{"id":3904,"date":"2013-07-13T01:52:06","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3904"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:52:06","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:52:06","slug":"21-1-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\/21-1-june-1955-vol-07-questions-and-answers-volume-07","title":{"rendered":"-21_1 June 1955.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n1 June 1955 <\/span><\/font> <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Mother reads from The Human Cycle, Chapter 14,
\n<\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Suprarational Beauty\u201d, second paragraph<\/font><\/span>. <\/span><\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

What do you want to ask about this? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Sweet Mother, what is an aesthetic conscience? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It is the consciousness of beauty. Aesthetic
\nmeans that which concerns beauty, art. There are people, for example, who move
\naround in life and see landscapes, see people and things and have absolutely no
\nsense of whether it is beautiful or not; and into the bargain, it makes no
\ndifference at all to them. They look at the sky, see whether there are any
\nclouds, whether it will rain or be clear, for instance; or whether the sun is
\nhot or the wind cold. But there are others \u2013 when they raise their eyes and
\nlook at a beautiful sky, it gives them pleasure, they say, \u201cOh! It is fine
\ntoday, the sunrise is lovely today, the sunset is beautiful, the clouds have
\nfine shapes.\u201d So, the first kind do not have an aesthetic conscience, the
\nsecond have. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

What does \u201cthe ordinary scale of our powers\u201d mean? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cScale\u201d gives the idea of a gradation from
\nthe lowest to the highest powers; as, for example, the faculty to walk and the
\nfaculty to think: there’s a gradation between the two; the faculty of walking
\nis an altogether physical one, the faculty of thinking is something
\nintellectual. So these are different gradations of the consciousness of which
\nSri Aurobindo speaks here, \u201cthe ordinary scale of our powers\u201d; he is not
\nspeaking of spiritual or yogic things; it is the scale of ordinary life, that
\nis, for everyone it is like that. For he says that even in the barbarian, the
\nsavage, there is something which is not altogether savage, and <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 181<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

that he has, he too, indeed, this scale;
\nit is more rudimentary, more crude, but it exists, from the most material thing
\nto an embryo of thought and speculation. As we are told, he has his own opinion
\nabout the world and what the world is, he has an idea about these things; it is
\nperhaps a little childish but he has an idea about them. So he too has this
\ngradation. Of course there are higher faculties than that of thought, but they
\nare not frequent, that is, one doesn’t often come across them. <\/span><\/p>\n

That’s all? What
\nare we going to do? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

I have things to ask in the other paragraph, the next one. I haven’t
\nunderstood very much. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

The next one? But the next one is for next
\nWednesday, unless you want me to read it to you. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

No, Sweet Mother, the others have questions. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

You have some questions? You have
\nquestions, you? Over there, do you have any questions? No questions? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Can beauty exist outside any form? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

There is a beauty of feelings; unless you
\nthink that feelings also have a form. What you mean is: \u201cIs there a beauty
\noutside any physical form?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

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

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Ah! Yes, there is a beauty of thought, a beauty
\nof feeling. This is something we perceive very often; when someone has done a
\nvery noble deed, very generous, very unselfish, quite spontaneously we say, \u201cIt
\nis beautiful!\u201d And it’s true, it gives the sense of beauty.<\/span><\/p>\n

Beauty is not something purely physical.
\nHowever, we have  <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 182<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

said that the best expression of the
\nDivine in the physical world is beauty; but it is not exclusive, it does not
\nmean that it is only in the physical world. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

(Silence<\/i>) <\/span><\/p>\n

Isn’t that all right? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Sweet Mother, Sri Aurobindo has said here: \u201c\u2026this seeking for beauty\u2026
\nsprings from the roots of our life\u2026\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It springs from the roots of our life \u2013
\nso? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

What are the roots of our life? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

He means that it is instinctive, that it
\nisn’t rational, it doesn’t depend on the domain of reason, it is something
\ninstinctive. We have a sense of beauty and love beauty without even knowing
\nwhy, and there are things which give the sense of beauty without our knowing
\nwhy, without our reasoning. It is instinctive. He says that this is the
\ninfrarational stage of the aesthetic sense. It is absolutely obvious that a
\nchild, who sees a pretty flower and has the feeling of beauty he does not know
\nwhy, would never be able to tell you that it’s because the form is balanced and
\nthe colours are lovely; he cannot explain it. Therefore it is not rational, it
\nis altogether instinctive, it is an attraction, an impulse drawing one towards
\nsomething, a harmony one feels, without being able to define it. But most often
\nit is like that. It is rarely that one is able to say, \u201cThis thing is beautiful
\nbecause of that, because of this,\u201d and to give a whole lecture on the beauty of
\nsomething. Usually, one simply feels that it is beautiful; if later one
\nwonders, \u201cWhy did I feel it is beautiful?\u201d then, by making an effort with one’s
\nintelligence one may succeed in understanding it; but at the beginning one is
\nnot pre- <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 183<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

occupied with the why, one feels that it
\nis beautiful, and that’s all, one is satisfied with that. <\/span><\/p>\n

