{"id":4415,"date":"2013-07-13T01:55:50","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4415"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:55:50","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:50","slug":"34-22-september-vol-06-questions-and-answers-volume-06","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/02-works-of-the-mother\/01-cwmce\/06-questions-and-answers-volume-06\/34-22-september-vol-06-questions-and-answers-volume-06","title":{"rendered":"-34_22 September.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n<td>\n<div class=\"Section1\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><b><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"3\">22 September 1954<\/font><\/span><\/b><b><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"3\"><br \/>\n<\/font> <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"2\">This talk is based<br \/>\nupon Sri Aurobindo&#8217;s Bases of Yoga, Chapter 1, <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"2\">\u201cCalm \u2013 Peace \u2013<br \/>\nEquality\u201d. <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><br \/>\n<font size=\"3\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>\u201cCalm, even if it seems at first only a negative thing, is so difficult<br \/>\nto attain, that to have it at all must be regarded as a great step in advance. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>\u201cIn reality, calm is not a negative thing, it is the<br \/>\nvery nature of the Sat-Purusha and the positive foundation of the divine<br \/>\nconsciousness. Whatever else is aspired for and gained, this must be kept. Even<br \/>\nKnowledge, Power, Ananda, if they come and do not find this foundation, are<br \/>\nunable to remain and have to withdraw until the divine purity and peace of the<br \/>\nSat-Purusha are permanently there. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>\u201cAspire for the rest of the divine consciousness, but<br \/>\nwith a calm and deep aspiration. It can be ardent as well as calm, but not<br \/>\nimpatient, restless or full of rajasic eagerness. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>\u201cOnly in the quiet mind and being can the supramental<br \/>\nTruth build its true creation.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Sweet Mother, what is the Sat-Purusha? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>The Purusha? What is it in the being?<br \/>\nKnowledge. The conscious being. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>What is this true supramental creation? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>True creation means the new supramental<br \/>\ncreation, the one we want to realise here. When we speak of a new transformed<br \/>\nworld, it is the supramental creation.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"3\">Page &#8211; 327<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"WW-PlainText\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>What does \u201crajasic eagerness\u201d mean? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>\u201cEagerness\u201d? It is vehemence, it is<br \/>\nviolence. It is an excessive ardour; and \u201crajasic\u201d \u2013 it is the over-active and<br \/>\nviolent element, it is the turbulent element in the being. Rajasic \u2013 that&#8217;s the<br \/>\nnature of all transports, flarings-up and enthusiasms, and of all violences and<br \/>\npassion, and all over-activity also, in contrast to tamas which is inert, and<br \/>\nto sattwa which is balanced. This is the over-active and violent element. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Mother, does \u201ckeeping one&#8217;s consciousness high\u201d mean trying to have<br \/>\nhigher thoughts? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>This is rather a consequence than a fact.<br \/>\nWhen one keeps his consciousness on a higher level, naturally it serves as a<br \/>\nfilter for thoughts and allows only thoughts of a higher nature. But it is<br \/>\nrather a consequence than a fact. To keep one&#8217;s consciousness in a higher state<br \/>\nis to raise it above the lower levels in the being, it is to keep it in the<br \/>\nlight, in the peace, in the higher knowledge and harmony; that is, to place<br \/>\none&#8217;s consciousness as high as possible in one&#8217;s being, at the level where one<br \/>\nis liberated from all lower movements. Then naturally, if the consciousness is<br \/>\nthere, the thoughts it receives are those of a higher order. And thought is<br \/>\nonly one form of activity of the consciousness, it is not the stuff of<br \/>\nconsciousness. There is a consciousness without thought, there is a very much<br \/>\nhigher state of consciousness in which there are no thoughts. It is a<br \/>\nconsciousness that can have a very perfect knowledge of things, without it<br \/>\nbeing expressed in thoughts and words. Thought is only one form of activity. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>\u201cSilence is&#8230; more easily established by a descent from above.\u201d \u201cFrom<br \/>\nabove\u201d means what, Sweet Mother? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>From the higher region of consciousness.