The Power of the Psychic Being

When most people think of ‘power’ , it is within the context of some overt ability to accomplish something in the setting of the external world within which we live and act. This may be political power, economic power, physical power, moral power, the power to persuade, the power of an idea, the power of motivation, whether through speech, writing, or through some other medium. It may be the power to uplift and inspire, such as the power of art or music that touches something in the being.

Because the psychic being works from behind the scenes and through influence and guidance of the body-life-mind complex, it is hard to define exactly what ‘power’ the psychic has, and this is the thrust of a question posed to the Mother by a disciple.

The power of the psychic being, though subtle, and unable to be defined by our external definitions of power, is a “causative” power. Its role is not the direct implementation of any particular line of action in the world, but to create the soul’s circumstances and guide the responses for the soul’s development and use of its external capacities, in the service of the divine manifestation to which the psychic being, through its direct relation to the Divine, is connected.

The Taittiriya Upanishad makes the point that the gross external being is the result of the more subtle planes and powers that create them, the subtlest of which is the element of Ananda, part of the truine ultimate reality of Sat-Chit-Ananda. The power that sets everything in motion and orders the framework and development of the universal creation is the ultimate, if often unrecognised, power. This is not just true in a universal sense, but even in the life and development of the individual when the soul has an opportunity to direct, guide, or impel the individual along a certain line of development.

A disciple asks: “Has the psychic any power?”

The Mother answers: “Power? It is usually the psychic which guides the being. One knows nothing about it because one is not conscious of it but usually it is that which guides the being. If one is very attentive, one becomes aware of it. But the majority of men haven’t the least idea of it. For instance, when they have decided, in their outer ignorance, to do something, and instead of their being able to do it, all the circumstances are so organised that they do something else, they start shouting, storming, flying into a rage against fate, saying (that depends on what they believe, their beliefs) that Nature is wicked or their destiny baleful or God unjust, or… no matter what (it depends on what they believe). Whilst most of the time it is just the very circumstance which was most favourable for their inner development. And naturally, if you ask the psychic to help you to fashion a pleasant life for yourself, to earn money, have children who will be the pride of the family, etc., well, the psychic will not help you. But it will create for you all the circumstances necessary to awaken something in you so that the need of union with the Divine may be born in your consciousness. At times you have made fine plans, and if they had succeeded, you would have been more and more encrusted in your outer ignorance, your stupid little ambition and your aimless activity. Whilst if you receive a good shock, and the post you coveted is denied to you, the plan you made is shattered, and you find yourself completely thwarted, then, sometimes this opposition opens to you a door on something truer and deeper. And when you are a little awake and look back, if you are in the least sincere, you say: ‘Ah! it wasn’t I who was right — it was Nature or the divine Grace or my psychic being who did it.’ It is the psychic being which organised that.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 2 Hidden Forces Within, pp. 51-52

The Direction of the Psychic in Our Lives: Determinism Joined With Free Will

The human mind likes to have nice, neat categories. “Either/Or”, “Black/White”. It has a hard time dealing with mixed actions or anything that partakes of various allegedly competing or conflicting principles. Thus, the debate over free will and determinism rages on, and eventually comes down to whether the Divine actually directs every moment of one’s life, thoughts, actions, reactions, responses, etc.; or whether there is any room for individual discretion or some element of free will.

Recently Stanford neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky in his book titled Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will, explained why he does not believe that there is any such thing as free will, and that every action is determined and controlled by both external pressures and past ’cause and effect’. This is not a new or unique viewpoint, but it is totally based on the mechanisms of the external world and its development and does not account for any Divine intention or any soul, or psychic being that grows, develops and acts as a nexus for action and implementation of the divine Will. Such growth and development would have no meaning if everything, down to the smallest detail, were actually pre-determined.

The Bible also weighs in on the side of determinism when Jesus indicates that the fate of each small bird is noted by God, and that a person’s hair on his head is numbered. While ostensibly providing a message about how the personal God of the Judeo-Christian tradition loves and cares for every smallest individual and detail, it is really a message of how determined everything actually is in that viewpoint. Where is the room for free will to act if the very comings and goings of each small bird, or the hair on the head of each individual is under direct divine scrutiny? And yet, in other places, the Bible assumes a certain level of free will of individuals and thus, the entire question of the fall of man, and the need for redemption through actions of a savior arise. The issue is clearly not resolved one way or the other there. This highlights the inherent confusion and ambivalence of our mental notions of the significance of our lives and the role of the Divine in the lives we lead in the external world.

