The Awakening of the Yoga-Shakti in the Inner Being

The chakras are subtle energy centers, not physical centers in the body, although they generally correspond to various physical capacities ranged along the external body. They essentially act as vibrational ‘receptors’ and transmitters of energies. When they are closed or very much shut down, the energy that would normally work through them tends to be weak or missing in the manifestation of any being. Evolution of consciousness and its expression in the external being involves the systematic development and opening of the higher subtle energy centers. Thus animal beings tend to function mostly through the energetic action of the lower chakras involve sex and procreation, lower vital drives such as craving, hunger, thirst, acquisition, and then power and domination. As the 4th chakra opens, there comes an emotional vital force that begins to operate more fully in the being. Fifth chakra governs expression and powers of communication, 6th chakra the will power and 7th chakra the direct connection to higher spiritual forces and energies.

We can observe within ourselves where we experience different forces. For instance, the sexual force tends to be a pressure in the lower regions of the groin, which is an external mapping to the subtle energy center called the Muladhara or 1st chakra. When we experience various sorts of cravings or movements of an acquisitive nature, we may experience it somewhat higher in our physical body and when we are trying to exercise and develop power and domination this is generally aligned with the 3rd chakra. The body provides us a general ‘map’ of which chakras are active. There is a considerable body of yogic information about the practices of kundalini yoga, the concept of the first chakra energy, rather than being spilt in its normal restricted functions, being directed upwards through the subtle energy centers, awakening each one and eventually rising to join the 7th chakra at the top of the head, creating a fully awakened human individual powering all the various potentialities of the being, joining him to the divine consciousness above.

What an individual does with the energy that gets released, of course, is something else. There are both potential dangers and potential benefits from opening any of the chakras to a larger action, if the individual is not ready to hold, direct, and utilize that energy effectively and thus, the practice of things such as kundalini yoga without proper guidance can lead to physical, vital, emotional and mental imbalances, disharmonies and even injuries or death, while proper implementation can lead to higher stages of realization and awareness.

At a certain stage in the yogic practice, some of these openings and developments may begin to take place naturally. Human aspiration for the Divine brings about an upward flow of energy, while the Divine response from above answers.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “There is a Yoga-Shakti lying coiled or asleep in the inner body, not active. When one does Yoga, this force uncoils itself and rises upward to meet the Divine Consciousness and force that are waiting above us. When this happens, when the awakened Yoga-Shakti arises, it is often felt like a snake uncoiling and standing up straight and lifting itself more and more upwards. When it meets the Divine Consciousness above, then the force of the Divine Consciousness can more easily descend into the body and be felt working there to change the nature.”

“The feeling of your body and eyes being drawn upwards is part of the same movement. It is the inner consciousness in the body and the inner subtle sight in the body that are looking and moving upward and trying to meet the divine consciousness and divine seeing above.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 5, Physical Consciousness — Subconscient — Sleep and Dream — Illness, pg. 92

Addressing the Opening of the Lower Vital Being

Every part of the being eventually has to open and become receptive to the higher spiritual forces. This will lead to changes in the way these aspects of the external being respond and function. This is a progressive process over time. If the lower vital parts of the being get a surge of energy from an opening, there is both a chance for this to push toward the higher implementation or for it to represent a powerful use of the energy for the normal movements of that lower vital nature. In such a case, considerable damage could be done.

The psychic being has the ability to understand and interpret the nature of the opening. If the movement is towards light, fulfillment of the higher aspiration, and an ordering of the force under the management of the spiritual dedication, then it becomes a great aid in the sadhana. If, on the other hand, all manner of lower vital energies appear, such as greed, anger, lust, craving, selfishness, then it becomes clear that the energy released is not yet transformed for the changes that need to take place.

This provides a rationale why it is best not to attempt to open and release the energies of the lower vital nature too soon, or to try to use that energy as part of the sadhana until there is considerably more control and focus by virtue of the divine force already working to transform the higher levels and aspects of the being, and these things providing a controlling and moderating influence on the lower vital forces.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “It is certainly possible to draw forces from below. It may be the hidden divine forces from below that rise at your pull, and then this motion upward completes the motion and effort of the divine force from above, helping especially to bring it into the body. Or it may be the obscure forces from below that respond to the summons and then this kind of drawing brings either tamas or disturbance — sometimes great masses of inertia or a formidable upheaval and disturbance.”

