{"id":4551,"date":"2013-07-13T01:56:47","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4551"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:56:47","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:56:47","slug":"42-10-october-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\/42-10-october-1956-vol-08-questions-and-answers-volume-08","title":{"rendered":"-42_10 October 1956.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n10 October 1956<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

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

Some days ago, during the Translation Class\u00b9\u00a0 <\/span>I found a sage in
\nThe Life Divine<\/i><\/span> which, I
\nthought, might interest you this evening. Sri Aurobindo is speaking of the
\nmovement of Nature and he explains how from matter which seems inert came life,
\nthen how from life mind emerged and also how from mind will emerge the
\nsupermind or the spiritual life; and he gives a kind of brief survey of the
\ntime it takes. I am going to read this sage to you and shall tell you later
\nwhat connection it has with our present situation: <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe first obscure material movement of the evolutionary Force is
\nmarked by an aeonic graduality; the movement of life-progress proceeds slowly
\nbut still with a quicker step, it is concentrated into the figure of
\nmillenniums; mind can still further press the tardy leisureliness of Time and
\nmake long paces of the centuries; but when the conscious spirit intervenes, a
\nsupremely concentrated pace of evolutionary swiftness becomes possible.\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nLife Divine,p. 932<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

I am reading
\nthis to you because I have been asked about the action of the Supermind, and I
\nhad pared this manifestation of the Supermind to that of the mind which,
\naccording to all modern scientific discoveries, took nearly a million years to
\nevolve from the animal brain, the ape-brain, to the first human brain. And I
\ntold you that, consequently, one should not expect this to take place in a few
\nmonths or a few years, that it would obviously take much longer. Some people,
\nit seems, thought that
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b9 Until 1958, three times a week, in
\nanother class, Mother used to translate into French certain books of Sri
\nAurobindo:\u00a0 <\/span>The Ideal of Human Unity, The
\nHuman Cycle, the last six chapters of\u00a0
\n<\/span>The Life Divine and the first part of The Synthesis of Yoga.<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/font> <\/font><\/span><\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage – 322<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

I was
\nannouncing that the superman would not come before another million years! I
\nwant to correct this impression. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sri Aurobindo has said that as the development rises in the scale
\nof consciousness, the movement becomes more and more rapid, and that when the
\nSpirit or the Supermind intervenes, it can go much faster. Therefore we may
\nhope that in a few centuries, the first supramental race will appear. <\/span><\/p>\n

But even that is rather disconcerting for some people, for they
\nthink it contradicts what Sri Aurobindo has always promised: that the time has
\ncome for the supramental transformation to be possible\u2026But we must not confuse
\na supramental transformation with the appearing of a new race. <\/span><\/p>\n

What Sri Aurobindo promised and what naturally interests us, we
\nwho are here now, is that the time has come when some beings among the \u00e9lite<\/i><\/b>
\nof humanity, who fulfil the conditions necessary for spiritualisation, will be
\nable to transform their bodies with the help of the supramental Force,
\nConsciousness and Light, so as no longer to be animal-men but bee supermen. <\/span><\/p>\n

This promise Sri Aurobindo has made and he based it on the
\nknowledge he had that the supramental Force was on the point of manifesting on
\nthe earth. In fact it had descended in him long ago, he knew it and knew what
\nits effects were.<\/span><\/p>\n

And now that it has manifested universally, I could say,
\ngenerally, the certainty of the possibility of transformation is of course
\nstill greater. There is no longer any doubt that those who will fulfil or who
\nnow fulfil the conditions are on the way to this transformation. <\/span><\/p>\n

The conditions Sri Aurobindo gives in detail in The
\nSynthesis of Yoga<\/i><\/b> and in still greater detail in his last articles on
\nthe Supramental Manifestation.\u00b9 So now it is only a question of realisation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, if someone wants to ask me a question on the subject\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

The method of these realisations, formerly, used to be<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b9See The Supramental Manifestation upon
\nEarth, Cent. Vol. 16, pp. 1-74.<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/font> <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\nPage – 323<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

an integral surrender to you. Now it is still the same thing; so,
\nin these new conditions, should not this surrender be still more rigorous than
\nbefore? <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

What I read
\ntoday\u00b9 seems to be the most essential condition for starting, because it is the
\nmost universal. <\/span><\/p>\n

