{"id":3767,"date":"2013-07-13T01:51:06","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3767"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:51:06","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:51:06","slug":"12-mental-doubts-and-spiritual-faith-vol-02-second-series-1949","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/02-other-editions\/letters-of-sri-aurobindo\/02-second-series-1949\/12-mental-doubts-and-spiritual-faith-vol-02-second-series-1949","title":{"rendered":"-12_Mental Doubts and Spiritual Faith.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\nSECTION TEN <\/font><\/p>\n

\nMENTAL DOUBTS
\nAND
\nSPIRITUAL FAITH <\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nMental Doubts and Spiritual Experience<\/i> <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nI HAVE started writing about doubt, but even in
\n\u2014 doing so I am afflicted by the ‘doubt’ whether
\nany amount of writing or of anything else can ever
\npersuade the eternal doubt in man which is the
\npenalty of his native ignorance. In the first place,
\nto write adequately would mean anything from 60
\nto 600 pages, but not even 6000 convincing pages
\nwould convince doubt. For doubt exists for its
\nown sake; its very function is to doubt always and,
\neven when convinced, to go on doubting still; it
\nis only to persuade its entertainer to give it board
\nand lodging that it pretends to be an honest truth-
\nseeker. This is a lesson I have learnt from the
\nexperience both of my own mind and of the minds
\nof others; the only way to get rid of doubt is to
\ntake discrimination as one’s detector of truth and
\nfalsehood and under its guard to open the door
\nfreely and courageously to experience. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nAll the same I have started writing, but I will
\nbegin not with doubt but with the demand for
\nthe Divine as a concrete certitude, quite as concrete as any physical phenomenon caught by the <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 283<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nsenses. Now, certainly, the Divine must be such
\na certitude not only as concrete but more concrete
\nthan anything sensed by ear or eye or touch in the
\nworld of Matter; but it is a certitude not of mental
\nthought but of essential experience. When the
\nPeace of God descends on you, when the Divine
\nPresence is there within you, when the Ananda
\nrushes on you like a sea, when you are driven like
\na leaf before the wind by the breath of the Divine
\nForce, when Love flowers out from you on all
\ncreation, when Divine Knowledge floods you with
\na Light which illumines and transforms in a
\nmoment all that was before dark, sorrowful and
\nobscure, when all that is becomes part of the One
\nReality, when the Reality is all around you, you
\nfeel at once by the spiritual contact, by the inner
\nvision, by the illumined and seeing thought, by
\nthe vital sensation and even by the very physical
\nsense, everywhere you see, hear, touch only the
\nDivine. Then you can much less doubt it or deny
\nit than you can deny or doubt daylight or air or
\nthe sun in heaven \u2014 for of these physical things you
\ncannot be sure but they are what your senses represent them to be; but in the concrete experiences
\nof the Divine, doubt is impossible. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nAs to permanence, you cannot expect permanence of the initial spiritual experiences from the <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 284<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nbeginning\u2014only a few have that and even for them
\nthe high intensity is not always there; for most,
\nthe experience comes and then draws back behind
\nthe veil waiting for the human part to be prepared
\nand made ready to bear and hold fast its increase
\nand then its permanence. But to doubt it on that
\naccount would be irrational in the extreme. One
\ndoes not doubt the existence of air because a strong
\nwind is not always blowing or of sunlight because
\nnight intervenes between dawn and dusk. The
\ndifficulty lies in the normal human consciousness
\nto which spiritual experience comes as something
\nabnormal and is in fact supernormal. This weak
\nlimited normality finds it difficult at first even to
\nget any touch of that greater and intenser supernormal experience; or it gets it diluted into its own
\nduller stuff of mental or vital experience, and when
\nthe spiritual does come in its own overwhelming
\npower, very often it cannot bear or, if it bears,
\ncannot hold and keep it. Still, once a decisive
\nbreach has been made in the walls built by the
\nmind against the Infinite, the breach widens sometimes slowly, sometimes swiftly, until there is no
\nwall any longer, and there is the permanence. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nBut the decisive experiences cannot be brought,
\nthe permanence of a new state of consciousness in
\nwhich they will be normal cannot be secured if the <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 285<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nmind is always interposing its own reservations,
\nprejudgments, ignorant formulas or if it insists on
\narriving at the divine certitude, as it would at the
\nquite relative truth of a mental conclusion, by reasoning, doubt, enquiry and all the other paraphernalia
\nof Ignorance feeling and fumbling around after
\nKnowledge; these greater things can only be brought
\nby the progressive opening of a consciousness quieted
\nand turned steadily towards spiritual experience.
