{"id":4368,"date":"2013-07-13T01:55:30","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4368"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:55:30","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:30","slug":"17-10-february-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\/17-10-february-1951-vol-04-questions-and-answers-volume-04","title":{"rendered":"-17_10 February 1951.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n
\n10
\n February 1951<\/font><\/span><\/b> <\/font><\/span><\/b>
\n
\n
\n <\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n


\n <\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cYou
\nmust be able, if you are ready to follow the Divine order, to take up whatever work
\nyou are given, even a stupendous work, and leave it the next day with the same quietness
\nwith which you took it up and not feel that the responsibility is yours. There
\nshould be no attachment \u2013 to any object or any mode of life. You must be
\nabsolutely free.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\nQuestions
\nand Answers 1929 (14 April) <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

I would like someone to tell me what he understands by \u201cbe
\nabsolutely free\u201d, for it is a very important question. I shall tell you why. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Most people confuse liberty with licence. For
\nthe ordinary mind, to be free is to have the chance of committing every
\nstupidity that one likes, without anybody intervening. I say one must be
\n\u201cabsolutely free\u201d, but it is a very dangerous advice unless one understands the
\nmeaning of the words. Free from what? \u2013 free from attachments, evidently. It is
\nexactly that. It is the story of the Buddha\u00b9 who answers the young man expert
\nin all the arts, \u201cI am an expert in the art of self-control. If men
\ncongratulate me or praise me, it leaves me tranquil and indifferent. If they
\nblame me, that<\/span> leaves me equally tranquil and
\nindifferent.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Try then to question
\nyourself to see to what extent you are above all blame and praise. Not that you
\nmust feel so superior to others that what they say seems to you of no
\nimportance, it is not that. It is that you have become aware of the general
\nstate of ignorance, including yours, and when others believe that something is
\ngood, you know \u201cIt is not so<\/span> good as that\u201d, and when
\nthey believe it is bad you can say, \u201cIt is not so bad as that.\u201d Everything is
\ncompletely mixed up and finally nobody can
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>\u00b9 \u201cSelf-Control\u201d, Words of Long Ago<\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 90<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

judge anybody. Therefore you are completely indifferent to all
\npraise and all blame. And the conclusion would be: so long as the divine
\nconsciousness in me or in one whom I have chosen as my Guru does not tell me
\n\u201cThis is to be done\u201d, \u201cThis is not to be done\u201d, I am indifferent to what others
\nmay tell me. For I think that the divine presence in the one in whom I have put
\nmy trust is capable of knowing what is good and what is bad, what is to be done
\nand what is not to be done. <\/span><\/p>\n

And that is the best way of being free.
\nLet your surrender to the Divine be entire and you will become completely free.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The only way of being truly free is to
\nmake your surrender to the Divine entire, without reservation, because then all
\nthat binds you, ties you down, chains you, falls away naturally from you and
\nhas no longer any importance. If someone comes and blames you, you may say, \u201cOn
\nwhat authority does he blame me, does he know the supreme will?\u201d And the same
\nthing when you are congratulated. This is not to advise you not to profit by
\nwhat comes to you from others \u2013 I have learnt throughout my life that even a
\nlittle child can give you a lesson. Not that he is less ignorant than you but
\nhe is like a mirror which reflects the image of what you are; he may tell you
\nsomething which is not true but also may show you something that you did not
\nknow. You can hence profit a great deal by it if you receive the lesson without
\nany undesirable reaction. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Every hour of my life
\nI have learnt that one can learn something; but I have never felt bound by the
\nopinion of others, for I consider that there is only one truth in the world
\nwhich can know something, and this is the Supreme Truth. Then one is quite
\nfree. And it is this freedom that I want of you \u2013 free from all attachment, all
\nignorance, all reaction; free from everything except a total surrender to the
\nDivine. This is the way out from all responsibility towards the world. The
\nDivine alone is responsible.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It is not possible, is it, for the surrender to be total<\/span><\/i> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage – 91<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

from the very beginning? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Generally, no. It needs time. But there are instantaneous
\nconversions; to explain all that to you in detail would take too much time. You
\nknow perhaps that in all schools of initiation it used to be said that it takes
\nthirty-five years to change one’s character! So you must not expect the thing
\nto be done in a minute.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

If one is to be indifferent to everything, why are prizes given to
\nthe children?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\n\u00a0<\/span><\/i>You do not expect a schoolboy to be a yogi, do you? I have just
\nsaid that it takes thirty-five years to attain that and to change one’s
\ncharacter. <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>You
\nsee, individual, human authority, like the authority of a father of the family,
\nof a teacher, of the head of a state, is a symbolic thing. They have no real
\nauthority but authority is given to them to enable them to fulfil a role in
\nsocial life as it now is, that is to say, a social life founded upon falsehood
\nand not at all on truth, for truth means unity and society is founded on
\ndivision. There are people who work out their role, their function, their
\nsymbol more or less well \u2013 nobody is faultless, all is mixed in this world. But
\nhe who takes his role seriously, tries to fill it as honestly as possible, may
\nreceive inspirations which enable him to play his part a little more truly than
\nan ordinary man. If the teacher who gives marks kept in mind that he was the
\nrepresentative of the divine truth, if he constantly took sufficient trouble to
\nbe in tune with the divine Will as much as this is possible for him, well, that
\ncould be very useful; for the ordinary teacher acts according to his personal
\npreferences \u2013 what he does not like, what he likes, etc \u2013 and he belongs to the
\ngeneral falsehood, but if at the time of giving marks, the teacher tries
\nsincerely to put himself in harmony with a truth deeper than his small narrow
\nconsciousness, he may serve as an <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 92<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