<br \/>\nYou see, if you open<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"3\">Page &#8211; 328<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"WW-PlainText\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><br \/>\n<font size=\"3\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>to the higher region of consciousness and<br \/>\nthe force descends from above, quite naturally it establishes a silence in the<br \/>\nlower region, for they are governed by this higher power which descends. This<br \/>\ncomes from higher region of the mind or from beyond, even from the supermind.<br \/>\nSo when this force and consciousness come down and enter into the consciousness<br \/>\nof a lower plane, this consciousness becomes naturally quiet, for it is as<br \/>\nthough invaded, flooded by that higher light which transforms it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>In fact, this is even the only way of<br \/>\nestablishing a constant silence in one&#8217;s mind. It is to open oneself to higher<br \/>\nregion and let this higher consciousness, force, light descend constantly into<br \/>\nthe lower mind and take possession of it. And here, when this happen, this<br \/>\nlower mind can remain constantly quiet and silent, because it is this one which<br \/>\nacts and fills the whole being. One can act, write and speak without the mind<br \/>\nbeing active, with this force which comes from above penetrating the mind and<br \/>\nusing it; and the mind itself becomes just a passive instrument. And in fact,<br \/>\nthis is the only way of establishing silence; for once this is established, the<br \/>\nsilence is established, the mind does not stir any longer, it acts only under<br \/>\nthe impulsion of this force when it manifests in it. It is like a very quiet,<br \/>\nvery silent field and the force when it comes puts the elements into movement<br \/>\nand uses them, and it finds expression through the mind without the mind&#8217;s<br \/>\nbeing agitated. It remains very quiet. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Sweet Mother, how can we empty the consciousness of its mixed contents?\u00b9<br \/>\n<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>By aspiration, the rejection of the lower<br \/>\nmovements, a call to a higher force. If you do not accept certain movements,<br \/>\nthen <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"2\">\u00b9 <\/font> <\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"2\">\u201cKeep the quietude and do not mind if it<br \/>\nis for a time an empty quietude; the consciousness is often like a vessel which<br \/>\nhas to be emptied of its mixed or undesirable contents; it has to be kept<br \/>\nvacant for a while till it can be filled with things new and true, right and<br \/>\npure.\u201d<\/font><\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"2\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"3\">Page &#8211; 329<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"WW-PlainText\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>naturally, when they find that they can&#8217;t<br \/>\nmanifest, gradually they diminish in force and stop occurring. If you refuse to<br \/>\nexpress everything that is of a lower kind, little by little the very thing<br \/>\ndisappears, and the consciousness is emptied of lower things. It is by refusing<br \/>\nto give expression \u2013 I mean not only in action but also in thought, in feeling.<br \/>\nWhen impulses, thoughts, emotion come, if you refuse to express them, if you<br \/>\npush them aside and remain in a state of inner aspiration and calm, then<br \/>\ngradually they lose their force and stop coming. So the consciousness is<br \/>\nemptied of its lower movements. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>But for instance, when undesirable<br \/>\nthoughts come, if you look at them, observe them, if you take pleasure in<br \/>\nfollowing them in their movements, they will never stop coming. It is the same<br \/>\nthing when you have undesirable feelings or sensation: if you pay attention to<br \/>\nthem, concentrate on them or even look at them with a certain indulgence, they<br \/>\nwill never stop. But if you absolutely refuse to receive and express them,<br \/>\nafter some time they stop. You must be patient and very persistent. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>In a great aspiration, if you can put<br \/>\nyourself into contact with something higher, some influence of your psychic<br \/>\nbeing or some light from above, and if you can manage to put this in touch with<br \/>\nthese lower movements, naturally they stop more quickly. But before even being<br \/>\nable to draw these things by aspiration, you can already stop those movements<br \/>\nfrom finding expression in you by a very persistent and patient refusal. When<br \/>\nthoughts which you do not like come, if you just brush them away and do not pay<br \/>\nthem any attention at all, after some time they won&#8217;t come any longer. But you<br \/>\nmust do this very persistently and regularly. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>You have said that one must know that without the divine Grace one is<br \/>\nnothing. Then why make such a great effort to know that one is nothing? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Why make such a great effort? In what see?<br \/>\nYou want to<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"3\">Page &#8211; 330<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"WW-PlainText\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>make this effort for a personal reason? Is<br \/>\nit for your personal satisfaction that you want to make this effort? It is like<br \/>\nthose people who say, \u201cBut if it is not I who work and if it is not my work,<br \/>\nhow can I work?\u201d It is the same thing, and yet it is like that. If you feel<br \/>\nlike that, it means that you still need, need very much, your ego and that if<br \/>\nyour ego were suddenly taken away from you, you could no longer do anything. If<br \/>\nyou need a personal motive in order to do something, it means that you are<br \/>\nstill entirely in your ego, you understand. So long as it is necessary, one has<br \/>\nto remain in it. Only, you must not then think that you can go fast. It takes a<br \/>\nvery long time, sometimes several lives, sometimes a great number of lives. If<br \/>\nyou need personal reasons for doing things, you have only to wait till you grow<br \/>\nout of it and understand that it is not for a personal reason that you must do<br \/>\nthings. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>For example, it is not for a personal<br \/>\nreason that you must want perfection, it is not for a personal reason that you<br \/>\nmust want union with the Divine, it is not for a personal reason that you must<br \/>\nwant the supramental transformation. If it is for your own good and for a<br \/>\npersonal reason, well, follow your path; I tell you, you will get there \u2013 after<br \/>\na certain number of lives. You see, there is a state in which one can&#8217;t even<br \/>\nunderstand how one can exist without a personal reason. So long as it is like<br \/>\nthat&#8230;<span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>If perchance I were suddenly to<br \/>\ntake away from you your personal consciousness and reason, you would exist no<br \/>\nlonger. So you must wait quietly till you can realise within yourself that this<br \/>\nis not the true cause of things. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Is there nothing to be done but to wait? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Eh? Nothing to be done but wait? For<br \/>\nme!&#8230; <span>\u00a0<\/span>It is I who mark time waiting for<br \/>\nyou to be ready! (<i>Mother laughs.<\/i>)<span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>It is a very delicate problem, because for<br \/>\na very long time if someone does not feel, does not have this personal<br \/>\naspiration to perfect himself, the personal aspiration to enter into contact<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"3\">Page &#8211; 331<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"WW-PlainText\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>with the Divine, the personal aspiration<br \/>\nto realise the supramental consciousness, well, he says as you were just<br \/>\nsaying, \u201cThen what&#8217;s the use of doing anything? The only thing is to remain<br \/>\nquiet.\u201d Well, as long as it is like that, and as long as you have not developed<br \/>\nin yourself enough consciousness for it to be otherwise, there is nothing to<br \/>\nsay and nothing to do. I have only to wait. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>\u201cWait\u201d means some lives? <\/span><\/i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Yes. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>For some it can go faster; if suddenly<br \/>\nsomething is reversed within them and they have an experience \u2013 even if it be<br \/>\nonly the experience of identification with the psychic \u2013 then all of a sudden<br \/>\nthey understand. Identification with the psychic means an identification with<br \/>\nthe divine Consciousness. So, immediately they understand; they understand and<br \/>\nthis even makes them laugh. One feels how foolish one was! (<i>Mother laughs.<\/i>)<span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>This see of one&#8217;s own person becomes a<br \/>\nkind of cage, a prison which shuts you in, prevents you from being true, from<br \/>\nknowing truly, acting truly, understanding truly. It is as though someone had<br \/>\nput you in a very hard shell and you were compelled to stay there. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>This is the first sensation you have.<br \/>\nAfterwards you begin to tap against the shell in order to break it. Sometimes<br \/>\nit resists very long. But still, when you begin to feel this, that what you<br \/>\nbelieved to be yourself, the person doing things and for whom they are done,<br \/>\nthe person who exists and makes you what you are, yes, when you pass from this<br \/>\nto the consciousness that this is a prison preventing you from being truly<br \/>\nyourself, then you have made great progress, and there is hope. You feel<br \/>\nyourself stifled, crushed, absolutely shut up in a prison without air, without<br \/>\nlight, without an opening, and then you begin pushing from inside, pushing,<br \/>\npushing, pushing so that it may break. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>And the day it breaks, the day it opens,<br \/>\nsuddenly, you enter <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"3\">Page &#8211; 332<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"WW-PlainText\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>the psychic consciousness. And then<br \/>\nyou understand. And then, truly, if you have a see of humour, you laugh; you<br \/>\nrealise your stupidity. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Mother, you said one day that before being able to identify oneself with<br \/>\nthe Divine, one must first become an individual. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Yes, well, that&#8217;s it, exactly. You are in<br \/>\nthe period of becoming an individual. And so long as one is in this period of<br \/>\nbecoming an individual, well, one must wait until this period passes, that is,<br \/>\ntill you have become a conscious individual. Perfectly. It is that. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Mother, you said there are very few, one in a million perhaps, who are<br \/>\nreally conscious. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Oh, if you take humanity at large,<br \/>\ncertainly! And the great mass of mankind will never become individuals, it will<br \/>\nalways be an amorphous mass, all intermingled, like that (<i>gesture<\/i>). To become an individual is what Sri Aurobindo calls<br \/>\nbecoming truly a mental man. Well, if you have read The Human Cycle, you will<br \/>\nsee that already it is not so easy to become a truly mental man who thinks by<br \/>\nhimself, is free from all outer influences, who has an individuality, who<br \/>\nexists, has his reality; even that is not so easy. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>But, by a kind of Grace, it can happen<br \/>\nthat before becoming an individual, if someone has within himself an<br \/>\naspiration, if he feels the need to awaken to something which would want more,<br \/>\nwant something better, which feels how very small it is to be an individual,<br \/>\nsomething which really seeks beyond the ordinary limits, well, even before<br \/>\nbecoming an individual, he may suddenly have the experience of a contact with<br \/>\nhis psychic which opens all the doors for him. They close again later, but once<br \/>\nthey have opened you never forget it. The remembrance<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"3\">Page &#8211; 333<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"WW-PlainText\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>remains very vividly; and this helps. It<br \/>\nshould happen to you here. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Sweet Mother, is identification with the psychic the same thing as the<br \/>\npsychic coming in front? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>That is, the first step is the<br \/>\nidentification, and then, once you can keep this identification, the psychic<br \/>\ngovern the rest of the nature and life. It becomes the master of existence. So<br \/>\nthis is what we mean by the psychic coming in front. It is that which govern,<br \/>\ndirects, even organises the life, organises the consciousness, the different<br \/>\nparts of the being. When this happen, the work goes very fast. Very fast,<br \/>\nwell&#8230;<span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>relatively very fast. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>In the human consciousness everything is<br \/>\nvery slow. When we compare the time that is necessary to realise something with<br \/>\nthe average length of human existence, it seems interminable. But happily there<br \/>\ncomes a time when one escapes from this notion, when one begin to feel no<br \/>\nlonger according to human measures. As soon as one is truly in touch with the<br \/>\npsychic, one loses this kind of narrowness and of agony also, this agony which<br \/>\nis so bad: \u201cI must be quick, I must be quick, there is not much time, I must<br \/>\nhurry, there is not much time.\u201d One does things very badly or doesn&#8217;t do them<br \/>\nat all any more. But as soon as there is a contact with the psychic, then<br \/>\nindeed this disappears; one begin to be a little more vast and calm and<br \/>\npeaceful, and to live in eternity. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Sweet Mother, why are we so attached to our ego? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>As I said just now, probably because you<br \/>\nstill need it very much, isn&#8217;t that so? In order to become a conscious,<br \/>\nindividualised being, one needs his ego; that is why it is there. It is only<br \/>\nwhen one has realised his own individuality sufficiently, has become a<br \/>\nconscious, independent being with its own reality, that he no longer needs the<br \/>\nego. And at that time one can make an<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"3\">Page &#8211; 334<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"WW-PlainText\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>effort to get rid of it. Unfortunately<br \/>\nmost people, as soon as they become real individuals, have such a see of their<br \/>\nimportance and their ability that they no longer even think at all of getting<br \/>\nrid of their ego. But that of course is something else. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Here I don&#8217;t let you go to sleep. I remind<br \/>\nyou from time to time of the true thing. But you are all very young, you see,<br \/>\nand a certain number of years are needed, years of intensive inner formation,<br \/>\nto become a being who thinks for himself, is conscious of his own will, and<br \/>\nconscious of his own nature, his purpose of existence, independent of the human<br \/>\nmass. A certain time is necessary. Some children begin when very small. If one<br \/>\nbegins very early, when one is twenty he can be quite formed. But you must<br \/>\nbegin when very small, and consciously, very consciously; you must begin with a<br \/>\nsee of observation of all the movements in yourself, of their relation with<br \/>\nothers, of \u2013 precisely, of your degree of independence, real individuality, of<br \/>\nknowing where impulses come from, where other movements come from: whether it<br \/>\nis contagion from outside or something that arises from within yourself. A very<br \/>\nprofound study of all the movements in oneself is necessary in order to succeed<br \/>\nsimply in crystallising a being who is a little conscious, a little conscious.<br \/>\nBut when you live fluidly, so to say, when you don&#8217;t even know what goes on<br \/>\ninside you, have some sort of vague impressions, if you questions yourself, at<br \/>\nleast ninety-nine times out of a hundred, if you ask yourself, \u201cWhy did I think<br \/>\nlike that? Why did I feel like that?\u201d, even \u201cWhy did I do that?\u201d, then the<br \/>\nreply is almost always the same: \u201cI don&#8217;t know. It came like that, that&#8217;s all.\u201d<br \/>\nThat is to say, one is not at all conscious. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Are you able to know, when you are with<br \/>\nothers, what comes from you and what from the others? To what extent their way<br \/>\nof being, their particular vibrations act upon you? You are not aware of this<br \/>\nat all. You live in a kind of \u201capproximate\u201d consciousness, half-awake,<br \/>\nhalf-asleep, in something very vague, where you have to grope like this in<br \/>\norder to catch things. But do you have a precise, clear, exact notion of what<br \/>\ngoes on in<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"3\">Page &#8211; 335<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"WW-PlainText\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>you, why it goes on in you? And then,<br \/>\nthis: the vibrations, which come to you from outside and those which come from<br \/>\nwithin you? And then, again, what can come from others, changing all this,<br \/>\ngiving another orientation? You live in a kind of hazy fluidity, certain small<br \/>\nthings suddenly crystallise in your consciousness, you have just caught them<br \/>\nfor a moment; and it is just clear enough like that, as though there was a<br \/>\nprojector, just something passing on the screen and becoming clear for a<br \/>\nsecond: the next minute everything has become vague, imprecise, but you are not<br \/>\naware of this because you have not even asked yourself the questions, because<br \/>\nyou live in this way. It stops here, begins here, ends here. That&#8217;s all. You do<br \/>\nfrom day to day, minute to minute, things which you do, like that&#8230;<span>\u00a0 <\/span>it happen to be like that. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>It will come. It will come. Surely it will<br \/>\ncome. I am not going to leave you like that&#8230; Shake you up a little \u2013 I am<br \/>\ngoing to shake you up a little. I shall do what is necessary for this. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>So there we are. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Sweet Mother, what is the effect of an aspiration which comes from<br \/>\nrajasic eagerness? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>The effect of an aspiration? Well, it<br \/>\ntakes away your quietude, that is the first effect. It makes you agitated,<br \/>\nnervous, impatient and dissatisfied when you don&#8217;t immediately obtain what you<br \/>\nhave asked for, and usually as vehement in your despair and dissatisfaction as<br \/>\nin the aspiration, with a strong see of your helplessness. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Then is it desire? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>It is not quite the same thing. It is not<br \/>\na matter of desire, it is a questions of aspiration. But aspiration can be of<br \/>\nthis kind. Desire is altogether something else. Desire is something which acts<br \/>\ncompletely horizontally.