“The lower vital is a very obscure plane and it can be fully opened with advantage only when the other planes above it have been thrown wide to light and knowledge. One who concentrates on the lower vital without that higher preparation and without knowledge is likely to fall into many confusions. This does not mean that experiences of this plane may not come earlier or even at the beginning; they do come of themselves, but they must not be given too large a place.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 5, Physical Consciousness — Subconscient — Sleep and Dream — Illness, pp. 91-92

The Light Is Needed to Clear the Subconscient of Undesired Responses

In the Rig Veda, there is a legend about a cave of the Panis which Sri Aurobindo has explained as a description of how the subconscient captures and holds the higher divine Light and encloses it away in the darkness. The illumined mind and the higher powers of awareness break open this subconscient level and free the light from that encompassing darkness. In The Secret of the Veda, Sri Aurobindo describes the meaning of Indra, Sarama, the ‘cows’, representing the rays of Light, the battle of Light against the Darkness, and the significance of freeing these ray-cows from the subconscient. With this context we can then appreciate the need for the spiritual aspirant to bring down the Light to transform the subconscient and overcome the powers that reside there and pull down the consciousness toward darkness and dullness.

Forces and directions no longer accepted by the conscious waking mind may still act through vital acceptance. When the vital no longer accepts these forces they go down into the physical and the subconscient where they are embedded and ready to spring up whenever something triggers their release, potentially overpowering the conscious mind and focused vital nature if the uprising is extremely intense and abrupt.

The seeds described by Sri Aurobindo represent the potential, the latent tendencies, the embedded or encapsulated force that can be triggered by some circumstance, perception, sensation, event or person. Until these seeds are removed or sterilized they can sprout up just about any time. Once they are neutralized, one way or the other, the subconscient is cleared and the forces that had a foothold in the external nature through the subconscient are relegated to the environmental consciousness and if pushed away from there, they reside in general nature, waiting to act upon any who remain receptive to them.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “You do not realise how much of the ordinary natural being lives in the subconscient physical. It is there that habitual movements, mental and vital, are stored and from there they come up into the waking mind. Driven out of the upper consciousness, it is in this cavern of the Panis that they take refuge. No longer allowed to emerge freely in the waking state, they come up in sleep as dreams. It is when they are cleared out of the subconscient, their very seeds killed by the enlightening of these hidden layers, that they cease for good. As your consciousness deepens inwardly and the higher light comes down into those inferior covered parts, the things that now recur in this way will disappear.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 5, Physical Consciousness — Subconscient — Sleep and Dream — Illness, pg. 91

Training the Subconscient to Respond to the Higher Spiritual Will

As the seeker begins to observe the movements of the external nature closely, he can identify certain repetitive patterns of response, including impulses to stimuli of various sorts, cravings, desires, fears, frustrations, anger, and attraction. All of these are for the most part virtually automatic without conscious decision or control by the higher elements of the being. While we tend to think of ourselves as being in control of our life-responses, the reality tends to be far different than our superficial assessment. We call these movements instincts, habits or trained behaviour. Trained behaviour is essentially an embedded memory that calls for a specific response. Each of these needs to be resolved somewhat differently.

Instincts tend to be the most deeply embedded elements which harken back to an evolutionary development that may be far in the distant past of the species, or, indeed, of the animal or plant kingdom more generally. Instincts are thus not simply overturned with the application of a mental will or some kind of affirmation. They can be partially controlled through an exercise of will, but their force of expression remains and can easily overcome the will-power in most instances. Changing an instinct thus requires application of a new evolutionary power to intervene in the process and can thus only come about when the subconscient is flooded with the spiritual light and force and thus, takes on an entirely different vibratory pattern.

A small example of an instinctive response and a change occurred some years ago when some people attended an anti-war protest in Washington D.C. They were surrounded by heavily armed, and armoured, police and a general instinctive response of fear entered the people thus surrounded. Then an individual began to chant OM loudly, and this was picked up by others, and soon, the entire group was responding and the fear element was removed by this higher vibratory pattern. It is thus possible to overcome even instinctive behaviour under certain conditions. Making this a more permanent and automatic response, of course, is a different matter requiring substantial and persistent efforts to bring the higher light into the densest and darkest regions of the being.

