{"id":3914,"date":"2013-07-13T01:52:10","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3914"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:52:10","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:52:10","slug":"15-13-april-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\/15-13-april-1955-vol-07-questions-and-answers-volume-07","title":{"rendered":"-15_13 April 1955.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n


\n
\n13 April 1955 <\/font> <\/span><\/i><\/b>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

This talk is based
\nupon Bases of Yoga, <\/i>Chapter 5,<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/font><\/span>\u201cPhysical Consciousness, etc.\u201d.
\n<\/font><\/span>
\n <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Now, has anyone
\nany questions? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Sweet Mother, here it is written: \u201cI find it
\ndifficult to take these psycho\u2014analysts at all seriously\u2026 \u201c <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It means that he
\nis laughing at them, simply that. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

(The child continues reading) \u201c\u2026 when
\nthey try to scrutinise spiritual experience by the flicker of\u2026 \u201c <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 of their
\ntorch-lights\u201d. It is a joke; it’s to say that it is a very tiny light of
\nnothing at all and that they think they can judge spiritual experiences with
\nthis light which is no better than a small torch-light; it means something that
\nhas no strength. It is a joke. <\/span><\/p>\n

But what did you want to ask? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Here, \u201cspiritual experience by the flicker
\nof their torchlights\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, that’s it, it
\nmeans that they want to judge spiritual experiences with a very tiny light which
\nis worthless, which has no strength, a torch-light, a torch-lamp, it is nothing
\nat all. These people want to explain everything by the most material and most
\nordinary phenomena of human life; and they want to explain everything,
\nincluding the creation and all the higher phenomena by the help of all the
\nsmall physical habits of the most ordinary consciousness. It is absolutely
\nridiculous.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 118<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

Sweet Mother, what
\nis a \u201csuper-ego\u201d? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

A super-ego means
\nan ego that’s enlarged, swollen, made more important, even, than it can be\u2026
\nThis whole letter is full of mockery. Super-ego means an ego that’s still more
\nof an ego than an ordinary ego, something swollen, something which tries to be
\nvery big while being nothing at all. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

But why an \u201cunderground super-ego\u201d? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Underground, yes,
\nit means something hidden, that’s very low down in the consciousness, far
\nbelow, very low down. \u201cUnderground\u201d gives the impression of something that’s in
\na great darkness, lower down, hidden in the shadow: the most material movements
\n\u2013 an ego that tries to become an important person. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Sweet Mother, sometimes we dream of
\nordinary things, but sometimes we have dreams which are not\u2026<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, that’s what
\nSri Aurobindo says, doesn’t he? He says that all dreams are not ordinary dreams,
\nassociations of memories, that there are dreams which are revelations. He
\ndescribes all kinds and types of dreams here. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Mother, does this depend on the day? If
\none is more conscious in the day, one will have dreams of a good kind? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It is very difficult
\nto say on what it depends. <\/span><\/p>\n

It happens that when you need to dream of something, so that it may
\nenlighten you on a point of your nature, give you an indication about the
\neffort you must make, it comes. <\/span><\/p>\n

It depends perhaps on a consciousness that watches over everyone; and
\nprovided one is just a little open, it can guide <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 119<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

him and give sure
\nindications. <\/span><\/p>\n

I think there is an entire category of dreams which are absolutely
\ncommonplace, useless and simply tiring, which one can avoid if, before going to
\nsleep, one makes a little effort of concentration, tries to put himself in
\ncontact with what is best in him, by either an aspiration or a prayer, and to
\nsleep only after this is done\u2026 even, if one likes, try to meditate and pass
\nquite naturally from meditation into sleep without even realising it\u2026 Usually
\nthere is a whole category of dreams which are useless, tiring, which prevent
\nyou from resting well \u2013 all this might be avoided. And then, if one has truly
\nsucceeded well in his concentration, it is quite possible that one may have, at
\nnight, not exactly dreams but experiences of which one becomes conscious and
\nwhich are very useful, indications, as I just told you, indications about
\nquestions you asked yourself and of which you did not have the answers; or else
\na set of circumstances where you ought to take a decision and don’t know what
\ndecision to take; or else some way of being of your own character which does
\nnot show itself to you clearly in the waking consciousness \u2013 because you are so
\naccustomed to it that you are not aware of it \u2013 but something that harms your
\ndevelopment and obscures your consciousness, and which appears to you in a
\nsymbolic revelatory dream, and you become clearly aware of the thing, then you
\ncan act upon it.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It depends not on what one was during the day, because this doesn’t
\nalways have much effect upon the night, but on the way one has gone to sleep.
\nIt is enough just to have at the moment of sleeping a sincere aspiration that
\nthe night, instead of being a darkening of the consciousness, may be a help to
\nunderstand something, to have an experience; and then, though it doesn’t come
\nalways, it has a chance of coming. <\/span><\/p>\n