For example, you enter a historical
\nbuilding, and suddenly you are seized by the sense of a great beauty; how do
\nyou explain it? If someone asks you about it you would say, \u201cWell, I feel that
\nit is beautiful.\u201d But if an architect enters a building and has the same
\nfeeling that it is beautiful, he will immediately tell you, \u201cIt’s because the
\nlines meet harmoniously, the mass of the volumes is in harmony, the entire
\nstructure follows certain laws of beauty, order and rhythm\u201d, and he will
\nexplain them to you. But that’s because he is an architect, and yet you could
\nhave felt the beauty as much as he without being able to explain it. Well, your
\nfeeling for beauty is what Sri Aurobindo calls infrarational, and his feeling
\nfor beauty is what Sri Aurobindo calls rational, because he can explain with
\nhis reason why he finds it beautiful. <\/span><\/p>\n

But even when you look at someone, a
\nperson, and find her beautiful, would you be able to tell yourself why? Not
\noften. If you make an effort, look attentively, reflect, then you may begin to
\ntell yourself, \u201cYes, why! it is for this, it is for that\u201d, and it is not at all
\ncertain that you are right. <\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, beauty is something very elusive.
\nIt is a kind of harmony which you experience much more than think, and the true
\nsuprarational relation with beauty is not at all a \u201creasonable\u201d relation (Sri
\nAurobindo will tell you this at the end), it completely overpasses reason, it
\nis a contact in a higher realm. But what precisely he tells us in this
\nparagraph is that when it is an instinct it is found mixed with movements of
\nignorance and a lack of culture and refinement. So this instinct is sometimes
\nvery gross and very imperfect in its expression. One can experience an
\naesthetic pleasure (let us call it that) in seeing something which is truly
\nbeautiful and at the same time something else which is not beautiful, but which
\ngives one some sort of pleasure, because it is mixed, because one’s aesthetic
\ninstinct is not pure, it is mixed with all kinds of sensations which are very <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 184<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

crude and untrained. So it is here, as he
\nsays, that reason has its role, that it comes in to explain why a thing is
\nbeautiful, to educate the taste; but it is not final, and reason is not the
\nfinal judge; it can very well make mistakes, only it is a little higher, as
\njudgment, than that of a completely infrarational being who has no reason and
\nno understanding of things. It is a stage. It is a stage, that’s what he says,
\nit is a stage. But if you want to realise true beauty, you must go beyond that,
\nvery far beyond this stage. In what follows in our reading he will explain it.
\nBut this is the summary of what he has said in this paragraph. At first your
\nsense of beauty is instinctive, impulsive, infrarational, lacking light,
\nwanting reason, simply without any true understanding, and so, because the
\norigin of the aesthetic sense is infrarational, it is understood, one always
\nsays this: \u201cThere’s no disputing tastes and colours.\u201d You know, there are all
\nkinds of popular proverbs which say that the appreciation of the beautiful is
\nnot a matter of reasoning, everyone likes a particular thing he doesn’t know
\nwhy, he takes pleasure in looking at a thing, and this pleasure cannot be
\ndiscussed. Well, this is the infrarational stage of the aesthetic sense. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Sweet Mother, last time, at the end of the class you were going to tell
\nus something, but you stopped because we had no time. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Ah, you suppose that I remember! What was
\nit about? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It was the morality of Nature<\/span><\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Oh! It is not interesting. <\/span><\/p>\n

It was a group of people whom I met in
\nParis. A certain gentleman had founded a group called \u201cThe Morality of Nature\u201d,
\nand so he took his stand on all the movements of Nature to set up his moral
\ncode. But we know that Nature is\u2026 how to put it\u2026 a force, a consciousness or
\nbeing, call it what you like, <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 185<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

which is absolutely amoral, for whom the
\nmoral sense does not exist at all. So naturally this had rather disastrous
\nresults in practice. And in the very meeting where this gentleman was
\nexpounding his theories, there was a Catholic priest, a very learned man who
\nstudied many things (he knew lots of things), who immediately began to tell him
\nthat his morality of Nature was not moral. Then the other gentleman was not
\npleased and told him, \u201cOh, yes! You climb to the seventh storey of your ivory
\ntower and from there you look at things without understanding them\u201d. \u201cThe
\nseventh storey of your ivory tower\u201d was very amusing. <\/span><\/p>\n

