{"id":4390,"date":"2013-07-13T01:55:40","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4390"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:55:40","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:40","slug":"35-24-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\/35-24-march-1951-vol-04-questions-and-answers-volume-04","title":{"rendered":"-35_24 March 1951.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n24 March 1951<\/font><\/span><\/b>
\n<\/font> <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

You say, \u201cLove is everywhere. Its movement
\nis there in plants, perhaps in the very stones….\u201d\u00b9 If there is love in a
\nstone, how can one see it ? <\/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

Perhaps the
\ndifferent elements constituting the stone are coordinated by the spark of love.
\nI am sure that when the Divine Love descended into Matter, this Matter was
\nquite unconscious, it had absolutely no form; it may even be said that forms in
\ngeneral are the result of the effort of Love to bring consciousness into
\nMatter. If one of you (I have my doubts, but still) went down into the
\nInconscient, what is called the pure Inconscient, you would realise<\/span>
\nwhat it is. A stone will seem to you a marvellously<\/span> conscious
\nobject in comparison. You speak disdainfully of a stone because you have just a
\nwee bit more consciousness than it has, but the difference between the
\nconsciousness of the stone and the total Inconscient is perhaps greater than
\nthat between the stone and you. And the coming out of the Inconscient is due
\nexclusively to the sacrifice of the Divine, to this descent of Divine Love into
\nthe Inconscient. Consequently, when I said \u201cperhaps in the stone\u201d, I could have
\nremoved the \u201cperhaps\u201d<\/span> \u2013
\n<\/span>I can assert that even in the stone it is there. There would be nothing,
\nneither stone nor metal nor any organisation<\/span> of atoms
\nwithout this presence of Divine Love. <\/span><\/p>\n

Most
\npeople say there is \u201cconsciousness\u201d when they begin to think<\/span> \u2013 <\/span>when one
\ndoesn’t think one is not conscious. But plants are perfectly conscious and yet
\nthey do not think. They have very precise sensations which are the expression
\nof a consciousness, but they do not think. Animals begin to think and their
\nreactions are much more complex. But both plants and animals are conscious. One
\ncan be conscious of a sensation without having the least thought.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00b9 Questions and Answers 1929 (2 June ).<\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 240<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

Did material substance exist before the
\ndescent of Divine Love? <\/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

I don’t think it
\ncould be said that there was a material substance. The Inconscient… it is the
\nInconscient. I don’t know how to explain this to you. If there is a negation of
\nsomething, it is truly the Inconscient, it is the negation of everything. It
\nhas not even the capacity of emptiness. One needs to have descended there to
\nknow what it is and explain it. Words cannot describe it. It is the negation of
\nall things because everything begins with consciousness. Without consciousness
\nthere is nothing. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Were there any beings before this descent
\nof Love? Were they conscious? <\/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

There were no
\nterrestrial beings. The terrestrial world, the earth came into existence after
\nthe descent into the Inconscient, not before. <\/span><\/p>\n

The gradual
\nformation of the different stages of being, from the Supreme to the most
\nmaterial region, is subsequent to the Inconscient. When, precisely, the
\nConsciousness \u201cbegan\u201d its creation (don’t take what I say quite literally as
\nthough it were a little history of another country, for it is not that, I am
\ntrying to make you understand, that’s all), the first manifestation of the
\ncreative Consciousness was just an emanation of consciousness \u2013 of conscious
\nlight \u2013 and when this emanation separated itself from its origin, the
\nInconscient was born, through opposition (how to put it ?… yes, really
\nthrough opposition. Consequently, the birth of the Inconscient is prior to the
\nformation of the world, and it was only when the perception came that the whole
\nuniverse was going to be created uselessly that there was a call and Divine
\nLove plunged into the Inconscient to change it into consciousness. Therefore,
\nit can be said that the formation of the material worlds as we know them is the
\nresult of the descent of the supreme Consciousness into the Inconscient.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n Page – 241<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

 \u00a0<\/span>It cannot be said that there was something
\nprior to that, things as we know them in the material world ( I apologise<\/span> for the ambiguity of my words, but you understand
\none cannot express these things in our usual words). <\/span><\/p>\n

