Jan 21, 2023
Alina (0:00:29)
Namaste and welcome to our continuing series, Evenings with Sraddhalu. Namaste, Sraddhalu.
[Sraddhalu] Namaste, happy to be with all of you.
[Alina] We are happy to continue our online series. We have spent five sessions on the theme of expressing ourselves and learning. And today we will continue on this subject and Sraddhalu will elaborate on the higher potential of the power of knowledge and expression, especially today with the focus on the development of the higher mind.
Sraddhalu (0:01:12):
Yes. I had planned to shift the theme to something else, but I was in two minds because in our last discussion we came to this point very close to the edge of the intellect turning and opening to some higher power, towards the higher mind. And that's an edge which is so precious, so valuable that we don't come to that very often. And I was strongly tempted to explore this a little bit because it is so important as the immediate next step in our spiritual journey, in the ascent of our consciousness.
So just to link it to what we discussed last time, as you are aware in the last five sessions, we had been discussing the power of knowledge first and then expression. And the first two I think were primarily dealt with the acquisition of knowledge, the last three more on the power of expression and especially in the last discussion that we had, we spoke of how we can organize our thoughts, structure them and through a three-stage process of expression, close the circle, bring in a flow of an experiential content and so on.
But the exercises which I described, which I have suggested, I hope some of you have already explored them, will bring you to this point where your mind naturally now begins to stand back from thoughts and ideas and begins to see them in larger relations. When you persist in this exercise, and when combined with the quieting of the mind and opening to the higher influence and especially with the descent of the peace and a deeper interiorization, automatically our intelligence begins now to receive influences from above, with no other effort on your part. This is the beauty of this path itself. And you could stop with that and say, ‘Oh wow, I have grown so much more intelligent’ and that would be the mistake. Or if you realize, Oh, this sudden increase, this sudden development of capacities is actually flowing from above or from deeper within and you turn to receive that flow more and more, you turn to give yourself to that flow more and more, then that proceeds with the journey of the sadhana.
I share this as an example because not many are even conscious that this is the reality, that all our intelligence and capacities actually flow into us from above. The modern education has so turned our minds to a more exteriorized sense of reality that the moment these inner experiences begin to reflect in us, we think we have grown and still stay with the identification of our narrowness and even though the narrowness may widen, the not letting go of our identification with it becomes now a major limitation.
I've had occasion to meet many extraordinary human beings and some of them were outstanding in their fields and more than that they had a deeper, inner, I will say spiritual dimension in their consciousness. Not all of them would speak of it, but when they had it, you could feel that and you could see that they were drawing upon that consciously. But not all recognized that this was an entry point to something greater. And that's where unfortunately their potential became somewhat limited. They stopped with what they got as theirs.
And so this point of transition is extremely important. The exercises I have suggested last time will bring you to the edge of this. Combination with other things which we have already discussed in the past as basic practices for the Integral Yoga will amplify and open you to this inner and higher flow. At that point you could pause and say, I am enjoying this and I will continue to build this and focus on, let's say, the knowledge or the expression of the knowledge that comes and amplify it without realizing that there is a possibility of further ascension in consciousness grades. Now the bulk of existing spiritual systems also do not have the conception of an ascent of consciousness. And so they will receive this pouring and say this itself is an expanded spirituality perhaps and pause with that.
(0:06:18):
I want to share an example from within the ashram of somebody in whom this kind of a pouring was taking place and Sri Aurobindo's comment to him. This is from the correspondence of Sri Aurobindo with Amal Kiran, who was an extraordinary poet as you know. His primary seat though of experience was in the mind and he was very proud of that. This I'm saying for the bulk of his life, the later years were different. He was very proud of that. He said, I am a Greek mind in an Indian body and so on. And the poetry which came, it's a very strong, vital, forceful power and so the poetry which came also tended to have that character. And then occasionally because of the Force of Sri Aurobindo's working on him, there would be flows from higher ranges of which he was conscious, but not the attempt to rise. And yet this was there.
And there is a letter of Sri Aurobindo, when Amal complains that there was a relapse in his access to the higher inspiration. And he says, “Why this relapse on my part? Will this gift of expression be always so treacherously fluctuating?” So, he was much more focused on the expression rather than this ascent. So, Sri Aurobindo's reply, “It is not a relapse, but an oscillation which one finds in almost every poet. Each has a general level, a highest level and a lower range in which some defects of his poetical faculty come out.”– So, general level, highest level and lower range.
“You have three manners:”, Sri Aurobindo writes: “(1) a sort of decorative romantic manner that survives from your early days—this at a lower pitch turns to too much dressiness of an ornamental kind, at a higher to post-Victorian, Edwardian or Georgian rhetoric with a frequent saving touch of Yeats;” Now you have to appreciate what all these nuances mean, but you see the precision of Sri Aurobindo's description of Amal's poetic capability. And if not for this saving touch of the Yeats, which brings the deeper let's say mystical dimension, it would be stuck at this very dressy ornamental style. That's one part of Amal's training. And you see the character of this is the bulk of his past habits, which he was too strongly clinging to because it was acquired and he was proud of it and not willing to let it go to allow the pure streaming influence to shape it. This is 1937. So we have to understand it's his early years opening to Sri Aurobindo.
Then, Sri Aurobindo says, “(2) a level at which all is fused into a fine intuitive authenticity and beauty, there is seldom anything to change;” –So now this is a deeper higher part within him, where all these capacities of his including the higher flow, inner, and comes into this fine, intuitive authenticity and beauty. And those would be often his greater poems. Then Sri Aurobindo says, “(3) a higher level of grander movement and language in which you pull down or reach the influences of the Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Overmind Intuition.”– So, it's as if he has got a feel of something higher and he is able to pull down the influence of. There is no ascent again.
The whole exercise for me to read this out is to show this distinction. You open to, you receive, you even call down, pull down by a kind of a force to activate it. But your consciousness receiving material is still here. There has not been an ascent. So you see the limitation of that. So reach, you pull down or reach the influences of the higher mind, illumined mind, overmind intuition. So it's just the tip of the overmind as it leans to the intuitive, that part. The last, the third section, third part of him, “The last you have not yet fully mastered so as to write with an absolute certainty and faultlessness except by lines and stanzas or else as a whole in rare moments of total inspiration,” — so occasionally there is this thing which comes one line, one stanza, but it is struggling against the receptive mold and the past, “but you are moving towards mastery in it. Sometimes these inspirations get mixed up together.” So there's a higher, maybe some intermediate, and then there are his own things, and the mixture.
“It is this straining towards greater height that creates the difficulty. Yet it is indispensable for the evolution of your genius.”– So here we get a first glimpse. The strain to, can I reach, can I open out and this intensity of the aspiration and the strain and the struggle itself is creating a tension and a mixture. But in a sense that is first and only way for the aspiration to be able to turn up, to act, to call, to reach. So we have to understand that in the beginning that may happen. Indispensable for the evolution of your genius. “It is not surprising therefore that inspiration comes with difficulty often or that there are dormant periods or returns of the decorative inspiration. All that is part of the day's work and the dejection is quite out of place.” So 1937, it's an early stage and you see how this mixture takes place.
