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THE MOTHER
SRI AUROBINDO
Contents
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MOTHER'S HELP IN DIFFICULTIES
ASSURANCE OF VICTORY
Be sure that the Mother will always be with you to carry you upon the path. Difficulties come and difficulties go, but, she being with you, the victory is sure. 18-7-1936
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The path you have now taken — to cleave to the Mother through all circumstances and let nothing shake you from that will bring the true solution of difficulties for you. For it seems the psychic being has started its work in you. 24-12-1935
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Remain firm and turned in the one direction — towards the Mother.
THE DESCENT AND THE DIFFICULTIES
Q: Is it true that the nearer the descent of the Supermind the greater will be the difficulties of those in whom it is to come down first ? A: It is true, unless they are so surrendered to the Mother, so psychic, so plastic, free from ego that the difficulties are spared to them.
FAITH IN THE MOTHER'S WORKING
One has to cleave firmly to the faith in the Mother's working
Page - 325 behind all appearances and you will find that that will carry you through. 31-8-1935
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It is the true attitude to leave all to the Mother and trust entirely in her and let her lead you on the path to the goal. 2-3-1936
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It 'is not by his own strength or good qualities that anyone can attain the divine change; there are only two things that matter, the Mothers force at work and the Sadhak's will to open to it and trust in her working. Keep your will and your trust and care nothing for the rest — they are only difficulties that all meet in their Sadhana. 13-5-1936
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Nothing is impossible if the nature of the psychic being is awake and leading you with the Mother's consciousness and force behind it and working in you. 19-10-1935
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If one remains in full confidence in the Mother and psychically open, then the Mother's force will do all and one has only to give consent and keep oneself open and aspire. 12-11-1935
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All faults and errors are redeemed by repentance. Confidence in the Mother, self-giving to the Mother, these if you increase them will bring the change in the nature.
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Page - 326 Whether the progress is rapid or slow, the attitude should always be an entire faith and reliance on the Mother; just as you do not think that the progress was the result of your own effort or merit but of your taking the right attitude of reliance and the Mother's Force working, so you should not think that any slowness or difficulty was due to your own demerit but only seek to keep this attitude of reliance and let the Mother's Force work — slowly or rapidly does not matter. 14-11-1935 *
No. It is perhaps how some part of the vital or physical consciousness figured it. But the path is not a desert nor are you alone, since the Mother is with you. 2-11-1933
THE MOTHER'S POSITIVE ATTITUDE
Mother never thinks of future difficulties, falls or dangers. Her concentration is always on love and light, not on difficulties and downfalls.
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It is the higher reality that Mother brings into the world — without it all else is ignorant and false.
3-8-1934
THE ONE THING TO DO ALWAYS
Once one has entered the path of Yoga, there is only one thing to do, to fix oneself in the resolution to go to the end whatever happens, whatever difficulties arise. None really gets the fulfilment in Yoga by his own capacity — it is by the greater Force that stands over you that it will come — and it is the call, persistent
Page - 327 through all vicissitudes, to that Force, by which the fulfilment will come. Even when you cannot aspire actively, keep yourself turned to the Mother for the help to come — that is the one thing to do always. 3-1-1934
TRUST IN THE MOTHER'S FORCE IN DIFFICULTY
What is needed is perseverance — to go on without discouragement, recognising that the process of the nature and the action of the Mother's force is working through the difficulty even and will do all that is needed. Our incapacity does not matter — there is no human being who is not in his parts of nature incapable — but the Divine Force is also there. If one puts one's trust in that, incapacity will be changed into capacity. Difficulty and struggle themselves then become a means towards the achievement. 27-5-1936
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Do not brood over your difficulties. Leave them to the Mother and let her Force work them out of you. 22-3-1935
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Never allow this idea "I am not able", "I am not doing enough" to come and vex you; it is a tamasic suggestion and brings depression and depression opens the way to the attacks of the wrong forces. Your position should be, "Let me do what I can; the Mother's force is there, the Divine is there to see that in due time, all will be done". 4-11-1935 *
Not to be disturbed, to remain quiet and confident is the right attitude, but it is necessary also to receive the help of the Mother
Page - 328 and not to stand back for any reason from her solicitude. One ought not to indulge ideas of incapacity, inability to respond, dwelling too much on defects and failures and allowing the mind to be in pain and shame on their account; for these ideas and feelings become in the end weakening things. If there are difficulties, stumblings or failures, one has to look at them quietly and call in tranquilly and persistently the Divine help for their removal, but not to allow oneself to be upset or pained or discouraged. Yoga is not an easy path and the total change of the nature cannot be done in a day.
