{"id":4271,"date":"2013-07-13T01:54:43","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4271"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:54:43","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:54:43","slug":"27-01-october-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\/27-01-october-1958-vol-09-questions-and-answers-volume-09","title":{"rendered":"-27_01 October 1958.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n<td>\n<div class=\"Section1\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><b><i><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"3\">1 October 1958<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/b><b><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\";color:#E2961A'><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Sweet<br \/>\nMother, what is an ideal of moral perfection? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>There are thousands of moral perfections. Everyone has his own<br \/>\nideal of moral perfection. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>What is usually called moral perfection is to have all the<br \/>\nqualities that are considered moral: to have no defects, never to make a<br \/>\nmistake, never to err, to be always what one conceives to be the best, to have<br \/>\nall the virtues \u2013 that is, to realise the highest mental conception: to take<br \/>\nall the qualities \u2013 there are many, aren\u2019t there? \u2013 all the virtues, all that<br \/>\nman has conceived to be the most beautiful, most noble, most true, and to live<br \/>\nthat integrally, to let all one\u2019s actions be guided by that, all the movements,<br \/>\nall the reactions, all the feelings, all\u2026That is living a moral ideal of<br \/>\nperfection. It is the summit of man\u2019s mental evolution. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Not many people do it\u2026but still\u2026there have been some and there<br \/>\nstill are. This is what men usually take for the spiritual life. When they meet<br \/>\na man of this type, they say, \u201cOh! He is a great spiritual being.\u201d He may be a<br \/>\ngreat saint, he may be a great sage but he is not a spiritual being. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>And yet it is already very good and very difficult to realise<br \/>\nthis. And there comes a time in the inner evolution when it is very necessary<br \/>\nto try to realise it. It is obviously infinitely higher than to be still guided<br \/>\nby all one\u2019s impulses and ignorant outer reactions. It is to be already in a<br \/>\nway the master of one\u2019s nature. It is even a stage through which one has to<br \/>\npass, for it is the stage when one begins to be the master of one\u2019s ego, when<br \/>\none is ready to let it fall away\\is still there but sufficiently weakened to be<br \/>\nnearing its end. This is the last stage before crossing over to the other side,<br \/>\nand certainly, if anyone imagines that he can go over to the other side without<br \/>\npassing through this stage, he would risk making a great mistake, and of taking<br \/>\nfor&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page \u2013 409<\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><span>\u00a0<\/span>perfect freedom a perfect<br \/>\nweakness with regard to his lower nature. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>It is almost impossible to pass from the mental being \u2013 even the<br \/>\nmost perfect and most remarkable \u2013 to the true spiritual life without having<br \/>\nrealised this ideal of moral perfection for a certain period of time, however<br \/>\nbrief it may be. Many people try to take a short-cut and want to assert their<br \/>\ninner freedom before having overcome all the weaknesses of the outer nature;<br \/>\nthey are in great danger of deluding themselves. The true spiritual life,<br \/>\ncomplete freedom, is something much higher than the highest moral realisations,<br \/>\nbut one must take care that this so called freedom is not an indulgence and a<br \/>\ncontempt for all rules. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>One must go higher, always higher, higher; nothing less than what<br \/>\nthe highest of humanity has achieved. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>One must be capable of being spontaneously all that humanity has<br \/>\nconceived to be the highest, the most beautiful, the most perfect, the most<br \/>\ndisinterested, the most comprehensive, the best, before opening one\u2019s spiritual<br \/>\nwings and looking at all that from above as something which still belongs to<br \/>\nthe individual self, in order to enter into true spirituality, that which has<br \/>\nno limits, which lives in an integral way Infinity and Eternity.