(0:12:40):
But I give this as an example to show that it is not such a big deal and whatever your skill capacity here, however great it may be, you should be willing as if to let it go, to open to something greater and allow that now to infuse, to suffuse, to flow through. And initially this will require an effort. Now we'll discuss the nature of that effort, although we've covered it in detail earlier, we will discuss this in a different way today also. And there is another example of a letter from Sri Aurobindo in response to Nirodbaran, where Nirodbaran writes, he complains that people here in the ashram are of very low grade of capacity, low quality of sadhaks and they would have had no value elsewhere.
So, Sri Aurobindo's reply to him, “? The quality of the sadhaks is so low? I should say there is a considerable amount of ability and capacity in the Ashram. Only the standard demanded is higher than outside, even in spiritual matters. There are half a dozen people here perhaps who live in the Brahman consciousness – outside, they would make a big noise and be considered as great Yogis – here, their condition is not known and in the Yoga it is regarded not as siddhi but only as a beginning.” – So, half a dozen. It's not much but considering that 1937, the number of sadhakas were about maybe 100-200, I don't know exactly. I think ‘37 was even less, this was before the devotees that came with the Second World War. So, let's say even 150, out of that half a dozen, that's not too bad considering in proportion and living in the Brahman consciousness others are not aware but the same people had they been outside where the goal of Brahman consciousness is in itself the Siddhi, you have reached Brahman consciousness that's it, there would be a big noise. Here it's like okay you've just begun the thing, it's a beginning for the real thing, so you don't consider it as a big deal and you build on it.
So when he writes this to Nirodbaran, Nirodbaran gets very excited and there's an interesting series of letters from him. He writes, “what the deuce is ‘Brahman consciousness?’ The same as cosmic consciousness? Does that come after the psychic and spiritual transformation?”… and what is it like, and then Sri Aurobindo writes to him. It's one of those fun letters but very profound in its own way.
Sri Aurobindo writes, “Eternal Jehovah! You don't even know what Brahman is! You will next be asking me what Yoga is or what life is or what body is or mind is or what sadhana is. No sir, I am not proposing to teach an infant class the A.B.C. of the elementary conceptions which are the basis of Yoga. There is X who doesn't know what consciousness is, even!.” Then he explains what is Brahman and what is Brahman consciousness and then again like he is teaching a child's elementary class, he says, “Brahman is the name given by Indian philosophy since the beginning of time to the one Reality, eternal and infinite, which is the Self, the Divine, the All, the more than all, which would remain even if you and everybody and everything else in existence, or imagining itself to be in existence, vanished into the blazes – even if this whole universe disappeared, Brahman would be safely there and nothing whatever lost.” “In fact, sir,” Sri Aurobindo writes, “you are Brahman and you are only pretending to be Nirod. When Z is translating X's poetry into Bengali, it is really Brahman translating Brahman's Brahman into Brahman. When X asks me what consciousness is, it is really Brahman asking Brahman what Brahman is! There, sir, I hope you are satisfied now.”
And then he says, “To be less drastic and refrain from making your head reel till it goes off your shoulders, I may say that a realization of the Self is the beginning of Brahman realization;– the Brahman consciousness– the Self in all and all in the Self etc. It is the basis of the spiritual realization and therefore of this spiritual transformation;”…” If you want to know you have to read the Arya”, and then he leaves it at that and a few parts of the response which I'll skip.
(0:17:55):
So this is to give you a background of the ease with which one can in principle open to the inner and higher influences because one chooses to open to them rather than fixating on what is reflected and turns outside. And in the Ashram as you have seen there were many who had attained to a very stable poise in Brahman consciousness itself, which is not such a big deal when you think about all the rest that we are here for. Now all this is to set a backdrop. We will come to the practical aspects in continuation of the practices we spoke of last time. But I want to dwell on Sri Aurobindo's description of this higher mind and in the context of the power of knowledge as well as the power of expression.
The problem with reading Sri Aurobindo is that once you read, he presents it with such comprehensive precision and perfection that for you to try to summarize or restate in your own words feels almost like a murder of something very beautiful. So I am tempted to have to read but it would be too long. So I will read and skip portions as we go along. But it is the only way to feel faithful to the precision and beauty with which he describes this. This is a passage from the Life Divine, where Sri Aurobindo says, “Our first decisive step out of our human intelligence, our normal mentality, is an ascent into a higher Mind, a mind no longer of mingled light and obscurity or half-light”– that's the character of our intelligence. Light, obscurity, they mix. Or having mixed, they become like a half light. As in late evening after the Sun has set and it's become sufficiently dark and there are no lights, street lights or otherwise. You look around, let's say we take a context of a forested area, large wooded and you look around you can barely make out a few trees. This looks big, what is it? Oh no, it is just a stone. What is that? That's how our intellect functions. So it's not this, “but a large clarity of the spirit.” “Its basic substance,”– and we have to understand from past descriptions we have had, the substance of the mind consciousness is different from substance of the higher grade. And you feel the difference, just the way the substance of body is this, substance of life energies and emotions is that, substance of mind, we can feel a qualitative difference within us. But here, what happens? “Its basic substance is a unitarian sense of being with a powerful multiple dynamisation, capable of the formation of multitude of aspects of knowledge, ways of action, forms and significances of becoming, of all of which there is a spontaneous inherent knowledge.”
You can read on your own slowly to fully appreciate, but I will give a kind of a gist of it, so that…the nature of the substance here, as you become familiar with this space above the head and hold consciousness there, one begins to feel consciousness that is inherently oneness. It's the first step, the first entry, the first contract with the influence of the Self and therefore the sense of oneness and the pervasive sense of Self which become natural to this consciousness. But into that oneness there is a powerful possibility of multiple energization and it's capable of various aspects of knowledge that it can energize, various ways of action, various forms and ways of becoming to express this, to express itself. Now within its own domain it can express but also as it pours down it powerfully animates this.
So you can see here is your very first basis for an extraordinary not only knowledge but power of expression. Because there is your first opening. Above that the illumined mind, intuitive mind would bring in dimensions but this is as if your basic substance into which those will flow and from there act through your intelligence. And therefore this has such a great importance. “It is therefore a power that has proceeded from the Overmind”- because it is multiplicity, but it is multiplicity here which is operating in the domain of thought and it is operating in the domain of finiteness; although it opens itself to infinity and it is familiar with infinity, its action is still handling finite aspects of the infinite. But large, huge sometimes, finite visions, glimpses, complex build of entire philosophy systems all can be held here.
