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76 – Europe prides herself on her practical and scientific organisation and efficiency. I am waiting till her organisation is perfect; then a child shall destroy her.¹
When these Aphorisms were published in the Bulletin you said that this one should be omitted. It is a rather mysterious Aphorism, which I would very much like to understand. But I would like to know whether now we should publish it or not?
Where did Sri Aurobindo write that?
In the Aphorisms.
Yes, but he did not write a special book; these texts were collected from here and there.
No, no, not at all. Sri Aurobindo had a special notebook in which he wrote the Aphorisms as they came. And this one was among the others.
(Silence) “A child”… What did he put in English at the beginning?
“Prides herself.”
Prides herself… I would put it in.
But what did he mean?
¹ The following conversation took place in December 1971, nearly ten years after the Mother's commentaries on this group of Aphorisms. ² There is, in fact, one notebook which contains all the Aphorisms, but it is in all likelihood a fair copy and not the first draft of the Aphorisms. Page - 141 I don't know. Of course, only the power can be destroyed, because one cannot destroy the earth.
Yes, the earth cannot be destroyed, but a civilisation can be destroyed.
Yes. He says: Europe will be destroyed.
Yes… but which child? I have the impression that it came as something absolutely true, an absolutely true prediction – but I don't know.
You had said that it would be better to leave it out.
But now, on the contrary, I feel that it must be said. But I do not think that the time has come yet, I mean come for the realisation; the time has come to say it, but not for the realisation.
“The child”… perhaps it is the child of the new world – with a smile, he will bring the whole thing tumbling down.
Yes, it is possible is possible. (Silence)
There is a terrifying power in it… something tremendous. You cannot imagine the power that is in it; it is really as if the Divine himself were speaking: “I am waiting”… I am waiting… 11 December 1971 Page - 142 77 – Genius discovers a system; average talent stereotypes it till it is shattered by fresh genius. It is dangerous for an army to be led by veterans; for on the other side God may place Napoleon.
78 – When knowledge is fresh in us, then it is invincible; when it is old, it loses its virtue. This is because God moves always forward.
Sri Aurobindo is speaking here of knowledge by inspiration or revelation, when something suddenly descends and illumines the understanding. You suddenly have the impression that you know something for the first time, because it comes directly from the domain of Light, of true Knowledge, and it comes with all its innate power of truth – it illumines you. And when you have just received it, it seems indeed that nothing can resist that Light. And if you take care to allow it to act within you, it accomplishes all the transformation it can achieve in its own domain. This is an experience one may often have. When it comes, for some time – not very long – everything seems to organise itself quite naturally around that Light. And then, little by little, it mingles with the rest; the intellectual knowledge remains – it is formulated in one way or another – it remains, but it is just as if it were empty. It no longer has that driving power which transforms all the movements of the being into the image of this Light. That is what Sri Aurobindo means: the world moves quickly, the Lord is always moving onward and all this is the trail He leaves behind Him, but it no longer has the same immediate and almighty power as when He projected it into the world. It feels like a rain of truth falling; everyone who can catch even a drop of it receives a revelation. But unless they themselves are moving forward at a fantastic speed, the Lord with His rain of truth is already very far ahead and they must run very fast to catch up with it! This is what he means. Page - 143 Yes, but for this knowledge to have a real power of transformation…
Yes, it is the higher Knowledge, the Truth expressing itself, what Sri Aurobindo calls the true Knowledge, and it is this Knowledge that transforms all creation. But it is as if He were pouring it down all the time and you have to make great haste so as not to be too late! But haven't you ever had the feeling of a dazzling light in your head? And then it is translated by, Oh, but of course! Sometimes it is something you knew intellectually, but it was dull, lifeless, and it suddenly comes like a tremendous power that arranges everything within the consciousness around that Light. It does not last very long. Sometimes it lasts only a few hours, sometimes a few days, but never more than that, unless you are very slow in your movement. And in the meanwhile the source of the truth is moving, moving, moving…
These are all psychological transformations, but where Matter and the body are concerned, what kind of knowledge is needed?
