{"id":4268,"date":"2013-07-13T01:54:42","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4268"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:54:42","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:54:42","slug":"08-05-june-1957-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\/08-05-june-1957-vol-09-questions-and-answers-volume-09","title":{"rendered":"-08_05 June 1957.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n5 June 1957<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n


\n <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Do you have any questions? No<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Sweet Mother, should one ask questions which don\u2019t come spontaneously? <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

What do you mean by a question that doesn\u2019t come spontaneously? <\/span><\/p>\n

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

For, usually, in class, we often feel that if
\nwe don\u2019t ask questions you won\u2019t tell us anything, so we think and think, and
\nwe have to ask questions! <\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It depends on what you find! If the question is
\ninteresting\u2026Because you make an effort to find it, it doesn\u2019t mean that it is
\nnecessarily bad. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>    <\/span><\/span>Do you have a question of this kind? <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

No.   <\/span><\/i>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

Then\u2026 <\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0                 
\n<\/span>(Long silence) <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, if one reads attentively what Sri Aurobindo has written,
\nall that he has written, one would have the answer to every question. But there
\nare certain moments and certain ways of presenting ideas which have a dynamic
\neffect on the consciousness and help you to make a spiritual progress. The
\npresentation, to be effective, must necessarily be the spontaneous expression
\nof an immediate experience. If things which have already been said are repeated
\nin the same manner, things which belong to past experiences, it becomes a sort
\nof teaching, what could be called didactic talk, and it sets off some cells in
\nthe <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 112<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

brain, but in fact is not very useful. <\/span><\/p>\n

For me, for what I am trying to do, action in silence is always <\/i>much more important\u2026. The force
\nwhich is at work is not limited by words, and this gives it an infinitely
\ngreater strength, and it expresses itself in each consciousness in accordance
\nwith its own particular mode, which makes it infinitely more effective. A
\ncertain vibration is given out in silence, with a special purpose, to obtain a
\ndefinite result, but according to the mental receptivity of each person it is
\nexpressed in each individual consciousness exactly in the form which can be the
\nmost effective, the most active, the most immediately useful for each
\nindividual; while if it is formulated in words, this formula has to be received
\nby each person in its fixity \u2013 the fixity of the words given to it \u2013 and it
\nloses much of its strength and fullness of action because, first, the words are
\nnot always understood as they are said and then they are not always adapted to
\nthe understanding of each one. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>So, unless a question
\nimmediately gives rise to an experience which can be expressed as a new
\nformula, in my opinion it is always better to keep silent. Only when the
\nquestion is living can it give rise to an experience which will be the occasion
\nof a living teaching. And for a question to be alive, it must answer an inner
\nneed for progress, a spontaneous need to progress on some plane or other \u2013 on
\nthe mental plane is the most usual way, but if by chance it answers an inner
\naspiration, a problem one is tackling and wants to solve, then the question
\nbecomes interesting and living and truly useful, and it can give rise to a
\nvision, a perception on a higher plane, an experience in the consciousness
\nwhich can make the formula new so that it carries a new power for realisation. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Apart from such cases
\nI always feel that it is much better not to say anything and that a few minutes
\nof meditation are always more useful.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>What I read at the
\nbeginning ought to serve to canalise the thought, to direct and focus it on a
\nparticular problem or a set <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 113<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

of ideas or a new possibility of understanding which comes from
\nthe passage read; and in fact it is almost like a subject of meditation
\nsuggested for the silence which follows the reading. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>To speak for the sake
\nof speaking is not at all interesting \u2013 there are schools for that! Not here. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

      
\n<\/span>But when you speak, Sweet Mother, it is different! <\/span><\/i>
\n\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

