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Sri Aurobindo: The inner being is the inner mind, inner vital, inner physical with the psychic behind them. The [] higher being is used to denote the conscious self on planes higher than the ordinary human consciousness. Do you not know that the inner being means the inner mind, inner vital, inner physical with the...
Sri Aurobindo: How can there be one centre for all that? The inner being cannot be “located” above, it can only join with the above, penetrate it and be penetrated by it.
Sri Aurobindo: If it were located above, then there would be no inner being. The inner being has its own time which is sometimes slower, sometimes faster than the physical. The word Antaratma is very vaguely used like the word soul in English — so used, it covers all the inner being, inner mind, inner vital, inner ...
Sri Aurobindo: Our inner being is in touch with the universal mind, life, matter, a part of all that, but by that very fact it cannot be in possession of liberation and peace. You are thinking probably of the Atman and confusing it with the inner being. I did not mean by the inner being the psychic or inmost being.
Sri Aurobindo: It is the psychic being that feels love, bhakti and union with the Mother. I was speaking of the inner mental, inner vital, inner physical; in order to reach the hidden seat of the psychic one has ﬁrst to pass through these things. When one leaves the outer consciousness and goes inside, it is here that ...
Sri Aurobindo: By becoming more conscious there and going deeper one can reach the psychic — the safe refuge,, of which you speak, and you will not be disturbed by the confused visions and experiences of the inner vital outskirts. The psychic stands behind the inner mind, inner vital and inner physical and supports...
Sri Aurobindo: I do not know what you mean by its [] being “around” the psychic. It is obviously nearer to the psychic than the outer mind, vital or physical, but that does not ensure its being open to the psychic only and not to other universal forces. The psychic can have peace behind it — but the inner mind, vital...
Sri Aurobindo: That of course is a symbolic image. For usually when one sees anybody’s psychic being in a form, it is bigger than that. As for the inner being, one feels it big because the true mental or the true vital or even the true physical being is much wider in consciousness than the external consciousness which...
Sri Aurobindo: The outer being is a means of expression only, not one’s self. One must not identify with it, for what it expresses is a personality formed by the old ignorant Nature. If not identiﬁed, one can change it so as to express the true inner personality of the Light.
Sri Aurobindo: They [] are small, but not unimportant in spite of their apparent insigniﬁcance — because they are a necessary passage of transmission between the soul and the outer world. You take the outer waking consciousness as if it were the real person or being and conclude that if it is not this but something...
Sri Aurobindo: The soul, the person is within, not on the surface — the outer personality is the person only in the ﬁrst sense of the Latin word which meant originally a mask. The true being may be realised in one or both of two aspects — the Self or Atman and the soul or, psychic being or . The difference is that on...
Sri Aurobindo: Both realisations are necessary for this Yoga. The “I” or the little ego is constituted by Nature and is at once a mental, vital and physical formation meant to aid in centralising and individualising the outer consciousness and action. When the true being is discovered, the utility of the ego is over ...
Sri Aurobindo: As to the change of nature, the ﬁrst step is to become conscious and separate from the old surface nature. For this rajasic vital nature is a surface creation of Prakriti, it is not the true being; however persistent it seems, it is only a temporary combination of vital movements. Behind is the true me...
Sri Aurobindo: By drawing back and becoming separate one creates the possibility of living in the peace of this inner Purusha no longer identiﬁed with the surface Prakriti. Afterwards it will be much easier to change, by the force of the psychic perception and the Peace and Power and Light from above, the surface being...
Sri Aurobindo: The true inner being — the true mental, the true vital, the true physical represent each on its plane and answer to the central being, but the whole of the nature and especially the outer nature does not nor the ordinary mental, vital or physical personality. The psychic being is the central being for ...
Sri Aurobindo: The condition you describe is the true consciousness, psychic and spiritual, which will become the base of the sadhana. If it is only for a brief time that it comes, it is always so at the beginning of its coming, but afterwards it ﬁxes and becomes a pervading basis. It is a sign of the psychic opening a...
Sri Aurobindo: It [] is the true Yogic consciousness in which one feels the oneness and lives in it, not touched by the outer being and its inferior movements, but looking on them with a smile at their ignorance and smallness. It will become much more possible to deal with these outer things if that separateness is ma...
