{"id":3993,"date":"2013-07-13T01:52:45","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3993"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:52:45","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:52:45","slug":"05-5-may-1929-vol-03-questions-and-answers-volume-03","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/02-works-of-the-mother\/01-cwmce\/03-questions-and-answers-volume-03\/05-5-may-1929-vol-03-questions-and-answers-volume-03","title":{"rendered":"-05_5 May 1929.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

\n5 May 1929
\n<\/font>
\n<\/i> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

What is the proper
\nfunction of the intellect? Is it a help or a hindrance to Sadhana? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Whether the
\nintellect is a help or a hindrance depends upon the person and upon the way in which
\nit is used. There is a true movement of the intellect and there is a wrong
\nmovement; one helps, the other hinders. The intellect that believes too much in
\nits own importance and wants satisfaction for its own sake, is an obstacle to
\nthe higher realisation. <\/span><\/p>\n

But this is true not in any special sense or for the intellect
\nalone, but generally and of other faculties as well. For example, people do not
\nregard an all-engrossing satisfaction of the vital desires or the animal
\nappetites as a virtue; the moral sense is accepted as a mentor to tell one the
\nbounds that one may not transgress. It is only in his intellectual activities
\nthat man thinks he can do without any such mentor or censor! <\/span><\/p>\n

Any part of the being that keeps to its proper place and plays its
\nappointed role is helpful; but directly it steps beyond its sphere, it becomes
\ntwisted and perverted and therefore false. A power has the right movement when
\nit is set into activity for the divine’s purpose; it has the wrong movement
\nwhen it is set into activity for its own satisfaction. <\/span><\/p>\n

The
\nintellect, in its true nature, is an instrument of expression and action. It is
\nsomething like an intermediary between the true knowledge, whose seat is in the
\nhigher regions above the mind, and realisation here below. The intellect or,
\ngenerally speaking, the mind gives the form; the vital puts in the dynamism and
\nlife-power; the material comes in last and embodies. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

How is one to meet
\nadverse forces \u2013 forces that are invisible and yet quite living and
\ntangible?\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/i>
\n
\n  <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 33<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

A great deal
\ndepends upon the stage of development of your consciousness. At the beginning,
\nif you have no special occult knowledge and power, the best you can do is to
\nkeep as quiet and peaceful as possible. If the attack takes the form of adverse
\nsuggestions try quietly to push them away, as you would some material object.
\nThe quieter you are, the stronger you become. The firm basis of all spiritual
\npower is equanimity. You must not allow anything to disturb your poise: you can
\nthen resist every kind of attack. If, besides, you possess sufficient
\ndiscernment and can see and catch the evil suggestions as they come to you, it
\nbecomes all the more easy for you to push them away; but sometimes they come
\nunnoticed, and then it is more difficult to fight them. When that happens, you
\nmust sit quiet and call down peace and a deep inner quietness. Hold yourself
\nfirm and call with confidence and faith: if your aspiration is pure and steady,
\nyou are sure to receive help. <\/span><\/p>\n

Attacks from adverse forces are inevitable: you have to take them
\nas tests on your way and go courageously through the ordeal. The struggle may
\nbe hard, but when you come out of it, you have gained something, you have
\nadvanced a step. There is even a necessity for the existence of the hostile
\nforces. They make your determination stronger, your aspiration clearer. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is true, however, that they exist because you gave them reason
\nto exist. So long as there is something in you which answers to them, their
\nintervention is perfectly legitimate. If nothing in you responded, if they had
\nno hold upon any part of your nature, they would retire and leave you. In any
\ncase, they need not stop or hamper your spiritual progress. <\/span><\/p>\n

The only way to fail in your battle with the hostile forces is not
\nto have a true confidence in the divine help. Sincerity in the aspiration
\nalways brings down the required succour. A quiet call, a conviction that in
\nthis ascension towards the realisation you are never walking all alone and a
\nfaith that whenever help is needed it is there, will lead you through, easily
\nand securely. <\/span>
\n
\n  <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 34<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

Do these hostile forces
\ngenerally come from outside or inside? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

If you think
\nor feel that they come from inside, you have possibly opened yourself to them and
\nthey have settled in you unnoticed. The true nature of things is one of
\nharmony; but there is a distortion in certain worlds that brings in perversion
\nand hostility. If you have a strong affinity for these worlds of distortion,
\nyou can become friends with the beings that are there and answer fully to them.
\nThat happens, but it is not a very happy condition. The consciousness is at
\nonce blinded and you cannot distinguish the true from the false, you cannot
\neven tell what is a lie and what is not. <\/span><\/p>\n

In any case, when an attack comes the wisest attitude is to
\nconsider that it comes from outside and to say, \u201cThis is not myself and I will
\nhave nothing to do with it.\u201d You have to deal in the same way with all lower
\nimpulses and desires and all doubts and questionings in the mind. If you
\nidentify yourself with them, the difficulty in fighting them becomes all the
\ngreater; for then you have the feeling that you are facing the never easy task
\nof overcoming your own nature. But once you are able to say, \u201cNo, this is not
\nmyself, I will have nothing to do with it\u201d, it becomes much easier to disperse
\nthem. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Where can the line be
\ndrawn between the inside and the outside? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

