{"id":4021,"date":"2013-07-13T01:52:55","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4021"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:52:55","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:52:55","slug":"10-9-june-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\/10-9-june-1929-vol-03-questions-and-answers-volume-03","title":{"rendered":"-10_9 June 1929.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

\n<\/p>\n

9 June 1929<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/b> <\/font> <\/i> <\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>What is exactly the nature of religion? Is it
\nan obstacle in the way of the spiritual life? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Religion belongs to the higher mind of humanity. It is the effort
\nof man’s higher mind to approach, as far as lies in its power, something beyond
\nit, something to which humanity gives the name God or Spirit or Truth or Faith
\nor Knowledge or the Infinite, some kind of Absolute, which the human mind
\ncannot reach and yet tries to reach. Religion may be divine in its ultimate
\norigin; in its actual nature it is not divine but human. In truth we should
\nspeak rather of religions than of religion; for the religions made by man are
\nmany. These different religions, even when they had not the same origin, have
\nmost of them been made in the same way. We know how the Christian religion came
\ninto existence. It was certainly not Jesus who made what is known as
\nChristianity, but some learned and very clever men put their heads together and
\nbuilt it up into the thing we see. There was nothing divine in the way in which
\nit was formed, and there is nothing divine either in the way in which it
\nfunctions. And yet the excuse or occasion for the formation was undoubtedly
\nsome revelation from what one could call a Divine Being, a Being who came from
\nelsewhere bringing down with him from a higher plane a certain Knowledge and
\nTruth for the earth. He came and suffered for his Truth; but very few
\nunderstood what he said, few cared to find and hold to the Truth for which he
\nsuffered. Buddha retired from the world, sat down in meditation and discovered
\na way out of earthly suffering and misery, out of all this illness and death
\nand desire and sin and hunger. He saw a Truth which he endeavoured to express
\nand communicate to the disciples and followers who gathered around him. But even
\nbefore he was dead, his teaching had already begun to be twisted and distorted.
\nIt was only after his
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 76<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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disappearance that Buddhism as a full-fledged religion reared its
\nhead founded upon what the Buddha is supposed to have said and on the supposed
\nsignificance of these reported sayings. But soon too, because the disciples and
\nthe disciples’ disciples could not agree on what the Master had said or what he
\nmeant by his utterances, there grew up a host of sects and sub-sects in the
\nbody of the parent religion\u00a0 <\/span>a Southern
\nPath, a Northern Path, a Far Eastern Path, each of them claiming to be the
\nonly, the original, the undefiled doctrine of the Buddha. The same fate
\novertook the teaching of the Christ; that too came to be made in the same way into
\na set and organised religion. It is often said that, if Jesus came back, he
\nwould not be able to recognise what he taught in the forms that have been
\nimposed on it, and if Buddha were to come back and see what has been made of
\nhis teaching, he would immediately run back discouraged to Nirvana! All
\nreligions have each the same story to tell. The occasion for its birth is the
\ncoming of a great Teacher of the world. He comes and reveals and is the
\nincarnation of a Divine Truth. But men seize upon it, trade upon it, make an
\nalmost political organisation out of it. The religion is equipped by them with
\na government and policy and laws, with its creeds and dogmas, its rules and
\nregulations, its rites and ceremonies, all binding upon its adherents, all
\nabsolute and inviolable. Like the State, it too administers rewards to the
\nloyal and assigns punishments for those that revolt or go astray, for the
\nheretic and the renegade. <\/span><\/p>\n

The first and principal article of these
\nestablished and formal religions runs always, \u201cMine is the supreme, the only
\ntruth, all others are in falsehood or inferior.\u201d For without this fundamental
\ndogma, established credal religions could not have existed. If you do not
\nbelieve and proclaim that you alone possess the one or the highest truth, you
\nwill not be able to impress people and make them flock to you. <\/span><\/p>\n

