{"id":3876,"date":"2013-07-13T01:51:55","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3876"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:51:55","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:51:55","slug":"28-20-july-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\/28-20-july-1955-vol-07-questions-and-answers-volume-07","title":{"rendered":"-28_20 July 1955.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n20 July 1955<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/b>
\n<\/font> <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

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

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

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

  <\/span><\/p>\n

What does \u201cto seek after the Impersonal\u201d mean? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Oh! It’s very much in fashion in the West,
\nmy child. All those who are tired or disgusted with the God taught by the
\nChaldean religions, and especially by the Christian religion \u2013 a single God,
\njealous, severe, despotic and so much in the image of man that one wonders if
\nit is not a demiurge as Anatole France said \u2013 these people when they want to
\nlead a spiritual life no longer want the personal God, because they are too
\nfrightened lest the personal God resemble the one they have been taught about;
\nthey want an impersonal Godhead, something that doesn’t at all resemble \u2013 or as
\nlittle as possible \u2013 the human being; that’s what they want.  <\/span><\/p>\n

But Sri Aurobindo says \u2013 something he has
\nalways said \u2013 that there are the godheads of the Overmind who indeed are very
\nsimilar \u2013 we have said this several times \u2013 very similar to human beings,
\ninfinitely greater and more powerful but with resemblances which are a little
\ntoo striking. Beyond these there is the impersonal Godhead, the impersonal
\nDivine; but beyond the impersonal Divine there is the Divine who is the Person
\nhimself; and we must go through the Impersonal to reach the Supreme Divine who
\nis beyond.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Only it is good, as I said, for those who
\nhave been put by education into contact with too individual, too personal a
\nGod, to seek the impersonal Divine, because this liberates them from many
\nsuperstitions. After that if they are capable they will go farther and have
\nonce again a personal contact with a Divine who indeed is beyond all these
\nother godheads.  <\/span><\/p>\n

So that’s it.  <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 244<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

Sweet Mother, how can we escape from other people’s influence? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

By concentrating more and more totally and
\ncompletely on the Divine. If you aspire with all your ardour, if you want to
\nreceive only the divine influence, if all the time you pull back towards
\nyourself what is taken, caught by other influences and with your will put it
\nunder the divine influence, you succeed in doing it. It’s a work that can’t be
\ndone in a day, in a minute; you must be vigilant for a very long time, for
\nyears; but one can succeed.  <\/span><\/p>\n

First of all you must will it.  <\/span><\/p>\n

For all things, first you must understand,
\nwill, and then begin to practise \u2013 begin by just a very little. When you catch
\nyourself in the act of doing something because someone else wanted it or
\nbecause you are not very sure of what you want to do and are in the habit of
\ndoing what this one or that one or tradition or customs make you do \u2013 because,
\namong the influences under which you live, there are collective suggestions,
\nsocial traditions, many!… Social habits are something terrible; your
\nconsciousness is stuffed with them from the time you are quite small; when a
\nbaby you are already told: \u201cThis should be done, that should not be done, you
\nmust do this in this way, you must not do it in that way\u201d, and all that; these
\nare ideas which usually parents or teachers have received in the same way when
\nthey were very young and to which they are accustomed and submit by habit;
\nthese are the most dangerous influences because they are subtle, they are not
\nexpressed outwardly by words; your head was stuffed with them and your feelings
\nand reactions, when you were very small, and it is only later, much later, when
\nyou begin to reflect and try to know what the truth is… as soon as you
\nunderstand that there is something which must be put above all the rest, that
\nthere is something which can truly teach you to live, which must form your
\ncharacter, rule your movements… when you understand that, you can look at
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 245<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

yourself doing, objectivise yourself,
\nlaugh a little at all those multiple small bondages of habit, traditions, the
\neducation you have received, and then put the light, consciousness, aspiration
\nfor surrender to the Divine on these things, and try to receive the divine
\ninspiration to do things as it’s necessary, not according to habits, not
\naccording to one’s vital impulses, not according to all the vital impulses and
\npersonal wills which one receives from others and which push him to do things
\nwhich perhaps he would not have done without all that. <\/span><\/p>\n

One must observe all these things, look at
\nthem attentively and put them one after another in front of the divine Truth as
\none can receive it \u2013 it is progressive, one receives it purer and purer,
\nstronger and stronger, more and more clear-sightedly \u2013 put all these things
\nbefore it and with an absolute sincerity will that this may guide you and
\nnothing else. You do this once, a hundred times, a thousand times, millions of
\ntimes and after years of sustained effort you can gradually become aware that
\nat last you are a free being \u2013 because this is what’s remarkable: that when one
\nis perfectly surrendered to the Divine one is perfectly free, and this is the
\nabsolute condition for freedom, to belong to the Divine alone; you are free
\nfrom the whole world because you belong only to Him. And this surrender is the
\nsupreme liberation, you are also free from your little personal ego and of all
\nthings this is the most difficult \u2013 and the happiest too, the only thing that
\ncan give you a constant peace, an uninterrupted joy and the feeling of an
\ninfinite freedom from all that afflicts you, dwarfs, diminishes, impoverishes
\nyou, and from all that can create the least anxiety in you, the least fear. You
\nare no longer afraid of anything, you no longer fear anything, you are the
\nsupreme master of your destiny because it is the Divine who wills in you and
\nguides everything. But this does not happen overnight: a little time and a
\ngreat deal of ardour in the will, not fearing to make any effort and not losing
\nheart when one doesn’t succeed, knowing that the victory is certain and that
\none must last out until it comes. There you are.\u00a0 <\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 246<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

