Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
SABCL 26
Fragment ID: 7645
See largest or earliest found fragment here
Sri Aurobindo — Unknown addressee
November 4, 1946
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Sri Aurobindo has no remarks to make on Huxley’s
comments with which he is in entire agreement. But in the phrase “to its heights
we can always reach”, very obviously “we” does not refer to humanity in general
but to those who have a sufficiently developed inner spiritual life. It is
probable that Sri Aurobindo was thinking of his own experience. After three
years of spiritual effort with only minor results he was shown by a Yogi the way
to silence his mind. This he succeeded in doing entirely in two or three days by
following the method shown. There was an entire silence of thought and feeling
and all the ordinary movements of consciousness except the perception and
recognition of things around without any accompanying concept or other reaction.
The sense of ego disappeared and the movements of the ordinary life as well as
speech and action were carried on by some habitual activity of Prakriti alone
which was not felt as belonging to oneself. But the perception which remained
saw all things as utterly unreal; this sense of unreality was overwhelming and
universal. Only some undefinable Reality was perceived as true which was beyond
space and time and unconnected with any cosmic activity, but yet was met
wherever one turned. This condition remained unimpaired for several months and
even when the sense of unreality disappeared and there was a return to
participation in the world-consciousness, the inner peace and freedom which
resulted from this realisation remained permanently behind all surface movements
and the essence of the realisation itself was not lost. At the same time an
experience intervened: something else than himself took up his dynamic activity
and spoke and acted through him but without any personal thought or initiative.
What this was remained unknown until Sri Aurobindo came to realise the dynamic
side of the Brahman, the Ishwara and felt himself moved by that in all his
sadhana and action. These realisations and others which followed upon them, such
as that of the Self in all and all in the Self and all as the Self, the Divine
in all and all in the Divine, are the heights to which Sri Aurobindo refers and
to which he says we can always rise; for they presented to him no long or
obstinate difficulty. The only real difficulty which took decades of spiritual
effort to carry
out towards completeness was to apply the spiritual knowledge utterly to the world and to the surface psychological and outer life and to effect its transformation both on the higher levels of Nature and on the ordinary mental, vital and physical levels down to the subconscience and the basic Inconscience and up to the supreme Truth-Consciousness or Supermind in which alone the dynamic transformation could be entirely integral and absolute.
4-11-1946
1 SABCL, volume 22: work
Current publication:
Sri Aurobindo. On Himself // SABCL.- Volume 26. (≈ 35 vol. of CWSA)
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