{"id":4542,"date":"2013-07-13T01:56:44","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4542"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:56:44","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:56:44","slug":"35-22-august-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\/35-22-august-1956-vol-08-questions-and-answers-volume-08","title":{"rendered":"-35_22 August 1956.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n22 August 1956 <\/font><\/span><\/b>
\n
\n <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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

Sweet Mother, what does Sri Aurobindo call \u201cthe heaven of the
\nliberated mind\u201d? <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

The heaven
\nof the liberated mind? It is a metaphorical phrase. When the mind is liberated,
\nit rises to celestial heights. These higher regions of the mind Sri Aurobindo
\npares with the sky above the earth; they are celestial pared with the ordinary
\nmind. <\/span><\/p>\n

Is that all?  <\/span><\/p>\n

(Silence)<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Somebody has asked me a question about trance \u2014 what in India is
\ncalled Samadhi, that is to say, when one passes or enters into a state of which
\nno conscious memory remains when one wakes up: <\/span><\/p>\n

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

\u201cIs the state of trance or Samadhi a sign of progress?\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

In ancient
\ntimes it was considered a very high condition. It was even thought to be the
\nsign of a great realisation, and people who wanted to do yoga or sadhana always
\ntried to enter into a state of this kind. All sorts of marvellous things have
\nbeen said about this state \u2014 you may say all you like about it, since,
\nprecisely, you don’t remember anything! And those who have entered it are
\nunable to say what happened to them. So, one can say anything one likes. <\/span><\/p>\n

I could incidentally tell you that in all kinds of so-called
\nspiritual literature I had always read marvellous things about this state of
\ntrance or Samadhi, and it so happened that I had never experienced it. So I did
\nnot know whether this was a sign of inferiority. And when I came here, one of
\nmy first questions <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 275<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\u00a0<\/span>to Sri Aurobindo was: \u201cWhat do you think of
\nSamadhi, that state of trance one does not remember? One enters into a
\ncondition which seems blissful, but when one comes out of it, one does not know
\nat all what has happened.\u201d Then he looked at me, saw what I meant and told me,
\n\u201cIt is unconsciousness.\u201d I asked him for an explanation, I said, \u201cWhat?\u201d He
\ntold me, \u201cYes, you enter into what is called Samadhi when you go out of your
\nconscious being and enter a part of your being which is completely unconscious,
\nor rather a domain where you have no corresponding consciousness \u2014 you go
\nbeyond the field of your consciousness and enter a region where you are no
\nlonger conscious. You are in the impersonal state, that is to say, a state in
\nwhich you are unconscious; and that is why, naturally, you remember nothing,
\nbecause you were not conscious of anything.\u201d\u00b9 So this reassured me and I said,
\n\u201cWell, this has never happened to me.\u201d He replied, \u201cNor to me!\u201d (Laughter) <\/span><\/p>\n

And since then, when people speak to me about Samadhi, I tell
\nthem, \u201cWell, try to develop your inner individuality and you will be able to
\nenter these very regions in full consciousness and have the joy of communion
\nwith the highest regions, but without losing all consciousness and returning
\nwith a zero instead of an experience.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

So that is my reply to the person who has asked if Samadhi or
\ntrance is a sign of progress. The sign of progress is when there is no longer
\nany unconsciousness, when one can go up into the same regions without entering
\ninto trance. <\/span><\/p>\n

But there is a confusion in the words.<\/span><\/p>\n

When you leave a part of your being \u2014 for example, when you enter
\nquite consciously the vital world \u2014 your body can <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b9When this talk was first published in
\n1962, Mother added the following commentary: \u201cThere are also some people who enter
\ndomains where they are conscious, but between this conscious state and their
\nnormal waking consciousness there is a gap: their personality does not exist
\nbetween the waking state and this deeper state; so, during the sage they
\nforget. They cannot bring the consciousness they had there back into the
\nconsciousness here, for there is a gap between the two. There is even an occult
\ndiscipline for constructing intermediary fields in order to be able to recall
\nthings.\u201d<\/font><\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\nPage – 276<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

