{"id":4439,"date":"2013-07-13T01:56:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4439"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:56:00","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:56:00","slug":"02-03-february-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\/02-03-february-vol-06-questions-and-answers-volume-06","title":{"rendered":"-02_03 February.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n
\n3 February 1954<\/span><\/font> <\/font><\/span> <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis talk is based upon Mother\u2019s essay
\n<\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\u201cVital Education\u201d.
\n<\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn
\nsome ancient initiations it was stated that the number of sees that man can
\ndevelop is not five but seven and in certain special cases even twelve. Certain
\nraces at certain times have, out of necessity, developed more or less perfectly
\none or another of these supplementary sees. With a proper discipline
\npersistently followed, they are within the reach of all who are sincerely
\ninterested in this development and its results. Among the faculties that are
\noften mentioned, there is,\u00a0 <\/span>for example,
\nthe ability to widen the physical consciousness, project it out of oneself so
\nas to concentrate it on a given point and thus obtain sight, hearing, smell,
\ntaste and even touch at a distance.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What are the names of these twelve senses? <\/span><\/i>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

The names? In the Chaldean tradition they were in Chaldaic.\u00a0 <\/span>In other traditions, in other languages; in Egypt
\nthey were written in hieroglyphs. Each system gave its names. I had a list of
\nthe names \u2013 not only of the names but also of what they represented, what kind
\nof see each represented \u2013 but it was a very long time ago, I don\u2019t remember
\nthem any longer. As I have said there, it is in the field of things seen, felt,
\ndone at a distance by a concentrated projection of consciousness. For in
\nstance, one is in a room and, due to an illness or an accident, one cannot
\nmove. Next to this room there is another; next to that there is a sort of
\nbridge; after the bridge there are steps going down; and these steps go down to
\na big studio in the middle of a garden. Now, the person laid up in the room
\nwishes
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 10<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/p>\n
\n

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

to know what is going on in the studio. He concentrates his
\nconsciousness and then extends it, so to say (truly it is as though he extended
\nit almost materially), and he goes along the whole way and reaches the studio.
\nIf he does this properly, he sees what there is in the studio, can hear what is
\ngoing on, though he is not there himself: the body is lying in a bed in a room,
\nbut the consciousness is projected. It is a physical consciousness.\u00a0 <\/span>It is not an inner state, for one sees
\nphysically, hears physically.\u00a0 <\/span>If there
\nare people in the room one sees them, and if they are speaking one hears them
\nspeaking. Naturally, it is not from the very first day that one succeeds; it
\nasks for a very rigorous discipline. It corresponds a little (a little) to that
\ncapacity which was developed in the Red India due to the conditions of their
\nlife. I don\u2019t know how it is at present, but formerly they used to put their
\near to the earth, and they had so fine an ear that they could hear steps more
\nthan a mile away. They heard the steps of those who were walking at a distance
\nof more than two or three kilometres simply by putting their ear to the ground.
\nOr take the dog which, if given something to smell, finds the trail of that
\nscent again, can follow it with its nose. Well, it is one kind of super-see,
\nthat is, a see that has reached such a degree of intensity and refinement that
\nit can indeed feel what the ordinary see does not feel, can see at a distance,
\nreally see, see physically at a distance, through walls. It is said that the
\nblind develop a see which enables them to feel an object at a distance. They do
\nnot see, they walk in darkness as in a black night; but they have a kind of see
\nof touch at a distance, a material contact due to which, long before touching
\nthe object, they know; for example, if there is a piece of furniture in their
\nway, long before knocking against it, they feel it from a distance. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

In
\nchildren the mind is not developed when they are small. Is this also true of
\nthe vital? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

No, the vital is much more developed than the mind. You know, <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 11<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/p>\n
\n