Sri Aurobindo: It is the true consciousness growing within that gives the power []. As it grows, these vital forces get more and more externalised and foreign to the nature. It is only by the power of past habit that they rise.
Sri Aurobindo: This [] was the true consciousness that must establish itself, but before it can establish itself it must come down below the head and take full possession of the navel and two lower centres and pervade the body down to the feet and even below. Once established, it holds the ego-forces outside or, even...
Sri Aurobindo: But when by Yoga one begins to open to the true consciousness, then this barrier begins to break down. One feels the mind grow wider, even in the end the physical consciousness grows wider and wider, until you feel all things in yourself, yourself one with all things. You then become one with the Mother’...
Sri Aurobindo: All these are the ordinary experiences of our Yoga. It is only a beginning. But in order that it may go on developing, you must become more and more quiet, more and more able to hold whatever comes without getting too eager and excited. Peace and calmness are the ﬁrst thing, and with it wideness — in the...
Sri Aurobindo: Naturally, the consciousness you have now is nothing to what you will have hereafter when it has grown; but it has to begin in this way and increase by quietude. You cannot have the full complete consciousness now and it is no use repining and doubting because it is not complete or fully established as y...
Sri Aurobindo: There is no insincerity in asking me again and again for the right condition — the feeling of connection and the true consciousness and the psychic state. It is most important that you should have them and become able to keep them. It is indeed the one thing needful for you. They [] are quite different ...
Sri Aurobindo: It is not the Divine, though it has come from the Divine and develops towards the Divine. It
Sri Aurobindo: [ ] is constantly in contact with the immanent Divine — the Divine secret in the individual.
Sri Aurobindo: It is the psychic that is in direct relation with the transcendent Divine and leads the nature upwards towards the Supreme. The Divine is always in the inner heart and does not leave it.
Sri Aurobindo: The psychic is not, by deﬁnition, that part [] which is in direct touch with the supramental plane, — although, once the connection with the supramental is made, it gives to it the readiest response. The psychic part of us is something that comes direct from the Divine and is in touch with the Divine. In...
Sri Aurobindo: It grows in the consciousness by Godward experience, gaining strength every time there is a higher movement in us, and, ﬁnally, by the accumulation of these deeper and higher movements there is developed a psychic individuality, — that which we call usually the psychic being. It is always this psychic be...
Sri Aurobindo: The psychic being is quite different from the mind or vital; it stands behind them where they meet in the heart. Its central place is there, but behind the heart rather than in the heart; for what men call usually the heart is the seat of emotion, and human emotions are mentalvital impulses, not ordinari...
Sri Aurobindo: It is the true psychic entity (distinguished from the vital desire-mind) — the psyche — spoken of on the page of the to which you make reference. The psychic is the soul, the divine spark animating matter and life and mind and as it grows it takes form and expresses itself through these three touching...
Sri Aurobindo: The psychic is the spark of the Divine involved here in the individual existence. It grows and evolves in the form of the psychic being — so obviously it cannot have already the powers of the Divine. Only its presence makes it possible for the individual to open to the Divine and grow towards the Divin...
Sri Aurobindo: The psychic is a spark come from the Divine which is there in all things and as the individual evolves it grows in him and manifests as the psychic being, the soul seeking always for the Divine and the Truth and answering to the Divine and the Truth whenever and wherever it meets it. All contact with t...
Sri Aurobindo: The soul is a portion of the Divine that comes down into the evolution and evolves a psychic being more and more developed through experiences of successive lives until it is ready for the divine realisation here. There is no distinction between the Self and the spirit. The psychic is the soul that dev...
Sri Aurobindo: contains everything in potentiality; but that can only be worked out by the psychic being. It is quite different from the condition of the self. There is a difference between the psychic and the self.
Sri Aurobindo: The self is the Atman above which is one in all, remains always wide, free, pure, untouched by the action of life in its ignorance. Its nature is peace, freedom, light, wideness, Ananda. The psychic ( ) is the individual being which comes down into life and travels from birth to birth and feels the exper...
