Psychic transformation. Flickr Creative Commons. Photo by Karolik. Click image for source
The red-glowing mass of him is seen: a great god has been delivered out of the darkness
– (Rig Veda V.1.2) describing the psychic birth.
Description of psychic being
See Psychic-being (chaitya purusha)
Indicators of the unveiling of the psychic being
The following signs indicate the unveiling of the psychic being in the heart
- Dream showing the blossoming of flowers.
- Dream of a burning fire in the heart. This is the psychic fire.
- Dream where one feels oneself emerging from a deep well.
- Dream of a dog symbolizing fidelity to the Divine.
- Dream of a newborn child indicating spiritual rebirth.
- Lastly, it awakens a memory of past incarnations coupled with a feeling that one has always existed in the past.
References from the original works on the remarks seen above
Flowers indicate a blossoming in the consciousness, sometimes with special reference to the psychic or the psychicised vital, mental and physical consciousness. (SABCL 23:970)
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. (SABCL 23:987)
It is usually when the psychic is active that this seeing of flowers becomes abundant. (SABCL 23:970)
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. (SABCL, 23:974)
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. (SABCL, 23:980)
Some of these images are very common to all those who have had the experience. For example, when one goes down into the depths of one’s being to find the psychic right at the bottom of one’s consciousness, there is this image of descending into a deep well, going down deeper and deeper, descending, and it is as though one were truly sinking into a well. (CWMCE 7:267)
Effect of psychic transformation
The psychic transformation brings the following change in our being:
- Automatic perception of the true and false in everything in around us – a kind of hidden intuition.
- A loosening of all ego-knots. There is something in the heart which begins to sense defects in our own nature and turns us away from them.
- Falling away of all emotionalism and sentimentalism. It gives just the right touch to each emotion. No excess.
- Integration of the various parts of our personality around the psychic.
- A general feeling of universal love.
Letters from Sri Aurobindo
It is one of the decisive moments of the integral Yoga when this psychic being, liberated, brought out from the veil to the front, can pour the full flood of its divinations, seeings and impulsions on the mind, life and body of man and begins to prepare the upbuilding of divinity in the earthly nature…..
At a certain stage in the Yoga when the mind is sufficiently quieted and no longer supports itself at every step on the sufficiency of its mental certitudes, when the vital has been steadied and subdued and is no longer constantly insistent on its own rash will, demand and desire, when the physical has been sufficiently altered not to bury altogether the inner flame under the mass of its outwardness, obscurity or inertia, an inmost being, long hidden within and felt only in its rare influences, is able to come forward and illumine the rest and take up the lead of the Sadhana. Its character is a one-pointed orientation towards the Divine or the Highest, one-pointed and yet plastic in action and movement; it does not create a rigidity of direction like the one-pointed intellect or a bigotry of the regnant idea or impulse like the one-pointed vital force; it is at every moment and with a supple sureness that it points the way to the Truth, automatically distinguishes the right step from the false, extricates the divine or Godward movement from the clinging mixture of the undivine. Its action is like a searchlight showing up all that has to be changed in the nature; it has in it a flame of will insistent on perfection, on an alchemic transmutation of all the inner and outer existence…..
(Sri Aurobindo. Synthesis of Yoga, Ascent of sacrifice – 1)
It was certainly an experience of great value, a psychic experience par excellence. “A feeling of velvety softness within – an ineffable plasticity within” is a psychic experience and can be nothing else. It means a modification of the substance of the consciousness especially in the vital-emotional part, and such a modification prolonged or repeated till it became permanent would mean a great step in what I call the psychic transformation of the being. It is just these modifications in the inner substance that make transformation possible.
…Love and devotion to the Divine is the central feeling of the psychic nature and that is growing in you towards the Mother, pervading your being. A psychic love towards all is also emerging; this love is a thing inward and does not seek to express itself outwardly like the vital love which men usually have. The psychic and spiritual attitude is also not dependent on the good and bad in beings, but is self-existent regarding them as souls who carry the Divine in them however thickly concealed and are children of the Mother.
