Glossary of English Terms in Integral Yoga Literature

This is an index to terms which appear in Sri Aurobindo's works; it is not a general glossary of English terms. In particular, the terms appearing in the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library only are included in this glossary.

[ A C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T V W ]

Absolute (the): the supreme reality of that transcendent Being which we call God. Indian thought calls it Brahman, European thought the Absolute because it is a self-existent which is absolved of all bondage to relativities. [Integral Yoga]
adverse forces: see hostile forces
ascent and descent: the two-sided practice of the Integral Yoga, an ascent of the consciousness to the higher planes, a descent of the power of the higher planes into the earth-consciousness so as to drive out the power of darkness and ignorance and control the nature. [Integral Yoga]
aspiration: the call of the being for higher things, for the Divine, for all that belongs to the higher or divine consciousness. [Integral Yoga]
assimilation: a quiet settling in of what has come down. [Dictionary]; "Assimilation is very important and periods necessary for it should not be regarded with impatience as stoppages of the yoga." [S24:1186]

calm: a still, unmoved condition which no disturbance can affect; a strong and positive quietude, firm and solid. [Integral Yoga]
central being: the portion of the Divine in us which supports all the rest and survives through death and birth. It has two forms -- above, it is the Jivatman, our true being, of which we become aware when the higher self-knowledge comes; below, it is the psychic being which stands behind mind, body and life. [Integral Yoga]
collectivity (gnostic): a true community...which can exist only by the inner realisation of every one of its members, by a real, concrete unity and identity of everyone with the other members of the community. [M9:140]
concentration: "concentration means gathering of the consciousness into one centre and fixing it in one object or in one idea or in one condition." [S25:391]
consciousness: the self-aware force of existence. The essence of consciousness is the power to be aware of itself and its objects; but it is not only power of awareness of self and things, it is or has also a dynamic and creative energy. Consciousness is not synonymous with mentality, which is only a middle term; below mentality, it sinks into vital and material movements which are for us subconscient; above, it rises into the Supramental which is for us the superconscient. [Integral Yoga]
Consciousness-Force: the Conscious Force that builds the worlds; a universal Energy that is the power of the Cosmic Spirit working out the cosmic and individual truth of things. [Integral Yoga]
consecration: the devoting of all that comes to one, all one's experience and progress to the Divine. [Integral Yoga]
conversion: a turning of the being away from lower things towards the Divine. [Integral Yoga]
cosmic being: the manifold self-expression of the spirit. [Integral Yoga]
cosmic consciousness: the consciousness of the universe, of the cosmic spirit and cosmic Nature, with all the beings and forces within it. In the cosmic consciousness the limits of the ego, personal mind and body disappear and one becomes aware of a cosmic vastness which is or is filled by a cosmic spirit and aware also of the direct play of cosmic forces. [Integral Yoga]

descent: see ascent and descent.
desire-soul: the surface soul in us, which works in our vital cravings, our emotions, aesthetic faculty and mental seeking for power, knowledge and happiness; the true soul is the subliminal psychic essence. [Integral Yoga]
Divine (the): the Supreme Being from which all comes and in which all lives. In its supreme Truth the Divine is absolute and infinite peace, consciousness, existence, power and delight. The Transcendent, the Cosmic (Universal) and the Individual are three powers of the Divine, overarching, underlying and penetrating the whole of manifestation. [Integral Yoga]
dynamic mind: that part of the mind proper which is concerned with the putting out of mental forces for the realisation of ideas; it thinks, plans and acts in order to achieve things. [Integral Yoga]

