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Spiritual Realms, Evolution in the World, and the Role of the Psychic Being · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  People are generally skeptical about the existence of beings
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  outside our normal experience of life in the world.
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  At the same time, there is an incredible interest in other
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  beings, and the search for life forms in the universe occupies
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  the minds of many people. People frequently report
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  encounters with other beings, whether they are called gods,
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  celestial beings, angels, demons, asuras, rakshasas,
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  ghosts, apparitions, or alien beings.
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  There are reports worldwide about the existence of these
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  beings, and many highly revered texts recount visitations,
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  meetings, and teachings provided by otherworldly beings.
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  The Bible has numerous tales of angels interacting with human
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  beings. The ancient Greeks and Romans
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  describe the interaction of various beings designated as
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  gods who interacted with and intervened in the lives of men.
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  They also referred to ghosts, shades of men that survived in
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  an incorporeal existence. Tibetan texts describe various
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  beings in their worlds of residence, as also can be found
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  in texts of India. Scriptural texts from all
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  corners of the world provide information on ethereal beings,
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  subtle presences, etcetera. The Titaria Upanishad provides
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  an insightful description of the levels of bliss Ananda
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  attainable by various beings and in chapter 8 of the Brahmananda
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  Wali, the seer describes these beings and the ascending level
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  of subtle existence that they occupy above the human world.
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  The chapter also notes quote the spirit who is here in a man and
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  the spirit who is there in the sun.
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  It is one spirit and there is no other.
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  End Quote. Human beings perceive beings
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  that provide sensory input to us within a certain limited range
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  of the electromagnetic spectrum. Vibrations below and above this
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  range are generally imperceptible to us, although we
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  know both that they exist as we can measure some of them, and
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  that some beings on the planet can actually see or hear at
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  levels outside our own ability to perceive with various
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  instruments. Scientists have found living
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  beings at the microscopic level that we could not directly know
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  without access to these instruments.
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  At a certain point, the existence of vibratory ranges
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  outside the human field and the known fact that beings exist in
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  those other ranges make it clear that as Hamlet relates to
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  Horatio in Shakespeare's famous play quote, there are more
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  things in heaven and earth Horatio than are dreamt of in
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  your philosophy. End Quote.
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  Those ranges that represent vibratory levels above the human
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  are known as spiritual levels. The evolution of consciousness
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  slowly begins to extend the range into levels currently
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  beyond our level of perception, just as the vital range extended
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  beyond the physical and the mental range extended beyond the
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  physical and the vital levels. Beings that exist currently at
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  those levels in some cases are able to interact with human
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  beings and in other cases may try to take possession of the
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  physical existence of an individual.
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  Rishis, seers and sages have indicated, based on their
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  experience and interactions, that one of the lures of
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  existence within the earth plane is the evolutionary potential.
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  It seems the beings on other planes are static beings not
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  able to progress and develop. This development includes the
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  extension of awareness into more subtle spiritual ranges.
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  In the meantime, beings who exist at those levels would need
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  to take birth in the world to actively participate in this
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  evolutionary development. The psychic being is the divine
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  essence that acts in the world and provides the central
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  evolutionary impetus to carry out the divine intention in the
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  world. While the spiritual realms are
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  experienced above the being, the psychic is experienced deep
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  within, behind the heart center. A disciple inquires, Quote, What
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  is the difference between spiritual and psychic?
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  End Quote, the Mother responds. It is not the same thing.
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  The psychic is the being organized by the Divine
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  Presence, and it belongs to the earth.
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  I am not Speaking of the universe, only of the earth.
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  It is only upon earth that you will find the psychic being.
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  The rest of the universe is formed in quite a different way.
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  The universe contains all the domains higher than the
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  physical. There is a global physical
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  comprising the mental, the vital, et cetera, and all the
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  domains above the mental are domains of the spiritual order,
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  domains which are for us domains of the spirit.
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  And it is this spirit which little by little progressively
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  materializes itself to arrive at matter as we conceive it.
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  The beings of the Overmind, for instance, and all the beings of
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  the higher regions have no psychic being.
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  The angels have no psychic being.
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  It is only upon earth that the psychic life begins, and it is
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  just the process by which the Divine has awakened material
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  life to the necessity of rejoining its divine origin.
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  Without the psychic, matter would never have awakened from
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  its inconscience. It would never have aspired for
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  the life of its origin, the spiritual life.
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  Therefore, the psychic being in the human being is the
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  manifestation of spiritual aspiration.
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  But there is a spiritual life independent of the psychic.
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  End Quote. Reference Sri Aurobindo and the
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  Mother. The psychic being soul its
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  nature, mission and evolution. Section 1.
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  Meaning and Nature of the Psychic Being, pages 36 to 37.