{"id":4255,"date":"2013-07-13T01:54:36","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4255"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:54:36","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:54:36","slug":"20-05-march-1958-vol-09-questions-and-answers-volume-09","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/02-works-of-the-mother\/01-cwmce\/09-questions-and-answers-volume-09\/20-05-march-1958-vol-09-questions-and-answers-volume-09","title":{"rendered":"-20_05 March 1958.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n
\n5
\n March 1958<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Mother,
\nwon\u2019t you please speak to us about the \u201creversal\u201d you have already mentioned to
\nus several times? You said that a reversal was necessary to obtain the new
\nconsciousness. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

A reversal? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

What kind of
\nreversal do we need, now? You said \u201ca reversal of consciousness\u201d. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

That is a way of speaking. It doesn\u2019t mean
\nthat you should walk on your head!\u2026It is an image. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Yes, Sri
\nAurobindo has said this too,\u00b9 \u00a0<\/span>so\u2026<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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

So, if the image leads you to some kind of perception, it is good,
\nbut it is not with this (Mother points to
\nthe head)<\/i> that you can understand. If it gives you an impression which
\nexplains things to you or makes you understand them better, it is all right,<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00b9 \u201cThe necessary condition for the change
\nfrom the normal animal to the human character of existence would be a
\ndevelopment of the physical organisation which would capacitate a rapid
\nprogression, a reversal or turnover of the consciousness, a reaching to a new
\nheight and a looking down from it at the lower stages, a heightening and
\nwidening of capacity which would enable the being to take up the old animal
\nfaculties with a larger and more plastic, a human intelligence, and at the same
\ntime or later to develop greater and subtler powers proper to the new type of
\nbeing, powers of reason, reflection, complex observation, organised invention,
\nthought and discovery.\u2026Such a reversal has been made in each radical transition
\nof Nature: Life-Force emerging turns upon Matter, imposes a vital content on
\nthe operations of material Energy while it develops also its own new movements
\nand operations; Life-Mind emerges in Life-Force and Matter and imposes its
\ncontent of consciousness on their operations while it develops also its own
\naction and faculties; a new greater emergence and reversal, the emergence of
\nhumanity, is in line with Nature\u2019s precedents; it would be a new application of
\nthe general principle.\u201d<\/font>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nLife Divine<\/font><\/span><\/i>, pp. 838-39<\/font><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 286<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

but it is not with many words and by going through the brain that
\nyou will understand them better. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is this kind of sensation one has of seeing things in an
\naltogether different way \u2013 then one speaks of reversal. It is like\u2026it is always
\ncompared with a prism: if you look at it from one side, the light is white, and
\nif you turn it over, it splits up into all its elements. This is something
\nsimilar. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Words are not good and
\nuseful unless through a special grace they put you into contact with the Thing,
\nbut in themselves they have no value. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>In fact, the ideal
\ncondition \u2013 which has already been partially realised by some people \u2013 is to
\ntransmit the essential idea and even something that is higher than the idea:
\nthe state \u2013 the state of consciousness, of knowledge, of perception \u2013 directly
\nthrough the vibration. When you think, the mental substance vibrates in a
\ncertain way in accordance with the form your consciousness gives to your
\nthought, and it is this vibration which should be perceived by the other mind
\nif it is well attuned. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Indeed, words serve
\nonly to draw the attention of the other consciousness or the other centre of
\nconsciousness, so that it may be attentive to the vibration and receive it; but
\nif it is not attentive and doesn\u2019t have the capacity to receive in comparative
\nsilence, you may pour out miles of words without making yourself understood in
\nthe least. And there comes a time when the brain, which is very active in
\nemanating certain vibrations, can only receive vibrations which are clear and
\nprecise, otherwise it is a kind of vague mixture of something confused,
\nimprecise, which gives the impression of a cloudy, woolly mass and doesn\u2019t
\nevoke any idea. So one speaks, the sound is clearly heard, but it conveys
\nnothing \u2013 it is not a question of sound, it is a matter of precision in the
\nvibrations. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>If you can emanate
\nyour thought in a very precise way, if it is something living and conscious<\/i> emanating from your
\nconsciousness and going to meet the other consciousness, if, so to<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 287<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