Sri Aurobindo: The Self has no separate place — it is everywhere. Your self and the self of all beings is the same. Love, joy and happiness come from the psychic. The Self gives peace or a universal Ananda.
Sri Aurobindo: The Jiva is realised as the individual Self, Atman, the central being above the Nature, calm, untouched by the movements of Nature but supporting their evolution though not involved in it. Through this realisation silence, freedom, wideness, mastery, purity, a sense of universality in the individual as o...
Sri Aurobindo: The psychic is a spark of the Divine — but I do not know that it can be called a portion of the Jivatma — it is the same put forward in a different way. The of which you speak is not the psychic being, but the soul or spark of the Divine which supports each existence; the psychic being is usually s...
Sri Aurobindo: The psychic being is the soul or spark of the Divine developing a form of itself in the evolution which travels from life to life. The Jivatma and the soul are the same, but in two different statuses. The Jivatma is the Ansha of the Divine standing above the consciousness as the individual self and uncha...
Sri Aurobindo: It has to disappear by the coming of knowledge and be replaced by the true psychic and spiritual self. The psychic is the soul in evolution; the Atman is the self above the evolution. There is always a part of the mind, of the vital, of the body which is or can be inﬂuenced by the psychic; they can...
Sri Aurobindo: According to the personality or the degree of evolution of each person, this part can be small or large, weak or strong, covered up and inactive or prominent and in action. When it acts the movements of the mind, vital or physical accept the psychic motives or aims, partake of the nature of the psychic o...
Sri Aurobindo: The psychic being is the soul within that experiences life and develops with evolving mind and life and body. The psychic does not suffer like the vital or body, it has not pain or anguish or despair; but it has a psychic sorrow which is different from these things. It has a kind of quiet sweet sadness o...
Sri Aurobindo: As for the psychic not being in front, that cannot be brought about all at once; the other parts of the being must be prepared for the change and the veil between must become thinner and thinner. It is for that experiences come and there is the working on the inner mind and vital and physical as well as ...
Sri Aurobindo: There is a Presence called the Purusha, something projected by the Self or Atman, which supports on each plane the formation of the personalities on that plane, but the Purusha is not a personality and it has no name or form. But it is best for you not to speculate too much about these subtle things at p...
Sri Aurobindo: Some occultists make a distinction between spirit, soul and body. At the same time there must be some vague feeling that soul and mind are not quite the same thing, for there is the phrase “This man has no soul”, or “he is a soul” meaning he has something in him beyond a mere mind and body. But all that ...
Sri Aurobindo: “Psychic” in the sense in which it is used commonly by people has no deﬁnite meaning — it is applied to anything non-physical or supraphysical. In the language of our Yoga it refers always to the inner soul. Therefore the use of the words “psychic significance” is incorrect here.
Sri Aurobindo: One can say “occult signiﬁcance” or “symbolic signiﬁcance” or “inner signiﬁcance”. “Psychic significance” we can say only of experiences belonging to the psychic as opposed to the mental, vital and physical planes. It appears the Maharshi at the time supposed that by the psychic being I meant the enligh...
Sri Aurobindo: Even in India the old knowledge of the Upanishads in which they are distinguished has been lost. The Jivatman, psychic being ( ), the, the are all confused together. The is the soul, the portion of the Divine that is at the inmost basis of the evolving individual and supports the mind and life and bod...
Sri Aurobindo: The psychic being is the soul-form or soul-personality developing through this evolution and passing from life to life till all is ready for the higher evolution beyond the Ignorance. The psychic being is the Soul, the Purusha in the secret heart supporting by its presence the action of the mind, life...
Sri Aurobindo: It is realised as the true being of the individual, but also more widely as the in all and as the Self of the cosmos; it has also a self-existence above the individual and cosmos and it is then called the Paramatma, the supreme Divine Being. This distinction has nothing to do with the distinction between...
Sri Aurobindo: To do that is one of the principal aims of the Yoga. The vital should be an instrument of the consciousness, not its ruler. The vital being is not the I — the ego is mental, vital, physical. Ego implies the identiﬁcation of our existence with outer self, the ignorance of our true self above and our psyc...