There is also, you know, a whole lot of activities of the night which
\none doesn’t remember at all. Sometimes when one has awakened quite slowly and
\nquietly, when one hasn’t jumped up while awakening, when one wakes up quite
\ngently, quite <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 120<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

slowly, without
\nstirring, one has a vague impression of something that has happened which has
\nleft an imprint on one’s consciousness \u2013 you have your own way of waking up \u2013
\nparticular, sometimes even strange. And so if you remain very quiet and observe
\nattentively, without moving, you notice a kind of half-memory of an activity
\nthat took place at night, and if you remain concentrated on it, still
\nmotionless for some time, suddenly it may come back like that, like something
\nthat appears from behind a veil, and you can get hold of the tail of a dream.
\nWhen you hold the tail \u2013 just a little event \u2013 when you hold the tail, you pull
\nit, like this, very gently, and it comes. But you must be very quiet and must
\nnot move. And usually these dreams are very interesting; these activities are
\nvery instructive. <\/span><\/p>\n

One does lots and lots of things at night which one doesn’t know, and if
\none learns, you see, when one becomes conscious, one can begin to have control.
\nBefore being conscious you have no control at all. But when you begin to be
\nconscious, you can also begin to have a control. And then if you have control
\nof your activities of the night, you can sleep much better; for the fact that
\nwhen you wake up you are often at least as tired as when going to bed and have
\na feeling of lassitude shows that you do any number of useless things during
\nthe night; you tire yourself running around in the vital worlds or moving in
\nthe mind in a frantic activity. So when you get up you feel tired.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Well, once you have the control you can stop that completely\u2026 stop it
\nbefore going to sleep\u2026 make yourself like a vast sea, that is, it is completely
\ncalm and still and vast\u2026 well, you can make your mind like that, vast, calm,
\nlike a flat, motionless surface; then your sleep is excellent. <\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, here too it is a question of people going in their sleep to
\nplaces of the vital worlds which are very bad, and then, when they return,
\nsometimes they are more than tired, at times they are ill, or they are
\nabsolutely exhausted. This is because they were in bad places and had a fight.
\nBut this surely has <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 121<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

something to do
\nwith the state of the consciousness during the waking hours. If, for example,
\nyou have been angry during the day, you see, there are many chances that at
\nnight you will be in a vital fight for some time. This happens. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

That’s all? Nothing? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

What is \u201cthe heavenly archetype of the
\nlotus\u201d? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It means the
\nprimal idea of the lotus. <\/span><\/p>\n

Each thing that is expressed physically was conceived somewhere before
\nbeing realised materially. <\/span><\/p>\n

There is an entire world which is the world of the fashioners, where all
\nconceptions are made. And this world is very high, much higher than all the
\nworlds of the mind; and from there these formations, these creations, these
\ntypes which have been conceived by the fashioners come down and are expressed
\nin physical realisations. And there is always a great distance between the
\nperfection of the idea and what is materialised. Very often the materialised
\nthings are like caricatures in comparison with the primal idea. This is what he
\ncalls the archetype. This takes place in worlds\u2026 not always the same ones, it
\ndepends on the things; but for many things in the physical, the primal ideas,
\nthese archetypes, were in what Sri Aurobindo calls the Overmind. <\/span><\/p>\n

But there is a still higher domain than this where the origins are still
\npurer, and if one reaches this, attains this, one finds the absolutely pure
\ntypes of what is manifested upon earth. And then it is very interesting to
\ncompare, to see to what an extent earthly creation is a frightful distortion.
\nAnd moreover, it is only when one can reach these regions and see the reality
\nof things in their essence that one can work with knowledge to transform them
\nhere; otherwise on what can we take our stand to conceive a better world, more
\nperfect, more beautiful than the existing one? It can’t be on our imagination
\nwhich is itself <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 122<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

something very
\npoor and very material. But if one can enter that consciousness, rise right up to
\nthese higher worlds of creation, then with this in one’s consciousness one can
\nwork at making material things take their real form. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Mother, at night if one sees someone
\ndying, and a few months later one sees again the same person dying, what does
\nit mean? Is this person in danger?<\/span><\/i> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

