{"id":4463,"date":"2013-07-13T01:56:11","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4463"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:56:11","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:56:11","slug":"08-6-may-1953-vol-05-questions-and-answers-volume-05","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/02-works-of-the-mother\/01-cwmce\/05-questions-and-answers-volume-05\/08-6-may-1953-vol-05-questions-and-answers-volume-05","title":{"rendered":"-08_6 May 1953.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

 <\/span><\/b>6 May 1953<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople often meet in these planes, before
\nthey meet upon earth. They may join there, speak to each other and have all the
\nrelations you can have upon earth. Some know of these relationships, some do
\nnot know. Some, as are indeed most, are unconscious of the inner being and the
\ninner intercourse, and yet it happens that when they meet the new face in the
\nouter world, they find it very familiar, quite well known.\u201d<\/span><\/i> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\nQuestions and Answers (1929 21 April)<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

That
\ndepends very much upon the level of consciousness in one\u2019s inner being. For most
\npeople, all that is a mixture in the mental, vital and physical planes; they
\nare not at all conscious of what is happening. Some are conscious and usually
\nthey have a similar feeling when they are told: \u201cWhy, it was like that that I
\nknew you, yes, I know you already intimately, and I have a feeling, but the
\nimpression is very vague.\u201d Very few people are developed enough to say: \u201cWell,
\nI saw you under such and such circumstances.\u201d Yet this has happened.<\/span><\/p>\n

And
\nthen there are those who have learnt a little, who are more or less occultists
\nor believe in rebirth in a childish way, believe that it is a tiny person who
\nhas put on a physical robe, that is, a body, and when this garment falls off,
\nit goes away and puts on another and then another\u2026 like a doll whose dress is
\nchanged. For them it is like that: one changes one\u2019s body, as one changes one\u2019s
\nclothes. Some people have even written books very seriously telling you about
\nall their lives since they were monkeys! That indeed is absolute childishness.
\nFor in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand, it is just the
\ntiny psychic formation at the centre of the being that continues after death;
\nall the rest is dissolved, goes to pieces, scattered here and there, the
\nindividuality exists no longer. Now, <\/span>
\n
\n <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 33<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

how often
\nin the physical life does the psychic being take part consciously in what the
\nphysical being does?.. I am not speaking of people who do yoga and are a little
\ndisciplined; I am speaking of average people who have a psychic capacity in the
\nsense that their psychic is already sufficiently developed to be able to
\nintervene in life and guide it \u2013 some pass years and years without the psychic
\nintervening. And they come and tell you in which country they were born and
\nwhat their father and mother were like and the house they lived in, the roof of
\nthe church and the forest that was by the side and all the most casual events
\nof their life! It is absolutely idiotic, for it is all rubbed off, these things
\ndon\u2019t exist any longer; whilst the memory that one may still have is that of
\nthe particular moment in life when there is a special circumstance, \u201cvital\u201d
\nmoments, so to say, in which the psychic suddenly takes part, through an inner
\ncall or an absolute necessity \u2013 all of a sudden the psychic intervenes \u2013 and
\nthat then is engraved in the psychic memory. When you have the psychic memory
\nyou remember a set of circumstances at one moment of life, particularly of the
\ninner emotion, of the consciousness that acted at that moment. And then that
\npasses into the consciousness along with some associations, with all that was
\naround you, perhaps a word spoken, a phrase heard; but what was most important
\nwas the state of the soul in which you were: for that indeed remains very
\nclearly engraved. These are the landmarks of the psychic life, things that have
\nleft a deep impression and taken part in its formation. Hence when you find
\nyour psychic being in you again constantly, continuously, clearly, it is things
\nlike these that you remember. There may be quite a few, but they are flashes in
\none\u2019s life, and one cannot say: \u201cI was such and such a person, I did such and
\nsuch a thing, I was called by this name and I was doing this or that.\u201d Or
\notherwise it would mean that at that moment (a rare one) there was a combination
\nof circumstances good enough for one to be able to fix the date or the place,
\nthe country and the age. That can happen.<\/span> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 34<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

