{"id":4361,"date":"2013-07-13T01:55:28","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4361"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:55:28","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:28","slug":"49-26-april-1951-vol-04-questions-and-answers-volume-04","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/02-works-of-the-mother\/01-cwmce\/04-questions-and-answers-volume-04\/49-26-april-1951-vol-04-questions-and-answers-volume-04","title":{"rendered":"-49_26 April 1951.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n26 April 1951<\/font><\/span><\/b>
\n<\/font> <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n


\n <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span>\u201c…Reject too the false and indolent
\nexpectation that the divine Power will do even the surrender for you. The
\nSupreme demands your surrender to her, but does not impose it: you are free at
\nevery moment, till the irrevocable transformation comes, to deny and to reject
\nthe Divine or to recall your self-giving, if you are willing to suffer the
\nspiritual consequence.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, p. 4 <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

             <\/span>
\n
\nWhat does an \u201cirrevocable transformation\u201d
\nmean ? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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

The transformation
\nis irrevocable when your consciousness is transformed in such a way that you
\ncan no longer go back to your old condition. There is a moment when the change
\nis so complete that it is impossible to become once again what one was before. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Doesn’t transformation itself imply that it is
\nirrevocable ? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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

The transformation
\nmay be partial. The transformation Sri Aurobindo speaks about here is a
\nreversal of consciousness: instead of being egoistical and turned towards
\npersonal satisfactions, the consciousness is turned towards the Divine in
\nsurrender. And he has explained clearly that the surrender could be partial at
\nfirst \u2013 there are parts which surrender and parts which don’t. So it is only
\nwhen the entire being, integrally, in all its movements, has made its
\nsurrender, that it is irrevocable. It is an irrevocable transformation of
\nattitude. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

What is the difference between the divine Shakti<\/span> and the divine Power ? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Page – 357<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

The divine Power
\nis only a part of the divine Shakti<\/span>; the divine Power
\nis an attribute of the divine Shakti<\/span>. Sri Aurobindo
\nuses the word divine Shakti<\/span>, here, in the sense of chit-tapas<\/span><\/i>,
\nthe creative power, the creative consciousness; consequently, the divine Power
\nis only a part of the Shakti<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAn inert passivity is constantly confused with
\nthe real surrender, but out of an inert passivity nothing true and powerful can
\ncome. It is the inert passivity of physical Nature that leaves it at the mercy
\nof every obscure or undivine<\/span> influence. A glad and
\nstrong and helpful submission is demanded to the working of the Divine Force…\u201d
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, pp. 4-5
\n<\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>What is \u201ca glad and strong and helpful\u00a0 <\/span>submission\u201d ? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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

Do you know what
\nit means to be happy ? Do you know what it means to be strong ? Do you know
\nwhat it means to be helpful ? Well, the surrender, that is, the self-giving to
\nthe Divine, must be happy, joyful, made gladly; it must be strong, one must not
\ngive oneself through weakness and impotence but with an active and strong will.
\nAnd then the surrender must not remain absolutely indolent: \u201cI have made my
\nsurrender, I have nothing more to do in life, I have only to remain still, my
\nsurrender is made.\u201d And<\/span> it must be helpful, that is,
\nit must be active \u2013 it must undertake the transformation of the being or do
\nsome useful work. <\/span><\/p>\n

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

\u201cYour surrender must be the surrender of a living
\nbeing, not of an inert automaton or mechanical tool.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, pp. 4<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>You may speak, for
\ninstance, of the surrender of your watch:
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

Page – 358<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

you wind it up and
\nit runs, but this is not a response of conscious collaboration.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\u201cThe transformation must be integral, and integral
\ntherefore the rejection of all that withstands it.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, pp. 4<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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

