Integrating the Dream-State of Samadhi and the Waking Consciousness :

For those who pursue the traditional Yoga of knowledge with the goal of abandoning the outer life, it is not of much concern that there is a break between the inner consciousness of the dream-state of Samadhi and the outer consciousness of the physical mind and the senses dealing with the outer world. For the practitioner of the integral Yoga, however, this gap in consciousness is not acceptable as a permanent obstacle.

Sri Aurobindo observes that in fact, the gulf can be bridged and the consciousness of the inner mind and vital can be integrated with the outer consciousness and their powers brought to bear on the life of the world: “But this gulf, this break is not inevitable. In the first place, it is only in the untrained psychic being that the experiences of the trance are a blank to the waking mind; as it becomes the master of its Samadhi, it is able to pass without any gulf of oblivion from the inner to the outer waking. Secondly, when this has been once done, what is attained in the inner state, becomes easier to acquire by the waking consciousness and to turn into the normal experience, powers, mental status of the waking life. The subtle mind which is normally eclipsed by the insistence of the physical being, becomes powerful even in the waking state, until even there the enlarging man is able to live in his several subtle bodies as well as in his physical body, to be aware of them and in them, to use their senses, faculties, powers, to dwell in possession of supra-physical truth, consciousness and experience.”

This is then the missing link between the trance state and the waking state, and it provides the underlying foundation and the mechanism for the inner yogic practice to eventually take control over and transform the outer being. It also provides a basis for action in the world that is directed from this inner consciousness and is thus not bound by the limitations of the outer desire-driven physical-vital existence.

Sri Aurobindo