{"id":4362,"date":"2013-07-13T01:55:28","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4362"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:55:28","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:28","slug":"09-13-january-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\/09-13-january-1951-vol-04-questions-and-answers-volume-04","title":{"rendered":"-09_13 January 1951.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n
\n13
\n January 1951<\/font><\/span><\/b> <\/font> <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAn
\naimless life is always a miserable life.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe
\nScience of Living\u201d, On Education <\/font><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Why? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

If
\none has an aim, one can follow quietly the way which leads to the goal.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

It is not necessary to have a goal in order to follow the way
\nquietly. So many men who have no goal follow quite calmly the course of their
\ndaily round without making any effort! <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

An aim gives joy. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes it takes an entire lifetime to attain one’s aim; one
\nwould then find joy only at the end of one’s life! <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

An aim is an ideal and an ideal is an enrichment<\/span><\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, but one may have an altogether material ideal; it is not the
\nideal which gives joy. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

An
\naim gives a meaning, a purpose to life, and this purpose implies an effort; and
\nit is in effort that one finds joy. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Exactly. It is the effort which gives joy; a human being who does
\nnot know how to make an effort will never find joy. Those who are essentially
\nlazy will never find joy \u2013 they do not have the strength to be joyful! It is
\neffort which gives joy. Effort makes the being vibrate at a certain degree of
\ntension which makes it possible for you to feel the joy. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 31<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

But
\nis the effort which brings joy an effort imposed by circumstances or an effort which
\nmakes for progress? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

You are mixing up two things: one physical, the other
\npsychological. It is quite obvious that an act done because one has decided to
\ndo it and an act imposed by circumstances, more or less favourable, do not have
\nat all the same result. It is known, for instance, that people who follow yogic
\ndiscipline often fast. Many yogic disciplines require very long fastings<\/span> and those who practise them are generally very
\nhappy to do so, for that is their own choice. But take this very person and put
\nhim in circumstances where food is scarce, either because it cannot be had or
\nbecause this person has no money, and you will see him in a lamentable state,
\ncomplaining that life is terrible, though the conditions may be identically the
\nsame; but in one case there was the decision not to eat, whilst in the other
\nthe man did not eat because he could not do otherwise. That is obvious, but
\nthis is not the only reason. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>It is only effort, in whatever domain it be \u2013 material
\neffort, moral effort, intellectual effort \u2013which creates in the being certain
\nvibrations which enable you to get connected with universal vibrations; and it
\nis this which gives joy. It is effort which pulls you out of inertia; it is
\neffort which makes you receptive to the universal forces. And the one thing
\nabove all which spontaneously gives joy, even to those who do not practise
\nyoga, who have no spiritual aspiration, who lead quite an ordinary life, is the
\nexchange of forces with universal forces. People do not know this, they would
\nnot be able to tell you that it is due to this, but so it is. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>There
\nare people who are just like beautiful animals \u2013 all their movements are
\nharmonious, their energies are spent harmoniously, their uncalculating efforts
\ncall in energies all the time and they are always happy; but sometimes they
\nhave no thoughts in their head, sometimes they have no feelings in their heart,
\nthey live an altogether animalish life. I have known people like <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 32<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\nthat: beautiful animals.
\nThey were handsome, their gestures were harmonious, their forces quite balanced
\nand they spent without reckoning and received without measure. They were in
\nharmony with the material universal forces and they lived in joy. They could
\nnot perhaps have told you that they were happy \u2013 joy with them was so
\nspontaneous that it was natural \u2013 and they would have been still less able to
\ntell you why, for their intelligence was not very developed. I have known such
\npeople, who were capable of making the necessary effort (not a prudent and
\ncalculated effort but a spontaneous one) in no matter what field: material,
\nvital, intellectual, etc…, and in this effort there was always joy. For
\nexample, a man sits down to write a book, he makes an effort which sets
\nvibrating something in his brain to attract ideas; well, suddenly, this man
\nexperiences joy. It is quite certain that, whatever you do, even the most
\nmaterial work, like sweeping a room or cooking, if you make the necessary
\neffort to do this work to the maximum of your ability, you will feel joy, even
\nif what you do is against your nature. When you want to realise something, you
\nmake quite spontaneously the necessary effort; this concentrates your energies
\non the thing to be realised and that gives a meaning to your life. This compels
\nyou to a sort of organisation of yourself, a sort of concentration of your
\nenergies, because it is this that you wish to do and not fifty other things
\nwhich contradict it. And it is in this concentration, this intensity of the
\nwill, that lies the origin of joy. This gives you the power to receive energies
\nin exchange for those you spend. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo work for your perfection the first step is to become conscious
\nof yourself.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe
\nScience of Living\u201d, On Education <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo
\nknow oneself and control oneself\u201d\u00b9 what does this mean?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\n\u00b9\u201dThe
\nScience of Living\u201d, On Education<\/font> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 33<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

