Nowadays, there are many spiritual and new age schools that promise to help us access the “invisible”, the Spiritual World, or as Sri Aurobindo calls it in the following excerpt, the “subliminal”. But some aspects are often ignored – and if we don’t understand them we may carelessly find ourselves carrying out practices which may do us more harm than good. Here’s Sri Aurobindo’s view on the matter:
“It is true that the subliminal in man is the largest part of his nature and has in it the secret of the unseen dynamisms which explain his surface activities.
But the lower vital subconscious which is all that this psycho-analysis of Freud seems to know,- and even of that it knows only a few ill-lit corners, – is no more than a restricted and very inferior portion of the subliminal whole. The subliminal self stands behind and supports the whole superficial man; it has in it a larger and more efficient mind behind the surface mind, a larger and more powerful vital behind the surface vital, a subtler and freer physical consciousness behind the surface bodily existence. And above them it opens to higher super conscient as well as below them to lower subconscient ranges.
If one wishes to purify and transform the nature, it is the power of these higher ranges to which one must open and raise to them and change by them both the subliminal and the surface being. Even this should be done with care, not prematurely or rashly, following a higher guidance, keeping always the right attitude; for otherwise the force that is drawn down may be too strong for an obscure and weak frame of nature. But to begin by opening up the lower subconscious, risking to raise up all that is foul or obscure in it, is to go out of one’s way to invite trouble.
First, one should make the higher mind and vital strong and firm and full of light and peace from above; afterwards one can open up or even dive into the subconscious with more safety and some chance of a rapid and successful change.”
Excerpt from “The Integral Yoga: Sri Aurobindo’s Teaching and Method of Practice”.
We tend to agree with the above quote by Sri Aurobindo and wish to highlight the fact that, to us, the most effective methods of “following a higher guidance, keeping always the right attitude”, must be as practical as possible in order to have a real transformative effect on lives.
We elborate further on this aspect in articles such as these:
“It’s not possible to love others if you don’t love yourself”…is that really how it works?