speak, you know what you want to say, then it arrives with the same
\nprecision, it awakens the corresponding vibration and with the corresponding
\nvibration comes the corresponding thought or idea or state of consciousness,
\nand you understand each other; but if what is emanated is woolly, imprecise, if
\nyou do not know very well what you want to say, if you yourself are trying to
\nunderstand what you want to say, and if, on the other hand, the attention of
\nthe hearer is not alert enough or he is busy and active somewhere else, well
\nthen, you may talk to each other for hours, you will not understand each other
\nat all!<\/span><\/p>\n

And in fact this is what happens most often. When you are able to
\nsee in the consciousness of others the result of what you have tried to
\ncommunicate, it always gives you the feeling of\u2026you know what distorting
\nmirrors are? Have you never seen distorting mirrors? Mirrors which make you
\nlook taller or fatter, which enlarge one part and reduce another, you are faced
\nwith a grotesque caricature of yourself \u2013 well, this is exactly what happens:
\nin the other person\u2019s consciousness you have an altogether grotesque caricature
\nof what you have said. And people imagine that they have understood each other
\nbecause they have heard the sound of words, but they haven\u2019t communicated. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>So, if you want to
\nexercise the least effect on the mental substance, the first thing is to learn
\nhow to think clearly, and not a verbal thought which depends on words but a
\nthought which can dispense with words, which can be understood in itself
\nwithout words, which corresponds to a fact,<\/i>
\nthe fact of a state of consciousness or a fact of knowledge. Just try to think
\nwithout words, you will see where you stand. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Have you never tried
\nit? Well then, try.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>You have an absolutely
\nclear and precise understanding of what you want to communicate to others \u2013 vibrates
\nin a special way, it has the power to give a form to the mental substance; and
\nthen, afterwards,<\/i> as a concession to
\nhuman habits you organise a certain number of words around it to try \u2013 there,
\nmuch lower down \u2013 to give a verbal form to the vibration <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 288<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

of consciousness. But the verbal form is entirely secondary.
\nIt is a kind of covering, a rather crude one, for the power of thought. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

What
\nprovides the words? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Ah, no! Think clearly, I don\u2019t understand you. It is coming like
\nthat, like whirls of cottonwool<\/span>, and it makes no
\nsense to me. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>I see,
\nthe word comes out before the thought is formed. <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Exactly! <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The illustration of
\nthis power of thinking is what used to be called the gift of tongues. And in
\nfact this phenomenon did take place and can still do so. You think \u2013 that is to
\nsay, what I call thinking \u2013 quite independently of words, with the clear vision
\nof things and the power to communicate this vision, this phenomenon of
\nconsciousness which can be transmitted; now, you are with a large number of
\npeople or with a few people, who speak different languages and are used to
\nthinking only in one particular language, for they have been brought up like
\nthat; but you project the vibration of your vision, of your understanding, of
\nyour experience of things. To attract the attention of the audience you
\npronounce some words \u2013 any language at all, the one most familiar to you, that\u2019s
\nof no importance \u2013 but your vision and your emanation are precise enough to be
\ntransmitted directly to the brain of the others, and in their brain to be
\nautomatically translated into their own language. So, outwardly, you are
\nspeaking in French or in English, but each one understands in his own language.
\nPeople think this is a legend\\is not a legend. And it is quite understandable,
\nit is something almost elementary when one goes into the region which I call
\nthe region of thought. I am not speaking of supramental things, mind you; it is
\nnot a supramental power, it is simply the <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 289<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

