When I sleep at noon I am not conscious; if there is any noise I don’t hear it. But at night when I sleep, I am sometimes conscious and can hear nearly everything.
Is it all right not to sleep at night?
No, it is not all right not to sleep. It is necessary to sleep very quietly and well. Besides, this does not prevent you, when you dream, from being conscious of your dreams. What is it that prevents you from sleeping?
You must tell me everything very sincerely and without fear. Telling me everything very frankly brings you closer to me.
8 December 1932
Power.
4Swiftness of movement.
The soul.
Some birds have a meaning, but it is not one and the same for all birds.
23 December 1932
The parrot signifies “fluency of speech” and the elephant “strength”.
25 December 1932
The dog on the envelope means: obedience.
31 December 1932
It is a seal—a very clever animal that can be taught all sorts of tricks, even juggling.
3 January 1933
5Victory.
5 January 1933
It is not a rabbit, it is a hare and the hare means “prudence”.
6 January 1933
That is good, my child; I trust you and I know that you will never deliberately do anything I do not like. So you must not be sad nor dwell on the past, but think only of the joy of not making any more mistakes on this point in the future.
And you may be sure that my affection will always be with you to help you to do the right thing.
18 January 1933
You must not regret. It is always better to be frank and open; that is the best way to correct one’s mistakes.
24 January 1933
You were quite wrong to quarrel. I completely disapprove of this behaviour. You are still a child and ought to respect your elders. Besides, it is the worst possible way to get something from someone.
You say, “I want shirts”; that is not the way to speak. By what right does a desire or preference dare to impose itself in this way?
After enquiring I shall tell you what can be done.
5 February 1933
If you didn’t quarrel, it is all right. To quarrel means to say unpleasant things to each other with violence.
6 February 1933
The reindeer on the envelope is the symbol of endurance.
15 February 1933
[About a picture of a dove]
I am sending you the bird of your name: Peace.
16 February 1933
The cat means receptivity.
21 February 1933
The pelican on the envelope is the symbol of devotedness.
25 February 1933
7Yes, you should not fear, you should keep an entire faith in the Divine Grace. The second point is to keep your body well-balanced by getting enough sleep—seven hours out of twenty-four—and enough food.
2 March 1933
Not necessarily. One part of the subconscient is always alert, and having the will to wake up at a certain time is enough for that part to wake you.
3 March 1933
By the surrender of the vital, its opening to the light, and the growth of consciousness.
4 March 1933
Not laughing or thinking, that is going a bit too far!
8That is a bit too much. Control over one’s speech is more important than complete silence. The best thing is to learn to say only what is useful in the most accurate and truthful way possible.
5 March 1933
It is an excellent condition which can be maintained without any harm, but it must be sincere. That is, it must not be an appearance of calm, but a true and deep calm which spontaneously keeps you silent.
9 March 1933
It is an antelope, with the significance “swiftness of movement”.
The goat is “agility”.
9 March 1933fnThis date is the same as the one above it because the disciple sometimes corresponded more than once a day.
[About a picture of some pigs]
The envelope I am sending you represents the obscure movements of the vital in the nature.
15 March 1933
9After Truth comes Truth and again Truth!
23 March 1933
It is not good to lie in bed when you are awake; it is more tiring than restful and it also increases tamas. It is better to jump out of bed as soon as you wake up; then in the evening you will feel sleepy and can get to sleep earlier. The hours of sleep before midnight are the best and most restful.
25 March 1933
Yes, it is morally true and one day it will also be physically true.
26 March 1933
Do not waste time reading frivolous and unwholesome things. Do not waste your energy in idle small talk.
28 March 1933
Compassion is the equivalent of miséricorde. It is a pity full of strength and kindness, a pity that pardons and makes amends, forgets all offences and wants always what is best for everyone.
31 March 1933
One needs to have reached a pinnacle of wisdom before one can hope never to be mistaken. All of you have much to do before that.
3 April 1933
He is very young—he will grow out of it. Have you no vanity at all in you that you can reproach others with it?
3 April 1933
I advise you to be very attentive and scrupulous about saying 11only what is perfectly accurate. It is very easy to make things up when one is telling a dream and then it no longer has any value.
10 April 1933
The lion is the symbol of power. It would be better to say that under the control of the Divine Will, power is beneficent, while without that control it harms everyone and becomes terrible.
10 April 1933
[About a picture of some hunters which the disciple sent to the Mother]
What an ugly picture you have sent me! The men are sinister brutes, the cruellest of all living creatures.
12 April 1933
These are things one cannot speak about; they have to be discovered through personal experience.
13 April 1933
It is not in your own strength that you should have faith. It is in 12the divine force, which works in all who are consecrated to the Divine and sustains them in their action.
I repeat: having faith in yourself cannot take you very far and it is certain that sooner or later you will feel a reaction and be obliged to stop.
First establish the true attitude, which is to find your base, your support and your help in the Divine alone—then all possibility of fatigue will disappear. Until then it is better to let the servant do at least part of the work, which you can supervise if you like.
17 April 1933
The faith is in your active consciousness and your will, but it 13is not yet in your body; that is why your body feels tired and suffers; you must give it some rest. Until you know how to organise your work and eliminate all the useless coming and going, it would be better to give up the sweeping work and leave it to a servant; or if you insist on doing the sweeping, you should find someone to take care of your garden.
18 April 1933
If you are tired, you must organise your work to avoid so much coming and going.
26 April 1933
Since you feel that you are weak in regard to women, never touch a woman. Never allow a woman to touch you.
4 May 1933
Joy comes from surrender to the divine command.
6 May 1933
Why do you always want things to be easy?
15 May 1933
Yes, it is better to rest for a little while during the day. At your age you are still growing and you need a lot of rest alternated with strenuous activity.
22 May 1933
“If you wish” obviously implies that there is a risk that the consequences of what you want to do may not be very good for your Sadhana, but also that perhaps you are not yet ready to make the progress necessary for you not to do what you would like to do.
29 May 1933
Fix your mind on the aspiration and dismiss everything else.
Dismiss them.
15Listen in a total silence of your whole being—mental, vital and physical.
6 July 1933
Yes, it is good, if they are given. What is not good is to ask.
14 July 1933
It is taught in advanced grammar courses, and there are also special books. One of the principal rules of style is that in a prose passage one should not use “I” except when it is absolutely impossible to avoid it, and in any case one should never begin two consecutive sentences with “I”. This gives you an idea of what you must do to give some style to your daily report!
20 July 1933
You should eat in moderation, that is to say, without taking too much, because gluttony is always bad.
26 July 1933
What is done in a hurry is never done well.
29 July 1933
It is a contact established with the psychic, the true soul.
8 September 1933
Vital movements (desire, anger, fright, etc.) produce vibrations which spread through the atmosphere like waves of electricity and strike those who are open, sensitive or weak.
16 September 1933
If your day were organised more logically, avoiding a lot of useless coming and going, you would certainly have time to rest.
30 September 1933
I don’t see how feeling uneasy or sad can help to find what has been lost or repair what has been broken!
1 November 1933
17Plants too can open to the Divine.
5 November 1933
Yes, but kerosene is dangerous to plants—be careful not to kill them along with the insects.
7 November 1933
Shake it off, as you shake off the dust from your feet.
8 November 1933
During sleep one often comes in contact with undesirable forces and things, which drain your vital forces so that when you wake up you feel weak and depressed.
15 November 1933
When one no longer feels any attraction for the other, false happiness.
18Real happiness is of divine origin; it is pure and unconditioned. Ordinary happiness is of vital origin; it is impure and depends on circumstances.
18 November 1933
It is the energy that creates and sustains life in the physical organism; it is this energy which is used, when it is consecrated to the Divine, to transform the body and its activities.
1 December 1933
No, it is not true. Mockery is not at all a sign of intellectual superiority, but of ignorant mental arrogance. The psychic never mocks.
2 December 1933
It is certainly very bad to speak about the faults of others. Each one has his faults and to emphasise them in your thoughts certainly does not help to cure them.
4 December 1933
I am not a sannyasi and I never read a newspaper! I don’t have time for it.
It is difficult to read newspapers without having the consciousness descend to a very ordinary level. Only when the consciousness is firmly established in union with the Divine is it possible to read newspapers without any risk of falling into a lower consciousness.
5 December 1933
If you want to progress in yoga, you should receive things only from the Divine.
10 December 1933
It is a very common movement of the consciousness, which finds it somewhat difficult to remain in a state higher than its ordinary condition.
12 December 1933
20The cyclone was the result of a violent attack of hostile forces.
18 December 1933
Yes.
Silence cannot cure all the impurities, but it alleviates a great many of them.
23 December 1933
It isn’t obligatory, but it is very difficult to do otherwise.
28 December 1933
When the vital is converted—that is, when it wants the Divine.
30 December 1933
21We should not get upset about the mistakes we make; we need only maintain a perfect sincerity in our aspiration—then all will be well in the end.
4 January 1934
An answer is not enough to change the course of events. Only aspiration or faith can do that—for it is aspiration and faith that allow the Divine Grace to act.
9 January 1934
Yes, if it is sincere in its aspiration, it will soon be converted.
11 January 1934
An aspiration that is not mixed with any egoistic or self-interested calculation.
12 January 1934
22Only the love that is based on the Divine Presence can remain unmixed and present no obstacle to the sadhana.
17 January 1934
Repulsion is always a bad thing and just the other side of attachment.
19 January 1934
It is never good to tell someone that he is weak. That is not the way to make him strong—on the contrary!
20 January 1934
The best thing is to try not to think about it any more.
20 January 1934
That is because when people meet outside their work they usually indulge in idle chit-chat and it is not good for them.
27 January 1934
23In her case you should apply the same rule that applies to other Sadhaks. See her only when it is necessary and speak to her only when it is indispensable.
1 February 1934
You can always tell her that you don’t like to chat idly.
3 February 1934
Our aim is quite different. It is most unlikely that for a long time to come any new centres will be established, at least with our full approval. What we want to realise requires concentration rather than expansion.
5 February 1934
Not necessarily. It all depends on the development of the consciousness.
6 February 1934
24Thinking too much about one’s impurities does not help. It is better to keep your thought fixed on the purity, light and peace that you want to acquire.
7 February 1934
Why disturb the rest with useless questions? The mind also should be at rest.
8 February 1934
I see no reason why meditation, properly done, should be a hindrance to study—quite the opposite. Only if what you call “meditation” is not meditation at all, but a state of inert passivity and drowsiness, can it harm your studies; and as that state is thoroughly undesirable from every point of view, of course it is better not to indulge in it.
12 February 1934
It is an active and deliberate concentration on the Divine Presence and a sustained, alert contemplation of that Sublime Reality.
25If you mean the pressure of inert passivity, it comes from the resistance of the lower vital and the obscurity of the material nature. It can be overcome by an untiring will and aspiration.
12 February 1934
The depression was in the general atmosphere and it attacked everyone who was open to it.
1 March 1934
Pay no attention to it and behave as if it were not there.
This is not correct. You can see and feel things at a distance, things that are outside of you. In the same way you can feel depression in the atmosphere before it touches you.
1 March 1934
Yes, that is all there is to do. When you no longer have any weakness for women, they will stop pursuing you.
26Think of other things.
12 March 1934
If you could just understand that what I do is always for the good of each and every one and never for the good of a few at the expense of others, you would very soon overcome your jealousy and be delivered from this painful sore spot.