The formation of
\nthe earth as we know it, this infinitesimal point in the immense universe, was
\nmade precisely in order to concentrate the effort of transformation upon one
\npoint; it is like a symbolic point created in the universe to make it possible,
\nwhile working directly upon one point, to radiate it over the entire universe. <\/span><\/p>\n

If we want to make the problem a little more comprehensible, it is
\nenough to limit ourselves to the creation and the history of the earth, for it
\nis a good symbol of universal history. <\/span><\/p>\n

From the
\nastronomical point of view the earth is nothing, it is a very small accident.
\nFrom the spiritual point of view, it is a symbolic willed formation. And as I
\nhave already said, it is only upon earth that this Presence is found, this
\ndirect contact with the supreme Origin, this presence of the divine
\nConsciousness hidden in all things. <\/span><\/p>\n

The other worlds
\nhave been organised<\/span> more or less hierarchically, if
\none may say so, but the earth has a special formation due to the direct
\nintervention, without any intermediary, of the supreme Consciousness in the
\nInconscient. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Have the solar fragments the same matter
\nas the 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

I have taken care
\nto tell you that this radiation was a symbolic creation, and that all action on
\nthis special point had its radiation in the whole universe; remember this,
\ninstead of beginning to say that the formation of the earth comes from an
\nelement projected from the sun or that a nebula must have been scattered giving
\nbirth to the sun and all its satellites, etc…<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

But is it true that there is no difference
\nbetween solar<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage – 242<\/span><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/span><\/i> <\/span>matter and terrestrial matter? Were the
\nsun and the other worlds of the solar system formed at the same time as the
\nearth? <\/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

Necessarily, everything
\nwas formed at the same time, the creation was simultaneous, with a special
\nconcentration of the Consciousness upon the earth. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Have the beings of the other worlds and
\nplanets a psychic 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

No, it is a purely
\nterrestrial phenomenon. Only, there is nothing against the idea that psychic
\nbeings may go to the other worlds if it so pleases them. There is no reason to
\nthink that one cannot, if one went to another planet, meet psychic beings; it
\nis not impossible; but these would be psychic beings formed upon earth who have
\nbecome free in their movement, going here and there at will for some reason or
\nother. All knowledge in all traditions, from every part of the earth, says that
\nthe psychic formation is a terrestrial formation and that the growth of the
\npsychic being is something that takes place upon earth. But once they are
\nformed and free in their movement, they can go anywhere in the universe, they
\nare not limited in their movement; but their formation and growth belong to the
\nterrestrial life, for reasons of concentration. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Are Divine Love and Grace the same thing ?
\n<\/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

Essentially, all
\nthings are the same. In its essence everything is the same, it is a phenomenon
\nof consciousness; but Love can exist without Grace and Grace can exist without
\nLove. But for the human consciousness all manifestation of Grace is a
\nmanifestation of the supreme Love, inevitably. Only it goes beyond human consciousness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 243<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

 <\/span>How can one become conscious of Divine
\nLove and an instrument of its expression ? <\/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

First, to become
\nconscious of anything whatever, you must will it. And when I say \u201cwill it\u201d, I
\ndon’t mean saying one day, \u201cOh! I would like it very much\u201d, then two days later
\ncompletely forgetting it. <\/span><\/p>\n

To will it is a
\nconstant, sustained, concentrated aspiration, an almost exclusive occupation of
\nthe consciousness. This is the first step. There are many others: a very attentive
\nobservation, a very persistent analysis, a very keen discernment of what is
\npure in the movement and what is not. If you have an imaginative faculty, you
\nmay try to imagine and see if your imagination tallies with reality. There are
\npeople who believe that it is enough to wake up one day in a particular mood
\nand say, \u201cAh! How I wish to be conscious of Divine Love, how I wish to manifest
\nDivine Love…\u201d Note, I don’t know how many millions of times one feels within
\na little quivering of human instinct and imagines that if one had at one’s
\ndisposal Divine Love, great things could be accomplished, and one says, \u201cI am
\ngoing to try and find Divine Love and we shall see the result.\u201d This is the
\nworst possible way. Because, before having even touched the very beginning of realisation<\/span> you have spoilt the result. You must take up
\nyour search with a purity of aspiration and surrender which in themselves are
\nalready difficult to acquire. You must have worked much on yourself only to be ready<\/i> to aspire to this Love. If you
\nlook at yourself very sincerely, very straight, you will see that as soon as
\nyou begin to think of Love it is always your little inner tumult which starts
\nwhirling. All that aspires in you wants certain vibrations. It is almost
\nimpossible, without being far advanced on the yogic path, to separate the vital
\nessence, the vital vibration from your conception of Love. What I say is
\nfounded on an assiduous experience of human beings. Well, for you, in the state
\nin which you are, as you are, if you had a contact with pure Divine Love, it
\nwould seem to<\/span><\/p>\n

