Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Correspondence (1933-1967)

Letter ID: 80

Sri Aurobindo — Nahar, Prithwi Singh

September 9, 1937

Mother,

Is the Bhuvarloka referred to in the Vedas and the Upanishads identical with the planetary world of the material universe? It is described as the world of the vital beings, and if it is identical, then it follows that some types of the vital beings can and do inhabit a material (planetary) world. But is that possible? The reverse of course is not, e.g. a material being cannot live in a non-material world. And I have also read in the «Conversations» that normally it is not possible for a vital being to establish any direct contact with a material body.

If it is not identical, then the Bhuvarloka or the mid-region may be said to exist in a different plane of consciousness organised on other than the material basis and related to the Bhurloka or the material Universe only psychologically like the Svarloka and the higher supra-physical non-material planes.

In that case, are the stars, planets, etc. that we see only huge aggregates of atoms harbouring no other life, scattered in inconceivably immense masses of material bodies and moving in the infinite spaces of the Universe? Or if they harbour some life, what kind of beings dwell there? Are they material on a differently organised basis of matter, other than the earth-type, or subtle physical or vital or another?

I should like very much Mother to know of these things and have my ideas cleared.

With deep devotion

Prithwi Singh

The bhuvarloka is not part of the material universe – it is the vital world that goes by that name. Dyuloka = mind world, bhuvarloka = vital world, bhūrloka = material world. Svarloka is the highest region of the dyuloka, but it came to be regarded as identical with it.

As for the other question, there is no reason to suppose that there is not life in any part of the material cosmic system except earth. No doubt the suns and nebulae cannot harbour material life because there is not the necessary basis, but wherever there is a formed world, Life can exist. It used formerly to be supposed that life could not exist except in conditions identical with the earth, but it is now being discovered that even man and the animals can adapt themselves to atmospheric conditions deficient in oxygen such as exist in the stratosphere – this proves that all depends on adaptation. There are animals that can exist only in the sea, yet sea-animals have become amphibious or turned into land animals – so animals on earth can by habit of the adaptation live only in a certain range of atmosphere and need oxygen, but they could adapt themselves to other conditions – it is a law of habit of Nature, not a law of inevitable necessity of Nature. It is therefore quite possible for life to exist on other planets in our and other systems, though the beings there may not be quite like earthly humanity or life quite the same.

Sri Aurobindo