{"id":4431,"date":"2013-07-13T01:55:56","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4431"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:55:56","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:55:56","slug":"22-23-june-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\/22-23-june-vol-06-questions-and-answers-volume-06","title":{"rendered":"-22_23 June.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p 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\">23 June 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 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 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 upon Sri Aurobindo&#8217;s<br \/>\nElements <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n<p style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"2\">of Yoga, Chapter 13, \u201cSex \u2013 Food \u2013 Sleep\u201d.<br \/>\n<\/font><br \/>\n<\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><\/span><\/p>\n<p 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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>\u201cQ: Is taking very little food helpful in controlling the se<\/span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>n<\/span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>s<\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>es? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p 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\"'>\u201cA: No, it simply exasperates them \u2013 to take a<br \/>\nmoderate amount is best. People who fast easily get exalted and may lose their<br \/>\nbalance. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p 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\"'>\u201cQ: If one takes only vegetarian food, does it help in<br \/>\ncontrolling the sees? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p 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\"'>\u201cA: It avoids some of the difficulties which the<br \/>\nmeat-eaters have, but it is not sufficient by itself.\u201d <\/span><\/i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><\/span><\/p>\n<p 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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Any questions? <\/span><\/p>\n<p 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 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 happen if one eats meat? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p 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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Do you want me to tell you a story? I knew<br \/>\na lady, a young Swedish woman, who was doing sadhana; and she was by habit a<br \/>\nvegetarian, from both choice and habit. One day she was invited by some friends<br \/>\nwho gave her chicken for dinner. She did not want to make a fuss, she ate the<br \/>\nchicken. But afterwards, during the night suddenly she found herself in a<br \/>\nbasket with her head between two pieces of wicker-work, shaken, shaken, shaken,<br \/>\nand feeling wretched, miserable; and then, after that she found herself head<br \/>\ndown, feet in the air, and being shaken, shaken, shaken. (Laughter) She felt<br \/>\nperfectly miserable; and then all of a sudden, somebody began pulling out<br \/>\nthings from her body, and that hurt her terribly, and then someone came along<br \/>\nwith a knife and chopped off her head; and then she woke up. She told me all<br \/>\nthis; she said she had never had such a frightful nightmare, that she had not<br \/>\nthought of anything before going to sleep, that<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p 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; 178<\/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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>it was just the consciousness of the poor<br \/>\nchicken that had entered her, and that she had experienced in her dream all the<br \/>\nanguish the poor chicken had suffered when it was carried to the market, sold,<br \/>\nits feathers plucked and its neck cut! (Laughter)<span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p 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\"'>That&#8217;s what happens! That is to say, in a<br \/>\ngreater or lesser proportion you swallow along with the meat a little of the<br \/>\nconsciousness of the animal you eat. It is not very serious, but it is not<br \/>\nalways very pleasant. And obviously it does not help you in being on the side<br \/>\nof man rather than of the beast! It is evident that primitive men, those who<br \/>\nwere still much closer to the beast than to the spirit, apparently used to eat<br \/>\nraw meat, and that gives much more strength than cooked meat. They killed the<br \/>\nanimal, tore it apart and bit into it, and they were very strong. And moreover,<br \/>\nthis is why there was in their intestines that little piece, the appendix which<br \/>\nin those days was much bigger and served to digest the raw meat. And then man<br \/>\nbegan to cook. He found out that things tasted better that way, and he ate<br \/>\ncooked meat and gradually the appendix grew smaller and was no longer of any<br \/>\nuse at all. So now it is an encumbrance which at times brings on an illness. <\/span><\/p>\n<p 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 to tell you that perhaps now it is<br \/>\ntime to change one&#8217;s food and go over to something a little less