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"3\">Page &#8211; 336<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"WW-PlainText\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>In your ordinary consciousness you want<br \/>\nsomething; you do not have the least idea of aspiring for some existing thing<br \/>\nor some progress or a higher knowledge or greater realisation. You see an<br \/>\nobject in a shop and want it. That&#8217;s it. Or it crosses your mind that it would<br \/>\nbe good to eat a certain thing, and you want it. These are desires; they<br \/>\nconcern things on the same plane as you. Moreover, in desires also some people<br \/>\nare obstinate, vehement, and some have fugitive and weak desires. There are<br \/>\nboth types. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>But what Sri Aurobindo speaks about here<br \/>\nis truly an aspiration, it is about someone who aspires for the spiritual life<br \/>\nbut with a vehement passion; and naturally this upsets everything. Besides, the<br \/>\nresult he obtains \u2013 if he does obtain a result at all \u2013 is very mixed; and it<br \/>\nis muddy, as he says, altogether impure, ordinary. We must not confuse what he<br \/>\ncalls \u201crajasic eagerness\u201d with intensity, because intensity can be very vast,<br \/>\nvery calm and very pure and give a considerable strength to the aspiration. But<br \/>\nthis has nothing to do either with a rajasic movement or with desire. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>And, to take an example, you can<br \/>\nunderstand it in this way: if you have an aspiration, say, suddenly you think<br \/>\nof the possibility of progress and have an aspiration for progress; but if a<br \/>\ndesire is mixed with your aspiration, you will have the desire to progress for<br \/>\nthe powers this will give you or the importance it will give you or the<br \/>\nimprovement in your living conditions. You go and immediately mix all kinds of<br \/>\nlittle very personal reasons with your aspiration. And to tell the truth, very<br \/>\nfew people have a very pure aspiration. An aspiration, a will to progress, just<br \/>\nthat; it stops there. Because one aspires for progress and then, there we are,<br \/>\nlet us not go farther. We want progress. But usually there get mixed up with it<br \/>\nall kinds of desires for the results of this progress. And so desire comes in,<br \/>\nyou see; this brings exactly what he says, a consciousness which is impure and<br \/>\nmuddy, and inside this nothing higher can come. This must be completely<br \/>\neliminated to begin with. If one looks at<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"3\">Page &#8211; 337<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"WW-PlainText\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>himself very sincerely, very<br \/>\nstraightforwardly and very severely, he very quickly perceives that very few<br \/>\nthings, very few movements of consciousness are free from being mixed with<br \/>\ndesires. Even in what you take for a higher movement, there is always&#8230;<span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>no, happily not always, but most often there<br \/>\nis a desire mixed. The desire of the see of one&#8217;s importance, if only this,<br \/>\nthat kind of self-satisfaction, the satisfaction of being someone superior. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>This is of course much better than those<br \/>\nwho want to become yogis in order to astound their neighbours and exercise<br \/>\nauthority over others, and so that others may be full of admiration and of<br \/>\nrespect for them. How many things are truly pure? Pure aspiration? You must<br \/>\nhave already attained a very high level, that level I spoke of, on which one<br \/>\ncan look at himself with a smile, a slightly ironic smile, and have the feeling<br \/>\nthat he was so small, so small, so small, so petty, so insignificant and so<br \/>\nfoolish. After that things go better. But for what a long time all the<br \/>\nmovements are always turned back upon themselves! You start off in a sweep, as<br \/>\nthough you were springing forward in front of this universe, and you turn back<br \/>\nupon yourself, expecting a small result, a small satisfaction, a very tiny satisfaction,<br \/>\neven if it be just your own estimation: \u201cOh, what a fine aspiration I had!\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>There you are. <\/span><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span><font size=\"3\">Page &#8211; 338<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>22 September 1954 &nbsp; This talk is based upon Sri Aurobindo&#8217;s Bases of Yoga, Chapter 1, \u201cCalm \u2013 Peace \u2013 Equality\u201d. &nbsp; \u201cCalm, even if&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-06-questions-and-answers-volume-06","wpcat-125-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4415","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=4415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4415\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}