(<\/span><\/i>Another child<\/span>)<\/font><\/span> Mother, when you speak we try to understand with the mind, but
\nwhen you communicate something in silence, on what part of the being should we
\nconcentrate? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It is always better, for meditation \u2013 you see, we use the word
\n\u201cmeditation\u201d, but it does not necessarily mean \u201cmoving ideas around in the
\nhead\u201d, quite the contrary \u2013 it is always better to try to concentrate in a
\ncentre, the centre of aspiration, one might say, the place where the flame of
\naspiration burns, to gather in all the energies there, at the solar plexus
\ncentre and, if possible, to obtain an attentive silence as though one wanted to
\nlisten to something extremely subtle, something that demands a complete
\nattention, a complete concentration and total silence. And then not to move at all.
\nNot to think, not to stir, and make that movement of opening so as to receive
\nall that can be received, but taking good care not to try to know what is
\nhappening while it is happening, for if one wants to understand or even to
\nobserve actively, it keeps up a sort of cerebral activity which is unfavourable
\nto the fullness of the receptivity \u2013 to be silent, as totally silent as
\npossible, in an attentive concentration, and then be still. <\/span><\/p>\n

If one succeeds in this, then, when everything is over, when one
\ncomes out of meditation, some time later \u2013 usually not immediately \u2013 from
\nwithin the being something new emerges in the consciousness: a new
\nunderstanding, a new appreciation of
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 114<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

things, a new attitude in life \u2013 in short, a new way of being.
\nThis may be fugitive, but at that moment, if one observes it, one finds that
\nsomething has taken one step forward on the path of understanding or
\ntransformation. It may be an illumination, an understanding truer or closer to
\nthe truth, or a power of transformation which helps you to achieve a
\npsychological progress or a widening of the consciousness or a greater control
\nover your movements, over the activities of the being. <\/span><\/p>\n

And these results are never immediate. For if one tries to have
\nthem at once, one remains in a state of activity which is quite the contrary of
\ntrue receptivity. One must be as neutral, as immobile, as passive as one can
\nbe, with a background of silent aspiration not formulated in words or ideas or
\neven in feelings; something that does this (gesture like a mounting flame) in
\nan ardent vibration, but which does not formulate, and above all, does not try
\nto understand. <\/span><\/p>\n

With a little practice one reaches a state which may be obtained
\nat will, in a few seconds, that is, one doesn\u2019t waste any of the meditation
\ntime. Naturally, in the beginning, one must slowly quieten the mind, gather up
\none\u2019s consciousness, concentrate; one loses three-quarters of the time in
\npreparing oneself. But when one has practised the thing, in two or three
\nseconds one can get it, and then one benefits from the whole period of
\nreceptivity. <\/span><\/p>\n

Naturally, there are still more advanced and perfected states, but
\nthat comes later. But already if one reaches that state, one profits fully by
\nthe meditation. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

We are going to try.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 115<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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


\n12 June 1957<\/font><\/a><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is
\nindeed possible even while fasting for very long periods to maintain the full
\nenergies and activities of the soul and mind and life, even those of the body,
\nto remain wakeful but concentrated in Yoga all the time, or to think deeply and
\nwrite day and night, to dispense with sleep, to walk eight hours a day,
\nmaintaining all these activities separately or together and not feel any loss
\nof strength, any fatigue, any kind of failure or decadence. At the end of the
\nfast one can even resume at once taking the normal or even a greater than the
\nnormal amount of nourishment without any transition or precaution such as
\nmedical science enjoins, as if both the complete fasting and the feasting were
\nnatural conditions, alternating by an immediate and easy passage from one to
\nthe other, of a body already trained by a sort of initial transformation to be
\nan instrument of the powers and activities of Yoga. But one thing one does not
\nescape and that is the wasting of the material tissues of the body, its flesh
\nand substance. Conceivably, if a practicable way and means could only be found,
\nthis last invincible obstacle too might be overcome and the body maintained by
\nan interchange of its forces with the forces of material Nature, giving to her
\nher need from the individual and taking from her directly the sustaining
\nenergies of her universal existence. Conceivably, one might rediscover and
\nre-establish at the summit of the evolution of life the phenomenon we see at
\nits base, the power to draw from all around it the means of sustenance and
\nself-renewal. Or else the evolved being might acquire the greater power to draw
\ndown those means from above rather than draw them up or pull<\/span><\/i> <\/span><\/i>them in from the environment around, all about
\nit and below it.\u201d
\n <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i>
\n<\/font> <\/span>
\nThe
\nSupramental Manifestation, pp. 28-29 <\/font> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage – 116<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

The description Sri Aurobindo gives here of the possibility of a
\nprolonged fast while maintaining all activities, is a description of his own
\nexperience. <\/span><\/p>\n

