Vital Plane

01.06 - On Communism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Now, what such an uncompromising individualism fails to recognise is that individuality and ego are not the same thing, that the individual may have his individuality intact and entire and yet sacrifice his ego, that the soul of man is a much greater thing than his vital being. It is simply ignoring the fact and denying the truth to say that man is only a fighting animal and not a loving god, that the self within the individual realises itself only through competition and not co-operation. It is an error to conceive of society as a mere parallelogram of forces, to suppose that it has risen simply out of the struggle of individual interests and continues to remain by that struggle. Struggle is only one aspect of the thing, a particular form at a particular stage, a temporary manifestation due to a particular system and a particular habit and training. It would be nearer the truth to say that society came into being with the demand of the individual soul to unite with the individual soul, with the stress of an Over-soul to express itself in a multitude of forms, diverse yet linked together and organised in perfect harmony. Only, the stress for union manifested itself first on the material plane as struggle: but this is meant to be corrected and transcended and is being continually corrected and transcended by a secret harmony, a real commonality and brotherhood and unity. The individual is not so self-centred as the individualists make him to be, his individuality has a much vaster orbit and fulfils itself only by fulfilling others. The scientists have begun to discover other instincts in man than those of struggle and competition; they now place at the origin of social grouping an instinct which they name the herd-instinct: but this is only a formulation in lower terms, a translation on the Vital Plane of a higher truth and reality the fundamental oneness and accord of individuals and their spiritual impulsion to unite.
However, individualism has given us a truth and a formula which collectivism ignored. Self-determination is a thing which has come to stay. Each and every individual is free, absolutely free and shall freely follow his own line of growth and development and fulfilment. No extraneous power shall choose and fix what is good or evil for him, nor coerce and exploit him for its own benefit. But that does not necessarily mean that collectivism has no truth in it; collectivism also, as much as individualism, has a lesson for us and we should see whether we can harmonise the two. Collectivism signifies that the individual should not look to himself alone, should not be shut up in his freedom but expand himself and envelop others in a wider freedom, see other creatures in himself and himself in other creatures, as the Gita says. Collectivism demands that the individual need not and should not exhaust himself entirely in securing and enjoying his personal freedom, but that he can and should work for the salvation of others; the truth it upholds is this that the individual is from a certain point of view only a part of the group and by ignoring the latter it ignores itself in the end.

0 1954-08-25 - what is this personality? and when will she come?, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Yes, certainly had there been any receptivity when She came down and had She been able to manifest with the power with which She came But I can tell you one thing: even before Her coming, when, with Sri Aurobindo, I had begun going down (for the Yoga) from the mental plane to the Vital Plane, when we brought our yoga down from the mental plane into the Vital Plane, in less than a month (I was forty years old at the time I didnt seem very old, I looked less than forty, but I was forty anyway), after no more than a month of this yoga, I looked exactly like an 18 year old! And someone who knew me and had stayed with me in Japan5 came here, and when he saw me, he could scarcely believe his eyes! He said, But my god, is it you? I said, Of course!
Only when we went down from the Vital Plane into the physical plane, all this went awaybecause on the physical plane, the work is much harder and we had so much to do, so many things to change.
But if a force like Hers could manifest and be received here, it would have INESTIMABLE results!

0 1959-03-10 - vital dagger, vital mass, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
In this swarming mass, I noticed the presence of some slightly more conscious willswills of the Vital Plane and I saw how they try to awaken a reaction in the consciousness of human beings to make them think or want, or if possible, do certain things.
For example, I saw one of them trying to incite anger in someone so that this person would deliver a blowa spiritual blow. And this formation had a dagger in his hand (a vital dagger, you see, it was a vital being: gray and slimy, horrible), he was holding a very sharp dagger which he was flaunting, saying, When a person has done something like that (pretending that someone had done an unforgivable thing), this is what he deserves and the scenario was complete: the being rushed forward, vitally, with his dagger.
--
And I express this in my own way when I say1 that thoughts come and go, flow in and out. But thoughts concerning material things are formations originating in that world, they are kinds of wills coming from the Vital Plane which try to express themselves, and most often they are truly deadly. If you are annoyed, for example, if someone says something unpleasant to you and you react It always happens in the same way; these little entities are there waiting, and when they feel its the right moment, they introduce their influence and their suggestions. This is what is vitally symbolized by the being with his dagger rushing forward to stab youand in the back, at that! Not even face to face! This then expresses itself in the human consciousness by a movement of anger or rage or indignation: How intolerable! How ! And the other fellow says, Yes! We shall put an end to it!
It is quite interesting to watch it once, but it isnt very pleasant.

0 1959-05-19 - Ascending and Descending paths, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
The thing can still be brought down as far as the mental and Vital Planes (although Sri Aurobindo said that thousands of lifetimes would be needed merely to bring it down to the mental plane, unless one practiced a perfect surrender1). With Sri Aurobindo, we went down below Matter, right into the Subconscient and even into the Inconscient. But after the descent comes the transformation, and when you come down to the body, when you attempt to make it take one step forwardoh, not even a real step, just a little step!everything starts grating; its like stepping on an anthill And yet the presence, the help of the supreme Mother, is there constantly; thus you realize that for ordinary men such a task is impossible, or else millions of lives would be needed but in truth, unless the work is done for them and the sadhana of the body done for the entire earth consciousness, they will never achieve the physical transformation, or else it will be so remote that it is better not even to speak of it. But if they open themselves, if they give themselves over in an integral surrender, the work can be done for themthey have only to let it be done.
The path is difficult. And yet this body is full of good will; it is filled with the psychic in every one of its cells. Its like a child. The other day, it cried out quite spontaneously, O my Sweet Lord, give me the time to realize You! It did not ask to hasten the process, it did not ask to lighten its work; it only asked for enough TIME to do the work. Give me the time!

0 1960-09-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Actually, it was very different at that time because I was not even aware of any resistance or any difficulty in the outer being; it was automatic, the work was done automatically. Later on, when I had to do both thingswhat he had been doing as well as what I was doingit became rather complicated and I realized there were many what we could call gapsthings which had to be worked out, transformed, set right before the total work could be done without hindrance. So then I began. And several times I thought how unfortunate it was that I had never studied or pursued certain ancient Indian disciplines. Because, for example, when Sri Aurobindo and I were working to bring down the supramental forces, a descent from the mental plane to the Vital Plane, he was always telling me that everything I did (when we meditated together, when we worked)all my movements, all my gestures, all my postures, all my reactionswas absolutely tantric, as if I had pursued a tantric discipline. But it was spontaneous, it did not correspond to any knowledge, any idea, any will, nothing, and I thought it was like that simply because, as He knew, naturally I followed.
Later on, when Sri Aurobindo left his body, I said to myself, If only I knew what he had known, it would be easier! So when Swami and later X came, I thought, I am going to take advantage of this opportunity. I had written to Swami that I was working on transforming the cells of the body and that I had noticed the work was going faster with Xs influence. So it was understood that X would help when he came thats how things began, and this idea has remained with X. But I have raced on I dont wait. Ive raced on, Ive gone like wildfire. And now the situation is reversed. What I wanted to find out, I found out. I experienced what I wanted to experience, but he is still He is very kind, actually, he wants really to help me. So, when I identified with him the other day during our meditation, I realized that he wanted to give silence, control and perfect peace to the physical mind. My own trick, if you will, is to have as little relationship with the physical mind as possible, to go up above and stay therethis (Mother indicates her forehead), silent, motionless, turned upwards, while That (gesture above the head) sees, acts, knows, decidesall is done from there. Only there can you feel at ease.

0 1960-10-25, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
The rakshas are demons of the lower Vital Plane.
The attack of black magic in December 1958.

0 1961-04-29, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But the curious thing is that these vital beings are aware of what is happening. I knew nothing about any of it, neither the story, nor the being, nor the head sticking out of the ground and she wanted me to get her out of it. They feel the atmosphere. They are awarethey may not be conscious on higher planes, but they are conscious on Vital Planes, aware of vital power and the vital force it represents. Its like this asura from M.: when I came in he suddenly seemed to tremble on his pedestal; then he left his idol and came to seek my alliance.
But its strange.
--
Rakshasa: demon of the Vital Plane, as opposed to an asura, a demon of the mental world.
Math: monastery.

