{"id":4024,"date":"2013-07-13T01:52:55","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4024"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:52:55","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:52:55","slug":"03-21-april-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\/03-21-april-1929-vol-03-questions-and-answers-volume-03","title":{"rendered":"-03_21 April 1929.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n21 April 1929<\/font><\/span><\/i>
\n<\/font> <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>There is a common idea that
\nvisions are a sign of high spirituality. Is this true? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Not necessarily. Moreover, to see is one
\nthing but to understand and interpret what is seen is quite another thing and
\nmuch more difficult. Generally, those who see are misled because they give the
\nmeaning or interpretation they wish to give according to their desires, hopes
\nand prepossessions. And then, too, there are many different planes in which you
\ncan see. There is a mental seeing, a vital seeing, and there are some visions
\nthat are seen in a plane very close to the most material. The visions that
\nbelong to the last category appear in forms and symbols that seem to be
\nabsolutely material, so clear and real and tangible they are. And if you know
\nhow to interpret them you can have very exact indications of circumstances and
\nof the inner condition of people. <\/span><\/p>\n

Let us illustrate. Here is a vision that
\nsomeone actually had. A road climbs up a steep and precipitous hillside, bathed
\nin full bright sunlight. On the road a heavy coach drawn by six strong horses
\nis proceeding with great difficulty; it is advancing slowly but steadily.
\nArrives a man who looks over the situation, takes his position behind the coach
\nand begins to push it or tries to push it up the hill. Then someone comes who
\nhas knowledge and says to him, \u201cWhy do you labour in vain? Do you think your
\neffort can have any effect? For you it is an impossible task. Even the horses
\nfind it difficult.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Now the clue to the meaning of the vision
\nlies in the image of the six horses. Horses are symbols of power and the number
\nsix represents divine creation; so the six horses signify the powers of divine
\ncreation. The coach stands for realisation, for the thing that has to be
\nrealised, achieved, brought up to the summit, to the height where dwells the
\nLight. Although these
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 13<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

powers of creation are divine, it is a
\nhard labour even for them to consummate the realisation; for they have to work
\nagainst heavy odds, against the whole downward pull of nature. Then comes in
\nthe human being in his arrogance and ignorance, with his small fund of mental
\npowers and thinks that he is somebody and can do something. The best thing he
\ncan do is to step inside the coach, sit down comfortably and let the horses
\ncarry him. <\/span><\/p>\n

Dreams are quite a different thing. They
\nare more difficult to interpret, since each person has his own world of
\ndream-imagery peculiar to himself. Of course, there are dreams that do not
\nsignify much, those that are connected with the most superficial and physical
\nlayer of consciousness, those that are the result of stray thoughts, random
\nimpressions, mechanical reactions or reflex activities. These have no regular
\nor organised form and shape and meaning; they are hardly remembered and leave
\nalmost no trace in the consciousness. But even dreams that have a somewhat
\ndeeper origin are still obscure, since they are peculiarly personal, in this
\nsense that they depend for their make-up almost entirely upon the experiences
\nand idiosyncrasies of the individual. Visions also are made up of symbols that
\ndo not necessarily obtain universal currency. The symbols vary according to
\nrace and tradition and religion. One symbol may be peculiarly Christian,
\nanother peculiarly Hindu, a third may be common to all the East and a fourth
\nonly to the West. Dreams, on the other hand, are exclusively personal; they
\ndepend upon everyday occurrences and impressions. It is exceedingly difficult
\nfor one man to explain or interpret another’s dream. Each man is like a closed
\ncircle to every other man. But everyone can study for himself his own dreams,
\nunravel them and find out their meaning. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now the procedure to deal with dreams and
\nthe dreamland. First become conscious \u2013 conscious of your dreams. Observe the
\nrelation between them and the happenings of your waking hours. If you remember
\nyour night, you will be able to trace back very often the condition of your day
\nto the condition of
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 14<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

your night. In sleep some action or other
\nis always going on in your mental or vital or other plane; things happen there
\nand they govern your waking consciousness. For instance, some are very anxious
\nto perfect themselves and make a great effort during the day. They go to sleep
\nand, when they rise the next day, they find no trace of the gains of their
\nprevious day’s effort; they have to go over the same ground once again. This
\nmeans that the effort and whatever achievement there was belonged to the more
\nsuperficial or wakeful parts of the being, but there were deeper and dormant
\nparts that were not touched. In sleep you fell into the grip of these
\nunconscious regions and they opened and swallowed all that you had laboriously
\nbuilt up in your conscious hours. <\/span><\/p>\n

