{"id":4480,"date":"2013-07-13T01:56:18","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4480"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:56:18","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:56:18","slug":"37-18-november-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\/37-18-november-1953-vol-05-questions-and-answers-volume-05","title":{"rendered":"-37_18 November 1953.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=\"line-height: 150%;margin: 0\"><b><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/b><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><b><font size=\"3\">18 November 1953 <\/font><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\">\u201cIn rebirth it is not the external being,<br \/>\nthat which is formed by parents, environment and circumstances, &#8211; the mental,<br \/>\nthe vital and the physical, &#8211; that is born again: it is only the psychic being<br \/>\nthat passes from body to body. Logically, then, neither the mental nor the<br \/>\nvital being can remember past lives or recognise itself in the character or<br \/>\nmode of life of this or that person. The psychic being alone can remember; and<br \/>\nit is by becoming conscious of our psychic being that we can have at the same<br \/>\ntime exact impressions about our past lives. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Besides, it is much more important for us<br \/>\nto fix our attention upon what we want to become than upon what we have been.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><font size=\"2\">2 April 1935; Words of the Mother, MCW<br \/>\nVol. 15, p. 135 <\/font> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\">If it is not the mind, vital or physical which<br \/>\ntake birth again but only the psychic being, then the vital or mental progress<br \/>\nmade before is of no value in another life? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">It happens<br \/>\nonly to the extent the progress of these parts has brought them close to the<br \/>\npsychic, that is, to the extent the progress lies in putting all the parts of<br \/>\nthe being successively under the psychic influence. For all that is under the<br \/>\npsychic influence and identified with the psychic continues, and it is that<br \/>\nalone which continues. But if the psychic is made the centre of one\u2019s life and<br \/>\nconsciousness, and if the whole being is organised around it, the whole being<br \/>\npasses under the psychic influence, becomes united with it, and can continue \u2013<br \/>\nIf it is necessary for it to continue. Indeed, if the physical body could be given<br \/>\nthe same movement \u2013 the same movements of progress and the same<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\"><font size=\"3\">Page \u2013 359<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/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\">capacity to<br \/>\nascend that the psychic being has \u2013 well, it wouldn\u2019t be necessary for it to<br \/>\ndecompose. But that indeed is the difficulty.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">And<br \/>\nonly that which is in contact with the psychic lasts, and only what can last<br \/>\ncan remember, for the rest disappears, is again dissolved into small pieces and<br \/>\nutilised elsewhere \u2013 as the body is dissolved again to dust and used elsewhere.<br \/>\nIt goes back to the earth, plants use the soil, men eat the plants. It is in<br \/>\nthis way that it goes on. And then it returns to the earth and begins again.<br \/>\nThat\u2019s the way Nature progresses. In order to progress she makes a heap of<br \/>\nforms, then, when that seems no longer important or necessary to her, she demolishes<br \/>\nthem, takes up all the elements again, chemical or other, and reconstitutes<br \/>\nsomething else, and so it goes on changing all the time, coming and going. And<br \/>\nshe finds that very good, for she sees very far, her work extends over<br \/>\ncenturies, and a small human life is nothing, just a breath in eternity. So she<br \/>\ntakes up, shapes; she takes a certain time, it\u2019s fun for her, she finds it very<br \/>\ngood; and then, when it is no longer so good, she demolishes it \u2013 she takes up,<br \/>\nmixes everything, begins another form, makes something else. And so perhaps<br \/>\nwith this process which is evidently very slow, finally the whole of matter<br \/>\nprogresses. It is possible \u2013 always in this way, intermingling, breaking up,<br \/>\nremixing, breaking up again. Essentially, it is as though one made a heap of<br \/>\nsmall objects and then destroyed them, remade something from the dust, remade<br \/>\nother toys, and again broke them, and remade others out of that. Each time one<br \/>\nadds something so that it mixes well. And then, one day, perhaps all that will<br \/>\nproduce something. In any case, she is in no hurry. And when we are in a hurry,<br \/>\nshe says: \u201cWhy are you in such a haste? It is sure to happen one day. You don\u2019t<br \/>\nneed to worry, it will surely come. Wait quietly.