Chapter 1
Symbols and Symbolic Visions
Different Kinds of Symbols
A symbol, as I understand it, is the form on one plane that represents a truth of another. For instance, a flag is the symbol of a nation. But generally all forms are symbols. This body of ours is a symbol of our real being and everything is a symbol of some higher reality. There are, however, different kinds of symbols:
(1) Conventional symbols, such as the Vedic Rishis formed with objects taken from their surroundings. The cow stood for light because the same word go meant both ray and cow, and because the cow was their most precious possession which maintained their life and was constantly in danger of being robbed and concealed. But once created, such a symbol becomes alive. The Rishis vitalised it and it became a part of their realisation. It appeared in their visions as an image of spiritual light. The horse also was one of their favourite symbols, and a more easily adaptable one, since its force and energy were quite evident.
(2) What we might call Life-symbols, such as are not artificially chosen or mentally interpreted in a conscious deliberate way, but derive naturally from our day-to-day life and grow out of the surroundings which condition our normal path of living. To the ancients the mountain was a symbol of the path of Yoga, level above level, peak upon peak. A journey involving the crossing of rivers and the facing of lurking enemies, both animal and human, conveyed a similar idea. Nowadays I dare say we would liken Yoga to a motor ride or a railway trip.
(3) Symbols that have an inherent appositeness and power of their own. Akasha or etheric space is a symbol of the infinite all-pervading eternal Brahman. In any nationality it would convey the same meaning. Also, the Sun stands universally for the supramental Light, the divine Gnosis.
(4) Mental symbols, instances of which are numbers or alphabets. Once they are accepted, they too become active and may be useful. Thus geometrical figures have been variously interpreted. In my experience the square symbolises the Supermind. I cannot say how it came to do so. Somebody or some force may have built it before it came to my mind. Of the triangle, too, there are different explanations. In one position it can symbolise the three lower planes, in another the symbol is of the three higher ones: so both can be combined together in a single sign. The ancients liked to indulge in similar speculations concerning numbers, but their systems were mostly mental. It is no doubt true that supramental realities exist which we translate into mental formulas such as Karma, psychic evolution etc. But they are, so to speak, infinite realities which cannot be limited by these symbolic forms, though they may be somewhat expressed by them; they might be expressed as well by other symbols, and the same symbol may also express many different ideas.
The Effect of Symbolic Visions
It is the same with the symbols in Yoga [as with images in mystic poetry]. One puts an intellectual label on the “White Light” and the mind is satisfied and says, “Now I know all about it; it is the pure divine Consciousness light,” and really it knows nothing. But if one allows the Divine White Light to manifest and pour through the being, then one comes to know it and get all its results. Even if there is no labelled knowledge there is the luminous experience of all its significance.
The vision of the moon and the rain of flowers means always the falling of the light of spirituality on the consciousness (the moon) and the descent of a psychic influence (flowers). These things are symbols to the mind, but in the inner experience they have a reality and can produce a tangible effect.
Some Symbolic Visions and Dreams Interpreted
The depth of the sleep in your experience was intended to make you go deep inside and, as soon as you did so, you entered into the psychic and spiritual state which takes the figure of the beautiful maidan and the flow of white light and the coolness and peace. The staircase was a symbol of the ascent from this psychic and spiritual state into higher and higher levels of the spiritual consciousness where is the source of the light. The Mother’s hand was the symbol of her presence and help which will draw you up and lead you to the top of the ladder.
The separate images [in a mystic poem submitted by the correspondent] are very usual symbols of the inner experience, but they have been combined together here in a rather difficult way. The fire of course is the psychic fire which wells up from the veiled psychic source. The bird is the soul and the flower is the rose of love and surrender. The moon is the symbol of spirituality. As the star is within it is described as piercing through the knots of the inner darkness and worsting the vital growths that are like clouds enwrapping it. The boat also is a usual symbol in the inner visions. The elephant is the spiritual strength that removes obstacles and the horse the force of tapasya that gallops to the summits of the spiritual realisation. The sun is the symbol of the higher Truth. The lotus is the symbol of the inner consciousness.