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All this is of no utility — complainings, questionings, etc. of this kind should be put aside. You have to go on quietly, without depression or trouble, receiving the Mother's forces, allowing them to work, rejecting all that stands in their way but not troubled by difficulty or defects in yourself or by any delay or slowness in the working. 25-10-1933
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Do not admit these suggestions of despair or impatience. Give time for the Mother's force to act. 12-6-1937
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This kind of grief and despondency are the worst obstacles one can raise up in the Sadhana — they ought not to be indulged in. What one cannot do oneself one can get done by calling the Mother's force. To receive that and let it work in you is the true means of success in the Sadhana.
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Whatever difficulties still remain, be sure that they will be surmounted. There is no need for the outer being to be nervous —
Page - 329 the Mother's Force and the devotion within you will be sufficient to overcome all that stands in the way.
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There is no reason to be discouraged. Three years is not too much for the preparation of the nature and it is usually through fluctuations that it gradually grows nearer to the point where a continuous progress becomes possible. One has to cleave firmly to the faith in the Mother's working behind all appearances and you will find that that will carry you through. 31-8-1935
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You should not yield to sorrow or despair — there is no reason why you should. The Mother's grace has not been withdrawn from you for a moment. Do not allow the attacks of others to shake you like this — you know well the motives from which they act — and for the rest they are not going to pursue any farther the course which a fit of passion dictated to them. The protection will be with you and you need not fear or sorrow any longer. Put your trust in the Divine and shake off all this like a nightmare that has passed. Believe that our love and grace are with you.
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There has always been too much reliance on the action of your own mind and will — that is why you cannot progress. If you could once get the habit of silent reliance on the power of the Mother — not merely calling it in to support your own effort — the obstacle would diminish and eventually disappear.
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The more one is open to the Mother's action, the more easily difficulties get solved and the right thing is done. 21-9-1934
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Page - 330 It was by your personal efforts without guidance that you got into difficulties and into a heated condition in which you could not meditate etc. I asked you to drop the effort and remain quiet and you did so. My intention was that by your remaining quiet, it would be possible for the Mother's Force to work in you and establish a better starting-point and a course of initial experiences. It was what was beginning to come; but if your mind again becomes active and tries to arrange the Sadhana for itself, then disturbances are likely to come. The Divine Guidance works best when the psychic is open and in front (yours was beginning to open), but it can also work even when the Sadhak is either not conscious of it, or else knows it only by its results.
DIFFICULTIES AND THE MOTHER'S GRACE
Q: Can it be believed that the Mother's Grace is acting even when the difficulties do not disappear ? A: In that case everybody might say, "All my difficulties must disappear at once, I must attain to perfection immediately and without difficulties, otherwise it proves that the Mother's Grace is not with me". 20-7-1933 *
You must throw all that away. Such depressions can make you shut to what Mother is giving you. There is absolutely no good reason for such an attitude. The existence of difficulties is a known thing in the Yoga. That is no reason for questioning the final victory or the effectuality of the Divine Grace. 4-2-1933
PSYCHIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE MOTHER'S GRACE
Q: What is the Law of the working of the Mother's Grace ?
Page - 331 A: The more one develops the psychic, the more is it possible for the Grace to act. 13-8-1933
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What has to be gained is the constant prominence of that part which is always aware of the Mother — it is of course the psychic — for that though it can be covered over for the time being cannot be misled by the contrary suggestions. Once it is awake, it always re-emerges from obscuration — that is the guarantee of the final arrival at the goal, but if it can be maintained in front or even consciously felt behind in all conditions, then the stages of the way also become comparatively safe and can be passed with greater ease and security. 6-2-1937
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It is when there is no attachment to outward things for their own sake and all is only for the Mother and the life through the inner psychic being is centred in her that the best condition is created for the spiritual realisation. 11-11-1935 *
Never mind about the purity of the body. The love of the Mother purifies both heart and body — if the soul's aspiration is there, the body also is pure. What happened in the past does not in the least matter.
THE MOTHER'S CONSTANT HELP
The Mother's help is always there but you are not conscious of it except when the psychic is active and the consciousness not clouded. The coming of suggestions is not a proof that the help is not there. Suggestions come to all, even to the greatest Sadhaks or to the Avatars — as they came to Buddha or Christ. Obstacles are there — they are part of Nature and they have to be overcome.
