{"id":3915,"date":"2013-07-13T01:52:10","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3915"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:52:10","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:52:10","slug":"24-22-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\/24-22-june-1955-vol-07-questions-and-answers-volume-07","title":{"rendered":"-24_22 June 1955.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n22 June 1955<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/b> <\/span>
\n<\/font> <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

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

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

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

 <\/span><\/p>\n

How can one awaken his Yogashakti? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It depends on this: when one thinks that
\nit is the most important thing in his life. That’s all. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Some people sit in meditation, concentrate
\non the base of the vertebral column and want it very much to awake, but that’s
\nnot enough. It is when truly it becomes the most important thing in one’s life,
\nwhen all the rest seems to have lost all taste, all interest, all importance,
\nwhen one feels within that one is born for this, that one is here upon earth
\nfor this, and that it is the only thing that truly counts, then that’s enough.  <\/span><\/p>\n

One can concentrate on the different
\ncentres; but sometimes one concentrates for so long, with so much effort, and
\nhas no result. And then one day something shakes you, you feel that you are
\ngoing to lose your footing, you have to cling on to something; then you cling
\nwithin yourself to the idea of union with the Divine, the idea of the divine
\nPresence, the idea of the transformation of the consciousness, and you aspire,
\nyou want, you try to organise your feelings, movements, impulses around this.
\nAnd it comes.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Some people have recommended all kinds of
\nmethods; probably these were methods which had succeeded in their case; but to
\ntell the truth, one must find one’s own method, it is only after having done
\nthe thing that one knows how it should be done, not before.  <\/span><\/p>\n

If one knows it beforehand, one makes a
\nmental construction and risks greatly living in his mental construction, which
\nis an illusion; because when the mind builds certain conditions and then they
\nare realised, there are many chances of there  <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 211<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

being mostly pure mental construction
\nwhich is not the experience itself but its image. So for all these truly
\nspiritual experiences I think it is wiser to have them before knowing them. If
\none knows them, one imitates them, one doesn’t have them, one imagines oneself
\nhaving them; whereas if one knows nothing \u2013 how things are and how they ought
\nto happen, what should happen and how it will come about \u2013 if one knows nothing
\nabout all this, then by keeping very still and making a kind of inner sorting
\nout within one’s being, one can suddenly have the experience, and then later
\nknows what one has had. It is over, and one knows how it has to be done when
\none has done it \u2013 afterwards. Like that it is sure.  <\/span><\/p>\n

One may obviously make use of his
\nimagination, imagine the Kundalini and try to pull it upwards. But one can also
\ntell himself tales like this. I have had so many instances of people who
\ndescribed their experiences to me exactly as they are described in books,
\nknowing all the words and putting down all the details, and then I asked them
\njust a little question like that, casually: that if they had had the experience
\nthey should have known or felt a certain thing, and as this was not in the
\nbooks, they could not answer. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Sweet Mother, what is the significance of the thousand-petalled lotus? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

That is how they describe it. It is
\nbecause there’s a centre there, very, very complicated. I think it means the
\ncountless powers of thought, it is the multiplicity of knowledge in all its
\nforms. It must be that. Why, this is still another instance: people who have read,
\nstudied, and have the experience afterwards, well, they always describe it like
\nthat, with names they have picked up in books and with descriptions of the
\nlotuses as they are given in books; but those who have the spontaneous
\nexperience without having read or learnt anything before having it, they
\ndescribe it altogether vividly, with an individual reality, so to <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 212<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

say. Each one approaches the experience in
\nhis own way. When these centres awake… it is a fact that there are centres,
\nand it’s a fact that they awake, and it’s a fact that this changes vastly the
\nwhole working of the consciousness and energy, but the description, if it is
\nspontaneous and sincere, is different for everyone. One can have the feeling of
\na similarity with something, but giving a fixed and precise description of what
\nhappens is always an intervention of the mind.  <\/span><\/p>\n

This phenomenon is very real, concrete, it
\nis felt with all the reality and intensity of even a physical phenomenon. But
\neach person describes it with a form particular to himself, except as I say,
\nwhen he has read and studied, and his brain is full of all that is written in
\nbooks; then automatically what he has read gives a form to his experience, and
\nthis takes away from it something of the spontaneity which gives such an
\nimpression of being sincere and truthful; it becomes a mental construction. If
\nyou have read and read much that it is like a serpent which is coiled up, well,
\nquite naturally when you concentrate and try to awaken it, you see a serpent which
\nis coiled, because you think about it like that. If you are told about a
\nthousand-petalled lotus, you see a thousand-petalled lotus. But it is a mental
\nsuperimposition upon the fact of the experience itself. But the feeling of
\nsomething that’s innumerable, that’s one and innumerable at the same time, and
\nthat kind of impression of something opening, awakening, beginning to vibrate,
\nresponding to the forces and giving you an intensity of light, of
\nunderstanding, of opening to higher regions, this is… the substance of the
\nexperience. Yet when you begin to describe it with images which you have found
\nin books, it is as though suddenly you were making it either superficial \u2013
\nfossilised, so to say \u2013 or artificial or even insincere.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Always the most interesting cases for me
\nhave been those of people who had read nothing but had a very ardent aspiration
\nand came to me saying, \u201cSomething funny has happened to me, I had this
\nextraordinary experience, what can it mean <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 213<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

truly?\u201d And then they describe a movement,
\na vibration, a force, a light, whatever it might be, it depends on each one,
\nand they describe this, that it happened like that and came like that, and then
\nthis happened and then that, and what does it all mean, all this? Then here one
\nis on the right side. One knows that it is not an imagined experience, that it
\nis a sincere, spontaneous one, and this always has a power of transformation
\nmuch greater than the experience that was brought about by a mental knowledge. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Then, Mother, this means that it is better not to read? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

