doubt the mixture of desire in what you do,  even in  your
endeavour  of  sadhana,  that  is the difficulty.  The desire brings a
movement of impatient effort and  a  reaction  of  disappointment  and
revolt  when  difficulty is felt and the immediate result is not there
and other confusing and disturbing feelings.  Aspiration should be not
a form of desire, but the feeling of an inner soul's need, and a quiet
settled will to turn towards the Divine and seek  the  Divine.  It  is
certainly not easy to get rid of this mixture of desire entirely - not
easy for anyone;  but when one has the will to do it, this also can be
effected by the help of the sustaining Force.

                                 ***

If there  are  good  desires,  bad desires will come also.  There is a
place for will and aspiration,  not for desire.  If  there  is  desire
there will be attachment,  demand, craving, want of equanimity, sorrow
at not getting, all that is unyogic.

                                 ***

One should be satisfied with what one gets and  still  aspire  quietly
without   struggle,   for  more-till  all  has  come.  No  desire,  no
struggle-aspiration, faith, openness-and the grace.

                                 ***

As for working,  it depends on what you mean by the word. Desire often
leads  either  to  excess  of effort,  meaning often much labour and a
limited fruit with strain,  exhaustion and in case  of  difficulty  or
failure, despondence, disbelief or revolt; or else it leads to pulling
down the force.  That can be done, but except for the yogically strong
and  experienced,  it is not always safe,  though it may be often very
effective;  not safe,  first, because it may lead to violent reactions
or  it brings down contrary or wrong or mixed forces which the sadhafc
is not experienced enough to distinguish-from the true ones.  Or  else
it  may substitute the sadhak's own limited power of experience or his
mental and vital constructions for the free gift and true  leading  of
the Divine. Cases differ, each has his own way of sadhana. But for you
what  I  would  recommend  is  constant  openness,  a   quiet   steady
aspiration, no over-eagerness, a cheerful trust and patience.

                                 ***

It is  the  psychic  that  gives the true aspiration - if the vital is
purified and subjected to the psychic,  then the vital gives intensity
-  but  if  it  Is  unpurified  it  brings in a rajasic intensity with
impatience and reactions of depression and disappointment.  As for the
calm  and  equality  needed,  it must come down from above through the
mind.

                                 ***

That is the psychic aspiration,  the psychic  fire.  Where  the  vital
comes  ill  is in the impatience for result and dissatisfaction if the
result is not Immediate.  That must cease.
    It is in the nature of the unregenerated vital part of the surface
to do like that.  The true vital is different,  calm and strong and  a
powerful  instrument  submitted  to  the Divine.  But for that to come
forward it is necessary first to get this fixed  poise  above  in  the
mind-when the consciousness is there and the mind calm, free and wide,
then the true vital can come forward.

                                 ***

The impatience and restless disquietude  come  from  the  vital  which
brings that even into the aspiration.  The aspiration must be intense,
calm and strong (that is the nature of the true vital also)  arid  not
restless and impatient,-then alone it can be stable.

                                 ***

There call  be  an intense but quiet aspiration which does not disturb
the harmony of the inner being.

                                 ***

No use doing Asanas or Pranayam.  It is not  necessary  to  burn  with
passion.  What  is  necessary  is  a patient acquiring of the power of
concentration and steady aspiration so that the silence you  speak  of
may  fix  in  the  heart  and  spread  to the other members.  Then the
physical mind and the subconscient can be cleared and quieted.

                                 ***

It is a mistake to think that a constant absence  of  vy€kulat€  is  a
sign  that  the  aspiration or will for the Divine is not true.  It is
only in certain  exclusive  forms  of  Bhakti  Yoga  that  a  constant
vy€kulat€  or weeping or h€h€k€ra (the latter is more often vital than
psychic) is the rule.  Here  though  the  psychic  yearning  may  come
sometimes  or  often  in  intense waves,  what comes as the basis is a
quietude of the being and in that quietude  a  more  and  more  steady
perception  of  the  truth  and seeking for the Divine and need of the
Divine so that all is turned towards that more and more.  It  is  into
this  that  the  experience and growing realisation come.  Because the
opening is growing in you, you are getting this AbhAsa of the presence
€beyond form) of the Mother. It is as the inner realisation grows that
the presence in the physical form takes its full value.

                                 ***

Prayers should be full of confidence without sorrow or lamenting.

                                 ***

Naturally, the  more  one-pointed  the  aspiration  the  swifter   the
progress.  The difficulty comes when either the vital with its desires
or the physical with its past habitual movements comes in -as they  do
with  almost  everyone.  It is then that the dryness and difficulty of
spontaneous aspiration come.  This dryness is a well-known obstacle in
all  sadhana.  But  one has to persist and not be discouraged.  If one
keeps the will fixed even in these barren periods, they pass and after
their  passage  a  greater  force of aspiration and experience becomes
possible.

                                 ***

It is a suggestion of the tamasic forces that insist on the difficulty
and create it and the physical consciousness accepts it. Aspiration is
never really difficult. Rejection may not be immediately effective but
to maintain the will of refection and refusal is always possible.

                                 ***

No doubt  the  true  and strong aspiration is needed,  but it is not a
fact that the true thing is not there in you.  If it had not been, the
Force could not have worked in you.  But this true thing was seated in
the psychic and in the heart and whenever these  were  active  in  the
meditation  it  showed  itself.  But  for the sake of completeness the
working had to come down into the physical consciousness and establish
the  quietude  and  the openness there.  The physical consciousness is
always in everybody in Its own nature a  little  inert  and  in  it  a
constant strong aspiration is not natural,  it has to be created.  But
first there must be the opening,  a purification,  a  fixed  quietude,
otherwise  the  physical  vital  will  turn the strong aspiration into
over-eagerness and impatience or rather it will try to  give  it  that
turn. Do not therefore be troubled if the state of the nature seems to
you to be too neutral and quiet, not enough aspiration and movement in
it.  This  is  a  passage necessary for the progress and the rest will
come.

                                 ***

You are finding it still difficult to bear the interval  periods  when
all is quiet and nothing being done on the surface.  But such interval
periods come to all and cannot be avoided.  You must not  cherish  the
suggestion  that it is because of your want of aspiration or any other
unfitness  that  it  is  so  and,  if  you  had  the  constant  ardent
aspiration,  then there would be no such periods and there would be an
uninterrupted stream of  experiences.  It  is  not  so.  Even  if  the
aspiration  were  there,  the interval periods would come.  If even in
them one can aspire,  so much the better - but the main  thing  is  to
meet  them  with  quietude  and  not  become  restless,  depressed  or
despondent. A constant fire can be there only when a certain stage has
been reached,  that is when one is always inside consciously living in
the psychic being,  but for that all this  preparation  of  the  mind,
vital, physical is necessary. For this fire belongs to the psychic and
one cannot command it always merely by the mind's effort.  The psychic
has  to  be  fully  liberated and that is what the Force is working to
make fully possible.

                                 ***

IV

                                 ***


    Faith -  a  dynamic  entire  belief  and  acceptance.
    Beliefs - intellectual acceptance only.
    Conviction -  intellectual  belief  held  on what seems to be good
reasons.
    Reliance -  dependence  on another for something,  based on trust.

    Trust -  the  feeling  of  sure  expectation of another's help and
reliance on his word,  character,  etc.
    Confidence - the sense of security that goes with trust.

                                 ***

Faith is  a feeling in the whole being,  belief is mental,  confidence
means trust in a person or in the Divine or a feeling of surety  about
the result of one's seeking or endeavour.

                                 ***

Mental faith  combats  doubt  and helps to open to the true knowledge;
vital faith prevents the attacks of the hostile forces or defeats them
and  helps  to  open  to the true spiritual will and action;  physical
faith keeps one  firm  through  all  physical  obscurity,  inertia  or
suffering   and   helps  to  open  to  the  foundation'  of  the  true
consciousness;  psychic faith opens to the direct touch of the  Divine
and helps to bring union and surrender.

                                 ***

Mental faith  is  very  helpful,  but it is a thing that can always be
temporarily shaken or quite clouded - until the  higher  consciousness
and experience get fixed for good.  What endures, even if concealed is
the inner being's aspiration or need for something higher which is the
soul's  faith.  That  too may be concealed for a time but it reasserts
itself - it undergoes eclipse but not extinction.

                                 ***

That is the true resolution.  Keep it firm inside you even if waves of
other  consciousness  cover  on the surface.  If one plants a faith or
resolution like that firmly in oneself,  then it remains and  even  if
the  mind  for  a time gets clouded or the resolution dimmed,  yet one
finds it re-emerging automatically like a ship out of a covering wave,
and  goes invincibly on with the journey through all vicissitudes till
it reaches the harbour.

                                 ***

The phrase ["blind faith"] has no real meaning.  I suppose  they  mean
they  will  not  believe without proof-but the conclusion formed after
proof is not faith,  it is knowledge or it is a mental opinion.  Faith
is  something which one has before proof or knowledge and it helps you
to arrive at knowledge or experience.  There  is  no  proof  that  God
exists,  but  if  I  have  faith  in  God,  then  I  can arrive at the
experience of the Divine.

                                 ***

Faith does not depend upon experience;  it is something that is  there
before experience.  When one starts the yoga, it is not usually on the
strength of experience,  but on the strength of faith.  It is  so  not
only  in yoga and the spiritual life,  but in ordinary life also.  All
men of action,  discoverers,  inventors, creators of knowledge proceed
by faith and, until the proof is made or the thing done, they go on in
spite  of  disappointment,  failure,  disproof,  denial   because   of
something  in  them that tells them that this is the truth,  the thing
that must be followed and done.  Ramakrishna even went so  far  as  to
say,  when  asked whether blind faith was not wrong,  that blind faith
was the only kind to have,  for faith is either blind  or  it  is  not
faith  but  something  else-reasoned  inference,  proved conviction or
ascertained knowledge.
    Faith is  the  soul's  witness  to  something  not yet manifested,
achieved or realised,  but which yet the Knower within us, even in the
absence  of  all  indications,  feels  to  be  true or supremely worth
following or achieving.  This thing within us can last even when there
is  no  fixed  belief  in the mind,  even when the vital struggles and
revolts and refuses.  Who is there that practises the yoga and has not
his periods,  long periods of disappointment and failure and disbelief
and darkness?  But there is something that sustains him and even  goes
on  in spite of himself,  because it feels that what it followed after
was yet true and it more than feels,  it knows.  The fundamental faith
in yoga is this,  inherent in the soul, that the Divine exists and the
Divine is the one thing to be followed after - nothing else in life is
worth having in comparison with that. So long as a man has that faith,
he is marked for the spiritual life and I will say that,  even if  his
nature is full of obstacles and crammed with denials and difficulties,
and even if he has many years  of  struggle,  he  is  marked  out  for
success  in  the  spiritual  life.
    It is this faith that you need to develop - a faith  which  is  in
accordance  with  reason  and common sense - that if the Divine exists
and has called you to the Path,  (as is evident), then there must be a
Divine  Guidance  behind  and through and in spite of all difficulties
you will arrive.  Not to listen to the  hostile  voices  that  suggest
failure or to the voices of impatient, vital haste that echo them, not
to believe that because great difficulties are there,  there can be no
success  or  that because the Divine has not yet shown himself he will
never show himself,  but to take the position that everyone takes when
he fixes his mind on a great and difficult goal,  "I will go on till I
succeed-all difficulties notwithstanding.  " To which the believer  in
the  Divine  adds,  "The Divine exists,  my following after the Divine
cannot fail. I will go on through everything till I find him.

                                 ***

As for  experience  being  necessary  for  faith and no faith possible
without it, that contradicts human psychology altogether. Thousands of
people have faith before they have experience. The doctrine "No belief
without experience" would be disastrous in spirituality  or  for  that
matter  in  the  field  of human action.  The saint or bhakta have the
faith in God long before they have the experience of God - the man  of
action  has  the  faith  in his cause long before his cause is crowned
with success,  otherwise they could not have  been  able  to  struggle
persistently towards their end in spite of defeat,  failure and deadly
peril.  I don't know what X means by true faith.  For me faith is  not
intellectual  belief  but  a function of the soul;  when my belief has
faltered,  failed,  gone  out,  the  soul  has   remained   steadfast,
obstinately insisting,  "This path and no other: the Truth I have felt
is the Truth whatever the  mind  may  believe."  On  the  other  band,
experiences do not necessarily lead to faith. One sadhak writes to me:
"I feel the grace of the  Mother  descending  into  me,  but  I  can't
believe  it  because  it  may  be  my  vital imagination." Another has
experiences for years together,  then falls down because  he  has,  he
says,  "lost faith". All these things are not my imagination, they are
facts and tell their own tale.
    I certainly did not mean a moral but a spiritual change - a  moral
man may be chock-full of ego, an ego increased by his own goodness and
rectitude.  Freedom from ego is spiritually valuable because then  one
can be centred,  no longer in one's personal self,  but in the Divine.
And that too is the condition of bhakti...
    I don't  know what is X's objection to emotion;  it has its place,
only it must not be always thrown outward but pressed inward so as  to
open fully the psychic doors. What you say is perfectly correct - I am
glad you are becoming so lucid and clearsighted,  the result surely of
a psychic change. Ego is a very curious thing and in nothing more than
in its way of hiding itself and pretending it is not the ego.  It  can
always  hide  even behind an aspiration to serve the Divine.  The only
way is to chase it out of all its veils and  corners.  You  are  right
also  in thinking that this is really the most important part of yoga.
The Rajayogis are right in putting purification in front of everything
-  as I was also right in putting it in front along with concentration
in The Synthesis of Yoga.  You have only to look about you to see that
experiences and even realisations cannot bring one to the goal if this
is not done - at any moment they can fall owing  to  the  vital  still
being impure and full of ego.

                                 ***

No surrender to the psychic being is demanded, the surrender is to the
Divine.  One approaches the Divine through faith;  concrete experience
comes as a result of sadhana.  One cannot demand a  direct  experience
without  doing  anything to prepare the consciousness for it.
    If one feels the call,  one follows it - if there is no call, then
there is no need to seek the Divine. Faith is sufficient to start with
-  the  idea that one must first understand and realise before one can
seek is a mental error and,  if it were true,  would make all  sadhana
impossible-realisation  can  come only as a result of sadhana,  not as
its preliminary.

                                 ***

I spoke of a strong central and,  if possible,  complete faith because
your attitude seemed to be that you only cared for the full response -
that  is,  realisation,  the  presence,  regarding  all  else as quite
unsatisfactory,  - and your prayer was  not  bringing  you  that.  But
prayer  in  itself does not usually bring that at once - only if there
is a burning faith at the centre or a complete faith in all the  parts
of  the  being.  That  does  not mean that those whose faith is not so
strong or surrender complete cannot arrive,  but usually they have  at
first  to  go  by  small  steps  and to face the difficulties of their
nature until  by  perseverance  or  tapasya  they  make  a  sufficient
opening.  Even a faltering faith and a slow and partial surrender have
their force and their result,  otherwise only the rare  few  could  do
sadhana  at  all.  What  I mean by the central faith is a faith in the
soul or the central being behind, a faith which is there even when the
mind doubts and the vital despairs and the physical wants to collapse,
and after the attack is over reappears and pushes on the  path  again.
It  may  be strong and bright,  it may be pale and in appearance weak,
but if it persists each time in going on,  it is the real thing.  Fits
of  depression and darkness and despair are a tradition in the path of
sadhana - in all yogas oriental or occidental they seem to  have  been
the  rule.  I know all about them myself- but my experience has led me
to the perception that they are an unnecessary tradition and could  be
dispensed with if one chose.  That is why whenever they come in you or
others I try to lift up before them the gospel of faith. If still they
come,  one  has  to  get through them as soon as possible and get back
into the sun.  Your dream of the sea was a perfectly true one - in the
end  the  storm  and  swell do not prevent the arrival of the state of
Grace in the sadhak and with it the arrival of the Grace itself. That,
I  suppose  is  what  something  in  you  is  always  asking for - the
supramental miracle of Grace,  something  that  is  impatient  of  the
demand  for tapasya and selfperfection and long labour.  Well,  it can
come,  it has come to several here after  years  upon  years  of  flat
failure and difficulty or terrible struggles.  But it comes usually in
that way - as opposed to  a  slowly  developing  Grace  -  after  much
difficulty and not at once. If you go on asking for it in spite of the
apparent failure of response, it is sure to come.

                                 ***

Until we know the Truth (not mentally but by experience,  by change of
consciousness)  we  need the soul's faith to sustain us and hold on to
the Truth - but when we live in the knowledge,  this faith is  changed
into   knowledge.
    Of course  I  am  speaking  of direct spiritual knowledge.  Mental
knowledge cannot replace faith,  so  long  as  there  is  only  mental
knowledge, faith is still needed.

                                 ***

Faith is  a thing that precedes knowledge,  not comes after knowledge.
It is a glimpse of a truth which  the  mind  has  not  yet  seized  as
knowledge.
    It is not by the intellect that one can progress in the  yoga  but
by  psychic  and  spiritual  receptivity  -  as for knowledge and true
understanding, it grows in sadhana by the growth of the intuition, not
of the physical intellect.

                                 ***

In the things of the subtle kind having to  do  with  the  working  of
consciousness in the sadhana, one has to learn to feel and observe and
see with the inner consciousness and to decide by the intuition with a
plastic  look  on things which does not make set definitions and rules
as one has to do in outward life.

                                 ***

Have faith in the Divine,  in the Divine Grace,  in the truth  of  the
sadhana,  in  the  eventual  triumph of the spirit over its mental and
vital and physical difficulties,  in the Path and  the  Guru,  in  the
experience  of  things  other  than  are  written  in  the  philosophy
ofHaeckel or Huxley or Bertrand Russell,  because if these things  are
not true, there is no meaning in yoga.

                                 ***

I do  not  see  how the method of faith in the cells can be likened to
eating a slice of the moon.  Nobody ever got a slice of the moon,  but
the  healing  by  faith  in  the  cells is an actual fact and a law of
Nature and has been demonstrated often enough even  apart  from  yoga.
The  way  to get faith and all things else is to insist on having them
and refuse to flag or despair or give up until one has them  -  it  is
the  way  by  which everything has been got since this difficult earth
began to have thinking and aspiring creatures upon it.  It is to  open
always, always to the Light and turn one's back on the Darkness. It is
to refuse the voices that say persistently,  "You  cannot,  you  shall
not,  you are incapable, you are the puppet of a dream,"-for these are
the enemy voices, they cut one off from the result that was coming, by
their  strident  clamour and then triumphantly point to the barrenness
of the result as a proof  of  their  thesis.  The  difficulty  of  the
endeavour is a known thing,  but the difficult is not the impossible -
it is the difficult that has always been accomplished and the conquest
of  difficulties makes up all that is valuable in the earth's history.
In the spiritual endeavour also it shall be so.
    You have only to set about resolutely slaying the Rakshasa and the
doors  will open to you as they have done to many others who were held
up by their own mind or vital nature.

                                 ***

There are  two  kinds  of  faith:
    The faith  that calls down the equanimity and the faith that calls
down the realisation.
    These two  faiths  correspond  to  two  different  aspects  of the
Divine.
    There is  the  Transcendent Divine and there is the Cosmic Divine.

    The Will  of realisation is that of the Transcendent Divine.
    The Cosmic Divine is what is concerned with the actual working out
of  things  under  the  present circumstances.  It is the Will of that
Cosmic Divine which is manifested in each circumstance,  each movement
of this world.
    The Cosmic Will is not,  to our ordinary consciousness,  something
that acts as an independent power doing whatever it chooses;  it works
through all these beings,  through the forces at play in the world and
the  law  of  these forces and their results - it is only when we open
ourselves and get out of the ordinary consciousness that we  can  feel
it  intervening  as  an  independent power and overriding the ordinary
play of the forces.
    Then too  we  can  see  that even in the play of the forces and in
spite of their distortions the Cosmic  Will  is  working  towards  the
eventual  realisation  of  the  Will of the Transcendent Divine.
    The supramental Realisation is the Will of the Transcendent Divine
which  we  have to work out.  The circumstances under which we have to
work it out are those of an inferior consciousness in which things can
be distorted by our own ignorance, weaknesses and mistakes, and by the
clash of conflicting forces.  That is why  faith  and  equanimity  are
indispensable.
    We have to have the faith that  in  spite  of  our  ignorance  and
errors  and  weaknesses  and in spite of the attacks of hostile forces
and in spite of any immediate appearance of failure the Divine Will is
leading us, through every circumstance, towards the final Realisation.
This faith will give us equanimity;  it is a faith that  accepts  what
happens, not definitively but as something that has to be gone through
on the way.  Once equanimity is established there can  be  established
too another kind of faith,  supported by it, which can be made dynamic
with something from the supramental consciousness and can overcome the
present circumstances and determine what will happen and help to bring
down the Realisation of the Will  of  the  Transcendent  Divine.
    The faith  that  goes to the Cosmic Divine is limited in the power
of its action by the necessities of the play.
    To get  entirely  free  from  these limitations one must reach the
Transcendent Divine.

                                 ***

In the  play  of  the  cosmic forces,  the will in the cosmos - as one
might say-does not always work apparently in favour of  a  smooth  and
direct line for the work or the sadhana;  it often brings in what seem
to be upheavals,  sudden  turns  which  break  or  deflect  the  line,
opposing or upsetting circumstances or perplexing departures from what
had been temporarily settled or  established.  The  one  thing  is  to
preserve  equanimity and make an opportunity and means of progress out
of all that happens in the course of the life and the  sadhana.  There
is  a  higher secret Will transcendent behind the play and will of the
cosmic forces -a play which is always a mixture of  things  favourable
and  things adverse - and it is that Will which one must wait upon and
have faith in; but you must not expect to be able always to understand
its  workings.  The mind wants this or that to be done,  the line once
taken to be maintained,  but what the mind wants is not at all  always
what is intended in a larger purpose. One has to follow indeed a fixed
central aim in the sadhana and not deviate from it,  but not to  build
on   outward   circumstances,   conditions,  etc.,  as  if  they  were
fundamental things.

                                 ***

To the question in your last letter there can be no reply except  that
it  is only either a single-minded faith or a fixed will that can give
you the open road to the yoga.  It is because your ideas and your will
are  in  a  constant  state  of flux or of oscillation that you do not
succeed.  Even with a deficient faith, a fixed mind and will can carry
one  on  and  bring  the  experiences  by  which an uncertain faith is
changed into certitude.
    It is the reason why  it  is  difficult  for  me  to  answer  your
questions about the different alternatives.  I may say that the way of
the Gita is itself a part of the yoga here and those who have followed
it,  to  begin  with  or as a first stage,  have a stronger basis than
others for this yoga.  To look down on  it,  therefore,  as  something
separate  and inferior is not a right standpoint.  But whatever it is,
you must yourself choose,  nobody can do it for you.  Those who go and
come,  can  do  so  profitably  only  if or because they have made the
decision and keep to it;  when they are here,  it is for the yoga that
they come, when they are elsewhere, the will for the yoga remains with
them there.  You have to get rid of your constant reasonings  and  see
whether  you  can  do without the impulse towards yoga or not - if you
cannot,  then it is useless thinking  of  the  ordinary  life  without
yoga-your  nature will compel you to seek after it even if you have to
seek all your life with a small result. But the small result is mainly
due  to  the  mind which always came in the way and the vital weakness
which gives it its support for its reasonings.  If you fixed your will
irrevocably,  that would give you a chance-and whether you followed it
here or elsewhere would make only a minor difference.
    I suggested  the  Gita method for you because the opening which is
necessary for the yoga here seems to be too difficult for you.  If you
made  a less strenuous demand upon yourself,  there might be a greater
chance.  In any case,  if you cannot return to the ordinary  life,  it
seems,  in  the  absence of an opening to the Power that is here,  the
only course for you.

                                 ***

It is quite sufficient if there is the firm and constant will  towards
faith and self-offering.  It is understood that it is not possible for
the human nature to be always without movements of doubt, obscurity or
things  not yet offered until the inner consciousness has sufficiently
grown to make these impossible.  It is because it is so that the  will
is  necessary  so  that the Force may work to remove these things with
full consent and will of the mind and heart of the sadhak.  To try  to
reject these things and make the will permanent is sufficient, -for it
is this effort that brings eventually the permanence.
    The depth of the sleep in your experience was intended to make you
go deep inside and,  as soon as you  did  so,  you  entered  into  the
psychic  and  spiritual  state which takes the figure of the beautiful
maid€n and the flow of white light and the  coolness  and  peace.  The
staircase  was  a symbol of the ascent from this psychic and spiritual
state into higher and higher levels  of  the  spiritual  consciousness
where is the source of the light.  The Mother's hand was the symbol of
her presence and help which will draw you up and lead you to  the  top
of the ladder.

                                 ***

Faith can be tamasic and ineffective,  e.g. "I believe the Mother will
do  everything,  so  I  will  do  nothing.  When  she wants,  she will
transform me". That is not a dynamic but a static and inert faith.

                                 ***

Faith, reliance upon God,  surrender and  self-giving  to  the  Divine
Power are necessary and indispensable.  But reliance upon God must not
be made an  excuse  for  indolence,  weakness  and  surrender  to  the
impulses  of  the  lower  Nature:  it  must  go  along  with  untiring
aspiration and a persistent rejection of all that comes in the way  of
the Divine Truth.  The surrender to the Divine must not be turned into
an excuse,  a cloak or an occasion for surrender to one's own  desires
and  lower movements or to one's ego or to some Force of the ignorance
and 582 letters on Yoga darkness that puts on a  false  appearance  of
the Divine.

                                 ***

One must  rely  on  the  Divine and yet do some enabling sadhana - the
Divine gives the fruit not by the measure of the sadhana  but  by  the
measure of the soul's sincerity and its aspiration.  (I mean by soul's
sincerity its yearning after the Divine and its aspiration towards the
higher life.) Also,  worrying does no good - "I shall be this, I shall
be that,  what shall I be?" Say: "I am ready to be not what I want but
what the Divine wants me to be," -all the rest should go on that base.

                                 ***

You have  seized  the right principle again,  to be all for the Mother
and to have full confidence that one has only to go on quietly in that
confidence  and  all will come that needs to come and all be done that
the Divine wills to be done.  The workings of the world are too subtle
and  strange  and  complex for the human mind to understand it - it is
only when the knowledge comes from above and one  is  taken  into  the
higher  consciousness that the understanding can come.  Meanwhile what
one has to follow is the dictates of the deeper psychic  heart  within
based on that faith and love which is the only sure guiding star.

                                 ***

I have already explained all this to you.  It is quite true that, left
to yourself, you can do nothing; that is why you have to be in contact
with  the  Force  which  is there to do for you what you cannot do for
yourself.  The only thing you have to do is to allow the force to  act
and put yourself on its side, which means to have faith in it, to rely
upon it,  not to trouble and harass yourself,  to remember it quietly,
to call upon it quietly,  to let it act quietly.  If you do that,  all
else will be done for you - not all at once,  because there is much to
clear away, but still it will be done steadily and more and more.

                                 ***

The Divine Grace and Power can do everything, but with the full assent
of the sadhak.  To learn to give that foil assent is the whole meaning
of the sadhana.  It may take time either because of ideas in the mind,
desires in the vital or inertia in  the  physical  consciousness,  but
these  things have to be and can be removed with the aid or by calling
in the action of the Divine Force.

                                 ***

Do not allow any discouragement to come upon you and have no  distrust
of the Divine Grace.  Whatever difficulties are outside you,  whatever
weaknesses are inside you,  if you keep firm hold on  your  faith  and
your aspiration, the secret Power will carry you through and bring you
back here. Even if you are oppressed with opposition and difficulties,
even if you stumble, even if the way seems closed to you, keep hold on
your aspiration;  if faith is clouded for a time,  turn always in mind
and  heart to us and it will be removed.  As for outer help in the way
of letters we are perfectly ready to give it to you...  But keep  firm
on  the  way  -  then  in  the  end  things open out of themselves and
circumstances yield to the inner spirit.

                                 ***

The difficulty must have come  from  distrust  and  disobedience.  For
distrust  and  disobedience  are like falsehood (they are themselves a
falsity,  based on false ideas and impulses),  they interfere  in  the
action of the Power,  prevent it from being felt or from working fully
and diminish the force of the Protection.
    Not only in your inward concentration,  but in your  outward  acts
and movements you must take the right attitude. If you do that and put
everything  under  the  Mother's  guidance,   you   will   find   that
difficulties  begin  to  diminish or are much more easily got over and
thing become steadily smoother.
    In your   work   and  acts  you  must  do  the  same  as  in  your
concentration.  Open to the Mother,  put them under her guidance, call
in the peace,  the supporting Power, the protection and, in order that
they may work,  reject all wrong influences that might come  in  their
way by creating wrong, careless or unconscious movements.
    Follow this principle and your whole being will become one,  under
one rule, in the peace and sheltering Power and Light.

                                 ***

They [faith,  surrender and samat€] have to be put into every part and
atom of the being so that there may be no possibility  of  a  contrary
vibration anywhere.

                                 ***

Whatever adverse  things  present  themselves  you must meet them with
courage and they will disappear and the help come.  Faith and  courage
are  the  true  attitude  to  keep  in life and work always and in the
spiritual experience also.

                                 ***

In moments of trial faith in the divine protection and  the  call  for
that protection;  at all times the faith that what the Divine wills is
the best.
    It is  what  turns you towards the Divine that must be accepted as
good for you - all is bad for you that turns you away from the Divine.

                                 ***

There is no reason for your  trouble  other  than  this  readiness  to
listen  to  their  knock  and  open  the door.  If you desire only the
Divine, there is an absolute certitude that you will reach the Divine,
but  all  these questionings and repinings at each movement only delay
and keep an impending curtain before the heart and the  eyes.  For  at
every step,  when one makes an advance, the opposite forces will throw
these doubts like a rope between the legs and stop one  short  with  a
stumble - it is their mñtier to do that... One must say, "Since I want
only the Divine,  my success is sure,  I have only to walk forward  in
all  confidence  and His own Hand will be there secretly leading me to
Him by His own way and at His own time." That is what you must keep as
your  constant  mantra.  Anything  else  one may doubt but that he who
desires only the Divine shall reach the Divine is a certitude and more
certain  than  two  and two make four.  That is the faith every sadhak
must have at the bottom of his heart,  supporting  him  through  every
stumble  and  blow  and  ordeal.  It is only false ideas still casting
their shadows on your mind that prevent you from having it.  Push them
aside and the back of the difficulty will be broken.

                                 ***

Keep firm  faith  in  the  victory  of  the  Light  and face with calm
equanimity the resistances of Matter and human  personality  to  their
own transformation.

                                 ***

It is  not  a hope but a certitude that the complete transformation of
the nature will take place.

                                 ***

Even if there is much darkness - and this world is full of it and  the
physical  nature of man also - yet a ray of the true Light can prevail
eventually against a tenfold darkness.  Believe that and cleave to  it
always.

                                 ***

V

                                 ***

Surrender is giving 'oneself to the Divine - to give everything one is
or has to the Divine and regard nothing as one's own, to obey only the
Divine will and no other, to live for the Divine and not for the ego.

                                 ***

Surrender means  to  be  entirely  in  the Mother's hands,  and not to
resist in any way by egoism or otherwise her Light,  Knowledge,  Will,
the working of her Force etc.

                                 ***

It is  then a saškalpa of surrender.  But the surrender must be to the
Mother - not even to the Force, but to the Mother herself.

                                 ***

There is no need of all this complication.  If the psychic  manifests,
it  will  not  ask  you  to  surrender to it,  but to surrender to the
Mother.

                                 ***

The Divine gives itself to those who give themselves  without  reserve
and  in all their parts to the Divine.  For them the calm,  the light,
the power,  the bliss,  the freedom,  the  wideness,  the  heights  of
knowledge, the seas of Ananda.

                                 ***

It is  meant  in  the  inner sense only - no outer greatness is meant.
This is an explanation of the following passage from Conversations  by
the Mother:  "Surrender will not diminish,  but increase you;  it will
not lessen or weaken or destroy your personality,  it will fortify and
aggrandise it." (1966 Edition),  p.126.  All submission is regarded by
the ego as lowering and lessening itself, but really submission to the
Divine increases and greatens the being, that is what is meant.

                                 ***

If there is no surrender,  there can be no transformation of the whole
being.

                                 ***

If one wanted the  Divine,  the  Divine  himself  would  take  up  the
purifying  of the heart and develop the sadhana and give the necessary
experiences;  it can and does happen in that way if one has trust  and
confidence in the Divine and the will to surrender.  For such a taking
up involves one's putting oneself in the hands of  the  Divine  rather
than relying on one's own efforts alone and this implies one's putting
one's  trust  and  confidence  in  the  Divine   and   a   progressive
self-giving.  It  is  in  fact  the principle of sadhana that I myself
followed and it is the central process of yoga as I  envisage  it.  It
is,  I  suppose,  what  Sri  Ramakrishna  meant  by  lhe method of the
baby-cat in his image.  But all cannot follow that at once;  it  takes
time  for them to arrive at it - it grows most when the mind and vital
fall quiet.
    What I  mean by surrender is this inner surrender of the' mind and
vital.  There is,  of course, the outer surrender also : the giving up
of  all  that  is  found  to  conflict  with the spirit or need of the
sadhana,  the offering,  the obedience to the guidance of the  Divine,
whether  directly,  if  one  has  reached  that stage,  or through the
psychic or to the guidance of the Guru.  I may say that  pr€yopave™ana
(fasting for a long time) has not anything to do with surrender: it is
a form of tapasya of a very austere and, in my opinion, very excessive
kind,  often dangerous.
    The core of the inner surrender is trust  and  confidence  in  the
Divine. One takes the attitude: "I want the Divine and nothing else. I
want to give myself entirely to him and since my soul wants  that,  it
cannot  be  but  that I shall meet and realise him.  I ask nothing but
that and his action in me to bring me to him,  his  action  secret  or
open,  veiled or manifest. I do not insist on my own time and way; let
him do all in his own time and way; I shall believe in him, accept his
will,  aspire steadily for his light and presence and joy,  go through
all difficulties and delays,  relying on him and never giving up.  Let
my mind be quiet and trust him and let him open it to his light ;  let
my vital be quiet and turn to him alone and let hitn open  it  to  his
calm and joy. All for him and myself for him. Whatever happens, I will
keep to this aspiration and self-giving and go on in perfect  reliance
that it will be done."
    That is the attitude into which one must grow;  for  certainly  it
cannot  be  made  perfect  at  once  - mental and vital movements come
across - but if one keeps the will to it,  it will grow in the  being.
The rest is a matter of obedience to the guidance when it makes itself
manifest,  not allowing one's mental and vital movements to interfere.
It  is  not  my  intention  to  say  that this way is the only way and
sadhana cannot be done otherwise-there are so many others by which one
can approach the Divine.  But this is the only one I know by which the
taking up ofsadhana by the Divine becomes a sensible fact  before  the
preparation of the nature is done.  In other methods the Divine action
may be felt from time to time,  but it remains mostly behind the  veil
till  all  is  ready.  In  some  sadhanas  the  divine  action  is not
recognised:  all must be done by tapasya. In most there is a mixing of
the two: the tapasya finally calling the direct help and intervention.
The idea and experience of the Divine doing all  belong  to  the  yoga
based on surrender.  But whatever way is followed, the one thing to be
done is to be faithful and go on to the end.
    All can be done by the Divine,-the heart and nature purified,  the
inner consciousness awakened,  the  veils  removed,  -  if  one  gives
oneself to the Divine with trust and confidence and even if one cannot
do so fully at once, yet the more one does so, the more the inner help
and  guidance  come and the experience of the Divine grows within.  If
the questioning mind becomes less active and humility and the will  to
surrender grow, this ought to be perfectly possible. No other strength
and tapasya are then needed, but this alone.

                                 ***

In the early part of the sadhana - and by early I do not mean a  short
part-effort  is indispensable.  Surrender of course,  but surrender is
not a thing that is done in a day.  The mind  has  its  ideas  and  it
clings to them;  the human vital resists surrender,  for what it calls
surrender in the early stages is a doubtful kind of self-giving with a
demand in it;  the physical consciousness is like a stone and wha't it
calls surrender is often no more than inertia.  It is only the psychic
that  knows  how  to  surrender  and  the psychic is usually very much
veiled in the beginning.  When the psychic  awakes,  it  can  bring  a
sudden  and  true surrender of the whole being,  for the difficulty of
the rest is rapidly dealt with and disappears. But till then effort is
indispensable.  Or  else it is necessary till the Force comes flooding
down into the being from above-and takes up the sadhana,  does it  for
one  more  and  more and leaves less and less to individual effort-but
even then, if not effort, at least aspiration and vigilance are needed
till the possession of mind,  will,  life and body by the Divine Power
is complete.  I have dealt with this subject,  I think,  in one of the
chapters of The Mother.
    On the other hand,  there are some people who start with a genuine
and  dynamic will for a total surrender.  It is those who are governed
by the psychic or are governed by a clear and enlightened mental  will
which,  having once accepted surrender as the law of the sadhana, will
stand no nonsense about it and insists on the other parts of the being
following  its  direction.  Here  there is still effort;  but it is so
ready and spontaneous and has so much the sense  of  a  greater  Force
behind  it that the sadhak hardly feels that he is making an effort at
all.  In the contrary case of a  will  in  mind  or  vital  to  retain
self-will,  a  reluctance to give up your independent movement,  there
must be struggle and endeavour until the wall between  the  instrument
in  front  and the Divinity behind or above is broken.  No rule can be
laid down  which  applies  without  distinction  to  everybody  -  the
variations  in  human  nature  are too great to be covered by a single
trenchant rule.

                                 ***

It is not possible to get rid of the stress on personal effort at once
-and not always desirable;  for personal effort is better than tamasic
inertia.
    The personal  effort  has  to  be transformed progressively into a
movement of the Divine Force.  If you feel  conscious  of  the  Divine
Force, then call it in more and more to govern your effort, to take it
up,  to transform it into something not yours, but the Mother's. There
will  be a sort of transfer,  a taking up of the forces at work in the
personal Adhar - a transfer not  suddenly  complete  but  progressive.

    But the  psychic  poise  is  necessary:  the  discrimination  must
develop  which  sees accurately what is the Divine Force,  what is the
element of personal effort,  and what is brought in as a mixture  from
the  lower  cosmic  forces.  And  until the transfer is complete which
always takes time,  there must always be as a personal contribution, a
constant consent to the true Force,  a constant rejection of any lower
mixture.
    At present  to give up personal effort is not what is wanted,  but
to call in more and more the Divine Power and govern and guide  by  it
the personal endeavour.

                                 ***

It is  not  advisable  in  the  early  stages  of the sadhana to leave
everything to the Divine or expect everything from it without the need
of  one's own endeavour.  That is only possible when the psychic being
is in front and influencing the whole action (and even then  vigilance
and a constant assent are necessary), or else later on in the ultimate
stages of the yoga when a direct or almost direct supramental force is
taking  up the consciousness;  but this stage is very far away as yet.
Under other conditions this attitude is likely to lead  to  stagnation
and  inertia.
    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,  for the obstruction of the lower Nature
or the pressure of the adverse forces can often act successfully for a
time, even for a long time, against the necessary change. One has then
to persist,  to put always  the  will  on  the  side  of  the  Divine,
rejecting  what has to be rejected,  opening oneself to the true Light
and the true Force,  calling it  down  quietly,  steadfastly,  without
tiring,  without depression or impatience,  until one feels the Divine
Force at work and the obstacles beginning to give way.
    You say  you are conscious of your ignorance and obscurity.  If it
is only a general consciousness,  that is not enough.  But if you  are
conscious  of it in the details,  in its actual working,  then that is
sufficient to start with;  you have to reject  steadfastly  the  wrong
workings  of  which  you  are conscious and make your mind and vital a
quiet and clear field for the action of the Divine Force.

                                 ***

Active surrender is when you associate your will with the Divine Will,
reject what is not the Divine,  assent to what is the Divine.  Passive
surrender  is when everything is left entirely to the Divine -that few
can really do,  because in practice it turns out that you surrender to
the lower nature under pretext of surrendering to the Divine.

                                 ***

There are  two possibilities,  one of purification by personal effort,
which takes a long time,  another by  a  direct  intervention  of  the
Divine  Grace  which  is  usually rapid in its action.  For the latter
there must be a complete surrender and self-giving and for that  again
usually it is necessary to have a mind that can remain quite quiet and
allow the Divine Force to act supporting it with its complete adhesion
at  every  step,  but  otherwise remaining still and quiet.  This last
condition  which  resembles  the  baby-cat  attitude  spoken   of   by
Ramakrishna,  is difficult to have. Those who are accustomed to a very
active movement of their thought and will in  all  they  do,  find  it
difficult  to  still  the  activity  and  adopt the quietude of mental
self-giving. This does not mean that they cannot do the yoga or cannot
arrive at self-giving - only the purification and the self-giving take
a long time to accomplish and one must have the  patience  and  steady
perseverance and resolution to go through.

                                 ***

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 the way of the  Divine.  But  what
one  can  do  is  to  make  from  the  beginning a central resolve and
self-dedication and to implement it in whatever way one finds open, at
each  step,  taking  advantage  of each occasion that offers itself to
make the self-giving complete.  A surrender  in  one  direction  makes
others  easier,  more  inevitable;  but  it  does not of itself cut or
loosen the other knots, and especially those which are very intimately
bound   up  with  the  present  personality  and  its  most  cherished
formations may  often  present  great  difficulties,  even  after  the
central  will has been fixed and the first seals put on its resolve in
practice.

                                 ***

It [the attitude of surrender] cannot be absolutely  complete  in  the
beginning,  but  it  can  be true - if the central will is sincere and
there is the faith and the Bhakti.  There may be  contrary  movements,
but these will be unable to stand for long and the imperfection of the
surrender in the lower part will not seriously interfere.

                                 ***

It depends on what is meant by absolute surrender - the experience  of
it  in  some  part  of the being or the fact of it in all parts of the
being.  The former may easily come at any time;  it is the latter that
takes time to complete.

                                 ***

The absolute  surrender  must be not only an experience in meditation,
but a fact  governing  all  the  life,  all  the  thoughts,  feelings,
actions.  Till then the use of one's own will and effort is necessary,
but an effort in which also there is the spirit of surrender,  calling
in the Force to support the will and effort and undisturbed by success
or failure.  When the Force takes up the sadbana,  then indeed  effort
may  cease,  but  still  there  will  be the necessity of the constant
assent of the being and a vigilance so that one may not admit a  false
Force at any point.

                                 ***

It [the  idea  that  the  sadhana is done by the Divine rather than by
onesel] is a truth but a truth that does not become effective for  the
consciousness until or in proportion as it is realised. The people who
stagnate because of it are those  who  accept  the  idea  but  do  not
realise  -so  they  have  neither the force of tapasya nor that of the
Divine Grace.  On the other hand those who can realise  it  feel  even
behind their tapasya and in it the action of the Divine Force.

                                 ***

For those  who  do  not  make any effort,  - that absence of effort is
itself a difficulty-they do not progress.

                                 ***

Talk of  surrender  or  a  mere  idea  or  tepid  wish  for   integral
consecration  will  not  do;  there must be the push for a radical and
total change.
    It is not by taking a mere mental attitude that this can  be  done
or  even  by any number of inner experiences which leave the outer man
as he was.  It is this outer man who has to open,  to surrender and to
change. His every least movement, habit, action has to be surrendered,
seen,  held up and exposed to the divine Light,  offered to the divine
Force  for  its  old  forms and motives to be destroyed and the divine
Truth and the action of the transforming consciousness of  the  Divine
Mother to take their place.

                                 ***

If there is not a complete surrender, then it is not possible to adopt
the baby-cat attitude,  - it becomes mere  tamasic  passivity  calling
itself  surrender.  If  a  complete  surrender  is not possible in the
beginning, it follows that personal effort is necessary.

                                 ***

The mechanical movements are always more  difficult  to  stop  by  the
mental  will,  because they do not ill the least depend upon reason or
any mental justification but are founded upon association  or  else  a
mere mechanical memory and habit.
    The practice of rejection prevails in the end;  but with  personal
effort only, it may take a long time. If you can feel the Divine Power
working in you, then it should become easier.
    There should be nothing inert or tamasic in the self-giving to the
guidance and it should not be made by any part of  the  vital  into  a
plea  for  not  rejecting the suggestions of lower impulse and desire.

    There are always two ways of doing the yoga - one by the action of
a vigilant mind and vital seeing,  observing,  thinking  and  deciding
what is or is not to be done.  Of course it acts with the Divine Force
behind it, drawing or calling in that Force-for otherwise nothing much
can be done. But still it is the personal effort that is prominent and
assumes most of the burden.
    The other  way  is  that  of the psychic being,  the consciousness
opening to the Divine,  not only opening the psychic and  bringing  it
forward,  but opening the mind,  the vital and the physical, receiving
the Light,  perceiving what is to be done,  feeling and seeing it done
by  the Divine Force itself and helping constantly by its own vigilant
and conscious assent to and call  for  the  Divine  working.
    Usually there  cannot but be a mixture of these two ways until the
consciousness is ready to be entirely open,  entirely submitted to the
Divine's   origination  of  all  its  action.  It  is  then  that  all
responsibility disappears and there  is  no  personal  burden  on  the
shoulders of the sadbak.

                                 ***

So long as there is not the full presence and conscious working of the
higher Force, some amount of the personal effort is indispensable . To
do the sadhana for the sake of the Divine and not for one's  own  sake
is of course the true attitude.

                                 ***

Everything should  be  for the sake of the Divine,  this also.  As for
leaving the result to the Divine,  it depends on what you mean by  the
phrase.  If  it  implies dependence on the Divine Grace and equanimity
and patience in the persistent aspiration,  then it is all right.  But
it  must  not  be  extended to cover slackness and indifference in the
aspiration and endeavour.

                                 ***

I do not see why surrender of any kind would be  to  go  to  sleep  or
close  yourself  up  from  all  outward  things  including the Mother.
Anyhow,  it is a conscious surrender that has to be  made;  but  there
need  not  be  any  restless  struggle in it or laying undue stress on
deficiencies and difficulties.  As for the Mother's attitude, you have
to look within to know it;  if you look from outside,  you will not be
able to understand it.

                                 ***

Tapasya has predominated in your sadhana,  for you have a fervour  and
active energy which predisposes you to that.  No way is entirely easy,
and in that of surrender the difficulty is to make a true and complete
surrender.  Once  it  is made,  it certainly makes things easier - not
that things are all done in no time or that there are no difficulties,
but  there  is  an assurance,  a support,  an absence of tension which
gives the consciousness rest as well as strength and freedom from  the
worst forms of resistance.

                                 ***

Yes, of  course  you  are right.  The process of surrender is itself a
Tapasya.  Not only so,  but in fact a double process  of  Tapasya  and
increasing  surrender persists for a long time even when the surrender
has fairly well begun.  But a time comes when one feels  the  Presence
and  the  force  constantly and more and more feels that that is doing
everything - so that the worst difficulties cannot disturb this  sense
and personal effort is no longer necessary, hardly even possible. That
is the sign of the full surrender of the nature into the hands of  the
Divine.  There  are  some  who take this position in faith even before
there is this experience and if the Bhakti and the faith are strong it
carries them through till the experience is there. But all cannot take
this position from the beginning-and for some it  would  be  dangerous
since  they  might  put  themselves  into  the  hand  of a wrong Force
thinking it to be the Divine. For most it is necessary to grow through
Tapasya into surrender.

                                 ***

Yes, if  there  is the sense of the Divine Will behind all the Tapasya
and receiving it and bestowing the fruit - it is at least a first form
of surrender.

                                 ***

When the  will  and  energy  are  concentrated and used to control the
mind,  vital and physical and change them or to bring down the  higher
consciousness or for any other yogic purpose or high purpose,  that is
called Tapasya.

                                 ***

The ways of the Divine are  not  like  those  of  the  human  mind  or
according to our patterns and it is impossible to judge them or to lay
down for Him what He shall or shall 'not  do,  for  the  Divine  knows
better  than  we  can know.  If we admit the Divine at all,  both true
reason and Bhakti seem to me to be at one in demanding implicit  faith
and surrender.

                                 ***

To understand   divine  movements  one  must  enter  into  the  divine
consciousness,  till then faith  and  surrender  are  the  only  right
attitude. How can the mind judge what is beyond all its measures?

                                 ***

Not to  impose  one's mind and vital will on the Divine but to receive
the Divine's will and follow it,  is the true attitude of sadhana. Not
to say,  "This is my right,  want,  claim, need, requirement, why do I
not get it?" but to give oneself, to surrender and to receive with joy
whatever  the Divine gives,  not grieving or revolting,  is the better
way. Then what you receive will be the right thing for you.

                                 ***

The Divine is not bound to do that lto give all our  real  needs),  He
can  give  or  not  give;  whether  Hegives  or does not give makes no
difference to the one who is surrendered to Him. Otherwise there is an
arri†re pensðe in the surrender which is not then complete.

                                 ***

To be  free  from  all  preference and receive joyfully whatever comes
from the Divine Will is not possible at first  for  any  human  being.
What  one  should  have  at  first  is the constant idea that what the
Divine wills is always for the best even when the mind  does  not  see
how  it  is so,  to accept with resignation what one cannot yet accept
with gladness and so to arrive at a calm equality which is not  shaken
even when on the surface there may be passing movements of a momentary
reaction to outward happenings.  If that is once firmly  founded,  the
rest can come.

                                 ***

The essence  of  surrender  is to accept whole-heartedly the influence
and the guidance when the joy and peace  come  down,  to  accept  them
without question or cavil and let them grow; when the Force is felt at
work,  to let it without opposition,  when the Knowledge is given,  to
receive and follow it,  when the Will is revealed, to make oneself its
instrument.
    The Divine can lead,  he does not  drive.  There  is  an  internal
freedom  permitted to every mental being called 'man' to assent or not
to assent to the Divine leading:  how  else  can  any  real  spiritual
evolution be done?

                                 ***

Each person  has  his  own  freedom  of choice up to a certain point -
unless he makes the full surrender - and as he uses the  freedom,  has
to  take  the  spiritual  or other consequences.  The help can only be
offered,  not imposed.  Silence,  absence of frank confession, means a
desire  in  the  vital  to  go  its  own way.  When there is no longer
concealment,  when there is the physical self-opening to  the  Divine,
then the Divine can intervene.

                                 ***

All the play in this world is based on a certain relative free will in
the individual being.  Even in the sadhana it remains and his  consent
is  necessary  at  each  step  -even  though it is by surrender to the
Divine that he escapes from ignorance and  separateness  and  ego,  it
must be at every step a free surrender.

                                 ***

One offers  to  the  Divine  in  order  to  get rid of the illusion of
separation - the very act of offering Implies that all belongs to  the
Divine.

                                 ***

Self-surrender at  first  comes  through  love  and  bhakti  more than
through €tmajœ€na.  But it is true that with  €tmajœ€na  the  complete
surrender becomes more possible.

                                 ***

Surrender and love-bhakti are not contrary things-they go together. It
is true that at first surrender can be made through knowledge  by  the
mind  but  it  implies  a mental bhakti and,  as soon as the surrender
reaches the heart,  the bhakti manifests as a  feeling  and  with  the
feeling of bhakti love comes.

                                 ***

There can  be devotion and surrender in the higher mind experience but
it is not inevitable as in the psychic.  In the higher mind one may be
too  conscious  of  identity  with  the  "Brahman" to have devotion or
surrender.

                                 ***

One can have the Brahmic condition without self-giving,  because it is
the impersonal Brahman to which one turns. Renunciation of desires and
of all identification with Nature  is  its  condition.  One  can  have
self-giving  of  the  nature  to the Divine as well as of the soul and
reach by it the Brahmic condition  which  is  not  only  negative  but
positive,  a  release of the nature itself and not only a release from
the nature.

                                 ***

The Brahmic condition brings a negative peace of ™€nti  and  mukti  in
the soul.  Self-giving brings a positive freedom which can become also
a dynamic force of action in the nature.

                                 ***

If you are surrendered only in the higher consciousness, with no peace
or  purity in the lower,  certainly that is not enough and you have to
aspire for the peace and purity everywhere.

                                 ***

When the psychic being and  the  heart  and  the  thinking  mind  have
surrendered,  the  rest is a matter of time and process - and there is
no reason for disturbance.  The central and  effective  surrender  has
been made.

                                 ***

It is never too early to make the complete surrender.  Some things may
need to wait, but not that.

                                 ***

It is on that consciousness of complete  surrender  that  the  psychic
foundation  of  sadhana  can be made.  If once it fixes itself,  then,
whatever difficulties remain to be overcome, the course of the sadhana
becomes perfectly easy,  sunlit, natural like the opening of a flower.
The feeling you have is an indication of what can and must develop  in
you.

                                 ***

If difficulties that arise are in the nature itself,  it is inevitable
that they should rise and manifest themselves.  Surrender is not easy,
it  is  resisted by a large part of the nature.  If the mind forms the
will to surrender,  all  these  inner  obstacles  are  bound  to  show
themselves;  the  sadhak  has  then to observe them and detach himself
from them,  reject them from his nature and overcome.  This may take a
very  long time but it has to be done.  Outer obstacles cannot prevent
the inner surrender unless they are supported by a resistance  in  the
nature itself.

                                 ***

It depends on the sadhak.  Some may find it necessary to surrender the
external activities first so as to bring the inner surrender.

                                 ***

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 fundamental incapacity.

                                 ***

It is impossible to become like a child giving oneself entirely  until
the psychic is in control and stronger than the vital.

                                 ***

The ordinary  vital  is  never  willing to surrender.  The true inmost
vital is different - surrender to the Divine is as necessary to it  as
to the psychic.

                                 ***

If there  is  any  identification  with the vital demands or outcries,
that necessarily diminishes the surrender for' the time.

                                 ***

It was from your description of the reaction that I said there  was  a
vital  demand.  In the pure psychic or spiritual self-giving there are
no reactions of this kind; no despondency or despair, no saying, "What
have I gained by seeking the Divine?", no anger, revolt, abhiman, wish
to go away-such as you describe here - but an absolute confidence  and
a persistence in clinging to the Divine under all conditions.  That is
what I wanted you to have;  it is the only basis in which one is  free
from  troubles and reactions and goes steadily forward.
    But are such feelings a sign of the soul's self-giving?  If  there
is no vital mixture,  how do these things come when I write to you and
as the result of my writing and trying to show you the way?
    It is  the  first movement of this part to revolt when it is shown
its own nature and asked  to  change.
    Difficult? It is the first principle of our sadhana that surrender
is the means of fulfilment and so long as  ego  or  vital  demand  and
desire   are   cherished,   complete   surrender  is  impossible-  the
self-giving is incomplete.  We have never concealed that.  It  may  b&
difficult  and  it  is;  but  it is the very principle of the sadhana.
Because it is difficult it has to be done steadily and patiently  till
the  work is complete.
    You have to go on rejecting the vital mixture every time it rises.
If  you are steadfast in rejecting,  it will lose more and more of its
force and fade out.
    That means  it  is  an  obstinate  but  irrational  and mechanical
survival of the old movement.  That in fact is how these things try to
survive.  It is bound to go if you do not give it fresh life.
    I have no doubt of it - you have only to understand it rightly and
you can go at once to the right ground.

                                 ***

Most of the sadhaks have similar thoughts - or had them at one time or
another.  They  rise from the vital ego which either does not want the
Divine or wants It for its  own  purpose  and  not  for  the  Divine's
purpose.  It  gets  furious  when  it is pressed to change or when its
desires are not satisfied - that is at the root of all  these  things.
That  is  why we insist on surrender in this yoga - because it is only
by the surrender (especially of the vital ego) that these  things  can
go  -  to  accept  the  Divine  for the Divine's sake and for no other
motive and in the Divine's way and not in one's own way  or  on  one's
own conditions.

                                 ***

It is  the  psychic  surrender  in the physical that you have begun to
experience.
    All the parts are essentially offered, but the surrender has to be
made  complete  by  the  growth of the psychic self-offering in all of
them and in all  their  movements  separately  and  together.
    To be  enjoyed by the Divine is to be entirely surrendered so that
one feels the Divine Presence,  Power,  Light,  Ananda possessing  the
whole  being rather than oneself possessing these things for one's own
satisfaction.  It is a much greater ecstasy to be thus surrendered and
possessed by the Divine than oneself to be the possessor.  At the same
time by this surrender there comes also a calm and  happy  mastery  of
self and nature.

                                 ***

I have  said  that  if one has the principle of surrender and union in
the mind and heart there is no  difficulty  in  extending  it  to  the
obscurer parts of the physical and the subconscient.  As you have this
central surrender and union,  you can easily complete it everywhere. A
quiet  aspiration  for  complete  consciousness is all that is needed.
Then the material and subconscient will become penetrated by the light
like  the  rest and there will come in a quietude,  wideness,  harmony
free from all reactions that will be the basis of the final change.

                                 ***

There is a state in which the sadhak is conscious of the Divine  Force
working  in  him  or of its results at least and does not obstruct its
descent or its action by his-own mental activities, vital restlessness
or  physical  obscurity  and inertia.  That is openness to the Divine.
Surrender is the best way of opening; but aspiration and quietness can
do  it  up  to  a certain point so long as there is not the surrender.
Surrender means to consecrate everything in oneself to the Divine,  to
offer  all  one  is  and has,  not to insist on one's ideas,  desires,
habits,  etc.,  but to allow the divine Truth to replace them  by  its
knowledge, will and action everywhere.

                                 ***

Opening is  a  thing  that  happens by itself by sincerity of will and
aspiration. It means to be able to receive the higher forces that come
from the Mother.

                                 ***

The object  of the self-opening is to allow the force of the Divine to
flow in bringing light,  peace,  Ananda,  etc,  and to do the work  of
transformation.  When  the  being so receives the Divine Shakti and it
works in him,  produces its results (whether he is entirely  conscious
of the process or not,) then he is said to be open.

                                 ***

These are acts of the mind; openness is a state of consciousness which
keeps it turned to the Mother, free from other movements expecting and
able to receive what may come from the Divine.

                                 ***

It is  by  confidence  in the Mother that the opening needed will come
when your consciousness Is ready.
    It is not by meditation alone that what is needed will come. It is
by faith and openness to the Mother.

                                 ***

Keep yourself  open  to  the  Mother,  remember her always and let her
Force work in you,  rejecting all other influences - that is the  rule
for yoga.

                                 ***

In the practice of yoga,  what you aim at can only come by the opening
of the being to the Mother's force and the persistent rejection of all
egoism  and  demand and desire,  all motives except the aspiration for
the Divine Truth.  If this Is rightly done, the Divine Power and Light
will  begin  to work and bring in the peace and equanimity,  the inner
strength,  the purified devotion and the increasing consciousness  and
self-knowledge  which  are  the necessary foundation for the siddhi of
the yoga.

                                 ***

In this yoga the whole principle is to  open  oneself  to  the  Divine
Influence. It is there above you and, if you can once become conscious
of it,  you have then to call it down into you.  It descends into  the
mind and into the body as Peace, as a Light, as a Force that works, as
the Presence of the Divine with or without form, as Ananda. Before one
has  this  consciousness,  one  has  to  have faith and aspire for the
opening.  Aspiration, call, prayer are forms of one and the same thing
and are all effective ;  you can take the form that comes to you or is
easiest to you.  The other way is concentration;  you concentrate your
consciousness  in the heart (some do it in the head or above the head)
and meditate on the Mother in the heart and call her in there. One can
do  either  and  both at different times - whatever comes naturally to
you or you are moved to do at the moment.  Especially in the beginning
the  one great necessity is to get the mind quiet,  reject at the time
of meditation all thoughts and  movements  that  are  foreign  to  the
sadhana. In the quiet mind there will be a progressive preparation for
the experience.  But you must not become impatient, if all is not done
at once;  it takes time to bring entire quiet into the mind; you, have
to go on till the consciousness is ready.

                                 ***

In this yoga all depends on whether one can open to the  Influence  or
not.  If  there is a sincerity in the aspiration and a patient will to
arrive at the higher consciousness in spite of all obstacles, then the
opening in one form or another is sure to come. But it may take a long
or short time according to the prepared or unprepared condition of the
mind,  heart and body;  so if one has not the necessary patience,  the
effort may be abandoned owing to  the  difficulty  of  the  beginning.
There  is no method in this yoga except to concentrate,  preferably in
the heart,  and call the presence and power of the Mother to  take  up
the   being   and   by   the  workings  of  her  force  transform  the
consciousness;  one can concentrate also in the head  or  between  the
eyebrows,  but for many this is a too difficult opening. When the mind
falls quiet and the concentration becomes strong  and  the  aspiration
intense,  then there is a beginning of experience. The more the faith,
the more rapid the result is likely to be.  For the rest one must  not
depend  on  one's  own  efforts  only,  but  succeed in establishing a
contact with the Divine and a receptivity to the  Mother's  Power  and
Presence.

                                 ***

Your mind  and psychic being are concentrated on the spiritual aim and
open to the Divine - that is why the Influence comes down only to  the
head  and  as  far  as  the heart.  But the vital being and nature and
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,  the 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  calm,
peace,  light,  Ananda into all the centres.  Aspire, await with faith
and patience the result.  All depends on a complete sincerity  and  an
integral  consecration and aspiration.
    The world will trouble you so long as any part of you  belongs  to
the  world.  It  is only if you belong entirely to the Divine that you
can become free.

                                 ***

The opening is the same for all. It begins with an opening of mind and
heart,  then of the vital proper -when it reaches the lower vital  and
the physical the opening is complete.  But with the opening there must
be the full self-giving to what comes down,  which is the condition of
the complete change.  It is the last stage that is the real difficulty
and it is there that everybody stumbles about till it is overcome.

                                 ***

Always keep in touch with the Divine Force.  The best thing for you is
to do that simply and allow it to do its own work; wherever necessary,
it will take hold of the inferior energies and purify them;  at  other
times  it will empty you of them and fill you with itself.  But if you
let your mind take the lead and discuss and decide what is to be done,
you  will lose touch with the Divine Force and the lower energies will
begin to act for themselves and all go  into  confusion  and  a  wrong
movement.

                                 ***


    1. Offer  yourself  more and more-all the consciousness,  all that
happens in it,  all your work and action.
    2. If  you  have  faults  and weaknesses,  hold them up before the
Divine to be changed or abolished.
    3. Try  to  do what I told you,  concentrate in the heart till you
constantly feel the Presence there.

                                 ***

Openness and,   whenever   needed,   passivity,  but  to  the  highest
consciousness, not to anything that comes.
    Therefore, there must be a certain quiet  vigilance  even  in  the
passivity. Otherwise there may be either wrong movements or inertia.

                                 ***

To give up restraint would be to give free play to the vital and  that
would mean leave for all kinds of forces to enter in. So long as there
is not  the  supramental  consciousness  controlling  and  penetrating
everything,  in all the being from the overmind downwards, there is an
ambiguous play of forces,  and each force,  however divine in  origin,
may be used by the Powers of light or intercepted as it passes through
the  mind  and  the  vital  by  the  Powers  of  darkness.  Vigilance,
discrimination,  control cannot be abandoned till the complete victory
has been won and the consciousness transmuted.

                                 ***

Yes; vigilance should not be relaxed.  In fact,  it  is  only  as  the
automatic  Knowledge  and action are established in the being that the
constant vigilance ceases to be needed - even then it cannot be  given
up absolutely until there is the full Light.

                                 ***

There are three main possibilities for the sadhak - (1) To wait on the
Grace and rely on the Divine.  (2) To do everything himself  like  the
Adwaitin and the Buddhist.  (3) To take the middle path, go forward by
aspiration and rejection etc, helped by the Force.

                                 ***

Each mind can have its own way of approaching the  supreme  Truth  and
there  is  an  entrance  for  each  as well as a thousand ways for the
journey to it.  It is not necessary to believe  in  the  Grace  or  to
recognise  a  Godhead different from one's highest Self-there are ways
of yoga that do not accept these things.  Also,  for many no  form  of
yoga  is  necessary-they  arrive  at  some  realisation  by  a sort of
pressure of the mind or the heart or  the  will  breaking  the  screen
between  it  and  what  is at once beyond it and its own source.  What
happens after the breaking of the screen depends on the  play  of  the
Truth  on  the  consciousness and the turn of the nature.  There is no
reason, therefore, why X's realisation of his being should not come in
its  own  way by growth from within,  not by the Divine Grace,  if his
mind objects to that description,  but, let us say, by the spontaneous
movement of the Self within him.
    For, as  to  this  "Grace",  we describe it in that way because we
feel in the infinite Spirit or Self-existence a Presence or a Being, a
Consciousness  that  determines,  -  that  is  what we speak of as the
Divine,  - not a separate person,  but  the  one  Being  of  whom  our
individual self is a portion or a vessel.  But it is not necessary for
everybody to regard it In that way.  Supposing it  is  the  impersonal
Self  of  all  only,  yet  the  Upanishad  says  of  this Self and its
realisation:  "This understanding is not to be gained by reasoning nor
by tapasya nor by much learning, but whom this Self chooses, to him it
reveals its own body".  Well,  that is the same thing as what we  call
the  Divine  Grace,  -  it  is  an  action  from  above or from within
independent of mental causes which decides its own  movement.  We  can
call it the Divine Grace;  we can call it the Self within choosing its
own hour and way to manifest to the mental instrument on the surface ;
we  can  call it the flowering of the inner being or inner nature into
self-realisation and self-knowledge.  As something in us approaches it
or as it presents itself to us, so the mind sees it. But in reality it
is the same thing and the same process of the being in Nature.

                                 ***

I should like to say something about the Divine Grace -for you seem to
think it should be something like a Divine Reason  acting  upon  lines
not  very  different  from those of human intelligence.  But it is not
that.  Also it is not a universal  Divine  Compassion  either,  acting
impartially  on  all  who approach it and acceding to all prayers.  It
does not select the righteous and reject the sinner.  The Divine Grace
came to aid the persecutor (Saul of Tarsus),  it came to St. Augustine
the profligate,  to Jagai and Madhai of infamous fame,  to Bilwamangal
and  many others whose conversion might well scandalise the Puritanism
of the human moral intelligence; but it can come to the righteous also
-curing  them  of  their  self-righteousness  and  leading  to a purer
consciousness beyond these things.  It is a power that is superior  to
any  rule,  even  to  the  Cosmic  Law-for  all  spiritual  seers have
distinguished between the Law and Grace.  Yet it is not indiscriminate
-  only  it  has  a  discrimination  of  its own which sees things and
persons and the right times and seasons with another vision than  that
of the Mind or any other normal Power. A state of Grace is prepared in
the individual often behind thick veils by means  not  calculable  by,
the  mind  and  when  the state of Grace comes,  then the Grace itself
acts.  There are these three powers:  (I) The Cosmic Law,  of Karma or
what else; (2) the Divine Compassion acting on as many as it can reach
through the nets of the Law and giving  them  their  chance;  (3)  the
Divine  Grace  which acts more incalculably but also more irresistibly
than the others.  The only question  is  whether  there  is  something
behind  all  the  anomalies  of life which can respond to the call and
open itself  with  whatever  difficulty  till  it  is  ready  for  the
illumination  of  the  Divine Grace - and that something must be not a
mental and vital movement but an inner somewhat which can well be seen
by the inner eye.  If it is there and when it becomes active in front,
then the Compassion can act,  though the full action of the Grace  may
still wait attending the decisive decision or change;  for this may be
postponed to a future hour,  because some portion or  element  of  the
being  may  still  come  between,  something  that is not yet ready to
receive.
    But why allow anything to come in the  way  between  you  and  the
Divine,  any idea,  any incident?  When you are in full aspiration and
joy, let nothing count, nothing be of any importance except the Divine
and  your  aspiration.  If  one wants the Divine quickly,  absolutely,
entirely,  that  must   be   the   spirit   of   approach,   absolute,
all-engrossing, making that the one point with which nothing else must
interfere.
    What value have mental ideas about the Divine, ideas about what he
should be,  how he should act,  how he should not act - they can  only
come   in  the  way.  Only  the  Divine  himself  matters.  When  your
consciousness embraces the Divine,  then you can know what the  Divine
is,  not before.  Krishna is Krishna, one does not care what he did or
did not do:  only to see him,  meet him, feel the Light, the Presence,
the Love and Ananda is what matters. So it is always for the spiritual
aspiration - it is the law of the spiritual life.

                                 ***

"The ordinary  action  of the Divine is a constant intervention within
the actual law of things'' - that may or may not be but is not usually
called the Divine Grace. The Divine Grace is something not calculable,
not bound by anything the intellect can fix as a condition,  -  though
ordinarily some call,  aspiration,  intensity of the psychic being can
awaken it,  yet it acts sometimes without any apparent cause  even  of
that kind.

                                 ***

It is  not  indispensable that the Grace should work in a way that the
human mind can understand,  it generally doesn't.  It works in its own
"mysterious" way. At first usually it works behind the veil, preparing
things,  not manifesting.  Afterwards it may manifest,  but the sadhak
does not understand very well what is happening;  finally,  when he is
capable of it,  he both feels and understands or at least begins to do
so. Some feel and understand from the first or very early; but that is
not the ordinary case.

                                 ***

There is nothing unintelligible in  what  I  say  about  strength  and
Grace. Strength has a value for spiritual realisation, but to say that
it can be done by strength only and by no other  means  is  a  violent
exaggeration.  Grace  Is  not an invention,  it is a fact of spiritual
experience.  Many who would be considered as mere nothings by the wise
and strong have attained by Grace; illiterate, without mental power or
training,  without "strength" of character  or  will,  they  have  yet
aspired  and  suddenly  or  rapidly  grown into spiritual realisation,
because they had faith or because they were sincere.  I do not see why
these facts which are facts of spiritual history and of quite ordinary
spiritual experience should be discussed and denied and argued  as  if
they were mere matters of speculation.
    Strength, if   it   is   spiritual,   is  a  power  for  spiritual
realisation;  a greater power is sincerity;  the greatest power of all
is  Grace.  I have said times without number that if a man is sincere,
he  will  go  through  in  spite  of  long  delay   and   overwhelming
difficulties.  I  have  repeatedly spoken of the Divine Grace.  I have
referred any number of times to the line of the Gita:
    "I will deliver thee from all sin and evil,  do not grieve." {aham
tv€ sarvap€pebhyo mpk˜ayi˜y€mi m€ ™uca•}                                  ***

It is a question to which no cleancut answer can be given  because  it
puts  two  sides  each  of which is a truth.  Without the Grace of the
Divine nothing can be done,  but for the full Grace  to  manifest  the
sadhak  must  make himself ready.  If everything depends on the Divine
intervention,  then man is only a  puppet  and  there  is  no  use  of
sadhana,  and there are no conditions, no law of things - therefore no
universe, but only the Divine rolling things about at his pleasure. No
doubt  in  the  last  resort  all  can be said to be the Divine cosmic
working,  but it is through persons,  through  forces  that  it  works
-under the conditions of Nature. Special intervention there can be and
is,  but all cannot be special intervention.  As  for  the  experience
stated  It  was  probably in the vital plane and such suddannesses 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.

                                 ***

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¬®¦¥â¥ âॡ®¢ âì ®â �®¦¥á⢠ ᤥ« âì ¢á¥ ç¥à¥§ ­ á¨«ìá⢥­­®¥ ç㤮.
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¢¥«¨ª ï ¯®¯ë⪠ ¢ 祫®¢¥ç¥áª®© ¦¨§­¨.  �® ®­  ¬®¦¥â ¡ëâì ®áãé¥á⢫¥­ ,
¥á«¨ ¢ë ®¡« ¤ ¥â¥ 業âà «ì­®© ¨áªà¥­­®áâìî ¨ ¢¥à­®áâìî �®¦¥áâ¢ã. �â® -
¤¢  ­¥®¡å®¤¨¬ëå ãá«®¢¨ï.                                  ***

What Brahmananda says about tapasya is, of course, true. If one is not
prepared  for labour and tapasya,  control of the mind and vital,  one
cannot demand big spiritual gains - for the mind and vital will always
find tricks and excuses for prolonging their own reign, imposing their
like€nd dislikes and staving off the day when they will have to befeme
obedicot  instruments and open channels of the soul and spirit.  Grace
may sometimes bring undeserved or apparently  undeserved  fruits,  but
one  can't  demand  Grace as a right and privilege - for then It would
not be Grace.  As you have seen,  one can't claim that one has only to
shout and the answer must come. Besides, I have always seen that there
has been  really  a  long  unobserved  preparation  before  the  Grace
intervenes, and also, after it has intervened, one has still to put in
a good deal of work to keep and develop what one has got - as it is in
all  other  things until there is the complete siddhi.  Then of course
labour finishes and one is in assured possession.  So tapasya  of  one
kind  or  another  is  not  avoidable.
    You are right again about the imaginary obstacles...  It is why we
always   express   depreciation  of  mental  constructions  and  vital
formations - because they are the defence-works mind and  vital  throw
up against their capture by the Divine. However, the first thing is to
become conscious of all that as you have now become, -the secret is to
be firm in knocking it all down and making a tabula rasa, a foundation
of calm, peace, happy openness for the true building.

                                 ***

The best possible way is to allow the Divine Grace  to  work  in  you,
never  to oppose it,  never to be ungrateful and turn against it - but
to follow it always to the goal of  Light  and  Peace  and  unity  and
Ananda.

                                 ***

Few are  those  from whom the Grace withdraws,  but many are those who
withdraw from the Grace.

                                 ***

A surrender by any means is good,  but obviously the Impersonal is not
enough,  for  surrender  to that may be limited in result to the inner
experience without any transformation of the outer nature.

                                 ***

Yes, surrender to the impersonal (formless) Divine would  leave  parts
of the being subject to gunas and ego - because the static parts would
be free in formlessness but the active nature would be  still  in  the
play of the gunas.  Many think they are free from ego because they get
the sense of the formless existence.  They do not  see  that  egoistic
elements remain in their action just as before.

                                 ***

You speak of the Impersonal as if it were a Person.  The Impersonal is
not He,  it is It. How can an It guide or help? The Impersonal Brahman
is inactive,  aloof,  indifferent,  not concerned with what happens in
the universe.  Buddha's Permanent is  the  same.  Whatever  impersonal
Truth or Light there is,  you have to find it, use it, do what you can
with it.  It does not trouble itself to hunt  after  you.  It  is  the
Buddhist idea that you must do everything for yourself.

                                 ***

Surrender to  the  Guru  is said to be surrender beyond all surrenders
because through it you surrender not only to the  impersonal,  but  to
the personal, not only to the Divine in self but to the Divine outside
you;  you get a chance for the surpassing  of  the  ego  not  only  by
retreat  into  the self where ego does not exist,  but in the personal
nature where it is the ruler.  It is the sign of the will to  complete
surrender to the total Divine,  samagram m€m... m€nu˜ˆm tanum €™ritam.
Of course it must be a genuine spiritual surrender for all this to  be
true.

                                 ***

The Guru  should  be  accepted  in all ways-transcendent,  impersonal,
personal.

                                 ***

The Guru is the Guide in the yoga.  When the Divine is accepted as the
Guide, He is accepted as the Guru.

                                 ***

The relation  of Guru and disciple is only one of many relations which
one can have with the Divine,  and  in  this  yoga  which  aims  at  a
supramental realisation, it is not usual to give it this name; rather,
the Divine is regarded as the Source,  the living  Sun  of  Light  and
Knowledge  and  Consciousness and spiritual realisation,  and all that
one receives is  felt  as  coming  from  there  and  the  whole  being
remoulded  by  the  Divine  Hand.  This is a greater and more intimate
relation than that of the human Guru and disciple,  which is more of a
limited mental ideal.  Nevertheless,  if the mind still needs the more
familiar mental conception,  it can be kept so long as it  is  needed;
only  do  not  let the soul be bound by it and do not let it limit the
inflow of  other  relations  with  the  Divine  and  larger  forms  of
experience.

                                 ***

It is  not  usual  to use the word Guru in the supramental yoga,  here
everything comes from the Divine himself.  But if anybody wants it  he
can use it for the time being.

                                 ***

No, surrender to the Divine and surrender to the Guru are not the same
thing.  In surrendering to the Guru,  it is to the Divine in him  that
one  surrenders  -  if  it  were  only to a human entity,  it would be
ineffective.  But it is the consciousness of the Divine Presence  that
makes the Guru a real Guru, so that even if the disciple surrenders to
him thinking of the human being to whom he surrenders,  that  Presence
will still make it effective.

                                 ***

All true  Gurus  are the same,  the one Guru,  because all are the one
Divine. That is a fundamental and universal truth. But there is also a
truth of difference; the Divine dwells in different personalities with
different minds,  teachings,  influences so that He may lead different
disciples  with  their special need,  character,  destiny by different
ways to the realisation.  Because all Gurus are the  same  Divine,  it
does not follow that the disciple does well if he leaves the one meant
for him to follow another.  Fidelity to the Guru is demanded of  every
disciple,  according to the Indian tradition.  "All are the same" is a
spiritual truth,  but you  cannot  convert  it  indiscriminately  into
action;  you cannot deal with all persons in the same way because they
are the one Brahman:  if one did, the result pragmatically would be an
awful  mess.  It is a rigid mental logic that makes the difficulty but
in spiritual matters mental logic easily blunders; intuition, faith, a
plastic  spiritual  reason  are  here the only guides.
    As for faith,  faith in the spiritual sense is not a mental belief
which  can  waver and change.  It can wear that form in the mind,  but
that belief is not the faith itself,  it is only  its  external  form.
Just as the body, the external form, can change but the spirit remains
the same,  so it is here.  Faith is a certitude in the soul which does
not   depend   on   reasoning,  oil  this  or  that  mental  idea,  on
circumstances,  on this or that passing condition of the mind  or  the
vital  or the body.  It may be hidden,  eclipsed,  may even seem to be
quenched, but it reappears again after the storm or the eclipse; it is
seen  burning  still  in  the  soul  when  one has thought that it was
extinguished for ever.  The mind may be a shifting sea of  doubts  and
yet that faith may be there within and,  if so,  it will keep even the
doubt-racked mind in the way so that it goes on  in  spite  of  itself
towards  its  destined  goal.  Faith  is  a spiritual certitude of the
spiritual, the divine, the soul's ideal, something that clings to that
even  when it is not fulfilled in life,  even when the immediate facts
or the persistent circumstances seem to deny  it.  This  is  a  common
experience  in  the  life of the human being;  if It were not so,  man
would be the plaything of a changing mind or a sport of circumstances.

                                 ***

It does not strike me that X's letters are admirable as an  aper§u  of
current  thoughts  and general tendencies;  it was rather his power to
withdraw so completely from these thoughts  and  tendencies  and  look
from a (for him) new and abiding source of knowledge that impressed me
as admirable.  If he had remained interested and in touch  with  these
current  human  movements,  I  don't suppose he would have done better
with them than Remain Rolland or  another.  But  he  has  got  to  the
yoga-view of them, the summit-view, and it is the readiness with which
he has been able to do  it  that  struck  me.
    I would  explain  his  progressing  so far not entirely by his own
superiority in the sense of a general  fitness  for  yoga  as  by  the
quickness  and  completeness  with  which  he  has  taken inwardly the
attitude of the Bhakta and the disciple.  That is a  rare  achievement
for a modern mind, be he European or "educated" Indian; for the modern
mind is analytic, dubitative, instinctively "independent" even when it
wants to be otherwise;  it holds itself back and hesitates in front of
the Light and Influence that comes to it;  it does not plunge into  it
with a simple directness,  crying,  "Here I am, ready to throw from me
all that was myself or seemed to be,  if  so  lean  enter  into  Thee;
remake  my  consciousness  into  the Truth in Thy way,  the way of the
Divine." There is something itt us that is ready for it,  but there is
this element that intervenes and makes a curtain of non-receptivity; I
know by my own experience with myself and others how long it can  make
a  road  that could never,  perhaps for us who seek thfr entire truth,
have been short and  easy,  but  still,  we  might  have  spared  many
wanderings  and  stand-stills  and recoils and detours.  All the morel
admire the ease with which X seems to have surmounted this  formidable
obstacle.
    I do not know if his Guru falls short in any respect, but with the
attitude he has taken, the deficiencies , if any, do not matter. It is
not the human defects of the Guru that can stand in the way when there
is  the  psychic  opening,  confidence and surrender.  The Guru is the
channel or the representative or  the  manifestation  of  the  Divine,
according  to  the  measure of his personality or his attainment;  but
whatever he is,  it is to the Divine that one opens in opening to him;
and  if  something is determined by the power of the channel,  more is
determined by the inherent and intrinsic  attitude  of  the  receiving
consciousness, an element that comes out in the surface mind as simple
trust or direct unconditional self-giving, and once that is there, the
essential  things can be gained even from one who seems to others than
the disciple an inferior spiritual source,  and the rest will grow  up
in the sadhak of itself by the Grace of the Divine,  even if the human
being in the Guru cannot give it.  It is this that X appears  to  have
done perhaps from the first ; but in most nowadays this attitude seems
to come with difficulty after much hesitation and delay  and  trouble.
In  my  own case I owe the first decisive turn of my Inner life to one
who was infinitely inferior to me in intellect, education and capacity
and  by  no means spiritually perfect or supreme;  but,  having seen a
Power behind him and decided to turn there for  help,  I  gave  myself
entirely  into  his hands and followed with an automatic passivity the
guidance.  He himself was astonished and said to others  that  he  had
never  met anyone before who could surrender himself so absolutely and
without reserve or question to the guidance of the helper.  The result
'was  a  series of transmuting experiences of such a radical character
that he was unable to follow and had to tell me to give myself  up  in
future  to the Guide within with the same completeness of surrender as
I had shown to the human channel.  I give this  example  to  show  how
these  things  work;  It is not in the calculated way the human reason
wants to lay down, but by a more mysterious and greater law.

                                 ***

One can  have  a Guru inferior in spiritual capacity (to oneself or to
other Gums) carrying in him many human imperfections and yet,  if  you
have the faith, the bhakti, the right spiritual stuff, you can contact
the Divine through him,  attain to spiritual experiences, to spiritual
realisation,  even  before the Guru himself.  Mark the "If",  for that
proviso is necessary;  it is not every disciple who can do  that  with
every Guru.  From a humbug you can acquire nothing but his humbuggery.
The Guru must have something in him which makes the contact  with  the
Divine possible,  something which works even if he is not In his outer
mind quite conscious of  its  action.  If  there  is  nothing  at  all
spiritual in him,  he is not a Guru, only a pseudo. Undoubtedly, there
can be considerable differences of spiritual realisation  between  one
Guru and another;  but much depends on the inner relation between Guru
and ™i˜ya. One can go to a very great spiritual man and get nothing or
only a little from him; one can go to a man of less spiritual capacity
and get an he has to give -and more.  The causes of this disparity are
various  and subtle;  I need not expand on them here.  It differs with
each man.  I believe the Guru is always ready  to  give  what  can  be
given,  if the disciple can receive, or it may be, when he is ready to
receive.  If he refuses to receive or behaves inwardly or outwardly in
such  a way as to make reception impossible or if he is not sincere or
takes up the wrong attitude,  then things become difficult. But if one
is  sincere and faithful and has the right attitude and if the Guru is
a true Guru, then, after whatever time, it will come.

                                 ***

Ramakrishna had the siddhi himself before he began giving to others  -
so had Buddha.  I don't know about the others. By perfection of course
is meant siddhi in one's own path -  realisation.  Ramakrishna  always
put  that  as  a  rule  that one should not become a teacher to others
until one has the full authority.

                                 ***

The action of the Force does not exclude  tapasya,  concentration  and
the need of sadhana. Its action rather comes as an answer or a help to
these things.  It is true that it sometimes acts without them; it very
often  makes  a response in those who have not prepared themselves and
do not seem to be ready.  But it does not always or usually  act  like
that,  nor  is it a sort of magic that acts in the void or without any
process. Nor is it a machine that acts in the same way on everybody or
in  all  conditions  and  circumstances;  it  is  not a physical but a
spiritual Force and its action cannot be reduced to rules.
    About the limitation of the power of the Guru to that of a teacher
who shows the way but cannot help or guide,  that is the conception of
certain paths of yoga such as the pure Adwaitin and the Buddhist which
say that you must rely upon yourself and that no one can help you; but
even the pure Adwaitin does in fact rely upon the Guru and  the  chief
mantra  of  Buddhism  insists  on  ™ara�am to Buddha.  For other paths
ofsadhana,  especially those which,  like the Gita, accept the reality
of  the individual soul as an "eternal portion" of the Divine or which
believe that Bhagavan and the bhakta are both real,  the help  of  the
Guru  has  always  been Felled upon as an indispensable aid.
    I don't understand the objection to the validity of  Vivekananda's
experience:  it  was exactly the realisation which is described in the
Upanishads as a supreme experience of the Self.  It is not a fact that
an  experience  gained  in samadhi cannot be prolonged into the waking
state.

                                 ***

Yes, it is a defect in the vital,  a lack of will to  discipline.  One
has  to  learn  from  the master and act according to his instructions
because the master knows the subject and how it is to be learnt  -just
as  in spiritual things one has to follow a Guru who has the knowledge
and knows the way.  If one learns all by oneself, the chances are that
one  will  learn  all  wrong.  What  is  the use of a freedom to learn
wrongly?  Of course, if the pupil is more intelligent than the master,
he will learn more than the master, just as a great spiritual capacity
may arrive at realisation which the Guru has not -  but  even  so  the
control and discipline in the early stages is indispensable.

                                 ***

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  and  the arrogance of the vital that find it below their dignity
to recognise a Guru.

                                 ***

All that  is  popular  yoga.  The  Guru's  touch  or  grace  may  open
something,  but  the  difficulties have always to be worked out still.
What Is true is that if there is complete surrender which implies  the
prominence of the psychic,  these difficulties are no longer felt as a
binder or obstacle but only as  superficial  imperfections  which  the
working of the grace will remove.

                                 ***

I think this sayings of Ramakrishna expresses a certain characteristic
happening in sadhana and  cannot  be  interpreted  in  a  general  and
absolute sense,  for in that sense it is hard for it to be true. "With
the Guru's grace all difficulties can disappear in  a  flash  even  as
agelong datkness does the moment you strike a match.  All difficulties
disappearing  in  a  minute?  Well,  Vivekananda  had  the  grace   of
Ramakrishna  from  the beginning,  but I think his difficulty of doubt
lasted for some time and to the end of his life the difficulty of  the
control of his anger was there - making him say that all that was good
in him was his Guru's gift, but these things (anger etc.) were his own
property.  But  what  could be true is that the central difficulty may
disappear by a certain touch between the Guru and  the  disciple.  But
what  is meant by the k�p€?  If it is the general compassion and grace
of the Guru,  that, one would think, is always there on the disciple ;
his acceptance itself is an act of grace and the help is there for the
disciple to receive.  But the touch of  grace,  divine  grace,  coming
directly  or through the Guru is a special phenomenon having two sides
to it,  - the grace of the Guru or the Divine,  in fact both together,
on  one side and a "state of grace" in the disciple on the other.  The
"state of grace" is often prepared by a long tapasya  or  purification
in which nothing decisive seems to happen, only touches or glimpses or
passing experiences  at  the  most,  and  it  comes  suddenly  without
warning. If this is what is spoken of in Ramakrishna's saying, then it
is true that when it comes,  the fundamental  difficulties  can  in  a
moment and generally do disappear.  Or,  at the very least,  something
happens which makes the rest of the sadhana - however long it may take
- sure and secure.
    This decisive touch comes most easily to the  "baby  cat"  people,
those  who  have  at  some point between the psychic and the emotional
vital a quick and decisive movement of surrender to the  Guru  or  the
Divine. I have seen that when that is there and there is the conscious
central dependence compelling the mind also and the rest of the vital,
then the fundamental difficulty disappears.  If others remain they are
not felt as difficulties,  but simply as things that have just  to  be
done  and  need cause no worry.  Sometimes no tapasya is necessary-one
just refers things to the Power that one feels guiding  or  doing  the
sadhana  and assents to its action,  rejecting all that is contrary to
it,  and the Power removes what has to be removed or changes what  has
to  be  changed,  quickly or slowly-but the quickness or slowness does
not seem to matter since one is sure that it will be done.  If tapasya
is necessary, it is done with so much feeling of a strong support that
there is nothing hard or austere in the tapasya.
    For the others, the "baby monkey" type or those who are still more
independent,  following their own  ideas,  doing  their  own  sadhana,
asking  only  for  some instruction or help,  the grace of the Guru is
there,  but it acts according to the nature of the  sadhak  and  waits
upon  his  effort to a greater or less degree;  it helps,  succours in
difficulty,  saves in the time of danger,  but  the  disciple  is  not
always,  is perhaps hardly at all aware of what is being done as he is
absorbed in himself and his endeavour.  In  such  cases  the  decisive
psychological  movement,  the  touch  that  makes all clear,  may take
longer to come.
    But with  all  the k�p€ is there working in one way or another and
it can only abandon the disciple if the disciple himself  abandons  or
rejects  it  - by decisive and definitive revolt,  by rejection of the
Guru,  by cutting the painter and declaring his independence, or by an
act  or course of betrayal that severs him from his own psychic being.
Even then, except perhaps in the last case if it goes to an extreme, a
return  to  grace  is  not  impossible.
    That is my own knowledge and experience of the matter.  But as  to
what  lay  behind Ramakrishna's saying and whether he himself meant it
to be a general and absolute statement - I do not pronounce.

                                 ***

It has always been said that to take  disciples  means  to  take  upon
yourself  the  difficulties  of the disciples as well as your own.  Of
course,  if the Guru does not identify himself with the disciple, does
not  take  him into his own consciousness,  keeps him outside and only
gives him upade™a leaving him to do the rest himself,  then the chance
of these effects is much diminished; made practically nil.

                                 ***

When one takes sincerely to surrender,  nothing must be concealed that
is of any importance for the life of the sadhana.  Confession helps to
purge  the consciousness of hampering elements and it clears the inner
air and makes for a closer and more intimate  and  effective  relation
between the Guru and the disciple.

                                 ***

VI

                                 ***

It is  so  with  all  things in the path of sadhana - one must persist
however long it takes, so only one can achieve.

                                 ***

The power needed in yoga is the power to go through effort, difficulty
or   trouble  without  getting  fatigued,  depressed,  discouraged  or
impatient and without breaking off the effort or giving up  one's  aim
or resolution.

                                 ***

Whatever method  is used,  persistence and perseverance are essential.
For whatever method is used,  the complexity of the natural resistance
will be there to combat it.

                                 ***

A yoga like this needs patience, because it means a change both of the
radical motives and of each part and detail of the nature. It will not
do  to  say  - " Yesterday I determined to give myself entirely to the
Mother, and look it is not done, on the contrary, all the old opposite
things turn up once more.  Of course, when you come to the point where
you make a resolution of that kind, immediately all that stands in the
way  does rise up - it invariably happens.  The thing to be done is to
stand back,  observe and reject, not to allow these things to get hold
of  you,  to keep your central will separate from them and call in the
Mother's Force to meet them;  if  one  does  get  involved,  as  often
happens,  then  to  get disinvolved as soon as possible and go forward
again.  That is what everybody,  every yoga does  -  to  be  depressed
because  one  cannot  do everything in a rush is quite contrary to the
truth of the matter.
    The steadiness  you  have  gained  is  not  a  personal virtue but
depends on your keeping the contact with the Mother - for  it  is  her
Force  that  is  behind  it  and behind all the progress you can make.
Learn to rely on that Force, to open to it more completely and to seek
spiritual  progress even not for your own sake but for the sake of the
Divine --then you will go more smoothly.

                                 ***

It is  certain  that  an  ardent  aspiration  for  the Divine helps to
progress,  but patience is also needed.  For it is a very  big  change
that  has  to  be  made  and,  although  there can be moments of great
rapidity,  it is never all the time like that. Old things try to stick
as  much  as  possible;  the  new  that  come  have to develop and the
consciousness takes time to assimilate them and make  them  normal  to
the  nature.
    Keep this  firm  faith in your mind that the thing needed is being
done and will be done fully. There can be no doubt about that.

                                 ***

It is true that a great patience and steadfastness is needed.  Be then
firm and patient  and  fixed  on  the€ims  of  the  sadhana,  but  not
over-eager  to have them at once.  A work has to be done in you and is
being done;  help it to be done by keeping an attitude of  firm  faith
and  confidence.  Doubts  rise  in all,  they are natural to the human
physical mind - reject them.  Impatience  and  overeagerness  for  the
result  at  once  are  natural  to  the  human  vital;  it  is by firm
confidence in the Mother that  they  will  disappear.  The  love,  the
belief in her as the Divine to whom your life is given,  - oppose with
that every contrary feeling and  then  those  contrary  feelings  will
after a time no longer be able to come to you.

                                 ***

Impatience is always a mistake,  it does not help but binders. A quiet
happy faith and confidence Is the best foundation for sadhana; for the
rest  a constant opening wide of oneself to receive with an aspiration
which may be intense,  but must always be calm and steady.  Full yogic
realisation  does  not  come  all  at  once,  it  comes  after  a long
preparation of the Adhar which may take a long time.

                                 ***

There can be no doubt about the Divine Grace.  It  is  perfectly  true
also that if a man is sincere,  he will reach the Divine.  But it does
not follow that he will reach immediately,  easily and without  delay.
Your error is there, to fix for God a term, five years, six years, and
doubt because the effect is not yet there.  A  man  may  be  centrally
sincere  and  yet  there may be many things that have to be changed in
him before realisation can begin.  His sincerity must  enable  him  to
persevere always - for It is a longing for the Divine that nothing can
quench,  neither delay nor disappointment nor difficulty nor  anything
else.

                                 ***

"I will  try  again"  is  not  sufficient;  what  is  needed is to try
always-steadily, with a heart free from despondency, as the Gita says,
anirvi��acetas€.  You  speak  of five and a half years as if it were a
tremendous time for such an object,  but a yogi who is  able  in  that
time  to  change  radically  his  nature and get the concrete decisive
experience of the Divine would have to be considered  as  one  of  the
rare  gallopers  of  the spiritual Way.  Nobody has ever said that the
spiritual change was an easy thing;  all spiritual  seekers  will  say
that  it  is difficult but supremely worth doing.  If one's desire for
the Divine has become the master desire,  then  surely  one  can  give
one's  whole  life  to  it  without  repining and not grudge the time,
difficulty or labour.
    Again, you speak of your experiences as vague  and  dreamlike.  In
the first place the scorn of small experiences in the inner life is no
part of wisdom,  reason or common sense. It is in the beginning of the
sadhana  and for a long time,  the small experiences that come on each
other and,  if given their full value,  prepare the field,  build up a
preparatory  consciousness  and  one  day  break open the walls to big
experiences.  But if you despise them with the ambitious idea that you
must have either the big experiences or nothing,  it is not surprising
that they come once in a blue moon and cannot do their work. Moreover,
all your experiences were not small. There were some like the stilling
descent of a Power in the body - what you  used  to  call  numbness  -
which anyone with spiritual knowledge would have recognised as a first
strong step towards the opening of the  consciousness  to  the  higher
Peace  and Light.  But it was not in the line of your expectations and
you gave it no special value. As for vague and dream-like, you feel it
so  because  you are looking at them and at everything that happens in
you from the standpoint of the outward  physical  mind  and  intellect
which  can  take  only physical things as real and Important and vivid
and to it inward phenomena are something unreal,  vague and truthless.
The spiritual experience does not even despise dreams and visions;  it
is known to it that many of these things are not  dreams  at  all  but
experiences  on  an  inner  plane  and if the experiences of the inner
planes which lead to the opening of the inner self into the  outer  so
as to influence and change it are not accepted, the experiences of the
subtle consciousness and the trance consciousness,  how is the  waking
consciousness  to  expand  out  of  the  narrow prison of the body and
body-mind and the senses?  For,  to the physical mind untouched by the
inner  awakened  consciousness,  even  the  experience  of  the cosmic
consciousness  or  the  Eternal  Self  might  very  well  seem  merely
subjective  and  unconvincing.  It  would think,  "Curious,  no doubt,
rather  interesting,   but   very   subjective,   don't   you   think?
Hallucinations, yes!" The first business of the spiritual seeker is to
get away from the  outward  mind's  outlook  and  to  look  at  inward
phenomena  with  an inward mind to which they soon become powerful and
stimulating realities.  If one does that,  then one begins to see that
there  is  here a wide field of truth and knowledge,  in which one can
move from discover) to discovery to reach  the  supreme  discovery  of
all. But the outer physical mind, if It has any ideas about the Divine
and spirituality at all, has only hasty a priory ideas miles away from
the  solid  ground  of  inner  truth and experience.
    I have not left myself time to deal  with  other  matters  at  any
length.   You   speak   of   the   Divine's  stern  demands  and  hard
conditions-but what severe demands and iron conditions you are  laying
on the Divine!  You practically say to him, "I will doubt and deny you
at every step, but you must fill me with your unmistakable Presence; I
will be full of gloom and despair whenever I think of you or the yoga,
but you must flood my gloom with your rapturous irresistible Ananda; I
will meet you only with my outer physical mind and consciousness,  but
you must give me in that the Power  that  will  transform  rapidly  my
whole nature." Well, I don't say that the Divine won't or can't do it,
but if such a miracle is to be worked, you must give him some time and
just a millionth part of a chance.