For the moment, I can't say anything about that, my child, because I do not know.
Is it another kind of knowledge?
No, I do not think so. (Silence)
It may be another kind of action, but it is not another kind of knowledge.
(Silence) Page - 144 In truth, we shall only be able to speak of what transforms Matter when Matter is at least a little transformed, when there is a beginning of transformation. Then we shall be able to speak of the process. But for the moment… (Silence)
But any transformation in the being, on any plane, always has some repercussion on the lower planes. There is always an effect; even things which seem to be purely intellectual certainly have some repercussion on the structure of the brain. This kind of revelation can only occur in a silent mind – at least in a mind that is at rest, completely quiet and still, otherwise they do not come. Or if they come, you do not notice them, because of all the noise you are making. And of course, they help this quiet, this silence, this receptivity to become better and better established. This feeling of something so still – but not closed, still but open, still but receptive – is something which becomes established through repeated experiences. There is a great difference between a silence that is dead, dull, unresponsive and the receptive silence of a quietened mind. That makes a great difference. But that is the result of these experiences. All the progress we make always results, quite naturally, from truths coming from above. They have an effect, all these things have an effect on the functioning of the body – the functioning of the organs, of the brain, of the nerves, etc. That will surely happen before – long before – there is any effect on the external form. In reality, when people speak of transformation they are thinking mainly of a glamorous transformation, no? A beautiful appearance! luminous, supple, plastic, changing at will. But this rather unaesthetic business of transforming the organs – they don't give it much thought! And yet that will certainly be the first thing to happen, long before the transformation of the appearance. Page - 145 Sri Aurobindo spoke of replacing the organs by the functioning of the charkas.¹
Yes, yes. He said three hundred years! (Mother laughs.) (Silence)
Because if you think it over, you will understand quite easily. If it were only a matter of stopping one thing and starting something else, it could be done quite rapidly. But to keep a body alive, so that it goes on functioning, and at the same time to bring in a new functioning, sufficient for it to stay alive, and a transformation – that makes a kind of combination which is very difficult to realise. I am very much aware of this, very much so… the immense amount of time required to do this without catastrophe. Especially when we come to the heart: the heart replaced by the centre of power, a tremendous dynamic power! (Mother laughs.) Precisely when are we going to cut off the circulation and release the Force? It is difficult. (Silence)
In ordinary life, you think things over and then you do them – it is just the opposite! In this life, first you must do the thing and then, afterwards, you understand, long afterwards. First you must do it – without thinking. If you think, you do nothing worthwhile; that is, you fall back into the old way. 6 October 1962 ¹ Centers of Consciousness in the subtle body. Page - 146 79 – God is infinite Possibility. Therefore Truth is never at rest; therefore, also, Error is justified of her children.
80 – To listen to some devout people, one would imagine that God never laughs; Heine was nearer the mark when he found in Him the divine Aristophanes.
Yes, he means that what is true at one time is no longer true at another. And this is why “Error is justified of her children.”
Perhaps he means that there is no error.
Yes, it is the same thing, another way of saying the same thing. That is to say, what we call Error was Truth at a certain time. Error is a concept in time.
Some things may really appear to be errors.
For a moment. The impression is this: all our judgments are momentary. They are: one moment, it is like this; the next moment, it is no longer like this. And for us they are errors, because we see things one after another. But to the Divine they cannot appear like this, because everything is within Him. Now just try to imagine that you are the Divine, for a moment! Everything is within you; you simply amuse yourself by bringing it out in a certain order. But for you, in your consciousness, everything is there at the same time; there is no time – neither past nor future nor present – everything is together. And every possible combination. He amuses Himself by bringing out first one thing and then another, like that. So the poor fellows down below who can see only a tiny part – they can see only so much of it – say, “Oh, that is an error!” In what way is it an error? Simply because they can only see a tiny part. Page - 147 This is clear, isn't it? It is easy to understand. This concept of error is a concept that belongs to time and space. It is like the feeling that something cannot be and not be at the same time. And yet this is true, it is and it is not. It is the concept of time which introduces the concept of error – of time and space.
