Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Second Series

Fragment ID: 20606

The psychic being is always there, but is not felt because it is covered up by the mind and vital; when it is no longer covered up, it is then said to be awake. When it is awake, it begins to take hold of the rest of the being, to influence it and change it so that all may become the true expression of the inner soul. It is this change that is called the inner conversion. There can be no conversion without the awakening of the psychic being,

It is not necessary that there should be any particular strong desire at the time of the experience. What you describe is the general experience that all the ordinary vital movements are foreign to the; true being and come from outside.

The desires come from outside, enter the subconscious vital and rise to the surface. It is only when they rise to the surface and the mind becomes aware of them, that people become conscious; of the desire. It seems to them to be their own because they feel it thus rising from the vital into the mind and do not know that it came from outside. What belongs to the vital is not the desire itself, but the habit of responding to the desires that come into it from universal Prakriti.