                                 ***

The Divine  may be difficult,  but his difficulties can be overcome if
one keeps at him.

                                 ***

The sadhana is a difficult one and time should not be grudged;  it  is
only  in  the  last  stages that a very great and constant rapidity of
progress can be confidently expected.
    As for Shakti,  the descent of Shakti before the vital is pure and
surrendered,  has its dangers.  It is better  for  him'  to  pray  for
purification,  knowledge,  intensity  of the heart's aspiration and as
much working of the Power as he can bear and assimilate.

                                 ***

Always keep within and do things without involving yourself  in  them,
then nothing adverse will happen or,  if it does,  no serious reaction
will come.
    The idea of leaving for any reason is,  of course,  absurd and out
of the question.  Eight years is a very short time for transformation.
Most  people  spend  as much as that or more to get conscious of their
defects and acquire the serious will to change -  and  after  that  it
takes  a  long  time  to  get  the  will  turned  into  full and final
accomplishment.  Each time one stumbles,  one has to get back into the
right footing and go on with fresh resolution;  hy doing that the full
change comes.

                                 ***

What I  want  of you besides aspiring for faith?  Well,  just a little
thoroughness and persistence in the method!  Don't aspire for two days
and  then  go  Into  the  dumps,  evolving  a gospel of earthquake and
Schopenhauer plus the ass and all the rest of it.  Give the  Divine  a
full sporting chance.  When he lights something in you or is preparing
a light,  don't come in with a wet blanket of despondency and throw it
on  the poor flame.  You will say,  "It is a mere candle that is lit -
nothing at all i" But in these matters,  when the  darkness  of  human
mind  and  life  and  body has to be dissipated,  a candle is always a
beginning - a lamp can follow and afterwards a sun;  but the beginning
must  be allowed to have a sequel and not get cut off from its natural
sequelae by chunks of sadness and doubt and despair. At the beginning,
and for a long time,  the experiences do usually come in little quanta
with empty spaces between- but,  if allowed its way,  the spaces  will
diminish,  and the quantum theory give way to the Newtonean continuity
of the spirit.  But you have never yet given it  a  real  chance.  The
empty  spaces  have  been  peopled  with doubts and denials and so the
quanta have become rare,  the beginning  remains  a  beginning.  Other
difficulties you have faced and rejected, but this difficulty you have
dandled too much for a long time and it has become strong - it must be
dealt with by a persevering effort.  I do not say that all doubts must
disappear before anything comes  -  that  would  be  to  make  sadhana
impossible,  for  doubt is the mind's persistent assailant.  All I say
is,  don't allow the assailant to become a companion,  don't give  him
the open door and the fireside seat.  Above all,  don't drive away the
incoming Divine with that  dispiriting  wet  blanket  of  sadness  and
despair!
    To put  It  more soberly - accept once and for all that this thing
has to be done,  that it is the only thing left for  yourself  or  the
earth.   Outside   are   earthquakes  and  Hitlers  and  a  collapsing
civilisation and,  generally speaking,  the ass and the flood. All the
more  reason  to tend towards the one thing to be done,  the thing you
have been sent to aid in getting done.  It is difficult  and  the  way
long  and  the encouragement given meagre?  What then?  Why should you
expect so great a thing to be easy or that  there  must  be  either  a
swift success or none?  The difficulties have to be faced and the more
cheerfully they are faced,  the sooner they will be overcome.  The one
thing  to  do  is to keep the mantra of success,  the determination of
victory,  the fixed resolve,  "Have it I must  and  have  it  I  will.
Impossible  ?  There  is  no  such  thing as impossibility - there are
difficulties and things of longue haleine,  but no  impossibles.  What
one  is  determined  fixedly  to  do  will  get done now or later - it
becomes possible.  Drive out dark despair and go bravely on with  your
yoga. As the darkness disappears, the inner doors will open.

                                 ***

Whether by  tapasya or surrender does not matter,  the one thing is to
be firm in setting one's face to the goal. Once one has set one's feet
on  the way,  how can one draw back from it to something inferior?  If
one keeps firm,  falls do not matter,  one rises  up  again  and  goes
forward.  If one is firm towards the goal,  there can be on the way to
the Divine no eventual failure.  And if there is something within  you
that  drives  as  surely  there is,  falterings or falls or failure of
faith make no eventual difference.  One has to go on till the struggle
is  over  and  there is the straight and open and thornless way before
us.

                                 ***

You have only to remain quiet and firm in your following of  the  path
and  your will to go to the end.  If you do that circumstances will in
the end be obliged to shape themselves to your will,  because it  will
be the Divine Will in you.

                                 ***

There are  always  difficulties  and  a tempered progress in the early
stages and a delay in the opening of the inner doors until  the  being
is  ready.  If  you  feel whenever you meditate the quiescence and the
flashes of the inner Light and if the inward urge is growing so strong
that  the  external  hold is decreasing and the vital disturbances are
losing their force, that is already a great progress. The road of yoga
is  long,  every  inch of ground has to be won against much resistance
and no quality  is  more  needed  by  the  sadhak  than  patience  and
single-minded  perseverance with a faith that remains firm through all
difficulties, delays and apparent failures.

                                 ***

One who fears monotony and wants something new would not be able to do
yoga  or  at least this yoga which needs an inexhaustible perseverance
and patience.  The fear of death shows a vital weakness which is  also
contrary  to  a  capacity  for  yoga.  Equally,  one  who is under the
domination of his passions,  would find the yoga difficult and, unless
supported by a true inner call and a sincere and strong aspiration for
the spiritual consciousness and union  with  the  Divine,  might  very
easily fall fatally and his effort come to nothing.

                                 ***

Determination is needed and a firm patience,  not to be discouraged by
this or that failure.  It is a change in the  habit  of  the  physical
nature and that needs a long patient work of detail.

                                 ***

Your attitude towards the change needed and new life is the right one.
A quiet vigilant but undistressed persistence is the best way  to  get
it done.
    For the intimacy within to be re-established,  the  quietude  must
deepen so that the psychic may come out in the physical as it had done
in the higher parts.

                                 ***

One who  has not the courage to face patiently and firmly life and its
difficulties will never be able to go through the still greater  inner
difficulties of the sadhana.  The very first lesson In this yoga is to
face life and its trials with a quiet mind,  a  firm  courage  and  an
entire reliance on the Divine Shakti.

                                 ***

Remain firm and turned in the one direction-towards the Mother.

                                 ***

The Foundation of Sadhana

                                 ***

IT is  not  possible  to  make  a  foundation  in  yoga if the mind is
restless.  The first thing needed is quiet in the mind.  Also to merge
the personal consciousness is not the first aim of the yoga: the first
aim is to open it to a higher spiritual  consciousness  and  for  this
also a quiet mind is the first need.

                                 ***

The first  thing  to  do  in the sadhana is to get a settled peace and
silence in the mind.  Otherwise you may have experiences,  but nothing
will   be   permanent.  It  is  in  the  silent  mind  that  the  true
consciousness can be built.
    A quiet mind does not mean that  there  will  be  no  thoughts  or
mental movements at all, but that these will be on the surface and you
will feel your true being within separate from them, observing but not
carctied away, able to watch and judge them and reject all that has to
be rejected and to accept and keep to all that is  true  consciousness
and true experience.
    Passivity of the mind is good, but take care to be passive only to
the Truth and to the touch of the Divine Shakti. If you are passive to
the suggestions and influences of the lower nature,  you will  not  be
able  to  progress  or else you will expose yourself to adverse forces
which may take you far away from the true path of yoga.
    Aspire to  the  Mother  for this settled quietness and calm of the
mind and this constant sense of the inner being in you  standing  back
from  the  external  nature  and  turned to the Light and Truth.
    The forces that stand in the way of sadhana are the forces of  the
lower  mental,  vital  and  physical  nature.  Behind them are adverse
powers of the mental,  vital and subtle physical worlds.  These can be
dealt  with  only after the mind and heart have become one-pointed and
concentrated in the single aspiration to the Divine.

                                 ***

The first step is a quiet mind-silence is a further step, but quietude
must  be  there;  and  by  a  quiet mind I mean a mental consciousness
within which sees thoughts arrive to it and move about  but  does  not
itself  feel  that  it  is  thinking  or  identifying  itself with the
thoughts or call them its own.  Thoughts,  mental movements  may  pass
through  it  as  wayfarers  appear  and  pass from elsewhere through a
silent country-the quiet mind  observes  them  or  does  not  care  to
observe them,  but, in either case, does not become active or lose its
quietude. Silence is more than quietude; it can be gained by banishing
thought  altogether  from the inner mind keeping it voiceless or quite
outside;  but more easily it is established by a descent from above  -
one  feels  it coming down,  entering and occupying or surrounding the
personal consciousness which then tends to merge itself  in  the  vast
impersonal silence.

                                 ***

To quiet the mind in such a way that no thoughts will come is not easy
and usually takes time. The most necessary thing is to feel a quietude
in  the  mind so that if thoughts come they do not disturb or hold the
mind or make it follow them,  but simply cross and pass away. The mind
first  becomes  the  witness  of  the  passage  of thought and not the
thinker, afterwards it is able not to watch the thoughts but lets them
pass  unnoticed and concentrates in itself or on the object it chooses
without trouble.
    There are  two  main  things  to  be secured as the foundations of
sadhana - the opening of the psychic being and the realisation of  the
Self above. For the opening of the psychic being, concentration on the
Mother and self-offering to her are the  direct  way.  The  growth  of
Bhakti which you feel is the first sign of the psychic development.  A
sense of the Mother's presence or force  or  the  remembrance  of  her
supporting  and  strengthening you is the next sign.  Eventually,  the
soul within begins to be active in aspiration and  psychic  perception
guiding  the  mind  to  the  right  thoughts,  the  vital to the right
movements and feelings,  showing and rejecting all that has to be  put
away  and  turning  the whole being in all its movements to the Divine
alone.  For the selfrealisation, peace and silence of the mind are the
first  condition.  Afterwards  one  begins  to feel release,  freedom,
wideness,  to live in a consciousness silent,  tranquil,  untouched by
any or all things,  existing everywhere and in all, one with or united
with the Divine.  Other experiences come on the way, or may come, such
as  the  opening  of the inner vision,  the sense of the Force working
within and various movements and phenomena of the working etc. One may
also  be  conscious  of  ascents  of the consciousness and descents of
Force, Peace, Bliss or Light from above.

                                 ***

Silence is always good;  but I do not mean by quietness of mind entire
silence.  I mean a mind free from  disturbance  and  trouble,  steady,
light and glad so as to open to the Force that will change the nature.
The important thing is to get rid of the  habit  of  the  invasion  of
troubling  thoughts,  wrong  feelings,  confusion  of zideas,  unhappy
movements. These disturb the nature and cloud it and make it difficult
for the Force to work;  when the mind is quiet and at peace, the Force
can work more easily. It should be possible to see things that have to
be changed in you without being upset or depressed;  the change is the
more easily done.

                                 ***

The difference between a vacant mind and a calm  mind  is  this:  that
when the mind is vacant, there is no thought, no conception, no mental
action of any kind,  except an essential perception of things  without
the  formed  idea;  but  in the calm mind,  it is the substance of the
mental being that is still,  so still that  nothing  disturbs  it.  If
thoughts or activities come,  they do not rise at all out of the mind,
but they come from outside and cross the mind as  a  flight  of  birds
crosses  the  sky  in  a  windless air.  It passes,  disturbs nothing,
leaving no trace. Even if a thousand images or the most violent events
pass  across it,  the calm stillness remains as if the very texture of
the mind were a substance of eternal and indestructible peace.  A mind
that  has  achieved  this  calmness  can begin to act,  even intensely
and'powerfully, but it will keep its fundamental stillness-originating
nothing  from  itself  but receiving from Above and giving it a mental
form without adding anything  of  its  own,  calmly,  dispassionately,
though  with the joy of the Truth and the happy power and light of its
passage.

                                 ***

It is not an undesirable thing for the mind to fall silent, to be free
from  thoughts  and  still  -  for  it is oftenest when the mind falls
silent that there is the full descent of a wide peace from  above  and
in that wide tranquillity the realisation of the silent Self above the
mind spread out in its vastness everywhere.  Only,  when there is  the
peace  and  the  mental  silence,  the vital mind tries to rush in and
occupy the place or else the mechanical mind tries to raise up for the
same  purpose its round of trivial habitual thoughts.  What the sadhak
has to do is to be careful to reject and hush these outsiders, so that
during  the meditation at least the peace and quietude of the mind and
vital may be complete.  This can be done best if you keep a strong and
silent  will.  That  will  is the will of the Purusha behind the mind;
when the mind is at peace,  when it is silent one can become aware  of
the Purusha,  silent also, separate from the action of the nature.
    To be  calm,  steady,  fixed in the spirit,  dhˆra,  sthira,  this
quietude of the mind,  this separation of the inner Purusha  from  the
outer Prakriti is very helpful,  almost indispensable.  So long as the
being is subject to the whirl of thoughts or the turmoil of the  vital
movements,  one cannot be thus calm and fixed in the spirit. To detach
oneself,  to stand back from them,  to feel them separate from oneself
is  indispensable.
    For the discovery of the true individuality and building up of  it
in  the nature,  two things are necessary,  first,  to be conscious of
one's psychic being behind the heart and, next, this separation of the
Purusha from the Prakriti. For the true individual is behind veiled by
the activities of the outer nature.

                                 ***

It is simply because you are full of mental and vital  activities  and
relations.  One  must get the power to quiet the mental and vital,  if
not at first at all times, yet whenever one wills - for it is the mind
and  vital that cover up the psychic being as well as the self (Atman)
and to get at either one must get in through their veil;  but if  they
are always active and you are always identified with their activities,
the veil will always be there.  It is also possible to detach yourself
and  look  at  these  activities  as  if  they were not your own but a
mechanical action of Nature  which  you  observe  as  a  disinterested
witness.  One  can  then  become  aware  of  an  inner  being which is
separate,  calm and uninvolved in Nature. This may be the inner mental
or vital Purusha and not the psychic,  but to get at the consciousness
of the inner manomaya and pr€�amaya pura˜a is always  a  step  towards
the  unveiling of the psychic being.
    Yes, it would be better to get full control of the speech - it  is
an important step towards going inward and developing a true inner and
yogic consciousness.

                                 ***

Remember first  that an inner quietude,  caused by the purification of
the restless mind and vital,  is  the  first  condition  of  a  secure
sadhana.  Remember  next,  that to feel the Mother's presence while in
external action is already  a  great  step  and  one  that  cannot  be
attained  without  a considerable inner progress.  Probably,  what you
feel you need so much but cannot define is a constant and vivid  sense
of the Mother's force working in you, descending from above and taking
possession of the different planes of your  being.  That  is  often  a
prior  condition  for  the twofold movement of ascent and descent;  it
will surely come in time.  These dungs can take a long time  to  begin
visibly,  especially when the mind is accustomed to be very active and
has not the habit of mental silence.  When that  veiling  activity  is
there,  much work has to be carried on behind the mobile screen of the
mind and the sadhak thinks  nothing  is  happening  when  really  much
preparation  is  being  done.  If  you  want  a more swift and visible
progress, it can only be by bringing your psychic to the front through
a constant self-offering. Aspire intensely, but without impatience.

                                 ***

Keep the  quietude  and  do  not  mind  if  it  is for a time an empty
quietude;  the consciousness is often like a vessel which  has  to  be
emptied of its mixed or undesirable contents; it has to be kept vacant
for a while till it can be filled with things new and true,  right and
pure. The one thing to be avoided is the refilling of the cup with the
old turbid contents.  Meanwhile wait, open yourself upwards, call very
quietly and steadily, not with a too restless eagerness, for the peace
to come into the silence and, once the peace is there, for the joy and
the presence.

                                 ***

Calm, even if it seems at first only a negative thing, is so difficult
to attain,  that to have it at all must be regarded as a great step in
advance.
    In reality, calm is not a negative thing, it is the very nature of
the  Sat-Purusha  and  the   positive   foundation   of   the   divine
consciousness.  Whatever else is aspired for and gained,  this must be
kept. Even Knowledge, Power, Ananda, if they come and do not find this
foundation, are unable to remain and have to withdraw until the divine
purity and peace of the Sat-Purusha are permanently there.
    Aspire for  the rest of the divine consciousness,  but with a calm
and deep aspiration.  It can be  ardent  as  well  as  calm,  but  not
impatient,  restless or full of rajasic eagerness.
    Only in the quiet mind and being can the supramental  Truth  build
its true creation.

                                 ***

First aspire and pray to the Mother for quiet in the mind, purity, llm
and peace,  an awakened consciousness,  intensity of devoon,  strength
and spiritual capacity to face all inner and outer ifficulties and  go
through to the end of the yoga. If the conmusness awakens and there is
devotion and intensity ofaspiraon,  it will be possible for the  mind,
provided it learns quietude nd peace, to grow in knowledge.

                                 ***

To be  calm,  undisturbed  and  quiet  is  not the first condition for
sadhana but for siddhi.  It is only a few people (very few,  one, two,
three,  four  in a hundred sadhaks) who can get it from the rst.  Most
have to go through a long preparation before they can et anywhere near
it.  Even  afterwards  when they begin to feel lie peace and calm,  it
takes time to establish it - they swing etween peace  and  disturbance
for a fairly long time until all larts of the nature have accepted the
truth and the peace.  So here is no reason  for  you  to  suppose  you
cannot progress or jtive.  You are finding a great difficulty with one
part of your ature which has been accustomed to open itself  to  these
feelngs, separation from the Mother and attachment to relatives, ad is
not willing to give them up - that is all.  But  everybody  olds  such
obstinate  difficulties  in  that  part  of  the nature,  even he most
successful sadhaks here.  One has to persevere until he light conquers
there.

                                 ***

One can  go  forward  even  if  there  is  not  peace  -  quietude and
ioncentration are necessary.  Peace is necessary for the higher itates
to develop.

                                 ***

II

                                 ***

The words "peace,  calm,  quiet, silence" have each their own diode of
meaning,  but it is not easy to define them.
    Peace - ™€nti
    Calm -  sthirat€
    Quiet -  acaœcalat€
    Silence - ni™cala-nˆravat€
    Quiet is  a  condition  in  which  there  is  no  restlessness  or
disturbance.
    Calm is a still unmoved condition which no disturbance can  affect
-  it is a less negative condition than quiet.
    Peace is a still more positive condition;  it carries  with  it  a
sense  of  settled and harmonious rest and deliverance.
    Silence is a state in which either there is  no  movement  of  the
mind  or vital or else a great stillness which no surface movement can
pierce or alter.

                                 ***

Quiet is rather negative -it is the absence of disturbance.  Calm is a
positive   tranquillity  which  can  exist  in  spite  of  superficial
disturbances.
    Peace is  a  calm  deepened  into  something that is very positive
amounting almost to  a  tranquil  waveless  Ananda.
    Silence is the absence of all motion of thought or other vibration
of activity.

                                 ***

Calm is a strong and positive quietude,  firm  and  solid  -  ordinary
quietude is mere negation,  simply the absence of disturbance.
    Peace is a deep quietude where no disturbance can come -a quietude
with a sense of established security and release.
    In complete silence there are either no thoughts or thoughts come,
but  they are felt as something coming from outside and not disturbing
the silence.
    Silence of  the  mind,  peace or calm in the mind are three things
that are very close together and bring each other.

                                 ***

Quietness is when the mind or vital is not troubled,  restless,  drawn
about by or crowded with thoughts and feelings.  EspeGaily when either
is detached and looks at these as a surface movement,  we say that the
mind or vital is quiet.
    Calmness is a more positive condition,  not merely an  absence  of
restlessness, over-activity or trouble. When there is a clear or great
or strong tranquillity which nothing troubles or can trouble,  then we
say that calm is established.

                                 ***

These [tranquillity  and  stillness] are general words,  of a general,
not a special yogic significance.  Quiet,  calm and peace can  all  be
described  as  tranquillity:  silence  is  akin  to  what  is meant by
stillness.

                                 ***

It is the silence of the mind and vital - silence  implying  here  not
only  cessation  of  thoughts  but a stillness of the mental and vital
substance. There are varying degrees of depth of this stillness.

                                 ***

The first is the ordinary fundamental calm of the individual Adhar-the
second  is the fundamental limitless calm of the cosmic consciousness,
a calm which abides whether separated from all movements or supporting
them.
    This is the calm of the Atman,  the Self above,  silent, immutable
and infinite.

                                 ***

Peace is more positive than calm - there can be a negative calm  which
is  merely  an absence of disturbance or trouble,  but peace is always
something positive bringing not merely a release as calm  does  but  a
certain happiness or Ananda of itself.
    There is  also a positive calm,  something that stands against all
things that seek to trouble,  not thin and neutral like  the  negative
calm, but strong and massive.

                                 ***

In peace  there is besides the sense of stillness a harmony that gives
a feeling of liberation and full satisfaction.

                                 ***

Shanti is peace or calm - it is not Ananda.  There can of course he, a
calm Ananda.

                                 ***

Peace is a sign of mukti-Ananda moves towards siddhi.

                                 ***

The peace  need not be grave or joyless - there should be nothing grey
in it - but the gladness or joy or sense of lightness  that  comes  in
the peace must be necessarily something internal, self-existent or due
to a deepening of experience - it cannot like the  laughter  of  which
you speak be conveyed by an external cause or dependent upon it,  e.g.
something amusing, exhilarating etc.

                                 ***

The joy also should be deep within, then it will not conflict with the
deeps of peace and inner consciousness.

                                 ***

They [peace  and  patience] go together.  By having patience under all
kinds of pressure you lay the foundations of peace.

                                 ***

It [purity] is more a condition  than  a  substance.  Peace  helps  to
purity-since  in  peace disturbing influences cease and the essence of
purity is to respond only to the Divine Influence and not to  have  an
affinity with other movements.

                                 ***

Purity is  to  accept no other influence but only the influence of the
Divine.

                                 ***

Purity means freedom from soil or mixture.  The divine Purity is  that
in  which  there is no mixture of the turbid ignorant movements of the
lower nature.  Ordinarily,  purity is used  to  mean  (in  the  common
language) freedom, from sexual 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
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 always
pure.

                                 ***

A pure mind means a mind quiet and free from thoughts of a useless  or
disturbing character.

                                 ***

A quiet  mind  is a mind that does not get disturbed,  is not restless
and always vibrating with the need of mental  action.
    What you are talking about is a concentrated mind, concentrated on
something or on a subject. That is quite different.

                                 ***

Do you imagine that a quiet mind cannot reject anything and it is only
the unquiet mind that can do it? It is the quiet mind that can best do
it. Quiet does not mean inert and tamasic.

                                 ***

That is absurd.  Doing nothing with the mind is not quiet or  silence.
It  is  inactivity  that  keeps  the  mind  thinking  mechanically and
discursive instead of concentrating on an object-that is all.

                                 ***

Passive peace is not supposed to do anything.  It is by  the  complete
solid  presence  of  peace alone that all disturbance is pushed out to
the surface or outside the consciousness.

                                 ***

It is not the usual character  of  passive  peace  that  it  can  only
concentrate in inaction.  It can be there and concentrate in or behind
action also.

                                 ***

It is this quiet and spontaneous action  that  is  the  characteristic
divine action.  The aggressive action 13 only,  as you say, when there
is resistance and struggle.  This does not mean that the  quiet  force
can't be intense.  It can be more intense than the aggressive, but its
intensity only increases the intensity of the peace.

                                 ***

Yes, certainly, there is a mental peace, a vital peace, a peace of the
physical  Nature.  It  is  the  peace  of  a higher consciousness that
descends from above.

                                 ***

It is the same  peace  -  but  is  felt  materially  in  the  material
substance,  concretely in the physical mind and nervous being, as well
as psychologically in the mind and vital or subtly in the subtle body.

                                 ***

Certainly, peace,  purity and silence can  be  felt  in  all  material
things -for the Divine Self is there in all.

                                 ***

It is  on  the  Silence behind the cosmos that all the movement of the
universe is supported.
    It is  from  the  Silence  that  the  peace comes;  when the peace
deepens and deepens,  it becomes more and more the Silence.
    In a  more  outward  sense  the  word  Silence  is  applied to the
condition in which there is no movement of thought  or  feeling  etc.,
only a great stillness of the mind.
    But there can be an action in the Silence, undisturbed even as the
universal action goes on in the cosmic Silence.

                                 ***

The passive silence is that in which the inner  consciousness  remains
void and at rest,  makes no reaction to outer things and forces.
    The active  silence  is  that in which there is a great force that
goes out on things and forces without disturbing €he silence.

                                 ***

Rest of  the  being  from  effort,  disturbance  etc.  The  Spirit  is
eternally at rest  even  in  the  midst  of  action-peace  gives  this
spiritual rest. Tamas is a degradation of it and leads to inaction.

                                 ***

In the  entirely  silent mind there is usually the static sense of the
Divine without any active movement. But there can come into it all the
higher thought and aspiration and movements. There is then no absolute
silence but one feels  a  fundamental  silence  behind  which  iy  not
disturbed by any movement.

                                 ***

You always  seem  to  think  that  because the silence is there in the
consciousness, the whole consciousness must be equally affected by it.
The human consciousness is not of one piece like that.

                                 ***

It is not possible for the spontaneous silent condition to last always
at once but that is what must grow in one till  there  is  a  constant
inner  silence  -  a  silence which cannot be disturbed by any outward
activity or even  by  any  attempt  at  attack  or  disturbance.
    The condition you describe shows  precisely  the  growth  of  this
inner  silence.  It  has  to fix itself eventually as the basis of all
spiritual experience and activity.  It does not matter if one does not
know  what  is  going on within behind the silence.  For there are two
conditions in the yoga,  one in which all is silent and  there  is  no
thought,  feeling  or  movement even though one is acting outwardly as
others do - another  in  which  a  new  consciousness  becomes  active
bringing knowledge,  joy,  love and other spiritual feelings and inner
activities, but yet at the same time there is a fundamental silence or
quietude.  Both  are  necessary in the development of the inner being.
The absolutely silent state,  which is one of lightness,  voidness and
release, prepares the other and supports it when it comes.

                                 ***

III

                                 ***

Yes, a settled peace and strength supporting the intensity  and  poise
in which everything foreign falls off, is the true basis.

                                 ***

That is  of  course how it should be.  It should go so far indeed that
you will feel this peace and vastness as your very self,  the  abiding
stuff of your consciousness -unchangeably there.

                                 ***

It is very good indeed.  The peace and silence must settle deep I,  so
deep that whatever comes from outside can only pass  over  le  surface
without  troubling  the  settled calm within.  It is good ISO that the
meditation comes of itself - it means that the yoga 'orce is beginning
to take up the sadhana.

                                 ***

When the  peace  is  fully established everywhere in the being,  these
things [reactions of the lower vital] will not be able  to  shake  it.
They  may  come  first  as  ripples  on  the  surface,  then  only  as
suggestions which one looks at or does not care  to  look  at  but  in
either  case they don't get inside,  affect or disturb at all.
    It is difficult to explain,  but it is something like a mountain t
which one,  throws stones - if conscious all through the mountain  may
feel  the  touch  of the stones,  but the thing would be so slight and
superficial that it would not be in the least  affected.  In  the  end
even that reaction disappears.

                                 ***

If the peace or silence e once absolutely  established,  no  amount  f
movements on the surface can impair or abolish it.  It can bear 11 the
movements of the universe and yet be the same.

                                 ***

Of course.  It is quite usual to feel an established peace in the Iner
being even if there is disturbance on the surface.  In fact lat is the
usual condition of the yogi before he has attained the bsolute  samat€
in all the being.

                                 ***

Even when  there  is  the peace and the wideness,  these things [vital
physical ego-movements] can float on the surface and try to come in  -
only then they do not occupy the consciousness nt touch it merely.  It
is what was regarded by the old  yogis  as  a  mechanical  remnant  of
Prakriti,  a  continuation of its blind habit which remained after the
essential liberation of the self.  It was treated  lightly  as  of  no
importance  -  but  that view is not tenable in our sadhana which aims
not  only  at  a  liberation  of  the  Purusha  but  at   a   complete
transformation of the Prakriti also.

                                 ***

Yes, the inward move is the right one. To live within in the peace and
silence is the first necessity. I spoke of the wideness because in the
wideness  of  silence  and  peace  (which  the yogins recognise as the
realisation of self at once individual and universal) is the basis for
harmomsing the inward and the outward. It will come.

                                 ***

When the  peace is deep or wide it is usually in the inner being.  The
outer parts do not ordinarily go beyond a, certain measure of quietude
-  they  get  deep  peace  only when they are flooded with it from the
inner being.

                                 ***

Yes, certainly - the peace starts in the inner being - it is spiritual
and  psychic  but it overflows the outer being-when it is there in the
activity,  it means either that the  ordinary  restless  mind,  vital,
physical  has been submerged by the flood of the inner peace or,  at a
more advanced 'stage,  that they have been partially or wholly changed
into thoughts,  forces,  emotions, sensations which have in their very
stuff an essence of inner silence and peace.

                                 ***

The inner spiritual progress does not depend on  outer  conditions  so
much as in the way we react to them from within - that has always been
the ultimate verdict of spiritual experience.  It is why we insist  on
taking the right attitude and persisting in it,  on an inner state not
dependent on outer circumstances,  a state of equality and calm, if it
cannot  be  at once of inner happiness,  on going more and more within
and looking from within outwards instead of living in the surface mind
which  is  always at the mercy of the shocks and blows of life.  It is
only from that inner state that one can be stronger than life and  its
disturbing forces and hope to conquer.
    To remain quiet within,  firm in the will to go through,  refusing
to be disturbed or discouraged by difficulties or  fluctuations,  that
is one of the first things to be learned in the Path.  To do otherwise
is to encourage the instability of consciousness,  the  difficulty  of
keeping  experience  of  whietl  you complain.  It is only if you keep
quiet and steady within t&t the lines of experience  can  go  on  with
some   steadiness   -   though  they  are  never  without  periods  of
interruption and fluctuation; but these, if properly treated, can then
become  periods  of  assimilation  and exhaustion of difficulty rather
than denials of sadhana.
    A spiritual atmosphere is more important than outer conditions; if
one can get that and also create one's own spiritual air to breathe in
and live in it, that is the true condition of progress.

                                 ***

You should  realise  that while quiet surroundings are desirable,  the
true quiet is Within and no other will give the condition you want.

                                 ***

Aspire, concentrate  in   the   right   spirit   and,   whatever   the
difficulties,  y6u are sure to attain the aim you have put before you.

    It is  the peace behind and that "something truer" in you that you
must learn to live and feel it to be yourself.  You  must  regard  the
rest  as  not  your  real self,  but only a flux of changing recurring
movements on the surface which are sure to go as  true  self  emerges.

    Peace is the true remedy;  distraction by hard work is only a wary
relief-  although  a  certain  amount  of  work is necesfor the proper
balance of the different parts of the being.  To feel the peace  above
and about your head is a first step; you have to get connected with it
and it must descend into you and fill your mind and life and body  and
surround  you  so that you live in it - for this peace is the one sign
of the Divine's presence with you,  and once you have it all the  rest
will  begin  to  come.
    Truth in speech and truth in thought are very important.  The more
you can feel falsehood as being not part of yourself, as coming on you
from outside,  the  easier  it  will  be  to  reject  and  refuse  it.

    Persevere and what is still crooked will be made straight and  you
will  know  and feel constantly the truth of the Divine's presence and
your faith will be justified by direct experience.

                                 ***

When the   light  and  peace  are  full  in  the  vital  and  physical
consciousness, it is this that remains always as a basis for the right
movement of the whole nature.
    To remain   within,   above  and  untouched,  full  of  the  inner
consciousness and the inner experience,-listening when need be to  one
or  another  with  the  surface  consciousness,  but  with  even  that
undisturbed,  not either pulled outwards or  invaded  -  that  is  the
perfect condition for the sadhana.

                                 ***

What you  have  written  about your condition seems to be correct as a
whole.  There is certainly a greater calm within and a freedom of  the
inner  being which was not there once.  It is this which gives you the
equality you feel there and the  capacity  to  escape  from  the  more
serious  disturbances.  When  one  has  this basis of inner calm,  the
difficulties and imperfections  of  the  surface  can  be  dealt  with
without upset,  depressions, etc. The power to go among others without
any invasion is also due  to  the  same  cause.
    As for  the  second question,  there is no general rule,  but your
attitude is the right one for you - for you have not the need  of  any
particular  development of capacity,  having behind a sincere attitude
of a more general and penetrating and pervasive character.  Others who
feel  the need of a particular development actually ask for it and get
it.

                                 ***

The silence  is  the  silence  of the inner consciousness and it is in
that silence unmoved by outward things that the true activity  of  the
consciousness   can   come  without  disturbing  the  silence  -  true
perceptions,  will,  feelings,  action.  There also one can feel  more
easily the Mother's working.  As for the heat,  it must be the heat of
Agni,  the fire of purification and tapasya;  it often feels like that
when  the  Inner  work is going on.
    What you  feel  about dealing with people is quite correct.  It is
the psychic way of looking at these things.

                                 ***

I have  read  again  the message of the yogi quoted in your letter but
apart from the context nothing much or very definite can be  made  out
of it.  There are two statements which are clear enough:
    "In silence  is  wisdom"  - it is in the inner silence of the mind
that true knowledge can come;  for the ordinary activity of  the  mind
only  creates  surface  ideas  and  representations which are not true
knowledge. Speech is usually the expression of the superficial nature;
therefore  to  throw  oneself  out  too much in such speech wastes the
energy and prevents the inward listening which brings the word of true
knowledge...  "In  listening  you  will  win what you are thinking of"
means probably that in silence will come the  true  thought-formations
which  can  effectuate  or realise themselves.  Thought can be a force
which realises itself,  but the ordinary surface thinking  is  not  of
that kind;  there is in it more waste of energy than in anything else.
It is in the thought that comes in a quiet or silent mind  that  there
is  power.
    "Talk less and gain power" has essentially the same  meaning;  not
only  a  truer  knowledge,  but  a  greater  power comes to one in the
quietude and silence of a  mind  that,  instead  of  bubbling  on  the
surface,  can  go into its own depths and listen for what comes from a
higher consciousness.
    It is  probably this that is meant;  these are things known to all
who have some experience of yoga.

                                 ***

The peace  liberates from all dependence on outer contacts - it brings
what the Gita calls the €tmarati.  But at first there is a  difficulty
in keeping it intact when there is the contact with others because the
consciousness has the habit of running outwards in speech or  external
interchange  or  else  of  coming  down to the normal level.  One must
therefore be very careful until it is fixed;  once  fixed  it  usually
defends  Itself,  for  all  outer  contacts become surface things to a
consciousness full of the higher peace.

                                 ***

You have attained the silent inner  consciousness,  but  that  can  be
covered  over  by disturbance-the next step is for calm and silence to
be  established  as  the  basis  in  the   more   and   more   outward
consciousness...  Then the play of the ordinary forces will be only on
the surface and can be more easily dealt with.

                                 ***

That is the right way - to keep the peace of the higher consciousness;
then  even  if  there  is  vital  disturbance,  it will only be on the
surface.  The foundation will remain till the Force  can  release  the
true 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 is something that is clean in itself, so to get it is a positive
way  of  securing your object.  To look for dirt only and clean is the
negative way.

                                 ***

How can you have peace and quiet  when  you  are  always  thinking  of
"lower  forces" and "attacks" and "possessions" etc.?  If you can look
at things naturally and quietly,  then only you  can  have  quiet  and
peace.

                                 ***

The depression and vital struggle must have been due to some defect of
over-eagerness and straining for a result in your former effort  -  so
that  when  a  fall  in  the consciousness came,  it was a distressed,
disappointed and confused vital that came to the surface  giving  full
entry  to  the  suggestions  of  doubt,  despair  and inertia from the
adverse side of Nature.  You have to move towards a firm basis of calm
and  equality  in  the  vital  and physical no less than in the mental
consciousness; let there be the full downflow of Power and Ananda, but
into  a firm Adhara capable of containing it - it is complete equality
that gives that capacity and firmness.

                                 ***

The failure is due not to want of capacity but to want  of  steadiness
-a restlessness in the vital and a sort of ardent hastiness that lacks
in care of detail and in perseverance.  What you  need  is  the  inner
silence  and  the  solid  strength and force that can act through this
inner silence,  making the vital its instrument but not allowing it to
condition the action by its defects.

                                 ***

It [peace]  has to be brought down to the heart and navel first.  That
gives it a certain kind of inner stability-though not absolute.  There
is  no  method  other  than  aspiration,  a  strong  quiet  will and a
rejection of all that is not turned towards the Divine in those  parts
into which you call the peace - here the emotional and higher vital.

                                 ***

The movement  of  universality by itself cannot prevent the vital from
disturbing - it is the complete surrender and the complete descent  of
peace into all the being down to the most material that can do it.

                                 ***

The mind  and  vital are always more open to universal forces than the
material.  But they can be more restless than the material so long  as
they are not subjected to the peace from Above.

                                 ***

The calm  from  above came to you and established your connection with
the Above,  and if you hold firmly to it,  you will be able to  remain
calm.  But to be rid of these vital disturbances, you have to get down
the Power and Will that is also there above - or at  least  so  to  be
connected  with  it that it will act whenever you call upon it against
the forces of the Ignorance.

                                 ***

Equanimity and peace in all conditions,  in all parts of the being  is
the first foundation of the yogic status.  Either Light (bringing with
it Knowledge) or Force (bringing strength and dynamism of many  kinds)
or Ananda (bringing love and joy of existence) can come next according
to the trend of the nature.  But peace is the first condition  without
which nothing else can he stable.

                                 ***

It is true that through whatever is strongest in him a sadhak can most
easily open to the Divine.  But... peace is necessary for all; without
peace and an increasing purity,  even if one opens, one cannot receive
perfectly all that comes  down  through  the  opening.  Light  too  is
necessary  for all-without light one cannot take full advantage of all
that comes down.

                                 ***

When the mind is silent there is peace and in  the  peace  all  things
that  are  divine can come.  When there is not the mind,  there is the
Self which is greater than the mind.

                                 ***

The silence  and   peace   are   themselves   part   of   the   higher
consciousness-the rest comes in the silence and peace.

                                 ***

It is the Vaishnava feeling that the Vedantic peace is not enough, the
love and joy of the Divine is more precious. But unless the two things
go   together,   the  love  and  joy  felt  is  perhaps  intense,  but
impermanent,  and  it  is  also  true  that  it  gets  easily   mixed,
misdirected  or  turns to something that is not the true thing at all.
Peace and purity must be got as the foundation of  the  consciousness,
otherwise there is no firm standing ground for the divine play.

                                 ***

At last you have the true foundation of the sadhana.  This calm, peace
and surrender are the right atmosphere  for  all  the  rest  to  come,
knowledge,  strength,  Ananda.  Let  it become complete.
    It does  not  remain  when  engaged  in  work  because it is still
confined to the mind proper which has only just received the  gift  of
silence.  When  the  new  consciousness  is fully formed and has taken
entire possession of the vital nature  and  the  physical  being  (the
vital  as  yet  is  only  touched  or  dominated  by the silence,  not
possessed  by  it),  then  this  defect  will  disappear.
    The quiet  consciousness  of  peace  you now have in the mind must
become not only calm but wide.  You must feel it everywhere,  yourself
in it and all in it.  This also will help to bring the calm as a basis
into the action.
    The wider your consciousness becomes, the more you will be able to
receive from above.  The Shakti will be  able  to  descend  and  bring
strength and light as well as peace into the system.  What you feel as
narrow and limited in you is the physical mind;  it can only widen  if
this  wider  consciousness  and  the  light  come down and possess the
nature.
    The physical inertia from which you suffer is likely to lessen and
disappear only when strength from  above  descends  into  the  system.

    Remain quiet,  open yourself amd call the divine Shakti to confirm
the calm and peace, to widen the consciousness and to bring into it as
much light and power as it can  at  present  receive  and  assimilate.

    Take care not to be over-eager,  as this may  disturb  again  such
quiet and balance as has been already established in the vital nature.

    Have confidence in the final result and give time for the Power to
do its work.

                                 ***

If not  aspiration,  at least keep the idea of what is necessary - (I)
that the silence and peace shall  become  a  wideness  which  you  can
realise  as  the  Self-(2)  the  extension of the silent consciousness
upwards as well so that you may feel its source  above  you  -(3)  the
presence of peace etc.,  all the time.  These things need not all come
at once,  but by realising what has to be in your  mind,  any  falling
towards a condition of inertia can I€ avoided.

                                 ***

Wideness and  calmness  are  the foundation of the yogic consciousness
and the best condition for inner growth and experience. If a wide calm
can  be  established  in  the  physical  consciousness,  occupying and
filling the very body and all its cells, that can become the basis for
its  transformation;  in fact,  without this wideness and calmness the
transformation is hardly possible.

                                 ***

It is the right fundamental consciousness that you,  have now got. The
tamas  and  other movements of the lower universal nature are bound to
try to come in, but if one has the calm of the inner being which mdkes
them  felt  as  something  external  to the being and the light of the
psychic which instantly exposes and rejects them, then that is to have
the  true  consciousness  which keeps one safe while the more positive
transformation is preparing or taking place.
    The transformation comes by  the  descent  of  the  Force,  Light,
Knowledge,  Ananda,  etc, from above. So you are right in your feeling
that you should open with a quiet aspiration  or  invocation  for  the
descent of the Light from above. Only it must be an aspiration in this
calm and wideness,  not disturbing it in the  least-and  you  must  be
prepared  for  the  result being not immediate - it may be rapid,  but
also it may take some time.

                                 ***

The experience of this "solid block" feeling indicates the descent  of
a  solid  strength  and  peace  into the external being - but into the
vital-physical most.  It is this always that is  the  foundation,  the
sure basis into which all else (Ananda,  light, knowledge, Bhakti) can
descend in the future and stand on it or play safely. The numbness was
there  in  the  other experience because the movement was inward;  but
here the Yogashakti is coming outward into the  fully  aware  external
nature,  -  as  a first step towards the establishment of the yoga and
its experience there.  So  the  numbness  which  was  a  sign  of  the
consciousness  tending  to  draw  back  from the external parts is not
there.

                                 ***

To be full of peace,  the heart quiet,  not  troubled  by  grief,  not
excited  by joy is a very good condition.  As for Ananda,  it can come
not  only  with  its  fullest  intensity  but  with  a  more  enduring
persistence  when  the  mind  is at peace and the heart delivered from
ordinary  joy  and  sorrow.  If  the  mind  and  heart  are  restless,
changeful,  unquiet,  Ananda of a kind may come,  but it is mixed with
vital excitement and cannot abide.  One must get peace and calm  fixed
in  the consciousness first,  then there is a solid basis on which the
Ananda can spread itself and in its turn 660 €tters on Yoga become  an
enduring part of the consciousness and the nature.

                                 ***

A great wave (or sea) of calm and the constant consciousness of a vast
and  luminous  Reality-this  is  precisely  the   character   of   the
fundamental realisation of the Supreme Truth in its first touch on the
mind and the soul.  One could  not  ask  for  a  better  beginning  or
foundation  -  it  is  like a rock on which the rest can be built.  It
means certainly not only a Presence,  but the Presence-and it would be
a  great  mistake  to  weaken  the experience by any non-acceptance or
doubt of its character.
    It is  not necessary to define it and one ought not even to try to
turn it into an image;  for this Presence is in its  nature  infinite.
Whatever  it  has  to manifest of itself or out of itself,  it will do
inevitably by its own power,  if there is a sustained acceptance.
    It is  quite  true  that  it  is  a grace sent and the only return
needed for such a grace is acceptance,  gratitude  and  to  allow  the
Power  that  has  touched  the consciousness to develop what has to be
developed in the being - by keeping oneself  open  to  it.  The  total
transformation of the nature cannot be done in a moment;  it must take
long and proceed through stages;  what is now experienced is  only  an
initiation,  a  foundation  for  the  new  consciousness in which that
transformation will become possible.  The automatic spontaneity of the
experience  ought  by itself to show that it is nothing constructed by
the mind, will or emotions; it comes from a Truth that is beyond them.

                                 ***

If you  keep the wideness and calm and also the love for the Mother in
the heart, then all is safe, for it means the double foundation of the
yoga:  the descent of the higher consciousness with its peace, freedom
and serenity from above and the openness of the  psychic  which  keeps
all the effort or all the spontaneous movement turned towards the true
goal.

                                 ***

The quietude and silence which you feel and the sense of happiness  in
it  are indeed the very basis of successful sadhana.  When one has got
that,  then one may be sure that the sadhana is placing  itself  on  a
sound footing. You are also right in thinking that if this quietude is
fully established all that is concealed within will come  out.  It  is
true  also  that  the  happiness  of  this  peace  is far greater than
anything outer objects can bringthere can be no comparison.  To become
indifferent  to  the  attraction  of outer objects is one of the first
rules of yoga,  for this non-attachment liberates the inner being into
peace and the true consciousness.  It is only when one sees the Divine
in all things that objects get a value for the yoga, but even then not
for  their  own sake or as objects of desire,  but for the sake of the
Divine within and as a means of the divine work and manifestation.

                                 ***

IV

                                 ***

Equality is to remain unmoved within in all conditions.

                                 ***

Equality is the chief support of the true spiritual consciousness  and
it  is  this  from  which  a  sadhak  deviates  when he allows a vital
movement to carry him away in feeling or speech or action. Equality is
not  the  same  thing  as  forbearance,-though  undoubtedly  a settled
equality  immensely  extends,  even  inimitably,  a  man's  power   of
endurance  and  forbearance.
    Equality means a quiet and unmoved mind and vital, it means not to
be touched or disturbed by things that happen or things said  or  done
to  you,  but  to  look  at  them with a straight look,  free from the
distortions created by personal feeling, and to try to understand what
is behind them,  why they happen, what is to be learnt from them, what
is 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,- 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  rush  and
impulsion of these things, always to act and speak out of a calm inner
poise of the spirit.  It is not easy to have this equality in any full
perfect  measure,  but  one should always try more and more to make it
the basis of one's inner state and outer  movements.
    Equality means  another  thing  - to have an equal view of men and
their nature and acts and the forces that move them;  it helps one  to
see  the  truth  about them by pushing away from the mind all personal
feeling in one's seeing and judgment and even  all  the  mental  bias.
Personal  feeling  always distorts and makes one see in men's actions,
not only the actions themselves,  but things behind them  which,  more
often  than not,  are not there.  Misunderstanding,  misjudgment which
could have been avoided are the result;  things of  small  consequence
assume  larger  proportions.  I  have  seen that more than half of the
untoward happenings of this kind in life are due to this cause. But in
ordinary  life  personal feeling and sensitiveness are a constant part
of human nature and may be needed there for self-defence,  although, I
think,  even there, a strong, large and equal attitude towards men and
things would be a much better line of defence.  But for a  sadhak,  to
surmount them and live rather in the calm strength of the spirit is an
essential part of his progress.
    The first  condition of inner progress is to recognise whatever is
or has been a wrong movement In any part of the nature,  -wrong  idea,
wrong feeling, wrong speech, wrong action,- and by wrong is meant what
departs from the truth, from the higher consciousness and higher self,
from  the  way  of  the  Divine.  Once recognised it is admitted,  not
glossed over or defended,  - and it is offered to the Divine  for  the
Light and Grace to descend and substitute for it the right movement of
the true Consciousness.

                                 ***

There can be no firm foundation in sadhana without  equality,  samat€.
Whatever the unpleasantness ofcircumstances,  however disagreeable the
conduct of others,  you must learn to receive them with a perfect calm
and  without  any  disturbing  reaction.  These things are the test of
equality.  It is easy to be calm and equal when  things  go  well  and
people  and  circumstances  are  pleasant;  it  is  when  they are the
opposite that the completeness of the calm,  peace,  equality  can  be
tested, reinforced, made perfect.

                                 ***

It is  very  good that you have had this experience;  for this kind of
consciousness full of equality (samat€) is just the thing that has  to
be  acquired  and  the very basis on which a sound yogic consciousness
full of the Mother can be built up.  If it can be fixed,  then most of
the  trouble  and  difficulty  of  sadhana  disappears - all necessary
changes can proceed quietly without these disturbances and  upsettings
which break and hamper the progress. Also in it there can grow a right
and clear understanding of people and things and how to deal with them
without  friction which can make work and action much more easy.  Once
this consciousness has come, it is bound to return and increase.

                                 ***

It is no use listening to what people say or to suggestions.  Both are
things by which one must learn not to be affected. A certain samat€ in
these matters is needed in order to get the firm poise.  The one thing
that matters is the realisation of the Divine.

                                 ***

It (the  true  activity of the senses] is to record the divine or true
apearance of things and return to them the reaction of an equal Ananda
without dislike or desire.

                                 ***

Complete samat€  takes  long to establish and it is dependent on three
things - the soul's self-giving to the Divine by an  inner  surrender,
the descent of the spiritual calm and peace from above and the steady,
long and persistent rejection  of  all  egoistic,  rajasic  and  other
feelings that contradict samat€.
    The first thing to  do  is  to  make  the  full  consecration  and
offering  of  the  heart  - the increase of the spiritual calm and the
surrender are the condition for the rejection of ego,  rafogu€la, etc,
to be effective.

                                 ***

When the peace of the higher consciousness descends,  it brings always
with it this tendency towards equality, samat€, because without samat€
peace is always liable to be  attacked  by  the  waves  of  the  lower
nature.

                                 ***

Equality is  a  very  important part of this yoga;  it is necessary to
keep equality under pain and suffering-and that means to endure firmly
and calmly, not to be restless or troubled or depressed or despondent,
to go on with a steady faith in the Divine Will. But equality does not
include inert acceptance. If, for instance, there is temporary failure
of some endeavour in the sadhana,  one has to keep equality, not to be
troubled  or  despondent,  but one has not to accept the failure as an
indication of the Divine Will and give up  the  endeavour.  You  ought
rather  to  find  out  the  reason  and  meaning of the failure and go
forward in faith towards victory. So with illness - you have not to be
troubled,  shaken  or restless,  but you have not to accept illness as
the Divine Will,  but rather look upon it as an  imperfection  of  the
body  to be got rid of as you try to get rid of vital imperfections or
mental errors.

                                 ***

Yogic samat€ is equality of soul,  equanimity founded on the sense  of
the one Self, the one Divine everywhere-seeing the One in spite of all
differences,  degrees,  disparities in the manifestation.  The  mental
principle  of  equality  tries  to  ignore  or  else  to  destroy  the
differences,  degrees and disparities,  to act as if  all  were  equal
there or to try and make all equal.  It is like Hridaya, the nephew of
Ramakrishna,  who when he got the  touch  from  Ramakrishna  began  to
shout,  "Ramakrishna,  you  are  the Brahman and I too am the Brahman;
there is no difference between us", till Ramakrishna, as he refused to
be quiet,  had to withdraw the power. Or like the disciple who refused
to listen to the Mahout and stood before the elephant,  saying,  "I am
Brahman",  until  the  elephant  took  him up in his trunk and put him
aside.  When he complained to his Guru,  the Guru said,  "Yes, but why
didn't  you  listen  to the Mahout Brahman?  That was why the elephant
Brahman had to lift you up and put you out  of  harm's  way."  In  the
manifestation  there  are two sides to the Truth and you cannot ignore
either.

                                 ***

No doubt,  hatred and cursing are not the proper attitude.  It is true
also that to look upon all things and all people with a calm and clear
vision,  to be uninvolved and impartial in one's judgments is a  quite
proper   yogic   attitude.  A  condition  of  perfect  samat€  can  be
established in which one  sees  all  as  equal,  friends  and  enemies
included,  and is not disturbed by what men do or by what happens. The
question is whether this is all that is demanded from us.  If so, then
the  general attitude will be of a neutral indifference to everything.
But the Gita, which strongly insists on a perfect and absolute samat€,
goes on to say,  "Fight,  destroy the adversary, conquer." If there is
no kind of general action wanted,  no  loyalty  to  Truth  as  against
Falsehood except for one's personal sadhana,  no will for the Truth to
conquer,  then the samat€ of indifference will suffice. But here there
is a work to be done,  a Truth to be established against which immense
forces are arranged, invisible forces which can use visible things and
persons  and  actions  for  their  instruments.  If  one  is among the
disciples,  the seekers of this Truth,  one has to take sides for  the
Truth,  to  stand against the forces that attack it and seek to stifle
it.  Arjuna wanted not to stand for either side,  to refuse any action
of  hostility  even against assailants;  Sri Krishna,  who insisted so
much on samat€,  strongly rebuked his attitude and insisted equally on
his fighting the adversary. "Have samat€" he said, "and seeing clearly
the Truth,  fight.  " Therefore to take sides with the  Truth  and  to
refuse  to  concede  anything  to  the  Falsehood that attacks,  to be
unflinchingly loyal and against the hostiles and the attackers, is not
inconsistent  with equality.  It is personal and egoistic feeling that
has to be thrown away;  hatred and vital Ill-will have to be rejected.
But  loyalty  and  refusal  to  compromise with the assailants and the
hostiles or to dally with their ideas and demands and say, "After all,
we  can  compromise with what they ask from us",  or to accept them as
companions and our own people -these things have a  great  importance.
If  the  attack were a physical menace to the work and the leaders and
doers of the work,  one would see this at once. But because the attack
is  of  a  subtler  kind,  can  a  passive attitude be right?  It is a
spiritual battle inward and outward;  by neutrality and compromise  or
even  passivity  one may allow the enemy forces to pass and crush down
the Truth and its children.  If you look at it from  this  point,  you
will  see  that  if the inner spiritual equality is right,  the active
loyalty and firm taking of sides is as right,  and the two  cannot  be
incompatible.
    I have, of course, treated it as a general question apart from all
particular cases or personal questions.  It is a principle  of  action
that has to be seen in its right light and proportions.

                                 ***

SECTION FIVE Sadhana through Work

                                 ***

THE ordinary life consists in work for personal aim  and  satisfaction
of  desire under some mental or moral control,  touched sometimes by a
mental ideal.  The Gita's yoga consists in the offering of one's  work
as  a  sacrifice  to the Divine,  the conquest of desire,  egoless and
desireless action,  bhakti for the Divine, an entering into the cosmic
consciousness, the sense of unity with all creatures, oneness with the
Divine.  This yoga adds the bringing down of the supramental Light and
Force (its ultimate aim) and the transformation of the nature.

                                 ***

Men usually  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,  and  they  succeed  or  fail  according  to  their
capability,  power  of  work  and the good or bad fortune which is the
result of their nature and their Karma. 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  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  else,  then the push or force put into the work may decline
or the power to command success  may  no  longer  be  there.  For  the
sincere sadhak the difficulty can only be temporary; but he has to see
the defect in his consciousness or his attitude and to remove it. Then
the  Divine Power itself will act through him and use his 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  are  these
among  others:
    The feeling (not merely,  the idea or the aspiration) that all the
life  and  the  work  are  the  Mother's and a strong joy of the vital
nature in this consecration and surrender.  A consequent calm  content
and  disappearance of egoistic attachment to the work and its personal
results,  but at the same time a great joy in the work and in the  use
of the capacities for the divine purpose.
    The feeling that the Divine Force is working behind one's zactions
and leading at every moment.
    A persistent faith which no circumstance or event  can  break.  If
difficulties   occur,  they  raise  not  mental  doubts  or  an  inert
acquiescence, but the firm belief that, with sincere consecration, the
Divine  Shakti  will  remove the difficulties,  and with this belief a
greater turning to her and dependence on her for  that  purpose.  When
there  is full faith and consecration,  there comes also a receptivity
to the Force which makes one do the right thing  and  take  the  right
means  and  then  circumstances  adapt  themselves  and  the result is
visible.
    To arrive  at  this  condition the important thing is a persistent
aspiration, call and self-offering and a will to reject all in oneself
or around that stands in the way.  Difficulties there win always be at
the beginning and for as long a time as is necessary for  the  change;
but  they  are  bound to disappear if they are met by a settled faith,
will and patience.

                                 ***

That is the ordinary Karmayoga in which the  sadhak  chooses  his  own
work  but  offers  it  to the Divine - it is given to him in the sense
that he is moved to it through some impulsion of his mind or heart  or
vital  and  feels  that there is some cosmic power or the cosmic Power
behind the impulsion and he tries to train  himself  to  see  the  One
Force  behind  all  actions  working  out in him and others the cosmic
Purpose.
    Once he has the ideal of the direct surrender,  he has to find the
direct moving or Guidance - that is why he rejects all that he sees to
be merely mental,  vital or physical impulsions coming from his own or
universal Nature.  Of course the full significance  of  the  surrender
comes out only when he is ready.

                                 ***

I do not know that it is possible for me to give any guidance  on  the
path  you  have  chosen  -  it  is at any rate difficult for me to say
anything definite without more precise data than  those  contained  in
your letter.
    There is  no  need for you to change the line of life and work you
have chosen so long as you feel that to be  the  way  of  your  nature
(svabh€va) or dictated to you by your inner being or, for some reason,
it is seen to be your proper dharma.  These are the  three  tests  and
apart from that I do not know if there is any fixed line of conduct or
way of work or life that can be laid down for the yoga of the Gita. It
is  the spirit or consciousness in which the work is done that matters
most;  the outer form can vary greatly for different natures. This, so
long  as  one  does not get the settled experience of the Divine Power
taking up one's works and doing them; afterwards it is the Power which
determines  what  is  to  be done or not done.
    The overcoming of all attachments must  necessarily  be  difficult
and  cannot  come except as the fruit of a long sadhana - unless there
is a rapid general growth in the inner spiritual experience  which  is
the  substance of the Gita's teaching.  The cessation of desire of the
fruit, of the attachment to the work itself, the growth of equality to
all beings, to all happenings, to good repute or ill-repute, praise or
blame,  to good fortune or ill fortune,  the dropping of the ego which
are necessary for the loss of all attachments can come completely only
when all work becomes a spontaneous sacrifice to the Divine, the heart
is  offered up to Him and one has the settled experience of the Divine
in all things and all beings.  This consciousness or  experience  must
come in all parts and movements of the being,  sarvabh€vena,  not only
in the mind and idea ;  then  the  falling  away  of  all  attachments
becomes  easy.  I speak of the Gita's way of yoga,  for in the ascetic
life one obtains the same object differently, by cutting away from the
objects  of  attachment  and  the consequent atrophy of the attachment
itself through rejection and disuse.

                                 ***

All I can suggest to him is to  practise  some  kind  of  Karmayoga  -
remembering  the  Supreme  in all his actions from the smallest to the
greatest,  doing them with  a  quiet  mind  and  without  egosense  or
attachment and offering them to Him as a sacrifice. He may also try or
aspire to feel the presence of the Divine Shakti behind the world  and
its forces,  distinguish between the lower nature of the Ignorance and
the higher divine nature whose  character  is  absolute  calm,  peace,
power,  Light and Bliss and aspire to be raised and led gradually from
the lower to the higher.
    If he can do this,  he will become fit in time to dedicate himself
to the Divine and lead a wholly spiritual life.

                                 ***

The line that seems to be natural to him is the Karmayoga  and  he  is
therefore  right  in  trying  to live according to the teaching of the
Gita;  for the Gita is the great guide on this path. Purification from
egoistic movements and from personal desire and the faithful following
of the best light one has are a preliminary training  for  this  path,
and  so far as he has followed these things,  he has been on the right
way,  but to ask for strength and light in one's action  must  not  be
regarded  as  an  egoistic  movement,  for they are necessary in one's
inner development.
    Obviously, a  more  systematic  and intensive sadhana is desirable
or, in any case, a steady aspiration and a more constant preoccupation
with the central aim could bring an established detachment even in the
midst of outer things and outer activity and  a  continuous  guidance.
The  conipleteness,  the  Siddhi  of this way of yoga - I speak of the
separate path of Karma or  spiritual  action  -  begins  when  one  is
luminously  aware of the Guide and the guidance and when one feels the
Power working with oneself as the instrument and the  participator  in
the divine work.

                                 ***

I gather from his letter to you that he  has  been  following  a  very
sound  method in his practice and has attained some good results.  The
first step in Karmayoga of this kind is to diminish  and  finally  get
rid  of  the ego-centric position in works,  the lower vital reactions
and the principle of desire.  He must certainly go  on  on  this  road
until  he reaches something like its end.  I would not wish to deflect
him from that in any way.
    What I had in view when I spoke of a systematic  sadhana  was  the
adoption  of a method which would generalise the whole attitude of the
consciousness so as to embrace all its movements at a time instead  of
working only upon details - although that working is always necessary.
I may cite as an  example  the  practice  of  the  separation  of  the
Prakriti  and the Purusha,  the conscious Being standing back detached
from all the movements of Nature and observing  them  as  witness  and
knower  and  finally  as the giver (or refuser) of the sanction and at
the highest stage of the development,  the  Ishwara,  the  pure  will,
master  of  the  whole  Nature.
    By intensive sadhana I meant the endeavour to arrive at one of the
great  positive  realisations which would be a firm base for the whole
movement.  I observe that he speaks of sometimes getting a glimpse  of
some  wide  calm...  A  descent of this wide calm permanently into the
consciousness is one of the realisations of which I was thinking. That
he  feels  it  at  such  times  seems to indicate that he may have the
capacity of receiving and retaining it.  If that happened  or  if  the
Prakriti-Purusha realisation came,  the whole sadhana would proceed on
a strong permanent base with a new and  entirely  yogic  consciousness
instead  of  the purely mental endeavour which is always difficult and
slow.  I do not however want to press these things upon him; they come
in  their  own  time  and  to  press towards them prematurely does not
always hasten their coming.  Let him continue with his primary task of
self-purification and self-preparation.

                                 ***

If I  have not written to you,  it is because I could not add anything
to what I had already written before to you.  I  cannot  promise  that
within a given time you win have a result which will enable you either
to go out into the world with a stronger  spirit  or  succeed  in  the
yoga.  For  the  yoga you yourself say that you have not yet the whole
mind for it and without the whole mind success is hardly  possible  in
sadhana.  For  the  other,  it  is  hardly  the function of sadhana to
prepare a man for ordinary life in the world.  There is one thing only
that could work in a direction which would help you to something which
is not that,  but still not the whole yoga for which you intimate that
you  are not wholly ready.  It is if you get the spirit of the yoga of
works as it is indicated in  the  Gita  -  forget  yourself  and  your
miseries in the aspiration to a larger consciousness, feel the greater
Force working in the world and make yourself an instrument for a  work
to be done, however small it may be. But, whatever the way may be, you
must accept it wholly and put your whole will into it - with a divided
and wavering will you cannot hope for success in anything,  neither in
life nor in yoga.

                                 ***

Any work can be done as a field for the practice of the spirit of  the
Gita.

                                 ***

You used  the Force for the work,  and it supported you so long as you
preferred to stick to that work.  What is of first importance  is  not
the  religious  or  non-religious character of the work done,  but the
inner attitude in which it is done.  If the attitude is vital and  not
psychic,  then  one throws oneself out in the work and loses the inner
contact.  If it is psychic,  the inner contact remains,  the Force  is
felt supporting or doing the work and the sadhana progresses.

                                 ***

There are  those  who  have  done  the lawyer's work with the Mother's
force working in them and grown by it in inward consciousness.  On the
other  hand  religious  work  can  be merely external and vital in its
nature or influence.

                                 ***

I may say, however, that I do not regard business as something evil or
tainted,  any  more than it Is so regarded in ancient spiritual India.
If I did, I would not be able to receive money from X or from those of
our disciples who in Bombay trade with East Africa;  nor could we then
encourage them to go on with their work but would have to tell them to
throw  it up and attend to their spiritual progress alone.  How are we
to reconcile X's seeking after spiritual light and his mill?  Ought  I
not  to  tell  him to leave his mill to itself and to the devil and go
into some Ashram to meditate?  Even if I myself had had the command to
do  business  as I had the command to do politics I would have done it
without the least spiritual or moral compunction.  All depends on  the
spirit  in which a thing is done,  the principles on which it is built
and the use to which it is turned.  I have done politics and the  most
violent  kind  of  revolutionary  politics,  ghoram karma,  and I have
supported war and sent men to it,  even though politics is not  always
or  often  a  very  clean occupation nor can war be called a spiritual
line of action.  But Krishna calls upon Arjuna to carry on war of  the
most  terrible  kind and by his example encourage men to do every kind
of human work,  sarvakarm€�i.  Do you  contend  that  Krishna  was  an
unspiritual man and that his advice to Arjuna was mistaken or wrong in
principle ?  Krishna goes further and declares that a man by doing  in
the  right way and in the right spirit the work dictated to him by his
fundamental nature,  temperament and capacity and according to his and
its dharma can move towards the Divine.  He validates the function and
dharma of the Vaishya as well as of the Brahmin and Kshatriya.  It  is
in his view quite possible for a man to do business and make money and
earn profits and yet be a spiritual man,  practise yoga, have an inner
life.  The Gita is constantly justifying works as a means of spiritual
salvation and enjoining a Yoga of Works  as  well  as  of  Bhakti  and
Knowledge.  Krishna, however, superimposes a higher law also that work
must be done without  desire,  without  attachment  to  any  fruit  or
reward,  without  any  egoistic attitude or motive,  as an offering or
sacrifice to the Divine.  This  is  the  traditional  Indian  attitude
towards  these  things,  that  all  work  can  be  done  if it is done
according to the dharma and,  if it  is  rightly  done,  it  does  not
prevent  the  approach  to  the  Divine  or  the  access  to spiritual
knowledge and the spiritual life.
    There is,  of course, also the ascetic idea which is necessary for
many and has its place in the spiritual order. I would myself say that
no  man  can  be spiritually complete if he cannot live ascetically or
follow a life as bare as the barest anchorite's.  Obviously, greed for
wealth  and  money-making  has to be absent from his nature as much as
greed for food or any other greed and all attachment to  these  things
must  be  renounced  from  his consciousness.  But I do not regard the
ascetic way of living as indispensable to spiritual perfection  or  as
identical with it.  There is the way of spiritual self-mastery and the
way of spiritual selfgiving and surrender to  the  Divine,  abandoning
ego  and  desire even in the midst of action or of any kind of work or
all kinds of work demanded from us by the Divine.  If it were not  so,
there would not have been great spiritual men like Janaka or Vidura in
India and even there would have been no Krishna or else Krishna  would
have been not the Lord of Brindavan and Mathura and Dwarka or a prince
and warrior or the charioteer of Kurukshetra,  but only one more great
anchorite.   The  Indian  scriptures  and  Indian  tradition,  in  the
Mahabharata and elsewhere,  make room both for the spirituality of the
renunciation of life and for the spiritual life of action.  One cannot
say that one only is the Indian tradition and that the  acceptance  of
life and works of all kinds,  sarvakarm€�i,  is un-Indian, European or
western and unspiritual.

                                 ***

All acts are included in action;  work is action regulated  towards  a
fixed  end and methodically and constantly done;  service is work done
for the Mother's purpose and under her direction.

                                 ***

II

                                 ***

Recommendation to X not to take you away but to let  you  realise  the
Divine  first  has no meaning.  Must one realise the Divine before one
can serve him or is not service of the Divine a step  towards  it?  In
any  case,  the  service  and the realisation are both necessary for a
complete yoga and one cannot fix an  unalterable  rule  of  precedence
between the two.

                                 ***

Your object  is  not  only to practise yoga for your internal progress
and protection but also to do a work for the Divine.

                                 ***

The only work that spiritually purifies is that which is done  without
personal  motives,  without  desire  for fame or public recognition or
worldly greatness,  without insistence on one's own mental motives  or
vital  lusts  and  demands or physical preferences,  without vanity or
crude self-assertion or claim for position or prestige,  done for  the
sake  of  the Divine alone and at the command of the Divine.  All work
done in an egoistic spirit,  however good for people in the  world  of
the Ignorance, is of no avail to the seeker of the yoga.

                                 ***

The spiritual  effectivity  of  work  of  course  depends on the inner
attitude.  What is important is the spirit of offering  put  into  the
work.  If  one  can  in  addition  remember  the Mother in the work or
through a certain concentration feel the Mother's  presence  or  force
sustaining  or doing the work,  that carries the spiritual effectivity
still farther.  But  even  if  one  cannot  in  moments  of  clouding,
depression or struggle do these things, yet there can be behind a love
or bhakti which was the original motive power of the work and that can
remain behind the cloud and re-emerge like the sun after dark periods.
All sadhana is like that and it is why one should not  be  discouraged
by  the dark moments,  but realise that the original urge is there and
that therefore the dark moments are only an  episode  in  the  journey
which win lead to greater progress when they are once over.

                                 ***

To be  free  from all egoistic motive,  careful of truth in speech and
action,  void of self-will and self-assertion, watchful in all things,
is the condition for being a flawless servant.

                                 ***

There should  be no straining after power,  no ambition,  no egoism of
power. The power or powers that come should be considered not as one's
own,  but as gifts of the Divine for the Divine's purpose. Care should
be taken that there should be no ambitious or selfish misuse, no pride
or  vanity,  no  sense  of  superiority,  no  claim  or  egoism of the
instrument,  only a simple and pure  psychic  instrumentation  of  the
nature in any way in which it is fit for the service of the Divine.

                                 ***

It is  the  spirit  and  the  consciousness from which it is done that
makes an action yogic-it is not the action itself.

                                 ***

Self-dedication does not depend on the particular work you do,  but on
the spirit in which all work, of whatever kind it may be, is done. Any
work done well and carefully as a sacrifice  to  the  Divine,  without
desire or egoism,  with equality of mind and calm tranquillity in good
or bad fortune, for the sake of the Divine and not for the sake of any
personal gain, reward or result, with the consciousness that it is the
Divine Power to which all work belongs,  is a means of self-dedication
through Kama.

                                 ***

Of course  the  idea  of bigness and smallness is quite foreign to the
spiritual truth...  Spiritually there is nothing big  or  small.  Such
ideas  are  like those of the literary people who think writing a poem
is a high work and making shoes or cooking the dinner is a  small  and
low  one.  But  all is equal in the eyes of the Spirit -and it is only
the spirit within with which it is done that matters.  It is the  same
with a particular kind of work, there is nothing big or small.

                                 ***

I may  add that in the wider consciousness one can deal with the small
as well as the high things,  but one comes to deal with  them  with  a
larger as well as a profounder,  subtler and more accurate view coming
from a more and more understanding and luminous consciousness so  that
the  thoughts  about small things also cease to be themselves small or
trivial, being more and more part of a higher Knowledge.

                                 ***

Every artist almost (there can be rare exceptions) has  got  something
of the public man in him in his vital-physical parts,  which makes him
crave for the stimulus of  an  audience,  social  applause,  satisfied
vanity,  appreciation, fame. That must go absolutely if you want to be
a yogi,  - your art must be a service not of  your  own  ego,  not  of
anyone or anything else but solely of the Divine.

                                 ***

If you  wish  to  be  free from people's expectations and the sense of
obligation,  it is indeed best not to take from anybody; for the sense
of claim will otherwise be there.  Not that it will be entirely absent
even if you take nothing,  but you will not be bound any longer.
    What you  write  about the singing is perfectly correct.  You sing
your best only when you forget yourself  and  let  it  come  out  from
within without thinking of the need of excellence or the impression it
may make. The outer singer should indeed disappear into the past, - it
is only so that the inner singer can take her place.

                                 ***

As for  your singing,  I was not speaking of any new creation from the
aesthetic point of view,  but of the spiritual change  -what  form  it
takes must depend on what you find within you when the deeper basis is
there.
    I do  not  see  any necessity for giving up singing altogether;  I
only meant,  -it is the logical conclusion from what I have written to
you,  not  now  only  but before,  - that the inner change must be the
first consideration and the rest must arise out of that. If singing to
an  audience  pulls  you  out  of the inner condition,  then you could
postpone that and sing for yourself and the Divine until you are able,
even  in  facing  an  audience,  to  forget  the audience.  If you are
troubled by -failure  or  excited  by  success,  that  also  you  must
overcome.

                                 ***

It is not that you have to do what you dislike,  but that you have  to
cease to dislike. To do only what you like is to indulge the vital and
maintain its  domination  over  the  nature  -for  that  is  the  very
principle of the untransformed nature, to be governed by its likes and
dislikes.  To be able to do anything with equanimity is the  principle
of  Karmayoga  and to do with joy because it is done for the Mother is
the true psychic and vital condition in this yoga.

                                 ***

One must be able to do the same work always with enthusiasm and at the
same  time  be  ready to do something else or enlarge one's scope at a
moment's notice.

                                 ***

Yes. It depends  on  a  certain  extension  and  intensifying  of  the
consciousness by which all activity becomes interesting not for itself
but because  of  the  consciousness  put  into  it  and,  through  the
intensity  of  the energy,  there is a pleasure in the exercise of the
energy,  and in the perfect doing of the work,  whatever the work  may
be.

                                 ***

As a  rule,  I mean in their unchanged condition,  the lower parts get
interested and enthusiastic when the ego mixes with the interest.  But
the  pure  enthusiasm  can  come  into  them as they get more and more
converted and purified and they then become very indispensable  forces
for the realisation.

                                 ***

It is  natural  for  the  vital  or even the mind to feel energised by
something new-but for the physical plane the work always  repeated  is
the  foundation - so one has to be able at least to take a steady calm
interest in it always.  But in this case I think it was  a  particular
strength the Mother sent you when she saw you there.

                                 ***

Part of  the  physical  cannot  do  without  work,  another part (more
material) finds it an infliction.  What gives the force and joy of the
work is however not physical but vital.

                                 ***

The reason  of  the difference of result between the two moods in work
is that the first mood is that of a vital joy, while the other is that
of  a  psychic quiet.  Vital joy though it is a very helpful thing for
the ordinary human life, is something excited, eager, mobile without a
settled  basis  -  that is why it soon gets tired and cannot continue.
Vital joy has to be replaced by a quiet settled psychic gladness  with
the  mind  and  vital very clear and very peaceful.  When one works on
this basis,  then everything becomes glad and easy,  in touch with the
Mother's force and fatigue or depression do not come.

                                 ***

III

                                 ***

Before things  become  pucca  in the consciousness,  the doing of work
does carry the consciousness outward unless one has made it a  sadhana
to  feel the "Force greater than oneself" working through one.  That I
suppose is why the Shankarites considered  work  to  be  ill  its  own
nature an operation of the Ignorance and incompatible with a condition
of realisation.  But as a matter of fact there are three stages there:
(I)  in  which  the  work  brings  you  to  a  lower  as well as outer
consciousness so that you have afterwards to recover the  realisation.
(11)  ill  which the work brings you out,  but the realisation remains
behind (or above),  not felt while you work,  but as soon as the  work
ceases you find it there just as it was. (Ill) in which the work makes
no difference,  for the realisation  or  spiritual  condition  remains
through  the  work  itself.  You seem this time to have experienced No
(11).

                                 ***

It refers to a certain stage when the consciousness  is  sometimes  in
activity  and when not in activity is withdrawn in itself.  Afterwards
comes a stage when the Sachchidananda condition is there in work also.
There  is a still further stage when both are,  as it were,  one,  but
that is the supramental. The two states are the silent Brahman and the
active  Brahman  and  they  can  alternate  (lst stage),  coexist (2nd
stage), fuse Ord stage)...
    Certainly, it  (the   highest   Sachchidanallda   realisation   is
realisable in work.  Good Lord!  How could the integral yoga exist, if
it were not?

                                 ***

The passage describes the state of consciousness  when  one  is  aloof
from all things even when in their midst and all is felt to be unreal,
an illusion.  There are then no preferences or desires because  things
are too unreal to desire or to prefer one to another. But, at the same
time,  one feels no necessity to flee from the world or not to do  any
action,  because being free from the illusion, action or living in the
world does not weigh upon one, one is not bound or involved. Those who
flee  from the world or shun action (the Sannyasis) do so because they
would be involved or bound;  they believe the world to be unreal,  but
in fact it weighs on them as a reality so long as they are in It. When
one is perfectly free from the illusion of the reality of things, then
they cannot weigh on one or bind at all.

                                 ***

Do? Why  should  he want to do anything if he was in the eternal peace
or Ananda or union with the Divine? If a man is spiritual and has gone
beyond  the  vital  and  mind,  he rfoes not need to be always "doing"
something.  The self or spirit has the joy of its own existence. It is
free  to  do nothing and free to do everything - but not because it is
bound to action and unable to exist without it.

                                 ***

But the Jivanmukta feels no bondage.  In all works and action he feels
perfectly free,  because the work is not done by him personally (there
is no sense of limited ego) but by the cosmic Force.  The  limitations
of  the  work  are  those  put  by  the cosmic Force itself in its own
action. He himself lives in communion of oneness with the Transcendent
which  is  above the cosmos and feels no limitation.  That is at least
how it is felt in the overmind.

                                 ***

If ego and desire are different things from the gunas,  then there can
be an action of the gunas without ego and desire and therefore without
attachment.  That is the nature of the action of these  gunas  in  the
unattached liberated yogi.  If it were not possible,  then it would be
nonsense to talk of the yogis being unattached, for there would remain
still  attachment  in  part  of  their  being.  To  say  that they are
unattached in the Purusha,  but attached in  the  Prakriti,  therefore
they are unattached,  is to talk nonsense. Attachment is attachment in
whatever part of the being it may be.  In order to be  unattached  one
must be unattached everywhere,  in the mental,  vital, physical action
and not only in the silent soul somewhere inside.

                                 ***

In the liberated state it is not the inner Purusha only  that  remains
detached-the  inner  Purusha  is  always  detached,  only  one  is not
conscious of it ill the ordinary state.  It is the Prakriti also  that
is  not  disturbed  by the action of the gunas or attached to it - the
mind,  the vital,  the physical (whatever Prakriti) begin to  get  the
same quietude, unperturbed peace and detachment as the Purusha, but it
is a quietude, not a cessation of all action. It is quietude in action
itself.  If it were not so, my statement in the €rya that there can be
a desireless orJiberated action on which I found the possibility of  a
free (mukta) action would be false. The whole being, Purusha-Prakriti,
becomes detached (having no desire or attachment) even in  the  action
of  the gunas.
    The outer being is also detached -  the  whole  being  is  without
desire  or  attachment  and  still action is possible.  Action without
desire is possible,  action without  attachment  is  possible,  action
without ego is possible.

                                 ***

You seem to think that action and Prakriti  are  the  same  thing  and
where  there  is  no  action  there  can  be no Prakriti!  Purusha and
Prakriti are separate powers of the being.  It is not that  Purusha  =
quiescence and Prakriti = action,  so that when all is quiescent there
is no Prakriti and when aU is active there is no Purusha.  When all is
active,  there  is still the Purusha behind the active Nature and when
all is quiescent,  there is still the Prakriti,  but the  Prakriti  at
rest.

                                 ***

Prakriti is  the  Force  that  acts.  A  Force  may be in action or in
quiescence,  but when it rests it is as much a Force as when it  acts.
The  gunas  are an action of the Force,  they are in the Force itself.
The sea is there and the waves are there,  but the waves are  not  the
sea and when there are no waves and the sea is still, it does not stop
being the sea.

                                 ***

The sattwa predominates,  the rajas acts as a kinetic  movement  under
the  control of sattwa until the tamas imposes the need of rest.  That
is the usual thing (in the liberated state).  But even  if  the  tamas
predominates  and the action is weak or the rajas predominates and the
action  is  excessive,  neither  the  Purusha  nor  the  Prakriti  get
disturbed,  there  is  a  fundamental  calm in the whole being and the
action Is no more than a ripple or an eddy on the surface.

                                 ***

It is more difficult for the Prakriti (to separate from surface action
than  for  the  Purusha]  as  its ordinary play is that of the surface
being.  It has to divide itself into two to separate  from  that.  The
Purusha, on the contrary, is in its nature silent and separate - so it
has only to go back to its original nature.

                                 ***

When Prakriti is liberated it divides itself into an inner Force  that
is free from its action (free from rajas,  tamas,  etc.) and the outer
Prakriti which it is using and changing.

                                 ***

If consciousness and energy are the same thing,  there would be no use
in  having  two  different  words for them.  In that case,  instead of
saying,  "I am conscious of my defects",  one can say, "I am energetic
of my defects".  If a man is running fast,  you can say of him, "He is
running with great energy". Do you think it would mean the same if you
said,  "He is running with great consciousness"? Consciousness is that
which is aware of things - energy is a force put in action which  does
things.  Consciousness  may  have energy and keep it in or put it out,
but that does not mean that that is only another word for energy,  and
that it has to go out when the energy goes out and that it can't stand
back and observe the energy in action.  You have plenty of inertia  in
you, but that does not mean that you and inertia are the same and when
inertia rises and sweeps you, it is you who rise and sweep yourself.

                                 ***

Certainly, the mind and the inner being are consciousness.  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.
The Divine has been described as Being, Consciousness, Ananda, evelj€a
Consciousness (Chaitanya),  as putting out a force or enel€hakti  that
creates  world.  The mind is a modified consciousness that pub forth a
mental energy.  But the Divine can stand  back  from  his  energy  and
observe  it  at  its work,  it can be the Witness Purusha watching the
works of Prakriti. Even the mind can do that - a man can stand back in
his  mind-consciousness  and  watch  the  mental  energy doing things,
thinking,  planning,  etc.;  all introspection is based upon the  fact
that  one can so divide oneself into a consciousness that observes and
an energy that acts.  These are quite elementary things supposed to be
known  to everybody.  Anybody can do that merely by a little practice;
anybody who observes his own thoughts,  feelings,  actions,  has begun
doing it already. In yoga we make the division complete, that is all.

                                 ***

It [consciousness]  is  not by its nature detached from the mental and
other activities. It can be detached, it can be involved. In the human
consciousness  it  is as a rule always involved,  but it has developed
the power of detaching itself- a thing which the lower creation  seems
unable to do.  As the consciousness develops, this power of detachment
also develops.

                                 ***

No, without sadhana the object of yoga cannot be attained. Work itself
must be taken as part of sadhana.  But naturally when you are working,
you must think of the work,  which you will learn to do from the yogic
consciousness as an instrument and with the memory of the Divine.

                                 ***

It is because the energy is put forward in the work.  But as the peace
and contact grow,  a double consciousness can develop - one engaged in
the work,  another behind,  silent and observing or turned towards the
Divine - in this consciousness the aspiration can be  maintained  even
while the external consciousness is turned towards the work.

                                 ***

One can both aspire and attend to the work and do many other things at
the same time when the consciousness is developed by yoga.

                                 ***

No - it is only if it is an inner absorption that it would come in the
way.  But  what  I  mean is a sort of stepping backward into something
silent and observant within which is not involved in the  action,  yet
sees  and can shed its light upon it.  There are then two parts of the
being,  one inner looking at and witnessing  and  knowing,  the  other
executive and instrumental and doing.  This gives not only freedom but
power - and in this inner being one can get into touch with the Divine
not through mental activity but through the substance of the being, by
a certain inward touch,  perception,  reception,  receiving  also  the
right inspiration or intuition of the work.

                                 ***

If one feels a consciousness not limited by the work,  a consciousness
behind supporting that which works,  then it is easier.  That  usually
comes  either  by the wideness and silence fixing and extending itself
or by the consciousness of a Force not  oneself  working  through  the
worker.

                                 ***

Mother does  not disapprove of your writing a €ook - what she does not
like is your being so lost in it that you can  do  nothing  else.  You
must  be  master  of  what  you do and not possessed by it.  She quite
agrees to your finishing and offering the book on  your  birthday,  if
that  can  be  done.  But you must not be carried away - you must keep
your full contact with higher things.

                                 ***

I repeat that we do not object to your writing - whether it be  poetry
or  short stories or novels.  What we felt was that this kind of total
absorption and possession by  it  was  not  good  for  your  spiritual
condition and that it put a lesser thing in front,  even occupying the
whole front of the consciousness for  most  of  the  time  instead  of
putting it in its proper place in a sound spiritual harmony.

                                 ***

You can try [writing a novel], if you like. The difficulty is that the
subject matter of a novel belongs mostly to the  outer  consciousness,
so  that a lowering or externalising can easily come.  This apart from
the difficulty of keeping the inner poise when putting the  mind  into
outer  work.  If  you  could get an established poise within,  then it
would be possible to do any work without disturbing  or  lowering  the
consciousness.

                                 ***

It depends  upon  the  plasticity of the consciousness.  Some are like
that,  they get so absorbed they don't want to come out or do anything
else.  One  has  to  keep  a  certain balance by which the fundamental
consciousness remains able to turn from one concentration  to  another
with ease.

                                 ***

The absorption  in  work  is  not  undesirable - but the difficulty in
turning inwards can only be temporary.  A certain  plasticity  in  the
physical  consciousness  which  is  sure to come makes it easy to turn
from one concentration to another.

                                 ***

The resistance you speak of and the insufficient receptivity  and  the
inability to continue in communion while doing work must all be due to
some part of the physical consciousness that is still not open to  the
Light  -  probably  something  in  the vital-physical and the material
subconscient which stands in the way of the physical mind being in its
mass free and responsive.
    There is  no harm in raising the aspiration from below to meet the
power from above. AU that you have to be careful about is not to raise
up  the  difficulty from below before the descending power is ready to
remove it.
    There is  no  necessity of losing consciousness when you meditate.
It is the widening and change of the consciousness that is  essential.
If   you   mean   going   inside,  you  can  do  that  without  losing
consciousness.

                                 ***

It is  a  certain inertia in the physical consciousness which shuts it
up in the groove of what it is doing so that it is fixed in  that  and
not free to remember.

                                 ***

All the  difficulties  you describe are quite natural things common to
most people.  It is easy for one,  comparatively,  to remember and  be
conscious when one sits quiet in meditation;  it is difficult when one
has to be busy with work.  The remembrance and consciousness  in  work
have  to come by degrees,  you must not expect to have it all at once;
nobody can get it all at once.  It comes in two ways,  - first, if one
practises  remembering  the  Mother  and offering the work to her each
time one does something (not all the time one is  doing,  but  at  the
beginning or whenever one can remember,) then that slowly becomes easy
and habitual to the nature.  Secondly,  by  the  meditation  an  inner
consciousness  begins to develop which,  after a time,  not at once or
suddenly,  becomes more and more automatically  permanent.  One  feels
this as a separate consciousness from that outer which works. At first
this separate consciousness is not felt when one is  working,  but  as
soon  as  the  work stops one feels it was there all the time watching
from behind;  afterwards it begins to be felt during the work  itself,
as  if  there  were two parts of oneself - one watching and supporting
from behind and remembering Mother and offering to her and  the  other
doing  the  work.  When  this  happens,  then  to  work  with the true
consciousness becomes more and more easy.
    It is the same with all the rest.  It is by the development of the
inner  consciousness  that  all  the  things  you speak of will be set
right.  For instance it is a part of the being that has utsAha for the
work,  another  that  feels  the  pressure  of  quietude and is not so
disposed to work. Your mood depends on which comes up at the time - it
is  so  with all people.  To combine the two is difficult,  but a time
comes when they do get reconciled - one remains  poised  in  an  inner
concentration  while  the other is supported by it in its push towards
work.  The transformation of the nature,  the harmonising of all these
discordant things in the being are the work of sadhana.  Therefore you
need not be discouraged by observing these things  in  you.  There  is
hardly anybody who has not found these things in himself. All this can
be arranged by,  the action of  the  inner  Force  with  the  constant
consent and call of the sadhak.  By himself he might not be able to do
it, but with the Divine Force working within all can be done.

                                 ***

It is a little difficult at first to combine the inward condition with
the attention to the outward work and mingling with others, but a time
comes when it is possible for the inner being to be in full union with
the Mother while the action comes out of that concentrated  union  and
is  as  easily  guided  in  its  details  so  that  some  part  of the
consciousness can attend to everything outside,  even be  concentrated
upon it and yet feel the inward concentrations in the Mother.

                                 ***

It is  a  very  good  sign  that  even in spite of full work the inner
working was felt behind and succeeded in establishing the  silence.  A
time  comes  for  the sadhak in the end when the consciousness and the
deeper experience go on happening even in full work or in sleep, while
speaking or in any kind of activity.

                                 ***

It is  not at first easy to remember the presence in work;  but if one
revives the sense of the presence immediately after the work  is  over
it  is  all  right.  In  time  the  sense  of the presence will become
automatic even in work.

                                 ***

The unhappiness is not necessary or inevitable in the sadhana,  but it
comes because your inner nature feels the touch of the Divine Presence
indispensable to it and uneasy when it does not feel it:  to  feel  it
always  a  certain  constant  detachment within allowing you to remain
within and do everything from  within  is  necessary.  This  can  more
easily  be  done  in  quiet occupations and quiet contacts.  For it is
quietness and inwardness that enable one to feel the Presence.

                                 ***

You must learn to act always from within-from your inner  being  which
is  in contact with the Divine.  The outer should be a mere instrument
and should not be allowed at all to compel  or  dictate  your  speech,
thought or action.

                                 ***

All should be done quietly from within - working,  speaking,  reading,
writing as part of the real consciousness - not with the dispersed and
unquiet movement of the ordinary consciousness.

                                 ***

One can work and remain quiet within. Quietude does not mean having an
empty mind or doing no action at all.

                                 ***

The stress of the Power is all right,  but  there  is  really  nothing
incompatible  between  the  Inner  silence  and action.  It is to this
combination that the sadhana must move.

                                 ***

IV

                                 ***

It needs a quiet mind to know the  Divine  Will.  In  the  quiet  mind
turned  towards  the  Divine  the intuition (higher mind) comes of the
Divine's Will and the right way to do it.

                                 ***

When the mind is pure and psychic prominent,  then one feels  what  is
according to the Divine Will and what is against it.

                                 ***

Once the mental silence is attained,  then in that the mental thoughts
can be replaced by some vision and intuition regarding the work.

                                 ***

It is good that you were able to observe yourself all the time and see
the  movements  and that the intervention of the new consciousness was
frequent and automatic.  At a later stage you  will  no  doubt  get  a
guidance in the mind also as to how to do things you want to get done.
Evidently your mind was too active - as  well  as  the  minds  of  the
others also - and so you missed your objective, owing to the excessive
multitude of witnesses! However -

                                 ***

For the actions to be psychic,  the psychic  must  be  in  front.  The
observing   Purusha  can  separate  himself,  but  cannot  change  the
Prakriti.  But to be the observing Purusha is a first step. Afterwards
there  mast  be the action of the Purusha Will as an instrument of the
Mother's force.  This Will must be founded  on  a  right  consiousness
which sees what is wrong, ignorant, selfish, egoistic, moved by desire
in the nature and puts it right.

                                 ***

If you want the consciousness for true actions very  much  and  aspire
for it,  it may come in one of several ways:
    1. You  may get the habit or faculty of watching your movements in
such a way that you see the impulse to action coming and can  see  too
its nature.
    2. A consciousness may come which feels uneasy  whenever  a  wrong
thought or impulse to action or feeling is there.
    3. Something within you may warn and stop you when you  are  going
to do the wrong action.

                                 ***

[To be constantly governed by the Divine:] A constant  aspiration  for
that  is  the  first  thing  -  next  a sort of stillness within and a
drawing back from the outward action into the stillness and a sort  of
listening expectancy, not for a sound but for the spiritual feeling or
direction of the consciousness that comes through the psychic.

                                 ***

As for the feeling from within, it depends on being able to go inside.
Sometimes it comes of itself with the deponing of the consciousness by
bhakti or otherwise,  sometimes it comes  by  practice  -  a  sort  of
referring  the matter and listening for the answer - listening is,  of
course,  a metaphor but it is difficult to express it otherwise  -  it
doesn't  mean that the answer comes necessarily in the shape of words,
spoken or unspoken,  though it does sometimes or for some; it can take
any  shape.  The  main  difficulty for many is to be sure of the right
answer.  For  that  it  is  necessary  to  be  able  to  contact   the
consciousness   of  the  Guru  inwardly-that  comes  best  by  bhakti.
Otherwise,  the attempt to get the feeling from within by practice may
become  a  delicate and ticklish job.  Obstacles:  (I) normal habit of
relying on outward means for everything;  (2)  ego,  substituting  its
suggestions for the right answer;  (3) mental activity;  '(4) intruder
nuisances.  I think you need not be eager for this,  but rely  on  the
growth of the inner consciousness. The above is only by way of general
explanation.

                                 ***

Openness in  work  means  the  same   thing   as   openness   in   the
consciousness.  The  same  Force  that  works in your consciousness in
meditation and clears away the cloud and confusion whenever  you  open
to it, can also take up your action and not only make you aware of the
defects in it but keep you conscious of what is to be done  and  guide
your mind and hands to do it. If you open to it in your work, you will
begin to feel this guidance  more  and  more  until  behind  all  your
activities you will be aware of the Force of the Mother.

                                 ***

To be  able  to receive the Divine Power and let it act through you in
the things of the outward life,  there are three necessary conditions:

    (i) Quietude,  equality-not  to  be  disturbed  by  anything  that
happens,  to keep the mind still and firm,  seeing the play of forces,
but  itself tranquil.
    (ii) Absolute faith-faith that what is for the best  will  happen,
but  also  that  if one can make oneself a true instrument,  the fruit
will be that which one's will guided by the Divine Light sees  as  the
thing  to  be done - kartavyam karma.
    (iii) Receptivity-the power to receive the Divine Force  and  feel
its  presence  and  the presence of the Mother in it and allow,  it to
work,  guiding one's sight and will and  action.  If  this  power  and
presence  can  be  felt  and  this  plasticity  made  the habit of the
consciousness in action,-but plasticity  to  the  Divine  force  alone
without  bringing  in  any  foreign element,  - the eventual result is
sure.

                                 ***

What happened to you shows what are the conditions of  that  state  in
which  the  Divine  Power  takes  the place of the ego and directs the
action,  making the mind,  life and body an  instrument.  A  receptive
silence of the mind, an effacement of the mental ego and the reduction
of the mental being to the position of a witness, a close contact with
the  Divine  Power  and an openness of the being to that one Influence
and no other are the conditions for  becoming  an  instrument  of  the
Divine, moved by that and that only.
    The silence  of  the  mind  does  not  of  itself  bring  in   the
supramental  consciousness;  there are many states or planes or levels
of consciousness between the human mind and the supermind. The silence
opens the mind and the rest of the being to greater things,  sometimes
to the cosmic consciousness, sometimes to the experience of the silent
Self, sometimes to the presence or power of the Divine, sometimes to a
higher consciousness than that of the human mind;  the mind's  silence
is the most favourable condition for any of these things to happen. In
this yoga it is the most favourable condition (not the only  one)  for
the  Divine  Power  to descend first upon and then into the individual
consciousness and there do its work to transform  that  consciousness,
giving  it  the  necessary  experiences,  altering all its outlook and
movements,  leading it from stage to stage till it is  ready  for  the
last (supramental) change.