This attitude is natural to the religious
\nmind; but it is just that which makes religion stand in the way of the
\nspiritual life. <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 77<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

The articles and dogmas of a religion are mind-made things and, if
\nyou cling to them and shut yourself up in a code of life made out for you, you
\ndo not know and cannot know the truth of the Spirit that lies beyond all codes
\nand dogmas, wide and large and free. When you stop at a religious creed and tie
\nyourself in it, taking it for the only truth in the world, you stop the advance
\nand widening of your inner soul. But if you look at religion from another
\nangle, it need not always be an obstacle to all men. If you regard it as one of
\nthe higher activities of humanity and if you can see in it the aspirations of
\nman without ignoring the imperfection of all man-made things, it may well be a
\nkind of help for you to approach the spiritual life. Taking it up in a serious
\nand earnest spirit, you can try to find out what truth is there, what
\naspiration lies hidden in it, what divine inspiration has undergone
\ntransformation and deformation here by the human mind and a human organisation,
\nand with an appropriate mental stand you can get religion even as it is to
\nthrow some light on your way and to lend some support to your spiritual
\nendeavour. <\/span><\/p>\n

In all religions we find invariably a
\ncertain number of people who possess a great emotional capacity and are full of
\na real and ardent aspiration, but have a very simple mind and do not feel the
\nneed of approaching the Divine through knowledge. For such natures religion has
\na use and it is even necessary for them; for, through external forms, like the
\nceremonies of the Church, it offers a kind of support and help to their inner
\nspiritual aspiration. In every religion there are some who have evolved a high
\nspiritual life. But it is not the religion that gave them their spirituality;
\nit is they who have put their spirituality into the religion. Put anywhere
\nelse, born into any other cult, they would have found there and lived there the
\nsame spiritual life. It is their own capacity, it is some power of their inner
\nbeing and not the religion they profess that has made them what they are. This
\npower in their nature is such that religion to them does not become a slavery
\nor a bondage. Only as they have not a strong, <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 78<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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clear and active mind, they need to believe in this or that creed
\nas absolutely true and to give themselves up to it without any disturbing
\nquestion or doubt. I have met in all religions people of this kind and it would
\nbe a crime to disturb their faith. For them religion is not an obstacle. An
\nobstacle for those who can go farther, it may be a help for those who cannot,
\nbut are yet able to travel a certain distance on the paths of the Spirit.
\nReligion has been an impulse to the worst things and the best; if the fiercest
\nwars have been waged and the most hideous persecutions carried on in its name,
\nit has stimulated too supreme heroism and self-sacrifice in its cause. Along
\nwith philosophy it marks the limit the human mind has reached in its highest
\nactivities. It is an impediment and a chain if you are a slave to its outer
\nbody; if you know how to use its inner substance, it can be your jumping-board
\ninto the realm of the Spirit. <\/span><\/p>\n

One who holds a particular faith or who
\nhas found out some truth, is disposed to think that he alone has found the
\nTruth, whole and entire. This is human nature. A mixture of falsehood seems
\nnecessary for human beings to stand on their legs and move on their way. If the
\nvision of the Truth were suddenly given to them they would be crushed under the
\nweight. <\/span><\/p>\n

Each time that something of the Divine
\nTruth and the Divine Force comes down to manifest upon earth, some change is
\neffected in the earth’s atmosphere. In the descent, those who are receptive are
\nawakened to some inspiration from it, some touch, some beginning of sight. If
\nthey were capable of holding and expressing rightly what they receive, they
\nwould say, \u201cA great force has come down; I am in contact with it and what I
\nunderstand of it, I will tell you.\u201d But most of them are not capable of that,
\nbecause they have small minds. They get illumined, possessed, as it were, and
\ncry, \u201cI have the Divine Truth, I possess it whole and entire.\u201d There are now
\nupon earth at least two dozen Christs, if not as many Buddhas; <\/span>India<\/span> alone can supply any number of Avatars,
\nnot to speak of minor manifestations. But in this way, the whole thing begins
\nto look <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 79<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