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page \u2013 410<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><b><i><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><br \/>\n<a name=\"01_8 October 1958\"><font size=\"3\">8<br \/>\nOctober 1958 <\/font> <\/a> <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Sweet<br \/>\nMother, will there not be any intermediary states between man and superman? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>There will probably be many. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Man and superman? You are not speaking of the new supramental<br \/>\nrace, are you? Are you really speaking of what we] call the superman, that is,<br \/>\nman born in the human way and trying to transform the physical being he has<br \/>\nreceived by his ordinary human birth? Are there any stages? \u2013 There will<br \/>\ncertainly be countless partial] realisations. According to each one\u2019s capacity,<br \/>\nthe degree of transformation will differ, and it is certain that there will be<br \/>\na considerable number of attempts, more or less fruitful or unfruitful, before<br \/>\nwe come to something like the superman, and even those will be more or less<br \/>\nsuccessful attempts. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>All those who strive to overcome their ordinary nature, all those<br \/>\nwho try to realise materially the deeper experience which has brought them into<br \/>\ncontact with the divine Truth, all those who, instead of turning to the Beyond<br \/>\nor the Highest, try to realise physically, externally, the change of<br \/>\nconsciousness they have realised within themselves \u2013 all are<br \/>\napprentice-supermen. And there, there are countless differences in the success<br \/>\nof their efforts. Each time we try not to be an ordinary man, not to live the<br \/>\nordinary life, to express in our movements, our actions and reactions the<br \/>\ndivine Truth, when we are governed by that Truth instead of being governed by<br \/>\nthe general ignorance, we are apprentice-supermen, and according to the success<br \/>\nof our efforts, well, we are more or less able apprentices, more or less<br \/>\nadvanced on the way. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>All these are stages, so\u2026In reality, in this race to the<br \/>\nTransformation, the question is to know which of the two will arrive first: the<br \/>\none who wants to transform his body in the image of&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page \u2013 411<\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>the divine Truth, or the old habit of the body to go on<br \/>\ndisintegrating until it is so deformed that it can no longer continue to live<br \/>\nin its outer <span class=\"SpellE\">integrality<\/span><span>\u00a0 <\/span>It is a race between transformation and<br \/>\ndecay. For there are only two stopping-places, two things which can indicate to<br \/>\nwhat extent one has succeeded: either success, that is to say, becoming a<br \/>\nsuperman \u2013 then of course one can say, \u201cNow I have reached the goal\u201d\u2026or else<br \/>\ndeath. Till then, normally, one is \u201con the way\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>It is one of these two things \u2013 either attaining the goal or a<br \/>\nsudden rupture of life \u2013 which temporarily puts an end to the advance. And on<br \/>\nthe road each one has gone more or less far, but until one reaches the end one<br \/>\ncannot say what stage one is at. It is the final step that will count. So only<br \/>\nthe one who comes a few hundred or thousand years later and looks back, will be<br \/>\nable to say, \u201cThere was this stage and that stage, this realisation and that<br \/>\nrealisation&#8230;.\u201d That is history, it will be a historical perception of the<br \/>\nevent. Till then all of us are in the movement and the work. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>How far have we gone and how far shall we go? It is better not to<br \/>\nthink too much about that, for it cripples you and you can\u2019t run well. It is<br \/>\nbetter to think only about running and nothing else. That is the only way to<br \/>\nrun well. You look at where you want to go and put all your effort in the<br \/>\nmovement to go forward. How far you have gone is not your concern. I say, \u201cThis<br \/>\nis history\u201d, it will come later. The historians of our effort will tell us \u2013<br \/>\nbecause perhaps we shall still be there \u2013 will tell us what we did, how we did<br \/>\nit. For the moment what is necessary is to do it; this is the only thing that<br \/>\nmatters.