Perhaps the system of Sri Aurobindo was not metaphysically airtight, but in as much as he

was attempting to subjectively describe a process that was often bypassed or ignored in
popular yoga, leading to something like sahaj, wherein the world is not denied or negated,
then much of what he said will have clear value. Let us see, however, if we can break it down
for our better understanding.
There are three main stages, a "Triple transformation", in the progression of the Integral
Yoga: the Psychic, the Spiritual, and the Supramental. Psychicization "joins the depth of the
being with the surface". The Psychic Being, according to Aurobindo, resides behind the heart
and must be brought forward in order for the divine force to be enabled to descend and
progressively liberate the head, the heart, and the navel.
Right here it seems that he is saying that bringing forward the psychic being which lies
behind the heart does not in itself liberate the heart, mind, or navel, but somehow produces
an equanimitous condition which itself is conducive to the descent of the divine force which
will then affect such liberation. This seems to mean a relative yogic purification and not to be
confused with final liberation or enlightenment as spoken of in the scriptures. That is, there
are stages of evolution on the way to enlightenment, if you will, that must not be confused
with ultimate or final enlightenment itself but are preparation for it. I realize that some
contemporary non-duals will scream at me for saying that. So be it. I am simply presenting a
doctrine and my interpretaton could be wrong. Sri Aurobindo appears to be saying, however,
that there is a point in ones path where the Soul, or higher part of the Soul, to use the
terminology of the ancients, which Sri Aurobindo calls the Psychic Being, begins to guide
one onwards.
The Psychic Being is the highest part of the emotional being, the 'deputy' of the Jivatman
(which he said resides above the head), the 'flame born out of the divine', the 'concealed
Witness and Control', and the 'hidden guide'. Through self-surrender to the divine by mind,
heart, and will the Psychic Being will open, and the surface ego-consciousness will be
replaced with the self-consciousness of the Psychic. The opening of the Psychic Being brings
"not knowledge but an essential or spiritual feeling - it has the clearest sense of Truth and a
sort of inherent perception of it." To Aurobindo this stage of bringing forward of the Psychic
is a most crucial one for on it rests the entire process that follows. He also considers the
Psychic Being an "indestructible spark of the divine", and that by which we exist as individual
beings in the world. The transformation of the Psychic is essentially an emotional
transformation. To me this seems to be saying that the King within, the Divine Soul, takes a
hand in the work of liberation when the jiva or ego-self is truly serious. The emanent of the
Soul, its lower part, to use Plotinus term, must try as hard as it can, make all necessary
efforts, before the Higher Will, as Anthony Damiani put it, comes down to complete the
work. This implies more advanced stages to come after the process of heart-awakening and
spiritual glimpses begins during Psychicisation. These develop on the basis of a heartsurrendered ego-I, and are not therefore personal attainments by a willful separate self, but
processes of evolution guided by the Soul and the Nous. This may be something, therefore,
that Short Path advocates and radical advaitists may dismiss since it is not in their
experience. But that does not mean that it is not real. While I do not necessarily fully agree
with it, the Kheper website offers an interpretation of Psychicisation that is worth considering.
Among other things, he equates the Psychic Being with the "Immortal Ego" of Theosophy,
"higher manas", and other terms in various traditions.
While "Psychicization means the joining of the depths of the being to the surface,
"Spiritualization" means the uniting of the manifested existence with what is above it." (6)

Once Psychicization is achieved, a process of ascent of consciousness is initiated, with an

accompanying or simultaneous descent of divine light.
This entire process, once again, can be considered one in which the Soul comes forth to
guide and watch over the aspirant. Aurobindo said [the following excerpt is passage is long
but worth reading]:
A the crust of the outer nature cracks, as the walls of inner separation break down, the
inner light gets through, the inner fire burns in the heart, the substance of the nature and the
stuff of consciousness refine to a greater subtlety and purity, and the deeper psychic
experiences, those which are not solely of an inner mental or inner vital character, become
possible in this subtler, purer, finer substance; the soul begins to unveil itself, the psychic
personality reaches its full stature. The soul, the psychic entity, then manifests itself as the
central being which upholds mind and life and body and supports all the other powers and
functions of the Spirit; it takes up its greater function as the guide and ruler of the nature
[note: Anthony Damiani's reference to the King within] . A guidance, a governance begins
from within which exposes every movement of the light of Truth, repels what is false, obscure,
opposed to the divine realisation, every region of the being, every nook and corner of it, every
movement, formation, direction, propensity, desire, habit of the conscious or subconscious
physical, even the most concealed, camouflaged, mute, recondite, is lighted up with the
unerring psychic light, their confusions dissipated, their tangles disentangled, their
obscurities, deceptions, self-deceptions precisely modulated in the psychic key, put in spiritual
order. This process may be rapid or tardy according to the amount of obscurity and resistance
still left in the nature, but it goes on unfalteringly so long as it is not complete. As a final
result the whole conscious being is made perfectly apt for spiritual experience of every kind,
turned towards spiritual truth of thought, feeling, sense, action, tuned to the right responses,
delivered from darkness and stubborness of the tamasic inertia, the turbidities and
trubulences of the rajasic passion and restless unharmonised kinetism, the enlightened
rigidities and sattwic limitations or poised balancements of constructed equilibrium which
are the character of ignorance.
