{"id":3872,"date":"2013-07-13T01:51:53","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3872"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:51:53","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:51:53","slug":"30-3-august-1955-vol-07-questions-and-answers-volume-07","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/02-works-of-the-mother\/01-cwmce\/07-questions-and-answers-volume-07\/30-3-august-1955-vol-07-questions-and-answers-volume-07","title":{"rendered":"-30_3 August 1955.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n3 August 1955<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/b>
\n<\/font> <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mother reads from Lights on Yoga, \u201cSurrender<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

and Opening\u201d. <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

What is \u201cthe true life-activity\u201d? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

It is to express the Divine. That is the
\nvery reason of existence and life, its truth and its sole true activity. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Sweet Mother, here Sri Aurobindo has said \u201cIt is impossible.\u201d Why? For
\nyou have said that nothing is impossible! <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Nothing is impossible in principle. But if
\none refuses to do what is necessary, obviously one cannot succeed.  <\/span><\/p>\n

In the material world there are
\nconditions, otherwise it would not be what it is. If there were no conditions
\nand processes, everything could be transformed and done miraculously. But
\nevidently it is not in this way that it was decided, because things don’t
\nhappen miraculously \u2013 in any case, not miracles as the human mind conceives of
\nthem, that is, constant arbitrary decisions. It is obvious that in the world
\nthere are no arbitrary decisions.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Sri Aurobindo says: In order to do such
\nand such a thing, these are the conditions. If you refuse to fulfil these
\nconditions you won’t do that particular thing, you will do something else;
\nthat, evidently, is not the only thing possible. But if that’s the thing one
\nwants to do, one must fulfil the conditions… One can do something else!  <\/span><\/p>\n

I believe that if you take the world in
\nits totality, in Time and Space, it is obvious that you can say, \u201cNothing is
\nimpossible\u201d, and that probably everything will be; but that’s in the totality,
\nand in Time and Space, that is, through eternities of time and infinities of space
\nall is possible. But at a given moment,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>Page \u2013 262<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

\n at a given point, there is a certain
\nnumber of \u201cpossibles\u201d, and all are not there, and certain conditions have to be
\nfulfilled for these possibilities to be realised. The world is constructed like
\nthat. We can do nothing about it. I mean it is useless to say, \u201cIt ought to be
\notherwise.\u201d It is like that, we must take it as it is, endeavour to make the
\nbest possible out of it.  <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Sweet Mother, here Sri Aurobindo has said: \u201cIf the inmost soul is
\nawakened, if there is a new birth out of the mere mental, vital and physical
\ninto the psychic consciousness, then this Yoga can be done\u2026 \u201c Why has he said
\n\u201cthe inmost soul\u201d? Is there a superficial soul? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It is because this inmost soul, that is,
\nthe central psychic being, influences the superficial parts of the
\nconsciousness (superficial in comparison with it: mental parts, vital parts).
\nThe purest mind, the highest vital, the emotive being \u2013 the soul influences
\nthem, influences them to an extent where one has the impression of entering
\ninto contact with it through these parts of the being. So people take these
\nparts for the soul and that is why he says \u201cthe inmost soul\u201d, that is, the
\ncentral soul, the real soul. <\/span><\/p>\n

For very often, when one touches certain
\nparts of the mind which are under the psychic influence and full of light and
\nthe joy of that light, or when one touches certain very pure and very high
\nparts of the emotive being which has the most generous, most unselfish emotions,
\none also has the impression of being in contact with one’s soul. But this is
\nnot the true soul, it is not the soul in its very essence. These are parts of
\nthe being under its influence and manifesting something of it. So, very often
\npeople enter into contact with these parts and this gives them illuminations,
\ngreat joy, revelations, and they feel they have found their soul. But it is
\nonly the part of the being under its influence, one part or another, for…
\nExactly what happens is that one touches these things, has experiences, and
\nthen it gets<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>Page \u2013 263<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 veiled, and one wonders, \u201cHow is it that I
\ntouched my soul and now have fallen back into this state of ignorance and
\ninconscience!\u201d But that’s because one had not touched one’s soul, one had touched
\nthose parts of the being which are under the influence of the soul and manifest
\nsomething of it, but are not it.  <\/span><\/p>\n