The vision you saw was a symbol of the outward physical consciousness obscured by the ordinary movements (clouds), but with the spirituality (the moon) still spreading its light everywhere from behind the ordinary human ignorance. The dog indicates something in the physical (the part that is faithful, obedient etc.) waiting confidently for the Light to come.
The fire you felt was the fire of purification and the heat came because it was burning up some resistance, – after that was burnt out there was coolness and peace and quietude. The voices and sounds and impression of X being there indicate a confused activity of the occult sense in the vital which hears things other than the physical. When this kind of thing comes, there has to be a quiet rejection in the being and the thing will pass away. Some people get interested and have a lot of trouble because they get into the habit of hearing voices and seeing and feeling things which are only partly or sometimes true but mixed with much that is false and misleading. It is good that there was something in your vital being which rejected it.
The dream is evidently an indication of the difficulty you are experiencing. The sea is the sea of the vital nature whose flood is pursuing you (desires are the sea water) on your road of sadhana. The Mother is there in your heart but sleeping – i.e. her power has not become conscious in your inner consciousness because she is surrounded by the thin curtain of skin (the obscurity of the physical nature). It is this (it is not thick any longer but still effective to veil her from you) which has to go so that she may awake. It is a matter of persistence in the will and the endeavour – the response from within, the awaking of the Mother in the heart will come.
It is probably a symbol of three stages or developments or planes of spiritualised life. A star means creation, the triangle a triple principle. The tree is life in a new creation. Green is the colour of the emotional vital, the moon governs a spiritualised emotional life; blue is the colour of the higher mind, the moon there governs a spiritualised higher mind life; the gold colour is that of the Divine Truth, whether intuitive or overmind – the moon here is the spiritualised Truth-life. As the star is sphatika-coloured, the triangle may indicate Sachchidananda principle. The butterflies and birds are of course life forces and soul forces, powers or beings. Probably it indicates three stages of transformation before the supramental can reign altogether or else three that will exist as the steps towards the supramental.
Your dreams were very beautiful and, symbolically, very true. By the way, let me repeat, they were not really dreams; the state between sleep and waking or which is neither sleep nor waking is not a dozing but an inward gathered consciousness, quite as much awake as the waking mind, but awake in a different plane of experience.
As for the dream of the cobras it could be taken as an answer to your complaints against the Divine being grim and solemn and refusing to play and your remark that if you could have the faith that the troubles were a part of the Divine plan leading you through them to the Divine, you would be more at ease. The answer of the symbolic experience was that the Divine can play if you know how to play with him – and bear his play on your shoulders; the cobras and the bite indicate that what seems to you in the vital painful and dangerous may be the very means of bringing you the ecstasy of the Divine Presence.
Less generally the cobras are the forces of the evolution, the evolution towards the Divine. Their taking the place of the legs means that their action here takes place in the physical or external consciousness, in the evolution of the external mind, vital, physical towards the experience of the Divine and of the Divine Nature. The bite of the cobras (Shiva’s cobras!) does not kill, or it only kills the “old Adam” in the being; their bite brings the ecstasy of the presence of the Divine – that which you felt coming upon your head as trance waves. It is this trance ecstasy that has descended upon you each time you went inside or were even on the point of going inside in meditation. It is the universal experience of sadhaks that a force or consciousness or Ananda like this first comes from above – or around – and presses on or surrounds the head, then it pierces the skull as it were and fills first the brain and forehead, then the whole head and descends occupying each centre till the whole system is full and replete. (Of course there are or can be preliminary rushes occupying the whole body for a time or some other part of the system most open and least resistant to the influence.)
Chapter 2
Sun, Moon, Star, Fire
Sun
Fire, lights, sun, moon are usual symbols and seen by most in sadhana. They indicate movement or action of inner forces. The Sun means the inner truth.
The sun is the symbol of the concentrated light of Truth.