Page - 332 What has to be attained is not to accept the suggestions, not to admit them as the truth or as one's own thoughts, to see them for what they are and keep oneself separate. Obstacles have to be looked at as something wrong in the machinery of human nature which has to be changed — they should not be regarded as sins or wrong doings which make one despair of oneself and of the Sadhana.
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Q: Today while engaged in work I felt a peaceful energy and something like ice touching my head. Then the knowledge came to me with a strong feeling and vision that though the Mother is not physically near us, she is always present near and around us and is constantly removing all kinds of difficulties with the touch of her affectionate hand. Was this a vision or realisation ? Through what consciousness did it come to me ? A: It is a realisation attended with vision and feeling. It is psychic and the mental together that produced it. 11-6-1933
STRAIGHTFORWARDNESS AND THE MOTHER'S HELP
Those who are not straightforward cannot profit by the Mother's help, for they themselves turn it away. Unless they change, they cannot hope for the descent of the supramental Light and Truth into the lower vital and physical nature; they remain stuck in their own self-created mud and cannot progress. November, 1928
CHANGE OF THE VITAL WITH THE MOTHER'S HELP
The Mother's help is always there for those who are willing to receive it. But you must be conscious of your vital nature, and
Page - 333 the vital nature must consent to change. It is no use merely observing that it is unwilling and that, when thwarted, it creates depression in you. Always the vital nature is not at first willing and always when it is thwarted or asked to change, it creates this depression by its revolt or refusal of consent. You have to insist till it recognises the truth and is willing to be transformed and to accept the Mother's help and grace. If the mind is sincere and the psychic aspiration complete and true, the vital can always be made to change. 15-7-1932
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It is this idea that you are helpless because the vital consents to the wrong movement that comes in the way. You have to put your inner will and the Mother's light on the vital so that it shall change, not leave it to do what it likes. If one is to be "helpless" and moved by any part of the instrumental being, how is change possible ? The Mother's force or the psychic can act, but on condition that the assent of the being is there. If the vital is left to do what it likes, it will always go after its old habits; it has to be made to feel that it must change.
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What is still restless in the vital has to quiet down for the peace of mind to be even and constant. It has to be controlled, but only control will not be enough. The Mother's Power has to be called always. 10-4-1934
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Put the Mother's notice henceforth at the door of your vital being, "No falsehood hereafter shall ever enter here", and station a sentry there to see that it is put into execution. 18-5-1933
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Page - 334 The Mother cannot tell you to go because there is no true cause why you should go and it would be very bad for you to do so as well as bad for the work and everything else. The reasons for your not giving up the work are just the same as before and not in the least changed by anything that has happened. Jealousy is no doubt a great defect of the nature, but many here have it; almost everyone has some serious defect in his nature which stands in his way and gives trouble. But it is not a remedy for this to give up work and Sadhana and abandon the Mother. You have to go on working and doing the Sadhana with the Mother's aid behind you until this and all other obstacles are got rid of. We have told you already that these things cannot be got rid of in a day, but if you persevere and rely on the Mother they will yet disappear. Do not allow an adverse Force to mislead you; reject all depression and go straight forward till you reach the goal. 17-7-1935
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We are very glad to hear that you are better and that X has helped you out of the crisis. Surely this jealousy must go and no trace of it remain. Do not doubt that the Mother's love is and will be always with you. Trust in her grace and all this will go out of you and leave you the true child of the Mother which in your mind and heart you always are. 18-7-1935
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Mother has no wish to abandon you and it has never been her will that you should go away from her. You must put yourself in harmony with her will and then all will go right. Her love will guide you and her protection will be effective.
Rest until you are well. Do not be in a hurry to go to work before you have recovered your strength. 19-7-1935
Page - 335 CALLING THE MOTHER IN DIFFICULTY
When difficulties arise, remain quiet within and call down the Mother's force to remove them. 26-8-1933
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To call to the Mother always is the main thing and with that to aspire and assent to the Light when it comes, to reject and detach oneself from desire and any dark movement. But if one cannot do these other things successfully, then call and still call.