                                 ***

What happened is a thing that often happens and,  taking your  account
of  it,  it reproduced in your case the usual stages.  First,  you sat
down in prayer,  - that means a can to the Above,  if I may so express
it.  Next came the necessary condition for the answer to the prayer to
be effective - "little by little a sort of restfulness came", in other
words, the quietude of the consciousness which is necessary before the
Power that has to act can act. Then the rush of the Force or Power, "a
flood  of  energy  and  sense  of  power  and  glow",  and the natural
concentration of the being in inspiration and expression,  the  action
of the Power.
    The vital  is the means of effectuation on the physical plane,  so
its action and energy are necessary for all work;  without it,  if the
mind  only  drives without the co-operation and instrumentation of the
vital,  there is hard and disagreeable labour and effort with  results
which  are  usually  not at all of the best kind.  The ideal state for
work is when there is a natural concentration of the consciousness  in
the special energy, supported by an easeful rest and quiescence of the
consciousness as a whole.  Distraction of the mind by other activities
disturbs this balance of ease and concentrated energy,  - fatigue also
disturbs or destroys it. The first thing therefore that has to be done
is  to  bring  back  the supporting restfulness and this is ordinarily
done by cessation of work and repose.  In the experience you had  that
was  replaced  by a restfulness that came from above in answer to your
station of prayer and an energy that also came from above.  It is  the
same  principle  as  in sadhana,-the reason why we want people to make
the consciousness quiet so that the higher peace may come  in  and  on
the basis of that peace a new Force from above.
    It is not effort that brought the inspiration.  Inspiration  comes
from  above  in  answer  to a state of concentration which is itself a
call to it.  Effort,  on the contrary,  fatigues the consciousness and
therefore  is not favourable to the best work;  the only thing is that
sometimes - by no means always-effort culminates in  a  pull  for  the
inspiration  which  brings some answer,  but it is not usually so good
and effective an inspiration as that which comes  when  there  is  the
easy  and Intense concentration of the energy in its work.  Effort and
expenditure of energy are not necessarily the same  thing,  -the  best
expenditure  of  energy  is  that which flows easily without effort at
all,  - when the inspiration or Force (any Force) works of itself  and
the mind and vital and even body are glowing instruments and the Force
flows out in an intense and  happy  working  -  an  almost  labourless
labour.

                                 ***

It is  true  that the Force can work effectively without any effort on
your part. It is not the effect, it is the assent of the being that it
needs for its work.

                                 ***

Well, that  is  the idea in yoga - that by a right passivity one opens
oneself to something greater than one's limited self,  and  effort  is
only useful for getting that condition.  Even in the ordinary life the
individual is only an instrument in the hands of a  universal  Energy,
though his ego takes the credit of all he does.

                                 ***

As you  have  opened yourself to the Force and made yourself a channel
for the energy of work,  it is quite natural that when you want to  do
this  work  the Force should flow and act in the way that is wanted or
the way that is needed and for the effect that is needed. When one has
made  oneself  a  channel,  the  Force is not necessarily bound by the
limitations or disabilities of the instrument;  it can disregard  them
and act in its own power.  In doing so it may use the human instrument
simply as a medium and leave him as soon as the work is finished  just
what  he  was before,  incapable in his ordinary moments of doing such
good work;  but also it may by its action set  the  instrument  right,
accustom  it to the necessary intuitive knowledge and movement so that
it can at will command the action of the Force.  As for the technique,
there  are two different things,  the intellectual knowledge which one
applies and the intuitive cognition which acts in its own right,  even
if  it  is  not  actually  possessed  by the worker.  Many poets,  for
instance,  have little knowledge of metrical or  linguistic  technique
and  cannot  explain  how  they  write  or  what are the qualities and
elements of their success,  but they write,  all the same, things that
are   perfect  in  rhythm  and  language.  Intellectual  knowledge  of
technique helps of course,  provided one does not make of  it  a  mere
device or a rigid fetter. There are some arts that cannot be done well
without technical knowledge, e.g. painting, sculpture.
    What you  write  is  your  own in the sense that you have been the
instrument of its manifestation - that is  so  with  every  artist  or
worker, though of course for sadhana it is necessary to recognise that
the real Power was not yourself and you were simply the instrument  on
which it played its tune.
    The Ananda of creation is not the pleasure of the  ego  in  having
personally done well and being somebody,  that is something extraneous
which attaches itself to the joy of  work  and  creation.  The  Ananda
comes  from  the  inrush  of  a  greater  Power,  the  thrill of being
possessed and used by it,  the €ve™a,  the exultation of the uplifting
of   the   consciousness,  the  illumination  and  its  greatened  and
heightened action and also the joy of beauty, power or perfection that
is being created. How far one feels it depends on the condition of the
consciousness at the time, the temperament, the activity of the vital;
the  yogi,  of course,  (or even certain strong and calm minds) is not
carried away by the Ananda,  he holds and watches it and there  is  no
mere  excitement mixed with the flow of it through the mind,  vital or
body.  Naturally the Ananda of samarpa�a or spiritual  realisation  or
divine  love is something far greater,  but the Ananda of creation has
its place.

                                 ***

To observe  whether  it is really well done or not and feel the Ananda
of work done for the Mother.  Get rid of the "I".  If it is well done,
it  is  the Force that did it and your only part was to be a good or a
bad instrument.

                                 ***

There must be the rasa (in the work],  but it comes when there is  the
dynamic descent of the Power.

                                 ***

What you  find  happening  is a common experience in all work.  Mother
says it is due to the fact that in beginning  the  work  there  is  an
inspiration  of what to do and the mind at first acts as a channel for
it and all goes well.  Afterwards the mind begins to be acting on  its
own  account,  without  one's  noticing  it usually unless one is very
conscious and accustomed to scrutinise oneself  -  and  do  the  thing
without  the original inspiration by its ordinary means.  This is felt
very clearly in work like poetry and music for  there  one  feels  the
inspiration  coming and feels it failing and getting mlxed up with the
ordinary mind.  So long as it goes on,  everything is done easily  and
well,  but  as  soon as the mind begins to interfere or to work in its
place,  then the work is less well done. In work like cooking one does
not  directly and vividly feel the inspiration,  only a brightness and
perceptiveness and confidence perhaps - so also one  does  not  notice
when the physical mind becomes active.  In a thing like poetry one can
break off till the inspiration comes again,  but in cooking one  can't
do  that,  the work has to be finished there and then.  I suppose this
can be remedied only by one's becoming more conscious within,  as  one
does in sadhana, till one can see and counteract the wrong movement of
inferior mental activity by bringing down  of  one's  will  again  the
right inspiration and perception.

                                 ***

The Mother can give indications and open out possibilities, but if the
mind interferes and if they are not followed up, what can be done?

                                 ***

Why should you try the same things  as  the  others?  What  one  feels
inspired to do, is the best thing for one.

                                 ***

V

                                 ***

During the  course  of  the  sadhana  one  can  learn to draw upon the
universal Life-Force and replenish the energies from it.  But  usually
the  best  way  is  to learn to open oneself to the Mother's Force and
become conscious of it supporting  and  moving  or  pouring  into  the
system and giving the energy needed for the work whether it be mental,
vital or physical.
    There is naturally a higher Energy  above  the  present  universal
forces  and it is that which will transform the nature and take up the
mental,  vital,  physical  energies  and  change  them  into  its  own
likeness.

                                 ***

It is  a  Force that comes and pushes to work and is as legitimately a
part of the spiritual life as others.  It is  a  special  Energy  that
takes  hold of the worker in the being and fulfils itself through him.
To work with a full energy like this in one  is  quite  salutary.  The
only  thing  is  not to overdo it - that is to avoid any exhaustion or
recoil to a physical inertia.
    As for  the  dedication  make  the saškalpa always of offering it,
remember and pray when you can (I mean in connection with  the  work).
This  is  to  fix a certain attitude.  Afterwards,  the Force can take
advantage of this key to open the deeper dedication within.

                                 ***

The Force from above is the Force of the  Higher  Consciousness.  That
from  behind  works as a mental,  vital or physical force according to
need. When the being is open to it and there is a certain passivity to
its  working,  it  takes  the  place  of the personal activity and the
Person is a witness of its action.

                                 ***

I was not speaking of the Force coming down from  above,  but  of  the
Force   from  behind  doing  action  through  the  mind  and  body  as
instruments.  Very often when the  mind  and  body  are  inert,  their
actions still go on by this push from behind.

                                 ***

In the ordinary course of yoga that physical strength is replaced by a
yogic strength or yogic life-force which keeps up the body  and  makes
it  work,  but  in  the  absence  of this force the body is denuded of
power, inert and tamasic. This can only be remedied by the whole being
opening to Yoga-Shakti in each of its planes -yogic mind-force,  yogic
life-force, yogic body-force.

                                 ***

Yes. With the right consciousness always  there,  there  would  be  no
fatigue.

                                 ***

When doing  this  work  you  had  the  Force  in  you  and  the  right
consciousness  filling  the   vital   and   physical-afterwards   with
relaxation  the  ordinary  physical  consciousness came up and brought
back the ordinary reactions-fatigue, sciatica etc.

                                 ***

When you feel tired,  don't overstrain yourself but rest - doing  only
your  ordinary work;  restlessly doing something or other all the time
is not the way to cure it.  To be quiet without and within is what  is
needed when there is this sense of fatigue. There is always a strength
near you which you can call in and will remove these things,  but  you
must learn to be quiet in order to receive it.

                                 ***

Yes, it  is a mistake to overstrain as there is a reaction afterwards.
If there is energy,  all must not be spent,  some must be stored up so
as to increase the permanent strength of the system.

                                 ***

Overstraining brings inertia up.  Everybody has inertia in his nature:
the question is of its greater or less operation.

                                 ***

If too much work is done the quality of the work deteriorates in spite
of the zest of the worker.

                                 ***

The idleness must of course go - but sometimes I think you have pulled
too much the other way.  To be  able  to  work  with  full  energy  is
necessary  -  but to be able not to work is also necessary.
    What you say about ordinary conversation is quite correct and that
all   that   should   fall   away  is  very  necessary  for  the  true
consciousness.

                                 ***

If the  physical  is  in  this  condition  and  the  work creates such
reactions in it,  it is no use forcing it  violently  and  putting  an
overstrain  upon  it.  It  is better to educate and train the external
natural being slowly by bringing calm and peace and light and strength
persistently into the nervous system and cells of the body.  A violent
compulsion on the body may well defeat its own object.  Probably  your
sadhana has been too exclusively internal and subjective; but if it is
so,  this cannot be remedied in a moment.  It is better therefore  for
you not to do heavy physical work at present.

                                 ***

It [the  cause of fatigue] is probably some desire or vital preference
- likes and dislikes in the vital.  All work given you must be felt as
the  Mother's  and  done  with joy,  opening yourself for the Mother's
Force to work through you.

                                 ***

VI

                                 ***

You have been progressing of course,  but what  Mother  told  you  and
tells  everyone  is  true that to be a real artist needs hard work for
years together.  But your mistake is to put stress on these things and
get  discouraged by any check or difficulty in them.  The one thing to
be done is to open your consciousness to what is coming down,  to  let
the   change   operate   in   so  that  the  consciousness  becomes  a
consciousness of peace and light and power and joy full of the  Divine
Presence.  When that is there,  then what the Divine wants to get done
through you or developed in you will  be  done  or  developed  with  a
rapidity and perfection which at present is impossible.  The one thing
needful first,  all the rest is only now a field of exercise  for  the
development of the one thing needful.

                                 ***

As for the French writing,  you should not think so much of expressing
things - it does not matter  whether  others  have  written  the  same
things  and done it better.  What you should aim at is simply to learn
to write French perfectly,  to get full use of the French language  as
an  instrument.  If  the  Force  wants to express anything through you
hereafter or not, is a thing you should leave to the Divine Will; once
you  give  yourself into its hands in the true consciousness,  it will
know what to do or not to do through you and will  make  full  use  of
whatever instrumentation you can put at its disposal.

                                 ***

As I have said already,  in all matters,  work and study as well as in
the inner progress in the yoga,  the same thing is needed if you  want
perfection-quietude of mind,  becoming aware of the Force,  opening to
it, allowing it to work in you. To aim at perfection is all right, but
restlessness  of  mind  is not the way towards it.  To dwell upon your
imperfections and be always thinking how to do and what to do,  is not
the way either.  Remain quiet,  open yourself, allow the consciousness
to grow - call the Force to work.  As it grows and as the Force works,
you  will  become  aware  not  only  of what is imperfect,  but of the
movement which will take you, (not at one step, but progressively) out
of  the  imperfection  and  you  will  then  only  have to follow that
movement.
    If you overstrain yourself by too prolonged  work  or  a  restless
working,   that   disturbs   or   weakens   the  nervous  system,  the
vital-physical,  and lays one open to the action of the wrong  forces.
To work but quietly so as to have a steady progress is the right way.

                                 ***

The difficulty  you  find  results very much from your always worrying
with your mind about things, thinking "This is wrong, that is wrong in
me or my work" and,  as a result, "I am incompetent, I am bad, nothing
can be done with me".  Your embroidery work, your lampshades etc, have
always  been  very good,  and yet you are always thinking "this is bad
work,  that is wrong" and by doing so, confuse yourself and get into a
muddle.  Naturally, you make a mistake now and then, but more when you
worry like that than when you do things simply and confidently.
    It is  better  whether with work or with sadhana to go on quietly,
allowing the Force to act and doing your best to let it work  rightly,
but  without this self-tormenting and constant restless questioning at
every point.  Whatever defects there are would go much sooner,  if you
did  not  harp  on them too much;  for by dwelling on them so much you
lose confidence in yourself and in your power of openness to the Force
-  which is there all the same-and put unnecessary difficulties in the
way of its working.

                                 ***

Do not worry about mistakes in work. Often you imagine that things are
badly  done by you when really you have done them very well;  but even
if there are mistakes,  it  is  nothing  to  be  sad  about.  Let  the
consciousness grow-only in the divine consciousness is there an entire
perfection.  The more you surrender to the Divine, the more will there
be the possibility of perfection in you.

                                 ***

Do not  attach too much importance to such mistakes or get upset about
them. It is the nature of the mind to make such mistakes. It is only a
higher consciousness that can set them right-the mind can be sure only
after a very long training in each particular action and even then  it
has  only to be off-guard for something untoward to occur.  Do as well
as you can, for the rest let the higher consciousness grow till it can
enlighten all the movements of the physical mind.

                                 ***

Skill in  works  will  come  when there is the opening in the physical
mind and the body.  There is no need to be anxious about that now.  Do
your best and do not be anxious about it.

                                 ***

Think of  your  work  only  when it is being done,  not before and not
after.
    Do not  let  your  mind  go  back  on a work that is finished.  It
belongs to the past and all re-handling of it is a waste of power.
    Do not  let your mind labour in anticipation on a work that has to
be done.  The Power that acts in you will see to it at its  own  time.

    These two habits of the mind belong to a past functioning that the
transforming  Force  is  pressing  to  remove  and the physical mind's
persistence in them is the cause of your strain and  fatigue.  If  you
can remember to let your mind work only when its action is needed, the
strain will lessen and disappear.  This  is  indeed  the  transitional
movement  before  the  supramental  working  takes  possession  of the
physical mind and brings into it the spontaneous action of the Light.

                                 ***

VII

                                 ***

Yes, obviously,  that is one great utility of work that it  tests  the
nature  and puts the sadhak in front of the defects of his outer being
which might otherwise escape him.

                                 ***

The actions are of importance  only  as  expressing  what  is  in  the
nature. You have to be conscious of whatever in your actions is not in
harmony with the yoga and get rid of it.  But for that what is  needed
is  your  own  consciousness,  the psychic,  observing from within and
throwing off what is seen to be undesirable.

                                 ***

It will be better to do the work as a sadhana for getting rid  of  the
defects  rather  than accept the defects as a reason for not doing the
work.  Instead of  accepting  these  reactions  as  if  they  were  an
unchangeable  law  of  your nature,  you should make up your mind that
they must come no longer -calling down the aid of the  Mother's  force
to purify the vital and eliminate them altogether. If you believe that
the trouble in the body must come,  naturally it will come; rather fix
in  your  mind  the  idea  and will that it must not come and will not
come. If it tries to come reject it and throw it away from you.

                                 ***

That is a great error of the human vital -  to  want  compliments  for
their  own  sake and to be depressed by their absence and imagine that
it means there is no capacity. In this world one starts with ignorance
and  imperfection  in  whatever  one  does - one has to find out one's
mistakes and to learn,  one has to  commit  errors  and  find  out  by
correcting  them  the right way to do things.  Nobody in the world has
ever escaped from this law.  So what one has to expect from others  is
not compliments all the time, but praise of what is right or well done
and criticism of errors and mistakes.  The more one can bear criticism
and  see  one's  mistakes,  the  more  likely  one is to arrive at the
fullness of one's capacity. Especially when one is very young - before
the  age  of  maturity  -  one cannot easily do perfect work.  What is
called the juvenile work of poets and painters - work  done  in  their
early  years is always imperfect,  it is a promise and has qualities -
but the real perfection and full use of their powers comes afterwards.
They  themselves  know  that  very  well,  but  they  go on writing or
painting because they know also that by doing  so  they  will  develop
their  powers.
    As for comparison with others,  one ought not to do that. Each one
has  his  own lesson to learn,  his own work to do and he must concern
himself with that,  not with the  superior  or  inferior  progress  of
others in comparison with himself. If he is behind today, he can be in
full capacity hereafter and it is for that future  perfection  of  his
powers  that he must labour.  You are young and have everything yet to
learn-your capacities are yet only in bud,  you must wait and work for
them  to  be  in full bloom - and you must not mind if it takes months
and years even to arrive at something satisfying and perfect.  It will
come  in  its  proper  time,  and the work you do now is always a step
towards it.
    But learn   to   welcome   criticism   and  the  pointing  out  of
imperfections-the more you do so, the more rapidly you will advance.

                                 ***

Someone who  is  learning to paint or play music or write and does not
like to have his mistakes pointed out by those who already know-how is
he to learn at all or reach any perfection of technique?

                                 ***

We cannot   approve   of   your   idea  -  there  are  already  enough
intellectuals in the Ashram and the room-keeping intellectual is not a
type  whose  undue  propagation we are disposed to encourage.  Outside
work is just what is necessary to keep the equilibrium of  the  nature
and you certainly need it for that purpose.  Also your presence in the
D.R.  [Dining Room] is indispensable.  For the rest instead of getting
vexed  with  X  or  Y  you  should  seek  the cause of these things in
yourself- that is always the true rule for a sadhak. You are sometimes
at  your best and then things go on very well ;  but sometimes you are
not at all at your best and then these  misunderstandings  arise.  The
remedy therefore is to be at your best always - not to be in your room
always, but to be in your best and therefore your true self always.

                                 ***

The difficulty rises from a certain excess  of  sensitiveness  in  the
vital nature which feels strongly any want of harmony or opposition in
the work or any untoward happening and, when that comes, one is apt to
feel  it  as  if  a  personal  opposition and on the other side also a
similar feeling arises and so the  difficulty  becomes  prolonged  and
leads  to  conflict.  As  a matter of fact the difficulty often arises
from circumstances,  e.g.  the B.S.  [Building Service] with its  much
reduced staff and a rush of work using up all its men may find it more
difficult to accommodate you than before.  Or it may arise from people
acting  according to their view of a matter which does not accord with
yours.  Or again it may come from the person following his own  ideas,
view  of  what  is convenient and effective and thus coming up against
yours.  There need be no personal feeling in all that and it  is  best
not to look for any and not to see it from that point of view. What is
needed is always to take  a  calm  view  of  the  thing  and  a  clear
vision-not  only  from  one's  own  standpoint which may be eventually
right and yet need modification in detail, but with a vision that sees
also the standpoint of others;  this broad seeing quiet and impersonal
is needed in the full yogic consciousness. Having it one can insist on
what  has  to be insisted on with firmness but at the same time with a
consideration and understanding of the other that removes  the  chance
of   any  clash  of  personal  feeling.  Naturally  if  the  other  is
unreasonable,  he may still resent,  but then it will be his own fault
entirely and it will fall back on him only. It is here that we see the
necessity of some change.  Loyalty,  fidelity,  capacity,  strength of
will  and other qualities in the work you have in plenty - a full calm
and equality not only in the inner being where it can  exist  already,
but in the outer nervous parts is a thing you have to get completely.

                                 ***

There are  always defects on both sides which lead to this disharmony.
On your side you have... a tendency to too harsh judgment of others, a
readiness to see and stress the faults,  defects,  weak side of others
and not to see enough their good sides.  This prevents the  kindliness
of  outlook which should be there and gives an impression of harshness
and critical severity  and  creates  a  tendency  to  contrariety  and
revolt,  which  even  when it is not there in the minds of the others,
acts through their  subconscient  and  creates  all  these  discordant
movements.  To take advantage of what is good in others, keeping one's
eye always on that,  and to deal tactfully with their mistakes, faults
and  defects  is  the  best  way;  it  does  not  exclude firmness and
maintenance of discipline, even severity when severity is due; but the
latter  should be rare and the others should not feel it as if it were
a permanent attitude.

                                 ***

The experience of the difference between your inner feelings and  your
surface reactions shows that you are becoming aware of different parts
of your nature which each have their own 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 anger and severity is  a  wrong  form  of
something  that in itself has a value,  a certain strength of will and
force of action and control in the vital  being,  without  which  work
cannot  be  done.  What is necessary is to get rid of the anger and to
keep the force and flrm will along with a  developed  judgment  as  to
what  is  the  right  thing to do in any circumstances.  For instance,
people can be allowed to do things in their own way when that does not
spoil  the work,  when it is only their way of doing what is necessary
to be done ;  when their way is opposed to the discipline of the work,
then  they  have  to be controlled,  but it should be done quietly and
kindly,  not with anger.  Very often,  if one has developed  a  silent
power of putting the Mother's force on the work with one's own will as
instrument,  that by itself may be sufficient without  having  to  say
anything  as  the  person  changes his way of himself as if by his own
initiative.
    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. This feeling may sometimes come when one is
going much inside and there is no insistence on the bodily needs;  but
it  should  not  be  accepted.  If  it  is  rejected,  it is likely to
disappear.

                                 ***

To discourage anybody is wrong,  but to give  false  encouragement  or
encouragement  of anything wrong is not right.  Severity has sometimes
to be used  (though  not  overused),  when  without  it  an  obstinate
persistence  in what is wrong cannot be set right.  Very often,  if an
inner communication has been established,  a silent pressure  is  more
effective than anything else.  No absolute rule can be laid down;  one
has to judge and act for the best in each case.

                                 ***

That is quite  necessary  for  work;  efficiency  and  discipline  are
indispensable. They can, however, only partly be maintained by outward
means - it really depends in ordinary life on the personality  of  the
superior,  his  influence  on  the subordinates,  his firmness,  tact,
kindness in dealing with them.  But the sadhak  depends  on  a  deeper
force,  that  of his inner consciousness and the force working through
him.

                                 ***

It [disciplining the subordinates] has to be done in the right  spirit
and  the  subordinates  must be able to feel that it is so - that they
are being dealt with in all uprightness and 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.

                                 ***

We have  been  very  glad  to  get your letters with the details which
prove how great and rapid a progress you have  made  in  sadhana.  All
that  you  write  shows a clear consciousness and a new orientation in
the lower vital.  To have seen clearly the instinct of domination  and
the pride of the instrument there means that that part of the being is
in the right way to change;  these defects must  now  be  replaced  by
their  true  counterparts  - the power to act selflessly on others for
the Truth and the Right and the power to be a strong and confident but
egoless  instrument of the Divine.  It is clear also that the physical
is  effectively  opening,  but  the  instinctive  physical   and   the
vital-physical motions in it,  fear in the body, weakness, disposition
to ill-health must go also.  As to  diet,  a  light  quality  of  food
sufficient for the strength and sustenance is the best for you-meat is
not advisable.
    Let the  wide  opening that has come in you develop and your whole
being down to the material fill with the true  consciousness  and  the
true power.

                                 ***

You know what is the right  thing  to  do  -  to  take  and  keep  the
necessary  inner  attitude-when there is the openness to the Force and
the strength,  courage and power in action  coming  from  it,  outward
circumstances can be met and turned in the right direction.

                                 ***

Whenever anything  untoward  happens,  it is essential not to allow...
any vibrations of disturbance or unrest in either the physical mind or
the nerves. One must remain calm and open to the Light and Force, then
one will be able to act in the right way.

                                 ***

From the point of view of sadhana - you must not allow yourself to  be
in the least disturbed by these things.  What you have to do,  what is
right to be done,  should be done in perfect calmness with the support
of  the  Divine Force.  All that is necessary for a successful result,
can be done -including the securing of the support of  those  who  are
able  to help you.  But if this outer support is not forthcoming,  you
have not to be disturbed but to proceed calmly on your way.  If  there
is any difficulty or unsuecess anywhere not due to your own fault, you
have not to be troubled.  Strength,  unmoved calm,  quiet straight and
right  dealing  with all things you have to deal with must be the rule
of your action.

                                 ***

To keep this equanimity and absence of reactions and  from  that  calm
ground  to  direct  the  yoga-force  on  things  and  persons (not for
egoistic aims but for the work to be done)  is  the  position  of  the
yogi.

                                 ***

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.

                                 ***

A double  action  is needed,  to destroy the ill-will of the inferiors
and to change the mind of the superiors - an invisible action,  for in
the  visible  they seem to be too much under the control of the Forces
of the Ignorance.

                                 ***

You have to make yourself an instrument of the invisible Force - to be
able  in a way to direct it to the required point and for the required
purpose.  But for that Samata must be entire-for a calm  and  luminous
use  of  the  Force is necessary.  Otherwise the use of the Force,  if
accompanied by ego-reactions, may raise a corresponding ego-resistance
and a struggle.

                                 ***

The increase  of  Samata is only a first condition.  It is when on the
basis of Samata an understa6ding Force  can  be  used  to  make  their
attacks nugatory that the attacks will become impossible.

                                 ***

[External attacks  by  the  adverse  powers on persons who cooperate:]
That is always a part of their tactics in the  physical  sphere.  They
can be averted only by a superior Force being used against them.

                                 ***

This is  the  right  inner  attitude  of  equality - to remain unmoved
whatever may outwardly happen.  But what is needed for success in  the
outward  field (if you do not use human means,  diplomacy or tactics,)
is the power to transmit calmly a Force that can change men's attitude
and  the  circumstances  and make any outward action at once the right
thing to do and effective.

                                 ***

For the sadhak outward struggles,  troubles,  calamities  are  only  a
means  of surmounting ego and rajasic desire and attaining to complete
surrender.  So long as one insists on success,  one is doing the  work
partly at least for the ego; difficulties and outward failures come to
warn one that it is so and to bring complete equality.  This does  not
mean  that  the power of victory is not to be acquired,  but it is not
success in the immediate work that is all-important;  it is the  power
to receive and transmit a greater and greater correct vision and inner
Force that has to be developed and this must be done quite coolly  and
patiently  without  being  elated or disturbed by immediate victory or
failure.

                                 ***

What you have to realise is that  your  success  or  failure  depends,
first  and  always,  on  your keeping in the right attitude and in the
true psychic and spiritual atmosphere and allowing the Mother's  force
to act through you...
    If I  can  judge from your letters,  you take its support too much
for granted and lay the first stress on your own ideas and  plans  and
words  about  the  work;  but  these  whether  good  or bad,  right or
mistaken,  are bound to fail if they are not instruments of  the  true
Force...  You  have  to  be always concentrated,  always referring all
difficulties for solution to the force that is being sent  from  here,
always  letting it act and not substituting your own mind and separate
vital will or impulse...
    Proceed with your work, never forgetting the condition of success.
Do not lose yourself in the work or in your ideas or plans  or  forget
to keep yourself in constant touch with the true source.  Do not allow
anybody's mind or vital influence or the influence of the  surrounding
atmosphere or the ordinary human mentality to come between you and the
power and presence of the Mother.

                                 ***

It is very satisfying to have closed so well the  work  you  undertook
for  the  Mother...  overcoming  all difficulties and ending in such a
satisfactory result...  But your work for the Mother is always sure to
be  the  same,  thorough,  conscientious and skilful and inspired by a
firm faith and openness to her force;  where these things are, success
is always sure.

                                 ***

VIII

                                 ***

Orderly harmony  and  organisation  in  physical things is a necessary
part of efficiency and perfection and makes  the  instrument  fit  for
whatever work is given to it.

                                 ***

There can  be no physical life without an order and rhythm.  When this
order is changed,  it must be in obedience to an inner growth and  not
for  the  sake  of external novelty.  It is only a certain part of the
surface lower vital nature which  seeks  always  external  change  and
novelty  for its own sake.
    It is by a constant inner growth that  one  can  find  a  constant
newness  and unfailing interest in life.  There is no other satisfying
way.

                                 ***

The impatience  of  things going wrong is the defect of a quality - an
insistence on accuracy and order. The thing is to keep the quality and
get rid of the defect.

                                 ***

In the  most  physical  things you have to fix a programme in order to
deal  with  them,  otherwise  all  becomes  a  sea  of  confusion  and
haphazard.  Fixed  rules  have  also  to be made for the management of
material things so long as people are not  sufficiently  developed  to
deal  with them in the right way without rules.  But in matters of the
inner development and the sadhana it is impossible to map out  a  plan
fixed in every detail and say, "Every time you shall stop here, there,
in this way, on that line and no other. Things would become so tied up
and  rigid  that  nothing  could  be done;  there could be no true and
effective movement.

                                 ***

In work there must be a rule and discipline and as much punctuality as
possible in regard to time.
    What is  good  work and what is bad or less good work?  All is the
Mother's work and equal in the Mother's eyes.

                                 ***

To be able to be regular is a great force, one becomes master of one's
time and one's movements.

                                 ***

A resolution  means  the  will to try to get a thing done by the given
time.  It is not a binding "promise" that the thing will  be  done  by
that  time.  Even  if it is not,  the endeavour will have to continue,
just as if no date had been fixed.

                                 ***

IX

                                 ***

Wanton waste,  careless spoiling of physical things in  an  incredibly
short time, loose disorder, misuse of service and materials due either
to vital grasping or to tamasic inertia are baneful to prosperity  and
tend  to  drive away or discourage the WealthPower.  These things have
long been rampant in the society and,  if that continues,  an increase
in  our  means might well mean a proportionate increase in the wastage
and disorder and neutralise  the  material  advantage.  This  must  be
remedied if there is to be any sound progress.
    Asceticism for its own sake is not the ideal  of  this  yoga,  but
self-control  in  the vital and right order in the material are a very
important part of it - and even an ascetic discipline  is  better  for
our  purpose  than  a  loose  absence of true control.  Mastery of the
material does not mean having plenty and profusely throwing it out  or
spoiling  it as fast as it comes or faster.  Mastery implies in it the
right and careful utilisation of things  and  also  a  selfcontrol  in
their use.

                                 ***

Material things are not to be despised - without them there can be  no
manifestation in the material world.

                                 ***

There is  a  consciousness  in  each physical thing with which one can
communicate.  Everything has  an  individuality  of  a  certain  kind,
houses, cars, furniture etc. The ancient peoples knew that and so they
saw a spirit or "genius" in every physical thing.

                                 ***

What you fesl about physical things is true-there is  a  consciousness
in  them,  a  life  which is not the life and consciousness of man and
animal which we know,  but still secret and real.  That is why we must
have  a  respect for physical things and use them rightly,  not misuse
and waste, ill-treat or handle with a careless roughness. This feeling
of  all  being  consciousness  or  alive  comes  when our own physical
consciousness - and not the mind only - awakes out  of  its  obscurity
and becomes aware of the One 'in all things, the Divine everywhere.

                                 ***

It is  very true that physical things have a consciousness within them
which feels and responds to care and is sensitivp  to  careless  touch
and  rough  handling.  To know or feel that and learn to be careful of
them is a great progress of consciousness.

                                 ***

The rough handling and  careless  breaking  or  waste  and  misuse  of
physical  things  is  a  denial of the yogic consciousness and a great
hindrance to the bringing down of the Divine  Truth  to  the  material
plane.

                                 ***

It was  I  suppose  an  idea  that  came  through  the  physical mind,
suggesting the following of a physical utility only and  ignoring  all
other  perceptions and motives.  You must be on your guard against the
ideas and suggestions of this physical mind and  accept  none  without
discrimination and subjection to a higher light.

                                 ***

SECTION SIX SADHANA THROUGH MEDITATION

                                 ***

YOUR questions  cover the whole of a very wide field.  It is therefore
necessary to reply to them with some brevity,  touching only  on  some
principal points.
    1. What  meditation  exactly  means.
    There are two words used in English to express the Indian idea  of
dhy€na,  "meditation"  and "contemplation".  Meditation means properly
the concentration of the mind on a single train of  ideas  which  work
out a single subject.  Contemplation means regarding mentally a single
object,  image,  idea so that the knowledge about the object, image or
idea  may  arise  naturally in the mind by force of the concentration.
Both these things are forms of dhy€na,  for the principle of dhy€na is
mental concentration whether in thought,  vision or knowledge.
    There are other forms of dhy€na.  There  is  a  passage  in  which
Vivekananda  advises  you  to stand back from your thoughts,  let them
occur in your mind as they will and simply observe them and  see  what
they are.  This may be called concentration in selfobservation.
    This form leads to another, the emptying of all thought out of the
mind  so  as  to  leave  it a sort of pure vigilant blank on which the
divine knowledge may come  and  imprint  itself,  undisturbed  by  the
inferior thoughts of the ordinary human mind and with the clearness of
a writing in white chalk on a blackboard.  You will find that the Gita
speaks  of  this rejection of all mental thought as one of the methods
of yoga and even the method it seems to prefer. This may be called the
dhy€na  of  liberation,  as  it  frees  the  mind  from slavery to the
mechanical process of thinking and allows it to think or not to think,
as  it  pleases and when it pleases,  or to choose its own thoughts or
else to go beyond thought to the pure perception of  Truth  called  in
our  philosophy  vijœ€na.
    Meditation is the easiest process for  the  human  mind,  but  the
narrowest in its results;  contemplation more difficult,  but greater;
self-observation and liberation from the chains of  Thought  the  most
difficult of all,  but the widest and greatest in its fruits.  One can
choose any of them according to one's bent and capacity.  The  perfect
method  is  to  use  them  all,  each in its own place and for its own
object;  but this would need a fixed faith and  firm  patience  and  a
great  energy  of  Will in the selfapplication to the yoga.
    2. What should be the object or ideas for meditation?
    Whatever is   most   consonant   with   your  nature  and  highest
aspirations. But if you ask me for an absolute answer, then I must say
that Brahman is always the best object for meditation or contemplation
and the idea on which the mind should fix is that of God in  all,  all
in  God  and all as God.  It does not matter essentially whether it is
the Impersonal or the Personal God, or subjectively, the One Self. But
this is the idea I have found the best,  because it is the highest and
embraces all other truths,  whether truths of this  world  or  of  the
other  worlds  or beyond all phenomenal existence,  - "All this is the
Brahman".  In the third issue of  €rya,  at  the  end  of  the  second
instalment  of  the  Analysis  of the lsha Upanishad,  you will find a
description of this vision of the All which may be of help to  you  in
understanding the idea.
    3. Conditions internal and external that are  most  essential  for
meditation.
    There are no  essential  external  conditions,  but  solitude  and
seclusion  at  the time of meditation as well as stillness of the body
are helpful,  sometimes almost necessary  to  the  beginner.  But  one
should  not  be  bound  by  external  conditions.  Once  the  habit of
meditation is formed,  it should be made possible  to  do  it  in  all
circumstances,  lying, sitting, walking, alone, in company, in silence
or in the midst of noise etc.
    The first  internal  condition  necessary  is concentration of the
will against the obstacles to meditation,  i.e. wandering of the mind,
forgetfulness, sleep, physical and nervous impatience and restlessness
etc.
    The second   is  an  increasing  purity  and  calm  of  the  inner
consciousness (citta) out of which thought and emotion arise,  i.e.  a
freedom   from   all  disturbing  reactions,  such  as  anger,  grief,
depression,  anxiety about worldly happenings etc.  Mental  perfection
and moral are always closely allied to each other.

                                 ***

Concentration is a gathering together of the consciousness and  either
centralising  at  one point or turning on a single object,  e.g.,  the
Divine;  there can also be a gathered condition throughout  the  whole
being, not at a point. In meditation it is not indispensable to gather
like this,  one can simply remain with a quiet mind  thinking  of  one
subject  or observing what comes in the consciousness and dealing with
it.

                                 ***

Concentration means flxing the consciousness in one place  or  on  one
object and in a single condition.  Meditation can be diffusive,  e.g.,
thinking about the Divine,  receiving impressions and  discriminating,
watching what goes on in the nature and acting upon it, etc.

                                 ***

Concentration, for our yoga,  means when the consciousness is fixed in
a particular state (e.g.  peace) or movement (e.g.  aspiration,  will,
coming  into  contact  with  the  Mother,  taking  the Mother's name);
meditation is when the inner mind is looking  at  things  to  get  the
right knowledge.

                                 ***

Then as  to concentration.  Ordinarily the consciousness is spread out
everywhere,  dispersed,  running in this or that direction, after this
subject and that object in multitude.  When anything has to be done of
a sustained nature the first thing one does is to draw back  all  this
dispersed  consciousness  and  concentrate.  It is then,  if one looks
closely,  bound to be concentrated in one place and on one occupation,
subject  or object - as when you are composing a poem or a botanist is
studying a flower.  The place is usually somewhere in the brain if  it
is  the  thought,  in  the  heart if it is the feeling in which one is
concentrated.  The yogic concentration  is  simply  an  extension  and
intensification of the same thing.  It may be on an object as when one
does Tratak on a shining point - then one has to concentrate  so  that
one sees only that point and has no other thought than that. It may be
on an idea or word or a name, the idea of the Divine, the word OM, the
name Krishna,  or a combination of idea and word or idea and name. But
further in yoga one also concentrates in a particular place.  There is
the  famous  rule of concentrating between the eyebrows -the centre of
the inner mind, of occult vision, of the will is there. What you do is
to  think  firmly  from  there on whatever you make the object of your
concentration or else try to see the image of it from  there.  If  you
succeed   in  this  then  after  a  time  you  feel  that  your  whole
consciousness is centred there in that place - of course for the  time
being.  After  doing  it  for  some time and often it becomes easy and
normal.
    I hope this is clear.  Well,  in this yoga,  you do the same,  not
necessarily at that particular spot between the eyebrows, but anywhere
in the head or at the centre of the chest where the physiologists have
fixed the cardiac centre.  Instead of concentrating on an object,  you
concentrate in the head in a will, a call for the descent of the peace
above  or,  as some do,  an opening of the unseen lid and an ascent of
the consciousness above.  In the heart centre one concentrates  in  an
aspiration,  for  an opening,  for the presence of the living image of
the Divine there or whatever else is the object.  There may be Japa of
a  name but,  if so,  there must also be a concentration on it and the
name must repeat itself there in the heart centre.
    It may be asked what becomes of the rest of the consciousness when
there is this local concentration?  Well, it either falls silent as in
any  concentration or,  if it does not,  then thoughts or other things
may move about,  as if outside,  but the concentrated  part  does  not
attend to them or notice. That is when the concentration is reasonably
successful.
    One has  not  to fatigue oneself at first by long concentration if
one is not accustomed, for then in a jaded mind it loses its power and
value. One can relax and meditate instead of concentrating. It is only
as the concentration becomes normal that one can go on  for  a  longer
and longer time.

                                 ***

One can concentrate in any of the three centres which  is  easiest  to
the sadhak or gives most result. The power of the concentration in the
heart-centre is to open that centre and by the  power  of  aspiration,
love,  bhakti, surrender remove the veil which covers and conceals the
soul and bring forward the soul or psychic being to govern  the  mind,
life and body and turn and open them all fully to the Divine, removing
all that is opposed to that turning and  opening.
    This is what is called in this yoga  the  psychic  transformation.
The power of concentration above the head is to bring peace,  silence,
liberation from the body sense,  the identification with mind and life
and open the way for the lower (mental, vital, physical) consciousness
to rise up to meet the higher consciousness above and for  the  powers
of  the  higher (spiritual nature) consciousness to descend into mind,
life and body.  This is what is called  in  this  yoga  the  spiritual
transformation.  If  one begins with this movement then the Power from
above has in its descent to open all the centres (including the lowest
centre)  and  to  bring out the psychic being;  for until that is done
there is likely to be  much  difficulty  and  struggle  of  the  lower
consciousness  obstructing,  mixing  with  or even refusing the Divine
Action from above.  If the psychic being is once active this  struggle
and  these  difficulties  can  be  greatly  minimised.
    The power of concentration in the eyebrows' is to open the  centre
there,  liberate  the  inner  mind  and  vision and the inner or yogic
consciousness and its experiences and powers.  From here also one  can
open upwards and act also in the lower centres; but the danger of this
process is that  one  may  get  shut  up  in  one's  mental  spiritual
formations  and  not  come  out  of  them  into  the free and integral
spiritual experience and knowledge and integral change  of  the  being
and nature.

                                 ***

If one  concentrates  on a thought or a word,  one has to dwell on the
essential idea contained in the word with the aspiration to  feel  the
thing which it expresses.

                                 ***

I have  not  the  original  chapter  before me just now;  but from the
sentences quoted1 it seems to be the essential mental  Idea.  1  "This
concentration proceeds by the Idea...  for it is through tte Idea that
the mental  being  rises  beyond  all  expression  to  that  which  is
expressed, to that of which the Idea itself is only the instrument. By
concentration upon the Idea the mental existence which at  present  we
are  breaks open the barrier of our mentality and arrives at the state
of  consciousness,  the  state  of  being,  the  state  of  power   of
conscious-being  and  bliss  of  conscious-being  to  which  the  Idea
corresponds and of which it is the symbol,  movement and rhythm. " Sri
Allrobindo,  The Synthesis of Yoga (Centenary Edition),  p.307. As for
instance in the method of Vedantic knowledge one concentrates  on  the
idea  of  Brahman omnipresent-one looks at a tree or other surrounding
object with the idea that Brahman is there and the tree or  object  is
only  a form.  After a time if the concentration is of the right kind,
one begins to become aware of a presence,  an existence,  the physical
tree form becomes a shell and that presence or existence is felt to be
the only reality.  The idea then drops,  it is a direct vision of  the
thing  that  takes  its  place  -  there is no longer any necessity of
concentrating on the idea,  one sees with a deeper  consciousness,  sa
pa™yati. It should be noted that this concentration on the idea is not
mere thinking, mananam - it is an inner dwelling on the essence of the
Idea.

                                 ***

There is no harm in concentrating sometimes in the heart and sometimes
above the head.  But concentration  in  either  place  does  not  mean
keeping  the  attention  fixed on a particular spot;  you have to take
your station of consciousness in either place  and  concentrate  there
not on the place,  but on the Divine.  This can be done with eyes shut
or  with  eyes  open,  according  as  it  best  suits  you.
    You can  concentrate on the sun,  but to concentrate on the Divine
is better than to concentrate on the sun.

                                 ***

Most people associate consciousness with the  brain  or  mind  because
that  is  the  centre for intellectual thought and mental vision,  but
consciousness is not limited to that kind of thought or vision.  It is
everywhere  in  the system and there are several centres of it,  e.g.,
the centre for inner concentration is not  in  the  brain  but-in  the
heart,  -the  originating  centre of vital desire is still lower down.

    The two  main  places  where  one can centre the consciousness for
yoga are in the head and in  the  heart  -  the  mind-centre  and  the
soul-centre.

                                 ***

Brain concentration is always  a  tapasya  and  necessarily  brings  a
strain.  It  is only if one is lifted out of the brain mind altogether
that the strain of mental concentration disappears.

                                 ***

At the top of the head or above  it  is  the  right  place  for  yogic
concentration in reading or thinking.

                                 ***

The sitting motionless posture is the natural posture for concentrated
meditation - walking and standing are active conditions.  It  is  only
when   one   has  gained  the  enduring  rest  and  passivity  of  the
consciousness that it is easy to concentrate and receive when  walking
or   doing   anything.   A   fundamental   passive  condition  of  the
consciousness  gathered  into  itself  is   the   proper   poise   for
concentration and a seated gathered immobility in the body is the best
position for that.  It can be done also lying down,  but that position
is too passive,  tending to be inert rather than gathered. This is the
reason why yogis always sit in an €sana.  One can accustom oneself  to
meditate  walking,  standing,  lying  but sitting is the first natural
position.

                                 ***

It is better to make the deeper concentration when you  are  alone  or
quiet. Outward sounds ought not to disturb you.

                                 ***

It is  certainly much better to remain silent and collected for a time
after the meditation. It is a mistake to take the meditation lightly -
by  doing that one fails to receive or spills what is received or most
of it.

                                 ***

You enter into a condition of deep inwardness and quiet.  But  if  one
comes  too  suddenly  out of it into the ordinary consciousness,  then
there may be a slight nervous shock or a beating of the heart such  as
you describe,  for a short time. It is always best to remain quiet for
a few  moments  before  opening  the  eyes  and  coming  out  of  this
inwardness.
    Your new  feeling  about the work is all right,  it is part of the
new quietude and shows that the consciousness is getting  more  poised
and free.  Laziness is not likely to come.
    The open ground  you  saw  is  the  symbol  of  the  silent  inner
consciousness free and bright and clear and calm.
    The things you see are mostly indications of  a  working  that  is
going on inside you; there is no fear that they will be merely visions
without effect on the consciousness.  Already your  consciousness  has
changed  much  and  yet  it  is  only a beginning of the still greater
change that is to come.

                                 ***

What you  saw  about  the  outward  going  movements was certainly not
imagination, it was a true and accurate perception and vision of their
action.  To feel yourself separate from them and see them is the right
inner  condition  necessary  for  getting  rid  of  them  in  the  end
altogether.
    Concentration is  very  helpful  and  necessary  -  the  more  one
concentrates (of course in the limits of the body's  capacity  without
straining it),  the more the force of the yoga grows.  But you must be
prepared for the meditation being sometimes not successful and not get
upset  by  it  -  for  that  variability of the meditations happens to
everybody.  There are different  causes  for  it.  But  it  is  mostly
something  physical  that  interferes,  either the need of the body to
take time to assimilate what has come or been done;  sometimes inertia
or  dullness  due  to causes such as those you mention or others.  The
best thing is to remain quiet and not get or  nervous  or  dejected  -
till the force acts again.

                                 ***

One can have no fixed hours of meditation and yet be doing sadhana.

                                 ***

Both the realisation and the subsequent idea have their truth.  In the
beginning for a long time concentration is necessary  even  by  effort
because  the  nature,  the consciousness are not ready.  Even then the
more quiet and natural the concentration,  the better.  But  when  the
consciousness  and  nature  are ready,  then concentration must become
spontaneous and easily possible without effort at all times.  Even  at
last  it becomes the natural and permanent condition of the being - it
is then no longer concentration,  but the settled poise of the soul in
the  Divine.
    It is true that to be concentrated and do an outward action at the
same  time  is  not at first possible.  But that too becomes possible.
Either the consciousness divides into two parts,  one the inner poised
in the Divine,  the other the outer doing the outer work - or else the
whole fs so poised and the force does the  work  through  the  passive
instrument.

                                 ***

Naturally one does not get tired if the meditation has become natural.
But if the capacity is not there yet,  then marly cannot go on without
a strain which brings fatigue.

                                 ***

If the mind gets tired,  naturally  it  is  difficult  to  concentrate
unless you have become separated from the mind.

                                 ***

You have  to  separate  yourself from the mind also.  You have to feel
yourself even in the mental, vital, physical levels (not only above) a
consciousness that is neither mind, life, nor body.

                                 ***

Effort means  straining endeavour.  There can be an action with a will
in  it  in  which  there  is  no  strain  or  effort.
    Straining and concentration are  not  the  same  thing.  Straining
implies an over-eagerness and violence of effort,  while concentration
is in its nature  quiet  and  steady.  If  there  is  restlessness  or
over-eagerness, then that is not concentration.

                                 ***

It was by your personal efforts without guidance  that  you  got  into
difficulties  and  into  a  heated  condition  in  which you could not
meditate etc.  I asked you to drop the effort and remain quiet and you
did  so.  My  intention  was  that by your remaining quiet it would be
possible for the Mother's Force to work in you and establish a  better
starting-point  and  a course of initial experiences.  It was what was
beginning to come;  but if your mind again becomes active and tries to
arrange the sadhana for itself,  then disturbances are likely to come.
The Divine Guidance works best when the psychic is open and  in  front
(yours  was  beginning  to  open),  but it can also work even when the
sadhak is either not conscious of it or else  knows  it  only  by  its
results.  As for Nirvikalpa Samadhi,  even if one wants it, it is only
the result of a long sadhana in a consciousness prepared for it  -  it
is  no  use  thinking  of it when the inner consciousness is only just
beginning to open to yogic experience.

                                 ***

If the difficulty in meditation is that thoughts of all kinds come in,
that  is  not  due to hostile forces but to the ordinary nature of the
human mind.  All sadhaks have this difficulty and with many  it  lasts
for a very long time. There are several ways of getting rid of it. One
of them is to look at the thoughts and observe what is the  nature  of
the human mind as they show it but not to give any sanction and to let
them run down till  they  come  to  a  standstill  -  this  is  a  way
recommended by Vivekananda in his Rajayoga.  Another is to look at the
thoughts as not one's own,  to stand back as the witness  Purusha  and
refuse  the sanction - the thoughts are regarded as things coming from
outside,  from Prakriti,  and they  must  be  felt  as  if  they  were
passers-by crossing the mind-space with whom one has no connection and
in whom one takes no interest.  In this way it  usually  happens  that
after  a  time  the mind divides into two,  a part which is the mental
witness watching and perfectly undisturbed and quiet and a part  which
is the object of observation,  the Prakriti part in which the thoughts
cross or wander.  Afterwards one can proceed to silence or  quiet  the
Prakriti  part also.  There is a third,  an active method by which one
looks to see where the thoughts come from and finds they come not from
oneself,  but from outside the head as it were; if one can detect them
coming,  then,  before  they  enter,  they  have  to  be  thrown  away
altogether.  This is perhaps the most difficult way and not all can do
it, but if it can be done it is the shortest and most powerful road to
silence.

                                 ***

The mind is always in activity, but we do not observe fully what it is
doing,  but allow ourselves to  be  carried  away  in  the  stream  of
continual  thinking.  When  we  try  to  concentrate,  this  stream of
self-made mechanical thinking becomes prominent to our observation. It
is the first normal obstacle (the other is sleep during meditation) to
the effort for yoga.
    The best thing to do is to realise that the  thought-flow  is  not
yourself, it is not you who are thinking, but thought that is going on
in the mind.  It is Prakriti with its thought-energy that  is  raising
all this whirl of thought in you,  imposing it on the Purusha.  You as
the Purusha must stand back as the witness observing the  action,  but
refusing to identify yourself with it. The next thing is to exercise a
control and reject the thoughts - though sometimes by the very act  of
detachment  the  thoughthabit  falls  away  or  diminishes  during the
meditation and there is a sufficient silence or at any rate a quietude
which  makes  it easy to reject the thoughts that come and fix oneself
on the object of meditation.  If one becomes aware of the thoughts  as
coming  from  outside,  from the universal Nature,  then one can throw
them out before they reach the mind;  in that  way  the  mind  finally
falls  silent.  If  neither  of  these  things  happens,  a persistent
practice of rejection becomes necessary-there should be no struggle or
wrestling  with  the  thought,  but  only  a  quiet selfseparation and
refusal.  Success does not come at first, but if consent is constantly
withheld,  the  mechanical  whirl  eventually ceases and begins to die
away and one can then have at will an inner quietude or  silence.
    It should  be noted that the result of the yogic processes is not,
except in rare cases,  immediate and one must apply  the  willpatience
till  they give a result which is sometimes long in coming if there is
much resistance in the outer nature.
    How can you fix the mind on the higher Self so long as you have no
consciousness or experience of it?  You can only  concentrate  on  the
idea of the Self or else one can concentrate on the idea of the Divine
or the Divine Mother or on an image or  on  the  feeling  of  devotion
calling the presence in the heart or the Force to work in the mind and
heart  and  body  and  liberate  the  consciousness   and   give   the
self-realisation.  If you concentrate on the idea of the Self, it must
be with the conception of the Self as something  different  from  mind
and  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-Consciousness,  separate from
all that yet freely pervading all  without  being  involved  in  these
things.

                                 ***

If you try to apply everything you read,  there will be no end to your
new beginnings. One can stop thinking by rejecting the thoughts and in
the  silence  discover oneself.  One can do it by letting the thoughts
run down while one detaches oneself from them.  There are a number  of
other ways. This one related in X's book seems to me the Adwaita-jnani
method of separating  oneself  from  body,  vital,  mind,  by  viveka,
discrimination,  "I am not the body,  I am not the life,  I am not the
mind" till he gets to the self,  separate from mind,  life  and  body.
That  also  is  one  way of doing it.  There is also the separation of
Purusha from Prakriti till one becomes  the  witness  only  and  feels
separate  from all the activities as the Witness Consciousness.  There
are other methods also.

                                 ***

The method of gathering of the mind is not an easy one.  It is  better
to watch and separate oneself from the thoughts till one becomes aware
of a quiet space within into which they come from outside.

                                 ***

For the buzz of the physical mind,  reject it quietly, without getting
disturbed,  till it feels discouraged and retires shaking its head and
saying,  "This fellow is too calm and strong for me.  There are always
two   things   that  can  rise  up  and  assail  the  silence,  -vital
suggestions,  the  physical  mind's   mechanical   recurrences.   Calm
rejection  for  both  is  the cure.  There is a Purusha within who can
dictate to the nature what it shall admit or exclude , but its will is
a  strong,  quiet  will;  if  one  gets perturbed or agitated over the
difficulties,  then the will of the Purusha cannot act effectively  as
it would otherwise.
    The dynamic realisation will probably take place when  the  higher
consciousness comes fully down into the vital.  When it comes into the
mental it brings the peace of the Purusha and liberation  and  it  may
bring  also  knowledge.  It  is  when it comes into the vital that the
dynamic realisation becomes present and living.

                                 ***

To be able to detach oneself from the action of the mechanical mind is
the first necessity ;  it is easier then for the quiet  and  peace  of
mind  to remain undisturbed by this action even if it occurs.
    If the  peace  and  silence  continue  to come down,  they usually
become so intense as to seize the physical mind also after a time.

                                 ***

It was  rather  that  the  active  mind  became more quiet so that the
movements of the mechanical mind became more evident -  that  is  what
often  happens.  What has to be done in that case is to detach oneself
from these movements and  concentrate  without  further  attention  to
them. They are then likely to sink into quietude or fall away.

                                 ***

That is  the  nature  of  the  mechanical  mind - it is not due to any
sensitiveness in it.  Only as the other parts of  the  mind  are  more
silent and under control, this activity looks more prominent and takes
more space. It usually wears itself out, if one goes on rejecting It.

                                 ***

You are probably paying too much attention to them  [the  thoughts  of
the mechanical mind].  It is quite possible to concentrate and let the
mechanical activity pass unnoticed.

                                 ***

I am not quite sure about what you propose. It is of course because of
the  old  habit  of the mental consciousness that it goes on receiving
the thoughts from outside in spite of its being a fatigue -  not  that
it  wants  them,  but  that  they  are accustomed to come and the mind
mechanically lets them in and attends to them by force of habit.  This
is  always  one of the chief difficulties in yoga when the experiences
have begun and the mind wants to  be  always  either  concentrated  or
quiet.  Some  do what you propose and after a time succeed in quieting
the mind altogether or the silence comes down from above and does  it.
But  often  when  one tries this,  the thoughts become very active and
resist the silencing process and that is very  troublesome.  Therefore
many  prefer  to  go  on  slowly letting the mind quiet down little by
little, the quietness spreading and remaining for longer periods until
the  unwanted  thoughts  fall away or recede and the mind is left free
for knowledge from within and above.
    What you might do is to try and see what results - if the thoughts
attack too much and trouble,  you could stop - if the mind quiets down
quickly or more and more, then continue.

                                 ***

The more  the  psychic spreads in the outer being,  the more all these
things lthe mechanical  activities  of  the  subconscious  mindj  fall
quiet.  That  is the best way.  Direct efforts to still the mind are a
difficult method.

                                 ***

The best help for concentration is to receive the  Mother's  calm  and
peace  into  your  mind.  It  is there above you-only the mind and its
centres have to open to it.  It is what the Mother is pushing upon you
in the evening meditation.

                                 ***

Chit is the pure consciousness,  as in Sat-Chit-Ananda.
    Chitta is  the  stuff of mixed mental-vital-physical consciousness
out of which arise  the  movements  of  thought,  emotion,  sensation,
impulse,  etc.  It  is  these  that in the Patanjali system have to be
stilled altogether so that the consciousness may be  immobile  and  go
into Samadhi.
    Our yoga has a different function.  The movements of the  ordinary
consciousness have to be quieted and into the quietude there has to be
brought  down  a  higher  consciousness  and  its  powers  which  will
transform the nature.

                                 ***

If you suppress the Chittavrittis,  you will have no movements of  the
Chitta  at all;  all will be immobile until you remove the suppression
or will be so  immobile  that  there  cannot  be  anything  else  than
immobility.
    If you  still them,  the Chitta will be quiet,  whatever movements
there are will not disturb the quietude.
    If you  control  or master,  then the Chitta will be immobile when
you want,  active when you want, and its action will be such that what
you  wish  to  get rid of,  will go,  only what you accept as true and
useful will come.

                                 ***

It is  not  easy  to  get  into the Silence.  That is only possible by
throwing out all mental-vital activities.  It is  easier  to  let  the
Silence descend into you,  i.e.,  to open yourself and let it descend.
The way to do this and the way to call down the higher powers  is  the
same.  It  is to remain quiet at the time of meditation,  not fighting
with the mind or making mental efforts to pull down the Power  or  the
Silence but keeping only a silent will and aspiration for them. If the
mind is active one has to learn to look at  it,  drawn  back  and  not
giving  any  sanction  from  within,  until its habitual or mechanical
activities begin to fall quiet for want of support from within.  If it
is  too  persistent,  a steady rejection without strain or struggle is
the one thing to be done.

                                 ***

Let us not exaggerate anything.  It is not  so  much  getting  rid  of
mental  activity as converting it into the right thing...  What has to
be surpassed and changed is the intellectual reason which sees  things
from outside only,  by analysis and inference - when it does not do it
rather by taking a hasty look and saying "so it is" or "so it is not".
But  you can't do that unless the old mental activity becomes a little
quiet. A quiet mind does not involve itself in its thoughts or get run
away with by them;  it stands back,  detaches itself,  lets them pass,
without identifyfalg itself,  without making them its own.  It becomes
the  witness  mind  watching the thoughts when necessary,  but able to
turn away from them and receive from within and from above. Silence is
good,  but  absolute  silence  is not indispensable,  at least at this
stage. I do not know that to wrestle with the mind to make it quiet is
of much use, usually the mind gets the better at that game. It is this
standing back,  detaching oneself,  getting the  power  to  listen  to
something  else,  other than the thoughts of the external mind that is
the easier way.  At the same time one can look up as it were,  imaging
to  oneself  the  Force  as  there  just  above and calling it down or
quietly expecting its help.  That is how most people do it,  till  the
mind falls gradually quiet or silent of itself, or else silence begins
to descend from above. But it is important not to allow the depression
or despair to come in because there is no immediate success;  that can
only make things difficult and stop any progress that is preparing.

                                 ***

The silent mind is a result  of  yoga;  the  ordinary  mind  is  never
silent...  The  thinkers and philosophers do not have the silent mind.
It is the active mind they have; only, of course, they concentrate, so
the  common incoherent mentalising stops and the thoughts that rise or
enter and shape themselves are coherently restricted to the subject or
activity in hand.  But that is quite a different matter from the whole
mind falling silent.

                                 ***

The mind when it not in meditation or in complete silence,  is  always
active with something or other - with its own ideas or desires or with
other people or with things or with talking etc.

                                 ***

That is not caned meditation - it is a divided state of  consciousness
;  unless  the  consciousness  is  really  engrossed  and  the surface
thoughts are only things that come across and touch and pass,  it  can
hardly be called meditation (dhy€na).  I don't see how the inner being
can be engrossed while whole thoughts and imaginations of another kind
are  rambling  about  in  the  surface  consciousness.  One can remain
separate and see the thoughts  and  imaginations  pass  without  being
affected, but that is not being plunged or engrossed in meditation.

                                 ***

It is  quite  natural  that  at first there should be the condition of
calm and peace only when you sit for concentration.  What is important
is  that  there  should  be  this  condition  whenever you sit and the
pressure for it always there.  But at other times  the  result  is  at
first   only  a  certain  mental  quiet  and  freedom  from  thoughts.
Afterwards when the condition ofpeace is quite settled  in  the  inner
being  -  for  it  is  the  inner  into  which  you enter whenever you
concentrate, then it begins to come out and control the outer, so that
the  calm  and  peace  remain  even when working,  mixing with others,
talking  or  other  occupations.   For   then   whatever   the   outer
consciousness is doing,  one feels the inner being calm within -indeed
one feels the inner being as  one's  real  self  while  the  outer  is
something superficial through which the inner acts on life.

                                 ***

The ease  and peace are felt very deep and far within because they 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 these 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 psychic into the
physical.  This can most easily be done by regular  concentration  and
meditation with the aspiration for this true consciousness.  It can be
done by work also,  by dedication ,  by doing the work for the  Divine
only  without  thought of self and keeping the idea of consecration to
the Mother always in the heart. But this is not easy to do perfectly.

                                 ***

If higher meditation or being above keeps one  dull  and  without  any
kind  of  satisfaction  or  peace  in sadhana,  these are the only two
reasons-ego or inertia - I can think of.

                                 ***

It is  quite  natural  to  want  to  meditate  while   reading   yogic
literature-that  is  not  the  laziness  .
    The laziness  of  the  mind  consists in not meditating,  when the
consciousness wants to do so.

                                 ***

It is not a fact that when there is obscurity or inertia,  one  cannot
concentrate or meditate. If one has in the inner being the steady will
to do it, it can be done.

                                 ***

When one tries to meditate, there is a pressure to go inside, lose the
waking  consciousness and wake inside,  in a deep inner consciousness.
But at first the mind takes it for a pressure to go  to  sleep,  since
sleep  is  the  only  kind of inner consciousness to which it has been
accustomed.  In yoga by meditation sleep is therefore often the  first
difficulty  - but if one perseveres,  then gradually the sleep changes
to an inner conscious state.

                                 ***

The sleep does come like that when one tries to meditate. It has to be
dealt  with,  where  that is possible,  by turning it into a conscious
inner and indrawn state and,  where not,  by remaining  in  a  quietly
concentrated wakefulness open (without effort) to receive.

                                 ***

No, it  is  not  sleep.  But  when  the  pressure  gives a tendency to
insideness (samadhi),  the physical being,  not being accustomed to go
inside  except  in  the way of sleep,  translates this into a sense of
sleepiness .

                                 ***

It is probably that you go inside into a sort of samadhi but  are  not
yet conscious there (hence the idea of sleep). X is not asleep, but he
has when he goes inside no control of his body.  Many yogis have  this
difficulty  and  use a contrivance which is put under the chin to hold
up  the  head  and  with  it  the   body   during   this   inwardgoing
concentration.

                                 ***

II

                                 ***

In samadhi it is the inner mental, vital, physical which are separated
from the outer,  no longer covered by it - therefore  they  can  fully
have inner experiences.  The outer mind is either quiescent or in some
way  reflects  or  shares  the  experience.   As   for   the   central
consciousness  being  separated  from  all mentality that would mean a
complete trance without any recorded experiences.

                                 ***

Nirvikalpa Samadhi according to tradition  is  simply  a  trance  from
which  one  cannot  be  awakened even by burning or branding - i.e.  a
trance in which one has gone completely  out  of  the  body.  In  more
scientific  parlance  it is a trance in which there is no formation or
movement of the consciousness and one gets lost in a state from  which
one  can  bring  back  no  report except that one was in bliss.  It is
supposed to be a complete absorption in the Sushupti or the Turiya.

                                 ***

"Nirvikalpa Samadhi" properly means a complete trance in  which  there
is  no  thought  or  movement  of consciousness or awareness of either
inward or outward things - all is drawn up into a supracosmic  Beyond.
But  here  it  cannot  mean  that  -  it  probably means a trance in a
consciousness  beyond  the  Mind.
    To break  and rebuild is often necessary for the change;  but once
the fundamental consciousness has come  there  is  no  reason  why  it
should  be done with trouble and disturbance - it can be done quietly.
It is the resistance of the lower parts that  brings  in  trouble  and
disturbance.

                                 ***

Immersion in Sachchidananda is a state  one  can  get  in  the  waking
condition  without  samadhi - dissolution can come only after the loss
of the body on condition that one has reached the  highest  state  and
does not will to return here to help the world.

                                 ***

It depends on the nature of the physical consciousness you keep.  When
there is the descent of consciousness into the body one becomes  aware
of  a  subtle  physical consciousness and that can remain in samadhi -
one seems to be aware of the body,  but it is really the  subtle  body
and not the outward physical.  But also one can go deep within and yet
be aware of the physical body also and of working upon it,  but not of
outward  things.  Finally  one can be absorbed in a deep concentration
but strongly aware of the body and the descent of  the  Force  in  it.
This last is accompanied with consciousness of outward things,  though
no attention may be paid to them.  This last  is  not  usually  called
samadhi,  but it is a kind of waking samadhi.  All conditions from the
deep samadhi of complete trance to the working of  the  Force  in  the
fully waking consciousness are used in this yoga;  one need not insist
on complete trance always,  for the  others  also  are  necessary  and
without  them the complete change cannot take place.
    It is  good  that  the  higher  consciousness  and  its powers are
descending into the parts below the head and heart. That is absolutely
necessary  for the transformation,  since the lower vital and the body
must also be changed into stuff of the higher consciousness.

                                 ***

The reason  why  you  remember  nothing  when  you  come  out  of your
meditation is that the experience is taking place in the  inner  being
and the outer consciousness is not ready to receive it.  Formerly your
sadhana was mainly on the vital plane which is often the first to open
and  the  connection of that plane with the body consciousness is easy
to establish because they are nearer to each other.  Now  the  sadhana
seems  to  have  gone  inward into the psychic being.  This is a great
advance and you need not mind the want of  connection  with  the  most
external  consciousness at present.  The work goes on all the same and
it is probably necessary that it should be so just now.  Afterwards if
you  keep  steadily  to  the right attitude,  it will descend into the
outer consciousness.

                                 ***

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
develop the power of going into this higher kind of trance,  one  must
have done some sadhana. As to purification, entire purification is not
necessary,  but some part of the being  must  have  turned  to  higher
things.

                                 ***

Trance in  English  is  usually  used  only  for  the  deeper kinds of
samadhi;  but,  as there is no other word,  we have to use it for  all
kinds.

                                 ***

Samadhi is not a thing to be shunned - only it has to be made more and
more conscious.

                                 ***

It is not necessary to be in samadhi to be in contact with the Divine.

                                 ***

On the contrary,  it is in the waking state that this realisation must
come  and endure in order to be a reality of the life.  If experienced
in trance it would be a superconscient state true for some part of the
inner being,  but not real to the whole consciousness.  Experiences in
trance have their utility for opening the being and preparing it,  but
it  is  only when the realisation is constant in the waking state that
it is truly possessed.  Therefore in this yoga most value is given  to
the   waking   realisation  and  experience.
    To work  in  the  calm  ever-widening  consciousness  is at once a
sadhana and a siddbi.

                                 ***

The experience  you  had  is  of  course  the  going  inside  of   the
consciousness  which  is  usually  called trance or samadhi.  The most
important part of it however is the silence  of  the  mind  and  vital
which is fully extended to the body also.  To get the capacity of this
silence and peace is a most important step in the sadhana. It comes at
first  in meditation and may throw the consciousness inward in trance,
but it has to come afterwards in the waking state and establish itself
as a permanent basis for all the life and action.  It is the condition
for the realisation of the Self and the  spiritual  transformation  of
the nature.

                                 ***

Yes, they  [all the states of higher realisation] can be attained even
in full activity.  Trance is not essential - it can be  used,  but  by
itself  it  cannot  lead  to  the change of consciousness which is our
object,  for it gives only an inner subjective experience  which  need
not  make any difference in the outer consciousness.  There are plenty
of instances of sadhaks who have fine experiences in  trance  but  the
outer  being  remains as it was.  It is necessary to bring out what is
experienced and make it a power for transformation both of  the  inner
and the outer being.  But it can be done without going into samadhi in
the  waking  consciousness  itself.   Concentration   of   course   is
indispensable.

                                 ***

There are two different states,  that which the consciousness takes in
concentration and that which it takes in relaxation -  the  latter  is
the ordinary consciousness (ordinary for the sadhak though not perhaps
the ordinary consciousness of the average man),  the former is what he
is  attaining to by Tapas of concentration in sadhana.  To go into the
Akshara and witness experiences from there is easy for the sadhak  who
has  got so far.  He can also concentrate and maintain the unification
of the main aspects of his being,  although with more difficulty - but
a   relaxation   there   brings  him  back  to  the  relaxed  ordinary
consciousness.  It is only when what  is  gained  by  sadhana  becomes
normal  to  the  ordinary  consciousness that this can be avoided.  In
proportion as this is done, it becomes possible not only to experience
the truth subjectively, but make it manifest in action.

                                 ***

The higher consciousness is a concentrated consciousness, concentrated
in the Divine Unity and in the working out of  the  Divine  Will,  not
dispersed  and  rushing  about after this or that mental idea or vital
desire or physical need as is the  ordinary  human  consciousness-also
not  invaded  by a hundred haphazard thoughts,  feelings and impulses,
but master of itself, centred and harmonious.

                                 ***

III

                                 ***

The japa is usually successful only on one of two conditions -  if  it
is repeated with a sense of its significance,  a dwelling of something
in the mind on the nature, power, beauty, attraction of the Godhead it
signifies and is to bring into the consciousness,  -that is the mental
way;  or if it comes up from the heart or rings in it with  a  certain
sense or feeling ofbhakti making it alive, -that is the emotional way.
Either the mind or the vital has to give it support  or  sustenance  .
But  if  it  makes  the  mind  dry and the vital restless,  it must be
missing that support and sustenance. There is, of course, a third way,
the  reliance on the power of the inantra or name in itself;  but then
one has to go on  till  that  power  has  sufficiently  impressed  its
vibration  on  the  inner  being to make it at a given moment suddenly
open to the Presence or the Touch.  But if there is  a  struggling  or
insistence  for  the  result,  then  this  effect  which needs a quiet
receptivity in the mind is impeded.  That is why I insisted so much on
mental quietude and not on too much straining or effort,  to give time
to allow the psychic and the mind to develop the  necessary  condition
of  receptivity  -  a  receptivity  as  natural as when one receive an
inspiration for poetry and music.  It is also why I do not want you to
discontinue your poetry -it helps and does not hinder the preparation,
because it is a means of developing the right position of  receptivity
and  bringing  out  the  bhakti which is there in the inner being.  To
spend all the energy in japa or meditation  is  a  strain  which  even
those who are accustomed to successful meditation find it difficult to
maintain - unless in periods when there is an  uninterrupted  flow  of
experiences from above.

                                 ***

OM is   the   mantra,  the  expressive  sound-symbol  of  the  Brahman
Consciousness in its four domains from the Turiya to the  external  or
material  plane.  The  function of a mantra is to create vibrations in
the inner consciousness that will prepare it for  the  realisation  of
what  the  mantra  symbolises  and  is supposed indeed to carry within
itself. The mantra OM should therefore lead towards the opening of the
consciousness to the sight and feeling of the One Consciousness in all
material things,  in the inner being and in the supraphysical  worlds,
in the causal plane above now superconscient to us and,  finally,  the
supreme liberated transcendence above all cosmic existence.  The  last
is  usually the main preoccupation with those who use the mantra.
    In this yoga there is no  fixed  mantra,  no  stress  is  laid  on
mantras,  although  sadhaks  can use one if they find it helpful or so
long as they find it helpful. The stress is rather on an aspiration in
the consciousness and a concentration of the mind,  heart,  will,  all
the being.  If a mantra is found helpful for that,  one uses it. OM if
rightly  used  (not  mechanically)  might  very  well help the opening
upwards and outwards (cosmic consciousness) as well as the descent.

                                 ***

As a rule the only mantra used in this sadhana is that of  the  Mother
or of my name and the Mother's. The concentration in the heart and the
concentration in the head can both be used -each has its  own  result.
The first opens up the psychic being and brings bhakti, love and union
with the Mother,  her presence within the heart and the action of  her
Force in the nature.  The other opens the mind to self-realisation, to
the consciousness of  what  is  above  mind,  to  the  ascent  of  the
consciousness   out  of  the  body  and  the  descent  of  the  higher
consciousness into the body.

                                 ***

The name of the Divine  is  usually  called  in  for  protection,  for
adoration,  for  increase  ofbhakti,  for  the opening up of the inner
consciousness,  for the realisation of the Divine in that  aspect.  As
far as it is necessary to work in the subconscious for that,  the Name
must be effective there.

                                 ***

Namajapa has a great power in it.

                                 ***

Whatever name is called the Power that answers  is  the  Mother.  Each
name  indicates  a certain aspect of the Divine and is limited by that
aspect; the Mother's Power is universal.

                                 ***

I did not encourage the name with the breathing  because  that  seemed
like  pranayam.  Pranayam  is  a  very  powerful  thing,  but  if done
haphazardly it may lead to the raising of  obstructions  and  even  in
extreme cases illness in the body.

                                 ***

The power of Gayatri is the Light of the divine Truth.  It is a mantra
of Knowledge.

                                 ***

The Gayatri mantra is the mantra for bringing the light of Truth  into
all the planes of the being.

                                 ***

It is  not  necessary to give up Gayatri Japa or the process which you
are following at present.  Concentration in the heart is  one  method,
concentration in the head (or above) is another;  both are included in
this yoga and one has to do  whichever  one  finds  easiest  and  most
natural.  The  object of the concentration in the heart is to open the
centre there (heart-lotus),  to feel the presence of the Divine Mother
in  the heart and to become aware of one's soul or psychic being which
is a portion of the Divine.  The object of the  concentration  in  the
head  is  to rise to the Divine Consciousness and bring down the Light
of the Mother or her Force  or  Ananda  into  all  the  centres.  This
movement  of  ascent  and descent is implied in the process ofyourjapa
and it is not therefore necessary to renounce it.
    There is  a  level corresponding to the Satya Loka in the head but
the consciousness has at a certain stage to rise above the head freely
to meet the same level in the universal Consciousness above.

                                 ***

It [Pranava japa] is supposed to have a force of its own although that
force cannot fully work without the meditation on the meaning.  But my
experience  is  that  in  these things there is no invariable rule and
that most depends on the consciousness or the power of response in the
sadhak.  With  some  it  has  no effect,  with some it has a rapid and
powerful effect even without meditation-for others the  meditation  is
necessary for any effect to come.

                                 ***

Verses of  the  Gita can be used as japa,  if the object is to realise
the Truth that the verses contain in them. lf X's father has taken the
salient  verses containing the heart of the teaching for that purpose,
then it is all right.  Everything depends  on  the  selection  of  the
verses. A coherent summary of the Gita's teaching cannot easily be put
together by putting together some verses,  but that is  not  necessary
for  a  purpose of this kind which could only be to put the key truths
together -  not  for  intellectual  exposition  but  for  grasping  in
realisation  which  is the object ofjapa.  I have not gone through the
book, so I don't know how far it fulfils the object.

                                 ***

When one repeats a mantra regularly,  very often it begins  to  repeat
itself within,  which means that it is taken up by the inner being. In
that way it is more effective.

                                 ***

Naturally, whatever name one concentrates on will  repeat  itself,  if
any  does.  But  the  calling  of Mother in sleep is not necessarily a
repetition - it is  the  inner  being  that  often  calls  to  her  in
difficulty or in need.

                                 ***

Mantras come to many people in meditation.  The Rishis say in the Veda
that they heard the Truth by vision  and  inspiration,  "truth-hearing
seers", kavya• satya™ruta• - Veda is ™ruti got by inner hearing.

                                 ***

Section Seven Sadhana through Love and Devotion

                                 ***

TO BRING  the  Divine  Love  and  Beauty and Ananda into the world is,
indeed,  the whole crown and essence of our yoga.  But it  has  always
seemed  to  me  impossible  unless  there  comes  as  its  support and
foundation and guard the Divine Truth-what I call the  supramental-and
its  Divine  Power.  Otherwise Love itself Minded by the confusions of
this present consciousness may stumble in its human  receptacles  and,
even  otherwise,  may  find  itself unrecognised,  rejected or rapidly
degenerating and lost in the frailty of  man's  inferior  nature.  But
when  it  comes  in  the divine truth and power,  Divine Love descends
first  as  something  transcendent  and  universal  and  out  of  that
transcendence  and universality it applies itself to persons according
to the Divine Truth  and  Will,  creating  a  vaster,  greater,  purer
personal love than any the human mind or heart can now imagine.  It is
when one has felt this descent that one can be  really  an  instrument
for the birth and action of the Divine Love in the world.

                                 ***

I do  not  exactly  know  what  you  mean  by  the  Divine  Love being
established down to the subconscious.  What love?  the soul's love for
the  Divine?  or  the principle of the Divine Love and Ananda which is
the highest thing that can be reached? To establish the latter down to
the subconscient is a thing which would mean the entire transformation
of the whole being and it cannot be done except as the result  of  the
supramental  change  which  is  as  yet  far  away.  The  other may be
established even now in principle,  but to make it living and complete
in the whole being would mean the psychic transformation completed and
the spiritual also well under way already.

                                 ***

The Mother did not tell you that love is  not  an  emotion,  but  that
Divine Love is not an emotion,  - a very different thing to say. Human
love is made up of emotion,  passion and desire,  - all of them  vital
movements,  therefore  bound  to  the  disabilities of the human vital
nature.  Emotion is an excellent  and  indispensable  thing  in  human
nature,  in spite of all its shortcomings and dangers, -just as mental
ideas are excellent and indispensable things in their own field in the
human  stage.  But our aim is to go beyond mental ideas into the light
of the supramental Truth,  which exists not by ideative thought but by
direct  vision  and identity.  In the same way our aim is to go beyond
emotion to the height and depth and intensity of the Divine  Love  and
there  feel  through  the inner psychic heart an inexhaustible oneness
with the Divine which the spasmodic leapings  of  the  vital  emotions
cannot  reach  or  experience.
    As supramental Truth is not merely a  sublimation  of  our  mental
ideas,  so  Divine Love is not merely a sublimation of human emotions;
it is a different consciousness,  with a different  quality,  movement
and substance.

                                 ***

It [the Divine Love] exists in itself and does  not  depend  on  outer
contact or outer expression. Whether it shall express itself outwardly
or how it will express itself outwardly depends on the spiritual truth
that has to be manifested.

                                 ***

The Divine Love may not be able yet to manifest on the physical plane,
humanity being what it is,  as fully and freely as it would  otherwise
do, but that does not make it less close or intense than the human. It
is there waiting to be understood and accepted  and  meanwhile  giving
all  the  help  you  can  receive  to  raise  and  widen  you into the
consciousness in which  it  will  be  no  longer  possible  for  these
difficulties and these misunderstandings to recur - the state in which
there is possible the full and perfect union.

                                 ***

And let me say also that,  as regards human love and  divine  Love,  I
admitted the first as that from which we have to proceed and to arrive
at  the  other,  intensifying  and  transforming  into   itself,   not
eliminating,  human love.  Divine Love, in my view of it, is again not
something ethereal,  cold and far,  but  a  love  absolutely  intense,
intimate and full of unity, closeness and rapture using all the nature
for its expression.  Certainly,  it  is  without  the  confusions  and
disorders  of the present lower vital nature which it will change into
something entirely warm,  deep and intense;  but that is no reason for
supposing  that  it  will  lose anything that is true and happy in the
elements of love.

                                 ***

Love cannot be cold - for there is no such thing as cold love, but the
love  of  which  the  Mother  speaks in that passage is something very
pure,  fixed and constant;  it does not leap into fire  and  sink  for
ivant of fuel,  but is steady and all-embracing and self-existent like
the light of the sun.  There is also a divine love that  is  personal,
but  it  is not like the ordinary personal human love dependent on any
return from the person - it is personal but not egoistic: it goes from
the real being in the one to the real being in the other.  But to find
that, liberation from the ordinary human way of approach is necessary.

                                 ***

And first about human love in the sadhana.  The soul's turning through
love  to the Divine must be through a love that is essentially divine,
but as the instrument of expression at first is  a  human  nature,  it
takes  the  forms  of  human  love  and  bhakti.  It  is  only  as the
consciousness deepens, heightens and changes that that greater eternal
love  can  grow  in it and openly transform the human into the divine.
But in human love itself there are  several  kinds  of  motive-forces.
There  is a psychic human love which rises from deep within and is the
result of the meeting of the inner being  with  that  which  calls  it
towards  a  divine  joy  and  union;  it is,  once it becomes aware of
itself,  something lasting,  selfexistent, not dependent upon external
satisfactions,  not  capable  of  diminution  by external causes,  not
self-regarding,  not prone to demand  or  bargain  but  giving  itself
simply and spontaneously, not moved to or broken by misunderstandings,
disappointments ,  strife and  anger,  but  pressing  always  straight
towards  the  inner union.  It is this psychic love that is closest to
the divine and it is therefore the right and  best  way  of  love  and
bhakti.  But that does not mean that the other parts of the being, the
vital and physical included, are not to be used as means of expression
or  that  they are not to share in the full play and the whole meaning
of love,  even of divine love.  On the contrary,  they are a means and
can  be  a  great  part  of  the  complete  expression of divine love,
-provided they have the right and not the wrong movement. There are in
the  vital itself two kinds of love,  - one full of joy and confidence
and abandon, generous , unbargaining , ungrudging and very absolute in
its  dedication  and this is akin to the psychic and well-fitted to be
its complement and a means of  expression  of  the  divine  love.  And
neither  does  the  psychic love or the divine love despise a physical
means of expression wherever that is pure and right and  possible;  it
does not depend upon that, it does not diminish, revolt or go out like
a snuffed candle when it is deprived of any such means;  but  when  it
can use it,  it does so with joy and gratitude.  Physical means can be
and are used in the approach to divine love and worship; they have not
been  allowed merely as a concession to human weakness,  nor is it the
fact that in the psychic way there is no place for such things. On the
contrary,  they  are one means of approaching the Divine and receiving
the Light and materialising the psychic contact,  and so long as it is
done  in  the right spirit and they are used for the true purpose they
have their place.  It is only if they are misused or the  approach  is
not right,  because tainted by indifference and inertia,  or revolt or
hostility,  or some gross desire,  that they are out of place and  can
have a contrary effect.
    But there  is  another way of vital love which is more usually the
way of human nature and that is a way of ego and desire. It is full of
vital  craving ,  desire and demand;  its continuance depends upon the
satisfaction of its demands; if it does not get what it craves or even
imagines  that  it is not being treated as it deserves -for it is full
of imaginations,  misunderstandings,  jealousies, misinterpretations -
it  at  once  turns to sorrow,  wounded feeling,  anger,  all kinds of
disorder,  finally cessation and departure.  A love of this kind is in
its  very  nature  ephemeral  and  unreliable  and it cannot be made a
foundation for divine love... It is for this reason that we discourage
this lower vital way of human love and would like people to reject and
eliminate these elements as soon as may be  from  their  nature.  Love
should  be  a flowering ofjoy and union and confidence and self-giving
and Ananda,  - but this lower vital way is only a source of suffering,
trouble,'  disappointment,  disillusion  and  disunion.  Even a slight
element of it  shakes  the  foundations  of  peace  and  replaces  the
movement  towards  Ananda  by  a  fall towards sorrow,  discontent and
Nirananda.

                                 ***

The love which is turned towards the Divine ought not to be the  usual
vital feeling which men call by that name;  for that is not love,  but
only a vital desire,  an instinct of  appropriation,  the  impulse  to
possess and monopolise.  Not only is this not the divine Love,  but it
ought not to be allowed to mix in the least degree in  the  yoga.  The
true  love  for the Divine is a self-giving,  free of demand,  full of
submission and surrender;  it makes no claim,  imposes  no  condition,
strikes no bargain ,  indulges in no violences of jealousy or pride or
anger - for these things are not in its  composition.  In  return  the
Divine  Mother  also  gives  herself,  but freely -and this represents
itself in an inner giving - her presence in  your  mind,  your  vital,
your  physical consciousness,  her power re-creating you in the divine
nature,  taking up all the movements of your being and directing  them
towards  perfection  and  fulfilment,  her  love  enveloping  you  and
carrying you in its arms Godwards.  It is this that you must aspire to
feel and possess in all your parts down to the very material, and here
there is no limitation either of time or of completeness. If one truly
aspires  and  gets it there ought to be no room for any other claim or
for any disappointed desire.  And  if  one  truly  aspires,  one  does
unfailingly get it, more and more as the purification proceeds and the
nature undergoes its needed  change.
    Keep your love pure of all selfish claim and desire; you will find
that you are getting all the love that you  can  bear  and  absorb  in
answer.
    Realise also that the Realisation must come first,  the work to be
done,  not  the satisfaction of claim and desire.  It is only when the
Divine Consciousness in its supramental Light and Power has  descended
and  transformed  the  physical  that  other  things  can  be  given a
prominent place - and then too it will  not  be  the  satisfaction  of
desire,  but the fulfilment of the Divine Truth in each and all and in
the new life that is to express it.  In the divine life all is for the
sake of the Divine and not for the sake of the ego.
    I should perhaps add one or two things to avoid  misapprehensions.
First,  the love for the Divine of which I speak is not a psychic love
only;  it is the love of all the being, - the vital and vital-physical
included,  - all are capable of the same self-giving.  It is a mistake
to believe that if the vital loves, it must be a love that demands and
imposes the satisfaction of its desire;  it is a mistake to think that
it must be either that or else the vital,  in order to escape from its
"attachment",  must  draw away altogether from the object of its love.
The vital can be as absolute in its unquestioning self-giving  as  any
other  part  of  the  nature;  nothing  can  be more generous than its
movement when it forgets self for the Beloved.  The vital and physical
should  both  give  themselves in the true way - the way of true love,
not of egodesire.

                                 ***

Generally when people speak of vital intimacy they mean something very
external  which does not need to be brought down since it is common in
human life. If it is the inner vital intimacy with the Divine, then of
course that makes the union more complete, provided it is based on the
psychic.

                                 ***

When the vital joins in the love for the Divine,  it  brings  into  it
heroism,   enthusiasm,  intensity,  absoluteness,  exclusiveness,  the
spirit of self-sacrifice,  the total and passionate self-giving of all
the  nature.  It  is the vital passion for the Divine that creates the
spiritual heroes, conquerors or martyrs.

                                 ***

I suppose "love" expresses something more intense than goodwill  which
can include mere liking or affection. But whether love or goodwill the
human feeling is always either based on or strongly mixed with ego,  -
that is why it cannot be pure.  It is said in the Upanishad, "One does
not love the wife for the sake of the wife",  or the child  or  friend
etc,  as  the  case  may be,  "but for one's self's sake one loves the
wife".  There is usually a hope of return,  of benefit or advantage of
some kind,  or of certain pleasures and gratifications,  mental, vital
or physical that the person loved can give.  Remove these  things  and
the  love  very  soon  sinks,  diminishes  or disappears or turns into
anger,  reproach,  indifference or' even hatred.  But there is also an
element  of  habit,  something  that  makes the presence of the person
loved a sort of necessity because it has always been there - and  this
is sometimes so strong that even in spite of entire incompatibility of
temper ,  fierce antagonism,  something like hatred, it lasts and even
these  gulfs  of  discord are not enough to make the persons part;  in
other cases,  this feeling is more tepid and after  a  time  one  gets
accustomed to separation or accepts a substitute. There is again often
the element of some kind  of  spontaneous  attraction  or  affinity  -
mental vital or physical, which gives a stronger cohesion to the love.
Lastly,  there is in the highest or deepest kind of love  the  psychic
element  which  comes from the inmost heart and soul,  a kind of toner
union or self-giving or at least a seeking for that,  a tie or an urge
independent of other conditions or elements, existing for its own sake
and not for any mental,  vital  or  physical  pleasure,  satisfaction,
interest or habit. But usually the psychic element in human love, even
where it is present, is so much mixed, overloaded and hidden under the
others that it has little chance of fulfilling itself or achieving its
own natural purity and fullness.  What is  called  love  is  therefore
sometimes one thing, sometimes another, most often a confused mixture,
and it is impossible to give a general answer to the questions you put
as to what is meant by love in such and such a case. It depends on the
persons and the  circumstances.
    When the  love'  goes  towards  the  Divine,  there  is still this
ordinary human element in it.  There is the call for a return  and  if
the  return  does  not seem to come,  the love may sink;  there is the
self-interest,  the demand for the Divine as a giver of all  that  the
human  being  wants and,  if the demands are not acceded Jo,  abhim€na
against the Divine,  loss of faith,  loss of fervour ,  etc., etc. But
the  true love for the Divine is in its fundamental nature not of this
kind,  but psychic and spiritual.  The psychic element is the need  of
the  inmost being for self-giving,  love,  adoration,  union which can
only be fully satisfied by the Divine.  The spiritual element  is  the
need of the being for contact, merging, union with its own highest and
whole self and source  of  being  and  consciousness  and  bliss,  the
Divine.  These two are two sides of the same thing.  The mind,  vital,
physical can be the supports and recipients of this love, but they can
be  fully  that  only  when  they become remoulded in harmony with the
psychic and spiritual elements of the being and no longer bring in the
lower insistences of the ego.

                                 ***

Why do you need something remarkable? The love of the soul is the true
thing, simple and absolute - the rest is good only if it is a means of
manifestation of the soul's love.

                                 ***

The outer being has to learn to love in the psychic way  without  ego.
If  it  loves  in  the  egoistic  vital  way,  then  it  only  creates
difficulties for itself and for the sadhana and for the Mother.

                                 ***

The relation of the child to the Mother is that  of€  entire,  sincere
and simple trust, love and dependence.

                                 ***

When you  come  to the Divine,  lean inwardly on the Divine and do not
let other things affect you.

                                 ***

What he  describes  is  a  vital  demand  of  the  ego  for  emotional
selfsatisfaction; it is Maya. It is not true love, for true love seeks
for union and self-giving and that is the love one must bring  to  the
Divine.   This  vital  (so-called)  love  brings  only  suffering  and
disappointment;  it does not bring happiness;  it never gets satisfied
and,  even  if  it is granted something that it asks for,  it is never
satisfied with it.
    It is perfectly possible to get rid of  this  Maya  of  the  vital
demand, if one wishes to do it, but the will to do it must be sincere.
If he is  sincere  in  his  will,  he  will  certainly  get  help  and
protection.  He  must  get  his  basis  changed  from the vital to the
psychic centre.

                                 ***

It is the ordinary nature of vital love not to last or, if it tries to
last,  not to satisfy, because it is a passion which Nature has thrown
in in order to serve a temporary purpose;  it is good enough therefore
for a temporary purpose and its normal tendency is to wane when it has
sufficiently served Nature's purpose.  In mankind,  as man is  a  more
complex  being,  she  calls  in the aid of imagination and idealism to
help her push,  gives a sense of ardour, of beauty and fire and glory,
but all that wanes after a time.  It cannot last,  because it is all a
borrowed light and power,  borrowed in the sense of being a reflection
caught  from  something  beyond and not native to the reflecting vital
medium which imagination uses for the purpose. Moreover, nothing lasts
in the mind and vital, all is a flux there. The one thing that endures
is the soul, the spirit. Therefore love can last or satisfy only if it
bases  itself on the soul and spirit,  if it has its roots there.  But
that means living no longer in the vital but in the soul  and  spirit.

    The difficulty of the vital giving up is because the vital is  not
governed  by reason or knowledge,  but by instinct and impulse and the
desire of pleasure.  It draws back because it is disappointed, because
it realises that the disappointment will always repeat itself,  but it
does not realise that the whole thing is itself a glamour  or,  if  it
does,  it repines that it should be so. Where the vairagya is sattwie,
born not of disappointment but of  the  sense  of  greater  and  truer
things to be attained,  this difficulty does not arise.  However,  the
vital can learn by experience,  can learn so much as to turn away from
its  regret  of  the beauty of the will-o'-the-wisp.  Its vairagya can
become sattwic and decisive.

                                 ***

Whatever may  be  the glamour of a vital love,  once it falls away and
one gets to a higher level,  it should be seen to have  been  not  the
great  thing one imagined.  To keep this exaggerated estimate of it is
to hold the consciousness back from the pull towards the greater thing
with  which  that  cannot  for  a  moment  compare.  If  one  keeps an
exaggerated feeling like that for an inferior past  it  must  make  it
more difficult to develop the entire person for a higher future. It is
indeed not the Mother's wish that anybody should look back in a spirit
of enthusiastic appreciation to the old vital love.  It was indeed "so
little" in any true estimate of things. It is not at all a question of
comparison  or of extolling the vital passion of one at the expense of
that of the other.  It is the whole thing that  must  dwindle  in  its
proportions and recede into the shadowy constructions of the past that
have no longer any importance.

                                 ***

Your difficulty is that the vital has not yet arrived at the secret of
the self-existent Ananda of love, the Ananda of love's own pure truth,
the inner beauty of it for its own  sake,  the  secret  of  the  inner
abiding ecstasy;  it cannot yet believe that the thing exists.  But it
is travelling towards it and this feeling was probably  a  stage  -  a
groping  after  a  purer vital emotion on the way to the purest of all
which is one with the Divine.

                                 ***

The Divine Love,  unlike the human,  is deep and vast and silent;  one
must become quiet and wide to be aware of it and reply to it.  He must
make it his whole object to be surrendered so that  he  may  become  a
vessel and instrument-leaving it to the Divine Wisdom and Love to fill
him with what is needed.  Let him also fix this in  the  mind  not  to
insist   that   in  a  given  time  he  must  progress,  develop,  get
realisation;  whatever time it takes,  he must be prepared to wait and
persevere and make his whole life an aspiration and an opening for the
one thing only,  the Divine. To give oneself is the secret of sadhana,
not  to demand and acquire.  The more one gives oneself,  the more the
power to receive will grow.  But for that all  impatience  and  revolt
must go ;  all suggestions of not getting, not being helped, not being
loved,  going away, of abandoning life or the spiritual endeavour must
be rejected.

                                 ***

If the  love  is  absolute  and  complete and there has never been any
vital demand connected with it,  then  suggestions  of  revolt  cannot
come.

                                 ***

One can  love divinely only by becoming divine in nature;  there is no
other way.

                                 ***

Love is sufficient for itself - it does not need the  support  of  the
blind. In that it is like faith and every other divine force.

                                 ***

Human love  is mostly vital and physical with a mental support -it can
take an unselfish,  noble and pure form and expression only if  it  is
touched  by  the  psychic.  It  is true,  as you say,  that it is more
usually a mixture of ignorance,  attachment,  passion and desire.  But
whatever it may be, one who wishes to reach the Divine must not burden
himself with human loves  and  attachments,  for  they  form  so  many
fetters  and  hamper  his  steps,  turning  him  away besides from the
concentration of his emotions on  the  one  supreme  object  of  love.

    There is  such  a  thing  as psychic love,  pure,  without demand,
sincere in self-giving,  but it  is  not  usually  left  pure  in  the
attraction  of human beings to one another.  One must also be on one's
guard against the  profession  of  psychic  love  when  one  is  doing
sadhana,  -for  that  is  most  often  a  cloak  and justification for
yielding to a vital attraction or attachment.
    Universal love  is  the  spiritual founded on the sense of the One
and the Divine everywhere and the change of the personal into  a  wide
universal consciousness,  free from attachment and ignorance.
    Divine Love is of two kinds-the divine Love for the  creation  and
the souls that are part of itself, and the love of the seeker and love
for the Divine Beloved; it has both a personal and impersonal element,
but  the  personal  is free here from all lower elements or bondage to
the vital and physical instincts.

