{"id":4530,"date":"2013-07-13T01:56:39","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4530"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:56:39","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:56:39","slug":"48-21-november-1956-vol-08-questions-and-answers-volume-08","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/02-works-of-the-mother\/01-cwmce\/08-questions-and-answers-volume-08\/48-21-november-1956-vol-08-questions-and-answers-volume-08","title":{"rendered":"-48_21 November 1956.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n
\n21
\n November 1956<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Mother distributes the booklet Thoughts and<\/i> <\/font> <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n


\nGlimpses,<\/font><\/span><\/i> then glances through one of the \u00a0<\/span>copies: <\/font> <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Five
\nparagraphs dealing with five modes of being or five states of being, and the
\nsame thing recurs in all the different domains: <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cWhen we have passed beyond
\nknowings, then we shall have Knowledge. Reason was the helper; Reason is the bar.\u201d <\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/font><\/span>Sri Aurobindo, Thoughts and Glimpses, Cent.
\nVol. 16,p. 377<\/font><\/span><\/i> <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

This is
\nabout the mental being in man, that is, his mental activities; and Sri
\nAurobindo contrasts knowings with Knowledge. <\/span><\/p>\n

Actually I should be the one to ask you if you know what Sri
\nAurobindo means by \u201cknowings\u201d, and why he contrasts them with Knowledge. For if
\nI explain all this to you without your making any effort, it is (laughing)<\/i><\/b>
\nspoon-feeding you, giving you a meal all cooked without your taking the trouble
\nto cook it! And the result will be that sooner or later, in half an hour or in
\na day’s time, you will have completely forgotten what I told you and it will
\nhave had no effect on you. I should like someone to tell me what he understands
\nby \u201cknowings\u201d. (To a child)<\/i><\/span> Tell me, come along. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It is the knowledge acquired through outer studies. <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It is
\nobviously that. It is everything that can be learnt through the study of outer
\nphenomena and in all fields of mental activity, all that can be learnt by
\nmaterial observation and technical studies in different subjects, scientific,
\nartistic, philosophical, literary; in fact all that the human mind has produced
\nthrough the external study of life and things: all that can be found in <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 358<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\nbooks, all that can be found through the
\ndirect study of Nature and all that can be found by reasoning, deduction,
\nanalysis and all the speculative activities of the human mind. <\/span><\/p>\n

And Sri Aurobindo puts reason at the summit of man’s mental
\nactivity; he tells us that in the development of the mind, reason is the surest
\nguide, the master, so to speak, who prevents you from deviating from the path
\nor taking the wrong one, from straying away and losing your <\/span>com<\/span>mon sense. He makes reason the arbiter of man’s mental activity,
\nwhich guides and controls; and so long as you have to deal with mental
\nactivities, even the most speculative, it is reason which must guide you and
\nprevent you from going astray from the right path and entering more or less
\nfantastic and unhealthy imaginations.<\/span><\/p>\n

But if you want to attain true knowledge, that is, spiritual
\nknowledge, which can be obtained only through identification, you must go
\nbeyond this reason and enter a domain higher than the mind, where one is in
\ndirect contact with the Light either of the Overmind or the Supermind. And Sri
\nAurobindo says this, that so long as you are in the mental field, reason helps
\nyou, it is your helper, your guide; but if you want to have true knowledge by
\nidentity, reason becomes a limitation and a bar. That is not to say that you
\nshould lose it! But it must be subordinated to your movement of ascent. Sri
\nAurobindo does not tell you to bee unreasonable, he says you must pass beyond
\nreason into a higher Truth and Light. <\/span><\/p>\n

And what is interesting in the structure of this section is that
\nthe reflection Sri Aurobindo makes about the mental being, the intellectual
\nactivity of man, he also makes for the vital activity, the power of action and
\nrealisation. He takes mental activity as the basis of human life, for it
\nbelongs to man in his own right, exclusively; and in the process of life, that
\nis, of human existence, human realisation, thought normally comes first. Man,
\nbecause he is a thinking being, first gets an idea, then he invests this idea
\nwith a force, a vital power, a power for action, and changes it, transforms it
\ninto will. This will is then concentrated
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 359<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

on the object to be realised, and with the vital force and effort
\nadded to the thought, the conception, it becomes the lever of action. <\/span><\/p>\n

But here Sri Aurobindo uses a word which is not \u201cwill\u201d, he speaks
\nof \u201cwillings\u201d: <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we have passed beyond willings, then we shall have Power.
\nEffort was the helper, Effort is the bar.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n