\u201d Then we tell her: \u201cBut it is<br \/>\nnot I who am waiting!\u201d \u2013 \u201cAh! that\u2019s because you call \u2018I\u2019 that thing which<br \/>\ncomes and goes away. If you were to call consciousness \u2013 the one, eternal and<br \/>\ndivine consciousness \u2013 If you were to call that \u2018I\u2019, then you would see<br \/>\neverything, you would witness everything. Nobody prevents<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\"><font size=\"3\">Page \u2013 360<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/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\">you from<br \/>\ndoing it! It is only because you identify yourself with this (indicating the<br \/>\nbody). You have only to stop identifying yourself with that.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><br \/>\n<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span><span lang=\"EN-GB\">\u201cJustice is the strict logical determinism<br \/>\nof the movements of Universal Nature. <\/span><\/i><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\">\u201cIllnesses are this determinism applied to<br \/>\nthe material body. The medical mind, basing itself upon this ineluctable<br \/>\nJustice, strives to bring about the conditions which should lead logically to<br \/>\ngood health. <\/span><\/i><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\">\u201cThe moral consciousness acts in the same<br \/>\nway in the social body and tapasya in the spiritual domain. <\/span><\/i><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\">\u201cThe Divine Grace alone has the power to<br \/>\nintervene and change the course of Universal Justice. <\/span><\/i><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\">\u201cThe great work of the Avatar is to<br \/>\nmanifest the Divine Grace upon earth. To be a disciple of the Avatar is to<br \/>\nbecome an instrument of the Divine Grace. The Mother is the great dispensatrix<br \/>\n\u2013 through identity \u2013 of the Divine Grace with a perfect knowledge &#8211; through<br \/>\nidentity &#8211; of the absolute mechanism of Universal Justice. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\">\u201cAnd through her mediation each movement<br \/>\nof sincere and confident aspiration towards the Divine calls down in response<br \/>\nthe intervention of the Grace. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\">\u201cWho can stand before You, O Lord, and say<br \/>\nin all sincerity: \u2018I have never made a mistake\u2019? How many times in a day we commit<br \/>\nfaults against Your work, and always Your Grace comes to efface them! <\/span><\/i><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\">\u201cWithout the ceaseless intervention of<br \/>\nYour Grace, who would not oftentimes have come under the merciless blade of the<br \/>\nLaw of Universal Justice? <\/span><\/i><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\">\u201cEach one here represents an impossibility<br \/>\nto be resolved, but as for Your Divine Grace all things are possible. Your work<br \/>\nwill be, in the detail as in the ensemble, the accomplishment of all the<br \/>\nimpossibilities<\/span><\/i><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\"><font size=\"3\">Page \u2013 361<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/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%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><span>\u00a0<\/span><i>transformed<br \/>\ninto divine realisations.\u201d <\/i>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"right\" style='margin:0;text-align:right;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\"><font size=\"2\">15 January 1933; Words of the Mother,1949 Ed.,pp.183-84<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\">What is the meaning of \u201cJustice is the<br \/>\nstrict logical determinism of the movements of Universal Nature\u201d? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">You know<br \/>\nthe law of determinism, don\u2019t you? You have not studied philosophy at all?<br \/>\n(Turning to a professor) Pavitra, explain what determinism is to them. Try to<br \/>\nbe brief and clear. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Pavitra:<i> I think determinism is this: when something<br \/>\nhappens, it always has the same effect. <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">If it is<br \/>\nthe same thing \u2013 on condition it is identically the same thing. Are there two identical<br \/>\nthings in the universe? No. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Nolini:<i> The same cause produces the same effect. <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Yes. The<br \/>\nsame cause produces the same effect. That is the principle on which science is<br \/>\nfounded. But I have used the word here in a little more general and precise a way<br \/>\nat once. I mean that each thing (whether the same or not) always produces an<br \/>\neffect and that this effect produces still another and that other produces yet<br \/>\nanother and so on \u2013 always a cause produces an effect and each effect becomes<br \/>\nthe cause of another effect, and so on, indefinitely. And so justice means that<br \/>\neach thing, as Nolini said, the same cause always produces the same effect<br \/>\nautomatically. And hence one cannot say a word, make a movement without its<br \/>\nbeing the cause of something else. And this something else is the cause of yet<br \/>\nanother thing. And all this follows automatically and strictly, and that is<br \/>\nuniversal justice. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">An<br \/>\nact carried out has always a consequence and this consequence brings along<br \/>\nanother and so on. And this is absolutely ineluctable. That is universal<br \/>\njustice. You have a bad thought, it has a result. And that result has yet<br \/>\nanother. And you cannot<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\"><font size=\"3\">Page \u2013 3 62<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/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\">escape it<br \/>\nexcept through the intervention of Grace. Grace is exactly something which has the<br \/>\npower of changing all that. But only the Grace can change it. It is so strict a<br \/>\nlaw and so terrible 362that once one has entered within it, one cannot get out.<br \/>\nAnd the moment one is upon earth, one enters into this. The whole earthly<br \/>\nexistence is like that, constructed in this way. And each thing one does, each<br \/>\nthing one says, each thing one thinks, each thing one feels has a consequence.<br \/>\nAnd this consequence brings another, and so on. Now, if one wants to have a<br \/>\nmore practical point of view, one may take examples and say: \u201cIf you do this,<br \/>\nit will automatically produce that.\u201d For instance, in societies organised by<br \/>\nmen, if you commit a crime, you will be punished for your crime. In your own<br \/>\nconscience, if you make a mistake, you suffer for the mistake you have made.<br \/>\nAnd in the law as man has made it, it is always said that to be ignorant of the<br \/>\nlaw is no excuse. If you are ignorant of the law, you are punished. If you make<br \/>\na mistake without knowing that it is a mistake, that does not protect you, you<br \/>\nare punished. Well, in Nature it is the same thing. If you take poison without<br \/>\nknowing that it is poison, it will poison you all the same. Do you<br \/>\nunderstand?.. Unless the Grace intervenes. And as the Grace is omnipotent, it<br \/>\ncan change everything. That is what I have explained. But without the Grace<br \/>\nthere is no hope. For precisely it is ignorance that\u2019s the constant factor of<br \/>\nmankind. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">I<br \/>\nwas thinking today how many deplorable and frightful experiences man has had to<br \/>\ngo through before knowing how to make use of Nature\u2019s things. It is possible<br \/>\nthat there was just this Grace which made him find things instinctively; but if<br \/>\nhe had to learn his lesson.. I thought about that because.. there are a certain<br \/>\nnumber of fruits on the trees: there are fruits which are good, and then others<br \/>\nwhich are poisoned \u2013 this is not written upon the tree. Now, there is always<br \/>\nsomeone to tell you: \u201cNo, do not eat this, this will poison you.\u201d But if there<br \/>\nwere nobody to tell you that, how would you know? \u2013 By eating it and poisoning<br \/>\nyourself. And then it would be somebody else<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\"><font size=\"3\">Page \u2013 363<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/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\">who would<br \/>\nhave the benefit of your experience. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">I<br \/>\nthought of that because some fruits, when ripe, are excellent; they have a<br \/>\ngreat nourishing power, they are very useful. But if they are not ripe they poison<br \/>\nyou. And it is the same fruit. Take, for instance, the avocado, (butterfruit, I<br \/>\nthink), take the butterfruit; if you eat an unripe butterfruit (you won\u2019t eat<br \/>\nit because it tastes very bad), but if you eat an unripe butterfruit, it<br \/>\npoisons you radically, whilst as soon as it is ripe, it is excellent. Now, in<br \/>\nsome countries as in South America or certain parts of Africa, these trees grow<br \/>\nas high as the tallest mango trees. And all the fruits hang down in the same<br \/>\nway. Somebody who comes along not knowing the tree, not knowing anything and<br \/>\nwithout anyone to warn him, takes the fruit, cuts it, eats it and dies. Then<br \/>\nsomeone else comes by a month later, all the fruits are ripe; he takes them,<br \/>\neats them, finds himself well nourished \u2013 it is excellent, it is wonderful.