WRITINGS BY THE MOTHER
© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust

Invisible Worlds
30 January 1951

What are the "invisible worlds"?

That is a formidable question!

You have heard and read that we are made up of various states of being: physical, vital, mental, psychic, spiritual, etc. Well, all these inner states of being correspond to invisible worlds. There is a physical world, a vital world, a mental world, a psychic world, and many spiritual worlds, a whole range of more and more subtle worlds approaching nearer and nearer to the Supreme. So, since you carry within yourself a corresponding range, by studying and becoming aware of your inner being you gradually make yourself capable of becoming aware also of these invisible worlds. For example, the mind: if the mind is conscious, coordinated, well controlled, it can move about it in the mental world just as the body does in the physical world and see what this mental world is like, what is going on there, what are its characteristics and so on. These things are not invisible in themselves--they are invisible to the physical consciousness and the physical senses, but not to the corresponding inner states of consciousness or the corresponding inner senses. For, by a systematic development one can acquire senses in these worlds and one can then live a similar life with different characteristics. I mean that one can live an objective life in these worlds if one is sufficiently developed oneself. Otherwise, they wouldn't exist for us. If we did not carry in ourselves something corresponding to all that exists in the universe, this universe wouldn't exist for us. And it is only a matter of systematic and methodical development. Some people have it spontaneously for various reasons, usually as a result of a long preparation in previous lives, sometimes because of specially favourable circumstances--they are born in a certain environment, of parents who had developed these faculties, and they were helped to develop them [new p. 318]from childhood. [old p. 339]Other people have to acquire them systematically by inner discipline; it takes time, a long time, but after all it doesn't take much longer than for the brain of a child to grasp abstract mathematics. That takes years.

Do these invisible worlds exist in a fixed place in the universe?

They form part of the universe, of course. Yes, one can say that they exist in a fixed place. But to understand that, to understand these things requires a mind capable of understanding that there are other dimensions than the purely material dimensions. For when you are told that your psychic being is in your body, that doesn't mean that if you open up your body you will find your psychic being inside. You will find your heart, your stomach and the rest, but not your psychic being. And yet it is correct to say that it is within you. It extends beyond you too, but it is in another dimension. And one can say that there are as many dimensions as there are different worlds. Certainly all these invisible worlds--so-called invisible worlds--are contained, so to say, in the material universe. But they don't occupy the place of other things. To make an imperfect comparison--it is valid only as a comparison--you can hold countless ideas in your brain and you certainly don't have the feeling that you have to drive one out so that another one can come in, do you? They don't occupy any space in that sense.

"And the conditions needed for its creation." (note1)

They are innumerable and vary with the person and the circumstances. But, ultimately, they can be reduced to what he said in the beginning or a little further on, I forget... Here: "faith, sincerity and surrender". These are the required conditions. And afterwards, he describes what kind of faith, what kind of sincerity and what kind of surrender. These are the required conditions so that her victory may be won over the hostile forces--the conditions on your side. Her conditions--I suppose she fulfils them spontaneously--are to respond to the aspiration, to have power, clearsightedness, knowledge and will. That is obvious. So, one has to give her a field for her work and conditions under which she may work. And these conditions are: faith, sincerity and surrender--a pure, unmixed faith, a perfect, integral sincerity and an unconditional surrender. This is what he has described for you.

Note 1: "Ask for nothing but the divine, spiritual and supramental Truth, its realisation on earth and in you and in all who are called and chosen and the conditions needed for its creation and its victory over all opposing forces."