Be convinced that what I do for you is always exactly what you need in order to advance on the way; then all jealousy and envy will disappear.
20 March 1934
It was the influence of her external will acting on your mind and vital.
20 March 1934
That proves that her will is as strong as yours—and that is very good. By what right do you want your will to act on others? 27Each one must be free. Only the Guru has the right to impose his will upon the will of the disciple who has chosen him.
21 March 1934
Certainly; but in return the vital being often influences the mind and creates doubts in it.
21 March 1934
The psychic is never depressed.
It is the part of the mind that is converted; it detaches itself from the rest, observes, judges and regrets the behaviour of the ordinary mind and the unregenerate vital.
21 March 1934
I tell you that the psychic does not know depression because it is divine by nature, and in the Divine there is no depression.
28No, no, no. Do you understand?
The psychic may see and regret the stupidity of the other parts of the being, but by its very nature it is impossible for it to be depressed.
22 March 1934
It is always very good when someone has a strong will.
22 March 1934
This simply shows that you are more open to Y’s influence than your sister is to yours. It is always regrettable when one is open to the influence of another person. One should receive no other influence than that of the Divine.
22 March 1934
Let the mind receive the light from above and refuse to be influenced.
22 March 1934
29Pay no attention to her, in thought and deed.
Because you feel an attraction for her, and her will seems to be stronger than yours.
That is a desire or an instinct rather than a will.
I am not saying it is good that she wants to talk with you; I am saying that in general it is good to have a strong will. When you have a strong will you have only to direct it properly; when you do not have a will you first have to develop one, which always takes time and is sometimes difficult.
Before asking random questions you would do well to think a bit and try to understand by yourself.
23 March 1934
I had a notice put up when there were a lot of outside visitors who all used to stay, and also because more and more people were getting into the habit of sitting down after pranam and watching the others, as if it were some kind of show. But if only a few people stay, I do not mind.
24 March 1934
30You must will that it may be true and lasting.
24 March 1934
Educate it, exercise it, as you exercise your muscles—through use.
26 March 1934
You should write only when the prayer comes spontaneously.
31 March 1934
It is better not to look at it too much and to turn your attention to more interesting things. One becomes what one thinks: you should think of the strength, the uprightness, the sincerity you wish to become.
March 1934
You seem to be very conscious already of what ought and ought not to be done, but with you the difficulty begins with putting it into practice. You should ask, not for more knowledge, but for the strength and courage to apply sincerely and scrupulously the little you already know.
4 April 1934
Who told you that your nature is inferior to X’s? Each one has his own nature and follows his own path, and comparisons with others are always useless and most often dangerous.
4 April 1934
You should not attach too much importance to these little things. The important thing is never to lose sight of the ideal you wish to realise and always do your best to realise it.
6 April 1934
32Consecration of love.
6 April 1934
You could smile at her if you smile at others. In a way smiling at your sister would be less dangerous than smiling at Y or Z.
10 April 1934
This resolution is perhaps a bit severe. That was not the object of my remark, but rather that you should not treat your sister too badly—for she can make nothing of it. The truth is this: your consecration to the Divine should be so complete that you no longer attach any importance to these relations with others.
11 April 1934
You should concern yourself more with strengthening your consecration to the Divine than with working out the details of your relations with people.
12 April 1934
33I don’t understand what you mean. Why acknowledge and accept a bad habit?
21 April 1934
It is better to reject these thoughts, because they help to bring the attack.
21 April 1934
I think it would be far more advisable to get into the habit of controlling your speech and refusing to speak about unwholesome and dangerous topics; but obviously if your getting together arouses in both of you the very thing you want to overcome, it is surely better to refrain from it.
26 April 1934
If your conversations are restricted to remarks of this kind, they have no more importance than all the countless ignorant remarks 34which the members of the Ashram are in the habit of exchanging among themselves when they think they are capable of knowing what I do and why I do it.
27 April 1934
Possibly—but as a general rule there are rarely any reasonable reasons for this kind of uneasiness, except that the vital has a small movement of dissatisfaction or revolt.
1 May 1934
I hope you picked them up and kept them.
4 May 1934
The outer nature is always full of imperfections until it is transformed by the divine Presence. But it is wrong to let these things depress you.
4 May 1934
That is what is called a premonitory dream. You saw beforehand what was going to happen.
7 May 1934
That is quite true.
Yes, it is better to do only what comes from deep within yourself.
9 May 1934
No, I don’t find it good at all. You should go to bed by ten at the latest. Sleep is a matter of habit. If you get into the habit of always going to bed at the same time, sleep will come automatically.
9 May 1934
Some people carry around them these ideas of despair and depression and are harassed by them. These ideas are contagious, like an illness, and one catches them just as one catches any other illness.
14 May 1934
You must learn to reject them when they come.
That is impossible—there would be too many people to avoid.
That is impossible by any outer method; it is only by acquiring an inner discrimination that these things can be known.
15 May 1934
As a general rule it is better not to give advice unless you are asked for it. But if you receive some advice from someone, you should think it over carefully and try to take advantage of it.
16 May 1934
37Because the outer nature is ignorant, obscure and foolish, so naturally its behaviour and its action are also ignorant, obscure and foolish.
16 May 1934
You were probably more active and less open to vital contacts in the evening than in the morning.
Yes, this is true. But discrimination grows through exercise and control. In other words, you ask me if what you have observed is correct, and with the help of my answers you can rectify your observations.
17 May 1934
Speaking about others is not only useless but most often harmful.
You can always say, “Mother does not like us to gossip about others.”
18 May 1934
So much the worse for him!
Fix your consciousness higher than the vital.
18 May 1934
Always to maintain an attitude of concentration on the Divine Life is more important than making rules that are too rigid. It would be better to resolve not to smile in expectation of a vital interchange.
21 May 1934
Knowing them is indeed necessary, but it is not good to fix one’s 39attention too constantly on them; it does not help to remove them—on the contrary.
21 May 1934
Obviously, when I give a prayer on such an occasion I concentrate a certain force in it. By showing the prayer to others you destroy a great deal of the effect of this force.
22 May 1934
Yes, and as a rule I do not like answering questions about others. In yoga each one should attend to his own progress—the progress of others has nothing to do with him.
23 May 1934
Certainly, and the best thing is precisely to refrain from all ideas about people, for then there isn’t any risk of having wrong ideas.
Yes, it is quite possible if the mind is interested and engrossed in something more useful.
23 May 1934
Yes, it is preferable.
That depends on what you mean by seeing him; if it is to exchange a few words or to do some work together from time to time, it does not matter. But long conversations should be avoided.
24 May 1934
Indeed, I fail to see what pleasure one finds in hurting other people’s feelings. It is not nice and shows so much pretentious foolishness.
24 May 1934
They may not be exaggerated, but in any case they are not very kind, and kindness is an indispensable step towards the widening and illumination of the consciousness.
25 May 1934
41Equanimity
Trust
Modesty
Self-giving.
26 May 1934
It is quite possible that he left without any reason. One does so many things without any conscious motive.
26 May 1934
Certainly, that is preferable.
28 May 1934
42If the dream has a significance (which is not sure), it would mean that a certain type of hostile force took the likeness of Y in your consciousness. Lights going out are always the symbol of the consciousness descending into unconsciousness.
Probably a part of your nature which is not yet converted has risen to the surface and is active at present.
29 May 1934
Put the light and the knowledge on it patiently until it gets converted.
29 May 1934
That is exactly what I mean; you have only to call Sri Aurobindo or myself and ask that this obscure part be enlightened and converted.
30 May 1934
43What little you do know, you can tell to others, but take care to warn them that you do not know much and that you are not sure of the correctness of your answers.
31 May 1934
You mean: if one has faith in the god of a religion, how can one have faith in the incarnate Divine? That is quite right.
1 June 1934
Yes, you may take the geography books, but you must take great care of them so that they don’t get torn or stained or eaten by insects.
2 June 1934
It is because affection creates an attachment in him, and all attachment is contrary to Yoga.
4 June 1934
44Affection always creates attachment, unless one is a yogi.
Who told you this extraordinary tale?
Certainly there is no electricity such as men use in the physical world. But there are as many lights as one could wish for—even most beautiful, most brilliant ones, so that unless one is forewarned one might believe oneself to be on a very high plane.
4 June 1934
The lights in the vital world are vital lights, of course.
That is because your vision is not fully developed in that world or because you go to dark places there. But that does not mean that the whole vital world is dark!
5 June 1934
Will for it, and call on the enlightened part to intervene each time that the parts which are still obscure, ignorant and egoistic try to dominate your being.
45Usually it is because the question is badly stated; often it is because it would not be good to reply.
6 June 1934
Feeling sad is of no use. All the energy you waste in feeling sad would better be used in transforming the wrong movement.
There is nothing impossible about a prompt conversion; the difficult thing is to make it last.
9 June 1934
If the psychic consciousness were fully awakened, it would decide. But in this case it is one part of the mind arguing with another and, at best, it is the mental Purusha that steps in and decides.
11 June 1934
46Yes. The mind suddenly sees clearly and is converted, but then it is attacked again by obscurity and falls back into its old habits.
Persist in bringing it into contact with the light until the conversion becomes lasting.
11 June 1934
I think it is a mutual effect—and women complain that men do the same thing to them. The remedy is to turn the consciousness towards the Divine alone.
11 June 1934
Each one has his own remedies and habits, which may be good 47for him, but it would be a great mistake to generalise and try to apply them to other people.
26 June 1934
In any case, it is the restless and unquiet vital.
28 June 1934
No, it is all right since you are sleeping very badly.
28 June 1934
And a concentration, a will to reject the restlessness.
These are various fragments of the mind opposing and contradicting one another, and they are not all at the same stage of development.
28 June 1934
48So long as it is in order to reject or conquer them.
29 June 1934
I thought you were using the word “ghosts” to mean vital entities. Those beings are certainly not the ones who can help you in your sadhana.
By willing to do so, and by always refusing to believe in their suggestions.
29 June 1934
Yes, they do exist, but since they do not belong to the vital world that is nearest to the physical, it is more difficult for them to enter into contact with human beings. Their action is sometimes perceptible in the mind, and in the psychic it is very clear.
This is probably the symbol of certain forces of the lower nature trying to seize hold of what is already given to the Divine.
30 June 1934
Two parts of the vital being were struggling together, each one in turn getting the upper hand.
Just as there are people on earth who like to help others.
2 July 1934
Instead of asking yourself such questions, it would be better to remain very quiet, concentrated and calm, so that the happiness may last.
3 July 1934
Do not identify yourself with the conversation. Watch it all from above and from a distance, as if someone else were listening and speaking, and say no more than is absolutely indispensable.
4 July 1934
The force was probably a bit too much for the body, which found it difficult to bear—hence the trembling.
Just answer evasively with a word or two, without attaching any importance to it.
4 July 1934
The power to bear is found in calm and quietness.
5 July 1934
It is not only quite possible to be free of all doubt, it is an absolutely indispensable condition; but before being able to state with assurance that one is free from doubt, one should wait for a few months at least, in order to make sure.
In any case this kind of discussion is quite useless—it does not help to overcome doubt.
9 July 1934
Be very sincere and straightforward, tolerate nothing in yourself that you could not show me without fear, and do nothing that you would feel ashamed of doing before me.
11 July 1934
There is also a spiritual ego, and even the gods who live in the Overmind have their egos.
It is not enough to surrender; the ego must be dissolved, must merge with the Divine, disappear in Him.