What do you mean, that a thing is and is not at the same time? How is that?
It is, and at the same time there is its opposite. So, for us, it cannot be yes and no at the same time. But for the Lord it is all the time yes and no at the same time. It is like our concept of space; we say, I am here, therefore you are not here. But I am here, you are here and everything is here! (Mother laughs.) Only you must be able to leave the concept of space and time behind in order to understand. This is something that can be felt very concretely, but not with our way of seeing. Certainly, many of these Aphorisms were written at the point where the higher mind suddenly emerges into the Supermind. It has not yet forgotten how it is in the ordinary way, but it also sees how it is in the supramental way. And so the result is this kind of thing, this paradoxical form. Because the one is not forgotten and the other is already perceived. (Long silence)
And yet if one looks attentively, one has to think that the Lord is staging a fantastic play for Himself! That the Manifestation is a play which He is acting for Himself and with Himself. He has taken the stand of the spectator and He looks at Himself. And so in order to look at Himself, He must accept the concept of time and space, otherwise He cannot! And immediately the whole comedy begins. But it is a comedy, nothing more. Page - 148 But we take it seriously, because we are puppets! But as soon as we stop being puppets, we can see quite clearly that it is a comedy.
For some people it is also a real tragedy.
Yes, we are the ones who make it tragic. We are the ones who make it tragic. Recently, I have been looking at this carefully. I looked at the difference between similar incidents when they happen to men and when they happen to animals. If you identify yourself with the animals you see quite clearly that they do not take it tragically at all – except the ones which have come into contact with man; but then it is not their natural state, it is a transitional state. They become transitional beings between animal and man… And the first things they naturally learn from man are his defects – they are always the easiest things to learn! And so they make themselves unhappy – for nothing. So many things… So many things… Man has made a terrible tragedy out of death. These last few days, I have seen this, because last night or the night before I spent at least two hours in a world which is subtle physical, where the living and the dead intermingle without feeling any difference – it doesn't make any difference. There, there is no difference. The living were there – those whom we call the living and those whom we call the dead. They were there together, they ate together, they moved together, they played together; and all this was in a pretty light, quiet and very pleasant, it was very pleasant. I said to myself, “There, men have made a break, like this, and then they say, ‘Now, dead.’ ” And “dead” – the best part of it is that they treat them as they would treat something unconscious – yet the body is still conscious. (Silence) Page - 149 Where, where is Error? Where is Error? That is to say, there is no error. Things only seem to be impossible, because we do not know that the Lord is all possibility and that He can do whatever He likes, as He likes. We cannot get that into our heads, we always say, “This is possible and that is not possible.” But it is not true! For our imbecility, it is not possible; but everything is possible. (Silence)
You see, only the one who is watching the play is not worried, because he knows everything that is going to happen and he has an absolute knowledge of everything – everything that happens, everything that has happened and everything that is going to happen – and it is all there, as one presence for him. And so it is the others, the poor actors who do not even know, they do not even know their parts! And they worry a great deal, because they are being made to act something and they do not know what it is. This is something I have just been feeling very strongly: we are all acting a play, but we do not know what the play is, nor where it is going, nor where it comes from, nor what it is as a whole; we barely know – imperfectly – what we are supposed to do from moment to moment. Our knowledge is imperfect. And so we worry! But when one knows everything, one can no longer worry, one smiles – He must be having great fun, but we… And yet we are given the full power to amuse ourselves like Him. We simply do not take the trouble.
It is not easy!
Oh, if it were easy… if it were easy, we would get tired of it! One also sometimes wonders why, why is this life so tragic? But if it were like a perpetual enchantment, first of all we would not even appreciate it, because it would be quite natural – Page - 150 mainly that, we would not appreciate it because it would be absolutely natural – and then, who is to say that we would not enjoy a little confusion just for a change? One cannot be sure. Perhaps this is the story of the earthly paradise… In paradise they had a spontaneous knowledge, that is to say, they lived, they had the same consciousness as the animals, just enough to be able to enjoy life a little, like that, to have the joy of living. But they started wanting to know why, how, where they were going, what they should do, etc., and then all the worries began – they got tired of being quietly happy.