intermediary of this truth and, as such, help his students to
\nbecome conscious of this truth within themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is precisely one of the things that I
\nwanted to tell you. Education is a sacerdocy, teaching is a sacerdocy, and to
\nbe at the head of a State is a sacerdocy. Then, if the person who fulfils this
\nrole aspires to fulfil it in the highest and the most true way, the general
\ncondition of the world can become much better. Unfortunately, most people never
\nthink about this at all, they fill their role somehow \u2013 not to speak of the
\ninnumerable people who work only to earn money, but in this case their activity
\nis altogether rotten, naturally. That was my very first basis in forming the
\nAshram: that the work done here be an offering to the Divine. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Instead of letting
\noneself go in the stream of one’s nature, of one’s mood, one must constantly
\nkeep in mind this kind of feeling that one is a representative of the Supreme
\nKnowledge, the Supreme Truth, the Supreme Law, and that one must apply it in
\nthe most honest, the most sincere way one can; then one makes great progress oneself
\nand can make others also progress. And besides, one will be respected, there
\nwill be no more indiscipline in the class, for there is in every human being
\nsomething that recognises and bows down before true greatness; even the worst
\ncriminals are capable of admiring a noble and disinterested act. Therefore when
\nchildren feel in a teacher, in a school master, this deep aspiration to act
\naccording to the truth, they listen to you with an obedience which you would
\nnot get if one day you were in a good mood and the next day you were not, which
\nis disastrous for everybody.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

If
\none needs thirty-five years to change one’s character, how can one make, from
\nnow, a total surrender to the Divine?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

It may go quicker, you know! All depends on the way that one follows. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 93<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\u00a0<\/span>You
\nremember, we spoke once of the attitude of the baby cat and that of the baby
\nmonkey.\u00b9\u00a0 <\/span>If you agree to be
\nlike a docile baby cat (there are also baby cats which are very undisciplined,
\nI have seen them), like a docile little child, this may go very fast. Note that
\nit is very easy to say, \u201cChoose the attitude of the baby cat\u201d, but it is not so
\neasy to do. You must not believe that adopting the attitude of the baby cat
\nlets you off from all personal effort. Because you are not a baby cat, human
\nbeings are not baby cats! There are in you innumerable elements which are
\naccustomed to trusting only themselves, which want to do their own work, and it
\nis much more difficult to control all these elements than to let oneself go in
\nall circumstances. It is very difficult. First of all, there is always that
\nwonderful work of the mind which likes so very much to observe, criticise,
\nanalyse, doubt, try to solve the problem, say, \u201cIs it good thus?\u201d, \u201cWould it not
\nbe better like that?\u201d, and so on. So that goes on and on, and where is the baby
\ncat?…For the baby cat does not think! It is free from all this and hence it
\nis much easier for it! <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Whatever
\nbe the way you follow, personal effort is always necessary till the moment of
\nidentification. At that moment all effort drops from you like a worn-out robe,
\nyou are another person: what was impossible for you becomes not only possible
\nbut indispensable, you cannot do otherwise. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>You must be
\nattentive, silent, must await the inner inspiration, not do anything from
\nexternal reactions, you must be moved by the light that comes from above,
\nconstantly, regularly, must act only under the inspiration of that light and
\nnothing else. Never to think, never to question, never to ask \u201cShould I do this
\nor that?\u201d, but to know, to see, to hear. To act with an inner certitude without
\nquestioning and without doubting, because the decision does not come from you,
\nit comes from above. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span>\u00b9 Sri Ramakrishna used to say that a disciple
\ncan choose one of two attitudes: the passive trust of the baby cat which lets
\nitself be carried by its mother (this is the way of surrender, the surest) and
\nthe active attitude of the baby monkey which clings to its mother (the way of
\npersonal effort)<\/font> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 94<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\u00a0<\/span>Well, this may come very
\nsoon or one may have to wait perhaps a long time \u2013 that depends upon one’s
\nprevious preparation, upon many things. Till then you must will and will with
\npersistence, and above all never lose patience or courage. If necessary, repeat
\nthe same thing a thousand times, knowing that perhaps the thousandth time you
\nwill realise the result. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>You
\nare not all of a single piece. Your present body is often an accident. If you
\nhave within you a conscious soul which has influenced the formation of your
\nbody, you are infinitely better prepared than someone, a soul, which falls head
\nforemost into a body without knowing where it is going; in this latter case
\nmuch hard work is needed to lift up the consciousness which has thus fallen
\ninto obscurity. The inner preparation may come from previous lives or from the
\npresent life; or you have reached a turning-point in your integral growth and
\nare in just the right relation with the circumstances necessary for the last step
\nto be taken. But this does not mean that you have not lived a thousand times
\nbefore reaching this turning-point. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 95<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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