{"id":524,"date":"2013-07-13T01:28:36","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=524"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:28:36","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:36","slug":"12-sadhana-for-the-earth-consciousness-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\/12-sadhana-for-the-earth-consciousness-vol-26-on-himself-volume-26","title":{"rendered":"-12_Sadhana for the Earth Consciousness.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

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

\nSADHANA FOR THE
\nEARTH-CONSCIOUSNESS<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

\nSRI AUROBINDO
\nAND SUPERMAN<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI don’t know that
\nI have called myself a Superman. But certainly I have risen above the ordinary human mind, otherwise I would not think of
\ntrying to bring down the Supermind into the
\nphysical.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n15-9-1935<\/span><\/p>\n


\nOBJECT OF SEEKING THE SUPERMIND<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThese egoistic
\nterms are not those in which my vital moves. It is a higher Truth I seek,
\nwhether it makes men greater or not is not the question, but whether it will
\ngive them truth and peace and light to live in and make life something better
\nthan a struggle with ignorance and falsehood and pain and strife. Then, even if
\nthey are less great than the men of the past, my object will have been
\nachieved. For me mental conceptions cannot be the end of all things. I know
\nthat the Supermind is a truth.<\/span><\/p>\n

It
\nis not for personal greatness that I am seeking to bring down the Supermind. I
\ncare nothing for greatness or littleness in the human sense. I am seeking to
\nbring some principle of inner Truth, Light, Harmony, Peace into the
\nearth-conscious\u00adness; I see it above and know what it is \u2014 I feel it ever
\ngleaming down on my consciousness from above and I am seeking to make it
\npossible for it to take up the whole being into its own native power, instead
\nof the nature of man continuing to remain in half-light, half-darkness. I
\nbelieve the descent of this Truth opening the way to a development of divine
\nconsciousness here to be the final sense of the earth evolution. If greater men
\nthan myself have not had this vision and this ideal before them, that is no
\nreason why I should not follow my Truth-sense and Truth-vision. If human reason
\nregards me as a fool for trying to do what Krishna did not try, I do not in the
\nleast care. There is no question of X or Y or anybody else in that. It is a question
\nbetween<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 143<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

the Divine and
\nmyself\u2014whether it is the Divine Will or not, whether I am sent to bring that
\ndown or open the way for its descent or at least make it more possible or not.
\nLet all men jeer at me if they will or all Hell fall upon me if it will for my
\npre\u00adsumption, \u2014 I go on till I conquer or perish. This is the spirit in which I
\nseek the Supermind, no hunting for greatness
\nfor myself or others.<\/span><\/p>\n

10-2-1935 <\/span><\/p>\n

\nMy point about my
\nSadhana was that my Sadhana
\nwas not done for myself but for the earth-consciousness as a showing of the way
\ntowards the Light, so that whatever I showed in it to be possible \u2014 inner
\ngrowth, transformation, manifesting of new faculties, etc. \u2014 was not of no
\nimportance to anybody, but meant as an opening of lines and ways for what had
\nto be done. The question of degree of greatness does not come in at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

May, 1933<\/span><\/p>\n

\nANANDA<\/font><\/span> ON EARTH<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nMy own experience is not<\/i> limited to
\na "radiant peace"; I know very well what ecstasy and Ananda are from the brahmānanda
\n<\/i>down to the śarīrānanda,<\/i>
\nand can experience them at any time. But of these things I prefer to speak only
\nwhen my work is done \u2014for it is in a transformed consciousness here and not
\nonly above where the Ananda always exists that I seek their base of permanence.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nCONDITIONS FOR<\/font><\/span><\/b> SUPRAMENTALISATION<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI have no
\nintention of achieving the Supermind for myself only \u2014 I am not doing anything
\nfor myself, as I have no personal need of anything, neither of salvation (Moksha) nor
\nsupramentalisation.
\nIf I am seeking after supramentalisation, it
\nis because it is a thing that has to be done for the earth-consciousness and<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 144<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n


\nif it is not done in myself, it cannot be done in others. My supramentalisation
\nis only a key for opening the gates of the supra-mental to the
\nearth-consciousness; done for its own sake, it would be perfectly futile. But
\nit does not follow either that if or when I become supramental,
\neverybody will become supramental. Others can so become who are ready for it,
\nwhen they are ready for it \u2014 though, of course, the achievement in myself will
\nbe to them a great help towards it. It is therefore quite legitimate to have
\nthe aspiration for it \u2014 provided:<\/span><\/p>\n

1.
\nOne does not make a too personal or egoistic affair of it turning it into a Nietzschean or other ambition to be a superman.<\/span><\/p>\n

2.
\nOne is ready to undergo the conditions and stages needed for the achievement.<\/span><\/p>\n

3.
\nOne is sincere and regards it as part of the seeking of the Divine and
\nconsequent culmination of the Divine Will in one and insists on no more than
\nthe fulfilment of that will whatever it may be, psychicisation, spiritualisation or supramentalisation.
\nIt should be regarded as the fulfilment of God’s working in the world,
\nnot as a personal chance or achievement.<\/span><\/p>\n

April, 1935<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt is true that I
\nwant the supramental not for myself but for the earth and souls born on the
\nearth, and certainly therefore I cannot object if anybody wants the
\nsupramental. But there are the conditions. He must want the Divine Will first
\nand the soul’s surrender and the spiritual realisation (through works, Bhakti, knowledge, self-perfection) on the way.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n15-4-1935<\/span><\/p>\n


\nEFFECT OF SUPRAMENTAL DESCENT ON EARTH-LIFE<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nQ:<\/span><\/i><\/b> When I hear people
\ntalking about the supramental descent it makes me somewhat sceptic. They expect
\nthat when the descent happens everything
\nwill soon be spiritualised and even in the most outward political life<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 145<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n


\nall that is now
\nwrong will be immediately set right \u2014 and this expectation creates in them a
\ngreat curiosity and flutter.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA:<\/i><\/span><\/b>
\nAll that is absurd. The descent of the supramental
\nmeans only that the Power will be there in the earth-consciousness as a living
\nforce just as the thinking mental and higher mental are already there. But an
\nanimal cannot take advantage of the pre\u00adsence of the thinking mental Power or
\nan undeveloped man of the presence of the higher mental Power \u2014 so too anybody
\nwill not be able to take advantage of the presence of the supramental Power. I
\nhave also often enough said that it will be at first for the few, not for the
\nwhole earth, \u2014 only there will be a growing influence of it on the earth-life.<\/span><\/p>\n