In a dream, one
\nsees a person\u2026 and a few months later one sees him again?\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

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

 <\/span><\/p>\n

One sees a person
\ndying and then some months later one sees him dying a second time, the same
\nperson! He is dead or alive? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

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

 <\/span><\/p>\n

This is becoming
\ndisquieting, my child! I don’t know; it depends absolutely upon the case. <\/span><\/p>\n

It can be a spiritual death, it can be a vital death, it can be the
\ndeath of something in the being which ought to\u00a0
\n<\/span>disappear (and then it means a progress), it can be a premonition, it
\ncan be lots of things. Unless you have the context of your dream one can’t
\nexplain it. But you should have what we could call a jurisprudence of your
\ndreams. You have never compared the dream with the events which occur?\u2026 for example,
\nhasn’t it happened to you \u2013 I know it has \u2013 that you see someone dying and this
\nperson really dies? But you don’t see him dying again a second time. If you see
\nthe same dream twice, it means one of two things: either that he has lost once
\nmore another state of being, you see, that he has entered a vital consciousness
\nor later from this vital consciousness he has gone out to enter <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 123<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

a psychic
\nconsciousness. It can be that. But then there are sure signs. The dream cannot deceive
\nyou, and it cannot be similar. Or it may be simply that there was\u00a0 <\/span>something which was profoundly impressed in
\nthe thought, in the brain, and that in certain circumstances which can have
\nmany causes\u2026 yet in certain circumstances\u2026 this impression begins to be active
\nagain and gives you the same dream once more. If it is an identical dream, it
\ncan be this, just a cerebral phenomenon.\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Many dreams are just phenomena of the brain, that is, of things which go
\ninto activity again under some stimulus or other and bring back the same
\npictures, sometimes exactly the same, sometimes with slightly different
\nassociations and connections; so there are differences. <\/span><\/p>\n

At times some dreams are repeated, you know, often dreams which are
\nlessons or indications, dreams which announce something to you or want to draw
\nyour attention to something or put you on your guard against something. Very
\noften it happens that they recur either at brief intervals or at a certain
\ndistance. And usually it means that the first time the impression was very
\nfaint, one doesn’t remember it well. The third time or even after the second,
\none has a vague impression already: \u201cWhy! This isn’t the first time\u201d, when one
\nsees it. Then the third time it is clear, precise, absolute, and one remembers:
\n\u201cAh, I have already seen this thrice!\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Usually these dreams are extremely interesting and give you precise
\nindications: either about something to be done or something not to be done, or
\nabout precautions to be taken or perhaps about your relations with someone,
\nwhat you should expect to receive from a person, how you should act towards him
\nor in certain circumstances. <\/span><\/p>\n

You see it is quite a small detail, a very small detail which recurs in
\nthis way; sometimes it comes immediately: one night, the second night, the
\nthird night; sometimes it takes weeks to recur. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 124<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

Sweet Mother, to profit by one’s nights,
\nto have good dreams, is it necessary that one should have done nothing very
\nintellectual late at night, or that one should not eat too late at night or do
\nanything external? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

This depends on
\neach one; but certainly if you want to sleep quietly at night, you must not
\nstudy till just before sleeping. If you read something which requires
\nconcentration, your head will continue to work and so you won’t sleep well.
\nWhen the mind continues working one doesn’t rest. <\/span><\/p>\n

The ideal, you see, is to enter an integral repose, that is, immobility
\nin the body, perfect peace in the vital, absolute silence in the mind \u2013 and the
\nconsciousness goes out of all activity to enter into\u00a0 <\/span>Sachchidananda. If you can do this, then when
\nyou wake up you get up with the feeling of an extraordinary power, a perfect
\njoy. But it is not very, very easy to do this. It can be done; this is the ideal
\ncondition. <\/span><\/p>\n

Usually it is not at all like this, and most of the time almost all the
\nhours of sleep are wasted in some kind of disordered activities; your body
\nbegins to toss about in your bed, you give kicks, you turn, you start, you turn
\nthis way and that, and then you do this (gesture<\/i>)
\nand then this\u2026 So you don’t rest at all. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