The Mother's force is there with you even when you do not feel it; remain quiet and persevere. 15-9-1934
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You should not allow yourself to get upset by these small things. If when the movements you complain of come, you remain quiet and open to the Mother and call her, after a time you will find a change beginning to come in you. Meditation is not enough; think of the Mother and offer your work and action to her, that will help you better. 7-4-1932
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There is only one way if you can not exert your will — it is to call the Force; even the call only with the mind or the mental word is better than being extremely passive and submitted to the attack, — for although it may not succeed instantaneously, the mental call even ends by bringing the Force and opening up the consciousness again. For everything depends upon that. In the externalised consciousness obscurity and suffering can always be there; the more the internalised consciousness reigns, the more these things are pushed back and out, and with the full internalised consciousness they cannot remain — if they come, it is as outside touches unable to lodge themselves in the being. 21-8-1933
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Page - 336
Even when one cannot call in actively the Mother's Force one must keep the reliance that it will come. 26-8-1936
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It is the physical mind that feels too inert — but if some part of the being turns to the Mother, that is enough to bring the help. 25-1-1934
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It is an obsession from the subconscient physical bringing back the habitual thoughts, "I can't call rightly — I have no real aspiration, etc."; the depression, the memory, etc. are from the same source. It is no use indulging in these ideas. If you cannot call the Mother in what you think the right way, call her in any way — if you can't call her, think of her with the will to be rid of these things. Don't worry yourself with the idea whether you have true aspiration or not — the psychic being wants and that is sufficient. The rest is for the Divine Grace on which one must steadfastly rely — one's own merit, virtue or capacity is not the thing that brings the realisation.
I shall send the force to rid you of this obsession in any case, but if you can abandon these habitual ideas, it will make the disappearance of the attack easier. 4-1-1937
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It is always best in these difficulties to tell the Mother and call for her help. It is probably something in his vital that needs somebody to protect and care for — but you must accustom yourself to the idea that it is not needed and the best thing is to give the person to the care of the Mother — offer the object of your affection to her. 15-11-1937
Page - 337 PRAYER TO THE MOTHER FOR INNER AND OUTER THINGS
Q: You say, "when one is a Sadhak the prayer should be for the inner things belonging to the Sadhana and for outer things only so far as they are necessary for that and for the Divine work". This latter portion about prayer for outer things is not clear to me. Can you kindly explain ? A: All depends on whether the outer things are sought for one's own convenience, pleasure, profit etc., or as part of the spiritual life, necessary for the success of the work, the development and fitness of the instruments etc. It is a question mainly of inner attitude. If for instance you pray for money for buying nice food to please the palate; that is not a proper thing for a Sadhak; if you pray for money to give to the Mother and help her work, then it is legitimate.
Q: I quote several types of prayers which I offer and shall be grateful to know which of them are outer or inner, right or wrong, helpful or hindrance, or what amendment to them can make them pure: —
1. In the night-time when I sit to read and an untimely attack of sleep comes, I pray to the Mother to be freed from the attack. A: If your reading is part of the Sadhana, that is all right. Q: 2. When I go to sleep I pray to the Mother for her force to take over my Sadhana during the sleep, to make my sleep conscious, luminous, to protect me during the sleep, to keep me conscious of the Mother. 3. When I wake up any time in the sleep I pray to the Mother to be with me and protect me. A: These two are part of the Sadhana.
Page - 338 Q: 4. While going out for and during walk I pray to give me force to take more exercise and to gain more strength and health and thank the Mother for the help. A: If strength and health are requested as being necessary for the Sadhana and the development of the perfection of the instrument it is all right. Q: 5. When I see any dog on the way while walking I at once pray to the Mother to protect from its attack and remove my fear. A: A call for protection is always permissible. The removal of fear is part of the Sadhana. Q: 6. When I go for food I pray for the Mother's force to help me to offer every morsel to the Mother, to get everything easily digested, to make a growth of complete equality and detachment in my consciousness enabling me to take any food with equal Rasa of universal Ananda without any insistence or seeking or greed or desire. A: This is again part of the Sadhana. Q: 7. When I go for work I pray for the Mother's force to take over my work, help me and make me do it well and carefully with love, devotion and pleasure, with the remembrance of the Mother and feeling of being supported and helped by her without ego or desire. A: This also. Q: 8. During the work also when there is a pause I pray for force, help and constant remembrance.
Page - 339 A: This also. Q: 9. When any bad or impure thought, seeing and sensation come in me I pray for its removal and purity. A: This also. Q: 10. When I am reading I try to pray when possible to understand all quickly, to grasp and absorb completely. A: If it is as Sadhana or for the development of the instrument, it is all right. Q: 11. When I commit any mistake in the work I pray to be more conscious, alert and unerring. A: This also is part of the Sadhana. Q: 12. When I go to the post office to register a parcel of Prasad to my friend I pray to have the parcel accepted immediately and avoid any delay. A: That can be done, if avoidance of waste of time is considered as part of the right regulation of the life of Sadhana. Q: 13. When I sit down for meditation I pray for Mother's force to take over my meditation and make it deep, steady, concentrated and free from all attacks of troubling thoughts, vital restlessness, etc. A: This is part of the Sadhana. Q: 14. In depression, difficulty, wrong suggestions,
Page - 340 doubt, inertia, on any occasion or happening I pray to the Mother to hold courage, keep faith, face them and overcome them. A: This also. Q: 15. At all other times as far as I can I pray to the Mother to fill me with her peace, power, light etc., or offer any other kind of required prayer, and thank her for supporting, strengthening and sustaining me. A: This also.
