{"id":523,"date":"2013-07-13T01:28:35","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=523"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:28:35","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:35","slug":"29-difficulties-of-the-path-finders-vol-26-on-himself-volume-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/26-on-himself-volume-26\/29-difficulties-of-the-path-finders-vol-26-on-himself-volume-26","title":{"rendered":"-29_Difficulties of the Path-Finders.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

\nSection Three<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n


\nDIFFICULTIES OF THE PATH-FINDERS
\n<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nTHE DIFFICULT PATH<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nNobody
\nhas found this Yoga a <\/span>Grand
\n Trunk Road<\/span>, neither X nor Y nor
\neven myself or the Mother. All such ideas are a romantic illusion.<\/span><\/p>\n

August,1935<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nTHE BURDEN OF
\nHUMANITY<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We have had sufferings
\nand struggles to which yours is a mere child’s play; I have not made our cases
\nequal to yours. I have said that the Avatar is one who comes to open the Way
\nfor humanity to a higher consciousness \u2014 if nobody can follow the Way, then
\neither our conception of the thing, which is also that of Christ and Krishna
\nand Buddha also, is all wrong or the whole life and action of the Avatar is
\nquite futile. X seems to say that there is no way and no possibility of
\nfollowing, that the struggles and sufferings of the Avatar are unreal and all
\nhumbug, \u2014 there is no possibility of struggle for one who represents the
\nDivine. Such a conception makes nonsense of the whole idea of Avatarhood; there is then no reason in it, no
\nnecessity in it, no meaning in it. The Divine being all-powerful can lift
\npeople up without bothering to come down on earth. It is only if it is a part
\nof the world-arrangement that he should take upon himself the burden of
\nhumanity and open the Way that Avatarhood
\nhas any meaning.<\/span><\/p>\n

7-3-1935 <\/span><\/p>\n

\nYou
\nsay that this way is too difficult for you or the likes of you and it is only
\n"Avatars" like myself or the Mother that can do it. That is a strange
\nmisconception; for it is, on the contrary, the easiest and simplest and most
\ndirect way and anyone can do it, if he makes his mind and vital quiet, even
\nthose who have a tenth<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Page \u2013 463<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\nof
\nyour capacity can do it. It is the other way of tension and strain and hard
\nendeavour that is difficult and needs a great force of Tapasya.
\nAs for the Mother and myself, we have had to try all ways, follow all methods,
\nto surmount mountains of difficulties, a far heavier burden to bear than you or
\nanybody else in the Ashram or outside, far
\nmore difficult conditions, battles to fight, wounds to endure, ways to cleave
\nthrough impenetrable morass and desert and forest, hostile masses to conquer \u2014
\na work such as, I am certain, none else had to do before us. For the Leader of
\nthe Way in a work like ours has not only to bring down and represent and embody
\nthe Divine, but to represent too the ascending element in humanity and to bear
\nthe burden of humanity to the full and experience, not in a mere play or Lila but in grim earnest, all the obstruction,
\ndifficulty, opposition, baffled and hampered and only slowly victorious labour
\nwhich are possible on the Path. But it is not necessary nor tolerable that all
\nthat should be repeated over again to the full in the experience of others. It
\nis because we have the complete experience that we can show a straighter and easier road to others \u2014 if they
\nwill only consent to take it. It is because of our experience won at a tremendous
\nprice that we can urge upon you and others, "Take the psychic attitude; follow the straight sunlit path, with the Divine
\nopenly or secretly upbearing you \u2014 if secretly, he will yet show himself in
\ngood time, \u2014 do not insist on the hard, hampered, roundabout and difficult
\njourney."<\/span><\/p>\n

5-5-1932<\/span><\/p>\n


\nPREPARING THE<\/font><\/span><\/b> SUNLIT PATH<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPeace
\nwas the very first thing that the Yogis and seekers of old asked for and it was
\na quiet and silent mind \u2014 and that always brings peace \u2014 that they declared to
\nbe the condition for realising the Divine. A cheerful and sunlit heart is the
\nfit vessel for the Ananda and who shall say
\nthat Ananda or what prepares it is an
\nobstacle to the Divine union? As for despondency, it is surely a terrible
\nburden to carry on the way. One has to pass through it sometimes like Christian
\nof The Pilgrim’s Progress<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Page \u2013 464<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

