Drawing Closer to the Psychic Being

Drawing closer to the Psychic Being is a fundamental aspect of spiritual development, particularly in the Integral Yoga described in the sources, as it serves as the direct link to the Divine within the individual and guides the entire being towards higher truths.1 & 1

THE PSYCHIC BEING: NATURE AND ROLE

The Psychic Being, often referred to as the soul, is described as the inmost soul-being and soul nature.2 It is a direct portion or a spark of the Divine Fire, evolving and growing through countless lives in the terrestrial evolution.3 Its fundamental nature is pure, luminous, and inherently connected to truth and divinity.4

Its primary function is to support and guide the evolution of the individual.5 It gathers the essence of all experiences across lifetimes, progressively forming and perfecting its personality.6 Located deep within the inner or secret heart, behind the emotional being, it is often described as the true centre of one’s existence.7 & 7

The Psychic Being is distinct from the Jivatman (Central Being), which is the individual Self or Spirit that remains above the nature and does not evolve.8 While the Jivatman is unevolving and universal, presiding over the individual manifestation, the Psychic Being is its evolving projection within nature, supporting development and guiding the personality towards the Divine.9 The Psychic Being is therefore indispensable for the manifestation of the Divine in the individual.10

GUIDANCE BY THE UNIVERSAL SOUL (DIVINE/SELF)

The Psychic Being is considered “the Divine within the reach of man”.11 It is in direct communication with the Truth and the transcendent Divine, serving as the purest and readiest response to supramental influence once that connection is made.12 It acts as a beacon projecting the Light and a very accurate receiving set for vibrations, perceiving subtle movements and qualities without reaction.13 It receives the truth but does not create it, distinguishing it from the Supermind.14 This function as a receiver and transmitter implies its guidance by a higher, universal principle – the Divine or Self, which is the source of all truth and knowledge.

The Psychic Being knows how to obey the Truth in the right way15 and knows the Divine Will.16 Its inherent nature is to turn towards the divine Truth, acting as an inner oracle for divination, foresight, and understanding of symbols.17

METHODS TO DRAW CLOSER TO THE PSYCHIC BEING

Drawing closer to the Psychic Being involves conscious effort and a shift in one’s inner orientation. Here are several key methods and conditions outlined in the sources:

1. Aspiration and Sincerity:

  • Constant and sincere aspiration: This is described as the best means to bring forward the Psychic Being,18 distinguishing itself from vital demands by having no reactions, revolt, or justification of revolt, and aspiring through inner union and surrender.19
  • Psychic fire: Cultivating the “divine fire of aspiration” or the “psychic fire” in the heart is crucial, as it consumes impurities and removes obstacles.20
  • Trust and confidence: The psychic has complete trust in the Divine or Guru and can wait for the right time, indicating patience is key.21 

2. Self-Giving and Surrender:

  • Unreserved self-offering: A pure, sincere, unegoistic self-offering to the Divine Mother is essential.22 This includes giving oneself up fully to God or the Guru.
  • Abolition of desires and ego: One must not be a slave to personal desires and mistake them for the truth of one’s being.23 Eliminating selfishness and demand is vital for the psychic to come forward.24 The best way to get rid of the ego’s rule is to find the Psychic Being, allowing it to replace the ego.25 & 25
  • Rejecting lower impulses: Rejecting desire’s control over thought, feeling, and action, combined with steadfast self-giving, leads to the psychic opening spontaneously.26

