The Psychic Being: Our Opening to the Divine

By Marshall Govindan

Under what conditions will the fully opened Psychic Being bring about the supramental
transformation by the practice of Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga? This paper will attempt
to answer the question.

A clear understanding of Sri Aurobindo’s use of the term psychic being is essential to the
practitioner of Integral Yoga. It is found throughout his writings and is a distinguishing
feature of his Yoga. As we shall see, it cannot be equated with the English words soul or
Self or with the Indian terms Atman, Jivatman, or Purusha. Although the Psychic Being is
present in everyone’s heart, it is almost always hidden, and its workings are mingled with
the movements of the mind and the vital. Until it emerges in the foreground of the
consciousness, individual efforts in Yogic sadhana (discipline) remain fitful and limited by
these movements. The practice of Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga – summarized in the
words aspiration, rejection, and surrender – progresses to the extent that the Psychic Being
comes to the forefront of one’s consciousness. This occurs in four stages.

What is the Psychic Being?

Sri Aurobindo often refers to it metaphorically as a “spark which comes from the Divine.”

The psychic is a spark come from the Divine which is there in all things and as
the individual evolves it grows in him and manifests as the psychic being, the
soul seeking always for the Divine and the Truth and answering to the Divine
and the Truth whenever and wherever it meets it. (Aurobindo 2012, 105)

But Sri Aurobindo justifies the need for this new term, as distinct from the English word
soul.

The word soul is very vaguely used in English – as it often refers to the whole
non-physical consciousness including even the vital with all its desires and
passions. That is why the word psychic being has to be used so as to distinguish
this divine portion from the instrumental parts of the nature. (Aurobindo 2012,
112)

As such, it is an emanation, like the soul emanating from the Lord in the monistic theism
of Saiva Siddhantha’s Tirumandiram and Kashmir Saivism. But the Psychic Being is also
a key evolutionary concept within Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga (Ganapathy 2012, 439–
471; Ganapathy 2010).

The psychic part of us is something that comes direct from the Divine and is in
touch with the Divine. In its origin it is the nucleus pregnant with divine
possibilities that supports this lower triple manifestation of mind, life and body.
There is this divine element in all living beings, but it stands hidden behind the

1
 ordinary consciousness, is not at first developed and, even when developed, is
not always or often in the front; it expresses itself, so far as the imperfection of
the instruments allows, by their means and under their limitations. It grows in
the consciousness by Godward experience, gaining strength every time there is a
higher movement in us, and, finally, by the accumulation of these deeper and
higher movements there is developed a psychic individuality – that which we
call usually the psychic being. It is always this psychic being that is the real,
though often the secret cause of man’s turning to the spiritual life and his
greatest help in it. It is therefore that which we have to bring from behind to the
front in the Yoga. (Aurobindo 2012, 103)

Nor can the Psychic Being be equated with the Atman of Vedanta.

There is a difference between the psychic and the self. The self is the Atman
above which is one in all, remains always wide, free, pure, untouched by the
action of life in its ignorance. Its nature is peace, freedom, light, wideness,
Ananda. The psychic (antaratma) is the individual being which comes down
into life and travels from birth to birth and feels the experiences and grows by
them till it is able to join itself with the free Atman above. The psychic being is
concealed in the depths behind the heart centre. The Self has no separate place –
it is everywhere. Your self and the self of all beings is the same. (Aurobindo
2012, 106)

But Sri Aurobindo also reminds us that, although the English term is new in his Yogic
system, it has an ancient antecedent in the age-old term hrdaye guhayam, “the secret
heart.”

The psychic being in the old systems was spoken of as the Purusha in the heart
(the secret heart – hrdaye guhayam) which corresponds very well to what we
define as the psychic being behind the heart centre. It was also this that went out
from the body at death and persisted – which again corresponds to our teaching
that it is this which goes out and returns, linking new life to former life. Also,
we say that the psychic is the divine portion within us – so too the Purusha in the
heart is described as Ishwara of the individual nature in some places.
(Aurobindo 2012, 112)

It is secret because it is veiled by surface movements of the inner being composed of the
inner mental, inner vital, and inner physical. The Psychic Being expresses itself as best it
can through these outer instruments, which are governed more by outer forces than by the
inner influences of the psychic. As a soul instrument, the Divine within, its evolutionary
influence on human nature is usually hidden. Its will is for the divinization of life and,
because of its purity, its action transforms these inner instruments.

It may be perceived as a mystic light behind the heart center.