I have already said many times that when
\none enters consciously into contact with one’s soul and the union is
\nestablished, it is over, it can no longer be undone, it is something permanent,
\nconstant, which resists everything, and which, at any moment whatever, if
\nreferred to can be found; whereas the other things \u2013 one can have very fine
\nexperiences, and then it gets veiled again, and one tells oneself, \u201cHow does
\nthat happen? I saw my soul and now I don’t find it any more!\u201d It was not the
\nsoul one had seen. And these things are very beautiful and give you very
\nimpressive experiences, but this is not the contact with the psychic being itself.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

The contact with the psychic being is
\ndefinitive, and it is about this that I say, when people ask, \u201cDo I have a
\ncontact with my psychic being?\u201d, \u201cYour question itself proves that you don’t
\nhave it!\u201d  <\/span><\/p>\n

That’s all, my children? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Sweet Mother, I have heard that the magicians who use occult powers for
\ntheir work suffer a great deal after their death. Is it true? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

What sort of magicians are you speaking
\nabout? Any kind?  <\/span><\/p>\n

Those who have occult powers and use them
\nfor their personal interest? You mean these? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Yes. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

I don’t know whether they suffer after
\ntheir death or lose their consciousness, but in any case, obviously they are
\nnot in any state of peace or happiness, that’s absolutely certain. For it is<\/span><\/p>\n


\nPage –
\n264<\/span><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n a
\nkind of absolute rule from the spiritual point of view: it is by an inner
\ndiscipline and by consecration to the Divine that the powers come to you. But
\nif with your aspiration, your discipline and consecration, an ambition is mixed
\nup, that is, an intention to obtain powers, then if they come to you it is
\nalmost like a curse. Usually they don’t come to you, but something vital which
\ntries to imitate them comes to you with adverse influences which put you
\nentirely under the domination of beings who give you powers simply with the
\nintention of making use of you, using you to do all the work they have the
\nintention of doing, and to create all the disorder they want to create. And
\nwhen they find that you have served them enough and are no longer good for
\nanything, they just destroy you. They may not be able to destroy you physically
\nbecause they don’t always have the power to do it, but they destroy you
\nmentally, vitally and in your consciousness, and after that you are good for nothing,
\neven before dying. And after death, as you are entirely under their influence,
\nthe first thing they do is to swallow you up, because this is their way of
\nmaking use of people \u2013 to swallow them. So it cannot be a very pleasant
\nexperience. It is a very, very, very dangerous game.  <\/span><\/p>\n

But everywhere, in all the teachings, in
\nall the disciplines, in all ages, the same thing has been repeated: that one
\nmust never intermingle ambition and personal interest with the sadhana,
\notherwise he is inviting trouble. So it is not only a particular case, it is
\nall the instances of this kind which have fatal consequences. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Sweet Mother, are there any magicians who do not work magic for their
\npersonal interest? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

You mean magical rites? Because, you see,
\nyou must not mix up magic with occultism.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Occultism is a science and it is the
\nknowledge of invisible forces and the capacity<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>Page \u2013 265<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

  to handle them, as one has the
\ncapacity of handling material forces if one has studied them scientifically.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Magic: these are different kinds of
\nprocesses which were fixed probably by people who had a certain knowledge, and
\nstill more a certain power of vital formation. These things can be learnt
\nwithout having any special capacity, that is, someone who has no inner power can
\nlearn this as he learns chemistry, for example, or mathematics. It is one of
\nthe things which are learnt like that, it is not a thing one acquires. So it
\ndoesn’t itself carry any special virtues except the same kind of qualities as
\nthose one learns through chemical manipulations. You may reproduce these
\nmanipulations, but if you are an intelligent and capable being, you can by the
\nhelp of these manipulations obtain an interesting and useful result, and in any
\ncase, be sheltered from all danger; whereas if you are an idiot, misfortunes
\nmay come to you. It is something similar.  <\/span><\/p>\n

With the help of magical formulas one may
\nproduce a certain result, but this result is necessarily limited and has no
\nparticular interest for those who, through their inner development,
\nspontaneously receive powers of which they have a higher knowledge, not a
\nmechanical one. It is not for someone who is truly a yogi; it has no interest
\nexcept that of curiosity. It is interesting only for people who are precisely
\nnot yogis and who want to have certain powers which, in fact, they have in a
\nvery limited way \u2013 it is always limited.  <\/span><\/p>\n

