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Integral Psychic Education
"These things, love, compassion, kindness, bhakti, Ananda are the nature of the psychic being, because the psychic being is formed from the Divine Consciousness, it is the divine part within you. 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 themselves the psychic or divine nature."
Sri Aurobindo
CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-122
"For the integral Yoga this method of Samadhi may seem to have the disadvantage that when it ceases, the thread is broken and the soul returns into the distraction and imperfection of the outward life, (return to three gunas) with only such an elevating effect upon that outer life as the general memory of these deeper experiences may produce. But this gulf, this break is not inevitable. In the first place, it is only in the untrained psychic being that the experiences of the trance are a blank to the waking mind; as it becomes the master of its Samadhi, it is able to pass without any gulf of oblivion from the inner to the outer waking. Secondly, when this has been once done, what is attained in the inner state, becomes easier to acquire by the waking consciousness and to turn into the normal experience, powers, mental status of the waking life (activation of waking trance). The subtle mind which is normally eclipsed by the insistence of the physical being, becomes powerful even in the waking state, until even there the enlarging man is able to live in his several subtle bodies as well as in his physical body, to be aware of them and in them, to use their senses, faculties, powers, to dwell in possession of supraphysical truth, consciousness and experience."
Sri Aurobindo
CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-525
Integral Psychic Education:
“Attracted to strange far-off shimmerings,
Led by the fluting of a distant Player
He sought his way amid life’s laughter and call” Savitri-192
“An Infant nursed on Nature’s covert breast,
An Infant playing in the magic woods,
Fluting to rapture by the spirit’s streams,
Awaits the hour when we shall turn to his call.” Savitri-169
“Although are witnessed there the joys of Time,
Pressed on the bosom the Immortal’s touch is felt,
Heard are the flutings of the Infinite.” Savitri-279
“It seemed the yearning of a lonely flute
That roamed along the shores of memory
And filled the eyes with tears of longing joy.” Savitri-290
“High-fluting with the coil’s happy voice,
His peacock turban trailing on the trees;
His breath was a warm summons to delight,
The dense voluptuous azure was his gaze.” Savitri-352
“What feet of gods, what ravishing flutes of heaven
Have thrilled high melodies round, from near and far” Savitri-419
“An adoration reigned in the yearning heart,
A spirit of purity, an elusive presence
Of faery beauty and ungrasped delight
Whose momentary and escaping thrill,
However unsubstantial to our flesh,
And brief even in imperishableness,
Much sweeter seemed than any rapture known
Earth or all-conquering heaven can ever give.” Savitri-603
“His bliss laughs to us or it calls concealed
Like a far-heard unseen entrancing flute
From moonlit branches in the throbbing woods,
Tempting our angry search and passionate pain.
Disguised the Lover seeks and draws our souls.” Savitri-614
“O subtle-souled musician of the years,
Play out what thou hast fluted on my stops;
Arise from the strain their first wild plaint divined
And that discover which is yet unsung.” Savitri-687
“Pursuing her in her fall, implacably sweet,
A face was over her which seemed a youth’s,
Symbol of all the beauty eyes see not,
Crowned as with peacock plumes of gorgeous hue
Framing a sapphire, whose heart-disturbing smile
Insatiably attracted to delight,
Voluptuous to the embraces of her soul.” Savitri-711
“The soul may dwell in the principle of infinite unity of self-existence and be aware of all consciousness, energy, delight, knowledge, will, activity as conscious form of this essential truth, Sat or Satya. It (Psychic being) may dwell in the principle of infinite conscious energy, Tapas, and be aware of it unrolling out of self-existence the works of knowledge, will and dynamic soul-action for the enjoyment of an infinite delight of the being. It may dwell in the principle of infinite self-existent delight and be aware of the divine Ananda creating out of its self-existence by its energy whatever harmony of being. In these three poises the consciousness of unity dominates; the soul lives in its awareness of eternity, universality, unity, and whatever diversity there is, is not separative, but only a multitudinous aspect of oneness.”⁹
Sri Aurobindo
"It is only love that can understand and get at the secrets of the Divine Working. The mind, the physical mind especially, is incapable of seeing correctly and yet it always wants to judge. It is only a true, sincere humility in the mind, allowing the psychic to rule the being, that can save human beings from ignorance and obscurity."¹²
The Mother
Psychic education draws one towards the immortal life, ‘a higher realisation upon earth,’¹⁰ ever progressive change, unbroken continuity in the world of forms, meets the Immanent God dwelling in each form and it turns always towards Truth, Good and Beauty. It is conscious of rasa of things and takes equal delight to all contacts. Their opposite experiences of pleasure, pain and indifference gather strength and grow by them and are necessary part of experience, but have to be outgrown in the Spiritual increase of the being.
