{"id":3893,"date":"2013-07-13T01:52:01","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3893"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:52:01","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:52:01","slug":"25-29-june-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\/25-29-june-1955-vol-07-questions-and-answers-volume-07","title":{"rendered":"-25_29 June 1955.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n
\n29 June 1955 <\/span><\/font> <\/b><\/p>\n

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

Mother reads from Lights on Yoga, \u201cPlanes and<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

Parts of the Being\u201d. <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Sweet Mother, has the vital nature of man come out from his true vital
\nbeing? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Come out? What do you call coming out? You
\nmean that first there was the true vital being and that this expresses itself
\nin the physical nature, the earth nature, by the vital which we see? Yes! <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Mother, why is it so contradictory? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Why is the external world so total a
\ncontradiction of the divine world? It is exactly the same thing. It is like
\nthat.  <\/span><\/p>\n

The vital being, the true vital being
\nwhich Sri Aurobindo describes, is the vital being which is in contact with the
\nDivine, which is entirely surrendered to the Divine and is His instrument;
\nwhereas in the ordinary earth consciousness the vital being and also the
\nphysical being do not at all belong to the Divine, they think they belong to
\nthemselves, and the only thing that counts is their own little person; and that
\nis why everything is like this. All the disorder in the universe is due to
\nthat. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Sweet Mother, here it is written: \u201cthere is… a true physical being.\u201d
\nWhat does this mean? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

There is a physical Nature which is
\nperfectly harmonious, which has an absolutely… how to put it… yes,
\nharmonious working, without any disorder, without disequilibrium, without any
\nrupture of harmony, which would be expressed, if it existed upon earth, by a
\nperfect health, a growing force, a continuous progress; and then all that one
\nwould like to obtain from one’s <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 217<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

body one would obtain; and this can go as
\nfar as an almost unimaginable progress of perfection.  <\/span><\/p>\n

The physical state as we see it with all
\nits disharmonies, its weaknesses, its uglinesses, is the same deformation as
\nthat which has changed the higher vital, the true vital, into the kind of vital
\nwe see. And this comes from the same cause: it is cut off from its Origin, with
\nan acute sense of separation which makes one live in an absolutely obscure consciousness
\nwhich has become totally ignorant, instead of living constantly in the
\nconsciousness of one’s Origin. Now, to ask why it is like that is to ask too
\nmuch.  <\/span><\/p>\n

That’s all? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

I didn’t understand very well, Sweet Mother<\/span><\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

You haven’t understood what the true
\nphysical is, because it is not a question of understanding. One is not
\nconscious of it because one is not inside it, one doesn’t live in it. But can’t
\nyou conceive of a body which would be perfectly beautiful, perfectly harmonious,
\nwhich would function perfectly well and would never be ill, never tired, and
\nwould be in a state of constant progress? First it would become taller and
\ntaller until it reaches its maximum height, and then it would become stronger
\nand stronger, more and more skilful, more and more conscious, and always in a
\nperfect harmony: never any illness and never any fatigue, never any error,
\nmaking no mistakes, knowing exactly at each moment what ought to be done and
\nwhy. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Mother, it is said that there is a true being… but usually when one
\nspeaks of the physical it means material, concerning the body, doesn’t it? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

For the moment there is no true being in
\nthe most material domain. It is only a kind of subtle prototype which is not
\nmaterially realised. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 218<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

(To
\nanother child<\/i>) You have something to ask? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Mother, are Time and Space particular only to the physical world or to
\nother worlds also? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

As there are forms, there is necessarily a
\nTime, a Space, but it is not at all the same as the physical. It is neither the
\nsame Time nor the same Space.  <\/span><\/p>\n

For example, as soon as you come to the
\nvital there is a Time and Space which are similar to the physical but without
\nthat fixity and hardness and irremediability which are here. That is, for
\ninstance, in the vital a strong intelligent will has an immediate action; here,
\nin the physical, it takes sometimes extremely long to be realised, an entire
\nprocess has to be followed. In the vital it is direct, the will acts directly
\non the circumstances, and if it is truly of a very strong kind, it is
\ninstantaneous. But there is still a Space, that is, one has the impression of
\nmoving to go from one place to another, and that necessarily, as one moves, a
\ncertain time intervenes; but it is an extremely short time compared with
\nphysical time.  <\/span><\/p>\n

