{"id":4382,"date":"2013-07-13T01:55:36","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4382"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:55:36","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:36","slug":"51-3-may-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\/51-3-may-1951-vol-04-questions-and-answers-volume-04","title":{"rendered":"-51_3 May 1951.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


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

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMoney is the visible sign of a universal
\nforce, and this force in its manifestation on earth works on the vital and
\nphysical planes and is indispensable to the fullness of the outer life. In its
\norigin and its true action it belongs to the Divine. But like other powers of
\nthe Divine it is delegated here and in the ignorance of the lower Nature can be
\nusurped for the uses of the ego or held by Asuric<\/span>
\ninfluences and perverted to their purpose. This is indeed one of the three
\nforces \u2013- power, wealth, sex \u2013 that have the strongest attraction for the human
\nego and the Asura<\/span> and are most generally misheld<\/span> and misused by those who retain them…For this
\nreason most spiritual disciplines …proclaim poverty and bareness of life as
\nthe only spiritual condition. But this is an error; it leaves the power in the
\nhands of the hostile forces. To reconquer<\/span> it for the
\nDivine to whom it belongs and use it divinely for the divine life is the supramental<\/span> way for the sadhaka<\/span>.\u201d
\n<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, pp. 11-12
\n<\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>How can one know if one’s way of using money is
\nin accordance with the divine Will? <\/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 must first
\nknow what the divine Will is. But there is a surer way \u2013 to surrender money for
\nthe divine work, if one is not sure oneself. \u201cDivinely\u201d means at the service of
\nthe Divine \u2013 it means not to use money for one’s own satisfaction but to place
\nit at the Divine’s service. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Sri Aurobindo speaks of \u201ca weak bondage to the
\nhabits that the possession of riches creates\u201d. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, pp. 11-12<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 375<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

When you are rich
\nand have a lot of money to spend, generally you spend it on things you find
\npleasant, and you become habituated to these things, attached to these things,
\nand if one day the money is gone, you miss it, you are unhappy, you are
\nmiserable and feel all lost because you no longer have what you were in the
\nhabit of having. It is a bondage, a weak attachment. He who is quite detached,
\nwhen he lives in the midst of these things, it is well with him; when these
\nthings are gone, it is well also; he is totally indifferent to both. That is
\nthe right attitude: when it is there he uses it, when it is not he does without
\nit. And for his inner consciousness this makes no difference. That surprises
\nyou, but it is like that. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

If one has the power to acquire a lot of money,
\ndoes this mean that one has a certain control over terrestrial forces ? <\/span>
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

This depends upon
\nhow one acquires it. If you get it by foul ways, that does not mean that you
\nhave a control. But if someone, scrupulously doing his duty, sees that money
\ncomes to him, it is evidently because he exercises a control over these forces.
\nThere are people who have the power of attracting money and they haven’t the
\nleast need to practise<\/span> dishonesty to get it. Others,
\neven to get a few pennies, must make all sorts of contrivances, more or less
\nclean. So one cannot say… We see a rich man and think he must be exercising a
\ncontrol over the forces of money \u2013 no, not necessarily. But if a man remains
\nperfectly honest and does what he thinks is his duty without caring to acquire
\nmoney, and yet money comes to him, evidently he has a certain affinity with
\nthose forces. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It is said, \u201cOne cannot make a heap without
\nmaking a hole\u201d, one cannot enrich oneself without impoverishing someone else.
\nIs this true ? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Page – 376<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

This is not quite
\ncorrect. If one produces something, instead of an impoverishment it is an
\nenrichment; simply one puts into circulation in the world something else having
\na value equivalent to that of money. But to say that one cannot make a heap without
\nmaking a hole is all right for those who speculate, who do business on the
\nStock Exchange or in finance \u2013 there it is true. It is impossible to have a
\nfinancial success in affairs of pure speculation without its being detrimental
\nto another. But it is limited to this. Otherwise a producer does not make a
\nhole if he heaps up money in exchange for what he produces. Surely there is the
\nquestion of the value of the production, but if the production is truly an
\nacquisition for the general human wealth, it does not make a hole, it increases
\nthis wealth. And in another way, not only in the material field, the same thing
\nholds for art, for literature or science, for any production at all. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

