{"id":4265,"date":"2013-07-13T01:54:40","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4265"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:54:40","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:54:40","slug":"23-04-june-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\/23-04-june-1958-vol-09-questions-and-answers-volume-09","title":{"rendered":"-23_04 June 1958.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n
\n4
\nJune 1958 <\/font> <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n


\n
\n <\/font><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cAt first
\nthis truth of the spirit and of spirituality is not self-evident to the mind;
\nman becomes mentally aware of his soul as something other than his body,
\nsuperior to his normal mind and life, but he has no clear sense of it, only a
\nfeeling of some of its effects on his nature. As these effects take a mental
\nform or a life-form, the difference is not firmly and trenchantly drawn, the
\nsoul-perception does not acquire a distinct and assured independence. Very
\ncommonly indeed, a complex of half-effects of the psychic pressure on the
\nmental and vital parts, a formation mixed with mental aspiration and vital
\ndesires, is mistaken for the soul, just as the separative ego is taken for the
\nself, although the self in its true being is universal as well as individual in
\nits essence, \u2013 or just as a mixture of mental aspiration and vital enthusiasm
\nand ardour uplifted by some kind of strong or high belief or self-dedication or
\naltruistic eagerness is mistaken for spirituality. But this vagueness and these
\nconfusions are inevitable as a temporary stage of the evolution which, because
\nignorance is its starting-point and the whole stamp of our first nature, must
\nnecessarily begin with an imperfect intuitive perception and an instinctive
\nurge or seeking without any acquired experience or clear knowledge. Even the
\nformations which are the first effects of the perception or urge or the first
\nindices of a spiritual evolution, must inevitably be of this incomplete and
\ntentative nature. But the error so created comes very much in the way of a true
\nunderstanding, and it must therefore be emphasised that spirituality is not a
\nhigh intellectuality, not idealism, not an ethical turn of mind or moral purity
\nand aus<\/span><\/span><\/i>terity<\/span><\/i><\/span>, <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 335<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

not religiosity or an ardent and exalted emotional fervour, not
\neven a compound of all these excellent things; a mental belief, creed or faith,
\nan emotional aspiration, a regulation of conduct according to a religious or
\nethical formula are not spiritual achievement and experience. These things are
\nof considerable value to mind and life; they are of value to the spiritual
\nevolution itself as preparatory movements disciplining, purifying or giving a
\nsuitable form to the nature; but they still belong to the mental evolution, \u2013
\nthe beginning of a spiritual realisation, experience, change is not yet there.
\nSpirituality is in its essence an awakening to the inner reality of our being,
\nto a spirit, self, soul which is other than our mind, life and body, an inner
\naspiration to know, to feel, to be that, to enter into contact with the greater
\nReality beyond and pervading the universe which inhabits also our own being, to
\nbe in communion with It and union with It, and a turning, a conversion, a
\ntransformation of our whole being as a result of the aspiration, the contact,
\nthe union, a growth or waking into a new becoming or new being, a new self, a
\nnew nature.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The Life Divine,<\/font><\/span><\/i> pp. 856-57<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, so long as there is any doubt or hesitation, so long as
\none asks oneself the question of whether one has or hasn\u2019t realised this
\neternal soul in oneself, it proves that the
\ntrue <\/i>contact has not taken place. For, when the phenomenon occurs, it
\nbrings with it an inexpressible something, so new and so definitive, that doubt
\nand questioning are no longer possible. It is truly, in the absolute sense of
\nthe phrase, a new birth. <\/span><\/p>\n

You become a new person, and whatever may be the path or the
\ndifficulties of the path afterwards, that feeling never leaves you. It is not
\neven something \u2013 like many other experiences \u2013 which withdraws, passes into the
\nbackground, leaving you exter<\/span><\/span>nally<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 336<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