(Janmastami & Nanda Utsaba at Sri Matriniketan Ashram)
(“The Blessed Lord said to Arjuna, the Divine, Ishwara, is seated in the heart of all beings, turning all beings mounted upon a machine by His Maya.” The Gita-18.61)
(“God has so arranged life that the world is the soul’s husband; Krishna its divine paramour. We owe a debt of service to the world and are bound to it by a law, a compelling opinion, and a common experience of pain and pleasure, but our heart’s worship and our free and secret joy are for our Lover.”¹¹ Sri Aurobindo)
The inner soul in man, the Psychic being, Kshara Purusha, is a partial manifestation of the Divine, mamaivamsah, who is itself mutable, kshara, everlasting, sanatanah, the Lord, Ishwara, the luminous inhabitant in human body, manusim tanumasritam, and simultaneously the giver of sanction, anumanta of all the action of the three gunas within the boundary of Ignorance, missioned to lead man in Ignorance towards light of Divine Consciousness. Its operation in the ignorance is different from Akshara Purusha, the Spiritual being and Uttama Purusha, the Supramental Being, though it is having manifold deep relations with them. The Kshara Purusha, associating itself with the works of Prakriti, seems to be the doer of all works, karta, whereas Akshara Purusha, dissociating itself from all the workings of the gunas is the inactive non-doer, akarta and witness. In Purushottama, these two states, the action of the Soul and its mutability and the status of the immutability of the Spirit actually coexist. The Purushottama puts forth his own active nature, svam prakrtim, manifest in the jiva and works out its own innate Divine nature, svabhava, in addition to its egoistic action, bewildered by the three gunas.
Initially the Gita has identified the double soul in man (The Gita-6-5, 6); one that of the surface desire soul carrying in its nature the apparent nature of lower instincts, emotions, the mental seeking for power, knowledge and happiness and the other behind it that of the true Soul, the Psychic being which is a living light that illumines. We are aware of a guide within that knows the truth, the good,¹ the pure power of light, the true delight and beauty of existence, when body, heart and intellect take their true place as instrument and lead our life and being towards Spiritual completeness. The desire soul’s wrong approach and reception towards life deforms the pure joy into pleasure, pain and indifference. True Soul is the imperishable, evolves in us from birth to birth and untouched by death, decay and corruption. It is actually the Psychic sheath that grows from birth to birth by entering the essence of all experience of the Psychic self in the Ignorance. A mastery of senses, the ability to do without all that they hanker after, is the initial condition of the true Soul education. True Soul is a witness who discerns within the obscure working of Ignorance; it is a will that refuses to be misled by the mind’s error, the heart’s response towards wrong call, the turbid falsehood of our vital nature and its dark self-seeking.
“Even as her body, such is she within.
Heaven’s lustrous mornings gloriously recur,
Like drops of fire upon a silver page,
In her young spirit yet untouched with tears.
All beautiful things eternal seem and new
To virgin wonder in her crystal soul.” Savitri-422
“He dwelt in his self’s colourless purity” Savitri-297
“Wisdom transcendent touched his quivering heart:” Savitri-33
“The All-Blissful sat unknown within the heart” Savitri-43
“But the soul grows concealed within its house;
It gives to the body its strength and magnificence;
It follows aims in an ignorant aimless world,
It lends significance to earth’s meaningless life.” Savitri-658-59
The fundamental Psychic⁸ experience in us has the delight of all-life and progressive manifestation of the Spirit and gathers out of all contacts and happenings their secret Divine sense and essence. Thus, our mind and life can grow out of the Inconscience and the divisions of Ignorance towards supreme Consciousness and Knowledge.