0 1963-11-04, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
If we look at it from a psychological standpoint On the mental plane, its very easy; on the Vital Plane, its not too difficult; on the physical plane, its a little heavier, because desires are passed off as needs. But there too, there has been a field of experience these last few days: the study of medical and scientific conceptions on the bodys makeup, its needs, and whats good or bad for it. And all this, in its essence, again boils down to the same question of vibrations. It was quite interesting: there was an appearance (because all things as the ordinary consciousness sees them are nothing but appearances), there was an appearance of food poisoning (mushrooms that are thought to have been bad). It was the object of a particular study to find out whether there was something absolute about the poisoning, or whether it was relative, that is, based on ignorance, a wrong reaction and the absence of the true Vibration. And the conclusion was as follows: its a question of proportion between the amount, the sum of the vibrations that belong to the Supreme, and the sum of the vibrations that still belong to darkness. Depending on the proportion, the poisoning appears as something concrete, real, or else as something that can be eliminated, in other words, that doesnt resist the influence of the Vibration of Truth. And it was very interesting, because, immediately, as soon as the consciousness became aware of the cause of the trouble in the bodys functioning (the consciousness perceived where it came from and what it was), immediately the observation began, with the idea: Lets see what happens. First set the body perfectly at rest with the certainty (which is always there) that nothing happens except by the Lords Will and that the effect too is the Lords Will, all the consequences are the Lords Will, and consequently one should be very still. So the body is very still: untroubled, not agitated, it doesnt vibrate, nothingvery still. Once this is achieved, to what extent are the effects unavoidable? Because a certain quantity of matter that contained an element unfavorable to the bodys elements and life was absorbed, what is the proportion between the favorable and the unfavorable elements, or between the favorable and the unfavorable vibrations? And I saw very clearly: the proportion varies according to the amount of cells in the body that are under the direct Influence, that respond to the supreme Vibration alone, and the amount of other cells that still belong to the ordinary way of vibrating. It was very clear, because I could see all the possibilities, from the ordinary mass [of cells], which is completely upset by that intrusion and where you have to fight with all the ordinary methods to get rid of the undesirable element, to the totality of the cellular response to the supreme Force, which renders the intrusion perfectly innocuous. But this is still a dream for tomorrowwere on the way. But the proportion has become rather favorable (I cant say all-powerful, far from it, but rather favorable), so that the consequences of the ill-being didnt last very long and the damage was, so to say, minimal.
But all the experiences nowadays, one after the otherall the PHYSICAL experiences, of the bodypoint to the same conclusion: everything depends on the proportion between the elements that respond exclusively to the Supremes Influence, the half-and-half elements, on the road to transformation, and the elements that still follow Matters old vibratory process. The latter appear to be decreasing in number, to a great extent, but there are still enough of them to bring about unpleasant effects or unpleasant reactionsthings that are untransformed, that still belong to ordinary life. But all problems, whether psychological or purely material or chemical, all problems boil down to this: they are nothing but questions of vibrations. And there is the perception of that totality of vibrations and of what we could call (in a very rough and approximative way) the difference between the constructive and the destructive vibrations. We can say (to put it very simply) that all the vibrations that come from the One and express Oneness are constructive, while all the complications of the ordinary, separative consciousness lead to destruction.

0 1964-01-04, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Asura, Rakshasa: demons of the mental and Vital Planes; Pisacha: depraved beings.
***

0 1964-09-23, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
As soon as we deal with even the Vital Plane, even the lower vital, the problem doesnt arise, its very easy; but here, in the cells of the body, in this life? In this life of every minute, which is so constricted, so shriveled, so microscopic. What should you do when you know that you mustnt bring into play a will to reject all that is a decay, and when, at the same time, you cant accept decay because you dont see it as a perfect expression of the Divine?
Its very subtle there is something to be found; and its something that, obviously, I havent found because it keeps coming back again and again. At times, I even say, Oh, for Peace, Peace, Peace but then I feel it is a weakness. I say, To let myself go, not thinking of anything, not trying to know anything, but then something instantly rises there, somewhere, and says, Tamas.2

0 1970-05-13, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, I would have a few things. There are two things. First, on the mental or Vital Planes, there are means of correspondence: you have a mental or a vital body, and you can develop those bodies. But this subtle physical, how do you develop it, how do you consciously make contact with it?
(after a long silence)

03.02 - The Gradations of Consciousness The Gradation of Planes, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
If we regard the gradation of worlds or planes as a whole, we see them as a great connected complex movement; the higher precipitate their influences on the lower, the lower react to the higher and develop or manifest in themselves within their own formula something that corresponds to the superior power and its action. The material world has evolved life in obedience to a pressure from the Vital Plane, mind in obedience to a pressure from the mental plane. It is now trying to evolve supermind in obedience to a pressure from the supramental plane. In more detail, particular forces, movements, powers, beings of a higher world can throw themselves on the lower to establish appropriate and corresponding forms which will connect them with the material domain and, as it were, reproduce or project their action here. And each thing created here has, supporting it, subtler envelopes or forms of itself which make it subsist and connect it with forces acting from above. Man, for instance, has, besides his gross physical body, subtler sheaths or bodies by which he lives behind the veil in direct connection with supraphysical planes of consciousness and can be influenced by their powers, movements and beings. What takes place in life has always behind it preexistent movements and forms in the occult Vital Planes; what takes place in mind presupposes preexistent movements and forms in the occult mental planes. That is an aspect of things which becomes more and more evident, insistent and important, the more we progress in a dynamic Yoga.
But all this must not be taken in too rigid and mechanical a sense. It is an immense plastic movement full of the play of possibilities and must be seized by a flexible and subtle tact or sense in the seeing consciousness. It cannot be reduced to a too rigorous logical or mathematical formula.

03.02 - Yogic Initiation and Aptitude, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Needless to say that these tests and ordeals are mere externals; at any rate, they have no place in our sadhana. Such or similar virtues many people possess or may possess, but that is no indication that they have an opening to the true spiritual life, to the life divine that we seek. Just as accomplishments on the mental plane,keen intellect, wide studies, profound scholarship even in the scriptures do not entitle a man to the possession of the spirit, even so capacities on the Vital Plane,mere self-control, patience and forbearance or endurance and perseverance do not create a claim to spiritual realisation, let alone physical austerities. In conformity with the Upanishadic standard, one may not be an unworthy son or an unworthy disciple, one may be strong, courageous, patient, calm, self-possessed, one may even be a consummate master of the senses and be endowed with other great virtues. Yet all this is no assurance of one's success in spiritual sadhana. Even one may be, after Shankara, a mumuksu, that is to say, have an ardent yearning for liberation. Still it is doubtful if that alone can give him liberation into the divine life.
What then is the indispensable and unfailing requisite? What is it that gives you the right of entrance into the divine life? What is the element, the factor in you that acts as the open sesame, as a magic solvent?

07.11 - The Problem of Evil, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
God has created the world, the material world as it is? Yes and No, more No than Yes. For he has not created it directly. There have been many creators, rather formateurs, form-makers, in between the world and God, who joined in the work of creation. Who are they? They have been given various names. Creation generally follows a principle of gradation. It is done step by step, world rising out of world successively. Each world is a particular state of being, a particular mode of consciousness. Each state is inhabited by entities, individualities, personalities and each one has created a world around him or assisted in the creation of certain types or species upon earth. The last of these creators or fashioners are those of the vital. At the top are those of what Sri Aurobindo calls the Overmind. It was these that created, that is to say, gave the first forms to earthly beings and things. They sent out their emanations and these again theirs in their turn and so on. Thus it was not the Divine Will which acted directly upon Matter and gave the world the form it could or should have had. There are layers and planes, graded intermediaries through which the Will has had to act. I spoke of the over-mental and the Vital Plane. There is also the mental plane between them. There are mental beings who are also creators, giving form to some beings that have taken body upon earth.
Thus, there is a tradition which says that the world of insects is the outcome of the creators of the vital world. That is why when you see the insects under a microscope they take on appearances that are absolutely diabolical. Enlarged on a screen they look like veritable monsters, so terrifying they are. Microscopic monsters they are. So it is said, beings of the vital world thought of amusing themselves and created these impossible beasts making human existence uncomfortable.

