{"id":4411,"date":"2013-07-13T01:55:48","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4411"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:55:48","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:48","slug":"46-19-april-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\/46-19-april-1951-vol-04-questions-and-answers-volume-04","title":{"rendered":"-46_19 April 1951.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


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


\n <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i>\u201cThis yoga can only be done to the end by
\nthose who are in total earnest about it and ready to abolish their little human
\nego and its demands in order to find themselves in the Divine. It cannot be
\ndone in a spirit of levity or laxity; the work is too high and difficult, the
\nadverse powers in the lower Nature too ready to take advantage of the least
\nsanction or the smallest opening, the aspiration and tapasya<\/span>
\nneeded too constant and intense. It cannot be done if there is a petulant
\nself-assertion of the ideas of the human mind or wilful<\/span>
\nindulgence of the demands and instincts and pretensions of the lowest part of
\nthe being, commonly justified under the name of human nature.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, p. 1310
\n<\/font> <\/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

Everybody knows
\nthis; those who do not want to change their way of doing things or their way of
\nbeing always say, \u201cOh ! What do you expect, it is human nature.\u201d This is what
\nis called a \u201cwilful<\/span> indulgence\u201d. That is to say,
\ninstead of becoming conscious that these are weaknesses and difficulties on the
\nway, one justifies these things, saying, \u201cOh ! It can’t be helped, it is human
\nnature.\u201d One wants to continue to do what one is doing, without changing, one
\nis full of a wilful<\/span> indulgence of one’s demands. For
\nthe lower nature of man always demands things; it says, \u201cThese are necessities,
\nthese are needs, I can’t do without them.\u201d Then, the instincts \u2013 a sort of
\ninstinct for one’s own satisfaction \u2013 and pretensions: the lower being claims
\nthat it has a considerable importance and must be given what is necessary for
\nit, otherwise it won’t be able to live; it asserts that it alone is important,
\nand so on. It is all this which creates obstacles, all these obscure, ignorant
\nmovements, all these justifications of the old ways of being: those who fly
\ninto a temper <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 332<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

and say, \u201cWhat do
\nyou expect, it can’t be helped\u201d, and everything one does saying, \u201cOh ! It is
\nhuman nature\u201d, everything one justifies saying, \u201cWhat can be done, people are
\nlike that, there is nothing to be done about it.\u201d It is the old idea that we
\nare born with a particular nature and must get adjusted to it, for we cannot
\nchange it. <\/span><\/p>\n

So Sri Aurobindo
\ntells us that if one cannot change the nature it is not worth the trouble of
\ndoing yoga, for yoga is done precisely in order to change the nature, otherwise
\nit has no meaning. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

When the little ego is abolished, can’t
\none \u201cfind oneself in the Divine\u201d directly ? <\/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

But one can find
\noneself in the Divine even before having completely abolished one’s little ego,
\nfor, to abolish one’s little ego is not a little affair ! <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

But how is it to be done ? <\/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

How is it to be
\ndone ? How to abolish the ego ? \u2013 First of all, you must want to do it, and
\nthere are very few people who want to. And that is exactly what they say, it is
\nthis justification of their way of being, \u201cThat is the way I am made, I can’t
\ndo otherwise. And then, if I change this, if I change that or if I do without
\nthis thing or if I get rid of that other, I shall no longer exist !\u201d And if one
\ndoesn’t say this openly, one thinks it. And all these little desires, these
\nlittle satisfactions, these little reactions, all these small ways of being,
\none clings to them, clings hard \u2013 one sticks to them, one doesn’t want to let
\nthem go. I have seen hundreds of cases where someone’s difficulty had been
\nremoved (with a particular power a certain difficulty had been removed), but
\nafter a few days he brought it back with enthusiasm. He said, \u201cBut without that
\nI do not exist any longer !\u201d I have known people who had been given mental
\nsilence almost <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 333<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

