Becoming Conscious of the Multiple Sheaths or Planes of Our Being

1
00:00:02,160 --> 00:00:07,040
In the Titeria Upanishad, the
seeker discovers through

2
00:00:07,040 --> 00:00:12,480
intensive tapasya that there are
multiple layers or sheaths of

3
00:00:12,480 --> 00:00:16,000
consciousness that make up the
human being.

4
00:00:17,360 --> 00:00:21,520
His seeking first discovers the
material body or food sheath.

5
00:00:22,640 --> 00:00:26,840
As he continues, he recognizes
the vital body or prana sheath.

6
00:00:28,160 --> 00:00:31,160
Next, he learns about the mind
or mental sheath.

7
00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:37,320
He continues to discover the
Causal sheath and eventually the

8
00:00:37,320 --> 00:00:41,920
bliss sheath.
Each one was successively more

9
00:00:41,920 --> 00:00:46,760
subtle than the prior one, and
each one was more directly

10
00:00:46,760 --> 00:00:49,480
capable of causing the actions
of the being.

11
00:00:50,760 --> 00:00:54,040
These sheets correspond
generally to the chakras and

12
00:00:54,040 --> 00:00:57,000
their receptivity to energies
and forces.

13
00:00:57,550 --> 00:01:00,350
That are active in the
manifestation generally.

14
00:01:01,830 --> 00:01:08,390
Thus we are greatly moved in our
thoughts, feelings, actions and

15
00:01:08,390 --> 00:01:13,110
responses by these larger
forces, which remain, however

16
00:01:13,590 --> 00:01:18,950
largely unnoticed by us as they
enter through the subtle bodies

17
00:01:19,230 --> 00:01:23,830
corresponding to each of these
sheets, and we only become aware

18
00:01:23,830 --> 00:01:26,590
of them when they are active
within us.

19
00:01:27,140 --> 00:01:32,340
And we are attending to them in
the life divine triobindo

20
00:01:32,340 --> 00:01:36,140
describes the sevenfold
ignorance within which we exist.

21
00:01:36,980 --> 00:01:41,220
We are not aware of the
environmental consciousness as

22
00:01:41,220 --> 00:01:45,620
well as superconscient,
subconscient, and even what we

23
00:01:45,620 --> 00:01:48,980
may call the inconscient levels
of our existence.

24
00:01:50,220 --> 00:01:53,660
We treat the things that we can
perceive with our external

25
00:01:53,660 --> 00:01:58,500
senses as what is real.
And fail to recognize the

26
00:01:58,500 --> 00:02:02,020
reality of all the other
elements that make up our

27
00:02:02,020 --> 00:02:06,700
existence and our relation to
the larger universal

28
00:02:06,700 --> 00:02:11,140
manifestation, Shriorobindo
observes, Quote.

29
00:02:12,140 --> 00:02:15,820
Why then are we not normally
aware of so much that is behind

30
00:02:15,820 --> 00:02:20,740
us and always pressing upon us?
For the same reason that we are

31
00:02:20,740 --> 00:02:24,940
not aware of the inner life of
our neighbor, although it exists

32
00:02:25,220 --> 00:02:29,690
as much as our own?
And is constantly exercising an

33
00:02:29,690 --> 00:02:34,330
occult influence upon us.
For a great part of our thoughts

34
00:02:34,330 --> 00:02:38,610
and feelings come into us from
outside, from our fellow men,

35
00:02:39,610 --> 00:02:44,090
both from individuals and from
the collective mind of humanity.

36
00:02:45,050 --> 00:02:48,730
And for the same reason that we
are not aware of the greater

37
00:02:48,730 --> 00:02:53,370
part of our own being, which is
subconscient or subliminal to

38
00:02:53,370 --> 00:02:58,290
our waking mind.
And is always influencing and in

39
00:02:58,290 --> 00:03:01,690
an occult manner determining our
surface existence.

40
00:03:02,770 --> 00:03:08,490
It is because we use normally
only our corporeal senses and

41
00:03:08,490 --> 00:03:13,250
live almost wholly in the body
and the physical vitality and

42
00:03:13,250 --> 00:03:16,970
the physical mind.
And it is not directly through

43
00:03:16,970 --> 00:03:21,850
these that the life world enters
into relations with us, that is

44
00:03:21,850 --> 00:03:24,250
done through other sheaths of
our being.

45
00:03:25,210 --> 00:03:29,450
So they are termed in the
Upanishads other bodies, as they

46
00:03:29,450 --> 00:03:33,290
are called in a later
terminology, the mental sheath

47
00:03:33,290 --> 00:03:37,610
or subtle body, in which our
true mental being lives, and the

48
00:03:37,610 --> 00:03:42,690
life sheath or vital body, which
is more closely connected with

49
00:03:42,690 --> 00:03:47,330
the physical or food sheath, and
forms with it the gross body of

50
00:03:47,330 --> 00:03:53,290
our complex existence.
These possess powers, senses,

51
00:03:53,610 --> 00:03:57,370
capacities.
Which are always secretly acting

52
00:03:57,370 --> 00:04:02,730
in us, are connected with and
impinge upon our physical organs

53
00:04:03,290 --> 00:04:07,210
and the plexuses of our physical
life and mentality.

54
00:04:08,330 --> 00:04:12,210
By self development we can
become aware of them, possess

55
00:04:12,210 --> 00:04:16,490
our life in them, get through
them into conscious relation

56
00:04:16,490 --> 00:04:21,329
with the life world and other
worlds, and use them also for a

57
00:04:21,329 --> 00:04:25,140
more subtle experience.
And more intimate knowledge of

58
00:04:25,140 --> 00:04:31,100
the truths, facts and happenings
of even the material world

59
00:04:31,100 --> 00:04:35,220
itself.
We can by this self development

60
00:04:35,220 --> 00:04:39,660
live more or less fully on the
plains of our existence other

61
00:04:39,660 --> 00:04:43,300
than the material which is now
All in all to us.

62
00:04:44,380 --> 00:04:50,780
End Quote reference Sriorobindo
and the Mother our many selves.

63
00:04:51,460 --> 00:04:56,220
Practical Yogic Psychology,
Chapter One, Our manifold being

64
00:04:56,220 --> 00:04:57,700
pages 9 to 10.