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TRUE RELATION WITH THE MOTHER
SPECIAL RELATIONS WITH THE MOTHER
It is certainly true that the Divine has no preferences or dislikes and is equal to all, but that does not prevent there being a special relationship with each. This relation, however, does not depend on the more or less identification or union. The purer soul has an easier access to the Divine. The more developed nature has more lines on which to meet Him. The identification creates a spiritual oneness. But there are other personal relations which are created by other causes. It is too complex for all relations to be determined by one cause.
Yes, Yogis whose progress does not depend on the personal intervention of the Mother, need have no personal relation with her ― only the spiritual contact in distance. Some may have a special relation, but that is due to special aspects of their Sadhana. On the other hand, one may have a personal relation with the Mother even though no progress has been made in the Sadhana. There are all kinds of possibilities in this matter.
There is such a relation with all of those who have come here with a psychic sufficiently developed to admit of the relation. In other cases it is more a possibility than a thing realised.
There are, roughly speaking, three parts of the being in manifestation which come into play here: (1) the psychic being in evolution which brings with it its past experience of past lives and something of the old personalities, so much as it can make helpful for the present life; (2) the present formation due to this birth and made up of many complex factors; (3) the future being, which in our case means the great lines of higher consciousness above the present manifestation by joining which the transformation becomes more possible and the work attempted can be done.
It is the psychic being which brings in the contact through past lives or personalities, i.e. through something essential and still operative in them which it has kept.
Page - 167 But, in addition, some psychic beings have come here who are ready to join with great lines of consciousness above, represented often by beings of the higher planes and are therefore specially fitted to join with the Mother intimately in the great work that has to be done. These have all special relation with the Mother which adds to the past one
As for the present formation, it may obviously have elements which, not being joined or met with the Mother, may feel themselves strange to her. It is such an element which may feel standing in the way; but it is an exterior formation and does not belong to the past or to the future evolution, at any rate in its present figure. It must either disappear or change. 10-6- 1935
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To launch into too many mental subtleties in this connection is not very helpful; it is a subject which is beyond mental analysis and the constructions of the mind about it are apt to be either very partially true or else erroneous.
There is a universal Divine Love which is equal for all. There is also a psychic connection which is individual; it is essentially the same for all, but it admits of a special relation with each which is not the same for all but different in each case. This special relation stands apart in each case and has its own nature, it is, as is said, sui generis, of its own kind and cannot be compared, balanced or measured with other relations, for each of these again is sui generis. The question of less or more is therefore perfectly irrelevant here.
It is quite wrong to say that the Mother loves most those who are nearest to her in the physical. I have often said this but people do not wish to believe it, because they imagine that the Mother is a slave of the vital feelings like ordinary people and governed by vital likes and dislikes. "Those she likes she keeps near her, those she likes less she keeps less near, those she dislikes or does not care for she keeps at a distance", that is their childish reasoning. Many of those who feel the Mother's presence and love always with them hardly see her except once in
Page - 168 six months or once in a year; ― apart from the Pranam and meditation. On the other hand one near her physically or seeing her often may not feel such a thing at all; he may complain of the absence of the Mother's help and love altogether or as compared to what she gives to others. If the childishly simple rule of three given above were true, such outbursts would not be possible.
Whether one feels the Mother's love or not depends on whether one is open to it or not. It does not depend on physical nearness. Openness means the removal of all that makes one unconscious of the inner relation ― nothing can make one more unconscious than the idea that it must be measured only by some outward manifestation instead of being felt within the being; it makes one blind or insensitive to the outer manifestations that are there. Whether one is physically far or near makes no difference. One can feel it, being physically far or seeing her little. One can fail to feel it when it is there even if one is physically near or often in her physical presence. 11-6-1935 *
If the Sadhak becomes unfaithful to the Mother, it means that he did not want the Sadhana or the Mother but the satisfaction of his desires and his ego. That is not Yoga.
The Mother meets nobody for "hours" ― if anybody stayed for hours she would get very tired.
Mother did not meet X more than others because she loved him more than others but because she was trying to get something done through him for the work, which, if done, would have been a great victory for all. But precisely because he took it in the wrong way, grasping at it as a personal physical relation and satisfaction of his egoistic desire, he failed and had to go away. Your "part" makes the same stupid ignorant claim of the sensuous ego and if the Mother were so foolish as to satisfy it, it would turn up like X.
Mother has taken the body because a work of a physical nature (including a change in the physical world) had to be done, she has not come to establish a "physical relation" with people.