The Sun is the Truth-Light of the One Existence and the flame the dynamic power of action (Yogic) of that Truth-Light.
The Sun is the divine Truth-Light on whatever plane of consciousness. It is, I suppose, the original cosmic Truth that is here indicated.
The Sun is the Truth from above, in the last resort the Supramental Truth.
The sun is the symbol of the Supermind.
The sun in the Yoga is the symbol of the supermind and the supermind is the first power of the Supreme which one meets across the border where the experience of spiritualised mind ceases and the unmodified divine Consciousness begins the domain of the supreme Nature, para prakrti. It is that Light of which the Vedic mystics got a glimpse and it is the opposite of the intervening darkness of the Christian mystics, for the supermind is all light and no darkness. To the mind the Supreme is avyaktat param avyaktam but if we follow the line leading to the supermind, it is an increasing affirmation rather than an increasing negation through which we move.
Supermind is not mind at all, it is something different. The Sun indicates Truth directly perceived in whatever plane it may be. It is the symbol of Supermind but the Truth may come down into the other planes and then that is no longer supramental but modified to the substance of the other planes – still it is the direct Light of Truth.
The sun rising on the horizon is the direct light of the Divine Truth rising in the being – the ray upwards opens the being to the Truth as it is above mind, the ray in front opens it to what we call the cosmic consciousness, it becomes released from the personal limitation and opens and becomes aware of the universal mind, universal physical, universal vital. The action on the heart was the pressure of this Sun on it to have this direct opening, so that the consciousness may become free, wide and wholly at peace.
There are different suns in the different planes, each with its own colour. But there are also suns of a similar colour above, only more bright, from which these minor suns derive their light and power.
The golden [Sun] is the Light of the Truth on the higher planes. The white [Sun] is the Sun of the Mother’s consciousness (the Divine Consciousness) which manifests on all the planes.
The white sun indicates the purity and peace of the Divine Consciousness.
The red sun is a symbol of the true, illumined physical consciousness which is to replace the obscure and ignorant physical consciousness in which men now live. Red is the colour of the physical; the red diamond is the Mother’s consciousness in the physical.
In the experience the disc of the sun indicates the supramental consciousness with the Divine Being in it (the supramental Divine who can bridge by his light the gulf between the higher and the lower consciousness and unify them). But the smoky appearance, the veil etc. indicated that there was something in the (human) nature that made rapid realisation difficult. This was what was also said by the voice that the time was not yet. Obviously the supramental cannot be achieved except by a long sadhana – the experience should not be taken as meaning anything more than that.
Moon
The moon signifies the light of spirituality or of the spiritual consciousness.
The moonlight indicates the light of the spiritual consciousness.
The moonlit maidan is the spiritual consciousness at the doors of which you are standing as it were and feeling its peace and ease.
The moon generally indicates spiritual realisation in the mind.
The moon indicates different things according to circumstances – most often spiritual consciousness in the mind.
The light above the head is never an imagination in Yoga; if it is felt, it is because it is there. If it is the moon, it means the light of the spiritual consciousness in the mind.
The moon as a symbol in vision signifies usually spirituality in the mind or, simply, the spiritual consciousness. It can also indicate the flow of spiritual Ananda (nectar is in the moon according to the old tradition).
The moon indicates spirituality, sometimes also spiritual Ananda.
It [spiritual mind, symbolised by the moon] is Mind in contact with truths of the spirit and reflecting them. The Sun is the light of the Truth, the Moon only reflects the light of the Truth – that is the difference.
Golden light means the light of the higher Truth – the moon is the symbol of spirituality. A golden moon means a power of spirituality full of the light of the higher Truth.
The moon, as I have already written, indicates spirituality – the crescent form means a commencement of the spiritual light. The position near the knee would indicate an action on the physical consciousness – for all below the Muladhara down to the feet is the physical province.
The moon is sometimes a symbol of the Light in the mind, – if it is a full moon. The crescent moon may be a symbol of growing spirituality of the mind centre.