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

I have said there that things are crystallized, that is,
\nthey take a form, and a more and more precise, a more and more fixed form (the
\nmore precise the form, the more fixed it is). In children it is much more like
\nwater; it is not yet in a very concrete and precise form. That is why,
\nmoreover, one can have a great influence upon them, for it is still supple, it
\nis not crystallized; one can notice it: it has something malleable about it, as
\nthough one were moulding butter; however, as soon as they are about twenty or
\ntwenty-five, the special disposition, the turn of character is fixed and, at
\nthat moment, instead of preventing defects, it becomes necessary to mend them.
\nThat is another thing. If one wants to give an education which prevents bad
\nhabits from being formed or bad tendencies from being pursued, an education
\nwhich leads children constantly into the right path (that one wants them to
\nfollow), well, when they are small it is possible, when they become bigger, it
\nbecomes hard. One cannot change the imprint easily. Even sometimes it is
\nnecessary to break things to be able to change them: as those who are not
\nprogressive, who are fixed and remain fixed, who cling with all their strength
\nto their petty habits. While the little ones are supple, one can change their
\nopinion, one can make them progress, give them the see that tomorrow one must
\ndo better than today. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Are
\nbad habits, as for instance that of not keeping things in order, due to the
\nvital? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

That depends. For example, children who have no order, who can\u2019t
\nkeep their things carefully but lose or spoil them \u2013 there
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIn certain cases this education will
\nencourage the movements that express the light, in others, on the contrary,
\nthose that express the shadow. If the circumstances and the environment are
\nfavourable, the light will grow at the expense of the shadow; otherwise the
\nopposite will happen. And in this way the individual\u2019s character will
\ncrystallize according to the whims of Nature and the determinisms of material
\nand vital life, unless a higher element comes in – in time, a conscious will
\nwhich, refusing to allow Nature to follow her whimsical ways, will replace them
\nby a logical and clear-sighted discipline. This conscious will is what we mean
\nby a rational method of education.\u201d<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 12<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/p>\n
\n

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

are three reasons for this. Most often it is a child who lacks
\nvitality. When it is like that, when it can\u2019t keep its things care fully and
\nall is in disorder around it, this is always a sign of a lack of vitality; it
\ndoes not have sufficient vitality to take interest in these outer things. The
\nsecond reason is that it lacks interest in material life, the life of things,
\nand that it has no discipline, doesn\u2019t discipline itself. For instance,
\nchildren when they undress throw their clothes all over the place; or else,
\nwhen they have finished playing, they leave their toys lying about; when they
\nhave written out their homework, everything is littered all around: the
\nfountain-pen on one side, the notebook on another, the reader on a third, and
\nthen all these get lost. Unfortunately that\u2019s how it is with the great majority
\nof the children here at the school, they lose everything. I have found books
\nreduced to pulp because they had spent the whole night on a flower-pot and it
\nhad rained the next morning! When they were found, they were like gruel. But
\nthat is rare. Pencils too \u2013 I have a collection of fountain-pens and pencils
\npicked up thus, having been lost. These are absolutely undisciplined natures,
\nthose who have no method, and within themselves they don\u2019t have any method. And
\ninto the bargain they despise things \u2013 so, as Sri Aurobindo says, they are not
\nworthy of having them. People who don\u2019t know how to deal with things carefully,
\ndon\u2019t deserve to have them. Sri Aurobindo has often written on this subject in
\nhis letters. He has said that if you don\u2019t know how to take care of material
\nthings, you have no right to have them. Indeed this shows a kind of selfishness
\nand confusion in the human being, and it is not a good sign. And then later
\nwhen they grow up, some of them cannot keep a cupboard in order or a drawer in
\norder. They may be in a room which looks very tidy and very neat outwardly, and
\nthen you open a drawer or a cupboard, it is like a battlefield! Everything is
\npell-mell. You find everything in a jumble; nothing is arranged. These are people
\nwith a poor little head in which ideas lie in the same state as their material
\nobjects. They have not organised their ideas. They haven\u2019t put
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 13<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/p>\n
\n