bestial! It<br \/>\ndepends absolutely on each one&#8217;s state of consciousness. For an ordinary man,<br \/>\nliving an ordinary life, having ordinary activities, not thinking at all of<br \/>\nanything else except earning his living, of keeping himself fit and perhaps<br \/>\ntaking care of his family, it is good to eat meat, it is all right for him to<br \/>\neat anything at all, whatever agrees with him, whatever does him good. <\/span><\/p>\n<p 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 if one wishes to pass from this<br \/>\nordinary life to a higher one, the problem begins to become interesting; and<br \/>\nif, after having come to a higher life, one tries to prepare oneself for the<br \/>\ntransformations, then it becomes very important. For there certainly are foods<br \/>\nwhich help the body to become subtle and others which keep it in a state of <span class=\"SpellE\">animality<\/span>. But it is only at that particular time that this<br \/>\nbecomes very important, not be-&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p 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; 179<\/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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>fore; and before reaching that moment,<br \/>\nthere are many other things to do. Certainly it is better to purify one&#8217;s mind<br \/>\nand purify one&#8217;s vital before thinking of purifying one&#8217;s body. For even if you<br \/>\ntake all possible precautions and live physically taking care not to absorb<br \/>\nanything except what will help to <span class=\"SpellE\">subtilise<\/span> your<br \/>\nbody, if your mind and vital remain in a state of desire, Inconscience,<br \/>\ndarkness, passion and all the rest, that won&#8217;t be of any use at all. Only, your<br \/>\nbody will become weak, dislocated from the inner life and one fine day it will<br \/>\nfall ill. <\/span><\/p>\n<p 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\"'>One must begin from inside, I have already<br \/>\ntold you this once. One must begin from above, first purify the higher and then<br \/>\npurify the lower. I am not saying that one must indulge in all sorts of<br \/>\ndegrading things in the body. That&#8217;s not what I am telling you. Don&#8217;t take it<br \/>\nas an advice not to exercise control over your desires! It isn&#8217;t that at all.<br \/>\nBut what I mean is, do not try to be an angel in the body if you are not<br \/>\nalready just a little of an angel in your mind and vital; for that would<br \/>\ndislocate you in a different way from the usual one, but not one that is<br \/>\nbetter. We said the other day that what is most important is to keep the<br \/>\nequilibrium. Well, to keep the equilibrium everything must progress at the same<br \/>\ntime. You must not leave one part of your being in darkness and try to bring<br \/>\nthe other into light. You must take great care not to leave any corner dark.<br \/>\nThere you are. <\/span><\/p>\n<p 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 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\"'>Why were eggs forbidden in the Ashram formerly? Now you give eggs. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p 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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Eggs were forbidden? <\/span><\/p>\n<p 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 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\"'>I don&#8217;t know. That&#8217;s what we were told. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p 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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Ah, people say many things, but I am not<br \/>\nresponsible for all the things they say! (Laughter) I don&#8217;t remember ever<br \/>\nrefusing an egg to someone who needed it from the point of view of<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p 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; 180<\/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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>health. But if people come and ask for<br \/>\nsomething just out of greediness, for pleasure, I always refuse, as much now as<br \/>\nbefore. It is only from the point of view of health, you know, of the physical<br \/>\nequilibrium, that certain things are allowed. Everything is allowed. I haven&#8217;t<br \/>\nrefused meat to one who needed it. There were people who ate it because they<br \/>\nneeded it. But if someone comes asking me for something just in order to<br \/>\nsatisfy a desire, I say \u201cNo\u201d, whatever it may be, even ice-cream!<br \/>\n(Laughter)<span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p 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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><br \/>\n<span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>When one eats an<br \/>\negg, doesn&#8217;t one eat the chicken inside it? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p 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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>It&#8217;s not yet formed, the consciousness of<br \/>\nthe chicken. Of course, one must take care to eat the egg fresh before the<br \/>\nchick begins to be formed. <\/span><\/p>\n<p 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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><br \/>\n<span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Sweet Mother, if the agony of a chicken can attack us, so too can that<br \/>\nof a beetroot or a carrot, can&#8217;t it? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p 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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>For all that, I believe the chicken is<br \/>\nmore conscious than the beetroot. (Laughter) But I ought to tell you my own<br \/>\nexperience. Only I was thinking this was not something common. <\/span><\/p>\n<p 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 <\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Tokyo<\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'> I had a garden and in this garden I was<br \/>\ngrowing vegetables myself. I had a fairly big garden and many vegetables. And<br \/>\nso, every morning I used to go for a walk, after having watered them and all<br \/>\nthe rest; I used to walk around to choose which vegetables I could take for<br \/>\neating. Well, just imagine! There were some which said to me, \u201cNo, no, no, no, <span class=\"GramE\">no<\/span>.\u201d&#8230;<span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>And then<br \/>\nthere were others which called, and I saw them from a distance, and they were<br \/>\nsaying, \u201cTake me, take me, <span class=\"GramE\">take<\/span> me!\u201d So it was very<br \/>\nsimple, I looked for those which wanted to be taken and never did I touch those<br \/>\nwhich did not. I used to think it was something exceptional. I loved my plants<br \/>\nvery much, I used to look after them, I had put a lot of consciousness into<br \/>\nthem while watering them, cleaning them, <span class=\"GramE\">so<\/span> I thought<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p 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; 181<\/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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>they had a special capacity, perhaps. <\/span><\/p>\n<p 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 in <\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>France<\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'> it was the same thing. I had a garden<br \/>\nalso in the south of <\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>France<\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'> where I used to grow peas, radishes,<br \/>\ncarrots. Well, there were some which were happy, which asked to be taken and<br \/>\neaten, and there were those which said, \u201cNo, no, no, don&#8217;t touch me, don&#8217;t<br \/>\ntouch me!\u201d (Laughter)<span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p 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 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\"'>Why did they say that, Sweet Mother? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p 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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Well, I experimented precisely to find<br \/>\nout; and the result was not always the same. At times it was indeed that the<br \/>\nplant was not edible; it was not good, it was hard or bitter, it was not good<br \/>\nfor eating. At other times it happened that it was not ready, that it was too<br \/>\nearly; it wasn&#8217;t ripe. By waiting for a day or two, a day or two later it said<br \/>\nto me, \u201cTake me, take me, take me!\u201d<span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<\/span>(Laughter)<span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p 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 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\"'>In the past, sages used to torture their bodies in order to realise the<br \/>\nDivine! <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p 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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Well then, they were not sages!<br \/>\n(Laughter)<span>\u00a0 <\/span>This leads to nothing at all,<br \/>\nexcept to pride, a spiritual pride, that&#8217;s all. But surely not to the<br \/>\nrealisation of the Divine. <\/span><\/p>\n<p 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 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\"'>But it is said that they did the highest form of sadhana and realised what<br \/>\nthey wanted. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p 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 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 said, many things are said. <\/span><\/p>\n<p 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 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\"'>Aren&#8217;t dogs more faithful than men? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p 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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Certainly! Because it is their nature to<br \/>\nbe faithful, and they have no mental complications. What prevents men from<br \/>\nbeing faithful are their mental complications. Most men are not faithful<br \/>\nbecause they fear being duped. You don&#8217;t know what it is to be<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p 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; 182<\/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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>duped? They fear being deceived, being<br \/>\nexploited. They fear&#8230;<span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Behind their<br \/>\nfaithfulness there is still a very big egoism which is more or less hidden, and<br \/>\nthere is always that bargaining, more or less conscious, of give-and-take: one<br \/>\ngives oneself to someone but whether one tells oneself this or not, one expects<br \/>\nsomething in exchange. You are faithful, but also want others to be faithful to<br \/>\nyou, that is, look after you, to be quite sweet to you, and, especially not to<br \/>\ntry to profit by your faithfulness. None of these complications are there in<br \/>\nthe dog, for its mind is very rudimentary. It does not have this marvellous<br \/>\ncapacity of reasoning that men have, a capacity which has made them commit so<br \/>\nmany stupidities. <\/span><\/p>\n<p 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\"'>Only one cannot turn and go back. One<br \/>\ncannot become a dog again. So one must become a higher man and have the quality<br \/>\nof the dog on a higher plane; that is, instead of its being a half-conscious<br \/>\nfidelity, and in any case very instinctive, a sort of need that ties it down,<br \/>\nit must be a willed, conscious fidelity, and especially above all egoism. There<br \/>\nis a point where all the virtues are united: it is a point that goes beyond the<br \/>\nego. If we take this faithfulness, if we take devotion, take love, the meaning<br \/>\nof service, all these things, when they are above the egoistic level, they<br \/>\nmeet, in the see that they give themselves and do not expect anything in<br \/>\nexchange. And if you climb one step higher, instead of its being done with the<br \/>\nidea of duty and abnegation, it is done with an intense joy which carries<br \/>\nwithin itself its own reward, which needs nothing in exchange, for it carries<br \/>\nits joy in itself. But then, for that you must have climbed quite high and must<br \/>\nno longer have that turning back upon yourself which, of all things, pulls you<br \/>\ndown lowest. That kind of&#8230;<span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>that<br \/>\nsympathy, full of self-pity, wherein one cajoles and caresses oneself and says,<br \/>\n\u201cPoor me!\u201d, that, indeed, is something terrible, and one does this so<br \/>\nconstantly, without being aware of it. This turning back upon oneself, a kind<br \/>\nof degrading self-compassion, in which one tells oneself in a tone so full of<br \/>\npity, \u201cNobody understands me! No one loves me! No one cares for me as people<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p 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; 183<\/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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>should!\u201d etc., and one goes on and<br \/>\non&#8230;<span>\u00a0 <\/span>And now this is really terrible,<br \/>\nit draws you down into a hole immediately. <\/span><\/p>\n<p 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\"'>One must have gone far beyond all that,<br \/>\nleft it very far behind oneself, in order to truly have the joy of<br \/>\nfaithfulness, the joy of self-giving, which does not care at all, no, indeed,<br \/>\nnot at all, in any way, whether it is properly received or gets the adequate<br \/>\nresponse. Not to expect anything in exchange for what one does, not to expect<br \/>\nanything, not through asceticism or a see of sacrifice but because one has the<br \/>\njoy of the consciousness one is in and that is enough; this is much better than<br \/>\nall one can receive, from whomsoever it be; but that again is something else. There<br \/>\nare quite a few stages between the two. <\/span><\/p>\n<p 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 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 that the sleep before <\/span><\/i><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>midnight<\/span><\/i><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'> gives us most rest&#8230;<span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p 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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Physically, yes. <\/span><\/p>\n<p 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 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\"'>Why? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p 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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Ah! I said that through personal<br \/>\nexperience and then that&#8230;<span>\u00a0 <\/span>There&#8217;s no<br \/>\nwhy about it, is there? Everyone should find this out for himself, or not find<br \/>\nit out. But I have heard from those who are interested in earth-chemistry that<br \/>\nthere are certain rays \u2013 (<i>turning to <span class=\"SpellE\">Pavitra<\/span><\/i>) isn&#8217;t that so? Tell us, do you know about it?