The line is
\nvery flexible; it can be as near to you and as far from you as you will. You
\nmay take everything upon yourself and feel it as a part and parcel of your real
\nself; or you may throw it away as you would a bit of hair or nail without being
\ntouched at all. <\/span><\/p>\n

There have been religions whose followers would not part even with
\na bit of hair or nail, fearing that they would lose thereby something of their
\npersonality. Those who are capable <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 35<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

of extending
\nthe consciousness as wide as the world, become the world; but those who are
\nshut up in their little bodies and limited feelings stop at those limits; their
\nbodies and their petty feelings are to them their whole self. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Can mere faith create
\nall, conquer all? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, but it
\nmust be an integral faith and it must be absolute. And it must be of the right
\nkind, not merely a force of mental thought or will, but something more and
\ndeeper. The will put forth by the mind sets up opposite reactions and creates a
\nresistance. You must have heard something of the method of Cou\u00e9 in healing
\ndiseases. He knew some secret of this power and utilised it with considerable
\neffect; but he called it imagination and his method gave the faith he called up
\ntoo mental a form. Mental faith is not sufficient; it must be completed and
\nenforced by a vital and even a physical faith, a faith of the body. If you can
\ncreate in yourself an integral force of this kind in all your being, then
\nnothing can resist it; but you must reach down to the most subconscious, you
\nmust fix the faith in the very cells of the body. There is, for instance, now
\nabroad the beginning of a knowledge among the scientists that death is not a
\nnecessity. But the whole of humanity believes firmly in death; it is, one might
\nsay, a general human suggestion based on a long unchanging experience. If this
\nbelief could be cast out first from the conscious mind, then from the vital
\nnature and the subconscious physical layers, death would no longer be
\ninevitable. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

But it is not only in
\nthe mind of man that this idea of death exists. The animal creation knew it
\nbefore him. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Death as a
\nfact has been attached to all life upon earth; but man understands it in a
\ndifferent sense from the meaning Nature originally put into it. In man and in
\nthe animals that are nearest
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 36<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

to his
\nlevel, the necessity of death has taken a special form and significance to their
\nconsciousness; but the subconscious knowledge in this lower Nature which
\nsupports it is a feeling of the necessity of renewal and change and
\ntransformation. <\/span><\/p>\n

It was the conditions of matter upon earth that made death
\nindispensable. The whole sense of the evolution of matter has been a growth
\nfrom a first state of unconsciousness to an increasing consciousness. And in
\nthis process of growth dissolution of forms became an inevitable necessity, as
\nthings actually took place. For a fixed form was needed in order that the
\norganised individual consciousness might have a stable support. And yet it is
\nthe fixity of the form that made death inevitable. Matter had to assume forms;
\nindividualisation and the concrete embodiment of life-forces or
\nconsciousness-forces were impossible without it and without these there would
\nhave been lacking the first conditions of organised existence on the plane of
\nmatter. But a definite and concrete formation contracts the tendency to become
\nat once rigid and hard and petrified. The individual form persisted as a too
\nbinding mould; it cannot follow the movements of the forces; it cannot change
\nin harmony with the progressive change in the universal dynamism; it cannot
\nmeet continually Nature’s demand or keep pace with her; it gets out of the
\ncurrent. At a certain point of this growing disparity and disharmony between
\nthe form and the force that presses upon it, a complete dissolution of the form
\nis unavoidable. A new form must be created; a new harmony and parity made
\npossible. This is the true significance of death and this is its use in Nature.
\nBut if the form can become more quick and pliant and the cells of the body can
\nbe awakened to change with the changing consciousness, there would be no need
\nof a drastic dissolution, death would be no longer inevitable. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Someone has said that
\ndisasters and catastrophes in Nature, earthquake and deluge and the sinking of
\ncontinents, are the consequence of a discordant and <\/span><\/i>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 37<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

sinful humanity and with
\nthe progress and development of the human race a corresponding change will come
\nabout in physical Nature. How far is this true? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps the
\ntruth is rather that it is one and the same movement of consciousness that
\nexpresses itself in a Nature ridden with calamities and catastrophes and in a
\ndisharmonious humanity. The two things are not cause and effect, but stand on
\nthe same level. Above them there is a consciousness which is seeking for
\nmanifestation and embodiment upon earth, and in its descent towards matter it
\nmeets everywhere the same resistance, in man and in physical Nature. All the
\ndisorder and disharmony that we see upon earth is the result of this
\nresistance. Calamity and catastrophe, conflict and violence, obscurity and
\nignorance \u2013 all ills come from the same source. Man is not the cause of
\nexternal Nature, nor external Nature the cause of man, but both depend on the
\nsame one thing that is behind them and greater, and both are part of a
\nperpetual and progressive movement of the material world to express it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now if there is awakened somewhere upon earth a receptivity and
\nopenness sufficient to bring down in its purity something of the Divine
\nConsciousness, this descent and manifestation in matter can change not only the
\ninner life, but the material conditions also, the physical expression in man
\nand Nature. This descent does not depend for its possibility upon the condition
\nof humanity as a whole. If we had to wait for the mass of humanity to reach a
\nstate of harmony, unity and aspiration, strong enough to bring down the Light and
\nchange the material conditions and the movement of Nature, there would be
\nlittle hope. But there is a possibility that an individual or a small group or
\nlimited number may achieve the descent. It is not quantity or extension that
\nmatters. One drop of the Divine Consciousness entering into the consciousness
\nof the earth could change everything here. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is the mystery of the contact and fusion of the higher and <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 38<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