through
\nthe Slough of Despond but its constant reiteration cannot be anything but an
\nobstacle. I know perfectly well that pain and suffering and struggle and
\naccesses of despair are natural, though not inevitable on the way, not because
\nthey are helps but because they are imposed on us by the darkness of this human
\nnature out of which we have to struggle into the Light…. Ramakrishna was not ignorant that there was
\na sunlit path of Yoga. He even seems to say that it is the quicker way as well
\nas the better.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is not because I have myself trod the
\nsunlit way or flinched from difficulty and suffering and danger. I have had my
\nfull share of these things and the Mother has had ten times her full share. But
\nthat was because the finders of the Way had to face these things in order to
\nconquer. No difficulty that can come on the Sadhak
\nbut has faced us on the path; against many
\nwe have had to struggle hundreds of times (in fact, that is an understatement)
\nbefore we could overcome; many still remain protesting that they have a right
\nuntil the perfect perfection is there. But we have never consented to admit
\ntheir inevitable necessity for others. It is, in fact, to ensure an easier path
\nto others hereafter that we have borne that burden. It was with that object
\nthat the Mother once prayed to the Divine that whatever difficulties, dangers,
\nsufferings were necessary for the path might be laid on her rather than on
\nothers. It has been so far granted her as a result of daily and terrible
\nstruggles for years that those who put an entire and sincere confidence in her
\nare able to follow the sunlit path and even those who cannot, yet when they do
\nput the trust find their path suddenly easy and, if it becomes difficult again,
\nit is only when distrust, revolt, abhimān,<\/i>
\nor other darknesses come upon them. The sunlit path is not altogether a fable.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, you will ask, what of those who cannot
\n? Well, it is for them I am putting forth
\nall my efforts to bring down the supramental Force within a measurable time. I
\nknow that it will descend but I am seeking its near descent and, with whatever
\ndark obstruction of the earth-nature or furious inroads of the Asuric forces seeking to prevent it, it is
\napproaching the terrestrial soil. The Supramental
\nis not, as you imagine, something cold, hard and rock-like. It bears within it
\nthe presence of the<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Page \u2013 465<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\nDivine
\nLove as well as the Divine Truth, and its reign here means for those who accept
\nit, the straight and thornless path in which
\nthere is no wall or obstacle, of which the ancient Rishis
\nsaw the far-off promise.<\/span><\/p>\n

The dark path is there and there are many
\nwho make, like the Christians, a Gospel of spiritual suffering; many hold it to
\nbe the unavoidable price of victory. It may be so under certain circumstances,
\nas it has been in so many lives at the beginning, or one may choose to make it
\nso. But then the price has to be paid with resignation, fortitude or a
\ntenacious resilience. I admit that, if borne in that way, the attacks of the
\ndark forces or the ordeals that they impose have a meaning. After each victory
\ngained over them, there is then a sensible advance; often they seem to show us
\nthe difficulties in ourselves which we have to overcome and to say: "Here
\nyou must conquer"; but all the same it is a too dark and difficult way
\nwhich nobody should follow on whom the necessity does not lie.<\/span><\/p>\n

So many have done Yoga relying on Tapasya or anything else, but not confident of any Divine Grace. It is not that, but
\nthe soul’s demand for a higher Truth or a higher Life that is indispensable.
\nWhere that is, the Divine Grace whether believed in or not will intervene. If
\nyou believe, that hastens and facilitates things; if you cannot yet believe,
\nstill the soul’s aspiration will justify itself, with whatever difficulty and
\nstruggle.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


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

 <\/p>\n

\nQ: <\/b>Does everybody have to pass through the
\nStage of vital sensitiveness?<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA:<\/b> The Mother and myself have passed through
\nit. It comes inevitably in the full opening of the being to the universal.<\/span><\/p>\n

17-4-1936<\/span><\/p>\n


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

 <\/p>\n

\nBy
\nthe way, do you think that the Mother or myself or others<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 466<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

who
\nhave taken up the spiritual life had not enjoyed life and that it is therefore that
\nthe Mother was able to speak of a joyous sacrifice to the Divine as a true
\nspirit of spiritual sacrifice ? Or do you
\nthink we spent the preliminary stages in longings for the lost fleshpots of <\/span>Egypt<\/span> and
\nthat it was only later on we felt the joy of the spiritual sacrifice? Of course
\nwe did not; we and many others had no difficulty
\non the score of giving up anything we thought necessary to give up and no
\nhankering afterwards. Your rule is as usual a stiff rule that does not at all
\napply generally.<\/span><\/p>\n

