<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=WINDOWS-1252">
<title>-040_The Psychic Being-Some Mysteries.htm</title>
</head>
<div align="center">
	<table border="0" cellpadding="6" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="100%">
<tr>
	<td>
<p class="paracenter">THE PSYCHIC BEING—SOME MYSTERIES
</p>
<p class="paracenter"></p>
<p class="para">
<i>Does the psychic being progress always?</i>
</p>
<br>
<p class="para">
There are two kinds of progress in the 
psychic and they are very different. One consists in its formation and 
building and organisation; for the psychic begins by being only a little
 divine spark hidden in the inner person and out of this spark comes and
 gradually develops an independent conscious person who has his own will
 and activity. As I say, the psychic being is originally like a spark 
from the divine consciousness: it grows into a conscious individuality 
through the experiences of successive lives. This progress then is like 
the progress of the growing child. It is a thing in formation and it 
remains so for a long time in most human beings. It is not a fully 
individualised being there, not fully conscious and master of itself; it
 needs many births, one after another, to build itself and become fully 
conscious. In the end, however, there does come a time when it is a 
completed personality, fully individualised, fully conscious of itself 
and its destiny. When such a psychic being incarnates in a human being, 
it makes a great difference. For the man is born free, so to say, he is 
not bound to his circumstances, his surroundings or his origin or 
atavism, like ordinary people. When he comes upon earth, he feels he has
 a work to do in the world, he has a mission to fulfil. To that extent 
then his cycle of progress is completed, that is to say, he has no more 
need
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-148</p>
<br><hr>
<p class="para">to take birth in a body to make further progress. 
Till then rebirth is a necessity, it is compulsory; for it is through 
reincarnation—taking up a new body that he progresses, develops and 
grows. It is in the physical life and in the physical body that the soul
 slowly builds itself until it becomes a fully conscious being. But once
 it is fully formed, it is free either to take birth or not to at will. 
There then one kind of progress stops. But if the fully formed being now
 wishes to become an instrument for the work of the Divine, if he 
chooses to be a worker upon earth to help in the fulfilment of the 
cosmic purpose of the Divine, instead of going away and resting in the 
psychic bliss of his own world, then he has to make a new kind of 
progress, a progress towards capacity to work, to organise and execute 
the work to express and embody the will of the Divine. As long as the 
world continues, as long as he chooses to work for the Divine, he will 
continue to progress. But if he wishes to withdraw into the psychic 
world and gives up or refuses to work for the divine Plan, then he can 
remain in the static state beyond the range of progress. For, as I have 
said, progress exists only upon earth in the physical world. You cannot 
progress everywhere. In the psychic world there is a kind of blissful 
repose. You remain what and where you are without moving.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para">
Everything upon earth progresses, has to progress. 
All men, without exception, even those who have no sense of the psychic,
 whether they wish or not, must progress. The psychic progresses in them
 in spite of themselves
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-149</p>
<br><hr>
<p class="para">and they have to follow the curve of its growth and 
development. That is to say, man ascends in the scale of life and grows,
 grows exactly as a child does. In the process of growth there comes a 
time when one reaches the summit and one changes the direction or the 
plane of progress. At the outset there is the purely physical progress, 
like that of the child; then there comes the mental progress, later on 
the psychic progress and the spiritual progress, so that unless progress
 changes its direction, when it has reached its limit on a particular 
level, one has to come down the curve, that is to say, instead of 
progression there will be retrogression, which means in the end 
disintegration and decomposition. Precisely because in the purely 
physical world there cannot be a perpetual and constant progress, there 
is in this domain this curve of growth, apogee, decline and 
decomposition. All that does not advance must recede. This is exactly 
what happens in the domain of matter. Matter does not know how to 
progress indefinitely, it has not learnt it; so after a time it is tired
 of progressing or growing. Given this constitution, one cannot go 
beyond a limit. But there is in man side by side with his physical 
growth, a vital growth and a mental growth as well. The mental 
especially can progress long after the body has ceased to progress. The 
body does not grow; even when it is declining, the mind still can 
continue to grow, to rise to higher heights. There is a mental ascension
 contrariwise to the physical descent. But they who do Yoga, who become 
conscious of their psychic being and are identified with it, who live 
with
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-150</p>
<br><hr>
<p class="para">its life, never cease to progress, they move upward 
till the last breath of their life; even when they die their progress 
does not stop. The body is on the decline, because it cannot keep step 
with the inner march forward, it cannot transform itself and mould 
itself into the rhythm of the inner consciousness. The discrepancy 
increases so much between the two, that there is a snap at the end and 
that is death. However, on the purely spiritual level too there is no 
progress. The domain of the pure spirit means a static condition; there 
is no progressive movement there, for it is beyond the field of 
progress, beyond all manifestation. For when you are merged in the 
Spirit, you have come out of creation and there is no question of 
progress, or even of any movement.</p>
<br>
<p class="para">
<i>When the psychic is about to take rebirth does it choose its form beforehand?</i>
</p>
<br>
<p class="para">
It depends. As I have told you now, there are 
psychic beings that are just on the way of formation and growth, they 
usually cannot choose at the beginning, they cannot choose very much. 