07.37 - The Psychic Being, Some Mysteries, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
I did not say it quite like that. The psychic being is not stupid. What happens may be described in this way: for example, suppose the psychic being has had the experience of the life of a writer. The function of the writer is to express himself, his perceptions and observations and judgements in words; he has a certain field, a certain range of associations and circumstances in which to live and move. But there are other fields and ranges beyond and outside of which he has no experience. So he may say to himself: I have lived with my head, I know something of the intellectual reactions to life: now let me live with my heart and experience the reactions of feeling and passion. Indeed, sometimes an overactivity of the intellect impoverishes the capacities of the heart. So the psychic being, in order to have this new kind of experience, abandons his intellectual heights, so to say, and comes down to the Vital Plane. He is no longer a creative genius, but an ordinary man, but with a heart enriched or enriching itself with its intense or generous movements. (One can remember in this connection the story of Shankaracharya who being a Sannyasi from boyhood has had no experience of love: he entered the body of a king in order to gather this experience.) It is not rare to see psychic beings that have reached the maximum of their growth in certain directions, take up a very modest and ordinary life in some other new direction or for some other purpose. One who was a king, for example, as I already narrated once, who has had the experiences of power and authority and domination, the imperial heights, may choose to descend to ordinary life, to work as an obscure person without being troubled by the pomps of high position; he may choose very bourgeois surroundings, very humdrum conditions among humdrum men and things, to procure, so to say, a kind of incognito so that he may work in peace and quite. Can you say it is a decline and a fall? It is only facing life, meeting its problems from another angle, another point of view. You must know that for consciousness, the true consciousness the consciousness of the psychicglory and obscurity are the same, success and failure are the same. What is important is the growth of consciousness. Certain conditions which to your human eye appear favourable, may in reality be quiet unfavourable for the growth of consciousness. With your ordinary thoughts and your ordinary reactions you judge everything according to success and failure. But that is the very last way of judging, for it is the most artificial, most superficial and absolutely contrary to truth. In human life, as it is organised at present, it is perhaps only once in a million cases, or even less than that, that truth is given the first place; always there is an element of show mixed up. When a man has success, much success, you may be sure there is mixed up with it as much show.
***

08.28 - Prayer and Aspiration, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
I have already spoken to you of the different plane of consciousness. On the purely material plane (separating it from the vital), it is all absolutely mechanistic: there things follow each other in a rigid chain of cause and effect. If you want to find the cause of a thing, you will have to find the cause of the cause; and if you want to find the effect of a thing you will have to find also the effect of the effect. The causes and effects linked together form a closed ring. Only, into this purely material plane there can intervene and does intervene the Vital Plane, as for example, in the vegetable kingdom.
The Vital Plane has a totally different determinism, which is its own. And when you bring the vital determinism into Physical determinism, that makes a combination which changes everything.
Above the Vital Plane lies the mental plane. The mental plane too has its own determinism in which all mental things are chained together in a rigorous sequence.
Each of these planes has what may be called a horizontal determinism.

10.17 - Miracles: Their True Significance, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
A miracle is nothing but the intervention of a force from another plane of consciousness. It must be recognised at the very outset that the physical plane of existence is not the only reality, there are many other planes superimposed' one upon another, each having its own special consciousness and power, its own laws of being and action. Obviously we all know apart from the material or physical being there is the vital being, the life-force and there is the mental being, the mind-force. And there are many other levels like these. A miracle happens, that is to say, a material formation behaves in an abnormal way because a force has come down from the vital region and has influenced or taken control of the material object. So the material object instead of obeying the material law is obliged to obey a vital law which is of a much greater potency. Yogis who do miracles possess this vital power, they have acquired it through a regular discipline and training. Spirit-calling, table-turning, even curing diseases and ailments in a moment and many other activities of the kind are manifestations of very elementary energies of life. From the occult point of view these are very crude and rudimentary examples of what a different kind of force can achieve on a different plane. Even the Vital Plane possesses deeper and higher energies whose action on the material plane is of deeper and higher category. A deeper or higher vital power can change radically your character and long-standing habits, help to mould them into a different, nobler and more beautiful pattern. The mind too is capable of performing miracles, a strong mental energy can dictate its terms to life and even to the body. Only the miracles here are not of a dazzling kind that astound or confound you. They have a subtler composition, yet they belong to the same category. In the mind itself miracles happen also when a higher light, a superior consciousness intuition, inspiration, revelationdescends into the normal mental working and creates there a thing that is abnormal in beauty and truth and reality. Thus for example, a matter of fact mind is seen turned into a fine poet or a workaday hand is transmuted into a consummate artist.
A miracle can be said to be doubly a miracle; first of all, because it means an intervention from another plane, a superior level of being, and secondly because the process or the action of the intervention is not deployed or staged out but is occult and telescoped, the result being almost simultaneous with the pressure of the moving force. .

1.01 - The Divine and The Universe, #Words Of The Mother III, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
On the physical plane the Divine expresses himself through beauty, on the mental plane through knowledge, on the Vital Plane through power and on the psychic plane through love.
When we rise high enough, we discover that these four aspects unite with each other in a single consciousness, full of love, luminous, powerful, beautiful, containing all, pervading all.

1.02 - Meeting the Master - Authors second meeting, March 1921, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
I found the atmosphere of the house tense. The Mother and Datta, i.e. Miss Hodgson, had come to stay in No. 41, Rue Franois Martin. The house had undergone a great change. There was a clean garden in the open courtyard, every room had simple and decent furniture, a mat, a chair and a small table. There was an air of tidiness and order. This was, no doubt, the effect of the Mother's presence. But yet the atmosphere was tense because Sri Aurobindo and the Mother were engaged in fighting with forces of the Vital Plane.
Only a few days before my arrival a dismissed cook had managed to get stones hurled into Sri Aurobindo's house through the agency of a Mohammedan occultist. This was the topic of excited talk when I was at Pondicherry. Upendranath Banerjee, who hardly believed in the possibility of such occult phenomena, had gone to the terrace with a lantern and a lathi to find the culprit. I heard the whole story from Upen himself. The stone-throwing ended when the Mother took the matter in hand and removed the servant-boy, who was the medium, to another house. (The account of this is already given in my The Life of Sri Aurobindo.)

1.03 - Meeting the Master - Meeting with others, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
V: At first the Power was working on the mental plane. Now it is working on the vital and even below the Vital Plane.
Sri Aurobindo: How do you know that it is working on the Vital Plane?
V: When the mind becomes peaceful I am able to see desires and impulses etc. in the vital.

1.07 - Bridge across the Afterlife, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
er regions of the Vital Plane can be, as the Mother said, in-
fernal or hellish, inhabited by hellish beings. (The concept

1.1.1.03 - Creative Power and the Human Instrument, #Letters On Poetry And Art, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Human creation comes from the Vital Planes into the physical but there is often enough something more behind it than is expressedit gets altered or diminished in the human physical transcription.
9 March 1933