\nIf you ask why the Divine has so disposed it on this
\nhighly inconvenient basis, it is a futile question,\u2014
\nfor this is nothing else than a psychological necessity
\nimposed by the very nature of things. It is so because
\nthese experiences of the Divine are not mental constructions, not vital movements; they are essential
\nthings, not things merely thought but realities,
\nnot mentally felt but felt in our very underlying
\nsubstance and essence. No doubt, the mind is always
\nthere and can intervene; it can and does have its
\nown type of mentalising about the Divine, thoughts,
\nbeliefs, emotions, mental reflections of spiritual
\nTruth, even a kind of mental realisation which
\nrepeats as well as it can some kind of figure of the
\nhigher Truth, and all this is not without value, but
\nit is not concrete, intimate and indubitable. Mind
\nby itself is incapable of ultimate certitude; whatever
\nit believes, it can doubt; whatever it can affirm, it can <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 286<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\ndeny; whatever it gets hold of, it can and does let go.
\nThat, if you like, is its freedom, noble right, privilege; it may be all you can say in its praise, but by these
\nmethods of mind you cannot hope (outside the reach
\nof physical phenomena and hardly even there) to
\narrive at anything you can call an ultimate certitude.
\nIt is for this compelling reason that mentalising or enquiring about the Divine cannot by its own right
\nbring the Divine. If the consciousness is always busy
\nwith small mental movements,\u2014especially accompanied, as they usually are, by a
\nhost of vital movements, desires, prepossessions and all else that
\nvitiates human thinking,\u2014even apart from the native
\ninsufficiency of reason, what room can there be for a new order of knowledge, for fundamental experiences or for those deep and tremendous upsurgings
\nor descents of the Spirit? It is indeed possible for the
\nmind in the midst of its activities to be suddenly
\ntaken by surprise, overwhelmed, swept aside, while
\nall is flooded with a sudden inrush of spiritual experience. But if afterwards
\nit begins questioning, doubting, theorising, surmising what these might be and
\nwhether it is true or not, what else can the spiritual power do but retire and wait for the bubbles of the mind to cease?<\/font><\/p>\n

\nI would ask one simple question of those who
\n<\/b>would <\/b>make the intellectual mind the standard and <\/b> judge <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – <\/font>287<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nof spiritual experience. Is the Divine something
\nless than mind or is it something greater? Is mental
\nconsciousness with its groping enquiry, endless argument, unquenchable doubt, stiff and unplastic
\nlogic something superior or even equal to the Divine
\nConsciousness or is it something inferior in its action.
\nand status? If it is greater, then there is no reason
\nto seek after the Divine. If it is equal, then spiritual experience is quite superfluous. But if it is inferior, how can it challenge, judge, make the Divine
\nstand as an accused or a witness before its tribunal
\nsummon it to appear as a candidate for admission
\nbefore a Board of Examiners or pin it like an insect
\nunder its examining microscope? Can the vital
\nanimal hold up as infallible the standard of its vital
\ninstincts, associations and impulses, and judge,
\ninterpret and fathom by it the mind of man?
\n<\/b>It <\/b>cannot, because man’s mind is a greater power
\nworking in a wider, more complex way which the
\nanimal vital consciousness cannot follow. Is it so
\ndifficult to see, similarly, that the Divine Consciousness must be something
\ninfinitely wider, more complex than the human mind, filled with greater powers
\nand lights, moving in a way which mere mind cannot
\njudge, interpret or fathom by the standard of its
\nfallible reason and limited half-knowledge? The
\nsimple fact is there that Spirit and Mind are not <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 288<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nthe same thing and that it is the spiritual
\nconsciousness into which the Yogin has to enter (in all this
\nI am not in the least speaking of the Supermind),
\nif he wants to be in permanent contact or union with
\nthe Divine. It is not then a freak of the Divine or a: tyranny to insist on the mind recognising its limitations, quieting itself, giving up its demands, and
\nopening and surrendering to a greater Light than
\nit can find on its own obscurer level. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nThis doesn’t mean that mind has no place at all
\nin the spiritual life; but it means that it cannot be
\neven the main instrument, much less the authority,
\nto whose judgment all must submit itself, including
\nthe Divine. Mind must learn from the greater consciousness it is approaching and not impose its own
\nstandards on it; it has to receive illumination, open
\nto a higher Truth, admit a greater power that doesn’t work according to mental canons, surrender itself
\nand allow its half-light half-darkness to be flooded
\nfrom above till where it was blind it can see, where
\nit was deaf it can hear, where it was insensible it
\ncan feel, and where it wag baffled, uncertain, questioning, disappointed it. can have joy, fulfilment,
\ncertitude and peace. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nThis is the position on which Yoga stands, a
\nposition based upon constant experience since men
\nbegan to seek after the Divine. If it is not true, <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 289<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nthen there is no truth in Yoga and no necessity
\nfor Yoga. If it is true, then it is on that basis,
\nfrom the standpoint of the necessity of this greater consciousness that we can see whether doubt
\nis of any utility for the spiritual life. To
\nbelieve anything and everything is certainly not
\ndemanded of the spiritual seeker; such a promiscuous and imbecile credulity would be not only
\nunintellectual, but in the last degree unspiritual.