with a kind
\nof vague memory to which it is\u00a0 <\/span>difficult
\nto cling, whose remembrance grows faint, blurred\\is not that. You are a new
\nperson and definitively that, whatever happens. And even all the incapacity of
\nthe mind, all the difficulties of the vital, all the inertia of the physical
\nare unable to change this new state \u2013 a new state which makes a decisive break
\nin the life of the consciousness. The being one was before and the being one is
\nafter, are no longer the same. The position one has in the universe and in
\nrelation to it, in life and in relation to it, in understanding and in relation
\nto it, is no longer the same: it is a true reversal which can never be undone
\nagain. That is why when people tell me, \u201cI would like to know whether I am in
\ncontact with my soul or not\u201d, I say, \u201cIf you ask the question, that is enough
\nto prove that you are not. You don\u2019t need an answer, you are giving it to
\nyourself.\u201d When it is that,<\/i> it is
\nthat, and then it is finished, it is no longer anything else.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>And since we are
\nspeaking of that, I shall remind you of what Sri Aurobindo has said, repeated,
\nwritten, affirmed and said over and over again, that his yoga, the integral yoga,
\ncan begin only after <\/i>that experience,
\nnot before. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>So, one must not
\ncherish any illusions and fancy that one can begin to know what the supermind
\nis and form any idea of it or assess it in any way, however minimal, before
\nhaving had that <\/i>experience. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Therefore, if you want
\nto advance on the path, you must very modestly start on your way towards the
\nnew birth, first, and realise it before cherishing the illusion that you can
\nhave supramental experiences. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>To console you I may
\ntell you that by the very fact that you live on earth at this time \u2013 whether
\nyou are conscious of it or not, even whether you want it or not \u2013 you are
\nabsorbing with the air you breathe this new supramental substance which is now
\nspreading in the earth atmosphere. And it is preparing things in you which will
\nmanifest very suddenly <\/i>as soon as you
\nhave taken the decisive step.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 337<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

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

\n <\/span><\/p>\n

Whether this will help you to take the decisive step or not is another
\nquestion which remains to be studied, for the experiences which are occurring
\nand will occur more and more frequently now, being of a radically new kind, we
\ncan\u2019t know beforehand what is going to happen; we must study, and after a
\nthorough study we shall be able to say with certainty whether this supramental
\nsubstance makes the work of new birth easier or not.\u2026I shall tell you this a
\nlittle later. For the moment it is better not to rely on these things and, very
\nsimply, to start on your way to be born into the spiritual life. <\/span><\/p>\n

When this happens to you, almost all the questions you ask
\nyourself or ask me will be solved. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>And anyway, your
\nattitude to life will be so] different that you will understand what is meant
\nwhen one speaks of living spiritually. And at that moment you will also
\nunderstand a great] thing, a very great thing: how to live without ego. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Until then, you cannot
\nunderstand it. The whole of life is so dependent on the ego that it seems
\nabsolutely impossible to live and act except with or by the ego, but after this
\nnew birth you can look at the ego with a smile and say to it, \u201cMy friend, I
\ndon\u2019t need you any more.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>This is also one of
\nthe results which brings you a very decisive sense of liberation. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 338<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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


\n
\n11
\nJune 1958 <\/font> <\/a> <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there
\nis the decisive emergence, one sign of it is the status or action in us of an
\ninherent, intrinsic, self-existent consciousness which knows itself by the mere
\nfact of being, knows all that is in itself in the same way, by identity with
\nit, begins even to see all that to our mind seems external in the same manner,
\nby a movement of identity or by an intrinsic direct consciousness which
\nenvelops, penetrates, enters into its object, discovers itself in the object,
\nis aware in it of something that is not mind or life or body. There is, then,
\nevidently a spiritual consciousness which is other than the mental, and it
\ntestifies to the existence of a spiritual being in us which is other than our
\nsurface mental personality.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The Life Divine,<\/font><\/span><\/i> p. 855<\/font>
\n<\/font>
\n<\/i><\/span>
\n
\n <\/font><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Sweet
\nMother, is there a spiritual being in everybody?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

That depends on what we call \u201cbeing\u201d. If for \u201cbeing\u201d we substitute
\n\u201cpresence\u201d, yes, there is a spiritual presence in everyone. If we call \u201cbeing\u201d
\nan organised entity, fully conscious of itself, independent, and having the
\npower of asserting itself and ruling the rest of the nature \u2013 no! The
\npossibility of this independent and all-powerful being is in everybody, but the
\nrealisation is the result of long efforts which sometimes extend over many lives.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

