Introduction to the Higher Levels of Consciousness Beyond the Mind

Western psychology has begun to explore the levels and ‘realms’ of mind. This study has been going on for many hundreds, if not thousands, of years in India, where the psychological framework of ‘inner space’ has been a key focus of yogic psychology. Western study started with the mental powers and then began to explore the connection ot less conscious levels, such as the subconscious and (what Jung called the “collective unconscious) and their influence on our waking minds and responses to circumstances and events.

Sri Aurobindo recognised that the evolution of consciousness implies that there are higher realms and stages of consciousness beyond what the human being ordinarily experiences, and thus, took his research into those higher realms. He acknowledges the role and impact of the subconscious and the unconscious, but he also recognises that as new, higher and more powerful levels of awareness take on a greater importance in human life, many of the former levels will be subject to modification and even transformation.

In The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo does a review of some of these higher stages and the differentiating factors as to how they operate. Starting from the mental level, there is what he calls the ‘higher mind’. Above that are levels such as the illumined mind, the overmind and eventually the supermind. The supermind acts as the primary interface between pure existence, consciousness-force and bliss (Sat-Chit-Ananda) and the manifestation of the worlds associated with mind, life and physical substance. It holds concurrently the awareness of pure existence and the power to create and manifest the worlds and their operation in detail. For a substantial understanding of these levels and their differences and their varying modes and powers of operation, it is best to consult The Life Divine directly.

As part of this more comprehensive view of the play of consciousness, Sri Aurobindo also describes the action and conscious force that is tied to each of the chakras, the subtle energy centers that act as a nexus for reception and expression of various forms of the consciousness and force operative in the creation.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “If your consciousness rises above the head, that means that it goes beyond the ordinary mind to the centre above which receives the higher consciousness or else towards the ascending levels of the higher consciousness itself. The first result is the silence and peace of the Self which is the basis of the higher consciousness; this may afterwards descend into the lower levels, into the very body. Light also can descend and Force. The navel and the centres below it are those of the vital and the physical; something of the higher force may have descended there.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 1, Calm — Peace — Equality, pp. 20-21