Sri Aurobindo
Letters on Himself and the Ashram
The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo. Volume 35
The Supramental Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths
Indian Systems and the Cabbala
I do not think exact correlations can always be traced
between one system of spiritual and occult knowledge and another. All deal with
the same material, but there are differences of standpoint, differences of
view-range, a divergence in the mental idea of what is seen and experienced,
disparate pragmatic purposes and therefore a difference in the paths surveyed,
cut out or followed; the systems vary, each constructs its own schema and
technique. I have looked at the diagrams you sent me; I do not know whether I
have grasped them rightly and many of the details are not clear to me. I suppose
however that the three supernals are at the top, that the two below them (led to
by Justice and Prudence from the psychic centre) are mind-planes or
mind-centres, that Tiphareth in the middle is the psychic, the three between it
and the earth are vital planes. In the absence of precise information I cannot
carry the correlation farther.
Now as to the three Supernals. I do not quite
understand L.O.E.’s sentence about them — for she speaks of two only, the real
and higher man and the separated man. Should I understand that these are the two
on either side and that at the top is the Divine? If not, which are they and
what is the third? In the ancient Indian system there is only one triune
supernal, Sachchidananda. Or if you speak of the upper hemisphere as the
supernal, there are three, Sat plane, Chit plane and Ananda plane. The Supermind
could be added as a fourth, as it draws upon the other three and belongs to the
upper hemisphere. The Indian systems did not distinguish between the Overmind
and the Supermind, which is the reason why they got confused about Maya
(Overmind-Force), took it for the supreme creative power and lost the secret of
the transformation — although the Vaishnava and Tantra Yogas groped to find it
again and were 
sometimes on the verge of
success. For the rest, this, I think, has been the stumbling-block of all
attempts at the discovery of the dynamic divine Truth; I know of none that has
not imagined, as soon as it felt the Overmind lustres descending, that this was
the true illumination, the gnosis — with the result that they either stopped
short there and could get no farther, or else concluded that this too was only
Maya or Lila and that the one thing to do was to get beyond it into the Supreme.
Again, what may be meant is rather the three
fundamentals of the present manifestation. In the Indian system, these are
Ishwara, Shakti and Jiva, or else Sachchidananda, Maya and Jiva. But in our
system which seeks to go beyond the present manifestation, these could very well
be taken for granted and, looked at from the point of view of the planes of
consciousness, the three highest — Ananda (with Sat and Chit resting upon it),
Supermind and Overmind might be called the three Supernals. My difficulty in
correlating them with the three Cabbalistic supernals is twofold. First, white
may very well be the symbolic hue of Sachchidananda, but black and grey have no
suitability for the two others; the symbol hue of Supermind is gold, and
Overmind, which is in contact with Supermind, has an iridescent brilliance which
is anything but grey. Unless we are to understand it like the Christian mystics
of the negative path (see the Christa Seva Sangha journal) to whom the Divine is
a supreme Darkness and the plane of consciousness through which he is reached a
supreme Ignorance! Then again, here the Supermind and Overmind would be parallel
worlds (?), but in fact these two are one above, one below the other, and you
have to pass through and beyond Overmind, if you would reach Supermind, while
still above and beyond Supermind are the worlds of Sachchidananda.
Tiphareth is certainly the psychic, not the emotional
only. It is central, (in our system the psychic stands behind the others,
supporting them from behind the heart-centre); it is also in direct connection
with all except the earth-centre (in ours it is not quite so, but still in the
earth consciousness the psychic is so covered with the darkened vital that to
get to it from the outer physical consciousness you have usually to make your
way through the 
covering vital). All this makes
it pretty clear that Tiphareth is either the psychic or else the psychic + the
emotional plane or centre.
You speak of the flaming sword and the gulf below the
Overmind. But is there a gulf — or any other gulf than human unconsciousness? In
all the series of the planes or grades of consciousness there is nowhere any
real gulf, always there are connecting gradations and one can ascend from step
to step. Between the Overmind and the human mind there are a number of more and
more luminous gradations; but, as these are superconscient to human mind (except
one or two of the lowest of which it gets some direct touches) it is apt to
regard them as a superior Inconscience. So one of the Upanishads speaks of the
Ishwara consciousness as suṣupta, deep Sleep, because
it is only in Samadhi that man usually enters into it, so long as he does not
try to turn his waking consciousness into a higher state.
Finally, I may observe that the Cabbala system seems to
look at and describe the whole from a certain spiritual-mental or
spiritual-psychic view from below the supernals. This is quite natural so long
as we live in the human centres. There are two systems, one concentric with the
psychic at the centre; another vertical, an ascension and descent, like a flight
of steps, a series of superimposed planes with the Supermind + Overmind as the
crucial nodus of the transition beyond the human into the Divine. In our system
there are not multiple paths of interconnection, or rather there are, but these
are a subsidiary and not the central knowledge. For us there is one way, one
path; first, a conversion inwards, a going within to find the inmost psychic
being and bring it out to the front, disclosing at the same time the inner mind,
inner vital, inner physical parts of the nature; next, an ascension, a series of
conversions upwards and a turning down to convert the lower parts. When one has
made the inward conversion, one psychicises the whole lower nature so as to make
it ready for the divine change. Going upwards, one passes beyond the human mind
and at each stage of the ascent there is a conversion into a new consciousness
and an infusion of this new consciousness into the whole of the nature. 
Thus rising beyond intellect through illuminated higher mind to the
intuitive consciousness, we begin to look at everything not from the intellect
range or through intellect as an instrument, but from a greater intuitive height
and through an intuitivised will, feeling, emotion, sensation and physical
contact. So, proceeding from intuition to a greater overmind height, there is a
new conversion and we look at and experience everything from the overmind
consciousness and through a mind, heart, vital and body surcharged with the
overmind thought, sight, will, feeling, sensation, play of force and contact.
And the last conversion is the supramental, for once there, once the nature is
supramentalised, we are beyond the Ignorance and conversion of consciousness is
no longer needed, though a farther divine progression is still possible.
15 April 1931