{"id":1683,"date":"2013-07-13T01:36:31","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1683"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:36:31","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:36:31","slug":"37-help-from-the-guide-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\/37-help-from-the-guide-vol-35-letters-on-himself-and-the-ashram","title":{"rendered":"-37_Help from the Guide.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\n
\nSection Two <\/font><\/b> <\/span> <\/p>\n

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

\n
\nHelp and Guidance
\n  
\n\t\t\t<\/font><\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nHelp from the Guide
\n<\/font><\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n 
\n<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

\nIt is a traditional belief that satsanga has great effect \u2014  the
\nnearness or the personal contact of a spiritual person is supposed to produce great benefit to those who are in his company. How is it then that your earliest companions here did not derive any benefit from your company?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI don’t know that the theory of satsanga can be taken so rigorously as that. Company always has an effect, but it may be
\nless or more or even for the most part nullified by things in the person’s own consciousness or nature or by other atmospheres.
\nX <\/i>and the others were greatly influenced by company with me in the old days but it was more in the direction of mental and
\nvital development than spiritually, for at that time I was doing my own sadhana and not putting out any spiritual influence on
\nothers \u2014  only if anybody asked me, I told him what to do, the result of his effort was his own affair.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

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

\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nGiving Mental Silence
\n<\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI wrote something on the subject of peace, which I showed to X<\/i>. He said there were many errors in it, particularly where I
\nwrote about philosophers and the silence. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThere was no error. Ordinary human minds, Europeans especially, are accustomed to regard thought as indispensable and as the highest thing
\n\u2014  so they are alarmed at silence. V. V. S. Aiyar
\nwhen he was here asked for Yoga. I told him how to make his mind silent and it became silent. He immediately got frightened
\nand said “I am becoming a fool, I can’t think”, \u2014  so I took what I had given away from him. That is how the average mind
\nregards silence. <\/span> <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>437<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nNon-Intervention
\n<\/b> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tCertainly, it is your full right to believe that I am not infallible.
\nBut I must also say that when you are convinced that you know the truth of things and can judge better than myself and are more
\neager for right and justice, that creates an attitude which makes it difficult for me to help you or for you to receive my help. If
\nyou have no reliance on me as guide but rather on your own enlightened consciousness, then surely it is the dictates of your
\nenlightened consciousness that you should follow. As long as there is this, I am drawn back from intervening in any personal
\nway in your life or sadhana. I hope that by following your inner light or by whatever guidance you will attain the realisation you
\ndesire. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\ncirca 1928
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

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

\n    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nI do not believe in human judgments because I have always
\nfound them fallible \u2014  also perhaps because I have myself been so blackened by human judgments that I do not care to be guided
\nby them with regard to others. All this however I write to explain my own point of view; I am not insisting on it as a law for others.
\nI have never been in the habit of insisting that everybody must think as I do
\n\u2014  any more than I insist on everybody following
\nme and my yoga. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\nDecember 1934
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

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

\n  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nYou hardly take the initiative and ask people to do this or not
\nto do that. It is your principle to give them a long rope either to hang themselves or have a taste of the bitter cup.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI am to put everybody into leading strings and walk about with them \u2014  or should it be the rope in their nose? Supermen cannot
\nbe made like that \u2014  the long rope is needed. <\/span> <\/p>\n

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

\n\t <\/p>\n

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

\n  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nWhy do you never write to me about my problems \u2014  unless I
\nspecifically ask?  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>438<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nI never do that to anybody unless he gives me the occasion. A sadhak must become conscious and lay himself before the light,
\nsee and reject and change. It is not the right method for us to interfere and lecture and point out this and point out that. That
\nis the schoolmaster method \u2014  it does not work in the spiritual change.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

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

\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe Nature of His Help
\n<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI do not know what kind of help you want from me. There are two kinds of help in the spiritual field; the invisible help (which
\nyou can get for yourself if you know how to do it) and that which a spiritual guide gives to his disciples. The latter I give
\nonly to those whom I have accepted for my own path of Yoga. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n15 November 1928
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