\n
\nThoughts and Glimpses, Cent. Vol. 16,p. 377<\/span><\/font><\/i><\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

And he
\ncontrasts these \u201cwillings\u201d<\/span> \u2014 <\/span>that is, all these superficial wills,
\noften opposite and contradictory and without any lasting basis because they are
\nfounded on what he calls a \u201cknowing\u201d and not on knowledge<\/span> \u2014 <\/span>with the true will. These willings are necessarily fragmentary,
\nsing, and often in opposition to one another, and this is what gives to the
\nindividual life and even to the collective its nature of incoherence,
\ninconsistency and confusion<\/span>…<\/span>.The word \u201cwill\u201d is normally reserved to
\nindicate what comes from the deeper being or the higher reality and what
\nexpresses in action the true knowledge which Sri Aurobindo has contrasted with
\nknowings. So, when this will which expresses the true knowledge manifests in
\naction, it manifests through the intervention of a deep and direct<\/i><\/b>
\npower which no longer requires any effort. And that is why Sri Aurobindo says
\nhere that the true power for action cannot come until one has gone beyond the
\nstage of willings, that is, until the motive of action is the result not of a
\nmere mental activity but of true knowledge. <\/span><\/p>\n

True knowledge acting in the outer being gives true power. <\/span><\/p>\n

This seems to be an explanation, the real explanation of that very
\nfamiliar saying which is not understood in its essence but expresses a truth:
\n\u201cWhere there’s a will, there’s a way\u201d, to will is to have the power. It is
\nquite obvious that this does not refer to \u201cwillings\u201d, that is, to the more or
\nless incoherent expression of desires but to the true will expressing a true
\nknowledge; for this true will carries in itself the force of truth which gives
\npower <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 360<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\u00a0<\/span>\u2014 <\/span>an invincible power. And so, when one expresses \u201cwillings\u201d, to be
\nable to apply them in life and make them effective, some effort must come in<\/span> \u2014 <\/span>it is through personal effort that one progresses, and it is
\nthrough effort that one imposes one’s willings upon life to make it yield to
\ntheir demands<\/span>
\n\u2014 <\/span>but when they are no longer willings, when
\nit is the true will expressing the true knowledge, effort is no longer
\nrequired, for the power is omnipotent. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now, I should like you to ask me questions on what I have just
\ntold you. <\/span><\/p>\n

So? Nothing? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Mother, what is the first step to take to have knowledge? <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

The first
\nstep?… To get rid of the illusion of the absolute value of \u201cknowings\u201d, that
\nis, of human knowledge and mental activity. First, to come out of the illusion
\nthat they really have a concrete and absolute value. <\/span><\/p>\n

And you will notice that this is perhaps the most difficult thing
\nto do; it is the most difficult step, for, when you study general subjects like
\nscience, the different branches of science or philosophy and all such
\nactivities, when you study them a little seriously and deeply, you very easily
\ncome to the sense of the relativity of this knowledge. But when you come down a
\nstep again, just to the next level of mental activity and look at the different
\nproblems of life<\/span> \u2014 <\/span>for example, what should be done in this
\nor that case, the conditions for realising something, a skill one wants to
\nlearn, or even the different necessities of life, the conditions of living, of
\nhealth<\/span>
\n\u2014 <\/span>you will find that generally a rational
\nbeing, or somebody about to bee one, forms a set of ideas for himself, which are
\nreally knowings: such a thing will produce such an effect, or in order to
\nobtain this thing, that other must be done, etc. And you have a whole mental
\nconstruction in yourself, made of observations, studies, experiments;<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 361<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\nand the more you advance in age, the greater
\nbecomes the number of experiments and results of study and observation. You
\nmake for yourself a sort of mental structure in which you live. And unless you
\nare powerfully intelligent, with an opening to the higher worlds, you have an
\ninnate, spontaneous, unshakable conviction of the absolute worth of your
\nobservations, and even without your having to think, it acts automatically in
\nyour being: by a sort of habit this thing inevitably brings that particular
\nresult. So for you, when this has happened quite often, the habit of
\nassociating the two movements naturally gives rise within you to the feeling of
\nthe absolute value of your ideas or your knowings about yourself and your life.
\nAnd there it is infinitely<\/i><\/span> more difficult to come to an understanding of the
\nrelativity<\/span>
\n\u2014 <\/span>the uncertainty bordering on illusion<\/span> \u2014 <\/span>of that knowledge. You find this out only if, with a will for
\nspiritual discipline and progress, you look at these things with a deep
\ncritical sense and see the kind of bondage into which you have put yourself,
\nwhich acts without any need of intervention from you, automatically, with the
\nsupport of the subconscious and that kind of automatism of reflexes which makes
\ncauses and effects follow each other in a habitual order without your being in
\nthe least aware of it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Well, if you want to attain knowledge, the first thing, the first
\nindispensable step is not to believe in the validity of those things. And if
\nyou observe yourself, you will realise that this belief in the validity of
\nthese observations and deductions is almost absolute in you. It expresses
\nitself through all sorts of ideas which reasonably enough appear evident to
\nyou, yet are exactly the limitations which prevent you from reaching knowledge by
\nidentity. For instance, if a man plunges into the water without knowing how to
\nswim, he will be drowned; if there is a fairly powerful wind, it will upset
\nthings; when it rains, you get wet, etc\u2026.you see, there are instances like this
\nat every second, it is like that. And this seems so obvious to you that when
\nyou are told, \u201cWell, but no, this is a relative knowledge, it is like that but
\nit could be different\u201d, the one who tells you this seems to you a
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 362<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