true realm of thought. That is, you begin to think. <\/span><\/p>\n

And if you had an audience which also thinks, the phenomenon would
\ntake place automatically; only there are very few people who really think. But
\nwhen they do it powerfully enough, it breaks down the obstacle in the
\naltogether superficial and down-to-earth perception, it rises up like this (gesture showing a curve<\/i>), it goes up
\ninto a higher region of perception, and then, in each one, it falls back into
\nthe domain of his own language. And each one says with all the sincerity of his
\nexperience, \u201cOh! This person is speaking this language\u201d, and another says,
\n\u201cExcuse me, he is speaking that one!\u201d and the third one says, \u201cNo, no! He is
\nspeaking that other one….\u201d And in fact each one is telling the truth; he
\nprobably does not speak any of them except the one he normally uses, or one or
\ntwo others.\u2026But, it\u2019s that, it does this (same
\ngesture<\/i>) and then falls back\u2026like radio-waves. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>There, we are going to
\ntry. I am going to tell you something, we shall see if you understand.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

(Meditation<\/i>)<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 290<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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


\n
\n12 March 1958<\/font><\/a><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cOn the side
\nof consciousness the new manifestation, the human, could be accounted for by an
\nupsurge of concealed Consciousness from the involution in universal Nature. But
\nin that case it must have had some material form already existent for its
\nvehicle of emergence, the vehicle being adapted by the force of the emergence
\nitself to the needs of a new inner creation; or else a rapid divergence from
\nprevious physical types or patterns may have brought a new being into
\nexistence. But whichever the hypothesis accepted, this means an evolutionary
\nprocess, \u2013 there is only a difference in the method and machinery of the
\ndivergence or transition. Or there may have been, on the contrary, not an
\nupsurgence but a descent of mentality from a Mind-plane above us, perhaps the
\ndescent of a soul or mental being into terrestrial Nature. The difficulty would
\nthen be the appearance of the human body, too complex and difficult an organ to
\nhave been suddenly created or manifested; for such a miraculous speed of
\nprocess, though quite possible on a supraphysical plane of being, does not seem
\nto figure among the normal possibles or potentials of the material Energy. It
\ncould only happen there by an intervention of a supraphysical force or law of
\nNature or by a creator Mind acting with full power and directly on Matter. An
\naction of a supraphysical Force and a creator may be conceded in every new
\nappearance in Matter; each such appearance is at bottom a miracle operated by a
\nsecret Consciousness supported by a veiled Mind-Energy or Life-Energy: but the
\naction is nowhere seen to be direct, overt, self-sufficient; it is always
\nsuperimposed on an already realised physical basis and acts<\/span><\/i> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 291<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\u00a0<\/span>by an extension of some established process of
\nNature. It is more conceivable that there was an opening of some existing body to
\na supraphysical influx so that it was transformed into a new body; but no such
\nevent can lightly be assumed to have taken place in the past history of
\nmaterial Nature: in order to happen it would seem to need either the conscious
\nintervention of an invisible mental being to form the body he intended to
\ninhabit or else a previous development of a mental being in Matter itself who
\nwould be already able to receive a supraphysical power and impose it on the
\nrigid and narrow formulas of his physical existence. Otherwise we must suppose
\nthat there was a pre-existent body already so much evolved as to be fitted for
\nthe reception of a vast mental influx or capable of a pliable response to the
\ndescent into it of a mental being. But this would suppose a previous evolution
\nof mind in body to the point at which such a receptivity would be possible. It
\nis quite conceivable that such an evolution from below and such a descent from
\nabove cooperated in the appearance of humanity in earth-nature. The secret
\npsychical entity already there in the animal might have itself called down the
\nmental being, the Mind-Purusha, into the realm of living Matter in order to
\ntake up the vital-mental energy already at work and lift it into a higher
\nmentality. But this would still be a process of evolution, the higher plane
\nonly intervening to assist the appearance and enlargement of its own principle
\nin terrestrial Nature.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The Life Divine,<\/font><\/span><\/i> pp. 839-40<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