Some earlier articles in our series reviewing the Hidden Forces of Life, went into some considerable detail about the interaction of free will and determinism and the role of each, and the ability for these two seemingly opposite principles to coexist. The main lines are basically determined, but each individual, each unit, is left free within that framework to act or not act, to move or not move, to decide, or not decide, etc. This creates a statistical distribution with most decisions winding up within a relatively narrow range, with some falling above and some below that central pathway. One way or the other, the larger divine intention is still carried out, but at the same time, the individual elements are able to grow, evolve, make mistakes and learn from them, and follow a natural path based on their own evolutionary station and the needs of their further development.

A disciple asks: “Mother, is the orientation of an individual’s life directed by the psychic?”

The Mother responds: “Yes, absolutely unconsciously for the individual, most of the time; but it is the psychic which organises his existence — only in what may be called the main lines, because for intervening in the details there would have to be a conscious union between the outer being, that is, the vital and physical being, and the psychic being, but usually this does not exist. So externally, in the details… for example, there was someone who in deep perplexity said to me, ‘Well, if it is the psychic being or rather the Divine in the psychic who directs our life, it is He who decides the number of pieces of sugar I put in my tea-cup?’ That was the question, verbatim. So the answer had to be, ‘No, because it is not a detailed intervention of this kind.’ “

“It is as when you push your fist into a heap of iron filings or saw-dust, all the infinitesimal little elements of the iron filings or saw-dust are organised to take on the form of your fist, but they do not do this either deliberately or consciously. It is through the work of the consciousness which pushes that this kind of thing happens. There is no decision that each element is going to be exactly in this place, like that; it is the effect of the energy which has pushed the fist that organises the elements. But that’s how it is. There is the psychic consciousness at work in life, organising all the circumstances of your life but not with a deliberate choice of the details….”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 2 Hidden Forces Within, pp. 50-51

The Soul’s Connection to the Divine and Its Role in the Divine Manifestation

Many spiritual practitioners have realized that the external life we customarily lead is a life of ‘illusion’, and that it is based in a flawed view of reality. This does not mean that our life, existence and action has no real significance; rather, that the way we define our lives, based on the external focus of the body-life-mind complex, is simply inaccurate and leads us to draw incomplete and inaccurate conclusions.

Some of the spiritual paths use this starting point of the illusory nature of the world to suggest that we abandon that world and take up a sole focus on the realisation of our spiritual reality and truth of existence. They in effect ask those who heed the call of the Spirit to deny the outer life’s demands, minimize their needs, and spend time in focus on that deeper truth and reality of our existence.

Other spiritual paths, however, recognise that the Spirit is not divorced from the external world of Matter, Life and Mind, and that we must therefore find a way to integrate our spiritual purpose with our external lives. This is only possible because there is oneness that, while hidden in the background during the development and growth of the material, vital and mental principles of the manifestation, still remains a reality. This oneness remains known and intact through the medium of the soul and the growth of the psychic being or soul-presence as the evolution of consciousness proceeds.

The role of the soul is to develop the external being and prepare it for a direct and complete expression of the Divine Truth of existence. This process is one that takes place over time as a growth and maturation process, and as the body-life-mind complex becomes ready to express the light, power and Ananda of the Divine, the soul also continues to gain in maturity, power of action and ability to express its focus through those instruments of the outer nature.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “The psychic part of us is something that comes direct from the Divine and is in touch with the Divine. In its origin it is the nucleus pregnant with divine possibilities that supports this lower triple manifestation of mind, life and body. There is this divine element in all living beings, but it stands hidden behind the ordinary consciousness, is not at first developed and, even when developed, is not always or often in the front; it expresses itself, so far as the imperfection of the instruments allows, by their means and under their limitations. It grows in the consciousness by Godward experience, gaining strength every time there is a higher movement in us, and, finally, by the accumulation of these deeper and higher movements, there is developed a psychic individuality, — that which we call usually the psychic being. It is always this psychic being that is the real, though often the secret cause of man’s turning to the spiritual life and his greatest help in it. It is therefore that which we have to bring from behind to the front in the yoga.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 2 Hidden Forces Within, pp. 49-50

The Growth and Maturation of the Psychic Being Brings Increasing Power and Influence on the External Being

We experience a growth of consciousness during the maturation process starting with birth and continuing as the infant becomes a school-age child, then grows into teenage years and passes through puberty and the hormonal changes that come with that period, then into young adulthood and experience of adult life, eventually as an elder who hopefully has gained some vision and reflection about life as he reflects on his experience. A similar process occurs for the growth and maturation of the psychic being, the soul-essence within each individual, although that process takes place, not within the space of a single lifetime, but across numerous lifetimes, gathering the fruit of the soul’s experience without attachment to specific bodies, lifetimes, or formations that may have been part of that experience.