Star
The star signifies a creation or formation or the promise or power of a creation or formation.
The star is always a promise of the Light to come; the star changes into a sun when there is the descent of the Light. It is not possible to fix the actual value of these signs for the future; they indicate a turn or a possibility, but everything depends on herself and the future orientation she gives to her being.
Stars in such visions1 indicate points of light or of higher experience in the consciousness. The earth means the physical consciousness.
Stars indicate points of light in the ignorant mental consciousness.
Moon = spiritual light
Sun = the higher Truth light
They [gold stars in the sky] are simply indications of divine Truth in the mind – the sky is a symbol of mind very often.
The sky is always some mental plane. The stars indicate beginnings or promises of Light – the various lights indicating various powers of the consciousness: gold = Truth, blue = higher spiritualised mind, violet = sympathy, unity or universal compassion.
Fire and Burning
The fire indicates a dynamic action.
The white fire is the fire of aspiration, the red fire is the fire of renunciation and tapasya, the blue fire is the fire of spirituality and spiritual knowledge which purifies and dispels the Ignorance.
The fire is always the fire of purification – it is very red when it is acting on the vital; when the vital no longer covers the psychic, then the rose colour of the psychic comes out more and more.
It is the purification of the physical that is usually indicated in the symbol of burning.
1 In one vision the correspondent saw stars in the sky, in another stars upon earth. – Ed.
Chapter 3
Sky, Weather, Night and Dawn
Sky
The sky usually symbolises a plane of consciousness mental or higher than the ordinary mental – stars are formations of light on that plane.
The sky is a symbol of the mental consciousness (or the psychic) or other consciousnesses above the mind – e.g. the higher mind, intuition, overmind etc. Akasha as the ether indicates also the infinite.
The sky in the heart is the chidakash. It is seen usually above the head, but when it is seen in the heart, that means the opening of the heart to the higher consciousness.
The blue sky is that of the Higher Mind – the nearest of the planes between human mentality and the Supermind. The moon here [in a vision] is the symbol of spirituality in the mental planes. The world of the Higher Mind is above those directly connected with the body consciousness.
The higher consciousness on any of its levels is seen usually as a sky or ether, but when felt through the vital it is often perceived as a sea.
Sat, Chit, Ananda, Supermind, Mind, Life, Matter are the seven [seas of consciousness mentioned in the Veda]. But in this Yoga one sees many levels of consciousness which appear as skies or else as seas.
Rain, Snow, Clouds, Lightning, Rainbow
The rain is the symbol of the descent of Grace or of the higher consciousness which is the cause of the riches – the spiritual plenty.
The vision you saw of the snow is probably a symbol of the consciousness in a condition of purity, silence and peace like a snowy ground; in that a new life (psychic, spiritual as indicated by the flowers) appears in place of the old mental and vital life which has been covered by that mantle of snowy whiteness.
Clouds are a symbol of obscurity.
The lightning is a symbol of the dynamic force of the higher consciousness acting at intervals to enlighten the rest of the being.
The rainbow is the sign of peace and deliverance.
Night and Dawn
The Night is the symbol of the Ignorance or Avidya in which men live just as Light is the symbol of Truth and Knowledge.
Dawn always means an opening of some kind – the coming of something that is not yet fully there.
Chapter 4
Water and Bodies of Water
Water
Water is the symbol of a state of consciousness or a plane.
Sea or Ocean
The sea with the sun over it is a plane of consciousness lit by the Truth. To enter into the rays is to be no longer merely lit by it, but in one’s own conscious being to begin to become part of the Truth.
A sea in tumult usually indicates a vital upheaval or a period of strain and stress and struggle.
The blue ocean is often a symbol of the spiritual consciousness in higher Mind one and indivisible.