(Silence)
I think that Sri Aurobindo meant that error is an illusion like all the rest – that there is no error, that all possibilities are there, that they are often – and necessarily – contradictory if they are all there. They appear contradictory. But one only has to look at oneself and say, “What do I call error?” If you look it in the face you see immediately that it is a stupidity – there is no error, it slips through your fingers.
(Silence)
I have a feeling that Sri Aurobindo was in his ascension; the intuitive mind was piercing a hole and coming into contact with the Supermind, and so it would come like that, pop! like an explosion in the thought, and he would write these things. And if you follow the movement you see the Origin. Obviously what he meant is that Error is one of the innumerable, infinite possibilities. Infinite means that absolutely nothing is beyond possibility. So where does error fit into it? We call it error, but it is completely arbitrary. We say, “This is an error” – in relation to what? In relation to our judgment that “this is true”, but certainly not in relation to the judgment of the Lord, since it is a part of Himself! Page - 151 Very few people can bear this widening of the understanding. Now, when I start looking like this (Mother closes her eyes), two things are there at the same time: this smile, this joy, this laughter are there, and such peace! Such full, luminous, total peace, in which there are no more conflicts, no more contradictions. There are no more conflicts. It is one single luminous harmony – and yet everything we call error, suffering, misery, everything is there. It eliminates nothing. It is another way of seeing.
(Long silence)
There can be no doubt that if you sincerely want to get out of it, it is not so difficult after all: you have nothing to do, you only have to allow the Lord to do everything. And He does everything. He does everything. It is so wonderful, so wonderful! He takes anything, even what we call a very ordinary intelligence and he simply teaches you to put this intelligence aside, to rest: “There, be quiet, don't stir, don't bother me, I don't need you.” Then a door opens – you don't even feel that you have to open it; it is wide open, you are taken over to the other side. All that is done by Someone else, not you. And then the other way becomes impossible. All this… oh, this tremendous labour of the mind striving to understand, toiling and giving itself headaches!… It is absolutely useless, absolutely useless, no use at all, it merely increases the confusion. You are faced with a so-called problem: what should you say, what should you do, how should you act? There is nothing to do, nothing, you only have to say to the Lord, “There, You see, it is like that” – that's all. And then you stay very quiet. And then quite spontaneously, without thinking about it, without reflection, without calculation, nothing, nothing, without the slightest effort – you do what has to be done. That is to say, the Lord does it, it is no longer you. He does it, He Page - 152 arranges the circumstances, He arranges the people, He puts the words into your mouth or your pen He does everything, everything, everything, everything; you have nothing more to do but to allow yourself to live blissfully. I am more and more convinced that people do not really want it.
But clearing the ground is difficult, the work of clearing the ground beforehand.
But you don't even need to do it! He does it for you.
But they are constantly breaking in: the old consciousness, the old thoughts....
Yes, they try to come in again, by habit. You only have to say, “Lord, You see, You see, You see, it is like that” – that's all. “Lord, You see, You see this, You see that, You see this fool” – and it is all over immediately. And it changes automatically, my child, without the slightest effort. Simply to be sincere, that is to say, to truly want everything to be right. You are perfectly conscious that you can do nothing about it, that you have no capacity. I feel more and more that this amalgam of matter, like this, of cells, all that, is pitiful. It is pitiful! I do not know whether there are certain states in which people feel powerful, wonderful, luminous, capable; but for me it is because they do not really know what they are like! When you really see how you are made – it is really nothing, nothing. But it is capable of everything, provided… provided that you allow the Lord to act. But there is always something that wants to do it by itself; that's the trouble, otherwise… No, you may be full of an excellent goodwill and then you want to do it. That's what complicates everything. Or else you don't have faith, you believe that the Lord will not be able to do it and that you must do it yourself, because He does not Page 153 know! (Mother laughs.) This, this kind of stupidity is very common. “How can He see things? We live in a world of Falsehood, how can He see Falsehood and see…” But He sees the thing as it is! Exactly! I am not speaking of people of no intelligence, I am speaking of people who are intelligent and who try – there is a kind of conviction, like that, somewhere, even in people who know that we live in a world of Ignorance and Falsehood and that there is a Lord who is All-Truth. They say, Precisely because He is All-Truth, He does not understand. (Mother laughs.) He does not understand our falsehood, I must deal with it myself. That is very strong, very common. Ah! we make complications for nothing.