grotesque; but if you see what is behind, it is not so stupid as
\nit seems at the first glance. The truth is that the human personality has come
\nin contact with some Being, some Power, and under the influence of education
\nand tradition calls it Buddha or Christ or by any other familiar name. It is
\ndifficult to affirm that it was Buddha himself or the very Christ with whom
\nthere was the contact, but none can assert either that the inspiration did not
\ncome from that which inspired the Christ or the Buddha. These human vessels may
\nvery well have received the inspiration from some such source. If they were
\nmodest and simple, they would be content to say that much and no more; they
\nwould say, \u201cI have received this inspiration from such and such a Great One\u201d,
\nbut instead they proclaim, \u201cI am that Great One.\u201d I knew one who affirmed that
\nhe was both Christ and Buddha! He had received something, had experienced a
\ntruth, had seen the Divine Presence in himself and in others. But the
\nexperience was too strong for him, the truth too great. He became half crazy
\nand the next day went out into the streets, proclaiming that in him Christ and
\nBuddha had become one. <\/span><\/p>\n

One Divine Consciousness is here working
\nthrough all these beings, preparing its way through all these manifestations.
\nAt this day it is here at work upon earth more powerfully than it has ever been
\nbefore. There are some who receive its touch in some way, or to some degree;
\nbut what they receive they distort, they make their own thing out of it. Others
\nfeel the touch but cannot bear the force and go mad under the pressure. But
\nsome have the capacity to receive and the strength to bear, and it is they who
\nwill become the vessels of the full knowledge, the chosen instruments and
\nagents. <\/span><\/p>\n

If you want to appraise the real value of
\nthe religion in which you are born or brought up or to have a correct
\nperspective of the country or society to which you belong by birth, if you want
\nto find out how relative a thing the particular environment is into which you
\nhappened to be thrown and confined, you have only to go round the earth and see
\nthat what you think <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 80<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

good is looked upon as bad elsewhere and what is considered as bad
\nin one place is welcomed as good in another. All countries and all religions
\nare built up out of a mass of traditions. In all of them you will meet saints
\nand heroes and great and mighty personalities as well as small and wicked
\npeople. You will then perceive what a mockery it is to say, \u201cBecause I am
\nbrought up in this religion, therefore it is the only true religion; because I
\nam born in this country, therefore it is the best of all countries.\u201d One might
\nas well make the same claim for his family, \u201cBecause I come of this family that
\nhas lived in the same place for so many years or so many centuries, therefore I
\nam bound by its traditions; they alone are the ideal.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Things have an inner value and become real
\nto you only when you have acquired them by the exercise of your free choice,
\nnot when they have been imposed upon you. If you want to be sure of your
\nreligion, you must choose it; if you want to be sure of your country, you must
\nchoose it; if you want to be sure of your family, even that you must choose. If
\nyou accept without question what has been given you by Chance, you can never be
\nsure whether it is good or bad for you, whether it is the true thing for your
\nlife. Step back from all that forms your natural environment or inheritance,
\nmade up and forced upon you by Nature’s blind mechanical process; draw within
\nand look quietly and dispassionately at things. Appraise them, choose freely.
\nThen you can say with an inner truth, \u201cThis is my family, this my country, this
\nmy religion.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

If we go a little way within ourselves, we
\nshall discover that there is in each of us a consciousness that has been living
\nthroughout the ages and manifesting in a multitude of forms. Each of us has
\nbeen born in many different countries, belonged to many different nations,
\nfollowed many different religions. Why must we accept the last one as the best?
\nThe experiences gathered by us in all these many lives in different countries
\nand varying religions, are stored up in that inner continuity of our
\nconsciousness which persists through all births. There are <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 81<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

multiple personalities there created by these past experiences,
\nand when we become aware of this multitude within us, it becomes impossible to
\nspeak of one particular form of truth as the only truth, one country as our
\nonly country, one religion as the only true religion. There are people who have
\nbeen born into one country, although the leading elements of their
\nconsciousness obviously belong to another. I have met some born in <\/span>Europe<\/span> who were evidently Indians; I have met
\nothers born in Indian bodies who were as evidently Europeans. In <\/span>Japan<\/span> I have met some who were Indian, others
\nwho were European. And if any of them goes to the country or enters into the
\ncivilisation to which he has affinity, he finds himself there perfectly at
\nhome. <\/span><\/p>\n