earth-consciousness: the separate global consciousness of the earth which evolves with the evolution of life on the planet. [Integral Yoga]
ego: the separative sense of individuality which makes each being conceive of itself as an independent personality. Ego implies the identification of one's existence with the outer mental, vital and physical self. [Integral Yoga]
emotion being: the emotional vital. [Integral Yoga]
emotional vital (the): that part of the higher vital being which is the seat of various feelings, such as love, joy, sorrow, hatred, and the rest. [Integral Yoga]
environmental consciousness: something that each person carries around him, outside his body, by which he is in touch with others and with the universal forces. [Integral Yoga]
equality: samata, equality of soul and mind to all things and happenings, equanimity founded on the sense of the one Self, the one Divine everywhere; the capacity to remain unmoved within all conditions. [Integral Yoga]
evolution: the progressive unfolding of Spirit out of the density of material consciousness; a heightening of the force of consciousness in the manifest being so that it may be raised into the greater intensity of what is still unmanifest, from matter into life, from life into mind, from mind into spirit. [Integral Yoga]
experience: "is a word that covers almost all the happenings in yoga. ... When the consciousness undergoes, sees or feels anything spiritual or psychic or even occult, that is an experience... Feeling and vision are the main forms of spiritual experience." [S23:877-878]
exteriorisation: the consciousness going out of the body. [Integral Yoga]
externalising mind: that part of the mind proper which is concerned with the expression of ideas in life (not only by speech, but by any form it can give.) [Integral Yoga]

faith: a dynamic intuitive conviction in the inner being of the truth of supersensible things which cannot be proved by any physical evidence but which are a subject of experience; the soul's witness to something not yet manifested, achieved or realised, but which yet the Knower within us feels to be true or supremely worth following or achieving; the soul's belief in the Divine's existence, wisdom, power, love, and grace. [Integral Yoga]
Falsehood: not Ignorance (Avidya), but an extreme result of it. Falsehood is created by an Asuric power which intervenes in this creation and is not only separated from Truth and therefore limited in knowledge and open to error, but in revolt against the Truth or in the habit of seizing the Truth only to pervert it. This Power puts forth its own perverted consciousness as true knowledge and its willful distortions or reversals of the Truth as the verity of things. Whenever these perversions created out of the stuff of ignorance are put forward as the Truth of things, that is the Falsehood, in the yogic sense. [Integral Yoga]
Force (the): the Divine Force, the one Energy that alone exists and alone makes universal or individual action possible, for this Force is the Divine itself in the body of its power; in the individual it is a Force for illumination, transformation, purification, for all that has to be done in the yoga. [Integral Yoga]
Force (the Mother's): the higher Force of the Divine that descends from above to transform the nature; the Divine Force which works to remove the ignorance and change the nature into the divine nature. [Integral Yoga]

Gnosis: a supreme totally self-aware and all-aware Intelligence. The Divine Gnosis is the Supermind. [Integral Yoga]
God: the Absolute, the Spirit, the Self spaceless and timeless, the Self manifest in the Cosmos and Lord of Nature. God is the All and that which transcends the All. [Integral Yoga]
Godhead: the one supreme divine Being. [Integral Yoga]
Gods: Personalities and Powers of the dynamic Divine. [Integral Yoga]
Grace (Divine Grace): the help of a higher Divine Force other than the force of Karma, which can lift the sadhak beyond the present possibilities of his nature. [Integral Yoga]

higher consciousness: the higher spiritual or divine consciousness. [Integral Yoga]
hostile forces: anti-divine, not merely undivine forces that are in revolt against the Divine, against the Truth and Light, and opposed to the yoga. [Integral Yoga]