In everyone, even at the very beginning, this spiritual presence,
\nthis inner light is there.\u2026In fact, it is everywhere. I have seen it many a
\ntime in certain animals. It is like a shining point which is the basis of a
\ncertain control and protection, something which, even in half-consciousness,
\nmakes possible a certain harmony with the rest of creation so that irreparable
\ncatastrophes may not be constant and general. Without this presence the dis<\/span>order <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 339<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

created by the violences<\/span> and passions
\nof the vital would be so great that at any moment they could bring about a
\ngeneral catastrophe, a sort of total destruction which would prevent the
\nprogress of Nature. That presence, that spiritual light \u2013 which could almost be
\ncalled a spiritual consciousness \u2013 is within each being and all things, and
\nbecause of it, in spite of all discordance, all passion, all violence, there is
\na minimum of general harmony which allows Nature\u2019s work to be accomplished.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>And this presence
\nbecomes quite obvious in the human being, even the most rudimentary. Even in
\nthe most monstrous human being, in one who gives the impression of being an
\nincarnation of a devil or a monster, there is something within exercising a
\nsort of irresistible control \u2013 even in the worst, some things are impossible.
\nAnd without this presence, if the being were controlled exclusively by the
\nadverse forces, the forces of the vital, this impossibility would not exist. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Each time a wave of
\nthese monstrous adverse forces sweeps over the earth, one feels that nothing
\ncan ever stop the disorder and horror from spreading, and always, at a certain
\ntime, unexpectedly and inexplicably a control intervenes, and the wave is
\narrested, the catastrophe is not total. And this is because of the Presence,
\nthe supreme Presence, in matter. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>But only in a few
\nexceptional beings and after a long, very long work of preparation extending
\nover many, many lives does this Presence change into a conscious, independent,
\nfully organised being, all-powerful master of his dwelling-place, conscious
\nenough, powerful enough, to be able to control not only this dwelling but what
\nsurrounds it and in a field of radiation and action that is more and more
\nextensive\u2026and effective. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 340<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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


\n18 June 1958<\/font><\/a><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are
\nfour main lines which Nature has followed in her attempt to open up the inner
\nbeing, \u2013 religion, occultism, spiritual thought and an inner spiritual
\nrealisation and experience: the three first are approaches, the last is the
\ndecisive avenue of entry. All these four powers have worked by a simultaneous
\naction, more or less connected, sometimes in a variable collaboration,
\nsometimes in dispute with each other, sometimes in a separate independence.
\nReligion has admitted an occult element in its ritual, ceremony, sacraments; it
\nhas leaned upon spiritual thinking, deriving from it sometimes a creed or
\ntheology, sometimes its supporting spiritual philosophy, \u2013 the former,
\nordinarily, is the occidental method, the latter the oriental: but spiritual
\nexperience is the final aim and achievement of religion, its sky and summit.
\nBut also religion has sometimes banned occultism or reduced its own occult
\nelement to a minimum; it has pushed away the philosophic mind as a dry
\nintellectual alien, leaned with all its weight on creed and dogma, pietistic
\nemotion and fervour and moral conduct; it has reduced to a minimum or dispensed
\nwith spiritual realisation and experience. Occultism has sometimes put forward
\na spiritual aim as its goal, and followed occult knowledge and experience as an
\napproach to it, formulated some kind of mystic philosophy: but more often it
\nhas confined itself to occult knowledge and practice without any spiritual
\nvistas; it has turned to thaumaturgy or mere magic or even deviated into
\ndiabolism. Spiritual philosophy has very usually leaned on religion as its
\nsupport or its way to experience; it has been the outcome of realisation and
\nexperience or built its<\/span><\/i> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 341<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