The difficulty of the problem is that only a mental being could
\ntake an interest in this process of transformation and creation, and that the
\nmental consciousness in the animal species was not <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 292<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

sufficient for it to take an interest in this process.<\/span><\/p>\n

Animals had no means of noting what was happening, of taking it
\ninto consideration and remembering it. And that is why this part of the earth\u2019s
\nhistory has almost disappeared. A mental capacity like man\u2019s must intervene to
\nmake it possible to follow the course of this transformation and retain a
\nmemory of it.\u2026In fact, more is imagined than remembered. It is quite obvious
\nthat the psychic being has gone through all that, but it has not kept a mental
\nmemory of it. The memory of the psychic being is a psychic memory which is of
\nan altogether different kind; it is not historical like mental memory which can
\nkeep a precise record of what takes place. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>But now that we are on
\nthe threshold of the new transformation, the new emergence as it is called
\nhere, and now that we are going to witness the process of transformation
\nbetween the human mental being and the supramental being, we shall profit by
\nthis historical ability of the mind which will follow what happens and take
\nnote of it. So, from that point of view also, the phenomenon which is taking
\nplace now is absolutely unique in the history of the earth, and probably \u2013
\nalmost certainly \u2013 when we have followed the process of this transformation to
\nthe very end, we shall have the key to all the former transformations; that is,
\neverything that we are trying to understand at present, we shall know for
\ncertain when the process is repeated, this time between the mental and the
\nsupramental being.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>You are therefore
\ninvited to a very special development of the capacity for observation, so that
\nall this may not take place in a half-dream and you awaken to a new life
\nwithout even knowing how things have happened. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>One must be very
\nvigilant, wide awake, and instead of being interested in little inner
\npsychological phenomena which are\u2026quite antiquated \u2013 they belong to an entire
\nperiod of human history which anyway has lost all its novelty\\would be better
\nto be more attentive to things of greater general import, <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 293<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

things more subtle, more impersonal which would put you in the
\nmidst of new discoveries of a very special interest.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Open the eyes of the subtle intelligence, and
\nwithout prejudice or preference, without egoism and without attachment, look at
\nwhat is happening day by day. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 294<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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


\n
\n19 March 1958<\/font><\/a><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cNext, it may
\nbe conceded that each type or pattern of consciousness and being in the body,
\nonce established, has to be faithful to the law of being of that type, to its
\nown design and rule of nature. But it may also very well be that part of the
\nlaw of the human type is its impulse towards self-exceeding, that the means for
\na conscious transition has been provided for among the spiritual powers of man;
\nthe possession of such a capacity may be a part of the plan on which the
\ncreative Energy has built him. It may be conceded that what man has up till now
\nprincipally done is to act within the circle of his nature, on a spiral of
\nnature-movement, sometimes descending, sometimes ascending, \u2013 there has been no
\nstraight line of progress, no indisputable, fundamental or radical exceeding of
\nhis past nature: what he has done is to sharpen, subtilise, make a more and
\nmore complex and plastic use of his capacities. It cannot truly be said that
\nthere has been no such thing as human progress since man\u2019s appearance or even
\nin his recent ascertainable history; for however great the ancients, however
\nsupreme some of their achievements and creations, however impressive their
\npowers of spirituality, of intellect or of character, there has been in later
\ndevelopments an increasing subtlety, complexity, manifold development of
\nknowledge and possibility in man\u2019s achievements, in his politics, society,
\nlife, science, metaphysics, knowledge of all kinds, art, literature; even in
\nhis spiritual endeavour, less surprisingly lofty and less massive in power of
\nspirituality than that of the ancients, there has been this increasing
\nsubtlety, plasticity, sounding of depths, extension of seeking. There have<\/span><\/i> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 295<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