In the book-7, Canto-5 of Savitri book, Savitri discovered her Psychic being⁷ through Tantric Method of Yoga and not the Vedantic self-discipline. This Tantric method is safe for Developed Soul but not so safe for developing Souls. Because the desire Soul surrounding the Psychic Being is not easy to overcome but rather it invites Spiritual fall. In Vedantic method, first the Spiritual being opens and by its pressure or descent, the Psychic being opens and this Self-discipline is rather safe for developing Souls and without any possibility of Spiritual fall.
In this Canto, Savitri’s Psychic⁶ being not only opens but the Psychic being is Spiritualised and Supramentalised. It means mediatrix Spiritual Mother and Creatrix Supramental Mother, consented to live permanently in Savitri’s Psychic heart centre, thus the Psychic being is identified as an important centre for individual and world Transformation.
“Here in this chamber of flame and light they met; (Psychic and Spiritual being met)
They looked upon each other, knew themselves,
The secret deity (Spiritual being) and its human part (Psychic being),
The calm immortal (Spiritual being) and the struggling soul (Psychic being).
Then with a magic transformation’s speed
They rushed into each other and grew one.” Savitri-527
(This is the experience of Spiritualisation of Psychic being.) (By this experience the Spiritual Mother consented to live in Savitri's Psychic heart centre.)
“In its deep lotus home her being sat
As if on concentration’s marble seat,
Calling the mighty Mother of the worlds
To make this earthly tenement her house.” Savitri-528 (The Mighty Supramental Mother stationed permanently in the Savitri’s Psychic heart Centre.)
So Savitri book proposes that if a Sadhaka has realised the Psychic⁵ being and his consciousness learns the lesson to live in waking trance, then through the movement of Consciousness, he can Spiritualise and Supramentalise the Psychic being, then he can save himself, the collectivity and the world. But to realise this perfection is a long process of time.
This Canto gives the input, that if the Psychic Being⁴ opens, then this heart Centre acts as a Fortress of Truth and Virginity, surrounded with a large world of Ignorance and from this Divine Centre the Overhead truth and purity pours into world Falsehood and world perversion, thus one extends help to illumine the world and this is further universalised as ‘the little strength we have to help our race.’ (Savitri-527)
“O soul, my soul, we have created Heaven,
Within we have found the kingdom here of God,
His fortress built in a loud ignorant world.” Savitri-531
This Canto also informs us that with the Psychic³ realisation of Savitri, the Gods and Goddess of the Overmental world preferred to live with her. Similar experience we also observe with King Aswapati:
"In the slow process of the evolving spirit,
In the brief stade between a death and birth
A first perfection’s stage is reached (by Savitri) at last;
Out of the wood and stone of our nature’s stuff
A temple is shaped where the high gods could live.
Even if the struggling world is left outside
One man’s perfection still can save the world.” Savitri-531
(King Aswapati’s experience)
“In an outburst of heavenly joy and ease
Life yields to the divinity within
And gives the rapture-offering of its all,
And the soul opens to felicity.
A bliss is felt that never can wholly cease,
A sudden mystery of secret Grace
Flowers goldening our earth of red desire.