That is well
\nunderstood. It is not enough to have a positive movement, there must also be
\nthe negative movement of rejection. For you cannot attain a stable
\ntransformation as long as you harbour<\/span> in your being
\nelements which oppose it. If you keep obscurities within you, they may for a
\ntime remain silent and immobile, so well that you attach no importance to them,
\nand one day they will wake up again and your transformation won’t be able to
\nresist them. Not only is the positive movement of self-giving necessary but
\nalso the negative movement of rejection of everything in you that opposes this
\ngiving. You must not leave things \u201clike that\u201d, buried somewhere, in such a way
\nthat at the first opportunity they wake up and undo all your work. There are
\nparts of the being which know very well how to do this, there are elements of
\nthe vital which are extraordinary from this point of view: they keep quiet,
\nhide in a corner, remain so absolutely silent and motionless that you think
\nthey don’t exist; so you are no longer on your guard, you are satisfied with
\nyour transformation and your surrender, you think everything is going well, and
\nthen, suddenly, one fine day, without warning, the thing jumps up like a
\njack-in-the-box and makes you commit all the stupidities in the world. And it
\nis the stronger for having remained repressed \u2013 repressed and closed tight in a
\ncorner \u2013 it has remained as though buried so as not to draw your attention, it
\nhas kept very, very quiet, and the moment you are not expecting it, it springs
\nup and you tell yourself, \u201cOh ! What was the good of all my transformation ?\u201d
\nThat thing was there, and so it happened. It is just like that, these things
\nremain there and hide themselves so well, that if you do not go looking for <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

Page – 359<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

them with a
\nwell-lit lantern, you will not know they are there till the day they come out
\nand demolish all your work in one minute.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Does this happen even if one has a great
\naspiration ? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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

The aspiration
\nmust be very vigilant. <\/span><\/p>\n

I have known
\npeople (many, not only a few, I mean among those who do yoga), I have known
\nmany who, every time they had a fine aspiration, and their aspiration was very
\nstrong and they received an answer to this aspiration, every time, the very
\nsame day or at the latest the next day, they had a complete setback of
\nconsciousness and were facing the exact opposite of their aspiration. Such
\nthings happen almost constantly. Well, these people have developed only the
\npositive side. They make a kind of discipline of aspiration, they ask for help,
\nthey try to come into contact with higher forces, they succeed in this, they
\nhave experiences; but they have completely neglected cleaning their room; it
\nhas remained as dirty as ever, and so, naturally, when the experience has gone,
\nthis dirt becomes still more repulsive than before. <\/span><\/p>\n

One must never
\nneglect to clean one’s room, it is very important; inner cleanliness is at
\nleast as important as outer cleanliness. <\/span><\/p>\n

Vivekananda has
\nwritten (I don’t know the original, I have only read the French translation):
\n\u201cOne must every morning clean one’s soul and one’s body, but if you don’t have
\ntime for both, it is better to clean the soul than clean the body.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

How can one know whether the little dirty things
\nhave hidden themselves or have gone ? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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

One can always try
\nlittle experiments. I have said that one must use a torch, a strong light; then
\none must take a round within one’s being. If one is very attentive, one can
\nvery easily find <\/span><\/p>\n