\nAt every moment of the spiritual life until one has
\ngot fully into the higher light, one has to be on
\none’s guard and to be able to distinguish spiritual
\ntruth from pseudo-spiritual imitations of it or
\nsubstitutes for it set up by the mind and the vital
\ndesire. The power to distinguish between truths.
\nof the Divine and the lies of the Asura is a cardinal
\nnecessity for Yoga. The question is whether that
\ncan best be done by the negative and destructive
\nmethod of doubt, which often kills falsehood but
\nrejects truth too with the same impartial blow, or
\na more positive, helpful and luminously searching
\npower can be found, which is not compelled by
\nits inherent ignorance to meet truth and falsehood
\nalike with the stiletto of doubt and the bludgeon
\nof denial. An indiscriminateness of mental belief is
\nnot the teaching of spirituality or of Yoga; the
\nfaith of which it speaks is not a crude mental belief <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 290<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nbut the fidelity of the soul to the guiding light
\nwithin it, a fidelity which has to remain till the
\nlight leads it into knowledge. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nMental Incomprehension of Ananda\u2014<\/i>–<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\nAction of Divine Will and Grace in the World<\/i> <\/font>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nWHATEVER the motive immediately pushing the
\nmind or the vital, if there is a true seeking for the
\nDivine in the being, it must lead eventually to the
\nrealisation of the Divine. The soul within has
\nalways the inherent (ahaituki)<\/i> yearning for the
\nDivine; the hetu<\/i> or special motive is simply an
\nimpulsion used by it to get the mind and the vital
\nto follow the inner urge. If the mind and the vital
\ncan feel and accept the soul’s sheer love for the
\nDivine for his own sake, then the sadhana gets its
\nlull power and many difficulties disappear; but even if they do not, they will get what they seek
\nafter in the Divine and through it they will come
\nto realise something, even to pass beyond the limit
\nof the original desire…. I may say that the idea
\nof a joyless God is an absurdity, which only the
\nignorance of the mind could engender! The Radha
\nlove is not based upon any such thing, but means <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 291<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nsimply that whatever comes on the way to the
\nDivine, pain or joy, milan<\/i> or virdha,<\/i> and however
\nlong the sufferings may last, the Radha love is unshaken and keeps its faith and
\ncertitude pointing fixedly like a star to the supreme object of
\nLove. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nWhat is this Ananda, after all? The mind can
\ngee in it nothing but a pleasant psychological
\ncondition,\u2014but if it were only that, it could
\nnot be the rapture which the bhaktas and the
\nmystics find in it. When the Ananda comes into
\nyou, it is the Divine who comes into you, just as
\nwhen the Peace flows into you, it is the Divine who
\nis invading you, or when you are flooded with Light, it is the flood of the Divine himself that is
\naround you. Of course, the Divine is something
\nmuch more, many other things besides, and in them
\nall a Presence, a Being, a Divine Person; for the Divine is Krishna, is Shiva, is the Supreme Mother.
