Patel, Govindbhai

My Pilgrimage to the Spirit

Letters

Fragment ID: 18789

(this fragment is largest or earliest found passage)

Sri Aurobindo — Patel, Govindbhai

April 13, 1932

April 13, 1932

There is no mention of “overmind” anywhere in the Arya. The experiences which I am passing through are similar to indications given in the last chapters of the Synthesis of Yoga, which are considered as the chapters on Supermind. The meaning given by you to my experiences says that they are “overmind experiences”. Then what to think of those chapters of the Arya? Can they be taken as overmind chapters?

At the time when these chapters were written, the name “overmind” had not been found; so, there is no mention of it. What is described in these chapters is the action of the Supermind when it descends into the overmind plane and takes up the overmind workings and transforms them. The highest Supermind or Divine Gnosis existent in itself is something that lies beyond still quiet above. It was intended in later chapters to show how difficult even this was and how many levels there were between human mind and Supermind; and how even Supermind, descending could get mixed with the lower action and turned into something that was less than the true truth. But these later chapters were not written.