12 July 1934
52I think it is useless to speculate just now about what may happen in the Supermind.
12 July 1934
I have no preference in this or in any other matter. For each person the decision depends on his own need.
14 July 1934
No. I did not complete the sentence. I meant that I do not decide according to preferences, but according to each one’s need.
16 July 1934
If it disturbs you, you need not listen to what she says or explain Sri Aurobindo’s letters to her.
But obviously it is much better if you can overcome the weakness that makes you feel disturbed, because that is the true cure.
23 July 1934
My sweet little Mother,
Yesterday evening during the meditation I felt so much love—I felt waves, vibrations of love. But this love pours itself out on others. Before, when I felt a lot of love it remained silent; I became more serious and I did not express it. But this time, on the contrary, I allowed the love to express itself because I don’t find it undesirable. But if You think it necessary, I will turn it inwards.
The love that one contains in silence acts within oneself for purification and transformation. The love that one turns outwards—if one does it in a pure and disinterested way—may occasionally help others. But most often they receive it wrongly… So you must do as your instinct guides you.
24 July 1934
That is quite natural—you have wasted it right and left; instead 54of concentrating on the Divine what came from the Divine, you have squandered it on others and lost it.
24 July 1934
Both are partly true and partly false. It is wise to receive the descending Force in silence and concentration, but this silence and concentration should not come from the vital’s resentment at not being allowed to follow its whims.
This concentration and silence should not only be full of a great peace but also of a very intense happiness. Then one knows that the movement is true and unmixed.
24 July 1934
Have no preference about anything except to carry out the divine will.
28 July 1934
One achieves it by persistently willing it.
1 July 1934
It is not at all impossible that I should appear in various forms, even in the form of a young girl.
1 August 1934
They are symbols of bad thoughts and perverted or obscure energies.
1 August 1934
Just wait until your mind starts working again.
2 August 1934
When I saw you as I left, your atmosphere was very agitated and your consciousness quite superficial. I could clearly 56see that contact with all those women is not doing you any good.
18 August 1934
That is absurd.
It is not by dying but by living that one can realise love.
20 August 1934
It is no use getting upset or tormenting yourself. Only in peace and calm can the good experience return.
22 August 1934
It is impossible to give any external rule, since each case should receive its own particular solution. The inner attitude must be true and perfectly sincere.
23 August 1934
57You must make an effort to attain this attitude—waiting is not enough.
25 August 1934
I cannot see any benefit in these familiarities—surely they do not help to raise the consciousness.
27 August 1934
What nonsense is this!!
Can Sri Aurobindo be helped by anyone or anything? It is He who helps, he is not helped!
After so often having the same experience of losing everything there, I cannot understand why you continue to go!
When I do not reply, it is because it is neither good nor bad, true nor false, and it would take too long to explain the truth.
I give it to you constantly, but you must not always lose it by continually repeating the same mistakes.
30 August 1934
The whole being must be governed by the psychic being and by that alone.
31 August 1934
The less importance one attaches to these dark periods, the sooner they are over.
5 September 1934
Be calm and quiet; it is only a crisis which will pass with the increase of consciousness.
10 September 1934
59I am not aware of anything special that is being done against my will. But you must not let yourself be disturbed. You must will to become more and more honest and sincere, and, for the rest, rely on the divine Grace.
11 September 1934
It has been quite a widespread attack. When this happens, the best thing is to remain quiet without getting agitated either inwardly or outwardly.
14 September 1934
It is behind the mind, behind the vital, in the psychic centre that one can find the quietness that never wavers.
15 September 1934
I never cease pouring peace and quietness and calm on you why don’t you accept them?
17 September 1934
60Want them sincerely and integrally—not only with one part of your being.
Staying up late is surely not the way to prepare yourself to sleep well.
17 September 1934
Because during the pranam I reestablished the contact between your ordinary consciousness and the psychic consciousness.
The extreme sweetness of the psychic consciousness always makes the outer consciousness weep with emotion.
21 September 1934
My love and peace are always with you—it is for you to learn to receive them.
22 September 1934
Rather than avoiding this person or that, to no great effect, it would be so much better to change your consciousness, to close it to all these influences and keep it open only to the Divine!
23 September 1934
For several days I have been feeling that Z has an attraction for me. Since You wrote, “Rather than avoiding this person or that…”, I thought I could talk to her and thus gradually come to the true attitude.
Mother… love.
If it is divine love that you mean, one can obtain it only by renouncing human love, which is a travesty and caricature of it.
26 September 1934
Then quickly leave the path you have taken—do not waste your time wandering about and talking to girls. Start working in earnest again, study, educate yourself, occupy your mind with interesting and useful things rather than useless chit-chat, and do not give false excuses for your vital attractions. If your wish is truly sincere, you may be sure that you will have my force to help you to conquer.
27 September 1934
Nothing could be easier—you have only to decide resolutely 62that you want nothing but the divine life and turn away from everything else. You are sure to find me immediately.
29 September 1934
There is no question of dying. Leaving your body is not a solution; you remain with your desires and it is worse. It is much more reasonable and true to let your desires die, understanding how useless and stupid they are.
Since you want the Divine Life so much, you need not be afraid of failure, for a sincere and sustained aspiration is always fulfilled.
Make a firm resolution to overcome your weaknesses and you will see that it is not so difficult as it seems. My force is with you to overcome the obstacles, and also my blessings.
29 September 1934
To have so little courage at your age—it is shameful!
Rest if you are tired, but never lose the will for victory.
13 October 1934
Which proves that your pain is at least three-fourths imaginary.
63I see no harm in your reading and telling stories, but it should not interfere with your studies. Besides, to develop your style you can very well write any stories you please.
15 October 1934
You think that you are ill and that increases the illness. When you forget the illness, it goes away almost completely.
15 October 1934
What hypocrisy!! It is shameful.
Yes, it is very base. It is because of such actions, constantly repeated, that these people never make any progress.
16 October 1934
It is not remaining outside the body that cures illness, it is thinking in the true way and refusing everything in one’s thought that could give support to the illness.
18 October 1934
It is better for it to be occupied with that, if your story is interesting, than with flirtation or nonsense.
20 October 1934
Because you are looking for it in the wrong place, or under a false form.
The vital must have decided that my love would express itself in a particular way, and as it did not happen that way, the vital says, “There is no love!”
20 October 1934
That is not quite true. If there were not something more in the physical contact than in the inner contact, there would have been no reason for me to take a body upon earth.
23 October 1934
Every time I answer one of your questions, you tell me that you don’t understand my reply. What to do? You must learn to reflect a little and enter into a deeper kind of thought.
YfnThe Ashram librarian has just written to me about the great number of novels you read. I do not think that this kind of reading is good for you—and if it is to study style, as you told me, an attentive study of one good book by a good author, done carefully, teaches much more than this hasty and superficial reading.
25 October 1934
It is because your mind has not been sufficiently trained in the discipline of study.
66In order to learn you must read with great care and carefully choose what you read.
25 October 1934
The discipline of intellectual study as it is practised in colleges in France. You can talk to Z about it; he will explain it to you.
Really! If he writes like Anatole France he must truly be a marvellous writer!
26 October 1934
Because your body did not know that the illness was imaginary, and it needed a remedy in order to believe in the possibility of being cured.
26 October 1934
It is certainly better to be obliging than to be intensely selfish. But even in being obliging one should observe moderation.
Yes, you must never yield to the lower nature, not only when it manifests in you but also when it manifests in others. Never listen to bad advice, never follow bad examples, never accept any other influence than that of the Divine, and your uneasiness will disappear.
30 October 1934
It makes little difference from whom the influence comes; do not accept it.
I see no use in speaking about your depressions to other people. It can help neither you nor them.
30 October 1934
In your psychic being—I am always present there. It is there that you can find me and must find me, and when you have found 68me there, in the depths of your heart, you will also recognise me in my physical form.
31 October 1934
Integral means complete, entire, omitting nothing, total—the external being is very far from being integral. When we speak of “the integral being”, we mean the being in its totality, from the physical body to the true Self, the Divine Consciousness.
31 October 1934
No, it is not the same thing. In several of his messages Sri Aurobindo has explained the difference between the psychic being, which is the divine element in man, and the states of being that belong to the overhead regions. Study Sri Aurobindo’s messages and books a little (instead of reading novels)—then you won’t ask me unnecessary questions.
1 November 1934
You are not so far from me as you think. You have only to calm the agitation of your mind and vital a little, remain a bit quiet 69and concentrated, and at once you will find my presence within you and around you.
1 November 1934
It all depends on the effect that this literature has on your imagination. If it fills your head with undesirable ideas and your vital with desires, it is certainly better to stop reading this kind of books.
2 November 1934
No, after identification it is impossible.
2 November 1934
It would be more correct to say that you would be able to act only according to my will.
3 November 1934
All these are false imaginations. If you told yourself, on the contrary, that I am always with you (which is true), it would help you to become conscious of my presence.
9 November 1934
70You have everything, absolutely everything still to learn. Above all you have to educate a mind that is still raw, ignorant and obscure, and has all the impudence of ignorance.
The first thing you must do is to learn a little humility and to recognise that you know nothing—you read words, you read prayers, and you repeat the words, you copy the prayers, but you do not understand them; you mix up all these ideas and notions in a brain that is still like a child’s, and then you have the illusion of understanding!
15 November 1934
What do you mean by process? It is not a process; the disappearance of the uneasiness is the very natural result of concentrating the mind on study, which on the one hand provides it with a healthy activity, and on the other draws its attention away from this morbid contemplation of the little physical ego.
3 December 1934
You know how to receive, since you feel the presence of love and joy, but you do not seem to know how to keep them. You must learn to treasure in yourself silently what you have received.
4 December 1934
By dissipation—by throwing out, either in thoughts, words or actions, the force and energy you have received.
4 December 1934
What do you know about it? Can your mind have any knowledge of the future? And especially the supramental future!
7 December 1934
I do not think that I said any such thing. You must have misunderstood me. But Y is wrong to believe that I came upon earth to establish an Ashram! That would really be a very paltry objective.
8 December 1934
Naturally it depends on what the pictures are; but most often they are concerned only with things of the ordinary life and so they draw the consciousness towards that.
10 December 1934
You must will with persistence, but not get impatient. Through calm determination you will achieve it more quickly. By getting restless, one wastes more time than one saves.
13 December 1934
It all depends on the effect it has on you. If you come away feeling more peaceful and content, it is all right. If, on the contrary, it makes you feel melancholy and dissatisfied, it would be better not to go there. You have only to observe and see how it affects you, then decide accordingly.
13 December 1934
It is better not to speak of these things. All sincere spiritual effort towards an increase of consciousness is a preparation.
18 December 1934
73No, nothing withdraws; it is the physical being which is unable, by nature, to hold the joy and love for very long, unless it is completely governed by the psychic.
Yes, it is particularly at night that the physical being falls into obscurity and unconsciousness.
The movements of consciousness are like a pendulum. The more it swings in one direction, the more it swings back in the opposite direction.
19 December 1934
One feels peaceful and happy, full of trust, full of a deep and true benevolence, and very close to the divine presence.
20 December 1934
Yes, last night I asked you why you had not studied, and I said that to yield like that to the impulses of the vital was certainly not the way to control it. You must create a discipline for yourself and impose it on yourself at all costs if you want to put an end to vital bad will and mental depression. Without discipline one can do nothing in life, and all yoga is impossible.