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page \u2013 412<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><b><i><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><br \/>\n<a name=\"02_22 October 1958\"><font size=\"3\">22 October 1958<\/font><\/a><\/span><\/i><\/b><b><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\";color:#E2961A'><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>\u201cBut this is<br \/>\nnot the standpoint from which the true significance of the spiritual evolution<br \/>\nin man or the value of spirituality can be judged or assessed; for its real<br \/>\nwork is not to solve human problems on the past or present mental basis, but to<br \/>\ncreate a new foundation of our being and our life and knowledge. The ascetic or<br \/>\nother-worldly tendency of the mystic is an extreme affirmation of his refusal<br \/>\nto accept the limitations imposed by material Nature: for his very reason of<br \/>\nbeing is to go beyond her; if he cannot transform her, he must leave her. At<br \/>\nthe same time the spiritual man has not stood back altogether from the life of<br \/>\nhumanity; for the sense of unity with all beings, the stress of a universal<br \/>\nlove and compassion, the will to spend the energies for the good of all<br \/>\ncreatures, are central to the dynamic <span class=\"SpellE\">outflowering<\/span> of<br \/>\nthe spirit: he has turned therefore to help, he has guided as did the ancient<br \/>\nRishis or the prophets, or stooped to create and, where he has done so with<br \/>\nsomething of the direct power of the Spirit, the results have been prodigious.<br \/>\nBut the solution of the problem which spirituality offers is not a solution by<br \/>\nexternal means, though these also have to be used, but by an inner change, a<br \/>\ntransformation of the consciousness and nature. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>\u201cIf<br \/>\nno decisive but only a contributory result, an accretion of some new finer<br \/>\nelements to the sum of the consciousness, has been the general consequence and<br \/>\nthere has been no life-transformation, it is because man in the mass has always<br \/>\ndeflected the spiritual impulsion, recanted from the spiritual ideal or held it<br \/>\nonly as a form and rejected the inward change. Spirituality cannot be called<br \/>\nupon to deal with life by a&nbsp;<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page \u2013 413<\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><span>\u00a0<\/span>non-spiritual method or attempt to cure its<br \/>\nills by the panaceas, the political, social or other mechanical remedies which<br \/>\nthe mind is constantly attempting and which have always failed and will<br \/>\ncontinue to fail to solve anything. The most drastic changes made by these<br \/>\nmeans change nothing; for the old ills exist in a new form: the aspect of the<br \/>\noutward environment is altered, but man remains what he was; he is still an<br \/>\nignorant mental being misusing or not effectively using his knowledge, moved by<br \/>\nego and governed by vital desires and passions and the needs of the body, <span class=\"SpellE\">unspiritual<\/span> and superficial in his outlook, ignorant of his<br \/>\nown self and the forces that drive and use him.\u2026Only a spiritual change, an<br \/>\nevolution of his being from the superficial mental towards the deeper spiritual<br \/>\nconsciousness, can make a real and effective difference. To discover the<br \/>\nspiritual being in himself is the main business of the spiritual man and to<br \/>\nhelp others towards the same evolution is his real service to the race; till that<br \/>\nis done, an outward help can succour and alleviate, but nothing or very little<br \/>\nmore is possible.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"2\">The Life Divine, pp. 883-85 <\/font> <\/span><\/i><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><br \/>\n<font size=\"2\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Sweet<br \/>\nMother, how can someone who hasn\u2019t much spiritual capacity best help in this<br \/>\nwork? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>I don\u2019t know whether one can say that anyone has much or little<br \/>\nspiritual capacity. It is not like that. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>To live the spiritual life, a reversal of consciousness is needed.<br \/>\nThis cannot be compared in any way with the different faculties or<br \/>\npossibilities one has in the mental field. It may be said of someone that he<br \/>\nhasn\u2019t much mental, vital or physical capacity, that his possibilities are very<br \/>\nlimited; in that case it may be asked how these capacities may be developed,<br \/>\nthat is, how new ones may be acquired, which is something rather <span class=\"SpellE\">diffi<\/span>cult. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page \u2013 414<\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>But to live the spiritual life is to open to another world within<br \/>\noneself. It is to reverse one\u2019s consciousness, as it were. The ordinary human<br \/>\nconsciousness, even in the most developed, even in men of great talent and great<br \/>\nrealisation, is a movement turned outwards \u2013 all the energies are directed<br \/>\noutwards, the whole consciousness is spread outwards; and if anything is turned<br \/>\ninwards, it is very little, very rare, very fragmentary, it happens only under<br \/>\nthe pressure of very special circumstances, violent shocks, the shocks life<br \/>\ngives precisely with the intention of slightly reversing this movement of<br \/>\nexteriorisation of the consciousness. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>But all who have lived a spiritual life have had the same<br \/>\nexperience: all of a sudden something in their being has been reversed, so to<br \/>\nspeak, has been turned suddenly and sometimes completely inwards, and also at<br \/>\nthe same time upwards, from within upwards \u2013 but it is not an external \u201cabove\u201d,<br \/>\nit is within, deep, something other than the heights as they are physically<br \/>\nconceived. Something has literally been turned over. There has been a decisive<br \/>\nexperience and the standpoint in life, the way of looking at life, the attitude<br \/>\none takes in relation to it, has suddenly changed, and in some cases quite<br \/>\ndefinitively, irrevocably. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>And as soon as one is turned towards the spiritual life and<br \/>\nreality, one touches the Infinite, the Eternal, and there can no longer be any<br \/>\nquestion of a greater or smaller number of capacities or possibilities. It is<br \/>\nthe mental conception of spiritual life which may say that one has more or less<br \/>\ncapacity to live spiritually, but this is not at all an adequate statement.<br \/>\nWhat may be said is that one is more or less ready for the decisive and total<br \/>\nreversal. In reality, it is the mental capacity to withdraw from ordinary<br \/>\nactivities and to set out in search of the spiritual life which can be<br \/>\nmeasured. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>But so long as one is in the mental field, in this state, as it<br \/>\nwere, on this plane of consciousness, one can\u2019t do much for others, either for<br \/>\nlife in general or for particular individuals,&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page \u2013 415<\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>because one doesn\u2019t have the certitude oneself, one doesn\u2019t have<br \/>\nthe definitive experience, the consciousness has not been established in the<br \/>\nspiritual world; and all that can be said is that they are mental activities<br \/>\nwhich have their good and bad sides, but not much power and, in any case, not<br \/>\nthis power of spiritual contagion which is the only truly effective power. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>The only thing that is truly effective is the possibility of<br \/>\ntransferring to others the state of consciousness in which one lives oneself.<br \/>\nBut this power cannot be invented. One cannot imitate it, cannot seem to have<br \/>\nit; it only comes spontaneously when one is established in that state oneself,<br \/>\nwhen one lives within it and not when one is trying to live within it \u2013 when<br \/>\none is there. And that is why all those who truly have a spiritual life cannot<br \/>\nbe deceived. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>An imitation of spiritual life may delude people who still live in<br \/>\nthe mind, but those who have realised this reversal of consciousness in<br \/>\nthemselves, whose relation with the outer being is completely different, cannot<br \/>\nbe deceived and cannot make a mistake. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>It is these people the mental being does not understand. So long as<br \/>\none is in the mental consciousness, even the highest, and sees the spiritual<br \/>\nlife from outside, one judges with one\u2019s mental faculties, with the habit of<br \/>\nseeking, erring, correcting, progressing, and seeking once again; and one<br \/>\nthinks that those who are in the spiritual life suffer from the same<br \/>\nincapacity, but that is a very gross mistake! <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>When the reversal of the being has taken place, all<span>\u00a0 <\/span>that is finished. One no longer seeks, one<br \/>\nsees. One no longer deduces, one knows. One no longer gropes, one walks<br \/>\nstraight to the goal. And when one has gone farther \u2013 only a little farther \u2013<br \/>\none knows, feels, lives the supreme truth that the Supreme Truth <i>alone acts<\/i>, the Supreme Lord <i>alone wills<\/i>, knows and does through<br \/>\nhuman beings. How could there be any possibility of error there? What He does,<br \/>\nHe does because He wills to do it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>For our mistaken vision these are perhaps incomprehensible&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page \u2013 416<\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>actions, but they have a meaning and an aim and lead where they<br \/>\nought to lead.