12th February, 1936

Talk 159.

Mr. Cohen desired to know if trance is a sine qua non for Self- Realisation.
M.: You are always in the Self - now, in trance, in deep sleep, in Realisation. If you lose hold of the Self and identify yourself with the body or the mind, these states appear to overtake you, and it also looks like a blank in trance, etc.; whereas you are the Self and ever-present.

D.: Sri Aurobindo says that the Light which resides in the head must be brought down to the heart below.

M.: Is not the Self already in the Heart? How can the all-pervading Self be taken from one place to another?

D.: Is a karma yogi or a bhakta ^[?] too subject to trance?
M.: When you concentrate on one point you merge in it, and this merging is called trance. The other features disappear and the Self alone remains over. The karmi or bhakta also must experience the same.