(Sri Aurobindo. Letters on Yoga, Triple transformation)
Experiences of Pavitra and Amal Kiran (disciples)
Amal Kiran: In the course of a talk on his early life, he (Pavitra aka Philippe Barbier Saint-Hilaire ) answered to a question of mine about a certain period of it in France: “I can’t recall anything. A complete blank has come over it as a result of Yoga.” I was set wondering how such a thing could happen. But I understood it some years later during a visit to the Ashram from Bombay. My sadhana (practice) was passing through a phase in which the psyche had suddenly burst to the surface and covered the whole consciousness for days on end, a great warmth of aspiration and love for the Divine blazing out through the heart- centre and surrounding the body and leaping upward from the head toward unknown immensities. I felt cut off from all that had been connected with my ordinary life. The most astonishing result was that, try as I might, I could not visualise in the least the face of my wife Sehra who was in Bombay! After a week or so, the memory came back in a tentative fashion, but I had caughta glimpse of the tremendous life-revolutionising power possessed by the psychic being.
(Amal Kiran . Our light and delight)
Sri Aurobindo also commented on loss of memory he experienced: “It is curious certain things drop out of the memory completely once you disconnect yourself from the past personality.”
(Unpublished talk of 27th Feb, 1939)
Another disciple experiences loss of memory
Nagin: My mind has almost lost its power of memory. Cant remember anything. One minute after reading even your answers to my letters I forget all about them!
Sri Aurobindo: There is very often a complaint of this kind made during the course of the sadhana. I suppose that the usual action of memory is for a time suspended by the mental silence or else by the physical tamas.
Nagin: How then is life to be carried on? The Mother’s Force reminds me of what is to be done at the right time.
Sri Aurobindo: That happens. The memory comes back in another way of action.
(Nagin Doshi. Guidance from Sri Aurobindo, vol. 2, p 222)
Loss of Memory due to psychic transformation
Why did Amal Kiran’s and Pavitra’s memories of early life get erased (as seen in the previous passage)?Because the Samskaras (subconscious memories) which reside within the mental sheath (pictured here) are purged after the psychic transformation. It is equivalent to what Patanjali states in the Yoga Sutras 4.30 – “tatha klesha karma nivritti” which means that the colorings (kleshas) in the mind (chitta) are purged.
Sri Aurobindo alludes to this loss of memory briefly in The Life Divine:
…And there is possible too a state of consciousness in which, although there is no gap of memory, yet by a rapid development the whole being feels itself changed in every mental circumstance and the man feels born into a new personality, so that, if it were not for the co-ordinating mind, he would not at all accept his past as belonging to the person he now is, although he remembers perfectly well that it was in the same form of body and same field of mind-substance that it occurred.
(The Life Divine, Memory, Ego and Self-Experience, p 539)
As when a timeless Eye annuls the hours
Abolishing the agent and the act,
So now his spirit shone out wide, blank, pure:
His wakened mind became an empty slate
On which the Universal and Sole could write.
All that represses our fallen consciousness
Was taken from him like a forgotten load:
A fire that seemed the body of a god
Consumed the limiting figures of the past
And made large room for a new self to live.
(Savitri, Book I, Canto V)
See Also
- The elusive touch of the psychic being
- The psychic joy derived from a selfless act
- The Nachiketa fire sacrifice
- How to awaken the soul (psychic being)?
Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo & The Mother 
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Here is approach through the heart.
Original poems from Rumi’s Kolliyaat-e Shams-e Tabrizi
Translated by Zara Houshmand
http://www.iranian.com/Arts/rumi.html#index
My love, there’s a path from your heart to mine,
And my heart is aware how to find it;
For my heart now is pool, sweet and clear,
And it serves the moon as her mirror.
#185
My heart wanted only a kiss from you;
The price you asked for that kiss was my soul.
Heart jumped in the deep and flowed alongside soul,
Advising, ‘Close the deal. The price is cheap.’
#388
Inside my heart and outside, all is her;
My body, blood and veins, my life is her.