So that's why he says power proceeded from the Overmind because it has this division and multiplicity, “– but with the Supermind as its ulterior origin, –as all these great powers have proceeded: but its special character, its activity of consciousness are dominated by Thought;”- but Sri Aurobindo puts capital T, it's not like our mental thought. Our mental thought is more like a reflection and a processing, like a data processing. So let's say you write a few words or you take little slips of paper on which you write words each or you cut out words from a magazine or a dictionary. Now you take these pieces and start arranging them and form sentences. You can see how weird it feels. You're taking pieces of words and joining to form a sentence. As long as it fits the grammar, yes, I have said something. What is the meaning of it? You have to read and perhaps translate. This is the working of our intelligence here. Our thoughts and ideas are like that. Pieces, fragments, which we join in various ways like pieces of a puzzle. So you could take these words from the dictionary, swap out one word, put another word, and then try to feel what is the meaning, does it make sense? What you have represented with words arranged is your mental conception, power of mental conception. Whereas the Thought, capital T of the Highermind is the thing in itself, no more scraps of paper that you have arranged. You know, you see and because it is backed by the intuition, so there's an aspect of that ‘I am one’ almost, but still there's a thought formation, but I feel the closeness, I feel the reality, I feel it as self-existent, not my conception, not my creation, not my arrangement of pieces, it's as if it came and it stands, even if I didn't watch, even if I didn't know, even if I didn't register. So there's an intuitive, so to say, underlying quality, but it is still not full intuition. It is not an identification. And yet it has a power of compelling; when it fills your intelligence, you know, you understand, because in the part where it fits, it brings the power of the experience. So it's very easy at this point to say, this is intuitive. It's not yet intuitive truly, but it is backed or infused by intuition of course. There is a perception there and you can say, yes, I am seeing. No, it's not yet the Illumined Mind, but it's the beginning or supported by the Illumined. But still the thought stands.
(0:26:17):
So, “it is a luminous thought-mind, a mind of spirit-born conceptual knowledge.” So it says if spirit has conceived, it is born from spirit's conception, not your conception. “An all-awareness emerging from the original identity, carrying the truths the identity held in itself”…,– so what was known in the higher spiritual, from there an awareness emerging from the original identity, carrying the truth, …“conceiving swiftly, victoriously, multitudinously, formulating, and by self-power of the Idea, effectually realising its conceptions”.
Now he has described how swiftly it can form, but also it has this power and force to effectuate itself. And so, unlike your mental constructed idea, ‘hey that's a nice idea, how about doing it? yeah okay’, but when this higher thought comes, from the higher mind, when it comes, Oh wow, I can't help it, I have to, you're carried by it. The force is carried within it. The force of its own effectuation is there. There's no question of do I want to or do I not? I am compelled because it is so convincing and it has the power of its own knowledge. So, “…self-power of the Idea, effectually realising its conceptions is the character of this greater mind of knowledge. This kind of cognition, this way of knowing, is the last that emerges from the original spiritual identity before the initiation of a separate knowledge, base of the ignorance;” – So from here, it is the separation of knowledge is the rest of our mind. So it's the first thing you meet as you rise.
“…it is, indeed, the spiritual parent of our conceptive mental ideation,…” – so naturally, he says, rising you will meet that first. But unlike this thought where I have to rearrange my pieces of paper, “here in this greater Thought there is no need of a seeking and self-critical ratiocination, no logical motion step by step towards a conclusion, no mechanism of express or implied deductions and inferences, no building or deliberate concatenation of idea with idea in order to arrive at an ordered sum or outcome of knowledge;…”. So in our intelligence, we have one idea, now another and another. Now I have to check the chain of logic. You see in a logical proof, you say this leads to that which leads to that, but someone can say, no but what about that possibility, oh yes ,so that also in case of that variation and you have to build a complex chain of cause effect ideas and after all that someone can say, but your original assumption was flawed, and the whole chain breaks down or you have to rebuild and modify.
So you are always handling pieces and artificially joining them with what seems to be logical to you. But here there is no such thing. There's no logical movement of step by step and finally conclusion. The whole thing is held in a single thought. “…for this limping action of our reason is a movement of Ignorance searching for knowledge,…There is not here, either, that way of our mind at its keenest and swiftest, a rapid haphazard divination and insight, a play of the searchlight of intelligence probing into the little known or the unknown.”– So which is, is it this, is it that, is it that, our intelligence moves. ‘I don't know what to do, what about this, what about this’, so you're pretty much jumping around blind.
(0:30:27):
So what is that like? “This higher consciousness is a Knowledge (capital K) formulating itself on the basis of self-existent all-awareness and manifesting some part of its integrality, a harmony of its significances put into thought-form.”– So in a very general way one could say it is consciousness of self as it puts out its own knowledge or a part of its own knowledge in form of thought but now separated because it has the form of thought, not knowledge held in identity which would be the intuitive way of knowing. And “…It can freely express itself in single ideas, but its most characteristic movement is a mass ideation, a system or a totality of truth-seeing at a single view.” – So you could say, ah yes, this, and reduce it to that one little thought. But normally, it will always be backed by something large and it's normal way of seeing is an entire philosophical system for example. An entire Kabbalah, if you know the Kabbalah, whole system of complex knowledge, bang! in one single view. Or the whole of the philosophy system of Vaisheshika or any of the modern systems of philosophy or philosophers and their structures. You take the whole thing as presented packaged into a whole book and the thing held in a single idea, thought, content. That would be the kind of integrality of multiple facets simultaneously held. Each of these multiple thoughts could have stood on its own but held in what he describes as a mass ideation – “a system or a totality of truth-seeing at a single view.”
Now if you recall in the exercises which I had recommended last time, you saw you are tending towards this as you do the three-step process of three sheets of paper and then later more and more. The mind tends to stand back and begin to organize already but there's a point where you see the whole thing as one structure and here you get a feel of what it's like. You will say in the intelligence of the intellectual mind a part as if opens out for this higher mind now to be able to lean as if with the finger and say here, I'm your focal point for this experience. It's not yet Higher Mind, but it's point of contact. So through that, one can rise. As you make your mind quiet and wait for this to form, then the higher mind's thought can come in and poof, organize everything. Or in this analytic process you stand back, stand back, stand back until you lean into something which is a deeper oneness backed by oneness and you touch the higher mind's thought which holds all this and into that you may discover so much more. So I'm showing you this is a very interesting link point. This is very precious because it's accessible to all of us without exception.
So, totality of truth-seeing in a single view or a system of truth-seeing in a single view; “…the relations of idea with idea, of truth with truth are not established by logic but pre-exist and emerge already self-seen in the integral whole.” –So all these things fit. Of course I see this is how it is related, but it's seen in a even multidimensional. It is not a chain sequence. It's not even multiple threads. It is like a diamond with multiple facets. So you cannot say that there is one linear sequence to this. You cannot say that there is a tree structure of thought. It is one whole with so many facets. But depending on the way the diamond is shaped, you can say, the large face is here, the tip is here and within it there are four special facets supporting 12 further special facets which support the big one and that is your diamond shape. But you cannot say there is one sequence. You could jump from the big face to the 12 to the 4 to the tip, you could go the other way, you could go from one facet, show the other 4, take one facet open to the 12 and then show the other 4, you could go any combination, there is no fixity because it is one integrity.