He is not speaking of a possibility but of something he has done.
\nBut it would be a great mistake to believe that it is an experience that can be
\nimitated in its outer appearance; and even if one managed to do it by an effort
\nof will, it would be perfectly useless from the spiritual point of view, if the
\nexperience has not been preceded by a change of consciousness which would be a
\npreliminary liberation. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>It is not by
\nabstaining from food that you can make a spiritual progress. It is by being
\nfree, not only from all attachment and all desire and preoccupation with food,
\nbut even from all need for it; by being in the state in which all these things
\nare so foreign to your consciousness that they have no place there. Only then,
\nas a spontaneous, natural result, can one usefully stop eating. It could be
\nsaid that the essential condition is to forget to eat \u2013 forget, because all the
\nenergies of the being and all its concentration are turned towards a more
\ntotal, more true inner realisation, towards this constant, imperative
\npreoccupation with the union of the whole being, including the bodily cells,
\nwith the vibration of the divine forces, with the supramental force which is
\nmanifesting, so that this may be the true life: not only the purpose of life,
\nbut the essence of life, not only an imperative need of life, but all its joy
\nand all its raison<\/i> d\u2019<\/i><\/span>\u00ea<\/span><\/i>tre.<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>When that is there,
\nwhen this realisation is attained, then to eat or not to eat, to sleep or not
\nsleep, all this has no longer any importance. It is an outer rhythm left to the
\nplay of the universal forces as a whole, finding expression through the
\ncircumstances and people around you; and then the body, united, totally united
\nwith the inner truth, has a suppleness, a constant
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 117<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

adaptability: if food is there, it takes it; if it isn\u2019t there, it
\ndoesn\u2019t think about it. And so too with all things.\u2026 This is not life! They are
\nmodes of existing to which one adapts oneself without giving it any thought.
\nThis gives you the feeling of a kind of blossoming, as a flower opens on a
\nplant, a sort of activity which does not come from a concentrated will but is
\nin harmony with all the forces around you, a way of being which is adapted to
\nthe circumstances you live in, which have absolutely no importance in
\nthemselves. <\/span><\/p>\n

There comes a moment when, free from everything, one needs
\npractically nothing, and one can use anything, do anything without this having
\nany real influence on the state of consciousness one is in. This is what really
\nmatters. To try through outer gestures or arbitrary decisions which come from a
\nmental consciousness aspiring for a higher life can be a means, not a very
\neffective one but still a sort of reminder to the being that it ought to be
\nsomething other than what it is in its animality \u2013 but it\u2019s not that, it\u2019s not
\nthat at all! A person who could be entirely absorbed in his inner aspiration,
\nto the point of not giving any thought or care to these external things, who
\nwould take what comes and not think about it when it doesn\u2019t, would be
\ninfinitely farther on the path than someone who undertakes ascetic practices
\nwith the idea that this will lead him to realisation. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span>The only thing<\/span><\/i> that is
\ntruly effective is the change of consciousness; it is the inner liberation
\nthrough an intimate, constant union, absolute and inevitable, with the
\nvibration of the supramental forces. The preoccupation of every second, the
\nwill of all the elements of the being, the aspiration of the entire being,
\nincluding all the cells of the body, is this union with the supramental forces,
\nthe divine forces. And there is no longer any need at all to be preoccupied
\nwith what the consequences will be. What has to be in the play of the universal
\nforces and their manifestation will be, quite naturally, spontaneously,
\nautomatically, there is no need to be preoccupied with it. The only thing <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 118<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

that matters is the constant, total, complete contact \u2013 constant,
\nyes, constant \u2013 with the Force, the Light, the Truth, the Power, and that
\nineffable delight of the supramental consciousness. <\/span><\/p>\n

That is sincerity. All the rest is an imitation, it is almost a
\npart one plays for oneself. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Perfect purity is to be,<\/i> to be ever more and more, in a
\nself-perfecting becoming. One must never pretend that one is<\/i>: one must be], spontaneously. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>This is sincerity. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 119<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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


\n19 June 1957<\/font><\/a><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

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

Sweet
\nMother, if someone falls seriously ill, is this a purely physical phenomenon or
\nis it a difficulty in his spiritual life? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

