{"id":4299,"date":"2013-07-13T01:55:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4299"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:55:00","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:00","slug":"09-jnana-62-66-72-vol-10-on-thoughts-and-aphorisms-volume-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/02-works-of-the-mother\/01-cwmce\/10-on-thoughts-and-aphorisms-volume-10\/09-jnana-62-66-72-vol-10-on-thoughts-and-aphorisms-volume-10","title":{"rendered":"-09_jnana-62-66_72.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%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\";font-style:italic'>72 \u2013 The sign of dawning Knowledge is to feel that as yet I know little<br \/>\nor nothing; and yet, if I could only know my knowledge, I already possess<br \/>\neverything. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>In sleep one occasionally has a very accurate knowledge of what is going<br \/>\nto happen, with an extraordinary precision in the material details, as if<br \/>\neverything were already there complete down to the smallest details, on an<br \/>\noccult plane. Is that correct? What is this plane of knowledge? Is there one or<br \/>\nseveral? What should one do to gain access to it consciously in the waking<br \/>\nstate? And how is it that people who are serious, who have a divine realisation, sometimes make such gross mistakes in their predictions? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" 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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>But it is a whole world in itself! It is<br \/>\nnot one question, but twenty! <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>There are all kinds of premonitory dreams.<br \/>\nThere are premonitory dreams that are fulfilled immediately, that is to say,<br \/>\nyou dream in the night what will happen on the next day, and there are<br \/>\npremonitory dreams that are fulfilled over varying lengths of time. And according<br \/>\nto their position in time, these dreams are seen on various planes. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>The higher we rise towards absolute<br \/>\ncertainty, the greater the distance is, because these visions belong to a<br \/>\nregion which is very close to the Origin and the length of time between the<br \/>\nrevelation of what is going to be and its realisation may be very great. But<br \/>\nthe revelation is certain, because it is very close to the Origin. There is a<br \/>\nplace \u2013 when one is identified with the Supreme \u2013 where one knows everything<br \/>\nabsolutely, in the past,<\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page &#8211; 125<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>the present, the future and everywhere.<br \/>\nBut usually people who go there forget what they have seen when they return. An<br \/>\nextremely strict discipline is needed to remember. And that is the only place<br \/>\nwhere one 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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>But the links of the chain of<br \/>\ncommunication are not always all there and one very rarely remembers. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>To come back to what I was saying,<br \/>\naccording to the plane on which one has seen, one can more or less judge the<br \/>\ntime that the vision will take to be fulfilled. And the immediate things are<br \/>\nalready realised, they already exist in the subtle physical and they can be<br \/>\nseen there \u2013 they simply are, they exist there. They are only the reflection \u2013<br \/>\nnot even a transcription \u2013 the reflection or projection of the image in the<br \/>\nmaterial world which will appear on the next day or in a few hours. There you<br \/>\nsee the exact thing in all its details, because it already exists; so<br \/>\neverything depends on the accuracy of the vision and the power of vision. If<br \/>\nyou have a power of vision that is objective and sincere, you see the thing<br \/>\naccurately; if you add your own feelings and impressions to it, it is coloured<br \/>\nby them. So accuracy in the subtle physical depends exclusively on the<br \/>\ninstrument, that is to say, on the one who sees. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>But as soon as you enter a more subtle<br \/>\nregion, such as the vital \u2013 and even more so in the mental, but already in the<br \/>\nvital there is a small margin of possibility \u2013 then there you can see roughly<br \/>\nwhat is going to happen, but in detail it may be like this or like that; there<br \/>\nare wills and influences that may possibly intervene and create a difference. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>And this is because the original Will is<br \/>\nreflected, so to say, in the various regions, and each region alters the<br \/>\norganisation and the relation of the images. The world we live in is a world of<br \/>\nimages. It is not the thing itself in its essence, it is the reflection of the<br \/>\nthing. One could say that we are, in our material existence, only a reflection,<br \/>\nan image of what we are in our essential reality. And the modalities of these<br \/>\nreflections bring in every error and falsification \u2013 what you see in the<br \/>\nessence is&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page &#8211; 126<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:\"Courier New\";color:blue'><\/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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>perfectly true and pure and exists from<br \/>\nall eternity; the images are essentially variable. And according