22 December 1934
What a funny idea! To punish your body for a fault that the vital has committed! It is not fair.
22 December 1934
You were right not to tell him; but it is quite true that in this world very little is done according to the divine will.
27 December 1934
Outwardly, you are an unconscious child striving to become conscious.
75Inwardly, you are an eternal soul attempting to manifest in a body.
7 January 1935
Certainly the soul is in the body, but it is not manifested—its presence is not evident and has very little effect on the life of the body.
It is that part on any plane (physical, vital or mental) which is open to the psychic influence.
7 January 1935
I have never left the earth since it was formed.
10 January 1935
Krishna was an Avatar, but Buddha and Christ were only emanations. As for the second part of your question, I have no idea what you mean.
11 January 1935
76It means not to get agitated—I mean above all psychologically, in your feelings and thoughts.
14 January 1935
By the gradual infusion of light into the centre.
15 January 1935
That is a very laudable sentiment—but the best thing would be to get yourself out of the depression so that there won’t be any risk of passing it on to others.
16 January 1935
Force yourself to study and your depression will go away. Can you imagine a student in college coming and telling his teacher, “Sir, I didn’t do my homework today because I felt depressed”?
Surely the teacher would punish him most severely.
16 January 1935
77Don’t you find that you are thinking a bit too much about yourself? You remind me of a hypochondriac always feeling his pulse to see whether he has a temperature.
17 January 1935
It won’t help at all not to inform me if you go on thinking about it. On the contrary, if you tell me about it, I can help you more easily.
18 January 1935
Certainly not on earth.
Not necessarily; but the soul needs to have achieved a very high degree of perfection before it has the power to choose whether to return to the physical life or to rest outside the manifestation.
23 January 1935
The essence of the soul is divine, but the soul (the psychic being) grows through all the forms of evolution; it becomes more and more individualised and increasingly conscious of itself and its origin.
24 January 1935
It is not my action that changes, but your way of seeing it.
25 January 1935
Studies strengthen the mind and turn its concentration away from the impulses and desires of the vital. Concentrating on study is one of the most powerful ways of controlling the mind and the vital; that is why it is so important to study.
28 January 1935
It is the sign of a very good nature, but to be able to do it safely one needs to have complete control over oneself.
30 January 1935
It is a matter of will. You must cultivate and strengthen your will—then your time will no longer be wasted in vain.
30 January 1935
One does not study for the sake of pleasure—one studies in order to learn and to develop one’s brain.
1 February 1935
I was conscious.
2 February 1935
Yes, it is very good to learn the habit of pausing a few seconds before acting in order to ask oneself whether the action is truly helpful from the standpoint of spiritual life.
4 February 1935
I see no contradiction in these ideas. The Truth is received by 80the psychic, which transmits it to the mind and vital.
6 February 1935
“The psychic is not, by definition, that part which is in direct touch with the supramental plane.… The psychic part of us is something that comes direct from the Divine and is in touch with the Divine.” (Sri Aurobindo)
I don’t know the difference between the Supermind and the Divine.
The Divine spoken of here is that which has been in contact with the earth from the beginning of time; the Supermind is a new aspect of the Divine, which up to now has not been manifested upon earth.
7 February 1935
Yes, it is the mind, but with a first influence of the flame of Agni.
8 February 1935
When the mind says this, it is referring to the vital soul, because that is what develops in life.
It is the flame of purification, the will for progress.
9 February 1935
81The vital soul is what the ancients called the “anima”, that which animates, gives life to the body. It is also sometimes called the etheric being.
11 February 1935
Absurd!!!!
You are mixing up two different things. I can assure you that my action, whether inner or outer, is always of divine origin. The disturbance you feel is not proof of a lack of divinity in the action, but of a lack of plasticity and receptivity in your mind, your vital and your physical.
The only way to save yourself from these disturbances is through true humility—the humility that consists in knowing that at the moment you are utterly incapable of understanding me and that it is presumptuous stupidity to try to judge me.
13 February 1935
Do not get upset—keep calm. Certainly the part of you that is speaking now has never tried to judge me. It is in calm that one can unify one’s being around the highest aspiration.
14 February 1935
A part of the physical mind and the most material vital.
15 February 1935
It will come soon, I think, since you have recognised your mistake.
15 February 1935
It is the part of the vital that is closest to the physical consciousness, the part that gives life to the body.
16 February 1935
I do not think that it is good for you to talk to people about Yoga in this way—it gives you the illusion that you have something to teach them and it does not foster humility in you.
18 February 1935
83If you do not study, the inertia will go on increasing.
4 March 1935
There is a beauty on every plane of the being right up to the Divine himself. Material beauty is but a very poor translation of that beauty.
5 March 1935
As long as you do not give him any advice, it does not matter much. As a general rule, however, the less one speaks about sadhana the better.
6 March 1935
No. Difficulties do arise, but there is no reason for them to cause depression.
8 March 1935
Become conscious.
84Yes, the emotional being.
Certainly—in fact it is impossible to overcome a difficulty if the consciousness gets lowered. On the contrary, in order to overcome difficulties, the consciousness must strive to rise above its ordinary level.
9 March 1935
The central being is not the same in everyone—it is the part that governs the rest of the personality and imposes its will on it.
When the psychic being holds this central position in the personality, everything becomes very easy.
14 March 1935
Yes, surely you will be able to do it. The part that has goodwill must grow stronger until it has the power to control the recalcitrant part and force it to be converted.
16 March 1935
85Yes, it is very useful when it is properly done.
The psychic voice is silent—it manifests in the form of an understanding or knowledge rather than in words.
17 March 1935
Yes, there is a great difference. It is much more difficult to hear the psychic message than the voice of the mental Purusha—the latter is not infallible and is liable to err. The psychic never errs.
The vital Purusha awakens only when all the desires are mastered and the vital being is calm.
Your heart is not always closed. When it opens, the peace and love enter into you.
18 March 1935
When one is very silent and attentive.
86The mental Purusha is always more or less awake in those who are in the habit of observing themselves.
Not necessarily; even if they come from the psychic, they may get mixed with other less elevated movements when they manifest in the mind or the vital.
Love and peace can also come from above, directly from divine regions.
19 March 1935
One can hardly say that the Divine expresses himself through a voice, but rather by imparting a certain state of consciousness.
When the Light has descended into the physical consciousness.
Indeed they very often are; the love gets changed into a kind of passion and the peace into inertia.
87You must will for it persistently and one day it will happen.
20 March 1935
The psychic.
21 March 1935
You were wrong to open your pen when you were told not to—because it is I myself who said that if anyone tampered with his pen it would not be repaired for him.
I will have it repaired this time, if possible, but you must promise me never to touch it again.
It is a fault. Not to take care of the material objects one uses is a sign of unconsciousness and ignorance. One has no right to use any material object unless one takes care of it.
23 March 1935
Yes, and we must take care of them, not because we are attached 88to them, but because they too manifest something of the Divine Consciousness.
It is something one feels and there can be no doubt about it when it happens to you.
The psychic coming to the surface is the result rather than the method.
25 March 1935
I understand very well what you mean. It is an experience that takes place when one enters into a new field of consciousness.
Happiness and love do not accompany all experiences.
The experience is only one of an awakening of consciousness.
27 March 1935
89It is up to you to make true in practice the ideal that your mind sets before you.
There is at the same time a part of the being that lives in light and joy, and a part that lives in disturbance and obscurity. If you turn your attention towards the disturbance, you feel it. But if you turn your attention towards the light and joy, you live in them.
2 April 1935
It is also a resistance in the brain, expressing those elements of the physical mind that refuse to be transformed.
6 April 1935
Or when one can go deep enough inside to enter into contact with one’s psychic being.
First you must detach yourself from it, stop identifying yourself with its movements.
90They are connected with the material plane through the sense-organs (sight, hearing, etc.).
8 April 1935
By entering into it step by step, through attentive observation, with the light of the consciousness.
The mind cannot answer these questions nor understand the true reply.
9 April 1935
Study, that is the best way to understand.
You don’t give enough time to study; that is why it doesn’t interest you. Everything one does with care necessarily becomes interesting.
10 April 1935
91Failing the psychic, the enlightened mind can prevent the vital from behaving foolishly.
15 April 1935
The only unfailing method for getting rid of illnesses is to turn one’s attention away from them and refuse to give them any importance.
16 April 1935
Because the ordinary consciousness drives it away.
19 April 1935
Remember it always and in all circumstances.
20 April 1935
I do not have much faith in pure love between human beings.
21 April 1935
Generally speaking, it is the consciousness that is turned towards the Divine.
22 April 1935
They understand them better, because they are closer to them.
23 April 1935
Getting upset and impatient certainly will not help this bad period to end any sooner. On the other hand, if you can maintain a little inner calm, you will get out of your difficulties more quickly. It is only in a state of calm that one can enter into contact with one’s psychic consciousness.
I hope not! But if you could be a little more peaceful within, your troubles would end more quickly.
24 April 1935
93You are my child; you have only to become conscious of it.
25 April 1935
Because they are still mentally immature.
30 April 1935
Affinities are almost instinctive and not very important. Only you must be careful that they do not become attachments.
These things are not so clear-cut and one may have started doing yoga in one part of the being even while the rest—the other parts of the being—still refuse to be transformed.
2 May 1935
Never forget the divine presence.
4 May 1935
94No, I do not change towards people according to their condition. It is their impression of me that changes according to their mood at the moment.
4 May 1935
To be at peace is a good thing. Do not risk spoiling the peace by talking about this state.
4 May 1935
It is the desire and rebellion that prevent your vital from feeling the Presence, but the fact that you do not feel it is no proof that it is not there.
8 May 1935
I do not think it is bad either—but of course it is proportionate to the consciousness you possess.
An undesirable outside force does not always enter into us each 95time that we have a good experience. On the contrary, the good experience ought to give us the strength to repel the outside force when it tries to enter.
10 May 1935
Nothing is gained by lying, of course; on the contrary, one darkens one’s consciousness.
12 May 1935
If your consciousness were superhuman, divine, or even spiritual, you would see that same consciousness everywhere.
13 May 1935
It is certainly not sadhana that stands in the way of inner peace—on the contrary, for the sadhana is based entirely on this inner peace, which is the essential condition for progress. To enter into contact with the psychic consciousness, a patient concentration is indeed necessary.
14 May 1935
96First of all, as a general rule, it is better if women do not visit the rooms of men. In this particular case, if she came to your room, I am afraid she would leave behind an atmosphere that would be very disturbing to your peace of mind.
15 May 1935
No, you have become more conscious. Before there was even more darkness, but you were not aware of it. You did not perceive it as darkness.
A transition period in which you have become more conscious but have not yet gained control.
Especially in the physical consciousness—until the physical gets illumined.
17 May 1935
Always choose the light instead of the darkness.
18 May 1935
I am here and I am concentrating upon you all the light needed to dissolve any darkness whatever. It is up to you to receive it.
18 May 1935
Do what I explained to you yesterday—make your brain work by studying regularly and systematically; then during the hours when you are not studying, your brain, having worked enough, will be able to rest and it will be possible for you to concentrate in the depths of your heart and find there the psychic source; with it you will become conscious both of gratitude and true happiness.
23 May 1935
My force and my help are constantly with you and my consciousness is enlightening you as you study.
She must have come to me with some desire, and her desire, sensing that it would not be satisfied, made her sad and depressed. It is more or less what happens to you too.