That depends on the person! If it is someone who is doing yoga, it
\nis quite obviously a difficulty in his spiritual life. If it is somebody who is
\nnot at all engaged in yoga and who lives an ordinary life in the most ordinary
\nmanner, it is an ordinary accident. It depends absolutely on the person. The
\nouter phenomena may be similar, but the inner causes are absolutely different.
\nNo two illnesses are alike, though labels are put on diseases and attempts made
\nto group them; but in fact every person is ill in his own way, and his way
\ndepends on what he is, on his state of consciousness and the life he leads. <\/span><\/p>\n

We have often said that illnesses are always the result of a
\ndisturbance of equilibrium, but this disturbance can occur in completely
\ndifferent states of being. For the ordinary man whose consciousness is centred
\nin the physical, outer life, it is a purely physical disturbance of
\nequilibrium, of the functioning of the different organs. But when behind this
\npurely superficial life, an inner life is being fashioned, the causes of
\nillness change; they always become the expression of a disequilibrium between
\nthe different parts of the being: between the inner progress or effort and the
\nouter resistances or conditions of one\u2019s life, one\u2019s body. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Even from the ordinary
\nexternal point of view, it has been recognised for a very long time that it is
\na fall in the resistance of the vitality due to immediate moral causes which is
\nalways at the origin of an illness. When one is in a normal state of
\nequilibrium and lives in a normal physical harmony, the body has a capacity of
\nresistance, it has within it an atmosphere strong enough to resist illnesses:
\nits most material substance emanates subtle vibrations which have the strength
\nto resist illnesses, even
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 120<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

diseases which are called contagious \u2013 in fact, all vibrations are
\ncontagious, but still, certain diseases are considered as especially
\ncontagious. Well, a man who, even from the purely external point of view, is in
\na state in which his organs function harmoniously and an adequate psychological
\nbalance prevails, has at the same time enough resistance for the contagion not
\nto affect him. But if for some reason or other he loses this equilibrium or is
\nweakened by depression, dissatisfaction, moral difficulties or undue fatigue,
\nfor instance, this reduces the normal resistance of the body and he is open to
\nthe disease. But if we consider someone who is doing yoga, then it is
\naltogether different, in the sense that the causes of disequilibrium are of a
\ndifferent nature and the illness usually becomes the expression of an inner
\ndifficulty which has to be overcome. <\/span><\/p>\n

So each one should find out for himself why he is ill. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>From the ordinary
\npoint of view, in most cases, it is usually fear \u2013 fear, which may be mental
\nfear, vital fear, but which is almost always physical fear, a fear in the cells
\n\u2013 is fear which opens the door to all contagion. Mental fear \u2013 all who have a
\nlittle control over themselves or any human dignity can eliminate it; vital
\nfear is more subtle and asks for a greater control; as for physical fear, a
\nveritable yoga is necessary to overcome it, for the cells of the body are
\nafraid of everything that is unpleasant, painful, and as soon as there is any
\nunease, even if it is insignificant, the cells of the body become anxious, they
\ndon\u2019t like to be uncomfortable. And then, to overcome that, the control of a
\nconscious will is necessary. It is usually this kind of fear that opens the
\ndoor to illnesses. And I am not speaking of the first two types of fear which,
\nas I said, any human being who wants to be human in the noblest sense of the
\nword, must overcome, for that is cowardice. But physical fear is more difficult
\nto overcome; without it even the most violent attacks could be repelled. If one
\nhas a minimum of control over the body, one can lessen its effects, but that is
\nnot immunity. It is this kind of trembling of material, physical fear in the
\ncells of the body <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 121<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

which aggravates all illnesses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some people are spontaneously free from fear even in their body;
\nthey have a sufficient vital equilibrium in them not to be afraid, not to fear,
\nand a natural harmony in the rhythm of their physical life which enables them
\nto reduce the illness spontaneously to a minimum. There are others, on the
\nother hand, with whom the thing always becomes as bad as it can be, sometimes
\nto the point of catastrophe. There is the whole range and this can be seen
\nquite easily. Well, this depends on a kind of happy rhythm of the movement of
\nlife in them, which is either harmonious enough to resist external attacks of
\nillness or else doesn\u2019t exist or is not sufficiently powerful, and is replaced
\nby that trembling of fear, that kind of instinctive anguish which transforms
\nthe least unpleasant contact into something painful and harmful. There is the
\nwhole range, from someone who can go through the worst contagion and epidemics
\nwithout ever catching anything to one who falls ill at the slightest chance. So
\nnaturally it always depends on the constitution of each person; and as soon as
\none wants to make an effort for progress, it naturally depends on the control
\none has acquired over oneself, until the moment when the body becomes the
\ndocile instrument of the higher Will and one can obtain from it a normal
\nresistance to all attacks.<\/span><\/p>\n

