Sri Aurobindo

Letters on Himself and the Ashram

The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo. Volume 35

Sadhana in the Ashram

The Supramental Evolution, the Ashram and the Hostile Forces [9]

A natural unfolding of the consciousness in manifestation from an involved state is quite a beautiful phenomenon.

No doubt — but when the evolution had to express the possibilities of an emergence from the Inconscience, it was not easy to materialise a flawless unfolding — since out of Inconscience came Ignorance and Ignorance is easily a field of deviation and error.

Probably you spoke of a psychological evolution whereas Darwin spoke of the evolution of the physical species.

Quite so. Many centuries before Darwin Puranic and Tantric writers spoke very explicitly of an evolution of the soul’s birth through the vegetable and animal to man.

Psychic innocence is psychic existence in the eight planes of consciousness, manifestly.

Innocence has two meanings — sinlessness and ignorance. The psychic innocence is not an ignorant condition.

An ordinary vital being or a hostile vital being driven into the Asrama atmosphere by some presence from above or otherwise may at any time open to its own world and source in its darker aspects and then become the cause of much disturbance in the sadhana.

That does not apply to a converted Asura. The others are not driven — wherever sadhana is going on, they come to disturb it — a fact known to the Yogis and Rishis from early times.

Forced opening by a vital or a hostile force means a forced opening and entering of the same force in our mental, vital, physical body.

If you mean an invasion of the consciousness by a hostile force, that happens — but it cannot succeed unless something in the sadhaka either welcomes the invasion or is somehow attracted or won over or somehow responds. As for the ordinary attack not amounting to an opening, that nobody escapes.

In your reply of 4 January, you wrote: “That is an ignorant and incorrect statement of our sadhana” [p. 649]. Could you please clarify this?

I said that was an incorrect statement of my sadhana. I did not start by ascension to the supermind — I fought out the difficulties of the mind and vital first in such a way as to make it possible for not only the higher mind but the intuition and overmind to descend. The supermind comes last of all.

16 January 1934