{"id":4312,"date":"2013-07-13T01:55:06","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4312"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:55:06","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:06","slug":"07-jnana-60-61-61-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\/07-jnana-60-61-61-vol-10-on-thoughts-and-aphorisms-volume-10","title":{"rendered":"-07_jnana-60-61_61.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'>61 \u2013 There is nothing finite. It is only the Infinite who can create for<br \/>\nHimself limits. The finite can have no beginning nor end, for the very act of<br \/>\nconceiving its beginning and end declares its infinity. <\/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\"'>How can we have the experience of the Infinite?<\/span><\/i><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'> <\/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\"'>The only way is to come out of the<br \/>\nconsciousness of the finite. <\/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;It is in the hope of achieving this<br \/>\nthat all yogic disciplines have been developed and undertaken from time<br \/>\nimmemorial until now. Much has been written on the subject, but little has been<br \/>\ndone. Only a very small number of individuals have so far succeeded in escaping<br \/>\nfrom the finite to plunge into the Infinite. <\/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 yet, as Sri Aurobindo has written, the<br \/>\nInfinite alone exists; only the falsehood of our superficial perception makes<br \/>\nus believe in the existence of the finite. <\/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\"'><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"2\">20 May 1961 <\/font> <\/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%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\";font-style:italic'><a name=\"62\">62<\/a> \u2013 I heard a fool discoursing utter folly and wondered what God meant<br \/>\nby it; then I considered and saw a distorted mask of truth and wisdom. <\/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\"'>How can folly be a distorted mask of truth? <\/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\"'>It is the very definition of folly that<br \/>\nSri Aurobindo gives here. A mask is something that conceals, that makes<br \/>\ninvisible what it covers. And if the mask is distorted, it not only renders<br \/>\ninvisible what it conceals but also totally changes its nature. So, according<br \/>\nto this definition, folly is something that veils and distorts beyond all<br \/>\nrecognition the Truth which is at the origin of all things. &nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><span><br \/>\n<font size=\"2\">\u00a0<\/font><\/span><font size=\"2\"><i>23 June 1961<\/i>&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; 98<\/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%'><i><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Does Sri Aurobindo mean that there is no absolute falsehood, no absolute<br \/>\nuntruth?<\/span><\/i><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><\/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\"'>There can be no absolute untruth. In<br \/>\nactual fact it is not possible, because the Divine is behind all 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\"'>It is like people who ask whether certain elements<br \/>\nwill disappear from the universe. What could the destruction of a universe<br \/>\nmean? If we come out of our folly, what can we call destruction? Only the form,<br \/>\nthe appearance is destroyed \u2013 and indeed, all appearances are destroyed, one<br \/>\nafter another. It is also said \u2013 it is written everywhere, so many things are<br \/>\nsaid \u2013 that the adverse forces will either be converted, that is to say, they<br \/>\nwill become conscious of the Divinity within them and become divine, or they<br \/>\nwill be destroyed. But what does destroyed mean? Their form? Their form of<br \/>\nconsciousness can be dissolved, but that something which makes them exist,<br \/>\nwhich makes all things exist \u2013 how could that be destroyed? The universe is an<br \/>\nobjectivisation, an objective self-discovery of That which is from all<br \/>\neternity. So? How can the All cease to be? The infinite and eternal All, that<br \/>\nis to say, That which has no limits of any kind \u2013 what can go outside That?<br \/>\nThere is no place to go! Go where? There is nothing but 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\"'>Furthermore, when we say There is only<br \/>\nThat, we are locating it somewhere, which is absolutely stupid. So, what can be<br \/>\ntaken away from there? <\/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\"'>One can conceive of a universe being<br \/>\nprojected outside the present manifestation. One can conceive of universes<br \/>\nhaving succeeded each other and that which was in the earlier ones would no<br \/>\nlonger be in the later ones \u2013 that is even obvious. One can conceive that a<br \/>\nwhole mass of falsehood and untruth \u2013 things which are falsehood and untruth<br \/>\nfor us now \u2013 will no longer belong to the world as it will be in its unfolding;<br \/>\nall this one can understand \u2013 but \u201cdestroy\u201d? Where can it go to be destroyed?