The Psychic Being and Progress

0:00 Until someone actively takes up the spiritual path and consciously begins to focus on the significance of his life and the purpose of the manifestation, the question of progress for the psychic being does not even arise. The progress takes place, but it happens without appreciation or acknowledgement by the individual who is absorbed in the outer life and focused on the development of the ego personality and its measure of success in the world. Up until the individual consciously takes up the work, the progress in terms of growth and development of the psychic being takes place, and it will continue with the aid of the conscious participation of the spiritual seeker.

0:49 Eventually, the fully developed and manifested psychic being is confronted with choices and the freedom to make the choice without anyone judging that choice. The choices include leaving the manifestation for permanent residence in what might be called the psychic world or domain or any other world or heaven, gaining the freedom to depart but turning back to assist others in reaching that point. That is the Bodhisattva vow and voluntarily choosing to return to support the divine manifestation in its evolutionary program.

1:32 Assuming the soul is chosen to return and work towards either universal liberation or evolutionary development, it then looks to how to best refine, develop and utilize its external being, the instruments of action in the world, body, life and mind. There is a progressive development possible here as well. The ability to more perfectly represent and express the spiritual force and the psychic aspiration is an important aspect of the role of the psychic being in the general evolutionary process. A disciple asks, does the psychic being always progress? The Mother responds quote.

2:21 There are in the psychic being 2 very different kinds of progress, 1 consisting in its formation. Building an organization for the psychic starts by being only a kind of tiny divine spark inside the being, and out of this spark will emerge progressively. An independent conscious being have it having its own action and will. The psychic being at its origin is only a spark of the divine consciousness, and it is through successive lives that it builds up a conscious individuality. It is a progress similar to that of a growing child. It is a thing in the making for a long time in most human beings.

3:05 The psychic is a being in the making. It is not a fully individualized, fully conscious being and master of itself, and it needs all its rebirths, one after another in order to build itself and become fully conscious. But this sort of progress has an end. There comes a time when the being is fully developed, fully individualized, fully master of itself and its destiny, when this being, or one of these psychic beings at that state, takes birth in a human being. That makes a very great difference.

3:46 The human being, so to say, is Born Free. He is not tied to circumstances, to surroundings, to his origin and atavism. Like ordinary people, he comes into the world with the purpose of doing something, with a work to carry out, a mission to fulfill. From this point of view, his progress in growth has come to an end, That is, it is not indispensable for him to take birth again in a body. Till then rebirth is a necessity, for it is through rebirth that he grows. It is in the physical life and in a physical body that he gradually develops and becomes a fully conscious being.

4:30 But once he is fully formed, he is free in this sense that he can take birth or not at will. So there one kind of progress stops. But if this fully formed being wants to become an instrument of work for the Divine, if instead of retiring to repose in a psychic bliss in its own domain, he chooses to be a worker upon earth to help in the fulfillment of the divine work, then he has a fresh progress to make a progress in the capacity for work, for organization of his work, and for expression of the divine will.

5:11 So there is a time when the thing changes. So long as he remains in the world, so long as he chooses to work for the divine, he will progress. Only if he withdraws into the psychic world and refuses to continue doing the divine work or renounces it, can he remain in a static condition outside all progress. Because, as I have told you, only upon earth is there progress, only in the physical world. It is not acquired. Everywhere in the psychic world there is a kind of blissful repose. One remains what 1 is without any movement.

5:52 End Quote. Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, the psychic being soul, its nature, mission and evolution. Section 3. Growth and Development of the Psychic, pages 89 to 90.