Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

CWSA 35

Fragment ID: 8465

Psychic Being [3]

As directed, “psychic being” has been translated as caitya puruṣa. Does this mean the puruṣa in the citta? Is jīva the combined and the fundamental being of all the beings – the vital, the psychic and others?

चैत्य पुरुष [caitya puruṣa] means rather the पुरुष [puruṣa] in the चित् [cit], the fundamental (inner) consciousness.

जीव [jīva] is the fundamental, or as we call it, the central being. But the fundamental being is not combined of the mental, vital, psychic etc., these are only expressions of the Jivatman; the Jivatman itself is self-existent in the Divine; essential in its being, it cannot be regarded as a combination of things.

1 July 1931