Sri Aurobindo

Letters on Himself and the Ashram

The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo. Volume 35

His Life and Attempts to Write about It
On His Published Prose Writings

Passages from Yogic Sadhan [2]

In Yogic Sadhan, Sri Aurobindo has said: “You have so many milestones to pass; but you may pass them walking, in a carriage, in a railway train, but pass them you must” [p. 1378]. What are the main milestones on the Shakti marga?

Answer as {{0}}under.[[Written by Sri Aurobindo to his secretary, who replied to the correspondent. — Ed.]]

The Yogic Sadhan is not Sri Aurobindo’s writing — only communicated to him. The statement of the publishers that it contains the essence of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga is an error propagated by them against his own protest. He cannot therefore say what particular milestones were meant. It is true as a general rule, but can be partly cancelled by a concentrated movement.

I suppose there are different milestones on different paths?

Necessarily.

Again, while discussing the law of resistance, Sri Aurobindo says: “They [old rules, habits or tendencies] are supported by an army of forces or spiritual beings who surround you and live upon your experiences and enjoyments” [p. 1377]. What are these “spiritual beings”?

They are powers, forces or beings of the mental, vital or subtle physical worlds. There are some that simply want to utilise, there are others that want to possess, oppose or destroy and are known by us as “the hostile forces”.

14 April 1936