Sri Aurobindo
Letters of Sri Aurobindo
Volume III - Part 3
Fragment ID: 12719
Your three experiences related in your letter mean that you are going out in your vital body into the vital worlds and meeting the beings and formations of these worlds. The old man of the temple and the girls you saw are hostile beings of the vital plane.
It is better not to go out in this way, unless one has the protection of someone (physically present) who has knowledge and power over the vital world. As there is no one there who can do this for you, you should draw back from this movement. Aspire for perfect surrender, calm, peace, light, consciousness and strength in the mind and the heart. When the mental being and psychic being are thus open, luminous and surrendered, then the vital can open and receive the same illumination. Till then premature adventures on the vital plane are not advisable.
If the movement cannot be stopped, then observe the following instructions:
(1) Never allow any fear to enter into you. Face all you meet and see in this world with detachment and courage.
(2) Ask for the protection of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother before you sleep or meditate. Use their names when you are attacked or tempted1.
(3) Do not indulge in this world in any kind of sympathy such as you felt for the old man in the temple or accept such suggestions, e.g., that he was your spiritual preceptor, which was obviously false since you could have no other spiritual preceptor than Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. It was because of this sympathy and the accepted suggestion that he was able to go inside you and create the pain you felt.
(4) Do not allow any foreign personality to enter into you, only the Light, Power etc. from above.
1 Sri Aurobindo refers to himself in the third person here and below; he wrote this letter to be sent over the signature of his secretary. – Ed.