15-12-1934 <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nQ:<\/span><\/i><\/b> When the Supermind descends into the earth-consciousness
\nwill all the Sadhaks be aware of it \u2014 the
\ndescent into the earth, I mean, not in themselves ?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA<\/b>: It would not necessarily be known by
\neverybody. Besides, even if the descent were here one would have to be ready
\nbefore one could get the final change.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nSRI
\nAUROBINDO’S SADHANA, AVATARHOOD <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nAND LAWS OF NATURE<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nMy Sadhana
\nis not a freak or a monstrosity or a miracle done outside the laws of Nature
\nand the conditions of life and con\u00adsciousness on earth. If I could do these
\nthings or if they could happen in my Yoga, it means that they can be done and
\nthat therefore these developments and transformations are possible in the
\nterrestrial consciousness.<\/span><\/p>\n

9-2-1935<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 146<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

No, the supramental has not descended into the body or
\ninto Matter \u2014 it is only at the point where such a descent has become not only
\npossible but inevitable; I am speaking, of
\ncourse, of my experience. But as my experience is the centre and condition of
\nall the rest, that is sufficient for the promise.<\/span><\/p>\n

My
\ndifficulty is that you all seem to expect a kind of miraculous fairy-tale
\nchange and do not realise that it is a rapid and concentrated evolution which
\nis the aim of my Sadhana and that there must be a process for it, a working of
\nthe higher in the lower and a dealing with all the necessary intervals \u2014 not a
\nsudden feat of creation by which everything is done on a given date. It is a
\nsupramental but not an irrational process. What is to be done will happen \u2014
\nperhaps with a rush even \u2014 but in a workmanlike way and not according to
\nFaerie.<\/span><\/p>\n

14-11-1933 <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe question was
\nwhether new faculties not at all manifested in the personality up to now in
\nthis life could appear, even suddenly appear, by force of Yoga. I say they can
\nand I gave my own case as proof. I could have given others also. The question
\ninvolved is also this \u2014 is a man bound to the characters and qualities he has
\ncome with into this life \u2014 can he not become a new man by Yoga? That also I
\nhave proved in my Sadhana, it can be done. When you say that I could do this
\nonly in my case because I am an Avatar (!)
\nand it is improbable in any other case, you reduce my Sadhana to an absurdity \u2014
\nand Avatarhood also to an absurdity. For my
\nYoga is done not for myself who need nothing and do not need salvation or
\nanything else, but precisely for the earth-consciousness, to open a way for the
\nearth-consciousness to change. Has the Divine need to come down to prove that
\nhe can do this or that or has he any personal need of doing it? Your argument
\nproves that I am not an Avatar but only a big human person. It may well be so
\nas a matter of fact, but you start your argument from the other basis. Besides,
\neven if I am only a big human person, what I achieve shows that that
\nachievement is possible for humanity. Whether any street-beggar can do it or
\nhas done it, is a side issue; it is sufficient if others<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 147<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\nwho have not the economic misfortune of being street-beggars can do
\nit.<\/span><\/p>\n

10-2-1935<\/span><\/p>\n

\nI was pointing
\nout that in the essentiality all things are possible \u2014 so you ought not to say
\nthe Divine cannot do this or that. But at the same time I was pointing out too
\nthat the Divine is not bound to show his omnipotence without rhyme or reason
\nwhen he is working by his own will under conditions. For by arguing that the
\nDivine cannot, that he is impotent, that he cannot do what has never yet been
\ndone etc., you deny the possibility of changing things and thus of evolution,
\nof the realisation of the unrealised, of the action of the Divine Power, of
\nDivine Grace, and reduce all to a matter of rigid and unalterable status
\nquo, <\/i>which is an insolent defiance to both fact and reason (!) and suprareason. See now?<\/span><\/p>\n

About
\nmyself and the Mother, \u2014 there are people who say, "If the supramental is to come down, it can come down in
\neveryone, why then in them first ? Why
\nshould we not get it before they do? Why through them, not direct?" It
\nsounds very rational, logical, very arguable. The difficulty is that this
\nreasoning ignores the conditions, foolishly assumes that one can get the
\nsupramental down into oneself without having the least knowledge of what the
\nsupramental is and so supposes an upside-down miracle \u2014 everybody who tries it
\nis bound to land himself in a most horrible cropper \u2014 as all have done hitherto
\nwho tried it. It is like thinking one need not follow the Guide, but can reach
\nup to the top of the mountain from the narrow path one is following on the
\nedge of a precipice by simply leaping into the air. The result is inevitable.<\/span><\/p>\n

10-2-1935 <\/span><\/p>\n

\nI had no urge
\ntowards spirituality in me, I developed spirituality. I was incapable of
\nunderstanding metaphysics, I developed into a philosopher. I had no eye for
\npainting \u2014 I developed it by Yoga. I transformed my nature from what it was to
\nwhat it was<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 148<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

not. I did it by a
\nspecial manner, not by a miracle and I did it to show what could be done and
\nhow it could be done. I did not do it out of any personal necessity of my own
\nor by a miracle without any process. I say that if it is not so, then my Yoga
\nis useless and my life was a mistake\u2014a mere absurd freak of Nature without
\nmeaning or consequence. You all seem to think it a great compliment to me to
\nsay that what I have done has no meaning for anybody except myself \u2014 it is the
\nmost damaging criticism on my work that could be made. I also did not do it by
\nmyself, if you mean by myself the Aurobindo
\nthat was. He did it by the help of Krishna and the Divine Shakti. I had help from human sources also.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n13-2-1935 <\/span><\/p>\n

\nI don’t know
\nabout Avatars. Practically what I know is that I had not all the powers
\nnecessary when I started, I had to develop them by Yoga, at least many of them
\nwhich were not in existence in me when I began, and those which were I had to
\ntrain to a higher degree. My own idea of the matter is that the Avatar’s life
\nand actions are not miracles. If they were, his existence would be perfectly
\nuseless, a mere superfluous freak of Nature. He accepts the terrestrial
\nconditions, he uses means, he shows the way to humanity as well as helps it.
\nOtherwise what is the use of him and why is he here?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nI
\nwas not always in the Overmind, if you
\nplease. I had to climb there from the mental and vital level.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n13-2-1935<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLet me remind you
\nof what I wrote about the Avatar. There are two sides of the phenomenon of Avatarhood, the Divine Consciousness and the
\ninstrumental personality. The Divine Consciousness is omnipotent but it has
\nput forth the instrumental personality in Nature under the conditions of Nature
\nand it uses it according to the rules of the game \u2014 though also sometimes to
\nchange the rules of the game. If Avatarhood is only a flashing<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 149<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\nmiracle, then I
\nhave no use for it. If it is a coherent part of the arrangement of the
\nomnipotent Divine in Nature, then I can understand and accept it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n13-2-1935<\/span><\/p>\n