                                 ***

The psychic  love  is  pure  and  full of self-giving without egoistic
demands,  but it is human and can err and suffer.  The Divine Love  is
something much vaster and deeper and full of light and Ananda.

                                 ***

The Divine's  love is that which comes from above poured down from the
Divine Oneness and its Ananda on the being -psychic  love  is  a  form
taken  by  divine  love  in  the human being according to the need and
possibilities of the human consciousness.

                                 ***

The soul's love and joy come from within from the psychic being.  What
comes from above is the Ananda of the higher consciousness.

                                 ***

If love  is  psychic  in  its  motive,  it  always brings the sense of
oneness or at least of an  inner  intimate  closeness  of  being.  The
Divine  Love  is  based  upon oneness and the psychic derives from the
Divine Love.

                                 ***

If the psychic unites itself with the Divine,  it cannot be separated.
Separation  is non-union.  The psychic realisation is one of diversity
in unity (the portion and the whole); it is not one of dissolving like
a  drop  of water in the sea -for then no love or devotion is possible
unless it is love of oneself, devotion to oneself.

                                 ***

Men are necessarily separated by the individualisation of their nature
and  can only establish contacts there.  In the psychic being one gets
the sense of oneness by psychic sympathy,  but not any  unification  ,
for  the psychic is the Individual soul and must unify itself with the
Divine before  it  can  through  the  Divine  unify  with  others.  In
spiritual  realisation  there  are  two  quite opposite forms - one in
which one withdraws from  all  outer  things  including  all  material
beings  in the world to merge in the Divine and one in which one feels
the Self or the Divine in all and through that realisation attains  to
a universal oneness.

                                 ***

The love that belongs to the spiritual planes is of a different kind -
the psychic has its own more personal love, bhakti, surrender. Love in
the higher or spiritual mind is more universal and impersonal. The two
must go together to make the highest divine love.

                                 ***

Universal love is always  universal  -psychic  love  can  individua"se
itself.

                                 ***

Cosmic love  depends  on  the realisation of oneness of self with all.
Psychic love or feeling for all can exist without this realisation.

                                 ***

The Intuitive or overmind are more open to the truth  of  Divine  love
and  more  capable  of universalising love than the mind ordinarily is
-love there is also more calm in its intensity, less ego-bound than in
the  mental  parts.  But  the  mind can also approach their quality of
love, if the love in it grows psychic and "piritual.

                                 ***

I do not quite understand X's question.  Does he mean to  ask  whether
one can become conscious of the Divine's Love for all creatures before
one is oneself filled with the universal love for others?  If that  is
the  meaning,  then one can certainly become conscious of the Divine's
Love before one has oneself  the  universal  love  -  one  can  become
conscious  of it by contact with the Divine in oneself.  Naturally the
consciousness of it should lead to the development of a universal love
for  all.  But  if he means a love that is divine,  not tainted by the
lower movements,  then it is true that until there  comes  the  peace,
purity,   freedom   from   ego,   wideness,  light  of  the  universal
consciousness which  is  the  basis  of  the  universal  love,  it  is
difficult  to  have  a  love  that  is  free  from  all  the  defects,
limitations,  taints of ordinary human love.  The more one has of  the
universality the more one tends to be freed from these things.

                                 ***

The oneness  with  all  in  its  basis  is something self-existent and
self-content which does not need  expression.  When  it  does  express
itself  as  love,  it is something wide and universal,  untroubled and
firm even when it is intense.  This is in the  basic  cosmic  oneness.
There  is  also the surface cosmic consciousness which is an awareness
of the play of cosmic forces-here anything may rise,  sex also.  It is
this  part  that needs the perfect psychisation,  otherwise one cannot
hold, contain and deal with it in the proper way.

                                 ***

The realisation in the mind of the One brings  or  ought  to  bring  a
certain freedom in the mind,  but it is possible for the vital and the
body under its impulse to go on having the ordinary movements-for they
depend  only  partially  on  the mind for their action.  They can even
carry it away,  haranti prasabham mana•,  or they can act in spite  of
the  mind's  reasoning  and  disapprobation  .  "I  see the better and
approve it,  I follow the worse" as the Roman poet puts it  -  in  the
language of the Gita, anicchannapi bal€diva niyojita•. It is necessary
therefore that the realisation with its  peace  and  force  of  purity
should come down concretely into the vital and physical itself so that
when the vital movements try to rise they are met by it and unable  to
remain because of its automatic pressure.

                                 ***

So long  as the whole consciousness is not clear of doubtful stuff and
the realisation of  oneness  confirmed  in  the  supreme  purity,  the
expression  of  the all-love is not advisable.  It is by holding it in
oneself that it becomes a real part of  the  nature,  established  and
purified  by joining with it the other realisations still to come.  At
present it is only a first touch and to  dissipate  it  by  expression
would be very imprudent . The sex and vital might easily become active
- I have known cases of very good  yogis...  in  whom  the  vi™vaprema
became  the  vi™ak€ma,  all-love becoming all-lust.  This has happened
with many both in Europe and the East.  Even apart  from  that  it  is
always  best  to  solidify  or  confirm  rather  than to throw out and
disperse. When the sadhana has progreased and the knowledge from above
comes to enlighten and guide the love, then it will be another matter.
My insistence on rejection of all  untransformed  vital  movements  is
based on experience,  mine and others' and that of past yogas like the
Vaishnava movement ofChaitanya (not  to  speak  of  the  old  Buddhist
Sahaja  dharma) which ended in much corruption .  A wide movement such
as that of all-love can only take place when the ground of Nature  has
been solidly prepared for it.  I have no objection to your mixing with
others,  but only under a continual guard and control  by  a  vigilant
mind and will.

                                 ***

Perception is  not  enough  to  transform the nature.  Pa™yata• in the
spiritual language does not mean only perception. Perception is of the
mind and a mental perception is not enough - a substantial and dynamic
realisation in all the being is  necessary.  Otherwise  one  of  three
things may happen. (I) The mind perceives oneness but the vital is not
affected,  it goes on with its impulses, for the vital is governed not
by thought or reason but by tendency,  impulse, desire-force - it uses
reason only as a justification for its tendencies.  Or even the  vital
may say, "All is one so it does not matter what I do. Why should not I
seek oneness with others in  my  own  way?  (2)  If  the  mind  has  a
realisation,  but the vital does not share in it or distorts it,  then
also the vital can insist on its own way or even carry the mind  along
with it. As the Gita says, the senses (vital) carry away the mind even
of the sage who sees, as the wind carries away a ship on a stormy sea.
(3)  The inner being may have the realisation strongly and live in the
oneness, calm, peace, but the interior parts of the outer may feel the
reactions  of  desire  etc.  In  this  case  the  reactions  are  more
superficial; but even so rejection is needed till they cease. When all
the being lives in the solid realisation of calm,  peace,  liberation,
oneness,  then the desires fall away and the  necessity  of  rejection
ceases, because there is nothing to reject any longer.

                                 ***

The mental  realisation  [of  the one self] does not bring this result
[immunity from moha and ™oka],  the spiritual does.  In  the  Vedantic
experience  "seeing"  means  also  becoming,  one  is  that  one self,
identified,-all action of Nature seems to one a movement on  that  one
self which is itself not touched by it.  Therefore there is no moha or
soka.  That is when one  can  keep  the  experience  and  when  it  is
complete.  Even  if  one  lias the experience only as something within
while the movements of the vital continue on the  surface,  yet  these
movements  are felt as external and superficial,  not really belonging
to oneself-the self within  remains  untouched,  calm,  griefless,  at
peace.  If the vital also is transformed into this consciousness, then
even on the surface grief becomes impossible.

                                 ***

The dynamic Love cannot go out equally  to  all-that  would  create  a
chaotic disturbance because of the unpreparedness of the majority . It
is only the static immutable universal Love that can apply equally  to
all  -  that  which  comes  in  a  still  wideness  of the heart which
corresponds with the still wideness of the mind in which there is  the
equanimity and infinite peace.

                                 ***

One can  talk  to all,  unless one has a reason for not doing so.  The
oneness  with  all  is  an  internal  realisation,  but  it  does  not
necessarily impose the same dealing with all... It is the old story of
h€ti brahman and m€hout brahman.  There is the fundamental realisation
and there are the disparities of the Lila - both have to be taken into
account.

                                 ***

It is the vital seeking to pour itself out with the implicit  idea  of
getting  a  return  in  interchange.  The  consciousness of oneness is
something behind all life and all forms of  affection  come  no  doubt
from it,  but not consciously,  and they get changed, mixed, perverted
when the vital takes up the action of the force of Love of whose  true
or divine nature it is unconscious.

                                 ***

That was  exactly  what  X  tried  to  do  -  to  express  the love in
connection with this  or  that  person.  But  universal  love  is  not
personal   -  it  has  to  be  held  within  as  a  condition  of  the
consciousness which will have Its effects according to the Divine Will
or be used by that Will if necessary ;  but to run about expressing it
for one's personal satisfaction or the satisfaction of others is  only
to spoil and lose it.

                                 ***

Formerly whenever the opening of the heart came you began to associate
it with vital enjoyment and turned it upon others instead  of  turning
the love towards the Divine and keeping its essential purity - so also
the higher consciousness when it came  down  was  being  dispersed  in
mental movements. This time they were both coming in a purer form, but
the danger of the mental and vital forces catching  hold  of  them  is
still  there  and  then both are likely to stop or break down.  So you
must be careful to allow no mental deviation this time.

                                 ***

I have heard of McTaggart as a philosopher but am totally unacquainted
with his thought and his writings,  so it is a little difficult for me
to answer you with any certitude.  Isolated thoughts or sentences  may
easily be misunderstood if they are not read against the background of
the thinker's way of looking at things taken  as  a  whole.  There  is
always,  too,  the  difference  of standpoint and approach between the
spiritual seeker or  mystic  who  (sometimes)  philosophises  and  the
intellectual  thinker  who  (sometimes or partly) mysticises.  The one
starts from a spiritual or  mystic  experience  or  at  the  least  an
intuitive  realisation and tries to express it and its connection with
other spiritual or intuitive truth in the inadequate and too  abstract
language of the mind;  he looks behind thought and expression for some
spiritual or intuitive experience to which it may  point  and,  if  he
finds  none,  he  is  apt to feel the thought,  however intellectually
fine,  or  the  expression,  however  intellectually  significant,  as
something  unsubstantial,  because  without  spiritual substance.  The
intellectual thinker starts from ideas  and  mentalised  feelings  and
other  mental  or  external phenomena and tries to reach the essential
truth in or behind  them;  generally,  he  stops  short  at  a  mental
abstraction  or only a derivative mental realisation of something that
is in its own nature other than mental.  But if he has the true mystic
somewhere in him, he will sometimes get beyond to at least flashes and
glimpses.  Is it not the compulsion  of  this  approach  (I  mean  the
inadequacy  of the method of intellectual philosophy,  its fixation to
the word and idea,  while to the complete mystic,  word and  idea  are
useful   symbols   only   or  significative  flash-lights)  that  kept
McTaggart,  as it keeps many,  from the unfolding of the mystic within
him?  If  the reviewer is right,  that would be why he is abstract and
dry,  while what is beautiful and moving in his thought might be  some
light  that  shines  through  in  spite  of  the  inadequate  means of
expression to  which  philosophical  thinking  condemns  us.  However,
subject  to  this  rather lengthy caveat,  I will try to deal with the
extracted sentences or summarised thoughts you have placed  before  me
in  your letter.
    "Love the main occupation of the selves in absolute reality": This
seems to me a little excessive. If instead of "the main occupation" it
were  said "an essential power",  that might pass.  I would myself say
that bliss and oneness are the essential  condition  of  the  absolute
reality,  and  love  as the most characteristic dynamic power of bliss
and oneness must support fundamentally and  colour  their  activities;
but the activities themselves may not be of one main kind but manifold
in  character.
    Benevolence and  sympathy:  In  mental  experience benevolence and
sympathy have to be distinguished from love;  but it seems to me  that
beyond  the  dividing  mind,  where  the true sense of oneness begins,
these become at a higher intensity of  their  movement  characteristic
values  of love.  Benevolence becomes an intense compulsion imposed by
love to seek always the  good  of  the  loved,  sympathy  becomes  the
feeling  out  of love to contain ,  participate in and take as part of
one's own existence all the  movements  of  the  loved  and  all  that
concerns  him.
    "Love is authentic and justifies  itself  completely  whether  its
cause be great or trivial":  That is not often true in human practice;
for there the destiny of love and its justification depend  very  much
as  a  rule  (though not always) on the nature of the cause or object.
For if the object of love is trivial in the  sense  of  its  being  an
inadequate  instrument  for  the  dynamic  realisation of the sense of
oneness which McTaggart says is the essence  of  love,  then  love  is
likely  to  be  baulked of its fulfilment.  Unless,  of course,  it is
satisfied with existing,  with spending itself in its own  fundamental
way   on   the   loved   without   expecting   any   return   for  its
self-expenditure,  any mutual  unification.  Still,  of  love  in  its
essence  the  statement  may be true :  but then it would point to the
fact that Love at its origin is a self-existent force,  an absolute, a
transcendent  (as  I  have  put  it),  which  does not depend upon the
objects - it depends only on itself or only on the Divine; for it is a
self-existent  power of the Divine.  If it were not self-existent,  it
would hardly be independent of the nature or reaction of its  objects.
It  is  partly  what I mean when I speak of transcendent Love - though
this is only one  aspect  of  its  transcendence.  That  self-existent
transcendent  Love  spreading  itself over all,  turning everywhere to
contain,  embrace,  unite,  help,  upraise towards love and bliss  and
oneness, becomes cosmic divine Love; intensely fixing itself on one or
other to find itself,  to achieve a dynamic unification  or  to  reach
here  towards  the  union of the soul with the Divine,  it becomes the
individual divine Love. But there are unhappily its diminutions in the
human mind,  human vital,  human physical; there the divine essence of
Love easily becomes mixed with counterfeits ,  dimmed ,  concealed  or
lost  in  the twisted movements born of division and ignorance.
    Love and self-reverence :  It sounds very high,  but  also  rather
dry;  this  "emotion" in the lover does not seem to be very emotional,
it is a hill-top syllogising far above the flow of any emotional urges
.  Self-reverence  in  this  sense  or in a deeper sense can come from
Love,  but it can come equally from a participation in  Knowledge,  in
Power  or  anything else that one feels to be the highest good or else
of the essence of the Highest.  But the passion of love, the adoration
of  love  can  bring  in a quite different,  even an opposite emotion.
Especially in love for the Divine or for one  whom  one  feels  to  be
divine,  the Bhakta feels an intense reverence for the Loved,  a sense
of something of immense greatness,  beauty or value and for himself  a
strong impression of his own comparative unworthiness and a passionate
desire to grow into likeness with that which  one  adores.  What  does
come very often with the onrush of Love is an exaltation, a feeling of
a greatening within, of new powers and high or beautiful possibilities
in  one's  nature or of an intensification of the nature;  but that is
not exactly self-reverence. There is a deeper self-reverence possible,
a  true  emotion,  a sense of the value and even the sacredness of the
soul,  even the mind,  life,  body as an offering or itself the temple
for the inner presence of the Beloved.
    These reactions are intimately connected with the fact that  Love,
when  it  is  worthy of the name,  is always a seeking for union,  for
oneness,  but also in its  secret  foundation  it  is  a  seeking,  if
sometimes  only a dim groping for the Divine.  Love in its depths is a
contact of the Divine Possibility  or  Reality  in  oneself  with  the
Divine  Possibility  or  Reality in the loved.  It is the inability to
affirm 6r keep this character that makes human love  either  transient
or  baulked  of its full significance or condemned to sink into a less
exalted movement diminished to the capacity of the  human  receptacle.
But there McTaggart brings in his saving clause ,  "When I love, I see
the other not as he is now (and therefore really is not),  but  as  he
really  is (that is,  as he will be)".  The rest of it that "the other
with all his faults is somehow  infinitely  good  -at  least  for  his
friend"  seems  to me too mental to convey anything very definite from
the standpoint of the spiritual inner values.  But the formula  quoted
also   is  not  over  clear.  It  means,  I  suppose,  something  like
Vivekananda's distinction between the apparent Man and the  real  Man;
or  it  coincides  up  to  a point with the saying of one of the early
teachers of Vedanta, Yajnavalkya, "Not for the sake of the wife is the
wife dear (or, friend - for the wife is only the first of a list), but
for the sake of the Self (the greater Self,  the Spirit within) is she
dear".  But  Yajnavalkya,  a  seeker  of  the  One  (not  the plural )
Absolute,  would not have  accepted  the  implication  in  MeTaggart's
phrase; he would have said that one must go beyond and eventually seek
the Self not in the wife or friend - even though sought  there  for  a
time,  but in its own self-existence.  In any case,  there seems to be
here an avowal that it is not the human being (what he  now  is),  but
the  Divine or a portion of the Divine within (call it God if you will
or call it Absolute) that is the object of the love.  But  the  mystic
would not be satisfied like MeTaggart with that "will be", - would not
consent to remain  in  love  with  the  finite  for  the  sake  of  an
unrealised  Infinite.  He  would  insist  on  pushing  on towards full
realisation,  towards finding the  Divine  in  Itself  or  the  Divine
Manifest;  he  would not rest satisfied with the Divine unconscious of
itself,  unmanifested or only distantly in posse.
    There is  where  the  parallel  with  the  Ishta  Devata which you
suggest would not hold;  for the  Ishta  Devata  on  whom  the  seeker
concentrates is a conscious Personality of the Divine answering to the
needs of his own personality and showing to him as in a representative
image  what  the  Divine is or at least pointing him through itself to
the Absolute.  On the other side,  when I spoke of the self-absorption
of  the  Divine Force in its energising ,  I was trying to explain the
possibility in  a  Divine  Cosmic  manifestation  of  this  apparently
inconscient  Matter.  I  said  that  in the frontal movement there was
something of the Divine that had thrown itself into material form with
so much concentration that it became the motion and the form which the
motion of Force creates and put all that was not  that  behind  it,  -
even,  but  in  a  greater  degree and more permanently,  as a man can
concentrate and forget his own existence in what he is  doing,  seeing
or making.  In man himself,  who is not inconscient, this appears in a
different way;  his frontal being is unaware of  what  is  behind  the
surface  personality  and  action,  like the part of the actor's being
which becomes the role and forgets entirely the  other  more  enduring
self  behind  the  actor.  But  in  either case there is a larger self
behind,  "a Conscient in things inconscient",  which is aware both  of
itself  and  of the self-forgetting frontal form seen as the creature.
Does McTaggart recognise this conscious Divine within?  He  makes  too
little of this Absolute or Real Self which,  as he yet sees, is within
the unreal or less real appearance.  His denial of  the  Divine  comes
from the insistence of his mind and vital temperament on the friend as
he is,  even though his higher mind may try to escape from that by the
idea  of  what  his  friend  will  be;  otherwise  it  is difficult to
understand the stupendous exaggeration of his thesis that the love for
friends  is  the only real thing in life and his unwillingness to give
God a chance,  lest that should take away the  friend  and  leave  the
Divine  in his place.
    I do not quite seize what is his conception of the  Absolute.  How
can  it be said that a society (?) of distinct selves are collectively
the Absolute?  If it is meant that where there is a union of conscious
liberated  selves  there  is  the presence of the Divine and a certain
manifestation is possible,-that is intelligible.  Or if by society  is
meant  only  that  the  sum  or totality of all distinct selves is the
Divine and these  distinct  individual  selves  are  portions  of  the
Divine, that would be an intelligible (pantheistic) solution. Only, it
would be a Divine All or some kind of Cosmic  Self  or  Spirit  rather
than  the Absolute.  For if there is an Absolute -which intellectually
one is not bound to believe except that something in the  higher  mind
seems  imperatively to ask for it or feel it is there - it must surely
exist in its own absolute right,  -not constituted,  not dependent for
its being on a collectivity of distinct selves,  but self-existent. To
the intellect such an Absolute may seem  an  indefinable  x  which  it
cannot  grasp,  but  mystic  or spiritual experience pushed far enough
ultimately leads to it,  and whatever may be the  gate  of  experience
through  which  one  gets  the  first glimpse of it,  it is there even
though not  fully  grasped  in  that  opening  experience.
    Your own  experience of it was,  you say,  that of an irruption of
the Infinite into the finite - of a greater Power descending upon  you
or  uplifting  you to itself.  That indeed is what it is always to the
spiritual experience  -  and  that  is  why  I  speak  of  it  as  the
Transcendent.  It  reveals  itself  as such a descending and uplifting
Power or a descending and uplifting Love -  or  Light,  Peace,  Bliss,
Consciousness, Presence; it is not limited by its manifestation in the
finite,  -one feels it,  the Peace, the Power, Love, Light or Bliss or
the  Presence in which all these are,  to be a self-existent infinity,
not something constituted by or limited to our first sight of it here.
MeTaggart's  love  of friends remained the only real thing for him;  I
must suppose that he had not this glimpse. But once this irruption has
taken  place,  this descent and uplifting,  that is bound to become in
the end the one thing real,  for by that alone can the rest  find  its
own  lasting  greater  reality.  It  is  the  descent  of  the  Divine
Consciousness and the ascent or uplifting into it of which we speak in
our yoga.  All else can only hold,  make good, fulfil itself if it can
lift itself to be  a  part  of  this  divine  realisation  or  of  its
manifestation,  and, to do that, it must accept a great transformation
and perfection.  But the central realisation must be the  one  central
aim and it is that realisation only which will make other things,  all
that is intended to be made part of it, divinely possible.

                                 ***

II

                                 ***

The nature of Bhakti is adoration,  worship,  self-offering to what is
greater than oneself; the nature of love is a feeling or a seeking for
closeness and union.  Self-giving is the character of both;  both  are
necessary  in  the yoga and each gets its full force when supported by
the other.

                                 ***

Bhakti is not an experience,  it is a state of the heart and soul.  It
is a state which comes when the psychic being is awake and prominent.

                                 ***

In the way of ahaotukˆ bhakti, everything can be made a means - poetry
and music,  for instance,  become not merely poetry and music and  not
merely  even  an  expression  of  Bhakti,  but  themselves  a means of
bringing the experience of love and Bhakti.  Meditation itself becomes
not  an  effort  of  mental  concentration,  but  a  flow  of love and
adoration and worship.

                                 ***

There is no restriction in this yoga to inward worship and  meditation
only.  As  it  is a yoga for the whole being,  not for the inner being
only,  no such  restriction  could  be  intended.  Old  forms  of  the
different religions may fall away, but absence of all forms is not the
rule of the sadhana.

                                 ***

These are the exaggerations made by the mind taking one side of  Truth
and  ignoring the other sides.  The inner bhakti is the main thing and
without it the external becomes  a  form  and  mere  ritual,  but  the
external has its place and use when it is straightforward and sincere.

                                 ***

What is  meant  by  b€hyap“j€  [external  worships]?  If  it is purely
external,  then of course it is the lowest form;  but if done with the
true consciousness, it can bring the greatest possible completeness to
the adoration by allowing the body and the most external consciousness
to share in the spirit and act of worship.

                                 ***

The photograph   is   a   vehicle  only-but  if  you  have  the  right
consciousness,  then you can bring something of the living being  into
it  or become aware of the being for which it stands and can make it a
means of contact.  It is like the pr€�aprati˜’h€ in the image  in  the
temple.

                                 ***

What you  say is no doubt true,  but it is better not to take away the
support that may still be there for the faith of those who  need  such
supports.  These visions and images and ceremonies are meant for that.
It is a spiritual principle not to take away any faith or  support  of
faith,  unless  the  persons  who  have  it  are able to replace it by
something larger and more complete.
    If the  pr€�aprati˜’h€  brings down a powerful Presence,  that may
remain there long after the one who has brought it has left his  body.
Usually  it  is  maintained  by  the  bhakti  of the officiant and the
sincerity of belief and worship of those who come to  the  temple  for
adoration.  If  these fail,  there is likely to be a withdrawal of the
Presence.

                                 ***

Seeing is  of  many kinds.  There is the superficial seeing which only
erects or receives momentarily or for some time an image of the  Being
seen;  that  brings no change unless the inner bhakti makes it a means
for change.  There is also the reception of the living image in one of
its  forms  into  oneself-let us say,  in the heart;  that can have an
immediate effect or initiate a period of spiritual  growth.  There  is
also  the  seeing  outside  oneself  in  a  more or less objective and
subtle-physical or physical way.
    As for the milana,  the abiding union is within and  that  can  be
there  at  all  times  ;  the  outer  milana or contact is not usually
abiding.  There are some who  often  or  almost  Invariably  have  the
contact whenever they worship,  the Deity may become living to them in
the picture or other image they worship,  may move and act through it;
others  may  feel  him always present,  outwardly,  subtle-physically,
abiding with them where they live or in the very room,  but  sometimes
this  Is  only for a period.  Or they may feel the Presence with them,
see it frequently in a body (but  not  materially  except  sometimes),
feel its touch or embrace, converse with it constantly -that is also a
kind of milana.  The greatest milana is one in which one is constantly
aware  of  the  Deity abiding in oneself,  in everything in the world,
holding all the  world  in  him,  identical  with  existence  and  yet
supremely  beyond  the  world - but in the world too one sees,  hears,
feels nothing but him,  so that the very senses bear  witness  to  him
alone - and this does not exclude such special personal manifestations
as those vouchsafed to X and his Guru.  The more ways there are of the
union, the better.

                                 ***

One call  receive  the  manifestation  by  any  of  the senses or by a
feeling  in  the  consciousness,   -   in   the   complete   objective
manifestation there can be sight, hearing, touch, everything.

                                 ***

I meant  that  one  can feel the divine consciousness as an impersonal
spiritual state,  a state  of  peace,  light,  joy,  wideness  without
feeling in it the Divine Presence. The Divine Presence is felt as that
of one who is the living source and essence  of  that  light  etc.,  a
Being therefore,  not merely a spiritual state.  The Mother's Presence
is still more concrete,  definite ,  personal -  it  is  not  that  of
Someone  unknown,  of  a  Power  or  Being,  but  of one who is known,
intimate,  loved,  to whom one can offer all the  being  in  a  living
concrete  way.  The  image  is not indispensable,  though it helps-the
presence can be inwardly felt without it.

                                 ***

If the Presence of the Divine is established,  it means that the being
is ready for the transformation which proceeds naturally.

                                 ***

Adesh and Darshan are elements of a stage of sadhana in which there is
still much distance from the closer state of union. The mind and vital
seek the contact through Darshan and the guidance through Adesh.  What
we aim at in our yoga is the constant union and presence  and  control
of the Divine at every moment.  But on the mental and vital level this
usually remains imperfect and there is much chance oferror.  It is  by
the  supramentalisation that the perfect truth of this Divine union in
action can come.

                                 ***

III

                                 ***

It is a misunderstanding to  suppose  that  I  am  against  Bhakti  or
against  emotional  Bhakti  -  which  comes  to the same thing,  since
without emotion there can be no Bhakti.  It is rather the fact that in
my writings on yoga I have given Bhakti the highest place.  All that I
have said at any time which could account  for  this  misunderstanding
was   against  an  unpurified  emotionalism  which,  according  to  my
experience,  leads to want  of  balance,  agitated  and  disharmonious
expression  or  even contrary reactions and,  at its extreme,  nervous
disorder.  But the insistence on purification does  not  mean  that  I
condemn  true  feeling  and  emotion any more than the insistence on a
purified mind or will means that I condemn thought and  will.  On  the
contrary,  the  deeper the emotion,  the more intense the Bhakti,  the
greater is  the  force  for  realisation  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.

                                 ***

It is no part of this yoga to dry up the heart;  but the emotions must
be turned towards the Divine.  There may be short periods in which the
heart is quiescent ,  turned  away  from  the  ordinary  feelings  and
waiting  for the inflow from above;  but such states are not states of
dryness but of silence and peace.  The heart in this  yoga  should  in
fact be the main centre of concentration until the consciousness rises
above.

                                 ***

Emotion is necessary  in  the  yoga  and  it  is  only  the  excessive
emotional  sensitiveness  which  makes one enter into despondency over
small things that has to be overcome.  The very basis of this yoga  is
bhakti and if one kills one's emotional being, there can be no bhakti.
So there can be no possibility of  emotion  being  excluded  from  the
yoga.

                                 ***

Emotion is a good element in yoga; but emotional desire becomes easily
a cause of perturbation and an obstacle.
    Turn your   emotions   towards   the   Divine,  aspire  for  their
purification;  they will then become a help on the way and no longer a
cause of suffering.
    Not to kill emotion,  but to turn it towards  the  Divine  is  the
right  way  of  the  yoga.
    But it must become pure,  founded upon spiritual  peace  and  joy,
capable of being transmuted into Ananda. Equality and calm in the mind
and vital parts, an intense psychic emotion in the heart can perfectly
go  together.
    Awake by your aspiration the psychic fire in the heart that  burns
steadily  towards  the  Divine  -  that is the one way to liberate and
fulfil the emotional nature.

                                 ***

It is  only  the  ordinary  vital  emotions which waste the energy and
disturb the concentration and  peace  that  have  to  be  discouraged.
Emotion  itself  is  not  a  bad thing;  it is a necessary part of the
nature,  and psychic emotion is one of the most powerful helps to  the
sadbana.  Psychic  emotion,  bringing  tears of love for the Divine or
tears of Ananda,  ought not to be  suppressed:  it  is  only  a  vital
mixture that brings disturbance in the sadhana.

                                 ***

The emotional  [devotion]  is more outward than the psychic - it tends
towards outward expression.  The psychic  is  inwards  and  gives  the
direction  to  the  whole  inner and outer life.  The emotional can be
intense,  but is neither so sure in its basis nor powerful  enough  to
change the whole direction of the life.

                                 ***

It is  quite true that by going above one can get out of all problems,
for they no longer exist,  but the problems are there below and it  is
difficult  to  be  always  above with so much unsolved and calling for
solution. But just as one can go high above, so one can go deep within
and it is this going deep within that is needed.  What happened was at
the surface of the emotional being and if one simply stays  there  the
difficulties  of  the emotional can come,  but what has to be' done is
not to stay on the surface but go deep  within.  For  the  psychic  is
there behind the emotional surface, deep behind the heart-centre. Once
one reaches It,  these things can no longer touch;  what will be there
is  the  inner  peace  and happiness,  the untroubled aspiration,  the
presence or nearness of €he Mother.

                                 ***

To indulge in the emotions,  love,  grief,  sorrow, despair, emotional
joy, etc, for their own sake with a sort of mental-vital over-emphasis
on them is what is called sentimentalism.  There  should  be  in  deep
feeling  a  calm,  a control,  a purifying restraint and measure.  One
should not be at the mercy  of  one's  feelings  and  sentiments,  but
master af' oneself always.

                                 ***

When the  consciousness  indulges  in  these things and wallows in the
excitement  of  emotional   joy   or   suffering,   that   is   called
sentimentalism.  There  is  another  kind in which the mind enjoys its
perceptions of emotion,  love, suffering etc, and plays with them, but
that is a less violent and more superficial sentimentalism.

                                 ***

To know  about the sadhana with the mind is not indispensable.  If one
has bhakti and aspires in the heart's silence,  if there is  the  true
love for the Divine,  then the nature will open of itself,  there will
be the true experience and the Mother's power working within you,  and
the necessary knowledge will come.

                                 ***

There is always the personal and the impersonal side of the Divine and
the Truth and it is a mistake to think the impersonal alone to be true
or  important,  for that leads to a void incompleteness in part of the
being,  while only  one  side  is  given  satisfaction.  Impersonality
belongs  to the intellectual mind and the static self,  personality to
the soul and heart and dynamic being. Those who disregard the personal
Divine ignore something which is profound and essential.
    In following the heart in its purer impulses one follows something
that is at least  as  precious  as  the  mind's  loyalty  to  its  own
conceptions of what the Truth may be.

                                 ***

It is because it is the analysing mind that is active  -  that  always
brings  a  certain  dryness;  the higher mind or the intuition bring a
much more spontaneous and complete knowledge  -the  beginning  of  the
real Jnana without this effort.  The bhakti which you feel is psychic,
but with a strong vital tinge ;  and it is  the  mind  and  the  vital
between  them  that bring in the opposition between the bhakti and the
Jnana.  The  vital  concerned  only  with  emotion  finds  the  mental
knowledge  dry  and  without  rasa,  the mind finds ths bhakti to be a
blind emotion,  fully interesting only when  its  character  has  been
analysed and understood.  There is no such opposition when the psychic
and the higher-plane knowledge act together predominantly-the  psychic
welcomes  knowledge  that  supports  its  emotion,  the higher thought
consciousness rejoices in the bhakti.

                                 ***

There can be no such thing as a mechanical and artificial  devotion  -
there  is either devotion or there is not.  Devotion may be intense or
not intense,  complete or incomplete, sometimes manifest and sometimes
veiled,  but  mechanical  or artificial devotion is a contradiction in
terms.

                                 ***

Your new  attitude  towards  food  and  outward  things  is  the  true
attitude,  the  psychic attitude and shows that the psychic is already
controlling the vital-physical as well as the other parts of the vital
nature.
    As for the heart, the movement of longing for the Divine, weeping,
sorrowing, yearning is not essential in this yoga. A strong aspiration
there  must be,  an intense longing there may very well be,  an ardent
love and will for union;  but there need be no sorrow or  disturbance.
The  quiet  and  silence  you  feel in your heart is the result of the
pressure of the higher consciousness to come down.  That always brings
a  quietude  in  mind  and  heart and as it descends a great peace and
silence.  In the silent  heart  and  mind,  there  must  be  the  true
attitude,  and  thus  you  have  the feeling that you are the Mother's
child,  the faith and the will to be united with her.  Along with that
there  may  be an aspiration or silent expectation of what is to come.
That also you seem to have.  All therefore is well.
    As I  have  written  often,  there are two transformations in this
yoga.  The first is when the psychic being comes forward and  controls
and  changes  the nature.  This is what has happened in you with great
rapidity;  it must complete itself, but that it will do naturally. The
second  is  the  descent  of the Mother's consciousness from above the
head and its transformation of the whole being and nature.  This  also
is now preparing in you. It is the reason of the pressure, the silence
in the heart etc.  What you experienced this time when you went  above
was  the  wideness  of  the  higher being in that higher consciousness
above with the Light coming down through it.  That wideness  and  that
light  will  afterwards come down into you and your consciousness will
be changed into the light and wideness and all that is in them.

                                 ***

Viraha is a transitional experience on the plane of the vital  seeking
for the Spirit - there is no reason why it should not be possible at a
quite early stage.  It is the  realisations  without  any  uneasiness,
realisations  in  pure  Ananda,  that  belong  to  the  more developed
sadhana.

                                 ***

The pure feeling of viraha is psychic -  but  if  rajasic  or  tamasic
movements come in (such as depression, complaint, revolt etc.) then it
becomes tamasic or rajasic.

                                 ***

Pangs of separation belong to the vital,  ribt  to  the  psychic;  the
psychic  having no pangs need not express them.  The psychic is always
turned towards the Divine in faith,  joy  and  confidence  -  whatever
aspiration it has is full of trust and hope.

                                 ***

The sooner  you  get  rid of abhim€na the better.  Anyone who indulges
abhim€na puts himself under  the  influence  of  the  hostile  forces.
Abhim€na  has nothing to do with true love;  it is,  like jealousy,  a
part of the vital egoism.

                                 ***

The very object of yoga is a  change  of  consciousness  -  it  is  by
getting  a  new consciousness or by unveiling the hidden consciousness
of the true being within and progressively manifesting and  perfecting
it that one gets first the contact and then the union with the Divine.
Ananda and Bhakti are part of that deeper  consciousness,  and  it  is
only  when  one lives in it and grows in it that Ananda and Bhakti can
be permanent.  Till then,  one can only get experiences  ofAnanda  and
Bhakti,  but  not  the constant and permanent state.  But the state of
Bhakti and constantly growing surrender does not come  to  all  at  an
early stage of the sadhana;  many, most indeed, have a long journey of
purification and T€sya to go through before it opens,  and experiences
of this kind, at first rare and interspersed, afterwards frequent, are
the landmarks of their progress.  It depends  on  certain  conditions,
which  have nothing to do with superior or inferior yogacapacity,  but
rather with a predisposition in the heart to open,  as you say, to the
Sun of the Divine Influence.

                                 ***

Yes, that was what happened, but also the flow of devotion and love is
a thing which the more it repeats or awakens Is bound to  overflow  to
all the parts of being and have its effect on them.

                                 ***

What you  felt  about  replacement  is quite true.  The transformation
proceeds to a large extent by a taking away or throwing out of the old
superficial  self and its movements and replacing them by a new deeper
self and its true action.
    It does not matter if the higher feelings,  devotion etc,  seem to
you sometimes like an influence or colouring.  It looks like that when
you  feel  yourself  in  the external physical or outer vital or outer
mind.  These feelings really are those of your inmost self, your soul,
the  psychic in you and when you are in the psychic consciousness they
become normal and natural.  But when  your  consciousness  shifts  and
becomes  more  external,  then  these  workings  of the soul or of the
divine consciousness are felt as themselves  external,  as  merely  an
influence.  All the same, you have to open yourself to them constantly
and they will then more and more either soak in steadily  or  come  in
successive  waves  or floods and go on till they have filled the mind,
the vital, the body. You will then feel them always as not only normal
but as part of your very self and the true substance of your nature.

                                 ***

If one  does  not encourage the devotion of the emotional being merely
because  the  lower  vital  is  not  yet  under  control   and   acts€
differently,  then  how  is the devotion to grow and how is the€ lower
vital to change?  Until the final clarification and harmonising of the
nature  there are always contradictions inJ€ bfing,  but that is not a
reason for in any way suppressing the play of the better movements -on
the  contrary  it  is  these  that  should  be  cultivated and made to
increase.

                                 ***

IV

                                 ***

Your whole-hearted acceptance of the Vaishnava idea and Bhakti becomes
rather  bewildering  when  it  is coupled with an insistence that love
cannot be given to the Divine until one has experience of the  Divine.
For  what  is  more  common  in the Vaishnava attitude than the joy of
Bhakti for its own sake?  "Give me Bhakti," it cries,  "whatever  else
you may keep from me.  Even if it is long before I can meet you,  even
if you delay to manifest yourself,  let my Bhakti, my seeking for you,
my  cry,  my  love,  my adoration be always there." How constantly the
Bhakta has sung,  "All my life I have been seeking you and  still  you
are not there,  but still I seek and cannot cease to seek and love and
adore.  If it were really impossible to  love  God  unless  you  first
experience  him,  how  could this be?  In fact,  your mind seems to be
putting the cart before the horse.  One seeks  after  God  first  with
persistence  or  with passion,  one finds him afterwards,  some sooner
than others,  but most after a long seeking.  One does  not  find  him
first, then seek after him. Even a glimpse often comes only after long
or fervent seeking.  One has the love of  God  or  at  any  rate  some
heart's desire for him and afterwards one becomes aware of God's love,
its reply to the heart's desire,  its response of the supreme joy  and
Ananda.  One  does  not  say  to God,  "Show your love from the first,
shower on me the experience of yourself,  satisfy my  demand,  then  I
will  see  whether  I  can  love you so long as you deserve it.  It is
surely the seeker who must seek and  love  first,  follow  the  quest,
become impassioned for the Sought - then only does the veil move aside
and the Light appear and the Face manifest that alone can satisfy  the
soul  after  its long sojourn in the desert.
    Then again you may say, "Yes, but whether I love or not, I want, I
have  always  wanted and now I want more and more,  but I get nothing.
Yes,  but wanting is not all.  As you now  begin  to  see,  there  are
conditions  that  have to be met - like the purification of the heart.
Your thesis was,  "Once I want God,  God must manifest to me,  come to
me, at least give glimpses of himself-to me, the real, solid, concrete
experience,  not mere vague things which I can't understand or  value.
God's  Grace  must answer my call for it,  whether I yet deserve it or
not - or else there is no Grace.  God's Grace may indeed  do  that  in
certain cases,  but where does the "must" come in?  If God must do it,
it is no longer God's Grace,  but God's duty or  an  obligation  or  a
contract or a treaty . The Divine looks into the heart and removes the
veil at the moment which he knows to be the right moment to do it. You
have  laid  stress  on the Bhakti theory that one has only to call his
name and he must reply,  he must at once be there.  Perhaps,  but  for
whom  is this true?  For a certain kind of Bhakta surely who feels the
power of the Name,  who has the passion of the Name and puts  it  into
his cry.  If one is like that, then there may be the immediate reply -
if not, one has to become like that, then there will be the reply. But
some  go  on  using  the  Name  for years,  before there is an answer.
Ramakrishna himself got it after a few months,  but what  months!  and
what  a  condition  he had to pass through before he got it!  Still he
succeeded quickly because he had a  pure  heart  already  -  and  that
divine  passion  in  it.
    It is not surely the Bhakta but the man of knowledge  who  demands
experience first.  He can say, "How can I know without experience? but
he too goes on seeking like Tota Purl even though  for  thirty  years,
striving  for  the  decisive  realisation.  It  is  really  the man of
intellect,  the rationalist who says,  "Let God,  if he exists,  prove
himself  to  me  first,  then  I  will believe,  then I will make some
serious and prolonged effort to explore him and see what he  is  like.

    All this does not mean that experience is irrelevant to sadhana  -
I certainly cannot have said such a stupid thing.  What I have said is
that the love and seeking of the Divine can be and ordinarily is there
before  the experience comes - it is an instinct,  an inherent longing
in the soul and it comes up as soon as certain coverings of  the  soul
disappear or begin to disappear. The next thing I have said is that it
is better to get the nature ready first (the purified  heart  and  all
that)  before  the "experiences" begin rather than the other way round
and I base that on the many cases there have been  of  the  danger  of
experiences  before  the  heart  and  vital  are  ready  for  the true
experience. Of course, In many cases there is a true experience first,
a touch of the Grace, but it is not something that lasts and is always
there but rather something that touches and withdraws  and  waits  for
the  nature to get ready.  But this is not in every case,  not even in
the majority of cases,  I believe.  One has to begin with  the  soul's
inherent longing,  then the struggle with the nature to get the temple
ready,  then the unveiling of the Image, the permanent Presence in the
sanctuary.

                                 ***

Peace was the very first thing that the yogis and seekers of old asked
for and it was a quiet and silent mind - and that always brings  peace
-  that  they  declared  to  be  the  best condition for realising the
Divine.  A cheerful and sunlit heart is the fit vessel for the  Ananda
and who shall say that Ananda,  or what prepares it, is an obstacle to
the Divine union?  As for despondency,  it is surely a terrible burden
to  carry  on  the  way.  One  has to pass through it sometimes,  like
Christian of The pilgrim's Progress through the Slough of Despond  but
its constant reiteration cannot be anything but an obstacle.  The Gita
specially says,  "Practise the  yoga  with  an  undespondent  heart  -
anirvi��acetas€".  I  know  perfectly well that pain and suffering and
struggle and accesses of despair are natural - though  not  inevitable
on  the  way - not because they are helps but because they are imposed
on us by the darkness of this human nature out of  which  we  have  to
struggle  into the Light.  I do not suppose Ramakrishna or Vivekananda
would have recommended the incidents you allude to as an  example  for
others  to  follow-they would surely have said that faith,  fortitude,
perseverance were the better way.  That after all was what they  stuck
to in the end in spite of these bad moments... At any rate Ramakrishna
told the story of Narada and the ascetic  yogi  and  Vaishnava  Bhakta
with  approval of its moral.  I put it in my own language but keep the
substance:  Narada on his way to Vaikuntha met a yogi practising  hard
tapasya  on the hills.  "0 Narada," cried the yogi,  "you are going to
Vaikuntha and  will  see  Vishnu.  I  have  been  practising  terrific
austerities  all  my life and yet I have not even now attained to him.
Ask him at least for me when I shall reach  him.  Then  Narada  met  a
Vaishnava,  a  bhakta who was singing songs to Hari and dancing to his
own singing,  and he cried also: "0 Narada, you will see my Lord Hari.
Ask  him  when  I  shall  reach him and see his face.  On his way back
Narada came first to the yogi.  "I have asked Vishnu," said the  sage,
"you  will realise him after six more lives.  The yogi raised a cry of
loud  lamentation  :  "What'  So  many  austerities!   Such   gigantic
endeavours!  And  how  hard to me is the Lord Vishnu!  Next Narada met
again the bhakta and said to him:  "I have no good news for  you.  You
will see the Lord but only after a lakh of lives. But the bhakta leapt
up with a great cry of rapture: "Oh, I shall see my Lord Hari! After a
lakh of lives I shall see my Lord Marl?  How great is the grace of the
Lord?  And he began dancing and singing in  a  renewed  ecstasy.  Then
Narada said, "Thou hast attained. Today thou shalt see the Lord. Well,
you may say:  "What an extravagant story and  how  contrary  to  human
nature!  Not  so  contrary  as  all  that  and in any case hardly more
extravagant than the stories of Harishchandra and Shlvl.  Still,  I do
not  hold  up  the  bhakta  as an example,  for I myself insist on the
realisation in this life and not after six or a lakh of  births  more.
But  the  point  of  these  stories  is  In  the moral and surely when
Ramakrishna told it,  he was not ignorant that there was a sunlit path
of yoga.  He even seems to say that it is the quicker,  way as well as
the better.  So the possibility of the sunlit path is not a  discovery
or  original  invention  of mine.  The very first books on yoga I read
more than thirty years ago spoke  of  the  dark  and  sunlit  way  and
emphasised the superiority of the latter over the former.

                                 ***

The true movement Is a pure aspiration and surrender.  After all,  one
has not a right to call on the Divine to manifest himself; it can come
only as a response to a spiritual or psychic state of consciousness or
to a long course of sadhana rightly done;  or. If it comes before that
or without any apparent reason,  it is a Grace;  but one cannot demand
or compel Grace.  Grace is something spontaneous which wells out  from
the Divine Consciousness as a free flow of its being. The bhakta looks
for it, but he is ready to wait in perfect reliance - even if need be,
all  his  life - knowing that it will come,  never varying in his love
and surrender because it does not come now or soon. That is the spirit
of so many songs of devotees which you have sung yourself; I heard one
such song from you in a record sometime ago and very beautiful it  was
and beautifully sung - "Even if I have not won Thee,  0 Lord,  still I
adore.
    What prevents  you  from  having  that  is the restless element of
vital impatience and ever-recurring and persisting  disappointment  at
not having what you want from the Divine.  It is the idea,  "I wish so
much for it,  surely I ought to have it,  why is it withheld from  me?
But wanting,  however strongly, is not a passport to getting; there is
something more to it than that.  Our experience is that too much vital
eagerness,  too much insistence often blocks the way,  it makes a sort
of obstructing mass or a whirl of restlessness and  disturbance  which
leaves  no quiet space for the Divine to get in or for the thing asked
for to come.  Often it does come,  but when the  impatience  has  been
definitely renounced and one waits,  quietly open, for whatever may be
(or,  for the time, not be) given. But so often when you are preparing
the way for a greater progress in the true devotion, the habit of this
vital element starts up and takes  hold  and  interrupts  the  program
made.
    TIe joylessness also comes from the vital. It is partly due to the
disappointment but not solely; for it is a very common phenomenal that
when there is a pressure from the mind and soul on the vital, it often
gets  a  rajasic  or  tamasic  vairagya  instead  of the sattwic kind,
refuses to take joy in anything,  becomes dry, listless or unhappy, or
it  says,  "Well,  why don't I get the realisation you promised me?  I
can't wait." To get rid of that,  it is best, even while observing it,
not to identify oneself with it;  if the mind or some part of the mind
sanctions or justifies, it will persist or recur. If sorrow there must
be, the other kind you described in the previous letter is preferable:
the sadness that has a sweetness in it - no despair,  only the psychic
longing for the true thing to come.  That must come by the increase of
the pure and true Bhakti.

                                 ***

As for the way out of the impasse you speak of,  I know  only  of  the
quieting of the mind which makes meditation effective, purification of
the heart which brings  the  divine  touch  and  in  time  the  divine
Presence,  humility  before the Divine which liberates from egoism and
pride of the mind and of the vital,  - the pride that imposes its  own
reasonings  on the ways of the Spirit and the pride that refuses or is
unable to surrender,  - sustained persistence in the call  within  and
reliance on the Grace above.  Meditation,  japa,  prayer or aspiration
from the heart can all succeed,  if they are attended by these  or  at
least some of these things.  I fully believe that one who has the call
in him cannot fail to arrive if he follows patiently the  way  towards
the  Divine.
    I have surely never said that  you  should  not  want  the  divine
response.  One does yoga for that. What I have said is that you should
not expect or insist on it at once or within an  early  time.  It  can
come early or it can come late, but come it will if one is faithful in
one's call:  for one has not only to be sincere  but  to  be  faithful
through  all.  If I deprecate insistence,  it is because I have always
found that it creates difficulties and delays owing to  a  strain  and
restlessness which are created in the nature and the despondencies and
revolts of the vital when the insistence is not satisfied.  The Divine
knows  best and one has to have trust in his wisdom and attune oneself
with his will. Length of time is no proof of an ultimate incapacity to
arrive: it is only a sign that there is something in oneself which has
to be overcome,  and if there is the will to reach-the Divine,  it can
be  overcome.
    If one wishes to escape from life altogether,  it can only  be  by
the  way  of  a  complete inner renunciation or merging oneself in the
Silence of the Absolute or by a bhakti that becomes absolute or  by  a
Karmayoga  that gives up one's own will and desires to the will of the
Divine.  I' have said also that Grace can at any moment act  suddenly,
but over that one has no control,  because it comes by an incalculable
will which sees things that the mind cannot see.  It is precisely  the
reason why one should never despair,  that and also because no sincere
aspiration to the T€ivine can fail in the end.

                                 ***

There is  only  one  logic in spiritual things:  that when a demand is
there for the Divine,  a sincere call, it is bound one day to have its
fulfilment.  It is only If there is a strong insincerity somewhere,  a
hankering  after  something  else-power,  ambition,   etc.   -   which
counterbalances the inner call that the logic is no longer applicable.
In your case it is likely to come through the heart,  through increase
of  bhakti  or  psychic  purification of the heart:  that is why I was
pressing the psychic way upon you.
    Do not allow these wrong ideas and feelings to govern you or  your
state  of  depression  to  dictate your decisions:  try to keep a firm
central will for the realisation;  you can do so if you make  up  your
mind  to it,  these things are not impossible.  You will find that the
spiritual difficulty disappears in the end like a mirage.  It  belongs
to the physical self and, where the inner call is sincere, cannot hold
even the  outer  consciousness  always:  its  apparent  solidity  will
dissolve.
    You are no doubt right about asking for the bhakti,  for I suppose
it  is  the  master claim of your nature:  for that matter,  it is the
strongest motive force that sadhana can have and the  best  means  for
all  else  that  has to come.  It is why I said that it is through the
heart that spiritual experience must come to you.

                                 ***

As for Krishna,  why not approach  simply  and  straight?  The  simple
approach means trust.  If you pray,  trust that he hears. If the reply
takes long in coming,  trust that he knows and loves and  that  he  is
wisest in the choice of the time.  Meanwhile quietly clear the ground,
so that he may not have to trip over stone and jungle when  he  comes.
That  is  my  suggestion and I know what I am saying -for whatever you
may say,  I know very well all human difficulties and struggles and  I
know of the cure.  That is why I press always on the things that would
minimise and shorten the  struggles  and  difficulties,  -the  psychic
turn, faith, perfect and simple confidence and reliance. These, let me
remind you,  are tenets of the Vaishnava yoga. Of course, there is the
other Vaishnava way which swings between yearning and despair - ardent
seeking and the pangs of viraha.  It is that you seem to be  following
and I do not deny that one can arrive by that as one can by almost any
way.  If followed sincerely.  But then those who follow it find a rasa
even  in  viraha,  in the absence and the caprice of the Divine Lover.
Some of them have sung that they have followed  after  him  all  their
lives  but  always  he  has slipped away from their vision and even in
that they find a rasa and never cease following.  But you find no rasa
in  it.  So  you  cannot expect me to approve of that for you.  Follow
after Krishna by all means,  but  follow  with  the  determination  to
arrive:  don't  do  it  with  the  expectation of failure or admit any
possibility of breaking off half-way.

                                 ***

I have no objection at all to the worship of Krishna or the  Vaishnava
form  of devotion,  nor is there any incompatibility between Vaishnava
Bhakti and my supramental yoga.  There  is  in  fact  no  special  and
exclusive  form  of  supramental  yoga:  all  ways  can  lead  to  the
supermind, just as all ways can lead to the Divine.
    If you persevere,  you cannot fail to get the permanent bhakti you
want and the realisation you want,  but you should  learn  to  put  an
entire  reliance on Krishna to give it when he finds all ready and the
time come.  If he wants you to clear out imperfections and  impurities
first,  that is, after all, understandable. I don't see why you should
not succeed  in  doing  it,  now  that  your  attention  is  being  so
constantly  turned on it.  To see them clearly and acknowledge them is
the first step,  to have the firm will to reject them is the next,  to
separate  yourself  from them entirely so that if they enter at all it
will be as foreign elements, no longer parts of your normal nature but
suggestions from outside, brings their last state; even, once seen and
rejected, they may automatically fall away and disappear; but for most
the process takes time. These things are not peculiar to you; they are
parts of umversal human nature; but they can, do and will disappear.

                                 ***

As to the point that puzzles you,  it only  arises  from  a  confusion
between  the feeling of a devotee and the observation of the observer.
Of course,  the devotee loves Krishna because Krishna is  lovable  and
not for any other reason: that is his feeling and his true feeling. He
has no time to bother his head about what in himself made him able  to
love; the fact that he does love is sufficient for him and he does not
need to analyse his emotions. The Grace of Krishna consists for him in
Krishna's lovableness,  in his showing himself to the devotee,  in his
call,  the cry of the flute. That is enough for the heart, or if there
Is  anything more,  it is the yearning that others or all may hear the
flute, see the face, feel all the beauty and rapture of this love.
    It is  not  the  heart of the devotee but the mind of the observer
that questions how it is that the Gopis were called and  responded  at
once  and others - the Brahmin women,  'for instance - were not called
and did not respond at once.  Once the mind puts the  question,  there
are two possible answers: the mere will of Krishna without any reason,
what the mind would call his absolute divine choice or  his  arbitrary
divine caprice or else the readiness of the heart that is called : and
that amounts to adhik€ribheda.  A third reply would be: circumstances,
as  for  instance,  "the  parking  off the spiritual ground into close
preserves" as X puts it.  But then how can circumstances  prevent  the
Grace  from  acting?  In  spite  of parking off it works:  Christians,
Mahomedans do answer to the Grace of Krishna.  Tigers  ,  ghouls  must
love if they see him,  hear his flute ?  Yes,  but why do some hear it
and see him,  others not?  We are thrown  back  on  two  alternatives:
Krishna's  Grace  calls  whom it wills to call without any determining
reason for the choice or the rejection,  it is all his  mercy  or  his
withholding  or  at least delaying of his mercy,  or else he calls the
hearts that are ready to vibrate and leap up at his call  -  and  even
there  he  waits  till  the  moment has come.  To say that it does not
depend on outward merit or appearance of fitness is no doubt true: the
something  that  was ready to wake in spite,  it may be,  of many hard
layers in which it was enclosed,  may be something visible to  Krishna
and  not  to  us.  It was there perhaps long before the flute began to
play,  but Krishna was busy melting the hard layers so that the  heart
in its leap might not be pressed back by them when the awakening notes
came.  The Gopis heard and rushed out into the forest,  the others did
not,  -or  did  they  think it was only some rustic music or some rude
cowherd -lover fluting to his sweetheart:  not a call that learned and
cultured  or  virtuous ears could recognise as the call of the Divine?
There is something to be said after an for the adhik€ri-bheda. But, of
course,  it  must be understood in the large sense:  some may have the
adhik€ra for recognising Krishna's flute, some for the call of Christ,
some  for  the  dance  of  Shiva-to  each his own way and his nature's
answer to the Divine Call.  Adhik€ra cannot be stated in rigid  mental
terms:  it  is  something  spiritual and subtle,  something mystic and
secret between the called and the Caller.
    As for  the  swelled  head,  the  theory  of  Grace  may  no doubt
contribute to it,  though I should imagine that the  said  head  never
felt  the Grace but only the magnanimity of its own ego.  The swelling
may come equally in the road of personal effort as by the craving  for
Grace.  It  is  fundamentally  not  due  to  either,  but to a natural
predisposition, to this kind of oedema.

                                 ***

Radha is the personification of the  absolute  love  for  the  Divine,
total  and  integral  in  all  parts  of  the  being  from the highest
spiritual to the physical, bringing the absolute self-giving and total
consecration  of  all the being and calling down into the body and the
most material nature the supreme Ananda.

                                 ***

The coming of sex on seeing the image of Krishna and Radha is  due  to
the past association of sex with the cult ofRadha-Krishna. But in fact
the image has nothing to do with sex. The true symbol for it would not
be the human sex-attraction,  but the soul,  the psychic,  hearing the
call of the Divine and flowering into the complete love and  surrender
that  brings  the  supreme  Ananda.  That is what Radha and Krishna by
their divine union bring about in the human consciousness and it is so
that you must regard it, throwing aside the old sex-associations.

                                 ***

The Gopis  are  not  ordinary  people in the proper sense of the word:
they are embodiments of a spiritual passion,  extraordinary  by  their
extremeness of love, personal devotion, unreserved selfgiving. Whoever
has that,  however humble  his  or  her  position  in  other  respects
(learning,  power of presentation ,  scholarship , external sanctity ,
etc.) can easily follow after Krishna and reach him:  that seems to me
the   sense  of  the  symbol  of  the  Gopis.  There  art  many  other
significances, of course - that is only one among the many.

                                 ***

Certainly, Krishna is credited with much caprice ,  difficult dealings
and  a  playfulness  (Lila!)  which  the  played-with  do  not  always
immediately appreciate .  But there is a reasoning as well as a hidden
method  in  his caprices,  and when he does come out of it and takes a
fancy to be nice to you,  he has a supreme attractiveness,  charm  and
allurement  which  compensates  and  more than compensates for all you
have suffered.

                                 ***

Why should not Krishna ride a horse if he so  wants?  His  actions  or
habits cannot be fixed by the human mind or by an immutable tradition.
Especially Krishna is a law to himself.  Perhaps he was in a hurry  to
get to the place where he wanted to flute.

                                 ***

If Krishna  was  always  and by nature cold and distant (Lord,  what a
discovery - Krishna of all people!),  how  could  human  devotion  and
aspiration  come  near him -he and it would soon be like the North and
South Pole,  growing icier and icier,  always facing  each  other  but
never seeing because of the earth's bulge .  Also,  if Krishna did not
want the human Bhakta as well as the Bhakta wanting him, who could get
at him? -he would be always sitting on the snows of the Himalayas-like
Shiva.  History describes him otherwise and he is usually charged with
being too warm and sportive .

                                 ***

I do  not  know  that I can answer your question about what X means by
Krishna's light.  It is certainly not  what  is  ordinarily  meant  by
knowledge.  He  may mean the Light of tlte Divine Consciousness or the
light that comes from it or he may mean the luminous being of  Krishna
in  which  all  things  are  in  their  supreme  truth,  -the truth of
knowledge,  the truth of Bhakti,  the truth  of  ecstasy  and  Ananda,
everything  is  there.
    There is also a manifestation of' Light - the Upanishads speak  of
Jyotirbrahma, the Light that is Brahman. Very often the sadhak feels a
flow of light upon him and around him or a flow of light invading  his
centres  or even his whole being and body,  penetrating and illumining
every cell and in that light there grows the  spiritual  consciousness
and  one becomes open to all or many of its workings and realisations.
Appositely ,  I have a review of the book of Ramdas entitled  "Vision"
before  me  in  which  is  described  such  an experience,  got by the
repetition of the Rama mantra,  but,  if I understand rightly, after a
long   and   rigorous  self-discipline.  "The  mantra  having  stopped
automatically,  he beheld a small circular  light  before  his  mental
vision.  This  yielded him thrills of delight.  This experience having
continued for some days,  he felt  a  dazzling  light  like  lightning
flashing his eyes, which ultimately permeated and absorbed him. Now an
inexpressible transport of bliss filled every  pore  of  his  physical
frame."  It  does  not  always come like that - very often it comes by
stages or at long intervals,  at first,  working on the  consciousness
till  it  is ready.
    We speak here also of Krishna's  light-  Krishna's  light  in  the
mind, Krishna's light in the vital, etc. But it is a special light -in
the mind it brings clarity ,  freedom from obscurity, mental error and
perversion; in the vital it clears out all perilous stuff and where it
is,  there is a pure and divine happiness and gladness.
    But why  limit  oneself,  insist  on  one thing alone and shut out
every other?  Whether it be by Bhakti or by Light or by Ananda  or  by
Peace  or  by  any  other  means  whatsoever that one gets the initial
realisation of the Divine,  to get it is the thing and all  means  are
good that bring it.
    If it is bhakti that one insists on,  it is by the bhakti that  it
comes  and bhakti in its fullness is nothing but an entire selfgiving.
But then all meditation,  all tapasya,  all means of prayer or  mantra
must  have  that  as  its  end  and  it  is  when  one  has progressed
sufficiently  in  that  that  the  Divine  Grace  descends   and   the
realisation comes and develops till it is complete.  But the moment of
its advent is chosen by the wisdom of the Divine alone  and  one  must
have  the  strength  to  go on till it arrives,  for when all is truly
ready it cannot fail to come.

                                 ***

Human Relationships in Yoga

                                 ***

YOU seem  not  to have understood the principle of this yoga.  The old
yoga demanded a complete renunciation extending to the  giving  up  of
the  worldly  life  itself.  This  yoga  aims  instead  at  a  new and
transformed life.  Bot it insists as inexorably on a complete throwing
away of desire and attachment in the mind,  life and body.  Its aim is
to refound life in the truth of the spirit and  for  that  purpose  to
transfer  the roots of all we are and do from the mind,  life and body
to a greater consciousness above the mind.  That means that in the new
life all the connections must be founded on a spiritual intimacy and a
truth quite other than any which supports our present connections. One
must  be prepared to renounce at the higher call what are spoken of as
the natural affections.  Even if they are kept at all,  it can only be
with  a change which transforms them altogether.  But whether they are
to be renounced or kept  and  changed  must  be  decided  not  by  the
personal  desires but by the truth above.  All must be given up to the
Supreme Master of the yoga.
    The power that works in this yoga is of a thorough-going character
and tolerates in the end nothing great or small that is an obstacle to
the Truth and its realisation.

                                 ***

Personal relation is not a part of the yoga.  When one has  the  union
with the Divine, then only can there be a true spiritual relation with
others.

                                 ***

The idea that all sadhaks must be aloof from each other and at daggers
drawn  is  itself a preconceived idea that must be abandoned.  Harmony
and not strife is the  law  ofyogic  living.  This  preconceived  idea
arises perhaps from the old notion of Nirvana as the aim;  but Nirvana
is not the aim here.  The aim here is fulfilment of the Divine in life
and  for that,  union and solidarity are indispensable.
    The ideal of the yoga is that all should be centred in and  around
the  Divine  and  the life of the sadhaks must be founded on that firm
foundation,  their personal relations also should have the Divine  for
their  centre.  Moreover,  all relations should pass from the vital to
the spiritual basis with the vital only as a form  and  instrument  of
the  spiritual  -  this means that,  from whatever relations they have
with each other, all jealousy , strife, hatred, aversion , rancour and
other evil vital feelings should be abandoned, for they can be no part
of the spiritual life. So, also, all egoistic love and attachment will
have to disappear-the love that loves only for the ego's sake and,  as
soon as the ego is hurt and  dissatisfied,  ceases  to  love  or  even
cherishes  rancour  and hate.  There must be a real living and lasting
unity behind the love.  It is understood of course that such things as
sexual  impurity must disappear also.
    That is the ideal,  but as for the way  of  attainment  ,  it  may
differ  for  different  people.  One  way  is that in which one leaves
everything else to follow the Divine alone.  This  does  not  mean  an
aversion for anybody any more than it means aversion for the world and
life.  It only means an absorption in one's central aim, with the idea
that  once  that is attained it will be easy to found all relations on
the true basis,  to become truly united with others in the  heart  and
the  spirit  and  the  life,  united in the spiritual truth and in the
Divine.  The other way is to go forward from where one is, seeking the
Divine  centrally and subordinating all else to that,  but not putting
everything else aside,  rather  seeking  to  transform  gradually  and
progressively  whatever  is  capable  of such transformation.  All the
things that are not wanted in the relation - sex  impurity,  jealousy,
anger,  egoistic demand - drop away as the inner being grows purer and
is replaced by the unity of soul with soul and the binding together of
the social life in the hoop of the Divine.
    It is not that one cannot have relations with people  outside  the
circle  of  the  sadhaks,  but  there  too if the spiritual life grows
within, it must necessarily affect the relation and spiritualise it on
the sadhak's side.  And there must be no such attachment as would make
the relation an obstacle or a  rival  to  the  Divine.  Attachment  to
family  etc,  often  is like that and,  if so,  it falls away from the
sadhak.  That is an exigence which,  I think, should not be considered
excessive. All that, however, can be progressively done; a severing of
existing relations is necessary for some,  it is not  so  for  all.  A
transformation,  however gradual,  is indispensable, - severance where
severance is the right thing to do.
    P.S. I  must repeat also that each case differs - one rule for all
is not practical or practicable.  What  is  needed  by  each  for  his
spiritual progress is the one desideratum to be held in view.

                                 ***

Absence of love and fellow-feeling is not necessary  for  nearness  to
the  Divine;  on  the contrary,  a sense of closeness and oneness with
others is a part of the divine consciousness  into  which  the  sadhak
enters  by  nearness to the Divine and the feeling of oneness with the
Divine.  An entire rejection of all relations is indeed the final  aim
of  the  Mayavadin,  and  in  the  ascetic  yoga an entire loss of all
relations of friendship and affection and attachment to the world  and
its  living  beings  would  be regarded as a promising sign of advance
towards liberation,  Moksha;  but even there,  I think,  a feeling  of
oneness  and  unattached  spiritual  sympathy  for  all  is at least a
penultimate stage,  like the compassion of the  Buddhist,  before  the
turning  to Moksha or Nirvana.  In this yoga the feeling of unity with
others,  love,  universal joy and Ananda are an essential part of  the
liberation  and  perfection which are the aim of the sadhana.
    On the   other   hand,  human  society,  human  friendship,  love,
affection,  fellow-feeling are mostly and usually - not entirely or in
all cases - founded on a vital basis and are ego-held at their centre.
It is because  of  the  pleasure  of  being  loved,  the  pleasure  of
enlarging  the  ego  by  contact,  mutual penetration of spirit,  with
another,  the exhilaration of the vital interchange which feeds  their
personality that men usually love - and there are also other and still
more selfish motives that mix with this essential movement.  There are
of course higher spiritual,  psychic, mental, vital elements that come
m or can come in; but the whole thing is very mixed, even at its best.
This  is  the  reason  why at a certain stage with or without apparent
reason the  world  and  life  and  human  society  and  relations  and
philanthropy (which is as egoridden as the rest) begin to pall . There
is sometimes an ostensible reason - a disappointment  of  the  surface
vital,  the  withdrawal  of  affection by others,  the perception that
those loved or men generally are not what one thought them to be and a
host  of other causes;  but often the cause is a secret disappointment
of some part of the inner being, not translated or not well translated
into  the mind,  because it expected from these things something which
they cannot give.  It is the case with many who turn or are pushed  to
the  spiritual  life.  For  some it takes the form of a vair€gya which
drives them towards ascetic indifference and gives  the  urge  towards
Moksha.  For  us,  what  we  hold  to be necessary is that the mixture
should disappear and that the consciousness should be established on a
purer  level  (not  only  spiritual and psychic but a purer and higher
mental,  vital,  physical consciousness) in which there  is  not  this
mixture.  There one would feel the true Ananda of oneness and love and
sympathy and fellowship,  spiritual and self-existent in its basis but
expressing itself through the other parts of the nature. If that is to
happen,  there must obviously be a  change;  the  old  form  of  these
movements  must  drop  off and leave room for a new and higher self to
disclose its own way of expression and realisation of  itself  and  of
the  Divine  through  these  things  -that  is  the inner truth of the
matter.
    I take it therefore that the condition you describe is a period of
transition and change,  negative in its beginning,  as these movements
often  are  at  first,  so  as  to  create  a vacant space for the new
positive to appear and live in it and fill  it.  But  the  vital,  not
having a long continued or at all sufficient or complete experience of
what is to fill the vacancy,  feels only the loss and regrets it  even
while  another part of the being,  another part even of the vital,  is
ready to let go what is disappearing and does not yearn to keep it. If
it  were  not for this movement of the vital,  (which in your case has
been very strong and large and avid of  life),  the  disappearance  of
these things would, at least after the first sense of void, bring only
a feeling of peace,  relief and a still expectation of greater things.
What  is intended in the first place to fill the void was indicated in
the peace andjoy which came to you as the touch of  Shiva  -naturally,
this would not be all but a beginning,  a basis for a new self,  a new
consciousness, an activity of a greater nature; as I told you, it is a
deep spiritual calm and peace that is the only stable foundation for a
lasting Bhakti and Ananda.  In that new consciousness there would be a
new  basis  for  relations  with  others;  for  an  ascetic dryness or
isolated loneliness cannot be your spiritual destiny since it  is  not
consonant  with  your  Swabhava  which  is  made  for joy,  largeness,
expansion,  a comprehensive movement of the life-force.  Therefore  do
not be discouraged; wait upon the purifying movement of Shiva.

                                 ***

I have  always  said that the vital is indispensable for the divine or
spiritual action - without it there can be no complete expression,  no
realisation  in  life-hardly  even any realisation in sadhana.  When I
speak of the vital mixture or of the obstructions,  revolts,  etc,  of
the vital,  it is the unregenerated outer vital full of desire and ego
and the lower passions of which I speak.  I could say the same against
the mind and the physical when they obstruct or oppose,  but precisely
because the vital is so powerful and indispensable,  its  obstruction,
opposition  or refusal of cooperation is most strikingly effective and
its wrong mixtures are more dangerous to the sadhana.  That is  why  I
l€ave  always  insisted  on the dangers of the unregenerated vital and
the necessity of mastery and purification there.  It is not because  I
hold,  like the Sannyasis,  the vital and its life-power to be a thing
to be condemned and rejected in its  very  nature.
    Affection, love,  tenderness  are  in their nature psychic,  - the
vital has them because the psychic is trying to express itself through
the  vital.  It  is  through the emotional being that the psychic most
easily expresses,  for it stands just behind it in the  heart  centre.
But it wants these things to be pure.  Not that it rejects the outward
expression through the vital and the  physical,  but  as  the  psychic
being  is  the form of the soul,  it naturally feels the attraction of
soul to soul, the union of soul with soul as the things that are to It
most abiding and concrete.  Mind,  vital, body are means of expression
and very precious means of expression,  but the inner life is for  the
soul  the  first  thing,  the  deepest  reality,  and these have to be
subordinated to  It  and  conditioned  by  it,  -its  expression,  its
Instruments  and  channel.  I  do not think that in my emphasis on the
inner things,  on the psychic and spiritual, I am saying anything new,
strange or unintelligible. These things have always been stressed from
the beginning and the more the human being is evolved,  the more  they
take on importance. I do not see how yoga can be possible without this
premier stress on the inner life,  on the soul  and  the  spirit.  The
emphasis on the mastery of the vital, its subordination and subjection
to the spiritual  and  the  psychics  also  nothing  new,  strange  or
exorbitant  .  It  has been insisteAm always for any kind of spiritual
life;  even the yogas which seek most to use the vital,  like  certain
forms  of  Vaishnavispl,  yet Insist on the purification and the total
offering of it to the Divine.  All realisation of  the  Divine  is  an
inner  realisation,  only,  here  the  soul  offers itself through the
emotional being. The soul or psychic being is not something unheard of
or incomprehensible.

                                 ***

Human affection is obviously unreliable because it is  so  much  based
upon selfishness and desire; it is a flame of the ego sometimes turbid
and misty ,sometimes more clear  and  brightly  coloured  -  sometimes
tamasic  based  on  instinct  and habit,  sometimes rajasic and fed by
passion or the cry for vital interchange,  sometimes more sattwic  and
trying  to  be  or look to itself disinterested.  But fundamentally it
depends on a personal need or a return of some kind inward or  outward
and  when  the  need  is  not satisfied or the return ceases or is not
given,  it most often diminishes or dies or exists only as a tepid  or
troubled remnant of habit from the past or else turns for satisfaction
elsewhere.  The more intense it is,  the more it is apt to be troubled
by  tumults,  clashes,  quarrels,  egoistic disturbances of all kinds,
selfishness,  exactions,  lapses even to rage and hatred, ruptures. It
is   not   that   these  affections  cannot  last-tamasic  instinctive
affections last because of habit in spite of everything  dividing  the
persons,  e.g.  certain family affections; rajasic affections can last
sometimes in spite  of  all  disturbances  and  incompatibilities  and
furious  ruptures because one has a vital need of the other and clings
because of that or because both have  that  need  and  are  constantly
separating  to  return  and  returning  to separate or proceeding from
quarrel to reconciliation and from reconciliation to quarrel;  sattwic
affections  last  very often from duty to the ideal or with some other
support  though  they  may  lose  their  keenness  or   intensity   or
brightness.  But  the  true reliability is there only when the psychic
element in  human  affections  becomes  strong  enough  to  colour  or
dominate  the  rest.  For  that  reason  friendship  is  or rather can
oftenest be the most durable of the  human  affections  because  there
there is less interference of the vital and even though a flame of the
ego it can be a quiet and pure  fire  giving  always  its  warmth  and
light.  Nevertheless  reliable friendship is almost always with a very
few;  to llave a horde of loving,  unselfishly faithful friends  is  a
phenomenon  so  rare that it can be safely taken as an illusion...  In
any case human affection whatever its value  has  its  place,  because
through  it  the psychic being gets the emotional experiences it needs
until it is ready to prefer the true to the apparent,  the perfect  to
the  imperfect,  the divine to the human.  As the consciousness has to
rise to the higher level so the activities of the heart also  have  to
rise  to that higher level and change their basis and character.  Yoga
is the founding of all life and consciousness in the Divine,  so  also
love  and  affection  must be rooted in the Divine and a spiritual and
psychic oneness in the Divine must be their foundation - to reach  the
Divine first leaving other things aside or to seek the Divine alone is
the straight road towards that change.  That means no attachment -  it
need   not   mean   turning   affection  into  disaffection  or  chill
indifference.  But X seems to want to take his vital emotions just  as
they are - tels quels - into the Divine - let him try and don't bother
him with criticisms and lectures;  if it can't be done he will have to
find it out for himself.

                                 ***

It is not because of your nature or evil destiny that the vital cannot
find the satisfaction it expected from relations  with  others.  These
relations  can  never  give a full or permanent satisfaction;  if they
did,  there would be no reason why the human being would ever seek the
Divine.  He  would remain satisfied in the ordinary earth life.  It is
only when the Divine is found and the consciousness lifted up into the
true consciousness that the true relations with others can come.
    When I said there was no harm,  I meant that it was better to tell
the Mother what was in your mind than to keep it moving  in  yourself.
But  once  told,  all  should  be put away from the mind and it should
recover its quietude.

                                 ***

These movements  are  part  of  man's ignorant vital nature.  The love
which human beings feel for one another is also  usually  an  egoistic
vital  love  and  these  other  movements,  claim,  demand,  jealousy,
abhim€na,  anger,  etc.,  are its common accompaniments .  There is no
place for them in yoga - nor in true love,  psychic or divine. In yoga
all love should be turned towards the Divine and  to  human  or  other
beings  only  as  vessels of the Divine - abhim€na and the rest should
have no place in it.

                                 ***

All that of course is not love,  but self-love.  Jealousy is  only  an
ugly  form  of self-love.  That is what people do not understand -they
even think that demands and jealousy and wounded vanity are  signs  of
love or at least natural attendants of it.

                                 ***

The higher  vital  movement  is  more refined and large in motion than
that of the ordinary vital.  It stresses emotion rather than sensation
and  desire,  but  it  is  not  free  from  demand  and  the desire of
possession.

                                 ***

Relations which are part of the ordinary vital nature  in  human  life
are of no value in the spiritual life - they rather interfere with the
progress;  for the mind and vital also should be wholly turned towards
the  Divine.  Moreover,  the  purpose  of  sadhana  Is to enter into a
spiritual consciousness and base everything on a new  spiritual  basis
which  can  only be done when one has entered into complete unity with
the Divine.  Meanwhile one has to have a calm goodwill  for  all,  but
relations  of a vital kind do not help-for they keep the consciousness
down on a vital basis and prevent its rising to a higher level.

                                 ***

Regarding your question about a complementary soul and  marriage,  the
answer is easy to give;  the way of the spiritual life lies for you in
one direction and marriage lies in quite  another  and  opposite.  All
talk  about  a  complementary soul is a camouflage with which the mind
tries to cover the sentimental,  sensational and physical wants of the
lower  vital  nature.  It  is  that vital nature in you which puts the
question and would like an answer reconciling its desires and  demands
with  the  call  of  the  true  soul in you.  But it must not expect a
sanction for any such incongruous reconciliation from here. The way of
the supramental yoga is clear; it lies not through concession to these
things,  - not,  in your case, through satisfaction, under a spiritual
cover if possible,  of its craving for the comforts and gratifications
of a domestic and conjugal life and  the  enjoyment  of  the  ordinary
emotional   desires   and   physical   passions,  -  but  through  the
purification and transformation of the forces  which  these  movements
pervert and misuse. Not these human and animal demands, but the divine
Ananda which is above and beyond them  and  which  the  indulgence  of
these degraded forms would prevent from descending, is the great thing
that the aspiration of the vital being must demand in the sadhak.

                                 ***

A human vital interchange cannot be a true support for the sadhana and
Is,  on  the  contrary,  sure  to  impair  and distort it,  leading to
self-deception in the consciousness and a wrong turn of the  emotional
being and vital nature.

                                 ***

What you write about the family ties is perfectly correct.  It creates
an unnecessary interchange and comes in the way of a complete  turning
to the Divine.  Relations after taking up yoga should be less based on
a physical origin or the habits of the physical consciousness and more
and  more on the basis of sadhana - of sadhak with sadhaks,  of others
as souls travelling the same path or children of the  Mother  than  in
the ordinary way or with the old viewpoint.

                                 ***

When one  enters  the spiritual life,  the family ties which belong to
the ordinary nature fall  away-one  becomes  indifferent  to  the  old
things.  This indifference is a release. There need be no harshness in
it at all. To remain tied to the old€physical affections would mean to
remain  tied  to  the  ordinary  nature  and  that  would  prevent the
spiritual progress.

                                 ***

The attachment to parents belongs to the ordinary physical nature  -it
has nothing to do with Divine Love.

                                 ***

It [the  child's indebtedness to his father for bringing him up] is a,
law of human society,  not a law of Karma.  The child did not ask  the
father to bring him into the world - and if the father has done it for
his own pleasure, it is the least he can do to bring up the child. All
these  are  social relations (and it is not at all a one-sided debt of
the child to the father,  either),  but whatever they are,  they cease
once one takes to the spiritual life.  For the spiritual life does not
at all rest on the external physical relations; it is the Divine alone
with whom one has then to do.

                                 ***

The inner  being  turned  to  the Divine naturally draws away from old
vital relations and outer movements and contacts till it can  bring  a
new consciousness into the external being.

                                 ***

The movement  of  which you speak is not psychic but emotive.  It is a
vital emotive force that you put out and waste.  It  is  also  harmful
because, while on the one side you try to reject a past vital relation
or tie with these people, you by this movement re-establish in another
way  a  vital relation with them.  If there was anything wrong in your
first movement,  this is quite a false way of  remedying  the  defect.

    Certainly, it  would  be  better  to  reject  without  any violent
feeling against any person,  because the  violence  is  a  sign  of  a
certain  weakness  in  the vital which must be corrected - not for any
other reason.  The rejection  should  be  quiet,  firm,  self-assured,
decisive; it will then become radical and effective.

                                 ***

It is  as  the love of the Divine grows that the other things cease to
trouble the mind.

                                 ***

The influence of the love for the Divine when it  takes  hold  of  any
part  is  to  turn  it  towards  the  Divine  -  as  you  describe  it
"concentration on the Mother" - and in the end  all  is  gathered  and
harmonised  around  this central turn of the being.  The difficulty is
with mechanical parts of the being in which the  old  thoughts  go  on
recurring  by  habit.  If  the  concentration continues to grow,  this
becomes a thing of little importance at the circumference of the  mind
and  in the end drops away to be replaced by things that belong to the
new consciousness.

                                 ***

The inner loneliness can only be cured  by  the  inner  experience  of
union with the Divine;  no human association can fill the void. In the
same way,  for the spiritual life the  harmony  with  others  must  be
founded  not  on  mental  and  vital  affinities,  but  on  the divine
consciousness and the union with the Divine. When one feels the Divine
and feels others in the Divine, then the real harmony comes. Meanwhile
what there can be is the goodwill and unity founded on the feeling  of
a  common  divine  goal  and  the  sense  of being all children of the
Mother...  Real harmony can come only from a psychic  or  a  spiritual
basis.

                                 ***

To be  alone  with  the Divine is the highest of all privileged states
for the sadhak,  for it is that in which inwardly he comes nearest  to
the  Divine  and  can make all existence a communion in the chamber of
the heart as well as in the temple of the universe.  Moreover that  is
the  beginning  and  base  of  the  real  oneness  with  all,  for  it
establishes that oneness in its true base, on the Divine, for it is in
the  Divine  that  he  meets  and  unites  with all and no longer in a
precarious interchange of the mental and vital ego.  So  do  not  fear
loneliness but put your trust in the Mother and go forward on the Path
in her strength and Grace.

                                 ***

The love of the sadhak should be for the Divine.  It is only  when  he
has that fully that he can love others in the right way.

                                 ***

To give  oneself  to  an  outsider is to go out from the atmosphere of
sadhana and give oneself to the outer world forces.
    One can  have  a psychic feeling of love for someone,  a universal
love for all creatures,  but one has  to  give  oneself  only  to  the
Divine.

                                 ***

It cannot be said that these affinities are either bad or  good  in  a
general  way.  It  depends  on the person,  the effects and many other
things. As a general rule, all these affinities have to be surrendered
to the Divine along with the rest of the old nature, so that only what
is in harmony with the Divine Truth can be kept  and  transformed  for
its  work  in you.  All relations with others must be relations in the
Divine and not of the old personal nature.

                                 ***

There is a love in which the emotion is turned towards the  Divine  in
an increasing receptivity and growing union. What it receives from the
Divine it pours out on others, but freely without demanding a return -
if  you  are  capable  of  that,  then  that  is  the highest and most
satisfying way to love.

                                 ***

A personal relation is  formed  when  there  is  an  exclusive  mutual
looking to each other.  The rule about personal relations in this yoga
is this:  (I) All  personal  relations  to  disappear  in  the  single
relation   between  the  sadhak  and  the  Divine:  (2)  All  personal
(psychic-spiritual) relations  to  proceed  from  the  Divine  Mother,
determined  by  her,  and  to  be part of the single relation with the
Divine Mother. In so far as it keeps to this double rule and admits no
physical  indulgence  or  vital  deformation  or  mixture,  a personal
relation can be there.  But since as yet the supramental has not taken
possession  but  is only descending and there is still struggle in the
vital and physical levels,  there must be a great carefulness such  as
would  not be necessary if the supramental transformation were already
there.  Both have to be in direct relation with the Mother  and  in  a
total  dependence on her and to see that that remains and that nothing
diminishes its totality or cuts across it in the least degree.

                                 ***

The only relation permissible between a sadhak and sadhika here is the
same  as  between a sadhak and sadhak or between a sadhika and sadhika
-a friendly relation as between followers of the same path of yoga and
children of the Mother.

                                 ***

In a  general  way  the only method for succeeding in having between a
man and a woman the free and natural yogic relations that should exist
between  a  sadhak and a sadtlifc€ ill this yoga is to be able to meet
each other without thinking at€ that one is a man and another a  woman
-both are simp€ human beings, both sadhaks, both striving to serve the
Divine and seeking the Divine alone and none else.  Have that fully in
yourself and no difficulty is likely to come.

                                 ***

It is  meant  that  you  should have the relation of sadhaks with each
other,  one of goodwill and friendly  feeling,  but  not  any  special
relation  of  a  vital  character.  If there is anyone you cannot meet
without such a vital relation coming up, then only it is not advisable
to meet him or her.

                                 ***

As for turning all to the Divine,  that is a counsel of perfection for
those who don't care to carry any luggage.  But  otherwise  friendship
between  man  and  man  or  man  and  woman  or woman and woman is not
forbidden,  provided it is the true thing and sex does not come in and
also provided it does not turn one away from the goal.  If the central
aim is  strong,  that  is  sufficient...  When  I  spoke  of  personal
relation, I certainly did not mean pure indifference, for indifference
does not create a  relation:  it  tends  to  non-relation  altogether.
Emotional friendship need not be an obstacle.

                                 ***

It is  certainly  easier  to  have  friendship  between man and man or
between woman and woman than between man and woman,  because there the
sexual  intrusion is normally absent.  In a friendship between man and
woman the sexual turn can at any moment come  in  a  subtle  or  in  a
direct way and produce perturbations. But there is no impossibility of
friendship  between  man  and  woman  pure  of  this   element;   such
friendships  can exist and have always existed.  All that is needed is
that the lower vital should not  look  in  at  the  back  door  or  be
permitted to enter. There is often a harmony between a masculine and a
feminine nature, an attraction or an affinity which rests on something
other  than any open or covert lower vital (sexual) basis - it depends
sometimes predominantly on the mental or the psychic or on the  higher
vital,  sometimes  on a mixture of these for its substance.  In such a
case friendship is  natural  and  there  is  little  chance  of  other
elements  coming  in  to pull it downwards or break it.
    It is  also a mistake to think that the vital alone has warmth and
the psychic is something frigid without  any  flame  in  it.  A  clear
limpid  goodwill  is a very good and desirable thing.  But that is not
what is meant by psychic love.  Love is love and not merely  goodwill.
Psychic love can have a warmth and a flame as intense and more intense
than the vital,  only  it  is  a  pure  flre,  not  dependent  on  the
satisfaction  of  ego-desire  or  on  the  eating  up  of  the fuel it
embraces.  It is a white flame,  not a red one;  but white  heat  Knot
inferior to the red variety in its ardour. It is true that the psychic
love does not usually get its full play in human relations  and  human
nature; it flnds the fullness of its fire and ecstasy more easily when
it is lifted towards the Divine.  In the human  relation  the  psychic
love  gets  mixed  up with other elements which seek at once to use it
and overshadow it. It gets an outlet for its own full intensities only
at rare moments. Otherwise it comes in only as an element, but even so
it contributes all the higher things In a love fundamentally  vital  -
all   the   finer   sweetn6ss,  tenderness,  fidelity  ,  self-giving,
self-sacrifice,  reachings of soul to  soul,  idealising  sublimations
that  lift up human love beyond itself,  come from the psychic.  If it
could dominate and govern and transmute the  other  elements,  mental,
vital,  physical,  of human love, then love could be on the earth some
reflection or preparation of the real thing,  an integral union of the
soul  and  its  instruments  in  a dual life.  But even some imperfect
appearance of that is rare.
    Our view  is that the normal thing is in yoga for the entire flame
of the nature to turn towards the Divine and the rest  must  wait  for
the  true  basis:  to  build higher things on the sand and mire of the
ordinary consciousness is not safe.  That does not necessarily exclude
friendships or comradeships,  but these must be subordinate altogether
to the central fire.  If anyone makes meanwhile the relation with  the
Divine his one absorbing aim, that is quite natural and gives the full
force to the sadhana.  Psychic love finds itself wholly when it is the
radiation of the diviner consciousness for which we are seeking;  till
then it is difficult for it to put out its undimmed integral self  and
figure.
    P.S. Mind,  vital,  physical are properly instruments for the soul
and  spirit;  when they work for themselves then they produce ignorant
and imperfect things - if they can be made into conscious  instruments
of  the  psychic  and  the  spirit,  then  they  get their own diviner
fulfilment,  that is the idea contained in what we call transformation
in this yoga.

                                 ***

Friendship or affection is not excluded from the yoga. Friendship with
the  Divine  is  a  recognised  relation  in the sadhana.  Friendships
between the sadhaks exist and are encouraged by the Mother.  Only,  we
seek  to  found  them  on a surer basis than that on which the bulk of
human friendships are insecurely founded.  It is precisely because  we
hold  friendship,  brotherhood,  love to be sacred things that we want
this change -because we do not want to see them broken at every moment
by  the movements of the ego,  soiled and spoiled and destroyed by the
passions,  jealousies,  treacheries to which the vital is prone -it is
to  make  them truly sacred and secure that we want them rooted in the
soul,  founded on the rock of the Divine.  Our yoga is not an  ascetic
yoga :  it aims at purity, but not at a cold austerity. Friendship and
love are indispensable notes in the harmony to which we aspire.  It is
not a vain dream,  for we have seen that even in imperfect conditions,
when a little of the indispensable element is there at the very  root,
the  thing  is  possible.  It is difficult and the old obstacles still
cling obstinately?  But no victory can be won without a fixed fidelity
to the aim and a long effort. There is no other way than to persevere.

                                 ***

In yoga  friendship  can remain but attachment has to fall away or any
such engrossing affection as would keep one tied to the ordinary  life
and consciousness.

                                 ***

All attachment is a hindrance to sadhana. Goodwill you should have for
all, psychic kindness for all, but no vital attachment.

                                 ***

If you expect a  return  for  your  kindness,  you  are  bound  to  be
disappointed.  It  is only those who give love or kindness for its own
sake without expecting a return who escape  from  this  experience.  A
relation  also can be established on a sure basis only when it is free
from attachment or when it is predominantly psychic on both sides.

                                 ***

There is a fundamental psychic feeling which is the same for all;  but
there can also be a special psychic feeling for one or another.

                                 ***

No - psychic love does not exclude discrimination.

                                 ***

It depends on what you mean by psychic "love''. One can have a psychic
feeling for all beings;  it does not depend on sex nor has it anything
sexual in it.

                                 ***

Even in  the  world there have been relations between man and woman in
which  sex  could  not  intervene  -purely  psychic   relations.   The
consciousness  of sex difference would be there no doubt,  but without
coming in as a source of desire or disturbance into the relation.  But
naturally  it  needs  a  certain  psychic  development  before that is
possible.

                                 ***

It is difficult to define its limits or to recognise it. For even when
there  is  the  psychic love for another person,  it gets in the human
being so mixed up with the vital that it is  the  commonest  thing  to
justify a vital love by claiming for it a psychic character. One could
say that psychic love is distinguished  by  an  essential  purity  and
selflessness  - but the vital can put on a very brilliant imitation of
that character, when it likes.

                                 ***

Our experience  is  that  it  is  only  when  both  are  in  the  true
consciousness  centred round the Divine that there is some chance of a
true meeting in the Divine. Otherwise, with the personal relation that
forms  there  comes  in  either  disappointment and alienation or else
reactions that are not pure.

                                 ***

But that is the nature of human vital affection, it is all selfishness
disguised  as  love.  Sometimes  when there is a strong vital passion,
need or tie,  then the person is ready to do anything  to  retain  the
affection of the other. But it is only when the psychic is able to get
into the movement that there is real unselfish affection or  at  least
some element of it.

                                 ***

The phenomenon  of  which you speak is normal to human nature.  People
are drawn together or one is drawn to another by a certain feeling  of
affinity, of agreement or of attraction between some part of one's own
nature and some part of the other's nature.  At  first  this  only  is
felt;  one  sees  all  that  is good or pleasant to one in the other's
nature and even attributes,  perhaps,  qualities to him that  are  not
there or not so much there as one thinks. But with closer acquaintance
other parts of the nature are felt with which one is not in affinity -
perhaps  there  is  a  clash  of  ideas  or  opposition of feelings or
conflict of two egos.  If there is a strong love or  friendship  of  a
lasting character, then one may overcome these difficulties of contact
and arrive at a harmonising or accommodation;  but very often this  is
not  there  or  the  disagreement  is  so  acute  as to counteract the
tendency of accommodation or rise the ego gets so hurt as  to  recoil.
Then  it  is  quite  possible  for  one  to  begin to see too much and
exaggerate the faults of the other or to attribute things to him of  a
bad  or  unpleasant  character that are not there.  The whole view can
change,  the good feeling change into ill-feeling,  alienation ,  even
enmity  or  antipathy.  This  is  always happening in human life.  The
opposite  also  happens,  but  less  easily  -  i.e.the  change   from
ill-feeling to good feeling, from opposition to harmony. But of course
ill-opinion or ill-feeling towards a person need not arise  from  this
cause  alone.  It  happens  from  many  causes,  instinctive  dislike,
jealousy,  conflicting interests, etc.
    One must try to look  calmly  on  others,  not  overstress  either
virtues   or  defects,  without  ill-feeling  or  misunderstanding  or
injustice, with a calm mind and vision.

                                 ***

It is the way that vital love usually takes when there  is  no  strong
psychic force to correct and uphold it.  After the first vital glow is
over,  the incompatibility of the two egos begins to show  itself  and
there  is  more  and more strain in the relations -for one or both the
demands of the other become intolerable to the vital  part,  there  is
constant  irritation  and  the  claim  is felt as a burden and a yoke.
Naturally  in  a  life  of  sadhana  there  is  no  room   for   vital
relations-they  are a stumbling-bloat preventing the wholesale turning
of the nature towards the Divine.

                                 ***

II

                                 ***

A quietude in all the parts and an intense aspiration is what came  to
you. In the inner meditation you felt the contact with the Mother as a
result and afterwards your inner being rose up towards the  planes  of
peace  and wideness and light above and came back to its central place
in the heart.
    The inequality  of feelings towards others,  liking and disliking,
is ingrained in the nature of the human vital.  This is  because  some
harmonise with one's own vital temperament,  others do not; also there
is the vital ego which gets displeased when it is hurt or when  things
do  not  go  or  people do not act according to its preferences or its
idea of what they should do.  In the self above there is  a  spiritual
calm  and  equality,  a  goodwill to all or at a certain stage a quiet
indifference to all except the Divine;  in the  psychic  there  is  an
equal kindness or love to all fundamentally,  but there may be special
relations with one - but the vital is always unequal and full of likes
and dislikes.  By the sadhana the vital must be quieted down ; it must
receive from the self above its quiet goodwill  and  equality  to  all
things  and  from the psychic its general kindness or love.  This will
come,  but it may take time to come.  Meanwhile you have to strengthen
the ideas which you express in the letter, - for they are true psychic
ideas,  - and they will help you towards this aim. You must get rid of
all  inner  as  well  as  all outer movements of anger,  impatience or
dislike.  If things go wrong or are done wrongly, you will simply say,
"The  Mother  knows" and go on quietly doing or getting things done as
well as you can without friction.  At a later period we will show  you
how to use the Mother's force so that things may go better,  but first
you must get your inner poise in a quiet vital,  for only so  can  the
Force be used with its full possible success.

                                 ***

Work is  always  best done in silence except so far as it is necessary
to speak for the work itself.  Conversation is best kept  for  leisure
hours.  So  nobody shall object to your silence during work.
    For the rest what you should do is to  keep  your  right  attitude
towards  the  others and not allow yourself to be upset,  irritated or
displeased by anything they may say or do - in other  words  keep  the
samat€  and  universal goodwill proper to a sadhak of yoga.  If you do
that and still others get upset or displeased,  you must not  mind  as
you will not be responsible for their wrong reaction.

