Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Correspondence (1933-1967)

Letter ID: 49

Sri Aurobindo — Nahar, Prithwi Singh

September 8, 1936

Mother,

In his autobiography Jawaharlal [Nehru] has written, «I dreamt of astral bodies and imagined myself flying vast distances. This dream of flying high up in the air (without any appliance) has indeed been a frequent one throughout my life; and sometimes it has been vivid and realistic and the country-side seemed to lie underneath me in a vast panorama.»

Curiously enough in my childhood days I too had this dream very frequently and with no less vividness. The impression was so strong even after waking that I often used to think I could jump from the housetop without the least harm to myself easily alighting on the ground. Only something prevented me from actually making the attempt. Often I used to dream that I was flying through space, through waves of sea having the colour of lightning, but rarely if at all I saw any beings. Of other details my memory is not clear now.

Does this kind of dream indicate anything? If so, I should, like Jawaharlal Nehru, like to know it very much, Mother.

With deep devotion

Prithwisingh

A great many people have these dreams. It is the vital being that goes out in sleep and moves about in the vital worlds and has this sense of floating in the air in its own (vital) body. The waves of sea having the colour of lightning must have been the atmosphere of some vital province. I have known of some sadhaks when they go at first out of the body in a more conscious way thinking they have actually levitated, the vividness of the movement is so intense, but it is simply the vital body going out.

Sri Aurobindo