{"id":4056,"date":"2013-07-13T01:53:07","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4056"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:53:07","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:53:07","slug":"12-23-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\/12-23-june-1929-vol-03-questions-and-answers-volume-03","title":{"rendered":"-12_23 June 1929.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n
\n23 June
\n 1929<\/font><\/span><\/i>
\n<\/font>
\n<\/i>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Can a
\nYogi attain to a state of consciousness in which he can know all things, answer
\nall questions, relating even to abstruse scientific problems, such as, for
\nexample, the theory of relativity? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Theoretically and in principle it is not
\nimpossible for a Yogi to know everything; all depends upon the Yogi. <\/span><\/p>\n

But there is knowledge and knowledge. The
\nYogi does not know in the way of the mind. He does not know everything in the
\nsense that he has access to all possible information or because he contains all
\nthe facts of the universe in his mind or because his consciousness is a sort of
\nmiraculous encyclopaedia. He knows by his capacity for a containing or dynamic
\nidentity with things and persons and forces. Or he knows because he lives in a
\nplane of consciousness or is in contact with a consciousness in which there is
\nthe truth and the knowledge. <\/span><\/p>\n

If you are in the true consciousness, the
\nknowledge you have will also be of the truth. Then, too, you can know directly,
\nby being one with what you know. If a problem is put before you, if you are
\nasked what is to be done in a particular matter, you can then, by looking with
\nenough attention and concentration, receive spontaneously the required
\nknowledge and the true answer. It is not by any careful application of theory
\nthat you reach the knowledge or by working it out through a mental process. The
\nscientific mind needs these methods to come to its conclusions. But the Yogi’s
\nknowledge is direct and immediate; it is not deductive. If an engineer has to find
\nout the exact position for the building of an arch, the line of its curve and
\nthe size of its opening, he does it by calculation, collating and deducing from
\nhis information and data. But a Yogi needs none of these things; he looks, has
\nthe vision of the thing, sees that it is to be done in this way and not in
\nanother, and this <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 92<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

seeing is his knowledge. <\/span><\/p>\n

Although it may be true in a general way
\nand in a certain sense that a Yogi can know all things and can answer all
\nquestions from his own field of vision and consciousness, yet it does not
\nfollow that there are no questions whatever of any kind to which he would not
\nor could not answer. A Yogi who has the direct knowledge, the knowledge of the
\ntrue truth of things, would not care or perhaps would find it difficult to
\nanswer questions that belong entirely to the domain of human mental
\nconstructions. It may be, he could not or would not wish to solve problems and
\ndifficulties you might put to him which touch only the illusion of things and their
\nappearances. The working of his knowledge is not in the mind. If you put him
\nsome silly mental query of that character, he probably would not answer. The
\nvery common conception that you can put any ignorant question to him as to some
\nsuper-schoolmaster or demand from him any kind of information past, present or
\nfuture and that he is bound to answer, is a foolish idea. It is as inept as the
\nexpectation from the spiritual man of feats and miracles that would satisfy the
\nvulgar external mind and leave it gaping with wonder.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Moreover, the term \u201cYogi\u201d is very vague
\nand wide. There are many types of Yogis, many lines or ranges of spiritual or
\noccult endeavour and different heights of achievement, there are some whose
\npowers do not extend beyond the mental level; there are others who have gone
\nbeyond it. Everything depends on the field or nature of their effort, the
\nheight to which they have arrived, the consciousness with which they have
\ncontact or into which they enter. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Do
\nnot scientists go sometimes beyond the mental plane? It is said that Einstein
\nfound his theory of relativity not through any process of reasoning, but
\nthrough some kind of sudden inspiration. Has that inspiration anything to do
\nwith the Supermind?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/i> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 93<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

The scientist who gets an inspiration revealing to him a new
\ntruth, receives it from the intuitive mind. The knowledge comes as a direct
\nperception in the higher mental plane illumined by some other light still
\nfarther above. But all that has nothing to do with the action of Supermind and
\nthis higher mental level is far removed from the supramental plane. Men are too
\neasily inclined to believe that they have climbed into regions quite divine
\nwhen they have only gone above the average level. There are many stages between
\nthe ordinary human mind and the Supermind, many grades and many intervening
\nplanes. If an ordinary man were to get into direct contact even with one of
\nthese intermediate planes, he would be dazzled and blinded, would be crushed
\nunder the weight of the sense of immensity or would lose his balance; and yet
\nit is not the Supermind. <\/span><\/p>\n