17-10-1935<\/span><\/p>\n


\nYEARS OF
\nSELF-IMPOSED BARENESS<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n(Re somebody’s
\nremark about Sadhaks or Sadhikas putting on beautiful clothes etc)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nAfter
\nrealisation whatever the Higher Will demands is the best \u2014 but first,
\ndetachment is the rule. To reach the freedom without the discipline and
\ndevelopment is given to few. The Mother and myself went for years through the
\nutmost self-imposed bareness of life.<\/span><\/p>\n

15-11-1933<\/span><\/p>\n


\nKNOWLEDGE OF HUMAN
\nNATURE<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI
\nthink I know as much about the dualities, weaknesses, ignorance of human
\nnature as you do and a great deal more. The idea that the Mother or I are
\nspiritually great but ignorant of everything practical seems to be common in
\nthe Ashram. It is an error to suppose that
\nto be on a high spiritual plane makes one ignorant or unobservant of the world
\nor of human nature. If I know nothing of
\nhuman nature or do not consider it, I am obviously unfit to be anybody’s guide
\nin the work of transformation, for nobody
\ncan transform human nature if he does not know what human nature is, does not
\nsee its workings or even if he sees, does not take them into consideration at
\nall. If I think that the<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Page \u2013 467<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\nhuman
\nplane is like the plane or planes of infinite Light, Power, Ananda, infallible Will Force, then I must be
\neither a stark lunatic or a gibbering imbecile or a fool so abysmally idiotic
\nas to be worth keeping in a museum as an exhibit.<\/span><\/p>\n

30-4-1937<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNo
\nneed of logic to see that \u2014 a little common sense is sufficient. If anyone, no
\nmatter who he be, thinks that this world of ignorance, limitation and suffering is a plane of eternal and infinite Light,
\nPower and Ananda, infallible Will and Power, what can he be but a
\nself-deceiving fool or lunatic ? And where
\nthen would be the need of bringing down the said Light, Power etc. from the
\nhigher planes, if it was already gambolling about all over this blessed earth
\nand its absurd troop of human-animal beings ?
\nBut perhaps you are of the opinion of <\/b> X,<\/b> "The Divine is here, how
\ncan he descend from anywhere ?" The
\nDivine may be here, but if he has covered here his Light with darkness of
\nIgnorance and his Ananda with suffering, that, I should think, makes a big
\ndifference to the plane and, even if one enters into that sealed Light etc.,
\nit makes a difference to the consciousness but very little to the Energy at
\nwork in this plane which remains of a dark or mixed character.<\/span><\/p>\n

3-5-1937<\/span><\/p>\n


\nFAITH FOUNDED ON
\nKNOWLEDGE<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI
\nmust remind you that I have been an intellectual myself and no stranger to doubts
\n\u2014 both the Mother and myself have had one side of the mind as positive and as
\ninsistent on practical results and more so than any Russell can be. We could
\nnever have been contented with the shining ideas and phrases which a Rolland or another takes for gold coin of Truth.
\nWe know well what is the difference between a subjective experience and a
\ndynamic outward-going and realising Force. So although we have faith, (and who
\never did anything great in the world without having faith in his mission or the
\nTruth at work behind him ?) we do not found
\nourselves on faith alone, but on a great ground of knowledge<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Page \u2013 468<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n

\nwhich we have been developing and testing all our lives. I think I can say that
\nI have been testing day and night for years upon years more scrupulously than
\nany scientist his theory or his method on the physical plane. That is why I am
\nnot alarmed by the aspect of the world around me or disconcerted by the often
\nsuccessful fury of the adverse Forces who increase in their rage as the Light
\ncomes nearer and nearer to the field of earth and Matter.<\/span><\/p>\n

If I believe in the probability and not
\nonly possibility, if I feel practically certain of the supramental
\nDescent (I do not fix a date), it is because I have my grounds for the belief,
\nnot a faith in the air. I know that the supramental Descent is inevitable \u2014 I
\nhave faith in view of my experience that the time can be and should be now and
\nnot in a later age…. But even if I knew it
\nto be for a later time, I would not swerve from my path or be discouraged or
\nflag in my labour. Formerly I might have been, but not now \u2014<\/i> after all
\nthe path I have traversed. When one is sure of the Truth, or even when one
\nbelieves the thing one pursues to be the only possible solution, one does not stipulate for an immediate
\nsuccess, one travels towards the Light taking as well worth while and facing
\nevery risk of the adventure. Still, like you, it is now, in this life that I insist
\non it and not in another or in the hereafter.<\/span><\/p>\n