But when one can eliminate fear, one is almost in safety. For
\nexample, epidemics, or so-called epidemics, like those which are raging at
\npresent \u2013 ninety-nine times out of a hundred they come from fear: a fear, then,
\nwhich even becomes a mental fear in its most sordid form, promoted by newspaper
\narticles, useless talk and so on.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mother, how
\nare medicines to be used for a body which is not altogether unconscious? For
\neven when we draw on the divine grace, we see that we need a little medicine, and
\nif a little medicine is given it has a good effect. Does this mean that only
\nthe body needs <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 122<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\u00a0<\/span>medicine or is there something wrong with the
\nmind and the vital?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

In most cases the use of medicines \u2013 within reasonable limits, that
\nis, when one doesn\u2019t poison oneself by taking medicines \u2013 is simply to help the
\nbody to have confidence. It is the body which heals itself. When it wants to be
\ncured, it is cured. And this is something very widely recognised now; even the
\nmost traditional doctors tell you, \u201cYes, our medicines help, but it is not the
\nmedicines which cure, it is the body which decides to be cured.\u201d Very well, so
\nwhen the body is told, \u201cTake this\u201d, it says to itself, \u201cNow I am going to get
\nbetter\u201d, and because it says \u201cI am going to get better\u201d, well, it is cured! <\/span><\/p>\n

In almost every case, there are things which help \u2013 a little \u2013
\nprovided it is done within reasonable limits. If it is no longer within
\nreasonable limits, you are sure to break down completely. You cure one thing
\nbut catch another which is usually worse. But still, a little help, in a way, a
\nlittle something that gives confidence to your body: \u201cNow it will be all right,
\nnow that I have taken this, it is going to be all right\u201d \u2013 this helps it a
\ngreat deal and it decides to get better and it is cured. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>There too, there is a
\nwhole range of possibilities, from the yogi who is in so perfect a state of
\ninner control that he could take poison without being poisoned to the one who
\nat the least little scratch rushes to the doctor and needs all sorts of special
\ndrugs to get his body to make the movement needed for its cure. There is the
\nwhole possible range, from total, supreme mastery to an equally total bondage
\nto all external aids and all that you absorb from outside \u2013 a bondage and a
\nperfect liberation. There is the whole range. So everything is possible. It is
\nlike a great key-board, very complex and very complete, on which one can play,
\nand the body is the instrument. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Mother, by a
\nmental effort \u2013 for instance, the resolution not to take medicines when one is
\nill \u2013 can<\/span> <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>one succeed in making the body understand? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 123<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

That is not enough. A mental resolution is not enough, no. There
\nare subtle reactions in your body which do not obey the mental resolution, it
\nis not enough. Something else is needed. <\/span><\/p>\n

Other regions must be contacted. A power higher than the mind\u2019s is
\nneeded. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>And from this point of
\nview, all that is in the mind is always subject to inner questioning. You take
\na resolution but you can be sure that something will always come in which
\nperhaps may not openly fight this resolution but will question its
\neffectiveness. It is enough, you see, to be subject to the least doubt for the
\nresolution to lose half its effect. If at the same time as you say \u201cI want\u201d,
\nthere is something silently lurking, somewhere behind, in the background,
\nsomething which asks itself, \u201cWhat will the result be?\u201d that is enough to ruin
\neverything. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>This play of the
\nmind\u2019s working is extremely subtle and no ordinary human means can succeed in
\ncontrolling it perfectly. For instance, this is well known among people who
\npractise yoga and want to control their body: if through an assiduous yogic
\neffort they have succeeded in controlling something in themselves \u2013 a particular
\nweakness of the body, an opening to a certain disequilibrium \u2013 if they have
\nmanaged to do this and had some result, for instance the disappearance of this
\ndisequilibrium for a very long time, for years, well, if one day at a
\nparticular moment, suddenly, the thought crosses their mind that \u201cAh! Now it is
\ndone\u201d, the very next minute it returns. That is enough. For it proves that they
\nhave come into contact with the vibrations of the thing they had rejected, on a
\nplane where they are vulnerable, the plane of thought, and that for some reason
\nor other in the play of forces, they are open, and it comes back.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>This is something very
\nwell known in yoga. The simple fact of observing the victory one has gained \u2013
\nobserving it mentally, you see, thinking about it \u2013 is enough to destroy the
\neffect of the yoga which may have existed for years. A mental silence<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 124<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