Behind the common idea that a Yogi can
\nknow all things and answer all questions is the actual fact that there is a
\nplane in the mind where the memory of everything is stored and remains always
\nin existence. All mental movements that belong to the life of the earth are
\nmemorised and registered in this plane. Those who are capable of going there
\nand care to take the trouble, can read in it and learn anything they choose.
\nBut this region must not be mistaken for the supramental levels. And yet to
\nreach even there you must be able to silence the movements of the material or
\nphysical mind; you must be able to leave aside all your sensations and put a
\nstop to your ordinary mental movements, whatever they are; you must get out of
\nthe vital; you must become free from the slavery of the body. Then only you can
\nenter into that region and see. But if you are sufficiently interested to make
\nthis effort, you can arrive there and read what is written in the earth’s
\nmemory. <\/span><\/p>\n

Thus, if you go deep into silence, you can
\nreach a level of consciousness on which it is not impossible for you to receive
\nanswers to all your questions. And if there is one who is consciously open to
\nthe plenary truth of the supermind, in constant contact with it, he can
\ncertainly answer any question that is <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 94<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

worth an answer from the supramental Light. The queries put must
\ncome from some sense of the truth and reality behind things. There are many
\nquestions and much debated problems that are cobwebs woven of mere mental
\nabstractions or move on the illusory surface of things. These do not pertain to
\nreal knowledge; they are a deformation of knowledge, their very substance is of
\nthe ignorance. Certainly the supramental knowledge may give an answer, its own
\nanswer, to the problems set by the mind’s ignorance; but it is likely that it
\nwould not be at all satisfactory or perhaps even intelligible to those who ask
\nfrom the mental level. You must not expect the supramental to work in the way
\nof the mind or demand that the knowledge in truth should be capable of being
\npieced together with the half-knowledge in ignorance. The scheme of the mind is
\none thing, but Supermind is quite another and it would no longer be supramental
\nif it adapted itself to the exigencies of the mental scheme. The two are
\nincommensurable and cannot be put together. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

When
\nthe consciousness has attained to supramental joys, does it no longer take
\ninterest in the things of the mind? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

The supramental does not take interest in mental things in the
\nsame way as the mind. It takes its own interest in all the movements of the
\nuniverse, but it is from a different point of view and with a different vision.
\nThe world presents to it an entirely different appearance; there is a reversal
\nof outlook and everything is seen from there as other than what it seems to the
\nmind and often even the opposite. Things have another meaning; their aspect,
\ntheir motion and process, everything about them, are watched with other eyes.
\nEverything here is followed by the supermind; the mind movements and not less
\nthe vital, the material movements, all the play of the universe have for it a
\nvery deep interest, but of another kind. It is about the same difference as
\nthat between the interest taken in a puppet-play by one who
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 95<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

holds the strings and knows what the puppets are to do and the
\nwill that moves them and that they can do only what it moves them to do, and
\nthe interest taken by another who observes the play but sees only what is
\nhappening from moment to moment and knows nothing else. The one who follows the
\nplay and is outside its secret has a stronger, an eager and passionate interest
\nin what will happen and he gives an excited attention to its unforeseen or
\ndramatic events; the other, who holds the strings and moves the show, is
\nunmoved and tranquil. There is a certain intensity of interest which comes from
\nignorance and is bound up with illusion, and that must disappear when you are
\nout of the ignorance. The interest that human beings take in things founds
\nitself on the illusion; if that were removed, they would have no interest at
\nall in the play; they would find it dry and dull. That is why all this
\nignorance, all this illusion has lasted so long; it is because men like it,
\nbecause they cling to it and its peculiar kind of appeal that it endures. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

What
\nshould one do who wants to change his bodily condition, effect a cure or
\ncorrect some physical imperfection? Should he concentrate upon the end to be
\nrealised and exercise his will-power or should he only live in the confidence
\nthat it will be done or trust in the Divine Power to bring about the desired
\nresult in its own time and in its own way? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

All these are so many ways of doing the same thing and each in
\ndifferent conditions can be effective. The method by which you will be most
\nsuccessful depends on the consciousness you have developed and the character of
\nthe forces you are able to bring into play. You can live in the consciousness
\nof the completed cure or change and by the force of your inner formation slowly
\nbring about the outward change. Or if you know and have the vision of the force
\nthat is able to effect these things and if you have the skill to handle it, you
\ncan call it down and
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 96<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

apply it in the parts where its action is needed, and it will work
\nout the change. Or, again, you can present your difficulty to the Divine and
\nask of It the cure, putting confidently your trust in the Divine Power. <\/span><\/p>\n