\nI have never said
\nanything about how I choose people. I was answering the argument that what has
\nnot been or is not in manifestation, cannot be. That was very clearly the
\npoint in the discussion, \u2014 that the Divine cannot manifest what is not yet
\nthere \u2014 even he is impotent to do that. He can only manifest what is either
\nalready manifest or else latent in the field (person) he is working in. I say
\nno \u2014 he can bring in new things. He can bring it in from the universal or he
\ncan bring it down from the transcendent. For in the Divine cosmic and
\ntranscendent all things are. Whether he will do so or not in a particular case
\nis quite another matter. My argument was directed towards dissipating this "can’t,
\ncan’t" with which people try to stop all possibility of progress.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n15-2-1935 <\/span><\/p>\n

\nLet me make it
\nclear that in all I wrote I was not writing to prove that I am an Avatar! You
\nare busy in your reasonings with the personal question, I am busy more with the
\ngeneral one. I am seeking to manifest something of the Divine that I am
\nconscious of and feel \u2014 I care a damn whether that constitutes me an Avatar or
\nsomething else. That is not a question which concerns me. By manifestation, of
\ncourse, I mean the bringing out and spreading of that Consciousness so that
\nothers also may feel and enter into it and live in it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n8-3-1935<\/span><\/p>\n


\nSRI AUROBINDO, THE DIVINE INCARNATION<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nQ:<\/span><\/i><\/b> I have a strong faith
\nthat you are the Divine Incarnation. Am I right ?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 150<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\nA<\/b>: Follow your faith \u2014 it is not
\nlikely to mislead you.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n12-8-1935<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPLACE OF HUMANITY IN SRI AUROBINDO’S WORK<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nBut you are surely mistaken in thinking
\nthat I said that we work spiritually for the relief of the poor. I have never
\ndone that. My work is not to intervene in social matters within the frame of
\nthe present humanity but to bring down a higher spiritual light and power of a
\nhigher character which will make a radical change in the earth-consciousness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n22-12-1936<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs to the extract
\nabout Vivekananda,1<\/sup> the point I
\nmake there does not seem to me humanitarian. You will see that I emphasise
\nthere the last sentences of the page quoted from Vivekananda, not the words
\nabout Gad the poor and sinner and criminal.
\nThe point is about the Divine in the world, the All, sarva-bhūtāni<\/i> of the Gita.
\nThat is not merely humanity, still less, only the poor or the wicked; surely,
\neven the rich or the good are the part of the All and those also who are
\nneither good nor bad nor rich nor poor. Nor is there any question (I mean in my
\nown remarks) of philanthropic service; so
\nneither daridrer sevā<\/i>
\nis the point. I had formerly not the humanitarian but the humanity view\u2014 and
\nsomething of it may have stuck to my expressions in the Arya.<\/i> But I had already altered my viewpoint
\nfrom the "Our Yoga for the sake of humanity" to "Our Yoga for
\nthe sake of the Divine". The Divine includes not only the supracosmic but the cosmic and the individual \u2014
\nnot only Nirvana or the Beyond<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n1<\/font><\/span><\/sup>"I have lost all wish
\nfor my salvation, may I be born again and again and suffer
\nthousands of miseries so that I may worship the only God that exists, the only
\nGod I believe in, the sum-total of all souls, \u2014 and above all, my God the
\nwicked, my God the miserable, my God the poor of all races, of all species is
\nthe special object of my worship. He who is the high and low, the saint and the
\nsinner, the god and the worm. Him worship,
\nthe visible, the knowable, the real, the
\nomnipresent; break all other idols. In whom
\nthere is neither past life nor future birth, nor death nor going nor coming, in
\nwhom we always have been and always will be one, Him worship; break all other
\nidols." (From a letter of Swami
\nVivekananda; quoted by Sri Aurobindo in The
\nSynthesis of Yoga<\/i> (Centenary Edition, 1972), pp. 257-58.)<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 151<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\nbut Life and the All. It is that I stress everywhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n29-12-1934<\/span><\/p>\n

\nI can say little
\nabout the method X speaks of for getting rid
\nof dead concepts. Each mind has its own way of moving. My own has been a sort
\nof readjustment or rectification of positions and I should rather call it
\ndiscrimination accompanied by a rearrangement of intuitions. At one time I had
\ngiven much too big a place to "humanity" in my scheme of things with
\na number of ideas attached to that exaggeration which needed to be put right.
\nBut the change did not come by doubt about what I had conceived before, but by
\na new light on things in which "humanity" automatically stepped down
\nand got into its right place and all the rest rearranged itself in consequence.
\nBut all that is probably because I am constitutionally lazy (in spite of my
\npresent feats of correspondence) and prefer the easiest and most automatic
\nmethod possible. I have a suspicion however that X’s
\nmethod is essentially the same, as mine,
\nonly he does it in a more diligent and conscientious spirit. For his remark
\nabout the concepts as flags and not the means of advance seems to indicate
\nthat.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n26-10-1934<\/span><\/p>\n


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

 <\/p>\n

\nIt is only divine Love which can bear the
\nburden I have to bear, that all have to bear who have sacrificed everything
\nelse to the one aim of uplifting earth out of its darkness towards the Divine.
\nThe Gallio-like "Je m’en fiche"-ism (I do not care) \u2014 would not carry me
\none step; it would certainly not be divine. It is quite another thing that
\nenables me to walk unweeping and unlamenting towards the goal.<\/span><\/p>\n

April, 1934<\/span><\/p>\n

\nI use the
\nlanguage of the mind because there is no other which human beings can
\nunderstand, \u2014 even though most of them<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 152<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\nunderstand
\nit badly. If I were to use a supramental
\nlanguage .like Joyce, you would not even
\nhave the illusion of understand\u00ading it; so, not being an Irishman, I don’t make
\nthe attempt. But, of course, anyone who wants to change earth-nature must first
\naccept it in order to change it. To quote from an unpublished poem1<\/sup> of my own:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nHe who would bring the heavens here,<\/span><\/p>\n

Must descend himself into clay <\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the
\nburden of earthly nature bear<\/span><\/p>\n

And tread the dolorous way.<\/span><\/p>\n

25-8-1935<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTHE PLUNGE IN THE ABYSS<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nNo, it is not
\nwith the Empyrean that I am busy: I wish it were. It is rather with the
\nopposite end of things; it is in the Abyss that I have to plunge to build a
\nbridge between the two. But that too is necessary for my work and one has to
\nface it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n30-5-1936<\/span><\/p>\n

\n          LIFE OF STRUGGLE AND BATTLE<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nBut what strange
\nideas again! \u2014 that I was born with a
\nsupramental temperament and that I know nothing of hard realities! Good God! My whole life has been a struggle with
\nhard realities, from hardships, starvation in England and constant dangers and
\nfierce difficulties to the far greater difficulties continually cropping up
\nhere in Pondicherry, external and internal.
\nMy life has been a battle from its early years and is still a battle: the fact that I wage it now from a room upstairs
\nand by spiritual means as well as others that are external makes no difference
\nto its character. But, of course, as we have not been shouting about these
\nthings, it is natural, I suppose, for others to think that I am<\/span><\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

