{"id":4374,"date":"2013-07-13T01:55:33","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4374"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:55:33","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:33","slug":"33-19-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\/33-19-march-1951-vol-04-questions-and-answers-volume-04","title":{"rendered":"-33_19 March 1951.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n19 March 1951<\/font><\/span><\/b>
\n<\/font> <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMind is one movement, but there are many
\nvarieties of the movement, many strata, that touch and even press into each
\nother. At the same time the movement we call mind penetrates into other
\nplanes… Now, there are mental planes that stand high above the vital world
\nand escape its influence; there are no hostile forces or beings there. But
\nthere are others and they are many that can be touched or penetrated by the
\nvital forces.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Questions and
\nAnswers 1929 (26 May) <\/font> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

             Which mental plane are you speaking of ? <\/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

Of the physical
\nmind. Certainly not of the higher mind, for there are no adverse forces there.
\nThe reference is to the mind that deals with material things. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Are there beings in the mental worlds? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, many.
\nThey are completely independent; they have their own life, their own relations
\namong themselves, as in other worlds. Only for a physical consciousness, time
\nand space are not the same in the vital or the mental worlds as in the physical
\nworld. For example, those who are in the physical consciousness have the
\nimpression that shiftings<\/span> in the mind are
\ninstantaneous<\/span> \u2013 <\/span>compared
\nwith the higher consciousness they are not instantaneous, but compared with the
\nphysical consciousness, they are instantaneous, of an extreme rapidity. <\/span><\/p>\n

The beings of the mental world also have an individuality of their own,
\neven a form that can be permanent if they choose to keep one. Their form is the
\nexpression of their thought and is sufficiently plastic to be able to change
\nwith their thought, yet<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 225<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\u00a0<\/span>has a sufficient continuity to enable one to recognise<\/span> them. If you go out of your body and enter the
\nmental world, you can meet these beings, speak to them, even make an
\nappointment with them for the next time ! <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Can they exercise their influence on a
\nhuman being, as the beings of the vital worlds do<\/span><\/i> ? <\/span><\/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

Many mental
\nformations try to realise<\/span> themselves upon earth, but
\nthese are generally created by human beings; they then continue to work in the
\nmental world with the intention of influencing the mind of human beings. But
\nthe beings of the mental plane proper are generally creators, and because they
\nare creators of form, they are not much concerned with influencing other forms<\/span> \u2013 <\/span>they are
\nsatisfied with expressing themselves through the forms they have made. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Is there any difference between the
\n\u201cspiritual\u201d and the \u201cpsychic\u201d? Are they two different planes? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

This subject has
\ngiven rise to great confusion in human thought. I believe philosophical, yogic
\nand other systems use the word \u201cspiritual\u201d in a very vague and loose way.
\nWhatever is not physical is spiritual ! In comparison with the physical world
\nall other worlds are spiritual ! All thought, all effort which does not tend
\ntowards the material life is a spiritual effort. Every tendency which is not
\nstrictly human and egoistic is a spiritual tendency. This is a word used to
\nseason every dish.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I just read this in Illustration: \u201cThe
\nspiritual activity par excellence is reading and writing. The centre of
\nspiritual life is the National Library.\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

It is a cheap
\nspirituality !<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 226<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

Mother first read the passage on the difference
\nbetween the \u201cpsychic\u201d and the \u201cspiritual\u201d, then continued: <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

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

\u201cSo long as you
\nhave to draw your understanding from forms of words, you are likely to fall
\ninto much confusion about the true sense; but if in a silence of your mind you
\ncan rise into the world from which ideas descend to take form, at once the real
\nunderstanding comes…<\/span><\/p>\n

But here in this higher region of the unexpressed mind and its purer
\naltitudes you are free; when you enter there, you go out of yourself and
\npenetrate into a universal mental plane in which each individual mental world
\nis dipping as if into a huge sea. There you can understand entirely what is
\ngoing on in another and read his mind as if it were your own, because there no
\nseparation divides mind from mind. It is only when you unite in that region
\nwith others that you can understand them; otherwise you are not attuned, you do
\nnot touch…\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Questions and Answers 1929 (26 May) <\/span><\/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

It is only
\nin the silence that one can understand. It often happens that two persons speak
\nabout a certain subject and all of a sudden, for some reason, both fall silent
\nfor a time; then, abruptly, one says a word which corresponds exactly to what
\nthe other was thinking. These are people who understand each other in silence.
\nThey have followed the same curve, they have come to the same result and one
\ncompletes the thought of the other. This happens often to those who have lived
\ntogether a long time and have developed a sort of mental affinity which enables
\nthem to truly understand each other behind the words. I have known people who
\nbelong to different countries<\/span> \u2013 <\/span>and you know the mode of thinking is very different
\naccording to the country, the manner of relating the sequence of ideas is
\ndifferent, even contrary <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage – 227<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

 to that of
\nanother country<\/span> \u2013 <\/span>but
\nI have had experiences with persons of very far-removed races who succeeded so
\nwell in harmonising<\/span> mentally with each other that
\nthere was this understanding without words. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

If one is silent and the other is not, can
\nthey understand each other? <\/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>\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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It is
\npossible. Perhaps the one who is silent will understand the other who is
\nnot!…But when there is this full accord, even if it is not permanent, when
\nyou are with someone and follow a thought far enough to come out of the
\nexternal agitation, if the other too has followed the same thought, you may
\nfind yourselves suddenly agreeing without having spoken or made any effort
\ntowards that. Generally the silence comes to both at the same time or almost
\nthe same time<\/span> \u2014 it<\/span>
\nis as though you slid into the silence. Of course, it may happen also that one
\ncontinues to make a noise in his head, while the other has stopped, but the one
\nwho has stopped has a much greater chance of understanding what is happening to
\nthe other ! <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

