{"id":4391,"date":"2013-07-13T01:55:40","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4391"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:55:40","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:40","slug":"10-15-january-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\/10-15-january-1951-vol-04-questions-and-answers-volume-04","title":{"rendered":"-10_15 January 1951.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n
\n15
\n January 1951<\/font><\/span><\/b> <\/font><\/span><\/b>
\n
\n
\n <\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt
\nis only by observing these movements (of our being) with great care, by
\nbringing them, as it were, before the tribunal of our highest ideal, with a
\nsincere will to submit to its judgment, that we can hope to educate in us a
\ndiscernment which does not err.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe
\nScience of Living\u201d, On Education <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

One must be clearly aware of the origin of one’s movements because
\nthere are contradictory velleities in the being \u2013 some pushing you here, others
\npushing you there, and that obviously creates a chaos in life. If you observe
\nyourself, you will see that as soon as you do something which disturbs you a
\nlittle, the mind immediately gives you a favourable reason to justify yourself \u2013
\nthis mind is capable of gilding everything. In these conditions it is difficult
\nto know oneself. One must be absolutely sincere to be able to do it and to see
\nclearly into all the little falsehoods of the mental being. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>If
\nin your mind you go over the various movements and reactions of the day like
\none repeating indefinitely the same thing, you will not progress. If this
\nreviewing is to make you progress, you must find something within you in whose
\nlight you yourself can be your own judge, something which represents for you
\nthe best part of yourself, which has some light, some goodwill and which
\nprecisely is in love with progress. Place that before you and, first of all,
\npass across it as at a cinema all that you have done, all that you have felt,
\nyour impulses, your thoughts, etc…; then try to coordinate them, that is,
\nfind out why this has followed that. And look at the luminous screen that is
\nbefore you: certain things pass across it well, without throwing a shadow;
\nothers, on the contrary, throw a little shadow; others yet cast a shadow altogether
\nblack and disagreeable. You must do this very sincerely, as though you were
\nplaying a game: under such circum- <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 38<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

stances I did such and such a thing, feeling like this and
\nthinking in this way; I have before me my ideal of knowledge and self-mastery,
\nwell, was this act in keeping with my ideal or not? If it was, it would not
\nleave any shadow on the screen, which would remain transparent, and one would
\nnot have to worry about it. If it is not in conformity, it casts a shadow. Why
\nhas it left this shadow? What was there in this act that was contrary to the
\nwill to self-knowledge and self-mastery? Most often you will find that it
\ncorresponds to unconsciousness \u2013 then you file it among unconscious things and
\nresolve that next time you will try to be conscious before doing anything. But
\nin other cases you will see that it was a nasty little egoism, quite black,
\nwhich had come to distort your action or your thought. Then you place this
\negoism before your \u201clight\u201d and ask yourself: \u201cWhy has it the right to make me act
\nlike that, think like that?… \u201c And instead of accepting any odd explanation
\nyou must search and you will find in a corner of your being something which
\nthinks and says, \u201cAh, no, I shall accept everything but that.\u201d You will see
\nthat it is a petty vanity, a movement of self-love, an egoistic feeling hidden
\nsomewhere, a hundred things. Then you take a good look at these things in the
\nlight of your ideal: \u201cIs cherishing this movement in conformity with my seeking
\nand the realisation of my ideal or not? I put this little dark corner in front
\nof the light until the light enters into it and it disappears.\u201d Then the comedy
\nis over. But the comedy of your whole day is not finished yet, you know, for
\nthere are many things which have to pass thus before the light. But if you
\ncontinue this game \u2013 for truly it is a game, if you do this sincerely \u2013 I
\nassure you that in six months you will not recognise yourself, you will say to
\nyourself, \u201cWhat? I was like that! It is impossible!\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>You may be five years old or twenty, fifty or
\nsixty and yet transform yourself in this way by putting everything before this
\ninner light. You will see that the elements which do not conform with your
\nideal are not generally elements which you have to throw wholly out of yourself
\n(there are very few of this kind);
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 39<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