\n \u00b9 "A God’s Labour",<\/i> subsequently published in Poems
\nPast and Present.<\/i> See Collected Poems<\/i>
\n(Centenary Edition, 1972), p. 99.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 153<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

living in an
\naugust, glamorous, lotus-eating dreamland where no hard facts of life or Nature
\npresent themselves. But what an illusion all the same!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nYou think then
\nthat in me (I don’t bring in the Mother) there was never any doubt or despair,
\nno attacks of that kind. I have borne every attack which human beings have
\nborne, otherwise I would be unable to assure anybody "This too can be
\nconquered". At least I would have no right to say so. Your psychology is
\nterribly rigid. I repeat, the Divine when he takes on the burden of terrestrial
\nnature, takes it fully, sincerely and without any conjuring tricks or pretence.
\nIf he has something behind him which emerges always out of the coverings, it is
\nthe same thing in essence even if greater in degree, that there is behind
\nothers \u2014 and it is to awaken that that he is there.<\/span><\/p>\n

The
\npsychic being does the same for all who are intended for the spiritual way \u2014
\nmen need not be extraordinary beings to follow it. That is the mistake you are
\nmaking \u2014 to harp on greatness as if only the great can be spiritual.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n8-3-1935<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n        THE HELP OF DIFFICULTIES<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nAs for faith, you
\nwrite as if I never had a doubt or any difficulty. I have had worse than any
\nhuman mind can think of. It is not because I have ignored difficulties, but
\nbecause I have seen them more clearly, experienced them on a larger scale than
\nanyone living now or before me that, having faced and measured them, I am sure
\nof the results of my work. But even if I still saw the chance that it might
\ncome to nothing (which is impossible), I would go on unperturbed, because I
\nwould still have done to the best of my power the work that I had to do, and
\nwhat is so done always counts in the economy of the universe. But why should I
\nfeel that all this may come to nothing when I see each step and where it is
\nleading and every week and day \u2014 once it was every<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n                            Page \u2013 154<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\nyear and month and
\nhereafter it will be every day and hour \u2014 brings me so much nearer to my goal?
\nIn the way that one treads with the greater Light above, even every difficulty
\ngives its help and has its value and Night itself carries in it the burden of
\nthe Light that has to be.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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

 <\/p>\n

\nThere is a coward in every human
\nbeing\u2014precisely the part in him which insists on "safety" \u2014 for that
\nis certainly not a brave attitude. I admit however that I would like safety
\nmyself if I could have it \u2014 perhaps that is why I have always managed instead
\nto live dangerously and follow the dangerous paths dragging on many poor Xs in my train.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n5-1-1935<\/span><\/p>\n

\n                 STORMS AND THE SUNLIT WAY<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI quite agree with you in not relishing the
\nidea of another attack of this nature. I am myself, I suppose, more a hero by
\nnecessity than by choice \u2014 I do not love storms and battles, at least on the
\nsubtle plane. The sunlit way may be an illusion, \u2014 though I do not think it is,
\n\u2014 for I have seen people treading it for years;<\/span><\/p>\n

but a way with only
\nnatural or even only moderate fits of rough weather, a way without typhoons
\nsurely is possible \u2014 there are so many examples;
\ndurgam pathastat<\/i>
\nmay be generally true and certainly the path of Laya
\nor Nirvana is difficult in the extreme to
\nmost (although in my case I walked into Nirvana without intending it or rather
\nNirvana walked casually into me not so far from the beginning of my Yogic career without asking my leave). But the
\npath need not be cut by periodical violent storms, though that it is so for a
\ngreat many is an obvious fact. But even for these if they stick to it, I find
\nthat after a certain point the storms diminish in force, frequency, duration.
\nThat is why I insisted so much on your sticking \u2014 for if you stick, the
\nturning-point is bound to<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 155<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

come. I have seen
\nsome astonishing instances recently of this typhoonic
\nperiodicity beginning to fade out after years and years of violent recurrence.<\/span><\/p>\n

11-2-1937<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTHE GOSPEL OF FAITH<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nFits of
\ndepression and darkness and despair are a tradition in the path of Sadhana\u2014in all Yogas, oriental or occidental,
\nthey seem to have been the rule. I know all about them myself \u2014 but my
\nexperience has led me to the perception that they are an unnecessary tradition
\nand could be dispensed with if one chose. That is why whenever they come in you
\nor others I try to lift up before them the gospel of faith. If still they come,
\none has to get through them as soon as possible and get back into the sun.<\/span><\/p>\n

9-4-1930<\/span><\/p>\n


\nQ:<\/span><\/b> No joy, no energy. Don’t
\nlike to read or write \u2014 as if a dead man were walking about. Do you understand
\nthe position? Any personal experience?<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA<\/b>: I quite understand; often had it myself devastatingly.
\nThat’s why I always advise people who have it to cheer up and buck up.<\/span><\/p>\n

To
\ncheer up, buck up and the rest if you can, saying, "Rome was not built in
\na day" \u2014 if you can’t, gloom it through till the sun rises and the little
\nbirds chirp and all is well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Looks
\nhowever as if you were going through a training in vairāgya.<\/i> Don’t much
\ncare for vairāgya<\/i> myself, always avoided the beastly thing, but had to
\ngo through it partly, till I hit on samatā<\/i>
\nas a better trick. But samatā<\/i> is
\ndifficult, vairāgya<\/i> is easy, only damnably gloomy and uncomfortable.<\/span><\/p>\n

3-6-1936<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nTHE
\nADVERSARY’S EXAGGERATION <\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere is no reason to think that the movement of
\nstrength and<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 156<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

purity was a
\nmake-believe. No, it was a real thing. But with these strong forward movements
\nthe vital enthusiasm often comes in with a triumphant "Now it is
\nfinished" which is not quite justified, for, "Now it will be soon
\nfinished" would be nearer to it. It is at these moments that the
\nthrice-damned Censor comes in with a jog, raises up a still shaky bit of the
\nnature and produces a result that is out of all proportion to the size of the
\nlittle bit, just to show that it is not finished. I have had any number of
\ntimes that experience myself. All this comes from the complexity and slowness
\nof our evolutionary nature which Yoga quickens, but not as a whole at a stroke.
\nBut in fact, as I said, these crises are out of all proportion to their cause
\nin the nature. One must therefore not be discouraged, but see the exaggeration
\nin the adversary’s successful negation as well as the exaggeration in our idea
\nof a complete and definite victory already there.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n24-6-1936<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nEXACERBATION OF VITAL MOVEMENTS<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThe exacerbation
\nof certain vital movements is a perfectly well-known phenomenon in Yoga and
\ndoes not mean that one has degenerated, but only that one has come to close grips
\ninstead of to a pleasant nodding acquaintance with the basic instincts of the
\nearthly vital nature. I have had myself the experience of this rising to a
\nheight, during a certain stage of the spiritual development, of things that
\nbefore hardly existed and seemed quite absent in the pure Yogic life. These things rise up like that because
\nthey are fighting for their existence \u2014 they are not really personal to you and
\nthe vehemence of their attack is not due to any "badness" in the
\npersonal nature. I dare say seven Sadhaks out
\nof ten have a similar experience. Afterwards when they cannot effect their
\nobject, which is to drive the Sadhak out of
\nhis Sadhana, the whole thing sinks and there is no longer any vehement trouble.<\/span><\/p>\n