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

\n    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe doubt about the possibility of help is hardly a rational one,
\nsince all the evidence of life and of spiritual experience in the past and of the special experience of those, numerous enough,
\nwho have received help from the Mother and myself, is against the idea that no internal or spiritual help from one to another
\nor from a Guru to his disciples or from myself to my disciples is possible. It is therefore not really a doubt arising from the reason
\nbut one that comes from the vital and physical mind that is troubling you. The physical mind doubts all that it has not itself
\nexperienced and even it doubts what it has itself experienced if that experience is no longer there or immediately palpable to it
\n\u2014  the vital brings in the suggestions of despondency and despair to reinforce the doubt and prevent clear seeing. It is therefore
\na difficulty that cannot be effectively combated by the logical reason alone, but best by the clear perception that it is a self
\ncreated difficulty \u2014  a self-formed sanskara or mental formation which has become habitual and has to be broken up so that you
\nmay have a free mind and vital, free for experience.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nAs for the help, you expect a divine intervention to destroy
\nthe doubt, and the divine intervention is possible, but it comes   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>438<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

usually only when the being is ready. You have indulged to a great extreme this habit of the recurrence of doubt, this mental
\nformation or sanskara, and so the adverse force finds it easy to throw it upon you, to bring back the suggestion. You must
\nhave a steady working will to repel it whenever it comes and to refuse the tyranny of the sanskara of doubt
\n\u2014  to annul the force
\nof its recurrence. I think you have hardly done that in the past, you have rather supported the doubts when they came. So for
\nsome time at least you must do some hard work in the opposite direction. The help (I am not speaking of a divine intervention
\nfrom above but of my help and the Mother’s) will be there. It can be effective in spite of your physical mind, but it will be more
\neffective if this steady working will of which I speak is there as its instrument. There are always two elements in spiritual success
\n\u2014  one’s own steady will and endeavour and the Power that in one way or another helps and gives the result of the endeavour.
\nI will do what is necessary to give the help you must receive. To say you cannot would not be true, for you have received
\ntimes without number and it has helped you to recover. <\/span> <\/p>\n

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

\n\t <\/p>\n

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

\n    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nI am not aware of refusing help; but to receive the help is also
\nnecessary. When you are in this condition, you seem at once to shut yourself up against those from whom you seek help by
\na spirit of bitterness and anger. That is not an attitude which makes it easy to receive or be conscious and it is not easy either
\nfor the help to be effective. All I can do is to send you the Force that if received would help you to change your condition; it is
\nwhat I have always done. But it cannot act effectively \u2014  or at least not at once
\n\u2014  if the doors are shut against it.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n23 May 1936 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

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

\n  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nBut is it really impossible to give X <\/i>some experience of peace, silence or meditation? That would mean that the Divine is not
\nomnipotent.  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>440<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nMy dear sir, what has the omnipotence of the Divine to do with it? In this world there are conditions for everything
\n\u2014  if a
\nman refuses to fulfil the conditions for Yoga, what is the use of appealing to the Divine’s omnipotence? He does not believe that
\nthe Divine is here. He regards us as Gurus. Yes, but he begins by disputing all my way of Yoga. He does not understand and does
\nnot care to understand my processes. He has ideas of his own, does not want peace or equality or surrender or anything else,
\nwants only Krishna and bhakti. He has read things in Ramakrishna and elsewhere as to how to do it, insists on following
\nthat. Rejects all suggestions I can make as unpracticable. Erects a sadhana of violent meditation, japa, prayer
\n\u2014  for these are the
\ntraditional things, has no idea that there are conditions without which they cannot be effective. Meditates, japs, prays himself
\ninto pits of dullness and disappears. Also tries in spite of my objections a wrestling tapasya which puts his vital into revolt.
\nThen by a stroke of good luck I succeed unexpectedly in making a sort of psychic opening. Decides to try surrender, purification
\nof the heart, rejection of ego, true humility etc. \u2014  tries a little of it and is really progressing. After two months finds that Krishna
\nis not appearing \u2014  gets disgusted and drops the beastly thing. And after all that he is always telling me “What an impotent
\nGuru you are! You are evidently able to do nothing for me.” Evidently! That’s
\nX<\/i>.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n28 May 1936 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nSpecial Relation with Disciples: Two Examples
\n<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n(1) <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tBut after all, without putting forth eighteen visible arms (per
\nhaps, since it is a symbol, by putting them forth internally) I hope to become one day so divine even in the body consciousness
\nthat I shall be able to satisfy everybody! But you can’t hurry a transformation like that. I must ask for time.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nWhy do you always insist on cherishing the idea that I refuse all human love? I have surely written to you to the contrary. I
\ndon’t reject it, neither human nor vital love. But I want that   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>441<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