REMOVAL OF RECURRING DIFFICULTIES
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Q: What is the right way of meeting one's recurring difficulties ? A: Equality, rejection, calling on the Mother's force. 1-8-1933
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What stands in the way is the recurring circle of the old mixture. To break out of that is very necessary to arrive at an inner Yogic calm and peace not disturbed by these things. If that is established, it will be possible to feel in it the Mother's Presence, to open to her guidance, to get, not by occasional glimpses but in a steady opening and flowering, the psychic perception and the descent of the spiritual Light and Ananda. For that help will be with you. 7-3-1937
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Plenty of people have this condition (it is human nature) and
Page - 341 there is naturally a way of coming out of it — having full faith in the Mother to quiet the inner mind (even if the outer continues to be troublesome) and call in it the Mother's Peace and Force, which is always there above you, into the ādhāra. Once that is there, consciously, to keep yourself open to it and let it go on working with a full adhesion, with a constant support of your consent, with a conscious rejection of all that is not that, till all the inner being is tranquillised and filled with the Mother's Force, Peace, Joy, Presence — then the outer nature will be obliged to follow suit in its turn. 8-5-1933
RECOVERY FROM BAD CONDITIONS
These bad conditions are a lapse (often due to a very slight cause) from the inner poise to the outer consciousness. When they happen do not get affected, but remain quiet, call the Mother and get back inward. 24-1-1936
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An occasional sinking of the consciousness happens to everybody. The causes are various, some touch from outside, something not yet changed or not sufficiently changed in the vital, especially the lower vital, some inertia or obscurity rising up from the physical parts of nature. When it comes, remain quiet, open yourself to the Mother and call back the true conditions and aspire for a clear and undisturbed discrimination showing you from within yourself the cause of the thing that needs to be set right.
4-3-1932
THE MOTHER'S HELP IN ATTACKS
It is the forces of the Ignorance that begin to lay siege and then
Page - 342 make a mass attack. Every time such an attack can be defeated and cast out, there is a clearance in the ādhāra, a new field gained for the Mother in the mind, vital or physical or the adjacent parts of the being. That the place in the vital occupied by the Mother is increasing is shown by the fact that you are now offering a strong resistance to these sieges that used formerly to overpower you altogether.
To be able to call the Mother's presence or force at such times is the best way to meet the difficulty.
It is with the Mother who is always with you and in you that you converse. The only thing is to hear aright, so that no other voice can come in between. 7-12-1933
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However strong the attack may be, and even if it overcomes you for the time being, still it will rapidly pass away if you have formed the habit of opening to the Mother. The peace will come back if you remain quiet and keep yourself open to it and to the Force. Once something of the Truth has shown itself within you, it will always, even if for a time heavily clouded over with wrong movements, shine out again like the sun in heaven. Therefore persevere with confidence and never lose courage. 14-3-1932 *
Q: What is the best means for the Sadhaks to avoid suffering due to the action of the hostile forces ? A: Faith in the Mother and complete surrender. 17-6-1933
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Q: When the Sadhaks overlook some weakness of their nature in the process of transformation, is it not possible that it will be shown to them by the Divine Mother rather than through a painful wound at the weak point dealt by the hostile forces ?
Page - 343 A: If they are sufficiently open to the Divine it can be done — but most Sadhaks have too much egoism and lack of faith and obscurity and self-will and vital desires, — it is that that shuts them to the Mother and calls in the action of the hostile forces. 17-6-1933
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The play of the mental and vital defects in the human nature which belongs to the Ignorance is allowed — as also the attacks and suggestions of the Asuric forces — so long as there is anything in the nature which responds to these things. If they rise in you in the presence of the Mother, it is because then a strong pressure is put on them so that they have either to go out or to put up a fight for existence. The remedy is to open to the Mother only and to reject entirely and at all times all other forces, and to reject them most when they become most active. Faith, sincerity, perseverance will do the rest. 16-11-1932
TESTING BY THE MOTHER
The idea of tests also is not a healthy idea and ought not to be pushed too far. Tests are applied not by the Divine but by the forces of the lower planes — mental, vital, physical — and allowed by the Divine because that is part of the soul's training and helps it to know itself, its powers and the limitations it has to outgrow. The Mother is not testing you at every moment, but rather helping you at every moment to rise beyond the necessity of tests and difficulties which belong to the inferior consciousness. To be always conscious of that help will be your best safeguard against all attacks whether of adverse powers or of your own lower nature.