3. Inner Stillness and Concentration:

  • Quieting the mind: The mind must be absolutely silent and quiet, as it otherwise acts as a veil covering the Psychic Being.27 Cessation of mental struggle and self-deprecation is advised.
  • Concentration in the heart: This is essential for full transformation and for the psychic being to govern mind, life, and body.28 One can enter the psychic directly through the physical consciousness via interiorisation.29
  • Detachment: Standing back from the activities of mind, life, and physical being, and regarding them as habitual formations rather than one’s true being, helps in becoming aware of an inner, calm, unbound self.30
4. Conscious Inner Movement:
  • Turning inwards: The path to the psychic is an interiorisation, not an ascent.31 One must go deep into oneself and aspire steadily.32
  • Observing the inner self: Observing oneself living, distinguishing consciousness from body, feelings, and thoughts, can lead to identifying the persistent “I” that is the Psychic Being.33
  • Recognizing and following psychic intimations: The psychic being continually sends intimations to the surface, and learning to detect their source and follow them scrupulously strengthens the contact.34 & 34
5. Divine Grace and Guidance:
  • Openness to the Mother’s Force: Being open to the Mother’s Light and Force is fundamental.35 This force descends and works to purify and prepare the being.36 
  • Trust in guidance: A strict obedience to the wise and intuitive leading of a Guide is necessary for most seekers.37 The Divine Guide and Protector are always present.38 
  • It comes naturally: While effort is needed, the psychic can also come forward spontaneously when the adhaar (the instrumental being) is ready, or through dynamic descent into the heart.39 & 39

EFFECTS AND SIGNS OF DRAWING CLOSER TO THE PSYCHIC BEING

When the Psychic Being begins to emerge or come to the front, numerous positive changes occur:

  • Self-Knowledge: One becomes conscious of one’s own soul and true being, no longer mistakenly identifying with the mental or vital ego.40 & 40
  • Devotion and Love: It awakens true Bhakti (devotion) for God or Guru, distinct from mental or vital devotion.41 It seeks divine Love and expresses pure, selfless love.42 & 42
  • Discernment and Purity: It brings an infallible sense of truth, enabling one to distinguish between Truth and falsehood, divine and undivine, and to reject wrong movements.43 & 43 Its sadness, when present, is purity offended, not torment or despair.44
  • Inner Guidance: It becomes a steady flame of aspiration, a “quiet oracle” that reveals causes of stumblings, warns against repetition, and provides a just direction for actions.45 & 45 The voice of the soul is true and imperative.46
  • Peace and Harmony: It brings psychic poise, leading to balance and harmony in the being.47 It removes anxieties, worries, and feverish desires, bringing happiness, confidence, and security.48 The inner life becomes harmonious and the being becomes integrally consecrated to the divine light and knowledge.49
  • Expanded Consciousness: It expands consciousness, refines the vital, frees it from desire and egoism, and creates a psychic sensibility, opening the door to the Infinite.50 It can raise one to a vision of the Supermind.51
  • Preparation for Transformation: The Psychic Being transforms the being into a flame of aspiration for the truth52 and is indispensable for the manifestation of the Divine and the integral transformation of the nature, including the mind, vital, and physical.53 It gives the readiest and purest response to the supramental influence.54

By nurturing the divine spark within, cultivating profound aspiration, and wholeheartedly surrendering to the Divine, one can progressively unveil the Psychic Being, allowing it to govern the entire nature and pave the way for a complete spiritual transformation.55 & 55 This process, while sometimes long and arduous due to the resistance of the lower nature, becomes surer and more joyous when the psychic is in front.56

- Narendra Gehlaut (India)

