Date: December 21, 2024
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, December 21, 2024. For her session, Dr. Mehra focused on the topic – Psychic, the Divine Spark.
After brief introductions all around, Dr. Mehra began with reciting a poem of Sri Aurobindo which speaks of the hidden divine presence in all existence. This led her to introduce the concept of the psychic entity, the divine spark present 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.
Dr. Mehra kept her explanations very simple and using examples she emphasised how psychic can be understood as our individualised soul-being. She also discussed 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 two pictorial representations which helped participants understand the term Psychic Being in relation to other parts of our being.
Dr. Mehra had compiled a few simple quotes from various works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother which were distributed to the participants. With the help of these she further led the discussion on the role of Psychic Being in an individual’s evolution. She emphasised that the Mother had spoken of “The Great Discovery” which is an individualized process through which one tries to contact the psychic.
The second half of the session was kept interactive. Each participant was 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.