This is the first result, but the second is a free inflow of all kinds of spiritual experience,
experience of the Self, experience of Ishwara and the Divine Shakti, experience of cosmic
consciousness, a direct touch with cosmic forces and with the occult movements of universal
Nature, a psychic sympathy and unity and inner communication and interchanges of all kinds
with other beings and with nature, illumination of the mind by knowledge, illumination of the
heart by love and devotion and spiritual joy and ecstasy, illuminations of the sense and the
body by higher expereince, illuminations of dynamic action in the truth and largeness of a
purified mind and heart and soul, the certitudes of divine light and guidance, the joy and
power of the divine force working in the will and the conduct...
But all this change and all this experience, though psychic and spiritual in essence and
character, would still be, in its parts of life-effectuation, on the mental,vital and physical
level; its dynamic spiritual outcome would be a flowering of the soul in mind and life and
body, but in act and form it would be circumscribed within the limitations - however enlarged,
uplifted and rarified - of an inferior instrumentation. It would be a reflected and modified
manifestation of things whose full reality, intensity, largeness, oneness and diversity of truth
and power and delight are above us, above mind and therefore above any perfection, within
minds own formula, of the foundations or superstructure of our present nature. A highest
spiritual transformation must intervene on the psychic or psycho-spiritual change; the
psychic movement inward to the inner being, the Self or Divinity within us, must be completed

by an opening upward toward a supreme spiritual status or a higher existence. This can be
done by our opening into what is above us, by an essent of consciousness into the ranges of
overmind and supramental nature in which the sense of self and spirit is ever unveiled and
permanent and in which the self-luminous instrumentation of the self and spirit is not
restricted or divided as in our mind-nature, life-nature, body-nature. This also the psychic
change makes possible for as it opens us to the cosmic consciousness now hidden from us by
many walls of limited individuality, so also it opens us to what is now superconscient to our
normality because it is hidden from us by the strong, hard and bright lid of mind, - mind
constricting, dividing and separative. The lid thins, is slit, breaks asunder or opens and
disappears under the pressure of the psycho-spiritual change and the natural urge of the new
spiritualised consciousness towards that of which it is an expression here...
If the the rift in the lid of mind is made, what happens is an opening of vision to something
above us or rising up towards it or a descent of its powers into our being. What we see by the
opening of the vision is an Infinity above us, an eternal Presence or an infinite Existence, an
infinity of consciousness, an infinity of bliss, - a boundless Self, a boundless Light, a
boundless Power, a boundless Ecstasy...
[The spiritual transformation] achieves itself and culminates in an upward ascent often
repeated by which consciousness fixes itself on a higher plane and from there sees and
governs the mind, life and body; it achieves itself also in an increasing descent of the powers
of the higher consciousness and knowledge which become more and more the whole normal
consciousness and knowledge. A light and power, a knowledge and force are felt which first
take possession of the mind and remould it, afterwards of the life part and remould that,
finally of the physical conscousness and leave it no longer little but wide and plastic and even
infinite. For this new consciousness has itself the nature of infinity: it brings to us the abiding
spiritual sense and awareness of the infinite and eternal with a great largeness of the nature
and a breaking down of its limitations; immortality becomes no longer a belief or an
experience but a normal self-awareness; the close presence of the Divine Being, his rule of
this world and of our self and natural members, his force working in us and everywhere, the
peace of the infinite, the joy of the infinite are now concrete and constant in the being; in all
sights and forms one sees the Eternal, the Reality, in all sounds one ears it, in all touch one
feels it; there is nothing else but its forms and personalities and manifestations; the joy or
adoration of the heart, the embrace of all existence, the unity of the spirit are abiding
realities. the consciousness of the mental creature is turning or has been already turned
wholly into the consciousness of the spiritual being. (LD 941-947)
So far, so good. Aurobindo, then makes the argument, however, that only now can the
supramental transformation begin, something that must happen, on earth, and for mans furher
spiritual evolution to complete itself:
Neither life or mind succeeds in converting or perfecting the material existence, because
they cannot attain to their own full force in these conditions; they need to call in a higher
power to liberate and fulfill them. But the higher spiritual-mental powers also undergo the
same disability when they descend into life and matter; they can do much more, achieve much
luminous change, but the modification, the limitation, the disparity between the consciousness
that comes in and the force of effectuation that it can mentalise and materialise, are
constantly there and the result is a diminished creation. The change made is often
extraordinary, there is even something which looks like a total conversion and reversal of the
state of consciousness and an uplifting of its movements, but it is not dynamically absolute.