Sri Aurobindo: On the surface in the Ignorance, it is the mental, vital, physical Prakriti that acts and the Purusha is disﬁgured, as it were, in the action of Prakriti. It is not our true mental being, our true vital being, our true physical being even that we are aware of; these remain behind, veiled and silent. It ...
Sri Aurobindo: It was also this that went out from the body at death and persisted — which again corresponds to our teaching that it is this which goes out and returns, linking new life to former life. Also we say that the psychic is the divine portion within us — so too the Purusha in the heart is described as Ishwara...
Sri Aurobindo: I do not know what is exactly meant by this phrase. It is too vague and limited for a description of the psychic. Antahkarana usually means the mind and vital as opposed to the body — the body being the outer instrument and the inner instrument of the soul. By psychic I mean something different from a pu...
Sri Aurobindo: Again it depends on what is meant by Ahambhava. But the psychic is not a “bhava”; it is a being, a Purusha. Ahambhava is a formation of Prakriti, it is not a being or a Purusha. Ahambhava can disappear and yet the Purusha will be there.
Sri Aurobindo: By liberated psychic being, I mean that it is no longer obliged to express itself under the conditions of the obscure and ignorant instruments, from behind a veil, but is able to come forward, control and change the action of mind and vital and body. Puriﬁed and perfected are not epithets that can proper...
Sri Aurobindo: The epithets I used for the psychic were “awakened and liberated”. Spiritual individuality is rather a vague term and might be variously interpreted. I have written about the psychic being that the psychic is the soul or spark of the Divine Fire supporting the individual evolution on the earth and the p...
Sri Aurobindo: The mental being spoken of by the Upanishad is not part of the mental nervous physical composite — it is the , the mental being leader of the life and body. It could not be so described if it were part of the composite. Nor can the composite or part of it be the Purusha, — for the composite is composed ...
Sri Aurobindo: But still the statement of the Upanishad gives only the apparent truth of the matter, valid for man and the human stage only — for in the animal it would be rather the that is the, leader of mind and body. Purusha Prakriti is the Kshara Purusha — standing back from it is the Akshara Purusha. Ego-sen...
Sri Aurobindo: The psychic being is especially the soul of the individual evolving in the manifestation the individual Prakriti and taking part in the evolution. It is that spark of the Divine Fire that grows behind the mind, vital and physical as the psychic being until it is able to transform the Prakriti of Ignoranc...
Sri Aurobindo: But it is quite possible to have a vital and physical being supported by such a soul essence but without a clearly evolved psychic being behind it. There is indeed an inner being composed of the inner mental, inner vital, inner physical, — but that is not the psychic being. The psychic is the inmost be...
Sri Aurobindo: But that does not mean that they are entirely isolated from the soul. The soul is in the body in the same way as the mind or vital — but the body is not this gross physical body only, but the subtle body also. When the gross body falls away, the vital and mental sheaths of the body still remain as the so...
Sri Aurobindo: The plant has only the vital-physical elements evolved in its form; the consciousness behind the form of the plant has no developed or organised mentality capable of expressing itself, — the animal takes a step farther; it has a vital mind and some extent of self-expression, but its consciousness is limi...
Sri Aurobindo: Next one passes in the mental sheath, to some mental world; but ﬁnally the soul leaves its mental sheath also and goes to its place of rest. If the mental is strongly developed, then the mental being can remain and so also can the strongly developed vital, provided they are organised by and centred aroun...
Sri Aurobindo: A distinction has to be made between the soul in its essence and the psychic being. Behind each and all there is the soul which is the spark of the Divine — none could exist without that. But it is quite possible to have a vital and physical being without a clearly evolved psychic being behind it.
Sri Aurobindo: Still, one cannot make general statements that no aboriginal has a soul or there is no display of soul anywhere. The inner being is composed of the inner mental, inner vital, inner physical, — but that is not the psychic being. The psychic is the inmost being and quite distinct from these. The word psyc...
Sri Aurobindo: In ordinary parlance we may sometimes use the word psychic in the looser popular sense or in poetry, which is not bound to intellectual accuracy, we may speak of the soul sometimes in the ordinary and more external sense or in the sense of the true psyche. The psychic being is veiled by the surface move...