<br \/>\nWhen we speak of destroying, we think only of&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; 99<\/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\"'>the destruction of a form \u2013 it may be a<br \/>\nform of consciousness or a material form, but it is always a form. But how<br \/>\ncould what is without form be destroyed?<\/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>So<br \/>\nto speak of an absolute falsehood that will disappear would simply mean that a<br \/>\nwhole set of things will live eternally in the past but will not belong to<br \/>\nfuture manifestations, that is all. <\/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\"'>One cannot go outside That! <\/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 they will remain in the past? <\/span><\/i><\/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:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>We are told that there is a state of<br \/>\nconsciousness, when we rise above, when we are able to go beyond both the<br \/>\naspect of Nothingness or Nirvana and the aspect of Existence \u2013 there is the<br \/>\nNirvana aspect and the Existence aspect, the two simultaneous and complementary<br \/>\naspects of the Supreme \u2013 where all things exist eternally and simultaneously;<br \/>\nso one can conceive God knows! This may well be another stupidity \u2013 one can<br \/>\nconceive of a certain number of things passing into Non-Being, and that to our<br \/>\nconsciousness would be a disappearance or a destruction. <\/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\"'>Is that possible? I do not know. You would<br \/>\nhave to ask the Lord, but usually He does not answer such questions. He smiles!<br \/>\n<\/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 comes a time when really one can no<br \/>\nlonger say anything: one has the feeling that whatever one says, even if it<br \/>\nisn&#8217;t absolutely inane, is not far short of it, and that it would actually be<br \/>\nbetter to keep quiet. That is the difficulty. In some of these Aphorisms you<br \/>\nfeel that he has suddenly caught hold of something above and beyond everything<br \/>\nthat can be thought \u2013 so what can one 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>)&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\"'><span>\u00a0<\/span>Naturally, when one comes down here again, one<br \/>\ncan \u2013&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; 100<\/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\"'>oh, one can say 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\"'>As a joke \u2013 one can always joke, but one<br \/>\nhesitates to do so because people take your jokes so seriously \u2013 one could very<br \/>\nwell say, without being completely wrong, that one sometimes learns much more<br \/>\nby listening to a madman or a fool than by listening to a reasonable man. I am<br \/>\nquite sure of it. There is nothing that withers you more than reasonable<br \/>\npeople. <span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"2\">27 June 1961 <\/font><\/span><\/i><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=\"63\">63<\/a> \u2013 God is great, says the Mahomedan. Yes, He is so great that He can<br \/>\nafford to be weak, whenever that too is necessary.<\/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'>&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'>64 \u2013 God often fails in His workings; it is the sign of His illimitable<br \/>\ngodhead.<\/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\"'><br \/>\n<span style='font-style:italic'>\u00a0<\/span><\/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'>65 \u2013 Because God is invincibly great, He can afford to be weak; because<br \/>\nHe is immutably pure, He can indulge with impunity in sin; He knows eternally<br \/>\nall delight, therefore He tastes also the delight of pain; He is inalienably<br \/>\nwise, therefore He has not debarred Himself from folly. <\/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\"'>Why does God need to be weak? <\/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\"'>Sri Aurobindo does not say that God has<br \/>\nany need of weakness. He says that in any particular whole, for the perfection<br \/>\nof the play of forces, a moment of weakness may be just as necessary as a<br \/>\ndisplay of strength. And he adds, somewhat ironically, that since God is<br \/>\nalmighty force, He can at the same time afford to be weak, if necessary. <\/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 to widen the outlook of certain<br \/>\nmoralists who attribute definite qualities to God and will not permit Him to be<br \/>\notherwise.<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; 101<\/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\"'>Strength as we see it and weakness as we<br \/>\nsee it are both an equally distorted expression of the Divine Truth which is<br \/>\nsecretly present behind all physical manifestations.