Habits are somewhat more easily controlled. Habits are made through repetitive behaviour. While the behaviour may begin as something of an automatic response to a sensation, feeling, impulse or perception, it does not become a habit in the first instance. It is through a repetition, in many cases involving a conscious decision, that a habit builds up and creates what many call “grooves” in the nature that smooth the flow of energy in the direction that has been turned into a habit. A habit that has been “made” can be “unmade” through patient and persistent steps to counteract it when it arises. This includes things like various forms of craving, or even behaviours of frustration or excitement under various provocative circumstances. We sometimes see professional tennis players become upset with their play or the umpire’s calls and throw their tennis racket out of frustration. This is actually an expression of an habitual pattern they have likely developed during the training period.

Just as habits can create negative vital responses, habits can also be made through pattern and reward processes that can aid the being. Replacement of one deleterious habit by a more positive habit can interrupt the old habit. Of course, the new habit will eventually need to be addressed, but this can be seen as a progressive process over time. One example of this is to replace negative thoughts with positive affirmations, chants, mantras, etc.

Trained responses are the most superficial of the elements that influence the subconscient, in that they are built through a very detailed process of repetition, in many cases, through a designed program. Much of the educational activity that takes place in schools or in military training represents the systematic development of trained responses. An awakened seeker can begin to recognise these trained responses and undertake to adjust, modify or eliminate them through a counter-training. In some cases, such as those that involve involuntary muscle tightening, various practices such as meditation, hatha yoga, martial arts, or biofeedback training can work on these elements.

In the end, the power of light, entering the mind and will, and exposing this subconscient layer and its mechanisms, then entering the vital being and working on opening the emotions and the vital responses, and finally changing the very vibrational patterns of the physical body, is the tool needed to be patiently and persistently applied to the subconscious. Understanding the mechanisms at work, and the relative type of subconscient behaviour being addressed, can aid in this process if the practitioner exercises calm, steady and persistent will towards the needed opening and change.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “The subconscient is a thing of habits and memories and repeats persistently or whenever it can old suppressed reactions, reflexes, mental, vital or physical responses. It must be trained by a still more persistent insistence of the higher parts of the being to give up its old responses and take on the new and true ones.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 5, Physical Consciousness — Subconscient — Sleep and Dream — Illness, pp. 90-91

Heredity, Predispositions from Past Lives and the Spiritual Path

In his play Hamlet, William Shakespeare has the protagonist proclaim “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

Particularly in the West, anything that references the possibility of past lives, inherited memories or capacities, or experiences, is treated with disdain and disbelief for the most part. The materialist mindset does not recognise the existence of the soul, the process of rebirth as a mechanism for the growth and development of the soul, or any mechanism that is not directly tied to material processes that can be scientifically evidenced. In recent times, the science of genetics has begun to recognise physical hereditary factors, and, if we add in to this element of ‘nature’ the support and education of parents and the social setting, in other words, ‘nurture’, the materialist now can recognise many traits that seem to carry forward from one generation to the next.

What is missing here, however, is an explanation for those cases that do not rely on physical heredity or the education, training and encouragement provided by the social framework of the family, the schools, the peers and the social forces of the time. Such cases exist. The case of prodigies such as Mozart are frequently raised in such discussions. How can a 5-year old child write music or begin a grand tour of Europe, performing before royalty, at the age of 6, and write his first symphony at the age of 8, if there is no predisposition brought in from a past lifetime? Materialists have their explanation of course, that certain mental, vital and physical predispositions based in genetic inheritance provide a basis and the education of the child by a father who was himself a composer and musician make this possible.

There are however intriguing cases that do not provide both the parental predisposition and the parental training that Mozart received! For example, the French composer Camille Saint-Saens apparently had a musical aptitude to pick out tunes on the piano already at age 2 and began composing at age 3, with more sophisticated compositions starting at age 5. Alma Deutscher is a more modern example of a prodigy who began piano at age 2, violin at age 3 and composed her first short opera at age 7 and full opera at age 10. She apparently claimed that the melodies she composed came to her in her dreams.

It is not only in the field of music, however, that we can see evidence of forces at work beyond those that the materialist explanation will succeed in covering. An individual by the name Terence Tao was already teaching older children spelling and addition when he was just 2 years old. By age 8 he achieved a high score on the SAT math section, a test usually taken by individuals in their final year of high school.