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

them in order. They live in a cerebral confusion. And that is a
\nsure sign, I have never met an exception to this rule: people who don\u2019t know
\nhow to keep their things in order \u2013 their ideas are in disorder in their heads,
\nalways. They exist together, the most contradictory ideas are put together, and
\nnot through a higher synthesis, don\u2019t you believe it: simply because of a
\ndisorder and an incapacity to organise their ideas. You don\u2019t need to speak
\neven for ten minutes with people if you can manage to enter their room and open
\nthe drawers of their tables and look into their cupboard. You know in what
\nstate they are, don\u2019t you? <\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, there was
\nsomeone (I shall tell you who afterwards) who had in his room hundreds of
\nbooks, countless sheets of paper, notebooks and all sorts of things, and so you
\nentered the room and saw books and papers everywhere \u2013 a whole pile, it was
\nquite full. But if you were unfortunate enough to shift a single little bit of
\npaper from its place, he knew it immediately and asked you, \u201cWho has touched my
\nthings?\u201d You, when you come in, see so many things that you feel quite lost.
\nAnd yet each thing had its place. And it was so consciously done, I tell you,
\nthat if one paper was displaced \u2013 for instance, a paper with notes on it or a
\nletter or something else which was taken away from one place and placed in
\nanother with the idea of putting things in order \u2013 he used to say, \u201cYou have
\ntouched my things; you have displaced them and created a disorder in my
\nthings.\u201d That of course was Sri Aurobindo! That means you must not confuse
\norder with poverty. Naturally if you have about a dozen books and a very
\nlimited number of things, it is easier to keep them in order, but what one must
\nsucceed in doing is to put into order \u2013 and a logical, conscious, intelligent
\norder \u2013 a countless number of things. That asks for a capacity of organization.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, if someone is very ill,
\nhas no strength to spare, then that\u2019s different. And yet even here, there are
\nlimits. I knew ill people who could tell you, \u201cOpen this drawer and in the left
\ncorner at the back you will find such and such a thing under <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 14<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/p>\n
\n

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

such another\u201d; the man could not move and take it himself, but he
\nknew very well where it was. But apart from that, the ideal is to have some
\norganization, as for instance of the kind found in libraries where there are
\nhundreds of thousands of books and where everything is classified (naturally it
\nis not done by just one man), but it is a work in which each thing is so well
\nclassified that, despite all, if you bring a card and say \u201cI want this book\u201d, a
\nquarter of an hour later you have it or sometimes in five minutes. That is
\norganization. And yet there are rooms full of books there. But all this is the
\nresult of work perfected by a large number of men, the result of a professional
\norganization.\u00a0 <\/span>Well, for oneself, one
\nmust organise one\u2019s own things \u2013 and at the same time one\u2019s own ideas \u2013 in the
\nsame way, and must know exactly where things are and be able to go straight to
\nthem, because one\u2019s organization is logical. It is your own logic \u2013 it may not
\nbe your neighbour\u2019s logic, not necessarily, it is your own logic \u2013 but your
\norganization being logical, you know exactly where a thing is and, as I told
\nyou, if that thing is displaced, you know it immediately. And those who can do
\nthat are generally those who can put their ideas into order and can also
\norganise their character and can finally control their movements. And then, if
\nyou make progress, you succeed in governing your physical life; you begin to
\nhave a control over your physical movements. If you take life in that way,
\ntruly it be comes interesting. If one lives in a confusion, a disorder, an
\ninner and outer chaos in which everything is mixed up and one is conscious of
\nnothing and still less is master of things, this is not living. This is not
\nliving, it is being in a sea of Inconscience, being tossed about by the waves,
\ncaught by the currents, thrown against rocks, seized again by another wave and
\nthrown against another rock; and one goes on thus with bruises and blows and
\nbumps. And then, should one ask you, \u201cWhy is it like this?\u201d \u2013 \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d \u2013
\n\u201cWhy did you do that?\u201d \u2013 \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d \u2013 \u201cWhy do you think in this way?\u201d \u2013 \u201cI
\ndon\u2019t know.\u201d \u2013 \u201cWhy did you make that movement?\u201d \u2013 \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d All
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 15<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/p>\n
\n

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

the answers are \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n

Essentially there is but one single
\ntrue reason for living: it is to know oneself. We are here \u2013 to learn to learn
\nwhat we are, why we are here, and what we have to do. And if we don\u2019t know
\nthat, our life is altogether empty \u2013 for ourselves and for others. <\/span><\/p>\n