Naturally
\nthe psychic takes a greater and greater part, and the larger does the set of
\nmemories grow. And then one can retrace one\u2019s life, but not in all its details.
\nOne can say that at certain moments, \u201cit was like this,\u201d or \u201cI was that.\u201d
\nCertain moments, yes, very important moments of a life What\u2019s necessary is a
\nbeing \u2013 wholly identified with the psychic, one that has organised its whole
\nexistence around it, unified its whole being all the tiniest parts, all the
\nelements, all the movements of the being around the psychic centre \u2013 that has
\nmade of itself a single being, solely turned to the Divine; then, if the body falls
\noff, that remains. It is only a completely formed conscious being that can
\nremember exactly in another life all that has happened before. It can even pass
\nconsciously from one life to another without losing anything of its
\nconsciousness. How many people upon earth have reached that state?… Not many,
\nI believe. And usually they are not in the least inclined to narrate their
\nadventures.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

There are people who tell the life of
\nothers.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, I
\nknow. I know many things, I have heard all that one can hear. They tell stories
\nafter stories They look at you and say: \u201cYou were so-and-so in that life, you
\ndid such and such a thing.\u201d Well I guarantee, it is not true. For I know how
\none can find out where one has seen a person and what he was and how it is it
\nis not just a little story that you can write in a book. When you look within a
\nperson, when you have the perception, precisely of the psychic world, which
\nenables you to recognise the psychic there where it was, then all of a sudden
\nyou can see a scene, an image, a form, a word; there is a sort of association
\ndue to which even in the present being of this person there still remain
\ncertain sympathies and attractions which come from previous lives. But, as I
\nwas saying, these are \u201cmoments\u201d of life. And so one sees, one can see these
\nvarious moments, but one cannot narrate a whole life.<\/span> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 35<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

I
\nbelieve Sri Aurobindo has written something very amusing 35about this, the
\nnumber of Caesars one knew, the number of all the great beings, the Napoleons and
\nall the important personages, the Shakespeares, all the people whose names have
\nsurvived in history! How many are there! There are hundreds of them! And you
\nhear their stories: \u201cI was this, I was that, I did this\u201d, or in s\u00e9ances the
\nso-called spirits come and speak to you. A large number of people indulge in
\nthis playing with \u201cspirits\u201d, practising automatic writing and particularly in
\ncommunicating with spirits. Now, there are garrulous spirits. They come to many
\nplaces at the same time, especially people like Napoleon (I do not know why
\nthey have a partiality for Napoleon), everywhere Napoleon arrives and tells you
\nextraordinary stories of his life and usually very contradictory stories and
\nperhaps all at the same time! These are really very active people. Well, it is
\nextremely comic and it is impossible.<\/span><\/p>\n

The
\ntruth is that these are small vital entities, a class of beings formed by the
\ndecomposition of desires that have persisted after a man\u2019s death and retained
\ntheir form; of imaginations that have remained coagulated and try to manifest
\nand reappear. Sometimes they are small beings of the vital world, not very
\nwell-disposed; as soon as they see people playing at such things – automatic
\nwriting, spirit-communication – they come and play. And as they are in a domain
\nfrom where it is easy to read human thought, they tell you very well what you
\nhave in your head. They respond to what you expect. You wish to have a
\nparticular answer: they give you the answer even before you have put the
\nquestion! They can give you precise details, they can tell you that such and
\nsuch a thing happened to you, that such and such a member of your family…
\nThey know quite well. They do excellent thought-reading and tell you things
\naltogether convincingly. \u201cI did not say that I was married and had three sons
\nand four daughters, how did he know all that?\u201d \u2013 Because it was in your head.<\/span><\/p>\n

Psychic
\nmemories have a very special character and a wonderful
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 36<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

intensity.
\nBut that cannot be narrated in this way\u2026 They 36are unforgettable moments of
\nlife when the consciousness is intense, luminous, strong, active, powerful, and
\nsometimes turning-points in life that have changed the direction of one\u2019s life.
\nBut one will never be able to say what dress one was wearing or the gentleman with
\nwhom one spoke and the neighbours and the kind of field where one was.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why do we forget our dreams?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Because you
\ndo not dream always at the same place. It is not always the same part of your
\nbeing that dreams and it is not at the same place that you dream. If you were
\nin conscious, direct, continuous communication with all the parts of your
\nbeing, you would remember all your dreams. But very few parts of the being are
\nin communication.<\/span><\/p>\n