been
\nfalls from a high type of culture, a sharp temporary descent into a certain obscurantism,
\ncessations of the spiritual urge, plunges into a barbaric natural materialism;
\nbut these are temporary phenomena, at worst a downward curve of the spiral of
\nprogress. This progress has not indeed carried the race beyond itself, into a
\nself-exceeding, a transformation of the mental being. But that was not to be
\nexpected; for the action of evolutionary Nature in a type of being and
\nconsciousness is first to develop the type to its utmost capacity by just such
\na subtilisation and increasing complexity till it is ready for her bursting of
\nthe shell, the ripened decisive emergence, reversal, turning over of
\nconsciousness on itself that constitutes a new stage in the evolution. If it be
\nsupposed that her next step is the spiritual and supramental being, the stress
\nof spirituality in the race may be taken as a sign that that is Nature\u2019s
\nintention, the sign too of the capacity of man to operate in himself or aid her
\nto operate the transition. If the appearance in animal being of a type similar
\nin some respects to the ape-kind but already from the beginning endowed with
\nthe elements of humanity was the method of the human evolution, the appearance
\nin the human being of a spiritual type resembling mental-animal humanity but
\nalready with the stamp of the spiritual aspiration on it would be the obvious
\nmethod of Nature for the evolutionary production of the spiritual and
\nsupramental being.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The Life Divine,<\/font><\/span><\/i> pp. 841-42 <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

One thing seems obvious, humanity has reached a certain state of
\ngeneral tension \u2013 tension in effort, in action, even in daily life \u2013 with such
\nan excessive hyperactivity, so widespread a trepidation, that mankind as a
\nwhole seems to have come to a point where it must either break through the
\nresistance and emerge<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 296<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

into a new consciousness or else fall back into an abyss of
\ndarkness and inertia.<\/span><\/p>\n

This tension is so complete and so widespread that something
\nobviously has to break. It cannot go on in this way. We may take it as a sure
\nsign of the infusion into matter of a new principle of force, consciousness,
\npower, which by its very pressure is producing this acute state. Outwardly, we
\ncould expect the old methods used by Nature when she wants to bring about an
\nupheaval; but there is a new characteristic, which of course is only visible in
\nan elite], but even this elite] is fairly widespread\\is not localised at one
\npoint, at one place in the world; we find traces of it in all countries, all
\nover the world: the will to find a new, higher, progressive solution, an effort
\nto rise towards a vaster, more comprehensive perfection. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Certain ideas of a
\nmore general nature, of a wider, perhaps more \u201ccollective\u201d kind, are being
\nworked out and are acting in the world. And both things go together: a
\npossibility of a greater and more total destruction, a reckless inventiveness
\nwhich increases the possibility of catastrophe, a catastrophe which would be on
\na far greater scale than it has ever been; and, at the same time, the birth or
\nrather the manifestation of much higher and more comprehensive ideas and acts
\nof will which, when they are heard, will bring a wider, vaster, more complete,
\nmore perfect remedy than before. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>This struggle, this
\nconflict between the constructive forces of the ascending evolution of a more
\nand more perfect and divine realisation, and the more and more destructive,
\npowerfully destructive forces \u2013 forces that are mad beyond all control \u2013 is
\nmore and more obvious, marked, visible, and it is a kind of race or struggle as
\nto which will reach the goal first. It would seem that all the adverse,
\nanti-divine forces, the forces of the vital world, have descended on the earth,
\nare making use of it as their field of action, and that at the same time a new,
\nhigher, more powerful spiritual force has also descended on earth to bring it a
\nnew life. This makes the struggle more acute, more violent, <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 297<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

more visible, but it seems also more definitive, and that is why
\nwe can hope to reach an early solution.<\/span><\/p>\n

There was a time, not so long ago, when the spiritual aspiration
\nof man was turned towards a silent, inactive peace, detached from all worldly
\nthings, a flight from life, precisely to avoid battle, to rise above the
\nstruggle, escape all effort; it was a spiritual peace in which, along with the
\ncessation of all tension, struggle, effort, there ceased also suffering in all
\nits forms, and this was considered to be the true and only expression of a
\nspiritual and divine life. It was considered to be the divine grace, the divine
\nhelp, the divine intervention. And even now, in this age of anguish, tension,
\nhypertension, this sovereign peace is the best received aid of all, the most
\nwelcome, the solace people ask and hope for. For many it is still the true sign
\nof a divine intervention, of divine grace. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>In fact, no matter
\nwhat one wants to realise, one must begin by establishing this perfect and
\nimmutable peace; it is the basis from which one must work; but unless one is
\ndreaming of an exclusive, personal and egoistic liberation, one cannot stop
\nthere. There is another aspect of the divine grace, the aspect of progress
\nwhich will be victorious over all obstacles, the aspect which will propel
\nhumanity to a new realisation, which will open the doors of a new world and
\nmake it possible not only for a chosen few to benefit by the divine realisation
\nbut for their influence, their example, their power to bring to the rest of
\nmankind new and better conditions. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>This opens up roads of
\nrealisation into the future, possibilities which are already foreseen, when an
\nentire part of humanity, the one which has opened consciously or unconsciously
\nto the new forces, is lifted up, as it were, into a higher, more harmonious,
\nmore perfect life.\u2026Even if individual transformation is not always permissible
\nor possible, there will be a kind of general uplifting, a harmonisation of the
\nwhole, which will make it possible for a new order, a new harmony to be
\nestablished and for the anguish of the present disorder and struggle to disappear <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 298<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