enter into a
\ntrance, but this is not samadhi. It is rather what might be called a lethargic
\nor cataleptic state. When extreme, it is a cataleptic state because the part of
\nthe being which animates the body has gone out of it, so the body is half dead;
\nthat is, its life is so far diminished and its functions almost suspended: the
\nheart slows down and can hardly be felt and the breathing is hardly
\nperceptible. This is the real trance. But you, during all this time, you are
\nfully conscious in the vital world. And even, with a certain discipline which,
\nmoreover, is neither easy nor without danger, you may so contrive that the
\nminimum of force you leave in your body allows it to be independently<\/i><\/span> conscious.
\nWith training \u2014 as I said, it is not easy \u2014 quite a methodical training, one
\ncan manage to make the body keep its autonomy of movement, even when one is
\nalmost totally exteriorised. And this is how in an almost complete state of
\ntrance, one can speak and relate what the exteriorised part of the being is
\nseeing and doing\u2026For that, one must be fairly advanced on the path. <\/span><\/p>\n

There are spontaneous and involuntary instances of a state which
\nis not quite the same as this, but very similar: they are states of
\nsomnambulism, that is to say, when you are fast asleep and the vital has gone
\nout of your body, the body automatically obeys the will and action of the part
\nwhich has gone out, the vital part. Only, as this is not the effect of a willed
\naction and a regulated, progressive education, this state is not desirable, for
\nit may produce disorders in the being. But it is an illustration of what I have
\njust said, of a body which while three-quarters asleep can obey the part of the
\nbeing which has gone out and is itself fully awake and quite conscious. This is
\nthe real trance.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have already told you several times, I think, that when one
\nundergoes this occult discipline, one is able to leave one’s physical body, go
\nout in the vital and move about quite consciously, acting quite consciously in
\nthis vital world; then to leave one’s vital being asleep and go out mentally,
\nacting and living in the mental world quite consciously and with similar
\nrelations \u2014 for <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 277<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

\u00a0<\/span>the mental world is in relation with the
\nmental being, as the physical world is in relation with the physical being \u2014
\nand so on, progressively and by a regular discipline. I knew a woman who had
\nbeen trained in this way, who had quite remarkable personal faculties, who was
\nconscious in all her states of being, and she used to be able to go out twelve
\ntimes from her body, that is to say, from twelve consecutive bodies, until she
\nreached the summit of the individual consciousness, which could be called the
\nthreshold of the Formless. She remembered everything and recounted everything
\nin detail. She was an Englishwoman; I even translated from English a book in
\nwhich there was a description of all she saw and did in these domains. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is obviously the sign of a great mastery of one’s being, and
\nthe sign of having reached a high degree of conscious development. But it is
\nalmost the opposite of the other experience of going out of one’s consciousness
\nto enter a state in which one is no longer conscious; it is, so to say, the
\nopposite. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

(Silence)<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

That brings me to something which is both a recommendation and an
\nadvice. <\/span><\/p>\n

We have read in\u00a0 <\/span>The
\nSynthesis of Yoga<\/i><\/b>, and also recently translated from\u00a0 <\/span>The Life Divine some sages in which Sri
\nAurobindo gives details, explanations and advice to those who do sadhana and
\ntry to have experiences that at times are too strong for their state of
\nconsciousness \u2014 which brings rather unfortunate results. On this subject I made
\na remark, and I have been asked to explain my remark. I said: <\/span><\/p>\n

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

\u201cOne must always be greater than one’s experience.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

What I meant
\nis this: <\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever may be the nature, the strength and wonder of an
\nexperience, you must not be dominated by it to such an extent <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 278<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

that it
\ngoverns your entire being and you lose your balance and your contact with a
\nreasonable and calm attitude. That is to say, when you enter in some way into
\ncontact with a force or consciousness which surpasses yours, instead of being
\nentirely dominated by this consciousness or force, you must always be able to
\nremind yourself that it is only one} experience among thousands and thousands
\nof others, and that, consequently, its nature is not absolute, it is relative.
\nNo matter how beautiful it may be, you can and ought to have better ones:
\nhowever exceptional it may be, there are others still more marvellous; and
\nhowever high it may be, you can always rise still higher in future. So, instead
\nof losing one’s head one places the experience in the chain of development and
\nkeeps a healthy physical balance so as not to lose the sense of relativity with
\nordinary life. In this way, there is no risk. <\/span><\/p>\n

