The Mother's brief statements on various aspects of spiritual life including some conversations.
Part One consists primarily of brief written statements by the Mother on various aspects of spiritual life. Written between the early 1930s and the early 1970s, the statements have been compiled from her public messages, private notes, and correspondence with disciples. About two-thirds of them were written in English; the rest were written in French and appear here in English translation. There are also a small number of spoken comments, most of them in English. Some are tape-recorded messages; others are reports by disciples that were later approved by the Mother for publication. These reports are identified by the symbol § placed at the end. Part Two consists of thirty-two conversations not included elsewhere in the Collected Works. The first six conversations are the earliest recorded conversations of the 1950s' period. About three-fourths of these conversations were spoken in French and appear here in English translation.
VOLUME 15 COLLECTED WORKS OF THE MOTHER Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1980, 2004 Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry PRINTED IN INDIA
The Mother in 1969
This volume is divided into two parts, the first part containing writings, the second part, conversations.
Part One consists primarily of brief written statements by the Mother on various aspects of spiritual life. Written between the early 1930s and the early 1970s, the statements have been compiled from her public messages, private notes, and correspondence with disciples. About two-thirds of them were written in English; the rest were written in French and appear here in English translation. There are also a small number of spoken comments, most of them in English. Some are tape-recorded messages; others are reports by disciples that were later approved by the Mother for publication. These reports are identified by the symbol § placed at the end.
This Part is arranged by theme in nineteen sections, each section having a number of subsections. Within the subsections, dated statements have been placed in chronological order, undated ones where they best fit in thematically.
The reader should note that most of these statements were given to particular persons under particular circumstances. The advice in them, therefore, may not apply to everyone.
Part Two consists of thirty-two conversations not included elsewhere in the Collected Works. The first six conversations are the earliest recorded conversations of the 1950s’ period. About three-fourths of these conversations were spoken in French and appear here in English translation.
It is He, the perfect spirit who fills all.
The perfect spirit fills all.
It is He who fills all.
Who is He? The perfect spirit.
1952
It is the Lord who sets all in motion from the depths of the being; it is His will that directs, His force that acts.
18 September 1954
At the service of the Divine we are; it is the Divine who decides, ordains and puts in motion, directs and accomplishes the action.
25 December 1954
Who has made the Divine?
Himself.
August 1966
How long did it take to plan the universe? Who was there to execute it?
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Nothing in advance. Everything immediately, directly, spontaneously, without any intermediary. The intervention of intermediaries has mostly complicated matters rather than simplified. A rather long story to tell.
What is Consciousness?
When the Lord becomes conscious of Himself, the world is created.
Consciousness is the breath that gives life to all.
Sweet Mother, please tell me the meaning of "consciousness".
Without consciousness you would not even know that you live.
Consciousness is the faculty of becoming aware of anything through identification.
The Divine Consciousness is not only aware but knows and effects. To become aware of a vibration, for instance, does not mean that you know everything about it.
In the Divine Consciousness the smallest things from below unite with the highest, the most sublime from above.
3 July 1954
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Does the Divine exist in all things, even in the dustbin?
The whole universe is the manifestation of the Divine, but a manifestation which begins with a total unconsciousness of its origin and rises little by little towards this consciousness.
Do not forget even for a moment that all this has been created by Him out of Himself. Not only is He present in everything, but also He is everything. The differences are only in expression and manifestation.
If you forget this you lose everything.1
There is no end to the wonders of the universe.
The more we get free from the limits of our small ego, the more these wonders disclose themselves to us.
The Lord will possess His universe perfectly only when the universe will have become the Lord.
The universe is a finite whole, but its content is infinite; the changes which occur in this infinity result from the action of Essence on substance, from the penetration, the permeation of quantity by quality, which brings about a constant and progressive organisation and reorganisation of the content of the universe.
24 March 1932
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At every minute the universe is created in its totality and in each of its parts.
No two combinations, no two movements in the universe are similar; nothing is reproduced exactly. There are analogies, there are similarities, there are families, families of movements that can be called families of vibrations, but there are no two things that are identical, neither in time nor in space. Nothing is repeated, otherwise there would be no manifestation, no becoming; there would be only one creation, one single thing.
The manifestation is just this diversity. It is the One that unfolds itself in the Many—endlessly.
On the physical plane the Divine expresses himself through beauty, on the mental plane through knowledge, on the vital plane through power and on the psychic plane through love.
When we rise high enough, we discover that these four aspects unite with each other in a single consciousness, full of love, luminous, powerful, beautiful, containing all, pervading all.
It is only to satisfy the universal play that this consciousness divides itself into several lines or aspects of manifestation.
This world is a chaos in which darkness and light, falsehood and truth, death and life, ugliness and beauty, hate and love are so closely intertwined that it is almost impossible to distinguish one from the other, still more impossible to disentangle them and put an end to an embrace which has the horror of a pitiless struggle, all the more keen because veiled, especially in human consciousness where the conflict changes into an anguish for knowledge, for power, for conquest,—a combat obscure and painful, all the more atrocious because it seems to be without issue, but capable of a solution on a level above the sensations
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and feelings and ideas, beyond the domain of the mind—in the Divine Consciousness.
29 March 1934
The manifestation will overcome all difficulties, for manifestation means the overcoming of all difficulties.
One Divine Consciousness is here working through all these beings, preparing its way through all these manifestations. At this day it is here at work upon earth more powerfully than it has ever been before.
29 January 1935
I would say: may the world become aware that the Divine is manifesting.
8 April 1935
O, to see no longer the appearances which change incessantly; to contemplate only the Divine's immutable oneness in everything and everywhere!
29 September 1954
If one looks at outer forms no longer in themselves, for themselves, in their appearance alone, but as the expression of a deeper and more abiding reality, then all of them—as well as all circumstances and events—become symbolic of the Force that is behind and that uses them for its self-expression.
For a certain state of consciousness, there is not a single circumstance, not a form, an action or a movement that is not expressive of a deeper or higher, more abiding, more essential and truer reality.
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Behind the appearances there is a subtle reality much closer to Truth; it is that one we are trying to show you.
Upon this world of illusion, this sombre nightmare, the Divine has bestowed His sublime Reality, and each atom of matter contains something of His Eternity.
14 November 1954
Is it not, for the Divine, a supreme sacrifice to renounce the beatitude of His unity in order to create the painful multiplicity of the world?
Poor Divine! Of what an amount of horrors He is accused.
If these accusations were true, what a monster He would be, He who in truth is all-compassion.
It is wrong to say that the world, as it is, is made according to the Divine's Will. If it were so,
(a) All the wickedness of the world would be the Divine's wickedness.
(b) There would be no need to change either oneself or the world.
All things considered, looking at the world as it is and as it seems it must be irremediably, the human intellect has decreed that this world must be a mistake on the part of God and that the manifestation or creation is surely the result of desire, desire to manifest oneself, desire to know oneself, desire to enjoy oneself. Therefore the only thing to do is to put an end to this mistake
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as soon as possible by refusing to cling to desire and its deadly consequences.
But the Supreme Lord answers that the comedy has not yet been completely played out, and He adds, "Wait for the last act; no doubt you will change your mind."
23 July 1958
When the physical world will manifest the divine splendour, all will be marvellous.
The whole creation speaks of the Divine to him who knows how to hear within his heart.
8 December 1965
There is no other consciousness than the Supreme Consciousness.
There is no other will than the Supreme Will.
There is no other life than the Supreme Life.
There is no other personality than the Supreme Personality, the One and the All.
17 September 1967
There is nothing in this world which is not submitted to a direct action beyond Nature—but most of the men are unaware of it.
18 September 1967
Divine presence: it hides from ignorant eyes its ever-present magnificence.
You speak of delight, but in the material world there is no such thing as delight. Yet, remove the delight and the whole world will collapse.
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Nature is happy to be beautiful.
Nature rejoices at her beauty.
Beauty is the joyous offering of Nature.
Nature has a soul which blossoms very prettily.
All in Nature is spontaneously generous.
Abundance: Nature all at once gives to us generously and we have the joy of abundance.
Nature has an instinctive thirst for light.
Nature knows that one day she will realise.
It is man who has rendered Nature sorrowful.
Intimacy with universal Nature: this intimacy is only possible for those whose consciousness is vast and who are without preference and without repulsion.
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The so-called forces of Nature are nothing but the exterior activities of beings out of proportion with man by their size and by the powers which they wield.
(About a cyclone which struck Pondicherry on 1 May 1966)
This cyclone was simply a push from the Earth-Nature to wake up some of her somnolent human children to the necessity of making a progress based on Sri Aurobindo's saying, "Materially you are nothing, spiritually you are everything."
May 1966
(About a cyclone which struck Pondicherry in November 1966)
Nature is collaborating in her own way. All is meant for the growth of a spontaneous sincerity.
November 1966
One must let things grow just as plants grow in Nature. Every too rigid form or limitation we would seek to impose on them before their time, would hamper their natural development and would sooner or later have to be destroyed.
The Divine in Nature creates nothing final; everything is temporary and at the same time as perfect as it is possible for it to be under the circumstances at the time.
In our way of working we must not be the slaves of Nature; all these habits of trying and changing, doing and undoing and redoing again and again, wasting energy, labour, material and
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money, are Nature's way of action, not the Divine's. The Divine Consciousness sees first the truth of a work, the best way of doing it according to the given circumstances. And when She acts it is final; She never comes back to what is done, She goes forward, using failure as well as success for a new progress, one more step towards the goal.
In order to progress Nature destroys, while the Divine Consciousness stimulates growth and finally transforms.1
If you do not feel your responsibility and if you are not always alert and painstaking, then Nature will play mischief with you. If you want to stop the mischief of Nature, you have to do your work with exactness and a sense of responsibility. You must not leave anything undone. You must always be careful and alert and you will be safe.2
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Those who still believe in gods can certainly continue to worship them if they feel like it—but they must know that this creed and this worship has nothing to do with the teaching of Sri Aurobindo and no connection whatever with the Supramental Realisation.
1964
Even the gods have to make their surrender to the Supreme if the Divine creation is to be realised upon earth.
What is the origin, significance and purpose of festivals such as Deepavali, Dasera, Rakhipurnima, etc.—and also some of the western festivals? On these days do the gods respond more to human aspirations? Thirdly, what is the connection between the inner truth and the external functions of these festivals? Lastly, what should be our attitude towards these festivals?
Men like festivals.
9 November 1969
As an answer to my letter on the significance of festivals you wrote to me: "Men like festivals." Does it then mean that they are men's fancy and whim?
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Have they no meaning and no utility?
It is men who give a meaning to festivals in order to legitimate their presence.
21 November 1969
Krishna represents both the universal Godhead and the immanent Godhead, he whom one can meet within one's being and in all that constitutes the manifested world.
And do you want to know why he is always represented as a child? It is because he is in constant progression. To the extent that the world is perfected, his play is also perfected—what was the play of yesterday will no longer be the play of tomorrow; his play will become more and more harmonious, benign and joyful to the extent that the world becomes capable of responding to it and enjoying it with the Divine.
Krishna's play: a power of progress veiling itself behind appearances.
Krishna's play in Matter: beauty, love and joy are comrades; a play which widens and makes you progress.
Krishna's play in the physical: the rule of the Avatar upon earth, that is to say, the realisation of the new divine world.
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Can you tell me whether Radha actually existed? Volumes are being written to prove that she did not.
Surely she has lived and is still living.
Radha's consciousness symbolises perfect attachment to the Divine.
When people speak against you, I feel as if a big flame with many tongues is arising in me and the person in front becomes docile.
It must be Kali's force which you evoke.
I want to ask you a question concerned with my reaction to the inconsideration and vulgarity in X's letter about Sri Aurobindo. I remember an occasion many years ago when a lady friend of mine spoke unbecomingly of both of you. I verbally choked her off at once, but the indignation within me went on burning. It was like a sword of fire leaping out of my chest, striking and striking through the hours. My mind could serve only to direct it accurately; it had itself little part in the actual violence. The next day the lady had a terrific attack of diarrhoea.
A similar blaze began to go out of my chest yesterday on reading Y's letter. I had no scruple in directing it at his journal as if to consume its future to ashes. But although I also struck out at Y himself as if to destroy him, I did not encourage the fiery onslaught. I started wondering
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if it was right to attack like that a person. At times I thought I was perfectly justified. At other times it seemed to me that I should offer my sword of fire to you and Sri Aurobindo and leave it to you both to use it instead of myself concentratedly directing it at Y. I shall be thankful if I can have some words of guidance from you. Please keep in mind that I am not talking of a mere outburst of anger: some force appears to be there which wants to destroy and which feels it has the power to destroy. Of course I would never think of using it for my own private ends.
It is evidently the working of the Kali force that has lit and is directing this fire in you. There is nothing wrong in its action; it is not an anger personal to you but the wrath of a divine power and it must be allowed to act; in fact, I think you could not stop it from burning in you even if you wanted to stop it. This man has drawn it on himself and there is nothing wrong in what is happening, he alone is responsible. Of course, it must not be used for any personal aim or in any self-regarding way.
8 October 1950
Of all the aspects of the Mother, Kali most powerfully expresses vibrant and active love, and despite her sometimes terrible aspect, she carries in herself the golden splendour of an all-powerful love.
24 February 1965
Kali rarely acts in the mind. In the higher domains she is a power of love which pushes towards progress and transformation; in the vital she is a power of destruction of falsehood, hypocrisy and ill-will.
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All that is good, truthful and progressive is never destroyed by her. On the contrary, she protects and sustains it.
5 June 1965
Behind all destructions, whether the immense destructions of Nature, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, cyclones, floods, etc., or the violent human destructions, wars, revolutions, revolts, I find the power of Kali, who is working in the earth-atmosphere to hasten the progress of transformation.
All that is not only divine in essence but also divine in realisation is by its very nature above these destructions and cannot be touched by them. Thus the extent of the disaster gives the measure of the imperfection.
The true way of preventing the repetition of these destructions is to learn their lesson and make the necessary progress.
Integral wealth of Mahalakshmi: wealth of feelings and action in all fields of activity—intellectual, psychological and material.
Mahasaraswati's mission is to awaken the world to the need of perfection; but perfection itself belongs to the Supreme Lord alone; no one else can even know what it is.
Ma, please help me to have a clear representation of the four aspects of the Mother as described by Sri Aurobindo in his book The Mother.
In their aspect above the Overmind, in the higher regions, the aspects of the Mother have very simple forms and don't have multiple limbs.
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All the details and complications are appearances mostly added by men in order to give a symbolic expression to invisible qualities.
29 September 1967
Avatar—the Supreme manifested on earth in a body.
The Avatar: the supreme Divine manifested in an earthly form—generally a human form—for a definite purpose.
The Divine, being all-powerful, can lift people up without bothering to come down on earth. It is only if it is part of the world arrangement that he should take upon himself the burden of humanity and open the Way that avatarhood has any meaning.
6 March 1935
Men tolerate the presence of the Divine upon earth only on condition that He suffers there.
Only when men depende xclusively on the Divine and on nothing else, will it no longer be necessary for the incarnate god to die for them.
2 August 1952
The chief purpose of the "avatar" is to give to man a concrete proof that the Divine can manifest upon earth.
12 July 1954
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Unless your aim is the Divine Realisation upon earth, at any cost, take good care not to draw too close to the divine messengers: for their action is like a hurricane that sweeps away all established things.
7 May 1957
The human race tolerates and accepts the existence of superior beings only on condition that they are at its service.
4 February 1965
For ordinary men, the sage is a sort of music box of wisdom into which it is enough to put the penny of a question in order to receive the answer automatically.
For them to recognise a god, he must have a halo behind his head; for them to recognise a king, he must have a sceptre in his hand.
One who is no longer egoistic no longer has any personal place in this world. That is to say, in exact proportion to his impersonality, this personal world no longer has any personal relations with him. He is in relation with the world, with beings and things only as universal and non-individual forces are; like them, he acts in all, animates all, supports all, but in a general way he is completely ignored by all that he animates, supports and sets in motion.
It is not he who no longer wants the world, it is the world that no longer wants him or, rather, that no longer even notices that he exists.
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Each time that we have made a decisive step in our spiritual progress, the invisible enemies of the Divine always try to take their revenge, and when they cannot injure the soul they strike the body. But all their efforts are in vain and will finally be defeated, for the Divine Grace is with us.
We must never give a chance to the adverse forces to do their mischief—they take advantage of the slightest unconsciousness.
It is jealousy, selfish dissatisfaction and hurt vanity that open the doors of the consciousness to the hostile attacks by pulling one out of the Divine's protection.
It is only by refusing to allow these wrong movements to take place in oneself that one can hope to get rid of the adverse influence and its disastrous effects.
It is a great ignorance that makes a being answer to the suggestions of the forces of darkness and destruction. With a true sense of gratitude for the Divine's infinite mercy, one would be saved from such dangers.
What are these suggestions that sometimes invade me? Do they not come from outside?
Yes, they do come from outside, from some vital entity that is amusing itself by sending them to you to see how you will receive them. I saw the suggestion passing at the time I gave you the flower. I did not attach any importance to it because it was just foolishness—but I see that you received it.
28 April 1934
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The wrath of Mahakali manifests from time to time and acts all right, but the effect of it does not last because those who answer to the adverse force do not truly want to be cured—they are not sincere.
1 July 1935
Mother, the attacks are innumerable, and yesterday I felt very weak.
If you thought less about the attacks, there would not be so many.
7 October 1935
Constantly thinking of the hostile forces and fearing them is a very dangerous weakness.
As you say, it is the adverse force itself that must be conquered and destroyed, otherwise it will always find people to manifest it.
28 May 1936
Hostile forces are tolerated in the world only because they put man's sincerity to the test. The day that man becomes integrally sincere, they will pass away, for there will no longer be any reason for their existence.
13 March 1949
Tonight again there is a severe attack of the hostile forces. My sleep has completely vanished. I pray to you with utmost sincerity to liberate me from the clutches of these furies. They attack my abdomen, thighs and knees. Pray
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to give me the promised advice, so that I may be able to get rid of them completely for ever.
These adverse forces are connected with sexual desire. They live on the energy wasted when the act takes place. And even a thought, a mental or vital desire is sufficient to let them come in and settle in the atmosphere. Thus it is in the mind itself that the purification must take place.
My blessings.
12 September 1950
Mother, sometimes I see a queer thing. I see a region where dead flies go. Their condition seems to be a very miserable one. They complain that I kill so many flies.
These visions are imaginations which probably come from old thought-forms. There is no reason to sentimentalise about flies. They are beings created by the adverse forces and they must disappear from the earth.
In the terrestrial organisation, the world of insects is, so to say, the direct work of hostile creators in the vital world; they are the result of adverse and often diabolical thoughts and imaginations, directed not towards man but towards the divine work. Often an insect that looks quite harmless is the messenger of a bad and malevolent will; in that case one must deal severely with it.
Love can tolerate anything—but in action, the Divine chooses and decides. Yet even in his act of destruction, there shines out pure Love, sublime Love.
14 October 1955
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When the adverse forces are dealt with in the right way, all that is ugly and false disappears to leave place only for what is true and beautiful.
Your ego, at the slightest thing that displeases it, is in the habit of opening the door of your being to an evil spirit of arrogant and impudent disbelief which passes its time in throwing mud and filth on all that is sacred and beautiful and especially on the aspiration of your soul and the help from the Divine's Grace.
If this is allowed to continue, it will end in a sure catastrophe and ruin. Strong steps must be taken to put an end to this, and for that the collaboration of your soul is needed. It must wake up and join in the fight against the ego by resolutely closing the door to this evil spirit.
9 April 1958
After all, what is freedom? To go about doing whatever you like? But do you know what is "you"? Do you know what is your own will? Do you know what comes from you and what comes from elsewhere? Well, if you had a strong will I could have allowed you to work. But it is not like that; it is only impulses that move you and they are also not your own. They come from outside and make you do all sorts of stupid things. You fall into the hands of the Rakshasas. First they make you do stupid things and then they laugh. If you have a strong will, if your will, your impulses and all else are centred around the psychic, then and then alone can you have some taste of liberty and freedom; otherwise you are a slave.1
If you refuse to become a docile and surrendered servant of the Divine and of the Master who manifests Him, it means that you
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will remain a slave of your egoism, your vanity, your presumptuous ambition, and a toy in the hands of the Rakshasas who allure you with brilliant images in their attempt—not always unsuccessful—to possess you.
If you had understood and reacted in the right way, you would have passed the test and got rid not only of this special difficulty but probably of this hostile's influence altogether. But you failed and got possessed. And only one thing was left to me to do, it was to flood you with the pure light, the white flame of purification to chase from inside you the intruder. It is what you took probably for a cut in our relations, a wall of separation between us; there was nothing of the kind; I was inside you, penetrating you as usual, but in the form of this supreme purity which is so foreign to all that is anti-divine or even to all ordinary human movement.
This adverse entity is not only vital, it is also mental and supports its desires by some apparently reasonable principles which become aggressively stupid by their rigidity. When this seizes you, you seem to lose all common sense and the most elementary understanding.
No wall at all—only the pure light, the white flame of purification penetrating right through, from outside inside, from inside outside.
Now I can tell you what has happened with a chance of being understood.
(About a sadhak's accident)
Here is a sad but striking illustration of what I said.
This case is clear. For some egoistic reason he attempted to do more than he could.
If the year had been good he might have succeeded.
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With an ordinary or neutral year he would not have succeeded but without bad results for himself or for the others.
This year, because it is dangerously bad, the consequences came in full. Now all I can do is to make the best out of the situation; but it has become a big fight.
This is what I meant when I spoke, but very few people understood what I meant by "Be careful." I meant: "Do always the best you can and make as far as possible no spiritual mistake." On the contrary, most of them started fearing and that in itself is already a big spiritual mistake. Instead of being more vigilant and more faithful, most of them at once opened the door to the hostile suggestions and aggravated the situation. Some went even so far as to blame me for having spoken, not understanding that if I cannot warn the people here and advise them to keep firm in the right attitude, it means that they are not true sadhaks and have no sincerity in their attitude.
In order to make myself more clear, I repeat what I wanted to say; in a year like this one when the adverse forces have decided to attack at the utmost of their capacity, it is required from all those who have decided to fight for the Divine Realisation, to avoid carefully all fear.
When I spoke at the beginning of the year I insisted on the necessity of being especially vigilant because when times are bad whatever mistake one makes brings immediately its full consequences, the action of the Grace being hampered by the intensity of the adverse attack; the faith must be more total, the vigilance more constant, the trust in the Divine more absolute.
1955
As for your opening upward—fear nothing; it all depends on your sincerity. If it is the Divine alone that you want and not some personal advantage, it is the Divine alone who will answer
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your call. Adverse replies are a danger only when the motive is egoistic.
With my blessings.
5 September 1964
Last night, at three in the morning, sleepy, exasperated, I called you. A few seconds later, three times, I felt a strong force paralyzing me and trying to plunge me into unconsciousness. I struggled hard against it because I felt it as an adverse force which wanted to take away my subtle body. The third time, with one eye open I saw part of the dark blue robe of a tall person who was waiting to take me away; it seemed as if an emanation of X was at his side.
How is it that after I had called you, Mother, I had this experience?
This is the disadvantage of placing oneself under the influence of several occult forces.
In the past, one was recommended, not without reason, to choose one spiritual master and to take great care not to see any others, to avoid a mixture of influences, which has serious disadvantages. So-called modern wisdom, which springs from ignorance, is open to all kinds of influences which are sometimes contradictory, and the result is a great confusion.
Now there is only one solution, to go beyond all human representations and approach the Supreme directly with the utmost sincerity you are capable of, and... await the result.
Blessings.
25 March 1970
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God gives Himself to His whole creation; no one religion holds the monopoly of His Grace.
Instead of excluding each other, religions ought to complete each other.
The spiritual spirit is not contrary to a religious feeling of adoration, devotion and consecration. But what is wrong in the religions is the fixity of the mind clinging to one formula as an exclusive truth. One must always remember that formulas are only a mental expression of the truth and that this truth can always be expressed in many other ways.
6 December 1964
You express your faith in Sri Aurobindo with certain words which are for you the best expression of this faith; this is quite all right. But if you are convinced that these very words are the only correct ones to express what Sri Aurobindo is, then you become dogmatic and are ready to create a religion.
5 March 1965
In a severe tone:
"Madam, you are pledging your word."
Very quietly:
"I know it, sir, and when I make a promise, I keep it. But for me these things don't have much importance. I have no
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attachment for any religion, and when one has no attachment, one has no aversion either. For me religions are forms, much too human, of spiritual life. Each one expresses one aspect of the single and eternal Truth, but in expressing it exclusive of the other aspects, it deforms and diminishes it. None has the right to call itself the only true one, any more than it has the right to deny the truth contained in the others. And all of them together would not suffice to express the Supreme Truth which is beyond all expression, even whilst being present in each one."
In a dry tone:
"I am sorry, madam, but in this field I cannot follow you."
Smiling and peaceful:
"I know that very well, sir, and I told you all this only to explain to you why I did not reply very seriously to the promise you were demanding from me."
Why do men want to worship?
It is far better to become than to worship.
It is the reluctance to change that makes one worship.
24 June 1969
One may abstain from worship only on condition that one changes, for there are many who want neither to change nor to worship!
June 1969
The attitude to be taken towards religions
A benevolent goodwill towards all worshippers.
An enlightened indifference towards all religions.
All religions are partial approximations of the one sole Truth that is far above them.
April 1969
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As for the relation with the beings of the Overmind, if this relation exists already, each case must have its own solution.
Why do men cling to a religion?
Religions are based on creeds which are spiritual experiences brought down to a level where they become more easy to grasp, but at the cost of their integral purity and truth.
The time of religions is over.
We have entered the age of universal spirituality, of spiritual experience in its initial purity.
(About an article entitled "Religion in the New Age")
I have read the article—it is all right. I have made only one change—in the last page, where you write "since it will be the age of God" (God is still too religious) I have put "of the ONE"—because it will truly be the age of Unity.
I approve of your continuing this practice in the Arya Home provided those who live there are absolutely free to attend or not according to their own conviction. Practices of this kind have no spiritual value if they become a habit or a compulsion, even if it is only a mental compulsion. I mean to say that no propaganda spirit must be used.
With blessings.
Religious thought cannot be used unless it is liberated from the influence of religions.
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The notion of religion is most often linked with the search for God. Should religion be understood in this context only? As a matter of fact, these days, are there not other forms of religion?
We call "religion" any concept of the world or the universe which is presented as the exclusive Truth in which one must have absolute faith, generally because this Truth is declared to be the result of a revelation.
Most of the religions affirm the existence of a God and the rules to follow to obey Him, but there are some Godless religions, such as the socio-political organisations which, in the name of an Ideal or the State, claim the same right to be obeyed.
Man's right is to pursue the Truth freely and to approach it freely in his own way. But each one ought to know that his discovery is good for him alone and is not to be imposed upon others.
13 May 1970
You must not confuse a religious teaching with a spiritual one.
Religious teaching belongs to the past and halts progress.
Spiritual teaching is the teaching of the future—it illumines the consciousness and prepares it for future realisation.
Spiritual teaching is above religions and strives towards a global Truth.
It teaches us to enter into direct relation with the Divine.
15 July 1972
Occultism does not truly blossom except when it is surrendered to the Divine.
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And yet there is an analogy. Just as you may read all the books possible on the art of playing the piano, but if you do not play it yourself you will never be a pianist, so too you may read everything that has been written on occultism, but if you do not practise it yourself you will never be an occultist.
November 1957
Pre-vision: the power of projecting one's consciousness into the future.
I do not like these showy miracles—they most often fail pitifully under the pressure of the Force. The first effect is a dangerous swelling of the ego. In front of all that, there is only one attitude to take—do your best and leave the result to the Lord.
In the lives of many saints we read that with full trust the devotee refused to eat unless the Lord appeared and took part. And the Lord did appear and eat and work like human beings. Is there any truth in such stories?
A psychological truth because anybody can become for you the Lord if so you decide. The subjective point of view is much more widely prevailing than is generally admitted.
I have gone through the papers you sent me.
The historic part of the papers seems to be true. The founder must surely have been acquainted with the Kaballah and with some mystics of Asia Minor. The original appears to have been written in Latin with adjuncts of Hebrew words (probably taken
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from the Kaballah). But the Osiris-Isis part looks to me like a more recent addition which came in something like 50 or 60 years ago.
The whole thing is from its origin a very well-made, a very strong and elaborate mental formation, powerfully designed to Catch hold of certain vital elements and forces (both outside and inside the individuals) to rule and use them and through the vital to exercise a partial power over the physical.
Formations of this kind are numerous; they translate upon earth into secret societies. I have met many of the kind, more or less ancient, more or less powerfully organised, but all of a similar type. They are not, in their nature, spiritual. If there is any spirituality in them, it comes not from the formation itself but from the presence, in the society, of one or several personalities with a spiritual character and achievement.
In ancient times the teaching of the great spiritual truths was a secret teaching reserved for a small number of initiates.
Even now there are things that are spoken but cannot be written down, and still less can they be printed.
In our daily practices we are endeavouring to express the great mystery of the Divine Incarnation.
In the final analysis, formulated knowledge is only a language that gives the power to act upon the object of this knowledge.
(A sadhak wrote that devotees were performing ceremonies much like the worship of deities in front of the
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photographs of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Stating that for proper worship there should be a bijamantra [seed-mantra] to invoke the deity, he asked whether there was such a mantra for Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Mother replied:)
I always advise to let the mantra rise from the depth of the heart as a sincere aspiration.
It occurs to me to beg Thee for a key word for japa.
OM.
OM is the signature of the Lord.
(About pranam, the gesture of obeisance to the Divine)
This gesture, when one makes it in all sincerity, is the consecration to the Divine in the whole creation. It is that, that is the origin of the thing... Like a recognition, a recognition and a submission to the Divine in the creation.
That is the true meaning. Naturally, in outer appearance, not one person in a thousand does that... but that is the true meaning of this gesture.1
19 March 1973
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Do not fear for your life—the astrologers do not always say the truth.
7 November 1939
The stars have no decisive influence. It is only if one does not believe in the Divine that one unnecessarily suffers by believing that they determine one's life.
I have known many astrologers both in Europe and India. So far, nobody has been able to read the future correctly. There are three reasons for the failure. First, the astrologers do not know how to read the future properly. Secondly, the horoscope is always incorrectly made—unless a man is a mathematical genius. And even for such a person it is very difficult to make a correct horoscope. Thirdly, when people say that the stars in this or that house at the time of birth rule your life, they are quite wrong. The stars under which you are born are only "tape-recorders" of physical conditions. They do not rule the future of the soul. There is something beyond, which rules the stars themselves and everything else. The soul belongs to this Supreme Being. And if it is doing Yoga, then all the more it should never believe in the power of the stars or in any other power.
An astrologer who predicts a catastrophe for you is like a joker. Many jokers say things like, "Today you will break your neck!" But in spite of the joke nothing happens.
Only a great Yogi can tell you your future correctly. But even then there is the Supreme Will which alone controls and decides everything.1
8 September 1961
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X who has been studying astrology has prepared my horoscope. I send it to you to see. Do you think the indications he has given in it for my future have any value?
The horoscope is sufficiently vague and favourable to be taken in consideration as the base of a mental conception for your future.
The most important factor in a horoscope is the intuitive faculty of the astrologer.
6 May 1964
Why do you believe in what the astrologers say? It is the belief that brings the trouble.
Sri Aurobindo says that a man becomes what he thinks he is.
1965
Horoscopes have no importance for those who take up yoga, because the influence that works through yoga is much more powerful than the influence of the stars.
Palmistry is a very interesting art, but it depends for its exactitude and truthfulness almost entirely upon the real ability of the one who practises it. Moreover, it relates only to the material destiny and this destiny can be altered by the intervention of the higher forces.
3 January 1951
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1—The One
2—Decision for Creation
3—Beginning of Creation
4—Manifestation
5—Power
6—Creation
7—Realisation
8—Occult Formation
9—Power of Static Fulfilment
10—Power of Expression
11—Progress
12—Perfect Manifestation Stabilised
1—The Origin
2—Appearance of the Creative Consciousness
3—Sachchidananda
6—New Creation
8—Double Enclosure (protection from inner and outer enemies)
9—New Birth
10—Perfection
12—Double Perfection (spiritual and material)
14—Transformations1
This morning after Pranam, Thou blest me with four flowers of Sincerity. I feel that there is special significance
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in it, but I am unable to find out the same. May I know it?
When I picked up the flowers to give you, I felt that several were coming and I willed: "Let it be the number of the states of the being in which the Sincerity (in the consecration to the Divine) will be definitively established." Four means integrality: the four states of being, mental, psychic, vital, physical.
27 December 1933
Can one tell when the colour yellow indicates the mind and when it indicates light?
Greenish yellow is mental.
Orange yellow is the symbol of light.
The fox on the envelope means cleverness.
8 January 1932
It is a hare—"prudence".
9 February 1932
Mother, what does the deer signify?
Gentleness and swiftness of movement.
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Generally a snake symbolises a movement of falsehood. When something in the nature is in affinity with falsehood, snakes are attracted. The nature of the falsehood is indicated by the nature of the snake and the plane where it appears.
30 August 1932
Please tell me what the horse means.
The horse signifies the powers of the individual being, which must be controlled (bridled).
1 January 1933
What is the meaning of the drawing You sent me on the envelope?
It is a lamb, which means "purity".
4 January 1933
What is the significance of the picture You sent me?
This boar is the symbol of desires.
1933
(Significance of the falcon)
Keen sight.
The snake is not the symbol of power but of energy, and just as there are obscure and perverted energies, so too the snake can be the symbol of unregenerate and anti-divine forces.
29 May 1934
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Does the cow really have a special sanctity or is it merely a tradition based on economic needs?
Mere tradition based on old symbols.
Mother, what is the meaning of the house in the picture?
I do not remember the picture I sent. A house is generally a place of rest and safety.
This little badge was chosen as it is—a single ball hanging from a cord made of countless silk threads—for the following reasons.
The ball—the globe—is a symbol of universality, integrality, infinity. One, it becomes the symbol of the Supreme Oneness manifested in all the domains of the being—the multiplicity—represented by the silk cord.
In the picture which I received today from Thee, I see someone offering with two hands a full-bloomed red lotus, a lotus bud and a garland. The background of the picture is yellow in colour. What do all these signify?
The red lotus is the symbol of the Avatar and the offering of the red lotus is meant to suggest the full consecration to
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the Avatar; the yellow background represents the supramental manifestation.
8 November 1933
What is symbolised by the waterfall in the picture you have given me? Is it not the current of your serene peace and of your divine force which constantly floods me?
Yes, it is the symbol of the descent of the divine forces upon the physical plane.
25 January 1934
Water signifies many things such as fluidity, plasticity, suppleness, the purifying principle. It is the driving force and marks the beginning of organised life.1
Water corresponds to the vital, air to mind, fire to the psychic, earth to matter and ether to the spirit.
20 August 1955
The diamond is the symbol of pure spiritual light. No hostile force can cross it. If you put that light on a hostile force, he simply melts away. But the diamond light cannot be used indiscriminately in all cases, because human beings who shelter these adverse forces get very dangerously affected.
Of course I am not speaking of material diamonds.2
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What is the relation between the Supramental Light and the solar light?
The solar light is the symbol of the supramental light.
9 July 1965
We invoke the solar light, symbol of the Supreme Lord, to give us the Light of Truth.
Symbols are a convention, and their value is the same as the value of the languages.
10 April 1966
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You have no right to dispense with morality unless you submit yourself to a law that is higher and much more rigorous than any moral law.
28 May 1947
You can break the moral rules only when you observe the Divine Law.
Moral laws have only a very relative value from the point of view of Truth. Besides, they vary considerably according to country, climate and period.
Discussions are generally sterile and without productive value. If each one makes a personal effort of perfect sincerity, uprightness and good-will, the best conditions for the work will be realised.
Never judge on appearances, still less on gossip.
What is moral in one country is immoral in another.
Service to the Divine exacts a sincerity of self-sacrifice unknown to any morality.
26 February 1969
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Not so long ago, at the beginning of this century, during what was perhaps the most murderous war of all, the fate of millions of men was decided many a time by the financial speculations of the contending heads of state.
O men! How can you utter the sublime word "Peace" when there is no peace in your hearts?
The War is over, so you say, and yet everywhere man is slaying man and Cain still sheds his brother's blood!
In the Bible, God calls Cain and asks him: "What have you done with your brother?"
Today I call man and ask him: "What have you done with the earth?"
For all those whom the Divine Grace has kept far from the horrible conflict which is tearing men at, the only way to express their gratitude is by a complete consecration of their whole being to the divine work.
May 1940
Don't worry about Hitler. No asuric force can stand eternally against the divine force and the hour of his defeat is bound to come.
27 May 1940
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The Victory has come, Thy Victory, O Lord, for which we render to Thee infinite thanks-giving.
But now our ardent prayer rises towards Thee. It is with Thy force and by Thy force that the victors have conquered. Grant that they do not forget it in their success and that they keep the promises which they have made to Thee in the hours of danger and anguish. They have taken Thy name to make war, may they not forget Thy grace when they have to make the peace.
15 August 1945
The Atomic Bomb
The Atomic bomb is in itself the most wonderful achievement and the sign of a growing power of man over material nature. But what is to be regretted is that this material progress and mastery is not the result of and in keeping with a spiritual progress and mastery which alone has the power to contradict and counteract the terrible danger coming from these discoveries. We
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cannot and must not stop progress, but we must achieve it in an equilibrium between the inside and the outside.
30 August 1945
Violence is never a good way to make a cause triumph. How can anyone hope to obtain justice by injustice, harmony by hatred?
9 October 1951
X has inquired if You have said anything recently about the world-situation. He wants to know if there is any likelihood of another world war or some other grave troubles.
Tell him that I refuse to be a prophet.
3 February 1962
This old idea of the necessity of the catastrophe to make the power effective is a limitation that has to be overcome.
There is no question of welcoming destruction, but of learning the lesson it gives.
I disapprove totally of violence. Each act of violence is a step back on the path leading to the goal to which we aspire.
The Divine is everywhere and always supremely conscious. Nothing must ever be done that cannot be done before the Divine.
6 May 1971
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So long as you are capable of giving somebody a beating, you open the door to the possibility of being given a beating yourself.
Popular outbursts: the monstrous cruelty of the mud that hates and despises the light.
There is a difference between violence and cruelty. In a violent mood one can do a very dreadful act, but afterwards one feels very sorry for it. Whereas a cruel person does the thing in a cold-blooded way—everything is prearranged and is done for its own sake.1
During the bombardments, to those who fear for their skins and flee:
Why should you be in safety when the whole world is in danger? What is your special virtue, your special merit for which you should be so specially protected?
In the Divine alone is there safety. Take refuge in Him and cast away all fear.
26 May 1942
(About persons who asked permission to come to Pondicherry during India's conflict with Pakistan in September 1965)
They can come to Pondicherry, but those who are afraid everywhere and one who has faith is in safety everywhere.
9 September 1965
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The best protection is an unshakable faith in the Divine Grace.
Protection is active and can be effective only with faith on your side, absolute and constant.
Let us give ourselves entirely and sincerely to the Divine and we shall enjoy His protection.
Integral protection: that which can be given only by the Divine.
Psychic protection: the protection resulting from surrender to the Divine.
Physical protection is possible only with a total surrender to the Divine and the absence of all desires.
Concentrate more constantly on the Divine Presence and the protection will be more spontaneous.
Exclusive turning of all movements towards the Divine: the sure means of having security.
Nothing is in safety except what is given to the Divine.
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Money is not meant to make money, money is meant to make the earth ready for the advent of the new creation.
It is to the Divine that all riches belong. It is the Divine who lends them to living beings, and it is to Him that they must naturally return.
Wealth under the psychic influence: wealth ready to return to its true possessor, the Divine.
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A day shall come when all the wealth of this world, freed at last from the enslavement to the antidivine forces, offers itself spontaneously and fully to the service of the Divine's Work upon earth.1
6 January 1955
Give all you are, all you have; nothing more is asked of you but also nothing less.2
6 January 1956
True wealth is that which one offers to the Divine.
You are rich only by the money that you give to the Divine Cause.
30 January 1959
You are richer with the wealth you give than with the wealth you keep in your possession.
(Message for the First Annual Conference of the Sri Aurobindo Society)
The true fortune is to spend in the right way.
You become truly rich when you dispose of your wealth in the best possible way.
February 1962
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Prosperity stays consistently only with him who offers it to the Divine.
Unselfish prosperity: he who receives it abundantly, gives all that he has as he receives it.
Generosity gives and gives itself without bargaining.
Let money come and go in abundance for good works.
To me any activity is more important than its cost to me, even if the cost is unreasonable. Money should never be the criterion for such decisions. If we say we can't have something because of its cost, we limit our receptivity to the Grace and hamper its workings. Money is only a medium of exchange, it is all relative and the Divine resources are inexhaustible. Is this attitude a correct one?
You are quite right and I approve of your attitude.
Never mix in your thought spiritual power and money because it leads straight to catastrophe.
A gift made through vanity is profitable neither to the giver nor to the receiver.
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I wanted to make him understand and experience that the thought, the feeling and the force that is in a gift is much more important and valuable than the thing given itself.
A practical problem comes up more and more often: should one who is preparing to do Yoga and has made it a general rule to offer You everything and depend entirely on You, accept gifts, in money or kind, coming from others? Because if he accepts, he is put under personal obligations and duties. Can a sadhak allow this? Can he say to himself: "The Divine has many ways of giving"?
What is to be done if a person begins to quarrel because one has accepted a gift in one case and refused in another? What is to be done to avoid such bitterness around one, provoked by repeated refusals?
"The Divine has many ways of giving."
This is the correct thing. One never has any obligation to anybody, one has an obligation only to the Divine and there totally. When a gift is made without conditions, one can always take it as coming from the Divine and leave it to the Divine to take care of what is needed in exchange or response.
As for ill-will, jealousy, quarrels and reproaches, one must sincerely be above all that and reply with a benevolent smile to the bitterest words; and unless one is absolutely sure of himself and his reactions, it would be better, as a general rule, to keep silent.
6 October 1960
People say, "God is the friend of the poor", but it seems wrong and false. God is the friend of the rich. We do not know what place we have.
To the rich God gives money, but to the poor He gives Himself.
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All depends on the poor giving more value to the riches or to God.
22 August 1964
The financiers and businessmen have been offered the possibility to collaborate with the future, but most of them refuse, convinced that the power of money is stronger than that of the future.
But the future will crush them with its irresistible power.
In this material world, for men, money is more sacred than the Divine's Will.
12 March 1965
Greed for money: the surest way to decrease one's conscience and to narrow one's nature.
I am not for getting interest on money.
I dabbled in stocks and shares a little, but came a cropper. The speculation I carried on for a while has burnt quite a hole in my pocket. I really wish I hadn't. Are you dead against speculation?
You ought to know that I do not approve at all of speculation—but what is done is done.
17 December 1939
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Does the economic condition of a man become stable with the betterment of his consciousness?
If "betterment of consciousness" means an increased, enlarged consciousness, a better organisation of it, then as a result there should naturally be a greater control of outward things (including the "economic condition"). But also, naturally when one has a "better consciousness" one is less preoccupied with such things as one's economic condition.
Solution of the economic problem:
Arriving at the synthesis of two problems:
(1) adjusting the production to the needs;
(2) adjusting the needs to the production.
One must be able to control oneself before one can hope to govern others.
1) To have complete control over oneself is the indispensable condition for controlling others.
2) To have no preferences, not to like one and to dislike the other—to be equal with everybody.
3) To be patient and enduring.
Also to speak only what is quite indispensable and nothing more.
March 1954
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One takes seriously what is said by those whose lives are governed by reason; but how can one attach any importance to the so-called decisions made by those who are actually the playthings of their whimsical impulses?
Idea: essential for all organisers; on its quality depends the quality of the organisation.
It is easier to suppress than to organise, but the true order is far superior to suppression.
30 June 1954
Organisation and discipline are the necessary basis for all realisation.
To know how to command well, one must first know how to obey well.
Only he who knows how to obey is capable of governing.
In their ordinary consciousness, human beings cannot tolerate any authority, however legitimate, if it is exercised over them by somebody whom they believe to be on the same level as themselves.
On the other hand, for human authority to be legitimately exercised over others, it must be enlightened, impartial and unegoistic to the extent that nobody can reasonably challenge its value.
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To those whose work is to govern or to lead.
When you want to please the people, you let things go as they are, waiting for Nature to impose her progress upon man. But this is not the truth of the creation. The true mission of man is to impose his progress on Nature.
2 December 1954
He only who has a perfect sense of true justice can claim the right to be obeyed.
When I say that the "wise" should govern the world, I am not taking a political point of view but a spiritual one.
The various forms of government can stay as they are; that is only of secondary importance. But whatever the social status of the men in power, they should receive their inspiration from those who have realised the Truth and have no other will than that of the Supreme.