strong enough to prevent all outer vibrations from coming in, is
\nindispensable. Well, that is something so difficult to achieve that one must
\nreally have passed from what Sri Aurobindo calls \u201cthe lower hemisphere\u201d to the
\nhigher, exclusively spiritual hemisphere, for it not to happen. <\/span><\/p>\n

No, it is not in the mental field that the victories are won. It
\nis impossible. It is open to all influences, all contradictory currents. All
\nthe mental constructions one makes carry their own contradiction with them. One
\ncan try to overrule it or make it as harmless as possible, but it exists, it is
\nthere, and at the slightest weakness or lack of vigilance or inadvertance, it
\nenters, and destroys all the work. Mentally, one arrives at very few results,
\nand they are always mixed. Something else is needed. One must pass from the
\nmind into the domain of faith or of a higher consciousness, to be able to act
\nwith safety. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>It is quite obvious
\nthat one of the most powerful means for acting on the body is faith. People who
\nhave a simple heart, not a very complicated mind \u2013 simple people, you see \u2013 who
\ndon\u2019t have a very great, very complicated mental development but have a very
\ndeep faith, have a great power of action over their bodies, very great. That is
\nwhy one is quite surprised at times: \u201cHere\u2019s a man with a great realisation, an
\nexceptional person, and he is a slave of all the smallest physical things,
\nwhile this man, well, he is so simple and looks so uncouth, but he has a great
\nfaith and goes through difficulties and obstacles like a conqueror!\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>I don\u2019t say that a
\nhighly cultured man can\u2019t have faith, but it is more difficult, for there is
\nalways this mental element which contradicts, discusses, tries to understand,
\nwhich is difficult to convince, which wants proofs. His faith is less pure. It
\nis necessary, then, to pass on to a higher degree in the evolutionary spiral,
\npass from the mental to the spiritual; then, naturally, faith takes on a
\nquality of a very high order. But I mean that in daily life, ordinary life, a
\nvery simple man who has a very ardent faith can have a mastery over his body \u2013
\nwithout it being truly a <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 125<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\u201cmastery\u201d; it is simply a spontaneous movement \u2013 a control over
\nhis body far greater than somebody who has reached a much higher development.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Mother, I am asking you a small personal question. An incurable
\nillness, an organic disease has been cured by\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span>your grace,but a purely functional illness is not. How can that be? In
\nthe same body. Is it a lack of receptivity or…? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

It is something so personal, so individual, that it is impossible
\nto reply. As I said, for each one the case is absolutely different, and one
\ncan\u2019t give an explanation for these things without going into the details of
\nthe functioning. For each one, the case is different. <\/span><\/p>\n

And for every thing, every event, there are as many explanations
\nas there are planes of consciousness. In a way\u2026well, in an over-simplified way,
\none may say that there is a physical explanation, a vital explanation, a mental
\nexplanation, a spiritual explanation, there is\u2026There is an entire gradation of
\ncountless explanations that you could give for the same phenomenon. None is
\naltogether true, all have an element of truth. And finally, if you want to
\nenter the field of explanations, if you take one thing and follow it up, you
\nalways have to explain it by another, and you may go round the world
\nindefinitely and explain one thing by another without ever reaching the end of
\nyour explanation. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Indeed, when one sees
\nthis in its totality and its essence, the wisest thing one can say is: \u201cIt is
\nlike that because it is like that.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 126<\/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 June 1957   Do you have any questions? No \u00a0Sweet Mother, should one ask questions which don\u2019t come spontaneously?   What do you mean…<\/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-4268","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\/4268","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=4268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}