The means?…One who knows how to do this will always find it very
\neasy, but for one who doesn’t know it is perhaps a little\u2026a little troublesome.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a means. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is never to lose the idea of the total self-giving to the Grace
\nwhich is the expression of the Supreme. When one gives oneself, when one
\nsurrenders, entrusts oneself entirely to That which is above, beyond all
\ncreation, and when, instead of seeking any personal advantage from the
\nexperience, one makes an offering of it to the divine Grace and knows that it
\nis from This that the experience comes and that it is to This that the result
\nof the experience must be given back, then one is quite safe. <\/span><\/p>\n

In other words: no ambition, no vanity, no pride. A sincere
\nself-giving, a sincere humility, and one is sheltered from all danger. There
\nyou are, this is what I call being greater than one’s experience. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now, does anyone have a question?  <\/span><\/p>\n

(Silence)<\/span><\/i><\/b> <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\nPage – 279<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

(A swarm of insects appears.) That brings us down from the
\nheights! (Laughing) I think it would be very wise to put out the light and get
\nrid of the insects\u2026You won’t go to sleep, will you?<\/span><\/p>\n

There is something I was asked some time ago to which I have not
\nyet replied. It is this. I have written somewhere: <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe absolute of every being is its unique relation with the
\nDivine and its unique manner of expressing the Divine in the manifestation.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

This is what
\nis called here in India the truth of the being or the law of the being, the
\ndharma} of the being: the centre and the cause of the individuality. <\/span><\/p>\n

Everyone carries his truth within himself, a truth which is
\nunique, which is altogether his own and which he must express in his life. Now
\nwhat is this truth? This is the question I have been asked: <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is this truth of the being, and how is it expressed
\nexternally in physical life?\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

It is
\nexpressed in this way: each individual being has a direct and unique relation
\nwith the Supreme, the Origin, That which is beyond all creation. It is this
\nunique relation which must be expressed in one’s life, through a unique mode of
\nbeing in relation with the Divine. Therefore, each one is directly and
\nexclusively in relation with the Divine \u2014 the relation one has with the Divine
\nis unique and exclusive; so that you receive from the Divine, when you are in a
\nreceptive state, the totality<\/i><\/b> of the relation it is\u00a0 <\/span>possible for you to have, and this is neither
\na sharing nor a part nor a repetition, but exclusively and uniquely\u00a0 <\/span>the relation which each one can have with the
\nDivine. So, from the psychological point of view, one is all alone in having
\nthis direct relation with the Divine. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 280<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

One is all alone with the Supreme.\u00b9 <\/span><\/p>\n

The relation one has with Him will never have an equal, will never
\nbe exactly the same as another’s. No two are the same and therefore nothing}
\ncan be taken away from you to be given to another, nothing} can be withdrawn
\nfrom you to be given to another. And if this relation disappeared from the
\ncreation, it would really disappear \u2014 which is impossible. <\/span><\/p>\n

And this means that if one lives in the truth of one’s being, one
\nis an indispensable part of the creation. Naturally, I don’t mean if one lives
\nwhat one believes<\/i><\/b> one should be, I am saying if one lives the truth of
\none’s being; if, by a development, one is able to enter into contact with the
\ntruth of one’s being, one is immediately in a unique and exclusive relation
\nwith the Divine, which hasn’t its equal. <\/span><\/p>\n

There, now. <\/span><\/p>\n

And naturally, because it is the truth of your being, that is what
\nyou should express in your life.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n\u00b9This
\nsentence was added by Mother on 13 May 1962.<\/font><\/span><\/span> <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage –
\n281<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

22 August 1956   \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sweet Mother, what does Sri Aurobindo call \u201cthe heaven of the liberated mind\u201d?   The heaven of the liberated mind?…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-08-questions-and-answers-volume-08","wpcat-127-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4542","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=4542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4542\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}