There’s no room here for blasphemy or faith;
My existence knows neither, only her.
#544
When I look at my lover, she blushes.
When I don’t, my own heart is drained of blood.
The stars shine bright in the tears on her cheeks.
Without that light, my own tears turn to mud.
# 584
When your love began to fill up my heart,
Whatever else I had was burnt away,
Logic and book-learning tossed on the fire.
Now I study song and poetry all day.
#606
A heart that circles round the door of love
Will die, at last, by the dagger of love.
This point is written in the book of love:
He has no head at all whose head holds love.
#1071
I bring wine from my love, who lights my heart,
I bring the love-fire that burns in my chest;
May they hide from all eyes, till the end of time,
The nightmare I lived those nights until dawn.
#1307
I told my heart, if there’s a chance to speak,
Tell my love, between the lines, my sadness.
Heart answered me, “When I meet my lover,
The sight of her leaves me no need for speech.”
#1434
My heart, if you can’t take the sorrow, go.
The streets are full of homeless lovers; go.
My soul, come now, if you are not afraid.
But if you fear, your work is not here: go.
#1548
Sit for a while in my heart like a mystery; don’t go.
Honor my head: rest there like a turban; don’t go.
“I come and go,” you say, “like the heart’s rapid beat.”
Don’t tease me, sly heart-thief, and please, don’t go, my sweet.
#1585
You opened my heart’s door, sat down inside.
Who else is there but you that I should seek?
When my love cries out, they turn away.
Don’t shut me out. Beyond you there’s no way.
# 1726
Now that your lover has shown you her face,
Extinguish yourself at her feet, my heart.
Put out the candle that burns in the sun,
And with you dies this sorrow: moan no more.
#1734
These poems by Rumi make more sense to me in the context of the psychic transformation.
From Thief of Sleep by Shahram Shiva
Another poem called Light Breeze
From Soul of Rumi by Coleman Barks
From http://peacefulrivers.homestead.com/Rumipoetry1.html
I found one that is the real gem:
That which God said to the rose,
and caused it to laugh in full-blown beauty,
he said to my heart,
and made it a hundred times more beautiful.
Jalaluddin al-Rumi [Mathnawi, III, 4129]
That is a good one related to the psychic, I agree!
can i get sri aurbindoS LITERATURE in hindi also?
Yes, see the books available in Hindi at
http://sabda.sriaurobindoashram.org/catalog/booksearch.php?language_key=HIN
Just wondering if a Butterfly [especially a golden one] would be an indicator as well?
Also, would ‘DOORS’ represent some kind of ‘opening’ or the replacing of an old door with a new one?
In the Record of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo interprets the butterfly as Kamananda
I don’t know if the butterfly lends itself to a universal interpretation. It could be something else in your case.
As for the opening of doors, the Mother did say it indicates psychic opening (Collected Works vol. 7, page 270)
Thanks sandeep. ln my case this golden butterfly seems to be connected with ‘doors’. There have been some really weird signs about this recently.
Strangely enough l was searching for it’s meaning and came across ‘The Record’. The first page that opened was dated [my birthday] and there was a sanskrit quote:
““By thee yoked to him, O Soma, in thy comradeship, Indra
poured out that stream on the mind (or on the human being, the
thinker); crushing the oppressor (Vritra) he set flowing the seven
oceans7 and opened the doors that were shut.”
So, nicely synchronous message there lol.
Just managed to find a reference to butterflies in SA’s ‘letters on Yoga’.
“The butterflies and birds are, of course, life-forces and soul forces, powers or beings.”
“It is the centre where lies his dharma, the law of his being. It is his soul. If he once comes in contact with that, makes that the base of his life, from that moment he is free. He holds his head erect. He is no longer bent down. The burden of inexorable circumstances weighs no more on him. He has transcended the circumstances, he stands over them, looks over them. He is now the master and they obey him, he has not to obey them.