(0:35:32):
So, the relations pre-exist and are self-seen in the integral whole. “There is an initiation into forms of an ever-present but till now inactive knowledge,…”, –so there was a knowledge which was inactive but it was always there and that has moved to give form, “…not a system of conclusions from premises or data; this thought is a self-revelation of eternal Wisdom, not an acquired knowledge.” So you can see now, when you begin to tap to open to the Higher Mind, the knowledge was already there, now it revealed itself. The wisdom was eternal. Well, it revealed, well, a piece, a fragment, a thought from it, but still it's a thought of Wisdom. You didn't think it up, you didn't construct it, you didn't make it by combining new ideas. It was already existent, revealing itself. “Large aspects of truth come into view in which the ascending Mind, if it chooses, can dwell with satisfaction and, after its former manner, live in them as in a structure.”
So now as we are rising in consciousness we meet this. We have the past habit,- I get inside a thought and live inside thought. So as I get this Higher Mind thought that comes, large aspects of truth come into view and I can say, oh this is so satisfying, and I get inside that system and live inside there now as if a constructed thought, only I didn't construct it. It's a cage which descended, but large, very large. It's like a mansion descending from heaven and you enter it and say, wow, there is so much to explore. I can get lost in exploring room by room, not embracing mansion or not embracing source of mansion from which many mansions could come, isn't it? Think about it. But because of prior habit, we get into it and say, this is so fascinating and lose ourselves in the old mode of knowledge. And so the ascending mind can meet this in this way, which is what happens, like I said, many great people that I have met, tended to have this,- something came, they would catch it and then be busy with formulating or expressing or pursuing this formulation for the rest of their lives sometimes. Fascinating!
There's one name which comes to mind. Maybe I should, it's okay to share because she's no more now but an extraordinary human being, Marbara Marx Hubbard. She was presented initially as the, so to say, manasa putri or mind child of one of the great Buckminster Fuller. She was a student, but it was as if she took his whole inspiration and built on it. She was familiar a little bit with Sri Aurobindo's and the Mother's writings. She took the Mother's symbol and 12 petals and four as a framework for articulating her own ideas and her own so-called philosophical system. I had occasion to meet her in some conference, I think it was 2007 and I had spoken there and then she came up to me afterwards and she said, “every time when I meet you, I feel around you this dense peace. What is this and how can I have it?” Very interesting. This is the only person I was ever said how can I have it. So I sat with her one evening. We went to her in the room and we did a concentration together and at the end she was just suffused with it and she said, “Oh yes! This I'm going to do every day”.
I did not pursue it with her later. I did not correspond. I was not in the habit of writing much. I met her many years later, almost 10 years later and she didn't remember me, which was fine. But that point when she caught this and she was waiting for it, just like that. Still what I saw in her entire thing, it was about what she receives as intuitions, she turns, but not the idea of an ascent, because well that never came into the background from the culture or thought or philosophies or knowledge in which she grew up unfortunately, but she was an extraordinary being in this respect.
(0:40:15):
Open to this and consciously able to call upon and receive such insights or intuitions. So large aspects of truth come into view, but he says, mind can dwell inside, “but if progress is to be made, these structures can constantly expand into a larger structure or several of them combine themselves into a provisional greater whole on the way to a yet unachieved integrality.” –Now here we get a glimpse of the approach which was also used in the intellectual tradition of India because there was this backdrop of the Self always. So they had these schools of philosophy, six major schools and various categories, sometimes nine, twelve, even sixteen schools, but eventually over time they have all reduced themselves to broadly we can call six facets or ways of looking at Self, each a school of philosophy. And inherent to the deeper mystical teaching behind these schools, which not all schools carry, is that they are each a way of knowing the Self. And when the mind approaches Self, we tend to perceive Self in one of these six aspects. But if you enter into experience of Self, then you experience the six facets or other facets as facets of yourself as one. And you know oneness when you transcend the intellectual.
So here's the hint he is describing. It's as if structures can expand into larger structures because you can open to infinity but you are always infinite or they can combine into provisional greater whole on the way to a yet unachieved integrality which cannot be in this plane, it has to go higher for that. But you see how in this you can actually hold multiple facets of philosophies, entire systems and find them naturally aligned, no more contradicting. “In the end, there is a great totality of truth known and experienced, but still a totality capable of infinite enlargement because there is no end to the aspects of knowledge.”
So however you may achieve a great totality, it can still continue to grow. But now growth is not in content of knowledge but in content of the consciousness itself that holds the knowledge becoming ever wider because it is familiar with infinity, it can open to infinity, experience infinity, itself being always in a large finiteness. And so there is no end to the aspects of knowledge. And then he quotes from the Bhagavad Gita where Sri Krishna says, “nāstyanto vistarasya me”, that is, there is no end to my self-expansion. Then Sri Aurobindo, having described all this, he says, “…This is the Higher Mind in its aspect of cognition;”.
There is another aspect, which is action. So, when mind wants to know, the higher mind wants to know,–”but there is also the aspect of will, of dynamic effectuation of the Truth: here we find that this greater, more brilliant Mind works always on the rest of the being, the mental will, the heart and its feelings, the life, the body, through the power of thought, through the idea-force.”, – so when there is this knowledge, inherent to the knowledge is also a certain power. Because the truth behind the knowledge has its own capacity to articulate, fulfill itself and that pushes all these parts within us,–“It seeks to purify through knowledge, to deliver through knowledge, to create by the innate power of knowledge”. So knowledge is still in front through which this Will works out.
“The idea is put into the heart or the life as a force to be accepted and worked out; the heart and life become conscious of the idea and respond to its dynamisms and their substance begins to modify itself in that sense, so that the feelings and actions become the vibrations of this higher wisdom, are informed with it, filled with the emotion and the sense of it:”, and so he describes how it affects then the life impulses charged with power and the urge for self-effectuation, “…even in the body the idea works so that, for example, the potent thought and will of health replaces its faith in illness…”, So if you feel your body in itself as a tissue, I know illness, if I look deep enough into myself in my body sensations and discomforts, ‘oh there's a little bit of illness there, that could easily grow to become sickness, that could grow to pain, that could’… it's all there somehow, known in the body consciousness. But when this Higher Mind's force of truth now begins to fill, the idea works, the potent thought and will of health replaces its faith in illness. It's not a faith or belief that you're constructing, ‘Oh I am feeling better, I'm feeling stronger, I must become stronger’, –those are all mental constructs. Therefore they have relatively weak effect. Here what happens, this Higher Mind idea settles in and you feel the power, oh yes, health, total immunity from sickness. I know it because I feel the conviction, the power, the force, the truth of it. So the potent thought and will of health replaces its faith in illness. To the extent it goes into your body, it has this effect. Or, “…replaces its faith in illness and its consent to illness…”. So even now the body will say, no I don't accept, I don't need to accept, right?, “…or the idea of strength calls in the substance, power, motion, vibration of strength…”.
