Distinguishing Spiritual Presence from Spiritual Being

There are moments, we call them sacred, or magical or some other word to describe the special and unusual nature of the experience. It could be a quiet walk in an old growth forest, or it could be a quiet moment under a vast star-studded sky, or a moment when the heart suddenly opens and we feel a sense of love and oneness with the entire creation. We may see flowers radiating their inner sense of beauty, or we may see the divinity in each object in Nature. Some individuals report the experience of the spiritual presence when they return to consciousness from a near death experience, and they open their eyes with a new sense of wonder and a depth of understanding they had previously not consciously known. However it comes, we suddenly have a glimpse, for a moment, of the inner spiritual presence in the entire existence of which we are a participant.

A disciple asks: “Sweet Mother, is there a spiritual being in everybody?”

The Mother answers: “That depends on what we call ‘being’. If for ‘being’ we substitute ‘presence’, yes, there is a spiritual presence in everyone. If we call ‘being’ an organised entity, fully conscious of itself, independent, and having the power of asserting itself and ruling the rest of the nature — no! The possibility of this independent and all-powerful being is in everybody, but the realisation is the result of long efforts which sometimes extend over many lives.”

“In everyone, even at the very beginning, this spiritual presence, this inner light is there…. In fact, it is everywhere. I have seen it many a time in certain animals. It is like a shining point which is the basis of a certain control and protection, something which, even in half-consciousness, makes possible a certain harmony with the rest of creation so that irreparable catastrophes may not be constant and general. Without this presence the disorder created by the violences and passions of the vital would be so great that at any moment they could bring about a general catastrophe, a sort of total destruction which would prevent the progress of Nature. That presence, that spiritual light — which could almost be called a spiritual consciousness — is within each being and all things, and because of it, in spite of all discordance, all passion, all violence, there is a minimum of general harmony which allows Nature’s work to be accomplished.”

“And this presence becomes quite obvious in the human being, even the most rudimentary. Even in the most monstrous human being, in one who gives the impression of being an incarnation of a devil or a monster, there is something within exercising a sort of irresistible control — even in the worst, some things are impossible. And without this presence, if the being were controlled exclusively by the adverse forces, the forces of the vital, this impossibility would not exist.”

“Each time a wave of these monstrous adverse forces sweeps over the earth, one feels that nothing can ever stop the disorder and horror from spreading, and always, at a certain time, unexpectedly and inexplicably a control intervenes, and the wave is arrested, the catastrophe is not total. And this is because of the Presence, the supreme Presence, in matter.”

“But only in a few exceptional beings and after a long, very long work of preparation extending over many, many lives does this Presence change into a conscious, independent, fully organised being, all-powerful master of his dwelling-place, conscious enough, powerful enough, to be able to control not only this dwelling but what surrounds it and in a field of radiation and action that is more and more extensive… and effective.”

reference: Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Psychic Being — Soul: Its Nature, Mission and Evolution, Section 6 More Lights on the Psychic Being, pp. 160-161