May 3,1938

Nirodbaran: What exactly is vital intechange?

[Sri Aurobindo's revised version - see footnote - of the letter of 2.5.38 :]

There is always a drawing of vital forces from one to another in all human social mixture; it takes place automatically.
Lovemaking is one of the most powerful ways of each drawing up the other's vital force, - or of one drawing the other's, which also often happens in a one-sided way to the great detriment of the "other".
In the passage come many things good and bad, elation, feelings of strength, fullness, support or weakness and depletion, infiltration of good and bad qualities, interchange of psychological moods, states and movements, ideas helpful and harmful, depression, exhaustion - the whole gamut.

In the ordinary consciousness one is not aware of these things; the effects come into the surface being, but the cause and process remain unknown and unnoticed because the interchange is subtle and covert, it takes place through what is called the subconscient, but is rather a behind-consciousness covered by the surface waking mind.
When one gets into a certain Yogic consciousness, one becomes very much aware of this covert movement very sensitive to all this interchange and action and reaction; but one has this advantage that one can consciously build a wall against them, reject, refuse, accept what helps, throw out or throw back what injures or hinders.
Illnesses can also pass in this way from one to another, even those which are not medically regarded as contagious or infectious; one can even by will draw another's illness into oneself as did Antigonus of Macedon accepting death in this way in order to save his son Demetrius.

This fact of vital interchange, which seems strange and unfamiliar to you, becomes quite intelligible if one realises that ideas, feelings etc. are not abstract things but in their way quite concrete, not confining their movements to the individual's mind or body but moving out very much like the "waves" of science and communicating themselves to anyone who can serve as a receiver.
Just as people are not conscious of the material waves, so it is and still more with these mental or vital waves; but if the subtle mind and senses become active on the surface - and that is what takes place in Yoga - then the conscious becomes aware in its reception of them and records accurately and automatically their vibrations.

Sri Aurobindo

in: "Nirodbaran's Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo"
Second Complete Edition 1995
volume 2 - pages 1061-1062

published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Pondicherry
diffusion by SABDA

Note: a montage of two extracts of the correspondence of May 2 and May 3 1938 between Nirodbaran and Sri Aurobindo has been published in "Letters on Yoga" - Part One - Section 9 "Fate and Free-Will, Karma and Heredity, etc." SABCL 22, pages 478-479.

"[Vital interchange:] [1] Difficult to specify. There is always a drawing of vital forces from one to another in all human social mixture that takes place automatically. Love-making is one of the most powerful ways of each drawing upon the other's vital force, or of one drawing the other's, which also often happens in a one-sided way to the great detriment of the "other". In the passage come many things good and bad, elation, feeling of strength and support, infiltration of good or bad qualities, interchange of psychological moods, states and movements, depressions, exhaustion - the whole gamut. People don't know it - which is a mercy of God upon them - but when one gets into a certain yogic consciousness, one becomes very much aware and sensitive to all this interchange and action and reaction, but also one can build a wall against, reject etc. etc.
[2 - Nirod had asked the next day: Is that the way to "build a wall" against anything undesirable?] It is a wall of consciousness that one has to build. Consciousness is not something abstract, it is like existence itself or Ananda or mind or prâna, something very concrete. If one becomes aware of the inner consciousness, one can do all sorts of things with it, send it out as a stream of force, erect a circle or wall of consciousness around oneself, direct an idea so that it shall enter somebody's head in America etc. etc. "

After the first letter on May 2, 1938 Nirod had asked Sri Aurobindo: Guru, I learned from Ishwarbhai that you want me to send up this letter [[on vital interchange]]. I wonder if you can deal with the subject a little more liberally on the typed sheet, as it is rather an important and interesting phenomenon.
And he had received the letter above, which has not been published in "Letters on Yoga".

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