\nBut through the Ananda you can perceive the
\nAnandamaya Krishna, for the Ananda is the subtle: body and being of Krishna; through the Peace you
\ncan perceive the Shantimaya Shiva; in the Light,
\nin the delivering Knowledge, the Love, the fulfilling
\nand uplifting Power you can meet the presence of
\nthe Divine Mother. It is this perception that
\nmakes the experiences of the bhaktas and mystics <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 292<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nso rapturous and enables them to pass more easily
\nthrough the nights of anguish and separation; when there is this soul-perception, it gives to even
\na little or brief Ananda a force or value it could not
\notherwise have, and the Ananda itself gathers by it a growing power to stay, to
\nreturn, to increase. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nI cannot very well answer the strictures of Russell,
\nfor the conception of the Divine as an external
\nomnipotent Power who has "created" the world
\nand governs it like an absolute and arbitrary
\nmonarch\u2014the Christian or Semitic conception
\nhas never been mine; it contradicts too much my
\nseeing and experience during thirty years of sadhana. It is against this conception that the
\natheistic objection is aimed,\u2014-for atheism in Europe
\nhas been a shallow and rather childish reaction
\nagainst a shallow and childish exoteric religionism
\nand its popular inadequate and crudely dogmatic
\nnotions. But when I speak of the Divine Will, I
\nmean something different,\u2014something that has
\ndescended here into an evolutionary world of
\nIgnorance, standing at the back of things, pressing
\non the Darkness with its Light, leading things
\npresently towards the best possible in the conditions
\nof a world of Ignorance and leading it eventually
\ntowards a descent of a greater power of the Divine, <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 293<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nwhich will be not an omnipotence held back and
\nconditioned by the law of the world as it is, but
\nin full action and therefore bringing the reign of light, peace, harmony, joy,
\nlove, beauty and Ananda;
\nfor these are the Divine Nature. The Divine Grace is there ready to act at every
\nmoment, but it manifests as one grows out of the Law of Ignorance into
\nthe Law of Light, and it is meant, not as an
\narbitrary caprice, however miraculous often its
\nintervention, but as a help in that growth and
\na Light that leads and eventually delivers. If we
\ntake the facts of the world as they are and
\nthe facts of spiritual experience as a whole, neither
\nof which can be denied or neglected, then I do not
\nsee what other Divine there can be. This Divine
\nmay lead us often through darkness, because
\nthe darkness is there in us and around us, but it is to the Light he is leading
\nand not to anything else. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nSpiritual Faith and the Materialist’s Denial<\/i> <\/font>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nAs for the faith-doubt question, you ardently give
\nto the word faith a sense and a scope I do not
\nattach to it. I will have to write not one but several <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 294<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nletters to clear up the position. It seems to me
\nthat you mean by faith a mental belief which is in
\nfact put before the mind and senses in the doubtful
\nform of an unsupported asseveration. I mean by
\nit a dynamic intuitive conviction in the inner
\nbeing of the truth of supersensible things which
\ncannot be proved by any physical evidence but
\nwhich are a subject of experience. My point is
\nthat this faith is a most desirable preliminary (if
\nnot absolutely indispensable\u2014for there can be
\ncases of experiences not preceded by faith) to the
\ndesired experience. If I insist so much on faith\u2014
\nbut even less on positive faith than on the throwing
\naway of a priori<\/i> doubt and denial\u2014it is because I
\nfind that this doubt and denial have become an 
\ninstrument in the hand of the obstructive forces…<\/font><\/p>\n

\nWhy I call the materialist’s denial an a priori <\/i>denial is because he refuses even to consider or
\nexamine what he denies but starts by denying it
\nlike Leonard Woolf with his "quack, quack" on the
\nground that it contradicts his own theories, so it
\ncan’t be true. On the other hand, the belief in the
\nDivine and the Grace and Yoga and the Guru etc.
