{"id":4549,"date":"2013-07-13T01:56:46","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:56:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4549"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:56:46","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:56:46","slug":"22-30-may-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\/22-30-may-1956-vol-08-questions-and-answers-volume-08","title":{"rendered":"-22_30 May 1956.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n30 May 1956<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n


\n <\/font> <\/font><\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Yogin\u2019s<\/span>
\naim in the sciences that make for knowledge should be to discover and
\nunderstand the workings of the Divine Consciousness-Puissance in man and
\ncreatures and things and forces, her creative significances, her execution of
\nthe mysteries, the symbols in which she arranges the manifestation.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\n
\nThe
\nSynthesis of Yoga, p. 133 <\/font> <\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

I have already told you, explained to you, that outer forms, if
\nlooked at not in themselves, for themselves, in their outer appearance alone,
\nbut as the expression of a deeper and more lasting reality, all these forms <\/span>―<\/span> as indeed all circumstances
\nand events <\/span>―<\/span> all become symbolic of the Force which is behind and uses them
\nto express itself. There is not a single circumstance, not a form, not an
\naction, not a movement which is not symbolic of something deeper, something
\nwhich stands behind and which, normally, ought to animate all action.<\/span><\/p>\n

 For a certain state of
\nconsciousness there is not a single word, not a gesture, not an action which
\ndoes not express a deeper or higher reality, more lasting, more essential, more
\ntrue; and once one has seen and felt that, everything takes on a meaning, and
\none sees more clearly how things ought to be organised, arranged, so that a
\ndeeper truth may express itself still better than it does at present.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Yogin\u2019s aim in the Arts
\nshould not be a mere aesthetic, mental or vital gratification, but, seeing the
\nDivine everywhere, worshipping it with a revelation of the meaning of its
\nworks, to express that One Divine in gods and men and creatures and objects.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\n
\nIbid.,
\np. 133<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

How can we \u201cexpress that One
\nDivine\u201d?<\/span><\/i><\/b> <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\nPage – 158<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/div>\n

It depends on the subject one wants to express: gods, men or
\nthings. <\/span><\/p>\n

 When one paints a picture
\nor poses music or writes poetry, each one has his own way of expression. Every
\npainter, every musician, every poet, every sculptor has or ought to have a
\nunique, personal contact with the Divine, and through the work which is his
\nspeciality, the art he has mastered, he must express this contact in his own
\nway, with his own words, his own colours. For himself, instead of copying the
\nouter form of Nature, he takes these forms as the covering of something else,
\nprecisely of his relationship with the realities which are behind, deeper, and
\nhe tries to make them express that. Instead of merely imitating what he sees,
\nhe tries to make them speak of what is behind them, and it is this which makes
\nall the difference between a living art and just a flat copy of Nature. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n<\/span>
\n
\nMother
\ncontemplates a flower she is holding <\/font><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n<\/span>
\n
\nin her
\nhand. It is the golden champak flower<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n<\/span>
\n
\n\u00a0<\/font><\/span>(Michelia champaka).
\n<\/font><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Have you noticed this flower? <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span> It has twelve
\npetals in three rows of four. <\/span><\/p>\n

We have called it \u201cSupramental
\npsychological perfection\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n

I had never noticed that it had
\nthree rows: a small row like this, another one a little larger and a third one
\nlarger still. They are in gradations of four: four petals, four petals, four
\npetals. <\/span><\/p>\n

 Well, if one indeed wants
\nto see in the forms of Nature a symbolic expression, one can see a centre which
\nis the supreme Truth, and a triple manifestation <\/span>―<\/span> because four indicates
\nmanifestation <\/span>―<\/span> in three superimposed worlds: the outermost <\/span>―<\/span> these are the largest petals,
\nthe lightest in colour <\/span>―<\/span> that is a physical world, then a vital world and a mental
\nworld, and then at the centre, the supramental Truth. <\/span><\/p>\n

 And you can discover all
\nkinds of other analogies. <\/span><\/p>\n

 Is that all?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Mother, about the division of
\nworks, Sri Aurobindo<\/span><\/i><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 159<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/span>writes here: \u201cA Yoga turned towards an
\nall-embracing realisation of the Supreme will not despise the works or even the
\ndreams, if dreams they are, of the Cosmic Spirit or shrink from the splendid
\ntoil and many-sided victory which he has assigned to himself in the human
\ncreature. But its first condition for this liberality is that our works in the
\nworld too must be part of the sacrifice offered to the Highest and to none
\nelse, to the Divine Shakti and to no other Power, in the right spirit and with
\nthe right knowledge, by the free soul and not by the hypnotised bond slave of
\nmaterial Nature. If a division of works has to be made, it is between those
\nthat are nearest to the heart of the sacred flame and those that are least
\ntouched or illumined by it because they are more at a distance, or between the
\nfuel that burns strongly or brightly and the logs that if too thickly heaped on
\nthe altar may impede the ardour of the fire by their damp, heavy and diffused
\nabundance.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\n
\nThe
\nSynthesis of Yoga, p. 132 <\/font> <\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span>             Psychologically, to what does
\nthis division correspond in our life? <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