1.12 - The Superconscient, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
The planes of consciousness are characterized not only by different intensities of luminous vibrations, but by different sound-vibrations or rhythms one can hear when one has that "ear of ears" the Veda speaks of. Sounds or images, lights or forces or beings are various aspects of the same Existence manifesting differently and in varying intensities according to the plane. The farther one descends the ladder of consciousness, the more fragmented become the sound-vibrations, as well as the light, the beings, and the forces. On the Vital Plane, for example, one can hear the discordant and jarring vibrations of life, like certain types of music issuing from this plane or certain types of vital painting or poetry, which all express that broken and highly colored rhythm. The higher one rises, the more harmonious, unified and streamlined the vibrations become, such as certain great notes of Beethoven's string quartets, which seem to draw us upward, breathlessly, to radiant heights of pure light. The force of the music is no longer a matter of volume or multi-hued outbursts, but of a higher inner tension. The higher frequency of vibration turns the multi-hued rainbow to pure white, to a note so high that it seems motionless, as if captured in eternity, one single sound-light-force which is perhaps akin to the sacred Indian syllable OM [the] Word concealed in the upper fire.35 "In the beginning was the Word," the Christian Scriptures also say.
There exists in India a secret knowledge based upon sounds and the differences of vibratory modes found on different planes of consciousness. If we pronounce the sound OM, for example, we clearly feel its vibrations enveloping the head centers, while the sound RAM affects the navel center. And since each of our centers of consciousness is in direct contact with a plane, we can, by the repetition of certain sounds (japa), come into contact with the corresponding plane of consciousness.200 This is the basis of an entire spiritual discipline, called "tantric" because it originates from sacred texts known as Tantra. The basic or essential sounds that have the power to establish the contact are called mantras. The mantras, usually secret and given to the disciple by his Guru,201 are of all kinds (there are many levels within each plane of consciousness), and may serve the most contradictory purposes. By combining certain sounds, one can at the lower levels of consciousness generally at the vital level come in contact with the corresponding forces and acquire many strange powers: some mantras can cause death (in five minutes, with violent vomiting), some mantras can strike with precision a particular part or organ of the body, some mantras can cure, some mantras can start a fire, protect, or cast spells. This type of magic, or chemistry of vibrations, derives simply from a conscious handling of the lower vibrations. But there is a higher magic, which also derives from handling vibrations, on higher planes of consciousness. This is poetry, music, the spiritual mantras of the Upanishads and the Veda, the mantras given by a Guru to his disciple to help him come consciously into direct contact with a special plane of consciousness, a force or a divine being. In this case, the sound holds in itself the power of experience and realization it is a sound that makes one see.

1.1.5 - Thought and Knowledge, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The knowledge of the mind and Vital Plane is no knowledge. Only from above can the true knowledge come.
***

1.17 - The Transformation, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
or sometimes even amused, to find that some persons we know, who are outwardly very different from one another when we meet them on the mental or Vital Planes, are almost the same and interchangeable in the subconscient! Thus, people separated by different religions,
different backgrounds, different social classes, or even different ethics, can belong to a perfectly identical type and be entirely alike in the subconscient, as if you could see one through the other, says the Mother. Since our vision is limited, we see only two or three people,

1929-07-28 - Art and Yoga - Art and life - Music, dance - World of Harmony, #Questions And Answers 1929-1931, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
When they are so, it is because they live usually in the Vital Plane, and the vital part in them is extremely sensitive to the forces of that world and receives from it all kinds of impressions and impulsions over which they have no controlling power. And often too they are very free in their minds and do not believe in the petty social conventions and moralities that govern the life of ordinary people. They do not feel bound by the customary rules of conduct and have not yet found an inner law that would replace them. As there is nothing to check the movements of their desire-being, they lead easily a life of liberty or license. But this does not happen with all. I lived ten years among artists and found many of them to be bourgeois to the core; they were married and settled, good fathers, good husbands, and lived up to the most strict moral ideas of what should and what should not be done.
There is one way in which Yoga may stop the artists productive impulse. If the origin of his art is in the vital world, once he becomes a Yogi he will lose his inspiration or, rather, the source from which his inspiration used to come will inspire him no more, for then the vital world appears in its true light; it puts on its true value, and that value is very relative. Most of those who call themselves artists draw their inspiration from the vital world only; and it carries in it no high or great significance. But when a true artist, one who looks for his creative source to a higher world, turns to Yoga, he will find that his inspiration becomes more direct and powerful and his expression clearer and deeper. Of those who possess a true value the power of Yoga will increase the value, but from one who has only some false appearance of art even that appearance will vanish or else lose its appeal. To one earnest in Yoga, the first simple truth that strikes his opening vision is that what he does is a very relative thing in comparison with the universal manifestation, the universal movement. But an artist is usually vain and looks on himself as a highly important personage, a kind of demigod in the human world. Many artists say that if they did not believe what they do to be of a supreme importance, they would not be able to do it. But I have known some whose inspiration was from a higher world and yet they did not believe that what they did was of so immense an importance. That is nearer the spirit of true art. If a man is truly led to express himself in art, it is the way the Divine has chosen to manifest in him, and then by Yoga his art will gain and not lose. But there is all the question: is the artist appointed by the Divine or self-appointed?

1951-02-15 - Dreams, symbolic - true repose - False visions - Earth-memory and history, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There are many possibilities. But most often, it is that a communication has been established either on the mental or the Vital Plane or even on the subtle physical plane and it is this communication which brings about the meeting lateryour dream is not only a premonition but also a condition; there is an inner relation close enough to enable you to come into contact in sleep, and circumstances so arrange themselves that you meet physically afterwards. Sometimes it is only a premonition, but then the dream has a special qualityyou see someone coming and he does come physically a little later.
Generally it is an already established relation; it is someone whom you meet, whom you frequent, whom you speak to, with whom you live some hours of the night. Then afterwards when you both meet you have the impression that you know each other very well. Thats a fact, you already know each other, before having met physically.

1951-05-11 - Mahakali and Kali - Avatar and Vibhuti - Sachchidananda behind all states of being - The power of will - receiving the Divine Will, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Imperial Maheshwari is seated in the wideness above the thinking mind and will.1 Is there a plane of will, as there is a mental plane, a Vital Plane, etc.?
I have explained that to you in connection with Sachchidananda. Sachchidananda exists at the very origin of the worlds, but there is a Sachchidananda behind all the other states of being. You could make a diagram (though that does not explain much, it is quite an erroneous idea, but it makes things more easily understandable), you arrange the states of being according to a scale. Then, you have the earth below and the Supreme above (it is not at all like that, I hasten to tell you! But anyway, it is easy to understand), you put the earth at the bottom and the Supreme at the top, and you divide that into lots of little parts each of which represents a state of being; that makes a kind of ladder. And then, you have as though behind it, behind your ladder, something which supports it, against which it leans. It is not a wall but it is something which supports your ladder. And that is precisely the first principle of the universal form. In Hindu terminology it is called Sachchidananda. It is there, everything leans upon that; without that nothing could exist. It is that which upholds and allows existence. Then, if you enter a certain state of consciousness and find yourself, for instance, in the higher mind (for generally it is more easily there that this happens; you have started from the physical and climbed slowly, rung by rung, as far as the higher mind), but instead of continuing your ascent on the ladder you enter into a kind of interiorisation and try to go out of the form, you pass into a kind of silence outside the form. You pass in between the bars of your ladder and enter straight into Sachchidananda which supports everything from behind. And then you can have mentally the experience of Sachchidananda. I have known people who had it and thought they had reached the heights of the Supreme. For there is a similarity in the experience, a very great likeness, only it is limited to the mind, the mind alone participates in it. Well, for the will it is the same thing. Instead of being the support of the ladder it is a kind of force, a very powerful current which passes through all these states, starting from aboveit is the supreme Willand coming down into the physical manifestation. Hence, if you get into affinity with this vibration or this force, you can enter the state of will; that is, whatever state of being you may find yourself inphysical, vital, mental, etc.if you enter a certain state of consciousness and force, you come into contact with this power of will: it penetrates into you and you can use it for any purpose. If your reception is free from all egoism, if you are pure, completely surrendered and accept only what comes from the Divine, and if you dont mix anything with it, egoism or desires or limitations well, it is a state a bit difficult to attain, but if you attain it, you receive this force of will in its original state, pure (for it comes down pure, it is only in its reception that it gets deformed), then, instead of being your will it becomes an expression of the divine Will. And this happens without your leaving the physical bodyyou can receive the force of the divine Will without leaving the physical. Only, you see, you must not change it and deform it, spoil it in the receiving. When you feel within you a kind of indomitable energy to realise something, when you tell yourself, I shall do this whatever the cost, I shall go to the end and shall use all my will (for you always say my will), well, you cannot be in that state unless you have come into contact with this current of will-force. Only, with your little personal reaction, naturally you deform it and use it all wrongly, and then you come into conflict with other elements. But if you are truly a yogi, you receive the current and nothing can stop the lan of your action, even physically.