The question of past lifetimes becomes more intriguing when we study documented cases of young children who can describe details of a past lifetime in places they have never been, and circumstances they could never have experienced, and sometimes with languages they have never been exposed to in their current young lifetime. A substantial and documented study was undertaken at the University of Virginia with a number of cases that included mechanisms to eliminate possible alternative explanations.

One of the most well-known examples, of course is the reincarnation of Tibetan Lamas, such as the Dalai Lama and the method of identifying the reborn Lama that acts as a filter to prevent mistakes.

Many people will jump from the one extreme of non-belief to the other extreme of absolute belief in predestination and predetermination. Yet Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have added another element to this discussion, which is the evolution of consciousness and the conscious choice of the awakened soul. The stars, if you will, may provide a predisposition, but do not control entirely the destiny of the awakened soul. This provides a method for both a foundation and an evolutionary growth. In some cases we may even recognise, as The Tibetan Book of the Dead asserts, that the soul, at the time of death, can remain conscious and avoid falling into negative or useless births, and in some cases can choose a birth that will carry on the direction and aspiration of the soul into the next lifetime.

Generally the soul does not bring along all the baggage of the details of the past birth, but brings with it the essence of that prior lifetime and experience so that progress can be made without having to start all over again from the beginning in each new birth. While this may provide a foundation for progress, past habits or samskaras may carry over and create limitations and obstacles for the spiritual practitioner to recognise and overcome.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “It is true that we bring most of ourselves, — or rather most of our predispositions, tendencies of reaction to the universal Nature, from past lives. Heredity only affects strongly the external being; besides, all the effects of heredity are not accepted even there, only those that are in consonance with what we are to be or not preventive of it at least.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 5, Physical Consciousness — Subconscient — Sleep and Dream — Illness, pg. 90

Universal Forces and Their Impact on the Individual and Means of Protection From Their Action

We are constantly being inundated by forces active in the world. These forces may be physical, such as the radiation from the sun, radioactivity from the earth, the power of wind, waves, gravitational influences, etc. They may also be vital forces that provoke sympathetic vibrations within us based on long habit or instinctive reaction or some trained response we have developed with respect to events, circumstances, relationships or traumas in our past experience. They may also be mental forces which may feed us ideas, opinions, speculations, imaginations that are circulating in the world. These forces may be introduced to us through the medium of specific individuals, events, or interactions; but they may also reach us unseen and unheard, and try to find their entrance through some form of inattention or through active acceptance on our part.

The practitioner of yoga may shift his standpoint from the external personality to the inner psychic being and from there, he begins to observe the forces that want to move him to thought, word, or deed. He may accept, modify, reject, or retransmit these forces, as the case may be. He may also reject a particular force in his mind, but still have vital or physical acceptance of it, thus, giving the force an entry-point to his being.

It is a frequent observation that when one of these forces, particularly strong vital forces, is rejected by the conscious observer, it tends to try to assert its ‘rights’ of activity through an enhanced force. Sri Aurobindo also mentions the potential action of ‘hostiles’. We tend not to realize that we are not the only conscious beings in the universe, or that beings that live in different vibrational fields may be as conscious, or more conscious than we are, and that they may have the ability to interact with us at certain vibrational levels.

We may reflect that humanity tends to feed off of beings that vibrate in many cases at a lower vibrational level. We can appreciate that there may be beings who may feed off of the vital energies we vibrate, and in some cases, they may act to provoke such vital expression for them to feed off of. They may then try to activate energies of greed, lust, anger, hatred, violent passions as providing them vital “food” they seek. In some cases they may feel like they possess or own us and if we try to block them they try to take retributive action to “bring us into line”. Most people do not actually actively experience these things and thus remain ignorant of these vital beings, their powers and their ability to manipulate human vital responses. The physical body and the vital envelope, as well as mental development may actually provide some measure of protection for the individual. The more an individual becomes conscious, however, of the action of vital forces and the flow of energies from outside, in and around and through each of us, the more likely it is that he will be able to see and recognise the attempts made by these forces to influence and control.