Page - 169 Some have come with her to share in the work, others she had called, others have come seeking for the light. With each she has a personal relation or a possibility of the personal relation, but each is of its own kind and no one can say that she must do equally the same thing with each person. No one can claim as a right that she must be physically near to him because she is physically near to, others. Some have chosen personal relation with her yet she sees little of them ― some have a less close personal relation yet for one reason or another may see her much oftener or longer. To apply silly mathematical rules of the physical mind here is absurd. Your physical mind cannot understand what the Mother does, its values and standards and ideas are not hers. It is still worse to make your personal vital demand or desire the measure of what she ought to do. That way spiritual ruin lies. She acts in each case for different reasons suitable to that case.
TRUE CHILDREN OF THE MOTHER
Those are the Mother's children closest to her who are open to her, close to her in their inner being, one with her will ― not those who come bodily nearest to her.
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If one has the close inner relation, one feels the Mother always near and within and round and there is no insistence on the closer physical relation for its own sake. Those who have not this, should aspire for this and not hanker after the other. If they get the outer closeness, they will find that it means nothing without the inner oneness and closeness. One may be physically near the Mother and yet as far from her as the Sahara desert. 11-6-1934
INNER UNION AND EXTERNAL CONTACT WITH THE MOTHER
The spiritual union must begin from within and spread out from
Page - 170 there; it cannot be based on anything exterior ― for, if so based, the union cannot be spiritual or real. That is the great mistake which so many make here: they put the whole emphasis on the external vital or physical relation with the Mother, insist on a vital interchange or else physical contact and when they do not get it to their satisfaction, enter into all kinds of disturbances, revolt, doubt, depression. This is a wrong viewpoint altogether and has caused much obstruction and trouble. The mind, vital, physical can participate and are intended to participate in the union, but for that they must be submitted to the psychic, themselves psychicised; the union must be an essentially psychic and spiritual union spreading out to the mind, vital and physical. Even the physical must be able to feel invisibly the Mother's closeness, her concrete presence ― then alone can the union be truly based and completed and then alone can any physical closeness or contact find its true value and fulfil its spiritual purpose. Till then any physical contact is of value only so far as it helps the inner Sadhana, but how much can be given and what will help or hinder, the Mother only can judge, the Sadhak cannot be the judge ― he will be led away by the desires and lower vital ego, as so many have been in fact. When the vital demand is there with its claims and revolts and takes the desire for the exterior contact or closeness as a cause or occasion for these things, then it becomes a serious hindrance to the development of the inner union, it does not help at all. The Sadhaks always imagine in their ignorance that when the Mother sees more of one person than of another, it is because of personal preference and that she is giving more love and help to that person. That is altogether a mistake. Physical closeness and contact can be a severe ordeal for the Sadhak; it may raise the vital demands, claims, jealousies, etc. to a high pitch; it may, on the other hand, leave him satisfied with an outer relation without making any serious effort for the inner union; or it becomes for him something mechanical, because ordinary and familiar, and for any inner purpose quite ineffective ― these things are not only possible but have happened in many cases. The Mother knows that and her arrangements in this matter are therefore dictated by quite other reasons than those which are attributed to her.
Page - 171 The only safe thing is to concentrate on the inner union foremost and altogether, to make that the one thing to be achieved and to leave aside all claims and demands for anything external, remaining satisfied with what the Mother gives and relying wholly on her wisdom and solicitude. It ought to be quite evident that a desire which raises revolt, doubt, depression, desperate struggles cannot be a true part of the spiritual movement. If your mind tells you that it is the right thing, then surely you must distrust the mind's suggestions. Concentrate entirely on the one thing needful and put away, if they come, all ideas and forces that want to disturb it or make you deviate. The vital assent to these things has to be overcome, but for that the first thing is to refuse all mental assent, for the mental support gives them a greater force than they would otherwise have. Fix the right attitude in the mind and the deeper emotional being ― cling to that when contrary forces arise and by your firmness in that psychic attitude repel them. 14-3-1937 THE OUTER AND THE INNER MOTHER
It is true that the Mother is one in many forms, but the distinction between the outer and the inner Mother must not be made too trenchant; for she is not only one, but the physical Mother contains all the others in herself and in her is established the communication between the inner and the outer existence. But to know the outer Mother truly one must know what is within her and not look at the outer appearances only. That is only possible if one meets her with the inner being and grows into her consciousness ― those who seek an outer relation only cannot do that. 10-8-1936
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I do not know how you are going to live into the manifested form. To live in the Mother's consciousness even to the physical with
Page - 172 the manifested form as the centre of this unity is possible. Perhaps you mean that ? But how are you going to do that if the other parts are left to remain as they are ? They will go on pulling you out of the true consciousness as they do now. And how are they to be changed if the Mother's Force is not there in them to change them ? 14-1-1936
TRUE INNER RELATION WITH THE MOTHER
An inner (soul) relation means that one feels the Mother's presence, is turned to her at all times, is aware of her force moving, guiding, helping, is full of love for her and always feels a great nearness whether one is physically near her or not. This relation takes up the mind, vital and inner physical till one feels one's mind close to the Mother's mind, one's vital in harmony with hers, one's very physical consciousness full of her. These are all the elements of the inner union, not only in the spirit and self but in the nature . I do not recollect what I had written, but this is the close inner relation as opposed to an outer relation which consists only in how one meets her in the external physical plane. It is quite possible and actual to have this close inner relation even if physically one sees her only at Pranam and meditation and once a year perhaps on the birthday.