\n Page – 244<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\nyou colder than ice, or so far-off, so high
\nthat you would not be able to breathe; it would be like the mountain-top where
\nyou would feel frozen and find it difficult to breathe, so very far would it be
\nfrom what you normally feel. Divine Love, if not clothed with a psychic or
\nvital vibration, is difficult for a human being to perceive. One can have an
\nimpression of grace, of a grace which is something so far, so high, so pure, so
\nimpersonal that…yes, one can have the feeling of grace, but it is with
\ndifficulty that one feels Love. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

But, then, can it be said that the psychic
\nvibration is the vibration of Divine Love ?<\/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 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Each one of you
\nshould be able to get into touch with your own psychic being, it is not an
\ninaccessible thing. Your psychic being is there precisely to put you in contact
\nwith the divine forces. And if you are in contact with your psychic being, you
\nbegin to feel, to have a kind of perception of what Divine Love can be. As I
\nhave just said, it is not enough that one morning you wake up saying, \u201cOh ! I
\nwould like to be in contact with Divine Love\u201d, \u2013 it is not like that. If,
\nthrough a sustained effort, a deep concentration, a great forgetfulness of
\nself, you succeed in coming into touch with your psychic being, you will never
\ndream of thinking, \u201cOh ! I would like to be in contact with Divine Love\u201d you
\nare in a state in which everything appears to you to be this Divine Love and
\nnothing else. And yet it is only a covering, but a covering of a beautiful
\ntexture. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

So, Divine Love need not be sought and
\nknown apart from the psychic 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

No, find your
\npsychic being and you will understand what divine Love is. Do not try to come
\ninto direct contact with divine Love because this will yet again be a vital
\ndesire pushing you; you will perhaps not be aware of it, but it will be a vital
\ndesire.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n Page – 245<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

 You must make an
\neffort to come into touch with your psychic being, to become aware and free in
\nthe consciousness of your psychic being, and then, quite naturally,
\nspontaneously, you will know what Divine Love is. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

The fact of being born with a psychic
\nbeing and upon earth which is a spiritual symbol proves that we have each one
\nof us a great responsibility, doesn’t it ? <\/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

Surely. One has a
\nbig responsibility, it is to fulfil<\/span> a special mission
\nthat one is born upon earth. Only, naturally, the psychic being must have
\nreached a certain degree of development; otherwise it could be said that it is
\nthe whole earth which has the responsibility. The more conscious and individualised<\/span> one becomes, the more should one have the
\nsense of responsibility. But this is what happens at a given moment; one begins
\nto think that one is here not without reason, without purpose. One realises<\/span> suddenly that one is here because there is
\nsomething to be done and this something is not anything egoistic. This seems to
\nme the most logical way of entering upon the path \u2013 all of a sudden to realise<\/span>, \u201cSince I am here, it means that I have a mission
\nto fulfil<\/span>. Since I have been endowed with a
\nconsciousness, it is that I have something to do with that consciousness \u2013 what
\nis it ?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Generally, it
\nseems to me that this is the first question one should put to oneself: \u201cWhy am
\nI here ?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

I have seen this
\nin children, even in children of five or six: \u201cWhy am I here, why do I live?\u201d
\nAnd then to search, with whatever consciousness is available, with a very
\nlittle bit of consciousness: why am I here, for what reason ? <\/span><\/p>\n

This seems to me
\nthe normal starting-point.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n Page – 246<\/span><\/p>\n

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

24 March 1951   You say, \u201cLove is everywhere. Its movement is there in plants, perhaps in the very stones….\u201d\u00b9 If there is love in…<\/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-4390","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\/4390","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=4390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}