<br \/>\n\u2013 sun-rays which remain active in the atmosphere till midnight, and other rays<br \/>\nwhich become active afterwards, and these give you strength and those draw it<br \/>\nout of you. But there are many things like that; at least this, you understand,<br \/>\nis something we hear of or read in books. I am giving it to you for what it is<br \/>\nworth, I know nothing. Somebody who is very well up in the subject could give<br \/>\nyou a fuller explanation. (laughing)<span>\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>\n<\/span>But certain things are true, in practice. I cannot say why; perhaps they<br \/>\nare only personal things! But still, I have heard of a similar experience from<br \/>\nothers also. For instance, you go into the<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p 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; 184<\/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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>sea, remain there a few minutes and you<br \/>\ncome out full of strength. You go into the sea and remain in it for an hour and<br \/>\nyou come out completely exhausted! Even with a hot bath it is the same thing.<br \/>\nYou have a hot bath; you are very tired; you get into it; you remain there at<br \/>\nthe most for a moment; you come out and feel quite fresh. You remain there for<br \/>\na quarter of an hour, you come out, you have lost all your strength, your<br \/>\nenergy, there&#8217;s nothing left, you are drained out. <\/span><\/p>\n<p 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\"'>I tell you this, I cannot speak to you<br \/>\nwith any competence about the reason, but the fact is there. It is like that.<br \/>\nFor myself I have an explanation, but it is good only for me, it does not work<br \/>\nfor others. So it is useless. <\/span><\/p>\n<p 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\"'>As for these stages of sleep which are<br \/>\nspoken about here, if one is conscious of one&#8217;s nights, one can cover them in a<br \/>\nfew minutes. One does not need to wait for hours of sleep to do this, you<br \/>\nunderstand; if one is conscious, one can pass through all that in a few<br \/>\nminutes. To begin with, when one is conscious of one&#8217;s nights, the first thing<br \/>\nto do before falling fast asleep, just in the state when one begins to relax,<br \/>\nrelax all one&#8217;s nerves \u2013 I have explained this to you already, one relaxes all<br \/>\nthe nerves and lets oneself go&#8230; like this&#8230; you know \u2013 well, at that moment,<br \/>\none must relax very carefully all mental activity and make that quiet, as quiet<br \/>\nas possible, and not go off to sleep until the mind is quite calm. Then you escape<br \/>\nquite a long period of useless excitement which is extremely tiring. If you can<br \/>\nso manage that the mind relaxes and enters into a complete peace first, your<br \/>\nsleep will immediately become very peaceful and very refreshing; naturally,<br \/>\nyour vital must not be in a turmoil, for then, in that case, it will take you<br \/>\ninto all sorts of places and make you commit all kinds of stupidities, and the<br \/>\nresult will be that you will wake up even more tired than when you went to<br \/>\nsleep. <\/span><\/p>\n<p 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 if you are conscious, after having<br \/>\ncalmed your vital, when you begin to come out from your physical consciousness<br \/>\nand enter a more subtle consciousness, you put your vital to sleep, you say to<br \/>\nit, \u201cRest now, keep very quiet\u201d, and then you<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p 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; 185<\/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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>enter your mental activity and say to the<br \/>\nmind, \u201cRest now, remain very quiet\u201d, and you put it to sleep also; and then you<br \/>\ncome out of the mind into a higher region, and there, if it begins to interest<br \/>\nyou, for instance, if it is the first time you have gone there, you may look at<br \/>\nwhat is happening, have your experience, learn things \u2013 at times one learns<br \/>\nvery interesting things; and then, sometimes one can become aware of a certain<br \/>\ngeneral state also, have ideas about other people, other things; it is interesting!<br \/>\nAnd later, if you have had enough of this, you say, \u201cKeep quiet, sleep, don&#8217;t<br \/>\nmove\u201d, and you put that to sleep, and rise to a still higher consciousness, and<br \/>\nso on, till you reach a state where you are on the borders of form, I am not<br \/>\nspeaking of physical form \u2013 on the borders of all form, much higher than the<br \/>\nform of thought, naturally; on the borders of all form and all vibration, in<br \/>\nthe perfect silence, what here we call Sachchidananda. And when you are there,<br \/>\neverything stops, all vibrations subside, and if you remain there just three<br \/>\nminutes, you come back to your body absolutely rested, refreshed, fortified, as<br \/>\nthough you had slept for hours! This is something one can learn to do. I don&#8217;t<br \/>\nsay it can be done overnight, a little work is necessary and also some<br \/>\npersistence, but still&#8230; this one must learn to do; and when you are very<br \/>\nanxious, very tired, very&#8230; for instance, when you have just undergone violent<br \/>\nattacks from hostile forces in one form or another and are very tired, if you<br \/>\nfollow this process consciously, well, within a few minutes all that disappears<br \/>\ncompletely. It is something worth learning. Only, one must be very, very, very<br \/>\npersevering, for&#8230; Wait a bit, I am going to tell you something more about it.