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The connection is always there, in the self and in the psychic; but if there are obstacles in the mind, vital and the physical, then the connection cannot manifest or, if at all manifest, it is mixed with elements which make it imperfect and unsuitable. The true connection is the psychic and spiritual relation; the relation in other parts must be kept up on the basis of this psychic and spiritual connection and then it can be permanent.
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Page - 173 The relation with the Divine, the relation with the Mother must be one of love, faith, trust, confidence, surrender; any other relation of the vital ordinary kind brings reactions contrary to the Sadhana, ― desire, egoistic abhimāna, demand, revolt and all the disturbance of ignorant rajasic human nature from which it is the object of the Sadhana to escape. 26-4-1933 THE CONSTANT PSYCHIC NEARNESS
Q: I am feeling very close to the Mother as if there is no difference. But how can this be possible, as there is such a great gulf between her and me ― she being on the Supramental and I on the mental plane ? A: But the Mother is there not only on the Supramental but on all the planes. And especially she is close to everyone in the psychic part (the inner heart), so when that opens, the feeling of nearness naturally comes. 11-12-1933 *
All that is needed is for your psychic being to come forward and to open you to the direct and real and constant inner contact of myself and the Mother. Hitherto your soul has expressed itself through the mind and its ideals and admirations or through the vital and its higher joys and aspirations; but that is not sufficient to conquer the physical difficulty and enlighten and transform Matter. It is your soul in itself, your psychic being that must come in front, awaken entirely and make the fundamental change. The psychic being will not need the support of intellectual ideas or outer signs and helps. It is that alone that can give you the direct feeling of the Divine, the constant nearness, the inner support and aid. You will not then feel the Mother remote or have any further doubt about the realisation; for the mind thinks and the vital craves, but the soul feels and knows the Divine.
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Page - 174 What you write here is an exact description of the psychic being and its relation to the Mother. That is the true relation. If you want to succeed in this Yoga, you must take your stand on the psychic relation and reject the egoistic vital movement. The psychic being coming to the front and staying there is the decisive movement in the Yoga. It is that which happened when you saw the Mother last, the psychic came in front. But you must keep it in front. You will not be able to do that if you listen to the vital ego and its outcries. It is by faith and surrender and the joy of pure self-giving ― the psychic attitude ― that one grows into the Truth and becomes united with the Divine. 26-2-1933 *
Q: When I could not properly concentrate, I called down Purity from above. At once the whole being was filled with Peace and Purity and, without any djfficulty, I felt the Mother's Presence in the hearth. An intense aspiration rose from the heart, from below, in fact, from all parts of the being. The heart was filled with adoration for the Mother; there was devotion, a genuine surrender, a great relief in union with the Mother. There was an intense aspiration for Purity. Was it a psychic opening ? A: Yes, certainly, it was a psychic opening and at the point emphasised which is very important, the opening to the higher Purity. That is one of the most important things for the psychic opening and the inner relation with the Mother. 14-7-1937 *
That which calls is your own psychic being whose place is deep behind the heart-centre. Many people feel at times the call for the Mother going on from there. It comes more easily in sleep or in a half-waking condition because then the surface mind is not active so that what is going on within in the inner being can manifest itself. 29-10-1934
Page - 175 THE TRUE BASIS OF SADHANA
Yes, that is the true basis. In the perfect equality wholly united with the Mother ― so the higher consciousness can be lived and brought even into the outermost parts of the nature. 22-5-1934 *
The more the union with the Mother increases, the better for the Sadhana. 2-10-1933 *
Yes, it is a very encouraging progress. If you keep the wideness and calm as you were keeping it and also the love for the Mother in the heart, then all is safe ― for it means the double foundation of the Yoga ― the descent of the higher consciousness with its peace and freedom and serenity from above and the openness of the psychic which keeps all the effort or all the spontaneous movement turned towards the true goal. 10-10-1934 THE MOTHER'S LOVE
You are the Mother's child and the Mother's love to her children is without limit and she bears patiently with the defects of their nature. Try to be the true child of the Mother: it is there within you, but your outward mind is occupied by little futile things and too often in a violent fuss over them. You must not only see the Mother in dream but learn to see and feel her with you and within you at all times. Then you will find it easier to control yourself and change, ― for she being there would be able to do it for you.
