Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
5. Planes and Parts of the Being
Fragment ID: 465
If the word vāsanā is used in the original1, it does not mean “desire”. It means usually the idea or mental feeling rising from the citta, imaginations, impressions, memories etc., impressions of liking and disliking, of pain and pleasure. What Vasistha wants to say is that while the ideas, impressions, impulsions, that lead to action in an ordinary man rise from the citta, those that rise in the Jivanmukta come straight from the sattva – from the essential consciousness of the being – in other words they are not mental but spiritual formations. As one might say, instead of cittavṛtti they are sattvapreraṇā, direct indications from the inner being of what is to be thought, felt or done. When the citta is no longer active and the mind silent – which happens when the mukti comes and no one can be Jivanmukta without that, then what remains and perceives and does things is felt as an essential consciousness, the consciousness of the true self or true being.
1 Yoga-vāśiṣtha.