and be replaced by an order which will allow a harmonious
\nfunctioning of the whole.<\/span><\/p>\n

There will be other consequences which will tend to eliminate in
\nan opposite way what the intervention of the mind in life has created, the
\nperversions, the ugliness, the whole mass of distortions which have increased
\nsuffering, misery, moral poverty, an entire area of sordid and repulsive misery
\nwhich makes a whole part of human life into something so frightful. That must
\ndisappear. This is what makes humanity in so many ways infinitely worse than
\nanimal life in its simplicity and the natural spontaneity and harmony that it
\nhas in spite of everything. Suffering in animals is never so miserable and
\nsordid as it is in an entire section of humanity which has been perverted by
\nthe use of a mentality exclusively at the service of egoistic needs. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>We must rise above,
\nspring up into Light and Harmony or fall back, down into the simplicity of a
\nhealthy unperverted animal life. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

When this talk was first published in
\n1958, Mother added the following note on the \u201cuplifting\u201d of an entire part of
\nhumanity by the action of the new forces: <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>But those who cannot
\nbe lifted up, those who refuse to progress, will automatically lose the use of
\nthe mental consciousness and will fall back to a sub-human level. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>I shall tell you about
\nan experience I had which will help you to understand better. It was shortly
\nafter the supramental experience of the third of February,\u00b9 and I was still in
\nthe state in which things of the physical world seemed so far off, so absurd. A
\ngroup of visitors had asked permission to come to me and one evening they came
\nto the Playground. They were rich people, that is, they had more money than they
\nneeded to live on. Among them there was a woman in a sari; she was very fat, her
\nsari was arranged so as to hide her body. As she was bending <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b9<\/font><\/span> See
\nAppendix to the talk of February 19.<\/font><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 299<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

down to receive my blessings, one corner of the sari came
\nopen, uncovering a part of her body, a naked belly \u2013 an enormous one. I felt a
\nreal shock.\u2026There are corpulent people who have nothing repugnant about them,
\nbut I suddenly saw the perversion, the rottenness that this belly concealed, it
\nwas like a huge abscess, expressing greed, vice, depraved taste, sordid desire,
\nwhich finds its satisfaction as no animal would, in grossness and especially in
\nperversity. I saw the perversion of a depraved mind at the service of the
\nlowest appetites. Then, all of a sudden, something sprang up from me, a prayer,
\nlike a Veda: \u201cO Lord, this is what must disappear!\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

One understands very well that physical misery, the unequal
\ndistribution of the goods of this world could be changed, one can imagine
\neconomic and social solutions which could remedy this, but it is that misery,
\nthe mental misery, the vital perversion, it is that which cannot change,
\ndoesn\u2019t want to change. And those who belong to this type of humanity are
\ncondemned in advance to disintegration. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>That is the meaning of
\noriginal sin: the perversion which began with the mind. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>That part of humanity,
\nof human consciousness, which is capable of uniting with the supermind and
\nliberating itself, will be completely transformed is advancing towards a future
\nreality which is not yet expressed in its outer form; the part which is closest
\nto Nature, to animal simplicity, will be reabsorbed into Nature and thoroughly
\nassimilated. But the corrupted part of human consciousness which allows
\nperversion through its misuse of the mind will be abolished. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>This type of humanity is part of an unfruitful
\nattempt \u2013 which must be eliminated \u2013 just as there have been other abortive
\nspecies which have disappeared in the course of universal history. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Certain prophets in the
\npast have had this apocalyptic vision but, as usual, things were mixed, and
\nthey did not have together with their vision of the apocalypse the vision of
\nthe supramental
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 300<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

