Vol 3 comprises letters written by Sri Aurobindo on the experiences and realisations that may occur in the practice of the Integral Yoga.
Integral Yoga
Vol 3 comprises letters written by Sri Aurobindo on the experiences and realisations that may occur in the practice of the Integral Yoga. Four volumes of letters on the integral yoga, other spiritual paths, the problems of spiritual life, and related subjects. In these letters, Sri Aurobindo explains the foundations of his integral yoga, its fundamentals, its characteristic experiences and realisations, and its method of practice. He also discusses other spiritual paths and the difficulties of spiritual life. Related subjects include the place of human relationships in yoga; sadhana through meditation, work and devotion; reason, science, religion, morality, idealism and yoga; spiritual and occult knowledge; occult forces, beings and powers; destiny, karma, rebirth and survival. Sri Aurobindo wrote most of these letters in the 1930s to disciples living in his ashram. A considerable number of them are being published for the first time.
THEME/S
Colour and light are always close to each other—colour being more indicative, light more dynamic. Colour incandescent becomes light.
As for the exact symbolism of colours, it is not always easy to define exactly, because it is not rigid and precise, but complex, the meaning varying with the field, the combinations, the character and shades of the colour, the play of forces. A certain kind of yellow, for instance, is supposed by many occultists to indicate the buddhi, the intellect, and it often has that sense, but occurring among a play of vital forces it could not always be so interpreted—that would be too rigid. Here all one can say is that the blue (the particular blue seen, not every blue) indicated the response to the Truth; the green—or this green—is very usually associated with Life and a generous emanation or action of forces—often of emotional life-force, and it is probably this that it would indicate here.
The rays which you saw the trees giving out are there always, only they are veiled to the ordinary material vision. I said the blue and gold together indicated the combined presence of Krishna and Durga-Mahakali; but gold and yellow have different significances. Yellow in the indication of forces signifies the thinking mind, buddhi, and the pink (modified here into a light vermilion) is a psychic colour; the combination probably meant the psychic in the mental.
In interpreting these phenomena you must remember that all depends on the order of things which the colours indicate in
Page 122
any particular case. There is an order of significances in which they indicate various psychological dynamisms, e.g., faith, love, protection, etc. There is another order of significances in which they indicate the aura or the activity of divine beings, Krishna, Mahakali, Radha or else of other superhuman beings; there is another in which they indicate the aura around objects or living persons—and that does not exhaust the list of possibilities. A certain knowledge, experiences, growing intuition are necessary to perceive in each case the true significance. Observation and exact description are also very necessary; for sometimes people say, for instance, yellow when they mean gold or vice versa; there are besides different possible meanings for different shades of the same colour. Again, if you see colour near or round a person or by looking at him or her, it does not necessarily indicate that person's aura; it may be something else near him or around him. In some cases it may have nothing to do with the person or object you look at, which may serve merely the purpose of a background or a point of concentration—as when you see colours on a wall or by looking at a bright object.
There are no separate colours of the beings. There is a characteristic colour of mind, yellow, of the psychic, pink or pale rose, of the vital, purple; but these are colours corresponding to the forces of mind, psychic, vital—they are not the colours of the beings. Also other colours can play, e.g. in the vital, green and deep red as well as purple and there are other colours for the hostile vital forces.
The lights one sees in concentration are the lights of various powers or beings or forces and often lights that come down from the higher consciousness.
The violet light is that of the Divine Compassion (karuṇā—Grace)—the white light is the light of the Mother (the Divine Consciousness) in which all others are contained and from which they can be manifested.
Page 123
Purple is the colour of vital power. "Red" depends on the character of the colour, for there are many reds—this may be the colour of the physical consciousness.
As for the tricoloured ball of energy, I am not quite sure, but it may mean the triple force, Love, Light, Life which are contained and constrained in the inconscient sleep of the Shakti in the Muladhara. Possibly an observation of the colours might determine the significance; but this is not sure, as the colours on these lower planes have various meanings.
The four lights were the lights of the Truth,—white the purity and power of the divine Truth, green its active energy for work, blue the spiritual consciousness of the divine Truth, the gold its knowledge.
The silver temple is that of the spiritualised mind—the golden is that of the divine Truth. Yellow is the colour of the light of the thinking mind—white is that of the divine consciousness.
White light indicates the divine consciousness.
