Contact with the psychic being

(Loretta:) “Mother and Sri Aurobindo said over and over again, that the first stage to be reached in Sri Aurobindo's Yoga is to realize our own psychic being – to have our psychic being come forward and govern our life.”

“What does the liberation of the psychic being mean?

Because one has the feeling — this is a feeling one very often has in the beginning of the sadhana — that the psychic being is as though shut up in a kind of hard shell, a prison, and that this is what prevents it from manifesting outwardly and entering into a conscious and constant relation with the outer consciousness, the outer being. One has altogether the feeling that it is as though enclosed in a box or in a prison with walls which must be broken or a door which must be forced in order to be able to enter. So naturally if one can break the walls, open the door, it liberates the psychic being which was shut in and which can now manifest externally. All these are images. But each person, naturally, has his own personal image, his personal method, with small modifications.
         Some of these images are very common to all those who have had the experience. For example, when one goes down into the depths of one’s being to find the psychic right at the bottom of one’s consciousness, there is this image of descending into a deep well, going down deeper and deeper, descending, and it is as though one were truly sinking into a well.
         Naturally all these are analogies; but they are associations with the experience of impressions which give a great deal of force and concrete reality to the experience. …
         To sit in meditation before a closed door, as though it were a heavy door of bronze — and one sits in front of it with the will that it may open — and to pass to the other side; and so the whole concentration, the whole aspiration is gathered into a beam and pushes, pushes, pushes against this door, and pushes more and more with an increasing energy until all of a sudden it bursts open and one enters. It makes a very powerful impression. And so one is as though plunged into the light and then one has the full enjoyment of a sudden and radical change of consciousness, with an illumination that captures one entirely, and the feeling that one is becoming another person. And this is a very concrete and very powerful way of entering into contact with one’s psychic being.”

“You never met him [Sri Aurobindo], did you?

(Satprem:) Yes, I had a darshan.

Ah, you saw him!

I also had an experience the first year I stayed here (although I didn't know it was an experience)....

Ah!

One night during my first year here, he came and placed his hand over my heart, and in my dream I wept and wept and wept.... Afterwards I told myself, “What a strange imagination!” I took it for imagination!

Oh, mon petit, how wonderful!

He put his hand on my heart and I wept. I wept in my dream, just as hard as I could.

It's psychic, the psychic contact.
         Oh, then ... it's not going to be so difficult.
         Good ... good.”

(Roger Toll:) “In my previous visits to Mother, it was very similar to Shraddhavan's wonderful description: nothing existed in the room but the Mother and She was enormous. You would walk in with flowers, you would place your head on Her lap, look into Her eyes, She would touch your hand, give one a flower and off you go. This time it was very different. As She was looking at me, perhaps She saw an obstruction in my inner being and decided to do some ‘spiritual surgery’.
         Holding both of my hands between Her two hands, I suddenly felt an enormous pressure, – certainly too great to originate from a very frail, small, ninety-three years old person. It was very, very powerful. And Her face went from that smile – as all those who have seen the Mother will remember, it went from ear to ear, vast – and took on the ferocious face of Kali by an imperative determination. Her right eye seemed very distant, perhaps in other worlds, but Her left eye appeared to begin to spin around as though it were a drill, and She bored down into my deepest heart right down to the level of my chest. She hit a deep, tenacious layer of what felt like hard rubber. She pushed against it and it barely budged. It actually hurt physically. She pulled back out, and smiled broadly from ear to ear while patting my hands. Then again, She dove back in, – with Her eye spinning, – entering through my eyes, with Her consciousness. She hit the same obstruction. Again She came back up, reassuring me in the same way, then dove back in a third time with an ever greater intensity. This time the obstruction ripped open. Her consciousness went right into my heart centre and opened it. It was an incredibly powerful experience. When She came back out, She said, “Et Voila, mon petit,” and She patted my hands and gave me a big smile along with a ‘transformation’ flower.”

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See also

• Ritam “The Psychic Being and the sudden bursting of its veil: In the light of Sri Aurobindo’s and Mother’s philosophy, and the words of some people who experienced it unexpectedly”
• Psychic being
• Spiritual experience
• Parts of being under the influence of the soul