1953-06-03, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have already spoken to you of the different planes of consciousness. Well, on the material plane, purely material (when separated from the Vital Plane), it is an absolute mechanism where consequently all things are linked together; and as I was saying the other day, if you want to find the cause of one thing or what is the result of a thing, you will find another and yet another and you will make an entire tour round the universe. And it is like that, everything is absolutely mechanised. Only, in this purely material plane, there can intervene the Vital Plane, and it already does intervene in the vegetable kingdom. The Vital Plane has an altogether different determinism, its own particular determinism. But when you introduce the vital determinism into the determinism of the physical, that produces a kind of combination that changes everything. And above the Vital Plane there is the mental plane. The mental plane also has its own determinism where all things are linked together rigorously.
But that is the movement which could be called horizontal. If you take a vertical movement, the mind descending into the vital and the vital descending into the physical, you have there three determinisms that intervene and naturally produce something altogether different. And where the mind has intervened the determinism will necessarily be different from the one where it does not intervene; that is, in the higher animal life there is already a mental determinism which intervenes that is altogether different from the determinism of the vegetable plane.

1953-06-10, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There is a great difference between a human being and these beings of the Vital Plane. I have told you this many times, I am going to repeat it:
In a human being, there is the divine Presence and the psychic beingat the beginning embryonic, but in the end a being wholly formed, conscious, independent, individualised. That does not exist in the vital world. It is a special grace given to human beings dwelling in matter and upon earth. And because of this, there is no human being who cannot be converted, if he wants it; that is, there is a possibility of his wanting it and the moment he wants it, he can do it. He is sure to succeed the moment he wants it, whereas those beings of the vital do not have a psychic being in them, they do not have the direct divine Presence (naturally, at the Origin, they descended directly from the Divine, but that was at the Origin, that is very far away). They are not in direct contact with the Divine within them, they have no psychic being. And if they were converted, there would remain nothing of them! For they are made up entirely of the opposite movement: they are entirely made up of personal self-assertion, despotic authority, separation from the Origin, and, of a great disdain for all that is pure, beautiful and noble. They do not have within them this psychic element which in man, even in the most debased, makes him respect what is beautiful and pure; even the basest man, in spite of himself, against his own will, respects what is pure, noble and beautiful. But those beings do not have that. They are wholly on the other side, totally on the other side. It disgusts them in every way. It is for them something which should not be touched, because it destroys; it is the thing that makes them disappear. Goodwill, sincerity, purity and beauty are things which make them disappear. So they hate these things.

1953-10-14, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
That depends. They have been given many names. All has been done by gradations and through individual beings of all kinds. Each state of being is inhabited by entities, individualities and personalities and each one has created a world around him or has contri buted to the formation of certain beings upon earth. The last creators are those of the vital world, but there are beings of the Overmind (Sri Aurobindo calls this plane the Overmind), who have created, given forms, sent out emanations, and these emanations again had their emanations and so on. What I meant is that it is not the Divine Will that acted directly on Matter to give to the world the required form, it is by passing through layers, so to say, planes of the world, as for example, the mental planethere are so many beings on the mental plane who are form-makers, who have taken part in the formation of some beings who have incarnated upon earth. On the Vital Plane also the same thing happens.
For example, there is a tradition which says that the whole world of insects is the outcome of the form-makers of the vital world, and that this is why they take such absolutely diabolical shapes when they are magnified under the microscope. You saw the other day, when you were shown the microbes in water? Naturally the pictures were made to amuse, to strike the imagination, but they are based on real forms, so magnified, however, that they look like monsters. Almost the whole world of insects is a world of microscopic monsters which, had they been larger in size, would have been quite terrifying. So it is said these are entities of the vital world, beings of the vital who created that for fun and amused themselves forming all these impossible beasts which make human life altogether unpleasant.

1954-07-28 - Money - Ego and individuality - The shadow, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
What other planes? He speaks of the vital and physical, doesnt he? that it is a force which manifests on the Vital Plane and the physical plane. The vital forces have a very great influence over money.
(After a silence) You see, when one thinks of money, one thinks of bank-notes or coins or some kind of wealth, some precious things. But this is only the physical expression of a force which may be handled by the vital and which, when possessed and controlled, almost automatically brings along these more material expressions of money. And that is a kind of power. (Silence) It is a power of attracting certain very material vibrations, which has a capacity for utilisation that increases its strengthwhich is like the action of physical exercise, you seeit increases its strength through utilisation.

1956-01-18 - Two sides of individual work - Cheerfulness - chosen vessel of the Divine - Aspiration, consciousness, of plants, of children - Being chosen by the Divine - True hierarchy - Perfect relation with the Divine - India free in 1915, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There are treestrees especiallywhich have lived long and can be the home of a conscious being, a vital being. Generally it is vital entities which take shelter in trees, or else certain beings of the Vital Plane which live in forestsas certain beings of the vital live in water. There were old legends like that, but they were based on facts.
The plant serves as home and shelter, but the being is not created by the plant itself!

1960 01 20, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
For example, to the individual Vital Plane there corresponds a cosmic vital world. When a human being is sufficiently developed he possesses an individualised vital being with organs of sight, hearing, smell, etc. So a person who has a well-developed vital being can see in the vital world with his vital sight, consciously and with the memory of what he has seen. This is what makes a vision.
It is the same for all the subtle worldsvital, mental, overmental, supramental and for all the intermediate worlds and planes of the being. In this way one can have visions that are vital, mental, overmental, supramental, etc.

1960 07 13, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Of the Asuras, hostile beings of the mentalised Vital Plane.
***

1963 11 04, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
If we consider it from the psychological point of view on the mental plane, it is very easy; on the Vital Plane it is not very difficult; on the physical plane it is a little heavier, for it takes the form of needs; but here too there has been a field of experience these last few days: the study of medical and scientific conceptions of the structure of the body, its needs, what is good or bad for it; and that, reduced to its essence, comes down to the same question of vibrations. It was rather interesting: there was an appearance for all things as they are seen by the ordinary consciousness are pure appearances there was an appearance of food-poisoning and it became the object of a special study in order to find out whether there was anything absolute in it or whether the poisoning was relative, that is, based on ignorance and a bad reaction, and on the absence of the true vibration. The conclusion was that it is a question of proportion between the amount, the sum of vibrations that belong to the Lord, and the vibrations that still belong to obscurity; and, depending on the proportion, it takes the form of something concrete and real or of something that can be eliminated, that is, which does not resist the influence of the vibration of Truth. And it was very interesting, for as soon as the consciousness was informed of the cause of the disturbance in the functioning of the body the consciousness saw where it came from, what it wasimmediately, the observation began with the idea, Let us see what is happening. First, put the body in a state of perfect rest with the certitudewhich is always there that nothing happens except by the will of the Lord, that the result is also the will of the Lord, and that therefore one should be completely quiet; so the body is completely quiet, untroubled, it is not restless, not vibrating, nothingcompletely quiet. And then, to what extent are the effects inevitable? As a certain amount of matter containing an element unfavourable to the elements of the body and to the life of the body has been absorbed, what is the proportion of favourable and unfavourable elements, or of favourable and unfavourable vibrations? Then I saw very clearly that the proportion varies according to the number of body cells under the direct influence, which respond only to the supreme vibration, and the others which still belong to the ordinary way of vibrating. It was very clear, because one could see all the possibilities, from the ordinary mass which is completely upset by this intrusion and in which one has to fight with all the ordinary methods to get rid of the undesirable element, to the total response of the cells to the supreme Force, which means that the intrusion can have no effect. But this is still the dream of tomorrowwe are on the way. And the proportion has become quite favourable I cannot say all-powerful, far from itquite favourable, which means that the consequences of the disturbance did not last very long and the damage was, so to say, minimal.
But all the experiences at the moment, one after the otherall the physical experiences of the bodylead to the same conclusion: everything depends on the proportion of elements responding exclusively to the influence of the Supreme, the elements that are half and half, on the way to transformation, and the elements that are still in the old process of vibration of Matter. Their number seems to be diminishing; it seems to be diminishing greatly, but there are still enough of them to produce unpleasant effects or reactionsthings that are not transformed, that still belong to ordinary life. But every problemwhe ther psychological or purely material or chemical the whole problem comes down to this: they are nothing but vibrations. And there is the perception of this totality of vibrations and the perception of what one might call, very crudely and approximately, the difference between constructive and destructive vibrations. We could sayit is simply a way of putting it that all vibrations that come from the One and express Oneness are constructive and that all the complications of the ordinary separative consciousness lead to destruction.