This consummation is supremely effected when there is the double breaking of the barrier I was speaking about. The first is the piercing of the veil above, when the consciousness rises into the superconscient, takes the human being into the divine being; the second is the rending of the lower veil and the descent of the divine consciousness into the most material, the subconscient and the inconscient, realising the divine life on earth.” Nolini Kanta Gupta, Vol 3, The Yogic Centers
a couple quotes about the inner ‘psychic’ being:
“Q.: Is there anyway to know the line of distinction between when one stops functioning with the outer being and the inner being takes over?
A.: Yes. The inner being, for instance, is not dependent upon outer circumstances. The surface being only goes on reacting. Even in thought, something else thinks for it. The inner being has its own life, irrespective of the outer movements. The inner being lives on its own. It is not perturbed, not overjoyed by any contacts or impacts.. But the surface being is always at the mercy, it needs some excitement to feel happy, it needs a pinprick to feel agitated. It has no existence of its own worth the name. This is a simple enough barometer to distinguish the ranges.” [The Yoga of Self-Perfection by M.P. Pandit, p.143]
“It is the inner psychic being in you that is the bhakta, the seeker after the union of 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 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 and 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.” [Letters on the Yoga: Vol II, by Sri Aurobindo, p.994]
*I hope that these two quotes are related to this blog, i.e., the psychic transformation.
Just wondering, does dreaming of being burnt by fire indicates of psychic transformation? I was neither scared of the fire and neither does it hurt.
Probably is, if you aren’t afraid of the fire.
Do you feel refreshed after waking up, as if your old habits are falling away ?
“Its character is a one-pointed orientation towards the Divine or the Highest, one-pointed and yet plastic in action and movement; it does not create a rigidity of direction like the one-pointed intellect or a bigotry of the regnant idea or impulse like the one-pointed vital force; it is at every moment and with a supple sureness that it points the way to the Truth, automatically distinguishes the right step from the false, extricates the divine or Godward movement from the clinging mixture of the undivine. Its action is like a searchlight showing up all that has to be changed in the nature; it has in it a flame of will insistent on perfection, on an alchemic transmutation of all the inner and outer existence…..”
(Sri Aurobindo. Synthesis of Yoga, Ascent of sacrifice – 1) [Quote posted above by Sandeep]
Here is a quote from James Joyce:
“When a man is born…there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by those nets.”
― James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Just recently I am experiencing this “freedom” (for no better word). Before I felt caught – tied to, bound by…as in nets – and now can see things as they really are and fly past them.
Yes mark, one of my favourite films, The Matrix, is all about this, as you probably know..
The Net or Matrix exists on many levels, l think, especially in the sleep state where we are even less conscious than here.
l remember a vivid dream where the Mother appeared and said ‘michael your in the matrix of a dream’. l’ve never read anywhere of Her using this term – you could say my own mind threw it up, because of my interest in the movie, but it seems unlikely IMO. Obviously it referred to the illusory dreamscape l had created around myself – something the majority of us do every night. With the Psychic Transformation, this ceases of course, and our night-times become more Lucid and Conscious..Thank God lol..
“Just recently I am experiencing this “freedom” (for no better word). Before I felt caught – tied to, bound by…as in nets – and now can see things as they really are and fly past them.”
l know the feeling. lt comes and goes. For me it’s a sense of wideness and peace {just a pure bodiless consciousness], still subtle at the moment, and probably a long way from being stable or permanent – hopefully growing into a concrete realisation one day..
l don’t know about seeing things as they, are. l think you might mean that when your in that state, you have a ‘clear or Psychic discrimination’ about what’s important and what isn’t As SA said in your quote:
“it is at every moment and with a supple sureness that it points the way to the Truth, automatically distinguishes the right step from the false, extricates the divine or Godward movement from the clinging mixture of the undivine”
There is definitely a feeling of ‘freedom’ though..free as a bird, you might say..
“l know the feeling. lt comes and goes.”
Had a lot of “psychic contact” in the past (even before SA and M). This is different from all of those experiences. And I have had some contacts last several months at a time (four and a half months was the longest). BTW, I had contacted Sandeep a year ago when I was convinced I had reach the “reversal of consciousness” – the “reversal” accompanied by Psychic Transformation. I was mistaken then, apparently that was still only psychic contact.