When the class\u00b9 \u00a0<\/span>is over, we are asked what you said. Should we
\ntell? <\/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

You may say,
\n\u201cWell, I tried my best, but I am not sure if I have understood, and if I report
\nwhat she said, I am almost certain to distort her words.\u201d In this way you are
\non the safe side, at ease. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

What characterises<\/span>
\nthe substance of the psychic world? <\/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
\nsubstance of the psychic world is a substance proper to it,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n\u00b9
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>
\nChildren \u00a0<\/span>used
\nto speak of \u201cMother’s class\u201d when they referred to these talks.<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage – 228<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

 with its
\nown psychic characteristics: a sense of immortality, a complete receptivity to
\nthe divine influence, an entire submission to this influence by which it is
\nwholly impregnated. It is this exactly which distinguishes the psychic from the
\nother parts of the being. When, for instance, I speak of organising<\/span>
\nthe mind and the vital around the psychic centre, I do not mean that they
\nbecome psychic; they remain the mind and the vital, but they are organised<\/span> around the psychic as an army is organised<\/span> around its leader<\/span> \u2014 it<\/span> does not become the leader, it obeys him,
\ndoesn’t it? Well, it is the same thing here; the vital and the mind are organised<\/span> around the psychic, they receive orders from the
\npsychic and carry them out as well as they can. But their substance does not
\nbecome psychic substance as a consequence. They can be under the influence of
\nthe psychic and assume its nature more or less but not its substance. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

You said that our body can become
\nreceptive to forces which are concentrated in certain places or in certain
\ncountries. But can we have this physical sensation without a preliminary
\npreparation of the consciousness? Or is it truly a spontaneous sensation like
\nheat, cold or goose-flesh, for example ?\u00b9<\/span><\/i> \u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/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

If it were the
\nresult of a thought or a will, it would not be an experience and it would have
\nno value. You understand, I affirm absolutely that any experience that is the
\nresult of a thought or preconceived will has no value from the spiritual point
\nof view. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

But were you not in a state, so to say, \u201cfavourable<\/span>\u201d to this sensation ?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/font><\/span>\u00b9In the
\npreceding talk Mother had described how on her return from Japan she had all of
\na sudden physically felt the atmosphere of Sri Aurobindo<\/span>
\nat a distance of two nautical miles from <\/font>
\nPondicherry<\/font><\/span><\/span>.
\n<\/font> \u00a0<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage -229<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

There are
\npeople who live constantly in a higher consciousness, while others have to make
\nan effort to enter there. But here it is an altogether different thing; in the
\nexperience I was speaking about, what gave it all its value was that I was not
\nexpecting it at all, not at all. I knew very well, I had been for a very long
\ntime and continuously in \u201cspiritual\u201d contact, if I may say so, with the
\natmosphere of Sri Aurobindo<\/span>, but I had never thought
\nof the possibility of a modification in the physical air and I was not
\nexpecting it in the least, and it was this that gave the whole value to the
\nexperience, which came like that, quite suddenly, just as when one enters a
\nplace with another temperature or another altitude… I do not know if you have
\nnoticed that the air you breathe is not always the same, that there are
\ndifferent vibrations in the air of one country and in the air of another, in
\nthe air of one place and in the air of another. If indeed you are accustomed to
\nhave this perception of the subtle physical, you can say immediately, \u201cAh !
\nThis air is as in France\u201d or \u201cThis is the air of <\/span>Japan<\/span>.\u201d
\nIt is something indefinable like taste or smell. But in this instance it is not
\nthat, it is a perception of another sense. It is a physical sense, it is not a
\nvital or mental sense; it is a sense of the physical world, but there are other
\nsenses than the five that we usually have at our disposal<\/span> \u2013 <\/span>there are
\nmany others. <\/span><\/p>\n

In
\nfact, for the physical being<\/span> \u2013 note <\/span>that I say the physical being<\/span> \u2013 <\/span>to be fully developed, it must have twelve
\nsenses. It is one of these senses which gives you the kind of perception I was
\nspeaking of. You cannot say that it is taste, smell, hearing, etc…, but it is
\nsomething which gives you a very precise impression of the difference of
\nquality. And it is very precise, as distinct as seeing black and white, it is
\ntruly a sense perception. <\/span><\/p>\n

Generally, when
\nyou want to study occultism, the first thing that the Master does is never to
\nspeak to you about it, never to explain it to you, precisely because of this
\nridiculous phenomenon of the mind which begins to \u201cthink\u201d about it and brings
\nyou \u201cexperiences\u201d which have no value: they are mental formations<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 230<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\u00a0<\/span>which make a plaything of you, that is all.
\nThey have no reality. <\/span><\/p>\n

You must distrust
\nthe mind altogether when you want to enter the world of experiences. It is
\nenough for the mind to be just slightly roused for it to say, \u201cAh, what is
\ngoing on?\u201d…Then it may be that things do happen but it is no longer the
\nthing, it is a fabrication. <\/span><\/p>\n

First condition,
\nknow how to keep silent. And not only keep your tongue quiet, but silence your
\nmind, keep the head silent. If you wish to have a true, sincere experience upon
\nwhich you can build, you must know how to be silent, otherwise you have nothing
\nbut what you fabricate yourself, which is equivalent to zero. All that one can
\nsay is, \u201cHeavens, what a fashioner my mind is !\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 231<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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