This brings us to an important, and interesting, observation. We cannot expect the psychic being to wield the same influence in its initial stages of development as when it has fully matured. Each individual passes through these various stages, and thus, we have a continuum of soul-development across not only the individual soul’s growth, but across the entire spectrum of humanity. Just as we do not blame the infant or the child for not having, at that stage of life, the full mental capacity that they will have as an adult, so we also cannot blame any individual whose psychic being is still forming and not yet fully managing the external being and its interactions in the world. And if we reflect on the growth process, we begin to appreciate that there is no room for pride or arrogance about one’s own superiority, as it is not truly a superiority, but a matter of timing. The butterfly cannot look down upon the caterpillar because it cannot yet fly….

Sri Aurobindo observes: “Moreover, the psychic being, the soul-personality in us, does not emerge full-grown and luminous; it evolves, passes through a slow development and formation; its figure of being may be at first indistinct and may afterwards remain for a long time weak and undeveloped, not impure but imperfect: for it rests its formation, its dynamic self-building on the power of soul that has been actually and more or less successfully, against the resistance of the Ignorance and Inconscience, put forth in the evolution upon the surface. Its appearance is the sign of a soul-emergence in Nature, and if that emergence is as yet small and defective, the psychic personality also will be stunted or feeble. It is too, by the obscurity of our consciousness, separated from its inner reality, in imperfect communication with its own source in the depths of the being; for the road is as yet ill-built, easily obstructed, the wires often cut or crowded with communications of another kind and proceeding from another origin: its power to impress what it receives upon the outer instruments is also imperfect; in its penury it has for most things to rely on these instruments and it forms its push to expression and action on their data and not solely on the unerring perceptions of the psychic entity. In these conditions it cannot prevent the true psychic light from being diminished or distorted in the mind into a mere idea or opinion, the psychic feeling in the heart into a fallible emotion or mere sentiment, the psychic will to action in the life-parts into a blind vital enthusiasm or a fervid excitement: it even accepts these mistranslations for want of something better and tries to fulfil itself through them. For it is part of the work of the soul to influence mind and heart and vital being and turn their ideas, feelings, enthusiasms, dynamisms in the direction of what is divine and luminous; but this has to be done at first imperfectly, slowly and with a mixture. As the psychic personality grows stronger, it begins to increase its communion with the psychic entity behind it and improve its communications with the surface: it can transmit its intimations to the mind and heart and life with a greater purity and force; for it is more able to exercise a strong control and react against false mixtures; now more and more it makes itself distinctly felt as a power in the nature. But even so this evolution would be slow and long if left solely to the difficult automatic action of the evolutionary Energy; it is only when man awakes to the knowledge of the soul and feels a need to bring it to the front and make it the master of his life and action that a quicker conscious method of evolution intervenes and a psychic transformation becomes possible.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 2 Hidden Forces Within, pp. 48-49

The Limiting and Diluting Effect of the External Instruments on the Intimations of the Soul

During the evolutionary development of the ascending powers of consciousness, the action of the soul is to provide an influence from behind, while the primary attention is fixated on the needed development of the powers of the external being, body, life and mind. This severely limits the direct action of the soul until everything is readied. There are however additional factors which both limit and distort the soul’s action in the external being.