the lower
\nplanes of consciousness that is the great secret, the hidden key. Always it has
\na transforming force; only here it would be on a larger scale and reach a
\nhigher degree. If there is someone on earth who is capable of coming
\nconsciously into contact with a plane that has not yet been manifested here and
\nif by rising into it in his consciousness he can make that plane and the
\nmaterial meet and harmonise, then the great decisive movement of Nature’s yet
\nunrealised transformation can take place. A new power will descend and change
\nthe conditions of life upon earth. <\/span><\/p>\n

Even as it is, every time that a great soul has come and revealed
\nsome light of truth or brought down upon earth a new force, the conditions on
\nearth have changed, though not exactly in the way that had been hoped and
\nexpected. For example, one who has attained to a certain plane of knowledge and
\nconsciousness and spiritual experience, has come and said, \u201cI am bringing to
\nyou liberation\u201d or \u201cI am bringing to you peace.\u201d Those who were around him
\nbelieved, perhaps, that he was bringing it in a material way; when they found
\nit was not as they thought, they could not understand what he had done. What he
\nbrought was a change in the consciousness, a peace of a kind unknown till then
\nor a capacity for liberation that was not there before. But these movements
\nbelonged to the inner life and brought no tangible external change in the
\nworld. Perhaps the intention to change the world externally was not there;
\nperhaps there was not the necessary knowledge; but still something was effected
\nby these pioneers. <\/span><\/p>\n

In spite of all adverse appearances, it may well be that earth has
\nbeen preparing for a certain realisation by steps and stages. There has been a
\nchange in civilisation and a change in nature. If it is not apparent, it is
\nbecause we see from an external point of view and because matter and its
\ndifficulties have never been seriously or thoroughly dealt with up till now.
\nStill internally there has been a progress; in the inner consciousness there
\nhave been descents of the Light. But as to any realisation in matter, <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 39<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

it is
\ndifficult to say anything, because we do not exactly know what might have
\nhappened there.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There have been in the long past great and beautiful
\ncivilisations, perhaps as advanced materially as ours. Looked at from a certain
\nstandpoint the most modern might seem to be only a repetition of the most
\nancient cultures, and yet one cannot say that there has been no progress
\nanywhere. An inner progress at least has been achieved and a greater readiness
\nto respond to the higher consciousness has been born into the material parts.
\nIt has been necessary to do over and over again the same things, because what
\nwas attempted was never sufficiently done; but each time it has come nearer to
\nbeing adequately done. When we practise an exercise over and over again we seem
\nto be only repeating the same thing always, but still the accumulative result
\nis some effective change. <\/span><\/p>\n

The mistake is to look at these things through the dimensions of
\nthe human consciousness, for so seen these deep and vast movements seem
\ninexplicable. It is dangerous to try to explain or understand them with the
\nlimited mental intelligence. That is the reason why philosophy has always
\nfailed to unveil the secret of things; it is because it has tried to fit the
\nuniverse into the size of the human mind. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

How
\nmany of us remember former lives? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

In all, in some part of our consciousness, there is a remembrance.
\nBut this is a dangerous subject, because the human mind is too fond of romance.
\nAs soon as it comes to know something of this truth of rebirth, it wants to
\nbuild up beautiful stories around it. Many people would tell you wonderful
\ntales of how the world was built and how it will proceed in the future, how and
\nwhere you were born in the past and what you will be hereafter, the lives you
\nhave lived and the lives you will still live. All this has nothing to do with
\nspiritual life. The true remembrance of past births may indeed be part of an
\nintegral knowledge; but
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 40<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\n <\/span><\/p>\n

it cannot be got by that way of imaginative fancies. If it is on
\none side an objective knowledge, on the other it depends largely on personal
\nand subjective experience, and here there is much chance of invention,
\ndistortion or false building. To reach the truth of these things, your
\nexperiencing consciousness must be pure and limpid, free from any mental
\ninterference or any vital interference, liberated from your personal notions
\nand feelings and from your mind’s habit of interpreting or explaining in its
\nown way. An experience of past lives may be true, but between what you have
\nseen and your mind’s explanation or construction about it there is bound to be
\nalways a great gulf. It is only when you can rise above human feelings and get
\nback from your mind, that you can reach the truth.\u00a0 <\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 41<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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