During the day we have no time, so we are
\ncompelled to prepare the lessons at night. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, there are
\nalways fifty thousand reasons for doing things! You must not at all introduce a
\nmoral question there. You can do your duty, and in an absolutely\u2026 unselfish
\nway, and still it can prevent you from sleeping all the same. <\/span><\/p>\n

Moral issues have nothing to do with the inner development. I am sorry
\nto tell you this, but one goes one way, the other another. You can make yourself
\ncompletely ill by doing <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 125<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

something
\nabsolutely\u2026 how to put it?\u2026 unselfish, you see, which has nothing selfish about
\nit, and you can be very healthy while being absolutely selfish. That does not come
\nin the way. It is not this kind of morality which is effective. <\/span><\/p>\n

There is a great difference between having a moral conscience and a
\nconsciousness which is the expression of truth. But I must say that it is
\ninfinitely more difficult to have a consciousness which expresses the truth
\nthan to have a moral conscience, because any fool who knows the social rules
\nand follows them has a moral conscience, while to have a consciousness of truth
\none must not be an idiot \u2013 in any case, it’s the first condition! <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

This is how I have been wasting my nights
\nfor more than a year! <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Yes. But don’t you
\nthink that all these things are the result of a lack of organisation in your
\nlife? One lives from moment to moment, as things come, anyhow. Or else one
\nmakes some effort of mental organisation which does not at all correspond to
\nthe truth and therefore is thwarted every minute. <\/span><\/p>\n

But if one organised his life in accordance with a higher principle of
\nconsciousness and without the groping one usually tries, that is, with a precise
\nindication at every minute of what is to be done and how it is to be done, I
\nthink that one could so manage that things don’t become awkwardly difficult. It
\nis very good to be a good teacher, but perhaps it is not absolutely necessary
\nto correct all the homework just at the time one is going to bed. I don’t know,
\nyou see, because I was never a good teacher, so I never prepared the exercises
\nfor my students, never corrected the homework of my students. But still, it
\nseems to me this ought to be quite possible. <\/span><\/p>\n

Usually, instead of choosing one’s work very carefully and taking
\nexactly what one can do and doing it as well as one can, very often one takes
\ntoo much. And in this too much there are <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 126<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

many things which
\nare at least partially useless, which could be considerably reduced, without
\nharming the result (note that I am not making a general rule of it, it is only
\nan experience I have); and when one is very attentive to the inner indication
\nand refuses to be tossed by the waves that come from outside \u2013 these waves are
\nof all kinds of movements arising from the wills of others or from a kind of
\nroutine of circumstances or from oppositions coming from forces which are not
\nvery favourable \u2013 so, instead of being pushed like that and moved by these
\nthings, if one receives a very clear, very precise inner indication and follows
\nit without equivocating, you see, without any hesitation, a little strictly \u2013
\nindeed, if it doesn’t please others, so much the worse for them \u2013 well, it
\nhappens that one becomes in a way the master of circumstances, that they are
\norganised favourably, and that one does much more work in much less time. <\/span><\/p>\n

There’s a way of reducing the time necessary for doing things by
\nincreasing the concentration considerably. Some people can’t do this for long,
\nit tires them; but it’s like weightlifting, isn’t it, one can get accustomed to
\nit. And then, if you can succeed in mastering this power of concentration and
\nin making your mind absolutely still \u2013 for this indeed is the first condition –
\nand if in this quietude you concentrate it, concentrate, concentrate,
\nconcentrate on the point you want to make, on the work you have to do or the
\naction you have to perform, well, you can\u2026 it comes like a kind of extremely
\nquiet but all-powerful force of propulsion, and you go forward with one
\nmovement\u2026 without hesitation you can literally do in a quarter of an hour what
\nwould otherwise take one hour. And so this has the great advantage that it
\ngives you time and that after this, instead of going from one activity to
\nanother, from one agitation to another, you can relax completely for some
\nminutes and have a total rest. This gives you time to rest; and in this repose,
\nnaturally, as you are relaxed, all that could have been a little too tense is
\nrelaxed and put in order, and this puts you back in <\/span>
\n
\n <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 127<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

a condition in
\nwhich you are once again able to make another concentration. Try! <\/span><\/p>\n

There. That’s all? No questions? <\/span><\/p>\n

Then au revoir<\/i>, my children. <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 128<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

13 April 1955     This talk is based upon Bases of Yoga, Chapter 5, \u00a0\u201cPhysical Consciousness, etc.\u201d.     Now, has anyone any questions?…<\/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-3914","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\/3914","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=3914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3914\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}