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>(Silence)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>If one sincerely wants to help others and the world, the best<br \/>\nthing one can do is to be oneself what one wants others to be \u2013 not only as an<br \/>\nexample, but because one becomes a centre of radiating power which, by the very<br \/>\nfact that it exists, compels the rest of the world to transform itself.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page \u2013 417<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><b><i><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><br \/>\n<a name=\"03_29 October 1958\"><font size=\"3\">29 October 1958<\/font><\/a><\/span><\/i><\/b><b><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\";color:#E2961A'><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>\u201cIt is true<br \/>\nthat the spiritual tendency has been to look more beyond life than towards<br \/>\nlife. It is true also that the spiritual change has been individual and not<br \/>\ncollective; its result has been successful in the man, but unsuccessful or only<br \/>\nindirectly operative in the human mass. The spiritual evolution of Nature is<br \/>\nstill in process and incomplete, \u2013 one might almost say, still only beginning,<br \/>\n\u2013 and its main preoccupation has been to affirm and develop a basis of<br \/>\nspiritual consciousness and knowledge and to create more and more a foundation<br \/>\nor formation for the vision of that which is eternal in the truth of the<br \/>\nspirit. It is only when Nature has fully confirmed this intensive evolution and<br \/>\nformation through the individual that anything radical of an expanding or<br \/>\ndynamically diffusive character can be expected or any attempt at collective<br \/>\nspiritual life, \u2013 such attempts have been<br \/>\nmade, but mostly as a field of protection for the growth of the individual\u2019s<br \/>\nspirituality, \u2013 acquire a successful permanence. For till then the individual<br \/>\nmust be preoccupied with his own problem of entirely changing his mind and life<br \/>\ninto conformity with the truth of the spirit which he is achieving or has<br \/>\nachieved in his inner being and knowledge. Any premature attempt at a<br \/>\nlarge-scale collective spiritual life is exposed to vitiation by some<br \/>\nincompleteness of the spiritual knowledge on its dynamic side, by the<br \/>\nimperfections of the individual seekers and by the invasion of the ordinary<br \/>\nmind and vital and physical consciousness taking hold of the truth and<br \/>\nmechanising, obscuring or corrupting it. The mental intelligence and its main<br \/>\npower of reason cannot change the principle and persistent&nbsp;<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page \u2013 418<\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>character of<br \/>\nhuman life, it can only effect various mechanisations, manipulations,<br \/>\ndevelopments and formulations. But neither is mind as a whole, even<br \/>\nspiritualised, able to change it; spirituality liberates and illumines the<br \/>\ninner being, it helps mind to communicate with what is higher than itself, to<br \/>\nescape even from itself, it can purify and uplift by the inner influence the<br \/>\noutward nature of individual human beings: but so long as it has to work in the<br \/>\nhuman mass through mind as the instrument, it can exercise an<span>\u00a0 <\/span>influence on the earth-life but not bring<br \/>\nabout a transformation of that life. For this reason<span>\u00a0 <\/span>there has been a prevalent tendency in the<br \/>\nspiritual mind to be satisfied with such an influence and in the main to seek<br \/>\nfulfilment in other-life elsewhere or to abandon altogether any outward-going<br \/>\nendeavour and concentrate solely on an individual spiritual salvation or<br \/>\nperfection. A higher instrumental dynamis than mind is needed to transform<br \/>\ntotally a nature created by the Ignorance.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"2\">The Life Divine, pp. 885-86<\/font><\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"2\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Sweet<br \/>\nMother, what is the meaning of \u201cspirituality&#8230; helps mind\u2026to escape from<br \/>\nitself\u201d? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>As long as the mind is convinced that it is the summit of human<br \/>\nconsciousness, that there is nothing beyond and above it, it takes its own<br \/>\nfunctioning to be a perfect one and is fully satisfied with the progress it can<br \/>\nmake within the limits of this functioning, and with an increase of clarity,<br \/>\nprecision, complexity, suppleness, plasticity in its movements. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>It always has a spontaneous tendency to feel very satisfied with<br \/>\nitself and with what it can do, and if there were no greater force than its<br \/>\nown, a higher power which irrefutably shows it its own limitations, its<br \/>\npoverty, it would never make any effort to<span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page \u2013 419<\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>find its way out of all that by the right door: liberation into a<br \/>\nhigher and truer mode of being.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>When the spiritual force is able to act, when it begins to have an<br \/>\ninfluence, it jolts the mind\u2019s self-satisfaction and, by continuous pressure,<br \/>\nbegins to make it feel that beyond it there is something higher and truer; then<br \/>\na little of its characteristic vanity gives way under this influence and as<br \/>\nsoon as it realises that it is limited, ignorant, incapable of reaching the<br \/>\ntrue truth, liberation begins with the possibility of opening to something<br \/>\nbeyond. But it must feel] the power, the beauty, the force of this beyond to be<br \/>\nable to surrender. It must be able to perceive its incapacity and its<br \/>\nlimitations in the presence of something higher than itself, otherwise how<br \/>\ncould it ever feel its own weakness!<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Sometimes one single contact is enough, something that makes a<br \/>\nlittle rent in that self-satisfaction; then the yearning to go beyond, the need<br \/>\nfor a purer light awaken, and with this awakening comes the aspiration to win<br \/>\nthem, and with the aspiration liberation begins, and one day, breaking all<br \/>\nlimits, one blossoms in the infinite Light. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>If there were not this constant Pressure, simultaneously from<br \/>\nwithin and without, from above and from the profoundest depths, nothing would<br \/>\never change. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Even with that, how much time is required for things to change!<br \/>\nWhat obstinate resistance in this lower nature, what blind and stupid<br \/>\nattachment to the animal ways of the being, what a refusal to liberate oneself!<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>(Silence)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>In the whole manifestation there is an infinite Grace constantly<br \/>\nat work to bring the world out of the misery, the obscurity and the stupidity<br \/>\nin which it lies. From all time this Grace has been at work, unremitting in its<br \/>\neffort, and how many thousands of years were necessary for this world to awaken<br \/>\nto the need for something greater, more<span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<\/span>true, more beautiful.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page \u2013 420<\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Everyone can gauge, from the resistance he meets in his own being,<br \/>\nthe tremendous resistance which the world opposes to the work of the Grace. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>And it is only when one understands that all external things, all<br \/>\nmental constructions, all material efforts are vain, futile, if they are not<br \/>\nentirely consecrated to this Light and Force from above, to this Truth which is<br \/>\ntrying to express itself, that one is ready to make decisive progress. So the<br \/>\nonly truly effective attitude is a perfect, total, fervent giving of our being<br \/>\nto That which is above us and which alone has the power to change everything. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>When you open to the Spirit within you it brings you a first<br \/>\nforetaste of that higher life which alone is worth living, then comes the will<br \/>\nto rise to that, the hope of reaching it, the certitude that this is possible,<br \/>\nand finally the strength to make the necessary effort and the resolution to go<br \/>\nto the very end. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>First one must wake up,<span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<\/span>then one can conquer.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page \u2013 421<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%;margin: 0\"> <span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;color: #0000FF;font-weight: 700\"><br \/>\n  <font size=\"2\"><br \/>\n<a href=\"\/index.php\/02-works-of-the-mother\/01-cwmce\/09-questions-and-answers-volume-09\/00-Contents-Vol-09-questions-and-answers-volume-09\" style=\"text-decoration: none\">Home<\/a><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1 October 1958 &nbsp; Sweet Mother, what is an ideal of moral perfection? &nbsp; There are thousands of moral perfections. Everyone has his own ideal&#8230;<\/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-4271","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\/4271","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=4271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}