<br \/>\n<span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"2\">30 June 1961 <\/font> <\/span><\/i><br \/>\n<font size=\"2\"><br \/>\n<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%'><i><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Does God ever really fail? Is God ever really weak? Or is it simply a<br \/>\ngame?\u00b9<\/span><\/i><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'> <\/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\"'><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/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\"'>It is not like that! That is precisely the<br \/>\ndistortion in the Western attitude as opposed to the attitude of the Gita. It is<br \/>\nextremely difficult for the Western mind to understand in a living and concrete<br \/>\nmanner that everything is the Divine.<\/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>People are so deeply imbued with the Christian<br \/>\nidea of \u201cGod the Creator\u201d \u2013 the creation on one side and God on the other. When<br \/>\nyou think about it you reject it, but it has penetrated into the sensations and<br \/>\nfeelings; so, spontaneously, instinctively, almost subconsciously, you<br \/>\nattribute to God everything you consider to be best and most beautiful and,<br \/>\nabove all, everything you want to attain, to realise. Naturally, each one<br \/>\nchanges the content of his God according to his own consciousness, but it is<br \/>\nalways what he considers to be best. And that is also why instinctively and<br \/>\nspontaneously, subconsciously, you are shocked by the idea that God can be<br \/>\nthings that you do not like, that you do not approve of or do not think best. <\/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 put that rather childishly, on purpose,<br \/>\nso that you can understand it properly. But it is like that \u2013 I am sure,<br \/>\nbecause I observed it in myself for a very long time, because of the<br \/>\nsubconscious formation of childhood, environment, education, etc. You must be<br \/>\nable to press into this body the consciousness of Oneness, the absolute<br \/>\nexclusive Oneness of the Divine \u2013 exclusive in the sense that nothing exists<br \/>\nexcept in this Oneness, even the things we find most repulsive. <\/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 what Sri Aurobindo is<br \/>\nfighting, for he too had <\/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\">The Mother replied orally to this<br \/>\nquestion.<\/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; 102<\/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\"'>this Christian education, he too had to<br \/>\nstruggle; and these Aphorisms are the result \u2013 the flowering, as it were \u2013 of<br \/>\nthis necessity of fighting a subconscious formation. For that is what makes you<br \/>\nask such questions: \u201cHow can God be weak? How can God be foolish? How\u2026?\u201d But<br \/>\nthere is nothing other than God, only He exists, there is nothing outside Him.<br \/>\nAnd if something seems ugly to us, it is simply because He no longer wants it<br \/>\nto exist. He is preparing the world so that this thing may no longer be<br \/>\nmanifested, so that the manifestation can move from that state to something<br \/>\nelse. So naturally, within us, we violently repulse everything that is about to<br \/>\ngo out of the active manifestation \u2013 there is a movement of rejection. <\/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 it is Him. There is nothing but Him.<br \/>\nThis is what we should repeat to ourselves from morning to evening and from evening<br \/>\nto morning, because we forget it at each moment. <\/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 only Him. There is nothing but<br \/>\nHim \u2013 He alone exists, there is no existence without Him, there is only Him! <\/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, to ask a question like this is still<br \/>\nto react like those who make a distinction between what is and what is not<br \/>\nDivine or rather between what is and what is not God. \u201cHow can He be weak?\u201d It<br \/>\nis a question I cannot ask. <\/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\"'>&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\"'>I understand, but they speak of the Lila, the divine play; so He is<br \/>\nstanding back, as it were. He is not really entirely involved, not really<br \/>\nabsolutely in the play. <\/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\"'>Yes, yes, He is! He is totally in it. He<br \/>\nhimself is the Play. <\/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 speak of God, but we should remember<br \/>\nthat there are all these gradations of consciousness; and when we speak of God<br \/>\nand His Play, we mean God in His transcendent state, beyond all the levels of<br \/>\nmatter, and when we speak of the Play we speak of God in his material state. So<br \/>\nwe say: Transcendent God is watching and playing \u2013 in Himself, by Himself, with<br \/>\nHimself \u2013 His material game. <\/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 all language is a language of<br \/>\nignorance. Our entire way<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; 103<\/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\"'>of expressing ourselves, everything we say<br \/>\nand the way in which we say it, is necessarily ignorance. And that is why it is<br \/>\nso difficult to express something which is concretely true; this would require<br \/>\nexplanations which would themselves be full of falsehood, of course, or else<br \/>\nextremely long. This is why Sri Aurobindo&#8217;s sentences are sometimes very long,<br \/>\nprecisely because he strives to escape from this ignorant language. <\/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\"'>Our very way of thinking is wrong. The<br \/>\nbelievers, the faithful, all of them \u2013 particularly in the West \u2013 when they<br \/>\nspeak of God, think of Him as \u201csomething else,\u201d they think that He cannot be<br \/>\nweak, ugly or imperfect \u2013 they think wrongly, they divide, they separate. It is<br \/>\nsubconscious, unreflecting thought; they are in the habit of thinking like this<br \/>\ninstinctively; they do not watch themselves thinking. For example, when they<br \/>\nspeak of perfection in a general way, they see or feel or postulate precisely<br \/>\nthe sum-total of everything they consider to be virtuous, divine, beautiful,<br \/>\nadmirable \u2013 but it is not that at all! Perfection is something which lacks<br \/>\nnothing. The divine perfection is the Divine in His entirety, which lacks<br \/>\nnothing. The divine perfection is the Divine as a whole, from whom nothing has<br \/>\nbeen taken away \u2013 so it is just the opposite! For the moralists divine<br \/>\nperfection means all the virtues that they represent.<\/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\"'>From the true point of view, perfection is<br \/>\nthe whole (<i>Mother makes a global gesture<\/i>),<br \/>\nand it is precisely the fact that there can be nothing outside the whole. It is<br \/>\nimpossible that anything should be missing, because it is impossible for<br \/>\nanything not to form part of the whole. There can be nothing which is not in<br \/>\nthe whole. Let me explain. A given universe may not contain everything, for a<br \/>\nuniverse is a mode of manifestation; but there is every possible kind of<br \/>\nuniverse. So I always come back to the same thing: there can be nothing which<br \/>\ndoes not form part of the whole. <\/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\"'>Therefore one can say that each thing is<br \/>\nin its place, exactly as it should be, and that relations between things are<br \/>\nexactly as they should be.&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; 104<\/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\"'>But perfection is only one special way of<br \/>\napproaching the Divine; it is one side, and in the same way there are<br \/>\ninnumerable sides, angles or aspects, innumerable ways of approaching the<br \/>\nDivine, for example: will, truth, purity, perfection, unity, immortality,<br \/>\neternity, infinity, silence, peace, existence, consciousness, etc. The number<br \/>\nof approaches is almost unlimited. With each one you approach or draw near or<br \/>\nenter into contact with the Divine through one aspect and if you really do it,<br \/>\nyou find that the difference is merely in the most external form, but the<br \/>\ncontact is identical. It is as if you were turning around a centre, a globe,<br \/>\nand seeing it from many different angles as in a kaleidoscope; but once the<br \/>\ncontact is made, it is the same 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\"'>Perfection is therefore a global way of<br \/>\napproaching the Divine: everything is there and everything is as it should be \u2013<br \/>\n\u201cshould be\u201d, that is to say, a perfect expression of the Divine; one cannot<br \/>\neven say of His Will, for if you say His Will it is still something outside<br \/>\nHim. <\/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\"'>One can also say \u2013 but this is far, far<br \/>\nbelow it \u2013<sub> <\/sub>that He is what He is and exactly as He wants to be \u2013<br \/>\nwith this \u201cexactly as He wants to be\u201d, one has come down by a considerable<br \/>\nnumber of steps! But this is to give you the point of view of perfection. <\/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\"'>Besides, divine perfection implies<br \/>\ninfinity and eternity; that is to say, everything coexists outside time and<br \/>\nspace. <\/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 like the word purity; one could hold<br \/>\nforth interminably on the difference between divine purity and what people call<br \/>\npurity. The divine purity, at the lowest, allows no influence other than the<br \/>\ndivine influence \u2013 at the lowest. But that is already very much distorted; the<br \/>\ndivine purity means that there is only the Divine, nothing else \u2013 it is<br \/>\nperfectly pure, there is only the Divine, there is nothing other than Him. <\/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 so on. <span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"2\">7 July 1961<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/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; 105<\/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'><a name=\"66\">66<\/a> \u2013 Sin is that which was once in its place, persisting now it is out<br \/>\nof place; there is no other sinfulness.