world which will come to raise up the part of humanity which
\nconsents and to transform this physical world. So, to give hope to those who
\nhave been born into it, into this perverted part of human consciousness, they
\nhave taught redemption through faith: those who have faith in the sacrifice of
\nthe Divine in Matter will be automatically saved, in another world \u2013 by faith
\nalone, without understanding, without intelligence. They have not seen the
\nsupramental world nor that the great Sacrifice of the Divine in Matter is the
\nsacrifice of involution which must culminate in the total revelation of the
\nDivine in Matter itself.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 301<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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


\n
\n2<\/font><\/a><\/span><\/i><\/b>6 March 1958<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/a> <\/font> <\/a> <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is
\npertinently suggested that if such an evolutionary culmination is intended and
\nman is to be its medium, it will only be a few especially evolved human beings
\nwho will form the new type and move towards the new life; that once done, the
\nrest of humanity will sink back from a spiritual aspiration no longer necessary
\nfor Nature\u2019s purpose and remain quiescent in its normal status. It can equally
\nbe reasoned that the human gradation must be preserved if there is really an
\nascent of the soul by reincarnation through the evolutionary degrees towards
\nthe spiritual summit; for otherwise the most necessary of all the intermediate
\nsteps will be lacking. It must be conceded at once that there is not the least
\nprobability or possibility of the whole human race rising in a block to the
\nsupramental level; what is suggested is nothing so revolutionary and
\nastonishing, but only the capacity in the human mentality, when it has reached
\na certain level or a certain point of stress of the evolutionary impetus, to
\npress towards a higher plane of consciousness and its embodiment in the being.
\nThe being will necessarily undergo by this embodiment a change from the normal
\nconstitution of its nature, a change certainly of its mental and emotional and
\nsensational constitution and also to a great extent of the body-consciousness
\nand the physical conditioning of our life and energies; but the change of
\nconsciousness will be the chief factor, the initial movement, the physical
\nmodification will be a subordinate factor, a consequence. This transmutation of
\nthe consciousness will always remain possible to the human being when the flame
\nof the soul, the psychic kindling, becomes potent in heart and mind and the
\nnature is<\/span><\/i> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 302<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

ready.
\nThe spiritual aspiration is innate in man; for he is, unlike the animal, aware
\nof imperfection and limitation and feels that there is something to be attained
\nbeyond what he now is: this urge towards self-exceeding is not likely ever to
\ndie out totally in the race. The human mental status will be always there, but
\nit will be there not only as a degree in the scale of rebirth, but as an open
\nstep towards the spiritual and supramental status.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nThe Life Divine,<\/font><\/span><\/i> pp. 842-43 <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It is obvious that what especially characterises man is this
\nmental capacity of watching himself live. The animal lives spontaneously,
\nautomatically, and if it watches itself live, it must be to a very minute and
\ninsignificant degree, and that is why it is peaceful and does not worry. Even
\nif an animal is suffering because of an accident or an illness, this suffering
\nis reduced to a minimum by the fact that it does not observe it, does not
\nproject it in its consciousness and into the future, does not imagine things
\nabout its illness or its accident. <\/span><\/p>\n