THE MOTHER'S OCCULT ACTION FOR ANSWERING CALLS FOR HELP
As to the experience, certainly X's call for help did reach the
Page - 344 Mother, even though all the details she relates in her letter might not have been present to the Mother's physical mind. Always calls of this kind are coming to the Mother, sometimes a hundred close upon each other and always the answer is given. The occasions are of all kinds, but whatever the need that occasions the call, the Force is there to answer it. That is the principle of this action on the occult plane. It is not of the same kind as an ordinary human action and does not need a written or oral communication on the one who calls; an interchange of psychic communication is quite sufficient to set the Force at work. At the same time it is not an impersonal Force and the suggestion of a divine energy that is there ready to answer and satisfy anybody who calls it is not at all relevant here. It is something personal to the Mother and if she had not this power and this kind of action she would not be able to do her work; but this is quite different from the outside practical working on the material plane where the methods must, necessarily, be different, although the occult working and the material working can and do join and the occult power give to the material working its utmost efficacy. As for the one who is helped not feeling the force at work, his knowing might help very substantially the effective working, but it need not be indispensable; the effect can be there even if he does not know how the thing is done. For instance, in your work in Calcutta and elsewhere my help has always been with you and I don't think it can be said that it was ineffective; but it was of the same occult nature and could have had the same effect even if you had not been conscious in some way that my help was with you. 24-3-1949
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Q: It was 1 a.m. at night when my brother in excruciating pain called me and asked if Sri Aurobindo could heal him. I took out some Prasad flowers that were with me and touched the affected part with them. And lo ! the pain vanished and he began to recover. I want to know if you were aware of this and heard my prayer.
Page - 345 A: What happens in such cases is that when someone is accepted, the Mother sends out something of herself to him and this is with him wherever he goes and is always in connection with her bring here. So when he does anything like what you did in this case with faith and bhakti, it reaches, through that emanation of herself which is with him, the Mother's consciousness inner or outer and the Force goes in return for the result.
WRONG IDEAS ABOUT THE MOTHER'S LISTENING TO CALLS
Q: When X complained to me about her difficulty I told her that it could be removed by calling the Mother's help. But she argued that there was no hope for the calls of a newcomer like herself to be heard by the Mother. There were so many calls from the older and advanced Sadhaks that fresh calls from a beginner like herself would be but calls in the wilderness and would go unheard in that clamour. I replied that if the Mother does not come in answer to our calls she must have her reasons; and there can be no doubt that when she comes she will come to stay. In the meantime we should have faith and equanimity and prepare the necessary conditions. Possibly she has more important work to do than to act to our bidding, and why should we insist that she should leave that work and attend to us ? The Mother has never been known to fail in answering when a real call is sent to her straight from the heart, for the very force in the call presupposes her presence. When I told this to X, I felt a strong pressure and vibrations from the centre of my forehead downwards between the eyebrows. What is the reason of this ?
A: X's reasonings are not very sound; yours are better if not altogether flawless. The Mother is not limited by the physical mind, so even if she has "more important" work to do, that would not in the least stand in the way of her listening to a call
Page - 346 from the wilderness or anywhere else. Also spiritual things do not go by seniority; so why should the clamour of "older cases" keep her ? She can be and is with all who need her. So your "Mother does not come ? will not come ?" is not quite to the point, but the rest of your answer is. Mother is there even now and working in you, it is only your inner vision and feeling that are not opened so that you cannot see or feel her.
What came down to the centre of the forehead was the answer, let us say the touch of the Mother's presence — her consciousness, her force working on you to open the centre of the inner mind, inner will, the inner vision and when that opens one begins to see and know what is to the physical eye invisible and to the surface mind unknowable. 11-10-1935
UNFAILING HELP AND PROTECTION
The experience you had of the power of the Name and the protection is that of everyone who has used it with the same faith and reliance. To those who call from the heart for the protection, it cannot fail. Do not allow any outward circumstance to shake the faith in you; for nothing gives greater strength than this faith to go through and arrive at the goal. Knowledge and Tapasya, whatever their force, have a less sustaining power — faith is the strongest staff for the journey.