  1. The soul, or Psychic Being, is the direct representative of the Divine in the lower nature. It is in direct touch with the divine Truth and stands behind the mind, vital, and physical beings as their support. Its presence makes it possible for the individual to open to the Divine Consciousness. When the psychic being grows and comes forward to govern the mind, vital, and physical parts, the veil of personal ideas, desires, and habits can fall, allowing the direct relation with the Divine to grow. This opening of the nature to the true supramental light is considered essential, for without the manifestation of the true soul-power, nothing genuine has been done in the Yoga.— Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III: The Emergence or Coming Forward of the Psychic and Letters on Yoga - III: The Psychic Being and Its Role in Sadhana
  2. I mean by the psychic the inmost soul-being and the soul nature... the true soul which is a spark of the Divine Fire, a portion of the Divine. Because the soul, the psychic being uses the mind and the vital as well as the body as instruments for growth and experience it is itself looked at as if it were some amalgam or some subtle substratum of mind and life. But in Yoga if we accept all this chaotic mass as soul-stuff or soul-movement we shall enter into a confusion without an issue. All that belongs only to the coverings of the soul; the soul itself is an inner divinity greater than mind or life or body.— Sri Aurobindo, Essays Divine and Human: Integral Yoga
  3. The soul is something of the Divine that descends into the evolution as a divine Principle within it to support the evolution of the individual out of the Ignorance into the Light. It develops in the course of the evolution a psychic individual or soul individuality which grows from life to life, using the evolving mind, vital and body as its instruments. It is the soul that is immortal while the rest disintegrates; it passes from life to life carrying its experience in essence and the continuity of the evolution of the individual.— Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - I: The Psychic Being
  4. It is an ever-pure flame of the divinity in things and nothing that comes to it, nothing that enters into our experience can pollute its purity or extinguish the flame. This spiritual stuff is immaculate and luminous and, because it is perfectly luminous, it is immediately, intimately, directly aware of truth of being and truth of nature; it is deeply conscious of truth and good and beauty because truth and good and beauty are akin to its own native character, forms of something that is inherent in its own substance.— Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine - II: The Triple Transformation
  5. The psychic being is a spiritual personality put forward by the soul in its evolution; its growth marks the stage which the spiritual evolution of the individual has reached and its immediate possibilities for the future. It stands behind the mental, the vital, the physical nature, grows by their experiences, carries the consciousness from life to life.— Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - I: The Jivatman in the Integral Yoga
  6. The soul gathers the essence of all our mental, vital and bodily experience and assimilates it for the farther evolution of our existence in Nature. Each time that the soul takes birth in a new body it comes with the intention of having a new experience which will help it to develop and to perfect its personality. This is how the psychic being is formed from life to life and becomes a completely conscious and independent personality.— The Mother, On Thoughts and Aphorisms: Aphorism - 11
  7. The psychic is deep within in the inner heart-centre behind the emotional being... The psychic being is behind the mind, life and body; it is most open to the higher Truth; that is why it is indispensable for the manifestation of the Divine. That alone can open itself completely to the Truth.— Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - I: The Psychic Being and from a conversation on 25 9 1926
  8. The Jivatma is the Ansha [portion] of the Divine standing above the consciousness as the individual self and unchanged by the evolution—the soul is the same descended into the evolution and developing its consciousness from life to life until in the opening of knowledge the psychic being realises its oneness with the self above.— Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - I: The Psychic Being
  9. The central being is that which is not born, does not evolve, but presides over all the individual manifestation. The psychic is its projection here—for the psychic being is in the evolution and from within supports our whole evolution; it receives the essence of all experience and by that develops the personality Godward.— Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - I: The Jivatman in the Integral Yoga
  10. The psychic being most purely reflects the Divine in the lower triplicity of the mind, life and body... it is the most divine and most open to the higher Truth. Also, that is why it is indispensable for the manifestation of the Divine. That alone can open itself completely to the Truth.— Sri Aurobindo, from a conversation on 25 9 1926
  11. The psychic is what may be called "the Divine within the reach of man".— The Mother, Questions and Answers (1950 - 1951): 12 February 1951
