Chapter 19Experiences Associated with the Psychic · The Psychic Fire

which comes from the psychic being. It is not the psychic being, but a power of the psychic being.

* The psychic being is a Purusha, not a flame — the psychic fire is not the being, it is something proper to it.

* It [a flame in the heart as big as a man’s thumb] is the psychic fire kindled in the heart. The psychic being in the heart is described by the Upanishads as of the size of a thumb, a˙ngus.t.ha-m¯atrah. purus.o’ntar¯atm¯a — it may manifest first as this psychic flame.

* The fire [one feels within] is always the fire of sacrifice and self-offering, the fire of aspiration or the fire of tapasya.

* That the constant fire of aspiration has to be lit is true; but this fire is the psychic fire and it is lit or burns up and increases as the psychic grows within and for the psychic to grow quietude is needful. That is why we have been working for the psychic to grow in you and for the quietude also to grow and that is why we want you to wait on the Mother’s working in full patience and confidence. To be always remembering the Mother and always with the equal unwavering fire within means itself a considerable progress in sadhana and it must be prepared by various means such as the experiences you have been having. Keep steadfast in confidence therefore and all that has to be done will be done.

* The experience of the Fire is quite correct, — it is the great fire of purification and concentration (i.e. gathering up of the consciousness and turning it fixedly towards the Divine), the psychic fire which all must pass through so as to reach the Mother permanently and completely.

* It is egoistic if the ego thinks that it is the psychic fire. If the consciousness feels identified with the psychic fire and becomes conscious that the fire can burn out all impurities, then it is a true experience.

* The central fire is in the psychic being, but it can be lit in all the parts of the being.