The Action of Imagination in the Manifestation of Thought into External Circumstances

There are several points worth considering with respect to utilizing imagination and some of the unanticipated issues that are based primarily in the lag between formulation and accomplishment of the imagined form. Visualization and use of the imagination can act to turn a vague idea or sense into something that can realize itself in action. Every thought form moves out into the world and tries to effectuate itself. If it is weak and transient, the impact may be slight. But if an individual has worked to organize the thoughts, visualize their effectuation, harness the will and the emotions in support of this process, the likelihood of eventual success is much higher, with the proviso of course that there are cross-currents in the world that can distort, delay or otherwise prevent effectuation.

Sri Aurobindo, in his epic poem Savitri: a Legend and a Symbol, states: “A moment sees, the ages toil to express.” This puts the imagined and visualised thought into a context of time and circumstance. Depending on the strength of the organized thought-form, the will attached to it, and the situation in the world, which may at the time of its release be opposed or even defiant to that formation, it may take a considerable time and persistent effort to bring it to full fruition. Some of the more significant envisioned changes could take hundreds of years to manifest fully.

For most people, who are not necessarily working on major structural changes, the time of manifestation may be much shorter, and the result may be much more aligned with the formation, yet, given the variability of focus and mind, many people may not attribute the result when it comes to the formation when it was shaped and loosed into the world! Further, many people may actually not want the originally desired result when it actually shows up, as they have changed their circumstance, situation, or focus in the meantime. This comes under the proverb ‘be careful what you wish for, because you may get it….”

The Mother writes: “How many times you sit and become aware that the thought is beginning to form images for itself, to tell itself a story; and so, when you have become a little expert at it, not only do you see unfolding before you the history of what you would like to happen in life, in your own life, but you can take something away, add a detail, perfect your work, make a really fine story in which everything conforms with your highest aspiration. And once you have made a complete harmonious construction, as perfect as you can make it, then you open your hands and let the bird fly away.”

“If it is well made, it always realises itself in the end. And that is what one doesn’t know.”

“But the thing is realised in the course of time, sometimes long afterwards, when you have forgotten your story, can no longer remember having told it to yourself — you have changed much, are thinking about other things, making other stories, and the first one no longer interests you; and if you are not very attentive, when the result of the first story comes, you are already very far away from it and no longer remember at all that this is the result of your own story…. And that is why it is so important to control yourself, for if within you there are multiple and contradictory wills — not only wills but tendencies, orientations, levels of life — all this causes battles in your life. For example, at your highest level you have fashioned a beautiful story which you send out into the world, but then, perhaps the next day, perhaps on the very same day, perhaps a little later, you have come down to a much more material level, and these things from above seem to you a little… fairylike, unreal; and you begin to make very concrete, very utilitarian formations which are not always very pretty… and these too go out.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Powers Within, Chapter III Imagination, pp. 29-30