Only the supermind can thus descend without losing its full power of action; for its action is
always intrinsic and automatic, its will and knowledge identical and the result commensurate;
its nature is a self-achieving Truth-consciousness and, if it limits itself or its working, it is by
choice and intention, not by compulsion; in the limits it chooses its action and the results of
its action are harmonious and inevitable...As the psychic change has to call in the spiritual to
complete it, so the first spiritual change has to call in the supramental transformation to
complete it. For all these steps forward are, like those before them, transitional; the whole
radical change in the evolution from a basis of ignorance to a basis of Knowledge can only
come by the intervention of the supramental Power and its direct action in earth-existence.
(LD 950-951)
Before going further, it must again be emphasized how important this issue of Psychicizaton
is to all that comes after it in the Integral Yoga. Ascent into the suble planes without the
grounding in this higher feeling nature, and moreover, as Aurobindo said, surrender of the
heart, mind, and will which induces the bringing forth of the Psychic nature, one will run
into trouble ascending into the overhead subtle planes, which he terms The Intermediate Zone.
Alan Kazlev, in his article The Wilberian Paradigm A Fourfold Critique: Towards a Larger
Definition of the Integral, Part Two, found in the Journal Antimatters, published quarterly by
Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Podicherry, India, discusses these concepts
and argues that without the development and purification brought about by the Psychic Being
one can end up with a diluted form of spirituality in which a teacher, while possessing a
greater or lesser degree of non-dual realisation, even total self-realisation on the mental or
consciousness level, [one] nevertheless retain ego, and can often have a destructive and
abusive effect on their disciples and devotees. To understand how this can be so, we need to
look at the Intermediate Zone. The Intermediate zone, in Sri Aurobindo's philosophy, refers to
a dangerous and misleading transitional spiritual and pseudospiritual region between the
ordinary consciousness of the outer being and true spiritual realisation. To quote the master
of Integral Yoga:
"These things, when they pour down or come in, present themselves with a great force, a
vivid sense of inspiration or illumination, much sensation of light and joy, an impression of
widening and power. The sadhak feels himself freed from the normal limits, projected into a
wonderful new world of experience, filled and enlarged and exalted;what comes associates
itself, besides, with his aspirations, ambitions, notions of spiritual fulfilment and yogic siddhi;
it is represented even as itself that realisation and fulfilment. Very easily he is carried away by
the splendour and the rush, and thinks that he has realised more than he has truly done,
something final or at least something sovereignly true. At this stage the necessary knowledge
and experience are usually lacking which would tell him that this is only a very uncertain and
mixed beginning; he may not realise at once that he is still in the cosmic Ignorance, not in the
cosmic Truth, much less in the Transcendental Truth, and that whatever formative or dynamic
idea-truths may have come down into him are partial only and yet further diminished by their
presentation to him by a still mixed consciousness. He may fail to realise also that if he rushes
to apply what he is realising or receiving as if it were something definitive, he may either fall
into confusion and error or else get shut up in some partial formation in which there may be
an element of spiritual Truth but it is likely to be outweighted by more dubious mental and
vital accretions that deform it altogether." (7)
Sri Aurobindo suggests that the awakening of the Soul or Divine Center (the "Psychic
Being"), is an understanding that is absent or not acknowledged in many non-dual paradigms.