And so, generally, it is better to
\nbegin early, for there is much to learn. If one wants to learn about life as it
\nis, the world as it is, and then really know the why and the how of life, one
\ncan begin when very young, from the time one is very, very tiny \u2013 before the
\nage of five. And then, when one is a hundred, he will still be able to learn.
\nSo it is interesting. And all the time one can have surprises, always learn
\nsomething one didn\u2019t know, meet with an experience one did not have before,
\nfind some thing one was ignorant of. It is surely very interesting. And the
\nmore one knows, the more aware does one become that one has everything to
\nlearn. Truly, I could say that only fools believe they know. That indeed is a
\nsure sign, someone coming and telling you, \u201cOh! I know all that; oh! I know all
\nthat\u201d; he is immediately sized up! <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

You
\nhave said: \u201cEveryone possesses… two opposite tendencies of character,\u2026 which
\nare like the light and the shadow of the same thing.\u201d  <\/span><\/i>\n<\/p>\n

         Why are things made in
\nthis way? Can’t one have only the light? <\/span><\/i>
\n
\n
\n <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\u201c<\/font><\/span>Everyone
\npossesses in a large measure, and the exceptional individual in an increasing
\ndegree of precision, two opposite tendencies of character, in almost equal
\nproportions, which are like the light and the shadow of the same thing. Thus
\nsomeone who has the capacity of being exceptionally generous will suddenly find
\nan obstinate avarice rising up in his nature, the courageous man will be a
\ncoward in some part of his being and the good man will suddenly have wicked
\nimpulses. In this way life seems to endow everyone not only with the possibility
\nof expressing an ideal, but also with contrary elements representing in a
\nconcrete manner the battle he has to wage and the victory he has to win for the
\nrealisation to become possible. Consequently, all life is an education pursued
\nmore or less consciously, more or less willingly.<\/font><\/span>\u201d<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 16<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

Yes, if one eliminates the shadow. But it must be eliminated.\u00a0 <\/span>That does not happen by itself. The world as
\nit is is a mixed world. You cannot have an object which gets the light from one
\nside without its casting a shadow on the other. It is like that, and indeed it
\nis the shadows which make you see the lights. The world is like that, and to
\nhave only the light one must definitely go through the entire discipline
\nnecessary for eliminating the shadow. This is what I have explained a little
\nfarther; I have said that this shadow was like a sign of what you had to
\nconquer in your nature in order to be able to realise what you have come to do.
\nIf you have a part to play, a mission to fulfil, you will always carry in
\nyourself the main difficulty preventing you from realizing it, so that you have
\nwithin your reach the victory you must win. If you had to fight against a
\ndifficulty which is everywhere on earth, it would be very difficult (you would
\nneed to have a very vast consciousness and a very great power), while if you
\ncarry in your own nature just the shadow or defect you must conquer, well, it
\nis there, within your reach: you see all the time the effects of this thing and
\ncan fight it directly, immediately. It is a very practical organization. <\/span><\/p>\n

You haven\u2019t seen in the Bulletin
\nthat letter of Sri Aurobindo\u2019s: the \u201cEvil Persona\u201d? It is in the Bulletin. The
\nthing is very well explained there1<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n1<\/sup>The \u201cEvil Persona\u201d<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n      \u201cWhat you say about the \u201cEvil Persona\u201d interests me greatly as it answers to
\nmy consistent experience that a person greatly endowed for the work has, always
\nor almost always, \u2013 perhaps one ought not to make a too rigid universal rule
\nabout these things \u2013 a being attached to him, sometimes appearing like a part
\nof him, which is just the contradiction of the thing he centrally represents in
\nthe work to be done. Or, if it is not there at first, not bound to his
\npersonality, a force of this kind enters into his environment as soon as he
\nbegins his movement to realise. Its business seems to be to oppose, to create
\nstumbling and wrong conditions, in a word, to set before him the whole problem
\nof the work he has started to do. It would seem as if the problem could not, in
\nthe occult economy of things, be solved other wise than by the predestined
\ninstrument making the difficulty his own. That would explain many things that
\nseem very disconcerting on the surface.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n[ <\/span>Letters on Yoga, Cent. Vol. 24, p. 16].<\/font><\/span> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 17<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3 February 1954   This talk is based upon Mother\u2019s essay \u201cVital Education\u201d.   \u201cIn some ancient initiations it was stated that the number of…<\/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-4439","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\/4439","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=4439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4439\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}