Ignorance (the): Avidya, the Ignorance of oneness; the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life that flow from it and all that is natural to the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life; the consciousness of the divided Many divorced from the unifying knowledge of the One Reality. [Integral Yoga]
Illumined Mind: see spiritualised mind.
Immanent (the): not a He, but an It. The Impersonal Brahman is inactive, aloof, indifferent, not concerned with what happens in the universe; It is everywhere, all-pervading, without form or limit in any place or time. [Integral Yoga]
Inconscience (the): the Supreme's state of self-involved, self-oblivious consciousness and force which is at the basis of the material world; this state is the apparent opposite of the Supreme and in it there can be darkness, inertia, insensibility, disharmony and disintegration. Not really inconscient at all, it is rather a complete "sub"-conscience, a supposed or involved consciousness. [Integral Yoga]
inner being: the inner mind, inner vital, inner physical, with the psychic behind as the inmost. [Integral Yoga]
inner mind: that which lies behind the surface mind (our ordinary mentality); this inner or subliminal mind senses directly all the things of the mind-plane, is open to the action of a world of mental forces, and can feel the ideative and other imponderable influences which act up on the material world and the life-plane but which at present we can only infer and cannot directly experience. [Integral Yoga]
inner physical: the physical part of the inner being. [Integral Yoga]
inner vital: the vital part of the inner being. [Integral Yoga]
Insentience: absence of sense-perception. [Integral Yoga]
Integral Yoga: a union (yoga) in all the parts of our being with the Divine and a consequent transmutation of all their now jarring elements into the harmony of a higher divine consciousness and existence; this yoga implies not only the realisation of God but the entire consecration and change of the inner and outer life till it is fit to manifest a divine consciousness and become part of a divine work. [Integral Yoga]
intellect: that part of the mind proper which is concerned with ideas and knowledge in their own right; its function is to observe, inquire, understand and judge. [Integral Yoga]
Intermediate Zone: a zone of formations, a borderland where all the worlds meet, mental, vital, subtle physical, pseudo-spiritual, but there is no order or firm foothold; this zone is a passage between the physical and the true spiritual realms. [Integral Yoga]
Intuition: see spiritualised mind.
Intuitive Mind: see spiritualised mind.

Knowledge (the): the knowledge of the One Reality, the consciousness of Unity.
Knowledge by identity: "The supermind knows most completely and securely not by thought but by identity, by a pure awareness of the self-truth of things in the self and by the self, atmani atmanam atmana. [S21:801-02]

liberation: "The sense of release as if from jail (which) always accompanies the emergence of the psychic being or the realisation of the self above. It is therefore spoken of as a liberation, mukti. It is a release into peace, happiness, the soul's freedom." [S23:1001]
Life: Being at labour in Matter to express itself in terms of Conscious Force; an energy of Spirit subordinated to action of mind and body, which fulfills itself through mentality and physicality and acts as a link between them. [Integral Yoga]
life-force (Prana): the life-energy itself, not material energy, but rather a different principle supporting Matter and involved in it. It supports and occupies all forms and without it no physical form could have come into being or could remain in being. [Integral Yoga]
Light (the): primarily a spiritual manifestation of the Divine Reality illuminative and creative; spiritual Light is not knowledge, but the illumination that comes from above and liberates the being from obscurity and darkness. [Integral Yoga]
lower vital: see vital.

material vital: that part of the lower vital turned entirely to physical things, full of desires and greeds and seekings for pleasure on the physical plane. [Integral Yoga]
Matter: Being manifested as substance; substance of the one Conscious Being. A self-formed mask and robe of the divine Spirit, matter is not fundamentally real, but a form of the force of Conscious Being. [Integral Yoga]
mechanical mind: a part of the mind closely connected with the physical mind; its nature is to go on repeating without use whatever has happened - recent events, impressions, old habitual thoughts or ways of thinking and feeling. [Integral Yoga]
mental physical: mechanical mind.
mental plane: a world of mental existence in which neither life, nor matter, but mind is the first determinant; mind there is not determined by material conditions or by the life-force, but itself determines and uses them for its own satisfaction. [Integral Yoga]
mental vital: that part of the higher vital being which gives a mental expression by thought, speech or otherwise to the emotions, desires, passions, sensations and other movements of the vital being. [Integral Yoga]
mind: the words "mind" and "mental" are used to connote specially the part of the nature which has to do with cognition and intelligence, with ideas, with mental or thought perceptions, the reactions of thought to things, with the truly mental movements and formations, mental vision and will etc. that are part of man's intelligence. The ordinary mind has three main parts: mind proper, vital mind, and physical mind.; The mind proper is divided into three parts: the thinking mind or intellect, concerned with ideas and knowledge in their own right; the dynamic mind, concerned with the putting out of mental forces for the realisation of the ideas; and the externalising mind, concerned with the expression of ideas in life.; The vital mind or desire mind is a mind of dynamic will, action, desire; it is occupied with force and achievement and satisfaction and possession, with enjoyment and suffering, giving and taking, growth and expansion, etc.; The physical mind is that part of the mind which is concerned with physical things only; limited by the physical view and experience of things it mentalises the experience brought by the contact of outward life and things, but does not go beyond that. The mechanical mind, closely connected with the physical mind, goes on repeating without use whatever has happened.; Overtopping the ordinary mind, hidden in our own superconscient parts, there are higher ranges of Mind, gradations of spiritualised mind leading to the Supermind. In ascending order they are: Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuitive Mind, Intuition and Overmind. [Integral Yoga]; See spiritualised mind.
Mother (the Divine Mother): the consciousness and force of the Divine; the Divine in its consciousness-force. The Mother is the divine conscious Force that dominates all existence, upholding us and the universe. [Integral Yoga]

