{"id":4401,"date":"2013-07-13T01:55:44","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4401"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:55:44","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:44","slug":"15-5-february-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\/15-5-february-1951-vol-04-questions-and-answers-volume-04","title":{"rendered":"-15_5 February 1951.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n
\n5
\n February 1951<\/font><\/span><\/b> <\/font><\/span><\/b>
\n
\n
\n <\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Mother reads the beginning of the talk of
\n<\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

14 April. Having spoken of the dangers of
\n<\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

Yoga (\u201cIf you cannot get rid of ambition,
\ndo<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\n\u00a0<\/font><\/span>not
\ntouch the thing. It is fire that burns.\u201d),<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/font><\/span>Mother speaks of the two methods of Yoga:
\n<\/font><\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere
\nare two paths of Yoga, one of tapasya (discipline) and the other of surrender.\u201d
\n<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\nQuestions
\nand Answers 1929 (14 April) <\/font><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

What is surrender? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It means that one gives oneself entirely to the Divine. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, and then what happens? If you give yourself entirely to the
\nDivine, it is He who does the Yoga, it is no longer you; hence this is not very
\ndifficult; while if you do tapasya, it is you yourself who do the yoga and you
\ncarry its whole responsibility \u2013 it is there the danger lies. But there are
\npeople who prefer to have the whole responsibility, with its dangers, because
\nthey have a very independent spirit. They are not perhaps in a great hurry \u2013 if
\nthey need several lives to succeed, it does not matter to them. But there are
\nothers who want to go quicker and be more sure of reaching the goal; well,
\nthese give over the whole responsibility to the Divine. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe
\nfirst effect of Yoga, however, is to take away the mental control, and the hungers
\nthat lie dormant are suddenly set free; they rush up and invade the
\nbeing…What you should do is to keep the thing [the sex impulse] away from
\nyou, to disassociate from it, take as little notice of it as possible and, even
\nif you happen to think of it, to remain indifferent and unconcerned.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Ibid. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 72<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

This is much more difficult than to sit upon a difficulty! It is
\nmuch more difficult to stand back from the difficulty, to look at it as
\nsomething which does not concern you, which does not interest you, does not
\nbelong to you, which belongs to the world and not to you \u2013 but it is only by
\ndoing this that you can succeed. This demands a kind of liberation of spirit
\nand a confidence in your inner being: you must believe that if you take the
\nright attitude, it is the best that will happen to you; but if you are afraid
\nwhen something unpleasant happens to you, then you can do nothing. You must
\nhave this confidence within you, whatever the difficulty, whatever the
\nobstacle. Most of the time, when something unpleasant happens, you say, \u201cIs it
\ngoing to increase? What other accident is yet going to happen!\u201d and so on. You
\nmust tell yourself, \u201cThese things are not mine; they belong to the subconscious
\nworld; to be sure I have nothing to do with them and if they come again to
\nseize me, I am going to give a fight.\u201d Naturally you will answer that this is
\neasy to say but difficult to do. But if truly you take this attitude of
\nconfidence, there is no difficulty that you will not be able to conquer.
\nAnxiety makes the difficulty greater. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Evidently there is one difficulty: in your
\nconscious being something does not want the difficulty, wishes sincerely to
\novercome it, but there are numberless movements in other parts of your
\nconsciousness of which you are not conscious. You say, \u201cI want to be cured of
\nthat\u201d; unfortunately it is not sufficient to say \u201cI want\u201d, there are other
\nparts of the consciousness which hide themselves so that you may not be busy
\nwith them, and when your attention is turned away these parts try to assert
\nthemselves. That is why I say and shall always repeat, Be perfectly sincere; do
\nnot try to deceive yourself, do not say, \u201cI have done all that I could.\u201d If you
\ndo not succeed, it means that you do not do all that you can. For, if you truly
\ndo \u201call\u201d that you can, you will surely succeed. If you have any defect which
\nyou want to get rid of and which still persists, and you say, \u201cI have done all
\nthat I could\u201d, you may be sure that you have not done all <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 73<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\u00a0<\/span>that you should have. If
\nyou had, you would have triumphed, for the difficulties that come to you are
\nexactly in proportion to your strength \u2013 nothing can happen to you which does
\nnot belong to your consciousness, and all that belongs to your consciousness
\nyou are able to master. Even the things and suggestions that come from outside
\ncan touch you only in proportion to the consent of your consciousness, and you
\nare made to be the master of your consciousness. If you say, \u201cI have done all
\nthat I could and in spite of everything the thing continues, so I give up\u201d, you
\nmay be already sure that you have not done what you could. When an error
\npersists \u201cin spite of everything\u201d it means that something hidden in your being
\nsprings up suddenly like a Jack-in-the-box and takes the helm of your life.
\nHence, there is only one thing to do, it is to go hunting for all the little
\ndark corners which lie hidden in you and, if you put just a tiny spark of
\ngoodwill on this darkness, it will yield, will vanish, and what appeared to you
\nimpossible will become not only possible, practicable, but it will have been<\/i> done<\/i>.
\nYou can in this way in one minute get rid of a difficulty which would have
\nharassed you for years. I absolutely assure you of it. That depends only on one
\nthing: that you truly, sincerely, want to get rid of it. And it is the same for
\neverything, from physical illnesses up to the highest mental difficulties. One
\npart of the consciousness says, \u201cI don’t want it\u201d, but behind there hides a
\nheap of things which say nothing, do not show themselves, and which just want
\nthat things continue as they are \u2013 generally out of ignorance; they do not
\nbelieve that it is necessary to be cured, they believe that everything is for
\nthe best in the best of worlds. As the lady with whom I had those conversations
\nused to say, \u201cThe trouble begins as soon as you want to change.\u201d A great French
\nwriter has repeated this and has made out of it his pet theory: \u201cMisery begins
\nwhen you want to perfect yourself; if you do not wish to perfect yourself, you
\nwon’t have any misery!\u201d I may tell you that this is absolutely wrong, but there
\nare, all the same, things in you that want absolutely to be left
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 74<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