2.01 - Mandala One, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
(5) Thus he crosses the Vital Plane that now unmovingly supports the mental heavens and he stands widely exceeding it; rejoicing in the rapture, in the raining down on us of the world of Light, O God-Mind, thou slayest the Coverer, thou forcest out the flood of those waters.
(6) Thy vastness in the seats of our earth,OGod-Mind, upholds by its energy the vital world that upholds the heaven of mind. Thou in the rapture of the outpressed wine hast set the heavenly waters flowing, thou hast broken wholly the Coverers stony walls.

2.01 - On Books, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
The illustrations are of the lowest Vital Plane as is evident from the forms which they have thrown out and also from the faces of the mediums. They are most diabolical, what the Christians call 'devilish'.
Disciple: But the book is given the appearance of a scientific work.
--
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, the vital is always a very dangerous plane to open oneself to. It is that which leads one to side-tracks in the spiritual endeavour. Besides, as the writer himself admits, the evidence does not prove anything beyond the fact that supraphysical planes exist. These vital beings can take the substance from the Vital Plane and also gather stuff from the minds of those present and create a form. It does not prove that they are the persons they claim to be. Not that disembodied spirits don't exist, but this way it can't be proved.
Disciple: Cannot a Yogi do something in this field?
--
Disciple: Do not space and time exist on the Vital Plane?
Sri Aurobindo: The Vital Plane has its own time and space. There is a relation between the physical and the Vital Planes. There is an Infinite with extension and an Infinite without extension. One creates space and time and the other is caitanya ghana,condensed or self-gathered Infinite.
Disciple: Can an injury in the vital transfer itself to the physical?
--
Even in Yoga we have to do the same. We have to find out the right Dharma, the right way of functioning, of movement of forces. Not merely the law which is mechanical, but the Dharma of the movement of forces. An ordinary law merely means an equilibrium established by Nature; it means a balance of forces. It is merely a groove in which Nature is accustomed to work in order to produce certain results. But, if you change the consciousness, then the groove also is bound to change. For instance, I observe the forces on the Vital Plane, I see what they are, and what they intend. If they are hostile they attack me. Then I have to find out how they shall not attack me.
I put forth some force and see how they react; I have also to see how they would react if I put forth the force in a different way.
--
But it is very dangerous to accept everything as the working of the Divine, saying, "All is the working of God," like K who says evil and good are both equal. Everything is, in the last analysis, the working of the Divine, but you have not therefore to accept everything. It may not matter very much so long as you are on the mental plane, but on the Vital Plane if you accept everything as the working of the Divine you are sure to fall. It is a very dangerous movement because the sadhak may justify the play of lower impulses in him on the ground that they have a purpose to serve.
When one knows the hostile forces also as the working of the Divine, the left hand of God, then the movement of exhaustion of these forces is very quick.

2.02 - On Letters, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
You write about passivity and activity: you have to understand and know what they are. When one begins Yoga, naturally, all the forces on the mental, and especially on the Vital Plane, that are hostile to the Siddhi of this Yoga, are bound to rise and one must be active in rejecting them what the Gita calls apramatta because the Purusha is not only sk but anumant, one who gives consent. This activity of rejection must be always there. Even if you fall you must rise up again and again and fight.
Passivity merely means a calm inactive attitude of mind keeping it open to the higher influence and ready to accept the light, power, knowledge, Ananda that come from Above. It must be a prayerful mood so that the knowledge may come down. When the higher knowledge comes one ought not to allow the mind to get active with it, but must allow that knowledge to come more and more by keeping the mind passive.
--
Sri Aurobindo: It looks more of the Vital Plane than anything else. There are people who get a symbolic vision and when they see the work not accomplished they generally see it as an unfinished building, or a place where workmen are still working. That does not correspond to any building in the Supramental. That is only a symbolic way of representing the Yoga and its condition and even at that it is not exact but gives only a general idea.
Do you refer to Chandernagore when you speak about the vital forces?

2.03 - On Medicine, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Sri Aurobindo: What do you mean by 'true'? On the Vital Plane there is nothing that you cannot see: you can recast the whole history of the world. It is not the mental plane really speaking it is the mental-vital. I was in that condition for ten days and any number of things came at that time.
Disciple: You could have written them down.
--
Disciple: But what you see on the Vital Plane in that state is it true?
Sri Aurobindo: Again, what do you mean by true? Something that you see is true somewhere on some other plane some of those things are probabilities, some are only tendencies trying to realise themselves. But it may not be true for this earth-plane.

2.04 - On Art, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Sri Aurobindo: No. But they all seem to be from the vital world. Of course, all Abanindranath's paintings are from the vital world. But this time they appear to come from a peculiar layer of the Vital Plane. I felt something like that vaguely, so I asked the Mother and she pointed out that it was the colouring which was responsible for the feeling or impression.
Disciple: We have many paintings of Nandalal dealing with Puranic subjects. But I find one or two are failures.
--
Sri Aurobindo: I do not think that the impression is due to the subject at all. It is due to the peculiar layer of the Vital Plane to which the pictures belong. For instance, take his "Bride of Shiva". It is an Indian, a Hindu, subject. But it is not the bride of Shiva at all in his painting. If at all it is Shiva's bride, it is the bride of Pashupati Shiva's bride from the Vital Plane.
Disciple: Abanindranath very early began his work in the Kangra style. I mean his Krishna Lila paintings.
Sri Aurobindo: All arts in general and poetry and painting in particular belong to the Vital Plane.
Disciple: Does not poetry like that of Tagore come from the mental plane?

2.06 - The Synthesis of the Disciplines of Knowledge, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The Soul identifies itself with this mental dynamo or station and says "I am this mind." And since the mind is absorbed in the bodily life, it thinks "I am a mind in a living body" or, still more commonly, "I am a body which lives and thinks." It identifies itself with the thoughts, emotions, sensations of the embodied mind and imagines that because when the body is dissolved all this will dissolve, itself also will cease to exist. Or if it becomes conscious of the current of persistence of mental personality, it thinks of itself as a mental soul occupying the body whether once or repeatedly and returning from earthly living to mental worlds beyond; the persistence of this mental being mentally enjoying or suffering sometimes in the body, sometimes on the mental or Vital Plane of Nature it calls its immortal existence. Or else, because the mind is a principle of light and knowledge, however imperfect, and can have some notion of what is beyond it, it sees the possibility of a dissolution of the mental being into that which is beyond, some Void or some eternal Existence, and it says, "There I, the mental soul, cease to be." Such dissolution it dreads or desires, denies or affirms according to its measure of attachment to or repulsion from this present play of embodied mind and vitality.
Now, all this is a mixture of truth and falsehood. Mind, Life, Matter exist and mental, vital, physical individualisation exists as facts in Nature, but the identification of the soul with these things is a false identification. Mind, Life and Matter are ourselves only in this sense that they are principles of being which the true self has evolved by the meeting and interaction of Soul and Nature in order to express a form of its one existence as the Cosmos. Individual mind, life and body are a play of these principles which is set up in the commerce of Soul and Nature as a means for the expression of that multiplicity of itself of which the one Existence is eternally capable and which it holds eternally involved in its unity. Individual mind, life and body are forms of ourselves in so far as we are centres of the multiplicity of the One; universal Mind, Life and Body are also forms of our self, because we are that One in our being. But the self is more than universal or individual mind, life and body and when we limit ourselves by identification with these things, we found our knowledge on a falsehood, we falsify our determining view and our practical experience not only of our self-being but of our cosmic existence and of our individual activities.

2.07 - On Congress and Politics, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Rasputin, the Court mystic of Russia was the subject of the talk for some time. This Rasputin had suddenly become a spiritual man. He was a villager and suddenly got some power of the Vital Plane. He influenced people with his eyes. He had used his power for lower ends.
Disciple: There is a pronouncement today about the eligibility to the A.I.C.C. (All India Congress Committee).