On the mental plane the notion of Time
\ndisappears almost totally. For example, you are in your mental consciousness,
\nyou think of someone or something or of a place, and immediately you are there.
\nThere is no need of any time between the thought and the realisation. It is
\nonly when the mind is mingled with the vital that the notion of time is
\nintroduced; and if they go down into the physical, before a mental conception
\ncan be realised a whole process is necessary. You do not have a direct mental
\naction on matter. For instance, if you think of someone who lives in <\/span>
\nCalcutta<\/span>, well, physically you have to take a
\nplane and some hours must pass before you can be there; while mentally if you
\nare here and think of someone in <\/span>Calcutta<\/span>, instantaneously you are there with him.
\nInstantaneously, you see. But if you go out in the vital from your body and
\nwant to go somewhere, well, you have the feeling of moving, and of the<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 219<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

time it takes you to reach the place you
\nare going to. But it is incomparably fast in relation to the physical, to the
\ntime necessary to do things physically.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Only right at the top of the ladder, when
\none reaches what could be called the centre of the universe, the centre and
\norigin of the universe, everything is instantaneous. The past, present and
\nfuture are all contained in a total and simultaneous consciousness, that is,
\nwhat has always been and what will be are as though united in a single instant,
\na single beat of the universe, and it is only there that one goes out of Time
\nand Space. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Mother, you said that if we think mentally of something we are
\nimmediately in the presence of that thing, but if, for example, we think
\nmentally of something higher, of the Divine, for example… <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

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

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Are we immediately in His Presence? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, but only that part of the thought,
\nnot your body. That’s just what I said. In the mental domain it is like that;
\nif one concentrates on the Divine and thinks of the Divine, the part… I don’t
\nsay the whole thought, because thought is multiple and divided, but the part
\nwhich is sincerely concentrated on the Divine is with Him. It does some good
\nbut not very much when this part is mixed with all the others which think of
\nhundreds of different things at the same time, or when it goes down into the
\nbody, is all tied up precisely to that frightful slowness of material things,
\nand when we have to take so many steps only to go from here to the door.  <\/span><\/p>\n

In the vital with a leap one can be there;
\nmentally there is no need even of a leap.  <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 220<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

On the psychic plane is there a past, present and future? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

In the psychic? Yes, you have even the
\nconsciousness of all the lives you have lived. When you enter into contact with
\nthe psychic you become conscious of all the lives you have lived, it keeps the
\nabsolutely living memory of all the events in which the psychic took part \u2013 not
\nthe whole life, not that one can tell little stories to oneself: that first one
\nwas a monkey and then later something a little higher, and so on, the
\ncave-man… no, no stories like that. But all the events of former lives in
\nwhich the psychic participated are preserved, and when one enters into
\nconscious contact with his psychic being this can be called up like a sort of
\ncinema. But it has no continuity except in lives in which the psychic is
\nabsolutely conscious, active, permanently active, that is, constantly
\nassociated with the consciousness; so naturally, being constantly associated
\nwith the consciousness, it consciously remembers everything that has happened
\nin the real life of the person, and the memories \u2013 when one follows these
\nthings \u2013 the memories of his psychic being are more and more coordinated and
\ncloser and closer to what could be a physical memory if there were one, in any
\ncase of all the intellectual and emotional elements of life, and of some
\nphysical events when it was possible for this being to manifest in the outer
\nconsciousness; then, at these moments, the whole set of physical circumstances
\nin which one was is kept absolutely intact in the consciousness.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Mother, here Sri Aurobindo speaks of \u201cthe psychic behind supporting
\nall\u201d. What does this mean? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Well, yes, the psychic is behind the whole
\norganisation, this triple organisation of human life and consciousness, the psychic
\nis behind and supports it by its consciousness which is an immortal one. It is
\nbecause of the psychic that we have so clear <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 221<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