30-8-1932<\/span><\/p>\n


\nSTEPS IN ADVANCE<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I
\nam afraid I cannot endorse your reading of the situation, at least so far as
\nthe Mother and myself and the prospects of the work are concerned. I can agree
\nonly that we have had a heavy time of it recently and that there has been a
\nstrong attack on the plane of the physical and material \u2014 but that (heavy
\nattacks) is a thing we have been accustomed to for the last 30 years and it has
\nnever prevented us from making any necessary advance. I have never had any
\nillusions about the path being comfortable and easy; I knew all along that the
\nwork could only be done if all the essential difficulties rose and were faced;
\nso their rising cannot tire or<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Page \u2013 469<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\ndishearten
\nme\/whatever obstinacy there may be in the difficulties, whether our own or in
\nthe Sadhaks or in Nature. <\/span><\/p>\n

No, I am not tired or on the point of
\ngiving up. I have made inwardly steps in front in the last two or three months
\nwhich had seemed impossible because of the obstinate resistance for years
\ntogether, and it is not an experience which pushes me to despair and to give
\nup. If there is much resistance on one side, there have been large gains on the
\nother \u2014 all has not been a picture of sterile darkness. You yourself are kept
\nback only by the demon of doubt which bangs on you each door as you are opening
\nit; you have only to set about resolutely slaying the Rakshasa
\nand the doors will open to you as they have done to many others who were held
\nup by their own mind or vital nature.<\/span><\/p>\n

12-1-1934<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

THE INCREASING
\nDESCENT<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It
\nis true that there is an increasingly
\npowerful descent of the Higher Force. Many now see the lights and colours
\naround the Mother and her subtle luminous forms \u2014 it means that their vision is
\nopening to supraphysical realities, it is
\nnot a phantasy. The colours or lights you see are forces from various planes
\nand each colour indicates a special force.<\/span><\/p>\n

The supramental Force is descending, but it has not
\nyet taken possession of the body or of matter \u2014 there is still much resistance
\nto that. It is supramentalised Overmind Force that has already touched, and this
\nmay at any time change into or give place to the supramental in its own native
\npower.<\/span><\/p>\n

14-9-1934<\/span><\/p>\n


\nTHE LONG PROCESS
\nOF THE DESCENT<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI
\ndo not know who was X’s informant, but
\ncertainly the Mother never said to anybody that the Supermind
\nwas to descend on the 24th November. Dates cannot be fixed like that. The
\ndescent of the Supermind is a long process, or at least a process with a<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Page \u2013 470<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\nlong
\npreparation, and one can only say that the work is going on -sometimes with a
\nstrong pressure for completion, sometimes retarded by the things that rise
\nfrom below and have to be dealt with before further progress can be made. The
\nprocess is a spiritual evolutionary process, concentrated into a brief period
\n\u2014 it could be done otherwise (by what men would regard as a miraculous
\nintervention) only if the human mind were more flexible and less attached to
\nits ignorance than it is. As we envisage it, it must manifest in a few first
\nand then spread, but it is not likely to overpower the earth in a moment. It is
\nnot advisable to discuss too much what it will do and how it will do it, because
\nthese are things the Supermind itself will
\nfix, acting out of that Divine Truth in it, and the mind must not try to fix
\nfor it grooves in which it will run. Naturally, the release from subconscient ignorance and from disease, duration
\nof life at will, and a change in the functionings
\nof the body must be among the ultimate elements of a supramental
\nchange; but the details of these things must
\nbe left for the supramental Energy to work out according to the truth of its
\nown nature.<\/span><\/p>\n

18-10-1934<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nRESISTANCE TO THE
\nDESCENT<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nWhen
\nI wrote in my letters about the Supermind and the obstinate resistance, I
\nspoke of course of something I had already spoken of before. I did not mean
\nthat the resistance was of an unexpected character or had altered anything
\nessential. But in its nature the Descent is not something arbitrary and
\nmiraculous but a rapid evolutionary process compressed into a few years which
\nproceeds by taking up the present nature into its Light and pouring its Truth
\ninto the inferior planes. That cannot be done in the whole world at a time, but
\nit is done like all such processes, first through selected Adharas and then on a wider scale. We have to do
\nit through ourselves first and through the circle of Sadhaks
\ngathered around us in the terrestrial consciousness as typified here. If a few
\nopen, that is sufficient for the process to be possible. On the other hand, if
\nthere is a general misunderstanding <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Page \u2013 471<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\nand resistance (not in all, but in many) that makes it difficult and the
\nprocess more laborious, but it does not make it impos\u00adsible. I was not
\nsuggesting that it has become impossible, but that if the circumstances were
\nmade unfavourable by our being unable to concentrate enough on this thing of
\ncapital importance and having too much work to do of an irrelevant kind, the
\nDescent was likely to take longer than it would do otherwise. Certainly, when
\nthe Supramental does touch earth with a
\nsuffi\u00adcient force to dig itself in into the earth consciousness, there will be
\nno more chance of any success or survival for the Asuric
\nMaya. <\/span><\/p>\n

