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object:4.4.3.03 - Preparatory Experiences and Descent
book class:Letters On Yoga III
author class:Sri Aurobindo
class:chapter

The illumination above the head as usually seen in this Yoga is
the Light of the Divine Truth. It is above the head that there is
perpetually the Divine Peace, Force, Light, Knowledge, Ananda.
These begin to descend into the body when the personal consciousness is prepared sufficiently. The preparation is usually full
of vicissitudes such as these [illness, sleeplessness, an inability to
concentrate] but one has to persist patiently, opening oneself
more and more till that is ready.
*

The Descent of the Higher Consciousness and Force 443
Why should it [a sense of purity in the being] be an imagination?
When the higher consciousness touches it creates so long as it
is there an essential purity in which all parts of the being can
share. Or, even if the exterior being does not share actively in
it, it may fall quiescent so that there is nothing to interfere with
the whole inner being realising the truth of a certain experience.
The state does not last because it is only a preparatory touch,
not the full or permanent descent; but while it is there it is real.
The sex-sensation is of course the thing in the external being,
the perversion or false representation in nature, that is the chief
obstacle to the experience becoming frequent and then normal.
It usually happens that such an opposite tries to assert itself after
an experience.
*
The experiences you have had from above are spiritual experiences. The experience has come, but not yet taken possession
of the centres - it is touching them so as to prepare. The Truth
consciousness is the consciousness which lives in the Truth or
in constant touch with it and not, as the ordinary mind does, in
the Ignorance.
*
The experiences you have are a good starting-point for realisation. They have to develop into the light of a deeper state
in which there will be the descent of a higher Consciousness
into you. Your present consciousness in which you feel these
things is only a preparatory one - in which the Mother works
in you through the cosmic power according to your state of
consciousness and your karma and in that working both success and failure can come - one has to remain equal-minded
to both while trying always for success. A surer guidance can
come even in this preparatory consciousness if you are entirely
turned towards her alone in such a way that you can feel her
direct guidance and follow it without any other influence or
force intervening to act upon you, but that condition is not easy
to get or keep - it needs a great one-pointedness and constant

444

Letters on Yoga - III

single-minded dedication. When the higher consciousness will
descend, then a closer union, a more intimate consciousness
of the Presence and a more illumined intuition will become
possible.
*
It is good. The more you keep that dominant sense of the force
and the calmness and increase it, the more the other feeling [of
inadequacy and restlessness] will diminish and fade. It always
happens that at first the Power and Peace only press, touch,
invade at places, until a time comes when a part of the being
always feels in that condition however much disturbance may
assail the surface. Afterwards the disturbance is more and more
pushed out till it is felt only outside the being, not in it. When
that too goes, there is the complete peace and the full foundation.
*
Your letter of today makes it very clear what is happening.
The Force that you felt had come down at first, came to open
the way for the descent of the higher consciousness into the
mind and body. That was why it descended with such force and
the difficulty of holding or assimilating it was simply because
the body was unaccustomed. But as often happens the Force
is preparing its own reception and habituating the body to the
descent. Having done that sufficiently it is coming down as a
massive peace. The higher consciousness in its descent takes
several fundamental forms - peace, power and strength, light,
knowledge, Ananda. Usually it is the peace that descends first.
This is not a mental, vital or physical peace of the ordinary
kind, but something from above (spiritual), very firm, solid and
concrete. It is its concreteness that makes you feel like a still
massive block - a mass of the higher consciousness in place of
the more tenuous substance of the ordinary nature. As for its
being worth having, you can see that it is - it is indeed the beginning of the real transformation - all the rest hitherto has been
mainly preparation and clearing of difficulties and impediments
through all these years. This serene peace and massive stillness

The Descent of the Higher Consciousness and Force 445
has to stabilise itself, fill the whole nature, widen itself until all
existence internal and external seems full of it. This may take
time, but the beginning once there it is sure to take place, if one is
steady and constant. It becomes besides the sure base on which
all the rest, - power and strength, light and knowledge, Ananda
and divine love, can come in and securely fill the consciousness.
The usual mental means to widen the consciousness is to
think of and feel oneself as spreading out into space beyond
the body - as a corrective to the thought and feeling of oneself
as identified with the body and shut up in it. After a time this
leads to a substantial experience of wide consciousness beyond
the body. The means to quieten the physical consciousness is to
detach oneself from all restless vibrations, not by any struggle
or effort but by a simple easy will of quietude. However now
that the higher Force is bringing quietude, these mental means
may not be necessary - for the peace from above usually brings
the wideness of the self - though for some it brings it at once,
for others it takes time.
Anyhow, the spiritual opening has been clearly made in you;
the rest is a matter of development and time.




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4.4.3.03_-_Preparatory_Experiences_and_Descent, #Letters On Yoga III, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  object:4.4.3.03 - Preparatory Experiences and Descent
  author class:Sri Aurobindo

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