The protection is there over you and the watchful love of the Mother. Rely upon it and let your being open more and more to it — then it will repel attacks and always uphold you. 8-10-1936
CONDITIONS FOR THE WORKING OF THE MOTHER'S PROTECTION
The Mother has made an arrangement with a view to all the occult forces and the best possible conditions for the protection of the Sadhaks from certain forces of death, disease, etc. It cannot
Page - 347 work perfectly because the Sadhaks themselves have not the right attitude towards food and kindred vital physical things. But still there is a protection. If, however, the Sadhaks go outside her formation, it must be on their own responsibility .... But this arrangement is for the Ashram and not for those who are outside. 14-7-1933
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Q: Is it not true that the Sadhaks observe the rules laid down by the Mother because they feel that by not observing them and disobeying her one goes out of her protection ? A: It is precisely that — one immediately goes out of the protection. 8-6-1933 *
Q: All would like to allow the Mother's protection to remain with them; but perhaps certain conditions have to be fulfilled ? A: There are very few who allow it. There is a general protection around all, but most go out of it by their attitude, thoughts or actions or open the way to other forces. 24-8-1933
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It is not because the Mother has withdrawn her protection — she has not done that. It is more likely that it [the difficulty] came because you have been going too much out of your inner being and externalising yourself. It is better to draw back within again and recover the inner calm and peace.
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Page - 348 Q: If people constantly have the Mothers protection around them, I don't think they will ever have depression and doubt or anything hostile to the Divine. A: Those things may try to come but they will not be able to enter or stay.
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Q: If a boy comes here at an early age, will he be free from the difficulties that usually go with sex ? A: It is not automatically true — it is only possible — but on condition he gets fully into the influence of the Mother, is not too open to the atmosphere of other Sadhaks who have it, does not get upset at the initial age and also does not upset himself by reading erotic literature etc. There is no one who has been able to do all that yet. 8-11-1933
ACCIDENTS AND THE MOTHER'S PROTECTION
Q: X had a car accident this morning. Could Mother not see the possibility of this accident beforehand and prevent it ? Or was it because X had in some manner gone out of the zone of her protection ?
A: It was not possible to prevent the accident. When the danger comes a call to the Mother is the first thing to be done, that makes the general protection at once effective. X was in too externalised a state to do that and he did the very opposite thing to what should have been done — trying to get away in front of the car instead of behind it. But the true cause was something more internal — one of those choices made by the inner being (not necessarily known to the conscious mind) which bring these things as a response. 27-1-1936
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Page - 349 THE MOTHER PROTECTION ON THE VITAL PLANE
It was s a dream of the vital plane where all kinds of danger occur until you get courage to face them. If there is no fire or if there is the protection of the Mother (which become manifest by remembering or calling her) then these dangers come to nothing. It is the fear of mad men that brought the thing in the vital; such things as the fear have to be thrown out of the nature. 8-9-1933
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What happened in your experience was that the vital being got free from the body through its desire to unite with the Mother (you met the Mother on the borders between the vital and physical) and lived with its own life independent of the body. It entered into the vital world and, not being sheltered any longer in the body, felt helpless at first, till it called the Mother. The appearance of X there might possibly have been some part of the vital of X himself, but was more probably a vital being in his shape, perhaps the very vital being who has been troubling him. When you go into the vital world, you meet many such things, — the one sufficient protection is to call the Mother. 7-9-1933
REJECTION OF DIFFICULTIES BY INWARD SURRENDER
To come physically to the Mother for getting rid of a disturbance is unnecessary und useless; it is inwardly that you must take refuge in her and throw away the wrong movement, as you have seen on this occasion. To come physically would only create a habit of getting wrong and coming to her to get right and it would also lead to the wrong movement of throwing the difficulty on her instead of inwardly giving it up, rendering its surrender. But it is a general surrender that is needed which could prevent these useless disturbances over trifling matters, egoisms, insistences on one's own point of view, anger because one does not
Page - 350 have one's own way or a due recognition of one's independence or importance.