Sri Aurobindo: The soul of a plant or an animal is not altogether dormant — only its means of expression are less developed than those of a human being. There is much that is psychic in the plant, much that is psychic in the animal. The plant has only the vitalphysical evolved in its form, so it cannot express itself; ...
Sri Aurobindo: It is either the man appearing in his vital body or it is a fragment of his vital that is seized on by some vital force or being. The vital part of us normally exists after the dissolution of the body for some time and passes away into the vital plane where it remains till the vital sheath dissolves. Aft...
Sri Aurobindo: There is the divine spark from the beginning, the soul, in all things, but it takes a long time and a long evolution for it to arrive at a conscious expression and form of manifested being — what we call the psychic being. The soul is described as a spark of the Divine Fire in life and matter, that...
Sri Aurobindo: It has not been described as a spark of consciousness. There is mental, vital, physical consciousness — different from the psychic. The psychic being and consciousness are not identical. When the soul or “spark of the Divine Fire” begins to develop a psychic individuality, that psychic individuality is...
Sri Aurobindo: The soul is something of the Divine that descends into the evolution as a divine Principle within it to support the evolution of the individual out of the Ignorance into the Light. It develops in the course of the evolution a psychic individual or soul individuality which grows from life to life, using t...
Sri Aurobindo: The soul is always pure, but the knowledge and force in it are involved and come out only as the psychic being evolves and grows stronger. The psychic being is the soul evolving in the course of birth and rebirth and the soul is a portion of the Divine — but with the soul there is always the veiled ...
Sri Aurobindo: The psychic being is the developing soul consciousness manifested for the created being as it evolves. At ﬁrst, the soul is something essential behind the veil, not developed in front. In front there is only the body, life, mind. In the evolution the soul consciousness develops more and more in the cre...
Sri Aurobindo: The difference [] is one of evolution. The psychic being is more developed in some, but the soul-principle is the same in all.
Sri Aurobindo: The soul and the psychic are the same — only as there is a vital being supported by the vital and expressing itself through it, so there is a growing psychic being supported on the psychic and expressing itself through the soul-nature. But, hang it all, the psychic is part of the human nature or of...
Sri Aurobindo: Formed souls enter only into formed organisms — in the protoplasm etc. it is only the spark of the Divine that is there, not the formed soul. As there is in us a mind which one does not see in form but is aware of and as there is at the same time a mental being which one can see in form, so there is ...
Sri Aurobindo: The soul is not limited by any form, but the psychic being puts out a form for its expression, just as the mental, vital and subtle physical Purushas do — that is to say, one can see or another person can see one’s psychic being in such and such a form. But this seeing is of two kinds — there is the st...
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, the psychic being has a form. But that does not appear from the photo []; for the psychic has not always or usually a form closely resembling that of the physical body, it is sometimes even quite different. When looking at the photo [ ] what is seen is not a form, but something of the consciousnes...
Sri Aurobindo: The psychic stands behind the being — a simple and sincere devotion to the Divine, single-hearted, an immediate sense of what is right and helps towards the Truth and the Divine, an instinctive withdrawal from all that is the opposite are its most visible characteristics. What you experience is the ﬁrst...
Sri Aurobindo: There is also in you behind the mind the being who observes, the witness Purusha, who can stand detached from the play of the nature, observing it and able to choose. It has to put itself always on the side of the psychic being and assent to and support its movements and to reject the downward and outwa...
Sri Aurobindo: The division is very usual, almost universal in human nature, and the following of the lower impulse in spite of the contrary will in the higher parts happens to almost everybody. It is the phenomenon noted by Arjuna in his question to Krishna, “Why does one do evil, even though one wishes not to do it, ...
Sri Aurobindo: In the ordinary consciousness in which the mind etc. are awakened, the psychic acts as well as it can through them, but according to the laws of the Ignorance. These things, love, compassion, kindness, bhakti, Ananda are the nature of the psychic being, because the psychic being is formed from the D...
Sri Aurobindo: But the lower parts are not yet accustomed to obey or value the inﬂuence and control of the psychic for in men the vital and physical are accustomed to act for themselves and do not care for what the soul wants. When they do care and obey the psychic, that is their conversion — they begin to put on thems...