The rest that I spoke of about the human
\nand the divine had to do with the intermediate period between before it is
\ndone. What I meant was that if the Mother were able to bring out the Divine
\nPersonalities and Powers into her body and physical being as she was doing for
\nseveral months without break some years ago, the brightest period in the
\nhistory of the Ashram, things would be much
\nmore easy and all these dangerous attacks that now take place would be dealt with rapidly and would in fact be
\nimpossible. In those days when the Mother was either receiving the Sadhaks for meditation or otherwise working and
\nconcentrating all night and day without sleep and with very irregular food,
\nthere was no ill-health and no fatigue in her and things were proceeding with a
\nlightning swiftness. The Power used was not that of the Supermind, but of the Overmind
\nbut it was sufficient for what was being done. Afterwards, because the lower
\nvital and the physical of the Sadhaks could not follow, the Mother had to push
\nthe Divine Personalities and Powers, through which she was doing the action,
\nbehind a veil and come down into the physical human level and act according to
\nits conditions and that means difficulty, struggle, illness, ignorance and
\ninertia. All has been for long, slow, difficult, almost sterile in appearance,
\nand now it is again becoming possible to go forward. But for the advance to be
\nanything like general or swift in its process, the attitude of the Sadhaks, not
\nof a few only, must change. They must cling less to the conditions and feelings
\nof the external physical consciousness and open themselves to the true
\nconsciousness of the Yogin and Sadhak. If they did that, the inner eye would open<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Page \u2013 472<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

and
\nthey would not be bewildered or alarmed if the Mother again manifested
\nexternally something of the Divine Personalities and Powers as she did before.
\nThey would not be asking her to be always on their level, but would be glad to
\nbe drawn swiftly or gradually up towards hers. The difficulties would be ten
\ntimes less and a larger easier securer movement possible. <\/span><\/p>\n

This was what I
\nmeant and, I suppose, I manifested some impatience at the slowness of so many
\nto realise what is after all a logical conclusion from the very principle of
\nour Yoga which is that of a transformation, all that is disharmonious in human
\nnature being enlightened out of existence, all that makes for harmony being
\nchanged into its divine equivalent, purer, greater, nobler, more beautiful and
\nmuch being added which has been lacking to the human evolution. I meant that
\nthings could move more swiftly towards this if the Sadhaks
\nhad a less ignorant attitude, but if they could not yet reach that, we had of
\ncourse to go on anyhow until the supramental
\ndescent came down to the material level.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, you must
\nget rid of this gratuitous tendency to despair. The difficulty for you has
\nbeen created by the indulgence given to the formation I speak of; that finally
\ndismissed, the difficulty would disappear. Progress might be slow at first,
\nbut progress would come; it would quicken afterwards and with the supramental
\nforce here, there would be for you as for others the full speed and certitude.<\/span><\/p>\n

