Chapter 58The Physical Consciousness · The Gross Physical and the Subtle Physical

only two instances out of a thousand that are possible and can be constantly experienced by the sadhaka.

So far as it [living in the physical consciousness] can be said to be distinguishable by outward signs, it is a state of fundamental passivity in which one is and does what the forces of the physical plane make one be and do. When one lives in the mind, there is an active mental intelligence and mental will that tries to control and shape action and experience and life and everything else. When one is in the vital one is full of energy and enthusiasm and passion and force which may be right or wrong, but is very much alive. These things in the physical inertia either disappear or become weak or are forces that act upon the system occasionally but are not possessed by it. This condition may not be absolute, for one has a mind and a vital, but it is what predominates. There are two ways of getting out of this — one is to rise above in the self and see the physical from there as an instrument, not oneself, the other is to bring down the divine Force from above and make the physical the instrument of that Force.

* The forces of the physical mind, vital physical, material consciousness [are the forces of the physical plane]. Of course, as I said, the statement must be taken with a qualification, for the true mind and vital are also there, but in this condition [of passivity and inertia] it is the forces of the physical consciousness that predominate and determine the general condition which is a proneness to aprak¯a´sa and sometimes apravr.tti.

The physical consciousness? It opens just like the rest, receives a new consciousness, obeys the Force, feels a change even in the cells, aspires to and seeks self-giving and union with the Divine.