Some people have looked down upon the sadhaks here, saying that they would count for nothing in the world outside.
Nirodbaran
Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo
Second Series
1. Spirituality
Brahman Consciousness
Some people have looked down upon the sadhaks here, saying that they would count for nothing in the world outside.
The quality of the sadhaks is so low? I should say there is a considerable amount of ability and capacity in the Ashram. Only the standard demanded is higher than outside even in spiritual matters. There are half a dozen people here perhaps who live in the Brahman consciousness – outside they would make a big noise and be considered as great Yogis – here their condition is not known and in the Yoga it is regarded not as Siddhi but only as a beginning.
Is the Brahman consciousness an ideal condition for receiving the supramental descent?
It is a necessary condition.
I don't suppose it is the same as the realisation of the Self everywhere in everything. Is that realisation the height achieved here?
Of course not, the realisation of the Self as all and the Divine as all is only the first step.
The next step is to get into contact with the higher 
planes above spiritual mind – for as soon as one gets into the spiritual Mind or Higher Mind, this realisation is possible.
Is the realisation of the Self a state of perpetual peace, joy, bliss, etc.?
If it is thoroughly established it is one of internal peace, freedom, wideness in the inner being.
Is it a state surpassing all struggles, dualities, depressions, etc.?
All these things you mention become incidents in the external being, on the surface, but the inner being remains untouched by them.
Are all troubles of the lower nature conquered – especially sex?
No, sir, but the inner being is not touched.
Is there any danger of a fall from this state?
It may be covered up in a way – so long as it is not established in all parts of the being. The old Yogas did not consider that necessary, because they wanted to walk off, not to change the being.
Why do you call it a beginning only? What more do you want to do except physical transformation?
I want to effect the transformation of the whole nature (not only of the physical), that is why.
Could you whisper to me the names of a few of those lucky fellows who are enjoying the Brahman consciousness here, so that I may have a practical knowledge of what the blessed thing is like?
NO, SIR.
How can you have a practical knowledge of it by knowing who has it? You might just as well expect to have a practical knowledge of high mathematics by knowing that Einstein is a great mathematician. Queer ideas you have!
Will you make it clear to me what exactly the Brahman consciousness is?
Eternal Jehovah! You don't even know what Brahman is! You will next be asking me what Yoga is or what life is or what body is or what mind is or what sadhana is! No, sir, I am not prepared to teach an infant class the A.B.C. of the elementary conceptions which are the basis of Yoga. There is Amal who doesn't know what consciousness is, even!
Brahman, sir, is the name given by Indian philosophy since the beginning of Time to the one Reality, eternal and infinite which is the Self, the Divine, the All, the more than All, which would remain even if you and everybody and everything else in existence or imagining itself to be in existence vanished into blazes – even if the whole universe disappeared, Brahman would be safely there and nothing whatever lost. In fact, sir, you are Brahman and you are pretending to be Nirod; when Nishikanta is translating Amal's poetry into Bengali, it is really Brahman translating Brahman's Brahman into Brahman. When Amal asks me what consciousness is, it is really Brahman asking Brahman what Brahman is. There, sir, I hope you are satisfied now.
To be less drastic and refrain from making your head reel till it goes off your shoulders I may say that realisation of the Self is the beginning of Brahman realisation – the Brahman consciousness – the Self in all and all in the Self etc. It is the basis of the spiritual realisation and therefore of the Spiritual transformation; but one has to see it in all sorts of aspects and applications first and that I refuse to grant.1 If you want to know you have to read the Arya.
18.07.1937
1 Last three words tentative reading. (Ed.)