alone, not to be disturbed in any way: \u201cOh! What a nuisance you
\nare, leave us alone!\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe
\nwhole world is full of the poison [doubt, hesitation, depression]. You take it
\nin with every breath. If you exchange a few words with an undesirable man or
\neven if such a man merely passes by you, you may catch the contagion from
\nhim…So long as you belong to humanity and so long as you lead the ordinary
\nlife, it does not matter much if you mix with the people of the world; but if
\nyou want the divine life, you will have to be exceedingly careful about your
\ncompany and your environment.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Questions
\nand Answers 1929 (14 April) <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

To try to solve this problem ascetics used to go away into forests
\nand sit under a tree; there, of course, they had not to fear any contagion from
\nother human beings. But it is very difficult to go to the very end of this
\nresolution, for it quickly gets known that a saint is sitting under a tree in
\nmeditation, and immediately everybody rushes there! Not only does he not escape
\nfrom the difficulty, but he increases it, for there is not a thing more
\ndangerous than to teach others. You know just a little and you begin to teach
\nothers, and you are immediately compelled to say more than you know, because
\npeople put questions to you which you cannot answer, unless you are a hero of
\nsilence. In the world, those who want to pass themselves off as spiritual
\nteachers \u2013 when people come and ask them something they do not know, they
\ninvent it. Therefore, if in your inner discipline you begin to pretend, you may
\nbe sure of falling into the worst hole \u2013 of all things pretence is the most
\nruinous. In the world you may perhaps pass for what you are not, for people
\nallow themselves to be easily deceived, and that will not lead you to a
\ncatastrophe (although if you exaggerate, it always leads to a catastrophe), but
\nin the spiritual world, you don’t have to deal
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 75<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

with human beings, you have to deal with the Divine; it is
\nimpossible for you to pretend that you are this or that, for the Divine knows
\nbetter than you, doesn’t He? He knows what you are and it is not what you will
\nsay which will influence Him. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>In
\nall spiritual disciplines the first thing that you are taught is not to narrate
\nyour experiences to others. If you need to clarify your mind, tell your
\nexperiences to your spiritual teacher and to no one else, and even before your
\nspiritual teacher you must be very careful. When you present or explain to him
\nwhat has happened in you, if you observe yourself closely, you will see that
\nthere are things in you of which you are not wholly aware; in your experiences
\noften there are gaps, interruptions in the continuity (it is extremely
\ndifficult to get at the continuity of consciousness and to follow the movement
\nto the end); then, if you narrate your experience without wanting to add
\nanything whatsoever, without failing in sincerity, even so you put in what is
\nnot there. When people come and tell me something, an inner event, they find me
\nat times inattentive, not attaching much importance to what I am being told \u2013 it
\nis not that, it is that I listen to what is within, I see what is perfectly
\nexact and the little facts that have been added. And it is because of this that
\ngenerally I do not encourage these things. I know that people may feel
\nrelieved, comforted, if they can tell me what has happened, but then one must
\ncome with a wonderfully scientific spirit. A scientist would never tell you,
\n\u201cIt is this\u201d, \u201cIt is that\u201d, unless he has made all the possible experiments to
\nhave the proof of what he says. And for spiritual things one must follow the
\nsame method. Instead of saying, \u201cI did that, things happened like that\u201d, one
\nmust say, \u201cI had the impression that…things seemed to be like this\u201d and \u201cIt
\nlooked as if there was a connection between this and that… \u201cand not only as a
\nconversational phrase, but as something which expresses truly a mental state.
\nIf you seek for a clarification, you yourself must not explain the thing in
\nadvance, for once you have given me the explanation, I have no longer any
\nexplanation to give you! You <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 76<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