He explains:

"The other parts of our natural composition are not only mutable but perishable; but the
psychic entity in us persists and is fundamentally the same always: it contains all essential
possibilities of our manifestation but is not constituted by them; it is not limited by what it
manifests, not contained by the incomplete forms of the manifestation, not tarnished by the
imperfections and impurities, the defects and depravations of the surface being. It is an everpure flame of the divinity in things and nothing that comes to it, nothing that enters into our
experience can pollute its purity or extinguish the flame. This spiritual stuff is immaculate
and luminous and, because it is perfectly luminous, it is immediately, intimately, directly
aware of truth of being and truth of nature; it is deeply conscious of truth and good and
beauty because truth and good and beauty are akin to its own native character, forms of
something that is inherent in its own substance. It is aware also of all that contradicts these
things, of all that deviates from its own native character, of falsehood and evil and the ugly
and the unseemly; but it does not become these things nor is it touched or changed by these
opposites of itself which so powerfully affect its outer instrumentation of mind, life and body.
For the soul, the permanent being in us, puts forth and uses mind, life and body as its
instruments, undergoes the envelopment of their conditions, but it is other and greater than its
members." (8)
Kazlev summarizes that this stage of realization is not the Paramatman, not Shunyata, not
any Transcendent Absolute Reality. It is the Inner Divine center, although it is often due to
the lack of spiritual development in many veiled and hidden from the surface personality
and ordinary consciousness. One can find analogies in other spiritual teachings; the Inner
Guide or "Man of Light" in some Hermetic and Sufi beliefs, some interpretations of the
Neshamah or higher Soul in Kabbalah, the Higher Manas in Blavatskyan Theosophy (and
equivalents in Neo-Theosophy), the "Holy Guardian Angel" in contemporary occultism, the,
to some extent, "good heart" in the 14th Dalai Lama's teachings.
In Integral Yoga, then, "Psychicization" is when the Divine Center or Heart Consciousness
comes to the front and leads the being, transforming and guiding the lower nature as it goes.
Continues Sri Aurobindo:
"The soul, the Psychic entity, then manifests itself as the central being which upholds mind
and life and body and supports all the other powers and functions of the Spirit; it takes up its
greater function as the guide and ruler of the nature. A guidance, a governance begins from
within which exposes every movement to the light of Truth, repels what is false, obscure,
opposed to the divine realisation: every region of the being...even the most concealed,
camouflaged, mute, recondite, is lighted up with the unerring psychic light, their confusions
dissipated, their tangles disentangled, their obscurities, deceptions, self-deceptions precisely
indicated and removed; all is purified, set right, the whole nature harmonised, modulated in
the psychic key, put in spiritual order."(9)
This Heart or Divine Soul Consciousness, argues Kazlev, is precisely what is absent in
abusive gurus, and others who, by emphasising the non-dual above all else, bypass the work
on transforming the personality via the help of the Divine Soul, and one possible result of this
is their becoming unknowingly trapped by their own egos, and, for would-be mystics, lost in
the Intermediate Zone itself. Sri Aurobindo was well aware of these dangers:
"Some of these experiences can come by an opening of the inner mental and vital being, the
inner and larger and subtler mind and heart and life within us, without any full emergence of
the soul, the psychic entity, since there too there is a power of direct contact of consciousness:
but the experience might then be of a mixed character; for there could be an emergence not

only of the subliminal knowledge but of the subliminal ignorance. An insufficient expansion of
the being, a limitation by mental idea, by narrow and selective emotion or by the form of the
temperament so that there would be only an imperfect self-creation and action and not the
free soul-emergence, could easily occur. In the absence of any or of a complete Psychic
emergence, experiences of certain kinds, experiences of greater knowledge and force, a
surpassing of the ordinary limits, might lead to a magnified ego and even bring about instead
of an out-flowering of what is divine or spiritual an uprush of the titanic or demoniac, or
might call in agencies and powers which, though not of this disastrous type, are of a powerful
but inferior cosmic character." (10)
In actuality, most non-dualists teach very clearly of the dangers, delusions, and, in their
opinion, relative lack of value in experiences of subtle realms or states as compared to that of
the simple presence of the One Mind itself. It is argued by some, however, that such nonduality often tends towards excess reductionism. Kazlev takes the position that many non-dual
teachings promise only partial realizations, shells that might look good on the outside but
have no light within, in contrast to what he calls Divine Soul-centered realizations such as
Aurobindo's that are free of the perils of the Intermediate Zone. Is this position true? The nondualists, of course, will argue that it is not. Personally, I do not know which is true, whether it
is either, neither, or both. There are, however, two distinct points here. Yes, one who has
opened his heart may be free of the delusions of the Intermediate Zone, but so also might one
who had achieved a genuine non-dual awakening. Simply because there may be teachers of
either non-duality or mysticism who have succumbed to the temptations and ego-inflating
inner experiences of the subtle planes does not mean that their philosophy itself is false. That
must be argued on more specific philosophical grounds, not the failings of particular teachers.
