Chapter 3The Jivatman in the Integral Yoga · The Central Being and the Psychic Being

nature and the Jiva and the nature act through the ego and the ego acts through the outer instruments — that is the play of the Ignorance.

* Essentially one Jiva has the same nature as all — but in manifestation each puts forth its own line of Swabhava.

* The Jivatma is above all planes. It has no fixed form or colour, though it may represent itself in a form.

* The Jivatma has always calm and peace — it is the nature (prakriti) that is not quiet.

The Spirit is the Atman, Brahman, Essential Divine.

When the one Divine manifests its ever inherent multiplicity, this essential Self or Atman becomes for that manifestation the Jivatman, the central being who presides from above over the evolution of its personalities and terrestrial lives here, but is itself an eternal portion of the Divine and prior to the terrestrial manifestation — par¯a prakr.tir j¯ıvabh¯ut¯a.

In this lower manifestation, apar¯a prakr.ti, this eternal portion of the Divine appears as the soul, a spark of the Divine Fire, supporting the individual evolution, supporting the mental, vital and physical being. The psychic being is the spark growing into a Fire, evolving with the growth of the consciousness. The psychic being is therefore evolutionary, not like the Jivatman, prior to the evolution.

But man is not aware of the self or Jivatman, he is aware only of his ego, or he is aware of the mental being which controls the life and the body. But more deeply he becomes aware of his soul or psychic being as his true centre, the Purusha in the heart; the psychic is the central being in the evolution, it proceeds from and represents the Jivatman, the eternal portion of the