There are a number of ways the seeker can develop ironclad protection from attacks by these forces, primary of which is the shifting of the standpoint to the inner consciousness of the psychic being and the aspiration, devotion and consecration that this shift of standpoint brings to the being. Dedication, surrender and rejection of vital forces that try to invade are a result of this shift.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “As for the waves that recur from general Nature, it is the natural tendency of the inferior forces there to try and perpetuate their action in the individual, to rebuild what he has unbuilt of their deposits in him; so they return on him, often with an increased force, even with a stupendous violence, when they find their influence rejected. But they cannot last long once the environmental consciousness is cleared — unless the ‘Hostiles’ take a hand. Even then these can indeed attack, but if the sadhak has established his position in the inner self, they can only attack and retire.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 5, Physical Consciousness — Subconscient — Sleep and Dream — Illness, pg. 90

The Procedure for Elimination of Unwanted Movements in the Being

Medical researchers tell us that bacteria that can cause various disease conditions are always present in our environment, to some degree, including within our bodies. Yet for the most part, we do not become ill or remain ill all the time. The bacteria may be in a diffused or weak form, or our various immune system defenses reject their attempt to overpower our system in a way that creates an active illness. In some cases we may experience a feeling of physical pressure of some sort and then exercise a mental will, create an affirmation of health, or seek out some form of external support to avoid or reduce the onset, intensity or length of any illness. In many cases, the subconscient raises a vibrational response to the activity of the agent trying to disrupt or gain control over the physical body and thus, opens up a type of correspondence which allows the vibration to take hold and the bacteria thereby to proliferate and increase their intensity.

Vibrational patterns at the mental, vital and physical level are likewise always active in the environment. If an individual is receptive to any of these vibrations, they take root in the being at whatever level they are active, whether in the mind, the vital being or the physical.

As we see in the process of physical illness, it is possible for any part of the being to actively reject vibrations and thereby prevent their taking hold. The various parts of the being are not always in agreement with each other, so the mind may reject something that the vital still desires, or the physical craves, and thus, part of the being is creating a receptive opening for that vibration, even if another part is clearly against it. It is only after all parts of the being have refused admittance to these vibrations and their influence that the being can be considered totally clear, and even then, these universal forces try to ‘reinfect’ the being at some level and thereby to create a starting point for a full blown expression.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “As for the things in our nature that are thrown away from us by rejection but come back, it depends on where you throw them. Very often there is a sort of procedure about it. The mind rejects its mentalities, the vital its vitalities, the physical its physicalities — these usually go back into the corresponding domain of general Nature. It all stays at first, when that happens, in the environmental consciousness which we carry about with us, by which we communicate with the outside Nature, and often it persistently rushes back from there — until it is so absolutely rejected, or thrown far away as it were, that it cannot return upon us any more. But when what the thinking and willing mind rejects is strongly supported by the vital, it leaves the mind indeed but sinks down into the vital, rages there and tries to rush up again and re-occupy the mind and compel or capture our mental acceptance. When the higher vital too — the heart or the larger vital dynamis reject it, it sinks from there and takes refuge in the lower vital with its mass of small current movements that make up our daily littleness. When the lower vital too rejects it, it sinks into the physical consciousness and tries to stick by inertia or mechanical repetition. Rejected even from there it goes into the subconscient and comes up in dreams, in passivity, in extreme tamas. The Inconscient is the last resort of the Ignorance.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 5, Physical Consciousness — Subconscient — Sleep and Dream — Illness, pp. 89-90

The Universal, the Individual and the Evolution of Consciousness

We see the world from the individual standpoint and place ourselves at the center of it. We believe we originate the thoughts, feelings, emotions and responses we give. This, however, is very much the illusion of the ego-sense.

Consider that for the longest time, human beings believed that the sun rotated around the earth. Our language encompasses this belief even today when we talk about ‘sunrise’ and ‘sunset’. This geocentric viewpoint was eventually replaced by what is called a heliocentric viewpoint, namely, that the earth rotates and also transits around the sun, thus creating the illusion of sunrise and sunset. The first people in the West who recognised and publicised these facts were ostracised, excommunicated from the church, and otherwise pressured to recant their views. Eventually, they were found to have been justified in their beliefs and even those who earlier opposed this, recognised that the geocentric view of life on earth was inaccurate.