White indicates a force of purity.
The forces that come with white light are usually those of purity and peace.
The important experience is that of the white ray in the heart—for that is a ray of the Mother's light, the white light, and the
Page 124
illumining of the heart by this light is a thing of great power for this sadhana.
The white light is, as you know, the Mother's light—it is the light of the Force of the Divine Consciousness; the sun of white light is symbolic of that Force in its origin and fullness of manifestation. It is a very good sign and if one feels its power in the being or mind or body it can have a strong influence.
What you saw was the Light (the white Light is the Mother's) which is always there in a mass; but it is seen only when the inner (Yogic) eye is open and the consciousness in some part of it at least can enter into touch with the Light.
The diamond light is the Mother's own light (that of divine Consciousness) at its most intense.
The white light is that of the Pure Conscious Force from which all the rest come. The golden light is that of the Divine Truth on the higher planes.
The pale blue light is mine—the white light is the Mother's. The world you saw above the head was the plane of the illumined Mind which is a level of consciousness much higher than the human intelligence. It is there that the Divine Light and Power come down to be transmitted to the human consciousness and from there they work and prepare the transformation of the human consciousness and even the physical nature.
The two first [bright white and whitish blue] are the Mother's
Page 125
light and mine—the golden red is the touch of the Truth in the physical.
The pale whitish blue light is "Sri Aurobindo's light"—it is the blue light modified by the white light of the Mother.
The snake form is a symbol of Energy and the white blue light may be that of the Mother's consciousness in the higher mind, or if it is not two separate colours but whitish blue then it is Sri Aurobindo's light. The light is a manifestation of Force, the nature of the force being indicated by the colour of the Light.
The lights indicate the action of certain forces, usually indicated by the colour of the light. Whitish blue is known as Sri Aurobindo's light or sometimes Sri Krishna's light.
Whitish blue is Krishna's light or mine; deeper blues often indicate light from the higher consciousness.
There are two pale blues, one which is whitish blue and is known as Sri Aurobindo's light, the other quite blue which is that of the higher consciousness just above mind.
The meaning of blue light depends on the exact character of the colour, its shade and nature. A whitish blue like moonlight is known as Krishna's light or Sri Aurobindo's light—light blue is often that of the Illumined Mind—there is another deeper blue that is of the Higher Mind; another, near to purple, which is the light of a power in the vital.
Page 126
Blue light, according to the shades, means several different things.
If the blue lights [seen in vision] were of different shades it might mean the overhead planes, Overmind, Intuition, Illumined Mind, Higher Mind.
The light from the higher planes of consciousness just above the mind is blue.
The light indicates an action of force (bluish probably indicates the spiritual-mind-force), the rest was a working to open the higher spiritual centre (sahasradala).
Blue is the normal colour of the spiritual planes; moonlight indicates the spiritual mind and its light.
Moonlight indicates spirituality—the blue light may be that of the higher or illumined mind.
The plane with the blue light is the Higher Mind which is just above the ordinary human intelligence, the first of several planes of higher consciousness through which one has to pass in order to reach the Divine Truth. Something from your mind (thinking willing mind) is trying to rise up into the blue light of the Higher Mind so as to join and become one with it.
There is one blue that is the higher mind, a deeper blue that
Page 127
belongs to the mind—Krishna's light in the mind.
There are different Krishna lights—pale diamond blue, lavender blue, deep blue etc. It depends on the plane in which it manifests.
Diamond blue is Krishna's light in the overmind—lavender blue in intuitive mind.
There is the whitish moonlight blue of Krishna's light—lavender blue of devotion, deep blue of the physical mind, sapphire blue of the higher mind and many others.
All blue is not Krishna's light.
Blue is also the Radha colour.
The violet is the light of the Divine grace and compassion.
"Violet" is the colour of benevolence or compassion, but also more vividly of the Divine Grace—represented in the vision as flowing from the heights of the spiritual consciousness down on the earth. The golden cup is I suppose the Truth consciousness.
Violet is indeed the colour or light of Divine Compassion, so also of Krishna's grace.
Page 128
Golden Light is the light of the divine Truth descending from above.
The golden light is the light of the Divine Truth which comes out from the supramental sunlight and, modified according to the level it crosses, creates the ranges from Overmind to higher Mind.
