Date: January 11, 2025
Venue: Matriniketan
As part of the residential programme organized by Uditam: Institute for Integral Healing, Sri Aurobindo Society, Dr. Beloo Mehra, Director, BhāratShakti, was invited to facilitate a group discussion session on Saturday, January 11, 2025. For her session, Dr. Mehra focused on the topic – The Psychic Spark and Our Inner Progress.
After brief introductions all around, Dr. Mehra began with reciting a couple of lines from Savitri that evoke the idea of Heaven and Earth as our two eternal parents, and the heavenly or divine portion within each of us that must grow and evolve. Through an explanation of these lines, she brought in the idea of the hidden divine presence, the psychic entity present in all existence and in each of us. She highlighted why in the context of Integral Yoga, it is important to develop some understanding of what is this psychic entity, which evolves into Psychic Being, and how it is different from the Self or Atman of the conventional Indian philosophy.
Using simple explanations and examples, Dr. Mehra emphasised how psychic can be understood as our individualised soul-being. She also highlighted how this psychic individuality is different from an egoistic individuality and remarked that every Godward movement helps with the evolution of this psychic entity. She shared with the group a pictorial representation which helped participants understand the term Psychic Being in relation to other parts of our being.
Much of the session was kept interactive. Dr. Mehra had compiled a few simple quotes from various works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother which were distributed to the participants. They each took turns to read a few of these quotes and then reflect on how the idea resonated with them. With the help of this interaction, the discussion proceeded further on the role of Psychic Being in an individual’s evolution.
Dr. Mehra emphasised that the Mother had spoken of “The Great Discovery” which is an individualized process through which one tries to contact the psychic.
Each participant was then asked to reflect on one of the several practices Dr. Mehra had included in the handout. These practices were based on the Mother’s writings on Psychic Education and “The Great Discovery”. Through a candid sharing, a nuanced understanding emerged as to how we can walk the path of sadhana of the psychic. The group began to appreciate how an attitudinal shift is critical to begin the conscious discovery of the Psychic presence within. The participants appreciated the 1.5-hour-long session.