\nis not a priori,<\/i> because it rests on a great mass of
\nhuman experience which has been accumulating
\nthrough the centuries and the millenniums as well
\nas the personal intuitive perception. Therefore it <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 295<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nis an intuitive perception which has been confirmed
\nby the experience of hundreds and thousands of
\nthose who have tested it before me. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n28-8-1934 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nReason and Faith<\/i> <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nBUT why on earth does your despairing friend
\nwant everybody to agree with him and follow
\nhis own preferred line of conduct or belief? That
\nis the never-realised dream of the politician, or realised only by the violent compression of the
\nhuman mind and life, which is the latest feat of the
\nmen of action. The "incarnate" Gods\u2014Gurus and
\nspiritual men of whom he so bitterly complains\u2014
\nare more modest in their hopes and are satisfied with a handful or, if you like, an Ashramful of disciples, and even these they don’t ask for, but
\nthey come, they come. So are they not\u2014these
\ndenounced "incarnates"\u2014nearer to reason and
\nwisdom than the political leaders?\u2014unless of
\ncourse one of them makes the mistake of founding a universal religion, but that
\nis not our case. Moreover, he upbraids you for losing your reason in blind <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 296<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nfaith. But what is his own view of things except a reasoned faith? You believe according to your faith,
\nwhich is quite natural, he believes according to his
\nopinion, which is natural also, but no better, so
\nfar as the likelihood of getting at the true truth
\nof things is in question. His opinion is according
\nto his reason. So are the opinions of his political
\nopponents according to their reason, yet they
\naffirm the very opposite idea to his. How is reasoning to show which is right? The opposite parties
\ncan argue till they are blue in the face\u2014-they won’t
\nbe anywhere nearer a decision. In the end he
\nprevails who has the greater force or whom the
\ntrend of things favours. But who can look at the world as it is and say that the trend of things is
\nalways (or ever) according to right reason\u2014-whatever this thing called right reason may be? As a
\nmatter of fact there is no universal infallible reason
\nwhich can decide and be the umpire between
\nconflicting opinions; there is only my reason, your
\nreason, X’s reason, Y’s reason multiplied up to
\nthe discordant innumerable. Each reasons according
\nto his view of things, his opinion, that is, his mental
\nconstitution and mental preference. So what is
\nthe use of running down faith which after all gives
\nsomething to hold on to amidst the contradictions
\nof an enigmatic universe? If one can get at a <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 297<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nknowledge that knows, it is another matter; but so
\nlong as we have only an ignorance that argues,\u2014
\nwell, there is a place still left for faith\u2014even faith
\nmay be a glint from the knowledge that knows,
\nhowever far off, and meanwhile there is not the
\nslightest doubt that it helps to get things done.
\nThere’s a bit of reasoning for you!\u2014just like all other reasoning too,
\nconvincing to the convinced
\nbut not to the unconvincible, that is, to those who
\ndon’t accept the ground upon which the reasoning
\ndances. Logic, after all, is only a measured dance
\nof the mind, nothing else. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nHuman Intelligence and Spiritual-Truth<\/i> <\/font>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nIF one is blind, it is quite natural\u2014for the
\nhuman intelligence is after all rather an imbecile
\nthing at its best\u2014to deny daylight: if one’s highest
\nnatural vision is that of glimmering mists, it is equally
\nnatural to believe that all high vision is but a mist
\nor a glimmer. But Light exists for all that\u2014and
\nSpiritual Truth is more than a mist and a glimmer. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 298<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nFaith and Knowledge<\/i><\/font>
\n<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nFAITH is a thing that precedes knowledge, not comes
\nafter knowledge. It is a glimpse of a truth which the
\nmind has not yet seized as knowledge. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nIt is not by the intellect that one can progress in
\nthe Yoga but by psychic and spiritual receptivity\u2014
\nas for knowledge and true understanding, it grows
\nin sadhana by the growth of the intuition, not of the
\nphysical intellect. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n10-9-1936 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nIntellect’s Misrepresentation of Spiritual Experience.<\/i> <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nTHE point about the intellect’s misrepresentation of
\nthe "Formless" (the result of a merely negative
\nexpression of something that is inexpressibly intimate and positive) is very well made and hits the
\ntruth in the centre. No one who has had the Ananda
\nof the Brahman can do anything but smile at the
\ncharge of coldness; there is an absoluteness of immutable ecstasy in it, a concentrated intensity of silent
\nand inalienable rapture that is impossible even to
\nsuggest to anyone who has not had the experience,<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 299<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nThe eternal Reality is neither cold nor dry nor empty,<\/i> you might as well talk of the midsummer
\nsunlight as cold or the ocean as dry or perfect fullness
\nas empty. Even when you enter into it by elimination of form and everything else, it surges up as a
\nmiraculous fullness\u2014that is truly the Purnam; when it is entered affirmatively as well as by negation, there can obviously be no question of emptiness
\nor dryness! All is there and more than one could ever dream of as the all. That is why one has to object
\nto the intellect thrusting itself in as the subjanta
\n<\/i>(all-knowing) judge: if it kept to its own limits, there would be no
\nobjection to it. But it makes constructions of words and ideas which have no application to the Truth, babbles foolish things in its
\nignorance and makes its constructions a wall which
\nrefuses to let in the Truth that surpasses its own
\ncapacities and scope. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n11-2-1934 <\/font><\/p>\n

\nN<\/font><\/i>eed of Patience\u2014
\nIncomprehension of the Physical Mind<\/i> <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n"I WILL try again" is not sufficient; what is needed
\nis to try always\u2014steadily, with a heart free from <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 300<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\ndespondency, as the Gita says, anirvinnena
\nchetasa.