When I was doing business (Export-import), I
\nalways had the feeling of robbing my neighbour<\/span>. <\/span>
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

This is living at
\nthe expense of others, because one multiplies the middlemen. Naturally, it is
\nperhaps convenient, practical, but from the general point of view, and above
\nall in the way it is practised<\/span>, it is living at the
\nexpense of the producer and the consumers. One becomes an agent, not at all
\nwith the idea of rendering service (because there is not one in a million who
\nhas this idea), but because it is an easy way of earning money without making
\nany effort. But of course, among the ways of making money without any effort,
\nthere are others much worse than that! They are countless. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Friends from outside have often asked me this
\nquestion: \u201cWhen one is compelled to earn his living, should one just conform to
\nthe common code of honesty or should one be still more strict ?\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Page – 377<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

This depends upon
\nthe attitude your friend has taken in life. If he wants to be a sadhak<\/span>, it is indispensable that rules of ordinary morality
\ndo not have any value for him. Now, if he is an ordinary man living the
\nordinary life, it is a purely practical question, isn’t it ? He must conform to
\nthe laws of the country in which he lives to avoid all trouble ! But all these
\nthings which in ordinary life have a very relative value and can be looked upon
\nwith a certain indulgence, change totally the minute one decides to do yoga and
\nenter the divine life. Then, all values change completely; what is honest in
\nordinary life, is no longer at all honest for you. Besides, there is such a
\nreversal of values that one can no longer use the same ordinary language. If
\none wants to consecrate oneself to the divine life, one must do it truly, that
\nis, give oneself entirely, no longer do anything for one’s own interest, depend
\nexclusively upon the divine Power to which one abandons oneself. Everything
\nchanges completely, doesn’t it ? \u2013 everything, everything, it is a reversal.
\nWhat I have just read from this book applies solely to those who want to do
\nyoga; for others it has no meaning, it is a language which makes no sense, but
\nfor those who want to do yoga it is imperative. It is always the same thing in
\nall that we have recently read: one must be careful not to have one foot on one
\nside and the other foot on the other, not to bestride two different boats each
\nfollowing its own course. This is what Sri Aurobindo said: one must not lead a
\n\u201cdouble life\u201d. One must give up one thing or the other \u2013 one can’t follow both.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

This does not
\nmean, however, that one is obliged to get out of the conditions of one’s life:
\nit is the inner attitude which must be totally changed. One may do what one is
\nin the habit of doing, but do it with quite a different attitude. I don’t say
\nit is necessary to give up everything in life and go away into solitude, to an
\nashram necessarily, to do yoga. Now, it is true that if one does yoga in the
\nworld and in worldly circumstances, it is more difficult, but it is also more
\ncomplete. Because, every minute one must face problems which do not present
\nthemselves<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Page – 378<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\u00a0<\/span>to someone who has left everything and gone
\ninto solitude; for such a one these problems are reduced to a minimum while in
\nlife one meets all sorts of difficulties, beginning with the incomprehension of
\nthose around you with whom you have to deal; one must be ready for that, be
\narmed with patience, and a great indifference. But in yoga one should no longer
\ncare for what people think or say; it is an absolutely indispensable
\nstarting-point. You must be absolutely immune to what the world may say or
\nthink of you and to the way it treats you. People’s understanding must be
\nsomething quite immaterial to you and should not even slightly touch you. That
\nis why it is generally much more difficult to remain in one’s usual
\nsurroundings and do yoga than to leave everything and go into solitude; it is
\nmuch more difficult, but we are not here to do easy things \u2013 easy things we
\nleave to those who do not think of transformation. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

If someone has acquired a lot of money by
\ndishonest means, could some of it be asked for the Divine ? <\/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