23 May 1935
Now I know why the darkness always returns to you, even after I have driven it away. It is because the sense of gratitude has not yet awakened in you.
23 May 1935
Obviously.
Yes, that is it; you began to bargain in your giving and that has dried up the source. If, however, you resolve not to demand anything in return for what you give, you will soon rediscover the incomparable joy of loving.
24 May 1935
Until the nature is entirely transformed, it is always mixed—the good and the bad side by side. So until the transformation is achieved, there will always be a mixture of egoism in all who come to me.
Do not worry—have trust; it is this lack of trust that veils your consciousness.
Do not think about yourself.
25 May 1935
Observe silence in your mind, go into the solitude of your psychic being and you will find me there.
27 May 1935
This is a completely tamasic reply. My consciousness is always at work, but you on your side must exert your will and make an effort.
28 May 1935
Certainly you are living mainly in your mind, vital and physical. A little concentration would do you no harm, but you must not overdo it.
100You must exert your will.
28 May 1935
If by solitude you mean not seeing people any more than is indispensable and not speaking with them unless it is absolutely necessary, then we are agreed.
30 May 1935
My dear child, I am only too willing to help you out of this absurd unhappiness, but I am afraid that it comes only from thwarted desires—and in that case you must first renounce those desires and ambitions. But you can be sure that my help is always with you.
30 May 1935
This is a hostile suggestion which is completely false and you must immediately reject it.
1 June 1935
101Certainly a part of your being is in harmony with the psychic life of the universe.
4 June 1935
Just as there is a psychic life in human beings, there is a psychic life in the earth and doubtless in other worlds too.
To make the consciousness progress towards the Divine.
5 June 1935
Never doubt my love, and then quite naturally you will turn towards me.
10 June 1935
Certainly the psychic consciousness has none of these difficulties; it has the constant experience of my presence and my love.
10 June 1935
102It is very good that you made an effort, but you must not get discouraged so quickly, just because you fail to succeed immediately. On the contrary, you must persevere in your effort until you do succeed.
My help will always be with you.
11 June 1935
By aspiration, prayer and concentration.
Above all, it is too intermittent.
Because the outer ignorance is very stubborn and will yield only to a persistent effort.
Because the outer being—the one that misbehaves—is unaware of that presence or refuses to recognise it.
The only price to be paid is a persistent and unwavering will.
11 June 1935
103One can have the true attitude only when one has attained the consciousness of the divine Oneness; meanwhile it is good always to treat animals with respect, love and compassion.
11 June 1935
Of course.
12 June 1935
Obscurity is everywhere in material things—inside and outside.
12 June 1935
Look at a beautiful flower.
13 June 1935
That would be the sign of a total enslavement to the vital part that is suffering. You must learn to stand back and detach yourself from the lower, external movements.
14 June 1935
104If one has neither the psychological nor the material means to bring them relief, I see no point in dwelling on them.
16 June 1935
You must know whether you can do it without falling into a depression, which would be even worse than gossiping.
18 June 1935
You ought to extinguish it if it is really ravaging you, or make use of it if it can purify you.
20 June 1935
All these things are hostile suggestions that ought to be rejected. Have you got a fever? If so, ask the doctor to treat you. But if you don’t have fever, this fire business is a wrong imagination that should be rejected.
There is a sacred fire that burns in the heart and envelops the whole being: it is Agni, who illumines and purifies all. I kindle that fire in you each time that you ask me for some progress; but it destroys nothing except falsehood and obscurity.
20 June 1935
105An integral purification is a long and slow labour.
21 June 1935
Yes, there are hells that are formed by human thought which exist in certain regions of the vital world.
21 June 1935
That is nonsense.
Concentrating on the lower nature is never good; you should concentrate on what you want to develop, not on what you want to destroy.
Peaceful, certainly; silence is not always possible.
23 June 1935
I suppose that by “we” you mean human beings. Human beings have not become ignorant and obscure. They have always been 106that way, because material nature was unconscious and obscure long before man appeared.
Not exactly bring, but in silence one can receive it.
24 June 1935
Yes, if one believes in them.
24 June 1935
“When we have passed beyond enjoyings, then we shall have bliss. Desire was the helper; desire is the bar.”fnSri Aurobindo, Thoughts and Glimpses, in SABCL, Vol. 16, p. 377
Is this Bliss gained by Desire?
No. Desire is useful only at the beginning of evolution to awaken consciousness from its torpor, but desire cannot lead one to Bliss—only self-giving can do that.
24 June 1935
It is your psychic being, like all psychic beings, that loves me.
25 June 1935
107Either because they are not conscious of their psychic being, or because they do not know me.
Psychic love never bargains—but the vital always tries to derive some benefit for itself in all circumstances.
To the extent that the mind, vital and physical are under the control of the psychic being, they also love me.
26 June 1935
Ego is the helper so long as it is needed to form the physical individuality, but when that is formed, ego must disappear.
26 June 1935
Perfect detachment, equality, disinterestedness.
108By learning to see the futility of its fleeting and hollow satisfactions.
Because in your previous life the time had not yet come when an integral transformation would be possible.
29 June 1935
It is during one’s physical life on earth that one has the opportunity to purify oneself, to make spiritual progress.
1 July 1935
“When we have passed beyond humanity, then we shall be the Man. The Animal was the helper; the Animal is the bar.”fnSri Aurobindo, Thoughts and Glimpses, in SABCL, Vol. 16, p. 377
The animal is the helper in attaining manhood, later it becomes a bar.
Humanity in its present state is still at the animal stage; one must therefore go beyond this ordinary human state in order 109to become a true man, capable of becoming conscious of the Divine.
1 July 1935
Why do you listen to these stories? They are very stupid. Most often ghosts exist only in people’s imaginations. As for vital beings, if we do not fear them they can do us no harm. And with the divine protection what fear can one have? None.
The love and peace have not left you; it is you who no longer see them. No doubt it is again the same force you mention that is trying to make you blind.
3 July 1935
An adverse will that sends suggestions—you must simply refuse to believe its suggestions, that’s all.
4 July 1935
How can you say that you are not aware of it when you yourself write: “But often someone makes me blind and I no longer see 110Your light”? What you call “someone” I call “adverse suggestions”.
6 July 1935
It makes a mental formation that has some affinity with the mind of the person who is to be influenced. This formation remains in that person’s mental atmosphere and slips in at the slightest opportunity. If the person is not conscious or watchful enough, he becomes aware of the formation only when it has already entered his brain and then he mistakes the formation for his own thought.
7 July 1935
I do not think that things are as you say, and in any case, as far as you are concerned, the best thing is not to worry and to aspire calmly until your difficulties are dispelled.
It is always resistance that creates confusion.
8 July 1935
111Certainly it would be much better not to pay any attention to it.
8 July 1935
What do you mean by a test? It is certainly not something arbitrarily imposed on you. Your condition is always the natural outcome of your way of thinking, feeling and acting.
To have a premonition of something bad is of no use unless you take advantage of it to repel the bad thing.
11 July 1935
You can simply reject the idea that something bad is going to happen to you.
There is no question of your giving up yoga and I am quite sure that you will not do it. Nor is there any reason for you to die. You will live and you will live for the Divine.
12 July 1935
112I don’t think there is anything for you to worry about. You are no further from me than you were before. It is still the same parts of your being that refuse to participate in the divine life; previously you were not aware of them, but now, on the contrary, you are becoming more and more conscious of them, and consciousness is a real progress—it is the way towards mastery.
15 July 1935
You must educate them as one educates a child.
16 July 1935
For the moment my will goes only as far as this: to do the work that is to be done upon earth. For the rest we shall see later on.
18 July 1935
That is true only for those who are living in the ordinary consciousness.
18 July 1935
113Certainly, without at least one of these three conditions, one runs a grave risk of being mistaken and taking one’s own subconscious will for the divine Will.
19 July 1935
“He who renounces his possessions is on a higher level than he who thinks only of increasing them.”
But if one renounces one’s possessions, what will one do, how will one live?
I find this viewpoint terribly egoistic.
One must know how to give everything in order to learn how truly to possess.
21 July 1935
I have told you that it is by studying that you can overcome the depression.
Certainly your psychic being is my child, and it knows it very well.
27 July 1935
114I do not understand what you mean; I have never told you that you cannot be my child. I have told you, on the contrary, that in your psychic being you are my child, and that you will become fully conscious of it when you become conscious of your psychic being.
2 August 1935
That is exactly what I understood—and I repeat that nothing (except your own will) can prevent you from being my child and becoming my faithful servant.
2 August 1935
Of course you must go to Him in calm and light.
3 August 1935
There is no need at all to think of other lives; you must strive to realise the Divine in this life itself, and you will do it.
But you must not be impatient. It is your impatience that is causing your depression.
4 August 1935
115You are like someone plunged in the ocean who complains of a lack of water!
6 August 1935
You will not get cured by doing this thing or that—the cure must come from within.
6 August 1935
No, it is not very desirable, but if you stop and then get depressed, that is even less desirable.
8 August 1935
I think that one part of your consciousness does in fact perceive the divine Will quite clearly; but when you try to carry out this will integrally, your vital, thwarted in its desires and impulses, becomes depressed and refuses to cooperate, and that brings all progress to a halt.
9 August 1935
116That is just what I was afraid of when you spoke of stopping your walks with Y.
9 August 1935
It is not much use asking questions about things that are already past. If the effect was bad, you must overcome it, and if it is good, you must preserve it.
17 August 1935
Probably as the result of a depression.
Certainly fear is a great obstacle on the way.
There is no harm in being helpful and obliging.
23 August 1935
117That is quite absurd. My will, on the contrary, is that each one should always go forward peacefully and steadily, without ever falling back into these lower states.
I never put anyone in prison.
24 August 1935
It is her vital complaining.
The so-called freedom claimed by the vital is not any freedom at all, but a slavery to the lower desires and impulses.
I am on earth because it is on earth that the divine work must he done, and for no other reason.
24 August 1935
118Certainly not.
26 August 1935
Certainly there is resistance in almost everybody, and revolt in many.
27 August 1935
Do not worry; you have done your best to help X. If she does not want to listen, there is nothing you can do.
29 August 1935
In children the psychic is often very much on the surface and it makes them peaceful and happy. As one grows up, the vital and the mind develop and take on more importance—and then the troubles and sorrows begin.
30 August 1935
119I see no reasonable cause for this sadness; to me it looks like something unreal, a sort of false imagination that has seized hold of you. Reject all that immediately.
8 September 1935
Yes, it is the vital indulging in its depression.
You must strengthen your will.
9 September 1935
It has been pacified so often, and each time it has shaken off the peace like a cloak of boredom.
Concentrate on the psychic consciousness.
Yes, without a doubt.
10 September 1935
Soon, if your will to become like that is persistent.
10 September 1935
No, I wrote it because I thought it.
It is better not to feel it as long as you have not acquired the power to correct all the wrong vibrations.
Obviously if one is in contact with people, it is better to know what they are like.
11 September 1935
Sometimes it is precisely when one is dissatisfied with oneself that one makes the most progress.
121I have already explained to you that the first contact with the force gives the psychic being the power to dominate the consciousness and govern the being. But gradually the other parts (mental, vital and physical) revert to their old activities and the good condition gets veiled. You must have a persistent will to regain it.
14 September 1935
In the child the psychic life is not veiled by the mental life. Because the child is not fully moulded, he has a great capacity for growth and is able to progress with sufficient plasticity.