<br \/>\nNow, somebody tells him: \u201cAh! how is it you have eaten that fruit, and the<br \/>\nother man is dead&#8230;.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cSo how many<br \/>\nexperiences are necessary to learn that it is because one ate the unripe fruit<br \/>\nand the other the ripe. And when it is not ripe, it is bad and when ripe, good.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">And<br \/>\nwe benefit by all the experiences of those who were upon earth before us. But<br \/>\nif we had to come to a country about which we knew nothing, and had to learn<br \/>\neverything by ourselves, we would have very unpleasant experiences. There are<br \/>\nother fruits like that, this is not the only one, there are many such. For<br \/>\nexample, the fig \u2013 the unripe fig \u2013 if you touch the white juice that oozes<br \/>\nfrom the fig \u2013 but it\u2019s awful \u2013 you have boils all over the mouth and become<br \/>\nquite ill, and you get ulcers in the stomach also. But when the fig is ripe and<br \/>\nyou take care not to touch the white juice, it is a perfect food. I could give<br \/>\nyou a great many examples of this kind. But now we know this because we have<br \/>\nbeen told. Those who told us learnt it from others. But who first made the<br \/>\nexperiment, who learnt all that, all the things in Nature?.. There are many,<br \/>\nthere are countless things in Nature. Well, take plant life in Nature,<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\"><font size=\"3\">Page \u2013 364<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/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\">we don\u2019t<br \/>\nyet know everything today. For instance, some people tell you: \u201cThe remedy is<br \/>\nalways there along with the illness, in Nature; Nature has made it thus.\u201d I<br \/>\ndon\u2019t know if this is strictly so, but in any case, in a way it works, it is<br \/>\ntrue. It is said, for instance, that if a snake has its hole somewhere, you may<br \/>\nbe sure you will find beside it a plant which will cure you if bitten. But<br \/>\nwhich plant? There are so many there and who will teach you? There are people<br \/>\nwho go up to the mountains in the moonlight and collect herbs which cure<br \/>\ndiseases generally considered incurable. How have they learnt that? Who has<br \/>\nmade the experiment? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\">And mushrooms?.. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Ah! yes, it<br \/>\nis the same thing. You have side by side, just next to one another, a mushroom<br \/>\nthat\u2019s an excellent food and another which will send you to the other world<br \/>\nimmediately. We benefit by an accumulated knowledge. And I dare say much of<br \/>\nthis knowledge must have been lost, for many men have discovered things like<br \/>\nthese and never noted them down; and we too, we may make discoveries but don\u2019t<br \/>\nalways take care to note them down and make them accessible to others. And<br \/>\nNature is an almost infinite field of study and discovery. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Pavitra:<br \/>\n<i>Those who discovered explosives \u2013 how<br \/>\nmany died and how many had accidents\u2026<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">That\u2019s man,<br \/>\nit is his own fault. If he had not meddled with that, it would not have<br \/>\nhappened. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Often he may have touched it accidentally,<br \/>\nwithout knowing it, without doing it on purpose. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">But it is<br \/>\nstill an explosive. It is always the fault of another man, isn\u2019t it?&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:150%'>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\"><font size=\"3\">Page \u2013 365<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/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\">Those who studied chemistry and alighted<br \/>\nupon explosives. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">If they<br \/>\ndidn\u2019t know what it was, yes. For instance, you take some potassium chlorate,<br \/>\nquite harmless, white, pretty, crystallised, charming. But then you take a<br \/>\nhammer and start hitting it with all your might, and suddenly it explodes. Yes,<br \/>\nit is like that. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">But<br \/>\nthe number of plants \u2013 nobody has ever known and nobody will probably ever know<br \/>\nthe number of different plants there are upon earth. Yet when a list is made of<br \/>\nthe number of plants men know and use, it is ridiculously small. I believe,<br \/>\nwhen I was in Japan, the Japanese used to tell me that Europeans eat only three<br \/>\nhundred and fifty types of different plants, whilst they use more than six<br \/>\nhundred. That makes a considerable difference. They used to say: \u201cOh, how you<br \/>\nwaste your food! Nature produces infinitely more than you know; you waste all<br \/>\nthat.\u201d Have you ever eaten (not here, but in Europe) bamboo sprouts?.. You have<br \/>\neaten bamboo sprouts? You have eaten palm-tree buds? \u2013 Coconut buds? That,<br \/>\nindeed, makes a marvellous salad, coconut buds. Only, this kills the tree. For<br \/>\na salad, one kills a tree. But when there is a cyclone, for instance, which<br \/>\nknocks down hundreds of coconut trees, the only way of utilising the<br \/>\ncatastrophe is to eat all the buds and make yourself a magnificent dish.<br \/>\nHaven\u2019t you ever eaten coconut buds? As for me, I was not surprised, for I had<br \/>\neaten bamboo sprouts before they sprang up from the ground \u2013 somewhat like the<br \/>\nasparagus. It is quite a classical dish in Japan. And their bamboos are much<br \/>\nmore tender than the bamboos here. Their bamboos are very tender and their<br \/>\nsprouts are wonderful. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Still,<br \/>\nthat\u2019s how it is. It seems in Europe one knows how to use only three hundred<br \/>\nand fifty varieties of vegetables from the vegetable kingdom, whilst in Japan<br \/>\nthey use six hundred of them and more. But perhaps if people knew, they would<br \/>\nnot die of hunger, at least those who live in the countryside.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">In<br \/>\nany case, things are like that. We don\u2019t know how it<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\"><font size=\"3\">Page \u2013 36<\/font><\/span><span><font size=\"3\">6<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/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\">would be if<br \/>\nit were only justice reigning over the world. But I believe it wouldn\u2019t be fun!<br \/>\nFor, as I have said, there is not a single person who can stand before the Lord<br \/>\nand tell him: \u201cI have never made a mistake.\u201d And when I speak of making a<br \/>\nmistake, ignorance is not an excuse; for whether you touch the fire through<br \/>\nignorance or knowing it, the difference is rather in favour of the stupidity of<br \/>\ntouching it when one knows, for one can take precautions. But when one touches<br \/>\nthe fire through ignorance, without knowing, one burns oneself completely. And<br \/>\nthen one can\u2019t tell Nature: \u201cOh! I should not have been burnt, for I did not<br \/>\nknow that it burnt.\u201d It burns, nobody will listen to you! <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Does the intervention of the Grace come<br \/>\nthrough a call? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">When one calls?<br \/>\nI think so. Anyway, not exclusively and solely. But certainly, yes, if one has<br \/>\nfaith in the Grace and an aspiration and if one does what a little child would<br \/>\nwhen it runs to its mother and says: \u201cMamma, give me this\u201d, if one calls with<br \/>\nthat simplicity, if one turns to the Grace and says \u201cGive me this\u201d, I believe<br \/>\nit listens. Unless one asks for something that is not good for one, then it<br \/>\ndoes not listen. If one asks from it something that does harm or is not<br \/>\nfavourable, it does not listen. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\">What is the cause of this effect? of the<br \/>\ncall? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Perhaps one<br \/>\nwas destined to call. That is: Did the hen produce the egg or the egg the hen?<br \/>\nI don\u2019t know whether it is the Grace which makes you call the Grace or whether<br \/>\nbecause the Grace is called the Grace comes. It is difficult to say. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Essentially,<br \/>\nit is quite possible that what is most lacking is faith. There is always a tiny<br \/>\ncorner in the thought which doubts and debates. So that spoils everything. It<br \/>\nis only just when one is in an absolutely critical situation, when the mind<br \/>\nrealises that<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\"><font size=\"3\">Page \u2013 367<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/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\">it can do<br \/>\nnothing, absolutely nothing, when it stands there quite stupid and incapable,<br \/>\nthen, at that moment, if one aspires for a higher help, the aspiration has<br \/>\nexactly that kind of intensity which comes from despair, and that takes effect.