Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Triple Transformation - Track 1001

Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental transformation

Change is simply, as I told you earlier at one stage, when something which is in the cold place in the mind comes to the hot place. Yesterday the idea of God was dormant in my mind, today the idea of God becomes very prominent, so that is called the process of change. It was only peripheral yesterday, now it becomes central, this is a process of change. It is not a conversion. In a process of conversion that which was cold, that cold area is eliminated altogether, you are fully converted, the new idea assumes a tremendous place in your being when all which you are conscious of, is drenched by this new idea, it is conversion. But transformation is a much greater thing. In a psychic change you begin to become aware of the psychic being and try to bring the psychic being into the front. When it remains very much into the front, most of the time you can say that the now, psychic conversion has taken place. But when the psychic light suffuses all your being, body, life, mind, everything, you might even find difficult to make a distinction between the mind and the psychic being, between life and the psychic being, between body and psychic being, that is called psychic transformation. Everywhere wherever you look whether it is body, life and mind, you find nothing but the psychic being, psychic consciousness spread out, and nothing that is contrary to the psychic being is present; that is called psychic transformation.

 Similarly when you rise up and have the experiences of Purusha, Brahman, Ishwara and bring down the light and power and joy and bliss and presence and peace of these levels into the lower levels, some kind of spiritualisation starts. When body, life and the mind become very much aware of the Purusha, or of Brahman or of Ishwara, some kind of spiritualisation starts. A point comes when you are settled into Purusha experience all the time, all the time you are in the Brahman consciousness, all the time you are in the Ishwara consciousness. A major step has been taken then. If you cut off yourself from Prakriti, from all actions, then any question of further transformation does not arise, you just cut off and you can remain in your ivory tower doing nothing at all. Then you are never wrong and everything is fine, everything is peaceful. But if you start acting, then normally action starts with our normal being, with some experience which is behind in which you are liberated. And many human beings who are doing yoga, are seated in this disequilibrium, inwardly peaceful, outwardly turbulent. In rishis like Durvasa for example who may have been in a great state of a higher level of realisation but were still capable of great anger, this kind of disequilibrium existed. That means that the nature of body, life and mind has not had the infusion of the light and power and peace of the higher being into their lower parts.

So gradually to bring down is a process of descent. It is a long process, a very difficult process which can be aided by Jnana yoga, Bhakti yoga, Karma yoga, Raja yoga, Hatha yoga, by the process of purification, concentration, enrichment. You make use of these processes, but the ultimate result should be that this light and power and peace should really come down into the body, life and mind. But this becomes more and more effective if you enter into not only Purusha, Brahman and Ishwara but if you also enter into the higher Maya, divine Maya, into Shakti, into Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuitive mind, Overmind, and if you bring down the powers of these elements into your being, into your body, life and mind. Then the transformation becomes much more powerful. Then the overmental powers suffuse themselves into the body, mind, life, and that is called the climax of spiritual transformation. Just as suffusion of the psychic sweetness and light and purity into each and every part of body, life and mind was called psychic transformation, similarly the great event of the suffusion of the light and power and peace of Purusha, Brahman, Ishwara, through the instrumentality of Overmind – not of mind but of Overmind – into mind, life and body is called the climax of spiritual transformation. It is by itself such a tremendous achievement that one may be justified in saying that now there is nothing more to be done. Yet this unconscious and the inconscient are still not covered. The body may be transformed but the inconscient is still not transformed, and this can be done only if you can rise into the Supermind and if Overmind is supramentalised, Intuitive mind is supramentalised, Illumined Mind is supramentalised, Higher Mind is supramentalised, mind is supramentalised, life is supramentalised, body is supramentalised, inconscient is supramentalised. When this process is completed, that is called the Supramental transformation. This chapter which we call triple transformation speaks of these three transformations: the Psychic transformation, Spiritual transformation and Supramental transformation.