17 September 1959
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Remain in politics and try to bring Truth into politics. It is a very sure way towards effective spirituality.
Completely give up this ordinary vulgar political practice of publicly abusing people either in speech or writing. One should wage a war of ideas so that the truth may triumph, not a war of personalities.
Sweet Mother,
In connection with the Youth Camps1 You have said that we should not discuss politics.
In this connection I pray for some more specific guidance from You, Douce Mère, not only for us at the Youth Camps, but generally for us who go around the country giving talks on Sri Aurobindo's Action....
So far, we have considered "Politics" as consisting of any movement, including intrigue and malpractice, to arrive at dominance either of oneself or of one's party over others. In this, one has to hold that one's own view or ideology is true and that of others is wrong.
This politics we must completely avoid. Is it not so?
Yes.
But Sri Aurobindo has dealt with such matters from very high viewpoint in which He has seen what is true in each approach or each ideology and has shown the way towards a true integration of all these partial truths into a real synthesis. If we can learn from Him and follow
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His way then we can truly deal with such topics and need not avoid them. Are we correct in our understanding and approach?
When we have to answer specific questions on such matters as Bank Nationalisation, Privy Purses, Press Bill etc., then, unless we have had already direct and specific replies from Sri Aurobindo or You, our answer has been that all these actions are only arrangements on the surface and, therefore, by themselves cannot solve the basic problems they try to solve. It is only by a change of consciousness or, at least, by the aspiration for the truth and the resultant opening to a change of consciousness that such specific problems can be really solved. Because whatever is the form of any arrangement or scheme, it has to be implemented by people. If the people continue to remain in darkness and falsehood, then no arrangement or scheme, however fine it may appear to be, can succeed.
So, there is only one solution to all problems; that given by You—to obey the Eternal Truth alone and live according to Truth.
Is this answer correct and sufficient?
Yes. True.
On certain issues where You or Sri Aurobindo have given direct answers, we also are specific, as for instance on the point of the Unity of India and Pakistan being a Truth without which problems like BanglaDesh cannot be resolved or on the language issue where You have said for the country that (1) The regional language should be
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the medium of instruction, (2) Sanskrit should be the national language, (3) English should be the international language.
Are we correct in giving these replies to such questions?
Talk little, be true, act sincerely.
4 October 1971
To think that communism is the Truth is to make the same error as all religious fanaticism and puts communism on the same level as all other religions... very far from the Truth.
Message to America
Stop thinking that you are of the West and others of the East. All human beings are of the same divine origin and meant to manifest upon earth the unity of this origin.
4 August 1949
The earth will enjoy a lasting and living peace only when men understand that they must be truthful and sincere even in their international dealings.
For the Governments honesty lies not only in saying what they are doing but also in doing what they say.
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If diplomacy could become the instrument of the Truth and the Divine Grace, instead of being based on duplicity and falsehood, a big step would be taken towards human unity and harmony.
15 April 1955
About Peace
It is only by the growth and establishment of the consciousness of human unity, that a true and lasting peace can be achieved upon earth. All means leading towards this goal are welcome, although the external ones have a very limited effect; however, the most important, urgent and indispensable of all, is a transformation of the human consciousness itself, an enlightenment of and conversion in its working.
Meanwhile some exterior steps may be taken usefully, and the acceptance of the principle of double nationality is one of them. The main objection to it has always been the awkward position in which those who have adopted a double nationality would be in case the two countries were at war.
But all those who sincerely want peace must understand that to think of war, to speak of war, to foresee war is to open the door to it.
On the contrary, the larger the number of people who have a vital interest in the abolition of war, the more effective the chances towards a stable peace, until the advent of a new consciousness in man makes of war an impossibility.
24 April 1955
Shake off all narrowness, selfishness, limitations, and wake up to the consciousness of Human Unity. This is the only way to achieve peace and harmony.
May 1955
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Speak to us at the level of the nations.
Alas! If I did it would not be from a very high level!
The nations, as yet, do not seem ready to listen to any true spiritual message.
11 May 1957
On the ingratitude of nations:
It takes nobility of character not to resent someone who does you good.
(Message for the First World Conference of the Sri Aurobindo Society)
The future of the earth depends on a change of consciousness.
The only hope for the future is in a change of man's consciousness and the change is bound to come.
But it is left to men to decide if they will collaborate for this change or if it will have to be enforced upon them by the power of crashing circumstances.
So, wake up and collaborate!
August 1964
(Mother gave the following questions for discussion by the Conference participants, and her own answers.)
How can humanity become one?
By becoming conscious of its origin.
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What is the way of making the consciousness of human unity grow in man?
Spiritual education, that is to say an education which gives more importance to the growth of the spirit than to any religious or moral teaching or to the material so-called knowledge.
What is a change of consciousness?
A change of consciousness is equivalent to a new birth, a birth into a higher sphere of existence.
How can a change of consciousness change the life upon earth?
A change in human consciousness will make possible the manifestation upon earth of a higher Force, a purer Light, a more total Truth.
Nothing but a radical change of consciousness can save humanity from the terrible plight into which it is plunged.
All the so-called "practical" means are a childishness by which men blind themselves so as not to see the true need and sole remedy.
What is the right way of achieving lasting world unity?
To realise the Consciousness of the ONE.
13 October 1965
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(Message for the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary set of photographs and messages, issued by the Sri Aurobindo Society and sent to the embassies of many nations)
A new world, based on Truth and refusing the old slavery to falsehood, wants to take birth.
In all countries there are people who know it, at least feel it.
To them we call:
"Will you collaborate?"1
1972
MESSAGES TO WORLD UNION2
The World is a unity—it has always been, and it is always so, even now it is so—it is not that it has not got the unity and the unity has to be brought in from outside and imposed upon it.
Only the world is not conscious of its unity. It has to be made conscious.
We consider now is the time most propitious for the endeavor.
For, a new Force or Consciousness or Light—whatever you call the new element—has manifested into the world and the world has now the capacity to become conscious of its own unity.
25 March 1960
You are quite right. Old methods cannot do for this new work. Not only a new consciousness must be firmly established but
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also a new process must be found before anything truly effective can be done.
15 January 1961
To those concerned with World Union work
All your differences are purely mental, and, in spite of the great importance you seem to give to them, they are, in fact, of very little importance, and could easily be overcome if each one made a broadening effort and understood that what he thinks is only one point of view of the question, and that any attempt for effectivity must admit the other points of view as well and try to make a synthesis of them all.
Otherwise, whatever is the quality of your intellect, you are hopelessly narrow and limited. This applies to everybody who has not realised the supramental consciousness and crossed to the upper hemisphere.
You will all work together harmoniously and happily, forgetting your differences, and each one thinking only of doing his own work as well as he can and according to his own conception, but tacitly recognising the validity of the others' conceptions and accepting the necessity of a synthesis.
6 April 1961
Do not divide what is one. Both science and spirituality have the same goal—the Supreme Divinity. The only difference between them is that the latter knows it and the other not.
December 1962
As I told you already World Union is an outward movement for those who need an outward activity and organisation to give a more concrete reality to their faith.
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It is an ideal activity for those who want to harmonise humanity as it is, in order to make it ready for a future integral progress.
Some others—a few—lay more stress on the inner individual preparation and progress—they are the forerunners who show the way to the world. These must not be pulled out of their concentration and must remain sympathetic witnesses of World Union, but not active participants.
1 July 1963
Gracious Mother, we need Your guidance which will enable us to remain faithful to our aspiration while we work with people whose way of work may not necessarily be consistent with our aspiration and on occasions may be divergent from it. Kindly give us a guiding principle.
Here is my definition, which can serve also as a motto and a programme.
A world union based on the fact of human unity realizing the truth of the Spirit.
April 1964
I want to tell you that from the higher vision, the whole world is advancing rapidly towards a radical change, and, if properly conducted, the World Union may have a special place in this change.
24 July 1964
Unity does not come from any exterior disposition, but by becoming conscious of the eternal Oneness.
12 August 1964
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There is some truth behind all these theories, but none is perfect in itself.
A broad synthesis supple and progressive ought to be elaborated not in an arbitrary mental way, but by a living experience and an inner progress.
We start from what is existing at present with the will to advance towards a more perfect realisation.
October 1964
(Students of the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education were invited to participate in a local symposium on "1965—International Cooperation Year".)
I have no objections to World Union, yourself and X joining the demonstration. I simply refused the participation of our students, because I do not believe in the usefulness of words spoken or written, when the world's problems are concerned.
I insist on the fact that an inner effort to acquire oneself the consciousness of Unity and the consequent transformation of one's action is infinitely more effective than speeches and articles.
January 1965
The message written for Christmas was blocked for that very purpose. You must utilise it.
If you want peace upon earth, first establish peace in your heart. If you want union in the world, first unify the different parts of your own being.
February 1965
Page 65
Do not attach too much importance to what is said. Words are only words and in each mind they take a different colouring.
February 1966
Prove to the World the possibility of Union by being united among yourselves.
19 February 1966
The unity of humanity is an underlying and existing fact.
But the external union of mankind depends on man's goodwill and sincerity.
12 August 1967
The power of division is unsteady and impermanent.
Union works for a steady power and a harmonious future.
25 April 1969
When men will be disgusted with the falsehood in which they live, then the world will be ready for the reign of the Truth.
14 August 1971
If you want union in the world, first unify the different parts of your own being.
17 December 1971
If you abolish in yourself the things that are wrong in the world, the world will no longer be wrong.
23 April 1972
Page 66
We are at one of the "hours of God" as Sri Aurobindo puts it—and the transforming evolution of the world has taken a hastened and intensified movement.
It is true that "we" are passing through a difficult period ("we" means the world) but those who remain steady will get out of much stronger than before.
We are definitely not living at a time when men have been left to their own means.
The Divine has sent down His consciousness to enlighten them.
All who are able to do so, should profit by this.
Truth will conquer in spite of the turmoil.
Even within the confusion, there is the seed of the Divine order.
Inwardly things seem to be improving; outwardly a sort of disintegration seems to be at the door. Where do we stand?
In front of a beautiful realisation.
Page 67
Every day things seem to become worse. In truth we feel more and more disgusted with the old rotting world, and are more and more convinced of the necessity of founding, somewhere out of the well-trodden tracks, a new centre of life in which a new and truer light can be manifested, a new world no more based on selfish competitions and egoistic strife but on general and eager endeavours to promote the welfare, knowledge and progress of all—a society based on spiritual aspiration instead of lust for money and material power.
What I see is the world of tomorrow, but the world of yesterday is still alive and will still live for some time. Let the old arrangements go on so long as they are alive.
Upon earth, the changes are slow to come.
Do not worry—and keep hope for the future.
Let us wait and see. The result is sure—but the way and the time are uncertain.
In spite of the night the spiritual Light is there.
Light must illumine the consciousness and the shadows of Ignorance must be dissolved in all.
30 December 1936
Open your heart and the Light will enter and dwell within it.
12 January 1948
Page 68
Life is a journey in the darkness of the night. Wake up to the inner light.
14 April 1954
All veils must be dissolved and the light must shine fully in the hearts of all.
24 June 1954
Every obstacle must disappear, in every part of the being, the darkness of the ignorance must be replaced by the Divine's knowledge.
12 October 1954
The light is everywhere, the force is everywhere. And the world is so small.
1958
A new light is dawning on the world. Wake up and unite to receive and welcome it.
1959
Some men in their blindness, when they seek knowledge, forsake the Light where they are—only to enter into what is for them a new darkness.
12 October 1964
In their blindness men leave the Light and go to the darkness to obtain knowledge!
Page 69
Use the past as a spring-board to leap towards the future.
25 December 1953
Often we cling to that which was, afraid of losing the result of a previous experience, of giving up a vast and high consciousness and falling again into an inferior state. But we must always look forward and advance.
13 October 1954
The very memory of the past experience has sometimes to be swept away from the thoughts that it may not impede the work of perpetual reconstruction which alone, in this world of relativities, permits the perfect manifestation of the Divine.
21 November 1954
Beware of the charm of memories. What past experiences leave behind is the effect they have had on the growth of the consciousness. But when you try to relive a memory by putting yourself in similar circumstances, you soon realise that they are empty of their power and charm, for they have lost their usefulness for progress.
Lasting remembrance: the remembrance of that which has helped the being to progress.
Page 70
Sentimental remembrance: only those circumstances which helped us in our seeking for the Divine must be the object of this remembrance.
At certain periods, the whole terrestrial life seems to pass miraculously through stages which, at other times, it would take thousands of years to traverse.
11 December 1954
At every moment one must know how to lose everything in order to gain everything, to shed the past as a dead body and be reborn into a greater plenitude.
12 December 1954
For each person, everything depends on knowing whether one belongs to the past that perpetuates itself, to the present that is exhausting itself or to the future that longs to be born.
16 February 1963
To do yoga, one of the most important things to achieve is to get rid of all attachment to the past.
Let the past be past and concentrate only on the progress you want to make and the surrender to the Divine you have to achieve.
My blessings and help are always with you.
With love.
10 January 1967
Page 71
Unless we break with the habits and beliefs of the past, there is little hope of advancing rapidly towards the future.
23 December 1967
To forget the past and to lose habits of thinking is indeed a difficult thing and generally requires a strong "tapasya". But if you have faith in the Divine's Grace and you implore it full-heartedly, you will succeed more easily.
22 November 1968
Let the waves of the past flow far from you, carrying away with them all attachments and all weaknesses.
The luminous joy of the divine consciousness is waiting ready to take their place.
Will not past action come in the way of sadhana?
Complete consecration to the Divine wipes out what one has been in the past.
My dear child,
Your prayer has been heard. Your past has disappeared. Prepare to grow in consciousness, in light, in peace.
Our blessings are always with you.
Let the past be past.
Concentrate only on the Eternal.
10 December 1971
Page 72
When one lives in contact with the universal harmony, time passes without leaving any trace.
The same minute never strikes twice on the clock of Fate.
There are unique moments in life that pass like a dream. One must Catch them on the wing, for they never return.
The present is the most important moment in life.
12 February 1952
What is the most important moment in life? The present moment. For the past no longer exists and the future does not yet exist.
Soar ever higher, ever farther, without fear or hesitation!
The hopes of today are the realisations of tomorrow.
The future is necessarily better than the past. We have only to push forward.
Page 73
Forward! Towards a better future, the realisation of tomorrow.
From step to step, from truth to truth, we shall climb ceaselessly until we reach the perfect realisation of tomorrow.
The future: a promise yet unrealised.
The future is full of promise.
The future is full of possibilities for those who know how to prepare themselves for it.
Each new dawn brings the possibility of a new progress.
We move forward without haste, for we are sure of the future.
I propose that we should simply do what is right and fair, without thinking too much of the future, leaving it to the care of the Divine's Grace.
Page 74
Progress is the sign of the divine influence in creation.
Progress: the reason why we are on earth.
The purpose of earthly life is progress. If you stop progressing you will die. Every moment that you spend without progressing is one step closer to your grave.
From the moment you are satisfied and aspire no longer, you begin to die. Life is movement, life is effort; it is marching forward, climbing towards future revelations and realisations. Nothing is more dangerous than wanting to rest.
One has always something to learn and a progress to make, and in each circumstance we can find the occasion of learning the lesson and making the progress.
11 September 1934
Progress: to be ready, at every minute, to give up all one is and all one has in order to advance on the way.
29 June 1950
Page 75
There is no end to progress and every day one can learn to do better what one does.
26 April 1954
Do not think of what you have been, think only of what you want to be and you are sure to progress.
1 June 1954
Do not look behind, look always in front, at what you want to do—and you are sure of progressing.
2 June 1954
Let us keep flaming in our heart the fire of progress.
21 June 1954
What cannot be done today will surely be done later on. No effort for progress has ever been made in vain.
25 June 1954
Let us progress ourselves, it is the best way of making others progress.
23 July 1954
Stagnation means decomposition.
No enterprise can flourish unless it is progressive.
Go always forward towards a growing perfection.
21 February 1957
Page 76
No institution can live unless it is progressive.
The true progress is to come always closer to the Divine.
Each year that passes must be marked by a new progress towards perfection.
Whatever is new will always meet an opposition from conservative people. If we yield to this opposition, the world will never advance one step.
7 November 1961
The world progresses so rapidly that we must be ready at any moment to overpass what we know in order to know better.
3 March 1963
In the constant march forward of the universe, whatever has been accomplished is nothing but the first step towards a greater realisation.
Each year that passes should be—and is necessarily—a new conquest.
Everybody and everything can always progress and I am always working in view of a possible improvement, knowing that the greatest difficulty brings always the greatest victory and I trust that you are with me for that.
Page 77
Mixing will not make you perfect—perfection must come from within.
1 March 1936
Perfection is not a maximum or an extreme. It is an equilibrium and a harmonisation.
Perfection is not a summit, it is not an extreme. There is no extreme: whatsoever you do, there is always the possibility of something better and exactly this possibility of something better is the very meaning of progress.
Perfection is eternal; it is only the resistance of the world that makes it progressive.
It may be said that perfection is attained, though it remains progressive, when the receptivity from below is equal to the force from above which wants to manifest.
You cannot expect anybody to be perfect unless you are perfect yourself. And to be perfect means to be exactly as the Lord wants you to be.
3 June 1958
Page 78
Perfection is all that we want to become in our highest aspiration.
9 October 1966
Thirst for perfection: constant and multiple aspiration.
Never forget the goal. Never stop aspiring. Never halt in your progress, and you are sure to succeed.
Power of success: the power of those who know how to continue their effort.
It is not enough to try, you must succeed.
One must never try for the sake of succeeding.
7 April 1952
(Someone suggested that the popularity of an Ashram journal would increase if its readers were asked for their reactions and expectations. When the matter was referred to the Mother, she wrote:)
Let us become as vulgar as we can and success is sure to come.
16 January 1955
Page 79
All that is done with the purpose of pleasing the public and obtaining success is vulgar and leads to falsehood. I enclose a deeper view of the subject.1
18 January 1965
Whatever circumstance is given to you, make the best use of it in line with the Truth; to take advantage of it is quite different.
All success depends upon the measure of your truth.
Success depends entirely on the sincerity.
27 June 1972
Success in supramental works: the result of patient labour and a perfect consecration.
Spiritual success is the conscious union with the Divine.
Success is a harder ordeal to pass through than misfortune.
It is in the hour of success that one must be especially vigilant to rise above oneself.
Page 80
As soon as you think that you have succeeded in a certain thing, the adverse forces make it a point to attack and spoil it. Moreover, when you think of success, you relax your aspiration and the slightest relaxation is sufficient to spoil the game. The best thing is not to think of it but to go on doing your duty. But sometimes when you go on thinking of your short-comings and failures and you get depressed, then you have to put the success before your nose and say, "Look at this."2
We have come not for Peace but for Victory, because in a world governed by the hostile forces Victory must come before Peace.
February 1930
Two things you must never forget: Sri Aurobindo's compassion and the Mother's love, and it is with these two things that you will go on fighting steadily, patiently, until the enemies are definitively routed and the Victory is won for ever.
Courage outside, peace inside and a quiet unshakable trust in the Divine's Grace.
19 May 1933
In front of the repeated attacks from the enemy you must keep your faith intact and endure till the Victory is won.
2 February 1942
The ultimate victory of the Divine is certain beyond all doubt.
6 April 1942
Page 81
The Victory is certain and with this certitude we can face patiently any amount of wrong suggestions and hostile attacks.
The certitude of the Victory gives an infinite patience with the maximum of energy.
Let us have a sincere aspiration united to a constant goodwill and the victory is certain.
19 May 1954
The victory of yesterday must be only one step towards tomorrow's victory.
7 September 1954
In the sincerity of our trust lies the certitude of our victory.
3 October 1954
There is nothing which is not ultimately an instrument leading to the integral victory of the Divine.
July 1956
You have written:
"The ideal child is courageous. He always goes on fighting for the final victory, though he may meet with many defeats."
Page 82
What does "the final victory" mean? What is victory and what is defeat? What do they represent in our sports?
I was not referring to victory in games, but to the victory of the consciousness over ignorance and stupidity.
19 March 1970
Victory will triumph over all obstacles.
Page 83
There is a Supreme Divine Consciousness. We want to manifest this Divine Consciousness in the physical life.
The goal is not to lose oneself in the Divine Consciousness. The goal is to let the Divine Consciousness penetrate into Matter and transform it.
The Divine Consciousness is at work to transform you and you must open to it in order to let it work freely in you.
17 October 1937
Page 84
Of all things the most difficult is to bring down the Divine Consciousness into the material world; must the endeavour be abandoned on that account? Surely not.
2 July 1955
You belong to this stage of spirituality that needs to reject matter and wants to escape from it. The spirituality of tomorrow will take up matter and transform it.
30 July 1965
True spirituality transforms life.
After one year's experience of the shallowness and inefficiency of human ways, it is time to start climbing on the steep way leading to the true goal, transformation.
Transformation: the goal of creation.
The new world: the result of transformation.
Three Conditions
A work that has terrestrial progress as its goal cannot be started unless it has the sanction and help of the Divine.
It cannot endure unless there is a constant material growth which satisfies the will of Nature.
Page 85
It cannot be destroyed prematurely except by human ill-will, which then serves as an instrument of forces hostile to the Divine, which are striving to delay as much as possible His manifestation and the transformation of the earth.
One thing you must know and never forget: in the work of transformation all that is true and sincere will always be kept; only what is false and insincere will disappear.
Obscurity will disappear more and more as the transformation progresses.
Each one of you represents one of the difficulties that have to be surmounted for the transformation.
Unless one has an endless patience and an unshakable perseverance, it is better not to start on the way of transformation.
Let each suffering pave the way to transformation.
Be quiet and gather strength and force not only to do work but also to achieve the transformation.
28 July 1955
Perfect integral balance: one is ready for transformation.
Page 86
The constant remembrance of the Divine is indispensable for transformation.
Be simply sincere in your obedience to the Divine—this will take you far on the way to transformation.
Silence all outside noise, aspire for the Divine's help; open integrally to it then it comes and surrender to its action, and it will effectively bring about your transformation.
With the Divine Love is the supreme power of Transformation.
With the Divine's Love is the power of Transformation. It has this power because it is for the sake of Transformation that it has given itself to the world and manifested everywhere. Not only into man but into all the atoms of Matter has it infused itself in order to bring the world back to the original Truth. The moment you open to it, you receive also its power of Transformation. But it is not in terms of quantity that you can measure it—what is essential is the true contact; for you will find that the true contact with it is sufficient to fill at once the whole of your being.
And when the day will come for the manifestation of the supreme Love, for the crystallised, concentrated descent of the supreme Love, that will indeed be the moment of Transformation. Because nothing will be able to resist That.
Page 87
Doesn't transformation demand a very high degree of aspiration, surrender and receptivity?
Transformation demands a total and integral consecration. But isn't this the aspiration of all sincere sadhaks?
Total means vertically in all the states of being, from the most material to the most subtle.
Integral means horizontally in all the different and often contradictory parts which constitute the outer being, physical, vital and mental.
The being organised around the psychic: the first stage of transformation.
Mental opening: the first step of the mind towards transformation.
Mental prayer: spontaneous in a mind aspiring for transformation.
Thirst to understand: very useful for transformation.
Honesty in the physical mind: preliminary indispensable condition for transformation.
Page 88
Integral offering of the vital: an important stage towards transformation.
Renunciation of emotional desires: indispensable for transformation.
Not only the mind and the vital, but the body also in all its cells must aspire for the divine transformation.
Physical plasticity: one of the important conditions of the transformation.
Let the physical offer itself sincerely to the Divine and it will be transformed. This is proof of the resolution to liberate oneself from the ego.
Humility before the Divine in the physical nature: first attitude needed for transformation.
Psychic light in the physical movements: the first step towards the transformation of the physical.
Psychic light in the material movements: essential condition for transformation.
Psychic awakening in matter: matter open to spiritual life.
Page 89
Matter under the supramental guidance: the condition required for its transformation.
Supramental light in the subconscient: essential condition for transformation.
Supramental influence in the subconscient: under its modest appearance it is a great force for transformation.
Transformation is the change by which all the elements, and all the movements of the being become ready to manifest the supramental Truth.
Realisation: the establishment of the supramental Truth upon earth.
In the supramental Truth all falsehoods will be dissolved.
The supramental is not only Truth itself, but also the very negation of falsehood. The supramental will never come down, settle and manifest in a consciousness harbouring falsehood.
Naturally the first condition for conquering falsehood is to stop telling lies, though this is only a preliminary step. An absolute, integral sincerity must finally be established in the being and all its movements if the goal is at all to be attained.
18 April 1932
Page 90
No quarrels: a very important condition to fulfil in order to facilitate the advent of the Supramental.
A consciousness luminous without obscurity, turned towards the supramental light and full of a supramentalised plasticity are the conditions for the manifestation of the supramental light upon earth.
We must never forget that our goal is to manifest the Supramental Reality.
25 May 1954
The Force is there waiting to be manifested, we must discover the new forms through which It can manifest.
12 June 1954
New forms are needed for the manifestation of a new Force.
26 June 1954
The Supramental Force is ready for manifestation, let us get ready also and it will manifest.
7 July 1954
When the Supramental manifests, an unequalled joy spreads over the earth.
8 July 1954
Page 91
Drop all fear, all strife, all quarrels, open your eyes and your hearts—the Supramental Force is there.
9 July 1954
With patience, strength, courage and a calm and indomitable energy we shall prepare ourselves to receive the Supramental Force.
10 July 1954
New words are needed to express new ideas, new forms are necessary to manifest new forces.
1 August 1954
We must never forget that we are here to serve the Supramental Truth and Light and to prepare its manifestation in ourselves and upon the earth.
13 August 1954
Each new progress in the universal expression means the possibility of a new manifestation.
21 August 1954
So much obscurity has fallen upon earth that only the supramental manifestation can dissolve it.
26 August 1954
Let us advance always, without stopping, towards an always more complete manifestation, an always more complete and higher consciousness.
31 August 1954
Page 92
The supramental force has the power to transform even the darkest hate into luminous peace.
11 October 1954
We aspire to be liberated from all ignorance, liberated from our ego so that we may open wide the doors of the Supramental's glorious manifestation.
23 October 1954
All our life, all our work must be a constant aspiration towards the supramental perfection.
24 October 1954
The serene and immobile consciousness watches at the boundaries of the world as a Sphinx of eternity and yet to some it gives out its secret.
We have, therefore, the certitude that what has to be done will be done, and that our present individual being is really called upon to collaborate in this glorious victory, in this new manifestation.
11-12 November 1954
All barriers must be thrown down one after the other, for the being to put on the integral amplitude of all the possibilities of manifestation.
14 December 1954
A new light shall break upon earth, a light of Truth and Harmony.
24 December 1954
Page 93
Supramental manifestation: it will be welcome.
How can these questions be answered before the supramental is manifested upon earth? It is only after that manifestation that we may know how it came and how it manifests.
29 February 1956
During the common meditation on Wednesday
This evening the Divine Presence, concrete and material, was there present amongst you. I had a form of living gold, bigger than the universe, and I was facing a huge and massive golden door which separated the world from the Divine.
As I looked at the door, I knew and willed, in a single movement of consciousness, that "the time has come", and lifting with both hands a mighty golden hammer I struck one blow, one single blow on the door and the door was shattered to pieces.
Then the supramental Light and Force and Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow.1
Page 94
1956
29 février—29 mars
Seigneur, Tu as voulu et je réalise. Une lumière nouvelle point sur la terre, Un monde nouveau est né, Et les choses promises sont accomplies.
29 February—29 March
Lord, Thou hast willed, and I execute: A new light breaks upon the earth, A new world is born. The things that were promised are fulfilled.
Page 95
24th April 1956
The manifestation of the Supramental upon earth is no more a promise but a living fact, a reality.
It is at work here, and one day will come when the most blind, the most unconscious, even the most unwilling shall be obliged to recognise it.
I am speaking of a supramental manifestation evident to all, even the most ignorant—as the human manifestation was evident to all when it happened.
To all those who aspire
Open yourself to the new Force. Let it do in you its work of Transformation.
April 1956
Page 96
Open yourself to the new Light that has dawned upon earth and a luminous path will spread in front of you.
28 May 1956
Without care for time, without fear for space, surging out purified from the flames of the ordeal, we shall fly without stop towards the realisation of our goal, the supramental victory.
24 April 1956
Let the new Light be spread upon earth and change the condition of human life.
6 January 1957
Beyond all question it is the supramental light.
Do not tense yourself, be open, passively allow it to penetrate your body. It has the power to restore you to strength and health.
A new world is born—all those who want to have a place in it must sincerely prepare themselves for it.
15 August 1957
Heralding the birth of a new world, we invite all those who want to have a place in it to prepare themselves sincerely for it.
Page 97
Last night I had a vision of what the supramental world would be like if people were not sufficiently prepared. The confusion that now exists on earth is nothing in comparison with what might happen. Just imagine an extremely powerful will with the capacity to transform matter according to its liking! If the sense of collective unity did not grow in proportion to the growth of power, the resulting conflict would be even more acute and chaotic than all our material conflicts.
15 February 1958
To celebrate the birth of a transitory body can satisfy some faithful feelings.
To celebrate the manifestation of the eternal Consciousness can be done at every moment of the universal history.
But to celebrate the advent of a new world, the supramental world, is a marvellous and exceptional privilege.
21 February 1958
By whatever name it is called, the Supramental is a truth and a fact and its reign is certain.
27 March 1959
The advent of a new world is an ineluctable fact and whatever name is given to it, its victory is certain.
The supramental influence liberates man from all that holds him back to the animal.
Supramental action: an action which is not exclusive but total.
Page 98
Supramental knowledge: an infallible vision of all problems.
Supramental consciousness: gloriously awake and powerful, it is luminous, sure of itself, infallible in its movements.
To become the builders of a better future in the light of the supramental consciousness.
(Message for the first anniversary of the Supramental Manifestation upon earth)2
The Golden Day
Henceforth the 29th February will be the day of the Lord.
1960
There is a change in Sri Aurobindo's symbol on the medals that you distributed on the 29th February 1960. The two triangles, in the middle of which the square containing the lotus is usually put, are missing and in their place there are sun's rays emanating from the square. Surely you must have made this significant change for some important reason? Can you say what is the reason of this change?
I never intended to give Sri Aurobindo's symbol.
The design on the medal signifies—
Page 99
the twelve rays of the new creation issued from the manifestation of the Avatar:
lotus—Avatar
square—manifestation
12 rays—new creation
In Your talk entitled "The True Adventure" in the November 1957 issue of the "Bulletin" (page 2), You have said:
"Last year when I announced to you the manifestation of the supramental consciousness and light and force, I should have added that it was an event forerunner of the birth of a new world."
This means that the new world was born after the supramental consciousness manifested. You have fixed the 29th February 1956 as the date of the supramental manifestation. Which date after that should be taken as the date of the birth of the new world?
Half an hour later.
In the November 1958 issue of the "Bulletin" (page 97), in Your answer untitled "The New Birth", You have said as follows:
"To comfort you I may say that by the very fact that you live upon earth at this moment... you absorb with the air that you breathe this new supramental substance which is spreading in earth's atmosphere and it is preparing in you things you will manifest all of a sudden, as soon as you have taken the decisive step.
"Whether that will help you or not to take this decisive step is another question which has to be studied, because the experiences that are happening and will now happen more and more being of a quite new character, one cannot know beforehand what will come to pass;
Page 100
one must study and after a close study one would be able to say with certainty whether this supramental substance will make the work of the new birth easy or not. I shall tell you about it a little later on. For the moment it is better not to count on these things, but simply to take to the way for the birth into the spiritual life."
Can You now say with certainty whether this supramental substance will help decisively to realise this new birth?
EVIDENTLY.
26 March 1960
You have said that we must develop "an intimate, a constant, absolute, inevitable union with the vibration of the Supramental forces". How is one to acquire the faculty of feeling this vibration? Has the process of sadhana undergone a change with the creation of a new world and new world-conditions by the Supramental Manifestation? What should a sadhaka do to speed his progress under the new conditions?
Yes, the Sadhana has undergone a great change, because it is now in the physical itself that you have to do it.
Concentrate on the physical transformation; by physical I mean the mental, vital and body consciousness.
You are trying to get the experience in your mind, but it is not the mind that can get it. Come out of your mind and you will understand what I mean.
Man must understand that in spite of all his intellectual achievements he is as incapable of perceiving the supramental vibrations as the animal was incapable of perceiving the mental vibrations
Page 101
when they pervaded the earth before the appearance of the human species.
A stag passes through a forest to get a drink, but what is there to prove that he has passed by? Most people won't see any sign; perhaps they don't even know what a stag is, and even those who know may not be able to say that he passed that way. But one who has made a special study of hunting, a tracker, will find obvious signs and will be able to say not only what type of stag has passed, but also his size, age, sex, etc. Similarly there must be people who have a spiritual knowledge analogous to that of hunting, who can disclose that a person is in contact with the supramental, while ordinary people, who have not trained their mind, will not be able to perceive it. The supramental has descended upon earth, it is said, it has manifested itself. I have read all that has been written on the subject, but I am among the ignorant who see nothing and feel nothing. Couldn't someone who has a more trained perception tell me by what signs I can recognise that a person is in relation with the supramental?
Two irrefutable signs prove that one is in relation with the supramental:
1) a perfect and constant equality,
2) an absolute certainty in the knowledge.
To be perfect, the equality must be invariable and spontaneous, effortless, towards all circumstances, all happenings, all contacts, material or psychological, irrespective of their character and impact.
The absolute and indisputable certainty of an infallible knowledge through identity.
February 1961
Page 102
A perfect equality towards all circumstances, material or psychological, and an absoluteness in the knowledge—a knowledge that comes not through the mind but through identity. The person who is in contact with the supramental possesses these two qualities.
You cannot understand unless you have the experience.
23 February 1961
Is this not the first time that the Supramental has come down upon earth?
It is certainly the first time that the Supramental has come down as a general force of transformation for the whole earth. It is a new starting-point in the terrestrial creation.
But it may be that once before the supramental force has manifested partially and momentarily in an individual as a promise and an example.
26 October 1964
In 1956 You said: "The supramental Light, Consciousness and Force have manifested. The supramental Ananda has not come yet."
4. 5. 67 is considered to be a very important date when something exceptional is expected to happen. Will You please say if it is the supramental Ananda that will manifest on that date?
The anniversary of the first Supramental descent comes every four years (the leap year). I do not see what the number 7 has to do in the matter. This year 1964 (leap year) was the second anniversary of the first descent. The next one will take place on
Page 103
the 29th February 1968—and it will be exactly 12 years after the first descent and we shall see then what happens.
14 November 1964
Message for 4.5.67
"Earth-life is the self-chosen habitation of a great Divinity and his aeonic will is to change it from a blind prison into his splendid mansion and high heaven-reaching temple." Sri Aurobindo
"Earth-life is the self-chosen habitation of a great Divinity and his aeonic will is to change it from a blind prison into his splendid mansion and high heaven-reaching temple."
Sri Aurobindo
The Divinity mentioned by Sri Aurobindo is not a person but a condition that will be shared by all those who have prepared themselves to receive it.
May 1967
May I know if the miraculous elevation of Jesus Christ to heaven celebrated by the Roman Catholics on Thursday, 4th May has any sort of connection with the great day 4. 5. 67? Or would it be simply a pure coincidence?
For Sri Aurobindo "coincidences" do not exist. All that happens is the result of the action of the Divine Consciousness. The Force which is at work at this moment is a Force of harmony that makes for unity—the unification of all the symbols that express the Divine Truth.
5 May 1967
"In 1967 the Supermind will enter the phase of realising power." What does "realising power" actually mean?
Acting decisively on the mind of men and the course of events.
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What is the effect of the realising power on the Mother's own physical being and then the effect upon others and the world in general (including the outstanding problems of the world today)?
We can wait with a little patience and we shall see.
Does this date (4. 5. 67) mark the beginning of what the Mother and Sri Aurobindo have called the new race—the race of superman?
Since a few months the children born, amongst our people mostly, are of a very special kind.
(Message for the third anniversary of the Supramental Manifestation upon earth)
Truth alone can give to the world the power of receiving and manifesting the Divine's Love.
29 February 1968
The new consciousness manifested upon earth on 1 January 1969. Its characteristics are described in several talks of January 1969, where the Mother called it the superman consciousness (la conscience du surhomme). These talks appear in Notes on the Way, Volume 11 of the Collected Works of the Mother.
To be able to receive the new consciousness without deforming it:
One must be able to stand in the light of the Supreme Consciousness without casting a shadow.
16 April 1969
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There is only one new fact—from the beginning of this year a new consciousness has manifested and is working energetically to prepare the earth for the new creation.
17 April 1969
Of late, I am constantly feeling, flowing in my system from above, a Force which I concretely experience like a sweet fluid. It flows continuously in my whole system and, from time to time, I feel completely drenched and saturated with it. It gives a very pleasant and soothing sensation. It is as if some sort of Ananda is flowing in me from above. It gives a sweet taste in the mouth.
I do not know what exactly this experience means. Is it the New Consciousness which You have said came on the 1st January this year? Or is it some new descent which has recently occurred? Or is it something personal to me only?
It is the Consciousness that is at work since January. But its action has become much more intense.
26 November 1969
In 1919 Sri Aurobindo wrote that the chaos and the calamities were perhaps the pangs of the birth of a new creation. How long is this going to continue? In the Ashram, in India and eventually in the world?
It will continue until the world is ready and willing to receive the new creation; the consciousness of this new creation is already at work upon earth since the beginning of this year. If instead of resisting, people were collaborating, it would be quicker.
But stupidity and ignorance are very obstinate!
29 November 1969
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Mother, "The world is preparing for a big change, will you help?"1 What is this great change of which you speak? And how are we to be of help to it?
This great change is the appearance upon earth of a new race which will be for man what man is for the animal. The consciousness of this new race is already at work upon earth to enlighten all who are able to receive it and heed it.
1970
You have asked us to help You. How can I help You? What am I to do?
To concentrate and open to receive the new progressive consciousness, to receive the new things which are coming down.
3 March 1970
The change does not need our help to come, but we need to open ourselves to the consciousness so that its coming is not in vain for us.
To allow the free working of the New Consciousness that descended last year, what should a sadhak do?
1) Be receptive
and
2) Be plastic
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The first indispensable condition to prepare ourselves to receive the new consciousness is a true and spontaneous humility which makes us feel deeply that we know nothing and are nothing in the face of the marvellous things we have to acquire.
Let us prepare, as best we can, the coming of the New Being.
The mind must be silenced and replaced by the Truth-Consciousness—a consciousness of the whole harmonised with a consciousness of detail.
The mind must be silent to allow the Supramental Consciousness to take its place.
The Truth-Consciousness must pervade all the being, dominate all the movements and quiet the restless physical mind. These are the preliminary conditions for the manifestation.
Wisdom in the physical mind: a first step towards the supramental manifestation upon earth.
(Message for the fourth anniversary of the Supramental Manifestation upon earth)
It is only when the Supramental manifests in the body-mind that its presence can be permanent.
29 February 1972
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It is indispensable that each one finds his psychic and unites with it definitively. It is through the psychic that the supramental will manifest itself.
24 June 1972
The Truth-Consciousness can manifest only in those who are rid of the ego.
Man and the mind are not the last term of creation. A supramental being is in preparation.
25 December 1972
The mind does not know truly; aspire sincerely to the supermind.
January 1973
Superhumanity: the aim of our aspirations.
Man is the intermediary being between what is and what is to be realised.
30 August 1954
Man is a transitional being upon earth and hence, in the course of his evolution, he has had several successive natures which have followed an ascending curve and will continue to do so till he reaches the threshold of the supramental nature and is transformed into superman. This curve is the spiral of mental development. We tend to call "natural" any spontaneous manifestation which is not the result of a choice or a premeditated decision, that is to say, which is without the intrusion of mental action. That is why, when a man has a vital spontaneity which is not
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very mentalised, he seems to us more "natural" in his simplicity. But it is a naturalness which is much like that of the animal and is at the very bottom of the human evolutionary scale.
You must never forget that the outer person is only the form and the symbol of an eternal Reality, and that, passing through the physical appearance, it is to this higher Reality that you must turn. The physical being cannot become truly expressive of the Eternal Reality until it is completely transformed by the supramental manifestation. And until then, it is by passing through it that you must find the Truth.
Sweet Mother, what are the "supreme faculties"?
It is difficult to reply without seeing the context. Which "supreme faculties" does it refer to? Those of man on the way to becoming superman, or those which the supramental being will possess when he appears on earth?
In the first case, they are faculties that develop in man as he opens to the higher mind and overmind and through them receives the light of Truth. These faculties are not a direct expression of the supreme Truth but a transcription, an indirect reflection of it. They include intuition, foreknowledge, knowledge by identity, and certain powers such as those of healing and of acting upon circumstances to a certain extent.
If it refers to the supreme faculties of the supramental being, we cannot say much about them, for all we can say at the moment belongs more to the realm of imagination than to the realm of knowledge, since this being has not yet manifested on earth.
23 April 1960
Beloved Mother:
The following interesting question arises: "With the
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descent of the Supramental into matter, and presuming that new laws and processes will be in effect, may we envisage beings whose control in the body may enable them to neutralize or absorb radioactivity or over-exposure to cosmic rays?"
A learned man in the Ashram said that immunisation to radiation is "impossible" because physical matter is controlled by lower nature. I expect you to tell me that, for us, nothing is "impossible".
Both statements are true.
(1) So long as matter remains what it is, it cannot be made immune. But (2) the supramental force is expected to transform the material body also (in the long run) and when that is done then everything becomes possible or rather nothing is impossible.
26 August 1961
If a world-war breaks out, it may not only destroy the major portion of humanity but may even make living conditions for those who survive impossible due to the effects of the nuclear fall-out. In case the possibility of such a war is still there, will it not affect the advent of the Supramental Truth and the New Race upon earth?
All these are mental speculations and once you enter the domains of mental imaginations there is no end to the problems and to their solutions. But all that does not bring you one step closer to the truth.
The safest and most healthy attitude of the mind is like this one: We have been told in a positive and definite way that the supramental creation will follow the present one, so, whatever is in preparation for the future must be the circumstances needed for this advent whatever they are. And as we are unable to
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foresee correctly what these circumstances are, it is better to keep silent about them.
To anticipate difficulties is to help them happen.
Always to foresee the best with a total trust in the Divine Grace is to collaborate effectively in the supramental work upon earth.
This morning in my meditation I saw so many things which were logically unrelated but which definitely produced the impression that something extraordinary is about to happen. This is the first time, perhaps, that I have had such a presentiment, lasting almost an hour.
I want to know whether there is any truth in it and how we should prepare for it.
Last night, we (you and I and a few others) were together for quite a long time in Sri Aurobindo's permanent dwelling-place in the subtle physical (what Sri Aurobindo called the true physical). Everything that took place there (far too long and complicated to relate) was organised, so to say, to express concretely the rapidity of the present movement of transformation. And with a smile, Sri Aurobindo told you something like this: "Do you believe now?" It was as if he were evoking the three lines from Savitri:
"God shall grow up while the wise men talk and sleep, For man shall not know the coming till its hour And belief shall be not till the work is done."
I think that this is a sufficient explanation of the meditation you refer to.
1 February 1963
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Somebody asked me,—
"In the work of Transformation, who is the slowest to do his part, man or God?"
I replied,—
Man finds that God is too slow to answer his prayers.
God finds that man is too slow to receive His influence.
But for the Truth-Consciousness all is going on as it ought to go.
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The Lord is Eternal and Infinite.
Even when the supramental will be fully realised upon earth the Lord will infinitely exceed this realisation which will be followed by other manifestations of the Lord ad infinitum.
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Those who are ready for the transformation can do it anywhere. And those who are not ready cannot do it wherever they are.
12 November 1971
The supramental transformation is hard labour and needs a strong body. For some time more, probably more than a hundred years, the physical body will need to eat in order to keep its strength; and we have to comply with this necessity.
December 1972
Eternal youth: it is a gift the Divine gives us when we unite ourselves with Him.
Forms are in perpetual transformation; identify yourself with the Immortal Consciousness and you will become It.
Immortality is not a goal, it is not even a means. It will proceed naturally from the fact of living the Truth.
Integral immortality: it is a promise. When will it be a material fact?
Supramental immortality: it is an established fact, but few human beings have experienced it.
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Supramental immortality upon earth: this remains to be realised.
Vital immortality: in its own field it exists but conditioned by surrender to the Divine.
Aspiration for immortality: pure, aspiring, trusting.
Physical aspiration for immortality: intense aspiration but ignorant of the means.
Aspiration for integral immortality: an organised, tenacious and methodical development of consciousness.
Attempt towards immortality: persistent and co-ordinated.
Action is a narrowing of the consciousness in order to achieve a particular object. The creation of a new world is no exception to this rule.
Realisation of the new creation: it is for this that we must prepare ourselves.
