Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Correspondence (1933-1967)
Prithwi Singh
In our Yoga we mean by the subconscient that quite submerged part of our being in which there is no wakingly conscious and coherent thought, will or feeling or organised reaction, but which yet receives obscurely the impressions of all things and stores them up in itself. These impressions can rise up – do constantly rise up in dream in an incoherent and disorganised manner – they can also rise up into our waking consciousness as a mechanical repetition of old thoughts, mental, vital and physical habits or an obscure stimulus to sensations, actions, emotions which do not rise from our conscious thought or will and are even often opposed to it. In the subconscient there is an obscure mind full of obstinate sanskaras [imprints] formed by our past, an obscure vital full of the seeds of habitual desires, sensations and nervous reactions, a most obscure material which governs much that has to do with the condition of the body. It is largely responsible for our illnesses and chronic illnesses are mainly due to the subconscient and its obstinate memory and habit of repetition of whatever has impressed itself upon the body consciousness. This subconscient must be clearly distinguished from the subliminal parts of our being such as the inner or subtle physical consciousness, the inner vital or inner mental which are not at all obscure or incoherent or ill-organised, but only veiled from our surface consciousness which constantly receives something from these sources but does not know for the most part whence they come.
As for asserting one’s will in sleep it is simply a matter of accustoming the subconscient to obey the will laid upon it by the waking mind before sleeping. It very often happens for instance that if you fix upon the subconscient your will to wake up at a particular hour in the morning, the subconscient will obey and you wake up automatically at that hour. This can be extended to other matters. Many have found that by putting a will against sexual dreams or emission on the subconscient before sleeping, there comes after a time (it does not always succeed at the beginning) an automatic action causing one to awake before the dream concludes or before it begins or in some way preventing the thing forbidden from happening. Also one can develop a more conscious sleep in which there is a sort of inner consciousness which can intervene.
As regards your other letter, the Mother accepts very willingly the offering you wish to make to her. She did not wish to disappoint anybody about the crown even, but it had gone so far beyond the expected limits that she was obliged to say no.
Sri Aurobindo
P.S. The typewriter given by you has arrived, it is a very fine instrument and the Mother is very much pleased with it.1