Page – 360<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

these ugly
\ncorners. Suppose you have a beautiful experience, that suddenly in answer to
\nyour aspiration a great light comes; you feel all flooded with joy, force,
\nlight, beauty, and have the impression that you are on the point of being
\ntransfigured… and then, it passes away \u2013 it always passes away, doesn’t it ?
\nespecially at the beginning \u2013 suddenly, it stops. Then you tell yourself, when
\nyou are not vigilant, \u201cThere, it came and it has gone! Poor me ! It came and
\nhas gone, it just gave me a taste of the thing and then let me fall.\u201d Well,
\nthat’s foolish. What you should tell yourself is, \u201cLook, I was not able to keep
\nit, and why was I not able to keep it ?\u201d So, you take your torch and go on a
\nround within yourself trying to find a very close relation between the change
\nof consciousness and the movements accompanying the cessation of the
\nexperience. And if you are very, very attentive, and make your round very
\nscrupulously, you will find that suddenly some part of the vital or some part
\nof the mind or of the body, something has not kept up, in this sense that
\nmentally, instead of being immobile and attentive, something has begun to ask,
\n\u201cWait a minute, what is this experience? What does it mean ?\u201d, begun to try to
\nfind an explanation (what it calls an \u201cunderstanding\u201d). Or maybe in the vital
\nsomething has begun to enjoy the experience: \u201cHow pleasant it is, how I would
\nlike it to grow, how good if it were constant, how… \u201c Or something in the
\nphysical has said, \u201cOh ! It is a bit hard to endure that, how long am I going
\nto be able to keep it ?\u201d It is perhaps not as obvious as all this, but it is a
\nwee bit hidden like this, somewhere. You will always find one of these three
\nthings or others analogous. Then, it is there the lantern is needed: where is
\nthe weak point? where is the egoism ? where is the desire? where is that old
\ndirt we do not want any longer? where is that thing which turns back upon
\nitself instead of giving itself, opening itself, losing itself ? which turns
\nback upon itself, tries to take advantage of what has happened, wants to
\nappropriate to itself the fruit of the experience ? Or rather which is too
\nweak, too hard, too rigid to be able to follow the movement ?…It is that,
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

Page – 361<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

you are now on the
\ntrack, you begin precisely to put the light you have just acquired upon it; it
\nis that you must do, focus the light upon it, turn it in such a way that the
\nthing cannot resist it.<\/span><\/p>\n

You won’t be able
\nto succeed the very first day but you must do it persistently and little by
\nlittle or perhaps suddenly one day it will vanish. Then you will find out after
\na time that you are another person. <\/span><\/p>\n

But if you take
\nthe attitude I have already spoken about and throw the blame upon the Grace and
\nthe Light, if you say to yourself, \u201cThere, it has gone and left me in the
\nlurch\u201d, you may be sure that even thirty, forty, fifty years hence you will be
\nstill at the same place, you will not have changed. There will always be
\nsomething which will rise suddenly and eat up your experience. And then,
\ninstead of progressing, you will be stuck there marking time because you cannot
\nadvance. But if, immediately, you take the opportunity… Note, sometimes it
\nhurts a little; if you go and brutally put the light upon the thing which wants
\nto enjoy the experience or wants to get knowledge or control the experience by
\na mental understanding or is too lazy to make the necessary effort to receive
\nthe experience and bear it or to change quickly enough, if you put the will
\nwith the light of consciousness upon this thing, with firmness, it may hurt
\njust a little. And you say, \u201cOh ! Not so fast ! I need rest, I tired myself
\nuselessly.\u201d Then everything has to be begun all over again. Sometimes days,
\neven months, sometimes years will pass without its coming back. Sometimes, if
\nyou are a little more active and intense in your aspiration, it will return
\nsooner. But if you commit the same stupidity again, the same thing will happen \u2013
\nwhile if, immediately, you are very vigilant and when the mind starts nosing
\naround to understand what is happening you tell it, \u201cSilence, keep quiet\u201d, then
\nthe experience can continue. When the vital begins to say, \u201cI want lots and
\nlots, more and more\u201d, you say, \u201cQuiet, quiet, don’t move, calm yourself, don’t
\nget excited.\u201d Or when the physical being, \u201cOh! I shall be crushed…\u201d \u2013 \u201cA
\nlittle endurance, if you please; you are a coward, you
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

Page – 362<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

don’t know how to
\nstand the test.\u201d If you manage to do this in time, with the necessary calmness,
\nwith the necessary determination and will, you will arrive at something. But if
\nyou are like that, passive, indolent, fatalistic, and tell yourself, \u201cNow I
\nhave surrendered myself, what will happen will happen, we shall see what is
\ngoing to happen, that’s all\u201d, then, you understand, I give you fifty years not
\nto change by half a step. <\/span><\/p>\n