Anything and everything can be an instrument for the Supreme Wisdom to prepare the earth in view of the new creation!
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Matter prepares itself to receive the supramental: matter tries to liberate itself from old habits to prepare for the new creation.
Ideal of the new creation: the ideal must be progressive in order to realise itself in the future.
Manifold power of the new creation: the new creation will be rich in possibilities.
Charm of the new creation: the new creation is attractive for all those who want to progress.
Beauty of the new creation: the new creation tries better to manifest the Divine.
Usefulness of the new creation: a creation which aims at teaching men to surpass themselves.
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Only those years that are passed uselessly make you grow old.
A year spent uselessly is a year during which no progress has been accomplished, no growth in consciousness has been achieved, no further step has been taken towards perfection.
Consecrate your life to the realisation of something higher and broader than yourself and you will never feel the weight of the passing years.
From birth to death, life is a dangerous thing.
The brave pass through it without care for the risks.
The prudent take precautions.
The cowardly are afraid of everything.
But ultimately, what happens to each one is only what the Supreme Will has decided.
19 June 1966
Some of the living are already half-dead. Many of the dead are very much alive.
Dear friend,
Your letter came bringing me news I knew already, because often your thought comes bringing me your remembrance and keeps me in touch with your tribulations. Everyone, in truth, has his own and you know as well as I that it is only in the inner attitude that peace is found.
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So long as we are in a body, whatever its age and difficulties, it is certain that we have something to do or learn in it, and this conviction gives the necessary strength to face all vicissitudes.
I had hoped, in putting you into touch with the Tibetan refugees, that among them there would be one who would be happy to consecrate his or her life to have the opportunity to develop intellectually and learn all that you would be able to teach him or her in exchange for this service.
Would this not be possible?
For me the Grace is an active reality which guides our destiny through the ages.
One must not be in a hurry and hasten the departure, even if it is for the eternal repose or the beatitude of nothingness. As long as we are in a body, undoubtedly we have yet something to do or learn therein.
This suggestion of death comes from the "ego" when it feels that soon it will have to abdicate. Keep quiet and fearless. Everything will be all right.
You speak of absolute renunciation, but to give up the body is not the absolute renunciation. The true and total renunciation is to give up the ego which is a much more arduous endeavour. If you have not renounced your ego, to give up the body will not bring freedom to you.
(About the regions of night and sorrow described in Sri Aurobindo's poem "Love and Death")
The vital world is mostly like that and those who live exclusively in the physical and vital go there after death. But there is the Grace!...
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Death is not at all what you believe it to be. You expect from death the neutral quietness of an unconscious rest. But to obtain that rest you must prepare for it.
When you die you lose only your body and at the same time the possibilities of relation with and action on the material world. But all that belongs to the vital world does not disappear with the material substance; all your desires, attachments, cravings persist with the sense of frustration and disappointment, and all that prevents you from finding the expected peace. To enjoy a peaceful and eventless death you must prepare for it. And the only effective preparation is the abolition of desires.
So long as we have a body we have to act, to work, to do something: but if we do it simply because it has to be done, without seeking for the result or wanting it to be like this or like that, we get progressively detached and thus prepare ourselves for a restful death.
If you wish to escape from death, you must not bind yourself to anything perishable.
One can conquer that alone which one fears not, and he who fears death has already been vanquished by death.
In order to be able to conquer death and win immortality, one must neither fear death nor desire it.
The target at which we are aiming is immortality.
And of all the habits, death is surely the most obstinate.
From the viewpoint of spiritual knowledge, decrepitude and decay—disintegration—are quite simply and undoubtedly the result of a wrong attitude.
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1) Why are men obliged to leave their bodies?
Because they do not know how to keep up with Nature in her progress towards the Divine.
2) Should one respect the body of a dead person? If so, how?
One should respect everything, living and dead, and know that everything lives in the Divine Consciousness.
The respect should be felt in the heart and the inner attitude.
3) Is the Divine there in the body of a dead person?
The Divine is everywhere; and I repeat that for the Divine there are no living or dead—everything lives eternally.
4) What should we do to make the soul happy, so that it reincarnates in good conditions, for example in a spiritual environment?
Have no sorrow and remain very peaceful and quiet, while keeping an affectionate remembrance of the one who has departed.
5) Do souls weep?
When something separates them from the Divine.
6) How can one stop someone from weeping?
Love him sincerely and deeply without trying to stop his tears.
Normally the consciousness of the departed ought to feel no pain for what happens to the body after his or her departure.
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But there is in the material body itself a consciousness called the "spirit of the form" which takes some time to get completely out of the aggregated cells; its departure is the starting point of a general decomposition, and before its departure it may have a kind of feeling of what happens to the body. That is why it is always better not to be in a hurry for the funeral.
13 November 1966
You say that it is through a newspaper that the news came of your nephew's death. So the child died a few days ago. Did X and Y find any difference in their atmosphere, their feelings, their thoughts, their sensations—a difference, an uneasiness or a sense of loss, which would give a real ground for their sorrow? I am pretty sure that they did not. So their sorrow, if they have any, is not true but the result of conventional thoughts and feelings; it is all illusion coming from the family idea, which is one of the most artificial and false of all conventions.
In truth the child was not in their atmosphere, otherwise they would have become aware of his death without needing to receive the news of it; he was no more in their atmosphere than any one of the two hundred thousand human beings who die every day—for the average death of human beings is two hundred thousand a day. Do they know that? Is not death the most common and everyday happening and can they reasonably expect that none of those they know will escape this general law?
Your father died because it was his time to die. Circumstances can be an occasion but surely not a cause. The cause is in the Divine's will and nothing can alter it.
So, grieve not and surrender your sorrow at the feet of the Divine. He will give you peace and freedom.
(To someone whose friend had died)
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Now you are no longer able to bend over this body and take care of it, you can no longer express through your acts your deep affection, and it is this which is painful. But you must overcome this sorrow and look within, look above, for it is only the material body that will be dissolved. All that you loved in her is in no way affected by the dissolution of the material envelope; and if, in the calm of a deep love, you concentrate your thought and your energy on her, you will see that she will remain close to you and that you can have a conscious contact with her, a contact more and more concrete.
Life is immortal. It is only the body that dissolves.
10 March 1969
Why do we call Death a god? Is he not an Asura like the Lord of Falsehood?
It is in the consciousness of man that he became a god and that is why it is so difficult to transform him.
29 October 1972
Sri Aurobindo says that some time after death the vital and mental sheaths dissolve, leaving the soul free to retire to the psychic world before it takes up new sheaths. What becomes of the Karma and of the impressions—Samskaras—on the old sheaths? Do they also dissolve without producing any result, good or bad, which they should according to the theory of Karma? Also, what becomes of the vital and mental beings after the dissolution of the vital and mental sheaths?
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The outer form only dissolves, unless that too is made conscious and is organised round the divine centre. But the true mental, the true vital and even the true subtle physical persist: it is that which keeps all the impressions received in earthly life and builds the chain of Karma.
If we go a little way within ourselves, we shall discover that there is in each of us a consciousness that has been living throughout the ages and manifesting in a multitude of forms.
24 January 1935
In rebirth it is not the external being, that which is formed by parents, environment and circumstances—the mental, the vital and the physical—that is born again: it is only the psychic being that passes from body to body. Logically, then, neither the mental nor the vital being can remember past lives or recognise itself in the character or mode of life of this or that person. The psychic being alone can remember; and it is by becoming conscious of our psychic being that we can have at the same time exact impressions about our past lives.
Besides, it is much more important for us to fix our attention upon what we want to become than upon what we have been.
2 April 1935
The sudden departure of X is a painful loss for all here. He was perfect in consecration and honest in his work, a man on whom one could count, which is a truly exceptional quality. He has departed into a solar light and is enjoying the conscious rest which he truly deserved.
5 July 1965
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In my dreams I see X very happy. One day I saw him leaning over my table and he said to me, "I had no opportunity to tell you anything while I was leaving, because Sri Aurobindo's call made me hurry away immediately." Is there any truth in this dream, Mother?
This dream is surely true because X went straight to join Sri Aurobindo.
Sweet Mother, I would like to know the answers to these questions, which often come to me since his departure.
Is a soul which is conscious of You reborn immediately after its departure? Or does it have to wait long?
Every fully conscious and developed psychic being is free to choose what its next life will be and when that life will take place.
Does this soul come to the Ashram after its birth to accomplish Your divine mission?
That is its usual choice when it reincarnates immediately.
Is this soul capable of choosing its birth and enjoying the happiness of the Ashram life?
If it is fully developed, it is capable of doing so.
2 July 1966
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In the "Bulletin" You have said: "Psychic memories possess a very special character, they have a wonderful intensity.... They are unforgettable moments of life when the consciousness is intense, luminous, strong, active, powerful, and sometimes turning-points in life that have changed the direction of one's life. But you will never be able to say what dress you put on or the gentleman with whom you spoke or about your neighbours and the kind of field where you were."1 And about these memories of small details You said: "That is absolute childishness."2
But then how is it that in newspapers one quite often reads stories of small children who remember their past lives and that the details have been verified? And it is the study of such events that leads para-psychologists to assert the existence of reincarnation. So are they not on a completely wrong track? And how can reincarnation be demonstrated scientifically in any other way?
The memories you refer to, which are mentioned in newspapers, are memories of the vital being that, exceptionally, has gone out of one body in order to enter another. It is something that can happen, but it is not frequent.
The memory that I refer to is that of the psychic being, and one is conscious of it only when one is in conscious relation with one's psychic being.
There is no contradiction between the two things.
29 November 1967
Is it necessary to know what I was in my previous life?
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If it is necessary you will know it.
14 February 1973
Except for very rare cases, animals are not individualised and when they die they return to the spirit of the species.
Mother Divine,
Something is going wrong with my brain. I often think of suicide. Please pardon me and give me Thy protection and blessings.
If you are sincere in your aspiration to see me, you must throw far away from you these morbid ideas of suicide which are quite contrary to any divine life. Be patient, firm and steady, face quietly the difficulties of life and still more quietly the difficulties of "sadhana"—then you will be sure of the final success.
21 August 1964
I feel that I am your blank child born with blank fortune; such a child has no mission to fulfil in life. Isn't it better to go away from the world?
It is in this world that you have to change and that the change is possible. If you run away from this world, you will have to come again probably in worse conditions and you will have to do everything all over again.
It is much better not to be a coward, to face now the situation and to make the necessary effort to conquer. The help is always with you; you must learn to avail yourself of it.
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Love and blessings.
13 November 1967
Know for certain that to commit suicide is the most foolish action that a man can do; because the end of the body does not mean the end of the consciousness and what was troubling you while you were alive continues to trouble you when you are dead, without the possibility of diverting your mind which you can get when you are alive.
16 July 1969
I have received a rather pathetic letter from a reader of Mother India. He writes:
"Though I am sincerely trying to follow the Mother's instructions in my life, I have been very much surrounded by difficulties—to such an extent that suicide is the only solution. So I request you to be kind enough to see that my prayer reaches the Mother's personal notice."
Mother, what should I reply?
Suicide, far from being a solution, is a stupid aggravation of the situation, that for perhaps centuries will make life intolerable.
12 June 1972
The Ramayana says that when Rama saw that his work on earth was finished, he entered the river Sarayu along with his companions. This looks like mass suicide and suicide is regarded as the greatest sin. How to understand this?
1) For the Supreme there is no sin.
2) For the devotee there is no greater sin than to be far from the Lord.
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3) At the time when the Ramayana was conceived and written, the knowledge revealed by Sri Aurobindo that the earth will be transformed into a divine world and an abode of the Supreme was not known or accepted.
If you consider these three points you will understand the legend. (Although it may be that the actual facts were not as they have been told.)
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I was sleeping but woke up exactly when it was time to attend classes. Was it the Divine who woke me up?
Not necessarily. There is always a part of the subconscient which is awake, and it is sufficient to have the will to wake up at a certain hour to make this part awaken you.
3 March 1933
I would like to know why I had such a disturbed night.
Obviously you did not quiet your thoughts before going to sleep. At the time of lying down one should always begin by quieting one's thoughts.
28 January 1935
I can never sleep on the night before Darshan. People say it is a lack of balance. But on the contrary I feel it is because of Your awakening presence. I do not feel any disturbance. I think it is all right. Isn't this true?
To pass a sleepless night once in a while, every three or four months, does not matter much, provided that the rest of the time you sleep well.
I advise you to sleep well and to take enough rest. This is indispensable in order to be able to keep doing the work regularly and well.
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My blessings are always with you.
Sleep is the school one must pass through if one knows how to learn one's lesson there, so that the inner being may become independent of the physical form, conscious in its own right and master of its own life. There are entire parts of the being that need this immobility and semi-consciousness of the outer being, of the body, in order to be able to lead their own life independently.
It is another school for another result, but it is still a school. If one wants to achieve the maximum possible progress, one must know how to make use of one's nights just as one makes use of one's days. Only, people usually have no idea how to go about it; they try to stay awake and all they achieve is a physical and vital imbalance, and sometimes a mental one too.
Sleep is indispensable in the present state of the body. It is by a progressive control over the subconscient that the sleep can become more and more conscious.
25 January 1938
I know by experience that it is not by lessening the food that sleep becomes conscious; the body becomes restless but this in no way increases the consciousness. It is in good, sound and quiet sleep that one can get in contact with a deeper part of oneself.
4 August 1937
I hope that soon you will completely recover and that you will not feel tired any more. But are you eating enough? Sometimes it is hunger that keeps one from sleeping.
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Proper rest is a very important thing for the sadhana.
2 March 1942
You must rest—but a rest of concentrated force, not of diluted non-resistance to the adverse forces. A rest that is a power, not the rest of weakness.
To Rest Before Sleeping
There is no end to the discoveries that you can make in dreams. But one thing is very important: never go to sleep when you are very tired, for if you do, you fall into a sort of unconsciousness and dreams do with you whatever they like, without your being able to exercise the least control. Just as you should always rest before eating, I would advise you all to rest before going to sleep. But then you must know how to rest.
There are many ways of doing it. Here is one: first of all, put your body at ease, comfortably stretched out on a bed or in an easy-chair. Then try to relax your nerves, all together or one by one, till you have obtained complete relaxation. This done, and while your body lies limp like a rag on the bed, make your brain silent and immobile, till it is no longer conscious of itself. Then slowly, imperceptibly, pass from this state into sleep. When you wake up the next morning, you will be full of energy. On the contrary, if you go to bed completely tired and without relaxing yourself, you will fall into a heavy, dull and unconscious sleep in which the vital will lose all its energies.
It is possible that you may not obtain an immediate result, but persevere.
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For some time I have had trouble sleeping due to inner and outer turmoil. I pray to You to help me.
Before trying to sleep, when you lie down to sleep, begin by relaxing yourself physically (I call this becoming a rag on the bed).
Then with all the sincerity at your disposal, offer yourself to the Divine in a complete relaxation, and... that's all.
Keep trying until you succeed and you will see.
March 1969
Usually I give no "meaning" to dreams, because each one has his own symbolism which has a meaning only for himself.
I will speak of certain details in this connection, next time we meet. Until then I shall keep the papers with me. (Sri Aurobindo and myself alone will see them.)
In the first dream we can take the theatre as the symbol of this world where all is a play—the appearance of something and not the thing itself. Here the kings and queens are not such because of an inner and divine right but as a result of the confusion of circumstances and birth.
I suppose the obstacles which were standing in the way of your joining me represent the difficulties (inner and outer) which are to be overcome in order to realise the union with the true consciousness.
The second dream seems to be an embodiment of old impressions left in the subconscient of social surroundings and your reactions to them.
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In the third the train is, as always, an image of the way and the journey towards the goal. The sets of people are the various groups (secret societies etc.) that have been formed for this purpose. The one you were supposed to join was the society to which you became attached—composed of the boys who were with you at your first "school"; the image is clear, but an association which you did not feel to be definitive.
Both of these dreams (are they only dreams?) are of a quality far superior to the former ones.
The first seems to be one of those symbolic transcriptions of the inner condition and action which one so often gets in sleep. What appears to me most clear is how pointedly this dream shows the lack of any true ground for the apprehension you felt while swimming (the fear of not being able to reach the goal). For the protection showered from the shore to be reached brings you there even when in appearance conditions or circumstances seem to be driving you away from it.
To say exactly what the motor launches stand for is difficult in the absence of details.
The second is certainly not a dream but a reality, a very charming expression of the reality of the constant presence of Sri Aurobindo and of his help given through an intimate and true relation, even though veiled to the outer consciousness.This is a precious experience worth being kept in the most sacred corner of the remembrance.
The six couches: the seats, basis of the powers of creation (6). One still occupied by the titanic forces (the last, most material one).
The servant: who showed us the way through the "labyrinth", gave us some food and even a smoky light (torch, very poor) to find our way in the dark, the lower nature; she asked
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to be paid for her services, saying that the "other gentleman" (titan) was always paying her.
The place: some vital layer in the physical consciousness.
20 February 1932
It was Darshan day. You were there with Sri Aurobindo. I ran into Sri Aurobindo's arms. He caressed me with much joy, saying that he had come to raise me up. I was on his lap. You also caressed me gently, saying one of the prayers I sent you.
This dream is the result of a psychic impression which rose to the surface during sleep.
19 March 1936
Generally I try to remember you at least once at the time of sleep. I wonder why such foul dreams visit me then, when I should have dreamed of you. Any guidance from you to avert the evil will be welcome if you would graciously grant me sufficient will and power to follow it.
Keep constantly and sincerely in you the will to conquer.
20 July 1947
One can learn much by controlling one's dreams.
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You ask me whether your illness comes from yoga. By no means—far from damaging health, yoga helps to build up a health that is robust and unfailing.
29 June 1942
Do not forget that to succeed in our yoga one must have a strong and healthy body.
For this, the body must do exercise, have an active and regular life, work physically, eat well, and sleep well.
It is in good health that the way towards transformation is found.
18 April 1971
It is good to do exercises and to lead a simple and hygienic life, but for the body to be truly perfect, it must open to the divine forces, it must be subject only to the divine influence, it must aspire constantly to realise the Divine.
Good health is the exterior expression of an inner harmony. We must be proud if we are in good health and not despise it.
As yet happiness and good health are not normal conditions in this world.
We must protect them carefully against the intrusion of their opposites.
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I have been having various kinds of small accidents and hurts, and I feel troubled because all my efforts to avoid them seem to go in vain. What should I do?
You need not torture yourself about these small things—they have no importance in themselves and their utility is to show us where inconscience is still to be found in our nature so that we may put light there.
13 July 1937
You must take this illness as a sign that in spite of all your convictions, perhaps even resolutions, you have to do sadhana and to add to your outer consecration in work the inner consecration of deep understanding and psychological transformation and make use of your seclusion for that purpose.
My love and help are with you.
6 April 1952
Physical ailments are always the sign of a resistance in the physical being; but with surrender to the Divine's Will and a complete trust in the working of the Grace, they are bound to disappear soon.
22 May 1957
Sri Aurobindo says,
"Disease is needlessly prolonged and ends in death oftener than is inevitable, because the mind of the patient supports and dwells upon the disease of the body",1
and I add,
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"An illness of the body is always the outer expression and translation of a disorder, a disharmony in the inner being; unless this inner disorder is healed, the outer cure cannot be total and permanent."
1 October 1959
Physical troubles always come as lessons to teach equality and to reveal what in us is pure and luminous enough to remain unaffected. It is in equality that one finds the remedy.
An important point: equality does not mean indifference.
11 December 1965
The illness has come like a test and gone like a purification carrying away all that was standing in the way of the joy of an integral consecration.
2 February 1967
This illness has been put upon you by the hostile forces as a strong test.
You have not met it with the proper attitude.
That is why it lingers.
Your going back to Madras does not ameliorate the attitude—on the contrary.
You yield to a movement of fear and distrust in the Divine.
I cannot see that it will lead to anything good for you.
Your illness was not a mere accident. You did not give sufficient attention to the inner change, a psychological change with a broadening of your consciousness. You were satisfied with yourself. You were shut up in your small shell and did not try to make any progress. You said sadhana did not interest you
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and you thought that the little work that you were doing was quite sufficient for you and nothing more was needed. It was this attitude that took you out of my protection. I gave you a warning, but you challenged Nature by saying that nothing could touch you. All these things combined and brought your mental difficulties, weakness and illness.
You must change. You must try to fulfil the conditions of Mahasaraswati, make your work more and more perfect, make progress and try for a psychological transformation. Less than this will not help you. This is the minimum and if you try sincerely, my help will always be there.
These days my work is going on at such a speed that unless you make a serious effort, you will be left far behind and not be able to remain with me. But if you do as I say, everything will be all right.2
Your illness gave you an opportunity to open your eyes towards the need for an inner change. You must take advantage of this and progress.3
Things that do not want to change in your nature join together and come out in the form of illness. The only thing to be done is to have a strong aspiration and a total change. Then everything will be all right.4
Be on your guard. There was on X a formation of fear—fear of cold, fear of bad health, etc.—take care that this formation does not jump upon you; you must reject it resolutely.
1937
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You must not fear. Most of your troubles come from fear. In fact, ninety per cent of illnesses are the result of the subconscient fear of the body. In the ordinary consciousness of the body there is a more or less hidden anxiety about the consequences of the slightest physical disturbance. It can be translated by these words of doubt about the future: "And what will happen?" It is this anxiety that must be checked. Indeed this anxiety is a lack of confidence in the Divine's Grace, the unmistakable sign that the consecration is not complete and perfect.
As a practical means of overcoming this subconscient fear each time that something of it comes to the surface, the more enlightened part of the being must impress on the body the necessity of an entire trust in the Divine's Grace, the certitude that this Grace is always working for the best in our self as well as in all, and the determination to submit entirely and unreservedly to the Divine's Will.
The body must know and be convinced that its essence is divine and that if no obstacle is put in the way of the Divine's working, nothing can harm us. This process must be steadily repeated until all recurrence of fear is stopped. And then even if the illness succeeds in making its appearance, its strength and duration will be considerably diminished until it is definitively conquered.
14 October 1945
When physical disorder comes, one must not be afraid; one must not run away from it, must face it with courage, calmness, confidence, with the certitude that illness is a falsehood and that if one turns entirely, in full confidence, with a complete quietude to the divine grace, it will settle in these cells as it establishes itself in the depths of the being, and the cells themselves will share in the eternal Truth and Delight.
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For some time I have been really worried about the skin-trouble on my legs. Please, Mother, throw this disease out of my body and the fear out of my mind.
The real disease is fear. Throw the fear away and the disease will go.
My help is with you.
As for cancer, the first thing is that you should drive off all fear.
If you want to get cured there are two conditions. First you must be without fear, absolutely fearless, you understand, and secondly you must have a complete faith in the Divine protection. These two things are essential.1
The doctor has seen my blood. He has given me this little paper to show you how weak the blood is and to communicate it to you. The tiredness seems to increase rather than grow less.
You must not worry; you will soon be back on your feet, especially as your vitality has remained very strong. Have no fear and keep your full trust in the Divine Grace.
18 February 1938
X told me, "It was a mistake on your part not to inform the Mother about your body which is so thin and weak." Kindly tell me what to do to improve it.
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Do not bother about it and increase your faith in the Divine's Grace.
4 July 1939
People say that one gets this attack [of illness] on account of working too hard and exposing oneself to the sun and cold winds during the course of it. This suggestion is worrying me.
This attack is not due to work or exposure but to the suggestion of an old habit rising from the subconscient. Do not listen to what people say and keep your faith in the Divine's Grace. Everything will become all right in the course of time.
8 January 1940
Do not worry and rest your hand. That is the best way to get better quickly.
My advice is not to worry. The more you think of it, the more you concentrate upon it and, above all, the more you fear, the more you give a chance for the thing to grow.
If, on the contrary, you turn your attention and your interest elsewhere you increase the possibilities of cure.
Why give so much importance to these material workings of the body? It is better to feel absolutely free of them and let them go their own way without bothering about it, until we have the force and knowledge necessary to intervene in their obscurity
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and to compel them to change and become the true expression of the Supreme Light and Consciousness.
Health: not to be preoccupied with it, but to leave it to the Divine.
Think less of yourself and your health.
Surely you will become stronger.
But if you are convinced that you have an illness, go to the hospital, surely there they will find one.
If parents could leave their children alone, they would not fall ill so often, perhaps not even once out of ten times. Yes, you have not said anything to the child, but how worried you were about its health. It appeared as if a catastrophe had happened or the child had suddenly developed cancer. It is your worry that spoils the whole atmosphere and increases the trouble.1
If you are ill, your illness is looked after with so much anxiety and fear, you are given so much care that you forget to take help from the One who can help you and you fall into a vicious circle and take a morbid interest in your illness.2
When I was twenty, a doctor told me that in cases of troubles of the stomach or intestines, the best thing is to continue eating as usual and not to bother about the trouble. He said, "If you have acidity, it will come from whatever food you take and the more you bother about it, the more it will increase. If you go on changing your food, in the end you will find that you cannot
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even drink a drop of water without getting into trouble. But if you remain normal and don't worry, you will become all right."
And I have found this advice to be quite true.3
In fact I can assure you that the pain in the stomach as well as many other discomforts are due 90% to wrong thinking and strong imaginations—I mean that the material basis for them is practically negligible.
With love and blessings.
1943
Do not torment yourself and do not worry; above all try to banish all fear; fear is a dangerous thing which can give importance to something which had none at all. The mere fear of seeing certain symptoms renew themselves is enough to bring about this repetition.
24 July 1945
I have a notion that much protein and starchy food aggravate eczema.
In the effect of food on the body 90% belongs to the power of thought. If you follow with confidence the treatment of Dr. X, it will cure you.
6 October 1962
You may have been told that certain bodily complaints will give you a great deal of pain. Things like that are often said. You
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may then make a formation of fear and keep expecting the pain. And the pain comes even when it need not.
But in case it is there after all, I can tell you one thing. If the consciousness is turned upward, the pain vanishes. If it is turned downward, the pain is felt and even increases. When one experiments with the upward and the downward turnings, one sees that the bodily complaint as such has nothing to do with the pain. The body may suffer very much or not at all, although its condition is exactly the same. It is the turn of the consciousness that makes all the difference.
I say "turned upward" because to turn towards the Divine is the best method, but what can be said in general is that if the consciousness is turned away from the pain to one's work or anything that interests one, the pain ceases.
And not only the pain but whatever damage there may be in an organ is set right much more easily when the consciousness is taken away from the trouble and one is open to the Divine. There is the Sat aspect of the Divine—the pure supreme Existence above or beyond or behind the cosmos. If you can keep in contact with it, all physical complaints can be removed.1
25 November 1962
I am suffering with quite a severe recurrence of swollen ankles due to Dengue fever.
Dr. X is treating me, but I beg your Healing Force and am doing my best to open so that our work may progress at this crucial time.
Stop imagining wrong things and your miseries will stop at the same time.
10 December 1964
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His vital force is very poor and mental suggestions rather strong.
Do what he asks for a time. He may find out that it is all his imagination, for it is his imagination that makes him sick or rather gives him the impression of sickness.
Wake up in yourself a will to conquer. Not a mere will in the mind but a will in the very cells of your body. Without that you can't do anything; you may take a hundred medicines but they won't cure you unless you have a will to overcome the physical illness.
I may destroy the adverse force that has possessed you. I may repeat the action a thousand times. But each time that a vacuum is created it will be filled up by one of the many forces that try to rush in. That is why I say, wake up the will to conquer.
20 October 1957
Do not love your ill health and the ill health will leave you.
28 August 1966
Both the things are correct. You must put a strong will for getting rid of your illness and you must remain quiet and unperturbed by the results. The two are not contradictory. One should accompany the other. When you are completely cured, it will be an indication of some inner progress.
Sri Aurobindo's compassion is always there to help you, but some effort is needed from your side also.1
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She must take the resolution to get well, otherwise she will never be all right.2
The body is cured if it has decided to be cured.
The body should reject illness as energetically as we reject falsehood in the mind.
In order to be cured, my child, not only is it necessary to stop all these unseemly practices completely, but it is necessary to get rid of all these unhealthy desires from your thought and sensation, for it is desires that irritate the organs and make them ill. You must ruthlessly clean up everything and your will is not strong enough for that; invoke my will, call it sincerely and it will be there to help you. You are right when you say that with my help you will surely be able to conquer. That is true, but you must sincerely want this help and let it work within you and in all circumstances.
(A sadhak asked the Mother to use her spiritual power to cure a serious illness.)
The power cannot work if you have no control over your desires.
6 September 1959
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Your readings are correct.
In my last note I was referring to food desires. Unless you control the food you take, you will always be ill.
14 September 1959
Conquest over the greed for food: a promise of good health.
To keep quiet and to concentrate, leaving the Force from above to do its work, is the surest way to be cured of anything and everything. There is no illness that can resist that if it is done properly, in time and long enough, with a steady faith and a strong will.
6 December 1934
I am having fever. What is the best way to get rid of it?
Remain peaceful and confident and it will soon be over.
I have a severe pain in my throat, neck and the back of my head. The attacks are intolerable and I am losing patience.
You must not lose patience, this does not hasten the cure. On the contrary, you must keep a peaceful faith that you are going to be cured.
5 October 1935
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Establish a greater peace and quietness in your body, that will give you the strength to resist attacks of illness.
22 October 1935
The only thing I can suggest about diseases is to call down peace. Keep the mind away from the body by whatever means—whether by reading Sri Aurobindo's books or meditation. It is in this state that the Grace acts. And it is the Grace alone that cures. The medicines only give a faith to the body. That is all.
My dear child, now it is time for the faith to become truly active and to stand unshaken against all contradictions. Have the faith, the true faith, that you will be cured and the cure is bound to come.
My love and blessings.
2 February 1949
Instead of being upset and struggling, the best thing to do is to offer one's body to the Divine with the sincere prayer, "Let Thy Will be done." If there is any possibility of cure, it will establish the best conditions for it; and if cure is impossible, it will be the very best preparation for getting out of the body and the life without it.
In any case the first indispensable condition is a quiet surrender to the Divine's will.
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Turn your mind completely away from your difficulty, concentrate exclusively on the Light and the Force coming from above; let the Lord do for your body whatever He pleases. Hand over to Him totally the entire responsibility of your physical being.
This is the cure.
5 March 1959
Page 150
The imperative condition for cure is calm and quietness. Any agitation, any nervousness prolongs the illness.
(To someone suffering from stomach and intestinal trouble)
It is due to restlessness and agitation. What is the matter? Bring down peace, the Divine Peace, in your stomach and it will be all right.
Catch hold of a peace deep within and push it into the cells of the body. With the peace will come back the health.
Peace and stillness are the great remedy for disease.
When we can bring peace in our cells, we are cured.
Peace in the nerves: indispensable for good health.
(Someone with rheumatism wrote:)
Am I destined to be an invalid? I have given the best part of my life to the Divine. Is this to be my fate? Is there no way out?
Have faith. There is no disease which cannot be cured by the Divine Grace.
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Do not think you are invalid for ever, because the Grace of the Lord is infinite.
I am enclosing a portrait of two birds with keen eyesight to encourage you to have faith that your eyes will be cured.
I shall see what can be done.
28 January 1932
What to do about illness?
Be passively confident: let me do it and it is done.
When one is caught in an illness, how should one pray to the Mother?
Cure me, O Mother!
Her mental disease was congenital, that is to say, caused by her physical constitution, and it would have happened to her wherever she would have been and whatever life she would have lived. In fact, I made her last here one and a half years more than she would have lasted elsewhere.
These congenital diseases can be cured only by an integral transformation of the body itself and we have not reached yet that period in the sadhana; otherwise it is only a so-called "miraculous cure" that can take place and that kind of "miracle" can happen only as the result of an absolute sincerity in the consecration to the Divine and an unshakable faith in the Divine Grace. This was not the case, she was full of fears, desires and demands and terribly concentrated on her exterior being and
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what she called its needs. This is just the opposite of a sincere consecration.
25 March 1935
Let your receptivity increase this year, to the extent of giving you the power to fully utilise the force that is at work for restoring perfect good health in you.
With my love and blessings.
2 February 1948
X has written again. Two letters to you from his friend Miss Y (who met you on her last visit here some months back) have gone unnoticed—to all appearances at least. She has asked for a blessing-packet for some trouble of hers. She got none. But in her second letter she reported good news.
How "unnoticed"? She got cured! Man of little faith!
31 May 1967
Before sleeping I told you, "This won't do. If this boil remains, I will have to remain in bed during the darshan week. I am not sure that this is possible." In the morning the boil had moved about three inches away, giving me full freedom of movement, and in a day or two it burst and now it is dried up. I wonder whether actually the boil could move in this way.
Anything may happen. It is only our "logical" minds which put limitations. I must congratulate your body for its receptivity.
February 1970
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With your blessings my disease gets partially cured but does not go.
This gives the exact measure of your body's receptivity. Concentrate the force on the diseased parts and they will improve.
About others I inform you in silence and it works, but about my own illness I have to inform you physically—why?
It depends on the physical reception of each one, and that receptivity depends on the more or less dominating mind.
It is a question of receptivity. I am doing the best that can be done for him, but he goes on thinking that he is ill. All the time he is busy with that idea and he has made a strong formation of illness around him. He is unable to receive my help because of this formation. Let him discard the idea of illness and more than half the trouble will be over and it will be easy to cure him.1
Illnesses
Truth is supreme harmony and supreme delight.
All disorder, all suffering is falsehood.
Thus it can be said that illnesses are falsehoods of the body and, consequently, doctors are soldiers of the great and noble army fighting in the world for the conquest of Truth.
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If we take the human body as a tabernacle of the Lord, then medical science becomes the ritual of worship and doctors the priests who officiate in the temple.
Thus considered, the medical career is priesthood and should be treated as such.
A broad mind, a generous heart, an unflinching will, a quiet steady determination, an inexhaustible energy and a total trust in one's mission—this makes a perfect doctor.
After all, an illness is only a wrong attitude taken by some part of the body.
The chief role of the doctor is, by various means, to induce the body to recover its trust in the Supreme Grace.
To medical knowledge and experience, add full faith in the Divine's Grace and your healing capacity will have no limits.
Spiritual power of healing: opening and receptivity to the divine influence.
The material power to heal demands a great sincerity in one's goodwill.
I am still not through with this second spell of heart trouble. The first was in June 1938, owing to a gigantic overdose of a stimulant tonic powder. This time it is strain of the heart-muscle. The doctors have advised complete rest in a supine position. Not even the head
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is to be lifted. They also warn me that if I don't take extreme care I may develop more serious trouble. But I feel full of your presence and do what my suddenly and abundantly released poetic inspiration leads me to do. I sit up frequently, get excited with the passage of the poems through me—especially when the lines seem to come from wide, far-off spaces—and my heart starts beating fast at that time and if the doctors could then put their stethoscopes to my chest they would begin to shake their heads at the prospect of a quick cure. But I am unconcerned. I trust implicitly in your power and feel like laughing away the black future with which they—of course, with the best intentions and for my own good—threaten me in case of carelessness about my heart. I feel certain, Mother dearest, the Divine Power can help—can't it?
My dear child, I quite agree with you that there is a power other and much more powerful than that of the doctors and the medicines and I am glad to see that you put your trust in it. Surely it will lead you throughout all difficulties and in spite of all catastrophic warnings. Keep your faith intact and all will be all right.
28 May 1948
(About medicines)
I am not specially interested in these things which are only exterior help for the exterior consciousness and not essential for the yoga.
The whole value of a medicine is in the Spirit it contains.
22 February 1961
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To go from one doctor to another is the same mistake as to go from one Guru to another. One is on the material plane what the other is on the spiritual. You must choose your doctor and stick to him if you do not want to enter into physical confusion. It is only if the doctor himself decides to consult another or others that the thing can be done safely.
14 March 1961
I sent you to the doctor and expect you to do what he asks you to do.
1 April 1961
Do you think that I could take treatment from Dr. X—after all, it is not any system of medicine but your Grace that cures.
It is true that the faith cures more than the treatment. You might take Dr. X's treatment and call for the Divine's help.
5 August 1962
Will you ask Kali to burn me with a fire of fever? I have become rather desperate. Shall I take simple ayurvedic medicines?
Before being so desperate, try ayurvedic treatment and take it with a concentration on Kali's Force.
6 May 1965
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In every case, it is the Force that cures.
Medicines have little effect; it is the faith in medicines that cures.
Get treated by the doctor whom you trust and take only the medicines that inspire trust in you.
The body only has trust in material methods and that is why you have to give it medicines—but medicines have an effect only if the Force acts through them.
Allopaths ordinarily cure one thing, only to the detriment of another.
Ayurvedic doctors do not usually have this drawback. That is why I recommend them.
20 December 1965
Whatever the ordeal for the purification of my nature, I must pass through it with or without medical help.
You are quite right. Stick to your faith and you will get cured.
5 July 1967
(Message for the inauguration of the Ayurvedic Section)
In this new activity the knowledge of the past must be illumined by the revelation of today.
22 February 1957
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(Message for the inauguration of the Children's Dispensary)
Children's Dispensary
As many cases so many cures.
The most important thing in therapeutics is to teach the body to react properly and reject the illness.
2 July 1963
(Message for the inauguration of the School for Perfect Eyesight)
The more the mind is quiet, the more the sight is good.
5 May 1968
(Message for the Nature Cure Section)
Nature is the all-round Healer.
2 July 1968
(Message for the Main Dispensary)
Finally it is Faith that cures.
9 August 1969
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(Message for the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), near Pondicherry)
Veritas curat.1
1957
Mother, for several days I have been sun-bathing regularly. The cough is slowly going away. Now there is a little coughing but it does not bother me any more. Would it be good to continue the sun-bathing?
Yes, you should do it every day; it gives strength and maintains one's energy.
You must avoid coughing as much as you can. Coughing can be controlled by the will, and you should always try to achieve this control, because coughing is unnecessarily tiring.
Mother, this cough is making me suffer a lot. It is becoming difficult to control it. It gets less when I write to You, but it comes back again after a few days. Mother, what is the cause of it?
Probably some bad suggestions which you must learn to drive away.
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(After a slight bout of fever:)
Mother, I feel as if the heat in my body comes from the fire of purification. Is this true?
The fire of purification ought to purify without causing fever, and it is quite possible to be purified without falling ill.
28 March 1935
An old and very weak man has an enlarged prostate. The doctors advise operation. He wants your guidance.
Most probably the end is approaching. All depends on his nature and will. If he prefers to go away quietly without struggle, let him be quiet and pull on as long as he can. If he likes to fight let him be operated upon and see what happens. My blessings in any case are with him.
I was rather depressed on hearing of X's death after an operation. He was one of your workers with an exceptional ability. How is it that he passed away although under your influence and guidance?
The operation was quite successful, done by a very skilful surgeon, but X's heart was weak beyond expectation and he died of heart failure five days after the operation. It has been a sad event and a big loss for the work. But for some time he suffered much and felt tired of it. He had several times expressed the wish to change his body for a better one. It is surely this wish that is responsible for what happened.
22 November 1945
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It is difficult to say exactly which of the two possibilities would be more helpful to recover your health. But in a general way a change is more helpful for the body at the beginning than in the long run, as the thing most detrimental to the body's welfare is the lack of interest in life and surroundings. Anything new can wake up this interest for the time being—but the effect is never very lasting.
21 February 1946
These contradictory impressions are quite natural.
The material consciousness naturally rejoices when circumstances combine to satisfy what it considers to be its need; in any case, they will help it to recover its balance and confidence in life.
The soul witnesses yet another victory of Matter over spirit (for every illness that resists the inner cure is for the spirit a defeat, which may only be short-lived but which is nonetheless a defeat). The soul can neither be troubled nor unhappy, for it has faith in its own eternity and is aware of it; but it may sometimes feel a certain melancholy.
19 June 1960
Please tell Mother that I feel all the time as if life and energy were flowing away from me out of my hands and feet and I cannot stop it.
Why does he complain? The energy must be spent to be renewed. The human body is not a closed jar that gets emptied by spending. The human body is a channel that receives only when it spends.
Let him eat well, sleep well, avoid wrong thinking and spend normally. He will soon be all right.
20 April 1968
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It is only by correcting your way of living that you can hope to secure good health.
It is because of all your quarrels, shouting, restlessness, nervousness, agitation, discords and disputes, that X is unwell. I said from the beginning that she needed rest and quietness. It was especially indispensable, but she has been surrounded by the opposite atmosphere—no wonder if she is ill. She weeps and trembles because her nerves are overtaxed and they are overtaxed because all of you have no mastery over yourselves and no control over your speech.
Cooking for her is quite nice, but it is not sufficient; you must let her have enough peace and quietness to be able to eat.
When I am sympathetic with a sick person my body begins to feel the symptoms of his disease.
The best way is to call for the Divine Presence of Truth and Harmony, to replace the vibrations of disorder and confusion.
It is not very difficult to get rid of headache and giddiness. However bad your condition may be, call the light from above. Try to feel that the light is entering into you from the crown of your head bringing with it calm and peace. If you do it seriously, your headache and giddiness will disappear in no time.1
Tumours always indicate some difficulty in the nature; certain cells decide to be independent of the discipline of the body. They do not remain in harmony with the other parts and begin to grow out of all proportion. Generally this is the result of a very
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strong greed in the nature. It may be greed for material things or for power or any other subtle object.
By performing an operation you may remove the tumour, but if the inner nature remains unchanged, it will come up in some other part and all the trouble that the patient has to undergo for the operation and its after-effects will be in vain.2
The cells of the body get the habit of increasing without cause. This is cancer. If you change the consciousness in the cells and get rid of their habit, cancer can be cured.3
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Messages given annually on New Year's Day (January 1).
Let the birth of the new year be the new birth of our consciousness.
Leaving the past far behind us, let us run towards a luminous future.
1934
Lord, the year is dying and our gratitude bows down to Thee.
Lord, the year is reborn, our prayer rises up to Thee.
Let it be for us also the dawn of a new life.
1935
We surrender to Thee this evening all that is artificial and false, all that pretends and imitates. Let it disappear with the year that is at an end. May only what is perfectly true, sincere, straight and pure subsist in the year that is beginning.
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1936
O Lord! Grant that this year may be the year of Thy Victory.We aspire for a perfect faithfulness which would make us worthy of it.
Glory to Thee, O Lord, who triumphest over every obstacle!
Grant that nothing in us may be an impediment to Thy work.
1938
Lord, grant that everything in us may be ready for Thy Realisation. On the threshold of the new year we bow down to Thee, O Lord, Supreme Realiser.
1939
Will be the year of purification.
O Lord, all those who take part in the divine work implore Thee that by a supreme purification they may be liberated from the domination of the ego.
1940
A year of silence and expectation...
Let us find, O Lord, our entire support in Thy Grace alone.
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1941
The world is fighting for its spiritual life menaced by the rush of hostile and undivine forces.
Lord, we aspire to be Thy valiant warriors so that Thy glory may manifest upon the earth.
1942
Glory to Thee, O Lord, conqueror of every foe!
Give us the power to endure and share in Thy victory.
The hour has come when a choice has to be made, radical and definitive.
Lord, give us the strength to reject falsehood and emerge in Thy truth, pure and worthy of Thy victory.
1944
O Lord, the world implores Thee to prevent it from falling back always into the same stupidities.
Grant that the mistakes recognised may never be renewed.
Grant lastly that its actions may be the exact and sincere expression of its proclaimed ideals.
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1945
The earth will enjoy a lasting and living peace only when men understand that they must be truthful even in their international dealings.
O Lord, it is for this perfect truthfulness that we aspire.
1946
Lord, it is Thy Peace we would have and not a vain semblance of peace, Thy Freedom and not a semblance of freedom, Thy Unity and not a semblance of unity. For it is only Thy Peace, Thy Freedom and Thy Unity that can triumph over the blind violence and the hypocrisy and falsehood that still reign upon earth.
Grant that those who so valiantly struggled and suffered for Thy Victory, may see the true and genuine results of that victory realised in the world.
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1947
At the very moment when everything seems to go from bad to worse, it is then that we must make a supreme act of faith and know that the Grace will never fail us.
1948
Forward, for ever forward! At the end of the tunnel is the light... At the end of the fight is the victory!
1949
Lord, on the eve of the new year I asked Thee what I must say. Thou hast made me see two extreme possibilities and given me the command to keep silent.
1950
Don't speak. Act.
Don't announce. Realise.
1951
Lord, we are upon earth to accomplish Thy work of transformation. It is our sole will, our sole preoccupation. Grant that it may be also our sole occupation and that all our actions may help us towards this single goal.
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O Lord, Thou hast decided to test the quality of our faith and to pass our sincerity on Thy touchstone. Grant that we come out greater and purer from the ordeal.
1953
Lord, Thou hast told us: Do not give way, hold tight. It is when everything seems lost that all is saved.
1954
My Lord, here is Thy advice to all, for this year:
"Never boast about anything, let your acts speak for you."