I suppose it is different for each one. So each one must find
\nthose activities which increase his aspiration, his consciousness, his deeper
\nknowledge of things, and those which, on the contrary, mechanise him and bring
\nhim back more thoroughly into a purely material relation with things. <\/span><\/p>\n

 It is difficult to make a
\ngeneral rule. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

That means that everything
\nought to be done exactly, as an offering?<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Truly speaking, it depends more on the way of doing a thing <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 160<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/span>than on the thing itself.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

 You take up some work
\nwhich is quite material, like cleaning the floor or dusting a room; well, it
\nseems to me that this work can lead to a very deep consciousness if it is done
\nwith a certain feeling for perfection and progress; while other work considered
\nof a higher kind as, for example, studies or literary and artistic work, if
\ndone with the idea of seeking fame or for the satisfaction of one\u2019s vanity or
\nfor some material gain, will not help you to progress. So this is already a
\nkind of classification which depends more on the inner attitude than on the
\nouter fact. But this classification can be applied to everything. <\/span><\/p>\n

 Of course, there is a
\nkind of work which is done only for purely pecuniary and personal reasons, like
\nthe one <\/span>―<\/span> whatever it may be <\/span>―<\/span> which is done to earn a living. That attitude is exactly the
\none Sri Aurobindo compares with the damp logs of wood which are heaped so thick
\nthe flame cannot leap up. It has something dark and heavily dull about it. <\/span><\/p>\n

 And this brings us to
\nsomething which I have already told you several times, but which presents a
\nproblem not yet solved by circumstances. I think I have already spoken to you
\nabout it, but still I shall speak about it again this evening because of this sentence
\nof Sri Aurobindo\u2019s. <\/span><\/p>\n

 At the beginning of my
\npresent earthly existence I came into contact with many people who said that
\nthey had a great inner aspiration, an urge towards something deeper and truer,
\nbut that they were tied down, subjected, slaves to that brutal necessity of
\nearning their living, and that this weighed them down so much, took up so much
\nof their time and energy that they could not engage in any other activity,
\ninner or outer. I heard this very often, I saw many poor people <\/span>― <\/span>I don\u2019t mean poor from the
\nmonetary point of view, but poor because they felt imprisoned in a material
\nnecessity, narrow and deadening. <\/span><\/p>\n

 I was very young at that
\ntime, and I always used to tell myself that if ever I could do it, I would try
\nto create a little world <\/span>― <\/span>oh! quite a small one, but still\u2026 a small world where <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 161<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/div>\n

people would be able to live
\nwithout having to be preoccupied with food and lodging and clothing and the imperative
\nnecessities of life, so as to see whether all the energies freed by this
\ncertainty of a secure material living would turn spontaneously towards the
\ndivine life and the inner realisation. <\/span><\/p>\n

Well, towards the middle of my
\nlife <\/span>―<\/span> at least, what is usually the middle of a human life the means
\nwere given to me and I could realise this, that is, create such conditions of
\nlife. And I have come to this conclusion, that it is not this necessity which
\nhinders people from consecrating themselves to an inner realisation, but that
\nit is a dullness, a tamas, a lack of aspiration, a miserable laxity, an
\nI-don\u2019t-care attitude, and that those who face even the hardest conditions of
\nlife are sometimes the ones who react most and have the intensest aspiration. <\/span><\/p>\n

 That\u2019s all. I am waiting
\nfor the contrary to be proved to me. <\/span><\/p>\n

 I would very much like to
\nsee the contrary but I haven\u2019t yet seen it. As there are many energies which
\nare not utilised, since this terrible compulsion of having something to eat or
\na roof to sleep under or clothes on one\u2019s back does not exist <\/span>―<\/span> as one is sure of all that <\/span>― <\/span>there is a whole mass of
\nenergies which are not utilised for that; well, they are spent in idle
\nstupidities. And of these, the foolishness which seems to me the most
\ndisastrous is to keep one\u2019s tongue going: chatter, chatter, chatter. I haven\u2019t
\nknown a place where they chatter more than here, and say everything they should
\nnot say, busy themselves with things they should not be concerned with. And I
\nknow it is merely an overflow of unused energy. <\/span><\/p>\n

 That is all. <\/span><\/p>\n

 So the division in works
\nis perhaps not quite what one thinks\u2026 <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 162<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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