This means to be conscious of one’s inner truth, conscious of the
\ndifferent parts of one’s being and their respective functions. You must know
\nwhy you do this, why you do that; you must know your thoughts, know your
\nfeelings, all your activities, all your movements, of what you are capable,
\netc… And to know oneself is not enough: this knowledge must bring a conscious
\ncontrol. To know oneself perfectly is to control oneself perfectly. <\/span><\/p>\n

But there must be an aspiration at every
\nmoment. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is never too early to begin, never too
\nlate to continue. That is, even when you are quite young, you can begin to
\nstudy yourself and know yourself and gradually to control yourself. And even
\nwhen you are what is called \u201cold\u201d, when you are quite aged, it is not too late
\nto make the effort to know yourself better and better and control yourself
\nbetter and better. That is the Science of Living. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>To
\nperfect oneself, one must first become conscious of oneself. I am sure, for
\ninstance, that the following situation has arisen many times in your life:
\nsomeone asks you suddenly, \u201cWhy have you done that?\u201d Well, the spontaneous
\nreply is, \u201cI don’t know.\u201d If someone asks you, \u201cWhat are you thinking of?\u201d You
\nreply, \u201cI don’t know.\u201d \u201cWhy are you tired?\u201d \u2013 \u201cI don’t know.\u201d \u201cWhy are you
\nhappy?\u201d \u2013 \u201cI don’t know\u201d, and so on. I can take indeed fifty people and ask
\nthem suddenly, without preparation, \u201cWhy have you done that?\u201d and if they are
\nnot inwardly \u201cawake\u201d, they will all answer, \u201cI don’t know.\u201d (Of course I am not
\nspeaking here of those who have practised a discipline of self-knowledge and of
\nfollowing up their movements to the extreme limits; these people can,
\nnaturally, collect themselves, concentrate and give the right answer, but only
\nafter a little while.) You will see that it is like that if you look well at
\nyour whole day. You say something and you don’t know why you say it \u2013 is only
\nafter the words are out of your mouth that you notice that this was not quite
\nwhat you wanted to say. For instance, you go to see someone, you prepare
\nbeforehand the words you are going to speak, but once you are in front of
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 34<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

the person in question, you say nothing or it is other words which
\ncome from your mouth. Are you able to say to what extent the atmosphere of the
\nother person has influenced you and stopped you from saying what you had
\nprepared? How many people can say that? They do not even observe that the
\nperson was in such or such a state and that it was because of this that they
\ncould not tell him what they had prepared. Of course, there are very obvious
\ninstances when you find people in such a bad mood that you can ask nothing of
\nthem. I am not speaking of these. I am speaking of the clear perception of
\nreciprocal influences: what acts and reacts on your nature; it is this one does
\nnot have. For example, one becomes suddenly uneasy or happy, but how many
\npeople can say, \u201cIt is this\u201d? And it is difficult to know, it is not at all
\neasy. One must be quite \u201cawake\u201d; one must be constantly in a very attentive
\nstate of observation. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>There are people who sleep twelve hours a day
\nand say the rest of the time, \u201cI am awake\u201d! There are people who sleep twenty
\nhours a day and the rest of the time are but half awake! <\/span><\/p>\n

