{"id":4372,"date":"2013-07-13T01:55:32","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4372"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:55:32","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:32","slug":"26-3-march-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\/26-3-march-1951-vol-04-questions-and-answers-volume-04","title":{"rendered":"-26_3 March 1951.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n3
\nMarch 1951 <\/font>
\n <\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is even a necessity for the
\nexistence of the hostile forces. They make your determination stronger, your
\naspiration clearer. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is true, however, that they exist
\nbecause you gave them reason to exist. So long as there is something in you
\nwhich answers to them, their intervention is perfectly legitimate. If nothing
\nin you responded, if they had no hold upon any part of your nature, they would
\nretire and leave you.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Questions and Answers 1929 (5 May)
\n<\/font> <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

The best way of
\nfacing hostile forces is always to aspire, always to remember the Divine. And
\nnever to fear.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Mother reads a question asked during the talk in 1929<\/span>: <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDo the hostile forces generally come from
\noutside or inside?\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Questions and Answers 1929 (5 May)
\n<\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

             <\/span>
\n
\nThey come from outside the consciousness
\nor the being. <\/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

Where does the
\nbeing stop?…What is the difference between outside and inside, if the consciousness
\nis everywhere ! <\/span><\/p>\n

Seekers are always told, \u201cIf you want to get rid of something, say that
\nit is outside.\u201d This is only an impression, but it is easier to get rid of a
\ndifficulty if you have the impression that it is outside you. However, I have
\njust told you the opposite, that if nothing \u201cin you\u201d answers to the hostile
\nforces, they will never attack you. Therefore, what is inside is also outside
\nand what is outside is also inside ! The secret lies in knowing how to place<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 169<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\u00a0<\/span>it just where it is most convenient for the
\nimmediate action.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you have a serious difficulty in your character, for example, the
\nhabit of losing your temper, and you decide: \u201cI must not get angry again\u201d, it
\nis very difficult, but if on the other hand, you tell yourself: \u201cAnger is
\nsomething which circulates through the whole world, it is not in me, it belongs
\nto everybody; it wanders about here and there and if I close my door, it will
\nnot enter\u201d, it is much more easy. If you think: \u201cIt is my character, I am born
\nlike that\u201d, it becomes almost impossible. It is true there is something in your
\ncharacter which answers to this force of anger. All movements, all vibrations
\nare general<\/span> − <\/span>they enter, they go out, they move about<\/span> − <\/span>but they rush upon
\nyou and enter into you only to the extent you leave the door in you open. And
\nif you have, besides, some affinity with these forces, you may get angry
\nwithout even knowing why. Everything is everywhere and it is arbitrary to draw
\nlimits. <\/span><\/p>\n

I read somewhere,
\nin a book written by a confirmed materialist, that human beings are as though
\nshut in a leather sack and have no contact with other beings. It is a stupidity
\nevidently, but there are people who are helped by it; this idea that they are
\nshut up in a shell and have no contact with others except through this shell,
\nprotects them and prevents them from receiving anything whatever from outside.
\nTrue, it is a stupidity, but some stupidities are at times useful ! We said the
\nother day that the mind is not an instrument for knowledge and that in the
\ndomain of ideas everything is relative, everything is a way of seeing,
\neverything is a way of living. Every science has its language, every religion
\nits language, every philosophy its language, every activity its own language,
\nand the more you learn these languages, the more do you have the impression of
\nknowing many things. What matters is that you do know all the languages. You
\nmust come to the point where all these movements of the mind are for you a play
\naltogether relative<\/span> − <\/span>you may play well or ill, but it is all a play. There
\nare people who know how to make use of it, these are the so-called
\n\u201cintelligent\u201d people<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 170<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

and there are
\nthose who do not know how to use it, these are the so-called \u201cfools\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Things are \u201cin\u201d us to the extent we
\nidentify ourselves with them<\/span> − <\/span>i<\/span>f we push back the
\nidentification, are they outside ? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

This is an
\naltogether subjective way of speaking. To act, you have to make some
\nclassifications and it is just for this that the mind is useful: it organises<\/span>, it puts each thing in its place, it plays the
\ngame; and it is this activity which creates the rules of the game and by
\nobeying these rules it can win the game. But true knowledge comes from
\nelsewhere. <\/span><\/p>\n

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

\u201cMental faith is not sufficient; it must
\nbe completed and enforced by a vital and even a physical faith, a faith of the
\nbody. If you can create in yourself an integral force of this kind in all your
\nbeing, then nothing can resist it; but… you must fix the faith in the very
\ncells of the body. There is, for instance, now abroad the beginning of a
\nknowledge among the scientists that death is not a necessity. But the whole of
\nhumanity believes firmly in death… If this belief could be cast out first
\nfrom the conscious mind, then from the vital nature and the subconscious
\nphysical layers, death would no longer be inevitable.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Questions and Answers 1929 (5 May)
\n<\/font> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

This is a negative
\nway of looking at the problem. If one believed that immortality was possible,
\nthat would be a more active way of seeing; and not only that it is possible but
\nit will be realised later, then one would be strong enough to resist. <\/span><\/p>\n

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

\u201cA fixed form was needed in order that the
\norganised individual consciousness might have a stable support. <\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 171<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

And yet it is the fixity of the form that
\nmade death inevitable<\/span><\/i>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Questions and Answers 1929 (5 May)172<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Who will tell me
\nwhat constitutes an individual? What is it that gives you the impression that
\nyou are a person existing in himself? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

One can say with Descartes: \u201cI think,
\ntherefore I am.\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><\/i><\/p>\n