One of these is the inability of the outer instruments to fully and completely express the soul’s intimations in a pure and unmodified way. The outer instruments of body, life and mind act somewhat like a “step down transformer” that takes the potential high power energetic action of the soul, runs it through their limited capabilities, and, without a clear recognition of the source of the soul’s pressures, tries to fit them into the natural inclinations of the respective instruments. This leads to a watering down effect of the soul’s power to achieve its aims in the external nature, and even a distorting effect when, for instance, vital passions are substituted and palmed off as soul-expressions. When the soul’s pressure is coopted to fulfill goals of the external ego-personality, it is easy for the individual to lose the clarity of what actually constitutes the expression of the soul.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “But this psychic influence or action does not come up to the surface quite pure or does not remain distinct in its purity; if it did, we would be able to distinguish clearly the soul element in us and follow consciously and fully its dictates. An occult mental and vital and subtle-physical action intervenes, mixes with it, tries to use it and turn it to its own profit, dwarfs its divinity, distorts or diminishes its self-expression, even causes it to deviate and stumble or stains it with the impurity, smallness and error of mind and life and body. After it reaches the surface, thus alloyed and diminished, it is taken hold of by the surface nature in an obscure reception and ignorant formation, and there is or can be by this cause a still further deviation and mixture. A twist is given, a wrong direction is imparted, a wrong application, a wrong formation, an erroneous result of what is in itself pure stuff and action of our spiritual being; a formation of consciousness is accordingly made which is a mixture of the psychic influence and its intimations jumbled with mental ideas and opinions, vital desires and urges, habitual physical tendencies. There coalesce too with the obscured soul-influence the ignorant though well-intentioned efforts of these external parts towards a higher direction; a mental ideation of a very mixed character, often obscure even in its idealism, sometimes even disastrously mistaken, a fervour and passion of the emotional being throwing up its spray and foam of feelings, sentiments, sentimentalisms, a dynamic enthusiasm of the life-parts, eager responses of the physical, the thrills and excitements of nerve and body, — all these influences coalesce in a composite formation which is frequently taken as the soul and its mixed and confused action for the soul-stir, for a psychic development and action or a realised inner influence. The psychic entity is itself free from stain or mixture, but what comes up from it is not protected by that immunity; therefore this confusion becomes possible.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 2 Hidden Forces Within, pp. 47-48

Recognising the Emergence of the Soul in Our Being

There are many things in the world which we know exist, not because we can directly perceive them, but because we can experience their effects. Thus, we cannot see ‘gravity’ but we know it exists. We cannot see radiation, but again, we know it exists. As we continue to develop powers of the vital and mental planes we begin to recognise that there are many pressures, of feelings, of emotions, of thought, of will-power which are not perceptible directly, but which we understand by their impact on us. Each more advanced level of the evolutionary development brings us to more and more subtle levels of understanding, thus, making it possible for us to intuit and know these more subtle energies.

We come then to the experience of the soul. Those who live entirely on the external level of their being, primarily in the physical and vital consciousness, are unable to appreciate the existence of the soul. This is, however, not a conclusion that the soul does not exist; rather, it is a declaration of the limitations of the ability of those individuals, at that stage in their development, to relate to the soul-experience. Just as someone fully engaged at the physical level will rarely have the ability to appreciate and understand complex forms of reasoning, logic, mathematics, statistical analysis, scientific thinking, etc.,, we find that certain capacities develop only when the being is ready.

We can see individuals mature, either through the normal process of growth, or through an inner readiness that reorients the being towards the mental or spiritual realms of experience, and thereby begin to understand, appreciate and recognise the influence of the soul, and actually be able to encourage its action and ability to direct the external instruments of body, life and mind.

Sri Aurobindo outlines the way the soul begins to exert its influence over the outer being, and how we can recognise that influence, before we have the direct contact and experience of the soul in its own native form.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “As the evolution proceeds, Nature begins slowly and tentatively to manifest our occult parts; she leads us to look more and more within ourselves or sets out to initiate more clearly recognisable intimations and formations of them on the surface. The soul in us, the psychic principle, has already begun to take secret form; it puts forward and develops a soul-personality, a distinct psychic being to represent it. This psychic being remains still behind the veil in our subliminal part, like the true mental, the true vital or the true or subtle physical being within us: but, like them, it acts on the surface life by the influences and intimations it throws up upon that surface; these form part of the surface aggregate which is the conglomerate effect of the inner influences and upsurgings, the visible formation and superstructure which we ordinarily experience and think of as ourselves. On this ignorant surface we become dimly aware of something that can be called a soul as distinct from mind, life or body; we feel it not only as our mental idea or vague instinct of ourselves, but as a sensible influence in our life and character and action. A certain sensitive feeling for all that is true and good and beautiful, fine and pure and noble, a response to it, a demand for it, a pressure on mind and life to accept and formulate it in our thought, feelings, conduct, character is the most usually recognised, the most general and characteristic, though not the sole sign of this influence of the psyche. Of the man who has not this element in him or does not respond at all to this urge, we say that he has no soul. For it is this influence that we can most easily recognise as a finer or even a diviner part in us and the most powerful for the slow turning towards some aid at perfection in our nature.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 2 Hidden Forces Within, pp. 46-47

The Cycle of Development in Nature and the Focus of Attention

We observe everywhere that Nature has a development cycle, with focus of attention on what needs to take place at each stage of that cycle, rather than simply jumping ahead to an ‘end result’ of the development. Thus, we see that plants undergo a stage of sprouting from seed, and the first focus is on putting out a root system and leaves, then stems and trunks, more leaves, and eventually they come to a stage of flowering and bearing of fruit, which then leads to a new seed generation and repeat of the cycle.

