reason M

 These conversations were held from December 18, 1925 to November 20, 1926. Pavitra, a French engineer of the Polytechnic School, arrived at Pondicherry on the 17th of December, 1925, having come from a Mongolian lamasery where his spiritual search had driven him, after his having spent four years in Japan. He never left Pondicherry again, where he lived for forty-four years in the service of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. He left his body on May 16, 1969. These brief conversations were noted from memory, most of the time in French, except towards the end. Hence, they do not represent the exact words of the Master, but are as faithful a record as possible. Pavitra was then 31 years old  

  Tuesday, December 22, 1925 It seems to me that there are two levels in the mind: the first attends to images and forms; the second to words and ideas. Beyond this is the principle of comprehension (Buddhi). I can easily dissociate myself from the lower mind. When I recall to memory an idea or phrase which I have just expressed, I can also remain detached. But when for instance, I reason, I am one with my mind (more exactly Buddhi is joined to manas). This is true — but there is yet a third thing, it is the mind in itself, different from the forms and ideas it produces. It is a principle which pervades the whole universe — calm and transparent. Most people — and you also — identify yourself with the mind and its activities: you confuse the mind and its activities. You must succeed in separating yourself from Prakriti and knowing yourself as the Purusha. The method I was taught was to kill all thoughts when they appeared before me, quite simply by looking at them steadily. You say that you sleep, for indeed the only form of silence ordinary man knows for the mind is sleep. But this must be overcome — it is a known obstacle which all must overcome. Reject sleep as you reject other ills of the lower nature. You have the strength to do it, being the Purusha. Then one of the following two things will happen: either you will remain fully conscious but with the mind empty, or you will have this consciousness but not in the waking state, that is, you will be in Samadhi. So, this work is the first step for you.  

  Friday, December 25, 1925 Remaining attentive facing my thoughts — I found that they disappeared immediately on my looking steadily at them. The means of killing them, hence, is to watch attentively and, as soon as one becomes conscious of any, destroy it thus. This succeeds quite well in the region of words but less in that of images. I can manage to remain thus, conscious only of my attention. But the mind is not dead. I feel it behind the door. At certain moments I have the impression that I shall soon lose consciousness (?). Good, but you are still conscious of your effort to kill the thoughts. This is natural, but in time this will disappear also. As for the loss of consciousness, do not fear. It might happen that, besides the two alternatives put before you last time, you could fall into an unconsciousness of which you would not keep any memory. You must try to avoid that and to attain either the waking state without mind or Samadhi. Is reading harmful? I do not need it much, and sometimes mental work is painful to me. You must not make any mental rules. Do according to your inner needs. Reading is not harmful in itself. 

  Wednesday, December 30, 1925 I succeed for a few minutes in keeping myself attentive, empty of thought — but then the sensations return with a new strength. I do not succeed in turning away from a noise once my attention is caught there, for I have no object of concentration. The first step is not to withdraw from all thought and sensation, but to consider them as outside oneself. There are two regions in the mind, one active, the other calm and attentive, not dragged away by the movements of nature. It is this distinction that you must make. You want to go too fast by suppressing even the thought: `I am not that’. At the moment this thought is your instrument. Remain the spectator of your thoughts and sensations, recognising that they are outside you and do not affect you. Then the higher consciousness (Purusha consciousness) will descend and take possession of your mind. But never struggle, for, in the mind, what you reject violently returns with a greater force. To struggle is to enter into all sorts of difficulties.

  Monday, January 4, 1926 I succeed in fixing my consciousness so as to remain awake, immobile, in the silence. This state lasts only for a few moments. It happens that my consciousness is then centred in a point next to the eyebrow centre. This exercise involves a great fatigue of the brain and a work in the three centres: solar, eyebrow and occipital. Later, this cerebral effort will disappear, for you will not work with the brain. This is an intermediate state. Your consciousness will be centred at a particular moment outside your physical body — above your head -, then it will expand and you will become aware of its unity with the other centres. The throat-centre is not involved for it is not a mental centre, but only vocal. Most people who work with the emotional mind remain at the level of the solar plexus. If one becomes aware of one’s unity with the whole, does one consequently become capable of identifying one’s consciousness with that of another centre of consciousness? Not all at once. There are two stages. First, you will feel your unity with the other centres of consciousness `in the silence’. It is in the Transcendent that you will feel the identification. Later, you will realise this union even in the manifested activity — in the play of forces — and at that moment the union you speak about is possible. I do not yet succeed in realising actually the independence of my real being from my physical body — an independence which I can conceive mentally. Will I realise this division? This will necessarily come and you will realise that your body is an instrument which you can put aside. This is the first aspect of Mukti: the recognition that you are free from your body. 

  All the same, certain imperfections like the desire for approbation, for consideration, are very strong, though mentally I fight them. Yes, and your being is much more complex still than you imagine. The time will come when you will observe your inner being as though it were outside. And there is a part of your consciousness which gives its sanction to this movement of nature. For there is in you something which desires this approbation, although your mind struggles. But the mind can only restrain — it cannot change anything. That this change — this transmutation — may be effective, it is necessary, according to my own ideas, to attain the cosmic consciousness and to get possession thus of the `universal solvent’ as the alchemists say. Then can’t one transmute? No, this does not suffice. When you come down again from your cosmic consciousness, the same tendencies are there which can always be restored to life. But beyond the immanent aspect of the absolute power, the aspect which you realise in the experience of the cosmic consciousness, there is what may be called the transcendent aspect, which is creative and without limitations. This is the solvent which destroys and creates. The vital Purusha who consented to a certain movement of nature, must surrender to the higher life and the transformation is possible. There are several levels in the incarnated consciousness. The Upanishads speak of five Purushas bound to the five Koshas.1 In the case in which the soul succeeds in escaping from the world of forms and entering into Nirvana, in sinking into the silence, is this fusion and loss of individuality final? Naturally, this is what many seek. The Absolute has two aspects as Purusha: the transcendent, immutable Purusha and the mutable Purusha, as the Gita says. The soul can realise its union with the first: Prakriti disappears and the soul escapes from the manifested world [1] The five envelopes or five subtle bodies which constitute man. which it considered a falsehood, an illusion or a dangerous trap. But this cannot satisfy. For the Absolute contains also the mutable Purusha and the soul, if it wants integral union, must realise its unity with the Divine in the manifestation, as with the Transcendent. Besides, to say that the soul has become finally absorbed in the Absolute is only a way of speaking. Is this liberation final? I am far from granting this. The Absolute has an aspect which knows itself, loves itself, etc. through us as intermediaries. And that is the reason of the manifestation.