<\/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\"'><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/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\"'>Has cruelty, for example, ever been in its<br \/>\nplace<\/span><\/i><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>? \u00b9<\/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 very question of yours came to my<br \/>\nvision, since I receive in my consciousness all the questions people ask. <\/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 kill out of cruelty? To make others<br \/>\nsuffer out of cruelty? And yet it is an expression of the Divine \u2013 we always<br \/>\ncome back to the same thing \u2013 but an expression which is distorted in its appearance.<br \/>\nCan you tell me what lies behind 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\"'>Cruelty was one of the things that was<br \/>\nmost repugnant to Sri Aurobindo, but he always said that it was the distortion<br \/>\nof an intensity, one could almost say the distortion of an intensity of love,<br \/>\nsomething which is not satisfied with a middle course, which wants extremes \u2013<br \/>\nand that is justifiable. <\/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 had always known that cruelty, like<br \/>\nsadism, is a need for violent, extremely strong sensation, to penetrate a thick<br \/>\nlayer of tamas that feels nothing \u2013 tamas needs something extreme in order to<br \/>\nbe able to feel. The explanation may lie in this direction. <\/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 at the origin there is still the<br \/>\nproblem that has never been solved: Why has it become like this? Why this<br \/>\ndistortion? Why has it all been perverted? Behind, there are beautiful things,<br \/>\nvery intense, infinitely more powerful than what we can even bear, wonderful<br \/>\nthings, but why has all that become so frightful here? This is what came to me<br \/>\nimmediately when I read this Aphorism. <\/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 concept of sin is something that I do<br \/>\nnot understand and have never understood; original sin seems to me one of the<br \/>\nmost monstrous ideas that man could ever have \u2013 sin and I don&#8217;t go together! So<br \/>\nnaturally, I fully agree with Sri Aurobindo that there is no sin, this is<br \/>\nunderstood, but\u2026 <\/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\"'>Certain things, like cruelty, could be<br \/>\ncalled sin, but I can only see this explanation, that it is a distortion of the<br \/>\ntaste or<\/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\">Oral Question and answer.<\/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; 106<\/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\"'>need for an extremely strong sensation. I<br \/>\nhave observed in cruel people that they feel Ananda at that moment; they find<br \/>\nan intense joy in it. So that is its justification, only it is in such a state<br \/>\nof distortion that it is repugnant. <\/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\"'>As for the idea that things are not in<br \/>\ntheir place, I understood it even when I was a child. It was only later that I<br \/>\nwas given the explanation by the person who taught me occultism, for, in his<br \/>\ncosmogonic system, he explained the successive <i>pralayas<\/i>\u00b9 of the various universes by saying that with each<br \/>\nuniverse an aspect of the Supreme would manifest itself, that each universe was<br \/>\nbuilt on one aspect of the Supreme and that one after another they had all<br \/>\nreturned into the Supreme. He enumerated all the aspects that were manifested<br \/>\nsuccessively and with what logic! It was extraordinary \u2013 I have kept it somewhere,<br \/>\nI forget where. And he said that this time, it was \u2013 I do not remember exactly<br \/>\nwhat number in the series \u2013 but it would be the universe which would not be<br \/>\nwithdrawn again, which would follow a progressive course of becoming that would<br \/>\nbe, so to say, indefinite. And this universe represented equilibrium, not<br \/>\nstatic but progressive equilibrium that is to say, each thing in its place,<br \/>\nexactly, each vibration, each movement in its place. The further down one goes,<br \/>\nthe more each form, each activity, each thing is exactly in its place in<br \/>\nrelation to the whole.