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No human will can finally prevail against the Divine's Will. Let us put ourselves deliberately and exclusively on the side of the Divine, and the Victory is ultimately certain.
The greatest victories are the least noisy.
The manifestation of a new world is not proclaimed by beat of drum.
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A Power greater than that of Evil can alone win the victory.
It is not a crucified but a glorified body that will save the world.
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O Nature, Material Mother, thou hast said that thou wilt collaborate and there can be no limit to the splendour of this collaboration.
At the very bottom of the inconscience most hard and rigid and narrow and stifling I struck upon an almighty spring that cast me up forthwith into a formless limitless Vast vibrating with the seeds of a new world.
To know is good, to live is better, to be, that is perfect.
1961
This wonderful world of delight waiting at our gates for our call, to come down upon earth...
1962
We thirst for perfection. Not this human perfection which is a perfection of the ego and bars the way to the divine perfection.
But that one perfection which has the power to manifest upon earth the Eternal Truth.
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1963
Let us prepare for the Hour of God.
Are you ready?
Salute to the advent of Truth.
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1966
Let us serve the Truth.
1967
Men, countries, continents! The choice is imperative: Truth or the abyss.
1968
Remain young, never stop striving towards perfection.
1969
No words—acts.
The world is preparing for a big change.
Will you help?
1971
Blessed are those who take a leap towards the Future.
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Let us all try to be worthy of Sri Aurobindo's centenary.
1973
When you are conscious of the whole world at the same time, then you can become conscious of the Divine.
Additional comments on New Year Messages may be found in CWM, Volume 12 in the section on the New Age Association.
This is no question of general theory; it belongs to the actuality of things. The Asura is the force of falsehood, antidivine, which reigns as sovereign over the physical world; his influence is felt everywhere, it is in everything in Matter. But the time has now come when the separation, the purification, can be made, the falsehood, the Asuric influence, rejected and there can be an exclusive living in the Divine Truth.
3 January 1943
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This is not a prayer, but an encouragement.
Here is the encouragement and a comment upon it:
"At the very moment when everything seems to go from bad to worse, it is then that we must make a supreme act of faith and know that the Grace will never fail us."
The hours before the dawn are always the darkest.
The servitude just before freedom comes is the most painful of all.
But in the heart endowed with faith burns the eternal flame of hope which leaves no room for discouragement.
Is "this wonderful world of delight" the same as the Supramental New World that was born on 29 February 1956, or is it different? Since You have spoken of it as the "world of delight" it cannot be merely the Delight or Ananda of the Supramental World already born. Does it mean that, after the manifestation of the Supramental World, now one more new world is "waiting at our gates for our call" to manifest on earth?
It has always been waiting, since the beginning of the creation.
Is this world the world of Ananda which, in the hierarchical gradation of the planes of existence, is situated above the world of Supermind? If so, does it mean that after six years of its birth the Supramental World is
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now sufficiently well-established on earth to make the manifestation of a still higher world possible?
Not necessarily.
The above question arises because, according to Sri Aurobindo, the Ananda plane cannot manifest in the earthly evolution until the Supramental is well-established in it.
This is absolutely evident.
What is meant by "waiting at our gates"? Does it mean that it has come down up to the subtle physical plane?
I did not specify what gates they are.
"Waiting at our gates for our call, to come down upon earth..."—does this mean that it will not come down upon earth until it is called?
Certainly not.
What is the best way of calling down this world of delight?
Understand and be sincere.
Have the printed copies of Your five photographs, with significance given to each, which You distributed on 21 January 1961, anything to do with the calling down of the world of delight? If they are given as an aid to call, how best to make use of them for the purpose?
Each one must find that for himself.
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Will it be helpful to call down this world if Your Message itself is converted into an invocation and repeated in silent concentration as follows: "O wonderful world of delight waiting at our gates for our call, come down upon earth..."
For those who spontaneously feel like doing it, it will be helpful.
Unlike every year, You read the Message this time first in English and then in French. Why this change of procedure?
Because I received it in English first.
The dots at the end of the Message give an impression as if something is left unsaid. Is it so?
There is always something—many things—left unsaid.
5 March 1961
The question means: Are you ready for the Hour of God?
Let us serve the Truth
What is the Truth?
He who wants sincerely to serve the Truth, will know the Truth.
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About the New Year Message of 1967, you say that the choice is between truth or the abyss. The abyss seems to be gaping just in front, yet there is a confidence that it will be removed from the way.
The confidence is quite legitimate.
The message is only for those who are still asleep and quite satisfied with their sleep.
What is the meaning of "abyss" in your New Year's Message or, put another way, what should a sadhak fear?
Right now there is a great tension. They have all taken positions as if to start war. It is the blind passion that men put into their international relations.
At the base of all there is fear, general distrust, and what they believe to be their "interests" (money, business)—a combination of these three things. When these three lowest passions of humanity are brought into play, that is what I call "the abyss".
When someone has decided to consecrate his life to the seeking for the Divine, if he is sincere, that is to say, if the resolution is sincere and carried out sincerely, there is absolutely nothing to fear, because all that happens or will happen to him will lead him by the shortest way to this realisation.
That is the response of the Grace. People believe that the Grace means making everything smooth for all your life. It is not true.
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The Grace works for the realisation of your aspiration and everything is arranged to gain the most prompt, the quickest realisation—so there is nothing to fear.
Fear comes with insincerity. If you want a comfortable life, agreeable circumstances, etc., you are putting conditions and restrictions, and then you can fear.
But it has no business in the sadhana!
26 May 1967
How should we help the big change in the world, about which your New Year's Message speaks?
The best way of helping is to let the Consciousness that has come down upon earth work in you for transformation.
9 January 1970
What is it "to work for the Future"?
To begin with, not to stick to the old habits individual and national.
May this year be a year of luminous peace in the joy that comes from true kindness—the human child of Divine Compassion.
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Let us hope also that this year will not pass without bringing us together once more.
Let the dawn of the New Year be for us also the dawn of a new and better life.
Mother, dispel all my ignorance and egoism with the first ray of sunlight of the New Year.
Make Your Light shine out in me and may this Light give birth in me to a consciousness full of Your supreme delight.
Yes, the New Year must dispel the smoke of ignorance and make the Light shine forth.
My blessings are with you.
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The four Darshan Days are: 21 February, the Mother's birthday (1878); 24 April, the Mother's final arrival in Pondicherry (1920); 15 August, Sri Aurobindo's birthday (1872); 24 November, Siddhi Day (Victory Day), the descent of Krishna, the Overmind Godhead, into the physical (1926).
Here and in the sections which follow, only the messages written by the Mother are published; those from the writings of Sri Aurobindo are not included.
24 April 1950
The disciples judge the forms by the Master. Outsiders judge the Master by the forms.
15 August 1950
Our sadhana has reached a stage in which we are mostly dealing with the subconscient and even the inconscient. As a consequence the physical determinism has taken a predominant position bringing an increase of difficulties on the way which have to be faced with an increase of courage and determination.
In any case, whatever happens and whatever you do, do not allow fear to invade you. At the slightest touch of it, react and call for help.
You must learn not to identify with your body and treat it as a young child who needs to be convinced that it must not fear.
FEAR is the greatest of all enemies and we must overcome it here, once and for all.
21 February 1952
Make of us the hero warriors we aspire to become. May we fight successfully the great battle of the future that is to be born,
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against the past that seeks to endure; so that the new things may manifest and we may be ready to receive them.
24 November 1952
To follow Sri Aurobindo in the great adventure of his integral Yoga, one needed always to be a warrior; now that he has left us physically, one needs to be a hero.
21 February 1954
When you fear death it has already defeated you.
24 November 1956
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24 April 1957
In the eternity of becoming each Avatar is only the announcer, the forerunner of a more perfect future realisation.
24 April 1958
There are two complementary aspects of the liberating action of the Divine Grace upon earth among men. These two aspects are equally indispensable, but are not equally appreciated.
The sovereign immutable peace that liberates from anxiety, tension and suffering.
The dynamic all-powerful progress that liberates from fetters, bondages and inertia.
The peace is universally appreciated and recognised as divine, but the progress is welcomed only by those whose aspiration is intense and courageous.
15 August 1961
In the depths of the Inconscient there also shines the Divine Consciousness, resplendent and eternal.
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21 February 1965
Above all the complications of the so-called human wisdom stands the luminous simplicity of the Divine's Grace, ready to act if we allow It to do so.
21 February 1968
The best way to hasten the manifestation of the Divine's Love is to collaborate for the triumph of the Truth.
21 February 1969
It is only immutable peace that can make possible eternity of existence.
21 February 1970
Truth is a difficult and strenuous conquest. One must be a real warrior to make this conquest, a warrior who fears nothing, neither enemies nor death, for with or against everybody, with or without a body, the struggle continues and will end by Victory.
21 February 1971
A life consecrated to union with the Divine is the only life worth living.
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24 April 1971
Needless to say that those who aspire to Truth must abstain from telling lies.
21 February 1972
The complete unification of the whole being around the psychic centre is the essential condition to realise a perfect sincerity.
15 August 1972
Sri Aurobindo's message is an immortal sunlight radiating over the future.
24 November 1972
Beyond all preferences and limitations, there is a ground of mutual understanding where all can meet and find their harmony: it is the aspiration for a divine consciousness.
21 February 1973
The more we advance on the way, the more the need of the Divine Presence becomes imperative and indispensable.
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24 April 1973
Beyond man's consciousness Beyond speech O Thou, Supreme Consciousness Unique Reality Divine Truth
As I looked at the door, I knew and willed, in a single movement of consciousness, that "the time has come," and lifting with both hands a mighty golden hammer I struck one blow, one single blow on the door and the door was shattered to pieces.
Then the supramental Light and Force and Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow.
Written in 1956
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Truth alone can give to the world the power of receiving and manifesting the Divine Love.
The messages for the Mother's final arrival in Pondicherry (24 April 1920) are published in this section under "Darshan Messages".
I need not appear to be good if my sincerity is perfect.
It is better to be than to seem.
Never forget that you are not alone. The Divine is with you helping and guiding you. He is the companion who never fails, the friend whose love comforts and strengthens. Have faith and He will do everything for you.
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When you are in need of an external change, it means that you do not progress internally. For he who progresses internally can live always under the same external conditions; these constantly reveal to him new truths.
Our Path
To walk on the path you must have a dauntless intrepidity, you must never turn back upon yourself with this mean, petty, weak, ugly movement that fear is.
An indomitable courage, a perfect sincerity, a total self-giving to the extent that you do not calculate or bargain, you do not give with the idea of receiving, you do not offer yourself with the intention of being protected, you do not have a faith that needs proofs,—this is indispensable for advancing on the path,—this alone can shelter you against all dangers.
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Be sincere, always sincere, more and more sincere.
Sincerity exacts from each one that in his thoughts, his feelings, his sensations and his actions he should express nothing but the central truth of his being.
A new Light shall break upon the earth, a new world shall be born: the things that were promised shall be fulfilled.
The descending triangle represents Sat-Chit-Ananda.
The ascending triangle represents the aspiring answer from matter under the form of life, light and love.
The junction of both—the central square—is the perfect manifestation having at its centre the Avatar of the Supreme—the lotus.
The water—inside the square—represents the multiplicity, the creation.
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Physically, materially, upon earth, it is in gratitude that one finds the source of the purest delight.
Mother divine, thou art with us, each day thou givest me the assurance, and closely united in an identification which grows more and more integral, more and more constant, we turn to the Lord of the universe and to That which is beyond in a great aspiration towards the new Light.
31 October 1955
Long, long ago, in the dry land which is now Arabia, a divine being incarnated upon earth to awaken in it the supreme love. As expected it was persecuted by men, misunderstood, suspected, pursued. Mortally wounded by its assailants, it wanted to die quietly in solitude in order to be able to accomplish its work, and being pursued, it ran away. Suddenly, in the vast desert land there appeared a small pomegranate bush. The saviour crept in under the low branches, to leave its body in peace; and immediately the bush spread out miraculously, it grew higher, larger, became deep and thick, so that when the pursuers passed by, they did not even suspect that the One whom they were chasing was hidden there, and they went their way.
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While drop by drop the sacred blood fell, fertilising the soil, the bush was covered with marvellous flowers, scarlet, large, crowded with petals... innumerable drops of blood.
These are the flowers which express and contain for us the Divine's Love.
14 November 1955
MAHASHTAMI
To express our gratitude to Sri Aurobindo we can do nothing better than to be a living demonstration of his teaching.
30 September 1957
VIJAYA DASHAMI: VICTORY DAY
For those who use their physical eyes alone, the victory will be apparent only when it is total, that is to say, physical.
2 October 1957
(Durga Puja 1953, Victory Day)
Today was truly a day of victory, victory over all that yet remained human in the physical consciousness.
O Nature, I bring to thee force and light, truth and power; it is for thee to receive and utilise them. It is thou who wilt be receptive in the fruit of thy creation, man, and open the doors of his understanding; it is thou who wilt give him the energy
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of progress and the will of transformation; and, above all, it is thou who wilt make him accept the Presence and aspire for Realisation.
18 October 1953
(Durga Puja l954, Victory Day)
It is victory day; let it be a true victory of the Spirit over ignorance and falsehood.
6 October 1954
(Durga Puja 1955, Victory Day)
A verbal notation of the experience I transmitted during meditation.
The annual battle and victory of Durga symbolise the rhythmic intervention of the Supreme Divine Consciousness that periodically gives a new impetus to the universal progress.
26 October 1955
(About the "victory" referred to in the message for Durga Puja 1957, Victory Day)
But this does not mean that it is not already won in principle.
(Kali Puja 1959)
We who have a common uplifting ideal, shall unite; and in this union and by this union we will face and overcome the attacks of all opposing forces of darkness and devastation. In union is
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the strength, in union is the power, in union the certitude of Victory.
Mother Kali will be with you on this day.
31 October 1959
Christmas was designated by the Mother as the festival of the return of the Light.
Noël.
Bon Noël.
Bon Noël to all.
With the blessings of the Grace for all.
May the New Light illumine your thoughts and your lives, govern your hearts and guide your action.
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Joyeux Noël.
Let us celebrate the Light by letting it enter into us.
If you want peace upon earth, first establish peace in your heart.
If you want union in the world, first unify the different parts of your being.
Bon Noël to all, in Peace and Joy.
May this new Christmas be for you the advent of a new light, higher and purer.
Union and goodwill upon earth.
Behind the rigidity of the outward celebrations there is a living symbol; it is this that we must remember.
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Peace and goodwill to all.
Unless a break is made with the habits and the beliefs of the past, there is little hope of advancing rapidly towards the future.
Love the Truth.
Let the light dawn in your consciousness.
Blessings to all.
Hail the new light.
That it may grow in all hearts.
The time has come for the rule of falsehood to end.
In the Truth alone is salvation.
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We want to show to the world that man can become a true servitor of the Divine.
Who will collaborate in all sincerity?
Father Christmas,
I evoke you today!
Answer our call. Come bearing all your marvellous gifts. You are the great dispenser of worldly possessions; you are the untiring friend who hears every request and grants it generously. Give each one the material object he desires, and as for me, give me enough, give me much so that I may give largely to all.
(Significances of the gifts offered by the three Magi to Jesus at the time of his birth)
Gold: wealth of the world and supramental knowledge.
Frankincense: purification of the vital.
Myrrh: immortalisation of the body.
These are a few examples of the numerous short messages which the Mother wrote to people on their birthdays. She called this occasion "Bonne Fête".
My dear child, my love and blessings are and will be with you throughout the year. Let them help you to make one more progress on the way towards the divine goal.
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Let this year be a year of progress and transformation—one more step on the way leading to the Divine Realisation.
2 February 1930
Let this year be for you the year of a complete opening and of the breaking of all limitations.
2 February 1943
Let this year bring you the true faith—a faith that no darkness can obscure.
2 February 1944
Let this day of your birth be for you an occasion to give yourself a little more, a little better to the Divine. Let your consecration be more total, your devotion more ardent, your aspiration more intense.
Open yourself to the New Light and walk with a joyful step on the path.
Resolve on this day that it may be thus and the day will not have passed in vain.
A grain of practice is worth a mountain of theories.
"Lord, on this anniversary day of my birth, grant that the power to know changes in me into a power to transform myself integrally."
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A bonne fête!
A new birth also, the birth into a new consciousness in which you will be above all little personal reactions because you will constantly feel in your heart the presence of the Divine; may it give you the force to surmount all obstacles, all pettiness and all difficulties.
With my love and my blessings.
8 January 1963
On this day, we take the decision to make a decisive step towards the victory of truth.
Each year that passes should be—and necessarily is—a new conquest.
Let a decisive step be taken this year towards His Victory.
13 January 1963
With this new year that starts for you, you must start a new life, with a renewed resolution to drive away from your consciousness and action all that deforms, diminishes, obscures and finally stops your progress and impairs your health.
In your effort for inner growth and purification, you can be sure of being sustained and helped by my force and my blessings.
27 January 1963
Bonne Fête!
May this new year be for you a year of progress in the perfection of work and of consecration, in sincerity, energy and peace.
16 January 1964
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With my blessings for a year of perfect consecration and integral progress in love and peace.
16 January 1965
Bonne Fête
In silent endurance, one step forward towards the victory, with the help of eternal love.
13 January 1966
To mark one more step on the luminous road leading to the Divine Realisation in Peace, Love and Joy.
13 January 1967
With my love for a life of collaboration and my blessings for the prolonged continuation of this happy collaboration in peace and love.
13 January 1971
With my love, my trust and my blessings for transformation. Forward to the Realisation.
13 January 1973
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(Suggested programme for a study group)
1) Prayer
(Sri Aurobindo, Mother—grant us your help in our endeavour to understand your teaching.)
2) Reading of Sri Aurobindo's book.
3) A moment of silence.
4) One question can be put by whoever wants to put a question on what has been read.
5) Answer to the question.
6) No general discussion.
This is it not the meeting of a group but simply a class for studying Sri Aurobindo's books.
31 October 1942
I have read X's letters and would like you to tell him that:
1) I think it would be better to begin the circle without a too expensive basis to start with, so that the question of money will not be at the forefront and troublesome. Later on when the circle will have proved a success it can move to more expensive quarters.
2) The yearly subscription for the members can be fixed at Rs.10, but I propose that all those who wish to come to read and study Sri Aurobindo's books can do so without being members of the circle and on a small subscription of Rs. 2 for instance.
3) It is better not to lend books and let them go out of the circle premises.
4) I wish that apart from the yearly subscription, no money should be asked from those who send money here regularly because it would be so much taken from their contribution here.
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5) He must not form a committee except with people with whom he can fully agree and also who are accepted by Sri Aurobindo and myself here.
6) He must not do anything without our written consent and to save time it is better if he writes directly to me in English, stating in a short and precise way the steps he intends to take.
Finally you can send him my blessings and my recommendation to avoid all quarrels, bad feelings and misunderstandings.
A word to finish:
It is only egoism that is shocked to find egoism in others.
5 October 1943
(Message for the inauguration of the Sri Aurobindo Philosophical Circle, Hong Kong)
Let the eternal Light dawn on the eastern horizon.
(Message for the inauguration of the Delhi Branch of Sri Aurobindo Ashram)
Let this place be worthy of its name and manifest the true spirit of Sri Aurobindo's teaching and message to the world.
12 February 1956
In Delhi at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram branch they need very badly somebody qualified who could give lectures on Sri Aurobindo's teaching and organise the higher studies in the Ashram School.
I am quite convinced that you are the best man to do that work. You have a very clear and deep understanding of Sri
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Aurobindo's writings and at the same time your explanations are very attractive and comprehensible.
Kindly let me know if you agree to this proposal, so that the necessary arrangements can be made.
I feel quite sure that you have fully benefited by this time of rest you had with your family and that you are quite fit now.
Blessings to all and for you with my love.
13 June 1958
To all those who work and learn in the Delhi Branch of the Ashram, I send my blessings.
Let each one do his very best and, peacefully, leave to the Supreme the care of the results.
21 August 1960
(Message for the inauguration of Sri Aurobindo Nilaya, Santiniketan)
To open a centre is not sufficient in itself. It must be the pure hearth of a perfect sincerity in a total consecration to the Divine.
Let the flame of this sincerity rise high above the falsities and deceptions of the world.
21 December 1962
Sri Aurobindo's Action and Sri Aurobindo Society
are equally working for the manifestation of the truth in the immediate future; and to help both equally is to work for this realisation.
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And my blessings are with all help and good will.
2 May 1971
(Message for Sri Aurobindo Ashram Atelier)
Obligeance, rectitude, régularité.
Obliging, correct, regular.
(Message for Harpagon Workshop)
Let peace and good will always prevail here.
17 September 1952
(Message for New Horizon Sugar Mills)
A happy beginning
A good continuation and no end—an endless progression.
14 May 1957
(Message inscribed on the foundation-stone of New Horizon Sugar Mills)
Faithfulness is the sure basis of success.
12 April 1959
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(Message for the installation of Sri Aurobindo's relics at Jeypore, Orissa, on 8 December 1970)
In each and every one, the highest consciousness must be the ruler of the life.
(Message for the inauguration of a youth camp organised by Sri Aurobindo's Action)
Our life ought to be governed by the Love for Truth and the thirst for Light.
26 September 1971
(Message for the inauguration of a house)
Let this new house be filled with an ardent aspiration for the Divine Realisation and, in answer to the call, the Divine Presence will be there.
7 October 1951
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The whole of our life should be a prayer offered to the Divine.
Integral prayer: the whole being is concentrated in a single prayer to the Divine.
When coming out of sleep you must keep quiet for a few moments and consecrate the coming day to the Divine, praying to remember Him always and in all circumstances.
Before going to sleep you must concentrate for a few minutes, look into the day that has passed, remember when and where you have forgotten the Divine, and pray that such forgettings should not happen again.
31 August 1953
When waking up every morning, let us pray for a day of complete consecration.
19 June 1954
Let us pray with all our heart that the divine work may be accomplished.
All sincere prayers are granted, but it may take some time to realise materially.
28 June 1954
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All sincere prayers are granted, every call is answered.
21 July 1954
Sincere calls surely are heard and receive an answer.
We ought to be in a constant state of aspiration, but when we cannot aspire let us pray with the simplicity of a child.
25 July 1954
We pray that the Divine should teach us ever more, enlighten us more and more, dispel our ignorance, illumine our minds.
2 November 1954
It is never in vain that an ardent and sincere prayer is addressed to the Divine's Grace.
19 December 1954
The Supreme is divine knowledge and perfect unity; at each moment of the day let us call to Him so that we may be nothing else than Himself.
20 December 1954
When, in our despair, we cry to the Divine, always He answers to our call.
21 December 1954
We pray to the Divine to accept the ardent flame of our gratitude and of our joyous and fully confident adherence.
27 December 1954
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Sri Aurobindo says in one letter:
"All prayer rightly offered brings us closer to the Divine and establishes right relation with him."
What is meant by "rightly offered" in this letter? Will You please elucidate?
With humility and sincerity.
It goes without saying that all bargaining spirit is an insincerity that takes away all value from the prayer.
8 May 1968
Nothing is difficult for those who call sincerely the Divine.
28 January 1973
To complete what I told you yesterday about Radha's dance I have noted this down as an indication of the thought and feeling Radha must have within her when she stands at the end in front of Krishna:
"Every thought of my mind, every emotion of my heart, every movement of my being, every feeling and every sensation, each cell of my body, each drop of my blood, all, all is yours, yours absolutely, yours without reserve. You can decide my life or my death, my happiness or my sorrow, my pleasure or my pain; whatever you do with me, whatever comes to me from you will lead me to the Divine Rapture."
12 January 1932
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RADHA'S PRAYER
O Thou whom at first sight I knew for the Lord of my being and my God, receive my offering.
Thine are all my thoughts, all my emotions, all the sentiments of my heart, all my sensations, all the movements of my life, each cell of my body, each drop of my blood. I am absolutely and altogether Thine, Thine without reserve. What Thou wilt of me, that I shall be. Whether Thou choosest for me life or death, happiness or sorrow, pleasure or suffering, all that comes to me from Thee will be welcome. Each one of Thy gifts will be always for me a gift divine bringing with it the supreme Felicity.
13 January 1932
My Lord, make me entirely Thine.
My Lord, let me be entirely and sincerely yours.
O Lord, give me a perfect sincerity. O Lord, let me be perfectly yours for ever.
Aspiration addressed to the Supreme: Let all in me be always at Your service.
O Lord, awaken in me an ardent desire to know Thee. I aspire that my life may be consecrated to Thy service.
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Let me always follow Thy divine Guidance. Let me be aware of my true destiny.
1 January 1934
O Lord, Thy sweetness has entered into my soul, and Thou hast filled all my being with joy.
14 April 1935
My heart is at peace, my mind is free from impatience, and in all things I rely on Thy will with the smiling confidence of a child.
My Lord, every day, in all circumstances, let me repeat with the full sincerity of my heart, "May Thy Will be done and not mine."
5 November 1941
Lord, with all my soul I want to accomplish what Thou directest me to do.
5 November 1943
My Lord, deliver me from all vanity; make me humble and sincere.
5 November 1944
O Lord, most humbly I pray that I may be at the height of my endeavour, that nothing in me, conscious or unconscious, may betray Thee by failing to serve in Thy sacred mission.
With a solemn devotion I salute Thee.
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A daily prayer
O Lord, let me be free from fear and worry so that I can always serve you to the best of my ability.
December 1948
Lord, give me the strength of a total and perfect sincerity that I may be worthy of Thy Realisation.
O my heart, be great enough for the Victory.
My heart aspires to be vast enough for Thy Victory.
I aspire to be delivered from all egoistic weakness and all unconscious insincerity.
31 December 1950
Lord, grant that my vision of things may be direct and objective and my acts be completely transformed by it.
Lord, grant that a stupidity once committed and recognised may never be repeated.
My Lord, grant me this quiet trust in Thee which overcomes all the difficulties.
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Grant me a quiet trust, a peaceful strength, an ardent faith and devotion.
Lord, grant that I may be entirely and eternally faithful to Thee.
Lord, grant me this Grace, that I may never forget Thee.
December 1958
My Lord, make the consciousness clear and precise, the speech thoroughly true, the surrender complete, the calm absolute and transform the whole being into an ocean of light and love.
Make me entirely transparent so that my consciousness may unite with Thine.
I aspire to place at Thy feet all the riches of this world.
O Lord, I pray to Thee, guide my footsteps, enlighten my mind, that at every moment and in all things I may do exactly what Thou wantest me to do.
16 January 1962
Lord, give me perfect sincerity, that sincerity which will lead me straight to Thee.
August 1962
Lord, give me Thy blessings that I may become more and more sincere.
18 July 1967
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Lord, give me the real happiness, that which depends only upon Thee.
Prayer for 1971
O Lord, let me be what you want me to be.
5 March 1971
I belong to Thee. And I wish to know Thee so that all that I do may be only what Thou wantest me to do.
Lord of Mercy, make me worthy of Thy Grace.
27 October 1972
Morning and Evening Prayer
Lord, I want to be Yours and worthy of You; make me Your ideal child.
Morning
O my Lord, my Sweet Mother,
Let me be Yours, absolutely Yours, perfectly Yours.
Your force, Your light and Your love will protect me against all evils.
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Midday
O my Lord, Sweet Mother,
I am Yours and pray to be more and more perfectly Yours.
Night
Your force is with me, Your light and Your love, and You will save me from all difficulties.
My sweet Lord, my little Mother,
Give me the true love, the love that forgets itself.
My Lord, my Mother,
You are always with me with your blessings and your grace.
Your Presence is the supreme protection.
Remember that the Mother is always with you.
Address Her as follows and She will pull you out of all difficulties:
"O Mother, Thou art the light of my intelligence, the purity of my soul, the quiet strength of my vital, the endurance of my body. I rely on Thee alone and want to be entirely Thine. Make me surmount all obstacles on the way."
I have a sweet little Mother Who lives in my heart; We are so happy together, We shall never part.
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My Lord, Thou hast given me tonight this supreme knowledge. We are living only because such is Thy will. We shall die only if it be Thy will.
2 March 1934
To will what Thou willest always in all circumstances, is the only way of enjoying an unshakable peace.
Lord, give us true happiness, the happiness that depends on Thee alone.
Lord, give us the indomitable courage that comes from a perfect trust in Thee.
4 April 1942
Lord, give us the strength to live integrally the ideal we proclaim.
Give us faith in a glorious future and the capacity to realise it.
Lord, let consciousness and peace increase in us so that more and more we may be the faithful intermediaries of Thy one divine law.
31 December 1951
Lord, let nothing in us obstruct Thy work.
February 1952
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Lord, deliver us from falsehood, make us emerge in Thy truth pure and worthy of Thy victory.
O Marvellous Grace, let our aspiration be always more intense, our faith always more vibrant, our trust always more absolute.
Thou art the All-Victorious!
Supreme Lord, teach us to be silent so that in silence we may receive Thy force and understand Thy will.
11 February 1972
Teach us to be really sincere in our effort towards the Truth.
Lord, Supreme Truth,
We aspire to know Thee and to serve Thee.
Help us to become children worthy of Thee.
And for this, make us conscious of Thy constant gifts so that gratitude may fill our hearts and govern our lives.
Lord, Thy Love is so great, so noble and so pure that it is beyond our comprehension. It is immeasurable and infinite: on bended knees we must receive it, and yet Thou hast made it so sweet that even the weakest among us, even a child, can approach Thee.
With a calm and pure devotion we salute Thee and recognise Thee as the only reality of our being.
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Lord, God of Beauty and Harmony,
Grant that we may become instruments worthy of manifesting Thy supreme beauty in the world.
This is our prayer and our aspiration.
O Supreme Reality, grant that we may live integrally the marvellous secret that is now revealed to us.
Sweet Mother, grant that we may simply be, now and for ever, Thy little children.
Here, each one represents an impossibility to be solved; but since for Thy Divine Grace, O Lord, all is possible, will not Thy work be, in the detail as in the whole, the accomplishment of all these impossibilities transformed into divine Realisations?
O my sweet Master, Thou art the conqueror and the conquest, the victor and the victory!
27 November 1951
Thy heart is the supreme haven where every care is soothed. Oh, let this heart be wide open, so that all who are in torment may find there a sovereign refuge.
4 December 1951
Quiet all violence, let Thy love reign.
13 April 1954
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O Lord, let Thy will be done. Thou art the supreme and perfect protection.
O my Lord, with your help and grace what is there to fear!
You are the supreme protection that defeats all the enemies.
O my Lord, Thy protection is all powerful. It defeats every enemy.
To see Thy Victory in all circumstances is certainly the best way of helping It to come.
Addressed to the One Supreme Lord
There is no other sin, no other vice than to be far from Thee.
Lord, without Thee life is a monstrosity. Without Thy Light, Thy Consciousness, Thy Beauty and Thy Force, all existence is a sinister and grotesque comedy.
O Lord, in the depths of all that is, of all that shall be, is Thy divine and unvarying smile.
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Prayer for Rain
Rain, Rain, Rain, we want the Rain. Rain, Rain, Rain, we ask for Rain. Rain, Rain, Rain, we need the Rain. Rain, Rain, Rain, we pray for Rain.
Prayer to the Sun
O Sun! our friend, Disperse the clouds, Absorb the rain. We want your rays, We want your light, O Sun! our friend.
In the name of my Lord, for the sake of my Lord, with the will of my Lord, by the power of my Lord, stop immediately harassing us.
(About the Mother's prayer of 8 April 1914 [Prayers and Meditations, CWM, Vol. 1, p. 121.])
Recueillie—collecting from all sides and concentrating in a religious way. In this prayer, at first the thought is in full peace and the heart is collected and concentrated in adoration, and the next time it is the head that is full of adoration and the heart is silent and full of peace.
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(About the Mother's prayer of 3 September 1919 [Prayers and Meditations, CWM, Vol. 1, p. 377.])
In this prayer it is the Universal Mother in the form of material, terrestrial Nature who is speaking. The meal is the world that she has brought out of the Inconscient by the process of evolution. She wanted to make man the summit of this evolution, the ruler of this world. Throughout the ages she has waited, hoping that man would become fit to fulfil his role and give the divine realisation to the world. But man was so unfit that he was not even willing to submit to the conditions needed to prepare himself for the task, and material Nature, finally convinced that she was on the wrong track, turned directly to the Divine and asked Him to take possession of this world that had been prepared for the divine realisation.
With this key, the rest is self-explanatory.
(About the Mother's prayer of 23 October 1937 [Prayers and Meditations, CWM, Vol. 1, p. 382.])
In short I might say that "Réalisation Suprême" for the individual means identification with the Divine and for the collectivity upon earth the advent of the Supramental, the new creation.
Do not treat this as a dogma, but only as an explanation and "Réalisateur" is the Supreme Power of realisation, the doer and the act.
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I am asking only for the sacrifice of ignorance, unconsciousness and the limits of the ego—but for what a marvellous and incomparable gain!
7 May 1937
Let your life be useful.
Let your life be a constant search for the Truth and it will be worth living.
Let all your life be entirely and exclusively governed by the Supreme.
Let your highest aspiration organise your life.
Keep your aspiration ardent and sincere and never forget that you are the child of the Divine; it will prevent you from doing anything unworthy of the Divine children.
All depends on the attitude of each one and on the sincerity of his approach.
All depends on an inner attitude.
17 April 1947
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To rectify and to efface: both are possible, but in both cases, though in varying degrees, a transformation of the nature, of the character, is needed. What is wrongly done must be changed in oneself first, before one can hope to change the consequence of one's action.
11 January 1951
It is only when people truly want their consciousness to be changed that their actions also can be changed.
A change of consciousness and when our consciousness will change we will know what the change is.
Change...
1) Hatred into harmony
2) Jealousy into generosity
3) Ignorance into knowledge
4) Darkness into light
5) Falsehood into truth
6) Wickedness into goodness
7) War into peace
8) Fear into fearlessness
9) Uncertainty into certainty
10) Doubt into faith
11) Confusion into order
12) Defeat into victory
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Liberty and order
Fraternity and independence
Equality and hierarchy
Unity and diversity
Abundance and scarcity
Effort and repose
Power and compassion
Discernment and benevolence
Generosity and economy
Wastage and avarice
Conversion: the starting-point of realisation.
Conversion: the turning of all the movements of the being towards the Divine.
Resurrection: the falling off of the old consciousness, followed by the awakening of the true being out of it.
New birth: birth of the true consciousness, that of the Divine Presence in us.
Realisation: the goal of our efforts.
Realisation—that is what we aspire for and for which we shall strive unceasingly however long it may take.
Power of realisation: with the realisation all obstacles will be overcome.
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If you want to be respected, always be respectable.
Do you wish for kindness? Be kind.
Do you ask for Truth? Be true.
Try to do the good and never forget that God sees you everywhere.
A good deed is sweeter to the heart than a sweet in the mouth.
A day spent without doing a good deed is a day without a soul.
16 October 1951
Do good for the love of good and not in hope of a reward. Be good for the joy of being good and not for the gratefulness of others.
In nice there is pleasantness, but good is good and can be without pleasantness.
There is only one way of being right, but there are many ways of being wrong.
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All will be all right when you are all right.
17 November 1952
Let the consciousness work in you and through you and everything will become all right.
10 April 1954
Pray to the Divine Grace to make you do always the right thing in the right way.
Always do what you know to be the best even if it is the most difficult thing to do.
2 May 1954
Which is the easiest way to forget oneself? Always do the right thing in the right way and at the right moment.
Every day, at each moment, we shall aspire to do the right thing in the right way, always.
22 June 1954
It is only when we are not disturbed that we can always do the right thing at the right time and in the right way.
It is always the right thing when it is done in the right spirit.
24 August 1957
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Whatever comes to you, if you take it in the right spirit, will turn for the best.
Correct movement: all movements under the right inspiration.
Turning of wrong movements into right: an extreme goodwill always ready to be transformed.
There is a moment when the right attitude comes spontaneously and without effort.
Aspiration for the right attitude: energetic, willing, determined.
Right attitude: simple and open, it is without any complications.
Our consciousness is like a young bird, it must learn to use its wings.
Take your flight towards the heights.
Soar very high and you will discover the great depths.
9 June 1954
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The day comes when all barriers have fallen, within and around us and we can feel like the bird that opens its wings for an unopposed soar.
6 December 1954
A being free from all bondages, flying from height to height in a happy seeking for divine transformation.
A resplendent sun rises above the horizon. It is your Lord that comes to you.
The whole world awakes and stretches in delight at the contact of His glory.
As the earth that heaves and opens, as the tree that grows, as the flower that blossoms, as the bird that sings, as the man that loves, let His light permeate you and radiate in an ever-increasing and widening happiness, a happiness steadily moving onward as the stars move in heaven.
Spiritual atmosphere: light, fluid, clear and transparent and so clean!
Our thoughts are still ignorant, they must be enlightened.
Our aspiration is still imperfect, it must be purified.
Our action is still powerless, it must become effective.
25 August 1954
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Listen silently to the order which comes from the Supreme Lord and you will have the capacity to carry it out.
Know what the Divine wants and you will have mastery.
The inner command is more sure than the mental conception.
The reign of reason should not end until the coming of the psychic law which manifests the Divine Will.
Power to reject adverse suggestions: the power which comes from the conscious union with the Divine.
Wisdom cannot be acquired except through union with the Divine Consciousness.
Integral wisdom: that obtained by union with the Divine.
Like everything that belongs to creation, wisdom is progressive.
A bit of wisdom is welcome.
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In the depths of the Inconscient, there also shines the Divine Consciousness resplendent and eternal.
The Divine Will acting in the inconscient is all-powerful even when we do not know it.
Indeed, I am convinced that when the Inconscient is conquered no more conditions will be required; all will be a free decision of the divine Grace.
The Greeks had a keen and exceptional sense of beauty, of eurythmy, of harmony in forms and things. But at the same time they had an equally keen sense of men's impotence in face of an implacable Fate which none could escape. They were haunted by the inflexibility of this Fate, and even their gods seem to have been subject to it. In their mythology and in their legends, one finds little trace of the divine compassion and grace.
This notion of compassion and grace made its appearance in Europe later with the Christian religion—whereas in Asia and especially in India it had long before been the very essence of Buddha's teaching.
So in all the Greek stories, legends and tragedies we find this inexorable cruelty of the decrees of a Fate that nothing can deflect.
The faith that goes to the Cosmic Divine is limited in the power of its action by the necessities of the play.
To get entirely free from these limitations one must reach the Transcendent Divine.
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The only hope is in the capacity of the invisible Power!
Only the supreme consciousness can have an effect on your Karma and this consciousness is independent, above all human consciousness.
The Supreme Power is taking up all the movements. It will turn them into the Truth. No effort is needed, no aid from the mind or any of the instruments, even the individual consent is no longer needed.
Those who are predestined receive the help of an Inner Guide.
Divine solicitude: always active, even when we do not perceive it.
Let us understand and receive with gratitude this Divine Solicitude, so often not understood.
Integral solace: that which one can receive only from the Divine.
Solace: the blessings the Divine grants us.
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Artistic taste is pleased with beautiful things and is itself beautiful.
Artistic sensibility: a powerful aid to fight ugliness.
Artistic works: all work at the service of beauty.
Mother,
May we ask X [an artist] to work on activities which are non-artistic?
All and everything can be artistic if it is done in an artistic spirit.
27 April 1966
Beauty is a great power.
Spiritual beauty has a contagious power.
Beauty does not get its full power except when it is surrendered to the Divine.
The beauty of tomorrow: beauty which will express the Divine Power.
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The beauty of tomorrow manifesting the Divine: a beauty that exists only by the Divine and for the Divine.
Beauty is not sufficient in itself, it wants to become divine.
Pure sense of beauty can be acquired only through a great purification.
The ideal of Beauty moves towards its infinite goal.
Among the most precious things in life are those you do not see with physical eyes.
10 November 1969
Optimism: more helpful than its opposite.
Curiosity: if we want to be exceptional, may it be our attributes that make us so.
Mental curiosity must be seriously controlled for it not to be dangerous.
Physical curiosity takes its value from its purpose.
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Chastity: a little austere and proud, it is very reserved.
An attempt is a small thing but it can be a promise for the future.
Inventions have no use except when they are controlled by the Divine.
Gold should not be used except in the service of the Divine.
Charity: simple and sweet, attentive to the needs of all.
Unselfishness: deeply open so as not to refuse anything.
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My mind is so entirely clouded by doubts and other lower influences that I feel if my body passed away just now, it would be so much for the better! In spite of all that, as a Purusha I am indifferent to any such absurd movements.
Yes, they are absurd—shake it off.
I don't know why for some time I have not been feeling well. My mind is troubled, my vital is sad and my body is sick.
Do not worry, remain quiet, keep your faith intact. It will pass.
1 February 1933
I don't know how thoughts that are harmful to my consecration slip into my mind and upset me. I try my best to drive them away and to remain absorbed in contemplation of You, but very often they return. Why are they repeated, and where do they come from? Do they belong to the universal nature which is not yet purified, and will they keep on returning until my entire human nature is transformed?
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Yes, they belong to the unregenerate universal Nature. But to the extent that we ourselves are transformed, we can keep them at a distance and they no longer trouble us.
Always to prefer what belongs to others is a vital movement. Do not pay any attention to it.
2 June 1934
Do you mean that only your mind is open to my action? That would not be correct, because I act on you through the heart much more than through the mind.
4 June 1934
We are always unconscious of the real inner cause of our actions and movements.
Yes, the movements of the being are always very complex.
5 June 1934
My physical being thirsts for Your love; do not delay, Mother. You know that the child will not listen to reason, he only wants to remain on his Mother's breast.
You know very well that I am always with you and in you, in the physical consciousness as in the others.
10 July 1934
Yes, the outer nature must become calm and quiet and turn towards the Divine.
21 December 1936
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We are at least mentally convinced about our misunderstanding and error and we are determined to give a vital push for their rectification and we believe by Your Gracious Power it will be materialised rapidly. Of course, it may not be within a very short time, but surely it will come.
Why should it not be at once? With good will and faith nothing is impossible.
6 July 1939
Mother, when someone asks me what I have done during all the years I have been here, I say that I have served with devotion, and that is my sadhana. I do not understand anything else. It is true that it has taken me a long time to understand this, and that I have sometimes been anxious. By Mother's Grace I understand a little about Her service, and in it I feel Her Force and Her Love, and I find that it is quite sufficient for me. Isn't it so, Mother?
Certainly you understand and you act better and better, with a consciousness that is progressing towards a total light.
It is rather difficult to refuse when anyone asks me for something. I think it is a failing in my nature. Isn't it so, Mother?
It all depends on how you look at it and the spirit in which it is done.
Mother, today I made a fan out of these shavings. I offer it at Your feet, but I don't know if You will accept it for
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its artistic merits, because it does not have any—I must admit it in all sincerity. Mother, I believe You will accept it as a symbol of my physical offering. For my part, I consider that more important than the other qualities of any work we do. Of course, I do not mean that artistic beauty should be neglected. Mother, am I right?
Yes, you are right, and besides the fan is not unattractive, it has a charm of its own.
I feel very sorry that I have created an impression that I am pulling at money and diverting it from where it should go—to the Mother. My endeavour is that all wealth belongs to the Mother and we must use it as directed by Her. Wherever I have a say I do this, and feel sorry that I have created an opposite impression. I write this to take a certain burden off my mind.
I do not know who has spread this rumour, but I can assure you that I know it is not true. So, do not worry and let peace settle in your heart with my blessings.
What you seek is always there ready for you. Let the psychic turn grow complete and it will of itself bring you to that for which you aspire.
15 February 1939
At times I seriously think about but do not understand what my being wants. How is it that I do not feel a sense of a real being which is and which has the delight of being and becoming? Why do I not feel any real interest
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in any creative activity? My mind is active, it wants to understand and become luminous and see and know the truth of things, and I feel my mind is growing in this direction. At times I feel an urge of the heart to seize something which can really satisfy my self, but the urge does not last long. It disappears into some flat state of existence. What do you think my real being wants?
THE DIVINE.
I also felt that you were not quite satisfied with me.
Nothing of the kind. Each one has his difficulties and I am here to help him out of them.
25 February 1942
A thought came to me that even when I do not get any direct suggestion or direction from you, I should, in the interest of your work, do whatever I myself can, to serve you in my own way1 and to the best of my ability. Graciously enlighten me and correct me if I am wrong.
This is always dangerous. One must learn to serve the Divine not in one's own way but in the Divine's way.
10 April 1947
For taking decisions I have found a trick. I postpone the matter and put it to you inwardly. Automatically a solution comes.
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This is indeed the true way and ought to be used in all cases.
Let me be able to do what you want me to do, knowingly or unknowingly.
This is the right thing and the very best.
My dear child, you have indeed passed from one life to another; but it is in your body that this new birth took place, and now the road is wide open before you for a new progress.
19 April 1960
"I know the path, but what can I do if the robbers rob me on the way?"—Maulana Azad.