a sense of continuity. Otherwise if you
\ncompare what you now are with what you were when you were three, obviously you
\ncouldn’t recognise yourself in any way, either physically or vitally or
\nmentally. There is no resemblance of any kind. But behind there is the psychic
\nwhich supports the development, the growth of the being and gives this continuity
\nof consciousness, makes one feel that he is the same being even while being
\nabsolutely different, absolutely different. If later one observes himself
\nsufficiently, he can see that the things he understood and could do at that
\ntime are things which seem to him absolutely inconceivable now, and that he
\ncould never do a similar thing because he is no longer that person at all. And
\nyet, because within there was the psychic consciousness which is immortal, one
\nhas the feeling that it is always the same being which was there and continues
\nto be there and will continue to be there with more or less progressive and
\nmore or less conscious changes. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Mother, is the orientation of an individual’s life directed by the
\npsychic? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Yes. Absolutely unconsciously for the
\nindividual, most of the time; but it is the psychic which organises his
\nexistence \u2013 only in what may be called the main lines, because for intervening
\nin the details there would have to be a conscious union between the outer
\nbeing, that is, the vital and physical being, and the psychic being, but
\nusually this does not exist. So externally, in the details… for example,
\nthere was someone who in deep perplexity said to me, \u201cWell, if it is the
\npsychic being or rather the Divine in the psychic who directs our life, is it
\nHe who decides the number of pieces of sugar I put in my tea-cup?\u201d That was the
\nquestion, verbatim. So the answer had to be, \u201cNo, because it is not a detailed
\nintervention of this kind.\u201d  <\/span><\/p>\n

It is as when you push your fist into a
\nheap of iron filings or saw-dust, all the infinitesimal little elements of the
\niron filings or saw-dust are organised to take on the form of your fist, but <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 222<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

they do not do this either deliberately or
\nconsciously. It is through the work of the consciousness which pushes that this
\nkind of thing happens. There is no decision that each element is going to be
\nexactly in this place, like that; it is the effect of the energy which has
\npushed the fist that organises the elements. But that’s how it is. There is the
\npsychic consciousness at work in life, organising all the circumstances of your
\nlife but not with a deliberate choice of the details; and in fact very few
\nthings are deliberate and conscious in the organisation of the physical life of
\nhuman beings. Most of the time that’s what happens. If you ask someone, \u201cWhy
\nhave you done this?\u201d \u2013 \u201cThat’s how it happened.\u201d It is always like that:
\n\u201cThat’s how it happened.\u201d At least seventy-five times out of a hundred. Only,
\none is so used to going, moving, and doing things like that that one doesn’t
\neven notice it. But if one begins to observe himself, he sees that it is true.
\nThere are very few things which were the result of a clear and willed decision,
\nvery few, only what one considers important things, and even here there is a
\nwide margin. The amount of inconscience that’s mixed with the physical
\nconsciousness is tremendous, but because we are used to it we do not notice it.
\nBut as soon as you begin to analyse, look, study, you are terrified. How many
\ntimes you are just faced with a question. You see, you do things automatically,
\nby habit, perhaps sometimes by choice \u2013 sometimes, but suddenly you find
\nyourself facing an absolutely insignificant detail: \u201cShould I do this or should
\nI do that?\u201d Simply this. You can take very small things like… you are in the
\ncourse of eating, and you ask yourself, \u201cShould I continue eating or should I
\nstop?\u201d How many times can you take a motivated and conscious decision? And you
\nsuddenly realise, \u201cWhy, I know nothing about it\u201d, and \u201cI don’t know; I can do
\nthis, I can do that; I can do that and that and that. But what will choose in
\nme?\u201d Unless you have mental constructions. But then if you have mental
\nconstructions ruling your life, you don’t even ask yourself these questions,
\nyou live like an automaton, in a habitual routine you have made for  <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 223<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

yourself. But it’s not just once, it
\nhappens a thousand times daily.  <\/span><\/p>\n