In human beings we can observe that after the child is born, Nature puts the initial primary attention on the growth of the physical body; as the child grows, there comes about development of the vital powers of the being, and eventually a stage is reached where a primary attention is placed on the mental development. Some educators indeed have posited that there are specific time frames in the development cycle within which each of these levels obtains the primary focus. Rudolf Steiner and Maria Montessori created plans of education around these stages. Ancient Indian teachings held that there were specific time frames within the scope of human life within which the being should focus on various aspects of development. These stages, known as ashramas, counseled the individual to attend to the major aspects of human development within an orderly sequence.

We can consider that a caterpillar focuses its attention almost entirely on eating leaves of plants. At a certain stage it spins a cocoon and embeds itself therein. Eventually it emerges as a butterfly. Just as the caterpillar cannot focus its attention on flying as a butterfly, so the child, the young adult, the individual in the prime of life, cannot be expected to focus on or even conceive of, in most cases, a further stage that involves new spiritual understanding and expression of powers and modes of being that represent the development of the flower of human existence, the emergence of the soul. When the time comes, the mature individual naturally turns his attention to the soul and the significance of his life. This is a natural cycle of development. Until that time, the existence of the soul is considered to be a mystery, and its influence is primarily a pressure of ongoing development of the physical, vital, emotional, and mental aspects of the life, to prepare for the ultimate emergence of the soul in a fully awake, prepared and competent human existence.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “If the psychic entity had been from the beginning unveiled and known to its ministers, not a secluded King in a screened chamber, the human evolution would have been a rapid soul-outflowering, not the difficult, chequered and disfigured development it now is; but the veil is thick and we know not the secret Light within us, the light in the hidden crypt of the heart’s innermost sanctuary. Intimations rise to our surface from the psyche, but our mind does not detect their source; it takes them for its own activities because, before even they come to the surface, they are clothed in mental substance: thus ignorant of their authority, it follows or does not follow them according to its bent or turn at the moment. If the mind obeys the urge of the vital ego, then there is little chance of the psyche at all controlling the nature or manifesting in it something of its secret spiritual stuff and native movement; or, if the mind is over-confident to act in its own smaller light, attached to its own judgment, will and action of knowledge, then also the soul will remain veiled and quiescent and wait for the mind’s farther evolution. For the psychic part within is there to support the natural evolution, and the first natural evolution must be the development of body, life and mind, successively, and these must act each in its own kind or together in their ill-assorted partnership in order to grow and have experience and evolve. The soul gathers the essence of all our mental, vital and bodily experience and assimilates it for the farther evolution of our existence in Nature; but this action is occult and not obtruded on the surface. In the early material and vital stages of the evolution of being there is indeed no consciousness of soul; there are psychic activities, but the instrumentation, the form of these activities are vital and physical, — or mental when the mind is active. For even the mind, so long as it is primitive or is developed but still too external, does not recognise their deeper character. It is easy to regard ourselves as physical beings or beings of life or mental beings using life and body and to ignore the existence of the soul altogether: for the only definite idea that we have of the soul is of something that survives death of our bodies; but what this is we do not know because even if we are conscious sometimes of its presence, we are not normally conscious of its distinct reality nor do we feel clearly its direct action in our nature.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 2 Hidden Forces Within, pp. 44-46

The Soul, the Psychic Being and the External Nature

Why do we not immediately recognise the existence and centrality of the soul? We tend to set our standpoint in the external consciousness which is directed outwards, and which is constantly receiving sense impressions and pressures impinging on our body-life-mind complex. The sense organs, nervous system and brain are wired to respond to impressions from these external forces and are not either directed toward nor tuned to perceive the subtle energetic action of the inner being, and the soul, the inmost being.

Similarly the external senses do not directly perceive the superconscient spiritual energies that impinge upon us and thus, may try to deny that they exist.