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As for the feelings about the Mother and that her love is only
Page - 176 given for a return in work or to those who can do Sadhana well, that is the usual senseless idea of the vital-physical mind and has no value. 17-1-1937 *
If meditation brings a headache, you should not meditate. It is a mistake to think that meditation is indispensable to the Sadhana. There are so many who do not do it, but they are near to the Mother and progress as well as those who have long meditations.
The one thing necessary is to be turned to the Mother and that is all that is needed. Do not fear or be sad, but let the Mother do quietly her work in you and through you and all will be well. 16-3-1935
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Certainly, it is not necessary for you to become "good" in order that the Mother may give you her love. Her love is always there and the imperfections of human nature do not count against that love. The only thing is that you must become aware of it always there. For that it is necessary for the psychic to come in front ― for the psychic knows, while the mind, vital and physical look only at surface appearances and misinterpret them. 24-6-1936 *
X is probably making two mistakes ― first, expecting outward expressions of love from the Mother; second, looking for progress instead of concentrating on openness and surrender without demand of a return. These are two mistakes which Sadhaks are constantly making. If one opens, if one surrenders, then as soon as the nature is ready, progress will come of itself; but the personal concentration for progress brings difficulties
Page - 177 and resistance and disappointment because the mind is not looking at things from the right angle. The Mother has a special kindness for X and every day at Pranam she is trying to put a sustaining force upon him. He must learn to be very quiet in mind and vital and consecrate himself so that he may become conscious as well as receive. The Divine Love, unlike the human, is deep and vast and silent; one must become quiet and wide to be aware of it and reply to it. He must make it his whole object to be surrendered so that he may become a vessel and instrument ― leaving it to the Divine Wisdom and Love to fill him with what is needed. Let him also fix this in the mind not to insist that in a given time he must progress, develop, get realisations ― whatever time it takes, he must be prepared to wait and persevere and make his whole life an aspiration and an opening for the one thing only, the Divine. To give oneself is the secret of Sadhana, not to demand and acquire a thing. The more one gives oneself, the more the power to receive will grow. But for that all impatience and revolt must go; all suggestions of not getting, not being helped, not being loved, going away, of abandoning life or the spiritual endeavour must be rejected. 1-9-1936 *
Obviously, if people expect the ordinary kind of love from the Mother they must be disappointed ― the love based on the vital and its moods. But that is just the kind of love that has to be overpassed in Yoga or transformed into something else. 14-3-1936 *
All that is quite correct. Even the human or the psychic love [of the Mother] many are unable to feel or understand because it is not quite in the ordinary human way. 5-5-1935 *
Page - 178 But why do you want to meet her as a "human" Mother ? If you can see the Divine Mother in a human body that should be enough and a more fruitful attitude. Those who approach her as a human Mother often get into trouble by their conception making all sorts of mistakes in their approach to her. 2-5-1934 *
Q: The Sadhak feels alone and suffers when he does not have the Mother's presence. Does the embodied Mother feel the absence of her child as the human mother does ? Or is she more miserable than the human for the reason that she cannot express her feeling as openly as the human mother ? A: If that were the case the Mother would have to be in a profound state of millionfold misery all the time ― for why should she be miserable only for the Sadhaks ? Why not for each soul that is wandering in the Ignorance ? The child need not be miserable but simply come back when the Mother calls. 24-9-1934 *
This thought of yours that Mother cares for all as her children and does not care for you is evidently a quite groundless idea and does not rest on any solid basis. She is as affectionate in her love and care for you and in her way .... towards you as to any others and more than to most. There is nothing solid or specific that we can see on which the idea can rest. Certainly, it corresponds to no reality in the Mother's feelings.
But I have noted that this kind of idea always comes up in the minds of Sadhaks and Sadhikas (especially the latter) when they become despondent or listen to the suggestions from outside them. Always they say the same thing as you, "You love and care for all; only for me you do not love and care. I am evidently unfit for the Yoga or you would not keep me far from you like
Page - 179 that. I shall never arrive at anything. What is the use of remaining here only to trouble you. What have I to live for ?" But when the psychic being is well awake, then these thoughts, this despondency, these wrong notions are bound to go away. What you feel therefore is just this despondency and the wrong suggestions it brings; it does not correspond to any reality in the Mother's feelings or behaviour towards you. It will go with the rest as the inner being, the soul in you comes more and more forward ― for the soul in you knows that it loves the Mother and the Mother loves you; it cannot be blinded by the suggestions that deceive the mind and the vital nature.