Continuing, after the process of Psychicization fulfills itself, four levels of "Spiritualisation"
then awaken progressively: Higher Mind, Illuminative Mind, Intuition, and Overmind.
Aurobindo describes the manifestation of the Higher Mind as that of conception, spiritual
ideas, 'luminous thought'; that of Illuminative Mind as direct inner vision, sight, 'spiritual
light'; that of Intuition as more than sight or conception, 'a power of consciousness', 'truthsight'; and that of Overmind as 'a delegated light from the supramental gnosis'. The Overmind
is 'a delegate of the Supermind Consciousness', its 'delegate to the Ignorance'. Further:
"When the Overmind descends, the predominance of the ego-sense is entirely subordinated
and finally lost; a wide feeling of a boundless Universal self replaces it." (11)
Ken Wilber correlated these levels with stages in his early spiritual schemata as follows:
Illuminative Mind (psychic), Intuitive Mind (subtle), Overmind (causal), and Supermind, or
the Supramental Consciousness (ultimate stage; Sahaj or Turiya). In the minds of many it was
considered that Wilber borrowed his basic schemata from that of Adi Da (aka Da Free John).
One can see here that psychic for Wilber had little correlaton to the term Psychic Being as
used by Aurobindo. Can we then dissect the work of Aurobindo further to better determine
what he means by his use of these descriptive levels? We will try, while continuing to offer
links to the Kheper's interpretations for comparison.
Perhaps Higher Mind is what is spoken of elsewhere as higher manas, which might be
the same as the rational soul of the Greeks, such as Plotinus; Illuminative Mind might be
equivalent to buddhi; Intuition a direct faculty from the Overmind; and the Overmind
itself what PB refered to as the Overself or ther World-Mind in Individual-Mind - as
experienced in trance and the absence of the World-Image. It may be that Aurobindo was

attempting to re-cycle standard Hindu concepts and present them to a Western audience.
While the Overmind is the summit of the usual realization in yoga, in the view of
Aurobindo, for him it did not go far enough. This could be the traditional causal stage, the
inner heart-realization of the Witness self, or the anandamaya kosha in the heart center, where
the world is not yet re-incorporated into the realization for it to be considered the full
awakening into Sahaj. The Overmind could be the Void-Mind as experienced within at the
furthest reach of subjectivity. Its realization might also be considered Nirvikalpa Samadhi.
[The only difficulty here is that he uses the words the descent of the Overmind, which is
somewhat non-traditional. Does it descend only to someone who is in meditative trance, or in
normal waking consciousness? Various writings of Aurobindo and the Mother suggest that it
often occurs in the latter.] According to Aurobindo, the descent of the Overmind
"would not be able to transform wholly the Inconscience ... a basis of Nescience would
remain; it would be as if a Sun and its system were to shine out in an original darkness of
Space and illumine everything as far as its rays could reach so that all that dwelt in the light
would feel as if no darkness were there at all in their experience of existence. But outside that
sphere or expanse of experience the original darkness would still be there." (12)
Now we have other terms to grapple with: "inconscience" and "nescience". And
nescience, said the great Sankara, is not explainable. This might be equated with the
concept of "Matter" of Plotinus, a catch-all phrase for what he considered as something
inexperiencable and untouchable by consciousness, but a necessary basis for 'Evil'; or, it may
just be Aurobindo's way of assigning a label to the as yet unillumined earth plane. It confuses
things considerably. Leaving this for now, however, Sri Aurobindo further says that while the
Overmind would transform each man it would not "bring about a radical change in the
evolutionary process of terrestrial existence." (13) This would also be the case with the yogis
typical experience of Nirvikalpa samadhi as well. With the descent of the Supermind,
however, there can be the realization of the supreme divine reality in ascent as well as the
manifestation of divine consciousness in material existence. The descent of the Supermind
creates the 'Gnostic Being', in which the will of the Spirit, rather than the unconscious and the
subconscious, controls the movements of the body. The mind is replaced with a consciousness
of unity and the body is transformed into "a true and fit and perfectly responsive instrument
of the spirit." (14) [The language here, while meant to be revolutionary, is almost identical to
that used by Babuji Maharaj, a Radhasoami guru mentioned below in note 20]. According to
Aurobindo, all opposition between matter and spirit is gone when this gnostic transformation
finally occurs.