2.09 - On Sadhana, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
The danger of the realisation of the Infinite, free from all bondage, is that except in the highest condition, many false experiences can also masquerade as true. For instance, such a man gets tremendous power and generally has an ego-centric nature. Even Ravana was a great yogi. One having a great control over the Vital Plane only is generally known as a Rakshasa. The Asura controls his mind and his vital being. There is a great possibility of committing a blunder in the Dattatreya path.
Disciple: In the Avadhuta Gita, attributed to Dattatreya, great stress is laid on Vairagya, renunciation of the world. It teaches the abandonment of the world and nature.
--
It may help one to concentrate. But what one does with that concentration depends upon the man. My own idea is that of all these people, who resort to these external stimulants, ninety percent never go beyond the vital consciousness. They get into it and then the vital is a great builder: it constructs any number of things, worlds, states, etc. It can give you an idea that you are in the Highest. There are any number of Siddhis on the Vital Plane and if you have proper knowledge you can get them by using these things. And even if one gets into the Brahmic consciousness it is not that one has got the Highest Truth, because the Brahmic consciousness can be had on any plane. You can have that consciousness on the mental or the Vital Plane.
These stimulants merely help you to get away from the physical. But what one does with that freedom depends upon the man. These are external means and therefore they have very bad reactions they are not generally recommended in the spiritual life.
--
Sri Aurobindo: It must be due to the fact that once you get into the Vital Plane you find it very difficult to get to the Truth. The general idea is that for the experience of the Brahmic consciousness one must be always indrawn. But that is not quite true. I first had the silent Brahmic consciousness at Baroda as soon as I quieted my mind. It came, of course, to the mental being and I kept it for about a month. But I was not unconscious. I saw people and things as Maya all things only small and the One, the Reality, behind them.
The experience of Shunyam is still more striking because you get into it by a sort of negation even of the Atman.

2.1.1 - The Nature of the Vital, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Man is a mental being and cannot come from the vital, although part of him may live on the Vital Plane or rather in connection with it. Most men in fact live much in the vital and therefore when they practise sadhana it is first on the Vital Plane that they find themselves, in dreams, experiences etc. When the supramental opens then something will descend from the supramental in each as he becomes ready and forms a supramental Purusha in him. What he is now, cannot limit what he will become.
***

2.12 - On Miracles, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Sri Aurobindo: That was once in jail. I was then doing a very intense Sadhana on the Vital Plane and I was concentrated. I had a questioning mood, whether such things as the Siddhi of utthpan were possible. Then suddenly I found myself raised up in such a way I could not have done it myself with muscular exertion: only one part of the body was slightly in contact with the ground and the rest was raised up against the wall and I know I could not have held my body like that normally even if I had wanted to. I also found that the body remained suspended like that without any exertion on my part. That is the only thing that happened. In jail there were many such extraordinary and, one may say, abnormal, experiences. As I was doing the Sadhana on the Vital Plane I think the power might have come from there. All these experiences passed away and did not repeat themselves.
Disciple: Moti Babu has related that when you were five years old you got a vision of a great light at Darjeeling and you became unconscious.
--
Sri Aurobindo: I was not speaking of these powers on the Vital Plane, I was speaking of the Supermind. It is a force like electricity; only, it acts in a different way and under different conditions. In these spirit-communications certain conditions are generally created in the atmosphere which act as the carrier of the force and make it effective.
***

2.1.2 - The Vital and Other Levels of Being, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Your former sadhana was mostly on the Vital Plane. The experiences of the Vital Plane are very interesting to the sadhak but they are mixed, i.e. not all linked with the higher Truth. A greater, purer and firmer basis for the sadhana has to be established the psychic basis. For that reason all the old experiences are stopped. The heart has to be made the centre and through bhakti and aspiration you have to bring forward the psychic being and enter into close touch with the Divine Shakti. If you can do this, your sadhana will begin again with a better result.
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What he is having now are the true spiritual and psychic experiencesnot those of the Vital Plane which most have at the beginning. The experiences of the Vital Plane (in which there is much imagination and fantasy) are useful for opening up the consciousness; but it is when they are replaced by the spiritual and psychic consciousness that there is the beginning of the true progress.
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Now the sadhana seems to be descending into the vital to clear and change it. The first result is that the difficulty of the vital has shown itself the ugly images and alarming dreams come from a hostile Vital Plane which is opposed to the sadhana. From there also comes the renewal of the agitation, the disinclination and resistance to the sadhana. This is not a going back to the old condition, but the result of a pressure of the Yoga-Force on the vital for change to which there is a resistance.
It is this descent of the sadhana to free the vital being that made you feel the necessity of concentrating in the region of the heart; for in the region of the heart is the psychic centre and below, behind the navel, is the vital centre. If these two can be awakened and occupied by the Yoga-Force, then the psychic or Soul-Power will comm and the whole vital range and purify the vital nature and tranquillise it and turn it towards the Divine. It will be best if you are able to concentrate at will in the heart-region and at the crown of the head, for that gives a more complete power of sadhana.
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At present your experiences are on the mental plane, but that is the right movement. Many sadhaks are unable to advance because they open the Vital Plane before the mental and psychic are ready. After some beginning of true spiritual experiences on the mental plane there is a premature descent into the vital and great confusion and disturbance. This has to be guarded against. It is still worse if the vital desire-soul opens to experience before the mind has been touched by the things of the spirit.
Aspire always for the mind and psychic being to be filled with the true consciousness and experience and made ready. You must aspire especially for quietness, peace, a calm faith, an increasing steady wideness, for more and more knowledge, for a deep and intense but quiet devotion.