spontaneously and
\nwho, after a day or two, came back frightened: \u201cHave I become an idiot?\u201d \u2013 for
\nthe mental machine was not working all the time… You cannot imagine it, you
\ndon’t know how very difficult it is to separate oneself from this little ego;
\nhow much it gets into the way though it is so small. It takes up so much room
\nwhile being so microscopic. It is very difficult. One pushes it away in certain
\nvery obvious things; for example, if there is something good and someone rushes
\nforward to make sure of having it first, even jostling his neighbour<\/span>
\n(this happens very frequently in ordinary life), then here one becomes quite
\naware that this is not very, very elegant, so one begins to suppress these
\ncrudities, one makes a big effort \u2013 and one becomes highly self-satisfied: \u201cI
\nam not selfish, I give what is good to others, I don’t keep it for myself\u201d, and
\none begins to get puffed up. And so one is filled with a moral egoism which is
\nmuch worse than physical egoism, for it is conscious of its superiority. And
\nthen there are those who have left everything, given up everything, who have
\nleft their families, distributed their belongings, gone into solitude, who live
\nan ascetic life, and who are terribly conscious of their superiority, who look
\ndown at poor humanity from the height of their spiritual grandeur \u2013 and they
\nhave, these people, such a formidable ego that unless it is broken into small
\nbits, never, never will they see the Divine. So it is not such an easy task. It
\ntakes a lot of time. And I must tell you that even when the work is done, it
\nmust always be begun again. <\/span><\/p>\n

Physically, we
\ndepend upon food to live \u2013 unfortunately. For with food, we daily and
\nconstantly take in a formidable amount of inconscience<\/span>,
\nof tamas<\/i><\/span>,
\nheaviness, stupidity. One can’t do otherwise \u2013 unless constantly, without a
\nbreak, we remain completely aware and, as soon as an element is introduced into
\nour body, we immediately work upon it to extract from it only the light and
\nreject all that may darken our consciousness. This is the origin and rational
\nexplanation of the religious practice of consecrating one’s food to God before
\ntaking it. When eating
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 334<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

one aspires that
\nthis food may not be taken for the little human ego but as an offering to the
\ndivine consciousness within oneself. In all yogas<\/span>,
\nall religions, this is encouraged. This is the origin of that practice, of
\ncontacting the consciousness behind, precisely to diminish as much as possible
\nthe absorption of an inconscience<\/span> which increases
\ndaily, constantly, without one’s being aware of it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Vitally, it is the
\nsame thing. You live vitally in the vital world with all the currents of vital
\nforce entering, going out, joining and opposing each other, quarrelling and
\nintermingling in your consciousness, and even if you have made a personal
\neffort to purify your vital consciousness, to master in it the desire-being and
\nthe little human ego, you are constantly under a sort of obligation to absorb
\nall the contrary vibrations which come from those with whom you live. One can’t
\nshut oneself up in an ivory tower, it is yet more difficult vitally than
\nphysically, and one takes in all sorts of things; and unless one is constantly wide
\nawake, constantly on one’s guard, and has quite an efficient control over all
\nthat enters, so as not to admit in one’s consciousness unwanted elements, one
\ncatches the constant contagion of all desires, all the lower movements, all the
\nsmall obscure reactions, all the unwanted vibrations which come to us from
\nthose around us.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mentally, it is
\nstill worse. The human mind is a public place open on all sides, and in this
\npublic place, things come, go, cross from all directions; and some settle there
\nand these are not always the best. And there, to obtain control over that
\nmultitude is the most difficult of all controls. Try to control the thought
\ncoming into your mind, you will see. Simply, you will see to what a degree you
\nhave to be watchful, like a sentinel, with the eyes of the mind wide open, and
\nthen keep an extremely clear vision of the ideas which conform to your
\naspirations and those which do not. And you must police at every minute that
\npublic place where roads from all sides meet, so that all passers-by do not
\nrush in. It is a big job. Then, don’t forget that even if you <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 335<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\u00a0<\/span>make sincere efforts, it is not in a day, not
\nin a month, not in a year that you will reach the end of all these
\ndifficulties. When one begins, one must begin with an unshakable patience. One
\nmust say, \u201cEven if it takes fifty years, even if it takes a hundred years, even
\nif it takes several lives, what I want to accomplish, I shall accomplish.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Once you have
\ndecided upon this, once you are quite conscious that things are like that and
\nthat the goal is worth the trouble of a constant and sustained effort, you may
\nbegin. Otherwise, after a time you will fall flat; you will get discouraged,
\nyou will tell yourself, \u201cOh ! It is very difficult \u2013 do it and then it is
\nundone, I do it again and it is once again undone, and then I do it again and
\nit is perpetually undone… Then what ? When will I get there \u201d One must have
\nplenty of patience. The work may be undone a hundred times, you will do it
\nagain a hundred and one times; it may be undone a thousand times, you will
\nre-do it a thousand and one times, until finally it is no longer undone. And
\nfinally it is no longer undone. <\/span><\/p>\n