Nature: Prakriti, the outer or executive side of the Conscious Force which forms and moves the worlds. The higher, divine Nature (Para Prakriti) is free from Ignorance and its consequences; the lower nature (Prakriti) is a mechanism of active Force put forth for the working of the evolutionary Ignorance. The lower nature of an individual is his mind, life and body. [Integral Yoga]
Non-Being: Non-Existence, Nothingness. [Integral Yoga]

occultism: the knowledge and right use of the hidden forces of nature; true occultism means a search into supraphysical realities and an unveiling of the hidden laws of being and Nature, of all that is not obvious on the surface. [Integral Yoga]
opening: the release of the consciousness by which it begins to admit into itself the working of the Divine Life and Power; the ability of the consciousness on the various levels to receive the descent of the Higher Consciousness above. [Integral Yoga]
outer being: the surface being, our ordinary exterior mind, life, body consciousness. [Integral Yoga]

peace: a deep quietude bringing not merely a release but a certain happiness or Ananda of itself, a harmony that gives a feeling of liberation and full satisfaction. [Integral Yoga]
perfection (siddhi): "a growth out of a lower undivine into a higher divine nature." [S21:671]
Person (the): the human birth in this world is on its spiritual side a complex of two elements, a spiritual Person and a soul of personality; the former is man's eternal being, the latter is his cosmic and mutable being. [Integral Yoga]
physical consciousness: the physical mind, the physical vital as well as the body consciousness proper. [Integral Yoga]
physical nature: not the body alone, but the whole physical mind, vital, material nature. [Integral Yoga]
physical self: the physical conscious being; the material being; annamaya purusa. [Integral Yoga]
physical (the): the physical consciousness and body. [Integral Yoga]
physical vital: the part of the vital that is turned entirely upon physical things, full of desires and greeds and seekings for pleasure on the physical plane. [Integral Yoga]
plasticity: to be able to identify oneself with the Supreme in the Becoming; a suppleness necessary to receive the Supermind. [M10:115]
possession (by hostile forces): an intervention from the non-human worlds in which the hostile forces act on humans. [Integral Yoga]
Presence (the): the sense and perception of the Divine as a Being felt as present in one's existence and consciousness or in relation with it. [Integral Yoga]
psychic: of or relating to the soul (as distinguished from the mind and vital). Used in the sense of the Greek word "psyche", meaning "soul", the term "psychic" refers to all the movements and experiences of the soul, those which rise >from or directly touch the psychic being. It does not refer to all the more inward and all the abnormal experiences in which the mind and vital predominate; such experiences, in Sri Aurobindo's terminology, would be called psychological (surface or occult), not psychic. [Integral Yoga]
psychic (the): psychic being; psychic essence; soul. [Integral Yoga]
psychic being: the evolving soul of the individual, the divine portion in him which evolves from life to life, growing by its experiences until it becomes a fully conscious being. From its place behind the heart-centre, the psychic being supports the mind, life and body, aiding their growth and development. The term "soul" is often used as a synonym for "psychic being", but strictly speaking there is a distinction: the soul is the psychic essence, the psychic being is the soul-personality put forward and developed by the psychic essence to represent it in the evolution. [Integral Yoga]; See also psychic.
psychic entity: psychic essence. [Integral Yoga]
psychic essence: the soul in its essence; the divine essence in the individual, the divine spark which supports the evolution of the being in Nature. In the course of the evolution the psychic essence grows and takes form as the psychic being. [Integral Yoga]
psychicisation (psychic transformation): the psychic change in which the psychic being comes forward to dominate the mind, vital and physical and change the lower nature. [Integral Yoga]
pulling: drawing down too eagerly the divine force or a spiritual experience, instead of letting it descend quietly. [Integral Yoga]
purity: freedom from soil or mixture. The divine purity is that in which there is not mixture of the turbid ignorant movements of the lower nature. [Integral Yoga]