Similarly, we live and act with what we may call the egocentric view of our lives, although in a similar way we are individual instances of the universal manifestation and for the most part carry out the ideas, impulses and direction of that universal, with minor adjustments due to the individual receiving the impulse having his own unique set of experiences. The Isha Upanishad proclaims this in the very first verse: “All this is for habitation by the Lord, whatsoever is individual universe of movement in the universal motion.”

Each person is always being inundated with these universal forces, mental forces, vital forces, physical forces, energies that span the entire spectrum, both perceptible and imperceptible. Based on the stage of development and the focus of the receiving individual, certain forces then tend to predominate in him, which creates his individuality, but not his separateness from the universal creation.

Change is thus not under the full control of the individual. As certain forces work within him, and various chakras are activated, he turns his attention and focus to one thing or another, and eventually, if he turns to spiritual growth, he becomes aware of the limitations of the habitual patterns operative as part of earlier stages of the evolutionary process. To be sure, the old embedded habits and instincts are intended to ensure stability and continuity of the creation and to make sure that each next step has a solid foundation and is not simply a vast mistake which will lead to harm or destruction. The conservative principle has its role to play. At the same time, through a process of opening to new forces, and beginning to express them, a slow change begins to manifest for the individual and in the society as it responds to the new direction, similar to the adoption of the heliocentric model and the consequent move away from the geocentric model of earth and its position. Eventually we may begin to recognise that even the heliocentric model, correct in its own limited sphere, will have to give way to a larger view that puts the solar system into its right place in the galaxy, the galaxy into its right place in the universe, etc. etc. Human development mirrors, in a certain way, As new forces and new understandings come into play, both the necessity and the manner of instituting changes to human nature, more or less, the mutation that adapts, modifies or overturns previously fixed ways of response, become real to us.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “But what we are on the surface is being constantly set in motion, changed, developed or repeated by the waves of the general Nature coming in on us either directly or else indirectly through others, through circumstances, through various agencies or channels. some of this flows straight into the conscious parts and acts there, but our mind ignores its source, appropriates it and regards all that as its own; a part comes secretly into the subconscient or sinks into it and waits for an opportunity of rising up into the conscious surface; a good deal goes into the subliminal and may at any time come out — or may not, may rather rest there as unused matter. Part passes through and is rejected, thrown back or thrown out or spilt into the universal sea. Our nature is a constant activity of forces supplied to us out of which (or rather out of a small amount of it) we make what we will or can. What we make seems fixed and formed for good, but in reality it is all a play of forces, a flux, nothing fixed or stable; the appearance of stability is given by constant repetition and recurrence of the same vibrations and formations. That is why our nature can be changed in spite of Vivekananda’s saying and Horace’s adage and in spite of the conservative resistance of the subconscient, but it is a difficult job because the master mode of Nature is this obstinate repetition and recurrence.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 5, Physical Consciousness — Subconscient — Sleep and Dream — Illness, pp. 88-89

The Subconscious, the Subliminal and the Superconscious Influence on Our External Lives

When we are focused on our external being, we tend not to recognise that forces unseen actually not only impact how and what we perceive, understand, and respond to impressions and pressures, but actually very much define who we believe we are. There are forces that are subconscient to our external awareness which send up suggestions, thoughts, impulses, drives, habits, and instincts that drive our action. There are also forces superconscient to our external awareness that help us see, and grow beyond the limits of our physical-vital-mental existence. If we look carefully at the sources or seeds of our external reactions, we can begin to trace back much of the way we act to specific vital or mental patterns that human beings have brought forward from animal nature. The very way we respond to pressure, the ‘fight or flight’ response, the ‘pecking order’ response all come from an earlier stage of evolution and remain active in our existing lives. Even our evolved mental life is very much conditioned by past habits of human thought, as well as by social conditioning, education, and interactions we have as we experience our human childhood. It becomes difficult to determine what is ‘unique’ within us other than the specific assemblage of these pre-existing and trained responses that are packaged to represent a specific external personality.

There are also many elements which are subliminal which act without our conscious attention. Many of the metabolic functions, for instance, are not controlled by our conscious thought and will, but take place at a level that is not easily perceptible by our waking mind.