Only, you see, if
\none were made all of a piece, it would be very easy, but one is made of many
\npieces. Then, there is one piece which is ahead, which has worked hard, is very
\nconscious, altogether awake, and when it is there, all goes well, one does not
\nallow anything to enter, one is on one’s guard, and then…one goes to sleep and
\nthe next day when one gets up it is another part which is there and one tells
\noneself, \u201cBut where then is all the work I had done … \u201c And one must begin
\nall over again. Begin all over again until all the parts, one after another,
\nenter the field of consciousness and each one can be changed. And when you
\nreach the end of your tether, there is a change, you have made progress \u2013afterwards<\/span>, you must make another, but still that one is
\nmade. But it is completely made only when all the pieces of the being are brought
\nlike that, one after another, to the front, and upon all without exception you
\nhave impressed the consciousness, the light, the will and the goal, in such a
\nway that everything changes. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 336<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

This is not to
\ndiscourage you, but to warn you. I do not want you to say afterwards, \u201cOh! If I
\nhad known it was so difficult, I would not have started.\u201d You must know that it
\nis excessively difficult and begin with great firmness and continue to the end,
\neven if the end is a very long way off \u2013 there are many things to do. Now, I
\nmay tell you that if you do it sincerely, with application and care, it is
\nextremely interesting. Even those whose life is quite monotonous, without
\ninterest (there are, you know, poor people who have to do utterly uninteresting
\nwork and always the same thing, and always in the same conditions, and whose
\nmind is not sufficiently awakened to be able to find an interest in anything
\nwhatever), even those people, if they begin to do this little work upon
\nthemselves, of control, of elimination, that is to say, if each element which
\ncomes with its ignorance, its unconsciousness, its egoism, is put before the
\nwill to change and one remains awake, compares, observes, studies and slowly
\nacts, that becomes infinitely interesting, one makes marvellous and quite
\nunexpected discoveries. One finds in oneself lots of small hidden folds, little
\nthings one had not seen at the beginning; one undertakes a sort of inner chase,
\ngoes hunting into small dark corners and tells oneself: \u201cWhat, I was like that !
\nThis was there in me, I am harbouring<\/span> this little
\nthing \u201d \u2013 sometimes so sordid, so mean, so nasty. And once it has been
\ndiscovered, how wonderful ! One puts the light upon it and it disappears and
\nyou no longer have those reactions which made you so sad before, when you used
\nto say, \u201cOh ! I shall never get there.\u201d For instance, you take a very simple
\nresolution (apparently very simple): \u201cI shall never tell a lie again.\u201d And
\nsuddenly, without your knowing why or how, the lie springs up all by itself and
\nyou notice it after you have uttered it: \u201cBut this is not correct- what I have
\njust said; it was something else I meant to say.\u201d So you search, search…\u201d \u201cHow
\ndid it happen? How did I think like that and speak like that? Who spoke in me,
\nwho pushed me?…\u201d \u201c You may give yourself quite a satisfactory explanation and
\nsay, \u201cIt came from outside\u201d or \u201cIt was <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 337<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

