Kindling and Increasing the Psychic Fire

The flame of aspiration is the force that powers spiritual growth. Many people believe that the association of a fire or flame with the psychological stance is purely some kind of poetic device, without any underlying reality. Yet, human experience shows us that various modes of emotion, for instance, can create a real sense of heat or warmth in the being (or in opposite cases, a sense of cold or coolness). We speak of ‘warm-hearted’ and ‘cold-hearted’ people for example, and this is another instance where the feeling is real and palpable. The Mother explains this when she describes the changes that occur in the subtle physical body as the aspiration develops and is kindled up into a more intense form.

The fire of aspiration has specific impacts on the being. It adds focus and intensity to the cooler logic of the intellectual pursuit. It aids the individual in overcoming the obstacles that arise, and, more subtly, to persevere through long periods of doubt, lack of visible progress, and the various temptations that arise to confuse or distract the seeker. The path to effectuation of a real and substantive change to human nature is long and arduous and it is aspiration which keeps the seeker on the path and brings to him the various powers that need to manifest for the attempt to succeed. Thus, the Vedic Rishis prayed for the power of aspiration as the first resort and as a constant companion along the way, who “brings here the Gods” as we find in the very first hymn of the Rig Veda. Invoking the fire of aspiration is needed as otherwise, we tend to live our lives without a specific intention for spiritual progress, seeking for comforts, seeking for entertainment and distraction, seeking for all manner of external goals that do not involve the inner development associated with spiritual growth.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “A psychic fire within must be lit….”

A disciple inquires: ‘Isn’t the psychic fire always lit?’

The Mother answers: “It is not always lit.”

The disciple asks: ‘Then how to light it?’

The Mother responds: “By aspiration. … By the will for progress, by the urge towards perfection. Above all, it is the will for progress and self-purification which lights the fire. The will for progress. Those who have a strong will, when they turn it towards spiritual progress and purification, automatically light the fire within themselves. … And each defect one wants to cure or each progress one wants to make — if all that is thrown into the fire, it burns with a new intensity. And this is not an image, it is a fact in the subtle physical. One can feel the warmth of the flame, one can see in the subtle physical the light of the flame. And when there is something in the nature which prevents one from advancing and one throws it into this fire, it begins to burn and the flame becomes more intense.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Growing Within: The Psychology of Inner Development, Chapter III Growth of Consciousness Basic Requisites, pg. 34