There is something I have often wondered about: when one prays to the Lord, when one wants to make Him understand that something is wrong, I always have the impression that one must concentrate very hard and that after all one is calling to something far away. Is that right? Or is it really…
That depends on us! Now I can feel Him everywhere, all the time, all the time… even a physical contact – it is subtle physical, but physical – in things, in the air, in people, in… like this. (Mother presses her hands to her face.) And then, it is not far to go, all I have to do is this (Mother turns her hands slightly inwards), one second of concentration – He is there! He is there, He is everywhere. He is far away only when we think He is far away. Naturally, when we begin to think of all the zones, all the planes of universal consciousness and that it is at the very end, at the very end, right at the very end, then it becomes very far away, very, very far! (Mother laughs.) But when we think that He is everywhere, that He is everything and that it is only our perception that prevents us from seeing Him and feeling Him Page - 154 and that we only have to do this (Mother turns her hands inwards); it is a movement like this and like that (Mother turns her hands alternately inwards and outwards), it becomes very concrete: you do this (outward movement), everything becomes artificial, hard, dry, false, untrue, artificial; you do this (inward movement), everything becomes wide, tranquil, luminous, peaceful, vast, joyful. And it is simply this, that (Mother turns her hands alternately inwards and outwards). How? Where? It cannot be described, it is only, only a movement of consciousness, nothing else. A movement of consciousness. And the difference between the true consciousness and the false consciousness becomes more and more precise, and at the same time, thin – you don't have to do great things to come out of it. Before that, one has the impression that one is living inside something and that a great interiorisation, concentration, absorption, is needed to get out of it; but now the impression is of something one accepts (Mother screens her face with her hand), something like a thin little peel that is very hard – very hard but malleable, very, very dry, very thin, very thin, something like putting on a mask; and then one does this (gesture), and it disappears. One can foresee the time when it will not be necessary to be aware of the mask; it will be so thin that one will be able to see, to feel, to act through it with no need to put the mask on again. That is what has just begun. But this Presence in all things… It is a vibration, but it is a vibration that contains everything – a vibration which contains a kind of infinite power, infinite delight and infinite peace, of vastness, vastness, vastness; there are no limits… But it is only a vibration, it does not… Oh, Lord! it cannot be thought, so it cannot be said. If you think, as soon as you think, the whole muddle begins again. That is why one cannot speak. No, He is very far away because you think He is very far away. Even, you know, if you think He is there, like this( gesture close to her face ) touching you… if you could feel – it is not like the touch of a person, it is not like that. It is not some Page - 155 thing alien, external, which comes in from outside. It is not that… It is everywhere. Then you feel – everywhere, everywhere, everywhere: inside, outside, everywhere, everywhere – Him, nothing but Him – Him, His vibration. No, you must stop that (the head), until you stop that, you cannot see the True Thing – you look for comparisons, you say, It is like this, it is like that. Oh!
(Silence)
And how often, how often the impression… there is no form – there is a form and there is no form, it cannot be put into words. And the impression of a look and there are no eyes – there are no eyes, but there is a look – a look and a smile, and there is no mouth, there is no face! And yet there is a smile, there is a look and (Mother laughs) one cannot help saying, “Yes, O Lord, I am stupid!” But He laughs, one laughs, one is happy. One cannot! It cannot be explained. It cannot be put into words. One cannot say anything. Whatever one says is nothing, nothing. 12 October 1962 Page - 156 |