24-6-1932<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 157<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\n
\nRISING OF ANGER<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

There is nothing
\npeculiar about retrogression. I was also noted in my earlier time before Yoga
\nfor the rareness of anger. At a certain period of the Yoga it rose in me like a
\nvolcano and I had to take a long time eliminating it. I was speaking of a past
\nphase. I don’t know about the subconscient,
\nmust have come from universal nature.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n5-8-1936<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDROPS IN SADHANA<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nQ:<\/span><\/i><\/b> Suddenly
\nto drop without doing anything wrong\u2014 why such a setback?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA<\/b>: Everybody drops. I have dropped myself
\nthousands of times during the Sadhana. What
\nrose-leaf-princess Sadhaks you all are!<\/span><\/p>\n

2-4-1937<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTEMPORARY STOPPING OF SADHANA<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThe worst thing
\nfor Sadhana is to get into a morbid condition, always thinking of lower forces,
\nattacks, etc. If the Sadhana has stopped for a time, then let it stop, remain
\nquiet, do ordinary things, rest when rest is needed \u2014 wait till the physical
\nconsciousness is ready. My own Sadhana when it was far more advanced than
\nyours used to stop for half a year together. I did not make a fuss about it,
\nbut remained quiet till the empty or dull period was over.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n8-3-1935<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTHE
\nPLUNGE INTO THE PHYSICAL <\/b><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n


\nQ<\/b>: What did you imply when you wrote to me: "You<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 158<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

are in the
\nphysical consciousness’1<\/sup>‘ ? Did you mean that I am living like an animal or
\nvegetating like a plant and did you suggest that I should come out of the
\n"physical consciousness’1<\/sup>”
\nand live on the mental level?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA<\/b>: I am myself living in the physical
\nconsciousness and have been for several years. At first it was a plunge into
\nthe physical \u2014 into all its obscurity and inertia, afterwards it was a station
\nin the physical open to the higher and higher consciousness and slowly having
\nfought out in it the struggle of transformation of the physical consciousness
\nwith a view to prepare it for the supramental
\nchange.<\/span><\/p>\n

It
\nis possible to go back to the mental level where one receives all the mental
\nrealisations readily enough if the mind is open and bright. But it is not the
\ncourse that the Sadhana usually follows.<\/span><\/p>\n

29-12-1934<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTHE WAY OUT OF THE PHYSICAL PASSIVITY<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nQ:<\/span><\/b> Was there in me a continuous real Sadhana in 1933 ? Was it not rather only a mental experience
\nwithout any real solidity in it? Otherwise why should such a fall have come
\nduring these two years?<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA<\/b>: There was certainly a real Sadhana then and a
\nvery persistent preparation on the mental and vital planes. If that had not
\nbeen there the descent of peace would not have begun. The fall came because
\nwhen you descended into the physical consciousness to complete the preparation
\nthere, you became too passive, not continuing your will of Tapasya, with the result that the sex-force took
\nadvantage of the inertia of the physical consciousness to assert itself fully.
\nThat kind of passivity to the forces comes upon many when there is the descent
\ninto the physical; one then feels different forces playing in the consciousness
\nwithout having the same power of reaction as one had in the mind and the vital
\n\u2014 sometimes peace etc. from above, sometimes disturbing forces.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 159<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

I had to pass
\nthrough the same stage myself and it took me two years at least to get out of
\nit. To develop in the physical itself a constant will for the drawing down of
\nthe higher consciousness \u2014 especially the Peace and Force from above, is the
\nbest way out of it.<\/span><\/p>\n

8-7-1935<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nQ:<\/span><\/b> Something prevents the ascension in spite
\nof the fact that the lower nature can best be dealt with from above.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA<\/b>: It happened in
\nthe same way with myself. I had to come down into the physical to deal with it
\ninstead of keeping the station always above. Of course if you can keep the
\nstation above so much the better, but as almost everybody is down in the
\nphysical, it is a little difficult perhaps.<\/span><\/p>\n

5-9-1935<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nCHANGE
\nOF METHOD FOR TRANSFORMING <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nTHE BODY-CONSCIOUSNESS<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nQ:<\/span><\/i><\/b> If the progress of the
\ntransformation of the body is so slow that it cannot keep pace with that of the
\nhigher parts then it is clear that at all stages it would always be lagging
\nbehind the higher parts. For example, when the higher parts are overmentalised the body would be just beginning to
\nbe intuitivised. In the same way, when the
\nhigher parts are supramentalised, the
\nphysical consciousness would be just beginning to receive the overmental influence. Would not this disparity be
\nunavoid\u00adable unless one leaves the body for dealing with it later or at each
\nstage one stops till the body is completely transformed before proceeding
\nfarther?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA<\/b>: <\/span>
\nThat is hardly possible. The body-consciousness is
\nthere and cannot be ignored, so that one can neither transform the higher parts
\ncompletely leaving the body for later dealing nor make<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 160<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

each stage
\ncomplete in all its parts before going to the rest. I tried that method but it
\nnever worked. A predominant over-mentalisation
\nof mind and vital is the next step, for instance, when overmentalising,
\nbut the body-consciousness retains all the lower movements unovermentalised and until these can be pulled up
\nto the overmental standard, there is no overmental perfection, always the
\nbody-consciousness brings in flaws and limitations. To perfect the Overmind one has to call in the supramental force and it is only when the Overmind
\nhas been partially supramentalised that the
\nbody begins to be more and more overmental. I do not see any way of avoiding
\nthis process, though it is what makes the thing so long.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n18-11-1935<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nEFFORT AT SUPRAMENTAL INTERVENTION<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI have never told you that the power that
\nworks here is absolute at present; I have, on the contrary, told you that I am
\ntrying to make it absolute and It is for that that I want the Supermind to intervene. But to say that because it
\nis not absolute therefore it does not exist, seems to me a logical
\ninconsequence.<\/span><\/p>\n