structures
\nas an approach to it: but it has also rejected all aid, \u2013 or all impediment, \u2013
\nof religion and proceeded in its own strength, either satisfied with mental
\nknowledge or confident to discover its own path of experience and effective
\ndiscipline. Spiritual experience has used all the three means as a
\nstarting-point, but it has also dispensed with them all, relying on its own
\npure strength: discouraging occult knowledge and powers as dangerous lures and
\nentangling obstacles, it has sought only the pure truth of the spirit;
\ndispensing with philosophy, it has arrived instead through the heart\u2019s fervour
\nor a mystic inward spiritualisation; putting behind it all religious creed,
\nworship and practice and regarding them as an inferior stage or first approach,
\nit has passed on, leaving behind it all these supports, nude of all these
\ntrappings, to the sheer contact of the spiritual Reality. All these variations
\nwere necessary; the evolutionary endeavour of Nature has experimented on all
\nlines in order to find her true way and her whole way towards the supreme
\nconsciousness and the integral knowledge. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cFor
\neach of these means or approaches corresponds to something in our total being
\nand therefore to something necessary to the total aim of her evolution. There
\nare four necessities of man\u2019s self-expansion if he is not to remain this being
\nof the surface ignorance seeking obscurely after the truth of things and
\ncollecting and systematising fragments and sections of knowledge, the small
\nlimited and half-competent creature of the cosmic Force which he now is in his
\nphenomenal nature. He must know himself and discover and utilise all his
\npotentialities: but to know himself and the world completely he must go behind
\nhis own and its exterior, he must dive deep below his own mental surface and
\nthe physical surface of Nature.<\/span><\/i> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 342<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

This he can
\nonly do by knowing his inner mental, vital, physical and psychic being and its
\npowers and movements and the universal laws and processes of the occult Mind
\nand Life which stand behind the material front of the universe: that is the
\nfield of occultism, if we take the word in its widest significance. He must
\nknow also the hidden Power or Powers that control the world: if there is a
\nCosmic Self or Spirit or a Creator, he must be able to enter into relation with
\nIt or Him and be able to remain in whatever contact or communion is possible,
\nget into some kind of tune with the master Beings of the universe or with the
\nuniversal Being and its universal will or a supreme Being and His supreme will,
\nfollow the law It gives him and the assigned or revealed aim of his life and conduct,
\nraise himself towards the highest height that It demands of him in his life now
\nor in his existence hereafter; if there is no such universal or supreme Spirit
\nor Being, he must know what there is and how to lift himself to it out of his
\npresent imperfection and impotence. This approach is the aim of religion: its
\npurpose is to link the human with the Divine and in so doing sublimate the
\nthought and life and flesh so that they may admit the rule of the soul and
\nspirit. But this knowledge must be something more than a creed or a mystic
\nrevelation; his thinking mind must be able to accept it, to correlate it with
\nthe principle of things and the observed truth of the universe: this is the
\nwork of philosophy, and in the field of the truth of the spirit it can only be
\ndone by a spiritual philosophy, whether intellectual in its method or
\nintuitive. But all knowledge and endeavour can reach its fruition only if it is
\nturned into experience and has become a part of the consciousness and its
\nestablished operations; in the spiritual field all this religious, occult or<\/span><\/i> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 343<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

philosophical
\nknowledge and endeavour must, to bear fruition, end in an opening up of the
\nspiritual consciousness, in experiences that found and continually heighten,
\nexpand and enrich that consciousness and in the building of a life and action
\nthat is in conformity with the truth of the spirit: this is the work of
\nspiritual realisation and experience.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The Life Divine,<\/font><\/span><\/i> pp. 860-62<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

One point is very remarkable \u2013 I don\u2019t remember whether Sri
\nAurobindo speaks about it in what follows \u2013 but among the four activities or
\nrealisations he mentions \u2013 religion, occultism, spiritual philosophy and
\nspiritual experience \u2013 which are necessary for the development and
\ntransformation of man, all are not equally accessible to humanity. <\/span><\/p>\n