Sri Aurobindo has
\nanswered this question. He says that money in itself is an impersonal force:
\nthe way in which you acquire money concerns you alone personally. It may do you
\ngreat harm, it may harm others also, but it does not in any way change the
\nnature of the money which is an altogether impersonal force: money has no
\ncolour, no taste, no psychological consciousness. It is a force. It is like
\nsaying that the air breathed out by a scoundrel is more tainted than that
\nbreathed out by an honest man \u2013 I don’t think so. I think the result is the
\nsame. One may for reasons of a practical nature refuse money which has been
\nstolen, but that is for altogether practical reasons, it is not because of
\ndivine reasons. This is a purely human idea. One may from a practical point of view
\nsay, \u201cAh ! No, the way in which you have acquired this money is disgusting and
\nso I don’t want to offer it to the Divine\u201d, because one has a human
\nconsciousness. But if you take someone (let us suppose the worst) who has
\nkilled
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

Page – 379<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

and acquired money
\nby the murder; if all of a sudden he is seized by terrible scruples and remorse
\nand tells himself, \u201cI have only one thing to do with this money, give it where
\nit can be utilised<\/span> for the best, in the most
\nimpersonal way\u201d, it seems to me that this movement is preferable to utilising<\/span> it for one’s own satisfaction. I said that the
\nreasons which could prevent one from receiving ill-gotten money may be reasons
\nof a purely practical kind, but there may also be more profound reasons, of a
\n(I do not want to say moral but) spiritual nature, from the point of view of tapasya<\/span>; one may tell somebody, \u201cNo, you cannot truly
\nacquire merit with this fortune which you have obtained in such a terrible way;
\nwhat you can do is to restore it\u201d, one may feel that a restitution, for instance,
\nwill help one to make more progress than simply passing the money on to any
\nwork whatever. One may see things in this way \u2013 one can’t make rules. This is
\nwhat I never stop telling you: it is impossible to make a rule. In every case
\nit is different. But you must not think that the money is affected; money as a
\nterrestrial force is not affected by the way in which it is obtained, that can
\nin no way affect it. Money remains the same, your note remains the same, your
\npiece of gold remains the same, and as it carries its force, its force remains
\nthere. It harms only the person who has done wrong, that is evident. Then the
\nquestion remains: in what state of mind and for what reasons does your
\ndishonest man want to pass on his money to a work he considers divine ? Is it
\nas a measure of safety, through prudence or to lay his heart at rest ?
\nEvidently this is not a very good motive and it cannot be encouraged, but if he
\nfeels a kind of repentance and regret for what he has done and the feeling that
\nthere is but one thing to do and that is precisely to deprive himself of what
\nhe has wrongly acquired and utilise<\/span> it for the
\ngeneral good as much as possible, then there is nothing to say against that.
\nOne cannot decide in a general way – it depends upon the instance. Only, if I
\nunderstand well what you mean, if one knows that a man has acquired money by
\nthe most unnamable means, obviously, it
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

Page – 380<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

would not be good
\nto go and ask him for money for some divine work, because that would be like
\n\u201crehabilitating\u201d his way of gaining money. One cannot ask, that is not
\npossible. If, spontaneously, for some reason, he gives it, there is no reason
\nto refuse it. But it is quite impossible to go and ask him for it, because it
\nis as though one legitimised<\/span> his manner of acquiring
\nmoney. That makes a great difference. <\/span><\/p>\n

And generally, in
\nthese cases, those who go and ask money from rascals use means of intimidation:
\nthey frighten them, not physically but about their future life, about what may
\nhappen to them, they give them a fright. It is not very nice. These are
\nprocedures one ought not to use. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Besides money, what are the other divine powers
\n\u201cdelegated\u201d here on earth ? <\/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

All. All the
\ndivine powers are manifested here and deformed here- light, life, love, force \u2013
\nall \u2013 harmony, Ananda<\/span> \u2013 all, all, there is nothing
\nwhich is not divine in its origin and which does not exist here under a
\ncompletely distorted, travestied form. The other day we had spoken at length
\nabout the way in which divine Love is deformed in its manifestation here, it is
\nthe same thing. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

How can money be reconquered<\/span>
\nfor the Mother ? <\/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

