{"id":1635,"date":"2013-07-13T01:36:09","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T08:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1635"},"modified":"2013-11-28T15:20:30","modified_gmt":"2013-11-28T23:20:30","slug":"31-remarks-on-the-current-state-of-the-sadhana-1931-1947-vol-35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram\/31-remarks-on-the-current-state-of-the-sadhana-1931-1947-vol-35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram","title":{"rendered":"-31_Remarks on the Current State of the Sadhana, 1931 – 1947.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tRemarks on the Current State <\/font><\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\nof the Sadhana, 1931 <\/b>
\n–
\n1947 <\/b>
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n 
\n<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n1931
\n<\/b> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI am surprised at Tagore’s remark1<\/font><\/sup>
\n\tabout the two years<\/i>; he must have greatly misunderstood or misheard
\n\tme. I did tell him that I would expand only after making a perfect (inner)
\n\tfoundation here, but I gave no date. I did give that date of two years long
\n\tbefore in my letter to Barin,2<\/font><\/sup> but I had
\n\tthen a less ample view of the work to be done than I have now \u2014  and I
\n\tam now more cautious about assigning dates than I was once. To fix a precise
\n\ttime is impossible except in the two regions of certitude \u2014  the pure
\n\tmaterial which is the field of mathematical certitudes and the supramental
\n\twhich is the field of divine certitudes. In the planes in between where life
\n\thas its word to say and things have to evolve under shock and stress, Time
\n\tand Energy are too much in a flux and apt to kick against the rigour of a
\n\tprefixed date or programme. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n16 August 1931
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n1932
\n<\/b> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tYou will say, "But at present the Mother has drawn back
\n\tand it is the supramental that is to blame, because it is in order to bring
\n\tdown the supramental into matter that she retires." The supra mental is not
\n\tto blame; the supramental could very well have come down into matter under
\n\tformer conditions, if the means created by the Mother for the physical and
\n\tvital contact had not been vitiated by the wrong attitude, the wrong
\n\treactions in the Asram atmosphere. It was not the direct supramental Force
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n1 Rabindranath Tagore remarked to someone in 1931 that Sri
\nAurobindo told him in<\/i>
\n1928 that he would "expand" after two years. \u2014  Ed.<\/i> <\/font>
\n\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n2 In a letter written in Bengali to his brother Barindra Kumar
\nGhose in 1920, Sri Aurobindo said that it might take him "another two years" to
\ncomplete his sadhana. \u2014  Ed.<\/i>  
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>319<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

that was acting, but an intermediate and preparatory force
\nthat carried in it a modified Light derived from the supramental; but this would
\nhave been sufficient for the work of opening the way for the highest action, if
\nit had not been for the irruption of these wrong forces on the yet unconquered
\nlower (physical) vital and material plane. The interference was creating adverse
\npossibilities which could not be allowed to continue. The Mother would not have
\nretired otherwise; and even as it is it is not meant as an abandonment of the
\nfield but is only (to borrow a now current phrase from a more external
\nenterprise) a temporary strategic retirement, <\/span> reculer
\npour mieux sauter<\/span>.
\n<\/span> <\/i>The supramental is therefore
\nnot responsible; on the contrary, it is the descent of the supramental that
\nwould end all the difficulty. <\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n12 January 1932
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOur object is the supramental realisation and we
\n\t\t\thave to do whatever is necessary for that or towards that under the
\n\t\t\tconditions of each stage. At present the necessity is to prepare the
\n\t\t\tphysical consciousness; for that a complete equality and peace and a
\n\t\t\tcomplete dedication free from personal demand or desire in the
\n\t\t\tphysical and the lower vital parts is the thing to be established.
\n\t\t\tOther things can come in their proper time. What is the real need
\n\t\t\tnow is not insistence on physical nearness, which is one of those
\n\t\t\tother things, but the psychic opening in the physical consciousness
\n\t\t\tand the constant presence and guidance there. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n16 February 1932
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIf the attainment of supermind does not take us
\n\t\t\tto the last stage of perfection in the objective side of life, if
\n\t\t\teven after its attainment we have to satisfy ourselves with a little
\n\t\t\tmore clarity with possibilities and probabilities (as you yourself
\n\t\t\thave said), how can it be called the last and the perfect truth?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI have never said that I wrote from the supermind, so the
\n\tquestion does not arise.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nYou seem to be very much in a hurry to get at the supermind.
\nI have said that it cannot be done like that, a patient preparation  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>320<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nof the nature is needed and I am concerned with that now.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIf divinisation of life keeps us in the same
\n\t\t\tcondition of death, disease and physical incapacity, how can it be
\n\t\t\tcalled divinisation at all?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tWhat do you mean by divinisation of life? Death and
\n\tdisease can only disappear by divinisation of the
\nbody <\/i>\u2014  and that is not yet here. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n2 March 1932
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI am not very impatient about the supermind, but
\n\t\t\tthe patient preparation of the nature that you want will go on even
\n\t\t\tif other sides are developing.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI don’t know what you mean by developing sides. I am
\n\tconcerned with preparing the nature for the supramental possibility \u2014 
\n\thowever long that may take \u2014  and I have no time or energy to waste on
\n\tside issues. That preparation is the only thing I can recommend to you; all
\n\tthe "sides" necessary will come with it.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI know that the supermind is not near and I know
\n\t\t\tthat I am impatient \u2014  but not especially for supermind. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tMy answer stands. I have repeatedly said recently that we
\n\tare trying against great difficulties to bring down the supramental into the
\n\tphysical plane. If the supramental were already there, the body divinised,
\n\tmatter transformed, there would be no difficulty and no need of the
\n\tendeavour.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nI would recall to you what I said in my letter to X<\/i>3<\/font><\/sup>
\nthat it was not the direct supramental Force which was working up till now but a
\npreparatory Force that carried in it a modified Light derived from the
\nsupramental. The direct Force can begin working only when the mind, vital and
\nphysical are sufficiently ready.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n3 March 1932 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n3 See the letter of 12 January 1932 on pages 319 \u00ad 20. \u2014 
\nEd.<\/i>  
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>321<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

I must remind you that I have been an intellectual myself and
\nno stranger to doubts \u2014  both the Mother and myself have had one side of
\nthe mind as positive and as insistent on practical results and more so than any
\nRussell can be. We could never have been contented with the shining ideas and
\nphrases which a Rolland or another takes for gold coin of Truth. We know well
\nwhat is the difference between a subjective experience and a dynamic
\noutward-going and realising Force. So although we have faith \u2014  and who
\never did anything great in the world without having faith in his mission or the
\nTruth at work behind him? \u2014  we do not found ourselves on faith alone but
\non a great ground of knowledge which we have been developing and testing all our
\nlives. I think I can say that I have been testing day and night for years upon
\nyears more scrupulously than any scientist his theory or his method on the
\nphysical plane. That is why I am not alarmed by the aspect of the world around
\nme or disconcerted by the often successful fury of the adverse Forces who
\nincrease in their rage as the Light comes nearer and nearer down to the field of
\nearth and Matter.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nIf I believe in the probability and not only the possibility,
\nif I feel practically certain of the supramental descent \u2014  I do not fix a
\ndate, \u2014  it is because I have my grounds for the belief, not merely a faith
\nin the air. I know <\/i>that the supramental descent is inevitable \u2014  l
\nhave faith in view of my experience that the time can be and should be now and
\nnot in a later age.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nBut even if I knew it to be for a later time, I would not
\nswerve from my path or be discouraged or flag in my labour. Formerly I might
\nhave been, but not now after all the path I have traversed. When one is sure of
\nthe Truth, or even when one believes the thing one pursues to be the only
\npossible solution, one does not stipulate for an immediate success, one travels
\ntowards the Light taking as well worth facing every risk of the adventure.
\nStill, like you, it is now in this life that I insist on it and not in another
\nor in the hereafter.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n30 August 1932 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>322<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nI pray for the quiet strength, faith and wisdom I need to
\nhelp me pass over this exceedingly difficult period of worries and unquietness
\nand the feeling of physical unwellness and other unpleasantnesses.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tBut those are the ideas and feelings that always rise up
\n\tin you when the adverse force presses on you and you give ear or even partly
\n\tlisten to its suggestions. You yourself have given the answer to it \u2014 
\n\tthe solutions suggested by these forces are not solutions at all. No doubt,
\n\tthe period is very difficult, not only for you but for everybody, \u2014 
\n\tbut the struggle in the material plane was bound to be difficult and
\n\tprolonged, it is the cause of the whole problem, the critical stage of the
\n\twhole action, because the victory there would decide everything for good and
\n\tall.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n24 November 1932 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIs it possible for you to give us an idea when
\n\t\t\tthe supramental descent will come to pass? Will it be within a
\n\t\t\tdecade? And will the result of the completion of your yoga be, as I
\n\t\t\tonce asked Mother also, a power to transform us in spite of
\n\t\t\tourselves? Even at present your power does nothing else, but you
\n\t\t\tleave us still the possibility to resist.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI suppose the (vital’s) will to resist will disappear: I
\n\tdon’t know about the date \u2014  dates are things that one ought not to fix
\n\ttoo rigidly; but I certainly hope we won’t have to wait for a decade! Let us
\n\tbe more sanguine and put the beginning of the decade and not its end as the
\n\tera of the Descent. It is more likely then to make haste.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\nDecember 1932 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n1933
\n<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tAs for faith, you write as if I had never had a doubt or
\n\tany difficulty. I have had worse than any human mind can think of. It is not
\n\tbecause I have ignored difficulties, but because I have seen them more
\n\tclearly, experienced them on a larger scale than anyone living now or before
\n\tme that, having faced and measured them, I am sure of the results of my
\n\twork. Even if I still saw the   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>323<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