If your aim is to be free, in the freedom
\nof the Spirit, you must get rid of all the ties that are not the inner truth of
\nyour being, but come from subconscious habits. If you wish to consecrate
\nyourself entirely, absolutely and exclusively to the Divine, you must do it in
\nall completeness; you must not leave bits of yourself tied here and there. You
\nmay object that it is not easy to cut away altogether from one’s moorings. But
\nhave you never looked back and observed the changes that have taken place in
\nyou in the course of a few years? When you do that, almost always you ask
\nyourself how it was that you could have felt in the way you felt and acted as
\nyou did act in certain circumstances; at times, even, you can no longer
\nrecognise yourself in the person you were only ten years ago. How can you then
\nbind yourself to what was or to what is or how can you fix beforehand what may
\nor may not be in the future? <\/span><\/p>\n

All your relations must be newly built
\nupon an inner freedom of choice. The traditions in which you live or are
\nbrought up have been imposed on you by the pressure of the environment or by
\nthe general mind or by the choice of others. There is an element of compulsion
\nin your acquiescence. Religion itself has been imposed on men; it is often
\nsupported by a suggestion of religious fear or by some spiritual or other
\nmenace. There can be no such imposition in your relation with the Divine; it <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 82<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

must be free, your own mind’s and heart’s choice, taken up with
\nenthusiasm and joy. What union can that be in which one trembles and says, \u201cI
\nam compelled, I cannot do otherwise\u201d? Truth is self-evident and has not to be
\nimposed upon the world. It does not feel the need of being accepted by men. For
\nit is self-existent; it does not live by what people say of it or on their
\nadherence. But one who is founding a religion needs to have many followers. The
\nstrength and greatness of a religion is adjudged by men according to the number
\nof those that follow it, although the real greatness is not there. The
\ngreatness of spiritual truth is not in numbers. I knew the head of a new
\nreligion, the son of its founder, and heard him say once that such and such a
\nreligion took so many hundreds of years to be built up, and such another so
\nmany hundreds of years, but they within fifty years had already over four
\nmillion followers. \u201cAnd so you see\u201d, he added, \u201cwhat a great religion is ours!\u201d
\nReligions may reckon their greatness by the number of their believers, but
\nTruth would still be Truth if it had not even a single follower. The average
\nman is drawn towards those who make great pretensions; he does not go where Truth
\nis quietly manifesting. Those who make great pretensions need to proclaim
\nloudly and to advertise; for otherwise they would not attract great numbers of
\npeople. The work that is done with no care for what people think of it is not
\nso well known, does not so easily draw multitudes. But Truth requires no
\nadvertisement; it does not hide itself but it does not proclaim itself either.
\nIt is content to manifest, regardless of results, not seeking approbation or
\nshunning disapprobation, not attracted or troubled by the world’s acceptance or
\ndenial. <\/span><\/p>\n

When you come to the Yoga, you must be
\nready to have all your mental buildings and all your vital scaffoldings
\nshattered to pieces. You must be prepared to be suspended in the air with
\nnothing to support you except your faith. You will have to forget your past
\nself and its clingings altogether, to pluck it out of your consciousness and be
\nborn anew, free from every kind <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 83<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

of bondage. Think not of what you were, but of what you aspire to
\nbe; be altogether in what you want to realise. Turn from your dead past and
\nlook straight towards the future. Your religion, country, family lie there; it
\nis the DIVINE.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 84<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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