Ah !…There is a
\nhint here. Three things are interdependent (Sri Aurobindo says here): power,
\nmoney and sex. I believe the three are interdependent and that all three have
\nto be conquered to be sure of having any one \u2013 when you want to conquer one you
\nmust have the other two. Unless one has mastered these three things, desire for
\npower, desire for money and desire for sex, one cannot truly possess any of
\nthem firmly and surely. What gives so great an importance to money in the world
\nas it is today is not so much money itself, for apart from a few fools <\/span><\/p>\n

Page – 381<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

who heap up money
\nand are happy because they can heap it up and count it, generally money is
\ndesired and acquired for the satisfactions it brings. And this is almost
\nreciprocal: each of these three things not only has its own value in the world
\nof desires, but leans upon the other two. I have related to you that vision,
\nthat big black serpent which kept watch over the riches of the world,
\nterrestrial wealth \u2013 he demanded the mastery of the sex-impulse. Because,
\naccording to certain theories, the very need of power has its end in this
\nsatisfaction, and if one mastered that, if one abolished that from human
\nconsciousness, much of the need for power and desire for money would disappear
\nautomatically. Evidently, these are the three great obstacles in the
\nterrestrial human life and, unless they are conquered, there is scarcely a
\nchance for humanity to change. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Does an individual mastery over desire suffice or
\nis a general, collective mastery necessary ? <\/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

Ah ! There we
\nare… Is it possible to attain a total personal transformation without there
\nbeing at least a correspondence in the collectivity ?… This does not seem
\npossible to me. There is such an interdependence between the individual and the
\ncollectivity that, unless one does what the ascetics have preached, that is,
\nescapes from the world, goes out of it completely, leaves it where it is and
\nruns away selfishly leaving all the work to others, unless one does that… And
\neven so I have my doubts. Is it possible to accomplish a total transformation
\nof one’s being so long as the collectivity has not reached at least a certain
\ndegree of transformation ? I don’t think so. Human nature remains what it is \u2013
\none can attain a great change of consciousness, that yes, one can purify one’s
\nconsciousness, but the total conquest, the material transformation depends
\ndefinitely to a large extent, on a certain degree of progress in the
\ncollectivity. Buddha said with reason that as long as you have in you a
\nvibration of desire, this vibration will spread in the world and all those who
\nare
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

Page – 382<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

ready to receive
\nit will receive it. In the same way, if you have in you the least receptivity
\nto a vibration of desire, you will be open to all the vibrations of desire
\nwhich circulate constantly in the world. And that is why he concluded: Get out
\nof this illusion, withdraw entirely and you will be free. I find this
\nrelatively very selfish, but after all, that was the only way he had foreseen.
\nThere is another: to identify oneself so well with the divine Power as to be
\nable to act constantly and consciously upon all vibrations circulating through
\nthe world. Then the undesirable vibrations no longer have any effect upon you,
\nbut you have an effect upon them, that is, instead of an undesirable vibration
\nentering into you without being perceived and doing its work there, it is
\nperceived and immediately on its arrival you act upon it to transform it, and
\nit goes back into the world transformed, to do its beneficent work and prepare
\nothers for the same realisation<\/span>. This is exactly what
\nSri Aurobindo proposes to do and, more clearly, what he asks you to do, what he
\nintends us to do: <\/span><\/p>\n

Instead of running away, to bring into oneself the power which can
\nconquer. <\/span><\/p>\n

Note that things
\nare arranged in such a way that if the tiniest atom of ambition remained and
\none wanted this Power for one’s personal satisfaction, one could never have it,
\nthat Power would never come. Its deformed limitations, of the kind seen in the
\nvital and physical world, those yes, one may have them, and there are many people
\nwho have them, but the true Power, the Power Sri Aurobindo calls \u201csupramental<\/span>\u201d, unless one is absolutely free from all egoism
\nunder all its forms, one will never be able to manifest. So there is no danger
\nof its being misused. It will not manifest except through a being who has
\nattained the perfection of a complete inner detachment. I have told you, this
\nis what Sri Aurobindo expects us to do \u2013 you may tell me it is difficult, but I
\nrepeat that we are not here to do easy things, we are here to do difficult
\nones.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

Page – 383<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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