                                 ***

I have  read your letter and I understand now what it is that you find
trying - but they do not seem to us  such  serious  things  as  to  be
rightly  felt  as  a  cause  of  disturbance.  They  are  the  kind of
inconveniences that one always has when people live and work together.
It arises from a misunderstanding between two minds or two wills, each
pulling his own way and feeling hurt or vexed if the  other  does  not
follow. This can only be cured by a change of consciousness - for when
one goes into a deeper consciousness,  first,  one sees the  cause  of
these  things  and  is  not troubled,  -one acquires an understanding,
patience and tolerance that makes one free  from  vexation  and  other
reactions.  If both or all grow in consciousness,  then there arises a
mental understanding of each other's viewpoints which makes it  easier
to  bring  in  harmony  and smooth working.  It is this that should be
sought by the change within - to create the same harmony from  outside
by  exterior  means is not so easy,  as the human mind is stiff in its
perceptions and the human vital insistent on its own  way  of  action.
Let  this  be  your  main  will  - to grow yourself within and let the
clearer and deeper consciousness come and have a  good  will  for  the
same  change to come in others so that charity and harmony may come in
the place of friction and misunderstanding.

                                 ***

Well, I have said already that quarrels,  cuttings are not a  part  of
sadhana:  the  clashes  and friction you speak of are,  just as in the
outside world,  rubbings of the vital ego.  Antagonisms,  antipathies,
dislikes,  quarrellings  can  no  more be proclaimed as part ofsadhana
than sex-impulses or acts can be part  ofsadhana.  Harmony,  goodwill,
forbearance  ,  equanimity  are  necessary  ideals  in the relation of
sadhak with sadhak.  One is aot bound to mix,  but  if  one  keeps  to
oneself,  it  should  be  for  reasons  of  sadhana,  not out of other
motives:  moreover,  it should be without any sense of superiority  or
contempt for others... If somebody finds that association with another
for any reason raises undesirable vital feelings in him or her - he or
she  can  certainly  withdraw  from  that  association  as a matter of
prudence until he or she gets over the weakness.  But  ostentation  of
avoidance  or  public  cuttings  are not included in the necessity and
betray feelings that equally ought to be overcome.

                                 ***

These results are not a punishment,  they  are  a  natural  result  of
yielding to egoism.  All quarrels proceed from egoism which pushes its
own opinion and affirms its own importance,  considering  that  it  is
right  and  everybody  else  wrong and thus creates anger and sense of
injury etc. These things must not be indulged, but rejected at once.

                                 ***

I would ask you not to let resentment or anything else rise or dictate
your conduct. Put these things aside and see that peace within and the
seeking of the Divine are the one thing important -these clashes being
only  spurts of the ego.  Turn yourself in the one direction,  but for
the rest keep a quiet goodwill to all.

                                 ***

If you want to have knowledge or see all as brothers  or  have  peace,
you  must  think less of yourself,  your desires,  feelings,  people's
treatment of you,  and think more of  the  Divine  -  living  for  the
Divine, not for yourself.

                                 ***

You have now taken the right attitude,  and if you keep it all will go
better.  It is to the divine Mother that you have come for  yoga,  not
for  the  old kind of life.  You should also regard this as an Ashram,
not an ordinary saŒs€ra,  and in your dealings with others here strive
to  conquer  anger,  self-assertion  and pride,  whatever may be their
attitude or behaviour towards you;  for so  long  as  you  keep  these
moods, you will find it difficult to make progress in the yoga.

                                 ***

Quarrels and clashes are a proof of the absence of the yogic poise and
those who seriously wish to do yoga must learn to grow  out  of  these
things.  It  is  easy  enough  not to clash when there is no cause for
strife or dispute or quarrel;  it is when there is cause and the other
side  is  impossible and unreasonable that one gets the opportunity of
rising above one's vital nature.

                                 ***

As for your question,  it is a sentimental part of  the  vital  nature
that  quarrels  with people and refuses to speak to them and it is the
same part in a reaction against that mood that wants to speak and  get
the relation.  So long as there is either of these movements the other
also is possible.  It is only when you get rid of this  sentimentalism
and  turn  all  your purified feelings towards the Divine,  that these
fluctuations disappear and a calm goodwill to all takes their place.

                                 ***

There are two attitudes  that  a  sadhak  can  have:  either  a  quiet
equality  to  all  regardless  of their friendliness or hostility or a
general goodwill.

                                 ***

Do not dwell much on the defects of others.  It is not  helpful.  Keep
always quiet and peace in the attitude.

                                 ***

That is quite right.  Only those who sympathise can help - surely also
one should be able to see the faults of others without hatred.  Hatred
injures both parties, it helps none.

                                 ***

There is  no  harm in seeing and observing if it is done with sympathy
and impartiality - it is the tendency unnecessarily to criticise, find
fault,  condemn  others  (often  quite  wrongly)  which  creates a bad
atmosphere both for oneself and others.  And why  this  harshness  and
cocksure condemnation? Has not each man his own faults - why should he
be so eager to find fault with others and condemn them?  Sometimes one
has  to  judge  but  it  should not be done hastily or in a censorious
spirit.

                                 ***

Men are always more able to criticise sharply the work of  others  and
tell them how to do things or what not to do than skilful to avoid the
same mistakes themselves.  Often indeed  one  sees  easily  in  others
faults  which  are there in oneself but which one fails to see.  These
and other defects such as the last you mention  are  common  to  human
nature and few escape them.  The human mind is not really conscious of
itself-that is why in yoga one has always to look and see what  is  in
oneself and become more and more conscious.

                                 ***

It is not a question of ordinary life.  In ordinary life people always
judge wrongly because they judge by mental standards and generally  by
conventional  standards.  The human mind is an instrument not of truth
but of ignorance and error.

                                 ***

It is the petty ego in each that likes to discover and talk about  the
"real  or  unreal"  defects of others - and it does not matter whether
they are real or unreal;  the ego has no right to judge them,  because
it  has  not the right view or the right spirit.  It is only the calm,
disinterested,  dispassionate, all-compassionate and all-loving Spirit
that  can  judge  and  see  rightly  the strength and weakness in each
being.

                                 ***

Yes, all that is true. The lower vital takes a mean and petty pleasure
in picking out the faults of others and thereby one hampers both one's
own progress and that of the subject of the criticism.

                                 ***

A gossiping spirit is always an obstacle.

                                 ***

Such reproaches (the stone etc.) are quite usual from those who do not
understand,  against  the  sadhak  when  he  remains  firm in his path
against the ordinary human vital demands upon him. But that should not
perturb you. It is better to be a stone on the road to the Divine than
soft and weak clay in the muddy paths  of  the  ordinary  vital  human
nature.

                                 ***

It is  not  what  others  think of you that matters,  but what you are
yourself.

                                 ***

Even sometimes a malignant (not fair or well-  intentioned)  criticism
can  be  helpful  by some aspect of it,  if one can look at it without
being affected by the unfairness .

                                 ***

Naturally, praise and blame may have that effect (the human nature  is
more  sensitive to these than to almost anything else,  more even than
to  real  benefit  or  injury),  unless  either  equanimity  has  been
established  or  else  there  is  so  entire  a  confidence  and happy
dependence upon someone that both praise and blame are helpful to  the
nature.  There  are  some men who even without yoga have so balanced a
mind that they take and adjudge praise and blame calmly for what  they
are worth, but that is extremely rare.

                                 ***

III

                                 ***

The idea of helping others is a subtle form of the ego. It is only the
Divine Force that can help.  One can be its instrument, but you should
first learn to be a fit and egoless instrument.

                                 ***

The idea  of helping others is a delusion of the ego.  It is only when
the Mother commissions and gives her force that one can help and  even
then only within lidits.

                                 ***

All change  must  come from within with the felt or the secret support
of the Divine Power,  it is only by one's own inner  opening  to  that
that  one can receive help,  not by mental,  vital or physical contact
with others.

                                 ***

It is a relative and partial help,  of course,  but  it  is  sometimes
useful. A radical help can only come from within through the action of
the Divine Force and the assent of the  being.  It  must  be  said  of
course that it is not everyone that thinks he is helping who is really
doing it;  also if the help is accompanied with the exercising  of  an
"influence",  that  influence  may be of a mixed character and harm as
well as help if the instrument is not pure.

                                 ***

Yes, it is always so with human conduct-men want to  help  each  other
with a motive behind or a feeling which proceeds from the ego.
    It is only when one lives in a higher  consciousness  that  it  is
otherwise.

                                 ***

The real failing  of  the  mother-like  ambition  -  at  least  as  it
manifests in many as in her - is that it conceals an ego movement, the
desire to play a big part,  to have people depending on one,  to  have
the motherly reputation etc., etc. Most human altruism has really this
ego basis. If one gets rid of that, then the will to help can take its
true place as a movement of pure sympathy and psychic feeling.

                                 ***

You need   not  trouble  yourself  much  about  X's  ideas  or  attach
importance to them.  The only truth about it is that a  vital  mixture
does very easily get into the movements even of the sadhana, if one is
not careful. The one safeguard against that is to turn all towards the
Divine  and draw all from the Divine,  getting rid of attachment,  ego
and desire.  In one's relations with other  sadhaks  there  should  be
neither   stifiness   and  hardness  nor  attachment  and  sentimental
leanings.
    As for the motherly feeling  -  it  has  to  be  transformed  like
everything  else.  The  danger  of  all  these relations when they are
untransformed is that they may minister in a subtle way to the ego. To
avoid that,  one has to make oneself an instrument merely, but without
even the ego of the instrument, and to be conscious of the source, not
insisting on the action or any relation,  but simply allowing it to be
useful whenever one can clearly feel that it  is  intended.  Also  one
must  be  careful  that  no  force  comes through one except the right
forces,  those which are in harmony with the higher consciousness  and
help.  If one does always in that spirit and with that care, then even
if mistakes are made,  it does not  matter-the  growing  consciousness
will set them right and progress towards a more perfect working.

                                 ***

Of course it is the disadvantage of helping others that one comes into
contact with their consciousness and their difficulties and also  gets
more externalised.

                                 ***

Yes, it  is dangerous [to sympathise with anyone gone wrong],  because
it puts one in touch with the adverse Force that upset  him  and  that
Force  at  once  tries  to  touch  you  and  make  its suggestions and
contaminate by a sort of contagion or infection.

                                 ***

By the sympathy you get into contact and receive what is in the  other
-  or  also you may give or let go or have drawn from you part of your
force which goes to the other. It is the vital sympathy which has this
effect;  a  calm  spiritual  or  psychic goodwill does not bring these
reactions.

                                 ***

However the bearing of others' difficulties would,  I fear, be a heavy
burden  for  anybody and I doubt the efficacy of the method.  What one
can do much more usefully is, if one has strength to give out of one's
strength to the other, if one has peace to shed the peace on the other
etc. This one can do without losing one's strength or peace - if it is
done in the right way.

                                 ***

There are  two possible attitudes in the matter and each has something
to be said for it.  There is much to be said for X's attitude  -first,
because  until  one's  own  siddhi is complete,  the help one gives is
always a little doubtful and imperfect and,  secondly,  there  is  the
danger  so  often emphasised by experienced yogis of taking on oneself
the difficulties of those one helps.  But all the  same  to  wait  for
perfection is not always possible.

                                 ***

To want  unwaveringly  the welfare of another both in the head and the
heart, is the best help one can give.

                                 ***

If your husband is in a perilous period of his life and suffering from
ill-health and you feel for him,  the best thing for him is still that
you should tranquillise yourself and call the Divine to  his  help  to
pass  through.  Even  in  the ordinary life disquietude and depression
create an unhelpful atmosphere for one who is ill or in  difficulties.
Once you are a sadhak, then whether for yourself or to help others for
whom you still feel,  the true spiritual attitude of reliance  on  the
Divine  Will  and  call for the help from above is always the best and
most effective course.

                                 ***

Whatever or whomever you have banded over to the  Divine,  you  should
not be any longer attached or anxious about him or it but leave all to
the Divine to do for the best.

                                 ***

It is very good that the condition you speak of has settled  itself  -
that is a great progress.  As for the prayers, the fact of praying and
the attitude it brings, especially unselfish prayer for others, itself
opens  you  to  the  higher  Power,  even if there is no corresponding
result in the person prayed for.  Nothing can be positively said about
that,  for the result must necessarily depend on the persons,  whether
they are open or receptive or something in them  can  respond  to  any
Force the prayer brings down.

                                 ***

IV

                                 ***

It is  certainly  a  great  help  to  be  able to limit one's contacts
provided it is not carried too far. I must note however that even with
limited  contacts  undesirable  waves  can get in - it is a measure of
precaution but does not make you absolutely safe.  On the  other  hand
complete  withdrawal  carries  one  to another extreme and has its own
dangers.  The complete safety from  "stuff"  distracting,  disturbing,
externalising  etc,  can  only come from a growth of the consciousness
within. In the interim absorption and limitation of contacts like that
can be a helpful measure if used in a judicious way.

                                 ***

It is  true  that one has to try to keep the inner condition under all
circumstances,  even the most adverse;  but that does not mean one has
to  accept,  unnecessarily,  unfavourable  conditions when there is no
good reason for their being allowed to go on.  Especially, the nervous
system  and  the physical cannot bear an excessive strain,  - the mind
too and the higher vital;  your fatigue came from the strain of living
in  the  One  Consciousness and at the same time exposing yourself too
much to prolonged contacts from the ordinary consciousness.  A certain
amount of selfdefence is necessary,  so that the consciousness may not
be pulled down or out constantly into the ordinary atmosphere  or  the
physical  strained  by  being  forced into activities that have become
foreign to you.  Those who practise yoga often seek refuge in solitude
from  these difficulties;  that is unnecessary here,  but all the same
you need not submit to being put under this  kind  of  useless  strain
always.

                                 ***

You are quite right. Not to mix with others deprives of the test which
contact with them imposes on  the  consciousness  and  the  chance  to
progress in these respects.  Mixing is unprofitable from the spiritual
point of view when it is only to indulge the vital,  chat, interchange
vital  movements  etc.;  but abstention from all mixing and contact is
also not desirable. It is only when the consciousness truly needs full
retirement  that  such  retirement can be made and even then it may be
full but not absolute.  For in the absolute  retirement  one  lives  a
purely subjective life and the opportunity for extending the spiritual
progress to the outer life and testing it thoroughly is not there.
    It is  good  that  you  got quickly the right attitude to what had
happened; that indicates a good progress in the consciousness.

                                 ***

That [mixing with people,  laughing,  joking, etc.] is a kind of vital
expansiveness,  it  is not vital strength - this expansivenebs is also
expensive.  For when there is this  mixing,  the  vitally  strong  get
strength  from  it but the vitally weak expend what strength they have
and become weaker.

                                 ***

I think no rule can be laid down applicable to all. There are some who
have  the  expansive  tendency  of  the  vital,  others  who  have the
concentrative.  The latter are absorbed  in  their  own  intensity  of
endeavour  and  certainly  they  gather  from  that  a great force for
progress and are saved the expense and loss of energy which frequently
comes  to the more communicative and also make themselves less open to
reactions from others (though this cannot be altogether avoided).  The
others need to communicate what is in them and cannot wait for the fun
fullness before they use what they have.  Even they may need  to  give
out as well as to take in in order to progress. The only thing is that
they must balance the two tendencies,  concentrating to  receive  from
above as much or more than they open sideways to distribute.

                                 ***

X has  a very strong and expansive vital,  so it is quite natural that
if he likes anybody he can produce this  kind  of  effect  on  him  by
meeting.  But  I  do not know that he is conscious of what he gives or
receives; it is more likely a spontaneous action. He is not accustomed
to  give  only  though,  for  a strong expansive vital as opposed to a
strong self-contained one needs to receive as well as to give.

                                 ***

It is a matter  of  temperament.  Some  are  psychically  and  vitally
sensitive  and responsive to all that comes from anywhere;  others are
solid of nerve and walled  against  invasion.  It  is  not  at  all  a
question  of  strength or weakness.  The first have a greater sense of
life and answer to life ; they suffer more from life and get more from
it. It is the difference between the Greek and the Roman. Even without
egoism the difference remains because€ is of the temperament.  In yoga
the  first  type  are  more  able to feel everything directly and know
everything in detail by close experience; it is their great advantage.
The  others  have  to  use  the  mind  to know and their grasp is less
intimate.

                                 ***

It is true that mixing with others too  closely  tends  to  lower  the
condition,  if  they are not themselves in the right attitude and live
very much in the vital.  In all contacts what you have  to  do  is  to
remain  within,  keep a detached attitude and not allow yourself to be
troubled by the difficulties that arise in work or  the  movements  of
people,  but keep yourself the true movement.  Do not be caught by the
desire to "help" others - do and speak yourself the right  thing  from
the  inner  poise  and leave the help to come to them from the Divine.
Nobody can really help-only the Divine Grace.

                                 ***

It [harmony,  delight and love] is in you and when it is like that  it
spreads  out  in the atmosphere-but naturally only those can share who
are open and sensitive to the influence.  Still everyone who has peace
or  love  in  him  becomes  an added influence for its increase in the
atmosphere.

                                 ***

When one is with another for sometime talking etc.,  there  is  always
some vital interchange,  unless one rejects what comes from the others
instinctively or deliberately.  If one is impressionable, there may be
a strong impression or influence from the other. Then when one goes to
another person it is possible to pass it on to the other.  That  is  a
thing  which  is constantly happening.  But this thing happens without
the knowledge of the transmitter.  When  one  is  conscious,  one  can
prevent it happenmg.

                                 ***

It is  quite  possible for one person to get depressed by talking with
another. Talking means a vital interchange, so that can always happen.
Whether  they  have  observed  rightly in a particular case is another
matter.

                                 ***

Yes, that is the test.  When one deals with people there can be always
a  projection of consciousness to them or a reception of them into the
consciousness,  but that does not amount to an attachment -  something
more  is  needed,  a  grip of the vital on the person or a grip of the
person on one's vital etc.

                                 ***

It is mainly an inner guard that you must keep.  At the same time,  if
you  feel unease in crowds it is better to avoid them - except in case
of music if you feel secure there.  A crowd ofpeople engaged in purely
social interchange is necessarily on a lower level of consciousness in
which undesirable forces may move,  if there is anyone there  open  to
them,  and  one  who  is in a stage of consciousness opening to higher
things but not yet fixed in steady and self-supporting calm  is  safer
away from it.
    In sadhana one is supposed to keep outward forces at a distance or
at least not to allow them to invade one. If one faces a difficulty in
the right spirit and overcomes it,  naturally one progresses, but that
is  a  different  thing  from letting alien forces or influences enter
into the conscious being.  No one need invite that, -they are only too
ready  to  do  it  without  being invited.  One can look at and become
conscious of all forces,  even the worst,  darkest and  most  hostile,
provided  one  remains on guard and refuses all credence or support to
their suggestions and rejects all claim of theirs to a  place  in  the
consciousness  and  nature.  But  all  cannot  do  that in the earlier
stages.

                                 ***

Dispersion and  sadhana  are  two  things that cannot go together.  In
sadhana one has to have a control over the mind and all  its  actions;
in  dispersion  one is on the contrary controlled and run away with by
the mind and unable to keep it to its subject.  If the mind is  to  be
always dispersed, then you cannot concentrate on reading either or any
other occupation,  you will be fit for nothing except perhaps talking,
mixing, flirting with women and similar occupations.

                                 ***

You are  mistaken in thinking that the sadhana of X,  Y and Z does not
suffer by the dispersion of their minds in all directions.  They would
have  been  far  farther  on  the  path  if  they  did  a concentrated
yoga-even, Y who has an enormous receptivity and is eager for progress
might have gone thrice as far as he has done. Moreover, your nature is
intense in all it does and it was therefore quite its natural path  to
take the straight way.  Naturally,  when once the higher consciousness
is settled and both the vital and physical sufficiently ready for  the
sadhana  to  go  on  of  itself,  strict  tapasya  will  no  longer be
necessary. But till then we consider it very useful and helpful and in
many  cases indispensable.  But we do not insist on it when the nature
is not willing.  I see too that those who get into  the  direct  line,
(there are not yet very many),  get of themselves the tendency to give
up these minddispersing interests and occupations and throw themselves
fully into the sadhana.

                                 ***

Yes, certainly,  dispersion is an inner fact. But certain outer things
help the dispersion of the consciousness and if anybody  like  X  says
that  he  is not dispersed when he is wandering about with a companion
like Y,  I would say he is either not  telling  the  truth  or  he  is
deceiving  himself.  If  one is always in the inner consciousness then
one can be not dispersed even when doing outward things - or if one is
conscious  of  the Divine at all times and in all one does,  then also
can one read newspapers or do much correspondence without  dispersion.
But  even  then  though  there  is  not dispersion,  yet there is less
intensity of consciousness when  reading  a  newspaper  or  writing  a
letter  than  when  one  is  not  putting  part  of oneself into quite
external things.  It is only when the consciousness  is  quite  siddha
that there is not even this difference.  That does not mean one should
not do external things at all,  for  then  one  gets  no  training  in
joining  the two consciousnesses.  But one must recognise that certain
things do disperse the consciousness or lower  it  or  externalise  it
more  than  others.  Especially  one  should not deceive or pretend to
oneself that one is not dispersed by them when  one  is.  As  for  the
people who want to draw others to the yoga,  I should say that if they
draw themselves nearer to the inner goal that would  be  a  much  more
fruitful activity. And in the end it would "draw" much more people and
in a better way than writing of many letters.

                                 ***

That is why we are not ln favour of correspondence with relatives etc,
outside.  There is no point of contact unless one comes out or down to
their own level which is obviously undesirable from the point of  view
of yoga. I don't think much inspiration can go through letters because
their consciousness is not at all prepared.  Words can at  most  touch
only the surface of their minds, what is important is something behind
the words,  but to that they are not open.  If  there  is  already  an
interest in spiritual things, that is different. Even then it is often
better to let people follow their own guru than pull  them  into  this
path.

                                 ***

That is   the   reason   why   it  is  better  to  drop  these  things
[correspondence with relatives].  People who go on corresponding  with
their  people do not feel it as you do,  but nevertheless it is a fact
that they maintain and enforce vibrations which keep  the  old  forces
active   in   the   vital   and  maintain  their  impressions  in  the
subconscient.

                                 ***

Every letter means an interchange with the person who writes it -  for
something is there behind the words, something of his person or of the
forces he has put out or had around him while  writing.  Our  thoughts
and feelings are also forces and can have effects upon others. One has
to grow conscious of the movement of these forces  and  then  one  can
control one's own mental and vital formations and cease to be affected
by those of others.

                                 ***

Yes, one's bad thoughts and good thoughts can have a  bad  or  a  good
effect  on  others,  though  they have not always because they are not
strong enough - but still that is the tendency. It is therefore always
said  by those who have this knowledge that we should abstain from bad
thoughts of others for this reason.  It is true  that  both  kinds  of
thought  come  equally  to the mind in its ordinary state;  but if the
mind and mental will are well doveloped,  one can establish a  control
over  one's  thoughts  as  well as over one's acts and prevent the bad
ones from having their play. But this mental control is not enough for
the  sadhak.  He must attain to a quiet mind and in the silence of the
mind receive only the Divine thought-forces or other divine Forces and
be  their field and instrument.
    To silence the mind it is not enough to throw back each thought as
it comes,  that can only be a subordinate movement.  One must get back
from  all  thought  and  be  separate from it,  a silent consciousness
observing the thoughts if they  come,  but  not  oneself  thinking  or
identified with the thoughts.  Thoughts must be felt as outside things
altogether.  It is then easier to reject thoughts  or  let  them  pass
without  their  disturbing  the  quietude  of  the  mind.
    Not to  be  disturbed  by  either  joy  or  grief,   pleasure   or
displeasure  by  what  people  say  or  do or by any outward things is
called in yoga a state of samat€,  equality to all things.  It  is  of
immense importance in sadhana to be able to reach this state. It helps
the mental quietude and silence as well as the vital to come. It means
indeed  that  the  vital itself and the vital mind are already falling
silent and becoming quiet. The thinking mind is sure to follow.

                                 ***

Talking about somebody may very well have an effect on him;  it  often
does,  for  it  can  be an effective formulation of thought or feeling
which,  so  embodied,  will  reach  him.  But  I  don't  suppose  mere
mechanical  thoughts or ill-formed imaginations would do that - at any
rate it must be rare and need exceptional  conditions  or  a  play  of
forces in which a trifle counts.

                                 ***

The portion below the navel is the lower vital,  - in your case it has
become very sensitive to the condition of the same part in  others  or
perhaps  even  to their general condition - so that it gives a sort of
refiection or an appropriate reaction to that.  It is a phase  in  the
development that must be overpassed,  because the lower vital must get
a perfect peace in it and even if it feels the condition of others  do
it  as  an  act  of  perception  or  knowledge without any reaction or
reflection.

                                 ***

I suppose it depends upon the person and upon your reactions  to  him.
If he gives sex vibrations or is an appropriator of vital energy, then
opening to him may not  be  good.  But  in  the  ordinary  superficial
interchange  one  need  not lose anything or what is lost is so little
and so automatically repaired that it does not matter.

                                 ***

It is quite possible that he pulls [the vital  energy]  unconsciously,
as he is vitally weak and people who are vitally weak do unconsciously
and automatically pull on others.

                                 ***

When people mix together there is generally some interchange of  vital
forces   which  is  quite  involuntary...  Vampirising  is  a  special
phenomenon -  a  person  who  lives  upon  the  vital  of  others  and
flourishes vitally at their expense.

                                 ***

The tired  feeling which the people felt after seeing this X is a sign
of vampirism,  but very often there is no such feeling but there is an
after-effect  on  the  whole.  The nerves get gradually wrong -what is
called the nervous envelope becomes weak or in one way or another  the
vitality  becomes  weak or gets into an abnormal condition - excitable
and irritable .  There are many such ways in which  the  effect  shows
itself.  Sex-vampirism  is a different matter - in sex interchange the
normal thing is to give and take,  but the  sex-vampire  eats  up  the
other's vital and gives nothing or very little.

                                 ***

It is  not  necessary  to  be  so careful as all that.  Ordinary vital
interchanges are of a slight character. Nobody can take away another's
vital, for the very good reason that if that happened, the person from
whom it was taken would die.  It is possible of course for one  person
to  drain  another's  vital  forces so as to leave him limp or weak or
dry, but it is only the vampire kind that do that. It is possible also
for  one  to  give  out too much of one's vital forces so as to weaken
oneself or exhaust of energy,  a thing which should not be done,  - it
is  only  those  who  know  how  to  draw  or can draw freely from the
universal vital Force and replenish their life energies that can  give
out  freely.  All of course draw to some extent,  otherwise they would
not remain alive,  for expenditure of vital energy is always going  on
and  one  has to replace it;  but for most the capacity for drawing is
limited and  the  capacity  for  giving  without  exhaustion  is  also
limited.
    But the ordinary movements of interchange  are  harmless  provided
they are kept within moderate limits. What creates a difficulty in the
sadhana is that one may easily draw in undesirable influences or  pass
them on to others. It is the reason why at certain stages a limitation
of talk,  intercourse etc,  is often advisable. But the true remedy is
to  become  inwardly  conscious,  to  know  and  be  able to repel any
undesirable incursion or influence,  to be able when speaking,  mixing
etc,  to  keep  a defence round one and allow to pass in only what one
can accept and nothing else.  Also to measure what one  can  give  out
safely  and  what  one cannot.  When one has the consciousness and the
practice, this working becomes almost automatic.

                                 ***

No, people  are  not  conscious of these things,  only a few are.  The
vital exchange is there,  but they are not aware of it  -because  they
live  in  the  external mind (physical) and these things go on behind.
Even if they feel more energetic after an interchange or depressed  or
tired, they would not attribute it to the talk or contact, because the
interchange is unconscious; their external mind in which they live not
being aware of it.

                                 ***

The utility [of being conscious of the vital interchange] depends upon
the development of an inner power based upon peace which will act upon
these  things  and  prevent them.  So long as one is unconscious,  one
undergoes the action in the Ignorance and there is no  possibility  of
going   out   of  the  circle  because  there  is  no  knowledge.  The
consciousness comes with a growing  inner  development  in  the  being
which makes the peace,  the liberation a necessity-with that one opens
to a higher Force of a new consciousness which  puts  an  end  to  the
vital interchange and creates a new poise for the vital as well as the
mental life.  If one stops with the increased sensitivity and does not
go  farther,-then  of  course there is no proper use of it.  There are
some people like X  and  Y  who  got  so  absorbed  in  the  "occult''
knowledge  that  they  stopped  there  going round and round in it and
making all sorts of blunders  because  the  spiritual  light  was  not
there.  One  has  not  to  stop  there,  but  go  on and beyond to the
spiritual consciousness and the greater light,  strength and poise  it
brings.

                                 ***

I don't suppose people are at all aware of this occult commerce.  Some
like Daudet may observe the expenditure or throwing out of forces, but
not  the  pulling  or  the  effect  on  others.  The  idea  of  mental
interchange is familiar though only of the superficial kind,  not  the
silent action of mind on mind which is always going on,  but the vital
impacts are known only to  a  few  occultists.  If  one  becomes  very
conscious  one  can  become aware of the forces acting in and from all
around, e.g. forces of joy or depression or anger.

                                 ***

There must necessarily be a difference between the vital energy  of  a
cultured  and  well-educated man and of one who is rough and ignorant.
If nothing else,  a greater refinement and  subtlety  in  their  vital
force  and  therefore  in  the energy is there.  Drinking if excessive
affects the substance-and quality of the energybut probably a moderate
drinking  and  smoking  would have a less perceptible effect.  I don't
think people in ordinary life notice clearly,  but they have  often  a
general impression which they can't explain or particularise.

                                 ***

Sadhana in the Ashram and Outside

                                 ***

THIS Ashram  has been created with another object than that ordinarily
common to such institutions, not for the renunciation of the world but
as  a centre and a field of practice for the evolution of another kind
and form of life which would in the final end be  moved  by  a  higher
spiritual consciousness and embody a greater life of the spirit. There
is fto general rule as to  the  stage  at  which  one  may  leave  the
ordinary life and enter here;  in each case it depends on the personal
need and impulsion and the possibility or the advisability for one  to
take the step.

                                 ***

This is not an Ashrarn like others -the members are not Sannyasis ; it
is not mok˜a that is the sole aim of the yoga here. What is being done
here  is  a  preparation  for a work - a work which will be founded on
yogic consciousness and Yoga-Shakti, and can have no other foundation.
Meanwhile, every member here is expected to do some work in the Ashram
as part of this spiritual preparation.

                                 ***

The difficulty is that she seems to have  only  vair€gya  for  worldly
life  without  any  knowledge or special call for this yoga,  and this
yoga and the life here are quite different things from  ordinary  yoga
and  ordinary  Ashrams.  It  is not a life of meditative retirement as
elsewhere.  Moreover, it would be impossible for us to demand anything
without seeing her and knowing at close hand what she is like.  We are
not just now for taking more inmates into the Ashram except in a  very
few cases.

                                 ***

"Dedication of  life" is quite possible for some without their staylug
here.  It  Is  a  question  of  inward  attitude  and  of  the   total
consecration of the being to the Divine.

                                 ***

We do  not think it would be advisable at this stage [for X to come to
stay at the Ashram]. By coming to the Ashram difficulties do not cease
-they  have  to  be  faced and overcome wherever you are.  For certain
natures residence in the Ashram from the beginning is helpful - others
have to prepare themselves outside.

                                 ***

I have  read  and  considered your letter and have decided to give you
the opportunity you ask for - you can reside in the Ashram for two  or
three  months  to  begin  with and find out whether this is really the
place and the path you were seeking  and  we  also  can  by  a  closer
observation  of  your  spiritual possibilities discern how best we can
help you and whether this yoga is the best for  you.
    This trial is necessary for many reasons,  but especially  because
it  is  a  difficult  yoga  to follow and not many can really meet the
demands it makes on the nature.  You have written that you saw  in  me
one  who  achieved  through  the  perfection  of  the  intellect,  its
spiritualisation and divinisation;  but in fact I arrived through  the
complete  silence  of  the  mind  and  whatever  spiritualisation  and
divinisation  it  attained  was  through  the  descent  of  a   higher
supra-intellectual  knowledge into that silence.  The book,  Essays on
the Gita,  itself was written in that silence  of  the  mind,  without
intellectual  effort  and  by  a  free activity of this knowledge from
above.  This is important because the principle of this  yoga  is  not
perfection  of  the  human nature as it is but a psychic and spiritual
transformation of all the parts of the being through the action of  an
inner  consciousness and then of a higher consciousness which works on
them, throws out their old movements or changes them into the image of
its own and so transmutes lower into higher nature.  It is not so much
the  perfection  of  the  intellect  as  a  transcendence  of  it,   a
transformation  of  the  mind,  the  substitution  of a larger greater
principle of knowledge - and so with all the rest of the being.
    This is  a slow and difficult process;  the road is long and it is
hard to establish even the necessary basis.  The old  existing  nature
resists  and  obstructs  and  difficulties  rise one after another and
repeatedly till they are overcome.  It is therefore  necessary  to  be
sure  that  this is the path to which one is called before one finally
decides to tread it.
    If you  wish,  we are ready to give you the trial you ask for.  On
receiving your answer the Mother will make the necessary  arrangements
for your residence in the Ashram.

                                 ***

It is not helpful to abandon the ordinary life  before  the  being  is
ready  for  the  full spiritual life.  To do so means to precipitate a
struggle between the different elements and exasperate it to  a  point
of intensity which the nature is not ready to bear. The vital elements
in you have partly to be met by the discipline and experience of life,
while  keeping  the spiritual aim in view and trying to govern life by
it progressively in the spirit of Karmayoga.
    It is for this reason that we gave our approval to your marriage.

                                 ***

No, it  is  not  enough  to  be in the Ashram;  one has to open to the
Mother and put away the mind which one was playing with in the world.

                                 ***

There is no formal initiation,  acceptance is sufficient, but I do not
usually  accept unless I have seen,  or the Mother has seen the person
or unless there is a clear sign  that  he  is  meant  for  this  yoga.
Sometimes  those  who  desire to be disciples have seen me in dream or
vision before acceptance.

                                 ***

What you say is right.  This attitude that the Divine has need of  the
sadhak and not the sadhak of the Divine,  is utterly wrong and absurd.
When people are accepted here,  they are given a  chance  of  a  great
Divine  Grace,  of being instruments of a great work.  To suppose that
the Divine cannot do his work without the help of this or that  person
is  surely  most  arrogant  and illogical.  They ought to remember the
Gita's �te'pi tv€m "even without thee" the work can be  done  and  its
nimittam€tram bhava.

                                 ***

I was  thinking not of Pranam etc,  which have a living value,  but of
old forms which persist although they have no longer any  value  -e.g.
™r€ddha  for the dead.  Also here forms which have no relation to this
yoga-for instance Christians who  cling  to  the  Christian  forms  or
Mahomedans to the Namaz or Hindus to the Sandhyavandana in the old way
might soon find them either falling off or else  an  obstacle  to  the
free development of their sadhana.

                                 ***

II

                                 ***

What you  write shows that you had a wrong idea of the work.  The work
in the Ashram was not meant as a service to humanity or to  a  section
of it called the sadhaks of the Ashram.  It was not meant either as an
opportunity for a joyful social life and  a  flow  of  sentiments  and
attachments  between  the  sadhaks  and  an  expression  of  the vital
movements, a free vital interchange whether with some or with all. The
work was meant as a service to the Divine and as a field for the inner
opening to the Divine, surrender to the Divine alone, rejection of ego
and  all  the  ordinary  vital movements and the training in a psychic
elevation , selflessness, obedience, renunciation of all mental, vital
or  other self-assertion of the limited personality.  Self-affirmation
is not the aim,  the formation of a collective vital ego is  also  not
the  aim.  The  merging  of  the  little ego in union with the Divine,
purification,  surrender,  the substitution of the Divine guidance for
one's  own  ignorant  self-guidance  based on one's personal ideas and
personal feelings is the aim ofKarmayoga,  the surrender of one's  own
will to the Divine Will.
    If one  feels human beings to be near and the Divine to be far and
seeks the Divine through service of and love of human beings  and  not
the  direct  service  and love of the Divine,  then one is following a
wrong principle-for that is the principle of  the  mental,  vital  and
moral not the spiritual life.

                                 ***

["The love of the Divine in all beings and the constant perception and
acceptance of its workings in all things."] That is all right  in  the
ordinary  Karmayoga  which  aims  at  union with the cosmic spirit and
stops short at the overmind - but here a special work has to  be  done
and  a  new  realisation  achieved for the earth and not for ourselves
alone. It is necessary to stand apart from the rest of the world so as
to  separate  ourselves  from  the  ordinary consciousness in order to
bring down a new one.
    It is not that love for all is not part of the sadhana, but it has
not to translate itself at once into a mixing with all - it  can  only
express  itself  in  a  general  and  when  need  be dynamic universal
goodwill,  but for the rest it  must  find  vent  in  this  labour  of
bringing  down  the  higher  consciousness with all its effect for the
earth.  As for accepting the working of the Divine in all things  that
is  necessary  here  too  in  the  sense  of seeing it even behind our
struggles and difficulties,  but not accepting the nature of  man  and
the  world as it is - our aim is to move towards a more divine working
which will replace what now is by a greater and happier manifestation.
That too is a labour of divine Love.

                                 ***

As for our own position it is that  ordinary  life  is  Maya  in  this
sense, not that it is an illusion, for it exists and is very real, but
that it is an Ignorance, a thing founded on what is from the spiritual
point  of view a falsehood.  So it is logical to avoid it or rather we
are obliged to have some touch with it but we minimise that as much as
possible except in so far as it is useful for our purpose.  We have to
turn We from falsehood into spiritual truth,  from a life of Ignorance
into  a  life  of spiritual knowledge.  But until we have succeeded in
doing that for ourselves,  it is better to keep apart from the life of
Ignorance  of the world - otherwise our little slowly growing light is
likely to be submerged in the seas of darkness all around it.  Even as
it  is,  the  endeavour  is difficult enough -it would be tenfold more
difficult if there were no isolation.

                                 ***

Work here and work done in the world are of course not the same thing.
The  work  there  is  not  In any way a divine work in special - it is
ordinary work in the world.  But still one must take it as a  training
and  do  it  in  the spirit of Karmayoga-what matters there is not the
nature of the work in itself,  but the spirit in which it is done.  It
must  be in the spirit of the Gita,  without desire,  with detachment,
without repulsion,  but doing it as perfectly as possible, not for the
sake of the family or promotion or to please the superiors, but simply
because it is the thing that has been given in the hand to do. It is a
field  of inner training,  nothing else.  One has to learn in it these
things,  equality, desirelessness, dedication. It is not the work as a
thing  for its own sake,  but one's doing of it and one's way of doing
it that one has to dedicate to the Divine.  Done in  that  spirit,  it
does  not  matter what the work is.  If one trains oneself spiritually
like that,  then one will be ready to do  in  the  true  way  whatever
special  work  directly for the Divine,  (such as the Ashram work) one
may any day be given to do.

                                 ***

Obviously the life here is not that of a  place  where  the  mind  and
vital can hope to be satisfied and fulfilled or lead a lively life. It
is only if one can live within that it becomes satisfactory... But for
one who has the assured inner life,  there is no dullness. Realisation
within must be the first object;  work for the Divine on the basis  of
the  true inner self and a new consciousness,  not on the basis of the
old,  is the result that can follow.  Till then work and life  can  be
only  a  means of sadhana,  not a "self-fulfilment" or a brilliant and
interesting vital life on the old basis.

                                 ***

Here there is nothing that ministers to the human  vital  nature;  the
work  is  small,  silent,  shut  off  from  the  outside world and its
circumstances, of value only as a field for spiritual self-culture. If
one  is  governed  by  the sole spiritual motive and has the spiritual
consciousness,  one can take joy and interest in this work.  Or if, in
spite  of  his  human  shortcomings,  the  worker  is  mainly  bent on
spiritual progress and self-perfection, then also he can take interest
in  the  work  and  both  feel  its  utility  for  the  discovery  and
purification of his egoistic mental and vital and physical nature  and
take joy in it as a service of the Divine.

                                 ***

It is not at all a question of usefulness - although your work is very
useful when you put yourself to it.  Work is part of the sadhana,  and
in  sadhana  the  question  of  usefulness does not arise,  that is an
outward practical measure of  things,  -though  even  in  the  outward
ordinary  life  utility  is  not the only measure.  The €5estion is of
aspiration to the Divine,  whether that is your central aim  in  life,
your inner need or not.  Sadhana for oneself is another matter-one can
take it up or leave it.  The real sadhana is for the Divine -  it  -is
the  soul's  need  and  one  cannot  give  it up even if in moments of
despondency one thinks one can.

                                 ***

The work here is not intended for showing one's capacity or  having  a
position  or  as a means of physical nearness to the Mother,  but as a
field and an opportunity for the K-armayoga part of the integral yoga,
for  learning  to  work  in  the  true  yogic way,  dedication through
service,   practical   selfiessness,   obedience,   scrupulousness   ,
discipline, setting the Divine and the Divine's work first and oneself
last,  harmony,  patience,  forbearance,  etc.  When the workers learn
these things and cease to be ego-centric, as most of you now are, then
will come the time for work in which capacity  can  really  be  shown,
although even then the showing of capacity will be an incident and can
never be the main consideration or the object of divine work.

                                 ***

There is no necessity for everybody to become artists or writers or do
work  of a public character.  X and Y have their own capacities and it
is sufficient for the present if they train themselves  to  make  them
useful for the Mother's work.  Others have great capacities which they
are content to use in the small and obscure work of the Ashram without
figuring before the public in something big.  What is important now is
to get the true consciousness from above,  get rid of the  ego  (which
nobody  has  yet  done)  and  learn  to be an instrument of the Divine
Force. After that the manifestation can take place, not before.

                                 ***

What is called politics is too rajasic,  unsound and muddled with  all
sorts of egoistic motives.  Our way is the pressure of the Spirit upon
the earth-consciousness to change.

                                 ***

No, it [politics] is not given as a work to anybody. People go on with
that  because it is a mental interest or habit they do not like giving
up, it is like the vital habit of tea-drinking or anything else of the
kind.  Politics  is not only not given as a work but the discussion of
politics is discouraged as much as possible.

                                 ***

But surely politics is not the only activity possible  for  the  vital
-there  are  hundreds  of  others.  Whenever  there is something to be
produced,  created,  organised,  achieved,  conquered, it is the vital
that is indispensable.

                                 ***

I have  made it a rule not to write anything about politics.  Also the
question of what to  do  in  a  body  like  the  Assembly  depends  on
circumstances,  on  the  practical  needs  of  the situation which can
change rapidly.  In such a  body  the  work  is  not  of  a  spiritual
character.   All  kinds  of  work  can  be  done  with  the  spiritual
conciousness behind, but unless one has advanced very far, one must in
the  fact  be  guided  by  the  necessities of the work itself and its
characteristic nature. Since you have joined this party, its programme
must  be  yours  and  what  you  have  to do is to bring to it all the
conscientiousness, ability and selflessness which you can command. You
are right in not taking office,  as you have made the promise.  In any
case a sadhak entering politics should work not for  himself  but  for
the  country.  If  he  takes office,  it should be only when he can do
something for the country by it  and  not  until  he  has  proved  his
character  and ability and fitness for position.  You should walk by a
high standard which will bring you the respect even of  opponents  and
justify the choice of the e€tors.

                                 ***

As for propaganda I have seen that it is perfectly useless for us - if
there is any effect, it is a very trifling and paltry effect not worth
the trouble.  If the Truth has to spread itself,  it will do it of its
own motion; these things are unnecessary.

                                 ***

Well-known or unknown has absolutely no importance from the  spiritual
point  of  view.  It  is simply the propagandist spirit.  We are not a
party or a church or religion seeking adherents or proselytes. One man
who  earnestly  pursues  the  yoga  is  of  more value than a thousand
well-known men.

                                 ***

Fear in these experiences is a thing one must get rid of;  if there is
any danger, a can to the Mother is sufficient, but In reality there is
none - for the protection is there.
    It is true that there is in most people here  this  running  after
those  who  come  from  outside  especially  if they are well-known or
distinguished.  It is a common weakness ofhuman nature and, like other
weaknesses  of human nature,  the sadhaks seem not inclined to get rid
of it.  It is because they do not live  sufficiently  within,  so  the
vital  gets  excited or attracted when something important or somebody
important (or considered so) comes in from outside.

                                 ***

What X  or  others think or say does not matter very much after all as
we do not depend on them for our work but on the Divine Will only.  So
many  have said and thought all sorts of things (people outside) about
and against us,  that has never affected either us or our work in  the
least; it is of a very minor importance.

                                 ***

III

                                 ***

It is  necessary  or  rather  inevitable  that in an Ashram which is a
"laboratory",  as X puts it,  for a spiritual  and  supramental  yoga,
humanity   should   be  variously  represented.  For  the  problem  of
transformation has to deal with all sorts of elements  favourable  and
unfavourable.  The  same  man indeed carries in him a mixture of these
two things.  If only sattwic and  cultured  men  come  for  yoga,  men
without very much of the vital difficulty in them,  then,  because the
difficulty of the vital element in terrestrial  nature  has  not  been
faced  and  overcome,  it might well be that the endeavour would fail.
There might conceivably be under certain circumstances  an  overmental
layer superimposed on the mental,  vital and physical, and influencing
them,  but hardly anything supramental or a sovereign transmutation of
the human being. Those in the Ashram come from all quarters and are of
all kinds;  it cannot be  otherwise.
    In the course of the yoga,  collectively-though not for  each  one
necessarily - as each plane is dealt with, all its difficulties arise.
That will explain much in the Ashram that people do not expect  there.
When  the  preliminary  work is over in the "laboratory",  things must
change.
    Also, much  stress  has  not  been laid on human fellowship of the
ordinary kind between the inmates (though good feeling,  consideration
and courtesy should always be there,) because that is not the aim;  it
is unity in a new consciousness that is the aim,  and the first  thing
is for each to do his sadhana, to arrive at that new consciousness and
realise oneness, there.
    Whatever faults  are  there  in the sadhaks must be removed by the
Light from above - a sattwic rule can only change natures  predisposed
to a sattwic rule.

                                 ***

If his faith depends on the perfection of the sadhaks,  obviously,  it
must be a rather shaky thing! Sadhaks and sadhikas are not supposed to
be perfect.  It is only siddhas for whom one can claim perfection  and
even  then not according to mental standards...  His faith seems to be
more mental than otherwise,  and mental faith jln easily go.
    To be by oneself very much needs a certain force of inner life. It
may  be  better  to vary solitude with some kind of its opposite.  But
each has its advantages and disadvantages and  it  is  only  by  being
vigilant and keeping an inner poise that one can avoid the latter.

                                 ***

The general principle of self-consecration and self-giving is the same
for  all  in  this yoga,  but each has his own way of consecration and
self-giving.  The way that X takes is good for X,just as the way  that
you  take  is the right one for you,  because it is in consonance with
your nature. If there were not this plasticity and variety, if all had
to be cut in the same pattern, yoga would be a rigid mental machinery,
not a living power.
    When you can sing out of your inner  consciousness  in  which  you
feel  the  Mother  moving an your actions,  there is no reason why you
should  not  do  it.  The  development  of  capacities  is  not   only
permissible but right,  when it can be made part of the yoga;  one can
give not only one€s soul, but all one's powers to the Divine.

                                 ***

It is a little difficult for the wider  spiritual  outlook  to  answer
your question in the way you want and every mental being wants, with a
trenchant "Thou shalt"  or  "Thou  shalt  not"  -especially  when  the
"thou''  is  meant  to cover "all".  For while there is an identity of
essential aim,  while there are general broad lines of endeavour,  yet
there  is  not  in detail one common set of rules in inner things that
can apply to all seekers.  You ask:  "Is not such  and  such  a  thing
harmful?"  But what is harmful to one may be helpful to another,  what
is helpful at a certain stage may cease to be helpful at another, what
is  harmful  under  certain  conditions  may  be  helpful  under other
conditions,  what is done in a certain spirit may be  disastrous,  the
same thing done in a quite different spirit would be innocuous or even
beneficial...  there are so many things to be considered : the spirit,
the circumstances,  the person,  the need and cast of the nature,  the
stage.  That is why it is said so often that the Guru must  deal  with
each  disciple  accorjng  to his separate nature and accordingly guide
his sadhana;  even if it is the same line of sadhana for all,  yet  at
every  point  for each it differs.  That also is the reason why we say
that the divine way cannot be understood by the mind, because the mind
acts according to hard and fast rules and standards,  while the spirit
sees the truth of all  and  the  truth  of  each  and  acts  variously
according  to  its own comprehensive and complex vision.  That also is
why we say that no one can understand by his personal mental  judgment
the Mother's actions and reasons for action: it can only be understood
by entering into the larger consciousness from which she  sees  things
and  acts upon them.  That is baffling to the mind because it uses its
small measures,  but that is the truth of the matter.
    So you  will  see  that here there is no mental rule,  but in each
case the guidance is determined by spiritual reasons which  are  of  a
flexible character.  There is no other consideration,  no rule. Music,
painting,  poetry and many other activities which are of the mind  and
vital  can be used as part of spiritual development or of the work and
for a spiritual purpose:  it depends on the spirit in which  they  are
done.

                                 ***

Why should the Mother be obliged to treat everybody in the  same  way?
It would be a most imbecile thing for her to do that.

                                 ***

It is not a fact that all I write is meant equally for everybody. That
assumes that everybody is alike and there  is  no  difference  between
sadhak  and  sadhak.  If  it were so everybody would advance alike and
have the-same experiences and take the same time to  progress  by  the
same steps and stages.  It is not so at all.  In this case the general
rules were laid down for one who had made no  progress-but  everything
depends on how the yoga comes to each person.

                                 ***

It is  not  always  safe to apply practically to oneself what has been
written for another.  Each sadhak is a case by himself and one  cannot
always or often take a mental rule and apply it rigidly to all who are
practising the yoga.  What I wrote to X was meant for X and  fits  his
case,  but  supposing  a sadhak with a different (coarse) vital nature
unlike X were in question,  I might say to him  something  that  might
seem  the very opposite,  "Sit tight on your lower vital propensities,
throw out your greed for food - it is standing as a  serious  obstacle
in  your way;  it would be better for you to be ascetic in your habits
than vulgarly animal in this part as you are now".  To one who is  not
taking enough food or sleep and rest in the eagerness of his spirit, I
might say,  "Eat more,  sleep  more,  rest  more,  do  not  overstrain
yourself  or  bring  an ascetic spirit into your tapasya".  To another
with the opposite excess I  might  speak  a  contrary  language.  Each
sadhak  has  a nature or turn of nature of his own and the movement of
the yoga of two  sadhaks,  even  where  there  are  some  resemblances
between  them,  is seldom exactly the same.
    Again, in applying some truth that is laid down it is necessary to
give it its precise meaning.  It is quite true that "in our  path  the
attitude  is  not  one  of forceful suppression,  nigraha",  it is not
coercion according to a mental rule or  principle  on  an  unpersuaded
vital  being.  But  that does not mean either that the vital has to go
its own way and do according to its fancy.  It is not coercion that is
the  way,  but  an  inner  change  in  which  the  lower vital is led,
enlightened  and  transformed  by  a  higher  consciousness  which  is
detached  from  the objects of vital desire.  But in order to let this
grow an attitude has to be taken in which a decreasing importance  has
to be attached to the satisfaction of the claims of the lower vital, a
certain mastery,  samyama,  being above any clamour of  these  things,
limiting  such  things as food to their proper place.  The lower vital
has its place,  it is not to be crushed or killed,  but it has  to  be
changed, "caught hold of by both ends", at the upper end a mastery and
control, at the lower end a right use. The main thing is to get rid of
attachment  and desire;  it is then that an entirely right use becomes
possible.  By what actual steps, in what order, through what processes
this mastery of the lower vital shall cc€e depends on the nature,  the
stress of development, the actual movement of the yoga.
    It is  not  the  eating or the not eating of something that is the
important point;  what is important is how that or any of  these  food
matters  affects  you,  what  is your inner condition and how any such
indulgence,  cooking or eating, stands or does not stand in the way of
its  progress and change,  what is best for you as a yogic discipline.
One rule for you I can lay down,  "Do not do,  say or  think  anything
which you would want to conceal from the Mother". And that answers the
objections that rose within youfrom your vital,  is it not?  - against
bringing  "these petty things" to the Mother's notice.  Why should you
think that the Mother would be battered by these things or regard them
as  petty?  If  all  the  life is to be yoga what is there that can be
called petty or of no importance ? Even if the Mother does not answer,
to  have brought any matter of your action and self-development before
her in the right spirit means to have put it under her protection,  in
the  light  of the Truth,  under the rays of the Power that is working
for the transformation-for immediately those rays begin to play and to
act  on the thing brought to her notice.  Anything within that advises
not to do it when the spirit in you moves you to do it,  may very well
be a device of the vital to avoid the ray of the Light and the working
of the Force.

                                 ***

One must not treat human nature like a machine to be handled according
to  rigid  mental rules - a great plasticity is needed in dealing with
its complex motives.

                                 ***

IV

                                 ***

Yes, even in ordinary life there must be a control over the vital  and
the ego -otherwise life would be impossible.  Even many animals, those
who live in groups,  have their strict rules imposing a control on the
play of the ego and those who disobey will have a bad time of it.  The
Europeans especially understand this and even though they are full  of
ego, yet when there is a question of team work or group life, they are
adepts at keeping it in leash,  even if it growls inside;  it  is  the
secret  of their success.  But in yoga life of course it is a question
not of controlling ego but of getting rid of it and rising to a higher
principle,   so   demand   is   much  more  strongly  and  insistently
discouraged.

                                 ***

A rule that can be varied by everyone at his pleasure is no  rule.  In
all countries in which organised work is successfully done,  (India is
not one of them),  rules exist and nobody thinks of breaking them, for
it  is  realised  that  work (or life either) without discipline would
soon become a confusion and an anarchic failure.  In the great days of
India everything was put under rule,  even art and poetry,  even yoga.
Here  in  fact  rules  are  much  less  rigid  than  in  any  European
organisation.  Personal  discretion  can even in a frame of rules have
plenty of play - but discretion must be discreetely used, otherwise it
becomes something arbitrary or chaotic.

                                 ***

The Mother puts her protection round all the sadhaks,  but if by their
own act or attitude they go out of the circle of the protection  there
may be undesirable consequences.

                                 ***

[Discipline:] To act according to a standard of Truth or a rule or law
of action (dharma) or in obedience to a superior authority or  to  the
highest  principles  discovered by the reason and intelligent will and
not according to one's own fancy,  vital impulses and desires. In yoga
obedience  to  the  Guru  or to the Divine and the law of the Truth as
declared by the Guru is the foundation of discipline.

                                 ***

You are putting the cart before the horse.  It is not the right way to
make  the condition that if you get what you want you will be obedient
and cheerful.  But be always obedient and cheerful and then  what  you
want will have a chance of coming to you.

                                 ***

Rules are  indispensable  for  the  orderly  management  of work;  for
without order and  arrangement  nothing  can  be  properly  done,  all
becomes  clash,  confusion  and  disorder.
    In all such dealings with others, you should see not only your own
side  of  the  question  but  the other side also.  There should be no
anger,  vehement reproach or menace, for these things only raise anger
and  retort on the other side.  I write this because you are trying to
rise above yourself and dominate your vital and when one wants  to  do
that,  one  cannot  be too strict with oneself in these things.  It is
best even to be severe with one's own mistakes and charitable  to  the
mistakes of others.

                                 ***

Yes, quite right.  It  is  a  deficiency  of  psychic  perception  and
spiritual  discrimination that makes people speak like that and ignore
the importance of obedience.  It 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 laid down  in  order  to  guard  against  certain
influences  and  their  dangers  and to keep a right atmosphere in the
Ashram favourable to spiritual development; the obedience is necessary
so  as  to  get away from one's own mind and vital and learn to follow
the Truth.

                                 ***

Rules like these are intended to help the vital and physical  to  come
under  the  discipline  of  sadhana  and not get dispersed in fancies,
impulses, self-indulgences; but they must be done simply, not with any
sense of superiority or ascetic pride, but as a mere matter of course.
It is true also that they can be made the  occasion  of  a  too  great
mental  rigidity  -  as  if  they were things of supreme importance in
themselves and not only a means.  Put in their right place and done in
the right spirit, they can be very helpful for their purpose.

                                 ***

What most want is that things should be done according to their desire
without  check  or  reference.  The  talk  of  perfection  is  humbug.
Perfection  does  not  consist  in  everybody  being a law to himself.
Perfection comes by renunciation of desires and surrender to a  higher
Will.

                                 ***

If I said things that human nature finds easy and natural,  that would
certainly be very comfortable for the disciples, but there would be no
room  for  spiritual aim or endeavour.  Spiritual aims and methods are
not easy or natural (e.g.  as quarrelling  ,  sex  indulgence,  greed,
indolence, acquiescence in all imperfections are easy and natural) and
if people become disciples, they are supposed to follow spiritual aims
and  endeavours,  however  hard  and above ordinary nature and not the
things that are easy and natural.

                                 ***

In the outside world there is a mental and social control and also the
absorption  in  other  things.  Here  you are left alone with your own
consciousness and have to replace the mental and outward control by an
inner self-control of the spirit.

                                 ***

It is  no  question of fault or punishment - if we have to condemn and
punish people for their faults  and  deal  with  the  sadhaks  like  a
tribunal  of justice,  no sadhana could be possible.  I do not see how
your reproach against us is justifiable.  Our sole duty to the sadhaks
is to take them towards their spiritual realisation - we cannot behave
like the head of a family intervening in domestic quarrels, supporting
one,  putting  our  weight  against  the  other!  However  often X may
stumble,  we have to take him by the hand,  lift him up again and  get
him to move once more towards the Divine. We have always done the same
with you.  But we could not support any demand of yours upon  him.  We
have  always  treated it as something between him and the Divine.  For
you, the one thing we have insisted on and that with your full consent
and  with  your prayers to us to be helped in doing it,  is to cut the
vital relation with him altogether and to base  nothing  upon  it  any
more.  Yet  now  you  write to us that because we have not approved of
your action of what you said to Y, no matter what that might be, - you
renounce us forever.
    I must  ask  you  to  return  to  your  better  self and your true
consciousness and throw off these moods of  vital  passion  which  are
unworthy  of  your soul.  You have repeatedly written of your love for
the Mother,  the Ananda which you received from her and the number  of
spiritual  experiences.  Remember  that and remember that that is your
true way and your true being and nothing else matters.  Get back  your
poise and throw off the lower nature and its darkness and ignorance.

                                 ***

V

                                 ***

No one in fact is kept here when his will  or  decision  is  to  go  -
although  the principle of the spiritual life is against any return to
the old one even for a time especially if the deeper urge is there and
striving  towards  a firm foundation of the new consciousness -for the
return  to  the  ordinary  atmosphere  and  surroundings  and  motives
disturbs the work and throws back the progress.

                                 ***

When there  is  so  sharp a difference between the inner and the outer
being,  it is always the sadhak who has to make  his  choice.  As  for
coming  back,  many  who  have  gone  out have come back,  others have
not-for in going out there is always the danger  of  entering  into  a
current  of forces that make return impossible.  Whatever decision you
make should be clear and deliberate -otherwise you may go out  and  as
soon  as  you  are there want to come back and after coming here again
want to go; that would be inadmissible.

                                 ***

It is well understood that the permission given [to go away  from  the
Ashraml  does  not  exclude  the  possibility of the experiment ending
badly.  But the experiment becomes necessary if the pull of the ego or
outer  being  and  that of the soul have become too acute for solution
otherwise or if the outer being insists on having its experience.

                                 ***

It is especially when the outer being rejects the Truth and insists on
living  its  life  and refuses the rule of the spiritual life that the
experiment (of going away from the Ashramj becomes inevitable.  I have
never said that it is recommendable.

                                 ***

In some  it [the push to go away from the Ashram] is too strong;  they
have to go and see for themselves.  That does not mean  that  everyone
has to go whenever he feels a difficulty. These are exceptional cases.

                                 ***

There is  no  such impossibility of your victory over the harder parts
of your nature as you imagine.  There is only needed the  perseverance
to go on till this resistance breaks down and the psychic which is not
absent nor unmanifest is able to dominate the others.  That has to  be
done whether you stay here or not and to go is likely only to increase
the difficulty and imperil the final result - it cannot help  you.  It
is here that the struggle however acute has,  because of the immediate
presence of the Mother,  the best chance and certitude of  a  solution
and successful ending.

                                 ***

It usually  happens  like  that-when  one comes out of the world,  the
forces that govern the world do all they can to  pull  you  back  into
their own unquiet movement.

                                 ***

It is certainly strange.  Most people after the atmosphere here cannot
tolerate the  ordinary  atmosphere.  If  they  go  outside,  they  are
restless until they return.  Even X's aunt who was here only for a few
months writes in the same way.  But probably when people get into  the
control  of  a  falsehood as Y and Z did,  they are projected into the
unregenerated vital nature and no longer feel the  difference  of  the
atmosphere.

                                 ***

All yoga  is difficult,  because the aim in every yoga is to reach the
Divine,  to turn entirely towards the Divine and that  means  to  turn
away from the ordinary movements of the nature to something beyond it.
But when one aspires with sincerity the strength is given that ends by
surmounting  the  difficulties and reaching the goal.
    The Mother  was  speaking of sadhaks who had entered into the life
and atmosphere of the Ashram and felt the touch on the psychic of what
is  here.  It  does  not  apply  to  those who have come here from the
outside world but still belong to the outside.  All the  ties  of  X's
nature were still with the outside life; her vital was quite unadapted
to the Ashram life and recoiled from the idea of living it always. She
gave  her  psychic  no  time  to  make that connection and absorb that
influence which would have fixed in it the feeling of this as its true
home.  People  can  come  here  like  that  and stay for a time and go
without any difficulty as many have done. The feeling of difficulty or
uneasiness  in  going  is  on  the other hand a sign that the soul has
taken root here and finds it painful to uproot itself.  There are some
who  are  like that and have had to go but do not feel at ease and are
always thinking of how to come back as  soon  as  possible.
    To help  others  without  egoism  or  attachment  or  leaving  the
spiritual surroundings and spiritual life is one thing,  to be  pulled
away  by  personal  attachment  or  the  need of helping others to the
outside life is different.

                                 ***

The inability to go [from the Ashram] can come from the psychic  which
refuses,  when  it  comes  to  the point,  to allow the other parts to
budge,  or it can come fom the vital which  has  no  longer  any  pull
towards  the  ordinary  life and knows that it will never be satisfied
there. It is usually the higher parts of the vital that act like that.
What  still  is  capable  of turning outwards is probably the physical
vital in which the old tendencies have not been extinguished.

                                 ***

You ought to be able to see...  that the cause of  the  unrest  is  in
yourself  and  not  in  the  outward  circumstances.  It is your vital
attachment to family ties and the ordinary social ideas  and  feelings
that  has  risen  in  you  and creates the difficulty.  If you want to
practise yoga,  you must be able to live in the world,  so long as you
are  there,  with  a  mind  set  upon  the Divine and not bound by the
environment.  One who does this,  can help those around him a  hundred
times more than one who is bound and attached to the world.
    It is not possible for the Mother to tell you to  remain,  if  you
are  yourself  in  your mind and vital eager to go.  It is from within
yourself that there must come the clear will on one side or the other.

                                 ***

It is easier to feel the presence in the atmosphere of the Ashram than
outside  it.  But  that  is  only  an initial difficulty which one can
overcome by a steadiness in the call and a constant opening of oneself
to the influence.

                                 ***

The force  is there in the atmosphere,  but you must receive it in the
right way - in the spirit of self-giving,  openness,  confidence.  All
the rest depends on that.

                                 ***

What is  true  is that there is a strong force going out from here and
it is naturally strongest at the centre.  But how  it  affects  there,
depends  on how one receives it.  If it is received with simple trust,
faith,  openness,  confidence, then it works as a complete protection.
But it can so work too at a distance.  It is not the house,  it is the
inner nearness that matters.

                                 ***

VI

                                 ***

The best way to prepare oneself for the spiritual life when one has to
live  in  the ordinary occupations and surroundings is to cultivate an
entire equality and detachment and the samat€ of  the  Gita  with  the
faith  that  the  Divine  is  there and the Divine Will at work in all
things even though at present under  the  conditions  of  a  world  of
Ignorance.  Beyond this are the Light and Ananda towards which life is
working,  but the best way for their  advent  and  foundation  in  the
individual  being  and  nature  is to grow in this spiritual equality.
That would also solve your  difficulty  about  things  unpleasant  and
disagreeable.  All  unpleasantness should be faced with this spirit of
samat€.

                                 ***

When one is living in the world,  one cannot do as in an  Ashram  -one
has  to  mix  with  others  and  keep  up  outwardly at least ordinary
relations with others.  The important  thing  is  to  keep  the  inner
consciousness  open  to  the Divine and grow in it.  As one does that,
more or less rapidly according to the inner intensity of the  sadhana,
the  attitude  towards  others will change.  All will be seen more and
more in the Divine and the feelings,  actions, etc, will more and more
be determined,  not by the old external reactions,  but by the growing
consciousness within you.

                                 ***

The difficulty which you  experience  from  relatives  and  others  is
always one that intervenes as an obstacle when one has to practise the
sadhana in ordinary or unfavourable  surroundings.  The  only  way  to
escape from it is to be able to live in oneself in one's inner being -
which becomes possible when the responsiveness and luminosity of which
you speak in your letter increase and become normal,  for then you are
constantly aware of your inner being and even live in it -  the  outer
becomes  an  instrument,  a  means  of communication and action in the
outer world.  It is then possible to make the  relations  with  people
outside  free  from tie or necessary reaction - one can determine from
within one's own  reaction  or  absence  of  reaction  :  there  is  a
fundamental  liberation from the external nexuses - of course,  if one
wills it to be so.

                                 ***

The life of saŒs€ra is in its nature a field of unrest - to go through
it  in  the  right  way one has to offer one's life and actions to the
Divine and pray for the peace of the  Divine  within.  When  the  mind
becomes quiet,  one can feel the Divine Mother supporting the life and
put everything into her hands.

                                 ***

Peace is never easy to  get  in  the  life  of  the  world  and  never
constant,  unless  one  lives  deep  within  and  bears  the  external
activities as only a surface front of being.

                                 ***

In her condition the one thing by which she can enter into the sadhana
is  to remember the Divine always,  taking her difficulties as ordeals
to be passed through,  to pray constantly and seek the Divine help and
protection  and  ask for the opening of her heart and consciousness to
the supporting Divine Presence.

                                 ***

It is not possible for the Mother to promise to give help  in  worldly
matters.  She  intervenes  only  in  special cases.  There are some of
course,  who by their openness and their faith get  her  help  in  any
worldly  difficulty  or  trouble  but that is a different thing.  They
simply remember and call the Mother and in due time some result comes.

                                 ***

The tendency you speak of, to leave the family and social life for the
spiritual life,  has been traditional in India for the last 2000 years
and more-chiefly among men,  it touches only a very  small  number  of
women.  It must be remembered that Indian social life has subordinated
almost entirely the individual to the family.  Men and  women  do  not
marry  according  to  their  free  will;  their  marriages  are mostly
arranged for them while they are still children.  Not only so, but the
mould  of  society has been long of an almost iron fixity putting each
individual in his place and expecting him to conform to it.  You speak
of  issues  and  a courageous solution,  but in this life there are no
problems and issues and no call for a solution - a courageous solution
is  only  possible  where  there is freedom of the personal will;  but
where the only solution (if one remains in this life) is submission to
the family will, there can be nothing of the kind. It is a secure life
and can be happy if one accommodates oneself to it and has no  unusual
aspirations beyond it or is fortunate in one's environment; but it has
no remedy  for  or  escape  from  incompatibilities  or  any  kind  of
individual  frustration;  it leaves little room for initiative or free
movement or any individualism.  The only outlet for the individual  is
his inner spiritual or religious life and the recognised escape is the
abandonment of the saŒs€ra,  the family life, by some kind ofSannyasa.
The Sannyasi,  the Vaishnava Vairagi or the Brahmachari are free; they
are dead to the family and can live according to the dictates  of  the
inner spirit. Only if they enter into an order or Ashram, they have to
abide by the rules of the order, but that is their own choice. Society
recognised  this  door of escape from itself;  religion sanctioned the
idea that distaste for the social or worldly  life  was  a  legitimate
ground  for  taking up that of the recluse or religious wanderer.  But
this was mainly  for  men;  women,  except  in  old  times  among  the
Buddhists  who  had  their  convents  and  in  later  times  among the
Vaishnavas,  had little chance of such an escape unless a very  strong
spiritual  impulse  drove them which would take no denial.  As for the
wife and children left  behind  by  the  Sannyasi,  there  was  little
difficulty,  for  the  joint  family was there to take up or rather to
continue their maintenance.
    At present  what  has  happened is that the old framework remains,
but modern ideas have brought a condition of inadaptation,  of unrest,
the  old  family  system  is breaking up and women are seeking in more
numbers the same freedom of escape as men have always had in the past.
That  would  account  for  the cases you have come across -but I don't
think the number of such cases can be as yet at all  considerable,  it
is quite a new phenomenon; the admission of women to Ashrams is itself
a novelty.  The extreme unhappiness of a mental and vital growth which
does  not fit in with the surroundings,  of marriages imposed that are
unsuitable and where there is no  meeting-point  between  husband  and
wife,  of  an  environment hostile and intolerant of one's inner life,
and on the other hand the innate tendency of the Indian mind to seek a
refuge  in the spiritual or religious escape will sufficiently account
for the new development.  If society wants  to  prevent  it,  it  must
itself change.  As to individuals, each case must be judged on its own
merits;  there Is too much complexity in  the  problem  and  too  much
variation  of nature,  position,  motives for a general rule.
    I have spoken of the social problem in general terms only.  In the
conduct  of  the  Ashram,  we  have  had  many  applications obviously
dictated  by  an  unwillingness   to   face   the   difficulties   and
responsibilities of life-naturally ignored or refused by us, but these
have been mostly from men;  there have been recently only one  or  two
cases of women. Otherwise women have not applied usually on the ground
of an unhappy marriage or difficult environment.  Most of the  married
sadhikas  have followed or accompanied their husbands on the ground of
having already begun to practise yoga;  others  have  come  fulfilling
sufficiently  the  responsibilities  of married life;  in two or three
cases there has been a separation from the husband but that was before
their  coming  here.  In  some  cases there have been no children,  in
others the children have been left with the family. These cases do not
really fall in the category of those you mention.  Some of the sadhaks
have left wife and family behind,  but I do not think in any case  the
difficulties of life were the motive of their departure. It was rather
the idea that they had felt the call and must leave all to follow it.

                                 ***

END OF PART TWO

                                 ***

PART THREE

                                 ***

Section One Experiences and realisations

                                 ***

Experience is a word that covers almost all the  happenings  in  yoga;
only  when something gets settled,  then it is no longer an experience
but part of the siddhi;  e.g.  peace when it  comes  and  goes  is  an
experience  -  when  it  is  settled  and goes no more it is a siddhi.
Realisation is different - it is when  something  for  which  you  are
aspiring becomes real to you;  e.g. you have the idea of the Divine in
all, it becomes a realisation.

                                 ***

All this is to make unnecessary distinctions. An experience of a truth
in  the substance of mind,  in the vital or the physical,  wherever it
may be,  is the beginning of realisation.  When I experience peace,  I
begin  to realise what it is.  Repetition of the experience leads to a
fuller and more permanent realisation.  When it is  settled  anywhere,
that  is  the full realisation of it in that place or that part of the
being.

                                 ***

It is  spirituality  when  you  begin  to  become  aware  of   another
consciousness  than  the  ago  and  begin  to  live in it or under its
influence more and  more.  It  is  that  consciousness  wide,infinite,
self-existent,  pure of ego etc. which is called Spirit (Self, Brahan,
Divine),  so this necessarily must be  the  meaning  of  spirituality.
Realisation  is  this  and else that the experience and grouth of this
greater consciousness brings with it.

                                 ***

The yogi is one who is already established in realisation - the sadhak
is one who is getting or still trying to get realisation.

                                 ***

There is  no  law that a feeling cannot be an experience;  experiences
are of all kinds and take all forms in  the  consciousness.  When  the
consciousness  undergoes,  sees or feels anything spiritual or psychic
or even occult,  that is an experience - in the technical yogic sense,
for  there are of course all sorts of experiences that are not of that
character. The feelings themselves are of many kinds. The word feeling
is  often  used for an emotion,  and there can be psychic or spiritual
emotions which are numbered among yogic experiences, such as a wave of
™uddh€ bhakti or the rising of love towards the Divine. A feeling also
means a perception of something felt - a perception in  the  vital  or
psychic  or  in  the essential substance of the consciousness.  I find
even often a mental perception when it is very vivid  described  as  a
feeling.  If  you  exclude all these feelings and kindred ones and say
that they are feelings,  not experiences,  then there is  very  little
room  left  for  experiences  at all.  Feeling and vision are the main
forms  of  spiritual  experience.  One  sees  and  feels  the  Brahman
everywhere ; one feels a force enter or go out from one ; one feels or
sees the presence of the Divine within or around  one;  one  feels  or
sees  the descent of Light;  one feels the descent of Peace or Ananda.
Kick out all that on the ground that it is only a feeling and you make
a clean sweep of most of the things that we call experience. Again, we
feel a change in the substance of the consciousness or  the  state  of
consciousness. We feel ourselves spreading In wideness and the body as
a small thing in the wideness (this can be seen  also);  we  feel  the
heart-consciousness  being  wide  instead  of narrow,  soft instead of
hard,  illumined instead of obscure,  the head-consciousness also, the
vital, even the physical; we feel thousands of things of all kinds and
why are we not to call them experience?  Of  course  it  is  an  inner
sight,  an  inner  feeling,  subtle  feeling,  not material,  like the
feeling of a cold wind or a stone or any  other  object,  but  as  the
inner  consciousness  deepens it is not less vivid or concrete,  it is
even more so.

                                 ***

An experience is an unmistakable thing and must be  given  its  proper
value.  The mind may exaggerate in thinking about it but that does not
deprive it of its value.

                                 ***

It is not a question of giving an equal value to  everything  you  do,
but  of  recognising  the  value  of all the different elements of the
sadhana.  No such rule can be made as that trances are of little value
or that experiences are of inferior importance any more than it can be
said that work is of no or inferior importance.

                                 ***

In a more deep and spiritual sense  a  concrete  realisation  is  that
which makes the thing realised more real,  dynamic, intimately present
to  the  consciousness  than  any  physical  thing  can  be.  Such   a
realisation  of the personal Divine or of the impersonal Brahman or of
the Self does not usually come at the beginning of a sadhana or in the
first  years  or  for  many years.  It comes so to a very few.  But to
expect and demand it so soon  would  be  taken  in  the  eyes  of  any
experienced  yogi  or sadhak as a rather rash and abnormal impatience.
Most would say that a slow development is the best one can hope for in
the  first  years  and  only  when  the  nature  is  ready  and  fully
concentrated towards the Divine can the definitive experience come. To
some  rapid  preparatory experiences can come at a comparatively early
stage,  but even they cannot escape the labour  of  the  consciousness
which will make these experiences culminate in the realisation that is
enduring and complete. It is not a question of liking or disliking, it
is  a  matter  of  fact and truth and experience.  It is the fact that
people who are cheerful and ready to go step by  step,  even  by  slow
steps, if need be, do actually march faster and more surely than those
who are impatient and in haste. It is what I have always seen.

                                 ***

It [self-realisation] is not  a  long  process!  The  whole  life  and
several  lives more are often not enough to achieve it.  Ramakrishna's
Guru took 30 years to arrive and even then he did not  claim  that  he
had realised it.

                                 ***

Your supposition  [that you can't love the Divine until you experience
him in some way] conflicts with the  experience  of  many  sadhaks.  I
think Ramakrishna indicated somewhere that the love and joy and ardour
of seeking was much more intense than  that  of  fulfilment.  I  don't
agree,  but  that shows at least' that intense love is possible before
realisation.

                                 ***

My point is that there are hundreds of Bhaktas who have the  love  and
seeking without any concrete experience, with only a mental conception
or emotional belief in the Divine to support them.  The whole point is
that  it  is  untrue  to say that one must have a decisive or concrete
experience before one can have love for the Divine.  It is contrary to
the facts and the quite ordinary facts of the spiritual experience.

                                 ***

The ordinary  Bhakta  is  not  a  lion  heart.  The  lion  hearts  get
experiences comparatively soon but the ordinary Bhakta  has  often  to
feed on his own love or yearning for years and years -and he does it.

                                 ***

What I  meant  about  the  experiences  was  simply this that you have
created your own ideas about what you want  from  the  yoga  and  have
always  been measuring what began to come by that standard and because
it was not according to expectations or up to that  standard,  telling
yourself  after  a  moment,  "It  is  nothing,  it  is nothing".  That
dissatisfaction laid you open at every step to a reaction or a  recoil
which   prevented  any  continuous  development.  The  yogin  who  has
experience knows  that  the  small  beginnings  are  of  the  greatest
importance and have to be cherished and allowed with great patience to
develop.  He  knows,  for  instance,  that  the   neutral   quiet   so
dissatisfying  to  the vital eagerness of the sadhak is the first step
towards the peace that passeth all understanding, the small current or
thrill  of  inner  delight the first trickling of the ocean of Ananda,
the play of lights or colours the key of the doors of the inner vision
and experience, the descent that stiffens the body into a concentrated
stillness the first touch of something at the  end  of  which  is  the
presence of the Divine.  He is not impatient; he is rather careful not
to disturb the evolution that is  beginning.  Certainly  some  sadhaks
have  strong and decisive experiences at the beginning,  but these are
followed by long labour in which there  are  many  empty  periods  and
periods of struggle.

                                 ***

There is  no  room  certainly  for despair.  The bliss always comes in
drops at first,  or a broken trickle. You have to go on cheerfully and
in full confidence, till there is the cascade.

                                 ***

If you  truly  decide in all your consciousness to offer your being to
the Divine to mould it  as  He  wills,  then  most  of  your  personal
difficulty will disappear - I mean that which still remains, and there
will be only the lesser difficulties  of  the  transformation  of  the
ordinary  into  the yogic consciousness,  normal to all sadhana.  Your
mental difficulty has been all along that  you  wanted  to  mould  the
sadhana and the reception of experience and the response of the Divine
according to your own preconceived mental ideas and left no freedom to
the  Divine  to act or manifest according to His own truth and reality
and the need not of your mind and vital but of your soul  and  spirit.
It  is as if your vital were to present a coloured glass to the Divine
and tell Him,  "Now pour yourself into that and I  will  shut  you  up
there and look at you through the colours",  or, from the mental point
of view, as if you were to offer a test-tube in a similar way and say,
"Get  In  there  and  l  will test you and see what you are".  But the
Divine is  shy  about  such  processes  and  His  objections  are  not
altogether  unintelligible.
    At any rate I am glad the experience has come back again - it  has
come  as  the  result of your effort and mine for the last days and is
practically a reminder that the door of entry into yogic experience is
still  there  and can open at the right touch.  You taxed me the other
day with making a mistake about your experience of breathing with  the
name  in  it and reproached me for drawing a big inference from a very
small phenomenon - a thing, by the way, which the scientists are doing
daily  without the least objection from your reason.  You had the same
idea,  I believe, about my acceptance of your former experiences, this
current and the descent of stillness in the body, as signs of the yogi
in you.  But these ideas spring from an  ignorance  of  the  spiritual
realm  and  its  phenomena  and  only show the incapacity of the outer
intellectual reason to play the role you want it to play,  that  of  a
supreme  judge  of  spiritual  truth  and  inner  experience - a quite
natural incapacity because it does not know even the A. B. C. of these
things  and  it passes my comprehension how one can be a judge about a
thing of which one knows nothing.  I know that  the  "scientists"  are
continually  doing  it  with  supraphysical  phenomena  outside  their
province-those who never had a spiritual or occult  experience  laying
down  the law about occult phenomena and yoga;  but that does not make
it any more reasonable or excusable.  Any  yogi  who  knows  something
about  Pranayama  or Japa can tell you that the running of the name in
the breath is not a small phenomenon but of great importance in  these
practices  and,  if  it comes naturally,  a sign that something in the
inner being has done that kind of sadhana in  the  past.  As  for  the
current  it  is  the  familiar  sign  of  a  first touch of the higher
consciousness flowing down in the form of a stream - like  the  "wave"
of  light of the scientist - to prepare its possession of mind,  vital
and physical in the body. So is the stillness and rigidity of the body
in  your  former  experience  a sign of the same descent of the higher
consciousness in its form or tendency of stillness and silence.  It is
a  perfectly  sound  conclusion that one who gets these experiences at
the beginning has the capacity of yoga in him and can  open,  even  if
opening  is  delayed  by  other  movements  belonging  to his ordinary
nature.  These things are part of the science of yoga,  as familiar as
the  crucial  experiences  of  physical  science are to the scientific
seeker.  As for the impression of swooning,  it is simply because  you
were not in sleep,  as you imagined,  but in a first condition of what
is usually called svapna-sam€dhi,  dream trance.  What you  felt  like
swooning  was only the tendency to go deeper in,  into a more profound
svapna-sam€dhi or else into a su˜upti trance - the latter  being  what
the  word  trance usually means in English,  but it can be extended to
the svapna kind also.  To the outer mind this deep loss of  the  outer
consciousness  seems like a swoon,  though it is really nothing of the
kind-hence the impression. Many sadhaks here get at times or sometimes
for  a long period this deeper svapna-sam€dhi in what began as sleep -
with the result that a conscious sadhana goes on in their sleeping  as
in  their  waking hours.  This is different from the dream experiences
that one has on the vital or mental plane  which  are  themselves  not
ordinary dreams but actual experiences on the mental,  vital,  psychic
or subtle physical planes.  You have had  several  dreams  which  were
vital  dream  experiences,  those  in  which  you  met  the Mother and
recently you had one such contact on the mental plane which, for those
who  understand  these  things,  means that the inner consciousness is
preparing in the mind as well as  in  the  vital,  which  is  a  great
advance.
    You will ask why these things take place either in sleep or in  an
indrawn  meditation  and  not in the waking state.  There is a twofold
reason.  First,  that usually in yoga these things begin in an indrawn
state  and  not  in  the  waking condition - it is only if or when the
waking mind is ready that they come as readily in  the  waking  state.
Again  in you the waking mind has been too active in its insistence on
the ideas and operations of the outer consciousness to give the  inner
mind  a  chance  to  project  itself into the waking state.  But it is
through the inner consciousness and primarily through the  inner  mind
that these things come;  so,  if there is not a clear passage from the
inner to the outer,  it must be in the inner states  that  they  first
appear.  If  the  waking  mind  is subject or surrendered to the inner
consciousness and willing to become its instrument, then even from the
beginning  these  openings  can come through the waking consciousness.
That again is a familiar law of the yoga.
    I may add that when you complain of the want of response,  you are
probably expecting immediately some kind of  direct  manifestation  of
the Divine which,  as a rule,  though there are exceptions, comes only
when previous experiences have prepared the consciousness so  that  it
may   feel,   understand,  recognise  the  response.  Ordinarily,  the
spiritual or divine consciousness comes first-what I have  called  the
higher  consciousness-the  presence or manifestation comes afterwards.
But this descent of the higher consciousness is really  the  touch  or
influx  of  the  Divine itself,  though not at first recognised by the
lower nature.

                                 ***

I don't  say  that these experiences are always of no value,  but they
are so mixed and confused that if one  runs  after  them  without  any
discrimination  at  all  they end by either leading astray,  sometimes
tragically astray,  or by bringing one into a confused nowhere.
    That does not mean  that  all  such  experiences  are  useless  or
without  value.  There  are those that are sound as well as those that
are unsound;  those that are helpful,  in  the  true  line,  sometimes
sign-posts,  sometimes  stages  on  the way to realisation,  sometimes
stuff and material of the realisation. These naturally and rightly one
seeks for,  calls, strives after, or at least one opens oneself in the
confident expectation that they will sooner or later arrive.  Your own
main experiences may have been few or not continuous, but I cannot say
that they were not sound or unhelpful.  I would say that it is  better
to have a few of these than a multitude of others.  My only meaning in
what I' wrote was not to be impressed by mere wealth of experiences or
to  think that that is sufficient to constitute a great sadhak or that
not to have this wealth is necessarily an  inferiority,  a  lamentable
deprivation  or  a poverty of the one thing desirable.
    There are two classes of things that happen in yoga,  realisations
and  experiences.  Realisations are the reception in the consciousness
and the establishment there of the fundamental truths of  the  Divine,
of the Higher or Divine Nature, of the worldconsciousness and the play
of its forces,  of one's own self and real nature and the inner nature
of  things,  the  power of these things growing in one till they are a
part of  one's  inner  life  and  existence,  -as  for  instance,  the
realisation  of  the Divine Presence,  the descent and settling of the
higher  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 and
their action on it to change that lower nature.  The list,  of course,
might  be  infinitely  longer.  These  things  also  are  often called
experiences  when  they  only  come  in  flashes,  snatches  or   rare
visitations;  they  are  spoken of as full realisations only when they
become very positive or frequent or continuous or normal.
    Then there   are   experiences  that  help  or  lead  towards  the
realisation of  things  spiritual  or  divine  or  bring  openings  or
progressions  in the sadhana or are supports on the way,  -experiences
of a symbolic character, visions, contacts of one kind or another with
the  Divine  or  with  the  workings of higher Truth,  things like the
waking of  the  Kundalini,  the  opening  of  the  Chakras,  messages,
intuitions,  openings of the inner powers, etc. The one thing that one
has to be careful about is to see that they are  genuine  and  sincere
and  that  depends on one's own sincerity - for if one is not sincere,
if one is more concerned with the ego or being a big yogi or  becoming
a  superman  than  with  meeting  the  Divine  or  getting  the Divine
consciousness which enables one to live in or with the Divine,  then a
flood  of  pseudos or mixtures comes in,  one is led into the mazes of
the intermediate zone or spins in the grooves of one's own formations.
There is the truth of the whole matter.
    Then why does X say that one should not  hunt  after  experiences,
but  only love and seek the Divine?  It simply means that you have not
to make experiences your main aim,  but the Divine only your aim,  and
if  you  do  that,  you  are  more  likely  to  get  the  true helpful
experiences and avoid the  wrong  ones.  If  one  seeks  mainly  after
experiences,  his  yoga may become a mere selfindulgence in the lesser
things of mental,  vital and subtle physical worlds  or  in  spiritual
secondaries,  or it may bring down a turmoil or maelstrom of the mixed
and the whole or half-pseudo  and  stand  between  the  soul  and  the
Divine.  That is a very sound rule of sadhana. But all these rules and
statements must be taken with a sense of measure and in  their  proper
limits,  -  it  does  not  mean  that  one  should not welcome helpful
experiences or that they have no value.  Also when  a  sound  line  of
experience  opens,  it  is  perfectly  permissible  to  follow it out,
keeping always the central aim in  view.  All  helpful  or  supporting
contacts  in  dream  or vision) such as those you speak of,  are to be
welcomed and accepted. Experiences of the right kind are a support and
help towards the realisation; they are in every way acceptable.

                                 ***

Do not  be over-eager for experiences;  for experiences you can always
get,  having once broken the barrier between the physical mind and the
subtle  planes.  What  you  have  to  aspire  for most is the improved
quality of the recipient consciousness in you,  discrimination in  the
mind,  the  unattached  impersonal Witness look on all that goes on in
you and around you,  purity in the vital,  calm  equanimity,  enduring
patience,  absence  of  pride  and  the  sense  of  greatness-and more
especially,  the development of the psychic being in you -  surrender,
self-giving, psychic humility, devotion. It is a consciousness made up
of these things,  cast in this mould,  that can bear without breaking,
stumbling  or  deviation  into  error  the  rush of lights,  power and
experiences from the supraphysical planes.  An  entire  perfection  in
these  respects  is  hardly  possible  until the whole nature from the
higher mind to the subconscient physical is made one in the light that
is   greater  than  the  mind,  but  a  sufficient  foundation  and  a
consciousness always self-observant,  vigilant and  growing  in  these
things  is indispensable -for perfect purification is the basis of the
perfect Siddhi.

                                 ***

As for sadhana what is necessary is to arrive at a  certain  quiet  of
the  inner  mind  which makes meditation fruitful or a quietude of the
heart which creates  the  psychic  opening.  It  is  only  by  regular
concentration,  constant  aspiration and a will to purify the mind and
heart of the things that disquiet and agitate them that  this  can  be
done.  When  a certain basis has been established in these two centres
the experiences come of themselves.  Many, no doubt, may get some kind
of experiences such as visions etc. before the basis is well laid by a
sort  of  mental  or  vital  aptitude  for  these  things,  but   such
experiences do not of themselves lead to transformation or realisation
- it is by the quietude of the mind and the psychic opening that these
greater things can come.

                                 ***

It is  necessary  to  lay  stress  on  three  things:
    (I) an entire quietness and calm of the mind and the whole  being.

    (2) a continuance of the movement of purification described in the
Post  Scriptum  so  that  the  psychic being (the soul) may govern the
whole nature.
    (3) the  maintenance in all conditions and through all experiences
of the attitude of adoration and bhakti for the Mother.
    These are  the  conditions  in  which  one  can  grow  through all
experiences with security  and  have  the  right  development  of  the
complete  realisation  without  disturbance  to  the  system  or being
carried away by  the  intensity  of  the  experiences.  Calm,  psychic
purity,  bhakti and spiritual humility before the Divine are the three
conditions. The experiences in themselves are right and helpful.

                                 ***

I don't think there is any cause for dissatisfaction with the progress
made  by  you.  Experiences come to many before the nature is ready to
make full profit from them;  to others a more or less prolonged period
of  purification  and  preparation  of  the stuff of the nature or the
instruments comes first,  while experiences  are  held  up  till  this
process is largely or wholly over. The latter method which seems to be
adopted in your case is the safer and sounder  of  the  two.  In  this
respect  we  think  it  is  evident  that  you  have made considerable
progress,  for instance,  in control over the violence and  Impatience
and  heat  natural  to  the  volcanic  energy of your temperament,  in
sincerity  also  curbing  the  devious  and  errant  impulses  of   an
enormously active mind and temperament, in a greater quiet and harmony
in the being as a whole.  No doubt,  the process has to be  completed,
but  something  very  fundamental seems to have been done.  It is more
important to look at the thing  from  the  positive  rather  than  the
negative   side.  The  things  that  have  to  be  established  are  -
brahmacaryam  ™ama•  satyam  pra™€ntir   €tmasaŒyama•:   brahmacaryam,
complete sex-purity; ™ama•, quiet and harmony in the being, its forces
maintained but controlled,  harmonised, disciplined; satyam, truth and
sincerity in the whole nature; pra™€nti•, a general state of peace and
calm;  €tmasaŒyama•,  the power and habit to  control  whatever  needs
control  in  the  movements  of  the  nature.  When  these  are fairly
established,  one has laid a foundation on which one can  develop  the
yogic  consciousness  and  with the yogic consciousness there comes an
easy opening to realisation and experience.

                                 ***

You have had experiences which are signs of a future  possibility.  To
have  more within the first one and a half years it would be necessary
to have the complete attitude of the sadhak and give up  that  of  the
man of the world.  It is only then that progress can be rapid from the
beginning.

                                 ***

All these [giving up indulgence  in  food,  tea,  etc.]  are  external
things that have their use, but what I mean [by "the complete attitude
of the sadhak"] is something more inward.  I mean not to be interested
in  outward  things  for  their  own  sake,  following after them with
desire,  but at all times to be intent on one's soul, living centrally
in the inner being and its progress,  taking outward things and action
only as a means for the inner progress.

                                 ***

But why be overwhelmed by any wealth of any kind of experiences?  What
does it amount to,  after all? The quality of a sadhak does not depend
on that; one great spiritual realisation direct and at the centre will
often  make  a  great  sadhak  or yogi,  an army of intermediate yogic
experiences will not,  that  has  been  amply  proved  by  a  host  of
instances...  You  need  not  therefore  compare  that  wealth to your
poverty.  To open yourself to the descent of the higher  consciousness
(the true being) is the one thing needed and that,  even if that comes
after long effort and many failures,  is better than a  hectic  gallop
leading nowhere.

                                 ***

Experience in the sadhana is bound to begin with the mental plane,-all
that is necessary is that the experience should be sound and  genuine.
The  pressure  of  understanding  and will in the mind and the Godward
emotional urge in the heart are the two  first  agents  of  yoga,  and
peace,  purity  and  calm  (with  a  lulling  of the lower unrest) are
precisely the first basis that has to be laid;  to get  that  is  much
more  important  in  the  beginning  than  to  get  a  glimpse  of the
supraphysical  worlds  or  to  have  visions,   voices   and   powers.
Purification and calm are the first needs in the yoga.  One may have a
great wealth of experiences of that  kind  (worlds,  visions,  voices,
etc.)  without them,  but these experiences occurring in an unpurified
and troubled consciousness are usually full of disorder  and  mixture.

    At first the peace and calm are not continuous,  they come and go,
and it usually takes a long time to get them settled in the nature. It
is better therefore to avoid impatience and to  go  on  steadily  with
what is being done. If you wish to have something beyond the peace and
calm,  let it  be  the  full  opening  of  the  inner  being  and  the
consciousness  of  the  Divine  Power working in you.  Aspire for that
sincerely and with a great intensity but  without  Impatience  and  it
will come.

                                 ***

Quite correct. Unless the Adhar is made pure, neither the higher truth
(Intuitive,   illumined,   spiritual)   nor  the  overmental  nor  the
supramental can manifest;  whatever forces come  down  from  them  get
mixed  with  the  inferior  consciousness and the half-truth takes the
place of the Truth or even sometimes a dangerous error.

                                 ***

At a certain stage of the sadhana,  in the beginning (or near  it)  of
the  more intense experiences,  it sometimes happens that there is the
intense realisation of some aspect of the Divine,  a sort of communion
with  it,  and  that  is  seen  everywhere  and  all as that.  It is a
transitory phase and afterwards one gets the larger experience of  the
(personal)   Divine  in  all  its  aspects  and  beyond  all  aspects.
Throughout the experience there should be one part of the  being  that
observes  and understands-for,  sometimes ignorant sadhaks are carried
away  by  their  experience  and  stop  short  there  or   fall   into
extravagance.  It must be taken as an experience through which you are
passing.

                                 ***

The special experiences you are having are glimpses of what is  to  be
and  what  is  growing  and  preparing  and  are  helping  to make the
consciousness ready for it.  It is not therefore surprising that  they
change and are replaced by others-that is what usually happens, for it
is not these forms that are to be perpetuated,  but the essence of the
thing  which  they  are bringing.  Thus the one thing that has to grow
most now is the silence,  the quietude,  the peace, the free emptiness
into  which  experiences can come,  the sense of coolness and release.
When that is in possession of the consciousness fully,  then something
else   will  come  into  it  which  is  also  essential  to  the  true
consciousness and fix itself- it proceeds usually like that.  There is
nothing  strange  therefore in the special forms of experience ceasing
and being followed by others after you have written about  or  brought
them to the Mother. When the more permanent forms of realisation begin
to come, it will no longer be like that.

                                 ***

I do not question at all the personal  intensity  or  concreteness  of
your  internal experiences,  but experiences can be intense and yet be
very mixed in their truth and their character. In your experience your
own  subjectivity,  sometimes  your ego-pushes interfere very much and
give them their form and the impression they create on you. It is only
if  there  is  a  pure  psychic  response  that  the form given to the
experience is likely to be the right one  and  the  mental  and  vital
movements will then present themselves In their true nature. Otherwise
the mind,  the vital,  the ego give their own colour to what  happens,
their own turn, very usually their own deformation. Intensity is not a
guarantee of entire truth and correctness in an experience; it is only
purity  of  the  consciousness  that  can  give  an  entire  truth and
correctness.
    The Mother's presence is always there; but if you decide to act on
your own -your own idea,  your own notion of things, your own will and
demand upon things, then it is quite likely that her presence will get
veiled;  it  is not she who withdraws from you,  but you who draw back
from her. But your mind and vital don't want to admit that, because it
is  always their preoccupation to justify their own movements.  If the
psychic were allowed its full predominance,  this would not happen; it
would  have felt the veiling,  but it would at once have said,  "There
must have been some mistake in me,  a mist has arisen in me,"  and  it
would  have looked and found the cause.
    It is perfectly true that so long as there is  not  an  unreserved
self-giving  in  both the internal and external,  there will always be
veilings,  dark periods and difficulties.  But if there is  unreserved
self-giving  in  the  internal,  the  unreserved  self-giving  in  the
external would naturally follow;  if it does not,  it means  that  the
internal  is  not unreservedly surrendered;  there are reservations in
some part of  the  mind  insisting  on  its  own  ideas  and  notions;
reservations  in  some part of the vital insisting on its own demands,
impulses,  movements,  ego-ideas,  formations;  reservations  in   the
internal  physical insisting on its own old habits of many kinds,  and
all claiming  consciously,  half-consciously  or  subconsciously  that
these should be upheld,  respected,  satisfied,  taken as an important
element in the work, the "creation" or the yoga.