It may be said of the psychic that it is that [the luminous part of our being],
because the psychic is in touch with the Divine and a projection of the Divine

2
 into the lower nature. The psychic is deep within in the inner heart-centre behind
the emotional being. From there it stretches upward to form the psychic mind
and below to form the psychic vital and psychic physical, but usually one is
aware of these only after the mind, vital and physical are subjected and put
under the psychic influence. (Aurobindo 2012, 122–123)

As one surrenders to the Divine, egoism – the habit of identifying with the movements of
the mind, the vital, and the physical – is replaced by the Psychic Being. This surrender of
the ego perspective is the result of the practice of the Integral Yoga, as we will see below.

There is individuality in the psychic being but not egoism. Egoism goes when
the individual unites himself with the Divine or is entirely surrendered to the
Divine. It is the psychic inmost being that replaces the ego. It is through love
and surrender to the Divine that the psychic being becomes strong and manifest,
so that it can replace the ego. (Aurobindo 1972, 124)

The influence of the Psychic Being, a new evolutionary concept

Sri Aurobindo stated that the evolutionary task of humanity is more than just reaching a
spiritual level of existence. A further objective is the radical and integral transformation of
Nature. This will reveal itself as the luminous Consciousness-Force, the trinity of Sat, Chit,
and Ananda, whose revelation has yet to be accomplished in humankind as the self-
affirmation of the supramental. To this end, when we become aware of the Psychic Being
within, it leads the sadhana, the practice by which siddhi (perfection) is attained.

We can say that the Psychic Being is the soul in nature, evolving through it, supporting it,
and at times when there is an opening to its influence, guiding our person in the drama of
life. Sri Aurobindo tells us that it is a new, evolutionary concept that has not been
discussed in the older sacred literature, such as the Bhagavad Gita.

The psychic being evolves, so it is not the immutable. The psychic being is
especially the soul of the individual evolving in the manifestation the individual
Prakriti and taking part in the evolution. It is that spark of the Divine Fire that
grows behind the mind, vital and physical as the psychic being until it is able to
transform the Prakriti of Ignorance into a Prakriti of Knowledge. These things
are not in the Gita, but we cannot limit our knowledge by the points in the Gita.
(Aurobindo 2012, 114)

The Psychic Being is the developing soul consciousness manifested for the
created being as it evolves. At first, the soul is something essential behind the
veil, not developed in front. In front, there is only the body, life, mind. In the
evolution, the soul consciousness develops more and more in the created being
until it is so developed that it can come entirely in front and govern mind, life,
and body. (Aurobindo 2012, 118–119)

3
There are clear indications of its influence on the inner being, inner mind, inner vital, and
inner physical.

These things, love, compassion, kindness, bhakti, Ananda are the nature of the
psychic being, because the psychic being is formed from the Divine
Consciousness, it is the divine part within you. But the lower parts are not yet
accustomed to obey or value the influence and control of the psychic for in men
the vital and physical are accustomed to act for themselves and do not care for
what the soul wants. When they do care and obey the psychic, that is their
conversion – they begin to put on themselves the psychic or divine nature.
(Aurobindo 2012, 122)

Unlike the Self, or Atman, which merely witnesses the movements of the mind,
emotions, and the senses, the psychic being can exert its influence upon these
movements. The parts of the mind, of the vital and the body which can be so
influenced by the vital are referred to as the psychic–mental, the psychic–vital,
the psychic–physical. This influence can be according to the personality or the
degree of evolution of each person … small or large, weak or strong, covered up
and inactive or prominent and in action. (Aurobindo 2012, 108)

These parts may follow their limited aims, natures, or tendencies, or they may accept the
psychic’s motives and aims with or without modification.

Aspiration, rejection, and surrender: the method of Integral Yoga

Before discussing the development of the Psychic Being, we must first understand the
practice of Integral Yoga. In the following section, I quote extensively from or refer to The
Practice of Integral Yoga by the late J.K. Mukerjee, who was for many years director of
the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, and whom I interviewed in 2009. In
the words of A.S. Dalal, who wrote its foreword, this work “is a comprehensive treatise on
the effective practice of the Yoga of Integral Transformation as propounded by Sri
Aurobindo and the Mother.” It is the first summing-up of the method of their practice,
based on their disparate writings and in light of Mukerjee’s own experience over fifty-five
years.