behind the vital there shall be the constant support of the psychic human
\n<\/i>love (not all at once the divine), because that alone
\ncan prevent the movements which make you restless, obscured and miserable. In asking this I am surely not asking anything
\nexcessive or beyond your power. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\ncirca 1931
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

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

\n    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nI meant that even before I met you for the first time, I knew of
\nyou and felt at once the contact of one with whom I had that relation which declares itself constantly through many lives and
\nfollowed your career (all that I could hear about it) with a close sympathy and interest. It is a feeling which is never mistaken and
\ngives the impression of one not only close to one but part of one’s existence. The Mother had not heard of you before you came
\nhere for the first time, but even on that occasion on seeing you \u2014  though without any actual meeting
\n\u2014  she had a sympathetic
\ncontact. The relation that is so indicated always turns out to be that of those who have been together in the past and were
\npredestined to join again (though the past circumstances may not be known) drawn together by old ties. It was the same
\ninward recognition in you (apart even from the deepest spiritual connection) that brought you. If the outer consciousness does
\nnot yet fully realise, it is the crust always created by a new physical birth that prevents it. But the soul knows all the while.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nYour poem is very beautiful.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nI am aware of the terribly trying period that is upon you as
\nupon us just now, but you must try to stand firmly until we may come through into the sunshine hereafter.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

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

\n\t <\/p>\n

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

\n  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nI have not time to write a long letter. I can write only this. You are not to leave Pondicherry by this morning’s train or at all.
\nYou have to come and see the Mother at 9.30 and speak to her heart to heart. Both the Mother and myself have lavished much
\nlove and care on you and you are certainly not going to make a return like this
\n\u2014  it is impossible. Do not believe all you hear
\nor allow yourself to be driven off your balance by falsehoods of  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>442<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nthe kind that have been retailed to you. You do not belong to yourself and have not the right to do what you propose to do:
\nyou belong to the Divine and to myself and the Mother. I have cherished you like a friend and a son and have poured on you
\nmy force to develop your powers \u2014  until the time should come for you to make an equal development in the Yoga. We claim
\nthe right to keep you as our own here with us. Throw away this despair \u2014  rise above the provocations of others
\n\u2014  turn back to
\nthe Mother. <\/span> <\/p>\n

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

\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n(2)
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI want to love and love completely and lose myself in love. If
\none can think of losing oneself for mortal love, why not for the love of the Divine?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tWell, why not? But it must be done in the divine way, not in the mortal.
\nOtherwise \u2014
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nLet me then say definitely that I love you and you love me a little and let us meet somewhere in this matter. You may
\nremark, “This man has gone mad, otherwise why all these asthmatic gaspings?” Yes, I am mad, Sir, and impatient too.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tUmmm! don’t you think there are enough people in that condition already here without the Asram doctor adding himself to
\nthe collection?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nWho can be and remain otherwise unless and until one is
\ndivine oneself? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tUnfortunately, experience seems to show that one must be divine
\noneself before one can bear the pressure of divine love. <\/span> <\/p>\n