The golden light is usually a light from the supermind—a light of Truth-Knowledge (it may sometimes be the supramental Truth-Knowledge turned into overmind or intuitive Truth).
It [golden light] always means the light of Truth—but the nature of the Truth varies according to the plane to which it belongs. Light is the light of consciousness, truth, knowledge—the Sun is the concentration or source of the Light.
The sunlight is the light of the Truth itself—whatever power of Truth it may be—while the other lights derive from the Truth.
The Light of the Sun descending into the heart (the Sun of the Knowledge) turns upon the physical and purifies it.
The golden light is the promise of the higher knowledge. For the coming of that knowledge the silence of the frontal exterior mind is necessary.
Gold is always the symbol of the higher Truth.
Page 129
The hand with the gold pen writing golden letters was perhaps an indication of the Mother writing the things of the Divine Truth in you,—for gold in these visions is the symbol of the Divine Truth.
The spiritual Power is naturally more free on its own level than in the body. The golden colour indicates here Mahakali force which is the strongest for the working in the body.
The different parts [mind, life and body] are naturally coloured by the lights of the powers that come down (golden of Overmind and Intuition, blue of higher, illumined and intuitive mind) while keeping their own characteristic shade as an element.
Gold-green: gold indicates at its most intense something from the supramental, otherwise overmind truth or intuitive truth deriving ultimately from the supramental Truth consciousness. Green has much to do with the vital and indicates here, I think, the emotional forces in their outpouring. The play of the emotional forces in the divine Truth is, obviously, very pertinent to the working of the Krishna lights.
Sunlight is the direct light of the Truth; when it gets fused into the vital, it takes the mixed colour—here gold and green—just as in the physical it becomes golden red or in the mental golden yellow.
Golden red is the colour of the supramental physical light—so this yellow red may indicate some plane of the Overmind in which there is a nearer special connection with that. The golden
Page 130
red light has a strong transforming power.
The golden Light is that of the modified (overmentalised) Supramental, i.e., the Supramental Light passing through the Overmind, intuition etc. and becoming the Light of Truth in each of these planes. When it is golden red it means the same modified supramental-physical Light—the Light of divine Truth in the physical.
"Red gold" is rather the light of the Truth in the physical.
Orange or red gold is supposed by the way to be the light of the supramental in the physical.
Orange is the true light manifested in the physical consciousness and being.
Orange is the colour of occult knowledge or occult experience.
Yellow is the thinking mind. The shades indicate different intensities of mental light.
Yellow is light of the mind—golden is light from above the mind.
It is again the ascent into one of the higher planes of mind illumined with the light of the Divine Truth. Yellow is the light
Page 131
of mind growing brighter as one goes higher till it meets the golden light of the Divine Truth.
The rosy light is that of love—so probably you entered the psychic worlds—or at least one of them.
The colour of the psychic light is according to what it manifests—e.g., psychic love is pink or rose, the psychic purity is white etc.
Green is the higher light in the vital, especially the emotional vital.
The green light is a vital force, a dynamic force of the emotional vital which has the power to purify, harmonise or cure.
Green is a vital energy of work and action.
Green light can signify various things according to the context—in the emotional vital it is the colour of a certain form of emotional generosity, in the vital proper an activity with vital abundance or vital generosity behind it—in the vital physical it signifies a force of health.
It [purple light] is a light of vital power.
Page 132
Purple is the colour of the vital force—crimson is usually physical.
Both [purple and crimson] are vital lights, but when seen above they represent the original forces of which the vital are the derivations.
The crimson colour is the light of Love in the vital and physical.
Red is the colour of the physical,—touched by the higher Light it becomes golden red.
It seems to be an opening of various powers and the peace, light and wideness of the spiritual consciousness. The red Purusha may be the power of the true physical—red being the colour of the physical.
It depends on the nature of the red. Red (when it does not mean the light of the physical consciousness) indicates always some kind of Force or Power, but what power it is depends on the shade.
Deep red is the Divine Love—rosy is the psychic love.
The deep red is the light of the Power that descended before the 24th [November 1933] for the transformation of the physical.
The deep red light is a Light that came down into the physical for
Page 133
its change just before the 24th [November 1933]. It is associated with the sunlight and the golden Light.
Red is the colour of rajas, black is the colour of tamas.
Page 134
Home
Sri Aurobindo
Books
Share your feedback. Help us improve. Or ask a question.