                                 ***

Experiences on the mental and vital  and  subtle  physical  planes  or
thought  formations  and  vital formations are often represented as if
they were concrete external happenings;  true experiences are  in  the
same  way distorted by mental and vital accretions and additions.  One
of the first needs in our yoga is a discrimination and a 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.

                                 ***

II

                                 ***

Merely to have experiences of the higher consciousness will not change
the nature.  Either the higher consciousness has  to  make  a  dynamic
descent  into  the  whole  being  and change it;  or it must establish
itself in the inner being down to  the  inner  physical  so  that  the
latter  feels itself separate from the outer and is able to act freely
upon it;  or the psychic must come forward and change the  nature;  or
the  inner  will must awake and force the nature to change.  These are
the four ways in which change can be brought about.

                                 ***

The difficulty of  the  yoga  is  not  in  getting  experiences  or  a
subjective realisation of the Truth; it is in objectivising the Truth,
that is in making the outer consciousness  down  to  the  material  an
expression of the inner Truth. So long as that is not done the attacks
of the lower Nature can always intervene.

                                 ***

The cosmic consciousness,  the overmind knowledge and experience is an
inner knowledge-but its effect is subjective.  As long as one has that
one can be free in soul,  but to transform the external nature more is
necessary.

                                 ***

Subjective does  not  mean  false.  It  only  means  that the Truth is
experienced within,  but it has not yet  taken  hold  of  the  dynamic
relations with the outside existence. It is an inner experience of the
cosmic consciousness and the overmind knowledge.

                                 ***

I have told you once before that your experiences are subjective  -and
in  the subjective sphere they are correct in substance so far as they
go.  But  to  enter  the  supermind,  subjective  experience  is   not
sufficient.  Some  sufficient application of intuition and overmind to
life must first be done.

                                 ***

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 you in
the truth of that consciousness -just as when a man sees the vision of
the Divine everywhere,  he sees all down to the material world as  the
Divine.

                                 ***

It happens so in the sadhak's own subjective consciousness.  Of course
it does not mean that the whole world  becomes  like  that-everybody's
consciousness...  If  your experience were objective,  then that would
mean that the world had changed, everybody became conscious, no sorrow
or  suffering  anywhere.  Needless to say,  the material world has not
changed objectively In  that  way,  only  in  your  own  consciousness
subjectively you see the Divine everywhere, all disharmony disappears,
sorrow and suffering become Impossible for the time at least - that is
a subjective experience.

                                 ***

It depends on what you mean by subjective and objective. Knowledge and
Ignorance are in their nature subjective.  But from the personal point
of  view,  the  Force of Ignorance may manifest as something objective
outside oneself so that even when one has Knowledge  for  oneself  one
cannot  remove the environing Ignorance.  If that is so,  Ignorance is
not merely a subjective force in oneself, it is there in the world.

                                 ***

It seems to have been a series of experiences of the different  Bhav€s
of  bhakti  and  it  came  for  experience  only  -  or for a manifold
development of the bhakti.  These,  of course,  are purely  subjective
experiences  meant  to  educate the consciousness and have no definite
value for the  actual  manifestation.  It  is  merely  for  subjective
experience and knowledge.

                                 ***

The golden  light  is  usually a light from the supermind - a light of
Truth-Knowledge (it may sometimes be the  supramental  Truth-Knowledge
turned  into  overmind  or  intuitive  truth).  Orange often indicates
occult power.  You  have  a  strong  power  of  (subjective)  creative
formation,  mostly, I think, in the mental but partly too on the vital
plane.  This kind of formative  faculty  can  be  used  for  objective
results  if  accompanied by a sound knowledge of the occult forces and
their workings;  but by itself it results more often In one's building
up  an  inner  world  of  one's  own  in  which you can live very well
satisfied,  as long as you live in  yourself,  apart  from  any  close
contact with external physical life; but it does not stand the test of
objective experience.

                                 ***

In each plane there is an objective as well as a subjective  side.  It
is not the physical plane and life alone that are objective.
    When you have the power of formation of which I spoke, whatever Is
suggested  to the mind,  the mind constructs and establishes a form of
it in itself.  But this power can cut two ways;  it may tempt the mind
to  construct  mere  images  of  the  reality and mistake them for the
reality itself.  It is one of the many dangers of a too  active  mind.

    You make a formation in  your  mind  or  on  the  vital  plane  in
yourselfit 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 go out
and affect the mind,  actions,  vital  movements,  external  lives  of
others.  These  formations  may  be  destructive  as well as creative.

    Finally, there  is  the  power  to  make  formations  that  become
effective realities in the  earth-consciousness  here,  in  its  mind,
life, physical existence. That is what we usually mean by creation.

                                 ***

III

                                 ***

Mental realisation is useful at the beginning and  prepares  spiritual
experience.
    It can  help  too  at  the beginning - but also it can hinder.  It
depends on the sadhak.

                                 ***

Wordsworth's experience also was mental.  Mental  experiences  are  of
course a good preparation,  but to stop there leaves one far away from
the real thing.

                                 ***

It [the realisation of the Divine in the mind] is a  certain  kind  of
living  cognition - of which there are two parts-the living perception
in thought rising as far as intuition or revelation,  the vivid mental
feeling  and  reproduction  of  what is thus known in the substance of
mind.  Thus the One in all is felt,  seen,  realised by the mind by  a
sort of inner mental sense. The spiritual realisation is more concrete
than that -one has the knowledge by a kind of identity In  one's  very
substance.

                                 ***

You have  to  know  by  experience.  The  mental perception and mental
realisation are different from each other - the first is only an idea,
in  the  second  the mind in its very substance reflects or reproduces
the truth. The spiritual experience is more than the mental - it is in
the very substance of the being that the experience takes place.

                                 ***

A mental  or  vital  sense of oneness has not the same essentiality or
the same effect as a spiritual realisation of  oneness  -just  as  the
mental perception of the Divine is not the same thing as the spiritual
realisation.  The consciousness of one plane  is  different  from  the
consciousness  of  another.  Spiritual  and psychic love are different
from mental,  vital or physical love - so with everything else. So too
with  the  perception  of  oneness  and  its effects.  That is why the
different planes have  their  importance;  otherwise  their  existence
would have no meaning.

                                 ***

Your experience  is  the  beginning  of  the  fundamental and decisive
realisation which carries the consciousness out of the limited  mental
into  the true spiritual vision and experience in which all is one and
all is the Divine.  It is this constant and living experience that  is
the true foundation of spiritual life. There can be no doubt about its
truth and value,  for it is evidently something living and dynamic and
goes  beyond  a  mental  realisation.  It  may add to itself in future
different aspects,  but the essential fundamental realisation you  now
have.  When  this is permanent,  one can be said to have passed out of
the twilight of the mind into the light of the Spirit.
    What you  have  now  to do is to allow the realisation to grow and
develop.  The necessary movements will probably come of themselves  as
these  have  come-provided  you  keep  your  will  single and faithful
towards this Light and Truth.  Already it has brought you the guidance
towards  the  next step,  cessation of the flow of thought,  the inner
mind's silence.  Once that is won,  there is likely to come a  settled
peace,  liberation,  wideness. The sense of the need of simplicity and
transparency is also a true ' movement and comes from the  same  inner
guidance.  That  is  necessary  for  the deepest inmost divine element
within behind the mind,  life  and  body  to  come  forward  fully  in
you-when  it  does you will be able to become aware of the inner guide
within you and of a Force working for the full spiritual change.  This
simplicity  comes by a separation from the manifold devious mental and
vital  movements  which  lead  one  in  all  directions  -a  quiet,  a
detachment  in  the heart which turns one singly towards the one Truth
and the one Light till it takes up the whole being and the whole life.

    Put your trust in the grace  of  the  One  and  Divine  which  has
already touched you and opened its door and rely on it for all that is
to come.

                                 ***

I have read the record of X's experiences.  It appears from it that he
has  made  the  right  start  to a certain extent and has been able to
establish the beginning of a mental calm  and  some  kind  of  psychic
opening but neither of these has as yet been able to go very far.  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 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 thinking that an inner calm and silence must  be
the  foundation,  not only of external work but of all inner and outer
activities.  But the quieting of the  mind  in  a  mental  silence  or
inactivity,  although often useful as a first step, is not sufficient.
The mental calm must be changed first into a deeper  spiritual  peace,
Shanti,  and  then  into  the supramental calm and silence full of the
higher light and strength 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.
    2. The  void  he  feels in the mind is often a necessary condition
for the clearing of it from its ordinary movements so that it may open
to  a  higher consciousness and a new experience,  but in itself it is
merely negative, a mental calm without anything positive in it and, if
one  stops there,  then the dullness and inertia of which he complains
must come.  What he needs is,  in the void and silence of the mind, to
open  himself  to,  to  wait or to call for,  the action of the higher
power,  light and peace from above the mind.
    3. The  survival  of  the evil habits in sleep is easily explained
and is a thing of common experience.  It is a 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  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 bodyconsciousness.  In order to make
a  true and complete change,  one has to make all these-conscious,  to
see clearly what is still there and to  reject  them  from  one  layer
after  another  till  they  have  been  entirely  thrown  out from the
personal existence.  Even then,  they may remain and come back on  the
being  from  the  surrounding  universal forces and it is only when no
part of the consciousness makes any response to these  forces  of  the
lower  plane  that  the  victory  and  transformation  are  absolutely
complete.
    4. His  experience that whenever he gains a conquest in the mental
plane the forces of past Karma,  - that is to say,  really of the  old
nature,  -  come  back upon him with a double vigour is again a common
experience.  The psychological explanation  is  to  be  found  In  the
preceding  paragraph.  All attempt at transformation of the being is a
fight with universal forces which have long been in possession and  it
is  vain  to  expect  that they will give up the struggle at the first
defeat.  As long as they can,  they seek to retain possession and even
when  they  are cast out they will,  as long as there is any chance of
response in the conscious or subconscious  being,  try  to  recur  and
regain  their  hold.  It is no use being discouraged by these attacks.
What has to be done is to  see  that  they  are  made  more  and  more
external  and all assent refused until they weaken and fade away.  Not
only the Chitta and Buddhi must refuse  consent  but  also  the  lower
parts of the being, the vital and physico-vital, the physical mind and
the body consciousness.
    5. The defects of the receiving mind and the discriminating Buddhi
spoken of are general defects of the intellect and cannot be  entirely
got  rid  of  so  long as the intellectual action is not replaced by a
higher supra-intellectual action and finally by the harmonising  light
of  the  supramental being.
    Next as regards the psychic experiences.  The region of glory felt
in  the  crown  of  the  head is simply the touch or reflection of the
supramental sunlight on the higher part of the mind.  The  whole  mind
and  being  must  open  to this light and it must descend and fill the
whole  system.  The  lightning  and  the  electric  currents  are  the
(vaidyuta)  Agni  force  of the supramental sun touching and trying to
pour into the body. The other signs are promises of the future psychic
and  other  experiences.  But  none  of  these  things  can  establish
themselves until the opening to the higher force has  been  made.  The
mental  yoga  can only be a preparation for this truer starting-point.

    What I have said is merely an explanation of these experiences but
it seems to me that he has advanced far enough to  make  a  foundation
for the beginning of the higher yoga.  If he wishes to do that he must
replace his mental control by a belief  in  and  a  surrender  to  the
Supreme Presence and Force above the mind,  an aspiration in the heart
and  a  will  in  the  higher  mind  to  the  supreme  truth  and  the
transformation  of the whole conscious being by its descent and power.
He must,  in his meditation, open himself silently to it and call down
first a deeper calm and silence,  next the strength from above working
in the whole system and last the  higher  glory  of  which  he  had  a
glimpse  pouring  through his whole being and Illuminating it with the
divine truth-movement.

                                 ***

Yes, so  long  as  the attitude is mental it Is insecure because it is
something imposed on the nature - a mental direction and control.  But
with  the spiritual experience what begins is a change in the stuff of
the consciousness Itself and by that,  as it proceeds  to  settle  and
confirm  itself,  begins  naturally what we call the transformation of
the nature.

                                 ***

No, the phrase ["stuff of consciousness] simply  means  "substance  of
consciousness,  the consciousness in itself.
    As the   yogic  experience  develops,  consciousness  is  felt  as
something quite concrete in which there are movements  and  formations
which are what we call thoughts, feelings etc.

                                 ***

Your feeling  is  quite  correct.  All  spiritual  experience   is   a
substantial   experience-consciousness,   Ananda   even  are  felt  as
something substantial. It is also true that it is felt so by something
deeper  than  mind;  it is the mind that turns concrete realities into
abstractions.

                                 ***

These disadvantages of mental knowledge no doubt exist.  But  I  doubt
whether  anybody  could mentally simulate to himself the experience of
the One everywhere or the downflow of peace.  He might mistake a first
mental  realisation  for the deeper spiritual one or think the descent
was in his physical when it was in his  mental  influencing  the  body
through  the  mental sheath of the subtle body - but those who have no
mental knowledge can also make these mistakes. The disadvantage of the
one  who does not know mentally is that he gets the experience without
understanding it and this may be a hindrance or at  least  retardatory
to  development  while  he would not get so easily out of a mistake as
one more mentally enlightened.

                                 ***

Usually they [who do not have the mental knowledge about the universal
Self]  feel  first through the psychic centre by union with the Mother
and do not call it the Self- or else they simply feel a  wideness  and
peace  in  the head or in the heart.  Previous mental knowledge is not
indispensable.  I have seen in more cases than one sadhaks getting the
Brahman  realisation  and  asking "what is this?" - describing it with
great vividness and exactness but without  any  of  the  known  terms.

    Just after  writing  this  I read a letter from a sadhika in which
she writes "I see that my head is becoming very quiet, pure, luminous,
universal,  vi™vamaya."  Well that is the beginning of the realisation
of the universal Brahman-Self in the mind,  but if I put it to her  in
that language she would understand nothing.

                                 ***

Even imagined  experiences  (honestly  imagined)  can  help  to mental
realisation and mental realisation can be a step to total realisation.

                                 ***

When one is living in the physical mind,  the only way to escape  from
it is imagination. Incidentally, that is why poetry and art, etc, have
so strong a hold.  But these imaginations are often really shadows  of
supraphysical  experience and once the barrier of the physical mind is
broken or even  swung  a  little  open,  there  come  the  experiences
themselves,  if the temperament is favourable.  Hence are born visions
and  other  such  phenomena-all  those  that  are  miscalled   psychic
phenomena.
    As for prayer,  no hard and fast  rule  can  be  laid  down.  Some
prayers are answered,  all are not.  You may ask,  why should not then
all prayers be  answered?  But  why  should  they  be?  it  is  not  a
machinery:  put  a  prayer  in the slot and get your asking.  Besides,
considering all the contradictory things mankind is praying for at the
same moment.  God would be in a rather awkward hole if he had to grant
all of them; it wouldn't do.

                                 ***

IV

                                 ***

There is  no  impossibility in the purification of the heart which was
the thing you were trying for,  and when the heart is purified,  other
things  which  seemed  impossible  before  become easy -even the inner
surrender which now seems to  you  impracticable.
    It is the usual experience that if the  humility  and  resignation
are  firmly  founded  in  the  heart,  other  things  like  trust come
naturally afterwards. If once the psychic light and happiness which is
the  boon of these things is founded,  it is not easy for other forces
to cloud that state and not possible for them to destroy it.  That  is
the  common  experience.
    Purification and  consecration  are  two  great   necessities   of
sadhana.  Those  who  have experiences before purification run a great
risk: it is much better to have the heart pure first, for then the way
becomes safe.  That is why I advocate the psychic change of the nature
first-for that means the purification of the heart:  the turning of it
wholly to the Divine,  the subjection of the mind and the vital to the
control of the inner being,  the soul.  Always,  when the soul  is  in
front,  one  gets  the  right guidance from within as to what is to be
done,  what avoided,  'what is the wrong thing or the  true  thing  in
thought,  feeling,  action.  But  this  inner  intimation  emerges  in
proportion as  the  consciousness  grows  more  and  more  pure.
    The stumbling-block of X was ambition,  pride, vanitythe desire to
be a big yogi with occult powers.  To try to bring down occult  powers
into an unpurified mind,  heart and body - well,  you can do it if you
want to dance on the edge of a precipice. Or you can do it if your aim
is not to be spiritual but to be an occultist, for then you can follow
the necessary methods and get the help of the occult  powers.  On  the
other  hand,  the  true  occult  spiritual forces and mysteries can be
called down or can come down without calling,  but this must  be  made
secondary to the one true thing, the seeking for the Divine, and if it
is part of the Divine plan in you.  Occult powers can only be for  the
spiritual  man  an  instrumentation of the Divine Power that uses him:
they cannot be the aim or an aim of his sadhana.  Many people  have  a
habit  of  doing  yoga according to their own ideas without caring for
the guidance of the Guru - from whom,  however,  they expect an entire
protection  and  success in sadhana even if they prance or gambol into
the wrongest paths  possible.
    What I  mean  by  subtle  methods is psychological,  nonmechanical
processes,   e.g.,   concentration   in    the    heart,    surrender,
self-purification,  working  out  by  inner  means  the  change of the
consciousness.  This does not mean that there is no outer change:  the
outer change is necessary but as a part of the inner change.  If there
is impurity or insincerity  within,  the  outer  change  will  not  be
effective,  but if there is a sincere inner working,  the outer change
will help it and accelerate the process....  The most important  thing
for  the  purification  of  the  heart  is  an absolute sincerity.  No
pretence with oneself,  no concealment from the Divine, or oneself, or
the Guru,  a straight look at one's movements, a straight will to make
them straight.  It does not so much matter if it takes time:  one must
be  prepared  to  make  it  one's  whole life-task to seek the Divine.
Purifying the heart means after all a pretty considerable  achievement
and  it is no use getting despondent,  despairful,  etc.,  because one
finds things in oneself that still need to be changed.  If  one  keeps
the  true  will and true attitude,  then the intuitions or intimations
from within will begin to grow,  become clear,  precise,  unmistakable
and  the strength to follow them will grow also:  and then before even
you are satisfied with yourself, the Divine will be satisfied with you
and  begin  to  withdraw the veil by which he protects himself and his
seekers against a premature and  perilous  grasping  of  the  greatest
thing to which humanity can aspire.

                                 ***

The automatic tendency is a good sign as it shows that it is the inner
being  opening  to  the  Truth which is pressing forward the necessary
changes.
    As you say,  it is the failure of the right attitude that comes in
the way of passing through ordeals to a change of nature. The pressure
is becoming greater now for this change of character  even  more  than
for  decisive yoga experience - for if the experience comes,  it fails
to be decisive because of the want of the requisite change of  nature.
The  mind,  for instance,  gets the experience of One in all,  but the
vital cannot follow,  because it  is  dominated  by  ego-reaction  and
ego-motive  or  the  habits  of  the  outer  nature  keep  up a way of
thinking,  feeling,  acting, living which is quite out of harmony with
the  experience.  Or  the  psychic  and part of the mind and emotional
being feel frequently the closeness of the Mother, but the rest of the
nature  is unoffered and goes its own way prolonging division from her
nearness,  creating distance.  It is not enough - and there  is  great
need that this should change.

                                 ***

I do  not know what X said or in which article,  I do not have it with
me.  But if the  statement  is  that  nobody  can  have  a  successful
meditation or realise anything till he is pure and perfect,  I fail to
follow it:  it contradicts  my  own  experience.  I  have  always  had
realisation   by   meditation   first  and  the  purification  started
afterwards  as  a  result.  I  have  seen  many  get  important,  even
fundamental realisations by meditation who could not be said to have a
great inner development.  Are all yogis who have meditated with effect
and  had  great  realisations  in their inner consciousness perfect in
their nature?  It does not look like it to me.  I am unable to believe
in absolute generalisations in this field,  because the development of
spiritual consciousness is an exceedingly vast and complex  affair  in
which all sorts of things can happen and one might almost say that for
each man it is different according to his  nature  and  that  the  one
thing  that  is  essential  is  the  inner call and aspiration and the
perseverance to follow always after it,  no matter how long it  takes,
what  are  the difficulties or impediments,  because nothing else will
satisfy the soul within us.
    It is  quite  true  that  a  certain  amount  of  purification  is
indispensable for going on,  that the more complete  the  purification
the better, because then when the realisations begin they can continue
without big difficulties or relapses and without  any  possibility  of
fall  or  failure.  It is also true that with many purification is the
first need,  -certain things have to be got out of the way before  one
can  begin  any  consecutive inner experience.  But the main need is a
certain preparation of the consciousness so that it  may  be  able  to
respond more and more freely to the higher Force.  In this preparation
many things are useful-the poetry and music you are  doing  can  help,
for it all acts as a sort of ™rava�a and manana,  even, if the feeling
roused  is  intense,  a  sort   of   natural   nididhy€sana.   Psychic
preparation,  clearing  out  of  the grosser forms of mental and vital
ego,  opening mind and heart to the Guru and many  other  things  help
greatly  -  it  is  not  perfection  or  a  complete  freedom from the
dualities  or  ego  that  is  the   indispensable   preliminary,   but
preparedness,  a  fitness  of  the  inner  being which makes spiritual
responses and receiving possible.
    There is no reason therefore to take as gospel truth these demands
which may have been right for X on the way he has trod,  but cannot be
imposed  on  all  -  the  law  of  the  spirit  is not so exacting and
inexorable.

                                 ***

X has...  a day or two ago had the experience of the ascent above  and
of the wideness of peace and joy of the Infinite (free from the bodily
sense and limitation) as also the descent down to the  Muladhara.  She
does  not  know  the  names  or technicalities of these things but her
description which was minute and full  of  details  was  unmistakable.
There  are  three or four others who have had this experience recently
so that we may suppose the working of the Force is not  altogether  in
vain as this experience is a very big affair and is supposed to be, if
stabilised, the summit of the old yogas, for us it is only a beginning
of spiritual transformation. I have said this though it is personal so
that you may understand that outside  defects  and  obstacles  in  the
nature or the appearance of unyogicness does not necessarily mean that
a person can do or is doing no sadhana.

                                 ***

It is a mistake to  dwell  too  much  on  the  lower  nature  and  its
obstacles,  which is the negative side of the sadhana. They have to be
seen and purified,  but preoccupation with them as the  one  important
thing  is not helpful.  The positive side of experience of the descent
is the more important thing.  If one waits for the lower nature to  be
purified  entirely  and  for all time before calling down the positive
experience,  one might have to wait for ever. It is true that the more
the lower nature is purified,  the easier is the descent of the higher
Nature,  but it is also and more true that the more the higher  Nature
descends,  the  more  the  lower  is  purified.  Neither  the complete
purification nor the permanent and perfect manifestation can come  all
at  once,  it  is  a  matter  of  time  and patient progress.  The two
(purification and manifestation) go on progressing side  by  side  and
become  more and more strong to play into each other's hands - that is
the usual course of the sadhana.

                                 ***

To change the nature is not easy and always takes time,  but if  there
is  no  inner  experience,  no  gradual  emergence  of the other purer
consciousness that is concealed by all these things you  now  see,  it
would  be almost impossible even for the strongest will.  You say that
first you must get rid of  all  these  things,  then  have  the  inner
experiences.  But  how  is  that  to  be  done?  These things,  anger,
jealousy,  desire are the very  stuff  of  the  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  changes  the  ordinary
consciousness,  throws  all  these undivine things out and changes the
outer  nature  altogether.  That  is  why  we  want  the  sadhaks   to
concentrate,   to  open  this  concealed  consciousness  -  it  is  by
concentration of whatever kind and the experiences it brings that  one
opens  and  becomes  aware within and the new consciousness and nature
begin to grow and come out.  Of course we want them also to use  their
will  and reject the desires and wrong movements of the vital,  for by
doing that the emergence of the true consciousness  becomes  possible.
But  rejection  alone cannot succeed;  it is by rejection and by inner
experience and growth that it is done.
    You say  that  all these things were hidden within you.  No,  they
were not deep within,  they were in the outer or surface nature,  only
you  were  not  sufficiently  conscious of them because the other true
consciousness had  not  opened  and  grown  within  you.  Now  by  the
experiences  you  have  had  the  psychic  has  been growing and it is
because of this new psychic consciousness that you  are  able  to  see
clearly  all that has to go.  It does not go at once because the vital
had so much the habit of them in the past,  but they will now have  to
go because your soul wants to get rid of them and your soul is growing
stronger in you.  So you must both use your will aided by the Mother's
force  to  get rid of these things,  and go on with your inner psychic
experiences - it is by the two together that all will be done.

                                 ***

Once these experiences begin,  they repeat themselves usually, whether
the general condition is good or not. But naturally they cannot make a
radical change until they settle themselves and become normal  in  the
whole  being  or at least In the inner part of it.  In the latter case
the old movements can still come, but they are felt as something quite
superficial  and  the sadhana increases In spite of them.  There is no
question of good or wicked.  If some part of the being even  has  been
opened the experiences come.

                                 ***

Yes, that  is  the  truth  of  the  working.  At  first what has to be
established comes with difficulty and  is  felt  as  if  abnormal,  an
experience  that one loses easily -afterwards It comes of itself,  but
does not yet stay; finally it becomes a frequent and intimate state of
the being and makes itself constant and normal.  On the other hand all
the confusions and errors once habitual to the nature are pushed  out;
at  first  they  return frequently,  but afterwards they in their turn
become abnormal and foreign to  the  nature  and  lose  frequency  and
finally disappear.

                                 ***

V

                                 ***

The up  and  down movement which you speak of is common to all ways of
yoga.  It is there in the  path  of  bhakti,  but  there  are  equally
alternations  of  states  of  light and states of darkness,  sometimes
sheer and prolonged darkness,  when one follows the path of knowledge.
Those who have occult experiences come to periods when all experiences
cease and even seem finished for ever.  Even when there have been many
and permanent realisations, these seem to go behind the veil and leave
nothing in front except a dull blank,  filled,  if at all,  only  with
recurrent attacks and difficulties.  These alternations are the result
of the nature of human consciousness and are not a proof of  unfitness
or  of  predestined failure.  One has to be prepared for them and pass
through.  They are the "day and night" of the Vedic mystics.
    As for  surrender,  everyone  has  his  own  first way of approach
towards it;  but if it is due to fear,  "form" or sense of duty,  then
certainly  that is not surrender at all;  these things have nothing to
do with surrender.  Also,  complete and total surrender is not so easy
as some seem to imagine. There are always many and large reservations;
even if one is  not  conscious  of  them,  they  are  there.  Complete
surrender can best come by a complete love and bhakti.  Bhakti, on the
other hand, can begin without surrender, but it naturally leads, as it
forms itself,  to surrender.
    You are surely mistaken in thinking that the difficulty of  giving
up  intellectual  convictions is a special stumbling-block in you more
than in others. The attachment to one's own ideas and convictions, the
Insistence on them is a common characteristic.  It can be removed by a
light of knowledge from above which gives  one  the  direct  touch  of
Truth  or  the luminous experience of it and takes away all value from
mere  intellectual  opinion,  ideas  or  conviction  and  removes  the
necessity  for  it,  or  by a right consciousness which brings with it
right ideas, right feeling, right action and right everything else. Or
else  it must come by a spiritual and mental humility which is rare in
human nature - especially the mental,  for the mind is always  apt  to
think its own ideas,  true or false,  are the right ideas. Eventually,
it is the psychic growth that makes this surrender  too  possible  and
that again comes most easily by bhakti.  In any case, the existence of
this difficulty is not In itself a good cause for forecasting  failure
in yoga.

                                 ***

The reason why there are these alternations of which you  complain  is
that  the  nature  of  the consciousness is like that;  after a little
spell of wakefulness it feels the need of a little sleep.  Very  often
in the beginning the wakings are brief, the sleeps long; afterwards it
becomes more equal and later on the  sleep  periods  are  shorter  and
shorter.  Another cause of these alternations,  when one is receiving,
is the nature's need of closing up to assimilate.  It can take perhaps
a  great  deal,  but while the experience is going on it cannot absorb
properly what it brings,  so it closes down for assimilation.  A third
cause comes in the period of transformation,  - one part of the nature
changes and one feels for a time as if there had been a  complete  and
permanent  change.  But  one  is  disappointed  to find it cease and a
period of barrenness or lowered consciousness follow.  This is because
another  part of the consciousness comes up for change and a period of
preparation and veiled working  follows  which  seems  to  be  one  of
unenlightenment  or worse.  These things alarm,  disappoint or perplex
the eagerness and impatience of the sadhak;  but  if  one  takes  them
quietly and knows how to use them or adopt the right attitude, one can
make these unenlightened periods also a part of the conscious sadhana.
So  the  Vedic  Rishis speak of the alternation of "Day and Night both
suckling the divine Child." What you feel in the head is probably  the
first  conscious descent Into the body of the divine Force from above.
Up to now it must have been working unfelt  by  you  from  behind  the
heart. If the concentration takes place naturally in the head you must
allow it to do so,  but the possibility of this has been  prepared  by
the  previous  concentration  in  the heart,  so that also need not be
discontinued unless the force working in  you  insists  on  the  upper
concentration only.  Aspiration can be continued in the same way until
the conduct of the sadhana by the Mother's power is clearly  felt  and
becomes to you the normal thing.

                                 ***

Yes, it  is  right.  Everyone has these alternations because the total
consciousness is not able to remain always In  the  above  experience.
The point is that in the intervals there should be quietude,  at least
in the inner being,  no restlessness,  dissatisfaction or struggle. If
that point is attained, then the sadhana can go on smoothly - not that
there will be no difficulties but there  will  be  no  disquietude  or
dissatisfaction etc, etc.

                                 ***

The Vaishnava Bhajan is one that easily excites the vital being and if
there are people there of a low nature,  all sorts  of  dark  and  low
forces   come  in  to  feed  upon  the  excitement....  The  spiritual
fulfilment will come in its time by a steady development of the  being
and  the  nature.  It  does  not  depend  on seizing upon this or that
opportunity.
    There is  another  thing  which  you  must  learn.  If   you   are
interrupted  in  sadhana...  you must simply remain inwardly quiet and
allow the interruption to pass.  If you learn to do  this,  the  inner
state  or  experience  will  go  on  afterwards just as if nothing had
happened.  If you attach  undue  importance  and  get  upset,  on  the
contrary, you change the interruption Into a disturbance and the inner
state or experience ceases. Always keep the inner quiet and confidence
in every circumstance; allow nothing to disturb it or to excite you. A
steady inner calm and quiet will and psychic faith and bhakti are  the
one true foundation for your sadhana.

                                 ***

A quiet and even basis means a condition of the sadhana in which there
is no tossing about between eager bursts of experience and a depressed
inert  or  half  inert  condition,  but  whether  in  progress  or  in
difficulty there is always a  quiet  consciousness  behind  turned  in
confidence and faith towards the Divine.

                                 ***

An occasional  sinking of the consciousness happens to everybody.  The
causes are various, some touch from outside, something not yet changed
or not sufficiently changed in the vital,  especially the lower vital,
some inertia or obscurity rising up from the physical parts of nature.
When it comes, remain quiet, open yourself to the Mother and call back
the  true  conditions  and  aspire  for  a   clear   and   undisturbed
discrimination showing you from within yourself the cause of the thing
that needs to be set right.

                                 ***

There are always pauses of preparation and  assimilation  between  two
movements. You must not regard these with fretfulness or impatience as
if they were untoward gaps in the sadhana. Besides, the Force rises up
lifting  part of the nature on a higher level and then comes down to a
lower layer to raise it;  this motion of ascent and descent  is  often
extremely  trying  because the mind partial to an ascent in a straight
line and the vital eager for rapid  fulfilment  cannot  understand  or
follow  the  intricate  movement and are apt to be distressed by it or
resent it.  But the transformation of the whole nature is not an  easy
thing  to  accomplish and the Force that does it knows better than our
mental ignorance or our vital impatience.

                                 ***

Everything once gained is there and can be regained.  Yoga  is  not  a
thing  that  goes  by  one decisive rush one way or the other -it is a
building up of a new consciousness and is full of ups and  downs.  But
if  one  keeps to it the ups have a habit of resulting by accumulation
in a decisive change - therefore the one thing to do is to keep at it.
After  a  fall  don't wail and say,  "I'm done for," but get up,  dust
yourself and proceed farther on the right path.

                                 ***

The entire oblivion of the experience means merely that there is still
no  sufficient  bridge  between  the inner consciousness which has the
experience in a kind of samadhi and the exterior waking consciousness.
It  is  when the higher consciousness has made the bridge between them
that the outer also begins to remember.

                                 ***

Fluctuations of this kind cannot but come and when they come,  one has
to remain very quiet and detach oneself from the surface condition and
wait for it to pass  while  calling  the  Mother's  force.  A  neutral
condition  of this kind serves a certain purpose in the economy of the
purification and change  -  it  brings  up  things  that  have  to  be
transformed  or rejected,  lifts up some part of the being in order to
expose it to the transforming force.  If one  can  understand,  remain
quiet and detached from the surface movements, not identified, then it
goes sooner, the Force can quickly clear out what rises and afterwards
it is found that something has been gained and a progress made.

                                 ***

These fluctuations in the force of the aspiration and the power of the
sadhana are unavoidable and common to  all  sadhaks  until  the  whole
being has been made ready for the transformation.  When the psychic is
in front or active and the mind and vital consent,  then there is  the
intensity.  When the psychic is less prominent and the lower vital has
its ordinary movements or the  mind  its  ignorant  action,  then  the
opposing  forces  can  come  in  unless  the  sadhak is very vigilant.
Inertia  comes  usually  from  the  ordinary  physical  consciousness,
especially  when  the  vital  is  not actively supporting the sadhana.
These things can only be cured by a persistent bringing  down  of  the
higher spiritual consciousness into all the parts of the being.

                                 ***

Fall of  the  concentration  happens  to  everybody - it has not to be
taken as if it were something tragic or allowed to  be  the  cause  of
depression.

                                 ***

These variations  in the consciousness during the day are a thing that
is common to  almost  everybody  in  the  sadhana.  The  principle  of
oscillation, relaxation, relapse to a normal or a past lower condition
from a higher state that is experienced but not yet perfectly  stable,
becomes  very  strong and marked when the working of the sadhana is in
the physical consciousness.  For there is an inertia in  the  physical
nature  that does not easily allow the intensity natural to the higher
consciousness to remain constant,  - the physical  is  always  sinking
back  to  something  more  ordinary;  the higher consciousness and its
force have to work long and come  again  and  again  before  they  can
become constant and normal in the physical nature. Do not be disturbed
or discouraged by these variations or this  delay,  however  long  and
tedious; remain careful only to be quiet always with an inner quietude
and as open as possible to the higher Power,  not allowing any  really
adverse  condition  to  get hold of you.  If there is no adverse wave,
then the rest is only a persistence of imperfections which all have in
abundance;  that  imperfection and persistence the Force must work out
and eliminate, but for the elimination time is needed.

                                 ***

That is a frequent experience,  (though I suppose it is  not  general)
-not only with peace,  but other things; there is a tendency towards a
lowering of the consciousness in the evening.  On the other with  some
It is the opposite.  I don't know that it actually depends on work and
mixing,  though these may have a wearing effect - I  find  more  often
that  it  Is  a  sort  of rhythm of rise and fall in the consciousness
during the day. Even when peace is perfectly established, there may be
this rhythm for other things that are being developed.

                                 ***

There is  no  mentally  definite  and rigidly effective reason for the
thing [the fall into inertia] coming in the evening rather than  at  2
p.m.  or  in the midnight or in the morning.  For some people the fall
comes in the evening,  for some in the  morning,  for  some  at  other
times,  and so too with the rise.  But the alternations happen to most
people in one law of rhythm or another. The times vary with people and
even  can vary with the same man.  There is no definable reason for it
being at a particular time except that it has made itself habitual  at
that  time.  The  rest  is  a  question of the play of forses which is
observable but the reasons of which escape mental definition.

                                 ***

[Reason for fluctuations in sadhana:] I don't know.  Time and  seasons
vary  according  to the poise and flux and reflux of the forces in the
consciousness. It is not a thing to which you can affix a rationalised
and  systematised  explanation.  One can feel it and understand in the
essence of the consciousness,  but not  formulate  precise  cause  and
effect.

                                 ***

I can  only  say  as  before,  that there is "no specific" reason [for
fluctuations  in  the  working  of  the  Force]  which  the  mind  can
determine.  It  depends  on the total condition and interaction of the
forces. One has to hold on to the aspiration and look steadily towards
the   goal   without   being   disturbed  by  these  inequalities  and
fluctuations.

                                 ***

There are no fixed rules [for  fluctuations  in  the  working  of  the
Force].  There  are  simply a mass of tendencies and forces with which
one has to become familiar.  It is not a fixed machinery which one can
manage by devices or by pulling this or that button. It is only by the
inner will,  the constant aspiration,  by detachment and rejection, by
bringing down the true consciousness, force etc, that It can be done.

                                 ***

The falling down of consciousness comes usually by some inertia coming
in  the  consciousness  through  fatigue  or  through  mere  habit  of
relaxation  or  it  comes through some vital reaction which one may or
may not notice or it comes through a wrong movement of the mind. These
are the positive lowering causes,  but at the back of them is the fact
that  these  alternations  are  almost  inevitable  so  long  as   the
consciousness  is in any way subject to the old nature.  The intervals
of non-sadhana may,  however,  be long or  short  according  to  inner
circumstances  (mainly  the  power  of  the will or the psychic or the
higher being to restore quickly the true poise).

                                 ***

The depression is not the only cause  of  suspension  of  experiences.
There  are  others  such  as inertia etc.  If one can have experiences
continuously in spite of these things,  that means that a part of  the
consciousness has definitely separated from the rest and is able to go
on in spite of the outer resistance.

                                 ***

Yes - if the peace is established,  then the falls  are  only  on  the
surface, and do not affect the inner consciousness.

                                 ***

Even if there is physical fatigue sometimes, it is not inevitable that
it should interfere with the sadhana. The inner movement can always go
on.

                                 ***

Usually it  is  when  something  in  the  mind  and  vital accepts and
indulges the lower forces that this inability  to  re-enter  the  true
consciousness  remains  so obstinate.  Physical tamas can produce long
interregnums of obscure consciousness,  but not usually  with  such  a
violent obstruction, but it is usually dull and obstinate.

                                 ***

Intensities like  that  do  not remain so long as the consciousness is
not transformed -there has to be a period of  assimilation.  When  the
being  is  unconscious,  the  assimilation  goes on behind the veil or
below the surface and meanwhile the surface  consciousness  sees  only
dullness and loss of what it had got;  but when one is conscious, then
one can see the assimilation going on and one  sees  that  nothing  is
lost,  it  is  only  a  quiet settling in of what has come down.
    The vastness,  the overwhelming calm and silence in which you feel
merged  is  what is called the Atman or the silent Btahman.  It is the
whole aim of many yogas to get this realisation  of  Atman  or  silent
Brahman and live in it.  In our yoga it is only the first stage of the
realisation of the Divine and of that growing of the  being  into  the
higher or divine Consciousness which we call transformation.

                                 ***

After one  has  got  to  a  certain  stage the things gained are never
lost-they may be covered over but  they  return-they  have  only  gone
inside and come back to the surface.

                                 ***

When the physical consciousness prevails,  often one does not feel any
sign or effect even if the experiences are there.

                                 ***

How do you expect anything so obtuse and  forgetful  as  the  physical
consciousness  to have the effect if the experiences are not repeated?
It is as when you learn a lesson,  you have  to  repeat  it  till  the
physical mind gets hold of it - otherwise it does not become a part of
consciousness.

                                 ***

VI

                                 ***

The emptiness that you described in your letter yesterday  was  not  a
bad thing - it is this emptiness inward and outward that often in yoga
becomes the first step towards a new consciousness.  Man's  nature  is
like  a  cup of dirty water - the water has to be thrown out,  the cup
left clean and empty for the divine liquor to be poured into  it.  The
difficulty is that the human physical consciousness feels it difficult
to bear this emptiness - it is accustomed to be occupied by all  sorts
of  little  mental  and  vital  movements which keep it interested and
amused or even if in trouble and sorrow still active. The cessation of
these  things  is  hard  to  bear  for it.  It begins to feel dull and
restless and eager for the old interests and movements.  But  by  this
restlessness  it disturbs the quietude and brings back the things that
had been thrown out.  It is this that is creating the  difficulty  and
the  obstruction  for  the  moment.  If  you can accept emptiness as a
passage to the true consciousness and true movements,  then it will be
easier  to  get  rid  of  the  obstacle.
    All in the Ashram are not suffering from the sense of dullness and
want of interest, but many are because the Force that is descending is
discouraging the old movements of the physical and  vital  mind  which
they  call life and they are not accustomed to accept the renunciation
of these things, or to admit the peace or joy of silence.

                                 ***

Emptiness is not in itself a bad condition,  only if it is a  sad  and
restless emptiness of the dissatisfied vital.  In sadhana emptiness is
very usually a necessary transition from one state  to  another.  When
mind  and vital fall quiet and their restless movements,  thoughts and
desires cease,  then one feels empty. This is at first often a neutral
emptiness with nothing in it,  nothing in it either good or bad, happy
or unhappy,  no impulse or movement.  This neutral state is  often  or
even  usually  followed  by the opening to inner experience.  There is
also an emptiness made of  peace  and  silence,  when  the  peace  and
silence  come  out  from the psychic within or descend from the higher
consciousness above. This is not neutral, for in it there is the sense
of  peace,  often also of wideness and freedom.  There is also a happy
emptiness with the sense of something close or drawing near  which  is
not  yet  there,  e.g.  the  closeness  of  the  Mother  or some other
preparing experience. What you describe is the neutral quiet. There is
no need for anxiety.  When it comes,  one has only to remain quiet and
open and turned to the Mother till something develops from within.

                                 ***

To be an empty vessel is a very good thing if one knows  how  to  make
use of the emptiness.

                                 ***

If it  is  only  emptiness,  there  is nothing wrong.  Alternations of
emptiness and fullness are a quite normal  feature  of  experience  in
sadhana.

                                 ***

The voidness  (if  by that you mean silence and emptiness of thoughts,
movements  etc.)  is  the  basic  condition  into  which  the   higher
consciousness can flow.

                                 ***

The voidness is the best condition for a full receptivity.

                                 ***

Voidness can come from anywhere, mind, vital or from above.

                                 ***

Emptiness usually  comes  as  a clearance of the consciousness or some
part of it.  The consciousness or part becomes like an empty cup  into
which  something new can be poured.  The highest emptiness is the pure
existence of the self in which all manifestation can take place.

                                 ***

Emptiness as such is not a  character  of  the  higher  consciousness,
though  it  often  looks like that to the human vital when one has the
pure realisation of the Self,  because all is immobile,  and  for  the
vital all that is not full of action appears empty.  But the emptiness
that comes to the mind,  vital or physical is a special thing intended
to clear the room for the things from above.

                                 ***

An emptiness  in  the mind or vital may be spiritual without emptiness
being an essential characteristic of the higher consciousness.  If  it
were,  there  could  be  no  Force,  Light  or  Ananda  in  the higher
consciousness. Emptiness is only a result produced by a certain action
of   the  higher  Force  on  the  system  in  order  that  the  higher
consciousness may be able to come into it.  It is a spirtual emptiness
as  opposed to the dull and inert emptiness of complete tamas which is
not spiritual.

                                 ***

Emptiness is a state of quietude of the mental or  vital  or  all  the
consciousness not visited by any mind or vital movements,  but open to
the Pure Existence and ready or tending to be that or already that but
not yet realised in its full power of being. Which of these conditions
it happens to be depends on the particular case. The Self state or the
state  of pure existence is sometimes also called emptiness,  but only
in the sense that it is a state of sheer static rest of being  without
any contacts of mobile Nature.

                                 ***

There is no such thing as nðant. By "void" is meant emptiness clear of
all contents except existence pure and simple. Without that one cannot
realise the silent Brahman.

                                 ***

The void is the condition of the Self- free, wide and silent. It seems
void to the mind but in reality it is simply a state of pure existence
and consciousness, Sat and Chit with Shanti.

                                 ***

Voidness may  be  of  different  kinds  -  a certain kind of spiritual
voidness,  or the emptiness that is a preparation for new  experience.
But  an  exhaustion  of life energy is a very different thing.  It may
come from fatigue,  from somebody or something drawing away the  vital
force or from an invasion of tamas.  But I don't know why it should be
connected with the English study and happening only then.

                                 ***

The usual result of voidness is to quiet down  any  vital  disturbance
although  it  does  not,  unless  it is complete,  stop the mechanical
recurrent action of the mind.

                                 ***

If it is a real emptiness, one can rest in it for years together, - it
is  because the vital is restless and full of desires (not empty) that
it is like that. Also the physical mind is by no means at rest. If the
desires  were thrown out and the ego less active and the physical mind
at rest,  knowledge would come from above in  place  of  the  physical
mind's  stupidities,  the  vital  mind could be calm and quiet and the
Mother's Force take up the action and the higher  consciousness  begin
to come down. That is the proper sequel of emptiness.

                                 ***

I cannot  have  written  that  it  is only you who feel the silence as
empty,  as there are plenty who do so feel it at first.  One feels  it
empty  because  one is accustomed to associate existence with thought,
feeling and movement or with forms and objects,  and there are none of
these there. But it is not really empty.

                                 ***

You have  written  about the Force coming down - even sometimes of its
filling all parts - so what is this "never" ?  I did not at  all  mean
that  there  is  a  mechanical  process  by  which every time there is
emptiness there comes an entire filling up. It depends on the stage of
the sadhana. The emptiness may come often or stay long before there is
any descent - what fills  may  be  silence  and  peace  and  Force  or
Knowledge  and  they  may fill only the mind or mind and heart or mind
and  heart  and  vital  or  all.  But  there  is  nothing  fixed   and
mechanically regular about these two processes.

                                 ***

Silence of the being is the first natural aim of the yoga.  X and some
others do not find satisfaction in It because they have  not  overcome
the vital mind which wants always some kind of activity, change, doing
something,  something to happen.  The eternal immobility of the silent
Brahman  is  a thing it does not relish.  So when emptiness comes,  it
finds it dull, inert, monotonous.

                                 ***

Certainly, the vital cannot take an interest in a blank condition.  If
you depend on your vital you cannot prolong it.  It is the spirit that
feels  a  release  in  the  silence  empty  of  all  mental  or  other
activities,  for  in  that  silence  it  becomes  self-aware.  For the
blankness to be real one must have got into  the  Purusha  or  Witness
Consciousness.  If you are looking at it with your mind or vital, then
there is not blankness,  for even if there are not  distinct  thoughts
then  there must be a mental attitude or mental vibrations - e.g.  the
not feeling interest.

                                 ***

There is no reason why the void should be a dull or unhappy condition.
It  is  usually the habit of the mind and vital to associate happiness
or interest only with activity, but the spiritual consciousness has no
such limitations.

                                 ***

I really  do  not know what kind of joy you want.  All experiences are
not accompanied by joy. Interest is another matter.

                                 ***

It is the tendency of the physical to substitute its own  inertia  for
the  emptiness.  The true emptiness is the beginning of what I call in
the Arya "™ama" - the rest,  calm, peace of the eternal Self-which has
finally   to  replace  tamas,  the  physical  inertia.  Tamas  is  the
degradation of ™ama,  as rajas is the degradation of Tapas, the Divine
Force.  The  physical consciousness is always trying to substitute its
own inertia for the calm,  peace or rest of  the  true  consciousness,
just  as  the  vital  is always trying to substitute its rajas for the
true action of the Force.

                                 ***

The physical does not get tired of the blankness.  It may feel tamasic
because of its own tendency to inertia, but it does not usually object
to voidness.  Of course it may be the vital physical. You have only to
reject it as a remnant of the old movements.

                                 ***

In the course of the sadhana a state of blankness,  of "neutral quiet"
like this often comes - especially when the sadhana is in the physical
consciousness. It is not that the aspiration is gone, but that it does
not manifest for the time being,  because  all  has  become  neutrally
quiet. This condition is trying for the human mind and vital which are
accustomed to be in some kind of activity always and regard this as  a
lifeless  state.  But one must not feel disturbed or disappointed when
this comes,  but remain calm in the full confidence that it is a stage
only,  a  ground  that  has to be crossed in the sadhana.  In whatever
condition,  the faith and the fixed idea of  surrender  must  be  kept
before the mind. As for the brief movements of restlessness, they will
still down if this is kept and  the  quiet  mind  and  vital  reassert
themselves quickly.

                                 ***

Blankness is  only  a  condition in which realisation has to come.  If
aspiration is needed for that,  it has to be used;  if the realisation
comes of itself, then of course aspiration is not necessary.

                                 ***

The "state" I was speaking of was not blankness but something else - I
see by reference to the passage in your letter that it was a "state in
which  aspiration  is not needed." Such a state is not blankness but a
condition in which the Mother's force is present to the  consciousness
and doing everything.

                                 ***

Every kind of realisation - infinite self,  cosmic consciousness,  the
Mother's Presence,  Light,  Force,  Ananda,  Knowledge, Sachchidananda
realisation,   the   different  layers  of  consciousness  up  to  the
supermind.  All these can come in the silence which remains but ceases
to be blank.

                                 ***

The silence  can  remain  when  the  blankness has gone.  All sorts of
things can pour in and yet the  silence  still  remains,  but  if  you
become full of force,  light,  Ananda,  knowledge etc, you cannot call
yourself blank any longer.

                                 ***

If it is  the  spiritual  emptiness  then  it  will  not  be  felt  as
interfering with the sadhana.

                                 ***

What you  describe  is the same neutral condition that you had before.
It is a transitional state in which the old consciousness  has  ceased
to be active, the new is preparing behind a neutral quietude. One must
take it quietly and wait for it to turn into the spiritual  peace  and
the  psychic  happiness  which  is  quite different from vital joy and
grief.  To have neither vital joy nor vital grief is considered by the
yogins  to be a very desirable release,  -it makes it possible to pass
from the ordinary human vital feelings to the true and constant  inner
peace,  joy  or  happiness.  I  suppose  you have no time just now for
sitting in meditation.  The pressure of sleep  is  a  pressure  to  go
inside and the habit of meditation makes it possible to turn the sleep
that comes into a kind ofsleep-samadhi in which one  is  conscious  of
various experiences and progresses in the inner being.

                                 ***

The condition  which  you  feel  is  one  which  is very well known in
sadhana.  It is a sort of passage or transition, a state of inwardness
which  is  growing  but  not  yet completed - at that time to speak or
throw oneself outward is painful.  What is necessary  is  to  be  very
quiet  and  remain  within  oneself all the time until the movement is
completed,  - one should not speak or only a little and in a low quiet
way  nor  concentrate the mind on outward things.  You should also not
mind what people say or  question,  -  although  they  are  practising
sadhana,  they  know nothing about these conditions and if one becomes
quiet or withdrawn they think one must be sad or ill.  The Mother  did
not  find  you at all like that,  sad or ill;  it is simply a phase or
temporary state in the sadhana that she has experience  of  and  knows
very well.
    The condition lasts often for a number of  days,  sometimes  many,
until something definite begins. Remain confident and quiet.

                                 ***

VII

                                 ***

The usual rule given by yogis is that one should not  speak  of  one's
experience  to  others  except of course the Guru while the sadhana is
going on because it wastes the experience,  there is  what  they  call
k˜aya of the tapasya. It is only long past experiences that they speak
of and even that not too freely.

                                 ***

The Light left you because you spoke of it to someone who was  not  an
adhik€ri.  It  is safest not to speak of these experiences except to a
Guru or to one who can help you.  The passing away of an experience as
soon  as  it  is spoken of is a frequent happening and for that reason
many yogis make it a rule never to speak of what happens within  them,
unless it is a thing of the past or a settled realisation that nothing
can take away.  A settled permanent realisation abides, but these were
rather   things   that  come  to  make  possible  an  opening  in  the
consciousness  to  something  more  complete  -  to  prepare  it   for
realisation.

                                 ***

I thought it was understood that what I wrote to you about persons was
private.  Experiences one's own or others' if one  comes  to  know  of
them,  should  not  be talked about or made a matter of gossip.  It is
only if there can be some spiritual profit to others and even then  if
they are experiences of the past that one can speak of them. Otherwise
it becomes like news of  Abyssinia  or  Spain,  something  common  and
trivial for the vital mass-mind to chew or gobble.

                                 ***

If you  want  to  keep the joy,  it will be wise not to speak of it to
others. Things spoken about get wings and try to escape.

                                 ***

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.

                                 ***

General knowledge is  another  matter,  it  is  intellectual  and  the
intellect  gains by the intellectual activity of teaching.  Also if in
yoga it were only a matter of imparting  intellectually  one's  mental
knowledge  of  the  subject,  that  rule would perhaps hold;  but this
mental aspect is only a small part of yoga.  There is  something  more
complex which forms the bigger part of it. In teaching yoga to another
one becomes to some extent a master with  disciples.  The  yogis  have
always  said  that  one  who  takes disciples,  takes upon himself the
difficulties of his disciples as well as one's own-that is why  it  is
recommended  not  to take disciples unless and until one is siddha and
even then only if one receives the Divine authority to do  it  -  what
Ramakrishna called getting the chapr€s.  Secondly, there is the danger
of egoism -when one is free from that,  then the objection  no  longer
holds.  There  is a separate question and that is the telling of one's
own experiences to others.  That too is very much discouraged by  most
yogis  - they say it is harmful to the sadhana.  I have certainly seen
and heard of any number of instances in which  people  were  having  a
flow  of  experiences and,  when they told it,  the flow was lost - so
there must be something in this objection. I suppose however it ceases
to apply after one has reached a certain long-established stability in
the experience,  that is to say  when  the  experience  amounts  to  a
definite and permanent realisation,  something finally and irrevocably
added to the  consciousness.  I  notice  that  those  who  keep  their
experiences to themselves and do not put themselves out on others seem
to have a more steady sadhana than others, but I don't know whether it
is an invariable rule.  It would probably not apply any longer after a
certain stage of realisation.

                                 ***

Section Two

                                 ***

Visions and Symbols

                                 ***

ALL visions have a significance of one kind or another.  This power of
vision  is  very  important  for  the  yoga and should not be rejected
although it is not the most important thing - for the  most  important
thing  is the change of the consciousness.  All other powers like this
of vision should be developed without attachment as parts and aids  of
the yoga.

                                 ***

Visions are  not  indispensable - they are a help,  that is all,  when
they are of the right kind.

                                 ***

Visions and voices have their place when they are the genuine  visions
and the true voices. Naturally, they are not the realisations but only
a step on the way and one has not to get shut up in them or  take  all
as of value.

                                 ***

The visions  you  describe are those which come in the earliest stages
of sadhana.  At this stage most of the things seen are  formations  of
the  mental  plane  and  it  is  not  always possible to put on them a
precise significance,  for they depend on the individual mind  of  the
sadhak. At a later stage the power of vision becomes important for the
sadhana,  but at first one has to go on  without  attaching  excessive
importance  to the details-until the consciousness develops more.  The
opening of the  consciousness  to  the  Divine  Light  and  Truth  and
Presence is always the one important thing in the yoga.

                                 ***

The frequent seeing of lights such as those he writes of in his letter
is usually a sign that the seer is not limited by his outward  surface
or  waking  consciousness  but  has  a  latent  capacity (which can be
perfected by training and practice) for entering into the  experiences
of  the inner consciousness of which most people are unaware but which
opens by the practice of yoga.  By this opening one becomes  aware  of
subtle  planes  of  experience  and worlds of existence other than the
material.  For the spiritual life a still further opening is  required
into  an  inmost  consciousness by which one becomes aware of the Self
and Spirit, the Eternal and the Divine.

                                 ***

Visions do not come from the spiritual plane  -  they  come  from  the
subtle physical, the vital, the mental, the psychic or from the planes
above the Mind. What comes from the spiritual plane are experiences of
the Divine,  e.g.  the experience of self everywhere, of the Divine in
all, etc.

                                 ***

Visions and experiences (especially experiences) are  all  right;  but
you  cannot expect every vision to translate itself in a corresponding
physical fact.  Some do,  the majority don't,  others  belong  to  the
supraphysical   entirely  and  indicate  realities,  possibilities  or
tendencies that have their seat there.  How far these  will  influence
the life or realise themselves in it or whether they will do so at all
depends upon the nature of the vision,  the power In It,  sometimes on
the will or the formative power of the seer.
    People value visions for one thing because they are one key (there
are others) to contact with the other worlds or with the inner  worlds
and  all  that  is there and these are regions of immense riches which
far surpass the physical plane as it is at present.  One enters into a
larger  freer  self  and  a  larger  more  plastic  world;  of  course
individual visions only give a contact,  not an actual  entrance,  but
the  power of vision accompanied with the power of other subtle senses
(hearing,  touch,  etc.) as it expands does give this entrance.  These
things  have  not  the  effect  of  a mere imagination (as a poet's or
artist's,  though that can be strong enough) but if fully followed out
bring  a  constant  growth  of the being and the consciousness and its
richness of experience and its scope.
    People also  value  the  power of vision for a greater reason than
that:  it can give a first contact with the Divine in  his  forms  and
powers;  it can be the opening of a communion with the Divine,  of the
hearing of the Voice that guides, of the Presence as well as the Image
in  the heart,  of many other things that bring what man seeks through
religion or yoga.
    Further, vision  is  of  value  because it is often a first key to
inner planes of  one's  own  being  and  one's  own  consciousness  as
distinguished  from  worlds  or  planes  of  the cosmic consciousness.
Yoga-experience often begins with some opening of the third eye in the
forehead  (the  centre  of  vision  in the brows) or with some kind of
beginning and extension of subtle seeing which may seem unimportant at
first  but is the vestibule to deeper experience.  Even when it is not
that,  - for one can go  to  experience  direct,  -  it  can  come  in
afterwards  as  a  powerful  aid  to  experience;  it  can  be full of
indications which help to self-knowledge or  knowledge  of  things  or
knowledge  of  people;  it  can  be  veridical  and lead to prevision,
premonition and other openings of less importance but very useful to a
yogi.  In  short,  vision  is a great instrument though not absolutely
indispensable.
    But, as I have suggested,  there are visions and visions,  just as
there are dreams and dreams, and one has to develop discrimination and
a  sense  of values and things and know how to understand and make use
of these powers.  But that is too big and intricate  a  matter  to  be
pursued now.

                                 ***

He made a mistake when he stopped the visions that were coming. Vision
and hallucination are not the same thing.  The inner vision is an open
door  on higher planes of consciousness beyond the physical mind which
gives room for a wider truth and experience to enter and act upon  the
mind.  It  is  not the only or the most important door,  but it is one
which comes readiest to very many if  not  most  and  can  be  a  very
powerful help.  It does not come as easily to intellectuals as it does
to men with a strong life-power or the emotional and the  imaginative,
it  is  true  that  the  field  of  vision,  like every other field of
activity of the human mind,  is a mixed world and there is in  it  not
only truth but much half-truth and error. It is also true that for the
rash and unwary to enter into it may bring  confusion  and  misleading
inspirations  and  false  voices,  and  it  is safer to have some sure
guidance  from  those  who  know  and  have  spiritual   and   psychic
experience.   One   must   look   at   this   field  calmly  and  with
discrimination,  but to shut  the  gates  and  reject  this  or  other
supraphysical  experiences  is  to  limit oneself and arrest the inner
development.

                                 ***

You take  a  very  utilitarian  view  of  spiritual  things.  Whatever
develops in the sadhana,  provided it is genuine, has its place in the
total experience and knowledge.  A knowledge of the occult worlds  and
occult forces and phenomena has its place also. Visions and voices are
only a small part of that vast realm  of  occult  experience.  As  for
utility, for one who has intelligence and discrimination, visions etc,
have  many  uses  -  but  very  little  use  for  those  who  have  no
discrimination or understanding.

                                 ***

I do not know what you mean by practical sadhana.  If one develops the
occult faculty and the occult experience and knowledge,  these  things
can  be  of great use,  therefore practical.  In themselves they are a
part of opening of the inner consciousness and also help  to  open  it
further-though they are not indispensable for that.

                                 ***

What do you mean by progress? The Mother spent many years entering the
occult worlds and learning all that was to be learnt there.  All  that
time she was making no progress?  She sees things always when she goes
into trance.  Her capacity is a thing of no  value?  Because  a  great
number  of people don't know how to use their faculties or misuse them
or give them excessive value or nourish their ego  by  them,  does  it
follow that the faculties themselves have no yogic use or value?

                                 ***

Even by  itself  it  [the  development  of  the  occult  faculty] is a
progress in the development of the consciousness  though  it  may  not
carry with it any spiritualisation of the nature.

                                 ***

People who  have  the  occult  faculty always tend to give too large a
place to it.

                                 ***

He [R.M.] discouraged his disciples [from having any dealings with the
occult  faculty] because his aim was the realisation of the inner Self
and the intuition - in other  words  the  fullness  of  the  spiritual
Mind-visions and voices belong to the inner occult sense, therefore he
did not want them to lay stress on it.  I also  discourage  some  from
having any dealing with visions and voices because I see that they are
being misled by false visions and false voices.  That  does  not  mean
that visions and voices have no value.

                                 ***

Visions come  from  all  planes  and  are  of  all kinds and different
values. Some are of very great value and importance, others are a play
of  the mind or vital and are good only for their own special purpose,
others are formations of the mind and vital plane some  of  which  may
have  truth,  while others are false and misleading,  or they may be a
sort of artistry of that plane.  They can have considerable importance
in the development of the first yogic consciousness, that of the inner
mind,  inner vital,  inner physical or for an occult understanding  of
the universe.  Visions which are real can help the spiritual progress,
I mean,  those which show us inner realities:  one can,  for instance,
meet  Krishna,  speak  with  him and hear his voice in an inner "real"
vision,  quite as real as anything on the outer plane.  Merely  seeing
his  image is not the same thing,  any more than seeing his picture on
the wall is the same thing as meeting him in person.  But the  picture
on  the  wall need not be useless for the spiritual life.  All one can
say is that one must not attach oneself too much to this gift and what
it  shows us,  but neither is it necessary to belittle it.  It has its
value and sometimes a considerable spiritual utility.  But, naturally,
it is not supreme - the supreme thing is the realisation, the contact,
the union with the Divine, bhakti, change of nature, etc.

                                 ***

These lights and visions are  not  hallucinations.  They  indicate  an
opening  of  the  inner vision whose centre is in the forehead between
the eyebrows.  Lights are very often  the  first  thing  seen.  Lights
indicate  the  action  or  movement  of subtle forces belonging to the
different planes of being-the nature of the  force  depending  on  the
colour and shade of the light.  The sun is the symbol and power of the
inner or higher Truth; to see it in meditation is a good sign. The sea
is also often symbolic, indicating usually the vital nature, sometimes
the expanse of consciousness in movement.  The opening of vision  must
be  allowed  to develop,  but too much importance need not be given to
the individual visions unless or until they become evidently  symbolic
or significant or shed light on things in the sadhana.

                                 ***

Visions and  voices  are  not  meant  for  creating  faith,  they  are
effective only if one has faith already.

                                 ***

No, it was neither optical illusion nor hallucination nor  coincidence
nor  auto-suggestion  nor  any  of  the  other  ponderous  and  vacant
polysyllables by which physical  science  tries  to  explain  away  or
rather  avoid  explaining  the  scientifically inexplicable.  In these
matters the scientist is always doing what he is  always  blaming  the
layman  for  doing  when  the latter lays down the law on things about
which he is profoundly ignorant without investigation  or  experiment,
without  ascertained knowledge-simply by evolving a theory or a priori
idea out of his  own  mind  and  plastering  it  as  a  label  on  the
unexplained phenomena.
    There is,  as I have told you, a whole range or many inexhaustible
ranges  of sensory phenomena other than the outward physical which one
can become conscious of,  see,  hear,  feel,  smell,  touch,  mentally
contact  -to  use  the new established Americanism-either in trance or
sleep or an inward state miscalled sleep or simply and easily  in  the
waking state.  This faculty of sensing supraphysical things internally
or externalising them,  so to speak,  so  that  they  become  visible,
audible,  sensible to the outward eye,  ear,  even touch,  just as are
gross physical objects,  this power or gift  is  not  a  freak  or  an
abnormality;  it  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 or normally active in a few. But
just as anyone can,  with some training,  learn science and do  things
which would have seemed miracles to his forefathers, so almost anyone,
if he wants,  can with a little concentration and training develop the
faculty of supraphysical vision.  When one starts yoga,  this power is
often, though not invariably - for some find it difficult - one of the
first to come out from its latent condition and manifest itself,  most
often without any effort,  intention or previous knowledge on the part
of  the sadhak.  It comes more easily with the eyes shut than with the
eyes open,  but it does come in both  ways.  The  first  sign  of  its
opening  in  the  externalised  way  is  very  often  that  seeing  of
"sparkles" or small luminous dots,  shapes, etc., which was your first
introduction to the matter;  a second is,  often enough,  most easily,
round luminous objects like a star;  seeing  of  colours  is  a  third
initial  experience  - but they do not always come in that order.  The
yogis in India very often in order to develop the power use the method
of  tr€’ak,  concentrating  the  vision  on a single point or object -
preferably a luminous object.  Your looking at the star was  precisely
an exercise in tr€’ak and had the effect which any yogi in India would
have told you is normal.  For all this is not fancy or delusion, it is
part  of  an  occult  science  which has been practised throughout the
historic and prehistoric ages in all countries and it has always  been
known  to  be  not  merely  auto-suggestive  or  hallucinatory  in its
results,  but,  if one can get the key, veridical and verifiable. Your
scepticism may be natural in a "modern" man plunging into these things
of the past,  present and future-natural but not justifiable,  because
very  obviously  inadequate  to the facts observed;  but once you have
seen,  the first thing you should  do  is  to  throw  all  this  vapid
pseudo-science  behind  you,  this  vain  attempt  to  stick  physical
explanations on supraphysical  things,  and  take  the  only  rational
course.  Develop the power,  get more and more experience, develop the
consciousness  by  which  these  things  come;  as  the  consciousness
develops,  you  will  begin to understand and get the intuition of the
significance.  Or if you want their science too,  then learn and apply
the  occult science which can alone deal with supraphysical phenomena.
As for what showed itself to you,  it was not mere curious  phenomena,
not  even merely symbolic colour,  but things that have a considerable
importance.
    Develop this  power  of  inner  sense  and all that it brings you.
These first seeings are only an outer fringe -behind lie whole  worlds
of  experience  which fill what seems to the natural man the gap (your
Russell's inner void) between the earth-consciousness and the  Eternal
and Infinite.

                                 ***

There is   a  physical  aspect  of  things  and  there  is  an  occult
supraphysical aspect - one need not get in the way of the  other.  All
physical things are the expression of the supraphysical. The existence
of a body with physical instruments and processes  does  not,  as  the
19th  century wrongly imagined,  disprove the existent of a soul which
uses the body even if it is also conditioned by it.  Laws of Nature do
not  disprove  the  existence of God.  The fact of a material world to
which our instruments are accorded does not disprove the existence  of
less material worlds which certain subtler instruments can show to us.

                                 ***

Is the  Presence of a physical nature or a spiritual fact?  And is the
physical sense accustomed or able to see or feel spiritual  things  -a
spiritual Presence, a non-material Form? To see the Brahman everywhere
is not possible unless you develop the inner vision - to do  that  you
have to concentrate. To see nonmaterial forms is indeed possible for a
few,  because they have the gift by  nature,  but  most  can't  do  it
without developing the subtle sight. It is absurd to expect the Divine
to manifest his Presence without your taking any trouble  to  see  it,
you have to concentrate.
    It simply means you have a subjective sense of Presence.  But must
a subjective sense of things be necessarily a vain imagination? If so,
no yoga is possible.  One has to take it as an axiom  that  subjective
things  can be as real as objective things.  No doubt there may be and
are such things as mental  formations  -but,  to  begin  with,  mental
formations  are  or  can  be very powerful things,  producing concrete
results; secondly whether what one sees or hears is a mental formation
or  a  real  subjective  object  can  only  be determined when one has
sufficient experience in these inward things.

                                 ***

Subjective visions  can  be  as  real  as  objective  sight - the only
difference is that one is of real things in material space,  while the
others are of real things belonging to other planes down to the subtle
physical; even symbolic visions are real in so far as they are symbols
of  realities.  Even  dreams  can have a reality in the subtle domain.
Visions are unreal only  when  these  are  merely  imaginative  mental
formations,  not  representing anything that is true or was true or is
going to be true.
    This power of vision is sometimes inborn and habitual even without
any effort of development, sometimes it wakes up of itself and becomes
abundant or needs only  a  little  practice  to  develop;  it  is  not
necessarily  a  sign  of  spiritual  attainment,  but  usually when by
practice of yoga one begins to go inside or live within,  the power of
subtle  vision  awakes to a greater or less extent;  but this does not
always happen easily,  especially if one has been habituated  to  live
much in the intellect or in an outward vital consciousness.
    I suppose  what  you   are   thinking   of   is   "darshan",   the
selfrevelation of the Deity to the devotee;  but that is different, it
is an unveiling of his presence,  temporary or permanent, and may come
as  a  vision  or may come as a close feeling of his presence which is
more intimate than sight and a frequent or constant communication with
him;  that  happens  by deepening of the being into its inner self and
growth of consciousness or by growth of the intensity of bhakti.  When
the  crust  of  external  consciousness  is sufficiently broken by the
pressure of increasing and engrossing bhakti, the contact comes.

                                 ***

The visions he has between the eyebrows are not  imaginations  -  they
could be so only if he thought them first and his thoughts took shape,
but as they came independent of his  thoughts,  they  are  not  visual
imagination  but  vision.  This faculty is a useful one in yoga and it
can be allowed to develop; it should not be discouraged. I do not know
what  he  means  by  not having ™raddh€ in them.  What he sees now are
probably only images of subtle (s“k˜ma) scenes and objects;  but, when
developed, this can become a power of symbolic, representative or real
vision,  showing the truths of things or realities of  this  or  other
worlds  or  representations  of the past,  present or future.
    If the concentration goes naturally  to  the  centre  between  the
eyebrows  which is the centre of inner mind and its thought,  will and
vision,  there is no harm in that.
    There is  no  utility  in his coming here now.  He has first to go
through the process of purification and preparation of the nature  and
at  least  an  initial development of the positive yogic consciousness
without which his coming here would be useless.

                                 ***

What was  developed in you is a power of true inner vision - this will
help you to enter through it into touch with the Divine; you have only
to  let  it develop.  Two other things have to develop -the feeling of
the Divine Presence and power and inspiration behind your actions, and
the  inner  contact with myself and the Mother.  Aspire with faith and
sincerity and these will come.  I do not wish to give any more precise
instructions  until  I  see what happens in you during your stay here;
for although the path is common to all,  each man has his own  way  of
following it.

                                 ***

II

                                 ***

When you see Light,  that is vision; when you feel Light entering into
you,  that is  experience;  when  Light  settles  in  you  and  brings
illumination  and  knowledge,  that  is a realisation.  But ordinarily
visions are also called experiences.

                                 ***

Usually the visions precede realisation, in a way they prepare it.

                                 ***

The vision of the higher planes or the idea of what they  are  can  be
had  long  before the transformation.  If that were not possible,  how
could the transformation take place - the lower nature  cannot  change
by itself,  it changes by the growing vision,  perception,  descent of
the higher consciousness belonging to the higher planes? It is through
aspiration,  through  an  increasing  opening  that  these visions and
perceptions begin to come - the realisation comes afterwards.

                                 ***

Yes, it [the higher consciousness] can come down into the  mind  plane
bringing peace, wideness, the cosmic consciousness, the realisation of
the Divine,  the sense of the cosmic forces and other things - without
any  breaking of the veil through vision.  Ordinarily,  however,  with
most people the inner vision comes first.

                                 ***

I said the realisation of the Divine in the mind.  If there is  to  be
the total realisation, the breaking of the veil is indispensable.

                                 ***

Sometimes a  vision  accompanies  an  experience  and  is as it were a
visual rendering of it or accompaniment  to  it,  but  the  experience
itself is a separate thing.

                                 ***

That does not follow.  By going deep a person may see visions, another
may fall in deeper consciousness and see no  vision  and  so  on.  The
result varies with the nature.

                                 ***

III

                                 ***

Inner vision is vivid like actual sight, always precise and contains a
truth in it.  In mental vision the images are invented by the mind and
are  partly true,  partly a play of possibilities.  Or a mental vision
like the vital may be only a suggestion, - that is a formation of some
possibility  on the mental or vital plane which presents itself to the
sadhak in the hope of being accepted and helped to realise itself.

                                 ***

The mental visions are meant to bring in the mind the influence of the
things they represent.

                                 ***

Cosmic vision  is  the  seeing  of  the  universal  movements - it has
nothing to do with the psychic necessarily. It can be in the universal
mind,  the universal vital,  the universal physical or anywhere.
    What do  you  mean here by psychic vision?  Inner vision means the
vision with the inner seeing as opposed to outer vision,  the external
sight  with  the  surface  mind in the surface eyes.  Psychic,  in the
language of this yoga, is confined to the soul, the psychic being - it
is  not  as in the ordinary language in which if you see a ghost it is
called a "psychic vision";  we speak of the inner vision or the subtle
sight-not the psychic vision.

                                 ***

Vision in trance is vision no less than vision in the waking state. It
is  only the condition of the recipient consciousness that varies - in
one the waking consciousness shares in the vision,  in the other it is
excluded  for  the  sake  of  greater  facility and range in the inner
experience. But in both it is the inner vision that sees.

                                 ***

The inner vision can see objects, but it can see instead the vibration
of the forces which act through the object.

                                 ***

Visions are  of  all kinds - some are merely suggestions of what wants
to be or is trying to be,  some indicate some approach of the thing or
movement towards it, some indicate that the thing is being done.

                                 ***

Nothing has to be done to develop the images seen in the vision.  They
develop of themselves by the growing practice of seeing,  -  what  was
faint becomes clear,  what was incomplete becomes complete. One cannot
say in a general way that they are real or unreal. Some are formations
of  the  mind,  some  are images that come to the sight of themselves,
some are images of real things that show themselves  directly  to  the
sight - others are true pictures, not merely images.

                                 ***

This realm  (whose  centre  is  between  the eyebrows) is the realm of
inner thought, will, vision - the motor-car indicates a rapid progress
in this part of the consciousness.  The motor-car is a symbolic image,
these images do not refer to anything  physical.
    These things take place in the  inner  mind  or  inner  vital  and
usually there is a truth behind them,  but the form in which they come
into the mind may be imperfect - i.e. the meaning may be something not
perfectly revealed in the words.

                                 ***

These are not mental images.  There is an inner vision that opens when
one does sadhana and all sorts of images rise before it or pass. Their
coming does not depend upon your thought  or  will;  it  is  real  and
automatic.  Just  as  your  physical  eyes  see things in the physical
world,  so the inner eyes see things and images  that  belong  to  the
other worlds and subtle images of things of this physical world also.

                                 ***

Things inside  can  be seen as distinctly as outward things whether in
an image by the subtle vision or in their  essence  by  a  still  more
subtle  and  powerful  way  of  seeing;  but  all these things have to
develop in order to get their full power and intensity.

                                 ***

Subtle images can be images of all things in all worlds.

                                 ***

Everything not physical is seen by an inner vision.

                                 ***

The seeing of colours is the beginning of inner vision, what is called
s“k˜mad�˜’i.  Afterwards  this  vision  opens  and  one  begins to see
figures and scenes and people.  It is good that the seeing began  with
an image of the Mother.

                                 ***

When the  inner  vision opens,  there can come before it all that ever
was or is now in the world,  even it can open to things that  will  be
hereafter  - so there is nothing impossible in seeing thus the figures
and the things of the past.

                                 ***

When one tries to meditate,  the first obstacle in  the  beginning  is
sleep.  When  you  get over this obstacle,  there comes a condition in
which,  with the eyes closed,  you begin to see things, people, scenes
of  all  kinds.  This is not a bad thing,  it is a good sign and means
that you are making progress in the yoga.  There is, besides the outer
physical sight which sees external objects, an inner sight in us which
can see things yet unseen and unknown,  things at a  distance,  things
belonging to another place or time or to other worlds; it is the inner
sight which is opening in you. It is the working of the Mother's force
which  is  opening  it  in  you,  and  you  should not try to stop it.
Remember the Mother always,  call  on  her  and  aspire  to  feel  her
presence and her power working in you;  but you do not need, for that,
to reject this or other developments that  may  come  in  you  by  her
working hereafter.  It is only desire,  egoism, restlessness and other
wrong movements that have to be rejected.

                                 ***

This gazing on a flame or a bright spot is the traditional means  used
by yogis for concentration or for awakening of the inner consciousness
and vision. You seem to have gone by the gazing into a kind of surface
(not deep) trance, which is indeed one of its first results, and begun
to see things probably on the vital plane. I do not know what were the
"dreadful  objects"  you saw but that dreadfulness is the character of
many things first seen on that plane,  especially  when  crossing  its
threshold by such means.  You should not employ these means,  I think,
for they are quite unnecessary and besides, they may lead to a passive
concentration  in  which one is open to all sorts of things and cannot
choose the right ones.

                                 ***

I did not quite understand from your letter  what  is  the  nature  of
these  sights and objects that pass like a cinema film before you.  If
they are things seen by the inner vision,  then there is  no  need  to
drive them away - one has only to let them pass. When one does sadhana
an inner mind which is within us awakes and sees by  an  inner  vision
images  of  all  things in this world and other worlds - this power of
vision has its use,  though one has not to be attached to it;  one can
let  them  pass with a quiet mind,  neither fixing on them nor driving
them away.  It is the thoughts of the  outer  mind  that  have  to  be
refused, the suggestions and ideas that end by disturbing the sadhana.
There are also a  number  of  thoughts  of  all  kinds  that  have  no
interest,  but  which  the  mind  was accustomed to allow to come as a
habit,  mechanically,  - these sometimes come up when one tries to  be
quiet.  They  must  be  allowed to pass away without attending to them
until they run down and the mind becomes still,  to struggle with them
and try to stop them is no use,  there must be only a quiet rejection.
On the other hand if thoughts come up from within,  from the  psychic,
thoughts of the Mother,  of divine love and joy,  perceptions of truth
etc.,  these of course must be permitted,  as they help  to  make  the
psychic active.

                                 ***

Dreams or visions on the vital plane are usually either:
    (I) symbolic  vital visions;
    (2) actual occurrences on the vital plane;
    (3) formations  of  the  vital  mind,  either of the dreamer or of
someone else with whom he contacts in sleep or of powers or beings  of
that  plane.  No great reliance can be put on this kind of experience,
even the first having only a relative or suggestive value,  while  the
second and third are often quite misleading.

                                 ***

These are visions of the vital world and the vital planes and one sees
hundreds of them there.... All the parts of the consciousness are like
fields  into which forces from the same planes of consciousness in the
universal Nature are constantly entering or passing. The best thing is
to  observe  without  getting  affected  in  either  way  and  without
attaching too much importancefor these are minor experiences and one's
own concentration must call the major ones.

                                 ***

As you were concentrating your attention on the electric light, it may
have been the god of electricity you saw,  Vaidyuta Agni.  There is no
reason  why  he  should have many faces - the manyheaded or many-armed
figures belong usually to the vital plane - and it may not  have  been
in his vital form that he was manifesting. As for the colours, colours
are symbols of forces and Agni need not be pure red - the principle of
Fire  can  manifest  all  the  colours and the pure white fire is that
which contains in itself all the colours.

                                 ***

The gods in the overmental plane have not many heads and arms  -  this
is a vital symbolism, it is not necessary in other planes. This figure
may have belonged to the subtle physical plane.

                                 ***

The world you see is in some subtle physical plane where men  see  the
gods according to their own idea and images of them.

                                 ***

It is  the  vital  plane  - probably the vital physical.  It is mostly
there that the beings of the vital world appear with animal  heads  or
features.  A  human  figure  with a dog's face means a very coarse and
material  sexual  energy.  Of  course,  all  such  energies   can   be
transformed  and  cease to be sexual -turned into material strength of
some kind, just as the seminal force can be turned by brahmacarya into
ojas.

                                 ***

It depends  on  the nature of the symbolic vision whether it is merely
representative, presenting to the inner vision and nature (even though
the  outer  mind has not the understanding,  the inner can receive its
effect) the thing symbolised in its figure or whether it  is  dynamic.
The Sun symbol,  for instance,  is usually dynamic.  Again,  among the
dynamic symbols some may bring  simply  the  influence  of  the  thing
symbolised,  some  indicate  what  is being done but not yet finished,
some a formative experience that  visits  the  consciousness,  some  a
prophecy  of  something  that  may or will or is soon about to happen.
There are others that are not merely symbols but  present  actualities
seen by the vision in a svmbolic figure.

                                 ***

When the colours begin to take definite shapes in the visions, it is a
sign of some dynamic work of formation in the consciousness: a square,
for  instance,  means that some kind of creation is in process in some
field of the being;  the square indicates that the creation is  to  be
complete  in  itself;  while the rectangle indicates something partial
and preliminary. The waves of colour mean a dynamic rush of forces and
the star in such a context indicates the promise of the new being that
is to be formed. The blue colour must here be the Krishna light, so it
is a creation under the stress of Krishna consciousness. All these are
symbols of what is going on in the inner being,  in the  consciousness
behind  and  the  results well up from time to time in the external or
surface consciousness in such feeling as the awareness of a  softening
and opening which you had, devotion, joy, peace, Ananda, etc. When the
opening is complete, there is likely to be a more direct consciousness
of  the  working that is going on behind,  till it is no longer behind
but in the front of the nature.

                                 ***

When you see a square, that is a symbol of complete creation; when you
see a buffalo rushing upon you and missing and feel you have escaped a
great danger,  that is a transcription. Something actually happened of
which  the  buffalo's ineffectual rush was your mind's transcription -
the rush of some hostile force represented by the buffalo.

                                 ***

All that can be seen with closed eyes can be seen with open eyes also;
it  is  sufficient  that  the  inner sight should extend to the subtle
physical consciousness for that to happen.

                                 ***


    1. The vision was seen through the physical eyes but by the subtle
physical consciousness; in other words, there was an imposition of one
consciousness upon another. After a certain stage of development, this
capacity of living in the  ordinary  physical  consciousness  and  yet
having  superadded  to  it  another  and  more  subtle sense,  vision,
experience becomes quite normal.  A little concentration is enough  to
bring   it;   or,   even,   it   happens   automatically  without  any
concentration.
    As the flower was a subtle physical object,  not entirely material
in the ordinary sense  of  the  word  (though  quite  substantial  and
material in its own plane,  not an illusion),  a camera,  would not be
able to detect it - except in  the  case  of  one  of  those  abnormal
interventions by which a subtle form has been thrown upon the material
plate.
    It could  be sensed in a dark room,  though not so easily,  and it
would not then have so vivid an appearance - unless you  are  able  to
bring  out  something  of  the  light  of the subtle physical plane to
surround it and give it its natural medium.
    If seen  with  the  eyes  shut,  it  would  be  no longer a subtle
physical form,  but an object or formation of  the  vital,  mental  or
other plane - unless,  indeed, the inner consciousness had proggreased
so far as to be able to project itself into the physical  planes;  but
this is a rare and,  in most cases, a late development.
    2. It is not,  usually,  the  object  that  vanishes,  it  is  the
consciousness  that  changes.  Owing  to lack of sustained capacity or
lack of training,  one is not able to keep the subtle physical  vision
which  is  what  was  really  seeing the object.  This subtle physical
vision  comes  easiest  in  the  moment  between   light   sleep   and
waking-either when one just comes out of the sleep or when one is just
going into it.  But one can train oneself to have it when one is quite
wide  awake.
    At first when one begins to see,  it is quite usual for  the  more
ill-defined and imprecise figures to last longer while those which are
successful,  complete,  precise in detail and outline are  apt  to  be
quite  momentary  and  disappear  in  an instant.  It is only when the
subtle vision is well developed that the precise and full seeing lasts
for  a long time.  This results from the difficulty of keeping what is
still an abnormal consciousness and  also,  in  this  case,  from  the
difficulty of keeping the two momentarily superimposed consciousnesses
together.
    3. There are all kinds in the experiences of each plane - symbolic
forms,  figures of suggestion,  thought-figures,  desireformations  or
will-formations,  constructions of all kinds,  things real and lasting
in  the  plane  to  which  they  belong  and  things  fictitious   and
misleading.  The  haphazardness belongs to the consciousness that sees
with its limited and imperfect way of cognizing the other worlds,  not
to the phenomena themselves. Each plane is a world or a conglomeration
or series of worlds, each organized in its own way, but organized, not
haphazard;  only,  of course,  the subtler planes are more plastic and
less rigid in their organisation than the material plane.

                                 ***

The power of occult seeing is there in everyone,  mostly latent, often
near the surface  sometimes  but  much  more  rarely  already  on  the
surface.  If  one  practises tr€’ak,  it is pretty certain to come out
sooner or later,  - though some have a difficulty  and  with  them  it
takes  time;  those in whom it comes out at once have had all the time
this power of occult vision near the surface and  it  emerges  at  the
first  direct  pressure.
    The rays which you saw the trees giving out are there always, only
they are veiled to the ordinary material vision.  I said the blue  and
gold   together   indicated  the  combined  presence  of  Krishna  and
Durga-Mahakali;  but gold and  yellow  have  different  significances.
Yellow  in  the  indication  of  forces  signifies  the thinking mind,
buddhi,  and the pink (modified here into  a  light  vermilion)  is  a
psychic  colour;  the  combination  probably  meant the psychic in the
mental.
    In interpreting these phenomena you must remember that all depends
on the order of things which the colours indicate  in  any  particular
case.  There  is  an  order  of  significances  in which they indicate
various psychological dynamisms,  e.g.,  faith, love, protection, etc.
There  is  another  order  of significances in which they indicate the
aura or the activity of divine beings,  Krishna,  Mahakali,  Radha  or
else  of  other  superhuman  beings;  there  is  another in which they
indicate the aura around objects or living persons - and that does not
exhaust the list of possibilities.  A certain knowledge,  experiences,
growing intuition are necessary to perceive  in  each  case  the  true
significance.   Observation   and  exact  description  are  also  very
necessary;  for sometimes people say,  for instance,  yellow when they
mean gold or vice versa, there are besides different possible meanings
for different shades of the same colour. Again, if you see colour near
or round a person or by looking at him or her, it does not necessarily
indicate that person's aura;  it may be something  else  near  him  or
around him. In some cases it may have nothing to do with the person or
object you look at, which may serve merely the purpose of a background
or  a point of concentration - as when you see colours on a wall or by
looking at a bright object.

                                 ***

The seeing of the body (at least one's own) in its internal parts is a
yogic power developed by the Raja and Hathayogins - I suppose it could
be  extended to the body of others.  There is also the sense of subtle
smells and I have noticed that sometimes one smell persists.

                                 ***

IV

                                 ***

The sounds of bells and the seeing of lights and colours are signs  of
the opening of the inner consciousness which brings with it an opening
also to sights and sounds of other planes than the physical.  Some  of
these things like the sound of bells, crickets, etc, seem even to help
the opening.  The Upanishad speaks of them as brahmavyaktikar€�i yoge.

    The lights  represent  forces  -  or sometimes a formed light like
that you saw may be the light of a being of the supraphysical planes.

                                 ***

The sounds or voices you hear are like the sights  (persons,  objects)
you see.  As there is an inner sight other than the physical, so there
is an inner hearing other than that of the external ear,  and  it  can
listen to voices and sounds and words of other worlds, other times and
places,  or those which come from supraphysical beings.  But here  you
must  be careful.  If conflicting voices try to tell you what to do or
not to do,  you should not listen to them or reply.  It is only myself
and  the  Mother  who can tell you what you should or should not do or
guide or advise you.

                                 ***

When the inner senses open,  or any of them,  one sees or hears things
belonging to the other planes automatically. What one sees or hears of
the other planes depends on the development of  the  inner  sense.  It
depends  on  what  you  hear  whether these are the symbol sounds only
which have a connection with the sadhana or simply other plane  sounds
of an ordinary character.

                                 ***

It depends  on the nature of the sounds.  Some have a connection [with
sadhana], others are merely the sounds of the other planes.

                                 ***

They [subtle sounds connected with sadhana] are the signs of a working
going  on  to  prepare  something  - but as that is a general thing it
cannot be said from the sounds themselves what the preparation is.

                                 ***

An inner voice is a voice only -it may give the direction, but not the
force.  A voice speaks,  it does not act.  There is a great difference
between reading a book and receiving the inner direction.

                                 ***

It [subtle smells and tastes] is not an opening  of  occult  knowledge
and powers, but simply an opening of the inner consciousness.

                                 ***

The [subtle]  smell  [coming from a person] is due to something in the
person's vital-physical.  That something may not be prominent  at  all
times.  When it is,  the smell is there.
    ... the something may be of different kinds in different cases and
one  cannot  give  a rule that it is this or it is that.  What has the
dirtiest smell is sex.

                                 ***

V

                                 ***

A symbol, as I understand it, is the form on one plane that represents
a truth of another.  For instance, a flag is the symbol of a nation...
But generally all forms are symbols.  This body of ours is a symbol of
our real being and everything is a  symbol  of  some  higher  reality.
There  are,  however,  different  kinds of symbols:
    1. Conventional  symbols,  such  as  the  Vedic Rishis formed with
objects taken from their surroundings. The cow stood for light because
the  same  word  "go" meant both ray and cow,  and because the cow was
their most precious possession which maintained  their  life  and  was
constantly in danger of being robbed and concealed.  But once created,
such a symbol becomes alive.  The Rishis vitalised it and it became  a
part of their realisation. It appeared in their visions as an image of
spiritual light.  The horse also was one of their  favourite  symbols,
and a more easily adaptable one, since its force and energy were quite
evident.
    2. What  we might call Life-symbols,  such as are not artificially
chosen or mentally interpreted in  a  conscious  deliberate  way,  but
derive  naturally  from  our  day-to-day  life  and  grow  out  of the
surroundings which  condition  our  normal  path  of  living.  To  the
ancients  the  mountain was a symbol of the path of yoga,  level above
level, peak upon peak. A journey, involving the crossing of rivers and
the  facing  of  lurking  enemies,  both animal and human,  conveyed a
similar idea.  Nowadays I dare say we would liken yoga to a motor-ride
or a railway-trip.
    3. Symbols that have an inherent appositeness and power  of  their
own. Akasha or etheric space is a symbol of the infinite all-pervading
eternal Brahman.  In any nationality it would convey the same meaning.
Also, the Sun stands universally for the supramental Light, the divine
Gnosis.
    4. Mental  symbols,  instances  of which are numbers or alphabets.
Once they are accepted, they too become active and may be useful. Thus
geometrical figures have been variously interpreted.  In my experience
the square symbolises the supermind.  I cannot say how it came  to  do
so.  Somebody  or  some  force  may have built it before it came to my
mind.  Of the triangle,  too, there are different explanations. In one
position  it  can  symbolise  the  three lower planes,  in another the
symbol is of the three higher ones:  so both can be combined  together
in   a   single  sign.  The  ancients  liked  to  indulge  in  similar
speculations concerning numbers, but their systems were mostly mental.
It  is  no  doubt  true  that  supramental  realities  exist  which we
translate into mental formulas such as Karma,  Psychic evolution, etc.
But they are,  so to speak, infinite realities which cannot be limited
by these symbolic forms,  though they may  be  somewhat  expressed  by
them;  they might be expressed as well by other symbols,  and the same
symbol may also express many different ideas.

                                 ***

In one form or another all these ideas have existed in the  past.  The
significance  of numbers was one of the chief elements in the teaching
of Pythagoras 5 centuries before Christ.

                                 ***

Fire, lights, sun, moon are usual symbols and seen by most in sadhana.
They  indicate  movement or action of inner forces.  The Sun means the
inner truth.

                                 ***

One sometimes sees the Light in masses,  sometimes in forms - and  the
most common forms are sun, moon, star or fire.

                                 ***

The light, colours, flowers are always seen when there is a working of
the forces within at a certain stage of  the  sadhana.  The  light  of
course indicates an illumination of the consciousness,  the colour the
play of forces mental (yellow),  physical and vital, but forces making
for  enlightenment  of  these parts of the being.  The flowers usually
indicate a psychic activity.

                                 ***

It is not necessary to have the mind quiet in order to see the  lights
-  that depends only on the opening of the subtle vision in the centre
which is in the forehead between the eyebrows. Many people get that as
soon  as  they  start sadhana.  It can even be developed by effort and
concentration without sadhana by some who have it to a small extent as
an  inborn  faculty.  The  quietude  of  the  mind is needed for other
things, such as the feeling of the presence of the Mother etc.

                                 ***

A concentrated mind is not always necessary for seeing the light -  if
there is an opening anywhere in the consciousness, that is sufficient.

                                 ***

The light outside means a touch or influence of the force indicated by
the light (golden is Truth-light,  blue some spiritual force from  the
upper plane) while the light within means that it has penetrated or is
established or frequently active in the  nature  itself.  Light  above
means  a  force  descending  upon  the  mind,  light  around a general
enveloping influence.

                                 ***

A glow means a  subdued  but  rich  light  or  else  a  sort  of  warm
exhilaration of a luminous kind.

                                 ***

The Light  is  often  seen in front before the centre of inner vision,
mind and will which is between the eyebrows in the forehead.  The  sun
means  the  formed Light of the Divine Truth,  the starry light is the
same Light acting as a suffused Power on  the  ordinary  consciousness
which  is  seen as the night of Ignorance.  The call brought the Light
streaming down into the inner being.

                                 ***

The sun is the symbol of the concentrated light of Truth.

                                 ***

The Sun is the Truth from above,  in the last resort  the  supramental
Truth.

                                 ***

Supermind is  not  mind  at  all,  it is something different.  The Sun
indicates Truth directly perceived in whatever plane it maybe.  It  is
the  symbol  of  supermind  but the Truth may come down into the other
planes and then that is no longer  supramental  but  modified  to  the
substance of the other planes - still it is the direct Light of Truth.

                                 ***

There are  different  suns  in  the different planes each with its own
colour.  But there are also suns of a similar colour above,  only more
bright, from which these minor suns derive their light and power.

                                 ***

The red sun is a symbol of the true,  illumined physical consciousness
which is to replace the obscure and ignorant physical consciousness in
which men now live. Red is the colour of the physical; the red diamond
is the Mother's consciousness in the physical.

                                 ***

The moon indicates spirituality, sometimes also spiritual Ananda.

                                 ***

The moon as a symbol in vision signifies usually spirituality  in  the
mind or, simply, the spiritual consciousness. It can also indicate the
flow of spiritual Ananda (nectar is in the moon according to  the  old
tradition).

                                 ***

It [the spiritual Mind symbollsed by the moon] is Mind in contact with
truths of the spirit and reflecting them.  The Sun is the light of the
Truth,  the  Moon  only  reflects the light of the Truth - that is the
difference.

                                 ***

Golden light means the light of the higher Truth -  the  moon  is  the
symbol  of  spirituality.  A golden moon means a power of spirituality
full of the light of higher Truth.

                                 ***

The star signifies a creation or formation or the promise or power  of
a creation or formation.