bring me flowers, for instance, flowers of all kinds, but you do
\nnot arrange them, you tell me, \u201cHere I bring you some flowers, it is for you to
\nmake a bouquet out of them.\u201d In this way, it is much more easy for me, isn’t
\nit? I can take those that I need and give you the explanation of what’s
\nhappened! But if you bring me a ready-made bouquet where I see flowers which
\nare not flowers, which are imitations, I have nothing to tell you, for I need
\nsolely things which are so to say \u201cpure\u201d. Therefore, remember this advice: I am
\nalways ready to listen to you but do not bring to me ready-made things. Give me
\nthe exact record of what has happened and even so you may be sure that as soon
\nas there is a mental transcription, the mind always knows how to fill up the
\nholes \u2013 it likes things to be logical, continuous; and without your knowing it,
\nquite spontaneously it supplies elements which were missing in your experience.
\nI do not blame anyone, I know that it is a spontaneous phenomenon. One must be
\nextremely attentive in order to be quite exact and precise.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Is it
\nnot dangerous to say, \u201cMy movements are not mine, I have not to think of them\u201d?
\n<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Yes, evidently, if you say, \u201cI can do nothing, that belongs to
\nNature, the movement has to follow its natural course\u201d, you do exactly what I
\nhave told you not to do, you make use of the Divine as a fine cloak to cover
\nthe satisfaction of your desires. But the opposite movement, \u201cI am good for
\nnothing because such an idea has crossed my mind\u201d is equally wrong, isn’t it? <\/span><\/p>\n

Naturally, if an impulse happens to come
\nto you which you do not want, the first thing to do is to will that it does not
\ncome again; but if, on the contrary, you do not sincerely want it to disappear,
\nthen keep it, but do not try to do yoga. You should not take the path unless
\nyou have resolved beforehand to overcome all difficulties. The decision must be
\nsincere and complete. You will notice, besides, as you gradually advance, that
\nwhat you believed to be complete is not so, what you con- <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 77<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

sidered to be sincere is not so, and then you will progress little
\nby little; but to succeed you must have as total a will for progress as
\npossible. If you have this will and if an impulse seizes you with violence,
\nkeep the will firm, your being must not vacillate; you must expect these things
\nto come, but when they come, tell yourself, \u201cWell, they come from below, I do
\nnot want them to recur, they are not mine.\u201d This is not the same thing as
\nsaying, \u201cLet it go, since it is Nature.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

There must already be a beginning of
\nrealisation in the vital for it to revolt against the impulses that come to it.
\nMost human beings and even those who expect to do yoga say, as soon as the
\nimpulse comes, \u201cIt is quite all right, there is nothing to do, it is all
\nright.\u201d Then, if something in you revolts, if something says, \u201cI don’t want
\nit\u201d, that is the higher part of your being. What takes the resolution to do
\nyoga is not your body or your vital, not even your mind, it is the higher part
\nof your mind or it is your psychic being. It is that alone which can take the
\nresolution \u2013 your body does not know very well what it is all about, your vital
\nlooks at the beginning of transformation with some anxiety, the mind with its
\nideas declares, \u201cThis can be done in that way, can be explained like this\u201d, and
\nso on. So if you have made a resolution, it comes from the higher part of your
\nbeing, and it is upon this that you have to take your support, not upon
\nanything else \u2013 that is the \u201cI\u201d. And it must understand in the end that it is
\nnot a personal \u201cI\u201d, but universal and divine. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

       But is it not the vital itself which finally should take the
\ndecision to change? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

I may assure you that the vital, left to itself, will never take
\nthe decision to be transformed \u2013 it is quite satisfied with itself and, over
\nand above this, being an accomplice of the mind, the mind will furnish it with
\nall possible explanations for whatever it does. People who live in their vital
\nconsciousness are, even <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 78<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\u00a0<\/span>when they do not say so,
\nalways very satisfied with themselves. They are also very satisfied with all
\nthat happens to them and they always say of their impulses, \u201cHow interesting it
\nis, how interesting!\u201d So, if you wait for the vital to take the decision, you
\nmay have to wait for a long time! <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>You
\nmust teach your vital that it must obey. Before feeling any satisfaction, it
\nmust understand that it has nothing else to do but obey. That is why I say that
\nit is not very easy to begin the yoga; if you are not sincere, do not begin. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The body is very obedient; truly it
\ntries to do its best, but it does not know whom to obey, for generally it is
\nnot in direct contact with the higher being or the psychic. Impulses come to it
\ndirectly from the mind or from the mind clothed with the vital, and it does
\nwhat they desire. Before the vital takes a decision (and I have told you, it is
\nnot very easy for it to take a decision), a light must begin to dawn in the
\nhighest part of the mind, a light which puts you in touch with a higher
\nconsciousness or with your psychic, and it is upon this light that you must
\ntake your support to explain things to the mind, to the vital and finally to
\nthe body. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage –
\n79<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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

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