priori <\/span><\/i><\/b>half-mad. And you say, \u201cBut still, these things are concrete!
\nThese are things we can see, touch, feel, these are proofs our senses give to
\nus every minute, and if we do not take our stand on them, we are sure to go
\nastray and enter the irrational.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

So, if you remember what Sri Aurobindo has said, you will
\nunderstand that the first condition for having knowledge is to go beyond
\nreason. That is why he says, \u201cReason was the helper\u201d<\/span> \u2014 <\/span>yes, during the whole childhood of humanity and the whole period
\nof growth of the individual being<\/span> \u2014 <\/span>but if you
\nwant to go beyond the human being, the ordinary human state, well, you must go
\nbeyond reason; and these things which seem to you\u00a0 <\/span>so obvious that they are indisputable, you
\nshould be able to understand, to feel from within yourself that they are absolutely<\/i><\/b>
\nrelative and that what seems completely similar, identical in everyone’s
\nexperiences, these very things, if seen from above with a higher consciousness,
\nbecome absolutely subjective and relative and are only individual formations
\nadapted to the individual need and consciousness, and that instead of having an
\nabsolute reality, they have only an altogether relative reality which
\ncompletely disappears as soon as you rise to a higher level. <\/span><\/p>\n

So now, if you look at the state of your thought in this light, you
\nwill see that it is not so easy to take even this first step. <\/span><\/p>\n

Examples can be given, but they are superficial examples, very
\nfragmentary in themselves, and have only an altogether relative value, as for
\ninstance this, which I have many a time given you, about medical knowledge in
\nthe world: if you have studied enough or lived long enough, that is, a fairly
\ngood number of years, you will find that with the same authority, the same
\ncertitude, the same conviction, at one time certain things are not only considered
\nbad, but on the basis of an absolute knowledge, an unquestionable observation,
\nthey are reputed to have a certain effect, and at another time these very
\nunquestionable observations lead to diametrically opposite results. Very often
\nI give an example which I happened to observe, especially as regards the value
\nof certain foods and their effects
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 363<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

on the body,
\nlike certain fruits or vegetables: at a particular time in medical history<\/span> \u2014 <\/span>not so long ago, about fifty or sixty years ago<\/span> \u2014 <\/span>when you had a certain illness, the doctor gave you a list of
\nthings re<\/span>com<\/span>mending to you with absolute seriousness not to touch any of these
\nlest you become even more ill<\/span> \u2014 <\/span>I could give you the list, but it is not
\ninteresting. Well, about these very same things, fifty or sixty years later,
\nnot the same doctor perhaps but another one will tell you with the same
\nseriousness, the same unquestionable certitude and authority that these are the
\nvery things you must eat if you want to be cured! So if you have observed
\nthings pretty well and have a slightly critical mind, you can tell yourself,
\n\u201cOh! it must depend on people or perhaps on the period.\u201d And I shall tell you,
\nas the doctor-friend I knew in <\/span>France<\/span> forty or fifty years ago used to tell all his patients, \u201cTake a
\nremedy while it is in fashion, for then it will cure you.\u201d There. <\/span><\/p>\n

Well, there is a kind of finely sensitive state, in which one
\nunderstands this extraordinary relativity of things, a state in which it
\nbecomes so acute that to affirm something, to say \u201cThis is like that\u201d or \u201cSuch
\na thing has that particular result\u201d, spontaneously seems to you a stupidity\u2026<\/span>B<\/span>ut before reaching that point, one may reflect a little and say,
\n\u201cAfter all, we shall believe in a particular thing so long as it is in
\nfashion.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Is that all? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Mother, this question arises because in our studies at school we
\nfeel at times a great distaste and ask ourselves, \u201cWhat’s the use of all this?\u201d
\nSo with what attitude should we study? <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

