Sri Aurobindo

Letters on Himself and the Ashram

The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo. Volume 35

Sadhana in the Ashram

Realisations by Sadhaks [1]

I have all but made up my mind to give up the sadhana. I find it very humiliating to be reminded every month that I am far from the cosmic consciousness. In the midst of all my troubles, I have lost faith. Do you think it is of any use to keep me here?

When you have got out of this attack, you will yourself recognise the emptiness of such a question. You have the Yogic capacity in you as your experiences show and it is not by going away from here that you will develop it.

I do not understand why it should be insulting to speak always of the cosmic consciousness and the necessity of its settling down. I mean by it the living in the sense of the cosmic Self and the experience of the cosmic forces. A certain number here have contact with that, very few have it as a constant realisation, none have it perfected and fixed in all their being. As for going above it there are grades in the cosmic consciousness and one can go above the cosmic mental and rise as far as the overmind. But that also is still the cosmic consciousness.

15 September 1934