chance that it might come to nothing (which is impossible), I
\nshould go on unperturbed, because I would still have done to the best of my
\npower the work that I had to do and what is so done always counts in the economy
\nof the universe. But why should I feel that all this may come to nothing when I
\nsee each step and where it is leading and every week and day \u2014  once it was
\nevery year and month and hereafter it will be every day and hour \u2014  brings
\nme so much nearer to my goal? In the way that one treads with the greater Light
\nabove, even every difficulty gives its help and has its value and the Night
\nitself carries in it the burden of the light that has to be.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nAs for your own case, it comes to this that experiences come
\nand stop, there are constant ups and downs, in times of recoil and depression no
\nadvance at all seems to have been made, there is as yet no certitude. So it was
\nwith me also, so it is with everyone, not with you alone. The way to the heights
\nis always like that up to a certain point, but the ups and downs, the
\ndifficulties and obstacles are no proof that it is a chimera to aspire to the
\nsummits. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n5 January 1933
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI am afraid I cannot endorse your reading of the
\n\t\t\tsituation, at least so far as the Mother and myself and the
\n\t\t\tprospects of the work are concerned. I can agree only that we have
\n\t\t\thad a heavy time of it recently and that there has been a strong
\n\t\t\tattack on the plane of the physical and material \u2014  but that
\n\t\t\t(heavy attacks) is a thing we have been accustomed to for the last
\n\t\t\t20 years and it has never prevented us from making any necessary
\n\t\t\tadvance. I have never had any illusions about the path being
\n\t\t\tcomfortable and easy \u2014  I knew all along that the work could
\n\t\t\tonly be done if all the essential difficulties rose and were faced \u2014 
\n\t\t\tso their rising cannot tire or dishearten me \u2014  whatever
\n\t\t\tobstinacy there may be in the difficulties whether our own or in the
\n\t\t\tsadhaks or in Nature. . . .
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nNo, I am not tired or on the point of giving up. I have made
\ninwardly steps in front in the last two or three months which had seemed
\nimpossible because of the obstinate resistance for  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>324<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nyears together and it is not an experience which pushes me to
\ndespair and give up. If there is much resistance on one side, there have been
\nlarge gains on the other \u2014  all has not been a picture of sterile darkness.
\nYou yourself are kept back only by the demon of doubt which bangs on you each
\ndoor as you are opening it \u2014 you have only to set about resolutely slaying the
\nRakshasa and the doors will open to you as they have done to many others who
\nwere held up by their own mind or vital nature.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n12 January 1933 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhen shall the victory of Supermind manifest on
\n\t\t\tEarth?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tOne can only say that it advances, but to fix \u2014  or
\n\tat least to proclaim \u2014  a time is not permitted \u2014  for which there
\n\tare many good occult reasons.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n23 March 1933 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhat are the conditions for the descent of the
\n\t\t\tHigher Consciousness in the Asram atmosphere? Or is it already
\n\t\t\tthere? Is it good to call it down for all? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Higher Consciousness is there already \u2014  it
\n\tdepends on the sadhak how much (or little) he receives of it and in what
\n\tway. The supramental consciousness is not yet down in the material, but it
\n\tis no use calling that for all, \u2014  hardly anyone could receive it at
\n\tpresent. But up to just below that all is there. It is a question of
\n\treceiving, not of calling down, for that each has to open \u2014 by whatever
\n\tdegrees \u2014  and call it into himself.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n30 June 1933 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIs it mostly the Mahasaraswati aspect of the
\n\t\t\tMother that works in our sadhana here?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tAt present since the sadhana came down to the physical
\n\tconsciousness \u2014  or rather it is a combination of Maheshwari
\n\tMahasaraswati forces. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n25 August 1933
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>325<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\nYou wrote to me yesterday, "Now there is a sufficient descent
\nof Light and Power."4<\/font><\/sup> Does this show that the
\npsychisation of the sadhaks is advancing? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tYes, there has been some progress in that respect and all
\n\tprogress in the psychic or spiritual consciousness of the sadhaks makes the
\n\tdescent more easy. But the main cause is that the Overmind principle which
\n\tis the immediate secret support of the present earth-nature with all its
\n\tlimitations is more and more undergoing the pressure of the Supramental and
\n\tletting through a greater Light and Power. For so long as the Overmind
\n\tintervenes (the principle of the Overmind being a play of forces, each
\n\ttrying to realise itself as the Truth) the law of struggle remains and with
\n\tit the opportunity for the adverse Forces. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n10 November 1933
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYou say [in the preceding letter<\/i>] that the
\n\t\t\tOvermind, as a result of a pressure of the Supramental, is "letting
\n\t\t\tthrough a greater Light and Power." Does this mean that a greater
\n\t\t\tspiritual movement is going on at present in various places on earth
\n\t\t\twhere the people are receiving the new Light and Power?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tNo. It is only here that it can act for the present \u2014 
\n\tin the forces outside, there is no preparation to receive it.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n10 November 1933 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNo, the supramental has not descended into the
\n\t\t\tbody or into matter \u2014  it is only at the point where such a
\n\t\t\tdescent has become not only possible but inevitable \u2014  I am
\n\t\t\tspeaking of course of my own experience. But as my own experience is
\n\t\t\tthe centre and condition of the rest, that is sufficient for the
\n\t\t\tpromise.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nI am not able to answer your letter just now for it is full
\nof bristling questions, but I shall do it today \u2014  in the course of the
\nday. Only my difficulty is that you all seem to expect some kind of miraculous
\nfaery-tale change and do not realise that it is a rapid and concentrated
\nevolution which is the aim of
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n4 See the letter of 9 November 1933 on page 640. \u2014  Ed.<\/i>  
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>326<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nmy sadhana and that there must be a process for it, a working
\nof the higher on the lower and a dealing with all the necessary materials \u2014 
\nnot a sudden fiat of the Creator by which everything is done on a given date. It
\nis a suprarational but not an irrational process. What is to be done, will
\nhappen \u2014  perhaps with a rush even \u2014  but in a workmanlike way and not
\naccording to fancy.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nHowever I will try to explain all that as far as possible \u2014
\nin principle only of course \u2014  as far as it can be explained to the
\nphysical mind which has not yet any notion of what the supramental is. For the
\nrest, I will try to meet the points you make. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n14 November 1933
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAs the moment of the possibility of the
\n\t\t\tsupramental Descent grows nearer, these forces have become more
\n\t\t\teager to keep hold on the Asram atmosphere and break the sadhana of
\n\t\t\tanyone they can touch. Their main aim is to get as many as possible
\n\t\t\tto leave the Asram so that they may not share in the descent and so
\n\t\t\tthat the descent itself may be delayed and disturbed by a constant
\n\t\t\ttempest in the atmosphere. That is why I put the notice5 suggesting
\n\t\t\tthat the sadhaks should not admit these forces and need not. To be
\n\t\t\ton guard and admit no violent and irrational movements, to be calm
\n\t\t\tand insistent in faith and self-opening to us is all that is needed.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n15 November 1933 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n1934<\/b>
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIs there any occult significance of yesterday’s
\n\t\t\tdate \u2014  the succession 1-2-34? The next date in this series
\n\t\t\twill come in 11 years: 2-3-45. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t1.2.34. It is supposed to be always a year of
\n\tmanifestation. 2.3.45 is the year of power \u2014  when the thing manifested
\n\tgets full force. 4.5.67 is the year of complete realisation.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n2 February 1934 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n5 The letter of 8 November 1933 on page 639 was posted on the
\nAshram notice board.<\/i>
\n\u2014  Ed.<\/i>  
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>327<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

It is true that there is an increasingly powerful descent of
\nthe Higher Force. Many now see the lights and colours around the Mother and her
\nsubtle luminous forms \u2014  it means that their vision is opening to
\nsupraphysical realities, it is not a phantasy. The colours or lights you see are
\nforces from various planes and each colour indicates a special force.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe supramental Force is descending, but it has not yet taken
\npossession of the body or of matter \u2014  there is still much resistance to
\nthat. It is a supramentalised Overmind Force that has already touched and this
\nmay at any time change into or give place to the Supramental in its own native
\npower. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n14 September 1934
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI dreamed that I was at the Pranam ceremony this
\n\t\t\tmorning and at the time of making the usual obeisance to the Mother
\n\t\t\tI offered her some flowers which she took in her hands. At that time
\n\t\t\tshe broke her customary silence and spoke to me some words of advice
\n\t\t\tand encouragement, the purport of which was that I should stay here
\n\t\t\tuntil a certain event which was to come after a few days (she
\n\t\t\tmentioned the event but I do not remember what it was), about when I
\n\t\t\tmight return home and that even though I would not be living in the
\n\t\t\tAsram, the progress of my sadhana would be assured. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThere is indeed something preparing to descend and the
\n\tdream was probably a suggestion to you to stay so as to receive its touch
\n\tafter which your sadhana could proceed at home without difficulty, as there
\n\twould be Something else within you doing the sadhana with your constant
\n\tassent as the one necessity. The only difficulty in the way of health is a
\n\tcertain obscurity in the body consciousness itself which makes it consent
\n\treadily to habitual touches of the force that makes for illness; otherwise
\n\tif the body consciousness as well as the mind and vital were open any
\n\tillness that came would immediately be dissipated. Keep a quiet and steady
\n\twill for the opening of the consciousness and the union and do not allow
\n\tdepression or any idea of frustration. Keep also a concentrated call in the
\n\theart. With those two things the result is sure. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n18 September 1934
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>328<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tX <\/span> <\/i>told me that
\n\t\t\tthis is the year of the manifestation of the Purushottama, Sri
\n\t\t\tAurobindo.6 Also that the Supramental Force is just now coming down.
\n\t\t\tI feel my previous dream of darshan of Sri Aurobindo in a motor car
\n\t\t\tand another dream of Sri Aurobindo signify this manifestation and
\n\t\t\tthe coming down of the Force before long. Am I right?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe motor car by itself only means a rapid progress. It
\n\tis true that the Supramental Force is preparing its descent.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n20 September 1934 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tX <\/span> <\/i>speaks in very
\n\t\t\tdefinite terms about this descent that has already come so close. He
\n\t\t\tsays it will bring about the final change. Is what he says true? If
\n\t\t\tso, why am I still ignorant of it?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIt would not necessarily be known by everybody
\n\tbeforehand. Besides even if the descent were here one would have to be ready
\n\tbefore one could get the final change. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n14 October 1934
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIt feels as if the Pure Existence is descending
\n\t\t\tinto the being. I can feel it manifesting \u2014  but then something
\n\t\t\tasks how this can be possible, for the vital and the physical are
\n\t\t\tnot yet filled with it. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Pure Existence is not something abstract but
\n\tsubstantial and concrete. Moreover it is descending into the body, so it is
\n\tquite natural to feel it materially.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n16 October 1934 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI do not know who was X<\/i>‘s informant, but
\n\t\t\tcertainly the Mother never said to anybody that the Supermind was to
\n\t\t\tdescend on the 24th November. Dates cannot be fixed like that. The
\n\t\t\tdescent of the supermind is a long process or at least a process
\n\t\t\twith a long preparation and one can only say that the work is going
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n6 The person referred to here as
\n<\/i>X was the recipient of the letter of 2 February 1934,<\/i>
\npublished on page 327. \u2014  Ed<\/i>  
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>329<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