I have
\nalways said that studies have the same effect on the brain as gymnastics on the
\nmuscles. For example, mental gymnastics are very necessary to make one’s mental
\nactivity supple, to strengthen and enrich it and give it a subtlety of
\nunderstanding it would not have if you didn’t do these gymnastics. Of late<\/span> \u2014 <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 364<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

indeed for
\nquite a long time already<\/span> \u2014 <\/span>I have noticed, for instance, that if I am
\nunfortunate enough to read to you something with philosophical terms or to
\nspeak to you from a slightly philosophical point of view, you cannot follow. And
\nthat is simply because you have not done any philosophical gymnastics. It is
\nnot that you are not intelligent, it is not that you don’t have the capacity to
\nunderstand: it is because you haven’t done the proper gymnastics. I could tell
\nyou the same thing in another way: you have not learnt the language. But the
\nsame words are used, only with a slightly different relation between them, with
\ndifferent turns of phrase, with a different mental attitude to things. Well,
\nthis difference of attitude you cannot have unless you have done the
\ncorresponding gymnastics. And it is very easy for you to understand this
\nexample, for you all know very well that you could never do your athletic
\nexercises if you were not trained. Even if you have special abilities, even if you
\nare gifted, if you do not practise and train yourself, you cannot do them.
\nConsider all your agility exercises, if you were asked to do them on the first
\nday, you could not, it would be quite impossible, and you know it very well. If
\nsomeone were to tell you spontaneously, \u201cAh! now do this\u201d<\/span> \u2014 <\/span>say, a certain kind of jump, what used to be called the flying
\nsomersault<\/span>
\n\u2014 <\/span>you would say, \u201cThis person is truly
\nunreasonable, it is impossible!\u201d Well, this is the same thing; if I take
\ncertain books and read them to you, you cannot follow because you have
\ncompletely neglected philosophical mental gymnastics. It is exactly the same
\nthing if someone who has not done mathematics is asked to follow a mathematical
\nreasoning<\/span>
\n\u2014 <\/span>he won’t be able to\u2026.And so, this means
\nthat if you want to express fully, totally, the deeper reality of your being,
\nyou will express it in a much richer, more integral, more varied, more
\nproductive way if all the parts of your being are fully developed like this by
\nappropriate gymnastics. <\/span><\/p>\n

I believe I have already explained this to you once. If it were a
\nquestion of leading what till today was considered the true spiritual life,
\nthat is, of giving up altogether all physical active- <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 365<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

ties in
\norder to unite with the supreme divine Reality and remain in this union, of
\nleaving life and all outer expression and going away into Nirvana, into an
\nidentity which not only will no longer be expressed in the world, but which
\ntakes you out of the world completely, then it is obvious that all these gymnastics,
\nwhether physical, vital, sensory or mental, are absolutely useless, and that
\nthose people considered all this simply a waste of time and quite futile.
\nBut\u00a0 <\/span>for us<\/i><\/b> who want to realise almost
\nthe very opposite, that is, who, after having identified ourselves with the
\nsupreme Reality, want to make It descend into life and transform the world, if
\nwe offer to this Reality instruments which are refined, rich, developed, fully
\nconscious, the work of transformation will be more effective. <\/span><\/p>\n

And that is why instead of telling you when you are a little mite,
\nto do (laughing)<\/i><\/span> what those little children are asked to do, to sit
\nstill and enter or pretend to enter into meditation, instead of telling you
\nthat you must be in constant contemplation and totally indifferent to all
\nthings in the world, that you must have only one thought, to prepare yourself
\nto receive the divine Grace, instead of that you are told, \u201cNo, try to bee
\ndeveloped and conscious beings who know things and have healthy, strong, agile
\nbodies capable of doing exceptional things, an adequate will and a rich,
\nsupple, agile mind; these will be useful for the future realisation.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

That is why, moreover, people who are used to judging from
\nappearances and without knowing what they are talking about, say that in the
\nAshram there is no spiritual life, that we lead an altogether material life.
\nThat’s how it is! But it is so much the worse for them, it is not any the worse
\nfor us; indeed it is all the same to us. <\/span><\/p>\n

There we are. No more questions? Nobody has anything to say? <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 366<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n <\/b><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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