                                 ***

The star  is  always a promise of the Light to come;  the star changes
into a sun when there is the descent of the Light.

                                 ***

Stars indicate points of light in the ignorant  mental  consciousness.

    Moon = spiritual light.
    Sun = The higher Truth Light.

                                 ***

A well-formed illumined thought can be seen as a spark of light.

                                 ***

Sparks or  movements  of  light  indicate  the  play  of forces in the
consciousness or around it.

                                 ***

The fire indicates a dynamic action.

                                 ***

VI

                                 ***

Colour and light are always close to each other -  colour  being  more
indicative,  light  more  dynamic.  Colour incandescent becomes light.

    Gold indicates at its most intense something from the supramental,
otherwise overmind truth or intuitive truth deriving  ultimately  from
the supramental Truth-Consciousness.

                                 ***

As for the exact symbolism of colours, it is not always easy to define
exactly, because it is not rigid and precise, but complex, the meaning
varying with the field,  the combinations, the character and shades of
the  colour,  the  play  of  forces.  A  certain  kind of yellow,  for
instance,  is supposed by many occultists to indicate the buddhi,  the
intellect,  and it often has that sense, but occurring among a play of
vital forces it could not always be so interpreted - that would be too
rigid.  Here  all  one  can  say is that the blue (the particular blue
seen, not every blue) indicated the response to the Truth; the green -
or  this  green  - is very usually associated with Life and a generous
emanation or action of forces - often of emotional life-force,  and it
is probably this that it would indicate here.

                                 ***

There are no separate colours of the beings. There is a characteristic
colour of mind,  yellow;  of the psychic,  pink or pale rose;  of  the
vital,  purple; but these are colours corresponding to the main forces
of mind, psychic, vital - they are not the colours of the beings. Also
other colours can play,  e.g. in the vital, green and deep red as well
as purple and there are other colours for the hostile vital forces.

                                 ***

The Lights one sees in concentration are the lights of various  powers
or   forces   and   often  lights  that  come  down  from  the  higher
consciousness.
    The violet light is that of the Divine Compassion (karu�€ - Grace)
-   the   white   light  is  the  light  of  the  Mother  (the  Divine
Consciousness) in which all others are contained and from  which  they
can be manifested.
    Purple is  the  colour  of  vital  power.  "Red"  depends  on  the
character  of  the  colour,  for there are many reds - this may be the
colour of the physical consciousness.

                                 ***

The four  lights were the lights of the Truth,  - white the purity and
power of the divine Truth,  green its active energy for work, blue the
spiritual  consciousness of the divine Truth,  the gold its knowledge.

    The arrow is the symbol of the force which goes to its aim.
    Blue is  the  higher  mind.
    Bells heard are usually a sign of progress in sadhana, progress to
come.
    The snake form is a symbol of Energy and the white blue light  may
be that of the Mother's consciousness in the higher mind,  or if it is
not two separate colours but whitish blue then it is  Sri  Aurobindo's
light.  The light is a manifestation of Force, the nature of the force
being indicated by the colour of the Light.

                                 ***

Blue is the normal colour of the spiritual planes; moonlight indicates
the spiritual mind and its light.

                                 ***

The lights indicate the action of certain forces, usually indicated by
the  colour  of  the  light.  Whitish blue is known as Sri Aurobindo's
light or sometimes Sri Krishna's light.

                                 ***

The meaning of blue light depends on the exact  character  of  colour,
its  shade  and  nature.  A  whitish  blue  like moonlight is known as
Krishna's light or Sri Aurobindo's light - light blue is often that of
Illumined  Mind  -  there is another deeper blue that is of the Higher
Mind;  another,  near to purple,  which is the light of a power in the
vital.

                                 ***

The pale  whitish  blue  light  is "Sri Aurobindo's Light" - it is the
blue light modified by the white light of the Mother.

                                 ***

The pale blue light is mine,  the white light  is  the  Mother's.  The
world you saw above the head was the plane of the Illumined Mind which
is a level of consciousness much higher than the  human  intelligence.
It  is  there  that  the  Divine  Light  and  Power  come  down  to be
transmitted to the human consciousness and from there  they  work  and
prepare  the  transformation  of  the human consciousness and even the
physical nature.

                                 ***

If the blue lights were of different shades it might mean the overhead
planes, overmind, Intuition, Illumined Mind, Higher Mind.

                                 ***

There are different Krishna lights - pale diamond blue, lavender blue,
deep blue etc.  It depends on the  plane  in  which  it  manifests....

    There is  one blue that is the higher mind,  a deeper blue belongs
to the mind - Krishna's  light  in  the  mind....
    All blue is not Krishna's light...
    Diamond blue,  Krishna's light in the overmind - lavender blue  in
intuitive mind.
    Blue is also the Radha's colour.

                                 ***

White light indicates the divine consciousness.

                                 ***

They have always the same meaning. The white light is that of the pure
conscious force from which all the rest come. The golden light is that
of the Divine Truth on the higher planes.

                                 ***

White indicates a force of purity.

                                 ***

Diamonds may indicate the Mother's Light at its intensest, for that is
diamond white light.

                                 ***

The Sunlight  is  the  light  of  the Truth itself - whatever power of
Truth it may be - while the other lights derive from the Truth.

                                 ***

The Sunlight is the direct light of the Truth; when it gets fused into
the  vital,  it takes the mixed colour - here gold and green - just as
in the physical it becomes golden red or in the mental golden yellow.

                                 ***

The golden light is the light of the Divine Truth which comes out from
the  supramental  sunlight  and  modified  according  to  the level it
crosses, creates the ranges from overmind to higher Mind.

                                 ***

The golden light is that of the modified (overmentalised) supramental,
i.e.,  the supramental Light passing through the overmind,  Intuition,
etc., and becoming the Light of Truth in each of these things. When it
is golden red it means the same modified supramental-physical Light, -
the Light of Divine Truth in the physical.

                                 ***

Golden Light always means the light of Truth - but the nature  of  the
Truth  varies  according  to  the plane to which it belongs.  Light is
light  of  Consciousness,  Truth,  Knowledge  -   the   Sun   is   the
concentration or source of the Light.

                                 ***

It is again the ascent into one of the higher planes of mind illumined
with the light of the Divine  Truth.  Yellow  is  the  light  of  mind
growing  brighter as one goes higher till it meets the golden light of
the Divine Truth.

                                 ***

The spiritual Power is naturally more free on its own  level  than  in
the body. The golden colour indicates here Mahakali force which is the
strongest for the working in the body.

                                 ***

It is not clear yet.  Golden red is  the  colour  of  the  supramental
physical  light  -  so  this yellow red may indicate some plane of the
overmind in which there is a nearer special connection with that.  The
golden red light has a strong transforming power.

                                 ***

Orange or  red  gold is supposed,  by the way,  to be the light of the
supramental in the physical.

                                 ***

Orange is the true light manifested in the physical consciousness  and
being.

                                 ***

The deep  red  light  is a light that comes down into the physical for
its change. It is associated with the sunlight and the golden light.

                                 ***

The deep red is the light of the Power that descended before the  24th
[November, 1933] for the transformation of the physical.

                                 ***

Deep red is the Divine Love - rosy is the psychic love.

                                 ***

It seems  to be an opening of various powers and the peace,  light and
wideness of the spiritual consciousness.  The red Purusha may  be  the
Power of the true physical - red being the colour of the physical.

                                 ***

Orange is the colour of occult knowledge or occult experience.

                                 ***

Yellow is the thinking mind. The shades indicate different intensities
of mental light.

                                 ***

The colour of the psychic light is according to what  it  manifests  -
e.g., psychic love is pink or rose, the psychic purity is white, etc.

                                 ***

Reddish pink  rose  =  psychic  love or surrender.
    White rose = pure spiritual surrender.

                                 ***

The rosy light is that of love - so probably you entered  the  psychic
worlds - or at least one of them.
    As for the experiences described in the other letter,  it seems to
have  been a passage through worlds of neutral peace which to the mind
are a darkness and stand in the way to the full light.

                                 ***

The violet is the light of Divine Grace and Compassion.

                                 ***

"Violet" is the colour of benevolence or  compassion,  but  also  more
vividly  of  the  Divine  Grace - represented in the vision as flowing
from the heights of the spiritual consciousness down on the earth. The
golden cup is I suppose the Truth Consciousness.

                                 ***

Violet is  the  colour  of the light of Divine Compassion,  as also of
Krishna's Grace. It is also the radiance of Krishna's protection. Blue
is his special and significant colour,  the colour of his aura when he
manifests - that is why he is called nˆla k�˜�a.  The  adjective  does
not mean that he was blue or dark in his physical body.

                                 ***

Purple is the colour of the vital force - crimson is usually physical.

                                 ***

The crimson colour is the light of Love in the vital and physical.

                                 ***

Both [purple  and crimson] are vital lights,  but when seen above they
represent the original forces of which the vital are the derivations.

                                 ***

Green light can signify various things according to the context  -  in
the  emotional  vital  it is the colour of a certain form of emotional
generosity,  in the vital proper an activity with vital  abundance  or
vital  generosity  behind  it  -  in the vital physical it signifies a
force of health.

                                 ***

Yes. The green light  is  a  vital  force,  a  dynamic  force  of  the
emotional vital which has the power to purify, harmonise or cure.

                                 ***

Green is a vital energy of work and action.

                                 ***

VII

                                 ***

The sky  is  a  symbol of the mental consciousness (or the psychic) or
other  consciousnesses  above  the  mind  -  e.g.,  the  higher  mind,
intuition,  overmind,  etc.  Sky  as  the  ether  indicates  also  the
infinite.

                                 ***

The higher consciousness in any of its levels is seen usually as a sky
or  ether,  but when felt through the vital it is often perceived as a
sea.

                                 ***

Sat, Chit,  Ananda, Supermind, Mind, Life, Matter are the seven planes
described  in  the  Veda  -  but  in this yoga one sees many levels of
consciousness which appear as skies or else as seas.

                                 ***

The blue sky is that of the Higher Mind - the nearest  of  the  planes
between human mentality and the supermind. The moon here is the symbol
of spirituality in the mental planes.  The world of the Higher Mind is
above those directly connected with the body-consciousness.

                                 ***

The sky is always some mental plane.  The stars indicate beginnings or
promises of Light - the various lights indicating  various  powers  of
the  consciousness;  gold  = Truth,  blue = higher spiritualised mind,
violet = sympathy, unity or universal compassion.

                                 ***

The first sea is the ordinary consciousness  the  second  sea  is  the
higher  consciousness  over  which  is the Sun of Truth.  The mountain
represents the ascending  planes  of  the  higher  consciousness.  The
journey in the train is the passage from one consciousness to another.

                                 ***

The sea  with  the  sun over it is a plane of consciousness lit by the
Truth. To enter into the rays is to be no longer merely lit by it, but
in one's own conscious being to begin to become a part of the Truth.

                                 ***

The blue ocean is often a symbol of the spiritual consciousness in the
higher Mind one and indivisible.

                                 ***

Dawn always means an opening of some kind - the  coming  of  something
that is not yet fully there.

                                 ***

The Night  is  the symbol of the Ignorance or Avidya in which men live
just as Light is the symbol of Truth and Knowledge.

                                 ***

The mountain is the symbol of the embodied  consciousness  based  upon
earth but rising up towards the Divine.

                                 ***

The mountain  always  represents  the ascending hill of existence with
the Divine to be reached on the summits.

                                 ***

The mountain is a very usual symbol  of  the  consciousness  with  its
ascending  levels.  The  flowing of water from the peak indicates some
flow from the higher consciousness above.

                                 ***

The vision  you  saw  of  the  snow  is  probably  a  symbol  of   the
consciousness in a condition of purity, silence and peace like a snowy
ground;  in that a new life (psychic,  spiritual as indicated  by  the
flowers)  appears  in place of the old mental and vital life which has
been covered by that mantle of snowy whiteness.

                                 ***

The river represents some movement of the consciousness.

                                 ***

Water is the symbol of a state of consciousness or a plane.

                                 ***

When the water is symbolic (of a plane of consciousnessl it is  a  big
expanse  of  water  -  but  a  river or a pond are not large enough to
symbolise a plane.

                                 ***

Sometimes a part of the consciousness is seen in the image of a  pond,
lake or sea. The fish must be the vital mind.

                                 ***

The lake is the being in its individual consciousness,  the sea is the
same being with a  universalised  consciousness  which  can  hold  the
universe and its cosmic forces in itself - the one (individual) merges
into the other (the universal).  The boat  is  the  formation  of  the
Mother's  consciousness  in  you in which you are preparing to sail in
this sea.

                                 ***

The rain is the symbol of the  descent  of  Grace  or  of  the  higher
consciousness which is the cause of the riches, the spiritual plenty.

                                 ***

The rainbow is the sign of peace and deliverance.

                                 ***

Clouds are symbols of obscurity.

                                 ***

Patala simply means the subconscient below the Earth - the Earth being
the conscious physical plane.

                                 ***

The jungle must be some unregenerated part of the vital nature and the
serpent a wrong force emerging out of it.

                                 ***

The tree is the symbol of subconscient vital.

                                 ***

A bird  is  a  very  frequent symbol of the soul,  and the tree is the
standing image of the universe - The Tree of Life.

                                 ***

The Aswattha usually symbolises the cosmic manifestation.

                                 ***

Flowers indicate a blossoming in  the  consciousness,  sometimes  with
special reference to the psychic or the psychicised vital,  mental and
physical consciousness.

                                 ***

It is usually when the psychic is active that this seeing  of  flowers
becomes abundant.

                                 ***

Red flowers  would ordinarily indicate an opening of the consciousness
either in the physical or some part of  the  vital  according  to  the
shade.

                                 ***

The [flower  named]  eternal  smile  means  the  self-existent joy and
gladness of the Spirit.

                                 ***

In sadhana [the flower named] vital intimacy would ordinarily  signify
inner intimacy with the Divine on the vital plane.

                                 ***

The fruits are the results of the sadhana.

                                 ***

The cow in the occult symbolism indicates Light or the consciousness -
white indicates the purified or spiritual consciousness  -  the  white
Light.

                                 ***

It is quite clear;  it is the Vedic image.  In the Veda the Cow is the
Divine Light - the white cow is the pure consciousness in which  there
is the Light.  The milk is the Knowledge and Power descending from the
Divine Consciousness.

                                 ***

The Cow usually means  the  Higher  Consciousness.  Perhaps  the  calf
indicates  the  truth  of  the  higher  consciousness  (white)  in the
physical (red).

                                 ***

The vision of the cows must have taken place in the psychic world.  It
has also a symbolic significance.  The sun is the symbol of the Divine
Truth,  the cows are its powers,  rays of  the  sun,  source  of  true
knowledge,  true feeling,  true experience.
    The descent you felt must have been  into  some  depth  of  light,
probably in the psychic nature.

                                 ***

Milk is always the symbol of the flow of the higher consciousness.

                                 ***

The Horse  is  Power,  usually  Life-Power,  but  also  it  may   mean
Mind-Power or Tapas if it is dynamic and mobile.

                                 ***

Dark horse  -  means a horse whose qualities are unknown whether it is
good or bad,  will win the race or lose it - an  obscure  and  unknown
factor.

                                 ***

As for  the  two  dreams you wrote about in your shorter letter of the
1st May,  the one about the horses is not so clear as the other  about
the white calf.  But the horse is always the symbol of Power,  it must
be then a Power which you were trying to catch and make your own while
sometimes it was trying to come up with you,  perhaps to use you. This
is what happens in the vital  where  there  are  these  uncertain  and
elusive  movements.  The  high  platform  was evidently the level of a
higher Consciousness which stilled this fluctuating movement and  made
control of the Power more possible, as it became still and clear.
    The white  calf  is the sign of a pure and clear consciousness,  -
the cow or calf being  the  symbol  of  Light  in  the  consciousness,
something  psychic  or spiritual that you felt natural and intimate to
you and inseparable.

                                 ***

The horse  is  a force acting for progress.  The railway train at full
speed means rapid progress.

                                 ***

The ass is the symbol of the inertia and obstruction in the body.  The
horse is the symbol of force or power. The tunnel of water must be the
vital physical and the arch is a passage out, by which, if the ass can
cross it or rather be pulled across, then it becomes a horse. In other
words,  the inertia and obstruction in the physical  will  be  changed
into Power and Force of Progress.

                                 ***

The elephant is Strength - sometimes Strength illumined with Wisdom.

                                 ***

The elephant is strength - sometimes strength removing obstacles.

                                 ***

The lion  means  vital  force,  strength,  courage  - here full of the
light,  illumined by the spiritual consciousness.  The lion  indicates
force  and  courage,  and  strength and power.  The lower vital is not
lion-like.

                                 ***

It all depends on the attitude of the tiger. If fierce and hostile, it
may  be a form of an adverse force,  otherwise it is simply a power of
vital nature which may be friendly.

                                 ***

The bull is an emblem of strength and force. It is also in the Veda an
image of the Gods, the male power in Nature. Again, the bull is v€hana
of Shiva.  It may be a dream or an experience of any of these symbols,
but is probably the first here.

                                 ***

It [the  boar]  is  rajasic  strength  and vehemence.  Much,  however,
depends on the context,- these figures have also other meanings.

                                 ***

Yes, buffaloes indicate rash and obscure vital forces.

                                 ***

A buffalo conveys the idea often of an obscure violence in the  nature
- here it seems tied up - i.e.  under control but not eliminated.  But
it is not clear to what it refers - if it is symbolic at all.

                                 ***

The goat in vision is often symbolic of lust.

                                 ***

The dog is the symbol of devoted affection and obedience.

                                 ***

The dog usually indicates fidelity and as it is yellow,  it  would  be
fidelity in the mind to the Divine - but the other black and white one
is difficult to interpret - it is something  in  the  vital,  but  the
meaning of the black spots is not clear.

                                 ***

The deer is perhaps a symbol of speed in the spiritual progress.

                                 ***

Hanuman = complete bhakti.
    The deer = speed in the spiritual path.

                                 ***

Frog = modest usefulness.

                                 ***

The fish  is  always  the  moving  vital  mind  making  all  sorts  of
formations.

                                 ***

[Flies: ] Something small in the smaller vital.

                                 ***

Obviously it [white  ants]  must  have  been  symbolic  of  small  but
destructive forces in the lower vital or physical.

                                 ***

The image  of  the  spider  in  the Upanishads is used for the Brahman
creating the world out of itself,  dwelling in it and  withdrawing  it
into itself. But what matters in a symbol is what it means for you. It
may mean for you success or successful formations.

                                 ***

The snake indicates some kind of energy always - oftener bad,  but  it
also  can indicate some luminous or divine energy.  In this experience
it is an ascent of some force from the  physical  upwards.  The  other
details are not clear.

                                 ***

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 opening  of  the  hood  indicates  the  victorious  or  successful
activity of the Energy indicated by the snake.

                                 ***

The serpent  with  the  hood  over the head generally indicates future
siddhi.

                                 ***

The cobra is a symbol of the Energy in Nature - the upraised hood  and
light indicate the illumination and victorious position of the emerged
Energy.

                                 ***

It is in answer to your aspiration that the Mahakali force descended -
the serpent is the Energy from above working in the vital answering to
the Serpent Kundalini which rises from below.  The white fire  is  the
fire  of  aspiration,  the  red  fire  is the fire of renunciation and
tapasya,  the blue fire is the  fire  of  spirituality  and  spiritual
knowledge which purifies and dispels the Ignorance.

                                 ***

The serpent  is  the  symbol  of  energy - especially of the Kundalini
Shakti which is the divine Force coiled up in  the  lowest  (physical)
centre,  Muladhara, and when it rises it goes up through the spine and
joins the higher consciousness above.  Energies are of all  kinds  and
the  snakes  can  also  symbolise  the evil powers of the unregenerate
vital nature - but here it is not that.

                                 ***

The Lotus is the symbol of the opening of the centres  to  the  Light.
The  Swan  is  the  Indian symbol of the individual soul,  the central
being,  the divine part which is turned towards the Divine, descending
from  there and ascending to it.
    The two  serpents  interlaced  are  the  two chanels in the spine,
through which the Shakti moves upward and downward.
    The serpent with the six hoods is the Kundalini Shakti, the divine
power asleep in the lowest physical  centre  which,  awakened  in  the
yoga,  ascends in light through the opening centres to meet the Divine
in  the  highest  centre  and  so  connect  the   manifest   and   the
unmanifested, joining spirit and Matter.

                                 ***


    1. Narayana is usually  taken  as  a  name  of  Vishnu  -  to  the
Vaishnavas  He  is  the  Supreme as Shiva is to the Shaivas.  Both are
cosmic Personalities of the Divine and both  like  Brahma  have  their
original place in the overmind,  although they take different forms to
the human consciousness in  the  mental,  vital  and  subtle  physical
planes.
    2. Lakshmi is usually golden,  not white.  Saraswati is white.
    3. The  snake  is simply a symbol of Energy or Power.  Narayana in
your vision is clearly Vishnu as is shown by the presence  of  Lakshmi
and the single many-headed snake.
    4. Vishnu or Narayana in this image  which  is  a  normal  Puranic
image  is  the Lord of the waters of Space and Time - the Preserver of
the principle of the Universe which he maintains as a seed in  himself
even  in intervals between one creation and another.  Out of that seed
on his navel (the navel is the central seat of  the  Vital,  the  Life
Principle)   Brahma   the   creator   arises   in  the  Lotus  (cosmic
consciousness) which grows  from  it  when  Vishnu  awakens  from  the
intra-cyclic sleep.

                                 ***

The snake Ananta is the Energy of  the  cosmic  manifestation  of  the
Infinite  in  SpaceTime.  The serpent Ananta is the infinite energy in
infinite Time-Space which supports the universe.

                                 ***

About the snake you saw in your meditation - serpents indicate  always
energies of Nature and very often bad energies of the vital plane; but
they can also indicate luminous or divine energies like the  snake  of
Vishnu. The one you saw was evidently of this latter type - a luminous
divine energy and therefore there was no cause for  alarm,  it  was  a
good sign.

                                 ***

A lotus flower indicates the open consciousness.

                                 ***

The red  lotus is the presence of the Divine on earth;  the sun is the
Divine Truth.  It indicates the Divine manifestation on earth  raising
earth consciousness towards the Truth.

                                 ***

The white lotus is the symbol of the Mother's consciousness, - it does
not indicate any part of the individual consciousness.

                                 ***

The opening of the lotuses in your experience means,  I  suppose,  the
opening  of  the  true  vital  and physical consciousness in which the
spiritual being (the Swan) can manifest with all the  consequences  of
that opening.

                                 ***

The Swan is a symbol of the soul on the higher plane.

                                 ***

The swan is the liberated soul,  the lotus is either the consciousness
reddening to the colour of Divine Love  or  else  the  symbol  of  the
Divine Presence on earth.

                                 ***

The Hansa  is the symbol of the being - it regains its original purity
as it rises until it becomes luminous in the Highest Truth.

                                 ***

The duck is 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.

                                 ***

Both [the goose and the swan] are symbols of the beings in a man - but
the goose or ordinary Hansa usually refers to the manomaya puru˜a.

                                 ***

The bird is a symbol of the individual soul.

                                 ***

The bird is usually a symbol of some soul power when  it  is  not  the
soul itself - here it is a power (awakened in the soul) of the whitish
blue light - Sri Aurobindo's light.

                                 ***

Birds often indicate either mind-powers or soul-powers.

                                 ***

The dove signifies peace. The colours indicate the vital - green would
be  self-giving  in  the  vital,  blue the higher consciousness in the
vital.  So it must be peace casting its influence from  above  on  the
vital.

                                 ***

The white pigeon must be peace.

                                 ***

The peacock is the bird of victory.

                                 ***

A peacock is the symbol of spiritual victory.

                                 ***

The peacock signifies victory in yoga,  the divine victory.  The clear
sky would indicate perhaps the mental part cleared of obscurities.

                                 ***

Krishna with Radha is the symbol of the Divine Love.  The flute is the
call of the Divine Love; the peacock is victory.

                                 ***

The crane is the messenger of happiness.

                                 ***

The ostrich may mean rapidity of movement.

                                 ***

A dream  like  this of a child - especially a new-born child - usually
signifies the birth (or the awakening) of the soul or psychic being in
the outward nature.

                                 ***

It is  not a fact that the psychic being always appears as a baby - it
is sometimes seen symbolically as a new-born baby;  many see it  as  a
child  of varying ages - it is a very common and usual experience;  it
is not peculiar to emotional natures.  It  has  several  significances
such  as  the  new  birth  of  the consciousness into the true psychic
nature, the still young growth of this new being, the trust, reliance,
dependence of the child on the Mother.

                                 ***

The child  usually signifies the psychic being - new-born in the sense
that it at last comes to the surface.  The colour of the  cloth  would
mean that it comes with health (internal and external or both) and the
spiritual riches.

                                 ***

The child (when it does not mean the psychic  being)  is  usually  the
symbol  of  something new-born in some part of the consciousness.  Red
indicates many different things according to the shade.

                                 ***

I suppose the golden child is the Truth-Soul which follows  after  the
silver  light of the spiritual.  When it plunges into the black waters
of the subconscient,  it releases from it the spiritual light and  the
sevenfold  streams  of  the Divine Energy and,  clearing itself of the
stains of the subconscient, it prepares its flight towards the supreme
Divine (the Mother).

                                 ***

The flute is the symbol of a call - usually the spiritual call.

                                 ***

The flute is the call of the Divine.

                                 ***

The conch is the symbol of the spiritual call.

                                 ***

The conch is the call to realisation.

                                 ***

The conch is perhaps the proclamation of victory.

                                 ***

It [a pearl] may be a representation of the "bindu", which is a symbol
of the infinite in the exceedingly small,  the individual point  which
is yet the Universal.

                                 ***

[vˆ�€: ] Harmony.

                                 ***

The crown is the sign of fulfilment.

                                 ***

The crown  indicates the higher consciousness in its static condition,
the wheel its dynamic action.  The red light is the Power sent down to
change the physical.

                                 ***

The book indicates some kind of knowledge.

                                 ***

The ears  signify  usually  the place of inspired knowledge or else of
inspired expression -  red  and  gold  mean  truth  and  power  joined
together.

                                 ***

The building is the symbol of a new creation.

                                 ***

The pyramid  is  usually  a  symbol  of  aspiration  - reddish perhaps
because it is in the physical.

                                 ***

The Sphinx is a symbol of the eternal quest that can only be  answered
by the secret knowledge.

                                 ***

The cross is the sign of the triple being, transcendent, universal and
individual.

                                 ***

The cross  indicates  the  triple  Divine  (transcendent,   universal,
individual); the shield means protection.

                                 ***

Yes, the  circular  movement and the Chakra are always signs of energy
in action, generally creative action.

                                 ***

The [Sudarshan] Chakra symbolises the action of Sri Krishna's force.

                                 ***

A revolving disc means a force in action on the  nature.  The  whitish
blue light is known as Krishna's light, also as Sri Aurobindo's light.
White is the Mother's. Perhaps here it is a combination.

                                 ***

The wheel is the sign of an action of Force  (whatever  force  may  be
indicated  by  the nature of the symbol) and as it was surging upwards
it must be the fire of aspiration rising from the vital (navel centre)
to the Higher Consciousness above.

                                 ***

The bow is a symbol of the force sent out to reach its mark.

                                 ***

The incense stick is the symbol of self-consecration.

                                 ***

Tobacco is associated with tamas and incense-sticks with adoration.

                                 ***

The image  of  journeying  always  signifies  a  movement in life or a
progress in sadhana.

                                 ***

A journey in a boat or other conveyance means always a movement in the
yoga - often an advance or progress.

                                 ***

Journeying on  a  horse  or  in  a  conveyance,  if symbolic,  means a
progress or a movement in life, work or sadhana.

                                 ***

A journey in carriage, train, motor car, steamer, boat, aeroplane etc,
indicates  a  movement  in  the  sadhana.  The  white horse may be the
sattwic mind and the red horse the vital rajas giving energy and  both
combining to make a progress.

                                 ***

Aeroplane, steamer and train are always symbols of a rapid progress or
forward movement.

                                 ***

The railway line is a symbol of rapid progress.

                                 ***

When you find yourself flying it is always  the  vital  being  in  the
subtle body in the vital world that is doing it.

                                 ***

The piece  of flesh indicates something restless in the physical being
which stands by its restlessness and excessive irritability in the way
of  the full flow of the Ananda.  In the dreams this became active and
was eliminated by the pressure of the psychic.

                                 ***

Yes. 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.

                                 ***

These vital  dreams  are  not interpretable unless there is an evident
clue. Aunt or mother usually indicates the ordinary physical Nature, a
closed  room  would  be  some part of the physical nature that was not
open to the light,  bats would mean forces of the night i.e.  ignorant
movements  finding  a  lodging  in  the obscurity of the unenlightened
nature.

                                 ***

Symbolically, if the dream is symbolic, the falling of teeth means the
disappearance  of old or fixed mental habits belonging to the physical
mind.

                                 ***

The feeling of being dead in a vision or dream experience  comes  when
something  in  the  being is to be silenced into entire inactivity and
ceases to exist as a part of the nature.  It may be a very small part,
but  as during the process the consciousness is concentrated in it and
identified with it for the purpose of the working, the feeling is that
"I am dead".  When you said "I am dead,  now let me get up and go", it
simply meant "The thing is done and the process is over.  There is  no
need  to  identify  myself  with  this  part  any longer." There is no
indication in the experience as to what  the  thing  was  that  passed
through this experience.

                                 ***

It is  the  purification  of the physical that is usually indicated in
the symbol of burning.

                                 ***

The vision you saw was a symbol of the outward physical  consciousness
obscured by the ordinary movements (clouds), but with the spirituality
(the moon) still  spreading  its  light  everywhere  from  behind  the
ordinary human ignorance.  The dog indicates something in the physical
(the part that is faithful, obedient etc.) waiting confidently for the
Light to come.
    The fire  you  felt was the fire of purification and the heat came
because it was burning up some resistance,  - after that is burnt  out
there  was coolness and peace and quietude.  The 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  the  habit  of  hearing
voices  and  seeing  and  feeling  things  which  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 separate images are very usual symbols of  the  inner  experience,
but  they  have been combined together here in a rather difficult way.
The fire of course is the psychic fire which wells up from the  veiled
psychic  source.  The  bird  is the soul and the flower is the rose of
love and surrender.  The moon is the symbol of  spirituality.  As  the
star  is  within  it is described as piercing through the knots of the
inner darkness and worsting the vital growths  that  are  like  clouds
enwrapping  it.  The boat also is a usual symbol in the inner visions.
The elephant is the spiritual strength that removes obstacles and  the
horse  the  force  of  tapasya  that  gallops  to  the  summits of the
spiritual realisation.  The sun is the symbol of the higher Truth. The
lotus is the symbol of the inner consciousness.

                                 ***

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 sleeping - i.e.  her power  has  not
become conscious in your inner consciousness because she is surrounded
by the thin curtain of skin (the obscurity of the physical nature). It
is  this  (it  is not thick any longer but still effective to veil her
from you) which has to go so that she may awake.  It is  a  matter  of
persistence  in the will and the endeavour - the response from within,
the awaking of the Mother in the heart will come.

                                 ***

It is probably a symbol of three stages or developments or  planes  of
splritualised  life.  A  star  means  creation,  the triangle a triple
principle.  The tree is life in a new creation. Green is the colour of
the emotional vital,  the moon governs a spiritualised emotional life;
blue is the colour of the  higher  mind,  the  moon  there  governs  a
spiritualised higher mind life;  the gold colour is that of the Divine
Truth,  whether  intuitive  or  overmind  -  the  moon  here  is   the
spiritualised  Truth  life.  As the stambha is spha’ika-coloured,  the
triangle may indicate Sachchidananda principle.  The  butterflies  and
birds are,  of course,  life-forces and soul forces, powers or beings.
Probably it  indicates  three  stages  of  transformation  before  the
supramental  can reign altogether or else three that will exist as the
steps leading to the supramental.

                                 ***

SECTION THREE

                                 ***

EXPERIENCES OF THE INNER AND THE COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS

                                 ***

Experiences of the Inner and the Cosmic Consciousness

                                 ***

THE piercing of the veil between the outer consciousness and the inner
being  is  one of the crucial movements in yoga.  For yoga means union
with the Divine,  but it also means awaking first to your  inner  self
and  then  to  your  higher  self,  - a movement inward and a movement
upward.  It is,  in fact, only through the awakening and coming to the
front  of the inner being that you can get into union with the Divine.
The outer physical man is only  an  instrumental  personality  and  by
himself  he cannot arrive at this union,  - he can only get occasional
touches,  religious feelings,  imperfect intimations.  And even  these
come  not  from  the  outer  consciousness but from what is within us.

    There are two mutually complementary movements;  in one the  inner
being  comes  to the front and impresses its own normal motions on the
outer consciousness to which they are unusual and abnormal;  the other
is  to  draw back from the outer consciousness,  to go inside into the
inner planes,  enter the world of your inner  self  and  wake  in  the
hidden parts of your being.  When that plunge has once been taken, you
are marked for the yogic,  the spiritual life and nothing  can  efface
the seal that has been put upon you.
    This inward movement takes place in many different ways and  there
is  sometimes  a  complex  experience  combining  all the signs of the
complete plunge.  There is a sense of going in or deep down, a feeling
of  the movement towards inner depths;  there is often a stillness,  a
pleasant numbness,  a stiffness of the limbs.  This is the sign of the
consciousness  retiring  from the body inwards under the pressure of a
force from above,  -  that  pressure  stabilising  the  body  into  an
immobile  support  of  the  inner life,  in a kind of strong and still
spontaneous €sana. There is a feeling of waves surging up, mounting to
the  head,  which brings an outer unconsciousness and an inner waking.
It is the ascending of the lower consciousness in the Adhara  to  meet
the greater consciousness above. It is a movement analogous to that on
which so much stress is laid in the Tantric process,  the awakening of
the  Kundalini,  the  Energy  coiled up and latent in the body and its
mounting through the spinal cord and  the  centres  (cakras)  and  the
Brahmarandhra  to  meet  the  Divine  above.  In  our yoga it is not a
specialised process,  but a spontaneous  uprush  of  the  whole  lower
consciousness  sometimes  in  currents  or waves,  sometimes in a less
concrete motion,  and on the  other  side  a  descent  of  the  Divine
Consciousness  and its Force into the body.  This descent is felt as a
pouring in of calm and peace, of force and power, of light, of joy and
ecstasy, of wideness and freedom and knowledge, of a Divine Being or a
Presence - sometimes one of these,  sometimes several of them  or  all
together.  The  movement  of  ascension has different results;  it may
liberate the consciousness so that one feels no longer  in  the  body,
but  above  it  or else spread in wideness with the body either almost
non-existent or only a point in one's free expanse.  It may enable the
being  or  some  part  of  the  being to go out from the body and move
elsewhere,  and this action is usually accompanied  by  some  kind  of
partial  sam€dhi  or  else  a  complete trance.  Or,  it may result in
empowering the consciousness,  no longer limited by the body  and  the
habits of the external nature, to go within, to enter the inner mental
depths,  the inner vital, the inner (subtle) physical, the psychic, to
become aware of its inmost psychic self or its inner mental, vital and
subtle physical being and, it may be, to move and live in the domains,
the  planes,  the worlds that correspond to these parts of the nature.
It is the repeated and constant ascent of the lower consciousness that
enables the mind,  the vital, the physical to come into touch with the
higher planes up to the supramental and  get  impregnated  with  their
light  and  power  and influence.  And it is the repeated and constant
descent of the Divine Consciousness and its Force that  is  the  means
for  the transformation of the whole being and the whole nature.  Once
this descent becomes habitual,  the Divine Force,  the  Power  of  the
Mother,  begins to work,  no longer from above only or from behind the
veil,  but consciously in  the  Adhara  itself,  and  deals  with  its
difficulties  and  possibilities and carries on the yoga.
    Last comes the crossing of the border.  It is not a falling asleep
or  a  loss  of consciousness,  for the consciousness is there all the
time;  only it shifts from the outer and physical,  becomes closed  to
external  things  and recedes into the inner psychic and vital part of
the being.  There it passes through many experiences and of these some
can  and  should be felt in the waking state also;  for both movements
are necessary,  the coming out of the inner being to the front as well
as the going in of the consciousness to become aware of the inner self
and  nature.  But  for  many  purposes   the   ingoing   movement   is
indispensable. Its effect is to break or at least to open and pass the
barrier between this outer instrumental consciousness and  that  inner
being which it very partially strives to express, and to make possible
in  future  a  conscious  awareness  of  all  the  endless  riches  of
possibility  and  experience  and  new  being  and  new  life that lie
untapped behind the veil of this small  and  very  blind  and  limited
material  personality  which  men erroneously think to be the whole of
themselves.  It is the beginning and constant enlarging of this deeper
and  fuller  and  richer  awareness  that  is accomplished between the
inward plunge and the return from  this  inner  world  to  the  waking
state.
    The sadhak must understand that these  experiences  are  not  mere
imaginations or dreams but actual happenings,  for even when, as often
occurs,  they are formations only of a wrong or misleading or  adverse
kind, they have still their power as formations and must be understood
before they can be rejected and abolished.  Each inner  experience  is
perfectly  real  in  its  own  way,  although  the values of different
experiences differ greatly,  but it is real with the  reality  of  the
inner self and the inner planes. It is a mistake to think that we live
physically only,  with the outer mind and life.  We are all  the  time
living  and  acting  on other planes of consciousness,  meeting others
there and acting upon them,  and what we do and feel and think  there,
the  forces  we  gather,  the  results we prepare have an incalculable
importance and effect,  unknown to us, upon our outer life. Not all of
it  comes  through,  and  what comes through takes another form in the
physical - though sometimes there is an exact correspondence; but this
little  is  at the basis of our outward existence.  All that we become
and do and bear in the physical  life  is  prepared  behind  the  veil
within us. It is therefore of immense importance for a yoga which aims
at the transformation of life to grow conscious of what goes on within
these domains,  to be master there and be able to feel,  know and deal
with the secret forces that determine our destiny and our internal and
external  growth  or  decline.
    It is equally important for those who want  that  union  with  the
Divine without which the transformation is impossible.  The aspiration
could not be realised if you remained bound  by  your  external  self,
tied to the physical mind and its petty movements. It is not the outer
being which is the source of the spiritual urge;  the outer being only
undergoes  the  inner  drive  from  behind  the veil.  It is the inner
psychic being in you that is the bhakta,  the seeker after  the  union
and  the  Ananda,  and what is impossible for the outer nature left to
itself becomes perfectly possible when the barrier  is  down  and  the
inner  self in the front.  For,  the moment this comes strongly to the
front or  draws  the  consciousness  powerfully  into  itself,  peace,
ecstasy,  freedom,  wideness,  the  opening  to  light  and  a  higher
knowledge begin to become natural,  spontaneous,  often  immediate  in
their  emergence.
    Once the barrier breaks by the one  movement  or  the  other,  you
begin  to  find  that all the processes and movements necessary to the
yoga are within your reach and not,  as it seems in  the  outer  mind,
difficult or impossible. The inmost psychic self in you has already in
it the yogin and the bhakta and if it can fully emerge  and  take  the
lead,  the  spiritual  turn  of  your  outward life is predestined and
inevitable.  In the initially successful sadhak it has already built a
deep inner life,  yogic and spiritual, which is veiled only because of
some strong outward turn the education and past activities have  given
to the thinking mind and lower vital parts. It is precisely to correct
this outward orientation and  take  away  the  veil  that  he  has  to
practise   more  strenuously  the  yoga.  Once  the  inner  being  has
manifested strongly whether by the inward-going or the  outward-coming
movement,  it is bound to renew its pressure, to clear the passage and
finally come  by  its  kingdom.  A  beginning  of  this  kind  is  the
indication of what is to happen on a greater scale hereafter.

                                 ***

The cry you heard was not in the physical heart,  but in the emotional
centre. The breaking of the wall meant the breaking of the obstacle or
at least of some obstacle there between  your  inner  and  your  outer
being.  Most  people live in their ordinary outer ignorant personality
which does not easily open to the Divine;  but there is an inner being
within  them  of which they do not know,  which can easily open to the
Truth and the Light. But there is a wall which divides them from it, a
wall of obscurity and unconsciousness. When it breaks down, then there
is a release;  the  feelings  of  calm,  Ananda,  joy  which  you  had
immediately afterwards were due to that release. The cry you heard was
the cry of the vital part in you overcome by  the  suddenness  of  the
breaking of the wall and the opening.

                                 ***

It is not possible to distinguish the psychic being at first. What has
to be done is to grow conscious of an inner being  which  is  separate
from  the external personality and nature - a consciousness or Purusha
calm and detached  from  the  outer  actions  of  the  Prakriti.
    The experiences you describe are psycho-physical of which the only
important  one  is  the  current going up which is the beginning of an
attempt to create a path  of  connection  between  the  mental  centre
(inner  mind,  will,  vision)  in  the  forehead and the higher centre
above.
    The obstacles  can  only  be  got  rid  of gradually by persistent
sadhana.  The alternation of dark and  bright  states  is  normal  and
inevitable.
    The light in your experience indicates an action of force  (bluish
probably  indicates the spiritual mind-force) - the rest was a working
to open the higher spiritual centre (sahasradala).

                                 ***

It is  rather  a  pity  that  the  fear came in and spoiled the inward
movement - for this inward movement is exceedingly important  for  the
sadhana.  The  increasing  frequency  and  completeness of the psychic
consciousness in you coming in and  replacing  the  ordinary  one  has
hitherto   been   the   most  hopeful  sign  of  progress  -  but  the
establishment of an inward movement would be a  still  greater  thing;
for  its  natural  result  would be to liberate the soul within and to
give you a stand in the inner being so  that  you  would  be  able  to
regard  any  fluctuations  in  the  outer  consciousness without being
subjugated by them and without any interruption of the inner poise and
freedom.  But the movement is bound to come back and fulfil itself. It
is very good that the help comes when you call and that you can  shake
yourself free - it is another sign of the psychic growth.

                                 ***

What you  say was not what is in yourself,  but a symbol of the things
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 and grow and its  nature  replace  the  outer  nature.  Sometimes
serpents indicate energies simply, not harmful ones; but more often it
is the other way.  On the other hand, the peacocks you saw were powers
of victory,  the victory of the energies of light over the energies of
darkness.
    What you say about the outer being is correct,  it must change and
manifest  what  is  within in the inner nature.  But for that one must
have experiences in the inner nature and through these  the  power  of
the  inner  nature  grows till it can infiuence wholly and possess the
outer being.  To  change  the  outer  consciousness  entirely  without
developing  this  inner consciousness would be too difficult.  That is
why these inner experiences are going on to prepare the growth of  the
inner consciousness.  There is an inner mind, an inner vital, an inner
physical consciousness which can more easily than  the  outer  receive
the  higher  consciousness  above and put itself into harmony with the
psychic being;  when that is done the outer nature is felt as  only  a
fringe on the surface,  not as oneself, and is more easily transformed
altogether.
    Whatever difficulties there may still be in the outer nature, they
will not make any difference to  the  fact  that  you  are  now  awake
within,  the  Mother's  force  working  in  you and you her true child
destined to be perfectly that in all ways.  Put your  faith  and  your
thought entirely on her and you will get through all safely.

                                 ***

It is on the surface that the transformation is done.  One comes up to
the surface with what one has gained in the depths to  change  it.  It
may  be  your  need  to  go in again and find it difficult to make the
movement back quickly.  When the whole being becomes plastic you  will
be able to make whatever movement is needed more quickly.

                                 ***

It takes  time  of  course  to  make  the transition from one state of
consciousness to another. The depth of feeling will come more and more
as your consciousness draws back from the claim of external things and
goes deeper in into the heart region seeing  and  feeling  from  there
with the psychic to prompt and enlighten it.  Faith also will increase
with that movement - for it is the outer intellect that is  infirm  or
deficient in faith, the inner being in the heart has it always.

                                 ***

What you  express  in  the  letter  is  the  right way of thinking and
seeing.  The self-will of the mind wanting things in its own  way  and
not in the Divine's way was a great obstacle.  With that gone, the way
should become much less rough and hard to follow.
    The outer  being  can  grow  in  faith,  fidelity  to  the Divine,
reverence,  love, worship and adoration, great things in themselves, -
though in fact these things too come from within, -but realisation can
only take place when the inner being is  awake  with  its  vision  and
feeling of things unseen.  Till then,  one can feel the results of the
divine help and,  if one has faith, know that they are the work of the
Divine,  but  it  is  only then that one can feel clearly the Force at
work, the divine Presence, the direct communion.

                                 ***

Silence does not mean absence of experiences.  It is an inner  silence
and quietude in which all experiences can happen without producing any
disturbance.  It would be a great mistake to interfere with the images
rising in you.  It does not matter whether they are mental or psychic.
One must have experience not only of the  true  psychic,  but  of  the
inner  mental,  inner  vital  and  subtle physical worlds or planes of
consciousness.  The occurrence of the images is a sign that these  are
opening and to inhibit them would mean to inhibit the expansion of the
consciousness and experience without which this yoga cannot be done.

                                 ***

All experiences come in the silence but they do not come all pell-mell
in a crowd at the beginning. The inner silence and peace have first to
be established.

                                 ***

The difficulty indicated by you in your last (long)  letter  indicates
that  you  enter  into  the  inner being and begin to have experiences
there,  but there is a difficulty in organising them  or  seeing  them
coherently.  The  difficulty  is  because  the  inner  mind is not yet
sufficiently habituated to act and see the inside things and therefore
the ordinary outer mind interferes and tries to arrange them;  but the
outer mind is unable to see the meaning  of  inner  things.  When  the
outer  mind is left outside altogether,  the things inside begin to be
seen vividly and clearly,  but the inner mind not being active, either
their  coherence  is  not  seen  or  the  consciousness lingers in the
confused experiences of the lower vital plane and does not get through
to   the   deeper,   more  coherent  and  significant  experiences.  A
development  of  the  inner  consciousness  is  needed  -  when   that
development takes place, then all will become more clear and coherent.
This development will take place if,  without getting  disturbed,  you
quietly  aspire  and  go  on  calling the Mother's Force to do what is
needed.
    Your call  will  always reach the Mother.  If you remain quiet and
confident,  you will in time become aware of the answer.  The more the
mind  becomes  quiet,  the  clearer will it become to you and you will
feel her working. From time to time you can write of your experiences,
wherever an answer is needed, I will answer.

                                 ***

That is what is meant by contact and that is how it comes.
    As for not having it always,  it is because there are parts of the
being  that are still unconscious or perhaps states of unconsciousness
come.  For instance,  people write letters to each other, but they are
quite  unconscious  that  they are exchanging forces in doing so.  You
have become conscious of it,  because of the development of your inner
consciousness  by yoga - and yet there are likely to be times when you
still write from the external awareness only,  and then you  will  see
the words only without being aware of what is behind. So, owing to the
development of the inner consciousness,  you are  able  to  understand
what contacts are and get the true contact,  but at times the external
consciousness may be stronger than the inner  one,  then  you  are  no
longer (for the time being) able to get the contact.

                                 ***

It is not that anything has been taken from you, but as you say at the
end,  your  being  is  seen by you in two parts.  That is a thing that
happens as the sadhana proceeds and must happen in order that one  may
have  completely  the 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 gets 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 probably gone inside into union with the
psychic.  The only thing that can have gone is something  of  the  old
nature that was standing in the way of this experience.

                                 ***

There is an inner being and an inmost being which we call the psychic.
When one meditates,  one tries to go into the inner being. If one does
it  then  one  feels  very well that one has gone inside.  What can be
realised in meditation can also become the ordinary  consciousness  in
which one lives. Then one feels what is now the ordinary consciousness
to be something quite external and on  the  surface,  not  one's  real
self.

                                 ***

What you feel as the new life is the growth of the inner being in you;
the inner  being  is  the  true  being  and  as  it  grows  the  whole
consciousness  begins  to  change.  This feeling and your new attitude
towards people are signs of the change.  The seeing  of  inner  things
also   usually   comes  with  this  growth  of  the  inner  being  and
consciousness; it is an inner vision which awakes in most sadhaks when
they  enter  this  stage.
    It is  also a characteristic of this inner consciousness that even
when it is active,  there is felt behind the action or containing it a
complete quietude or silence. The more one concentrates, the more this
quietude and silence increases.  That is why there  seems  to  be  all
quiet  within  even  though  all  sorts  of things may be taking place
within.
    It is  also  quite  usual  that  what  takes  place  in  the inner
consciousness should not  express  itself  at  present  in  the  outer
physical. It at first creates changes outside, but takes possession of
the outer instruments only afterwards.

                                 ***

It is  a  very  good  sign  that  when the thoughts and the attempt at
disturbance come there is something that remains calm and cool  -  for
that,  like  the  psychic  reply  from  within,  shows  that the inner
consciousness is fixed or fixing itself in part of the being.  This is
a  well recognised stage of the inner change in sadhana.  Equally good
is the emerging of the self-existent Ananda from within not  dependent
on outward things. It is a fact that this inner gladness and happiness
is something peaceful and happy  at  once  -  it  is  not  an  excited
movement like the vital outward pleasure, though it can be more ardent
and intense. Another good result is the fading out of the feeling that
"the  work  is  mine"  and  the  power  to  do  it  with  the  outward
consciousness not engaging the inner being.
    The sense of release  as  if  from  jail  always  accompanies  the
emergence  of  the psychic being or the realisation of the self above.
It is therefore spoken of as a liberation, mukti. It is a release into
peace,  happiness,  the  soul's  freedom not tied down by the thousand
ties and cares of the outward ignorant existence.
    It was  of  course  the Mother's face you saw in your vision,  but
probably in one of her supraphysical, not her physical form and face -
that  is also indicated by the great light that came from the form and
rendered it invisible.

                                 ***

The absence of thought is quite the right thing - for the  true  inner
consciousness  is  a  silent  consciousness which has not to think out
things,  but gets the right perception, understanding and knowledge in
a spontaneous way from within and speaks or acts according to that. It
is the outer consciousness which has to depend on outside  things  and
to think about them because it has not this spontaneous guidance. When
one is fixed in this inner consciousness,  then one can indeed go back
to the old action by an effort of will,  but it is no longer a natural
movement and,  if long  maintained,  becomes  fatiguing.  As  for  the
dreams, that is different. Dreams about old bygone things come up from
the subconscient which retains the old impressions and  the  seeds  of
the  old  movements and habits long after the waking consciousness has
dropped them.  Abandoned by the waking consciousness,  they still come
up in dreams;  for in sleep the outer physical consciousness goes down
into the subconscient or towards it  and  many  dreams  come  up  from
there.
    The silence in which all is quiet and one  remains  as  a  witness
while  something  in  the  consciousness  spontaneously calls down the
higher things is the complete silence which comes when the full  force
of  the higher consciousness is upon mind and vital and body.
    Things inside can be seen as distinctly as outward things  whether
in  an  image by the subtle vision or in their essence by a still more
subtle and powerful way of  seeing;  but  all  these  things  have  to
develop in order to get their full power and intensity.

                                 ***

II

                                 ***

There is a stage in the sadhana in which the  inner  being  begins  to
awake.  Often  the  first  result  is  the  condition  made  up of the
following elements:
    1. A sort of witness attitude in  which  the  inner  consciousness
looks at all that happens as a spectator or observer, observing things
but taking no active interest or pleasure in  them.
    2. A state of neutral equanimity in which there is neither joy nor
sorrow,  only quietude.
    3. A  sense  of  being  something  separate from all that happens,
observing it but not part of it.
    4. An absence of attachment to things, people or events.
    It seems as if this condition were trying to come in you;  but  it
is still imperfect.  For instance,  in this condition (1) there should
be  no  disgust  or  impatience  or  anger  when  people  talk,   only
indifference  and an inner peace and silence.  Also,  (2) there should
not be a mere neutral quiet and indifference,  but a positive sense of
calm, detachment and peace. Again, (3) there should be no going out of
the body so that you do not know what is happening  or  what  you  are
doing.  There may be a sense of not being the body but something else,
- that is good; but there should be a perfect awareness of all that is
going on in or around you.
    Moreover, this condition  even  when  it  is  perfect  is  only  a
transitional  stage  -  it  is  intended  to  bring a certain state of
freedom and liberation.  But in that peace there must come the feeling
of  the  Divine  Presence,  the sense of the Mother's power working on
you,  the joy or Ananda.
    If you can concentrate in the heart as well as in the head, - then
these things can more easily come.

                                 ***

The experience you have of a division in the being with the inner void
and  indifferent,  ud€sˆna,  -  not   sorrowful,   but   neutral   and
indifferent,  is  an  experience which many pass through and is highly
valued by the Sannyasins.  For us it is a passage  only  to  something
larger and more positive. In it the old small human feelings fall away
and a sort of calm neutral  void  is  made  for  a  higher  nature  to
manifest.  It  must  be  fulfilled  and  replaced  by a sense of large
silence and freedom into which the  Mother's  consciousness  can  flow
from above.

                                 ***

The condition in which all movements become superficial and empty with
no connection with the soul is a stage  in  the  withdrawal  from  the
surface  consciousness to the inner consciousness.  When one goes into
the inner consciousness,  it is felt as a calm, pure existence without
any  movement,  but eternally tranquil,  unmoved and separate from the
outer nature.  This comes as a result of detaching  oneself  from  the
movements, standing back from them and is a very important movement of
the sadhana.  The first  result  of  it  is  an  entire  quietude  but
afterwards that quietude begins (without the quietude ceasing) to fill
with the psychic and other inner movements which create a  true  inner
and spiritual life behind the outer life and nature. It is then easier
to govern and change the latter.
    At present there are fluctuations in  your  consciousness  because
this  inner state is not yet fully developed and established.  When it
is,  there will still be fluctuations in the outer consciousness,  but
the inner quiet, force, love etc, will be constant and the superficial
fluctuations will be watched by the  inner  being  without  its  being
shaken  or  troubled,  until  they  are  removed by the complete outer
change.
    As for  X,  it  is  best  to  let it pass and try to remain steady
within and detached;  one can't separate from all contacts;  one  must
become more and more superior to their customary reactions.

                                 ***

The condition  you describe in your work means that the inner being is
awake and that there is now the double consciousness.  It is the inner
being which has the inner happiness,  the calm and quiet,  the silence
free from any ripple of thought, the inwardly silent repetition of the
name.  The  automatic  repetition  of  the  mantra is part of the same
phenomenon - that is what ought to  happen  to  the  mantra,  it  must
become  a conscious but spontaneous thing repeating itself in the very
substance of the consciousness itself, no longer needing any effort of
the  mind.  All these doubts and questionings of the mind are useless.
What has to happen is that this inner consciousness should  be  always
there not troubled by any disturbance with the constant silence, inner
happiness and quietude etc.,  while the outer consciousness does  what
is necessary in the way of work etc, or, what is better, has that done
through it - it is this latter experience that you have some  days  as
someone  pushing  the  work with so much continuous force without your
feeling tired.
    If you  feel  more  quiet  and the surrender feeling more intense,
then that is a good, not a bad condition - and if it makes the mind an
empty  room receiving the light,  so much the better.  Experiences and
descents  are  very  good  for  preparation,   but   change   of   the
consciousness  is  the  thing  wanted  -  it  is  the  proof  that the
experiences and descents have had an effect.  Descents  of  peace  are
good,  but  an increasingly stable quietude and silence of the mind is
something more valuable.  When that is there,  then other  things  can
come - usually one at a time, light or strength and force or knowledge
or Ananda. It is not necessary to go on forever having always the same
preparatory  experiences  - a time comes when the consciousness begins
to take a new poise and another state.

                                 ***

It is  simply  because you are full of mental and vital activities and
relations.  One must get the power to quiet the mental and  vital,  if
not at first at all times, yet whenever one wills - for it is the mind
and vital that cover up the psychic being as well as the self  (Atman)
and  to get at either one must get in through their veil;  but if they
are always active and you are always identified with their activities,
the veil will always be there.  It is also possible to detach yourself
and look at these activities as if  they  were  not  your  own  but  a
mechanical  action  of  Nature  which  you  observe as a disinterested
witness.  One can then  become  aware  of  an  inner  being  which  is
separate,  calm and uninvolved in Nature. This may be the inner mental
or vital Purusha and not the psychic,  but to get at the consciousness
of  the  inner manomaya and pr€�amaya Purusha is always a step towards
the unveiling of the psychic being.
    Yes, it would be better to get full control of the speech - it  is
an important step towards going inward and developing a true inner and
yogic consciousness.

                                 ***

The inner being is composed of the 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 from the whole Prakriti.  Sometimes  it
is felt above the head,  but then it is usually spoken of as the Atman
and the realisation is that of the silent Self.

                                 ***

The consciousness you speak of would be described in the Glta  as  the
witness Purusha.  The Purusha or basic consciousness is the true being
or at least,  in whatever plane  it  manifests,  represents  the  true
being.  But  in the ordinary nature of man it is covered up by the ego
and the ignorant play of the Prakriti and remains veiled behind as the
unseen Witness supporting the play of the Ignorance.  When it emerges,
you feel it as a consciousness  behind,  calm,  central,  unidentified
with the play which depends upon it. It may be covered over, but it is
always there.  The emergence  of  the  Purusha  is  the  beginning  of
liberation.  But it can also become slowly the Master - slowly because
the whole habit of the ego and the play of the lower forces is against
that.  Still  it  can dictate what higher play is to replace the lower
movement and then there is the process of that replacement, the higher
coming,  the  lower  struggling  to  remain  and  push away the higher
movement. You say rightly that the offering to the Divine shortens the
whole  thing  and  is  more  effective,  but usually it cannot be done
completely at once owing  to  the  past  habit  and  the  two  methods
continue together until the complete surrender is possible.

                                 ***

By itself  the  Purusha  is impersonal,  but by mixing itself with the
movements of Prakriti it  makes  for  itself  a  surface  of  ego  and
personality.  When  it  appears  in its own separate nature then it is
seen to be detached and observing.

                                 ***

The witness being does not  always  remain  as  a  point.  It  becomes
something extended supporting the rest.

                                 ***

The attitude  of  the witness consciousness within - I do not think it
necessarily involves an external seclusion,  though one  may  do  that
also  -  is  a  very  necessary  stage  in the progress.  It helps the
liberation from the lower Prakriti  -  not  getting  involved  in  the
ordinary  nature  movements;  it  helps the establishment of a perfect
calm and peace within,  for there is then one part of the being  which
remains detached and sees without being disturbed the perturbations of
the surface;  it helps also the ascent into the  higher  consciousness
and  the  descent of the higher consciousness,  for it is through this
calm,  detached and liberated inner being that the ascent and  descent
can  easily  be  done.  Also,  to  have  the  same witness look on the
movements  of  Prakriti  in  others,  seeing,  understanding  but  not
perturbed  by  them  in  any way is a very great help towards both the
liberation  and  the  universalisation  of  the  being.  I  could  not
therefore  possibly  object to this movement in a sadhak.
    As for the surrender it  is  not  inconsistent  with  the  witness
attitude. On the contrary by liberating from the ordinary Prakriti, it
makes easier the surrender to the higher or divine Power.  Very  often
when  this  witness  attitude  has  not  been  taken  but  there  is a
successful calling in of the Force to act in one,  one  of  the  first
things the Force does is to establish the witness attitude so as to be
able to act with less interference or immixture from the movements  of
the  lower  Prakriti.
    There remains the question of the avoidance of contact with others
and there there is some difficulty or incertitude. Part of your nature
has a strong turn towards  contact  with  others,  action  on  others,
interchange,  almost a need of it.  This brings about some fluctuation
between the turn to an inner isolation and the  turn  towards  contact
and  action.  There  is  the  same  double and fluctuating movement in
others here like X.  In such cases I  generally  do  not  stress  upon
either  tendency  but  leave  the consciousness to find its own poise,
because I have seen that to press too much on the  isolation  tendency
when the nature is not mainly contemplative does not succeed very well
- unless of  course  the  sadhak  himself  gets  a  strong  and  fixed
determination  that way.  This may be the cause of what you felt.  But
the question between witness attitude and surrender  does  not  arise,
for the reason I have explained - one can very well aid or lead to the
other as ours is a yoga which joins these things together and does not
keep them always separate.

                                 ***

The silence descends into the inner being first - as also other things
from  the  higher  consciousness.  One  can become aware of this inner
being calm,  silent,  untouched by the movements of  Nature,  full  of
knowledge  or  light,  and at the same time be aware of another lesser
being,  the small personality on the surface which is made up  of  the
movements  of  Nature  or  else still subject to them or else,  if not
subject to them,  still open to invasion by them.  This is a condition
that any number of sadhaks and yogis have experienced. 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 in no way compel
the action.  It is on the contrary a  very  favourable  stage  in  the
transformation  because  the  inner being can bring the whole force of
the higher consciousness in it to change the nature wholly,  observing
the  action of Nature without being affected by it,  putting the force
for change wherever needed and setting the whole being  right  as  one
does with a machine.  That is if one wants a transformation.  For many
Vedantins don't think it necessary -  they  say  the  inner  being  is
mukta,  the rest is simply a mechanical continuation of the impetus of
Nature in the physical man and will drop away with the  body  so  that
one can depart into Nirvana.

                                 ***

That is  the  old  Vedantic  idea - to be free and detached within and
leave the Prakriti to itself.  When you die,  the Purusha will  go  to
glory and the Prakriti drop off - perhaps into hell.  This theory is a
source of any amount of self-deception and wilful selfindulgence.

                                 ***

You can certainly go on developing the consciousness  of  the  Witness
Purusha  above,  but if it is only a witness and the lower Prakriti is
allowed to have its own way,  there  would  be  no  reason  why  these
conditions  should  ever  stop.  Many  take  that  attitude - that the
Purusha has to liberate itself by standing apart, and the Prakriti can
be  allowed to go on till the end of the life doing its own business -
it is pr€rabdha karma,  when the body falls away,  the  Prakriti  will
drop also and the Purusha go off into the featureless Brahman! This is
a comfortable theory,  but of more than doubtful truth;  I don't think
liberation is so simple and facile a matter as that.  In any case, the
transformation which is the object of our yoga would not  take  place.

    The Purusha  above  is  not  only  a Witness,  he is the giver (or
withholder) of the sanction;  if he persistently refuses the  sanction
to a movement of Prakriti,  keeping himself detached, then, even if it
goes on for a time by its past momentum,  it usually  loses  its  hold
after a time,  becomes more feeble, less persistent, less concrete and
in the end fades away.  If you  take  the  Purusha  consciousness,  it
should  be  not  only  as  the  Witness but as the Anumanta,  refusing
sanction to the disturbing movements,  sanctioning only  peace,  calm,
purity and whatever else is part of the divine nature. This refusal of
sanction need not mean a struggle with the lower Prakriti;  it  should
be   a   quiet,  persistent,  detached  refusal  leaving  unsupported,
unassented to,  without meaning or justification,  the contrary action
of the nature.

                                 ***

When one follows after the impersonal Self,  one is moving between two
opposite principles  -  the  silence  and  purity  of  the  impersonal
inactive Atman and the activity of the ignorant Prakriti. One can pass
into the Self,  leaving the ignorant nature or reducing it to silence.
Or  else,  one can live in the peace and freedom of the Self and watch
the action of Nature as a witness.  Even  one  may  put  some  sattwic
control,  by  tapasya,  over  the  action  of  the  Prakriti;  but the
impersonal Self has no power to change or  divinise  the  nature.  For
that  one  has  to  go  beyond  the impersonal Self and seek after the
Divine who is both  personal  and  impersonal  and  beyond  these  two
aspects.  If,  however, you practise living in the impersonal Self and
can achieve a  certain  spiritual  impersonality,  then  you  grow  in
equality, purity, peace, detachment, you get the power of living in an
inner freedom not touched by the surface movement or struggle  of  the
mental,  vital and physical nature, and this becomes a great help when
you have to go beyond the impersonal and to change the troubled nature
also into something divine.
    As for the offering of the actions to the  Divine  and  the  vital
difficulty it raises, it is not possible to avoid the difficulty - you
have to go through and conquer it.  For,  the  moment  you  make  this
attempt,  the  vital  arises  with  all  its restless imperfections to
oppose the change.  However,  there are three things  you  can  do  to
alleviate  and shorten the difficulty:
    1. Detach yourself  from  this  vital-physical  -  observe  it  as
something not yourself;  reject it,  refuse your consent to its claims
and impulses,  but quietly as the witness  Purusha  whose  refusal  of
sanction  must ultimately prevail.  This ought not to be difficult for
you,  if you have already  learned  to  live  more  and  more  in  the
impersonal Self.
    2. When you are not in this impersonality,  still use your  mental
will  and  its  power  of  assent  or  refusal,  -  not with a painful
struggle,  but in the same way, quietly, denying the claims of Desire,
till  these  claims by loss of sanction and assent lose their force of
return and become more and more faint and external.
    3. If  you  become aware of the Divine above you or in your heart,
call for help,  for light and power from there  to  change  the  vital
itself,  and  at  the  same time insist upon this vital till it itself
learns to pray for  the  change.
    Finally, the   difficulty   will   be   reduced  to  its  smallest
proportions the moment you can by the sincerity of your aspiration  to
the  Divine  and  your  surrender awaken the psychic being in you (the
Purusha in the secret heart) so that it will come forward  and  remain
in front and pour its influence on all the movements of the mind,  the
vital and the physical consciousness.  The work of transformation will
still  have  to be done,  but from that moment it will no longer be so
hard and painful.

                                 ***

Obviously not. The witness attitude is not meant as a convenient means
for disowning the responsibility of one's defects and thereby refusing
to mend them.  It is meant for self-knowledge and,  in our yoga,  as a
convenient station (detached and uninvolved,  therefore not subject to
Prakriti)  from which one can act on the wrong movements by refusal of
assent  and  by  substituting  for  them  the  action  of   the   true
consciousness from within or above.

                                 ***

III

                                 ***

It is  a  very  serious  difficulty  in  one's yoga - the absence of a
central will always superior to the  waves  of  the  Prakriti  forces,
always  in  touch  with  the  Mother,  imposing  its  central  aim and
aspiration on the nature.  That is because you have not yet learned to
live in your central being, you have been accustomed to run with every
wave of Force,  no matter of what kind,  that rushed upon you  and  to
identify yourself with it for the time being.  It is one of the things
that has to be unlearned;  you must find your central being  with  the
psychic as its basis and live in it.

                                 ***

So long as the mind is jumping about or rushing out to outside things,
it is not possible to be inward, collected, conscious within.

                                 ***

To be aware of one's central consciousness and to know the  action  of
the forces is the first definite step towards self-mastery.

                                 ***

It [consciousness]  means  both.  One  must  be conscious of all one's
states and movements and the causes and  influences  that  bring  them
about and conscious too of the Divine - the memory,  presence,  power,
peace, light, knowledge, love, Ananda of the Divine.

                                 ***

Detachment is the beginning of mastery, but for complete mastery there
should  be  no  reactions  at  all.  When  there  is  something within
undisturbed by the reactions that means the inner being  is  free  and
master of itself,  but it is not yet master of the whole nature.  When
it is master,  it allows no wrong reactions - if any come they are  at
once repelled and shaken off, and finally none come at all.

                                 ***

You must gather yourself within more firmly.  If you disperse yourself
constantly, go out of the inner circle, you will constantly move about
in the pettiness of the ordinary outer nature and under the influences
to which it is open.  Learn to live within, to act always from within,
from  a  constant  communion  with the Mother.  It may be difficult at
first to do it always and completely, but it can be done if one sticks
to it - and it is at that price,  by learning to do that, that one can
have the siddhi in the yoga.

                                 ***

You must have somehow externalised yourself too much.  It is  only  by
living  in  one's  inner consciousness and doing everything from there
that the right psychic condition can be kept. Otherwise it goes inside
and the external covers it up.  It is not lost,  but hidden - one must
go inside again to recover it.

                                 ***

It is the past habit of the vital that makes  you  repeatedly  go  out
into  the  external part;  you must persist and establish the opposite
habit of living in your inner being which is your true  being  and  of
looking  at  everything from there.  It is from there that you get the
true thought,  the true vision and understanding of things and of your
own self and nature.

                                 ***

Yes. When  one is in the right consciousness,  then there is the right
movement,  the right happiness,  everything in harmony with the Truth.

    When there   is   the   wrong   consciousness,  there  is  demand,
dissatisfaction, doubt, all kinds of disharmony.

                                 ***

The difference is when a thing is done with the inner mind and when it
is  done  only  with the outer brain.  What you feel is the inner mind
taking it up - then it becomes part of the  consciousness  and  things
are really learned - the working of the outer mind is always difficult
and superficial.
    It is  evident  that  the  inner being in you is beginning to come
more and more forward. As it does so, these outer difficulties will be
more and more pushed out and the consciousness will keep the peace and
force at first in the greater part of it, afterwards in the whole.

                                 ***

Yes, that is all right. Relying on outer methods mainly never succeeds
very  well.  It  is  only when there is the inner poise that the outer
movement is really effective and then it comes of itself.

                                 ***

It is good.  Fasten on the true thing,  the concentration in the inner
being  and  the  inner  life.  All  these  outer  things  are of minor
importance and it is only when the inner life is well established that
the  difficulties  with  which  they  are  hampered can get their true
solution. That you have seen several times when you went inside. To be
too  much  occupied  in  mind  with  the  outer  difficulties keeps it
externalised.  Living inwardly you will find the Mother close  to  you
and realise her will and her action.

                                 ***

The difficulty  is  that  you attach so much importance to things that
are of quite a small value.  You behave as if to have or  have  not  a
table is something of supreme importance and worry and excite yourself
so much about the rights and wrongs of the matter that you allow it to
upset  your  whole  peace  of  mind  and  make  you fall from the true
condition.  These things are small and relative - you may have  a  new
table  or  you  may  not have a new table,  neither way is of any very
great importance and it makes no difference to the Divine  Purpose  in
you.  The  one  thing  important is to increase calm and peace and the
descent of the Divine Force,  to grow in equality and inward light and
consciousness.  Outward  things  have  to  be done with a great quiet,
doing whatever is necessary but not  exciting  or  upsetting  yourself
about  anything.  It  is  only  so  that  you can advance steadily and
quickly. When you feel the Mother's Force about you, the peace closely
round  you  that  is the one thing of importance - these small outward
things can be settled in a hundred different ways,  it does not really
matter.

                                 ***

IV

                                 ***

The dream  about  X  was  of  course  a continuation of the process of
clearing out remnants of the old movement from the subconscious vital.

    The experience you relate,  the stillness,  the emptiness of  mind
and vital and cessation of thoughts and other movements was the coming
of the state called "samadhi" in which the consciousness  goes  inside
in a deep stillness and silence. This condition is favourable to inner
experience,  realisation,  the vision of the unseen truth  of  things,
though one can get these in the waking condition also. It is not sleep
but the state in which one feels conscious within,  no longer outside.

    The diamond in your heart was a formation of the light of Mother's
consciousness there, - for the Mother's light is of a white and at its
most intense of a diamond  radiance.  The  light  is  a  sign  of  the
Mother's presence in your heart and that is what you saw once and felt
for a moment.
    The inability  to  read  books  or  papers  is often felt when the
consciousness is getting the tendency to go inside.

                                 ***

The experience   you  had  is  of  course  the  going  inside  of  the
consciousness which is usually called  trance  or  sam€dhi.  The  most
important  part  of  it  however  is the silence of the mind and vital
which is fully extended to the body also.  To get the capacity of this
silence and peace is a most important step in the sadhana. It comes at
first in meditation and may throw the consciousness inward in  trance,
but it has to come afterwards in the waking state and establish itself
as a permanent basis for all the life and action.  It is the condition
for  the  realisation  of the Self and the spiritual transformation of
the nature.

                                 ***


    1. No,  it  was  not  sleep.  You  went  inside  into   an   inner
consciousness;  in  this inner consciousness one is awake inside,  but
not outside,  not conscious of external things  but  of  inner  things
only. Your inner consciousness was busy doing what your outer mind had
been trying to do,  that is to work upon the thoughts and  suggestions
that  bring  restlessness  and to put them right;  it can be done much
more easily by the inner consciousness than by the outer mind.
    2. As  for  the things that are necessary to be done,  they can be
done much more easily by the Force and Peace descending (bringing  the
solid strength) than by your own mental effort.

                                 ***

There is  no  reason  why  one should not have a burning aspiration in
sleep,  provided one is conscious in sleep. In fact, the condition you
describe  was  not  sleep  -  it was simply that the consciousness was
trying to go inside  in  a  sort  of  indrawn  condition  (a  kind  of
half-samadhi) while the external mind was constantly coming out of it.
What you have,  if you go into this indrawn condition,  is not  dreams
but   spiritual   experiences  or  visions  or  experiences  in  other
supraphysical planes of consciousness.  Your  burning  aspiration  was
just such a spiritual experience.

                                 ***

About your experiences:
    1. The sleep which you felt when meditating was not sleep  but  an
inward  condition of the consciousness.  When this inward condition is
not very deep,  one can be aware of various scenes, voices, etc, which
belong  not to the physical but to some inner plane of consciousness -
their value or truth depends on the plane to which one reaches.  Those
of the surface are of no importance and one has simply to pass through
them till one gets deeper.
    2. The  fear,  anger,  depression,  etc,  which  used to rise when
making the Japa of the names came  from  a  vital  resistance  in  the
nature  (this  resistance  exists  in  everyone)  which threw up these
things because of the pressure on the vital part to  change  which  is
implied in sadhana.  These resistances rise and then, if one takes the
right attitude,  slowly or quickly clear away. One has to observe them
and  separate  oneself from them,  persisting in the concentration and
sadhana till the vital becomes quiet and clear.
    3. The things you saw (moon,  sky, etc.) are due to the opening of
the inner vision;  this usually comes when the concentration begins to
open up the inner consciousness of which this subtle vision is a part.
This faculty of vision has its importance in the  development  of  the
inner  being,  and  need  not  be  discouraged,  even  though too much
importance should not be attached to the things seen  in  the  earlier
stages.
    4. There are some, however, that are part of the growing spiritual
experience,  such  as the sun you saw overhead and the piece of golden
light - for these are signs of an opening within  and  symbolic.  Both
are  symbols  of the Divine Truth and Light and of one action of their
influence.
    5. The  most important experience,  however,  is that of the peace
and quiet which comes with a good concentration.  It is this that must
grow  and  fix  itself in the mind and vital and body - for it is this
peace and quiet that make a firm basis for the sadhana.

                                 ***


    1. All  these  thoughts  and  influences come really from outside,
from universal Nature - they create formations in us or  get  habitual
responses from the individual being.  When they are rejected,  they go
back into the external universal Nature and if one becomes  conscious,
one  can  feel  them  coming  from outside and trying to get a lodging
inside again or reawaken the habitual response. One has to reject them
persistently till no possibility of response remains any longer.  This
is hastened much if a certain inner calm,  purity and silence  can  be
established  from  which  these things fall away without being able to
touch it.
    2. It  is  a  common  obstacle  with  all who practice yoga at the
beginning.  The sleep disappears gradually in two  ways:  (a)  by  the
intensifying  of  the  fire of concentration,  (b) by the sleep itself
becoming a kind of svapna-sam€dhi in which one is conscious  of  inner
experiences that are not dreams (i.e. the waking consciousness is lost
for the time but it  is  replaced  not  by  sleep  but  by  an  inward
conscious  state in which one moves in the supraphysical or the mental
or vital being).
    3. About unconsciousness coming in in sleep:  This is quite usual.
Consciousness in sleep can only  be  gradually  established  with  the
growth of the true consciousness in the waking state.
    4. The cardiac centre and the heart centre are  the  same.
    5. A  concrete imagery,  such as you use,  can help to bring about
the descent.

                                 ***

As to  the  dream,  it  was not a dream but an experience of the inner
being in a conscious dream-state, svapna-sam€dhi. The numbness and the
feeling  of  being  about  to lose consciousness are always due to the
pressure or descent of a Force to which the body is not accustomed but
feels  strongly.  Here  it  was  not  the physical body that was being
directly pressed,  but the subtle body,  s“k˜ma ™arˆra,  in which  the
inner  being  more intimately dwells and in which it goes out in sleep
or trance or at the moment of death.  But the physical body  in  these
vivid  experiences  feels  as  if  it  was  itself that was having the
experience;  the numbness was the effect in it of  the  pressure.  The
pressure  on  the  whole body would mean a pressure on the whole inner
consciousness,  perhaps for some modification or  change  which  would
make  it  more ready for knowledge or experience;  the third or fourth
rib would indicate a region which belongs to  the  vital  nature,  the
domain of the life-force, some pressure for a change there.

                                 ***

There is no need of the question. At this stage you have only to watch
the experiences and observe their significance.  It is only  when  the
experiences  are  in  the vital realm that some are likely to be false
formations. These of which you write are simply the common experiences
of  an  opening  yogic  consciousness  and they have to be understood,
simply.
    Here it is the breaking up of the small  surface  vital  into  the
largeness  of  the true or inner vital behig which can at once open to
the Higher Consciousness,  its power,  light and Ananda. There is also
begun a similar breaking of the small physical mind and sense into the
wideness of the inner physical consciousness.  The  inner  planes  are
always wide and open into the Universal, while the outer surface parts
are shut up in themselves and full of narrow and ignorant movements.

                                 ***

Your series  of  experiences  are  very  interesting  by  the constant
(though  interspaced)  development  they  illustrate.  These  two  new
significant  elements have been added to the previous substance of the
experience.  The first is the very precise localisation of the  uprush
of  the  consciousness  from  the pit of the stomach - that is to say,
from above the navel,  the movement itself  starting  from  the  navel
itself, even below it. The navel-centre (n€bhi-padma) is the main seat
of the 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 make the domain of the
vital being.  It is therefore 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) being awake and
sharing in it this time.  The experience itself  was  psychic  in  its
origin, but was given a strong emotional-vital form in its expression.
I may add,  for completeness, that the centre of the psychic is behind
the  heart  and  it  is through the purified emotions that the psychic
most easily finds an outlet.  All from the heart  above  is  connected
with the mental-vital and above it is the mind with its three centres.
One in the throat  (the  outward-going  or  externalising  mind),  one
between  the  eyes or rather in the middle of the forehead (the centre
of vision and will) and one above, communicating with the brain, which
is  called the thousand-petalled lotus,  and where are centralised the
highest thought and intelligence,  communicating with the greater mind
planes (illumined mind,  intuition,  overmind) above.
    The second  new  significant  feature is the self-manifestation of
the inner mind;  for  it  was  your  inner  mind  that  was  watching,
observing  and  criticising the vital being's psychic experience.  You
found this clear division in you curious,  but it will no longer  seem
curious  once  you  know  the  perfectly  normal  divisibility  of the
different parts of the being.  In  the  outer  surface  nature,  mind,
psychic,  vital,  physical  are  all  jumbled  together and it needs a
strong power of introspection,  self-analysis,  close observation  and
disentanglement of the threads of thought, feeling and impulse to find
out the composition of our nature and the relation and interaction  of
these  parts  upon  each  other.  But when one goes inside as you have
done,  we find the sources of all this surface action  and  there  the
parts  of  our being are quite separate and clearly distinct from each
other.  We feel them indeed as different beings in us, and just as two
people  in  a  joint  action  can  do,  they  too are seen to observe,
criticise, help or oppose and restrain each other; it is as if we were
a  group-being,  each  member of the group with its separate place and
function,  and all directed by a central being  who  is  sometimes  in
front above the others, sometimes behind the scenes. Your mental being
was observing the vital and not quite easy about  its  vehemence,  for
the  natural  base  of  the  mental  being  is  calm,  thoughtfulness,
restraint, control and balance, while the natural turn of the vital is
dynamism,  energy  thrown  into  emotion,  sensation  and action.  All
therefore was perfectly natural and in order.

                                 ***

The explanation of your experience 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.

                                 ***

The important  experience  is that of the white ray in the heart - the
white light and the illumining of the heart by the light is a thing of
great  power in this sadhana.  The intuitions she speaks of are a sign
of the inner consciousness growing in her - the consciousness which is
necessary for yoga.

                                 ***

The three  experiences  of  which  you  speak  belong  all to the same
movement or the same stage of your spiritual life:  they  are  initial
movements  of  the  consciousness  to become aware of your inner being
which was veiled,  as in most, by the outer waking self. 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. This inner self once awake opens in its turn to
our true real eternal self.  It opens inwardly to the soul,  called in
the language of  this  yoga  the  psychic  being  which  supports  our
successive births and at each birth assumes a new mind, life and body.
It opens above to the Self or Spirit which is unborn and by  conscious
recovery  of  it  we  transcend  the  changing personality and achieve
freedom and full mastery over our nature.
    You did  quite right in first developing the sattwic qualities and
building up the inner meditative quietude. It is possible by strenuous
meditation  or  by certain methods of tense endeavour to open doors on
to the inner being or even break down some of the  walls  between  the
inner  and  outer  self  before  finishing  or  even  undertaking this
preliminary self-discipline,  but it is not always wise to  do  it  as
that  may  lead  to  conditions  of  sadhana which may be very turbid,
chaotic,  beset with unnecessary dangers. By adopting the more patient
course  you  have  arrived  at a point at which the doors of the inner
being  have  begun  almost  automatically  to  swing  open.  Now  both
processes  can  go  on  side by side,  but it is necessary to keep the
sattwic quietude,  patience,  vigilance,  - to hurry nothing, to force
nothing,  not  to  be  led  away  by  any  strong  lure or call of the
intermediate stage which is now beginning, before you are sure that it
is  the right call.  For there are many vehement pulls from the forces
of the inner planes which it  is  not  safe  to  follow.
    Your first  experience  is an opening into the inner mental self -
the space between the eyebrows  is  the  centre  of  the  inner  mind,
vision,  will  and  the blue light you saw was that of a higher mental
plane,  a spiritual mind,  one might say,  which is above the ordinary
human mental intelligence. An opening into this higher mind is usually
accompanied by a silence of the ordinary mental thought.  Our thoughts
are  not  really  created  within ourselves independently in the small
narrow thinking machine we call our mind;  in fact,  they come  to  us
from  a  vast  mental  space or ether either as mind-waves or waves of
mind-force that carry a significance which takes shape in our personal
mind or as thought-formations ready-made which we adopt and call ours.
Our outer mind is  blind  to  this  process  of  Nature;  but  by  the
awakening  of  the inner mind we can become aware of it.  What you saw
was the receding of this constant mental invasion and the  retreat  of
the  thought-forms  beyond  the  horizon  of  the wide space of mental
Nature.  You felt this  horizon  to  be  in  yourself  somewhere,  but
evidently  it  was  in  that  larger self-space which even in its more
limited field just between the eyebrows you felt to be bigger than the
corresponding  physical space.  In fact,  though the inner mind-spaces
have horizons,  they stretch beyond those horizons - illimitably.  The
inner  mind is something very wide projecting itself into the infinite
and finally identifying itself with the infinity  of  universal  Mind.
When  we  break out of the narrow limits of the external physical mind
we begin to see inwardly and to feel this wideness,  in the  end  this
universality  and infinity of the mental self-space.  Thoughts are not
the essence of mind-being, they are only an activity of mental nature;
if that activity ceases, what appears then as a thought-free existence
that manifests in its place is not a blank or void but something  very
real,  substantial,  concrete we may say - a mental being that extends
itself widely and can be its own field of existence silent  or  active
as well as the Witness,  Knower,  Master of that field and its action.
Some feel it first as a void, but that is because their observation is
untrained  and  insufficient and loss of activity gives them the sense
of blank;  an emptiness there is,  but  it  is  an  emptiness  of  the
ordinary activities,  not a blank of existence.
    The recurrence of the experience of the receding away of thoughts,
the  cessation of the thought-generating mechanism and its replacement
by the mental self-space,  is normal and as it  should  be;  for  this
silence  or  at any rate the capacity for it has to grow until one can
have it at will or even established in an  automatic  permanence.  For
this silence of the ordinary mind-mechanism is necessary in order that
the higher mentality may manifest,  descend,  occupy  by  degrees  the
place  of the present imperfect mentality and transform the activities
of the latter into its own fuller movements.  The  difficulty  of  its
coming  when  you  are  at work is only at the beginning - afterwards,
when it is more settled,  one finds that one  can  carry  on  all  the
activities  of life either in the pervading silence itself or at least
with that as the support and background.  The silence  remains  behind
and there is the necessary action on the surface or the silence is our
wide self and somewhere in it an active Power does the works of Nature
without disturbing the silence. It is therefore quite right to suspend
the work while the  visitation  of  the  experience  is  there  -  the
development   of  this  inner  silent  consciousness  is  sufficiently
important to justify a brief interruption or pause.
    In the case of the other two experiences,  on the contrary,  it is
otherwise.  The dream experience must not be allowed to take  hold  of
the  waking  hours and pull the consciousness within;  it must confine
its operation to the hours of sleep. So too there should be no push or
pressure  to  break down the wall between the inner self and the outer
"I" - the fusion must be allowed to take place by a  developing  inner
action in its own natural time. I shall explain why in another letter.

                                 ***

Your second experience is a first movement of  the  awakening  of  the
inner being in sleep.  Ordinarily when one sleeps a complex phenomenon
happens. The waking consciousness is no longer there, for all has been
withdrawn  within into the inner realms of which we are not aware when
we are awake,  though they exist;  for then all that is put  behind  a
veil  by  the  waking mind and nothing remains except the surface self
and the outward world - much as the veil of the sunlight hides from us
the  vast  worlds  of  the stars that are behind it.  Sleep is a going
inward in which the surface self and the outside world  are  put  away
from  our  sense  and  vision.  But in ordinary sleep we do not become
aware of the worlds within;  the  being  seems  submerged  in  a  deep
subconscience.  On the surface of this subconscience floats an obscure
layer in which dreams take  place,  as  it  seems  to  us,  but,  more
correctly it may be said, are recorded. When we go very deeply asleep,
we have what appears to us as  a  dreamless  slumber;  but,  in  fact,
dreams  are  going on,  but they are either too deep down to reach the
recording surface or are forgotten,  all recollection of their  having
existed   even   is   wiped  out  in  the  transition  to  the  waking
consciousness.  Ordinary dreams are for the most part or  seem  to  be
incoherent,  because  they are either woven by the subconscient out of
deep-lying impressions left in it by our past inner  and  outer  life,
woven  in  a  fantastic  way  which  does not easily yield any clue of
meaning to the waking mind's remembrance,  or are fragmentary records,
mostly distorted, of experiences which are going on behind the veil of
sleep - very largely indeed these two elements get mixed up  together.
For,  in fact, a large part of our consciousness in sleep does not get
sunk into this subconscious state;  it passes  beyond  the  veil  into
other  planes  of being which are connected with our own inner planes,
planes of supraphysical existence,  worlds of a larger life,  mind  or
psyche  which are there behind and whose influences come to us without
our  knowledge.  Occasionally  we  get  a  dream  from  these  planes,
something  more  than a dream,  - a dream experience which is a record
direct or symbolic of what happens to us or around us  there.  As  the
inner consciousness grows by sadhana, these dream experiences increase
in number,  clearness,  coherence,  accuracy and after some growth  of
experience   and  consciousness,  we  can,  if  we  observe,  come  to
understand them and their significance to our inner life.  Even we can
by training become so conscious as to follow our own passage,  usually
veiled to our awareness  and  memory,  through  many  realms  and  the
process of the return to the waking state.  At a certain pitch of this
inner wakefulness this kind of sleep,  a  sleep  of  experiences,  can
replace  the ordinary subconscious slumber.
    It is  of  course  an inner being or consciousness or something of
the inner self that grows in this way,  not as usually it  is,  behind
the veil of sleep, but in the sleep itself. In the condition which you
describe,  it is just becoming aware of sleep and dream and  observing
them  -  but as yet nothing farther - unless there is something in the
nature of your dreams that has escaped you.  But  it  is  sufficiently
awake for the surface consciousness to remember this state, that is to
say,  to receive and keep the report of it even in the transition from
the  sleep to the waking state which usually abolishes by oblivion all
but fragments of the record of sleep  happenings.  You  are  right  in
feeling that the waking consciousness and this 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 ordinary dreams) are
usually, in the great mass, experiences 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 may get very much attracted to this
range of experience, may want to live more in it and less in the outer
life.  This would be the  source  of  that  wanting  to  get  back  to
something  interesting and enthralling which accompanies the desire to
fall into sleep.  But this must not be encouraged in waking hours,  it
should be kept for hours set apart for sleep where it gets its natural
field.  Otherwise there may be an unbalancing, a tendency to live more
and too much in the visions of the supraphysical realms and a decrease
of the hold on outer realities.  The knowledge, the enlargement of our
consciousness  of these fields of inner nature is very desirable,  but
it must be kept in its own place and limits.

                                 ***

In my  last  letter  I  had  postponed  the  explanation of your third
experience.  What you have felt is indeed a touch of the Self, not the
unborn   Self  above,  the  Atman  of  the  Upanishads,  for  that  is
differently experienced through the silence of 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 self, but he will go
more and more inward,  till the position  is  reversed  and  he  lives
within in this new inner consciousness, inner self and feels the outer
as something on the surface formed as an instrumental personality  for
the inner's self-expression in the material world.  Then from within a
Power works on the outer to make it a conscious plastic instrument  so
that  finally  the inner and the outer may become fused into one.  The
wall you feel is indeed the wall of the ego  which  is  based  on  the
insistent identification of oneself with the outer personality and its
movements.  It is that identification which is  the  keystone  of  the
limitation and bondage from which the outer being suffers,  preventing
expansion,  self-knowledge, spiritual freedom. But still the wall must
not be prematurely broken down,  because that may lead to a disruption
or confusion or invasion of either part by the movements  of  the  two
separated  worlds  before  they  are  ready  to  harmonise.  A certain
separation is necessary for some time after one has  become  aware  of
these  two  parts of the being as existing together.  The force of the
yoga must be given time to make the necessary adjustments and openings
and  to  take the being inward and then from this inward poise to work
on the outer nature.
    This does not mean that one should not allow the consciousness  to
go  inward  so  that  as soon as possible it should live in the inward
world of being and see all anew from there.  That inward going is most
desirable  and  necessary and that change of vision also.  I mean only
that all should be done by  a  natural  movement  without  haste.  The
movement  of  going  inward  may  come  rapidly,  but  even after that
something of the wall of ego will be there and  it  will  have  to  be
steadily and patiently taken down so that no stone of it may abide. My
warning against allowing the sleep world to  encroach  on  the  waking
hours  is  limited  to  that  alone  and  does not refer to the inward
movement in waking concentration or ordinary waking consciousness. The
waking  movement  carries  us  finally into the inner self and by that
inner  self  we  grow  into  contact  with  and   knowledge   of   the
supraphysical  worlds,  but  this  contact  and knowledge need not and
should  not  lead  to  an  excessive  preoccupation  with  them  or  a
subjection to their beings and forces. In sleep we actually enter into
these worlds and there is the danger,  if the attraction of the  sleep
consciousness is too great and encroaches on the waking consciousness,
of this excessive preoccupation and influence.
    It is quite true that an inner purity and sincerity,  in which one
is motived only by the higher call,  is one's best  safeguard  against
the  lures of the intermediate stage.  It keeps one on the right track
and guards from deviation,  until the psychic being is fully awake and
in front and,  once that happens,  there is no further danger.  If, in
addition to this purity and sincerity,  there is a clear mind  with  a
power  of  discrimination,  that  increases  the safety in the earlier
stages.  I do not think I need or should specify too fully or  exactly
the forms the lure or pull is likely to take.  It may be better not to
call up these forces  by  an  attention  to  them  which  may  not  be
necessary.  I  do not suppose you are likely to be drawn away from the
path by any of the greater perilous  attractions.  As  for  the  minor
inconveniences  of the intermediate stage,  they are not dangerous and
can easily be set right as one goes by the  growth  of  consciousness,
discrimination and sure experience.
    As I have said,  the inward pull, the pull towards going inward is
not undesirable and need not be resisted. At a particular stage it may
be accompanied by an abundance of visions due to  the  growth  of  the
inner  sight  which  sees  things  belonging  to  all  the  planes  of
existence.  That is a valuable power helpful in the sadhana and should
not  be discouraged.  But one must see and observe without attachment,
keeping always the main object in front, realisation of the inner Self
and the Divine - these things should only be regarded as incidental to
the growth of consciousness and helpful  to  it,  not  as  objects  in
themselves  to be followed for their own sake.  There should also be a
discriminating mind which puts each thing in its place and  can  pause
to understand its field and nature. There are some who become so eager
after these subsidiary experiences that they begin to lose  all  sense
of  the  true  distinction and demarcation between different fields of
reality.  All that takes place in these experiences must not be  taken
as  true  -  one has to discriminate,  see what is mental formation or
subjective construction and what is true, what is only suggestion from
the  larger mental and vital planes or what has reality only there and
what is of value for help or guidance in inner sadhana or outer life.

                                 ***

X's experiences are those which usually attend the withdrawal from the
outer consciousness into an inner plane of experience.  The feeling of
coldness of the body in the first is one  of  the  signs  -  like  the
immobility and stiffness of Y's experience - that the consciousness is
withdrawing from the outer or physical sheath and retiring inside. The
crystallisation  was  the form in which he felt the organisation of an
inner consciousness which could receive at once firmly and freely from
above.  The  crystals  at once indicate organised formation and a firm
transparence in which the greater  vision  and  experience  descending
from  the higher planes could be clearly reflected.
    As for  the  other  experience,  his  rejection  of   the   waking
consciousness  evidently  had the result of throwing him into an inner
awareness in which he began to have  contact  with  the  supraphysical
planes.  What  was meant by the sea of red colour and stars depends on
the character of the red colour.  If it was crimson,  what he saw  was
the  sea  of  the  physical  consciousness  and physical life as it is
represented to the inner symbolic vision;  if it was purple red,  then
it  was  the  sea of the vital consciousness and the vital life-force.
Perhaps,  if he had not stopped his sense of the Mother's presence, it
would have been better,  - he should rather,  if he can,  take it with
him into the inner planes, then he would have had no occasion to fear.

    In any case,  if he wants to go into the inner  consciousness  and
move  in  the  inner planes - which will inevitably happen if he shuts
off the waking consciousness in his meditation -  he  must  cast  away
fear.  Probably  he  expected  to  get the silence or the touch of the
Divine Consciousness by following out the suggestion of the Gita.  But
the  silence  or  the touch of the Divine Consciousness can be equally
and for some more easily got in  the  waking  meditation  through  the
Mother's  presence  and  the descent from above.  The inward movement,
however,  is probably unavoidable and he should try to understand and,
not  shrinking  or  afraid,  to  go to it with the same confidence and
faith in the Mother as he has in the  waking  meditation.  His  dreams
are,  of  course,  experiences on the inner (vital) plane;  I need not
repeat the explanation I have already given  to  Y.
    P.S. The dream about the Mahadeva image may mean that someone (not
of this world,  of course) wanted to mislead him and make him  confuse
some  narrower  traditional  form  of the past with the greater living
Truth that he is seeking.

                                 ***

The things you feel are due to the fact that  the  consciousness  goes
inside, so physical things are felt as if they were at a distance. The
same phenomenon can  happen  when  one  goes  into  another  plane  of
consciousness and sees physical things from there.  But it is probably
the first that is happening with you. When one goes quite inside, then
physical things disappear,  - when some connection is kept,  then they
become distant.  But this is a transitory change. Afterwards, you will
be  able to have the two consciousnesses together,  be in your psychic
in one part of yourself with all the experience and activities of  the
psychic  being  and  nature and yet with your surface self fully awake
and active in physical things with the psychic support  and  influence
behind this outer action.