on sometimes with a strong pressure for completion, sometimes
\nretarded by the things that rise from below and have to be dealt with before
\nfarther progress can be made. The process is a (spiritual) evolutionary process
\nconcentrated into a brief period \u2014  it could be done otherwise (by what men
\nwould regard as a miraculous intervention) only if the human mind were more
\nflexible and less attached to its ignorance than it is. As we envisage it, it
\nmust manifest in a few first and then spread, but it is not likely to sweep over
\nthe earth in a moment. It is not advisable to discuss too much what it will do
\nand how it will do it, because these are things the Supermind itself will fix,
\nacting out of that Divine Truth in it, and the mind must not try to fix for it
\ngrooves in which it will run. Naturally, the release from subconscient ignorance
\nand from disease, duration of life at will, and a change in the functioning of
\nthe body must be among the ultimate results of a supramental change; but the
\ndetails of these things must be left for the supramental Energy to work out
\naccording to the truth of its own nature.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n18 October 1934 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhen I wrote in my letter about the supermind and
\n\t\t\tthe obstinate resistance,7<\/font><\/sup> I spoke
\n\t\t\tof course of something I had already spoken of before. I did not
\n\t\t\tmean that the resistance was of an unexpected character or had
\n\t\t\taltered anything essential. But in its nature the descent is not
\n\t\t\tsomething arbitrary and miraculous, but a rapid evolutionary process
\n\t\t\tcompressed into a few years which proceeds by taking up the present
\n\t\t\tnature into its Light and pouring its Truth into the inferior
\n\t\t\tplanes. That cannot be done in the whole world at a time, but is
\n\t\t\tdone like all such processes first through selected Adharas and then
\n\t\t\ton a wider scale. We have to do it through ourselves first and
\n\t\t\tthrough the circle of sadhakas gathered around us in the terrestrial
\n\t\t\tconsciousness as typified here. If a few open, that is sufficient
\n\t\t\tfor the process to be possible. On the other hand if there is a
\n\t\t\tgeneral misunderstanding and resistance (not in all, but in many),
\n\t\t\tthat makes it difficult and <\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n7 See the letter of 17 October 1934 on pages 44 \u00ad 45. \u2014 
\nEd.<\/i>  
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>330<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nthe process more laborious, but it does not make it
\nimpossible. I was not suggesting that it has become impossible, but that if the
\ncircumstances are made unfavourable by our being unable to concentrate enough on
\nthis thing of capital importance and having too much work to do of an irrelevant
\nkind, the descent was likely to take longer than it would do otherwise.
\nCertainly, when the supramental does touch earth with a sufficient force to dig
\nitself in into the earth consciousness, there will be no more chance of any
\nsuccess or survival for the Asuric Maya.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe rest that I spoke of about the human and the divine had
\nto do with the intermediate period between before it is down. What I meant was
\nthat if the Mother were able to bring out the Divine Personalities and Powers
\ninto her body and physical being, as she was doing for several months without
\nbreak some years ago, the brightest period in the history of the Asram, things
\nwould be much more easy and all these dangerous attacks that now take place
\nwould be dealt with rapidly and would in fact be impossible. In those days when
\nthe Mother was either receiving the sadhaks for meditation or otherwise working
\nand concentrating all night and day without sleep and very irregular food, there
\nwas no ill-health and no fatigue in her and things were proceeding with a
\nlightning swiftness. The power used was not that of the Supermind, but of the
\nOvermind, but it was sufficient for what was being done. Afterwards because the
\nlower vital and the physical of the sadhaks could not follow, the Mother had to
\npush the Divine Personalities and Powers through which she was doing the action
\nbehind a veil and come down into the physical human level and act according to
\nits conditions and that meant difficulty, struggle, illness, ignorance and
\ninertia. All has been for long slow, difficult, almost sterile in appearance.
\nNevertheless our work was going on behind that appearance and now it is again
\nbecoming possible to go forward. But for the advance to be anything like general
\nor swift in its process, the attitude of the sadhaks, not of a few only, must
\nchange. They must cling less to the conditions and feelings of the external
\nphysical consciousness and open themselves to the true consciousness of the
\nYogin and sadhaka. If they did that,   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>331<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

the inner eye would open and they would not be bewildered or
\nalarmed if the Mother again manifested externally something of the Divine
\nPersonalities and Powers as she did before. They would not be asking her to be
\nalways on their level, but would be glad to be drawn swiftly or gradually up
\ntowards hers. The difficulties would be ten times less and a larger easier
\nsecurer movement possible.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThis was what I meant and I suppose I manifested some
\nimpatience at the slowness of so many to realise what is after all a logical
\nconclusion from the very principle of our Yoga which is that of a
\ntransformation, all that is disharmonious in human nature being enlightened out
\nof existence, all that makes for harmony being changed into its divine
\nequivalent, purer, greater, nobler, more beautiful and much being added which
\nhas been lacking to the human evolution. I meant that things could move more
\nswiftly towards this if the sadhaks had a less ignorant attitude, but if they
\ncould not yet reach that, we had of course to go on anyhow until the supramental
\ndescent came down to the material level.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nFinally, you must get rid of this gratuitous tendency to
\ndespair. The difficulty for you has been created by the indulgence given to this
\nformation I speak of; that finally dismissed, the difficulty would disappear.
\nProgress might be slow at first, but progress would come; it would quicken
\nafterwards and, with the supramental force here, there would be for you as for
\nothers the full speed and certitude.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n18 October 1934 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI was reading a book about the Great War, which I
\n\t\t\tfound interesting. I hope you don’t mind if I read such books. Do
\n\t\t\tnot punish me for that. I mean, there seems to be a counterpart of
\n\t\t\tpunishment in the supramental, a withdrawing of its protection or
\n\t\t\thelp which results in attacks, depressions, illnesses, etc.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tBut it is not the supramental that is acting at present \u2014 
\n\tthe supra mental won’t act until it is rooted and established in Matter. If
\n\tit were the supramental, you would not be having these difficulties. It is
\n\tat most the cosmic Overmind that is able to act now, but  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>332<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\neven there there is no idea of punishment; it is a play of
\nforces and when the force of the physical consciousness becomes too prominent it
\nacts according to its dharma and the other forces are covered over for the time.
\nOur own force acts in this play of forces to help the sadhak through till he
\ngets himself into the silence within and the cosmic consciousness as a whole
\nwith the Higher Force action to regulate and harmonise the progress \u2014 
\nafter which it is plainer sailing. There can be no question of our withdrawing
\nprotection and help. As for your reading these books, we have no objection at
\nall, so long as you feel the need of it. When the inner life becomes more active
\nagain, you can either drop them again or make all mental activity a part of the
\nsadhana according to your condition and inner impulse at the time.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n25 October 1934 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI have felt bound to explain so much [about
\n\t\t\tthe behaviour of<\/i> certain sadhaks<\/i>] though I would have
\n\t\t\tpreferred not to write about these things. I do hope you will throw
\n\t\t\tall that behind you. I feel a great longing that the sadhaks should
\n\t\t\tbe free of all that. For so long as the present state of things
\n\t\t\tcontinues with fires of this kind raging all around and the
\n\t\t\tatmosphere in a turmoil, the work I am trying to do, certainly not
\n\t\t\tfor my own sake or for any personal reason, will always remain under
\n\t\t\tthe stroke of jeopardy and I do not know how the descent I am
\n\t\t\tlabouring for is to fulfil itself. In fact, the Mother and I have to
\n\t\t\tgive nine tenths of our energy to smoothing down things, to keeping
\n\t\t\tthe sadhaks tolerably contented etc. etc. etc. One-tenth and in the
\n\t\t\tMother’s case not even that can alone go to the real work; it is not
\n\t\t\tenough. It is not surprising either that you should feel it
\n\t\t\tdifficult to get on in all this. But then why not push these things
\n\t\t\taway from you and keep a clear field in you for the Divine? That, if
\n\t\t\teverybody, or even a sufficient number could do it, would be the
\n\t\t\tgreatest help I could receive.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n26 October 1934 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>333<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

I have already spoken about the bad condition of the world;
\nthe usual idea of the occultists about it is that the worse they are, the more
\nis probable the coming of an intervention or a new revelation from above. The
\nordinary mind cannot know \u2014 it has either to believe or disbelieve or wait and
\nsee.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nAs to whether the Divine seriously means something to hap
\npen, I believe it is intended. I know with absolute certitude that the
\nsupramental is a truth and that its advent is in the very nature of things
\ninevitable. The question is as to the when and the how. That also is decided and
\npredestined from somewhere above; but it is here being fought out amid a rather
\ngrim clash of conflicting forces. For in the terrestrial world the predetermined
\nresult is hidden and what we see is a whirl of possibilities and forces
\nattempting to achieve something with the destiny of it all concealed from human
\neyes. This is however certain that a number of souls have been sent to see that
\nit shall be now. That is the situation. My faith and will are for the now. I am
\nspeaking of course on the level of the human intelligence \u2014  mystically
\nrationally, as one might put it. To say more would be going beyond that line.
\nYou don’t want me to start prophesying, I suppose? As a rationalist, you can’t. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n25 December 1934
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhat did you imply when you wrote to me that I
\n\t\t\twas in the physical consciousness? Did you mean that I am living
\n\t\t\tlike an animal or vegetating like a plant and did you suggest that I
\n\t\t\tshould come out of the physical consciousness and live on the mental
\n\t\t\tlevel?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI am myself living in the physical consciousness and have
\n\tbeen for several years. At first it was a plunge into the physical \u2014 into
\n\tall its obscurity and inertia, afterwards it was a station in the physical
\n\topen to a higher and higher consciousness and slowly having fought out in it
\n\tthe struggle of transformation of the physical consciousness with a view to
\n\tprepare it for the supramental change.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nIt is possible to go back to the mental level where one
\nreceives all the mental realisations readily enough if the mind is  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>334<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nopen and bright. But it is not the course that the sadhana
\nusually follows.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n29 December 1934 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhen the sadhana is going on in the physical
\n\t\t\tplane, is it necessary for all the sadhaks to come down into the
\n\t\t\tphysical consciousness, or only those who have much inertia and
\n\t\t\timpurity in them, as in my case?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIt is a little difficult to say whether all have to come
\n\tdown totally into the physical. The Mother and I had to do it because the
\n\twork could not be otherwise done. We had tried to do it from above through
\n\tthe mind and higher vital, but it could not be because the sadhaks were not
\n\tready to follow \u2014  their lower vital and physical refused to share in
\n\twhat was coming down or else misused it and became full of exaggerated and
\n\tviolent reactions. Since then the sadhana as a whole has come down along
\n\twith us into the physical consciousness. Many have followed \u2014  some
\n\tunluckily without sufficient preparation in the mind and vital, some holding
\n\ton to the vital and mind and living still between the three, some totally
\n\tbut with a prepared mind and vital. The total descent into the physical is a
\n\tvery troublesome affair \u2014  it means a long and trying period of
\n\tdifficulty, for the physical is normally obscure, inert, impervious to the
\n\tLight. It is a thing of habits, very largely a slave of the subconscient and
\n\tits mechanical reactions. It is less open to violent attacks than the vital
\n\texcept in the way of illness and some other movements, but it is dull and
\n\tdreary to have these \u2014  until the Light, the Peace, the Power, the Joy
\n\tcan come down from above and fix themselves. We would have preferred to do
\n\tall the hard work ourselves there and called others down only when an easier
\n\tmovement was established, but it did not prove possible.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nI don’t think it has anything to do with impurity. Only you
\ncame down a little too soon. At the moment it happened, the peace and silence of
\nthe Atman and the movement upward to realisation of the Self above the head in
\nthe higher consciousness were about to establish themselves. If that had been
\ndone first, it would have been less difficult. It means a great struggle  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>335<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