"Supramentalisation" might possibly be the equivalent of the development of what PB
termed the philosophic sage. Without something like the Supermind stage the world would
still not be understood as divine when the yogi or mystic comes out of his trance. Samsara and
Nirvana, the World and Brahman, would not be realized as One. PB wrote:
"The highest contribution which mysticism can make is to afford its votaries glimpses of
that grand substratum of the universe which we may call the Overself. These glimpses reveal
It in the pure unmanifest non-physical essence that It ultimately is. They detach It from the
things, creatures, and thoughts which make up this world of ours, and show It as It is in the
beginning, before the world-dream made its appearance. Thus mysticism at its farthest
stretch, which is Nirvikalpa samadhi, enables man to bring about the temporary
disappearance of the world-dream and come into comprehension of the Mind within which,
and from which, the dream emerges. The mystic in very truth conducts the funeral service of

the physical world as he has hitherto known it, which includes his own ego. But this is as far
as mysticism can take him. It is an illuminative and rare experience, but it is not the end. For
the next task which he must undertake if he is to advance is to relate his experience of this
world as real with his experience of the Overself as real. And this he can do only by studying
the world's own nature, laying bare its mentalistic character and thus bringing it within the
same circle as its source, the Mind. If he succeeds in doing this and in establishing this
relation correctly, he will have finished his apprenticeship, ascended to the ultimate truth, and
become a philosopher. Thenceforward he will not deny the world but accept it.
The metaphysician may also perform this task and obtain an intellectual understanding of
himself, the world, and the Overself. And he has this advantage over the mystic, that his
understanding becomes permanent whereas the mystic's rapt absorption must pass. But if he
has not passed through the mystical exercises, it will remain as incomplete as a nut without a
kernel. For these exercises, when led to their logical and successful issue in Nirvikalpa
samadhi, provide the vivifying principle of experience which alone can make metaphysical
tenets real.
From all this we may perceive why it is quite correct for the mystic to look undistractedly
within for his goal, why he must shut out the distractions and attractions of earthly life in
order to penetrate the sacred precinct, and why solitude, asceticism, meditation, trance, and
emotion play the most important roles in his particular experience. What he is doing is right
and proper at his stage but is not right and proper as the last stage. For in the end he must
turn metaphysician, just as the metaphysician must turn mystic and just as both must turn
philosopher- -who is alone capable of infusing the thoughts of metaphysics and the feelings of
mysticism into the actions of everyday practical life.
Two things have to be learned in this quest. The first is the art of mind-stilling, of emptying
consciousness of every thought and form whatsoever. This is mysticism or Yoga. The disciple's
ascent should not stop at the contemplation of anything that has shape or history, name or
habitation, however powerfully helpful this may have formerly been to the ascent itself. Only
in the mysterious void of Pure Spirit, in the undifferentiated Mind, lies his last goal as a
mystic. The second is to grasp the essential nature of the ego and of the universe and to
obtain direct perception that both are nothing but a series of ideas which unfold themselves
within our minds. This is the metaphysics of Truth. The combination of these two activities
brings about the realization of his true Being as the ever beautiful and eternally beneficent
Overself. This is philosophy." (15)
A key difference between Aurobindo and PB, however, and a not insignificant one at that, is
that for Aurobindo the process of "Spiritualisation" actually divinizes the world, rather than
just ushering in for the sage the realization of the always already, ever-present divinity in the
Nous or Divine Mind. This is a major philosophical difference, which we will try to elaborate
more on later. [In certain places, followers of Aurobindo rather loosely refer to the
Supramental as the Nous, which is not what PB or Plotinus would mean by the term, for there
could be no understanding in its traditional usage of "bringing the Supramental light, or light
of the Nous, down into the world". Such a descent could only take place through the medium
of the Soul, the eternal emanent of the Nous. This, in essence, is something that I feel that
Aurobindo apologists such as the Kheper do not fully grasp when, as a reader who studies his
links will note, criticisms of the realization of Ramana Maharshi (and Adi Da) as "Monistic"
are made in statements such as, "Supramentalisation means physical Divinisation: the
culmination of the ascent along the vertical dimension toward the totally Transcendent or
"higher" Radiant Source of Being, and the drawing down of that Source into the physical

organism, as opposed to the simple realisation of that Absolute in the heart-centre."] My

sense is that such a criticism may have some merit when applied against the early realization
and teaching communication of the Maharshi, but fails to truly grasp what he meant by the
Heart, and what PB meant by the Overself, in their more mature stages.