 Sweet Mother, what is meant by \u201cthe Divine gives Himself\u201d? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It means exactly this: that the more you
\ngive yourself the more you have the experience \u2013 it is not just a feeling or
\nimpression or sensation, it is a total experience \u2013 that the more you give
\nyourself to the Divine the more He is with you, totally, constantly, at every
\nminute, in all your thoughts, all your needs, and that there’s no aspiration
\nwhich does not receive an immediate answer; and you have the sense of a
\ncomplete, constant intimacy, of a total nearness. It is as though you
\ncarried… as though the Divine were all the time with you; you walk and He
\nwalks with you, you sleep and He sleeps with you, you eat and He eats with you,
\nyou think and He thinks with you, you love and He is the love you have. But for
\nthis one must give himself entirely, totally, exclusively, reserve nothing,
\nkeep nothing for himself and not keep back anything, not disperse anything
\nalso: the least little thing in your being which is not given to the Divine is
\na waste; it is the wasting of your joy, something that lessens your happiness
\nby that much, and all that you don’t give to the Divine is as though you were
\nholding it in the way of the possibility of the Divine’s giving Himself to you.
\nYou don’t feel Him close to yourself, constantly with you, because you don’t
\nbelong to Him, because you belong to hundreds of other things and people; in
\nyour thought, your action, your feelings, impulses… there are millions of
\nthings which you do not give Him, and that is why you don’t feel Him always
\nwith you, because all these things are so many screens and walls between Him
\nand you. But if you give Him everything, if you keep back nothing, He will be
\nconstantly and totally with you in all that you do, in all that you think, all
\nthat you feel, always, at each moment. But for this you must give yourself
\nabsolutely, keep back nothing; each little thing that you hold back is a stone
\nyou put down to build up a wall between t he Divine and yourself. And then
\nlater you complain: \u201cOh, I don’t feel Him!\u201d What would be <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 247<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

surprising is that you could feel
\nHim.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 That’s all?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

What exactly is meant by \u201cthe impersonal Divine\u201d? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It’s what is called in some philosophies
\nand religions the Formless; something that’s beyond all form, even the forms of
\nthought, you see, not necessarily physical forms: forms of thought, forms of
\nmovement. It is the conception of something which is beyond not only what can
\nbe thought or conceived or seen even with the most subtle eyes, but all that
\nhas any kind of perceptible form whatever, even vibrations more subtle than
\nthose which infinitely overpass all human perceptions, even in the highest
\nstates of being, something which is beyond all manifestation of any order
\nwhatever \u2013 usually that’s how we define the impersonal God. He has nothing,
\nnone of the qualities we can conceive of, He is beyond all qualification. It is
\nobviously the quest of something which is the opposite of the creation, and
\nthat is why some religions have introduced the idea of what they call Nirvana,
\nthat is, of something which is nothing; it is the same quest, the same attempt
\nto find something which would be the opposite of all that we can conceive. So
\nfinally we define It, because how can we speak of It? But in experience one
\ntries to go beyond all that belongs to the manifested world, and that is what
\nwe call the impersonal Divine.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Well, it happens \u2013 and this is very
\ninteresting \u2013 that there is a region like that, a region which… how to put
\nit?… which is the negation of all that exists. Behind all the planes of
\nbeing, even behind the physical, there is a Nirvana. We use the word Nirvana
\nbecause it is easier, but we can say, \u201cThere is an impersonal Divine behind the
\nphysical, behind the mind, behind the vital, behind all the regions of being;
\nbehind, beyond.\u201d (We are obliged to express ourselves in some sort of way.) It
\nis not necessarily more subtle, it’s something else, something absolutely <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 248<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

different; that is, in a meditation, for
\nexample, if you meditate on Nirvana you can remain in a region of your mind and
\nby a certain concentration produce a kind of reversal of your consciousness and
\nfind yourself suddenly in something which is Nirvana, non-existence; and yet in
\nthe ascent of your consciousness you have not gone beyond the mind.  <\/span><\/p>\n