  12. It is the psychic that is in direct relation with the transcendent Divine and leads the nature upwards towards the Supreme. Once the connection between the supramental and the human consciousness is made, it is the psychic being that gives the readiest response—more ready than the mind, the vital or the physical. It may be added that it is also a purer response; the mind, vital and physical can allow other things to mix with their reception of the supramental influence and spoil its truth. The psychic is pure in its response and allows no such mixture.— Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - I: The Psychic Being and Letters on Yoga - I: The Psychic Being
  13. It strikes me as a kind of beacon—a beacon projecting the Light—and at the same time, a sort of receiving set that receives the vibrations. It’s very, very accurate—very accurate—as regards the quality of the vibrations of everything around it... with a consciousness which is highly receptive and at the same time without any reactions. There are no reactions, it’s like an extremely delicate (that is, sensitive) receiving set, but without any reaction.— The Mother, Mother's Agenda: September 11, 1968
  14. The psychic being receives the truth but does not create it, as opposed to the supramental. There is a difference between the two.— Sri Aurobindo, from a conversation on 19 4 1926
  15. The psychic being knows how to obey the Truth in the right way. It can give itself up fully to God or to the Guru; and because it gives itself up truly it receives also truly.— Sri Aurobindo, from a conversation on 23 MARCH 1926
  16. Yes, the psychic being not only has the capacity to know but also to realise. The psychic being, far better than the mind and vital, understands the body and knows how to make it obey.— The Mother, New Correspondences of the Mother - Vol II: 21 March 1969
  17. It is the very nature of the soul or the psychic being to turn towards the divine Truth as the sunflower to the sun; it accepts and clings to all that is divine or progressing towards divinity, and draws back from all that is a perversion or a denial of it, from all that is false and undivine.— Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Ascent of the Sacrifice - I
  18. Aspiration, constant and sincere, and the will to turn to the Divine alone are the best means to bring forward the psychic.— The Mother, More Answers from the Mother: 25 March 1970
  19. In the psychic aspiration there are none of these reactions, there is no revolt, no justification of revolt: for the psychic aspires through inner union with the Divine and surrender. It does not question and challenge, but seeks to understand through unity with the Divine Will... The cry of the psychic is always, "Let the Truth prevail, let Thy will be done and not mine." But the clamour of the vital is the very opposite: it calls to the Divine, "Let my will be Thine; obey my insistences, satisfy my desires..."— Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV: The Lower Vital Being
  20. The presiding deity – the adhisthātā-devatā of the psychic plane is Agni. It is the divine fire of aspiration. When the psychic being is awakened the God of the plane also is awakened. And even if the whole being is impure it is that (Agni) which intervenes and removes the obstacles standing in the way and consumes all the impurities of the being.— Sri Aurobindo, from a conversation on 25 9 1926
  21. The psychic does not demand or desire; it aspires; it does not make conditions for its surrender or withdraw if its aspiration is not immediately satisfied—for the psychic has complete trust in the Divine or in the guru and can wait for the right time or the hour of the divine grace.— Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV: Desire
  22. Then only can the psychic being fully open when the sadhaka has got rid of the mixture of vital motives with his sadhana and is capable of a simple and sincere self-offering to the Mother. If there is any kind of egoistic turn or insincerity of motive... then the psychic cannot open, or opens only partially or only at times and shuts again because it is veiled by the vital activities; the psychic fire fails in the strangling vital smoke.— Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III: The Psychic Opening
  23. Only by giving oneself in all sincerity to the Divine Will does one gain the peace and calm joy that arises from the abolition of desires. The psychic being knows this definitely. Thus, by uniting with our psychic being, we can know it, too. But the first condition is not to be the slave of personal desires and mistake them for the truth of one's being.— The Mother, from a note on February 5, 1972
  24. To bring the psychic forward, selfishness and demand (which is the base of the vital feelings) must be got rid of—or at least never accepted.— Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III: The Emergence or Coming Forward of the Psychic 
  25. The best way to get rid of the rule of the ego is to find the psychic being, instrument of the Divine in human beings... It is the psychic inmost being that replaces the ego. It is through love and surrender to the Divine that the psychic being becomes strong and manifest, so that it can replace the ego.— The Mother, Words of the Mother - II: The Soul (the Psychic) and Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - I: The Psychic Being
  26. If one aspires sincerely and rejects what has to be rejected, as far as one can, then the psychic and spiritual influences will more and more work, bring more and more true discrimination, support, stimulate and create the right vibrations, detect, discourage and eliminate the wrong ones.— Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II: Rejection
  27. It is in the quiet mind that the opening must come. Then the psychic being, the soul in you, begins to come forward. The soul knows and sees the Truth; the mind and vital do not—until they are enlightened by the soul's knowledge.— Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III: The Psychic Opening