Here the advaitist will also likely object, saying where is this opposition between the world
and God that Aurobindo is trying to close? It doesnt exist, except in the mind. Only right
understanding is necessary to know this. If what Aurobindo is trying to say is that with the
so-called descent of the Supermind one realizes sahaj samadhi, the natural state, turiya, well
and good. Yet the feeling cant help arising that he meant something more. His writing is
difficult, at times abstruse and repetitive, but speaks of a hidden revelation in the Vedas which
he had newly rediscovered. An article by Sat Prem (author of Sri Aurobindo and the
Adventure of Consciousness), called "The Secret of the Veda, paints an elegant, almost
poetic, picture of this divine adventure and these hidden truths, but I still fail to understand
it.... Did Aurobindo really find something new , or was his language unclear and perhaps
imprecise? Would he have written differently about the process of Psychicization, for
instance, if he were alive today, and had access to the past fifty years of advances in bodybased psychotherapeutic techniques? [Actually, an Integral Psychology has been developed by
some of his disciples that attempts to unite humanistic-existential growth psychotherapies
with the principles of Integral Yoga. This hyperlink is also good for a further introduction to
the concepts of Integral Yoga, and provides many more links to the same]. Would Aurobindos
terminology or approach have been different if he had been privy to the worldwide
interchange between Zen masters, Lamas, Gurus, Masters, Advaitists and other teachers that
we have today, and also the close exchange of ideas provided through the Internet? Is it
possible that the secret he felt was imbedded in the Vedas really something newly
rediscovered? Again, I dont know. But talk of a Supermind...mmmmm...reminds me of
watching TV as a kid: able to leap tall buildings at a single bound, more powerful than a
speeding locomotive, bend steel in his bare hands, change the course of mighty rivers,
...look....its Super-Yogi ! - and who, disguised as Clark Kent-Ji, mild-mannered sadhu for a
great metropolitan ashram, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the ....Divine
Plan! Sorry, I just couldnt help that. Help me God, I am just a poor, confused writer and
would-be lover of yours, who means no disrespect. This is really hard stuff to get through.
The voluminous work of Aurobindo represents one of the most creative efforts that India
had produced in years, and his letters on yoga are still useful and alive. There are so many
good points in his teaching that it is a painstaking task to find disagreement with it - or, as
mentioned, even understand it. His perspective approximates the higher dharmas in many
ways: the advocacy of a stage beyond ascent in which the world is not excluded from
realization; the emphasis on the need for a guru and grace; the insistence on beginning the
path by bringing the 'Psychic' or intuitive-feeling being forward, to allow the subsequent
spiritual process to unfold relatively uncontaminated by egoity, and, particularly, for
Aurobindo, secure against the dangers of premature exposure to the subtle dimensions, even
for those who have had non-dual awakenings or true spiritual glimpses; and his confession
that such awakenings or intuitions of the divine, Brahman, or the Soul can be had without
access to the higher planes. All of these points are a positive advance over the one-dimensonal
and often escapist mystical strategy that is found so frequently in the East and the West. It
could be that Sri Aurobindo was grappling with the difficulties in integrating and modernizing
a profusion of ancient doctrines, much like PB.
To recap, our best guess is that by the process of Psychicisation is meant that the Psychic
being or higher Soul at some point takes an active role in the instruction and guidance of the

ego and the ego responds and submits to it. It represents an insertion of a higher point of view
into the ego and conscious reception of grace. it is yet a step towards liberation, but not
infrequently punctuated by moments of awakening. The acknowledgement of the Psychic
Being presupposes such a thing as a Soul, which many advaitists, Zen students, and other
non-dualists may be quick to deny any role or even existence. This is unnecessary, however,
when it is recognized that Soul, as the term was used by the ancients, represents a
transcendental and eternal principle and is not a fixed entity or mental construct lending itself
to such criticisms. [See The Integrationalists and the Non-Dualists and PB and Plotinus: The
Fallacy of Divine Identity on this website for extensive discussion of this topic].