On aspiration

The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother can be summarized in these two
statements: “(1) a steadily mounting ardent aspiration from the side of the sadhaka, and (ii)
from the Divine’s side an answering Grace descending from above in response to the
sadhaka’s call.” But what is this aspiration? How does it differ from desire? Sri Aurobindo
defines aspiration as “a spiritual enthusiasm, the height and ardour of the soul’s seeking …
an upward movement of our consciousness through the psychic part of our being toward
all that is good, pure and beautiful.” The Mother describes it as “an inner enthusiasm
towards the New, the Unknown, the Perfection … a yearning, a longing for the contact

4
with the Divine Force, divine Harmony, divine Love … an inner flame, a need for the light
… A luminous enthusiasm that seizes the whole being … a purifying Will, an ever-
mounting drive” (Mukherjee 2003, 42–43).

How to develop aspiration? Mukherjee describes its six stages, which are summarized
here. First, the development of aspiration begins with an intense dissatisfaction with the
habitual ways of human nature. You may wake up one morning and suddenly realize that
you are no longer willing to go on living unconsciously, ignorantly, in a state in which you
do things without knowing why, feeling things without knowing why, living contradictory
wills, living by habit, routine, reactions, understanding nothing. You are no longer satisfied
with that. How individuals respond to this dissatisfaction varies. For most, it is the need to
know; for others, it is the need to do what is required to find meaning.

Second, the aspirant seeks ardently to escape this hollow human existence by seeking
Truth, Love, Peace, Joy, and Being. These are probably still very vague, but the seeker is
driven to find release from the present state of nauseating imperfection.

Third, after some time, because of the aspirant’s persistent insistence, Divine Grace
responds with a temporary piercing of the veil of ignorance, and one experiences the
spiritual dimension of life. One sees the Light, feels Divine Love, or experiences Divine
Bliss, the Presence, or Truth, depending on one’s capacity and orientation. It may vary
from person to person, but everything else previously experienced in ordinary life pales in
comparison.

Fourth, the opening may close, so one must be careful not to forget or doubt it, but rather
keep it vibrant and constantly direct one’s aspiration toward its re-emergence.

Fifth, the sadhak will find the attraction to the higher life gradually growing and the
attachment to the former, lower life diminishing. Not only might this manifest inwardly in
the mental and vital planes, but also outwardly toward friends, even work and pastimes. A
new type of yearning and resolution fills the heart and mind, which may express itself as:
“O Lord, I want you and you alone. I do not want anything or anyone else except through
you and for you. I want to belong entirely to you and will never allow anything to claim
my consciousness. I surrender my all to you. Not my will, but Thy will be done. I am yours
alone.”

In the sixth stage, the aspiration is so intense that words and prayers, vocal and mental, are
no longer needed or even wanted. There is only the flame of spiritual fire rising steadily
upward in the background of profound silence. An intense craving to belong to the Divine,
to be united with It, and to serve It as a perfect instrument, envelopes the whole expanse of
the sadhak’s consciousness. It is a great thirst for Love and Truth, for transformation, for
supreme perfection (Mukherjee 2003, 45–46).

On rejection

5
While still controlled by lower human nature, the sadhak must make some personal effort
to progress. This personal effort comprises the three operations of aspiration, described
above, as well as rejection and surrender. The Siddhas, and more recently Sri Aurobindo,
have insisted that a Yoga sadhak must renounce all habitual movements of the lower
nature. These include the mind’s opinions, preferences, habits, constructions, and ideas;
the vital nature’s desires, demands, cravings, passions, selfishness, pride, arrogance, lust,
greed, jealousy, envy, and hostility to the Truth; and the physical nature’s stupidity, doubt,
disbelief, obscurity, obstinacy, pettiness, laziness, sloth, and unwillingness to change.

The goal is the total divine transformation of man’s whole being, consciousness, and
nature. Every ego-centered impulse and movement arising in the consciousness that does
not turn the sadhak toward the Divine is an obstacle in this path. The sadhana of one who
aspires to practice Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga includes responding to the constantly
troubling reactions to life’s ceaseless stream of obstacles. Identifying and removing them
make up the yogic sadhana of rejection. There are three classes of them and a different
strategy to deal with each. The three classes of obstacles are those of the past, the present,
and the future.