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So here's a very interesting thing. You have an idea of the strength, maybe it comes into the body now, and the fact that you have the idea of the strength, the idea is linked because it's not mentally reflected pieces of paper ideas. It is idea backed by real truth. So the idea itself felt, calls in the substance of the body, power, motion, vibration of strength. So you see in all this knowledge, awakening familiarity to the force of truth behind and calling in the force of truth into that knowledge: “…the idea generates the force and form proper to the idea and imposes it on our substance of mind, life or matter…”. See very interesting, knowledge leading the power and generates the force proper to the idea and imposes it, compelling this tissue substance. Now you can imagine when something of the Higher Mind idea, inspiration comes into you, obviously it fills you with the real, something real and changes you. If this were to settle into your body permanently into the tissue, let's say down to the cellular tissue even, you will feel the truth of freedom from illness, complete well-being. And the feeling of the knowledge will bring in the power of the knowledge to effectuate it. And you doing nothing, the thing itself bringing all this into you, you only receiving and allowing it to settle, cherishing it, dwelling on it, choosing it rather than the old habit. That choice you have to make. There is still an effort on your part. But you see the nature of the effort is so different, isn't it?
“It is in this way that the first working proceeds; it charges the whole being with a new and superior consciousness, lays a foundation of change, prepares it for a superior truth of existence.” And this, he says, this is the first working of this Higher Mind in us You can read the rest this is part of the Life Divine, I think it is from the chapter of Triple Transformation and you get the sense of how this how important this Higher Mind is and all this is to remind you, it's just here, just above as the intellect turns to its own greater origination of power and knowledge and it's just there and there's a point of contact when you stand back to view the whole in this way. There's a point of contact already and at that point if you let go of your mental effort and process and open to this deeper, wider sense of self. It settles into you, infuses, descends into you. The exercise of descent of peace, which is guided meditation for descent of peace, will be very helpful for you to familiarize yourself with this movement of the descent of the higher consciousness and its influence and the peace settling in your mind will lay a basis, not only for the thoughts to become quiet and still and to be able to turn up and receive, but also for the familiarity of the influence of the higher as a substantial influence and also familiarity with the sense of wideness, vastness of the higher, which are all typical of the Higher Mind and therefore readiness of its influence to be received in you.
We will speak of a few more things as we go along in terms of practice, but this is to give you a sense of what is this Higher Mind and why it can be so important, both for knowledge as well as power of expression. Its you know, when this kind of a force of truth in the thought turns to express in speech, in writing, in music, in dance, in life action, you can feel it is backed by a force which is self-existent and a certain compelling quality to fulfill itself.
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There is another text in which he describes this whole movement when he speaks of greater power behind this reflective mind and there he says, “…It is that…”, from the poise of the mind standing back, turning, ”…it is that which when we get back to it, we sometimes mistake…”, so he is speaking here of the source of the pure thinker in us. Let me take the full sentence, “…It is the source of the pure thinker in us; it is that which knows mentality in itself and sees the world not in terms of life and body but of mind;”, the manomaya purusha, the standing back witness-poise of intellect mind, “..it is that which when we get back to it, we sometimes mistake for the pure spirit, as we mistake the dynamic mind for the soul”.
Now this in the more mental forms of practices and traditions are very common mistakes. So in certain very basic schools of Buddhism, they would stop with the mind, stand back in the Manomaya Purusha and say this is Nirvana. It's not, and even the higher schools would know that it's not. But you'll find this quite common in the basic types of teachings. Similarly, you'll find in the Brahma Kumari tradition, which is quite has force in India now, the poise of the intelligence standing back as witness of mind in the center of the forehead within, they use the word soul to describe it. Now because the English language is loose, you can say soul would represent any center of consciousness and from this they open to the Divine above. But it is a mental center, it is not the true soul. And another example in many of the populist Zen type traditions or in many of the followers of J Krishnamurti, where the thought-mind and the self-thought is considered to be important as a way of breaking the mind. There is this tendency to consider the poise of the mind standing back as the pure spirit. Now, not all, may not be the original teaching of those founders. I'm saying this is popular as a mistake because as an experience it seems so free of form. But it's not true spirit nor true soul.
So this poise from here is, from here when you open to the higher, then he speaks of this, rising above this poise even. He says, “…This higher mind is able to perceive and deal with other souls as other forms of its pure self; it is capable of sensing them by pure mental impact and communication, no longer only by vital and…”, etc. So, I am going to skip this. And the limitation from this to open to the true fullness of the experience, he says, there is a veil that separates this outer working and the deeper, truer inner working,– “…It is only when the veil is rent and the divided mind overpowered, silent and passive to a supramental action, that mind itself gets back to the Truth of things. There we find a luminous mentality….” and so on.
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He describes how as one rises higher, the sense of light, illumination of knowledge, where everything is seen in direct perception, all this becomes natural. So he writes this, “…the higher one rises upward, the more the spiritual view changes, the power of consciousness changes, the Light becomes ever more intense and potent”. And he discusses how in the initial movement of rising, there is a… I'll read it, “first there is a static perception and then within that there is a vision of the working of the one”, in the oneness which is static, there is the working of the one. And then he says, “All possible forms and constructions of things become more and more visible, put in their proper place, more luminously utilizable. A clear, spacious thought-knowledge in the Higher Mind becomes a mass of illuminations in the Illumined Mind and heightens into direct intimate vision on the Intuition level.”, – So this is the rising movement which he is describing as you go from Higher Mind upwards. And then he describes each of these, “..But the intuition sees in flashes and combines through a constant play of light – through a chain of coordinated harmony of revelations, inspirations, intuitions, swift discriminations…”. And then above that, “…The Overmind sees calmly, steadily, in great masses and deep and large extensions of space and time and relation, globally, in wholes; it has the universal touch, not only in spirit, but in its manner. It creates and acts in the same way…”, so overmind action also similarly. “…-For the Overmind is the world of the great Gods, the divine Creators. But each Godhead creates in his own way. He sees all, but that all is seen from his own divine viewpoint”.
Now I'm stopping with this. This is to say that having first made that point of entry into the higher mind, from there these are gradations. We do not need to worry too much, but in what he describes you see a continuity. And the higher mind is as if this Overmental but now in domain of thought representation. From thought to a more intuitive direct identity and the rest of the journey moves.