quiet: absence of restlessness or disturbance. [Integral Yoga]

Real-Idea: "is a truth-perception which is self-effective; for it is the idea and will of the Spirit in direct action..." [S19:986]
realisation: the reception in the consciousness and the establishment there of the fundamental truths of the Divine; the making real to ourselves and in ourselves of the Self, the transcendent and universal Divine. [Integral Yoga]
Reality (the): a Truth of all existence which is greater and more abiding than all its formations and manifestations; behind the appearance of the universe is the Reality of an infinite existence, an infinite consciousness, an infinite force and will, an infinite delight of being. [Integral Yoga]
receptivity: the power to receive the Divine Force and to feel its presence and allow it to work, guiding one's sight and will and action; the capacity of admitting and retaining the divine workings. [Integral Yoga] "One may be receptive, yet externally unaware of how things are being done and of what is being done. The force works...behind the veil; the results remain packed behind and come out afterwards, often slowly, little by little" [S24:1361]
rejection: rejection of the falsehood of the mental, vital and physical Powers and Appearances that still rule the earth-Nature. [Integral Yoga]
revelation: is direct sight, the direct hearing or inspired memory of Truth, drsti, sruti, smrti; it is the highest experience." [S17:89]

S

Self (the)

the Atman, the universal Spirit, the self-existent Being, the conscious essential Existence, one in all. The Self is being, not a being; it is the original and essential nature of our existence. [Integral Yoga]

Self-knowledge

the knowledge of the Self. [Integral Yoga]

sheaths

the oldest Vedantic knowledge tells us of five degrees of our being, the material, the vital, the mental, the ideal, the spiritual or beatific and to each of these grades of our soul there corresponds a grade of our substance, a sheath as it was called in the ancient figurative language. [Integral Yoga]

silence

freedom from thoughts and vital movements, when the whole consciousness is quite still; not only cessation of thoughts but a stillness of the mental and vital substance. [Integral Yoga]

sincerity

to mean what one says, feel what one professes, be earnest in one's will; sincerity in the sadhak means that he is really in earnest in his aspiration for the Divine and refuses all other will or impulse except the Divine's; it means to allow no part of the being to contradict the highest aspiration towards the Divine. [Integral Yoga]

soul

the psychic essence or entity, the divine essence in the individual; a spark of the Divine that comes down into the manifestation to support the evolution of the individual. In the course of the evolution, the soul grows and evolves in the form of a soul-personality, the psychic being. The term "soul" is often used as a synonym for "psychic being." [Integral Yoga]

Spirit

the Consciousness above mind, the Atman or universal Self which is always in oneness with the Divine. [Integral Yoga]

spiritual

of the spirit. All contacts with the Self, the Higher Consciousness, the Divine above are spiritual. [Integral Yoga]

spiritualisation

the spiritual change in which there is the established descent of the divine peace, light, knowledge, power, bliss from above, the awareness of the Self and the Divine and of a higher cosmic consciousness and the change of the whole nature to that. [Integral Yoga]

spiritualised mind (gradations of)

higher ranges of Mind overtopping our normal Mind and leading to Supermind; these successive states, levels or graded powers of being are hidden in our own superconscious parts. In ascending order the gradations of spiritualised mind are:

Higher Mind: a luminous thought-mind whose instrumentation is through an elevated thought-power and comprehensive mental sight. In the Higher Mind one becomes constantly and closely aware of the Self, the One everywhere and knows and sees habitually with that awareness.
Illumined Mind: a mind no longer of higher thought, but of spiritual light; here the clarity of the intelligence, its tranquil daylight, gives place or subordinates itself to an intense lustre, a splendour and illumination of the Spirit.
Intuitive Mind: a mind of intuitive reason characterised by its intuitions, its inspirations, its swift revelatory vision, its luminous insight and discrimination; it is a kind of truth-vision, truth-hearing, truth-memory, direct truth-discernment.
Intuition: a power of consciousness nearer and more intimate than the lower ranges of spiritual mind to the original knowledge by identity; it gets the Truth in flashes and turns these flashes of Truth-perception into intuitions - intuitive ideas. Intuition is always an edge or ray or outleap of a superior light. What is thought-knowledge in the Higher Mind becomes illumination in the Illumined Mind and direct intimate vision in the Intuition.
Overmind: full of lights and powers, the Overmind sees calmly, steadily, in great masses and large extensions of space and time and relation, globally , it creates and acts in the same way. The Overmind is a delegate of the Supramental Consciousness, its delegate to the cosmic Ignorance. The Supramental is the total Truth-Consciousness; the Overmind draws down the truths separately and gives them a separate identity. [Integral Yoga]

spirituality

"an awakening to the inner reality of our being, to a spirit, self, soul which is other than our mind, life, and body" [S19:857]

subconscient (the)

the subconscient or subconscious of the individual is that submerged part of his being in which there is no waking conscious and coherent thought, will, feeling or organised reaction, but which yet receives obscurely the impressions of all things and stores them up; from it too all sorts of stimuli, of persistent habitual movements can surge up into dream or into the waking state. In the ordinary man the subconscient includes the larger part of the vital being and the physical mind and the secret body-consciousness. It is not to be confused with the subliminal: the subliminal is an inner consciousness larger than our surface existence. [Integral Yoga]

subliminal

inner, not on the waking surface. [Integral Yoga]

subliminal (the)

the inner being, taken in its entirety of inner mind, inner life, inner physical, with the soul or psychic entity supporting them. The subliminal in man is the largest part of his nature; it is not subconscient, but conscient and greater than the waking consciousness. The subconscient is that which is below the ordinary physical consciousness, the subliminal that which is behind and supports it. [Integral Yoga]

subtle body

a subtler material existence behind our outer body which provides the substance not only of our physical but of our vital and mental sheaths. [Integral Yoga]

sunlit path (the)

when the psychic being comes out in its inherent power; is usually or habitually in front; a natural spirit of faith and surrender; a bright settled faith and happy bhakti. [S24:1610, 1616, 1621]

Superconscient (the Superconscience)

something above our present consciousness from which the higher consciousness comes down into the body; it includes the higher planes of mental being as well as the native heights of supramental and pure spiritual being. [Integral Yoga]

Supermind

the Supramental, the Truth-Consciousness, the Divine Gnosis, the highest divine consciousness and force operative in the universe. A principle of consciousness superior to mentality, it exists, acts and proceeds in the fundamental truth and unity of things and not like the mind in their appearances and phenomenal divisions. Its fundamental character is knowledge by identity, by which the Self is known, the Divine Sachchidananda is known, but also the truth of manifestation is known because this too is that. [Integral Yoga]

Supramental (the)