When the obstacle is a type that the sadhak has already conquered in the past but is now
indulging out of laziness, the sadhak should:

(i) nip it at its very moment of sprouting, like a piece of dust on one’s sleeve; (ii)
never brood on it; (iii) take as little notice of it as possible; and (iv) even if one
happens to think of it, remain indifferent and unconcerned. (Mukherjee 2003,
55)

The second category of obstacles, those of the present, often appears in the sadhak’s
consciousness and can even overwhelm it at times. But with sincere effort, the sadhak will
discover the power to keep part of the consciousness free from their influence. To deal
with this type, the sadhak must have this attitude:

(i) to apply one’s willpower to resist the impulsion; (ii) never to rationalize or
legitimize its appearance, but rather to withdraw all inner consent from its
manifestation; (iii) never to yield any ground, however limited in extent; (iv) to
act as a heroic warrior against the dark tendencies on behalf of the upward-
moving forces of light; (v) turn immediately to the Divine and pray constantly
and fervently that these weaknesses and impulses of his or her nature be
vanquished and removed. (Mukherjee 2003, 55–56)

How to recognize the third category of obstacles within – the deeply hidden potential
weaknesses? At their first appearance, almost all of the sadhak’s being becomes
abnormally disturbed and agitated. The obstacles’ roots are so deep and extensive that the
sadhak feels that they are an intrinsic and ineradicable part of his or her being, so much so
that the sadhak is not at all persuaded of the basic undesirability of these weaknesses. With
their appearance, the sadhak temporarily loses the lucidity of his consciousness, as if in a

6
storm. Most of the sadhak’s consciousness is still deeply infatuated with these surging
weaknesses and blindly yearns to fulfill some strong desires by letting them manifest. It
would be foolhardy to attempt to eradicate such a weakness unaided before one is
sufficiently prepared. There is a real danger of suppression of its outer manifestation
leading to an internal conflict with that major portion of the sadhak’s nature that
obstinately clings to the attachment. An explosion is inevitable, disrupting the balance of
the being. So, the aspirant should avoid as far as possible these intractable difficulties and
refuse to allow them to manifest at all.

Rather the approach should be:

(1) to hold the difficulty or weakness in front of one’s consciousness, without

becoming scared by it or identified with it, (2) to go assiduously in search of its
root cause or source, (3) to try to discover what parts of one’s nature are secretly
nurturing a fascination for this particular weakness, and are thrown into a
turmoil at its slightest beckoning … (4) always to maintain always a spirit of
calm, quiet detachment, throughout the above observation, even if some ugly
corners of one’s being are exposed … (5) the sadhak has to keep alive in his
heart a very sincere aspiration for the eradication of the weakness in question,
addressing an earnest prayer to the Divine Mother that through the active
intervention of her Grace these deep-rooted and recondite weaknesses and
attachments may give up their malignancy and become quite innocuous in
nature so that they can be easily faced and overcome … Such a prayer and
aspiration coupled with a thorough self-examination will progressively turn
these intractable obstacles first into manageable obstacles of the second class,
and finally into easily detachable ones of the past. (Mukherjee 2003, 59–60)

On surrender

Self-surrender to the Divine, at all times and in all circumstances, is the key to the sadhana
of Integral Yoga as well as the Kriya Yoga of Patanjali, who said in Yoga sutra I.23,
“Ishvara-pranidhanad-va,” or “because of one’s surrender to the Lord, one successfully
achieves cognitive absorption” (Govindan 2012, 17).

The phrase “my God and my all” summarizes its heartfelt expression. The day that a
sadhak surrenders to the Divine, the Divine itself intervenes in the life of the student and
helps remove all difficulties and weaknesses, and brings joy into the consciousness with its
Presence.

For this to occur:

(1) the sadhak must feel the vanity of one’s own self-potency; (2) he must
believe with all his heart that there is Someone called Divine who really exists,
loves him, and has the omnipotence to do anything according to Divine wisdom;

7
 (3) the sadhak must turn to the Divine alone as his sole and ultimate refuge.
(Mukherjee 2003, 87)

In the surrendered state of consciousness, whatever one does or feels, all movements are
made as an offering to the Supreme Being, in absolute trust, freeing oneself of
responsibility for oneself, handing all of one’s burdens to the Divine.

The sadhak’s habitual consciousness and nature contain ample resistance and obstruction
that works against this surrender. One must unreservedly abandon oneself to the sole
guidance of the Divine. How to know if one has done so? Sri Aurobindo gives a detailed
description of the inner mood of a truly surrendered sadhak.

I want the Divine and nothing else. I want to give myself entirely to him and
since my soul wants that, it cannot be but that I shall meet and realize him. I ask
nothing but that and his action in me to bring me to him, his actions secret or
open, veiled or manifest. I do not insist on my own time and way; let him do all
in his own time and way; I shall believe in him, accept his will, aspire steadily
for his light and presence and joy, go through all difficulties and delays, relying
on him and never giving up … All for him and myself for him. Whatever
happens, I will keep to this aspiration and self-giving and go on in perfect
reliance that it will be done. (Aurobindo 1972, 587)

Consequently, it is the Divine itself that takes charge of the entire course of the sadhak’s
sadhana.