  28. The peace in the heart is the sign of the psychic and the basis of the spiritual change... Without this concentration in the heart the full transformation cannot come. It is not enough to have a descent in the head—a descent in the heart is essential.— Sri Aurobindo, from Letters on Yoga - III
  29. You are in the physical consciousness, nothing prevents you from opening this physical consciousness to the psychic consciousness... You can enter directly. The psychic manifests itself directly in your physical without passing through the other states; that's what it means.— The Mother, Questions and Answers (1955): 9 March 1955
  30. One must get the power to quiet the mental and vital... It is also possible to detach yourself and look at these activities as if they were not your own but a mechanical action of Nature which you observe as a disinterested witness. One can then become aware of an inner being which is separate, calm and uninvolved in Nature.— Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III: Inner Detachment and the Witness Attitude
  31. You can enter into contact with the psychic directly through the physical consciousness, directly through the vital consciousness, directly through the mental consciousness... It is not an ascent or gradation. It is an interiorisation, and this interiorisation can be done without passing through the other states of being, directly.— The Mother, Questions and Answers (1955): 9 March 1955
  32. Go deep into yourself (i.e. the heart region) and aspire steadily. The true meeting of the psychic is unmistakable.— The Mother, from a note on 8 May 1972
  33. By progressive eliminations one succeeds in entering into contact with something, something which gives you the impression of being—"Yes, that's 'myself'."... And so one begins to understand what one's consciousness is; and it's after that that one can say, "Good, I shall unite my consciousness with my psychic being and shall leave it there, so that it may be in harmony with the Divine and be able to surrender entirely to the Divine."— The Mother, Questions and Answers (1955): 27 July 1955
  34. Something like a quiet oracle from within discloses the causes of our stumblings, warns in time against their repetition, extracts from experience and intuition the law, not rigid but plastic, of a just direction for our acts, a right stepping, an accurate impulse... In order to strengthen the contact... one should, while concentrating, turn towards it, aspire to know it and feel it, open oneself to receive its influence, and take great care, each time that one receives an indication from it, to follow it very scrupulously and sincerely.— Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Ascent of the Sacrifice - II and The Mother, Some Answers from the Mother: 10 September 1959
  35. To be open is simply to be so turned to the Mother that her Force can work in you without anything refusing or obstructing her action.— Sri Aurobindo, The Mother with Letters on The Mother: The Meaning of Opening
  36. The psychic manifests through persistent love and aspiration, or it emerges when the mind and vital are prepared by a descent from above and the action of the Force.— Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III
  37. A strict obedience to the wise and intuitive leading of a Guide is also normal and necessary for all but a few specially gifted seekers.— Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine - II: The Triple Transformation
  38. If the equality and the psychic light and will are already there... A sure guidance and protection will be present throughout, sometimes standing in front, sometimes working behind the veil, and the power of the end will be already there even in the beginning... For at all times the seeker will be aware of the Divine Guide and Protector or the working of the supreme Mother-Force.— Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Ascent of the Sacrifice - II
  39. It [the psychic] comes forward of itself either through constant love and aspiration or when the mind and vital have been made ready by the descent from above and the working of the Force... also it sometimes comes of itself when the Adhar is ready.— Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III: The Emergence or Coming Forward of the Psychic and Letters on Yoga - III: The Emergence or Coming Forward of the Psychic
  40. When the psychic awakens you grow conscious of your own soul, you know your true being. You no longer commit the mistake of identifying yourself with the mental or the vital being, you do not mistake them for the soul. The psychic is the true being, the ego is a formation of the mind and vital and physical, a provisional and changing formation in the surface consciousness which is a sort of representative of the true being in the ignorance, but very imperfect, ignorant and often perverse.— Sri Aurobindo, from a conversation on 23 MARCH 1926 and Letters on Yoga ↩
  41. When it is awakened, the psychic being gives the sadhak the true Bhakti for God or for the Guru. That devotion is quite different from mental and vital devotion.— Sri Aurobindo, from a conversation on 23 MARCH 1926
  42. The most intimate character of the psychic is its pressure towards the Divine through a sacred love, joy and oneness. It is a divine Love that it seeks most, it is the love of the Divine that is its spur, its goal... Psychic love is based on self-giving.— Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Ascent of the Sacrifice - I and Letters on Yoga - II