What is special about it is that it has a
\ndirect action upon matter; while usually, apart from some rare exceptions, with
\npeople who have spiritual powers, yogic powers, it acts through the
\nintermediary of the mental forces usually \u2013 either spiritual or mental forces \u2013
\nsometimes of the vital forces (more rarely), but not directly upon matter,
\nexcept naturally with those who have done yoga in matter, but these are
\nexceptional cases of which one doesn’t speak. These things put into motion
\ncertain small entities which are usually the result of the decomposition of
\nhuman beings and yet have a sufficient contact with the material<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>Page \u2013 266<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

  world to be able to act there. But
\nanyhow, if the action is of a lower order, the power is of a lower order, and
\nit is something almost repugnant for one who is truly in relation with the
\nhigher forces.  <\/span><\/p>\n

To act in order to accomplish a work with
\nthe spontaneous powers of spiritual realisation, that is well understood. But
\none may say that everybody does that, because just the fact of thinking means
\nthat you are acting invisibly; and according to the power of your thought your
\naction is more or less wide-spread. But to use small magical formulas to obtain
\na result is something that has no true relation with the spiritual life. From
\nthe spiritual point of view it appears even surprising that these things can
\nalways prove effective, because for each case the need is different; and how
\nputting together certain words and making certain signs can always have an
\neffect seems surprising. <\/span><\/p>\n

When one wants to act spiritually and for
\nsome reason or other it is necessary, for example, to formulate words, the
\nwords come spontaneously and are exactly the words needed for the particular
\noccasion. But things written beforehand which one repeats mechanically most of
\nthe time, without even knowing what one is saying and why one is saying it \u2013 it
\nis difficult to see how this can always work. There is bound to be a great
\nimprecision in the action. And one thing is certain, that this same formula
\ncannot have exactly the same effect, and that one factor is indispensable for
\nit to take effect: fear. The first thing is a kind of fear, a fright created in
\nthe person against whom the magic is done; for if he has no fear I am quite
\nsure that it cannot have any effect or has so ridiculously small an effect that
\nit’s not worth speaking about it.  <\/span><\/p>\n

What opens the door to the action of these
\nforces is fear, a kind of apprehension, the feeling that something is going to
\nhappen; and it is these vibrations of fear which put out certain forces from
\nyou, forces which give these entities the power to act.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Sweet Mother, there are people who do hypnotism.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span>Page \u2013 267<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

Then, when they always practise it on the same person, does that person
\nfall ill after a while? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Not necessarily ill. It depends on the
\nkind of hypnotism and hypnotiser. Not necessarily ill. One thing is certain,
\nthat this person loses his personal will, that the hypnotiser’s will takes the
\nplace of the personal will, otherwise it would not work. But not necessarily
\nill, terribly dependent! It creates almost a kind of slavery. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

(Long
\nsilence<\/i>)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It is very difficult to say, because it depends
\nentirely on the hypnotiser and the hypnotised, and how it is done. In its
\nordinary outer form it is something that can cause much disturbance.  <\/span><\/p>\n

But there can be a spontaneous hypnotism
\nwhich may be the expression of a divine force, but then that does not work in
\nthe ordinary way.  <\/span><\/p>\n

I think there are as many cases as people.
\nIt’s like every other thing. If you put scientific knowledge in the hands of
\nignorant and stupid people, it can produce catastrophes. And if to this is
\nadded the fact that they are people with ill-will or those who have personal
\nmotives, then the results are as bad as can be. It’s the same with hypnotism.
\nIt depends exclusively upon the one practising it and how he practises it.  <\/span><\/p>\n

It’s not something genuine; like all
\nso-called human knowledge, it is not true, but the deformation of something.  <\/span><\/p>\n

It could be said that if the divine Will
\nworks in you, you can call it hypnotism, if you like, and yet it is the supreme
\nGood, you see. <\/span><\/p>\n

 But what is usually called hypnotism
\nis a completely blind and ignorant action: the use of the power of a force
\nwhich one doesn’t even know very well. So naturally it has unfortunate results;
\nand then, as I say, if it falls into the hands of someone who is unscrupulous
\nor has bad intentions, it becomes altogether disastrous. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>Page \u2013 260<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

3 August 1955 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mother reads from Lights on Yoga, \u201cSurrender and Opening\u201d.   What is \u201cthe true life-activity\u201d?   It is to express the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-07-questions-and-answers-volume-07","wpcat-112-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3872","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=3872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}