On condition that one truly has within
\nhimself the ardour of aspiration. If you are born for this, for the yoga, and
\nthis is the thing which dominates all your existence, that you feel, yes,
\nbefore knowing anything, that you need to find something which is in you, then
\nsometimes a word is enough, a conversation which simply orients you \u2013 it is
\nenough. But for those who are seeking, who grope, who are not absolutely sure,
\nwho are pulled this way and that, have many interests in life, are not steady,
\nstabilised in their will for realisation, it is very good to read, because it
\nputs them in touch with the subject, it gives them some interest in the thing.  <\/span><\/p>\n

What I mean is that every definite mental
\nformation always gives a particular colouring to the experience. As for
\nexample, with all people brought up in a certain religion their experiences
\nwill always be coloured by this religion; and in fact, to reach the very source
\nof the thing one must free oneself from the external formation.  <\/span><\/p>\n

But there is a kind of reading which
\nawakens in you an interest in the thing and can help you in the first seekings.
\nUsually, even if one has had experiences one needs a contact of thought or idea
\nwith the thing so that the effort may be crystallized more consciously. But the
\nmore one knows, the more one must be absolutely sincere in his experience, that
\nis, he must not <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 214<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

use the formative power of his mind to
\nimagine and so create the experience in himself. From the point of view of
\norientation it can be useful; but from the point of view of the experience, it
\ntakes away from it its dynamic value, it has not the intensity of an experience
\nwhich comes because the moral and spiritual conditions necessary for it to occur
\nhave been fulfilled. There is the whole mental conditioning which is added and
\nwhich takes away something of the spontaneity. All this is a matter of
\nproportion. Each one must find the exact amount he needs, how much of reading,
\nhow much meditation, how much concentration, how much… It is different for
\neach one. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Sweet Mother, here it is written: \u201cIt is part of the foundation of Yoga
\nto become conscious of the great complexity of our nature, see the different
\nforces that move it and get over it a control of directing knowledge.\u201d Are
\nthese forces different for each person? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Yes. The composition is completely
\ndifferent, otherwise everybody would be the same. There are not two beings with
\nan identical combination; between the different parts of the being and the
\ncomposition of these parts the proportion is different in each individual.
\nThere are people, primitive men, people like the yet undeveloped races or the
\ndegenerated ones whose combinations are fairly simple; they are still
\ncomplicated, but comparatively simple. And there are people absolutely at the
\ntop of the human ladder, the ‘elite of humanity; their combinations become so
\ncomplicated that a very special discernment is needed to find the relations
\nbetween all these things. <\/span><\/p>\n

There are beings who carry in themselves
\nthousands of different personalities, and then each one has its own rhythm and
\nalternation, and there is a kind of combination; sometimes there are inner
\nconflicts, and there is a play of activities which are rhythmic and with alternations
\nof certain parts which come to the front and then go back and again come to the
\nfront. But  <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 215<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

when one takes all that, it makes such
\ncomplicated combinations that some people truly find it difficult to understand
\nwhat is going on in themselves; and yet these are the ones most capable of a
\ncomplete, coordinated, conscious, organised action; but their organisation is
\ninfinitely more complicated than that of primitive or undeveloped men who have
\ntwo or three impulses and four or five ideas, and who can arrange all this very
\neasily in themselves and seem to be very co-ordinated and logical because there
\nis not very much to organise. But there are people truly like a multitude, and
\nso that gives them a plasticity, a fluidity of action and an extraordinary
\ncomplexity of perception, and these people are capable of understanding a
\nconsiderable number of things, as though they had at their disposal a veritable
\narmy which they move according to circumstance and need; and all this is inside
\nthem. So when these people, with the help of yoga, the discipline of yoga,
\nsucceed in centralising all these beings around the central light of the divine
\nPresence, they become powerful entities, precisely because of their complexity.
\nSo long as this is not organised they often give the impression of an
\nincoherence, they are almost incomprehensible, one can’t manage to understand
\nwhy they are like that, they are so complex. But when they have organised all
\nthese beings, that is, put each one in its place around the divine centre, then
\ntruly they are terrific, for they have the capacity of understanding almost
\neverything and doing almost everything because of the multitude of entities
\nthey contain, of which they are constituted. And the nearer one is to the top
\nof the ladder, the more it is like that, and consequently the more difficult it
\nis to organise one’s being; because when you have about a dozen elements, you
\ncan quickly compass and organise them, but when you have thousands of them, it
\nis difficult.  <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 216<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


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

22 June 1955 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mother reads from Lights on Yoga, \u201cPlanes and Parts of the Being\u201d.   How can one awaken his Yogashakti?   It…<\/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-3915","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\/3915","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=3915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3915\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}