16 September 1935
The childlike path is one of unquestioning trust, total dependence, unreserved surrender.
17 September 1935
The childlike path is always better—but it is not so easy, for it must be taken spontaneously and in all sincerity.
18 September 1935
122X does not want any intermediary between herself and me, and she is right.
Yes, you are right; that is how things happen here.
23 September 1935
Yes, you are right; I am always there in your heart, but something in your outer consciousness is too active and makes too much noise for you to be aware of this presence. It is only in silence and calm that you can become aware of it.
25 September 1935
I have already told you: she is afraid that she may be influenced by you and she does not want to accept any other influence than ours.
27 September 1935
I don’t think so; but some people make the effort naturally, without attaching much importance to it.
28 September 1935
Yes, that is right. You must constantly aspire for the inner change, you must have the will for the light to come into the obscure physical mind, and you must calmly wait for the result of this aspiration and will.
11 October 1935
If you cannot do both things at once, then just do one of them.
14 October 1935
It is not intellectual but mental—the mental being has a faith and the vital being too can have its faith as well as the physical being. As for the psychic being, its faith is natural and spontaneous—faith is the very essence of the psychic being.
18 October 1935
There is only one faith, but it manifests in different parts of the being. I suppose that what the person you refer to calls “blind faith” is the faith in the heart, which needs no reasons to exist; but there is also the faith in the mind, which may be based on some kind of reasoning. To be sure of having an unshakable faith, one must have it in every part of the being.
19 October 1935
Faith is the expression of a spiritual virtue.
21 October 1935
As the mind develops, the simple and pure sincerity of the child disappears. It must be replaced with a more conscious, more spiritual sincerity—the psychic sincerity.
21 December 1935
Patience is one of the most essential conditions of the spiritual life. One must know how to wait in order to receive.
23 December 1935
125It did not get carried there—it is there quite naturally, as all human consciousnesses are. What is exceptional is when the consciousness rises above this material plane.
2 January 1936
My dear child, you have to find the peace, the silence and the solitude within yourself, and in that solitude you will become conscious of my presence.
My blessings are with you.
11 January 1936
Yes, if you allow the fire of aspiration to burn in you.
14 January 1936
One keeps this fire lit by throwing into it all one’s difficulties, all one’s desires, all one’s imperfections. In the morning and evening 126when you come to me, you should ask me in your heart to keep the fire lit and offer me all these things as fuel.
15 January 1936
It is in the midst of activity that the fire must burn, so that it may set right all your movements.
As long as you aspire to keep the flame lit, I will take care that it does not go out.
17 January 1936
It is not your work to light the fire. As I told you, I am always lighting it—you have only to open yourself to receive it and tend it with your goodwill.
24 January 1936
Yes, that is good. This movement should be constantly renewed.
27 January 1936
127There are people to whom such a thing happens, but it is not inevitable and certainly not desirable.
13 February 1936
You are right, my dear child; those who are not happy here cannot be happy anywhere.
7 March 1936
When you come to me, you should be peaceful and open.
11 March 1936
Do not attach any importance to it.
Certainly the suffering is not indispensable, nor even necessary. It is indeed ignorance that makes one suffer. 128
Yes, this yoga is based on peace and joy, not on suffering.
12 March 1936
Ignorance always lacks humility—the more ignorant the mind, the more it judges and the more it revolts.
13 March 1936
Make it calm and quiet—in calm it can receive the light.
14 March 1936
This is precisely what I call mental agitation.
25 March 1936
In spirit I always hold you in my arms like a little child, to help you and protect you—but is that what you mean?
25 March 1936
129I don’t think that you expect me to hold you in my arms physically! If I had to hold all my children in my arms (starting with the 140 people of the Ashram), my body would really have to be bigger than it is!
And yet to an awakened consciousness, my presence is entirely concrete.
26 March 1936
Will for this concentration and strengthen your will.
4 April 1936
Because the consciousness in you is more developed than the will.
16 April 1936
Since you have asked me to answer you very frankly, I will tell you that I do not want to intervene because I am not sure that you will have the strength and firmness to persist in doing what I 130tell you to do. And for spiritual life it is better to act in ignorance than to act in disobedience to the command of one’s guru.
21 April 1936
To make all your actions conform to your highest aspiration and purest will.
2 May 1936
Just shake off all these wrong suggestions, which are not true, and stop believing in all this drama, which is purely imaginary.
7 May 1936
As all suggestions come: they are mental formations that hover in the atmosphere and seize upon any mind that is ready to receive them.
7 May 1936
Dangerous for what? If you mean for your spiritual progress, an attachment is certainly not considered to be a very desirable thing.
8 May 1936
131A sentimental attachment is an attachment of the feelings; a vital attachment is an attachment of the senses. By “expression” I mean exchanging affectionate words or sensual gestures such as holding hands, caressing, etc.
14 May 1936
I truly hope that you are not a hypocrite, for hypocrisy is a great obstacle on the spiritual path.
16 May 1936
The first condition is to keep your mind calm and peaceful. It is in calm that the Light can descend.
19 May 1936
My help is always with you, and also the strength to overcome your weaknesses and difficulties. But you must know how to receive and use them.
24 May 1936
132If there were no reactions, there would be no need to make an effort.
28 May 1936
I have already told you that the first condition is to quiet your mind and to make an effort to quiet your vital as well.
I do not understand what you mean by “passing through”. In any case it is always wiser to avoid anything that lowers the consciousness.
From the point of view of yoga the question does not even arise; yoga cannot tolerate this kind of vital satisfaction.
30 May 1936
Sincerity demands that you confess immediately without my needing to question you.
Yes; by continuing to do things which you know very well ought not to be done, you are hardening yourself and veiling your consciousness more and more.
It is of the greatest importance that this will should assert itself and triumph. It is absolutely necessary.
8 June 1936
I don’t see that it is easier. It depends on the person. The difference is that what men call “love” for another human being is not love at all, but a frightful mixture of sentimentality, weakness, ignorance and sensuality. It is obvious that such a feeling cannot be directed towards the Divine.
17 June 1936
134Yes, it happens very often.
26 June 1936
People receive the force and power that I give and use it to satisfy their own desires instead of using it to serve the Divine.
2 July 1936
A great vigilance is required to avoid falling into the movements of the lower consciousness; and a still greater will is needed to get out of them. So arm yourself with patience and a strong will.
4 July 1936
Do not make a mountain out of such a little thing; later you will laugh at this affair—which you are taking so tragically now— 135when a little more light and consciousness have penetrated into your lower vital.
6 July 1936
I see no point in your asking me what I want or do not want—for my will is that you should rise above the lower consciousness and become conscious of your psychic being, so that your psychic being governs your life and your actions. At this point you must ask yourself what you are able and not able to do, and then act at each moment to the best of your ability.
7 July 1936
I find all this completely ridiculous and quite out of proportion to the circumstances.
Because your vital is contrary. If I had told it, “You must not leave X and you will never be able to leave her”, it would have had only one thought: to run far away from her!
Please don’t exaggerate like this. These reactions are “terrible” 136only if you think they are. Set your mind straight, see how infantile and unimportant all this is, and all these “terrible” reactions will disappear completely.
7 July 1936
One can be perfectly sincere only when one is completely conscious. But keep your will to become more and more perfectly sincere—and everything will be all right.
10 July 1936
The unenlightened parts of the being always enjoy doing that.
You must train the will as you would train the muscles—by methodical exercise. Never allow yourself to do something once you have decided not to do it.
Fool! Do not call for justice—that is, for the strict consequences of your actions. Only the divine Grace can pull you out of your difficulty.
10 July 1936
137Always one carries in oneself the seed of all that one is and does. But this seed may die before it develops, and that is what ought to happen to undesirable things.
15 July 1936
I know perfectly well when people are lying, even when they lie very well and imagine that they can deceive me.
15 July 1936
For the Grace to help you, you must fulfil the conditions, and the very first condition is to reject all doubt, however slight. I repeat again: you would do well to read once more, carefully and attentively, the first two chapters of The Mother.
16 July 1936
Strictly speaking, the Grace does not withdraw; people make it impossible for themselves to receive it. But you have only to take 138the right attitude and keep it, so that the Grace can once more do its saving work.
17 July 1936
Sri Aurobindo writes in The Mother: “If part of the being surrenders, but another part reserves itself, follows its own way or makes its own conditions, then each time that that happens, you are yourself pushing the divine Grace away from you.”fnSABCL, Vol. 25, p. 2
Now I understand how I ought to surrender. But one part wants ordinary enjoyment and refuses a spiritual happiness that demands surrender. For this part, consecration is something terrible and it wants to flee from it.
You must remain firm in your will and use persuasion—gradually the rebellious part will surrender. It refuses to surrender out of ignorance. That ignorance must be dissolved.
17 July 1936
Remain quiet and trust in the Grace; it is always present and ready to help those who call on it with a sincere heart.
18 July 1936
When you are doing your work, you should concentrate only on your work and not on the people—there is no need to speak to them or pay any attention to them.
21 July 1936
Take one step back from the surface consciousness, enter just a little inside yourself, and you will become aware of it.
24 July 1936
To a certain extent, yes. Certainly in order to rise above the universe, one must be absolutely liberated from Justice, for Justice is part of the universe.
25 July 1936
Yes, in fact that is just what most often happens among human beings.
27 July 1936
140It is on my orders that everyone is questioned about their requests.
4 August 1936
True love is a self-forgetting.
5 September 1936
I am sure that the Grace has not withdrawn from you, but perhaps your consciousness has put itself into a condition where it can no longer feel the Grace.
7 September 1936
No, it is not mistaken:
In the heart it is a psychic contact; above the head it is a mental contact.
10 September 1936
141The higher mind.
No difference in its effect.
11 September 1936
You are probably eating too quickly—you must be swallowing without chewing. You must chew the food thoroughly and eat calmly. Then one can eat more and the stomach does not get heavy.
14 September 1936
The outer consciousness finds it difficult to keep the fire of aspiration burning always with the same intensity. But with your will you must watch over the purifying fire and revive it when it fails.
14 September 1936
They may exist side by side in one nature, but normally they do not have much to do with each other.
18 September 1936
142Certainly not.
It is towards the Divine that you must be humble, an absolute and integral humility.
19 September 1936
It is above all the psychic that feels the presence. But sometimes the mind and the vital and even the physical also perceive it.
To develop the philosophical mind one must study philosophy methodically: the various schools, their theories, etc., etc.
22 September 1936
If it is to learn French, you should take a textbook of French literature to study and then read one or two books by each author mentioned in the textbook, beginning at the beginning, that is, with the earliest authors.
22 September 1936
143One should not do good in the hope of getting a reward, but for the pleasure of doing good. Then one is always happy, whatever happens.
23 September 1936
It is not impossible to feel the Presence without having psychic love. But it must be rather exceptional.
24 September 1936
Corneille is not old French, Corneille is classical French. It is absolutely necessary to study classical French if one wants to stand a chance of speaking French correctly. You definitely should read the principal 17th century authors. This is essential in order to enter into the spirit of the language.
25 September 1936
Don’t be in a hurry; study quietly and seriously, without rushing, and make an effort to understand. You will find all the words used by these authors in the dictionary.
26 September 1936
144You can add geography, grammar, history and arithmetic—it won’t do you any harm.
28 September 1936
You should get seven hours of sleep.
29 September 1936
Four hours of concentrated study a day is enough.
30 September 1936
Care more about loving than about being loved.
3 October 1936
It is a good discipline both for the mind and the vital.
