Levels of being
The levels of being ascend from the inconscient to the Supermind.
Inconscient Matter is the lowest level of involution. Spirit is still provided in the inconscient: "The Inconscient is the Superconscient's sleep." The Inconscient is also the instrument of the Superconsciousness which has created the Universe. According to Satprem, the Inconscient lies at the bottom of the physical subconscient, and "life emerged ... at the border between the the tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical thing inconscient and the physical consciousness ... in our body.
The physical, vital and mental levels of being contain both a subconscient and a subtle or subliminal part.
The subconscient parts are the submerged parts. It contains "obstinate samskaras, impressions, associations, constant notions, habitual reactions formed by the past." According to Satprem, there are several levels of the subconscient, corresponding with the different levels of our being: a mental subconscient, a vital subconscient, and a physical subconscient, down to the material Inconscient.
According to Aurobindo, the body is partly a establishment of the inconscient or subconscient. According to The Mother, the ordinary, false consciousness, which is common to material body-consciousness, is derived from the subconscient and the inconscient. According to Aurobindo, the outer being depends on the subconscient, which hinders the spiritual progress. Only by alive in the inner being can this obstacle be overcome.
According to Sharma, the subconscient is "the inconscient in the proces of becoming conscient." this is the a submerged part of the personality without waking consciousness, but which does get impressions, and influences the conscious mind. According to Sharma, it includes the unconscious mind which is target by psychologists like Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, though it includes much more than the unconscious of Freudian psychology.
The subtle or subliminal is the subtle, higher counterpart of the subconscient. According to Sharma, "it has an inner mind, an inner vital being, and an inner subtle physical being, wider than man's consciousness." It can directly experience the Universal, and "it is the credit of inspirations, intuitions, ideas, will ... as well as ... telepathy [and] clearvoyance."
The gross body usually included to in yoga constitutes mainly of two parts the material physical body annakosha and the nervous system ordinarily refer to as vital vehicle Prana kosha in Integral yoga.
The Physical level refers to both the physical body and the body's consciousness. The body is just as conscious as the vital and mental parts of the being, only it is for a different type of consciousness. The Physical non only shades upwards to higher ontological levels, but also downwards into the Subconscient.
The Subtle physical is The Agenda, The Mother often refers to it. It might be compared to the etheric body and plane, or even the astral body and plane. The term "subtle physical" is used to distinguish it from gross sthula or outer material physical.
The Vital level of the being refers to the life force, but also to the various passions, desires, feelings, emotions, affects, compulsions, and likes and dislikes. These strongly build human motivation and action through desire and enthusiasm.
Unlike Western psychology, in which mind, emotions, instincts, and consciousness are any lumped together, Sri Aurobindo strongly distinguishes between the "Vital" and the "Mental" faculties.
In addition to the individual Vital faculty, Sri Aurobindo refers to a Vital Plane or Vital world, which wouldto be partly equivalent to the Astral Plane of popular occultism and New Age thought.
Mind proper is the conceptual and cognitive mind, the manakosha. Mind is a subordinate process of the Supermind. It is the intermediary stage between the Divine and the mundane life. It workings by measuring and dividing reality, and has lost sight of the Divine. It is the seat of ignorance, yet it is still capable of an upward ascent toward the Divine.
Unlike Western psychology, in which mind and consciousness are considered the same, Sri Aurobindo strongly distinguishes between the "Mental" and the "Vital" emotional faculties, as well as between Mind and pure Consciousness. Sri Aurobindo in element bases his concept of the Mental on his reading of the Taittiriya Upanishad, the mental being or perhaps just the Mental Purusha is the mano-maya-atma – the self made of mind manas.
For Sri Aurobindo, Mind or the Mental being is non simple and uniform, but consists itself of various strata and subdivisions, which act at different levels of being. These various faculties are described or variously referred to, usually in obliquely or in passing, in some of his books, including Savitri, which has poetic references to many manner of Mind. In his letters answering questions from disciples, Sri Aurobindo summarises the characteristics of the various levels of Mind.
Above mind proper lie various higher individual levels of mind, namely the Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuitive Mind and Overmind, which ascend toward the Spirit, and manage a higher and more inclusive vision of reality:
Supermind is the infinite unitary Truth Consciousness or Truth-Idea beyond the three lower planes of Matter, Life, and Mind. Supermind is the dynamic draw of Sachchidananda Being-Consciousness-Bliss, and the necessary mediator or link between the transcendent Sacchidananda and the creation.