See Supermind

surrender

to consecrate everything in oneself to the Divine, to offer all one is and has, not to insist on one's ideas, desires, habits, etc. but to allow the divine Truth to replace them by its knowledge, will and action everywhere. [Integral Yoga]

symbol

the form of one plane that represents a truth of another. [Integral Yoga]

thinking mind: that part of the mind proper which is concerned with ideas and knowledge in their own right; its function is to observe, inquire, understand and judge. [Integral Yoga]
trance: degrees of consciousness less and less communicable to the waking mind. [Dictionary]
transformation: bringing down of the higher, divine consciousness and nature into the lower nature of mind, life and body, and the replacement of the lower by the higher. [Integral Yoga]
triple transformation: "First is the psychic transformation, in which all is in contact with the Divine through the individual psychic consciousness. Next is the spiritual transformation in which all is merged in the Divine in the cosmic consciousness. Third is the supramental transformation in which all becomes supramentalised in the divine gnostic consciousness." [S22:95]
Truth-Consciousness: the Supermind; the consciousness of essential truth of being (satyam), of ordered truth of active being (rtam), and the vast self-awareness (brhat) in which alone this consciousness is possible. [Integral Yoga]

V

veil (the)

the veil of Ignorance. [Integral Yoga]

vital (the)

the life-nature made up of desires, sensations, feelings, passions, energies of action, will of desire, reactions of the desire-soul of man and of all that play of possessive and other related instincts, anger, greed, lust, etc., that belong to this field of nature. The vital part of man is a true instrument only when its feelings and tendencies have been purified by the psychic touch and governed by the spiritual light and power. The vital has three main parts:

higher vital: the mental vital and emotional vital taken together. The mental vital gives a mental expression by thought, speech or otherwise to the emotions, desires, passions, sensations or other movements of the vital being; the emotional vital is the seat of various feelings, such as love, joy, sorrow, hatred and the rest.
central vital or vital proper: dynamic, sensational and passionate, it is the seat of the stronger vital longings and reactions, such as ambition, pride, fear, love of fame, attractions and repulsions, desires and passion of various kinds and the field of many vital energies.
lower vital: made up of the smaller movements of human life-desire and life-reactions, it is occupied with small desires and feelings, such as food desire, sexual desire, small likings, dislikings, vanity, quarrels, love of praise, anger at blame, little wishes of all kinds, etc. The material vital is that part of the lower vital turned entirely upon physical things, full of desires and greeds and seekings for pleasure on the physical plane. [Integral Yoga]

vital physical

the nervous part of the being, the life-force closely enmeshed in the reactions, desires, needs, sensations of the body. [Integral Yoga]

vital plane

the plane connected with the life-world or desire-world, a plane in which life and desire find their untrammeled play and their easy self-expression and from there throw their influences and formations on our outer life. [Integral Yoga]

wideness: the expansion of consciousness that comes when one exceeds or begins to exceed the individual consciousness and spread out toward the universal; it is felt as a great substantial vastness giving the sense of oneness free and infinite. [Integral Yoga]
will: a force put upon a thing to be changed. [Integral Yoga]
Will (Divine): something that has descended here into an evolutionary world of Ignorance, standing at the back of things, pressing on the Darkness with its Light, leading things presently towards the best possible in the conditions of a world of Ignorance and leading it eventually towards a descent of a greater power of the Divine, which will not be an omnipotence held back and conditioned by the world as it is, but in full action and therefore bringing the reign of light, peace, harmony, joy, love, beauty and Ananda. [Integral Yoga]
Witness (the): the witness Purusha, a consciousness or Purusha calm and detached from the outer actions of Nature. [Integral Yoga]

References:

Definitions used are close paraphrases of Sri Aurobindo's or the Mother's words.
Bracketed numbers with an "s" [S.....] refer to volume and page of volumes in the Sri Aurobindo Centenary Library (SABCL), 1976, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust. Bracketed numbers with an "M" [M.....] refer to the Collected Works of the Mother, 1977, Sri Aurobindo Ashram.
Dictionary: Dictionary of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga, compiled from the writings of M.P. Pandit, 1966 Sri Aurobindo Ashram.
Integral Yoga: The Integral Yoga; Sri Aurobindo's Teaching and Method of Practice, 1993 Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust.

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Last modified on Jul 22, 1996