against the inertia to get these things done \u2014  but you
\nhave only to persevere and done they will surely be. Then things will be much
\nmore easy for you. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n31 December 1934
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n1935
\n<\/b> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tAfter November the push for descent stopped and the
\n\tresistance of material Nature arose \u2014  that is always a sign of
\n\tsomething that has still to be conquered before the descent can be complete.
\n\tIn the silence the necessary preparation is being done. No doubt, I expect
\n\tsomething to be done by the 21st, but I say nothing because I do not want to
\n\traise the buzz again \u2014  it is not good for the realisation that there
\n\tshould be any buzz about it.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n2 February 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI hear you are having a tough fight with the
\n\t\t\tforces.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tVery beastly \u2014  these forces. One can’t advance a
\n\tsingle step without their throwing their shells and stink-bombs. However
\n\tlike General Joffre, I advance. "<\/span>Nous progress\u00e2mes<\/span>."
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n1 March 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis [February] darshan day was not so marvellous
\n\t\t\tas November and I thought that during the interval I had not made
\n\t\t\tmuch progress.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe period since November has been a general period of
\n\tdifficulty and the resistance of the physical Nature to the change demanded
\n\tof it. That is the reason why there was not the same movement as before
\n\tNovember in you, \u2014  it is not due to any cause personal to you. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n11 March 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhy so many illnesses all of a sudden? Is the
\n\t\t\tsupramental too near? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tNo, it is the material which has become too uppish.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>336<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tPeople are saying that the supramental has come
\n\t\t\tdown into the physical, evidenced by greater peace and calm. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tInto whose physical? I shall be very glad to know \u2014 
\n\tfor I myself have not got so far, otherwise I would not have a queasy eye.
\n\tBut if you know anybody who has got it (the Supramental in the physical, not
\n\tthe eye) tell me like a shot. I will acclaim him "Grand First Supramental"
\n\tat once.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n17 March 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIt seems to take a lot more effort to free myself
\n\t\t\tfrom sexual and other problems now than ever before. Even in the
\n\t\t\tvery beginning it was easier for me. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe greater difficulty is because the sadhana is now
\n\ttaking place directly on the physical plane, where the force of a habit or
\n\thabitual movement once formed is very great. When the sadhana is taking
\n\tplace on the mental or vital plane, it is more easy to control or change,
\n\tbecause the mind and vital are more plastic than the physical. But on the
\n\tother hand if something is definitely gained on the physical plane, there is
\n\ta more lasting and complete fulfilment than when it is on the mental or
\n\tvital alone.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n19 March 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhat does supramentalisation mean exactly? We
\n\t\t\tknow by your own statements that you have achieved that. Is it then
\n\t\t\tsupramentalisation in parts? You want transformation of everything \u2014 
\n\t\t\tmental to physical?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tAchieved what? What statement? What are these wild
\n\tassertions? I spoke of an overmind Force which is getting supramentalised in
\n\tparts.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDoes it mean that some parts of your being are
\n\t\t\tsupramental but that the physical is not yet supramentalised? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tOvermind in process of supramentalisation, not
\n\tsupramental.   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>337<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\nHow can it be possible \u2014  realisation in parts \u2014 
\nin your case?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tWhy not? Always the idea that there must be an
\n\tinstantaneous absolute miracle or else nothing! What about process in
\n\tthings? You are ignorant of all that is between supreme Spirit and matter,
\n\tit seems. You know nothing of the occult processes of mind, life and all the
\n\trest \u2014  so you can think only of miraculous divinity or else law of
\n\tmatter as known to Science. But for supramental Spirit to work itself out in
\n\tmatter it must go through a process of transforming the immediate mental,
\n\tvital and other connections, must it not \u2014  so why should not the
\n\tprocess be in parts? Immortality also can come by parts. First the mental
\n\tbeing becomes immortal (not shed and dissolved after death), then the vital,
\n\twhile the physical comes only last. That is a possible evolution, recognised
\n\tby occult science.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n27 March 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAbove all, you have the direct Intuition to fall
\n\t\t\tback upon.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI haven’t \u2014  not just now at any rate. I am too busy
\n\thandling the confounded difficulties of Matter. The material is subconscious
\n\tand I would have to be subconscious myself to get its true intuition. I
\n\tprefer to wait for the supramental.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n4 April 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe way you are hammering the supramental on us
\n\t\t\tin every thing, every problem, every difficulty, as the solution to
\n\t\t\tall riddles, panacea for all ills, one almost thinks that its
\n\t\t\tdescent will make all of us "big people" overnight. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tMy insistence on the supramental is of course
\n\tapo-diaskeptic. Don’t search for the word in the dictionary. I am simply
\n\timitating the doctors who when they are in a hole protect themselves with
\n\timpossible Greek. Peace, supramental if possible, but peace anyhow \u2014  a
\n\tpeace which will become supramental if it has a chance. The atmosphere is
\n\tmost confoundedly disturbed, that is why I am ingeminating "peace, peace,
\n\tpeace!" like a summer dove or an intellectual under the rule of Hitler. Of
\n\tcourse, I am not asking you to become supramental offhand. That is my   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>338<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nbusiness, and I will do it if you fellows give me a chance,
\nwhich you are not doing just now (you is not personal, but collective and
\nindefinite) and will do less if you go blummering into buzzific intensities.
\n(Please
\ndon’t <\/i>consult the dictionary, but look into the writings of Joyce and
\nothers.) <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n9 April 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIt is you who will bring down the Supramental but
\n\t\t\tmy question was whether that descent is quite independent of the
\n\t\t\tconditions of the sadhaks; whether our impurities, turmoil, crowings
\n\t\t\tfor "buzzific intensities", our social talks, social dinners now and
\n\t\t\tthen are going to stand in the way or whether it will come anyhow. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI presume it will come anyhow, but it is badly delayed
\n\tbecause, if I am all the time occupied with dramas, hysterics, tragi-comic
\n\tcorrespondence (quarrels, chronicles, lamentations), how can I have time for
\n\tthis \u2014  the only real work, the one thing needful? It is not one or
\n\ttwo, but twenty dramas that are going on.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n11 April 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPeople say that it will be one century, if not
\n\t\t\tmore, before the supramental descends!
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tOne day, one week, one month, one year, one decade, one
\n\tcentury, one millennium, one light year \u2014  all is possible. Then why do
\n\tpeople choose one century? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n12 April 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIt seems something very striking and luminous has
\n\t\t\thappened today. Have you achieved some great victory? How many
\n\t\t\tmillions of hostile forces have you crushed? At evening meditation
\n\t\t\tthe Mother had an appearance sparkling like gold beams. On other
\n\t\t\tdays she looks tired, tired of the job, and would like to give it up
\n\t\t\tsaying, "Oh, you sadhaks, you are all hopeless!" <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIt would be very natural if Mother felt like that! Never
\n\thas there been such an uprush of mud and brimstone as during the past   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>339<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