For
\nexample, you have a dream in the subtle physical, that is to say, quite close
\nto the physical. Generally, these dreams occur in the early hours of the
\nmorning, that is between four and five o\u2019clock, at the end of the sleep. If you
\ndo not make a sudden movement when you wake up, if you remain very quiet, very
\nstill and a little attentive \u2013 quietly attentive \u2013 and concentrated, you will
\nremember them, for the communication between the subtle physical and the
\nphysical is established \u2013 very rarely is there no communication.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now,
\ndreams are mostly forgotten because you have a dream while in a certain state
\nand then pass into another. For instance, when you sleep, your body is asleep,
\nyour vital is asleep, but your mind is still active. So your mind begins to
\nhave dreams, that is, its activity is more or less coordinated, the imagination
\nis very active and you see all kinds of things, take part in extraordinary
\nhappenings After some time, all that calms down and the mind also begins to
\ndoze. The vital that was resting wakes up; it comes out of the body, walks
\nabout, goes here and there, does all kinds of things, reacts, sometimes fights,
\nand finally eats.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 37<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

It does all
\nkinds of things. The vital is very adventurous. It watches. 37When it is heroic
\nit rushes to save people who are in prison or to destroy enemies or it makes
\nwonderful discoveries. But this pushes back the whole mental dream very far
\nbehind. It is rubbed off, forgotten: naturally you cannot remember it because
\nthe vital dream takes its place. But if you wake up suddenly at that moment,
\nyou remember it. There are people who have made the experiment, who have got up
\nat certain fixed hours of the night and when they wake up suddenly, they do
\nremember. You must not move brusquely, but awake in the natural course, then
\nyou remember.<\/span><\/p>\n

After
\na time, the vital having taken a good stroll, needs to rest also, and so it
\ngoes into repose and quietness, quite tired at the end of all kinds of
\nadventures. Then something else wakes up. Let us suppose that it is the subtle
\nphysical that goes for a walk. It starts moving and begins wandering, seeing
\nthe rooms and.. why, this thing that was there, but it has come here and that
\nother thing which was in that room is now in this one, and so on. If you wake
\nup without stirring, you remember. But this has pushed away far to the back of
\nthe consciousness all the stories of the vital. They are forgotten and so you
\ncannot recollect your dreams. But if at the time of waking up you are not in a
\nhurry, you are not obliged to leave your bed, on the contrary you can remain
\nthere as long as you wish, you need not even open your eyes; you keep your head
\nexactly where it was and you make yourself like a tranquil mirror within and
\nconcentrate there. You catch just a tiny end of the tail of your dream. You
\ncatch it and start pulling gently, without stirring in the least. You begin
\npulling quite gently, and then first one part comes, a little later another.
\nYou go backward; the last comes up first. Everything goes backward, slowly, and
\nsuddenly the whole dream reappears: \u201cAh, there! it was like that.\u201d Above all,
\ndo not jump up, do not stir; you repeat the dream to yourself several times \u2013
\nonce, twice \u2013 until it becomes clear in all its details. Once that dream is
\nsettled, you continue not to stir, you try to go further in, and suddenly you
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 38 <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