\n<\/i>You speak of five and a half years as if it were a
\ntremendous time for such an object, but a Yogi
\nwho is able in that time to change radically his
\nnature and get the concrete decisive experience of
\nthe Divine would have to be considered as one of the
\nrare gallopers of the spiritual Way. Nobody has
\never said that the spiritual change was an easy thing; all spiritual seekers will say that it is difficult but
\nsupremely worth doing. If one’s desire for the Divine
\nhas become the master desire, then surely one can
\ngive one’s whole life to it without repining and not
\ngrudge the time, difficulty or labour. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nAgain, you speak of your experiences as vague
\nand dream-like. In the first place the scorn of small
\nexperiences in the inner life is no part of wisdom,
\nreason or common sense. It is in the beginning of
\nthe sadhana and for a long time the small experiences that come on each other and, if given their
\nfull value, prepare the field, build up a preparatory
\nconsciousness and one day break open the walls to
\nbig experiences. But if you despise them with the
\nambitious idea that you must have either the big
\nexperiences or nothing, it is not surprising that they
\ncome once in a blue moon and cannot do their work.
\nMoreover, all your experiences were not small,
\nThere were some like the stilling descent of a Power <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 301<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nin the body\u2014what you used to call numbness\u2014
\nwhich any one with spiritual knowledge would have
\nrecognised as a first strong step towards the opening
\nof the consciousness to the higher Peace and Light.
\nBut it was not in the line of your expectations and
\nyou gave it no special value. As for vague and
\ndream-like, you feel it so because you are looking at
\nthem and at everything that happens in you from
\nthe standpoint of the outward physical mind and
\nintellect which can take only physical things as real
\nand important and vivid and to it inward phenomena are something unreal, vague and truthless.
\nThe spiritual experience does not even despise dreams and visions; it is known to it that many of
\nthese things are not dreams at all but experiences
\non an inner plane and if the experiences of the inner
\nplanes which lead to the opening of the inner self
\ninto the outer so as to influence and change it are not accepted, the
\nexperiences of the subtle consciousness and the trance consciousness, how is the waking consciousness to expand out of the narrow prison of
\nthe body and body-mind and the senses? For, to
\nthe physical mind untouched by the inner awakened
\nconsciousness, even the experience of the cosmic
\nconsciousness or the Eternal Self might very well seem merely subjective and unconvincing. It would
\nthink, "Curious, no doubt, rather interesting, but <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 302<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nvery subjective, don’t you think? Hallucinations,
\nyes!" The first business of the spiritual seeker is to
\nget away from the outward mind’s outlook and to
\nlook at inward phenomena with an inward mind
\nto which they soon become powerful and stimulating
\nrealities. If one does that, then one begins to see that there is here a wide
\nfield of truth and knowledge, in which one can move from discovery to
\ndiscovery to reach the supreme discovery of all. But
\nthe outer physical mind, if it has any ideas about
\nthe Divine and spirituality at all, has only hasty
\na priori<\/i> ideas miles away from the solid ground of
\ninner truth and experience. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nI have not left myself time to deal with other
\nmatters at any length. You speak of the Divine’s
\nstern demands and hard conditions\u2014but what
\nsevere<\/i> demands and iron conditions you are laying
\non the Divine! You practically say to him, "I will
\ndoubt and deny you at every step, but you must fill
\nme with your unmistakable Presence; I will be full of gloom and despair whenever I think of you or
\nthe Yoga, but you must flood my gloom with your
\nrapturous irresistible Ananda; I will meet you
\nonly with my outer physical mind and consciousness,
\nbut you must give me in that the Power that will
\ntransform rapidly my whole nature." Well, I don’t
\nsay that the Divine won’t or can’t do it, but if such <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 303<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\na miracle is to be worked, you must give him some
\ntime and just a millionth part of a chance, <\/font><\/p>\n

\n8-6-1934 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\nCentral Faith<\/i> <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nI SPOKE of a strong, central and, if possible, complete
\nfaith because your attitude seemed to be that you
\nonly cared for the full response\u2014that is, realisation,.