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

\n\t <\/p>\n

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

\n  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe Divine loves all equally but there seem to be some who
\nare dearer to Him. You seem to say some such thing in Essays<\/i> on the Gita
\n<\/i>\u2014  that Arjuna was dearer to Krishna because he
\n   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>443<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\ncame nearer to the Divine and those who do that will always be dearer to Him.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI don’t say; it is the Gita that says it \u2014  or rather there are two separate slokas; one says that the Divine makes no difference,
\nthe other says that Arjuna is specially dear to him.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIt seems to me that if X
\n<\/i>and myself, for example, were to
\ntransgress some vital rules of the Asram, I would get a thunderbolt from you while he would get nothing. In my saner
\nmoments I have tried to look at it more rationally. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThat does not stand. Sometimes you might get nothing except
\nperhaps an invisible stare; sometimes I might say “Now look here, Y<\/i>,
\ndon’t make an immortal ass of yourself \u2014 
\nthat <\/i>is not the
\ntransformation wanted.” Still another time I might shout “Now! now! What the hell! what the blazes!” So it would depend on
\nthe occasion, not only on the person.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThere are many instances to show that some persons are dearer
\nto the Divine than others. Besides Krishna and Arjuna, we have the instance of Buddha and Ananda.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThere is also St. John, the beloved disciple.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThen again, Vivekananda was dearer to Ramakrishna than
\nother disciples. Chaitanya showered his grace on Madhai and Jagai, but were they closer to him than Nitai?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tBut he had love for them (<\/span>তাই
\n\tবলে কি প্রেম দিব না<\/font> ?<\/span>).
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nSome say that because through one person, chances of manifestation are greater, or because he is more open, or is a
\nVibhuti, he will be nearer to the Divine. That, I think, can be swept aside since degrees of manifestation can never be a
\ncriterion. What is it that determines this? I really don’t know. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tOf course you don’t
\n\u2014  nor does anybody. Is love a creation of
\nthe reason? or dealt out by this or that scale? Or does the Divine calculate “This fellow has so much of this or that quality. I will
\ngive him just so much more love than to that other”?  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>444<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nThis question is not only of theoretical interest to us, but also of practical importance, since in our stumblings and gropings
\nthe Divine here may have a soft corner for some, and not perhaps for others to the same extent.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tAll that is rather beside the point. There is a universal divine love that is given equally to all
\n\u2014  but also there is
\na special<\/i>
\nrelation <\/i>with each man \u2014  it is not a question of more or less, though it may appear so. But even that less or more cannot be
\njudged by human standards. The man who gets a blow may, if he has a certain relation, feel it as a divine caress; he may even
\nsay, erecting his own standard, “She loves me more than others, because to others she would not give that blow, to me she felt
\nshe could give it,” and it would be quite as good a standard as the kind treatment one
\n\u2014  as standards go. But no standards
\napply. For in each case it is according to the relation. The cause of the relation? It differs in each case. Cast your plummet into
\nthe deep and perhaps you shall find it \u2014  or perhaps you will hit something that has nothing at all to do with it.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

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

\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nNo Partiality
\n<\/b>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThe worst suggestion of the hostile forces is that you are partial in your dealings. When this is accepted a wall comes between
\nyou and the sadhak and there is a revolt and then there may be an end of the sadhana!
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tYes, that is their aim \u2014  for it is their one short cut to success, to separate the sadhak from his soul.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n3 May 1935 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nSri Aurobindo’s Compassion
\n<\/b>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nWhy is the flower symbolising your compassion so delicate and why does it wither away so soon?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tNo, the compassion does not wither with its symbol \u2014  flowers are the moment’s representations of things that are in themselves
\neternal. <\/span> <\/p>\n

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

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>445<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nOutward and Inward Guidance <\/b> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tThe outward touch is helpful; but the inward is still more helpful
\nwhen one is accustomed to receive it with a certain concreteness \u2014  and the outward touch is not always fully possible, while the
\ninward can be there all the time. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

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

\n  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe outer guidance is meant only as an aid to the inner working, especially for the correction of any erroneous movement and
\nsometimes in order to point out the right road. It is not meant except at a very early stage to satisfy mental questionings or to
\nstimulate a mental activity. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n26 March 1935
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