For example, you are in contact with
\nsomeone, you have very good feelings for this person; you find yourself in a
\nslightly difficult circumstance and want to do the best possible. If you act
\nspontaneously, there is no problem before you because you act like that, one
\nthing trailing another, and without reflecting. And you consciously want to do
\nthe best… On what will you base your judgment? What knowledge will allow you
\nto decide: \u201cI must do this or I must do that, I must say this or I must say that
\nor I must not say anything\u201d \u2013 all the countless possibilities which come before
\nyou? And on what will you base your judgment? If you look at it sincerely, you
\nwill find out that at each step you do not know.  <\/span><\/p>\n

It is only if you have been in the habit
\nof going within yourself, of referring to the inner psychic consciousness and
\nletting it decide in yourself what you want to do, that you do it with
\ncertitude, without hesitation, without a question, nothing. You know that this
\nis what must be done and there is no question about it; but that’s the only
\ncase. Therefore it is only when you let your psychic guide you consciously,
\nconstantly, that you are able to do consciously and constantly the right thing;
\nbut that’s the only case.  <\/span><\/p>\n

In the other case, if you have made it a
\nhabit to study and observe, you have before you all the little things of life
\nwhich recur constantly. You don’t want to live mechanically by a kind of habit,
\nyou want to live consciously, making use of your will. Well, at every minute
\nyou are facing a problem which you can’t solve, I mean purely physically. Take
\na certain difficulty you have in your body \u2013 what we call a disorder \u2013 which is
\nexpressed by an uneasiness or an indisposition; it is not an illness, it is an
\nindisposition, it is an uneasiness, there is something that’s not working very
\nwell. Then if you don’t have the psychic knowledge which makes you directly do
\nthe thing which ought to be done and without any argument, if you want to refer <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 224<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

the thing to your mind and to what you
\nconsider to be the knowledge you have, then… Take a case which lies in the
\nfield of medicine, that is, \u201cShould I do this or that, take this medicine or
\nthat, change the diet, take this food or that?\u201d… Then you look. If you have
\nnever known more than a certain number of very primary principles, your choice
\nis very easy, but if by chance you have studied a little and know if it be only
\nthe different medical systems of treatment… there are the systems of
\ndifferent countries, the different systems of medicines, there are, you know,
\nallopathy, homeopathy, this one and that; so one tells you one thing, another
\ntells you another. You know people who have told you, \u201cDon’t do this, do that\u201d,
\nothers who say, \u201cAbove all don’t do this, do that\u201d, and so on, and so you find
\nyourself facing the problem and ask yourself, \u201cWell, with all that, what do I
\nknow myself, what am I going to decide? I know nothing.\u201d  <\/span><\/p>\n

There is only one thing which knows in
\nyou, that’s your psychic;\u00a0 <\/span>makes no
\nmistake, it will immediately, instantaneously tell you, if you obey it without
\na word and without your ideas and arguments, it will make you do the right
\nthing. But all the rest… you are lost. And for everything: what are you going
\nto study, what are you not going to study, what work are you going to do, what
\npath are you going to take? But then there are all the possibilities which come
\nin, all that you have either studied or met in life, all the suggestions you
\nhave received from all sides, which are there, like that, dancing around you.
\nAnd with what will you decide? I am speaking of people who are absolutely
\nsincere and have no preconceived ideas, prejudices, established rules which
\nthey follow in a mechanical routine, without endeavouring to know the truth at
\nall, and for whom their mental construction is the truth. Then it is so simple,
\none goes straight on his path, bumps his nose against the wall but doesn’t
\nnotice it until the nose is smashed. But otherwise it is terribly difficult.  <\/span><\/p>\n

This was what Sri Aurobindo meant when he
\nsaid that one <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 225<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

lived constantly in ignorance and that
\nunless the mind of ignorance is replaced by the mind of light one could not
\nfollow the true path, and that this was the indispensable preparation before
\nany integral transformation could take place. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

That’s all? (To a child<\/i>) You have something to say? No? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Well then, it is very late.  <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 226<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


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

29 June 1955 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mother reads from Lights on Yoga, \u201cPlanes and Parts of the Being\u201d.   Sweet Mother, has the vital nature of man…<\/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-3893","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\/3893","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=3893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}