Sri Aurobindo wrote in a letter dated 24 December 1930
about the remarkable mystic experiences
Here is the progress towards physical transformation
made by the Mother after the significant move by Sri Aurobindo on 5 December
1950. In that sense she had gone far beyond what was achieved prior to that
year. Her concern was chiefly the physical, Matter by itself opening to the
divine possibilities in it. It is the physical which has to lend itself in a
dynamic way to the immortality of the spirit for the manifestation of the truth
in this creation. The Mother saw the problem of structural rigidity needed to
sustain form, of creating energy centres, yet that rigidity plastic to the
demands of immortality which is not just a renewal of form. In order that that
happens, there will be many intermediate stages, these then leading to the
supramentalisation of the body proper. The Mother also saw that the state of
spontaneous immortality is a thing which will happen at a much later stage.
Then there is the aspect of the ‘survival’ of the supramental being in the
atmosphere of prevalent mortality at present, survival against the precarious
conditions in which he will come. So what is going to manifest first is the
supramental Power, Power and Light as it happened on 29 February 1956.
30 September
1966
It is strange that this was the very subject of my
meditations these days—of the mortal putting on immortality—not deliberate, but
imposed from above. The mortal putting on immortality—how is it going to
happen? If we see the past, through the entire passage from the plant to the
animal and from the animal to man (especially from the animal to man), essentially
the differences in form are minimal; but the true transformation lies in the
intervention of another agent of consciousness. All the differences between the
life of the animal and the life of man come from the intervention of the Mind;
but the substance is essentially the same and it obeys the same laws of
formation and construction. For example, there is not much difference between a
calf that is formed in the womb of the cow and the child that is formed in the
womb of the mother. There is a difference, that of the intervention of the Mind.
There would be a passage from man to a being who would not be built in the same
manner, who would no longer function in the same manner, who would be like the
condensation and concretisation of “something”.... What I mean to say is that
perhaps the thing will be done through a large number of new creations. For
instance, the passage from man to this being will perhaps be accomplished
through all kinds of other intermediaries. It is the leap; that seems to me
tremendous.
I conceive very well a being who could, by spiritual
power, the power of his inner being, absorb the necessary forces, renew himself
and remain always young. But the total disappearance of this system of
construction—that seems to be... that seems to require stages.
Evidently, unless something happens how can a body like
ours become a body wholly built and moved by a higher force and without a
material support? This, how can this change into this other thing? That appears
impossible. How to change the structure?
Supple, plastic, yes, that one can conceive, it can
become plastic; that is to say, the form will not be fixed as now. All that one
can conceive, but...
I am absolutely convinced, that the life of this
body—the life which makes it move and change—can be replaced by a force; that is
to say, one can create a kind of immortality, and the wear and tear can also
disappear. These two things are possible: the power of life can come and the
wear and tear can disappear. And that can come psychologically, through a total
obedience to the divine Impulsion, which enables one to have at each moment the
force that is needed,—these are certitudes. Well, one must educate and slowly
transform, change one’s habits. It is possible, all that is possible. But only,
how long would it take to do away with the necessity of, say, the skeleton?
That seems to me to be a matter still very far away. That is to say, many
intermediary stages will be necessary. Sri Aurobindo said that life could be
prolonged indefinitely. That, yes. But we are not yet built with something that
wholly escapes dissolution, the necessity of dissolution.
There is this question only. Perpetual change,—that I
conceive; I could even conceive of a flower that does not fade, but it is this
principle of immortality... That is to say, in essence, a life which escapes
from the necessity of renewing itself: that it is the eternal Force which
manifests itself directly and eternally, and yet it should be this, a physical
body.
I understand very well a progressive change and that
one could make of this substance something which might renew itself from within
to the outside and eternally—and that, that would be immortality; but only, it
seems to me that between what is now, as we are, and this other mode of life,
there have to be many stages. Well, these cells, with all the consciousness and
experience they have now, if you ask them, for example, “is there anything that
you cannot do?”—they will answer in their sincerity, “no, what the Lord wills,
I can do.” This is their state of consciousness. But in appearance it is
otherwise. The personal experience is this: whatever I do with the Presence of
the Lord, I do without effort, without difficulty, without fatigue, without waste,
like this (Mother indicates a wide
harmonious rhythm); only it is still open to all the influences from
outside and the body is obliged to do things that are not directly the
expression of the supreme Impulsion; from there come the fatigue, the
friction.... So, a supramental body suspended in a world that is not the
earth—it is not that!
Something is needed that has the power to resist the
contagion. Man cannot resist the contagion of the animal, he cannot, he is in
constant relation. Well, this being, how will he do it? It would seem, for a
long time—for a long time—he will still be subjected to the laws of contagion.
Then supposing, supposing that it is so, that a being
becomes the condensation and expression, a formula of the supreme Power, the
supreme Light—what would happen!
If everything could be transformed at the same time,
that would be all right, but it is not obviously like that. If one being was transformed
all alone...
My feeling is that there should be intermediary stages.
And then, when you see how man had to fight against the
whole of Nature in order to exist, you have the feeling that these beings—those
who will understand them, who will help them—will have with them a relation of
devotion, attachment, service, as animals have for men. But those who will not
love them... they will be dangerous beings. I remember, once I had a very clear
vision of the precarious situation of these new beings, and I had said (it was
before 1956, before the descent of the supramental power), I had said, “The
Supramental will first manifest itself in its aspect of Power, because it will
be indispensable for the safety of the beings.” And indeed it is Power that descended
first—Power and Light: Light that gives Knowledge and Power.
It is a thing that I am feeling more and more: the
necessity of intermediate periods.... It is quite evident that something is in
the process of happening, but it is not the “something” that has been seen and
foreseen and which will be the culmination; it is one of the stages that is
going to come about, it is not the culmination.
Sri Aurobindo also has said that first of all there
will come the power to prolong life at will, but that is a state of
consciousness which is in the process of being established; it is a kind of
relation, and of constant, established contact with the supreme Lord; and that abolishes
the sense of wear and tear and replaces it by an extraordinary flexibility, an
extraordinary plasticity. But the state of spontaneous immortality is not
possible—not possible, at least for the present. This structure must change
into something other than this; and in order to change into something other than
this—in the way things are happening, it will take long. It may go faster than
in the past, but even admitting that the movement rushes forward, even then it
will take time (according to our notion of time). And what is, besides, quite
worth noticing, is that one must change one’s sense of time if one is to be in
the state of consciousness where wearing out does not exist; one enters into a
state where time no longer has the same reality. It is something else. It is
very special, it is an uncountable present. Even this habit that one has, of
thinking beforehand or of foreseeing what is going to happen, is a
stumbling-block, is a clinging to the old manner of being.
So many, so many habits to change.
The integral realisation will come about only when one
can be divine spontaneously. Oh! To be divine spontaneously, without turning to
see that one is so, having passed beyond the stage where one wants to be so!