Normally, the ocean of higher consciousness is above the head (mind) and all below is that of the lower consciousness. Your seeing of the two oceans rather means that in the descent the influence of the higher consciousness reaches down to the heart (emotional being with the psychic behind it), but does not yet reach below in the lower vital and physical – but it is dissolving the knot in the heart centre which prevents the descent into the lower vital and physical centres. The joy in the santa svarupa is indeed a sign of the release of the heart centre. But the phrase in the Upanishads refers more particularly to the breaking of the knots of desire, attachment, sanskara, ego in the heart, which stand in the way of spiritual liberation and ascension – not to the knot which prevents the descent.
Pond, Lake, River
When the water is symbolic [it is a plane of consciousness] and here it is a big expanse of water – but a river or a pond are not large enough to symbolise a plane. It may be an actual experience in another world – or it may be the symbol of a particular movement in the sadhana.
It is not from dreams that you can know what plane of consciousness you are living in; it is by an observation of your condition.
Sometimes a part of the consciousness is seen in the image of a pond, lake or sea. The fish must be the vital mind.
The lake is the being in its individual consciousness, the sea is the same being with a universalised consciousness which can hold the universe and its cosmic forces in itself – the one (individual) merges into the other (the universal). The boat is the formation of the Mother’s consciousness in you in which you are preparing to sail on this sea.
The river represents some movement of the consciousness. All these are images of the vital plane.
Chapter 5
Earth
Mountain
The mountain is the symbol of the embodied consciousness based upon earth but rising up towards the Divine.
The mountain always represents the ascending hill of existence with the Divine to be reached on the summits.
The mountain always means the same thing – it is the ascending consciousness.
The mountain is an image of the ascending consciousness.
The mountain is a very usual symbol of the consciousness with its ascending levels. The flowing of water from the peak indicates some flow from the higher consciousness above.
The mountain represents the ascending planes of the higher consciousness. The journey in the train is the passage from one consciousness to another.
The bucket is the physical consciousness; milk is always a symbol of the flow of consciousness from Above; the mountain is the Adhar with its ascending levels from the physical to the Above.1 The golden mountain is a symbol of the ascent to the Truth.
The Golden Mountain is always the mountain of the Divine Truth which one has to ascend – at its summit is the dwelling place of the Divine.
The experience of the great expanse of golden light on a mountain-top came because I had asked X to aspire for the higher experiences of the consciousness from above. The symbolic image of the mountain with the light on its top comes to most sadhaks who have the power of vision at all. The mountain is the consciousness rising from earth (the physical) through the successive heights (vital, mental, above-mental) towards the spiritual heaven. The golden light is always the light of the higher Truth (Supermind, Overmind or a little lower down the pure Intuition) and it is represented as a great luminous expanse on the summits of the being. X by concentrating on the light entered into contact with the higher reaches and that always gives these results, peace, joy, strength, a consciousness secure in the power of the Divine. It is of course through the psychic that she got into this contact, but in itself it is more an experience of the higher spiritual consciousness above mind than a psychic experience.
The silvery narrow way upward is the path of the spiritual consciousness.
Earth and Patala
Patala simply means the subconscient below the Earth – the Earth being the conscious physical plane.
You had asked the other day about the subconscient, what it was. In the vision you describe you were shown the universal subconscient in the figure of Patala, a place without light of consciousness and, because universal, therefore without bounds or end – the dark unconscious infinite out of which this material universe has arisen – it is walled with darkness on all sides, it seems also to have no bottom. The Light comes from above from the higher consciousness and coming down through the mind and heart and vital and physical has to pour down into this subconscient and make it luminous.
“Patala” is a name for the subconscient – the beings there [in a dream] had no heads, that is to say, there is there no mental consciousness; men have all of them such a subconscient plane in their own being and from there rise all sorts of irrational and ignorant (headless) instincts, impulsions, memories etc. which have an effect upon their acts and feelings without their detecting the real source. At night many incoherent dreams come from this world or plane. The world above is the superconscient plane of being – above the human consciousness – there are many worlds of that kind; they are divine worlds.
1 In a vision during meditation, the correspondent saw a stream of milk flowing down a mountain and filling a bucket at its base. – Ed.