All the high gods who hid their visages
From the soiled passionate ritual of our hopes,
Reveal their names and their undying powers.” Savitri-278
If ‘the inner doors are flung sufficiently open, the light from the sanctuary can suffuse the nearest and the farthest chambers of the outer being. The necessary turn or change can also be brought about by an occult descent of the spiritual force from above, in which the influx, the influence, the spiritual consequence is felt, but the higher source is unknown and the actual feeling of a descent is not there.’² This Canto also hints at the Psychic transformation of Savitri’s untransformed Nature. They are:
“And all emotions gave themselves to God.” Savitri-529
“Its proud ambitions and its master lusts
Were tamed into instruments of a great calm sway
To do a work of God on earthly soil.” Savitri-530
“Its childish game of daily dwarf desires
Was changed into a sweet and boisterous play,” Savitri-530
“Then sin and virtue leave the cosmic lists;” Savitri-531
OM TAT SAT
References:
1: “The subconscient is not the whole foundation of our nature; it is only the lower basis of the Ignorance and governs mostly the lower vital and physical exterior consciousness and these again affect the higher parts of the nature. While it is necessary to see what it is and how it acts, one must not be too preoccupied with this dark side or this apparent aspect of the instrumental being. One should rather regard it as something not oneself, a mask of false nature imposed on the true being by the Ignorance. The true being is the inner with all its vast possibilities of reaching and expressing the Divine and especially the inmost, the soul, the psychic Purusha which is always in its essence pure, divine, turned to all that is good and true and beautiful. The exterior being has to be taken hold of by the inner being and turned into an instrument no longer of the upsurgings of the ignorant subconscient Nature, but of the Divine. It is by remembering always that and opening the nature upwards that the Divine Consciousness can be reached and descend from above into the whole inner and outer existence, mental, vital, physical, the subconscient, the subliminal, all that we overtly or secretly are. This should be the main preoccupation. To dwell solely on the subconscient and the aspect of imperfection creates depression and should be avoided. One has to keep a right balance and stress on the positive side most, recognising the other but only to reject and change it. This and a constant faith and reliance on the Mother are what is needed for the transformation to come.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-217-218,
2: “It is indeed from these higher sources that the secret spiritual Power acts upon the being and by its pressure brings about the psychic transformation or the spiritual change; but in the early stages of our growth this action is not apparent, it remains occult and unseizable. At first what is necessary is that the pure touch of the spiritual force must intervene in mental nature: that awakening pressure must stamp itself upon mind and heart and life and give them their upward orientation; a subtle light or a great transmuting power must purify, refine and uplift their motions and suffuse them with a higher consciousness that does not belong to their own normal capacity and character. This can be done from within by an invisible action through the psychic entity and the psychic personality; a consciously felt descent from above is not indispensable. The presence of the spirit is there in every living being, on every level, in all things, and because it is there, the experience of Sachchidananda, of the pure spiritual existence and consciousness, of the delight of a divine presence, closeness, contact can be acquired through the mind or the heart or the life-sense or even through the physical consciousness; if the inner doors are flung sufficiently open, the light from the sanctuary can suffuse the nearest and the farthest chambers of the outer being. The necessary turn or change can also be brought about by an occult descent of the spiritual force from above, in which the influx, the influence, the spiritual consequence is felt, but the higher source is unknown and the actual feeling of a descent is not there.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-967-968
3: “The central being — the Jivatman which is not born nor evolves, but presides over the individual birth and evolution puts forward a representative of himself on each plane of the consciousness. On the mental plane it is the true mental being, manomaya purusa, on the vital plane the true vital being, pranamaya purusa, on the physical plane the true physical being, annamaya purusa. Each being therefore is, so long as the Ignorance lasts, centred round his mental, vital or physical Purusha, according to the plane on which he predominantly lives, and that is to him his central being. But the true representative all the time is concealed behind the mind, vital and physical — it is the psychic, our inmost being… When the inmost knowledge begins to come, we become aware of the psychic being within us and it comes forward and leads the sadhana. We become aware also of the Jivatman, the individual Self or Spirit above the manifestation of which the psychic is the representative here.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-59,
4: “The central being is above the Adhara — most people are not aware of their central being (Jivatma) — they are aware only of the ego.
The psychic is the soul — it is a portion of the Divine that supports the mind, life and body in the evolution. The psychic gets the Divine’s help directly from the Divine.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga/p-60
5: “The central being is that which is not born, does not evolve, but presides over all the individual manifestation. The psychic is its projection here — for the psychic being is in the evolution and from within supports our whole evolution; it receives the essence of all experience and by that develops the personality Godward.