                                 ***

It is  evidently  in  a subtle world,  not the physical that you move;
that is evident from the different arrangement  of  things,  but  such
details  as  the  third arm and the book-marker removed yet there show
that it is a subtle world very near to the physical;  it is  either  a
subtle-physical  world  or  a  very material vital domain.  In all the
subtle domains the physical is reproduced with a  change,  the  change
growing freer and more elastic as one gets farther away.  Such details
as the lameness show the same thing,  - the hold of  the  physical  is
still there.  It is possible to move about in the physical world,  but
usually that can only be done by drawing on the  atmosphere  of  other
physical beings for a stronger materialisation of the form - when that
happens one moves among them and sees them and  all  the  surroundings
exactly  as  they  are  at that time in the physical world and one can
verify the accuracy of the details if immediately after  returning  to
the  body  (which  is  usually  done with a clear consciousness of the
whole process of getting into it) one can traverse the same  scene  in
the  physical body.  But this is rare;  the subtle wandering is on the
contrary a frequent phenomenon,  only when it is near to the  physical
world  all  seems  very  material  and concrete and the association of
physical habits and physical mental movements with the  subtle  events
is closer.

                                 ***

It was a partial exteriorisation,  part of the consciousness going out
to the scene and surroundings described by you while the rest remained
in  the  body  and  was aware both of the normal surroundings and,  by
communication  or  indirect  participation,  of  what  the  other  was
experiencing. This is quite possible and for that no form of trance or
loss of external consciousness is necessary.  As for the cause of such
an experience,  it does not depend at all on one's own ordinary mental
or other interests;  it comes by a sort of attraction  or  touch  from
someone  who is there on the scene and who feels the need of sympathy,
support or help of some kind, a need so strong that it forms a sort of
call; it is very usually somebody quite unknown and it just depends on
whom the call happens to touch because he is  open  at  the  time  and
receives  the vibration and has the capacity to answer.  Usually there
is a sort of identification of consciousness with that of  the  person
calling  so that one can see the surroundings and the things happening
through him.  It  is  the  physical  that  becomes  nervous  at  these
experiences  and  this must be overcome;  as the inner mental,  vital,
physical consciousness opens to things behind the thick physical  veil
all  kinds  of experiences may happen that are strange to the physical
mind and its tendency to be apprehensive or nervous  at  these  things
must disappear. It must be able to face even formidable things without
fear.
    For the  eyes,  that  experience had got a certain hold and it was
not to be expected that it would altogether  disappear  all  at  once.
These  things  try  to  persist,  but  if  the  refusal  is  firm  and
unchanging, they fade away after a time or cease. The lessening of the
intensity of the Ananda is already a sign that the rejection is having
its  effect.  You  have  only  to  persist  and  after  a  time  vital
consciousness will be free.

                                 ***

The place where you were is as much a world of fact and reality as  is
the material world and its happenings have sometimes a great effect on
this world.  What an ignorant lot of disciples you all are!  Too  much
modernisation and Europeanisation by half!
    These things  are  meetings on the vital plane,  but very often in
the transcription of what  happened  some  details  get  in  that  are
contributed by the subconscient. The rest seems all right. The writing
on the forehead means of course something that is fixed in you in  the
vital   plane   and   has  to  come  out  hereafter  in  the  physical
consciousness.

                                 ***

You are too physically matter of fact.  Besides you are quite ignorant
of  occult  things.  The  vital is part of what European psychologists
sometimes call the subliminal,  and the subliminal, as everybody ought
to know,  can do things the physical cannot do - e.g.  solve a problem
in a few minutes over which the physical has spent days in  vain  etc,
etc.
    What is the use of the same things happening on  both  planes?  It
would  be  superfluous  and  otiose.  The vital plane is a field where
things can be done which for some reason or other can't be done now on
the physical.
    There are of course hundreds of varieties of things in  the  vital
as  it  is  a much richer and more plastic field of consciousness than
the physical,  and all are not of  equal  validity  and  value.  I  am
speaking above of the things that are valid.  By the way, without this
vital plane there would be no art, poetry or literature - these things
come through the vital before they can manifest here.

                                 ***

What you  say about the different vital worlds is no doubt interesting
and has a certain truth,  but you must  remember  that  these  worlds,
which  are  different  from  the  true  or  divine vital,  are full of
enchantments and illusions and  they  present  appearances  of  beauty
which   allure  only  to  mislead  or  destroy.  They  are  worlds  of
'Rakshasimaya' and their heavens are more dangerous than their  hells.
They  have  to  be  known  and  their  powers met when need be but not
accepted; our business is with the supramental and with the vital only
when  it is supramentalised and until then we have always to be on our
guard against any lures from that other quarter. I think the worlds of
which  you  speak  are  those  which  have  a special attraction and a
special danger for poets,  imaginative people and some artists.  There
is,  specially,  a  strain  of  aestheticised  vital susceptibility or
sentiment or even sentimentalism through which they affect  the  being
and  it  is  one of the things that have to be purified before one can
rise to the highest poetry, art and imaginative creation.

                                 ***

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  act  on them and physically move them.  But the
ordinary sadhak who  has  no  knowledge  or  organised  experience  or
training  in  these  things cannot do it.  He must understand that the
vital plane is different from the physical and that things that happen
there  are not physical happenings,  though,  if they are of the right
kind and properly understood and used,  they may have  a  meaning  and
value for the earth life.  But also the vital consciousness is full of
false formations and many confusions and it is not safe to move  among
them without knowledge and without a direct protection and guidance.

                                 ***

You must  have  gone out of your body leaving it unprotected and there
was an attack which you got rid of after coming into  the  body.  This
part  of  the  head  from the ears down to the neck is the seat of the
physical mind - the centre of the physical or externalising mind is in
the  throat  joining  the  spine at the back.  It was an attack on the
physical mind.

                                 ***

Your three experiences related in your 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 in this way unless one has  the  protection
of  someone  (physically  present)  who has knowledge and power on the
vital world.  As there is no one there who can do this  for  you,  you
should  draw  back  from this movement.  Aspire for perfect surrender,
calm,  peace,  light,  consciousness and strength in the mind and  the
heart.  When  the  mental  being  and the 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  allow any fear to enter into you.  Face all you meet and
see in this world  with  detachment  and  courage.
    2. Ask  for  our protection before you sleep or meditate.  Use our
names when you are attacked or tempted.
    3. Do  not  indulge  in this world in any kind of sympathy for the
old man in the temple or accept such suggestions,  e.g.,  that he  was
your  spiritual  preceptor,  which was obviously false since you could
have no other spiritual preceptor than us.  It  was  because  of  this
sympathy and the accepted suggestion that he was able to go inside you
and create the pain you felt.
    4. Do  not  allow any foreign personality to enter into you,  only
the Light, Power etc, from above.

                                 ***

It looks as if it were an exteriorisation in which she goes out in her
vital body. When one does so consciously and at will, it is all right,
but this unconscious exteriorisation is not always safe. The important
question  is what effect it has on her.  If she comes out of it strong
and refreshed or quite normal,  there is  no  cause  for  distress  or
anxiety;  if  she  comes  out  exhausted or depressed,  then there are
forces that are pulling her out into the vital world to the  detriment
of her vital sheath and it should not continue.

                                 ***

Among X's   experiences   there   is   one   paper   headed   "surface
consciousness". What is described there is the nervous or physicovital
envelope.  This  is  the  thing  observed  by the mediums and it is by
exteriorising it to a less or greater extent that they  produce  their
phenomena.  How  did  X  come to know of it?  Was it by intuition,  by
vision or by personal experience?  If the  latter,  warn  him  not  to
exteriorise  this  vital  envelope,  for  to  do  so  without adequate
protection,  which must be that of  a  person  acquainted  with  these
things  and  physically  present at the time,  may bring about serious
psychical dangers and also injuries to the nervous being and the  body
or even worse.

                                 ***

There is no utility in such experiences;  they may happen on the vital
plane so long as one has still to pass  through  the  vital  range  of
experiences,  but  the  aim should be to get beyond them and live in a
pure psychic and spiritual experience.  To admit or call the  invasion
of  others  into one's own being is to remain always in the confusions
of the intermediate zone.  Only the Divine should be called into one's
personal  Adhar  -  by  which  is not meant the loss of one's personal
being or any idea of becoming the Divine,  for that should be avoided.
The  ego has to be overcome,  but the central personal being (which is
not the ego but the individual self,  soul,  a portion of the  Divine)
has  to  remain a channel and instrument of the Divine Shakti.  As for
others,  sadhaks,  etc,  one can  feel  them  in  one's  universalised
consciousness,  be aware of their movements, live in harmony with them
in the Divine All,  but not allow or call their  presence  within  the
personal  Adhar.  Very  often  that  leads  to  the  invasion  of  the
consciousness by vital powers or presences which assume the  forms  of
those  who are so admitted - and that is most undesirable.  The sadhak
must make his basic consciousness silent,  calm,  pure,  peaceful  and
preserve or attain an absolute control over what he 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.

                                 ***

I am not very sure of the  significance  of  your  friend's  statement
about  experiences.  The  'double' voice is a frequent phenomenon;  it
happens very often when one has been long repeating a  mantra  that  a
voice or consciousness within begins to repeat it automatically - also
prayer can be taken up in the same way from within.  It is usually  by
an  awakening  of  the  inner  consciousness or by the going in of the
consciousness more deeply within from  its  outward  poise  that  this
happens.  This  is  supported  in  his  case by the fact that he feels
himself half way to trance,  his body seems to melt away,  he does not
feel  the  weight of the book etc.;  all these are well-known signs of
the inner consciousness getting awake and largely replacing the outer.
The  moral  effects  of  his  new  condition  would  also  indicate an
awakening of the inner consciousness,  the psychic  or  psychic-mental
perhaps. But on the other hand he seems to feel this other voice as if
outside him and to have the sense of another being  than  himself,  an
invisible  presence  in  the  room.  The  inner being is often felt as
someone separate from or other than the ordinary self,  but it is  not
usually felt outside. So it may be that in this state of withdrawal he
comes into contact with another plane or world and attracts to himself
one of its being who wants to share in his sadhana and govern it.  The
last is not a very safe phenomenon,  for it is difficult to  say  from
the  data  what  kind  of  being  it  is  and  the handing over of the
government of one's inner development to any other  than  the  Divine,
the  Guru  or one's own psychic being may bring with it serious peril.
That is all I can say at present.

                                 ***

It is evident from your description that it was a vital  force  trying
to take violent possession of the body.  Nothing can be more dangerous
than to allow this kind of loss of control and intrusion of  an  alien
influence. In your present condition of ignorance, the vital being not
yet sufficiently open,  the psychic  not  yet  sufficiently  awake,  a
hostile  power  can  easily  intrude and pass itself off as the Divine
Force.  Remember that no personality and no power is to be allowed  to
possess you.  The Divine Force will not act in this way;  it will work
first to purify,  to widen and enlighten the consciousness, to open it
to  Light  and Truth,  to awake the heart and the psychic being.  Only
afterwards will it take gradual and quiet control through a  pure  and
conscious surrender.
    You must also understand that there is only one Power at work  and
neither you nor he nor anybody else matters. Let each one open himself
to the workings of that Power in him and let there be  no  attempt  at
forming a body of sadhaks with somebody leading or intervening between
the one Power and the sadhaks.

                                 ***

All the  other  circumstances which you relate are normal and would be
the  phenomena  of  an  invasion  of  Ananda   occupying   the   whole
instrumental  being  while  the  silent  inner  being  within  remains
separate as it does usually from all  that  comes  from  outside.  The
circumstance  that  is not clear is the Presence.  There is nothing to
indicate who or what it is.  If it were an undesirable vital  Presence
producing  a  vital joy,  there would usually be vital phenomena which
would enable you to detect their origin,  but these are  not  apparent
here.  In  the  circumstances  the  only  course  is  to  observe  the
experience without accepting any  occupation  of  the  being  by  what
comes,  taking it as only an experience which the inner being looks on
as a witness, until the point that remains veiled is made clear.
    P.S. There are several possible explanations but I do not speak of
them  as  that might influence and interfere with the pure observation
of the experience by bringing in a mental suggestion.

                                 ***

I have  read  your  letter  and I have also read it to the Mother.  My
conclusion about the experience - I had suspended judgement till now -
is the same as hers.
    We consider  that  it  will  be  wiser for you to be on your guard
about it in future.  In the first place it cannot be the Buddha -  the
Buddha's  presence would bring peace but could never give this kind of
Ananda.  Next,  the suggestion based on an old subjective  feeling  of
yours  seems  to  be thrown on you to make you more readily admit some
emprise that the experience is a means of establishing on  you.  Again
the  feeling  you  have that the Ananda is more than you can bear is a
sign not favourable to the experience;  you suppose that it is a  want
of  adaptation that gives you the feeling,  but it is more likely that
it is something foreign thrown on you through the vital with which the
psychic being in you does not feel at home. Finally, it is not safe to
admit while you are doing the yoga here another influence, whatever it
may be,  which is not ours or part of the movement of this sadhana. If
that takes place anything might happen and we would  not  be  able  to
protect  you  against  it  because  you  would have stepped out of the
circle of protection.  You have hitherto been  proceeding  on  a  very
sound line of development;  a diversion of this kind which seems to be
on the vital level might be a serious interference.  No trust  can  be
put  on  the beauty of the eyes or the face.  There are many Beings of
the inferior planes who have a captivating beauty and can enthral with
it and they can give too an Ananda which is not of the highest and may
on the contrary by its lure take away from the path  altogether.  When
you  have  reached  the  stage  of clear discernment where the highest
Light is turned on all things that  come,  then  experiences  of  many
kinds  may  be  safely  faced,  but  now  a  strict  vigilance must be
exercised and all diversions rejected.  It is necessary to keep  one's
steps  firmly on the straight road to the Highest;  all else must wait
for the proper time.

                                 ***

I have no doubt that the action  of  this  force  once  rejected  will
disappear  in  time.  It is something with which you have been brought
into contact, not something intimate to yourself to which part of your
being is naturally responsive. That is shown by the inability to catch
what the being who manifested wanted to convey to  you.  It  seems  to
have been an onslaught, as you say, an attempted invasion by force and
ruse.  It is quite true that when there is the opening to  the  Light,
the adverse Forces as well as the lower forces become active when they
can do so.  The consciousness of the seeker has come out of its normal
limits  and is opening to the universal as well as upwards to the Self
above and they take advantage of that to  attempt  an  entrance.  Such
onslaughts  however  are  not inevitable and you are probably right in
thinking that you caught it in  the  atmosphere  of  X.  He  has  made
experiments  of  many  kinds  in  the occult field and there one comes
easily into contact with forces and beings of a darker nature and  one
needs  a  great  power  and  light and purity - one's own or a helping
Power's - to face them and overcome.  There are also  deficiencies  or
errors  in  one's  own nature which can open the door to these beings.
But the best is if one can have nothing  to  do  with  them;  for  the
conquest  of  the  forces  of the lower nature is a sufficiently heavy
task without that complication. If the work one has to do necessitates
the  contact and conflict with them,  that is another matter.  In your
case I think this  has  been  something  of  an  accident  and  not  a
necessity of the development of your sadhana.

                                 ***

No, there was no special concentration or call from the Mother at that
time.  It was at a time when she never sees anyone,  so evidently  she
would  not  have  put  such  a  force  upon you,  nor does she usually
exercise her power in this way.  You did well to resist the impulsion.
It  is  always  necessary to keep the inner perception and will clear,
conscious and in perfect balance and  never  to  allow  any  force  of
impulsion,  however  it  may  present  itself,  to sweep without their
discerning consent  the  vital  or  the  body  into  action.  Whatever
appearance  they may assume,  such forces cannot be trusted;  once the
discriminating intelligence gives up its control,  any kind  of  force
can  intervene  in  this way and a path is opened for unbalanced vital
impulses to be used to the detriment of  the  sadhana.  A  psychic  or
spiritual  control  replacing the mental would not act in this way,  -
but whatever intensity or ardour it may give,  would maintain a  clear
perception of things,  a perfect discrimination, a harmony between the
inward and the outward reality.  It is only the vital that is swept by
these impulses; the vital must always be kept under the control of the
intelligence,  the psychic or when that becomes  dynamic,  the  higher
spiritual consciousness.

                                 ***

V

                                 ***

All these  experiences  are of the same nature and what applies to one
applies  to  another.  Apart  from  some  experiences  of  a  personal
character, the rest are either idea-truths, such as pour down into the
consciousness from above when one gets into touch with certain  planes
of being, or strong formations from the larger mental and vital worlds
which,  when one is directly open to these worlds, rush in and want to
use the sadhak for their fulfilment. These things, when they pour down
or come in,  present themselves with a great force,  a vivid sense  of
inspiration  or  illumination,  much  sensation  of light and joy,  an
impression of widening and power.  The sadhak feels himself freed from
the normal limits, projected into a wonderful new world of experience,
filled  and  enlarged  and  exalted;  what  comes  associates  itself,
besides,   with  his  aspirations,  ambitions,  notions  of  spiritual
fulfilment and yogic siddhi;  it is represented even  as  itself  that
realisation  and  fulfilment.  Very  easily  he is carried away by the
splendour and the rush,  and thinks that he has realised more than  he
has  truly  done,  something  final  or at least something sovereignly
true. At this stage the necessary knowledge and experience are usually
lacking  which  would  tell him that this is only a very uncertain and
mixed beginning;  he may not realise at once that he is still  in  the
cosmic   Ignorance,  not  in  the  cosmic  Truth,  much  less  in  the
Transcendental  Truth,  and  that  whatever   formative   or   dynamic
idea-truths  may  have  come  down  into  him are partial only and yet
further diminished by their presentation  to  him  by  a  still  mixed
consciousness.  He may fail to realise also that if he rushes to apply
what he is realising or receiving as if it were something  definitive,
he  may  either  fall  into confusion and error or else get shut up in
some partial formation in which there may be an element  of  spiritual
Truth  but  it  is likely to be outweighted by more dubious mental and
vital accretions that deform it altogether. It is only when he is able
to  draw  back (whether at once or after a time) from his experiences,
stand above them with the dispassionate witness consciousness, observe
their  real  nature,  limitations,  composition,  mixture  that he can
proceed on his way towards a real freedom and  a  higher,  larger  and
truer siddhi.  At each step this has to be done. For whatever comes in
this way to the sadhak of this yoga,  whether it be from  ovennind  or
Intuition  or  Illumined  Mind  or some exalted Life Plane or from all
these together,  it is not definitive and final; it is not the supreme
Truth  in  which he can rest,  but only a stage.  And yet these stages
have to be passed through,  for the supramental or the  Supreme  Truth
cannot  be  reached  in  one bound or even in many bounds;  one has to
pursue a calm patient steady progress through many intervening  stages
without  getting  bound  or attached to their lesser Truth or Light or
Power or Ananda.
    This is  in  fact  an  intermediary  state,  a  zone of transition
between  the  ordinary  consciousness  in  mind  and  the  true   yoga
knowledge.  One may cross without hurt through it,  perceiving at once
or at an early stage its real nature and refusing to  be  detained  by
its  half-lights  and  tempting  but  imperfect  and  often  mixed and
misleading experiences;  one may go astray in it,  follow false voices
and mendacious guidance, and that ends in a spiritual disaster; or one
may take up one's abode in this  intermediate  zone,  care  to  go  no
farther  and build there some half-truth which one takes for the whole
truth or become the instrument of the  powers  of  these  transitional
planes,-  that is what happens to many sadhaks and yogis.  Overwhelmed
by the first rush and sense of power of a supernormal condition,  they
get  dazzled  with  a  little  light  which seems to them a tremendous
illumination or a touch of force  which  they  mistake  for  the  full
Divine Force or at least a very great yoga Shakti; or they accept some
intermediate Power (not always a Power of the Divine) as  the  Supreme
and  an  intermediate  consciousness as the supreme realisation.  Very
readily  they  come  to  think  that  they  are  in  the  full  cosmic
consciousness  when  it is only some front or small part of it or some
larger Mind, Life-Power or subtle physical ranges with which they have
entered  into dynamic connection.  Or they feel themselves to be in an
entirely illumined consciousness,  while in reality they are receiving
imperfectly  things  from above through a partial illumination of some
mental or vital plane; for what comes is diminished and often deformed
in the course of transmission through these planes; the receiving mind
and vital of the sadhak also often understands or transcribes ill what
has been received or throws up to mix with it its own ideas, feelings,
desires, which it yet takes to be not its own but part of the Truth it
is receiving because they are mixed with it, imitate its form, are lit
up by its illumination and get  from  this  association  and  borrowed
light   an  exaggerated  value.
    There are worse dangers in this intermediate zone  of  experience.
For the planes to which the sadhak has now opened his consciousness, -
not as before getting  glimpses  of  them  and  some  influences,  but
directly,  receiving  their  full  impact,  -  send  a  host of ideas,
impulses,  suggestions,  formations  of  all  kinds,  often  the  most
opposite to each other, inconsistent or incompatible, but presented in
such a way as to slur over their insufficiencies and differences, with
great force, plausibility and wealth of argument or a convincing sense
of certitude.  Overpowered by  this  sense  of  certitude,  vividness,
appearance  of  profusion and richness,  the mind of the sadhak enters
into a great confusion which it takes for some larger organisation and
order;  or  else  it  whirls  about in incessant shiftings and changes
which it takes for a rapid progress but which lead nowhere.  Or  there
is  the  opposite  danger  that  he  may become the instrument of some
apparently brilliant but ignorant formation;  for  these  intermediate
planes are full of little Gods or strong Daityas or smaller beings who
want to create,  to materialise something or to enforce a  mental  and
vital  formation  in the earth life and are eager to use or influence,
or even possess the thought and will of the sadhak and make him  their
instrument  for  the purpose.  This is quite apart from the well-known
danger of actually hostile beings whose  sole  purpose  is  to  create
confusion,   falsehood,  corruption  of  the  sadhana  and  disastrous
unspiritual error.  Anyone allowing himself to be taken hold of by one
of  these beings,  who often take a divine Name,  will lose his way in
the yoga.  On the other hand, it is quite possible that the sadhak may
be  met  at his entrance into this zone by a Power of the Divine which
helps and leads him till he is ready for  greater  things;  but  still
that  itself  is  no  surety against the errors and stumblings of this
zone;  for nothing is easier than for the powers  of  these  zones  or
hostile  powers  to imitate the guiding Voice or Image and deceive and
mislead the sadhak or for  himself  to  attribute  the  creations  and
formations  of  his  own mind,  vital or ego to the Divine.
    For this intermediate zone is a region of half-truths -  and  that
by  itself would not matter,  for there is no complete truth below the
supermind;  but the half-truth  here  is  often  so  partial  or  else
ambiguous  in  its  application  that  it  leaves  a  wide  field  for
confusion,  delusion and error. The sadhak thinks that he is no longer
in  the  old  small consciousness at all,  because he feels in contact
with something larger or more powerful,  and yet the old consciousness
is  still  there,  not  really  abolished.  He  feels  the  control or
influence of some Power,  Being or Force greater than himself, aspires
to  be  its  instrument  and  thinks  he has got rid of ego;  but this
delusion of egolessness often covers an exaggerated ego.  Ideas  seize
upon  him  and  drive  his  mind  which are only partially true and by
over-confident  misapplication  are  turned  into   falsehoods;   this
vitiates  the  movements  of  the  consciousness and opens the door to
delusion.  Suggestions are made,  sometimes of a  romantic  character,
which  flatter  the  importance  of the sadhak or are agreeable to his
wishes and he  accepts  them  without  examination  or  discriminating
control.  Even what is true, is so exalted or extended beyond its true
pitch and limit and measure that it becomes the parent of error.  This
is a zone which many sadhaks have to cross, in which many wander for a
long time and out of which a great many never  emerge.  Especially  if
their  sadhana  is  mainly in the mental and vital,  they have to meet
here  many  difficulties  and  much  danger;  only  those  who  follow
scrupulously  a strict guidance or have the psychic being prominent in
their nature pass easily as if on  a  sure  and  clearly  marked  road
across  this intermediate region.  A central sincerity,  a fundamental
humility also save from much danger and trouble.  One  can  then  pass
quickly  beyond  into  a  clearer  Light  where if there is still much
mixture,  incertitude and struggle, yet the orientation is towards the
cosmic  Truth  and  not  to  a  halfillumined prolongation of Maya and
ignorance.
    I have  described  in  general  terms  with  its main features and
possibilities this state of consciousness just across  the  border  of
the  normal  consciousness,  because it is here that these experiences
seem to move.  But different sadhaks comport themselves differently in
it  and respond sometimes to one class of possibilities,  sometimes to
another. In this case it seems to have been entered through an attempt
to  call  down  or force a way into the cosmic consciousness - it does
not matter which way it is put or whether one is quite aware  of  what
one  is  doing  or  aware  of  it in these terms,  it comes to that in
substance.  It is not the  overmind  which  was  entered,  for  to  go
straight into the overmind is impossible. The overmind is indeed above
and behind the whole action of the cosmic consciousness,  but one  can
at  first  have only an indirect connection with it;  things come down
from  it  through  intermediate  ranges  into  a  larger   mind-plane,
life-plane,  subtle  physical  plane  and  come  very much changed and
diminished in the transmission,  without anything like the full  power
and truth they have in the overmind itself on its native levels.  Most
of the movements come not from the overmind, but down from higher mind
ranges.  The  ideas with which these experiences are penetrated and on
which they seem to rest their claim to truth are not of the  overmind,
but  of  the higher Mind or sometimes of the illumined Mind;  but they
are mixed with suggestions from the lower mind and vital  regions  and
badly  diminished  in  their application or misapplied in many places.
All this would not matter; it is usual and normal, and one has to pass
through  it and come into a clearer atmosphere where things are better
organised and placed on a surer basis.  But the movement was made in a
spirit  of  excessive hurry and eagerness,  of exaggerated self-esteem
and self-confidence,  of a premature certitude,  relying on  no  other
guidance  than  that of one's own mind or of the "Divine" as conceived
or experienced in a stage of very limited knowledge.  But the sadhak's
conception  and experience of the Divine,  even if it is fundamentally
genuine,  is never in such a stage complete and pure; it is mixed with
all  sorts of mental and vital ascriptions and all sorts of things are
associated with this Divine guidance and believed to  be  part  of  it
which  come  from  quite  other  sources.  Even supposing there is any
direct guidance,  - most often in these  conditions  the  Divine  acts
mostly  from behind the veil,  - it is only occasional and the rest is
done through a play of forces;  error and  stumbling  and  mixture  of
Ignorance  take  place freely and these things are allowed because the
sadhak has to be tested by the world-forces,  to learn by  experience,
to  grow through imperfection towards perfection - if he is capable of
it,  if he is willing to learn,  to open his eyes to his own  mistakes
and errors,  to learn and profit by them so as to grow towards a purer
Truth,  Light and Knowledge.
    The result  of  this  state  of  mind is that one begins to affirm
everything that comes in this mixed and dubious region as if  it  were
all the Truth and the sheer Divine Will;  the ideas or the suggestions
that constantly repeat themselves are expressed with a  self-assertive
absoluteness as if they were Truth entire and undeniable.  There is an
impression that one has become impersonal and free from ego, while the
whole tone of the mind,  its utterance and spirit are full of vehement
self-assertiveness justified by the affirmation that one  is  thinking
and  acting  as an instrument and under the inspiration of the Divine.
Ideas are put forward very aggressively that can be valid to the mind,
but  are  not  spiritually valid;  yet they are stated as if they were
spiritual absolutes. For instance, equality, which in that sense - for
yogic  Samata is a quite different thing - is a mere mental principle,
the claim to a sacred independence,  the refusal to accept  anyone  as
Guru  or  the  opposition made between the Divine and the human Divine
etc., etc. All these ideas are positions that can be taken by the mind
and  the vital and turned into principles which they try to enforce on
the religious or even the spiritual life,  but they are not and cannot
be spiritual in their nature.  There also begin to come in suggestions
from  the  vital  planes,  a  pullulation  of  imaginations  romantic,
fanciful  or  ingenious,  hidden  interpretations,  pseudo-intuitions,
would-be initiations into things beyond,  which excite or  bemuse  the
mind  and  are  often  so  turned  as  to  flatter and magnify ego and
self-importance, but are not founded on any well-ascertained spiritual
or  occult realities of a true order.  This region is full of elements
of this kind and,  if allowed,  they begin to crowd on the sadhak; but
if  he  seriously  means to reach the Highest,  he must simply observe
them and pass on.  It is not that there is never  any  truth  in  such
things,  but  for one that is true there are nine imitative falsehoods
presented and only a trained occultist with the infallible  tact  born
of long experience can guide himself without stumbling or being caught
through the maze. It is possible for the whole attitude and action and
utterance  to  be  so  surcharged with the errors of this intermediate
zone that to go farther on this route would be to travel far away from
the  Divine and from the yoga.
    Here the choice is still open whether to  follow  the  very  mixed
guidance  one  gets in the midst of these experiences or to accept the
true guidance.  Each man who enters the realms of yogic experience  is
free to follow his own way;  but this yoga is not a path for anyone to
follow,  but only for those who accept to seek the aim, pursue the way
pointed  out  upon which a sure guidance is indispensable.  It is idle
for anyone to expect that he can follow this road far,  - much less go
to  the  end  by his own inner strength and knowledge without the true
aid or influence.  Even the ordinary long-practised yogas are hard  to
follow without the aid of the Guru;  in this which as it advances goes
through untrodden countries and unknown entangled regions, it is quite
impossible.  As  for the work to be done it also is not a work for any
sadhak of any path;  it is not,  either,  the work of the "Impersonal"
Divine  who,  for  that  matter,  is  not an active Power but supports
impartially all work in the universe.  It is  a  training  ground  for
those  who  have to pass through the difficult and complex way of this
yoga and none other.  All work here  must  be  done  in  a  spirit  of
acceptance,  discipline  and surrender,  not with personal demands and
conditions,  but with a vigilant conscious submission to  control  and
guidance.  Work  done  in  any  other spirit results in an unspiritual
disorder,  confusion and disturbance of  the  atmosphere.  In  it  too
difficulties,  errors,  stumblings are frequent,  because in this yoga
people have to be led patiently and with  some  field  for  their  own
effort,  by experience,  out of the ignorance natural to Mind and Life
to a wider spirit and a luminous  knowledge.  But  the  danger  of  an
unguided  wandering  in the regions across the border is that the very
basis of the yoga may be contradicted and the conditions  under  which
alone  the  work  can  be done may be lost altogether.  The transition
through this intermediate zone - not obligatory,  for many pass  by  a
narrower but surer way - is a crucial passage; what comes out of it is
likely to be a very wide or  rich  creation;  but  when  one  founders
there,  recovery  is  difficult,  painful,  assured  only after a long
struggle and endeavour.

                                 ***

I have seen all the experiences that you have written down,  and  sent
to  me  and received yours and X's letter.  It is no doubt true as you
say that your sadhana has gone on different lines  from  that  of  the
others.  But  it  does  not  follow  that  you  are  entirely right in
insisting on your own ideas about it.  I shall tell you briefly what I
have observed about your experiences.
    The first things you  sent  were  very  interesting  and  valuable
psycho-spiritual  and  psycho-mental  experiences and messages.  Later
ones lean more to the psychic-emotional and have  in  them  a  certain
one-sidedness   and   mixture  and  there  are  also  psychovital  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
ought  not  to  accept  so  easily as you seem to do.  This mixture is
inevitable  in  the  earlier  stages  and  there  is  no  need  to  be
disheartened  about  it.  But  if you insist on preserving it,  it may
deflect you from your true path and injure your sadhana.
    As yet  you  have  no  sufficient  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  is  always good and there is the
psychic opening to mental,  vital and other worlds which  contain  all
kinds of things good,  bad and indifferent, true, false and half true,
thought-suggestions which are of all kinds,  and messages  also  which
are  of all kinds.  What is needed is not to give yourself impartially
to all of  them  but  to  develop  both  a  sufficient  knowledge  and
experience  and  a  sufficient  discrimination to be able to keep your
balance and eliminate falsehood, half-truths and mixtures. It will not
do  to  dismiss  impatiently  the  necessity for discrimination on the
ground that that is mere intellectualism.  The discrimination need not
be intellectual, although that also is a thing not to be despised. But
it may be a psychic discrimination or one that comes from  the  higher
supra-intellectual  mind  and  from the higher being.  If you have not
this,  then you have need of constant  protection  and  guidance  from
those who have it,  and who have also long psychic experience,  and it
may be disastrous for you to rely entirely on yourself and  to  reject
such  guidance.
    In the meantime there are three rules of  the  sadhana  which  are
very  necessary  in  an  earlier  stage and which you should remember.
First,  open yourself to experience but do not take the bhoga  of  the
experiences.  Do  not  attach  yourself  to  any  particular  kind  of
experience.  Do not take all ideas and suggestions as true and do  not
take  any knowledge,  voice or thought-message as absolutely final and
definitive. Truth itself is only true when complete and it changes its
meaning as one rises and sees it from a higher level.
    I must put you on your guard against the  suggestions  of  hostile
influences  which attack all sadhaks in this yoga.  The vision you had
of the European is itself an intimation to you that these forces  have
their  eye  on  you,  and  are prepared to act if they are not already
acting against you.  It is their subtler suggestions,  which take  the
figure  of truth,  and not their more open attacks,  that are the most
dangerous.  I will mention some of the most usual of them.
    Be on  your  guard  against  any suggestion that tries to raise up
your egoism, as for instance that you are a greater sadhak than others
or that your sadhana is unique or of an exceptionally high kind. There
seems to be some suggestion of this kind to you  already.  You  had  a
rich  and  rapid development of psychic experiences,  but so precisely
have some others who have meditated here and none of yours are  unique
in their kind or degree or unknown to our experience.  Even if it were
otherwise,  egoism is the greatest danger of the sadhana and is  never
spiritually  justifiable.  All  greatness  is God's:  it belongs to no
other.
    Be on  your guard against anything that suggests to you to keep or
cling  to  any  impurity  or  imperfection,  confusion  in  the  mind,
attachment in the heart,  desire and passion in the pr€�a,  or disease
in the body.  To keep up these things by ingenious justifications  and
coverings,  is one of the usual devices of the hostile forces.
    Be on your guard against any idea which will make you admit  these
hostile  forces  on the same terms as the divine forces.  I understand
you have said that you must admit all because all is  a  manifestation
of  God.  All  is  a  manifestation  of  God in a certain sense but if
misunderstood,  as it often is,  this Vedantic truth can be turned  to
the  purposes  of  falsehood.  There are many things which are partial
manifestations and have to be replaced by fuller truer manifestations.
There  are  others which belong to the ignorance and fall away when we
move to the knowledge.  There are others which are of the darkness and
have to be combated and destroyed or exiled. This manifestation is one
which has been freely used by the force represented  by  the  European
you  saw  in  your  vision  and  it  has ruined the yoga of many.  You
yourself wished to reject the intellect and yet  the  intellect  is  a
manifestation  of  God  as well as the other things you have accepted.

    If you  really accept and give yourself to me,  you must accept my
truth.  My truth is one that rejects ignorance and falsehood and moves
to  the  knowledge,  rejects darkness and moves to the light,  rejects
egoism and moves to the Divine Self,  rejects imperfections and  moves
to perfection.  My truth is not only the truth of Bhakti or of psychic
development but also of knowledge,  purity,  divine strength and  calm
and  of  the raising of all these things from their mental,  emotional
and vital forms to their supramental reality.
    I say  all these things not to undervalue your sadhana but to turn
your mind towards the way of its increasing completion and perfection.

    It is not possible for me to have you here just now. First because
the  necessary  conditions are not there and secondly because you must
be fully prepared to accept my guidance before you come here. If, as I
suppose you must under the present circumstances, you have to go home,
meditate there,  turning yourself to me and try to prepare yourself so
that  you  may  come here hereafter.  What you need now is not so much
psychic development,  which you will always be able to have (I do  not
ask  you  to  stop it altogether),  but an inner calm and quiet as the
true basis and atmosphere of your future development  and  experience,
calm  in  the  mind,  in  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.

                                 ***

I have read carefully X's letter and I think the best thing  is  first
to  explain his present condition as he describes it.  For he does not
seem to me to understand the true causes and the meaning.
    The present  condition of passivity and indifference is a reaction
from a former abnormal state to which he was brought  by  an  internal
effort  not  properly  guided from without or from within.  The effort
brought about a breaking of the veils which divide the  physical  from
the  psychic and vital worlds.  But his mind was unprepared and unable
to understand his experiences and judged them by the  light  of  fancy
and imagination and erroneous mental and vital suggestions.  His vital
being full of rajasic and egoistic energy rushed up violently to enjoy
these  new fields and use the force that was working for its own lower
ends.  This gave an opportunity for a hostile  power  from  the  vital
world  to  break  in  and  take  partial possession and the result was
disorganisation of the nervous and physical system  and  some  of  the
brain  centres.  The attack and possession seem to have passed out and
left behind the present reaction of passivity with a  strong  hold  of
tamas  and  indifference.  The  tamas  and  indifference  are  not  in
themselves desirable things but they are temporarily useful as a  rest
from the past unnatural tension. The passivity is desirable and a good
basis for a new and right working of the Shakti.
    It is  not  a true interpretation of his condition that he is dead
within and there is only an outside activity. What is true is that the
centre  of  vital egoism that thinks itself the actor has been crushed
and he now feels all the thought and  activity  playing  outside  him.
This  is  a  state of knowledge;  for the real truth is that all these
thoughts and activities are Nature's and come into us or pass  through
us  as  waves  from  the  universal  Nature.  It is our egoism and our
limitation in the body and individual physical mind which  prevent  us
from  feeling  and  experiencing this truth.  It is a great step to be
able to see and feel the truth as he is now  doing.  This  is  not  of
course the complete knowledge.  As the knowledge becomes more complete
and the psychic being opens  upwards  one  feels  all  the  activities
descending  from  above and can get at their true source and transform
them.
    The light playing in his head means that there has been an opening
to the higher force and knowledge which is descending  as  light  from
above  and working on the mind to illumine it.  The electrical current
is the force descending in order to work  in  the  lower  centres  and
prepare them for the light. The right condition will come when instead
of the vital forces trying to push upward the Prana becomes  calm  and
surrendered  and  waiting  with  full  assent  for  the light and when
instead of the chasm in between there is a constant aspiration of  the
heart towards the truth above. The light must descend into these lower
centres so as to transform the emotional and vital and physical  being
as  well  as  the  mental  thought  and will.
    The utility of psychic experiences and knowledge of the  invisible
worlds  as  of  other  yogic  experiences is not to be measured by our
narrow human notions of what may be useful for  the  present  physical
life  of  man.  In  the first place these things are necessary for the
fulness of the consciousness and the completeness of the being. In the
second  place these other worlds are actually working upon us.  And if
you know and can enter into them then instead of being the victims and
puppets of these powers we can consciously deal with,  control and use
them. Thirdly, in my yoga, the yoga of the supramental, the opening of
the  psychic  consciousness to which these experiences belong is quite
indispensable.  For it is only through the psychic  opening  that  the
supramental  can  fully  descend  with a strong and concrete grasp and
transform the mental,  vital and physical being.
    This is the present condition and its value.  For the future if he
wishes to accept my yoga the  conditions  are  a  steady  resolve  and
aspiration towards the truth I am bringing down,  a calm passivity and
an opening upward towards the source from which the light  is  coming.
The  Shakti  is  already working in him and if he takes and keeps this
attitude and has a complete confidence in me there is no reason why he
should  not advance safely in the sadhana in spite of the physical and
vital damage that has been done to his system.  As for his coming here
to  see me I am not yet quite ready but we will speak of it after your
return to Pondicherry.

                                 ***

As for the letter, I suppose you will have to tell the writer that his
father  committed  a mistake when he took up yoga without a Guru - for
the mental idea about a Guru cannot  take  the  place  of  the  actual
living influence. This yoga especially, as I have written in my books,
needs the help of  the  Guru  and  cannot  be  done  without  it.  The
condition  into  which his father got was a breakdown,  not a state of
siddhi.  He passed out of  the  normal  mental  consciousness  into  a
contact   with  some  intermediate  zone  of  consciousness  (not  the
spiritual) where  one  can  be  subjected  to  all  sorts  of  voices,
suggestions,  ideas,  so called inspirations which are not genuine.  I
have warned against the dangers of this intermediate zone in one of my
books.  {1  This  warning against the dangers of the intermediate zone
was given by Sri Autobindo in a long letter which was first  published
in  1933  in  the  book  The Riddle of this World.  This letter is now
included in the present Volume.  See pp.  1039-1046.} The  sadhak  can
avoid  entering  into  this  zone - if he enters,  he has to look with
indifference on all these things and observe them without lending  any
credence,  -  by  so  doing he can safely pass into the true spiritual
light. If he takes them all as true or real without discrimination, he
is  likely to land himself in a great mental confusion and if there is
in addition a lesion or weakness of the brain - the  latter  is  quite
possible in one who has been subject to apoplexy - it may have serious
consequences and even lead to a disturbance of the reason. If there is
ambition,  or  other  motive  of  the  kind  mixed up in the spiritual
seeking,  it may lead to a fall in the  yoga  and  the  growth  of  an
exaggerated egoism or megalomania - of this there are several symptoms
in the utterances of his father during the crisis.  In fact one cannot
or  ought not to plunge into the experiences of this sadhana without a
fairly long period of preparation and  purification  (unless  one  has
already  a  great  spiritual  strength  and elevation).  Sri Aurobindo
himself does not care to accept many into his path  and  rejects  many
more  than  he  accepts.  It would be well if he can get his father to
pursue the sadhana no farther - for what he is doing is not really Sri
Aurobindo's  yoga but something he has constructed in his own mind and
once there has been an upset  of  this  kind,  the  wisest  course  is
discontinuance.

                                 ***

The intermediate  zone means simply a confused condition or passage in
which one is getting out of the  personal  consciousness  and  opening
into the cosmic (cosmic Mind, cosmic vital, cosmic physical, something
perhaps of the cosmic higher Mind) without having yet transcended  the
human mind levels.  One is not in possession of or direct contact with
the divine Truth on its own levels, but one can receive something from
them,  even  from  the  overmind,  indirectly.  Only,  as one is still
immersed in the cosmic Ignorance,  all that comes from  above  can  be
mixed,  perverted,  taken hold of for their purposes by lower, even by
hostile Powers.
    It is   not   necessary  for  everyone  to  struggle  through  the
intermediate zone.  If one  has  purified  oneself,  if  there  is  no
abnormal vanity,  egoism, ambition or other strong misleading element,
or if one is vigilant and on one's guard,  or if  the  psychic  is  in
front,  one  can either pass rapidly and directly or with a minimum of
trouble into the higher zones of consciousness where one is in  direct
contact with the Divine Truth.
    On the other hand the passage through the higher  zones  -  higher
Mind, illumined Mind, Intuition, overmind is obligatory - they are the
true  Intermediaries  between  the  present  consciousness   and   the
supermind.

                                 ***

I mean  by it [the intermediate zone] that when the sadhak gets beyond
the barriers of his own embodied personal mind he enters into  a  wide
range of experiences which are not the limited solid physical truth of
things and not yet either the spiritual truth of things.  It is a zone
of formations,  mental, vital, subtle physical, and whatever one forms
or is formed by the forces of these  worlds  in  us  becomes  for  the
sadhak  for  a time the truth - unless he is guided and listens to his
guide.  Afterwards if he gets through he discovers  what  it  was  and
passes  on  into the subtle truth of things.  It is a borderland where
all the worlds meet,  mental, vital, subtle physical, pseudo-spiritual
-  but  there  is  no  order  or firm foothold - a passage between the
physical and the true spiritual realms.

                                 ***

You are taking the first steps towards  the  cosmic  consciousness  in
which  there are all things good and bad,  true and false,  the cosmic
Truth and the cosmic Ignorance.  I was not thinking so much of ego  as
of  these thousand voices,  possibilities,  suggestions.  If you avoid
these,  then there is no necessity of passing through the intermediate
zone.  By  avoid  I mean really not admit - one can take cognizance of
their nature and pass on.

                                 ***

Anyone passing the border of ordinary  consciousness  can  enter  into
this  [intermediate] zone,  if he does not take care to enter into the
psychic.  In itself there is no harm in passing through,  provided one
does  not  stop  there.  But ego,  sex,  ambition,  etc.,  if they get
exaggerated, can easily lead to a dangerous downfall.

                                 ***

It [the breaking of the veil] comes of itself with the pressure of the
sadhana.  It  can  also be brought about by specific concentration and
effort.
    It is  certainly  better  if  the  psychic is conscious and active
before there is the  removing  of  the  veil  or  screen  between  the
individual  and the universal consciousness which comes when the inner
being is brought forward in all its wideness.  For then there is  much
less danger of the difficulties of what I have called the Intermediate
Zone.

                                 ***

AII these  experiences  of  yours  belong  to  what  I have called the
intermediate zone;  a large proportion of them are of the vital plane.
In  the  vital  plane  there  are  all kinds of things,  good and bad,
helpful  and  dangerous,  true,  half  true  and  false,  genuine  and
deceptive. One has therefore to be very careful and be always vigilant
and turned towards the true source of Light.  The difficulty  is  that
here one may have a true spiritual experience and afterwards all sorts
of imitative deceptions come in and bring with them the  danger  of  a
false experience.  One has to watch, observe one's experiences and try
to discriminate and understand,  - waiting for two things, the opening
of  a  wider higher consciousness from above and the coming forward of
the psychic being from behind.  When  these  two  things  happen,  the
chance  of  error  is diminished and the true inner guidance begins to
make itself more and more felt in the  sadhana.
    Lights are of all kinds,  supramental,  mental,  vital,  physical,
divine  or Asuric - one has to watch,  grow in experience and learn to
know one from another.  The true lights however are by  their  clarity
and beauty not difficult to recognise.
    The current from above and the current  from  below  are  familiar
features  of  yogic experience.  It is the energy of the higher Nature
and the energy of the lower  Nature  that  become  active  and  turned
towards  each  other  and  move  to  meet,  one descending,  the other
ascending.  What happens when they meet depends on the sadhak.  If his
constant  will  is  for  the  purification  of the lower by the higher
consciousness,  then the meeting results  in  that  and  in  spiritual
progress.  If  his  mind and vital are turbid and clouded,  there is a
clash,  an impure mixture and much disturbance.
    The division   of   the  being  into  two  parts  -  one  a  large
consciousness behind,  the other a smaller consciousness in front,  is
also  a  familiar  feature  of  sadhana.  In  itself it is a necessary
movement;  it should naturally result in the growth of a larger  yogic
consciousness  prevailing  over  the  small external consciousness and
becoming a means for transformation under the pressure of  the  Divine
Shakti.  But  here  too  it  is  possible  for  error  to take place -
especially an outside  Force  may  come  in  and  replace  the  larger
consciousness  behind by a larger vital ego which pretends to be that.
One must be on one's  guard  against  any  such  intrusion;  for  many
sadhaks  suffer  long  and  severely  owing to such an intrusion which
spoils the course of the sadhana.
    On the  whole aspire for the growth of the psychic and its control
of the rest of the nature and for the opening not to  a  larger  vital
consciousness,  but  to  the  higher  consciousness above.  And at all
stages open yourself to the protection of the Mother and her grace and
call that for your safeguard and your guidance.

                                 ***

This kind of manifestation (Adesh) comes very often at a certain stage
of  the practice of yoga.  My experience is that it does not come from
the highest source and cannot be rolled upon and it is better to  wait
until  one is able to enter a higher consciousness and a greater truth
than any that these communications represent. Sometimes they come from
beings  of  an  intermediate plane who want to use the sadhak for some
work or purpose. Many sadhaks accept and some, though by no means all,
succeed in doing something, but it is often at the cost of the greater
aims of yoga.  In other cases they come from beings who are hostile to
the sadhana and wish to bring it to nothing by exciting ambition,  the
illusion of a great work or some other form of ego.  Each sadhak  must
decide  for  himself  (unless  he  has a Guru to guide him) whether to
treat it as a temptation or a mission.

                                 ***

These voices are sometimes  one's  own  mental  formations,  sometimes
suggestions from outside.  Good or bad depends on what they say and on
the quarter from which they come.

                                 ***

Anybody can get "voices" - there are  first  the  movements  of  one's
nature that take upon themselves a voice - then there are all sorts of
beings who either for a joke or for  a  serious  purpose  invade  with
their voices.

                                 ***

There is  in  this  condition  more  a sense of having power than real
power.  There are some mixed and quite relative powers -  sometimes  a
little  effective,  sometimes  ineffective  - which could be developed
into  something  real  if  put  under  the  control  of  the   Divine,
surrendered. But the ego comes in, exaggerates these small things, and
represents  them  as  something  huge  and  unique,  and  refuses   to
surrender. Then the sadhak makes no progress - he wanders about in the
jungle of his own imaginations without any discrimination or  critical
sense,  or  brings  in  a  play  of  confused  forces  he is unable to
understand or master.

                                 ***

The first result of the downflow of the overmind forces is very  often
to exaggerate the ego,  which feels itself strong, almost irresistible
(though it is not really so),  divinised, luminous. The first thing to
do,  after  some  experience  of  the  thing,  is  to  get rid of this
magnified ego.  For that you have to stand back, not allow yourself to
be  swept  in by the movement,  but to watch,  understand,  reject all
mixtures,  aspire for a purer and yet purer light and action. This can
only  be  done  perfectly  if the psychic comes forward.  The mind and
vital,  especially  the  vital,  receiving  these  forces,  can   with
difficulty  resist  the  tendency  to  seize on and use them for their
ego's objects or,  which comes practically to the same thing, they mix
the demands of the ego with the service of a higher object.

                                 ***

In the  first  place  one  is  not  obliged  to  believe  all that X's
disciples have  written  about  him  after  his  death.  Besides,  the
experiences they relate about him are of the intermediate planes,  not
of the highest spiritual consciousness.  Whatever experience he had of
the  highest was hidden by them in a jungle of miraculous and romantic
legends. It is probable that in trying to make him out a great Siddha,
they have lowered him below what he really was.

                                 ***

To have  the  true  intuition one must get rid of the mind's selfwill,
and the vital's also,  their preferences,  fancies,  fantasies, strong
insistences  and  eliminate  the mental and vital ego's pressure which
sets the consciousness to work in the service of its  own  claims  and
desires.  Otherwise  these things will come in with force and claim to
be intuitions,  inspirations and the rest of it.  Or if any intuitions
come,  they  can be twisted and spoiled by the mixture of these forces
of the Ignorance.

                                 ***

No, these indications of time and these voices were not commands  from
the Mother. I have indicated to you the truth of this matter; you must
follow the rules laid down by the Mother for the physical life; if any
change  has  to  be made,  either she herself will let you know or you
have to get sanction for it  from  her.  No  voice  heard  within  can
prevail  against  her  word  and no intimation that comes through your
mind can be accepted as binding unless it is confirmed  by  her.
    You have made a confusion which is often made at the beginning  of
this  kind  of experience.  It is no doubt the Mother's Force that was
working within you or upon you,  and some of the experiences,  such as
that of feeling the Mother in your heart,  were perfectly genuine. But
when the pressure of the Force works upon the consciousness,  then  in
the  plane  on  which  it  happens to be working,  a great activity of
different forces is set in play,  e.g.  if it  is  the  mind,  various
mental  forces,  if it is the vital,  various vital forces.  It is not
safe to take all  these  for  true  things,  to  be  accepted  without
question  and  followed  as  commands  of  the Mother.  You received a
pressure of a force so strong that it made your head shake for a  long
time;  if  the head shook like that,  it is a sign that the mind or at
least the mental physical was not able yet to receive  all  the  force
and  assimilate  it;  if  it  had  done  so,  there would have been no
movement of the head,  all would have been perfectly at ease, calm and
still.  But your mind started working,  interpreting, beginning to put
its own meaning on this particular phenomenon  and  again  on  others,
trying  to make a system by which to regulate your conduct and to give
it authority,  put it as the command of the Mother.  The action of the
Force was a fact,  the interpretation you put on its details of coming
and going was a mental formation and had no very positive  value.
    If you  look  at  it  carefully  - as I have looked at the details
reported by you - you will see that these suggestions were of  a  very
shifting and changeful character,  now one thing,  now the other; only
your mind adapted itself to the changes,  adjusted its  interpretation
to  suit  them  and tried to keep the consistency of a system.  But in
fact all was irregular and chaotic and it tended to make  your  action
and  conduct irregular and chaotic.  True intuition would not do that;
it would at least tend to  balance,  harmony,  order.
    You speak of intuition as regards the indication of time. There is
an intuition of Time which is not of the mind and  when  it  plays  is
always  accurate to the very minute and if need be to the very second;
but this was not that Intuition,  - for it was not always accurate; it
came  right perhaps several times,  then it began to be deceptive,  it
made you late for Pranam;  it began to push toward  lateness  for  the
noon  meal,  make  you  clash  with the convenience of the dining-room
workers.  It pushed you to be late for the evening and  abandoned  you
altogether,  so that in the end you had no evening meal. But your mind
had got attached to its own formations and tried to justify,  to put a
meaning  on  these  chaotic  caprices,  to  explain  them by the (very
changeful) will of  the  Mother.  All  this  is  well-known  to  those
experienced   in  yoga  and  it  means  that  these  things  were  not
intuitions, but constructions of the mind, mental formations. If there
was an intuition at all,  it was a movement of the intuitive mind, but
what the intuitive mind gives to us is the intuition of possibilities,
some  of  which realise themselves,  some do not or do it partly only,
others miss altogether.  Behind these mental constructions are  Forces
that  want  to  realise  themselves  and  try  to  use  men  as  their
instruments of realisation. These Forces need not be hostile, but they
play for their own hand,  they want to rule,  use, justify themselves,
create their own results.  If they can do it by getting  the  Mother's
sanction or passing themselves off as commands of the Mother, they are
ready to do so;  if they cannot get the  embodied  Mother's  sanction,
they  are  ready to represent themselves as sanctions of the Mother in
her subtle unseen universal Form or Presence.  Some they  persuade  to
make  not  only  a  distinction  but an opposition between their inner
Mother who always tells them what they want to hear and  the  embodied
Mother who,  they find,  is not so complaisant,  checks them, corrects
their fancies and their errors. At this stage there is the danger of a
more  serious  invasion of Falsehood,  of a hostile vital Force coming
in,  taking advantage of the mind's errors, which either tries to take
the place of the Mother, using her name or else creates revolt against
her.  A persuasion not to come to Pranam,  not to keep her  acquainted
with your experiences and submit to correction, not to accord the life
with her expressed will is a danger-signal at  this  stage  -  for  it
means that the intruding Force wants space to work free from control -
and that was why I felt compelled to call your attention to the  peril
of a hostile Maya.
    As for voices, there are many voices; each Force, each movement of
the mental,  vital, physical plane may equip itself with a voice. Your
voices were not even at one with each other;  one said one thing, when
it did not work out,  another said something inconsistent with it; but
you were attached to your mental formation and still tried to  follow.

    All this happens because the mind and vital in  these  exaltations
of  the  stress  of the sadhana become very active.  That is why it is
necessary,  first to found your sadhana  on  a  great  calm,  a  great
equality,  not  eagerly rushing after experiences or their fruit,  but
looking at them,  observing,  calling always for more and more  Light,
trying  to  be  more  and  more wide,  open,  quietly and discerningly
receptive.  If the psychic being is always at the  front,  then  these
difficulties are greatly lessened, because there is here a light which
the mind and  vital  have  not,  a  spontaneous  and  natural  psychic
perception of the divine and the undivine, the true and the false, the
imitation and the genuine guidance. It is also the reason why I insist
on your referring your experiences to us, because, apart from anything
else,  we have the knowledge and experience of these  things  and  can
immediately put a check on any tendency to error.
    Keep yourself open to the Mother's Force,  but do  not  trust  all
forces.  As you go on,  if you keep straight,  you will come to a time
when the psychic becomes more predominantly active and the Light  from
above  prevails  more purely and strongly so that the chance of mental
constructions and vital formations mixing  with  the  true  experience
diminishes.  As  I  have  told  you,  these  are not and cannot be the
supramental Forces;  it is a work of preparation which is only  making
things ready for a future yogasiddhi.

                                 ***

How can  the  people in this Ashram judge whether a man has progressed
in yoga or not?  They judge from outward appearances  -  if  a  sadhak
secludes   himself,   sits   much   in  meditation,  gets  voices  and
experiences,  etc. etc., they think he is a great sadhak! X was always
a  very  poor Adhar.  He had a few experiences of an elementary kind -
confused and uncertain,  but at every step he was getting into trouble
and  going  off  on a side-path and we had to pull him up.  At last he
began to get voices and inspirations which he declared to be ours -  I
wrote  to  him  many letters of serious warning and explanation but he
refused to listen,  was too much attached  to  his  false  voices  and
inspirations and,  to avoid rebuke and correction,  ceased to write or
inform us. So he went wholly wrong and finally became hostile. You can
tell  this  by  my  authority  to anybody who is puzzled like yourself
about this matter.

                                 ***

I mean what happened to X and others like  Y,  Z  and  others.  Higher
experiences  hurt nobody - the question is what is meant by higher?  Y
for instance thought his experiences to be the highest Truth itself  -
I told him they were all imaginations but only with the result that he
became furious with me.  There are imitation higher  experiences  when
the  mind  or vital catches hold of an idea or suggestion and turns it
into a feeling,  and while there is a rush of  forces,  a  feeling  of
exultation  and power etc.  All sorts of "imperatives" come,  visions,
perhaps "voices".  There is nothing more dangerous than these voices -
when I hear from somebody that he has a "voice", I always feel uneasy,
though there can be genuine and helpful voices,  and feel inclined  to
say "No voices please,  - silence,  silence and a clear discriminating
brain".  I have hinted about this  region  of  imitation  experiences,
false  inspirations,  false voices into which hundreds of yogins enter
and some never get out of it in my letter about the intermediate zone.
If  a  man  has  a  strong  clear head and a certain kind of spiritual
scepticism,  he  can  go  through  and  does  -  but  people   without
discrimination  like  Y  or  Z get lost.  Especially ego enters in and
makes them so attached to  their  splendid  (?)  condition  that  they
absolutely  refuse to come out.  Now a retirement into seclusion gives
free scope for this kind of action,  as it makes one live entirely  in
one's  own  subjective being without any control except what one's own
native discernment can bring in - and if that is not strong? Ego is of
course  the  strong support of these subjective falsehoods,  but there
are other supports also.  Work and  mixing  with  others  -  with  the
contact of the objective that that brings - is not an absolute defence
against these things, but it is a defence and serves as a check and as
a kind of corrective balance.  I notice that those who enter into this
region of the  intermediate  zone  usually  make  for  retirement  and
seclusion and insist on it. These are the reasons why I prefer usually
that sadhaks should not take to an  absolute  retirement  but  keep  a
certain  poise  between  silence  and action,  the inner and the outer
together.

                                 ***

As to the dangers,  the one real danger in  these  retirements  (apart
from  the  pride)  is the becoming a prey of subjective influences and
imaginations and losing the hold of reality  which  work  and  contact
with  others  help to keep up.  Of course one can lose that even while
keeping contact as happened to X and others.  But I suppose you have a
sufficiently cool and critical head to avoid that danger.

                                 ***

Retirement is not necessary for passing from one plane to another.  It
is necessary only in rare cases and with certain  temperaments  for  a
time.

                                 ***

We have no objection to your doing this for a week,  as you propose. I
understand that it is not a retirement,  but  a  cessation  of  social
visits.  My objection to retirement is that so many have "gone morbid"
by it or gone astray into zones of false vital experiences;  secondly,
that  absolute retirement is not necessary for the spiritual life.  It
is different however for people like X who are to the manner  born  or
at  least  perfectly  trained.  A  "restriction of publicity" is quite
another matter.  Also to be capable of solitude and to have the Ananda
of  solitude  can  always be helpful to sadhana,  and a power of inner
solitude is natural to the yogi.
    We will  give  our help and hope you will succeed - at least,  you
will have established a precedent for withdrawing whenever you want in
the future.

                                 ***

To live in the self is of course the proper object of  withdrawal  and
to live in the self brings the higher experiences which must obviously
be helpful and not harmful.  What I wrote was only to explain  what  I
meant  by  the danger of too complete retirement and why it turned out
to be harmful to X,  Y and others.  There are some like Z who  derived
unmixed profit from it. It altogether depends on one's temperament and
on one's attitude and aim and inner poise during the silence.

                                 ***

The impulse to retire comes from some push to concentrate within - but
the  cause  of  the push varies in different cases.  There are certain
cases in which there was a desire to isolate oneself from the Mother's
influence (Pranam, meditation etc.) and follow one's own fancies, e.g.
A,  B,  also perhaps with a sense of superiority - "no need  of  these
things  for  so great a yogi as I".  In other cases there was a marked
desire for isolation,  but that was where the brain was already  upset
(C) or a wrong influence at work (D).  It is to these I suppose that E
was referring.  But others have simply desired concentration or wished
not  to  spend themselves in externalisation (F,  G in their period of
retirement). So all cannot come under one sentence.

                                 ***

Not speaking or contacting when one is in the intensity of  the  peace
is one thing - that can be done.  Remaining isolated at other times as
a rule of life does not seem to me necessary - it  is  safe  only  for
those  who can live entirely within without losing their hold on outer
reality. If one has always a solid poise of peace one can do that or a
clear mind balanced and discriminating along with constant experiences
which it is able to put in the right place.  But some get absorbed  in
inner experiences which they get lost in and get passionately attached
to and this inner life becomes for them the sole reality  without  the
outer  to  poise  it  and  keep it under check and test - there lies a
danger. Again if one remains isolated without the support of a settled
inner   poise   and   constant   experience   over  which  one  has  a
discriminating control,  then in periods of emptiness  the  vital  can
arise  bringing struggles,  difficulties,  unrest,  suggestions of all
kinds,  a troubled and turbid state - rather than spend  the  time  in
that,  as some do,  it is better to mix with others or do some work or
otherwise externalise oneself in a healthy way.

                                 ***

To be too sensitive and upset by any contact is excessive; but to have
too  many  contacts  and  be  always  dispersing  oneself prevents the
sadhana from growing and solidifying in the inner being,  since one is
always being pulled out into the ordinary outer consciousness.

                                 ***

In your  relations with people,  act simply and naturally.  Get rid of
these nervous shrinkings which are a weakness.  The important thing is
to have the right inner attitude,  calm and without attachment. If you
do that  all  details  become  trifling  matters  which  will  arrange
themselves according to convenience and common sense.

                                 ***

How are  you going to find the right external relations by withdrawing
altogether from external relations?  And how  do  you  propose  to  be
thoroughly  transformed  and  unified  by  living only in the internal
life,  without any test of the transformation and  unity  by  external
contact  and  the ordeals of the external work and life?  Thoroughness
includes external work and relations and  not  a  retired  inner  life
only.
    It is  only  by the vital ego giving up its demands and claims and
the  reactions  these   produce   when   not   satisfied,   that   the
transformation and unification can come, and there is no other way.

                                 ***

I told  you  you  were  not  to  try  to  decide  by  your  mind.  You
persistently go on repeating,  "I must decide.  I must decide.  I must
take  a decision.  I must take a resolution." You are always repeating
this I,  I,  I must decide,  as if you knew better than myself and the
Mother!  "I must understand,  I must decide!" And always you find that
your mind can decide nothing and understand nothing. And yet you go on
repeating the same falsehood.
    I tell you plainly once again that all your so-called  experiences
are  worth  nothing,  mere  vital  ignorance  and confusion.  The only
experience you need is the experience of the presence of  the  Mother,
the Mother's light,  the Mother's force,  and the change they bring on
you.
    You have to throw away all other influences and open yourself only
to the Mother's influence.
    You have  to  think  and talk no longer about energies flowing out
and your energies and others' energies.  The only energy you  have  to
feel  is  the  descent  and  inflow  and action of the Mother's force.

    These were  my  instructions  and so long as you carried them out,
you were  progressing  rapidly.
    Throw all these incoherent false experiences away.  Go back to the
single rule I gave you.  Open to  the  Mother's  presence,  influence,
light,  force  -  reject  everything  else.  Only so will you get back
clearness (instead of this confusion),  peace,  psychic perception and
progress in the sadhana.

                                 ***

You are  persisting  in  a wrong effort which prevents the very object
that you have in view. You want to have what you call "divinisation" ;
but  you  cannot  have it in the way you are trying.  I will point out
your mistake;  please read carefully and try  to  understand  rightly.

    Especially understand my words in their plain sense and do not put
into  them  any  "hidden  meaning" or any other meaning which might be
favourable to year present ideas.
    The Divine  Consciousness  we  are  trying  to  bring  down  is  a
Truth-Consciousness. It shows us all the truth of our being and nature
on all the planes - mind,  life and body.  It does not throw them away
or make an impatient  effort  to  get  rid  of  them  immediately  and
substitute something fantastic and wonderful in their place.  It works
upon them patiently and slowly to perfect and raise in them  all  that
is  capable  of  perfection  and  to  change  all  that is obscure and
imperfect.
    Your first  mistake  is  to  imagine that it is possible to become
divine in a moment. You imagine that the higher consciousness has only
to  descend  in you and remain there and all is finished.  You imagine
that no time is needed,  no long,  hard or careful work,  and that all
will  be  done for you in a moment by the Divine Grace.  This is quite
wrong.  It is not done in that way; and so long as you persist in this
error,  there  can  be  no  permanent divinisation,  and you will only
disturb the Truth that is trying to come,  and disturb your  own  mind
and  body  by  a  fruitless struggle.
    Secondly, you are mistaken in thinking that  because  you  feel  a
certain  force and presence,  therefore you are at once divine.  It is
not so easy to become divine.  There must  be  to  whatever  force  or
presence comes,  a right interpretation and response, a right knowledg
in the mind,  a right preparation of the vital and physical being. But
what  you are feeling is an abnormal vital force and exaltation due to
the impatience of your desire,  and with this there  come  suggestions
born of your desire, which you mistake for truth and call inspirations
and intuitions.
    I will  point out some of the mistakes you make in this condition.

    You immediately begin to think that there is no further need of my
instructions or guidance,  because you imagine you are henceforth  one
with me.  Not only so, but the suggestions which you want to accept go
quite against my instructions. How can this be if you are one with me?
It  is  obvious  that these ideas that go against my instructions come
from your mind and impulses  and  not  from  me  or  from  any  Divine
Consciousness  or  from  anything that can be called the Sri Aurobindo
Consciousness.
    In this connection you write, "I see the difficulty that even when
I am  filled  with  you,  the  idea  of  obeying  and  following  your
instructions still works - even when you have made me yourself. I pray
for the needful." The idea of following and obeying my instructions is
not  a  difficulty,  it  is  the  only  thing that can help you.  That
obedience is the thing that is needful.
    What do you mean by saying, "You have made me yourself"? The words
seem to have no meaning.  You cannot mean that  you  become  the  same
individual self as I;  there cannot be two Aurobindos; even if it were
possible it would be absurd and useless. You cannot mean that you have
become the Supreme Being,  for you cannot be God or the Ishwara. If it
is in the ordinary (Vedantic) sense,  then everyone is  myself,  since
every  Jiva  is  a  portion  of  the One.  You may perhaps have become
conscious for a time of this unity;  but  that  consciousness  is  not
sufficient  by  itself  to  transform you or to make you divine.
    You begin to imagine that you can do without food  and  sleep  and
disregard  the  needs of the body;  and you forget my instructions and
mistakenly call these needs a disturbance or the play of  the  hostile
material  and  physical forces.  This idea is false.  What you feel is
only a vital force,  not the highest truth,  and the body remains what
it  was;  it will suffer and break down if it is not given food,  rest
and sleep.
    It is  the  same mistaken vital exaltation that made you feel your
body to see if it was of  supramental  substance.  Understand  clearly
that  the  body cannot be transformed in that way into something quite
unphysical. The physical being and the body, in order to be perfected,
have to go through a long preparation and gradual change.  This cannot
be done,  if you do not come out of this mistaken vital exaltation and
come down into the ordinary physical consciousness first, with a clear
sense of physical realities.
    Finally, if you want the real change and transformation,  you must
clearly and resolutely recognise that you  have  made  and  are  still
making mistakes and have entered into a condition that is unfavourable
to your object.  You have tried to get  rid  of  your  thinking  mind,
instead  of perfecting and enlightening it,  and have tried to replace
it by artificial "inspirations and intuitions."
    You have  developed  a  dislike and shrinking for the body and the
physical being and its movements;  and therefore you do  not  want  to
come  down  into  the  normal  physical consciousness and do patiently
there what is necessary for the change.  You have left  yourself  only
with  a  vital  consciousness  which feels sometimes a great force and
Ananda and at others falls into bad  depressions  because  it  is  not
supported  either  by  the mind above or by the body below.
    You must  absolutely  change  all  this,  if  you  want  the  real
transformation.
    You must not mind losing the vital exaltation;  you must not  mind
coming  into  a normal physical consciousness,  with a clear practical
mind,  looking at physical conditions and physical realities. You must
accept  them  first,  or  you will never be able to change and perfect
them.
    You must  recover  a quiet mind and intelligence.  If you can once
firmly do these things,  the Greater Truth and Consciousness can  come
back  in  its  proper  time,  in  the  right  way  and under the right
conditions.

                                 ***

You must have full power of will and action in order to  succeed.
    It is  not  sufficient  to  strengthen  your  body,  you must also
strengthen your mind; you must absolutely get rid of these ideas about
sin,  this  breeding 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  for  inspiration,  but  act  quietly  and  rationally
according to our instructions,  with a calm mind and a quiet will. Get
rid of your obsession about coming here and falling at our feet.  This
and  the  other suggestions and voices are not inspirations but merely
things created by your own mind and its impulses.  Your safety lies in
remaining  quiet  and doing what we tell you quietly and persistently,
with a perfect confidence, until you are entirely recovered.

                                 ***

It will be very good for you to read and translate the €rya.... I will
send  you a copy of the Essays on the Gita,  first series;  it will be
best for you to begin with this and translate it. Accustom yourself to
translate  only  a  little every day and do it very carefully.  Do not
write in haste; go several times through what you have written and see
whether  it  accurately  represents  the  spirit  of  the original and
whether the language cannot be improved.  In all things, in the mental
and physical plane,  it should be your aim, at present, not to go fast
and finish quickly,  but to do everything carefully, perfectly, and in
the  right manner.
    We wish you to understand and keep henceforth the  right  attitude
with regard to the physico-vital impulses of which you complain;  that
is as regards food, money, sexual impulses etc. You have been adopting
the moral and ascetic attitude which is entirely wrong and cannot help
you to master these powers of the nature.
    For food, it is a need of the body and you must use it to keep the
body fit and strong.  You must replace attachment  by  the  Ananda  of
food. If you have this Ananda and the right sense of taste etc, and of
the right use of food,  the attachment,  if  there  is  any,  will  of
itself, after a time, disappear.
    As regards money,  that too is a need for life and work....  Money
represents  a  great  power of life which must be conquered for divine
uses.  Therefore you must have no attachment to it but also no disgust
or  horror  of it.
    As to the sexual impulse,  for this also you must  have  no  moral
horror or puritanic or ascetic repulsion. This also is a power of life
and while you have to throw away the present form of this power  (that
is  the  physical  act),  the  force  itself  has  to  be mastered and
transformed.  It is often strongest in  people  with  a  strong  vital
nature and this strong vital nature can be made a great instrument for
the physical realisation of the Divine Life.  If  the  sexual  impulse
comes,  do  not  be sorry or troubled but look at it calmly,  quiet it
down,  reject all wrong suggestions connected with it and wait for the
Higher  Consciousness  to transform it into the true force and Ananda.

    All these  things we have told you are necessary for your being in
the  physical  consciousness  and  having  the  right  relations  with
physical life.

                                 ***

VI

                                 ***

The cosmic  consciousness does not belong to overmind in especial;  it
covers all the planes.
    Man is  shut up at present in his surface individual consciousness
and knows the world (or rather the surface of  it)  only  through  his
outward  mind  and  senses and by interpreting their contacts with the
world. By yoga there can open in him a consciousness which becomes one
with  that  of  the  world;  he  becomes directly aware of a universal
Being,  universal states,  universal Force and Power,  universal Mind,
Life, Matter and lives in conscious relations with these things. He is
then said to have cosmic consciousness.

                                 ***

The overmind  is the basis of the total cosmic consciousness,  but the
cosmic consciousness itself can be felt on any plane,  not only  above
mind, but in mind, life, matter.

                                 ***

There are in the cosmic consciousness two sides - one the contact with
and perception of the ordinary cosmic forces  and  the  beings  behind
these forces,  that is what I call the cosmic Ignorance - the other is
the perception of the  cosmic  Truths,  the  realisation  of  the  one
universal, the one universal Force, all the Vedantic truths of the One
in all and all in one,  all the various aspects of the Divine  in  the
cosmic  and  a  host  of  other  things  can  come  which  do  help to
realisation and knowledge - provided they are taken in the right  way.
However  all  that  can be best dealt with when it actually comes.  It
does not always come as soon as there is  the  widening  -  many  pass
through the widening of the consciousness to what is beyond the cosmic
and take the cosmic in detail afterwards  -  and  it  is  perhaps  the
safest order.

                                 ***

When one has the cosmic consciousness, one can feel the cosmic Self as
one's own self,  one can feel one with other beings in the cosmos, one
can feel all the forces of Nature as moving in oneself,  all selves as
one's own self.
    There is no why except that it is so, since all is the One.

                                 ***

All is in the Self;  when identified with the universal self all is in
you.  Also the microcosm reproduces the macrocosm - so all is  present
in  each,  though  all is not expressed (and cannot be) in the surface
consciousness.

                                 ***

Everything acts in the self.  The whole play of Nature takes place  in
the self, in the Divine. The self contains the universe.

                                 ***

The Self  is  being,  not  a  being.  By  Self  is meant the conscious
essential existence, one in all.

                                 ***

The original substance of all spirit is pure existence carrying in  it
pure  self  - existent consciousness (or consciousness-force) and pure
self-existent Ananda.

                                 ***

Substance and being are the same thing.  In the creation they  can  be
looked upon as two aspects of the spirit.

                                 ***

The Self is essentially universal; the individualised self is only the
universal experienced from or in an individual  centre.  If  what  you
have realised is not felt to be one in all,  then it is not the Atman;
it is the central being not yet  revealing  its  universal  aspect  as
Atman.

                                 ***

The self is felt either as universal,  one in all, or as universalised
individual the same in essence as  others,  extended  everywhere  from
each  being  but centred here.  Of course centre is a way of speaking,
because no physical centre is usually felt - only all the actions take
place around the individual.

                                 ***

The usual  experience  of  the  Impersonal  is  that  It is everywhere
without form or limitation in any place or time.

                                 ***

The impersonal  Divine  has  no  abode  and   cannot   have;   it   is
all-pervading.  If anybody says the impersonal Divine has its abode in
the heart he can be asked what he means by the impersonal Divine.

                                 ***

In the cosmic consciousness the personal 'I' disappears into  the  one
Self of all. The 'I' which alone exists is not that of the person, the
individualised 'I',  but the universalised 'I' identical with all  and
with the cosmic Self (Atman).

                                 ***

What will  remain after liberation is the central being - not the ego.
The central being  will  live  in  the  consciousness  of  the  Divine
everywhere  and  in  all  other  beings also;  so it will not have the
consciousness of a separate ego but of one centre among  many  of  the
Divine Multiplicity.

                                 ***

What you feel is the normal condition when the liberation takes place.
The work of the senses etc,  goes on as before,  but the consciousness
is  different,  so  that  one  feels not only the sense of liberation,
separation,  etc.,  but that one is living in quite another world than
that of the ordinary mind, life or senses. It is another consciousness
with another knowledge and way  of  looking  at  things  that  begins.
Afterwards  as this consciousness takes possession of the instruments,
there is a harmony of it with the sense and life; but these too become
different,  with a changed outlook, seeing the world no more as before
but as if made of another substance with another significance.

                                 ***

Liberation is the first necessity,  to live  in  the  peace,  silence,
purity,  freedom  of  the  self.  Along with that or afterwards if one
wakens to the cosmic consciousness, then one can be free, yet one with
all  things.
    To have  the  cosmic consciousness without liberation is possible,
but then there is no freedom anywhere in  the  being  from  the  lower
nature  and  one  may  become  in  one's  extended  consciousness  the
playground of all kinds of forces without being able to be either free
or  master.
    On the other hand,  if there has been Self-realisation,  there  is
one  part  of  the  being  that remains untouched amid the play of the
cosmic forces - while if the peace and purity of  the  self  has  been
established  in the whole inner consciousness,  then the outer touches
of the lower nature can't come in or overpower.  This is the advantage
of  Self-realisation preceding the cosmic consciousness and supporting
it.

                                 ***

When there is the development of the Self-realisation or of the cosmic
consciousness or if there is the emptiness which  is  the  preliminary
condition  for  these things,  there comes an automatic tendency for a
unity with all - their affections,  mental, vital, physical may easily
touch. One has to keep oneself free.

                                 ***

You had  a  mental  and the beginning of a vital opening to the cosmic
consciousness - kept on the spiritualised level, the vision or feeling
of  the  Divine Ananda without seeking for possession or a gross outer
enjoyment,  it would have established a yogic consciousness and made a
base  for knowledge and peace and power and psychic love and surrender
to come down.

                                 ***

It is very good.  The widening of the consciousness so as to be at one
with the universal Infinite is an important stage in the sadbana.

                                 ***

Yes, your experience was a very good one and your feeling about it was
correct.  When the consciousness is narrow and personal or shut in the
body,  it  is  difficult  to  receive  from  the Divine - the wider it
expands,  the more it can receive.  A time comes when it feels as wide
as the world and able to receive all the Divine into itself.

                                 ***

It is  an  experience  of  the  extension  of  consciousness.  In yoga
experience the consciousness widens in every direction, around, below,
above,   in   each   direction   stretching   to  infinity.  When  the
consciousness of the yogi becomes liberated,  it is not in  the  body,
but in this infinite height, depth, and wideness that he lives always.
Its basis is an infinite void or silence, but in that all can manifest
- Peace,  Freedom, Power, Light, Knowledge, Ananda. This consciousness
is usually called the consciousness of the Self or Atman,  for it is a
pure  existence  or self that is the source of all things and contains
all things.

                                 ***

Yes -it [wideness] is felt as if a great substantial vastness full  of
power  and  giving the sense of oneness free and infinite and the same
from top to bottom.

                                 ***

At the beginning the experience of  wideness  like  other  experiences
comes  only  from time to time.  It is only afterwards that it becomes
frequent  and  remains  long,  till  finally  it   settles   and   the
consciousness remains always wide.

                                 ***

You must dismiss the fear of the concentration. The emptiness you feel
coming on you is the silence of the great peace in  which  you  become
aware of your self,  not as the small ego shut up in the body,  but as
the  spiritual  self  wide  as  the  universe.  Consciousness  is  not
dissolved;  it  is the limits of the consciousness that are dissolved.
In that silence thoughts may cease for a time,  there may  be  nothing
but  a  great  limitless freedom and wideness,  but into that silence,
that empty wideness descends the vast peace from above,  light, bliss,
knowledge,  the  higher Consciousness in which you feel the oneness of
the Divine.  It is the beginning of the transformation  and  there  is
nothing in it to fear.

                                 ***

It means  the  liberation  from  the body sense in which one can truly
say,  "I am not the body".  This liberation  is  part  of  the  cosmic
consciousness - as is also the realisation of the cosmic Will.
    It is  the  liberation  from  the  body sense only.  That is quite
different from the control of the body.

                                 ***

What you  felt  as  a strong subtle air was the concrete expression of
consciousness or conscious existence  in  itself  independent  of  the
body.  As yet the experience is still limited by the body, but when it
is felt without that limit then it is a sense of a wide ether  filling
all space,  Akasha Brahman.  As this grows,  the body sense disappears
and when the mind also is quite inactive, one feels oneself to be that
spreading out to all Infinity.

                                 ***

If these  were  imaginations,  you  would  be  able  to reproduce them
exactly each time you thought of them. The idea that it is imagination
comes  from  the  physical  mind  which  cannot  believe  in any thing
supraphysical.
    This opening of the chest into the void (not really the void,  but
the  infinite  Akasha of the Chit universal and illimitable) is always
the sign of an opening of the emotional being into the wideness of the
Universal Divine.  The image of the Akasha is often seen by sadhaks in
Dhyana.  When the consciousness is liberated,  whether in the mind  or
other part, there is always this sense of the wide infinite emptiness.
From the top of the head to the throat is  the  mental  plane  of  the
being  -  a similar opening and emptiness or wideness here is the sign
of the mind being freed into the Universal.  From the  throat  to  the
stomach  is  the higher vital or emotional region.  Below is the lower
vital plane.

                                 ***

It is more,  I think, forgetting the body than non-identification with
it. In an intense mentalisation or an intense vital activity, the body
takes a second place and becomes more outward and the same may  happen
to  a certain extent more constantly in a man who lives in his mind or
his vital and is identified more closely with that.  But still  it  is
the mental in the body, the vital in the body. There is no release, no
getting entirely separate as in the spiritual liberation.

                                 ***

Yes, it is not possible for the human mind to live entirely in  itself
to such a degree as to ignore the body altogether - a real or complete
liberation or non-identification is not possible without the spiritual
release.  All that is possible to the mind is a constant absorption in
itself and an ignoring or forgetfulness as much  as  possible  of  the
body.  That  one  finds often in people who live a retired mental life
(scholars, thinkers etc.) without the need to trouble themselves about
their livelihood, family etc.

                                 ***

The sun  rising on the horizon is the direct light of the Divine Truth
rising in the being - the ray upwards opens the being to the Truth  as
it is above mind, the ray in front opens it to what we call the cosmic
consciousness,  it becomes released from the personal  limitation  and
opens  and  becomes  aware of the universal mind,  universal physical,
universal vital.  The action on the heart was the pressure of this Sun
on  it  to  have  this  direct opening,  so that the consciousness may
become free,  wide and wholly at peace.
    It is a great thing that you have been able to keep untroubled and
undisturbed in the presence of  the  adverse  pressure  and  kept  the
consciousness of the Peace still there behind. It is a sign that it is
becoming more consolidated and effective.

                                 ***

The wideness comes when one exceeds or begins to exceed the individual
consciousness  and  spread out towards the universal.  But the psychic
can be active even in the individual consciousness.

                                 ***

The psychic  is  the  support  of  the  individual  evolution;  it  is
connected  with  the  universal both by direct contact and through the
mind, vital and body.

                                 ***

Love, joy and happiness come from the psychic. The Self gives peace or
a universal Ananda.

                                 ***

The Self or Atman is inactive;  Nature (Prakriti) or Shakti acts. When
the Self is felt it is first an infinite existence,  silence, freedom,
peace  that is felt - that is called Atman or Self.  What action takes
place in it is according to the realisation either felt as  forces  of
Nature  working  in that wideness,  as the Divine Shakti working or as
the cosmic Divine or various powers of them working.  It is  not  felt
that the Self is acting.

                                 ***

As for  the  spectator  and  the  coils  of  the  dragon,  it  is  the
ChineJapanese image for the world-force extending itself in the course
of  the universe and this expresses the attitude of the witness seeing
it all and observing in its unfolding the unrolling of the play of the
Divine Lila.  It is this attitude that gives the greatest calm, peace,
samat€ in face of the riddle of the cosmic workings.  It is not  meant
that action and movement are not accepted but they are accepted as the
Divine Working which is leading to ends which the mind may not  always
see at once,  but the soul divines through all the supreme purpose and
the hidden guidance.
    Of course,  there  is  afterwards  an  experience in which the two
sides of the Divine Whole, the Witness and the Player, blend together;
but  this  poise of the spectator comes first and leads to that fuller
experience.  It  gives  the  balance,   the   calm,   the   increasing
understanding  of soul and life and their deeper significances without
which the full supramental experience cannot come.

                                 ***

The universal forces move by their own  force  and  the  consciousness
within  them  -  but there is also the Cosmic Spirit who supports them
and determines by his onlook and disposing will their play -  although
the  direct action is left to the forces - it is the play of universal
Prakriti with  the  universal  Purusha  watching  behind  it.  In  the
individual also there is the individual Purusha who can,  if he wills,
not merely assent to the play of Prakriti,  but accept  or  reject  or
will for its change. All that is in the play itself as we see it here.
There is something above - but the action of that is  an  intervention
rather  than  a  moment  to  moment control;  it can become a constant
direct control only when one replaces the play of the  forces  by  the
government of the Divine.

                                 ***

It is  the true yogic consciousness in which one feels the oneness and
lives in  it,  not  touched  by  the  outer  being  and  its  inferior
movements,  but  looking  on  them with a smile at their ignorance and
smallness.  It will become much more possible to deal with these outer
things if that separateness is maintained always.

                                 ***

It is  the  Purusha  and Prakriti sides of the nature - one leading to
pure conscious existence,  static,  the other to pure conscious force,
dynamic. The past darkness they have come out of is that of ignorance,
the future darkness that is felt above  is  superconscience.  But,  of
course, the superconscience is really luminous - only its light is not
seen.  The three forms of consciousness are the three sides of  Nature
represented by the three gunas - force of subconscious tamas, Inertia,
which is the law of Matter,  force of half-conscious desire,  Kinesis,
which  is  rajas,  which  is  the  law  of Life,  and force of sattwic
Prakasha, which is the law of Intelligence.

                                 ***

There is one Purusha - its action is according  to  the  position  and
need of the consciousness at the time.
    It is the nature of the action above the ordinary mind or  in  the
cosmic consciousness which is many-sided.

                                 ***

Prakriti is  only  the executive or working force-the Power behind the
Prakriti is Shakti.  It is the Chit-Shakti in manifestation:  that  is
the spiritual consciousness.

                                 ***

This is  true  of  mental  knowledge  and will,  but not of the higher
knowledge-will.  In the supermind,  knowledge and will are  one.
    All energies  derive from the Chit-Shakti,  but they differentiate
from  it  as  they  descend.
    This much  is  true  that  Life  is characteristically Force - the
Physical is characteristically substance,  but the  dynamism  of  both
derives from Chit-mind dynamism also, all dynamism.

                                 ***

There is one common Force working in all and a vibration of that Force
or  any  one  of its movements can awake (it does not always) the same
vibration in another.
    There is a constant movement (Prakriti)  and  a  constant  silence
(Purusha).
    It is a statement of the Upanishad  that  there  is  an  ether  of
Ananda in which all breathe and live; if it were not there, none could
breathe or live.

                                 ***

The force  "created"  is not yours - it is Prakriti's - your will sets
it in motion, it does not really create it; but once set in motion, it
tends  to  fulfil itself so far as the play of other forces will allow
it.  So, naturally, if you want to stop it, you have to set a contrary
force  in  motion  which  will be strong enough to prevail against its
momentum.

                                 ***

This vision is the perception of cosmic movement of things  developing
from state to state and in that the individual movements which make it
up.  There is also possible a sense of the All as Time in flow  or  of
the  same as a dimension interwoven with Space like warp and woof of a
cloth, etc.

                                 ***

The world is the form,  the reality is the Divine.  One must  see  the
presence in the form.

                                 ***

The Divine  is  the Supreme Truth because it is the Supreme Being from
whom all have come and in whom all are.

                                 ***

The Divine is that from which all comes,  in which all lives,  and  to
return to the truth of the Divine now clouded over by Ignorance is the
soul's aim in life.  In its supreme Truth,  the Divine is absolute and
infinite peace, consciousness, existence, power and Ananda.

                                 ***

The Supreme   cannot  create  through  the  Transcendent  because  the
Transcendent is the Supreme.  It is through the Cosmic Shakti that the
Divine creates.

                                 ***

The cosmic  Force is under the control of the overmind.  The supermind
does not act on it directly  -  whatever  comes  down  from  there  is
modified  so  as  to  pass through the overmind and take a lesser form
suitable to the plane on which it acts, mental, vital or physical. But
this  intervention  is  exceptional in the ordinary play of the cosmic
forces.

                                 ***

The cosmic spirit contains the supermind,  but it keeps it  above  and
works  for  the  present between the overmind and the physical.  It is
only when the  Ignorance  is  removed  that  the  supramental  becomes
directly  a  dynamic part of the workings of cosmic Nature here.  Till
then there are only reflections of it.

                                 ***

It [the  Cosmic  Spirit]  uses  Truth  and  Falsehood,  Knowledge  and
Ignorance and all the other dualities as elements in the manifestation
and works out what has to be worked out till all is ready for a higher
working.

                                 ***

The cosmic  forces  here  whether  good  or  bad  are  forces  of  the
Ignorance.  Above  them  is  the  Truth-Consciousness  that  can  only
manifest  when  ego and desire are overcome - it is the force from the
Divine Truth-Consciousness that must descend; the higher Peace, Light,
Knowledge,  Purity,  Ananda  must  work  upon the cosmic forces in the
individual so as to change them  and  substitute  the  Truth-Force  in
place of the ordinary working.

                                 ***

A cosmos  or  universe  is  always  a harmony,  otherwise it could not
exist,  it would fly to pieces.  But as there  are  musical  harmonies
which are built out of discords partly or even predominantly,  so this
universe (the material) is disharmonious in its  separate  elements  -
the  individual  elements  are  at  discord with each other to a large
extent; it is only owing to the sustaining Divine Will behind that the
whole  is  still  a  harmony  to  those who look at it with the cosmic
vision. But it is a harmony in evolution in progress - that is, all is
combined  to  strive towards a goal which is not yet reached,  and the
object of our yoga is to hasten the arrival to this goal.  When it  is
reached,  there  will  be  a  harmony of harmonies substituted for the
present harmony built up on discords.  This is the explanation of  the
present appearance of things.

                                 ***

Everything here  is  not  perfect but all works out the cosmic Will in
the course of the ages.

                                 ***

The harmony of the  lower  consciousness  is  a  harmony  of  discords
brought about by a clash and mixture of forces.

                                 ***

This vision  is  a  representation in sound of the cosmic harmony from
which the Ignorance is a fall and a discord.

                                 ***

There is a rhythm in everything unheard by the  physical  ear  and  by
that rhythm things exist.

                                 ***

Both of  these  [OM  and the sound of church-bells] are usually sounds
that  indicate  the  opening  or  attempt  to  open  to   the   cosmic
consciousness.

                                 ***

It is  when  you  feel  the  universal or divine beauty or presence in
things that the senses are open to the Divine.

                                 ***

One can live in contact with the  Divine  even  amidst  the  universal
forces - but to live in the Divine one must be able to rise beyond the
lower universal Nature or to call down the Divine consciousness  here.
The  beginnings  are  difficult for most - and at no time is it really
easy.

                                 ***

To be always merged in the Divine is not so easy.  It can be done only
by  an  absorption  in one's own inner self or by a consciousness that
sees all in the Divine and the Divine in all and  is  always  in  that
condition. There is none who has attained to that yet.

                                 ***

The Cosmic  Spirit  or  Self  contains  everything  in the cosmos - it
upholds cosmic Mind,  universal Life,  universal Matter as well as the
overmind.  The  Self  is  more  than  all  these  things which are its
formulations in Nature.

                                 ***

[The results of the opening to the cosmic Mind:] One is aware  of  the
cosmic Mind and the mental forces that move there and how they work on
one's mind and that of others and one is able to deal with  one's  own
mind  with  a  greater  knowledge and effective power.  There are many
other results,  but this is the fundamental one.  This is of course if
one  opens in the right way and does not merely become a passive field
of all sorts of ideas and mental forces.

                                 ***

The opening  to  cosmic  Mind  makes  the  experience  of  the  Divine
everywhere  for  instance  more  easy  -  but  it  is  not essentially
spiritual;  if there is not a coming of wider  spiritual  experiences,
then it need not be spiritual at all.

                                 ***

What is happening is that you have got into touch with the cosmic Mind
where all sorts of ideas,  possibilities, formations are moving about.
The  individual mind takes up those which appeal to it or perhaps come
into distinct form when they touch it.  But these  are  possibilities,
not truths, so it is better not to let them run free like that.

                                 ***

Mind has  its  own  realms  and life has its own realms just as matter
has. In the mental realms life and substance are entirely subordinated
to  Mind  and obey its dictates.  Here on earth there is the evolution
with matter as the starting-point,  life as the medium,  mind emerging
from it.  There are many grades,  realms, combinations in the cosmos -
there are even many universes. Ours is only one of many.

                                 ***

[The effect of opening to the cosmic Life:  ] One becomes aware of all
the  life-forces  and  of  how they act upon oneself and others,  upon
mind,  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 earth-life. 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 the
contact with the cosmic Life increases.

                                 ***

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
ordinary people" and ask for it back again.

                                 ***

Universal forces means all forces good or bad,  favourable or hostile,
of light and darkness that move in the cosmos.

                                 ***

The earth is the place of evolution in which all these forces meet and
try to manifest and out of their working something has to develop.  On
the other planes (the mental, vital etc.) there is not the evolution -
there each acts separately according to its own law.

                                 ***

Universal applies to everything in the universe - there are individual
beings everywhere,  but not physical in the terrestrial  sense  -  the
composition being different.

                                 ***

No, they [the hostile beingsj do not create universal forces; they are
themselves moved by them and move them.

                                 ***

Yes, of course,  there is always a fight between the forces  of  Light
and Darkness.
    In sadhana  it  becomes concentrated and conscious to us.
    As for the hostile beings,  they are always in  battle  with  each
other; but they make common cause against the Truth and Light.

                                 ***

The forces are conscious.  There are besides individualised beings who
represent the forces or use them.  The wall between consciousness  and
force,  impersonality  and  personality  becomes much thinner when one
goes behind the veil of matter.  If one looks at a  working  from  the
side of impersonal force one sees a force or energy at work acting for
a purpose or with a result,  if one looks from the side of  being  one
sees  a being possessing,  guiding and using or else representative of
and used by a conscious force as its instrument of specialised  action
and  expression.  You speak of the wave,  but in modern science it has
been found that if you look at the movement of energy,  it appears  on
one  side  to  be a wave and act as a wave,  on the other as a mass of
particles and to act as a mass of particles each  acting  in  its  own
way. It is somewhat the same principle here.

                                 ***

Nature-Forces are  conscious  forces  - they can very well combine all
that is necessary for an action or a purpose and when one means fails,
take another.

                                 ***

Yes. They  [the  forces]  are able to act with a greater force if they
can make a special formation  than  by  general  psychological  action
common to all human nature.

                                 ***

They [the  cosmic  forces] act on everyone,  according to the person's
nature - and his will and consciousness.

                                 ***

Egoism is part of the machinery - a chief part - of universal  Nature,
first  to  develop  individuality  out  of  indiscriminate  force  and
substance of Nature and, secondly, to make the individual (through the
machinery of egoistic thought, feeling, will and desire) a tool of the
universal forces.  It is only when one gets into touch with  a  higher
Nature  that  it  is  possible  to  get  free  of this rule of ego and
subjection to these forces.

                                 ***

Yes, if there is the solid experience [that  all  one's  energies  and
capacities  come  from  the  universal forces],  the ego habit is much
diminished,  but it does not go altogether.  It takes  refuge  in  the
sense  of being an instrument and - if there is not the psychic turn -
it may easily prefer to be the instrument of some Force that feeds the
satisfaction of the ego. In such cases the ego may still remain strong
although it feels itself instrumental and not the primary actor.

                                 ***

If the psychic is active - or in so far as  it  is  active,  there  is
something  in  it  which  is  like an automatic test for the universal
forces - warning against,  (not by thought so much as by an  essential
feeling)  and rejecting what should not be,  accepting and transmuting
what should be.

                                 ***

Yes, it is so.  The  universal  forces  act  very  often  through  the
subconscient  -  especially  when the force they send is something the
person has been in the habit  of  obeying  and  of  which  the  seeds,
impressions, "complexes" are strongly rooted in the subconscient - or,
even if that is no longer the case,  of which there is a memory  still
in the subcodscient.

                                 ***

There is  no  rule  for that.  The human being is ordinarily conscious
only on the surface-but  the  surface  records  only  the  results  of
subliminal agencies at work.  It is often through the centres that the
forces come in,  for then they get the greatest power to  act  on  the
nature - but they can enter anywhere.

                                 ***

They [pain  and  grief] are perhaps rather the result of the action of
universal forces - but in a certain sense grief and pain may  be  said
to  be  universal  forces  -  for there are waves of these things that
arrive and invade the being often without apparent cause.

                                 ***

It [death] is a universal force - the happening or change called death
is simply one result of the working of the force.

                                 ***

END OF PART THREE