Well, he had found, according to himself
\n(I don’t remember his name now), he had found the means of being happy, that
\neveryone may be satisfied and men may love one another. So naturally people who
\ndid not agree with him, said to him, \u201cBut how does it happen that when the law
\nof Nature alone reigns \u2013 as for example, without even going as far as the
\nanimal, in vegetable life \u2013 how does it happen that there are constant
\nmassacres between plants and the perpetual struggle for life? Is this what you
\ncall harmony?\u201d Then the other man did not understand anything. <\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, people who are interested in general
\nquestions, those who come out of their little daily preoccupations of being
\nborn, living and dying, living as well as possible \u2013 there are people not
\nsatisfied with this, who try to have general ideas and look at world problems \u2013
\nthese people make an inner effort or a mental effort, and in one way or another
\nenter into contact with the great currents of forces, at first currents of
\nmental force, of the higher light and sometimes of spiritual force. Then they
\nreceive a kind of drop of that within their consciousness, and this produces in
\nthem the illumination of a revelation, and they feel that they have grasped the
\ntruth. They have a revelation and so naturally are very happy and immediately
\nthink, \u201cMy happiness I am going to pass on to others\u201d; for they are very fine
\npeople, they have very good intentions. Then, to pass on their happiness <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 186<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

to others they begin by making a
\nconstruction around their revelation; they must make it into a system;
\notherwise how to preach to others? So they make a system, like this gentleman.
\nI have met hundreds like this in the world. Now, each one had had a revelation
\nand had constructed something which seemed to him to be the solution to all
\nproblems. They wanted to apply it to everything. So they gathered people around
\nthem; according to the strength of their influence, their power, they gathered
\nmore people or less, from three or four to some hundreds; sometimes they had
\ngroups and they said, \u201cHere we are, if everyone does what we do, well, the
\nworld will be transformed.\u201d Unfortunately it was only a spark of light, and
\ntheir construction was purely mental and not free from the ordinary laws of
\nlife. And so the people in the groups who were to have preached to the world
\nharmony, beauty, happiness, joy and peace, etc., quarrelled among themselves.
\nThis took away all power from their teaching. It is like this, and in fact it
\nis true. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is only when something absolutely new
\nand absolutely superior enters the earth atmosphere and changes it by a kind of
\nspiritual coercion, it is only at that moment that human consciousness will
\nchange sufficiently for circumstances also to change. <\/span><\/p>\n

As for me, I have no illusions on the
\nsubject, because I know that Sri Aurobindo saw the truth of things and
\ntherefore, if humanity were ready to be transformed simply by the vision of the
\ntruth of things, well, at least all those who are in contact with this truth
\nshould be transformed. Well, they aren’t. <\/span><\/p>\n

You know all the defects which you have,
\npersonally and collectively, and how in spite of a goodwill which must be
\nobvious, there is still much to do for the world to be as one conceives it when
\none comes out of ordinary notions \u2013 simply, let us say a world of harmony,
\npeace, understanding, broad-mindedness, goodwill, unselfishness, disinterested
\nconsecration to a higher ideal, self-forgetfulness\u2026 you want more of these
\nthings, there are still many more. You must begin with just a little at  <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 187<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

first, simply this: to have slightly
\ngreater ideas, a little vaster understanding, not to be sectarian. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

What kind of reason guides the realistic and surrealistic artists who
\nare so gross? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

What kind of reason! But why do you
\nsuppose that it is reason? Unless reason is just an explanation we give of what
\nthey do! But otherwise why do you suppose that it is reason? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

No, because Sri Aurobindo has said in this paragraph that it is here
\nthat reason guides. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

But perhaps it is just because it does not
\nguide them that they do what they do and as they do it, isn’t that so? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

But how does it happen that after having reached so high the art of
\npainting becomes so ugly and childish? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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

But have you ever seen that the human
\nascent is like that, a funicular ascent, quite straight? It turns all the time.
\nSo if you assume that there are vertical lines which are lines of a kind of
\nhuman progress, then when things come there, they progress, but when they go
\nfurther away they degenerate. <\/span><\/p>\n