All can be done by the Divine – the heart and the nature purified, the inner
consciousness awakened, the veils removed – if one gives oneself to the Divine
with trust and confidence and even if one cannot do so fully at once, yet the
more one does so, the more the inner help and guidance come and the
experience of the Divine grows within. If the questioning mind becomes less
active and humble and the will to surrender grows, this ought to be perfectly
possible. (Aurobindo 1972, 586–88)

If the power of self-surrender is so potent, why does man fail to do it?

Why is it not done? One does not think of it, one forgets to do it, the old habits
come back. And above all, behind, hidden somewhere in the inconscient or even
in the subconscient, there is this insidious doubt that whispers in your ear … and
you are so silly, so silly, so obscure, so stupid that you listen and you begin to
pay attention to yourself and everything is ruined. (Mother 2004, 257)

Does personal initiative then cease? No, the ordinary sadhak’s consciousness and will are
far from being united with the Divine’s Consciousness and Will, as are a Siddha Yogi’s.
One continues to live in the separative ego-consciousness with all of its likes and dislikes.
The essential principle to follow is to surrender the fruit or results of one’s actions to the

8
Divine; otherwise, one only acts for the ego’s satisfaction. Sri Aurobindo describes the
attitude one must maintain in all actions.

The Divine is my sole refuge; I trust in Him and rely on Him for everything and
Him alone. I am utterly resigned to His Will. I will see to it that no obstacle on
the way nor any dark mood of desperation, ever make me waver from my
absolute reliance on the Divine. (Mukherjee 2003, 93)

The sadhak, however, should not become complacent, feeling that effort is unnecessary or
that the Divine will accomplish everything. This is made very clear.

But the supreme Grace will act only in the conditions of the Light and the Truth;
it will not act in conditions laid upon it by the Falsehood and the Ignorance. For
if it were to yield to the demands of the Falsehood it would defeat its own
purpose. (The Mother 1972, 1,3)

There are conditions for everything. If someone refuses to fulfill the conditions
for Yoga, there is no use in appealing for Divine intervention. (Nirodbaran 1983,
197)

An effective surrender does not necessarily ensure the sadhak against all future storms and
stresses, but it does assure the absolute security of the sadhak’s spiritual health even in the
midst of life’s tempests. The path is not guaranteed to be sunlit and scattered with rose
petals. It has been guaranteed, however, that He will lead the surrendered sadhak to his
cherished spiritual goal despite every possible misfortune in life. The surrendered sadhak
also knows that misfortune and suffering are not in vain, but are sanctioned by the Divine
for fulfilling a necessary spiritual purpose whose significance will be revealed in time. The
surrendered sadhak knows and feels that the Divine is not far away or absent during his
suffering, but sitting in the heart of his most acute difficulty, guiding the circumstances to
lead the sadhak to union with the Divine. The surrendered sadhak also knows that every
difficulty will bring great spiritual benefit if faced with courage, patience, and right attitude
in a spirit of surrender. Finally, the surrendered sadhak knows that there is an underlying
purpose leading to some future spiritual good. His mantra remains: “Let Thy Will be done
always and everywhere” (Mukherjee 2003, 101).

Four stages in the opening of the Psychic Being

Having discussed Sri Aurobindo’s descriptions of the Psychic Being in the first part of this
essay and the three elements of his Integral Yoga in the second part, we can now examine
how these three elements, namely aspiration, rejection, and surrender, contribute to the
opening of the Psychic Being in four progressive stages.

The first stage

The Psychic Being remains behind the veil of the inner being and the movements of the
mind and vital. The lower parts of our being do not care what the soul wants. They respond

9
habitually to desires and emotions, the need for physical comfort, and small likes and
dislikes. Only occasionally will the psychic’s influence become apparent: when there is a
turning toward the spiritual life, love and surrender to the Divine, a yearning for the
ineffable, the True, the Good, and the Beautiful, and an experience of unconditional love,
kindness, compassion, Ananda, bhakti.