28-8-1934<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCROSSING OF A BORDER<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

The last Darshan [15th August 1936] was good on the whole.
\nI am not now trying to bring anything sensational down on these days, but I am
\nwatching the progress in the action of the Force and Consciousness that are
\nalready there, the infiltration of a greater Light and Power from above, and
\nthere was a very satisfactory crossing of a difficult border which promises
\nwell for the near future. A thing has been done which had long failed to
\naccomplish itself and which is of great importance. I don’t explain now,
\nbecause it forms part of an arranged whole which is explicable only when it is
\ncomplete. But it gives a sort of strong practical assurance that the thing will
\nbe done.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n26-8-1936<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 161<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\nIMPOSSIBILITY OF FIXING PRECISE DATES<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI am surprised at
\nTagore’s remark1<\/sup>
\nabout the two years; he must have misunderstood or misheard me. I did tell him
\nthat I would expand only after making a perfect (inner) foundation here, but I
\ngave no date. I did give that date of two years long before in my letter to
\n<\/b> X,<\/b> but I had then a less ample view of the work to be done than I have now
\n\u2014 and I am now more cautious about assigning dates than I was once. To fix a
\nprecise time is impossible except in the two regions of certitude \u2014 the pure
\nmaterial which is the field of mathematical certitudes and the supramental
\nwhich is the field of divine certitudes. In the planes in between where life
\nhas its word to say and things have to evolve under shock and stress. Time and Energy are too much in a flux and apt
\nto kick against the rigour of a prefixed date or programme.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n16-8-1931<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\nACTION OF THE SUPRAMENTAL TRUTH-POWER<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nYou have created your own bewildering
\nproblem by supplying your own data! There is nothing nebulous about the
\nsupra-mental; its action depends on the utmost precision possible. As for
\nsolidity, since I once have got many solid things from-much
\nlower forces, I do not see why the highest ones should only give us
\nnebulosities. But that seems to be the human mind’s position: that only what is earthy is solid, what is high
\nmust be misty and unreal \u2014 the worm is a reality, the eagle only a vapour!<\/span><\/p>\n

However,
\nI have not told X that I have been scaling
\nand winging \u2014 on the contrary, I have been dealing with very hard practical
\nfacts. I only told him I had got the formula of solution for the difficulty that had been holding me up since last
\nNovember and I am working it out.<\/span><\/p>\n

To return to the supramental: the supramental
\nis simply<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n1<\/font><\/span><\/sup>Tagore
\nsaid to Y that Sri Aurobindo had told him in
\n1928 that he would "expand" after two years.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 162<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\nthe direct
\nself-existent Truth-Consciousness and the direct self-effective Truth-Power. There can therefore be no question of
\njugglery about it. What is not true is not supramental.
\nAs for calm and silence, there is no need of the supramental to get that. One
\ncan get it even on the level of Higher Mind which is the next above the human
\nintelligence. I got these things in 1908, 27 years ago, and I can assure you
\nthey were solid enough and marvellous enough in all conscience without any need
\nof supramentality to make it more so. Again, "a calm that looks like action and
\nmotion" is a phenomenon of which I know nothing. A calm or silence that is what
\nI have had \u2014 the proof is that out of an absolute silence of the mind I edited the Bande Mataram<\/i> for 4 months and wrote 6 volumes
\nof the Arya,<\/i> not to speak of all the
\nletters and messages etc. I have written since. If you say that writing is not
\nan action or motion but only something that seems like it, a jugglery of the
\nconsciousness, \u2014 well, still out of that calm and silence I conducted a pretty
\nstrenuous political activity and have also taken my share in keeping up an Ashram which has at least an appearance to the
\nphysical senses of being solid and material! If you deny that these things are
\nmaterial or solid (which, of course, metaphysically you can), then you land
\nyourself plump into Shankara’s Illusionism, and there I will leave you.<\/span><\/p>\n

You
\nwill say, however, that this is not the supramental but at most the Overmind that helped me to these non-nebulous
\nmotions and action. But the Supermind is by
\ndefinition a greater dynamic activity than mind or Overmind. I have said that
\nwhat is not true is not supramental; I will add that what is ineffective is not
\nsupramental. And, finally, I conclude by saying that I have not told X that I have taken complete possession of the
\nsupramental \u2014 I only admit to be very near to it. But "very near" is
\n\u2014well, after all\u2014a relative phrase like all human phrases.<\/span><\/p>\n

I
\ndon’t know how you are to answer Y. You
\nmight perhaps by my two formulas, but it is doubtful. Or<\/b> perhaps you
\nmight tell him that the supramental was silence \u2014 only, it would be untrue! So
\nI leave you in your fix\u2014there is no other go. At least until I have firm
\nphysical hold of the supramental and can come and tell the mentals and humans,
\n\u2014 no doubt in a language <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 163<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\nwhich will be
\nintelligible to them, \u2014<\/i> I must be somewhat dumb, since they have wholly
\nmisunderstood even the little that has found voice through my writings up till
\nnow.<\/span><\/p>\n

23-8-1935<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTHE PRESENT BUSINESS<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nQ<\/b>: Why not write
\nsomething about the Supermind which these
\npeople find it so difficult to understand?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA<\/b>: What’s the use? How much would anybody
\nunderstand? Besides the present business is to bring down and establish the
\nSupermind, not to explain it. If it establishes itself, it will explain
\nitself\u2014if it does not, there is no use in explaining it. I have said some
\nthings about it in past writings, but without success in enlightening anybody.
\nSo why repeat the endeavour?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n8-10-1935
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSupramental nature can only be understood if one understands what Supermind is and
\nthat is not altogether possible for mind so long as it does not open to the
\nhigher planes. So far as a mental account can be given, I have done it in the Arya.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nTHE TRUE<\/font><\/span><\/b> WAY TO UNDERSTAND SRI AUROBINDO’S
\nACTION<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nQ:<\/span><\/b> Since it is the Divine which does everything, what is the difference between ordinary happenings and those in
\nwhich you are consciously active?<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Is there any essential
\ndifference between one happening which you simply foresee, and one happening
\nwhich you consciously direct? Since all happenings take place in the Divine
\nConsciousness, to foresee is for you simply to turn your attention towards them
\nin such a way as to become conscious of them in the most external
\nconsciousness\u2014and then what is the nature of your<\/span><\/i> conscious action on them ?<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 164<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n


\nA<\/b>: To answer your
\nquestion I would have to speak in the terms of a consciousness to which the
\nmind has no key and at the same time try to explain its relations to the lower
\nconsciousness in which things are now happening. What is the use of doing this ? The mind will either understand nothing or
\nmisunderstand or think it has understood when really it has understood nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Or
\nI would have to make up a mental answer to the question which would not be the
\nreal thing, but just something to keep the questioning mind quiet.<\/span><\/p>\n