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p 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\"'>When I began studying occultism, I became<br \/>\naware that \u2013 just when I began to work upon my nights in order to make them<br \/>\nconscious \u2013 I became aware that there was between the subtle-physical and the<br \/>\nmost material vital a small region, very small, which was not sufficiently<br \/>\ndeveloped to serve as a conscious link between the two activities. So what took<br \/>\nplace in the consciousness of the most material vital did not get translated<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p 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; 186<\/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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>exactly in the consciousness of the most<br \/>\nsubtle physical. Some of it got lost on the way because it was like a \u2013 not<br \/>\npositively a void but something only half-conscious, not sufficiently<br \/>\ndeveloped. I knew there was only one way, that was to work to develop it. I<br \/>\nbegan working. This happened sometime about the month of February, I believe.<br \/>\nOne month, two months, three, four, no result. We go on. Five months, six<br \/>\nmonths&#8230; it was at the end of July or the beginning of August. I left <\/span><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Paris<\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>, the house I was staying in, and went to<br \/>\nthe countryside, quite a small place on the seashore, to stay with some friends<br \/>\nwho had a garden. Now, in that garden there was a lawn \u2013 you know what a lawn<br \/>\nis, don&#8217;t you? <span class=\"GramE\">grass<\/span> \u2013 where there were flowers and<br \/>\naround it some trees. It was a fine place, very quiet, very silent. I lay on<br \/>\nthe grass, like this, flat on my stomach, my elbows in the grass, and then<br \/>\nsuddenly all the life of that Nature, all the life of that region between the<br \/>\nsubtle-physical and the most material vital, which is very living in plants and<br \/>\nin Nature, all that region became all at once, suddenly, without any<br \/>\ntransition, absolutely living, intense, conscious, marvellous; and this was the<br \/>\nresult, wasn&#8217;t it?, of six months of work which had given nothing. I had not<br \/>\nnoticed anything; but just a little condition like that and the result was<br \/>\nthere! It is like the chick in the egg, yes! It is there for a very long time<br \/>\nand yet one sees nothing at all. And one wonders whether there is indeed a<br \/>\nchick in the egg; and then, suddenly \u201cTick!<span class=\"GramE\">\u201d,<\/span> there is<br \/>\na tiny hole, you know, and then everything bursts and out comes the chick! It<br \/>\nis quite ready, but it took all that time to be formed; that&#8217;s how it is. When<br \/>\nyou want to prepare something within you, that is how it <span class=\"GramE\">is,<\/span><br \/>\nit is like the chick in the egg. You need a very long time, and this without<br \/>\nhaving the least result, never getting discouraged, and continuing your effort,<br \/>\nabsolutely regularly, as though you had eternity before you and, moreover, as<br \/>\nthough you were quite disinterested about the result. You do the work because<br \/>\nyou do it. And then, suddenly, one day, it bursts and you see before you the<br \/>\nfull result of your work.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p 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; 187<\/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 style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>But you understand, don&#8217;t you? One speaks<br \/>\nlike this, very easily, of becoming conscious of one&#8217;s nights, having control over<br \/>\none&#8217;s sleep-activities and all sorts of things of this kind, but you need to do<br \/>\nmany such little works like the one I have just described to you. Many of these<br \/>\nare needed to obtain this result. When one is accomplished, you realise that<br \/>\nthere is another missing, and when this is done, you realise there is still<br \/>\nanother, and so on, until one fine day you can do what I said, and you go from<br \/>\none plane to another, like that, putting all to rest, until you come out of all<br \/>\nactivity and enter the supreme rest, consciously. It is worth the trouble. <\/span><\/p>\n<p 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><\/p>\n<p 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\"'>Another question? No? <\/span><\/p>\n<p 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\"'>Finished.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p 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; 188<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"WW-PlainText\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/p>\n<p> <span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;color: #0000FF;font-weight: 700\"><br \/>\n  <font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>23 June 1954 &nbsp; This talk is based upon Sri Aurobindo&#8217;s Elements of Yoga, Chapter 13, \u201cSex \u2013 Food \u2013 Sleep\u201d. &nbsp; \u201cQ: Is taking&#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-4431","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\/4431","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=4431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4431\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}