To be in this state of attentive
\nobservation, you must have, so to say, antennae everywhere which are in
\nconstant contact with your true centre of consciousness. You register
\neverything, you organise<\/span> everything and, in this way,
\nyou cannot be taken unawares, you cannot be deceived, mistaken, and you cannot
\nsay anything other than what you wanted to say. But how many people normally
\nlive in this state? It is this I mean, precisely, when I speak of \u201cbecoming
\nconscious\u201d. If you want to benefit most from the conditions and circumstances
\nin which you find yourself, you must be fully awake: you must not be taken by
\nsurprise, you must not do things without knowing why, you must not say things
\nwithout knowing why. You must be constantly awake.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>You
\nmust also understand that you are not separate individualities, that life is a
\nconstant exchange of forces, of consciousnesses, of vibrations, of movements of
\nall kinds. It is as in a crowd, you see: when everyone pushes all go forward,
\nand
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 35<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

when all recede, everyone recedes. It is the same thing in the
\ninner world, in your consciousness. There are all the time forces and
\ninfluences acting and reacting upon you, it is like a gas in the atmosphere,
\nand unless you are quite awake, these things enter into you, and it is only
\nwhen they have gone well in and come out as if they came from you, that you
\nbecome aware of them. How many times people meet those who are nervous, angry,
\nin a bad mood, and themselves become nervous, angry, moody, just like that,
\nwithout quite knowing why. Why is it that when you play against certain people
\nyou play very well, but when you play against others you cannot play? And those
\nvery quiet people, not at all wicked, who suddenly become furious when they are
\nin a furious crowd! And no one knows who has started it: it is something that
\nwent past and swept off the consciousness. There are people who can let out
\nvibrations like this and others respond without knowing why. Everything is like
\nthat, from the smallest to the biggest things. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>To
\nbe individualised in a collectivity, one must be absolutely conscious of
\noneself. And of which self? \u2013 the Self which is above all intermixture, that
\nis, what I call the Truth of your being. And as long as you are not conscious
\nof the Truth of your being, you are moved by all kinds of things, without
\ntaking any note of it at all. Collective thought, collective suggestions are a
\nformidable influence which act constantly on individual thought. And what is
\nextraordinary is that one does not notice it. One believes that one thinks
\n\u201clike that\u201d, but in truth it is the collectivity which thinks \u201clike that\u201d. The
\nmass is always inferior to the individual. Take individuals with similar
\nqualities, of similar categories, well, when they are alone these individuals
\nare at least two degrees better than people of the same category in a crowd.
\nThere is a mixture of obscurities, a mixture of unconsciousness, and inevitably
\nyou slip into this unconsciousness. To escape this there is but one means: to
\nbecome conscious of oneself, more and more conscious and more and more
\nattentive. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Try
\nthis little exercise: at the beginning of the day, say: \u201cI <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 36<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\u00a0<\/span>won’t speak without
\nthinking of what I say.\u201d You believe, don’t you, that you think all that you
\nsay! It is not at all true, you will see that so many times the word you do not
\nwant to say is ready to come out, and that you are compelled to make a
\nconscious effort to stop it from coming out. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>I
\nhave known people who were very scrupulous about not telling lies, but all of a
\nsudden, when together in a group, instead of speaking the truth they would
\nspontaneously tell a lie; they did not have the intention of doing so, they did
\nnot think of it a minute before doing it, but it came \u201clike that\u201d. Why? \u2013 because
\nthey were in the company of liars; there was an atmosphere of falsehood and
\nthey had quite simply caught the malady! <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>It
\nis thus that gradually, slowly, with perseverance, first of all with great care
\nand much attention, one becomes conscious, learns to know oneself and then to
\nbecome master of oneself.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 37<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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