Understanding the External Medium of Communication and the Inner Force Within the Communication

There are hidden forces, vibrational patterns that move between people that remain unseen, but have their effect, similar to the way that we do not observe electricity, but we do observe its effects. These vibrational patterns operate without any overt, external medium, simply through communication of the vibrations from one vital being to another.

It is however also true that all our external acts carry with them, as a medium of the interchange, the force that is operative. Thus, we get a sense of what is moving through speech, through body language and through various modes of communication, such as art, dance, music, and writing. Some of these tend to carry more of the mental impact, while others carry more of the vital impact. When an individual consciously intends to communicate something to another individual through the written word, for instance, he focuses his attention on developing the nuance and turn of phrase that will precisely embody the force to be communicated. Thus, the written word has the power, in many cases to communicate the force of compassion, of good will, of love, or the force of anger and rage, or some mental force that draws the mind to a single point of concentration.

The power of words, particularly when combined with metre, is particularly potent as can be seen when one hears the chanting of the Vedas or the Upanishads. Sri Aurobindo mastered this art of communicating an essential vibrational force to readers of his epic poem Savitri: a Legend and a Symbol. Many people have recounted the experience of reading Savitri and having some extraordinary experience of consciousness as a result. In some cases an almost trance-like state arises, in others a feeling of great inward movement of awareness, in still others, an incredible sense of joy, or a feeling of the darkness of the resistance of the vital world to the manifestation of higher consciousness of light, freedom and bliss.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “Every letter means an interchange with the person who writes it — for something is there behind the words, something of his person or of the forces he has put out or had around him while writing. Our thoughts and feelings are also forces and can have effects upon others. One has to grow conscious of the movement of these forces and then one can control one’s own mental and vital formations and cease to be affected by those of others.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Ch. 1 Life Through the Eyes of the Yogin, pg. 19