I’ve been reading and see qualities that appear to measure up to the Transformation. Well, I have been mistaken before, and if this is just another “contact” then it will be over soon.
I have no guru to affirm. I do my best to study SA and M’s works. It is difficult to confirm ones experiences (by reading), but there is more than less a sense of knowing when reading something that matches what is being experienced (in their writings), but it is not full-proof. Didn’t Sri Aurobindo make similar mistakes about his process? I remember reading about how he came forward (at the ashram) to announce his newly achieved status, and months later he realized he was wrong, he was premature and it did finally come but later. …I may have read this in “On Himself”.
“illusory dreamscape l had created around myself – something the majority of us do every night.”
Only recently I began to have dreams with Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. My first dream that was related was of Sandeep (that was over a year ago). Besides that I have not much of a dream life accept for a ten year span where I had a series of vivid dreams with deep spiritual content. … It has been over twenty years since I started going interiorly.
“…qualities that appear to measure up to the Psychic Transformation. ”
Here is a brief list of some of the changes I have experienced:
-I used to have chronic fatigue. Gone.
-As well, depression. Gone.
-Fear/s. Gone.
-My old persona, personality traits, i.e., who I used to be is no more (I don’t remember it). Gone, i.e., replaced by psychic.
-Guna’s transcended.
-Before I was angry and disharmonious towards the world, It is replaced by compassion, altruism.
-Before I could not grasp the essence of the psychic. Now I know what it is undoubtedly. It is prominent in my frontal being. It is unmistakable.
-A certainty and assurance regarding the sadhana. What appeared distant, impossible, ambiguous, before is replaced with certainty, clarity.
-The sensation of a very different life experience, i.e., this was an immediate change, sudden. Feels like I am in a “new world.” It does not feel strange like a dream, it is quite normal.
*This is very different form the previous psychic contacts I have had before. In comparison, they were like little brief insights, not fully focused, veiled. Now that the veil is gone, there is clarity. There are no longer the doubts and uncertainty. Nor the sliding back and forth inbetween the guna’s.
**Strong affirmations from readings: when reading it is as though I am seeing my old life in retrospect – like watching a movie – and seeing how the Divine Shakti had been working on my old nature. But during that time, I had no idea what was happening, and during that time my greatest concern was that i was not doing anything, or enough to assist the interior processes. Apparently, the forces that be have been working steadily.
That’s all I have to say about this for now. I have no doubt that what i have experienced is the Psychic Transformation. And yes, I was taken by surprise. I could not see this coming – just one month ago I stated that I felt far and distant from the sadhana, and from the teachings of SA and M. And now I feel so full of certainty and assurance. I feel very close to SA and M, and the Divine.
Thanks for sharing that mark. lt’s interesting.
l can identify with some of those changes, but it’s far from stable in my case and l’m certainly not in a state of ‘equanimity’ – my ego is still easily offended lol.
l did have a vision on waking from sleep the other night at the heart centre, and also yesterday after a nap [l get a lot of revelatory things either on going to, or waking from sleep. When the physical mind is not so intrusive]. l’m getting quite a bit happening at the Psychic Centre these days.
Strangely, these visions seem totally unrelated to the Yoga quite often, like the Golden Dolphin l mentioned in another post – things that are not in any of the writings by SA and M. Although, the colour gold is very prominent at the moment..
l wasn’t sure what you mean’t by the Gunas, but l looked it up and l see what you mean now.
“The three Gunas, or modes of Nature that are operative in the lower nature, are actually deformations of the three qualities they inadequately represent existing in the higher or divine nature. The transition from the bondage to the Gunas in the lower nature to taking on the nature and action of the Divine nature involves the transformation from the deformed to the pure and original quality.