The one which can be practised and, one might say, \u201cunderstood\u201d \u2013 although
\nit is certainly not an \u201cunderstanding\u201d \u2013 by the greatest number of human beings
\n\u2013 those who live almost exclusively in the physical consciousness \u2013 is the
\nreligious method, precisely because it is based on fixed creeds and practices.
\nSimply by an act of faith or a collective suggestion \u2013 above all a collective
\nsuggestion \u2013 many human beings who have not yet reached any considerable inner
\ndevelopment can take up the path of religion. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>For occultism we must
\nalready have come to a second stage of development and be more conscious in the
\nvital world to be able to come into contact with the play of forces, which is
\nindispensable in order to manipulate them. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>As for spiritual
\nphilosophy, only the few who have a fairly complete mental development and are
\nfully conscious on the intellectual plane, can usefully adopt this method;
\notherwise it is a dead letter for all those who don\u2019t have an ability for
\nmental gymnastics and so cannot follow all the acrobatics of the mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>And finally, Sri
\nAurobindo has told us somewhere in The
\nLife Divine <\/i>that to follow the path of spiritual experience, one
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 344<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

must have within oneself a \u201cspiritual being\u201d, one must be \u201ctwice
\nborn\u201d as it is said, for if one doesn\u2019t have a spiritual being within, which is
\nat least on the point of becoming self-aware, one may try to imitate these
\nexperiences but it will only be crude imitation or hypocrisy, it won\u2019t be a
\nreality. <\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, in order to follow these four paths simultaneously and
\nto practise them with an integral benefit for the being, one must already be a
\ncomplete individual, capable of having a conscious life in the four principal
\nelements of human and spiritual nature. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Of course, this inner
\ndevelopment is not always apparent and we may meet someone who has within him a
\nconscious spiritual entity, ready for the most beautiful experiences, though
\nexternally he seems quite crude and incomplete. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Nor is it necessary to
\nfollow this development in the order in which it has been mentioned, but if we
\nwant our realisation to be integral and to arrive at a total transformation of
\nour being, we must be able to use the essence of what each of these methods can
\nbring. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The psychic or
\nspiritual consciousness gives you the deep inner realisation, contact with the
\nDivine, liberation from external fetters; but for this liberation to be
\neffective, for it to have an action on the rest of the being, the mind must be
\nopen enough to be able to hold the spiritual light of Knowledge, the vital must
\nbe powerful enough to handle the forces behind appearances and dominate them,
\nand the physical should be disciplined, organised enough to be able to express<\/i> the deep experience, in the
\nmovements of each day and each moment, and live it integrally.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>If one of these things
\nis lacking, the result is not complete. One can make light of this thing or
\nthat under the pretext that it is not the most important, the central Thing \u2013
\nand to neglect outer things certainly cannot prevent you from entering into
\nspiritual communion with the Supreme, but that is good only for a flight from
\nlife. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 345<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

If we are to be total, complete beings, to have an integral
\nrealisation, we should be able to express our spiritual experience mentally,
\nvitally and physically. And the more our expression is perfect, executed by a
\ncomplete and perfect being, the more integral and perfect will our realisation
\nbe. <\/span><\/p>\n

For someone who wants to follow the integral yoga nothing is
\nuseless and nothing must be neglected.\u2026The main thing is to know how to put
\neach thing in its place and to hand over the government to what truly has the
\nright to govern. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 346<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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


\n25 June 1958<\/font><\/a><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the very
\nnature of things all evolution must proceed at first by a slow unfolding; for
\neach new principle that evolves its powers has to make its way out of an
\ninvolution in Inconscience and Ignorance. It has a difficult task in pulling itself
\nout of the involution, out of the hold of the obscurity of the original medium,
\nagainst the pull and strains, the instinctive opposition and obstruction of the
\nInconscience and the hampering mixture and blind obstinate retardations of the
\nIgnorance. Nature affirms at first a vague urge and tendency which is a sign of
\nthe push of the occult, subliminal, submerged reality towards the surface;
\nthere are then small half-suppressed hints of the thing that is to be,
\nimperfect beginnings, crude elements, rudimentary appearances, small,
\ninsignificant, hardly recognisable quanta. Afterwards there are small or large
\nformations; a more characteristic and recognisable quality begins to show
\nitself, first partially, here and there or in a low intensity, then more vivid,
\nmore formative; finally, there is the decisive emergence, a reversal of the
\nconsciousness, the beginning of the possibility of its radical change: but
\nstill much has to be done in every direction, a long and difficult growth
\ntowards perfection lies before the evolutionary endeavour. The thing done has
\nnot only to be confirmed, secured against relapse and the downward gravitation,
\nagainst failure and extinction, but opened out into all the fields of its
\npossibilities, its totality of entire self-achievement, its utmost height,
\nsubtlety, riches, wideness; it has to become dominant, all-embracing,
\ncomprehensive. This is everywhere the process of Nature and to ignore it is to
\nmiss the intention in her works<\/span><\/i> <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>and get lost in the maze of her procedure.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The Life Divine,<\/font><\/span><\/i> pp. 862-63 <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 347<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