<br \/>\nBut if your thought continues to argue, if it says: \u201cYes, yes, I have aspired,<br \/>\nI have prayed, but God knows if this is the moment, and whether it will come<br \/>\nand whether it is possible\u201d, well, then it is finished, it doesn\u2019t work. This<br \/>\nis one of the commonest of things. People are told: \u201cIf you want to advance in<br \/>\nthe yoga, you must have no desires\u201d. One goes even a little further and says:<br \/>\n\u201cYou must not have any needs.\u201d One goes a little further still and says: \u201cNever<br \/>\nask anything from the Divine.\u201d Well, I don\u2019t know, more than ninety-nine times<br \/>\nout of a hundred, people\u2019s reaction is: \u201cAh! if I don\u2019t ask, I won\u2019t have what<br \/>\nI need.\u201d They don\u2019t see that they cut the whole movement at the very root! They<br \/>\ndon\u2019t have faith. \u201cI need this&#8230;.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>\u201c <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">I<br \/>\nam not even discussing the idea of need, for it is quite arbitrary. I knew a<br \/>\nDutch painter who had come here, and done Sri Aurobindo\u2019s portrait (it seems<br \/>\nthis portrait is still existent). This Dutch painter was practising a yoga. And<br \/>\nso, one day, he told me this: \u201cOh! as for me, I think I can do without<br \/>\nanything. Truly I believe one can reduce one\u2019s needs to a minimum. But all the<br \/>\nsame, I must have a tooth-brush.\u201d I had not yet lived in India at that time,<br \/>\notherwise I would have told him: \u201cThere are millions of people who have never<br \/>\nhad a toothbrush and whose teeth are quite clean. This is not the only way of<br \/>\nkeeping one\u2019s teeth clean.\u201d But at that time he was quite convinced that one<br \/>\ncould do without everything except keeping one\u2019s mouth clean. And for him, to<br \/>\nkeep one\u2019s mouth clean meant having a tooth-brush. That gives a very exact<br \/>\npicture of what goes on in people\u2019s minds. They cling to something and think<br \/>\nthey need it. And surely it is a complete ignorance, for perhaps there is a<br \/>\nreal necessity like that of having a clean mouth (that seems to be in any case<br \/>\nquite necessary), but that association of the tooth-brush with the necessity of<br \/>\nhaving a clean mouth is<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\"><font size=\"3\">Page \u2013 368<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/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\">quite<br \/>\narbitrary. For it is not so very long ago that tooth-brushes were invented. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><span lang=\"EN-GB\">There<br \/>\nwas someone else also who told me: \u201cOh! I can absolutely do without anything at<br \/>\nall\u201d &#8211; we were speaking of a walking-tour with a minimum of baggage on the back<br \/>\n(when you are compelled to carry it for miles on end, four or five kilometres a<br \/>\nday, you try to reduce the weight of your bag as much as possible); so we<br \/>\ndiscussed about what was indispensable and had to be put in the bag. He said<br \/>\nhis tooth-brush. Another told me he needed a piece of soap (usually this spins<br \/>\nround very simple tiny things of this kind). But here how many people there are<br \/>\nwho have never used soap, and that doesn\u2019t prevent them from being clean! There<br \/>\nare other ways of being clean. That\u2019s how it is, one is fixed in all kinds of<br \/>\nsmall ideas and believes these are indispensable needs. And then, if you travel<br \/>\na little around the world, you notice that what is a need for you is for others<br \/>\nsomething they don\u2019t even know of, something they have never seen in their<br \/>\nlife, which doesn\u2019t exist and hasn\u2019t the slightest importance of any kind.<br \/>\nHence it is not indispensable. It is just the result of an education and life<br \/>\nin a particular environment. And these things are quite relative, and not only<br \/>\nrelative but transitory. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:150%'><i><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Voila. <\/span><\/i><br \/>\n<span lang=\"EN-GB\"><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\"><font size=\"3\">Page \u2013 369<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;18 November 1953 &nbsp; \u201cIn rebirth it is not the external being, that which is formed by parents, environment and circumstances, &#8211; the mental, the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-05-questions-and-answers-volume-05","wpcat-126-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4480","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=4480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}