Call the Lord to Catch the robbers.
26 October 1963
I seek the Mother's light on the following question. The world being what it is, we have to work under the existing conditions. Why not use the available conditions, gather strength and then endeavour to manifest the Divine Will in its purity?
But the very fact of living upon earth means that we are "using the available conditions", otherwise it would be impossible to live.
18 March 1965
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Divine Mother,
If I should have an attack of any kind in the future, could I send you a note immediately, instead of people just taking me off to the hospital?
Surely, let me know at once, so that I can help.
Love.
30 September 1966
I am having some difficulty in my vital. Would you please help me.
If you were to do some work?...
25 May 1967
What I want is to move all of my being into the future. Will you help me with those parts that need a push?
This is quite a good resolution. The push is and will be given.
Now, do not resist.
20 May 1968
I am ready.
Start.
1 July 1969
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Since yesterday's darshan I feel something revolting in me against a spiritual life. I am afraid of this revolt. What shall I do?
What revolted in you when you were in front of me is exactly what prevents you from leading a spiritual life. Now that you are conscious of the enemy you can throw him out of you if so you decide.
I had collected some money for books. One day I passed it on to you. Immediately afterwards somebody presented me with all those books that I wanted and more!
This kind of thing has happened hundreds of times and is happening more and more—but to me it seems quite "natural", although I am unwilling to explain.
X is very pleased to have the photographs of You and Sri Aurobindo. He told me that he felt a distinct change in the atmosphere of his room after he had opened them. Mother, when I kept in my room that photograph of Sri Aurobindo, which I received from Your hands, I too felt that it was vibrating with life. Isn't this because of Your touch?
Sri Aurobindo and I always put a force into the photographs we sign. In the present case Sri Aurobindo had also looked at the frame and admired it.
(About difficulty in writing)
Be receptive and it will be all right.
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Go on writing. How do you know if the inspiration is not ready, waiting to come to you?
Inspiration brings its manifold gifts to the one who knows how to receive them.
A young man who has finished the Higher Course came to see me a few days ago and said he wanted to study The Life Divine with me. As I have not read the book except in bits and pieces, I told him that I could not help him. But he was very insistent and I had eventually to agree to his request.
He asks me questions, some of them quite difficult, from the book. And though I do not know the answers, I give them as they come to me. Both of us have found out the answers are correct, and quite often the language of my answers is very nearly the same as Sri Aurobindo's own in the book.
I wish to know: (1) Is this intuition? (2) Is there a plane where all knowledge exists, and if one can open to that plane, he can get whatever knowledge he needs? (3) If teaching is my vocation, what should I do to develop the receptivity?
You are in conscious connection with Sri Aurobindo's teaching, which is universal and immortal, in the higher mental world.
The more you are silently attentive, the more clearly you will receive it.
13 June 1968
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(The Sri Aurobindo Research Academy was established on 24 April 1970 to provide guidance to research scholars intending to study the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother at an advanced level. When the Academy was first proposed, Mother wrote to its founder:)
Anything that is done can contribute to the progress of humanity, but all depends on the way of doing it.
My blessings are with you and your project.
March 1970
Your letter has been communicated to me and the questions you ask in it were for me, at a certain state of my development, of such intense interest that I shall take great pleasure in replying to them. Nevertheless, a reply which is formulated mentally, however complete it may be, can never be the reply, the one which silences every doubt and quietens the mind. Certitude can only come with spiritual experience, and the most beautiful philosophical works can never equal or replace a few minutes of Knowledge that is lived.
You say: "Should a man of average development, who is no longer tormented by earthly desires and who is linked to the world only by his affections, renounce the hope of not reincarnating? Is there not, beyond the human state, a less material state where one goes when one is no longer recalled by desire into the human state? This seems strictly logical to me. Man cannot be at the summit of the scale. The animals are very near to him; is he not very near to the following state?"
First of all, what maintains the relation with the earth is not only vital desire but any specifically human movement, and affections certainly form part of this. One is bound to the necessity of reincarnation as much by one's affections, by one's feelings,
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as by one's desires. However, in the matter of reincarnation as in all things, each case has its own solution, and it is certain that a constant aspiration for liberation from rebirth, together with a sustained effort towards the elevation and sublimation of the consciousness, should have the result of severing the chain of earthly existences, although it does not for all that put an end to individual existence, which is prolonged in another world. But why think that his existence in another, more ethereal world should be the "following state" which, relative to man, would be what man is to the animal? It seems to me more logical to think (and a deeper knowledge confirms this certitude) that the following state too will be a physical one, although we may conceive of this physical as magnified, transfigured by the descent, the infusion of Light and Truth. All the ages and millennia of human life that have elapsed so far have prepared the advent of this new state, and now the time has come for its concrete and tangible realisation. That is the very essence of Sri Aurobindo's teaching, the aim of the group he has allowed to form around him, the purpose of his Ashram.
For your second question,1 I intended to send you the translation of a few extracts from Sri Aurobindo's works. But when I told him that I wanted to translate some passages from The Life Divine to send to you, he told me that I would have to translate no less than two chapters if I wanted to convey a fairly complete reply to you. Seeing my perplexity, he of himself decided to write some new pages on this subject;2 he gave them to me very recently and I immediately began the translation.
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I do not wish to spoil the freshness of the beautiful pages that I shall have the privilege of translating, but in the meanwhile, until I am able to send them to you, I shall give you, if I may, my too simple and succinct view of the problem.
It seems beyond question to me that the universe in which we live is not one of the most successful, particularly in its outermost expression; but it is also beyond question that we are part of it and that consequently, the only logical and wise thing for us to do is to set to work to perfect it, to extract the best from the worst and to make it into the most marvellous possible universe. For, I would add, not only is this transfiguration possible, but it is certain. May the peace and joy of Knowledge be with you.
14 June 1933
Friend, sister of former days and always,
In your letter of the 9th June which has just arrived, you write that the Buddha "is smiling with gentle irony", but the Buddha's smile can only be a smile of perfect understanding before a luminous accomplishment.
And in this state in which physical life has already lost for you so much of its concrete reality, whether you are in the solitude of the Himalayas or in the solitude of a house on the road to N, it should be equally easy to live in the deep peace of the immense Buddhist compassion.
Well, I suppose I shall be the first person to tell you that I do not find you so different from the others; of course I mean in a special way—for each one is different in a way from all the others, but it is certainly not of that difference that you are speaking.
I suppose also that the impression of being "different" which you gave to your people and generally to those with whom you lived comes from the fact that you are unconventional. This is
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generally considered as the sign of a great "difference" in the nature and temperament. It is only the sign that one has reached a certain inner freedom which liberates you—at least partially—from the collective suggestion and the social rules—and that inner freedom is one of the signs of a grown-up psychic being. But to have a grown-up psychic being is not, after all, something so very exceptional among the people who are upon earth now.
It seems to me that you received from us your share of encouragements like the others, but you have perhaps overlooked it as it might have been not exactly what you expected or wished for.
There was certainly an egocentric pride that had to be broken before any good spiritual progress could be made. But now the thing has been mostly done there is no need of being anxious for the future.
This is all I can say for the moment.
My help, love and blessings are always with you.
23 October 1939
Dear Madam,
Your letter has just reached me and I hasten to answer. Here are the replies to your questions.
The acute stage of your sister's illness was very brief and she did not suffer very much. For the last days she was saying that all the time she was feeling a great light and force upon her and the end was very tranquil. She did not know that she was going to die, we ourselves were fighting to the last to keep her and nothing was told to her of the greatness of the danger. Only once she had the impression that she was going to pass away, and then she wanted to write to you telling her will about her material affairs, money, property, etc. She informed me of what she wanted to write, but when it came to the actual writing she felt too weak and gave it up. At that moment she worried very much about you and wondered what you would do without her
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—several times before she expressed the wish that you should come and live with her here—more than once she asked that my force and protection should be with you and I promised her that whenever you wished for them they would be there.
We would have been very pleased to erect the grave-stone at our own expense, but I understand your feeling about it and it shall be as you wish. For the plan I had been relying on our architect; he and your sister had been close friends and she loved his work very much. But he has received a commission in the army in India and is now far away and too busy to make the plan. To save time I thought that you might yourself arrange for the design and send it to me for execution; only it must be very simple, otherwise it would be difficult to have it made here. I may say that she would not have liked to have a cross on her tombstone. I propose to put an inscription (in French, as it is a French graveyard):
Ci-gît la depouille mortelle de X
(Here lie the mortal remains of X)
(Date of birth—Date of death)
We intend to erect the memorial stone as close as possible to the anniversary of her passing away, so I need the design as soon as possible. You will find enclosed a note giving the measurement of the ground—the monument must be smaller than the ground.
Faithfully yours.
(About letters written to two high-ranking government officials)
I have read your letter to X and I am sorry I had not the opportunity of reading the one you wrote to Y.
The very fact that you wanted to despatch these letters without showing them to me ought to have put you on your guard
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concerning the origin of the impulse which you were obeying, as obviously it could not be a divine origin.
This said, I must add that there is nothing essentially wrong in the letter itself. What you say is correct, but surely it is not meant for the person to whom you wanted to send it, nor to any similar person, that is to say, someone in a prominent political position. Statesmen believe only in their own knowledge and power and, moreover, they receive hundreds of letters from people who think they have found a solution to the world situation, and, as in general these political leaders have no power of discernment, they cannot distinguish between what is true and what is false—and they believe that such letters are the product of the heated brain of religious fanatics. We cannot allow ourselves to be mixed up with them and for that it is better to keep a dignified silence.
In any case there is more than a ninety-nine per cent chance that your letter would never reach its destination and might fall into undesirable hands.
11 June 1954
Certainly to do the right thing is not cruel or selfish. What is cruel and selfish is to follow blindly one's weakness and thus to drag another with oneself into a pit from which it is always difficult to come out and never without losing much of one's time and energy, if not much more and much worse. So do not worry; try now seriously to find out the meaning and the aim of your life and prepare yourself to carry it out thoroughly and sincerely.
Do not worry. It will pass.
It is the vital's amour-propre that has received a fine knock on the face; it is vexed and has gone on strike. When it starts understanding that this is foolishness and that it leads to nothing,
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it will become reasonable again and listen once again to the wise advice of the psychic which tells it to be quiet and do its work well, that nothing of true value is lost, that true love is always there, immutable, and that only those movements which were not in conformity with the Divine Work have been destroyed.
For it is to the Divine Work that one must exclusively belong because it alone can, in our life, give us true happiness.
What has happened was more or less expected. Each one in life acts according to his own nature, and those who are not steady in their faith cannot be steady in their love either.
Surely I am not angry with you and my help is always there whenever you want it. As for doing anything wrong, all human beings do wrong things so long as they live in this world of ignorance, because even if they wish to do right, they do not know what is the right thing to do until their consciousness is transformed, and for transformation the first thing needed is complete sincerity; not only to speak the truth (this, it goes without saying, is an indispensable elementary condition) but to be always true to oneself and the Divine.
The whole thing is so powerfully symbolical and expresses so clearly how dangerous it is to be under the leading of an arrogant and ignorant human mind which relies on its own power alone and refuses the help of the Divine's Grace.
I do not need to enter into any detailed explanations; for with this clue you can easily understand the whole affair. Do you remember that I was asking you with some insistence who was driving the car and when you told me it was your driver, I felt relieved. But it was not your driver who held the steering wheel and the poor fellow suffered for the change.
What makes the whole thing much more striking is just the conversation I had with X. I asked him if he was interested in
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yoga. He said it interested him as philosophical speculation, but not as a thing to be lived. On my remark that it might come to him later on, he said, "Oh no! I am an atheist, you see, I do not believe in God." I asked smilingly, "Then how do you arrange your universe?" He felt the irony and replied: "I have taken a scientific attitude: I deny nothing but I believe in nothing." I felt the danger for Y and said with some force: "But, I suppose, you do not interfere with the beliefs of others and you will leave Y free to think and feel as she likes." "Certainly," was his answer, but I did not believe him.
Tell Y to keep her faith intact, whatever pressure may be put upon her to change her mind and attitude. She may have to meet some difficulties, but she must never forget to call on the Divine's Grace with confidence and the protection and help will surely be with her.
As for yourself, do not worry or apprehend dangers for Y. Her difficulties—and life is never without them—are not likely to be of the more external kind, and the others she can, by keeping her faith, meet and overcome.
Tell your mother to go deep inside her heart and she will feel that the Divine Grace is with her. I am sending her a card with my blessings. You can translate for her what is written upon it. You can tell her also that the consciousness of your father had left his body at the time of the accident. That is why he did not move or speak, there is nothing astonishing in that and no reason to be especially sorry about it.
I did not reply because her mind was in such a confusion as a result of her desires, that she would not have been able to understand what I would have written. Since then, I have tried to work on her mental and vital being to make it a little more open and receptive, so that she may understand that
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love for children and the growing hope for the future that they represent in the creation, does not mean that each and everybody must have children. To each one I disclose what is the best for him or her according to their nature and their spiritual need. But surely it is not always in keeping with the desires.
October 1960
X is a very refined girl, and she is extremely sensitive, easily hurt. Never scold her or speak harshly to her or force her to do anything. I find her very nice. But she looked so frightened—I don't know who could have told her about me that she should feel like that. Tell her that I found her very nice. She is very refined but somehow she has been living all tightened up. Let her feel quite free, don't try to put any ring around her. Let her feel completely relaxed and free here, and tell her that she should relax and just feel as if she were all the time in sunshine.
16 September 1968
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It is always the same old story of "selling the birthright for a mess of pottage" (I understand the "birthright" as the possibility or capacity to be the first to reach the Divine Realisation).
4 May 1932
An evil that the Divine has forgotten ought to be forgotten by everybody.
18 December 1933
By what right do you want your will to influence others? Each one should be free. It is only the guru who has the right to impose his will on the will of the disciple who has chosen him.
21 March 1934
It is with the actual need that comes the true solution.
2 July 1936
Let us be always very careful to avoid all that might encourage in us the spirit of display.
The more unimportant people are, the more seriously they take themselves.
15December 1944
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Titles give no value to a man unless he has acquired them in the service of the Divine.
An utterance must be judged on its own value, not on the value of the signature over which it stands.
A saying is good only if it is good without a signature.
One does not become wise by talking much; one is called wise if one is forbearing, without fear or foe.
Nothing is easier than to speak holy words to those who expect them from you. But it is more difficult to find people who want to hear holy words.
I did not feel the necessity of informing Sri Aurobindo's disciples that the Ashram is not a place to follow the silly habit of fooling people on the first of April.
But now I see that some of the inmates have taken advantage of my silence to indulge in such stupidities, and I am sorry for it.
1 April 1945
Do not try to hide things; whatever you want to conceal becomes all the more visible.
19 April 1952
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Only those who are capable of transmitting, along with a written word, the Divine force and consciousness, ought to give their autograph.
Let us hope that the inner realisation will prove equal to the outer one.
Better not count upon man.
July 1959
It is not in man's nature to be faithful.
Mother, why has God created so many human beings?
In the hope of having one good one.
And yet the Divine is everywhere, in the ignorant man as well as in the sage.
With man's appearance on earth first came the power of controlling fire. Among earthly creatures man was the first to kindle a warming flame in the hearth, to set an illumining light shining in the darkness. Mastery over fire is the clear indication of man's superiority over the animal.
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One thing alone, the privilege of man if he is truly a man: moral and physical cleanliness.
How can you hope to make any spiritual progress so long as you remain shut up in such a bargaining and calculating spirit?
17 December 1959
There is only one apology that I can accept; it is this: "I will never do it again", and keep your promise. All the rest is pretence.
7 April 1963
It is very easy not to do a thing. You must never again go to the cinema in town, never, and the fault will be wiped away.
The heart belongs to the terrestrial human world; the soul belongs to the universal spiritual world.
7 March 1965
It is clumsy and unbecoming enough to kiss a girl when she likes it; but to kiss a girl when she does not want it, is a coarse and imbecile act.
At least one lakh Americans have had experiences with LSD and mescaline—experiences called "psychedelic", which means "consciousness-expanding". These drugs may become legalised in America, and a nation-wide campaign is afoot. Here is a copy of the Psychedelic Review (1966, No. 7) with an article claiming a high Yogic state achieved with mescaline.
I have read the passage marked in the magazine. One thing is sure—these experiences are not spiritual and to give them
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that name is a proof of complete ignorance of what is really a spiritual experience.
The effect of the drug must be either an erratic wandering in the vital or the waking up of some subconscient notation gone asleep in the subconscient part of the being.
No time to say any more on such a futile subject.
To seek for pleasure is to ask for pain, for they are the obverse and reverse of the same thing.
All that is conducive to the keeping of one's consciousness in the most material planes of the being would be criminal.
Prizes belong to a rather low standard of life—but if we are still there...
(On the choice of a motor-car)
Do you want to go from one place to another without getting tired and without spending much time on the way, or do you want to be smart and look like an important man?
Shrinking is as bad as desire—so have the fan and let the Divine's will be done, for—after all—it is always His will that prevails!
One must be without preferences and without desire to know the Divine's will.
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Superficial reactions are not desirable.
A company that has no name, no business and no money, is it not a company; it is a fraud.
Honest business is getting more and more risky.
The will not to cheat but also that of not being cheated.
(About a woman who claimed to be Sri Aurobindo's successor)
All this must stop at once and for all. It is sheer forgery and the people who do forgery ought to go to prison1 or, at least, not be allowed to go about spreading their falsehood and duping credulous people. Her first predictions all failed. These will fail in the same way, and those who believe are simply fooled.
(About a sadhak who had been a Sannyasi before joining the Ashram. During a meditation, he saw snakes all around him.)
He must have a fear (perhaps subconscious) of the consequences of having rejected the Sannyasi's robe and this fear translates by the attacks of snakes, etc. You can tell him not to fear, that I am informed and nobody will hurt him.
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Let him try again to meditate with the confidence that he is protected—but he must not try in public first. If his meditation becomes quiet he can once more meditate with the others.
He pushed on the table before me a scrap of paper which seemed to have been torn from an exercise-book, without any letterhead or anything official, on which he had written for me in a clumsy hand that I was promising to pay for the extra stamps if they were necessary.
I felt like a poor traveller accosted in the corner of a wood by a band of brigands, pistols in hand, asking you to empty your pockets before letting you pass. I hesitated for a moment, but I am a sport and I signed, thinking, "We shall see how far they dare to go."
In this world one pays dearly for wanting to be unselfish!
(An extremely wealthy man visited the Ashram. Upon departure he made only a token contribution, apologising that he did not have enough money in hand. While journeying home, hoodlums held him up and threatened his life; he at once gave Rs. 5000 to be released. When informed of the episode, the Mother wrote:)
The same story, with small differences in the setting, could be told so many, many times!
And what about the stories of the efficiency of the Divine Grace?
They are less in number perhaps, but so much more comforting!
When you speak of sacrificing everything for the Divine, it means that you are very greatly attached to those things, you have a
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great value for them and still you are ready to leave them for the sake of the Divine.
Actually you should not be attached to anything or anybody except the Divine, and apart from Him nothing should have any value for you. And in that case you cannot speak of your sacrificing for the Divine.2
Everything is contagious. Every good thing and every bad thing has its vibrations. If you Catch those vibrations, you get that thing. The true Yogi knows these vibrations and can handle them; that is how he can give you peace, etc. Even so-called accidents are contagious. You catch others' sorrow and then feel sorrowful in the same way.3
From the aesthetic point of view I can say that the brown colour is better than the white, but it is quite absurd and foolish to think that anybody is better or worse simply because of his colour. The African negro thinks that his colour is the most beautiful of all. The Japanese thinks that his colour is superior to any other. Colour prejudice is a very low thing. It indicates a very low state of consciousness—a consciousness just emerging from the inconscient. It is not an idea, it is not a feeling, it is something still lower than that. When you think in terms of colour prejudice, your own psychic laughs at your foolishness; it knows that it has lived in white, brown, yellow, red, black and all sorts of bodies. When you get this sort of prejudice, bring it before your consciousness and it will disappear.4
There are people who can stand on their own legs. They do a thing because they find that it is good to do it. They offer themselves freely to the guru and take his guidance. But all the
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time it is a free movement. There are others who are slaves. They always want to have a social or official recognition for what they do. They can have self-confidence only if some authority recognises them. This is the slave mentality.5
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Under no pretext should the cycles be left outside in the sun.
27 February 1933
Do not worry about the French; you will learn it little by little.
Hydrogen Peroxide is costly. I should like to know if I can prescribe it.
You might prescribe for the moment and later, when X is better, replace the Peroxide by Potassium Chlorate.
31 March 1935
The trees planted in the Subbu house do not belong to us but to the house owner and they cannot be cut without the house owner's permission.
Any other action than the above one could lead us to great trouble.
As you are ordering the tweezers, it might be better to order at the same time the few things you require. The need for them can come suddenly and then there is no time to order, By buying like that little by little, we will one day be properly equipped.
6 July 1938
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I do not see much necessity of your learning sitar—but if it amuses you, you can continue.
28 March 1940
The house I have taken for my people belonged to a patient with tuberculosis. I came to know this only after I had already paid for the house. But then we got the whole house washed and burnt sulphur in some rooms. The thought that a T.B. patient lived here did not trouble me because he had gone away nearly six months back.
However, a suggestion about the danger of infection has been thrown into the atmosphere, so I pray to you for the protection of those who will stay there.
As the house has been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, there is no danger at all. People need not fear.
19 February 1940
If the pains do not disappear tonight, it would be better to take rest tomorrow.
27 July 1939
Who are the angels? What is their function in the cosmos? How can one come in contact with them? Are there books which can give a starting-point? Please tell me something about these things.
Your questions are impossible to answer in brief.
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I know no books that say anything of value on the subject.
2 June 1940
(About the legend of the Dalai Lama's rebirth and discovery)
At one time I knew their legend, but now I have forgotten it, so I can say nothing about it, except this general statement—that man can imagine nothing that has not happened at least once; so there is always a truth behind the statement. The mistake is to generalise and make a rule of it.
My parents very often ask me to keep a few rupees for pocket money, but I have been refusing it because I did not want them to feel that I suffer here for want of anything. Do you think it desirable for me to keep a few rupees for small expenses?
You can keep a few rupees as pocket money.
25 September 1940
When you say "Bonjour" to someone, you are wishing him a good day. If you do it consciously, thinking about what you are saying, the word "Bonjour" takes on a great force and helps to make the day a good one.
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(Someone wrote to the Mother about an acquaintance. The letter ended:)
On my arrival in India in 1957, I dreamed vividly that this man would give me $50,000—the price of X House (as I now know). Do you see anything interesting here? I have tried to present a clear mental picture for you to contact.
You can always write to him about this—and wait with a quiet faith for the result which is—"bien entendu"1—in the hands of the Lord.
14 April 1963
I am informed that on the north and south walls of the studio only plain glass will be used. It will be a pity if this is done. These two sides are completely covered with glass and as the sun goes to the north we get a strong light coming in from the north-east. The same thing happens when the sun moves south. The glasses are so high that even curtains cannot be used at that height.
It is not a big problem to convert the plain glass into ground glass. It is only a question of one or two months more. It has taken eighteen months to secure the glass, two months more should not matter.
I am quite sure that if you have frosted glasses everywhere, the room will be so dark that it will be impossible to work in it.
That is why I did not answer to X on the subject.
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But now I must tell you frankly what I see. In any case, it might be wiser to have the glasses sprayed lightly, so that if it is found too dark, the spray can be removed.
7 August 1963
The new tenants in X House have locked all the downstairs doors so that I am now unable to use the toilet facilities. Since there are none for my room, what shall I do?
From the beginning I had said to put a commode and a zinc tub in your second room for your personal use, so that you could be quite independent of everybody. I know that the water arrangement is made. How is it that the commode and the tub are not there?
The downstairs arrangement belongs to the downstairs accomodation, and it is the full right of the people living there to keep it locked.
23 August 1963
I ask you to move at once, but for a short time only, to one of the places put at your disposal.
Your refusal would put me in an awkward position as I have given my word.
Here are some of the printer's proofs received from Calcutta. They are not all very good. I am asking for some corrections to be made.
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These proofs are not good. Why do you want them to do some more? They are simply spoiling the work and it is a big loss of time and money. Almost all of these pictures are unusable as they are and have to be remade.
I cannot agree to your giving them any more work to do.
12 January 1966
Should we rebuild our agricultural project at Rassendren Gardens, or instead move our project to Ehny House, or thirdly attempt to do both?
If you have the capacity to do both well, do both. If one alone suffices to take your energies, concentrate on Ehny House.
4 May 1966
We would like to have—as the expression of what You want—a message from You about the new life for Sanskrit, of which You gave us a glimpse in Your talk of 11 November 1967. We would like to translate this message and publish it in the Ashram journals, for some disciples would like to know what You have said about this matter.
I see no need for any message. Messages only convince those who are already convinced.
It would be better to learn Sanskrit and try to make it a truly living language.
16 August 1969
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Mother, I want to experiment with gunpowder rockets, but X told me to ask You before doing anything with these explosive and dangerous devices. Will You allow it?
It is primitive and undeveloped natures that like noise. As for explosives, they are always dangerous; all this cannot be an object of curiosity.
2 September 1971
You should not use paper and envelopes with a printed letterhead to write to me—it is a waste.
Inform the school.
There are a lot of ants in the walls of the bakery. They come onto the table and get into the baking tins.
You must find out where they are coming from, which hole they are coming out of, and put a little pile of sugar near the hole. They will keep themselves busy carrying it away and will not bother you any more.
Mother, today I found a honey-comb on the Patience tree. We work in the shade of this tree. The honey-comb will get bigger and the tree is not very high. What could be done?
I don't think that the bees will sting you if you do not disturb them. But if you are afraid...
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When you want to add wheat flour to the vegetables, it is better to mix it first in a separate sauce-pan with a small quantity of water or, better, of vegetable soup. You give it a first boiling in this sauce-pan, stirring it all the time, very carefully, with a circular movement. After it has reached the boiling point you can safely add it to the vegetables, it will no more stick to the bottom of the pan.
8 February 1932
Too strong a fire burns the food, spoils the vessel and wastes the fuel. A slow fire means a little longer time for the cooking but also a nicer result in cooking.
Hurried work is always bad work; time must be given if you want good result.
To say that your cooking is bad would not be fair. At most what I can say is that it is not always equally good, but bad it is not, and some dishes are quite successful. It may be that a period of inner difficulty has passed over you, but you are bound to come out of it stronger than before. When the inner difficulty is removed, the cooking will be as regularly good as it was before.
24 December 1937
I have heard so many contradictory reports on the effects of food, spices, etc. that logically I have come to the conclusion that it must be—like all the rest—a personal affair and consequently no general rule can be made and, still less, enforced. This is the cause of my leniency.
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Nothing was told to me about the aluminum vessels of which I do not approve because aluminium is not good for cooking. I am speaking of my own experience.
You know that I am not enthusiastic about servants handling the food—but many people seem to like it, through laziness I suppose!!
In the kitchen, cleanliness is the most indispensable thing.
To avoid hair falling in the cooking, it is better to cover the head while cooking.
Special care must be taken to prevent insects from falling into the pans.
If you do not like the atmosphere created by taking food with others I do not see why you should do it.
13 September 1940
From the physical point of view, it is obviously better to eat quietly and without hurry, and I am quite sure that most often one can manage to get time for it. It is all a question of organisation.
27 September 1943
All quarrels in the place where food is prepared make food indigestible. The cooking must be done in silence and harmony.
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A childish question: Do animals and birds get the taste of food as we do?
Yes, but they do not think about it as we do.
Dear Mother,
I am told I need your permission for the following: (1) Borrow books from the library; (2) Purchase bread from the bakery. May I have your approval?
Bread you can receive freely unless you want an unusual quantity.
As for the books, we have been obliged to stop lending them because too big a number of them had disappeared—but if you keep them only for a short time and promise to be extra careful, I can give the permission.
11 January 1963
May I borrow books from our library from time to time for my studies? You had already given me permission some years ago.
You may borrow books if you take great care of them and follow the library rules.
12 March 1964
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Mother Dear,
May I have your permission to take the book "The Puppet Theatre", by Jan Bussell to show to X for making hand-puppets for gifts to the children for Christmas?
Yes, on loan and with care.
26 November 1964
Could I take books from the library to read at home? I need them for my English and other studies.
If Y [the head librarian] agrees, and if you take scrupulous care of them.
23 December 1964
Will you allow the students in my class to borrow books from the Library during the 1965 vacation and the 1966 school year? These books (list attached) will be useful to them for their French classes.
Very well.
P.S. Of course they must take great care of these books and return them clean and in good condition before the new term begins.
11 October 1965
(To the head librarian)
Z would like to borrow some books from the library. He says he will take great care of them. Are you willing to lend them to him?
13 February 1966
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It seems to me that a few sketches from nature would be useful, especially from the point of view of the proportion of legs and arms and the harmony of form.
(About a design for a crown for the Mother)
The design is very pretty indeed and will surely make a very successful crown.
7 September 1934
This idea of fresco seems to be a very good one and the wall of A's room on B's terrace quite an ideal place. There is only one point: will the lime hold on that wall which is now painted? This is to be asked of C.
It would be very nice to have a sea view there.
(About some cards done for people associated with the artist in his work, whose names were sent along with the cards)
The cards are all very nice, some extremely pretty. I am sending them back for distribution except one that D has chosen and kept with great pleasure.
All the names are all right.
27 October 1935
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(About sketches for paintings on asbestos sheets to be fixed on the walls of the Town Hall)
Yes, it is all right. When the sketches are ready they will have to be shown to the Mayor and the Governor and this will take some time. That is to say between the sketches and the actual beginning of the painting there will be plenty of time for the exhibition and the Darshan.
As I told you, it would be good to show the sketches to the Governor on the 10th of this month or about—because the "Conseil Général" is sitting just now and the final decision has to be taken by this "Conseil". Four sketches and the elevation of the room will be sufficient.
1 November 1935
(About the sketches for the Town Hall painting)
They are truly very fine. I see no change to suggest.
3 November 1935
(About the exhibition of paintings by Ashram artists held at the end of December 1935. Some paintings were presented to the French Governor.)
I forgot to tell you that the two pictures for the Governor have to be signed before they are framed. Will you inform E of this?
The exhibition seems to have been a great success.
With our blessings.
6 January 1936
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(I am sending you some art books for your opinion. I want to know your opinion about Ceźanne and Van Gogh, because they are praised so much by modern critics.)
The pictures by Cézanne and Van Gogh in the books you have sent are very beautiful (especially those of Cézanne). I shall return the books in one or two days—I want to look at them carefully.
12 March 1936
If you feel no true urge to paint, I see no necessity of your painting.
April 1939
Your way of approaching art is the right one and if you continue, keeping an absolute sincerity in your attitude and your attempt, you are bound to succeed.
There is something correct in your appreciation of oriental art, but it is incomplete. However we shall leave the subject for the moment, for I have no time to explain all that just now. As for Léonard de Vinci, Michel Ange1 and Raphael, I cannot put them on the same level. The two first are far greater than the last. They both belong to the world of creative force, Léonard with more subtlety and quiet, deep vision and purity, Michel Ange with more force and power especially in his sculptures which are incomparably magnificent. Raphael is more mental and superficial.
30 June 1939
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X told me that you have given permission for the decoration of the meditation hall. I had intended to decorate only the room where you used to sit for Pranam. I hear you would like the whole hall and the space up the staircase to be done. This is a very big scheme. But Y also intends to do the work and, if asked, X may also join.
What I wish to tell you is that to make the work harmonious and quiet only one person must design the whole thing, and all must work in the same manner. I would like to know from you if you have any subject matter. I wish to know from you how the thing should be done. Please let me know your idea.
I agree that one person alone must design the whole thing, the others can join in the execution only.
I have no subject or scheme. I only wish that the decoration should be quiet from the point of view of colour and also of composition.
Do some sketches and projects, and send them to me.
31 July 1939
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Compassion and gratitude are essentially psychic virtues. They appear in the consciousness only when the psychic being takes part in active life.
The vital and the physical experience them as weaknesses, for they curb the free expression of their impulses, which are based on the power of strength.
As always, the mind, when insufficiently educated, is the accomplice of the vital being and the slave of the physical nature, whose laws, so overpowering in their half-conscious mechanism, it does not fully understand. When the mind awakens to the awareness of the first psychic movements, it distorts them in its ignorance and changes compassion into pity or at best into charity, and gratitude into the wish to repay, followed, little by little, by the capacity to recognise and admire.
It is only when the psychic consciousness is all-powerful in the being that compassion for all that needs help, in whatever domain, and gratitude for all that manifests the divine presence and grace, in whatever form, are expressed in all their original and luminous purity, without mixing compassion with any trace of condescension or gratitude with any sense of inferiority.
15 June 1952
The Divine is everywhere and in all, He is all. Yes, in His essence and His supreme reality. But in the world of progressive material manifestation, one must identify not with the Divine as He is, but with the Divine as He will be.
30 June 1952
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One can say with equal exactitude that all is divine and that nothing is divine. Everything depends upon the angle from which one looks at the problem.
Similarly one can say that the Divine is perpetually becoming and also that he is immutable for all eternity.
To deny and to affirm the existence of God are both equally true; but each is true only partially. It is by rising above both affirmation and negation that one can approach the truth.
One can say further that whatever happens in the world is the result of the divine will and also that this will has to be expressed and manifested in a world that contradicts or deforms it. In practice, these two attitudes lead in the one case to peaceful submission to whatever happens, and in the other, on the contrary, to a ceaseless struggle to bring about the victory of what should be. In order to live the truth, one must know how to rise above the two attitudes and combine them.
April 1954
Keep your conviction if it helps you to build your life, but know also that it is only one conviction and that others are as good and true as yours.
Tolerance is full of a sense of superiority; it should be replaced by a total understanding.
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The Truth is not linear but global; it is not successive but simultaneous.Therefore it cannot be expressed in words: it has to be lived.
To acquire a perfect and total consciousness of the world as it is in all its details, one must have, at the outset, no personal reaction to any of these details, no spiritual preference even as to what they ought to be. In other words, a total acceptance with a perfect indifference and neutrality is the indispensable condition for a knowledge by integral identity. If there be a single detail, however small, which escapes the neutrality, that detail escapes also the identification. Therefore, the absence of all personal reaction, for whatever end it may be, even the most exalted, is a primary necessity for a total knowledge.
One can thus say, paradoxically, that we can know a thing only when we are not interested in it, or rather, more exactly, when we are not personally concerned with it.
Every time a god has taken a body, it has always been with the intention of transforming the earth and creating a new world. But till today, he has always had to give up his body without completing his work. And it has always been said that the earth was not ready and that men had not fulfilled the conditions necessary for the work to be achieved.
But it is the imperfection of the incarnate god that makes the perfection of those around him indispensable. If the incarnate god embodied the perfection necessary for the required progress, then this progress would not be conditioned by the state of the surrounding material world. And yet without any doubt, interdependence is absolute in this world of extreme objectification; therefore a certain degree of perfection in the manifestation as
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a whole is indispensable for a higher degree of perfection to be realised in the incarnate divine being. It is the necessity of a certain perfection in the environment that compels human beings to progress; it is the inadequacy of this progress, whatever it may be, that drives the divine being to intensify his endeavour for progress in his body. Thus the two movements of progress are simultaneous and complete each other.
When one looks back on one's life, one almost always has the feeling that in such and such a circumstance, one could have done better, even though at every minute one was acting as dictated by the inner truth. This is because the universe is perpetually in motion and what was perfectly true before is only partially true today. Or to speak more exactly, the action that was necessary at the moment it was done would no longer be necessary now: another action would be more useful in its place.
August 1954
When we speak of transformation, the word still has for us a vague meaning. It gives us the impression that something is going to happen and all will be well as a consequence. The notion reduces itself almost to this: if we have difficulties, the difficulties will disappear; those who are ill will be cured of their illness; if the body is infirm and incapable, the infirmities and incapacities will be removed; and so on. But as I have said, it is all very vague, it is only an impression. Now a remarkable thing about the body consciousness is that it is unable to know a thing with precision and in full detail except when it is on the point
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of accomplishing it.So, when the process of transformation becomes clear, when one is able to know through what sequence of movements and changes the total transformation will take place—in what order, in what way, so to speak: which things will come first, which things will follow—when everything will be known in full detail, that will be a sure indication that the hour of realisation is near. Because each time you perceive a detail with exactness, it means that you are ready to accomplish it.
For the moment, one can have a vision of the whole. For example, it is entirely certain that under the influence of the supramental light, the transformation of the body consciousness will take place first; then will follow a progress in the mastery and control of all the movements and functions of all the organs of the body; afterwards this mastery will change little by little into a sort of radical modification of the movement and then of the constitution of the organs themselves. All that is certain, although the perception of it is not precise enough. But what will finally take place—when the various organs have been replaced by centres of concentration of different forces, qualities and natures, each of which will act according to its own special mode—all this is still merely a conception and the body does not comprehend it very well, because it is still far from realisation and the body can truly comprehend only that which it is on the point of being able to do.
The supramental body will be unsexed, since the need for animal procreation will no longer exist.
The human form will retain only its symbolic beauty, and one can foresee even now the disappearance of certain ungainly protuberances, such as the genital organs of man and the mammary glands of woman.
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It is only in its external form, its most superficial appearance—which is as illusive to the latest discoveries of the Science of today as to the experience of the spirituality of the past—that the body is not divine.
O Supreme Reality, O Supramental Truth, this body is totally vibrant with an intense gratitude. Thou hast given to it, one after another, all the experiences that can lead it most certainly towards Thee. It has come to the point where identification with Thee is not merely the one thing desirable, but the only thing possible and natural.
How am I to describe these experiences that are at two opposite extremes? From one end I would say:
"Lord, to be truly near Thee, to be truly worthy of Thee, one must drink to the dregs the cup of humiliation and yet not feel humiliated. The contempt of man makes one truly free and ready to belong to Thee alone."
And from the other end I would say:
"Lord, to be truly near Thee, to be truly worthy of Thee, one must be lifted to the peak of human appreciation and yet not feel glorified. It is when men call one divine that one feels one's inadequacy and the need to be truly and totally identified with Thee."
The two experiences are simultaneous: the one does not blot out the other; on the contrary, they seem to complete each other and thereby become more intense. In this intensity the aspiration grows formidable, and in answer to it Thy Presence becomes evident in the cells themselves, giving to the body the appearance of a multicoloured kaleidoscope in which innumerable luminous particles in constant motion are sovereignly reorganised by an invisible and all-powerful Hand.
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This talk is based upon the Mother's essay entitled "Foresight" (On Education, CWM, Vol. 12, pp. 77-79).
"To foresee destiny! How many have attempted it, how many systems have been elaborated, how many sciences of divination have been created and developed only to perish under the charge of charlatanism or superstition. And why is destiny always so unforeseeable? Since it has been proved that everything is ineluctably determined, how is it that one cannot succeed in knowing this determinism with any certainty?"
Foresight means seeing beforehand; but can you tell me what is going to happen tomorrow? I don't think you can. Of course you can say, we shall sleep, eat, etc.—general things. But you can't say whether something unexpected is going to happen. Why? Someone has said, "For this a special eye is needed." It is possible to foresee without receiving images: there is a mental knowledge without images. Seers are usually able to foresee—not always, but often. I don't suppose you were thinking of an extra eye in the middle of the forehead like the Cyclops! No, you mean an inner eye belonging to another world. One doesn't normally see material things with this eye, or if one does, it is from a very special angle. There are people who can see at a distance what is going on in another country or in a place that is far away from them.
Are these things seen by the psychic vision?
No, the psychic vision doesn't usually deal with material things.
Isn't it mental vision?
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It could be, but then what you receive is the thoughts of the people in the place you see, because these people are focusing their thoughts on what is going on there.
Usually, "determinism" is taken to mean a logical chain of cause and effect; if you do one thing, a certain result will follow. For instance, if you eat a certain kind of food you will fall ill, if you swallow some poison you will die, and so on. But it often happens that the effects of certain determinisms cancel out the effects of other determinisms.
"Here again the solution is to be found in Yoga. And by yogic discipline one can not only foresee destiny but modify it and change it almost totally. First of all, Yoga teaches us that we are not a single being, a simple entity which necessarily has a single destiny that is simple and logical. Rather we have to acknowledge that the destiny of most men is complex, often to the point of incoherence. Is it not this very complexity which gives us the impression of unexpectedness, of indeterminacy and consequently of unpredictability?"
There are people whose destiny is very complex, giving the impression that the things which happen to them are quite unexpected and unforeseeable, unless one can "see" by some means other than the ordinary.
"To solve the problem one must know that, to begin with, all living creatures, and more especially human beings, are made up of a combination of several entities that come together, interpenetrate, sometimes organising themselves and completing each other, sometimes opposing and contradicting one another."
An "entity" is a personality or an individuality. There are many such "personalities" in each one of us. If these personalities agree
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and are complementary with one another, they make up a human being, a rich and complex "person". But that is not what usually happens. These personalities do not agree with one another. For example, one of them might wish to make some progress, to become more and more perfect, to get a deeper knowledge of things, to realise more and more, to proceed towards the perfection of the being, while another one may simply want to have fun and enjoy itself as much as it can; one day it will do this, the next day something else, etc. If the personalities do not agree, this person's life will be incoherent, and that is not unusual: in fact, these cases are very common.
"Each one of these beings or states of being belongs to a world of its own and carries within it its own destiny, its own determinism. And it is the combination of all these determinisms, which is sometimes very heterogeneous, that results in the destiny of the individual."
A person may have a great many personalities within him—ten or twenty, for example—and each one has its own destiny. In the physical world, an individuality means a human body; so, in a human body there are many individualities, each one with its own destiny. What happens then? Conflicts, friction, inner disorder created by these individualities which are unable to get on with one another. The strongest one gets the upper hand; it is not only dominant over the others but curbs them to stop them from rebelling. So, in the end, the unlucky ones, the repressed ones, go to sleep. They bide their time, and when that time comes, they suddenly jump up and turn everything upside down. If that happens very often, that person's life will be a very disorderly one. He will take up one thing today and go on with another tomorrow and so on.
I don't think it is true to say that a person is "harmonious" if he has no inner complexity. People who have this kind of illusory harmony are usually deeply immersed in material life, so
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that the slightest unpleasantness upsets them completely, because they have nothing else. No, a truly harmonious personality implies a conscious arrangement of the inner individualities. This arrangement may be effected spontaneously before birth, but that is rare. The arrangement is achieved later, by means of a discipline, a proper education. But to succeed in this one must consciously take the psychic being as the centre and arrange, harmonise the various individualities around it. True harmony, inner organisation is the result of such a persistent effort.
"But as the organisation and relationship of all these entities can be altered by personal discipline and effort of will, as these various determinisms act on each other in different ways according to the concentration of the consciousness, their combination is nearly always variable and therefore unforeseeable."
In mathematics, one sometimes takes a great many numbers to try and find all the possible combinations of them. At once one finds that it becomes impossible, for there are many numbers that are beyond expression. Similarly, if you have a great many destinies that come together in you and occur in various combinations, depending on the part of the being that predominates at the time, if you try to foresee what is going to happen, it is extremely difficult. It is the same thing with states of consciousness. A destiny represents an individual; they all react on one another and the number of things that may happen is frightening! So how will you foresee that? The "laws" of the universe always work independently, and that is the "secret" of the composition of the universe.
"The art of living would then consist in maintaining oneself in one's highest state of consciousness and thus allowing one's highest destiny to dominate the others in life and action. So one can say without any fear of
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making a mistake: be always at the summit of your consciousness and the best will always happen to you. But that is a maximum which is not easy to reach. If this ideal condition turns out to be unrealisable, the individual can at least, when he is confronted by a danger or a critical situation, call upon his highest destiny by aspiration, prayer and trustful surrender to the divine will. Then, in proportion to the sincerity of his call, this higher destiny intervenes favourably in the normal destiny of the being and changes the course of events insofar as they concern him personally. It is events of this kind that appear to the outer consciousness as miracles, as divine interventions."
I shall give you an example of how consciousness, a higher consciousness, intervenes.
A man steps out of his house to go to his office. He goes a certain way. Suddenly he remembers that he has left something behind. He steps back to go and get it and just then, in the place where he would have been if he had stepped forward, a lead pipe falls. Something in this man's consciousness, by telling him to go back, has saved his life. That is what we mean when we say that an intervention of consciousness can change destiny. In this man there were two destinies—among others, probably,—one which wanted him to die and one which wanted him to live.
Can't this be called "chance"?
No, because chance is something quite incoherent, something that occurs for no reason, and if you believe that life is something incoherent, you still have much to learn. On the contrary, it is quite coherent, each little thing is exactly determined and if something makes you feel that it is "chance" it is because you know nothing about the determinisms. They are completely beyond you, because there are innumerable interweaving laws and you know nothing about them. So if something happens
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according to these laws you say it is a "miracle" or "chance"!
