Sri Aurobindo
Letters on Himself and the Ashram
The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo. Volume 35
His Life and Attempts to Write about It
The
Terminology of His Writings
Spiritual and Supramental [1]
Krishnaprem has always complained (and quite
naturally) that it was difficult to get the right meaning of the “technical
terms” used by you.... Of course a full expounding of the difference between
Spiritualisation and Supramentalisation would fatten into a volume, but is it
not possible just to indicate why the one is called partial transformation and
the other complete transformation? Also in what way the supramental
consciousness-force is not identical with the spiritual.
If spiritual and supramental were the same thing, then
all the sages and devotees and Yogis and sadhaks throughout the ages would have
been supramental beings and all I have written about the supermind would be so
much superfluous rubbish. Anybody who had spiritual experiences would then be a
supramental being; the Asram would be chock-full of supramental beings and every
other Asram in India also. As for writing about these things, I do not see the
utility. I have already two philosophical essays to write and I do not find them
writing themselves. If I start explaining the supramental, it would mean a book
of 200 pages at least and even then you would be no wiser than before — as
everything I wrote would probably be misinterpreted in the terms of mental
cognition. The supramental has to be realised, not explained; I therefore prefer
to leave it to explain or not explain itself when it is there and not waste my
time in explaining mentally the supramental. As to technical terms, I have
explained many times over in a way sufficient for those who practise this Yoga.
If I have to explain philosophically to others, I must write a few more volumes
of the Arya. I have no time just now.
I may say that spiritual experiences can fix themselves
in the inner consciousness and alter it, transform it, if you like, one can
realise the Divine everywhere, the Self, the universal Shakti 
doing all things, one can feel merged in the Cosmic Self or full of
ecstatic bhakti or Ananda, but that need not transform the instrumental being.
One can go on thinking with the intellect, willing with the mental will, feeling
joy and sorrow on the vital surface, undergoing physical afflictions etc. just
as before. The change only will be that the inner self will watch all that
without getting disturbed or bewildered, taking it as a part of nature. That is
not the transformation I envisage.
12 October 1935