I shall tell you perhaps in ten years\u2026 I
\ndon’t know, perhaps in ten years I shall tell you whether there is something in
\nmodern painting. Because I am going to tell you something curious: for the
\nmoment I find it downright ugly, not only ugly but stupid; but what is
\nfrightening is that it makes you completely sick of all other pictures. When
\none sees painting as it is done today\u2026 for we receive all the time art reviews
\nin which, with much intelligence, are put reproductions of both ancient and
\nmodern pictures, and they are put side by side, which makes the thing very
\ninteresting, you can see both and compare. I can’t manage to have yet a very
\nclear notion of beauty in what modern painters do, I confess this, I haven’t
\nyet understood; but  <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 188<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

what is curious is that they have succeeded
\nin taking away from me all the taste for the painting of old; except some very
\nrare things, the rest seems to me pompous, artificial, ridiculous,
\nunbearable.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Now this means that behind this
\nincoherence and chaos there certainly is, there must be a creative spirit which
\nis trying to manifest. <\/span><\/p>\n

We have passed from a particular world
\nwhich had reached its perfection and was declining, this is absolutely obvious.
\nAnd so to pass from that creation to a new creation (because\u2026 well, suppose
\nthat it is the forces of ordinary Nature which are acting), instead of passing
\nthrough a continuous ascent, there was evidently a fall into a chaos, that is,
\nthe chaos is necessary for a new creation. <\/span><\/p>\n

The methods of Nature are like that.
\nBefore our solar system could exist, there was chaos. Well, in passing from
\nthis artistic construction which had reached a kind of summit, before passing
\nfrom this to a new creation, it seems to me still the same thing, evidently a
\nchaos. And the impression I have when I look at these things is that they are
\nnot sincere, and that’s what is annoying. It is not sincere: either it is
\nsomeone who has amused himself by being as mad as possible or perhaps it is
\nsomeone who wanted to deceive others or maybe deceive even himself, or again, a
\nkind of incoherent fantasy in which one puts a blot of paint in one place and
\nthen says immediately, \u201cWhy, it would be funny to put it there, and if one put
\nit here, like this, and again if one put this like that, and again\u2026\u201d There, for
\nthe moment this is the impression it gives me, and I don’t feel that it is
\nsomething sincere. <\/span><\/p>\n

But there is a sincere creative spirit
\nbehind, which is trying to manifest, which, for the moment, does not manifest,
\nbut is strong enough to destroy the past. That is, there was a time when I used
\nto look at the pictures of Rembrandt, of Titian, of Tintoretto, the pictures of
\nRenoir and Monet, I felt a great aesthetic joy. This aesthetic joy I don’t feel
\nany more. I have progressed <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 189<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

because I follow the whole movement of
\nterrestrial evolution; therefore, I have had to overpass this cycle, I have
\narrived at another; and this one seems to me empty of aesthetic joy. From the
\npoint of view of reason one may dispute this, speak of all the beautiful and
\ngood things which have been done, all that is a different affair. But this
\nsubtle something, precisely, which is the true aesthetic joy, is gone, I don’t
\nfeel it any longer. Of course I am a hundred miles away from having it when I
\nlook at the things they are now doing. But still it is something which is
\nbehind this that has made the other disappear. So perhaps by making just a
\nlittle effort towards the future we are going to be able to find the formula of
\nthe new beauty. That would be interesting. It is quite recently that this
\nimpression came to me; it is not old. I have tried with the most perfect
\ngoodwill, by abolishing all kinds of preferences, preconceived ideas, habits,
\npast tastes, all that; all that eliminated, I look at their pictures and I
\ndon’t succeed in getting any pleasure; it doesn’t give me any, sometimes it
\ngives me a disgust, but above all the impression of something that’s not true,
\na painful impression of insincerity. <\/span><\/p>\n

But then quite recently, I suddenly felt
\nthis, this sensation of something very new, something of the future pushing,
\npushing, trying to manifest, trying to express itself and not succeeding, but
\nsomething which will be a terrific progress over all that has been felt and
\nexpressed before; and then, at the same time is born the movement of consciousness
\nwhich turns to this new thing and wants to grasp it. This will perhaps be
\ninteresting. That is why I told you: ten years. Perhaps in ten years there will
\nbe people who have found a new expression. A great progress would be necessary,
\nan immense progress in the technique; the old technique seems barbarous. And
\nnow with the new scientific discoveries perhaps the technique of execution will
\nchange and one could find a new technique which would then express this new
\nbeauty which wants to manifest. We shall speak about it in ten years’ time. <\/span><\/p>\n

Au revoir!<\/span><\/i> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 190<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


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

1 June 1955   Mother reads from The Human Cycle, Chapter 14, \u201cThe Suprarational Beauty\u201d, second paragraph.   What do you want to ask about…<\/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-3904","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\/3904","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=3904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3904\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}