Pavitra has said: "In mathematics it has been shown that if the number of intervening factors is very high, and if they act independently, the result appears to be what is called 'chance'."
I have just explained that this is only an "appearance".
People who make an effort to progress and grow in consciousness, realise that what at one time in their lives they took to be a disaster or a calamity may appear fifteen years later like a blessing, an effect of Grace, some highest good. From a higher standpoint, it is quite obvious that if you bring your highest consciousness down into your ordinary life, it will bring the greatest good into your life.
People who have made some progress always have this experience. They see clearly that the so-called "disaster" was in fact the starting-point of their ascension, an ascension which could not have taken place without it. If someone has the inner vision and is able to enter his higher consciousness at will, he will see that it is the greatest good that happens to him when he is in contact with his highest consciousness.
But, to be able to understand this, there are two conditions. You must make an effort for progress and be utterly sincere, for if you are not sincere, you will never have any insight into your own life. You must be able to look at yourself and say, "How tiny I am."
If something is ineluctably determined, how can it be changed?
I shall give you a simple example—but it may occur in any state of consciousness.
A stone falls. If it fulfils its destiny, it will fall to the ground, won't it? But you are there and you have a vital or a mental will—one or the other—and you catch the stone in your hand. You have changed the destiny of the stone. A leaf falls—onto the ground if it follows its normal destiny. You have a vital will,
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take the leaf in your hand. You have changed the destiny of the leaf. This happens millions of times in the universe and nobody notices it because it is so common.
But imagine that you have a very high range of consciousness. If into the determinism down here you can bring, by aspiration, an urge, a prayer, a higher consciousness, if you can get hold of your higher consciousness, so to say, and bring it into the material destiny, everything would immediately be changed. But because you do not see or do not understand what is happening, you say that it is chance or a miracle.
Not every destiny is active in a material destiny, and if you want to change this material destiny, you must be able to bring down another one from above. In this way, something new will enter into it—these "descents" of the higher consciousness take place all the time, but because we do not understand them, this "something new" that comes is turned by ordinary people into a "miracle".
This is precisely what we want to do by bringing down into the physical and material world the supramental force and consciousness. At first it works by diffusion, not directly. Its working is more or less veiled, more veiled and distorted as it descends into the physical world, until it becomes almost imperceptible. If it could work here directly, without this distortion and this veiling, it would change everything in an absolutely unexpected way.
I hope you will get this concrete example one day!
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This talk is based upon the Mother's essays "Transformation" and "What a Child Should Always Remember" (On Education, CWM, Vol. 12, pp. 80-81, 149).
"We want an integral transformation, the transformation of the body and all its activities. But there is an absolutely indispensable first step that must be accomplished before anything else can be undertaken: the transformation of the consciousness.... However, this is only a beginning; for the outer consciousness, the various planes and parts of the outer active being are transformed only slowly and gradually as a result of the inner transformation."
Why do I make a distinction between the integral transformation and the transformation of consciousness which I mentioned earlier? What is the connection between consciousness and the other parts of the being? What are these other parts?
This transformation of consciousness is something that comes to all who have practised a yogic discipline and become aware of the divine Presence or the Truth of their being. I don't say that "many" people have realised this, but at least quite a few. What is the difference between this experience and the integral transformation?
In the integral transformation both the outer nature and the inner consciousness are transformed. The character, the habits, etc. are completely changed, as well as the thoughts and the mental outlook on things.
Yes, but there is something which remains unchanged unless you take care and persist in your effort. What is it? The body
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consciousness. What is the body consciousness? The vital consciousness, of course—the physical consciousness as a whole. But then, in this physical consciousness as a whole, there is the physical mind—a mind that is occupied with all the ordinary things and responds to everything around you. There is also the vital consciousness, which is the awareness of sensations, impulses, enthusiasms and desires. Finally, there is the physical consciousness itself, the material consciousness, the body consciousness, and that is the one which has so far never been entirely transformed. The global, overall consciousness of the body has been transformed, that is, one can throw off the bondage of thought, of habits that one no longer considers inevitable. That can change, it has been changed. But what remains to be changed is the consciousness of the cells.
There is a consciousness in the cells: it is what we call the "body consciousness" and it is wholly bound up with the body. This consciousness has much difficulty in changing, because it is under the influence of the collective suggestion which is absolutely opposed to the transformation. So one has to struggle with this collective suggestion, not only with the collective suggestion of the present, but with the collective suggestion which belongs to the earth-consciousness as a whole, the terrestrial human consciousness which goes back to the earliest formation of man. That has to be overcome before the cells can be spontaneously aware of the Truth, of the Eternity of matter.
Of course, until now, those who have achieved this conscious transformation, who are aware of the eternal and infinite life within themselves, in the depths of their being, must, in order to preserve this consciousness, constantly refer back to their inner experience, return to their inner contemplation, live in a sort of more or less constant meditation. And when they come out of meditation, their outer nature is pretty much what it was before, and their way of thinking and reacting is not very different—unless they give up action altogether. But in that case the inner realisation, this transformation of the consciousness,
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is helpful only for the person who has achieved it, but it doesn't change the condition of matter or earthly life in the least.
For this transformation to succeed, all human beings—even all living beings as well as their material environment—must be transformed. Otherwise things will remain as they are: an individual experience cannot change terrestrial life. This is the essential difference between the old idea of transformation—that is, the becoming conscious with the psychic being and the inner life—and transformation as we conceive it and speak of it. Not only an individual or a group of individuals or even all individuals, but life, the overall consciousness of this more or less developed material life, have to be transformed. Without such a transformation we shall have the same misery, the same calamities and the same atrocities in the world. A few individuals will escape from it by their psychic development, but the general mass will remain in the same state of misery.
If only the inner consciousness is changed, won't some impurities still remain in the outer being?
Yes, of course. That is the essential difference between our yoga and the old yogic disciplines which dealt only with the inner consciousness. The old beliefs used to say—and some people interpret the Bhagavat Gita in this way—that there is no fire without smoke, no life without ignorance in life. That is the common experience, but it is not our idea, is it?
We know by experience that if we go down into the subconscient, lower than the physical consciousness, into the subconscient and even lower still into the inconscient, we can find in ourselves the origin of atavism, of what comes from our early education and the environment in which we lived. And this gives a kind of special characteristic to the individual, to his outer nature, and it is generally believed that we are born like that and we will stay like that. But by going down into the subconscient, into the inconscient, one can trace the origin
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of this formation and undo what has been done, change the movements and reactions of the ordinary nature by a conscious and deliberate action and thus really transform one's character. This is not a common achievement, but it has been done. So one may assert not only that it can be done, but that it has been done. It is the first step towards the integral transformation, but after that, there remains the transformation of the cells which I mentioned earlier.
There is an article by Sri Aurobindo in one of the Bulletins which describes the various stages through which the entire physical being can be changed. And this is what so far has never been done.
Does the inconscient in oneself belong to the individual being or to the earth?
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 become 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
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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.
One often has the experience of struggling more or less successfully with a defect or a wrong movement, but just when one gives up expecting a total victory, the thing is removed as if from outside. Why is that?
There are two main reasons for this. In such a case, you may suddenly become receptive, and in this state of receptivity you receive the help that is needed to remove the defect and the help becomes effective. The other reason is that, while trying with patience and perseverance, you have—perhaps unknowingly—hit upon the origin of the difficulty in the subconscient. And once that is done, it is easy to transform whatever you wanted to transform in yourself. But this transformation may seem to you to come "from outside", because you were not aware of what was going on. It does not come from outside, it is outside your active consciousness, and you are aware only of the "result" of your action. It may be one of these two things or both together.
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"WHAT A CHILD SHOULD ALWAYS REMEMBER"
"The necessity of an absolute sincerity.
"The certitude of Truth's final victory.
"The possibility of constant progress with the will to achieve."
Why do I insist on absolute sincerity? Perhaps the younger children don't understand what sincerity is, but the older ones surely ought to know! You have all passed through childhood and you probably remember what you were taught, what you were told when you were young. Parents nearly always tell their children, "You must not lie, it is very bad to tell a lie." But the unfortunate thing is that they lie in your presence and then you wonder why they want you to do something which they don't do themselves.
But, apart from that, why do I insist on the fact that children should be told from a very early age that it is absolutely necessary to be sincere? I am not addressing those who were brought up here, but those who were brought up in an ordinary family, with ordinary ideas. Children are very often taught how to outsmart others, how to dissimulate so as to appear good in others' eyes. Some parents try to control children through fear, and that is the worst possible method of education, for it is an incentive to lying, deceit, hypocrisy and all the rest. But if you repeatedly explain to children something of this kind: If you are not absolutely sincere, not only with others but also with yourself, if at any time you try to cover up your imperfections and failings, you will never make any progress, you will always remain what you are throughout all your life, without ever making any progress. So, even if you only want to grow out of this primitive unconscious state into a progressive consciousness, the most important thing, the one absolutely important thing is sincerity. If you have done something which you ought not to have done, you must admit it to yourself; if a less-than-admirable movement has occurred in yourself, you must look it in the face
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and tell yourself, "It was not good," or "It was disgusting," or even "It was wicked."
And don't think that there are people to whom this rule does not apply, for you cannot live in the physical world without having a share in the physical nature, and physical nature is essentially a mixture. You will see, when you become absolutely sincere, that there is nothing in yourself that is absolutely unmixed. But it is only when you look yourself in the face, in the light of your highest consciousness, that whatever you want to eliminate from your nature will disappear. Without this striving for absolute sincerity, the defect, the little shadow, will stay in a corner biding its time to come out.
I am not speaking of the vital, which is hypocritical, I am merely speaking of the mind. If you have a small, disagreeable sensation, a slight uneasiness, see how quickly the mind gives you a favourable explanation! It lays the blame on someone else or on the circumstances, it says that what you did was right and that you are not responsible, and so on. If you look carefully into yourself, you will see that it is like that and you will find it most amusing too! If a child starts examining himself carefully very early, observing himself honestly so as not to deceive himself or deceive others, it will become a habit and spare him much struggling later on.
Now I am addressing parents and teachers, for it is very important to teach children that it is absolutely useless to "look" as if they were good, to "look" as if they were obedient, to "look" as if they were studying well, etc. Very often, the course parents and teachers adopt with their children is to encourage them to "look as if". It often happens that if a child spontaneously confesses his mistake, he is given a scolding. This is one of the greatest mistakes of parents. You must have sufficient control over yourself never to scold a child, even if he has broken a very valuable and cherished object. You should simply ask him, "How did you do that?" "What happened?" For the child ought to see why it happened, so that he can be
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more careful next time. But that is all. In this way you will get the child to be sincere with you instead of trying to deceive you.
The greatest obstacle to the transformation of one's own character is hypocrisy. If you always keep this in mind when dealing with a child, you can do him a lot of good. Of course, you must not sermonise or lecture him, etc. You should simply make him understand that there is a nobility in the being, a great purity, a great love of beauty, which is so powerful that even the most wicked and criminal people are forced to acknowledge a truly beautiful or heroic or selfless act.
For, in human beings, there is a presence, the most marvellous Presence on earth, and except in a few very rare cases which I need not mention here, this presence lies asleep in the heart—not the physical heart but the psychic center—of all beings. And when this Splendour is manifested with enough purity, it will awaken in all beings the echo of this Presence.
Why does insincerity get such a sanction from society?
Because society is obsessed with success.
Is there a difference between sincerity and loyalty?
There is always a difference between two different things. Of course, it is very difficult, I suppose, to be loyal without being sincere, and vice versa. But I have known people who were loyal and yet lacked a certain kind of sincerity. The opposite is not unusual. The one doesn't automatically follow from the other, but it is obvious that honesty, straightforwardness, loyalty and sincerity are closely related. I think that it is extremely difficult for someone to be perfectly sincere without being loyal and honest, but of course this demands the utmost.
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Isn't loyalty limited by a feeling for something or someone? Isn't sincerity something wider?
Yes, it is. Loyalty implies some kind of hierarchical relationship, so to say, with someone or something. There is a sort of interdependence. The usual idea is that loyalty means keeping one's word, doing one's duty scrupulously, etc.
Someone who lives all alone in a forest can practise total sincerity, but you can only practise loyalty in social life, in relation to other people. A person who is entirely consecrated in an act of inner devotion to the divine Presence, can be loyal to this Presence. This implies a relationship with something in front of you, or a relationship with the universal.
The German generals were loyal to Hitler, but they weren't sincere with themselves.
This is a very complex problem. They might have been sincere in relation to their own ideal. You do not know.
I have known beings who were the most active instruments against the divine life, against the divine realisation. Well, to some extent, they were loyal to their own ideal and very sincere in their...1 These beings are called Asuras, but as I have just said, they were sincere in relation to their own ideal.
So sincerity is not enough?
I didn't say they had an absolute sincerity. I simply said that they were very sincere. Perhaps, in some part of their being, there was something that did not try to know any more than it knew. It is quite probable.
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Some people think they have achieved absolute sincerity.
If you are sure you have achieved absolute sincerity, you can be sure that you are immersed in falsehood!
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This talk is based upon the Mother's essay "The Science of Living" (On Education, CWM, Vol. 12, pp. 3-8).
The psychic being is formed by the inner Truth and organised around it.
The vital is the dynamism of action. It is the seat of the will, of impulses, desires, revolts, etc.
The physical is the concrete domain that crystallises and defines the thoughts, the movements of the vital, etc. It is a solid foundation for action.
Finding one's psychic being implies a kind of conviction, a faith in the existence of this psychic being. One must become aware of it and then allow it to take up the direction of life and action; one must refer to it and make it one's guide. One becomes aware of the movements of one's being by referring more and more to the psychic being.
Having an aim is not sufficient. One must have the will to attain it by trying always to trace all one's movements back to their origin.
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Self-mastery means being conscious of oneself and one's movements, doing what one has decided to do and not what others want one to do.
"In various times and places many methods have been prescribed for attaining this perception [of the psychic presence in us] and ultimately achieving this identification [with it]. Some methods are psychological, some religious, some even mechanical. In reality, everyone has to find the one which suits him best, and if one has an ardent and steadfast aspiration, a persistent and dynamic will, one is sure to meet, in one way or another—outwardly through reading and study, inwardly through concentration, meditation, revelation and experience—the help one needs to reach the goal."
What is the difference between mechanical, religious and psychological methods? Religious methods are those adopted by the various religions. Not many religions speak of the inner Truth; for them, it is more a matter of coming into contact with their God. Heaven and hell: this is a roundabout way of saying...1
Psychological methods are those that deal with states of consciousness, that try to realise the inner self by withdrawing from all activity and attempting to create the conscious inner conditions of detachment, self-abstraction, concentration, higher Reality, renunciation of all the outer movements, etc. A psychological method is one which acts on the thoughts, feelings and actions.
Mechanical methods are those which are based on purely mechanical means—one can benefit from them by using them
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in a certain way. Take breath-control, for example: it acts more or less mechanically, but it is sometimes recommended to add to this a concentration of one's thought, to repeat a word, as in Vivekananda's teaching.This works up to a certain point, but then it fades away. These human attempts in various times and places have been more or less successful individually but they have never given a collective result.
The psychological method is far more difficult but far more effective: through your actions, to be in a state of inner will to express nothing in yourself but the Truth of your being, and to make everything dependent on that Truth. Of course, if you do nothing, it is easier, but it is also easier to deceive yourself. When you sit down in isolation, in complete silence and far away from everybody, and examine yourself with more or less indulgent eyes, you may imagine that you are realising something wonderful. But when you are put to the test at every minute of your life, when you have the occasion to become aware of your imperfections, your infirmities, your little movements of bad will a hundred times a day, you soon lose the illusion of being...2 and so your efforts are more sincere.
That is why, instead of deciding that we would have an Ashram in a solitary forest where everything is very beautiful, very restful, instead of being aloof from the world and attending only to our own little selves, we are trying on the contrary to take up all the activities of life and make them as conscious as we can, and, in our contacts with other people, to become more clearly aware of all the inner movements.
Running away from difficulties is never a way of surmounting or overcoming them. If you flee from the enemy you won't be able to defeat him and he has every chance of defeating you. That is why we are here in Pondicherry and not on some Himalayan peak. Although I admit that a
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Himalayan peak would be delightful—but perhaps not so effective.
Next time I shall speak about mental discipline, for I have quite a lot of things to say on this subject. It is a terrible stumbling-block: people think they have a superior intellect and on that basis judge things which they know nothing about. This is, if not the greatest, at least one of the greatest obstacles for mankind. For it so happens that mankind is, of all animals—pardon me, but we are still animals!—the only one who can make use of articulate language and turn out pages and pages of... He thinks he is so superior because he can write down and make others read what he thinks and feels. And from this eminence of mental greatness, of mental nobility, he dismisses as so much childishness things that are infinitely superior to him.
Does the psychic being identify itself with the inner Truth?
It organises itself around it and enters into contact with it. The psychic is moved by the Truth. The Truth is something eternally self-existent and dependent on nothing in time or space, whereas the psychic being is a being that grows, takes form, progresses, individualises itself more and more. In this way it becomes more and more capable of manifesting this Truth, the eternal Truth that is one and permanent. The psychic being is a progressive being, which means that the relation between the psychic being and the Truth is a progressive one. It is not possible to become aware of one's psychic being without becoming aware at the same time of the inner Truth. All those who have had this experience—not a mental experience but an integral experience of contact with the psychic being, not a contact with the idea they have constructed of it, but a truly concrete contact—all say the same thing: from the very minute this contact takes place, one is absolutely conscious of the eternal Truth within oneself and one sees that it is the purpose of life and the guide of the world. One
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can't have one without the other; in fact, it is this that makes you realise that you are in contact with your psychic being. It may not be a conscious contact, but something that governs your life.
Some people say there is something outside their own will that organises their whole life, that puts them in the required condition, that attracts favourable circumstances or people, that arranges everything outside them, so to say. In their outer consciousness, perhaps they wanted something and worked for it, but something else came. Well, after some years, they realise that this is what really had to happen. You may know nothing of the existence of a psychic being within you and yet be guided by it. For, in order to become aware of something, you must first of all admit that this thing exists. Some people don't. I have known people who had a genuine contact with their psychic being without knowing at all what it was, because there was nothing in them that corresponded to the knowledge of this contact.
Can one be in contact with the eternal Truth without having any contact with one's psychic being?
Some beings in the universe may have this direct contact with the eternal Truth without any contact with the psychic being, because they don't have any psychic being. But in man there is always a psychic being, and it is always through it that he comes into contact with the eternal Truth. And this contact with the psychic being is usually disclosed to him in the same way, for it carries with it its own grace, its own splendour and beatitude. The psychic being is characteristic of man, and if one goes to the bottom of the matter, perhaps this is what gives man his superiority.
Many of the old philosophies did not have a complete knowledge of the classification of the being—the psychic being, the inner Truth were not known to them. These systems had very simplistic notions, such as the outer and the inner consciousness,
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the waking and the sleep consciousness. They had no detailed knowledge of human psychology, or if they had one, they did not think it advisable to impart it to everybody. In former times, knowledge was not given to just anyone. A person first had to demonstrate his goodwill very clearly; he had to show sufficient capacities, a sufficient degree of development before he was taught certain kinds of knowledge. But now, in modern life, this knowledge is printed and anyone can buy books and read them. And of course you meet hundreds of people who have learned a lot of words without knowing anything of what they mean. At one time we had people here who claimed to have realised the Supermind, but did not even know what it was.
With the democratic organisation of things, this popularisation of knowledge is inevitable. Perhaps there are other methods of selection, more concealed, less obvious, but more effective.
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This talk is based upon the Mother's essay "The Science of Living", (On Education, CWM, Vol. 12, pp. 3-8).
"The mind is not an instrument of knowledge; it is incapable of finding knowledge, but it must be moved by knowledge. Knowledge belongs to a much higher domain than that of the human mind, far above the region of pure ideas. The mind has to be silent and attentive to receive knowledge from above and manifest it. For it is an instrument of formation, of organisation and action, and it is in these functions that it attains its full value and real usefulness."
The mind is "an instrument of formation, of organisation and action". Why? The mind gives a form to the thoughts. This power of formation forms mental entities whose life is independent of the mind that has formed them—they act as beings that are at least semi-independent. One can form a thought which then travels, goes out to someone, spreads the idea it contains. There is a mental substance just as there is a physical substance, and on this plane the mind can emanate innumerable forms. These forms can be objectivised and seen, and that is one of the most common explanations for dreams. For while you are active and while the physical eyes can see physically, some people can see mentally at the same time. But when you are asleep, your eyes are closed, the physical is asleep and the mind and vital become active.
On the mental plane all the formations made by the mind—the actual "forms" that it gives to the thoughts—return and appear to you as if they were coming from outside and give you dreams. Most dreams are like that. Some people have a
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very conscious mental life and are able to enter the mental plane and move about in it with the same independence they have in physical life; these people have mentally objective nights. But most people are incapable of doing this: it is their mental activity going on during sleep and assuming forms, and these forms give them what they call dreams.
There is a very common example—it is amusing because it is rather vivid. If you have quarrelled with someone during the day, you may wish to hit him, to say very unpleasant things to him. You control yourself, you don't do it, but your thought, your mind is at work and in your sleep you suddenly have a terrible dream. Someone approaches you with a stick and you hit each other and have a real fight. And when you wake up, if you don't know, if you don't understand what has happened, you say to yourself, "What an unpleasant dream I had!" But in fact it is your own thought which came back to you, like that. So be on your guard when you dream that someone is unkind to you! First of all, you should ask yourself, "But didn't I have a bad thought against him?".
Thoughts are real entities which usually last until they are realised. Some people are obsessed by their own thoughts. They think of something and the thought returns and goes round and round in their heads as if it were something from outside. But it is their own formations returning again and again and striking the mind that has formed them. That is one aspect of the matter.
Did you ever have the experience of a thought taking the form of words or a sentence in your mind and returning over and over again? But if you are clever enough to take a piece of paper and a pencil and write it down—that is the end of it, it won't return any more, you have thrown it out of yourself. The thing has had its little satisfaction, it has manifested itself sufficiently and it won't return.
And there is something more interesting still: if you have a bad thought that annoys and disturbs you, write it down very attentively, very carefully, putting as much consciousness
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and will as you can. Then take the piece of paper and, with concentration, tear it up with the will that the thought will be torn up in the same way. That is how you will get rid of it.
The mind is an instrument of organisation. On the outer plane, some people have an organised mind. They have organised their own ideas—note that this is not a very common occurrence!—their own thoughts. But if you look inside yourself, you will see that you have the most contradictory thoughts and if you have not taken care to organise them, they dwell side by side in your head, so to say, and create utter disorder.
For instance, I used to know someone who was able to hold the most mystical ideas in his mind together with the most positivist ideas, that is, the most materialistic ideas, the negation of everything that is not purely matter. It was all unorganised and this person was constantly tossed this way and that in a perpetual confusion. Note that I don't disapprove of your having all these ideas: it is good to be able to look at things from all sides at once and, as we were saying the other day, there is a way to reconcile the most contrary ideas. But you must take the trouble to do it, you have to organise them in your mind, otherwise you live in a chaos. I have noticed something else: people whose minds are in disorder keep their rooms and their belongings in a similar state of disorder. I have seen people who had no order in their minds and if you open their chest of drawers or their cupboards, you will find an awful mess—everything is in a jumble. There are people who are intelligent and have slips of paper on which they jot things down—authors, for example—but if by chance they need one of these notes, they have to spend an hour hunting it out and turning everything upside down! They either find the paper in the waste-paper basket or in the drawer where they put their handkerchiefs. Well, that's how it is, isn't it?
There are people who may not be very intelligent, but who have taken the trouble to put some order among the few ideas they have. If you open their cupboard, you will find that they have very few things, but these things are neatly and tidily
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arranged, because they have organised material things in the same way as they have organised their thoughts. The mind is therefore an instrument of organisation.
People who have some power of organisation may start by organising their little personal belongings, then their lives and the events in their lives. They may be in charge of a certain number of people—they can organise a business, a school, anything. Or else if they have the power to govern, they are able to organise a country. Some people have this power of organisation and others don't.
I shall give you an example of someone who had this gift of organisation. It is an old story, but one can always tell old stories. I used to know Sir Akbar Hydari, who was Finance Minister and then Prime Minister of Hyderabad. Before his time, the Hyderabad finances were in the state of chaos I have just mentioned and the Government was always short of money. It was a rich area which ought not to have been in that position. Then came Sir Akbar. He became Finance Minister and from the very first year, they had a few lakhs of revenue and everything was so wonderfully organised that it was perhaps one of the only places in the world where people had no taxes to pay. They had no taxes or duties to pay and the State was never short of money and this went on throughout his whole ministry. But he fell ill and had to leave; in the end, he died. He was replaced by someone who did not have his gift of organisation and immediately, from the very first year, again they were short of 17,000 lakhs! It was the same province, with the same revenue, the same people, but Sir Akbar's marvellous gift of organisation was no longer there. That is a true story. Very few people have this gift.
It is as if you had a large number of miscellaneous things in front of you: it would take a century to make all the possible combinations of them. Some people don't need to do that—they have the vision, they immediately know where to put things and establish an organised relation between them so as to form something orderly and organised. This capacity for organisation
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is indispensable in life, and if you want to learn to organise, begin by organising your own drawer and you will end up by organising your own head! Some people should do both these things. You must first see the ideas in your mind before you can organise them—at least you can see your handkerchiefs and clothes! But you will find that a certain care is needed to achieve an intelligent arrangement—don't put the things you use every day beneath the things you use once a month!
The mind is also an instrument of action. The thoughts form plans. The mind forms a plan of action and with this formation of independent and active entities which I mentioned earlier, it stirs the other parts of the being—the vital and physical—and impels them to action. It often happens that you think of some action or other—you don't do it immediately, but the thought that wants to manifest in this action returns again and again. Perhaps you hear in your mind the words, "I must do that, I must do that," until you leave everything and do what you have "thought". Well, that is the mind's power of action. Before you get it, you must learn to organise, harmonise and control your mind. But when you have that power, you can begin to act purposefully, whereas most people are tossed about by thoughts whose formation they were not even aware of.
There are many people whose thoughts come from outside, who have not taken the care to organise their mind, which is a sort of public square. So all the thoughts coming from outside meet there; sometimes there are clashes: you don't know what to do, you can't see anything clearly, etc. There are also people who live in a more or less neutral mental state. Suddenly, they find themselves with someone whose mind is well organised and they begin to think clearly—about things that they knew nothing of a minute ago. There are others, on the other hand, who normally think very clearly and know exactly what is going on in their minds. But they come into contact with certain people and everything gets confused, vague and muddled. They lose the thread of their thoughts and forget what they wanted to
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say. This is an effect of contagion and this mental contagion is constant. There are very few people who do not receive thoughts from outside. I have known people—many people—who, for example, had a very strong faith, who could see very clearly into themselves, who knew very well what they wanted to do, etc. But when they were with other people and tried to grasp all that, to express it, they could no longer find it; instead, there was something that moved in a sort of semi-obscure confusion and they felt incapable of formulating their thought, which before had been quite clear.
There is another phenomenon which is considered spiritual, but which is spiritual only indirectly: it is when you find yourself near someone who has controlled his thought and achieved mental silence. You suddenly feel this silence coming down into yourself and something which was impossible for you half an hour earlier suddenly becomes a reality. This is a rather unusual phenomenon.
"There is another practice which can be very helpful to the progress of the consciousness. Whenever there is a disagreement on any matter, such as a decision to be taken, or an action to be carried out, one must never remain closed up in one's own conception or point of view. On the contrary, one must make an effort to understand the other's point of view, to put oneself in his place and, instead of quarrelling or even fighting, find the solution which can reasonably satisfy both ties; there always is one for men of goodwill."
I said this mainly for men of action whose thinking is direct and formative, very active and dynamic. They see things in a linear way which is necessary for action; they can see that a thing must be done in such and such a way. Another person may have a thought which is equally dynamic and say, "No, it ought to be done like this." So they quarrel, they are unable to reach an
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agreement. But one can keep quiet for a minute and look at the thing calmly. The other person is not necessarily showing ill will, his point of view may be true or partially true. The question is to find out why he thinks like that. So you stop to think it over and try to identify yourself with the other's point of view, to put yourself in his place and tell yourself, "He may have a reason for thinking as he does, and it may be better than mine." And in this way, you must try to find the solution which can reasonably satisfy both ties. This is very important when dealing with material things. Naturally, each one sees only his own point of view and his own point of view is always selfish. It is very hard to admit another point of view, for this point of view may be "detrimental" to you. This is an absolute truth where nations are concerned. If nations, instead of being in perpetual argument about straightforward things and defending their own interests and seeing only their personal viewpoint, that is, the viewpoint of their national personality, if instead of doing all that, they attempted to understand that each nation has a right to live on earth and that it is not a matter of depriving them of this right, but of finding a compromise that would satisfy everyone. There is always a solution, but on one condition, not in order to find the solution but to implement it: individuals and nations must have goodwill.
If they have no goodwill, if they know perfectly well that they are in the wrong but don't care, if they insist on their own interests even when they are absolutely wrong, then there is nothing to be done—you can only leave people to their fighting and mutual destruction. But if, on the contrary, there is mutual goodwill, there is always a good solution.
Can you define "compromise"?
It is an intermediate solution. It is not always the golden mean. A kind of harmonisation must be found.
I will tell you another story, the story of a merchant who set
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out on a journey saying to his neighbour, "I am going away, I don't know when I shall be back. Keep this big jar for me, I shall take it back when I return." Some time later, the neighbour was tempted to open the jar. He did so and found, under a thick layer of dust... some gold coins! This was a great temptation for him and he began to think, "Perhaps my friend has died, perhaps he won't return. What is the use of keeping all this money inside here? And I am so much in need of money!" So he took a few coins, a few more, many more, until all the gold in the jar had gone. The olives that concealed the gold had gone bad and so he threw them away.
One day the merchant returned and said to his neighbour, "Give me back my jar." A few days later, the neighbour returned the jar all coated with dust, as it was before. The merchant opened the jar and found only some fresh olives. All the gold had gone. He went to the judge and explained what had happened. But the judge said, "How can I be sure you are telling the truth? Perhaps your neighbour is telling the truth." They argued and were unable to find a solution. The merchant, who had a headache, thought, "I shall go for a walk in the city tonight." So he strolled through the city and suddenly he saw some children playing. They had a jar, and also a merchant, a neighbour and a judge! The judge was telling the neighbour, "Open up this jar. But I see only fresh olives! How long has it been since the merchant went away?" "Two and a half years." "Really? So you were able to keep these olives fresh for so long? Didn't you by any chance remove what was in the jar and put in some fresh olives?" The neighbour ran away. The merchant thought, "Well, these children are far more intelligent than I am, they found the solution at once." So he went back to his neighbour and asked him the same questions; and of course the neighbour had nothing further to say and was forced to admit the truth.
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This talk is based on Chapter 3 of The Mother by Sri Aurobindo.
"The more complete your faith, sincerity and surrender, the more will grace and protection be with you. And when the grace and protection of the Divine Mother are with you, what is there that can touch you or whom need you fear? A little of it even will carry you through all difficulties, obstacles and dangers; surrounded by its full presence you can go securely on your way because it is hers, careless of all menace, unaffected by any hostility however powerful, whether from this world or from worlds invisible. Its touch can turn difficulties into opportunities, failure into success and weakness into unfaltering strength. For the grace of the Divine Mother is the sanction of the Supreme and now or tomorrow its effect is sure, a thing decreed, inevitable and irresistible."
What does "decreed" mean?
It comes from the word "decree". It is a law, it is something which is... It is decreed that such and such a thing will be done in such and such a way, for example. Governments pronounce decrees on what ought and ought not to be done. They are official orders. So, in this case, it is an order from the Supreme, it is an inevitable order.
"Surrounded by its full presence you can go securely on your way because it is hers."
It is the same way. From the moment you are surrounded by
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the divine grace and are in a fit state to receive the divine grace, your way and hers have become one and the same.
What are the "invisible worlds"?
That is a formidable question!
You have heard and read that we are made up of various states of being: physical, vital, mental, psychic, spiritual, etc. Well, all these inner states of being correspond to invisible worlds. There is a physical world, a vital world, a mental world, a psychic world, and many spiritual worlds, a whole range of more and more subtle worlds approaching nearer and nearer to the Supreme. So, since you carry within yourself a corresponding range, by studying and becoming aware of your inner being you gradually make yourself capable of becoming aware also of these invisible worlds. For example, the mind: if the mind is conscious, coordinated, well controlled, it can move about it in the mental world just as the body does in the physical world and see what this mental world is like, what is going on there, what are its characteristics and so on. These things are not invisible in themselves—they are invisible to the physical consciousness and the physical senses, but not to the corresponding inner states of consciousness or the corresponding inner senses. For, by a systematic development one can acquire senses in these worlds and one can then live a similar life with different characteristics. I mean that one can live an objective life in these worlds if one is sufficiently developed oneself. Otherwise, they wouldn't exist for us. If we did not carry in ourselves something corresponding to all that exists in the universe, this universe wouldn't exist for us. And it is only a matter of systematic and methodical development. Some people have it spontaneously for various reasons, usually as a result of a long preparation in previous lives, sometimes because of specially favourable circumstances—they are born in a certain environment, of parents who had developed these faculties, and they were helped to develop them
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from childhood. Other people have to acquire them systematically by inner discipline; it takes time, a long time, but after all it doesn't take much longer than for the brain of a child to grasp abstract mathematics. That takes years.
Do these invisible worlds exist in a fixed place in the universe?
They form part of the universe, of course. Yes, one can say that they exist in a fixed place. But to understand that, to understand these things requires a mind capable of understanding that there are other dimensions than the purely material dimensions. For when you are told that your psychic being is in your body, that doesn't mean that if you open up your body you will find your psychic being inside. You will find your heart, your stomach and the rest, but not your psychic being. And yet it is correct to say that it is within you. It extends beyond you too, but it is in another dimension. And one can say that there are as many dimensions as there are different worlds. Certainly all these invisible worlds—so-called invisible worlds—are contained, so to say, in the material universe. But they don't occupy the place of other things. To make an imperfect comparison—it is valid only as a comparison—you can hold countless ideas in your brain and you certainly don't have the feeling that you have to drive one out so that another one can come in, do you? They don't occupy any space in that sense.
"And the conditions needed for its creation."1
They are innumerable and vary with the person and the circumstances. But, ultimately, they can be reduced to what he said in the beginning or a little further on, I forget... Here:
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"faith, sincerity and surrender". These are the required conditions. And afterwards, he describes what kind of faith, what kind of sincerity and what kind of surrender. These are the required conditions so that her victory may be won over the hostile forces—the conditions on your side. Her conditions—I suppose she fulfils them spontaneously—are to respond to the aspiration, to have power, clearsightedness, knowledge and will. That is obvious. So, one has to give her a field for her work and conditions under which she may work. And these conditions are: faith, sincerity and surrender—a pure, unmixed faith, a perfect, integral sincerity and an unconditional surrender. This is what he has described for you.
Is there a limited number of dimensions?
Limited? Or unlimited? What are you asking? How many dimensions? Ah, should we ask the mathematicians or the occultists? The occultist!
Well, in a certain way the number is limited, but since in each dimension there is another limited number of subdivisions and since in these subdivisions there is again a considerable number of subdivisions, we can say that it is unlimited—and yet limited. So, if you understand anything, you are lucky!
If the number is limited, how many are there?
Twelve.
How can there be "an egoistic faith in the mental being"?2
He has described it very well: "tainted by ambition", etc. I
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find that if you put it differently, it is much more true. Is there any faith which doesn't have a little of all that? For it is said, it has been repeated that faith, if it is pure, is capable of... nothing can resist it. This means that if one were to have an absolutely pure faith, untainted by all these things, a true faith, let's say the true faith, well, nothing would be impossible. One could be transformed overnight, one could bring down the Supermind in a moment, one could... do anything, one could do anything if one had faith. But it must be a pure faith, it should not be mixed with any personal reactions or any personal will.
A pure faith is something all-powerful and irresistible. One doesn't often find a faith that is all-powerful and irresistible, and this shows that it is not quite pure. The question should be put like this: each one of us has a faith, for example, a faith in something, say a faith in the divine Presence within us. If our faith were pure, we would at once be aware of this divine Presence within us. This example is very easy to understand. You have faith, it is there, but you don't have the experience. Why? Because the faith is not pure. If the faith were quite pure, immediately, the thing would be done. This is very true. So, when you become aware that the thing is not realised at once, you can begin to look: "But why isn't it realised? What is there in my faith?" And if you go on looking with the same sincerity, you will find that there are many little things in it, so many little things—not big, as big as this—which are repulsive. Little things. So many times a little conceit comes in, and then a desire, not a very violent one—it doesn't show itself very much. The importance it gives you, the power it will give you and the satisfaction it will give you...
In the invisible worlds, are things seen as in the physical world or as in dreams?
We have to agree on what dreams are! There are dreams where
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you see things so precisely, so concretely that the material world seems rather unreal in comparison. There are dreams like that where things are so intense, so precise, so concrete, so objective and leave you with such a vivid impression that the material world seems rather misty, not very clear, not very distinct. So, if it is a dream like that, yes. But if it is a dream where things clash incoherently, inconsistently with one another, no.
The first step: you must be able to discern the various inner states of being and know for sure: this belongs to the vital, this belongs to the mind, this belongs to the psychic, this belongs to matter. And as I said earlier, there are subdegrees in all that. There is a material vital, a vital vital, a mental vital, a vital under the psychic influence. You must be able to classify things very clearly and not allow any mixtures, any vague confusions in yourself: "Oh, where does this movement come from? What is it?"—indistinct impressions. That is the first step.
Second step: you learn to concentrate in one of these inner states. You choose the one which you feel to be the most alive, the most developed in yourself and you learn to concentrate there. And then you do the same exercises... I wonder whether you remember the exercises you used to do when you were very young in order to walk, to drink, to talk, to hear, to feel. You used to do many exercises. All children do exercises without knowing it, but they do them. So you have to do something on the same lines. You must build up senses and develop them, make them conscious, independent and precise in their perceptions. That is the second stage. It may take time, it may come quickly, it depends on the degree of development of your inner being.
After that—this is only a beginning—after that, you must learn to isolate yourself from all the other parts of the being, to concentrate on the one where you want to have the experience and concentrate in such a way that you come into contact with the corresponding outer world. I don't mean that it is an exteriorisation that leaves your body in a state of coma. No, a very intense concentration is enough, a power to isolate yourself
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from everything except the place where you are concentrating. And then you come into contact with the corresponding world. You must want that and little by little you learn how to do it. And there you have the exercise required to improve the senses you have gradually developed and give them a field of action. At first, you may be rather lost in this outer world, you won't feel quite at ease. But little by little you will get used to it and start moving about there in the way that is appropriate to each of these worlds.
But if you know beforehand what they are like—the mind is such a magnificent instrument of formation that it can build up a whole experience for you, and unfortunately, it will never be the genuine experience—it will be merely a mental construction. So, normally, when you want to instruct someone about these occult matters, you never tell him what is going to happen, in the beginning. The only thing is that if something happens to him, if he says, "This is what happened to me," you tell him, "Yes, this is correct" or "No, that is not correct." You can help him. But you don't tell him beforehand, "You will go to such and such a place. It will be like that. You will have such and such an experience," etc., for then all these things may happen only because of a well-built mental construction in which you move about with ease. In that case it is really a dream!
If one is not aware of the divine presence, can one enjoy the divine protection?
There too it depends on the case. It may occur; it is not always like that, but it may occur. It may happen that the divine grace is given to someone without his knowing anything about it. This even happens more often than one thinks.
Is an emotion always a vital movement?
It depends on the emotion and it also depends on what you
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call an emotion. For example, there is a state where, if you find yourself in the presence of a very precise, very clear psychic movement, a distinctly psychic movement—this happens quite often—the emotion is so powerful that tears come to your eyes. You are not sad, you are not happy, neither one nor the other; it doesn't correspond to any particular feeling, but it is an intensity of emotion which comes from something that is clearly, precisely psychic. It may be in yourself, but it is even more often in someone else. When you are in contact with an act, a movement, a manifestation which belongs to the psychic, then, all of a sudden, the eyes are filled with tears. If you call that an emotion... obviously it is an emotion. But usually, it comes from one thing: the physical being has a not very conscious but very intense longing for a contact with the psychic life. It feels poor, destitute, isolated and abandoned when it is not in contact with the psychic being. Not one physical being in a million is aware of this. But this kind of impression of being lost, left hanging, without protection, without support, of lacking something and not knowing what it is, something you don't understand but which you lack, an emptiness somewhere: well, this comes more often than one thinks—people have no idea what it is. But then, when for some reason or other this consciousness suddenly comes into contact with a clearly psychic phenomenon, with psychic forces, psychic vibrations, the feeling is so strong, so strong that certainly, most often, the body can hardly hold it. It is like a joy that is too great, that overflows on all sides, that you can't contain, can't hold in yourself. It is like that. There is suddenly a sort of revelation, not very conscious, not clearly expressed, the revelation of... this is it, this is what I must have. And it is so powerful, so powerful that it gives you an emotion, which is made up of so many things that you can hardly say what it is. These are emotions that are not vital.
Vital emotions are of an altogether different nature—they are very clear, very precise, you can express them very distinctly; they are violent, they usually fill you with an intensity,
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a restlessness, sometimes a great satisfaction. And then the opposite comes with the same force. And so people, many people think—we have mentioned this several times already—some people imagine they experience love only when it is like that, when love is in the vital, when it comes with all the movements of the vital, all this intensity, this violence, this precision, this glamour, this brightness. And when that is absent they say, "Oh, this is not love."
And yet that is exactly how love gets distorted: already it is no longer love, it is beginning to be passion. And this is an almost universal error among human beings.
Some people are full of a very pure, very high, very selfless psychic love and yet they know nothing about it and think they are cold, dry and without love because this admixture of vital vibration is absent. For them love begins and ends with this vibration.
And as it is something highly unstable which has movements and reactions and violences of all kinds, in depression as in satisfaction, love is something very ephemeral for these people: they have minutes of love in their lives. It may last a few hours and then it becomes dull and flat again and they imagine that love has deserted them.
As I said, some people are quite beyond that, they have been able to control it in such a way that it does not get mixed up with anything else; they have in themselves this psychic love which is full of self-forgetfulness, of self-giving, compassion, generosity, nobility of life, and is a great power of identification. So most of these people think they are cold or indifferent—they are very nice people, you see, but they do not love—and sometimes they themselves do not know. I have known people who thought they had no love because they didn't have this vital vibration. Usually, when people speak of emotions, they are speaking of vital emotions. But there is another kind of emotion which is of an infinitely higher order and doesn't express itself in the same way, which has just as much intensity, but an intensity that is
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under control, contained, condensed, concentrated, and is an extraordinary dynamic power.
True love can achieve extraordinary things, but it is rare. All kinds of miracles can be done out of love for the person one loves—not for everyone, but for the people or the person one loves. But it has to be a love free from all vital mixture, an absolutely pure and selfless love which demands nothing in return, which expects nothing in return.
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This talk is based upon the Mother's essay "On Dreams" (Words of Long Ago, CWM, Vol. 2, pp. 32-39).
In order to remember something, you must first of all be conscious of it.
I dreamt of an ocean flowing and flowing silently. It gave me a great joy. I could feel it like a physical thing.
It is almost an experience—more than a dream.
There are places one goes to periodically in dreams. One can continue with the same dream, sometimes after a lapse of several months. There are also dreams of warning, which often repeat the same thing so as to compel you to concentrate your attention on it.
I saw X recently. Was it the real person?
What is a person? When you are in a body you always see the body and think it is the person. But in this body there is now the whole being, now part of the being, with the rest somewhere else. Sometimes it is one activity of the being that comes forward, sometimes another. Because you have a body which you continue to see, you think that the being you see is always the same, but that is not true. The centre of the being, the psychic being, rarely takes on the appearance of the manifested being. The psychic being has passed through innumerable bodies and even if it did keep an imprint of all these bodies, the result would be unrecognisable, wouldn't it? Most often it is a thought of the person who has gone which assumes a form, either in your atmosphere or in your own thought. So a sort of emanation
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comes. It is there, and depending on your own condition you see it more or less clearly. But the form you give it is your own creation; it conforms to this person's physical form as you know it. I don't say this is an absolute rule, but nine times out of ten it is like that.
And I can give you a very clear example of this. When you see someone you did not see at the time of his death, you don't see the form he had at that time but the form he had the last time you saw him. Therefore you give the form yourself. I don't say this is something absolute. It may happen differently, but that is so rare that it is better not to speak of it. Only one person in a million can be objective enough not to add anything to his vision. So it is better not to speak about it, except as an ideal to aspire for.