Ah, no! That does
\nnot prove that you are individualised<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

What is it that gives you the impression that you are an individual?…
\nWhen you were ten, you were very different from what you were when you were
\nborn, and now you are very different from what you were at ten, aren’t you? The
\nform grows within certain limits and there is a similarity, but even so, it is
\nquite different from what it was at your birth; you may almost say, \u201cIt was not
\nI.\u201d So much for the physical. Now, take your inner consciousness when you were
\nfive and now. Nobody would say it is the same person. And your thoughts, at
\nfive and now? All are different. But in spite of everything, what is it that
\ngives you the impression that it is the same person who is thinking? <\/span><\/p>\n

Let us take the
\nexample of a river following its course: it is never the same water which
\nflows. What is a river? There is not a drop that ever is the same, no stability
\nis there, then where is the river? (Some take this example to prove that there
\nis no personality<\/span> − <\/span>they are very anxious to prove that there is no
\npersonality.) For beings it is the same thing: the consciousness changes, ideas
\nchange, sensations change, what then is the being ? Some say that individuality
\nis based upon memory, remembrance: you remember therefore you are an individual
\nbeing. This is absolutely wrong, for even if you had no memory you would still
\nbe an\u00a0 <\/span>individual being. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The river’s bed constitutes the river.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage – 172<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

The bed localises<\/span> the river, but the bed also changes much; which
\nmeans that all is inconstant, all is fugitive, and this is true. But it is only
\none part of the truth, it is not the whole. You feel quite clearly that there
\nis something \u201cstable\u201d in you, don’t you, but where does this sensation of
\nstability come from? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

If I were to place it physically, I would
\nsay it is somewhere in the chest. When I say \u201cI am going to do something\u201d, it
\nis not the true \u201cI\u201d which speaks. When I say \u201cI think\u201d, it is not the true \u201cI\u201d which
\nthinks<\/span> − <\/span>the true \u201cI\u201d looks at the thinking, it
\nlooks at the thoughts coming. Naturally this is a way of speaking. <\/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

When the vast
\nmajority of people say \u201cI\u201d, it is a part of them, of their feeling, their body,
\ntheir thought, indifferently, which speaks; it is something that always
\nchanges. Therefore, their \u201cI\u201d is innumerable, or the \u201cI\u201d always varies. What is
\nthe constant thing therein?… The psychic being, evidently. For, to be
\nconstant a thing must first be immortal. Otherwise it cannot be constant. Then,
\nit must also be independent of the experiences through which it passes: it
\ncannot be the experiences themselves. Hence, it is certainly not the bed of the
\nriver which constitutes the river; the bed is only a circumstance. If the
\ncomparison is carried a little farther (besides, comparisons are worthless,
\npeople find in them whatever they want), it can be said that the river is a
\ngood symbol of life, that what is constant in the river is the species \u201cwater\u201d.
\nIt is not always the same drop of water, but it is always water<\/span> − <\/span>without water
\nthere would be no river. And what endures in the human being is the species
\n\u201cconsciousness\u201d. It is because it has a consciousness that it endures. It is
\nnot the forms which last, it is the consciousness, the power of binding
\ntogether all these forms, of passing through all these things, not only keeping
\na memory of them (memory is something very external), but keeping the same
\nvibration of consciousness. <\/span><\/p>\n

And
\nthat is the great mystery of creation, for it is the same <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage – 173<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

consciousness,
\nthe Consciousness is one. But the very moment this Consciousness manifests
\nitself, exteriorises<\/span> itself, deploys itself, it
\ndivides itself into innumerable fragments for the need of expansion, and each one
\nof these fragmentations has been the beginning, the origin of an individual
\nbeing. The origin of every individual form is the law of this form or the truth
\nof this form. If there were no law, no truth of each form, there would be no
\npossibility of individualisation<\/span>. It would be
\nsomething extending indefinitely; there would be perhaps points of
\nconcentration, assemblages, but no individual consciousness. Each form then
\nrepresents one element in the changing of the One into the many. This
\nmultiplicity implies an innumerable quantity of laws, elements of
\nconsciousness, truths which spread out into the universe and finally become
\nseparate individualities. So the individual being seems constantly to go
\nfarther and farther away from its origin by the very necessity of individualisation<\/span>. But once this individualisation<\/span>,
\nthat is, this awareness of the inner truth is complete, it becomes possible, by
\nan inner identification, to reestablish in the multiplicity the original unity;
\nthat is the raison d’<\/span>\u00ea<\/font><\/span>tre
\nof the universe as we perceive it. The universe has been made so that this
\nphenomenon may take place. The Supreme has manifested Himself to Himself so as
\nto become aware of Himself. <\/span><\/p>\n

In any case, that
\nis the rationale of this <\/i>creation.
\nLet us be satisfied with our universe, let us make the best use possible of our
\nlife upon earth and the rest will come in its time. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is purposely,
\nmind you, that I have not mentioned the ego as one of the causes of the sense
\nof individuality. For the ego being a falsehood and an illusion, the sense of
\nindividuality would itself be false and illusory (as Buddha and Shankara<\/span> affirm), whereas the origin of individualisation<\/span>
\nbeing in the Supreme Himself, the ego is only a passing deformation, necessary
\nfor the moment, which will disappear when its utility is over, when the
\nTruth-Consciousness will be established.\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


\nPage – 174<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3 March 1951     \u201cThere is even a necessity for the existence of the hostile forces. They make your determination stronger, your aspiration clearer….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-04-questions-and-answers-volume-04","wpcat-124-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4372","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=4372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}