With man there has begun this perpetual worrying about what is
\ngoing to happen, and this worry is the principal, if not the sole cause of his
\ntorment. With this objectivising<\/span> consciousness there
\nhas begun anxiety, painful imaginations, worry, torment, anticipation of future
\ncatastrophes, with the result that most men \u2013 and not the least conscious, the
\nmost conscious \u2013 live in perpetual torment. Man is too conscious to be
\nindifferent, he is not conscious enough to know what will happen. Truly it
\ncould be said without fear of making a mistake that of all earth\u2019s creatures he
\nis the most miserable. The human being is used to being like that because it is
\nan atavistic state which he has inherited from his ancestors, but it is truly a
\nmiserable condition. And it is only with this spiritual capacity of rising to a
\nhigher level and replacing the animal\u2019s unconsciousness by a spiritual
\nsuper-consciousness that there comes into the being not <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 303<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\nonly the capacity to see
\nthe goal of existence and to foresee the culmination of the effort but also a
\nclear-sighted trust in a higher spiritual power to which one can surrender
\none\u2019s whole being, entrust oneself, give the responsibility for one\u2019s life and
\nfuture and so abandon all worries. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Of course, it is
\nimpossible for man to fall back to the level of the animal and lose the
\nconsciousness he has acquired; therefore, for him there is only one means, one
\nway to get out of this condition he is in, which I call a miserable one, and to
\nemerge into a higher state where worry is replaced by a trusting surrender and
\nthe certitude of a luminous culmination \u2013 this way is to change the
\nconsciousness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Truly speaking there
\nis no condition more miserable than being responsible for an existence to which
\none doesn\u2019t have the key, that is, of which one doesn\u2019t have the threads that
\ncan guide and solve the problems. The animal sets itself no problems: it just
\nlives. Its instinct drives it, it relies on a collective consciousness which
\nhas an innate knowledge and is higher than itself, but it is automatic,
\nspontaneous, it has no need to will something and make an effort to bring it
\nabout, it is quite naturally like that, and as it is not responsible for its
\nlife, it does not worry. With man is born the sense of having to depend on
\nhimself, and as he does not have the necessary knowledge the result is a
\nperpetual torment. This torment can come to an end only with a total surrender
\nto a higher consciousness than his own to which he can totally entrust himself,
\nhand over his worries and leave the care of guiding his life and organising
\neverything. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>How can a problem be
\nsolved when one doesn\u2019t have the necessary knowledge? And the unfortunate thing
\nis that man believes that he has to resolve all the problems of his life, and
\nhe does not have the knowledge needed to do it. That is the source, the origin
\nof all his troubles \u2013 that perpetual question, \u201cWhat should I do?.\u201d which is
\nfollowed by another one still more acute, \u201cWhat is going to happen?\u201d and at the
\nsame time, more or less, the inability to answer. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 304<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

That is why all spiritual disciplines begin with the\u00a0 <\/span>necessity of surrendering all responsibility
\nand relying on a higher principle. Otherwise peace is impossible. <\/span><\/p>\n

And yet, consciousness has been given to man so that he can
\nprogress, can discover what he doesn\u2019t know, develop into what he has not yet
\nbecome; and so it may be said that there is a higher state than that of an
\nimmobile and static peace: it is a trust total enough for one to keep the will
\nto progress, to preserve the effort for progress while ridding it of all
\nanxiety, all care for results and consequences. This is one step ahead of the
\nmethods which may be called \u201cquietist\u201d, which are founded on the rejection of
\nall activity and a plunging into an immobility and inner silence, which forsake
\nall life because it has been suddenly felt that without peace one can\u2019t have
\nany inner realisation and, quite naturally, one thought that one couldn\u2019t have
\npeace so long as one was living in outer conditions, in the state of anxiety in
\nwhich problems are set and cannot be solved, for one does not have the
\nknowledge to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n

The next step is to face the problem, but with the calm and
\ncertitude of an absolute trust in the supreme Power which knows, and can make
\nyou act. And then, instead of abandoning action, one can act in a higher peace
\nthat is strong and dynamic. <\/span><\/p>\n

This is what could be called a new aspect of the divine
\nintervention in life, a new form of intervention of the divine forces in
\nexistence, a new aspect of spiritual realisation. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 305<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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


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

5 March 1958   Mother, won\u2019t you please speak to us about the \u201creversal\u201d you have already mentioned to us several times? You said that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-09-questions-and-answers-volume-09","wpcat-120-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255","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=4255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}