Be conscious! Be conscious of the night as
\nwell as of the day. First you have to get consciousness, afterwards, control.
\nYou who remember your dreams may have had this experience that, even while
\ndreaming, you knew it was a dream; you knew that it was an experience that did
\nnot belong to the material world. When once you know, you can act there in the
\nsame way as in the material world; even in the dreaming, you can exercise your
\nconscious will and change the whole course of your dream-experience. <\/span><\/p>\n

And as you become more and more conscious,
\nyou will begin to have the same control over your being at night as you have in
\nthe day, perhaps even more. For at night you are free, at least partially, from
\nslavery to the mechanism of the body. The control over the processes of the body-consciousness
\nis more difficult, since they are more rigid, less amenable to change than are
\nthe mental or the vital processes. <\/span><\/p>\n

In the night the mental and vital,
\nespecially the vital, are very active. During the day they are under check, the
\nphysical consciousness automatically represses their free play and expression.
\nIn sleep this check is removed and they come out with their natural and free
\nmovements.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 15<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

What is the nature of dreamless sleep? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Generally, when you have what you call
\ndreamless sleep, it is one of two things; either you do not remember what you
\ndreamt or you fell into absolute unconsciousness which is almost death a taste
\nof death. But there is the possibility of a sleep in which you enter into an
\nabsolute silence, immobility and peace in all parts of your being and your
\nconsciousness merges into Sachchidananda. You can hardly call it sleep, for it
\nis extremely conscious. In that condition you may remain for a few minutes, but
\nthese few minutes give you more rest and refreshment than hours of ordinary
\nsleep. You cannot have it by chance; it requires a long training. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

How is it that in dreams one meets and knows people whom one meets and
\nknows afterwards in the outer world? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It is because of the affinities that draw
\ncertain people together, affinities in the mental or the vital world. People
\noften meet in these planes before they meet upon earth. They may join there,
\nspeak to each other and have all the relations you can have upon earth. Some know
\nof these relationships, some do not know. Some, as are indeed most, are
\nunconscious of the inner being and the inner intercourse, and yet it will
\nhappen that, when they meet the new face in the outer world, they find it
\nsomehow very familiar, quite well-known. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Are there no false visions? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

There are what in appearance are false
\nvisions. There are, for instance, hundreds or thousands of people who say that
\nthey have seen the Christ. Of that number those who have actually seen Him are
\nperhaps less than a dozen, and even with them there is much to say about what
\nthey have seen. What the others
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 16<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

saw may be an emanation; or it may be a
\nthought or even an image remembered by the mind. There are, too, those who are
\nstrong believers in the Christ and have had a vision of some Force or Being or
\nsome remembered image that is very luminous and makes upon them a strong
\nimpression. They have seen something which they feel belongs to another world,
\nto a supernatural order, and it has created in them an emotion of fear, awe or
\njoy; and as they believe in the Christ, they can think of nothing else and say
\nit is He. But the same vision or experience if it comes to one who believes in
\nthe Hindu, the Mahomedan or some other religion, will take a different name and
\nform. The thing seen or experienced may be fundamentally the same, but it is
\nformulated differently according to the different make-up of the apprehending
\nmind. It is only those that can go beyond beliefs and faiths and myths and
\ntraditions who are able to say what it really is; but these are few, very few.
\nYou must be free from every mental construction, you must divest yourself of
\nall that is merely local or temporal, before you can know what you have
\nseen.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Spiritual experience means the contact
\nwith the Divine in oneself (or without, which comes to the same thing in that
\ndomain). And it is an experience identical everywhere in all countries, among
\nall peoples and even in all ages. If you meet the Divine, you meet it always
\nand everywhere in the same way. Difference comes in because between the
\nexperience and its formulation there is almost an abyss. Directly you have
\nspiritual experience, which takes place always in the inner consciousness, it
\nis translated into your external consciousness and defined there in one way or
\nanother according to your education, your faith, your mental predisposition.
\nThere is only one truth, one reality; but the forms through which it may be
\nexpressed are many. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