Sri Aurobindo describes the higher modes thus: “Tamas is replaced by a divine peace and tranquil eternal repose out of which is released as from a supreme matrix of calm concentration the play of action and knowledge….Rajas is replaced by a self-possessed power and illimitable act of force, that even in its most violent intensities does not shake the immovable poise of the soul or stain the vast and profound heavens and luminous abysses of its peace….Sattwa is replaced by an illumination and a spiritual bliss identical with the depth and and infinite existence of the soul and instinct with a direct and authentic knowledge that springs straight from the veiled glories of the secret Omniscience. This is the greater consciousness into which our inferior consciousness has to be transformed, this nature of the Ignorance with its unquiet unbalanced activity of the three modes changed into this greater luminous supernature.”
Mike, the funny thing for me – not being intellectually inclined – is making this progress without really knowing all the ins and outs of this Yoga. So, when I say this came by surprise, I really mean that. I am predominantly a heart person (emotional). Also kinesthetic, or rather that is my learning style.
This is something by The Mother which is similar to how I proceed:
“There are people in whom the psychic movement, the emotional impulse is stronger than intellectual understanding. They feel an irresistible attraction for the Divine without knowing, without having the slightest idea of what it is, of what it can be, what it represents – nothing, no intellectual notion – but a kind of impulse, attraction, a need, an inevitable need.
And these people who have that, if, I may say as a result of the Grace, they have a mind which does not trouble them, does not question, does not discuss, go very fast.
And then, what is quite miraculous according to ordinary ideas is that as soon as they reach that degree of consecration which identifies them through their psychic being with the Divine Presence, suddenly they become endowed with capacities of expression absolutely unknown to their nature.. . .
There are others who understand first, who are very intellectual, have studied, can play with words and ideas, who will give you brilliant lectures on all the philosophies, all the religions, all human conceptions and who, perhaps, will take years to advance one step. Because all that goes on in the head.
Many things go on in the head. . . .the head is like a public square. Anything at all can enter there, come, cross over, go out, and create a lot of disorder. And people who are in the habit of playing with ideas are the ones most hampered from going farther. It is a game that’s pretty, attractive; it gives you the impression that you are not altogether ordinary, at the level of ordinary life, but it cuts the wings.
It’s not the head which has wings: it’s the heart.” – The Mother [CWMCE, 7:399-401]
The Mother mentions something there about gaining new capacities, for instance, “capacities of expression.” I haven’t noticed anything significant…yet. I can see, but still, I cannot express very well. We’ll see.
Hi MW….very interesting….is there a way you can be contacted? my email id is provided (amitryd@gmail.com)
“Mike, the funny thing for me – not being intellectually inclined – is making this progress without really knowing all the ins and outs of this Yoga”
Yes mark, in the beginning l knew nothing at all about Yoga or Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. l just suddenly started having weird experiences like a kind of Force filling my body until it felt as if l were a giant ball of steel [l could feel the heaviness] that wanted to burst. l know now it was the Descent of the Force or Shakti [SA’s ‘Letter’s on Yoga’ have been an invaluable source]. The other important experience was a vision of a bare tree that eventually turned into a Flaming Tree – this was obviously the Awakening of Agni. But, l had no intellectual understanding about any of this. lt was only much later that l got confirmation from different sources. Somebody even sent me a picture of Agni Awakening and it was exactly like my experience. Unfortunately, l’ve lost it now..
Mother also says that it’s better to have experiences before we read about them, because the mind will inevitably interfere and distort them by having fore-knowledge of what they are. The purity of the experience will be corrupted. SA also mentions it somewhere. This was how She always had her experiences and Realisations, and it was only much later that She got exact confirmation of what they were..
SA also said He had difficulty developed His subtle vision because of the intellect.
l think most people are probably a mixture of these attributes [mental and vital mix]. l’m certainly not what could be called a true intellectual, as SA and other scholars would be. l’ve always felt l have quite a weak intellect. Actually, l feel like l have more of an intuitive mind – at least l don’t analyse so much these days..
As you said previously, l agree that SA and M most likely made errors in the beginning. As SA said, His Yoga was like a virgin forest that no-one had trodden before. So, obviously there must have been much trial and error in the early stages of His sadhana [l think the Record of Yoga emphasizes this]. The Mother’s work in the Agenda is one big Experiment with contstant revisions, or so it seems to me..