The Self is at once one in all and many — one in its essence, it manifests also as the individual self which may be described as in Nature an eternal portion of the Divine; in spirit a centre of the manifestation, individual but extending into universality and rising into transcendence.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga/p-60
6: It is the central being above the evolution (always the same) that we call the Jivatma — the psychic being is the same in the evolution, it is the spark of the Divine there growing into its full divinity as a portion of the Divine.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga/p-60
7: “The central being and the soul are both in different ways portions of the Divine. They are in fact two aspects of the same entity, but one is unevolving above Nature, the other evolves a psychic being in Nature.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga/p-60-61
8: “The phrase “central being” in our Yoga is usually applied to the portion of the Divine in us which supports all the rest and survives through death and birth. This central being has two forms — above, it is the Jivatman, our true being, of which we become aware when the higher self-knowledge comes, — below, it is the psychic being which stands behind mind, body and life. The Jivatman is above the manifestation in life and presides over it; the psychic being stands behind the manifestation in life and supports it…The natural attitude of the psychic being is to feel itself as the child, the son of God, the Bhakta; it is a portion of the Divine, one in essence, but in the dynamics of the manifestation there is always even in identity a difference. The Jivatman, on the contrary, lives in the essence and can merge itself in identity with the Divine; but it too, the moment it presides over the dynamics of the manifestation, knows itself as one centre of the multiple Divine, not as the Parameshwara. It is important to remember this distinction; for, otherwise, if there is the least vital egoism, one may begin to think of oneself as an Avatara…” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga/p-61, “Caitya purusa means rather the Purusha in the cit, the fundamental (inner) consciousness…Jiva is the fundamental, or as we call it, the central being. But the fundamental being is not combined of the mental, vital, psychic etc., these are only expressions of the Jivatman; the Jivatman itself is self-existent in the Divine; essential in its being, it cannot be regarded as a combination of things.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga/p-62, “The nascent spiritual man makes his appearance in the emotional nature as the devotee, the bhakta; if, in addition, he becomes directly aware of his soul and its dictates, unites his emotional with his psychic personality and changes his life and vital parts by purity, God-ecstasy, the love of God and men and all creatures into a thing of spiritual beauty, full of divine light and good, he develops into the saint and reaches the highest inner experience and most considerable change of nature proper to this way of approach to the Divine Being. But for the purpose of an integral transformation this too is not enough; there must be a transmutation of the thinking mind and all the vital and physical parts of consciousness in their own character.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-936, “It is only through these decisive movements that the true character of the evolution becomes evident; for till then there are only preparatory movements, a pressure of the psychic Entity on the mind, life and body to develop a true soul action, a pressure of the spirit or self for liberation from the ego, from the surface ignorance, a turning of the mind and life towards some occult Reality, — preliminary experiences, partial formulations of a spiritualised mind, a spiritualised life, but no complete change, no probability of an entire unveiling of the soul or self or a radical transformation of the nature.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-887, “It is evident that if we can live thus deeper within and put out steadily the inner forces into the outer instrumentation or raise ourselves to dwell on higher and wider levels and bring their powers to bear on physical existence, not merely receive influences descending from them, which is all we can now do, there could begin a heightening of our force of conscious being so as to create a new principle of consciousness, a new range of activities, new values for all things, a widening of our consciousness and life, a taking up and transformation of the lower grades of our existence, — in brief, the whole evolutionary process by which the Spirit in Nature creates a higher type of being.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-751,
9: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-629,
10: “Because the two are usually confused under the general term of “yogic discipline”, although the goals they aim at are very different: for one it (Psychic Being) is a higher realisation upon earth, for the other (Spiritual Being) an escape from all earthly manifestation, even from the whole universe, a return to the unmanifest.” TMCW-12/On Education/p-35, (In integral Yoga Psychic is given more importance than the Spiritual being, because of the escapist tendency of the latter.)
11: Sri Aurobindo/TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-340,
12: The Mother/(TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-343),
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"There's such a wonderful passage in The Synthesis of Yoga ("The Yoga of Self-Perfection"), where he (Sri Aurobindo) mentions four things (you surely remember this), four things the disciple needs (I have just translated it). I knew this, of course, but the passage is especially timely now – particularly after that last experience, which is a jolt for a physical being. The fourth thing is wonderful. The first three we know: equality, peace and (a hard one) a spiritual ease in all circumstances. He added the word "spiritual" so people wouldn't think only of material ease – it's an ease in feelings, in sensations, in everything. But when you have a lot of pain it's obviously not so easy! When physical pain keeps you from sleeping and eating, when you are plagued by constant physical pain – or rather by a whole host of physical pains! – well, that bodily "ease" becomes difficult. It's the one thing that has seemed difficult to me; but anyway, it's being investigated – I think it was sent for me to investigate... But the last thing he mentions is a marvel – the joy and laughter of the soul. And it's so true, so true! Always, all the time, no matter what happens, even when this body is in dreadful pain, the soul is laughing joyously within. Always, always, always."
The Mother
The Mother's Agenda/May 22, 1962
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