Do not therefore remain in these thoughts that have no foundation but are only a mood of despondency or a suggestion from outside. Let the psychic being in you grow and the Mother's force work. The relation of the child and the Mother is there in your soul; it will make itself felt in your mind and the vital and physical consciousness till it becomes the foundation of the whole consciousness on which all the Sadhana can be firm and secure. 26-7-1935 *
All the Mother's love and help will remain with you unchanged as before. The whole difficulty comes from a vital movement which wants to possess in the wrong way, by comparison with others, instead of living fully in close relation of your heart and soul with the Mother's. It is the same in your relation with X. But this is a defect common in human nature and many here have it. It is not a thing that cannot be removed from the nature. Indeed since your heart and soul want to be free from it, it cannot but go. Do not be discouraged therefore when it returns owing to old habit. With the Mother's love and help what your heart and soul desire will surely come and the wrong obscuring element disappear. 25-9-1935
Page - 180 Q: Am I right in my feeling that my psychic being is always active in the front for some years now ?
A: If your psychic is in front and active, i.e. busy changing and controlling the mind, vital and physical, how is it that there is an upsetting of your nature by the Mother's dealings with you ? If the psychic is in front and active, it would immediately tell any part of the nature that wanted to get upset "Whatever the Mother does or decides must be accepted with surrender and gladness. The mind must not believe that it knows better than the Mother what ought to be done, the vital must not want the Mother to act according to its wants and preferences. For such ideas and desires belong to the old nature and have no place in the psychic and spiritual. They are the errors of the ego". And if it had the control of the nature, the upsetting would at once cease or fade away. Indeed if it had full control, such upsettings would be impossible. It must be assumed therefore that the psychic may have been exerting some influence on the being but that its control is far from complete or that the vital has risen up and covered the psychic and suspended its influence. But if the psychic is fully in front, not veiled or not merely emerging, then it would be impossible to cover it up altogether ― there could only be at most an upsetting on the surface while within all remained quiet, conscious and devoted. 2-7- 1936
TRUE LOVE FOR THE MOTHER
The love which is turned towards the Divine ought not to be the usual vital feeling which men call by that name; for that is not love, but only a vital desire, an instinct of appropriation, the impulse to possess and monopolise. Not only is this not the divine Love, but it ought not to be allowed to mix in the least degree in the Yoga. The true love for the Divine is self-giving, free of demand, full of submission and surrender; it makes no claim, im- poses no condition, strikes no bargain, indulges in no violences of jealousy or pride or anger ― for these things are not in its composition.
Page - 181 In return the Divine Mother also gives herself, but freely ― and this represents itself in an inner giving ― her presence in your mind, your vital, your physical consciousness, her power re-creating you in the divine nature, taking up all the movements of your being and directing them towards perfection and fulfilment, her love enveloping you and carrying you in its arms Godwards. It is this that you must aspire to feel and possess in all your parts down to the very material, and here there is no limitation either of time or of completeness. If one truly aspires and gets it, there ought to be no room for any other claim or any other disappointed desire. And if one truly aspires, one does unfailingly get it, more and more as the purification proceeds and the nature undergoes its needed change.
Keep your love pure of all selfish claim and desire; you will find that you are getting all the love that you can bear and absorb in answer.
Realise also that the Realisation must come first, the work to be done, not the satisfaction of claim and desire. It is only when the Divine Consciousness in its supramental Light and Power has descended and transformed the physical that other things can be given a prominent place ― and then too it will not be the satisfaction of desire, but the fulfilment of the Divine Truth in each and all and in the new life that is to express it. In the divine life all is for the sake of the Divine and not for the sake of the ego.
I should perhaps add one or two things to avoid misapprehensions. First, the love for the Divine of which I speak is not a psychic love only; it is the love of all the being, the vital and vital- physical included, all are capable of the same self-giving. It is a mistake to believe that if the vital loves, it must be a love that demands and imposes the satisfaction of its desire; it is a mistake to think that it must be either that or else the vital, in order to escape from its "attachment", must draw away altogether from the object of its love. The vital can be as absolute in its unquestioning self-giving as any other part of the nature; nothing can be more generous than its movement when it forgets self for the Beloved. The vital and physical should both give themselves
Page - 182 in the true way ― the way of true love, not of ego desire. 1-8- 193 1 REAL LOVE AND EGOISM
Q: We all want the Mother's love but I wonder how many of us really love the Mother. Most of us live in our own likes and dislikes, joys and miseries, satisfactions and disappointments but hardly anyone has real love for the Mother.