The second stage

When the inner being, the mind, and the vital “do care and obey the psychic, that is their
conversion – they begin to put on themselves the psychic or divine nature” (Mukherjee
2003, 112). As described above, aspiration develops in stages, and the Divine responds
with grace. One turns inward and gradually loses interest in the old sources of external
sensual attraction. The practice of aspiration, rejection, and surrender progressively opens
the influence of the psychic being. More and more, one feels its power to overcome desire,
anger, old bad habits, and other manifestations of the ego. One lets go of the past, ceasing
to dwell on what has happened. One is intuitively guided to do the right thing, not because
of a moral injunction, convention, or the expectations of family and peers, but because one
knows inwardly what is true and good. One rejects what resists, what may cause harm,
what is untrue or exaggerated. Unconditional love, kindness, ease, and bliss become one’s
state of being. But one might return to old patterns of thought and feeling. It is
intermittently veiled by the movements of the inner being. One must continually strive to
witness and not manifest deep-seated, habitual inner movements.

The third stage

The Psychic Being comes from behind the veil of the inner mind and vital to the
foreground and remains there. It continuously directs the sadhana of aspiration, rejection,
and surrender. It identifies what must be transformed, let go of, and purified. One feels
continuously supported and guided. The Divine’s Bliss and unconditional love color one’s
perceptions, even as karma delivers rotten tomatoes to one’s doorstep. One abides as
effulgent Self-awareness, the master of one’s vehicles on the mental, vital, and physical
planes. One discerns and lets go of the ego’s manifestations in deeper layers of the inner
being, including desire and fear. One feels like an instrument in the hands of the Divine,
performing surgery, removing all that resists and expresses ignorance of one’s Divinity.
One becomes a co-creator. Miracles abound in daily life. One experiences life as ever-new
joy.

In this stage, the allegiance of the mind, the vital, and even the physical to the ego is
replaced by a new allegiance to the Divine within. One seeks perfection, siddhi. Perfection
in a diseased body or in a neurotic mind is not perfection. With discerning wisdom, the
psychic transforms these lower instruments so that they express the Will of the Divine.
One develops an enthusiasm for the process of self-transformation. During this process,
one discovers what has been hidden. One experiments with methods of transformation.

The fourth stage

10
At this advanced stage, the Psychic Being transforms the cellular and subconscious levels.
From 1926 to 1940, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother experimented with fasting, sleep, food,
laws of nature, and habits, testing their own bodies at the subconscient and cellular levels.
It was a race against time, not unlike what the Siddhas described in their use of Kaya Kalpa
herbs to prolong their lives long enough for the more subtle spiritual forces to complete the
divinization. “Fundamentally,” said the Mother, “the question is to know, in this race
towards the transformation which of the two will reach first, the one who wants to
transform the body in the image of the divine Truth or the old habit in the body of
gradually decomposing” (Satprem 1975, 330).

The work proceeded at a level that Aurobindo called “the cellular mind” ...“an obscure
mind of the body, of the very cells, molecules, corpuscles” ...“this body mind is a very
tangible truth; owing to its obscurity and mechanical clinging to past movements and facile
oblivion and rejection of the new, we find in it one of the chief obstacles to permeation by
the supermind Force and the transformation of the functioning of the body. On the other
hand, once effectively converted, it will be one of the most precious instruments of the
stabilization of the supramental Light and Force in material Nature” (Aurobindo 1969,
346).

To prepare the cells, mental silence, vital peace, and cosmic consciousness were necessary
to permit the physical and cellular consciousness to enlarge and universalize itself. But
then it became apparent that “the body is everywhere,” and that one could not transform
anything without transforming everything.

I have been digging deep and long

Mid a horror of filth and mire
A bed for the gold river's song
A home for the deathless fire...
My gaping wounds are a thousand and one ... (Aurobindo 1952, 6)

Aurobindo and the Mother found that complete transformation is not possible for the
individual, unless there is a minimum transformation by all.

“To help humanity out,” remarked Aurobindo, “it was not enough for an individual,
however great, to achieve an ultimate solution individually, (because) even when the Light
is ready to descend it cannot come to stay till the lower plane is also ready to bear the
pressure of the Descent” (Roy 1952, 251).

“If one wants to do the work singly,” said the Mother, “it is absolutely impossible to do it
totally, because every physical being, however complete it be, even though it be of an
altogether superior kind, even if it be made for an altogether special Work, is never but
partial and limited. It represents only one truth, one law – and the full transformation
cannot be realized through it alone, through a single body ... so that if one wants to have a
general action, at least a minimum number of physical beings is necessary” (Satprem 1975,
390).