18-10-1934 <\/span><\/p>\n

\nYou
\nwill say, "But at present the Mother has drawn back and it is the
\nSupramental that is to blame, because it is in order to bring down the
\nSupramental into Matter that she retires." The Supramental is not to blame; the Supramental could very well have come down
\ninto Matter under former conditions, if the means created by the Mother for the
\nphysical and vital contact had not been vitiated by the wrong attitude, the
\nwrong reactions in the Ashram atmosphere. It
\nwas not the direct supramental Force that was acting, but an intermediate and
\npreparatory force that carried in it a modified Light derived<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 473<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\nfrom
\nthe Supramental, but this would have been
\nsufficient for the work of opening the way for the highest action, if it had
\nnot been for the irruption of these wrong forces on the yet unconquered lower (physical) vital material plane.
\nThe interference was creating adverse possibilities which could not be allowed
\nto continue. The Mother would not have retired otherwise; and even as it is, it is not meant as an abandonment of the
\nfield but is only (to borrow a now current phrase from a more external
\nenterprise) a temporary strategic retirement, reculer
\npour mieux sauter.<\/i>
\nThe Supramental is therefore not responsible; on the contrary, it is the
\ndescent of the Supramental that would end all the
\ndifficulties. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n14-1-1932<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nDESCENT OF SADHANA INTO THE PHYSICAL<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Q:<\/b> When the Sadhana is going on in the physical plane, have all the Sadhaks
\nto come down into the physical consciousness, or only those who have much inertia and impurity
\nin them, as in my case?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA:<\/b> It is a little difficult to say whether all have
\nto come down totally into the physical. The Mother and I had to do it because
\nthe work could not be otherwise done. We had tried to do it from above through
\nthe mind and higher vital, but it could not be because the Sadhaks were not
\nready to follow \u2014 their lower vital and physical refused to share in what was
\ncoming down or else misused it and became full of exaggerated and violent
\nreactions. Since then the Sadhana as a whole has come down along with us into
\nthe physical consciousness. Many have followed \u2014 some immediately without
\nsufficient preparation in the mind and vital, some holding on to the vital and
\nmind and living still between the three, some totally but with a prepared mind
\nand vital. The total descent into the physical is a very troublesome affair \u2014
\nit means a long and trying pressure of difficulties, for the physical is normally
\nobscure, inert, impervious to the Light. It is a thing of habits, very largely
\na slave of the subconscient and its mechanical
\nreactions. It is less open to violent attacks than the vital<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Page \u2013 474<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\nexcept
\nin the way of illness and some other movements, but it is dull and dreary to
\nleave these until the Light, the Peace, the Force, the Joy come down from above
\nand fix themselves. We would have preferred to do all the hard work ourselves
\nthere and called others down when an easier movement was established, but it
\ndid not prove possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don’t think it has anything to do with
\nimpurity. Only you came down a little too soon. At the moment it happened, the
\npeace and silence of the Atman and the movement upward to realisation of the Self above
\nthe head in the higher consciousness were about to establish themselves. If
\nthat had been done first, it would have been less difficult. It means a great
\nstruggle against the inertia to get these things done\u2014but you have only to
\npersevere and done they will surely be. The things will be much more easy for
\nyou.<\/span><\/p>\n

31-12-1934 <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nA NEW POWER<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

A
\nsuccessful cure of X’s mother would be
\ncertainly a considerable achievement and though difficult owing to the tenacity
\nand malignance and extreme intractability of
\nthe disease, it is not impossible. What you say is true, the Force was acting
\nbefore, but it acted with immediate rapidity and completeness only with those
\nwho had sufficient faith and receptivity (mainly Sadhaks)
\nor in other good conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n

These cases seem to indicate a new power of
\nthe Force and a new technique. Your idea that it may spread and happen elsewhere
\nis not without foundation; for, when once something is there in the
\nearth-atmosphere that was not there before, it begins to work on many sides in
\nan unforeseen way. Thus, since the Yoga has been in action, its particular
\nopening movements have come to a number of people who were at a distance and
\nnot connected with us and who understood nothing of what was happening to
\nthem. These things are to be expected for Nature is still in evolution and new
\nLights and Powers have to be brought down in her and made part of the conscious
\nearth-existence.<\/span><\/p>\n

29-1-1936<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Page \u2013 475<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n


\nFIGHT ON THE
\nPHYSICAL PLANE<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nAs
\nfor the question about the illness, perfection in the physical plane is indeed
\npart of the ideal of the Yoga, but it is the last item and, so long as the
\nfundamental change has not been made in the material consciousness to which the
\nbody belongs, one may have a certain perfection on other planes without having
\nimmunity in the body. We have not sought perfection for our own separate sake,
\nbut as part of a general change \u2014 creating a possibility of perfection for
\nothers. That could not have been done without our accepting and facing the
\ndifficulties of the realisation and transformation and overcoming them for
\nourselves. It has been done to a sufficient degree on the other planes \u2014 but
\nnot yet on the most material part of the physical plane. Till it is done, the
\nfight there continues and, though there may be and is a force of Yogic action and defence, there cannot be
\nimmunity. The Mother’s difficulties are not her own; she bears the difficulties
\nof others and those that are inherent in the general action and working for the
\ntransformation. If it had been otherwise, it would be a very different matter.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAugust, 1936<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Page \u2013 476<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Section Three DIFFICULTIES OF THE PATH-FINDERS   THE DIFFICULT PATH   Nobody has found this Yoga a Grand Trunk Road, neither X nor Y nor…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-26-on-himself-volume-26","wpcat-11-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523","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=523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}