A: It does not mean that there is no love, but that the love is mixed up and covered with egoism, demand and vital movements. At least that is the case with many. There are some, of course, who have no love at all or "love" ― if it can be called so ― only for what they get, one or two who love truly, but in a great many there is a psychic spark hidden in much smoke. The smoke has to be got rid of so that the spark may have a chance of growing into a blaze. 9-11-1934
PSYCHIC, MENTAL AND VITAL DEVOTION
Q: What is the difference between psychic devotion, mental devotion and vital devotion for the Mother ? A: The psychic is made up of love and self-giving without demand, the vital of the will to be possessed by the Mother and serve her, the mental of faith and unquestioning acceptance of all that the Mother is, says and does. These, however, are outside signs ― it is in inner character quite recognisable but not to be put into words that they differ. 28-4-1933
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Page - 183 Q: Is there no place for mental and vital devotion in this Yoga ? A: Who says there is not ? So long as it is real devotion, all bhakti has a place. 28-4-1933 *
It is the old vital with its ego which comes up again and again. It refuses to follow the higher being and be as the true Bhaktas are who ask nothing and are content with all that the Mother does or does not do, because whatever she does must be good since she is the Mother. You must impose the truth on this vital part. 6-5-1935 *
Q: How to get a pure and complete devotion ? A: Get quiet first ― then from the quietude aspire and open yourself quietly and sincerely to the Mother. 15- 11-1933 *
Q: Grant me one little bit of devotion, Mother, just a little bit of it. Otherwise I do not know what will happen to me, I do not indeed know how I can live here. And I do not want to leave the shelter of Thy Lotus-Feet. A: Do not allow mental anxiety to harass you. Wait on the working of the Mother's force which will open the lotus of the heart. In the light from above devotion will blossom in you. 25-10-1936
FAITH AND LOVE
Q: Is it not true that those who have faith in the Mother Page - 184 have also love for her ? Do not faith and love go together ? A: Not always. There are plenty of people who have some faith without love, though they may have a certain kind of mental bhakti, and plenty who have some love but no faith. But if it is the true psychic love, then faith goes with it, and if there is the entire faith, then the psychic love becomes soon awake. What you say is right if it is the soul's faith, the soul's love ― but in some there is only a vital feeling and that brings, when it is disappointed, revolt and anger and they go away. 8-5-1933 PSYCHIC FEELING FOR THE MOTHER
Q: What kind of feeling is that which gets satisfaction and joy only in seeing the Mother ? A: It is psychic. Q: What kind of feeling is that which gets satisfaction and joy only in remembering the Mother ? A: Psychic. Q: What kind of feeling is that which gives a wound in the heart on hearing anything against the Mother ? A: Psychic. Q: What kind of feeling is that by which one feels close to the Mother's presence in the heart even though she is physically far ? A: Psychic.
Page - 185 Q: How shall I find out that I am in the full state of psychic love ? A: By the absence of ego, by pure devotion, by submission and surrender to the Divine. 9-5-1933 *
Q: When the whole nature is engrossed in feeling, thinking, acting round the word "Mother", would the psychic be realised ? A: That would of itself be the psychic state.
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Q: Can there be a conscious contact with the Mother through the psychic before the latter comes forward fully ? A: Yes, the psychic is always there.
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Q: Why do I not feel love and Ananda every time I see the Mother ? A: As for the love and Ananda, it depends on the psychic coming up. 29-7-1934 *
Q: Whenever an inner love springs out for the Mother, tears rush out too. A: These are psychic tears of devotion etc. 25-8-1934
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Page - 186 Q: A lady visitor was leaving the Ashram today. No sooner did the Mother finish the Pranam ceremony than this lady began to weep. In fact, she tried hard to check herself as we all were still there, but it seems she could not help it. Was it not due to her psychic coming in front for the tune ? A: It is not a question of the psychic coming in front. She has a psychic being which is awake and has long been in connection with the Mother on the inner plane. 28-8-1934 *
Q: A thrill comes from above and passes through my body, making the Adhara stilled for a while. I don't understand it much. What exactly is it ? A: Of course it is the thrill of the Mother's touch coming from above and felt by the psychic and vital together. 28-8-1934 *
Q: We find that in the Mother's presence or by meeting her we come out of depression and experience ecstasy of joy. Does this take place by a psychic meeting or meeting on the inner vital level ? A: It depends on whether it comes by drawing vital force from her or simply by the joy of seeing her or by receiving something from her. In the 2 latter cases it is usually psychic or psychic- vital, in the former it is vital.
