Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, on the one hand, suggest that God’s purpose cannot be mentalized or arrived at through ordinary consciousness and there must first be a psychic opening – that in the meantime the only worthwhile aim is union with the divine; all else should be to prepare the being for this goal, and once we are ready, the divine will make her presence known through vision and realization and at this point we will know [not mentally but through higher consciousness] the divine aim for our nature.
On the other hand, they also suggest that the psychic opening occurs in a continuous rather than discrete manner, i.e., overlapping stages, or more likely a positive feedback loop between increased surrender and increased feeling of the divine presence. [Of course, positive feedbacks can become vicious cycles where reduced feeling of the divine reduces surrender].
I suspect that you mean contemplation in the heart, which will at once favor psychic opening, as well as finding my true Aim.
Personally, I have not had any visions or realizations, only fleeting experiences and increasing capacity of concentration in the heart area, feelings of inner joy (in more impersonal situations) and generally more sureness in what I seek. When I was younger, prior to raising children, I could almost at will think about my existence in the universe and internally feel my being as separate from my body, a sort of lifting of the self…But, of course I had no idea what this was at the time and I don’t believe I have felt this since developing the conscious aspiration.
Your early experiences are itself an indication that you are marked out for the true spiritual life. That is what I meant as aim. Finding the psychic being or the Divine Presence within is itself an aim, a high uplifting aim, the direction towards which our efforts and energies should first lead us.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
