Awakening and Transformation of the Subconscious Must Precede Change at the Inconscient Levels of Existence

The inconscient level is a substratum for the broader manifestation and is not tied to any particular individual. Before anything can be done to effectively wake up and energize the inconscient, the task of the spiritual seeker is to bring down the light and consciousness through all the higher planes of the being, and then work on becoming conscious of and transforming the subconscious level, which includes both general and individualised aspects. An individual’s own experiences sink down into the subconscient and remain embedded there, waiting to manifest when the conditions ripen. Until this level can be made conscious, the inconscient remains essentially unavailable for individual action of change.

A disciple asks: “Does the inconscient in oneself belong to the individual being or to the earth?”

The Mother answers: “The inconscient is not individualised and when you go down into the inconscient in yourself, it is the inconscient of matter. One can’t say that each individual has his own inconscient, for that would already be a beginning of individualisation, and when you go down into the inconscient, it is perhaps not the universal but at least the terrestrial inconscient.”

“The light, the consciousness that comes down into this inconscient in order to transform it must necessarily be a consciousness that is close enough to be able to touch it. It is not possible to conceive of a light — the supramental light, for example — that would have the power to individualise the inconscient. But, through a conscious, individualised being, this light can be brought down into the inconscient and gradually make it conscious.”

“First of all, it is the subconscient that has to be come conscious, and indeed the main difficulty of the integral transformation is that things are constantly rising up from the subconscient. You think you have got a certain movement under control — anger, for example. You try very hard to control your anger and succeed to some extent, then suddenly it rises up again for some reason unknown to you, as if you hadn’t done anything at all, and you have to start all over again. If it were the transformed part of the being going back to its old ways, it would be most depressing, but it is not like that. It is the material part, the material life which is sustained, supported, so to say, by a subconscient life. And this subconscient is beginning to get individualised around some people; it has certain affinities with a kind of subconscient somewhat like our own, and that is where the things you have repressed or thrown out of your nature go to — and one fine day they rise up again. But if you are able to bring the light into the subconscient and make it conscious, this will no longer happen.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Our Many Selves: Practical Yogic Psychology, Chapter 2, Planes and Parts of the Being, pp. 60-61