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Q: If a man feels that he is the happiest child of the Mother, is it due to ego-feeling ?
Page - 187 A: It depends on the source of the feeling. If it is true happiness, then it is not ego. If it is due to a feeling of superiority, then it is ego.
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Q: My psychic sometimes feels sad and lonely because it feels it cannot properly love the Mother. A: It can't be the psychic in that case. The psychic never feels that it cannot love the Divine.
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Q: Psychic love for the Mother ― or else death: this is what one feels at times as a final resolution. A: That is altogether the wrong attitude. It is once more the vital coming in ― it is not a psychic attitude. If in asking for the psychic love, you take an attitude that is vital not psychic, how do you expect the psychic to come ? 2-3-1935 *
Q: To concentrate only on being with the Mother's heart and want only to be hers and live for her and care for no other experience: what do you think of this attitude ? A: The attitude is good for awakening the psychic being and the inner being generally. But if the higher experience comes it should not be stopped. 12-3-1935 *
Q: Even higher or deeper experiences do not seem
Page - 188 valuable at all if one cannot love the Mother with the true heart. A: It is a mistake to think like that. The experiences prepare the different parts of the being for loving in the right way, so that it is not the soul alone that loves. So long as they are open to ignorance and ego they cannot receive and hold the love rightly. 23-10-1935 PSYCHIC AND VITAL LOVE
Love and devotion depend on the opening of the psychic and for that the desires must go. The vital love offered by many to the Mother instead of the psychic love brings more disturbance than anything else because it is coupled with desire. 8-9- 1936 *
There is no harm in the vital love provided it is purified of all insincerity (as, for example, self-importance etc.) and from all demand. To feel joy in seeing the Mother is all right, but to demand it as a right, to be upset or in revolt or abhimāna when it is not given, to be jealous of others who get it ― all that is demand and creates an impurity which spoils both the joy and the love. 13-9-1934 *
As for the eagerness to see the Mother, it depends on the nature of the feeling. If there is no demand or claim in it, no dissatisfaction when it is not fulfilled, but only the feeling of the will to see her whenever possible and the joy of seeing her, then it is all right. Of course no trace of anger or jealousy must be there. The vital has also to participate in the Sadhana, so the mere fact
Page - 189 that there is a vital element does not make the thing wrong, provided it is a vital element of the right kind. 6-12-1931 *
If you have no abhimāna against the Mother, that also is surely very desirable. Abhimāna, disturbance, etc. may be signs of life but of a vital, not of the inner life. They must quiet down and give room for the inner life. At first the result may be a neutral quiet, but one has often to pass through that to arrive at a more positive new consciousness. 2-1-1937 *
It will not do to indulge this restless vital movement. It is not by that that you can have the union with the Mother. You should aspire calmly ― eat, sleep, do your work. Peace is the one thing you have to ask for now ― it is only on the basis of peace and calm that the true progress and realisation can come. There must be no vital excitement in your seeking or your aspiration towards the Mother. 20-10- 1933
VITAL BARGAINING AND TRUE SELF-GIVING
What you have felt is a revival or return on you of the lower vital with its demands and desires. Its suggestion is, "I am doing the Yoga, but for a price. I have abandoned the life of vital desire and satisfaction but in order to get intimacy with the Mother ― instead of satisfying myself with the world, to satisfy myself and get my desires fulfilled by the Divine. If I do not get the intimacy of the Mother and immediately and as I want it, why should I give up the old things ?" And as a natural result the old things start again ― "X and Y and Y and X and the wrongs of Z". You must see this machinery of the lower vital and dismiss it.