few months. However the Caravan goes on and today there was
\nsome promise of better things.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n19 April 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI was surprised to hear that such a bad time was
\n\t\t\thanging over our head. But surely it means that the greater the
\n\t\t\tlight descending, the greater the velocity, the greater the
\n\t\t\tresistance \u2014  law of physics, isn’t it?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIn a certain sense it is true, but it was not inevitable
\n\t\u2014  if the sadhaks had been a less neurotic company, it could have been
\n\tdone quietly. As it is there is the Revolt of the Subconscient.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIn one letter you wrote that you were able to
\n\t\t\tpush on; in another that the hostile forces were out of date [p.
\n\t\t\t639<\/i>]. That was a year ago. When we read this we thought that it
\n\t\t\twould be merry Christmas henceforth. But now I again feel a bit
\n\t\t\tdespondent because you speak of the confounded atmosphere, "the
\n\t\t\tuprush of mud" and the attacks.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhen I said "out of date", I did not mean that
\n\t\t\tthey are not going on, but they ought not to be going on \u2014 
\n\t\t\tthey were only kept up by the sadhaks opening themselves to them and
\n\t\t\tso retaining them in the atmosphere. I thought that was clear from
\n\t\t\twhat I said \u2014  but the sadhaks seem always to put a comfortable
\n\t\t\tinterpretation even on uncomfortable statements.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI have heard that even X
\n<\/i>had a terrible attack recently. He almost left the Asram! Y <\/i>wanted to
\n\t\t\tcommit suicide, and Z <\/i>is in revolt!
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThere are only 2 or 3 in the Asram to whom this word
\n\t"even" would apply. I won’t mention their names less the devil should be
\n\ttempted to try with them also. A solid mind, a solid nervous system and a
\n\tsteady psychic flame seem to be the only safeguard against "terrible
\n\tattacks".
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nAnd all this despite your continuous day and night fight!
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIf such things did not happen, there would be no need of
\n\ta fight  
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>340<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nday and night. You put the thing in an inverse order. (I take
\nno responsibility for the statements you make, of course. They stand on the
\ncredit of the reporters.)
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSince the descent of the Supermind will quicken
\n\t\t\tup all the processes, why not take an axe of retrenchment . . . <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tHow? I am not Hitler.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tand cut off all impeding elements ruthlessly so
\n\t\t\tthat among a very few chosen disciples, the whole work may go on
\n\t\t\tmost concentratedly and rapidly? When the miracle is achieved, all
\n\t\t\tof us will flock back and achieve everything as by a miracle!
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThings cannot be done like that. You might just as well
\n\task the Mother and myself to isolate ourselves in the Himalayas, get down
\n\tthe supramental, then toss everybody up in a blanket into the Supreme. Very
\n\tneat but it is not practical.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n20 April 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\nSince yesterday evening there has been a strong uprising of
\nthe subconscient inertia.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe subconscient difficulty is the <\/i>difficulty now
\n\t\u2014  because the whole struggle in the general sadhana is now there. It
\n\tis in the subconscient, no longer in the vital or conscious physical that
\n\tthe resistance is all massed together.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n30 April 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBetween last November and February I suffered a
\n\t\t\tgood deal on account of my emotional and vital defect. Now the chief
\n\t\t\tdifficulty is in the gross physical \u2014  weakness, pain, lethargy
\n\t\t\tand sicknesses.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe main difficulty in the general sadhana also is now in
\n\tthe physical. From November last there has been much struggle and
\n\tobstruction on the most physical plane \u2014  the material consciousness.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n7 May 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>341<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\nIt seems another victory has been won by you? Some people saw
\na red-crimson light around the Mother a few days back. What does it signify? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t??? Great Heavens! which? who? But there is nothing new
\n\tin that. It was coming down before Nov. 24, but afterwards all the damned
\n\tmud arose and it stopped. But there are two red crimson lights. One is
\n\tsupramental Divine Love. The other is the supramental physical Force.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n14 May 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIt seems to me that my sadhana has come to a
\n\t\t\tstandstill. Is it because of the physical
\ntamas<\/i>?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIt is probable that you have come in contact with a new
\n\tlayer of the physical consciousness which is more material than the rest,
\n\tperhaps with the subconscient itself (it is with the subconscient that the
\n\tsadhana is now concerned in the Asram itself). The first result is the
\n\tpurely negative or stand-still condition you describe. You have to call down
\n\tthe Force and the Light here, so that this too may become a part of the
\n\tDivine Consciousness. If it is the subconscient, then you must be on your
\n\tguard against all negative feelings such as the sense that all is gone, or
\n\tthe uselessness of life or the frustration or uselessness of sadhana,
\n\thelplessness, incapacity etc. These things come naturally to one who does
\n\tnot understand. But they are false appearances. Remaining quiet and keeping
\n\tthe faith that there is the Divine Guidance behind, one has to do what is
\n\tneeded till the phase is over.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n27 May 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWe hear you are tremendously busy; hot
\n\t\t\tspeculations are in the air about near descents.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tNo, thank you, sir! I have had enough of them \u2014  the
\n\tonly result of the last descent was an upsurging of subconscient mud.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nIn the upshot many crashes and shipwrecks are apprehended.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tWhat an appetite for crashes!  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>342<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nPlease tell us something so that we may prepare ourselves in
\ntime to bear the pressure of the descent.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tNo pressure! I am simply busy trying to get out of the
\n\tmud \u2014  in other words to see if the damned subconscient can be
\n\tpersuaded to subside into something less dangerous, less complexful and more
\n\tmanageable.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n27 May 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA number of people have left recently. Is it
\n\t\t\t"sifting", or is it the "pressure"? But does the pressure work to
\n\t\t\toust people, or is it a corresponding pressure from other forces
\n\t\t\twhich makes them go?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe "Pressure" from above does not work to send people
\n\taway \u2014  it is the pressure of the wrong forces. As for sifting, that is
\n\tan idea which is very widespread; \u2014  but what is meant by sifting? Were
\n\tthe people who have gone out the most unfit for Yoga and are those who
\n\tremain the ones fit for Yoga \u2014  is that the idea? I don’t think anybody
\n\tcould make the facts work out to mean that. Then what is the idea? It is
\n\ttrue that this has been a very difficult time, but that is only because the
\n\tsadhana has proceeded by a de scent into a lower and lower plane where the
\n\tforces of Darkness are more and more at home, and it is now in the
\n\tsubconscient where lies the root of all the difficulties. But on the other
\n\thand the Power descending also is greater. If many people have gone and many
\n\tare having great difficulties, also many have opened to experience and
\n\tprogress who were stagnant for years together. There is a loss account but a
\n\tgain account also. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n8 June 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThey say that you are now handling the lower
\n\t\t\tvital and so the general trouble. True? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tSubconscient vital physical \u2014  the lower vital is
\n\tirrational, but not so utterly "without reason" as that. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n8 July 1935
\n<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>343<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\n\t\t\tSome time back you wrote to me: “Never has there been such an uprush of mud and brimstone as during the past few
\nmonths. However the Caravan goes on and today there was some promise of better things.”8<\/font><\/sup> What about the uprush of
\nmud? Has it settled down, and are people now floating in the flood of the Supramental?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIt is still there, but personally I have become superior to it and am travelling forward like a flash of lightning, that is to say, zigzag,
\nbut fairly fast. Now I have got the hang of the whole hanged thing \u2014  like a very Einstein I have got the mathematical formula
\nof the whole affair (unintelligible as in his case to anybody but myself) and am working it out figure by figure.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nAs for people, no! they are not floating in the supramental \u2014  some are floating in the higher mind, others rushing up into
\nit and flopping down into the subconscient alternately, some swinging from heaven into hell and back into heaven, again
\nback into hell ad infinitum, some are sticking fast contentedly or discontentedly in the mud, some are sitting in the mud and
\ndreaming dreams and seeing visions, some have their legs in the mud and their head in the heavens, etc. etc., an infinity
\nof combinations, while many are simply nowhere. But console yourself \u2014  these things, it seems, are inevitable in the process of
\ngreat transformations. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n16 August 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYou say, “I have become superior to it and am travelling for
\nward . . . fast,” but you have been always superior and always travelling fast all your life.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t[Underlining “always superior and always travelling fast”:<\/i>]
\n\tRubbish<\/u>!
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nHow is it going to affect us? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIf my being able to solve the problem of the subconscient in
\nthe sadhana is of no importance, then of course it won’t affect anybody. Otherwise it may.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n8 See the letter of 19 April 1935 on pages 339 \u00ad 40. \u2014  Ed.<\/i>  
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>344<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nFrom the condition of the people you enumerate, there is not much hope left nor does it show that your travelling fast has
\nspeeded them up. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThat is of no importance at present. To get the closed doors
\nopen is just now the thing to be done and I am doing it. Speeding people through them can come in its own time when the doors
\nand the people are ready.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhat is the mathematical formula that you have all of a
\nsudden found out? Let us have it in a tangible form, if possible. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI told you it was unintelligible to anybody but myself, so how
\nthe deuce do you expect me to give it to you in a tangible form? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n17 August 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI beg to be pardoned for one thing. Today I mentioned to
\nsomebody what you said about yourself that you are travelling fast. Has it been a great mistake to let it out? Is it absolutely
\nprivate? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tNo \u2014  only you must not tell it to too many people. It is only
\nbecause I don’t want speculation or gossip about such things as that spoils the atmosphere.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n20 August 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe darshan atmosphere and its influence seem to be waning away so soon! Old friends or foes are stepping in.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThere is always an adverse movement after the darshan, the
\n\t<\/span> revanche<\/span> <\/span> <\/i>
\n\tof the lower forces. I had a stoppage myself, but I am
\noff again riding on the back of my Einsteinian formula. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n23 August 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDo tell me please if you are getting anything solid from this
\nnebulous supramental. X<\/i>9<\/font><\/sup> tells me you have scaled and winged
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n9 The recipient of the letters of July and August 1935 on pages 343 \u00ad 45.
\n\u2014  Ed.<\/i>
\n  
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>345<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\nlike lightning on its pinions. Have you really? Was it something like motion on a sort of marvellous Calm which seems
\nlike<\/i>
\nmotion through some supramental jugglery of consciousness? Some enlightenment on this bewildering problem would be
\nhighly edifying even to the mentals and humans, you may be sure. Also, Y
\n<\/i>has to be gagged somehow. He talks of nothing
\nbut the supramental. And what am I to answer? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tYou have created your own “bewildering problem” by supplying
\nyour own data! There is nothing nebulous about the supramental, its action depends on the utmost precision possible. As for
\nsolidity, since I have got many solid things from much lower forces, I do not see why the highest ones should only give nebulosities. But that seems the human mind’s position, only what is earthy is solid, what is high is misty and unreal
\n\u2014  the worm is
\na reality, but the eagle is a vapour! <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nHowever, I have not told X <\/i>that I am scaling and winging
\n\u2014  on the contrary I am dealing with very hard practical facts. I only told him I had got the formula of solution for the difficulty
\nthat had been holding me up since last November and I am working it out.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nTo return to the supramental \u2014  the supramental is simply the direct self-existent Truth-Consciousness and the direct self
\neffective Truth-Power. There can therefore be no question of jugglery about it. What is not true is not supramental. As for
\ncalm and silence, there is no need of the supramental to get that. One can get it even on the level of Higher Mind which is the next
\nabove the human intelligence. I got these things in 1908, twenty-seven years ago and I can assure you they were solid enough
\nand marvellous enough without any need of supramentality to make it more so! Again, a calm that “seems like motion” is a
\nphenomenon of which I know nothing. A calm or silence which can support or produce action
\n\u2014  that I know and that is what
\nI have had \u2014  the proof is that out of an absolute silence of the mind I edited the
\nBande Mataram <\/i>for four months and wrote 61
\n\u00ad 2
\nvolumes of the Arya<\/i>, not to speak of all the letters and messages etc. etc. I have written since. If you say that writing is not an
\naction or motion but only something that seems like it, a jugglery  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>346<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nof the consciousness, \u2014  well, still out of that calm and silence I conducted a pretty strenuous political activity and have also
\ntaken my share in keeping up an Asram which has at least an appearance to the physical senses of being solid and material!
\nIf you deny that these things are material or solid (which of course metaphysically you can), then you land yourself plump
\ninto Shankara’s illusionism, and there I will leave you.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nYou will say however that it is not the Supramental but
\nat most the Overmind that helped me to these non-nebulous motions. But the Supermind is by definition a greater dynamic
\nactivity than mind or Overmind. I have said that what is not true is not supramental; I will add that what is ineffective is not
\nsupramental. And finally I will conclude by saying that I have not told X
\n<\/i>that I have taken possession of the supramental \u2014  I
\nonly admit to be very near to it or at least to its tail. But “very near” is \u2014  well, after all a relative phrase like all human phrases.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nI don’t know how you are to “gag” Y<\/i>. You might perhaps try my two formulas, but it is doubtful. Or perhaps you might tell
\nhim that the supramental is silence \u2014  only, it would be untrue! So I leave you in your fix
\n\u2014  there is no other go. At least until
\nI have firm physical hold of the tail of the supramental and can come and tell the mentals and humans
\n\u2014  no doubt in language
\nwhich will be unintelligible to them, for they have totally misunderstood even the little I have already written about it.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n23 August 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAre there many sadhaks here who are under the same spell of inertia as I?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tYes \u2014  it is a natural result of the consciousness’s descent into the physical and the struggle with the subconscient resistance.
\nOnly its form varies with different people. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n4 September 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHow curious it is that something prevents my ascension. For
\neverything in the lower nature can best be dealt with from above. So why does it hinder my ascent?
\n   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>347<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