Sri Aurobindo: It may be said of the psychic that it is that [ ], because the psychic is in touch with the Divine and a projection of the Divine into the lower nature. But the inner mind, vital and physical are a part of the universal and open to the dualities — only they are wider than the external mind, life and body...
Sri Aurobindo: The soul and the life are two quite different powers. The soul is a spark of the Divine Spirit which supports the individual nature; mind, life, body are the instruments for the manifestation of the nature. In most men the soul is hidden and covered over by the action of the external nature; they mistake...
Sri Aurobindo: We are concerned with the growth of the soul out of the Ignorance, not its plunge into it. The lower nature is the nature of the Ignorance, what we seek is to grow into the nature of the Truth. How do you make out that when the soul has looked towards the Truth and is moving towards it, a pull-back by...
Sri Aurobindo: If you like — but that is no part of my explanation of things; I make a clear distinction between the two, so I refuse to sanctify the revolt of the lower nature by calling it the sanction of the soul. If it is the soul that wants to fail, why is there any struggle or sorrow over the business? It would b...
Sri Aurobindo: It is that which survives the dissolution of the vital and physical sheaths and returns to birth again. The two feelings you have are that of two different personalities or parts in the being, one which has the feeling of service is in the vital, the other which has the feeling of the child and of th...
Sri Aurobindo: There is individuality in the psychic being but not egoism. Egoism goes when the individual unites himself with the Divine or is entirely surrendered to the Divine. It is the psychic inmost being that replaces the ego. It is through love and surrender to the Divine that the psychic being becomes stro...
Sri Aurobindo: There is a psychic world — a sort of Heaven of peace and beauty and harmony. It is also a place of rest for the soul between two incarnations in which it absorbs its past experiences and becomes ready for another birth. What you describe [ ] is what we mean by the psychic being in its own plane of ex...
Sri Aurobindo: The psychic stands behind the rest of the being supporting it with its own purity, truth and joy. What we speak of are planes of consciousness — the physical is the lowest, above it the ordinary vital, above it the emotional (heart), above it the mental, above the mental are other planes. There is a ps...
Sri Aurobindo: There are worlds of a larger subtler life than ours, vital worlds; worlds in which Mind builds its own forms and ﬁgures, mental worlds; psychic worlds which are the soul’s home; others above with which we have little contact. In each of us there is a mental plane of consciousness, a psychic, a vital, a s...
Sri Aurobindo: In each we see scenes, meet beings, share in happenings, come across formations, inﬂuences, suggestions which belong to these planes. Even when we are awake, part of us moves in these planes, but their activity goes on behind the veil; our waking minds are not aware of it. Dreams are often only incohere...
Sri Aurobindo: The vital world is on one side a world of beauty, — the poet, artist, musician are in close contact with it; it is also a world of powers and passions, lusts and desires, — our own lusts and desires, and passions and ambitions can put us into connection with the vital worlds and their forces and beings. ...
Sri Aurobindo: It is good that you were able to overcome the difﬁculty and have a good meditation. Your observation that the difﬁculty is only in the head and throat and mainly in the latter is very signiﬁcant. These are the mental centres and it is evident therefore that the difﬁculty comes from the physical mind. Th...
Sri Aurobindo: If it is quiet it is easier, as you have seen, for the whole being to be quiet. The last of the four experiences, that of the being within arranged in layers one under the other like the steps of a ladder, is also very signiﬁcant and very true. It is so that inner consciousness is arranged. There are ﬁv...
Sri Aurobindo: Below from the crown of the head to the throat are the layers (there are many of them) of the mind, the three principal being one at the top of the head communicating with the higher consciousness, another between the eyebrows where is the thought, sight and will, a third in the throat which is the exter...
Sri Aurobindo: When this opens, there is the opening of the inner mind consciousness through which the light of the higher can pour out — here it is the Mother’s white light that was pouring out through the opening. The lights you saw were the many lights (powers, forces full of light) of the higher consciousness, the...
Sri Aurobindo: If we regard the gradation of worlds or planes as a whole, we see them as a great connected complex movement; the higher precipitate their inﬂuences on the lower, the lower react to the higher and develop or manifest in themselves within their own formula something that corresponds to the superior power ...

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