This is more or less how I read: M.P. Pandit on reading: “The Mother even said that when your read something written from the experience of new consciousness, new cells begin to form in the brain to hold that knowledge content. It may reveal itself to your external being much later. But you should keep up the effort of reading and not try to understand; the understanding will come in the heart and not in the head.” The Yoga of Works, M.P. Pandit, p.87.
Until now, most of what I read was veiled. I observed this in the beginning and then after some time I would begin to understand gradually. I never approached these writings intellectually either, I could not! 🙂
I’ve only been with SA and M for 6 years now. I had no previous contact with Yoga, any Yoga, or Hinduism. It was serendipitous how in the beginning (20+ years ago), my first teacher/guide directed me to the heart center. Ever since then I had concentrated upon the heart. Last Winter, I sensed I was being directed above the head. I began focusing attention there, but I am still just at that stage of focusing attention – I have sensed pressure, some changes. I had tried some meditation….
I cannot convey all that is happening with this recent Transformation experience. In a sense I am mute, or illiterate, since I cannot pronounce or articulate this experience: Internal-subtle movements, shifting of energies, emotional states that appeared permanent are dissolving. Mind, vital, physical, all those levels are effected – there is a lot going on with this! This vid may offer insight regarding the magnitude of this interior transitioning:
Also, Sandeep mentions the loosening of the ego knots:
“A loosening of all ego-knots. There is something in the heart which begins to sense defects in our own nature and turns us away from them.” [Source: Above]. By all means, Yes!
*Thank you Mike. I appreciate your insights.
“*Thank you Mike. I appreciate your insights”
And thanks for yours mark..
Yes, for me, it always felt like there was a thick CRUST covering the Heart or Psychic Centre in the middle of the chest at the subtle level. Until it melted one day and a sort of pinkish-white Light came flooding out and changed me in a lot of ways.
The quote below explains it well:
“Psychicisation
The Psychic (Soul) and Lower Spiritual Transformation
The first stage in the Transformation of the being to a higher, greater, broader, and deeper spiritual state of existence is called by Sri Aurobindo “Psychicisation” This refers to the coming to the fore of the Soul, the Inner Light or Guidance. The following description is from The Life Divine.
Psychicisation is one of the most essential stages of the integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo. As described in The Life Divine (book II – chapter 25) it refers to a spiritual movement inward, so that one realises the psychic being – the psychic personality or Divine Soul – in the core of one’s being, and enable this to transform the outer being, as well as serve as a spiritual Guide in the yoga.
It is thanks to this Psychic transformation that the sadhak can avoid the pitfalls of the spiritual path, such as the intermediate zone.
In Integral Yoga the Psychic transformation is sometimes described as follows: The three central spiritual methods of connecting to the Spirit are Consecration, Moving to the Depths (Concentration), and Surrender. Consecration is to open to the Force before engaging in an activity. Moving to the Depths (or Concentration) is a movement away from the surface existence to a deeper existence within. In the deepest depths one discovers the Personal Evolving Soul. Surrender is to offer all one’s work, one’s life to the Divine Force and Intent (Synthesis of Yoga Part I ch.II-III; Letters on Yoga vol.II pp.585ff (3rd ed.)) As we connect to the evolving soul within, we not only move away from ego, ignorance, finiteness, and time; not only perceived our limitations of being and overcome them; but we also open to the universal plane. This is the Psychic transformation in progress.
From there the light, peace, power is drawn into and descends into the body, transforming all of its parts — physical, vital, and mental. This is the Spiritual transformation. Psychicisation can serve as a prequel to spiritualisation (equivalent to “Enlightenment”), although they do not have to follow any sort of order. However, both the psychic and the spiritual transformation are equally necessary for the final stage of Supramental transformation.