It happened in the same way with myself. I had to come down into the physical to deal with it instead of keeping the station
\nalways above. Of course if you can keep the station above so much the better, but as almost everybody is down in the physical,
\nit is a little difficult perhaps. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n5  September 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA suggestion has come to me that you are working directly
\nwith the supramental power. That is why the resistance is so stormy and the attacks so violent. Is this true?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI suppose so. Only that must not be accepted as a reason for passive acquiescence.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n7 September 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

\nWhen will our difficulties be over? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThat cannot be said. The difficulties are not likely to cease until
\nthe material resistance has been entirely conquered in principle. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n11 September 1935<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tX <\/span> <\/i>has made the following remark: “The present preparation
\nis going on to bring down the Supermind into the physical of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.” Is it correct?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t[Sri Aurobindo bracketed “The present preparation is going on<\/i> to bring down the Supermind into the physical”, and wrote:<\/i>]
\nNot quite correct in all points. The things to be brought down were in us no doubt
\n\u2014  but not all outwardly manifested, from
\nthe beginning. Of course X<\/i>‘s statement is altogether true only as far as the bracket goes.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n14 September 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhen you wrote “as far as the bracket goes”, did you not notice that you cut off the last part of
\nX<\/i>‘s statement?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tYes, of course. What is being done is meant to prepare the manifestation of the supermind in the earth consciousness down
\n  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>3<\/font>48<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nto Matter itself, so it can’t be for the physical of myself or the Mother alone.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMost of us know that the Supermind will be brought down into “the physical”. But what
\nX <\/i>means is that the present
\npreparation is going on to bring down the Supermind not into our physical but into yours and the Mother’s.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIf it comes down into our physical it would mean that it has come down into matter and so there is no reason why it should
\nnot manifest in the sadhaks.
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tX <\/span> <\/i>says further: “The Supermind will not descend into any of
\nthe sadhaks. I have read in the Arya <\/i>about the nature of the Supermind. It is so great that no human being can bear it in
\nitself.” <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI do not know to what passage of the Arya <\/i>the reference
\nis. It is certain that the Supermind is far above the human mind and cannot be grasped by the human mind. That is
\nthe reason why this Yoga has to be undertaken \u2014  so as to make man grow out of the human mind and prepare him for
\nsupermind.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFor myself all I have to say is that if you were not already
\nsupramentalised you would never have called yourself a superman.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI don’t know that I have “called” myself a superman. But certainly I have risen above the ordinary human mind, otherwise I
\nwould not think of trying to bring down the supermind into the physical.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI refuse to accept what you wrote yesterday: "The things to be brought down were in us no doubt” [p. 348<\/i>]. Those things
\nwere not only in you <\/i>but were created by you<\/i>. If you put it like that it can only be because of the conditions of the earth
\nnature. From the point of view of the supramental truth, you are the creator of the supramental plane.
\n   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>349<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

That is another matter. The supermind plane is a plane above, its nature is not yet manifested in the material world, which
\nhas manifested matter, life and mind, and something of what is between mind and supermind, but not supermind itself.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n15 September 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI don’t think X <\/i>was referring to any particular passage of the Arya<\/i>. But he has the impression that you have said that the
\nsupermind is so far above the human mind that the mind cannot grasp it. So he says that it is impossible for the supermind
\nto come down into a human being. Have you spoken to him about this?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tNo. It was the old idea that human consciousness can reach and merge in the Sun (Supermind)
\n\u2014  by Samadhi, I suppose \u2014  but
\ncannot redescend from there. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n15 September 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYou wrote a few days ago: “The difficulties are not likely to
\ncease until they are conquered in principle” [cf. p. 348<\/i>].10<\/font><\/sup>
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI do not remember having written “in principle” or if so, there
\nmust have been other words also.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA week earlier you wrote: “as almost everybody is down in
\nthe physical, it is a little difficult perhaps” [p. 348<\/i>]. But I was under the impression that some, like
\nX<\/i>, Y <\/i>and Z<\/i>, are always
\non the intuitive plane. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI am not aware that they or anybody lives constantly on the
\nintuitive plane. All are at grips with the difficulties of the physical consciousness at present
\n\u2014  though of course to one like
\nY <\/i>the
\nsuggestion of revolt cannot come \u2014  at least it has never done so up to now.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n16 September 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

\nWhat you wrote [on 11 September<\/i>] was: “The difficulties
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n10 Quoting from memory, the correspondent omitted several words from Sri Aurobindo’s reply of 11 September 1935. \u2014  Ed.<\/i>  
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>350<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nare not likely to cease until the material resistance has been entirely conquered in principle.”
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI see, but that was about another matter altogether. I meant that the difficulties in the physical (generally speaking, not in a particular case) could not be entirely absent so long as the material resistance to the supramental descent had not been overcome in
\nprinciple. In principle means in essence, not in every detail of the coming development.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n17 September 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIt seems to me that a direct Supermind Force is working, and that the lower nature is trying to accommodate itself to it.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tDirect Supermind Force is not possible at this stage. It is only when the whole being down to the physical has accepted and
\nassimilated the higher consciousness that it can come. <\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI understand that the transformation of the lower nature is
\nnot possible without the Supramental Force coming down and preparing the vessel for the complete perfection.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tComplete perfection is another matter. What must first be done is the fullness of the higher consciousness between the mind and
\nsupermind. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n17 September 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhen I wrote recently about a “direct Supermind Force”,
\nI was thinking about something you wrote a week or two ago. When I asked whether the direct Supermind Force was
\nacting in the Asram, you replied, if I remember correctly, “I suppose so, but it should not be an excuse for a passive acquiescence.”11<\/font><\/sup> Also, when I began to feel a powerful, fiery keen force, I took it to be the Supermind.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tActing in the Asram means only acting in the earth consciousness to prepare its own possibility. The forces above the human
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n11 See the question and answer of 7 September 1935 on page 348. Quoting from<\/i>
\nmemory, the correspondent made small but significant errors in his question and in Sri<\/i>
\nAurobindo’s answer. \u2014  Ed.<\/i>  
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>351<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

