Clarification: What Sri Aurobindo refers to as Oversoul is quite different from that of Ralph Waldo Emerson defined here
The Atman or the Universal Divine puts out many projections of itself in order to support manifestation. The portion of the Divine which supports the individual Self is called the Oversoul or Jivatman.
This Oversoul can be called the unborn individual self - it is neither born nor evolves but is immutable and remains one with the Divine. It presides over the individual manifestation by putting forth a mental, vital and physical Purusha (Being) which support the being.
Sri Aurobindo discusses the Oversoul in a conversation with Pavitra (Phillipe Barbier Saint-Hilaire)
Pavitra: What is the difference between the psychic being behind the heart-centre and the central being above the head? Are they two beings or one single being ?
Sri Aurobindo: Naturally, from one point of view, they are one. But your being, though one, is composed of many distinct beings. Just as your mental being is different from your physical or vital beings, so the psychic being, the soul, is different from the central being.
The psychic being is the transmitter which receives the light and transmits it to the lower personality. It is that which remains at the back and governs the personality. The psychic being is in direct communication with the truth, which it organises and transmits to the outer being. The central being cannot organise the truth: it is above all evolution. It is the psychic being which develops spiritually through the different personalities
Pavitra: You spoke of two ways. One direct to the the supermind through the mind, the other by the opening of the psychic being. Are they really two different paths ? And what are their characteristics ?
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, there are two movements. Sometimes the mind opens first to the light and the supermind works then through the mind and uses the machinery of mind. Sometimes the psychic being, which is always behind — without a psychic aspiration nothing in this Yoga is possible — comes forward. There is then no mental illumination, but a burning fire which turns the whole being upwards. It makes then the progress easy. Afterwards of course the whole machinery of nature is also directed from above, but the mental movement is not the chief one.
[Pavitra, Conversations with Sri Aurobindo]