In everything you see, in sleep as well as in visions in the waking state, there are always a considerable number of subjective details. If you do not see the person as he was when you saw him last, the difference always comes from your own thought. If you think that the person must be older, you will see him looking older; if you think that he must look ill, you will see him looking ill, and so on. An absolutely objective vision, which conforms wholly to the reality, is very rare. The dream you mentioned simply means that you have kept a tender, affectionate relationship with her, and so one part of her being has remained close to you and for some reason you became aware of it in your dream.
Since I left my family, I dream of them regularly at least once a week.
This comes from the subconscious.
As I told you, I have studied this subject of dreams in great depth. Unless you concentrate in a very special way you always dream of things you have experienced or felt or been aware of some time before; but you don't dream of the things that belong to your present life. You may think of them, you may remember
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them, but you don't dream of them. Except in a few very rare instances, a dream is the awakening of something recorded in the subconscious. This recording is made gradually; some kind of assimilation is needed before the thing can manifest of itself, and this assimilation may take time. You dream of things—and people—that you knew a very long time ago; when a very long time has elapsed, it is usually for some special reason. Some things come back at regular intervals and you have a kind of cycle of movements in your dream. If you can find a point at which things that are present have struck you at a previous time in your life, then you can see them both at the same time.
Very few dreams have a meaning, an instructive value, but all dreams can show you what your present state of consciousness is and how things are combined in the subconscious, what the terrestrial influences are, what traces they leave and how they are combined. This is a very interesting subject of study.
In dreams one is usually passive and one doesn't react as one does in ordinary life. Why?
Not always. I have known many people who were far more active in their dreams than in their waking life and who would do things which they would have been incapable of doing in their waking life. For example, I have known people who used to be petrified with fear in their waking life but would express indomitable courage and accomplish truly heroic deeds in their dreams. Sometimes too, if you dream of something unpleasant, instead of having a reaction, you say, "All this is only a dream, it is not true, it is impossible," etc., and in this way the dream assumes another form. Of course, you must be aware that you are dreaming for this to happen. It is a tremendous field of observation—there is no end to the discoveries you can make in your dreams. But there is one important point: you must not go to sleep when you are very tired, for if you do, you fall into a sort of unconsciousness in which dreams do whatever they like
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with you, and you have no reaction. Just as I said that you should not eat without having taken rest, I would advise everyone to rest before going to sleep. And for that, you must know how to rest.
Now I will tell you a very recent dream of mine which I had just a few days ago. It wasn't exactly a dream, it was very conscious. (I am not one of those people who dream of things that occurred a very long time ago; I know what to do to avoid that.) I went to a place in the vital world where I knew that many of our boys go to rest—at least, in their physical sleep, they look as if they are resting. But since they don't really know how to rest, instead of accumulating energy, they lose it. Some of them lose a tremendous amount of energy: instead of recovering their energy, they waste it. So I went there and saw many rows in which there were things that looked like beds but weren't really beds. I walked about in the room and saw them resting, trying to rest, but since they didn't know how to do it, they couldn't. They were all more or less sprawled out, their eyes were open—they weren't asleep, it wasn't sleep, it was a state of rest; the vital wasn't active but in a state of semi-awareness. I got them to understand that I could show them how to rest in such a way as to recover their energy instead of wasting it. And would you believe it, only one of them was willing to learn! The others said, "No, we are quite all right as we are, we don't want to learn anything else!"
When we see you in dream, where do we see you? Is it always the same place?
There are many different places, many. It may be in the subtle physical, for all of you live in my physical atmosphere and so it is in the subtle physical that you see me most often. And there you feel that what you see is almost material, but with a slight distortion. Because it is the subtle physical, you can quite easily remember what you have
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seen. Very often, in the middle of the night, I take care of you (I don't want to boast about it!) and I remember many things that are of some importance—I don't remember everything because it is not worth burdening the memory with a lot of useless things. And I have noticed that several of you are able to remember, but the thing takes place in your consciousness with a slight distortion—it wasn't exactly the same.
Some people can see me vitally, some people can see me psychically (this is quite rare), some people can see me mentally and some people can see me in the subconscious and, in certain conditions, in the unconscious; but that is rare.
Others may have a revelation about me and see me as I am, but not many can do that.
What is the way to take rest before going to sleep?
There are many methods, but I will give you one. First, your body must be comfortable, on a bed, in an easy-chair—anywhere so long as it is comfortable. Then you learn how to relax your nerves one after the other, until you achieve complete relaxation. You should relax all your nerves—you can relax them all together, but perhaps it is easier to relax them one after the other, and this becomes very interesting. And when that is done, you must make your brain quiet and silent and at the same time keep your body like a rag on the bed. You must make the brain so still and absolutely quiet that it is not aware of itself. And then, don't try to sleep, but pass very gently from this state into sleep without being aware of it. When you wake up the next morning you will be full of energy. But if you go to bed very tired and without even trying to relax, to calm down, you will fall into a heavy, dull and unconscious sleep and the vital will lose all its energy. Perhaps this won't have any immediate effect, but it is better to try it than to plunge into sleep when you are very tired.
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If you relax very gently before going to sleep, you will feel great pleasure in going to sleep. If you manage to relax the nerves, even of only one arm or leg, you will see how pleasant it is. If you go to sleep with your nerves tense, you will have a very restless sleep and change position very often during the night. That kind of rest is no good.
I have noticed that if I go to sleep on one side, I wake up on the other. Is it always like that?
No, not necessarily. There is no rule. If you think it is like that, it will be like that!
I have noticed that if an interesting dream wakes me up, I can go back to sleep and continue the same dream.
Yes, this can be done and it means that you are partially conscious of your night activities.
I used to know someone who went on having the same dream all the time, until he could no longer distinguish between dream and reality.
It sometimes happens that when you go out of your body, when you exteriorise yourself during sleep and are conscious in the vital world, you can live a vital life that is just as conscious as the physical life. I have known people—not many have this capacity of going out of their body—but I have known people who had such a strong interest in their experiences in the vital world that in the end they refused to return to their body, they went on sleeping almost indefinitely.
If you are conscious and self-controlled in the vital world and have a certain power there, the things that happen are wonderful, infinitely more varied and magnificent than in the
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physical world. It is true that some regions in the vital world are wonderful.
Now I will tell you how this happens. When you are very tired and in need of rest and if you know how to exteriorise yourself, if you go out of your body and enter consciously into the vital world, there are regions there, in the vital world, which are like a marvellous virgin forest, with all the splendour of a rich and harmonious vegetation, and beautiful, mirror-like pools. And the atmosphere is filled with the living vitality of plants, with every shade of green reflected in the water... And there you feel so much life, so much beauty, so much richness and plenitude that you wake up full of energy. And all this is so objective! I have been able to take people there, without telling them anything at all about how it would be, and they were able to describe the place exactly as I can myself, and they had exactly the same experience. They were absolutely exhausted before going to sleep and they woke up with an absolutely marvellous feeling of plenitude, of force and energy. They had stayed there only a few minutes.
There are regions like that—not many, but they exist. On the other hand, there are many unpleasant places in the vital world and it is better not to go there. Leaving aside those who are so attached, so rivetted to their bodies that they don't even want to leave them, those who can easily learn to go out of their bodies ought to do so with great care. I haven't been able to teach this to many people, for that would mean exposing them, sometimes without protection—when they do it alone, without my presence—to experiences which can be extremely harmful to them.
The vital world is a world of extremes. If, for example, you eat a bunch of grapes in the vital world, you can go for thirty-six hours without feeling hungry—fully nourished. But you can meet with certain things, enter certain places that drain all your energy in a trice, and sometimes leave you with illnesses and after-effects that belong to the vital world.
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I used to know a woman who was absolutely wonderful from the occult point of view. She was absolutely conscious of herself, of all the regions of her being; she could go from one region to another—in short, she was marvellous. Well, she had an accident in the vital world. She was fighting some beings from the vital world in order to save someone whom she was very fond of, and she got a blow on the eye. And when I met her, she had lost an eye. Many people have these accidents in the vital world, and they keep traces of these accidents for hours after they wake up. That is why you can't tell just anyone, "Learn to go out of your body", for there are many requirements before you can do it safely. If you have any affinities with the forces of falsehood and violence, it is better to stay in your physical body.
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The human individual is a very complex being: he is composed of innumerable elements, each one of which is an independent entity and has almost a personality. Not only so, the most contradictory elements are housed together. If there is a particular quality or capacity present, the very opposite of it, annulling it, as it were, will also be found along with it and embracing it. I have seen a man brave, courageous, heroic to the extreme, flinching from no danger, facing unperturbed the utmost peril, truly the bravest of the brave; and yet I have seen the same man cowering in abject terror, like the last of poltroons, in the presence of certain circumstances. I have seen a most generous man giving things away largely, freely, not counting any expenditure or sacrifice, without the least care or reservation; the same person I have also found to be the vilest of misers with respect to certain other considerations. Again, I have seen the most intelligent person, with a clear mind, full of light and understanding, easily comprehending the logic and implication of a topic; and yet I have seen him betraying the utmost stupidity of which even an ordinary man without education or intelligence would be incapable. These are not theoretical examples: I have come across such persons actually in life.
The complexity arises not only in extension but also in depth. Man does not live on a single plane but on many planes at the same time. There is a scale of gradation in human consciousness: the higher one rises in the scale the greater the number of elements or personalities that one possesses. Whether one lives mostly or mainly on the physical or vital or mental plane or on any particular section of these planes or on the planes above and beyond them, there will be, accordingly, differences
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in the constitution or psycho-physical make-up of the individual personality. The higher one stands, the richer the personality, because it lives not only on its own normal level but also on all the levels that are below it and which it has transcended. The complete or integral man, some occultists say, possesses three hundred and sixty-five personalities; indeed it may be much more. The Vedas speak of the three and thirty-three and thirty-three hundred and thirty-three thousand gods that may be housed in the human vehicle—the basic three being evidently the triple status or world of Body, Life and Mind.
What is the meaning of this self-contradiction, this division in man? To understand that, we must know and remember that each person represents a certain quality or capacity, a particular achievement to be embodied. How best can it be done? What is the way by which one can acquire a quality at its purest, highest and most perfect? It is by setting an opposition to it. That is how a power is increased and strengthened—by fighting against and overcoming all that weakens and contradicts it. The deficiencies with respect to a particular quality show you where you have to mend and reinforce it and in what way to improve it in order to make it perfectly perfect. It is the hammer that beats the weak and soft iron to transform it into hard steel. The preliminary discord is useful and needs to be utilised for a higher harmony. This is the secret of self-conflict in man. You are weakest precisely in that element which is destined to be your greatest asset.
Each man has then a mission to fulfil, a role to play in the universe, a part he has been given to learn and take up in the cosmic Purpose, a part which he alone is capable of executing and none other. This he has to learn and acquire through life-experiences, that is to say, not in one life but in life after life. In fact, that is the meaning of the chain of lives that the individual has to pass through, namely, to acquire experiences and to gather from them the thread—the skein of qualities and attributes, powers and capacities—for the pattern of life he has
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to weave. Now, the inmost being, the true personality, the central consciousness of the evolving individual is his psychic being. It is, as it were, a very tiny spark of light lying in normal people far behind the life-experiences. In grown-up souls this psychic consciousness has an increased light—increased in intensity, volume and richness. Thus there are old souls and new souls. Old and ancient are those that have reached or are about to reach the fullness of perfection; they have passed through a long history of innumerable lives and developed the most complex and yet the most integrated personality. New souls are those that have just emerged or are now emerging out of the mere physico-vital existence; they are like simple organisms, made of fewer constituents related mostly to the bodily life, with just a modicum of the mental. It is the soul, however, that grows with experiences and it is the soul that builds and enriches the personality. Whatever portion of the outer life, whatever element in the mind or vital or body succeeds in coming into contact with the psychic consciousness—that is to say, is able to come under its influence—is taken up and lodged there: it remains in the psychic being as its living memory and permanent possession. It is such elements that form the basis, the groundwork upon which the structure of the integral and true personality is raised.
The first thing to do then is to find out what it is that you are meant to realise, what is the role you have to play, your particular mission, and the capacity or quality you have to express. You have to discover that and also the thing or things that oppose and do not allow it to flower or come to full manifestation. In other words, you have to know yourself, recognise your soul or psychic being.
For that you must be absolutely sincere and impartial. You must observe yourself as if you were observing and criticising a third person. You must not start with an idea that this is your life's mission, this is your particular capacity, this you are to do or that you are to do, in this lies your talent or genius, etc. That will carry you away from the right track. It is not the liking or
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disliking of your external being, your mental or vital or physical choice that determines the true line of your growth. Nor should you take up the opposite attitude and say, "I am good for nothing in this matter, I am useless in that one; it is not for me." Neither vanity and arrogance nor self-depreciation and false modesty should move you. As I said, you must be absolutely impartial and unconcerned. You should be like a mirror that reflects the truth and does not judge.
If you are able to keep such an attitude, if you have this repose and quiet trust in your being and wait for what may be revealed to you, then something like this happens: you are, as it were, in a wood, dark and noiseless; you see in front of you merely a sheet of water, dark and still, hardly visible—a bit of a pond imbedded in the obscurity; and slowly upon it a moonbeam is cast and in the cool dim light emerges the calm liquid surface. That is how your secret truth of being will appear and present itself to you at your first contact with it: there you will see gradually reflected the true qualities of your being, the traits of your divine personality, what you really are and what you are meant to be.
One who has thus known himself and possessed himself. conquering all opposition within himself, has by that very fact extended himself and his conquest, making it easier for others to make the same or a similar conquest. These are the pioneers or the elite who by a victorious campaign within themselves help others towards their victory.
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How can suffering be overcome?
The problem is not as simple as all that. The causes of suffering are innumerable and its quality also varies a great deal, although the origin of suffering is one and the same and comes from the initial action of an anti-divine will. To make this easier to understand, one can divide suffering into two distinct categories, although in practice they are very often mixed.
The first is purely egoistic and comes from a feeling that one's rights have been violated, that one has been deprived of one's needs, offended, despoiled, betrayed, injured, etc. This whole category of suffering is clearly the result of hostile action and it not only opens the door in the consciousness to the influence of the adversary but is also one of his most powerful ways of acting in the world, the most powerful of all if in addition there comes its natural and spontaneous consequence: hatred and the desire for revenge in the strong, despair and the wish to die in the weak.
The other category of suffering, whose initial cause is the pain of separation created by the adversary, is totally opposite in nature: it is the suffering that comes from divine compassion, the suffering of love that feels compassion for the world's misery, whatever its origin, cause or effect. But this suffering, which is of a purely psychic character, contains no egoism, no self-pity; it is full of peace and strength and power of action, of faith in the future and the will for victory; it does not pity but consoles, it does not identify itself with the ignorant movement in others but cures and illumines it.
It is obvious that in the purity of its essence, only that which is perfectly divine can feel that suffering; but partially, momentarily, like flashes of lightning behind the dark clouds of egoism,
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it appears in all who have a vast and generous heart. However, most often, in the individual consciousness it is mixed with that mean and petty self-pity which is the cause of depression and weakness. Nevertheless, when one is vigilant enough to refuse this mixture or at least to reduce it to a minimum, one soon realises that this divine compassion is based on a sublime and eternal joy which alone has the strength and the power to deliver the world from its ignorance and misery.
And this suffering too will disappear from the universe only with the total disappearance of the adversary and all the effects of his action.
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If one were to say things truly, one would have to say everything, in full detail. For among the innumerable experiences that I have had in the course of eighty years, many were of such a variety and apparently so contradictory that one might say: after all, everything is possible. So then, if I tell you something about past lives without presenting the thread running through everything, that would be opening the door to dogmatism. You will say one day, "Mother has said this, Mother has said that." And that is how dogmas, alas, are made.
Given then the multitude of experiences and the impossibility that I should pass my life in talking and writing, you must tell yourself that everything is possible and not be dogmatic. I may, however, give a few general indications.
Only when one is consciously identified with one's divine origin, can one in truth speak of a memory of past lives. Sri Aurobindo speaks of the progressive manifestation of the Spirit in the forms in which it dwells. When one reaches the summit of this manifestation, one has a vision that plunges down upon the way traversed and one remembers.
But this memory is not a thing of the mental kind. Those who claim to have been such a baron of the Middle Ages or such a person who lived at such a place and such a time, are fanciful, they are simply victims of their own mental imagination. In fact, what remains of past lives are not beautiful pictures in which you appear as a mighty lord in a castle or a victorious general at the head of an army—that is only romance. What remains is the memory of those instants when the psychic being emerged from the depths of your being and revealed itself to you—that is to say, the memory of those instants when you
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were wholly conscious. That growth of consciousness is progressively effectuated in the course of evolution, and the memory of past lives is generally limited to the critical moments of evolution, to the decisive turns that marked the progress of your consciousness.
At the time when you live such moments of your life, you do not care at all about remembering that you were Mr. X, such a person, living at such a place and in such an epoch; it is not the memory of your civic status that remains. On the contrary, you lose all consciousness of these petty external things, accessories and perishables, so that you may be wholly in the flare of the soul revelation or of the divine contact. When you remember such instants of your past lives, the memory is so intense that it seems to be still very close, still living, and much more living than most of the ordinary memories of our present life. At times, in dreams, when you come into contact with certain planes of consciousness, you may have memories of such intensity, such vibrant colour, so to say, even more intense than the colours and things of the physical world. For these are the moments of true consciousness, and everything then puts on an extraordinary brilliance, everything is vibrant, everything is imbued with a quality that escapes the ordinary eye.
These minutes of contact with the soul are often those that mark a decisive turn of our life, a forward step, a progress in consciousness, and that frequently corresponds with a crisis, an extremely intense situation when there comes a call in the whole being, a call so strong that the inner consciousness pierces the layers of unconsciousness covering it and is revealed all luminous on the surface. This call of the being, when very strong, can also bring about the descent of a divine emanation, an individuality, a divine aspect which joins with your individuality at a given moment in order to do a given work, win a battle, express one thing or another. The work done, the emanation very often withdraws. Then one may retain the memory of the circumstances that were around those minutes of revelation or inspiration: one
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sees again the scenery, the colour of the dress that one had put on, the colour of one's own skin, the things about you at that time—all that is fixed indelibly with an extraordinary intensity, because the things of the ordinary life revealed themselves then in their true intensity and their true colour. The consciousness that reveals itself in you, reveals at the same time the consciousness that is in things. At times, with the help of these details you may reconstitute the age in which you lived or the action that you did, find out the country where you were; but it is very easy also to make a romance and take imagination for reality.
Yet you must not believe that all memories of past lives are those of moments of great crisis, of important mission or of revelation. Some times they are moments very simple, transparent, when an integral, a perfect harmony of the being was expressed. And that may correspond to altogether insignificant external situations.
Apart from the things that were in your immediate surrounding at that moment, apart from that moment of contact with your psychic being, nothing remains. Once the privileged moment passes, the psychic being plunges into an inner somnolence and the whole outer life melts into a grey monotony which does not leave any trace. Besides, it is almost the same phenomenon as what happens in the course of the life that you lead at present: apart from those exceptional moments when you are at the summit of your being, mental or vital or even physical, the rest of your life seems to melt into a kind of neutral colour which has no great interest, when it matters little whether you were at such a place instead of being at another, whether you did this thing or that. If you try to look at your life all at once, in order to gather, as it were, its essence, the twenty or thirty or forty years behind you, you will see rise up spontaneously two or three images which were the true moments of your life; the rest is effaced. A kind of spontaneous choice works in your consciousness and there is a tremendous elimination. This will give you a little idea of what happens in regard to past lives: the
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choice of a few select moments and an immense elimination.
It is very true that the earliest lives are very rudimentary; very few things subsist out of that, scattered memories few and far between. But the more one progresses in consciousness, the more the psychic being is consciously associated with the outer activities; the memories grow in number and become more coherent and precise. But still, here also, the memory that remains is that of the contact with the soul and at times that of things which were associated with the psychic revelation—not the civic status or the changing scenes around. And this will explain to you why the so-called memories of past animal lives are the most fantastic: the divine spark in them is buried much too deep down to be able to come up consciously to the surface and be associated with the outer life. One must become a wholly conscious being, conscious in all its parts, totally united with one's divine origin before one can truly say that one remembers his past lives.
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When the adverse forces want to attack those who are around me and when they do not succeed in making them openly hostile to Sri Aurobindo's work or in turning them against me personally, they proceed in the matter always in the same way, with the same argument: "You may have all the inner realisations you like," they say, "the most beautiful experiences possible within the four walls of the Ashram, but on the outer plane your life is spoiled, wasted. There is an abyss that you will never fill between the inner experience and the concrete realisation in the world."
This is the number one argument of the adverse forces. I know it. For millions of years I have heard the same thing repeated and each time I have unmasked it. It is a falsehood—it is the falsehood. Everything that tends to establish a divorce between earth and the Spirit, is good for them, everything that separates the inner experience from the divine realisation in the world. But it is the contrary that is true: it is the inner realisation that is the key to the outer realisation. How can you expect to know the true thing which you have to realise in the world so long as you do not possess the truth of your being?
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I have noticed one thing, that in at least ninety-nine cases out of a hundred this [attack by adverse forces] is an excuse which people give to themselves. I have seen that practically almost all who write to me: "I am violently attacked by adverse forces", give this as an excuse. It is because there are many things in their nature which do not want to surrender, so they put all the blame on the adverse forces.
In reality I am turning more and more towards something where the role of the adverse forces will be reduced to that of an examiner; that is to say, they are there to test the sincerity of your spiritual seeking. These things have their reality in the action and for the work—and it is a great reality—but when you have gone beyond a certain region, all that reaches a point where it is no longer so distinct and clear-cut. In the occult world, or rather, if you look at the world from the occult point of view, these adverse forces are very real, their action is very real, completely concrete, and their attitude towards the divine realisation is positively hostile. But as soon as you pass beyond this domain and enter into the spiritual world where there is nothing other than the Divine, who is everything, and where there is nothing that is not divine, these "adverse forces" become a part of the total play and they can no longer be called adverse forces. It is only a posture that they have taken; to speak more exactly, it is only a posture that the Divine has taken in his play.
This also forms part of the dualities of which Sri Aurobindo speaks in The Synthesis of Yoga, the dualities that are reabsorbed. I do not know if he has spoken of this particular one
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—I do not think so—but it is the same thing; it is just a way of seeing. He has spoken of the dualities Personal-Impersonal, Ishwara-Shakti, Purusha-Prakriti. There is one more: the Divine and the Anti-Divine.
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A peach should ripen on the tree; it is a fruit that is to be plucked when the sun is there upon it. At the time when the sun falls upon it, you come, pluck it and bite into it. Then it is absolutely heavenly!
There are two fruits like this: the peach and the golden greengage. It is the same for both: you must take them warm from the tree, bite them, and you are filled with an Edenic taste.
Each fruit should be eaten in a special way.
Fundamentally, this is the symbol of earthly paradise and of the tree of Knowledge: in eating of the fruit of Knowledge, you lose your spontaneity of movement and you begin to objectify, to learn, to discuss; thus, when they had eaten of the fruit they became full of sin.
I say each fruit should be eaten in its own way. A being living according to its own nature, its own truth, should spontaneously discover its own way of using things. When you live according to the truth of your being, you have no need to learn things, you do them spontaneously, according to the inner law. When you follow your nature spontaneously and sincerely, you are divine. As soon as you think, see yourself doing and begin to discuss, you are full of sin.
It is man's mental consciousness that has filled all Nature with the idea of sin and all the misery which it brings! Animals are not unhappy in the way we are, not at all, not at all, except, as Sri Aurobindo says, those that have been corrupted. The corrupted ones are those that live with men. Dogs have the sense of sin and guilt. It is because their whole aspiration is to become like man—man is god—and then, dissimulation,
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falsehood. Dogs do lie. Men admire that; they say, "Oh! How intelligent they are!"
They have lost their divinity.
The human species, in the spiral ascent, is truly at a point which is not pretty.
But isn't a dog more conscious than a tiger, more evolved, and higher in the spiral, that is to say, nearer to the Divine?
To be conscious is not the point. Man is more evolved than the tiger, there is not the shadow of a doubt, but the tiger is more divine than man. You must not confuse things: the two things are quite different.
You see, the Divine is everywhere, in everything. You should never forget that, not for a second should you forget it. He is everywhere, in everything; and unconsciously, but spontaneously and therefore sincerely, everything that is below the mental manifestation is divine without mixture, that is to say, spontaneously, by its very nature. It is man with his mind who has introduced the idea of guilt. Naturally he is much more conscious! That is not to be disputed, it is well understood, because what we call consciousness (what "we" call, that is to say, what man calls consciousness) is the power to objectify and mentalise things. It is not the true consciousness, but it is what men call consciousness. So in this human way, it is understood that man is much more conscious than the animal. But with man comes sin and perversion, which do not exist outside the state that we call "conscious", but which is not truly conscious, which simply consists in mentalising things, in having the capacity to objectify them.
It is a curve of ascent, but that curve moves away from the Divine, and one must rise much higher to find again, naturally, a higher Divine, for it is a conscious Divine, whereas the others are
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divine without being conscious, spontaneously and instinctively. And our whole moral notion of good and bad, we have thrown all that upon the creation with our deformed and perverted consciousness. It is we who have invented it.
We are the deforming intermediary between the purity of the animal and the divine purity of the gods.
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Human beings do not know how to preserve energy. When something happens, an accident or an illness, they ask for help and a double or triple dose of energy is administered. They feel that they are receptive and they receive it. This energy is given for two reasons: to repair the disorder caused by the accident or illness, and to give a power for transformation in order to mend, to change what was the true cause of the illness or accident.
Instead of utilising energy in that way, immediately, immediately they throw it out. They begin to move about, they begin to be active, they begin to work, they begin to speak, they begin... they feel themselves full of energy and throw everything out! They can keep nothing. Then naturally, since the energy was not meant to be wasted like that, but for an inner use, they fall quite flat. And this is universal. They do not know, they do not know how to make this movement: to go within, to utilise the energy—not to keep it, it cannot be kept—to utilise it to mend the damage done to the body and to go deep down to find out the reason for the accident or the malady, and there, to change that into an aspiration, an inner transformation. Instead of this, people begin immediately to chatter, to move about, to act, to do this, to do that!
Indeed, the great majority of human beings feel that they are alive only when they waste energy; otherwise it does not look like life.
Not to waste energy means to utilise it for the purposes for which it was given. If the energy is given for transformation, for the sublimation of the being, it must be used for that; if the energy is given to set right something that has been disorganised in the body, it must be used for that.
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Naturally, if someone is given a special work and if he is given the energy to do that work, it is all right, it is used for its own purposes, and it was given for that.
As soon as a man feels energetic, he rushes immediately into action. Or else, those who have not got the sense to do something useful, gossip. Worse still, those who have no control over themselves become intolerant and begin to dispute! If their will is contradicted, they feel themselves full of energy and take it as holy wrath!
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Why, and through what mechanism, does mental formulation dissipate an experience, cause it to lose the major part of its power for action on the consciousness?
If, for example, you want to get rid of a wrong movement and, as the result of a grace, the force is sent out for this purpose, this force begins to act on the consciousness. Then, if you draw it towards you, so to speak, in order to formulate it, naturally you decentralise it, disperse and dissipate it.
But this is not all: the simple fact of speaking to another person opens you automatically to whatever may come from him; an interchange always occurs. In this way his curiosity, his obscurity, his good-will and also at times his ill-will intervenes, modifies, deforms.
On the other hand, if you want to speak of your experience to your Guru and he agrees to listen to you, it means that he adds his force, his knowledge and his experience to the working of the force and he helps to bring about the result.
But doesn't the harm caused by the formulation still exist?
Yes, but he repairs it.
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To do this yoga, one must have, at least a little, the sense of beauty. If one does not, one misses one of the most important aspects of the physical world.
There is this beauty, this dignity of soul—a thing about which I am very sensitive. It is a thing that moves me and evokes in me a great respect always.
Yes, this beauty of soul that is visible in the face, this kind of dignity, this harmony of integral realisation. When the soul becomes visible in the physical, it gives this dignity, this beauty, this majesty, the majesty that comes from one's being the Tabernacle. Then, even things that have no particular beauty put on a sense of eternal beauty, of the eternal beauty.
I have seen in this way faces that pass from one extreme to the other in a flash. Someone has this kind of beauty and harmony, this sense of divine dignity in the body; then suddenly there comes the perception of an obstacle, a difficulty, and the sense of fault, of indignity—and then, a sudden deformation in the appearance, a kind of decomposition of the features! And yet it is the same face. It was like a flash of lightning, and it was frightful. That kind of hideousness of torment and degradation—what has been translated in religions as "the torment of sin"—that gives you a face indeed! Even features that are beautiful in themselves become horrible. And it was the same features, the same person.
Then I saw how horrible the sense of sin is, how much it belongs to the world of falsehood.
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In all religious and particularly in occult initiations, the ritual of the different ceremonies is prescribed in every detail; each word uttered, each gesture made has its importance and the least infraction of the rule, the least mistake committed can have disastrous consequences. It is the same with the material life, and if one were initiated into the true way of living, one would be able to transform physical existence.
If the body is considered as the tabernacle of the Lord, then medical science, for example, becomes the initiatory ritual for service of the temple and doctors of all categories are the priests who officiate in the different rituals of the worship. Thus, medicine is truly a priesthood and should be treated as such.
The same thing may be said of physical culture and of all the sciences dealing with the body and its working. And if the material universe is regarded as the external robe and manifestation of the Supreme, then it can be said, generally, that all the physical sciences are rituals of worship.
So we always come back to the same thing: the absolute necessity of a perfect sincerity, a perfect honesty, and a sense of the dignity of what one does, so that one does it as it should be done.
If one could know all the details truly, perfectly, all the details of the ceremony of life, of the worship of the Lord in physical life, it would be wonderful—to know and not to make more mistakes, never make any more mistakes. One performs the ceremony with the perfection of an initiation.
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Do the gods of the Puranas and the gods of Greek and Egyptian mythology have any real existence?
Between the gods of the Puranas and the gods of Greek and Egyptian mythology, all kinds of similarities are found; it could be an interesting subject for study. To the modern Western world, all these divinities—the Greek gods and other "pagan" gods, as they call them—are simply a product of human imagination and correspond to nothing real in the universe. But this is a gross error.
To understand the mechanism of universal life, even that of terrestrial life, one has indeed to know that all these are real and living beings, each in its own realm, and have an independent reality. They would exist even if men did not exist. The majority of these gods existed before man existed.
In a very old tradition, probably dating before the Chaldean and Vedic traditions, which are its two branches, the history of creation is narrated not from the metaphysical or psychological point of view, but from an objective point of view, and this history is as real as our history of historical epochs. Of course, this is not the only way of looking at the thing, but it is quite as legitimate as any other; and in any case it recognises the concrete reality of these divine beings.
These are beings who belong to the progressive creation of the universe and have themselves presided over its formation, from the most ethereal or subtle to the most material regions; it is a descent of the divine creative Spirit. And they descended progressively, through realities more and more—one cannot say dense, because it is not dense, one cannot even say material, because matter as we know it does not exist on those planes—through realities more and more concrete.
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According to traditions and occult schools, all these zones of realities, these planes of realities have got different names; they have been classified in a different way, but there is an essential analogy, and if you go back far enough into the traditions, you see only the words changing according to the country and the language. Even now, the experiences of Western occultists and those of Eastern occultists offer great similarities. All who set out on the discovery of these invisible worlds and make a report of what they saw, give a very similar description, whether they be from here or there; they use different words, but the experience is very similar and the handling of forces is the same.
This knowledge of the occult worlds is based on the existence of subtle bodies and of subtle worlds corresponding to those bodies. They are what the psychological method calls "states of consciousness", but these states of consciousness really correspond to worlds. The occult procedure consists then in being aware of these various inner states of being or subtle bodies and in becoming sufficiently a master of them so as to be able to go out of them successively, one after another. There is indeed a whole scale of subtleties, increasing or decreasing according to the direction in which you go, and the occult procedure consists in going out of a denser body into a subtler body and so on again, up to the most ethereal regions. You go, by successive exteriorisations, into bodies or worlds more and more subtle. It is somewhat as if every time you passed into another dimension. The fourth dimension of the physicists is nothing but the scientific transcription of an occult knowledge. To give another image, one can say that the physical body is at the center—it is the most material, the densest and also the smallest—and the inner bodies, more subtle, overflow more and more the central physical body; they pass through it, extending themselves farther and farther, like water evaporating from a porous vase and forming a kind of steam all around. And the greater the subtlety, the more the extension tends to unite with that of the universe: one ends by universalising oneself. And it is
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altogether a concrete process which gives an objective experience of invisible worlds and even enables one to act in these worlds.
There are, then, only a very small number of people in the West who know that these gods are not merely subjective and imaginary—more or less wildly imaginary—but that they correspond to a universal truth.
All these regions, all these domains are filled with beings who exist, each in its own domain, and if you are awake and conscious on a particular plane—for instance, if on going out of a more material body you awake on some higher plane, you have the same relation with the things and people of that plane as you had with the things and people of the material world. That is to say, there exists an entirely objective relation that has nothing to do with the idea you may have of these things. Naturally, the resemblance is greater and greater as you approach the physical world, the material world, and there even comes a time when the one region has a direct action upon the other. In any case, in what Sri Aurobindo calls the overmental worlds, you will find a concrete reality absolutely independent of your personal experience; you go back there and again find the same things, with the differences that have occurred during your absence. And you have relations with those beings that are identical with the relations you have with physical beings, with this difference that the relation is more plastic, supple and direct—for example, there is the capacity to change the external form, the visible form, according to the inner state you are in. But you can make an appointment with someone and be at the appointed place and find the same being again, with certain differences that have come about during your absence; it is entirely concrete with results entirely concrete.
One must have at least a little of this experience in order to understand these things. Otherwise, those who are convinced that all this is mere human imagination and mental formation, who believe that these gods have such and such a form because men have thought them to be like that, and that they have certain
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defects and certain qualities because men have thought them to be like that—all those who say that God is made in the image of man and that he exists only in human thought, all these will not understand; to them this will appear absolutely ridiculous, madness. One must have lived a little, touched the subject a little, to know how very concrete the thing is.
Naturally, children know a good deal if they have not been spoilt. There are so many children who return every night to the same place and continue to live the life they have begun there. When these faculties are not spoilt with age, you can keep them with you. At a time when I was especially interested in dreams, I could return exactly to a place and continue a work that I had begun: supervise something, for example, set something in order, a work of organisation or of discovery, of exploration. You go until you reach a certain spot, as you would go in life, then you take a rest, then you return and begin again—you begin the work at the place where you left off and you continue it. And you perceive that there are things which are quite independent of you, in the sense that changes of which you are not at all the author, have taken place automatically during your absence.
But for this, you must live these experiences yourself, you must see them yourself, live them with sufficient sincerity and spontaneity in order to see that they are independent of any mental formation. For you can do the opposite also, and deepen the study of the action of mental formation upon events. This is very interesting, but it is another domain. And this study makes you very careful, very prudent, because you become aware of how far you can delude yourself. So you must study both, the dream and the occult reality, in order to see what is the essential difference between the two. The one depends upon us; the other exists in itself; entirely independent of the thought that we have of it.
When you have worked in that domain, you recognise in fact that once a subject has been studied and something has been learnt mentally, it gives a special colour to the experience; the
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experience may be quite spontaneous and sincere, but the simple fact that the subject was known and studied lends a particular quality. Whereas if you had learnt nothing about the question, if you knew nothing at all, the transcription would be completely spontaneous and sincere when the experience came; it would be more or less adequate, but it would not be the outcome of a previous mental formation.
Naturally, this occult knowledge or this experience is not very frequent in the world, because in those who do not have a developed inner life, there are veritable gaps between the external consciousness and the inmost consciousness; the linking states of being are missing and they have to be constructed. So when people enter there for the first time, they are bewildered, they have the impression they have fallen into the night, into nothingness, into non-being!
I had a Danish friend, a painter, who was like that. He wanted me to teach him how to go out of the body; he used to have interesting dreams and thought that it would be worth the trouble to go there consciously. So I made him "go out"—but it was a frightful thing! When he was dreaming, a part of his mind still remained conscious, active, and a kind of link existed between this active part and his external being; then he remembered some of his dreams, but it was a very partial phenomenon. And to go out of one's body means to pass gradually through it all the states of being, if one does the thing systematically. Well, already in the subtle physical, one is almost de-individualised, and when one goes farther, there remains nothing, for nothing is formed or individualised.
Thus, when people are asked to meditate or told to go within, to enter into themselves, they are in agony—naturally! They have the impression that they are vanishing. And with reason: there is nothing, no consciousness!
These things that appear to us quite natural and evident, are, for people who know nothing, wild imagination. If, for example, you transplant these experiences or this knowledge to
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the West, well, unless you have been frequenting the circles of occultists, they stare at you with open eyes. And when you have turned your back, they hasten to say, "These people are cranks!"
Now to come back to the gods and conclude. It must be said that all those beings who have never had an earthly existence—gods or demons, invisible beings and powers—do not possess what the Divine has put into man: the psychic being. And this psychic being gives to man true love, charity, compassion, a deep kindness, which compensate for all his external defects.
In the gods there is no fault because they live according to their own nature, spontaneously and without constraint: as gods, it is their manner of being. But if you take a higher point of view, if you have a higher vision, a vision of the whole, you see that they lack certain qualities that are exclusively human. By his capacity of love and self-giving, man can have as much power as the gods and even more, when he is not egoistic, when he has surmounted his egoism.
If he fulfils the required condition, man is nearer to the Supreme than the gods are. He can be nearer. He is not so automatically, but he has the power to be so, the potentiality.
If human love manifested itself without mixture, it would be all-powerful. Unfortunately, in human love there is as much love of oneself as of the one loved; it is not a love that makes you forget yourself.
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New Year Message for 1959
Here is the origin of this message:
Last evening in the class,1 I noticed that the children, who had a whole week to prepare questions on the text we are reading, did not find a single one. A terrible somnolence! A total lack of interest! When I had finished my reading, I said to myself, "But what is there in these brains that does not take interest in anything but their small personal affairs? After all, what is happening inside there, behind these forms?"
Then during the meditation, I began going down into the mental atmosphere of the people around me, in order to find there the small light, the thing that responds. And I was literally dragged down to the bottom, as if into a hole.
In this hole I saw what I am still seeing. I went down into a fissure, as it were, between two steep rocks, rocks made of something harder than basalt, black, metallic at the same time, with edges so sharp that you had the impression that were you simply to touch them, you would be flayed. It was something that seemed to have no bottom and no end, and it became narrower and narrower like a funnel, so narrow that there was almost no room left even for the consciousness to pass. The bottom
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was invisible, a black hole, and that went down and down and down, without air, without light, only a kind of glimmer, like a reflection at the peak of the rocks, a glimmer that came from beyond, from something that could be the heavens, but something invisible. I continued to slide down the fissure and I saw the edges, the black rocks, cut with scissors, as it were, shining like a fresh cut, the edges so sharp that they were like knives. Here was one, there another, there another, everywhere, all around. And I was dragged, dragged, dragged down,—I went down, down, down and there was no end to it, it became more and more oppressive, stifling, suffocating.
Physically, the body followed, it participated in the experience. The hand that was on the arm of the chair slipped down, then the other hand, then the head bent down in an irresistible movement. Then I said to myself, "But this must stop, for if it continues, my head will be down on the ground!" (The consciousness was elsewhere, but I was looking at my body from outside.) And I asked myself, "But what is there at the bottom of this hole?"
Hardly had I formulated the question when it was as if I had touched a spring that was there at the very bottom of the hole, a spring I had not noticed yet, which acted at once with a tremendous force and at one bound shot me up straight into the air; I was cast out of the fissure into a limitless, formless vast which was infinitely comfortable—not exactly warm, but it gave a comfortable impression of inner warmth. After this painful enough descent, it was a kind of super-comfort, an ease, an ease at its maximum. And my body immediately followed the movement, the head at once became straight again. And I lived all this without objectifying it at all; I was not taking stock of what it was, I did not look for any explanation of what was happening; it was what it was, I lived it and that was all. The experience was absolutely spontaneous.
It was all-powerful, infinitely rich; it had no form at all, no limit—naturally I was identified with it and that is why I
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knew that it had neither limit nor form. It was as if—I say "as if" because it could not be seen—as if this vast was made up of countless imperceptible points, points that did not occupy any place in space (there was no space, you see), points that were a deep warm gold; but this was only an impression, a translation. And all that was absolutely living, living with a power that seemed infinite. And yet it was immobile, with an immobility so perfect that it gave a feeling of eternity, but with an unbelievable inner intensity of movement and life—it was inner, self-contained—and immobile, immobile in relation to the outside, if there was an outside. And it had a boundless life—it may be spoken of as infinite only by way of image—and an intensity, a strength, a force, a peace, the peace of eternity, a silence, a calm, a power capable of everything.
And I did not think it, I did not objectify it, I lived it comfortably, very comfortably. This lasted for a very long time—for the rest of the meditation.
It was as if that contained all the wealth of possibilities. And all that though it had no form, had the power to become forms.
After a moment I asked myself, "What is this, to what does it correspond?" Naturally I found out afterwards, and finally this morning I told myself, "Well, it is just to give me my message for the coming year." Then I transcribed it—naturally, you cannot make a description, it is indescribable. It was a psychological phenomenon and the forms were nothing but a way of describing the psychological state to oneself. And this is what I noted, obviously in a mental way. I have described nothing, I have only stated a fact:
"At the very bottom of the inconscience most hard and rigid and narrow and stifling I struck upon an almighty spring that cast me up forthwith into a formless limitless Vast vibrating with the seeds of a new world."
Generally the inconscience gives the impression of something
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amorphous, inert, formless, neutral and grey—formerly, when I entered into the zones of inconscience, that was the first thing that I met; but in my experience yesterday, it was an inconscience hard, rigid, coagulated, as if coagulated for a resistance. It was a mental inconscience; all efforts make no impression on it, nothing can penetrate it. And this inconscience is much worse than a purely material inconscience. It was not the original inconscient; it was, if one may say so, a mentalised inconscient. All this rigidity, hardness, narrowness, fixity, opposition come from a mental presence in the creation: this is what the mind has brought into the inconscient. When the mind had not manifested, the inconscient was not like that: it was formless and had the plasticity of formless things. That plasticity has disappeared.
The beginning of the experience is a very expressive image of the action of mind in the inconscient; it has made the inconscient aggressive—it was not like that before—aggressive, resisting, obstinate. That was precisely the starting-point of my experience. I was in fact trying to look into the mental inconscience of people, and this mental inconscience refuses to change, while the other did not; the purely material inconscience has no mode of being, it does not exist, it is not organised in any way. While this one is an organised inconscience, organised through the beginning of a mental influence—and it is a hundred times worse! It has now become a much greater obstacle than before. Before, it did not even have the power to resist, it had nothing, it was truly inconscient. Now it is an inconscience organised in its refusal to change! So I wrote, "most hard and rigid and narrow"—the idea is of something which presses you, presses you—"most stifling".
Then I wrote, "I struck upon an almighty spring." That means precisely this: in the deepest depths of the inconscient, there is a supreme spring that enables us to touch the Supreme. Because at the very bottom of the inconscience there is the Supreme. It is the Supreme who enables us to touch the Supreme. This is the "almighty spring".
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It is always the same idea that the highest height touches the deepest depth. The universe is like a circle; it is represented by a serpent that bites its own tail. That means that the supreme height touches the most material matter without any intermediary. I have said this many times, but here it was an experience of the thing as I had it.
Finally I said, "a formless limitless Vast vibrating with the seeds of a new world". This does not refer to the primordial creation, but to the supramental creation; so this experience does not correspond to a return to the supreme origin of all. I had altogether the impression that I was projected into the origin of the supramental creation: it is something of the Supreme that has already been objectified precisely for the sake of the supramental creation.
There was in fact this entire impression of power, of warmth and of gold. It was not fluid, but like a powdery mist. And each one of these things (they cannot be called particles or fragments or even points, unless point is taken in the mathematical sense, a point that does not occupy any place in space) was like living gold, a powdery mist of warm gold—one cannot call it bright, nor can one call it dark; neither was it light: a multitude of small points of gold, nothing but that. One could say that they touched my eyes, my face... and with a tremendous force! At the same time, there was the feeling of a plenitude, of an all-powerful peace—it was rich, it was full. It was movement at its maximum, infinitely more swift than anything that one can imagine, and at the same time it was absolute peace, perfect stillness.
And this almighty spring was a perfect image of what happens, is bound to happen and will happen for everybody: all at once you shoot up into the vast.
The experience that I have just described was followed by another which was also noted down at the time.2
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To tell the truth, you are never freed from hostile forces until you come out for good into the Light, above the lower hemisphere. And there the phrase "hostile forces" loses its meaning; only the forces of progress are there in order to compel you to progress. But you must come out of the lower hemisphere in order to see things in that way; because below, they are very real in their opposition to the divine plan.
It was said in the old traditions that one could not live more than twenty days in that higher state without leaving one's body and returning to the supreme origin. Now that is no longer true.