mind, especially Overmind, Intuition, Illumined Mind can be very intense and fiery. They have divine powers in them.12<\/font><\/sup>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n18 September 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYou wrote that you are “trying to get the supermind down into the material”.13<\/font><\/sup> We understand from this that the ascent
\nhas been done but the descent remains. It is something like our going up to you at Darshan and getting all the bliss, joy,
\nAnanda, and then trying to bring these things down and not lose them as soon as one leaves your room. Also, you say in
\nanother letter that you have seen the supermind and are in contact with it without achieving it, while in your letter to
\nX<\/i>14<\/font><\/sup>
\nyou write that you are very near the tail of the supermind. Sounds funny, no? Contact and no contact.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tBut supposing I reached supermind in that way, then under such conditions would it be probable that I should come down again
\nat the risk of losing it? Do you realise that I went upstairs and have not come down again? So it was better to be in contact
\nwith it until I had made the path clear between S and M. As for the tail, can’t you approach the tail of an animal without
\nachieving the animal? I am in the physical, in matter \u2014  there is no doubt of it. If I throw a rope up from Matter, noose or lasso
\nthe Supermind and pull it down, the first part of Mr. S that will come near me is his tail dangling down as he descends, and that
\nI can seize first and pull down the rest of him by tail-twists. As for being in contact with it, well I can be in contact with you by
\ncorrespondence without actually touching you or taking hold even of your tail,
\ncan’t I? So there is nothing funny about it \u2014
\nperfectly rational, coherent and clear. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n15 September 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYou know we are hanging our hopes and aspirations on the
\ninvisible tail of the supramental. But do tell us how this
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n12 The preceding replies of 4 \u00ad 18 September were written to one correspondent. Those<\/i>
\nof 15 and 18 September that follow were written to another. \u2014  Ed.<\/i>
\n<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n13
\nSee the letter of 29 August 1935 on pages 270 \u00ad 72. \u2014  Ed.<\/i>
\n<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n14 See the letter of 23 August 1935 on pages 345 \u00ad 47. \u2014  Ed.<\/i>  
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>352<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nomnipotent Mr. S will make us great sadhaks overnight. Is he going to burn up all our impurities by his blazing flame as
\nHanuman did Lanka or what? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIf you expect to become supramental overnight, you are confoundedly mistaken. The tail will keep the H.F. [hostile forces<\/i>] at a respectful distance and flap at you until you consent to do
\nthings in a reasonable time instead of taking 200 centuries over each step as you seem to want to do just now. More than that I
\nrefuse to say. What is a reasonable time in the supramental view of things I leave you to discover.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYour Overmental Force seems to have utterly failed in cases of idiots like us. Where then is the chance of this Mr. S which
\nis only one step higher? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tOvermind is obliged to respect the freedom of the individual
\n\u2014  including his freedom to be perverse, stupid, recalcitrant and slow.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nSupermind is not merely a step higher than Overmind \u2014  it is beyond the line, that is a different consciousness and power
\nbeyond the mental limit. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n18 September 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSomeone has told me that at present the Mother and you have
\nstarted to send us down into the depth of the lower nature (for the purpose of transformation). Is it a fact?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tWe are sending nobody nowhere. The sadhana itself has come down into the depth of the physical and subconscient to make
\nthem open to what has to come down from above. That is all.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIs it true that the nearer the supramental descent, the greater
\nthe difficulties of those in whom it is to come down? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIt is true, unless they are so surrendered to the Mother, so psychic, plastic, free from ego that the difficulties are spared to them.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n4 October 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>353<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\nWhy not write something about the Supermind which these people find so difficult to understand?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tWhat’s the use? How much would anybody understand? Besides the present business is to bring down and establish the Super
\nmind, not to explain it. If it establishes itself, it will explain itself \u2014  if it doesn’t, there is no use in explaining it.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nI have said some things about it in past writings, but without success in enlightening anybody. So why repeat the endeavour?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n9 October 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTo X<\/i>‘s comment about “near descents”, you replied: “No, thank you, sir! I have had enough of them
\n\u2014  the only result of
\nthe last descent was an upsurging of subconscient mud.”15<\/font><\/sup> Are our present difficulties, attacks, etc. the result of the descent?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tNot of the descent, but of the resistance to it.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nWhat descent did you mean? The descent of what?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe general descent of the Supermind into Matter was the subject on which I was writing.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n6 November 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYesterday you said that the Supermind descent into Matter is what is being attempted. If that is so, has the Supermind
\nalready conquered the mental plane, the vital plane and the subtle physical plane?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThere can be no conquest of the other planes by the supermind, but only an influence, so long as the physical is not ready. Besides
\nthe Supermind did not attempt \u2014  it is we who are attempting.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUnless the mind and the vital are perfectly prepared how is
\nit possible to bring the Supermind down into the physical or into Matter itself?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n15 See the letter of 27 May 1935 on pages 342 \u00ad 43. \u2014  Ed.<\/i>  
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>354<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nAnd how is it possible to perfect the mind and vital unless the physical is prepared
\n\u2014  for there is such a thing as the mental and
\nvital physical and mind and vital cannot be said to be perfectly prepared until these are ready.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n7 November 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIf the progress of the transformation of the body is so slow that it cannot keep pace with that of the higher parts, it seems
\nthat at any given time it would always be behind the higher parts. For example, when the higher parts are overmentalised
\nthe body would be just beginning to be intuitivised. In the same way, when the higher parts are supramentalised, the
\nphysical consciousness would be just beginning to receive the overmental influence. The body would always be behind un
\nless one stopped at each stage in order to deal with the body at that level, and proceeded only when that work was finished.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThat is hardly possible. The body consciousness is there and cannot be ignored, so that one can neither transform the higher
\nparts completely leaving the body for later dealing nor make each stage complete in all its parts before going to the next. I
\ntried that method but it never worked. A predominant overmentalisation of mind and vital is the first step, for instance, when
\novermentalising, but the body consciousness retains all the lower movements unovermentalised and until these can be pulled up
\nto the overmental standard, there is no overmental perfection, always the body consciousness brings in flaws and limitations.
\nTo perfect the overmind one has to call in the supramental force and it is only when the overmind has been partially supramentalised that the body begins to be more and more overmental. I do not see any way of avoiding this process, though it is what
\nmakes the thing so long. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n18 November 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWell sir, what about your brand new formula?16 How has it
\nworked out? Are you still stuck up in the middle? Judging<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n16 See the letter of 16 August 1935 on page 344.
\n\u2014  Ed.<\/i>
\n  
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>356<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\nfrom my own experience this Darshan [24 November 1935<\/i>], it is hard to say.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tMy formula is working out rapidly, but it has nothing to do with any Darshan descent. It is my private and particular descent, if
\nyou like, and that’s enough for me at present. The tail of the supermind is descending, descending, descending. It is only the
\ntail at present, but where the tail can pass, the rest will follow.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAfter so much expectation everything seemed so quiet. Already
\nit seems as if the Darshan passed away long ago! <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tQuiet was all I wanted \u2014  there were so many alarums and excursions. Just before that it looked as if the 24th would be a day of mud, whirlpools and tempests (in certain quarters of
\ncourse). However all quieted down by magic \u2014  and everything was peaceful, peaceful.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI hope others felt the Force, the Descent. Some say there was a descent; others say no.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tHow do they know either of them? Personal experience? Then it was a personal descent or a personal non-descent. No General
\nde Bono yet.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSome say there was so much resistance that Sri Aurobindo
\ncould not do much in spite of himself. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tDidn’t try, sir, so that’s bosh. The attempt to bring a great general
\ndescent having only produced a great ascent of subconscient mud, I had given up that as I already told you. At present I
\nam only busy with transformation of overmind (down to the subconscient) into supermind; when that is over, I shall see
\nif I can beat everyone with the tail of the supermind or not. At present I am only trying to prevent people from making
\nhysterical subconscient asses of themselves, so that I may not be too much disturbed in my operations
\n\u2014  not yet with too much
\nsuccess. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n25 November 1935
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>356<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nWe are very happy \u2014  I believe it is due to the joy and harmony you have brought down in the atmosphere. Are the Mitra and
\nBhaga powers preparing to come down? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tWell, it is what I am trying to bring down into the Asram atmosphere, for it is the condition for anything effective being collectively done.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n25 November 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe descent of the Silence is not usually associated with sadness, though it does bring a feeling of calm detachment, unconcern
\nand wide emptiness, but in this emptiness there is a sense of ease, freedom, peace. The absorption as if something were drawing
\ndeep from within is evidently the pull of the inmost being, the psychic. There is a psychic sadness often when this inmost soul
\nopens and feels how far the nature and the world are from what they should be, but this is a sweet and quiet sorrow, not
\ndistressing. It must be something in the mind and vital which is not yet awake to what has happened within you and gives this
\ncolour of dissatisfied and distressed seeking.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nYou have certainly made a great progress since you came
\nand there is no reason to fear any setback of the sadhana.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nI don’t think you need attach any value to what
\nX <\/i>professes
\nto think about the supramental. The descent of the supramental is an inevitable necessity in the logic of things and is therefore
\nsure. It is because people do not understand what the supermind is or realise the significance of the emergence of consciousness in
\na world of “inconscient” Matter that they are unable to realise this inevitability. I suppose a matter-of-fact observer if there had
\nbeen one at the time of the unrelieved reign of inanimate Matter in the earth’s beginning would have criticised any promise of the
\nemergence of life in a world of dead earth and rock and mineral as an absurdity and a chimaera; so too afterwards he would have
\nrepeated his mistake and regarded the emergence of thought and reason in an animal world as an absurdity and a chimaera.
\nIt is the same now with the appearance of supermind in the stumbling mentality of this world of human consciousness and
\nits reasoning ignorance. I do not know that the descent depends   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>357<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

on the readiness of the sadhaks of this Asram. It is likely that these things are determined from above rather than from below.
\nThat the descent is preparing and progressing is a fact; it is that which you feel and are justified in feeling.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n1 December 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n1936<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tA certain inertia, tendency to sleep, indolence, unwillingness or inability to be strong for work or spiritual effort for long at
\na time, is in the nature of the human physical consciousness. When one goes down into the physical for its change (that has
\nbeen the general condition here for a long time), this tends to increase. Even sometimes when the pressure of the sadhana in
\nthe physical increases or when one has to go much inside, this temporarily increases
\n\u2014  the body either needing more rest or
\nturning the inward movement into a tendency to sleep or be at rest. You need not, however, be anxious about that. After a time
\nthis rights itself; the physical consciousness gets the true peace and calm in the cells and feels at rest even in full work or in the
\nmost concentrated condition and this tendency of inertia goes out of the nature.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n9 January 1936 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIs there any direct Supramental action upon the earth consciousness? Is that the reason why the resistance has increased?
\nThe earth consciousness seems to be too inert and obstinate. I gather that you started bringing down the Supramental into
\nit in 1923. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tWhy not 1623? or since the beginning of the evolution?
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n7 February 1936 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI gave 1923 as the year for the bringing down of the Supermind because I read that in 1923 you said that you were bringing it
\ndown. How can we presume that you started bringing it down much earlier unless we definitely know you have yourself
\nspoken to this effect?  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>358<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nBut who said that I started in 1923? The aim of bringing down the supramental was there long before. The effort to bring it
\ndown into the physical is on the contrary quite recent, during the last few years only.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n8 February 1936<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tX <\/span> <\/i>wrote to you that he saw the Supermind descending into the earth consciousness. You wrote to him in reply that his vision
\nand feeling were justifiable. But before the Supermind descends into the earth consciousness, do not the planes between mind
\nand Overmind have to descend first? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThey descended long ago. It does not mean that they are avail
\nable to everybody or developed anywhere in their full power \u2014 only that they can be counted among the things to which one
\ncan reach by tapasya. For Supermind, it may be descending, but it may take long before it is available to the race.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n7 April 1936 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA friend wants to know many things: <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t(1) Descent of the Supra M. Tail \u2014  on the slightest news of
\nwhich he will give a gorilla jump to Pondy to set his nerves right! Is the Tail in view?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tOf course. Coming down as fast as you fellows will allow.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t(2) He wants your remarks on him which will prove “precious”.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tTell him I have grown chary of remarks. Remarks frighten the
\nSm. T. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n17 May 1936
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI shall see what can be done [about a promised piece of writing<\/i>].
\nFor some time however it has been difficult for me to put myself to any sustained intellectual work, because I am strongly taken
\nup by a push to finish inwardly in myself what remained to be done in the way of transformation of the consciousness and,
\nthough this part of it is terribly difficult and arduous, I was   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>359<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