(After a silence)<\/span><\/i><\/b> Everyone
\nmust follow his path in accordance with his own nature, and there is always a
\npreference for one way rather than another. As we read in one of our recent
\nclasses, for one who follows the path of action, it is much more difficult to
\nfeel that the human personality does not exist and that only the divine Force
\nworks. For one who follows the path of knowledge it is relatively very easy, it
\nis something one discovers almost immediately. For one who follows the path of
\nlove it is elementary, since it is by giving himself that he progresses. But
\nfor one who follows the path of action it is much more difficult, and
\nconsequently for him the first step is to do <\/span>
\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b9\u201cIt is then by a transformation of life
\nin its very principle, not by an external manipulation of its phenomena, that
\nthe integral Yoga proposes to change it from a troubled and ignorant into a
\nluminous and harmonious movement of Nature. There are three conditions which
\nare indispensable for the achievement of this central inner revolution and a
\nnew formation; none of them is altogether sufficient in itself, but by their
\nunited threefold power the uplifting can be done, the conversion made and
\ncompletely made. For, first, life as it is is<\/span> a movement
\nof desire and it has built in us as its centre a desire-soul which refers to
\nitself all the motions of life and puts in them its own troubled hue and pain
\nof an ignorant, half-lit, baffled endeavour: for a divine living, desire must
\nbe abolished and replaced by a purer and firmer motive-power, the tormented
\nsoul of desire dissolved and in its stead there must emerge the calm, strength,
\nhappiness of a true vital being now concealed within us. Next, life as it is is<\/span> driven or led partly by the impulse of the life-force,
\npartly by a mind which is mostly a servant and abettor of the ignorant
\nlife-impulse, but in part also its uneasy and not too luminous or petent<\/span> guide and mentor; for a divine life the mind and the
\nlife-impulse must cease to be anything but instruments and the inmost psychic
\nbeing must take their place as the leader on the path and the indicator of a
\ndivine guidance. Last, life as it is is<\/span> turned
\ntowards the satisfaction of the separative ego; ego must disappear and be
\nreplaced by the true spiritual person, the central being, and life itself must
\nbe turned towards the fulfilment of the Divine in terrestrial existence; it
\nmust feel a Divine Force awaking within it and bee an obedient instrumentation
\nof its purpose.\u201d <\/font> <\/span><\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

\n(<\/font>The Synthesis of Yoga,p.
\n166)<\/font><\/i><\/span> <\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\nPage – 324<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

what is said
\nhere in the sage of The Synthesis of Yoga which we have just read: to create in
\nhimself this complete detachment from the fruit of action, to act because this is
\nwhat must be done, to do it in the best possible way, and not to be anxious
\nabout the consequences, to leave the consequences to a Will higher than his
\nown.<\/span><\/p>\n

One can’t make a general rule for the order of importance of the
\npaths, it is an exclusively personal affair. And there is a time when one
\nunderstands very well, it is apparent, that no two paths are alike, no two
\npaths can be alike, and that every man follows his own path and that this is
\nthe truth of his being. One can, if one looks from a sufficient height, see a
\ndifference in the speed of advance, but it does not always conform to the
\nexternal signs; and one could say a little humorously, that it is not always
\nthe wisest who goes fastest!  <\/span><\/p>\n

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

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It seems to me no longer possible to make general rules. Indeed,
\nthe Grace is upon all. And what is necessary to let it act? It is very
\ndifficult to say. <\/span><\/p>\n

If one can see it, feel it, experience its action, so to say, be
\nconscious of its presence and movement, then one has the joy of the movement,
\nthe progress, the realisation; but this does not mean that if one doesn’t feel
\nthis joy, the action of the Grace is not there, the realisation not there. <\/span><\/p>\n

And after all, all the ways of being of the Divine, all the forms
\nof being in the manifestation are necessary to express the Divine. It is this
\nmanifestation as a whole, in its totality, which progresses towards a growing,
\ninfinite, eternal perfection. It is not each separate element, individually, it
\nis all together, as a collective and total expression of the divine Truth. All
\nthis is moving forward constantly, eternally, towards a greater perfection. The
\nuniverse of tomorrow will necessarily be more divine, if one may say so, than
\nthe universe of yesterday; and that of
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 325<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

yesterday
\nwas more divine than the one preceding it. And so, it could be said that the
\nDivine, in his expression of Himself, is in perpetual progress towards a more
\nand more perfect, a more and more divine manifestation. <\/span><\/p>\n

And in that case, each element has only to manifest, as perfectly
\nas possible, its own law, what it should be in the whole, in order to do the
\nutmost of what ought to be done. It is thus a conscious, an enlightened, one
\ncould almost say a disinterested, discovery of this truth of each being, which
\nfor it is the first and most important necessity. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 326<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

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