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

\n  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nOnce I asked you to give some advice as regards the treatment
\nof a patient. You replied: “I have no medico in me, not even a latent medico.”1<\/font><\/sup>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tOf course not. If it were there, I would develop it and run the Dispensary myself. What would be the need of
\nX <\/i>or Y <\/i>or Z<\/i>?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThe other day, in regard to that baby, you wrote that Mother has no intuition for infants.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tNo intuition for stuffing infants with heterogeneous medicines.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nWell then, if you have no latent medico and Mother has no
\nintuition for infants, can you tell me how by the force of devotion, faith, surrender, etc., is one going to get guidance
\nfrom you? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tWhat logic! Because Mother and myself are not engineers, there
\nfore A <\/i>can’t develop the right intuition in engineering? or because neither I nor Mother are experts in Gujarati prosody, therefore
\nB <\/i>can’t develop the inspiration for his poems?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n1 See the letter of 1 April 1935 on page 505.
\n\u2014  Ed.<\/i>
\n  
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>446<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nIf the divine can’t guide me externally, which is much easier, how can he guide me internally?
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tOh Lord! what a question! To guide internally is a million times easier than to guide externally. Let us suppose I want
\nGeneral Miaja to beat Franco’s fellows back at Guadalajara (please pronounce properly), I put the right force on him and
\nhe wakes up and, with his military knowledge and capacity, does the right thing and it’s done. But if I, having no latent
\nor patent military genius or knowledge in me, write to him saying “do this, do that”, he won’t do it and I would not
\nbe able to do it either. It is operations of two quite different spheres of consciousness. You absolutely refuse to make
\nthe necessary distinction between the two fields and their processes and then you jumble the two together and call it
\nlogic. <\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIf the medico can be revealed from within, why could it not
\nbe revealed from without and tell me what to do? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tDamn it, man! Intuition and revelation are inner things
\n\u2014  they
\ndon’t belong to the outer mind.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIf you or Mother can’t guide me concretely, how will the
\nguidance come later on, I wonder? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tDo you imagine that I tell you inwardly or outwardly what
\nexpressions to use in your Bengali poems when you are writing? Still you write from an inspiration which I have set going.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n6 April 1937 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nHelp through Writing
\n<\/b>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nand through Other Means
\n<\/b> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tI must point out to you that the value of your staying here does
\nnot depend on my writing to you or not, but on whether you have the true inner relation with us, whether you are able to
\nreceive anything from us and whether you can profit spiritually   <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>447<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

by what you receive. All that depends in the last resort on you.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

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

\n\t <\/p>\n

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

\n    <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nMy touch is always there; but you must learn to feel it not only
\nwith the outward contact as a medium \u2014  a touch of the pen \u2014 but in its direct action on the mind and heart and vital and body.
\nThere would then be very much less difficulty \u2014  or no difficulty at all.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n27 March 1933 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

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

\n  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nLetters and answering of letters are not indispensable for the sadhana; the sadhak’s reception of silent help is much more important; the written word is only a minor means, and to expect answers because others have them is quite a wrong idea. The
\nonly necessity in this sadhana is to open yourself to the Divine Force; if one is open the necessary understanding or knowledge
\nwill come of itself through spiritual experience. <\/span> <\/p>\n

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

\n\t <\/p>\n

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

\n  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nSometimes I think it would be better not to ask you questions
\nabout my difficulties, but simply to state them. But I find that if I can’t put things in the form of questions, I hardly write
\nanything. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tOut of one thousand mental questions and answers there are
\nonly one or two here and there that are really of any dynamic assistance \u2014  while a single inner response or a little growth of
\nconsciousness will do what those thousand questions and answers could not do. The Yoga does not proceed by
\n\tupadeśa <\/i>but by inner influence. To state your condition, experiences etc. and
\nopen to the help is far more important than question-asking \u2014 especially the questions about why and how which your physical
\nmind so persistently puts.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI have realised that if we surrender ourselves to you once and
\nopen inwardly, you pour into us as much knowledge as we can hold.
\n  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>448<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nWhat I write usually helps only the mind and that too very little, for people do not really understand what I write
\n\u2014  they put their
\nown constructions on it. The inner help is quite different and there can be no comparison with it, for it recreates the substance
\nof the consciousness, not the mind only. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n4 June 1936
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

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

\n  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nYou said, “What I write usually helps only the mind and that
\ntoo very little, for people do not really understand what I write.” Is this because you are writing from too high a plane
\nfor us to understand? <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tIt is because the mind by itself cannot understand things that
\nare beyond it. It constructs its own idea out of something that it catches or thinks it has caught and puts that down as the whole
\nmeaning of what has been written. Each mind puts its own ideas in place of the Truth.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\n6 June 1936 <\/font> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n

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

\n  <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nFor some time I have not written to you, but whether you think of this child or not, every minute I think of you.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\tNo, I don’t forget you if you don’t write. I think of you and concentrate for you every day.
\n  
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n 
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 <\/font>449<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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