11
With this realization, the period of individual work ended in 1940, and Sri Aurobindo and
the Mother began the third phase of their work of transformation. During this phase, the
orientation was toward a global transformation. “This Ashram has been created ... not for
the renunciation of the world but as a centre and a field for the evolution of another kind
and form of life” (Aurobindo 1969, 823).

It was organized so as to be open to all types of activities of a creative nature, as well as all
types of individuals, men, women, and children, of all social classes. Activity in the world
was a primary means.

The spiritual life finds its most potent expression in the man who lives the
ordinary life of men in the strength of Yoga ... It is by such a union of the inner
life and the outer that mankind will eventually be lifted up and become mighty
and divine. (Aurobindo 1950, 10)

The dilemma of evolutionary leaders and the “atmospheric gulf”

This third phase began in 1940 and grew out of a dilemma that Sri Aurobindo and the
Mother tried to resolve at the end of the second phase. Faced with the collective resistance
of the subconscient and inconscient, they examined if they should work out an individual
self-transformation in isolation from others and return later to help humanity as its
evolutionary leaders. They decided against this strategy because, in Aurobindo’s words, it
would result in an “atmospheric gulf” between them and their fellow humanity (Aurobindo
1935, 414). Notwithstanding their opinion that such a strategy was not feasible, Aurobindo
also expressed a somewhat conflicting opinion.

It may well be that, once started, the (supramental) endeavour may not advance
rapidly even to its first decisive stage; it may be that it will take long centuries of
effort to come into some kind of permanent birth. But that is not altogether
inevitable, for the principle of such changes in Nature seems to be a long
obscure preparation followed by a swift gathering up and precipitation of the
elements into the new birth, a rapid conversion, a transformation that in its
luminous moment figures like a miracle. Even when the first decisive change is
reached, it is certain that all humanity will not be able to rise to that level. There
cannot fail to be a division into those who are able to live on the spiritual level
and those who are only able to live in the light that descends from it into the
mental level. And below these too there might still be a great mass influenced
from above but not yet ready for the light. But even that would be a
transformation and a beginning far beyond anything yet attained. (Aurobindo
1949, 332)

Is there a notable difference between such an inevitable “division” and the “atmospheric
gulf”? If not, then this was not why Sri Aurobindo and the Mother did not bring the
supramental down into their own bodies and fix it there. Furthermore, might not the
attainment of the “golden body” by the eighteen Siddhas, Ramalinga Swami, and the

12
Chinese Taoist Ta Lo Chin Hsien (Golden Immortals) be the early phase of a long
collective transformation of all humanity (Govindan 2012, 140–170; Da Lieu 1979, 135)?

In an effort to resolve these issues, this author visited Pondicherry and Vadalur as his book
(Babaji and the 18 Siddha Kriya Yoga Tradition) was nearing completion. He recalled a
quotation seen many years before wherein the Mother and/or Aurobindo said in effect that
what they were trying to attain had already been attained by Ramalinga Swami nearby,
barely 100 years earlier. In previous visits to the Aurobindo Ashram in September 1972
and March 1973, the author had attempted to meet with the Mother to present her with a
book on the eighteen Siddhas and to question her on the relationship between Aurobindo’s
supramental transformation and that of the eighteen Siddhas. The Mother was in seclusion
during these visits, and so the questions were left unanswered.

Unknown to the author, similar questions were being posed by T.R. Thulasiram, an inmate
of the Aurobindo Ashram since 1969, and its long-time public auditor and accountant. On
July 4 and 5, 1990, the author met with Thulasiram in Pondicherry and learned that he had
published a two-volume work in 1980 that documents his exchanges with the Mother on
the subject of Ramalinga as well as everything Aurobindo had written about Ramalinga. In
his exhaustive study, Thulasiram observed: “Sri Aurobindo came to believe in the later
part of his life that a few Yogis had achieved supramental transformation as a personal
Siddhi maintained by Yoga-Siddhi and not as dharma of nature” (Thulasiram 1980, vol. 1,
xi).