In the last lesson
\nI told you it was not so easy… If you want to do it, you must do it properly,
\notherwise it is not worth the trouble; it is useless to do things by halves,
\none must do them well. <\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, there
\nare other roads. One may simply not try to perfect oneself. One may try to
\nforget oneself in an ever more absorbing work, that is, do what one does as a
\nconsecration to the Divine, altogether disinterestedly, but with a plenitude, a
\nself-giving, a total self-forgetfulness: no longer thinking about oneself but
\nabout what one is doing. You know this, I have already told you this: if you
\nwant to do something well, whatever it may be, any kind of work, the least
\nthing, play a game, write a book, do painting or music or run a race, anything
\nat all, if you want to do it well, you must become
\n<\/i>what you are doing and not remain a small person looking at himself doing
\nit; for if one looks at oneself acting, one is… one is still in complicity
\nwith the ego. If, in oneself, one succeeds in becoming what one does, it is a
\ngreat progress. In the least little details, one must learn this. Take a very
\namusing instance: you want to fill a bottle from another bottle; you
\nconcentrate (you may try it as a discipline, as a gymnastic); well, as long as
\nyou are the bottle to be filled, the bottle from which one pours, and the
\nmovement of pouring, as long as you are only this, all goes well. But if
\nunfortunately you think at a given moment: \u201cAh ! It is getting on well, I am
\nmanaging well\u201d, the next minute it spills over ! It is the same for everything,
\nfor everything. That is why work is a good means of discipline, for if you want
\nto do the work properly, you must become<\/i>
\nthe work instead of being someone who <\/span><\/p>\n

Page – 363<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/span>works, otherwise you will never do it well. If
\nyou remain \u201csomeone who works\u201d and, besides, if your thoughts go vagabonding,
\nthen you may be sure that if you are handling fragile things they will break,
\nif you are cooking, you will burn something, or if you are playing a game, you
\nwill miss all the balls ! It is here, in this, that work is a great discipline.
\nFor if truly you want to do it well, this is the only way of doing it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Take someone who
\nis writing a book, for instance. If he looks at himself writing the book, you
\ncan’t imagine how dull the book will become; it smells immediately of the small
\nhuman personality which is there and it loses all its value. When a painter
\npaints a picture, if he observes himself painting the picture, the picture will
\nnever be good, it will always be a kind of projection of the painter’s
\npersonality; it will be without life, without force, without beauty. But if,
\nall of a sudden, he becomes the thing he wants to express, if he becomes the
\nbrushes, the painting, the canvas, the subject, the image, the colours, the
\nvalue, the whole thing, and is entirely inside it and lives it, he will make
\nsomething magnificent. <\/span><\/p>\n

For everything,
\neverything, it is the same. There is nothing which cannot be a yogic discipline
\nif one does it properly. And if it is not done properly, even tapasya<\/span> will be of no use and will lead you nowhere. For it
\nis the same thing, if you do your tapasya<\/span>, all the
\ntime observing yourself doing it and telling yourself, \u201cAm I making any
\nprogress, is this going to be better, am I going to succeed ?\u201d, then it is your
\nego, you know, which becomes more and more enormous and occupies the whole place,
\nand there is no room for anything else. And we said the other day that the
\nspiritual ego is the worst of all, for it is altogether unconscious of its
\ninferiority, it is convinced it is something very superior, if not absolutely
\ndivine ! <\/span><\/p>\n

There we are. When
\nyou are at school, you must become the concentration which tries to catch what
\nthe teacher is saying, or the thought which enters you or the knowledge you are
\ngiven. That is what you must be. You must not think of yourself but
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

Page – 364<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

only of what you
\nwant to learn. And you will see that your capacities will immediately be
\ndoubled.<\/span><\/p>\n

What gives most
\nthe feeling of inferiority, of limitation, smallness, impotence, is always this
\nturning back upon oneself, this shutting oneself up in the bounds of a
\nmicroscopic ego. One must widen oneself, open the doors. And the best way is to
\nbe able to concentrate upon what one is doing instead of concentrating upon
\noneself.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Page – 365<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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