2.13 - On Psychology, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Now, when a man dies his physical body dissolves; the vital body dissolves after some time, and the mental body also dissolves. Take the case of an insect. In the insect there is only the physical consciousness and nothing else. Other formations in the universe are too low to be considered. The insect gathers certain experiences on the physical plane. My own view is that it goes on developing from plane to plane with a supporting Self. The soul skma deh living on the physical plane returns to the Jiva which was all along supporting the insect in the physical consciousness. When the soul is ready, it is taken up into the Vital Plane and there it gathers experiences till the mental plane is reached in man. There is the Supramental plane also.
What we do in our Yoga is to bring down the Supramental plane so that the soul may return with the full experience to the higher plane. The question is how far we can supramentalise. If we can supramentalise the mind and the vital being we can return with the memory of that experience and also with that ready formation in another manifestation. One can preserve, if he so chooses, his vital body after death and produce effects on the Vital Plane.
Now suppose we supramentalise the body. In that case we can carry the full physical experience and return with the fullest physical, vital and mental force and manifest the Divine. That is what happens in the case of Avatars and Vibhutis, there is full memory of the past vital and mental experiences and in the case of the Avatar even of the physical experiences. If we can supramentalise the body it can be retained or thrown away at will icch mtyu.And even when the body is thrown away, when the process of manifestation is undertaken the soul has not to gather the physical and the vital and the mental from any of the formations of Universal Nature as in the case of ordinary souls. In case these the physical, the vital, and the mental are supramentalised the whole being is quite ready; one has simply to take up the ready formation and manifest the Divine.
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Sri Aurobindo: No, the case is that of a being of the Vital Plane that comes and takes possession of him. It represents itself as myself or the Mother and it is this being that suggests fantastic explanations of my letters to him.
Disciple: What would be the result of this kind of possession?
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Disciple: Is it possible to have such a control over the universal Vital Plane as to make it impossible for these vital forces to represent themselves as the Truth or yourself and the Mother?
Sri Aurobindo: It is a question of consciousness and not of the physical plane where you can prevent somebody from doing something. Nothing is possible without the co-operation of the individual. The difficulty is that he wants to have that being of the Vital Plane and, even when it is driven out, calls it back.
Disciple: What is the effect of this being on him?
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Sri Aurobindo: Yes, there is a veil: that is why most people are not conscious of their soul. In X's case I used the word psychic in the ordinary sense. He had broken the veil between the mental and the Vital Planes, and opened himself to the worlds behind them, but he was unable to bear all that followed. There I used the word in the sense of the 'subliminal self'.
Disciple: Is the influence of the psychic being mainly in the inner mental and vital beings or is it subconscious?
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Sri Aurobindo: Then it is no longer suffering. It becomes an experience of Ananda. All this idea of suffering and self-immolation comes from the Asuric Vital Plane where suffering is the law of development and it is the Asuric influence that casts it on humanity.
Disciple: Is not suffering as well as evil a law of all manifestation?
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Sri Aurobindo: Yes. Generally the help is from the mental and the Vital Planes and we cannot take it because the help is always conditional.
By the way I was talking to the Mother about the story that has appeared in New India about the awakening of memory of previous birth in a child two and a half years old. She gave another instance of a similar case that is authentic. It occurred in her own family. She has a brother who is a cultured, intelligent man who does not believe in rebirth or any of these things. He has a daughter. Once, between the age of three and four years, when she was being given a bath by her father she closed her eyes and began to sing a queer tune. Her father asked her what was the tune she was singing. She replied with her eyes half-closed: "I used to play this tune when I was a shepherdess on the Paros." Now, none in the family had ever talked to her about the Paros [in Greece] or anything else. The only ones who could talk were her father and mother, for the servant in the house was an idiot. It stopped with that one memory and did not go any further; but it is clear that it was something that came upon her. If a child is grown up it comes as an imagination.
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Sri Aurobindo: The vital being is that which is concerned directly with life. You can call it 'life-force', and all the movements connected with the life-force belong to the vital being. The fundamental working of the vital being is that it takes the form of desire the desire for objects, for possession, lust, ambition and, generally speaking, all a ripus the six inimical tendencies belong to the Vital Plane. This wrong form of the vital movement has a Truth behind it which assumes this wrong form because of Ignorance. The vital being is, really speaking, an instrument, and must be used as an instrument of the Jiva, the Central Being. It is a means of effectuation in life. In the Ignorance it takes the form of desire to effectuate itself; but in the Higher Knowledge it becomes sheer will, the power of effectuation without straining of desire, etc.
Man simply raises these vital movements, which belong equally to the animal nature, to the mind. That is all. He deludes himself into thinking that when he has connected some emotion with the vital movement, it has become pure and when his mind can give a rational explanation of it, he has got a justification to go on with the vital play. In fact, that is the way in which these vital forces have kept their hold upon man. Take, for instance, what man ordinarily calls 'love'. It is primarily nothing else but the vital impulse which he can call the sex-impulse. It is everywhere in nature. Man mixes it with a certain movement of emotion and calls it love and thinks everything is justified by it.
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Sri Aurobindo: It depends upon different people. Generally it belongs to the Vital Plane. But there are differences. For instance, style for its own sake, I mean the beauty of poetic style beauty of language, rhythm, etc. all that belongs to the Vital Plane. But aesthetic creation can be on every plane. Originally, all that comes from the Ananda plane.
Disciple: From what plane did K's letter of today come?
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The aesthetic being belongs to the Vital Plane. If the man is not merely a master of form and line, the aesthetic being sees that the beauty of form expresses something. The aesthetic being sees the beauty of form and line and sees also the beauty of something that is expressed, while the psychic being sees the charm of the soul.
The psychic being has no beauty as it is ordinarily understood. It is rather charm, an inner beauty, beauty of the soul. But it need not necessarily have beauty of form, though it may also have that. A man who may have a fine soul may not be physically beautiful.
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Sri Aurobindo: There is something of it there, and there was another picture by Abanindranath, which I now forget. But generally Abanindranath draws his inspiration from the Vital Plane.
Disciple: Has it nothing to do with mental beauty?
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Sri Aurobindo: The Purusha looks at the world as Prakriti represents it to be. On the mental plane Prakriti represents thoughts, ideas in short, all mental movements. On the Vital Plane Prakriti represents itself as desires in short, as action of the vital force. On the physical plane it represents itself as the unchangeable law of physical life.
Disciple: When the Purusha separates itself from Prakriti, how is it possible for it to aspire for something higher?

2.14 - The Origin and Remedy of Falsehood, Error, Wrong and Evil, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
a resultant wrong consciousness and wrong knowledge with its content of wrong will, wrong feeling, wrong action and wrong reaction. The question is at what juncture of cosmic manifestation the opposites enter in; for it may be either at some stage of the increasing involution of consciousness in separative mind and life or only after the plunge into inconscience. This resolves itself into the question whether falsehood, error, wrong and evil exist originally in the mental and Vital Planes and are native to mind and life or are proper only to the material manifestation because inflicted on mind and life there by the obscurity arising from the Inconscience. It may be questioned too whether, if they do exist in supraphysical mind and life, they were original and inevitable there; for they may rather have entered in as a consequence or a supraphysical extension from the material manifestation. Or, if that is untenable, it may be that they arose as an enabling supraphysical affirmation in the universal Mind and Life, a precedent necessity for their appearance in that manifestation to which they more naturally belong as an inevitable outcome of the creative Inconscience.
It was for a long time held by the human mind as a traditional knowledge that when we go beyond the material plane, these things are found to exist there also in worlds beyond us.

2.15 - On the Gods and Asuras, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Disciple: Men are beings on the physical plane, but they have vital and mental and psychic parts. Do the beings of the Vital Plane possess also mental and psychic parts?
Sri Aurobindo: The vital and physical planes are different. On the physical plane there is evolution through different grades of the being; ours is a plane of evolution. On the Vital Plane there is no evolution. It is a plane of typal beings; there the conciousness does not evolve from one plane to another.
The animal has its consciousness held and imprisoned by the vital; and when it is ready, the consciousness changes to the mental and the animal reincarnates as the human being. Some of our cats are ready for the human birth.
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Disciple: If the Asuras represent the dark side of God on the Vital Plane, does this dark side exist on every plane? If so, are there beings on the mental plane who correspond to the dark side?
Sri Aurobindo: The Asura is really the dark side of God on the mental plane. Mind is the very field of the Asura. His characteristic is egoistic strength which refuses the Higher Law. The Asura has got self-control, Tapas, intelligence only, all that is for his ego.
On the Vital Plane the corresponding forces are called the Rakshasas who represent violent passions and impulses. There are other beings on the Vital Plane whom we call pramatta and pica and they manifest, more or less, on the physico- Vital Plane.
Disciple: What is the corresponding being on the higher plane?
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Sri Aurobindo: Yes, it is possible. You can even draw it from man without riding him. But the easier process is to draw the vital energy from the universal Vital Plane. It is there all around you. There are two methods of drawing it: one is you exert your force and draw the vital energy from the universal, the other is to be passive and to allow it to flow into you. Formerly, I used to draw it. But nowadays I merely allow it to flow, remaining open to it.
Disciple: Is it easier to draw vital energy from man than from the universal?
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Sri Aurobindo: The 'heaven' of the religions is quite a different thing. It is the heaven of the Vital Plane. But apart from this religious heaven, the plane of the vital is full of charm and splendour of its own, and the beings of this plane have a splendour and greatness and knowledge of their own. Much of the poetry and art comes from that plane. I am not speaking of the perverse hostile vital world which generally comes in contact with our physical plane.
Disciple: If they are not hostile beings, as you say, then they can manifest grand things here.
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Disciple: You said about Tirupati when he went wrong that a great and powerful vital being came for manifestation and it was necessary for the organisation of his Vital Plane. What is meant by organisation of the Vital Plane?
Sri Aurobindo: To bring about a harmony on that plane for effectuation. The vital being is for effective realisation.
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Sri Aurobindo: I don't know. It was there when he left Pondicherry; it did not leave its address with me! You can write to the Post Office of the Vital Plane! (Laughter)
Disciple: Why? Someone else can try to bring it down and break down in the effort? (Laughter)
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Sri Aurobindo: Yes. That is what is meant by the struggle between the angels and the devils in the Bible. The being I spoke of with regard to T was not from the hostile vital world, it was from the higher level of the Vital Plane.
Disciple: What is meant by the Supermind? Is it what is called par akti?
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Disciple: Do they belong to the Vital Plane?
Sri Aurobindo: No; they are worshipped in the vital way, but their conception is much larger than that and they generally go up to the higher mental plane.

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