This seems to be a very exact description of individual
\ndevelopment. It is exactly like that. And so you lose patience or lose courage,
\nfor you feel that you are not advancing. But when you engage in the development
\nof the body \u2013 material, physical development \u2013 when you want the physical body
\nto do sadhana, it is exactly like that. You begin by trying out all kinds of
\nthings without precision or exactitude, without knowing which end to begin
\nwith, and you feel you are groping, searching, going round and round and going
\nnowhere. And then, gradually, one thing comes up and then another, and it is
\nonly very <\/i>much later that something
\nlike a programme begins to be worked out. And this description Sri Aurobindo
\ngives at the end, when the goal of evolution emerges and becomes perceptible,
\nhow much care must be taken for it not to be engulfed once again in the primal
\nInconscience! <\/span><\/p>\n

And that is why the work seems\u2026interminable. And yet this is the
\nonly way it can be done. The road to be covered between the usual state of the
\nbody, the almost total inconscience to which we are accustomed because we are
\n\u201clike that\u201d, and the perfect awakening of consciousness, the response of all
\nthe cells, all the organs, all the functionings\u2026between the two there seem to
\nbe centuries of labour. However, if one has learnt to open, to aspire, give
\noneself up, and if one can make use of these same movements in the body, teach
\nthe cells to do the same thing, then things go much faster. But much faster
\ndoes not mean fast; it is still a long and slow work. And each time that an
\nelement which has not entered the movement of transformation wakes up to enter
\nit, one feels that everything must be started again \u2013 all that one believed had
\nbeen done must be done once more. But it is not true, it is not the same thing
\nthat one does again, it is something similar in a new element which was either
\nforgotten or else left aside because it was not ready, and which, <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 348<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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

now that it is ready, awakens and wants to take its place. There
\nare many elements like that.\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

The body seems to you to be something very simple, doesn\u2019t it? It
\nis a body, it is \u201cmy\u201d body, and after all it has a single form \u2013 but it is not
\nlike that! There are hundreds of combined entities unaware of each other, all
\nharmonised by something deeper which they do not know, and having a perception
\nof unity only because they are not conscious of the multiplicity of the
\nelements and their divergence. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>In fact, this
\nmultiplicity and divergence are the cause of most disorders and even illnesses.
\nSomething is going well, you have caught the guiding thread, you are following
\nyour path, you think you are going to get a result, and then, suddenly, there! \u2013
\nsomething happens quite unexpectedly, you did not know it was there: it wakes
\nup and insists on joining the march. But it creates a terrible disorder and you
\nmust begin everything over again. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The sadhana of all the
\ninner beings, inner domains, has been done by many people, has been explained
\nat length, systematised by some, the stages and paths have been traced out and
\nyou go from one stage to another, knowing that it has to be like that; but as
\nsoon as you go down into the body, it is like a virgin forest.\u2026And everything
\nis to be done, everything is to be worked out, everything is to be built up. So
\nyou must arm yourself with great patience, great patience, and not think that
\nyou are good for nothing because it takes so much time. You must never be
\ndespondent, never tell yourself, \u201cOh! This is not for me!\u201d Everyone can do it,
\nif he puts into it the time, the courage, the endurance and the perseverance
\nthat are demanded. But all this is needed. And above all, above all, never lose
\nheart, be ready to begin the same thing again ten times, twenty times, a
\nhundred times \u2013 until it is really done. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>And one often feels
\nthat unless everything<\/i> is] done,
\nunless the work is finished, well, it is as if one had done nothing. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 349<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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

4 June 1958   \u201cAt first this truth of the spirit and of spirituality is not self-evident to the mind; man becomes mentally aware of…<\/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-4265","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\/4265","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=4265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}