they are simply things not in their place. If you organise
\neverything \u2013 your feelings, your thoughts, your impulses, etc, \u2013 around the
\npsychic centre which is the inner light, you will see that all inner disorder
\nwill change into a luminous order. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is quite evident that if a similar
\nprocedure were adopted by a nation or by the earth, most of the things which
\nmake men unhappy would disappear, for the major part of the world’s misery
\ncomes from the fact that things are not in their place. If life were organised
\nin such a way that nothing was wasted and each thing was in its place, most of
\nthese miseries would not exist any longer. An old sage has said: <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no evil. There is only a lack of
\nbalance. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing bad. Only things are not
\nin their place.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>If everything
\nwere in its place, in nations, in the material world, in the actions and
\nthoughts and feelings of individuals, the greater part of human suffering would
\ndisappear. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>There are two things to be considered:
\nconsciousness and the instruments through which consciousness manifests. Let us
\ntake the instruments: there is the mental being which produces thoughts, the
\nemotional being which produces feeling, the vital being which produces the
\npower of action and the physical being that acts. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>The man of genius may use anything at all and
\nmake something beautiful because he has genius; but give this genius a perfect
\ninstrument and he will make something wonderful. Take a great musician; well,
\neven with a wretched piano and missing notes, he will produce something
\nbeautiful; but give him a good piano, well-tuned, and he will do something
\nstill more beautiful. The consciousness is the same in either case but for expression
\nit needs a good instrument \u2013 a body with mental, vital, psychic and physical
\ncapacities. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>If physically you are badly built, badly set
\nup, it will be difficult for you, even with good training, to do gymnastics as
\nwell as one with a beautiful well-built body. It is the same41with the mind \u2013
\none who has a well-organised mind, complex, com- <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 40<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

plete, refined, will express himself much better than one who has
\na rather mediocre or badly organised mind. First of all, you must educate your
\nconsciousness, become conscious of yourself, organise your consciousness
\naccording to your ideal, but at the same time do not neglect the instruments
\nwhich are in your body. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Take
\nan example. You are in your body with your deepest ideal but you find yourself
\nbefore a school class and you have to teach something to the students. Well,
\nthis light is up there, this light of consciousness, but when you have to
\nexplain to your class the science you have to teach, is it more convenient to
\nhave a fund of knowledge or will the inspiration be such that you will not need
\nthis fund of knowledge? What is your personal experience?…You find, don’t
\nyou, that there are days when everything goes well \u2013 you are eloquent, your
\nstudents listen to you and understand you easily. But there are other days when
\nwhat you have to teach does not come, they do not listen to you \u2013 that is, you
\nare bored and are boring. This means that in the former case your consciousness
\nis awake and concentrated upon what you are doing, while in the second it is
\nmore or less asleep \u2013 you are left to your most external means. But in this
\ncase, if you have a fund of knowledge you can tell your students something; if
\nyou have a mind trained, prepared, a good instrument responding well when you
\nwant to make use of it, and if you have also gathered all necessary notes and
\nnotions all will go very well. But if you have nothing in your head and,
\nbesides, you are not in contact with your higher consciousness, then you have
\nno other recourse than to take a book and read out your lesson \u2013 you will be
\nobliged to make use of someone else’s mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Take games.
\nThere too you find days when everything goes well; you have done nothing
\nspecial previously, but even so you succeed in everything; but if you have
\npractised well beforehand, the result is still more magnificent. If, for
\nexample, you find yourself facing someone who has trained himself slowly,
\nseriously, with patience and endurance, and who all of a sudden
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 41<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

has a strong aspiration, well, this one will beat you in spite of
\nyour aspiration unless your aspiration is very much superior to that of your
\nadversary. If you have opposite you someone who knows only the technique of the
\ngame but has no conscious aspiration, while you are in a fully conscious state,
\nevidently it is you who will defeat him because the quality of consciousness is
\nsuperior to the quality of technique. But one cannot replace the other. The one
\nwhich is superior is more important, granted, but you must also have nerves
\nwhich respond quickly, spontaneous movements; you must know all the secrets of
\nthe game to be able to play perfectly. You must have both the things. What is
\nhigher is the consciousness which enables you to make the right movement at the
\nright moment but it is not exclusive. When you seek perfection, you must not
\nneglect the one under the pretext that you have the other. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Should one play in order to win? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

When you have a three or four-year old consciousness, this is an
\naltogether necessary stimulant. But you may have a four-year old consciousness
\neven at the age of fifty, may you not? No, when you have a ripe consciousness
\nyou must not play in order to win. You must play for the sake of playing and to
\nlearn how to play and to progress in games and in order that your play may
\nbecome the expression of your inner consciousness at its highest \u2013 is this
\nwhich is important. For example, people who like to play well do not go and
\nchoose bad players to play with, simply for the pleasure of winning \u2013 they
\nchoose those who are the best players and play with them. I remember having
\nlearned to play tennis when I was eight, it was a passion; but I never wished
\nto play with my little comrades because I learned nothing (usually I used to
\ndefeat them), I always went to the best players. At times they looked
\nsurprised, but in the end they played with me \u2013 I never won but I learned much. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 42<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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