The selections in this compilation deal with the meaning and nature of the psychic being, its role and action in the awakening to the inner life, and its influence on the afterlife and the process of rebirth. Many of the extracts clarify the difference between the soul in its purely essential form and the psychic being, which is the soul in its evolutionary, individualised form. The process of psychic growth and development and the central role of the psychic being in the individual’s sadhana are some of the key concepts in Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga and are given prominence in this compilation, which is aimed mainly at the general reader One of the special contributions to the lexicon of the Integral Yoga is Sri Aurobindo’s introduction to the term psychic being.
Standing immobile and silent behind the ordinary mental, vital and physical consciousness of man, the psychic being is the individual expression of the divine essence of each being. Through an accumulation of higher, Godward experiences during its terrestrial evolution, the psychic personality is developed, growing in strength and influence until it can “come entirely forward, breaking through the mental, vital and physical screen, govern the instincts and transform the nature”. As a true understanding of the concept of the psychic being is elemental to the practice of the Integral Yoga, this volume of extracts from the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother provides a direction for the spiritual seeker’s first steps on the path of self-perfection. Written with clarity, precision, compassion and yogic insight, these sections define the nature of the psychic being: describe how to recognise its presence behind the stubborn assertiveness of the outer nature; and explain how the psychic power, when it comes forward to lead the sadhana, can open the rest of the nature to the supramental light and ananda. The selections have been compiled by A.S. Dalal. The other books are Powers Within, Growing Within, The Hidden Powers of Life,, Looking From Within and The Yoga of Sleep and Dreams.