making so unexpected a progress that the consciousness was unwilling to turn away from it to anything else. So much hangs
\non this, the decisive victory, the power to remove the difficulties of others as well as my own (those that are still there, physical
\nand other) that I was pushing for it like Mussolini for Addis Ababa before the rains. However, any night when there is a lull,
\nI will see. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n19 May 1936
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNo, it is not with the Empyrean that I am busy, I wish it were.
\nIt is rather with the opposite end of things \u2014  in the Abyss that I have to plunge to build a bridge between the two. But that too
\nis necessary for my work and one has to face it. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n29 May 1936
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIs it true that a greater and vaster Force descended this Darshan [15 August 1936<\/i>]?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIt is not a question of descent. We are nurturing the Force and
\nit grows necessarily stronger and has more effect. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n21 August 1936
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe last Darshan was good on the whole. I am not now trying to
\nbring anything sensational down on these days, but I am watching the progress in the action of the Force and Consciousness
\nthat are already there, the infiltration of a greater Light and Power from above, and there was a very satisfactory crossing
\nof a difficult border which promises well for the near future. A thing has been done which had long failed to accomplish itself
\nand which is of great importance. I don’t explain now, because it forms part of an arranged whole which is explicable only when
\nit is complete. But it gives a sort of strong practical assurance that the thing will be done.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n26 August 1936 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAll in the Asram are not suffering from the sense of dullness  
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>360<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nand want of interest, but many are because the Force that is descending is discouraging the old movements of the physical
\nand vital mind which they call life and they are not accustomed to accept the renunciation of these things, or to admit the peace
\nor joy of silence. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n9 September 1936
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWe hear your Supermind is very near \u2014  not 50 years, we hope!
\nTime to push us up a little, Sir, so that we may give you a proper reception, what?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThat’s what the Force seems to be trying to do.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDon’t forget to make us feel at least the Descent. 30 years’
\nsadhana,17 by Jove! <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t30 years too little or too many? What would have satisfied
\nyour rational mind \u2014  3 years? 3 months? 3 weeks? Considering that by ordinary evolution it could not have been done even
\nat Nature’s express speed in less than 3000 years, and would ordinarily have taken anything from 30,000 to 300,000, the
\ntransit of 30 years is perhaps not too slow. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n10 September 1936
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIn the evening meditation I saw a white cock in the physical
\nand heard it crowing. I felt it as an indication of the dawn of the Supramental Descent. Was this a right feeling? What does
\nthe symbol indicate? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThat is of course a symbol of triumph. It is true that a Force
\ncame down full of an intense white light which the Mother had never known to come down before and it seemed to have
\na supramental authority. Your feeling therefore was probably right.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n10 September 1936 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYesterday after dusk, I felt as if some welcome revolution
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n17 See the letter of 4 April 1935 on page 374.
\n\u2014  Ed.<\/i>
\n  
\n<\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>361<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\nhad taken place in the Divine order of things. I attended the meditation and felt the whole place filled with calm and silence. . . . Then descended a
\nvirāt mahāpurusa<\/i>, Himalayan in
\nproportions, in the form of Sri Aurobindo, who, as if finding the earth incapable of bearing his weight, stood behind the
\nMother and placed his hands on her shoulders. The whole world was surcharged with silence and Ananda. The sight is
\nbeyond my powers to describe. An immeasurable force rushed into me, wave upon wave. . . . Was my experience true?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe experience you had was a true one, for something came down at that meditation which had not come down before
\nand your experience was a translation of this descent in your consciousness. That you should have become aware of it in this
\nway shows that your stay here has been very profitable to you and prepared your consciousness for the true realisation. The
\ncapacity for it is now there in you. Your future sadhana should be a development from the experience to the realisation.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n11 September 1936 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI hear that you are now trying more for transformation of nature than for experience.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tBecause without transformation of nature, the blessed experience is something like a gold crown on a pig’s head
\n\u2014  won’t do.
\nPicturesque perhaps, but \u2014 <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n16 September 1936
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe awakening in the subconscient is now the great and urgent
\nnecessity and it is that for which I am pressing most. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n24 September 1936
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIf the pressure here has an effect on the outside world in
\nsome way, have incidents here any connections with outside happenings? For example, I noted that on the day
\nX <\/i>and Y<\/i>
\nwent from here the Italians finally conquered Abyssinia. There is a story about an occultist in Ahmedabad (in the 16th century
\n   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>362<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nor so) in which it is related that he was making and unmaking mats and accordingly the wall around the city which had been
\nbuilt during the day fell down during the night \u2014  at the time when he was taking away the chips of the mat.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe story of the occultist contains a truth, and it would be a mistake to suppose that there is no connection between the
\npressure here and outside happenings. But I don’t know about particular coincidences. The departure of
\nX <\/i>and Z <\/i>does not seem
\neasily relatable to the event in Abyssinia. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n10 October 1936
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI have just received your telegram communicating your disapproval of my proposed visit in November. Is it due to any wrong attitude on my part that you have not sanctioned the
\nvisit? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIt is due to the fact that there have been for some time much
\nstruggle and tense conditions in the forces working in the Asram and your stay here would not be profitable to you at the moment.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n3 November 1936 <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n1937
\n<\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOne misgiving is pressing heavily on my soul. I sense and feel that the tone
\nof your letters has suddenly become very grave \u2014
\nthe owl-like severity with which you had once threatened me. I don’t know what I have done to deserve such a punishment.
\nOr is it because you are getting supramentalised day by day that you are withdrawing yourself so? There must be a reason
\nif my “sense feel” is correct. Well, if you want to press me between two planks and pulverize me . . .
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI think your sense feel has been indulging in vain imaginations, perhaps with the idea of increasing your concrete imaginative
\nfaculty and fitting you for understanding the unintelligible. Anyhow disburden your soul of the weight. I am not owled yet, and
\nmy supramentalisation is going on too slowly to justify such apprehensions. Neither am I withdrawing, rather fitting myself
\nfor a new rush in the near or far future. So cheer up and send the   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>363<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Man of Sorrows with his planks to the devil. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n8 January 1937
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhat have you kept in store for us, Sir? Will the sadhaks
\ntumble in this way one by one as your Supramental comes nearer and nearer? Then with whom will you enjoy your
\nSupramental? Night and day you are soaring and soaring. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tRomantic one! I am not soaring and soaring
\n\u2014  I am digging and
\ndigging. “Go to the ant, thou sluggard” sort of affair. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n11 March 1937
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

\nDo you see the great Tail yet?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tTail is there \u2014  but no use without the head. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n16 March 1937
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n1938<\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSince we have to lead a life in a concentrated atmosphere,
\nall the ugly things become at once prominent, and add to it the action of the Force on the subconscient for purging of all
\ndross. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tNo doubt. Also in this atmosphere pretences and social lies are
\ndifficult to maintain. But if things become prominent, it is that people may see and reject them. If instead they cling to them as
\ntheir most cherished possessions, what is the use? How is the purging to be done with such an attitude?
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n3 April 1938 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYou need not be afraid of losing anything great by postponing your return to Pondicherry. A general descent of the kind you
\nspeak of is not in view at the moment and even if it comes, it can very easily catch you up into itself whenever you come if
\nyou are in the right openness; and if you are not, then even its descending would not be of so urgent an importance, since it
\nwould take you some time to become aware of it or receive it. So there is no reason why you should not in this matter cleave
\n  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>364<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nto common sense and the sage advice of the doctors. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n1 August 1938
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBy the way, you had better hurry up with your Supermind
\ndescent, Sir. Otherwise Hitler, Mussolini & Co. will gunfire it like \u2014  !
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tWhat has Supermind to do with Hitler or Hitler with Supermind? Do you expect the Supermind to aviate to Berchtesgaden?
\nHow the devil can they gunfire S; their aeroplanes can’t even reach Pondicherry, much less the Supermind. The descent of S
\ndepends on S, not on Hitler or no Hitler. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n16 September 1938
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n1944<\/b> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThere is another cause of the general inability to change which
\nat present afflicts the sadhak. It is because the sadhana, as a general fact, has now and for a long time past come down to
\nthe Inconscient; the pressure, the call is to change in that part of the nature which depends directly on the Inconscient, the fixed
\nhabits, the automatic movements, the mechanical repetitions of the nature, the involuntary reactions to life, all that seems to
\nbelong to the fixed character of a man. This has to be done if there is to be any chance of a total spiritual change. The
\nForce (generally and not individually) is working to make that possible, its pressure is for that,
\n\u2014  for, on the other levels, the
\nchange has already been made possible (not, mind you, assured to everybody). But to open the Inconscient to light is a herculean
\ntask; change on the other levels is much easier. As yet this work has only begun and it is not surprising that there seems to be
\nno change in things or people. It will come in time, but not in a hurry.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nAs for experiences, they are all right but the trouble is that they do not seem to change the nature, they only enrich the
\nconsciousness \u2014  even the realisation, on the mind level, of the Brahman seems to leave the nature almost where it was, except
\nfor a few. That is why we insist on the psychic transformation   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>365<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

as the first necessity \u2014  for that does change the nature \u2014  and its chief instrument is bhakti, surrender, etc.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n27 April 1944 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI have explained to you why so many people (not by any means all) are in this gloomy condition, dull and despondent. It is the
\ntamas, the inertia of the Inconscient, that has got hold of them. But also it is the small physical vital which takes only an interest
\nin the small and trivial things of the ordinary daily and social life and nothing else. When formerly the sadhana was going
\non on higher levels (mind, higher vital etc.), there was plenty of vigour and verve and interest in the details of the Asram
\nwork and life as well as in an inner life; the physical vital was carried in the stream. But for many this has dropped; they live
\nin the unsatisfied vital physical and find everything desperately dull, gloomy and without interest or issue. In their inner life the
\ntamas from the Inconscient has created a block or a bottleneck and they do not find any way out. If one can keep the right
\ncondition and attitude, a strong interest in work or a strong interest in sadhana, then this becomes quiescent. That is the
\nmalady. Its remedy is to keep the right condition and to bring gradually or, if one can, swiftly the light of the higher aspiration
\ninto this part of the being also, so that whatever the conditions of the environment, it may keep also the right poise. Then the
\nsunlit path should be less impossible. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n16 June 1944
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n1945<\/b> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI have no intention, I can assure you, of cutting off connection
\nin the future. What restrictions there have been, were due to unavoidable causes. My retirement itself was indispensable; otherwise I would not now be where I am, that is, personally near the goal. When the goal is reached, things will be different. But
\nas far as you are concerned, I have given to you what I have not given to others; what you have quoted about my connection
\nwith you is perfectly true; if it were false, why should I have persistently pressed you to remain with me always? Inwardly,
\n   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>366<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nI have been constant in my desire and my effort to help you, not only from time to time, but daily and always. If you had
\nan unprecedented peace for so long a time, it was due to my persistent inner pressure; I refuse to give up all the credit to my
\ndouble, Krishna. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n14 August 1945
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n1947
\n<\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe extreme acuteness of your difficulties is due to the yoga
\nhaving come down against the bedrock of Inconscience which is the fundamental basis of all resistance in the individual and in
\nthe world to the victory of the Spirit and the Divine Work that is leading toward that victory. The difficulties themselves are
\ngeneral in the Ashram as well as in the outside world. Doubt, discouragement, diminution or loss of faith, waning of the vital
\nenthusiasm for the ideal, perplexity and a baffling of the hope for the future are the common features of the difficulty. In the world
\noutside there are much worse symptoms such as the general increase of cynicism, a refusal to believe in anything at all, a de
\ncrease of honesty, an immense corruption, a preoccupation with food, money, comfort, pleasure to the exclusion of higher things
\nand a general expectation of worse and worse things awaiting the world. All that, however acute, is a temporary phenomenon
\nfor which those who know anything about the workings of the world-energy and the workings of the Spirit were prepared. I
\nmyself foresaw that this worst would come, the darkness of night before the dawn; therefore I am not discouraged. I know
\nwhat is preparing behind the darkness and can see and feel the first signs of its coming. Those who seek for the Divine have to
\nstand firm and persist in their seeking; after a time, the darkness will fade and begin to disappear and the Light will come.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n9 April 1947 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t*<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIf I had been standing on the Supermind level and acting on the world by the instrumentation of Supermind, that world would
\nhave changed or would be changing much more rapidly and in   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>367<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

a different fashion from what is happening now. My present effort is not to stand up on a high and distant Supermind level
\nand change the world from there, but to bring something of it down here and to stand on that and act by that, but at the present
\nstage the progressive supramentalisation of the Overmind is the first immediate preoccupation and a second is the lightening
\nof the heavy resistance of the Inconscient and the support it gives to human ignorance which is always the main obstacle
\nin any attempt to change the world or even to change oneself. I have always said that the spiritual force I have been putting
\non human affairs such as the War is not the supramental but the overmind force, and that when it acts in the material world
\nit is so inextricably mixed up in the tangle of the lower world forces that its results, however strong or however adequate for
\nthe immediate object, must necessarily be partial. That is why I am getting a birthday present of a free India on August 15, but
\ncomplicated by its being presented in two packets as two free Indias: this is a generosity I could have done without, one free
\nIndia would have been enough for me if offered as an unbroken whole.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n7 July 1947  
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>368<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remarks on the Current State of the Sadhana, 1931 – 1947   1931   I am surprised at Tagore’s remark1 about the two years; he…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram","wpcat-37-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9623,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635\/revisions\/9623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}