On July 11, 1970, the Mother read Thulasiram’s letter, which had been sent through
Satprem, the Mother’s secretary. Attached to Thulasiram’s letter was an excerpt from
Ramalinga’s writing in which he described the transformation of his physical body into a
body of light. According to Satprem:

She had no doubt as to the authenticity of his experiences. She liked especially
the way the Swamy calls this light “The Grace-Light” and said that this
corresponds to Her own experience. To be more precise, the Mother said that the
Grace-Light is not the Supramental Light but one aspect of it, or rather one
activity of the Supramental. She said that it is quite likely that a number of
individuals, known or unknown, have had similar experiences throughout the
ages and even now. The only difference is that now instead of an individual
possibility it is a collective possibility – this is precisely Sri Aurobindo’s and the
Mother’s work, to establish as a terrestrial fact and possibility for all, the
supramental consciousness. (July 28, 1970; as published in Arul, a Tamil Journal
of Sri Aurobindo Ashram in its August 1970 issue; Thulasiram 1980, 900)

Thulasiram was unable to obtain any further clarification from the Mother of the numerous
questions raised in his letter. He has also written that “Satprem mistook his (Ramalinga’s)
dematerialization for death and wrongly reported of this as death to the Mother”
(Thulasiram 1989). The Mother also left or withdrew from her body in November 1973,
before these questions could be answered. However, Thulasiram's fascinating study

13
provides much convincing evidence that the transformative experiences of Ramalinga,
Aurobindo, the Mother, and the Tamil Siddha Tirumular were all of the same nature. The
“golden hue” that Aurobindo manifested in passing was akin to the “golden body” of
immortality referred to by Ramalinga, Tirumular in his Tirumandiram (Ganapathy 2010),
and the literary works of the eighteen Tamil Yoga Siddhas (Govindan 2012, 45).

Conclusion

It appears, therefore, that evolutionary leaders such as these require isolation to complete
the fourth stage of the psychic being’s transformation of human nature on all levels into the
image of the divine Truth. Whether this occurs only individually, as with the Siddhas, or as
envisioned by Sri Aurobindo as a collective evolutionary leap in humanity, the result of the
descent of the supramental remains an open question.

Related issues requiring future research

The failure of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother to bring down the supramental into humanity
raises many related questions. Was his vision of a spiritual evolutionary process for
humanity largely a product of the times, under the influence of Charles Darwin’s On the
Origins of Species, the foundation of evolutionary biology and modern life sciences? How
valuable is the application of Integral Yoga without it? How effective is the method of
Integral Yoga: aspiration, rejection, and surrender? If it is effective, why is it not being
taught systematically by more exponents of Integral Yoga? To what extent do sadhaks of
Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga apply themselves regularly to its method as described in
this paper?

How can the discovery and opening of the Psychic Being become the means of resolving
the imperfections of human nature?

References

Aurobindo, Sri. “Letters on Yoga” in Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo, Vol. 28.
Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, 2012.

Aurobindo, Sri. The Synthesis of Yoga. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, 1935.

Aurobindo, Sri. The Human Cycle. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, 1949.

Aurobindo, Sri. The Ideal of the Karmayogin. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press,
1950.

Aurobindo, Sri. Last Poems 1938–40. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, 1952.

Aurobindo, Sri. On Yoga I, Tome I. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, 1969.

Aurobindo, Sri. Letters on Yoga, Centenary Edition. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Press, 1972.

14
Da Lieu. The Tao and Chinese Culture. New York: Schoken Books, 1979.

Ganapathy, T.N., and Anand, Geeta. “Monistic Theism in the Tirumandiram and Kashmir
Saivism,” in The Yoga of Tirumular: Essays on the Tirumandiram, 439–471. Eastman,
Canada: Babaji’s Kriya Yoga and Publications, 2012.

Ganapathy, T.N. et al. Tirumandiarm, Eastman, Canada: Babaji’s Kriya Yoga and
Publications, 2010.

Govindan, Marshall. Babaji and the 18 Siddha Kriya Yoga Tradition, 9th ed. Eastman,
Canada: Babaji’s Kriya Yoga and Publications, 2012.

Govindan, Marshall. The Kriya Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the Siddhas, 2nd ed.
Eastman, Canada: Babaji’s Kriya Yoga and Publications, 2000.

Mother, The. Mother’s Collected Works, vol. 3. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press,
2004.

Mother, The. The Mother, With Letters on the Mother and Translations of Prayers and
Meditations, SABCL, Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library, 25 vol. Pondicherry: Sri
Aurobindo Ashram Press, 1972.

Mukherjee, J.K. The Practice of the Integral Yoga. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Press, 2003.

Nirodbaran. Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo, Vol. 1. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo

Ashram Press, 1983.

Roy, Dilip K. Sri Aurobindo Came to Me. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press,
1952.

Satprem. The Adventure of Consciousness. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press,

1975.

Thulasiram, T.R. Arut Perum Jothi and Deathless Body. Madras University Press, 1980.

Thulasiram, T.R. “The Supramental Harmony Power Settles in the Ashram,” 1989,
unpublished paper given to the author by T.R. Thulisiram in Pondicherry.

15