Page - 190 It is only by the full psychic relation of self-giving that unity and closeness with the Divine can be maintained ― the other is part of the vital ego movement and can only bring a fall of the consciousness and disturbance. 20-6-1933 *
You are concerned only with yourself and the Divine. In your relations with the Divine you are concerned not with the Divine's satisfaction of your personal desires, but with being pulled out of these things and raised to your highest spiritual possibilities, so that you may become united with the Mother within and as a result in the outer being also. That cannot be done by satisfying your vital desires ― to do so would only increase them and give you into the hands of the ignorance and restless confusion of the ordinary Nature. It can be done only by your inner trust and surrender and by the pressure of the Mother's peace and Force working from within and changing your vital nature. It is when you forget this that you go wrong and suffer; when you remember it you progress and the difficulties become less and less insistent. 13-9-1933 *
If it is the same part of the vital that was on the right side and has now turned against the Mother, the explanation is very obvious. It gave its adhesion formerly because it thought that by its adhesion it could make her satisfy its desires; finding its desires not indulged, it turns against her. That is the usual vital movement in ordinary man and in ordinary life, and it has no true place in Yoga. It was just the introduction of this attitude into Yoga by the Sadhaks and its persistence which has at last made it necessary for the Mother to draw back as she has done. What you have to do is to get these lower parts to understand that they exist not for themselves but for the Divine and to give their adhesion, without claim or arrière-pensée or subterfuge. It is the whole issue at the present moment in the Sadhana; for it is only Page - 191 if this is done that the physical consciousness can change and become fit for the descent. Otherwise there will always be these ups and downs in some part of the being ― at least, delay, confusion and disorder. This is the only true basis for fixity in the true consciousness and for a smooth course in the Sadhana. 14-12-1931 OBSTACLE OF FEAR IN INTIMACY WITH THE MOTHER
All fear ought to be cast out. This movement of fear belongs to a still unchanged part of the vital which answers to the old ideas, feelings and reactions. Its only effect is to make you misinterpret the Mother's attitude or the intention in her words or looks or expression. If the Mother becomes serious or has an ironic smile, that does not in the least mean that she is angry or has withdrawn her affection; on the contrary, it is with those with whom she is most inwardly intimate that she feels most free to become like that ― even to give them severe chidings. They in their turn understand her and do not get upset or afraid,― they only turn to look inside themselves and see what it is on which she is putting her pressure. That pressure they regard as a privilege and a sign of her Grace. Fear stands in the way of this complete intimacy and confidence and creates only misunderstanding; you must cast it out altogether. 22-5-1932 *
There is no need to ask for pardon, for the Mother has not in the least been angry or displeased with you. You may be sure of her love always. 29-9- 1933 *
It is always a mistake to attach importance to what others say ― it is enough to have true devotion and the right attitude towards the Mother. You need have no apprehension of this kind at all. 28-4-1933
Page - 192 THREE RULES FOR REMAINING OPEN TO THE MOTHER
Nothing is more dangerous than the influences of the physical mind trying to build up conclusions upon outward appearances ― they have nine chances out of ten of being false. One must learn to distrust hasty conclusions from surface appearances ― is not that the first condition of true knowledge ? ― and learn to see and know things from within. You ask how to stop these movements ? To begin with, observe three rules: 1. Keep always confidence in the Mother's care and love ― trust in them and distrust every suggestion, every appearance that seems to contradict. 2. Reject immediately every feeling, every impulse that makes you draw back from the Mother ― from your true relation with her, from inner nearness, from a simple and straight- forward confidence in her. 3. Do not lay too much stress on outward signs ― your observation of them may easily mislead you. Keep yourself open to her and feel with your heart, ― the inner heart, not the surface vital desire, but the heart of the true emotion, ― there you are more likely to find her and be always near her in yourself and receive what constantly she is working to give you. 1931 *
If you bring somebody between you and the Mother, it is bound to give trouble. 5-4-1933 DIRECT RELATION WITH THE MOTHER
The direct relation with the Mother is always open to you and it is there whenever you can feel it; for it is a thing of the inner being. Whenever you go deep within yourself you find it; it has to come out and govern the outer nature and life. That is why
Page - 193 I want you to give time for going inside and for inner progress in the Sadhana. The relation with X which the Mother thought of establishing was of two friends and fellow-workers in her work, it was never intended that she should be between you and the Mother. In Y's case there was a help to be given to you so that you might not be carried away by the attacks from which you suffered and might have time and support till you could reach a point at which you could seek the Mother's presence within you and with you. That you can do now and there is no reason why anyone should be asked to intervene in any way ― our work is directly in you and upon you and not through anyone. 22-12-1936 *
Do not think whether people agree with you or do not agree with you or whether you are good or bad, but think that "the Mother loves me and I am the Mother's". If you base your life on that thought, everything will soon become easy. 30-4-1935 *
It is because of the thoughts about others and your "badness" that you feel far from the Mother. All the time she is very near to you and you to her. If you take the position I told you and make it the basis of your life, "the Mother loves me and I am hers", the curtain would soon disappear, for it is made of these thoughts and nothing else. 1-5- 1935 *
It was your mistake to listen to what people say about you and X and Y and attach any value to their foolish chatter .... It is what the Mother says that is true and matters and not what people say; if you listen to what people say, you will lose touch with the Mother's consciousness. It is because of that that these thoughts
Page - 194 have come back on you about your badness and the rest of it .... For many days you had peace and joy and freedom from the restless mind and you had the psychic opening. Now you must go back to that and do as you were doing before. Turn to the Mother only and let her consciousness and her will work in you. Then you will recover what you had got, silence the mind and be free. 29-4-1933
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