a moment of
\nunconsciousness\u201d, and not think any longer about it. And the next time, it
\nbegins again. Instead of that, you search: \u201cWhat can be the motive of one who
\ntells lies ?… \u201c and you push \u2013 you push- and all of a sudden you discover in
\na little corner something which wants to justify itself, thrust itself forward
\nor assert its own way of seeing (no matter what, there are a number of
\nreasons), show itself a little different from what it is so that people may
\nhave a good opinion of you and think you someone very remarkable… It was that
\nwhich spoke in you \u2013 not your active consciousness, but what was there and
\npushed the consciousness from behind. When you were not quite on your guard, it
\nmade use of your mouth, your tongue, and then there you were ! The lie came
\nout. I am giving you this example \u2013 there are a million others. And it is
\nextremely interesting. And to the extent one discovers this within oneself and
\nsays sincerely, \u201cIt must change\u201d, one finds that one acquires a sort of inner
\nclear-sightedness, one gradually becomes aware of what goes on in others, and
\ninstead of flying into a temper when they are not quite what one would like
\nthem to be, one begins to understand how things happen, how it is that one is
\n\u201clike this\u201d, how reactions are produced… Then, with the indulgence of
\nknowledge, one smiles. One no longer judges severely, one offers the difficulty
\nin oneself or in others, whatever may be its centre of manifestation, to the
\ndivine Consciousness, asking for its transformation. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

On <\/font> <\/span>June 8, 1966<\/span><\/font>, at the time of the publication of this talk, Mother
\nspoke about the same question in terms of her present experience which forms
\nthe basis of the \u201cyoga of the body\u201d. <\/font> <\/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

Precisely this is what I have been doing for the last
\ntwo days. The last two days I have spent all my time seeing all this
\naccumulation, oh ! heaps of little sordid things which one lives constantly,
\nvery tiny sordid things. And so there is only one way<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 338<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\u2013 there is only
\none way, always the same: to offer. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is almost as
\nthough this Supreme Consciousness were putting you in touch with things long
\nforgotten, which belong to the past, which even are or were or seemed to be
\ncompletely effaced, with which you no longer have any contact, all sorts338of
\nlittle circumstances, which yet are seen in the new consciousness, in their
\ntrue place, and make such a poor, miserable, mean, sordid whole of the entire
\nlife, the entire general human life. And so, it is a luminous joy of offering
\nall this for transformation, for transfiguration. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now it has become
\nthe very movement of the cellular consciousness. All weaknesses, all responses
\nto adverse suggestions (I mean the smallest things of every minute in the
\ncells), are taken in the same movement of offering (and these come sometimes in
\nwaves, to such an extent that the body feels it will swoon before this
\nassault), and then comes a light, so warm, so deep, so powerful, which puts
\neverything back in order, in its place, and opens the way to transformation. <\/span><\/p>\n

These periods are
\nvery difficult periods of the bodily life; one feels that there is now only one
\nthing which decides, the Supreme Will. There is no longer any support \u2013 any
\nsupport, from the support of habit to the support of knowledge and of will, all
\nthe supports have vanished \u2013 there is only the Supreme. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

(Silence<\/i>)<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\u00a0<\/span>Aspiration in the cellular consciousness for
\nperfect sincerity of consecration. <\/span><\/p>\n

And the lived
\nexperience \u2013 lived intensely \u2013 that it is only this absolute sincerity of
\nconsecration which allows existence. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The least pretension is an alliance with the
\nforces of dissolution and of death. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Well, it is like a song of the cells- but they
\nmust not even have the insincerity of watching themselves do it- the song of
\nthe cells: \u201cThy Will, O Lord, Thy Will.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 339<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

And the great habit
\nof depending upon the will of others, the consciousness of others, the
\nreactions of others (of others and of all things), this kind of universal
\ncomedy at which all play to all and everything plays to everything, ought to be
\nreplaced by an absolute, spontaneous sincerity of consecration.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is evident that
\nthis perfection of sincerity is possible only in the most material part of the
\nconsciousness. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is there that
\none can succeed in being, existing, doing, without watching oneself being,
\nwatching oneself existing, watching oneself doing, with an absolute sincerity. <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

Page – 340<\/span><\/p>\n

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

19 April 1951    \u201cThis yoga can only be done to the end by those who are in total earnest about it and ready to…<\/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-4411","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\/4411","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=4411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}