But when they have come to a certain degree of development and 
consciousness, they make a choice; generally when they are still in the 
body, when they have gathered a certain amount of experience, they 
decide what is to be their next field of experience. I shall give you an
 illustration, although somewhat external. A psychic being, for example,
 needed the experience of power, authority, command and wanted to know 
the
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-151</p>
<br><hr>
<p class="para">reactions of these movements and also how to turn 
them towards the Divine, to learn, in a word, what these things can 
teach. So the soul took the body of a king (or a queen). When it had the
 necessary experience, learnt what it had to learn, it gave up the body,
 no longer useful. It is at that moment when it decides to leave the 
body but is still in the body that the soul makes the choice of the next
 experience. The choice very often takes a course of action and 
reaction. If the soul has experienced and studied a particular field, 
its choice falls upon a contrary field on the following occasion. Thus 
if the soul has had the experience of a kingly position and worked 
through that to enter into a conscious relation with the Divine, then at
 the moment of leaving the body that served with power and authority and
 command, it perhaps would say: "This time I shall take a middle 
position, neither high nor low, where there will be no need to lead 
mostly an external life, where one is neither in great luxury nor in 
great misery." With that resolution it returns to the psychic world for 
the necessary rest, for the assimilation of past experiences and 
preparation for the future. When the time comes for return upon earth, 
for the descent into a physical body, it remembers naturally the choice 
it made, but from that higher and subtler plane at that moment the 
material world is not seen in the way we do, it appears in a different 
form; still one can notice the differences in the surroundings and 
activities. One has not the vision of the details, but a total or global
 vision is there. It can choose an atmosphere, it can choose even a 
particular country. It has in
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-152</p>
<br><hr>
<p class="para">view a certain kind of education, civilisation and 
influence, the kind of life that it wishes to lead. Then as it comes 
down and looks about, it distinguishes very clearly the different kinds 
of vibrations and makes its way accordingly. It aims, as it were, at the
 place where to drop. But it can hit the target only approximatively. 
For there are one or two other factors besides which come into play. For
 there is not only its own choice, from above, there must also be a 
receptivity from below, an aspiration that draws to it the particular 
being or the particular type of being. Usually the call is from a 
mother, sometimes from both the parents. If the parent has some 
aspiration or receptivity, something that is sufficiently passive and 
open and looking up towards something higher, in that case, the thing 
appears to the psychic being as a luminous vibration which beckons it. 
It is the answer to its will. It shows the place it is to go to. It 
cannot fix the day of its birth. There will naturally be a period of 
uncertainty, but that is not expected to go beyond a year. The second 
factor that somewhat modifies or qualifies his choice comes from the 
nature of the birth itself. The soul, the conscious being, precipitates 
into the inconscience, for the physical world, even human consciousness,
 at its very best, is an inconscient thing when compared to the psychic 
consciousness. It is as though the soul fell head downmost. That makes 
it dazed and for a long time it does not know what is what. It does not 
know where it is, what it is doing nor why it is there; a complete blank
 possesses it. It is unable to express itself, especially, as a baby, it
 has
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-153</p>
<br><hr>
<p class="para">not the proper amount of brain to understand or 
manifest anything. Very rarely do children show the exceptional being 
that they have within them. Cases do occur indeed, but they are very few
 and far between. Generally it takes time for the soul to come to its 
own. It wakes up but slowly from its numbness, it is only gradually that
 it begins to understand that it is there for some reason and by choice.