to the degree<br \/>\nof falsehood that enters into the vibrations, the degree of distortion and<br \/>\nalteration increases. One could say that every circumstance, every event, every<br \/>\nthing has a pure existence, which is the true existence, and a considerable<br \/>\nnumber of impure or distorted existences, which are the existence of the same<br \/>\nthing in the various domains of being. For example, in the intellectual domain,<br \/>\nthere is already a good deal of distortion; in the mental domain there is a<br \/>\nconsiderable amount of distortion, and as all the emotional and sensorial domains<br \/>\ncome in, the distortions increase. And once you reach the material plane, it is<br \/>\nmost often unrecognisable. It is completely distorted \u2013 so much so that it is<br \/>\nsometimes very difficult to know that this is the material expression of that \u2013<br \/>\nthey are no longer very much alike.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>It is a rather novel way of approaching<br \/>\nthe problem and it may be the key to many things. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Thus when you know someone well and you<br \/>\noften see him physically, if you see him in the subtle physical, already there<br \/>\nare things which become more marked, more visible, more outstanding, which you<br \/>\nhad not seen physically, because in the greyness of the material world they had<br \/>\nmerged with many other things on the same plane. There are characteristics or<br \/>\nexpressions of character which become outstanding enough to be quite visible,<br \/>\nalthough they had not been physically apparent. When you look at a person<br \/>\nphysically, there is the complexion, the features, the expression; at the same<br \/>\nmoment, if you see this face in the subtle physical, you suddenly notice that<br \/>\none part of the face is one colour, another part another colour; that in the<br \/>\neyes there is an expression and a kind of light which were not at all visible;<br \/>\nand that the whole has quite a different appearance and, above all, gives a<br \/>\nvery different feeling, which to our physical eyes would seem rather<br \/>\nextravagant, but which to the subtle vision is very expressive and revealing of<br \/>\nthe character, or even of the influences acting on this person. What I say here<br \/>\nis the<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page &#8211; 127<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:\"Courier New\";color:blue'><\/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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>record of an experience that I had again a<br \/>\nfew days ago. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>So according to the degree to which you<br \/>\nare conscious and the extent to which you see, you perceive images, see events<br \/>\nthat are more or less near, and you see them more or less accurately. The only<br \/>\nvision that is true and sure is the vision of the divine Consciousness. So the<br \/>\nproblem is to become aware of the divine Consciousness and to keep this<br \/>\nconsciousness in all details all the time. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Until then, there are all sorts of ways of<br \/>\nreceiving indications. The precise, accurate, familiar vision that certain<br \/>\npeople have may come from several sources. It may be a vision by identity with<br \/>\ncircumstances and things, when you are used to extending your consciousness all<br \/>\naround you. It may be an indication given by a talkative being from the<br \/>\ninvisible world who amuses himself by informing you of what is going to happen<br \/>\n\u2013 this happens very often. Then everything depends on the moral character of<br \/>\nyour \u201cinformant\u201d; if he is amusing himself at your expense, he tells you all kinds<br \/>\nof tales and this is what happens most of the time to people who get<br \/>\ninformation from entities. To lure people on, they may very often tell them<br \/>\nthings as they really will be, since they have a universal vision in some<br \/>\ndomain of the vital or of the mind; and then when they are quite sure that you<br \/>\nwill trust them, they may start telling you tales and you make a fool of<br \/>\nyourself. This happens very often. You yourself should be in a higher state of<br \/>\nconsciousness than these individuals or entities or these little gods, as some<br \/>\npeople call them, and be able to verify from above what their statements are<br \/>\nworth. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>If you have a universal mental vision, you<br \/>\ncan see all mental formations. Then you see \u2013 and it is very interesting \u2013 how<br \/>\nthe mental world is organised to realise itself on the physical plane. You see<br \/>\nthe various formations, the way in which they approach and fight each other,<br \/>\ncombine together and organise themselves, the ones that prevail and gain<br \/>\ninfluence and achieve a more complete realisation. Now if you really want to<\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page &#8211; 128<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:\"Courier New\";color:blue'><\/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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>have a higher vision, you must rise above<br \/>\nthe mental world and see the original wills as they descend to express<br \/>\nthemselves. In this case, you may not possess all the details, but the central<br \/>\nfact, the fact in its central truth, is indisputable, undeniable, absolutely<br \/>\ncorrect. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Some people also have the power to predict<br \/>\nthings which already exist on earth, but at a distance, at a great distance,<br \/>\nvery far from the physical eyes. These are usually people who are capable of widening<br \/>\nand extending their consciousness. They have a physical, but slightly more<br \/>\nsubtle vision, which depends on an organ that is more subtle than the purely<br \/>\nmaterial one \u2013 what might be called the life of this organ \u2013 and so, by<br \/>\nprojecting their consciousness with a will to see, they can see very well, they<br \/>\ncan see things: these things already exist, only they are not within the field<br \/>\nof our ordinary vision. People who have this capacity and who tell what they<br \/>\nsee, who are sincere and who are not bluffers, see in a way that is absolutely<br \/>\nprecise and exact. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>In fact, an important factor for those who<br \/>\npredict or see, is their absolute sincerity. Unfortunately, because of people&#8217;s<br \/>\ncuriosity, their insistence, the pressure they apply \u2013 which very few can resist<br \/>\n\u2013 what happens, when there is something they do not see exactly and precisely,<br \/>\nis that there is an almost involuntary faculty of inner imagination, which adds<br \/>\nthe little missing element. This is what causes the flaws in their predictions.<br \/>\nVery few have the courage to say, Oh no, I do not know about that, it eludes<br \/>\nme. They do not even have the courage to say it to themselves. And then, just a<br \/>\ntouch of imagination, acting almost subconsciously, and they fill in the<br \/>\nvision, the information \u2013 anything can happen. Very few people can resist that.<br \/>\nI have known many, many clairvoyants, I have known many people who had a<br \/>\nmarvellous gift; very few of them would stop when they come to the end of their<br \/>\nknowledge. Or else they would add some little detail. This is what always gives<br \/>\nthese faculties a rather doubtful quality. One must truly be a saint \u2013 a great&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page &#8211; 129<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:\"Courier New\";color:blue'><\/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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>saint, a great sage \u2013 and completely free,<br \/>\nnot at all influenced by other people. Naturally, I am not speaking of those<br \/>\nwho seek fame, because there they fall into the crudest traps; but even<br \/>\ngoodwill, the wish to make people happy, to please them, to help them, is<br \/>\nenough to create a distortion. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" 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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>When events are already prepared in the subtle physical and you have a<br \/>\nvision of them, is it too late to change things? Can one still act? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>I know of a very interesting example.<br \/>\nThere was a time when in the newspaper <i>Le<br \/>\nMatin<\/i> \u2013 was a long time ago, you must have been very young \u2013 every day<br \/>\nthere was a little cartoon of a boy pointing to something \u2013 a kind of page-boy<br \/>\ndressed like that \u2013 and always showing the date or something \u2013 a little<br \/>\ncartoon. Now the gentleman in this story was travelling and he was staying in a<br \/>\nbig hotel, I do not remember in which town, and one night or early in the<br \/>\nmorning, very early, he had a dream. He saw this page-boy pointing to his<br \/>\nfuneral carriage \u2013 you know, when they take people to the cemetery, in Europe \u2013<br \/>\nand inviting him to step into it! He saw that and then in the morning when he<br \/>\nwas ready, he left his room which was on the top floor, and there, on the<br \/>\nlanding, the same boy, dressed in the same way, was pointing out the lift for<br \/>\nhim to go down. That gave him a shock. He refused and said, \u201cNo thank you.\u201d The<br \/>\nlift fell and crashed, killing the people inside. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>He told me that after that he believed in<br \/>\ndreams. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>It was a vision. He saw the boy, but<br \/>\ninstead of the lift, the boy was showing him his hearse. So when he saw the<br \/>\nsame gesture, the same boy \u2013 like the cartoon, you see \u2013 he said, \u201cNo thank<br \/>\nyou, I&#8217;ll walk down\u201d, and the machine \u2013 it was one of those hydraulic lifts \u2013<br \/>\nbroke and fell. It was right at the top. It was crushed to a pulp. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>My explanation is that an entity had<br \/>\nforewarned him. The image of the page-boy seems to indicate that an<br \/>\nintelligence, a <\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page &#8211; 130<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:\"Courier New\";color:blue'><\/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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>consciousness had intervened; it does not<br \/>\nseem to have been his own subconscient. Or it might be that his subconscient<br \/>\nwas aware and had seen in the subtle physical that this was going to happen.<br \/>\nBut why did his subconscient give him an image like that? I do not know.<br \/>\nPerhaps something in the subconscient knew, because it was already there, it<br \/>\nwas already in the subtle physical. The accident already existed before it<br \/>\nhappened \u2013 the law of the accident. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Obviously, there is always, in every case,<br \/>\nsome difference, sometimes a few hours \u2013 but that is the maximum \u2013 sometimes a<br \/>\nfew seconds. And very often, things tell you that they are there, and it takes<br \/>\nthem sometimes a few minutes, sometimes a few seconds to come into contact with<br \/>\nyour consciousness. Constantly, constantly I know what is going to happen, and<br \/>\nfor things that are of absolutely no interest \u2013 there is no advantage in<br \/>\nknowing it beforehand, it changes nothing; but it exists, it is all around you.<br \/>\nIf your consciousness is wide enough, you know all that, for example, that a<br \/>\ncertain person is going to bring you a parcel, things like that. And it is like<br \/>\nthat every day. Or that a certain person is about to arrive. It is because the<br \/>\nconsciousness is extended, so it contacts things. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>But in that case we cannot say that it is<br \/>\na premonition, for it already exists, only the contact with our senses takes a<br \/>\nfew seconds to be realised, because there is a door or a wall or something that<br \/>\nprevents us from seeing. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>But several times I have had experiences<br \/>\nlike this. For example, once when I was walking in the mountains, I was on a<br \/>\npath where there was only room for one \u2013 on one side the precipice, on the<br \/>\nother sheer rock. There were three children behind me and a fourth person<br \/>\nbringing up the rear. I was leading. The path ran along the edge of the rock;<br \/>\nwe could not see where we were going \u2013 and besides, it was very dangerous; if<br \/>\nanyone had slipped, he would have been over the edge. I was walking in front<br \/>\nwhen suddenly I saw, with other eyes than these \u2013 although I was watching my<br \/>\nsteps carefully \u2013 I saw a snake,<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page 131<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:\"Courier New\";color:blue'><\/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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>there, on the rock, waiting on the other<br \/>\nside. Then I took one step, gently, and indeed on the other side there was a<br \/>\nsnake. That spared me the shock of surprise, because I had seen and I was advancing<br \/>\ncautiously; and as there was no shock of surprise, I was able to tell the<br \/>\nchildren without giving them a shock, \u201cStop, keep quiet, don&#8217;t stir.\u201d If there<br \/>\nhad been a shock, something might have happened. The snake had heard a noise,<br \/>\nit was already coiled and on the defensive in front of its hole, with its head<br \/>\nswaying \u2013 it was a viper. This was in France. Nothing happened, whereas if<br \/>\nthere had been any confusion or commotion, anything could have happened. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>This kind of thing has happened to me<br \/>\nvery, very often \u2013 with snakes it happened to me four times. Once, it was<br \/>\ncompletely dark, here, near the fishing village of Ariankuppam. There was a<br \/>\nriver and it happened just at the place where it flows into the sea. It was<br \/>\ndark \u2013 the night had fallen very quickly. We were walking along the road and<br \/>\njust as I was about to put my foot down \u2013 I had already lifted my foot and I<br \/>\nwas going to put it down \u2013 I distinctly heard a voice in my ear: \u201cBe careful!\u201d<br \/>\nAnd yet nobody had spoken. So I looked and saw, just as my foot was about to<br \/>\ntouch the ground, an enormous black cobra, which I would have comfortably<br \/>\nstepped on those people don&#8217;t like that. He streaked away and across the water<br \/>\nwhat a beauty, my child! His hood open, head erect above the water, he went<br \/>\nacross like a king. Obviously, I would have been punished for my impertinence. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>I have had hundreds and hundreds of<br \/>\nexperiences like that; at the very last moment, not a second too soon, I was<br \/>\ninformed. And in the most varied circumstances. Once, in Paris, I was crossing<br \/>\nthe Boulevard Saint Michel. It was during the last weeks; I had decided that<br \/>\nwithin a certain number of months I would achieve union with the psychic<br \/>\nPresence, the inner Divine, and I no longer had any other thought, any other<br \/>\nconcern. I lived near the Luxembourg Gardens and every evening I used to walk<br \/>\nthere \u2013 but always deeply absorbed within. There is a&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page &#8211; 132<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:\"Courier New\";color:blue'><\/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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>kind of intersection there, and it is not<br \/>\na place to cross when one is deeply absorbed within; it was not very sensible.<br \/>\nAnd so I was like that, I was walking, when I suddenly received a shock, as if<br \/>\nI had received a blow, as if something had hit me, and I jumped back<br \/>\ninstinctively. And as soon as I had jumped back, a tram went past \u2013 it was the<br \/>\ntram that I had felt at a little more than arm&#8217;s length. It had touched the<br \/>\naura, the aura of protection \u2013 it was very strong at that time, I was deeply<br \/>\nimmersed in occultism and I knew how to keep it \u2013 the aura of protection had<br \/>\nbeen hit and that had literally thrown me backwards, as if I had received a<br \/>\nphysical shock. And what insults from the driver! I jumped back just in time<br \/>\nand the tram went by. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>I could tell scores of such stories, if I<br \/>\ncould remember them. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>The protection may come from many<br \/>\ndifferent sources. Very often it was someone who informed me: a little entity,<br \/>\nor some kind of being; sometimes it was the aura that protected me. And it was<br \/>\nfor all kinds of things. That is to say, life was seldom limited to the<br \/>\nphysical body \u2013 this is convenient, this is good. It is necessary, it increases<br \/>\nyour capacities. This is what the person who taught me occultism told me<br \/>\nstraightaway: \u201cYou are depriving yourself of senses which are most useful <i>even for the most ordinary life<\/i>.\u201d And<br \/>\nthis is true, quite true. We can know infinitely more things than we usually<br \/>\ndo, simply by using our own senses. And not only from the mental point of view,<br \/>\nbut also from the vital and even the physical point of view. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<i><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>But what is the method? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" 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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Oh, the method is very easy. There are<br \/>\ndisciplines. It depends on what you want to do. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>It depends. For each thing there is a<br \/>\nmethod. And the first method is to want it, to begin with, that is, to take a<br \/>\ndecision. Then you are given a description of all these senses and how they<br \/>\nwork \u2013 that takes some time. You take one sense or several, <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page &#8211; 133<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:\"Courier New\";color:blue'><\/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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>or the one which is easiest for you to<br \/>\nstart with, and you decide. Then you follow the discipline. It is the equivalent<br \/>\nof exercises for developing the muscles. You can even succeed in creating a will<br \/>\nin yourself. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>But for more subtle things, the method is<br \/>\nto make for yourself an exact image of what you want, to come into contact with<br \/>\nthe corresponding vibration, and then to concentrate and do exercises \u2013 such as<br \/>\nto practise seeing through an object or hearing through a sound,\u00b9 or seeing at<br \/>\na distance. For example, once, for a long time, for several months, I was<br \/>\nconfined to bed and I found it rather boring \u2013 I wanted to see. I was in a room<br \/>\nand at one end there was another little room and at the end of the little room<br \/>\nthere was a kind of bridge; in the middle of the garden the bridge became a<br \/>\nstaircase leading down into a very big and very beautiful studio, standing in<br \/>\nthe middle of the garden. I wanted to go and see what was happening in the<br \/>\nstudio, for I was feeling bored in my room. So I would remain very quiet, close<br \/>\nmy eyes and send out my consciousness, little by little, little by little,<br \/>\nlittle by little. And day after day \u2013 I chose a fixed time and did the exercise<br \/>\nregularly. At first you make use of your imagination and then it becomes a<br \/>\nfact. After some time I really had the physical sensation that my vision was<br \/>\nmoving; I followed it and then I could see things downstairs which I knew<br \/>\nnothing about. I would check afterwards. In the evening I would ask, Was this<br \/>\nlike that? And was that like this? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>But for each one of these things you must<br \/>\npractise for months with patience, with a kind of obstinacy. You take the<br \/>\nsenses one by one, hearing, sight, and you can even arrive at subtle realities<br \/>\nof taste, smell and touch.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" 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%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"2\">\u00b9 <\/font> <\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"2\">Mother explained later: To hear behind the sound is to<br \/>\ncome into contact with the subtle reality which is behind the material fact,<br \/>\nbehind the word or the physical sound or behind music, for example. One<br \/>\nconcentrates and then one hears what is behind. It means coming into contact<br \/>\nwith the vital reality which is behind the appearances. There can also be a<br \/>\nmental reality, but generally, what lies immediately behind the physical sound<br \/>\nis a vital reality.<\/font><\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"2\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page &#8211; 134<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:\"Courier New\";color:blue'><\/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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>From the mental point of view it is<br \/>\neasier, for there you are accustomed to concentration. When you want to think<br \/>\nand find a solution, instead of following the deductions of thought, you stop<br \/>\neverything and try to concentrate and concentrate, intensify the point of the<br \/>\nproblem. You stop everything and wait until, by the intensity of the<br \/>\nconcentration, you obtain an answer. This also requires some time. But if you<br \/>\nused to be a good student, you must be quite used to doing that and it is not very<br \/>\ndifficult. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>There is a kind of extension of the<br \/>\nphysical senses. Red Indians, for example, possess a sense of hearing and smell<br \/>\nwith a far greater range than our own \u2013 and dogs! I knew an Indian \u2013 he was my<br \/>\nfriend when I was eight or ten years old. He had come with Buffalo Bill, at the<br \/>\ntime of the Hippodrome \u2013 was a long time ago, I was eight years old \u2013 and he<br \/>\nwould put his ear to the ground and was so clever that he knew how far away\u2026<br \/>\naccording to the intensity of the vibration, he knew how far away someone&#8217;s<br \/>\nfootsteps were. After that, the children would immediately say, I wish I knew<br \/>\nhow to do that! <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>And then you try. That is how you prepare<br \/>\nyourself. You think you are playing but you are preparing yourself for later<br \/>\non. <span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'><i><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"2\">27 February 1962<\/font><\/span><\/i><font size=\"2\"><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\";font-style:italic'><a name=\"73\">73<\/a> \u2013 When Wisdom comes, her first lesson is, There is no such thing as<br \/>\nknowledge; there are only <\/span><i><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>aper\u00e7us<\/span><\/i><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\";font-style:italic'> of the Infinite<br \/>\nDeity. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" 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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>This is very good. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>There is no need for any questions. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" 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%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\";font-style:italic'><a name=\"74\">74<\/a> \u2013 Practical knowledge is a different thing; that is real and<br \/>\nserviceable, but it is never complete. Therefore to systematise and codify it<br \/>\nis necessary but fatal.<\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page &#8211; 135<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:\"Courier New\";color:blue'><\/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%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\";font-style:italic'>75 \u2013 Systematise we must, but even in making and holding the system, we<br \/>\nshould always keep firm hold on this truth that all systems are in their nature<br \/>\ntransitory and incomplete. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><b><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>I have looked at this very, very often.<br \/>\nThere was even a time when I thought that if one could have a total, complete<br \/>\nand perfect knowledge of the entire working of physical Nature as we perceive<br \/>\nit in the world of Ignorance, that might be a way to rediscover or to re-attain<br \/>\nthe truth of things. After my latest experience\u00b9 I cannot think this any more. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>I do not know if I am making myself clear.<br \/>\nThere was a time \u2013 for a very long period \u2013 when I thought that if science were<br \/>\nto realise its full potential, but in an absolute way, if that were possible,<br \/>\nit would reach true Knowledge. For example, in its study of the composition of<br \/>\nMatter, by pushing and pushing its investigations further and further, a time<br \/>\nwould come when the two would meet. Well, when I had the experience of passing<br \/>\nfrom the eternal Truth-consciousness to the consciousness of the individualised<br \/>\nworld, it became clear to me that this was impossible. And if you ask me now, I<br \/>\nthink that both these things, the possibility of a meeting by carrying science<br \/>\nto its extreme and the impossibility of any true conscious connection with the<br \/>\nmaterial world, are equally incorrect. There is something else. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>And these last few days, more and more, I<br \/>\nfind myself faced with the total problem, as if I had never seen it before. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Perhaps they are two paths leading to a<br \/>\nthird point, and at the moment perhaps it is this third point that I am not<br \/>\nexactly studying, but searching for, where the two would meet in a third one<br \/>\nwhich would be the True Thing. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>But certainly, objective, scientific<br \/>\nknowledge carried to its extreme, if it is possible for it to become absolutely<br \/>\ntotal, leads at least to the threshold. That is what Sri Aurobindo says. Only<br \/>\nhe says that it is fatal, because all those who have devoted them<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" 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%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"2\">\u00b9<\/font><\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"2\"> A particular yogic experience which took place on 13<br \/>\nApril 1962.<\/font><\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"2\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page &#8211; 136<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:\"Courier New\";color:blue'><\/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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>selves to that knowledge, have believed in<br \/>\nit as an absolute truth, and for them this has closed the door to the other<br \/>\napproach. In that way it is fatal. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>But according to my personal experience, I<br \/>\ncould say that for all those who believe in the exclusive spiritual approach,<br \/>\nthe approach through inner experience, at least if it is exclusive, is also<br \/>\nfatal \u2013 because it shows them one aspect, one truth of the Whole, not the<br \/>\nWhole. The other aspect seems equally indispensable to me, in the sense that<br \/>\nwhile I was so totally immersed in the supreme Realisation, it was absolutely<br \/>\nindisputable that the other realisation, the outer, the illusory one, was only<br \/>\na distortion, probably accidental, of something that was just as true as that<br \/>\none. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>It is this \u201csomething\u201d that we are<br \/>\nsearching for \u2013 perhaps not only searching for it, but making it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>We are being used so that we can<br \/>\nparticipate in the manifestation of that, of that which is still inconceivable<br \/>\nto everyone, because it is not yet there. It is an expression that is yet to<br \/>\ncome. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>This is all I can say. &nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>(<i>Silence<\/i>)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" 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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><span>\u00a0<\/span>That is really the state of consciousness I am<br \/>\nliving in at present. It is as if I were confronted with this eternal problem,<br \/>\nbut from another standpoint. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>These standpoints, the spiritual and the<br \/>\nmaterialist, if one may say so, that think they are exclusive \u2013 exclusive and<br \/>\nunique, so that one denies the value of the other, from the point of view of<br \/>\nTruth \u2013 are insufficient, not only because they do not accept one another, but<br \/>\nalso because to accept both and to unite both is not enough to solve the<br \/>\nproblem. It is something else \u2013 a third thing which is not the result of these<br \/>\ntwo, but something that is yet to be discovered, which will probably open the<br \/>\ndoor to the total Knowledge.<\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page &#8211; 137<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:\"Courier New\";color:blue'><\/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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>This is the point I have reached. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>I cannot say more because that is where I<br \/>\nam. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" 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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>In practice, how can we participate in this\u2026? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" 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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>This discovery? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Well!\u2026 Basically, it is always the same<br \/>\nthing. It is always the same thing: to realise one&#8217;s own being, to enter into<br \/>\nconscious relation with the supreme Truth of one&#8217;s own being, in any form, by<br \/>\nany path \u2013 it does not matter at all \u2013 but this is the only way. We carry, each<br \/>\nindividual carries within him a truth, and this is the truth he must unite<br \/>\nwith, this is the truth he must live; and so the path he must follow to reach<br \/>\nand realise this truth is the path that will lead him as near as possible to<br \/>\nKnowledge. That is to say, the two are absolutely one: the personal realisation<br \/>\nand the Knowledge. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Who knows, perhaps this very multiplicity<br \/>\nof approach will yield the secret \u2013 the secret that will open the door. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>I do not think that a single individual on<br \/>\nthe earth as it is now, a single individual, however great, however eternal his<br \/>\nconsciousness and origin, can on his own change and realise \u2013 change the world,<br \/>\nchange the creation as it is and realise this higher Truth which will be a new<br \/>\nworld, a world more true, if not absolutely true. It would seem that a certain<br \/>\nnumber of individuals \u2013 until now it seems to have been more in time, as a<br \/>\nsuccession, but it could also be in space, a collectivity \u2013 are indispensable<br \/>\nso that this Truth can become concrete and realise itself. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Practically, I am sure of it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>That is to say, however great, however<br \/>\nconscious, however powerful he may be, one Avatar cannot by himself realise the<br \/>\nsupramental life on earth. It is either a group in time, extending over a<br \/>\nperiod of time, or a group spread out in space \u2013 perhaps both \u2013 that are<br \/>\nindispensable for this Realisation. I am convinced of it. <\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page &#8211; 138<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:\"Courier New\";color:blue'><\/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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>The individual can give the impulsion,<br \/>\nindicate the path, walk on the path himself \u2013 that is to say, show the path by<br \/>\nrealising it himself \u2013 but he cannot fulfil. The fulfilment obeys certain group<br \/>\nlaws which are the expression of some aspect of Eternity and Infinity \u2013<br \/>\nnaturally, it is all the same Being! They are not different individuals or<br \/>\ndifferent personalities, it is all the same Being. And it is all the same Being<br \/>\nexpressing Himself in a way which for us becomes a body, a group, a<br \/>\ncollectivity. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>There. Do you have another question on the<br \/>\nsame subject? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" 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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>In what way has your vision become different since this experience? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>I repeat. For a very long time it seemed<br \/>\nto me that if a perfect union could be achieved between the scientific approach<br \/>\ncarried to its extreme and the spiritual approach carried to its extremes \u2013 its<br \/>\nextreme realization \u2013 if both could be joined, we would find, we would<br \/>\nnaturally obtain the Truth we are seeking, the total Truth. But with the two<br \/>\nexperiences I have had \u2013 the experience of external life, with<br \/>\nuniversalisation, impersonalisation, in short, all the yogic experiences one<br \/>\ncan have in the physical body, and on the other hand the experience of total<br \/>\nand perfect union with the Origin \u2013 now that I have had these two experiences<br \/>\nand that something has happened, which I cannot describe yet, I know that the<br \/>\nknowledge of the two and the union of the two is not enough; that they lead to<br \/>\na third thing and it is this third thing which is in the making, in course of<br \/>\nelaboration. It is this third thing that can lead to the Realisation, to the<br \/>\nTruth we seek. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><span>\u00a0<\/span>Is<br \/>\nit clear this time? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" 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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>I had something else in mind\u2026 In what way has your vision of the<br \/>\nphysical world changed since then? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" 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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>One can only give an approximation of that<br \/>\nconsciousness.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page &#8211; 139<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:\"Courier New\";color:blue'><\/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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Through yoga, I had achieved a kind of<br \/>\nrelationship with the material world, based on the notion of the fourth<br \/>\ndimension \u2013 inner dimensions, which become innumerable in yoga \u2013 and the use of<br \/>\nthis attitude and this state of consciousness. I studied the relationship<br \/>\nbetween the material world and the spiritual world with a sense of the inner<br \/>\ndimensions, and by perfecting the consciousness of these inner dimensions \u2013<br \/>\nthat was my experience until the latest one. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Naturally, for a long time, there has no<br \/>\nlonger been any question of three dimensions \u2013 this belongs absolutely to the<br \/>\nworld of illusion and falsehood. But now the whole use of the sense of the<br \/>\nfourth dimension with all that it entails seems superficial to me! This is so<br \/>\nstrong that I have lost it. The other one, the three-dimensional world is absolutely<br \/>\nunreal; and this one seems to be \u2013 how to put it? \u2013 conventional. As if it were<br \/>\na conventional interpretation that allows you to make a certain kind of<br \/>\napproach. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>And as for saying what the other one is,<br \/>\nthe true poise\u2026 it is so far beyond any intellectual state that I am unable to<br \/>\nformulate it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Yet the formula will come, I know. But it<br \/>\nwill come through a series of experiences that must be lived and which I have<br \/>\nnot yet had. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>(<i>Silence<\/i>)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" 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-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>This approach, which was very convenient,<br \/>\nvery helpful to me, which I used in my yoga, which gave me a hold on Matter,<br \/>\nappeared to me as a method, a means, a process, but it is not that. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>This is my present state. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>More I cannot say. &nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'><i><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><span><font size=\"2\">\u00a0<\/font><\/span><font size=\"2\">24 May 1962<br \/>\n<\/font> <\/span><\/i><br \/>\n<span style='font-family:Times New Roman' lang=\"EN-US\"><br \/>\n<font size=\"2\">\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page &#8211; 140<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:\"Courier New\";color:blue'><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>72 \u2013 The sign of dawning Knowledge is to feel that as yet I know little or nothing; and yet, if I could only know&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-10-on-thoughts-and-aphorisms-volume-10","wpcat-122-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4299","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=4299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}