\nthe presence, regarding all else as quite unsatisfactory,\u2014and your prayer was not bringing you that. But
\nprayer in itself does not usually bring that at once\u2014
\nonly if there is a burning faith at the centre or a
\ncomplete faith in all the parts of the being. That
\ndoes not mean that those whose faith is not so strong
\nor surrender complete cannot arrive, but usually
\nthey have at first to go by small steps and to face the difficulties of their nature until by perseverance or tapasya they make a sufficient opening. Even a
\nfaltering faith and a slow and partial surrender have
\ntheir force and their result, otherwise only the rare
\nfew could do sadhana at all. What I mean by the
\ncentral faith is a faith in the soul or the central being
\nbehind, a. faith which is there even when the mind <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage -304<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nand the vital despairs and the physical wants to
\ncollapse, and after the attack is over reappears and
\npushes on the path again. It may be strong and
\nbright, it may be pale and in appearance weak, but
\nif it persists each time in going on, it is the real thing.
\nFits of depression and darkness and despair are a
\ntradition in the path of sadhana\u2014in all Yogas oriental
\nor occidental they seem to have been the rule. I
\nknow all about them myself\u2014but my experience has
\nled me to the perception that they are an unnecessary
\ntradition and could be dispensed with if one chose. That is why whenever they come in you or others
\nI try to lift up before them the gospel of faith. If
\nstill they come, one has to get through them as soon
\nas possible and get back into the sun. Your dream
\nof the sea was a perfectly true one\u2014in the end the
\nstorm and swell do not prevent the arrival of the
\nstate of Grace in the sadhak and with it the arrival
\nof the Grace itself. That, I suppose, is what something
\nin you is always asking for\u2014the supramental miracle
\nof Grace, something that is impatient of the demand
\nfor tapasya and self-perfection and long labour. Well, it can come, it has come to several here after
\nyears upon years of flat failure and difficulty or terrible struggles. But it comes usually in that way\u2014
\nas opposed to a slowly developing Grace\u2014after much
\ndifficulty and not at once. If you go on asking for <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 305 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nit in spite of the apparent failure of response, it is
\nsure to come…. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n9-4-1930 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\nFaith and Realisation<\/i> <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nNo surrender to the psychic being is demanded, the
\nsurrender is to the Divine. One approaches the
\nDivine through faith; concrete experience comes as
\na result of sadhana. One cannot demand a direct
\nexperience without doing anything to prepare the
\nconsciousness for it. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nIf one feels the call, one follows it\u2014if there is no
\ncall, then there is no need to seek the Divine. Faith
\nis sufficient to start with\u2014the idea that one must
\nfirst understand and realise before, one can seek is a
\nmental error and, if it were true, would make all
\nsadhana impossible\u2014realisation can come only as
\na result of sadhana, not as its preliminary. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n7-12-1936 <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 306<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nFaith and Experience\u2014Purification of Ego<\/i> <\/font>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nAs for experience being necessary for faith and no
\nfaith possible without it, that contradicts human
\npsychology altogether. Thousands of people have faith before they have experience. The doctrine "No belief without experience" would be disastrous
\nin spirituality or for that matter in the field of human
\naction. The saint or bhakta have the faith in God
\nlong before they have the experience of God\u2014the
\nman of action has the faith in his cause long before
\nhis cause is crowned with success, otherwise they
\ncould not have been able to struggle persistently
\ntowards their end in spite of defeat, failure and
\ndeadly peril. I don’t know what K means by true
\nfaith. For me faith is not intellectual belief but a
\nfunction of the soul; when my belief has faltered,
\nfailed, gone out, the soul has remained steadfast,
\nobstinately insisting, "This path and no other: the
\nTruth I have felt is the<\/i> Truth whatever the mind
\nmay .believe." On the other hand, experiences do
\nnot necessarily lead to faith. One sadhak writes to
\nme: "I feel the grace of the Mother descending into
\nme, but I can’t believe it because it may be
\nmy vital imagination." Another has experiences
\nfor years together, then falls down because he
\nhas, he says, "lost faith". All these things are not <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 307<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nmy imagination, they are facts and tell their own
\ntale. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nI certainly did not mean a moral but a spiritual
\nchange\u2014a moral man may be chock-full of ego, an
\nego increased by his own goodness and rectitude,
\nFreedom from ego is spiritually valuable because
\nthen one can be centred, no longer in one’s personal
\nself, but in the Divine. And that too is the condition of bhakti…. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nI don’t know what is K’s objection to emotion; it
\nhas its place, only it must not be always thrown outward but pressed inward so
\nas to open fully the psychic doors. What you say is perfectly correct\u2014I am glad
\nyou are becoming so lucid and clear-sighted,: the result surely of a psychic
\nchange. Ego is a very curious thing and in nothing more than in its way of
\nhiding itself and pretending it is not the ego. It can always hide even behind
\nan aspiration to serve the Divine. The only way is to chase it out of all its veils and corners. You are right also in thinking that: this is really the most important part of Yoga. The Rajayogis are right in putting purification in front of
\neverything\u2014as I was also right in putting it in front
\nalong with concentration in The Synthesis of Yoga.