 This oblivion is occasioned by the presence of the mind and mental 
education which completely shuts off the psychic consciousness. All 
kinds of circumstances, happenings, experiences—external and 
emotional—are then needed to strike open the doors within, to bring the 
memory that one comes from elsewhere and for a very special reason. It 
is the normal longer process. But one may have the chance of meeting 
early enough someone who knows; then instead of groping and fumbling 
through ignorance and darkness, you get the light and the help that give
 you the swift and straight contact.</p>
<br>
<p class="para">
The psychic will and psychic development are things 
that are completely outside the range of common notions. Ideas of 
justice and reward and punishment have no place here at all. Many people
 come to me and complain: "What have I done in my past life that I have 
to be under such difficult conditions now, to suffer so much!" I always 
reply: "But don't you see it is a blessing for you, the divine grace 
upon you? In your past life perhaps you yourself asked for such 
conditions so that you may make greater progress through them!" This way
 of looking at the thing may seem very new. But truth lies that way.
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-154</p>
<br><hr>
<p class="para">
<i>How is it possible for a psychic being once 
living the life of intelligence and creativity to enter again into a 
life of stupidity and ordinariness?</i>
</p>
<br>
<p class="para">
I did not say quite like that. The psychic being is 
not stupid. What happens may be described in this way: for example, 
suppose the psychic being has had the experience of the life of a 
writer. The function of the writer is to express himself, his 
perceptions and observations and judgments in words: he has a certain 
field, a certain range of associations and circumstances in which to 
live and move. But there are other fields and ranges beyond and outside 
of which he has no experience. So he may say to himself: I have lived 
with my head, I know something of the intellectual reactions to life: 
now let me live with my heart and experience the reactions of feeling 
and passion. Indeed, sometimes an overactivity of the intellect 
impoverishes the capacities of the heart. So the psychic being, in order
 to have this new kind of experience, abandons his intellectual heights,
 so to say, and comes down to the vital plane. He is no longer a 
creative genius, but an ordinary man, but with a heart enriched or 
enriching itself with its intense or generous movements. (One can 
remember in this connection the story of Shankaracharya who being a 
Sannyasi from boyhood has had no experience of love; he entered the body
 of a king in order to gather this experience.) It is not rare to see 
psychic beings that have reached the maximum of their growth in certain 
directions, take up a very modest and ordinary life in some other new
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-155</p>
<br><hr>
<p class="para">direction or for some other purpose. One who was a 
king, for example, as I already narrated once, who has had the 
experiences of power and authority and domination, the imperial heights,
 may choose to descend to ordinary life, to work as an obscure person 
without being troubled by the pomps of high position; he may choose very
 bourgeois surroundings, very mediocre conditions among mediocre men and
 things, to procure, so to say, a kind of incognito so that he may work 
in peace and quiet. Can you say it is a decline and a fall? It is only 
facing life, meeting its problems from another angle, another point of 
view. You must know, for consciousness, the true consciousness —the 
consciousness of the psychic—glory and obscurity are the same, success 
and failure are the same. What is important is the growth of 
consciousness. Certain conditions which to your human eye appear 
favourable, may in reality be quite unfavourable for the growth of 
consciousness. With your ordinary thoughts and your ordinary reactions 
you judge everything according to success and failure. But that is the 
very last way of judging, for it is the most artificial, most 
superficial and absolutely contrary to truth. In human life, as it is 
organised at present, it is perhaps only once in a million cases, or 
even less than that, that truth is given the first place; always there 
is an element of show mixed up. When a man has success, much success, 
you may be sure there is mixed up with it as much show.
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-156</p>
	</td>
</tr>
	</table>
</div>
</html>