“As the crust of the outer nature cracks, as the walls of inner separation break down, the inner light gets through, the inner fire burns in the heart, the substance of the nature and the stuff of consciousness refine to a greater subtlety and purity, and the deeper psychic experiences, those which are not solely of an inner mental or inner vital character, become possible in this subtler, purer, finer substance; the soul begins to unveil itself, the psychic personality reaches its full stature. The soul, the psychic entity, then manifests itself as the central being which upholds mind and life and body and supports all the other powers and functions of the Spirit; it takes up its greater function as the guide and ruler of the nature. A guidance, a governance begins from within which exposes every movement to the light of Truth, repels what is false, obscure, opposed to the divine realisation: every region of the being, every nook and corner of it, every movement, formation, direction, inclination of thought, will, emotion, sensation, action, reaction, motive, disposition, propensity, desire, habit of the conscious or subconscious physical, even the most concealed, camouflaged, mute, recondite, is lighted up with the unerring psychic light, their confusions dissipated, their tangles disentangled, their obscurities, deceptions, self-deceptions precisely indicated and removed; all is purified, set right, the whole nature harmonised, modulated in the psychic key, put in spiritual order. This process may be rapid or tardy according to the amount of obscurity and resistance still left in the nature, but it goes on unfalteringly so long as it is not complete. As a final result the whole conscious being is made perfectly apt for spiritual experience of every kind, turned towards spiritual truth of thought, feeling, sense, action, tuned to the right responses, delivered from the darkness and stubbornness of the tamasic inertia, the turbidities and turbulences and impurities of the rajasic passion and restless unharmonised kinetism, the enlightened rigidities and sattwic limitations or poised balancements of constructed equilibrium which are the character of the Ignorance.”
The Life Divine (10th ed.), pp.907-908
The awakening and coming to the fore of the Psychic Being or Soul cannot be underestimated; it is the turning point of the Integral Yoga, and for that matter of all spiritual and mystical paths. Without the guidance of the Soul, the Divine Principle within, progress on the Spiritual Path is or can be hazardous, and one who journeys this way can easily become stuck in the intermediate zone, or worse, give up their will to following a fallen or misguided guru who is stuck there, and thus become prey to every whim of beings of the subtle worlds. For this reason, the Psychic (Soul) Awakening, and the Psychic Light, is an absolutely necessary prerequisite.
Psychicisation is followed by The Psycho-Spiritual Transformation, which further enhances the Psychic Experience with a spiritual (experience of the Absolute) Transformation.”
Thanks for the quote Mike. I’m reading everything on topic I can get my hands onto. FYI, there is a very good section on the last few chapters on The Life Divine written by M.P. Pandit (out of print – my copy came from a bookstore somewhere in England. New, but so old the binding had rotted a little.) titled “Selected Works of M.P. Pandit: Vol. One Sri Aurobindo”. Chapter titles: Section III Talks on Life Divine: The Human Aspiration, The Methods of Vedantic Knowledge, Man and the Evolution (2 parts), The Evolution of the Spiritual Man (3), The Triple Transformation (2), The Ascent Towards Supermind (3), The Gnostic Being (6), The Life Divine (4). I have found Pandits books to be extremely helpful. When I first heard about this section, it was highly esteemed.
Sandeeps blog has been a steadying force for me during this time. Think I’ve been hanging out here since 2010. My process has always been rather chaotic. I never have been able to apply myself to any one technique. Reading is the only thing I have done, that is to say, reading and observation – and that is why this came as such a surprise, because, other than that, I have done nothing. * I would imagine that content acting like a teabag in a cup of hot water. I trusted that it was having some effect beneath the surface, but I could not know to what degree. Now, things should move in a more orderly fashion.
Yes, Pandit’s books are good. The only one’s l’ve read are the ‘Mother of Love’ series [about 4 volumes – they seem to contain everything].
Amazon appears to have some of those books you mentioned – ‘Selected Works of M.P. Pandit’ [a bit pricey, though]..
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Selected+Works+of+M.P.+Pandit
Haven’t read ‘Mother of Love.’ Could only find one copy of Vol 3 and very $$$ as well. 🙂
1 Corinthians 13New International Version (NIV)
13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.