So if you look at it this way practically, from your current thinking process, which is pieces of paper that you are shuffling around, you are doing your scribblings on your sheet, standing back, standing back, bigger, wider, whole, completing and holding the entire thing in a thought and now opening to something higher where the perception fills you and you see the full force of it. And this increasingly now becomes your station and here you have the touch of the intuition so you open to the truth behind and then widening wider, higher and so on. It's just a progressive movement. Catch this point of transition and the rest is inevitable if you pursue. But all these grades of consciousness, he says, initially they reflect in you and so there's a greatly diminished quality. So something comes and the rest of your mass of intelligence jumps around, covers it, mixes it and that's why that initial phase of purification becomes so important of which the key will be this becoming quiet and widening.
There is another very interesting text where he discusses “the sea-like downpour of the masses of spontaneous knowledge that assume the nature of Thought, but has a different character from the process of thought to which we are accustomed” without any seeking. So, “sealike downpour of masses of spontaneous knowledge”,- this is again in the Higher Mind. Now, why I am reading this is because from here you will see Sri Aurobindo's own description of his early experience when he began his yoga, let's say, and perhaps even before coming to Pondicherry. Someone asked, “were you influenced by Greek thought and philosophy?” He says, no that barely touched superficially. He says my philosophy was formed first by the study of the Upanishads and the Gita. The Veda came later. But he says he was not satisfied with understanding. He was working always to enter the experience and only when the experience was got, he said, ah yes.
So then he says, “the other source of my philosophy was the knowledge that flowed from above when I sat in meditation, especially from the plane of the Higher Mind when I reached that level. They [the ideas from the higher mind] came down in a mighty flood which swelled into a sea of direct knowledge always translating itself into experience, or they were intuitions starting from experience and leading to other intuitions and a corresponding experience…” So there's a kind of an unfolding. “…This source was exceedingly catholic and many-sided and all sorts of ideas came in which might have belonged to conflicting philosophies but they were here reconciled in a large synthetic whole”.
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So now when you see Sri Aurobindo's writing later in the Arya and you must remember by this time he had already ascended to the Supramental consciousness. Overmental, Supramental and the distinction between them not being too important. It was, let's say, the general range. When he was writing, it was from those ranges that it poured down. But from that range, if you enter the intellect, the substance is not sufficiently capable, even wide or plastic. So the vehicle in which you receive is the Higher Mind, from there. So the full downpour is held in the Higher Mind and from there the intelligent mind is silent and it passes through clearly formulating its own rhythms of thought, idea, words, structure, sentence, paragraph, chapter, whatever.
And so in this way when Sri Aurobindo was writing the Arya, initially I think it started with four books, one chapter at a time. Later when Paul Richard left, actually the Mother left because she was writing one of the books and Paul Richard the other. When they left, he had to take up those two slots also and it became six books parallelly, one chapter at a time, no notes, no references because it's all seen and he just focuses on this, this, this and the downpour straight. So Mother describes how he would be typing. She said the mind was totally silent and transparent and the inspiration would flow straight into his fingers as he would be typing.
Now it doesn't mean that he was blank and or an automatic writing. Unfortunately, some people have actually claimed that he was doing an automatic writing, which is completely wrong. He was poised outside his intelligence into this station above, the Higher Mind being the basis through which what was descending from above would find its receptacle and then from there flow through. And he was fully conscious of what was being formulated and the range of experiences as they were being formulated.
So this is Sri Aurobindo's own experience which is interesting to read and he describes in one of his letters, in the entry into the higher mind itself three levels. I read from that letter. So we have to see for us now what does it mean because we are not yet to that point where that kind of downpour can happen but we must hold this. One day it will happen and ideally in this lifetime. Do not ever allow this idea to come in that, ah, it is difficult, it is distant. It is here within your reach because the power is waiting to manifest in you. All it needs is your receptivity, your consent and your opening. So and Sri Aurobindo started with the same situation we were all at, which is in a sense zero preparation for the yoga and said, okay, let me see and then begins his journey, isn't it? So, without help, today we have his help.
So, in the ascent from below, there are three levels of the higher mind. “…on the lowest”, this is what we will meet first as we open, “..on the lowest, the consciousness is in connection with the Divine, not directly, but through the touch of the Light, Peace, Power and Knowledge…” So as you become very quiet, turn your consciousness upwards and open upward to receive in a wide opening, you begin to feel above the head, a peace. At first just a presence, you don't know how to describe, don't worry. It's a presence, let it deepen, let it grow more dense, let it settle into you, or let yourself be drawn into it. And you begin to feel within that presence a kind of a deep intensity of density, of peace, light, power, knowledge. These are the four he mentions here. But at first you know it through this, not directly. But you know later, obviously this is Peace of the Divine, Peace of the Self, Presence of the Divine. As you settle into this more, as this becomes familiar, as it settles into you and you, so to say, open to it and even begin to rise and live in it, comes the second unfolding.
So “…on the second [level], it is in the Light etc. and already sees the Divine…” That means now you're feeling it, knowing it as this is the Divine itself.”
“…on the third, it is in union with the Divine and surrendered.” So the in-between state is the seeing, you are aware of it, but there is still a sense of separation. But now you know the Divine in the living presence. And in the third, there is the merging. And that's when we can say we are settled now fully in this Higher Mind state. “…These are three well-known conditions of the higher consciousness in its approach to the Divine.”
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But from this point you see once settled all the rest inevitable if you pursue, if you choose. Initially though, because we experience it more as an influence, a settling, almost like a Presence or a Peace that fills you and you say, ah yes this feels so good. You allow yourself to habituate, you invoke, receive, hold, familiarize yourself, stabilize this as a base of experience, but still you are here, not in that. So there is a gap to be overcome.
So he says of this, “the higher planes are not planes on which man is naturally conscious and he is not even open to their direct influence, only to some indirect influence from those nearest to the human mind. He can reach them only in a deep inner condition or trance and the higher he goes, the less easy is it for him to be conscious of them even in trance”. So if this is the difficulty, how do you manage? And he gives you the key. “If you are not conscious of your inner being, then it is more difficult to be conscious in trance” or to put it another way as you become conscious in the inner being all these become more and more accessible.
So again we are not going to speak of the still higher ranges for now our immediate opening is just above the head to this Presence, Peace, Light, whatever way you feel it as presence of peace, let's say, vast of self. And so you as if first interiorize, become conscious that there is within you a deeper range, a deeper layer, and learn to lean back to rest in this. And then from there, you will have the familiarity and easy access. There are many people I have seen, they read some text like this and they say, yes there is a lid so I have to concentrate on my physical head. No, it's not physical head because it's not here. If it was here, I could knock it out, I could swat it, right? It's not here. It is in the subtle body, in the inner range, in a center situated largely in relation to the physical body here. But the consciousness is everywhere. It's natural center in the subtle body is here. But if you want to be conscious of the center, then you have to become as if conscious in the subtle body.