catch the
\ntail of something else. It is more distant, more vague, but you can still seize
\nit. And here also you hang on, get hold of it and pull, and you see that
\neverything changes and you enter another world; all of a sudden you have an extraordinary
\nadventure – it is another dream. You follow the same process. You repeat the
\ndream to yourself once, twice, until you are sure of it. You remain very quiet
\nall the time. Then you begin to penetrate still more deeply into yourself, as
\nthough you were going in very far, very far; and again suddenly you see a vague
\nform, you have a feeling, a sensation… like a current of air, a slight
\nbreeze, a little breath; and you say, \u201cWell, well…. \u201cIt takes a form, it
\nbecomes – clear and the third category comes. You must have a lot of time, a
\nlot of patience, you must be very quiet in your mind and body, very quiet, and
\nyou can tell the story of your whole night from the end right up to the
\nbeginning.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even
\nwithout doing this exercise which is very long and difficult, in order to
\nrecollect a dream, whether it be the last one or the one in the middle that has
\nmade a violent impression on your being, you must do what I have said when you
\nwake up: take particular care not even to move your head on the pillow, remain
\nabsolutely still and let the dream return.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some
\npeople do not have a passage between one state and another, there is a little
\ngap and so they leap from one to the other; there is no highway passing through
\nall the states of being with no break of the consciousness. A small dark hole,
\nand you do not remember. It is like a precipice across which one has to extend
\nthe consciousness. To build a bridge takes a very long time; it takes much
\nlonger than building a physical bridge Very few people want to and know how to
\ndo it. They may have had magnificent activities, they do not remember them or
\nsometimes only the last, the nearest, the most physical activity, with an
\nuncoordinated movement \u2013 dreams having no sense.<\/span><\/p>\n

But
\nthere are as many different kinds of nights and sleep as there are different
\ndays and activities. There are not many days that are alike, each day is
\ndifferent. The days are not the same,
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 39<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

the nights
\nare not the same. You and your friends are doing apparently the same thing, but
\nfor each one it is very different. And each one must have his own procedure.<\/span> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\n      <\/span>Why are two dreams never alike? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Because all
\nthings are different. No two minutes are alike in the universe and it will be so
\ntill the end of the universe, no two minutes will ever be alike. And men
\nobstinately want to make rules! One must do this and not that Well! we must let
\npeople please themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

You
\ncould have put to me a very interesting question: \u201cWhy am I fourteen years old
\ntoday?\u201d Intelligent people will say: \u201cIt is because it is the fourteenth year
\nsince you were born.\u201d That is the answer of someone who believes himself to be
\nvery intelligent. But there is another reason. I shall tell this to you alone\u2026
\nI have drowned you all sufficiently well! Now you must begin to learn swimming!
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\n     <\/span>If one finds the truth in things, does it
\nmean that one has found the Divine? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Surely! In
\neverything, whatever it is that is the only way. There is not a thing that does
\nnot carry in itself an eternal truth, otherwise it could not exist. The
\nuniverse could not exist for even a thousandth part of a second if it did not
\ncontain a truth in itself. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n


\n    <\/span>If one were in contact with the Divine,
\nwhat would be its effect? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

For each
\none a different effect. Because we are in the presence of a fact: there is a
\nuniverse, at least there is an earth, of that we are almost sure, you cannot
\ndispute that, granted?.. Have you ever asked yourself why there is an earth?
\nNo! Probably it was quite wise. Once I spoke to you of that occultist whom I <\/span>
\n
\n <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 40<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

knew. He
\nwas a wise man in his own way. People used to come and ask him: <\/span><\/p>\n

First
\nof all, why is there a universe? Answer: What is that to you?<\/span><\/p>\n

Secondly,
\nthen why is it as it is? Reply: It is as it is. What does it matter to you? <\/span><\/p>\n

Thirdly,
\nI do not find it satisfactory. <\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s
\nvery good. We begin to touch the practical. To those who do not find it
\nsatisfactory, I would say: There is only one thing to do, start working for its
\nchange, find a way for it to be otherwise and to be good. Things are as they
\nare. Why are they so?… Perhaps one might know \u2013 it is not certain. In any
\ncase they are so. The most remarkable thing is that if you are sincere you will
\nfind out why they are so and how they are so: the cause, the origin and the
\nprocess. For it is one single thing. There is what we call the Truth, the basis
\nof everything; because if this were not there, there would be nothing. Once you
\nhave found the Truth, you find the origin, you find the means of changing the
\ncause \u2013 how it is so, why it is so and the means of changing it. If you are in
\ncontact with the Divine, you have the key to everything. You know the how, the
\nwhy and the process to change. <\/span><\/p>\n

There
\nis something to do: to work, it is so interesting. You represent a small
\nagglomerated mass of substance that makes up yourself. Enter within and find
\nthe key. You have only to go down inside there. You cannot say: \u201cThat is beyond
\nme, it is too big for me.\u201d Go within your little person and you will find the
\nkey which opens all the doors. <\/span>
\n
\n <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 41<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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