Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume I - Part 2

Fragment ID: 10085

If the word vāsanā is used in the original [the Yogavasishtha], it does not mean “desire”. It means usually the idea or mental feeling rising from the chitta, imaginations, impressions, memories etc., impressions of liking and disliking, of pain and pleasure. What Vasishtha wants to say is that while the ideas, impressions, impulsions that lead to action in an ordinary man rise from the chitta, those that rise in the Jivanmukta come straight from the sattva – from the essential consciousness of the being – in other words they are not mental but spiritual formations. As one might say, instead of cittavṛtti they are sattvapreraṇā, direct indications from the inner being of what is to be thought, felt or done. When the chitta is no longer active and the mind silent – which happens when the mukti comes and no one can be Jivanmukta without that – then what remains and perceives and does things is felt as an essential consciousness, the consciousness of the true self or true being.