So this first movement of drawing in is more natural to those who are used to some form of meditation. In this some form of meditation, you will find, unfortunately, a lot of people lose themselves in some kind of subjective wandering. They go into an introspective state or a daydream state, it's still useful because at least you have learned to disengage from the outer and lose yourself in the inner but it's useless from a spiritual point of view, you can just lose yourself in sentimental, emotional or mental wanderings.
The key is in the first turning within you put your attention on this deeper and higher truth within you,- either turn to the Presence of the divine within you or this Presence above and focus on that not stay wandering inside and when you turn your attention to that you have to conceive of that or open to that in its wider, deeper substantiality, bit by bit little by little. As you begin to do that, then you're not wandering, you're opening to something greater and greater and then its influence begins to help you to draw you within or to fill you with this infusion and so on. Just a small shift changes everything.
When you see people for example, you see people sitting in collective meditation as a routine weekly meditation, if you look within, try to sense what is behind, you'll see the bulk of them are lost in some subjective activity, not really turned to the inner and higher. Because they were never told; they were just told, sit, close your eyes and meditate. What do you do? Well, you just sit and do nothing. And then this happens. Or they listen to some music and the mind is wandering, which is okay, but it doesn't serve spiritually.
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For the spiritual growth, you could spend years doing this and not have growth. For the spiritual growth you have to turn to, open to, receive or give yourself to and this is the deepening of the contact. So as a result of this, this (Presence) is felt immediately, immediately without exception and then there is a period of deepening, intensifying, widening and you let it settle in you even as you allow yourself to open to it and even rise into it. This would be your immediate process as a practice. And it is from there that the true knowledge begins to come. So now you combine this with the practices we have discussed last time, let's say. As you're beginning to stand back and hold these deeper, wider thought, idea, forms. This thing from above is leaning into you, combined with this deeper practice and it begins to link.
So as you stand back, of course there's an insight, you see something more, you see things you missed and you begin to fill that on your sheet or as you speak or as you write or as you sing or dance or act, the missing piece now fills more and more. It's as if this construction of your mind is being backed by a deeper idea, thought in the Higher Mind. And that begins to infuse, suffuse, merge. And then comes a point where, because of this familiarity in our head over a few, let's say, period of time, as you sit to concentrate, let's say to organize your thoughts, your ideas, you lean back and this deeper thing fills and does it for you. Or at some point, the data you are offering is almost secondary. As you lean back with this intention, the higher mind thought begins to fill and then takes in and organises the data or fills in other additional data. And it's quite fascinating, the ease with which it happens.
Again I'm saying this, all of us are capable of this. All we need is to make a few small graded steps in this way and very quickly these experiences begin to come. The experience is not the realisation, do not worry. Enjoy the experiences, let them stabilize, let yourself grow familiar.
And into this, because it seems to be so mental, there are some people who say, but I prefer the devotion, the bhakti, etc. Very often when they say that, they are losing themselves in sentimental emotionality. If you have this concentration in this way, with the real touch of it, what fills from above is deeply satisfying, more deeply than the devotional, emotional play and it has the character of the bhakti but not the emotion; and this we must allow, we must allow this familiarisation to take place. And if there has been a deeper psychic influence already then this unifies very easily because they are familiar with each other, they are of the same, let's say, familiarity with the divine. The vital part in you finds it without juice, without drama of devotion, devotional content of bhakti and so on. But in this you do not feel any more this conflict. It's neither the intellect which is dry nor the devotional emotion which is sentimental drama. It is real and it fills the need of the mind's knowledge as well as the heart's fullness.
So he says in one of the letters, there is no such opposition when the psychic and the higher plane knowledge act together predominantly. The psychic welcomes knowledge that supports its emotion, the higher thought consciousness rejoices in the bhakti. And there is this perfect alignment here. But as this grows, you see the nature of this surrender grows but not necessarily an emotional type. So he says, there can be devotion and surrender on the higher spiritual planes, but it is not inevitable as in the psychic. In the higher mind, one may be too conscious of identity with the Brahman to have devotion or surrender. You so enjoy the immersion that the idea of devotion is irrelevant. There is a giving and a joyous self-giving and a deep fulfillment in the immersion and that is more satisfying than anything else.
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Now with this, remember our goal is still not only to receive knowledge but turn it into action. So the initial phase requires a certain stilling, quieting, purification which seems counter intuitive to action. So what we do is we become very still, quiet, we open and we wait for that to initiate the action. If you're going to write, you have an intention what you write, but now don't cling to the intention. You wait, now open freely, remove all expectation, open to that, wait, and it's not automatic writing. A clear formulation or idea or experience comes and the words form within you and your hand starts writing or speaking or singing or dancing, whatever it is. So there is a participation of your mind initially, filled with the supporting influence of inspiration. But increasingly the inspiration takes over and your mind expectation is minimized, rather supporting it as it flows. So that's why this importance of complete silence.
He says, so long as the mind does not become capable of a complete silence, this higher knowledge, thought, perception, either does not come down or if partially it does, it is liable to get mixed up with or imitated by the lower. And that is a bother and a hindrance. So silence is necessary. And so the Higher Mind, he says, it creates a new action of thought and perception. And he says it is not random and restless, but precise and purposeful. It comes only when needed or called for and does not disturb the silence. So one of the key aspects of emergence of the higher mind thought within you will be, in the silence the thought forms with the purposefulness, precision, clarity and effectuates.
So all this which I am describing are natural when one opens to receive. And the purpose of describing in this reading these texts is to, so to say, prepare the mind to make it familiar and more than that as you read or as you hear you can feel, yes of course it is true, of course this is how it should be and it even feels as if of course I have experienced it before I just don't remember now. It's familiar, catch that because this is the part in you which has familiarity and the resonance of a closeness with this experience or with the higher mind and things beyond.
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And then he says another, when I keep saying it is not difficult, you have to quote Sri Aurobindo for that. He says,, to live in the Higher Mind is not so difficult. It begins when the consciousness rises a little above the head. But from there the ascent to the Overmind takes a long time. But this… And we don't worry about Overmind now. That takes a long time. Okay. This is not difficult. And then as one begins to live in these planes, he says the limitations of the mind are broken down, the consciousness becomes vast, the petty ego sense decreases, everything is one, all is in the divine etc. Then the divine or spiritual knowledge comes easily. But all this is natural from this opening to the Higher Mind. This he says is the primary base.
And you see, I'll quote again, rising higher and higher and bringing down is the method of the yoga. But it is not possible to do it with full effect until one has so prepared oneself that one can rise above the head to the self in the Higher Mind. It was the point you had reached but could not confirm before the difficulties came in from the physical consciousness. So again this concentration above opening here to the Presence that's your entry point. Eventually the Presence itself is recognised as the presence of self. This is absolutely essential. All of us should be spending some time if possible daily or at least regularly in this effort and I have shared that guided meditation for descent of peace as an aid for this purpose. You may use it as a starting point. Once you begin to have this, you may drop it and concentrate directly on the experience or you don't need it at all.