At a certain point, we also find that as individuals grow and evolve, as they optimize the powers of body, life and mind, they experience what can only be named a ‘calling’ to another focus and life-direction. They begin to reorient their actions and thoughts towards this higher calling, a response to the pressure coming from regions of awareness superconscient to our normal human range of perception.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “The subconscious is the evolutionary basis in us, it is not the whole of our hidden nature, nor is it the whole origin of what we are. But things can rise from the subconscient and take shape in the conscious parts and much of our smaller vital and physical instincts, movements, habits, character-forms has this source.”

“There are three occult sources of our action — the superconscient, the subliminal, the subconscient, but of none of them are we in control or even aware. What we are aware of is the surface being which is only an instrumental arrangement. The source of all is the general Nature, — universal Nature individualising itself in each person; for this general Nature deposits certain habits of movement, personality, character, faculties, dispositions, tendencies in us, and that, whether formed now or before our birth, is what we usually call ourselves. A good deal of this is in habitual movement and use in our known conscious parts on the surface, a great deal more is concealed in the other unknown three which are below or behind the surface.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 5, Physical Consciousness — Subconscient — Sleep and Dream — Illness, pg. 88

The Nature of the Subconscient

C.G. Jung described what he called the ‘collective unconscious’, a repository of archetypal images and experiences that are universal to humanity. Sigmund Freud explored the subconscious realms of the individual and how they impacted the lives and responses of those individuals. The understanding they gained and shared is the first opening in Western psychology to the deeper implications of the working of consciousness, which is both a unified field of oneness, and an individual experience factor built into each person’s own unique interactions with that universal reality.

When an individual remembers a dream, he frequently finds that it contains images, movements, individuals that provide a meaning, a warning or an insight. In some cases, the undigested images received by the waking consciousness but not directly perceived or addressed at that time, reappear in the dream state. There are also cases of an individual seeing something that made no sense until some time in the future when he met the individual he had seen in dream and recognised the connection. This illustrates both the universal and the individual aspects of the functioning of the subconscious.

Experiments in the use of hypnotism provide us further insights. In some cases, people have voluntarily undergone hypnotic trance and are then asked to recall details of certain incidents. They are able to report small details that they had not actually noticed with their conscious minds, perceptions which were kept and stored by the subconsious without active recognition in the waking state. This has helped solve certain mysteries, cases of crime or tracking down of missing individuals, etc.

At a still deeper level, it must be recognised that all kinds of embedded habits, instincts, behaviors that developed in earlier stages of the evolutionary process actually are not part of our conscious being, but reside in the subconscious and act from there, essentially ‘automatically’ when anything triggers them. Many such behaviours and ways of doing things are so deeply entrenched that they are able to defeat the conscious mind and will consistently, and thus provide, in some cases, a very much unwanted continuity of processes that we would like to change.

Sri Aurobindo has addressed this concern by his recognition that human nature is not to be transformed solely by the action of the mind and the will-power. It takes the instrumentality of a yet higher force, acting directly upon the subconscient, to effectuate and solidify this type of transformative change.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “The subconscient is universal as well as individual like all the other main parts of the nature. But there are different parts or planes of the subconscient. All upon earth is based on the Inconscient as it is called, though it is not really inconscient at all, but rather a complete ‘sub’-conscience, a suppressed or involved consciousness, in which there is everything but nothing is formulated or expressed. The subconscient lies between this Inconscient and the conscious mind, life and body. It contains the potentiality of all the primitive reactions to life which struggle out to the surface from the dull and inert strands of Matter and form by a constant development a slowly evolving and self-formulating consciousness; it contains them not as ideas, perceptions or conscious reactions but as fluid substance of these things. But also all that is consciously experienced sinks down into the subconscient, not as precise though submerged memories but as obscure yet obstinate impressions of experience, and these can come up at any time as dreams, as mechanical repetitions of past thought, feelings, actions, etc., etc. The subconscient is the main cause why all things repeat themselves and nothing ever gets changed except in appearance. It is the cause why people say character cannot be changed, the cause also of the constant return of things one hoped to have got rid of for ever. All seeds are there and all Samskaras of the mind, vital and body, — it is the main support of death and disease and the last fortress (seemingly impregnable) of the Ignorance. All too that is suppressed without being wholly got rid of sinks down there and remains as seed ready to surge up or sprout up at any moment.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 5, Physical Consciousness — Subconscient — Sleep and Dream — Illness, pp. 87-88