It is very simple, however, to recognise the error of this conclusion. Just because we cannot perceive something directly with our mind and senses, it does not mean that those things do not exist. We do not perceive gravity, radiation or electricity with our senses directly, but we are clearly able to recognise the effects of these forces. We also cannot perceive and measure directly the impulses that we call love, physical attraction, mutual chemistry, or the mechanisms that help create these things, such as the secretion of pheromones.

When we turn our view inwards, and quiet the promptings of the external senses and the physical mind, we can begin to experience and appreciate more directly and consistently the inner physical, the inner vital, the inner mental and the inner soul aspects of our being. With ‘tapasya’ we can understand the causative role that the ever-more-subtle aspects of our existence plays upon the more gross, external aspects of the being. The soul, or psychic being, is the subtle and central causative link between the spiritual existence and our external being. We can certainly appreciate the effect of the soul even if we cannot measure it with our external senses.

Sri Aurobindo defines the forces that constitute the soul-forces that we can appreciate in their expression, forces of truth, forces of beauty, forces of harmony all stem from the action of the soul. The more influence it has on the external being, the more we tend to align our appreciation and action to resonate to these forces of coherence and harmonious development and the more we tend to reject and eliminate those forces that bring forth disharmony, chaos and falsehood.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “At the beginning the soul in Nature, the psychic entity, whose unfolding is the first step towards a spiritual change, is an entirely veiled part of us, although it is that by which we exist and persist as individual beings in Nature. The other parts of our natural composition are not only mutable but perishable; but the psychic entity in us persists and is fundamentally the same always: it contains all essential possibilities of our manifestation but is not constituted by them; it is not limited by what it manifests, not contained by the incomplete forms of the manifestation, not tarnished by the imperfections and impurities, the defects and depravations of the surface being. It is an ever-pure flame of the divinity in things and nothing that comes to it, nothing that enters into our experience can pollute its purity or extinguish the flame. This spiritual stuff is immaculate and luminous and, because it is perfectly luminous, it is immediately, intimately, directly aware of truth of being and truth of nature; it is deeply conscious of truth and good and beauty because truth and good and beauty are akin to its own native character, forms of something that is inherent in its own substance. It is aware also of all that contradicts these things, of all that deviates from its own native character, of falsehood and evil and the ugly and the unseemly; but it does not become these things nor is it touched or changed by these opposites of itself which so powerfully affect its outer instrumentation of mind, life and body. For the soul, the permanent being in us, puts forth and uses mind, life and body as its instruments, undergoes the envelopment of their conditions, but it is other and greater than its members.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 2 Hidden Forces Within, pp. 43-44

Useful Tips For the Seeker on the Path to Realization

Many people believe that realisation comes from reading specific texts, or practicing specific techniques of posture, breathing, prayer, mantra etc. The Mother provides a counterpoint to this belief by showing how the practice should take up all the actions and movements of life and transform them from external acts to expressions of an internal state of consecrated effort.

The Mother observes: ”But, as I have already said, the path to that realisation is long and difficult, strewn with snares and problems to be solved, which demand an unfailing determination. It is like the explorer’s trek through virgin forest in quest of an unknown land, of some great discovery. The psychic being is also a great discovery which requires at least as much fortitude and endurance as the discovery of new continents. A few simple words of advice may be useful to one who has resolved to undertake it.”

“The first and perhaps the most important point is that the mind is incapable of judging spiritual things. All those who have written on this subject have said so; but very few are those who have put it into practice. And yet, in order to proceed on the path, it is absolutely indispensable to abstain from all mental opinion and reaction.”

“Give up all personal seeking for comfort, satisfaction, enjoyment or happiness. Be only a burning fire for progress, take whatever comes to you as an aid to your progress and immediately make whatever progress is required.”

“Try to take pleasure in all you do, but never do anything for the sake of pleasure.”

“Never get excited, nervous or agitated. Remain perfectly calm in the face of all circumstances. And yet be always alert to discover what progress you still have to make and lose no time in making it.”

“Never take physical happenings at their face value. They are always a clumsy attempt to express something else, the true thing which escapes our superficial understanding.”

“Never complain of the behaviour of anyone, unless you have the power to change in his nature what makes him act in this way; and if you have the power, change him instead of complaining.”