  43. When the psychic being awakens it becomes easy for the sadhak to distinguish from within between Truth and falsehood, and also to throw out from the nature any wrong movement... It is only the psychic which has a just discrimination: it is directly aware of the supreme Presence, it infallibly distinguishes between the divine and the undivine.— Sri Aurobindo, from a conversation on 23 MARCH 1926 and The Mother, Questions and Answers (1929 - 1931)
  44. When the psychic being comes to the surface it feels sad when the mental or the vital being is making a fool of itself. That sadness is purity offended... The psychic can have a psychic sorrow when things go against its diviner yearnings, but this sorrow has in it no touch of torment, depression or despair.— Sri Aurobindo, from a conversation on 23 MARCH 1926 and Letters on Yoga - II
  45. The psychic is a steady flame that burns in you, soaring towards the Divine and carrying with it a sense of strength which breaks down all oppositions... something like a quiet oracle from within discloses the causes of our stumblings, warns in time against their repetition, extracts from experience and intuition the law, not rigid but plastic, of a just direction for our acts, a right stepping, an accurate impulse.— The Mother, Questions and Answers (1929 - 1931) and Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I
  46. One can hear, also, the voice of the soul which generally comes from the psychic being. But it should not be confounded with the voice that is heard in the mind. The psychic voice is true and it has something more imperative in it than the mental voice.— Sri Aurobindo, from a conversation on 22 JUNE 1926
  47. Psychic poise means the poise of the being which comes from the fact that the psychic, which governs the movements of the being, is the master of all the movements of the consciousness. The psychic is always well poised. So when it is active and governs the being, it inevitably brings a balance. Under the psychic influence all activity becomes balanced.— The Mother, Questions and Answers (1954): 10 November 1954
  48. To dwell in the psychic is to be lifted above all greed. You will have no hankering, no worry, no feverish desire. And you will feel also that whatever happens, happens for the best.— The Mother, Questions and Answers (1929 - 1931): The Ordinary Life and the True Soul
  49. The psychic world or plane of consciousness is that part of the world... which is directly under the influence of the Divine Consciousness... It is a world of harmony, and everything moves in it from light to light and from progress to progress. It is the seat of the Divine Consciousness, the Divine Self in the individual being.— The Mother, Questions and Answers (1929 - 1931): 26 May 1929
  50. To the psychic being Nature reveals the Infinite; it feels Bhakti, it enters Universal Beauty through Nature... It first refines the vital being, frees it from desire and egoism, – not directly. It creates a certain psychic sensibility, a door through which the Sadhaka can enter the Infinite.— Sri Aurobindo, from a conversation on 23 August 1926
  51. Because you are always in the mind. But when the psychic opens you cannot retain this standpoint. It becomes too vivid and too real... The psychic opening will raise you to that.— Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - I: The Intellect and Yoga
  52. It transforms the being into a being of truth, into a flame of aspiration for the truth.— Sri Aurobindo, from a conversation on 19 4 1926
  53. The psychic being is that which opens the rest of the nature to the true supramental light and finally to the supreme Ananda... If the inmost soul is awakened, if there is a new birth out of the mere mental, vital and physical into the psychic consciousness, then this Yoga can be done; otherwise... it is impossible.— Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III: The Psychic Being and Its Role in Sadhana
  54. What you feel is the true psychic opening and it is that for which you should always aspire... Once that is there, it is possible to call down through it a strength from above which will make the vital strong and remove the weakness... it is the psychic opening that makes a more satisfying and rapid progress possible.— Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III: The Psychic Opening
  55. The psychic aspires to the Divine or answers to things divine, it is surrendered in principle, but it has to develop its surrender in detail carrying with it the surrender of all the being. It is only when the psychic being grows and comes forward and governs the mind and vital and physical and changes them that this veil of personal ideas, desires and habits can fall—then the direct relation and nearness grows in the being till the whole consciousness is united with the Divine.— Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III: The Psychic Being and Its Role in Sadhana and Letters on Yoga - III: The Emergence or Coming Forward of the Psychic
  56. The process may be rapid or tardy according to the amount of obscurity and resistance still left in the nature, but it goes on unfalteringly so long as it is not complete. If the psychic is strong and master throughout, then there is no or little subjective suffering and the objective cannot affect either the soul or the other parts of the consciousness—the way is sunlit and a great joy and sweetness are the note of the whole sadhana.— Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine - II: The Triple Transformation and Letters on Yoga - IV: Resistances, Sufferings and Falls
 

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