5 October 1936
145Absurd!
There is some truth in what she says, but it is mixed with the usual falsehood of human sentimentality.
The union with everything and everyone must be attained in the Divine, not directly and apart from Him.
12 October 1936
No, it is not possible.
13 October 1936
The flower means precisely: all work that is done, in all sincerity, in consecration to the Divine.
13 October 1936
146Certainly you should not worry about it, but you should have the will to progress.
14 October 1936
Agni is the will for progress, the flame of purification that burns up all obstacles and difficulties. By giving you the flower, I am encouraging you to let it burn in you.
15 October 1936
One learns things better if one writes them.
You can simply rest a minute or two and then continue.
18 October 1936
He was a great and exceptional figure. Of course he had his faults and made mistakes—but far from destroying France he gave her an undying glory. I am telling you all this, but you need not go and repeat it to X.
21 October 1936
147The protection is there; it is for you to find out how to take advantage of it.
No. Usually they suffer because of a lack of sincerity.
Yes, that also happens.
Yes.
Most often—but it also manages to suffer when its desires are satisfied.
That is true.
Usually it is so.
22 October 1936
148You come to me thinking almost exclusively about yourself.
23 October 1936
Surely, if instead of thinking about the love that I am giving you or that you would like me to give you, you thought about the love that you would like to feel for me, you would be more open and receptive.
You must also exert your will.
24 October 1936
You have probably been doing tiring things in your sleep.
26 October 1936
Bodily fatigue is a physical rendering of certain activities and contacts originating in the vital. In one’s sleep one may go to evil places in the vital and meet evil beings.
27 October 1936
149If you are so sleepy, it shows that for one reason or another you need to sleep—it would not be good to resist.
28 October 1936
You must use your will before going to sleep. Have the will for a quiet rest during your sleep.
28 October 1936
By a firm and steady will and a calm determination, by refusing to let external things disturb you, by trusting in the Divine Grace and surrendering to its decisions.
29 October 1936
Certainly not. Who told you such nonsense?
Without sincerity the path of yoga is dangerous; without surrender it is impossible.
30 October 1936
150Unless one has full trust in the Divine, the Divine help cannot bear its full fruit.
6 November 1936
Obviously it is not very helpful, unless the book is very well written and you read it solely for the sake of learning French.
14 November 1936
For children there should be a time for work and study and a time for play.
16 November 1936
It is tamas.
17 November 1936
Your physical mind, which did not get used to the effort of learning when you were young enough.
151No, no harm.
Without any doubt.
18 November 1936
Regular study certainly cannot fail to develop it.
7 December 1936
It is all right; study can become part of sadhana.
8 December 1936
At the moment you are making progress; but you must attach more importance to the stability and genuineness of the progress than to the appearance of progress. I mean that it is more important to make progress, even invisibly, than to look as if you were making it.
9 December 1936
152Clearly it would be much better.
12 December 1936
Human relationships are obviously very unstable. Only relationships with the Divine can be permanent.
14 December 1936
There is always a way to keep what you have gained. You must learn to use your will.
15 December 1936
No, I didn’t refuse anything; they must have run out of notebooks and new ones will have to be made. But to tell the truth, you use a fantastic number of notebooks. I am sure that you have a large number of them in which only a few pages are written on, and they could well be used for something else. It is 153never good to waste things—too many people in the world do not have what they need.
15 December 1936
I don’t think that this kind of remark and the state of consciousness it implies can be very helpful to your sadhana.
17 December 1936
Remarks of this kind are always based on appearances and on the physical mind, which always tends to interpret things in an unkind way. Nothing could be further from the true knowledge, which is always based on an intimate understanding of things and on the psychic perception.
18 December 1936
It all depends on the spirit in which you play. If you are alert and always careful to remain conscious, it is all right.
19 December 1936
Obviously, playing before pranam cannot help your concentration.
Organise your life, your work, your consciousness.
Organisation consists in putting each thing in its true place.
23 December 1936
When you have found me, you will see that I am everywhere.
23 December 1936
The first step is to get into the habit of regularity in your daily discipline.
24 December 1936
I don’t think there is any point at all in my arranging all that for you. You have to discover, by progressive adjustment, the programme that suits you best and stick to it very carefully, 155while keeping it a bit flexible so that it can be adjusted to the demands of each new day.
30 December 1936
A child’s love for his mother is full of a spontaneous and absolute trust. In you such a love can only be based upon a psychic opening, for the psychic is likened to a child precisely because it feels this spontaneous and absolute trust in the Divine.
12 January 1937
You must make an effort to understand, otherwise all my explanations will be useless.
11 March 1937
You must stop this someone or something from pulling you down. Surely you have a will—what is it for?
12 March 1937
When you feel a darkness invading you and taking you away 156from me, you can be sure that it is an alien influence which has entered your atmosphere.
19 March 1937
Reading novels is never beneficial.
Concentrate on the Divine.
24 March 1937
The causes are always complex, most often obscure, and they come from suggestions affecting the subconscious.
27 March 1937
The monkey usually symbolises the uncontrolled physical mind. In this case he probably wanted to steal the fruits of your spiritual aspiration.
29 March 1937
157I knew about it, but I always prefer my action to be carried out in silence.
14 April 1937
When there is an immediate need for a result, I tell two categories of people:
1) Those who are very goodwilled and aspire very much to know.
2) Those who are so shut up in their outer consciousness that they would never understand anything unless I told them plainly.
15 April 1937
No special place so far as I know.
28 April 1937
I did not say that play has no place in the yoga, I said that it had no special place.
158Yes, you lack the mental calm that makes study profitable and you find great difficulty in concentrating on what you are doing.
Playing can be a useful relaxation, especially for young children; it can be a vital pleasure if the vital turns it to its own advantage. It all depends on your attitude when you play.
There are also jokes that are mean and ugly and ought to be carefully avoided. All jokes that wound or lower the consciousness are bad.
29 April 1937
If you were concerned about yourself a bit less, perhaps you would progress more.
1 May 1937
Such people are indeed very rare. Thinking about oneself is the 159most widespread habit among human beings. Only a yogi can become free of it.
3 May 1937
How fortunate that you are here to teach me what to do—otherwise, no doubt I wouldn’t know!!!
4 May 1937
No, not necessarily; but it is difficult to avoid receiving something of their influence.
17 May 1937
Without concentration one can achieve nothing.
18 May 1937
The doctor should decide about these things, if it is a matter of health.
160I have nothing to say about it. Each one has to find his own direction. Once you have chosen to live for the Divine, nothing else in the world should count; but so long as you have not taken the decision, you must find in yourself the direction you want to give to your life.
26 May 1937
Only one who has totally consecrated himself to the Divine has the right to forsake his duty to his parents.
27 May 1937
To discover one’s weaknesses and imperfections is already a great progress. The first step towards progress is a sincere humility.
25 June 1937
Not necessarily.
161Yes, it is much better.
28 June 1937
You should not attach any importance to them. But it would be even better not to listen. Gossip is always harmful.
23 July 1937
When you feel upset, you should sit down in a quiet place and ask for peace until you feel that the disturbance has disappeared.
1 September 1937
You must discipline the physical consciousness from within, and from within also will come the outer order of your physical life.
8 September 1937
I mean that the physical consciousness must be disciplined by a force that acts from within.
11 September 1937
162We cannot take anyone like this:
1. Without having full information about the person—name, family, state of health, occupation, etc., etc.
2. Without having seen him.
3. And in any case we will only take a person on trial at first, to find out whether he is fit to do this yoga or not.
So the first thing for this boy to do is to write us a letter in English giving us all the necessary details and also explaining his reasons for wanting to do yoga.
And he should also send his photograph.
7 October 1937
To obtain the divine love, all other love must be abandoned.
28 December 1937
Not necessarily. There may be other reasons too. Only control over the subconscious can give an invariable resistance to every attack.
25 January 1938
Yes, my blessings are with you.
And I also wanted to ask you something. You know that we are going to put up a new building,fnGolconde, a fifty-room residential quarters using the most modern methods. A great many workers are needed to supervise the work. I thought the time had come for you to take an active part in the overall work. Of course this will imply regularity, steadiness and a great sincerity. You would have to work eight hours a day regularly except Sundays. The architect, who is arriving from Japan in a few days, will give you all the instructions required for the work. Tell me what you think of it, and whether I can put your name on the list of workers.
1 February 1938
I am glad that the work pleases you. I am sure that it will do you a lot of good to work; it increases the receptivity considerably.
10 February 1938
What you speak of cannot be done in an arbitrary way, nor through any conversation; it demands a change of consciousness, and only yoga can bring about that change.
6 March 1938
164It all depends on the subject and length of your conversations. A few words in passing do not matter, but if you start talking about so-called spiritual things, then it becomes dangerous.
14 April 1938
Are you so sure?
If you want to learn to work really well, you must be modest, become aware of your imperfections and always maintain the will to progress.
One does not progress through boasting.
22 April 1938
Mr. Z wants a particular organisation; he himself has explained to me what he wants and I fully agree with him. It is the resistance of egoism in certain people which is complicating the situation—otherwise everything would be very simple.
30 April 1938
It is an excess of mental activity that prevents you from feeling my presence.
3 May 1938
165I fear that in this you are under influences that are none too healthy.
This is absolutely correct.
Enter into a strong and luminous peace. It is there that you can best realise the union.
6 May 1938
Surely your vital has been thwarted in something, and probably something unimportant since you don’t even remember what it is. You should not pay too much attention to these changing moods of the vital which have no real value.
9 May 1938
Yes, this is good. If you do not obey, it is you who become responsible for the slightest mistake; if on the other hand you scrupulously obey, the whole responsibility rests with the person who has given the orders.
10 May 1938
On the contrary, it is very good; it teaches you to concentrate.
12 May 1938
It is because you are too dispersed—your consciousness rushes out into superficial external things instead of remaining concentrated.
June 1938
It was Sri Aurobindo who wrote that we are aware of the “serious failings” in your nature. Did you by any chance imagine that you have none? If you were more ready to recognise them, we would have less need to refer to them. In any case I take the opportunity to tell you one thing: you certainly have possibilities, which can become fine capacities if properly developed—but for the moment they are no more than possibilities and it 167would be good to bear in mind that it will take a lot of time, effort and patience to change them into realisations.
23 June 1938
It is a lack of practice rather than a lack of capacity.
Your vital is discontented because I have not given it the compliments it desired. But your psychic is always with me; it is happy that I am making you conscious of what needs to be changed in you, and it insists that I should do so in spite of the vital’s discontent.
6 July 1938
Cross beyond the ignorance of a mind that judges without knowing, plunge into the depths of a calm and unassuming silence: there you will find me.
29 August 1938
Before fighting you should be sure that you know where the injustice lies. And only the Divine can have that knowledge.
2 September 1938
168For sadhana, any intimacy is certainly undesirable.
From the spiritual point of view it is not good always to be wanting to know whether what one is doing is good, whether one has made any progress, what point one has reached, etc., etc. It is yet another opportunity to satisfy one’s “ego” by drawing attention to it.
27 September 1938
There is always a way of saying things to people which does not offend them.
18 January 1939
The work is not going well because at Golconde there is an atmosphere of discord and disagreement which prevents the Force from working effectively. If each one made an effort to overcome his preferences and dislikes, the work would go much better.
22 January 1939
169When the outer contact is not possible, it is time to cultivate and obtain the inner contact.