“Whatever you do, never forget the goal which you have set before you. There is nothing great or small once you have set out on this great discovery; all things are equally important and can either hasten or delay its success. Thus before you eat, concentrate a few seconds in the aspiration that the food you are about to eat may bring your body the substance it needs to serve as a solid basis for your effort towards the great discovery, and give it the energy for persistence and perseverance in the effort.”

“Before you go to sleep, concentrate a few seconds in the aspiration that the sleep may restore your fatigued nerves, bring calm and quietness to your brain so that on waking you may, with renewed vigour, begin again your journey on the path of the great discovery.”

“Before you act, concentrate in the will that your action may help or at least in no way hinder your march forward towards the great discovery.”

“When you speak, before the words come out of your mouth, concentrate just long enough to check your words and allow only those that are absolutely necessary to pass, only those that are not in any way harmful to your progress on the path of the great discovery.”

To sum up, never forget the purpose and goal of your life. The will for the great discovery should be always there above you, above what you do and what you are, like a huge bird of light dominating all the movements of your being.”

“Before the untiring perseverance of your effort, an inner door will suddenly open and you will emerge into a dazzling splendour that will bring you the certitude of immortality, the concrete experience that you have always lived and always shall live, that external forms alone perish and that these forms are, in relation to what you are in reality, like clothes that are thrown away when worn out. Then you will stand erect, freed from all chains, and instead of advancing laboriously under the weight of circumstances imposed upon you by Nature, which you had to endure and bear if you did not want to be crushed by them, you will be able to walk on, straight and firm, conscious of your destiny, master of your life.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Our Many Selves: Practical Yogic Psychology, Chapter 6, Some Answers and Explanations, pp.228-231

The Need and Significance of Psychic Education

Our educational systems focus on training of the body, the life-force and the mind, essentially fixating the individual on the life in the external world and his role in that world. He is trained on social expectations and customs, and the use of the tools of mind, life and body in the pursuit of the successful achievement of the goals that the society presents to its members. Very little, if any, attention is paid to helping the individual to understand any deeper significance to his life, to find out why he even exists, what his deeper purpose may be and how to understand the larger universe in which we live. Life is left as a mystery, and only in some religious or philosophical directions are these issues even addressed. Those who take up this seeking are frequently looked at as outside the mainstream of society, whether as monks or nuns, yogis, or anchorites who have essentially abandoned society in order to pursue what appears to be a meaningless and thankless quest.

Of course, taking the “road less travelled” may actually lead the seeker to knowledge and insights that escape the mass of individuals busy following the glittering signs of the popular way. We see that over time, it is just these individuals who provide a way forward, guidance and meaning for others and who are the leading lights of human development.

We see the world undergoing the sixth mass extinction and we find that the ways of humanity have been terribly imbalanced and one-sided in the pursuit of gain, fame, pleasure and personal power. The missing element in all of this imbalance is guidance for a deeper and truer significance to life that would help people redirect their focus and achieve a more balanced perspective on how to live life, how to interact with others, how to treat the environment and the other beings who share the planet with us. It is just these things that a deep and true psychic education can help to remedy.

The Mother notes: ”It is through this psychic presence that the truth of an individual being comes into contact with him and the circumstances of his life. In most cases the presence acts, so to say, from behind the veil, unrecognised and unknown; but in some, it is perceptible and its action recognisable and even, in a very few, the presence becomes tangible and its action fully effective. These go forward in life with an assurance and a certitude all their own; they are masters of their destiny. It is for the purpose of obtaining this mastery and becoming conscious of the psychic presence that psychic education should be practiced. But for that there is need of a special factor, the personal will. For till now, the discovery of the psychic being and identification with it have not been among the recognised subjects of education, and although one can find in special treatises useful and practical hints on the subject, and although in exceptional cases one may have the good fortune of meeting someone who is capable of showing the way and giving the help that is needed to follow it, most often the attempt is left to one’s own personal initiative. The discovery is a personal matter and a great determination, a strong will and an untiring perseverance are indispensable to reach the goal. Each one must, so to say, trace out his own path through his own difficulties. The goal is known to some extent, for most of those who have reached it have described it more or less clearly. But the supreme value of the discovery lies in its spontaneity, its ingenuousness, and that escapes all ordinary mental laws. And that is why anyone wanting to take up the adventure usually first seeks out some person who has successfully undertaken and is able to sustain him and enlighten him on his way. Yet there are some solitary travellers and for them a few general indications may be useful.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Our Many Selves: Practical Yogic Psychology, Chapter 6, Some Answers and Explanations, pp. 227-228