One can have a little understanding of
\nthese things if one knows the multiplicity of dimensions, if one has understood
\nthis principle. First of all you are taught the fourth dimension. If you have
\nunderstood that principle, of the dimensions, you can understand this. For
\nexample, as I said, you don’t need to exteriorise yourself to go from one plane
\nto another, when going to the most subtle planes to pass from the last most
\nsubtle plane to what we call Nirvana \u2013 to express it somehow. It is not
\nnecessary. You can, through a kind of interiorisation and by passing into
\nanother dimension or other dimensions… you can find in any domain whatever of
\nyour being this non-existence. And truly, one can understand a little bit of
\nthis without experiencing it. It is very difficult, but still, even without the
\nexperience one can understand just a little, if one understands this, this
\nprinciple of the inner dimensions. <\/span><\/p>\n

(Silence<\/i>) <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It can be put like this (you see, it’s one
\nway of saying it) that you carry within yourself both existence and
\nnon-existence at the same time, the personal and the impersonal, and… yes…
\nthe manifest and unmanifest… the finite and the infinite… time and
\neternity. And all that is in this tiny little body.  <\/span><\/p>\n

There are people who go beyond \u2013 even
\nmentally, you see… their mental atmosphere goes beyond their body, even their
\nvital atmosphere goes beyond their body \u2013 there are people whose consciousness
\nis vast enough to extend over continents and even over other earths and other
\nworlds, but this is a spatial concept. Yet by an interiorisation in other
\ndimensions, the <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 249<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

fourth and more, you can find all this in
\nyourself, in one point… the infinite. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Then Mother, isn’t the infinite an extension of space? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, no! That’s the indefinite, not the
\ninfinite.  <\/span><\/p>\n

The infinite is the opposite of the
\nfinite. One can contain in himself the most finite finite and the most infinite
\ninfinite; in fact one does contain them, perhaps even in each one of the cells
\nof the brain.  <\/span><\/p>\n

(Silence<\/i>)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>Mother, is there any difference in the experience when one attains the
\nImpersonal by his own effort and when he attains it by surrendering to the
\nMother? <\/span><\/i>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

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

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Yes, there is a difference.  <\/span><\/p>\n

(Silence<\/i>)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

There would not be a difference, perhaps,
\nif the goal to be reached was the impersonal Divine and if one wanted to be
\nidentified and united with the impersonal Divine and dissolve in that. I think
\nthat in this case there wouldn’t be any difference. But if the aspiration is to
\nrealise what is beyond, we said, what Sri Aurobindo has called the supramental
\nReality, then here there’s a difference, not only a difference in the path, for
\nthat’s quite evident (it depends on different temperaments, besides), but if
\nsomeone can truly know what surrender is and total trust, then it is infinitely
\neasier, three-fourths of the worry and difficulties are over.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Now it is true that it can be said that
\none may find a very special difficulty in this surrender. This is true, that’s
\nwhy I said that it depends absolutely on the temperament. But it’s not only <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 250<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

that. If you like it may be compared to
\nthe difference between something linear which terminates in a point and a
\nspherical path which terminates in a totality; a totality, that is, nothing
\nwould be excluded from the totality. Each one, individually, can reach the
\nOrigin and the utmost of his being; the origin and the utmost of his being are
\none with the Eternal, Infinite and Supreme. Therefore, if you reach this
\norigin, you reach the Supreme. But you reach there by a line (don’t take my
\nwords for an adequate description, you know, it’s only to make myself
\nunderstood). It is a linear realisation which ends in a point, and this point
\nis united with the Supreme \u2013 your utmost possibility. By the other path it is a
\nrealisation which may be called spherical, because that gives best the idea of
\nsomething containing all, and the realisation is no longer a point but a
\ntotality from which nothing is excluded.  <\/span><\/p>\n

I can’t speak of the \u201cwhole\u201d and the
\n\u201cpart\u201d, because there’s no division any longer. It’s not like that, it’s not
\nthat. But it is the quality of the approach, so to say, which is different. It
\nis like saying that a perfect identification with one drop of water would make
\nyou know what the ocean is and what a perfect identification not only with the
\nocean but with all possible oceans. And yet with a perfect identification with
\none drop of water one could know the ocean in its essence, and in the other way
\none could know the ocean not only in its essence but in its totality. Something
\nlike that… I am trying to express it… It is very difficult but it’s like
\nthat, there is something, there is a difference… It could be said that all
\nthat was individualised preserves at once the virtue of individuality and what
\nmight be called in a certain sense the limitations necessary to this
\nindividuality, when one relies only on his personal strength. In the other case
\none can benefit by the virtues of individuality without being under its
\nlimitations. This is almost philosophy, so it’s no longer very clear. But (laughing<\/i>) that’s all I can say.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Nothing else? No?  <\/span><\/p>\n

I think that’s enough!
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 251<\/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":"

20 July 1955 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mother reads from Lights on Yoga, \u201cSurrender and Opening\u201d.    What does \u201cto seek after the Impersonal\u201d mean?   Oh! It’s…<\/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-3876","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\/3876","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=3876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3876\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}