25 April 1939
It is not with the mind that one should decide what has to be done. It should be a spontaneous movement taking place in a sincere and constant aspiration.
22 May 1939
No, the movement of the fan would be even more bothersome than the mosquitos.
12 June 1939
Certainly this is the surest way to find me.
4 May 1940
As long as one relies on one’s own judgment of things, one is unable to discern and know the divine Will.
13 July 1940
170Reports never tell me anything; I never base my judgment on them. And what I hear from other people can never—make me lose confidence in anyone.
9 January 1941
This is absolutely impossible.
Since the study of mathematics tires you, the best thing is to stop it.
20 January 1941
You yourself asked to take up these studies. I do not see why you now complain about having no tranquillity. But if you feel that you are working too much, you can drop one thing or the other.
8 March 1941
It seems to me that apart from the work at the Building Service, if you feel like studying, it would be better to read Sri Aurobindo’s books seriously and carefully, without hurrying. This will help you more than anything else for your sadhana.
9 March 1941
It does not matter at all.
14 October 1947
Since you are aware of the state you are in, it is time to take action and avoid the influences that estrange you from me and make you unhappy. Nothing is lost if you take immediate action.
23 October 1947
Obviously it is enough to make anyone ill!…
It is not possible to serve two masters at once. You wanted to satisfy your ego and its desires and you have moved away 172from your soul. Rediscover your soul and you will rediscover me—I have not changed place.
7 November 1947
All my help will be in vain unless you resolve to overcome your weaknesses.
November 1947
If I give you two rupees each, I can see no valid reason why I should not give every member of the Ashram two rupees pocket-money each month, and that makes a minimum of 1500 rupees (one thousand five hundred rupees per month).
No further comment is needed.
June 1948
You may go if you like, but since I do not see how it can help you to overcome your lower being and go beyond the limits of your ego, do not expect any financial help from me in this affair.
28 November 1948
173You may go if you like, but your family must give you the money needed. Do not expect me to do it because I will give you nothing for that purpose and I forbid you to ask money for it from any disciple or member of the Ashram, especially X.
4 November 1949
Comments on “Prayers and Meditations”
[The following letters regarding the Mother’s Prayers and Meditations are arranged according to the dates of the prayers concerned.]
“How many times a day, still, I act without my action being consecrated to Thee.” (2 November 1912)
Even after communion with the Divine, can one act without the action being consecrated to the Divine?
Certainly, communion and consecration are very different things.
8 November 1934
The part of the being that experiences communion is not the same as the part that is not consecrated.
9 November 1934
174In this prayer You write, “I am as yet far, no doubt very far, from that identification in which I shall totally lose the notion of the ‘I’ ”, and at the same time, “and how many times already when I pronounce it (‘I’), it is Thou who speakest in me, for I have lost the sense of separativity.” (19 November 1912)
Mother, is there a difference then between “losing the sense of separativity” and the “identification”?
Losing the sense of separativity is the last step before the Identification, and in the Identification itself there are several steps.
24 September 1934
In the prayer of 26 November 1912 You say that You have “almost entirely lost the gross illusion of ‘me’ and ‘mine’.” In the prayer of 3 December 1912 You say: “in the measure in which my attitude allows Thee to act on me and in me, Thy omnipotence has no limits.”
Even after the identification, one’s attitude does not allow the Divine to act completely as He wishes!
There are degrees in everything, and what is perfect one day no longer seems to be perfect the next.
7 November 1934
“When it is needful that something should be known, one knows it, and the more passive the mind to Thy illumination, the clearer and the more adequate is its expression.” (3 December 1912)
Mother, when is this possible? I often make mistakes; if I could know what is needful each time, it would be wonderful!
This can only happen when one has given up all personal preferences.
26 September 1934
“For now I should not be able to repeat what was said.” (3 December 1912)
Why does this happen?
Because memory belongs to the mind and it was not the mind speaking but a consciousness from beyond.
28 September 1934
“Yes, we should not put too much intensity, too much effort into our seeking for Thee; the effort and intensity become a veil in front of Thee; we must not desire to see Thee.” (5 December 1912)
Is this true for everyone?
Certainly not.
Besides, as a general rule, you must never try to copy my experiences. I started to note them down after having attained communion with the Divine, a state you are far from having achieved.
October 1934
“I await, without haste, without inquietude, the tearing of another veil, the Union made more complete. I know that the veil is formed of a whole mass of small imperfections, of attachments without number.” (11 December 1912)
I think that the veil You mention here is the veil between the Supreme and the obscure material world—but it has nothing to do with You.
In order to do my work, I have had to identify myself with the material world and its imperfections.
6 November 1934
“Already there is heard from behind the veil the wordless symphony of gladness that reveals Thy sublime Presence.” (11 December 1912)
Does this mean that there is a glad, wordless music that contains Your sublime Presence?
Behind all appearances there is a harmony of forces and movements which is something like the harmony of all the different kinds of instruments in a perfect symphony.
30 July 1934
“I am endless Peace, shadowless Light, perfect Harmony, Certitude, Rest and Supreme Blessedness.” (5 February 1913)
What does “Certitude” mean, in the spiritual sense?
Faith confirmed by the spiritual experience of what one has faith in.
31 July 1934
“All who seek Thee with ardour should understand that Thou art there whenever there is need of Thee; and if they could have the supreme faith to give up seeking Thee, but rather to await Thee, at each moment putting themselves integrally at Thy service, Thou wouldst be there whenever there was need of Thee.” (10 February 1913)
Is this not for me?
This is for everyone—you as well as others—who is capable of taking this attitude with integral sincerity. But I ought to point out that it is even more difficult than making an effort.
14 November 1934
“And in this simplicity lies the greatest power, the power which is least mixed and least gives rise to harmful reactions.” (12 February 1913)
So I suppose that this simplicity isn’t good, since it contains a little mixture?
Idiot! What can be without mixture in the world as it is now? Nothing, nothing, nothing!
August 1934
“The power of the vital should be mistrusted, it is a tempter on the path of the work, and there is always a risk of falling into its trap, for it gives you the taste of immediate results.” (12 February 1913)
So we should never trust the power of the vital?
It is because we like immediate and visible results that we allow ourselves to be misled by the vital.
August 1934
“As soon as I have no longer any material responsibilities, all thoughts about these things flee far away from me, and I am solely and entirely occupied with Thee and Thy service.” (11 May 1913)
Here I don’t understand what You mean by “with Thy service”, since You said before: “As soon as I have no longer any material responsibilities”.
I wrote this because for a time I was not living at home, but with my mother, so I no longer had the responsibilities of the mistress of the house who has to see that everything is materially in order.
August 1934
“It is by becoming conscious of Thy Will and identifying ours with Thine that there is found the secret of true liberty and all-puissance, the secret of the regeneration of forces and the transfiguration of the being.” (11 May 1913)
I don’t understand what “the secret of the regeneration of forces” means.
The material and vital forces are perverted—they must be regenerated so that they become capable of expressing the divine will.
August 1934
“To turn towards Thee, unite with Thee, live in Thee and for Thee, is supreme happiness, unmixed joy, immutable peace; it is to breathe infinity, to soar in eternity, no longer feel one’s limits, escape from time and space. Why do men flee from these boons as though they feared them?” (18 June 1913)
Why don’t men want to rise above the falsehood and ignorance that reign everywhere in the world?
Because they love falsehood, vital agitation, violence, drama. The peace of eternity seems to them as empty as death because they live exclusively in the mind and vital.
29 January 1935
179“Thou art ourselves in our Reality.” (15 August 1913)
Here I don’t understand what “our Reality” means, because I thought there was only one Reality.
I use the word reality in the sense of truth of the being.
25 February 1935
“Undoubtedly, one must learn to control one’s subconscient just as one controls one’s conscious thought. There must be many ways of achieving this.… But there is surely something more rapidly effective.” (25 November 1913)
What is this “thing” that can overcome the subconscient?
The descent of the Supermind.
28 April 1935
I mean that the word consciousness should be reserved only for that which is conscious of the divine Presence.
19 April 1935
“Outside this state there are infinite grades of consciousness, going right down to complete darkness, the veritable inconscience which may be a domain yet untouched by the light of Thy divine Love (but this seems improbable in physical substance), or which is, for some kind 180of reason of ignorance, outside our individual range of perception.” (13 March 1914)
What is this “veritable inconscience” You mention here?
The subconscient of the subconscient.
21 April 1935
“In the presence of those who are integrally Thy servitors, those who have attained the perfect consciousness of Thy presence, I become aware that I am still far, very far from what I yearn to realise.” (30 March 1914)
Are there any men on this earth who are already integrally Your servitors?
I wrote this after meeting Sri Aurobindo for the first time.
18 July 1935
“May my consciousness be identified with Thine so that Thou alone mayst be the will acting through this fragile and transient instrument.” (9 May 1914)
Why do You say “this fragile and transient instrument”? Because it will really pass away one day?
The instrument in question here is on earth, which has an ephemeral existence compared with the eternal consciousness.
1 June 1935
“And on the earth now I am the joyful child who plays.” (17 May 1914)
I think, Mother, that this “I” means You, so why not the feminine form of the adjective?
You ought to know the Hindu tradition that the world is the 181result of “the Divine Child who plays”. It is with Him that I was identified.
5 November 1934
“All the individual faculties slumber and the consciousness is not yet fully awake in the transcendent states; that is, its wakefulness is then intermittent and in between there is sleep.” (19 May 1914)
Does this mean that before the consciousness has awakened in the transcendent states, there is a period in which the consciousness is asleep?
The consciousness is asleep in everyone until it is awakened.
A second or an eternity.
10 April 1935
There are experiences of a universal order which can be revealed only to those who have had them.
13 April 1935
“Thou hast made a promise, Thou hast sent into these worlds those who can and that which can fulfil this promise.” (14 June 1914)
What do You mean by “that which”?
The force, the power, the consciousness, the knowledge, the love, etc., etc.
7 April 1936
182“But the religious being turns to Thee, O Lord, in a great aspiration of love, and implores Thy help.” (24 June 1914)
What do You mean by “the religious being”?
The being which has religious, devotional feelings.
2 April 1936
“What wisdom is there in wanting to be like this or like that?” (25 June 1914)
What is the meaning of this passage?
Wisdom lies in wanting what the Divine wants, not in deciding for yourself.
13 December 1933
“O divine Force, supreme Illuminator, hearken to our prayer, move not away from us, do not withdraw, help us to fight.” (8 July 1914)
Does the Divine ever move away or withdraw from us?
No, it is we who withdraw from him.
11 July 1935
I was not addressing the Divine himself, but a Force, an emanation of the Divine, which had come down to do a particular work on earth and could have withdrawn if it had seen that the work it came to do was impossible.
13 July 1935
183“Earthly realisations easily take on a great importance in our eyes.” (17 July 1914)
What do You mean by “earthly realisations”?
The works that we do upon earth.
30 January 1936
“The world is divided between two opposite forces struggling for supremacy, and both are equally against Thy law, O Lord.” (9 September 1914)
What are these two forces?
If you had read the meditation carefully you would not have needed to ask this question—the two forces are conservation and destruction.
22 May 1935
“It is in the cherry-blossom that lies the remedy for the disorders of the spring.” (7 April 1917)
What does this mean?
There are certain illnesses that people get particularly in Spring—boils, impurities of the blood, etc.—which the Japanese cure with teas made from cherry-blossoms. I did not know this when I had the experience.
11 February 1936