But whatever you do, whatever the process
\nyou use, and even if you happen to have acquired in it a great skill and power,
\nyou must leave the result in the hands of the Divine. Always you may try, but
\nit is for the Divine to give you the fruit of your effort or not to give it.
\nThere your personal power stops; if the result comes, it is the Divine Power
\nand not yours that brings it. You question if it is right to ask the Divine for
\nthese things. But there is no more harm in turning to the Divine for the
\nremoval of a physical imperfection than in praying for the removal of a moral
\ndefect. But whatever you ask for or whatever your effort, you must feel, even
\nwhile trying your best, using knowledge or putting forth power, that the result
\ndepends upon the Divine Grace. Once you have taken up the Yoga, whatever you do
\nmust be done in a spirit of complete surrender. This must be your
\nattitude,\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cI aspire, I try to cure my
\nimperfections, I do my best, but for the result I put myself entirely into the
\nhands of the Divine.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Does
\nit help, if you say, \u201cI am sure of the result, I know that the Divine will give
\nme what I want\u201d? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

You may take it in that way. The very intensity of your faith may
\nmean that the Divine has already chosen that the thing it points to shall be
\ndone. An unshakable faith is a sign of the presence of the Divine Will, an
\nevidence of what shall be. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

What
\nare the forces that are in operation when one is in silent meditation? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

That depends upon the one who meditates.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 97<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

But
\nin silent meditation does he not make himself a complete blank? Then how can
\nanything depend upon him? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Even if you make yourself an absolute blank, that does not change
\nthe nature of your aspiration or alter its domain. In some the aspiration moves
\non the mental level or in the vital field; some have a spiritual aspiration. On
\nthe quality of the aspiration depends the force that answers and the work that
\nit comes to do. To make yourself blank in meditation creates an inner silence;
\nit does not mean that you have become nothing or have become a dead and inert mass.
\nMaking yourself an empty vessel, you invite that which shall fill it. It means
\nthat you release the stress of your inner consciousness towards realisation.
\nThe nature of the consciousness and the degree of its stress determine the
\nforces that you bring into play and whether they shall help and fulfil or fail
\nor even harm and hinder. <\/span><\/p>\n

There are many varying conditions in which
\nyou may meditate and all have their effect upon the forces brought in or
\nbrought down and on their working. If you sit alone, it is your own inner and
\nouter condition that matters. If you sit with others, the general condition is
\nof primary importance. But in either case the conditions will always vary and
\nthe forces that answer will never be twice the same. A united concentration
\nrightly done can be a great force. There is an old saying that if twelve
\nsincere persons unite their will and their aspiration and call the Divine, the
\nDivine is bound to manifest. But the will must be one-pointed, the aspiration
\nsincere. For those who make the attempt can be united in inertia or even in
\nmistaken or perverse desire, and the result is then likely to be disastrous. <\/span><\/p>\n

In your meditation the first imperative
\nneed is a state of perfect and absolute sincerity in all the consciousness. It
\nis indispensable that you should not deceive yourself or deceive or be deceived
\nby others. Often people have a wish, a mental preference or vital desire; they
\nwant the experience to happen in a <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 98<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

particular way or to take a turn that satisfies their ideas or
\ndesires or preferences; they do not keep themselves blank and unprejudiced and
\nsimply and sincerely observe what happens. Then if you do not like what
\nhappens, it is easy to deceive yourself; you will see one thing, but give it a
\nlittle twist and make it something else, or you will distort something simple
\nand straightforward or magnify it into an extraordinary experience. When you
\nsit in meditation you must be as candid and simple as a child, not interfering
\nby your external mind, expecting nothing, insisting on nothing. Once this
\ncondition is there, all the rest depends upon the aspiration deep within you.
\nIf you ask from within for peace, it will come; if for strength, for power, for
\nknowledge, they too will come, but all in the measure of your capacity to
\nreceive it. And if you call upon the Divine, then too \u2013 always admitting that
\nthe Divine is open to your call, and that means your call is pure enough and
\nstrong enough to reach him,\u00a0 <\/span>you will
\nhave the answer.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 99<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\n
\n\u00a0<\/font><\/span>H<\/a><\/font><\/span>OME<\/font><\/a><\/b>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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