It is precisely this state of perfect harmony, beyond all attacks, that will become possible with the supramental realisation. It is that which will be realised for all who are destined for the supramental transformation. The adverse forces know quite well that in the supramental world they will automatically disappear: having no more use, they will be dissolved without the need to do anything, simply through the presence of the supramental force. That is why they rush about in a rage, negating everything, everything.
But the link between the two worlds has not yet been built—it is in the course of being built. That was the meaning of the experience of February third,1 namely, to establish a link between the two worlds. For the two worlds are there in fact—not one above the other: one within the other, in two different dimensions—but there is no communication between the two. They overlap each other without being joined together. In the experience of February third, I saw some of those from here and
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elsewhere who already belong to the supramental world in one part of their being; but there is no connection, no junction. The moment has come just now in the history of the universe when that link must be established.
The experience of November fifth was a new step in the construction of the link between the two worlds. I was indeed projected into the very origin of the supramental creation: all that warm gold, that living tremendous power, that sovereign peace. I saw once again that the values which govern in this supramental world have nothing to do with our values here below, even the values of the wisest, even those values which we consider most divine at the time we live constantly in the divine Presence. It is altogether different.
Not only in our state of worship and surrender to the Lord, but even in our state of identification, the quality of the identification is different depending on whether we are on this side, progressing in this hemisphere below, or have passed over to the other and emerged into the other world, the other hemisphere, the higher hemisphere.
The quality or the kind of relation that I had with the Supreme at that moment was quite different from that which we have here, and even the identification had a different quality. With regard to the lower movements one understands very well that they are different, but that was the summit of our experience here, that identification by which it is the Supreme who rules and lives. Well! He rules and lives quite differently when we are in this lower hemisphere and when we are in the supramental life. And at that moment2 what gave intensity to the experience was that I came to perceive, vaguely, these two states of consciousness at the same time. It is almost as if the Supreme himself is different, that is to say, the experience we have of him. And yet in both cases there was contact with the Supreme. Well, probably what differs is what we perceive of
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him or the way in which we translate it; but the quality of the experience is different.
There is in the other hemisphere an intensity and a plenitude which expresses itself through a power different from the one here. How to explain it? You cannot. The quality of the consciousness itself seems to change. It is not something higher than the summit to which we can rise here, it is not one step more: here, we are at the end, at the summit. It is the quality that is different, the quality, in the sense that there is a plenitude, a richness, a power. This is a translation, in our manner, but there is something that escapes us—it is truly a new reversal of consciousness.
When we begin to live the spiritual life, a reversal of consciousness takes place which is for us the proof that we have entered the spiritual life; well, another reversal of consciousness occurs when one enters the supramental world.
Besides, perhaps each time that a new world opens up, there will again be a new reversal of this kind. Thus even our spiritual life—which is such a total reversal in relation to ordinary life—is and appears to be, in relation to the supramental consciousness, the supramental realisation, something so totally different that the values of the two are almost opposite.
One can put it in this way (but this is very imprecise, more than diminished—deformed): it is as if our entire spiritual life were made of silver whereas the supramental is made of gold, as if the whole spiritual life here below were a vibration of silver, not lustreless, but merely a light, a light that goes up to the summit, a light quite pure, pure and intense; but in the other life, the supramental life, there is a richness and a power that makes all the difference. This whole spiritual life of our psychic being and our present consciousness, which appears so warm, so full, so wonderful, so sparkling to the ordinary consciousness, well, all this splendour appears poor in relation to the splendour of the new world.
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The phenomenon can be very well explained in this way: a series of reversals bringing about, step by step, an ever new richness of creation so that whatever has preceded it appears poor in comparison. What for us, in relation to our ordinary life, is a supreme richness, appears a poverty in relation to this new reversal of consciousness. This was my experience.
Last night when I tried to understand what was lacking so that I might be able to bring you completely, truly out of your difficulties, the effort reminded me of what I told you the other day about the Power, the power of transformation, the true power of realisation, the supramental power. Once you enter there, rise into that state, then you see that it is truly the All-Power in relation to what we are here. So once more I perceived, I felt the two states at the same time.
But as long as this realisation is not an accomplished fact, it will still be a progression—a progression, an ascension: you gain, you gain ground, you climb up and up; as long as it is not the new reversal, it is as if everything needed to be done over again. It is the repetition of the experience here below—it is reproduced up there.
And each time, you have the impression that you have lived on the surface of things. It is an impression that is repeated and repeated. At each new conquest you have the impression: "Until now I had lived only on the surface of things—on the surface of things—on the surface of realisation, the surface of surrender, the surface of power—it was merely the surface of things, the surface of experience." Behind the surface there is a depth, and it is only when you enter into the depth that you touch the true thing. And each time it is the same experience: what appeared as a depth becomes a surface, a surface with all that it means, something inaccurate, artificial, an artificial transcription, something that gives one the impression that it is not truly living: it is a copy, an imitation—it is an image, a reflection, not the thing itself. You pass into another zone and you have the impression that you have discovered the Source
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and the Power, the Truth of things; and then, this source, this power and this truth become in their turn an appearance, an imitation, a transcription in relation to the new realisation.
Meanwhile, we must indeed recognise that we have not got the key yet; it is not within our hands. Or rather we know quite well where it is, and we have only one thing to do: the perfect surrender of which Sri Aurobindo speaks, the total self-giving to the Divine Will, whatever happens, even in the midst of the night.
There is the night and there is the sun, the night and the sun, again the night, many nights; but one must cling to this will to surrender, cling to it as in a tempest, and give up everything into the hands of the Supreme Lord, until the day when the Sun will come for ever, the total victory.
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This sort of fatality that one sometimes feels weighing heavy on one's life, which is called Karma in India, is the result of past lives; indeed, it is something that has to be exhausted, something that weighs on one's consciousness.
This is how things happen: the psychic being passes from one life to another, each life on earth being the occasion and means for a further progress, for a further growth. But it can happen that the psychic takes birth with the intention of going through a certain experience, of learning a certain thing, of developing a certain faculty through a definite experience. Then, in that life, in the life in which that experience has to be gone through, for one reason or another—there may be several—the soul does not fall exactly on the spot where it should: a displacement of some kind can occur, a set of contrary circumstances—it can happen—and in that case the incarnation miscarries totally and the soul goes away to wait for a better occasion. But in other cases, the soul simply does not find it possible to do exactly what it wants and finds itself dragged into untoward circumstances—untoward not merely from the objective point of view, but untoward for its own growth. And that makes it necessary to begin the experience again, often under much more difficult conditions.
And if—anything can happen, you see—if this second attempt is also a failure, if conditions make it impossible once again for what the psychic wants to do, if, for example, it is in a body with an inadequate will or a deformation in the thought or too tough an egoism and the attempt ends in suicide, then it is something frightful. I have seen it many times; it creates a dreadful Karma which may repeat itself life after life before the
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soul becomes capable of conquering and doing what it wants to do. And each time the conditions become more and more difficult, each time a considerably greater effort is demanded. It has sometimes been said that one cannot get out of it. Indeed, the subconscious memory of the past creates a sort of irresistible desire to avoid the difficulty and one begins again the same stupidity or an even greater stupidity, and to the difficulty already so great is added yet another. Also, there are moments—moments or circumstances—when nobody is there to help you, to instruct you, to guide you. You are all alone, not knowing what to hang on to. The situation then becomes so terrible, the circumstances are so abominable.
But if only once the soul has made an appeal, if once it has made contact with the Grace, then in the following life, one immediately finds oneself in conditions where everything can be swept away at one stroke. At that moment you need to have a great courage, a great endurance, though at times a true love is sufficient. And if there is faith—a little, a very very little is enough—then everything is swept away. But in most cases what you need is a great stoic courage, a capacity to endure and to hold out: the resistance, especially in the case of a previous suicide, resistance to the temptation to again begin this foolishness—because it makes a terrible formation. There is also this habit of not looking the difficulty straight in the face, which is translated by taking flight. When suffering comes, fly, fly, instead of absorbing the difficulty, instead of holding tight, that is to say, not stirring within, not yielding, yes, above all, not yielding when you feel within: "I cannot bear it any longer." Hold your head as quiet as possible, do not follow the movement, do not obey the vibration.
That is what is needed, just that: faith in the Grace, perception of the Grace, or else, intensity of call, or better still, the response, the response, the knot opening, breaking, the response to this wonderful love of the Grace.
It is difficult without a strong will, and above all, above
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all, the capacity to resist the temptation which has been the fatal temptation through all the lives because of its accumulated power. Each defeat gives fresh force to it. A small victory can dissolve it.
The most terrible thing is when you do not have the strength, the courage, something indomitable. How often they come and tell me: "I want to die, I want to run away, I want to die." They get the answer: "Well, then, die to yourself! You are not asked to let your ego survive! Die to yourself since you want to die! Have that courage, the true courage to die to your egoism."
But because it is a Karma, you have to do something yourself. Karma is a construction of the ego; the ego must do something, everything cannot be done for it. The truth is this: Karma is the result of the actions of the ego, and it is only when the ego abdicates that Karma is dissolved. You can aid the ego, you can assist it, you can give it force and infuse it with courage, but it must use them.
There is such a gulf between what we truly are and what we are at present that it turns your head giddy at times. You must not yield to the giddiness. Do not move. Be still like a stone until the thing passes away.
Generally, when the time has come for a Karma to be conquered and absorbed by the Grace, there also comes the image or the knowledge or the experience of the exact facts that are the cause of the Karma, and then at that moment you can start the cleaning.
But it is just at the most painful point, there where the suggestions are the strongest, that you must bear the blow. Otherwise you will always have to start over again, always start over again.
One day a moment comes when the thing has to be done, when one must make the true inner gesture that liberates. To tell the truth, just now there is upon earth an opportunity which presents itself only after thousands of years, a conscious help with the necessary power. It was once believed that nothing had
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the power to wipe away the consequences of a Karma, that it was only by exhausting it through a series of purificatory acts that the consequences could be transformed, exhausted, effaced. But with the supramental power, this can be done without the need of going through all the steps of the process of liberation.
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I have read that the bodies of some saints, after their death, have disappeared and become flowers or just vanished into the sky. Can such a thing happen?
Everything is possible, it could have happened, but I do not believe it did. We cannot always believe what is said in books. Nor is there a necessary connection between such phenomena and sainthood. Some "mediums", as they are called, have an unusual capacity. They are put in a chair, tied to it, guarded by people, and the room is locked securely from outside. Then darkness is created in the room. After some time—longer or shorter according to the medium's power—the knots are found untied, the chair is seen empty: the occupant has disappeared. Then, in an adjoining room, the person is found lying down in a deep trance. Through closed doors and thick walls the medium has passed. It is by a power of deconcentration and re-concentration of the physical substance.
Phenomena like these have taken place under the strictest scientific control. So they do genuinely occur in rare instances, but they are no sign of sanctity. There is nothing spiritual about them. What is at work is purely a capacity of the vital being. And often the mediums are people of very low character, with not a trace of anything saintly.
But to come back to the point. In connection with great or holy men all sorts of stories get started. When Sri Aurobindo had not left his body, there was circulated a story that he used to go out of the roof of his room—yes, physically—and move about in all kinds of places. It is even written down in a book. He told me about it himself.
Some books say that Mirabai disappeared physically into
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the idol of Krishna and was never seen again.
Don't other books tell other stories?
It is also reported that you never write with a pen. The pen just writes for you.
There you are!
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Those who want to follow the true path will naturally be exposed to the attacks of all the forces of ill-will, which not only do not understand but generally hate what they do not understand.
If you are troubled, vexed, even discouraged by all the spiteful stupidities that people may say about you, you will not be able to advance much on the way. And these things come to you not because you are unlucky or because your lot is not a happy one, but because on the contrary the divine Consciousness and Grace take your resolution seriously and allow circumstances to become the touchstones on the way, to see if your resolution is sincere and you are strong enough to face the difficulties.
Therefore, if someone laughs at you, or says something which is not kind, the first thing to do is to look within yourself and see what is the weakness or imperfection which has allowed such a thing to happen, and not to be disconsolate or indignant or sad because people do not appreciate you for what you consider to be your proper value; on the contrary, you should thank the divine Grace for having pointed out to you the weakness or imperfection or deformation that you have to rectify.
So instead of being unhappy, you can be fully satisfied and take advantage, a great advantage, of the harm that someone wanted to do to you.
Besides, if you truly wish to follow the path and to do the yoga, you should not do it so that people will appreciate and honour you; you should do it because it is an imperative need of your being and because you can be happy only in that way. Whether people appreciate you or do not appreciate you has absolutely no importance whatever. You can tell yourself beforehand that the farther you are from the ordinary man, the
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more foreign to the way of the ordinary creature, the less you will be appreciated—quite naturally, for they will not understand you. And I repeat that this has no importance whatever.
True sincerity consists in following the way because you cannot do otherwise, in consecrating yourself to the divine life because you cannot do otherwise, in endeavouring to transform your being and emerge into the Light because you cannot do otherwise, because it is the very reason for which you live.
When it is like that, you can be sure that you are on the right path.
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Why does one wake up tired in the morning, and what should one do to have a better sleep?
If you wake up tired in the morning, it is because of tamas, nothing else, a formidable mass of tamas; I myself noticed it when I began to do the yoga of the body. It is inevitable so long as the body is not transformed.
You must lie flat on your back and relax all the muscles and all the nerves—it is an easy thing to learn—to be like what I call a rag on a bed: nothing else remains. And if you can do that with the mind also, you get rid of all those stupid dreams that make you more tired when you get up than when you went to bed. It is the cellular activity of the brain that continues without control, and that tires one much. So, a total relaxation, a sort of complete calm, without tension, in which everything is stopped. But this is only the beginning.
Afterwards, you make a self-giving as total as possible, of everything, from top to bottom, from outside to inside, and an eradication, as total as possible, of all the resistance of the ego. And you begin repeating your mantra—your mantra, if you have one, or any word which has a power for you, a word leaping forth from the heart spontaneously, like a prayer, a word which sums up your aspiration. After repeating it a certain number of times, if you are accustomed to do so, you enter into trance. And from that trance you pass into sleep. The trance lasts as long as it should and quite naturally, spontaneously, you pass into sleep. But when you come back from this sleep, you remember everything; the sleep was like a continuation of the trance.
Fundamentally, the sole purpose of sleep is to enable the body to assimilate the effect of the trance so that the effect may be received everywhere, and to enable the body to do its natural
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nocturnal function of eliminating toxins. And when you wake up, there is not that trace of heaviness which comes from sleep: the effect of the trance continues.
Even for those who have never been in trance, it is good to repeat a mantra, a word, a prayer before going into sleep. But there must be a life in the words; I do not mean an intellectual significance, nothing of that kind, but a vibration. And its effect on the body is extraordinary: it begins to vibrate, vibrate, vibrate... and quietly you let yourself go, as though you wanted to go to sleep. The body vibrates more and more, more and more, more and more, and away you go. That is the cure for tamas.
It is tamas which causes bad sleep. There are two kinds of bad sleep: the sleep that makes you heavy, dull, as if you lost all the effect of the effort you put in during the preceding day; and the sleep that exhausts you as if you had passed your time in fighting. I have noticed that if you cut your sleep into slices (it is a habit one can form), the nights become better. That is to say, you must be able to come back to your normal consciousness and normal aspiration at fixed intervals—come back at the call of the consciousness. But for that you must not use an alarm-clock! When you are in trance, it is not good to be shaken out of it.
When you are about to go to sleep, you can make a formation; say: "I shall wake up at such an hour" (you do that very well when you are a child). For the first stretch of sleep you must count at least three hours; for the last, one hour is sufficient. But the first one must be three hours at the minimum. On the whole, you have to remain in bed at least seven hours; in six hours you do not have time enough to do much (naturally I am looking at it from the point of view of sadhana) to make the nights useful.
To make use of the nights is an excellent thing. It has a double effect: a negative effect, it prevents you from falling backward, losing what you have gained—that is indeed painful—and a positive effect, you make some progress, you continue your progress. You make use of the night, so there is no trace of fatigue any more.
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Two things you must eliminate: falling into the stupor of the inconscience, with all the things of the subconscient and inconscient that rise up, invade you, enter you; and a vital and mental superactivity where you pass your time in fighting, literally, terrible battles. People come out of that state bruised, as if they had received blows. And they did receive them—it is not "as if"! And I see only one way out: to change the nature of sleep.
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Naturally, dates are put on these old talks, but nobody pays any attention to the dates. How can they be mixed up with the things of today, which are on an entirely different plane?
There is an experience where you are altogether outside time, that is to say, in front, behind, above, below, it is all the same. In this identification, at the moment of identification, there is no more past or present or future. And in truth, this is the only way of knowing.
As the experiences develop, these old talks give me the impression of someone who walks all around a garden telling about what is there within it. But there comes a time when you enter into the garden and then you know a little better what is there. And I am beginning to enter. I am beginning.
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The question and first three paragraphs of this talk are also published in On Thoughts and Aphorisms, CWM, Vol. 10, pp. 107-08.
The question which introduces this talk is based upon Sri Aurobindo's aphorism: "Sin is that which was once in its place, persisting now it is out of place; there is no other sinfulness."
What are the very first things that the Supramental Force intends to drive out, or is trying to drive out, so that everything may be in its place, individually and cosmically?
Drive out? But will it "drive out" anything? If we accept Sri Aurobindo's idea, it will put each thing in its place, that's all.
One thing must necessarily cease, and that is the distortion, that is to say, the veil of falsehood upon Truth, because that is what is responsible for everything we see here. If this is removed, things will be completely different, completely. They will be what we feel them to be when we come out of this consciousness. When one comes out of this consciousness and enters into the Truth-consciousness, the difference is such that one wonders how there can be anything like suffering and misery and death and all that. There is a kind of astonishment in the sense that one does not understand how it can happen—when one has really tipped over to the other side. But this experience is usually associated with the experience of the unreality of the world as we know it, whereas Sri Aurobindo says that this perception of the unreality of the world is not necessary in order to live in the supramental consciousness—it is only the unreality of Falsehood, not the unreality of the world. That is to say, the world has a reality of its own, independent of Falsehood.
I suppose that is the first effect of the Supermind—the first effect in the individual, because it will begin with the individual.
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It is probable that this state of new consciousness will have to become a constant state. But then a problem arises: how can one remain in contact with the world as it is in its deformation? Because I have noticed one thing: when this state is very strong in me, very strong, so strong that it is able to resist anything that comes to bombard it from outside, then when I say something, people do not understand at all, not at all; so this state inevitably does away with a useful contact.
Taking only the earth, for example, how could there be a little supramental creation, a nucleus of supramental action and radiation upon earth? Is it possible? One can conceive very well of a nucleus of superhuman creation and of supermen, that is to say, men who were men and who through evolution and transformation (in the true sense of the word) have succeeded in manifesting the supramental forces; but their origin is human and since their origin is human there is necessarily a contact; even if everything is transformed, even if the organs are transformed into centres of force, there remains nonetheless something human, like a colouring. It is these beings, according to the traditions, who will discover the secret of direct supramental creation, without passing through the process of ordinary Nature, and it is through them that the truly supramental beings will take birth, the ones who must necessarily live in a supramental world. But then how would the contact be made between these beings and the ordinary world? How is one to conceive of the transformation of Nature, a transformation sufficient to bring about the supramental creation upon earth? I do not know.
Naturally, for such a thing to happen, a considerably long time is needed, this we know; and there will probably be stages, steps, things which will appear, things which for the moment we do not know or do not conceive, and they will change the conditions of the earth—but that means seeing some thousands of years ahead.
There remains the problem: is it possible to make use of
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this notion of space, I mean the space on the terrestrial globe?1 Is it possible to find a spot where one could create the embryo or seed of the future supramental world? The plan came in all the details, but it is a plan which in its spirit and consciousness does not at all conform to what is possible on earth at present; yet in its most material manifestation, it was based on terrestrial conditions. It is the concept of an ideal town which would be the nucleus of an ideal country, a town which would have contacts, purely superficial and extremely limited in their effect, with the outside world. One would therefore already have to conceive—but this is possible—of a power sufficiently strong to be at the same time a protection against aggression or ill-will (this would not be the most difficult protection to obtain) and against infiltration and admixtures. But if necessary, one can conceive of that. From the social point of view, from the point of view of organisation, from the point of view of the inner life, these are not problems. The problem is the relation with what is not supramentalised, to prevent the infiltration, the admixture: that is to say, to prevent the nucleus from falling back into an inferior creation—it is a problem about the period of transition.
All those who have given thought to the problem have always imagined something unknown to the rest of humanity, like a gorge in the Himalayas, for example, a place unknown to the rest of the world. But this is not a solution; it is not a solution at all.
No, the only solution is an occult power, but this already implies that before anything can be done, a certain number of individuals must have reached a great perfection of realisation. But one can conceive that if this can be done, one can have a spot which is in the midst of the outside world and yet isolated (without any contacts, you see), a spot where everything would be exactly in its place—as an example. Each thing is exactly
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in its place, each person exactly in his place, each movement exactly in its place—and in its place in an ascending progressive movement, without any relapse, that is to say, quite the contrary to what happens in ordinary life. Naturally, this presupposes a kind of perfection, this presupposes a kind of unity, this presupposes that the different aspects of the Supreme can be manifested and, of course, an exceptional beauty, a total harmony and a power strong enough to command obedience from the forces of Nature. For example, even if this spot were surrounded by forces of destruction, they would not have the power to act; the protection would be sufficient. All this requires the utmost perfection in the individuals who would be the organisers of such a thing.
(Silence)
Indeed, nobody knows how the first men were formed, the first mental realisation. One does not know whether they were isolated individuals or groups, whether this happened in the midst of others or in isolation. I do not know. But there may be an analogy with the future case of the supramental creation. It is not difficult to conceive that in the solitude of the Himalayas or in the solitude of a virgin forest an individual would begin to create around him his little supramental world. It is easy to conceive. But the same thing would be necessary: he would have to have reached such a perfection that his power would act automatically to prevent intrusion, so that automatically his world would be protected; that is to say, all contrary or foreign elements would be prevented from approaching.
Stories of the kind have been told, of people who lived in an ideal solitude. It is not impossible at all to conceive that. When one is in contact with this Power, at the moment it is in you, you see quite well that it is child's play; it is even possible to change certain things, to exert an influence on surrounding vibrations and forms, which automatically begin to be supramentalised. All
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that is possible, but it is on an individual scale. Whereas, take the example of what is happening here, the individual dwelling at the very centre of all this chaos: there lies the difficulty! Does it not follow from this very fact that it is impossible to reach a kind of perfection in the realisation? But then too, the other example, that of the solitary in the forest, does not at all prove that the rest of mankind will be able to follow; whereas what is happening here is already a much more radiating action. This is what must happen at a given moment, this must happen inevitably. But the problem remains: can this happen at the same time or before the other thing is realised—at the same time or before the individual, the one individual is supramentalised?
Evidently, the realisation under the conditions of community or the group is much more complete, integral, total and probably more perfect than any individual realisation, which is always, necessarily, on the external, material plane, absolutely limited, because it is only one mode of being, one mode of manifestation, one microscopic set of vibrations that is touched.
But from the point of view of the easiness of the work, I believe there is no comparison.
The problem remains. All people like Buddha and the others, had first realised and then entered into contact with the world: well, this is very simple. But with regard to what I have in view, is it not an indispensable condition, for the realisation to be total, that one remains in the world?
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After several weeks of grave illness which threatened the Mother's life.
Just between 11:00 and 12:00 last night, I had an experience by which I discovered that there is a group of people—purposely their identity was not revealed to me—who want to create a kind of religion based on the revelation of Sri Aurobindo. But they have taken only the side of power and force, a certain kind of knowledge and all that could be utilised by Asuric forces. There is a big Asuric being that has succeeded in taking the appearance of Sri Aurobindo. There is only an appearance. This appearance of Sri Aurobindo has declared to me that the work I am doing is not his. It has declared that I have been a traitor to him and to his work and has refused to have anything to do with me.
There is in that group a man whom I must have seen once or twice, who is not with them in spirit, but only in appearance. But he is without knowledge, he does not know what kind of being is there. And he always hopes to make this being accept me, believing it is truly Sri Aurobindo. This being I saw last night. I won't tell all the details of the vision—it is not necessary. But I must say that I was fully conscious, aware of everything, knowing that an Asuric force was there—but not rejecting it because of the infinity of Sri Aurobindo. I knew that everything is part of him and I do not want to reject anything. I met this being last night three times, even apologised for sins that I have not committed and in full love and surrender. I woke at 12:00, remembering everything. Between 12:15 and 2:00 I was with the true Sri Aurobindo in the fullest and sweetest relation—there also in perfect consciousness, awareness, calm and equanimity. At 2:00 I woke and noted just before that Sri Aurobindo himself
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had shown me that still he was not completely master of the physical realm.I woke up at 2:00 and noticed that the heart had been affected by the attack of this group that wants to take my life away from this body, because they know that so long as I am in a body upon earth their purpose cannot succeed. Their first attack was many years ago in vision and action. I had it in the night and spoke of it to nobody. I noted down the date, and if I can come out of this crisis, I will find it and give it out. They would have liked me dead years ago. It is they who are responsible for these attacks on my life. Up till now I am alive because the Lord wanted me to be alive, otherwise I would have gone long ago.
I am no more in my body. I have left it for the Lord to take care of it, to decide if it is to have the Supramental or not. I know and I have said also that now is the last fight. If the purpose for which this body is alive is to be fulfilled, that is to say, the first steps taken towards the Supramental transformation, then it will continue today. This is the Lord's decision. I am not even asking what he has decided. If the body is incapable of bearing the fight, if it has to be dissolved, then humanity will pass through a critical time. What the Asuric Force that has succeeded in taking the appearance of Sri Aurobindo will create, is a new religion or thought, perhaps cruel and merciless, in the name of the Supramental Realisation. But everybody must know that it is not true, it is not Sri Aurobindo's teaching, not the truth of his teaching. The truth of Sri Aurobindo is a truth of love and light and mercy. He is good and great and compassionate and Divine. And it is He who will have the final victory.
Now, individually, if you want to help, you have only to pray. What the Lord wants will be done. Whatever He wills, He will do with this body, which is a poor thing.
Afterwards, when the transcript of this talk was read to the Mother, she commented:
The fight is within the body. This can't go on. They must be
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defeated or this body is defeated. All depends on what the Lord will decide.
It is the battlefield. How far it can resist, I don't know. After all, it depends on Him. He knows if the time has come or not, the time for the beginning of the Victory—then the body will survive; if not, in any case, my love and consciousness will be there.
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Suddenly in the night I woke with the full awareness of what we could call the Yoga of the World. The Supreme Love was manifesting through big pulsations, and each pulsation was bringing the world further in its manifestation. It was the formidable pulsations of the eternal stupendous Love, only Love. Each pulsation of the Love was carrying the universe further in its manifestation.
And there was the certitude that what is to be done is done and that the Supramental Manifestation is realised.
Everything was impersonal, nothing was individual.
This was going on and on and on and on.
The certitude that what is to be done is done.
All the results of the falsehood had disappeared: death was an illusion, sickness was an illusion, ignorance was an illusion—something that had no reality, no existence. Only Love and Love and Love and Love—immense, formidable, stupendous, carrying everything.
And how to express it in the world? It was like an impossibility, because of the contradiction. But then it came: "You have accepted that the world should know the Supramental Truth... and it will be expressed totally, integrally." Yes, yes....
And the thing is done.
(Long silence)
The individual consciousness came back: just the sense of a
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limitation, a limitation of pain; without that, no individual.
And we set out again on the way, sure of Victory.
The skies are full of the songs of Victory.
The Truth alone exists; it alone shall be manifested. Forward!
Glory to Thee, Lord, Supreme Triumpher!
Now, to the work.
Patience, endurance, perfect equality, and an absolute faith.
What I am saying is nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing but words if I come to the experience.
And our consciousness is the same, absolutely the same as that of the Lord. There was no difference, no difference.
We are That, we are That, we are That.
Later I shall explain better. The instrument is not yet ready. This is only the beginning.
Afterwards Mother added:
The experience lasted for at least four hours.
There are many things which I shall say later.
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O Death, thou speakest Truth but Truth that slays, I answer to thee with the Truth that saves. Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Book X, Canto 3
O Death, thou speakest Truth but Truth that slays, I answer to thee with the Truth that saves.
Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Book X, Canto 3
The other day, in dealing with a question of work, I had occasion to explain my position from the standpoint of the materialists' conviction. I do not know where they stand now, for I do not concern myself with that generally.
For them, all the experiences that men have are the result of a mental phenomenon—it is that. We have attained a progressive mental development. They would be quite unable to say why or how!—but in brief, it is Matter that has developed Life, and Life that has developed Mind, and all the so-called spiritual experiences of man are mental constructions—they use other words, but I believe that this is their idea. In any case, it is a negation of all spiritual existence in itself and a negation of a Being or of a Force or of Something higher which governs everything.
I repeat, I do not know where they stand now, but I was faced with a conviction like that.
And so I said: "But it is very simple I accept your point of view. There is nothing else except what we see, humanity as it is, and all the so-called inner phenomena are due to a mental, a cerebral action; and when you die, you die—that is to say, when the phenomenon of agglomeration reaches the end of its life and dissolves, everything dissolves. It is all right."
Probably if things had been like that, life would have appeared so disgusting that I would have gone out of it long ago. But I must immediately say that it is not for a moral or even a spiritual reason that I disapprove of suicide. It is for me a
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cowardice, and there is something in me that does not like cowardice, and therefore I would not... I would never run away from the problem.
That is point number one.
And then, once you are here, you ought to go to the end, even if the end is nothingness—you go till the end, and it is better to go in the best way possible, that is to say, the way most satisfactory to you. It happens that I had some philosophical curiosity and studied a little about all these problems. I found myself in the presence of Sri Aurobindo's teaching, and what he says is for me the most satisfactory of all. What he has taught (I should say revealed, but not to a materialist) is, among the systems formulated by man, by far the most satisfactory for me, the most complete, answering in the most satisfactory way all the questions that can be put, the one that helps me most in life to have the feeling that it is worth something. Therefore I try to conform entirely to what he teaches and to live it integrally in the best possible way to live—best for me. It is all the same to me if others do not believe in it—whether they believe in it or not makes no difference for me. I do not need to be supported by the conviction of others; my own satisfaction is enough. Well, there is nothing more to say.
The experiment lasted for a long time. In complete detail, to all problems I answered like that. And when I had ended, I told myself, "But this is marvellous as an argument!" Because all the elements of doubt, ignorance, incomprehension, ill-will, negation, all those things that come—immediately they go away with that argument; they are annulled, they have no effect.
And afterwards, everything was securely grasped, solid.
What have you got to say?
It is much easier to reply to materialists who are uncompromising, convinced, sincere (that is to say, sincere within the limits
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of their consciousness) than to people having a religion—much easier!
But naturally, from the intellectual point of view, all human convictions have an explanation and a place. There is nothing men have thought which is not the deformation of a truth. The difficulty is not there, but rather in the fact that for religious people there are things which it is their duty to believe and it is a sin to let the mind discuss them—and so they shut themselves up, naturally, and they can never make any progress. Whereas the materialists, on the contrary, are supposed to know everything, explain everything: they explain everything rationally. And thus (Mother laughs) by the very fact that they explain everything, they can be led to wherever one wants to go.
With religious people nothing can be done.
But after all, that also is not good. If they have been clinging to a religion, it is because that religion has helped them in one way or another, it has helped in them precisely something which wanted to have a certitude, not to have to search but to be able to rest on something solid without being responsible for the solidity—somebody else is responsible (Mother laughs) and it goes on like that. It is a lack of compassion to want to pull them out of that—it is better to leave them where they are. I never dispute with someone who has a faith—let him keep his faith! I take care not to tell him anything that might shake his faith, because it would not be good—they are not capable of having another.
But to a materialist: "I do not dispute, I accept your standpoint; only, you have nothing to say—I have taken my position; you take yours. If you are satisfied with what you have, keep it. If it helps you to live, it is quite all right.
"But you have no right to blame me or criticise me, because it is on your own basis. Even if all that I imagine is simply an imagination, I prefer my imagination to yours."
There!
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What is the Truth? What do you mean when you speak of "the Truth"?
You want a mental definition of the Truth. The Truth cannot be expressed in mental terms. Yes, it is so. And all the questions put are mental questions.
The Truth cannot be formulated, it cannot be defined—it is to be lived.
And one who is wholly consecrated to the Truth, who wants to live the Truth, serve the Truth, will know at each moment what must be done: it will be a kind of intuition or revelation (most often without words, but sometimes also expressed in words) which will make you know at every minute what is the truth of that minute. And it is this that is so interesting. You want to know "the Truth" as a thing well defined, well classified, well established, and after that you are at rest: there is no need to seek any more! You take it up, you say: "Here, this is the Truth" and then it is fixed. This is what all the religions have done. They have established their truth as a dogma. But it is not the Truth any more.
The Truth is something living, moving, expressing itself at each second, and it is one way of approaching the Supreme. Each one has his way of approaching the Supreme. There are perhaps some who are able to approach him from all sides at the same time, but there are those who approach through Love, those who approach through Power, those who approach through Consciousness and those who approach through Truth. But each of these aspects is as absolute, imperative and undefinable as the supreme Lord himself is.
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The supreme Lord is absolute, imperative and undefinable, unseizable in his action, and his attributes have this same quality.
Once one knows this, he who puts himself at the service of one of these aspects will know (it is expressed in life, in time, in the movement of time), will know at each moment what Truth is, and will know at each moment what Consciousness is, and will know at each minute what Power is, and he will know at each minute what Love is. And it is a multiform Power, Love, Consciousness, Truth that expresses itself innumerably in the manifestation, even as the Lord expresses himself innumerably in the manifestation.
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You see, in the present condition of the world, circumstances are always difficult. The whole world is in a condition of strife, conflict, between the forces of truth and light wanting to manifest and the opposition of all that does not want to change, which represents in the past what is fixed, hardened and refuses to go. Naturally, each individual feels his own difficulties and is faced by the same obstacles.
There is only one way for you. It is a total, complete and unconditional surrender. What I mean by that is the giving up not only of your actions, work, ambitions, but also of all your feelings, in the sense that all that you do, all that you are, is exclusively for the Divine. So, you feel above the surrounding human reactions—not only above them but protected from them by the wall of the Divine's Grace. Once you have no more desires, no more attachments, once you have given up all necessity of receiving a reward from human beings, whoever they are—knowing that the only reward that is worth getting is the one that comes from the Supreme and that never fails—once you give up the attachment to all exterior beings and things, you at once feel in your heart this Presence, this Force, this Grace that is always with you.
And there is no other remedy. It's the only remedy, for everybody without exception. To all those who suffer, it is the same thing that has to be said: all suffering is the sign that the surrender is not total. Then, when you feel in you a "bang", like that, instead of saying, "Oh, this is bad" or "This circumstance is difficult," you say, "My surrender is not perfect." Then it's all right. And then you feel the Grace that helps you and leads you, and you go on. And one day you emerge into that peace that nothing can trouble. You answer to all the contrary forces, the contrary movements, the attacks, the misunderstandings, the
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bad wills, with the same smile that comes from full confidence in the Divine Grace. And that is the only way out, there is no other.
This world is a world of conflict, suffering, difficulty, strain; it is made of it. It has not yet changed, it will take some time before changing. And for each one there is a possibility of getting out. If you lean back on the presence of the Supreme Grace, that is the only way out. That I have been telling you since two or three days, like that constantly.
Now?
What to do?
What? For your work there is nothing to say. You are doing it perfectly well, exactly as it has to be done; it is all right. Your work is quite all right.
That is what I wanted to ask: whether this work is in any manner needed or not? Why should I go on doing it?
Excellent, go on doing it. You do it perfectly well. Don't expect human appreciation—because human beings don't know on what grounds to appreciate something, and, moreover, when there is something that is superior to them, they don't like it.
But where to get such a strength?
Within you. The Divine Presence is in you. It is in you. You look for it outside; look inside. It is in you. The Presence is there. You want the appreciation of others to get strength—you will never get it. The strength is in you. If you want, you can aspire for what seems to you the supreme goal, supreme light, supreme knowledge, supreme love. But it is in you—otherwise you would never be able to contact it. If you go deep enough
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inside you, you will find it there, like a flame that is always burning straight up.
And don't believe that it is so difficult to do. It is because the look is always turned outside that you don't feel the Presence. But if, instead of looking outside for support, you concentrate and you pray—inside, to the supreme knowledge—to know at each moment what is to be done, the way to do it, and if you give all you are, all you do in order to acquire perfection, you will feel that the support is there, always guiding, showing the way. And if there is a difficulty, then instead of wanting to fight, you hand it over, hand it over to the supreme wisdom to deal with it—to deal with all the bad wills, all the misunderstandings, all the bad reactions. If you surrender completely, it is no more your concern: it's the concern of the Supreme who takes it up and knows better than anybody else what is to be done. The only way out, only way out. There, my child.
One thing is that whatever I do there, it is not liked by my own people.
Your own people are all mixed up, as everybody is.
But my feeling is so strong—not only strong but it is as clear as daylight, as if I am just sitting in your presence—that I do not do anything myself. This is such a great, clear experience to me for all these years. Whatever is being done by me, it is being done by some Force and not by me at all. And it gets it done, but then the...
What! You expect the world to understand that?
No. They may not understand, I don't want any credit for that. But you see, the obstacles and the...
If you consider this: that I can understand and know, then you
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have my full support. I never told you that you were doing wrong, did I? Now, once and for all you must understand that unless people are true yogis, out of the ego, completely surrendered to the Supreme, they can't understand. How could they? They see with all the exterior eyes and knowledge; they see exterior things and appearances. They don't see the inside. When we have stopped expecting appreciation from the outside, that is from human beings, we have no reason to complain. They appreciate, so much the better for them. They don't appreciate, it doesn't matter. It's their own look-out. We do things not to please them, we do things because we feel that that is to be done.
I have never expected appreciation, Mother.
Perhaps things are coming to compel you to take up that position—because that is the liberation, that is the true liberation.
Not from ego, but I am a sadhu by nature. I don't need anything at all.
That is all right, but also you must not need the appreciation of your own family.
With all my failings and weaknesses, I don't need anything at all. I don't need any appreciation.
Then you can't suffer. Because the only thing that you need is the support of the Divine, and you have it. Then you can't suffer.
But I am suffering very much.
Yes, there is a conflict in your being. One part of your consciousness knows but there is still one part that is the slave of circumstances.
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Perhaps all that has been coming upon you for the supreme and the total liberation. And if you take it as the expression of the Grace, you will see the result. Peace, a peace that nothing can disturb, perfect equanimity and a strength that never fails.
Take it as a new birth today. The new life that is beginning.
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I took my seat, it was almost time, perhaps half a minute before, and all of a sudden, without preparation, like that, like a hammer blow: a descent so powerful—completely immobile—of something... It was as though Sri Aurobindo spoke to me at the same time (because the definition came at the same time as the experience: it was a vision that was not a vision, it was wholly concrete) and the word was: golden peace. But so strong! And then it did not move. During the whole half-hour, it did not move. It is something new that I had never felt before. I cannot say... It was perceived, but not like an objective vision. And spontaneously, other persons told me that as soon as they were seated for meditation (gesture of massive descent), something came down with a tremendous power, completely immobile, and a feeling of peace that they had never felt in their life.
Golden peace. And it is true, it gave the impression of the golden supramental light. But it was... a peace! Concrete, you know, not the negation of disorder and activity, no: concrete, concrete peace. I did not want to stop. The time was over, still I remained two minutes, three minutes. When I stopped, it was gone. And it has made a great difference for the body—the body itself—such a difference that when it had gone, I felt quite uneasy, I needed half a minute to regain my equilibrium.
It came and it went away. It came for the meditation and then it went away. For more than half an hour, thirty-five minutes.
And in the evening, at the balcony,1 there was a crowd. I believe it was the biggest crowd that we have ever had: it spread
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out into all the streets; as far as I could see, the streets were full of people. Then I came out, and as I came out, there arose from this crowd like a... something between an imploring, a prayer and a protest about the condition the world is in, particularly this country. And that rose up in waves. I looked at it, and then (it was extremely insistent) I said to myself: "It is not my day, it is Sri Aurobindo's day." I went like this (gesture of withdrawal) and I put Sri Aurobindo in front. And when he was put in front, standing in front he simply said, simply: "The Lord knows best what he is doing." (Mother laughs) Immediately, I began to smile (I did not laugh, but I began to smile) and there came the same peace as in the morning.
There you are.
"The Lord knows best what he is doing", with his most perfect sense of humour. And immediately everything became calm.
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What must be done to pull the country out of its difficulty? Sri Aurobindo has foreseen all the troubles and he has given the solution. Just now we are approaching his Centenary; it seems arranged, you know, divinely arranged, because this would be a wonderful occasion to spread his teaching all over the country: the teaching, the practical teaching, his teaching about India, how to organise India, the mission of India. It seems to me that taking the Centenary as an occasion, his teaching could be spread all over the country with a little more organising—so that his ideas get spread. Those people who are interested can take it up and teach it, hold meetings and give the light and the knowledge to the people. It is a wonderful occasion. And it is only this that gives a clue to all these difficulties.
About all that has happened and all that is happening now, he has said clearly that to go back to it is useless. We must give the country its true position, that is, the position of relying on the Divine. Naturally, this is at the other end of what people try to believe now. But Sri Aurobindo explains it in such a way that even those who are against it can agree. You understand? He has found a way of saying it which can be understood by everybody. That's the only solution, as far as I can see; it is the only solution. All the rest will mean complication, contradiction and fighting.
Just now we have two years in front of us to organise a kind of demonstration of what he was teaching. And this is above politics, you see. It is not a question of party, it's not that: because some are for it, others will naturally not be. It is above all politics. It is to organise the country beyond politics. And it is the only way. In politics it is always fight and ugly fight—ugly. And it has become so bad. He was telling me always that things would become worse and worse, because it is the end of this
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age. We are entering into an age where things must be organised differently. It is a difficult time because of that.
Because we know what will come, we can help to make it come sooner and with less turmoil. There is no hope in going backwards; it would make things last endlessly. We must go forward, absolutely, and go beyond, beyond party. And nobody can explain that better than Sri Aurobindo, because he was so much, so much beyond party; he saw the advantages and disadvantages of all ties and he stated them exactly.
If you read carefully what he has written—so much—you will find the answer to all these questions. And at the same time you will know that you will have the full support of the Divine Power. The Power that was behind him is behind this transformation. It is time for transformation. We can't cling to the past.
The best way to go beyond politics is to spread the message of Sri Aurobindo. Because he is no more a political element wanting to take power; there are only his ideas and ideals. And, of course, if people could understand and realise his programme, the country could be very strong, very strong.
Those who understand the teaching can take up the work of organising and spreading it.
But Mother, unless Mother's children come into the government...
(Mother laughs) They will break. And they themselves will feel so restricted.
If there is a man who feels like going in for politics, that is different; but I think the others will be stronger without being inside.
But the government will be there in any case. If Mother...
But they must be political people in temperament.
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Politics is always limited by party, by ideas, by duties also—unless we prepare a government that has no party, a government that admits all ideas because it is above parties. party is limitation; it is like a box: you go into the box (Mother laughs). Of course, if there were some people who had the courage to be in the government without a party—"We represent no party! We represent India"—that would be magnificent.
Pull the consciousness up, up, above party.
And then, naturally, certain people who couldn't come into political parties—that! that is truly working for tomorrow. Tomorrow it will be like that. All this turmoil is because the country must take the lead, must go above all these old political habits. Government without party. Oh, it would be magnificent!
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Most of the texts in this volume were first published between the 1930s and 1970s in books and journals put out by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram or groups associated with it. The remaining texts first appeared in 1980 in the first edition of this volume. About two-thirds of the short written statements comprising Part One were written in English, the rest in French. About three-fourths of the conversations comprising Part Two were spoken in French, the rest in English.
The conversations in Part Two were transmitted in various ways. The six conversations of 1950 and 1951 were taken down in shorthand. The conversation of 3 April 1962 was noted from memory. The manner of transcription of two conversations is not known — those of 1958 (1) and January 1960. All the other conversations were tape recorded. Most of them were spoken in French; those spoken in English are: 1958 (1), January 1960, 3 April 1962, 13 April 1962 (first half only), 11 May 1967 and 25 May 1970.
The volume has been divided into six parts, each part having a number of sections. Each section does not necessarily contain all of the statements that could be placed there. Each statement has been put only in one section, though it might have been put in more than one. Statements that appear in other volumes have not, as a rule, been reproduced here.
Quotations from the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are occasionally cited in the text and footnotes. The sources of these works are the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library (SABCL) and the second edition of the Collected Works of the Mother (CWM).
The text of this second edition is the same as that of the first edition, apart from the correction of some typographical errors and the revision of a few English translations.
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