Well, so this much I will hold and consider now why this effort would be essential even if we are not thinking of still higher ranges. Because, and this was one of the great gifts of Sri Aurobindo that he formed what he has called the Mind of Light. This is a poise of consciousness, which although mental, not yet Supramental, yet can hold knowledge without ignorance, within limits, but without ignorance within those limits. This poise of mind allows, when that is established in us, for us to begin to participate in the divine life even without a supramental transformation. And this was the last really work that he did while in the physical body and transferring that into the Mother when he left the physical body. We have spoken about that. Please look up the previous talks in detail. I won't elaborate. Look up for a talk titled the Mind of Light in the evening series as well as other sections.
But for the Mind of Light, which we should be able to have in this lifetime, all of us, irrespective of age, because it is so close, for the Mind of Light, the first station in which that can be acquired is the higher mind. And therefore this stabilizing of this poise is so essential. Into this, in this the higher light filling, forming this mind of light, and that seizing and taking up the working of our intelligence and our life energies and our body, as you felt the power of the Higher Mind as it enters even down to physical tissue, can change the body's conviction of health and freedom from illness. And naturally for the other parts so much more. This would be normal combined with a mind of light which now can see through knowledge without error, without ignorance, without division, although in pieces, although in parts, let's say, within limits. But within those limits, no division; seeing truth. This with its influence as power of Higher Mind all the way down to the physical body allows us already to begin on earth the divine life in a human body even without a supramentalisation.
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This would become perfected and complete with the higher ranges of consciousness, with the Mind of Light itself becoming complete in its ascension and the supramental transformation of the body. That process may involve, whatever number of years, a few hundred years perhaps, for us a few lifetimes, not an issue. The full transformation of the physical body may take time. The transformation of your mind, no, can be done in this life, including a supramentalisation. But let's say even that, I don't have much time, I have already wasted half my life. Well, I can have, all of us can have without exception, the mind of light centered, poised at its first station of the higher mind and from there organizing our life divine. With whatever limitations we may have in the other parts, as long as this mind of light exists in us, you will have a reference which will be free of ignorance and a division of consciousness. And that increasingly other parts can be united or taught to be led by this higher station, which is from your intelligence, well, first step, higher, into which the mind of light can form.
So the mind of light, Sri Aurobindo says, is a transitional passage by which we can pass from Supermind and superhumanity to an illumined humanity for the new humanity will be capable of at least a partly divinised way of seeing and living, because it can live in the Light and in Knowledge and not in the obscuration of the ignorance. This is for us. The new humanity will be capable of at least a partly divinised way of seeing and living, because it can live in the light and in the knowledge. All of us who feel drawn to this, must make this our aim in life, as at least a first base of realisation and of fulfillment in this very lifetime. All the rest will happen also. We may want more, that's fine. But this must be a minimum and if possible as early as possible. This, I think this covers broadly what I wanted to share about this Mind of Light. Let’s take a quick look at the chatbox. I think this is fine.
I have read a lot from Sri Aurobindo's text. Sometimes I find people tend to blank out because his language is very detailed, precise and sometimes complex. But I think we have sufficiently elaborated on it to be able to feel the truth of the power of the Higher Mind and then when that becomes the basis for the Mind of Light to settle as a delegate power of the Supermind filling your Higher Mind preparing for you partially at least a divine life on earth. This is well within our reach and with the active help of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, the power of the Divine Presence, which is working everywhere in the universe to hasten spiritual evolution, with the supramental manifestation as an active force in human evolution on our earth. This becomes now greatly aided in every way possible.
There is no excuse left for us other than not having attempted, or having wandered off in some side track and not having turned to the direct opening that we have already, with the presence that is already here in us, above us. And so with this forming, filling, flowing, the very nature of our knowledge as well as of power of expression undergoes a fundamental shift, no more constructed but inspired or form of Truth, even though it is thought form of truth, but still form of Truth and therefore having its own capacity of self-fulfillment of realisation when it flows through you.
Accept that at first your substance of mind, emotions, energies, body will cloud a little bit, there will be a dilution, diminution, that should never be a problem initially. We have to accept that that will be so and it is only by our conscious opening, receiving and continuing to work to purify the receptivity that that will clear with its help more than you could with your capacity. So it's not that you will purify, purify and one day it will happen. No, you start by making the contact with your impure consciousness and let it purify you. And then the purification is enormously rapid because by its strength and not your limitation.
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As we are, we have to take the steps and always invoking Her help actively, consciously, with a concentration, with an immersion, with a movement of self-giving. What Sri Aurobindo describes of the sadhakas in the ashram having Brahman consciousness and all that is at that time when they had each a direct contact with him and they were infusing , the Mother physically infusing the Presence and the experience, etc., the difference was the concentration people had, not in her capacity to infuse. From morning to evening they held this one-pointedness. They went to the Mother in the morning in the darshan, stood, received and throughout the day carried that, held that, meeting her again in the evening, concentrating, receiving.
So the one-pointedness of the receiver and therefore the intensity of the Presence that could be built around them was the key. For the Mother, whether she came out physically or stayed in her room and you received the transmission makes no difference. Therefore for her to withdraw from body or being in body again makes no difference. To us it makes a difference because now we say, oh Mother is not there, what's my morning, how will I do this, where's my food, where's my breakfast and so but if at that time you had a physical contact, you say, I don't care I'm going to miss my breakfast today but the darshan is in three minutes, I have to rush. Your priority changed because of the physical access.
This is a very important point the Mother made that because of the physical contact you find it easy to center yourself but for her it made no difference, she could do the same. I have mentioned before experiences people had with Sri Aurobindo while they were elsewhere in another city receiving directly his help. So to him it makes no difference to convey that help. For you if you choose to, if you need the external focus, it makes a difference.
So keep this in mind. In fact the circumstances are not different. At best they are a little different because of the dilution of the world around you. But to yourself and in your relationship with them, there is no difference. You can sit in concentration, build the Presence and the atmosphere of the intensity of the Presence in your room, on your chair, on your mat, and they can fill you as they did before in physical direct contact. Now you close your eyes and feel them know and receive or meet them impersonally as the Presence above the head, which is the Divine Mother's presence. It doesn't matter which you do because it is the same always, isn't it? From their side nothing has changed, from our side we need only make that a little bit of extra effort. This was the comment Mother made. When numbers became too many, she said I put a general force. Now people have to make that first effort to make the connection then everything is the same as before.
So I think we will close this part of our discussion on knowledge and the power of expression with this leap from mind to Higher Mind and then to everything else to whatever degree of progression and next time we will take up the topic which I had already announced. We can take a moment to concentrate on this, on the Divine Mother's presence as She is already with us and as we would be in a darshan with Her.
<silence>
Namaste.