What was the nature of Jeanne d’Arc’s vision? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Jeanne d’Arc was evidently in relation
\nwith some entities belonging
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 17<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

to what we call the world of the Gods (or
\nas the Catholics say, the world of the Saints, though it is not quite the
\nsame). The beings she saw she called archangels. These beings belong to the
\nintermediate world between the higher mind and the supramental, the world that
\nSri Aurobindo calls the Overmind. It is the world of the creators, the
\n\u201cFormateurs\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n

The two beings who were always appearing
\nand speaking to Jeanne d’Arc would, if seen by an Indian, have a quite
\ndifferent appearance; for when one sees, one projects the forms of one’s mind.
\nTo what you see you give the form of that which you expect to see. If the same
\nbeing appeared simultaneously in a group where there were Christians,
\nBuddhists, Hindus, Shintoists, it would be named by absolutely different names.
\nEach would say, in reference to the appearance of the being, that he was like
\nthis or like that, all differing and yet it would be one and the same manifestation.
\nYou have the vision of one in <\/span>India<\/span> whom you call the Divine Mother, the
\nCatholics say it is the Virgin Mary, and the Japanese call it Kwannon, the
\nGoddess of Mercy, and others would give other names. It is the same Force, the
\nsame Power, but the images made of it are different in different faiths. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>What is the place of training or
\ndiscipline in surrender? If one surrenders, can he not be without discipline?
\nDoes not discipline sometimes hamper? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe. But a distinction must be made
\nbetween a method of development or discipline and a willed action. Discipline
\nis different; I am speaking of willed action. If you surrender you have to give
\nup effort, but that does not mean that you have to abandon also all willed
\naction. On the contrary, you can hasten the realisation by lending your will to
\nthe Divine Will. That too is surrender in another form. <\/span><\/p>\n

What is required of you is not a passive
\nsurrender, in which <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 18<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

you become like a block, but to put your
\nwill at the disposal of the Divine Will.\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

But how can one do this before the union has been affected? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

You have a will and you can offer that
\nwill. Take the example of becoming conscious of your nights. If you take the
\nattitude of passive surrender, you would say, \u201cWhen it is the Divine Will that
\nI should become conscious, then I shall become conscious.\u201d On the other hand,
\nif you offer your will to the Divine, you begin to will, you say, \u201cI will
\nbecome conscious of my nights.\u201d You have the will that it should be done; you
\ndo not sit down idle and wait. The surrender comes in when you take the
\nattitude that says, \u201cI give my will to the Divine. I intensely want to become
\nconscious of my nights, I have not the knowledge, let the Divine Will work it
\nout for me.\u201d Your will must continue to act steadily, not in the way of
\nchoosing a particular action or demanding a particular object, but as an ardent
\naspiration concentrated upon the end to be achieved. This is the first step. If
\nyou are vigilant, if your attention is alert, you will certainly receive
\nsomething in the form of an inspiration of what is to be done and that you must
\nforthwith proceed to do. Only, you must remember that to surrender is to accept
\nwhatever is the result of your action, though the result may be quite different
\nfrom what you expect. On the other hand, if your surrender is passive, you will
\ndo nothing and try nothing; you will simply go to sleep and wait for a miracle.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Now to know whether your will or desire is
\nin agreement with the Divine Will or not, you must look and see whether you
\nhave an answer or have no answer, whether you feel supported or contradicted,
\nnot by the mind or the vital or the body, but by that something which is always
\nthere deep in the inner being, in your heart. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 19<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

Is not an increasing effort of meditation needed and is it not true that
\nthe more hours you meditate the greater progress you make?\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