<\/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 was extremely interested, because later<br \/>\nSri Aurobindo said the same thing, that nothing is bad, it is just that things<br \/>\nare not in their place \u2013 their place not only in space but also in time; their<br \/>\nplace in the universe, beginning with the worlds, the stars, etc. \u2013 each thing<br \/>\nexactly in its place. And so, when each thing is exactly in its place, from the<br \/>\nmost stupendous to the most microscopic, the whole will express the Supreme<br \/>\nprogressively, without any need of being withdrawn to be emanated again. On<br \/>\nthis Sri Aurobindo based the fact that in this creation, in this universe, the<br \/>\nperfection of a divine world \u2013 what Sri Aurobindo calls the Supermind \u2013 will be<br \/>\nable to manifest. Equilibrium is<\/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\">Pralaya: the end or destruction of a<br \/>\nuniverse.<\/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; 107<\/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\"'>the essential law of this creation and<br \/>\nthis is why perfection can be realised in the manifestation. <\/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;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>In this connection what are the very first things that the Supramental<br \/>\nForce intends to drive out, or is trying to drive out, so that everything may<br \/>\nbe in its place, individually and cosmically? <\/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\"'>Drive out? But will it \u201cdrive out\u201d<br \/>\nanything? If we accept Sri Aurobindo&#8217;s idea, it will put each thing in its<br \/>\nplace, that&#8217;s all. <\/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\"'>One thing must necessarily cease, and that<br \/>\nis the distortion, that is to say, the veil of falsehood upon Truth, because<br \/>\nthat is what is responsible for everything we see here. If this is removed,<br \/>\nthings will be completely different, completely. They will be what we feel them<br \/>\nto be when we come out of this consciousness. When one comes out of this<br \/>\nconsciousness and enters into the Truth-consciousness; the difference is such<br \/>\nthat one wonders how there can be anything like suffering and misery and death<br \/>\nand all that. There is a kind of astonishment in the sense that one does not<br \/>\nunderstand how it can happen \u2013 when one has really tipped over to the other<br \/>\nside. But this experience is usually associated with the experience of the<br \/>\nunreality of the world as we know it, whereas Sri Aurobindo says that this<br \/>\nperception of the unreality of the world is not necessary to live in the<br \/>\nsupramental consciousness \u2013 it is only the unreality of Falsehood, not the<br \/>\nunreality of the world. That is to say, the world has a reality of its own,<br \/>\nindependent of Falsehood. <\/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 suppose that is the first effect of the<br \/>\nSupermind \u2013 the first effect in the individual, because it will begin with the<br \/>\nindividual. <span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"2\">18 July 1961<\/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%'><i><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><a name=\"67\">67<\/a> \u2013 There is no sin in man, but a great deal of disease, ignorance and<br \/>\nmisapplication. <\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/i><\/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; 108<\/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'>68 \u2013 The sense of sin was necessary in order that man might become<br \/>\ndisgusted with his own imperfections. It was God&#8217;s corrective for egoism. But<br \/>\nman&#8217;s egoism meets God&#8217;s device by being very dully alive to its own sins and<br \/>\nvery keenly alive to the sins of others. <\/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;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>At what phase of his development will man be able to rid himself of<br \/>\negoism?<\/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\"'><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/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\"'>When egoism will no longer be necessary to<br \/>\nmake man a conscious individuality. &nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><span><br \/>\n<font size=\"2\">\u00a0<\/font><\/span><font size=\"2\">27<br \/>\nJuly 1961 <\/font> <\/span><\/i><br \/>\n<font size=\"2\"><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-US\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/font><\/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; 109<\/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>61 \u2013 There is nothing finite. It is only the Infinite who can create for Himself limits. The finite can have no beginning nor end,&#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-4312","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\/4312","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=4312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}