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It is the inner oneness that saves, not the outer nearness. 17-11-1933
WRITING TO THE MOTHER FOR HELP
You did well to speak to X and also to write to the Mother. Of course. Mother had observed X's difficulties; it is correct that the difficulty is the lack of a certain free opening — otherwise all that could be removed quickly and the necessary change of nature (mind, ego, etc.) carried on by smooth gradation. To write as you do is helpful for opening oneself and for receiving the precise touch. X's logic about the Mother's knowing and therefore there being no need to write is applicable if there is a free or at least a sufficient flow of giving and reception between the Mother and the Sadhak, but when a serious difficulty comes, this logic is not so applicable. Naturally, we shall do our best to help him in his struggle. 14-5-1936
LAYING ALL MOVEMENTS BARE BEFORE THE MOTHER
One rule for you I can lay down, "Do not do, say or think anything which you would want to conceal from the Mother". And that answers the objections that rose within you — from your vital, is it not ? — against bringing "these petty things" to the Mother's notice. Why should you think that the Mother would be bothered by these things or regard them as petty ? If all the life is to be Yoga, what is there that can be called petty or of no importance ? Even if the Mother does not answer, to have brought any matter of your action and self-development before her in the right spirit means to have put it under her protection,
Page - 351 in the light of the Truth, under the rays of the Power that is working for the transformation — for immediately those rays begin to play and to act on the thing brought to her notice. Anything within that advises not to do it when the spirit in you moves you to do it, may very well be a device of the vital to avoid the ray of the Light and the working of the Force. It may also be observed that if you open yourself to the Mother by putting the movements of any part of you under her observation, that of itself create a relation, a personal closeness with her other then that which her general silent or not directly invited action maintains with all the Sadhaks.
All this, of course, if you feel ready for this openness, if the spirit moves you to lay what is in you bare before her. For it is then it is fruitful — when it comes from within and is spontaneous and true. 18-5-1932
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Q: Today a thought has come to me: "Why are you forcing yourself so much with regard to the control of the vital being ? Better not bother about opening your thoughts and desires to the Mother; rather leave Her to work on you". A: If you want the Mother to work through you, you must lay before her your thoughts and desires and reject them. 3-9-1933
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Q: On reading my yesterday's letter to the Mother I feel today as if She was not much pleased with my laying before Her the wrong thoughts I had about X and Y. A: Your writing these things does not give any displeasure to Mother. It is better to write if you have them, than to be silent about it. 9-6-1933
Page - 352 WORKING OF THE MOHER'S FORCE FOR PHYSICAL CURE
The inherent strength of the body does not do things like that. It is the Mother's force that does it, when one calls and opens oneself. Even people who never did Yoga and are conscious of nothing, get cured like that without knowing the reason or feeling the way in which it was done. The force comes from above or in descending it envelopes and comes from without inside or it comes out from inside after descending there. When you are conscious of the play of the forces, then you feel the working.
It (awakening) means the conscious action of the psychic from behind. When it comes to the front it invades the mind and vital and body and psychicises their movements. It comes best by aspiration and an unquestioning and entire turning and surrender to the Mother. But also it sometimes comes of itself when the ādhāra is ready. 5-5-1933
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Q: When I got up from sleep I found that a cold had already entered. My consciousness brought down the Mother's Force and the cold disappeared. The same process was tried for other troubles too. I want to know if the method adopted for the Force was quite the right one. A: It is quite the right way. It is very good that you are learning to use the Force. 27-8-1934
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It is a fact of my experience that when the resistance in the body is too strong and persistent, it can help to take some aid of physical means as an instrumentation for the Force to work more directly on the body itself; for the body then feels itself supported against the resistance from both sides, by means both physical as well as
Page - 353 supraphysical. The Mother's force can work truth both together. 1-9-1936
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Q:
Since more than a fortnight every time I receive the Mother's touch at
Pranam time I feel a sense of strong nourishment accompanied by joy and
strength, as if a new substance is being poured down even in my physical body. A: As you suffer from ill-health, Mother presses the nourishment of the divine strength and health into your physical being, renewing its substance with that. 4-11-1934
THE MOTHER'S ACTION IN CURING ILLNESS
Q: On what basis did the Mother's action proceed in the case recently submitted to her ? A: Mother acted on her inner perception about the whole affair; she does not act only on the outer facts but on what she feels or sees lying behind them. 29-8-1935
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Q: X's letter to me about her hip-joint pain was sent to the Mother by me not on the same day but on the next. Yet it seems from X's latest that her pain disappeared soon after that letter had reached me. Was there an automatic effect of the letter, even before the Mother was told of the letter's contents ?
A: Y spoke to the Mother about X's pain on the same day —
Page - 354 so it is not necessary to suppose an automatic effect of the letter itself. But such un automatic effect does often take place either immediately after writing or when the letter enters the Mother's atmosphere.
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