The
\ntrue way to enter into these things is to still the mind and open to the
\nconsciousness from which things are done. Then you would first have a direct
\nexperience of the way the divine consciousness acts on different planes and
\nsecondly a light of knowledge about the experience. This is the only true way \u2014
\nall the rest is only words and sterile mental logic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n1928<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nDISAPPOINTING WORLD-CONDITION
\nAND NEW CREATION<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nQ:<\/span><\/i><\/b> I am disconcerted at what
\nis happening in the world. Everywhere misery is rampant, people are losing
\nfaith in everything and even the intellectuals like Tagore,
\nRussell and Rolland are clamouring
\nfor an end of the age. How is it that things should be marching headlong into a
\nquagmire such as this? I sometimes fear that eventually you and the Mother will
\nretire into an extra-cosmic Samadhi leaving
\nthe wicked world to sink or swim as best it can. Perhaps that would be the
\nwisest course \u2014 who knows ?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA<\/b>: <\/span>
\nI have no intention of doing so \u2014 even if all smashed,
\nI would look beyond the smash to the new creation. As for what is happening in
\nthe world, it does not upset me because I knew all along that things would
\nhappen in that fashion, and as for the hopes of the intellectual idealists I
\nhave not shared them, so I am not disappointed.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n10-8-1933<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 165<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\nAMENDMENT TO BERGSON
\nPLAN<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nQ:<\/span><\/i><\/b> Bergson writes that the progress of Life is marked
\nby tensions succeeded by flowerings. What do you think of that, since the great
\nphilosopher too agrees with our way of marching to Beatitude through struggles
\nand sufferings ?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA<\/b>: Humph! Such a method is all very well,
\nbut one has so much of it in life and in this Ashram
\nthat I yearn for some other non-Bergsonian
\nevolution. Even if Lord God and Bergson planned it together, I would move an
\namendment.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nWORLD’S READINESS TO RECEIVE THE SUPRAMENTAL<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nQ:<\/span><\/i><\/b> I am disgusted with the world and would have preferred to go away
\nfrom it to some subtler existence had it not. been for your programme of
\nchanging the world and bringing some better things into it. But does the world
\nwant to change and buy your wares at the heavy cost of giving up all it is and
\nhas and does?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA:<\/span><\/b> It wants
\nand it does not want something that it has not got. All that the supramental could give, the inner mind of the
\nworld would like to have, but its outer mind, its vital and physical do not
\nlike to pay the price. But, after all, I am not trying to change the world all
\nat once but only to bring down centrally something into it it has not yet, a
\nnew consciousness and power.<\/span><\/p>\n

31-7-1935<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSOMETHING BETTER FOR THE WOE-BEGONE PLANET<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nQ:<\/span><\/i><\/b> It seems that wherever one
\nturns one sees the same humanity \u2014 with all its ignorance and incapacity.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA<\/b>: Of course.
\nThat is what I have been telling all along. It is<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 166<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

not without reason that I am eager to see
\nsomething better in this well-meaning but woe-begone
\nplanet.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n3-8-1935<\/span><\/p>\n


\nTHE CERTITUDE OF SUPRAMENTAL
\nADVENT<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI have already
\nspoken about the bad conditions of the world; the usual idea of
\nthe occultists about it is that the worse they are, the more is probable the
\ncoming of an intervention or a new revelation from above. The ordinary mind
\ncannot know\u2014it has either to believe or disbelieve or wait and see.<\/span><\/p>\n

As
\nto whether the Divine seriously means something to happen, I believe it is
\nintended. I know with absolute certitude that the supramental
\nis a truth and that its advent is in the very nature of things inevitable. The
\nquestion is as to the when and the how. That also is decided and predestined
\nfrom somewhere above;<\/span><\/p>\n

but it is here being
\nfought out amid a rather grim clash of conflicting forces. For in the
\nterrestrial world the predetermined re\u00adsult is hidden and what we see is a
\nwhirl of possibilities and forces attempting to achieve something with the
\ndestiny of it all concealed from human eyes. This is, however, certain that a
\nnumber of souls have been sent to see that it shall be now. That is the
\nsituation. My faith and will are for the now. I am speaking of course on the
\nlevel of the human intelligence\u2014mystically-rationally,
\nas one might put it. To say more would be going beyond that line. You don’t
\nwant me to start prophesying, I suppose? As a rationalist, you can’t.<\/span><\/p>\n

25-12-1934<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTHE ISSUE FOR THE PRESENT HUMAN CIVILISATION<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nAbout the present
\nhuman civilisation. It is not this which has to be saved; it is the world that has to be saved and that will surely be
\ndone, though it may not be so easily or so soon as some wish or imagine, or in
\nthe way that they imagine. The present must surely change, but whether by a
\ndestruction or a new<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 167<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\nconstruction on
\nthe basis of a greater Truth, is the issue. The Mother has left the question
\nhanging and I can only do the same. After all, the wise man, unless he is a
\nprophet or a Director of the Madras Astrological Bureau, must often be content
\nto take the Asquithian position. Neither
\noptimism nor pessimism is the truth: they are only modes of the mind or modes
\nof the temperament.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let
\nus then, without either excessive optimism or excessive pessimism, "wait
\nand see".<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSeptember, 1945<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPREPARATION UNDER VEIL<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI know that this
\nis a time of trouble for you and everybody. It is so for the whole world.
\nConfusion, trouble, disorder and upset everywhere is the general state of
\nthings. The better things that are to come are preparing or growing under a
\nveil and the worse are prominent everywhere. The one thing is to hold on and
\nhold out till the hour of light has come.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n2-6-1946<\/span><\/p>\n


