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WRITINGS BY THE MOTHER
© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust

Successive experiences of the psychic

16 November 1955

Sweet Mother, in the individual do the past evolution and the present nature always decide the final intervention of a higher plane which brings about a change? [old p. 374]

What kind of question is this, I don't understand it very well. Past evolution?... [new p. 369]

And the present nature...

And the present nature? It is not the same thing, they are two different things.

No, Mother, because here it is written: "The mind's door of entry to the conception of him must necessarily vary according to the past evolution and the present nature."

Yes, these two things are completely different. That is, the evolution in former lives and the present nature, that is, the nature of the present body, determine one's approach to the Divine.

We can take a very... an over-simple example. If one is born in any particular religion, quite naturally the first effort to approach the Divine will be within that religion; or else if in former lives one has passed through a certain number of experiences which determined the necessity of another kind of experiences, quite naturally one will follow the path which leads to those experiences.

You see, the life of the psychic being is made up of successive experiences in successive physical existences. So, it may be put a little childishly or romantically: you have a psychic which for some reason or other has incarnated so as to be able to have all the experiences which royalty gives--for instance, supreme power. After it has had its experience, has had what it wanted, it can, before leaving the body, decide that in the next life it will take birth in obscure conditions, because it needs to have experiences which can be had in a modest condition and with the freedom one feels when he has no responsibilities, you see, responsibilities like those the heads of states have, for instance. So quite naturally, in its next life it will be born in certain [old p. 375]conditions which fulfil its need. And it is in accordance with this experience that it will approach the Divine.

Then, in addition, it is the product of the union of two physical natures, you know, and sometimes of two vital natures. [new p. 370]The result of this is more or less a kind of mixture of these natures; but it brings about a tendency, what is called a character. Well, this character will make it fit for a certain field, a certain category of experiences.

So with what has been determined, decided in former lives or in a former life, and then the environment in which it is born--that is, the conditions in which its present body has been formed--its approach to and search for the Divine will be in accordance with a definite line which is its own, and which, naturally, is not at all the same as that of its neighbour or any other being.

I said a while ago: each individual is a special manifestation in the universe, therefore his true path must be an absolutely unique path. There are similarities, there are resemblances, there are categories, families, churches, ideals also, that is, a certain collective way of approaching the Divine, which creates a kind of church, not materialised but in a more subtle world--there are all these things--but for the details of the path, the details of yoga, it will be different according to each individual, necessarily, and conditioned physically by his present bodily structure, and vitally, mentally and psychically, of course, by former lives.

The present structure, Mother, is it that which decides the intervention of the higher planes or not, in order to work miracles?

That is to say, whether it is predestined that the higher planes...

The other day you said that it can change completely.

Yes [old p. 376]

Then, if the present remains like this...

But look here! Let us take an altogether ordinary example which [new p. 371]is very partial and very superficial. You are born in India. Being born in India you are born with a certain religious and philosophic attitude. But if for some reason or other you want to free yourself from this atavism and influence, if you begin to follow, study, practise the religion or philosophy of another country, you can change the conditions of your inner development. It is a little more difficult, that is, it asks for a greater effort for liberation, but it is very far from being impossible. In fact there are many people who do it, who love to free themselves from what comes to them from their present birth; by some sort of special taste they like to seek elsewhere what they think they won't be able to find at home. And in this way you change the consequences of your birth completely.

Now you may tell me that this taste for the new or the unknown can come to you from a former life; this is probable. But it depends on what dominates in your being: whether it is the result of former psychic lives and psychic resolutions or whether it is the immediate consequence of your present constitution.