\n<\/i>You have only to look about you to see that experiences and even realisations cannot bring one to the
\ngoal if this is not done\u2014at any moment they can fall <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 308<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nowing to the vital still being impure and full of
\nego. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nMarch, 1935 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\nOuter Faith and Inner Realisation<\/i> <\/font>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nWHAT you express in the letter is the right way
\nof thinking and seeing. The self-will of the mind
\nwanting things in its own way and not in the Divine’s
\nway was a great obstacle. With that gone, the way
\nshould become much less rough and hard to follow. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe outer being can grow in faith, fidelity to the
\nDivine, reverence, love, worship and adoration,
\ngreat things in themselves,\u2014though in fact these
\nthings too come from within\u2014but realisation can
\nonly take place when the inner being is awake with
\nits vision and feeling of things unseen. Till then,
\none can feel the results of the divine help and, if one
\nhas faith, know that they are the work of the Divine; but it is only then that one can feel clearly the Force
\nat work, the divine Presence, the direct communion. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n26-9-1944 <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 309<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nSense a\/Superiority in Yoga\u2014
\nFaith and Belief<\/i> <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nAs for the sense of superiority, that is a little difficult to avoid when greater horizons open before the
\nconsciousness, unless one is already of a saintly and
\nhumble disposition. There are men like Nag Mahashaya (among Sri Ramakrishna’s disciples) in whom
\nspiritual experience creates more and more humility; there are others like Vivekananda in whom it
\ncreates a great sense of strength and superiority \u2014European critics have taxed
\nhim with it rather
\nseverely; there are others in whom it fixes a sense of
\nsuperiority to men and humility to the Divine.
\nEach position has its value. Take Vivekananda’s famous answer to the Madras
\nPundit who objected
\nto one of his assertions saying, "But Shankara does not say so," to whom
\nVivekananda replied, "No,
\nbut I, Vivekananda, say so," and the Pundit was.
\nspeechless. That "I, Vivekananda," stands up to the
\nordinary eye like a Himalaya of self-confident
\negoism. But there was nothing false or unsound in Vivekananda’s spiritual
\nexperience. For this was
\nnot mere egoism, but the sense of what he stood for
\nand the attitude of the fighter who, as the representative of something very great, could not allow
\nhimself to be put down or belittled. This is not to <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 310<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\ndeny the necessity of non-egoism and of spiritual
\nhumility, but to show that the question is not
\nso easy as it appears at first sight. For if I have to
\nexpress my spiritual experiences I must do that with
\ntruth\u2014I must record them, their bhava,<\/i> their thoughts,
\nfeelings, extensions of consciousness which accompany them. What am I to do with the experience in
\nwhich one feels the whole world in oneself or the
\nforce of the Divine flowing in one’s being and
\nnature or the certitude of one’s faith against all
\ndoubts and doubters or one’s oneness with the Divine or the smallness of human
\nthought and life compared with this greater knowledge and existence?
\nAnd I have to use the word I\u2014I cannot take
\nrefuge in saying "This body" or "This appearance",
\nespecially as I am not a Mayavadin.<\/i> Shall I not,
\ntherefore, fall into expressions which will make K. S.
\nshake his head at my assertions as full of pride and
\nego? I imagine it would be difficult to avert it. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nAnother thing: it seems to me that you identify
\nfaith very much with the mental belief, but real
\nfaith is something spiritual, a knowledge of the
\nsoul. The assertions you quote in your letter are
\nthe hard assertions of mental belief leading to a
\ngreat vehement assertion of one’s mental creed and goal because they are one’s
\nown and must therefore be greater than those of others\u2014an attitude <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 311<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nwhich is universal in human nature. Even the
\natheist is not tolerant, but declares his credo of Nature and Matter as the only truth and on all who disbelieve it or believe in other things he pours scorn as unenlightened morons and superstitious half-wits. I bear him no grudge for thinking me
\nthat, but I note that this attitude is not confined
\nto religious faith but is equally natural to those
\nwho are free from religious faith and do not believe
\nin Gods or Gurus. You will not, I hope, mind my
\nputting the other side of the question; I want to
\npoint out that there is the other side, that there is
\nmuch more to be said than at first sight appears. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – <\/font>312<\/font><\/font><\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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