\nTHE LIGHT OF VICTORY<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nAs regards Bengal,
\nthings are certainly very bad; the conditions of the Hindus there are terrible
\nand they may even get worse in spite of the Interim mariage de convenance<\/i>
\nat Delhi. But we must not let our reaction to it become excessive or suggest
\ndespair. There must be at least 20 million Hindus in Bengal and they are not
\ngoing to be exterminated, \u2014 even Hitler with his scientific methods of massacre
\ncould not exterminate the Jews who are still showing themselves very much alive
\nand, as for Hindu culture, it is not such a weak and fluffy thing as to be
\neasily stamped out; it has lasted through something like 5 millenniums at least
\nand is going to carry on much longer and has accumulated quite enough power to
\nsurvive. What is happening did not come to me as a surprise. I foresaw it when
\nI was in Bengal and warned<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 168<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

people that it was
\nprobable and almost inevitable and that they should be prepared for it. At that
\ntime no one attached any value to what I said, although some afterwards
\nremembered and admitted, when the trouble first began, that I have been right; only C.R.Das had grave apprehensions and he even told
\nme when he came to Pondicherry that he would
\nnot like the British to go out until this dangerous
\nproblem had been settled. But I have not been discouraged by what is happening,
\nbecause I know and have experienced hundreds of times that beyond the blackest
\ndarkness there lies for one who is a divine instrument the light of God’s
\nvictory. I have never had a strong and persistent will for anything to happen
\nin the world \u2014 I am not speaking of personal things \u2014 which did not eventually
\nhappen even after delay, defeat or even disaster. There was a time when Hitler
\nwas victorious everywhere and it seemed certain that a black yoke of the Asura would be imposed on the whole world; but where is Hitler now and where is his rule?
\nBerlin and Nuremberg have marked the end of that dreadful chapter in human
\nhistory. Other blacknesses threaten to overshadow or even engulf mankind, but
\nthey too will end as that nightmare has ended. I cannot write fully in this
\nletter of all things which justify my confidence \u2014 some day perhaps I shall be
\nable to do it.<\/span><\/p>\n

19-10-1946<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDARKNESS BEFORE DAWN<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThe extreme acuteness
\nof your difficulties is due to the Yoga having come down against the bed-rock
\nof Inconscience which is the fundamental
\nbasis of all resistance in the individual and in the world to the victory of
\nthe Spirit and the Divine Work that is leading toward that victory. The
\ndifficulties themselves are general in the Ashram
\nas well as in the outside world. Doubt, discouragement, diminution or loss of
\nfaith, waning of the vital enthusiasm for the ideal, perplexity and a baffling
\nof the hope for the future are the common features of the difficulty. In the
\nworld outside there are much worse symptoms such as the general increase of
\ncynicism, a refusal to believe in anything at all, a<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 169<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

decrease of
\nhonesty, an immense corruption, a preoccupation with food, money, comfort,
\npleasure, to the exclusion of higher things, and a general expectation of worse
\nand worse things awaiting the world. All that, however acute, is a temporary
\nphenomenon for which those who know anything about the workings of the
\nworld-energy and the workings of the Spirit were prepared. I myself foresaw
\nthat this worst would come, the darkness of night before the dawn; therefore I
\nam not discouraged. I know what is preparing behind the darkness and can see
\nand feel the first signs of its coming. Those who seek for the Divine have to
\nstand firm and persist in their seeking;
\nafter a time, the darkness will fade and begin to disappear and the Light will
\ncome.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n9-4-1947<\/span><\/p>\n


\nTHE PRESENT EFFORT<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIf I had been standing on the Supermind level and acting on the world by the
\ninstrumentation of Supermind, that world would have changed or would be
\nchanging much more rapidly and in a different fashion from what is happening
\nnow. My present effort is not to stand up on a high and distant Supermind level
\nand change the world from there, but to bring something of it down here and to
\nstand on that and act by that; but at the present stage the progressive supramentalisation of the Overmind
\nis the first immediate preoccupation and a second is the lightening of the
\nheavy resistance of the Inconscient and the
\nsupport it gives to human ignorance which is always the main obstacle in any attempt
\nto change the world or even to change oneself. I have always said that the
\nspiritual force I have been putting on human affairs such as the War is not the
\nsupramental but the Overmind force, and that
\nwhen it acts in the material world is so inextricably mixed up in the tangle
\nof the lower world forces that its results, however strong or however adequate
\nto the immediate object, must necessarily be partial. That is why I am getting
\na birthday present of a free India on August 15, but complicated by its being
\npresented in two packets as two free Indias:
\nthis is<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 170<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

a generosity I could have done without, one free India would have
\nbeen enough for me if offered as an unbroken whole.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n7-7-1947<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCALL TO REMAIN FIRM<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nRemain firm through the darkness; the light is there and will
\nconquer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n4-2-1948<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPEACE BORN OF CERTITUDE<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nYou must make grow in you the peace that is born of the certitude of
\nvictory.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nTHE PRESENT, DARKNESS AND THE NEW WORLD<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI am afraid I can hold out but cold comfort
\n\u2014 for the present at least \u2014 to those of your correspondents who are lamenting
\nthe present state of things. Things are bad, are growing worse and may at any
\ntime grow worst or worse than worst if that is possible \u2014 and anything however
\nparadoxical seems possible in the present perturbed world. The best thing for
\nthem is to realise that all this was necessary because certain possibilities
\nhad to emerge and be got rid of, if a new and better world was at all to come
\ninto being; it would not have done to postpone them for a later time. It is, as
\nin Yoga, where things active or latent in the being have to be put into action
\nin the light so that they may be grappled with and thrown out or to emerge from
\nlatency in the depths for the same purificatory purpose. Also they can remember
\nthe adage that night is darkest before dawn and that the coming of dawn is
\ninevitable. But they must remember too that the new world whose coming we
\nenvisage is not to be made of the same texture as the old and different only in pattern, and that it must come by
\nother means \u2014 from within and not from without; so the best<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nPage \u2013 171<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n

way is not to be
\ntoo much preoccupied with the lamentable things that are happening outside, but
\nthemselves to grow within so that they may be ready for the new world, whatever
\nform it may take.<\/span><\/p>\n

18-7-1948 <\/span><\/p>\n

\nYou have
\nexpressed in one of your letters your sense of the present darkness in the
\nworld round us and this must have been one of the things that contributed to
\nyour being so badly upset and unable immediately to repel the attack. For
\nmyself, the dark conditions do not discourage me or convince me of the vanity
\nof my will to "help the world", for I knew they had to come; they
\nwere there in the world-nature and had to rise up so that they might be
\nexhausted or expelled and a better world freed from them might be there. After
\nall, something has been done in the outer field and that may help or prepare
\nfor getting something done in the inner field also. For instance, India is free
\nand her freedom was necessary if the Divine Work was to be done. The
\ndifficulties that surround her now and may increase for a time, especially with
\nregard to the Pakistan imbroglio, were also things that had to come and to be
\ncleared out…. Here too there is sure to be
\na full clearance, though unfortunately, a considerable amount of human
\nsuffering in the process is inevitable. Afterwards the work for the Divine will
\nbecome more possible and it may well be that the dream, if it is a dream, of
\nleading the world towards the spiritual light, may even become a reality. So I
\nam not disposed even now, in these dark conditions, to consider my will to help
\nthe world as condemned to failure.<\/span><\/p>\n

4-4-1950<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 172<\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SECTION FOUR  SADHANA FOR THE EARTH-CONSCIOUSNESS   SRI AUROBINDO AND SUPERMAN   I don’t know that I have called myself a Superman. But certainly I…<\/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-524","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\/524","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=524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}