The number of hours spent in meditation is
\nno proof of spiritual progress. It is a proof of your progress when you no
\nlonger have to make an effort to meditate. Then you have rather to make an
\neffort to stop meditating: it becomes difficult to stop meditation, difficult
\nto stop thinking of the Divine, difficult to come down to the ordinary
\nconsciousness. Then you are sure of progress, then you have made real progress
\nwhen concentration in the Divine is the necessity of your life, when you cannot
\ndo without it, when it continues naturally from morning to night whatever you
\nmay be engaged in doing. Whether you sit down to meditation or go about and do
\nthings and work, what is required of you is consciousness; that is the one
\nneed, \u2013 to be constantly conscious of the Divine.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

But is not sitting down to meditation an indispensable discipline, and
\ndoes it not give a more intense and concentrated union with the Divine? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>That may be. But a discipline in itself is not
\nwhat we are seeking. What we are seeking is to be concentrated on the Divine in
\nall that we do, at all times, in all our acts and in every movement. There are
\nsome here who have been told to meditate; but also there are others who have
\nnot been asked to do any meditation at all. But it must not be thought that
\nthey are not progressing. They too follow a discipline, but it is of another
\nnature. To work, to act with devotion and an inner consecration is also a
\nspiritual discipline. The final aim is to be in constant union with the Divine,
\nnot only in meditation but in all circumstances and in all the active life. <\/span><\/p>\n

There are some who, when they are sitting
\nin meditation, get into a state which they think very fine and delightful. They
\nsit <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 20<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

self-complacent in it and forget the
\nworld; but if they are disturbed, they come out of it angry and restless,
\nbecause their meditation was interrupted. This is not a sign of spiritual
\nprogress or discipline. There are some people who act and seem to feel as if
\ntheir meditation were a debt they have to pay to the Divine; they are like men
\nwho go to church once a week and think they have paid what they owe to God. <\/span><\/p>\n

If you need to make an effort to go into
\nmeditation, you are still very far from being able to live the spiritual life.
\nWhen it takes an effort to come out of it, then indeed your meditation can be
\nan indication that you are in the spiritual life. <\/span><\/p>\n

There are disciplines such as Hatha Yoga
\nand Raja Yoga that one can practise and yet have nothing to do with the
\nspiritual life; the former arrives mostly at body control, the latter at mind
\ncontrol. But to enter the spiritual life means to take a plunge into the
\nDivine, as you would jump into the sea. And that is not the end but the very
\nbeginning; for after you have taken the plunge, you must learn to live in the
\nDivine. How are you to do it? You have simply to jump straight in and not to
\nthink, \u201cWhere shall I fall? What will happen to me?\u201d It is the hesitation of
\nyour mind that prevents you. You must simply let yourself go. If you wish to
\ndive into the sea and are thinking all the time, \u201cAh, but there may be a stone
\nhere or a stone there\u201d, you cannot dive. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

But you see the sea and so you can jump straight into it. But how are
\nyou to jump into the spiritual life? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, you must have had some glimpse
\nof the Divine Reality, as you must see the sea and know something of it before
\nyou can jump into it. That glimpse is usually the awakening of the psychic
\nconsciousness. But some realisation you must have \u2013 a strong mental or vital,
\nif not a deep psychic or integral contact. You must have felt strongly the
\nDivine Presence in or about you; you must have felt the breath of the Divine
\nworld. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 21<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

And you must have felt too as a
\nsuffocating pressure the opposite breath of the ordinary world, drawing you to
\nan endeavour to come out of that oppressive atmosphere. If you have that, then
\nyou have only to seek refuge unreservedly in the Divine Reality and live in its
\nhelp and protection, in it alone. What you may have done in the course of your
\nordinary life only partially or in some parts of your being or at times and on
\noccasions, you must do completely and for good. That is the plunge you have to
\ntake, and unless you do it, you may do Yoga for years and yet know nothing of a
\ntrue spiritual living. Take the whole and entire plunge and you will be free from
\nthis outer confusion and get the true experience of the spiritual life. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 22<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

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

21 April 1929   \u00a0There is a common idea that visions are a sign of high spirituality. Is this true?   Not necessarily. Moreover, to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-03-questions-and-answers-volume-03","wpcat-115-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4024","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=4024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4024\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}